After 9 years, I decided it was time to retire my 88 Honda Accord… I have been through quite a bit with that car, and it saddens me to close that chapter of my life.  At the same time, I can’t express how happy I am with my new car (2004 Saab 93 Arc).  Some of the major events that happened with my 88 Accord include running through/over a brick wall that was about 3 feet high, to recently putting 2 and 1/2 dozen eggs into the radiator to try to plug a hole that just wouldn’t stop leaking…

Going back to the brick wall thing… It was a pure joy listening to Mary Smits bitch me out in the early am hours that July 3rd (1996) night… Her husband, who was thankfully much nicer and understanding, allowed me to come back the next day to fix the damage I did to the wall.  I (with the help of my brother) did fix the wall and made it look better than it did before the incident, since I also fixed a portion that was hit by a snow plow truck some time before I got up close & personal with the wall… We even got out of the chemical plant that day, in order to fix the wall…  I thought that was a particularly nice effect from the accident.

A bit of history about that night, I suppose… it was a nice summer night (Friday, I believe).   A couple of friends and I decided to meet some other friends at a cottage that was located on a beach, [20 miles or so] north of Green Bay, to watch some neighborhood fireworks.  During those days, it wasn’t uncommon for either myself or my friend, Mike, to just alternate driving responsibilities.  We normally had an open cooler (cardboard box w/ a plastic bag & ice [from Arbys – Thanks Massart!]) in the backseat of the car.   I believe the drink of choice, those days, was Bud Ice or Bud Ice Light… Apparently the increased alcohol content was needed.  So anyway, if we didn’t find a place to hang out, we would just entertain ourselves while driving around.  Otherwise, if we did find a place, we would have already started our party, and happy days for us… 

That night, I was particular frisky behind the wheel, and I can remember driving my car half in the ditch, half on a country road because I liked how the little weeds hit my front headlight.  I recall that when I brought the car to get fixed, one of the mechanics made mention that I should make sure to clean all of the little pieces of weed from the engine compartment so that I wouldn’t clog the air vents… Gee.. .wonder how those got there.  Anyway, we made it to the cottage and met up with everyone on the beach.  I "frolicked" with a girl that I liked at the time, but before I knew it the beach party was coming to an end, I was back behind the wheel.  I must have thought I was in a race car because I got the Honda up to speed and into 3rd gear, in a relatively short distance.  This part gets a little hazy… but I tried to take a turn (on an incline) that I thought curved to the right, but in actuality was a T intersection.  The car basically slid/skidded into the wall, going probably 30-40mph.  When I went back to fix the wall, I was able to see 4 black streak marks from the tires… Anyway, I cracked & spider-webbed the front windshield with my head, got a flat tire, and did about $2000 damage to the left front portion of my car.  Also, the cooler splashed against the front windshield.  Thankfully, I was able to hobble my car up the road a little ways, so I wouldn’t have to directly confront the people from the beach.  Also, thankfully, everyone in the car was ok and just a little shaken up… So, I noticed right away that something wasn’t right (more than the quarter panel being fucked) as I drove, so I pulled over.  I got out and saw that the tire was flat and the rim was pretty fucked up.  I proceeded to tear into my trunk and grab the spare & wrenches.  Note… at this point, I had never changed a tire, I just heard about how to do it from some TV show.  I was about 90% done changing the tire when a car came down the roadway, towards the cottages.  Out came Mary Smits and her husband… He took my info, asked if I was ok to drive and told me that he’d talk to me the next day.  I then proceeded to hobble my car back home and go through the agony of explaining what happened, to my parents.  It wasn’t fun, but I have to admit that I’m happy that the incident sort of calmed me down and nothing worse happened.  By the way, Stephanie, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re still not pissed at me, and I hope you can invite friends back to your cottage again.  I’m sorry for the pain I caused you…

There were so many other things that happened while I drove that car (including yelling many Spanish curse words at unsuspecting pedestrians/commuters)… way to many things to fit into this blog entry, but maybe I’ll dive back into my thoughts and memories, at a later point in time.

I’m a fan of Bill Murray…. this is probably one of the better interviews (by Jessica Lee Jernigan) that I’ve read, and the fact that it involves Bill is just a nice cherry on top.  I would really enjoy reading interviews if they flowed so smoothly as this… it gives you a feeling for how the person is in real life, rather than what their latest movie/book is about.  A nice change from typical journalism…

Yep, I voted yesterday… It really wasn’t a bad process, though I do think there is room for improvement. Overall, it took about 45 minutes for me to get in, register, and cast a vote… I did find out that I didn’t meet the must live for at least 10 days at the registered address. Apparently that didn’t seem to matter, as they still allowed me to vote.

It was sort of weird driving to work this morning… First, being the main voting day, I got to see many many people standing in line, to voice their opinions….

Other than that, it seemed that mother nature was all flustered too… I saw a huge amount of geese as I drove to work. The weird thing is that they weren’t flying in their typical v formation. They weren’t even flying in the same direction. It just seemed like little groups where just going where they wanted (random directions). On top of that, for the first time since I’ve worked at Edstrom, it seems as though every worm decided it was time to come out of the ground and play in the parking lot.

Anyway, I took the time and registered for Deeper In .Net 2005. Even though it’s in March, it should be a decent presentation.

This last weekend was a decent time. I dressed up as a kissing booth and it worked better than expected. I posted a couple pictures from one of the cameras that was around that night… If I find more, I’ll put them in the gallery.

