8/18/01 Saturday 8:35 AM
Hello all! It may look like I haven't written for a long time in this journal but actually I have quite a bit this year just not in paper form. The entries into this wonderful journal have been electronically filed!

Well I'm sitting out here in Baker City Oregon again. I have a couple of other entries that were written in the same place a few years back. K, our friend Lianne, and I are out camping, roughing it on my Mom’s property in Baker. A very lovely morning is going to make for a lovely day.

So this paper journal is a little out of order with the electrified one. Actually it is nice to be doing the paper and pen thing again. There have been lots of creative entries put into the computer. The subject matter of those entries is mostly about leaving the Group. Which is actually kind of funny because that was what the last paper entry was about nearly a year ago. Geeze what’s my deal huh?

Hold on there I've got to move into the sun… There better.

In the almost year since the last paper entry the Group has had a bunch more lay offs, times of no work, many episodes of extreme annoyance, and other fun events. I have decided I'm going to try and not be such a baby about it in the journal like I was when my time at the Pony expired. Who knows maybe I'm the one who expires, not the job.

Anyway so this expiration around I am doing pretty good. I've put together a cool looking CD mailer. I've got stuff organized pretty well portfolio wise, and the old resume is typed up and ready to roll. I am off of work here for four more days counting today so hopefully I can get the website up to an acceptable state to coincide with the mailer. I also have to get my DSL modem up and running when I get back. Actually the DSL portion of the problem is okay, it's my gosh darn PC that is all the trouble! I'll have it figured out though don't you worry!

Hold on though… Wait! I'm on vacation here! I shouldn't be thinking of those things, I should be relaxing. Yeah what the Hell? I'm sitting next to a beautiful river with the sun shining down on me and I'm writing about my damn DSL!
Okay Take a deep breath, relax, look around. Okay. I'm feeling relaxed. It helps just driving out of town, sleeping in a tent, getting re-centered. Whew! I'm going to get some more coffee hold on…

So I didn't bring any computers with me this trip because I had to get back in touch with the Earth. I don't think I'm that much of a computer junky, I just left them at home so I could use this time as a weekend retreat re-focus. Write with a pen, draw, read words from a book instead of a screen. It's kind of fun. Its crazy when I think of how fast the Earth is moving. Holy cow man! They're talking about clones on the evening news now days. Isn't it crazy that ten years ago, me worrying about taking my computer on a camping trip was something I couldn't even imagine. Ten years ago doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but I guess it was?

Speaking of ten years ago, my ten year high school reunion is next weekend. I was thinking about going but now it's almost here and I don't think I'm going to go. I don't really want to see those guys that bad. More of a curiosity I guess. Plus for K and I to go it would cost like 140 dollars. Which is a lot to pay for people you just kind of want to see. I don't think I'm going.

Well I just got back from eating a nice camping breakfast. Pancakes and potatoes. It's my duty to do the dishes so I will probably have to go pretty soon here. Dang it! The girls found my secret quiet morning sun spot and now they're crowding me out of it.
Alright I'm going to go wash the dishes, I'll be back in a second..

Hey how's it going? I'm back. I think Greg and my mom are here to take us away now so bye!

Love,
Jack

9/11/01 Tuesday 6:45 PM
Well Holy Moly! You folks probably recognize the date up there now. Yes that's right today terrorists crashed jet planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC. Oh my goodness!

I was sitting on the porch this morning and I heard a garbage truck drive by with it's radio turned up really loud. I thought maybe the President had been shot.

Everybody is in a haze today. It seems absolutely unbelievable. I could barely work today.

We've still got a Belle and Sebastian concert to go to tonight. I thought I should write down a few brief words today so I could remember this in the future. I've got to run now, hopefully I will continue this in a bit.

TOP^

9/15/01 Saturday 3:45 PM
Happy anniversary!
Well K and I have been married for one year as of today. Can you even believe it? I am writing this journal out on the back deck of a lodge at Breitenbush Hot Springs. We are using a gift certificate that was given to us for our wedding. So far things are fairly strange here. Maybe things will be more relaxing when we take a dip in the hot springs. It's some sort of hippy new age retreat here. It seems awfully quiet and relaxing though for sure. That's probably exactly what we need right now.

So they are saying that this World Trade Center attack is almost if not more significant than Pearl Harbor. Wow a page in history that I am currently writing about to you all. It was a horrible week. Everyone was scared and saddened by the tragedies that befell the people of New York…

Hold on. We're going to our cabin now to get our swimsuits on so we can relax. Who knows, maybe we'll take our swimsuits off?

