Kyle Johnson's Personal Blog

This post will be "sticky"--that is, it will remain at the top of the blog even after new content is posted! I will leave it here for a few weeks. So keep an eye out for newer entries below!

I have recently signed up for at least a dozen different web services. Some of these are social networking sites, and others are there to help with organization. Some do both.

I'm a bit sore, today. Apparently volunteering at Safari's is going to be a bunch of physical labor... and some playing with animals (and people).

"Whoa, why is your coat covered in really big pawprints?"

"I got attacked by a wolf on Saturday. And it was so much fun, I made sure I had time to do it again on Sunday."

This morning, I woke twenty minutes before the first alarm clock went off. That seems to be my new trick.

My early class was mediocre.

When I got outside, the wind had picked up quite a bit. That was, of course, a bit disappointing -- I had been happy that it was comfortable outside for the first time in a few months.

Right now, it is three in the morning. I'm sitting at my desk in my dorm in Stillwater. I feel irritatingly rested, though I have barely slept. I have a rare urge to write, a feeling inspired by my recent decision to read Eragon for the second time.

I'm not sure what I want to write about. But as I stared at the ceiling from my bed, random bits of senseless sentences ran through my head. I get this way quite easily. I've tried explaining the sensation to my family and a few friends, but not many people have ever really understood what it was I was trying to tell them.

Eragon in particular does this to me quite well. Saturday night, after a bit of study, I decided to watch my Eragon DVD. I don't own many movies, nor do I intend on purchasing many; but that one has a special place for me. And I knew quite quickly that I would be unsatisfied by watching that shortened version of the story. It is so shortened that most of the amazing things in the book are completely left out of the movie. It's really a shame.

But I did not get on my computer to write about the shortcomings of a film. No, I got out of bed to write about this persistent--and unhealthy, I have been told--feeling I get from stories like Eragon.

Oh, look, another dead blog.

Not really. I've just been unusually busy since the last entry. Allow me to elaborate...

To begin with, I had to stay at my grandparents' house after that huge storm. Now this, in itself, is not a bad thing. I actually got a lot more done than I normally do. I got started on this very nice piece of software--which I will explain in more detail later on--that I've been meaning to write for a few years now, and I even planned (and successfully implemented, once the power was up) some new updates and service migration on my servers.

But that was only enough to keep me occupied for a few days--maybe just a week. After that, something huge happened. Well, it was actually rather small compared to most others, but still. It did happen: Christmas.

Almost anyone who reads this blog knows that there was a really big ice storm in Tulsa very recently. But for the sake of having something to write about, here's what I know about the storm. Oh, and expect this one to be crammed full of links.

... since I last updated this page. I'm sure all two of my readers assumed that I had given up blogging and moved on with my life again. Nah, I'm going to stick with this.

Anyway, I've been quite busy. During the day for this last week, I've been insanely busy. It was "dead week" this week. I'm entirely certain that phrase is supposed to describe the way I feel now.

This one is for my family (and anyone who wants to buy me crap).

I know this is a huge deviation from my normal Christmas list. But time constraints (mostly due to a hard drive failure, the resulting chaos, and the unrelated graphic design commission from an engineering company) have left me with no choice but to throw this together in my blog. So here it is. (As with all of my previous lists, links to web sites are for illustrative examples, not necessarily the precise model/brand I want, unless otherwise noted.)

Twice a year, the City of Tulsa holds a surplus auction in which they auction off old junk they don't need as well as items the police have confiscated. My grandfather and I have been to most of these auctions in the last year or two (possibly all; I forget). So far, I haven't been able to convince him to let me pay for my own junk. Oh well.

So anyway, we went again on November 3rd. They had the usual selection of 500 old Dell computers (Pentium 4, mostly--those old black ones you see everywhere). Then they had some power tools, some road spikes, some Playstation 2s, and even an XBox 360.

For myeslf, I decided to aim for a nice tripod, a flash, a feed scanner that looked fun to play with, and a few other small toys. I managed to get a few of those and some things I did not expect to get.