Corey and I decided to close down EverLAN Gaming Center. Yes, it’s sad that my baby is ending, but it’s also a big relief. We’re selling off a bunch of stuff at good prices — [L=http://cos.everlan.com]http://cos.everlan.com[/L] for more details about everything. I’ve had a couple people tell me that this site goes down intermittently. If you folks would be so kind as to AIM me at `rand0m` when it’s down, I can hunt down what’s going wrong; my server logs don’t show anything awry and I’m kind of stumped. On another note, I want a pistol. Ryan got a Baretta 92FS (9mm) for his birthday, and it’s wicked. So sexy. So powerful. So simple and unrefined. Handling it is really enthralling … I think I might go shooting with him and Joe this weekend, now that I have free time. Which brings me to the next topic – what do you folks do with your free time? I haven’t had any free time in almost two years, and suddenly having at least an extra 40 hours a week back is going to be a shock. I already plan on joining the Y with Keen and James, but the rest of the time … I have no idea.

I had a helluva day. Lots of big things happening, which I will definitely post about here when they come to fruition. The Boss was in town today, so chalk up another free lunch! I also realized that my boss is super great. Yay for cool guys. I went out with Sammi tonight and had a ridiculously good time. Last time I went out with her I posted this “[i]I felt fake, though, and I think she knew it.[/i]” … well, total opposite. No pressure, no need to try and meet the standards of an idealized Sammi, just pure, unadulterated good times. It felt like old times when I wasn’t a beaten, trodden down, soulless husk of a man. Simply fabulous. On the walk home from seeing Sammi I came across a dude at a phone booth who was searching his pockets for some money to make a call. So I walk up and, being in high spirits, offer him my cell phone to make a call. Turns out he was looking for Domino’s phone number which I know by heart – 444-8888. He makes the call, and while waiting on hold asks me if I have any spare change. Now, this guy didn’t quite look like a bum, so it seemed a little odd, and I didn’t have any change and I told him so. I figured he was calling a buddy at Domino’s to get a ride or whatever, but instead, he proceeds to order three large pizzas! WTF!? He just asked me for money and then orders like $20+ of pizzas. It was quite weird. He gave my cell back and I went on my way, chuckling at how completely unexpected that was.

I got a speeding ticket for doing 50mph in a 40mph zone on Thursday night (St. Patty’s Day) while I was heading home from the store – westbound on Austin Bluffs near the storage shed place. I didn’t see the cop until he already on his way to pulling me over. Oh well – $120 fine & four points.. Almost 4 years of being traffic-violation free is quite the feat for me 😉 Of course I’ll reschedule the court date like 23890 times and try to get out of it. Maybe a DA will be nice and let me plea to something lower so my insurance doesn’t go to hell. I’ll update on that when it comes, but it’s not too big a deal. I had a helluva Friday; totally swamped from 9am until 1am. I started feeling like shit around 4pm, and it got worse for Saturday morning. I slept from ~5pm Saturday night unil ~1am here and there, and then from ~1am until almost 1pm today (Sunday). I never sleep that much, so I’m going to guess my body is not pleased. I have a sore throat and a stuffed up nose, which isn’t too bad. Hopefully it’ll pass quickly. I’ve talked to quite a few people recently about College VS The Working Life and people don’t believe me when I say I’d give almost anything to have a degree. They always point out that I’m successful, own a business, yada yada. That’s nice and all, but I don’t think they’ve had the opportunity to enjoy the artificial ceiling that I get to pound on — no degree means very little easy vertical movement. In a typical corporate environment, you get your degree, you get your job, and if you don’t totally fsck it up, you advance. Put in your time, take out your pay. For me, that doesn’t work … I can’t even get in the door to a MegaCorp without a degree, thus I’m stuck with small businesses, which invariably have low salary caps and don’t offer all the cool shit big business does. Woe is me. In summary, if you have a degree don’t /EVER/ wish you had done something else with those 4-5 years of your life, or else I might come slap you for being incredibly stupid. There are a bazillion people out there — myself included — that would give up everything they have for a degree, even if it came along with living in your parent’s basement and $50k of debt.

