36. watch the sun come up, four more times. (Nov. 6, 2005. Jan 29, 2006. Oct. 28, 2006, Nov. 17, 2006.)This was "stay up all night and watch the sun rise" instances. I see the sun come up plenty on the way to work, but that's after a night of sleep.

54. Kim, by Rudyard Kipling (started many years ago, and i've always regretted not finishing) 11/26/06. Good book. Glad I read it now, since I think there's no way I'd have grasped it back when i tried it, something like fifteen years ago.

Not sure if this was in my last entry, but:
84. Cut down a tree, with an axe. Solo.(10/28/06) killed THREE trees today, two with partial help from another person or two, and one fully by myself. I love it. And the 2-1/2 pound axe with the full-length straight handle is the most fun axe I've ever used. The double-bit 4-pound is a pain in the ass, though.

And I got to convert this one to "in progress":
60. One healthy relationship. (that is, no axe murderesses, etc.)
It's going, slowly, but it's going. And it's a good situation.

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my '101 in 1001' list is here

44. (watch) One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (and read the book, too.) 8/12/06, for the book. good book-- should have read this one before this. I just saw a reference to it yesterday, and it's nice to catch things like that. (10-23-06, for the movie. Good movie, but left some stuff I wanted to see out, and there's more they could have done with it. You could FEEL the time drag on, in the book. The movie, not so much.

84. Cut down a tree, with an axe. Solo.(10/28/06)killed THREE trees today, two with partial help from another person or two, and one fully by myself. I love it. And the 2-1/2 pound axe with the full-length straight handle is the most fun axe I've ever used. The double-bit 4-pound is a pain in the ass, though.

92. try kayaking. 9/3/06. Went kayaking in the Pacfic Ocean. Quite cool. entry about it here.

my list is here

Woo. basically a quarter of the way there.

34. Organize my CD collection (there're at least 150, it'll be a small job, at least) This was a chance to go "hey wait where is _____? I have that one, too." and figure out which CDs have gotten... misplaced in all this 'moving to Houston' stuff. Holy crap, I have a bunch more CDs than I thought.

45. Citizen Kane 6/16/06 I'm not sure what I think of this movie. I was really kinda underwhelmed with it. It's just... not what I think of when I think "BEST MOVIE EVER", somehow.

52. Frankenstein (the mary shelley one) 6/12/06 The monster is so not the "shambling zombie GRAAAAARRGGHHH" that he's always made out to be. That's the biggest thing I noticed about it...Good book.

also... progress on:
#7: 3 more pints of blood and I'm done.
#26: car is getting bought in the next couple weeks. Woo, 2006 Mustang GT. Likely bright Red with a black racing stripe. WAHAHAHAH....
#32: bought Frou Frou's CD Details.
#35: two more concerts and I'm done with this one - Likely that the next one will be Theory of A Deadman on 7/21...
#81: I'm in progress on the coin ring. woo. I'm sure my downstairs neighbors just LOVE all the pounding.

I think that's the big update for the last little bit.

my list is here

12. Move to Houston for that job, and get my own apartment. (these go hand-in-hand, thus one line.) 4/11/06. Signed initial paperwork for the apartment. WHOOP.

99. Complete a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. 4/13/06. This took a long time. stupid puzzle.

And I bought a bunch of the CDs on my "buy the cds I've been holding off on" list (#32) . woo.

And I'm back into doing pushups ( #5), nightly. 103-in-a-row will be a challenge, definitely. I've never known anyone who didn't struggle with that.

my list

39. 25 of the top 50 beers according to BeerAdvocate. REVISED, 9-19-05 50 different beers, total. *(my list will be here.) This disallows the standard budweiser and anheuser-busch flavors. Unusual beers, you could say. COMPLETED, 3/20/06.

