Well, today was pretty good, nice and relaxed with no work to do. Yesterday I had real work and school work, but today I've been reading. Tonight I'm going to my mom's house, where I'm going to spend the night, then tomorrow I'm going to shop for cars. By this time tomorrow, I could be driving my new vehicle. That would be really nice. I really want to yell at someone's insurance, but I STILL don't have that report. I can't let that stop me from getting a car though. Heck, the guy may be uninsured, in which case, I might as well go ahead and buy a car anyway, because I wont be getting any kind of compensation. *le Sigh*

Just listened to 20 second clips of some really awesome songs. I loved every one, I was rather shocked, but they were awesome with a great beat and some nice melody and excellent lyrics. I'm keeping the page bookmarked so that I can listen to them again without too much trouble.

Baked another cake today, came out really good, I also finished my tutorials, I am now caught up. Now I'll be working with everyone else, which should turn out really well, I am very happy with my work so far, I am taking to the subjects well, and enjoying the classes quite a bit, even if I was more than a little over worked doing so much over the course of a week. Anyway, I'm feeling a little depressed right now, and I don't know why, just sort of feel like sitting down and not thinking about anything.

Baking a cake right now! Been working on tutorials all day. Going to work on them again afterward, but after that, I'm done for the week. I really hope I started working soon enough that my teacher doesn't count off too much. Anyway, I am deeply in need of a few days without working on tutorials.

Well, finished tutorial 3 today. Longer and harder than any of the others I've done so far. Looks like 4 is even longer. I've been working hard for 2 days on this stuff. I can't wait to get a breather from it. Anyway, the oregano lives, and will live, and is growing well. And the lemon thyme apears to be growing roots on all the branches, I bet I could easily plant a sprout of that for a friend. Got more work to do, and food to eat, so I will write again tomorrow.

Nice slow weekend. Spent some time with Mom and Alan on saturday, and then went to fry's with Mike and ate an appetizer at red lobster with George and Mike. Spent early sunday at Best Buy with Mike and Zac. Got nothing while I was there. After that I went to my mom's house to eat dinner with the friends they had over, Father Tony and Edna, we had boiled potatoes, corn, shrimp, and salad. It was all really delicious and the conversation was great. I got to take a peek at a 100 year old copy of Utopia.

Was also a bit of a shock to find out that Father Tony, was well, a Father, since prior to that I had only heard him called Tony. After a really nice evening, I headed home, and began serious work on my homework for Web Design I. I am about 1/2 done, at least. I still have a ton of work to do, but I'm sure I can be done by tonight. I'm going to ask if maybe I can do some extra work to make up for my tardiness.

Tutorial 2 done, tutorial 2 quiz on the way, tutorial 3 to go to catch up, and 4 for this week.

Oh, and mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, how I love herbs! Sadly my oregano looked very unhealthy when I left this morning. I watered it pretty heavily, I hope it is better when I get home. If it dies, it will be #2 down.

Well, tomorrow I go back to cooking traditional fare on the grill. I don't know exactly what I'm going to make, but it'll be hamburgers or fajitas or something simple like that. Anyway, I've also started looking for a truck, and I think I've found a pretty good one for 1,100. Maybe I can test drive it over the weekend and see how it runs. If it does well, and if a mechanic checks it out, I'll snatch it up right then and there.

For my girl:

You speak of bedbugs,
and how their bite will hurt some.
You are my summer.

Cake got finished off... successfully caught up in Digital Imaging I, now I need to catch up in Web Design I. Should be cake of piece. Speaking of cake, I finished off the orange cake I made the other night tonight. Also, Mike and I went to Cold Stone where I tried the nastiest icecream I have ever seen for sale in a comercial outlet, Wasabi Ginger. Ugh. It tasted horrible. You could literally have put it on top of sushi and it would have tasted BETTER. And that is saying something horrible.

Been reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Who knew that I was 100% right when I said that with all the people who were buying it, and who were going to read it, that I really would be able to borrow it by monday? As it happened I could have, even though I didn't pick it up till tuesday. I'll probably finish it by the end of the week.

Anyway, off for more random goodness.

Been doing tons of homework lately. 2 weeks to catch up on, 1 week in the other class. It's all a bit insane today. But, I love it. Maybe by friday I'll accomplish something other than school work.

