Aliens

Last night I was watching the Democratic Debate and the moderator asked Dennis Kucinich "Mr. Kucinich, it was written that you had an experience with a UFO, and were noted as saying you had a paranormal feeling when seeing it. Is this true, did you see a UFO?". He had a look on his face like "oh crap" and just started smirking and said "well, it was a UFO, I'm not sure if it was aliens or not". I thought that was so random and weird. Then they went back to asking normal political questions about education, healthcare etc.

Where in the world did that come from?

*continued* Alex did a good job hosting a halloween party/game night. We had lots of candy and good food like cut off fingers (cheese), Dracula soup, and eyeball jello. Oh and dirt cupcakes. It was a good time though.

Trading Spaces

My Saturns are going to have to trade spaces. My 1992 SL2 has been under the carport, but now it's getting cold enough so that the dew is freezing leaving frost on the windshield, and I don't like having to wait for my 1998 SL2 to get de-iced (de-dewed?) before I can drive it. I'll need to get a car cover for my 1992 SL2 soon though since I don't want salt to get on it.

Today after work I went to get my haircut. The hair dresser took my information, and then said "so where's your area code from" and I said "South Carolina". She said that was neat, and then after a minute or two said "so how is North Carolina". I started laughing and said "It's South Carolina...do you know that North and South Carolina are two seperate states?" She laughed and said "Ohhh Yaah, but I guess to Michiganers we think of it as one, but call it North Carolina". She's right because 5 people or so have done the same thing to me. I think my dad witnessed a few instances when he was here too, of people going "so what is North Carolina like". It's funny to hear...just North Carolina, no South Carolina.

Work has been busy, but good. Today I worked on my presentation I am giving at GM tomorrow, then I have to prepare a presentation for my trip to Nippon. When I get back from Nippon, I will be at work one week, then go to South Carolina. Time's a flying!

Monday - Week Start

Tonight I went to a small group Bible study from the church I've been going to. I thought it would be a small group, studying the Bible but it looks like it's going to be more of a financial Bible study which I really do not want to do. I guess I will go again and give it a try. It can't hurt, but I don't think I need any financial guidance since I don't have any debt or other things financed.

I have to give a technical presentation Wednesday at the GM Tech Center so I have been preparing my powerpoint for that. I have to do a practice run for one of my bosses tomorrow, so I'll have to finish up the presentation in the morning.

Not much else has been going on...just went to work, came home, went to the Bible study. I bought a new suitcase for Japan yesterday that is really good. It has a lot of expandable compartments which I really like. I'm really looking forward to going to Japan!

I'm going to go eat some chicken I made last night.

Saturday

How will you spend your Saturday...knitting, raking leaves, painting porch trim, or making a potato caserole?

I'll spend mine taking an 8 hour long engineering exam. It's ok though because it's "exam" weather, in the low 50's and rainy. There's no other place I'd rather be (for real, I'm actually looking forward to it to see what I remember).

Michigan Sunset

I saw this when I walked out of my apartment the other night. The picture turned out darker than it actually was, but it was a very pretty orange/pink color (well, from what I can tell, it might have been green for all I know since I can't really see colors that well).

I was asking Kiki when she was here about a car color. Honda has a color they call "Galaxy Grey" and to me, it looks beige, like a dark sand/light brown color. Kiki told me no, it was grey. But I don't like grey. So what if I bought that color car, knowing it was grey, but it LOOKED beige/brown to me, would that be alright? When someone asks me "what color car do you drive" I would say beige/brown because that's what it looks like to me. Confusing!!!

I think I will go with the blue since I can see that one ok.

Asia Bound

Today we booked our travel to Japan. I leave on November 5, a Monday and come back on November 11, a Sunday. I'm really looking forward to going. I have a meeting one of those days, and I will be following others around the rest of the time. We have one free day there also for sightseeing. I decided before I go I will buy a nice suitcase, because all I have right now is an Adidas duffle bag with a half broken shoulder strap. I want to get a suitcase with wheels.

I saw Dyson now makes a hand-dryer for a bathroom. Dyson makes the best vacuums available by the way. I know because they are the most expensive, and the more something costs means it's better. When my mom and I were in Sears one day I said "Oh look mom, a Dyson...those are REALLY good vaccuums" and she said "really expensive...what's so great about them" and I said "well...they are" and she said "yeah, but what makes it so great" and I knew it was good, or it had to be, so I just said "well, you know, it just sucks it right up". We laughed really hard after that. It's a good vacuum though, I just know it has to be. I want to dry the Dyson hand-dryer now. I think it's the creator's British accent that makes it so refined.

