who do you go to

I’ve been dealing with depression since I was about 6 years old when I discovered for the first time that it’s possible to have flaws myself. Although I can recall many times when I was blissfully happy, and those moments overshadow the times of depression I had when I was growing up, the episodes of depression I’ve had since about 2006 seem to be overshadowing the moments of happiness I’ve had.

Maybe it’s simply a matter of numbers. More of my time has been spent depressed than happy. I really don’t know. I’m not the most introspective person out there. I might know that I’m a certain way, and I might be honest about what’s going on in my mind, But I don’t know what causes me to be this way, you know?

In the past I’ve had people I could talk to about these problems. But lately it seems I only bring distress to the people I try to get help from. How do you tell your greatest confidant that the way your relationship functions depresses you without putting a lot of unnecessary stress on that person, or driving that person further away from you?

A few weeks ago I came to the conclusion that I should probably be seeing a therapist. So, I looked up ‘chicago therapists’ on google, found a few therapists I believed could help me, wrote down their contact information, and contacted one via email, and one via phone call.

These people were Ms. Kirsten Randall Belzer (clinical social work / therapist), and Dr. Don Elggin (Psychologist / PHD). Belzer was contacted via email, and Elggin was called & left a message. It’s been 8 days since I emailed, and 4 days since I’ve called. I specifically held out on contacting other psychologists and therapists because I expected these people to contact me within at least 1 business day.

You would think someone working in mental health would have the sense to contact a potential client as soon as possible. What if their client suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder? They could easily worsen a person’s psychological state by ignoring them for an extended period of time. I clearly stated why I needed to see a therapist, what my phone number is, and even what my phone number is. Am I supposed to be going about this another way? Should I just down a bottle of pills with as much jack daniels as i can stand, go to the hospital the next day, and have the emergency room personnel contact the therapist to let them know that I’m ready?

I can’t talk to fucking anyone. A relationship will form, I’ll become frustrated with myself over my interaction with that person, and that relationship will just be another debilitator. I need someone I hold no social relationship with. Someone I can just meet regularly to discuss all of my god damn problems. I can’t fucking handle this anymore.

review: south loop club

last night i got called into work by a customer of ours who wanted to hire me to do some contract work for which he would pay me directly instead of paying for our company’s remote hands fee. this is ok for us to do, a lot of employees have done it, but we never solicit offers. Only when a customer contacts us will we accept it.

So, i got into the datacenter at about 10:30, talked to their guys on irc (we’ve actually been friends for a few years), moved three servers from shared-colocation cabinets to their new full cabinet over the course of a few hours, re-labeled all of their newly moved servers, re-cabled everything, and updated their dns zones to reflect the appropriate ptr (reverse dns) records.

By 2am they were all set, i’d made $210, and was free to leave into the night. The problem with getting out at 2am was, the bar i wanted to go to, the blue light, was well over an hour and a half away, and due to close at 4am. There aren’t any bars I can enjoy in the loop, and that was basically the extent of how far i’d reach without resorting to the cta, which I didn’t want to do at 2am on cermak.

So, I opted to simply walk around and see if I could find an OK place to grab a bite to eat siince i was hungry. I didn’t want to go back home to bridgeport that early, because being home before 3am on a saturday night is equal to failure. I ventured west from cermak & calumet, to michigan avenue. At which point, I started traveling north towards the loop.

My walk took me north to 11th, at which point I walked further west to state, and then north to polk where I found a bar i’d heard about, the south loop club. A look at the people sitting/standing inside, and the people walking in told me that i didn’t want to be there. It just didn’t seem like the kinda place that would be friendly to a loner like me.

Call me crazy, because i more than likely am, but i can’t really handle large crowds. Whether they be in a bar/restaurant, or standing in groups dispersed along belmont street. If I’m alone, my mind just deteriorates to the point where i can’t help but think they are teasing me, whether it be out loud in their group of friends, or in their mind. I’ve just lost faith in a compassionate world. Maybe I’m too much of a downer to have people who consistently care about me? Maybe I’m relying on other people too greatly? I’ve seen one friend in the past 8 days, i haven’t been on a date since september of last year, the past 6 – 8 dates i’ve attempted to make have cancelled on me, 3 of which because “omg i forgot its my friends birthday can we please reschedule”.

Of course, they never reschedule, and any attempts i make to reschedule just result in them using other excuses to not see me until I simply give up. Maybe I’m more adventurous than everyone else, and more willing to meet complete strangers. I don’t think i come off as dangerous, i’m not asking for their address the moment they agree to meet up, i’m trying to meet them in public places, and they just jump the day they’re supposed to see me.

