I'm off to Las Vegas! I'll be back Saturday afternoon sometime. The Beavers kicked Norte Dame's ass again last night, 38-21, so that made me a very happy boy.

The "highlight present" of the year was my new MP3 player:



It does a lot of crap:

-Plays mp3/wma/wav
-FM Radio Receiver
-FM Radio Recorder (jack music from radio!)
-Voice Recorder (has microphone... up to 16 hours)
-15 hours battery life on one AAA

Best of all, it just functions as a removable storage device, so there's absolutly nothing extra to install. Just plug it into your USB port and transfer. That's it. You can store any type of file on it as well so it acts as one of those keychain hard drives as well. Anywho, it's cool, I'm happy with it. It has 256MB, which is good for me. That's actually quite a lot of music if you're not spoiled by a 20GB iPod or whatever the hell they hold now.

A MUST SEE (excuse the "Trouble in the 'Hood" description... forget to change after the last movie I made when there was four police cars, a fire truck, and ambulance in my block):

http://www.zolknetwork.com/misc/thomas/moemoecharades.wmv

Grandma Graf playing charades (part of "Cranium" the game) with us... after she tried doing "Road Rage" I grabbed the camera. The last one is so halarious its funny....

Last night we left around 4:30 to go pick up my sister from work. Once we picked her up we went to a fancy bar in a hotel and had pre-meal cocktails (not me of course). It was a restaurant/bar, but we had to sit in the restaurant part because of me. :( Anyways, after that we went to Il Piato, a really nice Italian restaurant. I had a pesto dish and a Caesar Salad... both were really good. The whole sham bam fam enjoyed their meals, so it was a success. The tab was in the $130 range including the tip, but what the hell, it was Christmas Eve, eh?

Next we went to a church service at the First Presbyterian Church in Portland. It's a really pretty place and the service was pretty quick so it wasn't too painful. I also must add that they said that quote in Kevin's blog two times, and both people who said it said "clothes". It's probably "cloths" in the Bible... but God shoulda used Microsoft grammar check or whatever.

And so now some pictures:


Going to meet my sister and get drinks.


Having drinks... the start of much alcohol which would be consumed.


Mom and Dad at the restaurant. Dad is still happy... hasn't seen the bill yet.


Adrienne getting a little tipsy.


The church. We were up in the balcony... much warmer. It's were just about everyone went at first until it was filled because down there was soooo much colder. I kept thinking that if they put a basketball court on the lower level it'd make a really cool old funky arena.

Had a good Cristmas Eve with the family. I'll post more later and probably some pictures, but it's 11:00 and my sister needs to sleep in this room. Oh well, I'll just go downstairs and watch the repeat of the Hawaii Bowl since I missed it earlier today.

Tonight Tualatin beat the #2 Lake Oswego Lakers in girls basketball 63-54 in overtime. We were down 9 at halftime but stormed back in the 2nd half to take the lead and eventually send it into overtime. In the overtime period we dominated them, so it was a good win. Lots of people were there and it was loud, so it was fun. Much more fun than watching the Blazers, who fell to the lowly Bulls.

More pictures:

A couple of my favorite Christmas carols:

Hark! The harried
Blazers sing
Glory in so vanishing
Sheed is gone, he was reviled
Bonzi's sins got him exiled
Woeful coaching, prices rise
Joints in cars, bricked three-point tries
Missed flights, dogfights, what a shame
Fans are bored, we don't got game.
Hark! The harried Blazers sing
Glory is so vanishing.

---

Deck Iraq with bombs and rockets
Fa la la la la la la la lujah!
Emptying the taxpayers pockets
Fa la la la la la la la lujah!
Reconstruction is for certain
Fa la la la la la la la lujah!
Profits now for Haliburton
Fa la la la la la la la lujah!

So I read something about the NHL having no chance of ending the talks and starting the season this year. That is good news, I hate that crap polluting ESPN and ESPN2.

Hmmm, what to say. Went to a Portland State Vikings basketball game. They were playing NAIA Evergreen State, so it was an easy win. At halftime you could go down to the court and shoot a halfcourt shot for a chance to win Blazers tickest (had to pay $1 every shot... went to Doernbecker's). My shot was SO close, it hit the backboard straight on the hoop but it was a little too hard. Oh well, getting Blazers tickets is like a punishment sorta (heh, just kidding... unless it is like the New Jersey game).

School is boring, work is boring, I hate that it is dark at like 5:00. I can't do anything after work before it gets dark... no more football games or something like that.

Beavers to play Notre Dame in the Insight Bowl, December 28th. They were bumped from the Sun Bowl against Purdue because California was screwed, Texas going to the Rose Bowl instead of them. The Pac-10 needs to dump the BCS and the Rose Bowl will follow... it keeps screwing the west coast over and ruining the tradition of the Rose Bowl.

Kinda glad the Beavers will play Notre Dame though. First, they have a better chance of winning, and second, time to lay the smackdown on the stupid Domers again. In case you forgot, the Beavers smacked the Irish around in the 2001 Fiesta Bowl 41-9. They ended that season #4 in the country.... twas a glorius day.

Well, I guess I'll update. The reason I haven't been doing it much is... well there's nothing to update. During the summer I did stuff... yeah, I'm not really doing it now. Here's my typical schedule:

1. Get Up
2. Go to School
3. Come back and shove food in my face
4. Go to work
5. Get home
6. Eat dinner
7. Do Homework
8. Sleep

Anddddd repeat. I could fall asleep right now I'm so tired, but I'm not going to out of principle. I will never willfully go to bed before 11:00pm.

