Thank you, Djarum. Seriously. You've saved me the hassle of smuggling cloves into the country through Canada! Likewise, fuck you, US government, for telling me that as an adult, I can't smoke things with delicious flavors. Oh, except menthol, which tastes like ass.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jZQ3Ygc0-ofXntFVVNoA8IusFU-QD9AIH5G81

Strange how cyclical everything can become in one's life. Love. My mom has another goddamned aneurysm in her brain...at least, it looks like this one won't require surgery. Which is good, I don't want to see how frail she became after the last surgery. Even if we did joke about it, and her "brain thing", as she calls it.

Work goes the same. I've been reading more at work now. Spend more time working on writing my game. It's maddening at times, I can feel the words below the surface, but they don't seem to want to come up, to let me get them down on paper.

Still reading the Kalevala. What a beautiful bit of work that is...

Going to Disney World again in two weeks. Looking rather forward to that, too.

I'm pretty content with how this turned out. It's a bit straighter than the picture shows, leg was at a bit of an odd angle to take it.

http://tinyurl.com/2dhnv9

Мне хочется неловкий. Тоже тупойу

Ещё, влопатся на девушка я не знаю.

Позже? Компьютерная игра и прогаммирование.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7252109.stm

Hmm. Didn't expect to wake up to that.

In other news, methinks it's time for a 4th tattoo. More on that later. Expect it to be extremely geeky, though.

Also need a haircut. Badly.

По-моему Я гей. Я не знаю.

Я чувствую себя лучше. Странный.

Work work.

Haven't updated this in quite a while. I kind of forgot it existed.

Returned to work on Wednesday after spending all of January recovering from surgery. Appendicitis is one hell of a way to start the new year. Not fun times. The office is the same as it was when I left, though I can't say I'm surprised. It isn't bad to be back, I think. I do need to find a way to get March 7th off from work. Can't say Saturday's really a good day to fly across the country.

Still haven't sorted out my mind. Every time I think I know what I want, it becomes more confusing. Sometimes, I wonder if I ever will. I have the sneaking suspicion that deep down, maybe I do know, and the rest of me isn't willing to admit it. Maybe I don't. I think I'm going in circles. It is maddening, to say the least. Argh.

It would be nice to have somewhere to be on a Saturday night.

Starting to work harder on learning Russian, for a few reasons. Expect to see entries written in it.

Also, Ladytron. Toronto, July 4th. That is all.

Today was my job interview with the travelers' insurance company. I'm really excited about it, despite it being an office desk job. I do think it went well, they did seem rather pleased with the answers I gave, so hey. $32k a year over whatever the fuck it is I'm making as a popcorn jockey? Fuck, I think we all know the answer to that. Having insurance again would be nice, too. I want that damn cavity in my upper wisdom tooth fixed. Its' presence annoys me to no end.

I also really, really miss CSH. That is all.

I cannot for the life of me realize how I have not heard this song before today, considering I've had the album in possession over three years. Possibly thanks to the fact that it's been missing for the better part of that 3 years...

The build-up starting at around 7:00 is quite possibly the most wonderful thing I've ever heard.

The song is freely avaliable on the band's site, as well, if anyone wants it. First download.
http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/media/

This Fortnight's Reading List: (Checked as completed)
[] The Somme - Gary Sheffield
[] Medieval Warfare: A History - Maurice Keen
[] Crimes of War: Guilt and Denial in the Twentieth Century - Omar Bartov, Atina Grossmann, and Mary Nolan
[] Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory - Lawrence Langer
[] The Histories - Herodotus
[] Colloquial Swedish - Phillip Holmes and Gunilla Serin
[] An Introduction to Old Norse - E.V. Gordon
[] The Iliad - Homer
[] Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima - Stephen Walker
[] World War I - S.L.A. Marshall
[] Masters of Death: The SS Einsatzgruppen - Richard Rhodes

I love you, job downtime. However, I am entirely too much of a history fucktard. Thankfully, my lack of a real social life should enable me to finish this. Awesome.

I actually sort of wish I were working today, despite still being rather sickly. There's something enjoyable about a dark, air-conditioned place where only about half of your shift is actual work. As there's not much to do without customers, there is a lot of downtime. Only real downside is closing, though I have yet to lose flesh to the popcorn machine, because goddamn, that thing gets hot. With all the downtime between rushes, I've been rediscovering a number of albums I'd forgotten. Foremost on that list has been Pink Floyd's "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn". So fucking good.

