Chris

Journal Closed

2003-09-08T18:57:30Z

I've completed the transition from chris1 to youcreateworlds. :)

I've removed all of my friends on this journal (don't be hurt, you're still a friend on youcreateworlds!).

From now on, check out youcreateworlds.

Thanks.

IMPORTANT

2003-08-31T00:34:54Z

FRIENDS!! PLEASE READ!

I've decided to go ahead and move over to my old LJ account as oppose to posting to both Plogs and LJ. My old account is an early adopter account and has all of the features of a paid account, embedding in particular. Basically, I'm cheap and don't want to buy another paid account.

So, everyone please update your friends lists! Please add youcreateworlds and remove chris1. Here's a link to help you out. Click it.

I'll keep an eye on the transition and make sure to cross post until everyone is switched over.
Thanks, and sorry for the hassle!

Off to watch Micah fight! :)
Chris

chris1 @ 2003-08-30T18:52:00

2003-08-30T23:54:12Z

Argh.. I'm a nervous wreck! Micah has his first fight tonight, and I think I'm more nervous than he is!

I'm gonna film it - if it goes well (please, please go well) I'll capture it and do a little editing and upload it to our site for all to enjoy.

I'll also post some pre-fight pics that we took a few days ago. LOL I think jag911 asked for them awhile back, so I'll post them later.

Ok... off to the gym to watch him kick ass (please kick ass Boo!).

Later.

chris1 @ 2003-08-29T22:18:00

2003-08-30T03:19:40Z

Geek update:

Warped is FINALLY moving me to their new server! Yay! I'm supposed to be moved sometime tonight or early tomorrow morning. :) I'm so happy. Now I can install Gallery (and other php programs I've been playing around with) and not have to worry about stupid safe_mode. heh. I'm excited, and that's sad. Oh well.

:) Work tomorrow. Not excited about that, just cuz I have to open and be there at 6am. Blah.

We just finished watching "House of 1000 Corpses" and it was very... odd. I think you have to be totally fucked up to get into/understand that movie. Very, very strange. Def get drunk or smoke some weed before you watch it... otherwise it's not worth it. I want my money back. I guess that's what you get with a movie written and directed by Rob Zombie - heh.

I'm goin to snuggle with my bebeh. Bye.

Just for John

2003-08-29T13:59:46Z

Just for hollisterdj, more KITTY PORN. heh.

These cat's aren't mine. A friend from work overheard me telling the story about Nemo and Rueski and started sending me these pictures. Makes me wonder where he kept them, and why.... hmmm... Distrubing.

Anyway....

3-Way

Auto-Fellatio

Bondage

Interracial

Prison Sex

Worn out

Hope that tides you over for another day or so, JC. I have to finish cropping the rest of those pics of Nemo, but will in the next day or so. I was going to use some of your images of Rue, but they're gone! lol

I'll post more later.

Kitty Porn!

2003-08-18T22:24:33Z

Here's the kitty (not kiddie) porn I promised hollisterdj. Nemo was really into his photo shoot that day. Hah. I actually have a lot more of him and Toby (and Alford, too). Some more of Nemo pissed off and hissing, too. I'll post those later on. I gotta crop and resize 'em.

I'll post the rest of the pics soon. Hopefully I can link them to my new GALLERY if Warped ever gets off their ass and moves me to a server that allows full use of PHP.

Enough bitching. Enjoy :)

chris1 @ 2003-08-18T16:02:00

2003-08-18T21:03:17Z

Ok, so I re-opened my support ticket with Warped after the lame-ass response I got last time (you'll be moved to the new server (no safe_mode) soon). Ok, I got an even lamer response this time!

"The early-adopters are to be moved this week, and at the current rate, I expect that to be met."

Ok... and this means.... WHAT? Am I an early adopter? I don't think I am... so when will I be moved? I'm asking about ME.. Hello, how about a specific answer? I guess that would be too tough. I just replied with "...am I an early adopter? Please be more specific" and rated the support responses as POOR and explained in comments how this is ridiculous.

Argh!!!!!!!1111

Oh yeah, I can't forget this. You know that monitor that I bought in December of 01 for my dorm? Yeah, that view sonic piece of crap that decided to burn out a few months ago and has been collecting dust on teh floor? Yeah, that one. Well, I decided today that I better ship it back before my RMA expired and my warranty ran out. Of course, I have to pay to have it shipped there (omgz), but I figured it wouldn't be that much. I took it to The UPS Store - set it down and looked at the e-mail printout with the RMA and return info on it... there's not SHIPPING ADDRESS! Hello, it seems like common sense to put that in the RMA e-mail! So, I used their phone to call View Sonic and sat on hold for 10 minutes... Finally I hung up and listed to the recorded options for their shipping address - it's probably not the right address but oh well.

And, here's the kicker. Guess how much it cost to UPS (ground) that bad boy to CA? Well, it was $49.00 for shipping, and another $56.00 for packaging!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111 So I paid $105.00 to ship my monitor back that is defective and have them fix it. I could have just put that cash towards getting a new monitor! Ridiculous... I couldn't believe it. It better be as good as new when they ship it back.

I need to go finish cleaning the bedroom. I got going last night and just made an ever bigger mess. This is gonna take awhile....

chris1 @ 2003-08-18T10:39:00

2003-08-18T15:39:24Z

Grrrr....

Between Walgreen’s, Wal-Mart and Warped.com - I'm pretty mad. I'm just going to avoid the letter W today. ha.

Ok - Walgreen’s - we dropped our film (from Florida) off there 2 WEEKS ago. They had to out-lab it because we wanted a photo-cd made along with the prints. It should have taken 2 days. On the 2nd day, one package of film had come back, but the other had mysteriously vanished. It happened to be the waterproof disposable camera that we used on the beach that was missing. ARGH! So we waited a few days... I called them, they still didn't have it so they checked in their computer - the system said they were damaged but were still being processed. WHAT?! Ok... no. The film was NOT damaged - that camera was watertight (had it leaked there would have been condensation) so it had to be something that THEY did. The girl said that they were still processing and that they probably needed extra work because they were damaged. Ok, fine. I called back a few days later - still not back. I asked the man to check in his computer for them (I had when I have to tell people how to do THEIR jobs!) and he said that they were still processing. Okey dokey - at least it doesn't say "damaged" anymore. So I call back 2 days later on Friday. Again, I they're not there. She gets an attitude with me saying "well they are not here, I don't know where they are..." So I told her that it's been 2 weeks and she needs to find out where they are. She then informs me that if I don't have the slip that they gave me when I dropped the pictures off, then she can't look it up. BULL. "That's a lie - every other time I've called here I've given my phone number and they look it up that way... so here's my phone number" and she looks it up. Lazy ass. She looks it up and it finally says they will be delivered tomorrow (Saturday) and should be in after 3. Ok... good. I was busy Saturday so I called yesterday (Sunday) and asked if they were in. The girl gives me the same story about needing a slip -- I set her straight and she gets the photo manager. The manger informs me that it says that they are still processing in the system. I kinda go off - I'm sick of this run-around. I told the manager that it's been over 2 weeks since I dropped this film off and have gotten 100 different stories and explanations. I want answers - she tells me that she will call the out-lab tomorrow (Monday) and ask them what's going on. Fine - they were supposed to do that a week ago, but whatever. So this morning, I get a call from the out-lab personally (finally, I have THEIR number). They tell me that they've lost the film and can't find it. They're still looking for it but they have no idea where it could be and they're sorry. YOU'RE SORRY! Really? You're sorry. NO - NO. Doesn't work. FIND MY DAMN FILM NOW! So yeah, now I'm just sitting here waiting. They better find the film.

