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I make some of my best decisions after a few drinks. You wouldn't have to look any further than my set of Ronco knives to know that. But I have another example now. A 37" flatscreen LCD! I had a little money to spend from xristmas and I was debating between a dining room table with all the necessary accoutrements or a TV and a Wii. At a post-new-years finish-the-keg party, RyanS■■■ and Daniel collectively convinced me that a TV was the way to go. So at 3 in the morning, we jetted off to Wal-Mart to get one. The first store didn't have the one we wanted so we went to another and stopped at Whataburger on the way. I haven't done that in forever. Their taquitos are as good as ever, so that made me glad. And we got the TV, bungee corded the trunk closed and brought it home and set it up at 4 in the morning. It's a Vizio and it has a really good picture, we just don't have any HD signals to feed to it. But Planet Earth look pretty spectacular.

Then we set off to find a Wii. Turns out, that's impossible. Well, impossible for someone with a life. I could spend my days calling stores, figuring out delivery schedules, and standing there waiting for a Wii to come in. Unfortunately, I am employed. So I call a few stores each weekend and they laugh at me. Just as well though, I accidentally overdrafted my account the other day. Not entirely because I'm broke but also because of an accounting error on my part. Nonetheless, it opened my eyes to the fact that I've been spending rampantly for months and have to stop. So I decided no Wii until I'm debt frii. Realistically with Febrehabruariv right around the corner, I can't imagine that won't be March. And we likely won't find one then either. But if anyone has a Wii they're willing to see at face value, let me know. I might take it off your hands in a little bit.

And finally, Febrehabruariv, the first leap year, I am looking so forward to it. Giving up food this year for the middle two weeks. The surrounding weeks, I'll be weaning off and then slowly acclimating back to food. C■■■■ said he was shipping me the book on how to properly do the Master Cleanse, so I'm looking forward to reading that. I'm going to follow it to the letter, no matter what. If I'm in the hospital for malnourishment, I'll be pushing the IVs away. I'll definitely keep everyone posted on that, because it could either be torture, or another inadvertent success. Either way I can't wait. Peace.

The Dow closed today at a record high. I know that because I am a stock holder. I earned $3 today. And I didn't do anything. I am only in for $200 at this point, but already I'm up to $206 total. I love this. I want to put more money into the stock market but I have priorities first. My year long struggle to save up six months worth of expenses was set back a tad by the Vegas trip in December I just paid for. But it's still within reach. I have a new plan to spend only $100 a week (excluding recurring bills) for the next two months. If I can do that, then I can truly reap the benefit of the extra paycheck in November and I could potentially stash like 5 grand. That's only if I stay absolutely disciplined, which has never happened before. But there's a first time for everything.

Daniel's Windows Vista laptop has chess as one of the games on it. I put it at the easiest level 1 beginner setting and it consistently has whooped my ass. Like not even close. I am dedicated though. I keep playing it over and over again and I will continue to do so until I can beat the beginner level. I'm starting to get a little bit better. Like I can tell how or why they destroyed me as opposed to when I first started and was basically playing checkers against a computer playing chess. I think a few months of practice and I could really get good. Of course if I had any idea what was going on, or a friend who knew (wink, wink) I could accelerate that learning curve a little bit. Let me know if you're a grand dragon, or whatever they call it when you're really good at chess.

I was really hoping for more comments on my finished bar, but finally decided I couldn't milk it any longer. It's been pretty fun having it. The beer fridge is installed, fit perfectly, and keeps my brewskis frigid. Of course now I think it's a hassle to get up and walk 3 steps to get another beer so I might have to rig up some sort of couch delivery system next. I'll keep you posted on that.

I wanted to make sure I informed everybody that I will be in Austin from March 20th to the 28th. I'm supposed to drive down tomorrow morning, but my plan was to drive down tonight instead. I could stay at Lesbie's tonight and then go to work really late in the morning (under the guise that I'd just driven into town). The weather is really suckin' ass, though, so I might actually wait until the morning.

