My Morning

so, i stopped at this gas station on my way to work today, instead of going to brueggers like i do every other morning. i was only intending on getting some vitamin water, possibly an energy drink, well this gas station (though im not sure it can be called a gas station anymore, due to the fact that it no longer sells gas... for whatever reason) has a kind of restaurant with CRAZY greasy food, like sausage biscuits with huge link sausages, and cheddar biscuits, REALLY greasy cheddar biscuits... so i was like, "what the heck, why not" and i got myself a bacon egg and cheese croissant (it had like 5 or 6 huge strips of bacon... it was insane) and i did this all so it'd be cheaper than brueggers... and in the end... it was 20 cents more... for less food. THAT is my morning so far.

I WANT

i've been kinda down recently... i found im constantly thinking about what i want, and its not always cohesive... i want to move to ireland, right now if possible, i want to live "the good life", i want to get married, i want to fall in love again, i want everything. how do you not think about this... and the worst is i dont see any way of making any of this a reality in my near future...

thats all.

Oh, the best laid plans of Mice and Men (aka: New York - Day 3)

We had planned on doing a lot of different things through out our trip... and we did most of them, but on this day... we planned on doing a lot that we ended up not doing at all. David and Dorothy were really lazy and took FOREVER to get ready and get going... we didn't leave till around 3:30pm. so we get there and are STARVING. making the first order of business to eat, on the way over in the fairy we decided we'd rather go see the Intrepid than the Moma... we start walking toward the Intrepid hoping to find a place to eat along the way, even if it was just a small hotdog stand, but instead we found this place on the pier called, "P.D. O'Hurley's" it was small, and quite empty, but it worked. So we ate there, and the food was actually really good, and not too expensive... i had a burger and a beer, and david had some stew, and dorothy had some chicken pot pie that wasn't a pie at all. all of our meals were really good, and quite filling. after our meal we headed over to the Intrepid intending on paying whatever the fair might be, but to our distress (and not my surprise) it was closed, and we were not able to view it in its entirety. Now to understand how disappointing this was for me, you must understand a little bit about my past. When i was young whenever we'd go to the beach i'd always want to go see the Battleship North Carolina, but either we didn't have enough money for it, or when we did have enough, it was closed due to the time of year... so i never went, even when i was older and went with friends something always went wrong to keep me from going aboard. On a spontaneous trip to Charleston we could have gone and seen an aircraft carrier that was docked there... but no... f-ing Liz didn't want to go, and was being all pouty, so once again... i was not able to see this huge naval vessel... so, you can understand my disappointment, yet not surprise... at realizing that once again i was not able to go aboard another naval vessel. after this we decided to just head toward the Church we had been planning on attending and to just hang around in that area of town for a bit till church started. when we got there it turned out we had an hr and a half to spend, so we decided to see if there was an Urban Outfitters close by, my google maps said there was one a few blocks over so we started walking, but even when standing right at the dot where urban outfitters was suppose to be, it was not there... the one and only time throughout the whole trip where my google maps failed us. BUT while walking we found Midtown Comics... a fairly large comic book shop 2 stories infact... and it started on the second story haha, it was very interesting, there were def a lot of comics there and it didn't seem as rundown/nerdy as our local comic book shop, upstairs where a lot of back issues and a TON of figurines, HUGE figurines. after the comic book shop we headed to the church stopping at a starbucks so david could use the bathroom, and i could get something to drink/keep me warm (we used starbucks several times to use the bathroom while in the city) the church itself was in The Manhattan Center’s Grand Ballroom, it was kinda like an old theater with HUGE vaulted cealings painted at the top with angels and the such... but not seriously... there were a few who were wearing ripped jeans and playing guitars and stuff... but all in all it as a nice place. the service was nice, not too deep or heavy. afterwards we headed over to Strand Bookstore which is this bookstore that supposedly has 18 miles of books. i felt we needed to ride the subway at least once while in NY so we took about 20 min trying to figure out the correct route to take, me correcting dorothy mostly (which is funny seeing as how i dont live there and she does), we took one line down town and then were going to cross over to another but it was down so they gave us a voucher for the bus, so we waited in the snow for the bus to come for about 20 min, but all and all it wasn't a bad experience. at the book store i purchased a large old looking book about fables and mythologies, and Salinger's Nine Stories, which i had been meaning to purchase for a while now. Afterwards we headed over the the Sunshine Cinema, a small theater that showed old/indie/foreign films, there were two that we could choose from when we got there, and i randomly chose "Cherry Blossoms" because i vaguely remembered dorothy mentioning that it sounded good, and the other one looked like a biography which i was not in the mood for. So, turns out this movie was the freaken SADEST! movie ever, we were all crying our eyes out except david who has no heart. after the movie i turned to dorothy and said, "i need a beer" so we left with the intention of finding a random pub and sitting down and drinking a beer, we didn't even walk a block when we heard music coming from this small bar, so we decided to duck in and check it out. the bar was dimly lit, and there just happened to be a small circular table with 2 chairs in the front corner by the window, and another chair just sitting there, we re-arranged everything so that david and dorothy were sitting back in the corner and i leaning up against the window and we listened. the band was made up of a guitarist/singer (who sounded like Bod Dylan), a piano player, and a drummer. the music was awesome, it was chill acoustic music, some people were dancing up closer to the band, and not guetto lets get it on dumb dancing... but just kinda moving your body cause the music asks you too... and i sat there drinking my guiness wishing and hoping for something like this in my life on a regular basis; it almost brought me to tears... for there last song the band played "Sweet Caroline" and everyone sang along and cheered and it was AWESOME! after the band we decided to head out, it being well after midnight the fairy was no longer running to we had to take a bus, that was a bit un-eventful it was late and no one was there. we got home rather late and i just went to sleep.

