The Jack Noodle Journal

Yo! Yo! What up? HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you all! I hope you all have plenty of wonderful turkey and food stuffs to fill your silly bellies It is quite a lovely morning. The Sun is shining brightly into this dark laboratory. Hold on let me open the drapes more. There, ah yes. The coffee is brewing and the dog is whining to be let out. Things are good. Oh and yes we got the furnace fixed so we are no longer cold. There is much to be thankful for this year. Is there? Yes, I think there is. I think I’ll read last years journal entry and see what I was thankful for then and compare it with this year. My goodness can you believe that it is almost December? Hold on one second I’ve got to take the puppy out.

K’s side of the family is all coming over today for our turkey feast. This is the 3rd year that K has put on the wonderful dinner. She truly is the master. This year I am going to be trying my best to help out. I’m on dish patrol once again. I’m going to do my best to try to wash the dishes without making fuss this year. I think they almost killed me last year. Gosh I hate washing dishes. I have other chores I have to do now before the guests arrive so I should be going.

Wow it’s nice to have a day off without school or work. I needed this little break. Actually I should be using this time off to get ahead on my projects. No, Noodle, just relax today buddy. No worrying about homework today, Just have a nice relaxing holiday. Back to business tomorrow.

Well hello again my sweets. See, how does this work now? Now that the weekend is here do I have to stay on a night time schedule when a 10 in the morning schedule is more convenient? Nope. I’ll stick to nights.

Well, how do you say it? What’s the term? Freezing my ass off? Is that it? Yes I am now currently freezing my ass off. The stupid furnace has gone out once again for it’s annual malfunction. I thought that we had it beat this time. It had been behaving so well. It is so very frustrating. The things I had been doing to get it going again aren’t working. We may have to call in a professional.

This is kind of silly but I was pretty happy with myself for being pleasantly ignorant for longer than usual. Everyone has been talking about the Paris Hilton sex tape and I kept wondering why no one would ever say who the celebrity was that was taped having sex at the Paris Hilton hotel. So Paris Hilton is a person huh? I haven’t seen the tape but I’ve seen her picture and don’t think she’s all that cute. Is she? I don’t know. It’s so hard to keep up these days.

Gosh I’m cold. Have I already mentioned that? Being cold is really making me grumpy. I am so annoyed right now.

I got to the end of Dracula. A very excellent book. I have to go in to school tomorrow and work a music mix and a couple of other school projects. So next week is week 8 huh? Boy this term sure did speed on by. That’s good. Keep them rolling baby. I really hope I get a lot of work done this weekend. That would make me quite pleased.

I think we may be heading out to Lianne and Martin’s after a while here. Maybe they have heat.

Good evening to you my friends! What the heck is this? A night entry? Yes it is. If you usually check up on me in the morning you can just pretend that this is a Thursday morning entry. Hopefully I’m not throwing everyone’s schedule off too much. I am going to try night time journal writing for a while now I think. I just haven’t been able to keep up like I would like to with the morning entries. I don’t really have trouble waking up in the morning. I usually have been getting up at 5:30 AM on work days. The problem is, if I have it in my head to do a journal entry I need at the very least a half an hour, so I make it 5 for the rising and that is just too early. School days I’m up by 6:30 but the entries have been rushed with so little time. Wow that was an incredibly boring paragraph. Uh oh. See, with evening entries I am farther away from my dream time subconscious, so I do lame things like say paragraphs are boring. Hopefully I can try to tap into my magical, morning time, sleepy headedness only at night.

So now I am home from a work day. Yep. Not much to say about that. Work was alright. I had a headphones day today. I listened to music all day long while I worked. I rediscovered the joys of the band Ministry’s CD, “Psalm 69″. Oh my goodness that is a tough album. They really rock it on that one. It is a great toe tapping work CD, let me tell you. Not for the faint of heart though, it’s pretty evil. Evil in a good way though.

We had a crazy day here weather wise today. It snowed! Snow before Thanksgiving is pretty unusual for us here in Portland. Actually, snow before Christmas is unusual. I was in a room with no windows, with my headphones on so I didn’t know it was snowing until I got up to take a bathroom break. I was quite shocked. The flakes were really big when they were coming down. It didn’t really stick though. A few cars have some traces of snow, but not much.

I really need to map a plan and get organized for my final school projects. I’m going to try to get going on a Phillip movie storyboard tonight. I need to get things together baby.

Hey I’m back. Had some dinner and got stuck in front of the TV for a bit. Now I’m sleepy. I can’t sleep yet. I have got to read some more Dracula before I go to sleep. I still have quite a few pages left. Oh. K says that there was 4 inches of snow on the ground today. I didn’t see it. Melted by nightfall.

Hello again. Mr. No-write here. How’s it going? I noticed on the last entry that I wrote the incorrect date. I said it was the 3rd when it really was the 13th. See, now that isn’t exactly as long of a time between entry dates. I need to regain my passion for the journal again soon and reaffirm my love for you the dear reader.

