Friday and game update.

Well, I didn't have the best day on Friday. I got out the door for work later than I would have liked. I made it to work on time, but I had trouble with my new braces. On Thursday, I had my first adjustment of them, but the end of the wire on top started poking me in my cheek on Friday morning. The pain drove me to call my orthodontist and set up an emergency appointment to get the wire trimmed. I told my team leader about it, then left for lunch early. I got the wires trimmed (they cut the other ends to be safe), but I didn't get back to work until almost 90 minutes after I left. Consequently, I had to eat lunch while I worked at my desk. On the bright side, I didn't end up staying very late to get end of the year stuff done, and the extra time at work balanced out the extra time I had to take at lunch.

Friday night, I played more of "Kingdom Hearts II." Last weekend, I had finished the Land of Dragons (from Mulan). Last night, I cleared the Star Dust (?) Sweep Gummi ship mission in record time. Afterwards, I (as Sora) paid a visit to the Beast's Castle (from Disney's Beauty and the Beast). I fought a lot of Heartless, and some strange evil statues. What was really cool was teaming up with the Beast and fighting using the "Twin Howl" joint attack against some of the tougher Heartless creatures. I'm still getting the hang of using the "Reaction" command, but at least I beat these guys on the first try. Teaming up with Disney characters to take out evil monsters is pretty cool. After that, I found myself on a trip back to Hollow (or Hallow?) Bastion. The Heartless were harassing Merlin, but we drove them off. There was some book there for Winnie the Pooh. Sora could go into the book and talk with Pooh. The Heartless tried to steal the book, but we (Donald, Goofy, and I) thwarted them, only to discover they had stolen pages from the book. Also, Merlin gave me the Summons for Chicken Little. I haven't seen the movie he's from yet, but it will be interesting to use this in the future....

Christmas and updates.

Well, I have made more progress with "Kingdom Hearts 2": I faced down some Nobodies with Leon's help in Hollow Bastion. After that, I got the "Fire" spell. I did the asteroid sweep "Gummi ship" mission. That was challenging, but I survived. I wound up in the Land of Dragons, where I met Mulan before she joined the Chinese army disguised as a man named Ping. We teamed up, fighting Heartless in various places. Our final battle pitted us against the Hun's leader (Shan Yu?), but we triumphed. I went back to Bastion and did some upgrades and modifications with my team's gear.

Another game I played recently was "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance." Harry and I managed to defeat Blackheart, Mephisto (he took a couple of tries to beat), and an evil echo of Jean Gray in Mephisto's Realm. We moved on to Asgard, opening the Bifrost Bridge and defeating the Wrecking Crew. We also got found a few cheat codes and used them to get the "money" we needed to upgrade our characters' powers and health (particularly Thor and Spider-Man).

Christmas was pretty good. We (most of my family and I) went to my grandma's house and spent time with my mom's relatives. I also talked with Clark on the phone a few times. Unlike a few years ago, I didn't get sick and miss the opening of the presents. I ate a fair amount of meat and a lot of M&M's.

Surprises and my new game.

Well, this past weekend was one of surprises for me. On Friday, I got a summons for jury duty in the mail. I have to fill out this form and mail it back in before the end of the first week of January. The trial is supposed to take place in February. I'm hoping that I don't end up on the jury, even though I would get paid for my time. I guess I just don't want to dress up even more than usual and sit in a courtroom for who knows how long. I hate to shake up my daily routine....

A more pleasant pair of surprises came on Saturday. My friend Harry and I had planned to see Eragon (both of us had read the book already), but we weren't sure when we would get to see it. Harry's parents were going to be leaving town on Saturday, and he thought we would end up seeing the movie on Sunday afternoon since he would be taking them to the airport. However, after he and Liz finished that, they found they did have time on Saturday to see the movie. They called me up Saturday evening and offered to take me with them. I accepted (of course), and we saw the movie. We enjoyed the movie, but Harry and I both noticed that they cut a lot of stuff from the book out and a switched some stuff around. They also changed some of the battles (including the climatic final confrontation between Eragon and the Shade) and some of the settings from the book. The other surprise was that Liz wanted Harry and I to play this racing game in the mini-arcade in the theater complex. She got change, and Harry and I sat down. The machines were linked, and we each had our own controls, seat, and screen while we raced. I picked the same muscle-car (not sure what the name of it was, but it was silver/gray and looked really cool to me) in our three races, and Harry tried a few different cars. We didn't complete our first race, but Harry won (not first place overall but he got across the finish line before me) the second race, and I won the third race.

I started playing my new game ("Kingdom Hearts II") last Wednesday. I was impressed by the graphics, as well as the sound quality of the characters. I made it through the first few "days" on Wednesday night, stopping at a door on a mysterious floating platform. On Friday night, I made it through a few more days. On Saturday, I finished playing as Roxas (the character you start the game as) and began playing as Sora with Donald and Goofy as my companions. Tonight, I left Twilight Town and checked out the Tower (where you meet Yen Sid, a wizard), then moved on to Hollow Bastion. I stopped after acquiring the blizzard spell from Merlin (another wizard). So far, it is proving to be an interesting and challenging game.....

Busy weekend.

Thus far, it has been a busy weekend for me. Last night, I did some vacuuming, ironed some shirts, did some reading, and recharged my cell phone. Today, I did the laundry, vacuumed my bedroom, and finished one of my "Star Trek: the Next Generation" books. I also scanned one of the pictures I took during my Arizona vacation:

MUA and funny exchanges.

The other day, I got to play "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance" with my friend, Harry. We finished the Atlantis level, taking turns fighting the Kraken (Harry as Thor, me as Spider-Man). After that, I decided to see what costumes were available to me as Spider-Man. The black symbiote was unlocked, so I switched to that one for the Valley of Spirits. I died in a dumb manner (a run-in with a spinning blade) on that level, so I ended up switching to Wolverine. As him, I fought with the Grey Gargoyle. He turned me and Harry's character (Captain America) to stone a few times, but we managed to defeat him. Later, I was able to revive Spider-Man, so I finished the level as him. We got to fight robots called Ultimo, dodge giant bugs, and even throw down with the Mandarin.

Today, I was amused by the interactions between Tony and Debby. Tony will be moving to another department in the company soon, so I will miss his banter with her (and his tips for "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance") . Here's a few exchanges I overheard today:

Debby: "You're evil."
Tony: "You're stupid!"
*****
Debby: "You slow me down."
Tony: "You really slow me down."

Brrrr...cold weekend.

Well, this has been a cold weekend. The temps have been near (and sometimes below) freezing. No snow yet, but it has been pretty windy.

I had a dream this morning about being in a soap-box debry race with only two cars: there were four of us, two in each car. I was complimentary of our opponents, who just barely stayed ahead of us. We wiped out near a lightpost, and the cops showed up. I decided I didn't want to be hassled (or arrested), so I decided to fly. I had some troubles maintaining altitude, barely keeping over a dozen feet above the ground. A tall cop (must have been nearly seven feet tall) chased me through a structure that looked like a house, but had a small forest inside its walls. In spite of my flight difficulties, I managed to elude the tall cop...

In the real world, I've been alone most of today. I did my laundry, visited the bank, and worked on my checkbook. I also watched some TV and updated my planner. I called Harry and left a message on his voice mail, but I haven't heard back from him yet (as of 7:30 CT). I also set up my artificial Christmas tree and added the wooden snowflakes I got from Cosmo and Wanda during my Thanksgiving vacation.

Back in NE and game action.

Well, I got back from AZ late Friday night. On Friday before I got on the plane, I went with Cosmo, Wanda, Clark, and Gwen to see a place called the Mystery Castle. It wasn't a medieval European castle, but it was an interesting house with some fascinating rooms, antiques from the early 20th century, lots of cat-related stuff (like rocks with cat pictures painted on them), and some entertaining tour guides. I took some exterior pictures of the views around the outside and a shot of the castle from the parking lot.

