Keef's online gurnal

castle movie dream. john lithco, paul rudd, tracy morgan, ect.

2009-04-03T12:53:46Z

I had a strange and awesome dream.

The dream started out being a resident evil/ survival horror dream. I was in this big house with zombies, and these girls came up and started trying to kill me and eat me. at first the game was like a video game and I died three times by these girls that came up and killed me. then I figured out something I had to do and somehow they swarmed me and all melded into one cray girl zombie and I fended her off and then made it upstairs where I found other survivors including a king of the castle we were in. he said the zombies were residents of Xanthia, a kingdom who was trying to take control of everything. I met a friend who is Nathan Fillion (Captain Mal from the movie Serenity and the show Firefly). Tracy Morgan was the king, and he kept telling me to wash out the best toilet in the castle with cold water, as cold as an ice cold 40 oz for this one guy who was his favorite person. apparently I felt very jealous. king Tracy made me go downstairs to wash out the toilet for this guy again, instead I just decided to not do it and say I did, so I got outside to tell him this and they are all playing basketball. This guy who is his favorite is Paul Rudd from role models, knocked up, like every Judd Apetow movie, or every good comedy lately. also he is playing basketball with Michael Ian Black and David Wain. anyways, everyone is leaving so I pick up the basketball and throw it at him hard, causing him to question if I hate him, I tell him no, then we have a heart to heart about how I was jealous and he tells me he doesn't want to be the kings favorite. then we see zombies coming across our bridge. so now me, comedian Micheal Showalter (from Stella, The Baxter, Wet Hot American Summer), and Paul Rudd are fending off the zombies with our bare hands, and then they become skeleton warriors with staffs that have skulls on the end. well they eventually get Paul Rudd and carry him away, and I grab one of their staffs and try to fight off the mass of skeletons to save him but we are over powered and I tell Micheal Showalter we have to turn back. Then I feel pretty crappy about things happening, and as we cross teh bridge we realize that the skeletons are marching on the castle, and John Lithco is in front of the castle. apparently he is the leader of Xanthia and is a powerful wizard. He tells me the castle is his, and he laughs his john Lithco laugh. Then I pull a pin off of the bridge causing it to collapse and destroy many of the skeletons. then john is angry and I grab him and try to push him down the ravine the bridge is over and he falls but teleports himself to the other side. then I say "good thing you're a wizard, huh?" and he yells and disapears. then for some reason I am on the other side of the moat, but it's not a chasm anymore it's a river. I apparently can't swim across, but then in the distance I see Nathan Fillion riding a giant hummer and he drives it in the water like a boat, and I swing over to it on a vine, but as I get there he backs up jokingly every time I swing over to get on, then I tell him to quit screwing around there are skeletons coming for me and he drives the hummer boat over and I get on. then we went back to the castle and king Tracy killed himself. people were making jokes about him, saying that his jeweled teeth don't taste very good, and saying something about his funeral "louvres" being replaced with honeymoon "louvres" because no one really misses him. In this dream I made up a cultural item apparently unique to this kingdom, because a louvre is supposed to be a chocolate eaten at important times in peoples lives, and funeral ones are supposed to be different than honeymoon ones. but since people were glad he was dead they put out honeymoon ones instead to make the mood happy. Then I wake up.

That is about all I remember. Its was a pretty awesome dream, and I haven't really had many dreams with characters from movies in it, it's usually my friends. sometimes in my dreams I do make up weird cultural or historical events that happened in that dreams alternate reality. there were so many strange things in it that made it seem just like a movie or something. I don't understand but it's pretty sweet. I had to write it down before I forgot it.

jkeef2001 @ 2009-03-19T07:28:00

2009-03-19T12:33:07Z

I had a dream last night, I wish I could remember more. It was a lord of the rings type dream. for some reason all the characters and the plot was slightly different though. I remember trying to fight someone in a large volcano and at one point I had a light saber, but then I realized that they did not have light sabers in LOTR so I put it away. the guy who played Haldir in the movie was with me for some reason, and things were just way different. I wish I could remember more of it.

in a real update. I am remaining busy with school, work and clinicals. it gives me little free time. but I have a good stretch the rest of this month of no clinicals so it will give me a little free time. thankfully. I am going up north for a friends birthday and that will be an awesome time. I have been looking forward to it for the last month or so.

Batman dream

2009-01-13T02:35:25Z

a couple of weeks ago I had another interesting dream. I dreamt that I was Robin/Batman/some made up superhero. I dreamt that I was in a large warehouse like Sams club. I had to find Bane, who was for some reason causing problems. I think I was batman at first, and I was stalking around in the shadows and I found him and I couldn't beat him. eventually I think he got me and then I was another hero in the warehouse that could teleport anywhere. so I kept teleporting around bane and hitting him and teleporting away. then I was robin and kept jump kicking him and flying around throwing stuff at him. The dream was a long time ago so I can't remember it that well, but I enjoyed it at the time. as I was robin I remember thinking to myself that I better hurry up or batmans back would get broken by bane.

