Tomorrow, I'm off for camp. Getting up at 7 AM is going to be a huge challenge, but, as always, it should be quite fun. A break from the nonsense of boredom, at least. Work hasn't improved much, I spent all of today basically waiting for more information so I could do my task. Fun.

Last night was good. There was a study of sorts which occured in my attic (which Greg lead), and lots of people showed up. I finally got to sit down and talk to Greg for a few hours (few, as in like 3), and that was really, really good. I managed to get a lot of stuff off of my mind and all that jazz.

I could complain about how bored I've been, but that is not the purpose of blogging. If I wanted to do that, I'd go get a xanga. Oh! Burn! I just don't have the spark to write well or in large quantity, so I am afraid I must leave you with this poor offering. I'll get back into it eventually, no worries.





Wait just a minute. I had a thought-provoking thought. Bear with my philosophisms.

In my boredom I've had plenty of time to think, and one such thing I've pondered is how people will often long for the simplicity of childhood. In pulling out my N64 recently, it's unlocked a lot of memories I had of what I felt like as a little kid. And honestly, I don't think I want that back. A good example is cars. Most teenagers want cars, they want to drive them, they want to own one, they want the freedom of going where they please. And yet, after two or threes of car ownership, most owners become entirely unenthused with their car. It's a burden to drive, it becomes only a means to an end. And when the car is gone for repairs, (and this is based of my observations of others) few recognize what exactly they are missing. They never say "I am frustrated by my lack of easy transportation, and thereby freedom of mobility.", many will say "My stupid car is retarded, it never works, I deserve a working car.". There's an obvious lack of recognition about what a car is, and the fact that it is a privelage, and not a right. It's the same way, as I recall, as a kid, compared to now. I act the same way with such privelages that I earned throughout time.

Ideally, going back to being 5 would be "more simplistic" and "easier", but that is assuming you would know about life then what you know now. Life only becomes more complex as you gain in knowledge, so the simplicity lies only in ignorance. In a sense, by saying that being a child again would be nice is saying that ignorance is bliss. And there you have...

...my profound statement. Why I felt the need to state this or what this accomplishes is irrelevant. I've succesfully wasted time that would have gone towards packing. Thank you, my faithful readers.

EDIT: Also, the new Coldplay CD is very nice.

Lacking the inspiration to literate but the desire to post, I provide you with the latest survey that has been traveling the copper lately.

1. Legal first name? Timothy
2. Were you named after anyone? Tim Hume, family friend who is quite awesome.
3. Do you wish on stars? Looking on stars at night is definitely really high on the list, but that doesn't answer the question, now does it?
4. When did you last cry? Last night, at the end of 24. Actually, I didn't really, but it was close enough. If you don't want to count that, there's Monday night, when I was making the post about Daisy.
5. What is your favorite lunch meat? Turkey. Always.
6. What is your birth date? March 31, 1989
7. What is your most embarrassing CD? ....what? No, really, what?
8. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you? I would assume so, unless I (the other person) was really, really dumb and lacked the capacity for rational thought.
9. Do you use sarcasm a lot? No, never, absolutely not. My predictable sarcastic response should explain it all.
10. What are your nicknames? I used to have a lot, but they've died down over time. Froehlich is the only other thing people call me.
11. Would you bungee jump? Not a clue. If I had a good reason beyond "why not?", probably.
12. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Nope.
13. Do you think that you are strong? I think so, but I am not the one to judge that.
14. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Cookies 'n Cream, or Mint Chocolate Chip
15. Shoe Size? Somewhere between 10.5 and 11.5. Depends on the shoe.
16. Red or pink? Red.
17. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? Absolutist judgementalism.
18. Who do you miss most? Jonothan...and the Ohioans.
19. Do you want everyone you send this to, to send it back? I'll take it this was supposed to be in an email.
20. What color pants and shoes are you wearing? White khaki (surprise, it's all I have), and none.
21. What are you listening to right now? Aireline
22. What did you eat for breakfast? A bowl of Capn' Crunch, which I spilled all over me and the couch while watching the news.
23. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Silver.
24. What is the weather like right now? Cloudy and very, very sticky.
25. Last person you talked to on the phone? Daniel.
26. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex? Disposition and hair.
27. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Sure.
28. Favorite drink? No idea, really.
29. Hair color? Blond, a little dirty.
30. Do you wear contacts? Nay.
31. Favorite food? Calzones, probably.
32. Last movie you Watched? Ocean's 12....again...
33. Favorite day Of The Year? Full moons in Autumn are pretty awesome, I suppose.
34. Scary movies Or happy endings? I'm a sap. A cynical sap, but still a sap.
35. Summer or Winter? Winter. Even though school is on, I enjoy summer less and less each year.
36. Hugs or kisses? Wouldn't know, really.
37. What's your favorite dessert? Chocolate roll.....oooooh...
38. Who's most likely To respond? I don't think anybody will be 'responding', as it were.
39. Who's least likely To respond? ...
40. Living arrangements? I live in my parent's basement. Huzz.
41. What books are you reading? "The Knight", can't remember who the author is, not reading it very regularly though.
42. What's on Your mouse pad? The color "teal", also known as "aquamarine".
43. What did you watch last night on TV? 24, except it wasn't on my TV, and it wasn't on cable.
44. Favorite smells? Wildflowers, nightime.
45. Favorite junk food? Nerds rope!
46. Rolling Stones or Beatles? I hate both with a passion.
47. What's the farthest you've been from home? Hawaii, in February of 1st grade.

