10-01-02 Tuesday
**Happy anniversary everybody!** Woo Hoo! We made it! YES! SCORE! I have officially been doing this journal for a year now! I know there's some August and September entries there but back then my official start date for this web site version to be ready was October 1st. I think I added those August and September entries after the fact from my paper journal to get a 9-11 perspective. A year really didn't take that long to go by did it? Well hmm. I guess things are different now than a year ago. I don't think I was thinking I would be unemployed for this long. Phillip was just a glimmer in his father's eye back then. I'm going to read over the past year's journals today I think, well okay maybe I will skim through them. There's a lot of writing stacking up on this here web site. That would be crazy if I just kept going until I had like 10 years of entries wouldn't it? The paper version of my ramblings is 10 plus years old. It seems like this year was a pretty level year. Not too many peaks and not too many valleys. I hope the next 12 months will be a bit better for yours truly. Things are picking up I think. Thanks to everyone who has been tuning in over the year, reading my rants, listening to the transmission, and looking at my drawings. Thanks SO much for the cool email supports, encouragements and shout outs.

Well back to it for year number 2, the second season. Episode 1: "What will Jack do today?" Well It looks like I will be doing chores today. I need to fold the laundry and I need to wash a mountain of dishes. I conned K into letting me skip dish washing last night by suggesting we go to the Olive Garden to eat. I conned myself I guess because the dishes are still there! I also absolutely need to call the furnace people today. It's going to really start getting cold in here. Tonight I think we are going to go see one of my new favorite Portland bands play at the Blackbird. THE THERMALS. I listened to a copy of their demo over and over again and can't wait to see how they do live.

Those of you who know our cat Pierre, know that he is quite the sick little kitty. Well he had been doing so well for so long. Ever since we have been here in the new house he hasn't had an episode. Well the seizures are back! Dang it, he was doing so well! He has had 4 seizures in the past 6 days. They are quite horrible things to behold. They usually wake you from sleeping. I got clawed pretty bad during last night's scare. We are increasing his medication a bit so hopefully that will keep them at bay again. Poor little guy.

10-02-02 Wednesday
Hey! Yo! What's up?

It is getting colder and colder outside. I think the Fall is really here this time. Hold on... I've got to go microwave myself some coffee. There that's better. I was thinking of going for a bike ride over to Matt's house this afternoon, but I think It may be a little cold and wet for my liking.

Oh my gosh kids! The Thermals were excellent last night! They so totally rocked it. They have great energy and showmanship. The music was very rocking. I like seeing a band jump around when they are playing. The lead singer and some girls on stage were twirling hoola hoops around their waists. Man I don't think I could get a hoola hoop to go around once, let alone a whole song, while I was singing. A great show though. You should go see them next time you get a chance.

Well what should I do today... I finished up the dishes last night. I'm going to have to mow that lawn as soon as it dries.

Oh yeah, by the way... What do you think of the redesign? I think it looks pretty sharp. We've got Phillip over there guarding things now. Let me know what you think. I've still got work to do on some of the other pages. I want everything to look consistent you know. It all looks very nice and clean now. I've got to check this front page out on the other computer and see if it looks alright.

Oh man that looks like crap on the PC! ARGH! All the buttons are messed up. Hold on, I'll fix it.

10-04-02 Friday
I'm getting to the journal a tad bit later than usual. I was trying to sleep. It was very hard to sleep last night. I don't know what was going on, but the animals were out of control! Phillip didn't want to go to sleep and kept crawling everywhere. When he did lay down it was on my head. Then he decided at 4 or so that he wanted to go outside to go potty. Pierre was acting over lovey for some reason and kept mewing and purring really loud, When Phillip switched over to sleeping on K's head Pierre plopped down on my head. They just wouldn't settle down. K was mad, I was mad, and the bed was way too small for 4 beings. Could they be acting as harbingers of doom? People say that animals act all crazy before things like earthquakes hit. They sense it somehow.

Pierre being feisty though is a good sign that he is feeling better I think. I hope. He was doing pretty bad for a couple of days there. He wasn't looking good. Maybe his medication is stabilizing now. He hasn't had a seizure now for a day and 2 nights so it seems that he's out of the woods for now.

My mother is in town now. We went to Vancouver and had dinner at my grandparent's house last night. It's very good to see them. I think we are going to try to meet them at the Greek festival for lunch this afternoon. Oh man, It's almost that time now. Maybe we'll be going? I sure am tired. I need to get some coffee in me.

Have you all seen the previews to "Red Dragon" yet? I think that is in theaters today. We might try to go check that out. We haven't been to a movie in quite a while. Red Dragon is the prequel to "Silence of the Lambs". It looks good because Edward Norton is in it. I like that guy. Well hopefully it's better than that lame sequel "Hannibal". That movie blew.

I've got a little bit of stuff to work on here in the laboratory this weekend. I started a new drawing for a Fantastic Idea Project concert poster that's looking pretty good. I want to keep going in the same direction for the rest of the web page design. I've got some good ideas I think to add to the site. I've got a few little odds and ends to work on for people also this weekend. Oh hey it was kind of cool yesterday, the punk rock CD I worked on the graphics for was reviewed in the Mercury, one of our too cool for school "alternative" newspapers here in town.

TOP^

10-05-02 Saturday
Hello all! How are you doing this morning? I thought today I would start earlier since I started out later yesterday. I finally slept good last night! I did have a bad dream though that is still giving me some trouble.

Here's the scoop. I hope that divulging this stuff won't effect my standing with said parties or other parties not said. What? Okay I've got to let you people in on what's going on don't I? I mean if I can't tell you guys then who could I tell? I'm nervous about prying eyes, which actually is probably a good thing to be mindful of. Alright already NOODLE!

You all know my friend Geoffrey right? He has been working up in Seattle now for the past several months. Well, he got me in to an interview at his place about a week ago. They have been working on a video game and other sort of cool projects and need a full time illustrator.

So I go to the interview and I think I did pretty well. I think actually I did really well. I had to be tested and timed on my knowledge of Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, and think I did great with that. I got along with interviewer also I thought. We had actually worked at the same lame place at different times and had that to talk about a bit. I don't know, I felt good about it. The job is something I could totally do right away from day one. I told him I thought I would really be a good fit for the job. He told me that they had a few more people to look at and then he would get together with one of his managers and call people back at the beginning of the week. That was the beginning of THIS week.

That was what I was stressed out about in the journal last weekend. Wondering about the job and if I got the spot or not. So when the beginning of the week rolled around and I didn't hear anything back, I called him. He said he had been busy and they had one more person to look at and then they would be doing call backs at the end of the week. Call backs? Does that mean second and third interviews? So yesterday, Friday, rolls around and still no phone call.

Oh man. K and I have been on pins and needles. It's so frustrating because I know I can totally do this job well and would like to be working again. They shouldn't have to interview anymore people because I'm their man. It is SO sucky that so many people are unemployed now. Even though I did well in the interview and testing, who's to say that another 82 people did just as well. Maybe the person who walked in after me had more experience, or looked cooler, or was friends with the owner's nephew? I'm really hoping that they have just been really busy and have been meaning to hire me and just haven't got to it yet. GOD! This waiting by the phone business is driving me crazy! Geoffrey is no help either because he works in a different department and doesn't know the guy who interviewed me. If that wasn't enough, he has also been in Florida visiting relatives since last week, so he can't even spy for me to get scoops.

Now here's where the bad dream comes in. In the dream I just shared all of that business there with my other friend, G. Before I get to the real meat of my story I notice that she has a really sheepish grin on her face.
I'm like, "What? Have you been interviewed there also?"
"Yes! I've been interviewed there 5 times!" She blurts.
In the dream my stomach drops. I hadn't even been called back once! Calling it a bad dream is a little mean to G. It's good for my buddy because she needs the job too. Now she can be on the inside and get me in the door that way next time. Dang it though, why did I have to tell her about the opening in the first place?

See this stinks. Now worry about this dang job is sneaking into my dream life. I need to keep working at getting other gigs and not put all of my eggs in one basket with this one. Hopefully I hear from them one way or another soon, so this madness will end. I need to email G and find out if there was any truth to my dream. Maybe it wasn't a dream, but an actual vision of the future.

Ah I feel a little bit better now. See, I knew that telling you guys would help. THANKS

10-07-02 Monday
Here we are, the start of another wonderful week! This is going to be a good one people, I can just feel it. I haven't been keeping up with the weather forecast. Is it suppose to clear up at all this week? There was enough rain last week to turn the lawn from brown back to green, and now I need to mow it. It looks like a mess now so a mow will be good.

How was your weekend? We had another boring one as usual here at the Noodle compound. We only went out once to the Pub at the End of the Universe. That place was kind of lame. After that we went to Squeeze. That place is okay. Oh yeah Phillip, K and I did go to the pumpkin patch on Saturday to see Eugene's brother, Benny play. He's in Foghorn Leghorn, a pretty kick ass old time band.

We finally rented and started in on season 3 of the Sopranos! Yes! I am very pleased so far. Good stuff. We finished watching the first 4 episodes last night. I think season 3 may be my favorite so far, I love that show.

I know I seem to be filled with a little bit of anger lately, but the thing that really gets my goat is baseball! What the heck? Does anyone watch baseball anymore? It's because of baseball that the Simpsons new season gets bumped until November. Jerks. I need new episodes now!

10-08-02 Tuesday
Boy it's a little chilly in here today. I've got some coffee brewing right now so that should warm me up pretty quick. If the Sun comes out at all today, I think I will mow the lawn. Today feels like a good chore working day.

Well little Phillip went in to the vet today for some operations! Poor little guy. I felt so sorry and sad for him. He walked right off with the vet tech as happy as could be and didn't even look back at us. He's getting the big neuter today and they are going to open up his nose holes a bit. They are getting him on both ends. He'll be okay I'm sure. He'll be tired tonight I bet. Pierre is happy to see him gone. He's prancing around here like he owns the place again.

For some reason I am listening to the Senate debate on attacking Iraq now on the radio. God this sucks. What the heck am I doing? I need to turn this garbage off. What a mess. Hey lets have a debate on the economy instead huh? What a bunch of war mongers. Oh geeze I don't know what I'm talking about though. These guys do make more sense than the President did yesterday at least. Hold on I'm going to turn this stuff off.

Martin and I hung out a bit yesterday. We went downtown to Powell's City of Books and then went over to Portland Northwest College of Art. We looked at the "Paper, Scissors, Rock" art exhibit. It's a rock concert poster, flyer, telephone pole sign, show. There was hundreds of posters from Northwest concerts. It was pretty cool. There was some nice stuff in the show. I've got several of my own concert posters that I've done, none of which I saw there. I'm working on one right now and it was good to get some ideas.

I need to keep going with my Double Darren music work there. Maybe I'll try to make some more tunes today. I've kind of been taking a break from that for the time being. I actually have been taking a break from quite a few things lately. Gosh, I've got to get back to it. This week's going pretty well, I'm sure I'll get back into the swing of things soon.

TOP^

10-09-02 Wednesday
Phillip is back and doing fine. His operations went well. He's a tough little guy and will be back to full fighting force in no time. He didn't seem to be too badly affected after coming home. He wobbled a bit and was groggy, but that's it. His nose holes are bigger now and you can already tell that he's breathing better. The only thing left to do is go get the stitches taken out of his nose in 14 days.

Pierre had another seizure this morning. Damn it. What are we going to do? All these pet bills are doing damage to an already empty pocket book. Money shouldn't be an obstacle when it comes to your children, but look, here we are. Cars, pets, plumbing, heating, how the hell are we suppose to pay for all of this shit? It is quite troubling to me people.

Man, I need to lighten up. Hmm lets see, well, I finished 2 Fantastic Idea Project Posters that I think are pretty cool. That was pretty fun I guess. Hmm what should I do today? I don't know.

10-11-02 Friday
Happy Friday to you all! Here comes the weekend! The sun is shining pretty good out there this morning. I just took the dog out and checked the weather. It may be good lawn mowing weather today. It's cold and crisp out. I really like the smell and feel of a cold, clean fall morning. It reminds me of being a kid, growing up in Beavercreek and walking down the hill to the school bus stop with my brother.

I've got a couple of phone calls from lovely people who had read the journal and expressed concern for the little ones. Phillip is doing marvelous and Pierre is not so marvelous. Wednesday through Thursday morning were bad seizure times. It's so frustrating and stressful. The seizures always keep you on edge because you keep waiting for the next one to happen. We tried to get him into the vet yesterday but both of his doctors are out of the office until Monday. We've raised his medication dosage up again and that has given us 24 hours so far without an episode. Hopefully we'll make it to next week without too much trouble.

I pretty much just hid out in the house all day yesterday. I didn't really talk to anyone either. What have you all been up to? We've all got to get together and hang out soon. Are there any plans for the weekend? We are going to check out our friend's band, Fantastic Idea Project tomorrow night at the Mississippi Pizza Pub. It will be their 2nd show. Check out the sweatshirt I did for them in the Noodle Shop. I think it's pretty sharp and will have to get one when more money comes in.

