My life documented.

makotosan @ 2009-04-30T09:43:00

2009-04-30T13:45:00Z

So I haven't been keeping this up as I had planned.

I also haven't been focusing on the goals I had set out for myself, such as study Japanese. I find myself being distracted with other tasks, such as fixing Seiji's computer, or attempting to clean up my room or taking care of paperwork.

makotosan @ 2009-04-27T09:25:00

2009-04-27T13:29:02Z

Before waking up, I vaguely remember having a bit of an unusual dream... but then again, I think most of them are. I just remember someone was killed intentionally, and they wanted to be, so that a witch-like ceremony could take place to bring them back to life. They were buried into a hole that was in my backyard, and then they were covered with some concoction, and then with branches and twigs. Weird indeed.

Woke up a little late this morning. I think it was because Torochan kept crying in the morning. Steph ended up being the one that reluctantly woke up to feed the cats. Although he had food, he still kept crying. It was about 8:50 that I woke up and then I quickly took a shower to get ready, followed by my routine of applying antiperspirant, brushing teeth, and gel in my hair. Before I took a shower though, I did step on the scale as I do every morning while waiting for the hot water to arrive to the shower. I was a bit saddened as it seems that I am now gaining weight. I was down to 173 but have let myself go and indulge into eating ever since we took a cruise. I need to change my mindset and get back to eating well and exercising. I am now up to 183 :(. Steph starts her "miracle diet" today so that should help keep me motivated as well.

Gave Steph a kiss before I rushed out the door. With the construction going on, it slowed down traffic, but I took a short cut by the Amazon Village Mall. Got to work around 9:20am. Now I have to wash out my bowl so that I can eat some cereal here at the office.

11:12 AM - Filling out a goal planning review sheet for work. Having a hard time thinking of what to put in it.

Lunch time 12:15ish - Went to Chicken Lickin' with the rest of the crew.

Got back to the office. Merged in some changes from v1.6.5 branch to our trunk. Had some issues with that... of course.

Now working on running these unit tests and fixing bugs to make them pass.

An attempt to document my life.

2009-04-27T03:45:17Z

I've decided that I will try to keep a daily journal of everything I do, so that I can look back and reflect on what I spend my time doing and seeing what I can change.

I think I woke up around 10:30 or so this morning, took a shower and was pretty hungry. I wanted to have some cereal, more specifically I wanted to try out the "Chocolate Marshmallow Mateys", which is essentially Coco Puffs with marshmallows. Unfortunately, we were out of milk, but Steph volunteered to go to the store to pick up some milk and other groceries. I probably ended up eating around 11.

Afterwards, I went to the back yard to adjust the new wide-angle camera that I switched out from the zoom camera that was in there before. I like that I can see pretty much all of the back yard now, although, I still feel that the Q-See 48030 camera has a better image. From now on, I think the rest of the cameras that I upgrade.... if I upgrade, since the wife doesn't like the idea, will be the Q-See 48030.

I feel like I should spend my time being productive, so I wanted to clean up a bit. I vacuumed and steam cleaned the rug by the TV, it really needed it. I then started to clean up the spare bedroom and organize it. I can finally see most of the carpet, and I was able to steam clean it more. It still smells like cat pee in one corner when Kit ran in there and was scared.

I like spending time with Kit and the other cats, but I find myself with little patience and getting bored of doing any one activity pretty quickly, and then tend to not spend a lot of time with the cats.

We had left over curry for lunch. It was good. We should cook curry more frequently since it tends to last a long time and will save us money.

I snacked on a Fuji apple before having the curry for lunch.

Steph left around 6:30 to go to her APO meeting. She's no longer an active brother since it's her last semester.

I wanted to study some Java programming but I think I'm putting it off until I get a book that I ordered online.

Spoke to Ghizlane online a bit. She's a girl from Morocco that found my through Skype since I live in Orlando. She's flying in in a few days, May 4th I think she said. She had a bunch of questions about living here, such as lodging and transportation. I bet an out of state tuition will be expensive for her.