Christmas

2008-12-26T04:42:15Z

a very quick update. This Christmas was fantastic. I got to see my family and Lisa's. We got up early and did our first Christmas thing. it was great. Then we went to my parents house and we did Christmas for a little bit. We then went to Lisa's dads and chilled out before dinner and did Christmas with them. My parents came over before dinner and we all had a really great time. The most notable thing that happened today though was that I got my shift at work switched so that I can finish my paramedic training. I'll be going to class on Mondays and Wednesdays. I'll be done with my medic training by the end of summer. This is going to be a tough six months, but I will have to do it. I am going to be working my regular 40 then 50 hour weeks plus going to class full time and doing 12 hour clinical shifts. I won't have much free time, I'll be doing my clinical classes on my weekends off so I will be very busy and will probably have to pull a few 24 hour shifts between work and clinicals. I will probably have to work, do a night clinical then go to class for 8 hours after that. that will be the real test. I think my best bet is to not let that happen, but it might be inevitable.

That's about it. Merry Christmas.

jkeef2001 @ 2008-12-09T21:39:00

2008-12-10T03:14:32Z

So today my car died. I don't know what it wrong with it yet, but I had it towed to the repair shop. I was so pissed. I was in a good mood before that too, because I just got into medic class. somebody either failed the pre-req. classes or couldn't pay so I squeezed in there. I still haven't switched shifts yet, and if that doesn't work I can't do it because I need the money and health insurance. so that's all up in the air. things are still good, but I foresee some stress coming up. I guess it's good, you can't be stress free all the time, it's not fair.

anyways, I have some news for the very few people who read this. If I have interpreted my readers correctly about 80% of the people who read this are or have been catholic. The news is that Lisa have found a church that I love very much, and it's catholic. Now, I share this in confidence. I have taken communion there. I know, I know, I'm supposed be a member, but it had been awhile. I had Lisa coach me in the ceremony. I really like that the Catholics take communion every Sunday. so, perhaps in the future I will make it official. I thought I'd share since so many of my friends on LJ are Catholic. The thing I like most about the church is that the priest has a lot of good sermons on helping the poor and down-trodden. They always have something we can do for the community too, like filling up a shopping bag for the local pantry or buy a gift for a family in need. also they have lots of nice organizations like st. vincent de paul and such.

anyways, thought I would update. You should all tell me a good book to read.

ghostbusters salsa/ incredible hulk

2008-10-01T01:20:52Z

It's been a long time since I last updated. I have had a couple of new dreams that are worth recording.

the first one I was making corn salsa for most of the dream. I was making it with deacon from king of queens. I spent a lot of time looking for a bundt cake pan to cut the corn from the cob. after I made it I then proceeded with my master plan. my plan in this dream was to cover the ground of north america in corn salsa to spread awareness of latin hip hop. I know it sounds kind of cliche/racist, but that's what I dreamed.

The other dream I had just last night and it was amazing. I was a ghostbuster. Most people don't know but when I was in middle school I was a ghostbusters fanatic. I made a web page about it and a tribute page to lewis tully (rick moranis, the fifth ghostbuster. Anyways I was a ghostbuster and we were putting a trap into the containment grid when the dream started. After doing that I went outside of the station, and next to it was an actual fire station for new york. I bumped into a captain who told me they had a haunted couch. I grabbed the rest of the guys and we went upstairs to investigate. going upstairs I saw a sofa bed folded into a bed, and turned my proton pack on. this was not the haunted sofa though. I moved up the stairs and saw in a smaller alcove off of the main room there was an ugly green sofa with a stuffed bear on it. the bear had closed eyes, and I was watching both sofas to see if they were haunted, then the eye on the bear opened fast and I blasted it with my proton pack and started smashing it against the walls. then I grabbed the trap and caught it. then I woke up and was happy that I had been a ghostbuster, if only for a little while. I believe this has something to do with why at a party I was at recently I delegated myself and friends to be ghostbusters, turner was the black one. I was a little tipsy, since I hadn't cut loose since my bachelor party. also, I went incredible hulk and ripped my shirt in half starting at the collar, and lifted a chair over my head. I tried to rip the T-shirt again while I was sober the next day and I couldn't get the collar to rip without straining at it. while drunk I obliterated it apparently. It's kind of disconcerting to know that I have drunk strength.

for those of you who are interested in my life, I am doing good. married life is agreeing with me. I am doing great at Star EMS. I was offered a position on our occupational health and safety team. I will be giving breathalizer tests. it's technically breath tests, as "breathalizer" is a trade name, just like "dumpster". but I will be doing that, TB tests, urine tests, fit tests and other things. It will be on a on call basis. if someone at AkzoNobel or in our other contract areas get in a forklift accident at 3AM I will go and give them urine and breath tests. I know it doesn't sound too exciting but I am pumped that my Boss is taking notice of my hard work.

