I knew that everything in California was expensive when I came down here, and I tried to budget for that. I figured that I would be ok because, as almost anyone around me knows, I am pretty frugal (or a tightwad... chose your terminology). But when I looked at my credit card statement today, I nearly crapped myself. I paid off my credit card through the middle of last month when it was due, and right now I owe $985 on my card. My parents ask me why I use my credit card all of the time, and that is EXACTLY why. It sure doesn't feel like I have spent that much, but gas, groceries, and my room sure do add up. Yeah... this is what it is like to live on the equivalent of a $28,600 salary in Southern California.

So speaking of spending money, last weekend I went to Universal Studio's Theme Park. While 'Jurassic Park' and 'The Return of the Mummy' were the only two real rides, there was a lot of cool stuff there. We did a studio tour that went through their sets and stages. I even got to see the actual plane crash set from 'The War of the Worlds' (thought of you Chris). But what made all of the rides and attractions so much better was that I was drunk almost all day (8 or so hours). That can make even waiting in line fun!

The next day I was invited to a social that the local Mormon Church was putting on, and since I really had nothing else to do, I accepted. Anyone who has asked my opinion of the Mormon Church knows that I have very strong feelings that the Mormon faith is Christian only by name, and is hardly Biblical. But I have no problem with Mormons themselves, so that was a fun night. They showed a bunch of movies that the 'singles ward' produced (which is a ward for single people 18-30... great idea in my opinion). Then there was a dance... and all of the moves that I broke out during prom of senior year seemed to just come flowing back. Scary, huh?

So this weekend I am going to Las Vegas and staying with Kacy's mom, then San Francisco for the 4th of July weekend, then San Diego, followed by a possible appearance by Amaris! There is plenty to do around here on the weekends, so I am in no rush to get back to Boise.

Oh... and feel free to comment guys. I am terrible about keeping in touch so drop me a line on here... or call me... or IM me...

Last Friday, Robert (my boss) gave me his boogie board, gave me some tips on how to catch the waves, and set me off to have fun. While the Pacific Ocean is freakin' freezin' (all thanks to the Gulf of Alaska... damn Alaska), my wetsuit made it just fine (funny story about the wetsuit... but I will get to that in a second). The waves were pretty good at the beach on base, but they were just breaking way too close to shore to really do anything with them. The other intern here did some talking around and found a serious surfer that told him about another beach (where the aforementioned surfer had broken his leg). So after work on Monday, we headed over there. The surf was awesome and the waves were huge. It was really nice at one point when the sun was setting, a wave was passing me and spraying ocean mist on me, and I looked over to see some kind of marine animal pop out of the water for a second. That made me realize why I love this place so much.

As for the story about the wet suite, I went to WalMart to get the suit along with a few other things. I was in the self checkout lane and the scanner was giving me a lot of trouble because it would not scan my wetsuit, and it was double scanning another thing. Both things needed to get approval from the cashier lady, and each time I needed her, she had just decided to walk across the store to fix some crooked t-shirt or something. She was never there when I needed her. Anyway, the people behind me in line were *audibly* disgruntled at the amount of time I was taking so I quickly paid for everything and ran out. It wasn't until later when I realized that the whole purchase price was about the amount that the wet suit should have been... because it had not been rung up! The lady-that-was-never-there approved it for free. Anyway, I brought it back and told them what happened, and after the customer service lady tried scanning it a few times, she gave up and told me not to worry about it. Score!

And people say it doesn't pay to be lazy. Ha!

Well tomorrow I am going to Universal to hit all of the rides. Tomorrow is one of the Navy's Fridays off, so hopefully there won't be long lines. Ciao.

Last weekend, the other intern and I went down to LA to have some fun and see the sights. We took the Pacific Coast Highway down there, which goes right along the ocean... and the sun was just setting Friday night so it was quite the sight. On the way we saw Malibu and Pepperdine University, which is a Christian university... who knew? It is nice and it is so close to the beach that someone could go swimming in between classes... that would sure be better than sitting in the commons and wasting an hour!