Oh, guess where we're going for Christmas Break (Dec.28th - Jan. 1st; I think):



*Looks at $3,240 sitting helplessly in bank*

You have to be 21. :(

This afternoon I went to the Blazers game against the New Jersey Nets. The last time the two teams hooked up the Nets won 64-60 in one of the lowest scoring games in NBA history. This game started out very similar. The Blazers trailed 10-9 after the first quarter. NINE points. At halftime it was 30-25 Blazers in the lead. Very ugly first half to say the least. In the second haf the Blazers picked it up and ended up winning 83-71. It was really fun and my parent's friend gave us really good seats (Roy Abromowitz for those of you in the know). They were about 13 rows up flush with the free throw line. Really cool to watch the game from there instead of the typical nosebleed seats I get. I took a really good picture:



It was also mascot night. I had no idea because they didn't promote it at all. They promoted it as Blaze's birthday, so I was pissed. Why? Well my aunt and I are supposed to go to mascot night every year. So Lena, I'll look into it, they might have another one later in the season, if not we can find another fun theme night to attend. Anywho, it was fun.

http://www.zolknetwork.com/misc/thomas/thxgiv.wmv

Thar she blows. It's 25MB+ so, it might take a while.

Had a fun time at Thanksgiving. I will post a video shorty of the trip, but it's pretty big, so pray you have DSL.

More pictures: http://www.etspe.ca/thomas/cw.html

I had a blast yesterday at the Civil War. It has offically taken Game 6 of the Blazers playoffs where they whipped the Mavs as my top event attended.

We left Tualatin at 9:30 and were in Corvallis by 11:00 (had to make sure to get decent parking). We tailgated a little bit with our sandwiches and Jello cups (badass, I know) before heading towards the stadium. We stopped at Memorial Union for a tad, reading the school newspaper and trying to pass time. With about two hours to go we headed towards Reser Stadium. They were replaying the 1998 Civil War on the big screen so we stood around and watched that. We then walked around the stadium, trying to get warm. We passed the Duck camp, they brought a good amount of fans. Finally with about an hour to go we got inside Reser and watched the players warm up. Before long, it was kickoff.

One word can describe the crowd: LOUD. Maybe crazy too. It was pretty intense, and really fun to be a part of. It didn't look good at first, the Ducks taking a 7-3 lead on a big drive. The Beavers came right back though and took a 10-7 lead on a perfect pass from Derek to Mike Hass. He had a great game, 9 cathes, 150 some yards, tearing the Ducks up all day.

Beavers led at half 27-14. The Oregon band played, and they were good, except their uniforms are god awful.

Starting the 2nd half was a bit testy as well. DA threw an inception and a Duck returned it 40 yards to the 12 yard line or so. Clemens hit a receiver and it was 27-21. Uh oh, right? Well, no. Derek then led the Beavers to a long drive and a score to regain control. It wasn't a game after that, the Beavers scoring 23 unanswered points.

The game ended and the students rushed the field. I ran onto the field a minute or so later, there were people trying to stop our section from running on (no clue why). Students tried to get onto the goalposts but were met with riot cops. We hung out on the field a while and then headed back to the MU Commons to warm up. After an hour or so of discussing the game and making sure our precious tickets weren't damaged, we headed back to my car. It was really fogged up so it took about 10 minutes to defrost and then we were on our way. Traffic was pretty good getting out and I got home at about 11 after dropping Max off.

Anywho, incase you missed it...

Oregon 21
Oregon State 50

Not much is really going on. Watched the Blazers fuck up another game tonight. Working everyday after school like usual. Gets kinda boring... yeah... paycheck is nice. Uhhhh, my grandma called today claiming someone stole 660 dollars from her apartment and she never has more than $40 in her wallet. Also thinks my other grandma just moved back to Roseburg (aka 1991).

Holy crapola, the Civil War is going to be huge. This weekend the Ducks lost to UCLA 34-26 at home (haha). Meanwhile, the Beavers won 24-19 on the road against Stanford. That leaves both teams at 5-5 (4-3) heading into next Saturday's big game. The winner will move onto a bowl game, the loser will go home for the season. Really couldn't ask for much more (other than the teams both being 10-0). It's going to be a heck of a game... and guess what?

I HAVE CIVIL WAR TICKETS!!!

So yeah... I'm excited. This week couldn't go fast enough. I think it will be a close game, Oregon's offense can be scary if they get on track.. hopefully the Beaver defense will be up to the task. I see 28ish points from the offense on the weaker Oregon secondary.

I am updating my faucking blog.

Uhhhh... I've been to school and worked this week. Tomorrow our football team has a playoff game against Lincoln High School at 8:00. Me and a friend are going to the game, which is right next to PGE Park, so hopefully I can find it. Heh, I hope so. I think Tualatin will win, we have a pretty good running game and a decent defense. Our only weakness really is our secondary, so I hope Lincoln isn't a friend of the pass.

Meanwhile I've watched the Blazers throw away two games they should have won against some pretty crappy opponents. It looks like same old, same old this year. We need some leadership, and it appears there isn't any. Zach signs a huge contract only to shoot 35% from the floor and miss some crucial free throws. So bleh.

