gibson22

 
I have mono. It sucks.

     Anyway, the last few nights I had the worst sleep ever. I would sleep for about an hour, wake up, hallucinate for a bit, and then go back to sleep only to hallucinate some more. And the thing that sucks is that my mind seems like it is purposely trying to annoy me and piss me off. For example, I was playing the Matrix on the PS2 and there was this one level I had to play over and over. In my dream or real-life hallucination, I had to keep waking up to the characters shouting at me because I kept forgetting to save my "game" before I went back to sleep. So, in my dream, I kill this guy, go back to sleep, but then wake up again when Morpheus complains that I need to learn how to save. Then I wake up and find out I have to kill this guy again.

I'm ready to be better now. Please.

A lot of stuff is going down.

     It's a bit ridiculous that I haven't updated in about five weeks, but I guess I've been writing stories more often now. I saw an awesome movie last night. It was called "Taken" and I want to be like that dad in that the movie. Seriously, that dude should win the father-of-the-year award and then some. The mom in that movie should also get the bi-yatch-of-the-year award. I wanted to smack her in her pie hole sooooo bad...
     Anyway, I didn't really so much break a heart rather than make it really confused. That girl Bethany I talked about last time was an awesome girl. She had two kids though and if I made good money that wouldn't freak me out at all. I don't though. So it totally freaked me out. Going into that relationship, I didn't feel too freaked out. In fact, when confronted with the possibility of going out with other people via a date offer, I felt guilty. I took it as the meaning that going out with her was the right thing. And in some ways it was. It made me a little wiser about things, but it didn't end too well for her.
     I wanted more time to myself because she wanted to do things everyday. I guess that was the first indicator that I wasn't as into her as I thought. My buddy Jarod made a good point that if you truly feel for a girl you'll want to spend as much time with that girl as possible. I can't see myself doing that for anyone, so I haven't found anyone who is even a tiny bit close to what I would consider "the one". I'm not really sad about it, i guess it just makes me realize that maybe there is something to a "soul mate" whereas I believed that a relationship could work with anyone. Maybe that is still true and all I needed was time with Bethany to make that happen, but she wanted more and I wanted to slow down.
     Anyway, I'm not too sad about it. I think she might not want to be buddy-buddy with me for a while, but that is to be expected. Maybe after a certain amount of time it will be better. Anyway, how is it that I lost my independence? Lost my job. Gotta rely on unemployment.
     I always told myself that living off unemployment was dispicable and wrong (welfare is even worse) but as I was calculating my benefits and watching my bank account going down bit by bit I saw that it's actually kick butt. Part of me just wants to be a bum and live off it, but I know that it's a first class ticket to being one of those trailer-dwelling, tabbacco spitting, rednecks with eighteen kids. I applied for a few jobs, and they are jobs I want. However, if I don't get those I'm going to have to apply for the crap that I promised myself I'd never do. XD

Wish me luck, guys! :D

Paul J.

My grandpa's death chair. Absolutely.

     I had a pretty darn cool grandpa. It was a bit strange how he approached death. It never really frightened him so I suppose I shouldn't be the same way. In any case, he passed away in this nice, comfy recliner (which is what I'm sitting in as I write this). He passed away neatly and everything; no mess or anything like that. He went in his sleep.
     My grandma wanted the chair out of the house because it creeped her out and made her think of him. I needed the furniture, so there you go. :P I like to bring people over, let them sit in it for a while, kick their legs out and just smile reeeeeeal big. Then I tell them my grandpa died in this chair and they look at me like I just kicked them in the junk for no reason. I reassure them that I am serious and they FLY out of the chair. It's the best thing ever. :)