I always make a little extra cash when I travel -- especially when I drive -- so I decided to go on a little shopping spree. I got some new jeans, a new shirt, and a new pair of these sweet pink and brown plaid pants. I just wish I had purchased a shirt I could wear with them as well. I'm not sure when I'll get to debut them, but I might take them to Austin with me since I'm sure I'll be hitting up the Barton Creek mall a few times. I'm also going to take my sewing machine with me and work on my shirt because I imagine I'll have some free time. Maybe I should make myself a shirt to match my pants. I just really want a hat like Santino. If anyone knows where I can get one, please let me know or buy it for me.

I also feel like I should apologize for never updating anymore. It's not that I don't love you, and I assure you, my webpage is not going the way of the burns.tks of the world. I've just had someone better to do lately, and it's hard to pull away to update the ol' webpage. I should be updating more over the next 10 days to keep you informed of the hilarity of my Austin Adventure. Until then, take care of yourselves ... and each other. Huzzah!

Join me, won't you, on the home stretch of the second annual self-imposed sabatical from all things sinful. Any by sinful, I mean enjoyable. There are so many stages of Febrehab that you go through during the 28 days of detoxification. First there's the optimism, then the irritability, the pain, the eye gouging, the night sweats ... and eventually, the hump, followed by the denouement. I am now on the last stage -- and RIGHT on time. Remorse. After all I've gone through, why, oh why, would I subject myself to it again. I could just continue this forever and be nonetheworse because of it.

But, FUCK THAT. I think on Wednesday, after work, I will wait until that guy pulls on the tail of that bird perched on the rock outside and makes it whistle. I'll slide down the tail of the Brontosaurus and into my car. At that point, I will flick a Bic and enjoy a Prince flown fresh from Sweden. (BTW, did you catch my Jetsons reference?)

Wednesday and Thursday will be punctuated with the grand, world-wide tradition Berliners refer to as "Feierabend." Ja, meine Freunde, I am talkin about the Happy Hour! Oh, I can't wait. I need to get the chops up, though, to prepare for our victory celebration that I've dubbed "Febrehabruarii -- 28 Days, Not To Be Confused With Its Sequel, 28 Days Later." F28DNTBCWIS28DL? Doubtful. Probable? Keg. Come. BYO, though, the kegs for me. Daniel can have some. And Brett Sabulous could have had some if were going to be in town. Party starts at 8 in Addison Circle. Bring a friend.

I didn't really save any money this year. Instead, I spent every dime that I normally spend on alcohol and cigarettes dining on only the most expensive of cuisines. You haven't lived until you've had 3 foot long crab legs, or 6 lobsters wood grilled on the table in front of you, or rows of raw oysters on a halfshell abed a mound of Sonic ice. I gave up red meat in addition to the other carnal pleasures, so rare steak was off the menu. I didn't really lose any weight either, but damned if it wasn't worth it.

This was the best fucking Febrehabruarii of my life. I'll miss it when it's gone and look forward to next year (preview: Febrehabruariii). Thanks to all of you for your continued attempts to entice me to fail at my goal, and thanks to me for ensuring none of you succeed. Onward, and upward. To the bars!

Why haven't I ever discussed this here? I try to tell everyone I know about it but have never used my most public of forums to espouse its virtues. I am talking about my ING Direct account. It's the best decision I ever made.

I could give you all of the technicalities of it, but instead I'll just link to it here. If you were thinking that you should be saving money -- any money at all -- this is the way to do it. You link it directly to your checking account and then set up automatic payments on the day you get paid. It's the concept of "pay yourself first." You can start out putting in 1 fucking dollar a month and then when you realize you can put more, bump it up to 5. Think about how much you waste on fast food and booze and CDs and gas only because it's sitting in your account. If you pay yourself first, you don't have that problem. And if you accidentally save too much, you can always transfer it back into your checking temporarily to float you to the next paycheck. I don't like to toot my own horn, but I have literally hundreds of dollars stashed away for a rainy day.

