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Thursday, July 28th, 2005
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11:08 pm
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Ah screw it. My livejournal blows. Johnny updates are now to be recieved on a query and response basis, rather than a publish and subscribe one.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, July 12th, 2005
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12:14 am
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Well, er, I've been working. They've bought me a planner. Not just your run-of-the-mill neon-colored middle school trapper keeper, either. We actually went to a planner store. Once inside, we were approached by a man who I could only describe as a planner consultant. Through a tiresome and complicated process of deriving my spiritual headings and using the current phase of the moon, the brown one was chosen. Ignoring the planner financing options, we just payed the 100 dollars right there. As an added perk, it's made of leather. You can practically feel the cow's pain soaking into your fingertips as you stroke it.
I also went to Worlds of Fun this weekend. Of course, I gave my typical bored poses on the roller coaster pictures, and I pwnd some kids pretty good on the bumper cars. Also, I want to adopt a diet of nothing but those Lemon Chills.
Then there was the fourth of July. On the third, Jeremy, Doug, and I decided it would be a good idea to be totally immature and blow some stuff up. We bought some of the run-of-the-mill fireworks (which I actually like the most) like sparklers and roman candles, and we also bought about six 2-liter bottles and 5 pounds of dry ice. The idea, of course, is to drop dry ice into the two liter, add water, twist on the cap really tight and toss it. The fact that these loud explosions can't cause a fire became very appealing for the next day, because this day, the grass on the side of the road where we were foolishly lighting off fireworks caught on fire. It took all the water and pop we had to put it out. Then the johnson county fire department showed up. The greatest part of all is that we didn't get in trouble because we were on state line road, and the fire was on the Missouri side. Pretty embarrassing, anyway! Heh.
Then, as far as what else I did, I can't really remember. But I'm sure it involved me valiantly conquering some crap and doing some other impressive stuff.
Oh, and we're having a housewarming party at our new house at 7pm. But you've probably heard that from Mark. Here's the copy+pasted information from his blog:
Saturday, July 16, 2005
1826 W. 21st Terr.
Lawrence, Kansas 66046
There, I updated.
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| Sunday, July 10th, 2005
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5:53 pm
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| Sunday, June 12th, 2005
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1:18 am
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Two weeks of work successfully completed. I'm really enjoying it, as always. I'm especially enjoying the fact that I get to work on two 20 inch LCD monitors on a totally boss computer. Also, I've got only one more certification test if I'm to get the exceptionally geeky title of "Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer", but I've been ordered to stop taking the certification exams until next month, since we're attempting to make a June 31st goal of our next version of "Panther".
My birthday/graduation party went well, thanks to everyone who came. The rain had stopped between 7 and 11, giving us enough time to play volleyball and stand around the bonfire for a bit.
"Poker and Philosophy" nights are every Wednesday at 7 at Mark and my place. If you like either, feel free to come! We also tend to head to 10 cent wing night at "Brothers" around 9.
Duhhhhh, clearly I ought to be able to think of more to write, but I feel like being boring and interesting. So, use your imagination. Imagine me in wild 'n crazy situations like a week-long neo-conservative christian white-water rafting campout where I totally rock their world with my wacky antics and "in your face" attitude. Or maybe at a frat house keggar party, as I dominate the attention of all the present females by exhibiting my old skool NES skillz with some Ninja Gaiden action, all while sipping some kool-aid from a chalice and wearing sunglasses indoors because, as I tell them, "when you're this cool, everything's sunlight." Ya know what? I'm just plain amazing. I love myself.
current mood: amusingly arrogant
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| Friday, May 27th, 2005
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3:07 am
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| Monday, May 16th, 2005
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2:43 am
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I got Mark to go to Jubilee Cafe with me on friday. Unfortunately, it was stop day, so there were a LOT of people missing that day. I only knew one of the people that were there. In fact, there were so few people that day that we had to serve the food buffet style, instead of taking orders at each table and serving them their food. I imagine most people were too hung over to come. That theory fits the evidence I collected last week when I heard that there's going to be a jubilee cafe keggar this friday. Anyhow, I'm glad Mark came, since I hope he'll continue to come with me so I have some more motivation. I still feel a bit out of place there at times, like when one of the otherwise nice guys tells me to "grow up" when he hears that I had a Kool-aid Burst drinking contest instead of one with alcohol. Grr.
