The Jack Noodle Journal

Gosh, is it Monday? I guess so. Happy Memorial day to you. Did you all have a fun holiday? I guess you aren’t really suppose to have fun on Memorial day are you? Aren’t you suppose to be somber and reflect on the people who have gone on into death before you, with a special emphasis on soldiers?

I feel really sorry for the families of the soldiers that have died in the current war in Iraq. I think it is very sad to think about those kids and I’m curious about what they died for? Were they protecting my freedom way over here in Portland Oregon by blowing up villages in Iraq? I don’t know. The whole thing is a sad horrible mess. It is good to honor our fallen soldiers on Memorial day but it would be even better to not have pointless wars to have to mourn our dead over.

We had a very nice evening at the Wagners. It was so good to see them. We had a fun time. It was a great topper to a very pleasant weekend. The rest and relaxation I have had over the last three days will totally help me for work tomorrow morning and school after that. I am rested, fueled up and ready to go!

Happy Sunday to you. It has been a good day. Very nice, lazy day. It rained really hard off and on throughout the day. By the evening it had cleared up. We didn’t do much of anything today. A little bit of school work and a little bit of web surfing and that was it for me. We went out had some cheap Mexican food this evening and now we are back trying to find anything to watch on the TV. I think the boob tube might get turned off and we’ll do something more edifying like reading or sleeping.

We are heading over to the Wagner’s house tomorrow for a barbecue. What better way to celebrate Memorial day than with hot dogs and beer? It will be good to see the Wagners. It’s been quite a while. There are several people that we haven’t seen in forever. Hopefully when K and I are done with all of this crazy schooling and hectic schedules, the group will accept us back and we’ll be able to hang with everybody again like it was in the olden days.

I was trying to work on my web homework for my web scripting class. Gosh I have really got to practice up on this stuff. It’s the kind of thing that I am sensing that I am not spending enough time with. I’m making an effort to get my CSS down. It’s tough for me. I’m determined to get it down though, so I’ll be okay. I have been impressed by what I have already been able to do with what little coding I do have. It will be quite cool when I know what I am doing.

I’ve been working on a new color scheme. Orange, people. The answer is orange. Orange, blue, black and gray. I don’t know why I’m mentioning that here now. Maybe because as I lounged around today I was thinking about color schemes. What a weirdo.

K is in here now on the other computer working on her homework. I love when we are both in here working on the computers. The cat and dog are in here also. The whole family is in here. I have the nice speakers plugged into my computer and we are listening to some excellent internet radio. So many good things are out there! You know, I have had the urge to get another computer for a couple of weeks now. There’s no way in the World that we would be able to get one now financially. I am still very happy with my laptop I just need to get the monitor fixed. Another brand new super computer would be so cool.

Hey there, hey there! At last an afternoon Noodle for you instead of that incoherent, half asleep, sad, late night Noodle that has been showing his face around here so much this month. I was outside doing some yard work and decided to come in and take a break. I’m waiting for Martin and Lianne to come by with their truck so we can haul this yard debris away.

I can’t believe how much yard debris our tiny little yard produces. We took a forest worth of weeds out today. The lawn was totally over grown and took a while to mow down. I was trying to go fast with the mowing because it’s one of those gray days that looks like it is going to start pouring rain at any second. The lawn and yard looks much better now. We are aching to start fence building as soon as the time permits. It would be nice to have something started at least before I go off to Europe.

I’m stuck in a stare looking out the window and I swear the downpour will begin any moment now. It’s dark and gray out there.

K just put U2’s CD “Unforgettable Fire,” in. Oh my goodness. Such a freaking good album. That is one CD I will always like and never get tired of. God, so many memories and good feelings come along with those tunes. Say what you like about U2 now days but you will never hear an ill word come from me about back in the day U2.

The phone is ringing again. I made the mistake of picking it up without letting the machine get it and got a bill collector. Those turkeys. I won’t be answer the phone for the rest of the day so if you call be sure to leave a message.

