New Years Eve.

After staying up sort of late last night I let myself sleep in a little bit today. I did want to work at the jail today and get some stuff done in preparation for the new year. I got dressed in my uniform and headed in arriving just before noon.

I helped man control and get the doors for the officer doing the meal round. I had several tasks to complete today. I needed to print out three copies of our P&P's. I needed to create a mini-calendar for the year for us to write down when a unit takes late night. I needed to post some new signs about changes for the new year. I spent the day between printing stuff off, getting this ready to print, and posting stuff around the jail. We talked about the issue of whether jail is a deterrent or rehabilitation. Then we talked about a person who was an inmate who also is on the streets. One of the officers was looking for him.

At about four pm I left and went home to change out of my uniform. I was going to hang out with Ryan. I called him up. He did not have any idea of what he wanted to do. I threw out several suggestions and he did not say yes to any of them. Then he would not hold up his end of the conversation. It was like I was talking to myself. So I was getting mad about that and said when he knows what he wants to do to give me a call and I would hang out with him, in the mean time I planned on doing something.

I drove to Pullman and went to my office to work on transferring data from my computer to my new external hard drive. Actually the copying of the data was done. Now I needed to organize it. I had about one hundred gig of stuff to go through. It was scattered all over the place. Several things exist in more than one place so I had to consolidate it down and if something was a duplicate, I wanted to get rid of it. I worked on that for about four hours as well as chat with someone online from time to time.

At about eleven pm Ryan IM'ed me and asked if I wanted to come over and toast in the new year. I said I would. So I went to Dissmores and got some sparkling cider. I went to Ryan's. We listened to Art Bell and played Madden football. We are now in year two. We worked on getting new people drafted and setting our teams up in the off season to get them ready for the new football season. We worked on that until around three AM when I headed home for bed.

Playing trivia

Getting into work around ten I wanted to get any work done quickly before I could leave for the weekend. I was planning on going to Pullman and play trivia at My Office with Ron and Heather.

There were some new issues to work on and I got those underway. I also needed to make my way to Twenty-Four Hour Fitness and pay my dues and fees. I scheduled my first meeting with them for next Tuesday.

I got some gas and then drove to Factoria and stopped at my mom's store. She had gotten off early and went home. So I got lunch and hit the road. There was some snow in the pass but it was not too bad. The rest of the way was pretty quick driving, but there was snow on the field and shoulders of the road.

I got to Colfax and called Ryan about going to My Office and playing trivia. I talked him into it and he came along. I let him drive the truck down there. Dan and Michele as well as Ron and Heather were there along with a few other people. Ryan and I at first shared a trivia game system. After about two rounds Ryan wanted his own. We played until a little after eleven pm.

We saw Kristine down there as well. She came over and gave us a hug and said hello. After we left I drove because it had been snowing. We went to Zeppoz to say hello to Russell but he was not there so we drove to my office and I hooked my external hard drive to my computer and started to copy all the data to the hard drive.

I drove Ryan home and I drove home myself. I watched a movie on TV before finally going to bed.

Final touches on the bugs

The bug fixes that I had completed were all checking out. There was one problem with a page where I added new fields. The tab order was not set up correctly. I had to fix that. It took only a few minutes. Then there was one new issue that was discovered dealing with LTV values. They were not being correctly calculated. So I helped fix that because there were so many places where it was a problem. I got that taken care of in a few minutes as well.

I took off from work a little before five pm. I wanted to go to Twenty-Four Hour Fitness. I wanted to see what a membership would cost. I spent some time working with the sales manager. He talked to me about losing fat and gaining muscle mass. He told me about some of the things they offer on top of the club access that would help me obtain my goals.

After talking to him I am excited about the prospects of what can happen if I work to achieve my goals. We worked out a deal and I am going to meet with him tomorrow to close the deal and pay my money. The club is close to work. It is pretty busy at the five to eight pm hour he said but all other times it is pretty open.

After that I went home and my parents made pizza for dinner. I had some pizza then I spent the rest of the evening watching TV and chatting online. South Park had a marathon of episodes from this season. I watched a couple of those. I went to bed and watched TV until about two AM.

Finished all my bugs

With Jon's help last night getting me in the right direction I was able to complete that issue. There was about another couple of hours to do on that. Then I polished off the rest of my bugs and finished them all up. It felt good to have that taken care of. I spent the whole day with my nose to the grindstone getting the work done that I needed to get done.

We were having tacos for dinner so I wanted to get home on time for that. I had no worries about getting stuff done because I was already done so I went home a little after five pm. We had tacos just like expected. I spent the rest of the evening online and watching TV before going to bed.

The start of the end

This is the start of the final work week of the year. I started it out working on a problem I was trying to track down for the last few work days. I talked to Jon and he said he would help me with it. So I moved on to other VI issues. I got many of them solved. So life is cruising right along.

Following work I went home and had dinner. Then I went to Jon's house. I got there about eight pm. We started in on the problem I was working on early that Jon said he would help me with. In a matter of hours we ran down the source of the problem and got it figured out. The new option buttons I put in now work and put data into the database.

I am pretty happy about that. It does not sound like I got much accomplished today, but I think I did. I have been trying to get to a gym to look at joining. I was going to join the Rec Center at WSU. But because I am not going there now I need to find something else now.

The Day after Christmas Blues

After having gone to bed around three am. I was not ready to get up at ten am but I did. I went downstairs and my parents were working on the laundry and taking down the Christmas decorations. They wanted to do it this weekend because I would be around and be able to help.

I started by helping to take down the lights around the house. I did all the ladder work. Bill worked on rolling up the lights and packaging them for storage. After I was done with taking them down I helped to put them away in the attic. Then we got the glass insert for the screen door down. We installed that in the screen door.

I helped with the laundry. While that was going on I was watching the Seahawks. I also put my new hard drive in the external USB hard drive case. I hooked that to the laptop. I spent the rest of the day copying the data from my laptop to the external drive. I then organized it all. Finally I had a lot of files I needed to rename. There were many files that were a series with each other. But they were in separate folders or misnamed. So I got a mass re-naming utility and worked on renaming all the files to be more logically named. Then I put them all into the proper folders. That whole process took a long time.

Next time I go to Pullman I will have to do the same thing. I have more than one hundred gig of data that I need to sort and store in logical places. I am sure it will be a task that will take several days, but when it is done it will be easier to find things and it will be easier to back stuff up.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I was tired when I crawled out of bed this morning. I was up later than I had wanted to be. I went down stairs and my parents were fixing pancakes and bacon for breakfast. I stuffed myself with that. Then we went to open presents. I got a pair of boots to replace my old ones that I have been wearing for several months. I got a one-hundred and sixty GB hard drive. I also got some candy, clothes, and headphones.