Which reminds me, I decided to go through the mail and noticed that UCF needed documents sent to them proving that I'm a local resident. Mailed over a copy of my passport, driver's license and vehicle registration.

When the wife got home from her meeting, she asked if she should pick up food and I asked for Firehouse. It was closed so she came home empty handed. We drove to Subway instead. They were one meat ball short of being able to make a full foot long sub, so they charged me for a 6" instead. I added spinach and jalapenos to it. They also toasted it when I asked them not to, but it wasn't that big of a deal.

Afterwards, we watched Family guy and Simpsons, then I finished cleaning the spare bedroom.

One more thing.... dogs drool.

2006-05-23T04:24:21Z

I'm also a lot happier and less stressed out now.

My brother had the "great" idea of getting a dog a few months ago. I reluctantly agreed to it.

That dog was a big nightmare. She'd make a mess out of everything. Slobering everywhere. Tracking in the dirt from outside. Digging holes in the yard. Pooping everywhere. Peeing on the carpet. Chewing up the furniture. Constantly bothering you. Barking unnecessarily. Scratching at the doors. I could not think of a good reason for having that dog, but every day, I was constantly reminded why I didn't like the dog. I had to put up a barricade between the kitchen and the living room so that the dog could not go into the living room and pee in it, and it was annoying having the dog run to the front door every time someone came over and I had to hold her back so she wouldn't run out.

I've done nothing but complain about the dog every day. My brother FINALLY gave the dog up for adoption on Saturday. I was very happy with his decision, although I feel a bit bad that he had to give up the dog, but it was for the best. The dog will have a family that will be able to spend time to train her, and be able to give her the attention she needs. That dog was always left alone since my brother was always too busy, and I was busy myself.

After that experience, I can confidently say that I am not a dog person. Cats are a lot easier to take care of, and a lot cleaner too.

Captain's log... star date .....

2006-05-23T02:44:22Z

It's been a LONG time since I've written here. I'm a little bored at the moment so I thought I'd update this.

Here's a quick recap of what happened over the weekend.

Friday: Took the day off work. I was just way too tired and out of it to go into work, and I'm glad that I took the day off. I was able to sleep in and relax during the day. Felt very very nice.

Saturday: Steph and I went to the Fringe Festival for the third year. I saw this show called "Mental Mania" starring Mark Stone. He's a "mentalist" who performs ESP performances. Very impressive performance, not sure how he did some of his tricks, but I was very impressed. Afterwards, I met up with my dad to help him shop for computer parts so that he can build a new computer.

Sunday: Steph, Steph's parents, and I went to the Fringe Festival again. This time we went to see a show called "All Expenses Paid". I was anticipating something pretty crappy and boring. To my delight, the show had a great story line behind it, and the actors were pretty talented in their performance, although their props and scenes could have used some work.

My desktop computer is acting up again for some reason. I have no idea what the problem is exactly, but I'm starting to think that it has something to do with the on-board RAID controller. Every time my computer acts up, my RAID array is messed up and I have to rebuild it. I'm thinking about a dedicated RAID controller card.

I can make it better!

2005-05-03T04:22:58Z

If you, or anybody you know would like to have your XBOX or PS2 modified, I am the man to do it.

If you want to be able to add a hard drive to your PS2 and save your games onto the hard drive so that you don't have to use the CDs anymore, or want to play "backup" versions of your games, you'll need to have it modified.

Also, if you want to be able to do the same with the XBOX and take advantage of MANY kewl features, like running emulators on the XBOX, Media Center, play games from the hard drive, and MUCH more, then you'll need it modified.

I've done a lot of research on the software and hardware that works the best to modify these consoles, and will be glad to show you my setups too.

I've found this to be a very fun and relaxing hobby. You need to have a lot of patience to modify these units when you solder these VERY tiny points and wire the intricate mod-chips on.

Here's what I've decided to charge:
$100 for the chip and installation, which includes installation of the appropriate software, and flashing the ModChip, and that's for either XBOX or PS2. It's well worth it once you've gone through 2 or more of your game backups, since games can cost on average of $50 each.

