First off I would like to bring back a feature that I included on my original version of futureshock. I’ll try to continue this every so often as I intend for this website to be a reflection of me. Granted you won’t know everything about me, but it’s a way for me to explain the side of me lots of people don’t get to see.

MP3 of the Moment
311 – Amber (download)

311 is one of those groups that I’ve always liked but have never bought one of their cds. Yet, they have so many amazing songs. I’ve been listening to this song all night. This is just one of those songs that I love to listen to when I’ve got things on my mind.

Anyways, it’s been a week since my last post. I only made it out running twice last week but hopefully I can fit in a 3rd or 4th run this week. I’m finally out of my place in Duluth completely. I officially have one home, in the Minneapolis area. A day rarely goes by when I wonder if I made the right decision to move here. I’ve set quite a few goals in my life and career wise I’ve managed to hit almost all of them. I had a certain salary I wanted to hit by the time I was 25 and I’m there right now. I was happy with my last job but I left Irresistible Ink for 2 reasons: opportunity and money. At Irresistible Ink there wasn’t much of a career track for me. Within Identix, there’s a ton of maneuverability. I’ve started at the bottom of the chain making the most I would have ever made at III.

Since this is somewhat my new life there’s plenty of good to go along with the bad. I’m making friendships here but they’re still not the same as my friends back home in Duluth. As much as I loathe the Twin Ports, I feel relieved when I go back. I have plenty of people I can call to hang out with. When I’m feeling down at home, I’m calling someone up in Duluth. I’ve had a few friendships grow stronger since I’ve left, the rest have for the most part remained the same. I’m definitely still at a crossroads in my life. There are a few things I have starting out that here that I hope continue to get better. There’s always an inherent fear of things not working out though. You can plan your heart out and try your hardest only to watch your plans fail. Rome fell, who am I to assume I can make things work out that aren’t meant to be. That sounded horribly pessimistic didn’t it.

Last night was a strange night for me. I can’t recall the last time I fell asleep before 9:00 PM but last night around 8:30 I fell asleep. I wasn’t in the mood to continue Resident Evil 4 so I sat down to watch the Fellowship of the Ring. I made it about a half hour into the movie when I was done. I went to bed around 2:00AM the night before and woke up at 7:15 so I definitely needed to catch up on sleep. I’m starting to be scared that my sleep schedule is shifting more and more to that of a normal person. If I start going to bed before midnight I’ll really be worried.

So this morning, at 6:30am my body decided it was time to go. I *NEVER* wake up this early naturally. I tried really hard to fall back asleep but it proved to be quite impossible. Instead I took some inspiration from Brandon’s recent post on his site and dug up the running pants I have. I clocked in somewhere between 1.5 and 2.0 miles and felt like I was about to die. Of course afterward I remembered I should have brought the iPod but I’ll remember next time. Even though I feel physically destroyed right now I know there will definitely be a next time sooner than later. I haven’t decided if I want to run at night or early morning but I want to get back into a rhythm of running. I’ve never gotten into one that I’ve been able to maintain longer than a month but I’m going to do it this year all summer. My big problem in the past was having nobody to run with and being bored on my own. Hopefully the iPod will fix that.

My Uncle Mike even though a little weird keeps a log of his running on his site. He’s planning on running Grandma’s Marathon this year. I’m not going to be that ambitious but I do intend on running 4 times a week. The goal is 2 or 3 more times this week, then starting full bore next week. He started at 3 miles which would probably kill me so I’ll try to get that high this week running 2 miles per day.

I’m somewhat on track to a healthier life as it is since I’ve cut drinking pop out of my system. It’s been 4 weeks now and I’m putting down around 120 ounces of water per day. I should start researching more about what I should and what I shouldn’t eat so I can actually get myself into shape again. It seems every 6 months I get on this kick and never seem to stick with it. Hopefully this new change of locality will make it easier for me to keep to it.

You know, it’s rather weird. I always have the feeling that I’m in a rush. No matter what seems to be going on, I’m always running late. I will be the one that will be late to my own funeral, probably because I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve at least picked up something though that I take my time with.

Living in Duluth for 24 years, I finally decided it was time for me to actually find something I like to do outside. I’ve always wanted to try snowboarding so I opted to start paying for health insurance and to find something to enjoy in the winter. Learning how to snowboard had to be the most frustrating experience of my life. One second you’re up on your board, the next you’re flat on your back or worse wondering how the hell that just happened. This was how I spent my first day on the bunny hill at Spirit Mountain. I managed to go down the main hill once which was an hour long debacle of my feet cramping up and me eating lots of fake snow. Teaching yourself to put all your weight on your front foot and just rely on that is kind of opposite of human nature. I love mental challenges and snowboarding was definitely this. Actually I’ve started to think of snowboarding by myself as being somewhat spiritual.
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I’ve always told people I’m not cocky, I’m confident where my abilities lie. I think I’ve always had this attitude and it usually grows until I get slapped down by something greater. Something to “take me down a few levels”. Back in 6th grade we had a different system for spelling. There was a 30 level system where when you passed the final test, you’d move on to the next level. To figure out where you started, you would take a test which would determine where you were at. Most kids in my class were put around level 5 or 6. I was one of the two kids in my class though to be put at level 11 which was the highest level you could test into. I read the words and to be honest, I should have tested around level 22 or 23. As the year proceeded, by December I was done with spelling for the year. I was allowed to do whatever I wanted during everyone elses spelling time. This usually ended up with me reading or playing my game boy.
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Tonight we’re having the weekly Southern MNSC meet at New Beijing. New Beijing is a Chinese restaurant owned by one of the MNSC members. He happens to give us a smoking deal on their Buffet and picks up the tab on desert for us. Since moving to the Minneapolis area I’ve been eating Chinese food at least once a week.

Of course, I’m being somewhat deceptive when I say Chinese food. I have this strange aversion to onions. It all started years ago when my Grandma used to try to sneak food I didn’t like into my meals. The example I tell people refers to the time she gave me shrimp and told me they were “chicken nuggets”. It’s funny, I don’t remember chicken nuggets having tails.

Anyways, since then I’ve developed a psychological barrier against lots of foods I hated back then. It’s interesting how the mind works because I can’t seem to get around it. Lots of people call me a picky eater, some people poke fun at me for not eating onions, but in all honesty I’ve tried these things time and time again and just can’t seem to get over it. I’m a big fan of challenging my will power and one of these days, I’ll get over onions too. Until then though I’m still looking forward to a steaming plate of sweet and sour chicken tonight.

I’m guessing you didn’t expect to see this page ever coming back. As promised, with the resurrection of plasticmetal.org, I bring you, webninja.org

It’s been almost 3 years since I’ve actually had a web site. I did kind of cheat though. I gave up on writing my own code as every time I started to, I ended up rewriting more. Thus I’m using NucleusCMS. It was highly recommended to me years ago by Crowe.

For those that haven’t been keeping track, I’m no longer in Superior, WI. In fact I think the last time I had a page active I was still at Maurices. I’m now living in the Minneapolis Metro area. I’m now employed by Identix, Inc. as a Technical Support Engineer. This is all just fancy terminology for help desk though. Actually it’s a little more advanced, but I won’t bore anyone with details.

Right now comments, random quotes, and the shoutbox are working. Although the random quotes table was lost so be wary, I’m likely to start keeping track again. So the site is a work in progress. If you know me, it’ll always be one and probably never be complete. But hey, who knows, hell may also freeze over.

So there we have it. I’m back.