January 2001 Archives

I finally have some time to write! Let's see... Today I got up at 9:00 a.m. (3:00 a.m. EST). Since I had nothing to do, I decided to just ride around the city a bit. It's great here at this time on a Sunday morning. Only elderly people everywhere. That so much beats some punk asking you for a cigarette everywhere you go. At this time, all you here is stuff like: "Did you hear Markus got a baby? Yes! He's so cute!” So I rode around for about three hours or so. It was tons of fun.
I take a lot of pictures. The only problem is that I have an iMac, and they don't take disks. I'd either have to buy a Memory Stick reader or a floppy drive. Since I don't feel like doing either, I'll just add them at school someday, probably Monday a week or so from now.
My week next week isn't so bad. I only have to go to school for two hours Monday, Thursday, and Friday, and four hours Tuesday. Wednesday I have off. This is because of semester exams. After the exams I guess I should study. I will do that, but I will also be good, and write in here.

Here is my exam schedule with self-evaluation:

Monday: IB German A2: I have to write some commentary on something. Should be all right.

Tuesday #1: Advanced Algebra: Considering this class is my only non-IB class, I better do well.

Tuesday #2: IB Economics: That could be painful.

Thursday: IB Chemistry: This one I'm doing the most studying on. It's my best class, so it should be all right.

Friday: IB English A1: This will be fun! I have to write, and write, and write!

And when all this is over, I will be happy. Until I get the results! That would be all for now.

My dog was injured the past few days. Today I took him to the vet and got him fixed up. He seems fine now. I have exams next week, so I need to study a lot.

It was a great week! It was really a terrible week! But it's over! Dah! German Music Station! All they play is some techno stuff. "Pick up the bass, the beats, and the melody!” Ahhhh! Now they're playing Jennifer Lopez! That's more like it! I have five exams next week. That'll be great! Pardon my sarcasm. It seems I have writers log since I returned to Austria. Oh well!

To tell you the truth, my day hasn't been any better or easier today. One thing that was cool was that I had an emotional breakdown in German class! This happened after my teacher degraded a poem I had worked two hours on. Then I just lost it and said and complained, and complained some more. Then I basically took the liberty to complain about the whole school for around fifteen minutes. After that, no one felt the same about school. I am sure of that. Lesson learned: If something pisses you off, say it; unless of course it will harm you.

It was seriously such a crappy day yesterday. And today is even worse. You ever have the feeling everyone is against you? And on top of that you get more bad news? I've been having one of those days.

I’m back in Austria. I got here yesterday at 9:15 a.m. (3:15 a.m. EST). I spent the flight watching two movies, Coyote Ugly and Forrest Gump. I had seen Forrest Gump back when it came out in 1994, but it was good to see it again. Actually, I ended up seeing it two and a quarter times. That is because Coyote Ugly was much shorter, like 79 minutes, while Forrest Gump lasted 130 minutes. So after Coyote Ugly was over, I flipped over to Forrest Gump, and saw a large part of it.

Yeah, so anyway, I learned so much from seeing Forrest Gump again. You get like all the foreshadowing and stuff before hand. Even after reflecting on the movie hours later, I understood another part of it. Another reason I understood it much better was that back when I saw it the first time, I was 11, so I didn’t understand much of the context. Now I understood why it’s rated PG-13.

When I wasn’t watching a movie I was playing some video games. That made the flight go by pretty fast. When I got home I slept a while. After that, I first tried getting a weblog entry up. No success. The site wouldn’t load. Then I tried it at my dad’s office. This time I got to the login screen. Then, back at home, I got so far as to see the background of my weblog.

Thus I decided to get up at 5:40 this morning, in order to get one in yesterday. If you understand that… Anyway, The Xanga clock was ahead, so I hurried up and made it in the last minute!

That was my life until now. Now I’m in school. I swallowed my vitamins with too little fluid or food or something. Now it feels like they’re stuck someplace. A bit painful. I just had a sour roasted mocha cappuccino with sugar. Good stuff. I guess that’s all for now.

All that movie stuff reminds me that I couldn’t get that name of that movie. My friend said he forgot. Oh well.

Whooo! I made it in the last minute! It is 5:59 a.m. here. I am going to eat now and go to school. I will write again in about four hours, around 10:10 a.m. here, which is like 4:10 a.m. EST (Xanga time).

Well, I'm almost off to Austria.

Note to illiterates: If I get one more person telling me G'Day Mate, I will invent the negative eProp! AUS-TRI-A, as in EUR-OPE!

Now that that's settled, I can continue. I am flying off in an A330 at 6:50 p.m. from JFK. Yeah! I will spend the duration of the flight either watching some movie or playing some street hockey video game.

