Coming home

I got up this morning after sleeping in. I got ready to take off to Seattle. I got my truck packed. I unhooked my boat and then wen to the IS office and cleaned out the last few things. I am now totally done with that job. Just as I was getting ready to leave a call came out for a transfer. I went to the fire station but no one else showed up so I ended up not going on a call.

I went to Rosauers and got some lunch. While I was in there I saw a ten-six-seven. I think he is the same guy I gambled with when it was my birthday. He has blonde hair and blue eyes. He has a nice smile.

I got on the road and was trucking along. Things were fine until I got to Ellensburg. It was packed. At one point we did not move for five minutes. It took almost two hours to get from Ellensburg to the Pass. It was horible. It took six hours to get back to Renton.

I got home just as dinner was being served. It was BBQ spare ribs, baked beans, macaroni salad and rolls. It was very good.

I watched most of the final episode of MASH and then I watched QaF before finally retiring for bed.

Opening of my boating season.

Today was my boating day. It was not as nice as one would hope. I got up a little later than I wanted to. So I was speeding down the Albion road doing about twelve or thirteen over. That is when I was passed by a cop. He pulled me over. It was Chris. He saw me in the side mirror as he was walking up to me. He put his arms in the air. Then he came up and we chatted about random stuff a little bit. He said at the end that I was speeding. That was about it.

I picked up Russell and we went to Moscow to get the boat. He offered to call Chris (a different one than who pulled me over) to see if he wanted to come along. I didn't say no because I did not want to rock the boat, but I wasn't thrilled. We got my boat and I left a check for the boat guy.

I went back to Pullman and we picked up Chris. Any time Chris would talk to me I would do my famous one word answers. I don't think I looked him in the eye many times through out the whole day, and we were together for quite a while through out the day.

We then hit McDonald's on our way to the river. We launched the boat and went cruising around. While cruising in the boat Russell could sense something was wrong and asked me. I denied that anything way wrong. Later I did the thing I love to do to people in the front of the boat. I will make the bow dive slightly under a big wave getting the people up front really wet. There were periods of rain and windy weather. Mirenda was there with her family and Chuck. I took them out for a short boat ride as well.

Russell, Chris, and I went back out on the boat and I was trying to make big waves and I did a lot of circles. It was making Chris really sick. So I did them more and more. I could see him closing his eyes, and holding on tightly. He was hurting. Russell thought I was being a jerk at that point. He doesn't know the half of it. So finally I stopped and let Chris start to feel better. We sat and drifted for a while before finally calling it a day. We got the boat tied up and headed back to Pullman. We went to Russell's apartment and found out Layla needed some help moving. So Russell drove his car. Chris had jumped in the back seat of my truck. I drove off. I did not say anything to him. He said a few things. I didn't respond.

While at Layla's we mainly waited around and did some moving of furniture. I was in the parking lot and this Toyota truck pulled in with a ten-six-seven driver. He has dark hair, a cute face, and was well build. His muscles were large and well defined but not grossly big. You could see his pecks very distinctly outlined under his shirt. I spent a lot of time watching him.

After helping Layla, Russell, Chris, and I went to get the Pizza and movie. We called Ryan and invited him over. He suggested the movie Elephant. So we got that. It is one I wanted to see. It is a school shooting movie, something like the Columbine shooting. At Russells we ate the pizza for a while and talked before we finally started to watch the movie.

The movie got going and it was sort of low budget. At one point I made a joke about the two shooters being gay lovers. It turns out they did a shower scene where they kissed. I don't know if that is gay lovers or not, but it was a gay scene all the same.

In the middle of the movie we had paused it because Layla was talking about her brother and how he seems very gay. He is big into many gay icons and just sort of acts gay. There is a girl who is hot for him and he does not notice her at all. So I was telling her about the prank calls I use to make. She asked me to call her brother and try to find out if he was gay or not.

I called his house and his mom answered. She was very open and frank in her discussion with me. She asked who I was. I told her my name was Lamont. She asked if I knew what "Spikes" is. She asked if it was some place where people go to get drugged up. I said I did not know. Then she said that Zach went with three girls so she wanted to know if it was some orgy place. I was laughing my head off. Our conversation lasted more than seventeen minutes. She told me how Zach came back from vacation with a condom in his pocket. It was a red one. His mom told him that he needs to stay away from the red condoms. She eventually gave me his cell phone number so I could call him. Then she asked me to have him bring some milk home. After I hung up we all laughed so hard. It was funny as hell.

I called Zach on his cell phone. He asked my name. I told him Lamont Gerrard. He kept asking me if I was someone else. I kept telling him I wasn't. Then I started to tell him I wanted to talk to him about something. I told him I was some he could discuss things with. I started to say, there comes a time in everyone's life when... and he cut me off and said that he is not gay. I paused for a second and came back with asking him why he would say that. I asked if being gay is something on his mind a lot, because I did not say anything about being gay and he was quick to say something.

