Talking with Chris Olivieri one day, we got into how cursive is useless and shouldn’t be taught any more.  If we wanted to teach children how to write differently, teach them a different language.  To take that a step further, you could teach everyone in the world the same extra language.  That might draw us all a little closer to a global communication standard.  Even if it’s a language like Latin, that so many other languages are based on, it will help people identify root words and origins to be more adept linguists.

I forget why it happened, but we were at Chris Olivieri’s place one night for a party and Kallie ended up needing to borrow a shirt, so Chris gave her an old Pirates tshirt.  Now, she’ll wear it sometimes.  To bed, or in the morning on the weekends.  All I can think about is that my wife is wearing another man’s tshirt.  I find this wrong (but keep a sense a humor).  Thoughts?

I had a pretty wicked dream last night about my step dad, Chris.  It was more like a short film itself.  It took place in this old time chinese town, with a royal family.  The first scene had this mother in a kimono at the door of a house on a rainy night, kissing her ~6 year old son good bye.  She was sad to see him go, but there was an urgency for his safety that he had to get away.  The boy is taken away by a guy in a long cape.  There was a guy with camera across the street that kept trying to take pictures of the boy, but was never able to get a shot of his face.  So there’s this theme of mystery around the son of the lady.

Next scene is years later, and a 20 something year old man, who is trying to find out if the lady is his mother.  They walk down a narrow path behind some houses with a waist high white wall to their left and these 1 story white houses/apartments with big windows to their right.  They’re walking and talking about their history, and she knows who he is, but she can’t admit who he is right away.  So, I’m like this bodyguard person walking with them, and every time we pass one of these large windows, I throw out my arms, grabbing my cape and blocking people from inside seeing the two together.  Then, one window has the same camera man behind it.  I bust through the window and try to chase him down, but I’m not successful.  He’s not able to get a shot of the man’s face though.  So I’ve done my job.

Then, we flash to modern day in my mom’s house.  I’m sleeping downstairs and I hear a noise upstairs.  I rush upstairs all ninja like, check the back bedrooms are clear, and when I come to the main door, it’s open.  Someone made their way into the house.  I’m yelling for Chris to let him know that the camera man is in the house.  I locked the door and start to make may way through the livingroom into the back bathroom.  Then I see the guy with the camera standing in the door way.  It’s friggin creepy to think about it right now.  So i lunge towards him, he goes into Chris’ room, where Chris and I try to corner him, but he slips back into the bathroom, still not being able to take a picture of Chris’ face.  When I go back into the bathroom area to find him, he had disappeared into piles of garbage bags of clothes that are all over the floor.  Our old dalmation, Dante, is there, and he sniffs him out and the dude jumps up out of the bags with his camera in hand and I throw out my arms with my cape and block a picture of Chris again. 

I woke up somewhere after that.  This dream is a little foggier than some of my dreams I write about, but the concept seemed pretty cool.  I could see a little short movie being made where the identity of the heir to the throne must be kept safe.

Really, I have to give it up to my body for the past month or so.  It’s been through a lot, especially in the past week!  I have poison all over my legs, probably have some sort of sinus infection following a cold a week ago, and I’ve added a weight routine inbetween days of my ~4 mile runs.  It’s been in a constant state of healing for a while now, and it’s doing a great job.  Even been getting more sun than normal from soccer and the runs.  Good job, body, keep up the good work.  There’s still a rough road ahead of us to get where we need to be for the urbanathlon, or california beach appearance…but each day gets us a little closer.

As for the rest of me, doing pretty well.  I missed a week of work from the tooth surgery, then a short holiday week from the 4th of july, then another week off for staycation.  I was going to go to yankanuck with Deirdre, mom & chris, and even mike, serah, and Josie, but I decided to sit it out and save money for when i will really need it.  All i would do at yankanuck would be play music and read.  I got a lot done though, and things actually worked out very well for me by staying back.  More on that in the future.

Got a lot coming up too.  Josh Hall Project plays at the Cornerstone Kickoff on august 24th, and unlike instruments where you just have to learn the song and you’re good, vocals need to be in shape to sing.  So that needs to start NOW.  Need to take a trip up to see grandma.  I’ve also decided to sell all 4 of my lollapalooza tickets, with a minor loss, so that I can fly to California for that week.  Details to come, but I’m excited for what might be a new chapter…or even expansion pack, to my life.  I try to keep my head on my shoulders and heart in place for the time being, but I’m praying for open eyes to see what God wants to reveal to me.

