30 July 2003

These days in which it starts out cloudy and misty are cruel. too cruel for me at least. I wake up, in a stupor, look out the window and see that it's cloudy and and fuzzy looking (i think the fuzzy is due in part to my lack of glasses). Anyway, so I rush over to the window to see if the ground is wet, i mean, it has to be right? i mean, it's cloudy for crying out loud! no. the answer is no. It's cloudy and foggy and not raining. Dang, it. However, for the first hour or so it generally feels pretty good out. Sometimes it even last all day, but when it doesnt, man o man, it is a ROUGH. Take today for example, everythings going well, when all of the sudden, BAM! sun peeks through and the temperature feels like it jumps 10°. Maybe the sun will go away, i say to myself. oh no. it's going no where. So 10:30 rolls around, the humidity's up to about 178%, the actual temp is about 80°, and i'm simply sitting there (doing nothing, i might add) sweating through every pore in my body. Life is good.

My partner, RJ, and worked with the RTK today (the GPS surveying equipment). That stuff pisses me off. I used to think it was great, but now i just hate it. It takes forever to set up all of the antennas and crap and then when you finally get it set up, you have to put up with it freaking out all the time. For those of you who dont know how GPS works, it's like this: Yeah, it uses satellites, but it has to have like 6 to 9 of them so that they can bounce signals off the little reciever you're carrying to another satellite and create an angle. Through several of these angles, it can tell, with fairly remarkable acccuracy, your location on the planet. When surverying with GPS, you have a set tolerance of how accurate you want the reading to be (usually within less than 0.10'). So when you are near trees or other tall objects that block signals, this thing wont take a shot and it makes you sit there until it "finds" itself on earth. Well today it pissed me off so much because I was sitting out in the middle of a field and it kept losing radio signal and it couldnt find it's location and all SORTS of crap. None of you have any idea how much this equipment costs. You wanna know? I could sell it and pay for 6 or 7 years of college. yeah. thats a lot. For that much money this piece of crap outta be making me sandwiches. unbelieveable.

Has anyone seen that scott signed my guestmap?? i thought that was cool! I sort of changed the little icon people to ones that i liked better. So you're person might be slightly different than originally posted as. my bad?

Well there went my possible nap time. crap.

OH. I know why i mentioned the whole GPS thing! It was because it's sort of a one man job once you get everything set up. You just walk around with a backpack and a pole and take shots wherever you want. So while RJ was off doing that, i sat and watched the equipment (because it's worth more than my life). Luckily I brought my bible with me today and I had enough time to read the entire book of John and some of Acts. I just cannot even begin to fathom what the Jews were thinking!? I mean, I can imagine some skepticism at first, but after them asking the same questions over and over again and getting the same answer from Jesus over and over again, you have to believe that these were mentally retarded people! I mean COME ON! How stupid can you be?? However, I think Joseph says that God blinded their sight and deafened their hearing so that they wouldn't believe what Jesus was saying. Now, I don't really understand this part. Why did God do this? Was it so that everyone else would have the chance of being saved too? And if so, were we not going to recieve that opportunity in the first place? If we were, then why blind them? Will they ever see? (I mean, how can a Jewish person today read the Bible and continue believing God's Son hasn't returned? Do they just disregard the bible?) This whole thing is just a little confusing to me. Anyway, other than the stupid Jewish people, it was a good book. I thought that Judas hung himself, but John writes that he bought a field with his reward and "fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out." I did not know that. It also said in there that once Judas took the bread from Jesus, Satan entered him, but i'm pretty sure it said that Judas had already made his choice before that.

I got a few chapters into Acts. I liked reading what Peter had to say to all of the groups. Particularly the "onlookers". I almost teared up when he said "You killed the author of life...". That was such a beautiful way of refering to Jesus. I don't think I've ever heard Him refered to in that way. The respect and honor in it is lovely.

sorry we didn't meet you for dinner, todd.

and Jesse. I love you more than life itself. no other girl means nearly as much to me as you do. I'm all yours, babe.

