The End of August

Of course, that usually means the beginning of September.

And September means a lot a things:

Football season! (go Bucks!) (go Bucs!)

My birthday! (27!)

Summer to Autumn transition! (Hooray!)

Cool video games! (Beatles!) (ODST!)

Most likely my last month as a civilian! (...)

...

Dig Out Your Noel

I started to write some sort of thoughts-and-feelings reminiscence-laden post about the end of Oasis. After all, when one hears that one's favorite band has broken up, one tends to feel, frankly, a little betrayed. Especially when said band is still on the top of their game, even after eighteen years. Last year's album, "Dig Out Your Soul" was brilliant; not quite as brilliant as "Definitely Maybe" and "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?", but considering that those are two of the greatest albums ever produced (and I don't say that lightly), they're kind of hard to top.

Maybe I'm in denial, but I have a feeling that Oasis is not done.

Noel and Liam Gallagher have never really seemed to get along, and for Noel to come out all of a sudden and say that he is leaving the group because he can't work with his little brother any more is a bit ridiculous. The more I think about it, the more I seem to think that Noel will be back. Even if he is gone for good, the band was started by Liam in the first place, so it is quite possible that he can soldier on without Noel. Granted, Noel is pretty much the brains, heart, and soul of the group, but...on second thought, without him they're finished.

They have a long history of problems within the group, as well as with each other (I believe Noel "left" the band once before after Liam assaulted him with a tambourine, which is actually kind of funny).

I just hope that it's the stress of the tour that is causing all this and that they can get over this fight and get the band back together.

Askew Schedule

I have woken up super-late these last couple of days. It's 5:30 right now and feels more like noon; luckily, I have to get up somewhat early tomorrow for church, so maybe that'll help straighten things out. Of course, the fact that I'm off work more days than I'm...on...work doesn't help, as I feel as though I can stay up later than usual. Oh well. So it goes.

I've spent yesterday and today backing up my hard drives onto DVD+R. It's not taking nearly as long as I thought it would, but I am taking a bit extra time in order to keep the process nice and organized. These DVDs will hold 4.37 GB (though they claim to hold 4.7 GB) and I have somewhere close to 500 GB of stuff, so...do the math. That's a lot of discs.

I shall return to it...

My Renai Revolution 21 Dance

Because it just needs to be on this page as well :D

Kanpai, Microsoft!

I just want to take a minute and commend Microsoft on their exceptional level of service on my Xbox repair. The fact that they offer a three year warranty on all new systems is amazing (of course, if the hardware wasn't faulty in the first place...), and the ease of handling the repair was equally amazing. All it took was a fifteen minute phone call, an email confirmation, a printed shipping label (they even paid for that), and a trip to the UPS Store. Less than one week later...let me repeat with emphasis: LESS THAN ONE WEEK later, I get it back. All I had to pay was five bucks for the UPS folks to pack it for me. Microsoft even threw in a free month of Xbox Live which, granted, is something like a $4.17 value, but still...

So, thanks Microsoft :D

Four in Three

Well, it turns out that I'm so good at my job that I managed to complete four days worth of work in only three days, so I'm off until Monday. There goes my four-day work week. Whatever. I like days off. We're setting Halloween (already) next week, so the five days for which I'm scheduled might actually be a reality.

In other news, my Xbox is on its way back to me; should be here in the next couple of days :D

It just hit me today that Ohio State actually plays a week from Saturday! I have no clue how many games I'm going to get to watch this season (99% sure I won't be seeing the _ichigan game), but I'll at least be able to enjoy September.

I haven't tried posting a video on this blog yet, so this is kind of a test to see what it looks like (and an excuse to put the video on my page :P):

Risa @ 2:54 = gorgeous <3

ZLo <--me falling out of my chair ^_^

I hate make-up...and soup...

Work is about to drive me crazy.

If only there were a way out...

^_^

When I want to make myself happy, I simply look at the military pay chart and see that even E-1 pay is a whole heck of a lot more than what I'm currently making. Therefore: happy.

My Xbox made it safely to its destination and it's quite possible that I could have it back by the end of the week. At the latest, I'd say next Monday or Tuesday. I haven't really been paying attention to video game news the last few months, as my system was fried; but now that I'm getting it back, it's time to get excited about The Beatles: Rock Band and Halo: ODST. I believe I mentioned before that ODST is being released at the end of September, a mere week before I potentially have to leave for basic. Hmm...maybe I can back out of joining the real military and sit at home pretending to be a futuristic Marine (er...an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper).

