I finished reading that damn Tom Clancy book last night. After fighting through 1067 odd pages and reaching the conclusion, I feel pretty cheated. I’m of a mind to write Mr. Clancy and tell him that if he wants me to work that hard to get through a book, he really needs to make the payoff worthwhile. As it is, I’m having a tough time justifying the $6.98 bargain table price on that one.

I was thinking a couple of days ago about friends moving in and out of your life… and no sooner did I say that, then all these people started sending me emails. My man Gerb, he and I are like best buds, I hadn’t heard from him for, like, ever. Got an email from him to say he’s moving into my neighborhood, which is cool because we can get together and hang out. Another friend of mine, Brent, fell off the face of the world about a year or so ago, leaving no contact information at all, and he just dropped me a line. Even Jenn is getting into the mix - she got in contact with her old roommate from a couple of years ago. Jenn hasn’t talked to her since they moved out, so that’s good.

The Fourth of July weekend approaches at an altogether too rapid pace. I’ve got two weeks of training coming up, and I’m not even close to finished with the stuff I need to get done here in the office. I suppose it’ll all be here when I get back.

Friday (the fourth) I’ll be setting up a professional fireworks shoot with my boss (a licensed pyro) and a couple of the guys from my department. That should be fun, and with any luck I’ll actually get to light one or two of them off between taking turns manning the fire extinguishers.

Beyond that, there’s nothing on the schedule, but there are still the standard household maintenance jobs to perform, so before I know it, the weekend’s going to be gone (again). Hopefully I’ll get in a little time to start the new Harry Potter book. I’ve had it sitting here for a while but needed to finish that Tom Clancy bomb before I started a new book. Now’s my chance.

I went to lunch with my friend Liz over at Red Robin and had a nice chat with her (it’d been a loooong time since I’d last seen her) over a Baja Chicken Burger (no tomato).

It was good to see Liz again and hear all the latest that had gone on with her. Plus, she keeps in contact with an old friend of mine, Kristin, who I haven’t seen or talked to in… I can’t even remember how long.

You ever have that feeling where you just miss your friends that you haven’t seen forever? Sometimes I miss Liz and Kristin. I used to see them both every day at work; now we all work in different places and I only see Liz every once in a great while, and Kristin I see never. I guess peoples’ lives and schedules change and you just can’t keep up with everything. It’s a shame.

I did get my movie back from the guy in my department who kept forgetting it. Maybe I was a little hard on him, but I think the general principle still stands. I talked to Liz about it and she seems to agree - Dogs and cats living together… Mass hysteria!

Oh, and I discovered another pet peeve I’ve got - people who shuffle their feet when they walk. Pick up your fucking feet, people!

I’m about 100 pages from the end of The Bear and The Dragon, and let me tell you Tom Clancy fans out there - this is not the book to recommend to a Clancy newbie. It’s been the hardest read I’ve had in a long time, and not because of anything to do with the language. I mean, I like how Clancy pays attention to the political side of battle in his books because it adds a verisimilitude that other war novels don’t have. That said, this one was almost entirely political and I spent more time wondering when the SEAL team was going to show up than I did enjoying the heavy politics and behind-the-scenes.

So, as some of you know, I have a pretty hefty CD and DVD collection at home. What can I say? I’m a media whore.

Anyway, I normally don’t loan these things out because I typically have bad luck getting people to return things, much less return them in the pristine condition that I keep them in. See, when I borrow stuff, I return it within a week because I figure if I’m going to borrow anything I should probably get around to looking at it in a timely fashion and return it in a timely fashion as well.

I went against my better judgment and brought a couple of movies in for some guys in my department to borrow. I figured I would get them all back in a week or thereabouts, pending on the schedules of the guys in question and when they would be able to check these things out. I was even out of town in training the following week (last week), so that’s a good two weeks to get things back to me.

I got all but one of my movies back in my allotted “patience period.”

I asked the guy who didn’t return my movie if I could get it back. “Oh, yeah, I’ll bring it tomorrow.”

Tomorrow came. Where’s my movie? “Oh, I, uh, forgot it at home.” Hmmm. Okay, I guess. Well, it’s Friday, so bring it Monday.

