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Snooze-day

22 Jun

Today was a day of sleep. I woke up later then usual at around 10 AM, rolled out of bed, and devoured two toaster strudels.* I watched some TV for awhile, then went back to bed and lazily floated between being awake and asleep until noon. I then attempted to do some chores before I had to get ready for work. On my way to work, I missed the turn to the usual road I take to get to work and I had to quickly re-route my way to work in my head to avoid construction detours. It was an interesting mix up in my usual routine, and I actually made it to work a few minutes early.

Work was actually enjoyable today. I had a five-hour shift from 2-7 PM, which meant that I did not have to close. I hate closing, so knowing that I didn’t have to stay that extra hour or more pretty much made my day. Also, the district manager is examining our store tomorrow, so the closing-shift workers probably ended up staying late, frantically trying to bring the store up to the minimum standards. Once again, I’m thankful that I did not have to close today. :)

On a mildly interesting note, I bought a new camera today! It’s a Kodak EasyShare C180. It’s a basic point-and-shoot camera with a few interesting features like video, 3x optical zoom, high ISO mode, and the other “special” modes for various scenarios. It’s listed on Amazon.com currently for about $92– I got it at Sears for under $25 with my employee discount. It was a display model that was placed out on the floor so customers could try it out, so technically it’s “used”, but it has no noticeable signs of wear. It takes pretty good pictures, and it’s very small in comparison to my other camera, a Kodak EasyShare Z8612IS. The Kodak EasyShare Z8612IS (the big, black camera) has way more features then the C180, including a 12x optical zoom, 480p video, and manual exposure settings, but it’s larger size makes it too conspicuous for spontaneous shots. That’s why I bought the C180– for it’s size and decent picture quality. The video feature was icing on the cake for this camera, but I don’t expect it to be good quality video. I plan to buy an Ultra HD Flip Video camera later this summer to expand the multimedia features of this blog even more. We’ll see how that pans out…

Here’s a stock photo of the Kodak EasyShare C180:

And here’s a stock photo of my other camera, the Kodak EasyShare Z8612 IS:

That’s it for today. As always, look for a new post tomorrow. Thanks again for checking out thefinalsummer.com

- Will

Aftermath

21 Jun

Today I went back up to the Heights to see the destruction caused by the tornado. Because traffic was heavy today, the car moved slow enough for me to take some nice pictures. I also have some video, which I will upload to YouTube later. Even if you see the pictures and video of the destroyed buildings, its nothing like actually seeing it in person. If you can, go up to the Heights and check it out. It’s intense.

Here are the pictures:




That’s it for today, folks. Let’s be thankful no one was seriously injured in this storm.

- Will

TORNADO!!!

20 Jun


(Above: Podcast about the day’s craziness.)

That’s right– a tornado touched down in Billings, MT today. It ripped through the Metra’s roof and destroyed several buildings and business in the Heights. During the tornado madness, a torrential downpour instantly flooded streets throughout Billings. Downtown Billings and the Heights are still reeling from the damage caused by the severe weather of this afternoon, with power outages affecting 1,100 houses in the Heights.

During all of this tornado madness, I was working at Sears. Sears is located near Downtown Billings, but relatively far away from the Metra where the tornado touched down in the Heights. When the tornado sirens went off, the managers at my store made an announcement that the building was being evacuated. Everyone in the store was ushered over to the Automotive building next to the main store. We sat in the tire showroom for a few minutes, and then we went down to the basement. I followed my fellow employees and a couple of scared customers into a break room in the basement with a TV that was on. We frantically searched for a local news station with weather updates, but most of the TV stations were down, and it was too recent for the tornado to make national news. Before we went down into the basement, I got on Facebook on my phone, made a quick wall post that my store was being evacuated, and then I looked to see what other people were posting. Basically every wall post made in the few minutes before mine said the same thing: “TORNADO! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”

According to the Associated Press, the last time a tornado of this magnitude hit the Billings-area was in 1958.