Jersey, NY (aka: New York - Day 2)

we were crazy chill on day 2 of our trip, we woke up late, and all decided we wanted to go to Ihop, so we looked one up, and there was one 2 miles away... or one 8 miles away, and apparently the one 2 miles away was in a bad side of town (pah!) so we went to the one 8 miles away, and i got endless pancakes because they were cheaper than getting just 5 pancakes (dont ask me why) and they were good, and i was happy. Dorothy's Bug has seat warmers which is really awesome, and kept by bottom warm. so on the way back we decided to stop by this Korean super store, just to check it out... it was crazy, it was like being in another country, there were maybe 2 other people who were not korean in the whole place other than ourselves. we went to all the different stores and rummaged around, there was this huge ad for this alcoholic beverage outside the korean liquor store and i was so taken in by it i decided i needed to purchase it, it wasn't bad, apparently its really cheap korean vodka, but it tasted more like gin to me. we walked around a bit more, i was hoping to find something overtly asian to get my co-worker, but i couldn't find anything that fit the bill, so i just took a bunch of pictures all of which are on facebook. There was this sweet looking lady at this bakery who this really cool hair, it was all crazy and tangly and stuff, but she was shy and wouldn't let us take a picture with her. and as we left some dude gave me a pack of gum. it was awesome. We decided to just chill and play wii or watch a movie till later that night and then we'd go out, we were feeling kinda lazy. Then that night david felt like having sushi, so we went to this place in Hoboken called "the Sushi House" it was really crowded and took almost 2 hrs to get our food, but it was cool cause we just hung out and nibbled on some Edemame, and had some soup. At the table next to use there was a couple who we speculated on there relationship... personally i believed that the guy had asked the girl out, and that she was, so far, not have a very good time. we got the sushi and come to find out that "sushi" is not the same as "sushi rolls" so we ate lots of raw fish... but all in all it was good, and i found that my favorite kind of sushi roll is spicy tuna rolls... f-ing awesome. After the sushi place we walked down to this bar to see if a band was playing, it was FILLED with hipsters and indie kids and scene kids... it was kinda awesome actually... and everyone was really nice, but the band had already played... and i was kinda tired and had to use the bathroom so we just left and went home. Apparently though, Hoboken is the hipster lace to live... we just played wii for a bit, and i fell asleep. AND THAT was Day 2.

Oh, The City... (aka: New York - Day 1)

so, i've been putting off writing about my trip to NYC because it is so daunting, a LOT happened in New York that can be written about, BUT i am at work now, so i have the time... here it goes:

