June 30, 2014

Another thrilling day in the summer life of me. At work today I decided to change things up with my left handed writing practice and instead of writing “the quick red fox jumps over the lazy brown dog” over and over again, I wrote a note to my friend. Or maybe I just started one. I haven't decided if I'm done or if I should just keep it going for the practice. I also came close to finishing the Latin American short story collection from McSweeney's. I have one story left that I can finish up tomorrow and check one more book off my list. I'm making progress.

It was close to a hundred degrees today which made it increasingly hotter upstairs. I'm just glad I didn't work up there tonight after the place had baked in the sun all day. Hopefully it will have cooled off by tomorrow. Outside and inside.

Tonight I clicked around the internet, watched YouTube videos, and caught up on the World Cup. I can't really remember the France v. Nigeria game but France came out on top. The Germany v. Algeria game was fun to watch. I wanted Algeria to win and both teams fought hard throughout the game and ended up having to go into overtime. Unfortunately, Germany scoring twice. In the last minute or so of extra time in over time Algeria managed to score a goal but it was too little, too late. Damn Germany.

After seeing a list tonight of which movies Netflix were losing in July I ended up watching Comic Book Villians. I had never heard of it before but I had heard of everyone in it. It was far from a good movie but I kind of liked it. I don't mind that I watched it. Towards the end it got super dark, something I wasn't expecting. Most movies may hint at the possibility of going that dark but not really go there. This movie just went for it.

I just started watching Spaceballs because that is also going away tomorrow, but I won't finish it. It keeps stuttering and my bet is that a whole bunch of people are trying to watch it. I'm going to call it good after I finish this because I want to go to bed.

June 29, 2014

Today started out strangely. I can't remember when I went to bed last night but it was late. And this morning I was wide awake by seven o'clock. Way too early. But instead of fighting it, I got up and played a video game, The Real Texas. I got it cheap on the GOG sale and decided to give it a shot. It doesn't have a very big presence on YouTube or online so for the most part I am left trying to figure things out myself. It's weird. Like video games in the old days. But it is a fun game. It has an interesting art style and I like the humor. I just gave a ghost a blanket because it was cold but now I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. We'll see if I keep playing it.

After playing that for awhile I went back to bed and slept a couple hours, waking up in time for a late lunch. And a World Cup game. I wanted Mexico to go through, mainly because their coach is incredibly entertaining, but the Netherlands one, thanks to a penalty kick after diving in the box. Typical Netherlands. My recording of the Costa Rica v. Greece game was messed up for a chunk in the middle but I got to see the end. It was another game that went into a thirty-minute overtime and then a penalty shootout. It went much better than the Brazil v. Chile shootout, in that everyone was hitting the target. Unfortunately for Greece, one of their player's targets was the goalkeeper. So they are no longer in the World Cup. I don't think I really cared for Costa Rica, especially one player who spent most of the first half trying to draw yellow cards, but I wasn't into Greece either. The shootouts are tense but for the sake of the players, I would prefer the games to end during regular time, or in the few minutes of stoppage time. Most of the players look exhausted at the end of a game and adding another thirty minutes on top of that is rough to watch. And then I feel bad for the goalkeepers and players when they miss during the shootout. Also, with today's game, my recording ended about two minutes after the game. A little too close to comfort.

Shockingly for a Sunday, I actually left the house twice today. First to go to Target to buy food. Mostly bread because I need to make a sandwich tomorrow. I also ended up with orange juice, V-8 juice, and Gatorade. And rice cakes. And other things. I wasn't expecting to end up with three different types of liquids but I'm cool with it.

I left the house again to get Jimmy John's for dinner. I really wanted that last night for dinner but didn't feel like driving all the way across town so late at night, so I went with Sonic. I can't remember how long it has been since I've had a Jimmy John's sandwich. Possibly over a year. If I cared I could probably go back through old journal entries and find out but it is nowhere near important enough to go through all that effort. Instead, I'll just say it has been awhile. And it was pretty good. Just like I remember it.

Tonight I spoke with my NAVY friend on the phone for about an hour. Much like Jimmy John's, I can't remember the last time I got to talk to him but it was good to hear he was still alive. Outside to seeing that he had seen things I sent to him on Facebook. I also played a little more of The Real Texas and watched YouTube videos. On my Watch Later list I finally made it lower than 100. That probably won't last long but I'm pretty happy with the accomplishment.

Tomorrow I am back at work. Reading books and reading books. Possibly working on my left-handed writing. And maybe playing a little Zelda. Eventually I will start cross stitching again but I don't think tomorrow will be that day.

June 28, 2014

I slept in until almost elven o'clock this morning and it was nice. Sometime later my dad and brother stopped by because they needed the stud finder that my dad let me borrow awhile ago. Today they were working on getting the house ready for an open-house tomorrow. They invited me to come help and I agreed because I really don't get to see them that often. I also didn't have much planned today other than watching soccer.

Speaking of, I had to hold off going over so I could eat lunch and finish watching the Brazil v. Chile game. It is a good thing I did because it is the first game of this World Cup to go into the thirty-minute overtime and then penalty kicks, and that went past my recording so I would have missed it had I not been here. Even before the overtime I believe they said it was the game with the most fouls so far in this World Cup. There were quite a few but it didn't seem as bad as a game with Italy or the Netherlands. At this point I can't remember much of the game other than Brazil seemed to be very into the game to start with but in the second half it definitely seemed like Chile was there to win. When it came to the penalty kicks there were some blocks and misses and Brazil ended up coming away with the win.

I spent the first however long at my dad's not really contributing much. Lunch arrived shortly after I did and my sister and I had already eaten so we sat in a big closet and talked about stuff. Eventually I went with her and my brother on a trip to put stuff in a storage unit. And then I spent too much time helping to sweep out the garage. It wouldn't have been too bad but it was hot and incredibly muggy. The last part of the day was spent helping my dad try to fix squeaky stairs. My dad had these screws that you put in so far and then you snap the the top part off down in the wood so it doesn't poke out of the carpet. A very simple idea but also ingenious. And they worked for the most part. There is still some sound of stairs but they aren't squeaking anymore.

I left my dad's house around 9:30PM and made stops at the gas station to get a Powerball ticket and then Sonic to get a late dinner. I feel kind of gross eating Sonic that late at night but it was pretty tasty. Especially considering it had been about ten hours since I had lunch.

When I got home I ate dinner and watched the Uruguay v. Colombia game. Luis Suarez was absent after his ban and fine from FIFA after the biting incident during the last game. They released his official explanation for what happened and according to him he lost his balance and fell into the other player's shoulder. A ridiculous explanation considering there is video evidence from several angles showing Suarez diving in like he was bobbing for apples. Regardless, his team got their but kicked today. They certainly tried but Colombia is on fire this year, with much credit going to James Rodriguez, a twenty-two year old kid that has scored in each World Cup game he has played in, including both goals his team had today. Before the World Cup his team bought him for $45 million but he's probably going to be worth a lot more after this World Cup. One of the most interesting parts of the game was Uruguay's Diego Lugano getting a yellow card even though he wasn't playing in the game, because he got up off the bench and I guess ran his mouth when a Colombian player committed a yellow-card-worthy foul right in from of Uruguay's bench.

Now I am going to go to bed. After the garage sweeping and all the up and down testing squeaky stairs, I am tired. I also think my eyes are exceedingly dried out from all the dust floating around during sweeping. This is why I stay inside. And why I will now be going to sleep.

June 27, 2014

It's just past four o'clock in the morning and I didn't really do much today, so let's make this a fairly short entry.

My sister and I didn't get a chance to see my grandma today. My aunt and uncle wanted to tie up some loose ends and then hit the road. My dad was able to have lunch with them but there wasn't any time for my sister and me. That kind of sucked.

With my time before work I didn't really do much. I can't remember anything other than watching YouTube videos. There was probably something else in there but it isn't coming to mind.

At work tonight I finished reading the latest issue of National Geographic. I also read a few short stories and several chapters out of a few different books. The new Transformers movie came out today so I spent some time watching various bits of that. I special effects were very cool and there were some good action scenes, as is to be expected. Mark Wahlberg had some good lines but the best part of the whole movie was Stanley Tucci. His comic relief made the movie for me. At least all the bits that I saw. The daughter and the boyfriend were entirely forgettable and they really had no need to be in the movie. I think it could have been a better movie without them. There is also apparently a fairly creepy side storyline about the daughter only being seventeen and the boyfriend being older but able to hook up with younger girls because he's Irish, or something. Nice.