Oh my gosh! I saw a mouse in the lawn yesterday! It was so weird. He seemed to be moving really slow like he was sick or something. He was heading towards under the house! ARGH! I grabbed a shovel and was going to scoop him up and throw him into the neighbor's yard, but I couldn't get him. The shovel kept squashing him. I thought about killing him for a second but the dog was there and I was having trouble keeping him away from the dirty mouse. He stopped heading for the house but I bet he went there after we left. Great, that's all I need, a rodent infestation! There are mountains and mountains of rats and mice around this part of town. This is the closest one to the house I have seen so far. They look for food stuffs and we have been good about keeping the unfinished basement clean. Hopefully they'll stay away.

We watched "Death to Smoochy" last night and started watching "Brotherhood of the Wolf". We'll have to finish watching Brotherhood of the Wolf today. We fell asleep last night before we could finish it. Death to Smoochy was pretty good. It got kind of long and off track in the middle, but it was a pretty solid movie. Robin Williams and Edward Norton were awesome in it. Danny DeVito did a great job directing. Not the best movie I've seen all year but entertaining and well worth the rent.

I still haven't got an answer from Geoffrey's company. I called them on Wednesday and they said they were still working on it. That's good I guess. At least it wasn't an "already filled the position".

I think I'm going to get a hair cut today. Man, that would feel nice. My hair has gotten out of control. My hair is so easy to cut. I go in and tell them, "A #2 clipper, shaved all over". Maybe I should try a #1 this time. No, winter is coming soon and I do need a little bit of cover.

10-12-02 Saturday
I did end up getting a haircut. Now my head is cold. The temperature has gone down quite a bit I think. There was no cloud cover last night so I'm sure that has something to do with it. Hold on, I need to go get a stocking cap for my head. I feel like a new man with the nice short, shaved do. I'm ready to take on the World again.

I keep thinking today is Sunday for some reason. It feels like a Sunday. That's cool though because I keep gaining a day every time I remember that it's Saturday again. We don't have anything really planned for the day. Today would probably be a good day to do some cleaning up around here. This laboratory is in serious need of some help.

We finished watching "Brotherhood of the Wolf". It was really cool. Quite a pretty picture. It's a French movie set back in the 18th century. These 2 men are sent to a village to save them from a beast that keeps devouring the village people. It pretty much was a mystical fantasy, lots of fighting, cool weapons and an awesome looking beast. We started watching the dubbed English version, but then switched it over to the French with English subtitles. The movie was much better that way.

Last night we went over and had dinner with Martha and Officer Steve. So very good to see you both. Martha made an excellent enchilada that I wish I had some of now for breakfast. I'm hungry. Officer Steve and I played Xbox until we fell asleep in the front room. "Halo" is the really cool Xbox game that I was thinking you should get, Steve. Shout out to the lovely Emma. She had missed her nap that day and was pretty tired.

When we got home, K and I watched a couple more Sopranos episodes. We are almost done with Season 3! What are we going to do? I think we will probably go through some withdrawals when we are done. I keep hinting around to a couple of people that it would be so kind of them to keep a tape going and record Season 4 for the poor Noodles.

I need to get started up again on some of my projects. I should go back over my notes and refresh my memory with some of the ideas I already have going. I could do a lot of work here on the web page. I need to update almost all of the sections here. I really need to improve the flash work in the garden. It needs some pruning. I've got a lot of plans for the 62nd & Radish section also. One of these days I'm going to add some different songs to the transmission section.

Oh hey! It's Saturday, not Sunday. Cool now I have more time for projects.

TOP^

10-14-02 Monday
Well here we are again. Another Monday. The start of a new week. It seems like I was just writing a Monday entry. Gosh, that went fast. This is going to REALLY be a good week. Not like last week, where it started out good and then quickly jumped in the toilet. This week is going to be solid all the way through. A week for the history books. K has this week off from school. She's got Fall break. That right there automatically begins the fun adventures that we'll find this week.

How did your weekend go? Ours was alright. We tied one on pretty good Saturday night. Tied it pretty tight I guess, because we laid around the house on Sunday and didn't do anything. The Fantastic Idea Project did an excellent job at their show on Saturday. Good job kids. That Mississippi Pizza Pub was a pretty cool place. The pizza was quite yummy. After the show, Eugene and New Friend Joel stayed over at our at our house and we watched an episode of the Sopranos. Eugene and New Friend Joel are couch surfing until the end of the month when their new apartment will be ready to move into.

Speaking of the Sopranos... That's it. No more Season 3. We finished it all up yesterday. Quite sad. We wanted more when we were done. Now we'll just have to suck it up and wait for Season 4 to come out on DVD. Surely it won't be that long of a wait will it? I went to the web site last night and read up on some of the current episodes. Come on Noodle, let it go man. You'll find something new to entertain and help you escape.

Gosh I'm chilly. There seems to be a few things that I keep mentioning I need to do here in the journal, and I really should get going on them. This is silly. Calling the furnace people, mowing the lawn, cleaning the laboratory and making some more Double Darren tunes are just a few of the things I keep procrastinating. I need to get off my butt and start doing some of those things. I have been teetering on the edge of a horrible funk these last few weeks. I'll be glad when that crap is over with.

10-16-02 Wednesday
Good, happy morning to you all! How's it going? Going good here. I'm a little hungry though. The weather outside is delightful! It has been sunny all week. A week for the history books is what I said on Monday, and I may just be right. I've been having a good couple of days. I think the next few days will continue on in the same fashion, right into the weekend.

Eugene and New Friend Joel stayed over again on Monday night. That was pretty fun. They made us some dinner and we watched "The Godfather". We decided that we needed to keep our Sopranos, Mafia entertainment fix going so we got the king of all gangster films. K and Eugene hadn't seen it before. Benny came by later to help us watch the movie.

Tuesday I went up and helped my friend work on the newspaper. That was pretty entertaining also. Have I spoke of the newspaper here before? I think I have? Well I've been doing freelance graphics up in Vancouver for a small community newspaper since August. I'm sure I mentioned it. I worked up a couple of ads and we formatted some photographs for the paper.

Today I must get out in the Sun! I can't stay and type here any longer! K has demanded that we go out on the Freedom Walk today and go to the coffee shop. I agree with her. Maybe the young Phillip can join us. I haven't been out on the Freedom Walk for many, many weeks. It will feel good to get out there and keep it real with the peeps again. I need to get out of this laboratory and spread some Noodle love around the neighborhood again. Something tells me this could be the last Freedom Walk. What? No... wait, it's a good thing. My fingers are so crossed that they are turning purple. I've some news that I dare not speak of yet, so be patient my friends. Don't worry though people. If I do ever go back to work, know that the Freedom Walk will always continue on in my heart.

10-18-02 Friday
Boy, this week flew by! Why do I always say that? I should just know that ALL weeks fly by and stop commenting on it. This one did go by pretty fast though. You know now that I think about it, I was sitting around bored a lot of the time this week thinking that time had stopped. I don't know why I get to a Friday and think the week went by fast. The week was actually a slow moving slug. It was the best week in a long time though, like I predicted.

It looks like the Sun is hiding from us this morning. I'm glad I finally got off of my butt and mowed the lawn yesterday when the Sun was shining. The lawn looks so much better now. It was so funny. For some reason I thought that a tree up front needed some pruning, so I went to town on it. When I got a ways into it, my jaw dropped because I had really cut a lot of branches off. Then I had to keep going on the other side to even it out. I now have a palm tree sitting in the front yard! No it looks pretty good. Branches and limbs grow back right?

Well kids I heard back from Geoffrey's company. Looks like I didn't get the job up there. That kind of stinks. That would have been a kick ass job. Oh well. The possibility of me doing freelance is still open so that's cool.

Fear not! Dry those eyes. The same day I found out about that job I got offered another one! **WOO HOO!** Could it be? Is your humble narrator actually joining the work force again after so long? YES! I got a spot on a tech team working at Adidas. Yep, the shoe company. Very cool. My super buddy, Joel #1 works there and thought of me when asked if he knew anyone that wanted a job. I've got a lot of paper work to fill out right now so I better get to that. I think I'm starting on Monday.

I'm glad we found out before the weekend. Now K and I can breathe a sigh of relief and relax a little bit. We've got to go out today and buy a few of the things that we said we would get on the day I became employed again. We can't go too crazy. I don't have a paycheck yet. There are a few necessities I do need though, like some pants and the new Underworld CD.

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10-19-02 Saturday
Once again we are out of coffee. ARGH! What am I to do? Oh and I could have so used coffee this fine morning. The sun is shining out there. I think I saw some fog also this morning. Maybe it was more of a mist. Fall is here and Winter is fast approaching. K wants to go to the pumpkin patch and the apple festival today. Gosh 2 in a row? Please. I did say I would go back to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. Those are definitely 2 Fall events though. I need to get some coffee. Maybe I'll drive up to the store right after I hang up here.

So we went on our little, celebratory, mini shopping spree yesterday. We went and got some new clothes and a few other things. I got some new pants. I was really in need of pants. The right knee of every pair I owned had a hole in them. I don't know why it was just the right knee. My right knee must be larger than the left.

Man, I better just pause here and get some coffee. I can't see straight. There, I'm back. I got the coffee brewing now so I should be okay.

I got the new Underworld CD! "One hundred days off". It's excellent. It's a bit different than the other albums. There are few jazzy tunes mixed with their signature head bobbing, dance assaults. It's a great CD for me to celebrate the new gig and remember my 100+ days off. I sampled some other CDs I may have to get in the future.

I also got a couple of books to read. Am I a geek or what? I bought a Star Wars novel to start reading. "X-Wing Rogue Squadron". It's the first book in a series. I wanted something quick and easy to read to help me get into the swing of reading and hopefully get me in shape for some more serious reading like Star Wars "Dark Empire". I don't know, we'll see. I just want to finish some books I start.

I think the lady and I need to make a few to do lists to get some sort of battle plan going against the headaches that have been piling up over the last few months. Things like the golf's battery needing to be fixed, getting a new printer, fixing the heat, blah, blah. Boring stuff. The new job will help put a dent in the things that we have been putting off for so long.

We watched "Insomnia" the other night. Actually we had to start it twice because I instantly fell asleep the first time we started it. I was tired. It sure was good though when I finally saw it. I think that is one of the best non-Sopranos rentals that we have had in a while. Most of the time the stuff that we have been renting has been just okay, but this one was actually really good. It stars Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank. It was a murder mystery, cop, thriller. Al Pacino's character has insomnia in it, and his performance of being tired and not able to sleep is right on.

Well, I got to get this puppy posted. So pumpkins and apples for today I guess. Other than that we really don't have much planned for the day. I don't think there's much scheduled for the rest of the weekend.

10-21-02 Monday
Good, cloudy, Monday morning to you kids! How's it going this morning? It's going pretty good here. Gosh I woke up pretty early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. I've got a nice warm cup of coffee now, so that will help me fall back to sleep. What? I don't know.

The weekend went pretty well. The apple festival and pumpkin patch were better than I thought they would be. The pumpkin patch was totally crowded. We had a pretty mellow weekend once again. We didn't do too much yesterday. K returned some clothes and exchanged them for others. I window shopped at the video game store. I can't believe I haven't bought "Grand Theft Auto 3" yet. What discipline! I've wanted it for almost a year now. Maybe I'll get it when the first paycheck comes. No Noodle, conserve your funds my man.

Oh my goodness! Did we see a stinker of a movie last night! The movie "Murder By Numbers", starring the lovely Sandra Bullock, was horrible. It was laughable during some scenes. Very predictable. There was even a few messed up edits that I noticed. Her shirt was on one way in one angle and then when it cut to the next angle she was wearing it different. The only good thing about it were the 2 high school kids that planned out the murder. They were pretty good. Although by the end of the movie they were pretty annoying also. That's too bad though the movie had a good idea and skeleton to it. Ha Ha! I was just beginning to worry that I had been giving only good movie reviews here in the journal and skipping the stinkers. This will help balance it out.

Well I've got a few things to do today. Some chores will probably need some attention today. I've got a few dishes left to wash that I didn't quite finish yesterday. I need to call and schedule an appointment for Phillip to get the stitches taken out of his nose. I need to see about getting the golf's battery looked at sometime this week. The first thing I should get to now is filling out the mountain of paperwork I have for the new gig. Mountain I tell you!

10-22-02 Tuesday
Wow, two entries in a row. Well wonders never cease here at the Noodle compound. It looks like we're in for another cloudy morning. I think yesterday it was cloudy during the morning and then cleared up in the late afternoon. It hasn't been too bad weather wise these last few weeks actually it has been really nice. Enough with the weather already, Noodle!

I haven't been feeling very creative as of late. Hopefully I will be able to snap out of it soon. I think you could probably make a graph of my creative levels over the last 12 months. I think it would show how the length of time being unemployed has slowly pulled my creativity down. I was far more into it last January for sure. I don't think I'm on the lowest part of the graph today because I am in a great mood and I do at least have hope that my creative levels are beginning to rise again. I've still got some good work left in me.