I then found out he was in a fender bender and the wrecker was there to get his car. I finished my conversation with him asking him to promise me he would get milk for his mom.

I called him back a little later to ask if he picked up the milk. He said he hadn't. I asked him why not. Then I heard him ask his mom if she wanted him to get milk. She said she had. I told him he broke my trust by not getting the milk when he promised. Everyone in the room started to laugh. He said he was going to take his friend home and then he was going to the store to get some milk. He said he was done talking with me. I said you're right, we have talked enough tonight. I told him I would call back.

After that we finished watching the movie Elephant. There was a shower scene were one killer got into the shower, then the other one showed up outside the shower door, took off his clothes. He got into the shower with the other killer and they kissed. Everyone joked about that.

After that was over Chris asked for a ride home. I drove him to Orton. He said a few things to me but I didn't really respond or I gave short one word answers. It was a pretty quiet ride. At Orton he thanked me for taking him out and said it was good to see me. I said "yep" and then left.

The big game day.

I got up and to Moscow a little later than I had planned but I was still there in time to go to the game. It turned out that four people went with me so I had a total of five in my truck. We headed out and went to Yakima. We listened to Ron White and T. Bubba Cletis on the way. It was pretty funny.

When we got to Yakima we went to Shari's for some lunch. The whole team was there. We packed on whole section. After we ate we went to the field. We started to get ready. We took the field at about six-forty-five and did some warm-ups. The game started. They scored pretty quickly. Then we scored a touchdown and got the two-point conversion. It was an ugly game after half-time however. We had a ton of turn over's and they capitalized. We got our butts kicked. I was able to get in a a couple plays at the end of the game. That was nice.

After the game we did a big team prayer. Both teams were in on it. After the game one of the guys on the Yakima team told a teammate that the team was behind it. It turned out his brother was killed in a car accident the night before. The kid had played his heart out in the game. He had an awesome game against us. After I got changed I was in the parking lot. I saw the guy whose brother had died. I went to him and said sorry to him. I shook his hand and then we had a friendly hug. He said thank you.

Everyone mounted up and we went to get gas. I got some pop and the others got some beer. We took off. They were having the beer. I did not like that, but I did not want to be a stick in the mud. I put in my country CD's one by one. We all sang along to the songs. We spent two plus hours singing along to the songs. They were all drinking beer.

In Othello we got some more beer for them and took off again. I thought about the fact that I had parked in front of the store and that they were buying beer. I was thinking that I should not have parked there because they may call the cops on us.

We took off and were about fifteen miles outside of Othello. I had been doing only five MPH over so we would not get pulled over for speeding. This car came flying up on us and I was concerned because he could pass us if he wanted. But he did not. So I thought it may be a cop. There was an open eighteen pack of beer in the front passenger seat. I said I though the car behind us was a cop. The others were getting ready. After following us for a mile I saw the lights go on. It was a cop. I pulled over. The beer was passed to the back seat. They hid it under a coat back there and hid the open containers. Two beers had fallen out when the beer was passed back. The guy in the front seat hid one in the glove box and there was still one of the floor. I pointed it out to him. He pushed it under the seat. The cop came up to us.

I rolled down my window. He said I passed him up doing seventy miles per hour. He then said "do you know what the speed limit is here?" I said "sixty-five". He said it was. So I was pulled over for doing five over. He then said it smells like alcohol in the truck. He asked if anyone had been drinking. The others said they had. He got my license and the license of the others. While the guys in the back seat were getting their licenses out, the guy in the front seat was digging through the glove box to get his. The beer was showing but the cop was watching the guys in the back. He asked if there were any open containers in the vehicle. The guys in the back said no. Then he asked if I had been drinking. I said no. He asked if I would do a field sobriety test. I said I would. He pulled out his pen and did a horizontal gaze nastagnus (sp?) test. I was told in the past my eyes twitch during that test. That is what they are looking for. So he thought I may have been drinking. He asked if there was anything wrong with my eyes. I told him that they twitch during the test. He asked if I would blow on a PBT. I said I would. He went to his car and ran everyone's names.

When he came back to my truck he had the PBT. He showed me is was zeroed out and then I blew. He hit the analyze button. It was still zeroes. He then said he was glad to see I had not been drinking. He again asked if there were any open containers. They others said no. He said you know you cannot have open containers? They said they did. I told him we were coming back from a football game. He said "the Seahawks?" I told him no it was our game versus Yakima. He asked how we did. We all grumbled and said we lost. Then he cut us loose.

We got on the road and took off again. I said "the Seahawks?" Everyone started laughing really hard. We all knew that was a dumb question because the Seahawks don't play for many more months. We continued to sing some more. Near Dusty we got to the last song on the last CD. Then we listened to rock the rest of the way. We got to Moscow and I drove everyone home. Then I went home myself. That was one heck of a day.