9/15/01 Saturday 9:30 PMish?
We don't have a watch or clock.
Well this place is pretty radical. Getting naked isn't as hard as we thought. Next time remember to bring flashlights, sandals, bug spray, board games. The flashlights are a big one. We could have used those puppies.

So it will be interesting to see the events of next year unfolding.

9/16/01 Sunday 7:45 AMish?
Hey it's the next morning here. I just got out of a steam bath and some hot springs. Very nice, very nice. I'm sitting outside now in the lawn by some trees. I think I will be going over to breakfast pretty soon here. It was very relaxing here, although kind of boring I think. I don't know for sure what it was but there was something.

As far as creativity, well what do we got here Jackson? After this week’s events it's kind of hard getting back to the same frame of mind I was in before.

Well I'm working on the Jack Noodle site still. It's coming along well. The theme of the current site is cavemen and robots. I think I am going to be doing a comic strip about CAN the caveman. I think the CAN comic strip will be pretty awesome. It will definitely be strange for sure. Cavemen and robots roaming the Earth together.

CAN gets tied up to a raft and kicked out of his village. The medicine men and witch doctors believe CAN is cursed after a series of misfortunes befall him. His wife and family get carried away by dinosaurs, his crops die, the hunters believe he scares away the animals. So he gets tied up to the raft and pushed out to sea where he floats around for many days.

He is then rescued by a robot named Stanley. Stanley and CAN become friends and head out on many adventures together. CAN is mildly afraid of Stanley, or he knows his people should be afraid of the robots. The cavemen call the robots “firemen” because their workings and bodies look as if they had come from the raging volcanoes or had been created in fire. The cavemen are scared because they think there is a whole breed of firemen that eat cavemen. The robots call the cavemen “beats” because of their beating hearts that the robots don't have inside of them.

Stanley had been hit on the head before he met CAN and was suffering from a mild case of amnesia from the blow. CAN can't speak the same language as Stanley so they have that as a barrier.

The friends’ journey takes them to a tribe of cavemen who are at war with another neighboring tribe. The firemen are also attacking both beat tribes and eating the cavemen indiscriminately. A queen or princess also plays into this somehow. For battle the warriors in the queen’s castle duke it out with a primitive video game competition thing. There are also punked out medicine men with crazy war paint and mohawks. The weapons and tools of this world are primitive. No guns, just blades and clubs and such. All back to nature baby!

Speaking of that, I believe we are going to take one more dip and then get the heck out of here. I think probably what we will do next time is stay at a campground around here and just visit Breitenbush on a day trip pass. One of the campgrounds around here for future reference is called Humbug National Campground.

So I gots to get going on finishing up that website! I'm planning on having my release date on October 1st, 2001. With that I will have an internet radio station connected, samples of my artwork in a portfolio area, a journal portion where I can write things like this, a library section where I have my creative fiction writings and CAN comic strip, as well as some other stuff. I've got a pretty good start on it all, and I'm just teaching myself as I go of course. I'm using programs like Adobe Go Live 5 and Flash 5. It's good for me to be learning that stuff now because it will help with finding a new job.

I recently finished and printed up a nice booklet that I am going to mail out in conjunction with the website. It's called Jack Noodle Artwork and Correspondence. It features the music of My Brother Knows Karate, my friend’s music. It's a styling book and CD. I also have some stickers of the Jack Noodle logo printed. They look cool also.

So with all that stuff I really have a full assault ready for Jack Noodle to take over the world. Woo Hoo! Let me tell you it will be none too soon. I have got to get the heck out of the Group! It is really starting, no wait continuing to stink to high heaven there.

Job hunting was starting to look bad before this attack on America started and now it's looking even worse. I'm keeping hopes up that I will find something good once I start applying. I haven't even been sending my resume out yet so I don't know if the job market is bad. I'm sure it is though. Once this Noodle attack is launched though I'm going to be sending shit out everywhere!

We're driving home now and I think I may take a little nap, and maybe draw some comic strips for CAN.

TOP^

9/18/01 Tuesday 7:54 AM
Howdy friends,
Hey your humble narrator here. How’s it going with you cats? Me? Oh it's going okay here. Boy I keep bouncing back and forth between the notebook and the computer here. I'm going to have to get the notebook and enter those entries into this beautiful computer. It's good I seem to have a lot more entries than I had in quite a while.