I took my stuff upstairs and got ready for my ride along with Joe in Whatcom county. I figured it would be pretty quiet on Christmas, but I wanted to go anyhow and hang out with Joe. I took off around one-thirty to get up there. I made pretty good time. There was more traffic that I had expected on Christmas day, but it was not as bad as a normal work day. I got into Bellingham just before two pm. I met Joe at his house. I got my pocket knife that had fallen out of my pocket when I rode with him last time.

We went out on the road and started to drive around. We talked about some business stuff he is getting into. We pulled over a car doing thirty over. She got a ticket. Then we headed into the office. Joe had some reports to write up. We were there for a little more than an hour. Joe was invited to have some dinner at one of the other officers' house. The officer was a younger guy who was married with a son. We were on our way over when we were dispatched to a call about fifteen miles away. We drove to the scene. It was in a retirement community. All the houses put up a lot of lights. So there were a lot of cars driving around looking at the lights. It took us a bit longer to get to the house because of that. The other officer talked to the home owner about the complaint. There was nothing that could be done so we left.

We headed back over to the officers' house and had ham and other fixings. We were there for a little while eating and talking to the people there. Then we got called to something dealing with a juvenile problem. Joe deal with it over the phone. The other officer had a juvenile problem that he dealt with over the phone at the same time.

We went back out on patrol. We got called to an unknown problem. It was a long way away from where we were. So we drove there quickly. It turned out to be a verbal domestic problem. We were on scene for about thirty minutes. Upon the resolution of that we drove to the house of a deputy prosecutor's house. She was having a dinner for the officers. Several of them came over and we ate there and talked for more than an hour.

She had two really big cats. We were joking and laughing about stuff. The cops kept joking about tazing the cats. We would all laugh. Some people were teasing her about how big the cats were. One of the big cats went over to the kitty door that goes outside. The cat sat there looking at the door. Someone made a comment about it say the cat was thinking he wished that he was small enough to fit through the door. Everyone started to laugh like crazy. Then the cat started to go through the door and was half way through and stopped. Then everyone was rolling when someone said that the cat is stuck! Finally the cat went outside.

It was close to midnight and Joe was near getting off duty. We drove to Joes house. He checked out of service. I got into my truck and headed home. It was a long drive because I was so tired. Finally when I got home I crawled into bed and fell fast asleep.

Christmas celebration with the extended family

I did not have to work today because it is a holiday to make up for Christmas being on Saturday. I slept in to a point. My cold usually wakes me up sort of early due to coughing.

I started the day by sitting around the house. I got my gift wrapped that I bought for Logan. It was ready to go for the Christmas party tonight. I spent most of the day watching TV and chatting on the computer.

The party started at about five-thirty at Jon's house. I went down there and then Jon and I went to get the food he ordered from a Chinese food restaurant. There was a lot of stuff. There were nine large pans full of different kinds of food.

We took them back to Jon's and we all ate. We spent about half an hour eating and talking at the table. Then people made their way into the living room. We all talked about the governor's race and politics before we opened our presents. I got a DVD set of the Simpson's volume four. I also got a gift card for Home Depot.

After the presents we hung out a little tiny bit more. Then I left and went home. I got out of the nice clothes and went to Ryan's house. Ryan's brother Keith, a ten-six-seven, opened the door. I smiled and said hello to him. Then I went up stairs. Ryan's parents, Ryan, and I played Hand and Foot. We played three rounds. Ryan and I won two of them. It was about three am and I needed to get home to go to bed. I had the ride along with Joe on Saturday night and I wanted to get some sleep for it. They wanted to play some more, but I couldn't. Each game takes about one hour to play.

Teaching Ryan to drive

Today is like Friday as I do not have to work tomorrow. I went in and started to buckle down on the XPA problem. I am trying to trace the route the data takes from input to database. Several of us went to lunch to celebrate m birthday. Joan had a coupon and she let me use it for a free birthday meal.

When we were leaving Ryan called from Bellevue Square. I drove there to meet up with him. We walked around the mall for a little bit looking in a few stores. Then we drove back to my work. We played ping pong. I beat him two games in a row. Then I went to try to get some work done on the XPA problem.

Ryan came back to my cube and we started to call around to places about getting a Playstation-Two for Ryan's brother Keith. We were unable to locate one. We did get my gift for Logan. Ryan also got a few things for his brother and parents. We drove back to Ryan's place, because there were no movies open that we wanted to see.

I started to look at Keith's computer. He has some serious problems. As Ryan and I were checking it out Keith came home from work. Keith is a really nice guy. He likes to collect stuff. He has a whole bunch of record players. A lot of records. He has old video game systems as well. I looked at the computer. It needs some help, but it is a Windows ninety-Five system and we cannot get it on the network right now because it will not boot unless in SafeMode.

Ryan's parents, Ryan, and I went to Vince's for dinner. Ryan and I got a pizza to share. We stayed there for a while talking. When I got back I looked at Keith's computer some more. Then he had to get to bed. So I went up stairs and helped Ryan get a couple picture files moved to his website.

Then we decided to hit the town. I drove into Renton. I thought about letting Ryan drive the truck. We went to Rainier Ave near the airport. We got some stuff and I got into the passenger side. I tried to get Ryan to drive he wouldn't. He said he would if we were to go somewhere where it is not so busy.

So we drove to the Boeing parking lot where a lot of people have learned how to drive over the years. I started with Ryan just doing some driving, stopping, turning, backing, and whatnot. We spent about an hour in the parking lot. We worked on getting him to drive faster. In the parking lot we got up to thirty mile per hour. But he we getting nervous with that speed. After spending some time I told him to try to drive on the street a little bit. It was past midnight so I figured it would not be so bad. We got out there and we started to drive around the empty streets. If a car did come near us he would move way right.

Then we got driving some more. We got him on busier streets and busier streets. We drove down Rainier Ave. That was really nerve racking for him. Then I got him on SR-One-Sixty-Seven. He was real nervous at first. We went along and he started to feel better about it. We drove all the way to Kent from Renton. Then we drove some surface streets in Kent. Got onto Central and took it to One-Sixty-Seven again. We drove to Renton and merged on I-Four-oh-Five. We drove that for a few miles and got off at Sunset in Renton. We drove around the Highlands. Then he drove through Kennydale to get on Four-oh-Five again. We drove all the way to Bellevue and merged on I-ninety. We drove that to Issaquah. Then we got on SR-Nine-hundred. That took us back to the Renton Highlands. That is a narrow road with lots of corners on it.