TCHS Prom 2005

2005-05-02T06:11:37Z

I've been to 3 different proms for 3 different schools, with 3 different dates... if you really want to call them dates. Well... now I've been to my 4th prom, and I can truly say that it was unlike any of the other proms I've ever been to. The other ones were kind of awkward, and didn't feel quite right, even the one at my own school.

This time, I was with a very special person, Steph of course. Although I don't really know anyone else at the school other than a few of Steph's friends, I felt very comfortable there, I think it's just Steph in general, I always feel safe and comfortable around her.

For the most part, it was a lot of fun. I felt like a star riding in the limo. The music could have been better, only a few songs you could actually "Dance" to. Most of the songs were just repetitive heavy bass that people just bob up and down to.

The food was delicious, we had Chicken Marsala and this heavenly chocolate cake for dessert.

Afterwards, we went to Steak and Shake for dinner, big mistake, not a place to sit with everyone else going there, so we weren't able to sit down with the rest of the gang.

We ended up going to Denny's a few miles away, in CHS territory and out of TCHS area. Nice and quiet, without too many people.

I had a great time, and am glad that Steph spent her senior prom with me.

makotosan @ 2005-04-19T17:46:00

2005-04-19T21:46:41Z

Your HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy Adventure by Aeryn12
Username
You will travel to	Margrathea- A legendary planet. Generally regarded as a myth, the Magratheans manufacture whole planets. They lived most of their lives beneath the surface of Magrathea, because they didn't much like the surface
with	buried_rainbow
in order to	Improve the Guide
you will kill	aeryn12
with	an Electronic Thumb
because	They lost their Towel
you will return to Earth on	December 24, 5120
with	Benjy Mouse

Quiz created with MemeGen!

Very moving

2005-04-05T01:18:08Z

Chito lent me "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", and I watched it last night. There were so many scenes in there that triggered many memories of Steph and I, most were very happy. After watching that movie, I think I fell even deeper in love with Steph. The memories that it had triggered were so strong... I'm embarassed to say this.... it had made my eyes water a bit.

I was able to relate to this movie because there have been a few times that I wanted to forget about Steph, because it hurt me so much when we have disagreements, but then again, I would never want to lose the wonderful memories I have of her.

Found it!

2005-01-27T22:24:40Z

I was watching the ScreenSavers on TechTV and saw this site for a great new mapping sat, that's supposed to be better than MapQuest.

After watching the show, I forgot the link and haven't been able to find it til just now.

Check it out, it's http://www.us.map24.com .

Random babble.

2005-01-21T10:53:31Z

For anybody that needs to find good computer reference books, I recommend books published by Wrox. It seems that their books are the most useful. The Wrox line of books have multiple authors, which help ensure a good amount of various information. In 2nd, I'd recommend books by Microsoft Press (only if it's for a Microsoft technology of course).

I just watched "I, Robot". Steph told me that some of her friends said that movie is not good, but I don't know why anybody would say that. It was a great movie. The movie takes place in the future, but wasn't set in a cheesy Hollywood future with flying cars. The movie isn't very predictable, so it keeps you wondering what's going to happen next. Lots of special effects and action, and the ending is very happy and emotional, it almost makes you want to cry.

I also just bought the game "Pikmin" for the Game Cube, used for $15. It's a lot of fun to play, and it's one of those "cute" games.

With my last paycheck, I was able to pay off one of my credit cards, buy a few things on eBay, and buy a new 19" LCD monitor. I still have to get one more, but I'm going to wait til my next paycheck. I've been billing the company for 50 hours of work instead of 40, so that brings in an extra $300/week.

Anybody that wants a REALLY nice 35mm camera, I have a Nikon 6006 that I'm no longer using and looking to sell.

It's been a little over 2 weeks since I've ordered and paid for my new transmission for my car, and it still hasn't arrived :( It better come very soon, it's frustrating not being able to drive.

Regret

2005-01-21T10:28:04Z

I once heard that it's better to regret something that you have done, than to regret something that you haven't done.

