Category Archives: Life

So Ryan thinks my blog sucks these days or something. Whatever. d= I do think it’s suffered a bit from me being busy with some others projects, some of which are more secretive than others.

The moving stuff has also kept me busy periodically. I am not officially living in a stuff-less apartment – no furniture (we invested in an air mattress), no dishes, no computer, no good fan, no TV (and no DVDS to go with it). Needless to say, I’m pretty bored.

I can only spend so much time on the laptop. A) because it sucks. B) Because it’s uncomfortable to use and C) because I don’t have my stuff on here I can only do a little shallow e-mail checking and web surfing – nothing that I get really busy with.

I’ve been playing a lot more DS – I got back into Nintendogs. I also just finished a book and have a few more to keep me busy. It’s not enough though. Luckily, this is only for a few days until we go to the inn which will at least have a DVD player (and furniture!) to keep us busy. It’s also within walking distance to pretty much everything on base and most things right off base, too.

The getting ready was a little frustrating. My sleeping schedule is not conducive to happy days. I had been up for some time when the movers showed up around 8:30 – although I swear the guy said some time between 11 and 3 – and they only took about 2 and a half hours to wrap everything and move it to the truck. It was definitely fast but, then, I suppose it is their job!

Unfortunately, some things were packed that I didn’t intend to be (plastic silverware, duh!) and that shouldn’t have been (we were told no spices so I put them aside but they packed them anyway) and some things didn’t make the cut (most cleaning things). One of the thing I hate about moving is that you seem to have to throw away so much perfectly useful stuff because it doesn’t necessarily pay to move it and it may not be expensive or hard to replace but I still hate getting rid of stuff I paid for. I like to use things up to the last drop.

That’s all for now folks.

Time is really winding down. We’re officially without bedroom furniture. I came up with the bright idea of using an air mattress which we are now doing so we’re not on the floor.

Either tomorrow or the next day they’ll be coming for a smaller shipments of goods. Clothes (which we’ve already separated for the most part), dishes (which I’ll split so we have some to use here and some there) and my computer are the biggies.

These things should show up slightly faster than the rest of our stuff, only I don’t think it’s enough time to make much of a difference. They estimated 45 days for the “express” shipment and 50 for the regular stuff so I don’t think it pays to make a big deal about stuff that will only be there 2 weeks earlier and that’s still a month and a half we have to wait. But maybe it won’t matter because we don’t know how long we’ll be waiting for a house anyway.

After that stuff, we just have to go through the stuff and figure out what we’re packing in luggage or what we’ll need that we will mail ourselves because we’ll still need it after they pick up our stuff – like the air mattress and blankets, etc.

So right now I’m doing dishes and laundry in the washers and just waiting. I’ll try to give a call early tomorrow morning to see when TMO is coming, hopefully Tuesday.

It’s just another one of those “hurry up and wait” situations.

I used to chat at a website called the Park and this is not the first mention of The Park on my site). This is not news to many (and this is not the first mention of it on my site). Several of my friends on IM or Mypsace/Facebook are from the Park day when I was a wee lass of 13/14. -chuckles- The park was magnificent in its way. It attracted millions of visitors so a site that would be shamed by even the worst sites of the internet today; it was, after all, a completely product of Web 1.0. That would also be its downfall and The Park would succumb (around 2000) to the big dot com bust and not without some well-earned hatred to the Park’s founder, Brent Hunter.

A lot of the chatters who had grown to love The Park and made lifelong friendships and relationships there went on to other similar sites, most notably The Pork, where I still chat but also including Dockwave, Ozpark and Ties That Bind. None of these sites would ever see the sheer numbers of the Park, though.

Fast forward a few years and Brent is back with a new project – The Earth Comm Center – and while I think Mr Hunter had different intentions for it than his earlier project, Park followers flocked to it as a way to relive the golden age and to find or catch up with old friends. In that way, it worked marvelously. For a while, at least, until the same issues happened with Brent and chatters and volunteers became disgruntled and slanders his not-so-good-anyway name and left the site. Some followed. Many didn’t.

But then something else happened: Brent disappeared. Though the site never saw the success of its predecessor, it did bring together some people who had been torn apart by the Park’s unfortunate demise and it was clung to as a last hope for some who wished to someday know other reunions. Brent’s disappearance brought with it a lack of upkeep on the site and, eventually (late 2007), the site ceased functioning correctly; that is, no one could log in anymore. Though the site still stands, show statistics and appears to function in many other ways, no one can actually use it for any purpose.

A lot of people find this amusing, even expected. Brent doesn’t have a good track record or a good way with people, it seems. Still, it is a loss that I, among others, mourn a bit. I had caught up with some friends via ECC, including one who was, at the time, deployed to Iraq. We have since lost contact because the site no longer works. )=

Where are you Brent Hunter?

This is all fresh in my memory because I was talking to an old friend from the Park today and, as always happens with those old friends, the conversation turns to questions like “Do you still talk to anyone?” or “Do you remember this person?” And I always feel a tinge of nostalgia because the people that I talk to and remember are far less in number than I would prefer.

