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Weekend was fine, got lots of visiting in with my friend from California, who leaves today to go back. Hopefully he won’t stay away for another 2 years before he comes back to visit again.

 

I really appreciate the suggestions that everyone has been giving me regarding sleeping. They are all wonderful thoughts. Unfortunately, I’ve tried them all to no avail.

 

A few comments on this:

 

It’s probably stress related, I understand that pretty well. However, I’ll be honest with you all and say that I don’t really FEEL stressed out like I normally do. Sure, I’ve got a few things I’m dealing with like everyone else on the planet, but I really feel like I have a handle on things overall. And most people will tell you that I never really seem to let things get to me, which is true. I have sometimes the problem of NOT caring enough, and letting too much slide. But, I work in a high stress industry, so some of that is an unconscious defense mechanism.

 

Meditation doesn’t do much for the dreams,  but I sure feel better afterwards J.

 

Caffeine doesn’t seem to have anything to do with it. I’ve tried refraining for several hours before bed, as well as drinking some right before I go to sleep. Neither helps, and neither way causes me to fall asleep or not any faster.

 

 

 

 

I had some particularly nasty things to say about organized religion, but I’ll save myself from the caustic comments by not posting. Suffice to say, the most bigoted, short-sighted, and downright NASTY people I’ve met in the past two months were hard core Roman Catholics. I’ve never met people who are more conceited and more sure that everyone else’s way is wrong, but not their own. (That’s called pride folks, and it comes before the fall in case you aren’t up on quotable quotes……………)

Friday!!!!!!

Today is a true TGIF type of day.

 

This week has been long. Really long. Longer than I can remember weeks being long in  quite some time. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say, I’m glad it’s over.

 

 

Sleeping hasn’t gotten much better. In fact, it’s gotten a little worse. I can’t seem to get caught up, and the nightmares have continued.

 

I have stayed on track with my resolutions, which I’m happy about. I will take Sunday off again, as my body is seriously in need of some rest.

 

Oh yeah, remember that thing I said about feeling like something bad was going to happen? It did this week. It’s not something I can relate to everyone here, but again, I’m always right when I have that feeling.

 

 

 

So, negativity aside, here are some more thoughts on the dream stuff:

 

Picture reality as a series of strings. ( I’m thinking 11 dimensional string theory from physics, but see it however you’d like. ) What if we each create our own worlds on these strings? Each consciousness is a “pearl” on a strand. Taken as a whole, the entire construct would be beautiful. Now, think that perhaps dreams allow us access to the individual strands themselves, and allow us a brief glimpse into the world of someone else.  When we look down the strings, just think how many wondrous things there may be for us to learn. Now think of the strings overlapping one another. The possibilities are endless………

Weekend of 012007

It was a good weekend. I’m still good on my resolutions. I will say that I took Sunday off, mainly because my body was pretty tired. But, I got things in again this morning, so all is well.

 

My friend Rob came in from California, first time he’s been back in nearly two years. He was actually happy that he got some snow, as it’s something that he misses. I spent time with him on Saturday during the day, and again last night. Saturday night Jen and I went to a party, which was quite fun. It was nice to see all of the Fu folks in a social setting, and Jen got to hang out with the girls, which she seemed to enjoy.

 

I am tired of feeling like I am playing referee. I have two sets of friends not speaking to one another, and I feel like I am caught in the middle. I give very little advice to either side, but I listen to both and give feedback when asked. One set my role is a bit more active, but I still try not to get caught up in all of it. This weekend was bad for both sets. I can’t really get into much detail, but it’s truly annoying, especially when I feel like both sets are just being plain silly about the whole thing. In one case, there is some legitimate cause for upset, and an apology should be given.  In the other, I don’t feel like there is anything truly wrong, and one side won’t even tell the other what the problem is. Obviously nothing will ever get resolved that way, so I’m not sure what that accomplishes, but hey, what do I know?

 

 

 

 

 

Dreams

Ok, sorry for the lack of update yesterday.

 

I’ve gotten my exercising in each morning, so we’re good there. Yesterday, that means I did a total of 350 pushups, crunches, and squats when you take into consideration my classes and conditioning class. So I’m a little sore today.