I watched the Godfather part 2 on friday with Mark (for an hour), Chad, Julia, and her sister Jillian. Honestly, the movie confused me. There were tons of characters, and I couldn't concentrate well enough to figure out who was screwing over who and such. Afterwords we played cards, and the 3 remaining J-named individuals headed to Perkins around 3:30. I also had a good time with my parents this weekend. They're pretty proud of me for graduating, and pretty happy to be getting their last kid outta college. I also had a good time with Steve today, playing starcraft. Then I came back to lawrence and played even more starcraft with Mark! What a delightfully monotonous existence I tend to live.
My mood's doing pretty well today. I'm working on appreciating what I have in life, like my parents, and good friends like Chad, Julia, Lisa, Mele, Christina, Steve, Joe, Amy, Eric, Drew, Pha, Chris, Cat, Andrew, Samur, Rich, Michael, Gabe, Beth, Matt, John, Jon, Luke, Kathy, Katherine, Garth, James, Justin, Grady, Galen, Ethan, Alex, Jeremy, Doug, Dan, Dave, David, Elizabeth, Danny, and Josh. I acknowledge the existences of and appreciate each and every one of them.
EDIT: Oh, and uh, Mark, I suppose. You know, that guy I live with, Mark Adams? He exists too, I guess. Although in that last game of starcraft we played, I coulda sworn I was the only one teaching our computer opponents a lesson.
Alright you kooky people, I sure hope you're in town on Friday, June 3rd. I'm going to have my birthday and graduation party on that day. I intend to develop another invite which is just as disturbing and offensive as the last one I made.
current mood:  peaceful
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, May 6th, 2005
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12:24 pm
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I went the EECS Award Banquet in some typical khaki cargo pants an a T-shirt. I was the worst dressed there, I didn't know it was a formal occasion. To my surprise, I was called up to the front to accept a certificate for graduating with departmental honors, and everyone got a good look at me as I attempting to skulk my way to the front. Then, at the end of the program, the speaker told everyone that got an award to go to the left to get their pictures taken. Doh! But I borrowed my dad's blazer for that. It looked white trash still, but it looked like white trash that was making an effort.
Since I was dressed for it, I went to the "Saved by the Bell" dance that was across the hall. It was pretty depressingly empty, I blame Cinco de Mayo. There were probably 15 people tops, and just about all of them had worked on planning and executing the event. One girl actually showed interest in me, but I think I blew it. I felt intimidated knowing I didn't feel natural in a dance party setting, and that we may clash when she found out I'm more of an introvert. I only came in because the proceeds went to charity and because I felt sorry for everyone. I still feel rather dumb for having not asked for her number or something, but I feel like it would have been a waste of time to get to know her, given the probability that she'd see me as too unusual for her.
My faith in girls fails the moment I meet them. I'm a straight-edge agnostic/athiest, and both of those characteristics have proven to be very shocking to people. It's debilitating. I always dread telling people. I get looks of confusion and awe from people because I don't really exist in their world. And to be honest, I would definitely prefer to be with someone with the same mentality.
The graduation stress is taking its toll on me. I've started to realize that I may never again see the people I'm friendly with in class. I'll probably never see the people at the Saved by the Bell dance again. It's turning into a situation much like Memento, where I begin to question what the point is if none of this matters in just a few miles down the road. All four years are gone and I only used the last 4 months to amass some friends, because I'd assumed I had all I needed with Sarah. I'm really pretty frightened at the scarcity of people my age or type in the life I'm about to adopt.
current mood:  restless
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| Friday, April 29th, 2005
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1:01 pm
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Here's a little story that characterizes me pretty well:
Yesterday I stopped by HyVee on the way to pick up some meat, milk, and butter. Over the phone, Mark and I joked about how interesting it was that this going to be an entirely cow-based purchase. After giggling idiotically about it, I finally realized that the meat we always bought was ground turkey, not ground beef. Then Mark and I laughed at our folly although in reality probably both of us were bleeding on the inside from the logical wound we had just encountered.
