Vail Life

OK, so I have not gotten the forums to work as well as I have wanted yet. That and I am getting tired. I did revamp vaillife’s news and I have yet to make any decent progress on the logo. I have a lot of work cut out for me yet on this site.

On an upbeat good note, I have been invited to a Halloween party tonight. It is a costume party and I will not know anyone there. Sounds like fun. I have also been invited to go play flag football on Sunday morning at 10 am. I am attending both of these functions to try and get out to me more people. Meeting new people is one of the things I really need to improve on out here.

Anyways I need to do the last of my night audit and then see if I can’t get those forums colored right.

Posted by Coign at 5:10 AM | Permalink | Comments

Ack, blogspot is down right now so I am doing this manually for a little bit. They should be up sometime tonight hopefully. Until then I leave you with this Zen inducing picture.

Posted by Coign at 4:27 AM | Permalink | Comments

Man working on websites is frustrating. I just got done spending about an hour trying to resize a column. I had every setting I could think of set to a pixel number but it was still bouncing the widths way out of proportion. I finally discovered what it was and now the BBC site is looking much better. I need to finish content and then I can start moving to more advanced features. I want to be able to type in the news and have it reflected to all the pages instead of manually copying it to each page. Then once that is done I can start working on the Vail Life page, and then the FDC page, and then customizing my blogger page. And then there are more ideas I have for the BBC page. Ugh I have about 6 months worth of work I can think of and it is for a site that no may even see.

I was going to play FFIX today and try and get that finished within a week but I am missing a few pages from my strategy guide. I will download it to my watch today and probably try and finish it this weekend. I did get some fun Diablo time in today though. That game is so addicting. I thought about bypassing my nap to play longer. But I knew I would get nothing done on my site tonight if I did not get any sleep.

One of the things I was thinking about last night and today was that I have not done any writing on D61 or the articles I want to do for WoTC for about 2 weeks. Ever since I started working on this web site that has really been pushed to the back. It is true, I do want to get the BBC site done first and then I will look at starting to do some writing once I am satisfied that the work site is at least viewable. Right now I would not tell anyone I have a site for my place of business because it is too much of a mess. I am thinking about a week and it will be done. Just in time for it to see the end of my ad in the paper.

I am thinking I will finally get rid of that 70-dollar modem I accidentally bought for my parents. The modem here at work is a piece of shit and I think the company will buy it off of me. That will be nice. I could really use the money. I am down to my last 40 bucks right now and have about 100 dollars in bills already. At least payday is this Thursday.

My parents, or more specifically my dad, are having trouble setting up the LAN modem I bought for them. I remember when I had set it up long ago it was fairly easy but then I had some experience in the field. My dad went out and bought networking for dummies to see if he can figure out how to set it up himself. He said he ran the disk but it did not work. Sounded like the PC’s could not even see the modem. I really feel bad about it not working as easy as I imagined it would as it was a present to him and mom for their birthdays and now it is just causing him to get upset at the PC. I thought about offering to help him with it over the phone but it has been to long since I worked with one and I do not trust that I would get it working. So it would most likely be a 2 hour long conversation where we would both get upset at the thing.

Well I am going to try and catch up with some websites and see if I can get a logo for Vail Life I like.

Posted by Coign at 4:27 AM | Permalink | Comments

Well today was pretty boring. I just got done writing the rant for my front page, although I am having some issues getting my site to publish correctly now. I am still working on getting the directory structure cleaned up. I posted a bunch of crap to begin with, to just get a presence there and now trying to clean it up and leave the good page is confusing. I have way to many pictures linked in a page that consists of just background colors right now. I will probably get heavy handed with the delete button tonight and then try and fix what is broken after.

I continued my FFIX game and got to the 4th disk today. That is my happy achievement for the day. I was going to work on the site some more but I need to learn to pace myself and be able to work on it, take a break and then return to it. I do not want to burn myself out and I need to learn to maintain progress. I really am learning self-disciple along with HTML in this project.

I got my first call on the ad in the paper today. IT was some guy telling me how he deleted some files off of his computer and now he is unable to connect with Earthlink or AOL through his modem. It was a home built machine so he did not have a restore disk. I told him my rates are 50 dollars an hour and that it would take about an hour for me to go through his network settings and restore and lost files and get him back on the net. He said he was not thinking of spending that much on his machine and told me how that price is above his budget.

I replied how when I called around for prices that others in the valley are charging 75 dollars an hour but he can certainly see if he can find help elsewhere. I am not positive what "The Computer Guy" in town charges but of the four I know 2 of them run the 75 dollar an hour tag and I am sure the other does also. It got me to thinking if maybe I am charging too much?

But then I think about how much it costs to live here (minimum of 550 a month up to an average of about 1300-1500 for a two bedroom). How much a person pays for a computer (minimum of about 500 for a new PC, to about 1100 for an average and 2000 for a good one). How much I would pay for Internet access (minimum of 13.95 a month and up to 60 dollars per month for broadband). How much I drop on a single game (minimum 25 dollars for a new game up to 50-60 dollars for new releases that have good graphics). And even how much I pay per month for online gaming (minimum 9.95 for UO up to 12.95 and up for FFXI and double that for those who run 2 accounts like I did with DAoC.)

No, 50 dollars is not to much to ask to get someone back on line so they can go back to spending hundreds of dollars a year playing.

Posted by Coign at 3:46 AM | Permalink | Comments

He’s been batch sending spam about scholarships to guaranteed degrees in enlarging breasts at the debt consolidated university of Nigeria ever since. Wait, I’ve seen that one, but it’s NOT spam because it says so at the top. Why else would the post office endorse their plan?

--Dragon-Tails.com

Posted by Coign at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments

My entire weekend has been spent creating a navigation bar for the Best Brains Site. I will be uploading a new version of the page tonight so you can see the new navigation bar. It only took me about 12 hours to set up the graphics and figure out how to slice it. Learning through trial and error when doing webpages takes a lot of time.

I still have not gotten any calls on my ad in the paper. This Sunday is the one-week mark. I have 3 more weeks to make 200 dollars or I will not renew the ad. I continue to work on the site for the company but it is more to learn how to do the site more than anyone may actually see it.

Besides I will use the knowledge learned to work on the Vail Life site which means more to me anyway. The business site is an experiment that may end in 3 weeks. The Vail Life site will be a hobby I will continue to use for 3 years.

