Geocaching II After the last attempt at geocaching, I decided that it might be a good idea to re-examine my approach. Apparently taking one pregnant girl, right at dusk isn't the way to play this game. Today, I made a second attempt. This time with Steve, Brennian, Shawnie, and the highly pregnant Kristin. We started around 3:00pm or so, and made our way to Howarth park. Having a rough idea of where we left off last time, Kristin and I lead the way. In better lighting, it became clear that we had been way off track, so we continued to walk further into the park until we found ourselves on a path that seemed to border a residential area. The numbers on the GPS matched closer then they had anywhere else, so we began to look around. And right there, under the "lazy rock" we found it. Our first cache. Apparently all the good things had already been taken, so we just grabbed a baseball and a bobba fett action figure, leaving our glowsticks in return. Some of the other caches sound like they have a slightly more interesting prize content, so maybe we'll have to give one of them a try in the future sometime. 13 Comments

	Job news Well, we finally got the low down today. Voice/Data repair at my company will be moving to Minneapolis, MN most likely mid August. There will be 6 positions opening up there, which will include a relocation re-imbursement of up to $5000. Positions here will be eliminated with a promised 60 days notice and a 1-week pay per 1-year worked severance package. I was slightly curious, so I went online an researched the cost of living out there as compared to here, expecting it to be far cheaper. I don’t know if I went to sites with wrong information, or if I totally blundered something, but from everything I can tell things out there are the same price, or even more expensive then they are here. Needless to say, this came as quite a surprise and, if accurate, eliminates any passing notion I might have had to consider this proposal. Back to the severance package, due to the difference in pay schedules between GE and Eschelon, we were all advanced one weeks pay when Eschelon took over which will then be subtracted from the final check, which means that anyone who stays until the end will essentially get a full paycheck at the termination of their employment as opposed to half of one. So, what am I going to do here? I’m open to suggestions... I’ve been thinking about getting out of Sonoma County for a while, and San Diego is right at the top of my list, but the number of people I know down there seems to be dwindling lately, and those who I still keep in contact with have their own lives and probably wouldn’t want the constant intrusion from someone who would literally have next to no other friends. Furthermore, the lack of job would be just as big an issue down there as it is up here, plus I would have to worry about re-location costs. I suppose if I wait till the end here, the severance package would just about cover the move and then I could live off of unemployment for a few weeks until I find something… I’m just worried that I won’t have much luck finding anything with a complete lack of connections… Oh well, at this point I’m just rambling to myself. It’s certainly time to start working on my resume, but still a little pre-mature to make any sort of conclusive plans. 16 Comments

	Another monday I guess it's about time to update, but I don't have too much to report. Went to Mark Petchys birthday party yesterday. Quite a lively event with scottsmen, kilts, bagpipes, and haggis.. And of course an open bar. After the party, Kristin (who also went), ended up giving me a ride to my moms house and staying for a small 5 course dinner, after which we went back to my house and watched the movie Kristin choose to rent: Anchorman. We got about 1/3rd of the way through it before realizing that it was truly the worst movie ever made. Still, for once not my choice. Well, back to watching Invader Zim at work... 6 Comments

	I wanna go home! I'm really not feeling well today. I nearly called in sick this morning, figuring that a couple hours of sleep would make me feel better and allow me to come in and work at least half my shift. Unfortunantly, a couple people had already called out sick, and at the time I didn't feel bad enough to justify staying home. As the day progressed I felt worse and worse until about 12:00 at which point I was ready to go home. About 30 seconds before I decided to tell my supervisor that I wouldn't be able to make it today, I got a message from another co-worker telling me that he wasn't feeling well and was going to go home. Once again the guilt factor kicked in and I decided to tough it out. So, here I am, feeling sicker then I have in a year, and stuck at work where I have no chance of recovery. 4 Comments

	Geocaching Kristin and I went geocaching today. Or at least we attempted to. We didn't leave until about 5pm, and by the time we got to the appoximate location of our cache, it was dark and we had no hope of finding what we were looking for... especially as I had forgotten to bring a flashlight. Ironically, I was reading over the logs from that particular cache, and the person who found it just yesterday said that he left a little flashlight as the prize. 4 Comments