It was pretty intense in the basement break room. Everyone was talking nervously about the tornado and the damage it could cause. During the midst of this nervous chatter, I discovered that two of my co-workers have the same phone as me. Crazy.

Here’s a video of the tornado from Q2 News. Footage recorded by “Major” Dan Miller.

As I mentioned in the podcast, my parents and I went by the Metra briefly. I was able to take one quick picture when we drove by. Here’s the pic:

As you can see, the roof is considerably damaged. There’s debris everywhere along Main Street from the roof’s insulation.

A few hours later, the sun came out and the skies were blue. The old adage, “If you don’t like the weather in Montana, just wait five minutes,” was definitely true today. :) Below is a few pictures I took just outside my house:

Sunny skies are here again.

That’s all for today folks. As always, thank you for reading this blog and make sure to leave your comments and criticisms below. :)

- Will

Now Podcasting:

19 Jun

My Blue Snowball arrived in the mail this afternoon (as expected) and sat on my doorstep until about 5:30 PM when I finally came home from work. I would tell you more about my day, but I want you to actually listen to the podcast and give me some feedback on what you think about it. (Keep this in mind while you listen: aside from the intro, the rest of the podcast was basically just me “winging it”. Most future podcasts won’t be like this.)

I’m planning on going out tonight, so look for more written content later, and perhaps a few pictures! :) See you then.

____________________________________

UPDATE: I did end up going out tonight. Jon, Anne, Ashlynn, and I all played Halo 3 on Xbox Live over at Jon’s house. It was nice to get out of the house and hang out with my friends for awhile. Ashlynn and I had a nice conversation about college and crack heads on the way back to her house, and it was good to see her again. I didn’t really have much of a chance to take any pictures tonight… When Ashlynn and I showed up at Jon’s house, Anne and Jon were both in their PJ’s (they told me to wear my PJ’s when I called earlier, but I thought they were joking haha), and Ashlynn and I were in our normal clothes. So that made things a little awkward, but not too bad.

Time to sleep now. Goodnight.

-Will

P.S. This post didn’t appear on the blog until later in the morning on June 20th due to some technical difficulties.

A new post before noon? That’s insane!

18 Jun

It’s 11:14 A.M. and I’m already writing a new blog post. That’s intense.

No, nothing major has really happened yet, but I wanted to inform all of the anxious blog readers out there that I made a decision on buying the podcasting mic. I decided that I am not going to buy the Blue Yeti microphone I originally wanted. Instead, I just bought the Blue Snowball. It’s similar to the Yeti, but much cheaper, and it still has all the features I want. It’s a lot more portable then the Yeti, so I’ll definitely be able to do mobile podcasts.

And here’s the best part: it’s coming to my house tomorrow. That means I’ll be posting a new podcast with tomorrow’s blog post. Time to get excited people. :)

That’s all for now. Expect another post or an update to this post later in the day (probably around midnight, aka the usual time when these posts are written).

- Will

P.S. All future podcasts for this blog will now be hosted on this website and not the other podbean website.

===================================

UPDATE: (Added 6.19.10 @ 12:34 A.M.)

Yes, I’m adding an update to this post the day after it was originally created. Technically, this is cheating. However, if we go by the rules set in place on an earlier post, because I created the beginning of this post on the day it was supposed to be posted, I’m still OK. I really need to set some solid rules for this blog so that I don’t have any excuses for cheating later. Hmm… Perhaps I’ll add a rules page in the About section of the blog…