The only thing that kind of bothers me about not getting any calls on the ad is that I want to start making some extra cash. I don’t want to get into a part-time/temp job though if I do not have to. I also do not want a part time job to interfere if I do get a call on the ad and need to be available for an appointment. So I am holding off looking for other work until the ad ends. Then I will be free to find a second job.

I just got done talking to a friend about where I am on my site. I am getting tired of working on it. I need to take some time off and just step away from it for awhile. I can feel myself getting burned out on it but I do not want to quit working on it before it is done.

Well I am going to at least post the new form and then work on cleaning up some directory structure on my site. Then I will see where my ambition is.

Posted by Coign at 3:46 AM | Permalink | Comments

Oh man am I in pain today. I got up this morning and worked on Best Brains site and then laid down to sleep at 6 pm because I am trying to switch my sleep schedule to be awake in the mornings. I woke up about 9 pm with my jaw hurting real badly. My gum in my lower right jaw behind my teeth is all swollen and really painful. I had my wisdom teeth removed when I was 20. That was 8 years ago, so I do not think they would be causing me an issue.

I brush my teeth at least every other day if not more often, and I have had only 1 cavity and that was when I was about 10 and it got my baby tooth so it was no big deal to pull it and have a replacement grow in. I have never had infected gums before but this feels like when my 2 wisdom teeth were coming in. I have heard about people having 3 sets of teeth and having wisdom teeth grow back but that usually happens at a younger age.

I am going to pick up some peroxide from Wal-Mart come morning and hopefully it is just a minor infection I can shake. I hate going to the dentist. Well I will try and get my Best Brains site up today and you can see the cheesy bad link graphics I have in place. After creating it the link pics need to be reduced in size. But I plan on changing them altogether eventually to a single graphic instead of one graphic for each link. I just have to figure out how to map a link to a particular spot on a graphic so I have multiple links on one jpeg. Either that or I will need to make graphics that merge seamlessly.

Ugg, as I am reading this I am really tired. I slept for 9 hours yesterday, I should not be this tired. I think in addition to the sore jaw I am coming down with a cold. This is going to be a very unproductive weekend, I can see that.

One last thing before I go, I was supposed to get my watch today but UPS is the spawn of Satan and does not deliver to PO boxes. So they are going to send me a postcard and I can send it back with my address or I can drive to Sliverthorn and get it. Sliverthorn is not to far away, about 30 min, but it is over the pass which I hate driving cause my car sucks. I do fine if I can maintain a constant fast speed but there is always some truck passing another and blocking the road, doing 45 miles an hour on the freeway. When I reduced my speed my car just does not have the power to accelerate back up to 70.

Posted by Coign at 3:55 AM | Permalink | Comments

So my friend loaned me a 2 disk comedy CD of David Cross called “Shut up you fucking baby.” It pretty much killed my website productivity tonight but was ‘Oh my god’ funny. If you do not recognize the name David Cross you need to try and find Mr. Show on DVD and watch it. It was an HBO comedy special that ran for about 2-3 years. It was awesome. David Cross is so wrong on so many levels. He is just brutal to any group his views conflict with. In the CD he makes fun of New York following the attacks, the Catholic religion and the Pope, the President, patriotism and flag waving, rednecks, Hollywood, and the bible. Nothing is sacred in his routine.

I actually am making a little progress on my site but have created about 6 pages and scrapped all of them. For the latest mess I deleted take a look at index2.html. I tried taking the existing page and started deleting the items I did not like so I could add other things in. I soon found that I liked only the words and color and that it would just be easier for me to restart creation for it. So I am still working on Dreamweaver and I have the layout done but need to do some graphics for the links. I am going to go with a tab link theme and get that set up.

Well back to work. I am thinking I may put up my next page as it is and just add items in as I get them done. You will find the new page at vaillife.html.

Posted by Coign at 4:01 AM | Permalink | Comments

If you are linking to this page, this will be the last post here. I finally got the publishing link bugs worked out and the site will be moving to my domain www.vaillife.net. You can find it currently at www.vaillife.net/blog/blog.html.

I will eventually have a daily rant on the main page www.vaillife.net and my daily doings on the blog. Although they may cross over I will test things out and see how it works. Getting into a daily routine will take a little bit as I am still working on a number of sites.

Please watch my site for news and updates from now on.

Posted by Coign at 3:15 AM | Permalink | Comments

Damn free sites, they never work right.
Well I am still working on getting my blog set up. I have got a start on it and I installed WS_FTP and got that running on this PC. The main blog is set up correctly now but the archives are not working. You can reach the main site here but if you are reading this you already know that. I will start the recreate on my main page and start things under way on getting the main page of Vail life up. I think I may be able to finally put up the main business site tonight too.


Oh and below you will find the message I left for my class on the MSN reunion board I setup for them tonight.


Since I started this group I will go through a quick bio of myself.

3 days after graduating High School I left for a 3 week trip to San Francisco, California. I missed all of the graduating parties because of that and hearing some of the stories when I got back, I wished I could have made it to some of those.

I then left home about a week after that and bounced around with friends in Duluth for about a year. I went to UMD for the fall quarter that year after High School, but dropped out mid-way during the winter quarter. I started working at Subway in West Duluth in the fall of 94 and in the summer of 95 was offered the training to become manager. I turned them down because I wanted to move out of Minnesota and did not see any huge career opportunities with Subway.

In the fall of 95 I finally saved up enough money and moved out of state. Earlier that summer a number of our classmates and friends had moved to San Diego, California. I moved out there in the fall and joined Kenny Palmer, Jay Martin, Marty Jurek, Randy Farenholz, Nate Tousley, Steve Eckman, and David Rice. With two other local friends and I that made 10 of us. For a very short time we all lived in two adjoining 2 bedroom apartments. Talk about crowed. 10 guys sharing 4 bedrooms, but what a party. The crowd quickly slimed down and soon the only ones left were Kenny, Jay, Marty, Nate, and I. That and we all split up into 4 apartments with various roommates from friends we had met in California.

While there I again worked for Subway. I was getting tired of being a Sandwich artist but every time I told my boss I was going to leave to find other work he would give me a raise. Within 7 months of starting there I was the manager of the store and was hiring, firing, and doing all the orders and paperwork. But I was not really doing anything I wanted. I had gone to college during high school and after school for computer programming and it was still what I wanted to do.

So in the fall of 96 I moved back to Minnesota to try and find a new direction for my life. I bounced through a number of jobs and temp services working for Olstens, Coke Distributing, USG, Davidison Printing, and finally in the fall of 97 started at Black Bear Casino. I worked for a year as a cashier and then moved to Inventory Control for a year.