People showed up to the 11:40PM show but no one came to the midnight. This meant I got to clock out around 3:00AM instead of twenty minutes after that. Still way too late but it could have been worse.

June 26, 2014

Today was a fairly uneventful day. At work I ingested and transferred a bunch of trailers and movies. Much like I did yesterday. As far as I know, everything should have been good for tonight and everything will be good for the next week. As far as I know. It all started looking the same after awhile.

More importantly, I finished reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King today. Another one of his giant books. I wish he would be less verbose. It verges on Ayn Rand at times. Even though it was over 800 pages and took me forever to finish, I liked the book. I even liked the ending for the most part. A lot more than I tend to like his endings. I was not a fan of the ending for Under The Dome. I really enjoyed the book but then when it came time to explain the reasoning for the Dome, it was a big letdown. I was pretty much expecting the same from 11/22/63 but I liked the alternate future and the reasoning behind what was happening with the time travel and the effects of changing the past. I would have liked a happier ending, though. This is one case where the ending was not made better with sadness. I don't like sad endings but sometimes they just make sense and make a story better. And often that ending seems to be the obvious choice and then they go with happy and it just throws everything off. 11/22/63 was a story that would have been perfectly good with a happy ending. The main character devoted so much of time and effort into trying to do good and in the end he pretty much gets shafted. After the length, that is my main complaint about the book.

I also read an article in National Geographic but with all the actual work I had to do at work and my determination to finished 11/22/63, I didn't get around to writing with my left hand. I wrote part of a sentence and spent a long time holding and playing with a pen in my left hand just to work on it feeling more familiar, but no real writing practice took place. I will need to make up for that tomorrow. Or at least write more than part of a sentence.

Even with having my mom double-check my recording of the United States game this morning, it had disappeared by the time I got home. I thought it was a space issue and didn't record one of the afternoon games just in case, but that didn't matter. I was annoyed. It is really dangerous searching for a stream of a soccer game and not finding out the score of that game. I spent most of my day at work in silence because around two o'clock one of the DJs on the radio had watched the game and started to talk about it. I have never moved so fast as I did when I got up to turn the radio off. I don't know if he was going to spoil the ending but I wasn't going to take any chances. And then I had to Google the game when I got home to find the stream of it. I got lucky.

The United States ended up losing to Germany one to zero but they still advance to the next round due to points and the score of the Portugal v. Ghana game. I want nothing more than for the United States to get further and further in the World Cup, but the further they get, the more people will become interested, and the harder it will get to avoid spoilers.

I didn't have a visit with the new volunteer kid tonight because I couldn't get a hold of him. Last week he moved in with his grandparents and I didn't get a phone number for them. I am going to keep trying his cellphone and I emailed my supervisor to see if she had a number for the grandparents. If not I will have to just call the hotel and hope I get one of the grandparents or someone that knows who the kid is, because I don't know the grandparents' names. Maybe by next week I'll have things figured out.

June 25, 2014

This morning I went with my mom and sister to go see my grandma in her rehab place. It is very near where my other grandma was and it was strange being up there. But it was good to see my grandma again and she looked really good. At breakfast the other day she was a little drugged up but she was doing well this morning. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was the pillow case on her pillow. I think it was from the same sheet set that was on the bed at the cabin. We talked about random stuff for over an hour until I had to go to work.

Work was the same old thing. I read stuff and worked on my left-handed handwriting. I tend to develop a bit of a death-grip on the pen as I write and I need to correct that so I can write longer. And without pain. After focusing on it I was eventually able to make a little progress but I've still got work to do.

It was Chipotle night and my burrito was delicious. We didn't watch videos after dinner because Big Brother started tonight and my mom loves Big Brother. I do not. I watched a bit of the beginning because I was still eating, and we were talking, and I liked the bearded dude because his voice and accent just made me happy. Every time he opened his mouth. It wasn't good enough to get me to watch the show but I enjoyed the little bit I saw tonight.

Tonight I watched World Cup games. I ended up having to watch the Argentina game online because once again my DVR didn't record one of the games. I originally thought I had forgotten to record one of the four games the past few days but this is the third time it has happened and I double-checked yesterday that I was recording all four today. So who knows what's up. I just hope the United States game records tomorrow. And if not, that I can find it online. As for tonight's games, the Argentina v. Nigeria game was pretty fun to watch. Shortly after the start of the game both teams scored a goal, almost back-to-back. And then the same thing happened at the start of the second half. It was pretty cool. Argentina eventually got another goal to get the win.

After soccer I played Gone Home. It was cheap in a flash sale on Steam tonight and I have been interested in it for awhile. Interested in the idea of it at least because I had no idea what the story was actually about. You play a girl who just got home from a year out of the country and arrives to an empty house. A house she has never been to before because her family moved in after she was gone. The goal of the game is to walk around the house, find things, read things, listen to things, and connect the dots to learn what is going on. I was worried it would be a scary game but it wasn't. It wasn't really much of a mystery either. Basically just a narrative story that you walk through. I liked it though. I found the story to be interesting and I liked the music. I was expecting something sad but it wasn't. Might have been better if it was but I like not sad, too.

June 24, 2014

At work today I finished writing the letters of the alphabet many times and moved on to writing “the quick red fox jumps over the lazy brown dog”, over and over and over again. I'm not entirely comfortable with all the letters yet but I wanted the context of the sentence so I can work on writing the letters in the right size relative to all the other letters. I started off all over the place but as I went along I got better and the last sentence I wrote today was a vast improvement over the first. My struggle at the moment is wanting to write really small, which is how I normally write, and I can do that with my left hand if I write letters in my usual way, but with my font it is hard to write small with all the little lines on the letters. I might change more letters as I got along but today I decided to go with a different style for the lowercase 'g', so it looks more like that instead of the one with a circle and a left-curving line coming down from it. I'm still working on figuring out how to write it but I'm getting there.

I finished reading Hitchcock and Bradbury Fistfight in Heaven today, which is one of the short story collections from McSweeney's. I question the short moniker attributed to some of the stories but for the most part I enjoyed the collection. That makes three books done this summer. I've lost track of how many weeks there have been so far but I know I have fallen behind on my goal to read a book a week. I'm getting ever closer to finishing the other books I've got started now so I'm hoping I'll catch up by the end of the summer. I should figure out how many weeks there actually are and then plan my books accordingly. Maybe later.

Tonight I continued with Ruby, watched YouTube Videos and World Cup games, and clicked around the internet. In the Colombia v. Japan game I wanted Japan to win but they got destroyed. Near the end of the game Colombia was up 3 to 1 and they put in a 43-year-old goalkeeper, making him the oldest player in the World Cup. He even had to save one shot on goal so he earned his keep. But to be fair, Japan was having an awful game. In the Uruguay v. Italy game, fouls were going off all over the place. Most of them were just gusts of wind knocking players to the ground, mostly on the Italian side. There were so many breaks for people falling down that it really wasn't a fun game to watch. It quickly became what will probably be one of the most talked about games of the World Cup, however, when Luis Suarez bit a Uruguayan defender on the shoulder. The defender dropped to the ground grabbing his shoulder and Suarez immediately dropped the ground and grabbed his mouth (His story after the match was that the defender had hit him in the mouth with his shoulder). Despite the defender showing the bite marks to the referee, the referee didn't actually see the incident and Suarez remained in the game. When one of the commentators noticed what had happened, the other commentator's response was “Certainly not again.” Meaning, this is not the first time Suarez has bitten another player. It was in fact the third time. The first time he got a seven-game ban. The second time, a ten-game ban. So now it is up to FIFA to review the footage and evidence and hope they decide to take action. None of the commentators or players have much faith in FIFA but it is so blatantly obvious that hopefully they will make the right decision.

June 23, 2014

For weeks I have known about my haircut today, including most of yesterday. Yet when I set my alarm clock and went to bed, the only thought in my mind was waking up for work. At 2:36AM I woke up and immediately remembered my haircut and bumped my alarm clock back an hour. I ended up waking up before my alarm clock so I would have been good but who's to say if I would have remembered in the morning, even with the note on my keyboard.

