Well, I've put my moving to a real place on hold in favor of moving into a frat house for the summer for dirt cheap. Yeah, community showers, yeah sharing everything, yeah, smaller room. But, it's with friends, it's dirt cheap, and it's coed as well. Quite honestly, when will the next chance at something this fun and wonderful come along in my life? Unless I join a commune, probably never.

I do plan to take plenty of pictures in between work, and I'll post most of them here!

1. What are your hobbies? Gosh, I've never really thought of myself as having hobbies, that word seems...outdated to me. I have had my bouts with stamps, coins, and baseball cards, but those were mostly short-lived escapades in my younger years. I think I would have to say tinkering with web design, computers, seeing movies, and music (though that has been stunted due to my lack of broadband connections) as my main hobbies. Oh yeah, how could I forget my lust for books and video games? And weight-lifting is one that has been put on hold, and has not been fully realized yet.

2. Do you collect anything? If so, what? Another seemingly outdated word, but I guess I collect movies I like.

3. Is there a hobby you're interested in, but just don't have the time/money to do? If I sat down, I could probably think of a lot. Jamie is learning scuba diving, so now suddenly I wish I could do that. Now that I think about it, I can't think of any more, but I know they're there eluding my grasp at the moment. Weight-lifting could also fall into this question, since I don't have the money/time for it right now, but in a month I will be back into the swing of it.

4. Have you ever turned a hobby into a moneymaking opportunity? Not that I recall, although I wouldn't mind turning web page design into something minorly profitable. Honestly though, I'd enjoy making things even if there were no profits.

5. Besides web-related stuff (burbs, rings, etc.), what clubs do you belong to? Hrm...none at the moment.

All of my emails are working again, thankfully, so go ahead and use mdickey@11-9.net if I had told you to use something else for a while. :)

I had my last day on the job Friday, and I even spent most of the day actually doing things useful! At any rate, I will miss the job because it's one big challenge and one big fun puzzle to improve all the things that could use improving there. Unfortunately, the location and the pay are both about as low as I could ever get.

My new job will probably be fun, and I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully I can move up to Des Moines pronto too. Unfortunately, Erik and Jeremiah have it in their heads to live cheap at a frat for the summer rather than move someplace without community showers right away. I'll have to give them a stern talking to!

No other news around here. In a couple weeks I'll be back to my full happy self again!

I'm actually getting kind of excited, as I start my new job on Monday. I look forward to the next 6 months of changes: new job, new city, two new awesome roommates, more money, new car, new computer, new health club....basically it's a great feeling, and I don't know which of those options I am most stoked about. I think all of them equally make a great summer gift to myself.

Awesome, I called in this week about my ATM card. They said that if the machine kept my card, they usually destroy them. Well, that's not what I was told last week, so I waited a week for nothing, and get to wait another week for my card to get here. And, this is awesome, I have to change my PIN number. I get to change it from one random 4-digit number to another random 4-digit number. Why this is more secure after losing my card, I do not know; I mean, it's still just as difficult to guess? Maybe it's something on their end, who knows.

My free time is now spent on a new game I got hooked on (short term): Pharoah. Really cool game, and no game is bad that says, "The people idolize you as a god."

If you've sent me anything (or need to) at mdickey@11-9.net, I'm having problems so send the email to thinker@11-9.net for now.

My mom, just last weekend, gave me a hand-sculpted dragon incense burner thing. It's a bit ugly when you just look at him, but he's just plain awesome when you get some incense under him. He has these holes in his nostrils and mouth, and the smoke tendrils just rise out of it. It's so awesome! I'll get a picture of it soon, once I find some dark background....

Scribbled and scratching,
Half finished pages at dawn
People that live here are wondering
Where all their strength's gone.
Moments of splendor
Wind up like ashes in rain,
One look you're smiling,
Another your face is in pain.
I wake up at night
With the sweat on my head,
A look in your eyes
That will haunt me til dead.
I just can't seem the shake it,
Something about what you said;
How love's like an orphan,
A motherless child gone unfed.

So we laugh with the joker
Hold back the tears til they're gone.
Drink and be merry
They'll find us all dead men at dawn.
We're so far away
From wherever we came
That sometimes I wonder
We'll see it again.
It's true, what they say...
You can't always go home,
You can't always be warm inside.
That, in love, we're like orphans,
Strangers in paradise.

