If I had claws, I'd be Wolverine.

So not a whole lot's been going on. Back into the rhythm of work work work, sometimes sleep, and seeing my friends and family when I can, not to mention wanting to spend more time with Rachael.

I've been a bit.. perturbed lately. Here's the deal. I'm getting hated on by one of Rachael's cousins. Girl. 22 ish? 2 kids. Not married. Her man works at a bowling alley. Now.. having not met her cousin's boyfriend, I'm not going to judge the guy. That however does not apply to her cousin judging me. Apparently this wonderful waste of human skin, says I'm to old for Rachael which automatically means I'm no good. Nevermind the fact that I'm good to her and would do just about anything for her... the difference in age is obviously more important. Then the questions of.. what kind of car does he drive where does he live blah blah blah come up. So she says to Rachael I have a girl's car. Ok. So.. it's a 2001 Eclipse. I'm sure the 2k sound system and the 2k rims I had (previous to the $500 rims :/ ) don't count as it's still a girl car. And the fact that the Eclipse was bought with insurance money I had gotten after my 96 Prelude (which was definitely not a 'girl car') was killed by a semi, has no bearing. Then she goes on to rag on me because I'm currently living at my sister's house after having been laid off from my rediculously paying job in the city and I moved out of the 2 bedroom apartment in a posh area that I paid the rent for saying crap like.. he's living with his sister? What is he waiting for? WHAT? What am I waiting for? Man. I've been living on my own since I was 18. Who does this chick think she is saying some stupid crap like that? If it weren't for the fact that I have to ... recover my financial standing after two years of kicking my savings account's ass not to mention my credit then yeah, I *would* be back in my own place. Because you know.. I REALLY like having my few material posessions in this world locked up in a storage unit that I have to PAY for every month. Makes me angry. Makes me want to insert my foot into someplace uncomfortable involving Rachael's cousin.

But whatever.. hey.. I'm older remember? Which means I have more patience and restraint.. I'm more mature.. I have more class and more courtesy than say some punk loser thug wanna be in their teens or twenties. So. I'll let this slide for now. But everyone has a limit.

On the opposite end of the spectrum of being angry enough to punch a wall, work has been slow today and I was watching a rediculous anime on Crunchyroll about.. a kitten.. and what goes through the mind of a kitten as it's adopted by a family. It's called Chi's Sweet Home.

Oh my phone's ringing.. write more later. Hope everyone else is well.

- Nat

Fill in the _______

I'm sitting at work right now and was all hyped up to post something.. and by the time I finally get around to it.. BAM.. totally forgot anything of worth I had wanted to say. Awesome.

Yesterday I was at the doctor's office to get some checkups done and as I'm sitting there.. a tall leggy woman in a doctor's coat walks up to me. HA. And she says she's working with a program to study genes and wanted to know if I wanted to participate and would be willing to donate a sample of my DNA. Blink. So in my mind.. I'm just like.. wait what? Then of course.. wait what KIND of sample? Apparently she had her genes modified to allow her to read mines as she promptly added it would be a sample of my blood she'd need. Oh! Well.. sure in that case. So she has me fill out some forms. Now.. whomever wrote these forms should really rethink how it's worded as they ask for not ya know a little or just a couple of drops but specifically "a tablespoon of blood". Um.. yeah that doesn't exactly spawn pleasant images. Nom nom nom!

Hmm.. nope.. still can't remember what I wanted to write about.. oh oh now I remember!

Dude.. If the world ends tomorrow I'll be calling in sick on Thursday. I've been following that whole thing and though the "probability" is low anything would happen.. man.. I hope at least something "fun" would happen vs a black hole forming and us imploding (with a whistling sound). Like.. at least tear open a hole to another dimension and have hot amazons trying to enslave the human race or big giant robots fighting a war with one another... yeah.. I haven't watched any good sci-fi in awhile.

I know.. I know.

I know I don't blog on a daily basis. Normally it's the last thing that's on my mind. It's not that I don't care if anyone reads this or not, but I think its because most of the time I have a blog going on in my head and it's constantly being edited while I'm adding comments and replying to myself constantly which hinders my ability to actually produce anything on here.

Prom 2008 was a success and last weekend was a whirlwind of different things pre and post Saturday. Labor Day wouldn't have been complete without a BBQ so Rei and I with T along with some friends scouted for a place to setup camp. After several failed attempts we ended up and a great spot and just enjoyed the day.