I guess it’s time for one of these.  I didn’t post anything in may, so let’s see…

New job…is rough at times.  No the work itself, but the people I work with.  There’s some serious tension in the group, and I don’t see it getting any better until *something* gives.  It’s a little ridiculous and unprofessional at times.  Not to mention I didn’t get the raise I was looking for.  It’s work though, and it’s a good place to be to make a move when I decide the time is right.

I’ve decided to make a summer goal of getting in shape for the urbanathlon in new york on september 27th.  andy vargo did it last year in chicago, and it really piqued my interest.  It’s a 7.2 mile race, but throughout the course, there are obstacles like jumping over taxi hoods, and median barriers, and park walls and such, and then at the end you have to run up 52 flights of stairs at world trade tower 7, so it works out to some 8.5 miles.  Pretty intense, right?  I think it will be awesome.  I’m not trying to compete, just finish it.  If I can get myself in shape for this thing, I’m really curious to see how I’ll look and feel.  I really will be in the best shape I’ve ever been in.

I’ve also picked up fencing lessons in the past few weeks.  Chris Olivieri asked me how much of a geek I was when he called me one day, and I said high to moderate levels of geekiness were seen, and then he asked me if i wanted to take fencing lessons.  I busted out laughing.  It’s actually pretty intense and fun.  I do feel like I’m learning a new skill, and I’m definitely getting a leg work out.  I could definitely see myself keeping a set of foils and masks in my closet for some outdoors fencing with friends.  I’ve done 2 out of 8 classes, so next time I should have a better idea of how good I am.

As far as music goes, nothing formal done with the penguins games going on.  I’ll pick up some open mic shows next week and keep those going and I’d like to just have some jam sessions with redfield and see where things go from there.  We were asked to play the cornerstone kick off on sunday august 24th, and that will be awesome if everyone works out.  It would be right in the bellefield parking lot, right across from the towers in oakland, and our music would permeate all the dorms and such.  I’m hoping everything goes well.

Nothing too much planned for the summer, have some vacation time, but I don’t think I’ll go anywhere.  It’s time to save money, and I traveled way too much last year.  Time to work on the homestead and read some books and such.

