Justice is tomorrow in Chicago at the Riviera. I am quite excited. It should be good times.

Okay, that's all you get for now.

other than that, i've been doing the usual when not at work. just chillin.. watching tv and playing games and hanging out with a few friends. mass effect is totally the shit. i could probably beat it in 5 hours or so, but i am planning on milking it (doing sidequests and shit) to get as much of the game done as possible before i beat it. i do love ps3 though, and as soon as i am done with mass effect, i am devoting my attention entirely to uncharted: drake's fortune.

other than that.. not much going on except the usual abusive media frenzy. here's the highlights for this month:

viewing:

shoot 'em up - i don't think i've enjoyed an action movie this much since sin city.
chuck - perhaps one of the most underrated new shows, and i think it is based off my future life
band of brothers - i started this mostly because of the WGA strike since nothing is on
i am legend - good stuff, finally a decent movie with will smith
salivating at the thought of sweeny todd
the boondocks season 2
american dad - i doubt there will be many more..
death sentence - kevin bacon trying to be charles bronson

listening
orbital - live at glastonbury 1994-2004
various monster magnet
powerglove
the flashbulb - new ep
dexter - music from the showtime original series
ghostface killah - the big doe rehab
daft punk - alive 2007
various white stripes
bassdrive

reading
stupid powerpoint slides for my 550 exam
game informer
high times
still trying to finish the cell

playing
bioshock - this is definitely my favorite xbox 360 game i've played all year, almost done with it though
unreal tournament 3 pc - mmm..
team fortress 2 - we played this at work a week ago all day and i realized how fun it is
halo 3 - random xbox live matches w/ friends
bought mass effect, but didn't break the seal yet until bioshock is over

watching:
family guy - the star wars episode was great, as was last night's
american dad - off to a great yet ridiculous start
dexter - if you haven't seen this show, start watching now
metalocalypse - 'nuff said
lucy, daughter of the devil
prison break - omfg, the suspense
weeds
house
CSI (vegas only!)
the kingdom - just saw this in theaters this last weekend, it was good. not jamie's best, but good. and jennifer garner is still hot--especially when she is stabbing sand-people in the face.

listening
oh no - dr. no's oxperiment
battles - mirrored
dethklok - the dethalbum
foo fighters - echoes, silence, patience, and grace
kmfdm - tohuvabohu
percee p - perserverance
various hybrid albums
madlib - beat konducta, vol. 3-4
ministry - the last sucker
queens of the stone age - era vulgaris (i just can't stop listening to this one)
various portishead stuff
soundtrack - resident evil 3: extinction (this one is done all by charlie clouser of NIN fame) - upon closer listening, i have found that clouser only did 4 songs on the album, all less than 2 minutes. the rest is garbage.
monster magnet - 4 way diablo (advance)

reading
case studies for business administration 550: management analysis (shoot me, please)
high times
still trying to finish the cell (stephen king)

1337
halo 3 - good christ, 4 player coop is good times
bioshock - wish i had more time for this
team fortress 2 beta (omfg!)

hello, friends. i am fucked up. soundgard, a toast to you my brother in crime.

two words: grand canyon.

i don't know. i got a hookah yesterday. smoked some herbs and "herbal blends" out of it and spaced pretty well out into the outer realms of time. it's fairly cheap and made of glass/metal .. but i didn't intend on getting something that would last me forever. i just want to learn what this ancient form of smoking is all about and see if i like it before i invest $300 in a proper device.

i've been playing a lot of world of warcraft with my limited free time. i stopped playing for a couple months after my account got deleted for giving my password to koreans. i started the same type of character again and at this time he's level 28. i'm slowing making my way back even though it's slow and stupid. but it keeps me busy and not thinking about anything else.

eric and i went down the old canal yesterday with the hookah and laid on some rocks near a waterfall and toked for an hour or so. after that, went to another friend's place and smoked with him. we all enjoy the hookah but i need to learn how to use it more efficiently. this was all necessary after my work week. for the record.

jenny called my phone a few times yesterday. i haven't talked to her since i was walking in downtown chicago but even then it was only for a few minutes and i didn't really want to talk to her while i was geek'd and going to a party. i tried calling her back after the first missed call but got no answer and i didn't pick up for the rest of the day. i really want to completely ignore her but i don't think i can. i really don't want to ignore her but i am. i guess i just need some time to think. i don't even know why i'm talking about this as it's totally pointless.

