Massive and un-restrained title change was necessary

 So, since my last actual posts back in 2008, a ton has happened in my life. In 2010, Tracy and I moved out to Tucson, AZ to help open the Tucson division of QT. We spent 6 years in Arizona, where Tracy got her CPA and completed her Master's Degree. Then, I left QuikTrip and we moved to Houston, TX, where Tracy transferred from Bank of Arizona to Amegy Bank. Both are part of Zion's Bancorp.

I spent almost a full year in a very dark place mentally and emotionally. Dark Souls 3 came out in April of 2016, and I logged probably 4,000 hours in a year between two platforms playing the game. Something like 8 to 10 hours PER day of nothing but playing video games. 

It was a dark place. Perhaps I'll go into more detail at some point, but the experience of leaving QT, which I've barely even touched out here, was destructive to my sense of self. It wasn't the first time that I broke myself down and had to rebuild my image of self, and it likely won't be the last.

I took a part time job at Petco, enrolled in classes at Lonestar College, and then after working there for around a year, I flipped to the Lonestar Bookstore, and then the Lonestar biology lab. I finished a very basic Associates degree- but before I could finish school, I got interested in trading stocks.

in 2018, we had a son, Rhennthyl. Then in 2020, we had a second son, Jaime. in late 2020 we made plans to list our home and we moved from TX to WA state in early 2021. We have now moved from KS, AZ, and TX in February. 

I think from here the purpose of this writing will be for me to explore what I am doing, and what I really want to do.

 The date, as I'm sure is displayed, is August. The year is 2022. A full 14 years has passed since my last post. Nearly a generation. A lot of things have changed. The world has changed. Drastically.

Me? Have I changed? Well, some say that the only constant in the world is change. that the only certain thing is that individuals will change. But perhaps Mycroft Holmes put it best when he said that change is a process, not a straight line.

oh- there's one other thing- I went to see Jeff Dunham the other night, live. that's right, be jealous. it was HYSTERICAL. you missed out.

you're probably wondering what happened to me, considering it's been, what, at least six months since my last post? actually, you're probably not wondering. but if you are, the answer is that I died.




so, I'll explain what's been going on with my dead self, doing my best to pick up where I left off in whenever-it-was-that-I-last-posted.

I transferred to a different QT. It's basically a promotion, and in a lot of ways is less stressful.

We bought my wife a 2008 Honda Accord.

um, yeah. that's about it. other than that- I've been doing a lot of working. right-o, there was that vacation Tracy and I took to North Carolina to drive the dragon (US129), a curvy highway, with the rest of the 8thcivic crew.

but I won't bore you with that.... no.

I'm posting tonight because someone asked me if I had a myspace, and I realized that my lack of updates made it look like I was dead. unfortunately, I only have so much time to give out. It sucks, but it's true. dammit. I work, moderate on 8thcivic, hang out with Tracy, and sleep. some things unfortunately get lost in the mix.

this site, which once-upon-a-time I so rampantly posted on, was one of those things. but I will say that it's nice to randomly post again. Maybe something WAS missing from my life, and I didn't know it until just this instant.

http://www.912registry.org/faqs/origspec.htm

you're not getting hold of me. I programmed gmail to filter every single message with the text "would like to be added as one of your friends" straight to the trash.

i've got another fun project planned... it's going to take a long time to complete, though... my step-dad owns two Porsche 912's (a 1966 and a 1967). One runs.... sometimes, the other one doesn't. Looks like he's going to let me haul them up to wichita to rebuild them. the 912 has a horizontally opposed 4 cylinder engine that produces about 70 or 80 horsepower at the wheels. it has 4 wheel disc brakes, independent suspension, and a [I]5 speed transmission.[/I] a five speed, on a 1966?!?! :OMG: anyway, I'll probably be hauling them back up to Wichita in a month or so. I'm already really excited, so is my friend Randy (who did half or more of the work on Andrew's valve cover), he's going to be my partner in crime.

Snake-eyes;1676406 (from 8thcivic forums)

What's going on in the car forums?

Bentley Forums
- - - I used the ash tray today. How do I replace it?

Camaro/Firebird Forums
- - - My girl slept with my brother and my wife. How can I kill 'em? btw, I have a record and I ain't going back.

Mustang (Chevelle) forums
- - -Some punk kid in a Civic tried to race me.

Monte Carlo forums
- - -Why do I keep getting pulled over, it ain't stolen yo.

Civic forums
- - -Will I beat a mustang GT?

VW Bug forum
- - - The Save the Earth concert was a success (pics)

VW GTI forum
- - - why does everything break when I try to change my oil?