In the summer of 98 I started going to college again at Duluth Business University. I finished my 2 year degree there in 1 year because of all the generals I had from earlier college and graduated with my Associate Arts of Applied Science in Networking. While attending DBU I left Black Bear Casino and started working at CP Internet in their technical support division. When I graduated in the summer of 99 I was promoted to the engineering department and started concentrating on what makes the Internet run.

I gained a lot of training and learning and was employed by CP Internet for 3 months shy of five years. Then this last summer the company went into a recession and of the 150 employees 50 of us were laid off and the rest took a 6% pay cut. I was one of the lucky ones to be let go, since I have kept in contact with some of my friends from there (one of the employees to stay was a roommate of mine) things have gone to hell. One of my co-worker’s who was laid off still has not found work in Duluth. I was happy because I got the chance to collect unemployment and it gave me the freedom to move out of state again.

Jay Martin was living in Phoenix, Arizona at this time and his brother Justin was living in Vail, Colorado. Justin invited me to move out to Colorado with him. Jay and his wife were moving to Vail at the same time. So I moved in with Jay and his wife Jamie in July of this year 2003. I have recently moved into a new place with some friends which is good timing because Jay just found out about 2 weeks ago he will be a new father and they need the second bedroom.

I currently work at the Vail Marriot Mountain Resort and Spa in Vail, Colorado as a night auditor. I have also recently placed an ad in the local paper advertising that I am available for freelance computer work and small business setup/management.

I own the domain www.vaillife.net and use it as my personal testing ground. It is set up really poorly right now since I only bought it 4 days ago and I have been traditionally a hardware/systems guy, not a web guy. I am hoping to change that now though and am currently teaching myself the ways of the web.

As far as personal life goes, I am single and have not had any serious relationships in the 10 years since school. I have plenty of friends but have always found myself to busy to dedicate myself to a relationship so they end quickly. I am happy with where I am at now and I live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. I have had great opportunities to travel and have been to Europe twice and around this country more times than I can remember.

So that is my life up until now. How has everyone else been?

Posted by Coign at 4:43 AM | Permalink | Comments

Test of the blog taking a post

Posted by Coign at 4:16 AM | Permalink | Comments

Grr, so I am trying to cutover my blog from here to my vaillife domain. But since I have changed the publish information it can no longer update. Well this message will not go live but eventually I will get this message there. Until then I will leave it in drafts until I get a reply from blog support and figure out what I am doing wrong on this.

Posted by Coign at 5:20 AM | Permalink | Comments

So I finally stole the optic wheel mouse off of the VING machine. I was tired of having no wheel and having a perfectly good mouse on a machine with a touch screen that we never used the mouse on it.

I have been working on my www.vaillife.net site for what seems like forever. And I am finding things that I do not like about it. Actually the things I don’t like are its web interfaces. They are unwieldy pieces of shit. It takes 30 minutes for it to register anything. But honestly I can not be to upset about that. I think the reason it takes so long is because when I am asking for a new FTP login, it is running some creation scripts and I am guessing it is only updating across a cluster every 30 min. But still it is annoying. Slows things down when I can only do so much.

Posted by Coign at 3:33 AM | Permalink | Comments

Oh man am I tired tonight. I was up until 3 am last night designing a logo for my new company site. I was also working on getting Cold Fusion working on my box at home. Then I woke up at 6 – 6:30 this morning and could not go back to sleep. So because I had done such a poor job on my logo I started working on it again.

This time I used Macromedia Fireworks though. That was a lot easier than using PhotoShop. A friend of mine has a new version of PhotoShop. I may give that a try in the future otherwise I may not be using PhotoShop much longer. I think I would have done a better job in Paint than I did in PhotoShop.

But I have been running through the tutorials of Macromedia MX and have been learning a lot. I am currently working on buttons to put into my page. Then I have to work on content, another splash photo, still have to setup and post the thing. I still have a lot of work to do.

My site www.vaillife.net is finally live. I had set up a placeholder page, but it does not seem to be working. I will be working on that after I finish writing this. I also am having an issue with my mail server not sending. It is receiving mail, and you can now send to Thom@vaillife.net but I have to use my web mail client to send out.

I also need to work on setting up an FTP client on it so I can start posting this blog to there. I may work on that to.

But that is enough talk time to work.

Posted by Coign at 3:55 AM | Permalink | Comments

Real quick update toady. I have been really busy tonight. I got my paycheck, and like I have been talking all week, I had all the things picked out that I wanted to spend.

So I dropped 200 dollars on my ad in the paper that will appear on Sunday. I spent 140 dollars on a 256 USB flash drive watch that is really cool. I spent 70 dollars on an electric blanket because it is freaking cold in the house I live in. And I spent 6 dollars registering the domain name vaillife.net. Eventually I plan on having this blog transferred there. So all in all I have spent about 450 dollars of my paycheck and it is only the day after I got it. Hopefully this ad will pay for itself.

I also got a letter for my 10-year high school reunion today. I am excited to go to that. That will be taking place next summer on July 10th.

Well have to go, so much to do now.

Posted by Coign at 5:44 AM | Permalink | Comments

Hopefully this ad will drum me up some business and start getting me some secondary income. I really worry about my car and future finances. But anyone that has spent any time reading this blog would know that. But for the rest of the night I will be going through the web comic Real Life’s archives.

Also be sure to check out another new find, Dave Barry’s blog hosted by the same company hosting this, blogspot.

Posted by Coign at 3:40 AM | Permalink | Comments

Hmm that sucks. I was at first hoping that I could submit my ad via the web site but they are for announcements and people selling crap. Well I submitted the below ad and left the classification blank. I will see what reply I get tomorrow.


Best Brains Computing
(970) 376-2521
Thom Haupt

Residential service specialist
Small business = NO PROBLEM!
Networking & troubleshooting expert
Corporate experience
Referrals available upon request
VERY AFFORDABLE

I do plan on having a logo art done for the top of the ad. It will replace the Headline I have entered above. I want this placed in your 1700 and did not see that as a choice in your classification field.

Posted by Coign at 3:33 AM | Permalink | Comments

Thank goodness for this blog. It snaps me out of web comics long enough to drop a line here and remember that I have to post the quote for my ad. Let me post the quote and I will be back to talk about it.

Posted by Coign at 3:06 AM | Permalink | Comments

Well I am on piracetam tonight, so far I am not noticing anything different.

Right now I am trying to get nedstat working on my page again. I got some advice from Blogger support. So far they have been real helpful, so kudos to them. Lets see if I can get this thing to work now.