i love painkillers. sitting in a comfy chair and watching television for hours and hours. not sitting in this hard office chair and watching the nearly motionless lcd. at least it's an lcd. widescreen. 19" .. not terrible. it's not a samsung, though. crazyfoo has a 22" samsung. the same one i crave. one day i hope to have it. it hope to have two. that'd be so phat. i would never leave my room. i'm so jealous that he gets to stare at it every day. instead of stealing his pristine, samsung monitor, though .. i left the charger for my phone sitting in his living room. i knew it would happen. do i care? ask me if i care .. nah. i have a charger here on my desk at work. fuck it.

i've had this screen up for so many hours. i can't make myself write anything. i just want to go home and stare at some mindless television. i would say i want to smoke some herb but i don't. crazyfoo's weed is so much better than mine. in every possible way. his glass is even better. the mexican crap i smoke tastes like butthole. i remember at one point crazyfoo said we should change out the water in the bong 'cause it was starting to taste like chapped ass -- i had no idea .. it all tasted so wonderful and awesome .. i bet even if the water was weeks old i would still enjoy the holy shit out of it.

anyway, i have more to say but i think i'm about to leave the office. maybe when i get home and smoke some "weed" (i use the term loosely) i'll write some more.

so.. soul asylum went off without a hitch. we took the amtrak from milwaukee to chicago at around 5 and made it to chicago by 7. we bummed around the city briefly and took a cab ride to a shady looking area of south chicago where it aimlessly tried to find the entrance to the party. while doing that, we saw about 10 cops with vests and swat gear standing outside a warehouse at which point we were like "fuck". so we eventually found the entrance, paid and got in, and it turned out to be an absolutely huge and HOT underground warehouse. we weren't there for more than a half hour until the cops shut it down. at least they nicely asked everyone to leave, and didn't search or mess with anyone. so we stood outside of this warehouse for a good hour, hoping infared (the party promoters) would have a backup location. luckly, a kind dj offered us a ride in his SUV to the new location. it turned out to be the upstairs of a building on the north end of town and within a few hours they had setup the sound. the venue was also cool cause it had multiple chill rooms and such. jade + hyde threw down a bangin' set. there was also some great hardcore played, although i don't remember the name of the djs. we were all dancing our asses off, and by about 5 am we were all pretty beat. so we decided to hitch a ride back to the train station around 6:30 and haggardly chilled there until our train was boarding. it was actually kinda stressful, since we all smelled like a dead gorilla's anus and all the other passengers avoided us like the plague.

so we got back to milwaukee around 10, and fortunately my car was still there even though i had parked in a "no parking zone". thank god for that. we were all still pretty faced (except matt), so we just sat around watching tv and movies. eventually we got a pizza and it was delicious.

i really don't know what else to say. i have been continuing to move all my non-furniture shit out of my house so this weekend i can just concentrate on the big stuff. i don't think living at my parents house will be too bad. free food, no real chores or responsibilities, although i won't be able to come home and rage madd weed like i am used to. i now will have to wait until they are asleep. damnit. and i guess i'm not allowed to have people over at all either, but that's alright since it will now force me to go out more often.

shepeard. my home away from home. when i joined back into the ranks from my lengthly sabbatical, i was simply a paper pusher. my title was "librarian" and while there's nothing wrong with that, it wasn't what i wanted -- i don't even mind what the job entails -- but i want to play with the big toys. malarkey was the man holding me back with his totally idiot commentary and increasingly strong sense of incompetency. he went off and paid $8000+ for a two week training course. for what you ask? a 95% chance of becoming a microsoft certified systems engineer -- i've never met anyone so not deserving of that engineer title. but he passed (which is really funny/sad ..) but i knew something had to be done before he ruined me and the blood center. the backups had not been fully functional for months. most things were getting physically stored on remote media but overall, it wasn't smooth and without flaws. the day he got back, i uninstalled symantec backup exec -- profiles and all. he pissed and moaned all day and eventually left without even attempting to install the software. i log in that night and set up a temporary solution that sucked in comparison but he didn't even make an effort -- anyway -- i see different folders on the remote nas that are completely empty -- exchange being one of them. has exchange not been backed up? i confront him -- what's going on? -- all he can do is tell me that my backup "crapped out" over and over and then eventually blows the fuck up. he and my boss have a closed-door meeting and yelling ensues. he tried to say i'm sabotaging him and god knows what else. my boss calls him a liar and then he puts in his resignation -- he's asked to not complete his two weeks and instead pack his things and leave. i am now the systems admin. actually, before i only claimed network admin but at this point, just to spite the captain -- i'm calling myself systems administrator. love it. monday i'll find out exactly what's going to happen with titles/job descriptions and hopefully $$

but now .. work consumes me. all this week i've been working 11+ hour days -- first one in the building, last to leave .. it's insane but i'm getting a lot done and hopefully it'll show come time for promotion. one miscellaneous side note, i'm being asked to stop wearing hats and start dressing more professional :( as of now, i generally wear cargo pants and an un-tucked tshirt/polo/button up .. i'll deal. oh, and i have to keep fairly clean shaven.

