The Jack Noodle Journal

The rain continues my friends. It must have rained all night. I have got to fix that stupid gutter by our bedroom window. It makes it sound like a torrential downpour is happening. Man, I can hear it from in here now. I wonder if something is blocking the gutter? It kind of looks like there’s a hole in it. The news said yesterday that we are in the middle of a flood alert. We have to pay attention to the possible dangers of the rising rivers. There isn’t any flooding yet but we have to be alert until Sunday evening just in case. I should go down in the basement and make sure it isn’t filling with water.

People, brace yourselves for a bit of bad news. There isn’t any coffee in the house! Oh no. What am I going to do? I can’t believe that I am even able to type. Are any of my sentences making sense? I’m really going to have to find a solution to this coffee crises.

We had a pretty good time last night. We went and had cheap Mexican food at La Cruda with G and Stu. I was so hungry. Actually I am kind of feeling hungry again right now. Dang it, I didn’t eat enough last night! After La Cruda we went to a new place called Nocturnal. It was pretty cool. It’s kind of like an arts community center, bar, gallery, show venue place. The building was remodeled nicely. It looked like someone threw a lot of money at it. The bar was in the basement. I think we will be going back there. I think they were showing an art movie that someone made but we missed it.

Well, it’s the last day of January people. Are you ready to be embraced by the evil clutches of February? What’s going on today you ask? Why, I’m not too sure. I think I am going to send out a few resumes for the JPP, and then I’m going to do some drawing. I should start by going to the store and getting some coffee so that I can function properly.

The rain has been coming down the last few days. I got soaked waiting for the bus downtown yesterday. Lots of rain. That’s good though because that means snow up in the mountains. I think the snow pack is a little low this year, and that always translates into someone moaning and groaning about the water supply in the summer.

I got started on the journal a little later this morning because we were busy taking Mr. Baptist and Ms. Bee to the airport. They’re heading out to Las Vegas today. This is the second time this week that we dropped people off there. Earlier it was Lianne and Martin who were flying off to Hawaii to see Seth and Alicia. I wish I was flying somewhere! Always the driver never the flyer.

Have I mentioned yet this week how much I hate our bank? I think we’ll be shopping for a new one soon. God they annoy me so much I can barely type. To be fair I’m sure their lameness is partly our fault. If we had loads of money sitting in there we wouldn’t be running into these problems.

My meetings went well yesterday. The Job Procurement Program may be taken down from the shelf and dusted off soon here. I’ve got some good leads on some part time work and have quite the Student Employment Advisor in my corner now. You know it really won’t take too much to turn things around here at the Noodle house.

Not too much planned for today that I know of. We’ll probably take the boy for a walk later if the rain clears up a little. I’m kind of sleepy today. I don’t think I slept very well last night. Maybe I should go take a nap before continuing my day.

So I think I’m going to start getting up earlier in the morning. I seem to get more done in the morning and kind of waste my afternoons. Maybe I will get even more done if I get up earlier. Oh my gosh, I am totally turning into an old man. My grandparents and other older folk always get up at insane hours don’t they? K kind of gets annoyed with the early to rise thing because that means that I’m usually falling asleep at a total grade school hour. She likes to stay up late. I think my school schedule will be mostly classes in the morning.

Well, did you see the President’s speech? I was tempted to turn it a couple of times but held on through the whole thing. I tried to really concentrate on what he said, and it was tough staying focused. Boy oh boy. I’m not sure what to say. I’m going to have to check in to a few web sites and see what other people are saying. Quite strange. Did anyone else think that he threw way too much out there so that people wouldn’t stay on any topic too long? He talked about all kinds of things that people haven’t been discussing for a while. Drug addicts, aids in Africa, clones, hydro electric cars? Those are definitely topics of concern but they sure haven’t been out in the forefront of public debate as of late. I told K that he should have thrown the violence in Hollywood in for good measure. It was totally a magic show I thought. Watch my hands wave around up here, look at these topics over here while I move the real topics past you and out the door. I’m not too good with figures but it seemed like he was throwing a lot of money at things. What is one to do? The democrats rebuttal was okay and stay more focused on current topics, but didn’t really provide any plans or solutions either.