On Saturday, I learned that Harry got a PS2 (he got a slimmer version than mine) and some games, including "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance." He brought that game over with a new memory card and we played it. Most of the time, I played as Spider-Man and he played as Captain America. We fought many enemies together in the game: the Scorpion, A.I.M. agents, Atlanteans, evil Super-Soldier giants (they looked like Bane from the Batman comics), Bullseye, Mysterio, Radioactive Man (not the Simpsons' comic book character), the Crimson Dynamo, and even Fing Fang Foom. Bullseye gave us the most trouble, but that was due to us losing two computer teammates before our first meeting with him. Foom was also a tough foe--a huge fire-breathing dragon with a swipe capable of knocking several people aside. Fortunately, Harry and I figured out how to use a cannon on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier to shoot at the dragon while he was airborne. I also found a spot I could stand on as Wolverine (the character I used whenever Spidey was out of the action) and swipe at Foom when he was sitting on the deck of the carrier without him being able to hit me with his claws or fiery breath. As Spider-Man, I mostly just pounded on enemies with my feet or fists. Occasionally, I was able to web an opponent up in a bag and punch them out. Harry got good at throwing Captain America's shield around rooms to knock out enemies and also used Iron Man to blast some enemies as well. Needless to say, we had a great time....

Three Days in AZ.

Well, today is the third day of my Arizona vacation. The first day started out fine, but I got seriously ill after eating a chili dog for lunch at a drive-in fast-food place. I don't want to give too many details, but it felt like everything inside me was trying to escape using both ends.

The second day, I was in better health, other than some sinus pressure. We went to a huge mall, and Clark and I checked some stuff out. We also did some shopping later on and got some ice cream. I did some reading and took things easy after that.

Today, we went hiking on the Camelback Mountains (?). To my disappointment, most of our group didn't go all the way to the top. Clark and I persevered, and I took about half a dozen pics of the views from the peak we reached an hour after we had started. It only took us about 26 minutes or so to get down to where the rest of our group was waiting. I went through a bottle and a half of bottled water and probably got sunburned on the back of my neck, but it was worth it for the views and pictures I got. I'll try to get one scanned for this blog after I get the film developed. I saw about half to two-thirds of Son of the Mask on a cable station I don't get back home. The movie was better than I thought it would be, but it was a bit disturbing at times. Later, I ate out at a fancy steak place with Cosmo, Wanda, Clark, Clark's roommate, Diana, Timmy, Trixie, and Gwen. I had some chicken strips (I can't eat steak due to my orthodontia), but I was too tired to eat all of them.

What a weekend!

Well, this was quite a weekend. I caught a fly for Peter Saturday morning. It was crawling right outside the door, so I scooped it up and dumped it into Peter's jar. Saturday afternoon, I went out with Harry and saw Casino Royale. To my surprise and delight, they showed the new Spider-Man 3 trailer before the movie. Later that day, Harry, Liz, and I ate at the nearby mall, then we went to see Happy Feet. I didn't enjoy it as much as Casino Royale, but it was more cheerful.

Today, I played my bowling game ("Strike Force Bowling") while waiting to hear from my folks. I played eight games: three in the castle, three on the Moon, one in Japan (or China?), and one in Egypt. The eighth game (the third game on the Moon alley) I played a perfect game. I scored 300--12 strikes in a row. I took several pictures of the score, including this one:

What made this even more amazing was that I only scored 171 in the seventh game (the third game at the castle alley). I left it up on the screen so my folks could see it when they came over today. I also e-mailed a picture I had taked of the score (and the story behind it) to Harry and to Tony.

Stuff in general.

This week was pretty good. I have been reading Star Trek: the Next Generation: Descent this week. It's based on one of the TV episodes. In the episode, the Enterprise-D encounters Borg acting more aggressive than usual. They seem more interested in killing humans than assimulating them and refer to each other using names instead of numbers. When Riker, Data, and Worf encounter these killer Borg on an away mission, Data gets angry and kills a Borg with his bare hands. Picard and the others encounter a strange ship in orbit of the planet, and it escapes with the killer Borg using an energy conduit. When they find the killer Borg days later, the Borg make a run for it in their ship, but the Enterprise manages to follow them through an energy conduit. A pair of Borg beam onto the bridge and attack. The crew subdues them, killing one and severely injuring the other. Meanwhile, the Borg ship flees into another conduit. Data talks to the surviving Borg (Crosis) and finds himself feeling emotions again. He springs Crosis from the brig, and they steal a shuttle and enter the energy conduit. The Enterprise manages to follow, but Data and Crosis are gone by the time they find the shuttle on a nearby planet. The captain and most of the crew beam down to search the planet (since it has a strong EM field that interferes with their scanners), leaving Dr. Crusher in charge of the Enterprise. I won't tell you the ending, but I will say it is one of the most interesting episodes of the series (it was a two-parter).

On Wednesday, I caught some things I could feed to Peter (my pet spider). I caught a tiny spider in the morning, but didn't have time to put it in Peter's jar before work. Later that evening, I caught a cricket on my way back from work. I decided to give the cricket to Peter that evening and spare the tiny spider. The weather has been too cold lately to let the tiny spider free outside, so I may end up giving it to Peter on Monday if it is still alive. I gave it some drops of water to drink and have it in an empty film container. Also on Wednesday, I dropped up a roll of film to be developed at my local grocery store.

On Thursday evening, I was pleasantly surprised to find my film was ready for me to pick up. Even more interesting was the time period covered by the roll--pictures from Christmas 2005, Independence Day 2006, my birthday (in July 2006), and Halloween 2006. I suppose my having a digital camera and a camera phone give me less incentive to take pictures with my regular camera. I also saw and taped the new Spider-Man 3 movie trailer. It had some stuff from the trailer I had seen in theaters, but it also had a lot of new images.

Today, I hung out with my friend Harry. We got some subs to eat from Quiznos. We watched this thing on A&E about Superman and this DVD of Harry's called The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury (animated, supposedly taking place between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick). We also played four games of my bowling game for PS2 "Strike Force Bowling." I won the first and third games, while Harry won the second and fourth games. My best game was the third game at the castle alley (each game was at a different alley)--I got nine strikes in a row (a record for me) and scored 289. My worst game was at the night ship alley (the fourth game), where I only scored a 93 (though Harry tried to coach me). He felt like his performance overall was like his performance in real life bowling.

Halloween week.

Well, this week was pretty good. On Sunday, I carved my jack o'lantern using a spider pattern I found online. I watched the rest of my DVD copy of The Empire Strikes Back (Special Edition). On Monday, I had off of work for an orthodontist appointment. I also bought a fake knife at the mall to use as a prop for my Halloween costume this year. Throughout the day, I watched my DVD copy of Resident Evil (the one I bought at work for $5). On Tuesday, we had a costume contest at work. I dressed up as the "Wasssup?" Scream guy from Scary Movie (see the pic above this paragraph). I was the only person in my area that wore a costume, though a few ladies who used to be in my area wore PJ's for the contest. I didn't win any candy this year (the last time I won--2nd Place--was in 2004). I did have fun walking around wearing the costume outside of my area on Tuesday, though. I even spooked my boss when I pulled out the fake knife.*chuckles* I didn't get any trick-or-treaters this year, but it was really cold out. On Wednesday, I set my jack o'lantern outside of my apartment to rot for a few days (and to give my neighbors a chance to see it before I pitched it). I brought several of the snack-size candy bars I bought for trick-or-treaters to work to share with my coworkers. Thursday was kind of blah. On Friday night, I taped "Doctor Who" and was pleased to see that Mickey was through being a wimpy guy hassling Rose all the time about her travels with the Doctor. Today, I got my hair cut and did laundry. My friend Harry came over, and we ate lunch (subs from a local store) while watching his DVD copy of Resident Evil: Apocalypse. I hadn't seen the movie since we saw it in the theater, which is why I picked it as the movie we would watch. I also pitched the jack o'lantern and messed around with some digital photos I took this week.

Halloween preparation, spider cannibalism.

Well, Halloween is just around the corner. I bought a pumpkin earlier this week to carve tomorrow. Today, I was out with Harry to see Superman Returns again, this time at the cheap theater. Afterwards, we stopped by a store to get some stuff, and I got myself a black, raggedy robe to use in my costume for this year.

