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Saturday, February 5th, 2005
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1:48 pm - Dell Axim X5
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I have a Dell Axim X5 w/ Pocket PC 2002, a Compact Flash type II 802.11b wireless card, a 256MB SD card, cradle, leather carrying case.. that has been barely used since I purchased it 2 years ago. It's got a 400Mhz XScale processor and 64MB of built in memory.
When I bought it I paid somewhere around $400 withe the sdcard and CF card. It's been barely used, maybe 2-3 weeks out of the past two years and I'd like to sell it. I'm looking to sell it for around $200 or the best offer I get, so if you're interested and want photos or more info, contact me.
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, January 14th, 2005
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11:26 am
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Another amazing accomplishment.
They have received the data from Huygens. Not only that, when Cassini turned back to transmit data to earth, Huygens was STILL transmitting scientific data. Which means it's been alive for over 5 hours on titan - Longer than anyone expected.
Very, very excited. And for you Ann Arbor people, the Astronomy club is putting on a presentation about the Huygens probe and Titan on January 20th at 7:30 in 300 Strong. Contact me for more information.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, January 1st, 2005
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12:01 am
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| Wednesday, November 3rd, 2004
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4:17 pm
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I'm disappointed/upset that Kerry didn't win. It sucks..
but I'm more upset with the fact that my state considers me a second class citizen because of who I love. It's the first time ever that the state consitution has been amended to TAKE AWAY peoples rights.
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(13 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, October 26th, 2004
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10:09 pm
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| My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul |
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| alien88 goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as pants, shirt, and a coat.. | | 1seasontoolate tricks you! You get an eraser. | | amelie317 gives you 1 green lime-flavoured gummy worms. | | bivaughn tricks you! You lose 1 pieces of candy! | | chrs tricks you! You get a wet rag. | | deppy gives you 8 orange coconut-flavoured pieces of chewing gum. | | eduncan gives you 5 tan root beer-flavoured gummy worms. | | forcemajeure tricks you! You lose 1 pieces of candy! | | midwintereyes tricks you! You get a dead frog. | | neville gives you 5 red-orange lemon-flavoured gummy bats. | | xrebel tricks you! You lose 1 pieces of candy! | | alien88 ends up with 16 pieces of candy, an eraser, a wet rag, and a dead frog. | | Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern. |
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| Thursday, July 29th, 2004
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10:22 pm - By Endurance We Conquer
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So.. where to start. I know!
I was able to watch A&E;'s special on Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition again the other day. It's such an amazing story that I, to this day, enjoy very greatly. If you don't know who I am talking about, Ernest Shackleton was one of the Antarctic explorers. When he had returned from his Nimrod expedition, attention was turned towards the corssing of the continent. Shackleton felt certain that either Amundsen or Scott would succeed where he failed, only 97 miles shy of his goal.
He felt that crossing the continent from sea to sea via the Pole would be a journey of great scientific importance and historic value. The territory was unexplored. They started prepartions for the expedition in 1913 but no public announcement was made until Jan 13, 1914 in which Shackleton was flooded with applications. Three months later, the financial help that was promised to him fell through so he set about searching for funds. Sir James Caird donated 24,000 pounds, the British Government donated 10,000 pounds and the Royal Geographical Societ donated 1,000 pounds. The goal was to cross the entire continent on foot.
The expedition set sail and all was well until they were one day's sail away from the continent. The ship became trapped in sea ice and was frozen there for ten months. It was eventually crushes and destroyed by ice pressure and the curew was forced to abandon ship. Luckily, Frank Hurley's photography was peserved.They camped on the ice for five months and traveled - then voyaged in boats. He made a 800-mile ocean crossing to South Georgia Island (which is now concsidered one of the greatest boat journeys in history) and then trekked across the mountains of South Georgia to a whaling station - where he organized a rescue team. They saved all of the men he had left behind. Not a single man was lost.
It's for this failure that Shackleton is most remembered - yet it is such an amazing tail of survival and leadership. He never did obtain his goal before he passed away.
( pictures )
Once in a blue moon?
On the 31st the moon will be full - the 2nd time in a calendar month. This is known as a blue moon - even though the moon will not actually be blue. However, in the past, the moon has appeared blue but not because it appeared twice in a month. The moon can appear different colors based on the ashes in the air from forest fires or volcanoes.
John Mayer
I'm leaving tomorrow at noon to go see Maroon 5 and John Mayer in Indianapolis. This will be the 3rd time I've seen both of them and I'm still excited. It's always a fun time and a good show.