At work today I spent a lot of my time working on my left-handed penmanship. I started working my way through the alphabet, making it up to 'm', basing my letter style on Courier New, and moving on to the next letter when I felt comfortable with the current letter. So far, I think 'a' was the trickiest. It is hard to make a lowercase 'a' (that looks like that and not a circle with a line on the side) and make it look decent. I got kind of close.

When I wasn't writing, I read a few short stories and a chapter in the Stephen King book. I want to read all the books but I also want to get badass at writing with my left hand. And I also need to start cross stitching. It is almost July and I still only have part of a Snitch. Not acceptable.

Tonight I watched World Cup games and did things on the computer. I want Mexico to stay in for awhile just so I can watch their coach. He is so animated. Today they were playing Croatia and they scored three goals in fairly quick succession. After the second goal they cut to the coach who had one of his players on the ground. It looked like in his excitement he tackled one of his players. After another goal the goalkeeper jumped into the coach's arms. We have reached the phase where they are playing four games a day, two at a time. The two at a time thing I believe is because the outcome of one game could change the performance of the teams in the other game. So maybe one team will get an automatic pass and win their group if a team in the other game gets beat by so many goals. So yeah. I forgot to record the Netherlands game because I was still in the mode of three games a day. Thankfully I don't like the Netherlands and they showed the match highlights after the game I was watching. I later picked the Brazil game over the Mexico game but then went back and watched the last half of the second half of the Mexico game so I could see all the goals.

At this point I feel like I am forgetting something but it is also almost 1:00AM so I am going to not worry about whatever I may have forgotten.

June 22, 2014

When the United States scores a goal in the World Cup, both of my hands shoot up into the air. And I'm not making a conscious effort to do so. I think I get sports now.

This morning I woke up early so I could go eat a family breakfast. My sister and I got there way before everyone and went in to reserve a few tables so we had room. Right after we were seated, my dad, uncle, and grandma showed up. Then my brother, aunt and uncle, and my brother's girlfriend. I was torn between getting waffles or pancakes and instead got eggs. Makes sense. My grandma got a waffle and it looked really good. Almost everyone else got an omelet and those also looked really good. My eggs and hash browns were good though.

After breakfast the adults were going back to my grandma's to talk about my grandma moving down to live with my aunt and uncle. My aunt is all gung-ho about it and was wanting to move her down there today. The grandchildren (my sister, brother, and I) were supposed to meet them over there later to see what we wanted out of the stuff my grandma wasn't going to take with her. That just seemed really weird and uncomfortable to me. And thankfully it didn't happen. I don't know what happened in the adult meeting but it lasted until almost dinner time and the grandchildren weren't called into play.

I spent my day watching World Cup games, doing a little Ruby programming, watching YouTube videos, and going through fonts. I think I want to base my left-handed writing style on Courier New because it looks really crisp. The downside is that it is kind of a pain to write. Even if I were writing with my dominant hand I think it would be a pain. Just very tedious. Also, the lowercase 'a' is tricky. Same as the lowercase 'a' in Times New Roman. It looks good in a font but it is hard to replicate in handwriting. At least in my numerous attempts so far.

Tonight the United States played Portugal. They needed a win to advance to the next round. In the first five minutes they gave away a ridiculous goal after a defenders mistake. They were then able to rally and score two points and they stayed in the lead until the last twenty seconds of the game. On the very last play, in the fifth minute of stoppage time, Christiano Ronaldo, who had been completely worthless the entire game, crossed the ball into the box and his teammate headed it into the goal. Son of a bitch. On the very last play of the game that asshole had to cross the ball. It was very frustrating. Now, instead of getting an automatic pass to the next round, the United States has to at least tie with Germany in their next game. It would have been much nicer if they had knocked Portugal out of the World Cup. They seem more than capable of holding their own against Germany, hopefully, but Germany will get an extra day of rest and I think won't have to travel as far, so the odds are against us. I just want the United States to advance because I enjoy watching them play. I'm not to the level of decking myself out in red, white, and blue, and painting my face, but I am a fan.

The best commentator comment of the day was: “The sweat is dripping off of everybody, including your commentators. I hope that doesn't put anyone off their tea.”

June 21, 2014

Switzerland ended up being whipped. France ended up with five goals (almost six but the last one was a fraction of a second after the ref blew the final whistle) and Switzerland somehow managed two goals. I think in the beginning I was going for France but by the second half I kind of wanted Switzerland to come from behind. It would have made for a more interesting game.

I watched the three World Cup games today but that was hours ago so I have forgotten most of them. Argentina v. Iran was a bit of a disappointment because Messi didn't have a lot going on. He did score the one and only point of the match in stoppage time to win the game, and it was a good shot, so there is that. The Germany v. Ghana game was fun to watch for most of it when players weren't trying to waste time. It ended in a tie but apparently it would have been better for the United States if Ghana had lost. And I don't really remember much of the Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Nigeria because it was on and I was kind of watching it but I was paying more attention to YouTube videos. The best part of that game though, was the Bosnian goalie dragged one of the Nigerian players off the field. Nigeria was ahead and one of their injured players was trying to run down the clock. The player and the two medics. They got him within a few feet of the sidelines and stopped. The Bosnian goalie came over and waved for them to move him off so they could keep playing and when they didn't he grabbed the player under the arms and moved him off the field, while the side ref got really animated about him stopping. It was pretty funny.

A lot of my day was spent learning Ruby. Or starting to learn Ruby. Months ago I made an attempt to start learning the Ruby programming language, even buying a book, but I didn't get far at all. Today, I would say I got a pretty good start. We'll see how much I remember tomorrow, if I keep going tomorrow. Programming is so much fun. I just wish I could keep with it.

Other things I did today. I looked into working on my handwriting. I looked up a lot of different resources and examples but nothing came of it. I am kind of thinking about finding a font I really like, now that I have hundreds of them, and copy it. I also left the house to buy a Powerball ticket and a drink at Sonic. I exercised, finished reading a short story, looked at things on the internet, and ate a few meals.

Tonight, I played BF4 for the first time in months. And I was awful. I was never that good but it felt like I was exceptionally awful tonight. It didn't help that I couldn't get on a winning team but I an only blame that for part of it. I forgot most of the buttons for things and kept randomly throwing grenades, knifing the air, and throwing medkits instead of pulling out my defibrillator. It was rough. I need to jump into some Metro with a high player count so I can experience constant action and get my adequate skills back.

June 20, 2014

Not a lot to say about today, other than the fact that it is currently 1:30AM and I rarely have much to say at 1:30AM.

My day before work was spent watching a World Cup match and YouTube videos, while reading library and grad school stuff. I also took a nap. I slept a whole bunch last night and I think my nap was a consequence of oversleep making me tired. I'm a fan of naps so I didn't mind.

At work tonight I read from books and played Ocarina Of Time on my 3DS for the first time since December apparently. I didn't think it had been that long. I was a little lost when I got back into it, I think I stopped right after I made it to the adult version of Link. Tonight I didn't accomplish anything toward the main storyline but I did gain access to Epona and that has made my trips across Hyrule go much faster.

I also watched chunks of 22 Jump Street during the last two sets. That was mostly due to an effort to escape the heat of the projection area. Summer is officially upon us and one sure sign of that is the broken air conditioning on one side upstairs. Overall there is no real insulation so the air conditioning on the other side isn't enough to compensate, or even keep up with the side it is on. I'm back to sitting directly under a vent with a small desk fan in my face. Outside of those cones of moving air there is just a stagnant heat. The thermostat said 88 degrees on the air conditioned side and it was obviously warmer than that on the other side. It's lovely.

At the moment I am watching soccer, France v. Switzerland. France are currently ahead by two and it should have been three but they missed a penalty shot. I'm almost through with the first half and I think I'm going to call it a night when I make it to halftime.

June 19, 2014

Not a lot happening at work today. I read several books. I was there before 9:30AM for the kid show and then the first regular movie didn't start until 12:15PM so I had some extra time today. During the kid show I ran into one of the Math Enrichment teachers. She had come with all three of her boys but the youngest one is only good for about 30 minutes so they were out walking around the lobby.

My favorite quote from my reading today came in a short story. I didn't really like the short story but the structure of it was interesting and I liked this quote: “[T]his was the way people get to know each other, by telling each other things that aren't relevant. By letting their words fly happily, irresponsibly, until they reach dangerous territories.”