I rented the video game, "Hitman 2, Silent Assassin" yesterday. I have totally been in a weird video game playing mood these last few days. I'm not sure why. Oh my goodness though, this Hitman game is a little nuts. The whole point of the game is to go around and assassinate people. It's pretty crazy. I don't know if I like it or not. The controls on the game are a little hard to figure out. The guy doesn't move very well. I'll give it a few more tries before I make my final judgement. I'm not into the whole violence thing. Why does everything have to be so violent? Why can't things be more sexy? God forbid somebody make a sexy playstation game!

Gosh this entry is taking me forever to write. I'm a little distracted today. I need to focus.

I am well into my Star Wars X-Wing novel. It's actually quite good. It's stimulating my reading muscles. I really enjoy reading. I should keep it up. While reading though I can't stop thinking that I should be writing a novel. Man, while reading I should only think of reading, not writing. Eh, who knows. I think I'll continue with my Star Wars reading as soon as I get done here.

I think I'm going to go by and visit my brother and the kids tonight. That should be fun. K's got a mountain of school work to do and my brother's wife is out at another event, so it's just the boys.

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10-23-02 Wednesday
Well I guess this is my last day of freedom for awhile. It was fun while it lasted, kids. Actually it was only fun for about the first 6 months. Yep, tomorrow I start the new job. At least I think I do. Maybe I should call somebody and find out for sure. Man the Sun is shining bright this morning! Today I will go on the last Freedom Walk. I will wish all of my brothers and sisters well and hope that they continue to keep it real. This is a great day for the Freedom Walk. Maybe when I get back I'll take the dog out for his own Freedom Walk to the park.

Gosh, I slept in a bit this morning. Oh well. There is a yummy pot of coffee brewing right now. You know I should really try to clean things up around here today. Yeah that's what I'll do. I really should have been keeping this laboratory clean the whole time, but you know how it goes. I've got some dishes to catch up with also. Oh yeah, there are some bills I should probably put in the mail. If I have time after all of that stuff, I'm going to try to do some reading and maybe try to play that Hitman 2 game some more.

I had a good time hanging out with my brother and two nephews last night. We just chilled and played around. Those two kids are pretty smart little dudes. We took a ride in the car and the eldest Noodle showed me his preschool. We had some good laughs.

There is some talk of going over to the coast this weekend. Mr. Baptist and Ms. Bee are going to be over there. That might be kind of fun. I am really nervous about leaving Pierre alone for very long. We could have someone look after him, but that would be horrible for the babysitter if he had one of his episodes. We'll have to see.

I've got a big day planned for myself. I better get to it. If I don't watch out I may spend the whole day typing.

10-25-02 Friday
Boy oh boy! It's pretty chilly in here this morning. Time to get that furnace fixed. How's everybody doing today out there in cyberland? I'm doing okay except for that whole cold thing that I just spoke of. I've got a nice fresh warm cup of coffee now, so that should help. It's a bit overcast out there today. Maybe our Spring like weather is over.

You're probably all wondering how my first day at work went huh? Well, I don't know yet. What? Yeah, my start day got pushed to Tuesday. I haven't started working yet. I'm ready to go though folks! I've got my lunch packed and my clothes laid out and ready for my special first day.

I really need to start working. These last few days have made me crazy. I've been really annoyed and agitated. Little things are getting magnified and bugging the heck out of me. One of the things that I thought might help me calm down at least for a bit, was getting "Grand Theft Auto 3". Yes, I finally got it. Man oh man that's a fun video game. I played it all day yesterday. I spent hours and hours stealing cars and beating the crap out of people with a baseball bat. I think I'm going to continue playing it again today after I do some picking up, vacuuming and a few chores.

I don't know. The weather might not be so nice at the beach this weekend. Perhaps we shouldn't go. I guess a rainy day at the beach is still a day at the beach. What are you all doing this weekend? Any big plans? Hey Halloween is coming up quick. Yeah, bah hum bug. When you look like a monster all year, what's one more night? We do have a party to go to this year. That should be fun. I don't feel like dressing up, but I suppose I have to. Remember last year how scared everyone was that terrorists were going to go out trick or treating and kidnap their children? Gosh, what weird times we live in.

10-28-02 Monday
Well hello there everybody! How are you all doing on this cold Fall morning? Gosh this time change is throwing me off a bit. I'm getting started later on the journal. I think when I start working again, I may switch my journal time to the evening instead of the morning like I have been doing. That will probably add a different perspective to the whole mess eh?

How did your weekend go? Ours was pretty cool. We went down to the beach again and stayed in a yurt with Mr. Baptist, Ms. Bee, Annie, Martin, Lianne and Phillip. Boy there's quite a list of hoodlums. It was pretty fun. We went crabbing in Mr. Baptist's boat. Crabbing was pretty fun. I hadn't done that before. You throw your nets over the side of the boat, wait for the crabs to hop in, and then scoop them up. We caught quite a few large crabs. Martin and I helped Mr. Baptist take them to get cooked and then we cleaned them. I felt like quite the manly fisherman.

Eugene and New Friend Joel watched Pierre while we were away. He seemed to be okay when we got back, although he had another seizure this morning. Man KITTY! Stop it already! A sucky thing happened to Eugene and New Friend Joel while we were gone. The house that they are moving into next week and where they are keeping their stuff was broken into and robbed on Saturday! Makes me absolutely SICK! For crying out loud people! These 2 guys aren't rich and don't have expensive stuff! Why do you have to mess with them? A couple of their guitars were stolen, a whole bunch of their CDs, and a couple of cameras. Man I hate that. How horrible. You guys should have came to the beach with us. Not that would have helped, but at least you would have been relaxed from a nice mini vacation before finding out all your stuff was gone.

Boy, this entry is taking me a long time to write. I keep getting distracted. K called in sick today. That clean fresh ocean air gave her a cold I guess. Hey I start my new job tomorrow. None too soon either. I need to start making some green so that we can get out of the red. I think I'm going to kick back and chill today on my final day off.

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NOVEMBER 2002

11-01-02 Friday
Hello all! It's me! I started writing this entry last night then got sucked into "Must See TV" and never finished it. Here's what I had:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! WHA HA HA HA HA!!!

Hey everybody, remember me? Gosh it seems like forever since I have joined you here in the pages of the journal. How the heck is everybody? I'm writing this a little bit later in the day today. Actually it's night time now and all the little trick or treaters are out haunting the neighborhood. We've only had 2 kids come by so far.

This here is the new stuff for this morning:

OH MY GOD! IT IS SO FREAKING COLD IN HERE! I guess we've broken all kinds of cold temperature records for October. It feels like it's 20 below zero outside. Oh man, it's also November now! The year is almost over. Soon I'll be logging these journal pages into a 2002 archive and starting into 2003. WOW.

I think I'm going to continue to keep my writing schedule for the morning hours. Writing in the journal last night just didn't work. I wasn't as fresh and rested as I am now. It's been a busy week this week, but hopefully I can get back on track now and get some serious entry time down on paper.

DID I MENTION HOW COLD I AM?

People, the new job at Adidas is going great. IT work is a bit different than graphics work for sure. A whole different language that I am slowly picking up on. It was crazy on the first day, I was so not use to seeing so many people. I was in a little bit of shock I think. For most of this last year it had been just me and the 2 animals during the day. Strange to be thrown in with so many humans again. One of the things I have been kind of enjoying believe it or not, is the morning commute to work. I haven't done that in so long! Give it till next week though and I'll probably hate driving again.

Things are going good! I've got to get going to work now, so I'll have to write more later. Oh hey there's a Halloween Party to go to tonight!

11-03-02 Sunday
Good cold morning to you all! Hold on, let me go grab a cup of coffee. It's pretty cold out there once again. How are you all doing? I'm doing pretty good. I'm listening to "This American Life" on National Public Radio right now. It's pretty good this morning. It's about compulsive liars. I think they are running it today because of the elections coming up on Tuesday.

I did my voting yesterday. What? Yeah, we have only vote by mail here in Portland. I felt with everything being such a mess in our state, country and World that it was so important to vote. People please go out and vote on Tuesday if you haven't already. It was a little troubling on some of decisions because neither option seemed that good. Both sides of the arguments made good points. Gosh some of these politicians have just gotten so out of hand. I was a happy to hear on the radio today that a recent poll has said that people are now focusing on the economy as being more important than Iraq now. That's good. We've got to keep working on getting jobs to Oregon and beefing the economy up. There doesn't seem to be much difference between republicans and democrats but having republicans in charge of every part of government sounds like a nightmare.

The party on Friday was quite excellent. Good work kids! I did some serious dancing. There were quite a few pretty people there. Everybody seemed to really be enjoying themselves. I had a bit of a headache Saturday morning but nothing too bad. I think I was more tired than anything else. We rented "The Count of Monte Cristo" last night and I instantly fell asleep. I'll have to watch it again while I'm awake today or tomorrow. I was out like a light.

Oh my gosh! I am so excited! Tonight is the start of the NEW Simpsons season. Woo Hoo! I have been waiting so long for a new episode. I think tonight's episode is the new annual Halloween special. At last good television viewing is back!

Well what should I do today? I'm not sure. I should get to work on something creative. I need to seriously spend some time with the projects. Actually I need a project to get behind and waste some energy on. I would like to continue with my reading and video game playing. I have tomorrow off so I maybe I can do some of that stuff then.

11-04-02 Monday
Good warm morning to you all! Hold on, let me go grab a cup of coffee. It's pretty cold out there once again. That doesn't matter now because we got the heat fixed! Yeah hoo! You don't know how happy this makes me. Well you actually probably do because you've been reading me complain about it for so long. The Noodle house is now a warm home. Pierre and Phillip are dancing around happy now. I think that not having any heat has been one of the major causes of my rage as of late. Maybe I'll be able to calm down a bit now. I think that maybe I would rather be too hot than too cold. True, you can always add more blankets to warm up and only take off so much to cool down, but I think I'll stick to the hot. Being cold just makes you hurt in your bones. I don't ever remember being so hot that I felt like all the bones in body were broken. Eh whatever. We've got a working furnace now for another month or two. I think I've got it figured out now on how to fix it if this happens again. I watched the guy pretty close. It doesn't look that hard. He was only here for like 10 minutes.

Hey, yes. I am home from work today! I've got today and tomorrow off because I am working this weekend. Time to chill my friends. This working business is hard stuff! Ha ha, no just kidding. I'm glad to be back at Ye Ole Grind. Hey everybody thanks for the congratulatory phone calls and emails. You guys ROCK!

My buddy Martin and I are going to try to see Star Wars Episode 2 at the IMAX today or tomorrow. What? I know I've seen it before and swore I would never see it again in the theater, but it's at the IMAX. Star Wars gigantic, all the way around you, larger than life. I bet you that asteroid scene and the battles are freaking awesome in the IMAX format.

It was so good to see a new Simpsons last night! It was a pretty good episode. It was the 13th Halloween special. I thought it was pretty funny when they had a séance to contact Maude Flanders. The Homer clones were pretty funny also. Next week will be the season premiere I can't wait.

Well I think I am going to play my Grand Theft Auto 3 game right now. I need to try to finish it before Grand Theft Auto "Vice City" comes out in the next few weeks. Hey it might already be out now. So far I am still just a Thug. I have to keep completing my missions for the Mob so that I can get a higher ranking and receive the respect I am so due.

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11-05-02 Tuesday
Gosh, it's only Tuesday? It seems more like a Thursday. This week seems to be dragging. Hey wait, it's Tuesday though, time to go vote people. Come on, lets get out there and cause an upset. I think the duty of voting and staying up on the issues is becoming more important to me, the older I get.

Well, not much is going on today. Yesterday was a pretty mellow day also. Video games and TV watching. We watched the movie " Kissing Jessica Stein". It was good. A good, solid, romantic comedyish, single in the big city, type of movie. The actress that played Jessica did a good job. She is very cute.

I think maybe I should do some drawing today. Yeah, drawing would be fun. The last few days I have felt the creative bug coming back and burrowing under my skin. That is so cool. As you all know I had been suffering from a lack of creativity for a while now. It's good to know it didn't go away forever. Hopefully I can make something cool soon. I feel like something awesome may burst forth any second, so watch out.

I think Martin and I are going to have to wait a little while before we go and see Star Wars at the IMAX. We're trying to get in for free and our connection said we may have to wait for the crowds to die down before we get in. I don't know if Martin can wait that long though. He's crazy about the Star Wars.

Gosh it sure is nice to have the heat back. Have I said that yet today? Give me a little warmth and I am like a new man! I've got to do something with this crazy energy! I better go kids, before this wears off.

11-07-02 Thursday
Good early morning to you! I'm trying to write this entry before I head off to work. We'll see how that goes. I'm pretty tired this morning. The coffee is brewing now. Note to self: Make a travel mug and put it in the Noodle shop. I need something to hold my coffee while commuting.

