Get a New Life

I'm always updating my plans to suit my needs. No surprise there; everyone does it. Here's the current plan for the future:
First, I'm gonna stay right where I am at SKF until I have the bike and the insurance settled. That'll probably be late November. Then, I go to Gateway, probably for welding. With a certificate or degree in welding, I'll be able to get a solid job that I can keep for two or four decades and support myself on. The rise of the New American Dream, take your high school diploma to college and turn your college degree into a career, is not as valid as it used to be. Now the gulf is not in people with degrees; it's in skilled laborers.

Once I get the sustainable job, I'll leave home. I'll be 21 by then, with all the rights as an American that I'll ever grow into. I'll hunt down an apartment and follow the old American Dream with my own modifications - a house, a job, a life. Maybe I'll go all the way and try out the girl. Who knows?
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Now playing on iTunes: Great Lake Swimmers - Your Rocky Spine
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Fuck! Fuck!

Took my car in for service today. I filled up a tenth of a mile from the dealership. Started the first time, like they built it yesterday. The VW people found nothing wrong, for $84.66, and turned off the Check Engine light. Car drove like it was brand new. So I happily stopped for a celebratory latte from Starbucks and got a free drink (Woo!). Then I returned to the car.

Not twenty minutes out of the shop, the fucking light is back on. They'll look at it on the house on Monday. My car hates me.
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Now playing on iTunes: Kristofer Astrom - Just A Little Insane
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Oh, hell no!

I will not stand for this!
Fucking billionaires need to leave people the hell alone. And they're Capitalist Barons themselves; shouldn't they be smoking cigars by the box? My damn cigars are already expensive enough without rich motherfuckers trying to tax them even more. And what is it they're going for, anyway? Prohibition didn't stop people using alcohol. The law doesn't stop people smoking weed. These idiots aren't gonna stop people smoking; they're just going to piss them off.
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Now playing on iTunes: Reel Big Fish - Everything Sucks
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God damn, people! It's rain. Calm the fuck down.

Un-Kicking the Habit

Two in a day! Been a while.

Warhammer 40,000 recently produced a new edition. Joey has the rulebook. In addition, Jimmy surprised me with a book from the Black Library. I'm therefore slipping back into the hobby of wargaming. Hopefully it'll go well with the Joes tonight. I'll be able to use my Marines again and I'm already thinking about starting the group's first competent Tau army.

I propose that sometime in the near future, when the weather is nice, that we take a game to the table on the back patio and have ourselves a particularly brutal cigar night.
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Now playing on iTunes: Locksley - Don't Make Me Wait
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That was odd.

Got home last night from the concert worn-out and ready for bed. About ten minutes before I dozed off, Meagan texted me and I ended up at her friend Johnny's in Clifton, talking to her, Johnny, John (Johnny's friend), and Melissa (Meagan's cousin). I ended up invited along to today's family adventure, so after a long conversation with Meagan and a few hours of sleep, I took her home and was involved in a run to a cousin's house with a frightened bull mastiff, an evil wiener dog, and a friendly yip-rat. From there her dad found the way to a flea market near the Little Miami River. Post-adventure was Jane McNeilan's famous chicken enchiladas and a quiet drive home. Meagan's family is a hell of a lot more normal than she gives them credit for, from the nagging mom to the grumbling dad to the siblings fighting in the back seat the whole way. At every turn I saw images from my own childhood (Not to say they're much younger than my family; we just haven't gone on adventures like that in years.) and images from classic Americana. It was weird to spend the day with a girl whose weirdness I've so long taken for granted and see absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. I had a really good time, though. I didn't feel like an outsider or a fifth wheel or at all awkward. I don't get much of that these days.

I'm feeling a lot more centered than I usually do.

Also, the climate control panel on my dash is lit up again. Let's hope it lasts. :)
Oh, and the funny image of the day:----------------
Now playing on iTunes: All The Day Holiday - Take a Moment (And See What You Can See)
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Spare Change

It's funny how I motivate myself to save money. I tend to impulse buy like mad if I don't strictly control myself, so I devise little schemes to keep my bank account up. I allowed myself a single CD at $500 and a cigar at $1000. For $1500, which comes with the next paycheck, I get a new bit of metal in my ear. They're all $20 or less, with the exception of next week's, but they do the job and keep me saving and not spending anything. In addition to that, I set limits at each $500. Once I've reached it, I can't go below the previous number under any circumstances. You guys have any stupid schemes like that or do you not have issues with money burning a hole in your pocket?
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Now playing on iTunes: Cavaliers - 2002 - Frameworks - Madison, WS
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Dead-End Life

This is an unusually personal blog post, so just bear with me tonight.

"I can't talk to you because of being on opposite schedules, unless I happen to catch you in the middle of my night.

You keep doing less and less here. You used to be very helpful. If you get up and the dishes in the dishwasher are clean, you are expected to put them away. If you empty the tea pitcher, wash it or make more.

We have to figure out the school thing for insurance purposes, but basically avoiding us while we continue to support you is not working. Ethan is right. I realize he doesn't do much, but he is basically working a full time job now with band and Dad and I are too. You don't have to everything, but you do have to help. I don't think I should have to make you a chore list or call you to ask to do the common sense things.

I'll be at school most of the day tomorrow so I don't know if I'll see you or not. Not quite sure how we both live here but I never see you.

