I haven't been online in a good while, because I felt I had nothing worth saying...

Now I have something to say and I don't wanna put it anywhere else but here.  

Today I started seeing things on facebook where people change their default picture to a cartoon character for the weekend.  Apparently this is meant to show support for children who have been abused. 

Of course I don't condone child abuse in any form or fashion, but I think this is stupid.  

 How will any child benefit from this?  I had to call cps last year because one of my students was being beaten by her parents.  Imagine if I had told her I was participating in this facebook foolery...

Me - "You know what? Since you're being abused, I'm gonna change my profile pic on facebook"
Abused girl - "WTF?  How is that going to help me"

I told my friend Joe about this and he immediately came up with two better solutions

1.  Post a logo for an org/charity that helps victims of abuse on your profile
2.  Post a link to a donation page for said organization
3.  Make a donation!

I'm gonna go make a donation now so I don't sound like a hypocrite.  

Peace

-Mitch

I went walking at 1230 am this morning, to seek some kind of serenity. 

What I found was something unsettling.  The only constant that seems to be in my day-to-day routine is the desire to go on.  The problem is I don't know what I'm "going on" to.  It's a feeling of searching for something, but not knowing what it is, yet you continue to search anyway.  You're never bothered by the fact that you can't figure out what it is you're searching for, you just keep looking; and you never stop to question what it is you're searching for, you just know that you must go on looking.

Once again, my days have started blurring into the nights.  It's annoying when you start falling asleep as soon as you get home, then don't realize what you were doing before you did.  Waking up at 11pm and not realizing when the last time you ate was is not good. 

Work is bogging me down.  There is far too much to do and not enough time to do it in.  I only wish I could have a little free time to relax or do the things I DO enjoy.  

I'm starting to be plagued by a new fear.  When I look around at the profiles of students on facebook, when I see status updates of my friends, when I see people do stupid things or make stupid decisions....

I fear that I'll become just like every other dullard out there.  

I want there to be something that sets me apart... Something that makes me different. When people look at me, I want them to notice something that sticks in their mind, and lets them know that the trouble of the world hasn't gotten to me.  I hope and pray that each day I can hang onto a little bit of myself that might otherwise slip away, and make me ordinary...

Perhaps this is just growing up.

I spent the better part of two hours working on my car earlier today... in 103 degree heat.

I changed out the diff oil (which turned out to be very easy), using Royal Purple.  I also changed the regular motor oil.  

Another problem emerged recently which i will just call an "exhaust leak".  I remember driving home from the church and noticing how nice my car sounded (exhaust wise), but it sounded louder than normal.  I attributed it to having just heard loud music.  Anyway, the other day I was driving around and noticed more of the same.  I took a look under the car when I got home and could pretty clearly see a loose exhaust gasket hanging down...  After closer examination, I found that one of the bolts on my test pipe was totally missing.  Not sure how that happened, but I needed to replace it.  

I went to three different O'reillys looking for a 3 inch exhaust/cat gasket.  They couldn't find anything that worked.  Afterward i decided to just reuse one of the older ones I happened to have sitting around.

I tell ya, exhaust work is frustrating.  No matter how high you jack the car up, there is just barely any room to work with.  

Anyway that's my story for now. 

Around three years ago, I had my first attack of something called Costochondritis.  I've been having attacks of it randomly ever since. 

Here's a link

www.mayoclinic.com/health/costochondritis/DS00626

What does it feel like?

Basically to sum it up, the cartilage that joins your ribs together swells and causes some pretty severe chest pain.   The pain has been equated to what heart attack victims go through.  At its worst, it feels like someone stacking a couple hundred pounds of bricks on your chest and constantly applying pressure. 

I've had a couple of these a year since the first.  They mostly seem to be caused by over exerting oneself (like high intensity exercise).  Attacks can last from a few days to over a week.  Mine typically start mildly, build to intense pain over a few days, then take a few more days to disappear.  It's hard to tell exactly what causes them, because sometimes the swelling won't start until a few days after the initial stress.  For example, right now I'm dealing with a bout that started last night, however it came from exercise that I did on Thursday night.

What is it like to live with?

When I've got an attack, physical activity is totally out of the question.  Going up the stairs to my apartment leaves me feeling totally drained.  Laying down hurts more than sitting up.  At its worst, sleep is nearly impossible, and I've actually had to call in sick to work the next day basically because I get no sleep.  

I recall what was arguably my worst attack about a year ago i'd say...  The pain was so intense that I literally couldn't concentrate on anything long enough to do it.  Laying down didn't help, and nothing could take my mind off the pain.  Finally out of desperation, I took a very hot shower, and thankfully that lessened the pain just enough to tolerate it.  

Doctor diagnosis and treatment
After the second time that I had an attack, I went to the doctor to make sure it wasn't a symptom of something greater.  He explained to me the condition and suggested that I go see a cardiologist.  I've had chest x-rays done, and did a stress test.  There was no explanation for why I was going through it/what was causing it.  They also added that I was in extremely good health. 

As far as treatment goes, the only thing I can do is take over the counter anti-inflammatory medication (asprin, ibuprofen, use heat  (showers, baths, heating pads), and wait until it goes away.  Doctors won't prescribe anything for it.



