My fiancee Janie is here! She came in late (or early, depending on how you look at it) Saturday night / Sunday morning, around 4am. We've had a good time hanging out and spending time together. Yes, we are still madly crazy in love, still engaged. We both needed some rest so Sunday was mostly downtime. We saw "Sucker Punch" and then came home and went to bed Sunday night. I worked on Monday and she came and bought me lunch at Subway. My day was really stressful at work, then it got more stressful at Lowe's. 

I went after work to pick up an additional 3/4" thick, 8'x4' sheet of subfloor from Lowe's, because I figured that the floor square footage wouldn't quite be covered by what I had bought already. I called home to Janie to check on the thickness of the subfloor because I wanted to be sure it was 3/4" before I bought the wrong thing. Those sheets are really awkward and heavy and splintery to move around more than you need to do so. It turns out Joe was there to stop by to say hi, and there was some confusion and difficulties with a) me being in Lowe's with not great signal and b) Janie and Joe having crap signal at my house. I couldn't find any boards that were labeled 3/4" that were as cheap as I had remembered. I spent less than $40 on my lumber last time I was there, and the cheapest 3/4" there was $35 and I didn't bring that much cash. 

I got two guys that worked there to help me figure it out, apparently they're changing all the measurement standards for how they sell the wood, and trying to list everything in 32nds, like 23/32" for 3/4 inch. Now, if you are good at math like I tend to believe I am (I have my sister to thank for that) - you know that 23/32 is not 3/4, 24/32 is equal to 3/4. Apparently, they run through the same settings on the cutter, and the pieces labeled 23/32 were completely compatible with my 3/4" sheet without worrying about it being uneven. It does not make a lick of sense to me, but if they tell me that's how it is, then I will go with it. The sheet I bought was about $12.50, and the 2x6x16 plank I bought was another $8. It was fun loading all that into the truck and driving from Sylva to Whittier with a 16 foot piece of wood out the back of my truck. I've got to get some of those flags so people will stop tailgating me and scaring me. 

Janie helped me out by pulling up some flooring while I was at work, but some of the joists are worse off than I thought. Joe showed me when I got there which joists were load-bearing, and they look fine, but several non-load-bearing are too rotted to leave alone. Parts of one came up with the wood Janie was prying, another one she stepped onto broke completley, another that I knew about already wasn't even fully attached anymore because the last person to do this exact same job, did a horrible job of toenailing. Joe recommended getting some U brackets instead of just toe-nailing the replacement boards in, so I will likely do that. I looked them up online at Lowe's and they're pretty cheap, like $1 a piece. 

Redoing the joists gives me better peace of mind about this whole thing - no guesswork about if it's going to last much longer or if reinforcements were going to hold. This is just better. I should have been planning to do this anyway, and I think it's great Joe was there to show me stuff and give me advice. Right now it's kind of funny, you open the bathroom door and pretty much there's a weak step and then you're on dirt. Not much to do at this point before pay day, but tear out the very last two planks that touch water supply and drain line with a Sawz-all. After that I can replace the joists and sure them up with some cross-support, mark locations on the bottom of the wall so I can find the joists after the flooring is down, and then put the flooring down and secure it with 2 inch deck screws. Putting the vinyl flooring sheet down after that, then the toilet. If I can get that done this week I'll be in really good shape. 

Left to do after that: install new tub drain, then put in shower PEX and fixtures, run the wiring and install the above-shower light, drill holes in durarock and then put that up. Bring in the tub and secure that in place and connect the drain. That technically should work as a functional but ugly shower or regular tub at that point. I'm going to frame up the tub up to about 1/4 inch above the deck, then tile up the surround. Using greenboard for the ceiling in the shower and the rest of the bathroom. Then I'll go and greenboard up the rest of the walls in the bathroom, probably replace the window, spackle and paint the ceiling, then I'll paint and install the molding. I may put in an additional electrical outlet while I have the walls down. Probably the very last thing I do will be to install a new vanity and light fixture. Then I am washing my hands of the bathroom remodel and focus on doing some landscaping or something easier. The next project will probably be the bedroom or the office that will become a library. Since the wood paneling is down in the bedroom, I'm probably going there first. 