Well I'm sure as you all know now, It has been quite a depressing week for America. The World Trade Center and Pentagon disaster has been a huge event. I'm sure it will be in the history books. Pearl Harbor like event. I think today I have a strange perspective because we all seem to be waiting for something else to happen now and it will probably be the next few pages in the history book which right now I have no clue of but when looking back on this in the future I can say hey look, there's the spot where Jack had no clue of the events that seem so ingrained in our minds now.

What they are saying now is that at least 5,000 people perished in the terrorist attack. That is a crazy figure. I have no idea and can't even imagine that many people dead.

It seems kind of silly writing about stuff like this for me but there is a lot of “I will always remember where I was when”.. talk going on so I thought I would write some things so I could look back on it in the future. It's weird because I wasn't doing much of anything when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center. I was getting ready for work sitting out on the back porch, when I heard a garbage truck radio announcing that something had happened. I went in and told K, "I think something catastrophic happened, and sure we'll hear about it when we get in the car and turn on the radio". I think at around that time I thought it was a huge hurricane or a storm of some kind. Then I kind of thought maybe the president had been assassinated.

What a shocking surprise. Something that I wasn't even thinking about at all. I hadn't even thought of that as a possibility. Terrorist attack? I mean I had heard of such a thing before. It didn't seem like something that would happen over here. It's frightening. The people in those office buildings probably were thinking the same thing – something opposite of thinking their buildings were going to be destroyed.

It seems so pointless and silly the things that people worry about from day today when life is actually so fragile. Maybe that's how we can function? Maybe we fill our heads up with so much bullshit so that way we can hide the fear and sadness that the reality of a cold hard evil world brings. I was thinking about how I hate my fucking job, and geeze what can I do to get a new one, how can I pay the mortgage, I've got to finish my website, there are no jobs in Portland, god if I could just hang on a little while longer then maybe the economy will get better and there will be more graphics jobs and then I can tell the Group to fuck off, maybe I could get enough freelance work to just work from home… That's what I was thinking about. Then boom.. Terrorist attack! I felt disgusted with myself a little bit there on that Tuesday, that I could be so petty, but you know at the same time.. Life is really too short to be spending it being unhappy.

Everyone here was walking around like zombies. Everyone looked bad, very sad and very worried. I went into Starbucks the next day and I thought it was strange how war torn everyone looked. Not a single smile. One thing I also will remember is how quiet it was outside of our house when the airports were shut down. I hadn't noticed or even remember hearing airplanes from the airport at our house before that moment. Now I am very aware of planes and have been noticing them quite often. When they reopened the airports on Thursday I think it was, I was actually kind of nervous when I heard F18s fly over work. It seemed so loud and I thought for a second that maybe I should get under my desk. Wow how quickly ones World can change.

We actually came to work on Tuesday, and pretended to work. What a joke. We didn't do anything. We just listened to the radio and looked at the internet and stayed informed on the news. Drawing motorcycles seemed pointless before that Tuesday and it really was pointless then. Everyone was very quiet at work. Lost in their own thoughts. We should have went home but I guess it was good to get paid because we still have to pay the bills.

The media coverage of everything was horrible but I guess necessary? I guess we all needed to see what was happening, but man over and over again? The footage of the planes crashing into the twin towers was absolutely unreal. I saw one shot of a person jumping off of the building and decided I didn't want to see that ever again. The news coverage was on around the clock. No stations played anything but that. Eventually K and I decided that we were getting depressed and rented some movies. Is that not good to do? I'm not sure but it helped us cope.

I think I'm running out of steam here… Pretty good spurt though.

Last night I watched Late Night with David Letterman. It was his first time back since the attack on New York. It was very sad. What a tough gig for a funny man to come back to. Strange I would mention Letterman here. I wonder what future generations will think of me commenting on the Late Show. I think during times like this you look to familiar things that give you comfort. Gosh how strange is this the same guy that was writing about comic books about warring pizza restaurants at the beginning of this journal? How weird to even be writing sentences like “in times like these”.

Well I'll check in later. It looks like we will be talking about war here soon. Scary. I don't know what to think. I think there should be some kind of punishment so that something like this doesn't happen again, but I'm also frightful of the blood thirsty country I live in. People should just love each other… gee that's silly sounding… I guess just don't mess with us and we won't mess with you. Why can't that work? I kind of think though that the people that did this were basically asking for what they are about to get. It's like the kids teasing the vicious neighborhood dog tied up behind the fence. Eventually the teasers get bit and weren't they kind of asking for it by messing with the dog in the first place?
I don't know, I don't have any answers.