After I failed to contact the new volunteer kid on his phone, I called the foster house and got really lucky. Apparently he learned yesterday that he would be movie in with his grandparents and I caught him in mid-move. We bumped back the visit a half an hour to give him some more time but then we ended up having a forty-five minute visit.

His grandparents work at a hotel and live in an apartment in the hotel. The kid said last night he slept on the couch but I assume that situation will be fixed. The kid said he doesn't mind that he was moved but he also liked his foster placement. Thankfully he just moved a mile or two away in the same town so he'll still get to see his foster brothers. He said in the next few weeks his sister might also be moving in with him and the grandparents. He also told me that he missed taking the ACT because no one came to pick him up. He wasn't sure if someone was picking him up but he assumed someone was so he missed the test. I just checked and it looks like the next round of testing starts in September. Hopefully he can get to that one.

When I got home I watched World Cup games. Wayne Rooney scored his first after World Cup goal, after numerous attempt in this game and all the ones he has played in previously, but England still lost to Uruguay. That is even more sad considering Luis Suarez scored both of Uruguay's goals and he had knee surgery a month ago. The best game today was Japan v. Greece. There was more diving than I would have liked but it wasn't nearly as bad as some teams. The fun part was how hard each team was trying. Greece went down to ten men in the first half due to a red card (two yellows equaling a red, not a straight-up red, but it was still the first red card in Greece's history as a team). Japan ended up controlling the ball most of the game but you really couldn't tell that Greece was down a man because each dude was going full out. And Japan gave it right back. The game ended without a goal but both teams are still alive.

June 18, 2014

Today I was back at work. Reading for about seven hours or so. It was an exciting day. I read a couple short stories and switched off between a few of my other books. I finished Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson and that was the only non-fiction I have been taking with me. I might swap back in On Killing which I started reading for the second time but it fell to the wayside when I kept starting other books. Or maybe I can keep on with the seven I am still reading.

Tonight was Chipotle night and it felt like the first time in awhile that I showed YouTube videos. Maybe we only missed last week. I can't really remember. I was so focused on applying to grad school and then getting ready for my interview that the last few weeks seem like a blur. It also doesn't help that during the summer most of my days are identical.

Speaking of grad school, tonight I filled out the waiver form so I won't have to take the introductory technology class. It covered basic stuff like Powerpoint, blogs, wikis, and search engines. The only thing I wasn't that familiar with is the Canvas software that they use for classes but I found some videos on YouTube and it doesn't really seem that confusing. It is only a one credit hour class and I would have taken it learn more about Canvas but I would have had to pay however much for the class and that wouldn't have been worth it. I also trimmed down my statement of objectives and turned it into a 500-word statement of purpose for the new student scholarship. Hopefully I get that because $500 toward my first semester would be pretty nice.

While doing all that stuff I watched World Cup games. I wanted Australia to beat the Netherlands but they didn't. So that sucked. I wanted Chile to beat Spain and they did. I was happy about that for most of the match but then Chile kept falling down and staying down to waste time in the second half and that got old pretty fast. Right now I'm watching Cameroon play Croatia and I don't really care who wins. I've got to wake up earlier tomorrow for the kid movie tomorrow morning so I am going to move to the fast forward option so I can see who wins.

June 17, 2014

This morning I drove down with my mom and sister for my graduate school interview. My mom drove because she knew where she was going and thankfully my sister came along because my mom almost missed a turn at one point. In her defense, it was a very sneaky turn.

The plan was to get there early so we could eat lunch first, and we drove around for awhile trying to pick a place to eat but I really wasn't hungry. I think I was too nervous. We ended up stopping at Sonic for more of a snack than lunch and I got tater tots. Thankfully my stomach handled them.

When we got to the library we only tried to open one locked door before finding the front door so that wasn't too bad. My mom and sister followed the bathroom sign downstairs and I went up to the reference desk to get directions to the library school. I also asked where the restroom was and when she told me it was around the corner and should be the first door on the left, I got a laugh out of her when I asked just in case if it would have a little man on the door. Turns out it didn't but there was one next to the door so I figured it out.

I found the director's office without problem and after waiting a moment outside for her to finish a phone call I walked in and we got things started. It turned out to be a pretty laid back conversation more than an interview. She said she liked my paper and that I sounded just like a librarian. A little later she was describing how librarians are when it comes to libraries, being more humble and quiet and not always the best advocates for libraries, and her description sounded just like me. She asked me about my hobbies and I told her about my craft stuff but also mentioned the obvious one, reading. When she asked me what I was reading I was very thankful I took the time to write down a list yesterday. She hadn't heard of several of them but she is a fan of Bill Bryson so that was cool. A lot of time was spent going over the curriculum and answering the questions I had. A couple of which she didn't have answers for but she wrote them down because she said they were really good questions. The whole thing was just nice, not nerve-racking at all. And at the end of it, she said she would need to send the official forms over to the graduate office but I had been accepted and she welcomed me to the program. It almost felt like me getting in was a given but I'm pretty sure I could have blown it in one way or another so I was still very excited to get in.

When I got out of the interview I walked outside and turned on my phone to see where my mom and sister were. It turns out the timing was perfect because they were about to sit down in the lobby when they looked up and saw me walking outside. They spent the hour and a half during the interview driving around town and shopping at a few stores, including the massive four-store mall.

At this point we were all hungry, and they found out there was a Spangles nearby, home of my new favorite fries, so we went there. They aren't a very veggie-friendly place but I ended up getting fries and a grilled cheese sandwich because I felt I needed something more than a side salad. I haven't had a grilled cheese sandwich in years, and I wasn't ever a big fan of them because I usually had the Velveeta variety, but this one had two types of cheese and it was pretty good. I also had an orange juice slush which reminded me of the orange juice popsicles my grandma made when we were kids.

After our late lunch / early dinner, we drove back to town. It is about an hour and a half drive that is really pretty and pure Kansas most of the way. I'm going to have to get used to it because I got back for orientation in August and then I'll have four visits the first and second semesters, with two visits each semester after that. But, I should be able to finish in two years if I take classes during the summer.

When I got home I was exhausted and spent the rest of my night watching World Cup games. The Brazil v. Mexico game was really fun to watch. No goals were scored but it certainly wasn't from a lack of trying. Mexico's goalie saved the day six times which apparently the most blocks since the '50s or '60s. It was impressive.

And now I am going to go to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long day at work but I'm looking forward to reading. At some point I need to get my cross stitching underway. I kind of stopped in the middle of my Snitch. I'll get back to it eventually.

June 16, 2014

Today at work I read books. I thought a little bit about answers to potential questions in my interview tomorrow but I spent most of my time reading. I think I switched off between four books. I finally finished the 100-page short story in one of my McSweeney's books and it was a tad disappointing. You pretty much find out in the beginning what is going to happen at the end and the twist is that there isn't a twist. A wife overhears two guys on a crossed phone line talking about breaking into a house and killing a lady. The wife is upset and finds out through the course of the story that her husband is kind of a bastard. Eventually they are able to talk on the phone and after the husband finds out that the cops know all about his shady dealings he tries to get his wife out of the house to save her. Not because he loves her or feels bad that he has paid someone to kill her, but because he knows he will get the death penalty now that the cops know about him. He is unsuccessful. The story really didn't need to be one-hundred pages.

I also continued reading about the English language in Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson. A very interesting book. Here are two interesting excerpts. First, “Smith is the most common name in America and Britain, but it is also one of the most common in nearly every other European language. The German Schmidt, the French Ferrier, Italian Ferraro, Spanish Herrero, Hungarian Kovacs, and Russian Kusnetzov are all Smiths.” Second, “Yucatan in Mexico means 'What?' or 'What are you saying?' - the reply given by the natives to the first Spanish conquistadors to fetch up on their shores.”

Tonight I had three World Cup games to watch, and I'll be honest. I fast forwarded through most of the first game and pretty much all of the second game. In the first game I became a fan of Germany because Cristiano Ronaldo plays for Portugal and I can't stand him. He looks like the biggest asshole in the world and he isn't that much fun to watch. He spends most of the game just kind of standing around and he occasionally takes a shot on goal, usually during a penalty kick. He can make some amazing shots but that only happens when no opponents are near him because if they are, he'll fall on the ground. So, I was pretty happy when Germany completely destroyed Portugal with a final score of four to zero. Hopefully this was sufficient enough to completely demoralize Portugal because they play the United States on Sunday.

