Maybe I'm a Lion

I was not myself until a short ways in, I was someone older and I had been told I was doing a job... or helping someone? There was a reason for me to do something slightly out of the ordinary. In the midst of aiding this group with the setup for this gig of sorts, I overheard that it was rigged to be the end of me, as I was in their way in some manner. In this strange mansion that was a mix of nice things and a circus, I found a pair of people I knew I could trust, a guy and a girl, and I grabbed a knife and I pretended to hold the lady hostage while making my escape. Outside was a strange blur, people running, a mix of city, fountains, and an empty desert. There was some kind of battle beginning now. Chaos ensued, the three of us ran, dodging through the fight. The lady almost ran into Gentleman Johnny, who was some sort of powerful and skilled leader of the other side. He and I scuffled, strangely adept and knife fighting. I ended up stabbing him somewhere in the back... kidney area perhaps? It should have been a death blow, but he took it without visible effect, even pulling the knife out. He issued a warning, cold, emotionless, and stalked off through the swirling sand, leaving us to do as we will. We somehow rendez-voused with a few more friends, night taking hold, and we managed to intimidate the few soldiers we met on the way, thanks to superior numbers and some kind of reputation we had. Heading down the now-cement streets lit with street lamps and what appeared to be a parking garage in the distance, I noticed to my chagrin that my shoes were missing. One of my companions clapped me on the shoulder and said that we would get me some at the mall. We all smiled as though everything were happy and fine.

Too much Final Fantasy lately?

No one likes it here except for Heather and her associated people. The people I work with at the GAP? They hate Baltimore too. There is nothing good about this place if you have any experience with a better one. The idea that I am not alone in my thoughts pleases me greatly. I still do not know why Heather likes this place. She insists that the bus system here is better than in Seattle. Her reasoning? The only bus line she ever rode, the one to get to school, was not timed well for her to get to high school. Via public transportation. Something about this sounds a little absurd, especially since she lives five minutes from U Village. I think Heather is just insane. She also does not go places that are not Baltimore via the bus/light rail. This is where they are designed to go, as Baltimore is apparently the only place worth going. The four story mall that is a fifteen to twenty minute drive from my apartment is not worth of decent bus transportation. I think Heather is insane.

My job has thus far given plenty of opportunity to make my forty hours a week for survival. Unfortunately, it has thus far been late shifts, two of which were so late that I was there until 5 or 6 AM. This will not be a habit, as this was just to setup the new store. The GAP is, hopefully, a temporary venture that will let me make some money, get life underway, pay rent for the month, and have a little left over to abuse the employee discount. Mmmmm discount. I need new jeans...

The kitten is less happy with my new-found reason to not be home ever. He is actually pretty ticked off during the day apparently. Heather woke up to me being gone and the kitten being outside her door and in a less-than-friendly mood. He is now curled up next to me and refuses to leave my side. I think he likes me.

Other notes about this horrid place:
The minimum wage is like $7.25 or something and people expect lower-paying jobs. They also value education a looooot less. Bastards
Everyone knows where I live. Apparently we are right off of the intersection of two major roads that everyone knows about. One I understand. The other... I swear I traversed it. It was not interesting. I'm very confused.
The bus will never make sense. Ever. Ever ever ever.
These people don't do corporate bus passes. I surprised they understand the idea of a bus pass. I don't think they even do transfers here. I haven't had cause to try, but I have never seen anyone do less than get a day pass.
I want a monthly bus pass, omg.
The trees change color en masse. It is actually the one thing I truly like.
The farthest anything Heather understands about Seattle goes is her house and her high school. I knew more of the general area then than she did and I lived in Bothell.
Dunkin' Donuts is to these losers what Starbucks is to us. I can think of one such establishment near Seattle. I think...
Malls are awesome at night.
I work with a lot of gay guys. Someone already inquired about my sexuality. I was greatly amused.
There is a trail here that is similar to the Burke-Gilman. It goes into PA and I don't think that most people can either walk or bike to it, as the trail runs through wilder areas where no one really lives. People drive en masse to the parking lots for this place to take walks/bike. This is the only time I have seen a bicycle or even a lot of pedestrians that were not students.

and now I am distracted and can't finish this. Um... sooooo... puppies? with... ketchup?