Traveling on Friday

It is the weekend of Memorial Day. This is a big travel day. I wanted to get an earlier start than normal. I went in to work at nine am and I was going by ten am. I was on the road. I wanted to get to Whitman County as early as I could to try to get some extra time to work. The roads were already starting to get a lot more people than normal on them. People were driving five MPH under the speed limit. The people passing those slow drivers in the fast lane were doing about two or three MPH hour faster. So hardly anyone was driving the speed limit. I was trying to drive my normal seven or eight over the speed limit. Once I got onto highway twenty-six it got a lot less packed and I was able to cruise along.

I got to Whitman County at about two-thirty. I went to check on one of the computers that belongs to the commissioners. He had not been able to connect to his e-mail. When I got there one of the other commissioner was there. I talked to him a little bit about my job in Bellevue and the money. Then a call came out for Colfax Ambulance for a transport from the hospital to the nursing home across the parking lot. I went on that. Then when we were there we were told of another transport. I want to get back to the County to get some work in. But we were already there. The transport was to Pullman. We waited for about twenty minutes and the guy was still not ready. So we headed back and I went to work.

When I checked on the commissioner computer it was working. I went to the Sheriff's Office and got one of the deputys' laptops set up with ACCESS access via Spillman. After that I went to the IS building and checked my e-mail before heading to Moscow for my football team meeting. I was thinking about skipping the game in Yakima but some people asked for a ride. I said I would give them a ride. So, I ended up deciding to go.

After the meeting I met up with Ryan. We went to see the Day After Tomorrow. It was a pretty good movie. It is not one I would necessarily buy, but I was not disappointed by it. After the movie I dropped off Ryan and his roommate and went home. I had to be in Moscow in the morning by ten-thirty.

Is Thursday always like this?

Today was pretty uneventful. I played some ping pong at work. I did order the Easton Synergy II softball bat. That thing is really expensive, but it was worth it to me. I can't wait to get it so I can practice with it.

I went to class and I did not park in a place where some can hit me as easily as before. We started doing stuff with Windows Forms using C# today. That was fun.

All day meeting

I spend the day at the apartment of one of the guys who is on the dev team at the place where I work. We were doing a "port mortem" on our last service release. It was a long meeting and several things were being rehashed multiple times. It was at times tiresome. We did have pizza and that was good.

After that I went to the office and did some stuff on the computer. My brother messaged me and asked if I could come and pick up him. He needed a ride to pick up his vehicle. But it was not ready and he was not happy.

We went to pick up his kids from school and then went to Burger King for dinner. We went to get his vehicle because they promised it would be ready. It was and we went to his house.

I watched Ace Ventura with him and we hung out until about ten pm when I went home and played with Amber and watched TV.

Gay marriage

I have been on a message board called G-Shack. It is pretty cool. I have been doing a lot of posts with a guy names Alex (Darkndsoul). He is from Canada. He is pretty nice. We have posted hundreds of messages back and forth. One of the subjects is gay marriage and whether it should be legal or not. I say no. He is for it. He said he has no problem with gay people and thinks that they should be able to marry if they want to. Several people posted things about being gay is not a choice. I said it is. I also say being a bisexual is a phase that gay people go through. I told them I would write something about that. Here is what I wrote:
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In order to fully respond to the reason why bisexuality is something that is a phase and not a stopping point would take a lot more than just a few sentences to explain. I will do my best...

First off there are some issues that I will like to talk about. As has been pointed out time and time again, guys are attacked to the idea of two women going at it. The case of women being attracted to two guys going at it is at best luke warm. From most women I have heard from it is not well received at all. Men are totally turned off by the idea of two men going at it with each other.

So the issue of men and women and their sexuality have a clear distinction. For women, the need to hide it is not a big push by society. In fact you could say it is celebrated and therefore not something that needs to be hidden and that people need to be afraid.

A man needs to battle many issues. First that his sexual choices repulse both straight men and women. He has also been taught that being gay is very abnormal. Something that no man should participate in.

When a man starts to realize there is something different about him and starts to realize that he is attracted to other men, he is repulsed by the idea. He will probably have girlfriends. He will do the straight life. He will make gay jokes. He will try to be the total opposite of being gay.

But as the feelings well up and he cannot take it anymore, he will explore those thoughts. He will be "bi-curious". In his own mind he loves women, but he is curious about being with a man. The only reason he is curious is because he is gay. He just doesn't want to admit it to himself. In fact how can he be gay? He is repulsed by the idea of gays going at it, and heck he even has a girlfriend.

So he explores ever so slightly the idea of being with a gay man. He will experiment. As soon as the encounters are over he will feel horrible. He will quickly realize that he really isn't gay, he really is straight. Heck he has a girlfriend, how can he be gay? He loves his girlfriend. But the love is not in question. You can love people of the opposite sex, but the question is about the deep attraction. Sure a gay man can point out the hottest chick in the room, but that does not mean he is straight. Anyone can point out beauty.