Beavers need to win this weekend. Stanford has A LOT of starters out, so hopefully they can overcome their road bugaboo and pick up a win. That'd set up one hell of a Civil War. I can't wait either way.

Yesterday was pretty interesting...

First off I had senior pictures at noon. We went to George Rogers park and took a bunch of pictures, and it was a pretty nice location. I just hope my fake smiling doesn't look too cheesy... I suck at things like that.

I came back and went to my soccer game. It got really intense... a Red Sox vs. Yankees type of rivalry. In the first half there was a ton of bad calls, all on us. Two offsides on me (both bullshit) took away two goals. Now, it just isn't me arguing the call, our coach was running onto the field in protest. The line judge obviously didn't know the fucking rules, and made a ton of bad calls like that. The ref wouldn't take charge though, and just go along. Furthermore, numerous times the other team would foul us and the other line judge would wave his flag, but the ref would ignore it. I pointed it out to him but he said he didn't see him wave the flag. The kid was making heaps of noise waving it furiously but to no avail. Anyways, we went into halftime up 2-1 but very very mad at the refs. The second half the same thing continued and we kinda lost it. One guy on our team yelled at the ref with explicitives... ejected. Another throw his jersey and walked off in protest... ejected. By now we were virtually tackling each other and it was getting pretty violent. The ref wasn't calling anything. I got a goal by elbowing the goalie (cocky son of a bitch) and heading it in. The ref called the game early because it was getting out of hand (finally took control)... so yeah... that was fun. Never seen a co-ed rec game get that physical. The Lake Oswego people roared off in their BMW's and Lexuses without shaking our hands... so yeah... they can die.

Then I went to the Beavers game against #1 USC. It started at 7pm and it was foggy as hell. Beavers almost won, taking the Trojans to the wire. It took 2.5 hours to get home too... traffic was terrible. Anyways, here are the pictures:

http://www.etspe.ca/thomas/usc.html

I'm glad Kerry conceeded the election because he obviously wasn't going to win. So good for him... and well... hmmm... not much else. Hopefully this will be the Bush family's last term in White House (oh please dear God).

Well, it's what you've all been waiting for (actually I just sorta did it just now without thinking)... my offical prediction for tomorrow's Presidential Election. So far I am 0/0, 0% on previous predictions. So yeah, I'm hoping I can go 1 for 1 after the end of December (when they figure out who won).

John Kerry/John Edwards: 287 EV's
George Bush/Dick Cheney: 251 EV's

Popular Vote:
Bush 48%
Kerry 47%
Nader 1%
Other 4%

Watch me jinx this election... heh.

Going to an election party at a friend's house tomorrow night. Should be fun, and hopefully we'll be celebrating a Kerry win, but it will be really close and it could go either way.

EDIT: In retrospect, this wasn't even close. Missed FL, NM, NH, and IA. The final EV count ended up being almost a mirror image in the wrong direction from my guess.

Last night I went to the PSU Vikings football game against #4 Montana. They took them to the wire and pulled it out at the last minute in a thrilling game. There was lots of MOntana people there and it got really loud. It was a great win for the Vikings...

http://www.etspe.ca/thomas/psu.html

Today I went over to my aunt's house and got paid too much to fix some stuff on her computer and then went out to my grandma's. We went out to dinner and came home just in time to miss all the trick-or-treaters. Ooops.

Woke up today at 9:00 for my soccer game. We actually tied 3-3, as this team was much more on our level skill wise. I had two goals, including the one to tie it at 3 with about 8 minutes lefts. Their defense was as easy to slice through as a hot knife through butter. Wish all the teams were like that.

Soon I'm off to the Portland State game, taping the Beavers game at home which will start about the same time. The Duckies are playing Washington sometime today, I forgot. I'll have a report later.

THE CURSE IS DEAD!

Congrats to the Boston Red Sox, winning the World Series for the first time in 86 (ye, it's lucky) years. They reversed the Curse of the Bambino, coming back from 0-3 in the ALCS to sweep the World Series.

Your turn Cubs.

Over the weekend I went to the Beavers game. They soundly beat the Washington State Cougars 38-19, while the Ducks have to rally to beat them by 3. If that means anything, I'm not going to read anything into that, but it is definetly encouraging. It was fun, finally a game the crowd could get into. They were pretty subdued for some reason though, I don't know why. I think this season has just been a bit too disappointing to some of the bandwagoners. Hell, I'll take 2-2 in conference any day! Anywho, it was fun.


Other than that, not much else happened. A Marines recruiter came over today and lectured me for 90 minutes about how good it is and how I should join. That's not going to happen though... he said maybe consider the reserves. I'll wait at least until November 2nd until I make that decision.

Great win last night be the Red Sox! Wow, coming back from 0-3 to win it all. Pretty impressive I must say. I remember two years ago when the Blazers went behind 0-3 only to tie it at 3-3. I was at that sixth game and it was the craziest atmosphere I've ever seen. They couldn't win game 7, but if they had, I could imagine how sweet that would be. Yuck the Fankees!



Question: What is the difference between the Vietnam War and the current Iraqi War?

Answer: George W. Bush had a plan to get out of the first one.

Well I've had an interesting few days. On Friday I went to the Tualatin football game against Forest Grove. I didn't know where the heck Forest Grove was, and it turns out that was understandable. How they are a 4A school I will never know. They were very spirited though, even though their team was getting their ass handed to them 48-7. It was fun and Tualatin is now alone in 2nd place in the Pac-9. If they beat Canby next week, they'll probably be into the state playoffs.

