Fare Well to Home...

This will be the last entry i'll make before I leave for europe on tuesday morning. This last week has been incredibly stressful. I've been hopping from small job to small job, wrapping up travel arangements, hating my paper, and generally stressing out about various things. You've heard it all already. I've had to put aside favorite activies and friends to make this work and i'll be glad when I get back and am able to start it all back up again. I don't regret it. This is gonna be an awesome trip that'll live on in my memories as my first true world experience, not counting mexico or canada mind you. But i'm still not liking putting aside my lazy lifestyle to plan and execute a huge undertaking like this. Its always the prep that kills me, never the trip itself. Oh well...good bye for now. See you on the other side...

Current song = Goo Goo Dolls - Long Way Down (remix)

Blast From the Past...

Woot! I are back from da firstest re-enactment of der year. Loren ist tired, lots. But really, it was a decent start to the re-enacting season. "Mud"giver was as wet as it normally was, starting off with lightning and thunder storms on friday evening and working its way down to incredibly light drizzle just before we packed up today. I didn't fire a gun once this weekend, spending more time with my friends and involving myself in camplife. And while it was really not the best way to start out the season it was nice in its own, body and equipment soaking, way. The dancing, as always, was fun and sitting up around the company fire till 2am and being the oldest on there for the better part of the time has a certain charm that just can't be matched.

I look forward to the next far more though. My Daphne will be home to enjoy it with me, it being her first event in like 2 years! And i'll be doing it without my brother or dad out with me. They'll be speeding about Gettysburg at about the same time. If it wasn't for the fact that my brother was going i'd be really envious. Anyway, glad to be home and clean and dry once again.

Under Preasure...

When I thought that I needed to update my blog the title just popped into my head. It seems fitting though, I am under lots of preasure. And yes, to whoever knows what I get to listen to occasionally while in Washu's car you can make the connection to the title and snicker all you want.

Anyway, its crunch time again. I have less then two weeks before I hop a plane to England. In that time I have to finish two yard projects at different houses, possibly wash a monster motor home, finish or get really close to finishing my paper, and get everything squared away so I don't end up floundering when I get overseas. Its tough, I've only now forbidden myself from playing my games in my off time and the next thing to go will be fanfiction, though i'm finding that really difficult since I found a cool new story last night...I have it open in the other window right now ^^;. Oh yeah and on top of that my parents don't talk to me anymore, talking has been replaced by grumbling, complaining, and berating me in some way or another to get me to pick up the pace a bit. Aren't parents wonderful, especially when they feel the need to state the obvious every time they open their mouths at me.

Cheers...

Sealed Deal...

Its offical, I am going to europe. I bought the tickets meer hours ago. I chose the three week option and even managed to get the same flight back as my girlfriend and got a seat next to her for two of the three legs of the trip. (This is the point where you get up and dance a happy jig Daphne ;P) My combination of yard work, large vehicle washing, and pet sitting is earning me enough cash to get me there. Now all I have to do is continue to gain money and make sure I finish my paper before I leave or the day after I return. I'm aiming for the former. Happy day! Now excuse me while I go work the kinks from my body that 4 hours of hiking on saturday and 6 hours of yard work today have given me.

Green Thumb...

Well I have a job now... kinda. If you consider yard work a real job. It does pay but its for a friend of my mom so its kind of a bum job. The only thing is this families yard is massive and needs serious work so i'll be sticking around and cleaning it up at least through next week. I pulled a whole bunch of weeds today, enough to fill a wheelbarrow, and moved a butt load of rocks from one place to another...and thats barely scratching the surface of what needs to be done. I have at least two more days of weeding to do along with reshaping part of the yard, raking out moss, dishing out wood chips, trimming bushes, and planting new plants. I'm sure I probably missed something in that list, oh well.

But as one problem is solved another always rears its ugly head. The paper i've been working on is beginning to get the best of me. The 11+ page monster is digging in its heals and refusing to let me finish it. Not to mention the books i've checked out to help me are now at least a week overdue. The things I go through for education. *shakes head* I've got a little less then a month left to finish it in so i'm crossing my fingers and hoping that inspiration strikes hard. Plus i've got to start keeping myself away from my games and similar addictions just to make sure I get all I need to get done before my trip to England, which is still on by the way. Whether its two weeks or three I don't know yet but i'm hoping against hope its gonna be three.