Things I have noted:
The roads are awful.
The drivers are worse.
People here are afraid of the rain.
Football is the only sport people seem to care about.
The beer is bad.
The grocery stores are similarly crappy.
Baltimore has things in it, but the surrounding suburbs do not.
Cars are mandatory, the public transportation here is retarded in the extreme. Fifteen minute delays are normal. Pointless transfers are normal.
The light rail only runs to Baltimore.
Going anywhere else requires use of the horrible horrible bus system. 13 minute drives become hour+ bus trips.
There are no real industries here.
These people like crab entirely too much.
No one can brew good coffee here. No one.
Its horrible trying to find a place to even get coffee. Where the crap are all the Starbucks?
They have the largest mall I have ever seen here. It also had the only mouse I have ever seen in a mall. <3
Dancing only lasts until 11 and is $6, except at the place where they have a live band every other week, $12.
It also likes to hide in strange places in Baltimore that make no sense and only happens a few nights a week.
Employers do not tell you that you did not get the job. They don't tell you anything at all.
A third of all job applications are false.
The other two-thirds are also fifty-percent false.
Half of the places that are a 15 minute drive away are unreachable by public transportation.
The other half take more than an hour to reach.
The churches here are gorgeous.
No, there was nothing bad about the churches. They are gorgeous and the signs were very positive.
There have been two shootings on one block in the last thirty days. That area has about two killings a month.
Baltimore's theme song appears to be gun shots and sirens. The populace agrees upon this.

The worst parts? No job still and Becca can only visit so often.
On the plus side: I spent the weekend with Becca <3

Dancing squee!!! <3<3<3

My happy (read: boring) little (read: tiny) office (read: dump where nothing works) job (read: waste of time) has gotten worse. I know, it shouldn't be possible. Apparently they don't know how a budget works or everyone decided our company sucks. Either way, they have run out of budget (we still have work to do, wtf?). The hours of hourly employees (there are three of us) will be cut. I don't know if anyone else is safe, but I hope they are as troubled as I am. I don't make a real amount of money as it is! Now they want me to cut down on the only thing that makes working better than the blessed freedom that was school? Craigslist, Monster, and I are going to become wonderful friends in the next few days...

I realize the absolute futility of this, but here goes: Does anyone know of any jobs out there?

You can laugh now.

<3

I don't write here often. I am actually only writing this here and now to say that the officials for the UW - Perdue game are blind moronic jackasses and should be fired and banned from working anywhere and everywhere. Add the announcers in too.

If any of you have my books I would love to get those back in the next couple weeks to do inventory while putting my room back together! They will be re-loaned to you right after, but I need them!

Anything else of mine too I suppose, but really the books are important here

I did something world-shattering today.

I also hereby retire from dancing.

I was attacked by an owl. It was dark out and I was trying to run to the Y and was just on my road. The little git went around me the first time (probably because I ducked my head to look at its shadow) and landed on a branch. I watched it in awe. Then I started running off again. It followed me. Somehow I turned around and saw it trying to kill me. I managed to dodge aside and it pulled up in front of me. It tried it again when I tried running the other way. After that I freaked a bit and I sprinted flat out back the way I was going. The thing about flying animals... the thing about flying animals is that, no matter how freaking fast you run, even flat out so that you are nearly falling over, you can't outrun them. I swore I was getting away. Then it was five feet from my face. Thankfully I have survival as a freaking supernatural talent and got out of its path. Then it tried to LITERALLY hit the brakes so I would fly by it. That is right, the owl tried to backpedal and get at me when it noticed it shot too far. The interruption of cars gave me a chance to back away slowly, a long long way. Then I got to a bend and ran home. I drove to the Y at that point. Good workout. I hate birds.

Things suck. Yet, I hit the gym tonight with Tristan and I saw an old acquaintance there and the exercise felt amazing. Started heading out to the grocery store to get juice and a song popped on declaring "I will begin again". I almost feel okay now. Definitely getting there. Now if I could just get some things right I would be in good shape

Life is a giant ball of things not working out right now. I can't find a real job, I'm unhappy, I can't find time to work out, I rarely get to see the guys... life just kind of sucks. I almost wish I were going to school again, just so I would feel productive and see people. That and my dad keeps getting on my case. I am pretty sure he disapproves of my friends, clothes, hair, job, failure to get a real job, choice of major, and generally my life. In fact, he is the single worst thing that has ever happened to my self-esteem.

In short, I'm depressed.

Tomorrow will be one of the great epochs of my life. Be ready.

