AUGH! and other frustrated noises; another update!

AAAAAUUUUUUUUUGH!

Google Apps has become kind of a pain in the ass to deal with, now that they've updated it. Google+ won't let me back in with this account -- so I made a new one -- and above all, it was trying to tell me that my email address (justin@justin-barlow.com was being used by me as a person and me as an organization. Which apparently does not fly with Dark Lord Google.

So I do its bidding and try and basically merge the data from the "personal account" and the "organizational account", but that's not good enough. Now, logging in to Blogger with my email address said that I had no blogs, because they were under the "personal account", and justin@justin-barlow.com was now the "organizational account". Long and frustrated story made short (ish), I created another email address and through tricks of cleverness and awesome-y goodness, I got my Blogger info and settings moved over to the right account.

Aside from the frustration of trying to figure that out, it's just another night. Usin' the interwebs to catch up on things and pretty much keep myself awake so I can sleep before work tonight. There are some good things on the horizon, though!

After two and a half years without home internet access, I might have internet again soon! Since I'm getting full time on a regular basis again, I'm going to start paying off the (very) past-due $200 that I owe Comcast. That, and a $100 deposit, and I can have the internet/tv/phone combo hooked up. Only one I care about from those three is  the internet, but with mom there and unable to live without TV, that's a necessity. And hey, a land-line might make it so she'll ease up on the cell phone minutes.

Then there's also my ongoing attempts to go to New York City Comic Con this October. It's not a sure thing yet, but I'm making the effort to see how much it'll cost and how much I'll have to save. The cool thing is that I've gotten one offer to stay with a friend while I'm there, so that's out of the way without having to spend money for it! Of course, I'll cook for them like I did for Matt when I was on my trip in April. Have to show my gratitude in some way!

So, anyone want to donate to either the "Get Justin to NYCC" or "Get Justin Internet" funds? :P

Bonfire pictures! And, an update

I promised pictures of the bonfire, and here they are! Sure, it took me ten days to get them up. But only six or seven of those days (okay, maybe eight) were my fault. You should know this: I work a lot. I think I’ve mentioned that. So, here’s the pic-spam!

 

Chrissy

 

Me, kicking ass at Ladder Golf

 

Nar (Adam’s dad) taking a picture to make him jealous

 

 

Lorali says that there are still more pictures to come, so I might be adding them as she sends them to me. Or maybe I’ll start using my Flickr account, and I can just link there from here. Hmm.

 

Anyway, the last week and a half hasn’t been too extraordinary. I had my busiest night (250+ customers) on Friday at work, and then had a couple of days off, which was pretty nice. I ordered a copy of Mistborn: The Well of Ascension, which should be arriving very soon. I’ve been going through Mistborn withdrawals, since the first book was so good.

 

And in super-exciting-for-me news, which some of you might know from me mentioning it on Twitter and Facebook, I’ve started scripting the first issue of my comic book pitch. That’s going to probably consume a lot of my non-work time, but I’m also going to try to have a little bit of a life, since I’m starting to not be CONSTANTLY BROKE. Which, you know, is pretty nice.

Bound by Blood, Fire, and Stone

Last night was, in a word, fantastic.

I love living in a small town, because it affords us the freedom to do things that would be much harder in a big city. A great example is last night, spending hours around a fire-pit with Chrissy (Adam's wife, mentioned yesterday), Nar (Adam's dad), his wife, and Adam's younger brother.

Being able to get out of town and sit around a fire, roasting marshmallows, playing games and catching up on years long past was fantastic. As I said yesterday, Adam moved away unexpectedly during elementary school. What I didn't know until last night was the reason why and that, at Adam's request a while later, his dad had tried finding me for him. Last night brought so many memories back, from Adam and me getting in trouble as kids to him contacting me again about 7 years ago.

I don't have any pictures yet, because my cell phone was dead and I'd forgotten to grab my camera -- I was sleep-deprived and in a hurry -- but I'm hoping to get some soon. Nar's wife, Lorali, had a Nikon camera (DSLR, not a point-and-shoot like mine) and took plenty of pictures. I've asked for some to put up here, so we'll see what I can do! :)

Tonight, it's back to work, for the next five days. I'm making some iced tea to bring with me, because it gets really warm in that store. :)

--Justin


P.S. Keep sending me blog recommendations, whether it's your blog or someone else's! I've gotten some good ones so far!