Apartment
Well, the apartment stuff is slowly coming together. There are only a few major things we still need to get. We need to get a bed, pots and pans, glasses, sheets, a duvet, and a dressor. A couch would be nice for the living room but we can always wait on that. The bed is probably going to be the most expensive thing we'll ever have to purchase.
Chris
Chris and I have had some good heart-to-heart talks the past few days which has been good. I'll spare you all of the details (besides, they're private anyways) but I feel that things will work out fine when we move in at this point.
That's all.. for now.
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| Monday, July 26th, 2004
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1:42 am - 2004 Le Tour De France - Lance breaks the record of number of wins - the blue train rolls on
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This 2004 Le Tour De France is definitly one of the best tours I have seen. Not just because of Lance Armstrong setting a record by winning his 6th tour, but just because of the sheer domanation of team US Postal. I've caught almost every stage of this tour, and it has been an exciting one. I had faith in Lance from the start and I knew he could do it if he could avoid the accidents - and he did. He never gave up - he never relaxed. Even when he was ahead, he still raced his hardest - especially in the time trials. I only hope that Lance continues to ride in the Tour - and that in the future there will be something like the tour in America.
It was really cool to see Thomas Voeckler wear the yellow jersey for as long as he did. He's an amazing kid with a lot of heart. You could see it in his eyes, in his expressions, and how when he was dropped he fought back and rejoined the back of the peleton. It's too bad he lost the white jersey too, but he is definitly a kid to keep your eye on... and my mom and I both think he's gay (snickers).
The first week of the tour was amazing, it seemed like it was the tour of crashes. So many people crashed and I believe only one of the major GC contenders did not crash. Luckily, Lance avoided the major crashes and didnt get seriously hurt. Unfortently, Tyler Hamilton did and it was sad to see him drop out and to hear that his dog passed away.
There were also a lot of really cool and touching commercials this year. One of my favorite ones was the Nike Lance Armstrong commercial called "Magnet". I found a quicktime movie of it and you can watch it here (its about 10mb). It's really touching.. it really brings a lot out in me and it's such amazing piece of cinematography also.The music is great - it was written specifically for the commercial too. (the singer is Kathleen Fisher of the Fisher Band)
The Team USPS/USPS courier commercial was really cool too. If I find a copy of it (or if anyone knows of one) I'll put it up somewhere. The Bob Roll ride with Lance commercials were hillarious!
If you haven't already (and I haven't either, but I will) Live Strong - Wear Yellow - www.wearyellow.com - purchase one of Lance's yellow bands to raise money to fight cancer. Spread the word, buy 10 and give 9 to a friend. Also, check out the 2004 Tour Of Hope page. I attended the 2003 Tour Of Hope in Indianapolis and was able to see Lance speek and see some of the riders ride along their route. If it passes by your city, take the time to find out when and cheer them on. Sign the promise on the page, and spread the word.
Lance is an amazing guy. Amazing. He's done something no one else has done - won 6 Tour De Frances. He defeated testicular cancer and came back to win all 6 of them in a row. He's raised millions and millions of dollars towards cancer research. He was given slim chances to survivor the cancer, but he did. Hats off to you Lance, you are an amazing guy. You are someone to look up to, you are someone who gives so many people strength. No athlete has taken his or her message to the masses as well as you have. If you can do what you have done, I can do anything.
current mood:  jubilant
current music: Kathleen Fisher from the Nike commercial
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| Monday, June 28th, 2004
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12:22 pm - Earthquaaaaaaaaaake!
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lSo last night, at about 2:11am EDT there was an 4.5 earthquake.. the epicenter was about 8 miles northwest of Ottawa in N Illinious, near the village of Troy Grove at a depth of 3.1 miles in a geologic structure associated with the Sandwich Fault Zone. No major damage from the quake, but it was felt as far north as Wisconsin, as far south as Missouri, as far east as northwest Indiana/southwest Michigan, and as far west as Iowa.
I remember it too.. it felt like a big truck going by or an airplane.. seemed really weird, didn't think much of it until I saw the news today.
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2:22 am - Michael Moore likes propoganda and hates the Stupid White Men and other Americans..
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Some Americans like to believe that Michael Moore is just like them: a working- class guy who loves his country and just wants a fair go for everybody. The reality is quite different. Moore, in fact, loathes many of his fellow Americans. Of course, he never says so in America. But, in an interview with The Mirror in London recently, he described his fellow citizens as "possibly the dumbest people on the planet".