29 July 2003

Went and saw Tomb Raider 2 tonight with jess and sam. . . yep. it was . . . action . . . like. It had some cool parts. I'm pretty sure that this is the first time I've ever seen a sequel before the original. I feel weird about it.

I got my digital camera today! Actually, it came in yesterday, but no one was here to recieve the delivery, so I had to wait and pick it up today. It works very well. I't going to make adding pictures to my site a freakin snap. I can't wait. I took some pictures of Johnna today because i saw her right after i got my batteries for my camera, but i accidentally deleted them while messing around with the camera. ah well.

Oh man, my last roll of film turned out great. you guys gotta see em!

i'm really really tired, so i'm gonna go to bed now.

Oh I did wear my contacts yesterday and they worked! They took a little getting used to because they are heavier than normal contacts (because of my greater than average astigmatism) so it felt like something was in the corner of my eye. I couldnt tell if something was under the contacts or what but i was beginning to worry. Finally, I realized that it was simply the contact itself hitting the corner of my upper eyelid. I finally got past that. I think i'll try them again tomorrow. Wearing sunglasses is great.

Someone please come see the matrix 2 on the IMAX with me. i'm dying to go.

26 July 2003

Well, the Bluecoats didn't do as well as we'd hoped for, but they still did a really great job. I'm really proud of scott and how he pursued this goal and carried through with it. I hope he's had a really great time. He seems to be having fun. I look forward to him getting back.

Jesse, Samantha, Jon, HG, Johnna, and I rode out to the boro in my dad's convertible truck. It probably wasn't the safest route, but we all had a really good time. We stopped and ate at IHOP on the way back around 1.5am. If it hadnt been for the fact that we never get together and do that kind fo stuff, i would've been all about going straight home and to bed. I don't stay up past 12 (and at that point i could fall asleep standing up) except for on the weekends sometimes, so when it gets to be around 1 and 2 o' clock, I'm slowing down big time. But it was really fun.

Then I had traffic school for the 2nd time in my life this morning. This time it was actually good. I enjoyed it. The first time was a complete joke, but this was like an episode of cops. Our teacher (a cop) told us about all these stories of stupid people and stuff he'd done. It was pretty cool. I hope I'm able to stress to my kids before they start driving how dangerous a car is. It's just crazy how much responsibility we take for granted.

Well, jon stayed at my place last night (and i believe will also tonight), so he's in there watching tv. I guess we'll try and get together with people tonight.

Maybe I'll try my contacts again today. Course, maybe I wont. Little bastards are probably just waitin' for a chance to get stuck in my eye again.

later

25 July 2003

well jordan and i finally finished putting in TWO speakers. It's taken forever because everything little thing has gone wrong. but we're making it work. the speakers sound great! so clear! he'll have two 4-ways in the front and two 2-ways in the back. its gonna sound awesome.

i saw goats today and they made me laugh with their little faux cries for help. funny little goats.

good freakin night

a little longer and i could hang out with todd and scholes

24 July 2003

I ate Schlotzsky's today for the first time. Wow. It was GREAT. Technically I have had a bite of someone's sandwich before, but it was a plain one with olives and i dont like olives. I had the Turkey & Bacon Club with jalapeno and chedder bread, salt and vinegar chips, and to drink I had Mellow Yellow. It was breathtaking. One of those meals that just fits so perfectly, that you just cant imagine life getting too much better than that moment. I cant wait to go back.

I think I forgot to mention that I got contacts the other day. I havent worn them yet because I had such a bastard of a time trying to get them out, that i'm afraid to put them back in. It's scary to have something like that in your eye (and I think I had them in wrong because i wasnt seeing correctly) and not be able to fix it. I couldnt just put my glasses on and see better, I had to friggin pull the contacts off my eye. And my eye kept getting more and more irritated as I continued struggling. I got so frustrated from not being able to do this simple task that I thought I was going to start to cry. I was so upset at this. So i'm a little hesitant to try it again.

no work tomorrow. yahoo . . . i think.

i havent gotten my digital camera in yet. i'll be mad if i dont get it tomorrow. i ordered something 2 days after i paid for the camera and I've already gotten it in.