Well I think I have the correct code in place now. But it looks like blogspot is having some issues showing pages. I can edit it but when I try to visit my page it times out.


So piracetam.

How does it make me feel? I do not feel anything. I have taken illegal drugs in the past and I am a heavy caffeine user, drink and use to smoke. There is none of the “buzzes” that are associated with those types of various highs.

So I feel any side effects? I think I may have a very slight headache but it is so faint I think I may just be projecting that.

Am I more awake? I slept a ton today so I would be fully conscience for tonight but I do not feel more alert or awake than I would normally.

Am I more aware of things? Yeah I think so but this could easily be explained away to me just being more aware because I am concentrating on what affect the drug is having on me.

Am I smarter? Well I do not feel smarter but I feel I am fairly smart to begin with. The reason I say that may make a difference is the fact that if you give a dumb person a smart drug I theorize that the increase in intelligence would be more pronounced. Going from an 80 to 90 IQ would be more drastic and noticeable than going from a 110 to 120.

Has this test given me incentive to purchase more and extend the test? Yes. There are a number of things I want to test yet. I want to see if my memory improves when I am using the drug. So if I am working on something will I more easily recall it tomorrow? And I want to find out if I will notice a difference in my day to day life when I am not concentrating on how it is making me feel. I also had some ideas for some writing I am doing tonight, but I knew the basics of those ideas a week ago. I just picked out tonight to work on putting them down on paper because I knew I was going to be conducting my test. I find it easy to get my words down on paper tonight but that may be due more to preparation that to the drug. I want to find if it is easier to write in days to come. And lastly I want to continue because, at least for tonight, it has been a mental boost to get some writing done I have been slacking on lately. Call it self-reinforcement or effects of the smart drug, but I got more accomplished tonight than I have in some time.

Posted by Coign at 3:30 AM | Permalink | Comments

So my friend gave me a dosage of Piracetam to take. If you do not know what piracetam is, it is a nootropic or smart drug. Piracetam was first discovered in 1960 and have been extensively tested since then. It is not legal for manufacture or sale in the US but it is legal to import a 3-month supply of it. Essentially what piracetam and other knockoffs of it do, is increase the synaptic response in the brain. They have a very noticeable effect in helping the left and right half hemispheres of the brain to exchange information. This has widely been accepted as a brain activity that accompanies creativity. It has also been documented to actually increase nerve growth and increases the number of receptors in the brain with extended use.

The usual dosage is 2400 mg. This is taken once daily and onset time is about 30-60 min.

I am doing research on the drug as I type this. For more information definitely check out this article.

Posted by Coign at 4:44 AM | Permalink | Comments

What to say? What to do? What to plan for?

These are questions that in some way or form I think every day. I do not know if it is just me or if this a common condition of people everywhere. Maybe I just worry too much or over-contemplate things, but I try and figure out what is the difference between me and someone how makes a success out of their life. I know what it is and I have admitted it to myself, but I do not know if I can change it. It is work and risk.

Every success story I have ever read about is grounded in long hours and the risking of all financial holdings. I do not have that many financial holdings to risk but with the way I worry about money now and the horrible way I control my current finances I would either go immediately bankrupt or die of a stress-induced ulcer.

So I do not have the ambition or means to risk a large financial investment into any project in my life. In fact my 2 most pressing concerns monetarily is to find a place I can afford on my own, which I will search for after the winter is over, and to get myself a new car. The new car plan will take a bit of work as I want to buy a NEW car and that means I need to make sure I will be able to afford it. I know I will get at least a 5 year loan and will more likely be looking at a 7-10 year loan at my current pay. In fact just to afford a 20,000 car in a 10 year loan I need to increase my income by a lot.

Right now I make 22,880 a year. I plan on increasing that to 27,000 by the end of next month. But that is still not enough and is a horribly low amount to make. I want to reach the 35,000 by next summer and to do that I need to get a second job or move. There are not a lot of big money opportunities in this valley. My friend told me to move out here and I would easily find work. That I did but watched my cost of living go up by 1/3 and my pay go down as much.

The issue is I am not even sure of what I need to do to find more work in the valley. Everyone that I work with at the front desk has a second job. I have worked second jobs in the past. I worked as manager for a Subway while working at Strouds (a bed and bath store). I have worked at Black Bear Casino while going to school, and then later added a 20 hour a week job to it. After working 60 hours a week and doing 30 hours of school for 3 months straight with no days off I told myself that I would not work 2 jobs again. It is a horrible existence to live through. You have absolutely no time to yourself and I was going crazy by the time I quit my full time job.

I have my AAS in networking and I did not spend 2 years in school giving them 27,000 dollars just so I can work some menial puissant job that pays such crap that I have to get a second job working for dick.

So this Thursday I get paid and I will try and recovery some of the debt I have incurred in the move here and get my ad in the paper. I know I have been saying I am going to get my ad in the paper since I started this blog 3 weeks ago but if I keep saying it, it will reinforce my conviction to get it done.

When I talked to my parents today about some of the things I detailed above (happy anniversary Mom and Dad) they were very supportive of my plans and goals. One thing I know my Dad would not be supportive of, is the fact that I want to buy a Mini-Cooper as the car to replace my current piece of shit. My Dad took one look at it and told me it would be horribly expensive to upkeep it. Thing is, if I am buying it new the upkeep can not be any more than what I have had to do to my Neon. I paid 5000 dollars for it 3 and a ½ years ago and since then I think I have put about 5000 dollars in maintenance and repair into it. Granted one repair, getting a new front end, is because I was driving when I had the flu and ran into a concrete pillar on my way to work, but that only makes up about 1600 of my 5 grand. Things like replacing the computer, changing all the air injection sensors, replacing the spark plugs and wire harness, new tires, new rotors all the way around, and my 3,000 mile oil changes (which my car is always a quart low by then because it burns oil) was all because it is really a lemon of a car.

And I know my car is starting to die now. It misfires every so often when I am accelerating or decelerating. I think it is the change in RPM’s that cause it. And I think it is back to the problem of my air sensors being messed up. In addition to that my cruise control no longer works properly, my alternator belt squeals, my doors squeak, the 2 front speakers no longer play, and I still need to have the timing belt changed as that was supposed to be done at 90,000 miles and I am at 102,000. But the timing belt itself is a 600-800 dollar job because they have to remove the engine completely because the belt is wrapped around one of the engine mounts.