In pet spider news, I caught a few critters to feed to Peter this week. A few days ago, I found a centipede-like bug in the hall and gave it to Peter. Today, I found a small spider in my room behind some stuff I moved to vacuum, so I gave it to Peter (who pounced right on it when it hit his web).

Another weekend and a nice surprise.

Well, another weekend has passed. On Friday, I taped another episode of the new season of "Doctor Who" on Sci Fi. Saturday morning, I had some dreams about being the Doctor, though I can't recall much about them. In the last dream, I remember being bitten by a poisonous snake that I thought was dead, then I shook off the effects of the bite and used a knife to kill the snake in a rather gruesome manner (can you say "filet o' snake?"). Saturday afternoon, Harry, Liz, and I went to see The Prestige. It was darker than I expected, but it kind of had a happy ending. Saturday night, I had a nice surprise: I found the Mega Bloks Spidey kit I had been looking for the past few months online.

In pet spider news, Peter II is missing, presumed eaten and/or dead. I didn't see Peter eat him, but there is a lot of anthropod debris in the bottom of the jar. Peter could have caught and eaten him overnight, then flung the remains into Peter's garbage pile. I gave him another spider I caught in the kitchen on Saturday morning, a small shiny brown spider I found in a web in the corner near the dishwasher. This spider tried to fake me out by playing dead, but I know most of the tricks in your average spider's book. I placed the curled-up spider in Peter's web. As far as I can tell, Peter got to him before I went to see the movie with Harry and Liz. Peter appeared to be feeding on him shortly before I left for the movie.

Life in general, the weekend.

Well, my sleeping habits haven't been great this week. I kept telling myself I would go to bed early, only to stay up until (if not past) 9:30 pm most nights (and till midnight last night). Even those nights I did get to bed before 9:30 pm were often followed by me waking up earlier than my alarm and not getting back to sleep. Consequently, I drank a lot of Dew at work.

Speaking of work, my coworker Tony actually said he loved Debby yesterday (Friday the 13th). She wasn't in the room at the time, and he was probably joking when he said it, but it seemed like a confession to me. Another fun thing yesterday was Tony deciding we should pick nations for ourselves. Since it was his idea, he picked himself to be the U.S.A. I called dibs on China since my "protective screen" (a construct of black metal grids connected by slotted plastic joiners that I made to protect myself from rubber bands a former coworker used to fire at me) made me think of the Great Wall of China (and since I had the most seniority in our area). Debby was designated as France (since she "hates" the U.S.A.), Sanjay (the guy who sits across the aisle from Debby) as Canada, Julia (the gal who sits across the aisle from me) as Russia, Tudy (who sits behind Julia) as North Korea, Chester (the guy who sits across the aisle from Tudy) as the U.N. (technically not an individual nation, but his role in our area made that the logical designation), Brett (the guy who sits in the desk across the aisle from Tony) as Iran, and Pat (the gal who sits between Sanjay and Brett) as Iraq.

In pet spider news, I have been checking on my pet spider (Peter) and the small spider I had thrown in with him a few days ago (Peter II). Peter II was a tiny spider I found in the living room after I dug the removable lining of my winter coat out of the closet. I suspected he had been hiding in the lining and decided to throw him in with Peter since it was too cold outside for me to free him from the apartment. I had captured a few ants at work this past week and threw them into Peter's jar, but they somehow avoided getting caught in Peter's web. In fact, I have watched one of them walking around on the inside of the jar for the past few days. Anyway, my initial thought was that Peter would eat the smaller spider, but (like the ants) Peter II has evaded Peter. Peter II sits on a silk threads above Peter's main platform web and seemed not to notice a few times when the last ant (I'm certain the first ant I tossed in this week died, though it may have been of starvation instead of predation) practically walked right under him.

Today, I kept pretty busy, but found time for fun. I worked on laundry and vacuumed my bedroom. I had lunch and went to see The Ant Bully with Harry. After the movie, we ran some of Harry's errand and checked out this seasonal store with a Halloween theme. I was impressed by their vast selection of costumes, masks, and accessories. I saw a skeleton costume that fit what I was thinking of wearing to work this year for the annual Halloween costume competition, but the price was a bit high for my liking. The thing I really want to get it a shirt with a skeletal print of the torso and arms to go with my mask and skeleton gloves.

Saturday stuff.

Well, today was a pretty good day. I worked on my laundry, watched some cartoons on the CW (including a new episode of "The Batman"). Harry and I were going to see Superman Returns at the cheap theater (we already saw it once at the regular theater), but the timing didn't work out due to issues with Liz's car: the shop was supposed to call Harry when it was ready so he could stop by and get the keys. They didn't call when they had told him they would call, so we didn't go to the movie for fear that they would call while we were there. Instead, we opted to watch his copy of the animated Transformers: the Movie (which I hadn't seen all of, but he had) at his apartment. We had some technical issues with the DVD, but we got them straightened out. After I got back, I watched the rest of my video copy of The Invisible Man (Sci Fi's modern version) while eating my dinner. Maybe Harry and I will see Superman Returns next weekend.....

Interesting dream.

Recently, I have been experimenting with an idea I call "transthought." In a nutshell, I believe it may be possible for someone to decide what they dream BEFORE they fall asleep by focussing their pre-sleep thoughts on what they wish to dream about. To that end, I have tried to think about specific things while in bed at night in hopes of having dreams about them. Last night, I imagined myself in a simulator room (similar to the holodeck on "Star Trek: the Next Generation") fighting and defeating various simulated foes (monsters, evil robots, well-dressed guys with guns, etc) using superhuman abilities. Well, the dream I had wasn't quite what I was shooting for, but it did show signs that I had at least contributed to its content by what I was thinking about:

In my dream, I was in a utility vehicle (or maybe a multidoor jeep) with some other people. We were in a room like a garage, but there were guns wired to motion-sensors all around the walls of the room. Whenever someone moved, the nearest gun would swivel and start shooting at them. Like the others, I tried to be as motionless as possible, occasionally ducking for cover behind the vehicle door I was next to. Finally, I decided we couldn't keep this up forever, so I took action. I used a chunk of metal that had come loose from the vehicle (due to the guns shooting at it) to deflect shots back at the guns. This enabled me to knock out most of the guns on my side of the vehicle. I moved away from the vehicle and deflected more bullets with the metal chunk. The others saw what I was doing and followed my lead. The last gun I took out myself by jumping up underneath it and tearing out the cable and sensor that ran from the gun into the wall of the room. Someone in our group accused me of having powers or something. I responded, "Really? The only way I could have powers was if this was a dream. If this was a dream, then I could fly." I concentrated and flew up into the air. "Huh," I said (a bit sarcastically), "I CAN fly. This must be a dream, which would make me the dreamer, and you part of that dream. See ya!" And I flew away......

Banter, updates, and some thoughts.

Well, I was amused today by Tony and Debby's banter. Here are some samples of stuff they said to each other today:

Tony: "I feel like I’m sitting in a high chair……" (mocking Debby) "I like making love to the desk while I’m scanning."
Debby: "It’s not like a high chair, d@#%$!"
************
Debby: "Francis."
Tony: "Nixon."
************
Tony: "Him [Paul Walker] and Johnny Depp I would break the rules for."
Debby: "That’s messed up."
***********
Debby: *frustrated groan* "Seriously?"
Tony: "Is that like your pleasure moan or what?"
***********

As you can see, funny stuff. Meanwhile, I had my annual review today and got another small raise (30 cents an hour more than what I have been making since my last review). I haven't been sleeping as well as I would like this week, not really sure why. I bought two 20 oz. Dews on Monday and today. Yesterday morning, I found part of a two-liter of Dew leftover from a food day we had on Thursday in a cooler with the ice around it melted into water. I finished the two-liter (it was between 1/4 and 1/3 full) off by lunch time, then bought a 20 oz. that afternoon. I haven't had Dew with my dinner (except when I went out to eat with my roommate last Friday night) for a few weeks, so I don't think it's an excess of caffiene in my system keeping me awake at night.

I'm pretty exciting about some video games that have come out (or are coming out) this year. I am waiting for the price of "LEGO Star Wars 2: the Original Trilogy" (which came out last month) to go down. I'm also waiting to see (and hopefully get at some point) "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance," which I've heard comes out later this month.

