January 1, 2003

• What my family and I do for New Years Eve.


• Taking care of my friend’s dogs.


• My little brother is being a brat.

What my family and I do for New Years Eve.
Every year we do something different. This year we are going to throw a party for my older brother, and my Uncle Dale and Aunt Sheila are coming over as well. We are going to have a blast, that is, my family excluding my brother’s party. We will play tons and tons of games. Catan and Blitz being my favorite. We will also play all the group games you can play like Taboo and Gestures. It’s fun hanging out with my new Uncle Dale who recently married my aunt this last summer. The countdown is overrated, 10-9...8..7...3...1... Happy New Year! So what, just because the year has passed, a measly one second change, does not mean much has changed in that one second. I rather play all night with family and games, than do that countdown over and over every year. But my family and I do have fun on New Years Eve.

Taking care of my friend’s dogs.
Even though it is the holiday, some of us still have work. I don’t do this professionally, but I see money in this business. They will be gone for two days and a night. All I have to do is come over, use the key to open the door, feed and let out the dogs, and I walk away with some greens. I’m not exactly sure how much I’m getting payed... They gave me a list of times I have to come over between 2-3pm, 5-6pm, and 8-9pm, on the first day. On the second, 7:30amish, 10-11am, 2-3pm, and 5-6pm. I don’t know how long dogs need to be let out into the backyard for, in fact, they didn’t tell me much of what to do for them. But I’ll let them out for an hour. I know where the towels are to dry them off, where the dog food is, and what door to bring them in. Unfortunately Dan Pope, my dad, was correct when he said, "It is going to snow." I will have to use the towels to dry them off because it snowed six inches. Fun, my friend lives a block away! I'll have to trudge through snow. Another problem is the dogs have to stay out for an hour, and I’m not going to stay over there for that entire time. So I’ll have to make two trips each time! Great exercise I might add. I couldn’t figure out my friends desktop codes to get onto his computer, otherwise I would stay over there for the entire hour.
Now, the funny part is I have a key to their home. I’m not an evil person but the thought probably crosses everyone’s mind. “Do I make a copy of the key?” No, I will not do that... But the thought was very intriguing. I even have another friend who can make the copy of the key for free. But no, I’m a good guy. I will do exactly what I was told to do, improvise the rest, and walk away with some cash.

My little brother is being a brat.
If anyone has a little brother or sister, they will understand this next paragraph. My little brother at the age of 9, is a devil child. My mother obviously wasn’t thinking smart lately and decided to let my brother over the big long break have three sleep overs in a row. That is three nights where the kid gets no sleep. Wow, that is bad. A 9 year-old with no sleep is about as bad as a 1 year old with a diarrhea dirty diaper that hasn’t been changed for an hour. Today we were cleaning up after Christmas and the kid throws the biggest tantrum I’ve ever seen a kid throw. My mother about slapped him but kept her cool. He was crying and throwing things and he was sent to his room. He later cleaned up all of his toys, and complained. I was trying to take a picture of my stuff ‘the annual tradition’ and he wouldn’t get out of the view of the camera. I pushed him away eventually and got the picture taken. Looking to find a piece of paper for my mother, which was a 10$ rebate on a game Chess Master, I was looking through all the papers from newly opened games. My little brother became furious that I would touch his beloved papers and began throwing another tantrum. Let this be evidence that a 9 year-old has no right to have a sleep over more than one night in a row, let alone three.

This morning I awoke to the news that part of my high school had burned down. No freaking joke. Arson is suspected, and a large chunk of the school was affected. Naturally, I couldn't help but laugh and admire the initiative and fearlessness of the gutsy arsonist who'd actually done something that previous decades of students had probably been dying to do. Really, burning down your school definitely takes chutzpah

But seriously, could he have picked a worse time to do it? The middle of christmas break? Come on!!! Why not during exam week? Some people just don't think things through. What a jerk. There you have it. Like something out of a movie or a great dream, my school actually burns down (partly). But I probably won't even get to miss a single day. Shit.

