The Jack Noodle Journal

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hey everybody. Long time no write, I know. I’ve had some annoyance this week that took the wind out of my writing sails. I was off a bit last entry when I was thinking this would be a good week. I’m back now though for some serious write time. I think I have cold. Dang it. NO! Not on turkey day! Come on Noodle cheer it up a bit man.

Ah yes turkey day. The table is already set and the Turkey is thawing and getting ready to jump into the oven. We have a few more things to do to get ready and then we’ll be set for the arrival of our guests at 2. I’ve got to vacuum and fold some laundry. K has done so much work over the last few days. People, that girl is awesome! Soon we’ll be stuffing ourselves so full of food that we’ll think we will explode. I don’t feel very festive today. Hopefully that will change before the end of the day? Maybe the true spirit of Thanksgiving will hit me and I’ll find so many things to be thankful for this lousy year.

I’m bummed out because I had a what I thought to be, promising job interview on Tuesday that I didn’t get. It sucks because I totally could have done that job. ARGH! I am so tired of going to interviews! I get all worked up, and cleaned up. Try to go in and talk myself up. Then I get all anxious while I wait to find out after the interview and then let down. I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t get it, I guess it was just because they found someone better. I think I did stumble a bit while trying to express some knowledge of the task at hand verbally. Maybe I didn’t go in there wanting it enough.

So Tuesday sucked until my buddy, New Friend Joel called and said he had free tickets to the Blazers game. One of the distributors came into Joel’s work and gave him the tickets. We had so much fun at the game. It was once again in the Suite seats. Gosh twice in one month with the Suite seats. So cool. This time around there was free food and alcohol! I had never been to a Blazers game before. It was pretty crazy. There’s a lot of stuff going on that you don’t see when you watch the game on TV. A lot more weirdos to watch. The Blazers played and beat the Houston Rockets. I don’t remember what the score was, but it was a pretty low scoring game. Just what the doctor ordered though. I was able to forget about my problems for a good couple of hours. I think I caught my cold walking back 10 blocks to the car after the game.

Come on dude, it’s turkey day, cheer up! Okay, Okay, I will try to be happy today. We are having our 2nd annual post Thanksgiving party tonight as well. All of the chums will come by after their family events are finished for drinks and fun. We are making it a silhouette party. The guests will be able to sit in front of a light and have their silhouette traced like we did in grade school. Art suitable for framing. That was K’s brilliant idea once again.

Well okay, I’ve got to get to my chores, so I’ve got to run. I hope you all have a good Thanksgiving. Don’t eat too much Turkey and be safe.

It’s Monday already? What happened to the weekend? Well I’m ready for it. Bring it on Monday! I’ve got my left over coffee microwaved and now I am good to go. I think this is going to be a good week, people. Can’t you just feel it? Something good is bound to happen this week. Oh yeah it’s a short work week because of Thanksgiving. Well that’s kind of nice. It’s too bad though money wise because I sure could use the 40 hours of pay. Like we’ve been saying though, oh well.

I had some fun raking the leaves yesterday and doing a bit of yard clean up. It was kind of therapeutic. The weather was gorgeous. I got the sunflowers chopped down as well as the corn. I was unaware until this year, that sunflowers had to be planted every year. I thought that you planted them once and they just came back every Summer. You learn something new every day I guess. That or maybe K is feeding me a line.

Well hmm lets see. We watched “The Musketeer” last night. Boy was that a stinker of a movie. Definitely pass by it if you see it in the video store. The only thing that was good about was the sword play and stunts. I think that is probably why they made the movie, they needed something to showcase the sword fights and crazy horse and carriage chases. We also saw “Spiderman” again. That puppy is pretty good. Ms. Bee bought us the DVD so now we can watch it over and over again.