Hey there, I am back. I just went back to bed there for about two and a half hours. Gosh, I need to wake up and snap out of it. I’ve got things to do today. I can’t be sleeping. It is totally dark, gray and rainy outside right now so I think that is part of the lethargy. I just heard the beeper on the microwave, so now my reheated coffee will help keep me awake. One second. Let me open the drapes here. Let in what little light there is outside.

Boy it is wet out there! The leaves on the trees have really given up the ghost now. They were changing colors slowly over the last few weeks and it only seemed like just a few of them where falling. Now, suddenly, almost over night, they are all orange and yellow and they are piling up all over the ground. I’ll probably have to rake them up before too long. I never did get to mow the lawn last week. The lawn mower wouldn’t start! It’s finally given up the ghost also. I need to get my push mower back from Eugene.

Yes so things are going okay now days. School and work, work and school. K and I have come to the conclusion that we just aren’t going to see some of you very much anymore. There are some of you characters that we haven’t heard from in a while. There is no fault given since all sides of the equation haven’t phoned or made an effort to keep up. Everybody is busy with their own stuff. I mean you all hear me whine about not having any time left for breathing in every entry now days. The friends I have spoken to over the last couple of months have been in the same boat. Hopefully when things slow down a bit for everyone, the whole group will join up again and we’ll all hang out like we use to. Maybe part of the reason is that everyone is getting old and tired. I think that the average age of the group is now pushing closer to 30. Maybe this is what happens in life when people get older? The party train stops at the station and grows up?

Tomorrow I have to register for my winter schedule at school. I love registration time because it’s a nice reminder that your time at school is getting closer to being done. It’s nice to look at the classes you have taken already and see how many classes you have left. I think my winter schedule is going to be okay. The further along you get in the program the harder it gets to work your schedule out nicely. I did break a couple of my self imposed scheduling rules by taking a night class and also having a 3 class day. It would be easier to schedule classes if I didn’t have to fit my classes around a part time work week.

I don’t have too much school work to do today. That’s kind of nice. Week 7 of the fall term starts tomorrow. I really only have two big projects left that are going to cause me much concern. I’m doing a Phillip movie that is going to be the final project in 3 of my classes, and I’m also still going on that other project that I alluded to here, that may or may not involve the Red Rat Revolt. I’m pretty excited about the Phillip movie. I’m turning it in for my intro to video final project, my intro to audio final project and my death and desire final project. 3 birds with one stone baby. I’ll put it up here for you kids to view when I’m finished with it. I’ve really got to get going on mapping out my shots and storyboard for it now. I’ve only got 3 more weeks to work on it. That’s it for Phillip showing up in any more school projects. I don’t want to be one of those people that keeps putting their pets and kids in all of their projects. That makes me want to puke when I see other people doing that. I might be cutting it close by using Phillip once again, but this is it I swear. He’s so damn cute though, how could I not use him everywhere?

One thing I do have to continue working on today is reading the rest of Dracula. We have to have the whole thing finished by Friday morning. I am half way through it. 2 weeks for a 300 page book. That’s pretty good for me. That’s the fastest I have ever read a book that size I think. I am really enjoying it. It’s a good book. My death and desire, literature class definitely is my favorite class this term. I enjoy studying literature inside and out. I’m really digging the time from 1820 to 1920. We have been studying that time period in history of material culture also, so the two classes work well together. I think when my reading schedule clears up here I am going to be reading more of the Romantics. Keats and such. My appetite was wetted this term. Who knows though, the way I am I could declare 1920 to the present as the times I am digging next term. I do like Paris in the 30’s and 40’s.

We have been good about not watching very much TV this week. I only saw a few of our shows. We have decided as a family to keep it off more. Don’t get me wrong people, I am not saying that TV is evil. I am not one of those “Kill Your Television” people. I just think that it wastes a lot of valuable time for us when we could be reading or doing homework. I think it is fine if you are turning it on at a specific time to watch one of your shows. I do think it is evil though if you are just turning it on without a planned show to watch and are just looking to see what is on. Channel surfing is of the Devil. A time burglar.

Speaking of time burglars have you all seen that there is a new sequel to the Ratchet and Clank video game that I was so smitten with last year? Gosh that first game was quite fun. I think I may try to rent the new one when I’m on my break between terms. I also need to rent and finish that Tomb Raider game I was working on.

Can you believe that the holidays are almost upon us? I totally haven’t been paying attention and now look, Thanksgiving is here. I am going to try to make an effort this year to enjoy the holidays. I have been thinking of them as an annoying inconvenience for the last several years. I’m going to be different this year, I promise. I’m going to relax, roll with the punches and enjoy spending time with friends and family. It’s going to be a magical season! K, Phillip and I are planning a pretty fun road trip that will take us to Idaho, Arizona and Las Vegas. That should be a fun adventure.

Okay kids, I just remembered, talking about friends and family there, that I need to hang up here and make some phone calls.

Good morning kids! How are you doing? Me? I’m doing okay. Gosh it’s early. Man, I keep meaning to write in this journal and keep running out of time or am too sleepy. I was actually going to try to write an evening entry last night. What is up with the sleepy thing? I got home from work yesterday, laid on the couch and kept falling asleep. I couldn’t stay awake for any of our shows. That’s okay though, I’m tired of all of our shows. At least I feel kind of rested now this morning, Could it be that I am too busy and needed to pass out for a night?