Well, anyway. I didn’t want to go into the south loop club, and i was pretty tired. So, i opted to walk to the corner of harrison & state, and sit down against a fence for a few minutes. A few minutes later a homeless guy walked up to me as i sat there, and asked me where the student’s center was. He was looking for a good spot to ask people for help, but he didn’t know what college he was looking for. I wasn’t able to help, but i suggested he travel back south to where he could hassle the people at columbia.

After 6 minutes of sitting, i got back up, and started hiking back west towards halsted. I had considered the number 8 wouldn’t be running, and a check of the cta bus tracker verified this a short while later when i had the motivation to look it up. Well, it was kind of a long walk, from 0e to 800/900W, 9 blocks. Eventually I got to halsted and i had a choice. Get on the blue line, take that back to the loop, and transfer to the redline which i could take home to 35th; or just walk south in hopes that the number 8 would start running after 4am, or that i could find a taxi.

I would end up walking from there (halsted & harrison), down to.. maxwell, where I found a taxi. I took that back south to 33rd, got a burrito from taqueria san jose, and then walked back 3 blocks home.

I got home at about 4:05am. I guess it was an ok night for walking. I found some new spots that i want to venture out to for photography. It was reletively warm for being chicago in february. I hope spring returns for good soon, i think the winter is probably one of the main reasons my mood is so fucked these days.

3 days

3 days

On monday I got out of work at 9:30am, and grabbed a taxi back to bridgeport. The taxi driver was extraordinarily cool. I usually get an indian or african cab driver, but this was an american black guy who seemed to be much on the same level as me. he was an ex-tech worker, network engineer. His hat and attitude reflected the way of a pothead. We had a nice chat about network equipment, and discussed the fine points of juniper and cisco networking. Failover protocol and so forth. He got me back to bridgeport really quickly via the dan ryan, the whole ride was only $7, and he got me back in like 8 minutes.

When I got home, I started talking with this girl I’ve been talking with for the past few months. Her name is Lauren. I met her on okc, but I’m not going to reveal her id for her own privacy. I had asked her if she wanted to get dinner last week, and she agreed on monday, but warned me that the following days in her schedule were completely tied up. Dreading the fact that I was getting out of work monday morning, and would have to spend the whole afternoon after work cleaning my apartment, I still went with her idea, and agreed to take her to a chinese restaurant we would both enjoy due to the fact that it’s a byob.

Well, Lauren had some bad news. Her sickness of the previous day had gotten much worse, and she was feeling bad. I took this as a hint that she probably shouldn’t be going out on this night, and told her that it would be ok if she canceled for the day. She still insisted that she could make it, but I knew her mindset, and insisted that she stay in for the night to better her health. We then went over the possibility that she would see me on wednesday, but was unsure about a pre-scheduled meetup with another guy she is seeing. I said ok, and that was that.

So, I went to bed after that, and woke up around 11pm. I was pretty hungry, but i ignored it, and decided to instead listen to music in my room. I did this for a few hours, and then hiked to the north side of town to visit two specific places: the flatiron, and flash taco. So, i checked the cta bus tracker to see if the number 8 was running, but it wasn’t. So, this enacted a requirement to walk to the redline, ride it to jackson, and transfer to the blue line to get to damen. I gave it some thought, and decided that flash taco was worth it, so I threw on my coat, and the journey started.

I got to the train station at about 1:30am, and jumped on the train with mostly sleeping homeless men. It smelled pretty bad, and the heating was busted, but i stuck it out. Eventually we got to Jackson, and from there I transferred onto a o’hare bound train that seemed to be filled with mostly hipster types coming up north from uic. The ride was fairly comfortable, well heated, and pleasant aside from the voices in my head that seem to constantly insult me whenever I’m outside by myself this late.

Yeah, my head’s a little fucked up that way. If i’m ever out by myself in the middle of the night, and there are groups of people around me, my mind will insult me in a way which i could imagine that person insulting me. I don’t know why, it’s been going on for a few months now.

so, eventually we got to damen, and I got off the train and walked into the flat iron. There were a lot of people in the bar for it being 2:30 on a monday night, but i managed to find a place to sit in the corner. I stayed there for probably about an hour, sipping guiness, newcastle, rogue, and later scotch. Eventually i got sick of being there, so I dropped a tip, and wandered back outside. I was still pretty hungry, so I popped into flash taco and got a burrito, and then left to get onto the forest park blue line.