Love,
Jack

TOP^

9/27/01 Thursday 9:28 AM
Hello again!

Gee what a dismal and dark creative journal this is turning out to be.

Today I found out a friend I use to work with at the Pony died. Chris. I wrote about him a few times in these pages a few years back.

He was “found” dead. What a horrible thing. Being found dead seems very lonely.

I will always remember what he said to me and have often thought about since then. I was babbling about how annoyed I was about some shock value comic or band or something and how I thought I could totally do that crap and he said this:

“Jack, it is always easy to shock somebody. I could punch you in the face now and get a reaction from you. Shock value is an easy thing to achieve. I could easily draw or make something that would make you sick or angry. Skulls and cross bones aren't hard to draw. The hard part is making a person feel good. Can I draw or create something that makes you feel good or make you happy or change your life in a good way. Making something beautiful is a lot more difficult than making something ugly.”

I'm not sure if that's an exact quote but that was the gist. I've often thought of that. Try to make someone feel good is an excellent thing to strive for with my art making.

9-19-01 WEDNESDAY
Hey if you're reading this now and it's before October 1st, 2001, you can probably see that I'm still constructing.

GEEZE! Under construction pages are so weak!

The official opening - release date is 10-01-01. At least that's what it says on the press release. Please, please, please return then! Loads of fun is in store for the whole family... well most of the family.

Since you're here now, see if you can find any secret documents I may have accidently left laying out while constructing... I don't think there's anything but...

OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2001

10-01-01 Monday
Yep! Time's up Mr. Noodle, lets get this stuff going buddy.
Boy oh boy September turned out to be an absolutely horrible month didn't it?
Here's to a better October (Clink)

The experiments are under way even as we speak.
I am very devoted to you, the valuable viewer's entertainment. Hopefully I can steer clear of boring content. I would love to be your frequently viewed bookmark. Nothing beats a web site that you love going to everyday. Checking up on the goings on of favorite web sites has become part of my morning routine, that and coffee.

I consider this project an organic entity. Kind of like a house plant maybe? It needs water and sunlight. I plan to update and feed this puppy as much and as frequently as possible. Perhaps you all can provide the sunlight? Oh gosh is that silly or what?

Anyway I will always think of this as an ongoing, forever growing, thing with no ending in sight.
Woo Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

My current focus is on the Library and Transmission sections. The 62nd & Radish section and the Garden will be along shortly.

The Library will have some writings and ideas I have been working on and it will also be home to the project I am excited about called "Can". It's a comic strip about the adventures of Can the caveman. (Pictured above.)

The Transmission section should be up and running right now... Jack Noodle internet radio.
If you can't hear it yet try back later today or tomorrow??? Hopefully it works well with what ever internet connection you are using.
What do you think? I am constantly listening to music. This music is selected from my CD collection sitting right here. It's the music I dig, tunes that help and inspire me to keep it real from day to day. Thanks to my friends who donated the music they created and allowed me to add to the playlist... More will be developing from those bands in the 62nd & Radish section.
Well I better get back to it...

10-10-01 Wednesday
Oh my goodness! It's really getting pretty rough and tumble here for your humble narrator.
WHEEEW!

You know in the larger scheme of things though, I don't have it very bad at all. Things could be worse. I have nothing to complain about.

I started mailing out some booklets to some of youz. Hopefully they'll make it to you without being totally eaten up. I'm planning on a mass blanketing of Jack Noodle artwork all across the globe so keep your eyes peeled... I've spotted Noodle stickers on cars, a boat, and even on the drum set of an amazing drummer that I saw at a club last weekend.

I've been listening to the transmissions over the last week. Not too bad. A good way to listen to music at work. I know some of you are having trouble listening at home... hmm. I'm kind of thinking of making the transmission 56k, but I don't know because you lose some of the sound quality that way.

Speaking of transmissions, once I'm done with this money fast I'm on, I'm going to run down to the record store and buy the Strokes CD, and the new Spiritualized CD.
I've been hearing snippets off the new Aphex Twin double album "drukqs" oh my: beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

CAN better be watching out because flesh eating robots are coming his way shortly!

