David's Tangled Thoughts

Wes Craven did this? Sara’s parents wanted to go see a movie while they were there. I didn’t pay attention when they were deciding what film they wanted to see. Hell, if they were paying my ticket… they can watch whatever they wanted. Unfortunately, the movie theater in Mount Pleasant is Celebration Cinema which is horrendously expensive: $7.50 for a ticket. They dare to sell 2 cokes and a bag of popcorn for $10 and call it a “value combo.” I thought that we were going to see “Constantine” but found out that we were going to watch “Cursed.” Now normally, I’m not into horror movies. Based on what I saw in the previews for “Cursed,” I wasn’t going to give it much thought. I thought it was about some kind of vampire story the way Christina Ricci took a bite into this one guy’s neck. “Another one of those…,” I thought. At least I was watching it with good people though. Actually, I always got a kick watching Sara try a horror movie. This time, I managed to see her try and watch through her

There’s nothing I like better than taking a road trip. I tacked on about 450 miles to my Mom’s KIA over the weekend as I made my journey to State and Central (Michigan State University and Central Michigan University). I’ve driven these routs before, so I know them quite well. I just had to brush over a map and that was all—well except for Mt. Pleasant which is where Central is located. Gas took a temporary plunge from Friday prices which were about $2.03/gallon. It got down to $1.99 on Sunday. (Man, I miss the day when I got it for 99¢/gal.) Since my parents have this Wal-Mart debit card thingie, I was able to get gas at a 2¢ less/gal, which adds up. So the sticker shock wasn’t so bad for my trip. It was less than $40 on gas plus $5 for a meal, $5 at a casino, and $10 at the bar. $60 for my two day vacation… not bad. Granted, Sara’s parents paid for a good deal of the expenses, so thanks to them. The weather for driving was just excellent. Everyone was moving at a fast rate. My favori

Taken from here . On my way home from East Lansing, I take exit 38 to leave I-69 and jump on I-94.

Taken from here . Here is where I-94 meets the Indiana/Michigan border. With American roads, the States take care of the roads within their border. Here you can actually see the quality difference between Indiana I-94 and Michigan I-94. Indiana had recently repaved while Michigan is still cracked. Also note that in Indiana, their speed limit goes down to 65mph.

from: Tv.zap2it.com I seriously thought about making a post earlier in the week when the news services reported that Paris Hilton’s cellphone had been hacked into. Private numbers of people such as Eminem, Lindsay Lohan, Ashlee Simpson, and Victoria Gotti were released onto the web. I enjoyed the thought that the Hollywood crowd was being…inconvenienced. Victoria Gotti said that her phone was ringing off the hook. Good things. I, unfortunately, tried to watch one episode of her show, “Growing Up Gotti,” and I couldn’t stand her or her kids. And Ashlee Simpson—she never gets a break. Time to go cry to her sister again. Finally, today on Drudge , we find out that she has another little hardcore clip of Fred Durst to share with the public. It’s just sad. Someone, either a blogger or a fellow student, said that she reminded him of Big Bird. At certain angles with that nose, I can definitely see it. There is a thread on Pinoy Exchange asking whether she is

Shrek 2 I’ve been feeling a little bit better than I was the other day. I don’t want to go into the specifics of what made me almost loose my sanity. I will reserve that for Sara who I will be seeing on Saturday. I’m actually kind of nervous, yet excited to see her. It’s going to be a long trip up to Mt. Pleasant but it’s for the best. Anyways, there have been three songs that I have been playing that are giving me a lift. There is “You’re So True” by Joseph Arthur and “Accidentally in Love” by the Counting Crows. Both are from Shrek 2. Then there is “The Weight” by The Band which is played on the AT&T commercials of late. One of my sister’s friends still downloads like crazy so he was kind enough to get these for me. Hey with a 56k connection (Which is usually 46 or 51), I’m not going to spend an hour downloading 3 songs. The ones from the Shrek soundtrack are upbeat while “The Weight” generally reminds me of hanging around here in the heartland.