Other node-worthy occurances today include my eating 12 spring rolls (approximately 3" long and 1" in diameter) in just over an hour, which may or may not be some kind of record, and my washing them down with four 355mL diet cokes at my friend's New Year's party. Very appealing, I know.

Also, while I was driving to the mall yesterday to buy a Mats Sundin bobblehead for my friend who was giving the party (late christmas present and totally on sale) I passed a crime scene with the yellow tape and everything. Naturally, being a very nosy person, I slowed down and looked over, and there was even a dead body in the parking lot where the tape was. Later, I mentioned the dead guy to one of my friends who, as it turned out, had seen the guy while riding by on the bus, and the bus driver said it was a homeless guy who'd gotten drunk and fallen down the hill beside the parking lot. He wasn't all mangled or anything, but it was still kind of gross, not to mention pretty sad, not the kind of thing you see everyday.

Anyway, on a lighter note, happy new year everyone, and if you do get drunk watch out for those hills!

Another random period of the earth rounding the sun starting at a random day in the past has been completed. What is the significance? Why do we see it as special? Any other day would be just as well, so why not set New Year's Eve in June?

People may need a period of celebration, where they can feel like shedding old habits and sorrows, and celebrating a new beginning together, but then why set it so close to christmas, another randomly set celebration date? Spreading out the holidays would make a lot of sense.

What does the circumvention of the sun on spaceship earth really signify? Nothing, not on a galactic or universal scale. And still the whole earth makes it a big feast, as if there were a significance other than ease timekeeping. And I do to.

But not because I feel it is a special time, just because it provides a good excuse to get together with old friends, party and have a good time. But nothing more. I am today the same man I was yesterday.

...3...2...1... Happy New Year!

Well, not quite yet.

Here on the East Coast, I still have just over 3 hours before the new year rolls through and we celebrate.

(the next morning)
Okay, scratch that...

As I was writing the above, I remembered that I needed to call my friend Joey. So, I called. I then went down to his Dad's studio a few miles down the road, where we played some Super Smash Brothers Melee - and I got a swift ass-kicking by Samus, Falco, Zelda, and Peach. I was way off my game. At any rate, it was fun. But, I only stayed at the gathering for about 2 hours, as I really wanted to be home - to see if the Sea Lab 2021 episodes were going to be new. They were! Dear Lord they were!

So, anyway, I came home around 11:00 PM, and my Mom and Stepdad were sitting on the couch, relaxing and watching the various New Years celebrations on the television. I went to my room for a few minutes, mostly just to wish a couple of people some good cheer, and then, I took a few essential supplies down to the kitchen to get back to work on the moogle costume. The goal was to get the booties glued and ready for fabirc application - and to get the wire colored white for the antenna support.

It took forever to hot glue the slippers because I didn't have anyone helping me hold the foam up, and the glue gun didn't have a trigger! Pushing the glue stick through the gun, while holding the foam was quite a challence, especially due to the seizures of laughter induced by Adult Swim's New Year's Eve Special. God bless Brak and Carl. Tick, tok.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Mother shouted it from the other room as the ball dropped (I put on Botox-Clark for a moment just to see the drop) and hugs were exchanged. Then, back to gluing. Nothing too much more eventful than that, really. It didn't take me more than another hour to get all the foam glued onto the slippers - and my bootes were complete, sans the fur which will be applied tomorrow or Friday. Today I do the wings.

And that's about it.

I unplugged the outside lights, and killed the Christmas tree on the way through the living room. I didn't excersize at all last night, which is the first time in about two weeks. I suppose it's not a great way to start the new year (breaking one's good habits) but you can be safe in knowing that tonight I add 50 more pounds to the lift, bringing me to my body-weight once again. In only two weeks of extremely exhausting lifting and, biking, running, and isometrics, I am nearly back to my pre-college fitness. Hopefully I can find some way to do some great workouts in my apartment this semester.