According to The New York Times, Moore - who is travelling the world, promoting his new film, Fahrenheit 9/11 - recently told an audience in Germany that Americans always had a "big ass grin on our face all the time, because our brains aren't loaded down".
In Cambridge, Moore told fans that America was "known for bringing sadness and misery to places around the globe"
Not many people know this, but if the Democrat John Kerry wins the US election in November he will be the second-richest president in the last 100 years (behind another Democrat, John F.Kennedy). Together with his wife, Teresa, who is one of the heirs to the Heinz fortune, Kerry has assets worth $US500 million ($700 million), and homes worth $US29 million. Kerry's supporters include the Rockefellers and the billionaire George Soros. None of this is mentioned in Moore's movie.
You could just as easily poke fun at Kerry, who has also taken money from the oil industry. Indeed, one joke doing the rounds in Washington right now is that Kerry will need to invade a small oil country just to meet his own family's fuel needs. They have eight cars, a powerboat, a Harley-Davidson and, of course, a private jet.
Moore tries to make the Carlyle Group sound shady, by saying that it invests in oil projects. I wondered how many of the people who leapt to their feet to applaud knew that the seats from which they leapt were also owned by the Carlyle Group. See, it also invests in the shady business of cinemas, including 300 that are now showing Fahrenheit 9/11.
"At no point does Michael Moore make the smallest effort [in his movie] to be objective." Moore agrees with that. He loathes Bush, wants him out of the White House. He says documentaries need not be fair and balanced, only accurate
A journalist on the ABC in the US recently asked Moore whether Fahrenheit 9/11 was simply propaganda, in an election year.
He said: "It's my opinion about the last four years of the Bush Administration."
"And your goal is to defeat President Bush?" the journalist asked.
Moore: "I would like to see Bush removed from the White House."
"Come see my movie by any means necessary," Moore told young punters, adding, "If you need me to sneak you in, let me know."
To call this film a documentary may be stretching the definition of the term. Propaganda would be a better term, and Moore pulls out most of the tricks used by propagandists. For instance, he manipulates the visuals to make his target -- President Bush -- look bad.
The images of the enemy -- Bush, his supporters and the media -- almost always are shown in degraded images, while the good guys get good photography.
However, propaganda often contains elements of truth, and this film is so effective it very well could cost Bush a lot of votes.
The film has powerful images and makes some equally powerful points. You cannot watch it without feeling some emotional effect. Sometimes it evokes anger, sometimes sadness. And sometimes it is absolutely terrifying.
If only half of what Moore presents in this film is true, then we are in deep trouble.
No matter your politics, you should go see this film. If anything, it will stimulate you to seek out other news sources instead of relying on television outlets such as CNN or the Fox News Channel.
A movie that can do that is a movie, indeed.
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| Saturday, June 26th, 2004
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5:40 pm
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| Saturday, June 12th, 2004
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7:24 pm
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Rowboats on the streets
Berrien County was one of the areas hit hardest by Friday’s rains. In some spots they saw as much as eight inches of water and many homes were flooded. The rains coupled with an overflowing retention pond caused residents to worry.
Several people say they were awake all night trying to keep their homes dry and hoping to get a break from the rain. Roads, avenues and pathways flooded, forcing residents to use rowboats through the streets of Lincoln Township. Neighbors were stunned by the situation.
“I pretty much had a lake in my yard,” said resident Mark Herman. “Here you can at least see the corn peeking up where our yard was covered with water so it looked like a big lake.”
“Our house in particular we had two large rivers coming down on each side of our house,” said resident David Loving.
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5:01 am
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It's 5 fucking AM. We've been out of power for 4 hours. My room has been flooding for about 3.5 hours now. We've emptied about 10+ gallons of water so far.. and I spent 5 fucking hours cleaning my room before this stupid fucking storm.
IF you're wondering how I'm online, i'm using my laptop through my cell phone.. which is uhh.. about a 14.4 modem. joy.
update 7:16am:
06/12/2004 0245 am
Stevensville, Berrien County.
Flash flood, reported by County official.
Significant Road flooding in subdivisions in Stevensville
and St Joseph. Water flowing into homes.
06/12/2004 0245 am
3 miles E of Benton Harbor, Berrien County.
Flash flood, reported by County official.
Water flowing over Interstate 94
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You don't say... well at least I have power now.
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4:59 am - Play sausage! Who has the longest?