So how am I going to fix these issues in my life? Good question. To fix them it is required that I give myself a kick in the ass and get myself out there. First the ad. That I will get into the paper and let ride a week. Then if I do not have any response in that time (and I am not expecting any but am hoping) I will look for help. I plan on going to Colorado’s Workforce, which is near my house in Edwards, and ask them if they have any help to give or any advice to offer.

I also hope this helps inspire and jump-start my writing habits. I work on my writing only 1 day out of the week as it is now. I need to set myself baby-steps and schedule myself 2 days a week to write. From there I can expand it.

Posted by Coign at 4:15 AM | Permalink | Comments

I am just dropping a quick note because it has been really busy tonight at work.

You ever find yourself talking out loud? I am finding myself doing it more and more. I do not think I am crazy yet but I am probably on that downward spiral. I think it is for 2 reasons, one I have been spending a lot of time lately alone, and second I find I think better when I hear my ideas out loud. I have even been going as far as debating a point with myself trying to look at it from different views to get a handle on it.

In other news nothing else getting up my dander today, just working on finishing FFIX and waiting for payday to come. It will be nice once that comes so I can get rid of some of the stress of having these bills waiting for me. Sucks that I get paid on the 16th but have 2 bills for me on the 13th and 15th. Oh well I think I know how I am going to swing it. One bill is the credit card and the other car insurance. So I pay Insurance with the credit card and then use the last of my dwindling bank account to meet the minimum payment on the card. Then after payday try and do some catch up.

Hmm… I really need to start a finance spreadsheet and try and get into a plan of saving and paying off debt. I have tried it in the past and failed, maybe this time I will have the maturity and ambition to complete what I start.

Posted by Coign at 4:33 AM | Permalink | Comments

So I found out why I can not put a counter on my page. Blogger identifies a number of key words such as the previous post, or anything with JavaScript in it like I was trying to play with earlier and then their system chops it up with < br > breaks. This causes it to get chopped into lines you can not recognize as proper html.

Bah, you just can't get anything good for free anymore these days. I will have to look at maybe getting their pro version just so I can do more than change my background color or the size of my font on this page.

Posted by Coign at 5:59 AM | Permalink | Comments

A test of the blogger network

Nedstat Basic - Free web site statistics

src="http://m1.nedstatbasic.net/n?id=ACd+1QvrFyoELhNvhuHDiZyHrcTA"
border="0" nosave width="18" height="18"
alt="Nedstat Basic - Free web site statistics">

Posted by Coign at 5:30 AM | Permalink | Comments

Sweet!!! I finally got put on to Google's search engine. I have been checking to see if I got listed everyday since I started this blog. Time for me to put a stat meter on my site so I can start tracking visits.

Today's rant is about Kobe Bryant. I live in Vail so it is pretty tough to ignore the presence of the media. Especially since I checked in a few rooms that CNN, ESPN and NBC are staying in tonight.

As far as I feel about it, I am not really sure. I am a media hound and there are few things that get my attention that I look at. I could care less if Ben is still with J-Lo or if they will ever get together again, but snipers in DC? I follow that shit like a, well like a fly to shit. I really do consider myself one of the popular masses. I look around me with an open mind but am willing to believe most popular beliefs. On the other hand my friend Justin is a conspiracy theorist. He believes the pyramids where made for an advanced civilization that we have no record of. I told him that they were tombs for 3 pharaohs and he told me there were no tombs in them. I then replied how I saw pictures of the rooms, and I have read about them with cut-away descriptions and carbon dating proof. Justin then asked me, how do we know carbon dating is accurate? At this point I just gave up on arguing, for all I care he can believe aliens built the pyramids.

So yeah I understand the complaints I hear in the Valley on how they just wish he would go away. And I am sure he would like to comply with that wish as he has already asked that the trial be moved out of Eagle county on the grounds he is worried about a fair trial. But for my money, I like watching media circuses. I am having more fun watching people in the valley bitch about it, than I am concerned about the specifics on the trial. In the local newspaper, The Vail Daily, there has been a daily article almost every day on the trial, how it affects the valley, and thoughts that have been provoked by the issues surrounding the trial. Everything from how racism exists in the valley, to opinion papers on the rights of accusers in rape cases have been written.

I find the sideshows to be much more entertaining than the case. In fact I have already remarked to friends how we need to find someone with a digital camera to head down to Eagle, just to take pictures of the media and their setups. Maybe I will talk more on Kobe as time passes on, but for now just know that I love chaos and the environment it generates.

Money. Why did they have to change our 20 dollar bill? I like the green. Now it is a colored clown mess and we are no different than all the other counties in the world. The fact that we had "American Greenbacks" I felt was part of our national identity. We were unique in the fact that we had money, all the same size, and all the same color. I have been as far East in Europe as the Polish border and have touched the Atlantic on both sides of the ocean. I have visited France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Czech, and Slovakia. Having the monochrome green bill was one thing that would allow a foreigner to pick an American out of a crowd. They would give you more value for your dollar than you could get at a money exchange because the American bill held its value better than most European currency. It made us stick out of a crowd at a glance when they saw that green flash and gave me pride. I for one am sorry to see it go.

Posted by Coign at 4:27 AM | Permalink | Comments

Well I will continue to create my post and hopefully the site will fix itself either tonight or tomorrow. One good thing is that I do all my writing in a word document previous to posting so that I can spell check and grammar check my post more easily. That also means I have a constant back up of the site on my word document so I will not lose any detail.

Ok back to the subject at hand. This afternoon I was getting done doing another marathon of Playstation crap. Pretty much blew my whole day away doing nothing again. And this is right after I wrote a post yesterday about me doing nothing and hating myself for it. So my plan was to post the survey today which I had stole yesterday and finished filling out this evening so knew I had it ready to post. Then add a post saying how I was upset at myself for again doing nothing but that this would be my last "filler" post of nothing happening, here's a pretty survey to look at.

I thought about it and did not like how that post would come off, and it really made me seem like a whinny person that was looking for a cop-out and searching for some sympathy to go with it. Now don't get me wrong, I am a whinny person and constantly do look for sympathy. I just do not want to come across as that person. I also know that a lot of my previous posts have been me complaining and I believe I have made mention that I started this as a sympathy board.

After truly feeling sorry for myself for a good 5 min today I took a look at how I appear from the outside. I did not like the person I saw. So I decided to change my post from a "filler post" to this rant post of how I decided to change my attitude post.