I think I will.

No great messages here today, folks. I suppose it's because I always feel great resolve, and can conjure up a "new day" every day I want to. It doesn't take the Earth around the Sun for me to feel renewed. But, that's not to say that I'm going to be stogy about all the good-will going around today.

Happy New Year to everyone, especially those who are near and dear to me. I can't wait to get things going.

Sincerely,
With love,

frisina

It's funny, usually I take this first day of the year and I reflect over the events and happenings of the year previous, then look forward on to the year to come, and then I stare blankly at nothing for a while, and then I think, "what's for breakfast?"

This year I've more or less skipped the first few steps and am awaiting my bacon and eggs whilst my darling other half cooks them. Why reflect on what has passed and consider what is to come when there are delicious smells coming from the kitchen? Perhaps I can persuade him to make me some coffee as well. Hmmmmmm.

My New Year's Eve was spent quietly, mostly movie watching with my family, as we are all still under the weather. Although everyone else is on the mend, and I am left with all the sickly feelings just in time to go back to work. It's a mom thing. You put your illness aside to care for your loved ones. Then when they are better you wear it like a badge, cough and wheeze and all those other things while your family gives you sympathetic looks.

Possible lung infection and re-entrance of October's pneumonia bout is garnering more sympathetic looks than usual. Green gobs of goo have been coming up in abundance, and antibiotics, although pleasantly banana flavored, don't seem to be doing much in the help deparment.

Head feels fuzzy.

I wore a camoflauge shirt today.

Happy New Year.

Given my considerably alcoholic state last night, that and the "which day are you on at 1am" problem, I think a lot of the stuff here is relevant to today, but some of it might be over-spill from yesterday.. oh well

Thing of note (or, when he stops waffling and gets to the content):
Despite the beard (vague intentions of its growing included the stopping of myself from attempting to pull impossible women, as I don't have enough time this year to spend in a fucked up emotional state), I was still vaguely "on the pull" last night. Reasons for this roughly include the finally getting to meet a girl I'd spotted a couple of times over the last few years - a face that had stood out heavily in several crowds to me, but I'd never had an opportunity to speak to her. She turns out to the the housemate of the girlfriend of the housemate of a friend of mine (good reasons why I'd never met her before....).

She turns out to be a aero, which is cool. We ended up in some rambling drunken argument, with her stating various opinions heavily against broadband - which I considered a fucked up point of view, given my existence as an information pack rat CS. I finally thought of a decent argument against, proving her to be a total and utter hypocrite, but unfortunately I thought about this at ~2am this morning, well after I'd got back, which sucks dead slugs through a straw. At least I've got a line to start a conversation with her next term.

Update: Finally opened my advent calendar today... I had better things to do before, besides I'm an atheist, so I'm not particularly fussed if I don't do conventional things when I get given religious gifts (It was given to me by my loopy religious grandmother)

After having convinced myself that this would be, like the last one, a really crappy New Year, I was pleasantly surprised.

I phoned one of my friends yesterday who said that her Mum's Boyfriend's Son was having a party and that it was quite posh, but a few of us could go. Before we set off, a fruitless 40 minute wait with my friend for a dealer who didn't show, I was looking pretty disheartened at the prospect of a load of 20 year olds who wouldn't speak to us (we're all 15). Within a few minutes of arriving, when we noticed the gigantic stacks of empties and the bag of suspicious substances on the floor, the hugely loud punk rock in the background, and a room full of cool looking cabbaged people, we noticed that we had crashed the right party.

Suffice to say that we met a guy who was 28, and had taken 10 years to get a degree. He spent about an hour resting his head on a table, and when I asked him what he had had, (expecting him to say "16 cans) he said "two pills". We also played the best drinking game ever in the world called "Big Booty" which works even when you have nothing left to drink.

I told my parents when I got in that I had drunk two bottles of alcopops.

Heh heh. Fools.

Happy New Year everyone.