I will NEVER go to Walgreen’s again. Ever. And these pictures (if they ever find them!) will be free.

I had a problem with Wal-Mart, ironically, along those same lines. Their photo-lab people (Wal-Mart employee's in general) are so ignorant. I went in Saturday to drop off a roll of film at one hour (they do the picture-cd's THERE and don't out lab them). The ghetto girl tells me that their processing machine is broken but they're sending everything next door to Sam's club to process. It won't be an hour, but they should be ready by 3. Ok, I told her I'd come back at 3 for them.
I come back at 3... a different ghetto hoochie is working the counter. I give her my slip and she just looks at me... Ok, where are my pictures?? I told her the story and she proceeds to tell me the story about their machine being broken... Ok, right - already heard this one. She then tells me that they haven't taken any orders for one-hour since last night and that I must be mistaken. No, I'm not... go look. It's here somewhere. So she goes and asks all of her ghetto friends where my film is at. Finally they find it - still sitting there. They hadn't taken it over to Sam's club yet! Grrrr... so I tell them I was promised they'd be done by 3, what were they going to do. She tells me it will be another day but they'll be free. Ok, that's a start, but I want my pictures today! So I ask her if Sam's one hour is still "up-to-speed" and she says yes... So I tell her I'll take it over there myself, since I'm a member, and get it done in an hour. Cool. I get my film back.

I get outside and walk over to Sam's to realize that my membership card is at home. FUCK. So I get in the car and go home... no pictures.

I get home and realize that my membership card was in my wallet, which was in my laptop bag, which was in the backseat. Oh well. I took them to Sam's the next day and THEIR machine was broken down! The woman told me it was probably from the increased load that Wal-Mart was putting on them.... damn it. I dropped them off and she told me I could pick them up the next morning - which I did. They gave me a discount, which was nice. And, overall, it's cheaper that Wal-Mart AND Walgreen’s... so yeah, I'm going to Sam's from now on.

Never ever again to Walgreen’s, though.

And Warped - that's a whole nother story. I'm trying to install an image gallery program on my website (for the pictures I've had developed)... I've got everything set up (3 hours worth of work) and realize that my webserver host (warped) has safe_mode turned on in PHP and I can't use the software because of it. ARGH! So, I do some research to any work-arounds or see why they would have safe_mode enabled. I also open a support ticket with warped to ask them to turn it off... I read a lot of info about safe_mode, all of it negative. They've got PHP locked down, but have CGI wide open... it's like locking a door but leaving the window wide open. No sense at all. So this morning, I get a response to my support ticket.

At this time, no [we won't turn safe_mode on]. Safe_mode prevents customers from accessing each other's info due to the way we currently have the mod_php configured in the webserver. However, on the new server, php is run as a CGI specifically so this isn't a problem. You will be moved to the new server soon.

Ok, so when am I moving to the new server, exactly? That doesn't help! There are MANY many hosts out there who give root access to the server and leave php open for projects like this... They were just being lazy and enabled safe_mode so that users could browse down a few levels but couldn't access the files in other users directories... there are more efficient ways of doing this. Argh! So I go back to the helpdesk to follow up with a "Ok.... WHEN?" and the helpdesk is down! I'm getting "cannot find server" every time I try to access it. Argh, I need to change hosts. Although this one is very cheap, it's not worth it. I need to go check if it's back up or not.

That's basically it for the past 2 days. A lot of other stuff is going on that I’ll post about - but not in this entry. It's long enough.

Chris*

[ Micah ] My fight begins tonight, and ends Aug. 30th.

2003-08-12T03:15:00Z

On Aug. 30th all the training, sweat, and pain will come to test. I will step into the ring for the first time and fight for a knock out.

Why do I want to do this?

Why am I terrified and completely exhilarated all together at the simple thought of getting in the ring?

For those of you who have not followed I'll give a quick recap.

Back in March of this year I stepped into Russell Jones fight school. A small mixed fighting gym I had pasted up everyday ever sense I moved in with my father a few years back. My biggest goal, I think, was to MAYBE step into the ring after being there for, at the soonest, a year of training. Unexpectedly I have advanced in my skills rather fast- both pure boxing and American kickboxing. Russell seems to think I am ready for a fight now, after only training for about 6 months.

He approached me tonight after a hella crazy work out and said - "train hard cuz yer fighting on the 30th." I was a little shocked even though my brother had informed me while Chris and I were on vacation that Russell thought I was ready and would probably book me a fight soon. The fight is not set yet , but he said he's working hard to get me one on the 30th, and more than likely it will be full contact kickboxing.

This gives me three weeks to train. My stamina in the ring is not what it should be right now - due to the death of my grandmother and the week long vacation one week after her death I have not trained consistently in near a month. I'm going to have to start running sprints tomorrow to exercise my lungs. Even if this fight falls through I should make the effort as if it will happen. I'm going to train like crazy. My fight starts now, and will end will my opponent staring up at me in a daze with one raised hand on August 30th.

Wish me good luck!!

chris1 @ 2003-08-10T14:16:00

2003-08-10T19:16:27Z

Well, I've decided to go with a Plogs.net Journal. My LJ Paid account is expiring in a few days, so I'm taking advantage of the charter account that plogs is offering. So, I'll me migrating all of my old posts over to Plogs over the next few days - most people won't see any difference when checking out chrisandmicah.com - unless I don't get it set up before my paid account drops and the embedding is cut off. Then the page will just be blank. Hopefully it'll be done before that point.

I opened a support request on Plogs.net because I can't find any documentation about migrating my journal to their system. I know jackola has told me in the past that they do migrate, but I can't find any info. As soon as they close the request, I'll get it done.

I need to find out if they support S2 styles, too. I love the new components theme.

Back to cleaning.

Time to update

2003-08-04T20:06:29Z

Well, the vacation is over. It was a BLAST, though. I probably won't remember everything that we did, but I'll try. Be warned - this is going to be long!

