05-03-03 Saturday
Good morning everybody! How are you doing on this lovely weekend morning? Hooray! Saturday is here at last! People, the coffee here in the Noodle compound this morning is fabulous! Yesterday was a lovely sunny day, of which I couldn't take part because of being in school all day. I hoping that today will be nice. I think it will probably be. It's a little overcast right now, but the sun will burn that off in a little while. I should make getting outside and taking the dog for a walk one of my top priorities today.

Well kids I am all caught up with my school work! I had a couple of assignments that were bogging me down a bit this week, but those are finished up. Saying I'm all caught up implies that I was behind, which wasn't true. I was trying to finish these things up ahead of schedule so that I could take it easy this weekend while my grandparents are here. Mission accomplished! Now I won't be fidgeting and thinking of projects that are due while I'm sitting next grandma. The last project I have to put the nail in the coffin of is my Transmission West contest piece. It is so close to being finished that it isn't funny. Maybe I will work on that today. I also have some reading homework, but that's no big deal.

There was a show last night that I wanted to go to but didn't. Cex, and one of those bands I mentioned here the other day, The Postal Service were playing at the Blackbird. I think it probably would have been a good one. I couldn't get a hold of any of my posse to go with me, so I was going to go by myself, but then I got sleepy and filled my belly up with food and fell asleep in front of the TV. That's okay though, I really shouldn't be spending money now anyway, seeing how I don't have any. It might have been sold out because it had good write ups in at least 2 of the papers here. That makes me want to check out that whole Postal Service CD now. I would also like to hear the new Cex album. They gave him quite a nice review also.

Oh yeah, one other music news note. Bonnie Prince Billy will be playing an in store show on Monday! That will be his only stop here. Crazy. That's going to be crowded. I'll be in school at that time on Monday so I'll be missing it. It should be good though, you guys should go.

You know I can't believe that it hasn't been a month yet since I have been in school. It seems like it has been longer than a month. More like 6 months. Not necessarily a bad thing, just a current observation. How does that work though? I started on April 7th, it's not May 7th yet but next week we will be in week 5 of school? There's some sort of crazy counting going on there. Maybe it's because the week count started on the week of April 7th as 1. No, that's not right, I don't know. Enough already though with the counting, math homework is tomorrow.

My current extra curricular studying is now focusing on the Dada movement. I checked out a book from the library that I am trying to read about the artist Marcel Duchamp. He made quite a mark in the Dada and Surrealist movements. He has a lot of graphic design work and commercial illustration that is good. Gosh I love reading about this stuff. I wish I was a faster reader so I could get further in these books before having to return them. I think that a revisiting of the Dada movement in today's climate would be a good thing. The ideas behind their disgust for everything still holds true today and would probably work well. Artists were so much more passionate then. Come on people lets start up a movement! If any of you are interested or know someone who wants to join forces with me let me know. Maybe there is something already heading in that direction then I need to find out about it and join up. There could be some sort of web based uprising that could be kind of cool. Well, I don't know, maybe that wouldn't be cool. Wait I can't worry about it being cool, I just have to do it. I should write up a manifesto.

Whoops. Ranting time is over, I have to take K to work now.

05-04-03 Sunday
Well hello there once again. How are you doing this morning? I am doing pretty good. You know, I may have to stop right here and go make some coffee. Yes I think I'm going to definitely need some caffeine. One second. There we go. Got her started. I will be wide awake in no time. It's rainy outside once again. The only beautifully sun filled day was Friday. That's okay though, it was enough of a taste to wet our appetite for the soon to be summer weather.

K and I stayed up late watching movies last night. We saw "Signs" and the movie "Devil's Playground". They were pretty good. The Devil's Playground is a documentary about Amish kids who turn 16 and are allowed to go experience the World to decide if they wanted to remain with the church or not. I fell asleep during that one, but what I saw of it was good. Signs, that Mel Gibson, M. Night Shyamalan movie was surprisingly better than I thought it would be. I had heard from other people that it stunk, but I thought it was pretty good. It really had a weird feel to it. Some how sort of claustrophobic.

I got a little out of control with the art movement planning yesterday. I sent off emails and made some plans. How does one start an art movement? I think that might be almost too lofty of a goal for me right now. I always get excited with an idea then I type stuff out about it and the idea fades after a page of typing. I think maybe instead of a full blown movement, I will just work on a few styles in my own work or follow along one of the other established movements. I will probably go the digital art route. That needs a movement right? One of the ideas I'm working on now is Abandonism. Hey see, if it takes off then we'll have a record of me talking about it here in the journal on this date. Gosh, me typing about it just right there has made my interest fade in it some more.

Oh my goodness! Tomorrow is the fateful day of Cinco De Mayo! My personal Friday the 13th, day of evil. I think I wrote about it here extensively last year. The curse may be broken. Nothing too bad has happened in the last few years. I need to still be careful tomorrow all the same. Take it easy Noodle walk gingerly.

I have a couple of chores I have to get finished today. I have to write up a to do list for myself. The whole daily planner, to do list has been working pretty well for me. Oh yeah, math homework.

05-05-03 Monday 7:25 AM
Happy Cinco De Mayo to you! Good morning kids. We are down to our last few kernels of coffee here in the Noodle house. It's a sad day. We'll have to go and beg for coffee on the street now. "Please sir, spare some coffee?". It's still wet out there. I need it to dry out for a little while so I can mow the lawn again. I waited too long between times last time and the lawn mower had some trouble in the taller grass. Maybe I should go and get it's blade sharpened. Hold on, let me go see if there is any coffee to even microwave.

We had a nice visit with my grandparents over the weekend. I would like to visit them one of these years down in Roseville, but I don't see much traveling anywhere in our near future. Probably not until school is done. We went and saw my dad perform in a play last night. He did really well. He was actually the highlight of the show. Everyone else did okay, but the whole thing went a little long for my taste.

Well folks, it's Monday. Mondays are so lame. This year Cinco De Mayo is on a Monday to boot. Fateful day. I went back and read last years Cinco De Mayo entry and it was pretty good about explaining the horrors that befall yours truly on this day. This may turn out to be a pretty good week though, we'll see. I have half of a good feeling about it. Or as I would say in my math class that I am going to this morning, "I am 50% sure that this week will turn out alright."

Have any of you seen the new X-Men movie yet? A couple of our friends did and said it wasn't that bad. I didn't really have that strong of a desire to see it. The special effects on that Nightcrawler character look pretty cool. Maybe we'll go see it when it hits the cheap theaters.

Well I better hit the road people. I've got to get ready for my school day now. I think when I get home today I am going to spend the whole day working on my Transmission West piece. I only have 4 more days until my final deadline to mail it in to the contest.

TOP^

05-06-03 Tuesday
Howdy partners! I see some sunshine out there right now. Could that be a sign that good weather is in store for us? I hope it sticks. I need some sunshine on my pale skin and blood shot eyes. Much love goes out to the lovely Ayrica, who stepped up to the plate and gave her coffee to help keep the Noodles going and in turn helped in stoking the fires of the revolution. I can smell the wonderful coffee brewing right now. My mouth is watering now in anticipation. Yes sir!

All of the cats in the neighborhood like to come over to our house and use our yard as their own personal cat box. This morning when I got up I saw 2 of them, the ones I call "Stupid Looking Face" and "Big Fat Messy Fur Ball Stupid Sleeper", were chasing a mouse! No please, no mice near the house please! I hope they got that mouse. If all the cats in town are going to hangout here then they better be doing some work. It was funny, that's the most I have ever seen Big Fat Messy Fur Ball Stupid Sleeper move. The idea of our basement filled will mice makes me want to scream. Not in a stand on a chair with a broom sort of way, but a "Get off my land you filthy bastards!" way. If Pierre wasn't so sickly and didn't act so stoned when he was outside, I would make him get out there and help his feline brothers get those mice.

Okay, where was I? I just lost my train of thought and went off on a day dream there for a few seconds. Lets see... Well, today is going to be a good work day I think. I had a good night of sleep, I'm all loaded up with coffee and I have my weekly and daily plan all mapped out! I'm good to go. The daily isn't mapped out yet, but I will be doing that as soon as I hang up here. Getting things organized and having a to do list is so helpful. You guys should really try it.

I went and tried to check out the free Bonnie Prince Billy concert at the record store on my way to school last night. The place was packed and people were standing out on the street. Dang! I would have liked to have seen that. He didn't start until the same time as my class started so I had to go. I don't understand why he didn't do a whole show at an actual venue? Was he just passing through or what? I need to find our Bonnie Prince Billy CD right now! I think K lost it. She says it's not lost but I don't see it anywhere. Oh wait I can't listen to it anyway. I'm still only listening to Hail to the Thief.

What else has been going on? It seems like there was something I was going to report here, but now it has slipped my mind.

05-09-03 Friday
Good morning my friends. How is everybody doing? I'm doing pretty good. I thought I would check in with you quickly this morning since it has been a couple of days since my last report. It's been rainy off and on the last couple of days and kind of chilly. I think that it needs to hurry up and get warmer.

People I have been kicking ass and taking names these last few days. Man! It feels good. I finished work on a couple of projects last night that turn turned out pretty cool if I do say so myself. Yes people, one of those projects was the infamous Transmission West competition piece. Woo Hoo! I think it looks pretty good. I'm a little too close to it at the moment to be objective, it's all up to the judges now. I'm mailing it off today. Can it be Friday already? This week went by fast! A couple of more classes and then it's the weekend for this Noodle.

So here's some interesting news. The lovely Ms. Bee just landed a job in Arizona! What? Yes you heard it here first. Mr. Baptist and Ms. Bee are going to be moving to Arizona! Hooray for her and boo for us. We are already missing them and they aren't eve gone yet. Good for her! A better job in this stinky economy. I wish she was able to find that job here. It is all very exciting. The Noodles are visiting Arizona! I hear it's a little bit more sunny there than here. This is all brand new news so we'll have to let it all sink in and discuss it here further.

I've got to get going. I have to find my mother's address so I can send her a mother's day card. I've also got to get packed up for school so I can hurry up and catch the bus. I'm trying to steer away from the whole waking K up in the morning thing to take me to school. Let's just say she works a bit better in the later morning, early afternoon hours.

05-10-03 Saturday
Say hello to the weekend! Hello weekend. Well people do you have any big plans for the weekend? Not too much lined up here. I think that my first order of business will be to make some coffee. I should have started that before starting here. I think I am going to do a bit of relaxing these next 2 days. Yeah, that will be my plan. I have an assortment of chores to do today but after I burn through those, I'm going to relax. I also should mow the lawn today, but after that I'm going to relax. Oh yes and healthy dose of math homework, after which will be relaxing.

So I got my Transmission West design piece off in the mail. I am so happy that bad boy is done. I figure the thing took around 24 hours to complete. I'm going to have to speed things up huh? No, It was pretty complicated. It's in the hands of the judges now. All we can do is pray. I hope they like it. I've been looking at it for so long now that I hate it. Gosh that project is finished and now I'm going to have to find another contest to enter. That's right, the plan is still to enter as many student design projects as possible while in school. This Transmission West project hasn't scared me away from contests yet.

The new Matrix movie is out pretty soon isn't it? Is it this weekend or next weekend? I think it's next weekend. I am definitely going to see that puppy. It looks like it is going to be pretty exciting. You know, I can't remember the last time I was in a movie theater watching a new movie. It's been so long. I am interested in seeing X-Men now after hearing the geeks at school talk about it so much.

I have continued to look into art movements more this week. After Fed Exing my project away, K and I went over to the downtown Borders bookstore and looked around. You know, I think they have the best graphic design books in town. Maybe even better than Powell's. I'm not sure though maybe I need to investigate Powell's more because it's hard to imagine anyone beating Powell's. Anyway, I checked out some of there selection on different art movements. I'm beginning to think that what I probably will look at starting first is a "school of thought". Perhaps that's how it works. Start up a style, work it into a school of thought, and then into an art movement. Once again though, why would I be interested in all that work? I need to figure out where this sick fascination is coming from. One thing is for sure though, I need to write up a manifesto.

TOP^

05-11-03 Sunday
Good Sunday morning to you kids! I was trying to sleep in this morning, but just couldn't keep my eyes closed. My brain had already begun it's day and that requires quite a bit of effort for me, the thinking part, so I'm up and at 'em. I need to pull it together and get focused. I need to get me some of that microwaved coffee for starters. People, it looks like it might be a nice day today outside. That's good because K and I are planning on getting out there and doing some yard work today. That lawn is totally going to get mowed today!

We went and had a lovely dinner at Lianne and Martin's new house. Looking good kids. They are getting things organized, and painting the walls. It's coming along nicely. Phillip loves the new house. It has a great yard that he just runs crazy in. It's good because he gets totally warn out. He was being a barking pill to me yesterday so he needed to get some of that energy out.

Martin got me a lead on a cafe that might be interested in showing some Noodle art in their establishment. At first I wasn't too interested in some extra work to make me more nuts, but I looked around this morning and saw that I have quite a bit of drawings laying around here in the laboratory. There are a bunch of sketches that I have scanned and used to make my digital work. That stuff might be interesting to mount nicely and frame. Maybe I'll look into that. I think I have quite a few scan drawings squirreled away. I really don't want to sell them but the money sure would help. Maybe I'll beef the price up on them.

I'm listening to "This American Life" right now on the radio. It's one of those gut punching episodes. It's distracting me from my typing. Very sad one. Come on Noodle, focus. Nope it's not working. Man this is a good one.

Well, it's Sunday and I still haven't done my math homework. I keep telling myself that I need to do it earlier in the week, but here we are. I think next week it will be easier to do it earlier because I don't have as much of the other homework. Thank goodness that math class is half over. I think I'm doing alright in it so far. I'm keeping it together.

05-12-03 Monday
Man, 6 hours is not enough sleep for me. I think I need a full 8 to really do me good. I don't know why it was so hard to sleep last night. Maybe it's the fact that there's no room in that silly bed with all of the cats and dogs and chickens that are sleeping in there with us, K couldn't handle all of the snoring and went in the front room. I hope I can stay awake during my math class.

It looks like the rain is back today. We picked the right day to do our yard chores. Yesterday was a nice day. We got the yard in tip top shape. It looks good out there. K got some more stuff planted and I manicured the lawn. I really need to try to mow it sooner, that lawn mower is starting to sound funny. It really strains on the long parts.

Did you all wish your mother and happy mother's day yesterday? I called my ma and was glad to talk to her. I hope I can go over and visit her again soon.

Time to make up the old to do list. Speaking of to do lists, have you checked out the new ipod yet. Oh man, I would love to have one of those. It now has a daily planner in it and to do lists. If I win some money or rob a bank, I'm going to get one. On my list this week at school I'm going to get started on registering for my summer schedule. Yeah I know, spring is only half over. I just do what I'm told. I also have another html test on Thursday.

I almost totally burst into tears yesterday. My new Radiohead album has a crack in it! What am I going to do? I have been listening to it every single day and now it skips. Maybe I listened to it so much it broke. I'm going to try a couple of different players to see if maybe my lame boom box is the problem. If not then I am going to have to wait till June like everybody else to get my Radiohead CD.

My computer is telling me the server is down over on the noodle web. Does that mean you, my cherished friend and reader, can't see this now? No! Damn it! I'm going to be worried sick all day at school now about you not being able to keep updated with the happenings here at the laboratory. If I can't get this up before school, then I'll try when I get home.

05-14-03 Wednesday
HEY EVERYBODY! I'm back. I know you were all worried sick. The ole web site was down for a couple of days. I had thought that something was wrong with my server, but then I did some investigating and found out it was my fault. My domain name had expired! For a brief moment there JackNoodle.com was unregistered and could have been bought up by anyone. Oh goodness! I would have to have opened back up with JackNoodle.org. Everything is straightened away now though. Lets promise to never be separated like that again, okay? I thought I would be a little more freaked out by the web site being down, but I think I did alright. I was a little uncomfortable without my email. I know a couple of you tried to send me email and it got returned. Re-send it! One final note on the downed site, the day my domain expired on: May 5th, 2003. See I told you, Cinco De Mayo! Forever the day of evil towards Noodle.

What has been happening during my brief absence? Not too much around these parts. Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day outside. The Sun was shining and it was warm out. K, Phillip, and I went on an awesome walk. We all walked over to La Cruda, sat outside and had Mexican food and drinks. We were so hungry! I actually got kind of hot on our walk. That was a strange feeling. Phillip gets heated quick also, so you have to keep an eye on him and make sure he drinks lots of water.

I think we are going to try to go and see The Matrix, "Reloaded" tonight. Yep. Martin found a place that is showing it before Thursday. It looks like it will be pretty entertaining. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and others were talking about the movie on Charlie Rose last night. They sure were talking it up big. I guess that's what they are suppose to do. They were saying that these movies will forever change the way we view cinema. They also said things like it's as important a trilogy as the Star Wars movies. Do you think so? I don't know, those are awfully strong statement. Most of the interview turned into a love fest for the directors who weren't there, the Wachowski bothers. Is Reloaded getting bad reviews? I'm looking at review now for my spelling check and it doesn't look very favorable to the movie. Hold on, I'll stop reading it now.

For those of you worried about my broken Radiohead CD situation, worry no more. I safely loaded it onto the computer and it still plays in a couple of my players without skipping. I think that this CD will forever change the way we view cinema, and it's as important an album as the Star Wars trilogies. What? No it's really good. It may be a little too early to pick a summer album, but this might be it. K thinks that it isn't fun enough to be a summer album. She thinks it's more of a winter CD. It is pretty dark.

I have to go in and meet with the multimedia department head today and figure out my summer schedule. I should probably sit down here before going to the school and figure out what classes I want to take. I should try to take courses that aren't too difficult for me. It might be hard to focus sitting in a classroom with all of the summer fun going on all around me.

After my meeting, I MUST hit the books. If I'm not careful it's going to be Sunday again and I will be asking myself why I hadn't done my math homework yet. I really must study for my html test tomorrow also. Oh god, that's going to suck if I stay up late watching the Matrix then go in to take a test the next morning. Another thing I have to do today is get a grip on our bill crisis here in the Noodle compound. Things in the financial world here are absolutely out of control. Argh! Okay, deep breaths, it's okay, breath, you'll be fine. Calm down. Remember your blood pressure.