On Saturday I went to the Duck game with a group of friends. One of them is a Duck fan and had some extra tickets. It was fun to experience the "other side," although slightly annoying being surrounded by Duck fans (think me at a George W. Bush rally). They won 28-14 against a pretty crappy Arizona team. We tailgated before the game and had some good eatins after we figured out how to light the barbeque and overcome the lack of untensils (flipping flaming hot meat with hands=fun).

Here is a good look at my seat and a general view of the 58,000 seat Autzen:



Meanwhile the Beavers beat the Huskies in Seattle for the first time since 1985. It was 29-14 but probably could have been a lot worse. Alexis Serna made five field goals, including a 55 yarder, so good for him. It was a little nervewracking hearing the score updates from Autzen (it being so close for a while) but thankfully the Beavers pulled away in the 2nd half.

I forgot to mention last Friday Tualatin lost 6-14 against Tigard. They went 1-3 against the Tigers in my four years. Gar on them. Tonight they are playing at Forest Grove, which is like 40 minutes away... me and Kenny are going... he is driving... oh shit?

Much thanks to Kevin for fixing the white area between the top black bar and the orange.

Nothing much has happened in recent days. Been playing a lot of football at the park... uhh... laying around. Beavers had a bye week this weekend, so they couldn't lose, which was good. PSU Vikings won 31-0 last night, so they are back on track after falling last weekend to Eastern Washington. Hmmm what else? Oh yeah, Red Sox and Yankees! W00t! That's some good television sports viewing right there.

We had last Friday off, along with the whole entire state. This coming week is only three days because of parent-teacher conferences. And then pretty soon it's Thanksgiving, so this month is pretty cool. Before ya know it my senior year will be over. Yippee.... I think?

Updates:

Tualatin football: 4-0 still, have a bye week last Friday. On Thursday we play our biggest rivals, Tigard who are 3-1 and lost to the #1 team in the state. So it should be a big game right here at TuHS. Between 12,000-15,000 people will probably show up, one of the biggest games in the state.

Oregon State: Got 0wned 7-49 on Saturday, but it was against the Cal Bears, who are like #6 in the nation and undefeated at 5-0. Things don't look too good, but they get to play 0-5 Washington on the 16th.

Work: Had End of Quarter Inventory last week... that was hell, counted lots of wire. Back to the routine this week. We keep adding more and more things so it keeps getting harder, but I make more, so oh well.

School: Mehy... nothing new really.

Rec socccer: Our team is 0-2 and has been outscored 13-0 in our first two games (wasn't at the second). I think we will turn it around though, we got a couple of good guy players who are juniors and they bring the talent level up a bit.

Uhhhh... going to watch the Vice Presidential debate tonight. I hope Edwards can hold his own, because Cheney can debate pretty well (and bullshit a lot at the same time too). As long as he hammers the issues and make Cheney explain this administrations crooked policies, he'll be okay. Can't wait for the second and third Presidential debates... those will be a blast. Bush, on domestic policy. HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA.

Funniest movie ever:

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/sovereignty.mov

Over this weekend the Beavers got spanked (albeit by the #22 team in the nation on the road) while the Vikings beat #12 McNeese State at home. I went to that game and it was a blast... the crowd was into it and we handed the Cowboys a big defeat.

Our soccer team lost 0-6... not anything new.

Today I closed my account at PTCU and opened one at Umpqua Bank. That place is absolutly absurb. It doesn't look like a bank, but rather a very modern shag pad or something. Very cool. They have free cookies, free coffee, big chairs to just relax in with a big screen TV. And with every transaction you get a big yummy chocolate. Glad I switched... anywho, should be getting a debit card soon and I applied for their Visa.

Nothing real exciting to report. Just school and work, school and work. Started soccer on Tuesday and proceeded to pull my calf muscle... been sore the last few days but it should be ready in time for Saturday. We have our first soccer game Saturday, so that will be interesting. I think our team is better overall this year, but since the coach wants to put me as goalie, things aren't looking too bright. Anywho, that will be interesting.

Tualatin is playing a football game right now but it was uber boring. It was 47-0 at halftime and god knows what now. We're playing Woodburn, the Idaho of high school football. The 8th string or something went in and it turned into a defensive battle so I left. Wanted to watch Boise State vs. BYU instead. Turns out that this game is boring as well... so I came upstairs.

Oh yeah, our football team is now 4-0, so that is good news.

Tomorrow Oregon State plays at Arizona State and are most likely going to be slaughtered. I hope they will keep it close, but I have no faith in either the defense (53 points against Boise State) or the offense (17 points against New Mexico). Both have shown they can be good but lack consistency. We need a defensive effort like against New Mexico tomorrow night to stay close.

Portland State also plays tomorrow against #12 McNeese State. I will be attending that game at PGE Park, meaning I will miss the Oregon State vs. Arizona State game. I'll be taping it at home and listening to it on the radio.

Uhhh, that's all. As you can see, my life revolves around sports for the most part. Yay.

Went to the Oregon State home opener yesterday. It was fun, but very wet. The forecast called for light showers... it was more of a monsoon. Let's just say it looked like I jumped into a swimming pool I was so wet. Most the rest of the stadium was smart and had ponchos; oh well, I lived.