Now, I do care about my friends making responsible fiscal decisions. And that is honestly the catalyst for this post. But the other thing I care about ... is you getting free money! That's right. When you sign up and confirm your checking account, you get 25 bucks. For nothing. If all you wanted to do was sign up, wait until your 25 bucks was available for withdrawal, withdraw it and run, you could. You don't need to have extra money laying around to start saving. You get 25 bucks and then add to it when you can. Aaaand if you DO have savings, it makes sense to transfer it to ING because you get a 3.4 annual percent yield (WAY WAY higher than any bank). And that's just the current rate, it's gone up like 5 times since I signed up and trends indicate it will only keep on rising. I'm earning about 10 bucks a month in interest right now. Not a lot, but way more than a bank, and that shit adds up. Awesome.

I also get 10 bucks for referring you. I tell you that only so you'll understand better my motivating the masses, but believe me when I say that I don't need 10 bucks that bad. But in order for me to get my 10 and you to get your 25, I have to refer you through the website. So if you think this might be something you'd be interested in, send me an email at SideshoViD@sideshovid.com or leave me a comment with your first and last name (if I don't know them for sure) and your email address and I will have ING send you all the information you need to get started.

That's the end of my PSA. I do hope some of you take advantage of this great opportunity.

I hope everyone has big plans today for getting sunburnt, eating watermelon, and watching fireworks. Me? I'm sitting in my very air conditioned apartment watching a show about redneks in Oklahoma noodling for fish. This is where they catch gigantic catfish using their hands as bait. It has really made me think about Europe a lot and how I wish I was there. I went to my Swedish chat site thing and started saving off pictures of guys with wicked awesome hair just in case my membership has an expiration date and I can't do this at a later date.

Lately it seems like everything that I'm about is for something in the future. I'm working on this future hair. I can't wait to get my future furniture in my future apartment. In reality, none of it will ever, ever happen given my current spending habits. I am down to like no money whatsoever and since I just paid my rent late (on account of this being a Sunday and tomorrow being a holiday ... FUCK!) I'm going to owe like an additional 100 bucks that I don't have. Frustration.

I spent all day yesterday painting Ryan S■■■'s apartment. We didn't get done but we did do a LOT. It looks totally awesome ... or rather it will, soon. I'll snap a pic of it sometime for all of you to see. Speaking of pictures, I got my Europe pictures back forever ago I just haven't had the patience to post them yet. I'll do that within the next year. Later skaters.

P.S. You all know my birthday is on Wednesday, the 6th, right? K

And now we run into the age-old blogging problem of having nothing to say. I don't often fall victim to the inspiration hiatus that kills so many virgin blogs (and burns.tk) but lately I have. Not that the actual excitement level of my life has changed per se, i'm just not expending as much energy trying to jazz it up. I kept waiting for something obviously bloggable to happen, but when that never came to be, I decided to give you one of these apologetic posts.

I have a new friend. He hates me. He's a long time Sidesho-viewer whose distaste for the Sidesho began with an innocuous LJ comment where I determined his use of the word "ironic" needed a little dictionary.com help. It was innocent enough, I thought. Anyway, long story short, he IMed me to tell me that he hated me, I naturally invited him out for a beer, and now we're friends. Yay!

It's pretty much a sure thing now that I won't be going to Australia in July. My debt, coupled with the higher-than-anticipated costs of airfare, have motivated me to follow Delilah's advice and postpone the trek until February. Plus, February is Gay Pride Month on that kooky island. That's something you don't want to go through life without experiencing. I am still sorely disappointed that I'm not going, though, y'know? Say lah vee.

Perhaps this next week will be a non-stop roller coaster ride of thrills, chills and nunchuck skillz. Peace out, skillets.

I went to my first happy hour in a while yesterday at the Flying Saucer with Max and Karen, old engineering technologies buddies. We had a fantastic time, a few beers, some delicious bratwurst with saurkraut and mustard. I came home fairly early, sat on the computer, and then went to bed in accordance with the sleep rules.

As it turns out, what I had done there was concoct the perfect recipe for heartburn. I've never had heartburn before, but from what I experienced and what I read, that's what it had to be. I was up literally all night trying to swallow down that acid in the back of my throat. By morning, I was fighting back the urge to vomit. I knew I had to go to work to at least give someone the work computer I've been using. So I went there first, and that's when time ran out. I threw up in the work bathroom and then came home. I absolutely feel like shit and I don't know what to do about it. Now that the burning sensation is gone, I'm left with a terribly sore throat and an excess of mucus. I'm not sure what to do.