As time went on he was getting better and better of staying in his lane and not moving to the right so much. It was funny he never thought he would like to drive fast, but after being on the freeway and doing as much as seventy he had a hard time not speeding on the other roads. He drove for about a total of four hours. He got a lot better as the time went on. He wants to drive tomorrow as well. I think we will do that.

What a difference a day makes.

I was closing in on my final five days of work for NetUpdate this morning as I got ready to go into work. I have been sick so I have been waking up before the alarm clock goes off. That is no fun.

I went into work and got cracking on the XPA fixes that I have been assigned. While I was working on the Shawn asked if he could see me. I went to his office and he said that the company does not want to lose me. They want me to stay. So they are willing to offer me some more if I will stay on. They said they are happy with my work and want me to continue.

I said I would listen. I did not know what they would come up with for a package for me. They first came back with a signing bonus of about two to three thousand bucks. That was not going to do it for me. If I did a signing bonus and I left before a year was up I would have to pay it back. I did not want to be under a contract like that. However I came back saying if I could get a seventy-five hundred dollar signing bonus I would stay. Shawn did not think that company could do it. But if I am going to get stuck here for a year I want it to be worth my time.

They did not go for it, but they offered me two choices. Either a base pay of sixty-five hundred dollars or a base pay of sixty thousand with a five thousand dollar signing bonus. I think I could have used the signing bonus money now, but I think having the higher base is better in the long run. Plus I would not be under contract.

I said okay to the base sixty-five option. So I will stay at NU and I will make in every paycheck the same amount that I use to make in one paycheck at the county. However I get paid twice here for every one time at the county. So I will pretty much have twice the take home than I did at the county. This should get me out to debt very fast. I hope that within a year I will only have one debt source. That would be my truck. Once out from under that, I will do things the right way. I will save for it and buy it when I can afford to pay it off. I will have twenty percent down for a house before I buy one.

I worked until almost seven-thirty. I came home and reheated dinner then watched Quintuplets. It is a pretty good show and one of the brothers on the show is a ten-six-seven.

I called Dave and we decided to go see Meet the Fockers. It was an okay movie. Lots of little laughs. Nothing very big at all for laughs. I think the first one was way funnier. One the way to the movie Ryan and I talked about being roommates. He said he was willing to give it a try. To see how things would work out. Then I told him that I turned down the job in Pullman after the latest raise.

A change of heart

This morning while I was getting ready for work I heard my phone ring. When I headed out the door I listened to the voicemail. It was Mike saying that they job was still mine if I wanted it. I told him I did. He asked if he had me one-hundred percent. I said he did.

I got to work and E-mailed my friends and told them I would be coming back. My first day back at work is the third of January. I felt good about it. I still think about the money I am turning down, but it is not the way I felt yesterday.

I went to my mom's store and I wanted to tell her I took the job. I also wanted to tell her how horrible and terrible I felt about making her feel bad. I really feel like a bad person for that. It was unfair to my mom. She only wants what is best for me. And she will miss me. I was a horrible person.

I went to work and went to tell Diane that I am leaving, after yesterday having said that I am staying. She did not come in, so I finally E-mailed to her and Terry. I told them about the situation. I left an opening in case they wanted to come back with an offer for more money or something else. I doubt they can do anything more. So I will be gone, that is pretty much a given.

I got work done on a some hotfixes that are pre-SRTwo. I got two of the three important ones done. There are two minor ones that I need to work on as well.

At seven I was meeting with my Aunt Karen and Jon to look through some of my dad's old stuff. I saw his elementary school grades. I saw some old pictures. Some of his military letters. There were two funeral programs for two of his good friends. He was in a car accident on December seventeenth back in fifty-seven with them. They died. I don't know anymore about it, but I figure I can look it up. There was also a ring from his first marriage. I guess he was married briefly before me married my mom.

Jon was giving me a hard time about leaving for the new job. He still thinks I am making a bad choice.

With a heavy heart I turned it down

I talked to Ryan online this morning and it seemed that he is allowing me to use his apartment only because I needed it and that he was not totally hip to the idea. I did not want to impose. So I told him not to worry about it. I also felt I did not have the support of my family.

I called and told Mike that I would not take the job. I felt horrible when I told him that. I felt like it was a mistake. I had a bad day. I was not much fun to be around. I also E-mailed Mike and told him the same and explained why I was turning it down.

The day was bad. I did not want to turn down the job but I did. So most of the day I focused on that and regretted my decision. I needed to get a new cell phone. My old one needs a fifty dollar battery. A new phone was thirty bucks. So I went to the Sprint store and picked one up.

When I got home my mom could tell that I was not in a happy mood like I usually am. She asked what was up. I told her. We talked about it. I made her feel really bad, and for that I feel like scum. It was totally unfair for me to make her feel bad. I cannot forgive myself for doing that.

She said that if I feel bad about turning down the job that I should call Mike and tell him I still want it if it is open. I expected that it had already been offered to someone else. But I called and left him a voicemail about wanting it. I told him to call if it was still open.

The day after.

Today is the last day I can really think about what I will do with myself and my future. I woke up in Ryan's bed. I had no hangover no problems at all. Ryan slept on the floor in the living room. I went out into the living room. We watched Swim Fan and then I headed out.

I went to my house and packed my truck and headed to Seattle. The trip went pretty fast. The wind was so bad between Vantage and Cle Elum that I used an extra quarter tank of gas. There was a semi truck carrying half of a house (manufacture home) that was blown over in the wind. I guess it had gusts up to sixty miles per hour.

When I got home I took care of some paperwork for selling my house. I saw a realtor on Friday about it, and signed the paperwork yesterday to start the process. He thinks we can get about forty thousand more than I owe on it!

I spent part of the night talking to mom, Jon, and my friend John about what I should do about the job offer. Bill said something and I think he is right on. Jon wants me to stay and make the big bucks. Mom wants to have me around, because she misses me while I am away. Bill said I need to go where I am going to be happiest.

I don't know about ten years from now, but right now I will be the happiest in Pullman. I will be back on the fire department. I will live at home. I will be around my friends. I have a goal to be a full time fire fighter by the time I am thirty-five. Being back in Pullman is one of the steps. But I keep going back to a few things. I will turn down big bucks. I will turn down my flex hours and freedom for more structured hours and dress code.