The Beavers dominated the Lobos, although the score doesn't really reflect it. The Lobos only points where when Derek Anderson fumbled and they returned it 70 yards to the house. It was fun to be there, it got really loud a few times but nothing like it can get during the Civil War or when the #1 USC Trojans roll into here later on this season.

Serna, the kicker who missed all those PATs, made a field goal to put the game away after the other kicker missed two of them earlier. That probably got the biggest cheer of the afternoon, so good for him. I have restored faith. I'll probably have a bigger report after a more interesting game the Saturday after next.

http://etspe.ca/thomas/

Been busy this week with school and work. Getting back into the swing of things... kinda sucks, kinda is nice. I don't enjoy the homework, but it's good to see everyone again and all that shit. Tualatin plays their first home game tomorrow night being 2-0 at this point with very impressive victories. Should be fun.

This weekend has been mehy. Started out kinda crappy with the Beavers getting 0wned by a very good Boise State team. All was made up for though as the Ducks lost to Indiana at home, a terrible team who had no business winning. Duck fans are reeling and can't give the Beavers crap for their 0-2 start. I can't wait until the New Mexico game next weekend, I'll be in the stands cheering the Beavers first win hopefully. Also I've had a lot of homework this weekend, only the first of the school year. Dammit.

My schedule:

A Days:
1st- Accounting II
2nd- Government/Economics
3rd- IB Physics II
4th- RELEASE

B Days:
1st- RELEASE
2nd- Government/Economics
3rd- Intro to Calculus
4th- RELEASE

I get to sleep in every other day. Uhhh all classes are okay so far, today two of the three teachers I've already had before and like, and the other one seemed okay. Going back to school didn't feel weird... just like we hardly ever had summer. Except now I'm a big bad senior.

Today I played golf as sort of a last hurrah for the summer (actual last day tomorrow). I probably played the best I ever did, shooting an 82 on Charbonneau. The par is 61, so I was just slightly over one shot over par per hole. I had a really nice long putt to save par on one hole and only three putted about two times. Towards the end my game started going to crap, but I held it together. We played the red course, which was a lot more scenic and diverse than the green or yellow. It was fun... now tomorrow I lay low and enjoy my last day of freedom.

Well, school starts next week. Can't say I'm looking forward to it, but it's my senior year and should go by fast.

Last night the Beavers almost beat last year's defending national champs, unfortunately our kicker fucked up three times on the PATs and we lost by one.

So yesterday I went to the Portland State Vikings game. We got there an hour late because I got super lost. Some misleading signs led us to take an exit too early, putting us on some random highway. It was at least 5 miles before there was an opportunity to turn around. Then we circled back and hooked into the freeway. Of course it hooked us one exit above of where we wanted to be, so we ended up parking on the street close to that exit (actual parking places, not parallel) and wandered to where we thought we were supposed to go. We ended up circling the City of Portland for about 35 minutes trying to find the damn stadium, but no luck. We asked a few people and acertained we were pretty far from it and would have to take the bus. Fuck that. So we get back into the car and try to find the freeway again. That was a problem... I took about three one way streets the wrong way (whoopsie :D) but we finally hooked back into I-5 south. We had to go all the way past Terwilliger to find an offramp that had an onramp on the other side. So I went on that, making a really, super-illegal U-Turn into the onramp and we were headed back to Portland! Ends up we take the right exit this time, but now we can't find shit for parking. We circled around and around, no street spaces were open, all the paid lots where full, no garages in sight. I happen to take a street right infront of the stadium, and what do you know, one space is open. I'd have to parallel to get into it. By this time we are almost an hour late and the second quarter has started. "Ah hell with it," I thought, preparing to parallel park. I had never done it in my life, practiced it, read up on how to do it, etc. I just winged it from what I thought it should look like. Let's just say I did an expert job, needing only to back in and inch forward a little bit to correct a slight slant. I have done similiar things at home when the guy parks his damn boat infront of the house, so I guess that helped me. Anywho, we made it! The game was fun, Portland State beating up on Western State College (Division II) 38-0. After the game we had no trouble getting back onto the freeway, it just so happened that road we were on connected right onto 405 a few blocks ahead.

Many people wonder what's it's like to attend white, wonderbread, high-class, Tualatin High School. Well, while watching the rightie convention this week on TV I noticed the two scenes were very similar, given a few changes:

-Knock about 50 years off the convention goers
-Remove the cowboy hats

Then you pretty much get the scene at Tualatin High.

(Just a stab at the RNC, I love my high school... sorta... meh I wouldn't go that far, but let's just say I'm lucky to attend such a good one).

Today was my birthday! :)

Played tennis today. Did pretty well, getting out of a recent slump.

Tonight we had my family birthday party. I got an orange Mike Hass jersey, some golf balls, some tennis balls, a tennis racket!, uhhhh that's about it. Some other random stuff, but overall it was fun.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article_rss/were_not_in_lake_wobegon_anymore/

On Wednesday we packed up the family car (Outback) and headed off on a mini-road trip. Yay!

First we drove to Hood River to see some Ford car convention, every car there was from 1932-1953 because they all had the same flathead motor or something (like I was paying attention to that part). Anywho, that was fun, but after about a hundred old cars you get sick of it. A highlight was that someone forget to move their 1994 Mazda Protegé from the parkling lot so the convention just kind of built around it. I turned the corner and saw my beauty in the middle of the rest, it was kind of funny. First off you don't see them very often, but then seeing it in the middle of all these old cars was weird. It was actually a lot smaller than the old sedans.

