Jon's website

8/17/2000 -- Three weeks (minus one day) early!!!

HAPPY LAPTOP DAY!!!! Woo Hoo!!! The thing got here three weeks before I had origionally expected it! I actually forced myself to take a shower, as part of my preperation for the trip tomorrow, before I got it out tho. Then I messed around with my new toy for a while, until G&G came home, at which point we all went to dinner. Then I came back, played some more, packed, played, finished packing. At that point, is was 11:30. And since I already typed about what happened next in tomorrow's journal (I'm doing some catch-up, going in reverse), I'll stop here. Oh. Initial happiness with the laptop is very high (tho I haven't had a chance to do much hard-core fooling with it... this was just learning my way around a bit).

8/16/2000 -- The (not so) big day

Well, today was the day my laptop was slated to show up. Naturally, I was up really early & waiting with baited breath. At about 11:00, I called that guy who possibly had a job for me, but I think it busted... They were looking for consultants, not trainees. So I gave him my web-page address, which of course isn't any kind of showcase, just my little personal page and terribly unimpressive by commercial standards, but oh well. He said he'd either call or write me an email if he was interested, but I don't even have a resume on my page, so I'm pretty sure it's the message that'll never come. Oh well. On to the temp agencies. Which sound kinda fun anyway. At least there's some variety. Oh. At the same time I was on the phone, and Gramps was on an errand, a delivery person came to the door. Shiela (their dog... how do you spell her name, tho?) went nuts, and poor Grandma had to hold her off and sign for the package at the same time. So I got off the phone & went to see what it was. The box was dissapointingly small. And it said "Harmon-Kardon" on the side. So I opened it. Laptop? Speakers. WHAT GOOD ARE SPEAKERS WITHOUT A LAPTOP??? I mean, every computer oughta have a good pair of speakers, but the speakers sure aren't as much fun without the computer... So I called the shipping place, and the laptop had been delayed by 24 hours. Nuts. The three of us proceeded to either be useful or just hang out (you can guess who was actually being useful, and who was doing the hanging), in various locations, until about 7:00. Oh. I walked down to the train station to pick up my tickets, too, and got a chance to wander downtown a bit. Then we went to dinner with G&G's friends from Phoenix again, stayed around their hotel (boy is Little America a pretty hotel) for a while, then came home. Did email and the normal stuff, and off to bed. I suppose you (most of you, anyway) are wondering what that train ticket bit was, aren't you? Well, I'll decide later if I want you to know or not.

8/15/2000 -- Coming... eventually. Maybe.

8/14/2000 -- Floating point frustrations

Today I did more working through in my C book. Then stopped and started playing around on my own, trying to find out exactly how floating point variables work in C. If you understood that. So I stopped programming & went to sit in the Great Room (just to the left of the front door), it's a big open room w/ vaulted ceilings and veryy aesthetic. Really, there's the dining room, foyer, and great room all with one open ceiling. It's very nice in there. Only noone's ever in there, so it's pretty quiet, too. So I sat there & pondered floating point numers some more (sounds fun, huh?). Uh, ate dinner (meatloaf!), went for a bikeride, did email and the like, and went to bed.

8/13/2000 -- Whoops, [pant pant], etc.

Well, I, er, missed church today. Got up at about 11:00, when the service I was gonna go to started. Coulda made it, only I needed a shower first. So that was a bust. Whoops. Instead I just stayed in my room & did a bit of worship-kinda stuff instead. Uh, other than that is was just silly activity unil dinner. Afer which, Grandma chased us out of the house & off to do some work on one of their cars. It needed some lug nuts swapped with another one of their cars... Don't ask, it's messy. But I got to do it, and learn how to do the whole lug nut thing, with a torque wrench and all. Not hard, but it was fun to learn. When we got back, I actually got out my bike & went for a ride. Good stuff, but I'll need to do more of it... Then it was email, and bed.