I think that we don't do that enough. Take time to just chill. Today it rained... all day. I had to grin as I got to take my jacket out of seasonal retirement and wear it around. This was because 1. It was wet out 2. It was cold. 3. My girlfriend likes to lose umbrellas and I gave her mine.

I'm trying to think about.. where do I want to be a couple years from now? Where in the sense of.. well.. everything, not just physical location. I'm tired.. it's almost 5am and I have to work from 3pm to 4am today.. I should sleep. Anyway, I've had this song looping but the video I picked to comment on Rei's myspace was cute enough to make a diabetic go into shock.



Ciao for now.

- Nat

That's Padme?

So my sister had been telling me about this video for awhile since I'm a Natalie Portman fan and I was like what? So I had to check it out. Haha her boyfriend said.. come be in this video and this was the result.



Yeah.. I got nothing to say about that haha.

So yesterday and Sunday were the first real days off I've had in weeks. It was really nice. Got to spend some sorely needed time with Rei and caught up on that whole sleep thing. This Saturday is Prom and I can only hope it lives up to the promises of epic-ness it has been hyped up to be. I'll post details post Saturday and let you know how it went.

Guess saving money will be for next month :P

Ciao

- Nat

Zoom Zoom?

I think that there's a random curse when it comes to me and cars. Racing, never had any issues. Driving normally? Oh look there's a curb BAM!. When it seems like I have money saved up? BAM! Someone hits my car in a parking lot or something to that effect. Now, when I have a goal and reasons to save up some money.. Sophie (my Eclipse) has decided she's like an old computer running Windows 98 and has decided she wants lots of upgrades. One of the signals of wanting such upgrades is deciding to not light up the right headlight and foglight. Awesome. She's winking. *sigh*.

So this makes me think... is it worth the money to fix whatever's wrong? If I thought deeply.. about the foolish mistakes I've made with purchases let alone self destructive angsty hating life gambling moments, it really does make me want to work out really hard so I can be realllly flexible to basically kick myself in the face. Twice. But well. No use crying over any of that. Have to sit down and assess the situation.

Oddly.. I'm able to write coherently right now because of one of those little bottles of 5hour energy. I have to admit, they work unlike the 2 cans of sugar free red bull I had before that.

My sis finally got back from NYC after being trapped there due to weather.. oh damn I just got off work.. I'll write more later :)

So... sleepy

I got nothing. On the upside I do have a few amusing links.

Fail Blog

LOLCATS

Yeah.. to much time on my hands that could better be spent sleeping.

Need.. more..

Hmm still looking for a part time job for the hours of 8ish am to 2ish pm during the week for extra money.

Here's an average week for me right now.

Tuesday thru Thursday. Wake up anytime between 11am and 1:30ish pm. If I wake up early, I go see Rei after she gets off work / before I go to work. Then I go to work at 3pm until at least 11pm if not later. I get home. Maybe play some games watch some TV or whatever but usually can't sleep until later. Average lately has been 4 to 5am. Repeat.

Friday is the same as Tue thru Thur except, some days Rei doesn't work Fridays and after 11pm I go to the security thing from 12am to 4am or so. I usually get home around 5ish am. Maybe sleep. Average 6 to 7am.

Saturday I soooomtimes meet up with Rei and T before work, other than that. Same as Fri.

Sunday is an off day. No work at all. Goes between stuff with my sister or Rei and T and friends.

Monday is quality time with just me and the gf so it's nice and peaceful.

So that's the breakdown of my weeks as of late. We'll see how it goes if I can find that part time job.

Sorry to those I haven't been able to reach out to as of late.

- Nat

It's interesting...

It's interesting to me that being really happy changes your priorities and outlook on just about.. well.. everything.

I'm sorry a thousand times over to people I've either lost touch with or just have been failing to go hang out with as of late. I'm finally feeling the ground back under my feet and I'm also contently not walking alone.

I was talking with Rei about how people often say "I'm the same person I was back then". If you stop and sit still long enough to really think deep into it, it makes you wonder.. how much have you changed? Sure, your core self may be the same however, different experiences influence the person that we become. And of course if it were possible to go back into the past with the knowledge of yourself and life that you know now.. how different could things have been.

On a sci fi note, it's like wondering about the whole cloning thing. Keep this in mind about cloning.

