Phil Central

So, this Saturday, me and Kelsey were in town for to help her mom over the weekend since she had surgery on Friday. As it happened, it was Halloween weekend and I decided to hit up some parties, one of them being a party at Saif and Eric’s house. And after being there for 2 hours, Saif kicked us out because “Kelsey used the upstairs bathroom” which is sad, because despite the fact that I don’t talk to Saif anymore, Kelsey never did anything to him, in fact, she helped him out multiple times with his OKGamers initiative without requiring anything in return, and she’s not even into video games…

Also realize that there have been parties at this house for god knows how long, and when someone is in the downstairs bathroom for 20+ minutes, it’s pretty much known to go to the upstairs bathroom… it’s not in anyone’s room, it’s in the hall, you go up stairs, go left at the top and the bathroom is on the left, nothing fancy. So it’s a really slap in the face that Saif would kick someone out over that, that had never done anything to him and had in fact helped him in the past.

Now, Saif doesn’t like me, lots of people know that… although he has no reason to have a problem with me. All I’ve ever done to Saif was stop talking to him. I haven’t said anything bad about him to anyone, betrayed anything he ever told me or anything like that. I just got fed up with how he treated me as a friend one day, and stopped talking to him. And that was the end of it. No drama, nothing fancy, just stopped talking to him.

However, now, for the first time ever, duh duh duh, I will reveal the details as to why I stopped talking to Saif. One night, me, Jason, and Saif were chilling on the couch watching nothing on TV. We start talking about snacks and drinks. Jason points out right off the bat that he isn’t going to drive. Saif wants Bueno, but he can’t drive because his car is broken. I want QT. So we’re at 31st and Yale. At 31st and Sheridan is both a QT and a Bueno and I agree to drive there. When we get to QT, Saif starts going on about he won’t eat at the Bueno right there because he got food poisoning there once (months ago) and wants me to drive all the way across town to another Bueno, I tell him that I’m not gonna do that and that if he’s not gonna eat at the Bueno he should get food at QT, this conversation goes on for a bit in the QT while I get my drink and food and Jason gets his snacks and when Saif finally realizes that I’m not gonna drive across town to go to another Bueno when there is one RIGHT HERE, he goes outside and pouts… waiting for us to finish. When we get back in the car, he doesn’t say a word, then he pouts off back to his house once we got back to the cul-de-sac. I go home and think about a lot of stuff, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened with Saif, but it’s pretty up near top for the dumbest, so I decide that it’s not really worth it anymore, and from that point forward, I haven’t said a word to him period. And that was it. I just stopped talking to him, seriously, nothing more.

Here is what sealed the deal and made me never want to talk to Saif again, ever, period. At one point, Saif was cleaning out his garage, a reasonable endeavor… he planned a Saturday for it. This is before the Bueno incident noted above. I told him I probably wouldn’t have time to come by since I had stuff going on that Saturday. However, I found I had about 15 minutes that Saturday so I went over and was carrying out some of my stuff, and he was like, “You said you couldn’t come get it, it’s my stuff now.” So, not wanting to deal with Saif this time, and it wasn’t really anything I required, I said, fine, take it, and went home… as far as I was concerned, all that stuff was his now. So like a month or so later, about 2 weeks post-Bueno he texts me to come get my stuff, screw that, it’s his stuff now. So he takes it and dumps it one mine and Jason’s front lawn. And not just my stuff, boxes of his garbage and stuff, VHS tapes, papers with him name all over them, OKGamers garbage, all on our front lawn. So that was the breaking point.

Those are just the straws that broke the camels back, Saif’s attitude toward life, constant gloom, refusal to be optimistic about almost anything, and constant depression just wear on you. And it’s funny because he seems to have this huge problem being in the same place as me even though the only thing I’ve ever done is stop talking to him. And seriously, to kick us out of his party because of Kelsey using the bathroom, Kelsey, who has only ever helped him with stuff without requiring anything is exchange, is just tacky. If he was just looking for a reason to kick me out, my girlfriend using the bathroom is a pretty sad one… if that’s the worst thing we did in 2 hours, then we definitely weren’t causing any problems. I would have respected him more if he was just a man about it, however, this is Saif, and if he was a man about anything I guess I wouldn’t have been in this situation in the first place.

That’s right… I’m that nerdy! It came out pretty well though!

So, I’m sitting here, approximately 10.5 hours away from owning Halo 3 and I’m excited. I’ve got the ultimate setup, HDTV, XBox 360, surround sound home theater system with everything set up properly (Gears of War was a mind blowing experience), and I’m excited. Way excited.

Halo 3 has been getting stellar reviews, and the advertising has been incredible. The screenshots look amazing, not quite Gears of War amazing, but definitely Halo 3 next gen amazing. 4 player co-op over XBox Live? Yes, please.

I’ll be at Best Buy at midnight waiting to pick up my copy, it’s gonna be sweet. I’ve got 12 liters of Game Fuel and Johnny’s coming on Saturday, we’re gonna blast through the single player… if anyone wants to join us over XBox Live, let me know.

So, I’ll be going to work for the OU IT department. I start on August 14th and I’ll be moving on the 13th. I’m gonna miss my Tulsa peoples. But I’ll be working a M-F 8am to 5pm schedule, so I’ll be able to come back for weekend parties or whatnot, so you better have them (MOLLY!). Anyway, it’s been real… I guess I’m moving out of the 918.

So, I planned to move to the OKC area in the Fall. Besides just wanting a change in scenery, there were a few reasons for this move at first.