Well time goes on, and he again explores those odd feelings. Soon he starts to feel more comfortable with those feelings. He is willing to say he is bi. Only because he has not totally taken away the idea that part of his is still straight and that he is still normal.

The more time he spends getting more comfortable with himself with being a gay male and the more comfortable he is in the community, the close to gay he gets. He starts to drift more and more away from being straight. He starts to drift more and more from his girlfriend. It won't be long that he will no longer have a girlfriend. He may even get a boyfriend, but that does not mean he has totally accepted the fact he is gay, it just means he is getting closer.

Some people may only spend a few months being a "bi" male, some others may spend years, but the fact remains that he is still gay, and just not comfortable saying to other people that he is gay.

Just so there is an understanding a gay male can still pick up chicks and have sex. After all they are still men and love to get off, but the sex they have with a woman is no more than a mutual masturbation session. They only truth is that the man only feels the buzz in his heart when he is with the man he loves and that is why he is gay.

Now that I have said that, let me say this. It would seem that my argument would be claiming that gay people are born that way. I want to make it clear they are not.

What makes a person gay is the gay community itself. The gay person knows something is different about himself. He explores and tries to find out what it is. He is told it is because he is gay. That is why he feels the way he does. He does not believe it at first. How in the heck can he be gay? But the gay people tell him all these things. He starts to believe those things he is told. He starts down the pathway described above. He gets to a point where he has been told by so many other gay people that being gay is the way that he was made. He truly believes it. He does not try to fight the feelings nor does he try to change them. He conforms with the rest of the community and gets sucked in. When someone finally comes along and tells him that he could change if he wanted to, be has been programmed to be offended. So he will get mad at that person and dismiss what the person had to say. He will label the person a homophobe. The gay person has shut himself off to listening to any other explanation because he has been brainwashed by the other gay people.

That is why being gay is a "choice". Gays do not feel they can change because they were told they can't. They are fed all sorts of stuff that is not true and that is why people say a gay man can change. I admit, he can not just change channels and be straight. He has to unlearn all the lies he has been fed for years prior, but with work he can change.

That is not why I am against marriage. I think that is gay people want a civil union they can create their own system and not steal the one the straight people have. The legal benefits that marriage brings can be changed in the congress to extend to those with the gay civil unions, but they don't need to take marriage from the straight people.
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Someone responded and said I seem to know a lot about what someone goes through and suggested that I may be gay.

I had my C# class tonight. I was sitting in class thinking about what if someone hit my truck. I would have to look around in the parking lot on Thursday and Tuesday if they had not left a note.

After class I was walking to the lobby and I heard the guy who works there say something about someone hitting a black truck. My truck is navy blue, and in the dark it could look black. I was hoping he was not talking about me. I got outside and someone was waiting there and said "is that your truck?" She pointed in the direction of my truck. There were no other trucks parked in the area. I said it was mine. So I did get hit. There was a large dent in the door. So, I will have to get that fixed now. I was not mad. It was an accident and the person waited for me. I thought that was cool.

It is Monday, I can relax

Now that the busy weekend is over I can go to work and relax. Finally! There was not a lot for me to do today. We had a company meeting. We talked about the new people hired on. I now have a new boss. He was hired as the Chief Technology Officer. That is good by me.

I watched CSI: Miami tonight. It was the season finale. I also ran to Safeway to get some pop and ice cream that was on sale until tomorrow. I wanted to make sure I got it because I owed some to my step dad.

No rest! Gotta fill the day with Baseball and Softball

I got up about forty-five minutes late. Thank fully my mom woke me up. And I am glad I had gotten my cleats and uniform ready to go. I drove to the field and did some warm up pitches and hits.

Then it was game time. I played first base. We were playing against a team that was in first place. One guy on the team was a boner. He hit an inside the park homerun. Later in the game we did an intention walk on him and he whined. Then later our guys were playing deep on him. He hit a base hit up the middle. As he ran to first he said "I can place hit too." But he said it in like a whiner.

In the end we kicked their butts twenty-four to eight. Our team by far is the best. I went to softball practice. I did some more pitching and hitting. It looks like we will have a pretty good co-ed team to play in the Renton City league

Thunder football Saturday!

We had the Walla Walla Stars coming into town this was going to be a big game. We had to win this game to control our own destiny. I got to the Kibbie Dome a few hours before the game and rested in the locker room listening to music waiting for the others to show up.

People started to show up at about five pm. We threw the football around waiting to get ready to take the field at about six-thirty. It was a tough game but we ended up losing. That really sucked.

After the game I took one guy on the team home. Then I called Russell on the phone. He was having a cheese and wine party but I could not come over because I had to be in Seattle early in the morning. So I was off about out of town by eleven pm.

Another day on the road

I took off from work at about eleven like normal and headed to Colfax. I put in a tiny bit of time there but I had to be in Moscow for the football practice.