I get the impression that this isn't that common a disorder, since anyone I've ever talked to about it seems to have never heard of it or experienced it.  

Well I guess that's all for now... can't think of a good way to wrap this up, so I'll just throw the information out there.

So about a week ago, Brittany and I decided to go bowling (on a whim).  I was trying to throw balls straight and did averagely... well for people who throw the ball straight.  We bought two hours worth of unlimited bowling.

I (as usual) had been unable to throw the ball straight.  I always went off to the left or the right no matter how hard I tried. So during the last game I decided to try to throw a hook (I had seen it done plenty of times and had the general idea). 

Wow... A hook is SOOOOO much easier to control than when you throw the ball straight.  I scored 125, which was the highest I had EVER gotten in my life!

During the last week I've been trying to bowl more to improve my skills.  Today, Brittany and I went bowling again with Amanda, and during the last game I got 3 strikes and 4 spares IIRC.  Bowled a 170!!   Woot, go me!

I think it's about time to get my own ball, and get a good one ;)

Last Saturday I did a detailing demo at a car show.  It was pretty slow, but I got one guy interested ^_^

A few days later I called him (he gave me HIS number, lol) and we arranged for me to come look at the car and see if I could fix what he deemed was a problem...

Well I arrived and the problem he was most concerned with was in the paint itself... I told him straight up I couldn't  fix the paint problem, but I could help some of the scratches and scuffs.  I offered to do the hood for free, and if he liked it I'd do the rest.   Sure enough he liked what I did and he had me do the rest ^__^

The car was a 2003 Corvette btw ^__^

He said he loved the job I did, and told me he wants me to come back next week to do a full detailing (inside and out) on his wife's Escalade ^__^  And while he was there one of his friends saw the job I was doing and may be calling on me soon to detail his wife's Civic.  

Go me for drumming up business ^__^

So this last weekend that just passed was A-kon.  I spent the weekend with Brittany and had a great time.  My Repoman costume was very well received, and had tons of pictures taken of me (but somehow, none of them have shown up on A-kon's photo gallery page).  =(

I saw Bethany twice during the kon.  The first time, she was in the skywalk dressed as a bible black girl, signing to some people.  She didn't notice me thankfully.  I kept walking and giggled about it with Brittany.

The second time was on Sunday.  Again I was walking around with Brittany, and then we saw each other face to face.  We both kept walking and didn't say anything to each other. 

Today, my roommate Eric let me see the status updates she made during A-kon.  Apparently I'm a tool for doing nothing, and she's a bombshell becuase she wore a "Hello Kitty' halter top.  

Lets review shall we?

I walked by her.
Did not say Hi, or anything else
Did not make any obscene gestures
Did not do anything that could otherwise be considered rude
I was not confrontational
I didn't do anything purposefully lovey-dovey with Brittany in her presence

and I'm a tool. 

Welcome to the world of Bethany-logic.  Every ex is a fucking dickhead, simply because he's an ex.  No other girls exist because acknowledging that other good looking girls exist would be retrograde to her mammoth ego, and she's always awesome and totally faultless, and everyone else causes the problems, because she never makes a mistake.

No wonder she can't maintain a relationship. 

Oh yeah....



No dude, you are the homo!



self explanitory



I like how I'm almost a foot taller than everyone in this pic... I can pretend I'm actually 6'6" head and shoulders ^__^

time to write some private entries.

A random student came up to me today, and said that there is a picture of me "going around" and wanted to know why.  I told her I had no idea what she was talking about. 

From what she was saying it sounded like it was a picture of me in the bathroom mirror.  No big deal i suppose; someone probably just skimmed it off facebook or Myspace.  Just annoys me that someone is going to that much trouble to try to make me uncomfortable.  Why don't people just act normal?  This is stupid. 

In other news, my Repo jacket is in transit, and should arrive soon!  I've got my boots, gloves, and working on the mask (just have to finish it).  Hopefully soon I'll have it all done. 

Haven't posted a public entry in this thing in a long time, but I'm going to do a quick one between classes. 

I've been working on a "novel" lately.  I use quotation marks because it's not a novel yet, but I'm already at over fifty pages.  I think that's a pretty big deal ^__^

My goal is to have the book finished by the end of the summer, and to have it published within the next five years.

I already have another pretty good idea for the next book I plan to write.

The countdown begins ;p

Today I went to a "Test & Tune" autocross event.  Was pouring rain the entire time, which made things quite fun and slippery.  

I can't really describe the course without using a picture, but it was fairly large (i thought).  The best time I saw from anyone was 48 seconds.  There were two other guys in comparable cars ( a Camaro and a GTO) and one guy in a corvette.  I did times pretty close to what they did.  

My first run was slow, second run was a DNF and on the third run I got 57 seconds, which i felt was quite good, considering last season i was just too afraid to do a good time.  

I did a total of 15 runs throughout the day, most ranging between 56-58 seconds.  Last run i did (which was probably the wettest), I did 55 seconds and took out two cones after crossing the finish line.  I woulda felt a little silly, but I had just posted my best time so i didn't care ^__^

Fun Day.