The "work paralysis" as I mentioned in my last post, well - I may have understated it some. Sometimes, it's that feeling like you get procrastinating as a student, and you just have to kick your own butt and get stuff done. There is a very real thing I didn't understand until I experienced it myself later in life with my depression, where your brain can be in such a feverish state of emotional distress (even worse when there's no tangible reason for it) that it's just crippling, and you can't get anything done because the only thing you want to do is ball up in a corner somewhere and be alone doing nothing. 

These are the hardest things to work through. I am sharing this because I have recently added some people back to my Facebook for the first time in a long time, and they may not have known for sure (though I'm sure they've had their suspicions) that I deal with clinical depression. 

I've been stuck for a few days knowing I have a lot of stuff to do, so tonight I'm skipping Game Night to be responsible and get some of that stuff done. I should have a bathroom floor sometime this weekend, and then hopefully vinyl flooring, and then a toilet put back in. Depending on how productive I can be with my beautiful fiancee in town for a week, I may have most of a bathroom back before you know it! :-)

I tend to get "work paralysis," which basically looks just like procrastination - in fact, in practice, that's all it is really. I will do everything but what actually needs to be done when I get locked up like that. I know there's a big project, and almost like a fear, I'll keep putting it off like I'm not ready for it. I find the best way to get past it is to trick myself by starting to do it anyway before I realize I'm back in the groove of working on it again.

That's how the bathroom remodel has been for me lately. If you'd asked me when the hole was just a hole that I was dealing with I would have had no idea I'd be getting myself into a complete remodel. One thing leads to another...and here I am.

This weekend I mowed the lawn, did dishes, some laundry, cleaned up a little around the house, and was pretty frakking exhausted by the time I was done yesterday. I dreaded the idea of doing any work today. My body was sore and I quit out early around 11pm. (That's early for me on a Saturday night). Today I woke up around 11am, got some breakfast made, relaxed on the couch and watched some Battlestar Galactica for probably two hours. I went into town to get the puppy some more food and some soda for me.

Before I got wrapped up in Netflix more, I decided to try out the new Sawzall blades I picked up at Lowe's with a freshly charged battery, and I was able to cut right through the cabinet frame in the bathroom corner. I cut a few more places, pried here and there with the pry bar, and before I knew it the cabinet left no trace. At this point there was literally nothing holding me back from prying up the subfloor, so I did that. It broke in half as I worked from the side around the door. It made it a hell of a lot easier to carry out, I'll tell you what.

So, subfloor's gone now - but guess what was lurking underneath? Another layer of floor. I am not frakking kidding here. It's only about half the length of the subfloor, the rest has broken and rotten away, so the remaining half should be easy to pry up and dispose of it. The joists actually look fine, none of it looks rotted at all. I'll take the huge piece of subfloor in my livingroom waiting to go in and I'll cut it to fit exactly, and pre-cut the holes for the plumbing so all I should have to do is go in there and mark along the walls where the joists are (makes it easier to find them for securing the flooring) and then screw in the flooring with 2" deck screws. They're made for exterior applications, but that means they won't rust or have other problems from moisture. This subfloor is about 3/4" thick premium grade underlayment, and should withstand normal wear and tear.

Once the subfloor is down, I can apply adhesive and throw down the vinyl (again, cutting the holes for the plumbing) and then re-install the toilet. I won't have a sink or walls yet, but that's cool. The rest of the bathroom is mostly going to be tiling up the shower once the bath tub is in place with durarock around it. I can't decide if I want to build a small seat at the end of the tub where the cabinet was, or frame it up again and run a second shower head in there. The advantage there is you could stand in the middle and get rinsed from both sides.

Ceiling and rest of the bathroom are going to be covered up in greenboard again - I've got to install that ceiling light in the shower and run the electrical wiring over to the light light switch, which will probably become a two-gang box. While the walls are down, I also want to install a new outlet by the sink.

Gah, I can't wait for this thing to be done. It's going to look sweet, but I'm doing to be dead and broke! Although if you consider all the hours I've put into it and the money I saved doing it myself, it really will probably be the cheapest bathroom remodel in history.