Day 1: we were quite hungry by the time we finally got around to leaving, so we stopped at a Panera Bread, and all got soup, and we ate and talked and it was fun. There was some dude wearing a cookie monster shirt (all ghetto large) and a cookie monster hat (all ghetto flat) we laughed at him and tried to get each other to go make a comment to him, but no one did. after that we took a fairy to the city, this is the fairy that Dorothy takes every morning to get to work it was fun. We took a bus to 5th, and then walked a bit, and checked out the Apple store which was kinda cool cause it was just a Glass box outside this building, but you go down these stairs or circular glass elevator and you go down into the center of the store... it was an apple store, nothing special... very crowded, after that we took a cab to the Met, it was kinda confusing wither or not we were suppose to pay or what... it said, "Suggested donation $20" we were like, "psh..." and gave $5 each and went directly into the Egyptian exhibit... (i thought this was the only way we COULD go but i was wrong) All the pictures from the Met are on my facebook. Check them out if you wish. I really enjoyed the black statues... and decided if i was an acient Egyptian king i'd have only black stone work for everything... cause it looks awesome especially when polished, everything would be black, and that cyan type color that they have, that is also quite interesting, though i found some of them are just painted that color... which is sad. i wanted the stone to be completely that color... oh well. Eventually we made our way to the Medieval section and there were some sweet statues of saints and dukes and Jesus... we were getting kinda tired and we sat down, and i took a look at the map that Dorothy had, and come to find out, there was a "Armor and Arms" section... i was like, "what the heck are we doing here, lets go there!" and then i pretty much fell in love, i wanted EVERYTHING in the whole section... it was all so beautiful, engravings and etchings in everything so intricate... GAH! I took pictures of everything... though i found out later that there was a shield room that i missed, and i nearly cried...
eventually we left the Met... 4 or 5 hrs later, and it was dark, and colder, and we were all very hungry... so we headed off to McGee's Irish Pub, the pub that the pub in "How I Met Your Mother" was based off of... it didn't really look anything like the pub in the show... but it was still cool, nice atmosphere... way better than anything in greenville... and on par with the Hibernian in Raleigh, i got some Bangers and Mash (Irish sausage and mashed potatoes) and we drank and laughed and talked and it was fun. then... we went to H&M to basically get all the stuff i wanted to do out of the way all in one day, i searched for my perfect jacket that i had passed up so long ago... and couldn't find it, i found one similar that was green... but i wasn't about the green... so i asked a sales person and she said they only had them in green... then i happened to check out some other jackets a little farther down were we were and behind some other style of jacket was MY jacket! its not the EXACT same one... but its close, and i love it. then we just kinda skulked around looking at other things, i tried to try on a suit cause i could have gotten a whole suit for $75 but they didn't fit cause im fat and i was sad. after that i think we just went back and tried to watch "Across the Universe" but Dorothy's dvd player didn't like it, and thought it was too dirty cause it put a parental control on it, and only it... we put in other dvd's, rated R dvds and they worked fine... just Across the Universe didn't work, and then i fell asleep. AND THAT was Day 1.

Finally another dream about saving the world.

So, i was the leader of this rebel uprising... or at least pretty high up in the hierarchy, and we were fighting the military government, cause they were bad... and we were in this warehouse, with weapons and stuff, and they surrounded us, and everyone except me escaped... and i was stuck there and then some how the government took control over our big gun turrets and turned them on me, and i some how never got shot, but took down a few of there guys, but eventually i was captured, and they threw me in this military jeep and where driving me somewhere, i thought to my execution. There was this Sgt. in the passenger seat, and probably a pvt. in the driving, and the sgt. was going on and on about how i was scum, and how i deserved to die, and bla bla bla, and then i realized we weren't going into the city or whatever, but where going out into the waste lands, into the rubble out past the governments control.. and then he opened the door and told me to go... while the car was still driving, so i jumped out and rolled and found myself surrounded by rubble. well turns out i was in Canada or something, and so i had to go through Russia to be safe (i think i was heading to Europe now that i think about it) and i go into this falling apart church, and follow this hallway and end up in this garden that shouldn't have been there, and there were three Dark Eldar ( now imagine they made a not bad quality live action movie from the 80's with these guys in it... and that's how they looked in my dream) anyway, they were in the midst of sacrificing these women... and there guards took me (they were human guards under mind control) but the Dark Eldar didn't want me, and let me go. which didn't make any sense to me, cause i was a liability, i knew they existed and thought they should have killed me, but i wasn't going to ask any questions about it... so i got away from them and ended up in Russia... where it was actually a desert (i saw a map of the world at some point, and it had changed a lot, Russia and Alaska had collided and made a mountain range... and Russia was a desert waste land because of nuclear bombings.) and so i was trompsing through desert Russia and there were these gangs that all dressed the same (in each gang) and several of them started shooting at me and i took cover and some how they missed me but i took out all their gunners and they went away. then i headed home... and it was my parents house but it was surrounded by rubble but inside the rubble was a nice place, not crazy nice, but livable... and there was a girl there who was my age that i think i was suppose to have married if i hadn't of become the leader of this Rebel Resistance, and then i had this weird feeling, and i went into the garage which was kinda filled with rubble and slabs of concrete and up on a ledge there was a Dark Eldar standing there and no one else saw him... then i woke up.


yeah... that's it.