i haven't ingested any chemicals for a long time .. many months. last time was in february i think. i think it's starting to show in my personality. i don't think i'm as fun to hang out with as i was while having great times with friends and pills. i over analyze everthing, i'm not as chatty, i feel shitty about myself in general .. it's not all withdrawl of course .. my personal life is somewhat in shambles.

i used to work with jenny at best buy .. i thought she was cute .. never really talked to her, i just stayed in my assigned spot and did whatever. long after leaving bby, my friend sean got me her number so i called her once in a while .. we'd go for weeks without talking .. then we started doing more, talking a lot on the phone, going out to eat, watching movies .. whatever. she made it pretty clear she didn't want a relationship but i kept ignoring that and just kept enjoying her company. fast forward to today and it's strange if we go for more than a day without at least making some type of contact. we've slept together -- she tells me i snore. but we've never had our clothes off -- and she never reciprocates anything -- but she never said she would -- still .. this is so confusing and strange for me. it drives me mad sometimes but then i have moments of clarity where i think we can just be friends. is that possible? can a boy and a girl be friends? obviously girls have no problem with that but i thought i was above normal guys .. i'm not like them. 'least i didn't think so. maybe i am. on top of all that, i think i fuck up a lot. i say the wrong things when i speak and when i don't speak; nothing tends to be worse than the wrong thing .. somehow i think i need the conflict. i doubt she's even aware of this battle raging in my head -- i guess it's better that way. she never signed on for my emotional bullshit. she also has two pretty cool kids (from the few times i've seen them) .. i wish i knew what was going on.

looks like no wemf this year. i was so looking forward to canada -- but i'm not worried about it. really just looking forward to hangin' out with my homeboy again .. eating at jj's so i can get a #12 (at least i think that's what it was .. it's been a while) .. it's a cool thing to know someone you can do lots of different drugs with -- LSD is on the top of my list. i want to take my current self out of the equation and try to figure out my life thru hallucination and music. july isn't coming soon enough.

it's 10:30 eastern and i'm really sleepy. i doubt i'll be going in at 6am tomorrow but i'm still thrashed from being awake so long. plus tomorrow is friday and malarkey is gone -- it can't be that bad.

also, i'm not going to proofread this. sorry.

otherwise, i've been trying to exercise a bit more by going rockclimbing. i've done it the last 2 weeks but not this week because of laziness and the fact that i'm probably going to local h in madison on thursday. i also plan to take some lengthy bike rides but haven't gotten around to it yet.

stellar spark summer @ the rave is on saturday, and i will be attending that to see richie hawtin, dylan, and a bunch of outlawed dj's. supposedly there is an after party for it on a boat in lake michigan until 7 am, so i'll probably try to go to that too. what else is worth mentioning? hmm.. oh yeah, the new manson came out yesterday. although i've had it for a few weeks already, i must say that it is quite a comeback album for him. oh yeah.. and the new chem bros.. we are the night.. fucking fantastic. oh yeah, also i grabbed the new beastie boys off the net.. it's entirely instrumental and great.

i've been lounging so very hard for the past couple days. jenny stopped by saturday night and we sat around watching movies and tv until sunday night. we did sleep somewhere in there -- she passed out on the chair and i tried not to snore on the bed .. we didn't even eat or drink anything .. just stared at my samsung. after she left i continued to do nothing and watch tv. i need to take a shower .. i smell.

the NMP (no malarkey period) has begun. two weeks of no co-worker i have zero respect for. it starts tuesday. i can't wait. hopefully eric and i will get tons of shit done and take advantage of having absolutely no idiot commentary. lots of overtime too .. i'm going to need it -- but that also mean if i've thought i've been at the office too much as of late, this is really going to be a treat.

anyway, everquest is finished patching. i should probably start adventuring thru norrath so i can once again gaze over the horizon of the karanas as i trek the dangerous paths leading to the city of qeynos.

holly ho dandy dar .. peace be with you, and also with you.