alright, i have a chance to fill you in on everything since the last update. It’s been a busy few weeks. so finals for classes sucked, but i got through them with an 88% and an 84%. kinda sucky about the 88%, because I thought for sure I was going to get an A in that class, but I slacked and i get what I deserve. The 88% is the class with the same professor that I had last semester, that cancelled class 3/8 times, and I skipped twice on my own. This semester, I thought it’d be a little more organized, but it ended up the same thing, I skipped twice and he cancelled three times. pretty ridiculous. but another 6 credits closer to the degree, and that’s all that matters. Now i have a writing class that meets on monday nights from 6-8 for 8 weeks. I –assumed–this week was spring break, just because pitt was on spring break, but just found out on friday that I was actually going to miss my first class since I was going to be in colorado…oops. I emailed the professor to let them know that i was going to be out of town as well of my recent job changes. I’m going to get hurt on the attendance/participation grade, but i should still be alright it seems. I don’t know what I am going to do for future classes with my new work schedule. which leads me to work… So i worked my first week in my new position and i really like it. It’s definitely a challenge, and something new. on my old shift, i was surfing, working on code, IM’ing Colin from the UK, and just random stuff, and still taking more calls than anyone else. Last week i didn’t touch anything but work related stuff, i was honestly busy all night, every night. Now a lot of that is just me being inefficient, taking time to get things right and learning new things, and even doing more than what i’m expected to for now to get a handle of what my job deals with, so it should clear up a bit. I’m definitely excited about it though. I fell terrible that I was only there for a week, then on a week vacation, but what was I supposed to do? The tickets were bought before anything of the job was known. So trip colorado. I barely got any sleep before my flight, i was up all night packing and finishing up school junk. I had figured I would have had time to do that friday afternoon, when I used to work that shift, but I was all screwed. Jordan (my flatmate) dropped me off the airport and i got on the tiniest plane. It sucked, I couldn’t stand up in it and my head almost hit the ceiling when i sat. When i got to Minneapolis, I was planning on just getting online for the 4 hours that I had before my next flight, but I saw signs for the mall of america, so i called deirdre up to see if she knew where it was. Turns out it is only a 10 minute lightrail ride from the airport, so i hopped on. Pretty huge place! 3 stories, a concert going on, roller coasters and other rides, and tons of people. I don’t have my camera with me at this second, or i’d be uploading some pictures. SO I met Chris and Curtis back at the airport and we flew into denver. kev and jordan met me, chris, and his brother, curtis, and we all went out to eat and then drove up to Steamboat Springs where jordan’s boss owns a place that he let us stay in. Sunday, Jordan, Chris, and Curtis hit the slopes, while kev and I went for a hike to Fish Creek Falls, which is apparently the same falls that appears on the Coors beer logo. It was a good time, and just hanging out with kevin is a great time. While we were hiking, kev’s brother drew called me, he had no idea i was out in colorado. I thought that was very funny. One thing i certainly noticed was how hard it was to breath with the altitude! I can’t be that out of shape! after kevin left, we just watched the oscars and went to bed. Monday, we woke up, rented me a snowboard, and hit the slopes after the $75 lift ticket. I’m not going to lie, I sucked pretty bad, MUCH worse than I thought. I think after a few times of getting my snowboarding legs back, i would have been better…but i didn’t get that chance. the second time down the slope, I apparently bit it pretty hard. I say "apparently", because, again, I had a concussion and don’t remember it at all. Curtis and Chris saw me bite it and Chris called for medics while Curtis pulled out his video camera. Good boy:) Chris had time to go down to the bottom of the hill, tell jordan what happened, get back on the lift, and come back down to me and i still hadn’t come out of it. We tried getting the video off Curtis’ camcorder, but fricking sony doesnt have the drivers for it available to download, and i can’t find them anywhere, so, we’ll have wait for him to get it on his own. It’s a pretty funny video of me being totally out of it. So they get me on the board, and i’m slowly coming back. they drag me on a snowmobile down to an ambulance, and by the time i’m on the ambulance, I’m pretty straight and remember everything, and feel fine. I’m thinking we’ll just go to the hospital, make sure all is well, then I’ll be on my way. The thing i regretted most about when i had a concussion at nemacolin was not going to the ambulance, just in case. So i get to the hospital, and they say they want to take a catscan. So i lean up, take off my shirts, and lay back down. And they say they want to adjust my bed up a little. So i lean up again, and all of a sudden POP goes my chest, i fall back, gasping for breath and in terrible pain. It’s almost impossible for me to breath. I’m taking very short breaths. So they want to take Xrays of my chest now to see if i broke some ribs or something. They get me into the x ray room, the nurse helps me stand next to this xray board on the wall, leaves the room, takes the picture, then comes back in and repositions me. She does this 2 more times, and on the 3rd, I start feeling light headed, start losing my sight, and i’m like, "umm, i can’t see, I can’t see anything." she runs back into the room screaming "you’re going to pass out!" and throws me back on the bed. heh. so then they take me in for the catscan and then back to the ER. after a while they come in and say no ribs are broke, but that popped that happened was the cartilage that holds the sternum and ribcage together. It apparently snapped or cracked. They said it’s as painful as breaking your ribs. I’m not really feeling pain, just can’t breath deep and it’s hard to find a comfortable spot. They ended up giving me some morphine even after i told them i didnt need anything for the pain. so after a while, they want to see if i can stand again. after some work, i get my body up so i’m sitting on the bed. I’m telling the nurse it’s really hard to breath and find a place where my chest/ribs feel comfortable. She asked if i was sure i didn’t want anything for the pain. I told her that i think they just gave me morphine. So she says she’s going to go check my chart and leaves me sitting on the bed. about a minute later…I start feeling dizzy, and my sight starts going. I’m like…."nurse? nurse…I can’t see again" some guy comes in and helps me lay down gently, and i feel terrible. very flushed and very light headed. So now the doc is worried it’s something with my organs, my liver mainly. Now, this scared me imparticularly, because about a month ago, i had 2 days where i had gray stool. Gross, I know, but i looked it up on the net and they said it could be your liver failing or something. So i’m officially freaking out like the paranoid person that I am. They take the catscan of my mid section and leave me to drive myself mad with worry for my life in the ER again. about an hour later, doc says all is well, and I try to get up again and i can. So the guys pick me up, and we go pick up my prescription for Lorcet (my cousin adam, the pharmacist, says this stuff is the good sheeeet) and then back to the rental shopt to drop off our crap. I’m in the truck with Jordan, and I feel something under my right arm under my shirt. I say to him, kind of still drugged up, "i think i have something in my arm." So i roll up my sleeve, and wham, the fricking IV hook up thing is still there. This inch long blue plastic cap connected to a tube that ultimately leads to my internal veins. OMG. WTF. TAKE ME BACK TO THE HOSPITAL! Good ol’ curt takes some more footage:) so they take it out at the hospital and i go on my merry way. When i woke up today, I felt like I was beaten by 100 african midgets. I couldn’t get out of the bed because anyway i tried to lift my chest hurt, and anything i tried to do with my legs, my right knee hurt extremely. It hurt a little yesterday, but not enough that I thought it would impede me like it did today. After a long time and struggle, i get my self out and take some mad pain killers. Apparently, this stuff is a narcotic….Did i ever tell you I wanted to be a junkie when i grew up? anyway, pain, pain, and some more pain, and we clean up and do some sight seeing at Garden of the gods and such as we head down to canon, where Jordan lives now. So, here I am, high on narcotics, really tired, wishing i could upload some pics and video. Tomorrow i think we’re going to do some more sight seeing on our way back up to denver to catch our flight at 6am thursday. I’m having a blast, and really enjoyed the natural hot springs we went to last night. Clothing optional. sweeet. So when i get back, I’ll post some pics, and then head back home to do some work at the park for the weekend and then back into the swing of work. joy. and on another topic…when i was up late one night last week, I got on ebay. Bad -financial- decision. I just found out today that I won a $450 bass. oh well. And i was the high bidder on an auction for a 2002 dodge ram, but i didn’t break the reserve. So, I’m not tied into buying it, but it’s mine if i want to contact the seller and work out something. Still undecided about that. it’s not 4×4, but it is 4 door. kelly blue book has the value anywhere from 11,500-13,500, and my bid was 11,800. We’ll see. I think that gets you pretty much up to speed. financially hurting, physically hurting, and hurting in a few other ways that i won’t get into. Nothing out of the norm. I’ll try to get the vids and pics up soon. btw, wrote a new song the weekend before valentine’s for my friend Kim. Josh Hall – Me to You. Enjoy!