10-19-01 Friday
I was reprimanded the other day for not updating my journal more frequently. You know you're right! What the Hell? People are here visiting, taking in the Noodle work and I don't have the common courtesy to update the journal and let everybody know how it's going.

It's going good.
I'll do better on the frequency front, I swear.

Man did this month fly by or what? Halloween is almost here! It's starting to get cold. We've been turning the heat on a time or two here at the homestead. I may go do that now. We've been keeping bundled up to conserve energy and money. The house is in desperate need of new windows.

I'm beginning to think I picked a bad time to send the books out through the mail. Man! Things were so much easier in March. If you've been enjoying the book and CD drop me an email and tell me so. Actually why don't you all send me an email and tell me what's up.

TOP^

10-21-01 Sunday
We went and saw the Jack the Ripper movie last night: "From Hell". Pretty good. It wobbled a bit towards the end but for the most part it stayed solid. It was fairly gruesome, and it made me question if I've been too desensitized to gore, because I didn't find it THAT sick.
Some of the Freemason scenes reminded me of the secret society in "Eyes Wide Shut" only not as sexy. Boy that Johnny Depp sure makes drug use look sexy though.

Well in between bouts of staring at the wall here in the studio, I've been working on stuff for the library section. I'm also gearing up to enter some design contests, and working on a few other strategies for the Noodle World Domination Tour.

I think we're heading off to Home Depot now.

10-28-01 Sunday
We partied it up last night Halloween style! Thanks to the Wagners for hosting such an enjoyable evening. The lovely lady was a squashed lady bug and I was one of the Rug Rats. People said I was Angelica the mean one? I haven't seen the show all the way through, but angelica was what it said on the box. If you did a little investigating I'm sure you could turn up a picture or two.

Now that the celebration of evil and the damned is over we can chill out on Wednesday and hide!

11-04-01 Sunday 1:22AM
Well here we are...

I was going to start this entry off as: well I've got a lot more free time now... but no..

The noodle way of life is under attack brothers and sisters!

LAYOFF! That is absolutely unacceptable! Our way of life here at the Noodle home is being threatened!

Oh dear Lord, the bottom of my rage is nonexistent!
On Friday I was thinking that I would wish that I could wish my attackers good fortune, but alas I can not. Now I wish for nothing but their demise. I hope in the coming weeks that they will crumble under their ill advised self importance. The peoples in authority that stick it to the workers that give their blood to the causes must never succeed! You are mistaken if you think that causing me harm will help your situation! Oh to the most beautiful contrary!

Peoples here that have been following the experiments at JackNoodle.com be advised you have not seen anything yet! My continuing desire to stick it to the man will bring to you the most magnificent things you have yet to see on the world wide web!

Yesterday, Saturday, was absolutely horrible. The only thing that made it bearable was the thinking that my enemies were the cause of my displeasure. OH curse the day you crossed me!
I am officially at war!

TOP^

11-07-01 Wednesday 8:42AM
There have been a couple of pretty good days here at the Noodle house. I've been running some chores here and there this week and planning the directions in which to take the experiments.

The CAN the caveman story is still going, it just got quite a bit bigger than it started out. I think I'm working on 90+ pages now for the first adventure... Sheesh that's a lot of work!

I'm also getting started on the skate / snowboard shop that is associated with 62nd & Radish. That stuff should be pretty cool. I think I'm going to go down either today or in the coming days and do some video work of the kids at the Burnside Projects Skate Park. Maybe pass out some Noodle stickers and sponsor a few pros to skate for Jack Noodle and 62nd & Radish.

How does everybody like the transmissions? I think it's pretty sweet. I'm going to add a new song line up this week and perhaps take it down to a lower bit rate so our friends in Japan can enjoy the tunes on their 56k modem.

11-09-01 Friday
There! More room!
The week just sped by! Now it's the weekend.

Anybody have any plans this weekend? Me? No. OH WAIT... Duh! I'm having early Thanksgiving dinner with me Ma Ma. MMMM turkey... So much to be thankful for this holiday season.
God I could use some turkey right now. I'm hungry.

I haven't had any coffee yet today either. We're all out here. I'm going to have to head up to my friendly neighborhood hipster coffee hang out soon here. I probably should take a shower first...

PEE YEW! Hey I'm sorry I had a busy day today and didn't have time for personal hygiene!

11-22-01 Thursday
The 22nd already? Once again I know I've said it before, but where the heck did the month go?