-Terry Moore

I saw this on a friend's website, looked it up to see if it was a common thing, and found that it was. I love it (all but the Duty part, though I can kind of see that...).

First is Giving
As a jar overturned, pours out the liquid and keeps back nothing, even so shall your charity be without reserve.

Second is Renunciation
As a cow, when the hair of her tail becomes entangled in anything, would rather suffer death than injure her tail, even so you should keep to your principles as a cow to her tail.

Third is Duty
As a man in prison, suffering pain for long, knows that there is no pleasure for him but only to wait for release, so shall you look at your existence on earth, as prison, and turn your face towards duty.

Fourth is Insight
As a begger-monk shuns no families from whom he begs, whether lowly or high or in between, and acquires his daily fare, so shall you at all times question the wise to gain insight.

Fifth is Courage
As the lion, king of beasts, whether when lying down or standing up, lacks no courage, but is ever light hearted, so shall you always hold true to your courage.

Sixth is Patience
As the earth bears all that cast upon it, both the pure and the impure, and feels no resentment nor rejoicing, so shall you receive favors and rebuffs alike, with indifference.

Seventh is Truth
As a star of healing is balanced in the heavens and swerves not form its path in its time and its season, so shall you remain fixed in your path of truth.

Eighth is Resolution
As the stone mountain, firmly based, quails not before the tempest but abides in its place, so shall you abide in your resolution once resolved.

Ninth is Loving Kindness
As water quenches the thirst of the good and bad alike and cleanses them of dust and impurity, so shall you treat your friends and your foes alike, with loving kindness.

Tenth is Serenity
As indeed the earth looks with serenity on all the purity and impurity cast upon it, even so shall you approach with serenity both joy and sorrow, as if you are to attain wisdom.

"All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience"

Goethe (1749-1832)

This week has been a very....surreal week, it seems. Tonight was interesting at work to start off, since the main server decided to lock up for a while; cause: unknown, though suspected to be overheating due to the AC in that room being out the last day.

Anyway, about an hour or less later, the weather turns dark within minutes and Tad and I are keeping our eyes open on the web for tornado warnings....and we get them. So we spent about 45 minutes scurrying around and waiting in safe zones in the middle of nowhere, Iowa.

So work ends shortly after as I wait 15 more minutes to let the thunderstorm line move over my interstate to get home. I walk outside, and I was just in amazement at the display of lightning just barely to my southeast. It looked like overdone dramatic flashes of light you see in war movies to signify distant bombs. There were constant flashes inside the clouds. Now and then a wicked fanning spread of lightning would streak across the air from one cloud to another. Another sharp, thick bolt would sear down from above into the ground somewhere, always far off. There was also the interesting din of frogs and other night creatures along the waterways nearby. It was spectacular, awesome, and I sat on my hood for about ten minutes just taking it in. The spears of vertical bolts so intense and seemingly close, that my eyes would hold the afterimage for full seconds, my sight brightened to white for equal seconds.

Eventually I realized that it seemed to all be getting more and more overhead, and then I noticed the wind was in my face...and that meant it was all likely coming towards me. So I finally took my leave, in a moment of prudence.

On the ride back home, I was wondering about that prudence. In high school, I wouldn't have cared, I would have stayed up on our little hilltop on my car and just let it wash over me. And I wondered at my newfound prudence, that odd desire to go home and be safe. It occurred to me that back in high school I had no real purpose in life, nothing to really aim for, no real goals. Even in college, I think it would have been the same. But now...maybe I just have something to look forward to, to live for, goals or something. I don't know.

But my night wasn't over yet. On the ride home I had two minor revelations. The line of lightning followed me home on my right (east) side, while on the left (west) I could see stars. Very feelings, to have this strobe-like effect on one side, and clears skies on the other.

Second, my radio doesn't work in my car. Well, more accurately, it works part of the time, and the other part of the time, it seems to just fade in and out of random stations, like the frequency is just slowly moving up and down the list. Usually I turn it down when my radio decides to go into this mode, as it can last 10-25 minutes, and normally that can aggravate me.