This week has generally not been great, though mostly circumstantially. I'm pretty much over Daisy, and Jen is as annoying as ever. It's life.

Work has been highly mundane, thanks to the task I've currently been assigned to. I'm supposed to be updating their entire inventory, recording everything and making sure the resources list is updated. This includes all their catalogs. As energy auditers, they need to know the cheapest and most efficient items of just about all housing materials - plumbing, lighting, electricity, HVAC (heating-ventilation-A/C), architecture, blah blah blah. So they have a big wall of catalogs from tons of companies on all of this stuff. Whenever they last logged their inventory of this stuff, they didn't record the date of the catalog and the website. So, my job is to go through all 150+ of these things and find a date and website. I have like 1/3 of the wall left to do. Thank heavens.

I had a lot more to write, but I can't articulate well right now, and I don't want to rewrite this later. For now, watch this, see the aftermath.

We got her approximately a year after Calvin, the unstoppable beast felled by heartworms. She was 2, her birthday some time in October, and I was 4 or 5. Friends of ours, the Hogans, had gotten her expecting that she would be a good hunter, but when the husband released her and she ran off following the trail of anything and everything, and when the wife was unable to teach her the latest tricks beyond "sit" and "off the furniture", we offered to take her off their hands. For a Basset, she was well trained. She knew how to stay off the carpet (not that we cared about that, to stay off furniture (again), not to drink from the toilet (hmmm), and yet despite this, did not understand the concept of a leash. This was Daisy.

Here she is at the Hogan's, when we were picking her up. (~1994)


Daisy was so-named for the typical habits of Basset puppies. Bassets' ears don't grow much in their lifetime - they start out absolutely gigantic. Puppies are prone to trip on such large things quite often, prompting a saying such as "Oopsie-Daisy!". Such was the origin of Daisy's name. Daisy is also the name of a flower which I've particularly grown to like, not for its stunning beauty, but of the simplicity of the flower overall, combined with the variety of colors it comes in. That is the beauty of a Basset.

Example:


I don't remember much about Daisy from when I lived in Mississippi. I do remember her getting out the door and chasing her all over the neighborhood, but not much more than that. I also remember her howling. We used to be able to get her to howl with us sometimes. She'd howl when we were gone. She'd howl when she thought we were gone. Her howl, to me, was not annoying. It had emotion. It had a message. She was saying "I am lonely.". That is worth dealing with.