TOP^

05-16-03 Friday
Oh my gosh! I am so tired this morning! We decided to take Phillip into the pet emergency at 1 in the morning. He's okay people, don't freak out. Phillip had a crazy rash that was turning into huge welts last night, making his body swell up in bumps everywhere. We think he rolled around in something he was allergic to on our wonderful walk the other day or he ate something that was bad for him. God people, pets! Well we took him in, they gave him some medicine, gave him some steroids and the bumps shrank. Now I am tired. I've got school this morning! At least the weekend is almost here huh?

We didn't see the Matrix on Wednesday after all. Decided it wasn't financially prudent at that time. We were right. How was it though, people? K and I will probably try to sneak in without paying or call in a favor from our movie guy. Oh well.

Not much going on. School in about an hour and a half. Must go get ready. I need to shave my beard off. It's really itching me. I hope I don't fall asleep in the middle and accidently slip and slit my throat open. School went pretty well this week. I think my html test yesterday went good. I'm learning quite a bit in that class. Today should be a pretty mellow school day. I just have to stay awake or at least appear to look like I am awake.

People, I really need to get a part time job unfortunately. Have you guys and gals heard of anything? I did quite an extensive search yesterday with my standards totally lowered and I still didn't see anything promising. Maybe I'll go check the student board at the school again today. They don't seem to be updating it though. I'm almost to the point where I will do about anything for some extra dough. Sucks!

05-17-03 Saturday
Good morning! I am doing much better today than I was yesterday morning. I actually got some rest last night! Phillip is doing good once again. His giant welts are all gone now. Crazy. You know, Bostons as a breed are generally allergic to onions. I wonder if Phillip got a hold of some onions while we were eating at La Cruda? If that's the case, then no more onions for that guy. Ah yes, a good morning. I've got a fresh cup of coffee here now and I am ready to take on the day.

Okay, where to begin. Well, it's Saturday. It's the weekend. That's a good thing. I have a couple of assignments to work on this weekend, but nothing too demanding. You all would be quite proud of me. I actually did some math homework on Wednesday instead of Sunday this week. I still have quite a bit more that I could do with it though. I don't have too many chores to do today. That's nice. I do have to get some bills in the mail today though. That's not too nice. I think the first order of business today is to get the print version of the Transmission West project finally finished up. I just have a couple wires left to connect and then Eugene should be able to slap it down on the press and go to town.

Oh yes, I figured out the next competition I am going to enter. I am going to enter the Canon Digital Creators Contest 2003.This one is going to be tough. I think that it is open to everyone, not just students. The grand prize is 20,000 dollars. Wouldn't that be nice. I'll probably enter the illustration category again. I really need to get going on my photography work, animation work, and flash work so I can enter more categories. I have an idea already for my entry I think. Whatever I do end up doing is really going to have to kick ass for me to compete. I really have to up the ante this time. I need to win some of these competitions. The deadline for the Canon contest isn't until September 24th, so that gives me quite a bit of time to do something really great.

I was staring at the walls the other day and my eyes roamed over the titles of the books I have sitting on the bookshelf here in the laboratory. I have quite the collection of interesting design and multimedia books starting to stack up. I must have had lots of money for book buying way back in '96 and '97 because that's the date on most of these books. Boy those were the days. I took a book on graphic design and digital media to school with me yesterday to read between classes. Man, it was so good! The ideas and concepts in the book reminded me why I like all things digital and gave me a new zeal and excitement for this crap again. I went on Amazon to see if they had an updated version of the book and they didn't. I did find a book by Hillman Curtis about process and inspiration that looks pretty amazing. I remember holding it in my hands and thumbing through it the other day but I can't remember where I was. It's cool on Amazon now they have like 8 pages of the books that you can read to get a taste of what it is about.

Oh, got to run. K needs a ride to work now.

05-19-03 Monday 6:46 AM
Oh yes. Monday morning once again. I think the weekend wasn't long enough. Argh. Well I guess Monday will be over before I know it. It looks like today may be a nice day. Yesterday was pretty nice. It was fairly sunny most of the day. The Sun is shining right now. I think that if it stays sunny like this, I will mow the lawn this afternoon between classes. It's not too tall right now, I just want to get it before it gets too tall and thick like last week.

How was your weekend? Ours was good. We went and saw the Matrix Reloaded yesterday afternoon. Yeah. I'm not sure if I liked it or not. It was okay. It was a very hyper movie. We did talk about it quite a bit afterwards which is often good when a movie can get you doing that. We were wondering actually about the state of cinema. One day soon, if it hasn't already happened, they will make a movie that is entirely action sequences and special effects with no story. Yeah my feelings about the Matrix are strange. I may have to go see it again to figure out what I think. I do think that has been way to hyped by everybody and my expectations were pretty high. At one point during the beginning, I thought the movie was kind of boring and then at the end I was thinking it was too much and I was over stimulated. Both ends of the spectrum. The effects were definitely spectacular. They didn't blend them with the story very well though. The story clunked along and then everything stopped, the music started up and there was a 15 minute special effects fight sequence thrown in. Then the story would clunk along some more and then the loud music would start up and a giant battle on a freeway happened for some reason. Yeah, I'll probably go see it again though, so I guess they won.

People, it pains me to no end that the season finale of the Simpsons was last night! The season can't be over already! It just started. The season enders were okay. They haven't done any season cliff hangers on the Simpsons since the "Who shot Mr. Burns" episodes. I wish they would do something like that again. Gosh, now I have to wait all summer and way into the fall before I can see some new episodes.

The season finale of 24 is tomorrow. The final hour of the 24 hours. That was a pretty good show this season. It sure was over the top quite a few times. Other than that I think that's it for our TV viewing season. Now we can get on with our lives and get out in the great outdoors.

Oh yeah, I meant to comment on this last week. I can't believe I am admitting to watching this but did you notice the song that started up when Joey finally decided to go up to Rachell's hotel room and bed her on the Friends season finale? It was Interpol! Ha ha Interpol was on Friends. What does that do to your alterna-cred? It can't be good for it. Wait a second what does that do to your web-cred, talking about Friends in your journal? Oops. Uh yeah, never mind.

TOP^

05-20-03 Tuesday
Good morning all. How did you sleep? I slept alright. I had a massive film festival of dreams last night. None of them were scary which was nice for a change. They were just normal events that were slightly askew One of them was about me going back to work at Musicland and yelling at these kids who were knocking stuff down in the store and starting fights. The other one was about me yelling at some religious fanatics up in a cabin in the woods. Boy, I really told everybody off last night! In one of the final dreams, K kept talking about babies. Uh oh!

I heard the weather report last night and they said that it was suppose to be a nice day today. They're thinking that it may be in the 70's. Wow that's warm! I may have to put some shorts on. My legs are probably so white that they are reflective in the sun. It should be nice for at least a few more days and then the clouds will be rolling in. I wish it would hurry up and get warm. I'm kind of cold right now. Maybe the fresh coffee that has just finished brewing will warm me up.

Yesterday I registered for summer term. Yep. I think I got some interesting picks this time. I am taking: Argumentative Research, General Sociology, Environmental Science, History of Material Culture 1, and a Modern Japan Area Study. Some of those sound pretty tough. Those are like real college courses huh? It's cool because all of my classes are on Monday and Tuesday. That leaves the rest of the week to myself. Actually that schedule would really lend itself to a part time job. Wouldn't that be nice? Those classes are all general study courses. No design classes. I was thinking I would take the summer off from design study and work the entire time on my Canon competition piece. I think it's going to be a good summer.

Well, what's going on today? I'm not sure. I think that I will probably just go with the flow. A notary keeps calling the house so I think we'll have to meet with her today and get some papers signed for the lower interest rate on the house. Pretty boring stuff. I got a really good book at the library that I'm going to try to read all of it before it's due back. I don't remember the last time I finished a book. This book now is called "Pause and Effect" by Mark Stephen Meadows. It's really good. It's about the art of interactive narrative. Yes, I would like to read a healthy portion of that today and maybe do some writing. Perhaps I will work on some homework assignments also.

05-22-03 Thursday
Hey there. Once again a quick, early morning, before school post. How's it going? Uh oh, the dog just got up. Hold on I've got to go take him out for potty time.

There, I'm back. What's happening today? Not too much to report here for today. It seems to me that our whole weekend is going to be jam packed full of events. Lots of stuff is going on for once. Today is last Thursday. The gallery hop over in North Portland is happening tonight. We probably won't go to that once again. We should though because there is some good art over in that direction. I have my html class this morning and that's it for classes today. I have some studying and reading for my Friday classes, but nothing too painful.

Hey! A happy birthday well wish goes out to the lovely Lianne this fine morning! Another one also goes out to the always dapper G for tomorrow!

Yesterday I began the initial steps of the opening planning for my Canon Digital Creators piece. You know what? I should document the whole process from beginning to end. Get every last small detail down on paper. That might be an interesting side project. "Yeah, maybe interesting to you, Noodle." Yesterday I began studying Giclee printing. Have you guys heard about Giclee printing? I hadn't. I guess it's fine art quality, ink jet printing that you can do on archival quality stock. You can do large format sizes. I think I might spend a few extra bucks to get my canon project printed that way. We'll see. A hundred or so bucks on a potential 20 thousand dollar investment isn't that bad is it?

I hate to say it people, and probably shouldn't in case my computer hears, but I think that the video card in my laptop is going out. The monitor has been doing some weird things and going out a time or two. It did it twice during this post. GREAT! That's all I need.

05-24-03 Saturday 8:23:03 AM
Good morning sunshine! How are you doing? It's Saturday and I think it's going to be another scorcher here. Yesterday was a bright, Sun filled, warm day. Today should be the same. Hey, would you hold on for one brief moment while I go start a pot of coffee? Thank you, I knew you would. One second. There we go. Now the wonderful smell of fresh coffee is floating through the house. I opened up both of the doors to get a breeze flowing through here. It's already starting to get stuffy. I'm not sure why we didn't have any of the windows open last night.

I had a great Friday people. One for the history books. Why was it so good you ask? It's not really one thing, or a series of dramatic events, I just had a happy day. The Sun was out, school went well, and we went to a fun birthday party at G's house at night. Yep the old girl turned the big three - oh! It was pretty fun. I brought my laptop and Stu and I rocked out in the basement. I had some good drum beats popping out of that puppy. Hold on one more sec, the coffee is finished. Oh yeah.

Perhaps yesterday was a good day because I have been so annoyed on all of the other days this week. I have really been getting tired of a lot of crap lately. Of course relatively speaking life isn't that bad and I should stop whining. I really felt like I was on hold all week. Things will be better when, it won't be so hard when... I'm ready for the when people. Little nuisances have been stacking up and making larger grievances. You know when you just need someone or anyone to cut you some slack and give you a break? Where is all of this going? I don't know, but I feel good today and not annoyed because of a good Friday.

The lawn is in need of some mowing once again. I've let it grow just one day too long. I should probably get out there today and get that dude cut. If not today, then for sure tomorrow. You know what I was noticing this morning? There's not that many dandelions out there right now. Last year at this time wasn't I cursing those evil weeds repeatedly? Who knows, maybe this is an off season for them.

Well, the weekend continues. There is a party at Joel #1's house this evening. That should be fun. You should all attend. Tomorrow evening K is hosting a Martha Stewart party for the ladies. We are going to sit around and sing Martha's praises as we watch her get slammed on that unauthorized biography TV movie, "Martha Inc." Yes we have it recorded. I think there may be some craft making involved also.

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05-26-03 Monday
Ahoy thar mateys! How be ye this fine morn? Doing okay here. Happy Memorial day to you. Hopefully you all have the day off from school and work like we do. How was your weekend? Ours was down right peachy. We were pretty busy each day. I'm glad it's Memorial day because we needed an extra day to recover.

Yes. So what is going on today? Not too much. I think there's some chores to be done and some cleaning up to do but that's it for work. I mowed the lawn yesterday so it looks pretty nice. I'm still a little sleepy right now. The coffee hasn't kicked in yet. Maybe I should go back to bed. I should sit down today and do some serious homework. There is no math and no image manipulation classes to go to today. I am quite happy about that. There's a big math test to take next Monday so I really need to study for that. I'm starting to get nervous and anxious now that the end of the term is getting closer. I have to keep it together for just a little bit longer before I can relax. I'm a little worried that I may be slacking too early. I need to keep up with the intensity that I had at the beginning of the term. This only the start. I have 2 and a half more years of this.

Last night we watched a couple of good movies. We saw "Road to Perdition," staring Tom Hanks and Jude Law, and we saw "Adaptation" with Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep. I fell asleep during Road to Perdition so I am going to have to watch that one again. What I do remember seeing of it I thought was quite good. Beautifully filmed. Adaptation was great. I love that director Spike Jonze. It was so nice to see Nicolas Cage do a good job in a movie again. I knew he had it in him. The whole process of Nicolas's character racking his brain to get his ideas out onto paper was well done I thought. I've experienced the frustration of trying to squeeze a good idea out on several occasions.

Oh yes, idea squeezing. I found an excellent resource on the web the other day. A web site that has information on all kinds of design competitions. There are plenty of competitions to keep me busy for the rest of the year. Entering competitions really can be a full time job. I wish I had a way of knowing if the direction I'm heading in artistically with these pieces is the right one. I guess that wouldn't be competing though if I knew those answers. I wish I could layout a bunch of my ideas and have someone look them over and say yes, yes, no, yes, no, no. Perhaps after entering competition 5 or 6, I will have more of a grasp on those things and be a seasoned competition veteran. A lot of what I should be doing is keeping my eyes open and looking at everything that is out there right now. The competition I am in now is actually getting judged on June 15th, which is good. I thought it was going to be judged in August. When that puppy is finished I can examine what I did and what they actually ended up picking and compare the two. I will also study the winners work and compare that to the judges bios and see if that will give me any clues to use when analyzing up coming judges.

05-27-03 Tuesday 9:09 AM
They say it is suppose to reach the 80's today. Woo Hoo! It's going to be a beautiful one, people! I am definitely going to have to wear shorts today. I just pulled back the laboratory curtains and let the Sun shine in. I didn't do my homework yesterday, and went to Mr. Baptist's house instead. Now I'm going to try to do some today with the weather like this? Oh man, I don't know.

I've got to hurry up, take a shower and get this day started as soon as possible. I should have started at 6 this morning. I'm going to head over to the school and check out a digital camera and take a bunch of pictures. I know I have my own, but the school's will be better. I don't like my camera. The resolution isn't high enough. I have a good idea forming for the new contest piece, which for now is called, "Steve and Phillip". It involves some digital photos and they must be high quality.

One of my old friends from long ago called out of the blue last night. Travis. I haven't talked to him in a long time. It was good to hear from him. He gave me some updates on how the old crowd is doing. I should really go see some of those old hoodlums. We all live in the same area for crying out loud! How can 8 to 12 years go by without not bumping in to these people? Maybe they see me coming and turn down side streets to escape. I think I may go see Travis at work today. No Noodle, you have homework, remember?

Oh, but it is so nice outside. Maybe I should close the curtains.

05-29-03 Thursday
Scary! I had two Mondays written in for this week. Let me fix that right now. One Monday a week is bad enough! The holiday threw me off. Today also feels like a Monday because it's the first day of school. Argh! Good early morning to you all! Oh yes, I must go get some coffee right now or I will truly die. I am sleepy and my back hurts. Lets see what else can I complain about? Oh yes, it feels like a Monday today. Hold on one second.

Do you think anyone would come to my art showing at a gallery if it was called "One Hundred Photos of Phillip and Pierre"? Wouldn't that be a crazy sight? One hundred 5x7 photos stacked up of a dog and cat. Maybe I should do one giant poster with one hundred shots of them. Oh man, I should go back to bed.

Boy oh boy, It sure has been nice outside this week! Perfect weather. It has been hard staying inside and working on homework. I actually buckled down and did some good work yesterday. I have a sinking feeling that we are going to get another lame test in my html class this morning. Those tests are killing me! I'm not much of a test guy. I'm more of a reports and projects man.

Last night I was in the kitchen again! I made a recipe that my mom use to make when I was a wee lad. Hungarian Goulash. Oh yeah. I followed her recipe perfectly because it tasted just like I remembered it. I think it must be a cousin of the potato salad so I didn't venture too far from the path. This puppy was more of a casserole though. 1 large sliced polish sausage, onions, sliced hard boiled eggs, potatoes, bread crumbs and lots and lots of sour cream. K thought it was an unholy mix of a hotdog, an omelet, and potato salad. Very good. I don't remember it being as much of a gut bomb when I was a kid.

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June 2003

06-02-03 Monday 6:58 AM
Well, long time no write eh? What the heck was up with that? I'm not sure. I'm back now though kids and ready for some writing! Hold on one second though while I go put pants on and get some coffee. Will you look at that. The month of June snuck in while we weren't looking. Where the heck did May go? Oh well. Good riddance to her anyway. I hear that it is going to be a hot one this week. I don't know, it's awfully overcast out there this morning.

How was your weekend? Ours was okay. Thanks so much to Officer Steve and the lovely Michelle for hosting a wonderful barbecue last night. So good to see all of you kids. Gosh, oh yeah, thanks to the handsome Wagners for hosting their lovely barbecue on Saturday. Good time had by all. No wonder I'm not hungry this morning. I was stuffing my face all weekend.

3 more weeks of spring term my friends. Boy oh boy did it go fast. 9 actual in school days. I've got a to do list all mapped out for the remaining days. I think I'm going to be okay. I'm only really concerned with my math class again as usual. I am keeping an eye on my basic web class, making sure that continues on course. I am really going to study for the final in html. I'm going to try to finish as many projects as possible this week so I can focus all of my energies on passing my math final test. Come on Noodle, hold it together buddy.

I'm going to have a little bit longer time off between terms than I had originally thought. I think it's like 3 weeks off. That's pretty cool. I can rest and get my energy up for stressing out over the summer term.

06-04-03 Wednesday
Hey, hey, hey! Look who's back for some more journal, diary, are you there God, it's me Noodle, writing fun. How's it going out there in the real World, people? Things are going alright here at the Noodle compound. It looks like it is going to be another beautiful day outside again. Yesterday was gorgeous. This is the nice summer weather we often hear about but rarely see.

