this trail is longer than i first anticipated

I'm reminded of a commercial:

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"mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm; toasty."

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was that for Quiznos? maybe? maybe not? I don't remember.

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In Other News:

I'm tired. I work alot this week (but that's more $$). I got my compy. I think life's startin' to maybe level off a bit. And Benchwarmers is comin' out in a couple weeks. Flippin' yes.

poll, except not really

So there is someone who would like to lay claim that he's a professional singer.

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Here's my question for yalls guys:

Does "singing in front of people all the time" and "not being afraid" make one a pro?

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I certainly don't think it do, but lets hear your oppinions.

3 months after i said i would...

1 DELL computer on the way. w00t and all that. Somethin' like a $1200 compy for only $919 or so 'cause of cool discounts, including my dad's discount for working at Intergraph. I have 3 to 5 days to mod my desk to accomidate the computer. I'll have a flat screen monitor, so that'll help spacewise. I will finally be able to play computer games! Yes!! ... I am such a nerd.

so, uhhh, where's the tents?

In the words of Sarge:

"We're not retreating! We're advancing toward future victory!"

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Last night was rough. Below freezing temps and no tents ((oops, my bad)). Talk about COLD. We didn't pansy out and go home, though; we stayed and roughed it under the stars. We decided to sleep in shifts, not only to keep up the fire but to discourage cyotes and other wild animal-type things from sneakin' into the camp. Those critters are creepy sounding. I ended up bundling up in my sleeping bag in my truck while Stephen, KP, and David stayed up. At like, 3:00 Stephen woke me up to keep the fire going so he could get some sleep. I kept the fire going til daybreak. It would've been much more better had it not been so cold; I'm pretty sure that if it hadn't have been for the cold, we would've stayed and roughed another night.

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A cool story came out from the night though. David and KP went down to the pond to go fishing. The only light they had was Dave's little MAG light. Well, they get down there and couldn't get the fire started so decide it's not worth it and head back. On their way David's flashlight goes out. They continue walking by only starlight. As they're going, they hear something; sounding like another something walking. They stop to listen: a little rustling then nothing. After waiting a moment, they continue on. The noise resumes as they start walking again. Stopping again, they listen: a little more rustling then gone. When they decide to start once more the rustling doesn't follow. The question left is animal or man? harmless or deadly?

"It's clear now... We're going into the bear pit."

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"I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down."

Is that song by the Chumbawumbas? Anyway.

Speaking for all of us: Defeated by the elements, we still look forward to the next camping trip. Maybe 'cause we'll have the Man w/ us.

This is the Skipper speaking:

We're disembarking in 18.5 hours.

Sorry you couldn't come, Austin.

But think of it this way:

We'll already have all the kinks

worked out by the summer trip!

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I was a bouncer today at work. I know what you're all thinkin' but no. I say bouncer 'cause I was all over the kitchen today. Opened the salad line (mixed the salad, wracked potatoes, poured dressings), helped do a trash run, cut all the breadbowls, made two boxes worth of fruit cups, helped on the sandwich line, and gave a hand on the salad line. Milner let me off early today, which was kinda nice.
I was also offered a chance at a higher paying job at Oh!Bryans today. Dale (a guy that used to work @ McAlister's) happened to come to Kroger and get gas the same time as me and told me he could get me a job there 'cause that's where he works. So, either I can pull a raise at McAlister's outta this, or all else fails have a way closer place of work that'll be paying just that much more. Seems like a win/win situation... hopefully. All else fails I'll just stay at McAlisters and wing it.

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btw: I love hiking

i should save some $$

Life is complicated.
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Or maybe I'm just too tired.

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Or both.

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"you're mom goes to college!"

5-gallon buckets

Today's the last day of school before Spring Break,

talk about rock-awesome cool sweet.

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I really can't wait til next Thursday: A WEEK FROM TODAY!! The camping trip's going to be alotta fun. I love the outdoors, I love airsoft, I love doing stuff w/ my friends, I love fire, I love hiking... all of that. Put 'em all together, *blam!*, you gots the Camping Trip #1 '06: Stella, TN.

Woot and all that.