Anyway, today wasn’t terrible. My parents went out of town today for Wild Bill Hickok Days in Deadwood, SD. In the past couple of years I’ve went with them, but this year I decided not to. While the five-hour drive to Deadwood is always “fun”, Deadwood itself is a complete bore. Sure, it’s fun for the first day or so to check out the tourist shops along Main Street, the cool hotels and flashy casinos, the free concerts on Main Street at night (assuming you don’t mind standing in a crowd full of drunk middle-aged adults), and maybe kick it in the only arcade on Main Street (it’s also inside a casino, so minors can’t go there alone). You might even enjoy the wonders of cable (which I don’t have at home), the swimming pool, and the free WiFi inside most hotels in Deadwood. But these things cease to entertain a person for longer then a couple of hours. Why? Because the amount of time spent doing those potentially fun things is much lower then the amount of time spent standing (at least three feet away, or someone will yell at you) behind a slot machine, watching a parent gamble. Trust me– standing and watching someone else have fun pulling a handle and watching a screen is probably the most boring thing you will ever do. The only interesting gambling to watch, card games where a live dealer deals out cards (like Blackjack or Texas Hold ‘Em), are placed in areas that minors aren’t allowed to enter.

Basically, if you aren’t 21 years old or older during your visit to Deadwood, you aren’t going to have a good time. Minors must follow a strict 10 PM curfew, and the casinos don’t allow minors to wander through them without being accompanied by an adult, so you can’t go anywhere by yourself. The stores along Main Street are full of tourist junk (except for one store which is filled with a variety of interesting items that have nothing to do with Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, or Deadwood in addition to their tourist crap) that’s ridiculously overpriced (with sales tax!). Because you can’t go anywhere alone, you’re stuck wandering around Deadwood, which is basically just Main Street, with an adult that wants to gamble, drink, and have fun at the concerts. The concerts aren’t very exciting either; there’s a stage built at one end of Main Street where the bands play. Most of the bands are country or classic-rock cover bands that occasionally have an original song. There’s a main band each night that you might have heard of at one point, and depending on the year, the “headline” band plays on Sunday night. The bands that play probably won’t play the music you listen to, and even if they do, it’s hard to enjoy when you’re surrounded by a bunch of drunk, obnoxious, middle-aged adults who attempt to dance and fail, epically. If you like having beer spilled on you repeatedly, then this is the perfect event (this has never happened to me, but I’ve seen it happen multiple times).

So I’m glad I did not go. I stayed at  home and relaxed until I had to go to work in the late afternoon. Work sucked, as usual, but it wasn’t very busy for a Friday night (then again, the store is never busy). There was a new guy working today, and it was his second day. While he seemed like a nice person, anyone who’s that “new” is basically useless. He didn’t know what to do, and basically shuffled around the store, adjusting clothes on already perfect racks. I can’t blame him, though– when you’re the new guy at Sears in the apparel section, and you haven’t completed your training, and the manager for your side of the store is gone, basically that’s all you can do. The first week that I worked there (way back in October), all I did was run around the Men’s side of the store with a folding table fixing messed up shirts on the display tables and refolding jeans on the jean wall. That was also because I didn’t actually receive any “legit” computer training on the various tasks someone in my position is expected to do for a couple of months, after I was kept on the staff after the Holidays (I worked as a “Holiday” temp-associate initially). So I can’t blame the kid for being basically useless, but it was irritating to have someone working with you that can’t do anything. Fortunately there was another more experienced associate working with me, and we did manage to leave the store at a decent time after close, but the shift just sucked.

So that’s it. Look for more stuff tomorrow.

-Will

Conflict of Interests

17 Jun

I’m having a bit of a conflict of interests between I know I should do and what I want to do. The conflict: Should I spend the $100+ on the fancy podcasting mic I want for this blog now, and delay putting away money in my savings account so that one day I could by my own car, or should I put away the money I would spend on the mic in my savings account and by the mic sometime in early July?

The logical side of my brain is shouting, “PUT THE MONEY AWAY IN SAVINGS AND BUY THE STUPID MICROPHONE LATER, YOU MORON!”

The other, less rational side of my brain is also shouting, “BUY THE MICROPHONE NOW! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO! YOU PROMISED ALL OF YOUR BLOG READERS THAT YOU WOULD GET ONE TOO! DON’T DISAPPOINT THEM!”