We left the house Friday morning at 3:45am (ugh) to make the 10 hour drive to Orlando. Micah drove for about 4 hours and then I took over for the rest of the trip. We arrived at the Welcome center in Kissimmee (drove WAY out of our way, the directions were awful) and got checked in. She gave us our hotel voucher and told us that our condo tour would be on Sunday (as part of our package, we had to tour a time-share property to receive our free attraction tickets). We opted for the tickets to Disney because we had planned on going there anyway. We were on our way out the door when I realized that she had not given us our Disney tickets... so I went back in and asked about them. She told us that we would get the tickets at the property tour. Well, the tour was on Sunday and was 90 minutes at 12:30 in the afternoon. We were scheduled to leave Orlando to go to Daytona Monday morning - that didn't even give us half a day to spend at Disney! She apologized and then asked if I was a student. I told her yes (little white lie) and just so happened to have my LSU student ID in my wallet. I gave her a copy of the ID and she told me that because I work full time and am a student we are not required to go on the tour! Yay. So she gave us $90 to buy our own tickets to whichever park we wanted and sent us on our way. So, basically we got a hotel for 7 days and 2 tickets to Disney for $180 dollars. Yeah, this was turning out to be one hell of a deal. Needless to say, we walked out smiling :).

We headed from the welcome center to the hotel, which was just a few blocks down the road. We were staying at the Ramada, which was only about 4 miles from Disney world, and maybe 7 or 8 from Universal... Not bad at all. We checked in and found that we were too early to get our room, so we filled everything out and decided to go eat and come back at 4:00 when we could check in. We ate at Chili's and just relaxed for awhile. It was nice to be far, far away from everything at home and just be on vacation. (We had the Ultimate Nachos for an appetizer, I had a cheeseburger and Micah had a bacon cheeseburger... mmm good. :)

Went back to the hotel, checked in and just lounged around for the rest of the day, basically. We got everything situated in the room, found our way around the hotel and relaxed. We even got our tickets for Universal in the lobby at a discounted rate (only $2 off per ticket, but still!) We wound up falling asleep watching TV at like 7pm. We were tired.

Got up really early the next morning (6 am) and went to Universal Studios in Orlando. Micah had never been there before, and it's been years since I've gotten a chance to go. It's changed A LOT since the last time we went. They've added Islands of Adventure next door, the new City Walk shopping area and clubs and a huge ass parking garage. It was very nice. We were there really early so we just waited in line to have our ticket voucher redeemed and then waiting for 9:00 to roll around so we could get in the gates. We were one of the first people in the park and decided to start in the back to avoid the lines and people - turned out to be a smart move! We got to Twister... Ride it out! and walked right in. We stood in the "lobby" for a few minutes and eventually 3 other people came in and they closed the doors. They started off with a neat little movie will Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton about making Twister, then we moved through the building to a huge staging area with the Drive-in screen, concession stand and trucks from Twister. They lights went down and we watched as the twister moved through in the background, tore up the movie screen and hit the gas station where everyone was hiding out... It was raining really hard, thunder and lightning and then, bam! there was a twister right in front of us. It wasn't big or anything, but it was cool how they made it. Was pretty windy and loud - but was a lot of fun. It only lasted about 5 minutes but it was a really cool experience.

After Twister, we checked out the Ghostbusters car which was right by the entrance... very cool. We went from there to Jaws, which is a staple if you ever visit Universal. Again, we were the first ones there and had fun on that one. Got a little wet and really, really hot. It still amazes me with the pyro effects they use and all of the fire on the attractions. Was cool, Micah seemed to like it.

After Twister, we checked out Men In Black: Alien Attack! I had never ridden this one before so I was pretty excited. You walk through the MIB headquarters with all of the aliens and agents walking around... you enter the training facility and board a "car" for a training exercise. The car travels through the streets of New York and there are aliens everywhere. You have to use your "laser gun" to shoot them all as you see them - they're in windows, cars, etc. Every time you hit one, it adds points to your score which is displayed in front of you on the car. For most of the ride, Micah was beating me... but at the end, there's a HUGE alien that you have to kill and only one person can get it... well, guess who got it? Yup, I did! :) Gave me like 20,000 points so I came out on top for our car at like 200,000 I think. I won.. hehe. After we got off, they had a station where you could look at the picture they took of you riding the ride - ours was pretty funny, but not good enough to spend $12 on! So we passed...

After riding MIB, we stopped and got a Caricature drawn of us at a stand... It turned out AWESOME! I can't look at it without laughing my ass off. Jonathan is going to take a picture of it for us to have a negative of, and we'll post it online with the rest of our vacation pictures. I think we're going to use it as our Christmas card this year... so if you want one, let us know! :) I can't describe the picture, it's too damn funny. He gave me a chin, though! So I was happy. Was really fun and well worth the $35 we paid for the full color picture. The artist was really nice, too. Had amazing teeth - I wanted to ask him how much he paid for them!

After the Caricature, we rode Back to the Future which is another staple when visiting Universal. It was the same as I remembered from my last visit, but was still a really cool ride. You're at one of Doc's labs and Biff has stolen a Delorian/time machine and you have to go get him... So they throw you in one of the other Delorians' and chase Biff. It's a motion simulator and you're basically in the middle of a HUGE dome-ed movie screen. The Delorian moves along with what's being displayed on the screen...... so after about 3 minutes of this, Micah and I both start to get motion sickness. We got off that thing feeling nauseous, but glad we rode it. Was fun. :)

After Back to the Future, we stopped at a restaurant and got something to eat - I think we both had cheeseburgers and LARGE coke's - it was really warm and we were both thirsty. Was really over-priced, but oh well.

After that, we rode Earthquake!, which was a lot of fun, and then went on a tour of Nickelodeon studios, which was a lot of fun, too. We then went to ride Terminator 2: 3D which was AWESOME. You start off in the lobby of CyberDyne with a presentation by the biggest fag-hag I've ever met. It's this big girl, dressed all in red, giving a presentation on the company and what it does. She says "SUPER" waaaay too many times and gets annoying fast - but you gotta love her... I wonder if she has to do that ALL day long. hmm. Either way, she was a very good actress (I HOPE she was acting!). In the middle of the video presentation, the feed is cut off and John and Sarah Connor cut in and warn everyone to leave because they're going to blow the place up... The hag comes back out and apologizes and ushers us into the theatre, which is monsterous! Here comes the hag again, up on stage talking about CyberDyne's robot warriors - and on the sides of the auditorium, these holes in the floor open up and huge Robot Terminator skeletons come up with huge machine guns... very cool looking. They do target practice with targets that come down from the ceiling - was pretty cool. Then, Sarah and John Connor (actors) come running out on stage trying to get everyone to leave and the hag tries to get the robots to shoot them... just then Terminator (Arnold/actor) comes out riding on his motorcycle, picks up John and rides right THROUGH the movie screen, and the 3D movie begins... it really integrates live action and movie very very well. I was really impressed - and the 3D part was cool, too. Especially when they get to SkyNet's main system, which is guarded by the T 1000000, a huge spidery looking thing that's liquid metal. They start blowing stuff up and you can actually smell the motorcycle exhaust and the gun powder, there's mist when the T 1000000 explodes (which is awesome in 3D!) and the chairs rumble... was a really cool experience. Loved it!