(~1996)


We tried breeding her several times, because Basset puppies can go for $500 dollars, and because Basset puppies are the cutest things alive. She, unfortunately, did not understand the concept of mating, and neither did any of her potential mates. There was no second generation.

(~1996)


Daisy's personality was one of those that kind of...oozed onto your feet. In the form of drool. She was very normal. She was perfect with kids and other dogs and whatnot, and would kindly inform you with a growl and a glare of teeth if you'd gone too far. Which usually only involved yanking her tail. Indeed, she was a patient dog.

(~1997)








The move to New York generally did not affect her. She was not a fan of the snow, but was not opposed to the occasional romp.

(~2002)




The only scary incident we ever had with her was one summer morning. Outside on her leash, she lay sunbathing in the driveway. Oblivious to the car backing out of the garage, she lay in quiet until my dad heard her unmistakable yelp. Thanks to her being so fat, the car crushed the skin on the ground, and only suffered minor bleeding.

(~1999)


Time went on. She grew older. (~2003)



And older. (April 2004)



It was probably about this point she began to lose the spring in her step. It was no surprise, really. She was 13 years old. According to the generic conversion, she was 91 years old comparitively. We vaguely tried to limit her going up and down the stairs, fearing her joints would become too worn out. Her visits down to my room became a memory, and I grew very accustomed to clickity-clack of her sturdy nails on the floor above. I really enjoyed hearing that at night, the pattern of the click and the clack was soothing.

As time went on, she began to lose her desire to explore and wander. She began to lose her agility. I had taught her how to stand on her hind legs and catch the treats I threw her, but it was now more impressive for her just to catch the treats. She spent most of her time laying about the house, which was still a very soothing thing. Watching her lay there and wag her tail as you walked up was not much worse than her running around the house at full sprint. She got thinner.

When our family went our seperate ways this June, we left Daisy at home in the care of Sarah Barnard and the Johnson girls up the street. She was being cared for two or three times a day, we figured she would be okay. I was mildly worried about her when we left, fearing that she would not be okay. I came back after about a week of being gone to mow lawns and checked in on her, climbing through a window since I had no key. I was greeted by a dog wracked with loneliness. She had only eaten twice that week. She wagged her tail and barked and gave up as much emotion as she could. I took her for a walk (which she had just enough energy to do) letting her sniff wherever she wanted. This would be the last walk she would take.

I left back for the Carcich's, and we all returned home a few days later. Daisy was worse still. Dad attributed it to loneliness, which was not entirely unfounded, as she does not eat or obey well while we are gone. It was something more. When we went on the family reunion, we took her with us. We could not do that to her once more.

She had to be lifted in and out of the car, a strenuous job. She coughed a lot and was not breathing well. Because pets were not allowed at the condo, we had to take her to a local kennel. When we picked her up, she was worse still.



On arriving home, we took her to the vet. Daisy had respiratory cancer, which had been developing for many months now. Her lungs were bleeding. She would suffocate to death. An infection in her throat was causing pain in breathing and eating. If this was not enough, she had several tumors applying pressure to her lungs and inhibiting movement. Even still, she had fleas from Madeline's apartment. They gave us some antibiotics for the infection and flea medication, which would not save her. The goal was to make her as comfortable as possible. In the interests of her comfort, we would have her put down before she succombed to the disease. We were supposed to do that once we saw that she could no longer lay down to breathe. We brought her home expecting a few more weeks with her.

It was not to be. Mom and I spent 2 or 3 hours in the Den with her, while watching the Tour de France. Mom and I cried for 2 or 3 hours. This was Saturday night.

We all agreed she would not last the week. It was to be done today. I wanted to be with her when she died, so I left work 30 minutes early. Once we got home, we got her in the car, I grabbed a box of tissues, and a blanket. I cried the whole way there, along with the periodic rain. As we helped her with the walk from the car to the building (we parked in front of the vet's office), she made no noise. I think she knew what was happening. We got inside, and put her on the scale. She weighed 38.8 pounds. That's about 10 pounds lower than what she was in January. Keeping in mind that all Bassets are big boned and heavy, she was highly underweight. She should have been about 43 pounds.