Following practice I went back to Colfax and hung out at the fire station for a while. A wild storm was coming in and we lost power in the town for about ten minutes. I finally went home about eleven to get to bed.

More C# learning

I like learning C# but I keep on missing softball games from my nephews. That is no fun. I would like to go to the games. But I only have a few more classes until I am done.

When the class was over I hoped to make it back in time to watch CSI, but I did not. So I settled for watching other TV shows before hitting bed.

SouthPark rules

Today is Wednesday and it is SouthPark day. It is fun to watch SouthPark and tonight I get to watch it.

I have always watched SouthPark since the very first episode back in the day. I have been a fan from day one. No bandwagon fan here.

I saw the movie in the theatre a couple times.

Calling on Mark

I called up Mark to talk about Jason wanting to play softball for us in tournaments. Jason was on our team last year. He is a really good guy. He moved to Bellingham this off season and now lives up there. I hope we can pick him up to come and play with us in Brush Prairie.

I went to my C# class. We are still working on console apps.

Today is also the anniversary of Mt. St. Helens erupting. I was online chatting with people who were not even born when that happened.

Seeing Jason and Suzanne

Today after I got off work Jason and Suzanne came down to get the stuff I brought back from Pullman. They stopped by just before dinner. They chatted with my parents for a little bit before hitting the road.

Jason told me that if we need players for tournaments that he would like to play with us. I am going to pass that information along to Mark. I would love to see Jason play with us. He is a lot of fun to play with as well as have around the camp site.

Rained out softball tournament

I woke up to a lot of hard rain and a call at Colfax fire. I did not go on the call, but I did find out the games are cancelled because of the rain. So I went to the IS Office and did some stuff. I met Brian M. there to get the stuff for Jason and Suz. I took off and headed to Seattle. I had some softball games with the ECSA league out here.

I cruised home to get to play in the softball games here. I played in the two games we had. We crushed the other team pretty well. After the game I went home and changed from my softball uniform and waited for dinner.

I watched QaF before heading to bed.

Playing softball with My Office

I got up and made it to Pullman in time for softball. I brought my boat along because I was going to take it to Moscow to get de-winterized. The problem I had when I tried to hook up the boat the cable for the lights was about two inches too short. I was going to have to buy an extension cable for it.

We played our first game against a team that beat us in the finals last year. They were from Lewiston. They again beat us. That really sucked. We had time before our next game was slated to started so Steve drove me to a few auto part stores to get the part I need for my boat.

We got back to the field and I met John G. for the first time. He is a really cool guy. We shared pitching and catching duties. He was impressed that I came all the way out from Seattle for the games. We were sitting in the outfield drinking beer and chatting Garrett was there but he did not have anything to say to me. I got the piece for my boat put together and then we went to play our second game. We crushed the other team.

Brian M. had asked if I could take some stuff back for Jason and Suz. I told him I could. We went out to Zeppoz after the games to drink some beer. I ran my boat over to Moscow first. Then I joined everyone at Zeppoz. I had some beer before going home and hitting the hay early.

Heading to Pullman for softball

After I got to work, I sat around for a little while before heading to Pullman. I wasn't in a huge hurry because we were not playing until the morning. Early morning.

I got to Colfax and did some work around the county like I have been doing nearly every week since leaving.

Because I was not going to play in the game on Saturday I decided not to go to practice on Friday night. I stayed at home most of the evening and went to bed early so I could make it to the softball games.

Berg decapitated on video

I worked on my project for my C# class. It was a long one but I was able to complete it. I got it turned into the teacher by e-mailing it to her. I played some ping pong and lost. I also went to the store and picked up some new spikes for my cleats, I got a new belt because my broke the other day, and I got some new baseball socks. I am ready for the tournament.

I went to the C# class and we worked on some more concepts. Then when I got home Jon was there and we talked a little bit about the C# class and some of the things that I have been doing. I took Amber outside and threw the ball for her a little bit before retiring for bed.

On the G-Shack.com forums someone posted a question about the Berg decapitation. Here is what I said:

Because you asked I will say... I was reading the forum on gorillamask.net. There were a ton of people talking about the war and how we need to leave... etc.

First off the war is justified and needed to be accomplished. So I will not argue that we need to get out of there.

Berg is not the first innocent person to be captured and tortured by terrorists. It has been happening for years. This is one time where the footage of it is caught. There is also a video I have were another guy is decapitated with a large knife. It was a lot more graphic than this because it was clear footage. You could see his pain on his face, listen to his pain, and at the end when he head was almost all the way off you could hear him still breathing through what was left of his neck. It was loud and sounded horrible. This is sad to see happen to anyone. It does not matter if the person is an American or not.

Who would not be outraged by an innocent bystander killed by a group of people for a "political" reason? It had nothing to do with politics. It had everything to do with those people being wacked.

