The Jack Noodle Journal

Boy oh boy, June is just slipping away isn’t it? What the heck are we going to do when July gets here? I don’t have any big plans for July. Just school again. I do really need to do something fun on my time off. We will probably be going camping around the 4th. That will be fun. Yesterday was perfect weather-wise. More of the same today. We went shopping yesterday for party supplies and it looks like everything is a go! I think that tonight I will be making my famous potato salad and a birthday cake.

It looks like I’m going to have to do something legitimate today because I won’t be playing video games. I beat the Matrix game yesterday. It wasn’t too hard. I wasn’t expecting the finishing point when it came. It was a pretty fun game. All of the movie sections and additions to the Matrix story line were pretty cool. I totally want to see the movie again and watch the Ghost and Niobe characters more closely. It was cool at the end, they had a preview of the final movie “Revolutions”. I think it might have been the same trailer as the one that showed if you waited through all of the credits at the end of Reloaded. I think I would have been mad at myself if I bought that game. It was really more like an interactive movie than a game. It was good though because it got my mind going on some ideas for my own projects and experiments.

Oh hey, guess who is going to be a computer lab monitor next term? Yep, that’s right, this guy. That should be an alright gig. I mean I’m going to be at the school anyway, I might as well get paid for some of it, right? It’s not very much money, but every little bit helps. 15 hours a week. That’s right folks it’s serious business when you come to a Noodle computer lab. No messing around. I’ll probably be able to get some reading done with that job.

I remember moaning and groaning about my lack of inspiration a few weeks back. I think that my levels are back up to good working order. I have had a lot of ideas and am starting to scheme again. I’m thinking about contest pieces, Noodle web page redesigns, comic books, animations, interactive projects, story lines, new companies. People, it is all starting to boil. Boil? Is that right? Things are starting to bubble underneath the surface? Better? How about the Noodle volcano is about to blow it’s top, spewing forth molten lava of creativity.

Good morning caped crusaders! How are you all doing this lovely day? I am doing pretty good. It looks like Saturday will be sunny and in the upper 80s. That’s according to our local channel 2, ABC news affiliate. That’s some good news for our beautiful K’s birthday bash. Hopefully the weather reports are true. They said that today is suppose to get up into the 90s. Yeah! Summer! Summer! Summer!

Last evening I played several hours of the Enter the Matrix video game. It’s pretty fun. I’m getting quite far into it. I’m playing on the easy option instead of normal or difficult, so that it goes faster. I don’t want to have to spend a lot of time fighting goons that shoot better than me and punch harder. I just want to blow right through them so that I can see the movie bits and observe the structure and interactive story elements.

Oh my gosh, my next video game purchase is going to be the new Tomb Raider game. Did I say purchase? I meant rental. Lame movies aside, those games are really fun. The first Tomb Raider is probably my favorite game of all time. The new one really looks fancy and slick. The graphics on these games are getting so smooth. There were a few moments on this Matrix game where it took a couple of seconds to tell if I was watching movie footage are 3d game footage. Yeah, so what is the deal with the new Tomb Raider movie? Why is it that I am only seeing commercials about it now? You’d think that they would have been filling up all of the airwaves with it’s commercials. I haven’t actually seen a movie trailer yet, just a Jeep commercial.

Hold on one second. I have got to get some freshly brewed coffee and take the dog out to go potty. So today is going to be another mellow one for yours truly. I’ll play some video games for a while, do some reading, maybe some writing, and I’ll think about drawing. I do have a butt load of chores to do today, so my fun time may be cut to a minimum in all actuality. Dang. I probably should be pulling some weeds outside also. Well, it’s going to be too hot for that today. I really, absolutely, need to clean out this damn computer room! God, I keep talking about it! I just need to suck it up and do it. I think maybe the solution might be to take everything out of it and then go through everything and then put the stuff back into it. A total overhaul.

Oh my gosh! Yes it’s true. 3 journal entries in a row. Wow. Looks like I am back on track now huh? Another thing that is back on track this morning is the weather. Looks like summer is here again today. I hope it sticks around until Saturday. K’s birthday is on Saturday and I am going to try to throw her a barbecue birthday party. Yee haw! You can almost hear the meat juices sizzling on the grill. Yes I hope it all goes well because that chick deserves the best. I have got to get off my ass and start preparing for it right now though.

My friends, the moment of truth has arrived. I checked the school web site this morning and Mr. Noodle’s grades for the Spring 2003 term are in! Yes sir. Drum roll please… I got 4 As and a B+! Tah dah! Woo Hoo! 3.9 GPA. I am quite pleased. See, you all didn’t know I was that much of a scholar, did you? The B+ was in my basic html class. Most surprising and wonderful of all was that I got an A in math! The class I was most worried about. I am very happy. I can’t rest on my laurels now though. I’ve brought this game to the table and I am going to have to maintain this level of excellence for the remaining 2 years. It may be tough, but I’m going to keep working hard and do it people!