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Yeah, I'm pretty much psyched.

bigger's not always better

My goldfish, the self-declared Fish King, is practically immoral. Most goldfishes are lucky to live for like, a couple months, and a year is a long time for them, right? Well, Fish King the Magnificent has lived for almost 4 years now. I was given him on my 16th birthday (yes, instead of a car, I got a goldfish... that's my luck). Anyway. He's been hangin' in there for 4 years. His other two comrades died. The first at like, 2 months, the second at around 6 or 7 months. I found him once floating upside down on the top of the water once. I tapped on the tank, though, and he just swam away. I guess he was just chillin' or something. He's the Fish King, so I guess he can do that if he wants.

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I think I shall dub him Cats, 'cause all your base are belong to him.

name for the truck?

KP showed me this trail he found. He has this thing about scouting out places to mud/off-road. That's Kenneth for ya. Anyway. We had some time to kill so we decided to go check the place out. Hoppin the curb and onto the trail. The first part was actually kinda nice; it was just pretty much a dry dirt trail. But around a bend w/ a large puddle next to it and you got to this really eroded place w/ alotta ruts. I found my truck has pretty good rut-beasting power for a 2WD, relatively low, 4 cylinder, small toyota pickup. We of course got out to find a good path around the deepest of the ruts to prevent getting stuck. After that it was a nice dirt path w/ a couple of ruts, but not too bad. After that the trail turned to an underbrush trail. It had apparently been cleared a while back and used alot and was starting to grow back. The ruts only had grass, but there were some small trees that I had to run over or go around to get through. It kinda went around to no where really and came back around to the beginning. The end was actually pretty rutty and bumpy though.

The reason I told you guys all that isn't just to relate a nice little trail, really...

After church tonight, Steven (long-haired) wanted to go off-roading/mudding, so KP and I took him over to the trail. For the water spashing, mud-flinging experience, we also were going to check out the big puddle. We drive over there and depth sound the puddle. It's really not all that deep: two or three inches or so. Well, I'm like, I can take it no prob, I took that big puddle back at KP's old house, this one's no different. I back up to give some speed-up room and gun it into the puddle, spash and through. I turn around to go pick KP up 'cause he stayed out to take a picture of it or something. I go, and to keep from hitting him I have to go back into the puddle. Well, I hit the puddle and am slowing down because of the aforementioned reason, and as I speed up to go around, my back end spins and slides into the mud and water. I try to gun it, but nothin' but spinnin' the wheels: I'm stuck. KP pushes some and I make it out though. I get stuck again 'cause of the slippery conditions, but once again, w/ some rocking and pushing, we get it going again (thank goodness my trucks light). We continue on and come to a fork in the path. We're like, let's take the other one and see where it leads (sense we had already taken the other one earlier). Come to find out, the other path led to a low-water bridge of sorts. We, once again, exit the vehicle to investigate it. Come to find out, the little stream is only about a meter across, but in a ditch that's shaped like this: \_/. After much deliberation, I make the exectutive decision to go bad and around 'cause I don't wanna get stuck w/ my gas tank on empty. On the way out, through the rutty part I almost got stuck two or three times, spinning out and such. The problem, I think was that the dew had set in and evrything was wet and slick. Well, that's pretty much the end of the story.

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Here's 10 tips for off-roading and/or mudding:

1. ALWAYS HAVE A MUDDING BUDDY.
2. Always pre-scout a trail before jumpin in head-first. Stop and exit the vehicle and check close-up if you have to.
3. YOU NEVER KNOW A TRAIL. you may have gone once, but things can go differently.
4. If in doubt: don't try it.
5. DEEP WATER = BAD THING. Don't try to "beast it through," water'll mess stuff up.
6. Never over-estimate your truck, and never underestimate an obstacle. See #4
7. Never go immediatly after or during a rain.
8. Never go when the dew has set in.
9. Higher ground is your friend.
10. THE BIGGER THE TRUCK, THE BETTER.

Well, that's my two cents.

notice

posting postponed do to lack of brainpower to compose a comprehendable senstance.

"bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop,..."

I can't escape the pain

I can't control the rage

Sometimes I think that I'm gonna go insane

I'm not against what's right

I'm not for what's wrong

I'm just making my way and I'm gone

~Shinedown, Fly From the Inside

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Today's been... a day. Started off with the good wake up time of 11:00 or so. After my shower I had "breakfast," except it was lunch. After that I just kinda chilled for an hour or so til the lab opened. I like, got it done in about 2 and a half hours. That sounds like a long time, (well, it is but still), but I usually have to use the whole 3 hours, and most of that was just reading. And plus I'm really fascinated by alot of the stuff we use the microscope to look at; I mean, I never knew leaves were so cool.