I heard that Styx song "Mr. Roboto" on the radio this afternoon. When I hear that song these days, I imagine the ending of the song differently: instead of the singer/narrator saying, "I'm Kilroy! Kilroy! Kilroy! Kilroy!", I imagine it's me saying, "I'm David! David! David....David." There have been many times since my preteen years (when I was introduced to the book series "Not Quite Human") when I've tried to imagine what my life would be like if I was an android and most of the people around me didn't know I was. I often daydream about how I would function and what special abilities I would have as an android. How much stronger would I be than a normal person? How much faster? Would I remember more things (and remember them faster) than a normal human being? Would I have emotions, or would they be a simulation designed to trick humans into thinking I was one of them?

Busy week.

Well, I've been pretty busy this past week. I've been doing a bunch of cleaning around my apartment, mostly in my bathroom and some other places. We had a food day at work on Thursday, and I pigged out a bit. Friday night, I taped some new "Doctor Who" episodes. I've been re-reading a book I hadn't looked at in a while: Charismatic Chaos, by John F. MacArthur, Jr. It has some interesting insights about the peril of using one's experiences instead of Scripture to define truth and one's faith.

Today, I kept myself busy. I did the laundry, got my hair cut, visited the bank, and taped the new episode of "The Batman." After lunch, I vacuumed most of the apartment and played some video games on my SNES. I also watched a few more episodes on my "X-Men: Evolution" DVD. I also talked to Harry on the phone, and he was pretty busy with his own cleaning.

Stuff on the weekend.

Well, I had another alien dream this morning: this time, I was with a team of commandos, and we were trying to escape from a mutated xenomorph (those creatures from the Alien movies). Our guns didn't seem to work well on it, probably because we were only packing regular machine guns. We headed into a room, and I closed the door. One of the commandos was straggling a bit, but he got inside the door after I closed it. The xenomorph tried to open the door, and I pulled it closed with all my might. I could feel it tugging at the door and was worried it might break the door down to get to us.....

In the real world, not much has been going on. My friend Harry is out of town with Liz to attend the wedding of one of Liz's cousins. I've been watching a DVD I got a month or so ago from one of the seasons of "X-Men: Evolution." Like the live-action movies, there is the emphasis on the frustrations and challenges Xavier's students face when people learn of their superhuman abilities. I also did the laundry, visited the bank, and paid a visit to the nearby mall. I found a couple of places selling calendars for next year already. I also visited a store that was already decorated for Halloween. It had lots of fake cobwebs, masks, costumes, and various other decorations for upcoming holiday. There was even a half-man prop that was crawling around on the floor (it looked like it was pulling itself along with its arms since it didn't have any visible legs). Later, I thinking of playing either "Monopoly" on my SNES or else "LEGO Star Wars" on my PS2.

Stuff in general, complaints about recent Spidey comics.

Well, I haven't had an exciting of a week in my real life, but some of my dreams lately have been interesting:

A few nights ago, I dreamed I was in something that seemed like a movie (but real): A bunch of Asian guys had one guy murdered and framed another Asian guy for it. I was on the side of the framed guy, because somehow I knew he had been set up. We were running around this skyscraper, assassins on our tail. I found this security station in the building and knew that it had video of the murder. I wasn't sure when or where it happened in the building, but I knew the framed guy would know.....

In a dream I had the other night, I was lying in bed resting. Someone was in bed with me (in a nonsexual way) talking to me about something I can't remember now. I noticed a spider descending on a line onto that person and worried the person would kill the spider once they noticed it crawling on them. I closed my eyes so I wouldn't see the spider getting squashed, then opened them and found the spider was crawling around on me. The person with me was silent, and I kept still while the spider crawled around on my face, even closing my eyes and mouth so it wouldn't step in them.....

Today, I was alone in my apartment most of the time. My roommate was working at their office, and my friend Harry hadn't called about doing anything together. I did the laundry, vacuumed my bedroom, and even taped the new animated version of the Fantastic Four. I also paid a credit card bill, got the mail, got change at the bank, and walked out to Target to finish off a gift card I had gotten on my birthday. In Target, I didn't find the Spider-Man construction kit I was looking for (Marvel Tech Heroes, the red and blue version of Spidey), but I did get some plain folders to help me sort out some paperwork I have in bags in my closet. I swung by a Dairy Queen on the way home and got a medium-sized Blizzard to cool me off (it was in the mid- to upper-80s here today). I also did some reading and rested for a bit.

Speaking of reading, I was looking at some Spidey comics I found in Target while wandering around. One of the comics was about Spidey joining the Avengers (probably written and drawn in 2005). The comic had this big battle on some prison island where a bunch of convicts escaped with the help of a few supervillains. To my disgust, Spider-Man got tossed into a crowd of these escaped convicts, unmasked, and had the crap beaten out of him. Fortunately, some of the Avengers came along and helped him out, but he didn't put his mask back on during the fight. This really bothered me, because that would have been top priority for me in that situation (assuming the mask wasn't shredded or used for toilet paper immediately after it was removed). It also reminded me how bent out of shape I am about what comic book writers have been doing to Spider-Man these past three or four years:

Consider this: tons of people in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book series know what Spider-Man looks like without his mask, several of whom even know his real name--the Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, Nick Fury, the X-Men, Eddie Brock (before he became Venom, I might add), the Fantastic Four, etc. I have the first 36 issues of Ultimate Spider-Man, and I think about 20 people in those issues either learn Spidey's secret identity or at least see him unmasked at some point.

Apparently, the current writers of Spidey's mainline continuity decided it wasn't in Spidey's best interests to have a secret identity, so they recently wrote a story in the new "Civil War" series about him publicly unmasking at a press conference put together by Tony "Iron Man" Stark. This is all tied in with the Superhero Registration Act that's going on in the Marvel universe right now. And guess what? Now, all these supervillains are going after Peter Parker, his loved ones, and even the school Parker was teaching at.

Granted, I know they're just trying to write these comics in a style to make them more "realistic." But come on, Marvel! Spider-Man has to have a secret identity, because in the comics (a) law enforcement agencies constantly regard him with suspicion, (b) his rogues gallery is full of killers (like Carnage and Morlun) and sick geniuses (like the original Green Goblin and Dr. Octopus) who have no qualms about hurting people to get to him, and (c) most of the people in Parker's inner circle (unlike the X-Men, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four) don't have superpowers or cool gadgets to protect themselves with. *takes a breath* I'm done venting for now. I just had to get that off my chest.

The weekend, 9/11 thoughts, and some funny stuff.

This weekend: I finally got Zathura on DVD. I had ordered it online through this discount service over a month ago, and it took over three times as long as normal for me to get what I ordered. I posted a message to the seller to let him/them know that I had finally received it, since I had posted a complaint about not having gotten it after three weeks (about twice as long as I normally wait for stuff I order). Speaking of movies, Harry, Liz, and I went to see The Covenant on Saturday night. It was much better than Crank had been a week ago, and Harry and I got our tickets for free (Harry bought Liz's for her) because of the points we had on our theater cards. Yesterday, I started watching my video copy of Independence Day (starring Will Smith and Bill Pullman).

Today is the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon (for those of you who either (a) don't have a TV, (b) don't live in the U.S.A. or (c) have a bad memory when it comes to significant dates). I remember where I was when I first heard the news: I was at my original desk at my job shortly after I was hired there. My boss came over and told me about a plane hitting the Trade Center, but I didn't learn until later that it was a commercial passenger plane that had hit the building. I remember hearing a plane flying over my apartment a day or two later and worrying that it was a plane headed for a building in my city. Ever since the attacks, I have found myself increasing suspicious of foreigners, especially when I learned of the treachery of certain nations East of the Atlantic Ocean in the early weeks of Operation: Iraqi Freedom. On an intellectual level, I know that not all foreigners are terrorists seeking to destroy America. Emotionally, however, I still worry that people I see who don't dress like average Americans or whom I hear speaking in languages other than English are seeking to hurt the U.S.A. (and possibly me or people I know personally).

On a much lighter note, Debby and Tony were at it again today. This time, I copied some of the stuff I overheard them saying to each other so I could post it here. Enjoy!