WOw! first the cardigans, now P.U.S.A.! looks like they have been rocking out this year in California and now in Australia. awesome! I emailed Chris Ballew around February this year, telling him I loved hearing his songs on commercials and for that shortlived tv program on abc with andy ricter and the quintuplets. anyway, rock on Chris and company! The official Pusa website.

Nearing the end of august, and i’ve got a lot on my plate. Big surprise there. Majorly back-logged with code work needed in the dragon game. It certainly isn’t a burden though. I find the game extremely rewarding. Having som many interesting people, from all over the world playing, seeing how they all interact, being able to interact with them, as if in my own backyard, it’s just cool. I like being able to give people something they can enjoy. I’ve been playing around with advertising for the game a bit too. ran a week add on fazed.net and now I have been running google adwords for the past week. It’s pretty neat being able to see the statistics of clicks and impressions that are being returned to my site.

apart from the game, I have tons of stuff to sell on ebay and the like. I have to list my dad’s winnebago, his 12 passenger van, and i think we are going to try and sell the big tractor too. My mom has been trying to clean out her basement, and i have a whole bunch of her technical books to throw on half.com, since she is a teacher, these companies send her books to try to get her to use them for her classes, and she gets to keep them even if she doesn’t use them. some of these books have gone for $80 on half. I also have a few monitors and mac crap there that i should throw up on ebay for pick up only.

school also starts this sunday. I have 1 statistics class online until end of october, 1 communication class on tuesday nights starting end of october, and 1 computer class on monday nights running the whole semester. So once that all starts back up, I know i am going to be shoulder high in crap.