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anyway

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After my lab, on my way home, Steven called me to see if I wanted to do something. Sense I had an hour or two to burn I picked him up at school and took him over to The Casa (aka, my house) and watched Lord of War. It's a really good movie other than a couple or three "explicit" scenes (you don't see anything thankfully), and some bad language. But it had a good plot. Not really any action per se, but still good. I'd give it a B on a scale from 1 to 10. (that would be an 8 or so if you wondered)

After that I took him back to his place, ran back home to eat real fast, gathered up the D&D books, and headed out to Devin's. I then played D&D there til like 12:00, after which we then talked and stuff til around 1:00 or 1:30. And now it's 2:30. So I guess I was there til around 2:00.

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who knows

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Well, that's been my day. Have fun kids.

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"I am in a glass cage of emotion!"

~Ron Burgandy: Anchorman

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And a quick thing to note: Austin, you're a stinkin' genious. Yeah, I did "exhaustive" tests* on your "lower gear" theory, and it worked 8 times out of 7. Do that math, and you can be sure that 60% of the time, it works evrytime. In all seriousness though, you were right. You're the man, Austin.

*exhaustive tests being a couple times when leaving my subdivision

armageddon!

So I've been asked why I haven't posted in so long. The main reason is that I just haven't been home long enough to do it. Friday I worked in the morning and at night with some help w/ the FYB in between. Actually that night I stayed til like, 1:00 helping out after work. Then Saturday I worked in the morning again and then went strait to the church to help some more w/ the banquet and stayed til the end of the clean-up. Then went to Sonic in my Pirate garb, which reminds me of a story...

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Linday's camera ran out of batteries, and the alternate batteries were dead too. It was less than thirty minutes til ppl were going to arrive. She's like, "Donald, take me to get batteries." Well, me being the 'nice' chap that I am, I complied and helped her out. We were both already in our pirate garb by that time. Well, I drive her over to Kroger to get some batteries. As we enter ppl are giving us funny looks, smiling, laughing, you know, all that good stuff. That kinda thing I expected, 'cause hey, who goes to Kroger dressed like a pirate? As we were leaving though, there were these ppl outside selling girlscout cookies. The lady said to her daughter, "Hey look, pirate people." It was really funny the way she said it. The girl didn't stop staring at us either. ahh... anyway

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Where was I? Oh yes, Sonic. At Sonic I saw Ferg and Mike. That was kinda funny especially sense it was like 20 or so ppl, half of them still in their pirate get-up (including me). But KP and I leave from Sonic and go to his place to HALO. We play a little bit and then he gets on his compy to show me some mudding/truck stuff. David showed up to. We stayed up til after 2:00. It was fun.

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Today after church I went doorknocking w/ the whole campaign thing. I wasn't planning on going, but I kinda got guilted into it. It was fun, I have to admit. Got to know Steven (long-haired Steven) better, so that was cool. Also had some fun inside-joke-making experiences.

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Well, I'm off 'cause I'm tired, sore, stressed, got a headache, and want to sleep.

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...I'm hungry

"i am all that is man"

I've been called many things:
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clueless

weird

cute

lost

smart

dumb

stupid
idiot

hott

four-letter 'sentence enhancers'

nice

evil

moody

mean

cruel

sweet

insane

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there're also an array of nick-names and spur-of-the-moment names given to me:
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D-Man

Skippy

D

Pimp-D

Pimp-Meister

Donaldo

Naldo

Da'Man

Duck

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I was bored, so I thought, "Hey, why not?"

definitely maybe

Today wasn't too bad. Boring like most school days, but not as bad as a couple.

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My hair kept stabbing me in the eye. That was uncomfortable.

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I like, really want something to do. Grr so bored. Too bad I'm too busy to do anything. (you can figure that out on your own) Well, when I get really bored, I "paint." So here's my next creation:

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I thought it was funny. Maybe? Maybe not? Who knows. I don't half the time.