I am continuing on with my to do list. Chugging away at it. Chugging? Do I mean chipping? I think I'm pretty close to being on schedule. I have some math things I need to finish up as soon as possible and go turn in today. I'm telling you people, lists are the way to go. They break things up into nice manageable pieces instead of one giant freak out mess. I went and got some math tutoring from the magnificent Lianne last night. It appears that I know more about math than I thought I did but lack confidence and am unsure of my answers. I needed some one to confirm my guesses on some of the problems. Maybe Lianne will come and sit next to me for questions during the final. I'm going to go study with my brother next week.

During a break in school work, we went and saw "Finding Nemo". The new Pixar, computer animated masterpiece. It was SO good. It was just the kind of school work break that the doctor ordered. It was beautifully animated. The fish, the scenery, everything looked spectacular. It made you walk out of the theater going, "The Matrix what?". I think the thing that was so nice about it with all of it's fancy computer, special effect, slick production, it still had a story in there. Hey movie makers! People will still watch a story about a man looking for his son that isn't filled with action sequences and cars blowing up on the freeway. Although Finding Nemo did have quite a few action sequences and there was a big chase scene with a shark. Hmm maybe people do need explosions and action.

I'm going to get back to it kids. My computer monitor is giving me trouble again so I am going to have to get some stuff done before my computer blows up. I think that my work schedule will be thinning out a bit for a few hours this weekend, so I'll rest then.

06-07-03 Saturday
Good morning everybody. It looks like the heat wave is going to continue today. Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far for Portland. The news said that it just scraped the 100 mark. I was in school most of the day so I didn't really feel it, but boy when I got outside, waiting for the bus I could really feel it. I think I may have made myself a little sick by jumping out of the air conditioned school, into the 95 degree sunshine, jumping back into an air conditioned bus and then back out onto the hot street when It got to my stop. Too many rapid climate changes.

In about 15 minutes the Rose Parade is starting downtown. Yep it's Rose Festival time again. I don't understand how everyone can get so excited for the Rose Festival every year. I've been in town for 30 years and I think I may have went to a Rose Festival event once. I've never seen the parade. People were camped out on the sidewalks saving their spaces for watching the parade last night and the night before. Somebody said that 600,000 people are going to be down there now watching the parade. Boy I know where not to go now. I think the majority of people who go to the Rose Festival are people who don't live in Portland. Everyone from the surrounding towns come here. Boy it's going to be a hot parade route this year. I hope you people drink lots of water!

You know, I'm sorry for not updating more in the journal here the last few weeks. There's no excuse. Well, actually one of the excuses is that the computer that holds my web site work monitor went out I think for real now. All the information on the computer was fine, I just couldn't see it. It's sputtering on and off so it's not a total corpse but I think it's getting there. I had to wait for a time when it flickered on and the quickly change the start up settings to start on the monitor that I have sitting next to it. Production has started up again! I am going to have to take this puppy in and get it fixed one of these days. Maybe during my break. I hope it doesn't cost that much to fix. I don't think I'm under the warranty still of course.

Hey! It's the weekend! What do you have planned? I'm pretty much up to date on my to do list. Nothing is really knocking me over with worry. Today I will work on a math project and an essay that I am going to turn in on Monday. The only really big thing next week is a final project due on Thursday for Basic Web Design. Oh yes, and I will really need to study for my math final. I plan on hitting the math books every single day next week. I won't be screwing around with this math crap more than just this term people!

I was jotting down some notes yesterday and I started thinking about my inspiration level. I think I am quite uninspired right now. I feel a bit better today about my inspiration but overall I think it is down. How did that happen? I was really tired yesterday so that may have had something to do with it. I've been tired the last few weeks. Maybe this is just the natural flow of things now that I am going to school again. I get really pumped up and filled with inspiration, ideas and hope at the beginning of the term and then slowly wind up in the pits of despair at the end of the term. Shouldn't school be inspiring me to do great works all the time? Shouldn't my mind being opened and new education being poured into it on a daily basis, be giving me constant orgasms of creativity? Maybe I am giving the school to much responsibility with inspiration provider. Maybe inspiration hunting and collecting is all up to me. Just the fact that I am thinking about my inspiration levels again is a good sign that they will be back in full force at the start of next term.

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06-08-03 Sunday
Good Sunday morning to you kids once more! How are you doing this lovely morning? I'm doing okay. I have to go get some microwaved, leftover coffee to help wake me up. Oh, one note, the parade that took place yesterday is called the Grand Floral Parade. I think I called it the Rose Parade. I guess that K has been to several of them. Her mom use to work at a place that was on the parade route, so they could set their chairs out early. Oh yes sweet, sweet coffee.

We are going to have another beautiful day out there again! Each day has been getting a few degrees cooler. It feels just perfect right now. This week has just been gorgeous. I think I was really in need of the Sun's warming rays. I was feeling awfully grey. This morning I am going to go out and sweep the font sidewalk before it gets too warm out. That dang holly tree has been dropping mountains of leaves down all over everything in the front yard. I've got to clean that stuff up. It looks messy. I'm going to get it all cleaned up and by this evening it will all be back, piled up. Man, I am looking out the window right now and think that It would be a perfect time to sweep up those leaves. I should hurry up here and get out there.

The new Radiohead CD "Hail to the Thief" will be released on Tuesday. Everyone should run out and get it! You will love it! Hopefully I didn't talk it up too much here, so that your expectations are too high. You'll get it and be like, "Well, I guess it's alright, but what the Hell was Noodle talking about? This isn't the best CD ever recorded since the beginning of time." I had a few beers and gave a long seminar about the fine points of the album last night. I saw the video for the song "There, There" yesterday. It was pretty darn good. Thom turns into a tree at the end that kind of looks like the tree that I drew for the Transmission West piece.

Today I have a two page essay to write for math and a poster for my image manipulation class to finish. I'm going write my essay on the topic of math anxiety and investigate what I think I have which is math annoyance. Maybe when I'm done writing it, I will publish it here on the web so you all can read it.

Oh man! We forgot to turn the radio on and listen to This American Life. It's half over right now. Oh that's cool, they are playing one of the live tour shows, one of which was done in Portland.

I listened to quite a few hours of music on the internet yesterday. Gosh there sure is some good stuff out there. What the heck did we listen to before the internet? It has been so long since I have listened to any music on the classic radio. Oh my gosh, the last time I listened to broadcast radio was when I was working at adidas. Not only did I not recognize any of the lame tunes, but about 80 percent of what was on was loud obnoxious advertisements. That internet radio is a great way to discover bands and music you would have never have discovered on the standard radio. The band I am now interested in investigating more is called, "Broken Social Scene". They have a couple of songs that I heard that I really liked.

Well kids, I think I am going to go out and sweep now.

06-10-03 Tuesday
It looks like the heat wave is officially over now! It's cooler and a bit overcast this morning. I bet it will only get into the mid 70s today. That's it. You just witnessed an Oregon summer. 3 days of hot sunshine. Oh my goodness! Since we last spoke, I left it with you thinking I was going to go sweep up some leaves. Boy, if that were only the case. Once I got out there I decided that the holly tree needed to be pruned. I cut down hundreds of branches. It took me most of the day! Now the holly tree is trimmed up 4 or 5 feet higher and more light is able to get into the front. It looks good. I may have to do some touch up here and there though. I need to get out there and mow the lawn. If not today then for sure tomorrow.

I'm bachin' it this week! Home alone with the cat and the dog. K has left for Arizona with Mr. Baptist. They are taking a truck load for the first leg of the move to Arizona. Ms. Bee has already been there for a couple of weeks. I can't believe those two, Mr. Baptist and Ms. Bee, will be living so far away from us! Poor little K is going to be hot on her trip. It's like 150 degrees there right now. Drink lots of water! They will be stopping in Las Vegas, so lets all pray that K hits the jackpot. She'll be back home on Sunday. Until then I will be cold, hungry, tired and lonely.

So what's a handsome, hip, young dude like me going to do in the meantime? Well for starters this morning, I'm going off to take a drug test. Yeah that sounds like a crap load of fun huh? I have to take one because adidas came calling for me to go back to work for a day and my records needed to be updated. Drug tests! How is that any of their business? Oh well, I guess I'll do what it takes to make the money. I'm pretty sure I'll pass it anyway. Still though, what a pain in the ass. Drug tests and paperwork for one day of work.

After that's taken care of I will be snuggling up to the books and computer for more work on my final projects and studying. Yesterday was such a nice day of school. Only one more Monday! The weight is being lifted as one by one each class winds up. I am quite happy because it looks like I am going to pass my math class! Hooray! Oh that is so good for me. All of the other classes are looking good also.

I better go pee in a cup now. Bye bye.

06-11-03 Wednesday
I have been doing quite a bit of napping while K has been away. I don't know why I have been so sleepy! The more I nap though, the more tired I feel. I need to drink some more coffee and drink more water. I need to wake up and get out there and cause some trouble! K called this morning and asked about the garden, I should get out there and water it today. She'll be pissed if she comes home to dead plants. I hear a mower going now also, that's a good idea. It kind of looks like it might rain today. That would solve my watering laziness.

So I have to ride the bus out to Oregon City this morning and get the black car from Mr. Baptist's house. I was having success driving the red car around to my drug test and other chores yesterday, Going back to the car after my 4th destination, which happened to be the record store, the car wouldn't start. I guess that means it's the alternator? Now I have to ride the bus out to O.C., get the black car, drive to the red car and jump it, let the battery charge and then try to drive it back home. Then I have to get Phillip and go for a walk back to the black car and get it. It sounds like one of those how do you take so and so over the river in a boat riddles.

You know, I think Phillip needs another brother or sister that isn't a drugged up cat. That boy can't entertain himself for very long. He gets bored quick with whatever chew or toy he's playing with and comes and pesters me. That's all I've been doing these last 2 days, napping and keeping the dog entertained.

Yes, the record store. I rewarded my hard work this term with some CD purchases. I got of course, Radiohead, "Hail to the Thief", I got the Postal Service, "Give up", and last but not least, Broken Social Scene, "You Forget It In People". All of the CDs are quite enjoyable. They all have the Noodle seal of approval. I listened to that Radiohead again twice yesterday, I love it.

You know, I have felt ahead of my game for the last few days. I think now I need to put the nail in the coffin of some of these to do list items and just be done with them. Being ahead of the game is nice and all, but being finished with the game is even better. Plus I have a feeling that some of these little inconveniences, like riding the bus to Oregon City, may continue to pop into the equation, which could in fact make me behind the game. It's a fine line to walk here in the Noodle house. I don't think napping is helping the game either.

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06-12-03 Thursday
Oh dear lord, what a week! Hey my relay race, my game of leap frog with the cars went off okay after a few false starts. I probably looked pretty funny driving 2 cars at once. No, I got the black car to the red one, charged the red one up for a while, and then tried to race it home. The first time I guess I didn't charge it long enough, because I only made it 6 blocks before it died again. I walked back to the black car drove it to the red car and charged it longer the second time. Eventually, both cars were sitting back in front of the house. That bus ride out to Oregon City wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I've got to get going. My Thursday is really loaded up. I have lots to do today. None of my items to do are that demanding by themselves but for some reason everything is happening today. School, work at adidas, studying math with my brother, watering the yard and a bunch of little things thrown in for measure. One thing that was on the to do list but somehow slid under the radar was a 5 page essay that is due tomorrow. Oh yeah, one note, I don't have a fax machine! Two separate, annoying, entities want faxes from me today.

06-14-03 Saturday
Good morning everybody. How are you doing? I'm doing pretty good. The school week is over and now just 1 more left for this term. I am all caught up on my assignments and all that is left is studying for my final exams. I felt really good after school when I got home on Friday. It has been a long week for me. Nothing was really that difficult there just seemed to be a lot of running around towards the end there.

K will be back tomorrow. I've got to go pick her up at the airport in the afternoon. I can't wait. This is the longest we've been apart in the last 2 and a half years. I realized this time just how insane I am without her around keeping me grounded. I've thought of some weird ideas and have done some strange things in her absence. I use to be okay on my own. When did this dependence on K for my sanity come about?

An example of one of the crazy things I did was on Thursday night. You know I had that 5 page essay and another assignment that was due on Friday, right? Well, instead of staying up late on Thursday, I decided I would experiment and go to bed early on Thursday, then get up at 4 in the morning on Friday and work. I think the jury is still out on how that went. Getting up at 4 was fine, but then going to school at 8 was a little awkward. I was pretty tired around 9:30.

Last night I drank some beer and watched Pink Floyd's the Wall. I also watched the Donnie Darko DVD with the director's audio commentary on. The director's explanation of the movie was pretty interesting. I don't agree with some of what he was saying though. I liked my theory of the movie a bit better than his. Is it possible that a movie has a second meaning and explanation than the writer / director meant? I should do my own audio commentary to that movie. Maybe I should email the director my theories. I was thinking that I needed a protégé that I could mentor and share movies like The Wall with. Force them to think that these movies are as great as I do.

I was also pondering the other day how young 19 is. When the heck did this happen? Remember when kids that were 19 were the old, cool kids in the neighborhood? How did I get so far away from 19 so quick? People that are 19 now were born after Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back were in the theaters! Wait, were they even born in time to see Return of the Jedi in the theater?

So yes, K's arrival back will be a good thing.

I have a lot of cleaning up to do. I'm going to get everything in tip top shape before she gets back. There are quite a few messes around the house that haven't gotten my attention this week. I absolutely need to get out and clean that yard up. The grass is out of control! The rose bush outside of this window is doing some crazy things. It's all exploded and falling over now. It needs some trimming back. I've also got to sweep up again under that holly tree.

06-16-03 Monday 7:28 AM
Hey there! ALERT! ALERT! The Noodles are out of coffee! I repeat, the Noodles are out of coffee! That's okay. I'll get some on the way to school today. It looks like it is going to be a beautiful day again. Yesterday was gorgeous as I'm sure today will be. I never did get out to the lawn yesterday. It looks really bad. It looks like the lawn of someone who has abandoned their house. Boy there sure are a lot of crazy looking weeds in that lawn now.

K is home now folks and so is my sanity. She had a marvelous time in Arizona and had some good stories. They have demanded that I go next time. There may be a Christmas visit in the works. We'll see. We are really going to miss them way over there.

That weekend sure went fast. I think I need at least one more day of it. Lame ole Monday back at it again. Today is the last day of math! Woo hoo! I made it all of the way to the end! You know math really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I'm a little troubled that I wrote such a downer, math anxiety essay now. Oh well, I'll just tell teacher I don't feel the same way now as I did in the paper. I feel like I actually learned something this time. The big final is today. I think I will do alright. Image manipulation is over tonight also. Everything is wrapping up!

I think when this week is over I need to sit down here in the journal and analyze how the term went. What went well this term, what didn't go so well. I need to study my performance so that I can do better next term. I guess that doesn't have to be in the journal. Next term is going to be a tougher term because of the level of difficulty of the classes and the level of distractions that will be there to tempt me. I am really going to have to read a lot more than I did this term also.

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06-17-03 Tuesday
Good morning folks. Yes it's Tuesday. Not much going on around here today. Is there anything going down with you cats? The Sun is out once again getting ready to give us yet another beautiful day. Gosh, yesterday was just awesome. I went out and finally mowed that lawn. It looks much better now. I was worried for a little bit that I may have damaged the lawn by letting it grow out of control like that, but it looks like it is going to recover, I think I'm going to move the mower up a bit now so that the lawn doesn't get as close of a trim during these summer days. The lawn will turn to dust if I keep cutting it so close. I also decided yesterday that our yard needs more rocks. Yep. Maybe the passion for rocks will get as fevered again as the Great Rock Garden Fiasco of 2002. I think that some of these weeds in the yard need to be covered with rock.

So my Monday final exams went really well. Done and done. The big boy that I am really going to have to study for is my html exam on Thursday. That puppy is going to be tough. After that though it is all smooth sailing out of this term. I can start preparing for summer term. Actually what I will be doing is preparing for all of the free time I am going to have for the next 3 weeks.

Yeah, what am I going to do with my time off? I think I'm just going to chill. It would be fun to pack everybody up and go take a camping trip. Maybe a visit to the beach? I think I may catch up on my movie renting and also rent some video games. I have been meaning to check out that "Enter the Matrix" video game but until now didn't have the time to waste on it. There are couple of things that I wanted to read and investigate while on break. I want to read a book about or do some research on Paul Rand, the godfather of American graphic design and I also want to get the book, "MTIV: Process, Inspiration and Practice for the New Media Designer" by Hillman Curtis. I think I talked about it here before, right? Anyway that looks like an awesome book. I am also going to definitely start working on the new "Steve and Phillip" contest piece. I'm getting pretty excited about that. I've got quite a few ideas for it rolling around in my skull.

06-21-03 Saturday
Well, will you look at who finally decided to come and write a journal entry? People, people, please accept my most humble apologies. I really should have written at least once during these last 4 days to tell you how the week was going. I missed talking to you lovely folks. It's Saturday now and I've got some fresh coffee brewing. It was a tad bit rainy yesterday. It's a tad bit sunny this morning. It's been a tad bit chilly these last few days. I think it's suppose to get rainy by this afternoon. Hold on one second the aroma of the freshly brewed coffee is calling to me. Oh yes! Tasty!

HEY! Spring term is all finished up kids! Woo hoo! I think it ended absolutely magnificently. I was pretty stressed out over a couple of tests due to my poor test taking skills, but I reviewed and studied hard before each test and they all went well. I think I did really good on all of my finals actually. This term will be an excellent first showing for me at the Art Institute. I'm pretty sure I've got myself a decent grade point average now. We'll see next week. Oh man, I am so happy that math is over with. The class and instructor were fine and all, it's just that forcing myself to care about something I despise and constantly worrying about passing was really getting to me. Hey once again a big shout out to my brother and the lovely Lianne for their math assistance.

Now it's rest and relaxation time for this Noodle. School doesn't start again until July 14th. 3 weeks. Gosh, yeah, now what do I do without any homework? That's a silly question. Don't worry about it Noodle. Your homework will be back before you know it. I think one thing I am going to get started on today, right after I hang up here, is demolish and rebuild this here laboratory. It is an absolute pig sty in here. I have got to clean this mess up. I really need to get organized. This is the worst room in the house. Yes. That's a good project for today. I also need to start on some drawings for my Steve and Phillip piece. Maybe I will do that second today.