I decided that my aim list is far too large. Hence, I am deleting it right after I post this. Included on the new list will be: keen, james, fldave, corey, nick, craig, mark h, laura, my sister, rebecca, emily and bryce. If you’re not on there, you probably never talk to me on AIM. Message me and I might add you. Also, it’s a beautiful Tuesday afternoon and my day is going just swell — Even had a free lunch on the boss 😉

Shamelessly ripped from [L=http://pinklaura.blogspot.com]Laura’s Site[/L]: [b]FIRSTS:[/b] 1. First best friend: Eric Motazedi, Pre-Kindergarden 2. First car: 1982 toyota pickup, still drive it today 3. First real kiss: Jennifer Schmidt. I’m sure she’s a total babe now. 4. First screen name: I think it was slip42, but it could have been rand0m 5. First self purchased album: Mortal Kombat Soundtrack or Greenday, don’t know. 7. First pet: Tessy & Widey the cats. 9. First credit card: ANB MasterCard. Still have it 🙂 10. First enemy: Hmm, none that I can think of. I’m sure there is one somewhere. 11. First big trip: Mexico in Junior High. [b]LASTS:[/b] 1. Last cigarette: mmmm, ~4.5 hours ago 2. Last car ride: From EGC to Downtown and back, w/ Eric (aka Biggie) 3. Last kiss: Not in love, a couple months. Lovey kiss? Long time. 4. Last good cry: I don’t remember. Sometimes I try to cry, but I can’t. 5. Last library book checked out: Absolutely no idea. Probably been at least 5 years. 6. Last movie seen in theatres: Robots 7. Last beverage drank: Glass of water 8. Last food consumed: Homemade Casserole. Yumm 😀 10. Last phone call: James, about movies. 11. Last time showered: This morning at ~11am. I shower every day. 12. Last shoes worn: Black 5-eye Docs. 13. Last item bought: Hashbrowns and Casserole fixins from Safeway. 14. Last annoyance: James, with his unending “Burgerking” and “Goatee!!” 15. Last time wanting to die: Couple weeks ago when my Snazzy was not recognized. [b]SPECIFICS:[/b] 1. Do you do drugs: Nope 2. What kind of shampoo do you use: Suave Lavendar-smell & Pantene Pro-V Conditioner. 3. What are you most scared of: Failure or being alone. Toss up. 4. Where do you want to get married: Somewhere exotic, but that’s *FAR* away. 5. What are you listening to right now: Nothing, but Family Guy is on the tube. 6. How many buddies are online: 53 7. What would you change about yourself: My unending slavery. [b]FAVORITES:[/b] 1. Colors: Navy Blue. 2. Foods: Steak and anything homemade. 3. Girl names: Jennifer, Sarah, Samantha, Rebecca. 4. Boys names: Steven, Eric 5. Subject in school: Math & 6. Animals: Dog? I have no idea. 7. Sports: mmm, I like basketball and football. Typical guy, I guess. 8. Perfume: I have no idea, I’m not a girl. 9. Cologne: Safari or GAP Blue [b]HAVE YOU EVER:[/b] 1. Given anyone a bath: nope 2. Smoked: yep 3. Bungee jumped: no, I’d like to 4. Made yourself throw-up: Yea, a couple times. Only once from drinking. 5. Skinny dipped: Of course, teehee. 6. Been in love: Yea. I also fall in/out of love almost daily. Women. 😉 7. Made yourself cry to get out of trouble: When I was a kid, sure. 8. Pictured your crush naked: HAHA all the time. Sorry ladies. 9. Seen your crush naked: Yep, yep and yep. *fap fap fap* 10. Cried when someone died: Yes, quite a bit. 11. Lied: Used to lie regularly. Unfortunately I’m still damn good at it. 12. Fallen for your best friend: Nope. 13. Been rejected: HAHA all the time. Shit, this week even. It sucks. 14. Rejected someone: Yea … I was an asshole at the time & I was crude about it. 15. Used someone: Hahaha, of course. Everybody does and I’m no exception. 16. Done something you regret: Absolutely. Think about it almost every day. [b]CURRENT:[/b] 1. Clothes: Basketball shorts and a huge t-shirt. Just relaxing 🙂 2. Music: Nothing, just the washer doing it’s thing. 3. Make-up: I’m a boy, so no. But my hair is nice and soft. 4. Annoyance: Mmmm, laundry isn’t finishing fast enough. 5. Smell: Axe “Essence,” James just sprayed me. 7. Desktop picture: Nothing, dark blue. 8. Book you’re reading: Was reading Fountainhead, but lent it to a friend so … nothing. 9. Cd in player: CD Player? Who uses those anymore? 10. Dvd in player: “Out of Time” with Denzel Washington. 11. Color of toe nails: Standard pink with a sliver of white at the end. [b]LAST PERSON:[/b] 1. You touched: James 2. Hugged: Joe from EGC. He brought me nugz. 3. IMed: Emily, yesterday. [b]ARE YOU:[/b] 1. Understanding: Usually, but I hve low tolerance for BS. 2. Open-minded: Eh, sorta. Very entrenched, but I’m getting better. 3. Arrogant: I try not to be, but I’m very short with other people’s (many) problems. 4. Insecure: Not on the outside unless something really bad happens. 5. Interesting: Not particularly. 6. Hungry: Nope, just ate some casserole 😀 7. Smart: I was, but now I’m pretty base. I feel bad when I hang out with bourgeoisie. 8. Moody: Not at all — I have two moods, tired and not tired. 9. Hardworking: I’d like to think so. Especially when I’m interested. 10. Organized: Yep, in my own completely-unorganized way 11. Healthy: HAHAHAHAHHAA no. 12. Shy: Only when it comes to women. 13. Attractive: Not particularly. 14. Bored easily: I’m almost always bored. :-/ 15. Responsible: A little bit too much, I think. 16. Obsessed: Yea, and I really shouldn’t be. I should just get over some things. 17. Angry: I get annoyed, but truly angry? Almost never 18. Sad: not usually, but it depends on how bad life is kicking my ass 19. Disappointed: In others, almost always. In myself? Almost never. 20. Happy: Sure. 21. Hyper: Only when I catch my second wind, otherwise I’m pretty mellow. 22. Trusting: Nope. Takes a lot of work to build trust with me, and it slips easily. 23. Talkative: Only if it’s interesting. If it’s boring or annoying, not at all. 24. Legal: Sure, I’m 18+ 😉 [b]WHO DO YOU WANT TO:[/b] 1. Kill: Mmm … nobody? No reason to let things eat me up. 2. Slap: Mmm … also nobody, at least not off the top of my head. 3. Look like: Almost anybody but me 😉 4. Talk to offline: Several women, so I can tell them to stop being dumb. Jesus, women. 5. Talk to online: Nobody. Talking to people online usually sucks. [b]RANDOM:[/b] 1. In the morning I am: Up by 8:30am. And waking up into another soul-crushing day. 2. All I need is: Work and someone to lover. One outta two ain’t bad 😉 3. Love is: Awesome, but maybe not worth it. I’ll know for sure on the next go around. 4. I dream about: How bad I fucked up my life, and how I can continue to make it better. :-/