So the plumber (Lee English, out in Bryson City) came today with his helper, Sam. They were awesome! They cut the supply lines to the shower even lower, then attached proper connectors to PEX and capped it off with my gatorbite ball valves so the water could be turned back on. Also, it turns out the drain pipe was basically rotted / rusted out or some other kinda damage. It basically was barely connected. So they took that out too, and in the process they pulled out my tub and ripped up about half the floor on that side.So there's about 1/4 of my remaining demo work done already.

I want to still run a new light in the shower and redo the ceiling in that room with greenboard. I won't be able to afford a new vanity this month, but maybe next month when I get the new toilet for Brad's bathroom I'll pick that up. That could also change if I pick up some side work between now and then. I can hopefully at least get a floor down and maybe (*crossing fingers*) the vinyl, then the back wall of greenboard and the toilet put back in. 

Get the tub back in with the drain kit I bought off the plumber today (new drain has a good stopper on top for when you want to take a bath), then the durarock goes up and the holes get drilled for faucets and shower head. Plumbing connected up and then finally, TILE! Hopefully when the tile goes in and the greenboard is installed everywhere and I have the light connected, it's all gonna be done for a long while.

Normal rooms are hopefully going to be a lot simpler than this has been. 

I was beating myself up because I was *so* sure I was right that all I needed was a hacksaw and gatorBITE ball valve (with the water cut off at the main) to fix my plumbing to run PEX from copper and have a good cut-off so the whole house's water could be left on while I worked. I put one on, then turned the main back on - and of course, flooding. Turned out, I forgot to put the fitting on inside the pipe. Hacked it off, put a new one on... flooding. Forgot to push hard on it and twist it into place. That worked and held.

I got three more to put in today, hoping to get them done quickly and without event. I'm kind of counting my blessings right now because I didn't end up having to call the plumber.

I've been watching more videos lately on how to do stuff. It turns out I am likely to need a tool called a "tub shoe wrench" to free my tub from it's drain captivity, and then I just pry around the edges to free the skirt, and it should come right out once it's free.

I am going to Lowe's tonight after work to get a hacksaw, some PEX tubing, some Gatorbite connectors and two Gatorbite ball valves so I have a good water supply cut-off to the shower so I can keep working with the rest of the house's water turned on. I am also going to get a key wrench so I can turn the water on and off by myself at the main.

I will replace the piping to my shower later when the floor is done and I can put the tub back in (or a new or new-to-me tub, going to check the Habitat for Humanity Home Supply Store first). I want to switch the plumbing from a three valve setup to just a one lever setup for controlling the water flow and temperature. I also have to repair a leak on the sink supply line. 

This remodel may end up being the cheapest in history - most of the work being done by me and buying all the supplies and stuff myself. It's not cheap, but man I am saving a lot of money. I am hoping that while the walls are down I can go ahead and get any electrical changes done that I might need. I want an outlet by the sink for using electric trimmers, or for someone to use a hair curler or blow dryer, etc. I want to put in a recessed light in the shower with a separate light switch control, so I will need to upgrade the 1-gang box to a 2-gang box. 

With the tub out of the way, I will pull up all the rotted flooring, clean everything up, call John (my friend Jame's brother, who is a contractor that specializes in framing) and having him come check and either instruct or do the actual repairs on the joists and such for me. There's no avoiding that, I need it to be good and up to code and safe. Once that's done, I can put the new subflooring in, finish the plumbing and electrical work, reinstall the tub or new tub, durarock the shower frame, put up greenboard for the rest of the walls and ceiling, install the new light fixture over the vanity spot, put in the new vanity and vanity top, lay down the vinyl flooring, install a panel in front of the tub to make it look fancy, caulk all the seals, reinstall the toilet, spackle the seams and screw holes, paint, and then probably last - tile the shower. 

It's a lot of work, but I think it'll look great when I'm done. I am thinking of tiling with white tile, since the tub is white, and I am going to get a white vanity and vanity top ($88 at Lowe's), and the toilet is white, and the vinyl flooring is white with blue shapes on it... octagons maybe? I forget. I want to paint the walls a darker blue color, and paint the window trim white. I may be able to re-finish my medicine cabinet in white and just reuse the same one. There is also a possibility of doing some built-in shelving on the wall behind the toilet before I put the drywall/greenboard stuff in. 