Here are some questions that I have. Why was he detained and put into jail. I would assume that not everyone who goes through a check-point is detained like he was. What did he do or what did he have that would make him attractive to the check-point guards to detain him.

He account information from the U of Oklahoma was found on the "twentith terrorist" for the September 11th attacks. I am not claiming any direct relationship to him and the terrorists. Remember the whole idea of six degrees of separation. It could be as simple as that, but I am interested to know more about that.

What pissed me off was his dad getting on the TV and broadcast coast to coast saying that it was as much our fault as it was the people who did it. He actually said they the people who did it *may* be as back as Bush and Rumsfeld. Ummm.. What!?!?! The people who cover their faces, kidnap regular citizens, and then decapitate them on video *may* be as bad as Bush and Rumsfled??? Come on! He is using this opportunity to camera time to turn this into a political attack on the American President.

The only thing that I can point to as America being at fault for this would again be the six degrees of separation. We fought a war. We ousted the leader of another county. We allowed civilians to enter said country for the purposes of making money. He entered the county to make money. He was there only because what we did to clean up the area. He was a victim of opportunity. He would not be dead today if we had not ousted Sadam because he would have never been there.

If you are going to make those leaps, then I think we can also say it was capitalism that killed him, because he was there for one reason. To make money. If he was not a capitalist he would have not been there to make money and he would not be dead.

The bottom line is his dead was horrible, but not as bad as other people have been killed by terrorists. Could you imagine being in a large building and having a huge plane crash into it, being killed by burning alive?

Terrorists and people who harbor them are worthless scum. Their tactics of operation are low and unjustified. If they don't like what Bush is doing, or what Clinton did, or what Reagan did, then they should take it out on them and not the people who happen to live in America.

Think about this, that guy was killed, not because of what he stood for, but because in the whole world, where there is soil, he was born in the area that setup imaginary boundaries and called it America. There are invisible lines in the dirt and he was born on the wrong side of the line. That was his real crime in their eyes. They don't make distinctions on what you believe in or who you are, they only killed him because of where he was born.

The terrorists on September eleventh killed American civilians because of where they were born or where they live. It is not like they crashed a plane full of soldiers into an army base. Terrorists are going about the whole thing wrong, they are fighting the wrong people. I would bet that many of the people they killed protested the fact that we fought the first Iraqi war, and they would have protested this second war. They killed people that would have wanted the same thing that those terrorists want.

Think about the mentality of someone who is willing to strap a bomb to himself and detonate it. He knows he will die. He knows he will take the life of women, children, and innocent men who are just at the wrong place at the wrong time. These people have something screwed up in the head. I do not draw a distinction between them and the people like Harris and Klebold who shot up their high school in Colorado. They are terrorists who are killing the wrong people.

But I digress... does it suck that Berg was killed? Yes! Does it suck that terrorists kill hundreds of innocent people every year? Yes!

Going boating

I am pretty excited! I am going to play softball with the men from My Office in a tournament this weekend. That will be fun. I am waiting to find out when I need to be at the first game.

I helped Jon put his boat in the water. We took it out on Lake Washington for a little while. He has a twenty-footer. It was fun to get out on the water. Makes me want to get my boat up and running that much quicker.

After helping him I went home and watched SouthPark. It was a re-run. That sucked. But it was SouthPark, so I watched it anyway before retiring to bed.

Jews and Gays have something in common?

After I got done working today I headed to my class. We did more stuff with arrays and we got a project assigned. I am going to work on it when I can. It is nothing major, just pulling together a lot of the things that we have learned so far.

We have one guy in my class who is always asking questions that takes the teacher on tangents. It is like he is asking questions not to get the answer but to show off that he knows this stuff already. It is very irritating. I wish he would stop asking the questions. Many times the question has nothing to do with what we are learning.

I went and bought the Offspring album I don't own - Splinter. I also picked up Usher - Yeah as well.

When I got done with class I went to two stores to try to buy my kind of chew and neither store had it. I gave up and went home. I watched the movie School Ties. Through out the movie I could see that if you replaced Jew with Gay it would pretty much make sense.

The whole thing where they accepted him for him and they liked him, but when they found out that he was a Jew they did not like him. They said he lied about it. That is funny because they never asked if he was a Jew. So, he is supposed to say it up front. That would be like getting mad at a gay guy because he does not tell you he is gay when you meet him; however, at the same time getting mad at gay people who make a big deal about it because they are flaunting it.

No one will ever be happy with the answers you give and the things you say. You really need to be happy with yourself and live your life like you don't give a crap about other people because if you do, you will be unhappy.

Week three in a new job

I got into work today at about ten o'clock. I worked on some stuff from my C# class. There were two homework assignments. I got the first one done pretty quickly. I needed to create a simple application that would take input for hours worked and hourly wage and compute the pay for an employee. It also needed to compute money and one and a half for any hours over forty. I started to read out of a couple C# books.