She moped towards the room we were to see her to. This is the same room we've always treated her in. From the time we've moved to Ithaca, she's always been treated in this room. Maybe there are no other rooms for her to be in. But the fact remains. We signed the forms allowing her to be put to sleep, rejecting the ashes from her cremation. They took her in the back room to shave her legs. The last bark I heard from her was there. She could barely bark at all. It was unholy.

They brought her back in, and we stayed by her, petting her as they struggled to get the needle in. Meanwhile, she struggled harder and harder to keep herself propped up to breathe. She barely had the strength to do this, and continually slipped and slid back and forth, each effort weaker than the last. We pressed her head to the ground so the doctors could better inject her. She struggled, but slowly, began to slow down, her breathing slowed, her eyes stopped moving, her tongue stopped skipping in and out, and she lay still. The vet announced that she had passed, and my dad and I cried there, petting our goodbye to Daisy.

We walked out, and my Dad called two friends to say he couldn't watch the movie with them tonight. He wanted to spend time at home. We all sat down and watched Gattaca together, ignoring the empty space on the floor that Daisy used to occupy.



For Her, a Queen.

I have honestly not had time to post, and that is a promise. But this will be a good one, I assure you. It comes with many pictures.

So, the trip to Virginia.

We left on Wednesday as planned, with Daisy in tow. We took her to prevent her from being alone another week straight. She doesn't do well alone. Plus, if she really, really didn't get along with Jen, then it would be good to know. On the topic of Daisy, we took her to the vet today. She has, at best, another month. She has a respiratory cancer, half a dozen tumors, a lung infection, and fleas. You'll understand about the fleas in just a minute, though.

So, after an 8 hour drive, we get to Madeline's (that isn't spelled right) house. Only, it's not a house, it's a college student's house. That is to say, half a dozen college students live(d) there. The level of order and cleanliness was at a level I did not know existed in normal humans. As we walked in, we were promptly informed that the cat had fleas and that some measures had been taken to kill them. Queue Daisy's fleas.

We hung around there, Christopher and I spent most of our time driving around, he gave me a little driving lesson, and boredom was abound. We did not have much to do.

The anniversary party was on Saturday, which was completely uneventful. The food was really nasty, although the punch was quite good. I'll take that punch any day. The party was in a Presbyterian church. Therefore, rich. The youth room had 2 27" TVs, an air hockey table, a pool table, and 2 foosball tables. The cafe (a full cafe) had 3 27" TVs, and a piano. This, my friends, is what the churches of the South spend their money on. I am fairly sure that the money used on 5 27" TVs could almost feed an average man for a year. Anywho. The piano was manned by all 4 of my cousins and my aunt Lynn, who contributed their lovely cello, violin, dulcimer, and flute muzak. I spent most of the time drinking punch and playing pool, or nervously standing around looking at people I've never met, and still have not. The very nervewracking thing about family reunions is that you're looking at people you don't know, and if you glance at a girl and begin to think "Hmmm, she is mildly attractive." your blood curdles as you remind yourself as she is your (n)th cousin. This mind game wears down on you fast, and I retreated to playing pool and slurping punch for this reason as well.

Brooke is in the middle there, I have no clue who anyone else is.


There was cake. There's always cake.


Madeline is on the left, Eliza is on the right. I don't know why my dad found this moment special, but Eliza appears to be enjoying her camera.


They all look exactly the same. One of them is my grandma. Four of them are not.


The rest of the week was highly uneventful. We didn't do anything really. The most fun I had was playing putt-putt with Christopher and Dad, I spent most of my time at the condo watching the Discovery Channel, which was highly appealing to my tastes, but not exactly an exciting way to spend vacation. The phone in the condo was restricted from outside calls, and you had to pay a fee to unrestrict it. Apparantly the fee for talking was also quite high, so calls were out. That was my wonderfully spent 7 days.

