Sorry for going AWOL (Absent Without Leave)

Buckle up kids, this is going to be a LONG post.

I'm going to time myself, starting..... NOW (2:54 PM). I'm going to attempt to write everything and anything that has happened in my 1 month (exactly) absence. Lets do this.

House: I am now finally located at my (hopefully long term) new residence of 1214 George Street here in SLO (93401). Moving in was a pain in the ass of course, but with the help of Chris' truck, my big furniture wasn't too hard. That stupid fridge was a long story... I finally ended up getting Chris' grandparent's backup fridge, which took us roughly 1 hour to get inside the friggin door. Kitchen area is small, the stove requires a barbeque lighter to start the flame each time, the oven won't fit my pizza plate, bathroom sink is way small, I almost kill myself each time getting out of the shower (deadly first step, 1 foot drop), backyard is a mess with a big hole for Apollo to run out through the side of the house into the front yard and go strolling around the neighborhood. The house's biggest problem is probably ventilation/heat. Around 1:30 to 7:30 each day, the house is like an oven. The trick is pretty much to just keep as much of the cool air inside as possible for as long as possible, and then finally all of a sudden opening EVERYTHING and turn my fan on high. (obviously no A/C for you people who are scratching your head and going, why doesn't he turn on the air?) Other than that, it is pretty much a good size for myself. Oh yeah, I don't have a front door. My front door is the garage door of 1218 George Street, lol. But I do get my own mailbox, haha. I have my own Cable internet line through Charter, but I think that deal is only good for 3 months until it jumps from under $30 a month, to over $50. I got illegal cable from Mr. Cable guy who came out to install my cable internet (for a mere, one time charge of $15).

Car: I finally have one. It took fucking 21 1/2 years before I finally got my own car, but it is pretty much everything I could've asked for. '99 Mitsubishi Eclipse - turbo engine, automatic, power everything, moonroof, leather seats, 2 door, racing wheels, nice deck. It needs to be washed. I calculated the milage it gets per gallon, and broke it down to around 36/gal for freeway, 16.5/gal for city. Weird huh? I love it, no more wasting time for the damn bus (FUCK YOU SLO TRANSIT), and I can leave anytime I want.

Dog: He's adjusted to the house pretty good I think. I don't like him jumped directly on and off of my bed, it is probably bad for his back. I have spent much more time walking him, AT LEAST once a day but more likely 2. It is a pretty quick trip around the neighborhood, which is filled with a lot of dog owners by the way. There is a little field area where he can round around, but I don't like it because it has thorns and prickly brushes. There is also a trainstation close to this neighborhood, which is kinda cool... hasn't bothered me at night yet. I don't know why but Apollo really has been a night owl recently who won't shut up. The previous 4-5 days, around 10PM to 1AM he would start barking at me for attention, and is really bad because Cynthia is next door and I don't want to wake her up. I don't know how to solve it, maybe it's time to ask Dr. Hallock and take Apollo in for a checkup anyways. Should I get him neutered? Dunno. We went to All Star Pets yesterday to get him a doggy tag, and I guess we really should make another appointment with Dr. Hallock because I could also pick up a new "rabies vaccine" tag for him, seeing as how he chewed up the last one. He has been doing good at home, not chewing up anything while I'm at work or school, and not going anywhere in the house... I suppose he really is indeed potty trained by this point. I think his "night owl" activity has a lot to do with the fact that he sleeps so much in the afternoon, or rather, passes out due to the heat... and so he's so rested for the night time. I don't know how exactly to relieve him of his energy, just play with him more I guess.

School: Here is the grade breakdown for the classes:
EE 335: I want to post what actually happened during that final (with Mike mooching off of me) but it will jeopardize me so I won't. Lets just say I have a very bad memory and needed assistance... a lot of it. Apparently it was enough to yield a good grade in that class, better than I expected. Grade Received: B (4 units)

ASTRO 302: I studied for the final a good amount, and the test was actually pretty fair (I almost wrote, fairly fair, which sounds weird). I knew some questions very well, the last question (regarding what our research article was about) was obviously really weird and pretty much a "gimme"/"free points" for me because of my sand experiment, not exactly an article. A couple I left blank, but I suppose a lot of people had trouble with those problems too. Grade Received: B- (3 units)

EE 314: Studied hard for this one too, seeing as how I wasn't doing very hot in our group of friends (Rod was #1, then Mike, then Huy, then me, then Gary). I went into the final with slightly lower than the class average or about the same. I wonder how the T/F part went, as it was a very big portion. Thank god for the homework problems and good friends telling you what was on the test (they took it first in another section). Ended up killing about 3 of the problems, as they were almost exactly alike homework problems and had the damn things right in front of me. So yeah, not exactly the subject I want to concentrate on... bye bye communications. Grade Recieved: B- (3 units)