But tonight, I left it on a nice volume, listening to the imexplicably comforting sound of static, shifting, higher, lower as it moves. Every now and then something distinct coming in for a few seconds...thunderstorm warnings from a weatherman...soft buzz of static...Seal's Kiss From a Rose...buzz, crackle, buzz...unidentifiable classic rock....and so on. For some reason it was comforting.

I started thinking about that, wondering why this whole situation was comforting, and perhaps it was because it arouse thoughts in me of my Dad's parent's farm many years ago. I would sit outside there into the nights, a cat on my lap, another by my side, snuggled in as I looked at the stars, clouds, and tuned in my little yellow walkman into whatever station I could get that was interesting. If there was a thunderstorm out, I was out there as well, soaking it in. And the stations that I listened to? Probably something playing the echoes program, but that was invariably mixed with a static undersound...

A very interesting night for an already interesting week.

I had a rather great day today, but it was of course marred. I guess karma has a balance to keep sometimes.

Anyway, after work I see I need gas. So I drive into town to get money at the ATM just in case the gas place isn't taking credit cards for whatever reason. So I pull in there, do my thing, and take off. I then get gas and as I am paying, I open my wallet up to get the credit card and my ATM isn't there.

This is all ok, sometimes I just throw it on my seat after I get my money. Well, it's nowhere to be found, nor is it at the ATM. I still cannot account for it even at home, but I suspect I pulled my money out, then the receipt came, grabbed it, looked at it and pulled away as I tossed it into the back with the garbage I pulled out at the gas station....leaving my poor ATM card behind.

I think it was the receipt, I had other things on my mind, and I got the receipt which is usually the last thing that happens in any transaction anywhere, including most ATMs...well...this one I guess asks if you want to do another transaction and holds your card for a few more greedy moments. And that's when I was victimized. :(

I have this urge, this need, this deep-sated longing to post something. But it's infuriating to have nothing to post on at the moment!

Do you answer the phone on the first ring? Never. I had the interesting pleasure of living with three guys for 3 years. We fought over who would have to answer that phone sometimes. This past year I lived with three girls. There was absolutely no way I could answer the phone first, unless they were all gone or in the bathroom (not all at once). But for some reason, two to three rings seems natural to me, even if I'm expecting the call.

Which is worse: door-to-door salesmen or telemarketers? Telemarketers are never that bad for me, just say no thanks and done. D-to-D people I think are worse, because it seems more rude to shut a door or say no thanks to them.

Which is worse: the phone company or the oil company? Well, I have no clue what dealing with an oil company is like, since I don't buy my own crude oil. I would guess the phone company is worse when they have no local competition and no blazingly fast Internet connection. Otherwise, damn the oil companies and their Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling, oil spills, and various other forms of world desecration.

Cordless phone, cellular phone, or corded phone? Well, I have no cellular phone, mostly just because I have never needed one. If I'm out, usually I wouldn't want to be on the phone anyway then. And I will be one of those people who does not concentrate well on a phone conversation and on something else (computer, driving car, etc...weirdly enough, I own multitasking though...) Corded phone vs cordless, is that even a choice? Cordless every time. I own...err wait, that question is later.

Phone number: write it down or remember it? Definitely write it down, by the time I am done reciting it the first time, it's gone out of my head unless there's something neat to remember it by...and that's not often at all.

When you tell a date, "I'll call you", do you mean it? Yes.

Do you own one phone? Two? Three? More? 3 cordless, 1 corded.

Have you purchased anything by phone? Pizza I believe, but other than that, I think I do more shopping on the internet. If there is anything else, it was due to me initiating the call to purchase something.

Have you ever called someone and then hung up before you spoke? But, of course.

Do you own an answering machine? Yes, two of my phones have machines, only one runs though.

Sort of a realization last night that I say, "you know" a little too much anymore. I don't think I ever used to do that, you know, but I guess I became aware of it the other night and it's starting to, you know, bother me. But oh well, you know, half the battle is, you know, realizing there's a problem. :) You know?

I've ridden and driven in many cities, and never have I been inspired to say any particular area had "bad drivers." In my three short weeks in Osceola, I have seen 4 people pull out of driveways/entrances right in front of me. I have seen over a dozen times, people acting like a normal green light is a *protected* left green light and turn in front of oncoming traffic (me or someone else), and many other very annoying moments. In fact, the small cruising community that I drive a bit through as it is ending at night, the high schoolers, are significantly better than drivers puttering around during the daytime. /end rant

The site I get these off of does these on Friday, but I'm not always down with schedules so, here's the Monday Five.