Played FEAR last night with Mike. Baked a cake today, my first baking ever. It wasn't easy, but it came out well. Played more FEAR with Jake while I fed him cake.

You should always "Feed Jake". Just ask the Pirates of Mississippi.

This weekend was quite an experience. Friday began, after leaving work, of course, with mom and Alan taking me to a family group at the Texas House Recovery Center. The purpose of the family groups is for addicts to bring their families with them to a group where they can learn to share and better understand what's happening. I sat in the back with Alan and my mom, Alan was a student of the two people who taught the class, which is why we were sitting in. There were some songs sung that really touched me, I haven't been to anything similar since the Halloween NA meeting with Jackson back about three or maybe more years ago.

It's a really incredibly moving experience to be at something like that, there's a lot of palpable pain in the room, and also something else that seems very subtle even though it is posted as the overt message of the entire group. It's really hard to describe what a whole room full of hurt people healing just a little bit feels like, because nothing else quite comes close. During both experiences, NA with Jackson, and this, I let out a tear or two. I probably could have let out more. I don't know. After I got to mom's house, I went straight to my dad's to pick up the textbooks he got me for the second session of summer semester. It was really generous of him, and I really needed them, since the classes had already started. Then, straight home, where I slept. Babies don't sleep that good.

Woke up early the next day and went straight back to my mom's house, and then wen to the grocery store with Alan who taught me how to pick a good brisket, I got a 15lb one and some baked beans to go with it, then at 2 o'clock I treated my mom to Wedding crashers, after which we saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the IMAX. It was beautiful, plus, I finally saw the trailer to the new Harry Potter movie, which was, to say the least, amazing. I am seeing it opening night. Wedding Crashers had a lot of funny scenes, and I enjoyed it much. Chocolate Factory was very good, except for Wonka himself. His voice was so high pitched, I found it distracting and annoying the majority of the time whe he delivered his lines. There were moments where he was just perfect, and others where, sigh. He had the potential to be the right man for the job, he did a lot of stuff perfect. He did much more of it annoyingly.

After I got home, I went to Jake's house for his birthday, and then after playing a ton of games over there, I came home and started cooking the brisket at 1 am. It cooked well into the afternoon when the rain started and I felt it wise to cover the smoker and move the brisket into the oven for finishing off. it ended up being delicous, the baked beans are equally excellent. Dad brought potato salad and took some food home to Mary Ellen who was unable to make it, as she was not feeling very well at all.

After dad left, we started playing F.E.A.R. multiplayer Beta. We had some issues when we first tried it. It was problematic trying to figure out how to aquire the guest cd keys that were rightfully mine for buying the pre-order. We finally got that sorted out, and by luck, Jackson, and George, who brought their computers, as well as Mike and I, who used both of mine, actually began playing so intensely, that we kept it up till about midnight. Each match in the game is 20 minutes long. Mike played through 9 games that were each, in turn, theoretically his last match. It was the first time since XCOM that events occured that were worthy of telling stories about afterward, and the first time since Day of Defeat that we played so intensely without break, ceasing only because two of our players had bedtimes, and we could find no replacements.

Whew... so that whole event went on, Justin and Cymeron visited, and enjoyed the food. To everyone who came, thank you very much, it was a lot of fun.

Incedentally, we still have one F.E.A.R. beta key left.

Smoking a brisket today, everyone is invited. Fortunately I did most of the work last night, so, despite the rain, it's gotten enough flavor, so, if the rain doesnt stop, I can move it into the oven for the duration of the cooking. Once again, everyone is invited.

Thunder

I love the sound of thunder on a dark and stormy day,
My heart is what listens as it rolls across the overcast sky.

Sometimes it never even stops,
Like a singer who never breathes!
It rolls across the sky,
Loud and smashing,
Low and grumbling,
Dark and tumbling!

A single crash lasting minutes on end,
Each rumbling blast blends into the next.
Like a drum it pounds, with bass at its core,
On and on it goes, percussion for a soul.

I love the sound of thunder on a dark and stormy day,
The thunder speaks like words that no man alive can say.