Love, Mom"
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"I'll figure out the school thing, but I'm not entirely sure when. I already told dad I'd pick up my car insurance when ours expired next month. I intended to anyway since I'll be adding a vehicle to it in October. When my health insurance stops being free, I can get it from work. To be honest, I almost certainly won't have school figured out in a month. Seems like going into aircraft mechanics is about to be a bad idea anyway, but I can't live on $9 an hour so I'll have to figure something out. I've heard of some stuff from a few friends that pays enough, allows for the stupid hours I like, and involves getting my hands dirty, so I'll have to do some looking. 2008 might be the "drop out of college, figure out what I'm doing with my life" year.

I'll help out with stuff around here if it's obvious, but it'll mostly be dishes unless I get a day off. The hours that I'm awake are spent in my room or in the kitchen unless I have something DVRed so I don't notice the stuff that needs doing in other rooms.

-Cameron"

I'm feeling more lost every day. I joke around about it a lot, but leaving school was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I took my hopes and my future, the salary that would give me a house and not an apartment, the job that would use my mind and body in equal measure. I nurtured them for two years and watched them grow, fighting off the doubts that I wasn't good enough and couldn't make it. I watched them shrivel and die in the icy wind of February. I am currently a shift worker, wasting my fucking time in a warehouse for $9 an hour. My schedule puts me at odds with my family and my friends and if I tried to move out now, I'd go hungry and beg my parents for my room back before the year was out. In the last few weeks, I've watched friendships suffer. I haven't had real conversations with Nikki or Brandon or Kaitlin or Alicia in Gods know how long. These are the people who keep me sane. [Sorry, kid. I love you to death but you do more harm to my sanity than good. I'll never look down on you for doing it.] The friend I've been relying on starts her third-shift job soon. I'm glad she got it, I really am. Her financial issues are way over my head and she, more than anyone else I know, will put the cash to good use. I'm gonna miss her conversations, though, and I'm gonna grow distant from her like I have from all of you.

I'm stagnating. My dreams are dead, and I'll finally admit that it's getting to me.
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Now playing on iTunes: Streetlight Manifesto - A Better Place, A Better Time
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Sanity Returns

So I realized as I drove home from work, cruising at the speed limit with 90.9 playing in the background, that I am calmer and more laid back than I have been in a long time. I've traded in the torn denim for a tie and a trench coat and the nightly parties for a full-time job. I worry I'm quickly becoming normal.

Meh, happens to most people at some point and I'm still very weird in some respects.

Mom got a new car. 2008 Saturn Astra. It has a sunroof that wouldn't fit in my car and a manual transmission I'd like to learn the use of. I've never had the chance to learn stick before and I intend to get one when my Jetta dies in a few years.

Plans for the near future involve a shave and a hair cut and sometime soon a little new hardware. Oh, and the Pinstripes concert. They'll be at the Mad Hatter Saturday at 8. It's five bucks, and it'd be great if you could join me.
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Now playing on iTunes: Matchbox Twenty - Real World
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Ha Ha Ha

So one of my coworkers, Ashley, accused me of tailing her to work one day on the one-mile stretch from the stoplight to the parking lot. I probably did it, of course, but this was in a speed limit 25 zone. Instead of confronting me like an adult, she responded in kind, following me all the way to the 71/75 junction with her brights on. She did it again tonight. This is a danger not only to me, but to all motorists in front of her. I just want to drive home at exactly the speed limit, sing along to my music, and have a nice, leisurely ride in my comfortable leather seat.

So naturally I called the police. I looked up the non-emergency number for the highway patrol and requested an additional cruiser keep an eye on that stretch of 275. When she and her cretin husband get pulled over for reckless driving, I'm going to shit myself laughing.
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Now playing on iTunes: The Pinstripes - Everybody
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Some Good, Some Bad

The good: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are on tour again! They don't come anywhere near Cincinnati, but they might eventually.
The Pinstripes are playing next Saturday, the 19th, at the Mad Hatter. I already told Nikki and Kaitlin. It's five bucks. Be there!

The bad: My car's trying to kill me again. The check engine light is on and every time I fill the tank I can't start the car without a great deal of time and effort. I have no idea what the fuck is wrong.
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Now playing on iTunes: Westbound Train - Waiting For Tonight
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Holding My Breath

I keep meaning to blog, but I never get around to it. I don't even remember what I was going to blog about. [shrug] Maybe it'll come to me tomorrow.

Maybe I'm just at a loss as to why I have so little to say these days.
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Now playing on iTunes: Reel Big Fish - Ban The Tube Top
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Brief Update

Signed up for the MSF rider course. I'll have my motorcycle license October 6th unless I really fuck something up. With the current climactic trends, that'll give me from October to the end of 2008 to ride, with January-April seeing the bike in the garage hiding from the snow.
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Now playing on iTunes: Reel Big Fish - Beer
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The Good and the Bad

Got the permit. Woo! Only missed one of thirty questions. The downside is that I failed to take into account Kentucky's graduated licensing program. People over 21 can get a license after only 30 days with the permit. I, on the other hand, have to wait 180. Alternately I can take the MSF courses and get a license after their skills test long before I'm eligible for the test issued by the police, but those are booked until August at least. I'll have my bike, but it won't be this summer.
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Now playing on iTunes: Matchbox Twenty - Back 2 Good
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