This one goes out to my buddy, Frozenarrow. :D    

     I've been going out with this girl Bethany a few times. She is super nice, and very sweet. However, I am in a bit of a predicament. Due to a previous relationship that didn't work out so smoothly, I formed a certain way of approaching relationships. I like to think that I am very honest, but sometimes that is not enough. You have to present honesty in such a way that you convey to people that you truly care for them when the answer is something they do not want to hear.
     For example, I like this girl Bethany a lot. Things might grow stronger and she is just really super cool. However, I have felt these feelings before and they wore off after a month of my being in a relationship with my old battle-axe. XD Since then, I have believed the best way to approach relationships is to be open and date many people at once and encourage them to do the same. I invested so much time into my old ex that it was a big thing to break it off and then I had nothing. Just because things didn't work out it led to a bunch of pain for both of us and eventually a destroyed friendship as well as a relationship. We rushed into something and it just didn't work out.
     Anyway, my predicament is this: a friend of mine wants me to take out a girl that she knows. I certainly wouldn't mind it. Even if I turn out not to be attracted to this girl, we will still have a good time and enjoy each others company. I would learn more about what kind of woman I would want and she would learn more about what kind of man she wants. Then again, I like Bethany a lot and I wouldn't want to keep this a secret or anything from her. We haven't had the talk where we determined where our relationship is. I think we might eventually get there, but I certainly wouldn't want to go out with anyone until we had that talk. That just wouldn't be fair, I think.

On the other hand, I was thinking I might try to go for a more serious relationship with Bethany. If things didn't work out though, I would want to be her friend. She is kind to me and it is so great when you find someone who treats you respectfully. If she were to go out with someone, I would feel jealous for sure if I took to her, but I think I would feel that much better if she chose me over someone.

Anyone have thoughts on that? I hope this doesn't come off as piggish or anything. I just really think the best way to approach relationships is to have your pick of the litter and then you begin to realize that you spend most of your time with one girl and you realize that you love that one more than the others. :3

But Frozenarrow, I'll tell you how our date went through mail. It was great. :D

Peace, my homies. I must bust my ace at the gym.

-Paul J.

Hello there, folks.

     A few things have been going on a bit lately. I have finally finished reading the rest of the "Ender's Game" series and I am pretty ecstatic about that. The gym is going swimmingly well and I felt my arm as I flexed it today. It blew my freaking mind. I am starting to feel STRANDS of muscle now. I am one happy camper. I hope one day I will be able to rock guns like this guy.



     Anyway, I went out with a girl named Bethany a few days ago. She is super sweet, super cute, and very nice. We had some dinner at Mimi's Cafe and then went to see "Dance Flick" which I must say is probably the worst movie of the year. However, the company made it enjoyable. :D I finally got to go to the NTC (National Theater Company). Many thanks goes out to my good buddy Monica for suggesting the idea. We checked it out and it was pretty amazing. What they do there is improv comedy like on "Who's line is it Anyway". I even managed to get up there and participate in the sound effects game. Everyone was super nice.
     I'm starting on my diet again. I have been following it, but now I gotta be super strict. I'm actually losing weight already. I wonder if I had been eating just enough to keep me in weight loss limbo. It's starting to work now, so...HUZZAH!
     I went to family home evening with Jarod, Ryan, Chris, and John. It was a lot of fun. I can't possible ask for better room mates. I even saw Rebecca there which was pretty nice. We played dodgeball and I have to say I made some fairly good plays. :P However, there was this one guy who was putting his heart and soul into the game. I mean, he was REALLY going at it. He was trying to throw the balls as hard as he could. He was out to hurt someone, and I have to say I was impressed. Anyway, that is all for now. Been a while since I wrote anything and I figured I should.

I'll give you all the body stats when I get measured next.

-Paul J.

     My favorite fairy tales were not really fairy tales at all. They were fables. Aesop Fables, that is. These stories were the most epic lessons ever. They were like the original family friendly entertainment stories, complete with a life lesson at the end. In fact, there are some that I still use to justify some of my actions and prepare me for anything. For example: the grasshopper and the ant. It goes like this:

     Once there was a grasshopper who loved to lay about and enjoy the sun. He would often look with contempt upon the ants who scurried this way and that, gathering what ever food they could. One day, the grasshopper felt more boisterous than usual and decided to taunt one of the worker ants who toiled with lifting a particularly heavy crumb.