Last night was a bust. I'm disapointed in myself. As soon as I got to mom's house I went and took a nap, it was 8 by the time I went to sleep, and I was hoping for 3 hours, in addition to 2 hours after the movie in order to feel mildly decent today. Sleep stopped me from going, and ultimately my nap lasted all night long. So, like, I did nothing but work a 12 hour day yesterday on little sleep and then sleep all night long and now I'm at work again. 7 to 7. Not such a horrible thing, I'll be getting 5 hours overtime. But I need to relax tonight. I don't know what I'm going to do, or where I'm going to do it.

By the way, as many of you have probably found out, or at least noticed the effects of, I left my cell phone at home yesterday before I left for work at 6 am, and so today is my second day without it. My office phone is my only means of communication, as it was yesterday, after all this I'm going home. I'll have my cell again around about 7:30pm tonight. Calling it will be fruitless till then.. at least, and asuming nothing else comes up that keeps me from driving by my apartment. Which very well might happen the way the past three days have been. Here's hoping though.

Anyway, back to working on J3D...

Going to go see Charlie and the Chocolate factory with my mom tonight, and then spend the night at her house, going to be awake and at work by 7am tomorrow again. Forgot my cell phone at home and I've been kicking myself in the back of the pants the whole night for it.

I wrote a review:

War of the Worlds
Another cinematic shot at a literature masterpiece.


Rating: I like it a lot!

Who it’s for: People who like Tom Cruise’s buttocks, fair to good science fiction, Spielberg, and all those in favor of old school horror, you know the kind, where you’re scared by the idea and not the constant exposure to ugly things jumping out of dark places.

Who it’s not for: Enemies to the perfect religion of Scientology and all it’s un-official representatives, anyone not in the mood for some really horrific scenery, children, and if you’re not on either list, read the review to see if it helps you better decide.

Consider it a bad idea to start off a review with a side note, if you will, but this is an important fact: This movie was reviewed without having seen the original incarnation of it, or having read the book in many years, and so without any real substance to compare against, other than general knowledge of the story and theme, and so no claims are made at it being a superior or inferior work. With that said, it is a really good movie on a lot of counts.

Spielberg’s War of the Worlds is a wonderful ride, during which the viewer never leaves their Tom Cruise shaped roller coaster car through a world ravaged by war brought from another world. The forced perspective through everything brings a sharp personalization to events that are in most movies viewed almost exclusively from the point of view of people who know what is going on.

Some of the greatest chills in the movie do not have a single alien in them. The chance that there is anyone who could go unmoved by some of the genuinely frightening scenes of people’s behavior in the movie is unnerving. Scenes of man’s inhumanity to man at the heart of the story have such a deep realism to them that they are in many ways worse than the fantastical terrors from beyond. Moments like these brought this movie dangerously close to a classic, they are unforgettable, and gripping in the realism contained within them.

Genuine confusion and fear is instilled in the audience, along with very biting and sharp visuals that bring home a feeling that something very horrible has happened. This kind of honesty in a science fiction film of any kind is a rarity, but War of the Worlds has it in spades. The presence of these scenes is so palpable that in the few places where the viewer is given a moment to relax in a setting that would certainly be incredibly gory, such as a plane crash, the absence of that power is noticeable.

The reactions of any audience to the movie make each scene’s purpose incredibly clear, and from time to time the scenes that are toned down are clearly there to give the viewers an emotional break. Spielberg takes two of those scenes too far, though. Twice near the end of the film the internal reality, and rules, are broken for the sake of making the audience feel less helpless. Both scenes were done to break one of the primary themes of the film, that of human helplessness where nature itself sorts out the horrible acts that occur throughout the story.

The audience cheered, in fact, an awful lot of people will cheer, in all probability, at these two scenes. As a purist of the art of story telling and preservation of ideals within a fictional world, it was gut wrenching to watch as events which did not fit with the reality of the world were employed. Spielberg cheated to produce an outcome that made the people in the audience feel like humanity had a chance to fight the aliens through a group effort of just not letting go of pretty boy Tom’s hand. Break the theme, or break the reality, but doing both at the same time does a disservice to the film as a whole.