This was a... semi-difficult one to do, f for no other reason but the time involved.. It was better, since the Flying Saucer has so freaking many different beers. I have, however, learned several things about beer. I dislike super-bitter-holyshit-HOPS beers. India Pale Ale is all right, in moderation. Bock is my thing. Kölsch I like, a lot. Hefeweizen is good stuff. Most beers, I can find something I like about them.

But that's crossed off. Now I only have like... 187 more until I'm on the "Ring of Honor" at the Flying Saucer, and they put my name on the wall. three months, roughly.


my "101 in 1001" list is here.

59. One of Jorge Luis Borges' books. This man's writing reminds me of House of Leaves. Very cool, and almost once per short story, inspires chills. Very neat. I would suggest it to anyone who likes that book. I read his collection The Book of Sand.

also going to Alan Jackson tonight at the rodeo, that's another concert (#35). yay.

And I'm only 6 beers from finishing my list.(#39) (going to the super-holyshit-we-have-200-plus-beers-pub will let you do that.)

my list

my new watch is six kinds of awesome.

Thanks to Aaron's Watches, I have an automatic, sweep-second-hand-havin' Seiko SKX-023 on my wrist. with a screw-down crown, and the spiffy looks-pretty-much-like-a-Submariner-Rolex rotating bezel on it.
( more about the watch... )

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um... work again tomorrow. joy.

And hopefully get-togethers, and stuff throughout the week. And I'm going to set all this vacation-since-i'm going-to-California-when-Andy-moves stuff into motion, too. That'll likely be part of the morning, getting all that set up. And there'll be Aggiecon, too. DUDE. I can just leave my car in College Station when we leave from AggieCon. that would work, and then I don't hae to leave it at the airport. Then nobody will steal my stereo--that would be better, too. hmm.

And now, for my next trick, I'm gonna pass out.

*bonk*

from my mission101 list:

25. Own a nice watch. (nice being relative, but still, $180-up, at least.)Ordered a Seiko SXK-023 midsize automatic dive watch. More details when it comes in. It's bought, though. Black dial, luminous markers, jeweled automatic movement, sweep second hand, screwdown crown. Good stuff.

Things I'm progressing on, rapidly:

I'm making progress on my beer list (ten to go! woo.)(#39)

I'm mostly done with one of Jorge Luis Borges' books. (#59) good stuff, those stories. Strange.

Planning on going to California with baldeagle when he moves, and so that will knock out a couple more. (#21), (#19, perhaps)

Gone to a concert, three more in the works, soon (#35)

1000-piece jigsaw puzzle is bought and in progress (#99)

20 knots are almost learned (#71)

Navigation/orienteering - more info found, practice is next (#73)

actively seeking a convenient place to donate blood in Houston, also.(#7)

looking at apartments, since I'll likely be moving down to Houston very soon.(#12, fully- I suppose 1/2 of that is done, sorta; I'm in Houston now for work...)
Holy crap - that's kinda cool, actually, to see a huge jump in the "stuff I'm working on" list.

my list

You cannot imagine how outstanding the seats at Bon Jovi were last night. Dave bought these at Randall's, fro teh ticketmaster machine. AWESOME SEATS. There was the huge nosebleed-well,-they're-way-over-there-singing section around the outside, and the floor section down front. we were in the midsection-- but the deal was, we were on the side of ths stage. Next to the walkway that came out to 10 feet from the audience--less actually, sine he could reach out and touch people. so, like... 15 feet from Jon Bon Jovi when he walked out on it. Pretty damn cool. the girl behind us-- i thought she was going to explode-- she went up and he touched her hand.

it was great to be there with Dave and Holly (my uncle and aunt that live here in Houston) since they actually really appreciate the music. yep.