Gather 'Round and I'll Tell Ye a Story

I'm taking a break from studying to tell you this, so please enjoy it.

Beetlejuice was on TV yesterday and I watched about 45 minutes of it. I love that movie. There is a character in the movie, shown above, I want to tell you a little story about. If you've known me for a long time (family) you know I compare people to characters in movies, or make odd names for people, like Nana, or Bebop. Well Paul is the same way, except he sometimes is a little more out there with his character selections, or more creative I guess you could say.

One day, I think the first day, of Fluids class a girl walked in, and she had a TEENY TINY head on top of huge football player shoulders and a thick torso. I couldn't believe it. I immediately said to Paul "Look! She looks like the guy with the shrunken head from Beetlejuice!". We found out her last name was Bugg. Not Bug, Bug-g. You can't say "bug" like an insect, you have to go "Bug-g". Go on, practice: Bug-g-g-g-g. We decided though when you pronounce the name you can't just say Bug-g once, you have to stutter it like Bug-g-g-g-g-g like you're caught on the last G. But an extra G is in the name so it's important, you must enunciate it. Bug-g-g-g-g-g.

Then I had "Dr" Wood and we used her first name with Bug-g and came up with a fictional character called "Judy Bug-g". Matt Junior can do it really well, the way he stumbles his G. I can't really put a face on Judy Bug-g, but she's probably tiny, drives a VW Beetle or a Miata like a maniac, and is real flighty and hectic and talks fast. I think I have a video of Paul doing an impression of her. If you meet her, let me know.

Waaaaaaaaaaaarm!

I just looked and I haven't posted since Thursday. Unacceptable.

Friday was aggravating to say the least. I don't want to say much about it here, if you really want to know why work was stupid and I felt like leaving and pretending Friday didn't happen, just give me a call and I'll be glad to tell you.

Now that Friday is over, I was able to enjoy the weekend. I have my FE Exam next Saturday, so I tried, tried studying for the exam for as much as I could. In school, especially senior year, it was very hard to get motivated and I got very distracted. Now, it's nearly impossible to concentrate. I always have some excuse NOT to sit down, and concentrate. And that scares me. I used to be SO good at just sitting down and studying, and working. Now, not so good. And I don't know if it's because I'm REALLY getting ADD or if it's just lazy...or what. Anyway it's scary because it's not like me. I just don't have much motivation. I guess having a job and a paycheck will do that to you.

Saturday I went and did a blood test for my physical. It was painless and only took 5 minutes or so. I made a salad for dinner tonight, and since I started to like peppers I bought one at the grocery store to cut up and put in my salad. I don't know what kind it was, but it looked good, and it was green, and was long, so I bought it. I chopped it up and put it in there and took a bite and felt the rath of fire in my mouth. I ran to the trash, spit it out and started coughing. I poured a huge glass of milk and started chugging it down. I even started crying and my face was hot. It was the hottest thing I have ever put in my mouth. I'll just stick with the peppers in the Papa John's box from now on, I can't handle much more. I had to throw the salad away I made because it was contaminated with the acidic fire.

I hope this next week at work goes well, and I hope I get more motivation to study for my exam. Please send me an email, and tell me in a commanding tone to study so I remember.

Well....Do Something

I just got back from Indiana today. I had a meeting at Subaru this morning. It lasted about 4 hours but it went well.

Last night when I tried to check in my room I was told "I'm sorry sir, you're 5 minutes after 6:00 and cancellation is at 6:00 if you didn't reserve with a valid credit card, so we gave your room away and we don't have anymore". So I had no hotel room. There was some sort of problem with the reservation system my work uses, so the credit card they used for me was somehow denied. I was upset, but I think my attitude has changed. When I would get mad, especially in a situation like this I used to get mouthy. Now, I like to just be quiet and stare at the person, because I have found that by doing that, they get more nervous and will work harder to make it better...to make you go away so it's not so akward for them. My mom could tell you about a time in IKEA where I refused to leave until someone gave me an answer I thought was satisfactory and I wasn't taking "no" for an answer. I think we stood there for around 30 minutes and talked to 3 different people, each one higher up than the last. Did I get what I wanted? No. Did I waste their time like they wasted mine? Yes. That's what counts. So from now on I just like to stand there in silence like with a look on my face that says "I'm not leaving yet, fix it." I ended up staying on Purdue's campus, in a hotel run by the university. It was pretty nice and fun, but I was separated from the rest of my group. I didn't mind though.