Clone - Noun
1.Biology.
a.a cell, cell product, or organism that is genetically identical to the unit or individual from which it was derived.
b.a population of identical units, cells, or individuals that derive from the same ancestral line.
2.a person or thing that duplicates, imitates, or closely resembles another in appearance, function, performance, or style: All the fashion models seemed to be clones of one another.

Current technology allows people to clone what.. pets that have died? Now what if we could clone ourselves or people? Here's the point where I have to wonder how that works. If I clone myself, and it came out as a baby that had to grow up, not just fully grown xerox version, how different would my clone (baby form) be from me since it/he wouldn't have the same experiences I did growing up?

Ok geek moment over. This Wed is Rei's birthday but sadly I have to work. So I took her out Sunday and kinda Monday also. Sunday we got to see Cirque Shanghai at Navy Pier and with the tickets got to do a bunch of other stuff there. It wasn't as epic as I would have wanted, but it was still pretty sweet. Oh and Monday was officially five months. Odd though, it seems like it's been so much longer.. but in a good way. As cheese as it sounds, I have to say sometimes.. life can just full out SMACK you in the face with a pleasant surprise when you least expect it.

Also, I haven't forgotten, Joan's bday is also Wed! I know right? jeez. Two others had birthdays last week, my mom has a birthday at the end of the month. Yall July people just need to calm down and let me get caught up financially k? Thanks.

Wow.. I'm drained.. must sleep. Later for now.. I definitely would like to talk to alot of you I havent had a chance to as of late.

- Nat

Remeber to keep breathing

Getting used to the new schedule, things are still a bit whirlwindy so my bad for not posting much of anything lately. I'll try to get to it Sunday or Monday which are my days off.. for the moment. Jeez.

Side out you Orc !

So today's first day at Discover went extremely well I'm glad to say. I'm part of the Incident Management team of the Business Technology department. That's a mouthful I know but the short description of what I do is, I make sure if something breaks, the right people fix it in the shortest amount of time, while recording all the details, then meeting after a resolution to come up with ways to best avoid the same problem in the future. That's the gist of it anyway. They have alot of stuff planned for down the line as far as things my department wants to take over which is good since I'm getting in on everything early and will be able to help set stuff up. (Calculating). Got my ID and my parking sticker so I'm definitely official now yay!

Couple of other highlights from the day.

The first thing someone asks me was. "Do you play volleyball?" Here's me like.. um.. what? After driving around the multiple parking lots before finally settling on the parking garage I noticed as I was hiking to the building I work in that there was both an outdoor basketball court and a volleyball net with sand and all. Apparently the different departments in the company like to be.. competitive. And I guess my department being mostly on the geeky side fail at that whole hit the ball over the net thing hehe. Much to my trainer's approval I explained that yes, I used to play vball waaaayyyy back in High School (I'm old eh?), because rather than playing basketball with the thuggish dudes, I opted to play some volleyball with the girls. Laugh if you will, but then other guys figured out.. omg.. he's a genius.. next thing you know we had MANY people playing :P

Also there were um... cheerleaders from the AFL (that football league really does exist) and they were onsite handing on free t-shirts to anyone that had a Discover credit card. I'll have you know that if I ever wear that shirt, I won't need to be worried about being shot at while hunting.. unless I go with politicians eh?

The people and the atmosphere there is way cool. It's not ohmigod ohmigod corporate since it's a fair balance between corporate HQ and well.. a college campus minus the doe eyed coeds looking for unisex bathrooms. The cafeteria was even amusing. I think that alone was bigger than my last 3 or 4 apartments put together. They had different stations that served things from Italian, Asian, Indian, Mexican, Salads, a deli and get this.. fresh Sushi.. what the.. wow.. can I live there?

Oh and the other random thing was one of my new coworkers before I left insisted on asking me if I played World of Warcraft and if so what server I play on. Apparently not only have I been drafted to play volleyball but also WoW to. Odd. Teambuilding rocks sometimes?

Ok.. I gotta help people with homework. No really I do. Of course it isn't math homework that would be silly since I'm the anti-asian and prefer writing English papers to solving equations.

I'll still probably continue to do the security gig on the side just for the extra cash. Debts to payoff are still debts and all. That and man.. I have alot of plans that won't pay for themselves. When I start working my normal shift of 3pm to 11:30pm (Tue thru Sat) in a week and a half I won't really have much freetime for anything but at least it's a way to save money. See. I should have gone into investment banking to :)

It Pays to Discover...