8/12/2000 -- Mary & Mormon

Uh, I worked on my web page a lot today. That, and saw a really cool thing posted on Dreams of Doom. It's an infobox kinda thing, where you push different buttons & it displays info on the topic from the story that you selected. It was pretty cool. So I dissected that & used it to teach myself a bit more about HTML and JavaScript. Then G&G decided to go for a drive out around Lakes Mary and Mormon (today's title has no religious significance. Just lake, uh, significance). Boy was that pretty. We drove around a campsite that G&G had stayed at many times a while ago, up around on... uh, I forget the name of it, but it's some mesa that's out there opposite Pine Grove campsite, in central Coconino National Forest. Then we dove down past both Upper & Lower Lake Mary, down to Lake Mormon. If you've ever seen a large number of elk, well, maybe it would compare to the numbers that were there, down in the muck at the bottom of the mostly-dry lake. Then we drove down around a road that loops aroud Lake Mormon. It was getting dark just as we were heading back. The sun was blazing red and orange through a narrow break in the clouds that was right on the horizon, and it's last fires flickered on the edges of Lower Lake Mary as we dove by. It was pretty. Then we had a slightly late dinner and I went back to email, websurfing, and messing with that tool UFO (the screen-name of the guy from the DoD message board) had made. Then I went to bed.

8/11/2000 -- Caper in the key of C

I fell asleep really early last night (those who know me well enough won't believe it, but oh well). Concequently, I was up really early this morning checking email and the like, instead of doing it at night. After I finished with that, tho, I got out an old "Teach Yourself C" (C is a programming language) book, learned a bit about how to use a couple of free C/C++ compilers I downloaded, and started going through the book. I had previously had a fairly advanced C++ class in high school, but there was some basic stuff we didn't cover, so I'm going back & learning it. That, and getting started on all the program ideas I've got swimming around in my head. Stopped about 2pm, slept, and went to go join G&G over where they were at about 4. They were showing pictures on the news of a BIG dust storm blowing into Phoenix. And we were just down there yesterday. We left about 5 for dinner, and then came back here to the house. And I started catching up on all these journals I'd gotten behind on. I'm about to do a web page update, email, & the like next. So I'm off for now. G'night all. An update to this journal: I just got my order confirmation email from Dell! And I'm getting my shiny new laptop a lot sooner than I expected! Woo hoo!

8/10/2000 -- New toy-er-tool!

Well, woke up really early this morning (about 7:30am) because I thought it was a lot later. As we all slowly woke up, things started getting going. Gramps started on that yardwork after breakfast, and I eventually ended up outside helping him. Arizona yardwork is the closest thing to hades I've ever felt, this side of a West Virginia hilltop anyway (the first year I went on a Habitat for Humanity trip, after 6th grade, we went to WV & worked on a house that was on a hilltop... The first day it got up to 100. I was one unhappy 6th grader). Hmm... I walked down into G&G's empty pool as we were getting ready to leave, stared up at the place where I fell into the deep end when I was little. Stopped at a place called Sunset Point again on the way up. Boy that was a pretty view of a LOT of mountains. Got back up & mostly lounged for the rest of the day. About 9pm here, we remembered that I was supposed to call my dad, and he was gonna order that shiny new laptop I've been talking about. So I called, and after a few mishaps, we were on a conference call to Dell. Only the order line closed at 6pm central time. So he ordered it online instead. The important thing though, is that I've got a new toy, I mean tool coming sometime (it'll take a few weeks to build). Woo hoo! (Thanks Dadoo!)

8/9/2000 -- Childhood memory memorial

This started out as a normal day. Got my body up, wandered into some walls, woke my brain up, got dressed, breakfast, that sort of thing (just joking about the walls). Then G&G say "We're going down to Phoenix for the night. Get packed if you're coming". Road trip! See, they have a house down there that they lived in before they moved up here that they're eventually gonna sell. Gramps needed to get some stuff from the house, and there was some yard work that undoubtedly needed doing. So we went. Got down there around 5, I think. I've got a lot of great childhood memories of that house, but that was back when they were living there full-time. That, and they'd been flooded out bigtime back in '92... A cold-water pipe popped off in the master bedroom. So, things were a bit different. And it was emptier, too. So it was a bit of a memorial for my childhood memories. Can't go home again, I guess. At least not somtimes. Either way, this is now the official poem for the trip. So, we went out to eat with my Aunt Chris at a really good mexican place called Garcias... Check it out if you're ever in northern Phoenix. Then we came back to the house & all talked a while, then dragged ourselves off to bed.