I don't know if I can really agree with this statement. Lately, a lot of things that I now regret doing are starting to get to me. Most of the things I that I have have lead to some negative financial consequences. For example, I regret the way that I used my credit cards, I regret the way I drove in the past that has now lead to very high insurance rates, I regret spending my money foolishly, etc etc.

I guess it's been a tough lesson learned, and at the rate I'm going now, I'll put all this behind me and be worry-free in no time.

Not having someone there to guide me, I've unfortunately have had to learn a lot of lessons the hard way. I've always been left to do things on my own, which I guess is good now, it has helped me become independent, but I also wish I had someone to always push me in the right direction.

I'm not sure if I could handle not having someone like Steph around, I have grown very close to her, and can turn to her when I'm feeling worried and stressed out. She also makes sure that I don't spend my money too foolishly when she's around.

Kewl!

2005-01-14T12:55:15Z

I know this is going to sound geeky, but I just found out that there is StepMania for the XBOX!!! I compiled it and got it setup on my XBOX, took a while to get it all setup and transfer the songs onto my XBOX, but it's all up and working now! It's just so amazing what this XBOX can do. Well worth the money I put into it.

My car is still not working :( This guy needs to hurry up and ship out my transmission so I can drive again. Lately Steph has been nice enough to come drive to see me. I love it when she comes over!

Welll... I should be going to bed now, it's 7:55 AM.

Priorities?

2004-12-26T13:11:56Z

I think my problem is that I don't think cleaning my room is a priority, and then find myself doing something that I think would be a more valuable use of my time, yet strangely enough, I desire to have a clean room.

A bigger room would alleviate this problem.... or maybe it would just give me more space to make a mess in, lol.

Anyways... Christmas just ended.

Here's a recap of how it went.

I drove to my Grandmother's on Christmas Eve, only to have my transmission just about go out on the way there... it started vibrating REALLY bad and didn't shift quite right anymore. Got a gift card and some checks from my relatives.

Got back home, waited a few hours, my mom and stepdad came over. I gave them their gifts, and they gave us ours (us is my brother and I). I got some new shirts along with some money. That same night, I gave my brother his gift, which was a Logitech Driving Force Steering wheel for the PS2, which I later found out also works fot the PC. He gave me my gift which is a 5 DVD set of Jackie Chan's older movies (I'm a big fan of Jackie Chan).

Christmas day... woke up much earlier than I cared to... I was supposed to be at my Dad's at 8:30 am... but I slept through my alarm, and then found myself waking up to my phone at 8:30 wondering if I'm on my way yet or not, lol. They did expect us to arrive late because I told them of how my brother and I both go to bed very late (6:00 am usually). I'm a bit embarassed to tell you what I got from them, but I suppose I will say since it's pretty funny.

I felt the gift inside the wrapping paper... and immediately knew what it was, especially since it's the same things they got us last year. That's right... another year of getting an electric toothbrush, toothpaste, calendar, and a chocolate bar, but at least this year they gave us $100 Simon Visa gift cards.

Afterwards, I got home and took a nap. Waited for Steph to get back to her place from her brother's so that I could see her and give her her gift. I drove there with my car that vibrates like an earthquake since it has a bad transmission, and was very glad to see her. Steph gave me my presents, which she really did not have to do. She gave me a very nice necklace. I would have been happy even if it was a plastic necklace, as long as it was from her, but she really went overboard and got me a nice silver necklace. She also got me this nifty rock water fountain. It's sitting in my bathroom at the moment, I was thinking about putting it in the living room, but now that it's there, it makes a nice addition. Her grandmother for some unknown reason decided to get me a gift which consisted of a nice picture to put on the empty spot of my wall in my room. Her family was very nice and allowed me to come over for dinner.

I've really felt myself growing a lot closer to Steph lately and feel very comfortable with her now. Not only is she my best friend, but I also love her very much... it's practically starting to feel like we're married now, lol. Surprisingly we haven't even had any big arguments anymore... I'm having a hard time recalling the last time we did have one. I find myself thinking about her more and more often, and thinking about how happy I am when I'm with her.

