My backyard

A continuation of posting despite the fact that I really have nothing worthwhile to say.

That is my backyard. Well, part of it anyway. It was a somewhat pretty day, despite the fact that it was once again (let's all say it at once here) hot. I thought it was a good picture. A few dark clouds, but it didn't rain. They moved past us fairly quickly. That is our shed there. I painted it a few years ago. Not bad, eh? I'm handy with a brush when I need to be.... or am getting paid to be! That's even better.

Yes, that's a pool off to the bottom right. Quite useful during the summertime, though not nearly as refreshing as the lake Janne (Daddy Cool) posted a picture of in his blog, if any of my 3 readers have ventured over to his page.

Not in the picture is a massive maple tree we have on the other side of the pool that provides a lot of shade during the summer, but then sheds its leaves into the pool every fall. You take the good with the bad. We started out with 13? trees when we moved here 23 years ago, but now we are down to 3. We've been busy! There is still a stump out there that is unwilling to unroot itself, no matter how hard I try. Axes and saws don't work. Dynamite, anyone?

My TV!

She's beautiful, isn't it?

For a lack of anything better to write about, I thought I'd share my TV with the world. It's a Vizio P50 50" Hi-Def (1080i), Flat Panel, Plasma TV. I got it for under $2,000, too! And it was brand new! I love technology. I got this in October of 2006 and could never think of giving it up.... except perhaps for the Vizio 60"! That's only about $3,000!

As you can see, the TV is proudly displayed on a nice little stand. In the stand is my DVD player, HD Verizon FIOS box, and my PlayStation 2.

In the kitchen

Well, today pretty much consisted of me sitting in the kitchen with my mother, sister-in-law, and a lady from church. They were making meals for a family at our church that is going through a rough time. My role today was to read the ingredients and instructions for how to cook/bake/burn things and to provide comic relief. I was successful in both.

It's only 3:25pm. I still have the rest of the day to do something entertaining and interesting to write and read about. Hopefully I shall come through for my 3 readers and provide you with something worthwhile.

Cleanup!

Well, I didn't post a picture in my last blog, but I'm going to make up for by posting three this time!

This is my neighbor's yard. A friend of ours from church has been hired to clean all of this mess up and I decided to give him a hand today. As you can see, it was no small job. I suffered my fair share of scrapes, cuts, and bruises getting it all picked up and loaded into our friend's trailer. This picture was just the side of the house. The back yard was even worse!

This was part of the backyard. I'm not even sure what was in this pile. In fact, we haven't touched it yet. I'm scared to venture into that project. lol I think there's a mix of wood, branches, metal, carpet, and a number of other unidentifiable objects. Yes, I said carpet. Our neighbor had carpet laid out all over her backyard. I think she laid it down as weed prevention or something. It was a stupid idea and a pain in the butt to pull up.

This wasn't a bad pile. Just a few branches and leaves and whatnot. The whole project itself wasn't too horrible, but the heat made it bad. It's almost 100 degrees in the sunlight, so it kills you quite fast. Even better, one of the sets of plants in the front yard was extremely deadly if you would touch it and then forget and stick your hand finger in your mouth or something. I did suck on my thumb a bit after I got a thorn through it, but I didn't touch the plant, so that's a plus. I shouldn't die.

That's all for now! I'll write again later!

Oops!

No picture today. Not sure if I have any to apply.

Well, I didn't write yesterday. Shame on me. I got sidetracked doing other things and forgot all about it until about 2am this morning. I opted for sleep instead of blogging. The first smart thing I had done all day! I didn't wake up until 11:20am or so. It was a good sleep.

Well, not much happened yesterday and not much is planned for today. In fact, nothing is planned for today except to keep looking for a job. I was laid off in March from the US Postal Service (they laid off 600 other people, too) and haven't been able to find anything since. Everyone either wants 17 years of experience or they want me to answer phones and deal with people. I don't have the former and I don't do the latter. I'm not a people person. At all.

The only jobs that look remotely safe are about 4 hours drive away! (An exaggeration, yes, but you don't realize how much I HATE driving.) Those jobs, though, require more experience than what I have. Everyone demands experience but are unwilling to give it. It's crap if you ask me.

(Edited by me! I removed a few paragraphs because I was asked to by someone else.)

New logo

Not a great picture, but the only one I could find of the new Tampa Bay Lightning logo that was unveiled today at IceFest 2007.

I was not impressed. Granted, there's not a whole lot you can do when your mascot is "Lightning," but I was expecting more of a change. I'm not a fan of the bigger and bolder lightning bolt and the dropping of the word "Lightning" doesn't help its case.