Oh, the other topic from yesterday was measure 28. It was a special election that we voted on here in Oregon. It didn’t pass. It was suppose to raise taxes temporarily to try and help battle the budget crises that Oregon is currently facing. I’m not too keen on paying more taxes but somebody has to pay for our kids education, and police men. I don’t really know the whole story of course but I’m sure there is some sort of reorganization that can be done to manage the budget better. I think that’s what people who voted no wanted. State government to be more on the ball. Who knows.

Wow, discussing politics is a good way to fill up typing space huh? There’s a few things going on today. I have a couple of meetings with people to discuss part time work. I hope those go well. Oh man, January is almost over isn’t it? I didn’t notice if the month went fast or slow. I think it was somewhere in between. Just a normal speed month.

Oh people! I am in dire need of coffee. Hold on. I am going to go make some before I fall over and die. Okay I got the pot started. It’s a little bit cooler outside this morning and a little more wet. The Sun poked through some yesterday afternoon. Maybe it will come back later today.

I had started a journal entry yesterday when loud knocks interrupted me and presented my father at the door. I love when people frighten me and the dog by coming over unannounced. It was okay though. We hung out a bit and then went and had breakfast at Denny’s. I never got back to the journal entry so I just scrapped it and started over today.

So what’s going on today? Not much here. I need to make some phone calls and get some documents in order I guess. I need to get to work on the February desktop for you people in the Desktop of the Month Club. I have got a few ideas floating around for it. I just need to sit down and get going on it. Ah, coffee, hold on. There that’s it.

So George W’s state of the union address is tonight. Are you tuning in? It’s kind of hard not to since it’s on every channel. It will be interesting to hear what he’s got to say. The state of my union is in need of some help, I know that much. It sure would be nice if the President said something meaningful about getting the economy back on it’s feet and putting the focus on getting Americans some jobs. I really don’t need to hear anything about Iraq. I’m not holding my breath about tonight’s speech. I just liked fantasizing there for a second that I had faith in my government.

On to more uplifting news. I got a few emails about people wondering how my schooling situation was going. Yeah, I guess I haven’t mentioned it here in a while. So far so good on the school front kids! I was accepted at the Art Institute of Portland. I was pretty sure I would be but it was still fun getting an acceptance letter in the mail. Right now I am trying to figure out with my financial aid officer how we are going to fund this great adventure. Once all that gets figured out I will be starting in April. I need to get a hold of my job placement guy and get placed somewhere as soon as possible. Everything seems to be moving along, I just wish it was April now and I could start and finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Hello. How are you doing this fine morning? Things are fair here. It was another warm evening last night. It rained pretty hard, There was this tin can outside on the ground that the water kept pelting and making a loud clang. It was going all night until I finally went outside and picked the can up. I can’t believe I let it go that long now that I think about it. It was driving me crazy. I think they said that it’s suppose to keep raining throughout the day today.

It’s Super Bowl Sunday today. What do you think about that? Who cares? Super Bowl Sunday is lame. Football is lame. Who’s even playing? No, just kidding. I’m sure football is fine. We may head off to a Super Bowl party today, but probably not. I’m sure we won’t see the game.

Hey I’m back. I had a big pause there. I stopped writing in mid journal. I can’t think of anything to write today. Well, let’s see. Hmmm, Nope nothing.

It’s balmy out there this morning! I took the dog out earlier just wearing a tee shirt and sweats, and I wasn’t even cold. I was almost comfortable. It’s great for sure, but isn’t this warm weather a little weird? Tell me people, is it from the green house effects? Global warming? Maybe I shouldn’t go outside anymore.

So last night I gathered up my pennies and went and had a beer with Eugene and New Friend Joel at the Basement Pub. It was good to get out of the house finally. I think I talked too much though. I got too excited being out in public and all.

So what’s going on today? Not much here. I am trying to avoid the temptation to go out and rent Ratchet and Clank again. K is off at day number 2 of her new job. She likes it so far. It seems pretty cool. I’m home alone today with the boys. Phillip has decided to sit on my lap and snore now. He hasn’t done that in a while and is a bit bigger than last time. It’s putting a strain on my right arm and throwing my typing off.