I know she wants to go to college and have her freedom, my biggest fear is losing her. I would never be able to find anybody as special and unique as her. I guess I'll just have to play it by ear for now. I won't ask her to stay here or keep her from being happy, I am supportive of her decision and want her to be happy while she's at school.

I'm back

2004-12-16T21:05:41Z

It's been a while since I've wrote here.

Lemme recap a few things.

Went to see Stephen Lynch and Mitch Hedburg perform live at the Hard Rock Live. Mitch Hedburg sucked and was just babbling while he was drunk. Stephen Lynch was awesome... full of energy and really funny and quick witted.

I no longer work doing the websites for the NASCAR Regional Racing series. I'm now a contract employee that works at home and makes much better money.

Things with Steph and I are still going well. We've both been pretty busy lately.

Christmas is coming up and I have no idea what to get anybody.

My license is still suspended until I take a 12 hour Advanced Driver Improvement class to get it reinstated.

I bought an XBOX, modded it and it's REALLY awesome.

That's basically it for now. I have to get back into the momentum of updating this.

All work and no play makes Makoto a dull boy.

2004-11-18T08:35:28Z

Well... it's been a while since I've updated.

I've been UBER busy lately. I now have two jobs, but fortunately, both of them I work at home.

I was supposed to write a long time ago and tell you how homecoming went with Steph and I. It went well, something that I will not forget, and Steph just gave me the pictures from homecoming today, and fortunately they came out real well.

I still do the websites for the NASCAR Regional Racing series.... well, sort of. We've moved it over to a new server, and I now have less control of it. That's not so bad for me, since I now have a valid excuse for not being able to perform certain tasks with our website.

I am also now working on a project for myinstantreplay.com . It's been keeping me VERY busy, I've been pulling some all-nighters lately, staying up til 5 am trying to get my work done. Schoolwork is falling behind a bit but I can still manage. Speaking of which, I just realized that I have a presentation to make Thursday (today) at 5:45, and it could last a few hours, which would interfere with my class, not a big deal since it's a self paced class.

I got a phone call this afternoon from a company that I submitted my resume to, they asked me a few questions, asking me about my experience, skills, etc etc. They told me that the starting salary would be around $50~60,000! That's some nice money if you ask me. If I qualify for this job and take it on, I could be looking at making close to $100,00/year! But then I'd have like 0 free time for anything else. I do need the money though, I've got to get out of debt. I guess I'll see how things go.

Time to get back to work.

Happy Birthday!

2004-11-04T20:05:38Z

It's official! My girlfriend is now legal! Steph officially turned 18 today,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPH!!

I already gave her presents to her on the day of her Halloween/birthday party.

Also, I'm happy to say that I will be going to Steph's homecoming. She had to go through a lot of trouble to get me a ticket, I love her so much. She had to talk to the administrators and write an essay. I've already got my suit, and got my haircut today. I'm excited! I've never gone to my own school's homecoming, this will be something new and exciting for me.

I'm at home right now. My boss called this morning and said that I could stay home and work, since I've been showing him that I have been keeping the site up to date more than I would working at the office. My plan has worked!!

For those of you that were too lazy to download this song...

2004-11-04T05:19:14Z

Listen to this, it's humorous, and I agree that mosf of what he says is true too.

Lazyboy - Underwear Goes Inside the Pant

Skit night

2004-11-04T04:45:40Z

Today I took off work early, like 12:00 early. I left simply because I felt like I was wasting my time working inside of a flourescent lit, windowless office with an inferior computer. While at home, I've tried to ensure that I show that I am being much more productive than I would be at the office, in an attempt to encourage my boss to allow me to work at home.

Steph invited me out to her school's skit night. I've never seen this before, and I must say it was rather..... interesting.

Steph was unexpectedly recruited to be in the Senior class skit, a last minute unrehearsed performance. Needless to say... it was very poorly done :( You were great on stage Steph, it was just that the skit sucked, as I'm sure everyone who saw it would agree, but what do you expect for something that wasn't even supposed to take place?