The jersey itself, which I don't have a picture of, is good looking. I forgot my camera as I ran out the door early this morning. Pity. We were too far away to really get a look at the jerseys anyway, but you can see what they look like at www.tampabaylightning.com.

It was an okay trip. I went with my brother and got Jan Hlavac's autograph. We only got his because the lines to the other players were way too long and we didn't stick around long enough to get to the other guys that were coming later in the day. That's alright. There wasn't a whole lot to do there after the unveiling (or before the unveiling for that matter).

It was horribly, horribly hot since most of the events, including the unveiling was outside. I was wearing my autographed hockey jersey, so that didn't help matters.

Oh, well, despite all of that, it was cool to go to and see in person. I just wish they had done more with the logo, but we have to deal with it now, so I might as well a start getting used to it.

That's all for now!

An uneventful day

The 24th was a rather uneventful day. Seeing as it's now technically the 25th, I can simply leave it at that and not elaborate. It was just boring. Nothing of any importance or interest happened.

Well, today, the 25th, after I write this blog and sleep for a few hours, I shall be going down the St. Pete Times Forum (the Ice Palace sounded so much better). There they are having Icefest 2007 and will be unveiling the Tampa Bay Lightning's (and NHL team for my Swedish pal) new logo and jersey. It should be pretty awesome. I'm hoping they didn't go overboard and screw it up, but really, how much can you do with the "Lightning" as your mascot?

A bunch of players will be there, too, signing autographs. I have a Lightning jersey with most of the signatures on it, but I still need people like Vaclav Prospal, Johan Holmqvist, Marc Denis, and Filip Kuba. There are a few others I need, too, that will be there.

It'll be nice to get out of the house for a bit. They'll have food there, too, which is nice, even though you have to pay for it. But $1 for hotdogs/hamburgers and $1 for drinks isn't bad at all. It'll be worth it to get a quick (and fairly good tasting) meal while we wait for the unveiling.

There's also going to be a Q and A session with the head coach, but I'm not really interested in that. It'll be the same questions that are always asked, I'm sure.

That's all for now!

Sun, sun, go away.

I wish I could start posting more pictures like the ice cube down there.

Why? Why must it be so miserably hot here? Even now in my bedroom at 11:37pm, it is 90+ degrees inside the house. I'm sure it would be a lot cooler outside! Granted, during the day, stepping outside for any length of time was suicide. It has been well over 100 degrees every single day for quite some time now. It wouldn't be so bad if the humidity wasn't stuck at 100%!

It's as if God has made Florida His little stove. Perfect plan. We do have a PANhandle. Okay. That was a terrible, terrible pun and I apologies to all who read it. It's a quarter to midnight and I'm sweating like a pig. It does things to the brain.

Somehow I must cool myself down before I go to bed. I can't sleep when it's sweltering in my own bedroom. I suppose I could turn the air on, but that would warrant the wrath of my parents.

That is all. Carry on.

A day in the life of.... me.

[For the networking impaired, the above picture says "There's no place like home." 127.0.0.1 is the IP (Internet Protocol) address for your personal computer.]

It's 1:05am and I'm watching Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Funny, funny man. I can't wait until he replaces Jay Leno.

I woke up this morning, er rather yesterday morning if you really want to get technical about time, at 7:30am. I was not pleased with this fact, but I was informed the night before that the bug man (the man who sprays around the house to kill bugs and keep them away) was paying us a visit. Okay. That's fine. The problem is that I'm never told about these things until the night before and my room is usually a mess. I had to scramble to get things looking respectable before he got here. I accomplished my mission, but much to my dismay, the man only walked in, sprayed a little in the corner, and walked back out. All of my hard work for nothing. He didn't seem to care that I had just spent an hour cleaning up for him. Ingrate!

While he sprayed, I groggily wandered out to the kitchen and plopped down at the counter. I read the comics (Pearls Before Swine and Get Fuzzy are my two favorites) and then attempted to do the crossword puzzle, which ended with me feeling like a complete idiot and throwing the pen in a fit of rage. Had I kept the pen, I could have written a strongly-worded letter to the crossword puzzle maker and tell him to stop making the clues so stupid and the answers so hard.

Somehow I wound up back in my room. How, I'm not sure, but as I was still tired from waking up early, I'm sure I was sleep walking. I hope anyway. I have a lot of unexplained black outs in my memory that need explaining otherwise.