Today I need to get some chores out of the way. I need to pick up a little bit here in the laboratory. I’m looking for a manual I printed out for one of my music programs and have where it could be narrowed down to 2 spots. Yep, not much going on today. We may go see Mr. Baptist later in the evening, but I’m not sure.

Hey there all. The weekend is almost here! Yeah! Do you have any exciting plans? It’s raining now, but man was it a nice day yesterday! It was like a warm spring day. I can’t believe this weather. My apologies to you if you are reading this while in the East or South of the country, I guess you guys are getting buried in the snow!

Not much going on here again as usual today. Gosh I’m having trouble staying focused on this journal this morning. Hold on let me get some more coffee. That may help.

K is off starting her first day at a new part time job. Good for her! Thankfully one of us started working! Hey wait a second though, that’s not fair! She went out and got the first job she applied for. Why was it taking me so long? This part time gig will help bring in some dough while she is between schools. I need to go out a get something now. Between the two of us we could actually have a full time worker in this house!

Oh boy, was I mad at the cat yesterday! I usually have my coffee (not anymore though) sitting on a stool next to my desk here in the laboratory. Pierre jumped up and knocked the coffee cup off of the stool and all over the carpet. I was really mad because this is the second time this week that he’s done the same thing! Coffee is not good for light carpets people! I am definitely keeping an eye on my coffee cup while that jerk is in here from now on. We got quite a bit of it up off the carpet but there are some stains. At first the mess looked like someone got stabbed in here. It kind of stinks in here now like old coffee grounds. We have a couple of carpet stain remover cleaners, but I think we may have to get one of those foamy kinds or get a steam cleaner.

So I have been tuning in to Moby’s journal and a couple of other ones for fun the last few days, and they have been logging some good thoughts about the up coming war in Iraq. It’s been making me wonder if I should put my two cents in. What could I possibly add to the debate? Should I be including more serious commentary than how my cat has been destroying my carpet? Actually I think what’s not being said here in the journal is kind of telling in it’s own right isn’t it? The distractions and changes of subject that keep one going from day to day.

I just don’t know where to begin. I am very overwhelmed with how lame everything in the World is. I’m not sure what to do about it. Yeah the President sucks and war is bad, but I am poor, unemployed, can’t afford to buy a beer and that seems to be taking center stage for me personally. Almost everyone I know is out of work or in fear of being out of work, the state I live in is out of money, kids here don’t have any money for their schools. Things are bad here at home and the jerks in charge and a large portion of brain dead Americans think we should be messing around in other countries. I’m tired of this crap.

I miss the good old days. Maybe the good times will come back again soon? Let’s keep our fingers crossed. Until that day I’ll keep writing about Pierre and Phillip.

Good morning all. It looks like we have a bit of a break from the rain fall this morning. The Sun is trying to poke it’s head out. We went for a night time dog walk last night and it was amazing out. We were all bundled up and the rain had just stopped so everything was crisp and clean. It was really fun. Phillip loved it.

One of the stops on the walk last night was to take Ratchet and Clank back to the video store. I was so close to finishing it, but didn’t. Gosh, I’m really starting to feel withdrawals from not having it. I keep thinking, “Oh yes, I could get a hundred thousand bolts to buy the Ryno gun on the hover board racing level when I play it this morning.” I won’t be playing it this morning! I think I will wait a while and then rent it again. I can’t buy it for sure now though that I’m almost finished. That’s good, seeing how I don’t have any money anyway. Very fun game. One of you have to play it so we can talk about it and see if you liked it like I did. Oh man! Do you know what? I never found the chicken gun that they always show in the TV commercials for it. Well I’m really going to have to rent it again now.

Ah, no more video games. Now I can take my life back and get to work again. What will I do today? What has been suffering during the video game faze? I need to get back to doing some reading. That will be a good start. There are a couple of emails waiting for me that I have been meaning to respond to. I must get to work on this web site and I definitely need to do something about the transmission. All the songs on there are like oldie, classic rock tunes now that it has been so long since I have updated them.

Later today I am going to go over to my brother’s house and visit with them. That should be fun. I have the “Muppets Take Manhattan” DVD I got off a cereal box that I want to see with my nephews. I also have to get the video camera out and make them a copy of the eldest Noodle’s Christmas pageant.