That's it really.

jkeef2001 @ 2008-06-03T02:28:00

2008-06-03T06:56:22Z

so it's been awhile since I last updated. I am getting married a week from saturday. my bachelor party is this weekend. I've been busy working and getting things ready for the wedding. I don't think I posted an entry since my driving status at work changed, but I have full status now, which means I can drive lights and sirens. You'd think that driving fast and being able to weave through traffic and go through red lights would be an adventure, but it's really not what you'd think. it's cool, but it really isn't that much different from regular driving.

I'm not too nervous about the wedding. Everyone keeps asking me if I am, and I can only say that I'm nervous about being a poor married couple. but that's life. I think we'll be alright. I really like the apartment we are looking at in Waterford. It's only 1 bedroom but it has a washer and dryer hookup and attic storage and a pretty large patio enclosed with a wooden fence.

Right now there is a show on called good eats with alton brown. This man is my hero, if there is such a thing for the food network. He is the announcer for Iron Chef America. It's not strange that I like him because I have always been a sucker for puns and corny jokes. He seems to know just about everything you can know about food, he goes into history, chemistry and technique to do with the food involved. I also like Anthony Bourdain now as well. I apologize for this tangent, but I have ADD fer real so it's okay.

I'm looking forward to my bachelor party this weekend. it will be interesting mixing some of my different groups of friends together. those that are from Clawson, those that are mainly from Millington (at one point in their lives), those that drink and those that do not ect. I'm trying not to worry myself that much about it because they are all good people. I'm really looking forward to having a good time. I don't know what is planned for Saturday, but Russ probably has something planned.

also, sandals Jamaica after the wedding. Heeeels yeah.

Poor people revisited

2008-04-02T03:55:22Z

This is going to be a long update, so don't feel guilty about not reading it. in fact, never feel guilty about not reading my livejournal posts. they always tend to be kind of crazy and lack organization.

okay, so I've been really down lately about the poor. I say this because I am about to join the ranks of the poor. I'm looking for an apartment and I techinically qualify for a low income tax credit, but by the time I move out I think I will be just over that income. the range for it is 25,000. I make nine dollars an hour haulling people that are dying, in pain, or sick (physically or mentally). I know it's a job just like everyone else has a job. I guess I just like to piss and moan. I started to feel like I should get paid more than people who push carts around home depot parking lot when an old lady who spent the whole ambulance ride home throwing up decided it would be nice to give me a kiss after I got her home and in bed. The sad thing is I like this field enough to stay with shitty pay.

anyways, it seems I can't get gas in pontiac without someone asking me for money. I never carry cash on me so the answer is always easy. but one of these days when I don't have to do something after work I'm going to buy them food instead of turning them away flat out. my father says it's a very bad idea. he says that "those people" wait at gas stations for a white person to pull up and then ask for money for there scam or coke addiction. he said that I should say no and leave.

my thought is that first off, if I give someone who is desperate enough for money to beg at a gas station a free meal, regardless of his intentions for the money, I've helped him out. at most he's scammed me out of a free sandwich. good for him. My second thought (which I've never used as a basis to act on) is that it's not up to me what he does with the money I give him. Letting people who are liars stop me from helping those people who may need the money doesn't seem right.

My dad also seems to think that everyone that is poor wants to rob me. This certainly is a possiblity. I really don't care though. I think Christ called us to help people regardless if it's 100 percent safe. I won't go running into the hood with a wad of cash hanging out of my back pocket or anything, but I'm not going to pass by someone on the side of the road that looks like they need help pushing thier car. I'll even think about picking up hitchhikers.

It's just so depressing to think that no matter how hard I try none of it is going to matter. the system is set up to screw people over at the bottom. and some people at the bottom are trying to take advantage of the welfare systems we have in place. I read another crazy book about living out what Christ says. I'm very impulsive and am trying to think out ways I can live that out.

One way I was thinking was to move to detroit, which seemed like a good idea. I could meet people and actually live and love the people and be in a community I could make a difference in. Then I went to call about the apartments I can afford and found out I have to qualify for the low income tax credit to get them or something like that. and that means I cannot make a dollar more than 25000. I come pretty darn close to making 20 grand with my overtime, and Lisa will hopefully be making more than 5000 working part time. so I am too rich to live in low income housing, but too poor to afford the good housing in "uptown" detroit, the fancy part by campus marshus and comerica and everything. Maybe I'll end up in waterford or pontiac.

the better part of me also feels guilty for making the poor a project. like I would consider it hard work to go make friends with the poor because deep down I am not comfortable with really poor people. I hope this changes when I actually get married and become poor myself. I feel stupid helping them out and going home to a decent house and never getting to know anyone. all the times I've helped volunteer through youth programs not once have I gotten to know anyone who I served food to. I awkwardly gave them thier food and that was the end of the transaction.

I feel like giving up but I feel if I did that I couldn't live with myself and would be even more depressed about giving up on doing what I think is right. that's where I am standing right now. upset about the poor, and upset at my dads reaction to the poor and what he's tried to teach me about the poor. also somewhat down about the future, but looking forward to getting married.

