MISS CLEO, WHERE ARE YOU? I NEED SOME ONE TO INTERPRET THIS
I had the strangest dream last night, which was really two nights ago, but when you don't go to sleep until well after midnight, who's really keeping track? Anyways, back to the dream.

It seems I was one of several people who left to the newspaper to do an off-the-wall job. One co-worker left to become a cave explorer, another left to become a shoe salesman, and I quit to go work at Target. Why Target? I don't know, I woke up as I walked in for my first day on the job.

Perhaps the subconscious is giving me a hint. (MUST LEAVE NEWSPAPER... MUST LEAVE NEWSPAPER.... MUST WORK FOR TARGET!?!?!?!)

Speaking of people leaving to do odd jobs. I can't beleive my friend Marcus (did I get the the link right this time?) will be leaving us for greener pastures very soon. If you read his site regularly, you know where he is going. If you don't, click on his name and check out his site to find out. He's a cool cat.

Other than that, life is going swimmingly. Congrats to sports reporter Jon Solomon on his engagement to Mandy, even though he doesn't read this website. And congratulations to the rest of the sportos for being an APSE Honorable Mention section for Sundays. (Even if I am the only one whose happy about it)

Oh yeah Happy Birthday to my sister, who turns 25 today, even though she isn't likely to read this either, forcing me to call her at work today and interupting both of our days. How's that for whining? I'm such a malcontent these days.

ADVICE TO MY 12-YEAR-OLD SELF
I recently read a great question at Slashdot . It was: "What advice would you give your 12-year-old self?"

Here's mine:

Dear 12-year-old self:

Things may change in your life as you get older, but you'll never feel anything better than how you are feeling right now as a 12-year-old. Don't worry. That's a good thing.

In the next few years, you're going to learn a lot of things, and remember a lot of more too. You'll become more responsible, get a good job and even find out what you want to be when you grow up. There are some negatives to growing up too, but don't be afraid, you'll get through them fine too. The good news is the things that are important to you now: Your family and doing things that make you happy, won't ever change. You should always try to do the things that make YOU happy. In fact, you'll find out that video games are still cool, that the Texas Rangers still suck and that you never quite get over the facination with race cars.

People will always like for who you are, not what you can do for them. So don't try to hard to fit in. The guys who pick on you, they only do it because they like you. And the adults are right, they only do it because they like you. Believe it or not, you'll be tougher for it in the future.

Look I updated twice in one day.... mainly because I forgot to tell my friend Mark, who sometimes reads this site, congratulations on the birth of his twin boys Cole and Alex. They were born a Feb. 10.

"I WAS ROBBED"
Note: This entry was started on Feb. 7, but finished on Feb. 20)

Yeah, I know, it's been a while since I last updated. And my loyal fan (yes, you Marcus) has finally complained that I never update this thing any more. I don't know why. I guess I'm getting lazy in my old age.

Anyways, if you haven't heard by now, I did have an event happen to me here. Maybe small-town life has gotten to me. I've become too trusting of people.

But yes, I was robbed a couple of weeks ago, and it was my fault because I let the robber into my apartment. To make the long story short. A man calling himself "Jason" pretending to be a neighbor and an employee of the local cable company came by the apartment on Wednesday night saying he had been working in my complex on Wednesday and noticed that our reception was bad. He offered to fix my cable and would for $30 disconnect my cable and reconnect it and destroy the bill. I declined his offer, but let him check the cable.

He came back early the following morning, saying he could fix my cable before he went to work. I was half-awake, since I had only gone to sleep a few hours before, and let him in. He distracted me a couple of times and proceeded to take both my car CD player and all my CDs that I had been carrying and the discman I used at home. Object Lesson: Don't open the door for people, especially at 6:30 a.m.

Other than that, nothing is really going on. I basically have my schedule set for the next few months. I'm heading to Columbia for the SCPA Awards Dinner tomorrow with some of my friends from work who were lucky enough to be winners. And next month I'll be going to NASCAR races at Darlington and Texas. In May, there's my second trip to the Indianapolis 500. Between then, I'll be working and spending all my free time trying to replace all the CDs I lost on my MP3 player.