“I’m wide awake! I’m wide awake!…” Oh yes, such a good CD. I should take this CD to work on Tuesday and add it to my iTunes library. Hey is that the first time I’ve sang here in the journal?

So I think we are going to hang out here for awhile and then maybe go see the Marcys in the evening. We don’t have any Memorial day plans yet. We’re pretty broke now so whatever we do will be free or at least cheap. It would be nice to go camping but I think that’s going to be too short of a notice to do it properly.

I don’t know, I probably shouldn’t have stopped for this break. I should have kept going on the yard work. Now I’m cooled down and my muscles are all tightening up. It might be time for a nice afternoon nap.

No homework today but tomorrow and probably Monday now by the looks of it will be serious school work days. Just a couple of more pushes and the next few weeks will be done and the term will be wrapped up.

Yeah! Weekend time for this guy. Work is done and school is done. I don’t have to go to either one until Tuesday. Woo Hoo! So what am I doing now? Absolutely nothing. I just got done watching the movie, “Hell Bound, Hellraiser II”. I was thinking about stripping the sound off of it and redoing a scene for my sound design final project. I don’t think I will though. I’m thinking maybe a scene from “Barbarella” now.

Work was better today than it was yesterday. I got to work on easier files that allowed my mind to wander on to more important matters. Hey that reminds me. I had a good music listening day and remembered that I had forgot mention the CD I acquired a few weeks ago. I’ve been listening to “Final Straw” by the band Snow Patrol. I can say today that I am quite enjoying the CD. The reason I preface with the “today” is because I have been off and on with the CD since I have got it. I REALLY liked it when I first listened to it, then the second time I listened to it I didn’t like it so much. I think then the 5th time I heard it I liked it but not the 7th. Then yesterday on the 12th time I heard it I like it quite a bit. Today on listen number 13 a little tear came to my eye because I liked what I was hearing so much. It must be a good CD when one is in a good mood. Check it out and let me know what you think.

We had some rain in the morning and then it cleared up by the late afternoon. I hope that it is going to be dry enough to do some yard work tomorrow. I must mow the lawn and pull some of the weeds that are devouring the yard. I think that the overgrown vegetation may even engulf the house if we don’t stop it soon.

I’m not going in to school tomorrow to do school work. Nope. I’m planning on sleeping in as late as possible (probably 9 AM with the way my sleeping schedule has been) and then yard work. I may do some homework in the evening.

K is calling me in to watch more “Sex in the City” Episodes.

Truth be told, this week actually went by fast. That’s really good. I’m not sure if I would have had the stomach for a longer week. Everything wrapped up decently.

Oh my, oh my. Did it rain today or what?. Buckets of rain fell. I got stuck walking in a fairly impressive downpour on my way home from the office. It only beat down seriously on me for about 5 minutes. It was a strange rain because it wasn’t that cold. Could it have been a warm rain? No, it was more of a tepid rain.

Work was okay. Thursday half days are great. You’re not there long enough to get really annoyed. One more full day tomorrow and then it’s weekend fun time, Hey it’s Memorial Day weekend. Do you have any plans lined up yet? We don’t have anything going. Probably homework and relaxing.

Oh my goodness. What a morning I had. So when last we left, I had decided that I was going to get up early in the morning and finish up my web scripting homework web page design before class. That didn’t work out too well. I was groggy and was having trouble figuring out the code. Finally, as time ran out, I decided that I wasn’t going to be able to finish the web page assignment and I was going to have to tell teacher that it wasn’t good enough to turn in and that I would give it to him next week. When I got to class I found out that the web page I was stressed out on wasn’t due till next week. Week 9! I had somehow read the syllabus wrong. I was happy to be able to have another week to work on the page. I am in need of more practice. I want to be good at code and that takes discipline.

Speaking of discipline and not wasting time in front of the boob tube. K and I watched the first 5 episodes of the TV show “Sex and the City” this evening. K borrowed the first season DVDs from a school chum. At first I was unimpressed, and wondered why people liked the show so much. Now that we are seeing the character development and are starting to get into the adventures of these single women living in the city, I am beginning to understand the appeal of the show. It’s pretty good. We love that whole watching a bunch of episodes in a row thing when you get the whole season. The Twin Peaks series and the Sopranos were fun times of 5 hour viewing per sitting.