Next we quickly crossed the Washington border and went to the Maryhill Muesem. It had stuff that you would find in meusems and was mildly interesting.We then drove back across the border (mind you the bridge across the Columbia River was about 15 miles out of the way) and all the way to The Dalles, where we spent the night in the Comfort Inn. Twas comfortable.

We then woke up and headed towards Bend (why, I do not know), and I led us on a weird route using my dad's handy atlas. We wanted to visit some old Ghost Town called Shaniko so we took a few weird highways. We got there and it was pretty cool, not really a ghost town much anymore. We ate in the little café there and headed back on the road.

We stopped along the way at this waterfall (forget the name). It was really cool and the water was curned up so it looked like chocolate milk was streaming down. You could go along a little path and down to this old power plant, sitting next to the chocolate milk river. The power plant was built in 1912 and abandoned pretty quickly. The whole scene kind of looked like something out of Myst, wish I would have brought my camera.

We continued to Bend, arriving at three o'clock or so. I stayed in the room while my parents went on a hike and watched the gold medal soccer game. Our women didn't choke (like the men) and won the gold. It was fun. I read my book. I ate M&M's. My parents came back and we went out to dinner. I had a Caesar salad that was really good, and the restaurant had TVs so I didn't have to miss the Olympics (muahhaha). We came back and went to bed.

The next morning we woke up, watched a movie on HBO (Dances With Wolves), then headed back towards Portland. Along the way we stopped and checked out a campground, but it wasn't anything special. Four hours later in crap traffic we arrived back home. I was SO sick of the car. Bleh.

So, half hour later we have to go to the Nike Employee Store (my dad's friend can let us in once a year). I bought:
- Beaver long sleeve tee shirt
- Beaver short sleeve tee shirt
- PSU Vikings long sleeve tee shirt
- Black basketball shorts
- New basketball shoes
- New normal tennis shoes
- Socks

Thennnnnnnnnn we had to truck ass to some fricking chainsaw dealer in Tigard so my dad could pick up a chain for my grandma's lawnmower. The traffic was still bad and it took forever (Highway 217 and 99W, whatcha expect). We finally got home about an hour after leaving the store. Meh. No driving for me until Monday.

Good news! College football officially starts today! It's just one game, but hell, it kicks off three months of pure fun and good times! USC is gonna kick the shit out of Va Tech at 4:45 PST. Only seven more days until the Beavers kick it off against the defending National Champs. Then, twelve Saturdays later, I'm going to the Civil War.

Had registration today. Was good to see all of the people I haven't over the summer, but being in the high school was very depressing. Especially since it was pouring rain and cold outside like it is for 95% of the school year. Sigh.

Played baseball today at the high school and hit my first ever home run. It was a line drive shot that cleared the fence in dead center field. And that was the highlight of my day so far... sad.

Agreeing with Defenders and other plaintiffs, a federal court struck down the Bush administration's attempt to weaken the "dolphin-safe" label on tuna. The administration had issued a rule change on New Years Eve in 2002 that would have allowed tuna caught by chasing, encircling and netting on top of dolphins to be labeled "dolphin-safe." The judge in the case, commenting on how the White House ignored science, said that he had never, in the court's 24 years, "reviewed a record of agency action that contained such a compelling portrait of political meddling."

In the first-ever nationwide study by the Environmental Protection Agency, data shows that more than half of all freshwater fish in the U.S. may be unsafe for women of childbearing age to eat twice a week because of high levels of mercury. In addition, more than 75 percent of fish may be unhealthy for children less than 3 years of age. Mercury originates from a number of sources, but the largest source in the U.S. is from coal-fired power plants. The Bush administration has proposed regulations that will release five times as much mercury as would be allowed under existing environmental laws.

Hopefully this administration that has little regard for our environment will be out of office soon.

Got back from Roseburg on Sunday. I've been busy lately and am getting REALLY sick of work. Every freaking day for five hours. It's not that bad, it just isn't very engaging. I look forward to going back to just two hours a day or so during the school year.

Nothing much else is going on really. I'm kinda getting burnt out with summer... it's been really hot lately so it's not that much fun to do stuff outside. Meh, football starts soon, and I have Civil War tickets.

Leaving for Roseburg in the morning. Max bailed, but it will still be fun. Nothing beats Roseburg in August. Be back Sunday night at around 8:00 or so.

Beaver football practice has started as well, and the wide receivers are looking good. The new offensive linemen look decent as well, so hopefully they can pick up where they left off last year.

6-4, 6-3

Nothing new, just working. Oh yeah, I got a sexy 13" color TV from the early 80's with huge dials to change the channels. It's so cute... awwww...

Yesterday my family went to Hood River, Oregon for the afternoon. They have a really nice beach there on the Columbia river where you can lounge and swim. It seemed the whole rest of the state had the same idea, because it was PACKED. It was really fun though, the river was a perfect temperatue and it was just hot enough to swim. I swam a ways to an island in the middle of the river and back for fun... took about an hour. Anywho, that was fun.

This Friday I'm leaving again for Roseburg, but this will only be a short trip. We shall return late Sunday night. Max is coming along, so it should be fun. We camp on the river and take hikes up the river and stuff. Might bring my camera if I remember... get some pictures of our sexy campsite.