"I don't see why you waste so much time gathering food when you could eat it at the moment and just be done with it."  The grasshopper said, whilst leaning back against a blade of grass.

"Winter is coming soon. We are gathering food because when winter comes there will be nothing left." the ant answered.

"Stupid!" scoffed the grasshopper, "You can wait a little while longer before you even begin to worry. Winter shall not come for months!"

"Do not put off something for tomorrow what can be done today."  said the ant, turning around without another word.

     The grasshopper mocked the ant further and continued to enjoy himself. The days passed into weeks and the weeks passed into months. It was only when the snow began to fall that the grasshopper grew worried. He began to seek out food, but found all plants were past their time for bearing if they had not shriveled and died. Therefore, in the cold and with hunger, the grasshopper also shriveled and died while the ants thrived.

And ate his corpse.

The moral: Work before play.

Does that rock tits or what? I'll be honest. I added the "ate his corpse" part because I thought it would be freakin' awesomely ironic. I think I was right.

     Seriously, everyone in welfare needs to read this story and it will cause a massive surge in the marketplace. It's stories like these that I loved in my childhood and eventually shaped how I view things today. There are many classics. In fact, I have all of his fables in a book I bought at Barnes and Noble. Cheap price too. I suggest reading them. Very good stuff.

-The J

     So it seems like a lot has gone down so far this week. This typically happens on a three day weekend. I usually feel like I'm in the mood to do nothing and then everyone wants to hang out. Now, now, I don't mean to make it sound like I'm complaining. I mean, I know that if I had nothing to do this weekend I would have been playing games and complaining about how nobody was hanging out with me.

Really, I don't mean to complain. I had a great weekend and it is not even over yet.

     I forget exactly what I did on Friday. Except for one nice trust and friendship building phone call. :) I guess it was a preamble to the whole, entire thing. It is just like the beautiful and simplistic beginning to an ochestraic overture. It begins slow and then EXPLODES INTO A MASSIVE COLLABORATION OF BEAUTY AND SOUND! That means that the beginning was pretty forgettable, but then it builds up.
     On Saturday morning I got the chance to hang out with my good ol' buddy Gifford Newbury. This guy is seven different kinds of cool, and I feel bad because we hardly get the matched up schedule going on. I went to see Star Trek with him and it was my second time seeing it and his first time. It was a lot of fun seeing it a second time and it made me realize how the director gave a giant "screw you" to the fans. It was like that one television show where this character had all these life changing experiences only to wake up on the final episode and say "It was all a dream."

That's pretty much what the story writers did.

"Hey, check it out Trekkies. This is how we are going to mess with your world. We are going to have some renegade punks travel back in time and drastically alter the course of the future so that everything that happened on the show didn't happen. Suck it."

If I was a fan of the original show, I would have been very, very, very pissed.

     However, if this timeline shift somehow makes it so Jean Luc Picard and his savvy group of space travelers non-existent I will also be very, very, very pissed. However, in a writing sense, it is a brilliant idea. You have established and loved characters who will now have different challanges and dilemmas. Anyway, me and Gifford loved it and discussed how livid the fans must be. It's also funny because it is the most successful Star Trek yet, so it's not like they can really convince the writers to go back to form. Anyway, enough with this. I imagine you guys are squirmming in your chairs wishing I might speak on things not related to Star Trek...

You freaks...