The second game was Iran v. Nigeria and neither team scored. Also, I didn't have any interest in either team so I didn't feel like I was missing much.

Lastly, the United States v. Ghana. Ghana beat us in the last two World Cups, knocking us out of the last one. So it was great when we scored after thirty-four seconds. And then it was a battle. US players kept getting hurt which doesn't bode well for the future, even with a demoralized Portugal. About a half an hour in Dempsey got kicked in the face and started bleeding everywhere, probably with a broken nose. I wouldn't say the kick to the face was on purpose but there was no real need for the opposing player to have his leg that high in the air. They were both going for a header. Despite all the injuries, the US somehow managed to hold on until around the eighty-fourth minute when Ghana finally scored an inevitable goal. It was surprising it took so long because it seemed like they had the ball ninety-percent of the second half. Thankfully, we scored again a few minutes later and won the game. I really hope they can pull it together for the next game.

I spent a lot of my night getting ready for my interview tomorrow. I printed out a copy of my resume, statement of objectives, and the questions I want to ask. I also looked over the school's website for the millionth time. Then I tried to come up with answers to a long list of possible questions. I'm still nervous but I am looking forward to the experience and to getting the experience over with, hopefully with a positive outcome.

June 15, 2014

Today was fairly laid back. Not a lot going on. I slept in, making up for my lack of sleep Saturday night and then spent most of my day watching World Cup games. I missed the first half hour of the first game because when I woke up the cable and internet were out, courtesy of a storm in the middle of the night. I was vaguely aware of the storm because a little before two o'clock in the morning the wind sounded crazy outside. I planned on calling the cable company, just to let them know, and I got halfway through dialing the number before trying to reset my DVR and modem just to see if that would work. The first time the DVR seemed to get stuck so I did it again and the cable came back on. It was completely unrelated to me messing with things, just a coincidence, but I was glad everything was working again so I could get back to the World Cup.

In the game with France v. Honduras, one of the French players scored three goals but I think he'll only get credit for the first and third, with the second going to the goalkeeper for Honduras as an own-goal. The game I was looking forward to was Argentina v. Bosnia and Herzegovina because it is just fun to watch Lionel Messi. For one, he's short so when he runs it just looks faster because his strides are so short. I think this actually lends to his ability to stay on his feet because his center of gravity stays fairly... centered. And that is another thing I like about watching him play, he stays on his feet and keeps the ball until he is physically taken down by another player. He doesn't catch the presence of an opposing player and fall on the ground. He will jump over outstretched feet and bounce off players and just keep going. I hate when players dive and I don't think I have ever seen Messi take a dive. And lastly, he's just really good at what he does. It's like watching an amazing musician or artist, he makes it look easy. In the game today, he had several opportunities to score but passed the ball at the last minute to a teammate that should have had a better shot on goal, but they never scored. Finally, he took the ball all the way and scored is second World Cup goal, putting Argentina up by two. The first goal was an own-goal off a Honduran defender.

This year they have made a big deal about the new goal-line technology that allows you to see whether or not the ball fully crosses the line of the goal. I thought they had that at the last World Cup but maybe it wasn't very accurate. All I know is that in the past there was a lot of guess work because the ball has to completely cross the line and balls are small on the bottom than they are in the middle, so maybe all of the bottom when in but a sliver of the side is still touching the line. It is hard to see a sliver. In the first few matches they had no reason to use the technology because all the goals were hitting the back of the net, and the commentators mentioned this fact, but I guess a lot of money was spent on the technology so they used it anyway. In the French game today the technology finally came in handy with the own-goal. The goalkeeper fumbled it on the line and from almost every replay angle it looked like maybe the ball was still touching the line by just a tiny bit. The fancy technology showed otherwise and the ball had gone over the line by a fraction of an inch. The Honduran coach wasn't very happy.

While I was watching the World Cup games, I read about library stuff. I got off on some tangents, finding various blogs, but I do feel like I gained some important information. I added some more questions to my list of ones I want to ask and tomorrow I want to go over those and refine them a bit. I also want to spent time tomorrow coming up with decent answers to potential questions they may ask me. I'll have a lot of time at work and after to think about those.

June 14, 2014

I ended up staying up much later than I should have to finish watching Chile v. Australia. Chile won.

Today I went shopping for new clothes for my grad school interview. I invited my mom along so I could get a second opinion. I tried several shirts and that was a pain in the butt because they feel the need to put a million pins in each one and then button all the buttons. I ended up going with the first one I tried on but in a different size because the neck on the first one was too big. I also tried on several pairs of pants. I didn't like how flimsy the fancy pants felt so I went with a regular pair of Dockers. According to pant sizes I am shrinking. Every time I buy new pants the leg measurement gets smaller and smaller. It is quite annoying.

I hadn't had any breakfast before we left so when I got home I made lunch and watched a World Cup game. Then I went to do a bit more shopping. I picked up a gift card for my dad and then stopped by Target and the supermarket. Amongst other things, I got a back of regular oranges and a few pounds of Clementines. I had never had them before and I would say I prefer the taste of regular oranges but Clementines are incredibly easy to peel. That is a definite plus. Oranges feel like such a commitment when it comes to peeling them. With Clementines, the skin peels right off and doesn't leave behind a bunch of stuff. I like that.

Most of my day at home was spent watching World Cup games. There were four of them today which seemed a bit overkill. Two is a good number. Unfortunately there are three every day through next Sunday, then it goes back up to four a day from Monday to Thursday. After that there is a day off and then finally we get two matches a day. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to keep up with the three-a-day schedule with work so I'll probably be totally lost when it goes to four-a-day. It would be nice if the theater had wi-fi so I could stream the games on my phone.

Tonight while watching soccer I looked up questions to ask during my interview. I added a few good ones to my list. Now I need to focus on coming up with answers to the possible questions they could ask me. The director said there wouldn't be too many questions but I want to make sure I have passable answers to a lot of potential questions so I don't get caught off guard and end up just staring at them blankly. I just want to do well and get accepted. This is probably the biggest thing I have ever undertaken and not been fairly certain of the outcome. I miss the certainty.

June 13, 2014

Most of my day was spent watching World Cup games. I can't remember anything about the first game but in the second game, Spain had their asses handed to them by the Netherlands. It was a bit of a rematch from the final of the last World Cup and the outcome was very different. I looked back at my journal entry for that game and it seemed that both teams annoyed me. Without the journal assist I vaguely remembered that both the teams spent a lot of time falling down trying to draw fouls. Or actually being fouled. That's makes for a long and annoying game. This time around, I found myself wanting Spain to win more often than not because the Netherlands were falling and fouling a lot. Unfortunately it worked in their favor.

I emailed the director of the Library Science program today about the interview. I wanted to get a better idea of what it would consist of because a ninety-minute interview sounded intimidating and grueling. She got back to me and said that it wasn't necessarily an interview but more of a visit. She said they would have a few questions for me but it would be more about going over the curriculum and allowing me to ask any questions I have. That eased my mind a little bit but I still need to come up with answers for the basic questions of why I want to go to library school and why their program and my future after school. I also need to come up with good questions to ask them. I know I want to ask about the success of their graduates in finding a job in a timely manner and what kind of help they offer regarding that because my ultimate goal here is to get a grown-up job making real money.

Tonight at work I watched 22 Jump Street. It was really funny. It was also maybe a little bit too self-aware. They referenced the fact that it was a sequel numerous times and eventually, although still funny, they definitely beating a dead horse.

When I wasn't watching the movie, I was reading. I read a couple short stories and continued reading S. It didn't take very long to change my mind but I think I'm moving to the technique of just reading the book as a book and ignoring all the marginalia. At this point it is more of a distraction because it is mostly regarding the mystery behind the author and it is written from the viewpoint of two people who have already finished the book. So I am going to finish the book.

I also started reading Picture This by Joseph Heller because why not. My favorite line from the book so far is: “Caravaggio would have turned over in his grave had he been alive to see it.”