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My Chewy Runts got stuck in the vending machine this evening. After shouldering the thing once or twice I resigned to just sitting and staring at the thing. Well, Heather for some reason took it upon herself to beat up the machine until they fell. After much beating w/ Josh's umbrella, and shaking, and rocking, and kicking, and more rocking & shaking, they still didn't fall. ((all this time I was sitting pretty much not helping at all... I mean, I was doing the most important job: watching)). Well, she finally just pushes the machine back and up against the wall, after which they fell. Kinda funny actually. I thought it was anyway, not that that counts.

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I have realized that I absolutely hate it (well, maybe not hate, but it bugs me real bad) when ppl ((Josh *cough cough*)) end evry single sentence w/ an exclamation point. "I just aced my test!", "Today's been great!", "My dog just got hit by a truck!", "So what's going on!", "I'm bored!!"

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yeah...

that's what i was sayin'

So I almost died today. I was leaving my neighborhood, right? Well, as I come to the road (Wall Triana), and as I put on the brakes nothing happens. I slam them on harder, and still almost nothing is happening to slow me down. Lemme tell ya, 25 seems really fast when your brakes aren't slowing you down. Well, I pump 'em once and get a little response and stop just in time to keep from ending up in the middle of traffic. Scared me a tad. Well, I drove to work anyways 'cause my brakes started working again, but I kept an uber long following distance.

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After I got back from work I changed and got outside and [finally] washed my truck. It was a beautiful day. After I got that done I checked my brake fluid. Well, max is up high, min is a little lower, my level was waaaay at the bottom. Needless to say I went to the garage strait away, got some brake fluid, and filled 'er back up.

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Just so you guys'll know: I love to spraypaint. Like, it's so much fun. You have no idea.

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So I went through like five cd's the past two days: listened to Linkin Park: Meteora and Hybrid Theory (and some of Reanimation), Shinedown's Us and Them, Staind: Chapter V, Trapt: Somewhere I belong, and 3 Doors Down's Seventeen Days. Ok, so that's six and a half, but who's counting?

"if you just walked away, what could i really say?"

Philosophy test next Tuesday... bummer. I really don't like that class that much. Oh well, you win some you lose some.

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Mr. Hunter (or Steve as he likes us to call him) told the class about a friend of his who ended up shooting himself w/ his own shotgun. Went out into the dark to shoot a skunk or wildcat or something, shotgun loaded in one hand, flashlight in the other. While out there he stepped in a hole and tripped tossing the shotgun aside to catch his balance; unfortunately the shotgun hit the ground and flipped around so as to place the muzzle in his gut, and went off. The guy did survive by curling up before he passed out to keep his insides and blood from spilling out, so that's good.

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I'm done now.

'See that, Cot? Got 'im right in his BEAK!'

History is easy and a pain in the butt at the same time. Grr, so frustrating.

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So pretty much my day's been kinda slow. A usual Tuesday. I didn't have to work this morning, so I got to sleep in. Got up, took a shower and ate breakfast and that kinda stuff. David started some laundry before he ran off to work, so I'm kinda keeping it going and all that. Something to do I guess. I already wrote the paper that I needed to do, and my other two classes tonight don't have any extra work needing to be done and/or turned in tonight. So I'm pretty much stuck w/ laundry.

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I really hope the classes are better arranged and timed and fit a little better w/ my scheduling next semester. Thankfully, though, there's only like a month and a half or two months of school left.

silly pixilation

I originally drew that to the right size, but blogger being blogger, didn't keep it in the original size, so it's a little smaller than it's supposed to be. Why I drew a machine gun round? 'cause I had one in my pocket and decided to put it up here for one. But for two, I had someone say one of the dumbest things I've ever heard:

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A guy said when I showed him the bullet, "I've always wondered, if all that's shot is this (pointing to the bullet), why do they have all of this? (pointing to the rest of the casing)" I didn't get a chance to tell the person the idiocy of his question, but I'll tell you (in case more ppl than I think don't know how a bullet works). The main thing that got me was that it was a guy. A girl asking, understandable, but guys should know these things.

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The reason you have "all of this" behind that bullet, an educational program:

All of that space is filled w/ gun power. Now evryone should know what gun power is, but it's what makes a gun go *boom* and the bullet go .... *vroom?*... Anyway! There's this thing called a primer at the butt end of the round. When the hammer of the weapon hits that primer, it ignites the gunpower and blasts the bullet out through the barrel of the gun. The empty casing is then edjected and a new round is fixed in place to repeat the process.