 

 

So, the past two nights have been similar to the one I posted last. More odd nightmares that just keep continuing after waking up. They have been different in content from the first night. Tuesday night was in some type of jungle with an animal hunting a small group of us. Another was somewhere cold, stuck outside trying to find shelter during a horrible storm. I will say last night’s wasn’t quite as bad, merely because it didn’t seem as long. That may be because I was exhausted from working out.

 

As annoying as it can be to be tired a lot, it’s also kind of fascinating. These are very, VERY vivid dreams, not like most of mine. It’s almost as if I’m dropped into the mind of the person experiencing what’s going on. No one refers to me by name, it’s always familiar. Military sometimes, like sir, or sometimes it’s just as if I am with friends. I’m always confused at first as to where I am, and then I just know. I don’t know how I know, but I do. And I know what’s happening, even though I don’t know how things got the way they are. And they always start for the most part in the morning, just as I am waking up in the dream. Like at the start of the day.

 

 

Now the fun metaphysical thing to consider here is this: What if these instances at night are the real lives, and mine is just the dream? Or better yet, what if all of them, including mine, are real, and there is something connecting us during sleep periods? Is there something collectively we are supposed to do? Maybe my experiences are helping the others and vice versa?

 

Fun conjecture material…..seriously J.

Fiction or..........???

I am in a large room, dimly lit. I feel like I haven’t taken a shower in months, maybe not slept in the same amount of time. The building I’m in appears to be an old apartment building. I somehow know that I am on the top floor, maybe 15 floors up. The windows are almost all boarded up.

 

 There are people all around me, busy like a beehive. There is a tension in the air. A closer look, and most of these people are armed. Not small arms either, some of these are larger machine gun type weapons. They are familiar, yet not. I realize that several of these people are asking me questions. Wait, not questions, they are asking for orders. Orders? I’m momentarily confused. I look around again, and I realize that this is some type of guerilla headquarters. At the moment that I begin to ask where I am, an alarm sounds. “Aircraft, coming from the southwest, big ones!” I hear from the far corner of the room near a monitor with lots of red dots. Lights begin to flash, and I hear a siren. Everyone grabs something and heads for the south exit. (I have no idea how I know this is the south exit.) I am herded towards the same direction……..

 

At this moment I wake up. It’s 2AM. I grumble, and lay back down to sleep.

 

It’s darker. I am going downstairs. There are people in the stairwell that do not belong with us. They are standing on landings, wandering into the halls.  I think “Damn civilians, they are going to get killed.” I fire my rifle into the ceiling, and I tell the people to get out of the building, in a very unkind way. My group continues down the stairwell. At this point I know that I am underground. We reach the bottom of the stairwell. It is very dark. At this point I hear a noise. It’s droning sound, very loud, yet very distant. It steadily gets closer. The woman next to me, complete with fatigues, looks worried and begins to pray. I hear someone mutter under their breath “Dear god, they sent the dreadnought drones after us…..”, and then I hear the bombs begin to fall………

 

I wake up again, it’s now 3AM. I try to sleep again.

 

 

It’s near pitch black. I am in some type of tunnel. There is a great deal of smoke in the air, stale. There are a few lights on the ceiling in the distance, but they are sparking and not very bright. My group has greatly reduced in numbers, and most of us appear to be minorly injured in some way. One of the men next to me asks if I am ok. I nod my head, and ask where we are. “About 2 miles from the dust off point. We were lucky to get into our tunnel system from Goucho HQ. We just finished the tunnel connection last week. And good thing too, they destroyed the top 12 floors in that bombing run I’m told.” 12 floors? There must have been 400 people on those 12 floors……..why would anyone kill 400 innocent civilians? My thoughts are interrupted by the floor shaking. Dust falls from the ceiling in rhythmic intervals. From far behind us there is a loud WHOMP, followed by a whooshing sound, and a breeze wafts from that direction. “Run! They’ve broken into the tunnel system!” The next few minutes are a jumble of darkness, dust, a frantic scramble towards…….. what exactly?

 

 

I wake up. 4AM. Dear god, is this nightmare going to stop now? Please?

