Heil Hitler!

A few of us went to Cedarville yesterday to play some racquetball. I'm always joking that Cedarville University is like a nazi concentration camp... well, if that's the case... we met Colonel Klink yesterday. They have a super-nice facility; I suppose that they should, for how much that school costs. "Colonel Klink" was the guy at the front desk of the rec center. I would imagine that he's a pretty nice guy... if he didn't work at Cedarville. He made Larry take out his piercing!!! That was pretty funny. And, this dude specifically made a point to tell us that the courts had just been "hand-scrubbed" and the marks had been removed. So, we were all scared to touch the walls... fearing a death by firing-squad. Good times though... I'm not sore, much to my surprise. New Year's Eve party tonight... yippee!

Saddened by emptiness.

I boxed up most of my stuff at work today... 'twas a bit sad. There are a few things that still remain. Like, the pictures on my cork-board; "Manute the puppet"; the yellow propeller hat on my monitor; and some stuff in my desk drawer. I was talking to Rachel online today; and it came upon me... ... ... I'm really going to miss her and Courtney. They are probably a couple of my best friends. That's wierd. But, what can you do? I'm going to miss a lot of people... too many to name. I've been wearing one of the old Alternative Edge dogtags.... and I will continue to wear it religiously... to serve as a daily reminder of all my friends, and my start. This year has flown by... I can't believe that I'm moving in two weeks. Lord, help me.

Some Reviews.

Spiderman 2 This movie was pretty much what I expected. Almost completely CG (computer-generated). It wasn't a bad movie... but it wasn't good either. It was just... okay. I thought they did a better job of making things look real in the first one. I liked "Doctor Octavious". I really don't like Tobey McGuire or that chick that plays his girlfriend. As I said, the movie was okay... they just went overboard on CG. Call of Duty: Finest Hour (PS2) I'm not far in this game yet; but it seems like a good one. It also feels like it's going to be a long game. In this WWII game, you will play as several soldiers from the U.S., Britain, and U.S.S.R.. Already, I've noticed how much they've put into character development... telling a little about the character's history and personality. Finest Hour also offers online play which I have not done yet. So far, the graphics are decent for PS2... the gameplay is good... and the SFX and music are up to par for a Medal of Honor game.

Christmas and tidal waves.

I had a pretty good Christmas. Despite the insane amount of snow, I was able to hang out with family and friends... and that's what matters to me. I didn't want this Christmas to be all about the gifts that I was giving; so I didn't give any! Going shopping for people always makes me regret the holidays and I become somewhat of a "Scrooge". Gifts always ruin it for me. I enjoy giving gifts; but I never feel like they are good enough. It was a good Christmas. A tidal wave killed over 13,000 people. That's sucks. Yup. Over in Asia, the largest underwater earthquake in the world's history... started tidal waves the took out more than 13,000 people. You can read all about it here. These guys are good. Blackpulp offers some of the best website design that I've seen... and they are Christian. Which is abnormal... because Christians are infamous for putting out some the crappiest designs ever. Mad props to these guys!

Disaster Area

Clark County was declared a "disaster area". Now that is poetic coicidence. All it took was 20-inches of snow for someone to realize it. Pretty crazy stuff. We were stuck at home all day. We were supposed to go to Sabrina's parents house in Cincy yesterday; but ended up staying home. Sabrina wasn't too happy about... and frankly, neither was I. But, our safety is more important. I didn't want to get out there and get stuck or worse. So I shoveled snow... it sucked... and I hurt my back. (Because I'm not a man of great size.) We'll reschedule our trip to Cincy some other time. Today, we're going to the Ratcliffe side of the family. We're going to my grandma's house at 11AM... because my dad has to work tonight and tomorrow night. Then, it's off to Joel's house to spend Christmas Eve with what is like a second family to me. Also, I watched The BoonDock Saints yesterday. That is such an awesome movie! I won't lie... it has a bit of cussing in it. And, some brief nudity. Aside from that... it's a great movie. Two irish guys, who are devoutly catholic... take it upon themselves to rid the city of Boston of evil people. I highly recommend it.

Holiday Blogging.

Nobody has been posting in their blogs. Is this because of the holiday season? I would figure that with school being out; the blogs would be busier than ever. I figured wrong. Tomorrow (well... today), Sabrina and I are heading to Cincy to have Christmas with her parents. I'm not looking forward to it. Not because of Sabrina's parents, but because we got 20" of snow! I hate snow. I hate driving in it even more. I kinda feel bad... Sabrina and I don't have anything to give anyone this year. It's no secret that we're poor; and even moreso now that we're trying to save up our cash for any extra expenses in the move. I hate not being able to give Christmas presents. I know that people will get us stuff... and that doesn't make it any easier. Although, more "stuff" is the last thing we need right now. I need a snow shovel or perhaps, a wizard that will melt all the snow in front of my house with his "fire spell".