Tony: "But you’re not wearing pants."
Debby: "That’s even better!"
*************
Tony: "You’re done talking? I’ll take that, too."
**********
Tony: "I got you blocked."
Debby: "What? How?"
Tony: "I got you in my spam mail."
*********
Debby: "Okay, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you."
Tony: "I’m not offended, it’s not just my name."

War & the end of the world dream.

I had a disturbing dream about fighting and the end of the world this morning: I entered a large room like a cafeteria. A group of people by tables to my left stood up and began shooting at me with machine guns. I disarmed a few of them by hand, then created apple-sized grenades out of thin air. I tossed the grenades at them, using telekinesis to make sure the grenades reached their targets. The grenades cut down most of my enemies, and I left the room. Outside, I flew through the air (Superman-style) and entered a second-story window. I found myself in another large room with a huge global map on the floor. People appeared by various nations and began shooting machine guns and firing missiles at me. This time, I used my telekinesis to redirect their fire back at them. Soon, all my enemies were gone. A pair of infamous military leaders dove into the ocean that was the floor between the nations, and I created a depth charge. I dropped the charge into the water after them, then moved to another part of the floor, walking on the water. I noticed a small whirlpool sucking in the ocean, then a small fortification (a set of walls about ten feet tall) in the center of the room. On the other side of the fort, I find myself compelled to write a message on some blue carpet: "The end of all things has come, and yet nothing is assumed."

At work, Debby and Tony were at it again. Among the things they said were:

Debby (to Tony): "What are you laughing about?"
Tony (after slamming stuff down on Debby's desk): "You slammed stuff down on my desk and made my CD skip."

For whatever reason, I'm blanking on the funnier stuff they said today. Tony made some comment about girls having told him about stuff being too big. Later, he stopped talking, and Debby tried to get him to talk again. She got angry at him at one point, calling him a jerk and demanding he be nicer to her. I may have to jot down the funny comments before I leave work next week so I remember them for this blog.....

Back to work, dinner.

Well, today I went back to work. It felt like a Monday, even though it was Tuesday. We had three people out this morning, but one of them made it in around lunch. Tony was sick, so I didn't get to observe him and Debby's verbal sparring. I was really busy in the afternoon with my work stuff, but I managed to get out the door on time.

My folks called me at the end of my shift and offered to take me out to dinner. I accepted, and we ate at an Old Chicago near my apartment. It was a nice time, though I felt a little out of it after my busy afternoon at work. I was also trying to figure out "whodunit" in the "Star Trek: the Next Generation" book I've been reading this week, which was eating up a lot of my mental resources. I suspect I have read this one (Nightshade) before, but I'm not 100% sure.

The weekend so far.

Well, this was a good weekend for me being alone. I played LEGO Star Wars on Friday night. I fought against General Grievous in Free Play as Darth Vader, which was pretty cool. I bought Grievous at Dexter's Diner (an in-between setting) and played as him on a few levels. His attacks are amazing to see, with four lightsabers spinning and slashing at once. When his lightsabers are turned off, he goes from having four arms to two arms and looks like a LEGO skeleton guy with a cape. I also used my wealth of LEGO studs to buy some clone characters at the Diner and even one of those bug-aliens (Genosians?) from Episode II.

Besides playing video games, I watched some movies. Harry and I went to see Crank on Saturday. I was kinda disappointed by the rampant swearing and a vulgar public love scene between the main character and his blonde girlfriend in an Asian community involving a mail box. There was a fair amount of gore as well, though the chases in the movie were quite exciting. On the bright side, this movie gave me enough points on my theater card to see the next movie free. I also finished watching my DVD of I, Robot and started watching a DVD I bought at work called Resident Evil. I had seen it on cable before, but I learned later than some scenes had been cut from the cable version of the movie (example--Alice's battle with the zombie dogs). I'll probably finish watching it tomorrow.

Today, I bought some stuff. I bought one of those enormous sandwich combos at Burger King for breakfast this morning. Later, I went to the mall to try to find a new jacket to replace the one I broke the zipper on. Sadly, none of the stores at the mall had what I wanted at the price I was looking for. Happily, I paid a visit to a Shopko up the hill from the mall and found a cool jacket with the exact features I sought. This new jacket was probably cheaper than my original jacket, being that it was on sale for 25% off. Tomorrow, I'll probably do some reading and the laundry.

Excited about the weekend.

Well, not too much has been going on this week. I finished The Chronicles of Narnia a few days ago, a book I had been reading on and off all year. I drank a fair amount of Mountain Dew at work due to me not getting to bed as soon as I had intended to many times this week. My coworker, Tony, got the "LEGO Star Wars" video game recently and played it yesterday. He had several questions for me, since I have the game myself and have played it a lot the last few months. I managed to answer most of them, and I became even more psyched about this three-day weekend....

Yes, I have Labor Day (U.S.A.) off of work. My roommate is out of town tonight, tomorrow, and at least half of Sunday, leaving me alone in the apartment. This means that if I want to stay up late tonight and maybe tomorrow night as well to play "LEGO Star Wars", then I can without fear of waking my roommate (who goes to bed much earlier than I do on Friday and Saturday nights). I also plan to see a movie with Harry, who called me earlier today on my cell phone so we could decide which movie we wanted to see on Saturday. I have a project/potential story idea that has been brewing in my head since early August that I'm eager to write/type up so that I can free my imagination to work on other things. I also want to edit more of my digital pics from last weekend's zoo trip, maybe post another one or two in this blog. By Monday, I will probably try to relax a little between laundry and whatever else I find to do that day.

Zoo and alien dream.

Yesterday, Harry and I went to the local zoo for my company's annual picnic. Admission, lunch, and tickets to the IMAX theater were all free. I brought my digital camera along and took over 50 pictures. Liz and one of her female friends (with that friend's young son) joined us after lunch. We watched a 3-D IMAX movie about sharks. The 3-D glasses were kind of dorky-looking, but the 3-D itself was amazing. I found myself early on in the movie reaching out toward the images and trying to dodge jellyfish that seemed to be swimming right at me. After the movie, we walked around the zoo for several hours. We visited a group of deserts inside a large dome, then saw some alligators and various nocturnal animals in a structure underneath the deserts. We also visited the aquarium, which was cool because it has a glass tunnel underneath a huge tank with sharks and small rays in it. You can actually watch sharks swim over your head (as the pic above illustrates). We also checked out the large cats (mostly tigers), the gorillas, the elephants, and the rhinos. I saw some of my coworkers there, but we only ran into one person from my work area. We left the zoo around 6pm and ate dinner at a local Italian place. All and all, it was a great time.

Last night or early this morning, I had another dream about aliens. This time, they were tall aliens that only vaguely resembled Grays. I was at my parents' farm, and the aliens came to the house. Sensing they were up to something I wouldn't like, I grabbed one of them and stabbed it with a knife. For good measure, I began cutting the alien up (especially when it tried to fake me out by assuming human form after I stabbed it). I heard noises outside, and I saw police officers out the living room window. They were headed for the front door, so I hid the dead alien and forced the other one into a room. I talked briefly with the officers, then they left. I opened the door to the room I had thrown the living alien into, and it emerged from the room in human guise. It looked like a bald, portly man just under six feet tall. I grabbed the alien by the collar of its jacket and said, "Where is your ship? How do I make its technology work?" (Or something like that). It laughed at me, and I knew it wouldn't give me any answers. Timmy showed up, and I said, "This is the guy who molested you in your sleep!" I didn't know that for sure, but I did know this alien was involved in abductions and experiments on humans in the area. When Timmy heard this, he got angry. I said, "Sick 'em, boy!" and Timmy pounced on the alien and began beating it up.

This week at work.

No really interesting dreams lately. This week at work was Employee Appreciation Week, which was pretty cool. We had breakfast catered on Monday morning, which was omelettes, some fruit, donuts, bagels, and muffins. On Tuesday, we got smoothies, and I was pleased to get a cappuccino smoothie (I'm not big on fruit, other than apples). On Wednesday, we got salads for lunch, which I declined since I'm not big on green veggies. Today, we had popcorn and later dinner at this company-wide meeting. Our speaker was a guy who had been in a plane crash, then taken and held prisoner with several other Americans by the Chinese for nearly two weeks before he was released. It was an amazing and inspirational story. Tomorrow at work, we're getting cookies, and my department is having a food day to celebrate the wife of my boss approaching the due date for their first child. I'm bringing cookies, since my area has been charged with providing desserts for this occasion.