---

Last Daylog * * * Next Daylog

She came to see me last night. She actually came out to my apartment to see me. It was fucking incredible. I never really thought she liked me or cared enough to actually come visit me on one of the biggest party events of the year, but sure enough, she called me first. My cell phone rang from the inside pocket of my leather jacket. I pulled it out, and her name appeared on the display. My friends all looked at me and smiled, urging me to answer. I did.

"Hello?"

"Hey, happy new year."

"You too. It's good to hear from you."

"Yea. Aren't you gonna come see me?"

"What?"

"I'm here. I'm in the apartment below you."

"Are you serious?"

"Yep. Come over and get me."

Sometimes you get that feeling where your heart leaps directly up from its little cavity in your chest, and just smacks directly into your brain, traveling at the speed of your nervous system. I almost fell over from it this time. She was here! Of all the surprises I could think of, not once did I think of actually getting to look into her eyes on this evening. But I did.

We had no time alone together. Everyone else was there; there was no way we were going to lose them, either. So instead, a group of us stood outside our neighbor's door and chatted. She was wearing a cute little pink shirt, and worn blue jeans. Her face was placid, but excited to be with us, maybe even excited to see me. Regardless of her expressions, her beauty was alight under a cold winter sky; it lit up the patio, and was a beacon to my hazy eyes. She shivered from the cold, and made eye contact with me. For a split second, I began to realize how metaphorical it was for me to give her my leather coat to wear, to warm her beautiful body. So I did.

Every last ounce of me wanted to go home with her last night. Not for sex, not for anything physical, other than maybe one of those perfect goodnight kisses, the kind that remind you of why you have lips in the first place: to prevent your heart from jumping out of your mouth. I just wanted to be with her, to see her, talk to her about life and what we have coming this year. I wanted to say that a relationship is coming for us, but it would be foolish to say that. From the impressions we leave on each other, I think I may be right. Regardless, I realized that it was nearly 4 AM, and knew in my head that I should go home, away from her, empty-handed and full of what could have been. And I did.

It almost sounds like a depressing new year's eve. But it wasn't at all. I felt things, I drank things, but best of all, I saw her. She has no idea, but she started my year off at a furious pace, and she better be sure she wants me around, because once this girl agrees to be with me, I will not let go. So I won't.

---

Here's to my friends, family, and Char. Also, here's to all of you who took time to read about my little evening. Happy New Year, and thanks for your eyes. E2 rules :)

new year's resolutions

positives:
- be nice and open to people i don't know
- learn new things. read lots of books. learn japanese
- follow through
- be positive and honest and non-cynical and constructive

negatives:
- don't waste time watching pointless tv and doing pointless things on the net
- don't be an asshole to people that i don't know the limits of yet

It's the first day of the New Year and the goodies are tempting me right now. The good ol' booze and pills. There was a time when I was abusing the very thing that's supposed to help me. I would not only take more medication than was prescribed for me, but I also began mixing them with alcohol. Most of the time, I was so high that I had no idea what was going on around me. Nor did I care.

Commit suicide? No. I've been down this road before. I know just how much to take to catch a buzz or make myself numb just for a little while. I don't want to die because I have too much to live for. I have a family that loves me, friends that care. Last but not least, I've yet to finish doing what I've been put on this earth to do.

So why did I even think about getting high today? I'm in pain. I've not been feeling well for over a month. This is not uncommon with a disability such as mine, but none of this gives me the right to wallow in self pity or attempt to ease any discomfort or pain I may be feeling by taking the chances I was taking then. Especially when I think about them. Who the hell am I to take an easy way out when I know there are those who only have bravery and a smile as weapons against their pain? There's a difference taking medication to ease pain and abusing. I was abusing my meds and myself.

Yes, I hurt right now and I'm uncomfortable, but I love people and I love life, which has been a wonderful journey so far and no journey worth taking is easy. I found that out the hard way. There was a time that I would head right for the bottle and the pills. Not anymore. Life is too precious and I have so much to be thankful for. As for the pain, I've found better and more healthy ways to deal with it.