Yesterday, between classes I went and looked at books across the street at Powell's bookstore. What a fun and relaxing time that was. All of my class work was done by then and all of my finals had been taken. My only reason for being at Powell's was to kill some time before my last class of the day. That's a good time to be there. When you're totally relaxed with nowhere to be. I wanted to get a book to read during my break. All of the books that I really wanted were in the 30 to 40 dollar range and I had to limit myself to the 5 dollar range. That was all of the money I had in the World to spend on books. Besides that 5 bucks, I had $1.25 for bus fare home and $1.65 for a cup of coffee at Peet's. I was beginning to think I wouldn't find a book when I stumble on a $4.95 sale book. I got "Essays on Typography" by Eric Gill. Yes that Eric Gill. Eric Gill as in the font "Gill Sans Serif". It is a fascinating book. It was originally written in 1930. I think that even those of you who aren't interested in type would find it to be a good book. Yeah, maybe not. Anyway, I bought it and took it to Peet's with me to read as I sipped on my coffee. Great afternoon.

K and I have seen some movies since I have last written. We rented "Catch Me If You Can" and "Frida". You know Catch Me if You can, right? The Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Leonardo DeCaprio movie? It was pretty good. It was very entertaining. Better than I thought it would be. I don't know why I thought I didn't like Tom Hanks. I totally like Tom Hanks. I think I may have liked Minority Report better for some reason. The movie Frida was excellent. Very good. It was about the painter Frida Kahlo and her husband the painter Diego Rivera. Selma Hayek was really good as Frida. The director, Julie Taymor is awesome. I can't wait for her next movie. Her movie "Titus" is a must see. K and I also watch our "Seven" DVD last night. That movie is SO good. So freaking dark and sad at the end.

06-23-03 Monday
Good morning all. It's looking pretty grey out there this morning. I was thinking about going out and pulling some weeds today, but not now if I'm going to need an umbrella to do it. It has been pretty chilly the last couple of days. Last night I was thinking about turning the heat on, but quickly came to my senses. I'm sure things will warm up again before I know it. Here we are again at another lame Monday. This Monday is a bit better because it is the start of my summer vacation. How was your weekend? Ours was pretty nice. It could have been longer of course.

We did something really fun yesterday. We went to the Clackamas AKC dog show. We went to go check out the Boston terriers. They were so cute. We took Phillip and told him to look at how good dogs behaved. Some of the other dogs seemed a little jealous of Phillip and his no rules lifestyle. Phillip was much larger than the Bostons that were showing. Phillip is 27 pounds and they were all under 18. The dog show was quite interesting and we had a fun time. My favorite dogs besides the Bostons were the St. Bernards and the Borzoi were crazy elegant. I thought the Doberman Pinschers looked really cool. I would have liked to have seen the judging on the Boxers, but we missed it. K liked the French Bulldogs. Next time I'm going to take some business cards and get some design work from those people. Dog people have all kinds of need for nice design, good dog illustrations, and web services.

I've got to take K off to her first day of summer school now. Everyone wish her luck. Ha ha she starts up again when I'm off. We didn't plan that very well for family vacations did we?

TOP^

06-24-03 Tuesday
Hello. It doesn't feel as chilly as it did yesterday, but it's still pretty grey out there this morning. Hold on one second, I have got to go microwave some coffee to help get me woken up. How's everybody doing today? I'm doing pretty good so far this morning. If the Sun came out just a little bit more I bet I would be in the mood to do something more summer like. I took Phillip for a long walk yesterday and that was pretty fun. Speaking of, hold on one more second while I take the boy out for his morning potty.

I rented and have been playing the "Enter the Matrix" video game. It's pretty cool. I read a review of it before and the review said that it was more like a movie than a game, and I think that's a fair statement. The game elements are just in the way till you can watch the movie bits. They filmed all of the movie footage at the same time as they filmed the movie. It's interesting because the game is totally the story that was going on in the background of the Matrix Reloaded movie. It makes me want to see the movie again to see how well everything lines up. I'm assuming that everything is seamless. It reminds of that idea that was going on in the Back to the Future sequels, where as each film progressed the movie goer would sneak with Michael J. Fox behind a set or a scene that was going on in the previous movie. I'm not sure yet if that's what's going on with the video game, but I sure do love crap like that. One of these days I'm going to write a series of movies that all connect like that. Oooh, maybe a TV show. Hmm yeah. I'm going to get started on the script for that right after I am done playing the video game.

So yeah, I have been chilling with the video game and just hanging out. I have been doing some good thinking, scheming and plotting. I have been enjoying reading that Essays On Typography book I got. Yesterday applied to a couple of part time jobs. Baby, we are so out of money here it isn't even funny. We are broke, broke, broke. Hence the looking for jobs bit. I need to get a hold of some freelance gigs. That would be cool.

Have you guys seen the marvelous job that Eugene has done with the printing of the Transmission West CD cover yet? It looks totally cool. It turned out really well. I haven't talked to the members of the band yet, but I hope they like it. I'm sure they will. Yes, I am already thinking ahead to my design using that same packaging for my graduation portfolio DVD

06-25-03 Wednesday
Oh my gosh! Yes it's true. 3 journal entries in a row. Wow. Looks like I am back on track now huh? Another thing that is back on track this morning is the weather. Looks like summer is here again today. I hope it sticks around until Saturday. K's birthday is on Saturday and I am going to try to throw her a barbecue birthday party. Yee haw! You can almost hear the meat juices sizzling on the grill. Yes I hope it all goes well because that chick deserves the best. I have got to get off my ass and start preparing for it right now though.

My friends, the moment of truth has arrived. I checked the school web site this morning and Mr. Noodle's grades for the Spring 2003 term are in! Yes sir. Drum roll please... I got 4 As and a B+! Tah dah! Woo Hoo! 3.9 GPA. I am quite pleased. See, you all didn't know I was that much of a scholar, did you? The B+ was in my basic html class. Most surprising and wonderful of all was that I got an A in math! The class I was most worried about. I am very happy. I can't rest on my laurels now though. I've brought this game to the table and I am going to have to maintain this level of excellence for the remaining 2 years. It may be tough, but I'm going to keep working hard and do it people!

The puppy is sleeping on my lap now and his heavy head resting on my arm is making it hard to type. Oh, there he goes after the cat. Just a power nap. Well, I guess I'll get back to playing my Matrix video game some more today. I think I'll also do some cleaning, some K party inviting and planning, and I will probably spend a good chunk of time looking for some part time work. Hey, if you guys have heard of anyone looking to hire a 3.9 GPA college student for part time work, let me know.

06-26-03 Thursday 9:30 AM
Good morning caped crusaders! How are you all doing this lovely day? I am doing pretty good. It looks like Saturday will be sunny and in the upper 80s. That's according to our local channel 2, ABC news affiliate. That's some good news for our beautiful K's birthday bash. Hopefully the weather reports are true. They said that today is suppose to get up into the 90s. Yeah! Summer! Summer! Summer!

Last evening I played several hours of the Enter the Matrix video game. It's pretty fun. I'm getting quite far into it. I'm playing on the easy option instead of normal or difficult, so that it goes faster. I don't want to have to spend a lot of time fighting goons that shoot better than me and punch harder. I just want to blow right through them so that I can see the movie bits and observe the structure and interactive story elements.

Oh my gosh, my next video game purchase is going to be the new Tomb Raider game. Did I say purchase? I meant rental. Lame movies aside, those games are really fun. The first Tomb Raider is probably my favorite game of all time. The new one really looks fancy and slick. The graphics on these games are getting so smooth. There were a few moments on this Matrix game where it took a couple of seconds to tell if I was watching movie footage are 3d game footage. Yeah, so what is the deal with the new Tomb Raider movie? Why is it that I am only seeing commercials about it now? You'd think that they would have been filling up all of the airwaves with it's commercials. I haven't actually seen a movie trailer yet, just a Jeep commercial.

Hold on one second. I have got to get some freshly brewed coffee and take the dog out to go potty. So today is going to be another mellow one for yours truly. I'll play some video games for a while, do some reading, maybe some writing, and I'll think about drawing. I do have a butt load of chores to do today, so my fun time may be cut to a minimum in all actuality. Dang. I probably should be pulling some weeds outside also. Well, it's going to be too hot for that today. I really, absolutely, need to clean out this damn computer room! God, I keep talking about it! I just need to suck it up and do it. I think maybe the solution might be to take everything out of it and then go through everything and then put the stuff back into it. A total overhaul.

TOP^

06-27-03 Friday
Boy oh boy, June is just slipping away isn't it? What the heck are we going to do when July gets here? I don't have any big plans for July. Just school again. I do really need to do something fun on my time off. We will probably be going camping around the 4th. That will be fun. Yesterday was perfect weather-wise. More of the same today. We went shopping yesterday for party supplies and it looks like everything is a go! I think that tonight I will be making my famous potato salad and a birthday cake.

It looks like I'm going to have to do something legitimate today because I won't be playing video games. I beat the Matrix game yesterday. It wasn't too hard. I wasn't expecting the finishing point when it came. It was a pretty fun game. All of the movie sections and additions to the Matrix story line were pretty cool. I totally want to see the movie again and watch the Ghost and Niobe characters more closely. It was cool at the end, they had a preview of the final movie "Revolutions". I think it might have been the same trailer as the one that showed if you waited through all of the credits at the end of Reloaded. I think I would have been mad at myself if I bought that game. It was really more like an interactive movie than a game. It was good though because it got my mind going on some ideas for my own projects and experiments.

Oh hey, guess who is going to be a computer lab monitor next term? Yep, that's right, this guy. That should be an alright gig. I mean I'm going to be at the school anyway, I might as well get paid for some of it, right? It's not very much money, but every little bit helps. 15 hours a week. That's right folks it's serious business when you come to a Noodle computer lab. No messing around. I'll probably be able to get some reading done with that job.

I remember moaning and groaning about my lack of inspiration a few weeks back. I think that my levels are back up to good working order. I have had a lot of ideas and am starting to scheme again. I'm thinking about contest pieces, Noodle web page redesigns, comic books, animations, interactive projects, story lines, new companies. People, it is all starting to boil. Boil? Is that right? Things are starting to bubble underneath the surface? Better? How about the Noodle volcano is about to blow it's top, spewing forth molten lava of creativity.

July 2003

07-01-03 Tuesday
What the heck? Is it July already? Boy oh boy, where have I been? I'll tell you where Mr. No-Write has been, here, doing nothing. I have been nestled in the belly of lethargy. I have been so sleepy. I am a mess. I wish it would rain. I'm looking out my window now and everything is turning brown. Gosh, June went by kind of fast didn't it?. I probably only have like 5 posts for the whole month. More this month though, I'm sure. Maybe this fresh coffee I just brewed will lift my spirits.

K's birthday party was a smashing success. I think everyone had a good time. I was running around here and there so it didn't seem like I talked to any one person for all that long. K had fun and that's what is important. Quite a few people showed up. It was good to see all ya all. That's it for Noodle parties this summer. We're back to business here at the Noodle compound. God, actually I am still cleaning up from the party. Our garbage can was stuffed full so we had to wait until it was emptied today before I could put more stuff in it. No, come on people, it was bagged.

One of the gifts that K received on Saturday was a signed copy of our friend Craig Thompson's new book "Blankets". I stole it away from K and read the whole thing on Sunday. It took the whole day to read because it's a 600 page comic book. Graphic novel. It is so freaking good. Oh my gosh, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I have put it down. It's the story of Craig growing up in Wisconsin, meeting his first love, going through the trials and tribulations that kids go through and a large dose of his struggle with religion. Absolutely haunting. I teared up a couple of times not because what I was reading was overly sad, but because it has been so long, if ever, that I have read someone being so honest and heartfelt. People, go out, buy Blankets as soon as it's available and read it! I can not recommend it enough. Beautifully drawn, beautifully written. Good job Craig!

Kids, it is cleaning time for yours truly. That's about it for me today. I may go take some beer bottles back and rent the new Tomb Raider game as a reward for myself if I finish cleaning today. I will think about doing some writing and drawing today also.

07-05-03 Saturday
Good morning to you! How's it going? Doing fine here. I have been on an internet vacation the last few days and have been trying to stay away from the computer. Why? I don't know. It's harder to do than you think. I kind of ran out of things to say a few days back, I'm here now and think I've got some stuff with 3 days of material built up.

How was your 4th of July? Ours was pretty great. We didn't see any fireworks though. We were out camping in the woods on Mt. Hood. We were there Thursday and came back home Friday night because K and Martin had to work on Saturday morning. We had a very lovely time. It was so good to go up and sit in the trees and get my focus back. Yesterday we drove 11 miles down a treacherous, steep, rocky, mountain road to an absolutely amazing spot that I had never been to, Badger Lake. A gorgeous body of water nestled deep in a mountain valley with trees all around. It was so quiet there. It must be that I am getting older, but the forest has been a spiritual and thought provoking place these last few years. I could have used one more day of it to get fully rejuvenated. I did a little bit of writing and a lot of thinking,

It is a bit grey outside this morning and cooler. The mountain had perfect weather. The right temperature. Not too hot and not too cold. During the night you had to bundle up some because it was cooler but the day was hot enough to actually go wading in the water. Oh my gosh, that reminds me. You should have totally seen Phillip swimming. It was awesome! He's a good little dog paddler.

Camping is quite the fun activity. Sitting around the campfire, making smores, sleeping in a tent. I am really tired today from staying up so late on Thursday and then getting up at first light on Friday morning. That's the way it works though camping, you loose track of what time it is if you're not wearing a watch. We need to stay longer than a day and half next time we go. I'm pretty sure there will be at least one more camping trip coming up in the next few weeks.

TOP^

07-06-03 Sunday
Hey there! It appears to be overcast and cloudy out there right now, but as we learned from yesterday, that doesn't mean a sunny day isn't already in the works. Yesterday burned off the morning clouds successfully and gave us a really nice day. I think the news said it was suppose to be 80 degrees today. I should get out there and see if I can do anything in the yard. I also have a large number of chores inside that I could do.

Oh yes. While I was away on my internet vacation last week, I received news on the Adobe Design competition and the Transmission West piece. It reads:

Dear Adobe Design Achievement Awards participant,

Thank you very much for your submission to the 2003 Adobe Design Achievement Awards. We received your entry and presented your work to the judging panel, who were impressed by the high quality of the submissions. We regret that your entry was not selected as a winner, but encourage you to enter next year's competition. We wish you success with your future efforts.

That's a nice form letter. It's okay folks. I knew that I was going to have to keep entering contests and that this was only the first of many. The next competition is the Canon Digital Creators competition. You know, I really haven't done anything on that one yet. I was going to get a good start on it during this time off. Oh well. It's not due until September, so I've got a little time left. I really want to do something good for it. I'm not sure if I am interested in the Steve and Phillip idea anymore. I need something good. Something really good. I'll think about it some more.

I have been think about starting up my media company again. I kind of want it to be an all in one company, a studio, happening, rock and roll, high tech and hip sort of thing. With all the things I could be doing to plan it out, I am still stuck on a name. It was 62nd & Radish at first, the other recent name was Red Rat Revolt, and the new one is a name that I have had since grade school. I'm kind of like that rock band that can't agree on a name. Dude, it's about the music first and the name will come later. I want to set up a new web site, get some business cards printed and get some good freelance clients starting out. That sounds like a lot of work.

I tried to rent the new Tomb Raider video game last night but they were all checked out. I think playing a video game will be a good way to finish off my last week of vacation. Maybe I'll check and see if it's back in today. I am ready for school to start. My time off was good and all but I think that the term "Idle hands are the Devil's playground" is very true to these last few weeks. Sitting around and worrying is no good for me. I need to be in school and distracted with studying.

Ah yes, see, just like I said, the clouds are now burning off. Here comes the Sun doo doo doo. Here comes the sun.

07-07-03 Monday
Oh my. I thought yesterday was Monday for some reason. I woke up in a panic this morning because I thought that I forgot to put the garbage out. I was just outside with the dog and we both agree that it is a bit cooler today than it was yesterday. The Sun may come out and burn the clouds off like yesterday and the day before, but I still think we'll only get into the mid 70s.

Believe it or not, I actually have some work matters to deal with today. I have some bill matters to deal with also. I would really rather talk to the first group of people than the second. You know, I'm really tired of talking to anyone who isn't on my friends of the Noodles list. You my lovely reader of course are on the list, but people who call on a Sunday asking for money are not on the Noodle friend list. They're on the other list.

I rented "Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, The Angel of Darkness" last night. So far so good. Lara looks good on the Playstation 2. I was really getting frustrated for a while with how the controls work for her movement, but I am beginning to get use to them now. Most of the problem I was having was making her jump correctly, or in the right direction, or move an object the right way. The previous controls for the Tomb Raider games were much better. Another problem I am having is seeing through all the dark and stormy nights that are on the first couple of levels. Walking into a black room where you have to guess where the door is, isn't very fun. The Matrix game was like that at times. Come on game makers! Lighten those puppies up. What are you hiding? Saves money on having to render backgrounds I guess. What I can see though is nicely rendered. There is no "easy" setting like the Matrix had, so this one is going to take a lot longer to finish. I might have to rent it twice.

I worked on some logos yesterday for my new company direction. They look pretty good. I think I'll work a bunch of stuff out right now and then pop it all into place when school is over or maybe sooner. With the way things are in the current economy it might not be a bad time to try my own thing for a while, right? Not that I haven't been trying my own thing for the last 2 years, but maybe go a more official route this next time. Gosh, It would be really helpful to take some classes on starting up your own studio. I should make sure that something like that is in my current curriculum and if it isn't I should talk to the department head now so they can incorporate it in before I am out. Yes, the nuts and bolts from the ground up would be so freaking helpful. If not I'm sure I could take a cheaper small business course at the community college. Hmm... I'm going to look into that some more today.

Hey congrats to the wonderful G who's first Portland gallery showing was a smashing success! She's showing in the Bird Show at Motel downtown. Boy, that was a funny sentence. I haven't been down there yet because I am a lame camper, but I will be viewing it this week. G sold her piece. Good job. Now you are ready for more and more shows! What the Hell? I only have one showing under my belt. I need more and more shows also! You know what? Hmm... Yes, Let's do a two person show. Boy, that sounds like a lot of work.