 

 

My group is decidedly haggard. There are now 5 of us. We are in some type of air transport. The woman next to me hands me a pair of dark tinted glasses. “Look to the north. We’ve just confirmed the big ones are 5 minutes out. They think they have you trapped in Dayton sir. Keep your glasses on.” I remember thinking “Of course, why would I take them off?” I look to the north, and just then a tremendous, horrible light fills everything……………

 

I wake up, sweating. It’s 5 AM. That last blast, that was nuclear! It takes me nearly 45 minutes to get back to sleep.

 

 

Still riding in the air transport. “We’ve just confirmed that 8 more launches have taken place. It appears this is the beginning of the next phase sir.” 8 more cities gone. Millions of people. Over what? A little freedom? We weren’t hurting anyone. We just wanted to be left alone after the collapse. A few others felt the same way and joined us. We had it pretty good for a few years, then the juntas got involved. Corporate war parties, the last remnants of the old way. They are the only ones with good resources left.  They threw everything they had at us, simply because we didn’t want to follow their rules. But they weren’t expecting us to evade them for so long, and they got impatient. Nukes were their last option. Don’t they see what they’ve done? No more sunny days, no more warm winters. At least 40 nukes have gone off worldwide in the past 4 years, more than enough to counteract the so-called global warming they warned us about 30 years ago. Now we have 300 years at least of winter, winter, and more winter. It’s going to be tough to survive, even without having to fight these fanatics. I look to the group, and I look outside. The mushroom cloud in the background is glowing red. We have so far to go, and so little time to prepare…………………….

 

 

And then I wake up to go to work. Talk about a rough night!!!!

PICS!

Here are the pictures I promised, both the new kitten Guiness and our new bedroom furniture in the right places!

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Ok, sorry for the lack of pictures. We got started a lot later than I would have liked yesterday. This was mainly because Jen slept until noon (hey, she was sick, so it’s ok). The camera also didn’t have any batteries, so I couldn’t take any!

 

We did get everything moved where we wanted, and we even got the carpets steam cleaned while we were add it. The bedroom looks a lot different than it did! We changed where the bed was, and the new dressers are set against different walls than the old ones were. Big improvement, let me tell you! We even had more space overall than we did before, so that’s good too. Jen did end up sleeping a good portion of the day, so a lot of it I had to do alone, which is ok. I will say this: Oak dressers are frickin HEAVY, especially when moving by yourself. In between moving and cleaning, I had time to try out a recipe for beer batter, and I used that on some broccoli, which we fried for dinner. It turned out surprisingly ok!

 

I did get my workout in yesterday, and this morning for that matter. So I haven’t missed a day yet!

 

Good stuff all around.

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Good weekend so far……..

 

Yesterday was busy. I woke up and did some things around the house while Jen slept in. Then we got her going and dropped off her rental car. Then I went to Kung Fu, which was awesome. Not only did I get my resolution workout in, I got a whole lot more too. 2 solid hours of working out, and I finished learning my weapon form for green belt, and got halfway through the short katas I need.  I came home and moved some more stuff around, as we are pulling everything out of the bedroom to clean the carpet, so that we can setup the new dressers that my parents got us for xmas. They are solid oak! And they match my bed. I’ll take pictures when we are done today, and I’ll try to wrangle a pic of that darn kitten too.

 

Anyways, then Jen and I went to Harrison, IN, for a euchre tournament with her family. $5 entry fee, 7 rounds, switch partners each time , keep your score, everyone sits out one round. (So not everyone got to play with everyone else, but your partner was different each time. Total points possible is 60, if you win every game.) So, I got lucky. At some point I got paired with both grandmas, and they helped me kick some serious butt! I won! 59 points. We missed winning the one game I lost by one hand. So, I walked away with $35! Can’t complain about that J.

 

I’ll post later with pics!!

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Alright, exercising was actually a little easier this morning. It helped that I had a kitten that decided she wanted to make sure my arm was around her, and used her claws to move my hand so that it was sitting on top of her about 5 minutes before my alarm went off J.