Yesterday I did some more experimenting with the new music programs. Man, I love that stuff. It’s so exciting. I played it through the better speakers and cranked it up. I should host a Noodle dance party one of these days. I need to read up on the manuals and check out the web sites for information on how to use this stuff. It’s so easy to tinker around with that it may take some effort to stop playing and learn how to use it.

Good morning to you. How’s everything going? I’m doing alright this morning. Oh I need some coffee. I still feel sleepy. Maybe I should go back to bed. I haven’t slept in for a while now, that would probably be good for me.

Hi I’m back. Hold on let me get some fresh coffee. We just finished listening to This American Life on NPR. It was a good one. I love that show. Yum. That coffee is excellent.

Well, the weekend continues on. We hid out last night at Mr. Baptist’s house in Oregon City, and we’re hiding out here today. We are out of money and laying low hoping to participate in no cost or low cost events. This sucks. I’ve been working almost a month now and we are still in the hole. It’s going to take us a little while to catch up I guess. I can’t wait for that day, let me tell you. I am so tired of this crap.

The last event that I will probably be attending for a while on Friday, was great. I thought the Thermals did a good job rocking it. The sound in Disjecta isn’t the greatest, but the scene is pretty cool. There was lots of people there. The Shins were pretty good also. I would like to hear their CD. After the show Matt, Matt’s friend Ty and I went and closed down the Basement Pub. That’s a pretty cool place. Pabst Blue Ribbon, the drink of the unemployed is nice and cheap there.

Yesterday while sitting around on my poor, broke ass I did some experimenting with my new music programs. Oh my gosh people! That stuff is so cool. I’ve got a lot of learning to do. This stuff is pretty amazing though. There are some cool sounds waiting to be unleashed from this computer. I played around most of the day with the programs. I would like to do that some more today.

I have been meaning to go out and rake the leaves for the last few days, and now the neighbor is beating me to it! Argh! I’ve got to get out there and get to work! I can’t have him thinking I’m a lazy non leaf raker. I also should cut down the dead sunflowers and corn husks.

Yeah! Tonight is a new Simpsons. It looks good.

Here I am at it again, a before work entry. I’ve got to figure out a way to do this better. Should I switch the journal time to the evening? I’m all ready for work now but I’ve only got about a half an hour to type this so I feel rushed. I don’t think I could do a before bed time schedule, I’m not as alert then as I am now and I would probably have the tendency to babble. I’ll just get up earlier and make enough time in the morning. I’m also a bit scattered this morning because there’s a lot of stuff going on. I’ve got quite a few irons in the fire. Is that how you say it? How ever you say it, I’m kind of busy. A have a lot on my mind. I hope I don’t leave the house without my pants.

Hey the weekend is here in 8 hours. Are you ready for it? I know I am. Tonight I am going to see my current favorite Portland band play. The Thermals. They’re playing tonight at Disjecta over in Northeast. The Shins, All Girl Summer Fun Band, and somebody else will be playing also. I think it will be a great show. You all must attend. I insist.

Wow. Thanksgiving is next week. Are you ready to eat some turkey? We’re have a feast here that day. Mr. Baptist, Ms. Bee and some family members will be in attendance. I’m going to roll my sleeves up, put on an apron and really help out this year. Maybe I can make the mash potatoes? K is an excellent cook and a superb hostess. I am a wonderful dish washer and excellent hot toddy drinker.

Oh my goodness. My new best work friend totally came through and loaded me up with some music software, kids! Double Darren is saved! Man oh man though I’m going to have to do a lot of learning. Some of that stuff is complex! There are so many cool sounds. I could spend ours making weird noises and tweaking sound effects.

Alright. Got to run. That wasn’t too bad for a half an hour. I wish I was a faster thinker and typist. I’ll talk to you some more tomorrow. Oh yeah I actually don’t have to work this weekend. That’s kind of nice.