Right now I am watching the Chile v. Australia game. I've made it to the second half but I won't finish it tonight. At the moment Australia is down 2 to 1 but I want them to win, entirely because Chile spent a lot of the first half falling down for no reason. I realize how tactical it can be to fall and how tactical it can be to foul, but I just don't like seeing dudes fall down for no reason other than trying to draw a nonexistent foul.

June 12, 2014

Today very much resembled yesterday. I got to work early for the kid show and spent that extra time labeling all the extra bits in the S book. I made a list of where each thing was located in the book and then put a small post-it note on the item and the page before, before putting the item in a bag. I didn't want anything falling out while I was reading or just interfering with the reading process. I ended up reading the first chapter of the book and it doesn't seem like the loose items are placed in the book with a purpose. The margin writing will reference an item but not on the page where that item was placed. So it is good to know what all the items are but it doesn't really matter if they aren't in order. I don't know if I have settled on a way to go about reading the book but with at least the first part I have decided to read the story itself and then the blue/black margin writing as I come to it, ignoring the other colors. I almost think it is better to ignore all the margin stuff until after I have finished the book because some of it is obviously based on knowledge I won't gain until later in the book, but it is hard to ignore it sometimes. So far, I am enjoying it.

I also briefly started reading the latest McSweeney's book which is a collection of crime-themed short stories by Latin American authors. And I continued reading the Stephen King book. I'm not exactly sure why I started two new books (and almost a third) instead of continuing to work on all the other ones I have started, but I did. And it's too late to take it back.

That was my day at work. Reading. I think I glimpsed at a few movies long enough to make sure they weren't messed up, and I watched a trailer, but other than that my nose was in a book. My day was not too terribly exciting. I expected nothing more or less.

Tonight I did not have a visit with the new volunteer kid because he was going to be working on replacing the driveway at his foster house. Last week it was completely torn up, so I believed his story. Instead of the visit, I watched the first game of the World Cup, Brazil v. Croatia. It could have started better, with Brazil not scoring an own-goal, but it happened. And after scoring a goal on the correct goalie, Brazil caught a break and got a ridiculous penalty kick, putting them in the lead. One of the Brazilian guys totally took a dive in the box and the ref bought it, which is a shame because I think it was one of the refs from the last World Cup who I actually liked. Later in the game Brazil put the nail in the coffin with a third goal (fourth if you count that first one). There were times I really thought Croatia could pull it off because Brazil really didn't look that great, but it didn't happen.

With the rest of my night I watched YouTube videos and read about library stuff. I'm definitely hitting that Groundhog Day summer feeling.

June 11, 2014

When I got to work this morning the manager wasn't there. Or maybe he was but I couldn't find him. And he hadn't unlocked the door to get upstairs. I could have sat around and waited but I didn't want to so I decided to check the windows in the theaters where the projectors are. On the old side they are big and close to the seats and if they aren't shut all the way you can slide them open and crawl through. In the first theater I tried the window was locked shut but I got lucky in the second theater and was able to climb through into projection. I was then able to make my way over to the desk in the dark, turn the lights on, and open up the door. A few minutes later the manager showed up, so I probably went to too much effort, but it gave me something to do.

My day at work was no different than yesterday. For the most part. Yesterday I ended up watching about a half hour of A Million Ways To Die In The West and pieces of The Fault In Our Stars. Today I did the same thing but small pieces of both. I need to stop watching The Fault In Our Stars because I can't watch it without crying. I think I have said it before but they did such a good job at adapting the book. I haven't read the book since it was released, which is good because I can't pick the movie apart for everything difference, but I remember a lot of it and I remember how it made me feel. When I watch bits of the movie, all of those feelings I had during the book come rushing back. It is just so sad.

I also continued reading from the five books I was reading yesterday. It would be nice to dig into one book at a time and knock it out but I've got at least six hours to kill and it is hard for a book to keep me engaged for that long. I'm enjoying all the books I'm reading but after a chapter or two I need to switch things up so I don't fall asleep. There are books I can marathon for hours and hours on end but I'm currently not reading one of those. I also need to start taking my cross stitching stuff because there are several patterns I want to start working on.

I forgot my phone at home today and it was nice. It was a little glimpse back to the month where I basically gave up using my phone. In general I don't use my phone that much, which is why I'm glad I switched to Ting because now my bill is a better representation of my phone usage. Despite my lack of activity, I still check it frequently throughout the day to see if I have missed a text, even though I rarely have. After my month hiatus I turned off email notifications because those were unnecessary. None of my emails are ever important enough that they can't wait until I get home and check my email on my computer. And seeing the notification light always kind of got my hope up that it was a text message. Even though I think they are different colors. So turning off email notifications was good but I still check for text messages too often. Especially compared to the number of text messages I actually receive. I can go days without getting any. To the point where I start to question if my phone is still working. It always is. The lack of messages means that I can easily leave my phone at home or leave it in my pocket or backpack and not miss anything. Which is tempting to start doing again. I'm not missing out on anything and my friends really aren't missing out on my random text messages.

My mom wasn't feeling well over the weekend and after a brief respite yesterday, she is back to feeling like crap today. This meant that she was not interested in participating in Chipotle night but my sister and I still had it. The combination was just right and my total ended up being twenty-dollars even. That was pretty cool.

After dinner I watched YouTube videos and read some library stuff. It was not a very exciting night. At the moment I'm not very tired, which kind of sucks because I have to get up earlier tomorrow for a kid show at the theater. That starts at ten o'clock, which means that it will be over two and a half hours until the next movie starts. Which is a long time. Not really any different than the normal sets at the moment because there are two and a half hours of downtime between the first and second set and at least the same for the the last two sets. It just sucks more having to get there earlier than normal, adding another long break in there. But I'll have more time to read. And do whatever else I end up doing if I get tired of reading.

And one more thing. The actor who plays Isaac in The Fault In Our Stars has always looked vaguely familiar. Not enough to make me think about it more than just in passing, but the feeling was always there. Last night I learned that he looks vaguely familiar because he was in The Naked Brothers Band. A ridiculous show back in the day but one that I still watched more than once. So, mystery solved. Also, he is going to be playing the lead in the adaptation of Paper Towns, another John Green novel, and I'm pretty excited about that. Not only because that was the first John Green book I read and I am glad he is getting another movie made (after the Looking For Alaska movie went nowhere (although it might now after the success of The Fault In Our Stars)), but also because I think the kid did a good job with the Isaac role and I want to see him playing a character that isn't so tragic, and in a movie that I won't be afraid to watch. Speaking of Paper Towns, I need to read it again. An Abundance Of Katherines is still my favorite but I remember liking Paper Towns. I can't remember if I previously said The Fault In Our Stars was my new favorite. It is John Green's best book to date but it also takes me to a very sad place. An Abundance Of Katherines is fun and it helped me get over a girl, so I think it will always be my favorite, even if The Fault In Our Stars was incredibly good.

June 10, 2014

Last night I slept fairly well and had several dreams that I don't remember. But I also woke up once an hour, not an exaggeration, to go to the bathroom, even though I didn't have a giant glass of water before bed. It was not a very restful night. Rather than waking up when my alarm went off I added an extra hour, and I don't think it helped because I was still pretty tired, but I also don't think it hurt.

Today at work I read from five of the books I am currently reading. I didn't realize I was reading that many. Technically, I'm reading seven I think, but one is a collection of “short” stories so I don't know if that counts. The next story is a hundred pages, making me question the shortness of these stories. I want to be reading more books, despite my current rotation. There are so many books in my piles that I want to read. I'm in a race that I will inevitably lose.

All day at work was spent swapping between books but I did have a little human interaction. On one of my many trips downstairs to use the bathroom I struck up a conversation with one of the doormen and he said I was probably the best projectionist at the theater because nothing ever happens when I'm working and it makes his job easier. That was nice to hear. If I'm doing my job correctly I should catch most of the issues before they become noticeable to the public. Those issues are most often minor but they do happen on a fairly regular basis. So when people can just come and enjoy their movie, oblivious of the fact that my job is going on in the background, then I am doing at least something right. There are only a few other projectionists and I have always suspected I was the best, but now it is confirmed.