When I installed the web counter from bravenet , I had hoped to find out that I had at least a few viewers per day. Not so. Since it was activated, I estimate that I have had maybe 10 visitors. Of those 10 visitors, 4 or 5 are probably from bloggers whose blogs I had posted a message on. Thanks for those of you who came to my site though. I appreciate that someone at least glanced at this. None of my friends have blogs to visit. We’re not exactly tech savvy, except maybe Season who has her own website . So, I just go and search for other people and when I come across a rather interesting and stable site, I usually mark it and then come back to visit. Over the past couple weeks, I have compiled a rather short list of blogs that I happen to visit: A sexually frustratedd couple with kids. A stoned out teen in Texas. A gay guy in San Francisco who has ADD that manifests itself in compulsive picture taking. A Canadian living in Japan. A lady in the UK. A guy in Illinois who teaches 2nd grad

O Fortuna O Fortuna, Velut luna Statu variabilis, Semper crescis Aut decrescis; Vita detestabilis Nunc obdurate Et tunc curat Ludo mentis aciem, Egestatem, Potestatem Dissolvit ut glaciem. Sors immanis Et inanis, Rota tu volubilis, Status malus, Vana salus Semper dissolubilis, Obumbrata Et Velata Michi quoque niteris; Nunc per ludum Dorsum nudum Fero tui sceleris. Sors salutis Et virtutis Michi nunc contraria, Est affectus Et defectus Simper in angaria. Hac in hora Sine mora Corde pulsum tangite; Quod per sortem Sternit fortem, Mecum omnes plangite! I thought that the above song, O Fortuna (O Fortune) was appropriate for what I have been feeling lately. It’s been pretty shitty and I am seriously thinking of just taking some piss ass job at Burger King. Not only that, but I’ve had some time to take an inward look into my life and I realized that I am not a happy person and that I am pretty bitter. Maybe I’m just in a funk right now. I just need to vent some crap on someo

My Aunt Julie couldn't join us for lunch today. She had to go home where her husband is probably holding a NASCAR party. If you noticed, I do have a problem calling him my uncle. It's just that I've only given the title of aunt and uncle to people I've actually grown up with. It's kind of difficult to give it to people who have recently married into the family but I do say it when I need to. Anyways, I've never really gotten into the whole racing scene, although I am watching it now as I write. Jeff Gordon is currently in the lead. But hell, I don't know what kind of kick I'm supposed to be getting out of this race. I'm just seeing cars go round and round in a circle with an occasional stop in the pit. Perhaps I've been living in the north too long? Too much of a Yankee? It certainly makes sense, but my Uncle is a Yank as well so that can't explain it. And that reminds me of something else. I was talking to Lee, my friend from South Korea who

I woke up this morning to fresh snow on the ground. My hopes that we would be able to skip church this morning were dashed by Dad. I told him that we shouldn't go because the roads were dangerous-- an exaggeration at the time. However, the snow fall got really heavy while we were at church. On our way back home, we saw that a car had spun off the road near Dayton Lake. There was also another accident site that we didn't directly see, but by watching another cop speed off down the road, we could tell something had happened. The whole situation reminded me of an incident that Mom and I got in quite a few years back. We were driving along US 12 towards Niles. We spun off the road near the landfill, just before 12 splits off to become a divided highway. Mom hit a patch of ice and we 360'd, ending up on the opposite side of the road, in the ditch, and facing the opposing traffic. I knew, as soon as Mom hit the ice, that we were going to crash. Surprisngly, I took it quite well.

Paying bills and checking out your financial situation can be pretty depressing, especially when you see that your balances are sinking. Although they weren't huge, I was going to pay my Visa bills. I've got two Visa cards, one is from Capitol One and the other is from Michigan State Federal Credit Union. A little advice... don't go with Capitol One. I had the bills sitting out on the counter, with the understanding that I was going to pay them today (or tomorrow). My Dad came into the room and said that he had taken care of them. Thanks Dad! Then there was this issue with Vanguard where I have my Roth IRA. My account couldn't be accessed so Dad told me that I should call the company and get it cleared up. I hate doing that. At first, I resisted by trying to re-register on the site and then trying to troubleshoot using their pathetic online help menu. I had to suck it up and finally call their 800 number. Apparently, they couldn't access it either so after being on

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been having a disturbing dream. Actually, there are various episodes, but they all have a similar tie in: humiliation with the military and perhaps shame. Before I go into what I dreamt, I have to say that I used to be in Air Force ROTC . At first it was a blast and I actually had high hopes that I would become an officer. By the second year, I realized that I didn't have the discipline to loose and keep my weight off. So I quit. Not my proudest moment. I live with the regret that I will not have the opportunity to serve my country because I can't keep my mouth shut or ass moving. For the rest of university, I just stayed out of the way of all the other cadets that I had known. Today, I wonder where they are and what they are doing. Hannasch, Cherrington, Letzgus, Walker, Nassif, Wiler, Pumford, Edwards, Somsel, Hafstetter, Halicki, White, Bottoms, Saxe, and even more that I can't think of at this moment. In particular, I think about Na