While I was standing there with a group of maybe 5 other people, a guy walks up to me and asks if I can buy some mushrooms off him because he has to run to get on an airplane. I said i’d think about it, and he went on to other people. The train rolled up about 5 minutes later, and I got on and sat next to him and another woman who seemed to be interested in what he had.

I ended up buying some mushrooms off him, and the three of us had a nice chat about our lives. The woman was about 35, and he was 26. We were all pretty friendly with eachother, and seemed to relate on a level. Eventually the train came back to Jackson, and I transferred off it and back to the redline. From there, I took the redline back to 35th, and later got back to my home. At home, I stayed online for another hour, and went to bed at 5am.

9am rolls around, I am wide awake and have a fairly bad headache on account of drinking a good amount at the flat iron. My stomach was still in good condition on account of the burrito I had ate after drinking.

Tuesday was probably the worst day I’ve had in a long time. I was feeling fairly worthless because I didn’t talk to a single person at the bar, and my mood for the whole day was poor because of it. Everyone seemed to busy to want to talk, there was still hope for seeing lauren on wednesday, but nothing certain. I had a chat with victoria, the girl I went to visit in portland, and she told me that she didn’t want to be friends anymore. She says that she doesn’t know if she can deal with me. My friend andy stopped by, but only hung out for about 6 minutes and left.

I ended up staying up straight into the night on the 4 hours of sleep i’d gotten the previous night, and at 1am remembered that I had to deliver some medicinal marijuana to a lady I’m friends with on the north side. So, I wandered back outside to the redline, took that to belmont, and transferred to the brownline which I rode to montrose. From there, i walked to her place, dropped off her stuff, and began walking back to the brownline.

I got to the brownline after about 15 minutes of walking, and was greeted with a suprise. The southbound line was closed for the night. “ffffuck me” i said to myself, but figured I could stand to walk for a while.

From there, I wandered one block east to ravenswood, and walked from montrose all the way to Addison, and from there, east to the redline. The walk took maybe 40 minutes, and I got to discover some places I want to check out. One of them is a turkish restaurant that’s also byob. Doesn’t that sound like the best thing ever?

I got to the redline just as a southbound train was pulling up, but it left before I got to the platform. So, I had to wait about 15 minutes for another train to pull up. During this time, a big guy got onto the platform with me, and stood next to me. He started trying to talk to me using sign language, but I’m not knowledgable of sign language, and wasn’t able to communicate with him. I was pretty bummed by this fact, because I think it would be nice to talk with him.

The train eventually pulled up, we got onto the train, and I rode this back south to 35th, and hiked back home.

I got home at about 4am, and decided to immediately go to bed. So, i snuggled up in my blanket and slept until about 2:30pm today. I then woke up, still depressed over the past two days, and thought of something I could do to make myself happier. I then remembered that I had some friends out in Bloomington, IL. They used to work with us at work, company called Ubiquity. So, I fired up an aim chat with one of my buddies who owns the company, and worked out a plan to visit. I’ll be leaving chicago at about 9:30am tomorrow to get to bloomington, IL tomorrow at noon. Then, I’ll come back to chicago at 5pm.

Lauren gave me an answer about dinner, the other guy wants to see her. “ok” i say.

and now i go out to drink more.

Portland

i got back from portland a couple of nights ago around midnight. It was fairly nice, many fun times, most of which can’t currently be located in my memory.

I got there at about 3pm their time, and met my buddy victoria at the airport. We grabbed my suitcase, and took their rail line, ‘the max’ back south downtown. There, we stopped to talk with a friend of hers, and while we were there, a group of people who weren’t wearing pants jumped on the train along with us.

So, we were on a train with about 14 or so people only wearing their tops, underwear, no pants, with shoes/socks/etc, just no pants.

So, we got off a few stops later, and surprisingly, the group of pantsless people got off with us, and proceeded to walk in the same direction we were heading in.

As we walked down the street, the group, i’m sorry, i should say “mob” came in closer to us, and began striking conversation with us. When we got to a no-walk crosswalk, i decided that I was a bit overdressed, so i yanked off the belt, handed it to victoria, dropped & removed my pants, and victoria did the same.

We would go on to walk another few blocks with this group, with dancing of course, and eventually a pantsed stranger wandered into the group. When the group asked him to drop, he was weary at first, but then they further encouraged him, and he ended up whipping out his underwearless stuff on a public street.

But somehow, this was all perfectly ok. He swung his stuff around on a street corner in front of a group of college-aged people, we all got a laugh, and that was that.

