Redwolf's Journal (continued)

NIGHT MAGICK - Night Magick is a complete curriculum of magical development based on the Yin primal force, as opposed to the major religions of the world, which are predominantly Yang. You emphasize the use and balanced developement of the Physical/Etheric Body, the Astral/Emotional Body, the Mental Body, and the Causal Body. Through regular and consistent practice, you, the Night Magician will develop psychic abilities, increased vitality, stronger focus, and union with your Oversoul. What is Your Magick Path? brought to you by Quizilla

Level One --Name: Scott A. McCool --Birthplace: Houston, Mississippi, USA --Hair Colour: Brown --Height: 6'6" --Righty or Lefty: Righty --Zodiac Sign: Aquarius Layer Two --Heritage: Scottish/Irish/German --The shoes you wore today: Black 'chuka' boots --Your weakness: Only one? Crumpling under stress, especially guilt-related --Your fears: Failure --Your perfect pizza: Pepperoni, lots of cheese, black olives, pepperoni, mushrooms, pepperoni ... Mmm... hungry --Goal you'd like to achieve: Living successfullly 'on my own' Layer Three --Your most uverused phrase on any IM: On a what now? ;) --Your thoughts first waking up: "Do I work today?" (5 out of 7 days a week, this is followed by "aw man") --Your best physical features: ... No idea --Your bedtime: Midnight --Your most missed memory: I don't remember? Layer Four --Pepsi or Coke: Coke --McDonald's or Burger King: Ugh. Wendy's --Single or Group Dates

On the whole, I'd rather be asleep. I appear to have survived the really difficult stretch. David's due back today. My parents are due back today. The new computer is working (though I'm ironing out a couple little kinks). I even managed to see Cathe, albeit only for a few hours thusfar. I'm dead tired, though. I've been pushing myself, trying to fit in things I regularly enjoy while accomplishing that which "needs" to be done. I stayed up later on Saturday than I should have, and haven't been able to sleep in thanks to the dog. Even if I just go collapse after work today, odds are good that I won't feel well-rested until sometime next weekend, at the earliest. We didn't get to roleplay this weekend, but maybe that's just as well. Playing several games of Magic generally doesn't take as long, and I already didn't have as much time as would have been nice.

Earth Day 1990 The last freshman class of S.J.H.S. Class of 93 So reads a plaque in the middle of a grassy patch of what is no longer a junior high school. The stone, marble I believe, is weather and missing a few chips. Grass has grown up around it, making it necessary to pick out handfuls of clippings to read the whole thing. It's virtually invisible from the sidewalk. Most importantly, the tree planted with it is no longer there. I wouldn't say I'm pained by that, but it merits a sigh. When a teacher put forth the idea, I gladly donated to it. I was idealistic enough to think planting a tree for Earth Day was a great idea. I suppose it was, too, but the tree has since died for whatever reason. Did "fate" decide we needed a visual reflection of the innocent ideals that are lost as we grow up? Or was it just happenstance? Does anyone even remember what we did? I do. The plaque is there. The memories are there.

Yeah, I've complained enough in recent posts. Time to do something else. So, I think I'll just throw out some comments that came to mind watching a couple movies on TV recently. Aliens (Special Edition) Easily one of my favorite sci-fi movies of all time, perhaps the top one. I first saw the movie on video tape, so I can't comment on how much they showed in the theater, but I remember seeing it on TV and thinking 'wow, that scene wasn't in the movie.' I'm not sure what version I was watching there either, but for a while the version TV stations would air included a few extra scenes at least, including the aliens being mowed down by sentry guns. That's certainly my favorite of the elusive scenes. Recently I saw it again and realized, while I like to see additional footage, several of the scenes served a purpose in being removed. The bit about Ripley's daughter is an added detail, but not really necessary to augment her attachment to Newt later.

I'm tired. It's not even that "damn, I shouldn't have stayed up so late" tired. That I can just push through. This is so much deeper. At least it's not as bad as feeling truly depressed either. Yesterday was truly draining at work. It started out with our NAS (network attached storage) device suddenly not showing up on the network. Hmm. Guess it wasn't living up to the definition just then. Of course, this thing houses a majority of the files on the network. Ugh. After the 30-40 minutes it took for the thing to start back up, everything was fine with no apparent reason for the outage. Personally, I'd rather see a problem that has a reason I can find than one that doesn't. After that, there was the usual assortment of error here and there, plus some signs of virus infection. Then, after lunch, it became apparent our outgoing e-mail wasn't... well... going out. I don't directly manage the e-mail server, which only made it worse because I