Still Crazy

My mind does not work as well as it used to. It likes to believe things that any normal, rational person would not believe. It also has some random issues that might seem crazy to most people in the world.

The reason for this is because of my major bout with insomnia a while back.
I thought I had fixed all that stuff and had gotten better.

Over the last few weeks, some random "episodes" have occurred that have caused me to realize my mind is slowly leaving me.

One was pretty scary for me... and I shall not go into details on it. Let's just say it involved a dark room and a light that was on a timer.

The most embarrassing one, though, was from a commercial I saw last night just before going to bed. It was a PSP commercial for a Sonic the Hedgehog game. I am a fan of the franchise. I used to be addicted to the game. I played it constantly. After all, the original Sonic the Hedgehog was the only game I had when I got my Sega Genesis.

Anyway, if you are familiar with the game, then you know that you collect rings for various purposes. One of those purposes, the most important of which... is to stay alive. So long as you have at least one ring, you will not die if you get hit by some random creature. When you have rings and you DO get hit, you hear the sound of all your rings leaving you as they explode away from your little character. If you were lucky, you could grab a couple of the ones you lost really quickly in case you got hit again. It wasn't until last night that I realized exactly how deeply embedded that series of sound effects is in my head.

The commercial showed Sonic getting hit and his rings exploding away from him. It came complete with the sound. What it did NOT have was the sound of Sonic immediately picking up another ring. In fact, for the rest of the commercial... Sonic did not pick up a ring.

For some reason... this disturbed me. I almost felt like I was playing the game. I HAD to hear the chime of a ring being picked up. It didn't happen. I felt horrible. I felt unsafe. It almost seemed like a panic attack.

That was when I realized my mind is on its way out.
I hope my remaining days are enjoyable.

Officially Single

Well,
we all knew it was going to happen eventually.
I just tried to keep the hope alive.

Luckily, I went into this with the foreknowledge that long-distance relationships almost never work out, so I am not all that surprised at the outcome.

Misty and I decided to split ways.
Translation: Misty decided we should split ways.

I am pretty sure she made this decision quite a long time ago and just failed to let me know. I am thinking it was around the beginning of October, when she called to ask me to cancel my trip.
She only decided to tell me when I mentioned that I was pondering a second-attempt at a trip to see her.

....
On that note...
Since I am not going to take a trip to Florida...
I have 3+ days of vacation time built up that I must use by December 31 or they will disappear forever.
I must now find something else on which to spend that time.
I don't know... perhaps just some random trip somewhere.
I'll figure something out.

One Way to Anger Matt

If anyone was ever wondering of any ways to make me angry, one showed itself today.
Here are the steps involved in the process:

1: Be a big company (i.e. Best Buy).
2: Run an advertisement for an awesome deal on a monitor to be sold at your store very early on the day following Thanksgiving. Make the deal good enough to entice me spend my first Black Friday standing in line for hours to wait for the store to open.
3: Be disorganized, or at least inefficient.
4: Tell me, after I have been waiting in line for 3+ hours, that the item I wanted to purchase is sold out. Then... after being asked to confirm this... confirm that the item is sold out.
5: Let me see people that were standing in line behind me walk out with two of the monitors I wanted to buy.

Good job, Best Buy.
Good job.
First impressions are very important.
I now officially hate Black Friday.

My newish suv.

Early Christmas

OK, so I stopped by the house yesterday after work.
There was an SUV parked on the corner of the property not far from where I would normally park if I was just stopping by the house for a moment.

I had gotten home a little earlier than usual. About 4:30 my boss came around and said that if I did not have anything pressing to take care of at work, then I could go ahead and take off. I waited around a few minutes then headed my self on out.

I got home about 4:40ish.

When I saw the vehicle, I was highly suspicious. I started looking around the yard. We have recently had some weird person stalking my mom's dog. Not exactly sure. Some sort of PETA-esque nut that seems to think that people should not be allowed to have pets.

After doing a quick perimeter check, I headed inside.
The door was cracked open.
I walked in, and I did not hear anyone moving around.
This was a tad disturbing. I prepared myself for the worst...
though... my father was actually home. So all was well.

I asked him whose truck that was outside.
He told me he thought it was just someone that had broken down.
The person had "parked there, got out, talked on there cell phone for a bit"... and he had not seen them since.

I thought nothing of that.
I packed up a couple things and headed over to Christy's.
I had agreed to stay at the apartment so that the cat would not get completely bored.

Anyway, I came back home this morning to help my father with some things.
I haven't actually done much yet. I wound up heading to WalMart for a bit.

As I was about to head out, I was re-combing my hair.
My father was outside and asked if I could come out there for a minute.
Typically this means he is in the middle of a ask and really needs my help with something.