     I went to the gym afterwards for a quick reprogramming. They took my measurements and told me how much fat I've lost. I was very pleased, because I was nervous that I must have gained. They said I had lost four pounds of body fat this month. Hoo yeah. I'm moving on down the weight scale. I was also at 29-30% body fat and now I am hovering a little over 25%. I was a very happy camper.
     After that was a good time too. Anyway, it has been several years since I fired a weapon. Jarod purchased himself a mighty fine firearm and he invited me to shoot it that same Saturday. Me, my brother-in-law Rob, and Jarod went to a shooting range. I'm not as good of a shot as I remembered myself to be, but I was decently consistant. Not to mention our scopes were a little off-kilter. Even then, it was a lot of fun. Note to self: I owe Jarod $20 for rounds...The experience made me remember that I have been wanting to get a gun for quite some time. I already have an idea of what I want. A decent PPK. I will name him Ike. We will share many good times together.
     After that was Derek's birthday party. It was good seeing his folks and other older friends of his. Derek also somehow let himself get talked into getting liquored up before I had got there. The poor guy looked miserable. Then he showed some freaky Wolverine-like healing factor and popped up an hour or so later. A ton of people came over, started getting a little crazy, and then I realized that me and Derek were probably the only sober ones there. It was an amazing experience from a body language perspective.
     I felt like Jane Goodall amongst the chimps. Unhindered by common sense, they were loosed from inhibitions and were so easy to read it was insane. I swear, I thought I was psycic for an hour and a half. Also, nothing is more able to boost your confidence than playing competitive video games against a drunk opponent. They were amazed at my coordination and seemed to forget that they had their own when it wasn't buried underneath a few gallons of intoxants.
     After a while I went home. From what I heard, there was much more spectacle to behold but I had to get plenty of sleep. I got up a ten, gave a good buddy of mine a ride, and then got ready for church. 'Twas a good service too. I'm getting in the habit of taking notes whenever people speak. It is more intellectually stimulating for me that way. For some reason, I got a little depressed as the night pressed on, but I am assuming I was just a bit tired. So, now, here I am, sitting at my mom and dad's computer. I'm off to Mesa tomorrow and I am going to ride with them. Monday is going to have to be my responsibility day, unfortunately. I need to change the oil, go shopping, clean my room, fold my laundry, and finally send my XBox in to get fixed. I should be hitting the hay now, so cheerio.

-Pauly J.

      I realize the heading for this particular blog might be a little misleading. No, I have not contracted the deadly T-Virus, er, I mean Swine Flu. In fact, I have been in impeccible good shape...except I am full of dirty fried chicken...I totally fell off the diet wagon for a week...
    
     It hasn't shown up on the scale yet, but it will. From what I hear you get three days or a week for all the crap to show. Yeah, I'll start eating more healthy tomorrow. I also told myself that I am on the internet too much. I'm trying to limit that down to half an hour a day. I'm kind of breaking that rule already because it is late, I am not tired yet, and I have nothing else to do. I can't play guitar because I'll wake up the room mates and I have watched enough "Star Trek: The Next Generation" to last me for a week.

That show is STILL amazing. Even the first season.

     We had ourselves a bit of trouble over the weekend. I was getting ready for Jarod's birthday party and when I was showering the pipes were all clogged. I thought to myself, "Ah, crap..." so I took a plunger to it...Eww...bad idea. Black water...among other things...came from the drain and I had to fight to control my lunch. I had an epic discussion with my room mates and the landlord what to do about it...so we bought the most hard core stuff known to man.
    
     You know that whatever you are buying is dangerous when they sell it to you packed in a extra thick plastic bag. After working on the drain for a while longer, me, Jarod, and Rob proceeded to attack that clogged drain with extreme predujice...Except that drain flared up, got really pissed, and decided to take us to court on a civil matter. It was like that one time where I mixed all these different chemicals together in Chemistry class. The black crap turned orangish...almost reddish, and it started fizzing up from the drain. Of course we were freaked out...and then it started to stink.

BAD...

     I kid you not, the neighbors called our landlord to ask if everything was going okay at our house. It smelled like Indian food wrapped in a diaper...rotten eggs with rancid chicken...ugh...you get it. We had to evacuate. Me and Jarod evacuated to my parent's place, and our room mates were pretty upset about it. For good reason. We should have told them. They came home from a movie to that.
    
     To make up for it, Jarod snaked the whole thing out and I scrubbed the bathroom from top to bottom. I also bought scented candles and placed them througout the entire house. We had to purify that place from evil, you see. What we did was a neccessary evil...we had no idea it was going to reek so bad.

     So, I went and saw the new "Star Trek" movie as well for my brother's birthday. It rocked pretty hard core. It was a very enjoyable movie. Action, adventure, cool special effects, and hot alien chicks all rolled into one package. It was pretty super sweet.