Hey, hey! It’s Wednesday! Best day of the week! Is it still? I think maybe Friday is beating Wednesday out lately. Remember how we use to go on Freedom Walks? When freedom would still have us? Phillip and I went on a walk yesterday to Hawthorne, to say hi to our brothers and sisters. We gots to still try to keep it real my family! Man, November is already almost over. I know I say this too many times every other month, but didn’t November just zoom by? I still have stuff left to do this month. It can’t be over yet.

I slept in a little bit this morning. I seem to be sleeping better these last few days. I’m not having anymore dreams about wiring buildings at least. It was kind of foggy this morning. It looked pretty out. Oh my goodness! Did any of you get outside last night and see the moon? It was so bright and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The stars were everywhere.

Last night we went to the Bridgeport Ale House for dinner. It was pretty tasty. The Blue Heron IPA was in perfect form. While dining we overheard the table next to us making Nike talk. Being now from the Adidas camp, our ears perked up and we tried to get some scoops. We weren’t successful though. That’s all there is in this town I think, Nike and Adidas employees sneaking around and whispering. There are so many of them! After being at Adidas for a while now, I think it would be totally cool to work at Nike. Well okay, not totally cool, but it would be interesting to compare and contrast for a few days I guess.

We started watching the movie “Hollywood Ending” again and fell asleep again just like the first time. It’s a Woody Allen movie. It’s a pretty good movie for sure but it does require a bit of paying attention, which is hard to do sometimes if you are sleepy. Not much action and lots of talking. It’s good though and I’m sure we’ll like it when we finally see the ending. K and I are usually pretty happy with Woody Allen movies.

Well today I am going to continue on with the list of things to do that I went on a mini tirade about in yesterday’s entry. I don’t care for making checklists all the time here in the journal. You people need more from me than a list of things I have to get at the grocery store. Which reminds me, don’t forget light bulbs, Noodle.

Yesterday while going through my list and doing some computer work, I listened to another persons internet radio station and not my own transmission. Wheew good stuff. I heard a whole bunch of cool new tunes and bands. I made a list of CDs that I want to eventually check out. I think I may listen to that station again today. I need to add some new songs to my transmission as soon as possible. It’s so hard to keep up with the cool kids!

Howdy kids! Sorry it has been so long. I hope you are all doing well this fine morning. I’m doing pretty good. Sorry I haven’t been updating the journal that much this week. It’s just that when I get ready to sit down and start typing, I get so tired. I’m not sure why I’m tired. I haven’t been working too hard. Maybe it’s the having to be somewhere that isn’t my couch for 8 hours a day. I have today off. I should be able to catch up with my napping.

Well, not too much of anything has been happening since we’ve last spoke. Just chilling mostly I guess. The weekend was alright. We went and checked out G and Stu’s new house, Nice work kids! Their house was totally cool. They are going to have some fun with that puppy. They were being much too modest before we saw it, saying it was a junker fixer upper. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s darling. I think It’s pretty much ready for the move in. Sign me up for the box lifting guys! On Saturday night we went to the Ringler’s Annex. That was just okay. They seemed to be under staffed or something.

I met this cool guy at work that is into making electronic computer music. He says that he can totally hook me up with some music programs for my MAC. That would be way cool since my MAC has more juice than my PC. My PC is where all of my current music making programs are. It would be good to make some more music for Double Darren. My 11 fans have been waiting patiently for another hit single.

Today I think I’ve got to buckle down and get to work. Starting off this morning I’ve got a bunch of computing to do. I’ve got some resume reworking and illustration samples to get together. I have some photos that I would like to get off of my camera and email out to some folks. I need to check a few job boards. I would like to do up some art for a Noodle coffee travel mug. I keep finding myself at work and in the car wishing I had one. If I have some time left I would like to work on this web page a bit. I know I keep saying that, but maybe if I say it enough I’ll actually do it one of these days.

I’ve got quite a bit of cleaning up to do around this house. It’s a freaking mess! Oh man, there is a mountain of dishes that I am not looking forward to climbing. I need to take the dog for a long walk today. I also have some bills that need to get in the mail. Oh my, where will I find the time for all of this? Hey Noodle, take it easy brother. One thing at a time.