Still amused by the interactions between Tony and Debby. They threw some stuff at each other at one point today. There was some mild physical interaction between them--Debby shoving Tony--but you could tell that she wasn't really angry at him, just mildly (for her anyway) annoyed. She was asking him about his girlfriends, and he was like "which one?" He was joking with her about how she ranked in our area in terms of her speciality. My team leader takes all of this in stride, knowing that it isn't really mean-spirited, just loud joking between coworkers.

LEGO Darth Vader and other stuff.

Well, I finally got to be Darth Vader in LEGO Star Wars on Saturday night. On Friday night, I earned "True Jedi Status" on the only chapter I hadn't gotten it on yet (Chapter 4 in Episode 3), unlocking the mystery chapter. I played the mystery chapter on Saturday night. The mystery chapter is the beginning of Episode 4 (Star Wars: A New Hope) where Leia's transport ship is caught by a Star Destroyer and boarded by Vader and his stormtroopers. In the game, I got to be Vader with a single stormtrooper companion. I fought and killed several LEGO Rebel soldiers as I explored the ship. I used the Force (and my lightsaber) to destroy a lot of stuff and used the Force to spell "LEGO" in one room, causing blue studs to rain from the ceiling. I also got C3-P0 out of a glass containment thing and used him to open some doors for me. Finally, I got to enter a room and see Princess Leia interacting with R2-D2 at the end of the chapter. After that, I decided to try some Free Play with Vader on some other levels. I played him on some Episode 1 chapters, fighting Darth Maul at the end of Chapter 6 and retaking Threed in Chapter 5. The interesting thing about Chapter 6 is that the computer player accompanying me changed into Vader itself a few times, including during the final battle with Darth Maul. Imagine that: two Darth Vaders fighting with Darth Maul. For kicks, I played as Vader in Chapter 5 of Episode 1 and had the computer player with me as Anakin (Jedi Apprentice or Jedi Knight?). Of course, in Free Play, the computer player (Player 2) and Player 1 can switch to certain other characters in a set choosen by the game, which made it even more interesting when I discovered I could switch to the child version of Anakin from Episode 1. In that chapter, I could play Anakin in three different forms: child, apprentice, and Darth Vader.

Harry and I went to see Talladega Nights: the Ballad of Ricky Bobby on Saturday afternoon. It was a pretty funny movie, and it also had an important lesson: no one wins on their own. Every victor has people standing behind them--friends, teammates, family, teachers, etc--backing them up, encouraging them, or doing the little things that make success attainable.

Another strange dream, life in general.

I had another strange dream: this time, I dreamt I was lost in space. I was with a group of space explorers sometime in the distant future. We had flown into deep space in a spaceship, but the engines that brought us out there broke down, so we couldn't get back as quickly as we had gotten out there. To make things even more strange, we found a magic lamp in a pile of stuff on board the ship. An alien that resembled Q from "Star Trek: the Next Generation" showed up on the ship, found out the name of the genie in the lamp (a prerequisite for making wishes with this particular genie-lamp set), and made some wishes. One of the wishes resulted in him getting his own talk show in 21st century America.

Now for my real life: in general, things have been so-so. I got to bed earlier last night than I have the past few nights, but a thunderstorm woke me over 20 minutes early this morning. I've been cleaning around my apartment this week, mostly in my bathroom. More humorous interactions between Tony and Debby: she was railing on him about him asking her a bunch of work-related questions, then when she left on a smoke break and our team leader asked where she was, Tony said, "I ate her." Part of me wonders if they're secretly in love or attracted to one another. I saw them returning together from another break later in the day. I've been reading a book my friend Harry loaned me today: "City of Heroes: the Freedom Phalanx." I'm hoping to spend more time playing my LEGO Star Wars game this weekend, maybe see a movie with Harry and Liz.

David, Dream Alien Slayer?

Well, I had another dream about aliens showing up and me attacking them. This time, the aliens were in this craft that showed up at the mall. It was silvery and resembled a bumpy silver dish, almost like a silver kickball that someone had tried to squish and was only half-successful at it. I felt like I recognized the ship, like it was something from the new version of The War of the Worlds. It sprouted legs, but I leapt on it and pushed it down. The craft began rolling around like it has wheels under it, and I clung to it (when I tackled it, it shrank to nearly the size of a sea turtle) for dear life. It carried me into a shop in the mall, and I spotted some police officers. One of them was a woman, and I said, "Excuse me, Miss Police Officer Lady, do you have something that can cut glass?" (or something along those lines). She handed me something like a scalpel with a jagged edge when the alien craft rolled close enough for her to reach me. I used it to cut through the craft's silver skin. To my astonishment, the skin was rubbery when I cut it instead of being hard like glass or metal. I glimpsed a fleshly gross alien inside as I tore at the silvery rubber skin of the craft. I don't remember what happened after that.

Day off, almost there.

I had today off of work for an eye doctor's appointment. Fortunately, when I inadvertantly packed some ear wax deeper into my left ear with a Q-tip (instead of digging it out as I had intended) last Thursday, I was able to see an ear doctor today to get that taken care of. As I expected, he flushed the wax out with a really noisy machine that went into my ear. By the way, the eye doctor's appointment went well: no need to get new glasses.

I got some funner things done today as well. I finished watching Clerks (the language was so bad, I had to wait until my roommate was gone before I watched it). I also obtained "True Jedi Status" on three more chapters, leaving only one chapter left in my LEGO Star Wars game to obtain that status on before I can unlock the "mystery level." I made my favorite food for lunch: mac'n cheese. I worked on my online simulated nation. I got a new bulb for my lava lamp between my doctor appointments. I also started reading "Silver Chair," one of the Chronicles of Narnia. In this story, Eustace and a girl named Jill escape from a rather liberal-sounding English school by travelling through a door that leads them onto a high cliff overlooking Narnia. Jill meets Aslan, who gives her instructions on what she and Eustace are to do while they are in Narnia. Their mission: find the lost prince, the only son of King Caspian.

Speaking of Caspian, I've heard that they plan to do a sequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe called Prince Caspian. For those who haven't read the book, that story takes place a year (England time) after the children have returned from Narnia. While waiting for train, the children are whisked away to Narnia, where 1,000 years (at least) have passed in Narnia since they left. They come to the aid of the title character when Caspian's uncle (a wicked man who has killed or driven off many of Narnia's talking animals and magical creatures) tries to keep him from his rightful claim to the throne of Narnia.

Hanging with Harry, finished the book.

Today, I hung out with my close friend Harry. We went to Target so I could use one of the giftcards I got for my birthday. I got The Brothers Grimm and the 3rd season of "X-Men: Evolution". He bought Ultimate Avengers 2, and we went back to his place to watch it after getting some KFC to go. After watching it (it was great, though someone died at the end that we didn't expect to see die), we went over to Wal-Mart (he had some shopping to do). I looked around for a few things myself, but I didn't see what I was looking for. He had some time to kill before he had to meet up with Liz, so I suggested we go to my place. I needed his help to finish the final chapter of my PS2 game, LEGO Star Wars. He agreed, and his superior jumping skills in the game got me to the final confrontation between Obi-Wan and Anakin. I defeated Anakin, and thus completed the final chapter of Episode 3. We did some free play for awhile, then he had to go. I played my game for awhile longer, then had some dinner and started watching a DVD one of my coworkers (not Tony) had loaned me: Clerks.

I finished King's Sacrifice yesterday. I was kinda bummed about the ending: the main villain from the second and third book died, but not before contributing to the deaths of some other significant characters in the book. Sagan went back to the Abbey he had grown up in, and Dion got crowned king after Robes killed himself and the Galactic Democracy fell in chaos. Tusk and Nola went off to live less exciting lives as a married couple. Dion looked like he was going to marry a woman from another Warlord's family instead of the woman he met and fell in love with on Bear Olefsky's home planet. In short, the ending was bittersweet: Dion gets to be king, but loses some allies and the woman he truly loves. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a woman wrote this book. They seem to love endings where people lose the ones they love most.