An early Christmas present.

Sabrina and I received an early Christmas present this year. It was from a lot of people... but primarily Courtney and Rachel. A scrapbook of pictures and memories for us to remember all the people that we love here at "home". I thumbed through it at first, just looking at the pictures and noticing the writings that were included inside. I had to wait until they left to read the letters... because I knew that tears awaited me. Also included was a binder filled with letters from all kinds of people. Yet more tears. Thanks so much guys... all of you. This is one of the best Christmas presents I've ever gotten, seriously.

It's true...

We all messed up Sunday morning's church service. It was pretty funny though. We all messed up something... except for Courtney. You can see who screwed up what on BigPru's blog. Since I'm feeling lazy today, I'm not going to put the code in... but you can use my links if you want to. The AE Christmas Party was pretty good. Derek dressed up as "Tinkerbell"... that was scary. I can say that he's probably the person that's going to carry on my "crazy" legacy. Good times. I get my glasses today. I gotta leave here in a few to go get my glasses fitted. Kinda cool. I was up until 5:00AM this morning. Just couldn't sleep. My stomach was itching. I don't have a lot of time right at the moment... maybe there will be more later... no promises though.

Men at work.

Today, I'm going to help Larry move his parent into his house. I don't think it will take to long. Although I'm not looking forward to it; because I'm tired, and it's cold outside. I didn't sleep hardly at all last night. I went to bed around midnight. I tossed, turned, and scratched my stomach for a couple hours... then got back up at 2:00am and played video games. I went back to bed at around 3:30am... tossed, turned, and scratched until about 4:00am. That's when I think I finally went to sleep. Last night, we went to the WFFC Staff Christmas Party. Pretty good times. Although somewhat emo. We had to go around the room and say something nice about the person to our left... and Tim Ogden was standing next to me. Of course, I got all emo when I start describing Tim; because I admire him so much. Then, everybody said some really nice things about Sabrina and I; because we're leaving. That was very emo. (I wonder how many times I can use that word "emo" in this post.) To make a long story short, many things were said... I cried... Sabrina cried... several other people cried. I hate crying. Okay... I gotta get going.

Red tummy disease.

Yesterday, I had the delightful pleasure of taking Courtney and Rachel to eat at BW3's. Neither of them had ever eaten there before... so I thought that I would treat them. It was a good time, just hanging out with them. This week I've been working on some desktop wallpapers and buddy icons for Faded Me. It's the first time I've ever made animated gifs. I don't think I'm doing too bad... they seem to be happy with them. Look for them to appear sometime on their website. Last night, I noticed that the skin on my stomach was irritated. I don't know what is causing it; but it has continued into today. It itches. This past Sunday, while I was playing racquetball... SOMEBODY was playing with my PalmPilot and left it on, unbenknownst to me. So, when I went to turn it on to check my calendar... it was dead. Thank you so much for that. Luckily, I had everything backed up. Jerks --- and you know who are! Also, on Wednesday night... all of the Coca-Cola at the church disappeared! That is just wrong. You guys know how much I thrive on Coke. You could've left me a couple. But NOOOOOOOOO. So, today I had to stop by the Certified/Marathon station and grab me a 12-pack. Leave it alone... it's mine!

Come on Jesus!

I'm pretty stoked right about now. Yesterday, my brand new 20" iMac G5 arrived at the church --- WooHoo! It's my starter computer for Keypoint. But, it's still BAAAAADD! 1GB of DDR memory... 250GB hard drive... 20-inch widescreen monitor... SuperDrive... 1.8GHz G5 processesor. I transfered all of my necessary files to it --- and only used 68GB of space. Also, Sabrina and I met with our realtor last night. We listed our house on the market at $82,900! That's like $14,000 more than we paid for it! Which is real good, considering we've only had it for 2 years. If it sells for that or a little less we stand to make about $10,000 from our house after everything's said and done --- which would be so awesome; because we could pay off some bills and stuff. Come on Jesus!!! Another thing... Jeremy from Faded Me IM'd me today and told me that they would like to have a monthly contract with me to do their design. This is a huge blessing for me! Because that guarantees me some income; plus I love doing work for them. Also, I talked to Pastor Casey today and they thought that they had found us a house; but it wasn't in very good shape. So, we'll continue to pray about that. But, he told me that they were planning on paying me something when we get there. He's not sure what yet... but "something" is good news!

Answering Questions...

A couple people have asked me questions in the comments sections; so here are your answers. James --- I don't mind getting glasses, I think I'll look very studious (Thanks Em!). And I will have to wear them all the time. It's not a major problem... just things are more clear when I'll have them on. Courtney --- Yes, I can take you the show. It's $8.00, plus any food or drinks that you might want.

