Closer Encounter

this is a Close Encounter Update!:

(read the previous post if you havent already or be totally confused. Duh.)

ok so i was just sittin on the computer (it's my weekend ..yeah, having Wednesday and Thursday as a weekend is kinda lame.. especially since i work the night shift and am constantly nocturnal.. so, i can sit at home all night and do stuff or go walk around wal-mart and thats just about it) ok, back to the story..

i was on the computer and the huge roach came outta nowhere and attacked me! we had a fierce, epic battle on my side of the room while my roommate slept on his side. the fighting mainly consisted of me jumping and stomping wildly all over the place, but anyways.. it ended with the roach on the floor on his back and me right there with a knife to his throat. then i grabbed him with a paper towel and flushed him. the little bastard was resistant to the end.

Andy-1 Roach-0

On the other hand, maybe the roach didnt completely lose.. in sort of a disgusting way, i think he'll enjoy his time where he's going much more than he did his time here. win/win.

and, since i like to put up pictures so much (but dont have/want to post a pic of a roach or toilet) here is a completely inappropriate picture of some ninjas. actually, wait.. ninjas are always appropriate. booyah.

as you can tell, im so bored.

Close Encounter

holy crap. i just saw a cockroach the size of a small bus in my room. :O
i waited till it got closer and then i hurled my persian dictionary at it. SLAM! yes!
i walked over and stood on the book. oh yeah.. victory is mine. i bounced up and down a few times and got off the book.
but then, when i lifted the book up.. nothing.. nothing at all. it was horrifying.

not that im afraid of cockroaches or anything.. i just think they should live somewhere else.. outside.. far away. dead.

this is just the worst.. theres a huge roach hiding somewhere in my room and i have no idea where it is. i hate that. that's one bad thing about this place. it gets so freakin hot and humid here in georgia and for some reason it seems like the insects thrive on that.. like, thrive so much that they reach baby-eating proportions. ugh.

i feel like im in that scene from 'Aliens' where Ripley and Newt are trapped in that room with those face-huggers and yeah...
hmm.. whatever, ill just find it and kill it. eventually. ;\

Have you seen this Ninja?

no. no you have not.

Come Together

The day before we left London we took a trip up to Abbey Road and when we got there we saw that we werent the only ones weird enough to walk across over and over to get a good pic.
There was a group of japanese tourists there too and they all took turns walking across while the others took pictures and laughed. and it was hard not to laugh..both when walking across and when playing photographer.. at least for me it was.
it was so silly.. all these people, young & old, standing around the crosswalk for the same exact reason.. all waiting for a gap in the traffic [it was pretty busy] and then walking across smiling from ear to ear like goofballs while their friends snapped away..
and you could tell that some of the local drivers that got stopped by the tourists who were all trying to walk in step across to the other side were just like "Ugh...come on..are you serious..?" haha. it was fun.

i took a few trips across by myself but then these two italian guys asked if i wanted to join them. i happily agreed and we were off. we walked across a few times together and pretty much became the beatles.. minus george.

Meg was a great sport for standin around and takin pictures of me walking across over and over.. [but she did owe me from all that shopping..im just sayin] ..thanks babe! ;] later.

Project Excelsior

The date was August 16, 1960, and USAF Captain Joseph Kittinger prayed a silent prayer and jumped from the helium balloon, "Excelsior III", at 102,800ft. He was in a free-fall for more than four and a half minutes until his main chute deployed at 18,000ft. It was part of a series of experiments testing new parachutes that were meant to be opened at high altitudes as well as what effect high altitude had on a human being. Not only was the experiment a success, but it was also an amazing, record-breaking skydive from the edge of space.

I saw this video and thought it was too cool not to share. what's even more amazing is that according to Kittinger's instruments, he broke the sound barrier.. he fell towards earth faster than the speed of sound! another thing that makes this even cooler is that he didnt do it for fame or money or media attention.. he did it to test the limits of the human body.