Played tennis yesterday for two hours in the hot afternoon sun. Then came home and ate dinner and promptly went to Juergen's park and played football for three hours (7:30-10:30). At about 9:30 we switched to a nearby neighborhood street so we could see. At the beginning I played wide receiver and caught about three long TD passes (Mike Hass style). Pretty soon though they caught on and double covered me so I switched to QB. That job is nice because you don't have to run so much. Went to work today then came home and went comatose on the couch. Still trying to wake up.. it's been a tiring week and it's my fault. Ah well, it was fun.

Well, it's been a tiring two days. Yesterday I went to work then came home. Two friends came over and we did our annual traditions "The Olympics". Basically we compete in a number of events and films them. Anyways by the time the competitions were over (4+ hours) I was pooped. So I sat my ass down and edited the thing down to a quick 12 minutes with fancy graphics and everything. Anywho I got to bed kinda late last night so I was really wasted at work today. I come home and promptly play baseball in the 85 degree heat for three hours. Normally baseball isn't that bad, but I was my team's pinch runner and was running all around the outfield fetching balls since our pitching sucks. Anywho, so I came home and was really tired. I think I ate too much at dinner cause now my stomach hurts... sigh. Ah well... I HAVE CIVIL WAR TICKETS!

Climbed to the top of Mt. Tabor today and saw my grandma. Also played tennis... 6-1,6-3.

My parents had two couple over tonight for dinner. Why is this important you ask? Because I finally got a good meal! It had been almost a week (Sunday night) since I ate an actual meal. I think I ate a little too much, cause three hours later I still feel grossly full. Ah well, it was worth it... yum.

http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/www.democrats.org/pdfs/statebystate/OR.pdf

Deleted due to embarassment.

Played tennis today. It went 5-7, 6-3, but we didn't play a third set (woulda kicked his ass). Wanted to come home and eat dinner and watch the convention thingy. My dad also just got home from his trip so I am no longer alone. Eating junk food over the past few days has made me feel crappy, so I look forward to gettin' back to some good wholesome eatin'.

7-6(7-1), 6-3

I've been alone at home this whole week and will be until tomorrow (Thur.) night. Really don't do much different except slack off on the dishes and have the TV really loud at 11pm. I also like not being yelled at for being lazy and sitting around.

6-3, 0-6, 6-3

After that tennis game, all I can think of is this:





Only 160 miles away :'(.

It's a miracle I'm even alive. Today I played tennis in the heat for 2 hours, 10 minutes. Why?  Because we played one of the most excruciating games in the history of sports. I ended up winning 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5), but it took forever. Plus in the middle of that long ass third set we went to duece and it went to about Duece #20 before I finally won. We each had about 10 opportunities to put it away but never could do it. We both just collapsed at the end. It was fun though. Wish I would have worn sunscreen, my face is red and probably will be all freakin peely and hurty for a while. Oh well it was worth it, and tonight we are going out for dinner. I'm getting the fattiest thing on the menu cause I earned it dammit.

Hmm, let's have a life update. Nothing much new, just working and playing tennis and doing random, non-important stuff after. This Friday I'm taking work off and we're going down to Roseburg until Sunday. We'll actually probably leave on Thursday, so I'll have two full days there. One of those days will be spent at the Henry Family Reunion, which includes about 200 people.  It's normally fun, so I'm looking forward to that. I'm also glad that it's gonna be like 105 degrees while I'm down there (supposed to be the hottest Oregon has been in 5 years this weekend) because that will make swimming in the Umpqua that much better. It really sucks we don't have a good swimming river up here... the Columbia I guess but it's not very good. The Willamette would be good, but you know, you take the risk of growing extra limbs and the sort. I'll take my camera down and snap some pictures hopefully. I'm dreading work tomorrow, because I have to count FlatWire, which is the hardest one to do. I've been putting it off all week, but ah well. Just gotta bear down and do it, and before I know it I will be done. Oh, and I have Civil War tickets!

I played tennis yesterday in the 95 degree heat for three hours (winning 7-5, 6-1 I might add) and got a huge sunburn. Plus I had a huge headache from lack of water and stuff. So right now I feel bad, and it's all because of my stupidity. Next time I will wear sunscreen and drink more water.
 
Last week at work my boss was on vacation, so it was more laid back and I could just slack off for hours upon end. I didn't enjoy Kevin's little webcam fiasco on Friday though >:o.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/14/samesex.marriage/index.html

That tends to happen when you try an make an ammendment that goes against the Constitution.

Today I went canoeing on the Willamette. We haven't really gone since I was little (poor canoe just sits there), but it was pretty fun. Moves slower than hell though and discouraging when people are roaring by you on their jetboats, but it's fun to almost flip in their wake. I always steered the boat right into in the waves to freak out my mom. Muahhaha.

I hate naps. They are bad and evil and mean. Today I came home from work and layed down on the couch to watch TV. Next thing I know its two hours later, my neck is all out of whack, and I'm more tired then when I started. Even now, I'm still tired and groggy from the damn nap. They don't make you feel refreshed, just shittier. I hate naps. Oh well, all is well. I have Civil War tickets (I'm gonna make that so old until Nov. 20th :) )

I worked for five hours today (the last hour doing absolutly nothing because my boss was in a meeting), then came home and played golf at Sandelie. It was an okay course, their sprinkler system could be more extensive, but it was full length and otherwise well maintained. I shot a 107, which isn't great, but I hardly took any mulligans and really tried to play a genuine round. It was fun... but I am totally popped now. Golf doesn't look very strenous, but you try hauling ass 5 miles with 30 pounds strapped on your back while swinging a golf club 100 times. It gets tiring, but you sorta just have to build up your second wind and chug ahead.