Boy it was quite a scary elections day wasn't it? Man oh man. Republicans are in charge of everything now. Well it was fun while it lasted. Thanks for tuning in. I won't be able to post anymore journal entries once they ban the internet. Oh man, Oil, War, homeland security. You know they aren't too interested in homeland economy or homeland jobs! Bastards. Well I'm sure everything will turn out fine some how.

Well not much going down here. Just that whole work thing. I think the newness is already wearing off. No, No, I still like working, It's just that the newness has worn off. I'm sure that the excitement will come back once I get my first paycheck. I think I will probably need to get into some sort of design position before too long also. I don't think I mentioned it before but this position is a temp spot that ends on December 22nd. I'm trying mostly to think of ways to be able to stay after December now. Oh well we'll see. I can't let that get me down for now.

See the problem with entries before work is that I can't type fast enough to get my thoughts down in time before I have to get ready. I'm use to typing this thing out slowly, while being thoughtful about it.

The weekend is fast approaching, Woo hoo! I'll be working on Saturday and Sunday. Hey do you guys have any plans? Not much planned here. Oh hey, Fantastic Idea Project is playing at Reed college on Saturday. That should be pretty cool. I guess they're playing with a pretty cool pop band that I haven't heard before. Trembling Blue Stars? Or something like that.

Well I've got to down some coffee and jump into the shower. See you later.

11-09-02 Saturday 6:53 AM
Once again with the early morning entry. How are you all doing? Pretty good here. I don't think I slept very well last night. I kept waking up. I was listen to a CD with headphones in bed, and fell asleep with them on. I woke up with a start in the middle of the night, didn't know where I was and hurled the headphones on the floor. Later in the evening I dreamt that the landlord from our old apartment building was telling me that I should go get some therapy, because he thought I was crazy. Through out the night I kept dreaming that things were wired wrong, and that cables weren't going to the right spot. This network administration stuff is really getting to me. Ha!

Hold on one second. I MUST get some coffee now. I am aching for it... There that's better. People, I am heading off to work on a Saturday. Yep you heard me right. That's good though folks. I am in need of the hours I would work 24 hours a day if they would let me. Well, no not that many hours.

Hey we're going to see Tom Petty tomorrow night! Woo hoo! I won tickets from a drawing at work. Ha ha! I guess Adidas has season tickets for a suite at the Rose Garden Arena and they give tickets away to their workers. I actually won tickets for the No Doubt concert tonight first but then I traded them to this girl who had won the Petty tickets because I wanted to see him more. Sunday! Don't let me forget to record the season premiere of the Simpsons. That's funny though because Tom Petty is on the Simpsons that night.

That's good now our weekend schedule is getting filled up. We will actually be properly entertain this weekend. Working, Fantastic Idea Project tonight, working tomorrow, Tom Petty tomorrow night.

Well looks like I've got to run. There was some more I thought I had to say but I can't remember it in this short amount of time.

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11-12-02 Tuesday
Happy rainy Tuesday to you. That rain is coming down! Hope you are all doing well. I'm doing good this morning. I have today off. I need to go start some coffee. I'm feeling a bit groggy this morning. I'm glad I have a break today. I was getting pretty tired. Hopefully I can find something fun to do today. I'm sure something will come up. Hold on one second I need to take a shoe away from the dog...

Oh my goodness! The Tom Petty show was so much fun on Sunday. Let me tell you, watching a show from a suite is a great way to go. They brought you drinks you had a room to chill in, you had your own bathroom and you could sit in your seat on the balcony and see the show. It was up kind of high but the view was great and the sound was perfect. It was a little bit funny cheering Tom on from our suite seats as he was going on about the evils of "The Man". Mr. Petty really rocked it. He was awesome. He played the new ones and quite a few of the classics. Gosh, watching the pros play their instruments is so cool. Those guys really know what they're doing. K and I both had a ball. It was a totally cool night.

Yes and on Saturday, Fantastic Idea Project rocked it just as well. That show went kind of late and I felt myself falling asleep during the other acts. Gosh I'm turning into such an old man. Hey the FIP cd is out now kids. You should all run out and purchase one. Your humble narrator did the layout and helped with the graphics. I'm not sure where you'll be able to get it, but you could go to their label in Spain here and get one I bet.

I'm listening to the new Johnny Cash CD right now. It's pretty cool. He does a crazy version of the Nine Inch Nails song, "Hurt". Those old country dudes are so cool. I hate most country music, but the guys like Cash and Willie are okay in my book. I like some of the old stuff also. The other CD we got at the same time was the new Petty CD "Last DJ" so that we would know what we would be seeing at the show. It's a good one. That Last DJ song really gets burrowed into your head though, so I don't know how many more times I can listen to it again without singing it all day.

Well hmm. I wonder what I should do today. Perhaps I will go hunt down my friend Eugene and see what he's doing on his vacation week. I also need to ask him if it was him who was standing in the flower bed scratching on our window last night trying to scare us. Maybe I'll take Phillip out for a car ride somewhere. That might be fun. I should probably take care of a few things like mailing some bills and printing out some more resumes.

11-13-02 Wednesday
Still raining pretty good out there for you folks. I should probably go to the basement and see what the moisture is like down there. That would stink to open the door and have a wall of dirty water crash down on me.

Well I had a pretty good day yesterday. I went and picked Eugene up. We drove around and took care of some errands that he had to run. In the evening we went and had dinner at the Bagdad and the rest of the gang joined us for the movie "One Hour Photo". Good flick! Robin Williams plays a guy who works in a photo lab in a department store, who is fascinated with a family who's photos he develops. Robin Williams is excellent! He made me nervous the whole movie. The filming and some of the shots were very good. It was a pretty strange movie. Kind of creepy. You should go see it.

What should I do today huh? You know what I really should do is work on this here web page. There has been some stuff that I have been meaning to do but haven't got to yet. I sure would like to work on some more Double Darren songs. I need to update the transmission also with some different tunes. I have been meaning to fix up the garden for like 8 months now. I've got plans for the 62nd & Radish section also. Oh goodness. I have chores here in the house to take care of and I really must clean this laboratory up soon. It's such a mess. I should probably take the dog for a walk today so that he can get some exercise. So much that I want to do. I'm going to need a day off from my day off. Gosh now I'm all worked up into a frenzy.

I started yesterday, and should continue today, contacting all of my old contacts. Some people I haven't talked to in a while. Maybe they have had some work come in since we have last talked. I haven't talked to Geoffrey in about a week. I need to see what's going on with that home slice. I am really nervous about not working now that I am working again. Gosh this sucks. Maybe I have a scar now and will always be fearful of unemployment like those people who lived through the Great Depression keep cupboards full of extra food. I'm so close to being comfortable again. I just need a gig that is a little more solid and secure.

Gee, I'm kind of a mess this morning. I need to calm down and take some deep breaths... Maybe I should go beat some pimps to death with a baseball bat on Grand Theft Auto 3. Would that help?

11-15-02 Friday
Good morning all! I am trying that before work journal entry again to see how it works. I think I have it figured out now. You take your shower, get all ready to go, then get on the computer and start typing. Can you believe it's Friday already? My week was kind of split weird because of working on the weekend, but it still seemed quick. I've got to work again this weekend. This is the final move over there so this should be the last work weekend. This has been a pretty good job. I don't have any complaints really. It's been kind of fun.

Do you guys have any plans for the weekend? I don't think we have anything planned. It should be pretty mellow around here. Having to work the following mornings makes for mild Noodle fun. It's good though to take it easy for a few weekends huh? Maybe we will try to get out to the movie theater and see a movie or two. That might be fun. I still want to see Star Wars at the IMAX. I don't want to pay for it though. My inside man says he can't get anybody in for free until the crowds die down. We'll see.

So I talked to Geoffrey yesterday. He's doing good. He says that the guys up there want to see some more drawings and are going to try to get me on a freelance project soon. That would be cool I guess. I don't know guys, I'll believe it when I see it. All this trying out and interviewing stuff sure does get old. I know I'm talented people! Why do I have to keep trying to prove it to you jokers? I need to just walk into a place sit down, and start producing. No questions, tests or interviews. Just give me the work. I was totally day dreaming yesterday at work while I was walking around looking at stuff, and it hit me again. It so depends on who you know out there right now! Not just that though, you have to know the right people. I have a good collection of people in the know, but it still seems like I need to get up a few more levels to the spot where the people you know usher you in and sit you down at a desk. Ah, who cares. Stuff seems to be working out okay for now.

My Mom emailed last night and said that my Uncle Roy died. Wow. Yep. He was my Grandmother's sister's husband, so he was more of a Great Uncle I guess. Or would that be a Grand Uncle? He was in his 80's. My family is all pretty young on both sides still and he is the first one to go. My mother liked him a lot. Sad to see him go. I will always have fond memories of him saying after dinner, that he had to go check the weather. As a kid I always thought he really was out there checking what the weather was doing.

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11-19-02 Tuesday
Howdy kids! Sorry it has been so long. I hope you are all doing well this fine morning. I'm doing pretty good. Sorry I haven't been updating the journal that much this week. It's just that when I get ready to sit down and start typing, I get so tired. I'm not sure why I'm tired. I haven't been working too hard. Maybe it's the having to be somewhere that isn't my couch for 8 hours a day. I have today off. I should be able to catch up with my napping.

Well, not too much of anything has been happening since we've last spoke. Just chilling mostly I guess. The weekend was alright. We went and checked out G and Stu's new house, Nice work kids! Their house was totally cool. They are going to have some fun with that puppy. They were being much too modest before we saw it, saying it was a junker fixer upper. That couldn't be farther from the truth. It's darling. I think It's pretty much ready for the move in. Sign me up for the box lifting guys! On Saturday night we went to the Ringler's Annex. That was just okay. They seemed to be under staffed or something.

I met this cool guy at work that is into making electronic computer music. He says that he can totally hook me up with some music programs for my MAC. That would be way cool since my MAC has more juice than my PC. My PC is where all of my current music making programs are. It would be good to make some more music for Double Darren. My 11 fans have been waiting patiently for another hit single.

Today I think I've got to buckle down and get to work. Starting off this morning I've got a bunch of computing to do. I've got some resume reworking and illustration samples to get together. I have some photos that I would like to get off of my camera and email out to some folks. I need to check a few job boards. I would like to do up some art for a Noodle coffee travel mug. I keep finding myself at work and in the car wishing I had one. If I have some time left I would like to work on this web page a bit. I know I keep saying that, but maybe if I say it enough I'll actually do it one of these days.

I've got quite a bit of cleaning up to do around this house. It's a freaking mess! Oh man, there is a mountain of dishes that I am not looking forward to climbing. I need to take the dog for a long walk today. I also have some bills that need to get in the mail. Oh my, where will I find the time for all of this? Hey Noodle, take it easy brother. One thing at a time.

11-20-02 Wednesday
Hey, hey! It's Wednesday! Best day of the week! Is it still? I think maybe Friday is beating Wednesday out lately. Remember how we use to go on Freedom Walks? When freedom would still have us? Phillip and I went on a walk yesterday to Hawthorne, to say hi to our brothers and sisters. We gots to still try to keep it real my family! Man, November is already almost over. I know I say this too many times every other month, but didn't November just zoom by? I still have stuff left to do this month. It can't be over yet.

I slept in a little bit this morning. I seem to be sleeping better these last few days. I'm not having anymore dreams about wiring buildings at least. It was kind of foggy this morning. It looked pretty out. Oh my goodness! Did any of you get outside last night and see the moon? It was so bright and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The stars were everywhere.

Last night we went to the Bridgeport Ale House for dinner. It was pretty tasty. The Blue Heron IPA was in perfect form. While dining we overheard the table next to us making Nike talk. Being now from the Adidas camp, our ears perked up and we tried to get some scoops. We weren't successful though. That's all there is in this town I think, Nike and Adidas employees sneaking around and whispering. There are so many of them! After being at Adidas for a while now, I think it would be totally cool to work at Nike. Well okay, not totally cool, but it would be interesting to compare and contrast for a few days I guess.

We started watching the movie "Hollywood Ending" again and fell asleep again just like the first time. It's a Woody Allen movie. It's a pretty good movie for sure but it does require a bit of paying attention, which is hard to do sometimes if you are sleepy. Not much action and lots of talking. It's good though and I'm sure we'll like it when we finally see the ending. K and I are usually pretty happy with Woody Allen movies.

Well today I am going to continue on with the list of things to do that I went on a mini tirade about in yesterday's entry. I don't care for making checklists all the time here in the journal. You people need more from me than a list of things I have to get at the grocery store. Which reminds me, don't forget light bulbs, Noodle.

Yesterday while going through my list and doing some computer work, I listened to another persons internet radio station and not my own transmission. Wheew good stuff. I heard a whole bunch of cool new tunes and bands. I made a list of CDs that I want to eventually check out. I think I may listen to that station again today. I need to add some new songs to my transmission as soon as possible. It's so hard to keep up with the cool kids!