You can read more about Joseph Kittinger and Project Excelsior in a recent interview here: http://curiosociety.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/utterly-alone/

and here's the wikipedia page on it. [which is where i got the pics]:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excelsior

Amsterdamned

in my last post i mentioned that i took a trip to the UK to see meg.. and that was great.

well, on the way back to the united states i had a layover in amsterdam. i also had a layover there on the way to england but that one was only about 90 minutes. so that's fine. but this one was 13 1/2 freakin hours! what kind of layover is that?!? way too long if you ask me..

anyways.. i got off the plane and knew i was going to be there a long time so i decided to try and make the best of the situation and go explore the city. i followed a big crowd of noisy dutch people out of the terminals, got my passport stamped, and headed to the trains. i went to a ticket machine and bought a first class, two-way something to centraal station.. i didnt really know what i was doing but i figured that sounded good enough. so i ran down to the platform and hopped on the train to centraal.

i think it was when the doors closed and i walked into the car to sit down that i finally felt totally alone and realized that i was on my own. there were three other people in the car too but that didnt really help at all in making me feel less lost. i mean, they were all foreign.. everything was foreign. i knew i wasnt lost, but still.. i was in a weird train with weird people going to a weird place.. i think one thing that also made it worse [and furthered my thoughts of being marooned in this strange place if i made one mistake] was that it was nighttime. i couldnt see anything outside of that car. i was a bit nervous but at the same time i was really psyched to explore downtown. thinking about all the crazy stuff i'd heard about amsterdam and knowing that i was going to get lost in the city in the middle of the night all alone gave me a real rush.

after a long 15 minutes the doors opened and i was wondering through crowds again. it was late on a tuesday but there were tons of people out. there was a main road that went straight ahead to some hotels and other big buildings but i decided to take a smaller road that was off on the left.. turns out it went to the red light district.

here are some pics. finally!

above: there were tons of bicycles stacked up along the sides of some of the streets. it looked like most of these were just set up against one another without even being locked. i could be wrong about that though..

as usual, i didnt really know where i was or where i was headed.. i just kept walking down streets that looked interesting. [and well-lit ;]

there was a small shop in the alley pictured below where i stopped and got myself a nice, big, warm belgian waffle covered in melted chocolate.. mmm.

above: eventually i wound up in the Red Light District.. the big windows with that pinkish glow next to the street are where the.. uh.. friendly ladies awaited their customers..

each had their own window & room but it looked like the majority of them connected. (usually there were about 3 or so in a row). most of them were just watching people go by and looked kinda bored..

a lot of them were doing their nails or hair or just talking to their window neighbors but some of them were more aggressive. as i walked by a few of them they would tap on the glass and wave for me to come there.. some even opened up their windows [they opened inward like doors] and tried to get me to come in.

..haha..oh..hi..um...no. [the next three pics are also from the red light district as well]

it was pretty strange to see people doing drugs in the street.. im not quite sure what's legal and what's not. either way, it's still strange to me. there were also some doors to shops and cafes that said 'Stop. Hard Drugs' to let people know what to expect when they went inside..i suppose.

the red light district seemed to be made up mostly of xxx shops/theaters/gift shops and cafes along about three streets running parallel with each other. little alleyways connected the parallel streets.
above: there were lots of these shops all up and down the stretch.
below: not kid's toys!

after a while i took a side street outta there and came to a place called Dam Square.







right: dam monument


below: the big dam building

oh thank God. there's Centraal station [above]. turns out its only about half a mile from dam square and probably
less from the red light district.

i found the departing trains and went to get on one that said Schiphol. at first the lady didnt want to let me on, which was sort of frightening, but i showed her my shiny ticket and she saw the shininess of it and it was good.

there were a lot more people on the train this time around and i could tell that some of them were going to the airport too.. so that made me feel good.. it was a cool city but i was pretty glad to get back on the train and get outta there. i dont think ive ever been so happy to be back in an airport...

so.. turns out i didnt get lost forever in amsterdam. yay. what an experience.
Schiphol was my home for the next 7 hours and then i flew back to atlanta. :]

From the Lands of Eng and Scot

so, a couple weeks ago i got back from my trip to visit my girlfriend, meg, in the UK.. and i figured i'd post a few pics from my journey over there in the Yoo-nye-ted King-dumb. i was there, in northern england mostly, for a little more than two weeks but we also took a train to Edinburgh and London.. it was a lot of fun.

it was really great to have the opportunity to make some new friends, see some amazing sights, and to just be with meg.

alright, i'll shut up now. here are some pics:

Bamburgh Castle [pictured above & below]

the next few were taken in Edinburgh, Scotland.

we were only there for two days but it was a blast..