Good morning all! I am trying that before work journal entry again to see how it works. I think I have it figured out now. You take your shower, get all ready to go, then get on the computer and start typing. Can you believe it’s Friday already? My week was kind of split weird because of working on the weekend, but it still seemed quick. I’ve got to work again this weekend. This is the final move over there so this should be the last work weekend. This has been a pretty good job. I don’t have any complaints really. It’s been kind of fun.

Do you guys have any plans for the weekend? I don’t think we have anything planned. It should be pretty mellow around here. Having to work the following mornings makes for mild Noodle fun. It’s good though to take it easy for a few weekends huh? Maybe we will try to get out to the movie theater and see a movie or two. That might be fun. I still want to see Star Wars at the IMAX. I don’t want to pay for it though. My inside man says he can’t get anybody in for free until the crowds die down. We’ll see.

So I talked to Geoffrey yesterday. He’s doing good. He says that the guys up there want to see some more drawings and are going to try to get me on a freelance project soon. That would be cool I guess. I don’t know guys, I’ll believe it when I see it. All this trying out and interviewing stuff sure does get old. I know I’m talented people! Why do I have to keep trying to prove it to you jokers? I need to just walk into a place sit down, and start producing. No questions, tests or interviews. Just give me the work. I was totally day dreaming yesterday at work while I was walking around looking at stuff, and it hit me again. It so depends on who you know out there right now! Not just that though, you have to know the right people. I have a good collection of people in the know, but it still seems like I need to get up a few more levels to the spot where the people you know usher you in and sit you down at a desk. Ah, who cares. Stuff seems to be working out okay for now.

My Mom emailed last night and said that my Uncle Roy died. Wow. Yep. He was my Grandmother’s sister’s husband, so he was more of a Great Uncle I guess. Or would that be a Grand Uncle? He was in his 80’s. My family is all pretty young on both sides still and he is the first one to go. My mother liked him a lot. Sad to see him go. I will always have fond memories of him saying after dinner, that he had to go check the weather. As a kid I always thought he really was out there checking what the weather was doing.

Still raining pretty good out there for you folks. I should probably go to the basement and see what the moisture is like down there. That would stink to open the door and have a wall of dirty water crash down on me.

Well I had a pretty good day yesterday. I went and picked Eugene up. We drove around and took care of some errands that he had to run. In the evening we went and had dinner at the Bagdad and the rest of the gang joined us for the movie “One Hour Photo”. Good flick! Robin Williams plays a guy who works in a photo lab in a department store, who is fascinated with a family who’s photos he develops. Robin Williams is excellent! He made me nervous the whole movie. The filming and some of the shots were very good. It was a pretty strange movie. Kind of creepy. You should go see it.

What should I do today huh? You know what I really should do is work on this here web page. There has been some stuff that I have been meaning to do but haven’t got to yet. I sure would like to work on some more Double Darren songs. I need to update the transmission also with some different tunes. I have been meaning to fix up the garden for like 8 months now. I’ve got plans for the 62nd & Radish section also. Oh goodness. I have chores here in the house to take care of and I really must clean this laboratory up soon. It’s such a mess. I should probably take the dog for a walk today so that he can get some exercise. So much that I want to do. I’m going to need a day off from my day off. Gosh now I’m all worked up into a frenzy.

I started yesterday, and should continue today, contacting all of my old contacts. Some people I haven’t talked to in a while. Maybe they have had some work come in since we have last talked. I haven’t talked to Geoffrey in about a week. I need to see what’s going on with that home slice. I am really nervous about not working now that I am working again. Gosh this sucks. Maybe I have a scar now and will always be fearful of unemployment like those people who lived through the Great Depression keep cupboards full of extra food. I’m so close to being comfortable again. I just need a gig that is a little more solid and secure.