Here we be once again. Hey, today was a pretty good day. I did some hard working at school. Tomorrow I have one more class and then it’s the weekend. This week of school went pretty fast didn’t it? I have a camera store web site to make before morning class. I think instead of staying up late tonight, I will get up early. That might not be the best move but I am drowsy now. I feel good. Drowsy but good.

Week number 8 is coming to a close.

I was looking at some fellow students and had to laugh. It’s not just me. We’re all tired. That makes me feel better.

Okay let me make a promise to you right now. I promise not to speak of being tired for the rest of the month. Promise.

It was a stormy, blustery day outside. I think it rained pretty good this morning. I rode the bus home after my morning class and got rained on a little bit. I’m not sure what the wether reporters are saying for the rest of the week.

In less than a month at this time I will be in Europe. Yes sir. I think as the end of this term quickly approaches, the more excited I am. It is going to be quite the experience. Budapest, Vienna, and Prague are going to be cool. We found out today that there is a 4 hour layover on the way there in Germany. So I’ll have been to Germany also. Yeah, it really doesn’t count if you don’t leave the airport does it?

Okay well, I have to choose between hitting the books or hitting the hay…

Yes, yes and yes my friends. I’m back. How are you all doing. I am much better this evening. I figured out why I was so out of it yesterday! I didn’t drink any coffee the whole day! No wonder I was so zonked! I made up for it today. I had a mocha in the morning and I kept my coffee cup full all day at work. I am really dependant on caffeine I guess.

I clipped my finger nails the other day and somehow missed my right thumb nail. I’m going to need to cut it pretty soon it’s really starting to annoy me. Maybe I should keep growing it, file it down sharp and use it as a weapon. Perhaps I could grow it out and use it to butter my toast.

I was at the office all day today and didn’t have any school. The morning was gorgeous. The Sun was shining on my way in and it was nice and warm. The birds were chirping and the whole thing. I took my time on the walk to the office and it was well worth it. Much more peaceful than hurrying like all of those other commuting suits. Work was just okay. I like the days when I can go in there and not do much thinking or hard work. Today wasn’t one of those days. It seems like there has been quite a few messes that we’ve been cleaning up there lately. There has been some really stinky files passing through that place. I’m not saying of course that I am always an error free worker, so I’ll group myself in with the rest of them. We have been making a lot of stupid mistakes there that should be easy to catch if one double checked their work before turning it in. Ah enough of that. I do like the non-thinking days there. Not the thinking, problem solving days. Thinking is currently reserved for school days.

Surely you must be getting tired of me talking about my busy work schedule day after day? Well here’s some more. Yes I’m busy, lots of work, yeah yeah. It all seems to get done though doesn’t it? I was thinking about it today and even though it’s getting done I still need to work on being more calm about the work load and not stress out so much about it. I think that part of being successful at this is learning to master the stress a bit better. I am going to try to relax a bit more and take more breaths. I’ve been so wound up a couple of times these last few weeks that I haven’t been able to work on anything and just laid on the couch. I need to slow her down a bit and not do everything at once. One project at a time. Don’t try to fit it all in to one evening. Nice and steady. Even pace.

Okay, sweet dreams all. I have got to go finish washing the dishes.

I feel so dirty, tired and grimy right now. I’m not sure where this grimy feeling is coming from. Maybe it’s from being inside a building all day with controlled air. I’ll go wash my face and see if that helps. Hold on one second. Yep, that’s a little better. I got a few layers of grime off of my face. I am getting so sick of writing about how tired I feel here in the journal. I am very tired this evening. I don’t think that today was really that exhausting of a busy day, it’s just that I have had so many days in a row. All I need is one day off from everything so I can catch back up. Argh! Alright that’s it for my daily whine.