-Bon giornio

Paul

Just get out of the way and let American people do what they do best: work.

      That really depends on the mood I'm in. If I am totally lazy I will go for spontaneity. But the lazy spontaneity really works against you in the date setting. It really sucks when I go out on a date sometimes and I have to pretend to be spontaneous.
     
      I don't think any lady I go out with realizes how much work I put into being spontaneous. :) Yeah, it's spontaneous to them because they don't realize how many rabbits I have in my hat or how I conjured up some violinist to play us a tune while we eat dinner, but that is because I am that good. It takes a lot of time to plan spontaneity in a date-like setting.

     I like planning things out because for me it is more relaxed. I'll go over the plans with the girl and she will agree and we will come up with stuff to do. It's not nearly as romantic for her, but it is relatively stress free for me. I know it kind of defeats the purpose, but I'm just trying to point out that true spontaneity rarely happens. It's very nice when it does and a good time is had by all, but most of the time I find myself faking spontaneity.

"Whoa! A full course dinner table under the stars with a Mariachi band!? How did this come about!?"

With a lot of freakin' work. That's how.

      I am very lazy, therefore I like to plan so I use as little energy as possible. I am like a gelatinous ooze, seeping by while I wait for gravity to do the work. So, planning is not a big thing for me...and spontaneity takes too much work...I suppose I just like to let things...happen.

Yes, that is a good way to explain it. I don't like to put too much work into things. I think the universe will guide me in the right direction. I just gotta feel the flow...Aww, yeeeeeeeaaaaaaah....

-Big J

I went on an LDS mission to the Philippines. Our days off were the stuff of legends. You were in a mess of muddy cities filled with bamboo huts one moment, but then you went for a ten or twenty minute ride and you were in paradise.

The first picture is a pretty funny story. The bukidnon folks (mountainous people) climbed trees like none other. There were some who could do it barefoot and didn't even need the niches cut into the side of the trees. I, however, only had the balls to go up two steps. It hurt my feet. Bad. I have no freakin' idea how they did it. My buddy Tim Sedgewick just laughed at me and said, "Jonsey, you are so far from the top."

Right you are, my friend. Right you are.

The second picture was almost at the beginning of my mission. It was our day off and we went to an island called Jumabo. There was this little no-where town that just smelled disgusting and the water was just as nasty. It was green and clumps of filth floated through it. We couldn't shove off from shore for some reason, so we had to wade through that sludge to get further out to push off. Within, no kidding, five minutes, we were in crystal blue water and seeing down to the bottom about thirty feet or so. It is not as clear as those famous beaches in Hawaii, but it was the closest I have ever seen to it and it was amazing. Too bad our mission had strict rules about swimming. XD

It was all good. We were more than happy to do karaoke and play football on the beach.

-J

And here is the third art challenge issued to me by Frozen Arrow. She asked me to draw my worst fear and I have a mighty fine hatred of scorpions. I was stung by one twice in my life and I did not enjoy it a single bit.

Anyway, I think it's a bonus because it doubles as a profile picture. However, I am pissed because I showed it to Jarod and he said it looks NOTHING like me. I think that is full of crap. However, he could be right. I'm going to try and draw a hyper-realistic picture of myself. Dang, I wanna punch him right now.

It'd be different if he said, "The ears are off" or "the eyes are strange". Did he want photo realism? Geez, I drew this in half an hour. Everyone's a critic. Now I just want to kick people in the balls...

To bad I don't drink, because I need something to take the edge off. D:

Hello everyone!

It was a funny conversation that me and Dan had just last night. I was telling him about how my family got together for Easter and how much fun we all had. There was a point where my brother Steve wanted to get even with me because I came so late. He hugged me from behind and said, "Paul, I am soooo happy to see you."

Of course I was touched...

But then he started rubbing the side of his face against my cheek. He had stubble, which seemed to amplify the oddness. He started doing things that just me freak out. It was hilarious, even as he was doing it. Finally, it was too much gayness and I squirmed out of his hold.