After Terminator, we were pretty tired and decided that we had seen everything we wanted to see at Universal, so we took off back to the Hotel. We were both pretty upset because we really wanted to ride the new Spiderman ride, but it was at Islands of Adventure, not Universal... so that sucked. The rest of the day and played pool in the lounge of the hotel. We had a bad storm roll through, too - so we just chilled.

The next day we headed to MGM Studios really early - we got there about 7:45 am and were the 3RD CAR IN THE PARKING LOT! We were so excited, we took a picture! This was a big feat to us - in a parking lot that stretches for miles, we were #3 - tre cool. :) We stood at the ticket window and talked to the ticket guy for quite a while. He told us about the origin of Baton Rouge and where the city got it's name (we're wrong, I guess) and told us about the northern colonies and a bunch of other boring crap - but it was better than sitting there for an hour. He also told us about a new ride at Epcot (where we were going after MGM) called Mission: Space which hasn't opened yet. He had just ridden it during a cast preview a week before and said it was the most amazing ride EVER and, if we were lucky, we'd be able to ride it when we got to Epcot. Supposedly they have been doing visitor previews to test the ride randomly for maybe an hour every other day - we were stoked. Anyway, we got in the park (after waiting in line next to the biggest piece of trailer trash I have ever encountered... she was just vile) and went on The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror! I'd ridden this ride once before and LOVED it, so we decided to go on this first to avoid the long line. You get in an old service elevator at the hotel, sit down and get strapped in. The elevator then goes up in complete darkness - it stops at the 13th floor and the doors open. There's a lot of cool special effects with holograms and lighting - is a really cool ride even if there wasn't a drop... but then, the elevator comes OUT of the elevator shaft and continues on a set of tracks through the hotel... Finally, the lights go out and a vertical beam of light shines in front of you. It splits into two as the separate and the elevator moves towards them... It's pitch black as all of the sudden, the elevator DROPS 13 stories down in complete darkness... Micah was screaming like a little girl! haha. The woman next to me (who I didn't know at all) grabs my hand and starts screaming as the elevator shoots BACK UP the shaft and doors open in front of you and you look out over the park at 13 stories up... but it doesn’t stop - you shoot back down and up again about 4 more times! OOoh talk about scary. LOL Micah finally peeled his hand off my leg and opened his eyes - he looked scared to death. He really liked it though, but it made us both kinda queasy (again). Argh...

After we got off Tower of Terror, we decided to ride the new ride, Aerosmith's Rocking Rollercoaster. Neither of us had any idea what the ride was, but decided to get on anyway. You enter Aerosmith's studio as they're recording some music (it's all pre-taped, but looks real) and they invite everyone to their concert and after party. Their manager calls us a limo and tells us it's in the alley and they'll meet us there... so you walk out to the alley and all we hear is "whooooooosh!" and screams. Oh shit. hah. We get to the alley and see that it IS in fact a roller coaster (all we knew was it was a "rollercoaster type ride") - we see what the screaming is about when we round the corner and watch the train (limo) round the corner and stop in front a huge sign and a tunnel. You hear "3, 2, 1" and then the train goes from 0 to 60 mph in 2 seconds as the train goes flying into the tunnel... We both about shit our pants. LOL So we finally get into the "Car", and round the corner and stop in front of the tunnel... 3, 2, 1 and we're off flying UP the "lift" hill and into a loop as we go upside down on the "highway". The ride was incredible - twists and turns and loops, all INSIDE the building. It would have been an even better experience had Micah and I not been nauseous from Tower of Terror - we were both ready to throw up when we got off... but it was a BLAST, literally. Loved it.

We then did The Backlot Tour, Star Tours (a Star Wars motion simulator ride - I was nauseous enough so I kept my eyes closed), and then did the Magic of Disney Animation tour which was really cool. You get to tour their actual animation studios - we watched as they finished up work on "Brother Bear" which is coming out in September, I think. It looks like a really cute movie and was cool to see how they did everything. The last time I went to MGM, they were working on Mulan, which was cool too.

After all that, we decided to stop and eat at the ABC Commissary. I think we both had burgers again, but they were better here. We relaxed for awhile in the A/C cuz it was hot as hell outside.

From there, we went to Epcot. They added this huge sign onto the side of the Epcot dome (golf ball) :) and it looks really cool. We checked out Futureland and all of the cool exhibits and games they had there. We also rode Spaceship Earth inside the dome, which was pretty cool, but boring. We checked out the "House of the Future" which had all kinds of cool gadgets and technology - including a hot tub with a HUGE plasma TV built in... I want one. :) Then we checked out Ellen's Energy Adventure with Bill Nye, the Science Guy. Was cheesy but kinda cool. Was nice being inside in the A/C at least. We then found MISSION:SPACE. The new attraction the ticket guy was telling us about... and guess what, they were doing guest previews! We jumped in line and waited the 20 minutes to board. AMAZING... this deserves it's own paragraph...

Ok, you walk into the "training facility" to be trained as an astronaut. Everyone is given a role during the video orientation outside of the module: Pilot, Commander, Engineer and Navigator. I was the Engineer and Micah was the Commander (I think). Everyone has specific "tasks" they must perform during the ride... it's all interactive and the ending is based on how everyone performs their tasks (hitting a button at the right time). Anyway, after the briefing, the doors open and you enter this huge spherical contraption - there's a central "hub" with arms branching out to the "cars" which are suspended. You get in the car into the appropriate place for your task. The doors close and the restraint harness comes down and the instrument panel comes towards you. Each person has their own console with the control joystick and a vertical flat-panel display monitor. The instructor guy comes back on the screen with last minute tips and instructions... then, all you can see on your monitor is your launch area. You begin tilting up for liftoff (and you're actually tilting - you end up on your back). You're staring straight up into the clouds and sky as the countdown begins... The ship begins shaking and then IGNITION! You're being pressed to the back of your seat at 3.5 G's as the rocket blasts off and through the atmosphere out into space. Once in space, the pilot disengages the booster system (their "task") by pressing a button and you're WEIGHTLESS. No gravity... was amazing! I (as engineer) then have to activate hypersleep for the trip to Mars... the module goes black for a few seconds and comes back on after our "nap" :) We then encounter meteors, nebulas, etc as we weave in and out trying not to hit anything... it all feels so REAL. Finally, we begin our decent down to Mars and I deploy the wings for landing (my other "task"). However, something happens and we overshoot the landing area, so the autopilot is deactivated and we all have to control the ship using our joysticks... Finally, we set down but are teetering on the edge of a cliff (you can feel it as it's rocking back and forth) and we finally stabilize and dock. It all lasted about 5 minutes but it was the most amazing ride I have ever been on (and I've been on a lot!). I wanted to do it again but by the time we got off they were done with the visitor previews for the day. Just amazing. I highly recommend it! :)

We walked around a bit more and went back to the hotel after that. That night, we went to WonderWorks for a magic dinner show. We arrive and the building is UPSIDE DOWN. Really! It's pretty neat - we bought admission to the "museum" - it's a lot like FutureWorld at Epcot - lots of games, etc. Was fun. We played laser tag, too and I beat Micah. Wo0t. We waited in line FOREVER (1 hour) to be let in for the magic dinner show. But it was worth it. We had all-you-can-eat pizza (although it wasn't great) and laughed our asses off - the 2 guys, Danny and Tony are magician comedians and they did some cool tricks and were great comedians. Check out their website for more about them. It was a lot of fun and worth the wait.