PHIL 316: Now THIS was a fun story. So I did the take home essay, some of the questions were really easy to do with notes in front of me (and I took good notes in class, the kind of stuff she wanted to see/hear). However a couple were really weird, so I had to ask Aaron (philosophy major that was in my group) for help and we chopped it up on the phone, and got enough material to make stuff up. Dr. Fab was really a nice lady, and I just had to tell her that over an e-mail, and I think she genuinely appreciated it. She really deserved it. And I felt that I deserved an A (my response to that question on the final). So out comes the grades (before they were posted on my.calpoly) in our in-boxes. The grades were organized by last 4 of our social security numbers, and so I immediately scroll to the bottom (because that's where I usually lied, with "S" as the 1st letter in my last name). So I see "2974" and trace my eyes over to the grade.... B?!?!?! I look at the grades, no one got lower than a B!!!! How did I get the lowest grade in the class? I went into the final with an A! Depression hits me, as I ponder what exactly it was that I wrote on the final that screwed it up that bad. All of a sudden, as I scan the list some more... wait a minute, who is this "2794" person? (long pause) THAT'S ME!!! Apparently someone in that philosophy 316 class has exactly the same last 4 social security numbers as me, except the middle two numbers are swapped. Grade Received: A (4 units)

Not a bad quarter. Slightly above a 3.0 GPA, it was like 3.102 or something. My overall GPA here at Poly is holding solid at 3.0, which is a B average. Pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Summer quarter is here now, with no breaks. Taking 2 classes, Anthropology 201 and Psychology 201. Both GE's, but I think I'll end up getting B's in both of them. Too much work goes into getting an A, so we'll see what happens... I haven't even bought the textbook for psych yet. Anthropology will be done in the 5 week course (2 weeks left) and Psych is a regular 10 week course, but it sucks because Psych is 4 days a week and at 9 in the freaking morning everyday. Oh well, at least it gets me out of bed.

Work: I'm not getting enough hours, and I really should be putting those boring hours to better use, such as studying and reading for those 2 classes. Not enough hours = not enough money, so I need to make it up in "other" ways. I guess I'm doing okay.

Lifestyle: Well, food wise, I'm eating like a freaking pig and someone doing an experiment for the fast food industry. I've eaten out so many fucking times it is impossible, I've eaten at almost all the fast food places around here. My first excuse was because of the stupid fridge issue... that damn old one didn't work, so I had no where to put my food (had I had any) or if I had gone out and done grocery shopping. And then this second run was because of the busy-ness (and once again lack of food). I went grocery shopping at Food 4 Less and did my regular $80-$100 run of food, but this time a lot of it went to household things... toilet paper, laundry detergent, steak knife, and that kind of stuff. I didn't even get a lot of food to cook with. No pork chops, no finger/microwave foods, no junk food. It really surprised me how I was able to spend $90 on nothing at all.

I haven't been able to sleep in really late at all, I think mainly because of the amount of light that gets into my place, and the fact that Apollo doesn't seem to want to sleep past 7:30-ish in the morning and will wake me up... even before my alarm clock goes off at 7:40-ish. I really need to just start eating less, and more healthy... but I don't have any motivation or anyone here to force me to, plus it costs a lot to be healthy and the time it takes to make the stuff, as opposed to a $6 or $7 meal that is quick. I just need to be much more conscious of myself and what I do to my body I guess, and have self control.

The house is pretty much set-up, but I still have stuff to put on the walls, like some pictures and my whiteboard. Also I need to get an extension cord (3 pronged one) for my microwave. Other than that, most of it is just getting used to the place.

Computer/Gaming: Okay, my speakers (actually more likely my sound card) is really fucking pissing me off. I thought it was the speakers to being with, but now that I moved into the new place, i'm not using the Logitech speakers anymore, only the Subwoofer and control panel. The speakers I'm using are Yamaha ones that were part of the entertainment center from back home, very high quality ones. Now, the hissing noise is even more and annoying as fuck... I can't turn my speakers on too high, otherwise it's hisssssssssssssssssssssssssss like crazy. I also have had some virus problems and worms apparently on my computer, I solved I think one or two of the issues now, but I still feel like I should go through a reformat, it's about that time of the year. It's just that I'll lose a lot of programs that I don't have the installs for anymorek, like MatLab and PSPICE. I just kinda want a videocard so I don't have to deal with this stupid hissing sound... but I want a laptop even more. That's going to be like a $800 purchase by itself... but we'll see, maybe do some financing or something.

Well, other than that there's not too much else. My middle finger is still jacked up a bit, but much better than before. I've already gone through 100 tablets of Ibuprofen (25 doses of 4 tabs at a time) and I'm about to start my second container, hopefully those anti-imflammatory enzymes will kick in.

AJ and Mustafa are on a roadtrip, and they finally decided to stop off and see me after 3 years out of high school. Better late than never right? Anyways, so I was walking Apollo on the soccer field when AJ calls me, and it was him and Mustafa on their way down here to SLO. So they stayed here the night, after some dinner and visiting Drew, who lives extremely close to Poly (down Hathaway). Funny notes:

- hot dog that squirts milk onto chocolates
- Japanese game at Drew's house
- hollahollaholla let me hollaatya hollaholla
- Wu-tang clan, ain't nobody to fuck wit
- Mustafa: Park there, face the wrong way, it's okay. AJ: No, I can do it, let me show you how good of a driverSCRATCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I am. All 3 of us in AJ's rental car: laughing our asses off for a minute
- Glen: Is that Jenny over there? Hey Jenny, over here! (points at Mustafa and AJ) oops, my bad, lol.

Damn this post took a long time, inbetween dealing with my fucking viruses/wurms on my computer and Chimaira's hacking problems, so many distractions. I'll do my best to post more from now on.... (end time, 5:08 PM)