Monday, August 30, 2004

Boy Andy, I thought I was a little out of the times. Stacy's Mom has been out for a year or so. But it is a great song, cause it just makes you want to jam right along with it (sort of like Semi-Charmed Life (inside joke for those of you not in the "inner circle")). Julie really likes it when I substitute her name into the song in place of Stacy.

Anywho, hopefully this week I'll be back on top with my posts. Last week was pretty hectic with my dad being in the hospital with kidney stones that just magically disappeared, and me being Batman and all (isn't it funny how I make references to things some of you people reading don't even have a clue about). This past weekend I had the part of the year, though from the sounds of it, it may be just the month as everyone had so much fun, they want to do it again. Honestly, nothing really beats swimming at 3AM, dancing in front of the TV for hours, and then being super dehydrated the next morning, then wake up and head to a ball game. A great time was had by all, and hopefully, more people will be able to make it next time. You know who you all are . . .

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Now I would consider myself a pretty brave guy. There's not much I fear in life. Occasionally the near miss of a deer in my car will get my heart going, but it calms down shortly after that. But, if you want to scare the absolute CRAP out of yourself and not sleep for days, I would suggest seeing the Exorcist, The Beginning. It's out in theaters now. The first 30 minutes or so, I was hanging in there, very calm, the usual me. Then, I just couldn't take it any more. I was squirming in my seat, hiding my eyes (only during the really gory parts, I just don't like that) and wondering how in the HECK I was going to drive home in the dark. But I did make it. Now all I need to do is somehow turn the lightswitch off before I get into bed tonight...and tomorrow night...and the night after that...

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Well, it's been an eventful few days. I spent the weekend down in Annapolis. Bought some snowboard stuff for the upcoming season, and chalked up another round at Dave & Buster's. I'll tell you what, I own that pyramid sling coin game. I bet I can win at least 500 tickets per 7 coins. What can I say? To quote a great friend of mine, "You [referring to me] are Batman!"

So my first official league volleyball game is this Thursday. And after watching May and Walsh school the Brazilians in Beach Volleyball, I am all siked up! I'm on a different team for leagues on Sunday, but that league doesn't start until September, which if you aren't keeping track, is approaching rather quickly.

So not much else to tell right now. Life has been pretty hectic lately, but should calm down here shortly. I am declaring this weekend the official Barley House Party 2004! Hopefully this will become an annual (or maybe even an e) occurrence. More to come on this event later . . .

Thursday, August 19, 2004

So I was listening to the local radio while driving to work the other day, and I heard a familiar voice that I couldn't quite name. After the guy was done talking and the DJ's were talking to him, I found out it was none other than John Tesh! And since it was a local station (out of Bedford, PA I believe) that means John Tesh was in Bedford, PA! He might as well have been knocking at my front door! This rates up there with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan coming to play in Altoona. Suddenly just outside The Cove is the place for stars, even if they are nearly 7 feet tall or have a grey pony tail down to their back.

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

So today I was coding as usual when the phone rang, and suddenly, a plant was down. This is where I step up to save the day one more time. However, this plant had loaded to go out NOW and their computer was d-e-d, dead! They were quickly getting trucks lined up waiting to load. So I grabbed the PC and made a mad dash to the van. I jumped in and took off like a bat out of Hades. Now, luckily this plant isn't too far away with a normal driving time of 20 minutes or so. Unfortunately the fastest way there is thru Snake Creek Road. Obviously if the creek is like a snake, then so is the road, and I needed to make some serious time! So I was driving like it was the final stage of Grand Turismo 3. I'm breaking before the turns and accelerating thru, except I'm in a huge utility van. I'm flying past tractors and mail trucks while drawers are opening and closing all over the place in the back. Dale Earnhardt would have been proud. I made super time in less than 15 minutes, and had the plant up and running in about 30 minutes since the phone call. I'll tell you what, if only all plant fixes were that exciting . . .