Also, Pray for Lisa. Something is happening thursday that will totally effect both of our lives. I don't want to go into details, but it's really hard and just the anticipation alone is a lot to deal with. I might elaborate more in a post soon to come, but we will see.

Thank you for those of you that read this. I love you all (even if you didn't read the whole thing).

crazyness

2008-03-05T04:59:42Z

I really don't have much to update about. Just how busy things are with working and such. especially this week since I am at star all weekend. Let us hope that tomorrow is not as bad as monday was. however, the weather does not bode well for it being a nice day to be an EMT. I'm guessing I'm going to have another crappy day. Luckily, I have the WAB to look forward to.

The WAB, for those that do not know or have forgotten my previous entries, is a local brewery on woodward that a couple of my friends and myself visit every wed night. I've never been a regular anywhere before really. The waitress knows us and is pretty cool. It's a little pricey, but the music and atmosphere is great. It's kind of a hipster bar, paul likes most of the music, so I would classify it as pretty hip. I am not a very good barometer for "hip" music. My mix CD is a cacophony of country, rap, hymns, musicals, celtic rock, ect.

I was planning to write at least a beginning entry on my budding beliefs about religion and society and the interaction between the two. but I just don't have it in me right now. it would be long and probably dry and boring for most. Things have changed pretty drastically since my last "rant". I'm still in the middle of defining what I believe myself, so be ready for my usual wishy washy, indecisive, and usually poorly written entries.

in other news I am afraid I have grown up. I think my wacky dreams have suffered lately and it is somewhat depressing to lose that. I keep waiting for another crazy dream, but I think I'm starting to lose something that made my mind inventive and creative. I think I am so occupied in my waking hours reassuring myself that I can do my job and eventually be good at it. It can be stressful, having to be responsible for so much. I'm pretty good at it, I'll admit I've come a long way in the last month, but it still takes up so much of my thought when I'm done working.

well it's late and I have to be up early to dig my car out.

friday

2008-02-16T13:41:52Z

so my friday kind of sucked. I originally planned to go see martin sexton, but that fell through so I decided to go see there will be blood. the movie was good, a bit pricey at 9.50 for the birmingham 8, but it was good. There was this young couple sitting a couple rows ahead of me who were talking through the movie, and being all flirty and tickling each other and stuff. As any of you who have been to the movies with me before know, I cannot tolerate people talking or making noise or disrupting the movie in any way. I was just about to politely lay the smack down when the got up and left half way through the movie.

the real shocker was after the show. I was walking to the parking garage and saw some police officers chatting in the parking garage. I didn't think anything of it at the time, so I kept on walking to the car. I pulled out of the garage and noticed the sound of something sliding down the side of my car. it sounded a lot like ice breaking free and falling to the ground. I didn't pay it any mind and I kept going. Then I felt a breeze, and looked back to see if my door was shut and saw that my car had been broken into through the rear passanger side door. They got my bag I take with me in the ambulance with Lisa's portable DVD player, and my stethoscope and pauls book he lent me. They also got my oakland county map book with all the posts and stuff I had written down from Star.

so my car was broken into in a parking garage in birmingham. go figure.

dreams lately.

2008-02-10T13:33:40Z

I've had a couple of wierd dreams lately that I felt I should share.

the first one actually has Aaron Crossen in it again. I thought maybe he got bored of appearing in my dreams, but apparently not. this one was kind of interesting though. Me, Aaron and Lisa were going to this store so I could get a new remote for my TV. They only had old remotes here. and by old I mean like super old. the remotes looked kind of steampunkish, a mix of old metal gears and typwriter parts and numbers. apparently they had buttons for controlling hospital beds on them too. It was kind of odd because the store was so well kept and looked new.

well we decided we couldn't get those because they were too old, so we wandered upstairs to find a very extravagent dining room set up. It was at this point Aaron pulled out a bag of tortilla chips and layed them out on one of the plates and smashed them up into little pieces. Afterwards a Chinese or Japanese woman came out in a cerimonial robe and yelled at us, but Aaron just had this funny look on his face. Like a kid who was really really pleased with what he had done and found it hilarious. so the chinese lady chased him around the table and then chased him out of the store.