Everything is final… I closed on my house Monday afternoon and things have been pretty busy since then. I got all fo the appliances delivered yesterday (5 in total), so that’s a weight off my shoulders.  I’ll post some more pictures when I get internet access enabled. It’s a duplex and I already have a renter for the bottom floor.  Outside of that, I really like the place.  There are some things that I want to do to fix it up a little, but all in all, it’s in great condition.

Yesterday and again this morning, I thought about something rather interesting, to me anyway. Sometimes random things go through my head and this happens to be one of them. Take it however you like… I just want to put this down somewhere, and hopefully get a little input from other people.

I was thinking about the notion of multiple dimensions and how they are perceived by me (and possibly other humans). Originally, I think I was pondering how a supreme being could exist in more dimensions than we can experience. I had a thought that when I experience a sense of déjà vu, I am really experiencing a form of another dimension.

Now, I realize that some scientists have discarded déjà vu as an impulse in the brain, where the signal is sent to the short term memory at the same time it is perceived by the senses/mind. That gives you the feeling that you have seen the same place/been in the same situation before because while you’re experiencing it, you also think that you are remembering it from a previous time. The fact that you can’t place the time has to do with it all happening at that particular moment… Anyway…

Back to my theory… Déjà vu seems to be interpreted as something like a mental image, feeling, sensation, or any combination of those. In this case, my déjà vu would actually have been me experiencing a different dimension, but I interpreted it in a way that I had felt like I had experienced it before. Perhaps I had… I can’t be sure that other dimensions exist and if they do, whether or not I can interact with them (consciously or subconsciously).

To put this another way… instead of typing this blog entry, say I was sitting on a beautiful island beach with the warm breeze blowing through my hair. I would be experiencing a different set of emotions and thoughts. Now say that was still happening, but in a different dimension, apart from my current state. Through some sort fluke (call it what you will), my current state sort of latched into the emotions, thoughts, or just a stream of randomness that would be going on in that other dimension. The only way that I can currently explain this is a feeling of déjà vu, when in actuality, it could have just been a multidimensional communication…

Now, to put this in even more abstract terms, think about this… Perhaps this is the only dimension where my physical body exists. There could be a dimension, that some portion of me (a part of my soul, for example) exists in, where only thoughts are present. Maybe it’s the “me” in that dimension attempting to communicate with this one, and I’m just not completely aware how to, in this dimension…

So to go back to something that I have thought of in times past… While at certain concerts, I wondered if the artist was feeding off the energy of those around them in order to tap into a stream of energy. That stream of energy could from be a different dimension. When the artists were “in the zone” it seemed as though they were not quite paying attention to what was going on around them, but instead just hooked up to another source of input and describing it through their music/performance.

That’s what I have for now.. Maybe I’ll come back to this, but in any case hopefully this isn’t too confusing…

I heard this twice in a pretty recent/short time span now, and I was beginning to think that I just plain offended pretty girls. So… I called the girl who first told me the “I want to be single for a while” line. But first, a little background info…

I met this great girl while in Baltimore and we started hanging out a little. We went on a couple dates and things seemed to be progressing nicely. I could tell that her mind was on some other things, occasionally, and she seemed apprehensive about [my damn smooth] advances, etc… Eventually, she just came out and told me that she had just broken up with her boyfriend right before I met her, and she wanted to be single for a while. Not really knowing what that meant, I just figured that I would just take it slower and see what happened… Anyway, to make the story somewhat short, we’ve just become good friends. So, I talked to her this last weekend because another girl gave me pretty much the same line. When I heard it, I kind of giggled and wondered what the fuck was wrong with me, etc…

To put in normal guy lingo what “I want to be single for a while” means… that the girl wants to see who else is out there. Basically, you don’t fit the 100% perfect man ideal that the girl has, so she wants to see if there is someone out there who does. I suppose girls think it’s a nice way to keep things open but still look for someone better. It doesn’t mean that opportunity is gone or anything, but they’re just not ready to settle for your ass, yet…

Not to be confused by the trendy song from Ashley Simpson…

The house inspection went well.  There were a couple minor things that were found, but nothing major…. so that looks like it’ll all go through nicely.  When I get done learning a little song that has been on my mind lately, I’ll post some pictures, etc.

Other than that, I spent the majority of the weekend with a friend who will forever own pieces of my heart.  For the first time in what seems like forever (probably closer to a year or two), I enjoyed a smile on my face for long periods of time.  I have to admit that feeling joy like that has been sort of vacant from me for too long, and  I can only hope that it continues… it was a welcomed change.

On a less mushy side of things 🙂  I’m slightly curious what will become of this blog.  I enjoy writing my ramblings, the fact that people actually read this still amazes me, but I don’t think it’ll go the direction I originally thought.  I figured that when I turned 60 or so, I could come back to this, read a couple posts, and laugh at my personality/issues… It seems that there will be so much info, that I’ll probably just get lazy and not do that.  Who knows though… time shall tell.

I put an offer on a house earlier this week. The seller came back with a counter offer, which I then proceeded to accept. The change in the offer had to do with the seller not leaving a couple appliances and pushing the closing date back about 10 days… Not a big deal. So now, I’m scheduled to meet with an inspector today and run through the house. Apparently this process takes about 3 hours… It should be quite a good learning experience. Provided that goes through without a hitch, the only other obstacle that I foresee is making sure the financing is all set. The closing date is set for October 25th now, and I’ll provide more info as it comes my way.

I have begun to use Google alerts… I saw a link along the bottom of my screen and figured what the hell, I’ll give it a whirl. It’s sort of nice. It basically provides customized search results to gmail. For instance, I put a google alert to notify me (email me) whenever "Geurts" comes up in the news.

I have one other thing on my mind currently. I’m just curious how much it costs to make a penny. It has to be more than the currency is worth. Sort of ironic, I think…