Well hello ladies and gents. How have yall been doing? Figured I'd stop by and see whats up.

Hey everyone, just popping in to say "Hello" and see if any of the original forumites are still around. It's been quite a long while, and a lot of things have changed. I'm doing pretty alright for myself these days, mostly attending University in Portland, Oregon. How's everyone doing themselves?

Have had some progress in my job searching. If I don't get any other better offers soon I will probably end up working for the U.S. Geological Survey on an ecological study of Palmer's chipmunk in the mountains northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. Am hedging my bets, though--just yesterday I applied for a position studying road ecology of swift foxes, and today I need to put together an application for a botany job based out of Boise, Idaho.

Channycat, Stomach Ache! Great to see you're still around...For me it's just far too much job, far too much, but I think I'll survive...maybe.

A couple days ago I found out that a kid I used to know when I was about 4 years old and lived in a different town is in my Mass Media class.

I recognized the name (though I couldn't remember the face - my memories of that place are very vague), so I asked him if he lived in Bald Eagle Lake. He said he did. I asked what street he lived on, and it turned out to be the same street I lived on. It was definitely him. He said he wasn't sure if he remembered me - I imagine his parents might've. His parents and my parents were friends, I think. I'm not sure. It's been 17 years, and someone I barely remember has intersected paths with me again.

Small world, innit?

Well, earlier I said something about going to Vegas unless I received a better job offer... and I received a better job offer. Sometime relatively soon (within the next month, I'd say) I'll be moving to St. George, Utah, so I can work as a wildlife biology technician for the Bureau of Land Management. It's a "temporary" job, but whereas most temporary bio jobs last for like 3-6 months, this one will last for at least a year. That, and I'll be living right close to Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument... red rock heaven, really. I'm going to have a great job in one of the most stunning landscapes in the world.

Yay canis! that sounds incredibly fun...I wish you all the best with this job and I hope you'll post some pictures...I so like your nature photos!

Great stuff Canis. Sounds like a good job in a nice place, and if it lasts that long there must be a fair chance that they intend to keep you perminantly, and I can think of pleanty worse places to work.

What does a wildlife biology technician do?

Depends on the particular position and location, but my job will involve some study of desert tortoises, some habitat characterization, a little work with bighorn sheep, perhaps.

Sighs...this post does not exist. Do not acknowledge its existance.

Excuse me, what?

k

Post? What post?

What post?

I could have sworn I saw something just now... Hm. Guess not.

Mass hallucinations!? All quoting the same nonexistant line? Perhaps this post is haunted...

I'm currently having my own little going insane session. A couple of days ago I bought, for reasons I can't begin to imagine, a coconut which is now sitting in the corner of my room looking at me. What one earth do you do with a coconut? Even once you're inside, which isn't easy, it's horrible. Is there some way of cooking them or something which tastes nice? And why did I buy one?

You bought it because it looks cool, my good man. And once you're inside, milk it a bit, then shred the rest and use it for cakes. Fresh grinded coconut is probably much better than that crap I get from a plastic bag.

Kiln, my good man, there are times we all feel down and out. Some of us have longer periods, some just flukes. Whenever you're ready to pour things onto us, I am sure there will be people here who will listen. Keep your head up.

Me, I'm not happy because tomorrow is a working day.

Just throw it away.

Preferably onto somebody's head.

Have set a start date for my new job: May 4th. Will be moving to Utah next week. Exciting times.

Congratulations Canis! Hope all goes well.

I got my orange belt in Aikido tonight.

My dojo gets hot so I was pouring with swaet afterwards.

Haha, congrats. My dojo gets like that sometimes as well. Near the end of this year I'll be doing my first dan grading in Shotokan Karate. Was training with Master Kanazawa and his son Nobuaki (think I spelled that right...) last night, fantastic as always.

Good stuff. Aikido is an interesting one, I've trained with guys who've done it a few times and they're seriously hard to hit. Trust me a hot dojo is better than a cold one, I've train in one really cold one and its just not nice, almost every injury I get is from cold mats.

Green next?

Congratulations, Sensei. Soon, you will live up to your nick.

Aye, Green next, but thats a way off I think. No need to rush though.

And a hot dojo probably is better but I don't take as well to heat as other people. by the time I was finished I looked like I'd just got out of a boiling shower.

