So I am typing this to you on my new toy.  Yes folks I got a new computer.  Well I wasnt really looking to get a new computer but when you old computer decides that all within about 2 days of each other the RAM starts failing and then you have a catastrophic hard drive failure it pretty much leads to you having to get a new machine.  Last thursday the RAM on my computer started flaking out on me and so that slowed my computer way way down and then last saturday night the hard drive started making bad noises and so I powered the machine down for the night.  When I got up on sunday morning and tried to turn the machine on it gave me a disk boot failure message and wouldnt recognize the hard drive.  So what were my options at that point.  I could either a) get new ram and a new hard drive, which would cost somewhere around $300 or b) i could get an entirely new and much better computer for between $500 and $700.  Well it didnt take a rocket scientist to figure out that the better option would be to go ahead and get a new computer.  So I called my parents and asked for an early christmas present and am now the proud owner of a brand new compaq.  It is amazing.  It has a 64 bit Athlon 3800+ processor, 1 gig of RAM, and a 200 gig hard drive.  So needless to say it blows my old machine out of the water.  My old machine served me well for the 4+ years that I had it.  I am going to miss that machine and its wonderful fan noise.  (For those of you that dont know it had a 120mm fan on the top of the case to exhaust the heat and some found it rather loud, personally i got used to it after about 2 days and it didnt bother me.)

Today I went to see the new movie Flags of Our Fathers.  This movie is based off of a book by James Bradley.  The movie and book deal with the men of the marine corps that raised the flag on Iwo Jima that became that famous photo.  The movie deals with the battle as well as their lives after the war.  I will warn you up front that if you cannot handle graphic war violence then you will want to either avoid the movie or definitely look away because there are some very graphic sequences.  This movie was aboslutely amazing.  I am going to be reading the book to get more of the story that they obviously could not put into the movie.  The movie is gripping right from the beginning and I will admit that it moved me to tears towards the end. You get great insight into the people who raised that flag. You follow the 3 men that survived Iwo Jima as they go on the Military Bond Tour trying to raise money for the war effort.  I dont want to give too much away. The end of the movie is what was the most gripping as well as the credits.  During the credits they show actual pictures that were taken during the war.  I wont give away what is at the end of the credits but it was totally moving and makes you think about war.  I will post more later on my feelings when I have more time.

So it is official.  I am officially a resident of oregon.  Well almost completely.  I still need to change my car registration and my drivers licensce.  I got a nice 2 bed 2 bath place all to myself.  I moved in this past weekend.  It is nice to be out on my own but also very strange at the same time.  I am having to get used to not having anyone else around. I am excited because my transfer of Target finally went through and I start tomorrow morning at 5am.

So something has been on my mind recently about music.  Why is it that there is a good number of Christians that wont listen to any music other than "Christian" music?  Now I know that there is a lot of music out there that is absolutely horrible and I can totally understand avoiding it, but there is still some music out there that though it may not be "Christian" is good and does not promote sex, violence, or drugs.  Now dont get me wrong I love Christian music but sometimes I just get tired of it because it tends to not be the most interesting style of music.  Yes I know there are different genres within the Christian music world but still the good majority of the Christian rock music is boring.  Now granted there are some exceptions to that but for the most part that holds true.  I really do think that it is cool that there are some "Christian" bands out there that are getting their stuff played on secular stations cuz it is great to have the positive messages heard by more than just the Christian community.  I mean music has a huge influence over you, people may not want to admit it but it is true.  Now this may be why a lot of Christians avoid all non "Christian" music all together which I can sort of understand but still just because something is not technically "Christian" music doesnt mean it is bad.  Take instrumental music for example.  I know people that would not listen to rock music that is just instrumental because it is not "Christian."  Now that doesnt make any sense to me.  Oh well whatever everyone is entitled to their own opinions and choices in music.

So my life of late has been rather boring.  Mainly going to work and then coming home and doing nothing.  I have been playing video games which is a fun escape from reality because I have been playing driving games and I am able to drive really really fast and not die when i hit walls.  It looks like I will be moving up to salem for sure.  I should be receiving some paperwork in the next couple of days to fill out and then send back to the apartment i applied for at which point i should hopefully have an apartment.  That makes me really happy to be moving out of my parents house and getting out on my own as well as moving back up to be closer to friends.  I have a couple of post ideas floating around in my head so we shall see what comes of that.

Thats right folks today I turned 23.  Woopeddeeedooo.  So you are wondering how I spent today.  Well I went to work at 6am and worked until 2pm.  Oh what fun.  Aside from the time at work my day has been spent all alone.  I havent done anything today other than work.  Yeah it is a pretty pathetic birthday I know.  I was hoping to go to a Target sponsored event with one of my coworkers but she couldnt go so I decided not to go all by myself.  So huzzah to a birthday spent alone.

So I think I am finally fed up with the advertisements on tv.  Do we really need the ads for every conceivable prescription drug on the market including the "male enhancement" drugs?  Is it really necessary that we while trying to watch our favorite shows see the ads for things such as Viagra, Cialis, Heartburn medicine, allergy medicine and every other imagineable medicine on the market?  Another thing I am fed up with is all the ads for the feminine products.  Do we really need to have those on tv?  Come on that is a bit ridiculous.  I know there are people out there that have bought something because of the ad they saw on tv but do we really need what seems like an average of 1 feminine product ad per commercial break sometimes more depending on the time of day?  Have you also ever thought about what the advertisements during the tv shows you watch say about you?  For me it would say that: A. I am unemployed and in need of a college education (ie. Heald College, ITT Tech, etc), B. I am a female (ie. Kotex, Playtex, etc), C. I suffer from any number of diseases that can be cured by taking pills.  Sorry but none of those are true so that is a lot of advertising money wasted on me cuz I am not gonna be buying any of those products or attending any of those "universities."  

So turned when I turned on my ps2 I found out that I accidentally corrupted my save file for Gran Turismo 4.  So what does that mean? That means that I have to start over from scratch on the game.  I was 60% of the way done with the game.  Now I must start over.  I guess I accidentally turned the ps2 off before it was done saving which corrupted the file.  It wouldnt be so bad if i hadnt put so much time into GT4.  I mean I probably had around 100 hours invested in the game and now it is all gone.  Oh well.  

So my life has been rather interesting lately.  I havent had a whole lot of work at Target until this last week when I was asked to come to another store and help them out with their transitions during their remodel.  That has been fun and has allowed me to actually work a full work day and in most cases overtime every day.  I just went up to Klamath Falls this weekend for Mark Paulsen and Stephanie Pierce's wedding.  It was a lot of fun.  Ben and I drove up together and shared a hotel room.  It was a good time of fellowship and catching up with my good buddy.  It is looking more and more like I am going to be moving to Salem which i will enjoy but at the same time it is kind of scary.  I am looking forward to the move though if it does happen.  Still not sure when exactly I would be moving.  

So I have been living a very boring life lately.  I did get to do some computer work a couple weeks ago which was great but really for the most part even though I have been cleared by the doctor I havent been doing anything.  I do get to go back to work on the 26th of this month which makes me very happy.  And next week I will be heading off to Washington DC with the 8th grade class from my dad's middle school as the official photographer for their trip.  That should be a blast.  I am looking forward to going back there cuz it was so fun when I went back there my junior year of high school.  In other news I am considering moving back up to the Salem area.  I am not sure whether I will or not but it is something that has been in my thought process lately.