After that we got stuck in traffic (Universal had just closed and all 50,000 people were on the road!) and we missed our turn and went 30 minutes out of our way. Oh well. Got to the hotel and went to sleep.

The next day we packed up and checked out. Headed to Kennedy Space Center to do the space thing. That place was really cool and I wish we had more time there. We walked around and looked at stuff for about 2 hours but had to leave to make check-in by 3:00 in Daytona. We got our tickets stamped to come back the next day, but we never did. It would have been nice to have a few more hours there to go on the restricted area tours and check out the Vehicle Assembly Building and the launch sites... oh well - next time.

Got to the Daytona Welcome Center with 30 minutes to space. Got our hotel voucher and found that we were staying right on the beach at the Doublestay Inn. Checked in there and chilled out for a little while. Went down the road and bought some sandals and hit the beach! The water was perfect and the beach wasn't overly crowded, either. It was really nice and relaxing to be on the beach and in the ocean. I loved it.

That night we went on our free Casino Dinner Cruise that the welcome center gave us. That was a lot of fun. We got on the boat and had dinner - by the time we had finished we were in international waters and they turned the casino on. We both had $10 to play on slots and we went at it... We both played the .25 cent machines for awhile until we ran out of money - didn't take long. I found a $5 bill in my pocket so we decided to try our luck on the nickel machines. We both played on that $5 for about an hour and a half, but eventually ran out. We sat up on the deck for awhile just relaxing and had a few cocktails. We were bored, though, and had 3 hours before we got back to land. The rocking was starting to make us sick, too, so we decided to go back down to the casino and get some money out of the ATM (which charges you a $5 service fee for withdrawals!!!!). We both had $5 to spend and we both played the nickel slots again. We were there for quite awhile when Micah hit a nice sized jackpot of about 500 nickels ($25) on top of the $5 he had already set aside. Right after that, I hit a major jackpot of 900 nickels ($45!) so we decided to cash both of us out and keep playing on the original $5 and once that was gone, we cashed out. We couldn't tear ourselves away from the machines, though, and lost another $5 but we still had our other winnings. After all was said and done with, we made $65 dollars! But, we also spent about $60 in games and on the buffet, so we only came out $5 ahead... but still! It was fun. Next time we go to a casino, though - the credit card is staying at home!

The next few days we relaxed on the beach and checked out the shopping. There was a really cool movie theatre complex down the road so we went to see Terminator 3 and Tomb Raider 2. Both were pretty good movies. We also ate at Bubba Gump's for dinner cuz Micah wanted Sea Food. They had damn good food, but tried too much to be like New Orleans (where the original Bubba Gump's is). Was nice, though. I had miscalculated how long our vacation was and thought we were suppose to check out and come home on Thursday... well actually we were suppose to check out on Wednesday. We figured this out on Tuesday and decided we would just pay for the extra night ($50) so we had an extra day to relax. It was nice.

The drive home wasn't as bad - I drove the whole way (I prefer driving to riding) and we made it in just under 10 hours. Overall, the vacation was awesome. I really didn't want to come home, but it was nice to sleep in our own bed again.

Damn - this is a long entry. Took me 2 hours! I need to go to the store to get some meat for dinner and some charcoal to BBQ tonight. :) I was off work today, yay. 7 days off, 2 days on, 1 day off, 4 days on, 2 days off... :) I'm taking the pictures to get developed today so I should have them online sometime this week. :)

Like my new icon? Ryan is sooo cute. hehe

C*

Wobble Wobble

2003-07-23T14:24:19Z

2 more days to Florida. We're leaving Friday morning at 3am for the long 10 hour drive to Orlando. bah. I bet I can make it in 8 heh.
(yes mother, we'll be careful. No, I'm only kidding. Of course we'll go the speed limit. 5 under, yes, of course.) Love you!

Work still sucks, but is better than it was on Friday. Dee called me in her office the other day to tell me to stop acting bitter. Yeah, like that will ever happen at this place. Right. Other than that, nothing else has happened. I dropped the issue because I KNOW that I wouldn't win - the company does not care about me and I don't have the power to change that. So, I "did what I had to do" to make sure that my hours were covered for last week. Ta-da - I'm now at 40. hah.

Speaking of work - I'm off to that dreadful place right now. Another 10-6:30 shitty shift - the days just seem to crawl by. Especially this week because we've been so busy every day. I still have a lot of stuff to do before I go on vacation so it's not all waiting for me when I get back. I think I have to monitor 1 more person (I'll do that today), finalize my training session agenda and materials so I can start training employees as soon as I get back, try to get a few decorum’s done so that I don't have 25 to do when I get back, and get all of the new hires on the board and get them mailboxes. I HAVE to do that today - I know I won't have time tomorrow and it has to be done before I leave. Just too much crap to do!

Oh, I also finalized my classes for January. Now, I just have to figure out what I'm going to do for work so that I can go to school and work and not be conflicting. Here's what I'm taking:

January 2004
Eng 1002 - Composition - 3 cr.
Spn 1102 - Spanish - 4 cr.
Hst 1001 - History - 3 cr.

May 2004
Spn 2101 - Spanish - 3 cr.
MC 2000 - Mass Comm - 3 cr.
Sci 1001 - Physical Sci - 3 cr.
Lib 1001 - Lib & Info Systems - 1 cr.

August 2004
Spn 2102 - Spanish - 3 cr.
Hst 1003 - History - 3 cr.
Sci 1002 - Physical Sci - 3 cr.

I also have to take Math 1021 in there somewhere. It's 3 credits so I don't know where to throw it in there. All this crap just to complete my freshmen year. I have no idea why I took psych last semester - it doesn't count to my requirements to enter Manship (college of Mass Comm) - I'm sticking to general ed and the course outline for m.c. so I can get it done and over with. I need to set up an appointment with my counselor after I get my from Florida to go over everything. Damn, I need to send something back for registration, too. I'll do that today.

Ack. It's 9:20 - I have to leave in 10 minutes. Need to do mah hair, brush mah teeth and get somethin to eat. Bye.

chris1 @ 2003-07-21T19:15:00

2003-07-22T00:16:02Z

Nemo's famous!

I was perusing my friends page and seen his picture as a userpic for a post by hollisterdj. He named it "cat up da butt" I suppose because it looks like Nemo's being probed.

Just thought it was cute.

Partitions (err Volumes) Galore! NOT

2003-07-20T01:02:56Z

Running into more problems getting my drives partitioned.