Gee, I’m kind of a mess this morning. I need to calm down and take some deep breaths… Maybe I should go beat some pimps to death with a baseball bat on Grand Theft Auto 3. Would that help?

Happy rainy Tuesday to you. That rain is coming down! Hope you are all doing well. I’m doing good this morning. I have today off. I need to go start some coffee. I’m feeling a bit groggy this morning. I’m glad I have a break today. I was getting pretty tired. Hopefully I can find something fun to do today. I’m sure something will come up. Hold on one second I need to take a shoe away from the dog…

Oh my goodness! The Tom Petty show was so much fun on Sunday. Let me tell you, watching a show from a suite is a great way to go. They brought you drinks you had a room to chill in, you had your own bathroom and you could sit in your seat on the balcony and see the show. It was up kind of high but the view was great and the sound was perfect. It was a little bit funny cheering Tom on from our suite seats as he was going on about the evils of “The Man”. Mr. Petty really rocked it. He was awesome. He played the new ones and quite a few of the classics. Gosh, watching the pros play their instruments is so cool. Those guys really know what they’re doing. K and I both had a ball. It was a totally cool night.

Yes and on Saturday, Fantastic Idea Project rocked it just as well. That show went kind of late and I felt myself falling asleep during the other acts. Gosh I’m turning into such an old man. Hey the FIP cd is out now kids. You should all run out and purchase one. Your humble narrator did the layout and helped with the graphics. I’m not sure where you’ll be able to get it, but you could go to their label in Spain here and get one I bet.

I’m listening to the new Johnny Cash CD right now. It’s pretty cool. He does a crazy version of the Nine Inch Nails song, “Hurt”. Those old country dudes are so cool. I hate most country music, but the guys like Cash and Willie are okay in my book. I like some of the old stuff also. The other CD we got at the same time was the new Petty CD “Last DJ” so that we would know what we would be seeing at the show. It’s a good one. That Last DJ song really gets burrowed into your head though, so I don’t know how many more times I can listen to it again without singing it all day.

Well hmm. I wonder what I should do today. Perhaps I will go hunt down my friend Eugene and see what he’s doing on his vacation week. I also need to ask him if it was him who was standing in the flower bed scratching on our window last night trying to scare us. Maybe I’ll take Phillip out for a car ride somewhere. That might be fun. I should probably take care of a few things like mailing some bills and printing out some more resumes.

Once again with the early morning entry. How are you all doing? Pretty good here. I don’t think I slept very well last night. I kept waking up. I was listen to a CD with headphones in bed, and fell asleep with them on. I woke up with a start in the middle of the night, didn’t know where I was and hurled the headphones on the floor. Later in the evening I dreamt that the landlord from our old apartment building was telling me that I should go get some therapy, because he thought I was crazy. Through out the night I kept dreaming that things were wired wrong, and that cables weren’t going to the right spot. This network administration stuff is really getting to me. Ha!

Hold on one second. I MUST get some coffee now. I am aching for it… There that’s better. People, I am heading off to work on a Saturday. Yep you heard me right. That’s good though folks. I am in need of the hours I would work 24 hours a day if they would let me. Well, no not that many hours.

Hey we’re going to see Tom Petty tomorrow night! Woo hoo! I won tickets from a drawing at work. Ha ha! I guess Adidas has season tickets for a suite at the Rose Garden Arena and they give tickets away to their workers. I actually won tickets for the No Doubt concert tonight first but then I traded them to this girl who had won the Petty tickets because I wanted to see him more. Sunday! Don’t let me forget to record the season premiere of the Simpsons. That’s funny though because Tom Petty is on the Simpsons that night.

That’s good now our weekend schedule is getting filled up. We will actually be properly entertain this weekend. Working, Fantastic Idea Project tonight, working tomorrow, Tom Petty tomorrow night.

Well looks like I’ve got to run. There was some more I thought I had to say but I can’t remember it in this short amount of time.