Hey "four-eyes"!

I had been having headaches more frequently lately... so I figured it was because of my constant looking at computer screens. I had tried some reading glasses; but that didn't work. So, I've telling myself that I needed to go to the eye doctor while we still have insurance. Well, today I finally did it. Since I had NEVER been to an eye doctor before... I had to go through the whole thing. I have to say, it was an interesting experience. The whole "eye puff" machine that blows a little burst of air into your eyes... was different. All in all, it wasn't a bad experience. The staff and doctors were real nice. I did not like having my eyes dilated --- not only does it burn, it makes you not be able to focus on anything close up for about 3-4 hours. It turns out that I have a minor astigmatism (sp?) in my right eye. So I need to have corrective lenses. I went ahead and picked out my frames and stuff... the young lady there was nice enough to help me. They should be ready in about five days.

Weekend Overview

Friday night... Sabrina and I went with Mike, Amanda, and their respective families to Maiden Lane's "The Living Christmas Tree" program. In general, I don't enjoy going to things like this. It wasn't too bad though. It was lacking in some technical areas (of course that's what I would pay attention to). Missed audio cues, muted microphones, etc. However, there was a live orchestra... that was nifty. Wes Waldron was playing in it. Not too bad, for a Christmas program. Saturday... I wasn't able to go to Media Team this week; because I had to help my dad fix our shower. We've had like zero water-pressure for the last six months. Turns out, there was just a bunch of "gunk" in one of the parts, and also we had a bit of a leak. But, it's fixed now... and my shower experiences are good. Saturday night... We had the AE Staff Christmas Party. Good times. The white-elephant gift exchange was one of the best. I ended up with a "Tim Ogden Album Clock" that I rightfully stole from Nathan. I will definitely be on the wall in Arkansas. The "time machine" was awesome! And, Nathan and I were robbed at the game of "Scene It!". Sunday... Went to church. Sabrina wasn't feeling well at all. Pastor Jim's message was pretty good. I left pretty quickly, to get home and eat some pizza rolls. Sunday night... We went to SPYN worship night thing. That was pretty cool. I had my first experience at racquetball. I think I did pretty good. It's a fun game, although my arm is killing me... and it also shakes periodically when I'm holding something. I wish that I would've taken it up earlier. The soda machines at the YMCA costs $1.10... what's that crap about?!

Final Concert.

On December 18th, I'll be seeing Faded Me perform at The Gathering Grounds. This will be probably be the last time I get to see 'the boys' as resident of the great state of Ohio. Also playing, will be Phil Wing & Band (they desperatly need to find a name). This will be the first time that I've gotten to see Joel play with rest of his entourage. I have been able to see Phil and Joel play a couple of acoustic sets though... those are always nice. I should still continue to do design work for Faded Me, seeing how most of our communication is by email anyways. I'm curious to see what will come from "Phil Wing & Band" and Faded Me... both bands are filled with God-fearing, talented individuals; and I pray for the greatest successes for them.

A fine flyer indeed.

JAN28_FLYER
Originally uploaded by Josh R..

As some of you may know, Faded Me has contracted me to design occasional concert flyers. Well, I'm quite proud of this one. They wanted something to do with a marquee sign, since this particular show is at the Madison Theater.

Guess the dictator.

This may very well be an internet game addiction. I find it to be so much fun. Although, it's not so much "guessing the dictator" that is fun... it's trying to stump it on TV sit-com characters. It isn't right all the time... but 95% of the time, it is. It even knows some of the most obscure TV shows that I know of... even cartoons. I mean, come on... it figured out All-Star from The Snorks!!! I know, I know... very few of you will even know what that is. But anyway, I found it on AddictingGames.com.... which houses a plethora of fun flash and java games.

Various assundry things.

If you are using any internet brower besides Internet Explorer; you will not be able to see my new header. For some reason, it just doesn't show up. I've tried Firefox and Safari, and neither work. Fun times at Media Team. Last Saturday at MT was definitely one for the record books. We shared our feet, an interesting experience indeed. Also, the meeting with PJ was good too. I don't know why we never did that before. I was able to have Starbucks two days in a row. I had to take Sabrina to the Dayton Mall area to meet her mother, because they were going to Indiana to see family. Since her mom lives near Cincy and we live in Springfield; the Dayton Mall area is the central meeting point. I hate the drive, but I was able to get a Venti Peppermint Mocha two days in a row... so that's a bonus. I highly recommend it.

Idiot!

Well, Sabrina's mad at me again. She probably has good reason this time. I've been playing video games a lot this week. Mind you, it's only after she's gone to bed though. So, on one hand... I don't really see what the problem is. Then on another hand, I kinda see her point. I suppose that it's time to "put away childish things" (for a bit). So I guess I need to apologize for being an idiot.