Several other mind numbing skits went on until the drama club appeared on stage. I was impressed with their witty performance and interesting skit they had put together, but I suppose that is expected from a drama club. There were a few other skits that left me amused, and others left me confused.

cybe performed for the poetry club, it was interesting to watch him perform, even though they were missing half of the script and improvised the rest.

Afterwards, I drove Steph to meet up with her mom. Her mom was attending a "bunco" game (don't ask because I don't know either). We sat around, had some complimentary cheesecake and soda.

That pretty much concludes the night.

Minimum Wage increase

2004-11-04T04:36:30Z

I was doing some research and found this:

While minimum wage increases generally receive substantial public support, economists have generally relied on the above analysis to argue that such legislation will result in an increase in the unemployment rate in low-wage labor markets. In recent years, however, a series of studies by David Card, Alan B. Krueger, Lawrence F. Katz, and others have suggested that small to moderate increases in the minimum wage will have no adverse effects on unemployment (and may even lead to reduced unemployment). There are a number of theoretical models that can explain such results. Among these are:

monopsony models, and

efficiency wage models.

http://www.swlearning.com/economics/policy_debates/increase_minimum.html

And also found:

A solid body of contemporary research has found no job loss resulting from modest increases in the minimum wage. For example, research by the Economic Policy Institute found that the 1996 and 1997 minimum wage increases did not cause job loss. There was no negative employment effect among either teens or adults. In fact, adults actually experienced a small, though not statistically significant, increase in employment.*
EPI found that raising the minimum wage did not reduce the employment of minorities and women. Raising the minimum wage was associated with statistically significant employment increases among teenage Latinas, less-educated adult women and less-educated adult African American women. For whites and for African Americans overall, the minimum wage increase resulted in neither significant positive nor negative employment effects.
According to a 1999 study by the Jerome Levy Economics Institute, the last increase in the minimum wage did not affect the overwhelming majority of small businesses. Nine out of 10 (89.1 percent) of the small businesses surveyed said the last increase did not have an effect on their employment or hiring decisions.

http://www.aflcio.org/yourjobeconomy/minimumwage/myths/myths7.cfm

But also in defense of keeping the minimum wage, and not increasing it:

It has been well documented that the minimum wage destroys jobs, particularly the jobs of low-skilled, young workers. However, there are other equally pernicious side effects of higher minimum wages. Higher minimum wages make it more difficult for people to leave welfare and induce high-school students to drop out.

Dr. Peter Brandon of the Institute for Research on Poverty studied how raising the minimum wage affect the transition from welfare to work. [7] He found that raising it keeps welfare mothers on welfare longer. Mothers on welfare in states that raised their minimum wage remained on welfare 44 percent longer than mothers on welfare in states where it was not raised.[8]

The reason for this result is that raising the minimum wage induces some people to enter the labor market who would not apply if not for the higher level. With a larger labor market, employers choose higher-skilled applicants. Thus, raising the minimum wage hurts low-skilled workers in two ways. First, there are fewer jobs available. Second, with a larger pool of applicants, competition is stiffer. Low-skilled workers have a more difficult time getting those job skills that are crucial to economic well-being.

Another side effect of raising the minimum wage is that it increases the number of high-school students who drop out. [9] Some of these students do not find employment. Another group of students are part of those applicants that compete jobs away from welfare recipients. Dropping out of school is very destructive. High school drop-outs have a very difficult time improving their well-being.

http://www.house.gov/jec/cost-gov/regs/minimum/against/against.htm

Increasing the minimum wage will do little to improve the conditions of poor Americans. Relatively few of those workers who receive wages at or near the minimum are members of poor families. For those poor who are working, wage increases are substantial and come quickly as they accumulate job experience. Increasing the minimum wage will, however, eliminate entry-level jobs for unskilled workers, making it more difficult for those who want to work to find jobs.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Labor/tst042904a.cfm

Personally, I'm not sure if I'm for or against it, since I don't it affecting me immediately since myself, and everybody that I know makes more than minimum wage. Even though I did vote for it, I can't strongly back that decision, nor can I support being against it. You have people who have researched this, some say it will have little effect, some say it will hurt jobs. Poverish communities could benefit from a minimum wage increase, it could be a step closer for families to overcome poverty. Then again, it could also make it more difficult for people to find jobs if employers can't afford to hire. I've tried to research the minimum wage increase that occured from 1996 to 1997, but came back with inconclusive results.

