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Five throws, four hits in an area maybe four inches wide and eighteen inches tall from about 90 feet. Funny thing is that I was throwing off my porch while grilling up a steak, and there was no room for follow through, so it was all arm.

Sooo much more there than last time, which happens to be the last time I took bottles back. Definitely need to take bottles back more than once every seven months. What's funny is that there's a 17" monitor on the table that's completely obscured.

I'm not really one for posting random song lyrics, but this one describes almost exactly how I feel right now. It is really amazing that a song that you've been familiar with for a large portion of your life suddenly strikes you with meaning when events in your life change your perspective...

For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals
Then something happenend which unleashed the power of our imagination
We learned to talk

There's a silence surrounding me
I can't seem to think straight
I'll sit in the corner
No one can bother me
I think I should speak now ___________ Why won't you talk to me
I can't seem to speak now ____________ You never talk to me
My words won't come out right ________ What are you thinking
I feel like I'm drowning _____________ What are you feeling
I'm feeling weak now _________________ Why won't you talk to me
But I can't show my weakness _________ You never talk to me
I sometimes wonder ___________________ What are you thinking
Where do we go from here _____________ What are you feeling

It doesn't have to be like this
All we need to do is make sure we keep talking

Why won't you talk to me _____________ I feel like I'm drowning
You never talk to me _________________ You know I can't breathe now
What are you thinking ________________ We're going nowhere
What are you feeling _________________ We're going nowhere

Why won't you talk to me
You never talk to me
What are you thinking
Where do we go from here

It doesn't have to be like this
All we need to do is make sure we keep talking

If you guessed the last option, you'd be right. I hate the prospect of spending time in the bottle return area of Meijer. The place just stinks. I know, if I were to take back my returnables in a timely fashion, I could make the trips much shorter. But if you know me, you know that I'm a master procrastinator, and doing things in a timely matter just isn't my style.

There are probably close to a year's worth of bottles and cans piled up near my door right now. I'm hoping to score $100 or more. I'll probably need to make two trips. Its a good thing I've got my iPod. Wish me luck!

Yep, today I turn the big 27. I've been waiting for this one for a long time, since there are so many cool and new things that can happen when you're 27. Things that just can't happen when you're 26. I think the biggest one is being able to truthfully proclaim that you're 27.

I guess that's the only thing that happens when you're 27. Oh well. I guess it doesn't matter so much. I've got the awesome privilege of both paying rent and getting my plates renewed tomorrow, so I'm naturally completely unable to sit still due to the great expectations involved with said events. Apparently I didn't need that money anyway. One cool thing about tomorrow (well, today technically) is that I'm getting a birthday party thrown for me by a few buddies at work. It's not completely for me, since another guy from work has the same birthday as me coincedentally, and the party is for him as well, but it'll be fun nonetheless.

I've actually been keeping somewhat busy over the past week, which one reason for the lack of posts. I've taken over maintaining yet another project at work, which is completely great since I already have a full plate of tasks that I can only sample because I'm constantly having to change my focus. This one needed a lot of attention though, and I'm going to rearrange some things so it doesn't require so much babysitting in the future. Hopefully it doesn't drag out too long.

I was also introduced to an awesome time thursday night - Thirsty Thursdays at Lansing Lugnuts games. For those not familiar, the Lugnuts are a Single-A minor league baseball tieam. Thirsty Thursdays entail $2.00 draft beers for the duration of the game. They were served in roughly 20oz plastic cups, and Labatts was on tap. You can't get a much better deal than that. The main target demographic seems to be the 20-somethings, so there was a lot of scenery for us single-type guys. It was a ton of fun, and I'll defintely be partaking in more of those in the future.

Ok, it's not about a walk in the park, but it is about something. Saturday was a pretty fun day all in all. It marked a few occasions. The first was the First Annual Liquid Web Bad Golf Open, held at El Dorado Golf Club (FALWBGO@EDGC). There were only seven brave souls (or was it 9?), but a lot of fun was had. None of us are particularly good at golf, and that's most evident by the fact that I had the best day out of all of us. I actually shot par twice, yet still ended up shooting a 56 over nine holes. I've figured out the secret to my golf game. On par 4 and 5 holes, I mash the ball off the tee. Driving is the only thing I do well when I golf. If I can get a good second shot, I'll normally finish the hole in good shape. If I duff the second shot, say hello to triple bogey. Anyway, it was a perfect day. It was very sunny, about 65 degrees, and only a slight breeze. We also saw some wildlife when we were out as well. Between the second and third holes, there was a deer out and about, but it made for the woods before I could get out my camera and take a picture. We also saw a red-tailed hawk perched in a tree from about 15-20 feet away. It was probably more docile than normal, which allowed us to get so close. After our golfing clinic was over, we went over to Champions and had a few beers and some food, and went on our way.