Tell you one thing, though. My finances are in a dire situation. I think from this point forward, I am going to go back into the Febrehabruary mode. Not so strict, but I'm definitely curbing my spending a lot from now on. I need, need, need to pay off my significant credit card debt from Europe before I go to Australia on June 30. It's not like people are knocking down my door to hang out with me anyway, but I just thought I'd let you all know that my life from now until Australia will be a game of saving money, eating chicken breasts, working out and sleeping.

Is anybody going to see Star Wars tonight? Let me know how it is.

I am so sick of painting. I feel like I've been painting for weeks. That might be because I've been painting for weeks. I'm not into that "buckle down and get things done" kind of manual labor, so I've been doing a little here, a little there. I have one more coat on one more wall of my living room and I am done, done, done with the kitchen and the living room. Then it's on to the bedroom. I bought a pretty dark color for the dungeon of a bedroom I have planned -- a veritable shrine to hangovers. Ironically, I'll be spending my sober month to accomplish this... or is that appropriate?

As soon as I finish up, you will all be the first to see pictures. I'm not sure how comfortable I am having complete strangers knowing what the inside of my apartment looks like, but whatever. It's not like I have anything worth stealing. If I got robbed, it would really just save me the trouble of moving my old stuff out. (I keep the extra key under the welcome mat.)

(I don't even have a welcome mat.)

I put too much money into savings this month. I did it on purpose, to make sure I'd run out of money before I could spend it all. But now, I'm sitting home with no money and it kind of sucks. I need to stay home and paint anyway, and I've got 14 beers in the fridge screaming out for me. Perhaps I will combine these two activities.

I called Owen today because I haven't talked to him since he graduated. I asked him what he was doing and he replied, "Sleeping." I was really asking him what he was doing in life, but I had a feeling the answer to that would be the same, so I let it slide.

I am truly torn here, dear viewers. I sure do hate working, but damn it's nice having money. I guess that's how they trap you, like the buzz you get off of your first cigarette. Once you get used to having that money then you want more, and you have to work more to get it, and next thing you know you have a mortgage, thousand dollar car payment, angina and you're buying smokes by the carton.

I bought a carton of cigarettes the other day. In the five years that I've been smoking, I have rarely ever splurged on a carton of cigarettes. Not so much because I'm cheap (obviously) but because I hate committing to smoking all 10 packs, since I am always on the quest to quit. Well, not any more. I realized I'm wasting like a dollar on every pack I don't buy in a carton and that is stupid. Since I am so incredibly thrifty, right? I just dropped $100 on DVDs at Best Buy. I got some classics that were never in my collection just because everyone else has them. I just finished up Office Space and I may pop in Super Troopers until I fall asleep.

At least tomorrow is a Friday. Not that I have anything to look forward to, it's just inherently relaxing to know that you don't have to wake your ass up at 6am every day this week. I may get drunk, but I have no plans. I think Ben and I will go out and have drinks again since we had such a nice time at the Flying Saucer's Trivia Night the other night. And then Friday Brent is having a party that I was on the e-vite revised list for. That should be fun.

In our next episode, ViD will tell you all about his new notepad. Same Sidesho-Time. Same Sidesho-Channel. (Oooh, my first teaser ... melikes.) Czech you skillets latah.

I've been having a lot of fun lately. I like having fun. But if I don't stop, there are going to be dire consequences ... dire like I haven't seen since my freshman year. It seems like a lot of the blogs around me have been delineating their goals for the rest of the year, and I realized it was time for me to do the same. If I don't figure out what I want to do with my life, how will I ever know when I fail?

So here goes my list of goals for the remainder of 2003:

• Get whiter teeth
• Tan the hide
• Lose 10lbs of fat
• Gain 15lbs of muscle
• Touch nose to knee
• Do the Scorpion
• Stop spending money
• Stop drinking
• Stop smoking
• Clean car
• Clean house
• Finish schoolwork
• Have a wonderful Thanksgiving

Well I got a little carried away. I didn't realize there were so many unsatisfactory points of my life until I sat down to make a list. I guess I'll go wash some dishes .....