London:

from the London Eye


we stayed in london for 4 days and spent most of it just sightseeing and exploring everything we could.

the city was big, crowded, and expensive as hell. but it was so worth it.

spending four days in london: $664.00

spending four days in london with meg: ..about $3,487.97

..only joking.. kinda... ;]

right side: the day Bogart killed London..

below: supertramp... the man we met on 'the tube'

he was sooo wasted and smelled horrible.

supertramp, that is, supertramp... not bogart.

bogart was totally sober and smelled like flowers.. death-flowers!

so yeah, thats about it i guess..

hopefully i'll get to go over again someday. it was a great time. sadly, im pretty much broke now.. but even if i did have money i dont have any more leave [vacation time] to spend..

but thankfully meg is coming home this summer so yay. can't wait.

oh, i also have some pictures from my 13 1/2 hour layover in amsterdam on the way back to the states.. that was an interesting city.. so i'll post those next.

later.

uh.. hi

I told myself i wasnt going to put up a picture of me because.. well.. i just didnt want to.

but.. i decided against it for some reason. i guess a picture will help you get to know me better... or something.

anyways, here is a picture of me in my barracks room..

as you can see, they supply a source of fresh water and an exercise machine.. other than that all i really need is my laptop and guitar. and thats pretty much my whole room.

ok cool... well.. im gonna go to bed now..
sometimes being nocturnal sucks.. [thats a damn lie! i love it]
k bye.

Captain's Blog

alright, so.. this is my first post. ever. im not really sure why im starting a blog.. i just.. man, what a stupid word. blog. i cant really think of a dumber word right now. i think it comes from 'weblog'. people, as they always do, get lazy and shorten things. well, im not calling this a blog. not out loud anyway. nope. i'll have to think of something else.. some other name for it like.. my braindump or my mind's barfbag. yeah. something like that.

anyway.. youll have to get used to my grammatically incorrect, unedited rambling if youre gonna read this. im just gonna use this page to spew random thoughts outta my head in an attempt to clear it.. i guess. i really dont have a reason for having a page like this. my girlfriend, meg, says it's tough keeping up with hers.. i dont think it looks that hard [right?? how hard can it be?]. so i figure i'll give it a shot. ;]

a little bit about me: my name's andy. ok. thats enough!
but seriously, i was born in glendale, CA but i've spent most of my life in franklin, TN. i'm 21 years old and i have a beautiful girlfriend named meg.
now, here's more than you wanted to know: i like ninjas. i like sci-fi movies. i love music. i think it's funny to confuse people. i like photography. i love sleeping but i like being up early as well. i like the idea of running. i like to be lazy sometimes. i like getting a good workout. i love to travel. i call my girlfriend sugarbutt. i'd like to have a reason to wear a suit. i think getting lost is amusing [unless i have to be somewhere]. i wish i had a hammock in my room. i like string cheese. i've had the same roommate for two years. we've been roommates while we were in california, texas, and now georgia and we still call eachother by last name. marines are cool cause even though we sometimes almost kill eachother, we would never hesitate to die for one another. i love water. i like to swim. i love the ocean. i miss california. i love driving and roadtrips. i collect coins. i like history. orange is probably the best flavor. but banana is easily the best fruit.ever. i love to explore new places. i like to be different. i love cereal. i love randomness. i like to play guitar. i like my work and my 10pm-6am shift and my wednesday/thursday weekend even though i now have no social life.. and yes, thats my excuse. i miss meg really bad. i dont wanna go run three miles right now.. but thats what i have to do. so.. i'll seeya later-