Later on that evening was SHELBY-CON 2006. It sounds all big and grandiose, but it was really just a party a few friends threw for Shelby because he was back in Michigan for the weekend. It was a whole lot of fun, except for the fact that I became the human swill rag that night. Midway through the night, I sat down on a patio chair outside, but nobody warned me that someone had spilled a beer all over it. So my ass was soaked with beer, then while I was standing by the fire to try to dry my ass off, someone knocked over a tiki torch on me, and spilled the flammable smelly liquid (kerosene?) on my shorts. That pretty much made standing by the fire a very bad idea, so I had to walk around with wet shorts for the rest of the night. Then I kicked over a beer someone left on the floor, and got it all over my shoe. My fragrance that night must have been positively alluring.

I took my camera with me, and I'll have some pictures up in the gallery shortly.

The title says it all. Most people probably had a relatively relaxing weekend due to the holiday, but I can't say that I did. The past week has oscillated between work and not-work. Saturday - not work. Sunday - work. Monday - not work. Tuesday - work. Wednesday - not work. Today - work. Tomorrow - work. This weekend - not work. Talk about a roller coaster.

On Saturday, my family celebrated my sister's birthday. The big 24. We enjoyed our customary birthday dinner at Outback Steakhouse, and all enjoyed our customary meals. It's kinda strange in a way, but the four of us always get the same thing every time we go there. We don't even need menus. We all get the bloomin' onion as an appetizer. Dad and I get the strip steak. Mom and Stacey get the Victoria fillet. Dad gets a caesar salad, the rest of us get house salads with ranch. I suppose it's because we only go there a couple times a year, and we've found something we like. I don't care really - their strip steak is awesome.

I did something Monday I wouldn't have predicted a week ago - I bought a Nintendo DS. A few guys at work have them, and they're pretty neat. If you're not familiar with them, they're essentially the fourth generation Nintendo portable video game system. I think it's the fourth, but I could be wrong. It has dual full-color screens (one normal, one touchscreen), built-in wireless for local or internet multiplayer action, and at least the horsepower of the Nintendo 64 in portable form. It can take both DS games and older Game Boy Advance games too. There's even a project to port Linux to it. I picked up the New Super Mario Brothers and Metroid Prime Hunters. They both came highly recommended by Jay and Dylan from work. I made a speed run and was able to beat Mario, but a good portion of the game is composed of secret levels and worlds, so it'll be a while before I beat it completely. Metroid seems like it will take a lot longer. The control scheme is a little strange, but I'm getting used to it. The games are pretty cheap, so I'll probably pick up another one once I get bored of the ones I have. The DS version of Mario Kart is probably high on the list. The N64 version of Mario Kart was a whole lot of fun, and the DS version allows for internet play as well, so you could race your friends from wherever you can get a wireless internet connection. Pretty cool.

Wednesday was a sad day, no two ways about it. It marked the funeral of a cousin, once removed. Regretably, I never got to know him, and judging by what I saw yesterday, it was my loss. Never have I seen so many people at a funeral. There were so many people that the church couldn't hold everyone. We couldn't see it because we were in it, but most estimates placed the precession at a half-mile long or more. He died late at night, on his way home from his girlfriends house. He fell asleep at the wheel, drifted across the road, and collided head-on with a truck. The whole situation just shows how fragile life can be, and how quickly it can be taken away. The lesson for me is not to take those that are close to me for granted. You never know when something horrible is going to happen.

Ooops, I've done it again. In a decision that I'm 100% certain my mom and sister will hate, but one that I'm quite fine with, I buzzed off a full head of hair yesterday. I had the "man of the mountain" look going on again, and I was tired of wearing a hat everyday, so I got out the clippers and trimmed everything down to 1/4". Nice easy maintenance there. Since I have no idea how much I'll be spending on eye procedures and medications this year and finances are kind of tight, I see this as a smart financial decision. Cutting my own hair saves cash. Save all the money you can, right? Time to start buying ramen noodles by the truckload, too.

Also, in completely unrelated news, getting a solid IPSec configuration working in Windows is a total pain in the ass. I've been using IPSec in Linux both at home and at work for almost two years now, and it's rock solid and easy to configure. In my experience, on the other hand, Windows only works properly for a matter of hours, and then requires intervention. If anyone out there knows why the Windows IPSec implementation likes to crap out for 5 minutes once the ISAKMP lifetime has been reached, and more importantly, knows how to fix it, please let me know. I suppose Windows could just be taking a break for a cigarette, but Windows should know better than that. Smoking stinks.

Recently I have found that watching various movies from the Leprechaun sextology (?) while drinking vast amounts of beer and fine Irish whiskey makes one's ankle problems disappear. Remember that the next time your lower extremities are beaten and bruised following a run-in with an ankle eating rock, rheumatoid arthritis, or other various joint-consuming ailments.

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