11-22-02 Friday
Here I am at it again, a before work entry. I've got to figure out a way to do this better. Should I switch the journal time to the evening? I'm all ready for work now but I've only got about a half an hour to type this so I feel rushed. I don't think I could do a before bed time schedule, I'm not as alert then as I am now and I would probably have the tendency to babble. I'll just get up earlier and make enough time in the morning. I'm also a bit scattered this morning because there's a lot of stuff going on. I've got quite a few irons in the fire. Is that how you say it? How ever you say it, I'm kind of busy. A have a lot on my mind. I hope I don't leave the house without my pants.

Hey the weekend is here in 8 hours. Are you ready for it? I know I am. Tonight I am going to see my current favorite Portland band play. The Thermals. They're playing tonight at Disjecta over in Northeast. The Shins, All Girl Summer Fun Band, and somebody else will be playing also. I think it will be a great show. You all must attend. I insist.

Wow. Thanksgiving is next week. Are you ready to eat some turkey? We're have a feast here that day. Mr. Baptist, Ms. Bee and some family members will be in attendance. I'm going to roll my sleeves up, put on an apron and really help out this year. Maybe I can make the mash potatoes? K is an excellent cook and a superb hostess. I am a wonderful dish washer and excellent hot toddy drinker.

Oh my goodness. My new best work friend totally came through and loaded me up with some music software, kids! Double Darren is saved! Man oh man though I'm going to have to do a lot of learning. Some of that stuff is complex! There are so many cool sounds. I could spend ours making weird noises and tweaking sound effects.

Alright. Got to run. That wasn't too bad for a half an hour. I wish I was a faster thinker and typist. I'll talk to you some more tomorrow. Oh yeah I actually don't have to work this weekend. That's kind of nice.

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11-24-02 Sunday
Good morning to you. How's everything going? I'm doing alright this morning. Oh I need some coffee. I still feel sleepy. Maybe I should go back to bed. I haven't slept in for a while now, that would probably be good for me.

Hi I'm back. Hold on let me get some fresh coffee. We just finished listening to This American Life on NPR. It was a good one. I love that show. Yum. That coffee is excellent.

Well, the weekend continues on. We hid out last night at Mr. Baptist's house in Oregon City, and we're hiding out here today. We are out of money and laying low hoping to participate in no cost or low cost events. This sucks. I've been working almost a month now and we are still in the hole. It's going to take us a little while to catch up I guess. I can't wait for that day, let me tell you. I am so tired of this crap.

The last event that I will probably be attending for a while on Friday, was great. I thought the Thermals did a good job rocking it. The sound in Disjecta isn't the greatest, but the scene is pretty cool. There was lots of people there. The Shins were pretty good also. I would like to hear their CD. After the show Matt, Matt's friend Ty and I went and closed down the Basement Pub. That's a pretty cool place. Pabst Blue Ribbon, the drink of the unemployed is nice and cheap there.

Yesterday while sitting around on my poor, broke ass I did some experimenting with my new music programs. Oh my gosh people! That stuff is so cool. I've got a lot of learning to do. This stuff is pretty amazing though. There are some cool sounds waiting to be unleashed from this computer. I played around most of the day with the programs. I would like to do that some more today.

I have been meaning to go out and rake the leaves for the last few days, and now the neighbor is beating me to it! Argh! I've got to get out there and get to work! I can't have him thinking I'm a lazy non leaf raker. I also should cut down the dead sunflowers and corn husks.

Yeah! Tonight is a new Simpsons. It looks good.

11-25-02 Monday
It's Monday already? What happened to the weekend? Well I'm ready for it. Bring it on Monday! I've got my left over coffee microwaved and now I am good to go. I think this is going to be a good week, people. Can't you just feel it? Something good is bound to happen this week. Oh yeah it's a short work week because of Thanksgiving. Well that's kind of nice. It's too bad though money wise because I sure could use the 40 hours of pay. Like we've been saying though, oh well.

I had some fun raking the leaves yesterday and doing a bit of yard clean up. It was kind of therapeutic. The weather was gorgeous. I got the sunflowers chopped down as well as the corn. I was unaware until this year, that sunflowers had to be planted every year. I thought that you planted them once and they just came back every Summer. You learn something new every day I guess. That or maybe K is feeding me a line.

Well hmm lets see. We watched "The Musketeer" last night. Boy was that a stinker of a movie. Definitely pass by it if you see it in the video store. The only thing that was good about was the sword play and stunts. I think that is probably why they made the movie, they needed something to showcase the sword fights and crazy horse and carriage chases. We also saw "Spiderman" again. That puppy is pretty good. Ms. Bee bought us the DVD so now we can watch it over and over again.

Yesterday I did some more experimenting with the new music programs. Man, I love that stuff. It's so exciting. I played it through the better speakers and cranked it up. I should host a Noodle dance party one of these days. I need to read up on the manuals and check out the web sites for information on how to use this stuff. It's so easy to tinker around with that it may take some effort to stop playing and learn how to use it.

11-28-02 Thursday
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hey everybody. Long time no write, I know. I've had some annoyance this week that took the wind out of my writing sails. I was off a bit last entry when I was thinking this would be a good week. I'm back now though for some serious write time. I think I have cold. Dang it. NO! Not on turkey day! Come on Noodle cheer it up a bit man.

Ah yes turkey day. The table is already set and the Turkey is thawing and getting ready to jump into the oven. We have a few more things to do to get ready and then we'll be set for the arrival of our guests at 2. I've got to vacuum and fold some laundry. K has done so much work over the last few days. People, that girl is awesome! Soon we'll be stuffing ourselves so full of food that we'll think we will explode. I don't feel very festive today. Hopefully that will change before the end of the day? Maybe the true spirit of Thanksgiving will hit me and I'll find so many things to be thankful for this lousy year.

I'm bummed out because I had a what I thought to be, promising job interview on Tuesday that I didn't get. It sucks because I totally could have done that job. ARGH! I am so tired of going to interviews! I get all worked up, and cleaned up. Try to go in and talk myself up. Then I get all anxious while I wait to find out after the interview and then let down. I'm not entirely sure why I didn't get it, I guess it was just because they found someone better. I think I did stumble a bit while trying to express some knowledge of the task at hand verbally. Maybe I didn't go in there wanting it enough.

So Tuesday sucked until my buddy, New Friend Joel called and said he had free tickets to the Blazers game. One of the distributors came into Joel's work and gave him the tickets. We had so much fun at the game. It was once again in the Suite seats. Gosh twice in one month with the Suite seats. So cool. This time around there was free food and alcohol! I had never been to a Blazers game before. It was pretty crazy. There's a lot of stuff going on that you don't see when you watch the game on TV. A lot more weirdos to watch. The Blazers played and beat the Houston Rockets. I don't remember what the score was, but it was a pretty low scoring game. Just what the doctor ordered though. I was able to forget about my problems for a good couple of hours. I think I caught my cold walking back 10 blocks to the car after the game.

Come on dude, it's turkey day, cheer up! Okay, Okay, I will try to be happy today. We are having our 2nd annual post Thanksgiving party tonight as well. All of the chums will come by after their family events are finished for drinks and fun. We are making it a silhouette party. The guests will be able to sit in front of a light and have their silhouette traced like we did in grade school. Art suitable for framing. That was K's brilliant idea once again.

Well okay, I've got to get to my chores, so I've got to run. I hope you all have a good Thanksgiving. Don't eat too much Turkey and be safe.

TOP^

December 2002

12-01-02 Sunday
Well look at that. It's December already. Well isn't that just great. Gosh that totally snuck up on us huh? It must be because thanksgiving was so close to the end of November this year. December, Bah Humbug! I have a feeling I'm going to be saying that a lot in the coming weeks.

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was pretty good. K's turkey tasted great. We have so many leftovers. We had a nice time visiting with everyone. I saw both sets of grandparents over this weekend. That was nice. We went to the Olive Garden last night with my dad's parents. The spirit of Thanksgiving never quite hit me like I was hoping it would. Oh well, maybe the spirit of Christmas will work it's magic. Right now the spirit of dread is having it's way with me.

Gosh I need some coffee. I can't believe I wrote two paragraphs without the aid of coffee. Hold on... There, I got the pot started. I'll be doing better momentarily. Speaking of coffee, if you do a search on Google for the word coffee and then search within those results for Jack Noodle, this web page pops up! Pretty cool. I talk enough about coffee here to get onto searches for coffee. Sure I'm probably 12,876 in the listings but still, someone could stumble onto this page from that direction. Woe sorry, I got lost looking up different combinations to see if Noodle pops up.

Well here we are close to the end of the year. People I've got to get a plan going. What in the World are we going to do? I'm getting a little worried about my temp status at Adidas. It's starting to way heavily on my poor skull. I've got to get a job lined up before the end of the month. That might be kind of tough with the holidays messing everything up huh? Well I'll find something I'm sure.

Maybe today I'll try to find something creative to work on. Wouldn't that be nice? Remember when I use to try to do creative things? I sure wish I would start doing that again. I need to do some drawing or something. Maybe I'll work on some music after I wash the dishes. Oh yeah the dishes... ARGH!

12-04-02 Wednesday
Hey everyone. I'm SO SORRY for not updating more frequently. Gosh what's my deal huh? I don't know what my deal is. It's just slow here on the journal front. You know, it's been a pretty good week so far. When one stops stressing things for a few days, things plug along through jello nicely. It's good to be back at work for a full week. That time off last week was too long. I really am a good worker and I am so tired of free time. I just want to load up every hour with work and busyness, fill up a few months with work and then take a day off in May or so.

So how have you cats been doing? I haven't heard from a lot of you in a while. I need to get on the horn and call some of you to see how you are doing. This extreme form of laying low that we are currently involved with hasn't really given me the desire to hop on the phone and turn into a chatty Cathy. We'll break out one of these days and all join together for fun and happiness.

Well hmm. I've got to go to work in a moment or two here. Gosh I wish I had more to say this morning. Not much has been going on the last few days. I will try to think of some fun and exciting adventures for tomorrow's entry I swear!

K has got a big math test on Saturday. She has been studying SO hard every single day. She's not much of a math whiz so this has been very hard for her. I think she'll totally do fine. Not to put too much pressure on you dear but the fate of the Noodles depends entirely on you passing this test on Saturday. Now get in there and show em what you got!

12-08-02 Sunday
Howdy! Mr. No Write here. How is everybody doing? I'm doing okay here. It's a nice sunny Sunday morning out there today. It is pretty chilly though for sure. There's a slight breeze out. So last week was the worst week so far this year for low number of journal entries. Gosh that sucks. It's December for crying out loud! I can't hold it together for a few more weeks to make a solid year? I totally can pull it together people, believe me. I think that the only way to rectify last week's poor turn out would be to log an entry every single day for the rest of the year. Oh gosh did I just say that? Yes I can do it. It will be my year end gift to you my loving reader. Every single remaining day of the year 2002. Ha Ha. The Freedom Marathon. Thanks by the way to all of you who emailed concerned about where the Hell I was and if I had finally snapped.

What's been happening? Not much to really report here. Things are still sliding downhill towards the end of my temp service. Soon I could be back on the dole. That kind of stinks but what are ya going to do? I've got a few irons in the fire that I am hoping will turn into something cool, but now it's just a waiting game. People don't seem to care too much about responding now days. I am also experimenting on how long one can go without paying bills. 30 days is pretty easy with no repercussions. We'll try to get to 60 and see how that goes. I have a theory that bill collectors aren't as on top of things during the confusion of the holidays.

I had a good talk with my buddy Nick at the Marcy's last night. I haven't really been doing much creatively in the last month or so, but I am really thinking about stuff and planning a big come back. The desire to create is building pressure up in my soul and soon I'll be ready to explode with a burst of all kinds of creative energy. We came to the conclusion that that was an okay spot to be in for the time being. It's better to not be doing something and totally agonizing about it than to not be doing anything and being happy not doing anything. What? I don't know. I've got a list of things that I would like to be working on as soon as this evil funk passes.

I've got to run. K is telling me that we need to be in the car now. The lovely Anne Miller's 80th birthday party is today. Wow Anne, nice work!

TOP^

12-09-02 Monday
Oh my goodness people! It was so hard to get up this morning! The bed was just so warm and cozy. I had to drag myself into the cold hard World. I've got some microwaved coffee and I turned the heat up a bit so that should help. Monday, here again. On with a new work week. I think I may stop saying that weeks are going to be good before they happen so that I won't jinx them. Something's telling me that this has the makings of a good week. Oh maybe not though. I'm not sure now. Well, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Bands have been sending me CDs of their music to review and if I like, they have been letting me put their tunes up on the transmission. Pretty cool huh? I love it. I am way flattered that people think enough of my opinion to send their blood sweat and tears to me. One band that I totally like right now is "Potion". They are a pop band from San Francisco. Their new CD is called "Circa". It's really good. I think their songs will work well on the transmission. Sometimes people send me music that makes it quickly obvious that they haven't heard the other songs on my station. Potion wasn't one of those. They are right in line with the kind of music I really dig now and they fit nicely in the mix. It's gorgeous, loungey, pop music. Thanks for sending the disk kids! If you people at home would like to check into Potion, look for them here.