07-08-03 Tuesday
Happy morning to you all. How's it going folks? It's going okay here. I was just outside with the dog and it appears to have rained a little bit during the evening or early morning. Just tiny little sprinkles I think. I believe that the weather report thought that there would be a chance of rain today and then high 80s for the rest of the week. Who knows? Hold on let me grab some freshly brewed coffee.

I was watching a sitcom on television last night that I usually try to avoid, who shall remain nameless. They were making fun of the main character because his grammar was so poor and he had to fill out some paper work for his daughter about what the kids should be learning at their school. I guess this was funny because he was a sports writer for the newspaper and should have known better than to end a sentence with a preposition. This got me worried. I don't even know what a preposition is! Have I been writing here almost every morning with bad grammar? Is it bad? Do you at home laugh at how uneducated I sound? Oh goodness. I'm worried sick now about how I abuse the English language. Maybe I should take a course on grammar. You know though, I think the classes I will be taking starting next week, will beat some serious grammar into my head. They probably won't be messing around on the papers I have to turn in.

After that horrible sitcom we watched the movie we had rented called "Punch Drunk Love". They called it a romantic comedy, but I didn't find it to be very funny. I think it could be a dark romantic comedy. I thought it was kind of intense. Adam Sandler played a little more serious role this time around as the main character. He did an awesome job I thought. Emily Watson and Philip Seymour Hoffman were in it also. It was a really good movie. It was masterfully directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the guy who did Boogie Nights and Magnolia. I'm still a little unsure about how I feel about the rage bits. The movie was very good at making you feel uncomfortable. Good movie.

I got a little bit further in Tomb Raider yesterday. I don't think I'll be playing it as much today though. I've got to go in for some freelance work. Yep. Woo hoo. Where you ask? Well, that's not really important is it? Huh? Alright, alright! I'm going back to the Group. Yes, THE Group. The one from the early journal entries. No, It's cool though. Money talks baby.

TOP^

07-09-03 Wednesday
Oh geeze. At first this morning I couldn't fall back to sleep once I woke up at around 4:30. Now, that I did fall asleep again, I can barely wake up. It's almost the afternoon and I am sleeping people! Time to get up and take on the World! Well at least get up and take on the Tomb Raider game. Another beautiful sunny day out once more. I sure wish it would rain though and water our brown yard. Just one day of heavy rain and then it can go back to being beautiful.

I went and had some meetings with the Group yesterday about working freelance. A little bit of wheeling and dealing going on but not too much. I thought I was going to do some actual work but it wasn't ready yet. Once things get started, I think we are looking at 24 hours a week for the Noodle man. That would just be perfect for me with a school schedule! I think I'm going to have to drop the computer lab monitor job though because I won't be able to do both this term. That's okay, the Group is paying me 3 times as much. Pretty exciting. I'm a little nervous about there being as much work coming as they think, and if there we be enough for a steady 24 hours a week. I guess we'll just go term to term now and see how it goes? I was thinking I was going in today also but no call yet.

After my meetings, G, K and I went downtown and checked out G's piece. There were some nice pieces in that bird show. We went and checked out a couple of other art shows. Is it just me or all of the artists from Portland beginning to meld into one person? It seems like everybody is doing the same thing. Come on people lets stir it up a bit. Maybe I should branch out and go to different locations in Portland. Maybe the places I'm going to all have the same taste and like the same Portland artists. Yeah look at me though, it sure is easy to complain when I'm not in any of the Portland galleries. If I were ever to do something for a show, I would try my best to make it look different than what is currently out there. Not that I would do any better, I would just do different.

Well if I don't go in to the Group today then I have some stuff I could do around here for sure. I have a few chores like folding the laundry that I could do. I could definitely do a little cleaning and organizing. I still haven't done anything about our bill situation yet. I could write a few rubber checks for those today I guess. I could do some reading and mental preparation for school starting next Monday. Yep. You're right. Once I hang up here, I'm not doing any of that stuff. I'm going straight to the video game.

07-10-03 Thursday
Howdy kids! How be ye? Me is fine. It almost got to 90 degrees here yesterday and they are saying it's going to do the same today. We have had a pretty Sun filled summer this year haven't we? I've got the sprinkler on right now. We have one patch of green in our yard left. Quite a few weeds spread about. I think we have come to the conclusion that we are going to have to do a bit more designing to the yard. A fence is going to have to go in, we're going to have to bring more rocks in, add some larger plants. Take out some of the lawn and make a walkway. Lots of work. We won't be doing that during this Great Depression '03, but someday.

Not much going on again today. We will be going out to see Mr. Baptist and get some barbecue later. I won't be going into work today I don't think, but perhaps I will be tomorrow. Things are pretty wrapped up chore wise. I will do some vacuuming. Oh yes, the bills, I have to get that organized today. Do people really come out and break your fingers when you stop paying them or is that only in the movies? I guess I'm going to find out. If you legal changed your name to something else could you get out of credit trouble that way? Yeah, I didn't think so. My new name would be Clyde Rumpleton.

Last night we went and saw "The Pirates of the Caribbean". It was pretty good for a while. There was some cool swashbuckling at the beginning and then everything turned to crap at the end of course. It was your average summer blockbuster for sure. Johnny Depp was fun to watch as usual. It was a fun movie. It would be a good rental or cheep theater night. It would be good as a matinee showing to escape the summer heat. That reminds me, I saw "The Hulk" last week and didn't write about it here. Did I forget? Maybe. Easy to do with that one.

Well, I'm getting pretty far along in the Tomb Raider game. Am I a geek or what? It's a lot more fun now that I am use to the controls. I think it's due back at the video store tomorrow. I will have to rent it again so I can finish it. You know, that is the only way to play video games. I don't know why anyone would pay 50 dollars for a video game when you could just rent it. You don't usually play the game again after you beat it do you? I don't. It's good Tomb Raider is due back tomorrow. It's really taking up a lot of my time.

07-12-03 Saturday 10:14 AM
Greetings all, Happy Saturday morning to you. The Sun is out in all of it's magnificent glory again today. Phillip and I just got back from dropping K off at work and we both sat out in the sunny backyard for a while before going in. How has your weekend been going so far? Ours is going pretty fine. Not too much happening around these parts.

This is my last weekend before Summer term starts up again on Monday. Yep. My summer vacation is over. That's okay I was getting antsy anyway. I filled my schedule up pretty quick there. School on Monday and Tuesday, then working at the Group Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I hope the school portion of my week isn't too difficult. I am really going to have to manage my time well this term. It's going to be good having some money flowing back into the Noodle house for sure.

We went to a biker bar with Mr. Baptist On Thursday night. That was pretty fun. I don't remember what the name of the place was though. It was out in Mulino. They were having a raffle to win a pool of money and K won the pot. 125 bucks. Pretty sweet. I was thinking we might have needed an escort to get out of there after taking their money, but we made it out okay. The barbecue ribs there were quite tasty.

I don't have too much to do today. I think I will do some chores and go to the bank before it closes. I would like to do some reading and writing, but we'll see. Napping kind of sounds good also. Maybe I'll look over my school schedule and start getting prepared mentally for it. I turned in the Tomb Raider game yesterday and I'm jonesing a bit for it. I was right at a good spot! I need to rent it again. I probably won't rent it until I see how my school days went. Maybe I'll get it Wednesday night again.

TOP^

07-13-03 Sunday
Good morning my fine people. How are you doing? It got cloudy and a bit windy towards the end of the day yesterday. I had to put a long sleeve shirt on. It looks like it is going to be a cooler day out there. That's fine with me. I have really been enjoying these warmer days but like I said before, our plants need some rain. Hopefully it will rain today. There is a growth of weeds and grass that I haven't been able to reach with the lawn mower that is really driving me crazy. I'm going to have to cut that down manually. It really is a job for a weed wacker but I don't have one of those.

We went over to our friend Tracy's house last night and had a lovely dinner and some drinks. Nice work Tracy! It was a nice time. It seemed like it had been forever since we last saw that gal. It has been a while since we have seen a lot of the crew. Where has everybody been? What's been going on? Are we all getting too old to hang out now? Do we all think we're too busy? Who knows. K and I have been pretty much in hiding so we have a lot to do with our not seeing people.

I saw in the paper that Oregon now has a 17 year high unemployment rate of 8.5%. That's quite a few jobless folks out there. There are also probably thousands of people out there like me who are technically unemployed but are no longer claiming it. Gosh this sucks.

Oh, hold on one second. This American Life is on right now. Let me turn on the radio. My coffee is done. One more second. My goodness. Could it be? This coffee tastes kind of bad. I don't believe it. I rarely write about bad coffee here in the journal. Let me keep at. Maybe it will get better. It's hard to write here while listening to the show on the radio.

I worked on some logos for my multimedia company yesterday. I think I came up with some nice ones. I'm trying to come up with a logo that's totally solid and instantly recognizable as a brand. The name, brand and label are going to be important to my company. Name recognition. It's going to be as popular as the golden arches. Alright maybe not that popular. I'm trying to picture the logo on shirts and shoes. I love making logos. I love type also. Do any of you need a logo? Let me know.

Today is my last day of summer break. I should try to do something fun today huh? I don't know what that would be. Tomorrow bright and early I'll be sitting in my Argumentation and Research class and then my General Sociology class later in the day. Boy, I'm going to have a lot of homework.

07-15-03 Tuesday
Hi Dee Ho neighbors! How are you doing? I'm doing pretty dandy. I'm a little bit tired this morning. The animals and I got up a couple of times last night because they needed to go potty and then needed some water. I thought I'd tune in and write a little early morning, before school entry to tell you all how it was going. It's going okay. You know I was going to wait for school to have some coffee but I think I am going to make some now so I can wake up. One second please.

School yesterday went pretty well. It was good to be back. I was thinking last term that it didn't seem like that small of a school because there were so many kids everywhere. It seems a little bit smaller already this term because I am beginning to see a lot of faces that I recognize from last term. That's good. Perhaps I will even start making a friend or two this term. The two classes I had already look like they will be alright. I think I will do well in them as long as I stay up on the reading and do all of my homework. I think I am going to have to really do my reading in each of the classes this term to get good grades. These classes are all about reading and writing. There's no drawing this term.

Today I have 3 more classes and then the first school week is over. Then the work week starts. This morning I have History of Material Culture 1, then Environmental Science, and finally this evening, Area Study: Modern Japan. What a long freaking day! Boy, we'll see how it goes I guess. You can do it Noodle! You can do it! After tonight I have to wake up in the morning and head out to the Group. What a long week. Oh well, I'll get in the swing of things before you know it. It will be a breeze!

I started the painful process of buying my text books yesterday. Some of the books look they are going to be interesting this term, it's just too bad they are so freaking expensive! That's the second time I said freaking in this post. I did myself a tremendous service by buying the book I have been wanting for a month, "MTIV Process, Inspiration, and Practice for the New Media Designer by Hilman Curtis. It is SO good. It really is the perfect book to read for me now as a student of multimedia. It is reinforcing a lot of thoughts that I had already had and helping to articulate other views that were a bit fuzzy for me.

Oh geeze, I've got to freaking go. I have to transfer my books to a different bag because I decided yesterday that the bag I was using looked like a purse. I'm going to steal K's backpack.

07-18-03 Friday 6:32 AM
Good morning kids! How are all of you? Me? Oh, I'm doing okay. I've had a bit of a sore neck these last two days but other than that everything is roses. It's Friday! Thank the gods. I am in so much need of this weekend. I can't even tell you. This is one tired Noodle folks. I've had a pretty full week. I know I can do this though people. I've just got to stay on top of everything. Boy oh boy it was a nice week weather-wise wasn't it? Hold on let me get some coffee.

Yes I have had a good week. School went pretty good. I have been to all of my classes now. I'm not sure which class is going to be my favorite yet. Science made a good first impression on Tuesday. I think this term is definitely going to be more challenging than last term. So many papers to write. It should be good though. I am really going to have to be disciplined. I'm not going to be able to play around much this term. Homework, homework, homework. I have already made up a calendar and to do lists will be making an appearance shortly.

Working has been going alright this week also. It is a little strange being back at the Group. It's very nice and familiar though. The absence of a learning curve is going to be perfect for my heavy school load. It looks like they are going to be able to have work for me for the next 6 months. That's pretty cool huh? The money will be so good for us. I have been riding the bus and the MAX (our light rail system here in Portland) out to Beaverton every morning and that has been kind of fun. It takes about 35 - 45 minutes to get to the Group's office. Public transportation has been good for allowing time to get into the initial stages of my school reading. Oh how I hate Beaverton though. What an arm pit. Traffic is horrible out there.

Hey, our good friends Seth and Alicia will be flying in today for some time back in their hometown. They are the Hawaii posse in for about 3 weeks. It will be very good to see them again. It has been way too long. I wish they would wise up, leave that Hawaiian paradise behind and come back home to stay where they belong here in beautiful Oregon.

TOP^

07-20-03 Sunday
Happy sunny Sunday morning to you. Oh man, the weekend is almost over. It was so short. It's been a fun one so far. Last night and the night before we got together with a bunch of the crew and celebrated the return of Seth and Alicia. It has been fun. It is very good to see those kids again. It's another sunny day out there like I have already mentioned. Our lawn is a big pile of crap now. It needs to be mowed so bad. I have been waiting for it to be a little bit cooler so that I don't get heat stroke out there. That cooler day hasn't come yet so all of the weeds are taking over. I guess I may just have to suck it up and put on a hat to protect my delicate scalp from the Sun.

Today we are going up to Washington to K's cousin Tim's property for his annual picnic. He's got a cabin up there that he has been building for many years. We come each year to have a picnic and see what progress he has made over the year. It's pretty fun. We'll be out there for a while today.

My homework is going okay this weekend. I'm trying to stay up with my reading. I'll take my reading up to the picnic with me. I've got a lot of reading. I think I will be in a constant battle with things and events that are going to be threatening my quest to stay up with my school work this term. Many distractions. It's the Summer though, everyone is out having fun. What do I expect?

Alright. Well, I've got to get ready to go.

07-24-03 Thursday
Oh my goodness! Is it Thursday already? This week has just flown by. Gosh, it's pretty sparse here in the journal. Even though it may seem like I have forgotten you, I haven't. You are always foremost in my thoughts. Early morning entries are becoming difficult again. Maybe I should try out evening posts. Maybe that would allow me more time for writing? It seems to me that I was puzzling over the whole night versus morning posts just a little while ago. Was that the beginning of last term? Mornings won out then. I write better in the morning I think. Once I get accustomed to this schedule I think the journals will be beefed up a bit. I'm already feeling better about this break neck schedule than I was last week at this time. I'm starting to get use to it.

It is much cooler this morning than it has been in a while. Yesterday only got into the 80s thankfully. I try not to be one of those people who always complains about the weather, but this heat spell has really gotten to me. The other day I was just so tired of being hot and uncomfortable. Everywhere was starting to get stuffy. It was making it hard to do my school work. Oh god, always going back and forth between freezing air conditioned classrooms, to blazing hot, stand in the Sun bus stops? What the hell is that about? I'm surprised I haven't fainted yet. I like the warm weather, probably better than the cold weather, I really do, but this cooling trend for the rest of the week is a greatly welcomed break. A day of rain would really be nice. I still haven't mowed the weeds since last I spoke of it here.

It is strange that I don't speak of World events here too much anymore. Maybe it's not strange. World events are awfully depressing aren't they? I have been giving a lot of ink to my own self centered World events and those are a bit more hopeful than the outside World events. Gosh what a mess out there. Iraqi war still going on, Americans now claiming to have killed Saddam's 2 sons. Bush still a lying, insane, weasel. On the news they were giddy with excitement about blowing the shit out two humans and shooting their 14 year old son. Gosh what if someone came over here and did that to an American family. I don't know what to think. It all makes me very tired. I sometimes wonder if America is like that runaway mining train cart that they were riding on the tracks in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Currently reading about the history of Japan for school has got me wondering about all of the thoughtful people in history that were too exasperated and without words to write in their journals to give their different thoughts and takes on World history. Maybe reading pages of old journals where nothing is spoken of the leaders or of politics or events of the time is a sign that things were very troubling for the writer and they were escaping to their journals to think happy thoughts.

07-25-03 Friday 6:35 AM
Good morning there kids! How goes it? It goes okay here. Well, it's another rather cool morning here which will lead to our 3rd lovely day of just right weather. Not too hot and not too cold. Man oh man. It's the weekend already! Well in another 10 or so hours. This week went by fast! I have just barely scratched the surface of my school work this week. I did some reading last night. That's a good start. I think I will only be satisfied with my homework if I work on it through out the week. I'm really getting tired of doing it all on Sunday. That's my goal this weekend. Have all of my homework pretty much wrapped up by Sunday so that I can have a restful day.

Okay people, you need to pray to whatever god you worship today for me. I am going to attempt to ride my skateboard to work today. Yep pretty crazy. I hope people don't laugh at 30 year old me wobbling down the street.. I'm not going to ride my board all the way to there from here. I'll ride the bus to Beaverton and just skate there in the vast empty parking lots. Plenty of room to move around out there. It should be fun. It will take some time to get use to my newer board. I've only rode it once before. We'll see how it goes. Maybe this will be a daily routine from now on.

Do you have any plans this weekend? Nope, we don't either. Lots of homework and that is about it. I have to write a 3 page topic presentation paper this weekend. My research paper is going to be on the negative effects of removing art programs from public school curriculums due to budget cuts. I really need to do some more research on it.

TOP^

07-29-03 Tuesday 6:45 AM
Hello there partners. How's it going? It is going to be another scorcher here in stumptown. They are anticipating it getting up into the triple digits today. That's hot! I'm going to have to put some sun tan lotion on my head today. I got a hair cut on Sunday and man is it short! I asked for the 1 this time instead of the 2 and It cuts close. I'm more or less bald now. That's okay though because it feels great. Nice and cool upstairs, I just can't let the sun cook my little brain now. You know the end of last week was just perfect weather wise. This week needs to take a lesson from last week.

How have you all been doing? I have been doing pretty good. Busy boy here. I think things are going okay with my classes. I freaked out pretty bad on week 4 and 5 last term didn't I? Week 4 is coming up so maybe I can freak out more then. It's really hard to focus during summer time isn't it? I think I am going to take easier classes next summer. This having to work thing is also putting a damper on my school enjoyment. School, woo hoo! Now work, woo hoo! Ah, who cares? Everything is good I should stop being such a freaking cry baby.