Current Music: Raistlin & the Rose, by: Lake of Fire

Unproductive Break...

Break has been . . . uneventful. Or at least not filled with the sorts of things I had hoped to fill it with. I spent a good portion of the week job hunting. If I been hunting for food I would be dead by now. My latest swath of job applications has turned up nothing. The best tidbit having been Goodwill but so far I haven't heard a peep out of them when they promised to give me a call. And before you ask, yes i've called them back and no they haven't been able to give me any sign of a job. It's looking dismal at the moment but I really need one so i'm going to continue on.

Then there was the paper I am working on . . .

The pet sitting . . .

The brother sitting . . .

I remember spring break as being this wonderful adventure. A blessed breather from the duldrums of school that provided me with a whole week of adventures in the back woods and at the beach with my friends in hawaii. But about mid way through highschool it lost its wonder and just became an ok thing that sorta messed up my rythm. Now that i'm in college it has lost almost all of its charm. None of my friends are close enough to get to easily or they're out of state or country and I have no money to spend which cuts way back on interesting activities. The lack of motorized wheels and the presence of the first real rain this season has also severed my mobility. So i've pretty much sat in front of my computer this week and tried to keep myself occupied. It didn't work.

Now i'm kinda looking forward to starting my one class and finding a job. I'm wanting my brother back in school(which won't happen for another week, curse him) and wanting a bit of cash.

Hurry back to England and your computer and phone Daphne, I'm missing our our talks!

Reporting From the Front Lines...

"This is Valakun reporting to you live from HQ at the front lines. At 11:25 today our groundforces delivered the final attack on the dreaded 'Finals' forces. After a vicious hour long fight with the elite 'History' division the conflict was finally over."

"The war began last week wednesday when, in a surprise attack, the special 'Tae Kwon Do' regiment overran our troops positions in and around the gym. After rallying, our forces were able to drive the enemy back and secure victory. Our top generals spent the next few days mapping out their avenues of attack on the remaining enemy forces. After intense study and several 'Halo' exercises our troops were ready. With the aid of our allies, the infamous 'Washu Brigade', our troops were able to bulldoze through the most stubborn opposition, the 'Math SS'. The next evening another attack was launched, this time on the previously impregnible fortress of 'Geology'. After taking the fortress our troops regrouped and prepared for the final assault. In a blaze of gunfire and exploding history facts they stormed the last bastion. The enemy survivors were last seen running for the hills where they will likely continue resitance into next week. This is Valakun coming to you live from army HQ for channel two news."

Yeah thats right, finals are over and man am I ever glad. Now i've gotta go fight another war, and this time i'm not sure if i'll win. After all, battling for a job is alot harder then takin a test.

The Big Finish!...

Believe me when I say that this quarter is going to end with a bang. Trying to pack in as many projects and study periods as possible into my already busy week is not fun at all. Add to that various problems with friends, relatives, job searching, and future plans and you've got a bomb ready to blow. As always i've managed to put things off longer then they should have been put off and now i'm racing to finish them in time. Its a problem i've had for as long as I can remember, and while i've gotten better at dealing with it, last year helped alot, its still a problem I face every quarter. Of course this tends to get people angry with me for being lazy or junk like that but they just have to live with it. Its part of who I am and I don't think it'll ever fully go away.

As far as interesting things go I'm rather sort this month. The only interesting thing so far has been a martial arts tourny that I volunteered to help with this last saturday. While I could have competed I chose not to for fear of not knowing enough, but after the fact I wished I had. After seeing what some of the people did I knew I could have done better. I'll have to do it next year I guess. Oh well. Gotta go practice a bit more and do some homework before I head off to math.

Cooling Off...

Ok so things wrapped up nicely after my last post. I got my passport stuff taken care of in about 5 minutes and i'll have it in plenty of time. The valentines has been sent off again, this time free of charge because I brought in the shredded proof. Nice to see they will do something about it. This week has just been really weird. I can't pinpoint any one thing in particular but its things like today's government disaster scene that have sort of framed the week. I don't want to think about anything but this weekend at the moment. The next few weeks are gonna be hell and I really am tired of it all. So i'm gonna go cool off and ignore everything but the present. Sigh...

Isn't Government Great!?...