The puppy is sleeping on my lap now and his heavy head resting on my arm is making it hard to type. Oh, there he goes after the cat. Just a power nap. Well, I guess I’ll get back to playing my Matrix video game some more today. I think I’ll also do some cleaning, some K party inviting and planning, and I will probably spend a good chunk of time looking for some part time work. Hey, if you guys have heard of anyone looking to hire a 3.9 GPA college student for part time work, let me know.

Hello. It doesn’t feel as chilly as it did yesterday, but it’s still pretty grey out there this morning. Hold on one second, I have got to go microwave some coffee to help get me woken up. How’s everybody doing today? I’m doing pretty good so far this morning. If the Sun came out just a little bit more I bet I would be in the mood to do something more summer like. I took Phillip for a long walk yesterday and that was pretty fun. Speaking of, hold on one more second while I take the boy out for his morning potty.

I rented and have been playing the “Enter the Matrix” video game. It’s pretty cool. I read a review of it before and the review said that it was more like a movie than a game, and I think that’s a fair statement. The game elements are just in the way till you can watch the movie bits. They filmed all of the movie footage at the same time as they filmed the movie. It’s interesting because the game is totally the story that was going on in the background of the Matrix Reloaded movie. It makes me want to see the movie again to see how well everything lines up. I’m assuming that everything is seamless. It reminds of that idea that was going on in the Back to the Future sequels, where as each film progressed the movie goer would sneak with Michael J. Fox behind a set or a scene that was going on in the previous movie. I’m not sure yet if that’s what’s going on with the video game, but I sure do love crap like that. One of these days I’m going to write a series of movies that all connect like that. Oooh, maybe a TV show. Hmm yeah. I’m going to get started on the script for that right after I am done playing the video game.

So yeah, I have been chilling with the video game and just hanging out. I have been doing some good thinking, scheming and plotting. I have been enjoying reading that Essays On Typography book I got. Yesterday applied to a couple of part time jobs. Baby, we are so out of money here it isn’t even funny. We are broke, broke, broke. Hence the looking for jobs bit. I need to get a hold of some freelance gigs. That would be cool.

Have you guys seen the marvelous job that Eugene has done with the printing of the Transmission West CD cover yet? It looks totally cool. It turned out really well. I haven’t talked to the members of the band yet, but I hope they like it. I’m sure they will. Yes, I am already thinking ahead to my design using that same packaging for my graduation portfolio DVD

Good morning all. It’s looking pretty grey out there this morning. I was thinking about going out and pulling some weeds today, but not now if I’m going to need an umbrella to do it. It has been pretty chilly the last couple of days. Last night I was thinking about turning the heat on, but quickly came to my senses. I’m sure things will warm up again before I know it. Here we are again at another lame Monday. This Monday is a bit better because it is the start of my summer vacation. How was your weekend? Ours was pretty nice. It could have been longer of course.

We did something really fun yesterday. We went to the Clackamas AKC dog show. We went to go check out the Boston terriers. They were so cute. We took Phillip and told him to look at how good dogs behaved. Some of the other dogs seemed a little jealous of Phillip and his no rules lifestyle. Phillip was much larger than the Bostons that were showing. Phillip is 27 pounds and they were all under 18. The dog show was quite interesting and we had a fun time. My favorite dogs besides the Bostons were the St. Bernards and the Borzoi were crazy elegant. I thought the Doberman Pinschers looked really cool. I would have liked to have seen the judging on the Boxers, but we missed it. K liked the French Bulldogs. Next time I’m going to take some business cards and get some design work from those people. Dog people have all kinds of need for nice design, good dog illustrations, and web services.

I’ve got to take K off to her first day of summer school now. Everyone wish her luck. Ha ha she starts up again when I’m off. We didn’t plan that very well for family vacations did we?

Well, will you look at who finally decided to come and write a journal entry? People, people, please accept my most humble apologies. I really should have written at least once during these last 4 days to tell you how the week was going. I missed talking to you lovely folks. It’s Saturday now and I’ve got some fresh coffee brewing. It was a tad bit rainy yesterday. It’s a tad bit sunny this morning. It’s been a tad bit chilly these last few days. I think it’s suppose to get rainy by this afternoon. Hold on one second the aroma of the freshly brewed coffee is calling to me. Oh yes! Tasty!