Hey Happy Thanksgiving!

The smell of the bird cooking is filling the house now as we wait for our guests to arrive. Where are they? I'm hungry NOW!

This is the first Thanksgiving in our house, I guess we have that celebration to be thankful for.

When I was an angst ridden teen I wrote a poem on Thanksgiving called "Thanksgiving Mourning" It's probably something Lisa Simpson could have written. I had sort of made a tradition of reading it every Thanksgiving since then and had done a good job of it for a few years but the last few years I haven't been able to find it. I think about it every year though. I should really look for it and post it up here for you to read. It's good.

Lots of projects underway here! I have been very busy! Good stuff happening. There's not enough hours in the day to work on my projects. Some things should be in store for the web page next week.

The transmissions has a lot more songs up now at a lower bit rate. I think it sounds alright. You can definitely notice the quality difference though.

TOP^

11-28-01 Wednesday
Howdy all! I'm Plugging away here. Hope all is going well for you.

This is kind of silly fun... Hey a Noodle Shop!
Now you can have Mr. Noodle on your body everywhere you go! I'll probably get a shirt and see how the printing turns out and let you jokers know.
What a cool idea for them. I wish I would have had it.

See here> Noodle Shop

DECEMBER 2001

12-03-01 Monday
A little organizing there, don't be frightened. I'm rearranging a bit to see if I can pick up some speed, and I guess it's good to cut down on scrolling they say? I don't know...

I've been playing a lot of online chess lately. I use to think I was pretty good but man these dudes I've been playing lately have been beating the daylights out of me! I'm not so sure now if I even know how to play chess.

I finally got the new Aphex Twin CD, "Drukqs".
Very good. Quite a workout for the ears. Excellent electronic music experiments mixed with some pretty piano, and otherworldly, alien, genocide, march tunes.

It's going to be a good week and month I think.

12-09-01 Sunday
I've got to do some serious house cleaning here in the office today. Holy moly I'm sitting in between stacks of papers, books, beer bottles and empty coffee cups. I'm surprised anything can get done in here!

I got the shirt I ordered from the Noodle Shop the other day. Looks great, the printing is fine. It receives the Noodle seal of approval, so everybody feel free to open up those pocket books and get your Noodle gear.

The Transmission was down for most of the week last week. It looks like it is up now. I'll need to add some new tunes to that puppy.

Hey Snowboarding season is here folks. Snowboarding companies that need some art get a hold of me. I've got some board designs and such in the works that will go in 62nd & Radish skate shop soon.

12-14-01 Friday
Hey! Boy if I see any more text today I'm going to freak out!
No, Just kidding. I've spent the majority of the day today organizing the journal section in the library. Is it boring or do you find it interesting? It's there now for you and the whole World to decide. I think it's an interesting history so far but then again I'm the one who wrote it and you know how much I love to hear myself talk.

Well It looks like I have landed a pretty sweet gig. I'm very excited. I probably will be able to give you more details shortly.

The Holidays, the Holidays! Hip hip hooray!

I'd like to give a shout out to the jerks at Microsoft! Thanks for your fine product Windows ME. In the immortal words of Luke Skywalker, "What a piece of junk!". That's okay I wasn't using my PC for much anyway. Plus I can't plug my Christmas present iPod into it anyway... (hint)

TOP^

12-16-01 Sunday 10:15 AM
Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me. Happy Birthday Mr. Noodle, Happy Birthday to me. I'm 29 today folks! I sure am getting old! I'll be sent off to the old folks home soon here.

Thanks to everyone that showed up to wish me well and eat pizza last night. I had an awesome time. That lovely lady of mine really out did herself throwing another perfect party! Gosh That girl is the best. You the friends and comrades in arms are also the best. Everybody made me feel like one special hombre!

I don't have a headache this morning either. Everything is turning up roses. Woo Hoo! We're going to go have a birthday lunch with me pappa at the Olive Garden today and then maybe I should go spend some birthday money... Hmmm... Maybe I should save it though? I kind of have an idea for something I want but... OH...
Maybe if I calm down a bit, and take a deep breath this desire to spend money will fade... OH nope! Still there. It wouldn't be that bad I guess if I didn't have such expensive taste. Ha ha.

Oh man. Twin Peaks the first season comes out on Tuesday also! That will be sweet on DVD. Argh! Damn you unemployment! Damn you!