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| Thursday, June 10th, 2004
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1:31 am
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| Saturday, May 22nd, 2004
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10:45 pm
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Well, today I was able to take even more pictures of the damage the storm called. Yet again, as I'm writing this thunder is rumbling off in the distance and a storm is getting ready to hit.
The new album is up at http://www.alienz.net/gallery/StormDamage052204
( pictures )
You can see a lot of the areas that were hit a lot harder by the storm. The damage is just amazing.
While I was on my way out to the grocery store, I noticed the cable breakout boxes past my neighborhood were all on generators. I figured I would stop by later and take a look at the boxes (because I haven't seen the insides before). Well, they contain about 12 batteries and it has a digital readout of how many people are utilizing the box and how much power is left on the batteries (8 hours at the current time). I also realized we were lucky to have power. Between my street and the next street, the power lines are snapped in 3 different places and the lines are on the ground. You can see one place where the line burnt the grass on the lawn where it fell.
Aside from the storms.. Chris is at prom and well, blah, don't even let me get started on that.. my sister is home.. and I'm kinda tired/worn out.
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1:51 am
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Its amazing how power goes out when there are NO storms... but yes, thanks to my powerbackups, im still online.
ps. check out the icon chris made me.
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, May 21st, 2004
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10:38 pm - The horrible storm of 05-21-04 that I won't forget.
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As I was upstairs, I noticed it got quiet outside.. an eerie quietness.. then all of a sudden you could hear the wind start to howl. Right then I knew there were bad storms moving in, but I had no idea how bad they were going to be. The wind was howling for a good three minutes or four before it actually reached our area. At that point, the trees begin to sway and dark clouds rolled in.
The storm was.. insane. It left behind a wide path of destruction - yet somehow the only damage we suffered were 3 of our trees in the pool area needed to be tied up because they started to lean and we have no cable tv. We still had power (and internet! but we lost poewr a total of 35 times according to my UPS log). However, 40,000 people in the Saint Joseph/Benton Harbor area did not.. which is probably 80-85% of the population of both cities. Shortly after I went to get my laptop fixed and got to see some of the damage. The majority of the places were without power, there were trees uprooted, there were trees snaped, there were flagpoles snapped or bent to the ground. There were trees that were leaning at a good 45 degree angel to the ground. There were utility poles that were snapped. The list goes on.. and on.
They reported sustained winds of 60mph and two gusts at 99mph and 94mph (update 11:07pm .. the benton harbor airport clocked winds at 102mph). The news also reported that it created a seiche on Lake Michigan, which is rare. This happened because of how quick the storm was moving and the strong winds. It's basically almost like a strong tide and a wave. The water rises 3feet or more, then bounces back to the other side of the lake, then bounces back to us. Etc. Like when you are in the bathtub and you push the water back to the back of the tub and it bounces back and fourth.
My mom and I attempted to fill her perscription, but the doctor couldn't get through to our normal pharmacy, nor the other two in the area. The third, a good 15 minutes away, answered. Well, we went the other ones.. no one had power. Finally, we went to our normal pharmacy and they were without power but filled the perscription for us. They also told us about the damage they heard about. There were numerous trees down where they lived, some roofs had been blown off. Down by the Whirlpool headquarters, they had windows blown out from what they were saying was a tornado. Most of the area was closed. the fast food resturants were, the banks were, the gas stations were, the grocery stores (except for one!) were all closed.
As I'm writing this, the tornado sirens were just activated - it scared me. Turns out they were activate because of so many people being out of power. Berrien County Sherriefs department wanted to give people advanced warning of the oncoming storms that were quickly approaching. We also have a flood watch in effect. As the sirens were going off, we were looking at the skies - pitch black. The wind was blowing, but not near as bad as this morning.
The damage reports online say numerous trees.. 40 ft blue spruce snaped 10 feet off the ground.. power lines down, trees down, 9 injuries, buildings damaged, at least 1 fatal injury in our county from a tree falling on a vehicle.
We were the hardest hit in the area. Some of the pictures from the local news station are available at http://www.wnduextra.com/view_story.php?newsid=2093.
The storms now have fizzled out, however there is another line of storms that is approaching. They wound up heading east when they hit land, so we didn't get any of the storms. However, for a few moments, it was scary. It's one of the few times in my life that I have heard the sirens activated not for testing purposes. The radio has also said that the water plant for our area is operating on emergency power only and they've asked people to conserve water because they can not pump enough water. The benton harbor plant has a boil water order in effect due to a loss of power and they are also saying there is a conserver water order in effect because they are operating on emergency water. The 911, radio stations, and sheriefs department are operating on backup power only.