Day 1. Operation "Get Your Shit Together." The premise behind the new operation is the fact that my life is in disarray. The catalyst, of course being the fact that I have no money.

So it's time to stop fucking around and get my life back together. Day 1 was pretty successful. I didn't spend a single penny all day long except for some quarters for laundry. I know this will come as a huge surprise but my room is an absolute disaster. You can't even walk in it. So first I washed all of my clothes. And when I say all of my clothes I mean all of my clothes.

The next phase was to try to eliminate the cockaroach problem by cleaning the sink full of dirrty dishes. I fit all I could into the dishwasher and finished off the rest by hand. It smells much better in here. Maybe also because I took the trash out too, finally.

Okay, so those uninterrupted hours of brainless television watching ... well, they're not going away, but the are now going to be associated with something productive. I can vacuum while I watch TV. Or put away dirty clothes. I don't have to alter my entire life, just those hours during the day where I'm completely unproductive. I really think this could work. Wish me luck, you dirrty, dirrty sluts.

So remember how I told you all that I had overdrawn my account $750? My dad wasn't very happy about that. He called me on Friday night but I declined the phone call in favor of having a good time one last night. But I talked to him on Saturday. It was the usual speech about how I don't have unlimited resources and credit cards were not free money, yadda yadda yadda. I think he was more upset about the fact that I wasn't upset than he was about the money. But in reality, I realize the errors of my way.

Anyway, being the loving father that he is, he decided he would temporarily help me out with my financial woes under one condition: I am not allowed to spend another dime.

For those of you that know me, hang out with me, eat with me, shop with me, or are present while I surf the web, you will know that poverty is not the life for me. I spend money constantly. If it's not a new 60 dollar shirt, it's a Time Life DVD collection. If it's not a clever trinket from eBay, it's a decadent midafternoon meal. If it's not a 70 dollar bar tab, it's another freaking pair of shoes.

No more. From now on I am living the life of a poor college student. I've vowed to not spend so much as an extra penny beyond what is absolutely necessary to live. So far today I haven't spent any money. And it's not been easy. I drove to campus to eat lunch, and then took my leftovers home in a box to eat for dinner. I also took my ATM card, check card, and credit card out of my wallet, so I can only use them when I really seriously need it. I have 3 dollars in cash and a semi-full change bucket to see me through. On the plus side, though, this means I'm automatically on a diet, can't smoke, and can't drink. Maybe poverty is the key to healthy living.

Oh and about the chastity thing... I just figure nobody wants to fuck a poor guy.

I got my happy ass up this morning at 7am, got ready, and went to school. I haven't been to my 8 o'clock in so long, so I was overjoyed to find that I had arrived on the very day that we were having our first quiz. Hurrah! Not so fast, my overzealous readers... As it turns out, I didn't have the first clue how to answer either of the 5 point questions. Nonplussed as ever about this situation that I've found myself in many times before, I busted out the crossword and proceeded to work on that instead. While I may have gotten a zero on the quiz, I am happy to say that I finished the entire crossword during the time allotted. I almost turned it in to see if I could get any credit for my shrewd lexi-skills, but in the end, just opted for running out the back door and catching the bus home.

I'm still at work despite it being past 5, but don't cry for me. Not only did I show up late, but I fell asleep in my recliner over my lunch break and extended it an extra hour. Whoopsadaisy. I don't think anyone noticed though. I got a new space to work in that is quiet, secluded, and right next to the coffee pot. Things are on the up and up, although I'll only have this area for another week. My boss wants to set up a temporary lab. We're fast approaching our deadlines and I have to quickly become productive, while managing to also attend school and keep up with that. My life is so hard [note sarcasm].

In other news, I paid off my credit card in full this month. That's always exciting because it never ever happens. Fret not though, loyal viewers, I still have that outstanding balance at Best Buy for all the cool shit I bought this summer.

I have got to get back to the gym. Yoga is not exactly shedding pounds of beer gut.