He asked if there was a way for me to get online and look up the tag of the SUV that was still parked out there and find out who it belongs to.
I told him it was possible, but I would probably have to pay a fee.

Dad: "Oh, oh yeah. That's right. I guess you couldn't. Oh well.... It's your's."

Me: "What?"

Mom: "He bought it for you."

Me: "What?"

Dad: "Here's the keys."

Me: "What?"

Dad: "Come on, let's go a ride so I can show you some of the things about it."

Me: "Are you kidding me?"

<>

Me: "Wow!"

So anyway, it is an older vehicle... but it is completely paid for and insured.
It is a 1992 Ford Explored.
I am not a fan of SUVs..... but it is free.
How can I argue with that?

It has a few small problems I shall have to deal with, but all in all, it is in relatively good shape.

It is a good day!

McCain 2008!!

Heck yeah!
I have been wanting him to run for a while now.
He finally declared his candidacy!

Unless something extraordinarily disappointing happens in the next 2 years....
He's got my vote.

...
And yes, I have already given this thought.
Some people have told me I should vote for Rudy Giuliani...
I pondered it... for about 4 seconds.
Yes, I think Giuliani has some spirit in him...
but...

I have made my choice.

McCain 2008!!!

Friday the 13th

B.E.S.T. was great. I had a fun time.
I was a rather worn out by the end of the day, but it was worth it.
It was a great day.

Oddly enough, though... something odd happened on the following morning.
I expected to sleep in pretty late Sunday morning. I was very tired.
I woke up at 6:45 and could not get back to sleep.

I do not know why I could not get to sleep. I was tired. When I opened my eyes, I felt more tired and just wanted to lie down. When I closed my eyes, I felt fine, and my body would just not get back to sleep.

So.... I eventually decided to just sit up and turn on the TV. I flipped to the history channel. After watching for a while, I learned a new fact.
A show came on talking about some of the world's not-so-secret secret societies.
The fact I found most interesting was that the reason many people started considering Friday the 13th to be so unlucky was because on Friday, October 13, 1307... the King of France ordered his knights to seek out and destroy all members of the Knights Templar. I thought that was highly interesting.

Of course, I decided to do some quick research on this, and found other sources suggesting that this could actually be the reason.. so I am prepared to believe it.
Apparently, the King did not like the idea of the Knights having so much power and money.
BTW.... they had a LOT of money.
I also found out that... in order to become a member of the society, you had to surrender all your money and land to the Knights.
Lots and Lots of Europe's wealthiest nobles decided to join.
The Knights were loaded.

Anyway, that is what I learned on my Sunday morning.
I thought it was pretty interesting.

What I Know About Women...

1)

The Darkness

It was Halloween night when I decided to head over to my friend's house so we could go hang out. I decided to ride out of my neighborhood slowly so as not to risk running over any Trick-or-Treaters.
That is when it dawned on me...
Not only were there no Trick-or-Treaters...
but I realized my neighborhood is very dark.

I just never noticed because I was never really paying attention to my surroundings.
There is huge lack of light.
Plus... the little light that IS expelled by the street lamps... is mostly blocked by trees.
It was quite scary.

Anyway... just an FYI, the Haunting at the Hank was extremely cheesy.
Though, I will say that the guy with the REAL chain saw definitely startled me.
I surely hope that thing had been de-chained.

....
On a random note,
tonight, while WoWing... I decided to farm for some feathers so I could levitate.
I was near a mountain where there just happens to be a shrine.
It's name? The Shrine of the Fallen Warrior.
Occasionally I go there just because.
No real reason. I guess as a simple tribute.
The shrine was "built" in honor of one of the original programmers of the game who suffered an as-of-yet unexplained death.

At the shrine lays a dead Orc. An engraving on the shrine shows the letters "MK", which just happen to stand for "Michel Koiter". In front of him is a guardian angel with a name "Koiter".

There is a point here, I promise.
Ok.. anyway, typically you have to be dead to see these "Spirit Healer" types, but this is a special spirit healer... (it has a name).
They all have the same ambient sound effect.
I was there for a few minutes, not paying any attention while watching South Park..
when it hit me...
The ambient sound effect had some words hidden in it.
I turned up the volume and tried to listen closely.
It seemed like it was playing backwards...
so... I set up my computer to record the audio from my sound card.

I then played that recorded sound backwards.
Unfortunately, I no longer have any GOOD audio editing software on my computer, so I was unable to take out the wind blowing...
and since the words are whispers... it made it very difficult to distinguish actual words.

I am convinced there is something hidden there, but I am not sure what.

Yeah, you thought there was an END to the story, didn't you?
Not yet.

Anyway, that is my blog post.