I will go from a known to an unknown. I still think that leaving is not the best idea in the world. I keep thinking about what I will miss out on. But I know what I will miss out on. I will miss out on the money. If I don't go back I will miss out on the stuff I do there. Sadly I still don't know the answer of the question, but come morning time I suppose I will have to answer the question once and for all.

I think in my heart I have already said Pullman. But I am afraid to say yes to Mike until I get my mom's and Jon's blessing. But I think that is unrealistic for me to feel that way, but that is the way I feel about it.

I sent an E-mail to Eddie. It is his birthday today. For years I would always contact him on his birthday. He is one day younger than me. We went to middle and high school together. We played football together. Our younger brothers were on the same basketball team. Eddie and I would go to the playground of the school the basketball game was at and we would just talk about life. It was some good times.

My Birthday!!!

Today is my thirty-first birthday. When I got up I picked up Ryan and we got his cats from the vet. We dropped them off at the apartment. Then we went Moscow. We started at Wal-Mart. I went to Staples and got Ryan a keyboard and optical wheel mouse for his belated birthday presents.

We went to the mall and walked around looking at some stuff. I did not get anything else from there. At Hastings Ryan got a bunch of CD's. Then we got lunch from Taco Bell. We went back to his place and played some Madden Football. We both got to the Super Bowl. He ended up beating me. I could not get my passing game going well enough.

I left Ryan's to wash my truck, meet the realtor, and wrap his gifts. I got the gifts wrapped. On the way to wash my truck I got a call to sign the paperwork to sell my house. I went to the office and signed the paperwork. It is official. I am selling my house in Colfax, if we can find a buyer. It will be on the market for one-hundred-thirty-nine-thousand-and-five-hundred dollars.

I washed my truck. It was in dire need of a wash. I saw after it dried that I missed a few spots, but it was better looking than it was before the washing. I went back to Ryan's after washing it and we hung out for a little bit. It was getting closer to six-thirty pm. That is when Kristine was coming over. We were going to the bar together.

When she got there Russell returned an earlier call. I went to his house to give him the presents for Ryan to bring in so it did not look like I was bringing in presents for myself. Kristine, Ryan, and I got to the bar at about seven pm.

Richard, from G-Shack, started a tab for me at My Office. That was his present to me. I thought that was very nice of him. For the things that have happened between us, it shows what a good person he is.

I got some beer to start with. I went back to a table with Ron and Eddie. We started to chat and say hello to everyone. The bartender came over and said I got four shots of tequila for you. I looked at her sort of funny because I did not order them but I had thought about it. She said you're the tequila drinker, right? I said I was. So when we got them Ron, Ryan, and I toasted and drank them down. I had two of them. A little bit later she came over and said they were for people at a different table and got us confused for them. I thought that was sort of funny.

Ryan would go up and get him and I another round of tequila's. We had a total of five shots he got for him and I. Plus the shots we had earlier. I was having a good time. This pic was taken when someone made me laugh.



For the evening I was not thinking about much other than having fun and being with friends. Mark showed up a little late like he said he would. I made my announcement about job opportunities. But before I went into that I explained how bad I felt for missing Ryan's birthday and that I had gotten him some gifts. His face turned red. He did not expect that.

Then I told everyone about the choice I need to make. They all seemed to think that I would rather be in Pullman, but that money is hard to turn down. Ron had to leave, but the rest of us stayed and played some pool and just talked for a few hours.

I was getting really buzzed. I started to slow down on my beer and tequila intake. The night wore on and we just hung out. At about one am we decided to leave. On the way to my truck we were getting ready to get in and Ryan stopped me. Said Happy Birthday and then gave me my birthday hug.

We stopped at Jack in the Box and went to Ryan's place. I was tired so. He let me sleep in his bed and he slept on the floor in the living room.

The day of decision... errr. Indecision.

It got up and went to Ryan's apartment. We took his cats to the vet to get fixed. On the way back we hit McDonald's for breakfast. I took him to his work and we made plans to meet up for lunch. I went to the place where I would work to talk with my would-be boss. He was not in. So I went to the fire station. I chatted with Chief Heston for a little bit about some options of maybe coming back in a few years. He said as a person who was trained I would be at the top of a hiring list.

I went to my office and worked on the computer and looked at my bottom line. I called George and talked to him about my choice. He said that he thinks that being in Pullman is the place I want to be and that I should do it. He said when he hit his mid-life crisis time he found he had an inversion of his priorities. Those he thought was very important lost that importance. Things that were not important became really important. That was something I thought about after we talked about it.

I went to get Ryan from his work. While I was waiting I talked to the plumber and digger Dan. Sounds like I may be able to save about three thousand bucks if my neighbor will let us trench. Ryan got to my truck and we drove down to Pizza Pipeline. I got some pizza and talked about my decision that I needed to make. I asked Ryan about using his place to stay when I am on call at the fire department. He did not have an answer.

I went to meet with Mike at Dana Hall. We talked for about an hour. I asked the questions about all the things that I could think of that would help or hurt my thoughts about going there to work. After our chat I went to my office again and started to think about my decision that I would need to give by five pm. I contacted Ryan on the computer and he did say that I would be able to stay with him.

After trying to run down the answer I could not think what way to go. I had less than two hours to make my life changing choice. So I called and got an extension until Monday morning. I got my nice clothes on and ready to work the Dell job. I got gas and called NetUpdate and let Diane and Terry know I still don't know the answer.

At five-thirty I showed up at the job site. I installed the new motherboard. When I went to boot the computer, there was nothing. So I called Dell Support. I spent a total of two hours on the phone with him. I ended up changing back to the old motherboard. We went through a lot of steps to try to fix the problem. After nearly two and a half hours we were not able to get it going so more parts will be sent out.

I went to Ryan's apartment. We made plans to get together. We got dinner at Domino's pizza. We went back to his place and played some more Madden football. We are both in the play-offs. I went home around midnight because I was going to have to help Ryan get his cats from the vet in the morning.

Meeting with Wilkins

I went to work for about two hours. I worked on one bug before I bugged out. I go underway and I realized that I had no real control over what was going to happen. I also took a Dell job that I got through the company I now sub-contract for.

I got to Colfax about three pm and the meeting we set up for four pm in Pullman. I stopped at my house and put on nicer clothing and combed my hair. I had to look nice for the Dell job, but I figured it would not hurt for my other meeting.

I got to the fire department and told the receptionist that I was there for a meeting with the Chief. I sat down. Then I found that Heston was going to be in on the meeting. That concerned me. I was worried I was hosed.

We started the meeting and the Chief said that he understands the right for freedom of speech but he can't have people internal to the fire department writing letters that look bad to the fire department. I explained how the letter was not meant to look bad, however, the editing by the Daily Evergreen took stuff out of context and made it look bad. He said what I say in public reflects on the fire department because I am a known commodity in the community. People know where I work.