I have some other tunes I would like to add to the transmission also. I've had the same line up for some time and need to shake it up a bit. Playing around with the transmission is a good start. I have a lot of things I would like to work on with this web page. It seems like I say that every other day though here. If you would like to see the list of things I would like to do to this web page and to life in general, please refer back to the older journal entries from a few days ago. Maybe now that I have made the "every remaining day of 2002" declaration, I'll actually get in here and do some things as part of the deal.

I sat down in front of the computer a couple of times last weekend and played around with the music programs. I'm trying to learn how to use them. I need to make some more songs for my band, Double Darren. I had a couple of good beats going, but I didn't save them. I think I'm going to consider that kind of thing as practice. Seeing Phil and the Blanks practice over the weekend has fueled my music bug again.

Oh man. I have to get a bill together to mail and contact some people on the email before I go to work still. I'm not dressed yet either! Come on Noodle, speed it up man! Maybe if I have time I should check the paper for jobs also.

12-10-02 Tuesday
Hey yo! Day number 3 of the Freedom Marathon. Every single remaining day huh? Gosh and I'm only on day number 3? Hmmm. I may need to use a little filler now and then to fill up the spaces where I can't think of anything to say. Yes just a little filler. Just in a few spots. Filler. For the times where I can't think of anything to say. Just a little bit of filler. No, every remaining day of 2002 shouldn't be that bad really. I've done quite a bit of writing here to keep me in shape for it. I should quit talking about it though, because I can picture you all at home waiting for the first day I miss it so that you can bombard me with emails laughing at me. No just kidding. I can feel your love and know you are all rooting for me to finish the race. One day at a time my man.

What a strange little World I have been living in these last 2 weeks. Yesterday was so strange. I drove to work. Got to work. Went down to the basement and sorted network cable all day long. I only saw my other 3 temp comrades. No other people the whole day. Down in the basement I was totally sealed away and a whole day passed by without me. I was on hold while all of you continued on. I didn't feel that bad about it when I got in the car and drove home in the dark last night. Boom, 8 more hours of pay out of the way. I kind of have been sealed away while at home also. Just K, Phillip, Pierre and Me hanging out. I haven't talked to or seen many people for a while. I haven't been answering the phone. It's kind of a nice vacation in a way. A mental reorganization. I can see this being a hermit thing getting old in the next few days though.

Here's a bit of information for you. Did you all know that Adidas insists that you spell their name without any capital letters? adidas. I found this out after I had filled out a job application using the proper English version of caps for names of things. I wonder if that automatically takes me out of the running for the job? They are pretty strict about it. What a crazy little cult they are running over there! adidas with no caps messes with your spell checker. It's kind of fun now reading articles or seeing adidas talked about with caps. I keep trying to find it in the building but they've got it to 100% no caps, except for my application that is. Uh yeah, I love it though, uh you guys are great yeah... uh.. Go team. If you are from adidas now and reading this please know that I would spell it with an L if you told me to and that meant I could stay employed in January.

Well I have to go sort some more cable now. Gosh, I have got some work to do when I get home tonight that I was suppose to do last night but was too tired to work on. Hmm. You know, right now I need some coffee. I've still got to jump in the shower and get ready to go. I wrote the journal entry before getting ready today. Seemed to have worked okay this morning.

12-11-02 Wednesday
Good wet, rainy morning to you! Yes we actually have rain. It's been pretty dry around here for quite a while. The rain is very good now. Now that it has started it probably won't stop until August. Gosh is it Wednesday already? What? Why did I say already? I should have said finally. This week seems to be dragging. God I'm sick of this crap. God damn doldrums!

I didn't sleep very well last night. The freak of a cat, Pierre was jumping on everything and knocking stuff onto the floor. Whenever he would do that, the dog would wake up and start moving around. Then I would wake up and get exasperated. Gosh, I don't know what that cat's problem is. He hasn't done the jump up and knock things off shelves routine since he was a kitten. I had the heat turned way down to conserve for our gas bill so maybe he was cold and trying to get me up to turn the heat on. I don't know. K was no help either. She stayed up until all hours of the night working on some finals school paper. Sheesh! This family is out to get me.

People, am I really this much of a curmudgeon? Am I always complaining like this? I'm just saying a person needs his sleep! I need to lighten up. Surely something good has been happening. I need to write about that. I can't always keep bringing you, the handsome reader down. You won't keep coming back if I continually bum you out.

Yesterday while at work sorting cable, cleaning mice and computer keyboards, we listened to a pretty good internet radio station. I made a little list of bands I would be buying CDs from or investigating if I had any money. A little musical wish list. Maybe you can take my list and bring some of it into your own homes to enjoy this fine holiday season.

First of all let me say that I have heard and quite enjoy the newest Flaming Lips CD. It's called... Hold on let me check. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Lianne and Martin have it. Way good.

On my list I have:
The Vines - I read an article on them and heard some samples. I would have to investigate them more closely.
Tarwater - I keep hearing them on the internet.
Low - I think I've always liked them but haven't been too familiar.
Fontanelle - From Portland? I need to investigate them.
Capitol K - Experimental electronics.

Also on this list I have that I want to start renting and watching the old British television show "The Prisoner". The Simpsons do a smashing spoof of it, which reminded me that I have been meaning to see it. I think I may have seen some of it when I was a kid. Is that possible? It's cool 60's psychedelic sci-fi. Lava lamps and the like.

Last on the list I have the title for a new Double Darren song that I thought of while washing my hands. Luckily I wrote it down or I would have forgotten it. Maybe it could be the name of a side project... Hmmm. No, I haven't even been working on the front projects let alone any sides. What was the title you ask? You'll have to wait and see.

Well that's it for the list. Perhaps I will add to it today.

TOP^

12-12-02 Thursday
Hello! Once again it was incredibly hard to get up this morning. I could have really used another hour of sleep. I had to force myself up and out of bed to come here and scribble some thoughts to you. It's cold this morning. I need to go check and see if there is any coffee that I can go microwave. I haven't been making coffee here in the morning lately. I've just been waiting till I get to work to drink theirs. I think maybe I'll make some today though because I feel like I could use it. Yeah, hold on one second.
There. I'm back. I've got some coffee and I just took a shower. That should help me wake up and write a little better. Dang it though, that took up quite a bit of time. Now I'm going to have to rush so I can make it to work at a decent hour. Actually that's not true. I've got some time left.

So I've got a birthday coming up here in 4 days! Woo Hoo! No, not Woo Hoo. I'm turning 30! Oh my goodness that is SO old. I'm not going to be in my twenties anymore. What the Hell? 30? I remember as a kid when my Mom turned 30. That seemed so old back then. When I pictured 30 year olds back then I sure didn't think of what I am now as a 30 year old. I can't believe it. I'm still a kid. I'm still irresponsible like a kid. I have a kid job. I don't do my chores, I don't clean my room. Wait a second. Me choosing those things as evidence of still being a kid show that I really am 30. Responsibility, jobs, chores. That's not kid talk. I'm totally 30. Oh well. I'm still cool though right? No, I'm not cool. I was hoping to have a stable job by 30. I guess there's a few more days left still for that to come true.

Today we are having a bowling and pizza field trip at work. Kind of a celebration of our tempness, adidas saying thanks for helping us move into our nice new offices, here's your pizza now get out. Enjoy your pizza now because your not getting any in January. This turning 30 thing got me to thinking. I don't know if I will remember my temp friends at adidas in another 10 years. There are people I can sort of make their faces out, but not names, that I kind of remember from 10 years ago when I was 20. I bet there are people that I saw every single day back then that are wiped clean from my memory. Minor players in life don't get too much disk space do they? Now getting older, with memory beginning to fail more rapidly, maybe major players will get dropped out also. Good thing I'm writing this journal every day. Today I'm going to pat my friends on the back and wish them well because 10 years from now I won't be able to recognize them.

12-13-02 Friday
This is the 3rd day this week that has been impossible to get out of bed for. I am so tired. I am sleeping in tomorrow morning for sure. Thankfully the weekend is finally here after today. I hope I don't fall asleep here while typing. I should go microwave some coffee. Oh my gosh look at the date! It's Friday the 13th! Duh duh duh!!! I need to just take it easy today. No monkeying around for me.

I had a lot of fun bowling last night with the adidas crew. I did better than I thought bowling. I bowled a 127, That's pretty good for me. The free drinks were pretty nice also. I think that is part of the reason that I am so foggy this morning. It was a good way to celebrate the end of our service with the team. Next Friday is the final day.

So this is something I was wondering about last night and it was more interesting to me then. What is up with syndication? Reruns? Last night at 11 we watched a Seinfeld that I had never seen before. It looked like it was an old one from the first season. How could that be? I have been watching the reruns for several years now and have seen those multiple times. Do stations not get every single episode when a show goes into syndication? Do they only play a select few of the reruns? Did I see the episode before and not remember it? Yeah that seemed more important last night.

Oh man. I've got a huge stack of dishes to do in there. They have been waiting for me all week. Well okay, not all week, but for a couple of days. Dang it. K and I had a discussion about them last night and I don't think she thought that I needed any help with them. Oh man. Well I guess I have something to look forward to when I get home.

12-14-02 Saturday 11:00 AM
Good Morning everyone! How's it going? Did you think I was going to skip a day? No, I'm still going strong for every single remaining day of 2002! I just slept in a bit, So nice to rest. It's pretty rainy out there this morning. Nice and stormy. Today would be a good day to cozy up to the fire with a warm blanket, a good book and some hot cocoa. Hmm speaking of cocoa, I should see about getting me some coffee. Hold on one sec.

I had a nice surprise last night. K organized all the friends together to come and see me for my birthday. We went to the Ringlers Annex and everybody met us there. It was so good to see everyone! It was great to finally break my cycle of being a hermit. I had some good conversations and catching ups. Everyone was very supportive and sympathetic about the whole being old and 30 thing. Well that is a good start to the whole birthday weekend. Maybe there will be more surprises in store for me?

Today I have a few things I would like to do. I need to do some tooling around with the computer. I would like to add some stuff to this here web page. I need to fax out some resumes. What else? You know that's the stuff I keep saying I need to do. I should only mention things that I need to do if they are new. Oh, I need to wash the dishes. I really need to clip my finger nails, and I'm due for a haircut also. I need to head over to G's house today and give her some computer disks some time today. That's a pretty full day. We were suppose to baby sit the nephews this evening but my brother called and said they were all sick and would have to cancel. That stinks. We were looking forward to seeing the kids. We'll have to think of something else to do now.

TOP^

12-15-02 Sunday
There you go. One full week for you! That wasn't too hard, was it Noodle? It's a damp morning out there again. I guess yesterday we broke some records with warm temperatures. 60 degrees. Pretty warm Winter so far huh? Gosh I can't think of anything to write this morning. We're sitting in bed listening to This American Life on the radio. If I get distracted typing then that is what it is. A pot of fresh yummy coffee has just finished brewing and I am going to have to get up and get some of it.

Yesterday was a pretty fun day. I went over to G and Stu's house and rocked out. I took my music programs over and played the computer drums and special effects. G and Stu played guitars and keyboards. It was pretty cool. I had the computer plugged into an amplifier and turned way up. It was good to practice my stuff. I learned a bit more about the programs while playing with them. We jammed for quite a while and lost track of time. When the music finally faded out into the universe it was dark outside. We decided we were hungry so I finally picked up K who was wondering where the heck I was and we met at La Cruda for Mexican food.

I didn't get any of the chores done that I was planning on working on yesterday. Gosh that stinks. Now I really have a stack of crap to work on. Maybe I could just play music and skip the chores again. No that probably won't work again today. I really wish I could sit down and just work a whole day on the computer and not worry about the dishes. It sure would be nice to not have anything to worry about. You know, I don't remember the last time that I wasn't worried about something. I guess the answer for me today is to just suck it up and get to work on those dishes. Just get them finished as fast as I can so that I can have the remainder of the day to myself.

One thing I will be doing again today is looking for a good job to replace the current one that ends on Friday. Do any of you have any leads for me? I think I'm going to be optimistic this time around. I've got a good feeling about the next gig coming around the corner. It's going to be a good one. Yeah, finally the Noodles are going to get a break.

Hey it's Sunday. We've got the Simpsons on tonight! Woo Hoo! We were kind of wanting to watch a movie last night, but just ended up watching bad television. It's been a while since we have seen any movies. I can't remember the last movie I have seen. It's been a long time since I have been in a movie theater. I could probably look back at the journal and find out which movie it was. There's not really anything out there now that I want to see anyway. I think we are going to see "The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers" next week with my dad for my birthday. That should be fun.