New York New York

Well, David and i arrived here safe and sound, with only a few very minor detours and one... actual detour. haha, we got in at exactly 3am. it was freezing, but we were prepared and were quite bundled up. Dorothy has been quite accommodating, she has a VERY nice place i slept on the couch and david on the air matrace seeing as how he is taller than me, and would probably be a bit uncomfortable on the couch. When i sit up i see this:


Yeah, i know... amazing view. honestly i think if i were to happen to live up here, i'd rather live on the jersey side of the river looking at NYC then the other way around... i can't possibly think it looks as awsome.

Greenville Large and Small

Saturday george and i decided to walk around greenville and shoot interesting people, fashionable people, but seeing as how we aren't in milan, or paris, or rome... we found 2 people... in all of greenville.

The new Hipster with his full out Urban Outfitters outfit, the shoes, though, are what inicially caught my eye, that new 80's hightop bright color style thats in now, that i can in no way pull off.

And this girl... she just stood out, check out those quite lace up boots, and a tiedie dress, and a brown sweater? i wouldn't have put that outfit together, but it sure calls out.

This is my local comic book shop, i rather like its home town feel.

This is my local nerd shop... down there in the left hand corner, it recently moved from a way more upscale place, to right across from my local comic book shop, very convenient.

"How much is that cat in the window" hahaha, see if you can see all the cats, we were walking by and i noticed motion, and looked and there were all these cats skulking about on that shelf, the store was closed at the time, but if you ever get around to walking through downtown greenville, check out Valerie's Antiques and Collectibles, they have cats.

and this... this is the infamous train station/tobacco warehouse/meth lab that burned down a bit ago, crazy stories about that place... maybe i'll write it up another time.

Deams of Slavery

Last night i had this dream...
we were at the beach, and david and i were staying in this hotel right on the beach, and then david wasn't there and my family was. my step-dad had won or received some how a lot of money so he bought a boat, a fairly nice boat. so my step-sister and i were up on the beach, and my step-dad and my sister and my mom were on the boat docked at this weird dock in the middle of the nowhere... and i decided we should just swim out to them instead of walking all the way around to the beach. so we swam out to them, and where hanging out admiring the boat, cause it was really nice, when behind me there was explosions and light and i thought they were fireworks, and everyone else was watching, so i turned around and all the buildings were being blown up, all of them, threw out the city where exploding and collapsing. We just stood there in the boat, in safety watching, thinking off all those who were dying then huge waves started coming, HUGE waves and the boat went over most of them, and we were safe then this crazy huge one came and we capsized and next thing i know im in the midst of the ruined city. I was trying to get back to the beach, back to our hotel, thinking that was where my family and david would be. i met a few random other survivors, and we helped each other trek across the ruins, at one point we came to this room where there were a bunch of little green kids... that were weird and kinda friendly, but not really... and i was kinda scared they were going to eat me if i moved too fast, i dont quite remember, but some how someone distracted them... i think dogs attacked us, thats it, dogs attacked us while in there, and we just threw the dogs at the kids, and they started eating them and we ran and shut them in the room. Eventually i made it back to the beach... but through some sewer duct, and when i got there everything was different, i was now of some lesser class, and was either a slave or was to be shot or something... so there was this rich woman, and i convinced her she wanted me as a slave, and she was kinda eccentric... and weird and didn't really treat me all that bad, and i kept asking them what was going on, trying to figure out why they were there, and there were slaves, and why i was one, and what was different, and they didn't understand the idea that i had just got there the day before, cause apparently this had been going on for some time (it had to there were all these new buildings it was like a resort) and for some reason i dont quite understand i kept wanting to know if they were aliens because some how i would have been ok with them being aliens... and i wasn't ok if they weren't if they were just humans who some how decided they were better than those who were refugees of the "attack" but the woman always laughed at me thinking i was just joking with her. oh, and the whole part where i was a slave happened in the water while swimming in the bay where the whole dream started, but it was a lot different, the buildings where all new and white and clean and the water was all clean, and everything was really clean, and apparently if litter was punishable by death.

yeah, crazy huh....