12-23-01 Sunday 11:53 PM
What a crazy world I live in. Gosh your narrator is in such a weird funk now days. I have been totally sealed off from the World. I've been sitting in the house here just brewing all kinds of crazy ideas and stories and plans. God if I could just get past the starting point the World would really be blown away by the force of the Noodle attack. It's all so good if I could just get it out onto paper or the screens. Man what is holding me back? You know it will be a lot of work, everything good takes work and time. Dude just jump in and go for it!

We just got back from seeing the movie "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" at the Bagdad. What a good flick! I am quite fond of the glam rock movie genre though. The sound track is probably one we will end up buying here at the Noodle house. Good rock and roll. Very entertaining. It helped fuel the fire of needing to get some art out to the World.

Probably what got me going on this path once again is that I went to my local comic book store yesterday and had a look around. Gosh that always gets me going. You guys and gals are putting out some nice work. I bought my second copy of my friend Craig's book "Goodbye Chunky Rice" again to give to my cousin for a Christmas present. God damn that is a good book! I read it again yesterday before I wrapped it. What a tear jerker. If you all haven't read it yet then go out tomorrow buy it, read it, and then give it to a friend to read. Craig I know you are way to modest for your own good but boy that is some good work you pulled off there!

Clean blank pages are the death of me. I would love to have enough guts and stamina to pull off a 120 page anything! What's my problem? Why am I such a cry baby? I think I just need to stop crying about it and go for it. Put my money where my stupid mouth is and go nuts. I'm going to have to sit down and stop being lazy and get to work. Jackson it's going to be hard work but you can do it buddy! Just start plugging away and you'll get there my man!

I had such a crazy dream last night and it has stuck with me all day. It was so crazy vivid. I actually have been having quite a batch of nutty dreams.

This dream started with me working on some construction site that seemed to be some sort of Third World type place. I kind of thought it was Mexico. Is Mexico thought of as Third World? I don't think so. Well whatever it was it reminded me of Mexico. Actually if you said it was Afghanistan that would work also since that place is currently in everybody's subconscious. People were working on a bridge that was crossing a canyon that probably had a river flowing through it. It looked pretty loggy but still had some steel structure to it I think. I was working on an office building that was next to the bridge. A buddy and I were working away at our constructing, (which is pretty funny because I can barely hammer a nail in the "real" World) and my buddy says, "You know if that bridge ever collapses this office building is going to crumble along with it because it's built so badly."

Here the dream cuts to some subplot where I get involved with these strange French like debutantes who are in charge of the whole construction site. They all are very pretty people and I being a lowly worker, am very impressed with these cuties. As it turns out they all want to have sex with me for some reason and the dream goes in a very nice direction for a while of which I will spare you the pleasant details.

After my romp in the hay with the upper class, I am of course back to work on the office building constructing. Here's where it gets so vividly real... In the dream I'm like day dreaming or staring off into space not paying attention to my work when I hear jet planes fly overhead. I think wow that's crazy and then I look towards the bridge and USA jet fighters are dropping bombs on the bridge! It was SO loud, and I saw people being blown to bits falling off of the bridge. Some of the jet planes I noticed looked like the Space Shuttle with big American flags on their sides. The Bridge is getting totally bombed. Explosions everywhere.

I suddenly remember what my buddy said about the office building falling if the bridge goes. I of course at the time was on the bottom floor of the big building and everything starts to shake around me. The explosions are getting louder and I realize the office building is falling! I think that if I can run to the back of the building where less of it is finished then I might be able to escape getting totally crushed. I was so scared! I run as fast as I can as everything is just crashing down on top of me.

Some how I am spared and I pop up to the top of the rubble where I find some of my debutante friends. They are all beat to Hell and dirty. I was so happy to be alive. Everyone was crying and happy to see that I had made it through the destruction. My construction friend was there and he was happy to see me. He now had stumps for legs and arms, not bloody stumps, well scarred over skin stumps. He's like "Well I don't have any arms and legs but I'm alive at least". I then start to notice that my body hurts all over, and I'm beginning to wonder how injured I am. A doctor comes up to me from the rubble and says "Well we are going to have to take that leg off before it gets gang green." He then starts sawing into the skin of my right leg above the knee with an Exacto knife! It hurt so bad! I could totally feel everything! He started to saw into my bone and I screamed and screamed! Luckily I woke up soon after that.

What do you think about that? Well I'll leave it there for now I've got to go to sleep now. Big holiday events beginning soon.