He then said my moving around was of concern. I told him what had happened and the reason why I had to move when I did. I also told him that being on the fire department is very important to me. He said that if I choose to come back I can get back on the department, but I have to make sure I don't get into trouble. I have never been in trouble there so that should not be a problem. I guess no more letters to the editor.

So that made me feel great that if I choose to return I would get back on the department. After the meeting I went to my office. I was supposed to work on the Dell job tonight, but the parts had not come in like it was expected. So I changed out my clothing and went to Ryan's apartment.

We played some football. We got some food. I was going to give Ryan a ride to the vet tomorrow to get his cat's fixed so I had to get up early for that. I still did not get to bed until about two am.

Last full day of the week.

With taking Friday off and not working a full day tomorrow I put in a good full day of work. I still have the bugs I am working on and trying to get solved. I stayed at work pretty late getting stuff done.

At home I spent most of the evening watching TV and chatting online. I wanted to get to bed sort of early so I could get up early as well.

South Park had a pretty good Christmas episode. I have to say the "blood orgy" part was sick but it cracked me up.

Finding the bottom line.

I spent most of the day at work trying to find the bottom line of what the opportunity cost is of choosing Pullman over a huge raise. I also spent some time doing bug work as well. From the looks of it I would be better off staying here, duh! But would the intangibles be better. I would get five dollar tuition over there. I would have my friends, the coroners office, and everything else back.

But if I stay I can get my bills paid down and in a few year I could easily afford to go back to Pullman, however, it would take a while to build back what I had. Including waiting years to get back on the coroners office.

I talked with the chief at Pullman fire on the phone. He was pretty short and did not give me much time. He said move back, get settled and then come meet with him and see if something can be worked out. I called him later in the afternoon to ask to set up a meeting. I have one set up for Thursday afternoon. I think his answer will weigh heavily on my final decision.

I talked to Jon today about this as well. We decided to meet up and work on it with each other. I went to his house and we went through the money aspect and talked about taxes as well. After talking with him I will see about seven to eight hundred dollars more per month take home. However, should I have to get a place over here and what not, that money would be gone and I would be no better off that I am now.

That left me no closer to a decision that I was at the beginning of the day. I have decided that I will make a final decision on Friday. I cancelled my interview with Administrative Services. There is no way they could compete. I will spend Friday thinking hard. I plan on stopping by and talking to my would-be boss as well.

Gut shot

This morning I was tired, but I was able to get to work at my normal time. I worked on some bugs, finishing up the one I started on Friday. I talked to Terry again. He said he would let me know what they were going to offer me. He said they are willing to go to sixty thousand dollars. That was what I decided was enough to keep me here. But I sort of see myself going back on that.

I E-mail my would-be boss at WSU and told him of the situation to see if there is anymore money to squeeze out. I want to the job but I would like more money too. I am willing to do the pay cut from NetUpdate if I can get on the Pullman Fire Department.

So to make sure my ducks were in a row I called and talked to Heston. I asked him about what he had said earlier about be getting back on the department to get his thoughts. He said that because of a letter to the editor I wrote to the Evergreen the Chief was not happy and did not want me on the department.

I felt like I got punched in the gut. I spent the rest of the evening stressing over that. If I cannot get on Pullman fire, I will not go back. I have decided that for sure. I talked to Heston further about that and he said I need to talk to the Chief and see if I can smooth things over. I pulled up the letter and I plan on calling him tomorrow and trying to get it taken care of.

I am so worried that they will not take me back. That would kill me. I love Pullman Fire so much. If I cannot work for them I will not go back. I just hope the Chief is understanding and willing to forgive. If he is I stand half a chance. If not, there is no way in heck I will get back on the department.

I believe in the whole fate thing. Maybe having it so I cannot get on Pullman Fire is Gods way of making sure I stay out here and make the bigger money. No matter how much I want something, fate will make the choices for me that in the end are the right choices. I just hope it is straightened out with the fire department so I don't have this cloud over me and I can make the decision and not have it totally made for me. I am really mad that I am in this situation. It just sickens me.

Oceans Twelve

After sleeping in this morning I got up and made breakfast. Then I helped with some laundry. I watched the Seahawks game. Following those tasks I helped put up the Christmas lights around the house. That took more than an hour total.

I had planned on going to see Oceans Twelve with Dave. I called him up and we decided to go to the nine-fifty showing. So I watched some TV and ate dinner before hand.

Dave and I met up right at nine-fifty. We went in and found seats. It was a pretty good movie. It had funny parts and slow parts and not a ton of action. But over all it was enjoyable.

Dave and I talked in our seats after the movie. I asked Dave when he had to be at work and he said he quit his job! He explained he was not happy there and quit. Within two hours a new Honda Dealer hired him.

We decided to go to Billie Casino across the street. We played some cards, lost money, and spent about an hour talking about my job prospects. I was telling him I would stay if offered sixty thousand a year or more.

Matt got married

This morning I got up and helped Bill with some stuff on the Internet. After doing that I got ready for Matt's wedding. I got some slacks and a polo shirt on and drove to Issaquah.

I got to the church and signed in. I walked into the chapel and Matt was there. I walked up to him and said hi. He said give me a hug. So I went up and we hugged. Then I went to my seat.

The wedding started and it was neat to see someone who I have known for years getting married. Putting on the wedding ring and saying "I Do." Following the wedding I saw Mike R. from high school. We talked for quite a bit. Then we made our way to the reception in Redmond.



I had some food and talked with Mike and Matt a little bit. We talked about the old times and what we are doing these days. I had some cake when the cake was cut. Then I got a picture with Matt. Following that I left and went home.

I was at home for a while. I planned on going to see a movie or doing something. I got a call from Kyle. He said he is going to R Place. I thought about it and decided that maybe I would go down there too.

I drove down to Seattle and missed the exit I wanted to I drove around the surface streets much longer than I had hoped. It really sucked. Finally I found where I wanted to be and parked. I missed the time cut-off for cover charges by five minutes, so I had to pay that.

I went to the third floor and got a Coors Light. I drank that and did some people watching. I was also looking for Kyle. After about thirty minutes I found him. He was in the middle of a lot of people dancing. It was so crowded up there.

I went up to him when he came to get a drink. He said hi. Then we snaked our way through the crowd on to the dance floor. I was standing in the corner and Kyle was dancing with some of the girls he was with. A girl came up to me and asked me to dance. I at first said no. Then I finally did. We were dancing and I felt foolish because I don't know how to dance.