The next dream happened a couple of nights later and featured Teresa Veltri. We were at home depot looking for 2x4s for some project. We were walking around carrying them and decided we needed a cart. We looked all over for one and finally found one. after that we were walking around the store looking for 2x4s, since they were randomly scattered through the store. During our search I found a bunch of broken tigers baseball bats on the ground. They were all signed so I started taking them and putting them in the cart. One that I picked up had Bernie Smilovitz's signature on it(he's a local sports news anchor around here). Bernies names was crossed off and Ivan Rodriguez wrote "Pudge" really sloppily on the bat, like it was written by a five year old. Afterwards I remember something about my car and my bike. I think I somehow took both there.

anyways that's about it. I've been super busy with work so I haven't really had much chance or desire to update. but things are going great.

crazy shift

2008-01-26T03:23:32Z

I had a crazy shift today. it was busy but boring. from 9am until 8pm we didn't get to a post. so that means we were always on a call the whole time. we really only had a handful of calls, just one of them happened to be in gladwin MI. I don't know if you have any idea where gladwin falls on the map, but if michigan was a map of the galactic empire from star wars, gladwin would be somewhere close to Tatooine. It was in BFE compared to our normal coverage area. 130 miles out of our way to be exact. so I spent 2 and a half hours in the back of the rig with a patient. The patient was not all there. I can't get into details, but it was unpleasent. not the patient necessarily, but the circumstance. now getting used to this whole 4 12 hour shifts in a row is going to be difficult. luckily next weekend I have off, except for lifetime. which means every two weeks I will end up getting about one day off of work entirely. hopefully. thankfully I don't work long hours at lifetime. just star.

update

2008-01-22T17:28:55Z

I realize it's been awhile since I have updated. I've got some interesting news. my job lead on star really panned out. they offered me a full time job. I started yesterday (the 21st). I'm supposed to be working 12 hour shifts, but for now will only be doing 8 hour shifts until my partner gets driving status. I work 10AM-10PM mon/wed and every other weekend friday-sunday. I am still working at lifetime fitness on the days I don't work at star, so I'll be pretty busy.

My first day was not as bad as I thought it would be. I was nervous because I was in the back of the ambulance by myself with all my patients while my partner drives. I'm learning the paperwork and even some of the roads already. I'm going to be primarily in waterford/white lake area. My faith in my ability to take vitals dispite my nervousness was well placed. My vitals were pretty perfect, almost exactly on with the machines at the hospitals. that's all I really do is take vital signs. I'm looking forward to this job. I am still nervous about my first big trauma run, whenever that happens. but I have faith in my training from OCC and I feel comfortable with my medical knowledge.

the next big thing that needs to happen is getting a job at a fire dept. there are many I am going to apply for as a volunteer until I know where I'll be for the long haul.

also, on the lighter side, I have learned how to blow smoke rings with my pipe. not that I smoke it more than once a month or so at the bar, but it feels like an accomplishment for me for some reason.

good news

2008-01-02T15:57:13Z

I have already been called back by star EMS in pontiac for a job opening. I don't know if it is part or full time yet, but either way it's very good news. this means I can finally start working towards my future career. plus I really need the extra money. sure, I will get payed less then the guy who pushes carts around at home depot (sorry if you are that guy, no disrespect meant), but at least it's experience doing something I really want to.

in other news, I have only used my gym membership once so far. it's kind of sad because the gym is one of the nicest I've ever seen. I mean I am not paying for it, but still, I did pass up a job where I could be making 2-4 dollars an hour more than I am at lifetime. I think maybe today I'll go and do cardio. last time I realized I may have hurt my knee during the fire academy and not known it. I was going to do squats (with very little weight) and my knee felt like it was going to die. so hopefully I don't have some career ending injury that I don't know about. we'll see. time to go to the secretary of states office, yay.

happy new year

Aaron Crossen

2007-12-02T07:55:48Z

I'm calling you out aaron. out of my dreams. I don't know if it's a man crush or a crippling fear you will destroy me in my sleep, but you are a relentless presence in my dreams. I had another recent dream with you playing a minor role. by the way, the dreams you are in always seem to have a degree of violence in them. what is that all about? and I feel they are getting less creative. I once had a dream that involved me dressed as indiana jones, todd angle as dick tracy and russ sherman as short round from indiana jones and the temple of doom.

this is what I dreamt last night. it's odd but not fantastic.

we were adventuring in the woods behind the cemetary in millington, and I say the word adventuring because in the dream I was expecting to find a lost temple I think, and a jaguar or a leopard jumped out from the woods and started chasing us. it chased me into a hollow tree where it proceeded to attack. I had a walking stick, which turned into a small trig for some reason, so I jammed it into the cats eye and pushed with all my might until I felt it's skull break and give way to the brain, where I remember I began to stir. The cat began to stop and I did the very same thing with the other eye. I remember feeling pretty sad that I had to do it and disturbed by the act itself. then I had a crippling fear that I would be arrested for killing an endangered species. I think that is when I awoke with that cripplig fear still in my heart.