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12-24-01 Monday
Christmas Eve! Santa should be in town soon!

I was feeling like a bit of a Scrooge this season, annoyed with the whole holiday mess. I'm finding as of yesterday though with all of the mind numbing shopping over with, I am actually turning around and enjoying the season. It's just that gift thing that bugs me I think. I enjoy seeing all the family and friends, and singing Christmas carols around the chestnuts roasting on an open fire, I just hate that whole gift thing. The giving and receiving. Let's just spend time together and fellowship, we don't have to show our love with presents.

Ha Ha! Gosh speaking of gifts, let me speak kindly on what I was just railing against...
Last week I spent the majority of the week playing my new gaming system that was my Birthday / Christmas gift.
Great, that is just what I need. Another time killer! I have spent hours on that thing. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 is absolutely awesome. Man I love that game. It is so fun. It's like real skateboarding for us older kids who don't have good knees anymore.
I also got Jak and Daxter which is also a fun game.

I am looking forward to seeing you friends and family members tonight and tomorrow! It should be fun with or without the gifts. A special shout out to my Mommy and her husband spending the holidays at home in Baker City. We love ya.

12-26-01 Wednesday
What a wonderful Christmas! I feel like a jerk now for being such a scrooge! We had a great time visiting with everyone. Now it's time to focus on the new year and those new years resolutions.
January will be here soon and It will be time to get back to some serious work!

12-28-01 Friday
Well we are now one of the millions of cattle that have been herded to the Lord of the Rings movie. We went and saw it last night.
Pretty good. Not too bad. Very entertaining.
The actors did a fine job I thought. Boy some of those monsters were really scary. K laughed at me during one spot because I totally jumped out of my seat when one of the monsters sprang.
One of the comments I heard about the movie before I saw it was that people didn't know who the characters were and thought people were popping up without explanation. I don't agree with that at all. When ever somebody new showed up they would say their name every time. " I am Noodle and I come from the hills over the hills and under the hills."
One of my friends who had been reading the books thought it didn't stay close enough to the books. I don't know about that. I had only read the Hobbit and started Lord of the Rings but got bored and stopped after having just read the Hobbit and all. I have the whole set in the basement somewhere, maybe I will try and read them again. I have seen the cartoons, and I thought the characters and setting really stayed close to the look of the cartoons. That was cool I thought.
I'm not a Middle Earth, elves and goblins geek. I'm more of a nerd when it comes to Star Wars. Star Wars is my religion.

The special effects were pretty sweet. I had set that as a measure before I saw the movie. I was ready to blow my stack if it turned into a computer animated poop fest like everything has been doing lately. Some of it was pretty obvious but for the most part it stayed fairly grounded. What the heck is wrong with these special effects artists now days? Don't they watch the movie after they make it? Sheesh! Hey buddy that doesn't look real! Leave the computer animation for Toy Story and Monsters Inc. please.
Lord of the Rings did alright though. I thought the effect of the Hobbits as small people was pretty right on, although people in my movie going party thought that was the most obvious special effect flaw.

Hooray for Peter Jackson, the director. He definitely left his touch on the movie. Some of the Orcs reminded me of the zombies from his other movies. He gave it quite a horror touch also. I definitely recommend that the wholesome holiday movie goer rent "Dead Alive" or "Meet the Feebles" by Mr. Jackson. Ha ha then you'll see he's not your average James Cameron, Ron Howard, blockbuster deliverer!

Good stuff though. I think Lord of the Rings easily beats Harry Potter in the current wizards and warriors, holiday movie campaign.

12-30-01 Sunday 11:15 AM
New Years eve is almost here and we don't have any plans yet. What do you think? Do any of you have any plans for us? We will probably hang out with the usual suspects. Hmm.. It would be good to do something. It may turn out to be a relaxing non eventful evening which may be alright also.

I'm feeling rather contemplative this morning. Gosh the new year is coming up and I need to start planning and get this year started off right. I started going through some of my paper work stacks sitting here. I think one of my New Years resolutions will be to organize my paper work, doodles, writings, and creative thoughts. There's quite a few ideas here that need to be put in order. It's kind of cool that some of the ideas over lap and go together. I think during the New Year I will revisit some of those ideas and flesh them out more fully.

I'm also planning of course to continue on strongly with this fine web site. I think another good resolution will be to increase my journal entries here. I think I did pretty good here towards the end of the year but I need to continue to increase the frequency.

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