Keren and Deirdre came over the other day, apparently Chris is buying them a cheap car since Keren has decided to stay at home and go to Penn State Fayette instead of going down to Maryland for school. When i got back from work, we went and played some tennis. when we got back, they hadn’t seen the house that i’ve been looking at for the past…what…six months now? so we took a walk over there, and there was a piece of paper posted on the garage door. It was from the bank, and had all this legal mumbo jumbo crap like herein in, without, sherrif, notice, hereby, this day, blah blah blah, but it started with “on this 25th day of july” so it’s been there for almost a month, and my impression is that it is some kind of final notice to give them some money. I figure there is probably some set date from the posting of that notice where they start listing the house. I think it could quite easily be 1 month, which just so happens to be today. So i am keeping my eye on the website they are supposed to list the foreclosure on. My lease is up at the end of this month, and i havent done anything about it yet. They are increasing monthly rent too. Last year they did it too though, and I kept paying the lower rate, without signing a lease until sometime november. So i think i have a little bit of some play. It’s $100 extra to do a month to month lease, so i want to stay away from that.

on top of that, Fable, the video game, is coming out for PC september 20th. I’ve played it at Dan’s for xbox, and totally fell in love with it. I fear that it will consume any minute that i can give it, but I also think it will bring me great joy. I don’t consider myself a gamer in the least bit, but when i find a game that i like, i am die-hard about it. So i am looking forward to it, but also not looking forward to the possible damages it could do to my productive life.

as i write this, I am realizing that I really need to do another main site update too. maybe get some more themes in place, make it all a little smoother. that is going to take a lot of time too. Time that i just don’t have. What ever happenned to that 28 hour day movement?

Had a small dream last night where i was at my dad’s funeral, but it was in washington DC. Afterwards, my step-dad, Chris, and I walked out of the funeral home, and across the river you could see the lincoln memorial, but it had 7 circular rotundas in a semi-circle around it, each one about 25 feet in diameter. Chris said that he knew the name for the display, and they seemed very familiar, as if they were some monument from somewhere else, just relocated for a seasonal event. We just kept on walking down the street, and my cousin adam was riding a bike down the side walk, and he hit a spot of uneven pavement, and flipped over the handlebars and hit his head on the street. I went over to help him up. He was a little shaken, but fine otherwise. It was just me and him then, and we were going to continue walking down the street to meet up with my mom and sisters. We walk to this dead end street, and on the opposite side of the street, 2 teenagers got into a car, and broadsided an empty parked mini-van about 20 feet away from them and then drove off. We just looked at eachother like, “what the crap was that about” then, another 2 kids got into another car, and drove head to head into a bronco looking empty parked car. They backed up and did it again, and we assumed it was the car of the first 2 kids. then, this is where it gets graphic.
they had a deer (looking animal, it was larger like a camel) tied up next to their house, and a duck, that was actually more of a cartoon duck like daffy duck. the duck had arms and had a very animated face. anyway, they took a rope, tied it to the car they were in, threw it around a power line crossing the street, then took it back 40 some feet and attached it to the deer’s collar. then they tie another rope to the bumper, and the other end around the duck’s neck. the duck grabbed the rope with both hands, like begging for his life. Adam and i are just standing across the street on this porch of a house that we think everyone else should be at watching this go on in disgust. so the car starts to drive away, drags both animals for about 30 feet, the deer scraping his stomach on the street, and the duck tumbling around. Since the deer’s rope was tied around the power line, it started to get pulled up vertically, as if being hung. It got pulled up around 5 feet in the air, and from being drug on the street, a whole had torn through its skin on its stomach. intestines and stuff jsut startting falling out through this hole, and it was freaking out. so they cut it the rope above it, and it started to run back to where it was besides their house. At that point, adam and i just walked back the way we came, and a block or two down, we found everyone else.

just letting you all know i am still kicking.  working from 4am – noon is a little rough.  It’s london’s 9-5 though, so i just have to think of it as i am a european trapped in an american’s time zone.  i end up sleeping from about 1pm-6 or 7 each night.  so getting 5-6 hours of sleep is a huge change from what i am used to.  some nights i will sleep again from 1am-3am before going to work, but that doesnt always happen.  I think it makes me more tired anyway.  They are paying me well for my lack of sleep though.

emily is moving in this saturday.  hopefully all will go smoothly.  It looks like it is just going to be the 2 of us, for the time being anyway.

alot has happenned since last i updated, and a lot to come.  keren going to school, went to kennywood with the family, trying to install dan’s old cd player in my car, got a really nice table from chris’ mom, and just a bunch of other crap.  so much more crap to come too.