I went to lunch with the other developers. We were driving around Bellevue. We were teasing the driver about her driving skills. We did make it safely back in one piece and that is a good thing.

When I got off work I just went home and hung out all evening. I watched TV and ate dinner. Monday is CSI Miami night. When that was over I headed off to bed.

BBQ with the bois

Today was Mother’s Day. I also had two softball games. I got ready for the softball games and went to the Eagle’s to meet mom and Bill down there. I got my omelet made up. I scarffed it down. Just as everyone else was getting down there I was on my way out the door.

I went to the field and warmed up with everyone. We had two games. Our first game I was one of the extra hitters. I did okay. One of my hits went for a triple. We won that game pretty easily. It was a team that beat us before I got on the team. They had won by one run. This time we crushed them.

Then the second game I pitched. My arm felt weak. It felt like I had been doing a large number of arm curls. I would bounce nearly every ball I pitched on the plate. Finally I looked at the coach, John, and use to of my fingers to tap on my left forearm -- signaling that it was time for a relief pitcher. He pulled me out and things started to get better. They other team had gone ahead on us. We were down to the wire. We needed to score runs. We got a little rally going. I had one sharp basehit and one pop-up. My next at-bat there were two outs and two men on. I wanted to put it down the right field line. I looked down there and someone was playing sort of close to it, but I thought that I could burn her.

I was waiting for the outside pitch. The second ball came up and it was outside. I swung at it and it arched toward the right field line and kept flying closer and closer to the foul line, finally coming to rest in fair territory. I only planned on running to second base no matter what. But my ankle was feeling okay, so I rounded second and make my way to third. I picked up the third base coach. He was waving me home, so I went running. My leg got a little wobbly and weak. I was about to have an inside the park homerun. The pitcher came to the plate to cover he was yelling for the ball. I look over and see the second baseman was just getting a hold of the ball. The second baseman turned to throw it home as I was crossing home. It felt so good. The whole team came out to congratulate me. We ended up winning and now our record is five and oh with me on the team. We are nine and two over all.

After the game I went home and took a shower before heading to Bell Town for a team BBQ. I got to Kyle’s apartment. We ate some hamburgers and hung out in the sun talking about stuff. I was there for about two hours then headed home where my mom was going to have pizza.

I got there ate pizza and watched the Simpson’s, King of the Hill, Malcolm in the Middle, and QaF before going to bed.

Tri City Rattlers are that good

Our football game time was moved up so when I got up I did not have time to go into IS to work. I went to Moscow and I was not feeling well. I decided not to suit up for the game. It was a good thing too, I would not have been much help to the team as my ankle was hurting so bad after a little while. I was part of the chain gang running the ten yard markers.

We played the Tri City Rattler’s. They ended up beating us. It was a shoot out. The scores on both sides just kept climbing. There was not a lot of good defense played in the game.

I met Phillip in my office after the game. We talked about a few things with the business and I gave him a check for his work that he had done.

I headed to Colfax and got a hamburger at Rosauers and went to the fire station to eat it. I saw Carl down there. He asked how I was doing. It was good to see him. I left to head Renton. I left a little before nine o’clock pm and I got home just before one am. I watched Almost Live before hitting the hay.

Back to SGC

I left work at about eleven-forty-five and headed to Colfax. I got there a little before four pm. I turned in my application. I talked with Bev, Dan, Sharon, and Brandon. I went to the SO to fix some stuff there and then to the auditor’s office. I was not able to complete the tasked I had hoped to complete there. I was going to change out someone’s computer for a different one.

I went to the fire station and talked with Ken for a little bit. Then I went back to the IS building. I checked my e-mail and then left for football practice. I got to Moscow. We did our warm ups and then ran some offense and defense plays. When practice was over I went to Ryan’s apartment and helped him move some of his stuff.

We went to Dairy Queen for dinner. Then back to his new apartment. I met his roommate and we sat down to watch Third Watch, but the VCR did not record it. So we watched some of the Ten-Point-Five mini-series that was on last week. I took off after a while and went to Colfax so I could get to sleep.

C# class

I was tired again so I got up and into work at about ten o’clock am. I had some donuts along the way. I used our issue tracking program to report that I finished my work.

I went to Olympic Boat Center to look at some boats. I found two twenty-two footers and a twenty-footer that I liked. Two of them were Maxum’s and one was a Bayliner. The thing I liked about the Bayliner was the seating arrangement. It was gears more towards the party boat atmosphere and hanging out. They all were in the low thirty-thousand dollar range. Not something I am ready to do.

I got back to work and played Brian a couple games of ping pong. I won. It is nice to have someone around here I can beat at ping pong.

I spent most of the rest of the day reading from my book for class. I am taking a C# class at BCC. My class is tonight. I went to the building at about six o’clock. I picked up my book and got assigned a computer. We spent time going over some code and information about IF statements and SWITCH statements. That was stuff I understood. It is just learning the new way of coding. After class I was heading home.