HEY! Spring term is all finished up kids! Woo hoo! I think it ended absolutely magnificently. I was pretty stressed out over a couple of tests due to my poor test taking skills, but I reviewed and studied hard before each test and they all went well. I think I did really good on all of my finals actually. This term will be an excellent first showing for me at the Art Institute. I’m pretty sure I’ve got myself a decent grade point average now. We’ll see next week. Oh man, I am so happy that math is over with. The class and instructor were fine and all, it’s just that forcing myself to care about something I despise and constantly worrying about passing was really getting to me. Hey once again a big shout out to my brother and the lovely Lianne for their math assistance.

Now it’s rest and relaxation time for this Noodle. School doesn’t start again until July 14th. 3 weeks. Gosh, yeah, now what do I do without any homework? That’s a silly question. Don’t worry about it Noodle. Your homework will be back before you know it. I think one thing I am going to get started on today, right after I hang up here, is demolish and rebuild this here laboratory. It is an absolute pig sty in here. I have got to clean this mess up. I really need to get organized. This is the worst room in the house. Yes. That’s a good project for today. I also need to start on some drawings for my Steve and Phillip piece. Maybe I will do that second today.

Yesterday, between classes I went and looked at books across the street at Powell’s bookstore. What a fun and relaxing time that was. All of my class work was done by then and all of my finals had been taken. My only reason for being at Powell’s was to kill some time before my last class of the day. That’s a good time to be there. When you’re totally relaxed with nowhere to be. I wanted to get a book to read during my break. All of the books that I really wanted were in the 30 to 40 dollar range and I had to limit myself to the 5 dollar range. That was all of the money I had in the World to spend on books. Besides that 5 bucks, I had $1.25 for bus fare home and $1.65 for a cup of coffee at Peet’s. I was beginning to think I wouldn’t find a book when I stumble on a $4.95 sale book. I got “Essays on Typography” by Eric Gill. Yes that Eric Gill. Eric Gill as in the font “Gill Sans Serif”. It is a fascinating book. It was originally written in 1930. I think that even those of you who aren’t interested in type would find it to be a good book. Yeah, maybe not. Anyway, I bought it and took it to Peet’s with me to read as I sipped on my coffee. Great afternoon.

K and I have seen some movies since I have last written. We rented “Catch Me If You Can” and “Frida”. You know Catch Me if You can, right? The Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Leonardo DeCaprio movie? It was pretty good. It was very entertaining. Better than I thought it would be. I don’t know why I thought I didn’t like Tom Hanks. I totally like Tom Hanks. I think I may have liked Minority Report better for some reason. The movie Frida was excellent. Very good. It was about the painter Frida Kahlo and her husband the painter Diego Rivera. Selma Hayek was really good as Frida. The director, Julie Taymor is awesome. I can’t wait for her next movie. Her movie “Titus” is a must see. K and I also watch our “Seven” DVD last night. That movie is SO good. So freaking dark and sad at the end.

Good morning folks. Yes it’s Tuesday. Not much going on around here today. Is there anything going down with you cats? The Sun is out once again getting ready to give us yet another beautiful day. Gosh, yesterday was just awesome. I went out and finally mowed that lawn. It looks much better now. I was worried for a little bit that I may have damaged the lawn by letting it grow out of control like that, but it looks like it is going to recover, I think I’m going to move the mower up a bit now so that the lawn doesn’t get as close of a trim during these summer days. The lawn will turn to dust if I keep cutting it so close. I also decided yesterday that our yard needs more rocks. Yep. Maybe the passion for rocks will get as fevered again as the Great Rock Garden Fiasco of 2002. I think that some of these weeds in the yard need to be covered with rock.

So my Monday final exams went really well. Done and done. The big boy that I am really going to have to study for is my html exam on Thursday. That puppy is going to be tough. After that though it is all smooth sailing out of this term. I can start preparing for summer term. Actually what I will be doing is preparing for all of the free time I am going to have for the next 3 weeks.

Yeah, what am I going to do with my time off? I think I’m just going to chill. It would be fun to pack everybody up and go take a camping trip. Maybe a visit to the beach? I think I may catch up on my movie renting and also rent some video games. I have been meaning to check out that “Enter the Matrix” video game but until now didn’t have the time to waste on it. There are couple of things that I wanted to read and investigate while on break. I want to read a book about or do some research on Paul Rand, the godfather of American graphic design and I also want to get the book, “MTIV: Process, Inspiration and Practice for the New Media Designer” by Hillman Curtis. I think I talked about it here before, right? Anyway that looks like an awesome book. I am also going to definitely start working on the new “Steve and Phillip” contest piece. I’m getting pretty excited about that. I’ve got quite a few ideas for it rolling around in my skull.

