The Jack Noodle Journal

Happy, good morning to you sleepy heads! How are you doing? I am doing pretty good today. Hey it’s the labor day weekend. Are you all out camping and celebrating the end of summer? Will there be barbecue in your future? It looks like it is going to be a warm, gorgeous day. August is almost over. Good riddance I say! August wasn’t a good month for the journals. Is there like only 4 entries for August? Fear not though, September is going to amazing! If you look closely you should be able to see little changes popping up as the web page gets ready for it’s October redesign.

We have a fun weekend in store here at the Noodle house. Our friends from Chicago are in this weekend, Mat and Nikki. Yes, for you who were reading the journal back then, the Mat with one T who was here last year, They stayed over night and are in the front room sleeping now as I type this. I think we are going to go downtown and tour the city today and maybe do some shopping at Powell’s City of Books. Nikki is an excellent painter and she has a list of galleries that she wants to check out. That should be pretty fun.

Later today we will be going to Matt and Beth’s wedding! That’s the Matt with 2 Ts. Today is their 10 year wedding anniversary and they are renewing their wedding vows. Congratulations you two! How cool. Wow, ten years. That is a great accomplishment. K and I are only 7 years behind you guys. That will be an exciting party tonight. Hopefully I don’t get too crazy because I do want to try and do some school work this weekend.

Yes kids, we have the makings for a great morning. I’ve got to head out now, grab some more coffee, take a shower and get this show on the road.

Hey YO! I made it through the school week. I got all but 1 homework assignment done. That’s pretty good considering how much work I had and that I was at the beach during the weekend. I just held it together by the hair of my chiny chin chin. I was a pretty lame student these last 2 days. I’m going to have to stick to my guns and really try to be a more serious student the remaining 3 weeks of the term. 3 weeks? Is that what I said? Sweet!

Now I’ve got to grab the old skate board and head off to work. It’s overcast now but I think that it will be okay for riding the board. Ah yes, work. Showing up for work has been nice because I can actually relax and take a breath. Nobody is grading me there. Well wait. I guess if they are grading me I haven’t noticed it yet.

I think I may be suffering from sleep depravation. What are the symptoms? Really short journal entries? Yeah, so on Monday I got up at 4 in the morning and finished a paper and yesterday I got up at 5:30 to write a paper. I slept in today by getting up at 6:30. I think I have been averaging about 5 hours of sleep a night. It’s really my own damn fault though. I shouldn’t have waited until the last minute to do my homework. I really need to quit being a baby and stop complaining.

Well, I’ve got to run now. Brother and family, I am planning on returning all of your phone calls tonight. I promise.

Hello mates. Word up? How are you all doing this morning? I’m feeling pretty good. Hold on one second while I go get a freshly brewed cup of coffee. Oh yeah, so tasty! The sun is shining nicely today. It is rather chilly out right now though. Is it possible that I heard them say that we are going to have another hot spell the next few days or did I imagine that? Saturday. The weekend. How’s your weekend going? My weekends seem to be going by faster and faster these days. Being busy and filling my weekends up with homework is what is probably making them speed by so fast.

Oh yes the homework fun for the week. Hold on let me go get my to do list for you.
In my argumentative research class I have to write a 7 – 8 page rough draft of my term paper. Due Monday.
In Sociology I have to catch up with 2 or 3 chapters of reading and write a 3 – 4 page annotated type, reference paper for my term paper in that class. Sociology and my research class have the same topic for their papers. So that helps a bit. The importance of art education in elementary school.
In my history of material culture class I have to write a paper on Guttenberg and how the invention of the printing press changed the World. I also have some reading and studying for the weekly slide quiz.
In environmental science I have an outline due for my life cycle of a toothbrush presentation. I am really dragging my feet on this project. We have to show how an every day object gets made and goes through its life until it is either in a land fill or recycled. I also have last weeks lab questions due for that class.
In my history of modern Japan class I have a butt load of reading to do and I have to write a 3 – 4 page term paper on Japanese weddings.

I’m not as freaked out about my homework as I was last week. I think I will be fine as long as I stick to schedule. I think I have a pretty strategic order for each assignment in terms of difficulty, that will allow me to get it all done in time.

My Japan class gets the Noodle star of the week for class that gets the most attention. I’m not doing very well in it so I have to pick up the slack and kick some ass. It’s pretty hard. It’s fairly interesting and all but I have no real frame of reference. Also by the time I get to that class on Tuesday night, at the end of the 2 day school week, after 4 other classes, I am totally spent. I have definitely been focusing more on the other classes and it has been the one that I had to blow off a bit.