From there, me, victoria, and the mob got onto their streetcar, the mob rode that for one block, but i was still carrying my suitcase, so me and victoria vouched to continue back to her place so I could drop off my suitcase, and we could come up with plans for the later day. After the mob left we rode around without pants for another block, but eventually put our pants back on.

A few stops later we got off, and went back to her place. It was an interesting first hour.

i might write more about portland. A lot of stuff happened, and I’m pretty sure my credit card’s going to have a debt for a really long time.

it’s january 7th

If I had to pick one food which represents my spirit more than anything other, it would have to be french toast.

This morning at about 5am I wandered outside to halsted street, grabbed a north-bound bus, got off at roosevelt, and walked from there over to roosevelt & union, and stopped into a delightful little restaurant called White Palace. Don’t let the name fool you, this is not a racist establishment. People of all colors and followings congregate into this ultra-diner, throughout all hours of the night & day, on any given day.

I sat down, and a waitress offered me a cup of coffee. I looked at her, and recognized her from my previous stop in, in mid-July, when I’d gone in for a hamburger at 4am on a saturday night. I accepted her offer of a cup of coffee, and proceeded to load it up with sweet & low and french vanilla coffeemate creamer. I then took a moment to pick out what I’d eat for dinner. I could recall reading a yelp.com review in which the critic raved about how tasty their toast was. I made it a point to get the toast, because he had made it sound like the greatest thing since birthday presents. In addition to the toast, I also chose french toast, because i had never been disappointed by a breakfast of french toast. I didn’t fuck around with it either, i went straight for the french toast, no strawberries, no bananas, no whipped cream, none of that bullshit. Just straight french toast, syrup, and butter. I’m not a huge fan of butter, either. I was always grossed out by most solidified dairy, but i recently came to accept butter being there. Cottage cheese however, fuckin’ hate it.

So, anyway. I ordered the food, and it was all brought back to me in like 10 minutes. I ate the toast first, and it was just as good as I imagined it would be. Before my food came, I had consumed an additional serving of coffee, and was now on my third cup, mid-toast. I ordered the texas toast, because I couldn’t really understand any of the other words the beautiful latin waitress said to me about the types of toast they had, but the texas toast was decipherable and in the end it worked well for me.

After scarfing down the toast, i moved onto the french toast. This.. frenchtoast.. was.. Delicious! Everything was well presented, and I’m pretty sure adding anything else to the dish would have ruined it. Everything was beautifully toasted, it wasn’t too hard, wasn’t too soft, it was just.. perfect. The kind of perfection you would marry had you found a human being who was able to maintain such a level of perfection (not possible).

After finishing the french toast i got another cup of coffee and some more of the texas toast, and then i got my bill, $9.88. “holy shit is that cheap or what?” i asked myself. I had like 4 pieces of toast, 4 wedges of french toast, and 5 cups of coffee, wow. I paid the normal bill, gave the waitress a nice tip, and wandered outside back to halsted, and then i took the bus back to 33rd where I wandered back home, and now i’m here, writing about toast.

It started snowing again. We had many days of warmth, and now it’s back to this.

Sleep time, bye bye lovers.

Smoke Cigarettes

I’ve been depressed since tuesday. This girl I’d fallen for told me that she wasn’t interested after the first date. Yeah, 25 year olds can be emo too. As the week went on, I began to criticize myself more and more, until today when I recognized that my pursuit of all things material was done in vein, and that I can be perfectly content without any of the things I’d put so much emphasis upon during the past year.

Then tonight, I walked up to the CTA redline station at 35th, stood around waiting for my train, and saw a man with his friend, smoking a cigarette. He was maybe 35 years old, had a decent, manly look, and looked completely cool as he smoked his cigarette.

Then, a cop walked up to him, and told him that he could not smoke on the platform. This bothered me greatly, because the tax dollars of both tobacco producers, as well as the man himself went towards the creation & upkeep of that very station. Smoking is completely legal, why the fuck shouldn’t this guy be able to smoke a cigarette, standing no less than 40 feet from every other patron of the station, causing inconvenience to absolutely no one?

However, this guy, as cool as fucking shit, took 3 more hits of his cigarette right in front of the cop before flicking it into the dan ryan expressway.