A Story (a look into how my mind works)

He was at the hight of his youth, the prime of his life. It was the summer after High School, and before College, he was in a band that was just coming into its own; finally starting to get a following. Sure he had gone through some hard times, but that was the past, it was summer, he was free and young and on the brink of life. He was sitting outside of a venue after finishing a show, sitting atop the trunk of a car, possibly "Old Blacky" (the fabled car of his best friend, who got them through many an interesting situation) sitting there talking with a few fans, the bands set had been remarkably good, the crowd was larger than expected and had a lot of new faces, he was living it up, letting the "fame" go to his head. Most, if not all, of those he was talking to he knew, most of the bands fans where there friends, they were not so big as to have fans that weren't in some way connected to them, well... mostly. As he was talking, and laughing and carrying on a young girl walked up that he did not know, she was very attractive, blonde with a citris orange streak in her hair, and her style was a bit before the times (or after, depending on how you look at it) most notably she was wearing a tanktop, with a loose fitting orange t-shirt that had been cut up so as to not have a collar or sleeves or bottom, and she had it hanging slightly off her shoulders (think 80's and you got it) it was by no means un-attractive, and was actually quite interesting. Without much for-thought, being surrounded by people who admired him, and not really caring about anyone else at that very moment, our young man casually informed the young girl that her "shirt was falling off" it was meant to be a joke, and he fully intended on explaining how he actually liked it after her rebuttal... but there was no rebuttal, she just said, "oh, yeah... " and pulled the shirt up on her shoulders and walked away. Once again, being in the built-up state he was in, he didn't think much of it, for once in his life he was not actively trying to impress girls, because for once in his life, he did not have to. Not to long after another fairly attractive blonde girl came right up to him, with a very forceful manner and pronounced loudly, "Your f***ing fly is down!" which even is his surprise he responded immediately with, "i dont have a fly... they're buttons..." Everyone was sort of put out, but most laughed, and the girl stormed away, he looked after her and realized she was with the girl with the shirt, so he went up to them, to find out what was going on. The forceful blonde pulled him aside and, very forcefully, scolded him for picking on the other girl, because she had been trying to flirt with him, and he just made fun of her. He apologized, explaining that he did in-fact like her shirt, and meant nothing by his earlier comment. He then went up the the young girl with the 80's shirt and the citris streak and talked to her, explaining the same to her, and being very put out by the other girl standing there angrily... in the end, he got the her number.


**********************
Now, one would think that remembering this situation is such detail is kinda creepy... but really its how i think, i remember situations, mostly inconsequential situations, but i remember them, in great detail. Obviously our young boy is me, and to give a little after-word the girl with the shirt and i hung out a few times, and i ended up really liking her, but she got weird, and disappeared, i didn't see nor talk to her for years, her forceful friend (who i really didn't like, because she was so controlling) ended up going to ECU and i saw her, and talked to her for a bit, turns out our young girl disappeared all together, and she didn't know where she was either, so i didn't feel as bad.

the other day i thought of her for whatever reason, and decided to find her on facebook, it was quite easy actually... and i started talking to her again. who knows who she is now, i doubt she's the same girl i built up in my head as, "the one that got away" but it doesn't matter. all this is to show a bit, of how i think... in my mind i have hundreds of thousands of stories, just floating about, waiting to be snagged by some casual memory.

Map the un-known

so i've sparked an interest in map making again, i got into it a while back for a bit, and then moved on as is my nature. BUT i was looking for "map building" software and found this "google map maker" which is for, i guess, small countries to map out there own roads and stuff... but i was wondering... google being all open source like it is, why it doesn't let someone create fictional google earth, where you can look up your favorite fictional world, and look around a high quality map of it in the google earth style... i think this is a great idea, there are TONS of fictional worlds out there with maps and cities and all such things, and TONS of nerds who'd be happy to create them given the tools. i say, "GOOGLE! give us the tools! let us create fictional worlds!"

Pain

So, i woke up today, feeling like a bus ran over me. I hurt all over, seriously... my ankle hurts like crazy, my left shoulder feels like someone stabbed me with a knife! my left knee hurts when its strait, and the rest of my body just feels as though some one constantly beat me with a bat all night long. on top of all that, my throat is sore, and i have a head ache. other than that though, today's been great! i stayed in bed till at least 1pm i never do that, EVER! and i only left, cause i was thirsty.