8/8/2000 -- Things get going

Things went significantly better today than yesterday. Called and left a voicemail for my prospective employer, tho he's on vacation. I said I'd call him back on the 16th, so I will. And so the job-thing will pend for a little while. After that, went down, applied & registered at Coconino Community College for one class, intro to Spanish. Foriegn Language hasn't previously been my strong point, so I'm taking just that so I can focus on it. I, uh forget most of what happened after that... Uh, had dinner, probably checked email & websurfed for a while. Oh, yeah!! The latest installment of The Two Fates came from Chad today, Chapter 11c: Dark alliance, and jeez is it a good one. If you're gonna read it, tho, you're better off starting with the first chapter...

8/7/2000 -- Jon entrée

I went down to the Community College today, got some info, but hit a roadblock in registering, because they wanted my social security number... There's good reasons for not giving it out, so I decided to go back the next day after doing a bit of research. Actually, my mum did the research after I talked to my parents on the phone about it (thanks, Mum). Since the community college is down kinda by the only mall in town, I decided to go check it out, just for the heck oof it. It's a small mall, but then it's a small town. And it was raining quite hard when I left. Which was a good thing, since it's pretty dry up here too. So then I went home, and then to dinner w/ G&G again, only to discover I hadn't left a note as to where I was going that day (it's just polite... They always leave one). Whoops. So we talked some, and the future ate me again. Went home. Checked email. Chatted w/ a friend online (curse you, K.P., you un-depressed me again (: ). Went to bed.

8/6/2000 -- An oily mess

Well, tried another church today... Federated Community Church of Flagstaff, I think. Only I was late, sat in the back, and left pretty soon afterwards. It was an alright service, definately more traditional than the one I went to last Sunday. We'll see. But that wasn't the biggest thing of the day. Changed my own oil for the first time this afternoon. It took a bit of work to get it in the air, because the molding on the bottom it so low, we couldn't get it up the ramps. But we did it, I changed the stuff & the filter, and survived without getting too much oil on me. It was kinda fun. Came home, took a shower, ate dinner, and I forget after that.

8/5/2000 -- Chomp

Looked at my community colllege info today. Only I didn't pray for encouragement first, and the future ate me again. Ended up moping around most of the day. Did write another chapter for Dreams of Doom, 'cause something in my previous chapter needed explaining. Got to chat with a friend of mine back in MI (Hi, K.P.) late, and she helped cheer me up.

8/4/2000 -- Uneventful

Finished labelling my "Going to Arizona" trip pictures today. Messed around a bit in my room again. Went to dinner w/ G&G & my uncle. Put off making decisions about college. That's about it.

8/3/2000 -- minor trouble in paradise

Got up a bit late today. It was a pretty uneventful day. Messed around in my room most of the time, working on part of my website and getting the last few things that have been sitting out in my room put away. I also spent some time going through some of my files, trimming them down. Had a heart-to-heart w/ G&G about plans for the immediate future. Any kind of trip to Portland has been cancelled due to lack-of-time, and lack-of-Aunt-Keri (sorry Kat). First day I've been very depressed at all... Went to dinner. Did email and the like. Looked briefly at college stuff, but it was late so I didn't get too into it. Slept.

8/2/2000 -- Just another day

I was a bit tired from my writing run of the previous night, so one of the first things I did was sleep. Then I was woken up because my sister was on the phone (she's off on a mad adventure too, right now). Talked to her for a while (Hola Gato Diablo!) and then drove off to join G&G and their friends from the night before at a brunch. Stuffed myself silly, so much so that I never even thought about dinner as the day progressed. I mailed a letter (meaning that I successfully found the post office) on my way back from there. After that, G&G showed them around the house, and we all hung out & talked for a while. I messed around on my Psion, too, while they talked. Uh, after that, they were off and we came home. It was pretty late by then (7pm or so, compared to when I left at 1). Hung out some more, I went upstairs and finished my book, and then got on the 'net for the nightly email check and the like, and wrote this journal.

8/1/2000 -- Writing mad

Looked into a couple things today, possibilities for a local bank and that job my uncle had referred me to. Then I started getting ready to write another chapter for the Dreams Of Doom saga. But that was set aside for a while so we could go out to eat with some friends of G&Gs. Then I came back and wrote for a long while, finished up, and posted my story. And that's it for the day.