Or not.

ZZZzzz

I blame caffeine deprivation for my lackadaisicalness these last few days. I've been trying to catch up on some of my reading all afternoon and every time I open a book I start to fall asleep. I hate sleeping at abnormal times and taking naps during the day, as I usually end up feeling even worse upon awakening. So, I've pretty much spent all day trying to stay awake. Every time I give up caffeine I'm like this for days; maybe I'll be a bit more up-and-at-'em tomorrow.

Turns out I'm actually scheduled for four days this week, and five next. Hooray for decent paychecks! I had to do a reset in the cosmetics department today, which is the most not-fun place in the store with which to deal. Wasn't too bad today; a far cry from the nightmare we faced a few months ago when we did a complete overhaul of the department. Ooh...bad memories...

I'm hungry.

Instrument Predicament

It seems like every Sunday morning when I go to church, sit down in the orchestra pit, and place my instrument under my chin, I suffer the strange feeling that the thing has grown. See, I rarely, if ever, touch my viola during the week; but I do play my violin. Depending on how much I've played the violin for the week, come Sunday my viola can seem HUGE!



















As you can see, the size difference is rather significant. Drives me crazy. Plus, my fingers don't want to hit the right spots.

And that's my excuse for playing out of tune :P

So much to do...

At least it seems that way. Since I don't yet know when my basic training is going to start, I'm planning around the assumption that it will be the first week of October, which is the soonest it can be. That's actually a lot of time, so why do I feel so rushed to get everything in order? It's only going to take a couple of hours to gather up everything that I'm going to take with me; and if I'm going to be at Sheppard for months for tech school, I hardly even need to pack my stuff.

And if I do leave the first week in October, I'll only get to play the new Halo game for, like, a week :P

I've spent pretty much all day today figuring out my comic book purchases for the next few months, reworking my budget for the rest of the year (which actually looks decent, all things considered), and trying to get the files on my new hard drive organized. I got a heck of a deal on that hard drive, by the way. $86 for a 1TB (1000GB) hard drive; it was on sale at Target and came with a $10 gift card and I got my 10% team member discount. Speaking of my discount, apparently I get 10% of at dell.com, and I was thinking that I would purchase a laptop once I was comfortably in the Air Force. Thing is, in order to get that discount, I'd have to make the purchase before I leave Target, which could be next month...

Back to my budget!

Xbox Withdrawn

I just returned from sending my Xbox out for repairs. It's hard to say goodbye, knowing that it's going out all alone into this crazy world...

This is me saying goodbye:
























Here we are playing Super Smash Bros. on the Wii:


















In the car about to head over to the UPS Store:























I was going to take a picture of it sitting on the scale looking scared and pitiful, but I didn't want the guy working there to think I was crazy.

Xbox Withdrawal

I miss Halo.














I miss Fallout, Rock Band, Call of Duty, SoulCalibur...

I want my Xbox back. I need to call Microsoft tomorrow. I've been putting it off because I know it's going to be a hassle. I entered my serial number on Xbox.com and was told that the number had already been registered. For some reason, MY number is not linked to MY account. If it ends up being too much trouble or if they tell me that I have to pay to have it repaired, I may just buy a brand new Xbox Arcade for...however much they are, and stick my hard drive in it. But I'll hope it doesn't come to that.

I ended up working nine hours today, which is nine hours more than I was originally scheduled for today. If I wasn't about to begin my Air Force career, I'd be pretty much freaking out about my current financial situation. I'm fine as far as getting from here and now to my first AF paycheck, but I really can't imagine what my budget would look like if I was staying at Target...yikes.

Ooh, the subtitled Nanchatte Renai "making of" just finished downloading. Bye!

||Yawn||

I don't know why I'm so tired today, but I'll probably end up going to bed a bit early tonight. I actually have to go to work tomorrow. Yeah, that's right. As remarkable as it may seem, I will be working FOUR days this week. No kidding, I can't actually remember when I last worked more than three. Needless to say, my paychecks have been less than stellar lately.

My time-waster project for the day:












Click the pic for a full-size version for the full effect.

A friend of mine got the idea to vampire-ize the girls of Morning Musume, so I thought I'd go ahead and zombie-ize one. (At least I'm not alone in my bizarreness).