Tonight I finished watching the only six episodes of The Writers' Room that are up on Netflix and then I watched a documentary about Calvin And Hobbes. I'm a fan of the comic and a few days ago it came to mind again because the creator briefly came out of retirement to guest draw a few strips on a comic called Pearls Before Swine. So it seemed fitting to watch the documentary after it popped up on Netflix. I spent the rest of my night watching YouTube videos and reading about librarian things. I still feel no less anxious about my interview next week but I also don't feel more anxious. This weekend when I called about jury duty I actually got a message saying I had not been selected for this week. I am hoping to get the same message next weekend because I really don't want to have to reschedule my interview.

June 9, 2014

Yesterday I also finished editing my journal from 2005. Near the end of that year my entries became more sporadic and the next several years are pretty slim. Not good in terms of documenting my boring life but it will make editing those years go a bit faster. It looks like I start getting back into it during October of 2009. And then it is every single day (minus a day or two maybe, I can't remember) up to the present. So that is going to take awhile. I need to get into the habit of writing and entry and then editing it immediately after. Based on my formatting so far, between November of 2003 and December of 2005, I wrote 450 single-spaced pages. Not bad.

This morning I slept in a little bit and then went to run my errands before work. That was exciting. And then I went to work. I read the latest issue of National Geographic and then continued reading The Fellowship Of The Ring. And that was my workday. I could have gone home an hour early but I wanted to keep reading and I figured I might as well get paid for it. Also, it was raining pretty hard outside and I didn't mind avoiding that for a little while longer.

While I was at work I was fairly certain I was going to spend my night playing BF4 because I haven't played it in awhile and I had an urge. And then I didn't even come close to playing it. I did watch a couple livestreams of people playing the Battlefield: Hardline beta, so I kind of got my fix. It is an limited open beta and I tried signing up for it but nothing came of it. It looks like a slightly not as good version of BF4. I also watched a bunch of game trailers that were released today at E3. Cinematic trailers are always cool but they also ruin games for me because even though I know they won't look anything like the cinematic, I want them to look like the cinematic. The new Fable game looked cool until it started looking like a turn-based game. I'm not a fan of that. The most interesting game I saw, and one I wouldn't mind playing, was Assassin's Creed: Unity. Those are games where I get lost just roaming around the environments looking at stuff. And Unity looked beautiful.

I had a very strong urge to watch a Sci-Fi movie tonight. Instead, I added several to my Netflix list. Couldn't bring myself to click on any of them. I think because it is almost eleven o'clock and I am kind of tired and don't want to commit to a two hour movie. And I felt the same way at ten o'clock. Maybe tomorrow. Now I'm going to watch the first episode of The Writers' Room and then go to bed.

June 8, 2014

Another exciting day in the life of me. I did things but the day still seemed to go by without much being accomplished. Oh well. I read an issue of National Geographic, which was interesting as always.

I tried on my old dress shirt and found I will probably be buying another one this week before my interview next week. It has a pretty good fit while I'm standing but when I sit down it gets a little snug. I also want to get a new pair of pants so it won't be too much out of my way to get a shirt as well.

I watched a movie from 1968 called Voyage To The Planet Of Prehistoric Women. I was not surprised by how bad it was. The planet is Venus, because the goddess of love, which they make a point of noting, but the men and the women are never in the same shot. The movie starts by two guys and a robot (a dude in a robot suit) flying to Venus. They crash land and three more men fly to Venus in order to rescue them. For most of the movie, the first crew is fumbling around the planet and the second crew is trying to find them, exploring the planet as they go. All the while there are random cuts to the women, who are all wearing long white skirts and shell bras. They also only communicate telepathically. At some point, the second crew is attacked by a Pterodactyl and they kill it. We then learn the women worship the Pterodactyl as a god, so when they find the dead body, they get pretty pissed, inside their heads, and call upon the gods to kill the men who killed the Pterodactyl. There's a whole bunch of lava (which takes out the robot) and then a flood. Both crews get back on the second ship and barely manage to escape before the flood overtakes them. The women then revolt against their Pterodactyl god, knocking down their statue, because it wasn't powerful enough to kill the men, which means they much be superior. The women need a new god now so they find the robot and erect him as a statue because it is a symbol of the all-powerful men who survived the onslaught of the Pterodactyl god. So, men are not only superior to women, they are greater than the gods. Ignoring the fact that these women are capable of communicating through telepathy, and they can call upon a god who can control water and lava. Yeah.

I picked out the glasses frames I want from my Warby Parker home try-on box. It was difficult because three of the five were nearly identical, but I finally decided on a pair. Tomorrow I need to mail them all back and then at some point, schedule an eye exam. I imagine it will be a bit awkward asking for my prescription because they sell frames at the place I get my eyes checked. But, it's my prescription and I'm already paying the doctor to check my eyes, so it's not like I'm screwing them over.

Tonight I played a little Borderlands 2, did laundry, read library stuff, and watched the Tony Awards. The opening with Hugh Jackman jumping up and down around the stage and back stage was exhausting to watch. I would have been wiped out after thirty seconds and he just kept going and going and going. My favorite performance of the night was Aladdin because I really liked the genie. It was only a brief glimpse into that performance but I was not surprised when the actor who played the genie won an award. My other observation from the show, Neil Patrick Harris makes for a scary looking lady. Verging on terrifying.

It is getting late now but tomorrow I want to wake up early so I can mail a couple things and get my Powerball ticket before I go to work. Thankfully I don't have to be at the theater until almost noon. Hopefully we'll have late shows next week as well because I have a haircut at ten o'clock next Monday.

June 7, 2014

Last night I had an idea for a video game based on The Edge Of Tomorrow. In a way it would kind of be roguelike, because when you die, you have to start from the beginning. There will be objectives to reach, like checkpoints, but they don't become respawn points when you die. The purpose of the checkpoints would be to lock in your version of the story so far, because each new section would be randomly generated. Each time you reach a checkpoint or clear an objective, the parts of the story you have played so far would be the same, each time you die and start over. At least the first section, up to the point of your last death if you do everything the same. An example is the location of people at a certain time. So if you start the game and someone runs by you after a certain amount of time, they will always run by you at that time. If you were to get in their way and delay them, that would create a different future section because that person would no longer get to wherever they were going in the same time period. Maybe that person catches you sneaking around later on in the level, but if you delay them at the beginning of the level, you would have more time to sneak around later in the level.

Having the sections remain the same each time, as long as you do the same thing, would give you the sense that you are reliving the same day over and over. But each change alters the possibilities, so you can try new things. Maybe realizing that way back at the beginning of the game you need to do something to make something at the end of the game possible. Possibly leaving a door unlocked or leaving a gun for yourself. And with the random generation of new sections as you advance, it would create a unique gaming experience for everyone who plays it. You wouldn't necessarily be able to watch someone else's playthrough because people and vehicles and objects might be in different locations, not only based on their previous choices but also due to the random generation. An example would be if you clear a building and reach a checkpoint. The next section would start as you walked outside. The random generation might have a guard walking by or a car parked outside that you could use or any number of other things. This would also increase replayability. In a new playthrough, you could play the first section exactly the same as last time but the next section might generate in a different way, so you couldn't count on people or objects being in the same spots. I think it would make for a pretty interesting game.

Today, I did nothing. I finally embraced my urge to play video games and jumped into Borderlands 2. It has been months since I played it last. Probably over a year actually. I can't even remember. It is still a fun game, and I really enjoy the humor, but it does get a tad repetitive after awhile. Not the humor, that is always great, but the gameplay. There is a lot of just running back and forth. It is fun mindless fun for awhile but it can get old.

And that was pretty much my day. Sadly. Or not sadly. It was kind of nice to get lost in a video game for awhile. And I'm still kind of riding the wave of finally applying to grad school. I did actually research a bit more into the librarian career today, so that's a thing I forgot. I plan on doing more of that tomorrow. In a little over a week I have my interview and I am still nervous. I have a decent transcript and I feel I did a good job on my statement of objectives, but I also feel like the only thing that matters is this interview. Which is not a good way to go into it because I'll just psych myself out. I really just want the interview to happen, hopefully knock it out of the park, and find out whether or not I will be going to grad school. It is early enough that I may still be able to apply at other schools but this is the only accredited program in the state and I really don't want to pay out-of-state tuition at another school. I'm sure there are perfectly valid reasons for making out-of-state kids pay more but it seems stupid to charge double or triple for the exact same product. I know there are examples of this in the “real world”, like XM Radio charging some customers full price while offering others significantly lower rates to keep them subscribed. But it is really hard to justify one person paying so much more for their education than the person sitting next to them. So, I'm going to hope putting my eggs in this basket turns out to be the right decision. And if not, hopefully they can give me some real insight into how I can improve my chances in the future.