Monday arrived. Where’s my movie? “I was at a friend’s house all weekend.” And how, precisely, does that affect you returning my God damn movie?

And now it’s today. I’ve been told the movie was once again forgotten at home but this time he’s going home at lunch to get it. Here’s hoping.

Where am I going with this? Well, basically, my point is that I guess some people have a certain inherent level of responsibility and some folks don’t. Now, I’m not at all saying this guy is irresponsible, just that some people don’t “forget it at home.” He’s a younger guy, and what I begin to wonder is if all young people today are the same way, where certain levels of responsibility (or respect?) don’t exist (or don’t matter?), whereas my generation has a more inherent sense of such things. Then I wonder whether it isn’t the same way between my parents’ generation and mine - do they think we lack responsibility and/or discipline? Probably so.

And that sort of worries me, because if the trend continues then what I see on the horizon is anarchy rather than salvation. Maybe too much freedom and not enough discipline is not necessarily the best way to bring kids up. Or maybe I’m extrapolating too much from a single isolated case.

Finally, I got a message a bit ago from the guy in charge of YouBored.com, a site where I have entered contests before and won free movie passes. Remember my Malibu incident? Well, they’ve since updated the look, feel, and quality of their site and they seem interested in enhancing that quality further by recruiting yours truly to become a volunteer staff writer. I’m waiting to hear back on the details, but it could be a cool thing. I’ll keep you posted.

Something I forgot to mention in the last few entries was that I bought a couple of CDs to listen to on the trip to Bellevue and back. In searching for them, I looked for some decent upbeat dance-style music so I could stay awake and do a little toe-tapping.

What I found was t.A.T.u.

Now, I’ll admit, I’m never first on the bandwagon for things, though many times I’d like to be, so I’m sure some of you have already discovered this musical gem. For those not in the know, I’ll enlighten you. See, t.A.T.u. is either a miracle gift from God Himself or a total stroke of Pure Marketing Genius.

Imagine if you will… two hot… teenage… Russian… lesbians… who wear Catholic school girl outfits… and sing really killer dance songs.

That’s right, you heard me correctly. Hot teenage Russian lesbians in school girl outfits singing dance songs. That’s like something straight out of hentai. But it’s true, and I’m totally sucked in, probably exactly as the t.A.T.u. marketing team figured I would be.

The thing is, I’d be enraged at the whole manipulation of my inner male if I wasn’t so stoked about the music. I actually like every song on the album. It’s even better in the native Russian language - there are only two Russian versions on the album I have, but now I’m trying to find the full original Russian version of the album.

Anyway, if you’re into the dance thing, check out their album 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane. I’m groovin’ to it right now.

I’ve thus far only found one down side - they’re young, so they’re not performers. I was over at MTV.com searching for performances because I’d heard they were okay, but to me the show I saw was pretty robotic looking. I’m sure they’ll improve with time, which is just fine with me.

The trip home was probably the most stressful part of the entire venture into Bellevue. I left convienently at 4:45p from the class - just enough time to struggle onto the freeway (all of those Microsofties leave around then, combined with the construction that screwed me on the way up in the first place) and crawl the 20 miles to Tacoma.

Of course, I had to stop and pee on the way because it took me like an hour and a half to get that far and I had been drinking loads of Mountain Dew.

The way home, other than that, was pretty uneventful. I discovered only a few things of interest on the way.

First, my car goes 95mph just as easily as it goes 50mph.

Second, there is definitely a Hooters in Tacoma, and I definitely need to go.

Third, if you see a giant neon sign advertising a “BJ Tournament,” it’s not what you think it is. It’s probably attached to a casino and it probably involves cards.

Finally, along the Washington-Oregon border there is a magic curtain that everyone passes through and instantly forgets how to drive. I mean, it’s like a wall. People can be going 70mph on the road with no issues not five minutes before, but you hit the border and people just forget how to drive. They stop signalling, they slow down for no apparent reason, they go slow in the fast lane and fast in the slow lane… it’s ridiculous.

And now I’m home. Not much more I can say about that. It was nice to sleep in my own bed last night, but isn’t it always nicer to sleep in your own bed?