Once we got to LA, we went to Hollywood Blvd which is where all of the celebrities have their hand prints and stars in the side walk. The whole place just felt like one big party because everyone was walking around and just having fun, and there was so much ENERGY! Even though it was 10 at night, there were more people walking around than there are in Moscow at any given time. There was the 'El Capitan' Theater (pronounced Cap-E-Tan), Kodak Theater, and just the air of fame. I even saw a guy that I recognized from Fear Factor... and I have only watched that show a few times but he had his hair spiked into horns so he was rather recognizable. I have put up a few pictures from that famous street.

The next day we went to the La Brea Tar Pits, and IHOP (ohhh... I love IHOP). I also saw the LA version of a farmer's market, which really has very little to do with produce and a lot to do with ice cream, sun glasses, and other wares. The most impressive thing in my mind was that I survived driving in downtown LA, which is no small feat. The lanes seem to be about equal to the width of the car minus a few inches. Then there are busses which always seem to take up a few inches of other people's lanes, and of course there was oncoming traffic with no divider. I swear... they must set up cameras and just watch people screw up driving. After that, we walked through China Town, where you can get anything and everything cheap. A full suite that would meet Kevin's standards was only $80 (with tailoring)!

My favorite part was when we went to Venice Beach though. The weather was perfect, and there was so much going on. People were performing different things, one person would not juggle swords until the crowd moved up to almost his ladder, and another started yelling at the crowd when most people walked away without tipping him. There was a semi-pro basket ball game going on, a wall setup to graffiti on (where there was some serious spray paint artists going at it), and more of that general California party feel. I put up a few pictures from there.

I love this place. I am starting to think that this is a paid vacation, where I will get experience that I can put on my resume… but mostly it will be one heck of a summer. Not only that, but I am pretty well financially independent right now. I am not saying that I am cut off from my parents, but right now I am paying for California rent, all of my food, my car, my insurance, my gas, and my phone. I am doing it... and that is ALMOST as impressive to me as driving in downtown LA.

Almost.

I just found out today that it is not very hard to get critical information about what our government is doing

The Navy completely amazes me. Actually, I would say that the whole government amazes me. To give you a bit of background information, the Navy and Marines have one joint network (actually the largest network in the world) called the Naval and Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI). It cost the government $15 billion (after it was originally quoted to be only $8 billion), and as one of my coworkers puts it, it is slower than the second coming of Christ.

Now, everyone in my office works on pretty secret/ confidential information and emails, so security is of the upmost importance. We can’t install anything on the computers because it could pose a security risk, and starting in July, they will limit VBA commands such as ‘Do’ (because you know how much of a risk those pesky Do commands are). So they limit what we can do, give us annoying restrictions, and then provide such a slow network, that the government doesn’t even have to try very hard to be inefficient. It is built in to the tools that are provided to their workers.

However, Spyware/ Adware is not a concern to them. My boss called their Help Desk today (which is a royal pain to deal with as well) and they discovered that he had spyware/ adware on his computer… the computer that has secret and confidential information. They didn’t know what kind it was; it could be as harmless as a bunch of popups, or as harmful as something that could leak some information. Instead of having him back up his computer and reimage it on the spot, they told him to talk to someone else, file some paperwork and it would be dealt with within a week.

I don’t know about you, but this is a huge security concern. On the largest network… the one that the government has paid a heck of a lot of money for, spyware is being detected and let run free. Man… I don’t know about you but that would be a great way for someone to get some pretty good data on the U.S. We are dealing with so much crap at airports and government offices because we are concerned that terrorist will get in and take down our country, but we are not doing the small things! Am I wrong about this?

Dear lord… I think I now see how information is leaked to the media so often. It is not an ‘anonymous’ tip… it could be the government’s own computers. But hey… they will get to it within a week right?

I need to get out. Honestly... going to California where it is always sunny and between 70-75 degrees has been fun and all, but it has come to a head and something needs to change. No, it is not that I don't like my job. It is the "extracurricular" things that I am doing. Youtube.com. It is a site that hosts videos uploaded by anyone, and there is quite a bit of quality content on there. However, I have been watching so much of it, and I am on a DIALUP CONNECTION! So not only am I wasting my time watching the actual videos, but I am wasting time waiting for them to download. There has to be a support group around here for that.

But check this video out. I got a kick out of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49IDp76kjPw&feature=Views&page=1&t=a&f=b

I would get on MSN Messenger more often, but I can’t sign on because I am downloading YouTube videos. The irony is thick there.

Sigh... I need to make some friends down here. I am so lonely.