But I thought to myself "Dance like no one is watching." It is part of that whole Enjoy Your Life type of thing. We were into our second song and she noticed my ring finger on my left hand had a ring. She looked at me and said "You're not married are you?" I said no. Then we danced some more. She then said you don't have a girlfriend here who is going to get mad? I said no.

I was there for about three hours before leaving to go home. I had nothing going on on Sunday however I did not want to stay until closing time. On the way home I saw about six cops with different people pulled over.

I got home and talked to Kyle on the phone for a while before hitting the hay.

So will life change, again?

I got to work this morning after having received that call I spoke about in my other post today. I spent some of the day fixing some bugs. Eight of us went out to lunch together so the company picked up the tab. We got some pizza from Round Table.

I was at work until around six pm. On my way home I talked to Dan about going to WSU. Then my mom called and said we were going to have dinner at the Eagles and meet Janet and Lee down there. We sat around talking for a while and eating dinner.

When that we done I looked up the movie times. Kyle and I were planning on seeing a movie. That fell through, however. So I came back home and just watched TV.

Matt hit me up for a chat around midnight. He said "Shouldn't I be in bed?" I laughed and responded with "Shouldn't you be in bed, you're the one getting married tomorrow." Matt and I were friends in middle school and high school. We went the Rose Bowl together two years ago. That is when Matt found out that I am gay.

Matt is a born-again Christian. We talked about being gay and religion. Matt said since the time of the Rose Bowl trip his views had changed. Matt always was good about the issue of gay people. But he seems to have moved even more towards gay people being born that way.

He said he recognizes their need to have love and to be loved. He said that what gets you into Heaven is not being straight, but to believe that Jesus died for our Sins and accept him into our heart.

News Flash - Job Offer

So this morning I was stepping into my truck. My newly downloaded ringer starts playing the Cougar Fight Song. I look at the caller ID. It was 509.333.8000 which means it is coming from somewhere on the WSU campus. I Answered it and someone named Mike greeted me and said he was calling to offer me a job at WSU. I was speechless. Just minutes before I was in my room looking at my football equipment thinking that I may not be able to don it again unless I move back to Pullman.

But just as I felt back in April when I was called about this job I am working in Bellevue. It was a punch in the gut. I was not expecting to hear anything until next Wednesday, and then all of a sudden, I am told five days ahead of time that they want me. It was be a very small raise over what I am getting here, but I would be back in Pullman. I would get back on Pullman Fire. I would play softball with my boys again. It would be able to continue to take classes. There are a lot of other great benefits. Working out in the rec center. Church. Women? With the grace of God maybe I can work through my sinful ways and find the ability to be strong and lead a life I can be proud of.

So, anyway, I talked to the guy, and I was not ready to say "Yes". I needed some time to think. Plus I wanted to see if my company was willing to make an offer to keep me here.

I got to work and talked to Terry. He said that it seemed to be a no-brainer. I would make more money, be back home, and get good benefits. We talked about the pluses and minuses. Then he asked if I was willing to listen to an offer from the company. I already have a figure in mind I am willing to take and stay if it were offered. It would be a fifteen thousand dollar raise over what I am getting now. Of course if they offer more than that I will stay for sure.

But as of right now by the early part of next year I will be back living and working in Whitman County.

Just as I was nervous over coming out here for this job, I am also nervous over going over there and taking that job. I scheduled a party on December eighteenth, which happens to be my birthday. I invited all my friends from out there. I told them I would have an announcement to make at this party. And of course it will also serve as a birthday party for me.

Yeah, it is pretty lame I have to arrange my own parties, but at least my friends come to it.

Getting work completed

I got some work on different bugs completed today. Things seemed to be rolling smoothly for me today. At the end of the work day I taped together a whole bunch of scratch paper. It was three sheet tall and about a dozen sheets wide. I put it up between my cube and the one next to me. This blocked out a lot of light. Then I unscrewed the lights on the other side of my cube. It is so nice. It is dark just the way I like it.

I went home. We had tacos. It was grub. Then I watched CSI. It seems to me a while back the actor who played the lead character, Grissom, was going to leave the show. I think that maybe that is what they are working on writing into the show right now. They have done some major shake ups of the characters and their roles in the show. I guess only time will tell.

Motivated but tired

When my alarm clock wakes me from my sleep I turn it to the radio. I listen to Andy Savage from the time my alarm clock goes off (eight am) until about nine am give or take. This morning I must have fallen asleep because when I re-woke up the radio was off. That means more than ninety minutes had passed. I turned the radio back on and started to go back to sleep. I actually got out of bed a tiny bit later and started my day. I did not get out of the house until about ten-thirty. I got to work at eleven.

I was productive. I polished off a few bugs and fixed some other things that were not complete. It was very nice to not have to spend two days trying to track down the problem. I touched more of the site I had not played with before.

I got home around seven. Dinner was done but still hot, so I ate and then took my laptop to my room. I needed to go through some CD's and figure out which one had the ISMan database on it from working at the county. I was going to get it on my laptop so I could use it for my presentation during the interview next Friday. I need to show some of my web work. I got a few sites I created ready to show off.

I spent the rest of the evening surfing the net and just relaxing. Instead of going to bed early and being rested I will again go to bed late.

A huge lack of motivation

I was not motivated this morning. I did not want to get out of bed. I did not want to get going, but it was nine-thirty. I had to get up. So I did. Blah. I got ready and headed off to work. It was a blah day to start out with. I was not excited about being there today. I spent the first part of the day trying figure out why data in the Secondary Marketer E-mails appeared to be wrong. Finally I figured it out. I saw that the calculations I used to get to those values had changed. I was using old calculations. So I fixed some of the calculations. I have more to do tomorrow.

I called my insurance agent about the water situation. She said she was thinking sort of what I was. Rather than paying five grand to expose the pipe. Roll that into my money and just fix the problem. It would still have to come up with about five grand on my own. So I hope I can get the loan from the bank.

At home I helped to get some of the Christmas decorations from the attic. I worked on my mom's computer. She was having spyware issues with it. I also told her about the job interview coming up on a week from Friday.

I watched some TV and played around online before I finally retired to bed. I am still tired.

Yet another interview.

I slept in a little bit today. I did not have to be at WSU until one-thirty for my interview. I got into my suit and headed to my office in Pullman. I got some checks and dropped them off at the bank. I went to WSU and parked on Spokane Street. I walked to Ryan's work and dropped off the Third Watch video tape.