The second scene is less offensive, though still disgusting. There is no mistake about it that these scenes were done for the audience. It feels really awkward to be the only one in the theater feeling nauseous at what is being shown while everyone else applauds. Until these two moments, this movie felt like it was one of the real great ones that come out only once in a very long while. As it happens, War of the World makes a great ride, and there is no arguing that for what you get for the ticket price is definitely good, but dodges greatness.

Almost anyone with a strong stomach will more than likely enjoy this movie quite a bit. Spielberg’s work is compelling, and thoughtful despite his personal grandiose style from time to time, the distinct smallness that it made the audience feel was incredible and unforgettable. Though it is strange at the number of personal acquaintances who voiced that they were not inclined to see the movie due to Tom Cruise’s publicly stated politics. Odd, I bet anyone who has a public opinion or point of view suffers from this from someone or another. This just goes to show that making your opinions public is bad business. Either way, War of the Words is an awesome movie, a joy to watch, but just short of a classic for all times.

Tonight, was a bust, did nothing, just spent time reading, didnt visit my mom. Tomorrow night I'm trading cars with my mom, but I have to do it and come home, becaues I have work at 7 am on thursday and friday. Kindof stressful, but I'll live and get a little bit of overtime it will give me.

Tomorrow I work on program code, and write a review for war of the worlds.

Finished my icon for Marcia today.

This weekend was nice, I saw fantastic four with Mike on friday, I spent all day with my mom and Alan on saturday, they let me take the Neon while he worked on the truck. Saturday night was spent with George, Mike, and Jackson getting the last of what I needed for the baked beans and the brisket. Forgot gloves and George was too much of a baby to be the one to rub the dry rub into the brisket, so had to go back out later to get gloves for me to prepare the meat.

On sunday the food wasn't ready till about 10:20 after Mike had already gone home. It was lots of fun, the food was delicious, not as spicy as last time. However, the baked beans were plenty spicy. Everyone went home by midnight though, except Jake who stayed behind and helped clean up till about 12:30.

Today I didn't do much but play catch up in my online class and sleep at work. My muscles are all sore, and I'm probably going to go to sleep early. How early? Know one nos...

I am debating doing TWO briskets tomorrow. I have the smoker capacity, and H.E.B. is having a sale on packer cut. I got a 10lb for 8.98 or something ridiculously low like that, and it's a beautiful cut too. I am also definitely doing baked beans tomorrow, which I expect to come out beautifully by the time everything is said and done.

Since I'll be smoking the briskets, I fully expect that even if it rains, it will not be an issue. I will be using the very same spicy rub as last time, with perhaps a few modifications, including, but not limited to, frsh mint, lemon thyme, and even a dash of ginger. I am avoiding sweetening of the recipe, since I feel that the burn of it, is what makes it unique, and it's not too hot, even though it does have a good kick to it. If I sweatened it up, it would lose the part of it that really distinguishes its flavor from the other things I cook, and besides, I'm always adding sweet ingredients, this time, just the baked beans are going to be sweet.

And boy are they, this is the recipe I'm most tempted by:

• 1 pound navy beans or small white beans
• 6 ounces slab bacon -- cut into 1/2" cubes
• 1 large onion -- peeled and chopped
• 1 medium green bell pepper stemmed, seeded and -- cut into 1/4" cubes
• 1 medium red bell pepper stemmed, seeded and -- cut into 1/4" cubes
• 1 (28 oz) can tomatoes, juices reserved -- coarsely chopped
• 1/2 pound honey-baked ham -- cut into 1/4" cubes
• 1 smoked pork chop* -- cut into 1/4" cubes
• 1 cup ketchup
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup dark molasses
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and -- cut into 1" cubes
• salt -- to taste

Minus the meat ingredients, they'll be getting plenty of flavor from the drippings off the briskets above. I also plan on making 2 sets, one plain, but still very delicous, another one, I am going to add half a cup of beer to, and a couple of drops of hot sauce. I feel the kick between the two extra ingredients should be quite awesome.

George forgot to come shopping with me last night, but that's okay, because I didn't get any of the ingredients for the beans, and so, I'll take him tonight before we season the brisket, and get everything ready, and done, so that I can get up early and fire up the firebox.