I hope to add an entry tomorrow, Sunday, when I arrive. Farewell until then!

I also just noticed I had posted an event precisely five days before my departure. On New Year's Day at 6:50 p.m.!

Well, I haven't packed anything. I haven't done half the work I was supposed to. Oh well. Now lets have a moment of frowning faces for my departure...

It snowed some more today. A few inches. I shoveled it away twice. I am not going to be able to shovel snow for a long time.

Oh please do tell me why I keep calling this place Xcela instead of Xanga! I always write that. Then I notice and have to go in and edit it out.

Xcela just sounds so internety! Xanga sounds like a citrus fruit or some cartoon show. What does Xanga mean to you? Xcela... wasn't that Intel's cheap chip before Celeron. No, that was Xenon or something.

Xango, like the tango. A new dance?

Zenga, a toothpaste?

Yenga, a game?

Renga, an SUV?

Qenga, a quest?

Cenga, like Xenga?

Fenga, a medieval fighting simulation?

Genga, a Japanese herb?

Henga, my dog in Japanese?

Jenga, that game?

Kenga, Kenya's Gallery of the Arts?

Menga, a food hall?

Penga, Ping-Pong?

Why Xanga? I would have gotten freeweblogs.com!

Oh well, they must have a reason...

I have a few words to say on this infamous topic that has been lingering for a long time now.

So I guess she is a teacher. But there are also links to her and Mail Boxes Etc.! Or maybe she is a teacher at Mailboxes Etc. Or maybe her spouse works there. Or she didn't want to give real information. What ever the truth is, it is confusing.

Indeed, she got a lot of us on Xanga. Even if she did use her bot/automated email... (cough) SPAM! (cough), Yeah, I got one of those too. You know "new_kai" Comments on your site... or whatever. But I can forgive.

Hey! She hasn't posted in a long while! Her bot must have a virus!

Yeah, so it's snowing. I love snow, it's so peaceful. I had the strangest dream last night. Anyway, I kicked off my last full day here with breakfast at IHOP. That was great. Now I am trying to warm up my basement. Right now it's only 63.7 degrees Fahrenheit (17.7 degrees Celsius). It's getting warmer though. All right, that would be all for now.

I'm living with my sad-sickness now. I'm over most of it, although it could come back anytime.

The fact that Wal-Mart went down 3.9% doesn't help much. But they mainly went up over the last week or so, so it doesn't matter that much.

Yeah, well, time just flew on by. I'm going to be back here in Upstate, NY, in April for a week. But since these three weeks flew by so fast, what is a week?

I don't know where to go with my life. I mean, I certainly will go to college here in the U.S., but I feel so bad about not finishing here. It's such a long and complicated story.

Well, I kicked off my second-last full day here with an English Muffin. Now I got to go make some expresso. Nothing like a great expresso to start the day.

Warning: Do not buy coffee at Burger King or Friendly's! Seriously, that should be called coffee flavored water. I think I've had the same experience at McDonald’s, but I can't say for sure. Dunkin Donuts is pretty good. Probably the best fast-food coffee. Of course, nothing beats a real coffee place like Starbucks, the cafés in bookstores, or a little private cafés.

Whoa! I just wrote all that about coffee! Yeah, I like coffee a lot.

I just noticed I consume over 150 grams of sugar every day alone from drink Coke! Dah... Oh well, I'll survive! So the Swiss people next-door visited us today. That was cool. I got stuck with their kids (sound familiar Emil!?) I found out that placing them in front of a TV screen shuts them up! Try it, it really works! It is amazing how great that works! I was even nice and made them some popcorn. Moral: Kids can behave! TV is required! Or a computer for each one!

Oh, I always wear orange. But no, it's not all the same shirt!

Whoooooo! Wal-mart went up 8.5% today! I made lots of money! Declining economy? Yeah right!

I just got back from walking... I mean running my dog. Seriously, the little guy has never run that fast for so long! He ran like over a mile nonstop! Well, I'm going to do some studying now. I'll write again later.

Ahhhhhh! I can't believe that I can't get used to being 17! I just noticed that in my "Public Profile" I had written "I am 16/m," although at that time I had already been 17 for over a month!

I have never had so much difficulty with this. It usually only took me a week or so. I am going to have to write it on my hand or something!

I am horribly bored right now. I should do some work, but as life often is, it just don't work that way. But I as I always say "If you want to, you can achieve anything." I could have gotten that button out of the urinal, if I called a plumber! Anyway, I am going to take a long walk with my dog now. It's actually 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) outside. Well, bye for now!

