Below are the 4 most recent journal entries recorded in Kirk's LiveJournal:

Monday, June 28th, 2004
10:31 pm	Wonderful Tonight While I was working today, some things struck me as ironic: 1) At my first job I was the worst worker ever, I would just not show up for days at a time, a few times it was even weeks. Yet at my current job I am loathe to ask for even an afternoon off. I put it off so much that I may have screwed myself over and created a rather difficult situation school style. 2) I have at least 200% more free time during the school year than during "vacation". I dont know if this speaks more to my skill at school, or my laziness there, but recently I have been asked to go places that during the school year I would attend without question, but because of my work scedule it is impossible. On other notes, I havn't played poker in about a week or so. I think this is a good decision, I have come to the conclusion that when I concentrate I can be a rather good poker player, but I rarely concentrate enough, so why should I just throw money at people? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 5th, 2004
10:47 am	Summer Hurrah, the first year of school is over! I only had to pull 2 all nighters to complete my assignments, so that was a plus. What I learned the last week of school: 1) Unless you are me, do not attempt to take a physics final without a calculator 2) I am god of getting lucky on what to study. For example, I was totally lost in calc going into the final exam, I spent 2 hours the night before, catching up on 3 weeks worth of material, I come into the exam and realize when I look at the questions that I know ALL I need to know about them, it felt really good. My Plan for the immediate future: Relax until Saturday, work on Saturday, Relax on Sunday, Begin working on Monday full time style. The Relax part of the plan will include reading alot, just yesterday I spent like $60 on books and then proceeded to read them all. In the past week I have read: Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon - Pretty good, not as good as Gibson, but not bad Alan Moore: Judgement Day - Watchmen is so great that this just doesn't live up to it. Neil Gaimain: Death, The Time of Your Life - I like it, but its not up there with Endless Nights Frank Miller: The Dark Knight Returns - Wow, this is a great read, I reccomend it to anyone Assorted: Knightfall - Again a great story arc about Batman (without a doubt the coolest superhero). Next on my list to buy once the cash flow starts up: Neal Stephenson - Quicksilver Alan Moore - V is for Vendetta Roger Zelazny - The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of his Mouth. All the while I will be listening to Me and Mr. Johnson, a remarkable cd. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2004
10:39 am	I should probably start working on my homework earlier than 1 hour before its due date, especially when I have known of the problems and the due date for about 2 months now. So, my Computer Science professor keeps bugging me to join this engineering club thing. I keep not going because I dont really see anything in it for me. The people that are in my classes just aren't A) Interesting enough to hang out with aside from school or B) Smart enough to add something worthwhile to my thoughts. While it may seem to be the hieght of arrogance, it is the truth, I am just better than them. Current Music: Led Zeppelin - Rock and Roll (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 26th, 2004
9:12 am	On Family "The bonds of family bind both ways. They bind us up, support us, help us. And they are also a bond from which it is difficult, perhaps impossible to extricate one-self. " "Had we not been family, why then we could have had nothing to do with each other, and both our lives would have been enriched. Instead we were siblings and this was, to say the least, unfortunate" -Desire of the Endless I have given some thought to these ideas recently. It came about because of some things that have happened within my family. Recently one of my uncles moved back down to my home town from Boston. He bought my grandmother's best friend's house on the cheap by banging the late owner's daughter (who is married and has a kid). My uncle can be a rather difficult man, and of late he has taken to saying that the entire family is against him. He has convinced my cousin that all the women in the family hate all the men. They have taken to harassing my sister at her work (though I doubt they see it as such) and she complains quite loudly about it at the dinner table. This forced my dad to speak to my uncle which of course caused more strife. Now my sister has proclaimed that she does not see either of my dad's brother or my cousin as family. Instead she sees them as merely relatives. My thoughts on the matter is that we as people need a family to have a rich life. A family need not be one in a conventional sense, it could be a group of close friends, yet there is something about blood that makes it much easier to form these familial bonds. It is more than difficult to remove ones-self from ones family completely. While you may not have any dealings with them, their actions still reflect on you. Why then do most people try at some time to separate themselves from their family? Some because of overbearing parents, some because they are kicked out of the house. What ever it is, it all comes down to the same reason, the search for an identity of ones own. You dont wish for others to distort how people perceive you, yet that is exactly what a family does, what they do is seen in you. In the situation at hand, I am angered at my uncles because of their dragging down of my grandmother. Yet unlike my sister I do not seek to disown them or cause more conflict, instead I work to ignore them. I do not know if it is the best method, but anymore petty squabbling will just make my grandmother more tired and more depressed, those that seek to cause these conflicts be it my aunts, or my sister, often claim to do it because of my grandmothers unhappiness, when all they do is contribute to it. The perfect solution would be for my uncles to move away, though this is quite unlikely. Its not so much that absence makes the heart grow fonder, it is more like you cant piss someone off if your not there. On a somewhat related note, my family is one of the reasons I dont drink or do drugs, not because they told me not to, but because I have seen what they can do to men in my family. A 55 year old man and his 50 year old brother living with their mother because their addictions to marijuana and alochol has driven every other person away is indeed a sad sight to see. (4 Comments |Comment on this)