He also sang from like 4 different places in the crowd. one stage in the middle of the far end of the floor, one in the middle of the same side we were, the main stage, and then just kinda out-in-the-crowd. Always had a security detail, but... man... cool stuff.

they played, (mostly in no particular order on this list):
Last Man Standing (my personal favorite from have a nice day, this one was first)
Bad Medicine
I'll be There for you
Won't Back Down (Tom Petty cover, pretty cool)
It's my Life
I Want to be Loved
Complicated
Just Older
You Give Love a Bad Name
Raise Your Hands
Runaway (with a cool intro "you're in a time machine. 2005...2004...2003" (i whooped)... -all the way back to 1984... and then they started)
Born to be My Baby
Sleep When I'm Dead
Bed of Roses
Livin' on a Prayer

and "Bounce" and "Wanted Dead or Alive" (and one other, that totally slips my mind) as the encore

51. Apocalypse Now - 1/21/06. Good movie. cinematography was cool. And Dennis Hopper was NUTS.

58. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. 1/21/06. The movie, like Count of Monte Cristo, took HUGE liberties with the story.

my "101 things in 1001 days" list

42. De Niro Movies - Taxi Driver (1-19-06), Ronin (12/3/05). the effects in Taxi Driver were crap, but the movie ended well. I almost expected it wouldn't, for some reason. Good stuff. Ronin was a good movie, and much more what I expect from De Niro movies. But that's because Taxi Driver is 30 years old, too.

I was just talking about how I wasn't getting anything accomplished on my list, recently. Woo! Progress!

my "101 things in 1001 days" list

56. The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison, because it sounds unusual, based on the title alone. 12/26/05. I'm going to miss these characters. I got to liking the language--old-Englishy as it was. i wish there were more books in this series...

and partially this one:

27. Buy (I was given this as a gift, same basic principle)and learn to use (to take good pictures, that is) a Digital Camera.12/25/05, got a Panasonic 5 megapixel camera, yay.

my "101 things in 1001 days" list

46. (watch) Rebel Without a Cause 12/12/05.

good movie. Only real gripe I have is a cinematic one... in the "dark" scenes, which are, I believe, to be shot with the film f-stop longer, to darken the shot-- it's pretty clear that those scenes were shot at 3 in the afternoon. sun's still up, all that. And it's much lighter outside than the previous shot, each time. Natalie wood was a damn good looking woman. And it's ironic as hell that there's a swimming pool scene and a fatal car wreck, judging from the actors.

toward the "do several things" goals I have, I've donated blood, gone to two concerts, and had a couple different beers, since last post. And I'm mostly done reading The Worm Ouroboros, too.

my list is here.

Watched Ronin tonight. good movie. The cheapo DVD player I bought from walmart will be a good investment, I think.

And I'm still a big Irish accent fan.

I've made partial progress on several things:

7. Donate blood six five four more times.(#1, 8/29/05, #2, 11/23/05)

this goal's going fine, execpt the initial test drop (where they prick your finger and squeeze the blood drop out.) BLOOD SHOT OUT OF MY FINGER IN A STREAM WHEN THE TECH SQUEEZED MY FINGER. it looked kinda neat, actually, but it freaked him the hell out. Made me laugh, actually.

39. 25 of the top 50 beers according to BeerAdvocate. REVISED, 9-19-05 50 different beers, total. *(my list will be here.)

I'm making good progress on that one... like six new ones this month. woohoo.

56. The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison, because it sounds unusual, based on the title alone.

The grammar and language in this book is insane. Neat book, though.

So that's the 'holy crap, i'm making progress' post. yeah.

my list

89. Hike to the creek at the farm. (11/12/05) Hiked to the creek at our farm and collected some massive acorns from the oak trees down there. The acorns are something like two inches wide. *bonk* Weirdly huge, and the caps are fuzzy. I saw a hawk feather down there, too. Hiking in the rocks was fun.

my "101 things in 1001 days" list

55. Heart of Darkness(10-23-05) and Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad

This one is halfway done. I read Heart of Darkness today, sitting in Barnes and Noble in Baton Rouge. Only 110 pages...