I made my way to Dana hall. I went in for my interview. I think I did okay on the technical part. I am not sure how big of a splash I made. I hope I did well enough. I tried to get across my knowledge of MS Office applications and troubleshooting skills. I made them laugh a few times. I think that was good.

I then went on a small tour around the department. They have three brand new servers. They will house the print server, the file server, and the web server. I would set those up from scratch. I also found out this is a brand new position.

Then I interviewed with several people in the department. I again made some laughs. I told them the history of me and my computer tech stills. I hope, once again, that I made a good impression with them.

After it was done I raced home. It had been snowing. I used the quad and plowed the driveway and then took off to Seattle. The trip back was pretty quick. Very few cars slowed me down. I got home and watched some TV. I was watching the Seahawks game. I went to pick up Amber from Janet and Lee's. I finished watching the game there. The Seahawks lost in the final seconds of the game. It was terrible.

I went home and watched CSI:Miami before driving to the airport to get my mom and Bill. When I got home I parked my mom's Explorer and went inside. I was so tired I headed to bed. I actually was in bed before my parents for the first time in about ten years.

Officer Anderson at your service

A day to relax was today. I slept in because I could. I did not get to bed until the wee hours of the morning and I had no plans for the day other than working at the jail. I got up around two pm. I moped around for a while and then got ready to work. I grabbed a late lunch from Rosauers. It was off to jail after that.

I worked with Sam and Mark. It was pretty uneventful. I got a little bit done on the inmate manual I am working on re-writing. I did a round and worked control most of the evening. I had my fire pager in case a call came out. It was quiet there too. When midnight rolled around I went to the front office. I chatted and joked with Bryce, Rob, and Jimmy.

I call came out that was a shooting of an automatic weapon in Pullman. The Pullman cops asked for help. It was not a for sure shooting. It could have been fireworks as well. With how quickly the guys returned I assume it was a false alarm.

I went home and watched TV for a while. I had my interview in the afternoon. I did not need to get to bed too early, but I wanted to sleep for eight hours so I made sure that happened.

Costco run

Yawn! My phone is ringing less than five hours from going to bed. My friend John called to say hi. Once he call was over with I got up and got the snow plow on the quad. I plowed my driveway of the old snow. No new snow since I got to Colfax has fallen. We thought that some would fall, but none did of course.

I went to the fire station. I expected to see Carl. He was not working, instead it was Jim. I talked with him a tiny bit as we watched some college football. Ryan and I decided to go to Clarkston to hit Costco. I needed to get a few things for there.

We drove over to Lewiston and went to Granny's Buffet. I over ate like it was Thanksgiving. I was full when we left. I filled up my truck and we left.

We went to Safeway. He did some shopping and I took a short nap in my truck. It took him about twenty or thirty minutes. Then we went to his apartment. We started to play some more Madden football. I was still hot. I scored more than one hundred points in two games. Ryan worked on making cookies with his girlfriend over the phone. Close to midnight we went to Little Caesars for some pizza and went back to football. By the time the night ended I was number one in my division -- The NFC-West.

Around three am Ryan was ready for bed and we still needed to watch Third Watch, so he gave me the tape to take home. I went to my office and worked on the blog as well as chatted with Adam some more.

I was listening to my scanner. Seems like something big happened in Pullman. I am not sure what it was, but I am sure it will be in the news. Well, I have an idea of what it was, but I will not say anything until I see it released.

Another false hope?

I headed into work and I was listening to Andy Savage radio. I called in for Lick the Producer. I did not get any answers correct. I said, oh come-on... how about a pity question. He said alright "Who was the most pitiful contestant in Lick the Producer today?" I said "Scotty!" Then Steve, the producer, got on. I thought he would cream me. His answers with identical to mine where I answered. He did get one correct. It was one where I knew the last name of the person but not the first name. So I lost one to nothing.

I called Administrative Services. I have an interview scheduled for the web coordinator position for December seventeenth. I was worried about the pay. It looks like it will be low. They said it is negotiable. I will still interview, but if I cannot get the right amount of pay, should they want me I will still turn it down.

I got to work and told Terry about that. He was laughing really hard at that story. He said we were going to have a meeting and he wanted to meat in the Bullpen. I was sitting there looking out the back window of the building. Then I saw something strange. It looked like something big hit the bushes out back. It is about a twelve foot drop from the above parking area. I got up and started to walk towards the window. Terry saw my reaction and followed. We saw a lady stand up. I was shocked someone fell from the above parking lot and her fall was only broken by a bush. She got up and put her thumbs up that she was okay. That was crazy.

After the meeting I went to my desk and worked on the bugs. I was going to meet Jon for lunch at the Three Pigs. So I left at about eleven thirty for that. After lunch was done I went back to the office for about another hour and then started to get ready to leave for Pullman.

I fueled up and left. The trip went really fast. The roads were in great condition. I got to Colfax before five pm. So I went to the post office and picked up the package from Paul Silvi. It was a K-Rock t-shirt. Then I went to the bank and talked to Max about getting a loan for my water situation. I figured that I should get the ball rolling because I did not know what was going to happen with it.

Then I went home and dropped off my stuff. I went to Pullman to meet with Ryan. We were going to go to the Women's basketball game. I filled out the forms for the contests. Ryan said to put his name in. Near halftime I heard them call Ryan's name. I started to laugh. He was shocked that he got called again. I slapped his back and was cracking up. He said you heard your name, right? I said no. He said they called you to. I did not believe him. Then I heard all the names again, and sure enough my name was called just before his. So we both were going to compete.

Ryan went at half time. He had to drive a remote control truck around some cones and then drive a ball the full length of the court and do a lay up. He was beating his opponent by a long way. So he did the lay up and missed. The whole crowd in unison let out a disappointed moan. He got his rebound and put it back up and in. He won.

I was going to have to go the full length of the court in five second and do a lay up. I went at the sixteen minute mark in the second quarter. I drove the whole length but I was underneath the basket when I went to put it up and missed. I ran into the padded basketball stand. So I am oh- for-two in the contests at the basketball games. The women won their game.

Following that Ryan and I got dinner and went to his house and played Madden football. I started to get on a hot streak. In two games I threw for more than one thousand yards and ten touchdowns. Plus I rushed for two more. All with Brett Farve. Farve is listed as the top passed in the NFL and number one vote getter for the Pro Bowl as well as number one in the MVP. He is really hot.

We played until about four-thirty in the morning.

I found it and it was it

The first thing I did this morning was talk to the other developer to find out about the changes I wanted to make and confirm I was on the right track. It turns out I was. So I had to go through and change about fifteen files with the variable that was not changed to a different name. I got those changes made and they were moved to the SR-Two server. I tested it and it seemed to work. I spend some more time working on a new bug.

