after our romp through delano in a bright white dreadnaut of a truck, we returned to the bakersfield residence for another day of chit-chatting and gaming. we had brunch back in we went over to my cousins for some mid-day snacking and eventually ended back at my aunt and uncles for dinner and a movie (enchiladas and Seabisquit... good food, good movie) the next day we pretty much just prepared for a our trek down to anehiem. we packed in the morning and we set off around 10:30ish. i got to drive the dakota with my dad navigating and my bro and sis in the back enjoying the entertainment. my aunt drove my mom in her jetta. i led the way most of the time, but at abbout the grape vine she somehow got ahead of me. it was pretty fun chasing hjer down the grapevine... at some points hitting 90+. when we finally got to anehiem i once again took the lead since my dad knew where to go. when we got to the hotel we learned that our rooms were not yet ready, so we left the cars there in the parking lot and walked to disneyland.

we figured we'd go to california adventure and maybe hit disneyland the day after. california adventure was pretty nice. its nice and big and spread out. the buildings and archatecture were nice and the rides were pretty fun. we started out with "soaring over california" or sumthin like that. the wait was rather... eternal.. but the ride was almost worth it. plus there were a bunch of aviation posters inside where the line was to give you something to read as you waited. the ride itself was pretty fun... not thrilling.. just... entertaining. after that we did... other stuff. mostly we figured out how to work the fast passes and got some for "california screamin".

for those of you who dont know what i'm talking about, basicly these fast passes are sorta shortcuts to skip through the line. what you have to do is go ahead of time to the ride you want and find the line for fast passes (yes.. they have their own little line) basicly its like waiting in line at the local train/subway/bus station for a ticket. there are a bunch of little ticket machines and all you have to do is swipe yer disneyland pass and it will spit out a ticket for everyone you swipe (since i was designated fastpass getter i had everyones park passes) the fast passes all have a one hour time frame on them at wich pint you can return to ride on the.. well... ride.

california screamin was one of the more entertaining rolercoasters i've ever been on. for starters it was already dark. second, it was the first one that ive been on that had that steam powered launch to begin the ride. its definetly a weird sensation... not like your falling... as usual, more like you have been moved from a state of stillness to a state of amovement... without your aproval. at first it literally feels like you left several internal organs behind.. but once they catch up... it is pretty standard. it is shaped more or less like the classic beach side carnival wooden coaster... but its metal... so it can do thing a wooden one could never do.. like loop and run smoothly. we also went on the big ferris wheel thing. i mostly wanted to take some pictures of the attractions at dusk all lit up and stuff. overall it was a fun time.

usually when we're down in bakersfield we go to visit my aunt and uncle in McFarland, a quaint little farm town about 30 minutes away. usually we visit in the spring or summer and it includes a picnic like buffet outside in their 1/2 acre "back yard." but since it was winter we had only a brief tour of their vegetable garden and tghen retreated back into the warmth of the house. we exchanged a few gifts and then drove off to visit my cousin who is a fireman in the nea4rby town town or Delano. on the way i listened to my brand-spankin-new CD that i just got from my aunt, Experience Jimi Hendrix, his best of album. not bad, especially during a nightime romp through the southern california highway.

just to give you an idea of how friggin small Delano is: they have 2 firehouses. the one my cousin works at has three 2 man shifts per day. the other has 3 man shifts. they have one truck... each. its kinda cool cuz its quiet and layed back. anyways, he took us on a ride in the truck.. pretty cool. he actually got a call while we were takin a spin round the block so he had to jam back to the fire house and pickup the cap'n. this concludes day 2

the trip down was relatively enjoyable. i had the PS2 fired up and we were watchi movies and playin games pretty much all the way down. first my bro and sis saw Pirates of the Carribean. when that was over the PS2 went off and people started falling asleep. i then fired it up and started playing some of the games i brought. i rented Secret Weapons over Normandy, Spawn: Armagedon, and Prince of Persia. i had played SWoN before we left hime so i decided to try out Spawn. It was ok. the controls were a bit numb and the graphics good. but it was rather boring and the numb controls and boring stroy led to an overall un-enjoyable experience. my sis woke up and wated to try Prince of Persia. i watched her play and became interested. the story seemed interesting and the game play smooth. i gave a whirl and it was awsome. the controls were sharp and the battle system (wich sucked in Spawn) was seemless. plus the whole rewinding, slowing, stopping and otherwise warping time is just plain cool.

the best thing about bringing down my PS2 is that it gave me my bro and sis something to do when things around my uncles house down here in the sprawling metropolis of bakersfield slowed down to a comatose pace and there was nothing to do. the first night down here in bakersfield is usually reserved for hellos and long-time-no-sees, and today was no exceptioon. eventhough its been only a couple or weeks sonce we did last "see" eachother.

christmas is over.. finaly. dont get me wrong i love the holiday season.. its just so stressfull. especially for us because we had family over the week before christmas and we were planning to go on a trip the day after. plus we were gonna have a little bit of a get-together on and around christmas. all that went RELTIVELY smoothly, but there are moments... anyways. i wasnt expecting to be showered with gifts... and it didnt really matter, since i got a job i was more looking forward to the stuff i bought for myself. i did, however, get some cash and clothes... the usual. what i was really excited about was the 7" LCD screen i bought for my PS2 for the upcoming roadtrip. it came in on christmas eve at around 5 pm... talk about last minute. anyways, i fired that up to test it... its not huge (as i said 7") butits the biggest one you can get for a game console that attaches to the console itself. its basicly just a monitor (with A/V or S video hook ups) i had to disassemble the main jpoint to flip the screen around on its bracket so it will mount on the front of the console instead of the back (so i can but the PS2 on my front armrest in the truck and the backseat will get a good view)

at this point.. with everyone gone and just my imediate family here at home, we're just enjoying the calm between 2 big storms and packing and preparing for tomorows 4+ hour trip to bakersfield.. on our way to Anehiem and the happiest place on earth. looks like we're justr gonna go to like denny's for dinner.... christmas dinner at denny's... just like in those pathetic christmas movies.