Hey! Hey! Long time no see, people! How have you been doing? It’s going pretty okay here. Sorry I haven’t written in so long. I Had put the computer away and was too lazy to get it out yesterday. Not much has been going on these last few days. We are continuing our hermit lifestyle and have been staying in seclusion. Slow times at the Noodle house. I’ll get back on the writing train now, I promise.

We’ve got rain outside again! The Sun has finally decided to leave us again and the rain is back. It’s pretty dark out this morning. I think they said this is the start of a pretty wet rest of the week. K officially declared that winter was over the other day and that spring is here now. She has already put up her Valentines Day decorations. I tried to convince her that we were still due for a month or 2 more of winter, but she wouldn’t hear it.

My life has still been revolving around Ratchet and Clank these last few days. I am sick with addiction to it. I have been playing the video game constantly. I think I may be nearing the end of it, but I’m not sure. Today is the last day that I can play it before I have to return it to the video store. Maybe I will make one last push to finish it after I hang up here. I am definitely going to rent it again if I don’t finish it today. It has been a very fun game. My eyes are totally blood shot from staring at the TV screen so much.

Speaking of TV, why does it suck so much? I don’t know why I am always surprised. Maybe it has always sucked and it has taken me this long in life to come to terms with it. 24 wasn’t on last night, so that they could show a 2 hour “reality” show. Oh yeah, a new Simpsons wasn’t on so that they could show “Something About Mary”. Movies on network television once again! I can’t believe there are so many reality shows. They totally suck you in if you’re not careful. I can’t believe there are so many people watching them. They’re bad people! I miss the days of good old fiction.

Who cares though really? I shouldn’t be rotting my brain with TV and video games anyway. I should be pursuing more academic pastimes. I should be trying to exercise my brain with creating. I should be reading, writing, drawing, painting, filming and computing.

Man oh man. I slept in a little bit this morning. Getting started a tad later. That’s okay though, I slept well. I feel pretty refreshed this morning. It’s another sunny one out there! Hey, the weekend kind of snuck up on us, didn’t it? Well this whole week was a kind of strange weekend week. I think we are permanently stuck on Saturday here at the Noodle house. What do you folks have planned for weekend fun? We once again, are laying pretty low here. I think we are going to go see Mr. Baptist and Ms. Bee later today.

Oh yeah. The meeting at my school went great on Thursday. I turned in my stuff and got some more things to complete. I got a huge stack of financial aid papers to fill out and sign my life away on. It looks like everything is a go. I’m still in the applying stage, but it seems like that is really only a formality and I’m in. That would be pretty silly and strange if I didn’t get accepted there. I kind of just thought I would be accepted automatically. Is that pompous or what? One cool thing I found out on Thursday is that the job placement people help you find part time work right away. You don’t have to start school to begin using their services. Gosh you get educated and they find work for you. I was doing this unemployed thing all wrong last year.

My video game faze is continuing people! I’m a video game playing mad man now! I went and rented the one that I had been eyeing for a while, “Ratchet and Clank”. Oh my goodness, it is a gorgeous game. It’s very similar to the other one I own, Jak and Daxter. They are both adventure games. Ratchet and Clank is more of a sci-fi game. There are robots and space ships everywhere. The weapons that you go around collecting and purchasing are quite zany. The craziest one I’ve gotten so far is the suck canon. It’s sucks your enemies up into the gun and then shoots them out as a missile back at your other enemies. The game is really fun. It’s more of a visual game and gadget collecting game than Jak and Daxter. It’s not as difficult either. That being said though, I am actually stuck on a section that keeps filling up with water and drowning me. I think I should probably find some scuba gear. I’m trying to finish the game all in one rental so I don’t have to go out and buy it. If I had money though, I totally would. I highly recommend Ratchet and Clank. It is very entertaining.

Video game playing is taking up a large portion of my time these last few days. I do need to get back to some reading, drawing and creating one of these days. I want to add more products to the Noodle shop before too long here. Things aren’t flying off the shelves there, it’s more just for fun. I also need to put some ideas down on paper before I forget them. Well, if past video game fazes are any indication, I probably have about another week until this one passes. They seem to often occur in January don’t they? I’ll get back to the important work after that.