I can't wait to get my truck back - I need to haul off a ton of the demolished materials, go get moisture-treated subflooring just to make sure I *never* have to do this again, and haul off the garbage that's been collecting. I have more to talk about, but I have a meeting in 5 minutes. 

Been working hard on my bathroom. I posted the pics on Facebook here. Finished the last wall last night, and now pretty much I either don't have the tools or the strength or know-how to do any more on it. I have to wait on my refund (which as of right this second I don't think it's hit today) and then get John the contractor back in to help me get the rest of it done up to the floor at least. I probably also need to get the plumber in to fix a few things with the plumbing in there before I build it all back up. 

Tuesday, October 21st

Startled awake by what could most likely be discerned as the centrifuge-assisted separation of a cat skin from its internal squishy bits, the occupants of the fourth floor of the Neighboring Acres apartment complex came to their doors at 5:30am for further investigation. Peering out into the hallway, they would observe the tennant of apartment 407A - the pole-thin and unnervingly pale Van Irving - collapsing underneath the weight of his bicycle just at the top of the stairs. 

"Who's that?," a young man in the hall asked aloud. 

"407A. The 'vampire' kid. Looks like he passed out and fell leaning across his bike and rolled backwards down the stairs. Guys, it looks like he's not breathing." 

Seventeen minutes later, the EMT driver declared Van Irving legally dead of trauma to the neck and spinal column. His death was instant and painless, considering he had apparently passed out of exhaustion from exertion and malnutrition before the fall. Also involved in the accident was Mister Socks, 403B's short-haired feline. She had gotten out and was in the stairwell, and apparently was the source of the screeching noise amalgamated with the crashing noise of Irving's bike. Mister Socks survived with only a minor concussion, and recovered nicely at the Chicago Veterinary Clinic.

Wednesday, October 22nd

"Mom, it's 9 o'clock in the morning, you know I'm working late tonight, and we're two hours behind you here - can you call me later in the afternoon?"

Andrew Laughton rubbed his eyes and then groaned at the sound of his mother's voice frantically trying to explain something to him as he  held the phone away from his head to shield his ears from the sheer volume of her panicked shrieking. 

"Mom, calm down. What's wrong? What's going on? Just take a deep breath, then explain to me calmly. Better? Now go. What's up?"

"Van... Van is dead. Just... shutdown and died..." was all Andrew could make out from her.

"Van? What do you mean? You don't have a van, and neither do I. What are you talking... oh God. You mean Paul? How did he... I mean... what happened Mom? Are you OK? Of course you're not OK. Mom, I'll be on the first flight out." 

Andrew dropped his cellular phone on the pillow beside him. Work. I have to call work.

"Yeah this is Sean. What do you want so early, Andy? Oh God. I'm so sorry. Sure. Take all the time you need. Blake's been looking to pick up some extra hours anyway, so it's all good. Do you need some cash to help cover the plane ticket? OK. Take care of yourself. Call me if you need anything. Bye."

The next few hours were all a blur as Andrew made plane reservations, packed a bag with half his belongings - which for most would be saying a lot more, but Andrew didn't have much in his adequate living space - and got on a bus to the airport. Andrew wasn't much for keepsakes or baubles. He kept a journal - a spreadsheet really - for almost purely scientific purposes as a log of his existence in the hopes of figuring out some great truth or direction for his life. On the bus, he took one of his two anti-anxiety pills brought along for this trip: one for the plane ride, and one for the return trip. He kept his prescription on hand and the pills were in their appropriate pharmacy container - airport security was a little uptight about restricted narcotics in the past. Since he just had the one carry-on, he had packed his clothes, three well-worn paperback sci-fi books, laptop, digital music player with headphones, and 20-something dice of various denominations. He didn't plan on playing any games on this trip, but you never know. They just made him feel good. 