 

 

Windows Vista is behaving well so far. I haven’t had any major issues, and the minor ones have been only really mildly irritating. I have most of those worked out now, so it’s all good. Power consumption has been good on my laptop. Hibernation mode works well, and I haven’t had issues getting it to come out of sleep mode.

 

I don’t like the new Network Center. Instead of the easy finding of network connections in the past, it’s a little more difficult now. There is a little more functionality now, so you can see more that’s going on, which is good. But actually using, and doing, things such as disabling and re-enabling the wireless adapter (which I do several times a day depending on where I am) takes a few more steps to complete, and I don’t like that.

 

Of all things, MSN Messenger crashes, a LOT. That’s really annoying, but livable, especially considering that’s not a work application J.

 

 

 

 

I’ve had this feeling of impending doom for the past two weeks now. Something bad is going to happen, and I don’t know what it is. But it will. I’ve never been wrong in the past when I feel this way.

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Ok, sorry about the number titles for the blogs, but the date it just the easiest way for me right now J

 

 

Got exercising in this morning, though it sucked. After doing 200 pushups and crunches last night in class, I was already sore. But I got through it. Oh, and I’ve decided to add 50 squats to my morning routine as well.

 

 

Today was depressing. I had to work for one of customers in Dayton that handles Senior Citizens, and specifically I had to work in the adult daycare area. Imagine 40 seniors wandering around an area in various states of dress and lucidity. Some of them were in wheelchairs, some not. Some were pretty normal folks, and some were Alzheimer’s patients or similarly mentally handicapped.

 

This one guy, Charles, kept coming up to me to tell me he had no money, then he’d look at me almost like I was going to hit him, and then he scoot away quickly. The first time it was odd. It quickly got just downright depressing. I got the story from one of the nurses after she saw what was going on. She explained that he had been robbed of his food stamps a few years ago, and he had never quite been the same since. The thief wasn’t satisfied with his answer of no money, so he beat him up pretty good, and took everything else he had. And Charles suffers from dementia anyway, and that episode put him on a path the doctors don’t think he can turn around.

 

I’m no angel, have never claimed to be. I will say I’ve never used violence as a solution to anything, and I very much still believe violence solves nothing. How could another human being use violence against an old man CLEARLY not in his right mind? ESPECIALLY if he has nothing of value to steal?

 

In this, I am old fashioned. I don’t believe the current justice system provides justice to people like Charles. It may seem medieval, but if I ever met this thief in person, I tell you right now that I would not hesitate to punch this person in the mouth. I realize that it may put me in trouble, that I may even go to jail, but I would still feel like I did the right thing. It’s scary to some I hang out with, but I never go in public without looking around to see what’s going on. I’ve stopped bad things from happening to strangers in the past, and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. I feel like people like me have a responsibility to look out for others, no matter what the cost might be to ourselves.

 

 

Ok, done ranting, sorry………………..

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Got through exercises again this morning. I’m merely posting this here because I’m hoping that posting it each day helps me be motivated to do it the next morning…….

 

 

 

So today, for work, I got to upgrade my laptop to Windows Vista, full version. I know, I know, to you non-tech folks, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but it is to me. I’m the first in our company to use it, and I need to learn it well so that when we have customers wanting to use it when it comes out next month, I at least have a clue how it works.

 

So far, my impressions are reasonably favorable, though I will say it took me an hour to get it working the way I wanted it to. And that hour was on top of the 2.5 hours it took to upgrade. Not real happy with time involved, but it gives me an idea what to tell customers.

 

The “new” interface is nice really. You can change things around and make it look like XP if you want, but leaving it as is makes it look a little more like a Mac. I do like the way the windows all look, and I love the stuff they added for switching between programs.

 

Functionality-wise, I think my customers are going to have some problems getting used to things. Controls are moved around, and it can be difficult to find settings that were easy to find under XP. User Account Control is annoying, it’s this stupid little box that pops up EVERY TIME you want to run a program or change a setting, making sure that you want to do it. I get the whole spyware prevention thing, but most people will want this disabled. You CAN disable the setting though, and I found where to do that, so all is good.

 

 

I’ll post more impressions as I actually USE the software.