In other news, we have lost another hamster. Das Boot died Tuesday of what we're thinking was diabetes. However, shortly after, Mandi brought over an adorable little baby dwarf that we have named Hindenburg. (After the German leader, not the airship. He's got the little mustache...). And my friend's cat had her litter of kittens yesterday. Very cute, and she let us see them without getting upset, which was very nice. I think it's because she remembered us as people who spent quite some time petting her, and not a threat. 4 orange, two black.

Started the new job yesterday. I bag popcorn at the local theater for $6.75 an hour. On the plus side, I get free food while working, so it could be a hell of a lot worse, methinks. Was able to work a register myself within 2 hours of getting there, so I can't be that bad at it. Still somewhat sick, though. And the cat will not stop shadowing me. Yes, 20 pounds of cat sleeping on the shoulder is cute, but it hurts after awhile.

In other news, I will never again willingly take Benadryl. For anything. Oh, god...the things that does to your head...most unpleasant. Also, pictures of the new tattoo are slow in coming. Will post them at some point. Possibly along with pics from the 4th, though I think the only ones of those I'm in are where I'm up to my arms in bass guts, so perhaps not. Bah.

Also, remind me to find and kick the ass of whoever's telling people I've joined the Navy. I looked into it: I can't. The military does not take the untreatable defectives.

Next time we get hit by a big-ass storm like that, I vow to never again use the phrase "Damn, it would suck if we got a fuckin' tornado". 20 minutes was all it took. Bah, I hate you, weather, for making getting a job unexciting compared to a tornado spawning 4 blocks over.

Yes. Fuck you, weather. Go back to blizzards, I like those better.

Update: Tornado was apparently an F1, so not terribly bad. Also this was the day of the 1987 F2 Cheektowaga tornado. Creepy. However, our precious Wegmans and Mighty Taco are safe, so all is well!

Two new discoveries:

1. Frat boys as a whole are fucking scum. Jesus fuck, I say that like I'm surprised. I'm not. Should've seen this coming, though. Clearly I am assumed to be stupid.

2. Diphenhydramine is a nasty motherfucker.

That is all.

http://www.michaelkelly.fsnet.co.uk/karl.htm

Some days, I find I will never understand people. Who knew this sort of thing was popular?

I'd like to say 20 is an utterly useless age. But on the plus side, I now have pudding, ice cream, and a nerf gun.

Perhaps it isn't so bad. At least, after this morning's fun-filled failed attempt at registration (Oh, fuck you, IT department!), nothing else has gone wrong.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/in_pictures_chernobyl_zone_residents/html/1.stm

This is the sort of thing that interests me to no end. I'm curious as to the rate of thyroid cancer in such places, though on the other hand, they seem to be living lifespans at least equal to the United States. Strontium-90 is a nasty thing, much like Iodine-131. Although, in their cases, the Iodine shouldn't be much of a worry anymore.

I'm not certain as to whether or not my desire to travel to these places marks me as insane. Yes, parts of the exclusion zone around Chernobyl read hot enough to give me lethal doses for hundreds of lifetimes. Parts of it are no different from any cities around the world, and are cleaner than some. (I'm looking at you, Kiev.) There's a dark beauty to the region, though. Nature is reclaiming that which was abandoned. They say wild boars roam the streets of Pripyat at night. Once home to 49,000 people, and now claimed by boars and wolves. A nuclear wasteland, under the invisible shadows which will not raise again during our lifetimes.

I'm rambling again. Fuck. This is what happens when atomic disasters and weapons come up, it seems.

It's been a strange week. Psychiatrist appointment was today, not certain how to feel about the diagnosis I got. Argh. I suppose it's going better than I thought it would. Hey, I'm mostly functional. And no medications, either.

Not like I'm ever going to be able to shake that title, though. 299.80 for "the win", eh?

Ah, well. On the plus side, I've found a number of glorious videos for songs I rather like and nobody on the hub has. Score. Plus, I've gotten the binary worked out for the tattoo I'm getting this summer, just need to get it to lay right around the picture.

Jesus fuck.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devo_2.0

...Doesn't that sort of defeat the point of "Beautiful World"?

Oh, fuck yeah!

http://schedule.csh.rit.edu/?s=evwyqh9

I have been waiting a year for Viking Myth and Sagas. I can only hope it involves something from the Heimskringla saga. Or the Havamal, one can't really go wrong with the word of Odin.

Saw the greatest infomercials last night. One was for free "Miracle Spring Water" and the other was for a free magic Jesus handkerchief. Apparently these things cure cancer and crack addiction!

Why can't I get away with this sort of shit?