The three hour flight would have been a much longer drive. Andrew never bothered getting his license in the crowded downtown Los Angeles. His work was close enough to take the bus. He usually could get most anywhere in the city by bus or walking, although Andrew wasn't much of a socialite. 

Paul...Van. What the hell were you thinking?

Paul Helverson, Andrew's half-brother, had recently taken to calling himself "Van Irving" - his new name for his new undead lifestyle. Andrew grew up with Paul and until Andrew left for college they had been as close as two brothers could be expected to grow together. They had your usual fights and crazy schemes that kids cook up.  

Andrew laughed to himself thinking about their childhood days: like the time they tried to build a rocket ship to travel to outer space. Paul tried to superglue wings onto his bike, while Andrew mocked his shameless disregard for physics, propulsion, and mathematics. Andrew burned one of his eyebrows off at one point trying to develop the rocket fuel in their garage. "A mere mathematical calculation, eh?" Paul mocked.

When Andrew left for UCLA to study computer programming languages and mathematical algorithms, Paul developed his own circle of friends. He drifted this way and that through high school, following trends and fashions to fit in - even the utterly ridiculous. One week he would be a devoted hip-hop music fan, the next he was a stylish prep with a popped up shirt collar. Andy would check in on Paul via his online internet profile, but the two hardly exchanged words after his first year of college. Not even so much as an e-poke. 

Andrew had graduated and decided to stay in L.A. working tech support for a start-up company that survived the "Dot Com Bubble" and its subsequent burst. Three years behind him, Paul gravitated towards theater arts, partly because he hoped to one day go out to Hollywood and "make it big." In Paul's second year of community college, he fell in with some outcast kids who were into vampire lore. He became a "vegetarian" because he thought that blood oranges and bloody mary's counted towards a wholesome vampire diet. Paul was lactose intolerant, and try as he may have he was unable to put on any significant weight or muscle. "A strong breeze would knock him over," his mother would say. Paul would occasionally post pictures to his profile of the vamp-themed parties and night clubs he would frequent. Surprisingly, Chicago had a few of these. They never met in any particular establishment on a regular basis, but would hold events and rent out places around town, Paul explained once in a short online update. 

Paul would often blast a message online on his profile to this effect:

"OMG," [Oh My God, in internet slang] "this book is soooo not accurate - vampires do NOT sparkle in the sunlight. This is NOT cannon. Has this woman even READ a single vampire book in her life? LOL" [Laughing Out Loud]

This would happen everytime a new book in the latest teen vampire series came out. Paul got so passionate about his disagreement with this series that he started an online campaign against it. The online retribution from thousands of outraged, angsty teens was fairly immense, but he only seemed smugly satisfied with his own "authentic" superiority. 

Andrew had no real friends to speak of in L.A., at least not in person. There were his "guildies" - members of his guild in the online role playing game he spent most of his off-hours playing. They would communicate via voice chat online, or over a web-connected digital video camera for video chat. He had just enough time before take-off to send an email letting them know he would miss events for the next few days online for his brother's funeral in Chicago, and the connection through his mom's DSL would be abysmal at best. 

I can't imagine it. I can't imagine it happening to me. There's no way Paul woke up and thought "Today is the day I will die." He had big plans, and as of his last blog update, he was certainly still planning to fullfill those dreams. 

Late Thursday Afternoon, October 23rd

"Hey kiddo. Want some coffee?" Andrew's mom peeked her head in the door, cautiously at first, out of habit ever since raising two boys who went through adolescence in her household. 

"Oh man, that'd be great," he answered groggily, stretching his tired body. "At least with such a short flight, there's no jet lag. I just wish I had a normal person's work schedule so I didn't feel like a zombie in the daytime."

"We have some things to take care of today: apparently your brother actually took some steps to have his affairs in order last year when he started hanging out with those zombie people." 

"Well, if you think about it," Andrew smirked, "obsession with death and the afterlife lends itself to preparedness."

"Haha, very funny. Get up and get cleaned up - we have to stop by his agent's office to get a copy of his power of attourney and last will and testament." 

"Paul left a Will? I didn't think a starving actor had anything to leave behind besides whatever was in his apartment. I really don't want Paul's laundry," Andrew griped. 