Maybe all this reading is why I have weird, vivid dreams as of late....

that makes 93 and a half to go, and I'm already started on Lord Jim.

my list

83. visit one art museum. LSU Museum of art, 10/22/05. And, actually, the Louisiana Art and Science museum, too. Same day.)

that's, um... seven down. 94 to go, woo.

my "101 in 1001 days" list

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today i went to the LSU art museum, and the USS Kidd memorial museum (and old decommissioned US military destroyer that is on the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, and went to the Louisiana Art and Science Museum. woo, culture. There was a man there, named Leroy Jenkins (he introduced himself) that served on the USS Kidd in the 40s. Quite cool. The most sobering part of all of it, for me, was the "sold for scrap, $170,000" in the list of old destroyers-- there were 175 in that list... and nearly all were sold for scrap... seems a waste, somehow. And I understand the necessity to deal with the old ships, I suppose, but, well... still.

The art museums were cool, I like the really modern art (3-dimensional, mixed-media type stuff) and the really old, 18th century portraits. landscapes, things like that... not really my deal.

There was an exhibit by Peter Halley, and it was kinda neat, in that "wow, weird" kinda of way. he uses "roll a tex" paint (paintable wall texture) and day-glo acrylics and makes these extremely... quadrilateral paintings. Yeah. (here's a link where some of his paintings are pictured.)
His paintings have a three-dimensional (slightly) element, in that the Roll-a-tex sections are... about, say, 3/16" high, and the thick-paint sections are, say, a 1/16th, and then there's the base coat. so there's a tiny amount of change in the painting(in terms of shadows, actually) depending on where you stand to look at it. Cool.


Neat stuff. There were also some woodcuts by William Hogarth (again, pictures at this link, they're at the bottom of the page...) Neat stuff, very detailed. There was one that was... in large part the same, and then one major part was changed. like in a comic strip, where one panel stays mostly the same, save for one feature? like that. This, though, was two woodcuts containing a scene with a dog in the picture,a nd what looked like a mirror. the contents reflected in the mirror/glass, those changed from one to the next. there was like a twenty year difference in the dates of those two woodcuts, though. The Bruiser was the name of one of them...

oh yeah, and i completely pissed away ten bucks at the riverboat casino (the ARGOSY casino, i think) down the street from the USS Kidd and the museums. eh.

A good day, it was.