Man oh man, do we have a busy weekend in store for ourselves! K's 10 year high school reunion is this weekend and we going to check that out. My mom is coming in to town on Saturday and Mr. Baptist and Ms. Bee are getting married on Saturday. Goodness gracious. So much fun in store!

August 2003

08-02-03 Saturday
Will you look at that? It's August already! My goodness, how time flies! I probably only have like 4 journal entries for the month of July due to lack of participation on my part. Don't worry folks I'll pick it up again soon enough and then you'll be wondering when the heck I'm going to shut up. Truth be told, everything and nothing is happening. I have been really busy trying to juggle this freelance working business with this school business. I doing a fair job I guess. The school part of the equation is much harder than the work part. Week number 4 starts on Monday. The most difficult thing this summer term is doing homework. It's happy, fun, summer play time out there people and this Noodle is having a hard time resisting the temptations that this wonderful time of year has to offer. This weekend will be the most dangerous of all. So much fun is in store for us. It's Saturday and I've only spent a half an hour doing homework so far this week. I have a mountain due on Monday.

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

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

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

Oh man we've got to go.

08-10-03 Sunday
Good morning kids! How are you all doing? I'm doing pretty good this morning. I'm feeling well rested and ready to take on the day. The last 2 days have been really good in that I have done anything except for homework and resting. I think this has been the first weekend this term that I have done that. Yep, I'm getting some school work done thankfully. It was really sunny when I first woke up but now it's a bit darker and overcast. I think we may have some rain today. It's been cooler for the last few days.

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

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

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

TOP^

08-15-03 Friday 6:36 AM
So where did this rain come from? It was sunny and warm before the sun went down last night and now this morning it's trickling, cooler and the ground is wet. I can't ride my skate board when the ground is wet. Was this little trickle in the weather report last night? I don't remember. It seems to me though that the last report I heard said we were in for another mini heat wave. Boy, what do they know?

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

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

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

08-17-03 Sunday
Greetings one and all. How are you doing this lovely Sunday morning? I'm doing pretty okay. Looks like the weekend is coming to a close. It was once again an eventful weekend. A weekend that doesn't make for getting much homework done. The Hawaiians Seth and Alicia are wrapping up their visit tomorrow so I think it will be back to business for Mr. Noodle. No more distractions to pull me away from the school books. It was very nice to see those two again. I sure wish, as I said many times before, that they would stop screwing around and hurry up and move back to Portland.

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

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

08-22-03 Friday
Good morning folks. Boy oh boy it looks like fall is sneaking up on us. It's the morning time and it's still dark out now. The nights are getting longer, and of course the days are getting shorter. I thought my clock was set wrong when I woke up. Boy before I know it, I'll be taking dark bus rides to work. I think that it is cloudy out right now and that might be adding to the darkness. Oh yep. I just heard rain drops falling. Oh yeah! Thunder. Just like the movies.

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

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

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

TOP^

08-23-03 Saturday
Hello mates. Word up? How are you all doing this morning? I'm feeling pretty good. Hold on one second while I go get a freshly brewed cup of coffee. Oh yeah, so tasty! The sun is shining nicely today. It is rather chilly out right now though. Is it possible that I heard them say that we are going to have another hot spell the next few days or did I imagine that? Saturday. The weekend. How's your weekend going? My weekends seem to be going by faster and faster these days. Being busy and filling my weekends up with homework is what is probably making them speed by so fast.

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

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

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

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

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

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

08-27-03 Wednesday
Hey YO! I made it through the school week. I got all but 1 homework assignment done. That's pretty good considering how much work I had and that I was at the beach during the weekend. I just held it together by the hair of my chiny chin chin. I was a pretty lame student these last 2 days. I'm going to have to stick to my guns and really try to be a more serious student the remaining 3 weeks of the term. 3 weeks? Is that what I said? Sweet!

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

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

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

08-30-03 Saturday
Happy, good morning to you sleepy heads! How are you doing? I am doing pretty good today. Hey it's the labor day weekend. Are you all out camping and celebrating the end of summer? Will there be barbecue in your future? It looks like it is going to be a warm, gorgeous day. August is almost over. Good riddance I say! August wasn't a good month for the journals. Is there like only 4 entries for August? Fear not though, September is going to amazing! If you look closely you should be able to see little changes popping up as the web page gets ready for it's October redesign.

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

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

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

TOP^

09-02-03 Tuesday
Good morning all! How are you doing? I started writing the next paragraph yesterday, but had to stop because we left and had breakfast with Mr. Baptist. Here's what I wrote yesterday:

Hello, Hello! Hey it's September now. I hope you are all having a wonderful Labor day. It's the end of summer now isn't it? I think the summer was fairly okay. We sure didn't go camping enough. Our school and work got in the way of some of our summer fun. We still managed to do a few fun things though. This Labor day weekend that we are now wrapping up was quite eventful. Saturday required all of Sunday to recover. I am rested up and ready to go now! It has been a sunny summer hasn't it? I don't remember the last time it rained.

So here's what I am writing about today, Tuesday:

Ah yes, so anyway. We had Breakfast at the Cup and Saucer, over on Hawthorne yesterday and it was quite delicious. On the way home we stopped by a yard sale and got ourselves a "like new" bed, with a new mattress for 80 bucks. Not bad. We were in such desperate need of a new mattress. Our old one had springs poking through it that kept ripping K's pajamas. The new bed is nice and comfortable, but I was hoping to have had a better nights sleep on it. I'm still tired this morning. Maybe my tossing and turning is coming from something other than sleeping on a bad mattress.

I've got to get dressed and ready for school now. Week 8! Only 2 more weeks of summer term after today. Yesterday of course there was no school so week 8 is only one day. Woo hoo. I think I may need to take a couple of days off of work so that I can really do a good job on some of these insane final projects that are coming up. Actually there are only really two projects I am worried about and a mountain of final exams that I must seriously study for. None of his book at the bar business that I am becoming known for.

I'm off. See you soon. Hey wait a second. Did I hear the clock radio right this morning? Did she say it was going to be 95 degrees today? That can't be right can it? Maybe she said 85. I thought summer was over now?

09-03-03 Wednesday 7:11 AM
Happy morning once again my fine feathered friends. Two days in a row. See, I told you September was going to be a more secure month journal wise. I think this entry will be rather brief though because I have got to head out to work now. I have about a 45 minute leeway in either direction, but I do like to get there earlier so I can leave earlier. The weather lady on the clock radio yesterday was right. It got up into the 90's yesterday. At least that's what I am told. I was shivering in a freezing cold air conditioned school all day. Come on people, there has to be a happy medium temperature doesn't there?

I am looking forward to my skateboarding and MAX ride today. As soon as this money fast that we are currently heading out of, is over, I am going to buy me some new skateboarding shoes. The shoes I have now just aren't cutting it. I need more support and stronger soles. I would be able to do better tricks with new shoes you know. The bus and MAX ride will be nice because I can get further into the book I bought last weekend. Luckily the choke hold of school textbook reading is letting up and I can get to the books that I got distracted by while in the store buying the textbooks.

I've got two books going right now. The newer one is called, "Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility." Yeah, how's that? It's a pretty good book so far. It's a collection of essays on why we should or shouldn't feel bad about doing design work for companies like Nike and adidas. Different things we need to think about while working on projects for huge corporations that help add to our consumerist society. Fun topics like that. All stuff that I wasn't too concerned with before my environmental science and sociology classes this term. See what a little education will do to you kids? Learning about how evil our culture is has been a hobby of mine for the past 3 weeks. It's easy to get up in arms when your head gets filled with stories of the horrors of our current World. I'm pretty sure I can keep my feet grounded and get a number of perspectives.

I think I am going to try and take Thursday and Friday off this week so that I can work on my school work. I've got a pretty big final presentation to work on for science that is due next Tuesday and is barely started. I also have to rewrite the rough draft of my research paper. Man, it is so lame now. I wish I hadn't turned it in. There are scheduled meeting time to talk about our final research papers on Monday. I think getting a serious jump on the weekend will be so good for me.

Oh geeze. I totally have to go now.

09-04-03 Thursday
Yo! Yo! What up? Yours truly here again. Yesterday was a really hot day again. It was 94 here and that broke the record I think. Once again I was inside being air conditioned. When I left work and skated home it was like skateboarding in a warm bath. Our house got pretty warm last night also. I think it's going to be a hot one again today. It's already starting to get warm. Hold on though just for one second. I smell freshly brewed coffee calling my name. Ah yes, quite yummy. I have been getting my coffee away from home and haven't been making it here lately.

So I stayed home from work today and am hoping to rewrite my research paper rough draft. The pressure is on folks. I really have to work on it now that I am loosing money by not being at work. Oh gosh, maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all. It was a fine idea. I just need to sit down and go to town on it. Procrastination is a killer. I think one of the problems I have had this term is that I don't have a nice tidy work area. This computer room is a big pile of crap and with my monitor broke and plugged into another monitor, I can't move the computer into a different room. Oh god, I can't wait until all this crap is over with and I stop sounding like a baby. Man! Okay Noodle, take it easy buddy, remember your heart, take a deep breath.

I haven't talked about the movies I have seen in a while have I? A few of you have mentioned to me that you found the movie reviews quite helpful when strolling through the video store isle. Last night K and I rented "Identity". It was pretty good. John Cusak was in it and so was Ray Liotta, We are quite fond of Mr. Cusak in this household. It was interesting because the movie actually sparked some ideas about what we would have done to make it better. I think that it was a little bit too predictable and they could have changed a few things around to make it more surprising. Now, looking at it closer here, I kind of think that whole concept is a little played out. Maybe that is why it was so predictable. Maybe they didn't think the audience was smart enough to figure it out without having it spoon fed. It was entertaining though for sure. Tonight we will be viewing "The Hunted".

Okay, enough is enough. I have got to get going on this stuff kids. The daylight hours are burning. The sooner I finish the better I will feel.

TOP^

09-07-03 Sunday 9:14 AM
Good morning kids! How the Hell are you? I am doing just peachy! The dread of feeling like I'm not going to finish any of my homework is slowly residing. It looks like I will be okay after all. I knew you all at thought I would do just fine and that helped me keep it going. Thanks! I've got to hurry and finish this journal this morning, K, Mr. Baptist and I are going to a wine tasting this afternoon and I think there is a lengthy drive. Don't worry I will be taking my remaining bits of homework with me. I will write some things out long hand and that will help speed the process up for me once I get behind the computer to type.

It is a cooler morning today which feels very nice. The heat was starting to make me insane. The summer was nice and all, but I am definitely ready for the fall to get here. This summer seemed to be the way winters usually are for me. It just kept going and going and I was pleading for it to end so I could just have a bit of a change. I don't think it was that dramatic though. I really think it's lame to complain about the weather, so I'll stop. A week of 60s and 70s would be nice is all I am saying.

I have got a few chores planned for myself once the term ends. One major job will be to get our yard cleaned up. There is stuff growing everywhere that needs to be pulled up and thrown away. K's garden areas look nice but that is about it. I really need to cut the remaining grass that is still alive. I am playing on taking my computer in that needs the monitor fixed. We also need to figure out a way to get our red car fixed and sold. I MUST also attempt to clean this laboratory up once and for all. No messing around this time.

09-10-03 Wednesday
Oh Yes, yes, yes, yes. Good morning once again. People, people. I am totally going to have to make some coffee before I sit down to type today. One second. I think I was tossing and turning last night from too much coffee drinking yesterday. Got to keep the caffeine going I guess. One second.

There, much better. A fresh cup of coffee and a fresh cup of shower. I feel great now. Well it's a bit of a chilly morning today. We've got some sprinkles out there now. I'm heading off to work in a few minutes after I hang up here and I won't be skateboarding in the rain. K keeps asking why there's to be no skate boarding in the rain, and I keep telling her it's because the rain water damages the wood of the skate board and messes up the bearings in the wheels. I don't think she believes me. It's true I tell ya! I do have two boards. Maybe one could be my rain board.

Oh yes, yes, yes. I am so, so, happy. Only one more school week left of the summer term.. Oh man, I was so happy after I finished my presentation in science yesterday. It feels so good having stuff wrap up nicely and to know that you will be getting okay grades after all. What a rush. This week I will be finishing up my research paper and studying for 3 moderately difficult final exams. Wow. I am going to feel so relieved once that crazy research paper is done and out of my hair.

I've got to head out of here folks. You know, that whole work thing and all. Oh my goodness, it's September 11th again tomorrow. My how time flies. 2 years have gone by. I should look at my past journal entries and reflect on the last 2 Septembers. Are things getting better?

09-11-03 Thursday
We have got another damp one out there again this morning, folks. It's good, the grass is starting to get green again. I am going to have to mow it pretty soon here. I really let that lawn go crazy and out of control this year. Maybe I'll mow it on Saturday.

Oh geeze, I've got to go. I think I need to get up earlier tomorrow so that I can get to work at an earlier hour, so that I can leave at an earlier hour in the evening. I was in a hurry this morning but I did want to write down a few thoughts on the 2nd anniversary of the attacks on 9-11-01.

I don't have too many thoughts on it this year. I can only imagine what people that lost a love one there must be feeling like. The urgency of the event is starting to fade for me as each year passes but the people that lost loved ones will never forget. They're ruined now. It's kind of like some people who never get pass the Vietnam War. Their personal tragedies will be a scar with them forever.

I myself, am back to bitching about work and drinking microwaved coffee. I remember back then I was so upset with myself about being so angry and up in arms about how lame working for the Group was. Complaining up about work before I knew that the planes were smashing into the buildings. 3 years later? I am back working at the Group and am up in arms about how lame they are.

Anyway, the point of all of this is that I am attempting to get out of my own self and reflect on others and their loss this morning. Not just American loss either. There are quite a few people throughout the World that are suffering.

Oh man, I've got to go!

TOP^

09-13-03 Saturday
Good morning my favorite peoples! How is everything for you? It's going pretty well for me this morning I guess. You know, yesterday turned into a pretty nice sunny day and it looks like today will be sunny also. It was in the 70s yesterday which is the perfect temperature. K is telling me to hurry up, so you'll have to bear with my hurried pace. We have to get over to Lianne and Martin's this morning because K and them are having and garage sale this morning. You should all go over there and check it out.

Johnny Cash is gone. It was so strange, but I was totally sad. I think I must have been a little emotionally fragile yesterday to begin with because the man in black's passing hit me hard. I only have a couple of his cds and didn't really consider myself much of a fan, so I don't know what my deal was. I think maybe I was projecting some other issues on it. I listened to the radio all day and they played song after song of his. It was cool. His music has been in the background often unnoticed at bars and events throughout the last several years and it kind of got me thinking about the past, friends and family, fighting for the oppressed, old age, death. Anyway, rest in peace fine sir.

Today I have to go into school and study slides for my History of material culture final exam on Tuesday morning. I think it's going to be a tough one, but I'll do okay if I study and review. I have to finish my research paper Today or tomorrow and make some Japanese art projects for my Modern Japan class. Almost done people! I am very excited.

09-14-03 Sunday
Hello again. It is a very beautiful morning out right now. The sun is shining and it's a little bit cooler out. Yesterday was gorgeous. It looks like today will follow the same path. September as is once again the case, doesn't want to give up being summer. None of this matters to me much today because I will be locked inside not allowed to leave until all of my lame school work is done. Gosh, I am so close. I just have to hold on for a couple more days.

Last night after the kids' yard sale, we went out and had dinner and caught a movie. We went and saw "Once Upon a Time in Mexico". It was pretty sweet. Let me clarify though, you MUST be in the right mood to fully appreciate this movie. K and I liked it quite a bit and the other people that went with us had varying levels of "It was okay" to "It was a big pile of crap". K and I are big fans of "EL Mariachi" and "Desperado", so I think we knew what we were in for. It seems like it would be a serious drama starting out, but it definitely isn't. I think that's why people are thinking it's lame, they are looking for a serious action drama. It's not a comedy for sure but it is pretty silly. It was nicely filmed I thought and Johnny Depp and Antonio Banderas were quite sexy.

Hey tomorrow is K and my 3 year wedding anniversary! Hooray! It has been 3 years of absolute magic and bliss. We haven't really made any plans yet. I have a few things in mind that I want to get her for gifts. It stinks that school will be in the way of fun times tomorrow. We will have to go do something special next weekend. Maybe we'll go back to the beach again.

One thing we already have planned and excused as an anniversary item, is going to the Grandaddy concert next month. I got the tickets for that yesterday. We like Grandaddy. Have you heard Grandaddy? If not then you should. I have been listening to their newest CD "Sumday" quite a bit lately and it keeps getting better with each listen.

There is a mountain of concerts coming to town in the next few months. How is one suppose to afford all of those tickets? We already have our tickets for Grandaddy at the Aladdin theater on October 18th. If I were to plan out a concert schedule it would probably be something like this:

The Clientele and Destroyer, September 19th.
Mogwai, September 27th.
Interpol, September 28th.
Goldfrap, October 2nd.
Enon, October 6th.
Quasi, October 11th.
Grandaddy, October 18.
Guided by Voices, October 20th
Spiritualized, November 7th.
The White Stripes, some time soon

The list goes on. I think I left a few out. Mark your calendars and get out to see some shows. It should be a good fall concert season. I'm sure I won't make it to all of them but we'll hit a few. I really want to see Mogwai, so that will probably be the next ticket purchase.

09-17-03 Wednesday
OH YES! PEOPLE! THE TERM IS FINALLY OVER!
Oh my goodness I am so happy! Yesterday was so tough! 3 finals. I made it through though. I almost burst into tears of joy after my history of modern Japan final was done. That was a tough term for me. Now for my summer break. Woo hoo! Party! I think for the first order of business, to fill up some of this new found free time, I'll go to work.

It's a bit chilly this morning, isn't it? Fall is here my friends.

Oh, I better go. I need to get to work at a decent hour. I'll write more tomorrow.

TOP^

09-18-03 Thursday
I tried to get up a little bit earlier this morning so that I could spend more time with the journal. I have to get to work earlier also so I don't have to stay into the evening. I got up a bit earlier than yesterday. It's getting harder to wake up in the morning now that it is staying dark longer. It was 6 and it looked like it was 2 in the morning. I think I said it yesterday, fall is coming people. Today it looks like it is more dry than it was yesterday at this time. I had a good ride on the skate board yesterday and am looking forward to todays.