Then I got 2 gallons of milk, 4 packages of ground turkey, and a pack of unsalted butter and went up to the registers. It wasn't until that point that I realized I didn't have my wallet. So I put it all back and called Mark again to see if it was on my desk in the usual place on the left next to the keyboard, but surprisingly it wasn't.
After getting back to the apartment empty handed, I checked all surfaces and locations that my wallet normally is. I then called the anthropology office that's right next to my last class, and asked them to check where I was sitting. The wallet was also not in my car. So I got a little bummed, and started thinking about what exactly I have to do to replace everything if I didn't find it tomorrow. But rather than spend more time looking for it, I played starcraft with Mark and Chad until about 2 in the morning.
Then I wake up the next morning, look in the pants pocket of the jeans I was wearing two days before, and there it is. Figures.
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| Tuesday, April 19th, 2005
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9:59 pm
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Helped my brother move this weekend. Apparently the previous owners of the house neglected to mention that something was terribly wrong with the plumbing in the house. Putting anything down the drains causes the septic tank to overflow in the basement. There's talk of a legal battle and such, but I probably would just pay for it. It's only money, as I told my dad. He didn't seem to like that mentality.
I just got back from another intramural softball game. It was pretty funny, since we got demolished. The score was twenty-something to zero. I tripped after hitting the ball, landing on my knee. Mark tells me that I should just claim that my speed was just so incredible that the dirt couldn't keep up with me. Oh well, I would have been out anyway. Everyone on the team was good humored about the game in general, which is rather important considering the woeful loss we achieved.
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, April 15th, 2005
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12:07 am
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Tis a good day for the Johnny. My new friend recruits Eric and Lisa seem super-cool. Apparently, if I ever stop by Lisa's place, she'll give me snow cones with 29 flavors to choose from. I'll be sure to abuse this. And she also made me a PBJ sandwich... what a hostess! The most I do for my guests is give them the remote control, which isn't even edible.
And I actually managed to create a party invite this time. It's on the 22nd, not the 29th as I'd posted a little while ago:
http://www.dudes.servegame.com/invite
I also went to the SOMA (Society of Open Minded Atheists/Agnostics) meeting. It was a mere 45 minutes, 30 of which we used watching a video that refuted the bible. I had hoped for a little more talking and discussion, but oh well. I saw John Smith there. To anybody that doesn't know him, I know it sounds like I just pieced that name together using the most general ones I could think of, but I guarantee he's a real, tangible person that seems to be doing just fine.
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, April 12th, 2005
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8:47 pm
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Not doing great today. The majority of my day was pretty good, people are starting to recognize me at jubilee cafe and calling me by my name. I also got a 109.7% on my symbolic logic test (don't worry, the average was about 101).
It was talking to my mom about some dating issues. She told me how at points in her life she was dating 5 guys at once. I was rather surprised. She told me that I ought to do it as well, and proceeded to tell me how odd she thought it was that I had dated one girl exclusively for 3 years, which she did when Sarah and I were together as well. It really bugged me. I'm not capable of dating many people at once. I'm very serious about relationships, and I can't stomach the idea of seeing multiple people at once unless I'm merely getting to know them. I do not continue with dating someone if I don't see a future. I feel that a relationship is meaningless unless there are some things left exclusive. If I were to kiss a girl, then I'd be dating her exclusively from that point on. I do not hold the notion that dating is the period of "having fun", and that you only marry when you've had enough and decide to settle down.
The only reason this bugs me so much is concern that I will not find a girl that feels the same way. If 99.9% of society disagrees with me, I feel like I have no choice but to bite the bullet and merge into the system, otherwise I will never find someone. I'm already worried enough about other features of me anyway.
current mood:  cynical
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, April 10th, 2005
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8:41 pm
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The party went well, plenty of people! I'm considering another in about 2 weeks time, Friday the 22nd of April. I vow to make a fancy graphical invite this time, since those seemed to draw more people.