Ricky and I went out to lunch together. We were going to hit BBQ but we could not find the place he wanted to go to so we went to the Three Pigs. After dinner we went back to work and I continued to work on my bugs.

I stayed at work until about eight-thirty. I had finished doing work by about eight. I checked my E-mail and chatted with Jared for a while. Then I took off to Jon's house. On the way I decided to get dinner at a sit down place. I went to AppleBee's in Factoria. After dinner I actually arrived at Jon's. We loaded the John Deere riding lawn mower in my truck.

I went home and broke out the hot tub. I went in it and sat there relaxing for a while. It has been a while since I was in there. Afterwards I chatted with Kyle on the phone. I also talked to Adam online for a while. He is really bummed about life in general. He is a good kid, but he needs some direction. He has great ideas about doing things, but he needs to have the confidence in himself to do those things.

Finally! I found it

So the problem I have been working on for so long is solved! I finally started to get in the correct direction. I narrowed down the problem areas and kept plowing forward. I would hit some dead ends. But finally I was able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I found that my machine worked fine and no one elses' worked. So I knew it had to be something that was changed and I had not gotten the update. I found a component had been worked on. The names of the variables were changed. But the front end logic on the XSLT pages had not. I could not make the changes though because the person who had made the variable name changes left for the day. I am stoked that I may have reached the end of this one though. Other than that work was not that eventful.

I went home and on my way I needed to pick up some Hard-A for my mom. She is getting ready to go on a trip to North Dakota. They got some pizza from Papa Murphy's for dinner as well. It was darn good and I was starving.

I took some pics of my old ROTC uniform with the ribbons I earned because someone else on G-Shack posted his. Here is a pic of it.



I was only in ROTC for one semester. I joined because when I was in middle school a guy I knew was in high school. He talked to me about ROTC. He asked if I would join. I said I would. He said you promise? I said I promise. By the time I got there I did not want to be in it, but I made a promise and I am good for my word. So I joined. I did have a blast while in ROTC. We did the security at the home football games. We then went out for pizza afterwards. That was good times. We did community service at the Issaquah Salmon days. I worked both days. I got a crash course in directing traffic and then I went out and directed traffic. I am glad there were no crashes. It was in a larger intersection.

We went to San Diego for a week as well. That was a huge blast. We flew out of Boeing Field on a DC-Nine. In San Diego we stayed in the barracks. Had our beds made like in the military. When an officer entered the room people would yell "OFFICER ON DECK!" Everyone would drop what they were doing and to the end of their bed and stand at attention until we were told to carry on. We did a lot of marching drills. We ate at the mess hall hung out in the PX. We went to the Navy SEAL base and got a tour through there. I saw a dive chamber where a guy when down about thirty or forty feet and held his breathe for a few minutes. They had a sign they that said "The easiest day was yesterday." We went to the firing range and watched them shoot off an M-Sixteen. We were able to gets some of the brass. I took those home and shined them with Brasso.

We had one drill at a place where they taught about fixing a pipe that had broken on a ship and was leaking water. We took a piece of wedge shaped wood and drove it into a pipe. Then we broke it off at pipe level. Took a thin piece of black rubber and covered the hole. Finally wrapping a waxy string around the pipe and rubber tightly and with no gaps to form something that would stop the leak.

We went out on one of the smaller boats. We made a trip to Knott's Berry Farm. That is where I first heard the story of Green Golf Balls.

We went down with Issaquah High Schools' ROTC group. So we had two mens' platoons and one female platoon. We were in the yard marching with our platoons. Practicing turns and other marching techniques. At this one point we were marching forward and the female platoon was coming at us. Our platoon leader was not going to change course. The female platoon leader decided the same thing. So as we got closer to each other It appeared the planned to march through us. Our platoon leader gave out the order for Dress-Right, Dress. We kept marching with our right arms touching the person next to us. Making our lines into an impenetrable front. The women kept coming. Their platoon leader had them squat down and still march. So they went under our arms and our lines and their lines slipped between each other. It was a small thing but at the time just a kick in the pants.

The time in ROTC was very fun and at the same time I was not ready to be in it for four years. I kept telling myself when I got a bunch of ribbons like the seniors it would be different. I earned four ribbons pretty quickly and got a star with one of them.

One event in ROTC that will always live in my mind was at a major inspection. Normally each Friday we would have to get into our uniform and get inspected. That meant our covers had to be clean, our brass and shoes polished, our pants pressed, and black socks. If you had something wrong you would get a gig. Each gig was a one point deduction out of ten. The major inspection was done by a higher up in the Navy. He came to Liberty. Issaquah High School came over. We stood at attention in the gym for more than an hour during the inspection. This was worth one hundred points. And each gig was ten points off, plus the next Monday you had to have the problem fixed and you would have to come back for an inspection.

Before the inspection started the Navy man came to a classroom where all the freshmen were. We had not had one of these inspections. So it was our chance to learn about them. We were told about the procedures and what would happen. During the question period I was dumb and asked a question. I asked "What kind of questions will you ask us?" He said things like the chain-of-command, etc. The chain-of-command is the line of power from the bottom up or the top down. At the time it started with Senior-Chief Bushore, Captain Ferrani, and then into the Navy's ranks going up to Secretary of the Navy The Honorable Mr. Ball the Third, and then up to the top of the chain-of-command: The Honorable Mr. Reagan. But I did not know too much of it. In fact all I knew were the top two, Bush and Reagan and the bottom two, Bushore and Ferrani. So when I got back to the main classroom we had about fifteen minutes. I crammed. I studied the chain-of-command as much as I could. The only one I could remember was the secretary of the Navy.

Now we are in the gym and I have been waiting my turn the man gets to me. I did not get a gig. I thought I was clear. Then he said “Who is the secretary of the Navy?” I knew it, but in that situation I was having a brain fart. But as the clock was ticking to an end, I spit out “The Honorable Mr. Ball the Third.” I dodged a bullet. If he had asked about anyone else I would have been sunk.

The end of the semester is coming. My grade and an A. I was going well in the class. I really did like it, but it was not my cup of tea at all. I came walking into class and Captain Ferrani called me up to him. He said he did not see my name on the list of people returning. He asked if I quit. I lowered my head and voice. I wanted to lie, but I didn’t. I said that I was leaving. To me I had fulfilled by promise of joining and I wanted out.

After eating dinner I spent time chatting online with Jared and Roger while watching TV. I finally went to sleep at two am.