50. Real Ale Sisyphus 2005. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/20/06. - Good. Strong. sweet. Barley wine, orange peel and apricot.
49. Real Ale Fireman #4. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/20/06. Blonde. Unfiltered. Good stuff, pretty smooth.
48. New Belgium Abbey Ale. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/18/06. good, dark.
47. Traquair House. Bottle. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/18/06. Pretty good, overall.
46. Scaldis. Bottle. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/18/06. This one was great. Expensive, but very good. Belgian Barley Wine. High alcohol content--12%.
45.Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/18/06. Too hoppy. too bitter. Not a big fan.
44. New Belgium 1554.Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/14/06. "Belgian black ale", according to the description. Good, thick, malt and barley flavor.
43. Sunshine Wheat. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/14/06. Weizen beer, but, wow... "citrus" is the word. too fruity. For a wheat beer, very clear.
42. JW Dundee's Honey Brown. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/13/06. way too sweet for my taste. Very mild. Touted as "a good intro beer for non-beer-drinkers", and I can see how that would be.
41. Live Oak Pilz. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/13/06. Good-- dry, light, crisp. Hops was stronger than I expected.
40. Avalanche "Amber Style Ale". Bottle. Harvey Washbanger's, College Station, TX. 3/05/06. Sorta bitter. Kinda like Fat Tire. Otherwise throughly unremarkable.
39. Abita Turbodog. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 2/27/06. Dark. Heavy, but good.
38. New Belgium "Biere de Mars". Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 2/27/06. Not a big fan. strange smell. Head was dense. apparently has oats, wheat, barley malt, and lemon verbena. weird.
37. JW Dundee's "Honey Wheat". Bottle. Wing Stop, Temple, TX. 2/25/06. Good, lager. just a touch honey flavored. Went... just fine with hot wings.
36. Flying Dog "In-Heat Wheat". Bottle. private party, College Station, TX. 2/18/06. Unfiltered wheat beer. normally I like those. this one was bad, cold. much better when it warmed to about 60 degrees.
35. Kirin Ichiban. Bottle. Masa Sushi, Webster, TX. 2/9/06. White label, gold writing. Good. unremarkable. ate sushi and chicken teriyaki and other random japanese with it. yay.
34. Dogfish IPA. Draft. Boondoggle Pub, Webster, TX. 2-6-06. Good, says it's an IPA, and I can taste the hops, but it's also thick, and tastes like a stout.
33. Bridgeport Brewing Company 'Black Strap Stout'. Bottle. Andy's house, Houston TX. 2/3/06. not bad, molasses-y (which makes sense...) and a pretty good stout.
32. Dixie Blackened Voodoo. Bottle. L'Auberge du Lac, Jack Daniel's Grill, Lake Charles, LA. 2-1-06. Good, apparently it's a lager, but it tasted to me very much like a stout. Good. And the Shiner I had after it tasted funny, by comparison. I like this one.
31. Stella Artois. Draft. O' Bannon's Pub (was Hole in the Wall) College Station, TX, 1-12-06. Not bad... light, and not worth five bucks apiece.
30. "Left Hand Brewing Company" Milk Stout. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX, 1/7/06. Bottle. Not bad, but, as Andy said, weak for a stout. "Thin", rather. Wasn't as thick as I'd figured it might be. Smooth, though.
29. Pyramid Apricot Ale. Draft. O' Bannon's Pub (was Hole in the Wall) College Station, TX, 1-2-06 - Apricot-y. not bad, but very fruity, and sweet. light color. heh.
28. Spaten Optimator. Draft. O' Bannon's Pub (was Hole in the Wall) College Station, TX, 1-2-06 - good, roasted malt. very dark. good.
27. Belhaven Scottish Ale. "Creamy" is what the waitress said. she was right. Malty, thick, and creamy. really dense head. Smooth.
26. McEwan's Scotch Ale. Flying Saucer, Houston TX, 12/26/05. Bottle. 8%, malty, good, overall. nothing really stands out, though.
25. Peroni 'Nastro Azzurro', Johnny Carino's, Lake Charles, LA. pretty good. reminded me of, I think, Heineken. Very crisp and light. Bottle.
24. Lafitte's Light, Rikenjak's Brewpub, Broad Street, Lake Charles, LA. 12-13-05. VERY smooth, no bite at all. good stuff. Draft.
23. Red Hook IPA - hoppy, like the IPA ought to be, and not too bad, overall. Pretty bitter, though. It was good at the time, though. Draft.
22. Amstel Light - Lone Star Steakhouse, Baton Rouge, LA, 12-8-05. Lager, i wasn't really a fan. Bottle.
21. Aylinger Brau-Weiss - 11-17-05, Fox and Hound, Baton Rouge, LA. Unfitered wheat beer, hops flavor, a touch bitter, but good. Enough hops to be crisp, I suppose, but the wheat sweetens and smooths it out. (that should cover my 'elitist beer asshole' points for the month) Bottle.
20. Kinmount Willie's Stout - 11-17-05, Fox and Hound, Baton Rouge, LA. Good, thick, roasted malt, heavy. Smoky, and good. Bottled.
19. Maredsous - 11-16-05, Fox and Hound, Baton Rouge, LA. Tasted like roasted malt, in the Killian's way. Supposed to be like a Chimay - high alcohol and all. Trappist type beer. Draft. Spoke with a guy named Marvin, and learned about beer-tasting stuff. Hops makes beer bitter(which I knew), but is also a preservative (which i didn't know). IPA (high alcohol, lots of hops, very bitter) was designed to survive the trip on a boat to India, thus, India Pale Ale.
18. Goose Island Honker's Ale - Ale, bitter, amber-colored. more bitter than I like usually, but not bad. More mellow than IPA.11-03(whoop)-05(whoop). Draft.
17. Sam Adams' Winter Lager - good, lager-y, amber. 11-03-05. Draft.
16. Leinenkugel Honey Weiss - Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Hilton. Overall, not bad, kinda sweet, but "wholly unremarkable" is the phrase that descibes it the best. Draft.
15. Pumpkin Ale, made by "Buffalo Bill's Brewery, Haywood, CA. brewed and bottled by Portland Brewing Co., Portland, OR" Weird stuff, pumpkin-y, but not very sweet. probably would have been better colder. Not bad, just... very unusual. Bottle.
14. Foster's. (yeah, the "australian for beer" one.) not bad, actually, just... regular lager beer.(10-24-05, Outback Steakhouse in baton rouge, LA. Draft.
13. Blue Moon Belgian White. Smokey Bones Barbecue, Baton Rouge, LA. (10-10-05) good, kinda sweet and bitter at the same time. Wheaty. came with an orange slice. Draft.
12. Franziskaner Hefeweizen. Wurstmarkt, harker heights, TX. (10-01-05). good, typical hefeweizen. Draft.
11. Jim's Cannon Red Jacket, Dauphin Street (it was a brewpub), Mobile Alabama (bitter, amber, kinda like an india pale ale) (9-28-05) Draft.
10. Juengling Light Lager (9-28-05) Draft. Mobile, AL.
9. Abita Amber. Draft.
8. Saint Arnold's Lawnmower (koelsch). Draft. Good, but better really cold.
7. Pyramid hefeweizen. Draft.
6. Smithwick's (amber). Draft.
5. Guinness Stout. Draft.
4. Harp Lager. Draft.
3. Newcastle Brown. Draft.
2. Fuller's ESB. Draft.
1. Murphy's Irish Red. Draft.