("Bound by Blood, Fire, and Stone" is from Demonic Resurrection's 2010 album 'The Return to Darkness')
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Meeting of the Minds

Today's kind of exciting! Lack of sleep set aside, I get to meet someone super awesome! Here's the short version of a long story:

Back when I was a kid, in early elementary school, I had a couple of awesome friends: Mike, and Adam. One of them (Mike) moved to Montana when I was nine, and Adam moved to Missouri the following year. Fast forward through middle school and high school, to some time before I moved out to Ocean Shores in 2007, when I still lived with my grandparents. This guy shows up on the porch asking if "Justin Barlow still live[s] here", and when I identify myself, it turned out to be Adam. He was in the area visiting his dad, remembered where I used to live almost a decade before, and decided to see if I still did!

Nowadays, Adam is serving our country as a United States Marine currently on deployment, and is married. This is where the awesomeness of today comes in; his wife, C., is in the state to spend time with her in-laws, and I get to meet and hang out with her tonight! I'm excited, as I've talked on webcam, on the phone, and online with Adam and his wife many times over the years, but haven't yet met her. The only way it could be better is if Adam were to be back from his deployment sooner, something that I know C. would agree with me on.

Aside from that, I had a super-busy night last night at work. It's a little unnerving knowing that last night will apparently pale in comparison to the beginning of next month. Finished watching "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" with Tony (mentioned yesterday as "T.") this morning, too. It was a fun movie, not sure about rewatch value yet. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was awesome in it, and I could see myself being interested in watching a sequel if they decided to make one (with the same cast).

And that's about all I've got this time around. I'm excited to meet C. in person tonight, and will make sure to take a picture or three so that you all can meet her too!




(("Meeting of the Minds" is from Bad Religion's 2010 album 'The Dissent of Man'))

Mischief and Epiphany

So my first solo graveyard shift last night was a mix of good and bad. I can't really get into specifics, but I was pretty irritated with the second half of the night.

Tomorrow is something I've been looking forward to for a while now -- I get to meet my friend A.'s wife, who came to Washington to meet some of her in-laws. I've known A. since I was very young, and can't wait until he's back from his overseas deployment. But for now, I get to meet C., who I know to be pretty damn awesome.

I've also got an agreement with another long-time friend, T., who works for the same 7-11 stores that I do. He's driving me to work on the nights that we both work, and also picking me up in the morning. If this morning was any indication, hangouts are sure to follow -- with today's and tomorrow's consisting of watching G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Oh, and Portal, which I've finally started playing on his PS3. And by "started playing", I mean that I had to start a new game less than a minute in because I broke it.

Somehow, in one of the first levels, while carrying a companion cube backwards through a portal, the portal closed after I had gotten through and before the cube had. But the cube wasn't left in that chamber, it actually disappeared, nowhere to be found at all. T. and I still don't know what the hell happened, other than "I broke Portal". I did better when I restarted, though, and had a lot of fun playing the little that I have so far. Minus my hatred for camera-controlled games (which is the main reason for my hatred of first person shooters).
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One thing that I forgot about...

Recently, I did a Factory Restore on my computer, to clear out a few issues it was having and, really, because I just felt like it'd been a while since the last one. As usual, I kept a list of the programs I wanted to re-install, some of the preferences I wanted to re-adjust, and just the general stuff to remember. I did forget one thing, though: my FeedReader program.

I've talked about FeedReader over on Random Ramblings, but if you don't know about it, it's an RSS feed program. I use it to follow most of the websites that I follow, except for those that don't have an RSS feed, which I fall way behind on (I'm looking at you, @CarbonAndSpace!). I remember some of the ones I had in it, and have gotten a few recommendations, but I'm always looking for more, since a large number of my feeds don't update more than once or twice a week.

So, please, give me blogs and webcomics and all that stuff to check out. I love finding cool new sites, and if I like your blog, I usually end up talking about it eventually. Leave links in the comments, or send me a reply on Twitter with them! :)
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