The trip home was a very long 8 hours. Oy. Two dogs in the car made for a very hard time. As cute as Jen is, she is a puppy, and puppies are innately handfuls. I had practically no room, so sleep was not an option. Oh well.

These were taken at home, but hey, it works.






Tuesday night was also a rough night. I spent a lot of time setting things up for Jen and getting a strategy ready for how to train her. Along with the unpacking, I was also figuring out how to spend some time with the Ohio-ans (pronounced O-hwA-nzz). I also seccuesfully doles out 24 GB of Season 4 of 24 while I was gone, so I felt rather good about my contribution to the community. Season 4 has been good so far (I've watched 4 episodes), we'll see if it keeps things up.

On Wednesday, I had barely enough time to wake up and shower before Amanda, Daniel, Kylie, and Patrick showed up at my door to wisk me away to Benjamin's house, where Maria and Jessica did await. I daresay (i declare that to be one word) I have not had such a good time in many a month, I truly do love you Ohio-ans. We spent some time at Benjamin's house, playing cards, poking eachother, and just sitting around. We toddled off to Emma's house, and did more of the same; poking eachother, playing cards, and sitting around. We decided to camp out in the great wild that is Emma's property, so Emma's mom took us out with out stuff in the truck to their little camp site.

Things were grim at first. Very grim indeed. There were loads of bugs, the grass was long and pokey, so we couldn't sit in the tents, and we only had one match to make our camp fire. Things picked up once we got a lawn mower from the house and mowed everything down, and at the same time, Benjamin, Patrick and I got the fire going. The fire kept the bugs away, so tending the fire was a rather pleasant job. Somewhere in there Rachel and Robbie (they go to school with Emma) showed up, which added to the awesome. I don't remember what we did after that, because I spent the rest of the night talking with Amanda and Maria (and sort of Nolan, although he mostly provided comic relief for us), after which we played Mafia (i totally owned as both the narrator and the mafia). We sat around the fire for a few hours, and eventually wandered to bed. But not, of course, before doing the complete hokey-pokey. I can proudly say I put my butt in and shook it all about. Not many can do that. LEEROOOYY JENKINS!

We got to sleep about 4:00 AM, woke up about 7, and headed back to the house. After eating some delicious coffee cake, we marched off to the mall, which I did not choose to do. It was a little weird, as I was not there to buy anything, and everyone else was just kind of running off and...yeah, it was weird. I don't particularly enjoy traveling in groups of 8. We went to the theatre, only to find everything started at 6, except for Madagascar, so we went and watched that. I didn't think it was all that funny, but Jessica couldn't stop laughing, which made it marginally funnier. It had its moments.

After the movie, we went and ate at the CTB in Triphammer Mall, and said our goodbyes. We'll be seeing eachother again in two weeks (WoL), so it wasn't exactly emotional, but I can guarantee, whatever emotion that was lacking there will be made up for on the Saturday morning WoL ends. When I got home, I got a letter from Jonothan and Elizabeth, which was most excellent. Jonothan sounded pretty exhausted in general. It was good to hear from him, though. Showering was quite excellent, as I'd been wearing the same clothes for 2 days, after camping and stuff.

And here we are Today. I woke up at 11, (and at 8:30 too, Jen was yipping to go out) went to work from 12:30 to 4 PM. Work was basically what I expected. Minor work like testing equipment and calling stores about stock constituted my day. It's air conditioned, so it's not uncomfortable or anything. The people are nice. It's work.

I biked home (ugh, 2 miles uphill sapped all my energy), which took like 45 minutes. My dad got back from the vet with the news about Daisy, and also informed me that a baby bunny was outside. I took Jen out thinking she would just ignore it, but she kept jumping around it in circles, so I took her inside, got the camera, and came back outside. Jen managed to squeeze out the door as I went out, and continued jumping around the poor baby bunny, so I figured I'd get a picture of it. Jen then proceeded to bite the baby bunny, it squealed really loudly, and sprinted towards our grill, and stayed there for a good 4 hours. According to Benjamin, bunnies only squeal when they think they're going to die. Thus, I felt pretty bad about traumatizing this poor thing. The bunnies around our house are really tame - they'll stick around when we're outside. We don't give them anything, but they just kinda mope around. Bunnies are cool as long as I don't have to take care of them.