Originally, I was just going to separate the slave drive into 2 separate partitions - one for my mp3's and downloads and the other for other media and my website. Well - I figure as long as I'm working with new partitions, I should go ahead and create a new partition on my master disk to separate EVERYTHING from my OS. I mean, why not? I have 120 GB to play with. Plus it'll make defrag go faster. A little.

Problem - When I installed the new HD and formatted, I made it a dynamic disk - not basic. You can't resize dynamic disks (at least without emptying them out first (with Partition Magic and diskpart)). I have over 20 GB of stuff, let alone the OS that I REAAAAALY don't want to have to reinstall tonight. NO way. I only reformat my system in extreme situations - this is not one of them. There are just too many programs and files on there for me to backup - it would take this whole spindle of CD-R's and all night. No.

So I'm checking out Paragon's Partition Manager. I read that it can convert a dynamic disk back to basic without having to empty the drive of all data. I hope it's true! Otherwise, I may have to bite the bullet and break down and backup and reinstall XP - on a free weekend. I figure it will be worth it in the long run, especially with the size of the disk.

Oh yeah - I just installed the new speaker in the Saturn. Micah blew the factory speaker in the door a whiilllle ago and we've never gotten around to replacing it. I, however, cannot make the drive to Florida on Friday with that damn popping sound. So, while raining, I tore the door panel off (that was too much trouble - damn you Saturn), pulled the old speaker out and popped in a new one that I got from Best Buy (cheap Pioneers - factory grade). Now, because speakers are sold as a set, we have an extra one if he does it again. Baby, please don't do it again! (love you).

How cute is the new guy (Chris) that replaced Abram on RR12? I need to find a pic of him to make a userpic. Sad, isn't it? Ha.

Arghhh I'm not finding Partition Manager on Kazaa. Must. Look. Harder.

So Fresh So Clean

2003-07-19T21:27:41Z

I FINALLY got my 2nd HD formatted and partitioned. I used to have a copy of Linux on there for me to play around with, but I haven't used it in ages. A few of the files were corrupt and I had a hell of a time getting everything off of there and making the disk usable again. I hate that XP Pro doesn't allow you to boot to dos - had that been the case, I would have been able to use fdisk and be done in 10 minutes. BUT, because (for some reason) none of my boot disks work (new or old), I can't get to dos, only the shell - so no fdisk for me. Today I found the diskpart utility in XP and learned that util - after about 20 minutes the 2nd drive is clean and ready to use. I need to reassign some drive letters, but at least I can get to moving all of my media (mp3s, website, etc) over to that drive to speed up the master. Hopefully I can have EVERYTHING moved over there and use the master for the OS only and the slave for the media. That'd require a lot of time and a complete system reformat cuz right now the disk I have the OS on is my 120 GB drive, and that'd make more sense as my media drive (the slave is only 14 GB)... anyway...

I have a lot of stuff to post about - so I'm gonna do some back-dating and get things up to speed. I'm so absolutely sick of my job now - it's not even funny. A lot has happened over the past few days and I actually almost walked out... More on that in the post-dates that I'll do in a few.

very quick update

2003-07-15T14:27:53Z

Things have been busy - Right now included :)

I got up at 6am this morning to go running and run some errands before work. I'll be getting up early to run every day for the next week and a half so that I can drop a few pounds before Florida (10 DAYS!). I feel really good when I work out in the morning - very awake and ready for the day. Plus I get so much accomplished. I went to Albertson's today to get some lunch food (low-fat, low-cal) and some gift boxes for Kim's presents for her baby shower, which we missed. She'll like them anyway.

Been busy this weekend and last week with a death in the family - Micah's step-grandmother~~-in-law~~ (Maw-Maw Jean) passed away and we've been over at his dad's house helping them out and doing the usual funeral stuff. It's been a tiring few days.

Went out to New Orleans Saturday night. That was fun - very casual, walking around the quarter... stuff like that. I'll post the details later.

Off to work - my shake is ready! :)

C*

chris1 @ 2003-06-24T14:52:00

2003-06-24T19:53:04Z

I'm so sick of LiveJournal.

The past few days, it seems like every time I go to check out my friends page or update, the site is down. Not just posting, either... the WHOLE site. It's starting to really piss me off.

Screw it... In August when my Paid membership expires, I'm going to use my Early Adopter account and get a Permanent account on Plogs.net and call it a day. This is just ridiculous.

That is all.

Honey... I'm home!

2003-06-24T00:27:25Z

Just got back from Best Buy, the mall (GNC) and Albertsons... Didn't take me long at all!

I am thoroughly impressed by Best Buy and how they handle returns. I took the Hub back that I bought for Micah's Dad (didn't need it, went wireless) and just handed them the box and the receipt. 10 seconds later she handed me my receipt and said "Have a good day!". No filling out a slip, arguing about why I'm returning it, bitching cuz the box is opened... nothing. Just a "here ya go" and "thanks". They've already credited the $$ back to my credit card. Very nice.

I <3 Best Buy.

I always get hassled in GNC, though. I only want the MetRX - I don't care about the other crap or the GNC stuff... I know what I want so just ring it up. Grrr I hate pushy salespeople. I was only in there about 5 minutes though, which is better than usual.

Albertson's wasn't nearly as bad as it usually is, either. I got my turkey breast and ham for sammiches, some Kiwi (mmmm), OJ, Mustard and Sugar Free Jello snacks (only 10 calories!!) :). I got to the checkout and the guy in front of me said I could go first! What a good day! I guess it helped that I didn't have a buggy and my arms were full, but it was a nice gesture, anyway.

I got up at 12:30 today... I'm such a bum, and I love it. :) I have to be to work at 6:00am tomorrow, though. Oh well...

Love!
C*

Help!!

2003-06-23T23:01:13Z

Hey guys,

Quick question that I need your help with. I've been asked by about 4 people in the past month to build them a website for their (small) business. Now, the site's would all be relatively small (pics, info, links, etc) with little to no flash or extensive programming. I, however, not being in this business "professionally" (not charging), have no idea how much to charge these people.

I was thinking that, if they just wanted the site built and they would maintain it from that point, maybe $15 - $20 an hour -- or even setting a flat rate to be decided upon when we do the consult and decide on the layout and depth of the site. But what's too much and what's not enough??

I definitely think that, if they wanted ME to maintain the site and be the webmaster, there should be a monthly charge for that service. In any case, they will be paying for the hosting and the domain registration.

So... any ideas?
C*

PLUGPLUGPLUGPLUG*

2003-06-19T03:04:12Z

REVISED!
SOLD! :) Got a "buy-it-now" buyer for 35.00 plus shipping. Yay. Thx anyway.

Need a router??? :)

I've put my old Linksys Cable / DSL Router up on eBay. I think I listed it for too much, but we'll see if it goes. :)

Check It Out!!

That is all.

/plug

-Chris

...and we're off!