1. What are the first things that you do in the morning to start your day? First of all, I usually get up. If a bathroom is open, pretty much first thing in the morning is a shower, during which I brush my teeth. I love showers, so this helps draw it out more. Then I get out, get half dressed usually, and proceed to shave and do my hair if need demands. If the bathroom is not open, I proceed to check email until the room is open.

2. What are the last things that you do at night before going to bed? I strongly believe that routine is the biggest opponent of insomnia. In my case, I have inadvertantly trained myself to fall asleep. For many months, years, in junior high and high school, I dreamt similar male, action-filled dreams, and for many years I fell asleep to them. Only a year ago I realized, "I can't dream those dreams anymore!" Which is true, I can't, I fall asleep when I start. I think my body, or more my mind, has been trained to sleep when dreaming this way, and within 1-2 minutes of starting a similar dream, I'm out. I like those dreams, so I dig my hole deeper by dreaming 1-2 minutes' worth every night before I sleep (make for a VERY slow movie). But otherwise, I try to always brush my teeth, change into my pajamas if I wear some, and almost always read a bit in a book as I lay in bed.

3. What daily routine have you recently added to your day? Going to work.

4. What routine do you wish you could get rid of? Hrm...I'm not sure if there are any rout...no, wait. As manly and as much as it is fun to have facial hair, shaving my face in the morning is the biggest pain. I really dislike it, and I can guess that it figures into facial skin health as well, because it dries the skin and shaves off a layer of skin. If I could find something to spread on my face to make it all go away like bikini line/leg hair remover, I would do so in an instant. I have no plans for extended periods of facial hair, and wish the shaving could end!

5. What's the one thing that makes you feel like something is missing if you don't do it some point within your day? I never go anywhere without a shower and brushing my teeth. I dislike the feeling of being dirty, smelling bad, and of bad breath. In the last 5 years, I can remember both times I went out without a shower: driving a roommate to class not long ago, and being woken up to go to a meeting of floor presidents that was a waste of time, but my cabinet wouldn't let me skip it because they all had to go too.

I need something to be excited and happy about, so I think I'm going to be updating things on this web page again soon. I have a picture or two that I want to fit in somewhere, one of which I've had for years, just waiting patiently for a chance to get placed on the front lines.

Who knows, maybe this will just end up meaning a lot more news posts...but then again, that wouldn't be bad either.

It's raining today, in fact, it's rained pretty much all weekend starting with a thunderstorm Friday night I believe. I rather enjoy it.

A lot of times I write post-it notes when I have an idea on something to write about. Sometimes the ones I keep the longest I date and store away in a drawer, but some are not dated and are meant to be just written about sometime soon. Since Jamie is bugging me to update, I'll take care of some of these post-it notes...

I was doing a lot of driving in the last few weeks from Osceola to Ames, and that includes a half hour stretch around Des Moines on a three-lane freeway. I was driving on there, and you can see how different people drive. Some people weave all over, others get themselves boxed in trying to weave (and not paying attention cuz they're on their cell phones), while others just like to do. Me, I think I am a middle lane kind of guy, especially in my current car. I don't care to go fast in it for various reasons, and I like being able to get to either side if I need to. Plus, why be in the right lane where you have to contest for your spot with people entering the freeway?

Also, what is the "inside lane?" To me, the inside lane is the right lane, since that's where the action is, exiting and entering, for the most part. The outside lane is the outermost one you *can get to,* the left lane. But is that right?

I hate when you open milk and this white crusty stuff sheds all over. What is worse, is when you don't get it all off, then tilt the jug to pour some milk into a glass and some flakes of that crust around the top fall into the glass. I cannot stand that.

I feel quite useful today. About 4 weeks ago I had a headlight burn out, and Thursday night driving home from work, I finally got pulled over, by a State Trooper. He was nice and let me sit comfortably in his car while he wrote out a simple warning, no fine or anything. So today I took it upon myself to take out the headlight, run to the store and pick another one up, and install (what a computer geek word) it. And voila! I have light! Course, I don't usually use much light while night driving, and I almost never use my brights. I no doubt will forget to dim them while passing people, and I know I hate when people do that to me. Anyway, that's my "manly" task for the day.