This place is starting to get to me. I don't really understand why it's fine and dandy to treat someone like shit if they posted a poorly formed opinion about a distant third party. Not showing the appropriate level of empathy for person far removed from the discussion? BADBADBAD !!! Not showing any empathy for person you're currently dealing with? That's awesome, keep up the good work! It baffles me, but it seems to be standard fare and acceptable.

So that space was about 2 months old, but I still don't have much to talk about here. I'm still working at the job hunt (I think I've almost got it in the bag, but in a completely different direction than I thought/studied for, which is terrifying) and I'm still living at home (fail). After 2 months, I'm so ready to move on. In other fascinating news, about 3 days after I moved to San Diego I picked up a new girl, who is well into being my girlfriend by this late date. So far everything about our relationship is pretty damned good. We're compatible on a lot of different levels. Some of those levels are deep...oh so deep.

I'm moving out of my apartment today and moving back in with my parents (at least for the time being, while I sort out the permanent job-career for the rest of my life thing). I've been living here for 2 years and 2 weeks almost exactly and I have mixed feelings about leaving and mixed feelings about moving back in with the folks. They're fantastic people and we get along well, so it shouldn't be a problem. But at the same time...it's my parents.

Anyway moving out has been a fun experience--my apartment feels surprisingly desolate already and I haven't moved a single thing from inside to outside yet.

So friday night I head down to San Diego from Santa Barbara to enjoy a weekend with the friends and the family. I get into LA, drivin down the 101 and around Sunset Blvd. I notice as I shift down into 4th that the car isn't accelerating very well. I'm downshifting because traffic is slowing down to a stop and I very quickly have to drop into 2nd and the car really isn't picking up now, I'm in the fast lane and I don't even have the acceleration to change lanes. When I drop it into 1st it won't go anywhere. There's no shoulder and traffic is kind of stopped, but I'm very stopped.

On go the Hazard lights, out comes the cell phone.

I'm not really panicking, but my brain isn't exactly working perfectly either, but I manage to call the cops to let them know what is up and get passed on to AAA. About 15 minutes go by (cars eddying around me, drivers insisting I'm an asshole because, presumably, I stopped the car to take an important business call) and the tow truck arrives, which has to be some kind of record and I get towed all the way down to Torrance to this Saab Dealership (my car is an ancient Saab). Naturally the dealership is out of business so there will be no repairs affected there on monday, but they do have a perfectly serviceable parking lot where my finally beaten conveyance rasped it's labored breaths awaiting it's life or death sentence. At any rate I got my ass back to Santa Barbara (I can't even tell you how lucky a person I am for having such amazing friends and family who were able to take care of me through my minor ordeal) and now I'm kind of stuck in the ass end of it.

With luck, the damage to my car will be minimal and worth repairing (1000 bucks of damage would be more than the value of the car at this point) and I'll have a car again soon. Til then or if not...well we do have an adequate bus system here. But...the bus.

Been playing faaar too much World of Warcraft the last few weeks, but I haven't had anything approaching a social life for a long while anyway so it's not like I'm losing anything. Other than precious precious sleep. At any rate it's my first real shot at endgame content and I'm jumping on it and it's been a lot of fun. The people I've been playing with are very smart with good senses of humor, so it really isn't a bad way to pass the time. Still, I think they play a bit more than I can really cope with--I lack WoW stamina...

Other than that, there isn't much worth posting. I am racing toward graduation like a burning corpse tied to a horse and there is still more education in my future--for the summer I'm taking an intensive review course which equals about 24 units worth of class time over an 8 week period. Fun stuff, really. After that I'll take the hardest test of my life and after that I'll start working for a living. In theory, after that life will improve somewhat as I won't have quite so many impending Events. I'm not complaining, I swear, I enjoy my life and I appreciate the opportunities which are ahead of me. I look forward to a somewhat more stable life; the chance to meet someone who I can date and know that neither of us will be moving 6 or 3 months down the line is an almost mind-boggling luxury.

I think I posted about my dog dying months ago when it happened, but I don't remember whether I mentioned that my folks got a new one. Also adopted from a doggy shelter, our new dog--Sophie, is cut from the same cloth as Molly (the dead dog) and is really coming into her own. Here she is, looking very pretty:




When we got her she was fat, in bad shape, nervous as hell and terrified of meeting new people and dogs. These days she is lean and healthy and looooooves playing with other dogs and people at the beach. I've been away from her for most of that time, so my hat is off to my parents who have done a great job of not just training and exercising her but also showing her the love she needed to become emotionally healthy.

Guess which day this was taken on. I think that smile looks pretty good considering how forced it is

I added a new post last night, and apparently it got eaten when my subscription ended and I had to renew. I don't feel like rewriting it, so screw you all! Damn you SG!!

Jesus, I haven't updated this in a while. The girl situation is still complicated as hell. I don't know what is going on there, but we're in love and trying to make the best of (now very) long distance. It's so complicated and so interrelated with very pesonal and private things (on her side, I have no qualms about talking about me on here) that I'm just going to let this part of the entry die where it is. I can only hope that in a few months I'll have good news to report on the subject, but for the forseeable future things won't be changing.

School is a nightmare right now; I'm trying to add two more classes so I can graduate this quarter, which would take me to a whopping 20 units, which is not my idea of fun (I'm lazy, I don't wanna work!!!). So the best case is that I have a shitload of work to do for the next couple of months, the worst case is that I have to postpone my graduation another quarter. I've had a headache for the last 3 days, but I'm starting to see some progress, so I really think I'll be graduating this quarter (thank christ).

I know full well who to blame, and he's the one who's currently bitching about his situation. I misread my requirements...whoops. At least I had the sense to double check.