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

And yet another volleyball invitation comes in tonight. This one is for playing in a beach tournament down at Rehobeth Beach, Delaware. I accepted the invitation and look forward to a fun weekend in September. By the way, I'm waiting for 1230 to roll around . . .
Finally the U.S. has stepped up the competition a little bit! It was a close in by the US basketball team against Greece. The game Sunday was just ugly and I felt bad for Tim Duncan who is by far their best player, and can do hardly anything with the ball. He's always guarded by two men and as soon as he gets the ball he's fouled. You'd think the other players would be able to do a little better, but when you can shoot a jump shot for beans, and you're playing international style, you might as well just hang up your hat now, because plowing thru the middle of the court to slam the ball and show off on the rim just ain't gonna happen.

I'm debating whether to stay up until 1230 tonight to watch the Men's Volleyball match against The Netherlands. We all know I will, so let's just end that conversation right there.

And finally, is there any commercial on anymore that does not have Lance Armstrong it? About the only one I know of is that CapriSun commercial on MTV with the slow grandma and the kid that is either a dude or dudette. Frankly the fact that they air that commercial every other time is more annoying than seeing Lance in every other one.
Son of a biscuit!!! I thought this year was going to be it! This year was supposed to be the summer of no bee stings! But, just like old times, Fate looked down upon me and just laughed his keester off! I was practicing my basketball skills (which are mostly non-existent,) last evening in my driveway. I noticed a yellow jacket or two flying around the net after I was shooting for 10 minutes or so. Now, there have been nests in the basketball unit before, and I figured this year wasn't going to be different. So I just kept on playing. Well, it wasn't more than two layups later that one drills my right in my elbow. GAHHHH!! The little twirp even had the nerve to fly away without giving me the cold satisfaction of watching him die a painful death like it should have! Last year I got stung directing traffic for camp. The year before that, I was tying my shoelace before Ultimate and one landed on my little finger. Before that, it was at the basketball net again, I jumped right into one flying by. Before that I accidentally stepped on one. With no shoes on! Before that I was mowing the lawn and mowed right over a hole, that was a nest. Hornets all over my legs! I ran like the dickens! And this year was going to be it! Well, so much for that! It's a good thing I'm not allergic. A little inch and rash and swelling never hurt anyone . . . Unless they were allergic . . .

Monday, August 16, 2004

Wow, just when life throws a left hook, it follows it up with a right jab, a very unexpected move. From here on out, it is anyone's guess as to what could possibly happen next. Will it bring me crashing down, or could it present me with an opportunity that I could have never before imagined? I'm only left to ponder and dream up scenarios that will probably never happen. Whatever lies ahead, it's nice to know there will always be someone walking with me or even carrying me along the way . . .

Sunday, August 15, 2004

Well, another week has gone by and still I have not discovered the mysterious secretes of the crystal skulls. Not that I have been searching though. Some interesting events occurred last week that I cannot talk about yet, but the details will come soon. Finally I got to play some good volleyball tonight. Though I was Mr. Popular out there tonight it seems. I got picked up for two different leagues in the area. Count 'em, one, two! Turns out a few people think I'm good. One is at league at the park where I've been playing on Sundays. Supposedly, the team that drafted me has won the last 3 years, so I guess they think I'm good. Who doesn't want to play on the winning team? As long as I get some free t-shirts out of it! The other league is on Thursdays out at some high school across from Liecty's Flee Market. Not that you know where that is (well, some of you might) but I'm told that team is good as well. Let's hope I don't disappoint, and let's hope the offers to play in other leagues keep coming. Watch out 2012 Olympics! The great volleyball players are older fellows. Karch Kiraly is like 44 and could beat the crap out of any Olympic team at Greece. Too bad he didn't want to play. The man is only 6'2" and has a 44" vertical jump. Michael Jordan can't even match that! And Karch is a white boy! I bet he can't dance though . . .
Funny sometimes how we try so hard to make other people happy and pick them up, we sometimes sacrifice our own happiness. Then when we have our own swing at happiness we end up hurting those we tried so hard not too. Is happiness just a balancing act that we all accommodate. We all take our turn at the bottom and then at the top, only to just keep doing it over and over? Pain is something we all go thru and without it, we wouldn't be able to lessen the pain of other's. No one ever said life was going to be easy. Sometimes we just have to take the punches life throws at us in order to move on to the next match . . .