I found jordan some 4 way car speakers that I think we'll put in tonight. They should be pretty cool. I'm looking forward to hearing them.

We had a visit from the elusive Johnna last night. she actually came over and watch a WHOLE movie. pretty freaky.

I'm getting awesome at surveying. In fact, I survey well. I survery very well.

going to meet todd for dinner at dell (or something like that) tonight.

bye

23 July 2003

Well, me and RJ finished our first job today 100% on our own (which is pretty impressive considering i've only been an eyeman for 2 weeks or so now and he's been the crew leader for the same amount of time). Our location was this building on the edge of the ghetto. I was kind of nervous. Every car that went by, irregardless of make or year, had it's windows tinted as black as night. And we were kind of working on/next to a fairly busy road. We were pretty sure that if one of us got hit by a car it would probably be a hit and run. Anyway, we got done in plenty of time to make our boss a lot of money.

Then, I FINALLY got to go swim with Mr. Burka. I didn't know if I was ever going to get that coordinated with him. And on the first day I got it together, I left my swim stuff at home. Luckily, my beautiful girlfriend drove all the way into Nashville to give it to me. Water was cold. really cold.

I had that new Chicken Caeser stuffed burrito today. It was great. And HUGE. It's pictures on the wall of TB don't do it justice.

I actually heard from Jared today, which was one of the last things I expected. (course, i guess i dont really ever expect to hear from anyone nowadays. everyone seems so busy.) He's having a birthday party on this lake in KY next weekend. And it's funny because I was just thinking about my trip with him, ryan, rodney, will, and todd out to the lake during band season 2 years ago. That was so fun. until will busted out his tooth with the boogie board. That sucked. Anyway, I can't wait to go. The only thing is, sam's baptism is that sunday and I really want to go to that. Sam if you read this, I want you to know how incredibly happy for you I am. This is such a great thing. I dare say the best.

DCI on friday. Don't know when i'll be heading up there. Depends on whether or not I work. Hayley and Jon arent going, but I hear scholes has changed his mind. so we'll see.

Man swimming makes me hungry. And not the european country that I'm going to kind of hungry either.

22 July 2003

MAN i cant get over how many blogs there are out there! Some of them are so cool. I could just sit there refreshing the main page and checking out the most recently published ones...but i wont. TONS of 'em.

I got rained out of work today. SWEET. I'm working over at the Mariott in Nashville. It's not a bad job at all. It's gonna take a while, but still, at least I wasnt the black guy sleeping in the bus stop with my shoes off and an empty beer beneath me. That's gotta suck. I mean, he wasn't homeless, but I dont know how many homeless people wouldve really envied him.

If I can just write a little in this each day I'll be doing good. Sometimes so much happens that I dont feel like sitting down at the compute for an hour writing about it. Plus my stupid internet has been messing up for the past month.

I didn't know that people could write comments about blog entries, but apparently you can.

crap. internet messed up.

okay i'm back.

i'm trying to choose between meeting sam's kyle and sleeping. I wonder if i can do both.

i'm starving. going to eat.

21 July 2003

So it's been over a month now and I haven't written one thing in my stupid blog. So here goes...

I rode a horse today for the first time! (technically, it wasn't the FIRST time, but the first time simply consisted of me sitting on the horse and it walking over to lean on a fence and try and squish me. so i dont count that time.) It was pretty fun. We rode around this corn field and stuff and I rode well. I rode very well. Jesse on the other hand had a bit o' trouble. Granted her horse seemed to be hungry and kept walking off and eating corn, but i still think she instigated a lot of it. I thought it was going to hurt my bum and everything, and it kind of did, but what really hurt the most were my knees. They have been getting twisted or something by the way i was sitting. I dont know, but it hurt. And we got done right before this HUGE storm hit. It looked awesome so I took a few pictures of the clouds. Speaking of pictures, i just bought a new digital camera. The same one jeff used to own. I cant wait. There were other things that I was going to write about but I can't remember them right now because it's 11.0pm and i'm tired. And instead of writing I talked to sam and chance. Ah well. I'll come back and write more tomorrow.

joshman