(that is, unless someone fails me *cough*)

I am watching Ren and Stimpy at Rob's and we are about to hit some Diablo 2. The world was better way back when. *sigh* Meeeemoriiieeeees~

Life is kinda funny. Just when everything is going fine and I have my timing worked out, it throws something new at me. I got the test for the level design position I want just before finals week. Bad timing. I wanted to see someone after life settled and I had a job. He moved to Colorado. Bad timing. I resolved to finish my level by the end of the week. I now work tomorrow through Sunday (possibly not Saturday *hopehopehope*), 41 hours today included. Very bad timing. It means no fun plans with Becca for today and little time to work on my level (I have already had to sit down and hammer things out with people over). Kinda sucks. I like my current job, and I like being helpful, but this is a little sudden, and I don't know when I'll get a break again. I guess my summer is over...

New laptop that I am messing with.
A good Father's Day with Dad.
A great graduation party.
Good sleep.
T/W/F at work this week.
More sunburns.
Still can't beat level 2 of Ikaruga.
Still working on that level.
Need to get in touch with Rob and Nathan tonight.
Have a lot more books to read. Currently reading "The Art of Racing in the Rain".
Saw the Bleach movie. It was hot.
Saw Kung-Fu Panda. It was hot.
Going to start Death Note. It will be hot.
I have a lot of Reese's Pieces now! W00T! <3 for Jenny and Chris!
Finally going to look into joining the world of the living.


I'm done ^_^

I should call people...

Oh yeah, I'm almost done with school. Isn't that awesome? The answer: HELLS YES IT IS!
Am also working on creating a Half-life 2 level as part of finding a job. Anyone out there with experience using Valve Hammer Editor is encouraged to TEACH ME TO USE THE EVIL PROGRAM'S INNER WORKINGS SO I CAN ACTUALLY CREATE THINGS TO HURT.

Otherwise, yeah, things are well. Lina is home and got to see her yesterday. She's less spaztic, which I like. Slept long and hard last night. Appetite has shot through the roof. Go to gym regularly again. One more final to study for. Have the next book dealing with Axis (Wayfarer Redemption series). The dogs are frizzy, the cat is annoying, and it is raining out. So yeah, life in a nut shell.

Oh yeah, I made a post a while back about shaving. Killed the razor I had and got the less-techy version, the Gillete Power I think? Something like that. Its orange and blue. Anyway, that more or less solved the problem. Superior design ftw!

I really don't know what I'll do after graduation is totally over and I find gainful employment (hopefully where I want). I won't have as much to complain about anymore... things are going right... I don't know how to handle it.

Gaming: A pair of gamecube controllers should be coming in the mail! I will then have 4 functional controllers again. The gamecube and I have had a long and interesting history together. We got it for Christmas or something whenever it is that it came out. We had about 2 days to play it, my brother and I did, and we apparently overdid it on the Melee because we had unlocked basically everything in those 2 days and we managed to burn out the cube. Not joking. We sent it to Nintendo after the return from our dad's place and received a new one for free. This one has withstood our abuse better. The controllers... not so much. We only had one normal controller to start. I still don't know why. The other controllers we have gotten over time are a star pad (hateful evil thing), a MadCatz (I loved this one), and the yellow one from Mario Sunshine (totally Tristan's property). Mario Sunshine crapped out on us after a while... I'm going with over-use. The MadCatz has um, uh... well the stick is busted. Not off, just busted so it doesn't function now. Poor guy. The starpad, for some sick reason, is fine. The normal one is, um... okay, so I don't know what is up with it. Well, I do and a I don't. I know that when plugged into a Wii the darn thing worked perfectly normally. Plugged into my cube the evil little bastard's c stick has been perm-tilted to one side. Its still usable as long as you adjust the stick and then don't use it (why would you?). So I have 2 functioning controllers in various states of beaten uppedness, 1 busted one, and the memory of the yellow one (we trashed it). The 2 in the mail will be nice.
I also have Half-Life 2 now, on account of me wanting the crappy editor and needing some things from the game itself. Whether or not that was true or just that people make this crap hard to understand, I now have the game. More importantly, I have Steam. What does this mean? It means that, in addition to the $40 I owe dad for ordering me those controllers, I will most likely spend the money to get CS:Source and Team Fortress 2. Why? Because I'm a sucker and want to pwn people.
After playing Brawl at Rival's place again I now really want a Wii. No, not just for that, also because I can play old-ass video games on it and want to make it into the uber-console. Plus Brawl! BRAWL! I'm still a Smash Bros. Addict, so yeah. Have gained a whole new level of love for Pit. Pit was the character I was really waiting for and I wasn't sure how I felt after seeing how it handled, mostly because he handles differently than a lot of characters and takes some getting used to for my play style. Then I found out you can harass the crap out of people with those arrows and I found his kill move. Life is now happy! Thanks for being my punching bag, Rival! Rival's evil ways have also made me want Monster Hunter and a PSP. Robert has made me want to try out his silliness with the gameboy advance and certain advance to real console games. Four Swords Adventure and Crystal Chronicles I think. Anyway, I have video games again! Also: Final Fantasy VII is shorter than I remember. And easier. What happened?? I also want to borrow FFX from someone because I don't know where my copy is. I probably sold it. I hate that game. I just want to actually finish it this time. I think I'll still not play X-2 though. That one... that will take some courage building to touch.
My WoW account is dead. I just don't have time for it right now and don't want to bother wasting that much time on it until I have the time to waste and don't have other important things to be doing. I'll get back into it, the same as Diablo 2, just not for a while. I want to play a little WC3 today though, just to pick myself up and to take a break from the level and the study. Not that i have done much study, but I will do a lot of that. THEN game for a while. Then more level. Life is grand!