In the last few days I have had chance to discover just how badly the budget cuts and increases of spending in Iraq have hurt government run agencies in my area. For starters... Yesterday I went in to apply for a passport at city hall. I walked in and waited in line for five minutes before being able to talk to someone. She promptly told me that they no longer offered passport photos at this location and told me to go to walgreens about a mile away. She also told me that my fee's had to be paid by either a check or money order. Guess what I had...cash. So I went and got the pictures and am in the process of readying myself to return to city hall to try again. But feelings of discord reached a new high when I went out to get the mail not ten minutes ago. I discovered the valentines day card that I had sent to my girlfriend in England at the top of the stack of letters. The back had been torn open and then sealed with tape. Now I know government officals don't get paid much but are they really desperate enough to look through valentines cards for cash? Not that mine had any in it but still... And then there's the fact that i've been waiting multiple months now for a letter I was supposed to get from my friends down in Cali that contained collectable cards that i'd traded for. I sent my half off in time and they received it but theirs never reached me. They said they sent it but it ain't here. Grr...

Happy Valentines...

Kiss em if you got em boy and girls! Its Valentines day and if you're lucky enough to have a special someone in your life then give them a good kiss and thank the heavens for them. That's what i'm doing right now, minus the kiss of course since my Valentine is a continent and an ocean away. Forget the chocolates and flowers guys. Saying "I love you" should be all you need. But don't think you can get away with nothing all the time...
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@-->----
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So here's a rose for my Daphne. Sorry you can't dry this one out and hang it in your room dear.

Reality Sucks...

It is offical; Reality sucks! It's about as good as the gum you find stuck to the bottom of your shoes. There seems to be a universal law that applies to me now that I have started my life as a grown human being. Whenever something good happens in my life there will always be something bad nipping at its heals. For instance... Yesterday my mom and I had a discussion in which she suggested that I take Spring quarter off of school and visit England. We talked about it for hours and soon afterward I was online looking up things I would need to know for such a trip. I wasn't walking on air but it was close enough. Then, today, I got fired. Yeah thats right. I got let go because of one too many small mistakes. I get my last check on Wednesday and thats that.

So what now? Well I guess I pick myself up off my rear end, dust myself off, and go look for a new job. Considering how well my searches for jobs have gone in the past I doubt i'll have one for several weeks. Sigh.

Rock Anthem for Saving the World...

(Title has nothing to do with blog...its the song i'm listening to cause I couldn't think of a better title. ^^)

Beautiful day today. No clouds, sunny, not too cold... a perfect early spring day... but its not spring. Everything west of the Rocky Mts is in spring while the rest of the country's snowed in. At least thats what it seems like. Didn't get to enjoy alot of it though cause I had to work then go to school. The only contact I had with the sun was when I biked to and from work. Shrug.

You know what... I don't have anything to write about today. It's 10 pm and i'm bored. I should be doing homework but i'm not cause I can. Everyone else is asleep and i'm staring at a bright screen, plumbing the depths of the net as I do everyday. Pathetic...really pathetic.

Well at least i've got good music. (It's Halo)

Addicting Past-times...

I finally know the thrill that is Massive Multiplayer Online games. People have been trying to get me into them for years and i've resisted for several reasons. They're too expensive, too time consuming, too addictive, etc. But remove one of those obsticals, namely price, and add a unique game idea and you've got me hooked. The game itself is a recreation of world war two naval warfare. Basically you have a ship and you join a room with lots of other people and have a big fight. Of course you start out with a midget ship with pathetic guns but as you advance in levels you're able to obtain better ships as well as choose a nation. There's so much detail! Now I loath having to leave my computer...but the fact that my job brings in money and i've already paid for school is keeping me relatively safe from being totally consumed. Still my parents are grumbling at me about it but they haven't done anything major yet...like lock down my computer. ; )

Ice Ice Baby!...

Woohoo! The greater Portland area is iced in! I woke up this morning to find the roads covered, my windows encrusted, and the doors out of my house glued shut by ice. Then my dad presented me with the news that my work called and said they were going to close for today because of the weather. So I get a full day at home! No responsibility! Oh how I love snow and ice days... just wish this had been on a school day. I'll have time to play, to write, to do whatever! *Cackles evily at the thought*

Uninteresting Tidbits...(and a poem)

This week has been fairly dull unfortunatly. Aside from a large amount of emails from a certain someone and a rather nice 512mb Jumpdrive that my dad bought its been pretty dull this week. The new car is working nicely and none of my classes are giving serious trouble yet so there's really not much to talk about as far as events go. Sigh...There are days you just wish you hadn't gotten out of bed. This happens to be one of them.