How are you cats doing?
Hold on one more second though. Let me go back to something for a moment. Are these days all blending together to form one long continuous day? It seems to me that this day started last Thursday and is still going.

My lovely Hawaiian friend Seth clued me in on an exciting bit of news today. They are releasing a remastered, fixed up, beefed up DVD director’s cut of THX 1138! You know the movie right? One of George Lucas’s first films that started as a college project, student film. THX 1138 has awesome sound design. Oh goodness. It was done by Walter Murch who has done a number of excellent things in cinema and who’s book we’re reading now in nonlinear editing. Very cool movie. I didn’t get the date though of when it is being released. Also, did my friend Martin predate Seth in telling me about the re-release and I didn’t hear him or it didn’t register?

See though, that’s good. I need you all to keep me updated on exciting and inspiring things like that.

Tomorrow is a long day of work. Yee Haw! I wonder if I can leave early. Work doesn’t sound very fun right now.

School went pretty well today. I turned in my James Bond sound design project. That turned out pretty good. I decided today that I definitely like Pro Tools better than Avid. If you are keeping a tally of the software scores, Pro Tools yay, Avid nay. I have a couple of big assignments left to finish for this week. I have a giant Web page comparative analysis that I have to have finished by Wednesday evening and a mock Camera store web site done by Thursday morning.

I better go get on it right now!

Good evening all. That’s it for the weekend. Wrap her up boys and girls! You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here. Blah Blah.

I went in to the school again today and finished up my James Bond sound design project. It went pretty well. It was actually very fun to work on. I wish I could have got more homework done this weekend to be ahead of the game but I didn’t.

Tonight they played the season finale of the Simpsons. What the heck? Does it seem like the season ended too early? Didn’t it just start? Great. Now it’s going to be months and months without a new episode. The episode tonight wasn’t as good as some of the other recent ones, but still excellent of course.

I made the mistake of falling asleep in front of Law & Order just now. I’m trying to shake off the sleep, but it’s not working. I’m trying to finish up this journal entry and wash a few more dishes before my eyes slam shut. I don’t know if I will be able to make it.

Tomorrow is week 8 of the Spring 2004 term. Almost done with the term. I just have to hang in there a little bit longer. I’ve got quite a bit of work to do next week.

My oh my, what a day.

Last night I had a really strange dream. I had a dream that we were finally building our fence. For some reason I was over at the next door neighbor’s house digging up his front yard. I was digging up the grass and making holes for posts I guess. I also had put in some rocks from our yard. Someone finally came out from my neighbors house, one of his friends, to ask me what the heck I was doing and to tell me to stop. In the dream I finally came to my senses and realized that I shouldn’t be building our fence in my neighbors yard, and was quite embarrassed. My neighbor was very angry and wouldn’t come out of the house to talk to me.

Today was a very long day. For the first part of the day I was doing foley at school. You know, working with some school mates in the sound studio, making sound effects and adding noises to a James Bond movie. That was pretty fun I guess. It sure did take a long time though. I think we got some good sounds. I have to go in tomorrow and finish that stupid project. Well okay, it’s not a stupid project it’s just taking quite a bit of time and I wish I was done with it.

Hey! Happy birthday to the lovely Lianne! Yes, and happy birthday to Mr. Alex! Gosh everyone is getting so old now. We just got back from a birthday party that was thrown for the two of them. I think that everyone in attendance had a good time. We stayed out a little too late though and I am pretty sleepy as usual.

In the middle of that birthday party, K and I had to go across town to an engagement party. Our long time friend Jamie is getting married to the handsome, soon to be groom, Doug. The engagement party was quite a fancy affair held in a house that I was quite impressed with. The guy who lived there’s dad designed it. It was a very rectilinear boxy modern style house. One of the kind of things that we studied last term, reminiscent of a Le Corbusier house. I tried to articulate this thought a couple of times tonight unsuccessfully.

Yes and then back to the birthday party. Now home.

I have a feeling that I am really going to be upset tomorrow evening when I tally up all the school work that I should have done this weekend but didn’t.