There are many things we do to freak the other out. One time it was callled "goosing" and I was totally caught off guard by a full-handed butt grab. My eyes went wide from shock and everyone that saw was bursting out laughing.

However, this is where the chicken part comes in. My brother started doing something especially gay to freak me out after I paid him back. However, I sat there with a smile on my face and pretended it didn't bother me. The hilarious thing is that the situation gets more and more awkward for the both of us until one or the other stops. So, he just started laughing and said, "That's gross, Paul. Freak out or something!"

I had won that battle...and victory was sweet...Sweet like a Cadberry caramel egg.

There was another instance when I was at home and my room mates were all talking to each other while watching a movie. Our friend Eric was over at the time and he reached out and started rubbing Chris's ear. Of course, that was probably the first time in a while that he played Gay Chicken. He freaked out immediately and lost the battle. My friend Jarod just laughed and said, "Hey! A real man will let another man touch his ear!"

Not to be outdone, I started massaging his ear...slowly too. However, my man Jarod was like a stone. He didn't shirk, he didn't back down, he did not quit...The grossness I felt was very palpable. I began to feel it in my stomach when he did not react and I began to feel it in my fingers. I had never lost a game of gay chicken so badly. I admitted defeat and Jarod smiled in acknowledgement. I don't think I could ever beat that kid, though. He is the epitome of comfortable assertion. He'd let an army of scorpions crawl over him and he would not break a sweat. He's so freakin' hardcore, you have NO idea.

I should challenge Ryan to a game of gay chicken, but I don't know if that would be the straw to break the camel's back. It takes a lot of familiarity to play a game of gay chicken. We will get there one day, but until then, I have to hold off on putting out a challenge.

Anyway, Dan told me that there was such a thing as Gay Chicken. Needless to say I burst out laughing. I thought it was something that my family, in our sick and twisted minds, needlessly concocted.

My good friend Derek is pretty solid at that game too. If I hadn't been to the Philippines where there is an inordinate amount of male-male contact, I would have lost everytime. I had my arm up on the chair, but he leaned his head back and let his arm fall on my arm. I thought it would be silly to let it bother me since my arm was comfortable so I kept it there. I'm wondering if he thought of it as a challenge and he began to make his move. Or, he was probably being friendly.

The thing with gay chicken is that it needs escalation. Just as two cars speed harzardly toward each other in chicken, you need to raise the stakes with gay chicken as well. As cars get closer and closer, the actions become gayer and gayer until everyone in the room swears that they either need to intervene or get a sick bag. I think we ended it up as just grasping hands for a second, which I guess I could take as a symbol of friendship which was something I hadn't seen since the Philippines.

Do girls still hold hands? I know they did back in the day, but I don't think I see women holding hands anymore like they used to.

Anyway, the funny thing about a dangerous game of Gay Chicken is that if it goes far enough the entire room becomes involved. Everyone looks on and they act cool with it until someone finally loses it and says something, singaling their uncomforability. If that's the case, you keep on going until everyone else in the room bails out. If you are directly involved in the game and you abruptly back out, it means everyone in the room has beat you.

Gay chicken is more than just a game: it is a demonstration of how secure you are with your sexuality. It is a common rule of thumb. If you can do the gayest thing imaginable short of actually doing something just ridiculously and awkwardly gay you are totally straight. No question. It's like that movie, "Waiting" where they would do the ball gazing game and suprise the other guy with an unneccessary showing of junk. Then, after THAT guy showed his family jewels, he would call the OTHER guy gay because he had the misfortune of running across it.

Now, that is a game of Gay Chicken that I would never take a part of...The prospect of accidently seeing anything like that is just...ugh...Nonetheless, you get the odd logic that goes into such an ingenious game like gay chicken.

Therefore, this ends my disturbling long blog about Gay Chicken.

Hello everyone!

I'm back from the dead! OoooooOoooOoooh...BOO! I figured its been so long since I wrote anything that I might as well do an update. Also, nobody else writes on myspace anymore and that makes me sad. I always like reading what other people are up to as well as their crazy thoughts. But, by the same token it means you are out and living life as opposed to being hooked up introveneously to a computer. Kudos to you, and stop looking down on me.