In reality, Andrew would have traded anything in his own possession to have his brother back. Humor was his family's way of dealing with grief. Since their father passed when they were very little, they knew mourning and they knew how to be resilient and do what it takes to make it through the current moment. It wasn't quite shock, but really just disbelief that Paul wasn't really gone. At any moment, he could come bounding through the door wondering what his big brother was doing in town. 

The car ride over to the agent's office wasn't any different than any other car ride they'd taken in the past. Paul's agent Harold was a one-man talent operation whose only claim to fame was finding the kid who eventually starred in a Pepsi commercial. The kid left him after two mainstage productions of "Annie" and signed with a bigger agency. Harold also had a drinking problem; that is to say - he drank water and sports drinks constantly. He was a health-maniac, always pushing the latest nutrition bar or sports drink mix or protein shake on anyone who walked into his office. Andrew's mom had told him many times over the phone about the multi-level marketing schemes in which Harold was involved and tried to involve Paul. Some of it rubbed off on Paul, at least to the degree of convincing him that in order to really perform on stage or in front of the camera, he needed to be in top physical condition - makeup could handle the rest. 

"Huhllo there dahlings, I know you must be sooo exhausted after your flight and awl you've been through."

Harold also happened to be slightly effeminate, and hails from the great state of New Jersey, though he tells people he was born and raised on Broadway. Andrew immediately thought he sounded like the Jewish mother he never had, and could see why Paul would collaborate with this man. Harold had a standing desk attached to a treadmill so he could walk steadily as he shuffled papers around. 

"Ah, here it is, sweet'arts. Deeyah Pawlie's Last Will and Testament. 'To Be Opened Only In The Event of My Untimely Demise,' - ah, that kid. I loved him, but he was always an ovah-actor, ya know what I mean? Oh sorry, Gawd rest his soul." Harold handed over the documents, and Andrew and his mother started looking them over. 

"IIIII had that sweet kid take his affairs to my friend Laramie, who specializes in property and legal affairs of the deceased. He seemed so convinced that he would eventually become a REAL vampire. I told him, 'Sweety, showbizniss is mohstly at night anyhow, you'll fit right in. Just stock up on fowndation and concealer,' ha!" Harold boasted of his departed client. 

Most of what was on the document was in legal-ese, but what Andrew understood of it was this:

• The Departed possessed assets in stocks, bonds, and insurance benefits totalling in excess of two (2) million dollars. 
• After legal expenses, fees, and burial costs, the remainder of his assets would be divided between his mother and brother. 
• Paul and Andrew's mother is to take her half to return to school and obtain her nursing degree like she always wanted.
• Andrew is to take his share and use Paul's connections, night school business class textbooks, and market investments to take the opportunity to set up his own internet start-up company like he always wanted. 
• Harold is to keep the picture of Paul on the wall up for as long as the agency remained open. 

Andrew re-read these particulars over and over again, and started to panic. It was an amazing gift that Paul had left behind. 'Van" apparently had made so many connections in the vampire world that he had learned basic investing strategy and had a knack for it. He planned for the future and purchased long-term life insurance. He went to night school and learned to develop basic business plans. There was another page to the document. 

"Andy - oh dear Andy. You're the only big brother I could have wished for. You were there for me growing up. I know we grew apart - and if you're reading this - I've either successfully become a vampire and am legally dead, or I'm actually dead. In either case, I know that's gotta be kind of a bummer - you were always the practical type and wouldn't have bought into that sorta thing. I know you didn't disapprove of me, but you still would have probably mocked me a few times, to say the least, and I would have still been glad you were my brother. You kept me as level-headed as anyone could have expected. You taught me to embrace my dreams, but to get there as practically as I could. 

So listen brother - I know things didn't work out, if you're reading this I mean. My plan was to get everything ready so that you could take your brains and I could take my dreams and we could make it big together. I was going to do the creative and marketing for your start-up. I'd come out to L.A. and show you my business plan, and then if you agreed we'd move in together for a while until the company took off. But now you'll have to dream for both of us. I know whatever you do as long as you try - you will make Mom and I proud. 