Here we go with a complaining entry huh? Here’s a good complaint: Work is getting in the way of other things that I need to do. Oh boo hoo. Noodle, we’ve all got to work. I know. It stinks though because I have no daylight during the week to do any of the weekday things that need to get done. I’m at school or work everyday except for Saturday and Sunday. Argh! I guess I’m just annoyed because I have to put the battery back in the red car and drive it to the shop. When I have the time to do it it’s either dark morning or dark evening. I guess I could use a flashlight to see. This sounds so dumb now that I write it out here.

Another thing that I am pressed for time on is school work. Well, I do have time for school work, but I think I would like to spend more quality time working on my projects instead of the boring stuff I’m doing at the paying job. I was sitting at work yesterday thinking about the school work I could have been doing. I also have to read 100 more pages of Dracula before tomorrow morning for my death and desire class. I was really on track and had planned a lot of reading before all that sleeping happened last night. Dracula is a good book. I had never read it before. It’s cool because it is all journal entries. It’s the 19th century version of a book of blogs. Oh geeze, that’s horrible. Forget I said that.

I’ve got to go take a shower and head off to work. Maybe I should take one of these days off and get some stuff done. No, I need the money. Man oh man.

Hey there. Man oh man. How are all of you doing? Where in the World have I been? I have really let this journal slide haven’t I? I will try to do better I promise. What has everybody been up to? Me? Not too much really. I have still been working at getting over my sickness. I feel pretty good this morning. My voice is finally all the way back. That was the biggest annoyance of my sickness. I felt fine but I sounded bad because I didn’t have a voice. Everyone kept feeling sorry for me and moving away from me because they thought they would catch my sickness. The truth of the matter was I needed their sympathy and was more contagious the week before when my throat was killing me but my voice sounded great. Oh well. I’m looking forward to feeling well again.

We went over to the coast and spent the day yesterday. It was pretty fun. It was pretty nice there. It wasn’t that cold and the Sun was out for a little while. The lovely Martin and Lianne went with us. Them are some good folk. I think that this time of year is a really good time to visit the beach. There wasn’t anyone around and we had everything to ourselves. I’m going to be filming a video starring Phillip in the next few weeks that involves the ocean so I will probably be back there shortly.

Oh yes, I treated myself to a purchase on Friday. I was quite excited. I got the new DVD on Chris Cunningham, my favorite music video director and one of my favorite film makers. He has some really cool ideas and images. It is so good! I bought it thinking that I needed some inspiration and a reminder about why I was in art school again. It really has renewed my passion for creating. It made me think I shouldn’t be in my video and sound classes without doing something really amazing. I’m going to try to do some innovative things. You know Chris Cunningham right? He did that Aphex Twin, “Come to Daddy” video. If you get a chance you should rent and watch that DVD it is so good. It’s part of a new series on directors that also has DVDs on directors like Spike Jonze.

Today I am planning on having a good work day. I am pumped up for getting some good stuff done. I have a little bit of school work to do today but I’m also excited about working on some of my own stuff. Oh man. I just opened the curtains here in the laboratory and look outside. It is really nice out this morning. Maybe I should get out there and mow the lawn one more time this year. It really is a mess. I didn’t pay enough attention to the lawn this year.

Have any of you seen the final Matrix movie yet? That’s one of the things on my to do list. Maybe we could go see it tonight. There’s a new Simpsons on tonight. I should probably stay home and watch that.

HEY YEAH! Woo Hoo! Hello everybody. I’m Back! Did you miss me? Sorry I haven’t written in so long. I was actually getting ready to sit down and write last Friday and then again yesterday, but I didn’t. So sorry. How have you been though? Are you good? People, I have been the sickest I have been in many years. K says she doesn’t remember me ever being sick for this long since she has known me. That’s like 12 years. I had sore throat flu and congestion from last Tuesday night until this morning. I’m still not fully on the mend yet. I’m getting there though. On Saturday my voice went away and is just starting to honk and squeak back now. Losing your voice is a strange experience isn’t it? I am finally slowing down a bit now, so hopefully I will continue to get better.

On Halloween night, K and I went to the airport and caught a plane to Los Angeles California. We had a wonderful time in Cali. We didn’t see any movie stars though. On Friday night we met Mr. Baptist and Ms. Bee who had drove in from Arizona. We shared a hotel with them the whole trip. Friday night we stayed in LA, Saturday we drove to Venice beach and then down to Huntington beach where we stayed Saturday night and Sunday. On Sunday we got a ride back to the airport and arrive home at 8:30 PM. K’s cousin Jamine was quite surprised to see us. The wedding was lovely of course and everyone looked beautiful. K has really got some nice family members It was so nice sitting on the sunny beach on Sunday and then quite the shock to get back to freezing Portland.

Now I’m back trying to get back into my school and work routine. Speaking of… I’ve run out of time again.