Then this evening I went to a friend's house and found out some very disturbing news. The Wizards of The Coast (who are owned by Hasbro) have changed their D20 license to one that says that they have final approval on anything that is published under the D20 logo. What this means is, that if I want to put the D20 logo on a publication I have wrote that I must first send it to WoTC for their approval and if they want me to revise or not publish it they have that right. This would add a ton of time to any publication that I would want to create. I am planning on submitting some articles to them and their writer guidelines are tough enough for their "official" material that I do not need them stifling my creativity on my own writing. The quick and dirty answer to to use the OGL and bypass the D20 logo. For logo's I will look into this.

Free Gaming Association

For those who may not know, it is my intention to publish a game under the Open Gaming License. What me and a few of my friends want to do, is to re-write Rifts from palladium books in our image of how it should have been done. We feel there are too many errors in Kevin Seimbedia's logic when he made that world. So we are planning on recreating it from the bottom up. We plan on starting small and just do some scenarios and fill in the world we will re-create as we get to it. I am going to be primary rules lawyer and part time idea man. My friend Justin is going to be the idea man and the artist behind it all. Jay will be our secondary idea man and the technological freak making sure we get all the cool guns and cars of the modern day in to the game.

After we talked about it and re-wrote the ideas we wanted it to be a hundred times in our head, the only thing we have left that resembles Rifts is the fact that the world is post-apocalyptic and combines a futuristic golden age of technology with a magic rich world. None of this is new and so we no longer worry about infringing on Rifts ideas. The idea that portals open up and infest a world is not new and planar jumping has been happening since the early days of D&D's multiverse.

Anyways I think this post has gotten long enough. The end result of today is that my whining will turn to rants and instead of complaining about how my life sucks I will instead complain about how this world sucks. In addition to pointing out the things that piss me off, I will also talk about ideas I have to fix the things in this world that have gone horribly awry.

Posted by Coign at 4:13 AM | Permalink | Comments

A few things today. First you may have noticed I published a survey I stole from a friend. Questions are hers, answers are mine.

Second let me first do the post I was thinking about doing this afternoon and then third, I will do the post as my thoughts changed once reaching work.

Gah, as I am typing this I am trying to post my survey and getting publish errors. Stupid technology.

Posted by Coign at 2:10 AM | Permalink | Comments

Seven Deadly Sins

Just a survey I stole from Lady Kelia.

ANGER

1. Who did you last get angry with?
Boy the list goes on and on, I guess it would be one of my current housemates.

2. What is your weapon of choice?
.22 rifle with a 16 round clips and 4 extra clips in the pocket. I swear I can shot dots of a playing card at 50 ft. I have gotten so accurate with it.

3. Would you hit a member of the opposite sex?
Never, but I have nothing against holding one on the ground and immobilizing them if they hit me. Which I have done with one girl that split open my lip in a fight we were having. But hitting them would be like me hitting a 10 year old child, I know I can overpower them so I only use force as is necessary. Now if she is a bodybuilder and can bench press 300 lbs, well I would probably run then.

4. How about of the same sex?
Definitely and have done so in my younger years. I first try to talk, then leave, and if they still come after me, I am not one that would not defend myself.

5. Who was the last person who got really angry at you?
Not really sure, possibly my friend Niemz about 6 years ago when I kissed (I still say she kissed me though) his girlfriend. We laugh about the whole thing now though.

6. What is your pet peeve?
Micro-management in government and in the workplace.

7. Do you keep grudges, or can you let them go easily?
I hold a grudge for about 6 months.


SLOTH
1. What is one thing you're supposed to do daily that you haven't done in a long time?
Something other than just sit at home and play games. ;-P

2. What is the latest you've ever woken up?
In recent memory, 1 pm. But I work midnights to.

3. Name a person you've been meaning to contact, but haven't:
If I wanted to talk to you, you would know.

4. What is the last lame excuse you made?
I am really to tired to do that.

5. Have you ever watched an infomercial all the way through?
God no!! Those suck.

6. When was the last time you got a good workout in?
Hiking up a 3000 ft mountain about 1 month ago.

7. How many times did you hit the snooze button on your alarm clock today?
Once.


GLUTTONY
1. What is your overpriced yuppie beverage of choice?
Red Bull

2. Meat eaters:
Rock. I did not crawl my way to the top of the food chain to eat grass.

3. What is the greatest amount of alcohol you've had in one sitting/outing/event?
It was all a haze, but I do know between 3 guys we had a 200 dollar bill.

4. Have you ever used a professional diet company?
No

5. Do you have an issue with your weight?
Nope, I lost about 10-20 lbs since moving to Colorado so am pretty happy right now.

6. Do you prefer sweets, salty foods, or spicy foods?
I lika da spicey meataballas.

7. Have you ever looked at a small housepet or child and thought, "LUNCH"?
Yeah. (giggles)

LUST
1. How many people have you seen naked (not counting movies/family)?
I lose count. (To many strip bars in my day)

2. How many people have seen YOU naked (not counting physicians/family)?
Rough guess, 12

3. Have you ever caught yourself staring at the chest/crotch of a member of your gender of choice during a normal conversation?
Am I not a man? Of course I do.

4. Have you "done it"?
Yep

5. What is your favorite body part on a person of your gender of choice?
The female butt.

6. Have you ever been propositioned by a prostitute?
Yeah, scary moments in the Twin Cities. I have been in LA, New York, San Fran, Denver, San Diego, Chicago, and multiple major cities over seas including Tijuana and the only place where a prostitute asked if I wanted to have a good time was close to home in St. Paul, Minnesota.

7. Have you ever tested yourself for an STD or pregnancy?
Yes

GREED
1. How many credit cards do you own?
1

2. What's your guilty pleasure store?
E-Bay

3. If you had $1 million, what would you do with it?
Not a whole lot. Buy a new car and use the rest as a down payment on a house.

4. Would you rather be rich, or famous?
Rich of course, you can buy fame.

5. Would you accept a boring job if it meant you would make megabucks?
I think that is what I do now. Oh wait, I do not make the megabucks yet. Hmm have to work on that.

6. Have you ever stolen anything?
Don’t we all? Or maybe I am just a klepto.

7. How many MP3s are on your hard drive?
6500+

PRIDE
1. What one thing have you done that you're most proud of?
Moved to Vail.

2. What one thing have you done that your parents are most proud of?
Graduate college and get my AAS degree.

3. What thing would you like to accomplish in your life?
Develop true AI and make my millions that way. But since I do not have the ambition to go back to college, develop a new role-playing game that everybody wants to play.

4. Does coming in second place annoy you?
Not after I kill the guy who came in first.

5. Have you ever entered a contest of skill, knowing you were of much higher skill than all the other competitors?
Yeah, and it was awesome to.