Popeye dream, better day, & the book.

Well, I had a long, weird dream about being Popeye (or at least a sailor with large forearms): I was travelling with a classy-looking blonde woman who looked like Ann from King Kong (2005 version). We were looking for treasure, and our trip wasn't exactly glamorous. We travelled in a dirty old sailing ship to an island. On the island, we got a motel room that had dirty walls with cheap-looking wallpaper. Ann wasn't happy with this, especially after she spotted a rat (or maybe a large bug?) in the room. I saw Bluto (Popeye's enemy from the cartoon) on the island, but he didn't make trouble for me when we saw each other. We left the motel the next day to head to a smaller, nearby island to seek the treasure we were looking for. Our supplies were loaded onto a ship that looked like a rotten wooden platform with a sailboat-style steering wheel and a loud motor. I knew Ann wasn't thrilled with this (I was skeptical myself), but I managed to get her on the platform-ship. I don't really remember anything in the dream after that.

In the real world, I was more alert at work than I had been the past few days. No thunder woke me early this morning (unlike the past two days), and I didn't bring extra Dew with me to work to drink at lunch. I found myself amused by the conversations of two of my coworkers, Tony and Debby. These two often get in verbal sparring matches, trading insults and laughing at each other. I have been speculating (privately) lately that perhaps they love or desire each other, but hide their true feeling from each other, their other coworkers, and possibly even themselves by their arguing and insulting of each other. I foolishly mentioned yesterday at work to them that I should be writing about their stuff in my blog (using code names instead of their actual names), and Debby demanded that I tell her what my code name for her was. I told her I couldn't remember (which was true, since I hadn't mentioned her in this blog before), and today she didn't mention it at all. I hope she has forgotten, since if she did read this she could probably guess the real identities of some of the people mentioned here....

As for the third Star of the Guardians book, I am nearly finished with it. Maigrey and her rag-tag army have found Sagan and sent the coordinets to Dion, but the king-to-be has decided to go to them with only Tusk and Nola instead of bringing the space fleets of those loyal to him. It seems like he might be planning to use the space-rotation bomb to destroy himself and Abdiel, but it might just be a ruse on his part. Sagan is in a trance-like state, and the Starlady is trying to find his consciousness inside the blackness of his mind via their mind-link. Abdiel has been sending messages to her telepathically, suggesting that he will poison her and Sagan so they will go on a madness-induced killing spree and be executed when they're finally caught by the authorities. I hope this series has something close to a happy ending, but it is hard to tell at this point.

Not the smoothest of days....

Late last night (or early this morning), I had this dream: I was at an amusement park. While I was in a wooden tower around sunset, a bright light shown through a window above me. I went outside and saw a silver saucer-shaped UFO descending to the ground nearby. A crowd had gathered, but I went right up to the UFO. A small hatch under the saucer opened, and a small, pale green alien (about the size of a cat) emerged. Concerned that the alien was part of an invasion force, I attacked it, pounding on it until it stopped moving. A second alien emerged, and I did the same to it. I tossed the dead aliens to someone in the crowd. I used my super strength (something I have in my dreams frequently) to tilt the saucer (it was the size of a car) in hopes of blocking the opening. I shouted, "You're not welcome here! Go back to whereever it is you came from! Nobody wants you here!" I spied a narrow silver cylinder extending from the open hatch. Thinking it was a weapon of some kind, I grabbed it and pulled it from the saucer. I wedged a softball under the saucer, tilting the UFO so that the ball was blocking the opening.

Before I get on with today's events, I should clear some things up. When I was younger, I believed in all sorts of paranormal phenomena--ghosts, ESP, and aliens. As I got older and more interested in my faith (Christianity), I gave serious thought to these phenomena and decided that ghosts and aliens were incompatible to my understanding of the real world. Further, I decided that if some non-human beings (aliens or possibly demononic spirits pretending to be aliens to mislead humans) were visiting Earth and doing what people claimed they were doing in the abductee stories, these beings should be regarded as enemies. I have had nightmares about the gray aliens (Grays, as they're often called) and various other aliens from movies and science fiction. As a result, I have decided (within the context of my fantasy and dream life, since I haven't encountered them in my "real" life) that I am at war with the Grays. If I see them in my dreams, then I attack them.

Speaking of my real life, I didn't get much sleep this weekend. On Saturday morning, I woke up a few times (I can't recall why). I got to bed about an hour later than I should have on Saturday night, then woke up very early Sunday morning due to thunder from a storm. I didn't get a nap in on either day, and Diana and I got back later than I would've liked on Sunday from our visit with Cosmo, Wanda, and Gwen. As a result, I had dinner later than I would've liked, and it threw off my schedule for the evening. Today at work, I bought TWO 20-ounce Mountain Dews to help me stay awake.

As for work today, it wasn't quite as hectic as I feared it would be. I was kind of down in the morning (besides my lack of sleep) because my pedometer got trashed on my way to work. It fell off my work bag and got crushed by a passing bus moments before I realized it had fallen off. Granted, the pedometer was free (part of my workplace's promotion of good health practices), and I have been frustrated with the thing reseting when I'm not looking or when I'm not deliberately pressing the reset button (which is on the front of the device). Still, I had hoped to make it to the end of this month before discarding it. We had some people off scheduled to be off of work this week, but nothing disasterous (that I'm aware of) happened in our area today. Aside from being late to my afternoon break and being tired half of the day, I didn't have too bad a day at work.

Just another day.

Well, things are pretty normal for me right now, other than perhaps my lack of success at being in bed by 9pm CT. Work is pretty routine. I have been doing some cleaning around the apartment this week, since I didn't have time to do it last week while preparing my bedroom for the ceiling repair work. My reading of King's Sacrifice is getting pretty exciting:

Sagan, having heard his father is alive and dying at the Abbey where he (the Warlord) grew up, has flown there alone in a ship with the messenger of his father's condition, Brother Fideles ("Fideles" means "Faithful"). After a trek through a hostile, cold, desert-like environment, they reached the Abbey. Inside, they observed some things that seemed fishy. Sure enough, it was a trap set by Abdiel, though Sagan's father was really on his deathbed. After Sagan (who brought no physical weapons with him since he was entering a holy place) was brutally whipped and beaten by the mind-dead, he was chained up inside the mortuary. Fideles was allowed to return to the Phoenix II to inform Lady Maigrey and the king-to-be (Dion) of Sagan's fate....

The weekend.

Well, the ceiling repair work is done. I think I'm about half done with getting my room back in some sort of order. I have rearranged my room somewhat: my bed is at a different angle to the right side wall (when entering the room) than it was before. My dresser is in the corner instead of the middle of the room by the windows. The TV is still in the same place. I only have one sign/poster up so far, and it was a late birthday present from Harry that I got yesterday.

Speaking of Harry, he and I went to see Click on Saturday evening. It was a funny, touching movie with an important lesson: family comes before work. If you spend all your time at work, then you'll miss out on the things happening in your family's life. You don't need a magic remote to fast-forward or mute out the important moments in your life, just the wrong priority. It was certainly a good message for my friend to hear since he has recently gotten married and has career issues he's working on right now.

Recently, I have lost a dear online friend of mine. I had been chatting with her frequently for nearly five years. Earlier in the week, she got an infection and was rushed to the hospital. Due to it and some other health issues she has, she passed away on Saturday (7/29). I learned about it from one of her stepchildren, who had been kind enough to let me know whenever she has had serious health issues that kept her away from the Internet. I was very tearful about it yesterday when I first heard the news, and I still find myself on the verge of tears when I think about it for too long.

