I did it! I made it through the end of December without some retard saying something such as, "see you next year" followed by stupid laughter. You know who I'm talking about. It's nearly unavoidable. Some housewife or puberty-stricken moppet always hunts you down, poised for the fatal strike as you attempt to leave, thinking you made it out safely. "Leaving, Brian? Guess I'll see you next year. Hyuk, hyuk." Stabbings are more pleasant. But, I made it.

I spent my day scraping and painting my grandfather's house. I woke up around 9:30 and was there at 11. James and Papa were the only ones there. I picked up a brush and started at it. Justin arrived about 15-20 minutes later. We scraped, painted, and talked for about an hour. Then, James decided we needed more paint, so Justin and I drove to Wal-Mart. We bought four gallons ($12.94 each). James asked us to pick him up a chicken platter with cole slaw and mashed potatoes with gravy. So, we headed to KFC for that. Then, back in Norwood, Justin stopped by Subway to get something for himself. Finally, we went to Bojangles to get a sausage and egg biscuit for Grampa. I just got a sausage biscuit and orange juice. By now you're probably wondering why I write down all this detailed information. I don't know. I've always done that. I love to look back on old writings and read little, insignificant things such as those. So, anyway, we all went in for about twenty minutes to eat and then got right back to work. I was high on a ladder for the majority of the afternoon. Justin and I talked all the while, reminiscing about when we were younger. That house really needed painting. The last time it was done was back in 1988. Grampa tackled it during his six-month retirement. The hardest thing about doing it this time was the scrubbing and scraping before we could start painting. It wasn't that bad, though. Papa gave Nathan, Justin, and I some money but I sincerely didn't want to take it. I tried to get him to take it back, but you know how grandparents are. We're going to meet back over there again tomorrow at 9 of the clock.

I got up at 7:30am, took a shower and all that, and arrived at Papa's house around nine. I finished the window I had started yesterday and then got to work on the last side of the house. After all the painting was finished we started to rake leaves. If you saw the picture from yesterday of that tree, then you can imagine the enormous amount of leaves it produces. My arms are stiff and sore. It's worth it, though; I know Grampa won't have to do any of it. We're going to meet again tomorrow morning and should finish everything.

Happy Birthday, Kate!

I got out of bed at 8:30 and was at Grampa's house around 9:20. Justin wasn't there and Nathan shortly left for work (Food Lion) so it was just James, Papa, and I. We raked leaves for about two hours and then painted a few places that still needed it. I left for home around 12 to eat and watch the UNC-Kentucky game. At the half I went back over to Grampa's to help with what was left, but James had already finished and went home. I sat and talked with Grampa for a while and then went back home. My parents were going to visit him and check out the house around 4:30, so I went with them. James and his family had plans for everyone to go eat at Joel's Seafood, so we didn't get to visit long before they left. Nathan and I were the only ones to stay behind. We talked for a while as he washed his car, maybe 25 minutes, then I went home.

My brother, his friend Evan, and my dad were going to Concord Mills (huge mall) this afternoon. I had nothing better to do, so I went also. We left at 1:45, got there an hour later, walked around for seventy minutes, left at 3:59, and arrived home at 5:07. I hadn't been to a mall in probably two years. You see a decent slice of America in malls. By that I mean a great variety; at least as opposed to what you would find here in Stanly County. I took a chance and ventured into Hot Topic. Yes, I know, I'm lucky to be sitting here today. Surprisingly, an impetus to buy something arose. They had a Boston shirt. Unfortunately the only ones available were sizes large and up. I wear a medium. Boston shirts at Hot Topic? I hope they don't become some kind of retro fad or something.

Around 6:30 this morning we had our first snow of the year. This is from 8:43am.

This thing I'm "watching" is a still from an animated short-film called More, which you can view at this website. I meant to post this a long time ago.

I would consider myself a packrat, a selective packrat maybe. I have at least half of all AIM conversations I've had since 2000. I was looking through some of them and I had forgotten how much Keri and I used talk. There were several days in which the file was over 2MB. That's a lot of text.

I started reading Slaughterhouse-Five again last night. I didn't get much out of it the first time I read it back in high school because I skimmed through it and relied on the Cliffs Notes. It's a very strange, good book. I liked this line: "The gun made a ripping sound like the opening of the zipper on the fly of God Almighty." Anyway, I read the first 50 pages and then started talking with Kate. That kept me up all night. I haven't been asleep at all. I've been up since 7:30am yesterday. I've so much reading to do now, too.

I can see Tuesdays are going to be my worst. I'm there from 8-3, and I'll probably end up tutoring during 3-5 within the next couple of weeks. Since today was the first day in all of those classes, we were handed our syllabi and then dismissed. This means that I had to wait 2 hours between each class. I guess that's better than sitting in class, though. I talked with several old friends I hadn't seen in a while. I also saw Tish and Jadonna. They hadn't changed. I opened my book whenever I could. I managed 22 more pages during the slivers of time I had between rekindlings. After I got home I read to page 90, where I stopped. I'm really enjoying it; much more than the first time around.

I finished Slaughterhouse-Five yesterday evening. I hate when I finish a book as good as that one. I miss it like a friend. I read the first few pages of Brave New World right after I closed that book. I can tell it's going to be very interesting.

I have to be on campus later this morning to tutor for the first time this semester and I'm still up. I'm going to hate myself for about 6 hours.

My friend Kyle showed me these. They're hilarious, especially if you remember them from when you were a kid, like I do.

My friend and I were talking about the president and his new ideas about space travel, and she put my thoughts into the perfect words: "Ladies and gentlemen, for my first trick tonight, I will launch a rover with one hand and sweep an entire country under a rug with the other." I just don't have the wit to think of such interesting ways to put things. Or maybe it's the intelligence.