2003-06-19T01:15:06Z

Ok, I've put it off long enough... I guess I'll update. :)

I need to just write throughout the day and at the end of the day post it - that way it doesn't take an hour to sit down and write about everything that's happened the past few days, like I'm doing now. Heh.

Well, let's see. Last weekend was very busy, although I was off of work. I put in 2 window a/c units at the Lambda center so that we don't have to sweat our asses off when we have our board meetings. I actually did a good job installing them! I had to put the anchors in, set the units in place, cut the plywood to the right size to fit the gap in the window and screw everything in nice and secure (so no-one breaks in, AGAIN!). I had the help of my lesbian baby-mama Amy :) she's a riot. She held the screws while I screwed them it. Her girlfriend, Stephanie, who is also on the board, was worried sick that I was going to slip and take off one of her valuable fingers. :) Nasty nasty lesbians. I also got to play around with a rotary saw and cut things, which was fun. I felt so butch. That, and spending HOURS in Dyke Depot getting the mini-blinds cut, picking up supplies and choosing the right wood - I may be being converted... nah.

I also put new locks in at the center - the deadbolt kind that you have to have a key on both the inside and outside to unlock... that way if someone breaks in again, they're going to have to work to get their shit out of the center! I still don't understand why they took the cordless phone and left the flat screen computer monitor. Very, very strange. They also took a case of Budweiser - probably some kids. Oh well. I screwed the windows shut too - it's like fort Knox in there now. :)

I worked a lot last week. I've been busy doing typing accuracy testing for the entire center. We have to test everyone every 3 months on their typing speed and accuracy to make sure that they're typing at the FCC minimum (60 words per minute, 95% accuracy). It's slow going, with 100 people to test, but it's going. I'm about half done... I should be able to get the rest done by next week. I'm also behind in my quality monitoring for the month. I guess I need to get my ass in gear.

Speaking of work, I've applied to LiveOPS, an at-home job. It sounds very cool - you just sit home and take customer service calls for products for sale on TV info-mercials and online retailers. Your phone rings, a script pops on your computer and you just fill in the information. The best part of it is, I'm an independent contractor. I'll be setting my own hours, working as much or as little as I want and working whenever I want. Sounds very cool - the pay is $.25 per call minute, which averages out to about $15 per hour. This will be great when I go back to school in January. I'm going to give it a try part time in July and if I like it I'm going to do it full time and quit the relay. I've already got my 2nd phone line installed and my new phone with headset - now I just need to give them a call and have them test my system to make sure they can pop a script on it with my router in place. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow!

Yesterday I had a near-death experience. I was on my way to the Lambda center for shad's volunteer orientation (free food, w00t). I was on I-10 going about 60 mph... traffic was going fairly smoothly (for being 6:00), but about halfway there a car cut someone off about 5 cars in front of me and everyone slammed on their breaks... well it had been raining all day and the roads were really slick... I hit the breaks but knew that I was going to hit the car in front of me... I just wasn't slowing down fast enough. So, quick thinking, I took the shoulder (I was in the passing lane). Well, I came within about 3 inches of the car in front of me... just as I was slowing down, the front tire hit the grass in the median (which was wet) and the car started sliding! So, I do the instinctual thing and let off the break and turn into the slide - NOTHING. No response, it just kept going. So I hit the break again... I've turned about 90 degrees by now and I'm not slowing down... The car finally stops, after spinning 180 degrees. Now, I'm facing on-coming traffic, although I'm sitting in the middle of the median of I-10. I was scared out of my mind (and really, really embarrassed). I just sat there shaking for a minute and decided I need to move before someone recognizes me! So I threw it in reverse, turned around and got back on the road... acting like nothing happened. I was shaking like a leaf, of course, but I looked cool... yeah, I meant to do that. :) I'm just glad I didn't hit the car in front of me - I don't need another accident on my record! (granted I've only had 1 and it was wiped off of my record 'cuz I fought it, but still). At least I'm ok.

The volunteer orientation was cool. I had a few people express some interest in helping me with my PR stuff like the newsletter and advertising. Speaking of, I really need to get moving on this issue of the newsletter. I have to have it printed by June 25th and I haven't even started yet!!! Shit. If anyone has any interesting GLBT articles, please send them my way! :) I need help! I'm hoping these new volunteers will help me fold, staple and label all of them after I get them printed, too. That'd be very nice.

No mishaps on the drive back home, thank god.

Oh thank you, Jesus. I was pulling the cpu out the plug in the surround sound to listen to some music and the power cord got caught and rebooted the system... I thought for sure that this was gone... but no! It was right here waiting for me. Thank you, Semagic. :)

Today, I'm OFF! w00t! :) I got up, watched TV. for a little while and took a few of the BrainBench tests that jackola had posted about the other day. They have some cool stuff on there. Here are the results of the tests that I took:

Name: Computer Fundamentals (Win 95/98)
Score: 4.53
Scored higher than 89% of all previous test takers.
Demonstrates understanding of most advanced concepts within the subject area. Appears capable of mentoring others on the most complex projects.

Strengths
GUI
Hardware
Software
Storage
Win 95

Weak Areas
None Noted

Sub-Category Scores
Conceptual 4.0
Problem-Solving 4.0
Terminology & Syntax 4.0

Name: Typing Speed & Accuracy
Score: 4.65
Scored higher than 99% of all previous test takers.

Raw Words Per Minute (WPM): 85 WPM
Accuracy-Adjusted WPM: 83 WPM

Overall score represents the accuracy-adjusted score placed on a scale of 1.0 - 5.0. Raw WPM represents the words per minute typed without regard to accuracy. Accuracy-adjusted WPM represents words per minute typed correctly.

I can actually type well over 100 wpm from dictation if I don't use punctuation and use common abbreviations (like when relaying calls at work). I guess 85 isn't too bad though, for having to capitalize and use punctuation. Go me :) I didn't even attempt to take the HTML 3.2 test - would've failed that one for sure. Props to jackola for being in the 99th percentile.

I've gotten a lot done today. I did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the computer area (now THAT was a mess) and cleaned the living room. I went over to Millie's house and looked at her car stereo that isn't working. I checked everything - it all looks good... I think her stereo is just fried (it's an older car and the stereo has never worked). She has a new stereo so I'm going to go pick up a wiring harness and face adapter kit and try that. Hopefully that will work for her so her and her woman can have some tunes when driving back from the airport next month.

I need to clean the storage area under the stairs so that we can move the cat box in there when Jonathan moves in next month. His dog loves to dig for "chocolates" and we just think it will be much better for everyone if we put it in the other room and just put a little "kitty door" on it so the cats can get in and out, but not Alford (his dog)... although, come to think of it, Alford is a Dotson and is very small... I hope he won't be able to get in there, too. I guess we'll find out. :) So anyway, I'll probably clean under there when I'm finished writing this novel and put everything into boxes to take to storage this weekend. I'm getting so much accomplished!