June 6, 2014

Today was a pretty lazy and unproductive day. Looking back on it, it seemed to kind of just pass by without much fanfare. I would like to say I'm forgetting about something but at the moment nothing is coming to mind. All I can remember is watching Ted, along with recorded TV stuff and YouTube videos. Kind of a waste of a day.

I worked tonight at the theater for the first time in awhile. It felt kind of weird when I first walked in. I spent my night reading from three books. I also watched The Edge Of Tomorrow. It had the same basic idea of the story it is based on but it was pretty much different all around. But they made it work. I liked it. I wasn't a big fan of the original ending and thankfully they changed it for the movie. And although I like happy endings, and they gave it a happy ending, I think it should have ended on a sadder note. Spoilers here. In the book, the main character has to kill the girl to get out of the loop. Or kill her in self defense because she tries to kill him to stop the loop. In the movie, that isn't how the loop works, but they both end up dying in a last-ditch effort to stop the loop. And this was okay with me because the both died, not leaving one person alive to be depressed and ruminate over all the decisions they could have made differently. And they were heroic deaths, which don't make things any better in real life, but in a movie they are a good thing. Then the movie keeps going instead of ending with their last heroic action, taking out the enemy. Tom Cruise wakes up again, and the enemy vanquished, but it as if nothing ever happened. Happy, yes, because they both live, which is what I wanted in the book, but the movie did it in such a way that I think both of them sacrificing themselves to save humanity would have made a better ending than the way they chose to end things.

Against my better judgment I watched a thirty minute chunk of The Fault In Our Stars and then the ending. I was on the verge of crying the entire time and tears did leak out at least twice. It is such an overwhelmingly emotional story. I loved the book even though it made me cry more times than I can count. I know John Green really liked the movie and from what I saw they did a really good job of faithfully adapting it. The casting was also spot-on, at least based on my vague recollection of the characters. But it is definitely not a movie I will be going to watch in the theater. I'm not a fan of crying in public.

June 5, 2014

Another exciting day in the life of me. I read, watched movies, and clicked around the internet for most of the day. I started the movie watching with Pacific Rim while looking up stuff about grad school and careers in Library Science. The cable and internet crapped out for awhile in the middle of the movie so I read more of The Fellowship of the Ring until everything started working again. I thought I had seen all of Pacific Rim while it was in theaters but apparently I watched everything but the ending. I liked it. I would have preferred a different ending, if only slightly happier, but other than that, it was a good movie. At least in terms of visual effects. The story was just alright.

The second movie I watched was City Of Ember. I'm fairly certain I watched that movie awhile ago but I was tempted to watch it again. Still a good movie. I liked the costume design and the story was interesting..

The third movie was Warm Bodies. While we had it at the theater I managed to see the vast majority of the movie. At least it all seemed pretty familiar. As with City Of Ember, it is still a good movie. My favorite thing about the movie is the humor. And the fact that it was an interesting twist on a romantic comedy. The idea that most of the zombies could be cured made me wonder about the psychological repercussions on the living people who killed zombies before they knew there was a cure. Especially if those zombies were their loved ones. I imagine they would try to justify it by saying the zombies had technically been dead when they killed them again, but I still think it would be hard to come to terms with.

I didn't pay much attention to it at the time but all three movies kind of have the same basic theme. The last of humanity fighting for its survival. Pacific Rim wasn't quite as far along in terms of population lost, but they were trying to prevent getting to that point. So I'm counting it.

I got my Warby Parker in-home trial glasses frames today. Three are fairly similar and are a little larger than my current frames, one is more similar in size, and the last pair is more round. I immediately discarded those as an option because they were set too close together and looked funny. Now I need to repeatedly try on the remaining four until I come to a decision. Then, when I finally go get my eyes checked, I can order the pair I want.

Tonight was Chipotle night and after dinner I went for an hour-long visit with the new volunteer kid. There was a lot of silence. I asked a bunch of random questions about everything I could think of but couldn't ever really get much of a conversation started. I learned that he hasn't seen his sister since the court hearing and that he has been spending his time working and playing videos games and being bored. He also said that he is supposed to go to Hawaii with his grandparents.

I had an orange today, for the first time in a long time. I'm trying to increase the citric acid in my diet. It turns out oranges are still a pain in the ass to peel but they are also still delicious.

It is almost one o'clock in the morning but I'm not really tired yet so I started watching Jack The Giant Slayer. A movie I have not seen any of but was always curious. It has the same actor as the main zombie in Warm Bodies, something I had forgotten. I was interested in how they would do the giants and I'm not sure how I feel about it. They went full, not realistic, CGI. Not necessarily bad but different. I don't think I'll make it through the whole movie tonight but I've made a decent start.

June 4, 2014

Today we went out to the kindergarten teacher's house for a going-away lunch for the fourth grade teacher. We went out a little early with my cutout and I set it up right inside the door to greet everyone as they walked in. It got some pretty good responses. The kindergarten teacher and her husband recently finished remodeling their house and it looks really nice. It is like the perfect mix of rustic and new. I really liked it. As for the lunch, there was a really good turnout, which I was glad to see. And, there were plenty of food options for me so that was nice. I sat with the group out on the patio and it was a bit overcast with a small breeze, making it very comfortable and relaxing. I don't sit outside often enough and I should change that. There was a brief sad moment when the fourth grade teacher was talking but overall it was a happy time.

I didn't really do much else with the rest of my day. I got a decent amount of sleep last night but I was exhausted after lunch. I watched YouTube videos and added a bit more to my cross stitch but that was about it. And the same can be said for the rest of my night after dinner. I felt like playing a video game but my overwhelming sleepy feeling was too distracting. And yet here I am, still awake at one o'clock in the morning. I already miss my school sleep schedule.

June 3, 2014

I continued working on my cross stitch today. I didn't get very far. The metallic string is just such a pain. But I'm further than I was yesterday so I'm getting there. I need to suck it up and finish it so I can start on one of my other patterns.

I also continued reading The Fellowship of the Ring. I've made it into the second chapter. It has been nice having two weeks off but I am kind of looking forward to going back to the theater so I can get in some quality reading time. I will probably feel differently after a week or so but at the moment I am looking forward to it.

My friend texted me and then eventually called me to tell me about the accident he had today. It involved a post hole digger and his head. The post hole digger won. He said it hurt when it hit him and he could feel a bump but didn't think anything of it and started to walk away. That is when his partner on the job, along with the owner of the house and her daughter, noticed what my friend hadn't. He put his hand up to the back of his neck and when he brought it down it was covered in blood. Then he leaned forward and it all ran down his face. He walked into urgent care with his bloody shirt and a bag of ice on his head, a bloody face, a bloody undershirt, and told the receptionist he might need stitches. He also apologized to the lady he kind of cut in front of, who was their to get shots for her kids. It ended up taking nine stitches and seven staples to close the gash in my friends head, that apparently went all the way to the bone. He showed me pictures and I was not envious. I am glad I decided not to get into a fight with a post hole digger today.

Tonight I got to hang out with my in-town friend. It has been awhile since we've gotten to hang out but we made it in just under the three month mark, which isn't bad. After I picked her up out first stop was to get slushies at the gas station. We ran into the first grade teacher who just retired and I talked with her for a little while. School isn't going to be the same without her next year. And I'm going to have to end her a thank you if I get into grad school because she was also my reading tutor. While paying for the slushies I also took the opportunity to get my Powerball tickets so I wouldn't have to come back.

When we got back to my friend's house we watched Dexter. It took a little bit to remember which episode we had left off on because it has been awhile since we had the chance to watch the show. I thought we had one episode left in the sixth season but we skipped along through that one and I remembered everything until the very end. We then made it four episodes into season seven. It is taking us forever to get through the show but we're getting there, slowly but surely. After we finished the last episode for the night we talked about random stuff, including school and jobs, and then called it a night.

It is now about one o'clock in the morning and I am going to go to bed. Tomorrow I'm going to a lunch of the fourth grade teacher who is leaving. The same fourth grade teacher who had so much fun moving my cutout all over the building. So I'm going to take my cutout to the lunch, maybe try and scare her one last time.