Supra forum
- - - Dude I just talked to Nick Hogan and man hes grounded for good

Yugo Forum
- - - When's the last time yours ran?

Lamborghini forum
- - - Wind noise around 210MPH

Miata forums
- - - Some redneck jackass in a Chevy Tahoe just ran over my car (pics)

Chevy Tahoe forum
- - -Miata stuck in my undercarriage. How do I safely remove it? (pics)

Pontiac Fiero forum
- - - Just bought a new flame retardant suit (pics)

BMW 7-series forum
- - - Where to get service on my Rolex?

Cadillac forum
- - - Problems parallel parking at bingo.

Chevy Suburban Forum
- - - Is the price of gas going down anytime soon?

Buick Forum
- - - Is Medicare or Medicaid right for me?

Delorean forum
- - - Just got back from the future and blew a head gasket. Please help. I'm from 1985.

Crown Victoria forum
- - - How come people never pass me on the highway?

Honda Accord forum
- - - Mom is giving me the car. Looking for some cheap, used 18 inch rims.

Toyota Echo forum
- - - Do our cars use AAA or AA's?

Ferrari forums
- - - Need suggestions about a business trip to Colombia. Want to get in and out fast.

Porsche forums
- - - Tire just went flat. Is it best to trade or sell the car myself?

Saturn forums
- - - Roman candle landed on my fender. Melted and need to replace.

Jaguar forum
- - - Is the carbon fiber dash kit group-buy still on?

Mercedes forum
- - - My wife and her stink hole lawyer are trying to ruin me in divorce court. How do I get them both killed and not get in trouble with my medical board?

Mini forum
- - - Just flipped the Cooper after seeing The Italian Job. Suing the movie company. (pics)

Dodge Viper forum
- - - I frightened myself on the way home from work yesterday. How to get pee stains out of the leather?

McLaren F1 forum
- - -Some punk kid in a Veyron tried to race me.

Dodge Minivan forum
- - - Where's the best place to post the soccer schedule so I don't forget where I'm supposed to be?

Hummer forum
- - - Had a fender bender today. 24 hurt, 10 killed. Do I have to get the black touch-up paint from the dealer? He's 25 miles away. That's $35 in gas.

Fiat forum
- - -Hello? Am I the only member?

Subaru WRX forum
- - - I hate cops. Got ticketed for drifting in the Walmart parking lot.

Chevy pickup forum
- - - How do I get the dried tobacco juice stains off the side of mah truck?

SRT Forums
- - - Its not a neon its an srt-4

RX7 Forums
- - - 13B Groupbuy full, stop PM'ing me.

DSM Forums
- - -Transmission Groupbuy Full stop PM'ing me

Vette Forums
- - -Why did I pay $50k for something with a pontiac g6 steering wheel?

Ford 2.3 forums
- - -Help! Replaced everything, still doesn't start!

Pontiac GTO forums
- - -Did you see the GTO in the Transformers movie?

s2000 forum
- - - I need to loose weight, the seats keep shrinking

Jeep Forum
- - - everything was going good until i got stuck in the mud today and this landrover pulled me out (pics)

Landrover forum
- - - ran circles around some moron in a jeep today(pics)

Evo Forum
- - - Clutch group buy is done stop pming me!

350z forums
- - - Nismo 350z rims for sale

infiiniti G35 Forums
- - - looking for skyline stickers

Colbalt SS forum
- - - so does the rear wing actually add downforce?[/QUOTE]

from 8thcivic, again. just the bold text will do!

Ugh.. I hate these threads. Not because of what the OP mentions, I really wish a S/C would come out for our R-18's. But these Si owners are ******* retarded.

Yeah, our R-18 might not be the greatest platform for high HP in the Civic line-up. But is the Si really that great, I mean, looking at the full spectrum?

Also, to answer Fiji's question. He mentions that his LX was his first NEW car. Im assuming the previous three were both used.

So Tracy and I went on an extended 11 day (or so) long vacation. We had a short, two-day stopover in Portland to visit Rex and Niaz, and then we continued our journey on to Maui, Hawaii.









Rex and Niaz gave us quite a tour of Portland- we visited all of the grocery stores that are scattered throughout the city- nothing like wal-mart has really taken hold. We also went to several awesome places to eat. Typhoon, a Thai Restaurant, and The Grease Pit, which was a tiny hamburger shack.
Typhoon served some of the most. delicious. food I have ever had- A Peanut Red Curry (which I am definitely going to experiment with) and a crab Pad Thai. delicious!
The Grease Pit had gigantic, 1/2 lb hamburgers, 6 strips of bacon, a slice of cheese, and 3 tablespoons of grease. They were also delicious, in an old-fashioned american sort of way.
The owner offered us a free meal if we could beat some of his challenges. They included (all in a minute or less): Eating a stick of butter, 8 saltine crackers, 6 oz of peanut butter, a 32 oz milkshake, a cup of ice, and various other challenges. He also offered us a free chili cheese dog if we could eat it in under one minute with no hands, 5 dollars off of our meal if we ate three napkins, and so on. FINALLY, he challenged us to eat dollar bills and he would double our money. They could only be dollar bills, though, no greater denominations.