Free iPOD

2004-11-03T15:02:55Z

If anybody wants a free iPOD, please visit the following link.
http://www.freeiPods.com/?r=7238784

You're probably wondering "What's the catch?"

The catch is... you must register for one of their offers, some will cost you no money. I signed up for the Blockbuster online movie rental trial, just stay with them for two weeks, and cancel, and it will cost you nothing.

Then you have to have five of your friends register, and after all that, you get a free $250 iPOD.

OMFG LMAO!!!

2004-11-03T06:24:23Z

Listen to "Underwear Goes Inside The Pants" by Lazyboy.

I thought it was very amusing and funny.

For those that don't know...

2004-11-02T04:41:41Z

For information about the history of daylight saving time... check out the following links:

http://www.energy.ca.gov/daylightsaving.html

http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/

Hi. My name is Makoto and I'm a Stephaholic.

2004-11-01T17:49:29Z

Alright, I know this is going to sound very corny and cheesy, but I think I'm addicted to Steph now. Like a crack or heroin addict, I can't seem to function at 100% or be 100% happy without her presence.

I'm sitting here at work frustrated with this job. I'm going to have a little discussion with my boss, and try to convince him to allow me to work from home. Driving 20 miles to work to work in a more stressful environment with inferior equipment just doesn't make sense to me.

I really hope that I will be able to go to Steph's homecoming. I have never been to my homecoming, and I'm glad that my first time going to homecoming will be with Steph.

Sunday SUNDAY SUNDAY!!! Catch an exciting day filled with excitement!

2004-11-01T07:13:09Z

Well... let's see...

We start off the day well having an extra hour. I didn't get a chance to use that hour to sleep because I couldn't go back to sleep after I woke up at 7:30. I kept having so many thoughts go through my mind and having these awful nightmares that kept me up. I got so frustrated and upset that I couldn't get back to sleep, I decided I'd just wake up around 9 am (for those of you that know me, know this is VERY early for me on a weekend since I usually wake up past 12).

A few hours later, my brother woke up. I was hungry, and so was he. I figured we could both go out and grab a bite to eat together, so we did. We ended up going to Pollo Tropical (I think it was formerly named TropiGrill). I was soo hungry at the time that I ordered the 1/2 chicken meal, which was very filling, and I couldn't even finish it all. My eyes were much bigger than my stomach. The funny thing is... there was this old guy in front of me. He decided to throw on a few spices at the spice counter onto his rice. He started off with some barbecue sauce on his chicken and on his rice. He then reached for the Tabasco sauce. For those of you that have used Tabasco sauce, you know that there is a plastic cap on top with a tiny little hole so that when you shake the bottle upside down, little tiny drops are sprinkled onto your food. I'm sure this old guy thought this too, and proceeded to begin sprinkling it onto his food. Well... he quickly realized that it wasn't sprinkling.... he POURED it onto his food. The plastic "restrictor plate" wasn't on the bottle and he poured a ton of it on there. I felt pretty bad for him. I couldn't help but watch him to see if he would eat it. I saw him taking a spoon and spooning off the sauce from his food. Surprisingly he still ate it.

Ok, now that we're done with lunch, we went to the Mitsubishi dealership where my brother wanted to test drive an Eclipse, particularly a V6 manual transmission Eclipse with the premium package. Unfortunately they didn't have that, so he test drove a manual 4 cylinder model, and an automatic V6 model. Needless to say, neither of us were very impressed. We were slightly pleased with the interior, but not really wowed over by anything.