I got my Wireless Access Point Router yesterday... Yay. I'm so excited - It was nice to lay in bed last night and be reading e-mail and surfing the web with no cables interfering! It's fast, too. I'm probably going to put my old Linksys router up on eBay and see if I can get a couple bucks for it - I don't have any need for it anymore... this WAP router has a 4 port switch on the back so that I can keep my desktop hard-wired into it (as well as the printer). We needed wireless because it would have been a pain in the ass to run network cabling up to his room... this way we can just pop the card into his desktop and he's set. :) I love it. (if anyone needs a router, let me know!)

I guess that's it for now. I'm going to give this "write a post throughout the day" thing a try... hopefully I'll be posting more. AND, if I get this LiveOPS job and will be on the computer all day, then I'll really have time to post. :) That is, if I'm not designing webpages on the side. I've been thinking a lot about that lately, too. Ohhh I just want money.

Later guys.
Chris

[ Micah ] a long time ago

2003-06-18T04:00:51Z

A long time ago I wrote in this journal. I guess it's time I did it again.

I'm finally relaxing now. Resting my stretched muscles and tendons from an awesome, sweat drenching, work out at the gym . The hot shower I just took is helping things along, and it felt great to get that sweat off my body. Tomorrow I'll probably lift some weights and try to tighten up some. The results of my efforts are beginning to show, both in tone and in stamina.... if I'm to put my all into a fight, I'm going to need to be able to take a hit :)

A step back to explain...

Everyday sense I moved into my dads old home I have driven by a small obscure gym , tucked away in a mini-mall that sits right off the only road that goes in front of the house. A large sign hangs above the front door of the gym- which by the way has the only unblocked windows in the building- and reads "Russell Jones School of American Kickboxing". I couldn't help but wonder what went on in there every time I saw the place, so one free afternoon I took a look. I remember walking through the front door, which lead only to narrow hallway. The walls were covered in old fight posters and photos from past fighters who trained with Russell starting years back to present day. A long wooden bench on the left side of the hallway, and a water cooler on the right, with a scale on the floor next to it were the only other things to clutter the small, damp hallway. As I walked to the end , which lead to the entrance of an office only 10 feet from the front door. A man stepped into the hallway from the one doorway that lead into the actual gym. I extended my hand to the man who was all of 5"8 or 9, roughly in his forties, with a Mohawk haircut, camouflage wind pants, and a black shirt with the words "we don't talk trash, we kick ass" written on the back and a picture of a guy kicking almost straight up in the air on the front.

"Hi... I was wondering if Mr. Russell Jones was in?"
"that’s me son!" ..... a few teeth short of a smile, but he made the effort "what can I do for ya"
"well, I was interested in finding out what kind of training you do here"

That was the beginning. Russell proceeded to tell me that his gym was the only "real fight gym" in Baton Rouge. He gave me a spill on the types of fighting they do, the fight shows, and the types of training. Money came last, but I was already hooked.

To make sure I was sure of what I wanted he offered me the chance to sit in on some of his classes for free. I agreed and got my first taste of the Russell Jones fight club. The actual gym was a rather large rectangular room with a square carpet in the middle. Dozens of stand alone punching bags lined the walls, which were partly covered by mirrors and posters- some of Bruce lee and some hand written with training instructions or words of inspiration to keep you training. A few hanging bags swayed by punches in front of a full sized fighting ring in the back of the gym.

I remember being in awe of the skill some of the fighters possessed. Their speed and agility was amazing, and matched only by their bodies.

Now I spend at least 3 nights a week, 3 hours a session, training with some of the best fighters in Baton Rouge. There are pure boxers, kick boxers (all rules) , grapplers, and no hold barred fighters. Professional fighters of all kinds have gotten their start at Russell’s - who in his own right is a multi time world kickboxing champion and current #1 ranked kick boxer in the world in his weight class. We even have fighter in the UFC, battling it out in the octagon, and two other world title holding kick boxers. Some nights we even have guest come in and train with us - usually other professional fighters from around the world(even had a judo champion from Poland once!)

All I want to do is enjoy myself, and I do - every time I throw a punch , a kick , or even step in the ring.

(My first official armature fight is at least a good 3 or 4 months away. )

It's hard to explain to people why I like it when they ask me why I fight. There is a rush built into every part of fighting, even in training. There is some sort of extreme thrill in the battle, not so much with your opponent , or would be opponent, but in doing something you never thought you could. Taking your body to a level it has never been, and a level very few people experience. Every other fighter helps the new guys out. Everyone is having fun, and believe it or not, they are amazingly nice people.

The work outs are also second to none. NOTHING works your body like being in the ring. I have NEVER been in better shape than I am right now, and I'm still eating like a horse!

And so... I am relaxing, about to sit down on the couch with Chris and watch a movie. If I had the time I would write about the first fight show I ever went to... but I still may write about that later. I'm gone for now - Later!

chris1 @ 2003-06-17T17:46:00

2003-06-17T22:47:10Z

I finally got my wireless network stuff!

Too bad I can't play with it right now... I have to go the orientation meeting tonight. Hopefully it doesn't last too long. I'm mainly going for the free food (yay Izzo's Illegal Burrito!), but also to help Shad out and support this organization.

Micah's at kickboxing... :(

I'll post later or something.

C

chris1 @ 2003-06-16T21:33:00

2003-06-17T02:34:14Z

I have a lot to update about... I just don't feel like doing it right now! Maybe tomorrow... I have a volunteer orientation for Lambda tomorrow night; I can probably do it after that.

I thought this joke was cute that hollisterdj posted. Gay Flight Attendant.

I've done more butch activities in the past few days than I've done in my entire life... I've been to Home Depot every day for the past 5 days! Jesus, I hope I'm not being converted... :) Nahhhh.

Update tomorrow! :)

Chris

Stuff

2003-06-03T02:17:37Z

Things have been going so well lately!

I started this new diet deal on Saturday... you have to start it with a 2 day juice fast. What a mess - I was so damn hungry and ornery; poor Micah. I did get through it, though - and I'm glad I accomplished it. Now, I'm eating right and working out every day. We'll see how well it goes - I'm really sticking with it this time. Six-pack, here I come!

Jonathan is moving in... we've been busy working on his room upstairs tearing down wallpaper, painting, etc. It's coming along well - Still painting to be done and I have to put a new light and mirror in the bathroom. The biggest project, putting in a new ceiling fan, is done - so that's good. We're going to save A LOT of money having a roommate - plus it should be fun. We'll see...

I have to say, I'm hooked on my friends journals'. Most of them are really interesting and funny - some not so much so. Definitely check out Jack's Journal - he's hilarious and he updates a lot. Always has something funny to say. His boyfriend Dave is pretty cool, too. Either way, they're adorable together. Jack also posted this flash animation detailing Bush's tax-cut scheme. It’s awesome - EVERYONE should check it out... make sure you have Macromedia Flash installed and your sound turned on!

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm gonna go watch wrestling with Micah on the couch before we go to bed. It's thundering outside - I'm gonna sleep so good!

Nite.