I went back to sleep and had another dream before morning. this one is hard for me to remember. I recall the locations but not the people in the dream. I was up north at the cabin and I was chilling out on the porch when I saw some hunters shooting and they asked me to join them. so I stood up and ran with them, which was wierd. we chased the dear instead of waiting for them. the bullets stuck to the antlers of the dear for some reason so we got closer and the older man who I was with shot the deer at point blank range and missed. we chased the deer in a pickup truck after that and then we gave up and went to a random hidden cottage in the woods. the cottage looked very inviting, and it was a very pretty landscape. then after what seemed like a few minutes the furniture began attacking us. I remember a stool trying to get around my head and I remember ripping it apart and smashing every piece of furniture I could find onto the floor and breaking it all.

current events

2007-11-28T01:29:25Z

so, just updating everyone on what I have been doing lately. I just recently got "hired" at lifetime fitness as a lifeguard. I use the quoatation marks because I still have to finish the background check and the "you're hired" he told me was informal. it's been one week since they told me, so I'm getting a little worried. I have no doubt that there is nothing for them to find in the background check except for 2 speeding tickets worth 0 points. I will call them tomorrow to get the deal.

I got my state certs for fire 1&2 and basic EMT, so I will be applying for basic EMT jobs and put in for volunteer work in clawson for the fire department. I'm excited for that to start, I'll finally get a pager. I'm sure after my probationary period I can get lights on my car too. that will be pretty awesome.

so I have 1 job I haven't started and I'm going to apply for a job as an EMT hopefully in pontiac. I've already had a taste of interesting things happen in pontiac on my clinicals, and as wierd as it may sound my shift of choice would be night, but that would throw my shcedule all out of whack. plus Lisa comes home soon for break and she would not want me working all night and sleeping all day during the 6 weeks I get to see her before summer.

also, 200 days left until I'm married. so I got that going for me too. that's 200 days I have to save money and try and wedge myself out of debt. go get it.

quick update

2007-11-08T01:50:01Z

graduating tomorrow. I passed my state written exam today for fire fighter I&II. I passed the practical exam the day before, both were rediculously easy. I'm applying for clawson FD to be a volunteer fire fighter while I wait to decide what to do with my career and wherever the old ball and chain gets accepted to grad school. so with any luck I'll be putting out fires in my very own home town. I got a good reference to use for the application, so I think I have a godo chance of getting accepted.

I never updated about flashover training. the last week we had we got to do flashover training. something that 90% of fire cadets won't get to go through. Flashover is when the contents of the room are heated beyond thier ignition point and simultaneously ignites. a form of this is backdraft, but it doesn't have to be as explosive as backdraft. anyways, the room I was in was basically a semi-trailer with a barrel of wood and paper with walls and ceilings made of particle board. it burned so hot, I can hardly describe it. we were protected, we were probably 3 feet below the floor level, so the floor of the room was at our faces. if we were at the same level we would have been burned pretty badly. if we stood up where we were our masks would have melted and heated smoke would have filled out lungs. it was so very intense. OCC is the only college in the state that has facility for flashover training. we have people come from all over the country to our facility for training. it's pretty awesome. the gasses in the fire ignite and float over your head, it's just like the northern lights only at a temperature between 600-1200 degrees.

anyways, only one crazy dream to report. I had a dream where I was going on a vacation with my swim coach ike. I had a bunch of money and was packing my gear. I think there were zombies involved, that may be why we were leaving, but I can't really remember it all that well. I think it might have been just a vacation trip. still it was pretty cool.

yay graduation. I'll be getting roudy with my classmates and instructors tomorrow night, so wish me luck.

jkeef2001 @ 2007-10-14T16:00:00

2007-10-14T20:08:17Z

These are a couple pictures of me in action. I am the guy with the blue helmet. not all the pictures I will be posting are going to be of me, because I can't always get pictures of me with my own camera. but they should give you an understanding of what I've been doing.

eventually I'll be getting some better pics of me doing the rope rescue from the 6 story tower.

jkeef2001 @ 2007-10-01T22:57:00

2007-10-02T03:05:33Z

shortly I believe I'm going to have some good photos to post on here from the fire academy. I have some pictures from our ropes class where I am suspended from a 6 story building, where I have tied myself off and am hanging upside down doing pushups against the wall.

also, tomorrow I am cutting apart a bunch of new cars from ford motor company to practice extrication. I get to use hydraulic tools and things of that nature to break windows and pull apart cars to get theoretic victims out of the vehicle safely.

I'm afraid I'm going to run out of badass things to do in the next 5 weeks, but I guess we haven't really started working with fire yet. that will be pretty awesome.

so far, one of the more challenging drills we have done has been more psychologically stressing than physically. we simulated a second stage regulator failure in our breathing tanks. basically we had to find out way out of a building following only a hose without vision. the only way for us to breath is to stop, reach behind us and unscrew the main tank valve, breath and then close it. it's a pretty shitty feeling to have an airtight mask suffocating you while you are trying to turn a valve located on the small of your back that has a safety on it to prevent it from turning on without pressing down the safety wheel. your instincts are to rip the mask off and gasp for air, but in a real fire the superheated gasses and toxic fumes would pretty much kill you immediatly.

anyways, that's all I have. I feel bad for neglecting pretty much everyone, but homework loads are usually pretty heavy. at the end of the month I'll be singing a different tune when I'm ready to graduate.