There was a Toyota dealership on the way back home, and I decided to go there to test drive the Toyota Prius, Toyota's hybrid gas/electric vehicle which gets amazing gas mileage. I'm looking for a daily driver car that doesn't consume as much fuel as my car does. They were out of Priuses and won't get any available for who knows how long. They told me that there is a guy that has been waiting 9 months to get one and still doesn't have it. I asked what would be a car that they have that has great mileage. They suggested the Corolla. I sat in the Corolla, and was immediately turned off by the fact that it had manual windows. I insisted that I need power windows, so they showed me the Corolla XRS. I asked to test drive it, the sales guy headed in to get the keys, and then when he came back, pulled the car out to the front. He handed me the keys and then told me to take it for a drive and then bring it back to the parking lot when I'm done. After he left, I looked at my brother with a surprised and excited look. This was our chance to really test out the car ;-) ::snicker::. Not one to waste any time, I threw the shifter into first gear, slammed on the gas pedal. "Screeeeeeech", the tires spun as the vehicle responded to the gas pedal. She quickly reached 8,000 RPMs!!!! That's right, 8,000 RPMs!! That's where it starts to redline. I threw the shifter into second gear, and she quickly reached 60 MPH. Laughing with excitement and shock, my brother and I were both highly impressed with what this tiny front wheel drive, 1.8L engine can do. This is a Corolla, a family sedan, not a sports car, but surprisingly performed almost to par with my TransAm, definitely outperformed the Eclipse. I had a new found respect for the tiny 1.8L VVTi (Variable Valve Timing Induction) engine. I scoffed at the thought of a tiny engine being able to perform well, but that's changed now. Once I get close to paying off my TransAm, I am almost sure that I'd end up getting a Corolla. I'd still keep my baby for the nights and weekends to have some fun with, but it's just not practical in daily heavily congested traffic.

Ok... now a change of events...

I headed off to Steph's house where I donned my costume, which was called "Minister of Death" at Party City. I saw Steph already wearing her costume. It was not the costume I was expecting her to wear. I was expecting her to wear a costume that resembled more of a Vampress, but instead she was some sort of Priestess. The funny thing is, I had no idea what costume she chose, and I happened to pick the costume that coordinated with Steph's. That is what I wanted, I wanted us to be coordinating, but this happened purely by coincidence.... or perhaps it was fate? I began to apply the makeup to my face. Being a guy, I didn't have much experience in this field, so Steph helped me with my makeup.

After that was done, we headed off with me driving in her car. We stopped for a bite where everyone was in awe of our presence enjoyed our costumes. I even heard a little kid say "Look at that costume, it's kewl!!". We then arrived a Caroni's place for her Halloween party. I thought it was Mallory's place initially because Steph kept saying "Mallory's party". I must say, Steph and I really enjoyed ourselves, and I was very happy being there with her. Alex came along with us too, but was very quiet and secluded. I quickly made friends with a lot of the people there and really enjoyed myself. I learned a few new dance moves while I was there too! Yes yes, I know what you're thinking... I know I'm already a great dancer from years of DDR practice, but yes, even "Fast feet Makoto" learned a few new moves. The five hours that we were there seemed to fly by pretty quickly.

As it started to get late, I insisted that we leave so that Steph could head home and get some sleep for school tomorrow. She fell asleep on my arm in the car, and it was soooo cute. After today, I feel like I've gotten a lot closer to her and I even trust her a lot more now too. I just could not see myself with anybody else but Steph now. I'm not afraid to let the whole world know about how I feel about her.

Well... it's about 2:00 AM now, I should be heading off to bed. I was just so happy and excited today that I couldn't help but write a lot. I got to see Steph smile a lot and saw her happy and enjoying herself. That really made my day, and has still left me with a great big smile and in a great mood. I wish I could capture the happiness that she brings me in a jar, but I don't think there is a jar big enough in this world to hold that much happiness and joy.

Sorry for the long post, I am just so happy I couldn't help myself. Time to go to bed, g'night everybody!