I talked to a trainer at Pure Fitness today and he said he was going to hook me up with my weight loss photos which I am pretty happy about. Once I get them in my email I will post them up on all my pages for all to see. I was pretty happy today: I have been practicing form at the gym so that my muscles burn and tear in the right places. It's very hard for me to get it just right so I see the best results. Anyway, I got my chest down flat and I am very sure of it this time. In fact, I did it so well I was able to bump it up another weight stack. Hooray for growing buffer! I did my biceps as well and I think I did a better job.

I don't know if piano is like riding a bike, but in the long run I think it is. I remember the last time I got on a bike after I hadn't rode one in years. I'll be honest, I kinda freaked out the way a cat freaks out with he's walking around with tape on his paws. I was all stiff and swerving the wheel this way and that. Even then, it still felt sluggish and slow after I got going. Give me a truck anyday.


Speaking of which...


I totally got into a car accident and it sucked, as most of them do. I was on 51st and Greenway when it happened. I saw a yellow light and slammed on my breaks. I stopped about halfway into the crosswalk (NOT the intersection). I wondered if I should have gone on through, so I let off my brake. Mom says divine guidance saved me life, because no sooner than I did that I got slammed hard by a driver from behind me. She shot me through the intersection. If I had my foot on the break it could have flipped me over or ran me into oncoming traffic. I don't think she even put on her brakes at all. I didn't hear a screech or anything. So, my truck bed is all bowed up the the right rear of my truck is smushed in. I have to deal with that now. My brother Cody was saying that if the under carraige is dented it would be a wise move on the insurance company's part to give me a check for a new truck. But I love my truck. I don't want to say goodbye to it just yet. Anyway, I'll keep everyone informed on that as it develops.

Kinda funny, I just remembered I didn't even explain why piano is like riding a bike. First off, I seem to do way better at it if I hadn't played in a while. Another is that if you do it too much it grows oddly boring. Anyway, I am getting better at it and I have been keeping up on that.

I bought a bunch of guitar books that had most of the songs on "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band". It's pretty awesome, but the pieces are too hard for me still, but I practice them anyway. "My Name is Jonas" is actually pretty easy to play, thank goodness. My Oasis songbook that Sarah got me for Chirstmas is my main focus of study though. I love it.

I have been reading this book called "Ender's Game" that is just pure awesomeness in paper-back form. I was so impressed with it that I went out to get the entire series. That happened two weeks ago. I was actually on my way back from the book store when the accident happened. Anyway, that is pretty much all I have to say for now. Peace out, my friends, and rock on.

-Pauly J.

In all truth, I am completely for torture. People say it doesn't work, but I think that is completely bogus. Yes, they could be telling stuff just so they stop, but people usually misunderstand the method of how torture goes. First off, there is the interrogation. People who are well versed in body language will question the suspect. There are many ways to tell if someone is holding information. They could squirm in their chair, begin to sweat more and more, dart their eyes into the upper-left corner (which triggers the part of the brain that is in charge of creative thinking) and tuck their feet underneath their chairs, not to mention the many muscles in the face that involuntarily twitch when they consciously lie.

A main problem is that we do not have well-trained interrogators in that region. They may have a little knowledge in that area, but even then there is not much time lost. It's not like the suspect will make up a story on the spot that will put our men in danger. They will use reconissance to confirm what they heard. If the guy was lying, it means that he gets it even worse. But if he doesn't know anything? Even if he doesn't know anything, the brain is distracted as it tries desperately to cope with its new problems, therefore the suspect will not be focusing on hiding his body tells. He will be easier to read and obtain information from.

The average American just doesn't understand the process of interrogation and I don't think they ever will. Torture is incredibly efficient. That is why other countries do it, but we are trying so hard to impress the world with our mercy that we have lost sight on getting the job done.