Torpor is a persistent little noun isn't he?

What this fiasco needs is a different font. Let's try it for a while.

It was a good weekend in sports for this state. Carolina beat Connecticut and the Panthers won, also. It's strange; everyone around here is interested in football all of a sudden. I love it when someone who has never watched more then ten minutes of football says something about their local team that suddenly starts winning. Don't be a communist, buy a Panthers coat everyone. I don't watch much football, by the way, so you can take that sarcasm as you see fit.

Thank-you, Martin.

A piece of glitter in your Elmer's glue.

I need to go pick up a timesheet tomorrow.

There's been so many things flowing through this weird, rattled brain of mine. Maybe I'll write it all down one day and sell it.

I was called a guru yesterday by one of my instructors. That makes you feel good. I don't think I'm a guru of anything, even the field between my ears.

I'm still young enough to have hopes and dreams. I'm still young enough to fall in love in an instant. I'm still young enough to start over. I'm still young enough to feel like a child, in every way. I'm still young enough to call my father "Daddy". I'm still young enough to notice pendulosity beneath the showerhead, and pretend that I'm inside it. I'm still young enough, I reckon.

I'm ugly.

Well. I overslept this morning and missed my class. My one and only grade in it is now a 0. At least the lowest quiz grade is dropped. You should've heard me after I saw the clock. It's my own fault, and I sure do feel stupid. It makes me sound so lazy, which I'm not at all. I was up til 5 working on school related things. I guess I have to stop doing that. I hope Leslie isn't mad at me or anything. Oh well, it's not as if I was out having fun. I wouldn't skip a class for [just about] any reason anyway. I hate missing a class.

I need to go pick up a timesheet tomorrow.

You will be missed, Captain. And thank-you.

So, there's snow everywhere. It started Sunday morning and continued all day, turning into mostly ice around 4pm. Classes for today are cancelled, as are tomorrow's. My brother is out with Evan and Ethan. They've been gone for about two hours. I remember when it snowed a foot in 1988. I made a snowball and put it in the freezer. It's still there.

I've been talking with the pastor of a Baptist church in Salisbury. She wants me to build a Web site for them. She's supposed to call me today but the phone has yet to ring.

"26 January 06:28 NASA, United States" Someone at NASA visited my site? Am I going to have to save the world again? You guys know my e-mail.

I have a major crush on Bonnie Hunt. Actually, it's way past a crush. Actually.

I'm not sure if I like this.

I've been up all night. I was worried about all kinds of stuff and I just gave up on sleeping. I ended up watching Radio. I liked it a lot, even if it was kind of unrealistic and overly sappy. My mom's car wouldn't start a while ago, so I grabbed a scraper and some hot water and got to work on mine. It hates cold weather. No class again today, so she took it.

That pastor called me yesterday. We spoke for a while and she sent me a file with various information and some images. I haven't started on it yet. I don't think it will be too difficult. It'll just take some time.

Do not open anything that looks like this. I was wondering when that doom virus would get around to me.

Happy Birthday, Jenn! Wow, 22. Never thought you would've made it past 20 with all the drugs and drinking.

I went to Stanly to work on some stuff that's due next week but didn't get anything done because of something that happened as soon as I got there. Oh well, I'll have to finish it Monday.

If anyone is wondering what to get me for Groundhog Day, I would like bagpipes, a copy of "The Awakening of Intelligence" by Krishnamurti, and one of those bugs in amber deals.

Well, Carolina is 13-4. I guess I'm satisfied. They play Clemson today at noon. It should be an easy win, although anything can happen.

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl. I'm required to watch it, as are all North Carolina residents. I'd hate to be in Charlotte right now. You can probably smell redneck in the air. Every Toby Keith fan in the world will be going crazy. Don't you love how they support just about anything?

I guess I shouldn't say that about rednecks. They're not all bad. In fact, most of them are right nice folk. Some of my good friends are rednecks. Plus, it's not as if I don't have a little in me. That reminds me. My uncle John is leaving for Iraq soon. He'll be gone for at least a year. We're having a get-together tomorrow at James' house as a sort of sendoff. His birthday is February 2nd, also.

I haven't been able to snap my fingers with either hand for years. I injured my right thumb when I was little and the nail ended up coming completely off (but regrew, of course). I'm not sure about the left. Anyway, a couple of days ago I discovered I can finally snap my fingers again (right hand only). I've been snapping them about a million times a day.

My friend sent me this and I thought it so amusing that I decided to share. It's an old Texaco ad.

The "party" was nice. Eddie actually showed up. Everyone else was there except Jeremy and David. I don't know if the girls got into some cocaine before they came or what, but they were almost literally bouncing off the walls. James had recently bought a large television and the box was still in the living room. They had made a house of it, with doors and even windows. When you're a kid, huge boxes are just about the best thing you can get your hands on. I was jealous.

As some of us were going to our cars, John started telling of some of the things going on in Iraq. There was the story of two soldiers who stopped at a convenience store to buy drinks. One stayed beside the vehicle while the other went in to buy. The one outside opened his vest to let some air get in. As soon as he did, someone from the crowd put a knife through his heart. When the other guy came back he knelt beside him and took off his helmet, at which point a bullet sneaked into his brain. John told me other things that I "shouldn't repeat". That either means it's confidential or he made it up. One was the "fact" that two-thirds of all U.S. fatalities in Iraq are friendly fire. "That's something the public doesn't know about." Hmm. It's hard to know what to believe anyway. He's going to be in "AO Danger" (Baghdad), one of the worst places to be.

I don't know how UNC lost to Clemson. Ah well, like I said, anything can happen in sports.

Hey Kate, look at this.

I'm here for you, Fal.