In other news, the softball team I'm a part of won their first game! I also creamed a symbolic logic test, and bombed an anthropology test. I'm actually somewhat worried about passing my classes this semester, especially visualization where I failed a project. But that still doesn't stop me from employing my favorite new policy: the "fuck it" policy. Example: I've got a project due in about a week, I should start working on it, but fuck it! Hey look, that stoplight is red, fuck it! Nutrition and health? Fuck it! It's my last semester and my apathy knows no bounds.
current mood: just fine
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| Monday, April 4th, 2005
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1:33 am
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Well, big trash day was kinda lame. Luckily I had good company, homie G Steve Capps and his brother George. We did manage to get a decent computer desk for Steve, and a VCR and (trinitron!) monitor for my parents, but there were far too many people roaming the streets to make it much fun. It used to be a cool underground event where you only see other leechers every 15 minutes or so, but we'd typically pass 2 or more every block. Clearly, I'm adding to the problem since I don't actually need anything, but I'm a veteran dammit! I've earned the right to dig through people's trash with a little privacy! You gotta earn that right.
Unfortunately, I apparently got signed up for the "competitive league" in softball. There are a few very experienced players whose abilities intimidate me. I take shelter in the knowledge that I could probably get the best of any of them in a video game... or a trash digging contest. Luckily, nobody takes these games too seriously, or I'd be debilitated and consequently unable to play at game time by a mysterious hit and run driver.
I enthusiastically invite people to vote on the 5th regarding the gay marriage issue. Get out there and make a difference! However, I only want you to vote if you're voting against the new law. If you're voting "yes" to banning gay marriage, then I encourage you to remember how little your one, minuscule vote actually matters in the big picture... so why bother?
Also I don't want to alarm anyone, but at the last 5 times I've been to Walmart, they have been out of the 4 oz. bags of Jack Link's original flavored beef jerky. The only logical conclusion at this stage is that Jack Links' beef jerky trees are being chopped down along with the rainforests. So next time you see someone using a piece of paper instead of just reading it off a monitor, you rip that thing out of their hands and spit in their eye. For bonus points, you can claim their first born son. You can then redeem your points for cool prizes like toy plastic army men, tootsie rolls, and those cool toy rings that have whistles on them that you blow into. Or those little rubbery hollowed-out half-hemispheres that you turn inside out and put down on the coffee table and wait for them to snap back into their original shape and fly up in the air. Um, well, my point is, if you see any of this beef jerky around, buy me some and I'll pay you back.
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, March 31st, 2005
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10:47 pm
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Big trash day is tomorrow! Unfortunately, I only need one television to replace a bad one at my parents' house. Which reminds me of a amusing little anecdote regarding the setup I had made downstairs in my parents' house years ago. I had nabbed a nice 25 inch television, but the sound wasn't working. So, rather than plug the antennae into the TV, I plugged it into one of the many VCRs I had gotten. I placed the VCR clumsily on top of the tv, then put the video output to the television. Then I piled on an old broken 8-track player (to control the volume), and a speaker on its side. Unfortunately, touching the volume knob on the 8-track player would create an ear-shattering noise from the speaker, so instead I just used the balance to adjust volume, since I had only one speaker anyway. Alright, well, that's the end of the story and I get the feeling you people aren't listening, wasting my valuable time. Is that a note I see? No chewing gum. Damn you kids.
Also, I asked Mark if he wanted to go to the soup kitchen tomorrow, and he said no because: "I don't like soup." It cracked me up. What a nut.
current mood: pretty average
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, March 30th, 2005
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12:34 am
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Well I signed up for intramural softball. Let's just hope my video game skuh-zills from hours of savage are somehow relevant to my softball abilities. Plus, I'm getting worse about my classes every day, and I'm loving every minute of it! Also, I'll put up one of those cool invites later, but I'm planning another one of these:
Food, Movie, and Game party!