6. Have you ever cheated on something to get a higher score?
Yep. Because winning is great.

7. What did you do today that you're proud of?
Continued writing on my short fiction piece I will be submitting to Dragon Magazine.

ENVY
1. What item (or person) of your friends would you most want to have for your own?
A house.

2. Who would you want to go on "Trading Spaces" with?
I don’t watch TV so I am not sure what they do on that show.

3. If you could be anyone else in the world who would you be?
Duh, Bill Gates, 46 BILLION DOLLARS!!!!

4. Have you ever wished you had a physical feature different from your own?
Yeah, but I am to embarrassed to describe what I would want to change.

Posted by Coign at 1:54 AM | Permalink | Comments

So today I called my Bank and finally got my Internet account set up. Other than that I played Playstation all day. What a complete waste of a day over all. I also noticed that in the paper there is a 5th Computer repair number I now have to compete with. I really need to get my add in the paper.

I just got done reading that Tommy Chong was arrested for selling bongs. What kind of bullshit is this country coming to? Uggh, Make sure you get involved with the issues your congressmen stand for, and lets get the Nazis our parents voted into office out of there.

Posted by Coign at 3:16 AM | Permalink | Comments

So I found out yesterday that I upset the husband of the couple I am living with now when I asked them to use my answering machine so I did not have to hear the phone ring off the hook when they are not home. I felt is was a very reasonable request but I guess asking him to use my machine to answer calls, which I would set up and teach him how to use so it would cost him nothing and take no effort on his part, was to much to ask. The biggest reason he is upset I know is because he could get more for the room I am renting out. I pay 450 a month plus utilities and a club membership fee, and he could probably get 500-600 for it, but I would pity the person that would pay full price for this room. I do not get to put any of my stuff anywhere in the house outside of my room, and putting up with the husband’s quirks is not the easiest thing to do.

But enough of that, it just brings me down to talk about it. I setup my Playstation today and started playing FFIX again. It is a fun game, lets see if I can get past disk one this time. :-)

I finally got my PC’s up and running. Got my new cables in and re-wired my main PC and added the old 60 gig harddrive that was failing into my old 450. Now I need payday to order Internet access. I am afraid to see what my bank account is right now. After the recent run of ordering PC parts for me and my parents, paying double rent for the new place, and having to still pay insurance and discover card, I have a feeling my bank account is pretty low right now.

Well I have to go surf the net and get some cheat guides for FFIX. The stupid guide book I bought with the game is usless with out internet access. This new “Playonline” feature is gay as hell. The book gives you some basic strategies and then for specifics or the actually answer you have to look it up online. If I wanted to look it up online why would I buy the fucking book? Yeah it makes me that pissed sometimes.

Posted by Coign at 3:19 AM | Permalink | Comments

So I don’t have a lot to say today. I got my second PC up and running so I can get my new hard drive formatted. It was really busy and noisy in the Lobby bar tonight when I got to work. I went all through today (the 2nd of October) thinking it was the 3rd and printed out the wrong checkouts even at work. Other than that it has been a real uneventful day. Really makes for a boring entry.

I did print out the Marijuana and Pregnancy post from yesterday and gave it to my Stoner Friends. I hope they do not feel like I am trying to preach to them. Even though I know in my heart I am preaching because I honestly think they smoke too much weed and I do not think I can hide that. Hopefully they will at least forgive me for preaching.

Like my friend says, “Everything in moderation.”

Maybe I will try and get some writing done on my monster article. Do up some descriptions and ideas. If you do not know what the monster article is, it is a number of fiction submissions I want to do for Dragon Magazine. I have ideas for a monster article, a technology/magic history, and redoing wild mages in 3.5 rules. It is all Dungeons and Dragons writing for those not in the gaming world.

Posted by Coign at 2:44 AM | Permalink | Comments

So I took the "Bastard Test" and rated at 58% bastard. You find out how much of a bastard you are here.

Posted by Coign at 6:13 AM | Permalink | Comments

That was strange, I just saw a mouse run through our lobby. Loss Prevention and Engineering and I tried to catch him but he was gone already. Oh well.

I got an ICQ from someone I had not heard from in over a year. She was an exchange student 2 years ago and went to the high school I graduated from. She met me because my address was listed in ICQ and she wanted to contact someone from there to find out about the place before arriving. It just happened that my parents also had an exchange from Germany that year also so she was able to not be the only German girl at my school.

She is really cute but was only 16 when she arrived in the States. That and me being 10 years older than her meant that I had to make sure any relationship between her and me was just as friends. Because I did not want to risk getting to know her any better and possibly risk a problem, and I wanted to keep her as a friend because she was nice to talk to on ICQ I made sure my contact with her was minimal.

Although I told my friends how this really cute 16-year-old that I meant online was coming to my hometown and I never heard the end of it. They kept telling me how I was going to go to jail. They still tell me how I am going to end up sending away overseas for my wife. Actually that would not be a bad idea. I love visiting overseas and not mind marrying a number of girls I have met from overseas. I don't know if I could ever do the "mail-order-bride" thing but I would not mind going over there for 2 months and falling in love with some European beauty and bringing her back with me.

I do not think I could ever live over there though. The European countries' pay scale is so much lower than it is here in the States. They just do not have the luxuries we take for granted here. I would not mind having a job that allowed me to frequently visit there, as it is a great place to visit, and someday having a second home there would be cool. But to live there all the time I would have to have a real good paying job to stay there.

Posted by Coign at 4:57 AM | Permalink | Comments

So I wanted to make an informed descion I went to a few websites. What I found is this:

March of Dimes

What you need to know:
Pot and pregnancy don’t mix. Marijuana use can reduce fertility in both men and women, making it difficult to conceive. If you are pregnant, you need to know that marijuana crosses the placenta and can affect your baby. Marijuana use during pregnancy has been linked to low birthweight in the baby and withdrawal-like symptoms including excessive crying, and tremors (shaking). Some studies suggest that children exposed to marijuana while in the womb are at increased risk of attention disorders and learning problems later in life.


What you can do:
Stay away from marijuana before and during pregnancy. If you are already pregnant, there is no evidence that marijuana smoking in the past will harm your baby. You can try some of the suggestions for quitting smoking to help you stop. If you can’t give up your habit by yourself, ask your health care provider for assistance.