more kidney stuff

2007-08-20T02:29:06Z

so, I've been hating things lately because all I can really do it seems is stay at home and take vicodin and wait for it to stop hurting. I watch TV shows, but it still sucks because that's about all my day consists of. it is worse that I am the only person in the house, so not only am I bored but I am a bit lonely too since Lisa is at albion. I am not supposed to work or drive while taking the pain medicines, but without the pain medicines doing anything is really really crappy because the pain is not enough to make me go to the ER but too much for me to want to hang out with people or work. I mainly try and sleep as long as I can, because it doesn't hurt when I sleep.

don't get me wrong, the kidney stone is out but there is a stent in which I apparently am not tolerating well. I either don't tolerate pain very well or don't absorb pain medications very well, because the doctor made this seem like the pain from the stent would be very minimal. I get it out tuesday morning. he told me about 5% of people think the stent is worse than having the kidney stone. I know the pain is not as bad, but its probably worse for me because the pain is always there and when I had the stone I went to the ER and they stopped the pain. here, I hurt most of the time, and the pain medicine doesn' help for very long, and I can't take more than I should because it can be very bad for your liver if you take so much in a day or so. plus it may just not be working.

anyways, tomorrow is the fire academy orientation. lets hope my pain is gone for at least that time. however long it is. I'm going to actually take some vicodin with me. it will be a regular hootenany.

p.s. my grandma died a day or so ago, so on tuesday after I get my stent out I will be going to her funeral in port huron. it's not that bad of a thing, she was 89 and we were all expecting it, she was in hospice and certainly ready to go.

oldmanification

2007-08-12T21:52:31Z

I'm an old man now.

<-lj-cut>

so apparently I'm becoming an old man rather quickly. I noticed on wed. morning after I got my haircut that I am starting to thin a little in the front. it's kind of like my hairline is being flanked from the sides and collapsing. it's not a huge deal to me. I've outlasted my brothers and it's not super noticable.

the most disturbing transformation started on I think tuesday night, I woke up at 4:00 in the morning. I had rediculous right flank pain. the flank is the lower sides of your back and upper buttox. it was pretty crappy, so crappy that I took some vicodin I had left from my wisdom teeth. I didn't need the vicodin for that pain at all, but this stuff was pretty crappy. about 45 minutes later I went to sleep and slept for about 10 hours. I went on my week deciding it may have been a one time thing, hoping it wasn't something crazy like kidney failure.

so the wedding this weekend was sweet, and the practice ceremony was friday afternoon. the wedding itself was on saturday. well friday night I woke up at the exact same time in the morning, 4:00 AM. my pain came back and was horrible. I was writhing and groaning. I eventually went into my parents room to wake them up and see what they wanted me to do. I had thrown my vicodin away because it was expired, even though I knew from previous experience that it was not bad, I don't like to keep expired meds around. luckily dad had his vicodin from then he broke his hand two years ago and it still worked for me. It took an hour and a half for the pain to go away and so that I could get some sleep. I went to the wedding and was planning to go to the doctors on sunday or monday.

well I woke up at 10:30 to get ready for work sunday. I get downstairs and turn the TV on because work wasn't until 12:00. I feel the pain start, it feels at first like you have just a sore back, and I thought maybe because I was sitting down thats what it was, but it was not. I soon found that it was the worse pain yet, and that I would need to go to the ER instead of work. I called Lisa to come get me but she was on her way to go dress shopping. so I waited for her to come get me with katie, and I waited a bit longer and finally the pain was so bad I could wait no longer. I grabbed my stuff and ran out the door, cursing at the pain. the drive to the ER sucked. I felt like my insides were going to burst, and I yelled as loud as I've ever yelled and swore so insanely loud that I was sure people who did not even exist yet could hear it. the vicodin I took before I left for the ER started to kick in as I was in the ER waiting. I probably still have a couple bite marks on my wallet from sitting in the triage hall. finally I was seen and Lisa and Katie found me. all was well from then on, I only had some moderate pains and the doc gave me some nice medicine that made me feel very very good. I almost fell asleep in the CT scanner. it was crazy.

they told me I had a kidney stone that was 4mm. apparently that's not very big, so I got to pass it at home. he gave me a script for vicodin, motrin 600, and flomax. I assume flomax is a diuretic to help me keep the urin flowing. I'm going to go to a urologist tomorrow morning, but I'm to chill out here all day until that happens. I'm pretty heavily sedated, but I didn't take the motrin because I don't feel any pain at all right now. I wonder if I've passed it or not and somehow didn't know it. but I have yet to feel more pain.

anyways, 22yrs old with a kidney stone. that sucks. it means I have the rest of my life to go looking forward to more kidney stones. it is a pain I would not wish on anyone. I imagine it is similiar to giving birth, as I've heard that a urologist has said it is just as painful or worse. I'm just glad I was drugged up for a good deal of it or I'd have been very upset.

I probably shouldn't have driven myself to the hopsital. it was likely I could have passed out because the pain was horrible. I almost threw up because of it.