Also: See Kung-Fu Panda!!!!

I hope this has taken up sufficient space in your lj.

<3 for Jenny cause I like her! Heh

I have seen two of these movies and read all of the books and it just came to me. Do you know what I saw running around with the heroes? Tigers. I realized there had been tigers in Narnia for a long time. Let us review what we know about Narnia: All the animals talk and are sentient and pseudo-friendly towards one another. Things are happy. Let us review tigers: Large and CARNIVOROUS.

WHAT DO THE TIGERS EAT!?!?!?!?!?! Do they just slaughter the other talking animals and chew into their belly meat while sobbing horribly at the passing of a friend? Are the vegetarians somehow? Would there not have been problems for our heroes if they lived in a world severely lacking in protein?

Ladies and gentlemen, what the heck do the tigers eat?

Lessee what has been going on in Sayre's life lately! Getting by on minimal effort to graduate school! Yay! My grades suck, but I'll pass. It would help if I went to class more and bothered to read and, ya know, STUDY, but w/e. I just want to get out of here. Maybe I'll start being good and studying right now and getting going on that so that I can actually pick myself up some. Beautiful finish, right? I have a ton of papers to be doing, tests to study for, blah blah blah. I think I'll be okay in English, it is just history that I am sort of... not paying attention to. It isn't not-interesting. On the contrary, some of it is really interesting. The problem is just that I can't get into class.. I want to listen to it, but not study it. At the same time I have books I want to be reading for me and I don't want to keep reading up on Thucydides or Walzer, ya know? Its interesting, but it is still school reading. I am just a bad student. I'm surprised I even remember what my major is at this point. I want to get out of here. So badly. I put in an application for an internship for the summer that would be a great help onto the ol' career thing. It would certainly make me happy and make my life easier to get it. I would be way more into doing the job thing than into the school thing. It would be exciting, yo. I'll tell y'all more about that, like what it is, after I find out how it goes.

Finally spent time with mom last night. Becca and I had dinner with her. Good time, but loooooong. Such is seeing mom though. Nice to see the cats again.

Saturday night I spent with Becca and Rob. There were lots of video games, nachos, and the Collective doing D&D prov again. Great fun. We also started a game of FF1 on FF Origins. Looks good, plays good, and we have the 8-bit team haha. The thing that makes me sad is that Black Mage no longer does hadoken when he casts a spell. *pout*

And uh... yeeeaaaah. Good day at work on Saturday. Good day Friday. I got to eat in the quad with Becca, worked out with Appy, jacked her keys, hung out in the sunlight, read. Pretty good times.

and I have run out of things to say. Hrm. Uh. Yeah... I'm sleepy.

A play that is going on for one more weekend at Theater Off Jackson in the I-district that also has my friend Ben in it. They did a great job of mixing Shakespeare characters into a post-apocalyptic zombie-fighting world that is reminiscent of Resident Evil. I highly recommend going to see it. GO SEE IT! I mean, come on, there are ninja zombies, yo...

I hung out alone in Bothell with no motivation today! Ahahaha! Today sucked =/