My favorite class this term is argumentation and research, believe it or not. Second place is a tie between history of material culture, and my environmental science class. Environmental science would have easily had number 2 and maybe even number 1 if it didn’t have as much homework. It has been a fun class except for the mountain of assignments Number 3 spot goes to sociology and last place is given to history of modern Japan. There you have it.

I think the best thing I have learned this term is that I will try my best not to take any more evening courses and I won’t take more than 2 classes a day from now on. I am a morning person. My best work is done early in the day I think. The school works around a 3 period a day schedule, morning class, afternoon class and evening class. I just couldn’t stay awake in my 2 evening classes this term. Only morning and noon for now on. That 2 day schedule was the worst thing about this term. I know you have been having to hear me bitch about it all term, so you know. That schedule, starting working again, and all the summer time activities mixed in was a killer!

Wow. Well now you are all up to date on the school thing. See how nicely typing that out helps with my homework procrastination hobby? I am going to get some more coffee, mail out some bills, and then it is all Noodle homework time. Wish me luck.

Good morning folks. Boy oh boy it looks like fall is sneaking up on us. It’s the morning time and it’s still dark out now. The nights are getting longer, and of course the days are getting shorter. I thought my clock was set wrong when I woke up. Boy before I know it, I’ll be taking dark bus rides to work. I think that it is cloudy out right now and that might be adding to the darkness. Oh yep. I just heard rain drops falling. Oh yeah! Thunder. Just like the movies.

How has everything been going for you guys and gals? Things are going okay here. I haven’t talked to you in forever! I hope you are doing good. School is okay and work is okay. I am ready for this term to be over. Only 4 more weeks, so that is good. It has been a difficult term. I’ve already made up a schedule for next term that I am going to register for on Monday. Next terms schedule is much easier. I will feel more like a human again with a lighter load. I am also totally ready to stop complaining about it here in the journal.

I have been thinking about the jacknoodle.com redesign lately. I am in the planning stages. Can you believe that another year has gone by and Octobers NEW Noodle version 05 is already upon us? Are you excited? I am pretty excited. I am getting tired of looking at version 04. Version 05 will be magnificent. I can’t wait! I will probably start constructing it in a week or so when all of this homework settles down. This isn’t just going to be a face lift either. I’m going to clean house and do some structural changes as well.

I’ve got to jump in the old shower and get ready to go now kids. This rain coming down right now isn’t going to stop me from taking my skateboard this morning. I didn’t take it last week when it was sprinkling like this and by the time I got to Beaverton the ground was dry and I was without wheels. I am looking forward to the weekend, K and I are talking about going to the beach. That would be fun.

Greetings one and all. How are you doing this lovely Sunday morning? I’m doing pretty okay. Looks like the weekend is coming to a close. It was once again an eventful weekend. A weekend that doesn’t make for getting much homework done. The Hawaiians Seth and Alicia are wrapping up their visit tomorrow so I think it will be back to business for Mr. Noodle. No more distractions to pull me away from the school books. It was very nice to see those two again. I sure wish, as I said many times before, that they would stop screwing around and hurry up and move back to Portland.

One of the things I did yesterday was Seth and I went to the zoo. His mom was having a company picnic there that we attended. The zoo is a pretty neat place. It was fun looking at the animals. They were more active yesterday than I remember seeing them before. It had been quite a long time since I had been to the zoo. It looked quite a bit different than I remember. The animals habitats seemed like they had gotten a face lift. I remember them before just living in cement areas with an occasional fake log thrown in to make it look like a tree. Now there are plants everywhere and so much jungle vegetation that you have a hard time seeing the little guys. It was pretty cool. I think my favorite animal yesterday was the polar bear. I’ve always been meaning to take a sketch book down there and spend a day drawing the animals, but haven’t yet. That might be hard to do with all those millions of screaming kids running around.

Today it is all about the homework kids. I am not doing anything else today. Only school work. No distractions just books, pen, paper, and word processor. That’s it. I’ve got quite a bit to do today, but I think that I have got a handle on it. I have really been struggling with the homework this term. Next term will be much easier. Gosh, see, what a lame topic again. You guys don’t care about my home work do you?

So where did this rain come from? It was sunny and warm before the sun went down last night and now this morning it’s trickling, cooler and the ground is wet. I can’t ride my skate board when the ground is wet. Was this little trickle in the weather report last night? I don’t remember. It seems to me though that the last report I heard said we were in for another mini heat wave. Boy, what do they know?

How has it been going? I’ve been doing a lot of the same here. Not too much to report. The days are totally zooming by. That’s a good thing here. I need the next few weeks to just cruise on through. It feels nice being busy actually. It’s been kind of fun having a big schedule like this again. I was ready for it people! Sitting around the house was starting to make me plum crazy! When I get a spare moment I need to check the journal archives and see what I was doing at this time last year. Probably playing video games.