So I’m stuck at a crossroads. I want to do what’s logical and just wait, but I also feel that if I wait, recording the podcasts will be pointless. A third of the summer will be gone by then, and Jon, one of my main friends I planned on recording my conversations with, will be out of town. So, I’m stuck. It’s not like delaying saving the money will delay my purchase of a car, so there really isn’t any reason to not go ahead and spend the dough aside from what I know about my spending/saving habits (I like to spend; I hate to save).

I think I’m going to just “dive in” and spend the money and save later. I know it’s procrastinating, and I will probably have a lot of difficulty in trying to make up for the lost money, but it makes more sense to buy the mic now rather then later. If I don’t buy it now, then I might as well not buy it at all and just ditch the whole podcasting idea altogether.

I really like the idea of podcasting, though. I think it would at a lot to this blog, but it’s becoming more and more difficult to see as a “real” option… I don’t know what I’m going to do. I think I’m going to sleep on it and see how I feel about it in the morning.

Today was another lazy day. All of my friends were either busy or stuck at home, and the weather was horrid, so I suffered through another day stuck inside the house. I’ve noticed that I’m feeling more pessimistic and depressed lately, and I believe that has a lot to do with two things: 1. Being bored out of my mind, and 2. Lack of exercise. So, in an attempt to cheer myself up, I walked a half-mile on the treadmill and then ran 2.1 miles (with the wind helping me and going against me in different parts of the run). After running, I went to work on the bench press and lifted the pyramid of various weights that I used to lift in my Fitness and Conditioning class that I took last semester. It was nice to get back into a physical-workout again, and I’m feeling pretty good now. All I need to do is get back on a regular sleeping schedule, and life should be cheery again.

That’s all for today. Look for another post tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that…. :P

-Will

Epic Fail.

16 Jun

If you remember from yesterday’s post, today I was supposed to hang out with my friend, Josh, who lives a hundred miles away. Well, that didn’t happen. For reasons I’m still unaware of, he could not make it into town. So, my entire plan for the day was ruined with by one text message.

I was pretty disappointed that he wasn’t coming, especially since it’s been a couple of months since I last seen him, but I didn’t let it ruin my entire day. I called up Jon and we played some Halo 3 on Xbox Live for the afternoon. It was not a terrible way to spend the afternoon by any means, but it’s not exactly exciting to read about. Fear not, my few blog readers, for I still have something semi-interesting to write about.

Before I begin the interesting part of the blog, I have a quick question: Do you like the blog’s new look? I liked the way that the sky blue background matched the blue theme I’m using for my blog, but this lime green background looks pretty snazzy too. I figured it was time for a change in appearances anyway, as I’ve been using the same background color for the past few months. Also, I added a picture underneath the main title of the blog from one of my recent posts. I think it looks pretty good, but I care more about what you, the readers of this blog, think. So leave a comment on this post telling me what you think about the blog’s aesthetics.

Moving along, let’s talk about music. I love music. Music became a larger part of my life during my Junior year. Earlier, during my Freshman and Sophomore years,  I rarely would listen to my iPod. Now, I rarely leave the house without it. I think my increased enthusiasm for listening to and creating music is caused by my relationships with other people. Those relationships could be anything from a close friendship to me simply having a crush on some girl.  I’ve found that I listen to music more though when I’m interested in a girl, regardless of whether or not I’m dating her. If I really like a girl, I’ll probably write a few songs about her (my MySpace blog is filled with songs about a girl I had a crush on during my Sophomore year). I’ll also listen to music that reminds me of her, or just songs about relationships. During this time I usually listen to bands like Mayday Parade, All Time Low, Weezer (“Perfect Situation”= song of my life haha), The Audition, Snow Patrol (“Chasing Cars”), and MxPx. I’ll also listen to my usual favorite bands: Green Day, Three Doors Down, Scapegoat Wax and others (some of the previously mentioned bands are also my usual favorites :D ). That being said, I listen to many different kinds of music (basically everything aside from classical music).