So I know it's been quite some time since I've actually sat down and put some effort into writing anything but that's just the way it goes at times? On the up side, great news! Last week I went on an interview at Discover (the credit card company). The offices or rather should I say.. the compound/campus for Discover is for lack of better words.. intense. The security at the gate and in the main building I was in reminded me of old Indiana Jones villians as they were all blond haired blue eyed and spoke German. The place was so grand, it sported it's own pharmacy. What the hell? A pharmacy next to the deli?? Jeez. So anyway I interviewd with to two fellows who were quite nice actually. At the end of the interview they showed me around and informed me there were 15 people total that were going for the position I was. The next day I get a call from the consulting agency I have to go through for the job and they tell me Discover would like to make an offer. Sweet! I should have played the lottery. 15 to 1 odds works for me!

So I start tomorrow and do some training for a couple of weeks on some odd schedule, then after training when I go to my normal shift I think its something like.. Tuesday thru Saturday 3pm to 11pm. Well.. that doesn't make trying to plan things difficult at all! (not dripping sarcasm). Sigh. But I'm not going to complain. It's about time I got a real job, not counting the armed security stuff I've been doing. It's an odd thing that people will get drunk and do stupid things at a public place especially when there's people standing there with weapons and a badge? Silly people.

So.. with the job only a couple things need to happen until Life Rebooted 2.0 is completed. My life must be running on an older version of Windows.. cuz man it's taking a while to reboot :)

And yes, things are still going very well with Rei and I. Who knew? :)

- Nat

I keep on interviewing over and over again

Nat Update?

Hmm.. still interviewing at multiple places.. gonna get a job sooner rather hopefully than later.

Uhhhh.. Rei and I are doing well so that's good. Nothing much else is going on. Just stressing bout the job thing.

Hahaha was thinking about this song the other day so had to find a video that complimented it well.

A Happy Sadness

For Rei for when I can't see you when I want..

A dollar for everytime I've been sick

So I'm slowly getting over having the plague once again. Geez.. you'd think I'd have this being sick thing down cold. I felt bad I wasn't able to hang out with a friend of mine who was randomly in town last week because I was sick.. my bad Jodeci, I'll try to make it up to you sometime.. though the only reason you were in town is because you failed to bring your passport to get into Canada hahaha awesome.

Rei's sick to.. yeah probably my fault but hey, Lil T started it sooo I guess we're even ha!

It's unreal that I can't find a job to save my life right now. I'm debating knocking off some quickie marts, but I don't see a long career in that and I hear the benefits package for that is terrible. Lame.

Going paintballing (random) with some former and current EOP peeps I used to work with tomorrow. Maybe one of them will know someone that needs someone.. you get the picture.

Regardless though.. promises have been made so I'm not giving up and I'll reinforce my resolve with the thoughts of good things to come.

Sakura's wedding is approaching in what.. two months? Whoa.. I'm behind on alot of stuff I feel hehe.

I've been wondering how some people are doing... not sure if that's good or bad but it is what it is.

Anyway.. hope everyone that's connected to me in some way shape or form is well.

- Nat

Grrrrrrrrrr

So Monday I had an interview at Abbott Labs.. this is the job I applied for in December. Now it took them THREE months to say ok let's start interviewing people. I get my interview date and time and I'm like.. sweet. Get there at 1:30pm for a 2pm interview. 2:15 rolls by.. this lady comes out and says.. "wow.. I'm sorry you're here." Of course here's me sitting there all dressed up going WTF? WTH? WHAT?! Apparently they hired someone last week without cancelling pending interviews.. Awesome.

Friend of mine was like.. I dunno why you haven't found a job your resume rocks. I'm just like... well I don't know why either Sparky.. oh I didn't call him Sparky but still.

It's funny how there has to be at least one thing in my life that can't be easy. Before it was something else and work was fine.. now it's reversed. Man... that whole karma thing fails me I feel.

- Nat

Once more into the breach...

It's a little after 7 in the morning. I have to wake up in hmm.. four hours so I can wake up and get ready for another job interview. This time for Abbott Labs. This job opened in December and they're just now getting to the interviews. Awesome. It's not THE job I want.. but at this point I really want A job period. CDW has a position I'd rock at but they haven't hit me back yet on that one sadly. The one at Abbott Labs is for a Lotus Notes messaging admin type of thing. Could I do it? Sure. Do I want to? Prolly not. Will I take it if they offer? Pretty much yeah.