Good morning! I haven't told you about my fun time in a Barnes & Noble bathroom yesterday. It was great! The button of my pants fell unrecoverable into a urinal. So I tried getting it out, but like I said, it was unrecoverable. Oh well. So now I'm pants-buttonless. It's great! Anyway, my breakfast consisted of a big bowl of fruit! Yeah, so, that's been my life since yesterday. I still haven't found out the name of that movie yet. But I will!

Yeah... So I watched a great movie at a friend's house. Just forgot to catch the name. Oh well. Yeah so Syracuse beat Notre Dame. I love a good basketball game... when my team wins. That would be all for today. Well, off to watch the end of the Sugar Bowl. More tomorrow morning around 10!

It's been a pretty uneventful morning. I just had some eggs and bacon. I'm sitting here listening to the "MTV2 Soul" lady. It's tons of fun.

I uploaded another 32 pictures of my dog, Henry. By the way, before someone asks, that counter down there is counting the visitors to all my sites, not just this one. (Indeed it would be nice to have 2,637 visitors here.)

Well, that will be all for now. As soon as I think of something more interesting, I will add it.

Today, I had the shopping urge. Usually that would be a problem. But no worry in Vestal, NY, we have a Wal-Mart SuperCenter!

The largest store within a 70 mile (112.7 km) radius, this store has over 210,000 square feet (64,024.6 square meters) of retail heaven! I called them before I went. I didn't believe they were open. The other end almost insultingly said something like "Yeah, we're a 24-hour SuperCenter!"

Apparently most people assumed they were closed. Hardly a car parked. A week ago, during a previous visit, I had to walk five minutes to get to the door. Today there were maybe thirty cars. But you must remember, people work there too. And in a huge store like that, you need people. So half of those must have been employees. So the place was like at two in the morning at 10 at night.

Now I really have to wonder. I mean you got employees in all these places waiting and waiting for a customer. Like there was a lady at the watch counter and a lady by the dressing rooms. Now how many people out of those 15 are going to use the dressing rooms, let alone buy a watch!

The nice thing though: No people! That was great! I don't mind them being open. It's practical. I just wonder how it pays off for them.

In other news, I finally got my screen settings fixed. The screen kept flickering. It was a pain. It ended up being the refresh rate. It was set too slow. So now my screen doesn't flicker when I watch movies or see any animated banners! WHOOOO!

My dinner tasted great, except for the first time I bit into it, it was still frozen!

I don't believe I have talked about my Coke (soda) addiction yet. I noticed I drink six cans a day. I love how I release my aggravation on the wonderful syrupy stuff. When I'm mad drink it amazingly fast.

Yeah... what a useless fact.

Mmmmmm, Healthy Choice TV Dinner...

I managed to get up at 11 this morning. It snowed another inch. Now it seems the snow is coming from one of those lake-effect things.

Turning on the TV I got horribly mad again. What is with all this football. I mean, I know it is a great sport, but why do CBS, FOX, ABC, NBC, as well as some cable channels all need to show it. I mean, there are other great sports out there, like curling!

My doggy isn't feeling to good. I had to clean up after him this morning. That was fun. So for the first time in this country I'm hearing all this hard-core techno music on TV. MTV2 to be exact. Of course it is nicely mixed with other music, unlike in Europe. There you turn on MTV, and you get like German MTV, and some other German stations. All they do is strange 3D techno/two step/rave/house junk. If you're lucky you'll catch the US Top 20, which is on half-an-hour three times a week. Sure, I've only tested it in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Russia, but I can't imagine it being much different anywhere there, except maybe Britain.

Hahah, MTV2 is playing "Rapper’Äôs Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang. See, that's cool, since that's from the mid 80's. Before, it was like impossible to see any video older than six months. Great, followed by Green Day's "Warning." Amazing!

I said I'd write later, and although it is the next day, it's still later, especially today.

Yeah, and I have some anti CBS/NBC remarks to make. I mean, they were like: "5...4...3...2...1...2001! We will return after these messages." CBS did this "Entertainment Today," where they started showing some sad story, while NBC really did do commercials. That is so horribly cheap. ABC at least continued with Dick Clark and "Who Let the Dogs Out?" Sorry about the bad comments to start a new year, but it was on my mind.

My fortune cookie ironically today told me that "All your hard work will soon be paid off." That comes despite my parents' feeling that I don't do enough work. But maybe that's some sign that I will magically work hard this year.

It snowed another inch. I must say I'm pretty disappointed. I wanted some huge blizzard with like an inch or two an hour to cover us with two feet of snow. But oh well, I'll survive the lack of snow.

It's around 2:30 here now, and I'm pretty tired. I'll probably sleep until noon or so. Until then!