As for my reading, I have finished the second book of the Star of the Guardians trilogy and have started the third book today. I haven't read this third book before, so I'm sure there will be plenty of surprises. So far in the book, it has become public knowledge that Dion is the heir to the throne and challenging President Robes for authority over the galactic masses. The man I'm imagining myself as while reading the book, Sagan (the Warlord), is backing Dion and preparing for war with Robes. There is tension between Sagan and Dion, since Dion is young and (as young people tend to do) thinks he is ready to call the shots on his own. Sagan knows better and is doing his best to keep his own interests going while providing military support and advice to the young king-to-be. Meanwhile, the Starlady (Lady Maigrey) has fled, presumably because she is afraid of what she will become if she remains around Sagan. Abdiel is still alive, free, and manipulating Robes behind the scenes. I suspect this book will have a dramatic conclusion.

Frustration, new trailer.

Well, I thought they were going to work on my apartment today, but apparently the actual date they are coming is tomorrow. I didn't know this (though I now remember that was the first date I had heard before the work notice with today's date in it came), so I stayed up late last night trying to finish getting my place ready. As a result, I was late leaving for work (but still made it on time) and very tired at work today. I brought a 12-ounce can of Mountain Dew to drink at lunch, then bought a 20-ounce bottle later to drink. In spite of all the Dew, I was yawning a lot during the last hour of my shift.

Speaking of work, we (the people in my area) were told yesterday that we needed to dress up today because of some big executive from the main company coming. This morning, however, we learned that this executive probably won't come anywhere near our area since he would be meeting with the top dogs on the top floor of our building. As far as I know, he never came by our department. Bottom line: I wore a white shirt, black imported silk tie, and cotton undershirt for NOTHING!

On a brighter note, I saw a very fuzzy and small, but interesting, new trailer for Spider-Man 3, a movie I am hoping to see in May 2007. The trailer apparently aired at a comic book convention and was (covertly) recorded by an attendee. In it, it looks like there is some friction between MJ and Peter, and that Eddie Brock will become Venom at some point in the movie. Whether or not we will see Spider-Man and Venom fighting in this movie is debatable, but it seems clear (from the new trailer) that we will at least see the symbiote covering Brock in the movie. And the first trailer clearly shows Peter stripping off the symbiote costume in a church, like what happened in the comic book. Also, I heard Eddie Brock praying for the death of Spider-Man in the new trailer....

Busy and stuff.

Well, I've been pretty busy lately. I am still working on getting my room ready for the new ceiling. Today, I took down several more posters and clippings from my wall.

At work, things are so-so. We had a quick and solemn team meeting today. Apparently, some of my coworkers have been trash-talking about my other coworkers (possibly about me, I don't know), and someone on another team overheard some of it. The other team's leader spoke to our team leader (and maybe our manager) about it. Consequently, our team leader now has to be more strict in enforcing the rules: number and time limit of breaks, the dress code, tardiness, days off, etc. I also learned a coworker I hadn't come up with a code name for yet is moving to another department. As for me, I decided I will put in less overtime (since we now need to request it in advance) and cut back on my non-business-related usage of the computer. Which should balance things out enough to reduce any sizable change in my daily work output. On the bright side, I still get along with my coworkers and haven't passed out at my desk from lack of sleep yet. The answer to the second issue: Mountain Dew, the 20-ounce variety.

I'm still reading the 2nd book of the "Star of the Guardians" triology. Currently, I'm reading the chapters about the night of the revolution and what Sagan and Maigery were up to then. I found it interesting that the pair had been abducted and experimented on by Abdiel (the mind-seizer) and his mind-dead minions long before the revolution. They had escaped from him, but not before he left his mark on them. As a result, both characters have been showing a measure of fear now that they know he still lives.

Still Alive.

Well, I was busy with Harry and Liz on Friday night, which is why I didn't make an entry then. We went to see "Monster House". It was pretty good, though the characters did have a Tim Burton-esque look about them. The house was pretty scary.....

By the way, I was looking over my last entry here and noticed I forgot the first "r" in "armored" when describing the movie I borrowed from Tony. Oops!

On Saturday, I did a lot of work on my room. These maintenance people are coming in later this week to redo the apartment ceilings, so I have been trying to throw stuff out to make room in my closet for a bunch of stuff. I got a hot dog and a snack bag of Doritos from a grill lunch the complex was throwing. After lunch, I worked on sorting some stuff in my room and took a nap. When I woke up, I had horrible sinus/head pain. I threw up a few times, put a few bags of ice on my head (the ice melted quickly), and rested a lot. I didn't have dinner, but I was feeling much better at about 11:30pm on Saturday night. That's why I didn't get an entry in last night.

Today, I spent more time on my room. I took down a bunch of posters and put some stuff in boxes and various containers. I also tried to catch up on my "Star of the Guardians" reading, since I didn't get to it on Saturday. I left off on a confrontation Sagan is having with Maigery about the space-rotation bomb that she bought from Snaga Ohme, an egotistical alien weapons designer and dealer. It reminded me of some lyrics from an Asia song--"Only Time Will Tell":

"....Now sure as the sun will cross the sky....The lying's over....Gone, like the tears that used to tide me over....."

The Next Day.

Today was less fun than yesterday, but not bad. I went to work with some stabbing leg pains (I must be getting old [;^)]). A few of my female coworkers put streamers and balloons around my desk, and we had a snack day. I managed to stay awake, though I did eat more than usual at work.

I got home and finished the DVD Tony had loaned me. It was exciting stuff, but obviously a sequel is in the works since the machine demons were still around and the discovery that the amored hero (Karas) has a weak spot after all.

I've been reading the second of a trilogy of books called "Star of the Guardians." As I've been reading these books, I have imagined myself as one of the main characters: the Warlord, Derek Sagan. He is a man who has second thoughts about another man (Robes) he helped to overthrow the galactic king over a decade and a half before the story's present time. Sagan is powerful, possessing genetically-engineered psychic abilities and an army of loyal men, as well as state-of-the-art technology. In this series, he has tracked down the last heir of the dead king and hopes to use the heir (Dion Starfire) to overthrow Robes, the President of the Galactic Republic, and use the heir as a puppet to further his own ambitions. His opponents include a woman he is mind-linked with who has similar psychic abilities (Lady Maigrey), Dion, some mercenaries (including the son of a man he killed in his search for the lost heir), and a powerful psychic named Abdiel who can control people's minds using nanomachines. It's pretty interesting stuff, and I do get a thrill imagining myself as Sagan with his powers and loyal army as I read these books.

Today, it begins.....

Today is my 32nd birthday. I decided a few months ago that I wanted to start a blog so that I could write about my real life (and my fantasy life on occasion) in a place that wouldn't have the limitations of physical space (like a notebook) or the fragility of a computer hard drive or disk. I have done blog work before, but it was mostly about stuff I was reading or the progress I was making in certain video games. At any rate, I thought it would be cool if I could write stuff about what was happening in my life and maybe jot down a daydream or two along the way.

While thinking about this new blog, I decided that only celebrities, fictional characters, and myself will be refered to by their actual names. Any real people I know from my life will be identified using code names from various fictional sources. That way, I can say whatever I want about them in this blog without being a gossip (since only I would know for sure who I was talking about).

All of that being said, this is what happened today: Cosmo, Wanda, Clark, Diana, and I went to a pizza buffet/arcade to celebrate my birthday. Diana couldn't stick around after we had lunch, so the rest of us did some minigolf. Clark won, with Cosmo and I tying for second place and Wanda coming in last place. This is the first time I've played minigolf and scored under par. I went around the arcade after that and played some games. I got a bunch of tickets from some of the games and used them to buy one of those small suction cup basketball hoops with the foam ball. Back at my place, I opened some presents and ate cake and ice cream with Cosmo, Wanda, and Clark. I also uploaded some pics from my digital camera and took pictures of my birthday cake and birthday booty (cards and presents, not buttocks).

I started watching this DVD a coworker (Tony) loaned me. It's a magna movie about demons and humans coexisting on parallel planes of existence. Some dark force is turning the demons into evil machines, and the main good guy (Karas) changes into an armor-wearing guy with a huge sword to fight and destroy the evil machines. Apparently, these machine demons hunger for human blood and suck their victims dry. The human cops are checking it out, but only a few of them believe demons are responsible. There's some other guy who seems to be a demon machine as well, but he has taken on human form and fights the demon machines with guns he carries instead of reverting to a supernatural form. It's very interesting stuff so far.