Anyway tomorrow I will be back at work and I think it's going to be a busy day. I have to go to a presentation on health benefits for next year, I have a review meeting with my boss about my goals (it's the end of year review period). I think I met most of them, which I'm happy with. The only one I have not done is a technical presentation, but I think I can get one done before the end of the year.

And finally, the weekend will be here. That means sleeping late on Saturday.

99.9% Sure

I'm 99.9% sure this is going to happen, unless something unexpected pops up, but my news is...

That I'll be going to Japan for work! It will be the first week of November, but I'm not sure of the dates yet. I'll be going with others for work, and they've already told me this will be a "learning" trip for me, so it won't be as stressful as it would be if it were up to me to present, and know everything.

We had a meeting about it today, and it looks like it's a go.

ALSO!

I had a physical today and I had my first breast exam today. Yes, it was just as akward to have it done as it was for you to read that. I know men can get breast cancer, yes, but having another man feel your chest while talking to you is just weird. Not to mention all the other "examinations" I had to have, but I'm not going to mention those because they are just as akward, I mean more akward, than the breast exam. I am healthy though and had a good report, that's all that matters.

Suprise?

I think I have good news about work, but I'm not sure yet. I will find out for sure and then announce here.

Stay tuned.

Kiki's Visit

I had a good time with Kiki here. We went to an Oktoberfest celebration Northville was having and got to see some people I work with. Saturday I bought ingredients to make crepes, because I thought it would be fun and they'd taste good. I thought they were fun (and easy) to make but they didn't taste like anything, just bland thick crepes. So they didn't turn out so well, but I'll try again another time.

After crepes we went to Canada. We walked along the same sculpture path Becky and I did, and had a homeless man who liked to run, jump, and roll down hills follow us which was creepy. Then we went to a mall called Devonshire to see what it was like to go to a mall in Canada. It was about the same, but everything was more money. We came back to Michigan and walked around IKEA and then came back to my apartment where we got to play Smash Brothers.

Today we went to Ann Arbor. It really is true that it's 20 square miles surrounded by reality. I have pictures below to document this. I liked U of M's campus, but it felt a little like USC to me. I just love how Clemson's campus is isolated and you know when you're on, or off, the campus. It's defined and clear. It started to rain by the time we were about to leave, so we came back and went over to Alex's apartment to play some games.

Some of my favorites from Ann Arbor:
This looks like a nice place for Jewish students to live.
Hippies
Real Life Ninjas

I want a dog so bad!

Good Covers Bad

Bad: Smash Brothers has been delayed from December 3rd to February 10. Booooo!

Good: Kiki is coming to visit this weekend!

Good >>> Bad

Darn

Sonic is going to be in Smash Brothers Brawl. If they do something with Pikmin and keep Robert Game & Watch I'll be ok.

I Love Loopholes

I found this online, and I think I'm going to buy it so Illinois can't rip me off ever again:

Photoblocker

I found out today at work our president quit. I'm not sure what's going on but a lot of people have been quitting, and we are REALLY low on headcount. I think they're going to have to hire a lot of people very soon. An emergency meeting was held today with upper management, and tomorrow morning all the engineers are going to be updated on what's going on. Basically I think it's going to be them distributing everyone who left's work, but we'll see tomorrow.

This is nasty, but I have to repeat it because it was so hilarious. On the way to work, I was listening to one of the Canadian radio station's morning shows. The title of it was "In search of the Poopitrader". They said at their radio station, in the women's bathroom, someone had "an explosion of astronomical proportions" leaving it all over the walls, floor, and carpet going out of the bathroom. Apparantly there is some drug on the market that will make your excrement explode out of you, and on the warning label there is actually a warning that tells you to "keep a change of clothes in case of an emergency". So basically people were calling in and saying how they think poop could have exploded so far. One man said it could have been done the same way you'd hold your finger over a hose to block the flow, and then BOOM! Sort of like an icee bomb. I know that's vulgar but I was almost crying I was laughing so hard. They actually did an entire show about how someone they work with made a big mess in the lady's room. And I thought women were supposed to be dainty?