Your Little Brother, 

Van (Paul)

10 Years Later

The streets outside the Chicago data center of Van Irving Technologies are empty. In the Chicago Industrial Bloc, all the buildings looked the same - as though someone had copy and pasted a model over and over again. This was by design. Aesthetics gave way to practicality as the city divided into functional divisions throughout the years. Storefronts, offices for executives, entertainment complexes, and popular eateries were all located downtown on what was named "New Broadway," by suggestion of Mayor Jason DuFrane - a former actor / singer elected for two terms running.

A loud buzzer breaks the nighttime silence as a figure stands in the rain, pulling up the collar of his raincoat and pushing the button on the secured door again. 

"Your request has been received. Please wait while authorization is processed," an automated voice prompted from a speaker beside the console with the call button. 

"Please present retinal scan," the voice said and the figure complied. 

"Andrew Laughton identified. Security chip detected. Access Level 85 granted. Please continue inside, sir."

The figure walked forward as the door opened for him and promptly closed behind him automatically with a hermatic seal. A warm gust of air from vents in several directions quickly dry the man as he proceeds and hands his raincoat to a young and eager university intern, a young Something-or-Other whose name he couldn't be bothered with learning. 

"IPTV - news." The command was almost barked. A series of soothing tones and then the screen to the left of the oak desk came to life. 

"Authorities are still searching for the man, but believe he may have escaped into the sub-sewer basement. They will be working with Van Irving Technologies to monitor systems in case this escape is enroute to sabotage of critical city environmental systems. More after the break..."

The screen cut to a familiar commercial. A man is seen running up a football field towards the end zone with a massive crowd of spectators cheering him on. He avoids each defenseman with impressive maneuvering, and ultimately delivers a touch down. The scene then cuts away to a young man in a dimly lit room, lying in bed asleep with a cheerful grin on his face. The camera slowly pans to reveal a wheelchair beside the bed and several assistive rails on the wall. He has a small but comfortably-fit device covering his ears and wrapped around the back of his neck. It appears to be blinking in rapid succession, then solid with a soft green glow. The scene cuts away to doctors and scientists and technicians surrounding a patient on a table, a chart reads "comatose, 18 months" - another technician sits in a chair with the same device as the patient equipped, and moments later the patient awakens to greet loved ones and cheering doctors. 

Van Irving Technologies' unconscious reality perception engineers, or Dreamscapers (TM), not only help you create the ultimate in dream experiences, but VIT works with medical scientists to create breakthroughs for people who otherwise would still be waiting to realize their dreams.  

My parents sent me a Lowe's Gift card so that I can go get supplies to get my floor reinforced and fixed up better. I may call Money and see if he can help me figure out what supplies would be best to get to fix it so it's safe, even if it's not pretty. 

My beautiful, loving girlfriend Janie showed up at my house two days early for my birthday weekend, and this made me pretty incredibly happy!

I got my mage up to level 41 night before last on WoW. I can't believe I made it this far without quitting. I used to get so frustrated, and I think that's why I didn't stick with it. I'm slowly developing the confidence to just dive in and figure out what needs to be done to complete a quest. When things are too hard I just back off and go do something else til I'm more experienced and can handle it better. Also, I picked up a faster mount (riding animal), a greater elekk (it's like an elephant). 

Janie made unbelievably tasty chicken katsu curry last night. I kind of want to get the recipe, but at the same time, it was so good I kind of want it to be a special thing she does for me. We are going to lunch together today when I go on my break. It's going to be a good weekend, I can tell already. I got a lot of cleaning up to do around the house before people come over Sunday night though for my early b-day night. Then Monday's my actual b-day, and I'll turn the big 2-8. Nothing too special, but my birthdays are always pretty awesome. 

All the WCU jobs I've applied for have closed and been filled with other people. So right at this moment, there's a hiring freeze because the state is dumb and didn't budget well at all. They can blame it on the economy all they want to, but fact of the matter is they just didn't plan well. So since there's a hiring freeze any new positions have to be approved at the chancellor level, so I'm pretty much stuck unless I go outside the university - for which I'm still looking around at private sector jobs. 

I may start posting short stories here if I get bored. I'm just sayin. I like this posterous thing.