[sigh] I hate this holiday. As much as I am relieved that I don’t have to spend money on a girlfriend, I still want to. So Happy Valentine’s Day to all you lucky love birds out there. I hope that you all rot in hell! I decided to do something selfish for myself. A little self-love if you will. –Not that you sicko. There were some lumpia wrappers in the freezer and I decided to use them. For those of you who don’t know, lumpia are Filipino egg rolls. They are my favorite thing to eat and I can’t get enough of them. So I whipped up a batch, ate my fill and froze the rest. Then for desert, I got some Blue Moon ice cream which my sister found at Martin’s. Unless you go to an ice cream shop, you can’t find Blue Moon around here. So this was a day of fatty indulgence… well at least more than usual. Lumpia (My version) 2 boxes of Simex lumpia wrappers (found in Asian food stores) 2lbs ground beef or pork ½ - 1 head of cabbage 1med onion 1 or 2 medium potatoes 2 stalks of celery 1

My sister's room. This is actually very clean in comparison to how it usually looks. You can actually see the carpet!

I didn't have much to say about the day so I thought that I would post two pictures of Wallace Air Base. I lived, here in San Fernando when I was little. This is where my bio Mom is from. My stepmom also has relatives here. The Philippines is a great place to visit if you are pretty adventurous. San Fernando, La Union and Poro Point w/ Wallace AB

Wallace AB @ Poro Point 

Lost: Friend I was going through some old pictures the other day and came across some from when I was little and living in Key West, Florida. I found a picture of my best friend at the time, Brandon Mullins. It has been about 18 years since I last saw or heard from him. One of the things I regret was not taking his mother’s advice and keeping in touch. So now, I wonder sometimes where he ended up. When, I signed up on thefacebook.com, I tried to track him down since the site allows me to search for people by name from a large pool of universities. No luck. So maybe there is a one in a million chance that someone will come across this entry and know Brandon Mullins and let me know. So here it goes, everything that I can tell you. Brandon is about the same age as me, born in 1981, ’82, or ’83. Lived in Key West in ’88 and ’89 and possibly longer. Mother, Sherri, and Father were in the armed forces, possibly Navy or Air Force Lived on Gilmore Drive. Played T-ball. Clai

I’m not going to say much in this post except to say that I am going to be rooting for the Patriots. The reason? Nothing in particular. I don’t care for these two teams so I had to pick one. (Well actually I didn’t, but it’s more fun if you do.) My Dad is rooting for the Eagles. Since he and I are always rooting for the opposite team, I had to pick the Patriots. Besides, everyone else around here is rooting for the underdogs. Me? I’m going for the winner. :P

To my international readers who would have liked to see small high school dances, I would have liked to show you some pictures. However, my sister will not let me post them because apparently I don't have the permission from her friends to publish their images on the internet. Well, I will respect that, even though those images are public domain.

My sister. My sister, Kristel, has got to be one of the biggest anglophiles that I know. Who else in Southwest Michigan has the Union Jack proudly displayed in their room? Where is another gal who has a UK hand bag? You would think that there may be an Old Glory somewhere but it is nowhere to be seen. There are pictures, everywhere, of her trip to England, Wales, and Ireland. Occasionally, I even catch her trying to pull off an English accent or insert English words. I bet you, if I looked into her diary (if she had one), I would find that she spells “color” “c-o-l-o-u-r.” And then to top it off, there’s her trans-Atlantic boyfriend that she hopes to see on IM every night. Gag me. Now, I admit that I do like the British. I find them to be less insulting than the French. Yes, I have met both and they happened to fit their stereotypes quite nicely. I wonder if they thought the same about me. Yeah, I’m arrogant. Anyways, a little of my sister’s enthusiasm for this small area of

Well, unfortunately it appears that UPN has decided to axe Star Trek: Enterprise which has failed to improve in ratings. I haven't seen any credible article on it, but from what has been going on in the message boards, it appears to be true. I personally liked the show and have been faithfully watching it since it came out (well, except for season 2 which I found to be boring). This past year, I thought that they were doing extremely well and I have found all of their episodes to be engaging and a lot better in quality. People that I am acquainted with are hoping that Sci-Fi will pick Enterprise up. However, I find that to be extremely unlikely. Too bad. It looks like Friday will solely be devoted to Sci-Fi with their Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica.

Images from valuecarpetonline.com (yeah, it's odd I know) No. 1 Illinois will be coming to Breslin tonight to meet the No. 12 MSU Spartans. If I am right, I think Illinois is #1 in the Big Ten while State is #2. If the Spartans can manage an upset, it would be step towards clinching the Big Ten Championship once again. Bring it on ya freaking Illini! (What kind of stupid ass mascot is that?)

One of the billboards A fellow blogger wrote about this and it got my attention. Then a few minutes later while I was watching Fox News, they did a story about it as well. So I went to citizensunited.org and ripped an image of these new billboards that will be erected in LA.