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Ok. I'm done now.

you know what?

countdown commenced: 19 days, and counting

Got up late today. Felt nice to be able to do that on a Saturday. It's not been a bad day. Not at all. The first thing I did was eat breakfast (big surprise? i thought so) and then chill for a while before taking a shower. By 11:00 I was finally out of the shower and ready to begin what I had planned for the day; but Devin had gotten over here by the time I came out and so I didn't start til after he and Holly left. By that time I had gotten on the computer to "check my email real quick," and ended up staying on the compy for another hour or so. By the time I got off the computer Dad & Karen were ready to go to Adam & Sarah's, so I kinda hung out til they left. That pushed my start time to about 1:32ish or so. I started my history test then and got it done by the time David got home at a little before 2:30. After he got a shower we headed to the Army Surplus store (where I aquired the fold-up shovel i needed, along w/ a ski mask and a desert camo bandana... and a fifty cal machine gun bullet). After the Surplus store we dropped by the mall and browsed Mark's Imports then left. We were going to go to Crossroads, but they're exactly like Mark's Imports so David says, so we went strait over to the Flea Market. I aquired the 11mm bb's I needed for the 'grenade launcher.' David got the camo jacket he needed at the surplus store and bought himself a kukri and machete at the flea market. So there's my day in a nut shell.

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"Today's gonna be a good day," as Peter Lafluer said.

iled s'retsilacm

"oh, the burn. it's a deep burn" ... "i don't know if you heard me counting. i did over a thousand"

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Well, I got the priviledge of working pretty much all day today. I thankfully got off early on both of my shifts ((9:00 to 2:00 instead of 3:00, and 5:00-8:00 instead of 9:00)). Working at night's not all that bad. It's crazy. We were all having a good time. Pete apparently had been excited about my working tonight. It was kinda funny. All I did was dishes. I didn't have to worry about cleaning up anything or working a line or nothin'. It was really hecktic this morning, though. Not only were we [presumably] short a worker, but both of the steamers on the primary sandwich line went out. Not only that but twice (not once, twice!) the line went out the door. I mean, McAlister's is good, but not that good.

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it's over!

stab me w/ a spoon

NO SCHOOL TODAY!

I did have to work this morning, but only from 8:30-11:00,

so it wasn't too bad.

After I got back from work I got outside and started where I left off in chopping the stump in the backyard out of the ground. I was surprised at how not-tired I was, this being the third day I've been at that bugger. The first day I was really sore in the lower back and shoulder region (("you know where the lower musclous attaches to the upper dorsimus. it's boring, but it's part of my life")); but I wasn't even a bit sore after yesterday, so I just chopped away and finished him w/ some "unchecked power." Now, although my muscles weren't suffering, my hands sure were. There's really no good way to prevent blisters and caluses and the skin being rubbed off your palms. But thankfully sense I had my fingerless glove things (that apparently work pretty good), my hands are only stained black from the leather and I have only a couple sore spots. So other than the primary pressure spot at which point the skin got (literally) rubbed off of my hand, I'm in pretty good shape. (("in pretty good shape" only reffering to the state of my hands of course))

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Well, now that I've got my shower and finished lunch, I'm not sure what to do w/ myself the rest of the day. hmm. I need chocolate though, that's for sure. I might see about doing that take-home test for history and get that done. I might even see about going over to Wiley's and seeing if they have a string that i can put on my longbow. Who knows.

i didn't even realize!

I've totally posted over 400 posts on this thing now, this being the 402nd. That's kinda cool. So in honor of this not-so-memorable-but-stilly-rather-nifty moment, I'm going to dedicate this post to a friend.

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Here's to you, The Man. When you want someone to do something, you don't just say "do it," you say "do-it do-it." You don't just love math, you calculate how many cups of coffee your grandfather's drank sense he was 16.. in your head. You can stay up til the wee hours of the morning just talking about fifty cals, electronic gadgets, rediculous and highly improbable scenarios, and nonexsistant great uncles. Your legacy lives on, Austin. The most wicked awesome handshake evr lies on your fingertips, and your super-human strength allows you to push pickup trucks.. uphill. May the days between now and summer be short, fast, and go by quickly. Until then, crack open an ice cold cream soda and remember to always know what's funny.