So I went to the WBC/GSA Protest ([L=http://rand0m.org/gallery.php?gid=17]62 Photos[/L]) this morning at ~7:25am. Incredibly, as I was leaving the house I ran into Jacob, who is in the first photo. We walked around, I took a ton of photos, and we had a pretty decent time. Eventually we ran into Danny Dolan (yes, Brian Dolan’s brother!), and walked around with him tooI was pretty surprised at how few WBCers there were, and even more aghast that they bring their 3-8y/o kids with them. I was also surprised at how many police, SWAT and media were there. Here are a couple notes: [b]+[/b] WBC should just disband already – outnumbered at least 20:1 [b]+[/b] People need to stop blocking my photos [b]+[/b] A female priest is not referred to as ‘mother,’ but instead ‘preacher’ [b]+[/b] I was telling Danny to move as he was “ruining my composition,” and inadvertently insulted former Mayor Makepeace. Apologized & cleared things up, then got a photo with her 🙂 [b]+[/b] The police hate having their photos taken [b]+[/b] Why didn’t girls/teachers look like that when I was at PHS? I had some wild network madness happen on Wednesday morning. Basically somebody aimed their DNS at one of our Colo’d customers DNS servers, and it soaked up 20+mbps of bandwidth. I’ll have an article on it here in a little bit. – [b]update[/b] – [L=http://rand0m.org/articles.php?aid=nn-03112005]Network Nightmare – DNS Psuedo-DDoS[/L]. Ever since my primary employer started selling managed & unmanaged servers our business has gone haywire. I’ve had to order 4 servers in the past 10 days. Unfortunately, it takes Dell at least 5 days to bill/prep/ship the server and sometimes that it is just too much lead time :-/ Oh well, at least setting up new servers keeps me busy :-).