Updates from Travel

Well I just took Becky back to the airport. It was really nice having her visit me. We went to Chicago on Friday after I picked her up from the airport. We had a good time in Chicago. We went downtown Saturday and walked along Navy Pier. We met Lindsay and her friend Jessica and went to the Hancock building on the 96th floor and had cocktails. It was fun being up so high and seeing the city.

Saturday night we had Chicago deep dish pizza. Becky and I drove back to Michigan on Sunday and found out on the way back that the State of Illinois is stupid because they make you EXIT the interstate to pay tolls along the way, and the only people that don't have to get off to pay have toll-way passes. Well, I didn't know that and missed a few toll plazas. So apparantly pictures of my car were taken and I'll be mailed a violation(s) unless I pay within 7 days. The problem is I have NO idea how many I missed or where they are. You would think I could call and ask how many plazas were on my route, which I tried to do. I was told "think real hard about how many you missed and send a check in for that amount". I told her I had no idea how many it was, but I think 2 tolls and she said "well send a check in for 2 tolls, and add a little extra money just to make sure". This is a perfect example of why cameras should NOT be used to ticket people for violations. The way I see it, if the state or government wants to collect money from you, they should PAY a human being to ticket you for that violation instead of being little money whores and trying to randomly ticket you for what they "think" you did. I say "think" because when I called a state government office TWICE I was told by operators "I don't know how many you missed". Well, how are you going to take my money, process it, and maybe write me a ticket if you "don't know". Stupid.

Anyway today we went to Canada and found out it was Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Most of the things were closed, but we walked along the river front and took pictures of sculptures in a sculpture park. There's not really much to do in Windsor, so we were only there for a few hours. We went to the Ren Center in Detroit and walked around the GM World display.

It was a nice long weekend though and we had a good time. I hope you enjoyed Michigan Becky.

Some pictures are below (from Chicago and Canada):

Back from Chi

We're back from Chicago. I have lots of pictures and fun things to tell you. I'll write more later, but here's a picture to hold you over.

Kick off the Sunday Shoes

Footloose is on TV. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it.

Becky is coming tomorrow, but a little late. Her flight was apparantly cancelled so instead of coming at 7:55 am she will be here at 10:50 am. Then we're off to Chicago to see Matt and Lindsay for the weekend.

I'll be back Sunday!

Excuse Me, I'm from Canada and I'm in a Hurry

After work today I went to the bank to deposit my "anime accomidation" money from the hotel we stayed in. I was at the counter where you fill out your deposit slips, gather your things...you know, that little table with triangular shaped pins on metal-ball strings and the date placard, and the deposit slips? Yeah, that one. Anyway I was signing the checks, filling out the deposit slip, and filling out a funds transfer from checking to savings. This guy came in, and started doing the same next to me. He was taking his time like I was at first. As soon as I started to put up my account cards, and organize my slips he all of a sudden scribbles down something, and rushes ahead of me to be first in line. Well, there were only 2 of us in the bank so I just thought that was foolish. He goes up to the counter, while I wait because there is only 1 teller. Well, he doesn't have a deposit or funds transfer like me, he doesn't have a withdrawl. He's trying to cash a CANADIAN TAX REFUND check in AMERICA...in American dollars instead of Canadian dollars (by the way, the Canadian dollar is worth slightly more than the US dollar right now). Well, the teller was confused. "Sharon...if this is from Canada, and he wants US dollars, can I cash this" he asks the customer service person. She has to come over and take a look.

So my point is why would someone who has a stupid request (yes, it's stupid. You don't just walk up to a teller and try to cash foreign currency, you go to the customer service person at the bank to get it transfered) rush to get ahead of me? Finally the teller just helped me while the Canadian guy had to wait.

At work I've been working over the past few days putting together a spreadsheet with testing results I can show to Chrysler to prove we can pass their testing requirements. I decided to go down to the archive room to look through old program binders and try to match test results with what I needed. It was fun, because it's downstairs and it's an inside room with no windows. I was imagining me opening the door and finding someone sleeping in there, or eatind junk food in the dark. I spent a while down there sitting on the floor looking through old engineer's notebooks trying to find the missing test data I needed. I was able to fill in most of my blanks.

I had so much energy when I got home today, I still do, which is why this is so long. I spent 30 minutes on the eliptical trainer at the gym and burned a lot more calories that normal.

Becky is coming Friday, and we're off to Chicago to see Matt and Lindsay. Only 2 more days!