I'm going back! On the first day of August. Today my mother and I pooled our penny banks to produce a collective $1000 USD. China Airlines seemed offer the best "deal" so I snatched it up. Hopefully this will put me back in BKK in time for รับน้อง activities.

Its been busy. The last couple days I woke up at 6am and walked to work at one restaurant by the water. That shift lasts until 2pm. Then I take a nap before my 4:30-2am shift at a different restaurant. It's worth it I think. I now have a ticket home and am working towards a working computer.

Last weekend Elye came back. Seeing a good friend helped bring my sanity back a bit. We went on a camping trip to the natural hot springs up in the mountains. Spent the weekend soaking in hot baths and next to campfires. It was a great trip. Two weekends ago my sister Renee and I went sailing and then camped on Whidbey Island. We slept in the car together which wasn't as comfortable as the trip Elye and I did. Both were fun though.

In the last two weeks I've sat down hoping to write some of my experiences down but failed to do so each time I sat down in front of the computer. Sitting down just felt so good it. I would just sit and eventually forget why I sat down in the first place.

I've applied for a credit card to buy a MacBook. Thank you to the person who insisted computer problems are universal. I appreciate the tip but I think my decisiveness is driven by my mistrust for PC's. Just had too many problems. I'll give Mac problems a try for a while. Free printer and iPod sounds appealing too. For now it's: work work work.

Dead.

My computer has died again. My computer and I have always had a relationship that has seemed like playing a video game.

My machine and I have fun chatting, surfing the web, listening to music, editing pictures, and even writing the occasional term paper. This fun starts to decrease in increments, or "level stages", of playing difficulty. Some days I have to loose my place in the game, needing to restart after a BSOD crash. As time goes on the level of difficulty builds, making playing the game even harder. Windows freezes, corrupt files, blue screens and crashes coming more frequently. In the last 4 months my computer has failed and refused to start again, no less than 5 times. Using system disks and driver files, I have been blessed with 5 extra lives; the computer game terminology for gifts of brief immortality and a chance to continue working towards the next level of difficulty in the game.

Why play? This is the question I'm asking myself now. My lives, or chances to start again on the previous level are all gone on this machine. I will now need to format Windows, erasing all of my music, pictures, work, and programs for the third time in the last three months. Why? Because I would like to repeat this whole process again, wanting to play the game longer. The idea of finding a new level of difficulty, with secret dungeons of problems I never new existed. Wait a second... Now I am just starting to understand why Mac users always extend their tongues at PC users clinging to their comfortable machines in hopes that things will get better in time.

I'm fed up. At the moment I am writing in the dark from the PC in my grandparent's basement. My ACER Notebook is now a Windows-based paperweight just awaiting another cycle of erasing and re-installing programs. I'm not doing this anymore. I plan on working for 6-7 weeks and buying a Mac and selling my old computer. This page sold me. It is going to take a lot of work for somebody to convince me that spending time and money fixing my PC and keeping it up to date is better than buying a used Mac Notebook off of eBay.

Ahhhhh. Maybe a couple of days will cool me down a bit. I'm just so annoyed by computer problems at the moment. Mostly angry at myself for playing this game. Oh well.

Tomorrow morning Grandpa and Grandma are going on a business trip to Colorado. I'll probably do the same thing I did today: get up for breakfast then go back to sleep, wake up around 2pm. If it's warm I'll walk over to the soccer field, if not... well, I'll stay in bed.

Yesterday I got a call from a restaurant asking me to fill in for their no-show dishwasher/bus boy/prep cook. I jumped out of bed and raced over to the restaurant in 20 minutes and worked for the day! Nice eh? Combined with another 4hr. shift I had I now have 11.30 hrs. at this barbecue joint. Thursday I applied at T's for a bus position and am really hoping I get the job. It would mean steady hours during the busy season of June and July, the owners seem very professional and nice, and the tips would be $40+ each night I think. Fingers crossed.

Using lots of hyperlinks tonight aren't I?

If I get over my pissed-off at my computer mood, I will try to write more from the basement soon. Goodnight.

I am now one full week into the month of June and am still unemployed. There are two restaurants that took interest in my application: a barbecue restaurant on the other side of town and a Thai carry-out place on the same end of town. Neither has expressed any desire to hire me quickly but both seems interested at least. I'm enjoying some time to relax after finishing finals and flying here. Having fun. But I really need a job... and soon.

The last two days have been depressingly gray and rainy. A couple nights ago we actually had a lightning storm (odd for this area). I sure hope the weather goes back to sunny with a light breeze, and soon. I can't take much of this dark sky stuff.

I've been looking for things to keep my mind busy during the last couple weeks. I have been running around with Renee, practicing guitar, reading a bit, and watching movies. What movies? I knew you'd ask. Blazing Saddles, A Scanner Darkly, An Inconvenient Truth, and the fourth season of Scrubs. Next weekend my grandparents are going on a business trip for more than a week which means I will be bored and l o n e l y . Hopefully I'll have a job before this weekend. If not... House Party!! Nah. Just kidding G'pa and G'ma. I'm not sure who I would invite anyways all of my friends are still away at different colleges and don't seem too keen on returning home. Why? Because the weather is bad and jobs are hard to find.

Wish me luck!