I'm sure there were more challenges, but those are the ones I currently remember. It was an interesting experience.





We visited a Portland Rose Garden (I don't remember exactly where it was located). A little late in the season for Roses, maybe, but still pretty.
















The view was nice. unfortunately, I didn't take as many pictures in Portland as I would have liked to. Can't tell you why, I guess I kept forgetting the camera.

We also visited Lewis & Clark College, where Niaz is working on her Master's degree.

So it's been a couple of days- I finally caught up on most of my sleep. I'll continue the tour now...



I actually managed to snap some decent pictures from inside the 757. This one gives you a nice view of the ocean and sky, along with the airplane wing.

We started spotting land after getting about halfway through The Golden Compass (audiobook) and watching some movie with Robin Williams as a crazy stalker-preacher.





After what should have been seven or eight hours of flight ended up only being about two hours of elapsed time because of the time zone change. Not only was it brighter and warmer in Hawaii, it almost wasn't any later!






But apparently we weren't landing on whatever Island that was, because we flew over and past it. Good pictures, though.


















After a quick stop at the Island of Hawaii (Called the big island to keep the confusion between the Island and the state, which is composed of some 137 islands and atolls), we hurried on to Maui. I will mention that when we landed on Hawaii there was no screen to tell us where our connecting flight was. We kinda wandered around, finally asked someone, and came within 2 minutes of missing the connecting flight to Maui.




Upon arrival in Maui, we stood around at the airport for a while, trying to figure out what to do. Our hotel was in Ka'anapali, and we were at the airport, which is essentially in Wailuku. Ka'anapali is maybe 40 miles away from Wailuku (I'm guesstimating here), but it ends up being almost an hour drive (the first time you do it, anyway) because of the low speed limits combined with crazy turns.
Here is a map to help you out with destinations. I want to point out that this map shows Highway 30 along the West coast as Maui as "more or less" straight. It's not. straight. at all.
Although, It was much straighter than the other coastal highways we were on, I guess. This same map shows the Hana Highway (Highway 36) along the Northeastern coast as straight, too. WRONG!


Anyway, we ended up renting a Chevy Cobalt (lowest trim level and automatic- I looked in a trunk for the noose some chevys come with but it wasn't present. Shame.) from Enterprise. They didn't actually have a car available- pretty much NO one did (or they wanted to charge 25 extra dollars a day because I'm not 25 quite yet), but the incredibly nice lady gave us a lot of help.
Before leaving Wailuku, we stopped and ate at "Da Kitchen." I had some Kalbi ribs, and Tracy had some sort of Mahi-Mahi (which means strong-strong in Hawaiian). both were delicious. By the time we left for Ka'anapali it was 7:30 or 8:00 pm.

Regardless of what it may look like on the map, the fastest way to Ka'anapali from Wailuku is to take Highway 380 (also known as dairy road) to Highway 30, and then take 30 around the West Coast to Ka'anapali. Both Tracy and I were too excited to be tired, so it was a relatively easy drive. We drove with mountains on our right and the ocean on our left (although we couldn't see the ocean very well that first night). There were NO street lights (because of the curvy road and scenery) and the headlights on the cobalt are like itsy-bitsy flashlights compared to what I'm used to on the Si, so visibility was... poor. I loved all of the curves in the highway, would have loved them more with a better car.

but that's not what I went to Hawaii for, right?

After checking in to Ka'anapali Villas, we made our way to our room. I noticed several banana slugs (ranging from 3 to 5 inches long) wandering outside on the cement, and a Mediterranean gecko was clinging to the wall next to our door.


Here's the KITCHEN! can you believe it? we got a kitchen complete with a knife set and even a fridge.












I'm going to have to stop here for now. it's way late and I have to work tomorrow! more later.

a maui update is on the way. :) give it a day or so.

Tracy and I are going to Hawaii for a little over a WEEK! I cannot put into words just how excited I am to get out of the center of the U.S. for a while- this place is alright, but MAN I need a couple days on a beach.

If all goes well, I'll be posting many pictures in a couple weeks!

jeanette-

I TOTALLY didn't expect a response! I have a strange habit, when i am bored, of clicking "next blog," reading a couple posts, and then moving on to another.

no, my car isn't literally at the bottom of lake superior. I put it into a ditch swerving through water like a moron. :) everything is fine now. how's school going for you?

check your comments!