today was ho-hum... whatever that means. with the exception of one really idiotic psycho driver i encountered. after work i realized that i still lacked a power inverter for my PS2 and LCD screen i just bought for it (so i can use em in my car/truck). so i decided to take a quik detour over to radio shack. anyways, coming off of an overpass after which i would have to make a left turn, i quikly changed lanes into the left lane (since i had to make a left turn). i merged between a white Ram Van (behind me) and a red pontiac firebird (in front of me) anyways, it was pretty slow moving since i was entering a large intersaection surrounded by shopping plazas and the like. anyways, as i neared the intersection, this little POS ford escort starts reving next to me to try and jump in fron... not being the type of person to let someone completely cut in line like that i roared up behind the pontiac and leaned on my horn. he persisted, i kept honking, and holding my ground. he eventually gave up cutting in and decided to drive straight (across the intersection as opposed to making a left). i composed myself and was glad to be rid of him... but the thought that he might make a U turn up ahead and try and make a right turn from oncoming trafic lingered in the back of my mind. meanwhile, my left turn light was red and the pontiac was the first car in line. when the light turned green we started around the turn i noticed that same escort sitting there at the interestion (on coming) waiting to make a right turn. when i realized it, it was too late, i casually left a safe distance between me and the pontiac... and he was waiting... he WAITED for us to turn JUST so he could pull in front of ME. and i left enough of a space for him to shoot his nose inbetween. luckily the lane to my left (there are 2 turning lanes) was free so i stabbed it and flew into the other lane, as i did so i looked over at the demented driver who was smoking, looking back and laughing (not like "i'm having a blast" kinda laugh more light "yeah thats right, i cut you off and now im gonna really piss you off" kinda laugh) and he proceeded to punch ahead and cut me off again. he then quikly hung left into the shopping plaza... exactly where i WAS planning on going. he then parked his car along the main enterance road thing (the row of parking space you drive into when you first enter the plaza) he then got out of his car, looked directly at wher i was (waiting for a break in the traffic before i too could turn in) and reached into his pocket. at this point i'm thinking "WTF is he doing?!?!?!?!" i reconsider what the hell i'm doing and decide instead to go straight and use a different entrance to the plaza. as i drive off i see him watch me drive off and get back into his car. what a freakin psycho. its times like that that i really wich i still had my 87 bronco. cuz then, when he cut me off after waiting for the opportunity i would not have heistated driving straight into him. the fact that i was driving my new truck made me think twice about getting to close.. as well as following him into the plaza. besides.. from the look of him, he probably didnt have insurance. sorry for the long post but i had to fume.

IT WAS AWSOME!!!!!!! just got back from the theatre... i loved it. my brother was disapointed.. but he expected too much. he just read the book and so he was expecting the movie to portray every little detail. his loss. i chose not to read the book and i loved the movie. highly recomend it. i hope i see it again soon.

ITS OVER!!! ITS FINALLY OVER!!!!! NO MORE SCHOOL (for 3 weeks or so anyway..... leave me alone and let me savor the moment) later today i am gonna go and see The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. i hope its awsome. the previews look good and the first 2 were great. ill chack back when i have been enlightened.

last night was an interesting one. it was the office christmas party. as entertaining as it was to watch white people with no rythm dance to songs that shouldn't have even been in the DJs library. (like baby got back) anyways, it was interesting to see what some of my coworkers were like when they had a few drinks in em. it was my primary duty to drive the drunkards home, but i did a few other things like some minor setup and cleanup duties while i was there. as well a decorating a naked tree. anyways, i had to drive this old ford van churchmobile that is probably as old as i am. it is in good shape... but it is a behemouth vehicle that i was completely unfamiliar with. and i was expected to learn to drive it on the fly. which wasnt easy. then i had to drive that unfamiliar bus through a winter storm on the backroads of rural petaluma. thats when it got a lil scary. anyways, when it was finally over i drove my noss home and then drove home. when i fianlly got home it was about 1:30 and pouring rain, about a 1/2 hour later... the power went out.

this is the week before finals... so you wont here from me for a while. as it is i am scrambling to finish final projects. today i had 2 things due. a supreme court report in Political Science and a Portal style collage in Photoshop. i started the supreme court thing on monday when i first began looking up current cases. on tuesday i took massive amounts of notes on the various sources i had at my disposal. i also had to do an oral presentation on said report. sucks. luckily for me, on monday a group doing the same cxase presented. so all i had to do was remain seated anf provide support if they were stumped..... which they werent.. they were obscenely prepaired (they had overheads for godsake!!!) anyways, so i DIDNT have to do the oral.. awsome. i then found out that the notes i had taken were ALREADY in the format they needed to be in to turn in. SWEET. so all i had to do was transfer notes to computer and print.

the photoshop project was a bit trickier. i had to use my own pictures. (either ones that i have taken or ones that i got that were copyright free) so, this morning after political science, i drove around taking pictures. thats right, i GOT the pictures on the day that the final finished project was due. if thats not procrastinating i dunno what is. anyways, i took some shots through em into photoshop and did some sweet magic and voila i had a final project in a matter of hours. plus i got to take my spiffy new camera out for a shake down. its sweet. so... next week are finals. o CRAP i still have to turn something in. tootles.