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Day 2 of resolutions is good so far. I did my pushups and crunches this morning, and did some stretching too. Now, today sucked for this because I had to be at work at 7:30AM, but I got up earlier than normal (5:45) and did what I needed to do.

 

 

I got some studying done today too.

 

 

The cats have finally started getting along. Moose and Guiness play together now, and we’ve even caught them sleeping on the same chair at times. This is a good thing. The only odd thing left is that Moose’s voice has permanently changed I think. Before Ojos was put down, he had this pitiful high pitched meow. Not manly at all for a boy cat! After she was gone, his meow picked up this gravely, lower pitched sound. That hasn’t gone away, and at this point I don’t think it will. Very, very odd, but he seems to be happy otherwise, so I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.

Update and Movie Review

Well, quick update here…….

 

Hit my resolutions so far on day one. I did my pushups and crunches this morning. I’d say I’ll have a 6pack in, oh I don’t know, like 10 years J. Regardless, I got them done. I studied today at work, and I did some meditation this morning too. So good first day!!!

 

Jen and I saw Children of Men at the movies this weekend with my brother and his wife. Excellent movie overall. It would be hard to give you a synopsis without really destroying what the movie is all about, but here’s the short version:  The year is 2027, and humankind hasn’t been able to make a baby for the past 18 years. No one can figure out why, but no woman can get pregnant. All countries other than Great Britain are gone, destroyed by interior pressures. Terrorist groups run rampant. The world is NOT a nice place. But, British folks are trying to lead pretty much normal lives. They have a HUGE refugee problem. Clive Owen’s character is like most others trying to live a normal life. And then he gets caught up in something extraordinary, and there you go. The movie is pretty non-stop once you get past the first 20 or 30 minutes, and there are lots of twists and turns. There are a few pretty obvious shots are current governments, such as Britain’s Homeland Security Dept. (not nice guys), etc. Michael Caine plays this wonderful old hippy, and he’s truly good in the role. I thought it was great, and although Jen had some trouble with some of the more graphic scenes, she did say afterward that surprisingly she liked it. It’s a movie that really makes you think.

 

Other than that, it was a pretty quiet weekend!

Resolutions

So, it’s time to put them all down here for the record. Here are the things that I am going to start doing this year, starting on Monday of next week.  (I always give myself a week to get over the holiday hangovers)

 

These are listed in no particular order, and these aren’t all of my resolutions, just the more major ones.

 

Every morning, I will do 50 pushups and 50 crunches to start getting into better shape than I am now.

 

3 times a week outside of class, I will do at least 20 minutes of stretching to increase my flexibility.

 

I will take at least 3 more tests for certifications this year.

 

To accomplish this last one, I will spend at least 30 minutes a night studying, in addition to whatever I can get in during the day at work.

 

I will spend at least 15 minutes a night meditating.

 

I will spend less time worrying about myself, and more time being good to friends, family, and most importantly, Jen.

 

I will again take up a musical instrument, possibly piano.

 

These last few are different. I hope to accomplish them, but circumstances beyond my control may not let me do them……..

 

I want to compete in an amateur mixed martial arts fight.

 

I want to finish the last 6 tests I need for my full MCSE.

 

I want to build a deck on my house.

 

 

Anyways, that’s my list. Wish me luck!

 

 

 

New Year

First, I’ll be posting some resolutions in the next few days. I’m still deciding exactly what I want to do. But they’ll be posted here for everyone to read shortly.

 

 

Second, New Year’s was fun. Nobody wanted to plan anything, so we decided to host at our house for all the people that didn’t have anything to do. As it turned out, we had a full house! There was tons of alcohol consumed, and everybody generally had a good time. A few people had a little too much, and they crashed on the couches. Everyone else finally left around 4:30AM. Me being me, I went to bed around 5AM, and I was the first one up at 9:30AM. I made coffee while Jen slept, and got the sleepers up, awake, and out of the house. Once they were gone, I woke up Jen and made breakfast for her. Jen and I relaxed most of the day, then she went off to a wedding and did a few things around the house for me. We went to bed relatively early.

 

 

All in all it was a pretty good New Year’s.