I have been a proponent of smoker’s rights ever since the city started telling private business owners that they aren’t allowed to let smokers smoke in their establishments. If you don’t like the fact that people are smoking around you, go somewhere else. Business owners should have the right to choose whether or not they want people smoking in their establishments. This isn’t china. We’re supposed to have freedom. Don’t give me your bullshit about second hand smoke either. My mother smoked around me from age 4 to 22, and my health was just fine. Maybe the smoke irritated my eyes on some days where allergens were already kicking my ass, but I still grew up into a completely healthy man, and even grew out of all of my allergies by forcing myself to be around all of the things I was allergic to for extended periods of time where I would be required to breath heavily.

But, back to my story. This guy inspired me. He disobeyed authority right to their fascist fucking faces, and still walked away without penalty.

My train then appeared, and I took that north to chinatown, and made it my intention to walk to wallgreens and buy a pack of cigarettes. As I walked down the street, I saw all the fakes. It’s easy to spot a fake. Any guy who is out on a double date is a fake. I saw maybe 3 different groups of couples double dating, and I despised every guy I saw. Maybe I’m a little jealous, or maybe I’m just really anti-social. I just can’t stand the thought of someone taking these people seriously. Some of them looked in my direction, but I just ignored them and walked down cermak towards my new dream.

At wallgreens, I purchased a pack of bic lighters, and a pack of newport cigarettes. I hadn’t tried smoking cigarettes since I was 16 when a friend offered me one. All of the smokers I know tend to stick to newports, so I bought a pack, and left.

I opened the pack, pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and then began walking to work on the other side of cermak at calumet. Usually when I walk down the street, people give me strange looks. It is a little bit of a rough area, and people don’t usually expect to see a white guy on that street at night. However, with a cigarette in my hand, people looked me in a new way. Like a human being who had real problems. Nobody spoke to me. They just looked me, smiled a little bit, and went back to whatever they were doing.

If you’re a sad, lonely nerd, smoking cigarettes is the best, and coolest thing you can do. Even if you do get bummed out, having your addiction fulfilled will revive your spirit. Additionally, you’ll look extraordinarily cool, and women might even find you more attractive because they can’t see the whole ‘*nerd*’ thing you have going in the background.

This is sort of like a timeline

So much can change in just one page.

Maybe I should update my wordpress.com blog more often. I usually get more comments here, and the people are generally smarter.

Peter Popoff is a Mother Fucker.

Last night I was flipping through the channels, and I caught an infomercial in which Peter Popoff, a multi-generational scam artist, proclaimed that he wanted to give everyone his “Miracle Spring Water”. This immediately grabbed my attention, and I really had no choice but to watch, and let my rage grow.

During the infomercial, clips of him running his scam to large groups of mostly-obese people in some kind of southern convention hall were shown. He would walk up to people who were obviously pre-screened, state their problems, and then put his hand on their head, and scream some random catch phrase. Then a few seconds, or a few minutes later the person would show or just tell peter that he or she was cured. Among the things peter has cured are:

• Cancer
• Blindness
• Deafness
• Bad Lungs / Asthma
• Crippled Legs
• Any Disability that stems from old age
• Probably Everything except aids

In addition to the brainwashing footage, peter and his wife also read through poorly written, cracked-out letters from people who were apparently cured of all their problems, except for the one that prevents them from writing a decent letter. A few can be found at peter’s website. Here’s one for starters:

I laid my hands on yours through the television. You looked right in my eyes and began to tell the financial burden that was depressing me and making me sick to go in the name of Jesus and I felt it leave. You also said I would receive money with the next four days. Well Praise God! Three days later I received enough money to make a house payment. Thank you so much for letting God use you!
–Sister B. Bowen, Constantine, MI

It’s no secret that those who aren’t confident in their selves tend to sacrifice their lives to other causes, and that’s just fine. If they feel going to church is going to improve their self esteem, that’s great. However, what peter popoff is doing is complete exploitation. He is using lies to manipulate these people into lining his pockets.

This isn’t even the first time peter popoff has been involved in this racket. During the 80s, Peter did the exact same stuff, and his plans were foiled by a guy named James Randi who did an expose on popoff which aired on the tonight show. In the expose, James proved that his wife was relaying interview data via a radio to him for use in his faith healing stunts. Less than a year after the expose, Peter was forced into bankruptcy.

Links

Youtube: The original James Randi Expose
Peter Popoff’s Official Website
Article about what happens when you order from Popoff
WikiPedia Article

Peter Popoff needs to be stopped. This asshole should not be as rich as he is, and I won’t be happy until he is publicly humiliated, again.