I read online about kidney stones and I believe from what I have read that the stone may be due to my high fiber diet. I have been taking a whey suppliment to increase my fiber intake to build muscle. it's been working, I am stronger than I have ever been, but the kidney stones are pretty bad.

anyways, I'm sure you all wanted to hear about my kidneys.

sleep crazyness

2007-08-03T07:51:12Z

so last night one of the strangest things happened to me that has ever happened to me in my long history of troubled sleep habits. I've waken up many a night and thought to myself someone was coming over, so I'd start cleaning my room at 4:30AM. once I thought the king of the middle east was coming over and I needed my room to be clean. sometimes I just think somethings going on that really isn't, sometimes I see things that aren't realy there, my eyes play tricks on me it seems. I'm sure it's all just something to do with my dreams, and maybe my mind hasn't seperated them from my waking mind yet. I don't know how it works, but it happens frequently.

when I was living in saginw with paul stotts as my room mate, I thought I saw a briefcase in his closet and I assumed, as any normal person would, that it had the T-virus from resident evil in it. so I went to go get it but when I actually strated digging around for it it was gone.

anyways, that's just to put this in scope. I've had very strange nightly occurances. just trying to build a back story for those of you who don't know me.

so last night I wake up about an hour and a half after I believe I fell asleep. I wake up because I think there is a mouse crawling on my chest under my blanket. so I quickly reach my hand for it, over the blankets because I didn't want to root around for it, and I'm feeling this while it's happening. I'm controlling my body so I'm obviously awake, but I'm feelng a mouse moving around and I feel it in my hand under the covers. I start to crush it hoping that I will kill it. it stops moving after a second or two, and I begin to wonder what to do next. I didn't want to let it go in my room in case it was still alive, it might scurry under my bed or something or into a pile of dirty laundry. so I take the pile of nothing that I am clenching tightly in a blanket and I drag the blanket into the bathroom, closing the door. I believe that if he is somehow alive still he won't escape the bathroom because it's so small and I'm blocking the door. anyways I get up out of bed to go do this and already my mind is kicking in, telling me I'm stupid. but my body is saying you better be sure because I just felt a mouse crawling all over me. so I go to the bathroom and search the blanket and find nothing. I realize I've been fooled by my mind and try to go back to bed. well I did fall asleep but I soon woke up again thinking someone was in my room. at thise point I can't remember if I thought he was responsible for the mouse thing, or if I thought he was responsible for making me think there was a mouse there, but I wanted to blame him for something. I don't remember hwo was there, but it was one of my friends. I was pissed off that he was making me lose so much sleep. I think I may have even talked out loud to him saying that if he did it again I'd hurt him or something.

so suffice to say I got very little sleep last night. we'll see how this one goes.

jamaica

2007-07-28T05:59:48Z

so, I put a down payment on our honeymoon in jamaica. the sandals resort which we are going to go to is having a 50% off thing. so we get to go to this awesome resort for like 3000, including everything and airfare. I put it on my card because I don't have enough to pay it all off yet. but I'm hoping by the time we go on it I might have it payed off.

I'm really excited even though it's like 10 months away. it's so very real now that I've put a payment on it.

religiosity

2007-07-17T19:16:37Z

ok. I was talking with a friend the other night about it, and we think a good deal of people in the christian right are off the wall crazy. the people who think that it's God's will to fight tooth and nail against things which (real) scientists almost all agree on as being the best explanation for what's happening in the world. things like evolution and global warming. anything that mentions that global warming is real and a problem is automatically cited as liberal propaganda. God save us if we believe in evolution, because clearly we can't have come from apes, because God's not an ape is he? is he? I mean he can create the world in six days, which must have actually happened obviously, since it says it in the bible, but he can't have created a system like evolution. we also must have come from 2 people. I mean come on, genetics? lies. forget a crappy gene pool.

and swearing. I swear, not on a super regular basis, but I do. the bible says be all things to all men. that when you hang out with "gentiles" to act like "gentiles" as long as it doesn't compromise your faith. I don't even think it's supposed to be act. it has to be be like. be like the gentiles. swear words are cultural. there is no way that God has forbid certain words from ever being said. if people are offended by you swearing, then don't swear. it's not something you need to do all the time. but if you are with people who use "curse" words in thier normal everyday speech, I say go for it. they won't take you seriously if they use the F word to describe something all the time and you say fiddlesticks. they won't think "there is something different about this guy that I like, it must be the fact he's a christian. I can see christ shining through him because he doesn't swear."

don't presume that you by living your life free of all the "evils" of this world is going to be enough to "win" people to jesus. the real way to do that is to be a friend. be a friend that swears over someone that's just there to "win a soul".

I'm sorry if I've offended anyone. it wasn't my intention. I believe these things though. I'm a christian. I believe in global warming and evolution, and I know many of you do too. it's okay if you don't, but please explain to me why it's necessary? I'm confused.

jkeef2001 @ 2007-07-07T22:02:00

2007-07-08T02:00:36Z

todd jones worries me.