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Well, I must say, the opening ceremony of the 28th Modern Olympiad did not disappoint! And also, having the Olympics on 24.7 could just be the best thing NBC ever did. Today I got to watch the USA women's soccer team defeat Brazil, USA women's beach volleyball team A beat Norway, USA women's indoor volleyball lose to China, and a sport called Synchronized Diving that just about impressed the crap out of me! I must say, for someone that doesn't watch TV, I will be watching a heck of a lot these next few weeks. Maybe someday I'll get to witness these games close up.

Thursday, August 12, 2004

Some of you have inquired about the missing pictures on my blog. Particularly the one of me with my tongue hanging out. Well, Messiah College finally decided to shut my college webpage down which contained all my beautiful pictures and homepage. This means no more pictures until I can find another free web server to put the stuff on. I am currently accepting donations and free offers . . .

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Just as a side note, the reason the word "bee" was never mentioned in yesterday's story is because yellow jackets are not bees, they are yellow jackets. I just wanted everyone to be on the same page with that (this is where if you've been to Stony Brook Summer Camp anytime in the last few years, you'd laugh your pants off).

The past few days I've been power washing the back porch. You don't realize how dirty something is until you've power washed it with water pressure that can tear thru your skin like it was lime green Jell-O. But my wrist is recovering. For those of you that like to color using only one color, then power washing is the thing for you. I find it incredible boring and often times wonder why I'm spraying and inch from my foot with bare feet . . .

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Here's a story I just feel the need to share with everyone! When you think nothing else could go wrong . .

Ashley has had a yellow jacket problem for a while now. He has noticed the yellow jackets flying into and out from his attic overhang for weeks now. So last week he told his wife to pick up some fumigation bombs so he could rid himself of them all. He scoped out the inside of the attack earlier and decided they were somehow getting into and under the insulation. When his wife returned from the store with a can of spray instead of fumigation bombs, Ashley wasn't too happy. His wife stated that she didn't want to fumes flowing into the house, so she got the spray instead. Ashley insisted that the fumes would spread throughout the house and that he would stung if he just went after the yellow jackets with some spray.

So Ashley picked up a few bombs on his way home from work one day and this weekend decided to do the deed. So Ashley donned a couple pairs of pants and shirts, some tube socks, gloves, a scarf and his trusty motorcycle helmet, and dragged himself to the attic. He duct taped a bomb to the end of a long pole and held tight a can of spray in the other hand. Ashley set the bomb off and stuck it into the crevice where the insects were hiding. Soon, they started to fly around, and with his visor fogging up from the scarf keeping all air from flowing in and out of his helmet, Ashley held the attacking yellow jackets off with his can of spray. He quickly got out of there and let the bomb do it's thing.

After this, he was skeptical he killed them all. Once he got down to the kitchen to wash his hands, he could hear the angry stingers buzzing around frantically above him in the attic. He figured he'd go outside, pick some tomatoes and come back in and see how things went. So about four hours later Ashley comes back inside and begins to get ready for bed. It's about 930PM now and Ashley's two kids are in bed, with he and his wife moving there fast. But, before he laid down for the night, he checked to see if he could hear any more yellow jackets. In his underwear, Ashley stood in the dark of his kitchen silently listening for any activity above him. He slowly crept his ear towards the ceiling, breathing slow so he could any signs from above. Nothing. It was dead silent. Just for a final check, he raised his knuckle to the ceiling to tap on it, and see if any noises came them. As soon as his knuckle touched the ceiling to rap, his hand went right through!