Fantastic Four comes out tonight, I will probably watch that, and Dark Water too, which I will probably skip in favor of reading the spoiler online. I've taken to that habbit when it comes to movies of questionable value that have enough of a puzzle in the trailers that I want to view them in all their mediocrity. As it happens, though, reading the spoiler tells me everything I want to know without making me feel like I have had currency pulled out of my pocket as though the theater were a highly skilled dentist, and my back pocket an oral cavity, not even missing what belongs inside of it till two hours after it is gone.

I am certain that for some of you, that called up deeply disturbing visions that you may never forget, and for those of you whom it didn't you are best left not knowing what to imagine. In either event, I am sorry, but I'm not editing that paragraph.

I finished reading The Towers or the Sunset, which, as it happened, had almost nothing to do with any towers, or even sunset really, not literally anway. I really loved it, it was a great book, and as with all the other books in the series of Recluce, it drew me deep into a second reality that seemed plausible within itself. Though less so in this case, that feeling was still there, and I loved it quite a bit.

I have another book by Modesitt that I will be reading next called The Ethos Effect. It's a sci fi, and one of the things I love most about Modesitt is that he seems equally at home writing quality and internally consistant science fiction or fantasy.

Anywho, Mike was over last night, and aside from taking me to do the shopping for the brisket on saturday, he did a ton of work on our website, which is, as of yet, unfinished, and which will not be linked to until Mike is happy with his work.

Anyway, for now, that's really all I can think of off the top of my head... oh, Jackson got his new computer, that's why George TOTALLY forgot that he was supposed to go with me for the brisket. There, NOW that's all.

Well, today I was supposed to go to the store with George and get a brisket for cooking on saturday, but wouldn't you just know, George isn't answering his phone, so I don't knwo what is going to happen, Mike says he'll go, so, I guess that's a plan.

I really wanted to go to a store in the mall and pick up a mortar and pestel, and I'll look for one at the grocery store, but I really need something that's designed for breaking down dry ingredients. A good mortar and pestel would get a LOT of use at my house, I'm tired of using the coffee grinder. Though, I did find it rather enjoyable the oen time my room mate, Chuck, used my coffee grinder for coffee(without asking) after I had used it for dried habaneros. *grins* Oh, that was fun...

Last night I went to church with my mom. Her church is just okay, it's way better than churches she's been to, and it's sad that it's struggling, or it looks like it, when other churches seem to do so well that are just in it for the money. You can feel what a church is about the minute you walk in the door. You can tell what they're priorties are by the way they talk. If anyone in a church ever says to you, "You will loose weight, and get more money, and look better if you continue coming to this church." I cannot believe my mom continued to go to and have faith in a church where the pastor said that. Of course, looking around at the entire congregation, it looked like it was populated mostly by overweight women with their hair dyed blonde. *sigh*

I wish that were a joke.

This is a good church though, with a good pastor, and good messages. And it's really tiny and in the inner city. I suppose that's part of it. My mom literally lives right next door to it, so there's no excuse for her to ever be late. But she still is anyway.

I think I'm going to go again next week.

Mmmm... dentyne ice....

Oh, and I customized all the colors on my live journal version of this page, which happens to be identical, but in place because I was petitioned into creating one. Yucky that one of the better designs had no choices whatsoever for other versions, so if you like my colors, say so...

Clairissa was bored. Terribly bored. There was never anything she wanted to do, school was out for the summer, and the days took forever to pass her by, each with seemingly less to do than the day before. What time she had was spent wasting away in front of the tv, watching reruns half heartedly while keeping the windows shuttered so that there was no glare to interupt the shows that she did not really care about.

She pushed the mouse across the screen and double clicked on the icon for her messenger program, in hopes that some chat would take her boredom away. It never did, but there was always the hope that she woud run into someone interesting. Her fingers tapped liesurely as she searched for someone worth talking to in the directory. Profile after profile slipped by, each one looking almost all too similar to a thousand others. Too young, too old, too obscene. All her friends were offline, and even when they were online, they had just as much to say as she did, which was nothing at all.

"hey," they would say. "whats r u doing?"

"nm, u?" She tapped the answer out lazily on the keyboard.

"nmhjc" The replies were always the same, every day, every few minutes in hopes that someone would be doing something, and that they could latch on for a bit and let someone entertain them for a while.