Ah well. Rei, T and I went to Sakura's for a St. Patty's thing Saturday. That was fun. Lil T apparently likes kitties, sadly Rei seems to be deathly allergic.. doh.

That's about it. Not much else is going on. Almost have all my credit card debt paid off I think. Let's hope this Abbott Labs things works out and I get employed by the real world Umbrella Corp... Milla where are you?! (That's a Resident Evil reference.. yes I did).

Best year ever?

Not trying to jinx myself yet, but if everything works out, 30 might be actually the best year EVER for me.

Have an interview at CDW on Monday afternoon (March 3rd), for the Systems Analyst, Project Management Tools position... well that's a mouthful. So yes wish me luck :P

Got to see some friends I've known for a loooong time on Saturday night so that was cool. Gollum had a... 'harem party'. Sadly I did not have a sultan outfit to wear but it was ok, and the belly dancing was cool.

Also had dinner with Elvis and his fam on Sunday night at this Italian restaurant that was in what used to be a church.. that was kinda trippy but I didn't burst into flames or even start smoking a little so that was encouraging. I think Elvis was a bit surprised to see me with Lil T. Who knew I could be that comfortable taking care of a 1yr old?

Sooooooo yes... here's to hoping my years of interviewing and corporate lingo experience mixed with some overall awesomeness helps me rock this thing Monday.

- Nat

Pics

Posted some pics on the myspace page just because.

I'll have to scan more in and post later. Damn the time before digital cameras...

- Nat

Pics section, myspace.com/lakota214

Every new beginning

The song from this video was recently dedicated to me. It's a sad fact that sometimes in life things change and even if it may seem it's for the better, it can still hurt.

This weekend I'm going to a friend's baby shower but since it's a dude throwing it apparently there's going to be lots of alcohol.. how odd. Then after that going to another party to see some friends I haven't seen for quite some time so that'll be nice to reconnect a bit I suppose. Think E.C. is going to go with me to. Things are going surprisingly well considering neither of us were expecting this and it's.. nice to be happy. I can only hope that everyone else is afforded the chance to be happy as well.

Nothing else really to say right now. Nothing to insightful or wise or even remotely witty.

'Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.'

- Nat

The biggest VDay to date...

So Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. I know there are those who are in the mindset of.. "Stupid made up hallmark holiday", but that's more 'Sweetest Day'. Valentine's Day is someone legit at least.

Let's see. Yesterday was pretty cool. Saw E.C. in the morning, had lunch and spent some time with Haruka, then hung with Sakura a bit.

Haha amusingly enough the family that Sakura was nannying (that a word?) for, one of the girls is six. She found out it was my birthday and made me a paper bracelet, a 'map' of the computer I was fixing at her house and a necklace with plastic or glass beads? Either way it was extremly cute so I was like awwww.

I'm not really going to mention much about my birthday since pfft, whatever :P I do want to say thank you for all those who have left me messages/gifts and such, they are all greatly appreciated.

I'm hoping with this new.. decade.. on life things will finally start going back up again since I've been in a bit of a funk and all.

Throughout the day today Sakura's been sending me txt messages of I am "the amazingest". She listed 30 things that made me laugh and smile so I'm thankful for that. I did want to post a couple of the really outstanding ones though.

7. Because of you I can order beyond sushi combo B

12. You have the best taste in angry music.

15. You understand that scurvy is a very real threat.

And probably the one that had me laughing the loudest and looking like an insane person as I was running errands earlier...

18. If you were a superhero your motto would be. 'Leave no woman unsaved." -- Your success rate is rather impressive.

27. You’ve inspire a duality in me at Mexican restaurants: desperately needing to order flan, and then urgently needing to poke it.

29. If someone asked you the difference between east coast and west coast glowsticking, you'd have an answer.

Awesome :)

Hmm what else.. I'm making a gift bag for E.C., I swear I'm not of the same sex persuasion. Cleaned the car out a bit, got the oil changed and the engine flushed (car talk for give me all your money). Should go get ready and all that going to go see some Blue Man Group tonight. Wasn't my original plans but hey, that's a part of life being able to think on your feet and go with it right?

Sooooo.. Ja Ne

- Nat