The first homegame of the Aggie season is under our belts. Coach Fran is off to a good start. I was really excited about winning. But I was also excited about pulling 'courtesy tickets' and getting to sit down through the entire game. Standing sucks ... like, just in general. I can't wait til I get a Rascal to ride around on all day.

I have called in twice now about my internet not working and though they swear they're going to fix it, they have yet to do so. I really want to get my webcam back up cause that picture has been up there for like 2 fucking weeks now. I'm sitting up at work again just to check my emails, IMs and update the old webpage.

Tomorrow class begins. I only have one class on Mondays but its at 8am. I thought it was my senior project management class, that I could not in a million years skip, and I wasn't too psyched about that. But it turns out, that its my network class with the prof that likes me. So while I don't plan on skipping, if I ever needed to ... say on a Friday morning ... I could. So I have to get up to go to class for 50 minutes, then I guess I'll work for the rest of the day. I mean I don't have shit else to do. My Tuesdays and Thursdays are little more spread out, and little more full. But as a whole, it doesn't look like I'll be too terribly busy this semester. Unless you count considering graduate programs and looking for a full time position after May. I'm not excited about working in the real world, but I think I could be stoked about getting lots of money.

Not that I like money. I hate it. That's why I'm always getting rid of it in droves.

Welcome to the last Friday of the summer, dear viewers. Another chapter of our unacademic career has come to a close. I would muse upon the experiences gained this summer, but in reality, that wouldn't take very long. I didn't do a fucking thing this summer. I went to work (fairly regularly) and drank at bars. I didn't take any vacations. I didn't go anywhere fun.

I don't mean to sound like a negative nancy though ... I count this among the best summers of my life. While in retrospect I usually regret it, I am a total home body, and I like staying home and doing nothing. Plus, I spent a LOT of money this summer, even by my standards. After all the extravagant meals, tabs at bars, a new laptop with all the fixin's, a new digital camera, a new cell phone ... christ, despite my healthy salary, I'm going into this next semester several G's in debt. How much does that fucking rawk?

I also should take into account all the friends I met this summer. I don't know what it is about summers in College Station, but people are just nicer. I wasn't even taking summer school this year and I made tons of friends (by my standards, tons is around 5 or 6). And most of them I'll probably stay in contact with throughout the school year. I have an idea, why don't each of you leave me a musings about your summer in a comment.

I decided that I wanted my blog to take on a more Jerry Seinfeld-esque observational approach to the entries. As you all may have noticed, I've become increasingly tired of narrating the goings-on of my life. I mean, if the only things you ever did were eat, sleep and drink, you'd run out of interesting ways to phrase it as well. I'm always inspired by people like Maddox or Alfie, both of whom have web pages better than mine. I've had lots of great ideas, sudden inspiration laying in bed or throughout the day, for really great blogs. Problem is, I forget them all before I sit down. Maybe once school starts and I constantly have a notebook in my possession, I'll start being able to remember things.

Anyway, I'm gonna go pretend to work now. I'm comin in on Saturday to help re-mill a board, so I don't feel like I even need to be here today. Holy shit ... fuck that, I'm leaving. I'm going home. Whoo hoo. I am so nice to myself. I love you all, laaaaaaaaaaaaate.

Man, a lot has happened since I visited you last. I apologize for the hiatus, but I've been keeping pretty busy at work. Yes, I have a job. I'm doing some work for this company called NASA. They're like an aerospace company based out of Houston or something. The important thing is that they're giving me money! And its to do what I love doing best ... reading technical documentation and designing real time control systems. Yay! So that takes up my 8 to 5's. I'm about to start bucklin down and really churning out some results.

I had also planned this summer to work out every day. But as it turns out, the fucking rec center closes at 8pm every day, a time that is not convenient for yours truly. I already paid for the summer though, so whenever I get a free chance during their regular business hours, I'm going to sneak over there and argue with them and try to get my money back and take my business over to Gold's so I can actually get started on this workout routine. I did get my haircut though, that was another part of my plan, so check out the new webcam shot and compliment me.