Hey there! ALERT! ALERT! The Noodles are out of coffee! I repeat, the Noodles are out of coffee! That’s okay. I’ll get some on the way to school today. It looks like it is going to be a beautiful day again. Yesterday was gorgeous as I’m sure today will be. I never did get out to the lawn yesterday. It looks really bad. It looks like the lawn of someone who has abandoned their house. Boy there sure are a lot of crazy looking weeds in that lawn now.

K is home now folks and so is my sanity. She had a marvelous time in Arizona and had some good stories. They have demanded that I go next time. There may be a Christmas visit in the works. We’ll see. We are really going to miss them way over there.

That weekend sure went fast. I think I need at least one more day of it. Lame ole Monday back at it again. Today is the last day of math! Woo hoo! I made it all of the way to the end! You know math really wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I’m a little troubled that I wrote such a downer, math anxiety essay now. Oh well, I’ll just tell teacher I don’t feel the same way now as I did in the paper. I feel like I actually learned something this time. The big final is today. I think I will do alright. Image manipulation is over tonight also. Everything is wrapping up!

I think when this week is over I need to sit down here in the journal and analyze how the term went. What went well this term, what didn’t go so well. I need to study my performance so that I can do better next term. I guess that doesn’t have to be in the journal. Next term is going to be a tougher term because of the level of difficulty of the classes and the level of distractions that will be there to tempt me. I am really going to have to read a lot more than I did this term also.

Good morning everybody. How are you doing? I’m doing pretty good. The school week is over and now just 1 more left for this term. I am all caught up on my assignments and all that is left is studying for my final exams. I felt really good after school when I got home on Friday. It has been a long week for me. Nothing was really that difficult there just seemed to be a lot of running around towards the end there.

K will be back tomorrow. I’ve got to go pick her up at the airport in the afternoon. I can’t wait. This is the longest we’ve been apart in the last 2 and a half years. I realized this time just how insane I am without her around keeping me grounded. I’ve thought of some weird ideas and have done some strange things in her absence. I use to be okay on my own. When did this dependence on K for my sanity come about?

An example of one of the crazy things I did was on Thursday night. You know I had that 5 page essay and another assignment that was due on Friday, right? Well, instead of staying up late on Thursday, I decided I would experiment and go to bed early on Thursday, then get up at 4 in the morning on Friday and work. I think the jury is still out on how that went. Getting up at 4 was fine, but then going to school at 8 was a little awkward. I was pretty tired around 9:30.

Last night I drank some beer and watched Pink Floyd’s the Wall. I also watched the Donnie Darko DVD with the director’s audio commentary on. The director’s explanation of the movie was pretty interesting. I don’t agree with some of what he was saying though. I liked my theory of the movie a bit better than his. Is it possible that a movie has a second meaning and explanation than the writer / director meant? I should do my own audio commentary to that movie. Maybe I should email the director my theories. I was thinking that I needed a protégé that I could mentor and share movies like The Wall with. Force them to think that these movies are as great as I do.

I was also pondering the other day how young 19 is. When the heck did this happen? Remember when kids that were 19 were the old, cool kids in the neighborhood? How did I get so far away from 19 so quick? People that are 19 now were born after Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back were in the theaters! Wait, were they even born in time to see Return of the Jedi in the theater?

So yes, K’s arrival back will be a good thing.

I have a lot of cleaning up to do. I’m going to get everything in tip top shape before she gets back. There are quite a few messes around the house that haven’t gotten my attention this week. I absolutely need to get out and clean that yard up. The grass is out of control! The rose bush outside of this window is doing some crazy things. It’s all exploded and falling over now. It needs some trimming back. I’ve also got to sweep up again under that holly tree.

Oh dear lord, what a week! Hey my relay race, my game of leap frog with the cars went off okay after a few false starts. I probably looked pretty funny driving 2 cars at once. No, I got the black car to the red one, charged the red one up for a while, and then tried to race it home. The first time I guess I didn’t charge it long enough, because I only made it 6 blocks before it died again. I walked back to the black car drove it to the red car and charged it longer the second time. Eventually, both cars were sitting back in front of the house. That bus ride out to Oregon City wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I’ve got to get going. My Thursday is really loaded up. I have lots to do today. None of my items to do are that demanding by themselves but for some reason everything is happening today. School, work at adidas, studying math with my brother, watering the yard and a bunch of little things thrown in for measure. One thing that was on the to do list but somehow slid under the radar was a 5 page essay that is due tomorrow. Oh yeah, one note, I don’t have a fax machine! Two separate, annoying, entities want faxes from me today.