So what's been going on? Are there any plans for this weekend? It's coming up you know. I don't have any plans yet. I may try and go to that Clientele show that's on my concert list, we'll see. I do have a list of things I would like to do during this break. First thing on the list is to write the list down. I need to get on the ball and think of something romantic to do for K in support of our anniversary Those school finals got in the way of the proper celebration. I also need to get caught up with my phone calls. Some of you have been waiting quite a while for me to return your phone call. Sorry mom.

The question was presented to me the other day, wondering what happened to my whole entering as many contests as possible kick that I was on 2 and a half months ago. Well that's a good question my friends. I think I freaked out pretty hard at the beginning of the summer when I got a job again and decided that I wouldn't be able to spend the proper attention on a contest piece as well as being back on the 24 hours a week at the job and the 15 hours of the difficult school term. The contest "Phillip and Steve" piece was put on hold. Perhaps I should start it up again and get into some contests during my sure to be easy fall term. That's one of the many cool things about having this journal and the archives, I can go back and remember the ideas that I had earlier in the year that may have escaped me.

Creatively I will be directing my attention to the annual October redesign of this lovely page. I have got to going on that. I have got to take my computer in to get the monitor fixed during this time off. Stinks. It could be between 400 and 900 dollars to get fixed. Is that lame or what? I guess I am going to have to let some other bills slide. I am almost tempted to just keep going like I have been and hold off on fixing it. I quickly change my mind though when looking at the dead blank screen nearly induces vomiting and screaming fits.

09-20-03 Saturday
Well good morning there to you! You are looking lovely this morning. How is everything going for you? I slept in a bit. Quite nice. I'm catching up on my sleep. It is very gray out this morning. It is rather chilly also. I saw a weather report out of the corner of my eye the other day and I thought that it said it was going to be in the 80s today. I think that is going to be just a wee off. It looks pretty dry out there perhaps I should mow the lawn. Speaking of mowing, I think I'm going to have to shave my beard off. I was going to grow all of my hair all the way through winter and then get a haircut and a shave in the spring. I can't do it. It's too scratchy!

I've got a story for you guys this morning. We were sitting around minding our own business in the front room a while back and we hear a cat wailing. We thought wow that's crazy I hope that cat isn't hurt. We looked out the window, but couldn't see it. A day or so went by and we hear it again. The cat sounded like it was in heat or something. We couldn't see the cat and I went to go look for it where I thought the noise was coming from by the neighbor's house. Couldn't find it.

Another day goes by and we hear it again! It starts to sound like the cat might be stuck under our house in the basement. I think I described our basement here before. It is a dank, dark, unfinished hole in the ground. We hear the cat again so I head down to the basement and look around. I don't see anything. All is quiet. I went down on two different occasions, looked and didn't see any cats.

Two weeks of cat meowing go by and yesterday K finally has enough and goes down to the basement calling the kitty. Out comes a skinny and scared cat! He had been stuck down there for a week and a half to two weeks. I think he was too scared to come out the two times I went down there. So skinny. He could have starved to death down there! We're not sure how he got down there. He must have snuck in when we left the door open down there and then got shut in. I've named him Simon. I know that is a bad sign on our part to name him. Hopefully he goes home soon. K fed him and gave him some water. Looks like we have a new cat now huh? Welcome to the Noodle family Simon!

I am once again going to try to clean this laboratory. I have got a plan this time though. It is going to be a clear-cut, blanket bombing, forcible cleaning this time. I am going to take absolutely everything out of this room until it is empty, sort everything outside of the room, and then bring things back in a tidy fashion. I'm going to have to be tough this time around. It is going to be so cool in here when everything is clean and organized. My work has been suffering from a messy office.

09-22-03 Monday
I tried to get up at 6 this morning, but it just wasn't happening. It was way to dark outside. I couldn't keep my eyes open. I'm going to go in and work today. Work on a Monday is a new thing for me. I hope I can pull it off. Was this last weekend too short or what? Good lord was it beautiful out! Saturday and Sunday were both great days sunny and in the 70s. Perfect. K and I did some work out in the yard and got things cleaned up. It looks much better now. I gave the lawn a haircut and trimmed the rose bush that had grown out of control. A tidy yard makes me feel so much more relaxed. I started my laboratory recall last night. That is going to be quite the task.

So far I have been mostly just chilling on my break. Perhaps we will try to go to the beach some time this week. This working a few extra days gets in the way of the breaking period doesn't it? I'll try to take Friday off. If it wasn't for these annoying bills piling up then I totally wouldn't be working. Let me tell you!

I shall be doing my fun skate into work again this morning. The day will be perfect for skating. Oh my gosh! I heard the rumblings of wheels and the clicks of ollies this last weekend. I looked out the window and a whole gang of hoodlum, rebel, skaters had moved in the apartment across the street. They looked so cool doing their tricks and being tough. I think they had some of their friends from out of town in. The were practising out front and then they all road off doing tricks and heading of to some cool skate session somewhere. Phillip and I watched from the window and K suggested that I go ask the boys if I could play with them.
"You've got a hip board too, Jack. I'm sure they would let you ride with them,"
I pouted, "No I'm not cool enough and they would make fun of me because I am so old. Plus I don't have the right shoes."
Hmmm. I could buy them beer though if they let me hangout.

TOP^

09-24-03 Wednesday 6:58 AM
Is it only just Wednesday? Gosh, it feels like a Friday or at least a Thursday. How have you been doing? I'm doing okay. My work week school break is dragging on. Summer is no more my friends! Today is the first day of fall. I hope you're ready for it! September is winding down also isn't it? Time is zooming on by. The weather hasn't been informed that fall is here yet. The last few days have been gorgeous. The perfect temperature, and sunny. I think we are in for nice weather for the rest of the week.

The fall TV season has started up. Are you guys excited? We watched the season opener of NYPD Blue last night and some other shows. I fell asleep during NYPD Blue actually. Did you guys see that they had a new episode of 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenaged Daughter on last night with the late John Ritter? I only saw a few minutes of it. It was kind of eerie. He had no idea he was going to be dead in 3 more shows. Look at me go. The new fall TV season is barely 3 days old and I am already making myself sick with my TV viewing. When the heck will we see a new Simpsons? That is the real question. Are we going to have to wait until baseball finishes up in November again this year? God I hate baseball.

I am slowly working down my break time to do list. I have 4 things checked off which is good. That's a start. This working thing is getting in the way of devoting all of my time to my break time to do list. Things are starting to go in the right direction for the Noodle household. We are getting a handle on it. K starts her schooling up again for her fall term next Monday. That should be fun for her. Praise the Lord the financial aid checks are going to be rolling in again!

09-26-03 Friday
Good morning people! I slept in a little bit today because I didn't go in to work. Do you know why I didn't go in? Well, because it is now officially the start of my self imposed 4 day weekend! Woo Hoo! I needed a bit of a break before going back to school didn't I? Looks like I picked the 4 correct days. It is going to be absolutely gorgeous this weekend. They are saying it is going to be sunny and in the 80s to 90s. Maybe we should hit the road and check the beach out. Will you hold on for just one second? I need to make some coffee.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTHER! I love, love, love you! I hope you are having a special day.

The grades for summer term are in folks. I was a little nervous before getting them and was trying to figure out a way of not showing them to you if they were gut wrenchingly bad. That is actually a good reason to try to really do good. "I know I am going to have to show everybody my grades at the end of the term so I better hit the books." The embarrassment factor. Here they are:

Argumentative Research: B+
General Sociology: B
History of Material Culture: B+
Environmental Science: B+
History of Modern Japan: B

That's not bad huh? I thought I was going to get an A and C, but this works out also. 3.2 GPA.. I am a little curious to see what kind of grades my final research paper got and I wouldn't mind seeing how I did on a few of the final exams. I'm pretty happy with those results. I really pulled some teeth over that summer term, so it's good to see that everything turned out okay in the end.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. I told myself yesterday that I would once again sing the praises of that new Grandaddy CD. People, I love it! I have been listening to it everyday and it continues to increase in goodness. Grandaddy "Sumday". It starts off pretty good and then right around song 5 it takes off and takes no prisoners all the way to the end. The songs are stuck in my head. I can't stop singing them.

Now with my 4 days off I can really get down to business and get some of my break time chores done. I need to keep marking off that to do list. I got a good start on the laboratory cleaning, but I'm not done yet. I am going to have to really be tough with this room. Last weekend the room was spared from a cleaning because K and I kept saying, "It's really nice outside we should go out and save that indoor room cleaning for a rainy day." I won't be tricked by that logic again.

09-29-03 Monday
Greetings to you all. How are you doing this fine Monday morning? I'm doing quite well thank you. I'm starting in a little later on the journal today because I was attempting to sleep in once again. Hold on one second. The puppy is sleeping on my lap and crushing my arms. I've got to move him so I can type. I need some coffee. Ah yes, there. I put the dog back in the bed and grabbed quite a tasty cup of freshly brewed coffee. Yum. Oh great. Now the cat is on my lap. He's not as heavy as the dog though and doesn't get enough attention anyway, so it's okay.

We went over to the coast on Friday after all and did some camping. It was absolutely gorgeous over there! Friday was the best of the 3 days we were there. It was warm and sunny. I think it got up into the 80's which is unusual for the Oregon coast. Saturday and Sunday were cooler and overcast. Mr. Baptist and I went crab fishing from his boat Saturday and Sunday morning while K stayed at the camp and played with Phillip. We caught quite a few crab but only 4 of them were keepers. I think we had 12 last year. We ate them last night and they were very good. I had a lot of fun crabbing. We all had a great relaxing weekend.

K was off to school again this morning. Poor little dear had to get up early and head off to classes while Phillip and I slept in. Now she's had a taste of her own medicine. Getting a feel for what it was like for me this last month getting up early for work and leaving a house full of warm sleeping critters behind. I think that K and I are going to start getting up even earlier and going to swim laps at her schools Olympic sized pool every other morning. That would be fun exercise and a good jolt to get your morning started wouldn't it? We'll have to wait and see. Getting up in the morning and exercising requires a level of discipline that we may not have reached yet.

I've got to go. I've got lots of stuff to do today on my day off. I should make a to do list just for today's chores. I want to get a lot done today so K doesn't come home to a pig sty.

TOP^

10-01-03 Wednesday 6:49 AM
Good morning! Oh my goodness! Look at the date. Where oh where did the month of September go? Fear not my friends, the new version 05 will be here shortly. I haven't forgotten. It is SO dark out right now. Is my clock wrong? Is it still night time? I think the weather person said it is suppose to still be dry today so that is good. You can't really tell what the weather is planning on doing now in all this darkness. Oh wait, It looks like it is starting to get lighter. Let me look out the window. Looks a little chilly out there now.

Well not much to report today. My final week off is winding down to a close. I have Friday off from work maybe I should doing something fun to celebrate school starting. Gosh, I do celebrate a lot don't I? Celebrate school almost starting, celebrate midterms being over, celebrate the weekend, celebrate finals being done, celebrate school ending, celebrate break ending.

Here's one thing I'm currently struggling with. I am reading the book "The Twilight of American Culture" by Morris Berman and it's so far a pretty good book. The book talks about how the American population has become a bunch of drooling idiots, we are all heading for the dark ages again, and the United States is heading for a fall of Rome type conclusion. It is pretty doom and gloom, but it really has quite a few interesting points. So my dilemma is that the book has really got me to notice how lame television is now days. I've been worried about how much I have been consuming lately and think I need to cut back. We have a whole video tape filled of season premieres we are still watching for crying out loud! A full tape after only a week! We haven't had time to watch the tape because we have been watching other shows. I love TV but I think I am going to make an effort to not watch as much of it. Perhaps the answer is to stop reading that book.

I've got to head out to work now. So when school starts I'm going to start working two 10 hour shifts and one 4 hour shift. That means I'm going to have to get up even earlier to write this journal on the 10 hour days. That's okay, I write better earlier in the morning anyway.

10-06-03 Monday
Good morning dear sweet friends! How are you doing on this dark and cloudy Monday morning? I'm in a hurry to get out the door today so this will be a quicky.

School is starting up again. Fall term. Woo hoo! That break seemed so short didn't it? It was a good break. I got most of everything done that I wanted to do. Today I will be going to my intro to computer graphics class and my intro to audio class. I have 3 intro classes this term. They should all be pretty easy. I have to be careful though and not get too cocky or those classes will kick my butt I'm sure. I think it is going to be a fun term.

We had a pretty interesting weekend. Full of mystery, intrigue, and adventure. I'll have to write about it more tomorrow when I have more time. I also have 2 movie reviews for you.

Yes, so did you notice version 5 is up? I'm not sure what I think yet. It's pretty wacky. I'm still fine tuning some things. Let me know what you think. I'm going to check out how it loads on different computers this week.

10-07-03 Tuesday
Good morning again kids. How's it going? Is it just me or is it getting harder to wake up in the morning due to this fall darkness? I'm sleepy. Maybe it is due to getting up at times like 5:30 and 6:00. It rained pretty good here yesterday. The back gutter is falling off the house again. Hold on. I have a microwaved coffee waiting for me to go and retrieve it.

Day number 2 of the fall school term is today. So far so good. I think I will enjoy my intro to audio class. I'm not expecting too much from my intro to computer graphics class. Today I have intro to video and history of material culture 2. I think my new, "no night classes" rule is working out well. The day did seem to drag on a bit yesterday, but it would have been worse with 3 classes in a row.

So have you had some time with version 5 yet? What does it all mean? I'm not entirely sure. I'm still working on it so don't dismiss it yet. Some of you have already mentioned that it loads a bit slower now? That stinks. I only know about slow loading times by what the numbers tell me. I don't have a slow connection anymore that I can check this out on. I know, boo hoo. I tried to have the big scribble off the side of the page so that it loaded while you weren't looking. Ah, who knows. I'm working on it. I still have some new sections to add for your viewing pleasure.

On the movie front K and I saw "Lost in Translation" last week and I saw "28 days later" by myself last weekend while K was out of town. Both movies were pretty great. "Lost in Translation" is the better of the two. Bill Murray was excellent. Lost in translation was nice and subtle and 28 days later was of course over the top. I was nervous the whole time during Lost in Translation because I kept thinking they were going to screw up the simplicity of it and dump it into Hollywood territory but they kept it together all the way through. 28 days later was quite creepy. I added to the spookyness by walking home in the dark afterwords. That movie kind of didn't go anywhere in the end. There's some good zombie scenes for sure.

TOP^

10-10-03 Friday
Greetings! The weekend is almost here my sweets. Do you have any plans yet? There is quite a bit going on this weekend. I think one of the things we are going to try to do is hit the Marcy pad one of the evenings. The Marcys don't know this yet so if a Marcy is reading this now then they have fair warning, but if not, could one of you pass the news on. God, I never know, where to, put comas. I should, read up on, that. Officer Steve talked about having K and I over for a movie night but we haven't heard back from them yet. Oh yeah there is a rock show by the band Quasi this weekend. I may try to go and see that. So much to do, so little time. Man! I have homework now again also.

The first school week of the fall term went well. I have one more class today and then I'll have been through them all. Today's class is called "Death and Desire". Ha ha, how Gothic of me. It's an English course on literature. Should be cool. Oh yes and today is the test day to see how a day of school top off with a day of work works. I have to head out to Beaverton as soon as I get done with that class, as fast as I can so I don't have to stay later at work. We've got a weekend to start you know.

10-12-03 Sunday
Good morning! How is everything going? It's going pretty good here so far today. I thought I would get up earlier than I normally do on a Sunday morning and work on some stuff. I may go back to bed after writing this journal though. It has been raining here the last few days. Fall has finally arrived my friends. It has been quite a bit cooler also. We had the heat turned on last night. Do you know what my morning is missing? Coffee. Hold on one moment won't you? There, that will help I'm sure.

This weekend hasn't been as wild and crazy as I thought it was going to be. I guess the more mellow laid back weekend comes from not doing any of the things that we had planned on doing. That's okay with me. I was so tired all day yesterday. Now I feel like I have caught back up with my sleep. I don't want to laze around today if I can help it. I've got stuff to take care of people!

Ah yes, week number 2 of the fall term is next week. I don't really feel like I am back in school again yet after that break. I'm a little worried that I am not taking my classes as seriously as I should be yet. Last term at this time I was totally geared up and ready to go. I had all of my papers organized, my pencils sharped and everything ready by the start of the second week last term. This term, I have my papers jumbled up in a notebook, jammed in my backpack which I haven't looked at since Friday. I'll get it going though, I hope. I just have to get in there and get excited! It IS going to be a great term. I can see that already. Just work a bit on getting your interest and excitement up Noodle and you'll be fine.

I already have my favorite class figured out. My Death and Desire class. I knew it instantly. We're studying 19th century literature and seeing how the theme of death and desire is used in several works. So far it is very interesting. It's going to be hard because it requires quite a bit of a level of thinking that I am not accustomed to. One of the books we are reading in that class is Bram Stoker's, Dracula. I'm not sure what the descending order of favorite classes are yet, but I do know my least favorite is going to be Intro to computer graphics. I really should have tested out of that class. It is going to be way too easy and challenging.

Yesterday I went out and got an external firewire hard drive. 120 gigabytes for under 200 bucks. I can't believe how cheap that is. It seems to me that the last time that I looked at external hard drive prices it was in 1996 and I remember them being large in size and costing around 2,000 bucks. Is that right? Things are so affordable now. Maybe I should get another computer huh? Oh wait That's right, I'm a poor college student who is only working part time now. Anyway, now I have a cheap, small, with large memory external hard drive. It was suggested by my intro to video and my intro to audio teachers that I get one to hold all of the large video and audio files that I am going to be acquiring during my time at school. I have my whole computer backed up now also so I can finally take this bad boy in to get the monitor fixed. I wasn't comfortable unplugging my current configuration without having my files backed up first. If you notice that I mysteriously have been missing more than the normal amount of journal entries then it could be because the computer is in the shop.

10-15-03 Wednesday 5:30 AM
Oh my goodness. I can't even believe it. Look at the freaking time would you? How did this happen? Well, I guess I accidently set the clock radio time an hour earlier last night. No, wait. I moved the clock forward later last night so now it is earlier. I am so confused. Oh well that actually works out better for the journal. I was going to come on here and tell you guys that I ran out of time when I noticed the clock on my computer didn't match the time I thought it was. Now I have all the time in the World for a journal entry. No wonder it's so dark outside now.