I don’t know if any of you folks know, but the Westboro Baptist Church (owners of godhatesfags.com) will be at our very own Palmer High School on Friday morning at 7:15am ([L=http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/Picket_Information.html]WBC Picket Information[/L] – [L=http://www.godhatesamerica.com/ghfmir/fliers/jan2005/Week_708_1-13-2005.pdf]PDF Flyer[/L]). They will be here in the Springs to protest the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA). The GSA is a Palmer High School club that aims to promote a safe environment for all kids. PHS/D11 administration decided to not allow it as an official club, barring them from using District facilities. The GSA folks went to the ACLU, who filed a lawsuit with the US District Court of Colorado about it ([L=http://www.aclu-co.org/docket/200315/200315_description.htm]ACLU Docket/Suit[/L]). Now, I am not one to love or hate gay folks. I do not approve of homosexuality personally. Despite that, the strong civil libertarian in me says that the GSA group should be afforded the same rights and opportunities as any other club. I know for a fact that multiple Christian groups exist, despite the offense to athiests / satanists / whathaveyou. The fact that the District has barred the GSA from becoming a recognized organization is clearly an injustice — prejudice, suppression and favoritism at it’s finest.

So some news about the store. EverLAN’s biggest competitor, Surf ‘n Play, decided to close it’s doors after … 7? years in business. Their timing couldn’t be any better. I think we’re going to see a HUGE surge in business. Shit, I might even get a paycheck. :-0 We had a birthday party at the store tonight. It went really well, and reaffirmed my belief that I don’t like kids. I mean, if they’re in trouble, or need help, or are going to hit by a car, sure, I’ll jump in. But when it comes to anything else, they’re just loud and crazy. And they run a lot. I don’t like it when chitlins are running around my store. They scare me. I have two great things today. The first one is quite snazzy and involves FedEx. Goddamn I love FedEx. They’re so … great. Eveybody loves FedEx. Not everybody loves UPS — they’re good and all — but when it comes to feeling great about getting a delivery, you can’t touch FedEx. econd, I made a casserole. No, that’s not all I did. I stayed in on a Saturday night and made a casserole. Last weekend’s wildness was more than enough for a little bit … I would have gone and done some stuff if some people hadn’t flaked out (*glare*), but you know, I’m kind of glad they did. There’s nothing like staying in, doing some good cooking and making the house feel like home. James says I’m domesticated, and I don’t mind it one bit.

I made hashbrowns on the George Foreman grill last night. I put the first batch on while the hashes were frozen, and that didn’t work out well. I nuked the next set while I was making some bacon, and then gave it a whirl and they came out awesome. The foreman and bacon ideas are good ones — thanks [L=http://www.komar.org/bbq/bbq_grill_recipes/moms_hash_browns/]komar.org![/L] I’m thinking I’m going to pare down my aim buddy list. I talk to maybe 10 people on aim, yet my list is at 144 — and this is after a couple attempts at slimming it down! I may just completely erase it and start from scratch. Not a bad idea. Have you ever done something particularly snazzy, and sort of expected somebody else to say exactly how snazzy it was, but it never comes? WOW yea. It sucks. Makes ya feel kind of worthless … like … why did I do that snazzy thing in the first place? What a waste of time/money/thought/everything. Monday sucked. As indicated by the previous post — which is nearly incomprehensible, even by me — I had a helluva time on Sunday night. Heck, I even got to rub a girl’s booty. It was a good time. Monday, however, was not so hot. I went out to Old Chicago’s before the night of liver-wrecking, and it treated me very poorly. I didn’t go to work on Monday at all, as I spent the vast majority of the day on the bathroom floor, throwing up every 20 minutes. That is not standard behavior for super-heavy hangovers, so I’m going to attribute it to bad food. I used to look down on people who threw up while consuming vast quantities of alcohol, but now that I have been that guy who can’t keep the liquor down, I will no longer do so. Why, you may ask? Because evacuating tons of alcohol from my already totally-plastered body felt sooooo good. Thank you, toilet, for allowing me to feel much better! I salute you!