And I don’t know how to find them again. Sites like Myspace or Reunion.com allow you to find people when you do know a lot of information about them but the friends one makes in chat, even if one knows their heart and soul, may never release vital information like birth date, home town or last name.

Even Brent has a few websites up which direct the visitor to chat rooms whose core is made up of ex Park chatters but it’s not the same. I began wondering why there isn’t some type of site that allows people to reunite with others from online, with search criteria different than e-mail, age or location which you might not know. Perhaps just a giant bulletin board located at “Find People From The Park.com”.

Alas, searching for those specific people is all but impossible online and searching for the masses is an insurmountable task. If I had control of The Park domains (still own by Brent) I would redirect people to the Pork (which he refuses to link) or to the Myspace group (created by myself) or the Facebook group (created by Sara) so that we would all reconnect.

As it stands, searching for sites about the Park is limited. Eventually, my Myspace group shows up and there appears to be a single Yahoo!Answers question asking if anyone remembers. Links to Brent’s now defunct websites are what show up immediately. It doesn’t seem like many people have taken the time out to put something online to say “Hey, I was there! I remember! I miss you Bob! Where are you Jane?”

So I guess this is my way of creating something a little more permanent, in case someone else is searching and finds my site, maybe they’ll find a little more direction. And maybe, just maybe, I can find a little more closure.

Actually, that’s kind of a weird phrase.

Anyway, here I am writing to you, dear world, at the ripe old age of 22. I’m not entirely sure I feel any different nor am I sure that I don’t feel different. I do feel a bit nostalgic and regretful as this year many of my friends from school have graduated college or, at least, the first portion of their post-secondary education. I admit that I am jealous but hope to catch up with when I am able to and things are looking good that I may be able to do that this fall once we are back in the states.

I feel as though I am counting unhatched chicks by saying this as many things are unsure yet but I can say with good authority we will be relocated to a base in San Antonio. It wasn’t my first pick, or his, but it will be something new and better than where we are for sure.

Back to the birthday subject, I had a pretty good time. I went bowling Friday night with friends. It was a very casual celebration with no expectations and I think perhaps that is what made it go off so well. Often, high expectations about birthdays often resulted in a very disappointed Cole. We followed up bowling by heading back to a friend’s house and playing board games.

Saturday, my birthday, Ryan and I went out to eat at a restaurant he did not remember liking. I remember loving the corn soup. Surprisingly, he enjoyed it even more than I did, I think. He believes they have a larger selection now which may be the case. I don’t know. Ryan even bugged me to go again today but my craving for Chinese had been satisfied.

After dinner we picked up pre-sale vouchers to be able to see Iron Man. On Monday we’d gone down to see it but hadn’t realized they were preselling and we weren’t able to. Because it was a holiday, nothing else was open. Gah!

Luckily, we got out vouchers, headed home for a minute and returned just in time to get in line. Most of the theatre was already packed by the time we got in there and I was seriously worried that we wouldn’t be able to find seats together but we did.

We both liked the movie quite a bit. It was fast moving, exciting and funny in many places. The background music reminded me a lot of the music that was used in Transformers.

We weren’t the only ones who liked it as, I’m sure most of you know. People were there who had already seen it once or twice and as we were leaving, people were discussing going back to see it tonight! But I didn’t like it enough to try to deal with our ghetto as movie theatre. Right now there’s doing construction so only 1/2 of the seating is available. As we were leaving last night, I saw 2 folding chairs that must have been set up for customers who could not find any place to sit in the theatre! How awful!

By the time we left the movie, by birthday was finished. I was rather pleased. I’ll need to do this again in another 365 days. Thanks to everyone who sent wishes!

One of the adorable though, admittedly, sometimes obnoxious traits of Samantha is her love of singing and music. She sings along to most anything from theme songs to music on the radio and will sing words to the tune of a song – usually “If You’re Happy and You Know It” rather than just saying them.

For instance, the other night she sang along to the theme of Two and Half Men which was cute but made only more precious by the fact that most of the words of the song are simply the repetition of the word “men.” Scooby Doo is another favourite and I melt every time she says “shiver.”

She must have learned this adorable song at school about ducks because she knows hand motions too.

Five little ducks
Went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mother duck said
“Quack, quack, quack, quack.”
But only four little ducks came waddling back.

Four little ducks
Went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mother duck said
“Quack, quack, quack, quack.”
But only three little ducks came waddling back.

Three little ducks
Went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mother duck said
“Quack, quack, quack, quack.”
But only two little ducks came waddling back.

Two little ducks
Went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mother duck said
“Quack, quack, quack, quack.”
But only one little duck came waddling back.

One little duck
Went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mother duck said
“Quack, quack, quack, quack.”
But no little ducks came waddling back.

Five little ducks
went out to play
Over the hills and far away
Papa duck said,
“QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!”
Five little ducks came waddling back.

Lastly, somehow she wound up with one of those obnoxious singing fish Billy Bass which plays snippets “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” and “Take me To the River” Of course she sings those too and when she gets to the whistling part of the former, she simply “oohs.” Haha
I really wish my camera had a microphone so I could record her singing!