Silly coffee house and it's longevity.... How've all you kids been?

Hehe the kids are probably ok...as for me, well I'm fine but I work too much. How about you Soulie?

Dude no way, I do exactly the same style of Karate in Britain, and I've trained with Kanazawa in Ukraine and Japan too! Are you going to the world championships in Athens this year?

Our sensei is Hanshi Asano, I'm not sure you may have heard of him - he's like second in command to Kanazawa.

P.S Our dojos are always cold... oh so cold... *shudders*

Bope, I'm not competitive... I know a couple of people who I believe are going there though. Haven't heard of your sensei... maybe you've heard of mine? Seamus O'Dowd, gonna be over in London in May as a guest sensei at a seminar thingy Kanazawa is doing, teaching Kanazawa no Bo. He recently released a DVD teaching the same kata, at the behest of Kanazawa himself.

I have heard of Seamus O'Dowd actually. Did he go to Sardinia a year or two back for the Europeans? There was quite a large irish team that went, almost as big as the British in terms of youngsters like myself.

I do karate for the competing to be honest. I admit first I was extremely nervous (at my first european champs in Ukraine I trained for four hours non-stop on the mats before my event because I was so afraid I was going to forget my kata) but once you've done something like that you think, wait, what have I got to be nervous about I've done a competition before? And then for some strange reason you start missin' the thrill .

P.S Still nervous as **** though whenever I'm up .

P.P.S Do you by any chance know a Sensei Murakami?

Haha, work has a way of seeming like that. As for me, I've discovered that college is one heck of a workout.

Holy crap...

Watch video

Wow....don't mess with him.

Edit: Whoops...wrong place. Oh well its cool anyways.

Holy crap... You really don't wanna mess with that guy...

My sister is back from Canada after 5 years! For about 2 months, no less. She'll get to lounge here instead of there [unemployment is a b*tch unless you have parents to feed you ]. Downside is, it probably won't be long until we are ready to bite each other heads off. C'est la vie... *goes off to hug his big sis*

Unemployment is terrible, and I'm very glad I had my parents to feed me, etc. But tomorrow I get to start my new job, so I can feed myself.

Oh.. my.. god! By the way the subtitles were in Swedish hehu.

Well, the day I feared has arrived. My 360 got the red rings of death. Thankfully, it's still covered by the 3 yer warranty for just such an occurence, and so I now await the box required to ship it off to get it repaired, free of charge. But still, no xbox is sucktacular XD

That bob munden video is amazing. He's a bit arrogant though - not that he doesn't have every right to be .

If you leave it alone for a couple days, it'll work again (hopefully). Happened to mine at least four times, I just left it off for three days and it takes a least 7-8 months for it to happen again.

Nope, 'tis truly kaput. Doesn't matter, the box to ship it off for repairs is already en route.

If it works again it just means it overheated, if you actually get the RROD, you'll have to ship it off.

Well mine has officially broken now, and no more warranty. It'll be awhile before we get a new one. Which really sucks, because I have become totally addicted to Fallout 3 .

And that, kiddies, is why I have playstation 3.

*Smugs*

Yeah but PS3 doesn't get FO3 DLC, thats why most people prefer it on 360.

According to my friend John, having it on PC is better than anything else. With mods and all, I'd probably have to agree with him.

It's true. And there's more to a game than DLCs, which I've heard are pretty lacklustre as it is.

Yeah you're not wrong there, they aren't the best and most people are let down by them. Personally I enjoyed them but they could have been longer and more expansive than they were. The last one isn't half bad though, gotta say I'm impressed with it myself.

Yes Bean! *high fives*

The only problem with PS3 is you can't mod

I have a computer again!!!

YAY! WOOT! HURRAH!

and so on...

This has been the longest time since 1999, that I've had to do without one. Lesson learned though - no more laptops for me. I don't care how handy they are, if one thing goes wrong inside of them - you is knackered

So, I've spent a fairly obscene amount of money (by my standards anyway ) on a nice new quad core desktop It's so pretty...

Anyhoo....

BACK ONLINE AGAIN!

(quite happy about this, as you can see )

Just bought an iPod Touch with all my birthday money . Too bad I don't have any money left over for the Renaissance Festival this weekend... Oh well.