12-16-02 Monday
Boy oh boy. Was it raining out there last night or what? No really, was it? Our bedroom window is right by a spot in the gutter that had been over flowing all night so it exaggerated everything and made it sound like the sky was raining waterfalls. It was kind of nice though. The sound combined with the heat that was turned up too high, made you feel like you were in a tropical rain forest during monsoon season. Yes I think we had some good rains last night. I need to go down to the basement sometime soon and make sure all of our yard sale stuff isn't floating around.

Hey, hey, hey today is the day! Mr. Noodle is now officially the big three - oh. Yep I feel another year older. Happy birthday to me! Thanks so much to all the well wishers that came by to give their support. Hey wait a minute now I can totally watch that 30 Something TV show and understand what they're talking about. Cool. No it's not too bad. I'm just more distinguished now, right? I hope I don't lose any readers that think I'm too old. Come on kids, I can still rock it!

You know, I'm sorry about complaining about the dishes so much on these last few entries. What in the World was my problem? I was like a crazy person obsessing about them. Now that they are all done, I just feel like a big whiney baby for crying about hem so much. In my defense though, there were a million. I think from now on I'll just stay on top of them from day to day, instead of letting them build up. Also I have decided as a rule to never speak of dishes again here in the journal, It's received far too much ink already as it is. The end.

Speaking of the end, this is last week of my adidas service! Yep, try as I may to stay on, nothing opened up. I would have loved to have stayed there in some sort of design position, but nothing came through. I do like that easy commute. Shoot. Oh well. I do have a few more days there so I'll keep looking at the job boards to see if there's something I can move into. I do have some resumes out at a couple of other cool places, so hopefully this will be my week.

I've got to get ready to head out now. I'm going to have to get a few bills in the mail before I head out this morning. Gosh wouldn't life be grand if you could just live for free? Or actually it would be really cool if on your 30th birthday all your debts were wiped clean.

12-17-02 Tuesday
OH! I am SO TIRED this morning! I just want to crawl up into a ball and go back to sleep. I am so tired I could just die of exhaustion. Alright not really. I am very tired though. I got up later this morning on accident so I'm not sure how much I will be able to write before I have to go. Boy, I feel pretty cold this morning. I'm going to have to put some warmer clothes on. It stinks though because I put warmer clothes on and then I get to work where the heat is cranked and I have to take clothes off to get comfortable. Don't worry though, I'm sure I'll figure the balance out for today.

I guess turning 30 went off without a hitch yesterday. K and I ended the birthday evening with several drinks at the Bonfire with Eugene and New Friend Joel. Hey, they added a new room to the Bonfire by the way. Now they have pool and pinball. We stayed out way too late. I think the best gift I got this year was a phone message from my nephew wishing me a happy birthday. It was so cute. He's getting good on that phone people! It won't be too much longer until he's chatting away! He has a Christmas pageant on Thursday that I am looking forward to seeing.

Okay, so... Not much going on today I guess. Just that whole work thing. I am going to need several cups of coffee to get me going today. Perhaps I could find a cubby hole to hide out in today and take a nap. Oh I mean, uh yeah... just kidding. If you are a future employer reading this now, please believe that drinking on Monday nights and finding places to sleep at work is all embellished works of fiction for the entertainment of the web viewing public.

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12-18-02 Wednesday
Hey all! I accidently over slept a few minutes this morning, so now I'm running a little bit behind schedule. Hopefully I can type fast for you. I sure have been talking about being sleepy quite a bit lately. I think I need to start drinking more water. Yeah maybe that's it. Drink more water and get some more sleep, They have yummy water at work. I think I am going to load up on that today.

How have you been doing? Christmas is one week away! Do you have all of your shopping done? Yeah, me neither. I'll have time Monday and Tuesday of next week to figure out what I am going to do. I was going to make people presents this year but time, energy, and interest has run out for me on that project. You know everybody says that Christmas is about spending time with your friends and family and isn't about giving presents. I totally agree with that. Why don't people stick to it though? Lets all just stop with the gift giving please. I'm just giving my love this year.

So nothing much is going on today I think, We're pretty much wrapping things up at work and getting ready for our exodus, I found some good information and tutorials for my music programs yesterday. When I enter back into the World of the non-working I am totally going to learn how to use this stuff and take Double Darren out on tour. Maybe I could make Christmas music to give to people this year. Yeah crazy techno, electronic, experimental, dance Christmas music like Manheim Steamroller.

12-19-02 Thursday
Back at it once again for every remaining day of 2002. That's right. You read correctly. A journal entry for every day until January and then some. So yeah, how's it going? Hmm well it seems to be that things are harder to write about when you don't have anything to say. Okay well, what's been in the news this week? No that's boring.

So what do you all think of this year that we have just been through, 2002? I need to go back over all of my journal entries for the year and do a recap I think. I can honestly say that 2002 was a horrible year. Gosh. I am such a downer. No I'm sorry people, I just hope 2003 is better. I'm surprised now looking back over the year that I could stay this positive in the journal. It's been tough that's all I guess. These entries are going to be amazing works of literary genius once things get better and the good times come rolling back in.

We've got my little nephew's Christmas pageant to go to tonight. That should lift my spirits. Don't get busy and forget to go Jack. You're running the camera. Preschool kids running around in Christmas costumes. Nothing says Christmas like that.

I've been listening to the transmission at work lately. Boy I need to get in there and change some of the tunes. Some of those songs play over and over again. I've got to spice things up for the internet radio community. Maybe I will do that on Saturday.

Well, I'm off to work now. Boy it sure is hard to stay on task when you know you've only got one day left. We're keeping it together though pretty good I guess.

12-20-02 Friday
It is starting to get cold people! Winter is here. Hold on one second, let me go turn the heat up. There, that's a little better. I wonder if there will be snow this Christmas? That would be a Christmas miracle around these parts. Did we have snow in January this year? I think maybe we did. It seems like it only lasted for a couple of hours. I'll have to go back and check my notes.

My nephew's Christmas pageant last night was spectacular! Ha Ha! It was very cute. I am amazed that the preschool teachers in charge could keep that many 3 to 5 year olds in one place for that long. They did 3 songs. I think that the young Noodle is going to be quite the actor / singer. We've got it all on video tape so we can watch it over and over again through out the holidays.

My PC has been acting up lately. What a hunk of junk. It's going really slow. Things are taking forever to run. I'm trying to empty some things off of it and I'm defragmenting the hard drive now. Maybe that will work? Gosh, in a perfect World I would just huck this thing off a bridge into the river, and get a new one. I should have had one of the geniuses in the IT department look at it when I had the chance. Oh well.

Friday is here! It's the start of another long, long, long, long, weekend. Do you have any plans for it? I think we're going to try to get in to see the new Lord of the Rings movie. I bet you that's going to be crowded. Other than that I don't think there is much of anything going on. Maybe I will be able to get to some of the projects that have been put off for so long. That would be cool.

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12-21-02 Saturday
Happy good morning to you all! It's Saturday. I should have slept in this morning, but couldn't. I was wide awake. How's everybody doing? Thing are okay here. There. I just started up some coffee people! I am ripe with anticipation! What? Who knows. Hold on I've got to go get a cup.

Alright here it is. My major task for the next few days: CLEAN THIS LABORATORY! This is it this time. I am really going to buckle down and give it a good scrubbing. I'm going to go through all of my papers and organize them. I'm going to get all of the details straightened away and get a brand new battle plan going. I'm going to go over all of my contacts and leads and failed interviews and devise a new Job Procurement Program or JPP. Yes, I believe this new approach will be quite successful.

Well I think I've figured out what was wrong with my PC. I think I got an email virus. Yes the PC is ill. I'm going to have to figure out a way to make him better.

Hey I'm back again. I left in mid thought because I started rearranging furniture in here and got way in over my head. I figured I would finish rearranging furniture after the journal was wrapped up.

So yeah, I've got a virus. I wonder if it is one of those ones that sends emails out to everyone in your address book and infects them? Gosh that sucks. I am sorry people in my address book if I infected you. I guess one way to stop that is to not have an address book. Just keep everyone's address on paper. I'm sending email now from the MAC now which pretty much stays away from the weird PC virus World.

Oh my goodness! The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers was great! We saw it last night. What a visual masterpiece. You still noticed a few computer elements here and there but for the most part a lot of it was seamless. Wow. The battle scenes were crazy. When I saw Gollum my jaw dropped. Maybe I'm giving it to much credit but Gullom looked absolutely amazing. Don't get me wrong though, quite a few times he looked like a cartoon, but for the most part I felt the way I did when I first saw the liquid metal on Terminator 2. Stunned. I think that realistic looking Gollum has raised the bar now for visual effects. I don't know though, go see it and tell me what you think.

12-22-02 Sunday
Cold morning here once again! The holidays are here people! Tis the season to be jolly. Gosh I am totally starting way too late today. I keep getting distracted. That rearranging of furniture in here is still going on this morning. I think that I got things semi-organized in here. I have a couple of piles of things now stacked up that will need some putting away. I didn't get to work on the Lab cleaning like I was planning yesterday. We ended up hanging out with Mr. Baptist and Ms. Bee in Oregon City. Today I think the holiday travel begins. We will be going to visit K's aunt, Mr. Baptist's sister later today. I don't think that the traveling will be that bad this year compared to what it has been in the past. We are planning a pretty mellow Christmas this year.

Well hmm. Not too much to report here today. I'm hoping to do some writing and reading today after my cleaning and organizing of the laboratory. I'm planning on writing and calculating for the JPP. I wonder if it is possible to get a new job at this time of year? Am I going to have to wait another couple of weeks before people will respond to the resumes I am sending out? I discovered a new video game company that seems to be like the one Geoffrey works for. I sent some things out to them and would love to hear word back. Doing work for the video games would be pretty sweet.

I've got to finish my microwaved coffee and jump in the shower. I'll have to write a larger, more interesting entry tomorrow. I'm still doing a pretty good job with the every remaining day marathon though, huh? Oh yeah! New Simpsons is on tonight. I hope it is a new one and not a holiday rerun.

12-23-02 Monday
Hey yeah! It's another Monday and Noodle's not working! I love it! It's great. It makes me so happy not being able to pay bills. Argh! Oh wait. It's okay it's the holidays! Santa will save us. The new year can't get here fast enough if you ask me. Which you didn't, but I just told you. Today we'll get a good start on the JPP and I'll be back to work in no time.

I was looking over the entries here for my end of year marathon, and yes, I am running the race, but the entries sure are little bursts. I need to try to write longer entries with a little more sustenance. It's not all my fault though. I have been plagued with fits of writer's block and have been distracted by persistent phone calls from evil bill collectors. It's quite the fight here in Noodle land let me tell you.

Have I told you yet how much I loved the Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers? Well, I know I told you, but let me tell you again. I can't stop thinking about that movie. I think part of the reason I liked it so much was because I personally needed something cool like that to watch at this time in life. It caught me at the right moment. I've been reading quite a few reviews of it and people seem to agree with me so I'm not totally crazy.

The Simpsons was a rerun last night! Argh! It was okay though. Lianne and Martin came over and we hung out late into the evening. They were doing crafts with K while I serenaded them with music. I got a good Double Darren song going last night. I tried to record most of it, but that PC is just messed up. I'm going to have to figure out how to fix that puppy. You know it may just be a matter of emptying some space off on the hard drive. I looked back at the journal this time last year and I was having problems with it back then. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah. I was really happy with the song I was working on last night. I'm going to have to figure out how the recording software works on my Mac so I can skip the PC all together. Yeah that thing is messed up. I just turned around now and saw that it was frozen. I hope I can get some important documents off of there before it blows up.

Tomorrow is Christmas eve! Yeah hoo! Tonight we've got a party to go to over at Lianne's house. It's a naughty or nice dress up party. It should be fun. I think I am going to dress up as a preacher. You know now that I typed out the theme of the party it finally makes sense to me. The naughty or nice thing is Christmassy because Santa always checks his list to see if you were naughty or nice. I don't know what I was thinking it was about. Definitely naughty though.

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12-24-02 Tuesday
Happy Christmas Eve to you! Man oh man! I sure am getting to this journal late. I slept in till 11 this morning. It really is almost eve now. I celebrated Christmas too hard last night. Woo Hoo! Merry Christmas! Hold on one second, I've got to go and take the dog out. There we go. I'm back. Gosh, I need some coffee. Hold on one more second. Do you get the impression that I wasn't totally prepared this morning? Yes. So the Christmas party was great fun last night.

Oh never mind. I wrote a paragraph about the unemployment line that I just erased. You guys don't need that crap. I do need some coffee though. Hold on.

My mom is coming to town tomorrow. It will be so good to see her. She will be staying at our house for a couple of days. I really have to clean up this mess before Ma sees it. Boy we totally ran out of time. The holidays snuck up on us! Not really though. I've been watching it come, but was just screwing around and not preparing for it.

We are heading out to the lovely Anne's house this afternoon. We'll be having Christmas eve there to start off the holiday adventures. I have to finish up the final touches to the gift we are giving tonight. Got to run.