I think I've decided to give up soft drinks again. I remember how good I felt a few months back when I quit for a while, so the root beer that I had last night should be it for the foreseeable future. Also, I guess I should really start thinking about getting myself in tip-top condition before basic training. Any little thing that I can do to be physically and mentally prepared will help. If I'm able to do everything I CAN do and know everything I CAN know before I go, I'll already be ahead of the curve and the whole experience will be made that much easier.

Benedict Favre

So, Brett Favre is a Viking. Kinda thought it was going to happen, but now that it's a done deal, it just feels so...wrong. Looking forward to Minnesota at Green Bay on November 1st. Except that I probably won't get to see it :(

Holy Toledo! I'm gonna miss football season! That does it. I can't join the Air Force.

:)

Anyhoo, Chris Carter was on ESPN talking about the whole Favre thing and commented that the best team that the Vikings ever had was in 1998. Hmm...let's see...who was on that team...? Oh yes...Chris Carter :|

Rather funny, I thought.

Oh, it's a spider...

Was sitting at a stop light today.

Saw this on a U-Haul:












Wondered what was up with the extremely happy cartoonish octopus :|

I are dumb.

Basic basics

I went to see my recruiter this afternoon to sign some papers basically stating that I need to continue to maintain the Air Force's strict entry level standards whilst in the Delayed Enlistment Program. And I was just about to begin my new drug trafficking job too =P

I was also given a packet of things to know before basic training: rank structure, the Airman's Creed, the Air Force Song...things like that. Also, I have a list of items that I need to take to basic, which looks remarkably like a list of things that I would pack if I was going somewhere for ONE NIGHT. I'm not kidding. I'm going to leave home with a duffel bag half full of essentials and about thirty bucks, and that's all I'll see of any of my possessions for MONTHS. O_O

Yikes.

Out of control inflation?

Snapped this pic of the soda machine at work:




















Yes, that says 99.95 o_O

Funny thing is, I think it actually means it, because if you put a dollar in, it's no longer enough.
No idea how that could have happened...

Peace

Kind of a sad day today, finding out that Uncle Dwight passed away last night. But he's at peace now; not only is there no more suffering, but he is now in the presence of God Almighty, face-to-face with our Savior Jesus Christ. Though we mourn his departure from this life, we rejoice in the fact that he is now able to reap his heavenly rewards. My mother is headed to North Carolina tomorrow to be with her brothers and sisters and to attend the funeral, and my thoughts and prayers will continue to be lifted up.

It was one week ago that I was preparing to go to the Dallas MEPS to complete my processing into the Air Force. Last Monday and Tuesday were loooooong days, but swearing in on Tuesday evening was probably the proudest I've ever felt. Now I'm just waiting to see what my job is going to be and when I ship out to Lackland for basic training. Honestly, I no longer feel concerned or nervous, as I'm happy with my job possibilities and know that I have until at least October before basic. Since April, I've been totally stressed about the whole ordeal, but the weight of the worry was lifted upon my signing of the contract. For the first time in years, I finally feel good about the way things are going. I've enjoyed my job at Target, but got to the point where I felt stuck; and the fact that I'm only working about 22 hours a week is not good for the stress-level. So, big changes are coming, and I couldn't be more excited.

In this last week, I've re-connected with a lot of my friends and I've decided that I now actually want people to know what's going on in my life. I suppose I've been avoiding people for a while because I felt that my life was going nowhere and didn't want to talk about it, you know? I thought that this would be a good time to start blogging. It's something that I've wanted to do for a while, but every time I would think about sitting down to do it, I'd realize that I really had nothing to write about :P Now I do.

I'll try to keep it mostly short and fun, but I'll probably end up waxing serious every now and then. Also, I have a secondary blog for all things Morning Musume-related because, frankly, I could go on and on and on and on about them. Morning Musume, by the way, is a Japanese all-girl pop group over which I am obsessed :D The link to that blog is over on the left side of this page, along with a link to my Twitter site and my Youtube account. They are all worth checking out, especially Youtube. If you haven't seen my dance video, well...just watch it.

Still working on the design of this page, by the way. I'm mostly happy with it, but need to get in and tweak the HTML a bit.

Washburn's Journal. August 15th, 2009

Dog carcass in alley this morning. Tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me.

Heh.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and see if I can get started on this whole online journaling thing, and actually keep up with it. With everything that's been happening lately, it seems like a good time to start writing stuff down and letting people into my life a bit.

I'll write a good long post tomorrow, but I'm honestly kinda tired right now. Just wanted to get on and set this thing up.