Canon Powershot A620 Raw Format Hack

A few weeks ago, I was looking for enhancements for my Canon Powershot a620 camera. While digging around, I found a spectacular hack which will make the camera shoot in Raw Format, instead of Jpg. However, after hacking around with it, I found that the directions are a little flawed, due to the writer of the page being russian. So, here’s the new directions:

1) Download this file, and extract it anywhere.

2) Take camera, and format your sdcard completely

3) Take out your sdcard, and put it into your computer’s card reader. If you don’t have one, you might have some good luck using This uploader, though I never tried the ladder. Uploading via usb connection to the camera will not work, because the sd-reader in the camera rejects it.

4) Navigate to the card via ‘my computer’, and put the PS_A620.FIR file into the root of your sdcard, after that’s done, turn the camera on in ‘playback’, or ‘view’ mode.

5) Hit your ‘menu button’, and navigate to the tools section (middle tab), and go down to “File No. Reset”, toggle this from off to on, or just hit the “func set” button to ensure things are cool

6) go back up to the main menu (first tab), and scroll down to the bottom. There should be a “firm update” option. Select it using the func/set button, and click okay to apply it.

7) After that, the camera will reboot. Pay attention to your printer button. It should blink blue once. This is the camera telling you that the raw shooting software was loaded. Flip the camera into shooting mode, and your lens should expand out. Take three or more demo shots, and the first one may or may not shoot in raw format. The two+ after that should be in raw format, you can tell if they are shooting in raw format by looking at the printer button. It will blink blue if you are shooting in raw format.

With each photo you take, one raw format shot will be created, and one jpg format shot will be created. The raw format photos will be up around 8MB, while the jpg format photos will be around 1.5MB. For managing your raw photos, i have had a good time using Adobe Bridge. You won’t be able to use the regular windows picture and fax viewer for these files.

With each set of photos you take between power cycles, you will need to re-load the firmware hack, this can be done by following these directions:

1) Turn camera on in view mode
2) Verify your file no. reset thing, hit the func set button to verify it
3) Navigate to play menu, go to “firm update”, say OK to everything, the camera will reboot, everything after that will be shooting in raw/jpg format.

The files will be wrote to the “100CANON” directory. If you get another directory, for instance: “102CANON”, you may be able to ignore it. However, I think the photos will get wrote to the 100canon directory whenever the hack is loaded. In your 100CANON directory, raw format photos will be named IMG_1001.jpg, while jpg should be somethin’ like IMG_0001.jpg.

Resources:

Original Article
PowerShot_programming_research

If you have any questions related to the hack, I might be able to help if you comment. I got some good feedback from this guy who’s email is vitalyvb [@@@ttttt] ukr.net .

i’m gonna get real loaded make a bomb and then explode it

hey man

i’m just chilling out here. I have had a pretty long day. christmas went swimmingly. i got a new bike helmet and it’s better than the old broken one, some clothes, and some money.

The first trip of the day was to the mom’s mom’s house. That was an alright time. We were pretty late because dad had to drive nana to over to a meetup point where she was picked up by uncle luke. We got there about 10 minutes before dinner 1, and weren’t even the last people to get there. The food was alright though.

I did make a giant mistake, that’s probably going to make somebody sad. Grandma always gives people in our generation a card with some money in it. Well, I took the money out, and put it in my pocket. Then, i put the card back in the envelope, and put it on the table. I ended up walking away from it, and in the end forgot all about it, and left without it I’m hoping grandma doesn’t get upset if she finds the card there without the money. I’ll probably call her tomorrow to cover my bases.

Trip two was to uncle Luke’s house all the way in Davidson. So, we all drove there, and chilled out for a while. He gave me a shirt that was two sizes too big for me, and a blockbuster gift certificate for $20. I don’t know what i can get at blockbuster, but i’ll stop by there next time I’m in the area. Anyway, the stay there was spent watching tv, eating a little food, using luke’s exercise bike, and playing poker with the other side of the mess. Their side does have some good points, but the chain smoking stained my new shirt with this terrible stench.

After several hours of their house, we left with nana. There wasn’t any snow outside, but it was raining, and that made expressway driving extra fun. Dad almost ran into a couple of people, but we made it out okay. The car argued with nana about republicans vs. democrats for a little while, and then we all got back home safely.

At home, we setup the phone i bought them. It has three handsets, so we all get a phone. It has all kinds of wacky features, and yeah, that’s pretty cool.

I really think we should replace all this commercial bullshit with boxing day. I’m not a fan of religion, but it seems kind of bad to run over some people’s religious beliefs with all this ridiculous commercial shit.

There’s my post. See you later