	Another spam rant... I'm beginning to see a pattern with spam. I think there might actually be a noble purpose behind it all. I think spamers are trying to keep the human population from dying out! Hear me out here: At first spam promised to give us all 12 inch penises. Then it promised that they would always stay hard. Recently I'm being advised that I can increase the amount and speed of my ejaculations. On top of all of this, there are "lonely college co-eds" who want to "take it all". Wow... I kinda feel bad for deleting them all now... 5 Comments

	I like money I've just been offered some overtime on friday. A lot of overtime. Essencially a double shift with me coming in at 10AM, and working until 2AM the following morning. With the required lunch break, this is still 7 hours of OT pay which makes me very very happy. What further makes me happy is the fact that it's almost dead after about 6pm, which means I'll most likely be able to spend the whole evening watching movies on my laptop or learning to play the guitar which is pretty much what I would have been doing at home anyway. 1 Comments

	More boring guitar updates For the last week or so I've been attempting to learn some chords in the form of a song. I patiently spent hours playing the same combination of 3 different chords over and over without managing to get them right throughout the whole song once. Finally tonight, as an experiment, I decided that I would speed the music up a little.. I increased it by about 25bpm and...bang.. got it right on the first try. I think the problem might have been that I was thinking about it a little too much. Kristin came over and made apple stew tonight. It was actually pretty damn good, although I don't think it turned out quite how she wanted it to.. being as it was actually supposed to be a pie. Still, points for trying... 4 Comments

	PHYSICS!!! (or "Drunk in Davis") This blog actually comes from about 2:00am last night. I feel the need to explain this so that no one thinks I've been drinking since I woke up this morning. I'm sure that most of this was a lot more funny last night, and probably only to the people who were involved, but I just had to share some of my favorite quotes of the night: Brennian: "Do you think our roommates would mind if I peed on their door?" Brennian: "PHYSICS!!!" Nick: "THEY HAVE JUKEBOX HERO!!!" Shawnie: "Are you going to buy my drinks for me, hon?" Brennian: "Yeah, I'll buy your drinks..." Brendan: "Are you going to buy my drinks for me, hon?" Brennian: "Are you a tall busty blonde?" Nick: "I am." Brennian: "I'm sure it's okay as long as they're clothed..." Steve: "I'm sure it doesn't matter what their age is, it's still a felony!" 2 Comments

	Weekend trip I guess I'm going to Davis for the weekend. It's always nice to get out of town for a while, but I gotta say... Davis is quite possibly the most boring place on earth. I grant you most of my experiances with Davis/Sacramento came from being a PI during which period I spent 8 hours sitting in a van. I suppose it's possible that other activies in Davis might be slightly more entertaining... but I'm not holding my breath. 0 Comments

	What's that smell? I've re-discovered Something Fishy (or Brendan's weird fishy game as dubbed by Tim waaaaay back in AccessPort days) I really can't explain it, but for some reason, this stupid game is really addictive! I watched Harold and Kumar go to White Castle last night. This was one of the very few stupid movies that I actually found funny. It was even enough to prompt me to go out and buy some Whitecastle burgers. They weren't very good. In fact, they were god-awful. I think what I liked most about the movie is the idea that a small task can be made into a much more exciting mission- given a little creativity. This is the same reason I enjoyed reading some of Matt's stories about his quests to find pokemon cards or snoopy dolls at x-entertainment.com. Likewise, I remember an evening a while back where me and a small group of people drove all around town trying to find cinnamon flavored Penguin Mints (photo-documenting the entire thing of course). Most people would have found this task to be somewhat tedious and annoying, but I rather enjoyed it. Perhaps it was the fact that I didn't need the mints, or maybe what they say is true, getting there really is half the fun... 2 Comments

	Birthday present idea! As you should all know by now, my birthday is coming on up.. Feb 24th to be exact. I know exactly what I want! If you all have to chip in, thats fine, just get me one of these. Sales info can be found on Takrafs website. 9 Comments