I checked my email, nope, no one loves me. I checked my blog, 1 comment from a trusty Swede (1 has now turned to three! Hurrah! I guess. 3? That IS kind of pathetic, though.). I really can't remember what I did after that. I probably putzed around the interweb for a while. The next thing I remember are screaming children walking into my house. Hm. Yup. Had to be the nephews. For the fourth time this week. It's as if they have no home!

I'm not a kid person.

It was another burning hot day, but at least we didn't set a record today. That's a plus, eh? Gotta look at the bright side every once in a while. It was a nice day for a swim, though, so I went for a few minutes. Swimming is okay, but when the water isn't much cooler than the outside temperature and there is no one else swimming, it gets kind of boring. I amused myself by throwing a penny into the deep end and trying to find it.

Lunch came in the form of.... toast. Yup. Toast with peanut butter. Not entirely healthy, sure, but I got protein at least. Another bright point! I wasn't really in the mood for anything else.

I played some Guild Wars for a while. Yes, I play Guild Wars. A fun game, and free. Unlike that World of Warcraft nonsense where you have to buy the game, then pay on top of that to play it. No thanks. I'll take my one time fee only deal.

I had a 45 minute conversation with my ex-girlfriend, which was simply an amazing experience. It was good to just talk. It had nothing to do with "us," but it was still an opportunity to talk and I'll take those opportunities any time they come. As written in my profile, I am begrudgingly single. I love my ex with all of my heart and still have a glimmer hope that someday we will get back together. To you, you know who you are, I am always here for you.

Well, it's now 1:26am and Beck (something not Swedish!) is blasting through my headphones, meaning my playlist is coming to a close and it's time to go to bed.

Goodbye, all! Or in Swedish, hejdå!

Readers?

I've come to realization that people don't often read long blogs, so I shall keep this one relatively short on the assumption that visitors might be more compelled to read a few lines.

I started this blog a few days ago to give myself a chance to rant and rave about things that I found near and dear to my heart. Actually, no, I started it to complain about the injustices of society and pretty much just whine about life in general. Either way, I am curious to see if anyone out there in the cyber world actually reads what I write. Therefore, I have posted this blog.

If you visit my page and read this post, or any other for that matter, leave a comment. I want to see just how many of you people actually read what I have to say. You don't have to like what I say or agree with it, but just leave a comment. It doesn't even need to be a comment. Push the spacebar and hit "Publish Comment" or whatever Blogger has decided to call it's "Submit" button.

So hot

Another scorcher today. I made the mistake of taking a walk around the neighborhood just a few minutes ago. Less than a fourth of the way around and I was drenched in sweat and my skin was literally boiling. For the third straight day we set a record high for temperatures. For the last month or so, every single day has hit over 100 degrees. Will it never end?! Blast you, global warming!

Actually, it's not global warming. It's just living in the wrong spot during the summer. Florida gets hot. Very hot. All this global warming stuff, while a threat, is not doing much of anything right now. Sure, it might have inconvenienced a few penguins in Antarctica, but aside from that... where is it?

Funny how everyone is complaining about gool ol' GW - Global Warming, not George W. (Bush) -, but the winters are actually getting a lot colder lately. Sure, it's hot in the summer, but it's hot everywhere during the summer! That's nature. That's life. That's a result of living just 93 million miles from a ball of superheated, burning gas.

Oh, well. Summer will be over soon! In the meantime, maybe I should take a trip to that Ice Hotel I wrote about earlier.

Ice Hotel

Funny how you stay up late at night, flipping through the channels, and debating whether or not you should head to bed when suddenly you stumble upon a show that catches your eye. Despite the fact that your eyelids are growing heavier with each passing minute, you force yourself to watch the program. I had one of those experiences.

I have one of those 50" hi-definition, flat panel, plasma TV's. The one you go to Best Buy and stare at for hours on end and wish your wife would let you buy. Being single (and begrudgingly at that), I was able to purchase one of these. Hi definition programming is simply amazing. Crystal clear quality. I was blown away. So much so that I would find myself watching the stupidest shows simply because they were in hi definition. I never thought I'd spend a day watching chainsaw competitions, but I did!

Anyway, the point of it is, I finally found a program worth watching. Terrible timing, being that it was midnight when the show started, but worth the hassle of keeping myself awake.

The show was about an Ice Hotel. Yup. A hotel made completely of ice. It was phenominal. Now I'm amused and entertained rather easily, but this was awesome. Even better, this one was in
Jukkasjärvi, Kiruna, Sweden. Even better! No, I'm not obsessed with Sweden. I just like it. It's a beautiful place. I've never been there, but you know, I've seen pictures and stuff.

Anyway, the hotel is only operational for a few months a year, which I suppose is pretty good seeing as the hotel will eventually melt. I wonder if Janne has ever been there. I need to ask him the next time I see him.