Marijuana.Com

CLAIM #7:
MARIJUANA USE DURING PREGNANCY HARMS THE FETUS
A powerful accusation in anti-drug campaigns is that children are permanently harmed by their mothers' use of drugs during pregnancy. Today, it is commonly claimed that marijuana is a cause of birth defects and development deficits.
THE FACTS
A number of studies claimed reported low birth weight and physical abnormalities among babies exposed to marijuana in utero. 43 However, when other factors known to affect pregnancy outcomes were controlled for - for example, maternal age, socioeconomic class, and alcohol and tobacco use - the association between marijuana use and adverse fetal effects disappeared. 44
Numerous other studies have failed to find negative impacts from marijuana exposure. 45 However, when negative outcomes are found, they tend to be widely publicized, regardless of the quality of the study.
It is now often claimed that marijuana use during pregnancy causes childhood leukemia. The basis for this claim is one study, in which . 5% of the mothers of leukemic children admitted to using marijuana prior to or during pregnancy. A "control group" of mothers with normal children was then created and questioned by telephone about previous drug use. Their reported .5 % marijuana use-rate was used to calculate a 10-fold greater risk of leukemia for children born to marijuana users. 46 Given national surveys showing marijuana prevalence rates of at least 10%, these "control group" mothers almost certainly under-reported their drug use to strangers on the telephone.
Also used as evidence of marijuana-induced fetal harm are two longitudinal studies, in which the children of marijuana users were examined repeatedly. However, on closer examination, the effects of marijuana appear to be quite minimal, if existent at all.
After finding a slight deficit in visual responsiveness among marijuana-exposed newborns, no differences were found at six months, 12 months, 18 months, or 24 months. 47 At age 3, the only difference (after controlling for confounding variables) was that children of "moderate" smokers had superior psycho-motor skills. At age 4, children of "heavy" marijuana users (averaging 18.7 joints/week) had lower scores on one subscale of one standardized test of verbal development. 48 At age 6, these same children scored lower on one computerized task - that measuring "vigilance." On dozens of others scales and subscales, no differences were ever found. 49
In another study, standardized IQ tests were administered to marijuana-exposed and unexposed three year-olds. Researchers found no differences in the overall scores. However, by dividing the sample by race, they found - among African-American children only - lower scores on one subscale for those exposed during the first trimester and lower scores on a different subscale for those exposed during the second trimester. 50
Although it is sensible to advise pregnant women to abstain from using most drugs - including marijuana - the weight of scientific evidence indicates that marijuana has few adverse consequences for the developing human fetus.

Posted by Coign at 3:44 AM | Permalink | Comments

So I am all moved in and have turned over my keys to my old stoner roommates.

It was really sad, I found out today when I was talking to the wife that she is pregnant. I found this out when she told me that she has been having stomach pains in the morning and only smoking pot helps relieve the pain. I told her that marijuana has 7 times the tar that cigarettes have, and it can't be good for a pregnant woman to be smoking pot.

Posted by Coign at 3:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

I just saw the hottest little 16 year old I have ever seen. Wearing this tight outfit showing off a midriff and the words juicy written on her ass. That just is not right. I was already thinking bad thoughts, she doesn’t need to advertise. I am not sure her actual age, I assume older than 16 but definitely not more than 20. That and when she returned the pen she had borrowed from the earlier shift she had a European accent. Oh, it just made me swoon. Again that is just not right.

Posted by Coign at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments

This is from the front page of Dragon-Tails. It is so true I needed to repeat it.

“The character generation system in life seems to use random attributes, like in a game like D&D, which I think is fundamentally flawed in terms of overall balance and fairness. Sure, genetic background gives you your modifiers, but it's possible to have characters formed of a disproportionate number of high rolls, or disproportionate number of low rolls. Unlike what cartoons will teach you, some people will simply be better than you. At everything. And some people will have no redeeming attributes. Some people will have widely different stats, excelling in certain areas, but not others, while some will simply walk the line of being average.

Personally I'd have preferred to have seen a point distribution system instead, to enforce the concept from the get go that being a jack of all trades makes you a master of none, rather than this "unless you rolled all 20's" stuff.
-Tim”

Posted by Coign at 12:21 AM | Permalink | Comments

My new favorite link. Works great because of the nazi filter this company uses. I will have to see if I can get POP mail through it because my company has blocked port 110 to.

Cloaked

Posted by Coign at 6:28 AM | Permalink | Comments

So I have moved about 90 percent of my stuff to my new home. Kinda of depressing to find that I can move everything valuable to me in life in less than 5 hours. And that included driving time for the 4 trips it took with my car. All I have left to move now is 4 boxes, my huge ass dresser, and my ferret.

My roommate, soon to be ex-roommate was joking around yesterday and as I was moving my stuff out he said, "Hey, Thom, we need to talk. I really think you should move out." Thing is, even though I know he meant to come off as a joke, I really think he meant it. Or maybe I am just sensitive because I have felt I have been being pushed out for the last 2 weeks. I never really felt welcome there.

My new home is really starting off the same way as far as the welcome bit goes. I have moved into a room that is bigger than my last room, but still all my stuff goes into that room and the rest of the house belongs to the other occupants. Even worse than my current apartment my ferret is not allowed in the house proper.

I am only thankful that the room is much bigger to the point that I can fit my ferret and everything in my room. Or at least I think I can. I have to move my dresser tomorrow. My dresser is a monster thing that I store misc. garbage in because I do not have enough clothes to fill it.

The second thing I really like about my room is the attached bathroom. It is so big; much too big for one person. I laid out my sundries this morning in it. I have a bathroom counter top is roughly 3 feet deep by 4 feet long. My toothbrush, mousse and razor look so small on it. I need to get a toothbrush holder and a soap dish for it though. It will spruce it up a bit and hopefully make it so it does not look so empty.

That and it is cool to walk naked from the shower to my room to get dressed. I have not been able to do that for about 5 years since I had my own place. I miss living alone. That is really my most pressing goal right now.

Actually even more important than getting my own place is getting a new car. I think I heard my car picking up a ping in the engine. I have a feeling that my car is getting to the point were it may need some major engine work soon. If I run 3000 miles on it by the time I get an oil change it is 1 quart low. With this higher elevation and the more frequent shifting and mountain climbing I think it may burn even more oil. That scares me. I am getting by financially now but if my car dies it would cause some real problems for me. Granted I would still be able to get to work by bus but it would be a real pain in the ass to have to get a new car without having this one to help buffer the down payment.

Again we get to that subject that always brings me down. Money. Bah. I feel like pulling a Calvin and stripping of all my clothes and joining Hobbes in glorious nakedness.

Posted by Coign at 2:06 AM | Permalink | Comments