On August 11, Tasha finally finished what she started back in August 1998. After 9 long years going to school part-time with a few semesters off here and there, working, changing majors, and putting up with me, she has finished her degree from the University of North Texas!

She is now (or working to be) an early childhood interventionist. I know it sounds like someone who gathers a young child’s friends and family for a surprise meeting and tries to get young kids off heroin and into rehab or something, but it isn’t. I think if I tried to explain it to you right now, I might bog you down with my horrible explanation instead of getting to the real point I am trying to make with this post…so just ask her. She will tell you all about it.

I am so proud of Tasha. I think if I had ever stopped going to school even once, I would have never gone back. She didn’t just stop once, she did it twice…I think. It might have been 3 times. Either way, it really takes someone special to stick with something for so long and see it through. But I knew she would do it….after all, she has stuck with me longer than she did college ;). I love you babe! You RULE!

Anyways, the pictures from her graduation and graduation party are below. Enjoy! And if you haven’t congratulated her yet, please do so.

This movie had an absolutely horrible story. Incredible acting, crap story. The whole cast did a great job at convincing you they are frickin’ nut balls, but whoever wrote this movie and convinced these actors to sign on, should be banned from Hollywood. Following the blessed end to this movie (blessed because it was finally over!) the entire audience in the theatre were laughing about how ridiculous this movie was and why they wasted time and money watching this.

I almost feel that my time spent screening some of the really crappy movies I had to screen as a projectionist was time better spent.

Hell, I rarely ever review a movie on here, but the mere fact that I am writing about this one should demonstrate just how bad it was.

Oh and BTW, the Grapevine AMC 30 up here charge $9/ticket for an evening show! That isn’t too big a difference really, especially if you are already at the mall and planning to watch an evening show. However, when you are planning to watch a 4:30 movie (assumed to be a $7 matinee) and their evening times start at 4pm on weekends, it will make you laugh at the cashier, walk off, and spend less than half that difference in gas (ok, maybe just a bit more than half…we were in the GTO ;)) driving to another theatre chain. That will be the last time I consider AMC. I will stick with Cinemark and the Denton Movie Tavern from now on for reasonable ticket prices ($5.50 and $4 respectively for shows before 6pm)!

- peeps

I am really getting annoyed with restaurants…

Why is it that every place we go that has sweetener on the table, it is damp and clumpy. I sure hope it is damp and clumpy from someone leaving it next to a humidifier overnight and not from an hourly drenching of cleansers and disinfectants used to clean the tables. Or perhaps the box it came in was sitting on the floor in the kitchen as they mopped away the daily grime while not caring that the box of sweetener was getting soaked with who-knows-what. I know I really don’t want to know the answer and it never really bothered me before when it would happen at 1 in every 5 or 10 restaurants. But now, it seems that it is like that everywhere, even the brand new chain by our house that has only been open for a week!

Maybe the disinfectant drenched sweetener disinfects my insides

Perhaps I should keep a box of sweetener in each car, but then how thirsty will I be? Will I need 2 packets or 10 packets?

I guess I just don’t undersand what is so hard about keeping products that should remain dry….dry…

Maybe I should collect packets, label them, and send them off to some lab for testing. Then sell the story to a news agency.

- peeps

I think because its life would be short with any decision it makes and no decision is a realy good one….on the same side, the other side, or while crossing. I think during the 9 hour drive from Soroako to Kolaka last sunday, my driver almost hit about 10 chickens while passing through the villages. And then maybe 3-5 on the 3 hour drive from Kolaka to Kendari last night. So that covers the middle of the road. Now on either side, the chicken must know that one of the locals will be snatching it up soon for dinner, so it better not hang out too long. I think just constantly crossing the road makes the chicken feel that its life will be longer by avoiding being eaten. That is if it can avoid the cars….

Sometimes it is scary to see the chickens pecking at scraps and whatever it can find to eat on the side of the roads or the fields….especially after you were just next door having chicken for lunch. Perhaps the chicken I ate was running around trying to get run over the day before Oh well! It was all pretty tasty and I didn’t get sick.

Finally back in civilization (Jakarta Airport) and headed towards home after departing home on January 30th and adding an extra week to my trip to visit another client on the same island.

More to come when I have time to jot it all down….and tons of pictures.

- peeps

So after hanging out in the Hong Kong airport for a bit the other day, I headed to the gate and got on the plane. I thought it was strange that I had the same seat assignment as the previous plane. Turns out it was the same plane that I had deboarded hours earlier…the same one with the video problems. About 30 minutes into the flight, the video system wigged out on everyone this time, not just me. They finally got it working though and I got to watch the Robin Williams movie Man of the Year…

I’m not sure what it is, but I always find something that really annoys me on a flight…mostly stuff that other passengers do. One lady on the flight to Bali decided that she wanted to play with playdough during the flight to help her arthritis. I never really realized how the smell of playdough can get to you, but when you are in a confined space, it can be overpowering.

Bali was pretty nice. Hotel was good, city was filled with all sorts of shops. Bought 15 DVDs for ~$15. We ate at a market on the beach where you pick out your raw seafood by the kg for them to grill. I had a kg (2.2 lb) of grilled squid that was excellent. In the morning we flew out to Makassar. While there, in order to get the new temporary work permit, we had to fill out a ton of paperwork and get fingerprinted 4 times. I told Tasha that I thought we had less to do to get out concealed carry permit in Texas! After all that was done, we had to board the plane to Soroako. It is a small plane that probalby seats 30-40 people and it is not setup for tall people. My knees were pressed into the back of the seat in front of me for the whole 1.5 hours. As we approached Soroako, we got into some heavy rain. We even lined up with the runway, but the pilot decided the weather was too bad to land and we were headed back to Makassar…another 1.5 hours with my knees drilled into the seat! Ughhh!!

So ended up that we spent an evening in Makassar at a swanky hotel near the beach. Rooms were nice, had a nice steakhouse that ws just a pricey as some nice placecs in North America. We had to leave the hotel @ 4 am, so we didn’t get to spend too much time checking out the big city of Makassar. We finally made it into Soroako about 7:30 am on Saturday…a day later than we anticipated. Oh well, I don’t think I will miss one less night in Soroako.

I got checked into the dorms and this room is much nicer than the house I was in last time. Maybe I can catch a replay of the Superbowl on the 13″ TV here in my room….

That is all for now….

- peeps