A profile apeared at the end of one of Clairissa's searches that was just so different from all of the rest:

Adventure1945
Gender: Unknown
Age: Old as time itself
Location: Wherever I am needed.
Occupation: None
Hobbies: Fixing boredom wherever it can be found.
News: I have a new adventure, message me, I have the solution for your boredom.

The picture attatched to the profile was of the cover to what looked like a user's manual, with the words too grainy to read. She hesitated at the oddness of the profile, a temptation to message Adventure1945 itched inside of her. Whoever it was, was certainly creative. There was no favorite quote on the profile or even any other fields filled out. Clairissa decided against it and turned off the computer and went to take another nap. It's what she always ended up doing for most of the day, it certainly didn't hurt anything.

* * *

To be continued...

Well, the brisket came out okay, even though I think I cooked it twice. It cooked at god knows what temperatures for 5 hours before going out while I was at work, though it had plenty of time to cool off before I got home, at which point it was too cool to have any idea how cooked it was on the inside, so I started the fire up again, because I was certain it wasn't finished, and by 12:30 the internal temp was up to 165 or 170 or so. That was only about four to five hours from room temperature... and so I have to wonder if it had been fully cooked earlier that day, and if I had cooked it twice. Either way, it was still absolutely delicious, nice and spicy hot, with the natural flavors of the meet still there. It was slightly tough though, personally, I have had much better, but I've had much worse to, I would say that it was middling restaurant grade.

On Saturday, Mike and I hung out with Matt Newman(who is home for the army for a bit before they send him to Iraq), Chris Brown, another friend of theirs, and his wife. We ate lunch at Taco Cabana, and from there Mike and I went to watch War of the Worlds, which I ended up liking quite a bit. In fact, I was really surprised how good it is. There are 2 scenes in the entire movie that steal from the basic theme of human helplessness and both of them create plot holes so that they can happen, one is worse than the other, but I was pissed at both of them. I was the only one, the rest of the theater was incredibly inspired and cheered and clapped at the scenes that I hated so much. Probably because they finally thought that humanity would be able to fight for itself. As if it needed to, and those of you who know the story know what I mean.

Sunday was pretty slow, ate lunch with Mike, and hung out at half priced books, and then, didnt do much at all.

Monday was a real treat, at dinner with Mike, George, a girl he used to date named Crystal, Kayla, and a girl she was babysitting named Marcy. After dinner we went to Marcia's appartment, and traveled around the town square, checking out shops, playing haky sack, and playing with freebies before headign back to the appartment. It was on the third story, and the balconies had an amazing view of the 15 minute fireworks show put on. We played games, and Justin and Cymeron were there. We played imagine iff. It was my first time and it was a ton of fun, every question is, "if (you can pick anyone you know) were (Something), what type of (something) would they be?" or similar with multiple choice, and everyone polled. Everyone had a blast, after that, it was really late and George took me home and we watched four episodes of invader zim before I went to sleep.

I'm really tired right now, but I'll stay awake till it's time to go home.

Well, today the brisket burns, and so far I feel that it is going badly, as I don't believe it has risen above 175 degrees in my pitt the entire time. I don't think that's hot enough to actually cook it, and if it is, it's certainly not going to be anywhere near ready by the time I get home. Maybe I'll finish it off in the oven, or maybe I'll start some more coals and throw some wood in, last time chuck looked, he said it looked just about burned out to him, which means it probably wont stay 175 for the next 4 hours. May mean a high heat finish, I'll just have to check it with my meat thermometer to see how it's doing.

But if it does badly, you heard it here first.

Anyway, I'm not teeeeeeeerribly worried, it's my first one and I'm learning a lot from it. I told my coworker, Larry, about cooking my brisket and he instantly shook his head and started telling me what was wrong with what I was doing. Then, he linked me to one of the greatest BBQ sites I have ever read, wait, scratch that, THE greatest BBQ site I have ever read, and probably will ever read.

The BBQ FAQ. It is simply the most comprehensive collection of questions and answers for all kinds of barbecue, how it's done, how it's done best, what is and isn't personal taste, how to do it, what to do it on(anything), and how to serve it. Larry wins the coolest link of the day award.

This brisket may come out really bad, or needing a lot of work before it's ready, but I will know much better what to do next time, and I will do it while I'm there to check the fire. But I still have small hopes for this one.