I just had dinner with my dear friend Lezly and I realized that I used examples of my family a lot. I am a very lucky person, blessed with an awesome and amazing family. Just like me, they made a lot of mistakes, but they taught me never to repeat them. They give me a lot of great advice and they help me whenever I feel down. My family is definitely my personal strength...

As well as my cat-like reflexes, my ninja training, and this orb of power that lets me shoot lightning bolts.

Hooray! Another art challenge from Frozenarrow! The assignment? Draw a person or somebody that you look up to. I stepped out of the rules a little bit and drew two people. That is only because they are both the best and greatest people in the world. My ma and pa. Yep. Here they are, and in all their hippie glory as well.




This is an old photo from before they were married. It was when my dad was still in his band and my mom was his loyal and faithful groupie/fiance. I did it in good ol' fashioned pencil and paper. It was a bit harder than I remember. I'm a lefty, so the lead kept smudging over the page. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy it.

-Paul J.

I don't know what it is...I was on a long lull with entries and now there are several that enter in and I have something to say on them. Yes, everyone deserves a second chance given the situation. I mean, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't want to give a deranged Hannibal Lecter-like character a chance to run around whilst eating people and screaming "VINDICATED!"

Anyway, I had/have this friend. I don't know exactly where he is now. He has this father, who was a great guy, but was super strict. He flipped out, did a lot of stupid things and ended up living on the street for a long while. He got some cool stories about it, sure, but it was a pride thing. He would rather have lived on the street than follow the rules of the man who fed him. Anyway, in my high school years, he stopped by my house. We were friends since elementary school so he was pretty close. He needed a place to stay and without asking my parents (which I really should have done) I offered him to stay at our place.

At first it was cool having my friend around, but he smelled really, REALLY bad. He was obnoxious, he didn't clean up after himself, and I was starting to sympathize heavily with his dad. One day, I came home from work and found that some of my money on my counter was missing. It was thirty dollars in rolled quarters. I confronted him about it and he lied to me the entire time. Me and my mom did research on it and found out he used my money to buy a pack of smokes and to spend it on various vices. I hit him with that and he only denied it, but I could see he knew he was caught. He left for his new job that he got that day and he never came back.

I ran into him about six months to a year later. We greeted each other with a hug and he apologize for whatever happened between us. (Not so much for stealing, mind you, he never really confessed to that). He never restored the money he took either, but I let it slide. However, I will never trust him in my house again unless there is someone there watching his every move. I'll forgive him, but that doesn't mean I have to trust him.

Anyway, that is another entry from the journal of Paul D. Jones.

-I'll catch you all on the flip side.

I don't really do it that often. The reason for that is because whenever I throw caution to the wind I usually end up hurting myself pretty bad. The earliest moment of me throwing caution to the wind was jumping off my roof and onto a trampoline while my brothers bounced me higher. I backtracked through the air and fell off the trampoline. They said I was bounced as high as our two story house. Oh yeah...I was feelin' it. :)
The last time I threw caution to the wind was when I was at my last apartment. There was this really cute girl that I saw at the gym. She was really kind and friendly and she was Philippino. She happened to be next to another Philippino and she was brave enough to ask her what her ethnicity was. They had a conversation about the Philippines and I found out (by eavesdropping, mind you) that she left and was adopted by a family here when she was five. It was a shame because that meant she didn't know how to speak the language.
I was weight lifting in the other room and she passed by. I worked up the courage and said, with a smile, "You know, I was pretty interested. I lived in the Philippines for a while." She started asking me questions and it turned into a nice conversation. We probably talked for about an hour and we ended up exchanging phone numbers.
We both really liked each other, and it was rare to find a woman so easy to read. It was like we both knew what the other was thinking. I even went as far to ask for a kiss from her (it was the day after we met) which is something I had never done in my life. I take it slow, big time. We started seeing each other a lot, but in the end I wasn't really looking for a relationship. During our time together we were both very honest and talked about everything. I think it helped me realize what I would want in a wife: openness and honesty, yet consideration and tact. Even though we both moved on since then we are still great friends and hang out occasionally.

I think that was about a year ago when that happened. Maybe I gotta throw caution to the wind again sometime soon. :)

Me.