The pictures of the storm are all up at http://www.alienz.net/gallery/Storms052104 - the first two pictures in there are two lightning shots from the night before, the rest are all of the storm around 11:30am on 05-21-04 and then of the dark clouds that triggered the tornado sirens later that evening.
(edit: 11:10pm according to WNDU.com, almost 100,000 AEP customers were without power at the peak. They're operating at full capacity, 120 employees around the clock in 12 hour shifts. They're calling in people from other areas and asking other crews for help. We also were in a state of emergency for a short period of time)
current mood:  tired
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| Tuesday, May 18th, 2004
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7:47 pm - On this day in History in 2002
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Two years ago.. on this day, is what Chris and I consider our first "date". Granted, it wasn't very romantic, but we didnt have much to work with.
I still remember it quite well. It was senior skip weekend.. with monday being senior skip day. It all worked out pretty well, because at the time Chris was going to Interlochen, where they have school Tuesday-Saturday. I got a hotel room at Stone Hotel (confirmation number: 5339!) for Saturday night and Sunday night.
I left Saturday.. and drove up there in my parents 4x4.. which wasn't in great condition. I was nervous as hell.. I checked into my hotel room, and laid in the bed.. it was about 3:30.. we had planned to meet at 4pm outside of melcaf.. well, it was 4 o'clock and i was really nervous, so I waited a few more minutes to try to calm myself down.. then went out there. He was hard to miss since he's tall and towers over everyone. He saw me and was talking to his friend Trillian and told her to go away then came up and we gave each other a huge hug...
We spent a lot of time together, as much as we could. He snuck me into his dorm room once and we napped together and then later on he asked "mom" (as she was known) if i could go up to his room for a little bit and she let us (Sparky wouldn't.. bah!). I knew, at that point, we had a great connection between the two of us. It really floored me (and to this day, it still does) how well we both understood each other. (picture of us from then)
I remember having to leave on Monday.. and I didn't want to go. I cried, of course, and I cried a lot of the way back home too. One song, that always reminds me of leaving Interlochen that first time.. is Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles" because it was playing on the radio shortly after I left and it just totally mirrored how I felt at that time. (and would for a while).
So, it's been two years since that weekend.. there has been fights, there has been breakups for a while, there has been some growing that both of us have done. I knew there would be hard times, I knew that everything wasn't going to be perfect, but I knew that we would work through the problems and be willing to compromise. I'm happy. I've learned a lot from being with Chris about myself, I've learned a lot about handling situations, and I'm sure I will learn a lot more as time goes by, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. There's nothing more that I want besides to be with Chris, to start college next year with him, to live together with him and not have to worry about how I'm going to be able to see him or when we will be able to see each other next. He makes me feel so wonderful, he brings feelings out in me that I never knew existed.. and yet at the same time can piss me off in a second (that's one of the downfalls about knowing each other so well).
He's not only the one I love.. but he's also one of my best friends at the same time (dont worry Drew, you're still my other bf..) and I love him very much. So, here's to two years.. and to many more to come.
Picture of us from last year
current music: Alanis Morissette - Everything
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| Monday, May 17th, 2004
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1:09 am - And so it starts.
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And so it starts.. As of Midnight, monday, the 17th of may, the state of Massachusetts became the first and only US state to allow gays to marry, legally.
It will be interesting to see how things turn out over the next few months, or even the next year. Especially with the elections..
Some articles of interest: The 'Will & Grace' Effect and U.S. Gays Start Final Steps Toward Legal Marriage.
I also took a lot of pictures of some of our cats today.
( Picture of logan )
I took the time to update my gallery with the photos I took today, the hailstorm a week ago and just a few pictures from house sitting last time I was with Chris.
On Friday I received a letter informing me that I was awarded a Competitive Scholarship by the State of Michigan for the 2004-2005 school year. $1,300 and it's good for all 4 years of college.. so, that's better than nothing. Wish I had more stuff like that to pay for college =\
I miss Chris. I'll see him in 3 weeks for graduation, which will be awesome.. and I can't wait for college.
PS, if anyone is looking for low bandwidth hosting, feel free to contact me and I can work something out.
[edit: holy crap. i was looking at my access_log file for alienz.net and like 15 lj_images.php things on diff that people saw the picture from..]
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| Sunday, May 9th, 2004
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11:06 pm
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