I did manage to have some fun last week in between working. Like on Wednesday, Brandon called me in the morning to tell me that all of his hours got cut from work so he had the day off. Just then, my boss told me he was heading to Dallas for the day ... coincidence? I think not. So I hopped in the car and drove to Austin. Brandon's family just got a new house thats right on some river that feeds off of (or into?) Lake Travis. So it was like a 5 minute drive over to the Lake where we spend the day swimming and laying out in the sun in this field. I really felt like I was in a Country Time Lemonade commercial. It was much more fun than working, I'll tell you that much. I ended up leaving the next day cause I was too tired and lazy to drive home in the dark. Fantastic time.

I also managed to sneak over to Northgate a couple of times. It's been rather mundane what with everyone being out of town, but its still fun to sit and drink and chit chat with friends and strangers. In fact, I might try to find someone to go out with me tonight. I'm in the mood for a good hangover.

But, my friends, most importantly, lets talk about a little flick we call The Matrix: Reloaded. I'm not evil enough to divulge any of the plot on this website, but I am able to tell you that if I were to choose two words to describe it, they would be infuckingcredible and unfuckingbelievable. This movie is so damn good, just like I always knew it would be. I saw it last night for the first time with Ryan. And then today me and Owen were looking for an apartment. First we got hungry, so we ate, and then I started talking about the movie so we went to go see it. So we didn't find a place to live, but we did get to see the Matrix, so that makes it all worth while. I might go see it again tonight if no one will go out drinking with me. Oh my god its so fucking good. Go see it now so we can talk about it. And if you've seen it, IM me and we'll discuss. Okay, hope everyone's having a great summer, don't forget to check in with me from time to time. Laaaaaaaaaaaate.

I don't give a shit. You can call it "towing" all you want. It doesn't change the fact that I just got my car stolen. It doesn't belong to these fucks but they go ahead and load it up on the back of their truck and steal it. And then to add gravy, they hold it ransom and tell me I can't have it back until I give them $86.25, and if I leave it there until tomorrow, oh! its gonna be $104.50!

So here's the story. I have to warn you though, its a really short story since I was only parked in non-visitor for 45 MINUTES. My friend Arash called me to come watch a movie over at Justin's house. I had just gotten back from swimming at the rec so I was like "aight." So I go over to the University Commons and Arash tells me to just go ahead and park right next to him, which I do. We didn't even end up watching a movie cause it was kinda late so we watched TV for a little while, ate some ice cream, and then me and Arash excused ourselves. We get out to the parking lot and he's like, "I thought you parked next to me," and I'm like, "You gotta be fucking kidding me."

So we call the number and the guy has my car, and we have to drive like halfway to fucking Huntsville to find this Body Shop place. And then the guy tells me that its gonna be $86.25 in cash in exact change in order to get my car back. There's no ATMs within a radius of this place out in the middle of nowhere so we drive back to Harvey & Hwy 6. I get 80 bucks out of the ATM and Arash loans me $6.25 and we drive all the way back to the Body Shop. I suppose the guy was nice enough about it, and I thought I was rather level headed about the whole proposition considering I'd just gotten my car stolen. I paid him, he gave me my car, and I drove home. Its now 1:30am. The only plus is that my first class tomorrow isn't until 12:40 so the extra hour and a half tacked onto my night won't be that big of a deal. That is such freaking bullshit.

Apparently they're always lenient about visitor parking at University Commons. I mean, hell, Arash was parked right next to me and he didn't get towed. But the guy said a lot of residents on this particular night had been complaining about not being able to park. So he went out and started pullin' cars. It was especially neat how the first 10 spots on the row were visitor, then there were like 6 non-visitor, and then the rest of them were, again, visitor. So its like they're trying to bait people into getting their cars stolen. The whole thing is just a load of horse shit.

Naturally, I have to thank Arash for both the $6.25 and for the ride out to BFE. He was complaining about not being mentioned on my webpage, but I assured him, this would cement him a place in Sideshovid.com history. Needless to say, IF I ever go back to University Commons, I'll be extra careful about where I park. Now all I have to do is call my Dad and tell him about this, which will be fun since he's just informed me that I now owe him hundreds of dollars I don't have. Ugh. Money sucks. Please send your donations c/o SideshoViD. Thanks and GIG THIS!