It really is amazing how much a long anticipated email or letter can effect someone. How their words can bring back images and memories of faces unseen and laughs unheard for many a month. Filling in the holes in a patchwork image of a friend or lovers distant life. They are longed for, prayed for, and hoped for. And when they finally come there is an unmeasureable warmth that spreads through a person's body that can only be matched by waiting patiently for the next.

"There is no greater wonder than the way the

face of a young woman fits in a man's mind, and

stays there, and he could never tell you why, it

just seems it was the thing he wanted."

- Robert Louis Stevenson

New Car...

Just a quick update here. Parents paid for a new car today. For the few people who actually know me you'll be interested to know that it's a camary, just like ash's car only newer. In fact i'm almost certain it's identical to ash's mom's new car. I'll have to compare notes when I see it up close next time. Course I won't be driving this new wonder car anytime soon because my parents don't trust me. ; ) Just kidding.

Of Work and Upset Stomachs...

The week is over and I finally get to rest. And boy do I need it. Tae Kwon Do is gonna be EXTREME! I hurt all over from yesterday's class, and that was just from warm up and basics! I couldn't even finish training with everyone else cause I felt like I was gonna barf. What does that say about how fit I am? Argh!

Then there was work today and I had to ride my bike there in the rain and cold with aching muscles and slog through non-stop food orders and problems with the cashregister. And now I'm not sure if the stomach ache i'm sporting is a hold over from my workout yesterday or from some other malady. And then of course there's the fact that I haven't been getting enough sleep lately because school has upset my holiday sleep patterns and forced me to kick it back into high gear.

But thank God for weekends!

The Return of...School!

Yes School has returned! Whether thats a good thing or a bad thing i'll leave up to you. This quarter is going to be very very interesting. I managed to lighten my load slightly by dropping cultural anthropology in favor of a one credit Tae Qwon Do(sp) PE class. Still, it comes out to a nice 14 credits. I go to a math on mon/wed night from 6-830. Tues/Thurs are the packed ones just like last quarter. I start the day off at 9 with PE then go to history. I take an hour break then hit English. Then I have like a three and a half hour break before geology. So basically i'm at school on tues/thurs from 9 to 830! I don't even get to go home even though its like less then 10 minutes via car to home. Since I don't have a car i'm stuck at school. The good thing is there's a movie theater across the street with all the latest movies out. And when school really gets rolling i'll just spend my time in the library doing homework. So it actually works out really well.

The only bad thing about the return of "school" is that my free time suffers. While I can get away with less of it without too much harm, its what it does to my writing that really sucks. One of my favorite past times is writing fanfiction and i've already fallen behind in updates. But now that school's started again i'm gonna be even farther behind. Who knows when i'll get the time?! My readers are already complaining. Added to that is the fact that my english class is centered around a single massive research paper. Its gonna take up alot of time just doing that! Argh! But it's for the best I guess.

Oh, one more thing. I'm almost finished reading an incredible book by the name of Shogun. If you have any interest at all in ancient Japan then its a definite must read. I drool just thinking about it. See...*droooooollllll*

Saluting the New Year...

Rawr! Woot woot... and all that. A new year has begun and frankly...it doesn't look much different then the last one. ;) I spent the whole night playing games and junk with my friends and then stumbled home at seven in the morning so I could get six hours of sleep. Oh yeah, I work at five too. I don't think i've laughed as hard as I did last night in a very long time. The fact that the whole lower part of my face was sore is proof enough. If its not i'm sure I could lift up my shirt and find some bruises from all the laughing.

So what's happening in this new year? I've got some rough outlines and lots of ideas and hopes but nothing really solid. I know i'll be starting school up again come monday and I know i'll be continuing to work but thats about all i'm certain of. Oh yeah, i've also got to start paying for those repairs and price hikes my accidents caused. But i'll try not to let that last one get me down. This is going to be an exciting year i'm sure. Its not gonna be just another scratch on the wall. Hope it won't be for any of you either.