My friends and I also have our own “theme songs”. No, I don’t mean theme songs like the kind Batman or Superman would have– I’m talking about songs we always listen to whenever we hang out. The newest song we’ve been listening to a lot lately is “Go Cops” by Rucka Rucka Ali, a parody of “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha (WARNING: This song is NSFW* and is full of profanity. If you’re offended by such material, do not click the link!). Jon found it, and now whenever he, Kristin, and I are all together in the car driving somewhere, he always plays this song at least once. Another one of our “theme songs” is “Blueberry Yum Yum” by Ludacris (WARNING: This song could also be considered offensive to prudent ears, so consider yourself warned). Ironically, both of these songs are about smoking weed, and nobody in my group smokes weed. We’re all drug-free. No alcohol, no cigarettes, no weed… we don’t use drugs.  Period. We listen to those songs a lot though because we think they’re funny, not because of the messages behind the songs. We also listen to “Handlebars” by the Flobots (this song is “safe”), and other rap songs by T.I., Lil’ Wayne, and Kanye West. Why? I don’t know. But we have a lot of fun listening to these songs, and they bring back good memories from past times when we’ve hung out.

Do you and your friends have any “theme songs” that you guys listen to almost every time you hang out? Let me know in a comment on this post (along with your opinion about the blog’s new look).

That’s all for today. Thanks for reading, and look for a new, event-filled post tomorrow.

-Will

____________________________

* NSFW = Not safe for work.

Month Midpoint: June

15 Jun

We’re halfway through June now, which means only two months, one week, and three days remain until school begins in August.* That’s right– I’ve already added up the days until school and it’s only the third day of the second week of summer. Why did I look to see how many days of summer were left? Well, the answer to that question can either be simple or complicated, depending on which explanation you desire.

Simple explanation: I was bored, and it adds a nice tidbit to this blog post. Works well with the post title too.

Complex explanation: I’m not sure exactly why I found it necessary to see how many days were left. I’m not tired of summer already, but I could do without the near constant boredom. Perhaps I wanted to know how many days were left until I finally have to accept that this year will be my last year at home. Perhaps there actually is a part of me that actually is ready for school to start again, but it isn’t voicing its opinion loud enough for the rest of me to realize it. Or maybe the simple explanation fits perfectly and trying to nail down a specific reason as to why I decided on a whim to find out how many days were left of summer vacation is futile.

Anyway, another day of summer has passed in an uneventful fashion. I went to work, I came home, and I wrote this blog. No more, no less. Tomorrow should be much more eventful though because my buddy Josh is coming into town tomorrow. He lives about 100 miles away from where I live and I haven’t seen him for a few months. We’re planning on kickin’ it the entire day tomorrow, so expect to see a much more interesting blog post. And yes, there will be more pictures. Perhaps a doodle too?

Other website specific business: I’ve finally settled on which microphone I plan to purchase for creating podcasts on this blog. I’m going to buy the Blue Yeti, a USB microphone created by Blue Microphones. It’s a high-quality microphone that has many of the features I’ve been looking for in a podcasting mic– the main feature I’ve been searching for is a mic that can record sound within an entire room so I can record conversations with my friends. The Yeti does this and records in three other ways as well. It’s a THX-certified microphone (translation: it records with serious high-quality sound). It’s a beast of a microphone (probably why they named it Yeti…), weighing in at over three pounds and standing at about a foot in height. I probably won’t be doing any serious mobile podcasting with this microphone because of its large size, but that’s not a major issue. I won’t be able to purchase this microphone until I get paid this Friday, so look for new podcasts sometime next week. I’m thinking that my next major addition to the blog will be video, but we’ll see how this podcasting thing works out first. :P I’ll also be updating the “Other” and “Tech” pages soon… perhaps even today if I find the motivation to do so (it is 11:48 PM though, so I may just succumb to the growing desire for sleep).

That’s it for today. I know this blog hasn’t been quite as exciting as I initially promised, but stay tuned. The best it yet to come.** :D

-Will

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* Figure obtained using rough estimation

** Seriously, this blog is only going to get 
better.

Search. Drive. Play.