Ashley quickly pulled his hand out as hundreds of angry yellow jackets quickly come buzzing out of the newly formed hole in the ceiling! He shouted to his wife upstairs, "HERE THEY COME! GET THE KIDS OUT!" Ashley's wife grabbed the kids from their beds as Ashley moved quickly to find the cats. He grabbed one, and tossed it in the car in the garage just after Ashley's wife and kids climbed in. He quickly found the other cat, scared, under the bed upstairs. He grabbed it around the neck, pulled it out and tossed it in the car next. As Ashley returned to the kitchen from the garage he grabbed a half empty bee killer spray can, a fly swatter and the remaining two fumigation bombs. Suddenly Ashley is back in the kitchen with the enraged insects flying all around him! He frantically fires the bug spray all over hitting any and all objects moving and not. Luckily the room was dark with but one light on where the yellow jackets were drawn to. Ashley empties the spray can spraying anything he sees move!

Once everything was quite, he took a bomb, ignited it and held it right up to the hole in the ceiling. Hundreds of yellow jackets and larva began twitching and falling out all over the sink and on the floor. Ashley grabbed a screwdriver and rammed it into the ceiling in an effort to make the hole bigger so he could extinguish all of them! But the ceiling would no longer budge. So he ran to the garage and grabbed his jigsaw passing his wife, kids, and pets still in the car. He began to cut a two foot square of drywall all around the hole in the ceiling. Suddenly the cut portion comes crashing to the sink and floor with yellow jacket nests all over the place! Ashley released the second bomb into the attic and finally terminated any remaining resistance. About a half hour or so after that, Ashley told his wife and family that it was okay to come back in the house. He then screwed in a temporary piece of drywall into the ceiling to cover the already missing piece.

With bee and wasp spray all over the kitchen, dead yellow jackets spewed about and a trash bag completely full with the nest that was in the attic, the excitement was over and the cleaning began.

Monday, August 09, 2004

I have some issues with Amy calling me old, but I guess you can't deny the truth. This weekend I spent partying, rollercoastering, and driving. And it was tons fun. Though if it were up to me, next time I would not be paying $30 bucks to ride 4 rides at Six Flags: Great Adventure. Thanks to 1.5 hour lines, I wound up paying $7.50 per ride. Maybe Hershey Park next time where the rollercoasters are just as good (yeah they are, don't argue with me) and you can ride more of them in one day, thus paying less per ride.

I did get to do some serious DDR (that crazy dance video game with the arrows) action and found out I'm not very good. I believe "white boy" was referred to me on multiple occasions (funny being that nearly every person there was white, especially those that were making the comments). The good news I did get better, the bad news is I can't practice at home to beat people later. There's just something not right about a 23 year old dude dancing on a dance pad with his dad watching him and no one else . . .

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

I received some interesting emails about my previous post about a dream that I have had. I don't consider myself an expert on dreams, but I have studied them for quite some time and can talk intelligently about what dreams mean. However, there are different views about what dreams mean. Some would say dreams symbolize the future. Most dream interpretation books take this approach. This is like saying, if you dream about books you will gain great knowledge in the future. There is also the suppressed dream view. This view assumes dreams unlock the subconscious and tell us who we are and how we see things. Since I am no futurist (though I do believe in knowing the future) I tend to fall more on the supressed dream view. Dreams can tell us a world of insight about ourselves . . . but why? Some of my readers will undoubtedly argue against what I am about to say, and that's okay, all I ask is to respect my beliefs as I do your's. What if a part of us (whether it be our mind or soul) has a forth dimensional depth? Let me break it down one dimension for you. If you were cut out a square (okay, so I'm borrowing from Flatland here) from a piece of paper and lay it flat on a surface, you would say it was only 2 dimensional right? WRONG! It does have 3 dimensions! The problem is that the third is so insignificant we choose to ignore it. What if the 4th dimension (consider I am choosing to label Time as the 4th dimension here) of life was but an insignificant part that we just choose to ignore it? Now what if our subconscious does NOT ignore it? Dreams would thus be an insight into the future (and I know at least one person who has seen visions of the future). Would this also not solve the riddle of deja vu? Now I know physiologists just pass that off as saying you accidentally write to the long term memory instead of the short term memory in our brains, but there is no proof of that. What if this incredible world around us was so much more than we could possibly believe and experience? Why wouldn't it be? There's thing in life you could argue about all day long! But when it really comes down to the basics of it, it all becomes Faith.