I also watched the new season of the World Series of Poker tonight, and well, it kinda sucked. Nothing special. Then I watched the Amazing Race, and that was pretty entertaining. It was the first time I watched that show (currently on their fifth cycle) and it's a good replacement until Survivor kicks back in this fall.

Anyways I have work tomorrow and might play tennis, who knows. Shouldn't be as hot as it was today, so it's all good.

I slept 15 hours last night. Today is the Fourth and I'm going to my Grandma's to celebrate her birthday. She used to tell me the Fourth of July was a celebration of her birthday... believed her too. :|

Here's a view of my seats for every game:

California, New Mexico, and Washington State:


USC (defending national champs):


U of prObation Floats:

I will be watching the Civil War from there. :D

Found this at work today while totally bored. It's a good read whether you're a sports fan or not:

http://msn.foxsports.com/story/2552718

Meanwhile I went golfing today (only nine holes) and had some really great shots. About three I launched from over 100 yards right next to the pin. Of course though I couldn't putt worth shit and blew oppurtunities. I also had some pretty shitty tee shots. All in all though it was encouraging to see my ball fly straight and true a few times. I think I figured out something in my stance that caused some of the bad shots and fixed it. We'll see, I'm going on a major golfing outing sometime next week.

That's all... oh, did I mention? I have tickets to the Civil War. Not lying, dead serious. :O

We starting counting inventory today at work... it's hell. Five straight hours of counting and adding wire. Have to do it tommorrow as well... but then that's it for three months...yay!

And did I mention... I have Civil War Tickets! I have Civil War Tickets! I have Civil War Tickets! I have Civil War Tickets! I have Civil War Tickets! I have Civil War Tickets! I have Civil War Tickets! I have Civil War Tickets! I have Civil War Tickets! I have Civil War Tickets!

:)

I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS! I GOT CIVIL WAR TICKETS!

I also got USC (great seats too like CW) Cal, WSU, and NMU. Here's the map of where the seats are:



vs. Oregon in green
vs. USC in Red
All other seats are inside the yellow area.

I'm so HAPPY! :D:D:D:D:D:D::D

Oh oh... and I got my own computer at work! Now I can slack off on my own computer and not do my work! It's just been a great day, I'm telling ya.

Just went and saw Dodgeball. It was a pretty good movie, very funny to say the least. It's just about the only decent thing playing right now. I also ate three packs of Chewy Spree and am now feeling sick. That was a good one. Anyway, I've already arranged to go to work late tomorrow since I'm waiting up for my parents. They are returning on their trip from Belize sometime late tonight, totally forgot when. I put off all the dishes for the week until today, so I hauled ass and did two loads. I also did some vacuuming and sweeping. I must say the house looks pretty spiffy, they should be impressed. No more loud music at 2am while walking around in boxers all the time, but oh well. It will be nice not to have to make food for myself anymore (or splurge on the delicious #1 at Micky Dee's).

And what the hell are the Blazers doing drafting another high school kid. He ain't gonna do nothing for another three years. Hey, I have an idea, GET A SHOOTER. We don't have nobody or nothin on the team that can shoot the freaking ball. Derek Anderson can't shoot with beans contray to popular belief. We should lure Steve Kerr out of retirement, I'm serious.

Work has been going good so far. I'm working five hours a day which is a big change but I'm getting through it. I have to wake up at 7am to go, but that's okay. It's kinda just like going to school without all the homework.

Update on that poll from MSNBC.com (starts fresh each week):

George W. Bush 39%
John Kerry 58%
Ralph Nader 4%
Total Responses: 281763


Ummm, ouch.

I start work full time tomorrow... fudge ice cream. If you want to call 28 hours full time, but it will still be taking up a majority of my day. Oh well, not like I'd do anything during that time anyway. I still have time to golf. What sucks is I have to be there at 8, so it will just be like going to school every weekday. Except I get paid... muhahahaha. No parent week is great, have things loud and make messes... it's all good.

I'm alone for the whole week as my parents are vacationing in Belize. Where can I get beer without an ID? ;)

Best thing I've seen for a while:

If you were to vote for President today, whom whould you vote for?

George W. Bush 45%
John Kerry 52%
Ralph Nader 3%
* 227046 responses

Poll on MSN.com

Finals week...

FIRST DAY:

Physics (Need a 5% to get A)
Spanish (Watching video... the five years of hell are over!)
RELEASE

SECOND DAY:

Health (Just doing little speech)
Math (Easy, need like 5%)
RELEASE

THIRD DAY:

Accounting (Need 80%... shiet)
Team Sports (oh no!!!!!111)

Then, freedom.

I'll start working 4-5 hours a day starting next week too. This should continue throughout the summer, but I'll be doing it in the mornings so I can still have a life. Anyways, I'm going to study for Physics because I'm a dork and want to actually see how well I can do on it.

The school year is whinding down, only three more weeks until the summer. During the summer I plan to work five or so hours early in the day so I still have time for golf and stuff later on in the day. I'll be raking the bling, as long as I don't get fired, heh. And as each day of summer passes, it only brings us closer to the college football season. I can't wait, tis the best three months of the year. I'm going to buy tickets to all the home games, totaling in $214. That'll be just two weeks pay in the summer, so it's all good.

http://ga0.org/campaign/salmon_need_leadership