14 Jun

The title of this post basically sums up my day in three words. It began with an early wake-up call at 5 A.M. My dad was getting some new tires for his truck and he needed someone give him a ride back home after he dropped his truck off at the tire store. I was the unlucky “volunteer” for this errand, and I wasn’t exactly a happy helper running on a mere five hours of sleep. Luckily it was a short drive, so I was able to get back into bed quickly.

After wasting a few hours sleeping and watching TV, I decided that I needed to do something or else the entire day would be wasted. I quickly finished my chores and texted Jon and Kristin to see if they wanted to do anything. Kristin was stuck running errands with her mom for most of the afternoon, but Jon was able to chill. We met up at my house and spent a few hours in town. We went to the dollar store and Harbor Freight (aka the cheap tools and other random junk store) in a sad attempt to kill a few hours, looked at some interesting junk, and then decided to go back to my house to play some video games until Kristin came home. We ended up scrapping this plan and Jon went home to run a few errands while I drove my mom’s car down to the car wash. We met up later in the evening and went down to the river for a little while. I took a few sweet pics while we were down there. Check ‘em out:

Random Outhouse @ Fishing AccessWho says you can’t take a nice picture of an outhouse?!?Today was beautiful: blue skies & warm weather.

I freakin’ love this picture. The sun flare made a nice silhouette effect.

Jon really didn’t want his picture taken, but that didn’t bother me. :D

Kristin, out in the water.


So that’s it for today. It’s been pretty crazy overall but I’m just glad to be done.

-Will

Week Two: Renewed Focus

13 Jun

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the second week of Summer, and I believe it is time to refocus my efforts toward making this summer more like the one I imagined it would be rather than the summer it has been so far. I need to do whatever I can to avoid being stuck at home, alone and bored, on a perfectly good Summer day. Sure, it is the beginning of summer, but it’s the final summer– I can’t afford to waste  any days.

I know it sounds like I’m a terminal patient when I put it that way, but it’s time to face facts– this is my last summer with my friends in high school. We probably won’t see each other again after graduation for a long time, so I should make the most out of this last year at home. It’s time to live life to the fullest…

Damn, just writing that makes me feel so depressed. Acknowledging that this is the beginning of the end of a major section of my life is scary. But I need to remember the old adage: when one door closes, another opens. This section of my life is coming to an end, but a new one is beginning: adulthood.

Wait– I’m going to be an adult soon? What the hell? Did somebody just hit the freaking fast-forward button on my life?!? I’m only sixteen– I shouldn’t be moving out next year! DAMN!

The sentences above represent how part of me feels about this realization. The next few sentences below represent the other part of how I feel:

About time! I’m tired of feeling dependent upon my parents. I want to move out, start my own life, and not worry about breaking curfew. I can look after myself just fine, thanks. And college– don’t get me started there. Finally some relevant classes that will actually educate me about topics I’m interested in and will actually be useful to me later in life.

It’s difficult to be stuck at a crossroads like this. I know I can’t go back, so complaining about being where I’m at is useless. I can’t just go into the future and begin my adult life either, so dreaming about independence isn’t very productive either. I need to stay focused on the present. I’m a senior in high school. I have a year left of high school. I still have a lot of time before college. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy this year…. that’s what I need to do.

And to do that, I need to begin my senior year the right way by having an enjoyable summer vacation. It’s time to get out the list of things that I wanted to do during the summer that I created during the school year and actually do them!

Staying focused on the present, let’s recap my day: work. I woke up at 8 AM this morning, lounged around the house until the afternoon and then I had to leave for work. I worked from 2:15 PM-9:22 PM on a Sunday (it was the VIP night, so we had extended hours). It sucked. Everyone had to stay late because the restocking process wasn’t completed for two days so we had to finish it tonight. We put everything away and rushed to make sure the store was looking good so we could get the heck out of there.

I’m so tired right now… Really. I’m doing the head bob thing where you keep falling asleep in micro-sleep and then you wake up again… It’s time to go to bed.

-Will

P.S. KEEP READING AND POSTING COMMENTS :D

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