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

There's just something about being under water for me. Maybe it's the extreme stillness, or perhaps the silence, or even the complete freedom you have to go whichever which way you care to go. Under water you can fly, you have super hearing and can feel the water creepy around you. It's a time to let your thoughts run while and just experience the moment. That is what I did tonight. There's a lot going through my mind right now and I'm not quite yet how to take it all in.

Last night, I had an interesting dream. Hmmm, now that I think about it I won't get to details about the actual dream in this entry, there's too much to talk about leading up to it. The funny thing about this dream is how vivid it was. Never could I recall a dream longer than a few hours after I wake from it, aside from a few, but never ever in quite so much detail. Years ago I used to hate dreaming! My dreams mocked me with a life that I wanted to live. I eventually got to the point where I didn't even recall my dreams. For all I new I dreamed of nothing but emptiness and black the whole night. And I was very satisfied. Then years passed and things changed and I decided to dream a little and gain some insight into who I was. I would do things in my dreams that I wouldn't dare do in the real world, but still keeping my dreams to a minimum. Still I am reluctant to allow myself to remember all of my dreams at night for fear of getting absorbed in them once again. The thing about last night's dream is that I dreamed it years ago back when I didn't want to dream. The odd thing is I had forgotten about the original dream until last night. Now I wonder if the dreams I dreamed years ago are still hiding in the back of my mind waiting to reveal the past I left behind. In my dream last night, I remembered the events that took place years ago in the first dream. In my dream I was but the same age I was last time the dream took place, yet the years had still passed by. . .

The dream is your typical bizaro dream and if your curious I could lay out exactly what happened but it's not the events in the dream that interest me. What concerns me is what my mind is hiding without me even knowing it . . .
I have too much to talk about tonight and not enough time to write. More to come in small doses . . .

Monday, August 02, 2004

I wasn't done yet with my other post, but hey, A guys gotta eat! So I had a dentist appointment today. When I was little I used to hate going so much! In fact I remember some times I even faked sick so I didn't have to go (sorry Mom, the truths gotta come out some time). Anyway, so now that I'm an old fart going to the dentist is no big whoop. So I walk in and sit in the patient chair and no sooner am I sitting down than the dentalhygentist starts talking to me. "OK, fine." I thought. So she talked, and asked me questions and still talked and asked me more questions. Usually it's not a problem when people talk to me but I've got a stupid Mr. Slurpy in my mouth and that annoying buzzer thing. I can't say a word! Then she starts going to down with the dental floss! "Easy lady! Save some of that gum so you can do that 6 months from now!" Oh well. It got me out of work early so a little pain every six months isn't too bad.

And before I forget! A Happy One Year Aniversery to my great friends Andy and Janet! Lets keep the adventures of tonight to ourselves, okay?
Despite my 6AM wake-up page on Saturday morning my weekend turned out to be pretty fun. Kate came to visit for the weekend which allowed me to deliver pretty much the biggest beat down of Mario Golf (GCN) of all time! Of course, what is a victory without a crap load of trash talk? And in typical Jimmy fashion, I always hand out the trash talk. It was then ironic that Sunday church service was comparing the game of Monopoly to the monopoly Jesus holds on eternity. As the pastor (who is also my neighbor (he has three daughters (Julie, Christen, and Barnie (Bonnie)) all of which I love to hang out with and beat at video games such as Goldeneye (N64))) was talking about Monopoly and power and complete control, Barnie kept giving me evil stares. Of course she's remembering the time I relentlessly and masterfully destroyed her and her sisters at the game. Apparently she holds a grudge. Of course, in typical Jimmy fashion, I challenged her to another game of Monopoly with a nice evil grin, already planning my strategy for conquest! With her decline I decided to back off a little and just challenge her to some nice Goldeneye (N64) action. Too bad I'm way better at Goldeneye (N64) then I am at Monopoly! She knows that, I'll just have to refresh her memory.