I think I'd be a bit hesitant to spend an evening there, what with global warming and ice melting. Still, though, it would be really cool to see, I think. This was the first I'd ever heard of an Ice Hotel, but I guess there are several of them around the world. France and Canada have them, I believe.

Well, that's all.

Kent's new album

I am quite a big fan of the Swedish band "Kent." One of their songs was the first Swedish song I had ever heard and that one that got me hooked on Swedish music. Therefore, I began searching for all the Kent music I could find. I actually wound up getting quite a bit. I love it. Oddly enough, I only listen to his Swedish albums, not the English ones. I guess I like the language. It's a pity no one in the US (or at least not around where) teaches Swedish. Would be quite cool to learn, I think. I love letters with the little doo-hickeys on top of them. i. e., å, ä, and ö.

Anyway, I am pleased to announce, for perhaps the one reader (if I have any?) that cares, that Kent is releasing their newest album soon! On October 17, 2007, they will release Tillbaka till Samtiden, which in English is "Back to the Contemporary."

Unfortunately, being in the States, I won't be able to get a CD of this album *cry*, but I am excited anyway. Perhaps I'll come across a way to get it someday.

In the meantime, I shall post the lyrics of the song I'm currently listening to. It's called Socker, by Kent. (No, I don't know the English translation, so don't ask!)

Spelar
det längre någon roll?
Jag orkar inte slåss
Det är bortom min kontroll
Du lämnade mig ensam
och självklart blev jag rädd
min sista gnista hopp
var att synas, att bli sedd
och jag glömde bort att andas
för sex musik och våld
var det vackraste som hänt mig
sen själen min blev såld
att synas utan att verka
ser enkelt ut på håll
men jag lever på impuls nu
via fjärrkontroll
Jag säger alltid nej...

men ingen, ingen, ingen, ingen hör
men ingen, ingen, ingen, ingen hör
men ingen, ingen, ingen, ingen hör
men ingen, ingen, ingen, ingen hör

...och gäst ikväll är Jesus
han har kickat heroin
Han läppjar på sitt glas
och Ramlösa blir vin
Han berättar om sina vapen
sin tid i Saint-tropez
om att ge sig själv en chans
om sin nya Z-3
I en värld av Idioter
står han först i kön
Han berättar framför kameran
om hur han bytte kön
eller nåt helt annat
som också är privat
om alla dom han älskat
och dom han bara sög av
Han säger alltid nej

men ingen, ingen, ingen, ingen hör
men ingen, ingen, ingen, ingen hör
men ingen, ingen, ingen, ingen hör
men ingen, ingen, ingen, ingen hör

Hurricane Dean

The picture is actually Hurricane Mitch from 1998, but I thought it was a cool photo anyway. Besides, I couldn't find one of Dean that I liked.

Jamaica, our thoughts and prayers are with you. Living in Florida, I, like you, know the dangers of hurricanes; especially the extremely powerful ones like Dean. Good luck to you all.

PC online gaming

Ah, PC online gaming. It's a wonderful thing. Sitting down one night, firing up your favorite game, and playing with a group of buddies or with complete strangers. I, for one, love it. There's little else that provides as much joy as pwning that one smacktard in the server that won't shut his yap long enough to pay attention to what he's actually supposed to be doing. Well, except for spending an evening with your significant other. You know, nice, romantic dinner then curling up on the couch and watching a movie while it rains ever so slightly outside, creating this warm and cozy feeling for the participants of that special moment. Hm... Yeah, that's the stuff.

But then again, there are those who are single and either can't get a date or a significant other to save their life or simply have no desire to consort with someone of the opposite sex. For those people, well, you know. Game on.

You know, I set out to write this blog and have it be full of thought and purpose. I wanted to challenge your minds and make you stop for a moment to think about your gaming. But then I forgot what I was going to say.

Play games!

Part Two

As to not make the original post 17 and a half pages long, I decided to break things up into two parts. Quite considerate of me, eh? I thought so. Consider it my Christmas gift to you because you're certainly not going to be getting anything else from me. Ingrates!

So obviously the first thing that catches your eye is the Swedish flag above my post. Why a Swedish flag? I'm as American as they get! True enough, however, despite my American nature, I despise English/American music! Ergo, I listen to Swedish music. Quite simple. "But why don't you listen to American music?" Because everything written this day and age by English/American writers is about sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and frankly, I don't care about any of them and I don't want to hear about it. The case is probably true with Swedish artists, but there's a catch. I don't speak Swedish, so I don't know what they are saying. Therefore, I am not corrupted by their messages of death, doom, and destruction.