A classic battle.


The poor thing was hidden behind the grill after Jen bit it...


Kerry came over, and we walked with Zach downtown and got some subs. We went back to Zach's house and layed about as we tried out Battlefield 2. Looks pretty cool, but I don't have the money for it. Work only pays once a month, so I won't get any money until at least August. I got home, and here we are. I may have pictures of the Ohio-ans later, I don't have any since I didn't bring the camera.

You now have my post. I am allowed to pose one question to you.

I'm off to the gargantiomous family reunion tomorrow. The timing is unfortunate as the lawns will not be happy once I get back, and I'll also probably miss a letter or two. On the bright side, we're coming back with another dog, Season 4 of 24 will be done, and I'll get to see Christopher. So, we'll see.

[geek]

Those new maps came out for Halo 2 - I was quite disappointed. Gemini and Backwash are poorly designed, especially with the sword. It often turns into a game of "scramble for a nearby weapon in hopes that a combo-er or sword-er doesn't see you in time. Backwash is just hard to see in, so you're always surprised by the sword, and the one shotgun is impossible to find, since everything is leaned against trees, and there are trees everywhere. As such, I do not like those two levels. Relic, Terminal, and Elongation are good, especially Terminal.

[/geek]

Paul got me the absolute coolest song, ever. Amazingly enough, it's French, a techno of sorts, it has the style of techno, at least. If you've seen Ocean's 12, it's from the scene with the laser field where Tolour is jumping around. Ocean's 12, by the way, is possibly one of my favorite movies. Something about it, I can't put my finger on it, is really, really awesome. I don't know what it is, but I watched it 3 times yesterday, something about it really intruiges me.

I won't be back till Tuesday night, so until then, farewell.

Something I'd forgotten over the past few years is something about Ithaca that redeems most of the liberal extremists, leftist tree-huggers, and drugged up hippies.

During my daily checking of Slashdot, I came across an article about video game violence, written by a student who went to Columbine during the shootings, and was friends with the shooters and the shot. I'm always on the hunt for good backup for the day when I'll have to defend myself against someone who doesn't understand what I do for a hobby, so I checked it out, and also read the comments on the article on /..

The sole blessing of Ithaca is the fact that as a high school student, I can be who I am, and I am not going to suffer in any way for that. Seeing stories about ignorant parents who take away their child's computer permanently and news about geeks like myself having their only defense against the sucky world that is high school taken away, really strikes home. God has blessed me with parents that know and understand me enough to see that the tube I sit in front of all day is not a handicap or an escape. Knowing that other parents are foolish enough to give into the public hysteria that is the mainstream media pains me.

I am comforted to know I don't have to deal with real rednecks and jocks.

Not that I'm stereotyping or anything.

But it's not like they'll find out anyways, being rednecks and jocks.

That wasn't a stereotype either.

VBS was surprisingly fun. It got better as the week went on. I got kind of attached to a few of the kids, they were pretty cute. It was really, really obvious which kids had solid homes, though. It was fun sitting behind the wall after the puppet shows goofing around, too. And then there was Mr. Missirian's class...which was not so fun. I'm glad I did it though.

I'm officially signed up for Word of Life, which, was kind of late, but whatever works. I'm supposedly paying for 100 dollars of it, a big chunk out of my upgrades, because my parents don't have enough to pay for it themselves. Admittedly, they are paying for me, but....

Moving on, those new Halo 2 maps come out Tuesday, and I've been playing rather much recently. The new maps look fairly sweet, especially Terminal and Gemini, and Relic might be fun. We shall see.

EDIT: Ithaca, the only place where fireworks are secinctly followed by a chorus of "O, Canada!".

EDIT2: That's just funny.