There is definitely a reason why a classic is a classic. It’s because they are SO GOOD! I have been going through the Noodle CD collection and have been taking CDs to work that I haven’t listened to in a while that are classics in my book. I had forgotten how good some of this stuff was, It’s really cool when you haven’t listened to something for a year or two and are totally blown away by it’s power again when you finally hear it. Add a few years to your age and some life experience and CDs that you heard as a youngster take on whole new meanings. Like fine wine, my friends.

The Noodle classic selections include:
The Beastie Boys, “Check Your Head”. The Cure, “Head on a Door”. Jane’s Addiction, “Nothing’s Shocking”. Tool, “Anema”. The Smiths, “The Queen is dead”. I was reminded again how good early Smashing Pumpkins was with “Gish”. Another CD I dusted off yesterday I think got a raw deal with the music buying public and was overlooked is Nine Inch Nails, “The Fragile”. Gut punchingly good. We are going to make some weird grandparents when the kids rummage through our stuff to see what the old folks listened to.

Good morning kids! How are you all doing? I’m doing pretty good this morning. I’m feeling well rested and ready to take on the day. The last 2 days have been really good in that I have done anything except for homework and resting. I think this has been the first weekend this term that I have done that. Yep, I’m getting some school work done thankfully. It was really sunny when I first woke up but now it’s a bit darker and overcast. I think we may have some rain today. It’s been cooler for the last few days.

So what have you guys and gals been up to? I feel like I have been in hiding for the last week. I guess that’s not true though. I haven’t been hiding. I’ve been really busy for the last couple of weeks. I’ve been either at school or working. Maybe I feel like I have been hiding because there is a section of friends that I haven’t seen or talked to in a while. That’s okay though I guess they’re busy and I’m busy so that’s the way it works right? I need to take a vacation so I can hang with the missing members of the posse.

Week number 5 is coming up tomorrow. Summer term is half over. Thank God. It’s been a rough one. I feel a little bit better now about it though. That’s funny how I get so freaked out on week 3 and 4 of the terms. I need to pay attention next term and see if the same thing happens. I’ve got mid term exams next week. Woo Hoo! I think that they will go okay. I think that I have learned a couple of things this term. One, I will try to never take 3 classes in one day. The most will be 2 per day. Second, I learned that loading up on general studies courses and not taking any design classes is a bad idea. I’m a designer, my advantage is in the design classes. The general studies course are great, but not all at once.

My creativity has been on hold for the last few weeks. I’m not that messed up about it right now, it’s okay. I’ve got some things on the back burner that I’m letting simmer.

Will you look at that? It’s August already! My goodness, how time flies! I probably only have like 4 journal entries for the month of July due to lack of participation on my part. Don’t worry folks I’ll pick it up again soon enough and then you’ll be wondering when the heck I’m going to shut up. Truth be told, everything and nothing is happening. I have been really busy trying to juggle this freelance working business with this school business. I doing a fair job I guess. The school part of the equation is much harder than the work part. Week number 4 starts on Monday. The most difficult thing this summer term is doing homework. It’s happy, fun, summer play time out there people and this Noodle is having a hard time resisting the temptations that this wonderful time of year has to offer. This weekend will be the most dangerous of all. So much fun is in store for us. It’s Saturday and I’ve only spent a half an hour doing homework so far this week. I have a mountain due on Monday.

See what I mean about everything and nothing. I’m working and going to school, but writing about the woes of doing homework doesn’t make for good journal reading. I’ll try to kick it up a notch for you at home so you don’t get bored and stop coming here. Hmm lets see, maybe I’ll go sky diving and write about it here. Oh, I have been riding my skateboard every morning. That’s pretty exciting and extreme isn’t it? Any second I could fall down and break my old man hip.

Hooray for Mr. Baptist and Ms. Bee! They are getting married in less than 3 hours! So very exciting. You kids have the full support and love of the Noodles. We are going to have to start calling you the Baptists though aren’t we? Well at least here in the journal. I think all of the members of the families are quite pleased to be hooked up together. There’s some good folks in our collective herd.

After that fun we are off to K’s high school reunion. That should be interesting I guess. The people we are still interested in seeing from her class we still hang out with. We went to the same high school only K was 2 years behind me. She’s in the same class as my brother. I don’t think my brother is going today. K and I didn’t really know each other in high school, though I am told we were introduced there. I know quite a few people in K and my brother’s class. I didn’t go to my 10 year because I wasn’t too interested in paying to hang out with people who I didn’t care about then or now. I don’t need to know what my class is up to. The two people I like from there I am still in semi-contact with.

Oh man we’ve got to go.