12-25-02 Wednesday
Merry Christmas! Ho! Ho! Ho!

How's it going kids? Did Santa bring you everything that you wanted this year? I think we are at the midpoint now for our holiday festivities. We had a lovely time at Anne's last night. Today we are heading over to my dad's house. We'll probably be seeing my mom tonight and tomorrow. Gosh, what a strange week so far. It feels like it should be Saturday doesn't it? My TV schedule is all out of wack also.

I've got to get some coffee in me as usual. Hold on. We've got to go take Mr. Baptist and Ms. Bee to the airport later today. They're heading out to Mexico once again this year. I'm jealous. I would love to be in Mexico right now.

Well, not too much to report today. Christmas is moving along nicely. We did receive one Christmas surprise. Our friend Cathleen, who we haven't talked to in about a year and a half is in town this week celebrating Christmas with her family. It will be good to see her again. She has yet to see the new house.

Hey everyone, have a merry Christmas okay? Hey I'd like to give a special shout out to our Noodle friends in Hawaii. They are away from their friends and family this holiday season protecting our freedoms over there. Bless you. Har! HAR! HAR!

12-26-02 Thursday
Wow another morning of sleeping in here! I've got to put a stop to that soon. I'm going to get lazy and weak. Well that about does it for Christmas. We've got a dinner left at my brother's house and then that's it. Oh yes I get to see my mommy today. That should be fun. We've got to do some cleaning to prepare for her arrival. It's kind of a mess here this morning. I should call her right now. One second. Alright I'm all squared away now. I've got all the plans figured out. My brother is going to have quite the house full. I guess Christmas isn't over yet kids.

You know I was thinking this morning that the JPP is going to have to be on hold until next week still. There's no way that people are going to be at work interviewing people for jobs the rest of this week. Are people even going to work these remaining 2 days? New Year's eve is on Tuesday right? Are people expected to be working on Monday and Tuesday? Perhaps I would be able to call people about jobs next Thursday. Well no, because we'll be heading back into the same short week theory then. Oh well, what ever the case, I know I'm going to be working at a new job in January. Maybe the remaining days of December can be used for building up my contacts list and strengthening my strategy.

Have you all been thinking about your New Years resolutions? I did pretty good with mine from last year I think. I didn't do very good with that one about reading more books, but I'm still working on that. I think this year it will have be finish more books. I have no problem starting them. Hold on one second, I'm going to look back and see what I had written out last year. The other ones I had were:
Get some of the easy house repairs done. Didn't do that. Houses will always need something.
I had get organized creatively down. I think I pretty much succeeded with that one before the bottom of my creativity fell out towards the end of the year.
I had finally put to rest some nasty habits. That one, though vague to you the reading public, was completed successfully.
Increase my journal entries was on the list last year. I totally aced that one.
Attempt to get credit card bills down was on there. Well I don't know what to say about that one. I think deciding not to pay them was what we ended up doing.
Last but not least on last year's resolution list was get some good work this year. You all know what became of that one. I really tried in 2002 so that's something. That will be number one on 2003's resolution list. I don't know if I even care if it is good work this year. Any work would be fine. I think all of the new resolutions will be much easier to complete when that one gets resolved.

I'll have to do some thinking, reflecting and soul searching for this years list. I'll write it all out and keep a record of it in a couple of days here.

I think for this year's festivities we are thinking about going to K's sister in dating's house. Sara and Chris's. That should be fun. I'll probably try to be the designated driver so that we don't have to stay over night and leave Phillip and Pierre all alone. Yeah, poor guys. Their holiday has totally sucked this year. We've been gone and not paying attention to the lads. Maybe next year when times are better, we will have all of the Holidays at our house. Yeah right. We'll see.

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12-27-02 Friday
Hey yeah the weekend is here! What? The weekend has been going on for like 8 days now. It's pretty windy outside this morning. It rained really hard last night. Rain and wind.

Last nights dinner at my brother's was quite fun and tasty. It was good to see all of the family. That officially finishes off the Christmas holiday. There she goes. So long. It was a pretty good time.

I'm hanging out with mom now. We're chilling. She stayed the night last night with us. We watched the movie, "Remember the Titans" starring Denzel Washington. It was a ma pick. She had seen it before and said that it was a must see, so we rented it. It was pretty good. It was a football movie so it had quite a bit of that go team go feel to it. It was good though. Denzel Washington did good as usual.

My mom and I are heading back over to my brother's house to hang out with the kids. That will be pretty fun. I think they'll have grandma come over and watch the kids so they can go to the store. I think perhaps I will do some drawing while I'm over there. I think my nephews have some new cartoons that I could probably watch while I'm there. We'll head back to our house tonight to have dinner and then I think we're taking my mom back to my grandparents house.

I've got to go take a shower and hit the road. I think we're running a little late.

12-28-02 Saturday
Oh my goodness! Those pesky little animals of ours would not let me sleep last night. The cat kept jumping all over everything and the dog kept waking up and moving around. Argh! I'm in a daze now. I went to go sleep out on the front couch and they followed me into there! Oh well. I finally just gave up and came here. It's time to get up anyway. I can't believe it! Pierre has now followed me here and keeps jumping on my lap and kneading his claws into my legs. Dude, leave me alone!

How are all of you doing? I hope your Christmas was a fun one! What kind of plans are you all making for New Years? We don't have anything written in stone yet. Some jolly Christmas elves left an awesome Simpsons Christmas ornament of Apu on our doorstep last night. Thank you Christmas fairies! See, Christmas miracles do happen.

I think today we may be heading up to Mount Hood for some sledding in the snow. Yeah that's right. Doesn't that sound crazy? You know, I really don't have snow clothes or boots. I don't know if I like the idea of being cold either. Can I even find a pair of gloves? We'll see I guess. I do think it would be cool to see some snow and the beauty of the mountain. K wants to introduce Phillip to the snow. I hope he doesn't freeze to death. He really isn't a snow dog. He's more of a beach dog. Gee I'm such a worry wort.

We watched the movie "I Am Sam" last night. It was really pretty good. Sean Penn did an amazing job as Sam. The movie was about a mentally challenged man who was struggling to keep custody of his daughter. It had several leaky eye moments.

Well I've got to get some coffee in me and try to make some sense out of all of these bills that are piling up around here. Now that the good cheer and well wishing of the Christmas season is over, the bill collectors and vultures are back out in force. Now the task of splitting up the Christmas loot and sending it out to the gas man, the phone man, the internet man, the light man, the garbage man, and the credit card man has begun. I've got to hurry and get that unpleasantness over with quick so that the rest of the morning can be spent on more uplifting events.

12-29-02 Sunday
Good Sunday morning everybody! The sun is shining in here brightly this morning. Hold on let me open the curtains more. I've got the coffee brewing right now and I'm feeling good. We're listening to "This American Life" again right now. It's pretty good this morning. It's talking about the coming war with Iraq. Hold on, I've got to go get my coffee now.

Snow sledding yesterday was awesome fun. The mountain was absolutely gorgeous. Phillip did an excellent job on the slopes. He really liked the snow. I worried about him getting too cold, but he had 2 sweaters on and seemed to stay pretty warm. It seems like that would have been painful on his bare paws? The mountain was very crowded. We kept going until we luckily found a spot that wasn't too crowded. It was a great place. White River West. I think we will totally go back to that place next time with more friends and better sleds. Oh wait I just told all of you about the cool place. Now the secret is out and you all will be there crowding the sledding. Eugene and New Friend Joel went with us yesterday. Actually we went with them because it was their idea in the first place. We must go again soon.

We were very tired when we got home yesterday. We took a nap and then went and had drinks at the Bonfire. When we got home we starting watching "Reign of Fire". I was hoping it was going to be a better movie than it was I think. We fell asleep at the beginning of it though so maybe it was good. I don't think so though. We borrowed quite a few videos from Matt of television shows he recorded off of cable, so we've got those to watch now also. It would be nice if he surprised us with recordings of the Sopranos season 4.

We are having a big end of year cleaning spree in the house today. I better hang up here and give K a hand. The project I'm excited about today is loading the attic up with stuff we don't want to throw away but don't have any room for. The hole in the ceiling to get to the attic is pretty small so we'll have to empty the boxes first and then load them back up when they're in the ceiling. I love it up there. One of these years when we have loads of money we are going to add some stairs and build some rooms up there.

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12-30-02 Monday
I must get some coffee before I start typing this morning. I don't think I could form a single sentence otherwise. It's a little chilly in here this morning and I've got the sniffles. Gosh do I have a cold? Hold on one second, I've got to go blow my nose. No not a cold. Not me. Now, where was I?

People, the finish line is in sight. My Every Remaining Day of 2002 Marathon is almost over. I'm racing down the home stretch. Wow. Good job Noodle! How many days in a row was that? Hold on, let me check. Is that 23 counting tomorrow? Not too shabby. I ran out of things to talk about a couple of times there, but for the most part I babbled on nicely.

It's Monday folks and some of you are at work today huh? I've already sent some resumes off, so I'm working today also. I have got to get the Job Procurement Program going today. I think it is going to be a good week! I'm hoping lots of job opportunities will present themselves in January. For those of you looking to hire me, I will be ready at the end of this week, beginning of the next. One thing I MUST do today for the JPP is get all of my important files and emails off of that PC. I'm telling you, that computer is doing some strange things. I was afraid that it wouldn't even turn on this morning.

Our end of year cleaning spree went pretty good yesterday. We got a lot of things done. I loaded the attic up. Out of sight, out of mind. You know though, I probably should have done some more throwing away instead of pack ratting. I hope I don't need anything up there for a while. Breathing the dust and asbestos was getting to me towards the end of the day. It's cool now, I made more room in the laboratory. Maybe things will finally get organized in here with more space. I uncovered a few things of interest when I went through some of the boxes. I found a couple of books that I had wanted to finish reading. I didn't find the box set of the Lord of Rings books I was looking for though. I'm also still on the hunt for a computer program user's guide that I printed out a few years ago.

Okay, I told K that I was going to rant about this today to you guys. Hopefully somebody with authority reads this angry cry for help and does something about it. The Simpsons wasn't on because FOX decided to air "Die Hard With a Vengeance" last night! What the Hell? If I wanted to see a movie instead of my beloved program I would have rented one! I don't think that any of the major networks should ever show movies again. When one wants to see a movie they change the channel to a cable movie station or like I said, rent one. People do you need to see a movie, censored and loaded up with commercials? Please! The networks should stick to their original television programs. If they don't have a new one to air then show a recent rerun. Did they actually think that "Die Hard With a Vengeance" was an excellent holiday treat?

12-31-02 Tuesday
Good morning everybody. Boy, it is a beautiful morning outside right now. I just got back in from taking the dog out. The Sun is shining, the grass is wet and sparkling, the air is fresh, no breeze. It's the last day of 2002 people! I'm glad to see it go. I don't know, it wasn't the best year, but I guess it wasn't the worst. Ha! I didn't really have any work related stress or problems with coworkers this year. I could pretty much take off on a vacation any time I wanted. No, I am way glad 2002 is done. The end of this year really socked it to me. I'm looking forward to good things happening in 2003.

So it's New Years Eve tonight! Do you guys have plans? I think we have decided on the Wagner's again. This is like the 4th year in row with those cats. Good thing we like them so. I think I'm going to shave and get a haircut today to clean myself up for the new year. My hair has grown out quite a bit and needs to be pulled back to my army do. Yes I'll get all tidied up for the new year. That's only one of the things I have planned for today. I've got quite a few things on my list. Oh yeah, I would like to take the dog for a walk today also. Man I need to get going. The day will be over before I know it. I've got some computer drawings to do for Matt if I have time.

I think maybe it's this lovely, sunshine filled morning that's got me feeling contemplative. Maybe it's the microwaved coffee. Whatever it is I think today is going to be a good day for reflecting on the year we've just finished and looking at the one coming up. I need to get my resolutions in order and get to work on some goals for next year. Things are going to be good people! I'm actually feeling kind of creative this morning. Shoot! I better do something artistic quick, before this pleasantness goes away.

Hey yeah, look! Noodle actually wrote some stuff out about that crazy Desktop of the Month Club that has been sitting there a while without an explanation Yep. That's one of the many fun things I have in store for the next year. The giving away of the stickers part was K's idea. I was thinking one day (probably while still at adidas) that I needed a way to spread the Noodle love into all of your homes and offices. Give back to the community that has given so much to me. I was thinking that this Desktop of the Month Club could be like those Wine of Month Clubs or those Book of the Month Clubs. We'll see. Whatever the case people, sign up and put the Noodle art on your computer screens so that I can continue on with my World Domination 2003 Plan and infect the whole planet. I've got some good ideas for desktop art I think, so it should be interesting. I've still got to finish January's so be patient.

Oh man! Look at the time! I've got to get my day started! Goodness was I really typing that slow today? Well time to hang up people! Talk to you next year!

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