[QUOTE=mO 64 StAnG 06]I thought I answered this in the DIY, oh well.

Uh where do you live dude? Unless you live in an area (North, Canada) where the temp. can get and stay below freezing then you will have some problems.

But if you live in a warmer climate you wont have any problem.[/QUOTE]

From: Adams, Jill

To: QTS-Div03Stores

Cc:

Subject: Water Pallet Orders

Date: Thursday, September 27, 2007, 9:32AM

Since the weather has cooled down and the price on the Nestle Water will be going back up soon, we will no longer be placing weekly pallet orders.

From: Adams, Jill

To: QTS-Div03Stores

Cc:

Subject: NO MORE WATER PALLET ORDERS

Date: Thursday, September 27, 2007, 10:25AM

A lot of you have already responded to me ordering pallets of water this morning. PLEASE RE-READ THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE….. WE ARE NOT PLACING ANYMORE WATER PALLET ORDERS.

So we sell split cartons at our store. That is, you can get 5 of one kind of cigarette and 5 of another kind (has to be the same brand but can be a different flavor) and it will still only be the carton price (which is significantly less than buying 10 individual packs).

The point of that statement is this: I had a lady come in today and buy 3 bronson menthol light 100s. her total was 8.90 after tax.

To keep up on the math here, a single pack of Bronson cigarettes is 3.32 after tax. There is a discount when you buy three (3 packs for 8.90) and then a carton price (more discounts) of 25.08 or something. If I mis-remembered the carton cost, it is by pennies.

ANYWAY, back to the story. So she bought 3 bronson menthol light 100s. then she hands me the same credit card again, and (for a friend or something) buys three packs of Bronson light 100s and three packs of Bronson menthol 100s. the total on that transaction was 17.80.

17.80 + 8.90 = 26.70. As I stated above, a carton is 25.08. she spent 1.62 MORE for 1 less pack of cigarettes. I told her that if she had bought a mixed carton, she would have saved money AND gotten an additional pack of cigarettes, but she told me that since the other 6 packs were for a friend, that’s how it had to be.

Look, you moron, why don’t you divide 25.08 by 10- that will get you 2.508. let’s round it up to 2.51. your friend would pay you 15.06, and save almost three dollars (compared to the original purchase of 17.80, the friend’s new cost is 15.06) your cost would go up slightly (the majority of the savings is on the friend’s end, not the purchasers, if you do this fairly)- you would spend 1.12 more, BUT get another pack of cigarettes out of the deal!

Or you could simply tell your friend that it was 17.80 (which 6 packs DOES cost), and keep all of the savings to yourself. You’d end up getting 4 packs of cigarettes for… 7.28!

But NO, that’s how it has to be.

These kind of people should NOT be allowed to go into convenience stores, let alone spend their own money.

Tracy! Check this link out! Scroll down until you see where it says “predecessor?” what does that say? :)

Click me. I might be your mom.

17:10:09 11/13/45

To: John Freeman

Re: Recent Inventory & Subsequent rearrangement

John,

I haven’t seen anything on the whereabouts of pallet 14993 since we recently rearranged the warehouse. It has some important and time-sensitive cargo that I really need isolated, if someone was to just to stumble over it there could be a potential incident. Please assign several people to find pallet 14933. when they find it have them report back to me and make sure that they don’t. Touch. Anything.

-Burke

(Original Message Attached)

14:42:51 11/13/45

To: Director, Operations

Subj: Recent Inventory & Subsequent rearrangement

Director Burke-

Several people have reported missing items since the last inventory. It’s a little strange because the majority of these items were accounted for at the time of the inventory, but seem to have disappeared since. Several artifacts recovered from sites 2 and 3, which were supposed to be routed to Delta, have disappeared.

Alpha logged a report stating some of the items had turned up there, but that shouldn’t be possible. The distance, number of clearance checks involved, and time frame should make it truly impossible for anything to get from Sites and Research all the way back to Alpha Labs.

Strange stuff has been going on, but this one really has all of us in S&R scratching our heads.

-JF

Thank you for ordering from Onlineshoes.com We will verify the
availability of your selection(s) and contact you if necessary. Please be
advised that some of our orders ship directly from the manufacturer and
therefore may take additional processing time. For item-specific
processing time, please refer to the information shown below. Your credit
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I really LOVE webpages that let you order whatever the hell it is that you wanted to order, and then they have to "check" to see if those items are available. I ordered a couple of pairs of new balance racing shoes three days ago and I still haven't gotten a return confirmation as to whether or not they are even available.


Annoying.