Friday, April 8th, 7PM
5000 Clinton Parkway Apt#1014
Since I have quite a few card games up my sleeve, I'll be twisting people's arms to play with me so that I may beat them and absorb their powers. Plus we'll have fun, or something like that.
And for those of you with a dark sense of humor:
http://unix.rulez.org/~calver/pictures/bunny_suicides/
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(comment on this)
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| Sunday, March 27th, 2005
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1:42 am
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Last night in Boston. Gabe and I woke up at 2 pm as a result of another long night of card games and other foolery (until about 7:30 AM). Went to the Science Center today with Gabe and Michael for a mere 90 minutes at a pricey 14 bucks. Apparently MIT students get in for free! The most I learned from the experience is that I like buttons, and pressing them. I must have hit about 100 buttons there. Clearly, when planning new exhibits at museums, executives remain ever mindful of the golden plaque in the board room that reads "Make sure it has buttons to press". It was rather disturbing to look at the slabs or sometimes full walls of text that are essentially ignored regardless of the number of interesting and brain-beefing facts on them. Although, you don't really pay 14 bucks to learn by reading for a few hours.
I look forward to coming home equipped with 3 new card games in my entertainment arsenal: Mau, spit, and cheat. Of course, the most important thing is that I win by being needlessly competitive and totally humiliate anybody who is nice enough to play with me. Let me know if this sounds like fun to you, and I'll pencil you in for an appointment!
I've spent time talking with both Gabe and Michael about relationships, a topic that seems to monopolize me anyway. Today I'm feeling uncertain about what makes a relationship possible. Having your values match seems to be important. It seems to me that I find myself interested in someone when they share many of my own qualities. I'm uncertain about whether or not that's right, and I'm also troubled by the fact that many of my qualities put me at the far edges of the normal distribution curve. I'm in the minority when it comes to morality or life philosophies; I'm an straight-edge, agnostic altruist. I think those three qualities are very characteristic of me, but finding like-minded people is surprisingly difficult. I'd prefer a girl that is the same way, but my experience so far and awareness of the unlikelihood just tell me to give up. It could be that matching these qualities are not even important in a successful relationship, but I really just don't know. It's also possible that I'm so concerned about these three things just because they're so unlikely. Additionally, it's possible that what's really important in a relationship is whatever is important to me.
current mood: philosophical
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| Friday, March 25th, 2005
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5:58 pm
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Another day in Boston, tonight I'm staying with Gabe. So far my trip has relied heavily on card games. I had an authentic Harvard breakfast today. Then I went with Michael and his girlfriend to his inorganic chemistry class on Harvard campus today, and I slept though it. Mission accomplished! It seems that they curve tests pretty forgivingly, considering that Michael told me that he still probably got a B on the test while doing worse than the median. It sorta makes me feel guilty for having not tried harder to go to a more prestigious university, since I think I have the ability to endure the curriculum here, but then again money and better job offers don't really persuade my decisions anyway.
It's just about time for another game of Mau.
current mood: cognizant
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3:37 am - Late night livejournal launch.
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Greetings. This marks the beginning of a brand new livejournal, an adventure I have not embarked on for many years. I'm currently in Boston, at Michael G's place at Harvard. He has pathetically retired for the night, hours earlier than a normal and respectable slacking college student would. Alas, yet again I am the last man standing, and I have nobody to play games with, thus driving me to this option which I have considered many times before.
As many of you know, I've recently been through a heinous, horrific, ugly, painful breakup. It's as if someone in my life died. As a result, I've been forced to open up to those around me, hoping I don't overwhelm them. I've never wanted to be a burden to anyone, and I'm lucky to have had people help me with it. At many times this journal will serve as merely a way of me to express my most worrisome thoughts and gain confidence in the lack of criticism I receive from it, even if nobody reads it. My role as quality assurance in programming has probably contributed to my ability to search for all possible critiques of my thoughts and feel unsure about them.
Still, this post remains primarily a launch.
current mood: just fine
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thejohnny's journal