Again, by the girl who just walked in, I'm reminded why I like ankle-length skirts on girls. whoop.

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I start my job tomorrow. Still not sure quite where to go. hoping that they email me directions, soon.

eep.

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And I bought a GameBoy Advance yesterday. Timewasters, woo.

from mission101

87. be outdoors long enough at a stretch to notice more freckles when i go home.
(9-4-05... jeep ride, and mowin' the yard the other day, combined)

three down. 98 to go, but i'm partway on a couple.
(watched a sunset today. goal is ten sunsets in a one-month period, that's #37 on the list)

my list

I got the real, honest-to-god "we are pleased to offer you a position as an Alliance Support Engineer" letter today. so the order of business for the afternoon is to fill all this paperwork back out and off it goes.

woohoo! my hire date is, apparently, September the 19th. cool stuff.

*hi ho, hi ho, it's off to paperwork I go...*

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this also means i can cross off one item on my "101 things in 1001 days" list.

11. get a real, uses-my-degree job.

Got the "sign here and you've got the job" letter today. woohoo.

Also donated blood, today. five more times and I can cross off that one.

my list

On my list is this:

76. Start a fire using no matches/lighters. (or lil' firestarters, either.)

I'll likely accomplish that one this way(or try, at least):

use a coke can and a chocolate bar to make fire

from mission101

this will be a list of 101 things i want to accomplish in 1001 days. I'm going to start on them as soon as the list is finished; the date for completion will be Monday, May 12, 2008. dates will be posted as they're finished, and the line will be struck-thru. Blue means "in progress".

Personal self improvement (2 of 10 complete)
1. exercise 4 times a week.
2. weigh 175, and stay there.
3. weigh 200, first.
4. mountain bike on a trail on a monthly basis, at least.
5. ( Read more... )
List (0 of 1 complete)
101. Make the next list for the next 1001 days.