How has everything been going for you kids? Things have been going pretty fair around these parts. You know the story, busy, busy, busy. I finished up the healthy portion of my school week and now it is time to get back into job mode. I like how school and work are 2 distinct head spaces. At school I can think to myself, "Ah yes, I am at school now. I don't have to think about Hurley or Ann Taylor." Then when I am at work I can say to myself, "Ah yes, I am at work now, I don't have to think." It works out pretty well as long as I can figure out where I am before talking to myself. I'm kind of tired this morning though. I should stay home from work and catch up on my sleep. I have an hour to make up for you know.

Musically speaking K and I have some new cds this week. I finally got my own copy of the beautiful Grandaddy album that I keep gushing about, "Sum Day". I know, I know, I should have had my own copy sooner. We also got the Coldplay CD, "A Rush of Blood to the Head". I know that is a bit older, like last years album, but K and I weren't up on our Coldplay. I love that CD. I don't know why I haven't checked out Coldplay sooner. You hear them everywhere. I think I thought that they were lame before I knew about them or maybe somebody in my circle told me they weren't cool so I never checked them out. I still don't know if they are cool or not, but I do like that CD. The final CD we got is the new Belle and Sebastian, "Dear Catastrophe Waitress". It's pretty good. I haven't heard it enough to give it a proper review. I am going to totally get into it with headphones this week at work. Yes, so those are 3 good selections that make for our current music fun. Oh yeah, the Grandaddy concert is this weekend. Cool.

I have another sort of contest project that has come up that I am kind of excited about. No, not the Steven and Phillip piece. Something else. It's pretty cool I guess, but I can't really talk about it yet. It's not really that top secret, I just don't know how far I'm going to jump into it yet. Perhaps it would just be classified information. Something I can't name here for fear of being Googled. It's kind of a contest thing but not really. Some cool things could manifest themselves, but I'm not sure if it's a good enough return on my time, energy and emotional investment. What the heck am I talking about? It's not important. Just know that I have my mind working on a secret project now that may involve the Red Rat Revolt or Songs From Little Elk Creek.

Gosh, this accidently waking up an hour earlier thing worked out pretty well. Maybe I should do that every day. No, you're right. It probably wouldn't have worked out this way if I planned it.

Things are going pretty good so far this week. See it's one of those things where I feel like exciting stuff is happening that I need to tell you guys about, but there really isn't anything specific. You know that feeling when you're talking to a friend and you feel like there was something you meant to tell them but you can't remember what it was. That happens to me a lot. I feel pretty happy and hopeful this morning maybe that is what is causing my excitement.

TOP^

10-18-03 Saturday
Good morning super friends. How is everybody? Gosh, I am tired. I need to catch up on my sleep big time folks. I should have slept in today, but we are going to go over to Mr. Baptist's house this morning to help with his garage sale. Maybe I could doze off over there. I kind of feel rushed. I feel like I have a lot of things to do today. I haven't been keeping up with maintaining a to do list yet this term so I actually don't know for sure if I do have anything that I need to do. No just kidding, I do know and I do.

After today's chores we are heading out to see the Grandaddy concert tonight! Woo hoo! It should be very cool. That's another good reason to get some shut eye. I need to be awake for the show.

See, that's something I have been wondering this week. I am just starting with the initial plans for the new project and I'm getting excited about some of the ideas that are coming to me. I'm curious to know how many more ideas would come to me and how much more effective could I be if I had the proper amount of food and rest. I had thought up to before this week that staying lean and mean was working to my advantage and helping my creativity. Maybe I'm getting older and that is no longer the case. Being hungry and always sleepy can't be helping my work. Maybe I just suck and it's a good excuse. I think that things would be much more fruitful if I had 3 square meals a day and slept a good 8 to 10 hours a night. Then I'd really take care of business.

10-19-03 Sunday
Good morning. Oh, do you know what? I am not even going to get into it without having coffee first. Hold on while I make a pot. Okay, I've got it started. Hopefully I will have a cup before too long. Man oh man the sun is out this morning. It rained pretty good last night. Morning? No wait is it the afternoon already? Sweet. I slept in a bit. Well not really because we went to bed at 3:30 AM. I don't think this sunshine will last today. More rain is in our future. Oh the dog wants to go out. Hold on once again. Okay, I'm back. The dog is watered and I am drinking a quite tasty cup of coffee. It is a great morning. Where was I?

Oh yes. The Grandaddy concert was quite excellent last night. They're definitely good musicians. They had a pretty interesting video accompaniment with their show. They had a lot of cool environmental and nature shots. It was good for me to get ideas for some of my own work. They had this awesome song that they did that I hadn't heard before, and it had a great story / video thing about a beetle pushing a little ball of mud up a hill. By the end of the song the crowd was cheering the beetle on. They really had an impressive multimedia mix.

The one thing they did that was kind of a bummer was they kept talking about how the show was the very last one of their tour and how tired they were. That made it kind of lame because from then on you're like, oh they're tired and they just seem to be going through the motions. Wouldn't you think that If you were a rock star that you would just suck it up, not tell the audience you were exhausted and just play the show like it was your first? They didn't play that long either, now that I think about it. They also didn't play my favorite song, "OK With My Decay" from the new album either. I had pretty high expectations for them and aside from those few minor glitches, they were great.

Today is a homework and house cleaning day so I better get to it. I really wish I was caught of with everything right now so that I could do some note writing for my new contest piece. I am now on hold on the telephone with a bill collector as I type this. Is my annoyance and rising rage seeping through into my writing?

10-21-03 Tuesday
Hey hey, it's early. I went to bed last night at 10 PM and now look. It's 5:30 AM and I am wide awake. So yeah, how's it going? I have a short paper I should be typing right now so I am not too sure how much longer I will be able to spend on this entry. I do need to go microwave some coffee first if you don't mind. Ah yes.

Here we are on day 2 of week 3 of the fall term. I'm glad it's going fast. So far this term hasn't been very hard, just annoying. A couple of the classes (I won't say which, but they are both intro classes), insist that we be in groups and come to school on our off hours to work on projects. What the heck is the in class lab time for? I'm not complaining about homework, that's fine and reasonable. I'm talking about having to work with 4 teammates, finding time when no one is in classes or jobs to trek back to school to work on a project. I'm thinking it would be better to work on ones own. You would really have more time to work on a better project. I'm not going to be using this stuff in a portfolio. I know, teamwork, no man is an island, in the real world you'll have to work with others all the time, blah, blah.

Have I mentioned yet that K and I are flying down to LA in a week or so to celebrate her cousin's wedding? I haven't? Well, K and I are flying down to LA in a week or so to celebrate her cousin's wedding. It should be fun. If any of you reading this are from La La land let me know and we can hook up when we are down there. Gosh. It has been like 3 years since I have been anywhere. I need to get out and see the World man!

Well, the thoughts of the school work I need to do is starting to choke off my enthusiasm for writing in the journal now. I am very excited about the slow start I am now entering in on this new project of mine. I should try to figure out a way to make it a school project, then I could kill two birds with one stone. I'll have to write more about it tomorrow.

TOP^

10-23-03 Thursday 6:12 AM
Good morning kids! Gosh, I am out of time already!. Should I start writing my journals in the evening? I don't know. I can't get up too much earlier or it will be the evening. Maybe I'll just have to start leaving for work later and stay later in the evening. Who knows? I sure am tired.

So what's up with this weather? It had been in the 70s and 80s this week up until yesterday, so I dressed for that weather yesterday morning. By the evening I was soaked by the downpour of rain as I walked to the bus stop leaving work. Today I am going to dress for the cold and wet weather that I am guessing will be here today?

Well thanks, I got to run though. I have to check and see if Tom Waits does this Edgar Allen Poe poem on one of his CDs. I thought Nick Cave did it but I couldn't find it yesterday and now believe it was Tom Waits. I want to let my Death and Desire teacher hear it if I find it. Okay, see ya.

10-25-03 Saturday
Hold on a moment while I go soak up the blood from my leg. The cat was sitting on my lap and fell off and caught himself with his claws cutting my leg open good. Stupid cat. One second. Okay. Oh yeah, and one more thing, K drank all of the coffee! Easy Noodle. Calm it down boy.

It is sunny outside right now. It looks great out. I think it's cold, so it's more like a real fall day instead of those fake summer fall days we had last week. I'm going to open the curtains more and let in some sunshine. ARGH! It's so bright! I should try to mow the lawn one more time this weekend. Maybe I will mow it tomorrow.

So how's your weekend going so far? Ours is going alright. I think we are going to go over and watch G and Stu build a fence later and then we are going to the grocery store. Pretty exciting huh? Amazingly I don't have any homework besides reading that I have to do this weekend. This term really hasn't been that hard people. I have to still work at it though because I want straight A s this term. That's funny. How does one spell A s? Straight Az?

Woe, I dozed off for a second there. I was daydreaming. Last night we rented and watched " A Mighty Wind" and "Willard". They were both pretty good movies. Alright, I confess. I fell asleep at the beginning of Willard so I actually didn't see it. K said it was good though. I'll have to watch it again. You'd think I'd have been wide awake with all the rats in that movie and the whole Noodle revolution being based around the Red Rats. Come on, I was tired. I've had a long week.

While we're on the topic of the Red Rat Revolt, let me just say that the new project that I am working on is going smashingly! I am pretty excited. I have got some really groovy images of natural elements now that I am going to use in the piece. Sticks, leaves, pine cones. Wait I shouldn't speak about it too much here yet. You'll see though, it will be great. Maybe I'll be able to work on it some more today.

10-26-03 Sunday
Good happy morning to you! I was in here an hour earlier starting this journal and realized that we were suppose to change our clocks back for daylight savings, so I went back and slept for my extra hour. We have another sunny morning again out there. It is quite crisp and clean.

We had an enjoyable day yesterday. K and I headed over to the school, and picked up some video equipment. We then went to Powell's City of Books where I got a few school books and K got some cookbooks. Then we went to the restaurant downtown called "Mothers" for lunch. It was very delicious. We then went home, got Phillip and went to Stu and G's house to watch them dig post holes for their fence that they are building. Seeing that we weren't being much help to their work effort, we headed back home after a while. In the evening we went over and had dinner at the Willises. Michelle, Officer Steve, Emma and Erin hosted a lovely evening. A wonderful time was had by all.

At the Willises we watched the movie, "Anger Management". You know the one with Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler. At best it was just fair. I have seen both of them in better movies for sure. "Happy Gilmore" is my favorite Adam Sandler movie. Wait no it's "Punch Drunk Love" for sure. Anger Management was an okay movie. I didn't hate it. You know, that has got me thinking. Have I ever written about a movie that I thought absolutely stunk here? I'm sure there was at least one. I'll have to remember a movie that I thought was horrible and write about it here. I feel I am pretty lucky to have a discernible enough eye to avoid most of the real stinkers.

Today for the final day of the weekend fun, we will go to the grocery store that we didn't get to yesterday, come home clean the house a little and then do some school homework reading. I should probably continue with the project a little and take some photographs also. Tonight we are having my dad and step mom, and my brother and his crew over for dinner. It should be fun. I don't remember the last time we had all of them over at the same time.

TOP^

10-28-03 Tuesday
Hello! How is it going? Oh man, I am totally out of time again. I am going to have to plan this better.

Well, life is good for now. Tuesday day number 2 of fall term week 4. Next week is a parade of midterms. Woo hoo. Midterms already? Man, this term just flew by.

With all of those fires down in California right now, I wonder if our flight to LA this weekend will be canceled? We'll see. Is it possible that the smoginess I noticed yesterday walking to the bus was from California? Yes, I suppose that is possible.

Were any of you just beyond tired yesterday during the day? I think it's this lame time change. I could barely keep my eyes open during classes. I felt like I had a cold also. I tried to go to bed earlier last night so maybe that will help.

Adios!

10-29-03 Wednesday
Yes people it has happened. Your mighty friend has fallen. I'm sick! It is so unusual for me because I am rarely sick. I've got a sore throat that hurts when I swallow. I can barely drink my morning coffee. Besides the throat I am very achy and my head is cloudy. More cloudy than usual that is. I was in pain last night trying to finish up a sound design project at school. I couldn't stop dreaming of the warm couch at home.

I would love to stay home from work today but I can't. Maybe I should... No I can't. Oh, it would be so relaxing though and I could finish watching "Willard" and I could study for my Friday midterm. No I must go in. I can't afford to miss a day. I'll go in later though and take it easy getting there.

Other than feeling sick there's not much else going on. Do you remember how I was in the pit of despair last term at week 4 and I was wondering if this will happen every term at week 4? Well I'm about all done with week 4 this term and I am fine. My theory of week 4 being horrible every term doesn't hold water. I should still be very mindful of it when it comes around and give it the respect it deserves.

Are you happy? The official season of my fall television viewing opens with the Simpsons on Sunday! Stupid baseball is finally over! I have been waiting so long for a new Simpsons. Last night we kicked things off with watching "24". So far so good. Looks like they are really going for the melodrama this year. Over the top. I'm not sure if I will be in town for the Simpsons this weekend. Uh oh. I'll have to record it.

Well my secret project is moving on nicely. I'm getting a little nervous though because I saw stickers posted all around the school building on the streets advertising it. It's okay though because the average person wouldn't know what they were looking at if they saw a sticker for it. Hopefully my head start will get me in good before these other punk kids breathing down my neck figure it out. It is all very cloak and dagger which is definitely part of the fun. Hopefully the founders of the project keep it a secret and don't start advertising it more or dumb it down because people aren't getting the clues.

11-04-03 Tuesday
HEY YEAH! Woo Hoo! Hello everybody. I'm Back! Did you miss me? Sorry I haven't written in so long. I was actually getting ready to sit down and write last Friday and then again yesterday, but I didn't. So sorry. How have you been though? Are you good? People, I have been the sickest I have been in many years. K says she doesn't remember me ever being sick for this long since she has known me. That's like 12 years. I had sore throat flu and congestion from last Tuesday night until this morning. I'm still not fully on the mend yet. I'm getting there though. On Saturday my voice went away and is just starting to honk and squeak back now. Losing your voice is a strange experience isn't it? I am finally slowing down a bit now, so hopefully I will continue to get better.

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

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

TOP^

11-09-03 Sunday 10:03 AM
Hey there. Man oh man. How are all of you doing? Where in the World have I been? I have really let this journal slide haven't I? I will try to do better I promise. What has everybody been up to? Me? Not too much really. I have still been working at getting over my sickness. I feel pretty good this morning. My voice is finally all the way back. That was the biggest annoyance of my sickness. I felt fine but I sounded bad because I didn't have a voice. Everyone kept feeling sorry for me and moving away from me because they thought they would catch my sickness. The truth of the matter was I needed their sympathy and was more contagious the week before when my throat was killing me but my voice sounded great. Oh well. I'm looking forward to feeling well again.

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

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

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

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

11-13-03 Thursday
Good morning kids! How are you doing? Me? I'm doing okay. Gosh it's early. Man, I keep meaning to write in this journal and keep running out of time or am too sleepy. I was actually going to try to write an evening entry last night. What is up with the sleepy thing? I got home from work yesterday, laid on the couch and kept falling asleep. I couldn't stay awake for any of our shows. That's okay though, I'm tired of all of our shows. At least I feel kind of rested now this morning, Could it be that I am too busy and needed to pass out for a night?

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

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

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

11-16-03 Sunday
Hello again. Mr. No-write here. How's it going? I noticed on the last entry that I wrote the incorrect date. I said it was the 3rd when it really was the 13th. See, now that isn't exactly as long of a time between entry dates. I need to regain my passion for the journal again soon and reaffirm my love for you the dear reader.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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11-19-03 Wednesday
Good evening to you my friends! What the heck is this? A night entry? Yes it is. If you usually check up on me in the morning you can just pretend that this is a Thursday morning entry. Hopefully I'm not throwing everyone's schedule off too much. I am going to try night time journal writing for a while now I think. I just haven't been able to keep up like I would like to with the morning entries. I don't really have trouble waking up in the morning. I usually have been getting up at 5:30 AM on work days. The problem is, if I have it in my head to do a journal entry I need at the very least a half an hour, so I make it 5 for the rising and that is just too early. School days I'm up by 6:30 but the entries have been rushed with so little time. Wow that was an incredibly boring paragraph. Uh oh. See, with evening entries I am farther away from my dream time subconscious, so I do lame things like say paragraphs are boring. Hopefully I can try to tap into my magical, morning time, sleepy headedness only at night.

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

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

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

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

11-21-03 Friday
Well hello again my sweets. See, how does this work now? Now that the weekend is here do I have to stay on a night time schedule when a 10 in the morning schedule is more convenient? Nope. I'll stick to nights.

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

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

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

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

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

11-27-03 Thursday
Yo! Yo! What up? HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you all! I hope you all have plenty of wonderful turkey and food stuffs to fill your silly bellies It is quite a lovely morning. The Sun is shining brightly into this dark laboratory. Hold on let me open the drapes more. There, ah yes. The coffee is brewing and the dog is whining to be let out. Things are good. Oh and yes we got the furnace fixed so we are no longer cold. There is much to be thankful for this year. Is there? Yes, I think there is. I think I'll read last years journal entry and see what I was thankful for then and compare it with this year. My goodness can you believe that it is almost December? Hold on one second I've got to take the puppy out.

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

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

12-17-03 Wednesday 6:52 AM
Hey there, hey there! I'm not dead people! How has It been going? Long time no see huh? Sorry about that big spot of missing space there. I am going to have to do quite a bit of writing to get back into your hearts aren't I?

Things have been going pretty well here. One more class and the fall term is over! I am so excited. Woo Hoo! It was a pretty good term, but I was definitely ready for it to end. I have one more final test in my death and desire class.

The Phillip movie is finished my friends. It turned out really well. I worked on it for quite a few hours. It gets dangerous when you turn in something you worked so hard on. It was received well by my teachers and peers so that's a good thing. I'm planning on putting it up here on the web when I get a chance so that you can all view it.

Well I'm 31 years old now. Yes, yesterday was my birthday. I am an old man. K really went out of her way to make sure I had a nice day. We had an excellent dinner at El Piato. I think that's how you spell it.

I have got to head off to work now. I just wanted to write a little note so you could know that I was still alive and kicking.

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