Okay, okay. That's not the only reason I listen to Swedish, but it is a big factor. I also listen to Swedish music because I once heard a Swedish song by the name of Den Döda Vinkeln. It's an awesome song and I love it. Perhaps my favorite of Swedish songs that I have. Anyway, from that point on, I was hooked! It's actually the first song I learned to sing in Swedish. Although I don't speak it fluently and certainly don't know what any of it means, I can still sing it and quite well, actually. It's pretty sad when an American can sing better in a foreign language than he can in his native tongue.

The other reason is because I have a friend who lives in Sweden. He is Janne. He is cool. He is a daddy. He is Daddy Cool. I met him a couple years ago (I think? Time flies.) while playing one of my video games. We kind of became instant friends, even though we spent most of the time shooting at each other or stabbing one another with knives. I won most of the time. I lost contact with him for quite some time. It was inevitable, I suppose, seeing as he's a carpenter and is very busy. The fact that he's 6 hours ahead of me doesn't help either. Anyway, I just got back in touch with him a few days ago. He has a blogger page, so I thought I'd join, too, and subject you all to the ramblings within my head.

So that's why there's a Swedish flag up there, and that's all there is about me. For now.

Introducing Myself

This is a biohazard. To what exactly? Hm. Perhaps to the very essence of this massive infra - or perhaps inter - structure we, the humble masses, know and love as the Internet. Well, that sounds pretty cool, doesn't it? No? Pity. I thought I was finally becoming the writer I once aspired to be. What a shame. I gave myself a shred of hope and then dashed it quite thoroughly a sentence later. That, ladies and gentlemen, takes talent. Not everyone can do that.

So who am I? As it says just a few inches to the right in the section aptly titled "About Me," I am a 23 year old male who resides in Florida, USA. Yes, yes, I can see you all drooling. Hot girls, great weather, and of course, Disney World (among the countless other theme parks). Before you all get lost in your own dreamworld of what you think Florida is, I am here to set you straight.

Florida is, above all else, hot. This great weather of which many of you seem to think we have is nothing more than rain, humidity, and extremely hot temperatures. Over the past month, we've had tons of rain, 100% humidity, and temperatures well above 100 degrees. That's every single day! It doesn't get much better than that during the summertime. I know, I know, a LOT of places are like that. The entire country has been one big frying pan of late. I shouldn't complain, but I'm one of those people that don't handle heat well. I prefer the cold, my friends. The bitter, chilling, teeth chattering, finger numbing, sub zero cold. Only then am I truly happy. Bad place for me to be living then, hm?

We have beaches. We have hot girls. We have Disney World, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and the Epcot Center. Big whoop. It's hot, it's humid, it's rainy, and the 4 million people that live around those theme parks all decide to visit on the same day. Same deal goes for the beaches. Hot, humid, rainy, and jam packed beaches, most of which can hardly be called beaches. Everywhere you look, things are being commercialized and up goes a Starbucks. Death to you, Starbucks. Death to you.

I'm a geek. That means I love things like computers and video games and I can often be found wearing a tin foil hat in the shape of a medieval helmet and wielding a wooden stick widdled into what loosely resembles a sword... or is it a dagger? I believe it started out as a giant sword, but I kept screwing up, so by the time I was done, I only had enough tree branch to make a dagger. Either way.

No, I'm not one of those World of Warcraft geeks that spend 18 hours a day spamming "U R teh n00b!" on the general chat channels. I am, however, a Guild Wars geek. I spend too much time on that game. I am guilty of loving the feel of a sword, axe, spear, dagger, or bow in my digital and pixelated hand. I slay dragons and orcs and goblins and get great joy out of it. Someone has to save the land of the elves. Might as well be me.

But when I'm not thrusting my trusty blade into the belly of my often times undead foes, I am unleashing a fury of bullets into terrorist (or communist) scum. Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142 are my games of choice and I'd like to think I'm fairly good at both of them. If any of my readers (What? I have readers?) should play these games and find a hapless medic named [LaL]MedicByChoice tripping over himself in BF2 or find a clueless general named [LaL]Patch_1-3 in BF2142, drop me a line and preferably let me live for a few moments longer while I try to run the other way.

Aside from spending my time at the computer, I'm a hockey nut. I love the NHL and I love the New Jersey Devils. Why do I love the Devils over my hometown Tampa Bay Lightning? Well... have you seen the Lightning lately? That answers that question right there.

Well, I suppose that wraps things up for part 1 of my introduction. I shall write again later.