Happy New Year

I got my secret santa package from Birdlace today (Ok technically, it arrived in my mailbox a day or two ago, but I was away). What a nice way to kick off 2003.

Next

Since people often ask for specfic dates on Daylogs I write, I thought I'd make a handy index, hope this helps! I will update periodically through the year.

January 19, 2003 (thing) - My thoughts on some of the problems with cell phones in today's society.

January 21, 2003 (thing) - My infamous "Ritalin Rant"

January 26, 2003 (idea) - My confusion about the use of TBBK.

January 27, 2003 (thing) - Discussing E2 Donations..

February 4, 2003 (idea) - "E2 Quicksand" - discussing the addictive qualities of E2.

February 5, 2003 (idea) - Suggestions for drive thru customers

February 13, 2003 (person) - Discussing the loss of my Uncle Bill.

February 14, 2003 (thing) - My worries over the upcoming funeral.

February 19, 2003 (thing) - The funeral - details of the funeral.

March 8, 2003 (place) - "E2 for Dummies" - my worries over my poor grammar/punctuation skills.

March 25, 2003 (thing) - "Smoke and Mirrors" - my take on supporting our soldiers in the Iraq war.

April 7, 2003 (person) - Paying my respects to DB

April 10, 2003 (thing) - "E2 Critical Mass" - my thoughts on E2, and some thoughts on those lost in the Iraqi war.

April 24, 2003 (person) - "Do you remember when.." , my Birthday daylog - where I shared some fun memories - rated G35 (for those over 35)

April 26, 2003 (thing) - Story about finding meth lab chems in my yard

May 3, 2003 (idea) - Ranting about the lax consequences of high speed car chases.

May 8, 2003 (idea) - Sharing my PTSD experience.

May 31, 2003 (idea) - Idea for Missing Children playing cards.

June 9, 2003 (idea) - my E2 net-a-thon idea, which got overshadowed by the hubbub of the Marty incident. Sigh.

---

Here's a saying I hope you might find useful, or perhaps you know someone who could use it.

I Will strive
To Improve my life
One step at a time
One step a day
What will be my step today?

---

Killed in the Line of Duty
Rest In Peace

Keith Braddock
Michael J. Cowdery
Jon Cook
Hakim Farthing
Ann Guinta
Richard Herzog
Sean Nava
Robert Neilsen
Michael Nickerson
Mark F. Parry
Kristin M. Pataki
John Pedro
Jason C. Schwenz
Kevin Tarsia
Steven J. Underwood
Clinton Warren Hunter
Drew Alan Bolin
Jon Cook
Eddie Mundo Jr.
Ray Giacomelli
Andrew Winfield Balfour
Jose Herrera
Sheila Herring

The following text appeared on my homenode from 1 January 2003 until 17 February 2003. I kept it on my E2 Scratch Pad for months afterward and am now (28 September 2003) daylogging it to free up some space there (also because it would be obnoxious to node about noding anywhere besides my homenode, daylogs, or maybe an editor log). However, I highly recommend the "vacation from E2" idea to anyone who reads this entry: playing on this site can become very addictive, and it's easy to lose sight of the fact that it's just a game. Taking some time off can help you maintain a healthy perspective (i.e. not take things too seriously). I suspect this is true of many activities in life, and not just E2, but it's not always easy to take a break from aspects of life, so we noderfolk should count ourselves lucky that taking a break from E2 is as easy as just logging out.

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1 January 2003: Portland, Oregon

It's clobberin' time. Which is to say that I'm going to start 2003 off by spending some time off e2 in an attempt to stop distracting myself from other things I want and need to do. This should in no way be interpreted as a reflection on any of the super-cool noderfolk I play with around here (you know who you are) although the fact is that y'all are just too much fun. My address is in EMAR; I love paper mail and will happily write back as time and whim permit. I wish you all the best, and hope to be back online in a week to a month.