• Kelsey is going to college at OU in the Fall, it would be nice to be close to her.
• There was a job opportunity in OKC at Sprint for me.
• I have a lot of friends at OU and UCO.

So, I set a date of September 1st to be moved to Norman. I had a job practically guaranteed at Sprint OKC, I had Ben as my roommate, and I had a few good reasons to move. But I figured, why settle on the easy… I have some time, why not try to find a better job in Norman if possible.

While perusing Job listings in Norman, almost all of them specifically said: “Please apply in person”, this presented an issue as it was difficult to apply in person anywhere in Norman when I lived in Tulsa, but then I saw a few from OU, and figured that would be the perfect place to work… and I could apply to all of them online. I made some calls, got some names, put together my resume, references, and cover letter, applied to a few different positions and crossed my fingers.

Well, yesterday, I got a call back for a interview with the OU IT department. I go tomorrow for my interview at 3pm. They sounded pretty excited about my qualifications over the phone. I really hope this works out, as it would mean saving a lot of gas, making a LOT more money, and pretty much just being the perfect job for my life and career. So wish me luck, it should go well.

So, I’ve added a few new things to my site and overall streamlined it. I added some colors and a new header on the top to more represent my Italian pride rather than my Tulsa pride. While I like Tulsa, I won’t always be a Tulsan, but I will always be Italian. I can deal with that.

Also, I’ve changed the ‘What I’m Doing’ box into a ‘Daily Update’ box which makes more sense and also maybe encourages me to post a little blurb everyday. I think its a good change overall. And there is a webcam now, its always on, but not always interesting.

Finally, I’ve added a plugin that mirrors my blog to LiveJournal which is what most of my friends use. So now they can see my posts without having to check my site. It does force them to go to my site to comment though… because hey, I need page views.

I’m still trying to improve the site as much as I can, there are lots of plugins for Wordpress, and I’m always trying new things. It’s a website about me though, so it can only be so interesting.

Well, this week has been cool. I’ve been staying at my parents house while they’ve been out of town. It’s been fun. I’ve been getting to spend lots of time with Kelsey, at her house, at my house, at the movies.

Me and Kelsey have been dating for 5 months now. Time has flown by. We went to go see Knocked Up, it was ok. I enjoyed watching it with Kelsey.

My car is acting up, the radiator fan stays on and drains the battery even when the car is off. I have to disconnect the battery everytime the car is off. It’s a pain. I brought it in Friday and they didn’t fix it, I have to bring it in again tomorrow, oh well.

I’ve redone some of my site. Decided not to use Flickr anymore. Trying to consolidate the number of web services I’m a member of. Everyone seems to be all about Facebook. Now that everyone can join, the concept is good, however I think Facebook apps may wind up turning Facebook into even more of a browser bane than MySpace. Right now, to get by on the web, you need at least a MySpace and Facebook… its sooo frustrating. I’ll post more about this in my technology section I think.

Finally, me and Kelsey are cruising through Wal-Mart and we this sign. Apparently Wal-Mart and the devil are working together to find children. You’d think the person that makes these signs would wait for 10 more to be found before posting a sign like this. =P

So, just getting through life right now. Trying to get my finances straightened out so I can move in the Fall has been a pain in the rear. Everytime I think I’m getting ahead, something stupid happens and I fall further behind. Kelsey has been really supportive, I owe her one.

I got really sick last night, bad pains, throwing up, I coughed up some blood, the works. It sucked, I hurt so bad I had to leave work, I thought I might be really really sick but I decided to sleep before going to the hospital. Low and behold, I woke up and felt fine, so who knows. I think it was a QT donut, but I don’t care, I love those things and will continue to love them.

Everything has been going really really awesome with Kelsey. We’re so perfect together. Her car broke after I changed the oil. Long story, but it wasn’t my fault, the car had 200,000 miles on it, and it was ready to die. So I was gonna buy her a scooter, however her mom vetoed that idea, so I’m basically just helping Kelsey ride around town now.

We’re probably going to the Renn Faire on Sunday which should be fun. And then next Saturday I have something awesome planned, but Kelsey doesn’t know what it is, so I can’t post it here. So life is good, money is stressful, but bleh, I gots my Kelsey.

Seriously, everything is rockin. I’ve been spending so much time with Kelsey, it’s been totally awesome. We’re going to prom in like 3 days, how insane is that?! I’ve got a tux rented, I’ve got a corsage ordered. We’ve got tickets, we’ve got our forms submitted tot he school. We’re all set.

Kelsey’s mom has been exceptionally cool. I’ve been hanging out at Kelsey’s house, I helped them open their pool, get their computer network set up. I’ve helped Kelsey with her computer and also helped her clean the pool furniture, I’m really trying and it seems to be paying off.

Not really much else going on, went to soccer games last night, it was pretty fun. Other than that, everything else is good too… Life is rockin, I’m moving and shaking… making waves. Should be a good summer, I’m pretty excited.

So, I went over to Kelsey’s house last night after we went dress shopping and was greeted nicely. I didn’t sense any hostility or anything which was really really nice. I was a little worried going over, but it was all unfounded I discovered.

Basically stayed over for a few hours, helped with Kelsey’s computer, ate some bagel bites, and went for a walk with Kelsey. It was a pretty nice evening actually. I’m going back over today to help set up Wifi at Kelsey’s house. I don’t know how late I’ll stay.

I’d say, honestly, this is a much better situation than when we were hiding it from her mom. It just feels better anyway.

That’s pretty much what’s been going on in my life recently. I’ll update again when something incredible happens.