With all the road construction I could not get on the freeway in Bellevue easily. Plus the traffic lights were all turning red on me. I think I hit every red light from Bellevue to Renton. I was getting upset.

I finally got home. I watched SouthPark and had dinner before finally going to the bed.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

I got into work about nine-forty-five today. I found out there was a nacho bar opening up at ten in the kitchen. So, I headed in about ten for some nachos. That really hit the spot. I had a big helping.

Ryan invited those of us in development to a comedy show staring Steven Wright. I thought about it. I like Steven Wright. Then Ryan invited me to grab some lunch at a taco stand a few blocks from the office. The meal was good and it was cheap.

I told Ryan I would go to the show this evening. So he bought a ticket for him and me. I went home at about four pm. I had gotten everything done I was trying to get done.

My mom was making enchilada’s for dinner to celebrate Cinco De Mayo. I had Mexican food all day long. What a way to end the day. They were made from scratch. They were very good. I chowed on that and watched TV.

I headed out to Seattle and met up with Ryan downtown. We were at a really ritzy looking place to start. Then we walked to the Moore Theatre and watched Steven Wright. I had not seen him since about nineteen-ninety-four when he came to WSU. He was really funny. Afterwards we went to a bar a few buildings down. I had a beer and sat outside and chatted with Ryan and his friends. We ended the night at about eleven.

Week Two is underway

I am started week number two at my new job. There is a lot of drama that is happening around here. I am trying to stay out of it and just do my job. I got assigned a project in the morning to get some work done on the enhancement project we are working on.

Brian helped me get my computer set up so I could work on the things that needed to be done. I spent the rest of the afternoon working on it.

I went home and watched some TV ending with CSI.

First M's game of ought-four

I was working on my Issue for the loan program I work on. I spent most of my time trying to get this one section to work the way this other section works. It looks like it is going to be pretty involved. I was planning on leaving a little bit early so I could go to the Mariner’s game.

I talked with Jon and he got me to sign up for a C# class at BCC. I am going to take that and hopefully that will assist my learning curve and I will have some idea what is going on. My first class was tonight but I skipped out on it for the M’s game.

I met with Mike, his son, and father-in-law at the park and ride in Renton. We drove to Safeco field. We got there in time to get the Ichiro train car. The game was the longest one I have seen in person. It went just under five hours. It lasted until the sixteenth inning when we finally scored a run.

New softball career with the ECSA

I slept in because I stayed up pretty late last night after I got back from the football game. I had softball. I got up with about one hour to spare before I was supposed to be at the field. I got changed and headed out for the field.

I got there right in the nick of time. Then I found out I had to go to the other field and sign the roster there. Don and I went to the other field which was only a few blocks away. Then we got back and did some batting practice. I played some first base and pitched. Our first game was bad for me. My role was to be an extra hitter. I was popping up the ball it was ugly. I did not help the team too much. We did win.

Then we went to the other field location. We played two games there. I was starting to get sore and was having a hard time walking. Our first game I was the extra hitter again. I did not do all that well again. It sucked. We did win and that is what mattered.

Finally in the last game I pitched. I did okay pitching the umpire was not letting me pitch with a large arc. So, I had to give up some flat pitches. Luckily no one on the other team burnt us because of that. My hitting got a lot better. My first hit was a monster down the left field line. It burnt the left fielder. I got to second easily and then I got a pinch runner. I wanted to go down the right field line all day. The fielders all were playing close to the line. So when I got up they remembered my hit and all moved back and shifted towards left field. This finally opened the right field line. So I waited for the right pitch and turned on it. I blistered it down the right field line burning that guy. I came into second base walking. I was standing there and the catcher was running all over the place trying to run down the ball. I yelled out to relax because I was not going anywhere. The fielders near me laughed. I got a courtesy runner again.

My last at bat the guy who had been yelling out where people have been hitting the ball for me said “ANYWHERE”, everyone be ready. Some people laughed. I hit on up the middle but someone was able to make a play and got me out. But at least I got some good hits in. That felt good.

But this time, however, I was in a lot of pain. I only could walk slowly. Then I went home. I barely could walk and anytime I sat for a little bit standing up really hurt.

So I mainly stayed sitting. I watched the Simpson’s and Malcolm in the Middle before going to bed.

Moses Lake goes down

We had a football game in Moses Lake. I drove over so I could get there about three in the afternoon. I went to the high school to the field and asked a cop where the field was. He said the field we played at was in a different location.

I drove to the new location and started to get ready for the game. I threw the ball around and ran a lot. My ankle felt good. A guy, Blake, from WSU fire joined the team. He seems to act like he is too good to talk to me. I am not sure what he knows about me, but I assume most of the WSU guys know. If he knows about me I hope he does not spread it around the team. That would be a bad situation for me.

The game got going and we did very well. We ended up beating them pretty good. After the game I headed home. I watched Almost Live before going to bed.