BlakeRoberson.net

I just got finished filling out a 344 question “Personality Assessment Inventory” for my psychiatrist . Although I’ve never met him I guess he would be my psychiatrist because tomorrow he’s going to help me take care of some of my psychological issues.

Alright, alright, I don’t actually have any psychological issues. I’m going to see him tomorrow to get HYPNOTIZED! I figured I really needed to do something about this fear of flying. I’m to the point where I’m seriously thinking about never getting on another plane again.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Yesterday on my way home from work I happened to hit the mother of all potholes. This pothole I hit was so big that I think it very well could have been the gateway to hell. Needless to say, when I hit the pothole my car made a huge “BOOM” and I wasn’t very happy. Not normally one to slam into potholes, I figured my lack of hitting them would even itself out and I would be alright.

Apparently that’s not the case. Last night when Heather and were driving to dinner my “traction control” and my “anti-lock brakes” suddenly stopped working and two lovely little lights on my dash came on.

To make a long story short, it cost me $660 today for new brakes, rotors, and a sensor. Then to add even more icing to the cake, I have to take my car back on Tuesday because the place where I had my car fixed didn’t have the necessary machine to reset the sensor. This means that my car’s computer still thinks the sensor I have is a bad one and my ABS and my traction control still don’t work.

On the positive side; I got my hair cut today.

I just tried to make some instant oatmeal for breakfast. I don’t know what happened at the packaging plant, but somehow it seems that I got a box of instant paste.

After one bite I decided to eat a peanut butter sandwich instead.

I think its time to buy more cereal.

This past Saturday, Heather and I attended a belated St. Patrick’s Day party. All of our friends were there and surprisingly only one cup of green beer was spilled. Everyone was having a great time, until Norwood’s friend showed up.

Heather and I had met him last year. He had seemed like an ok guy at first, but that went right out the window after we hung out with him for 10 minutes. He was just a really annoying guy that could easily get under anyone’s skin. When we expressed our concern to Norwood about his choice of friends, he just kept reassuring us that, “he’s cool sometimes”.

Proving that time doesn’t really change who you are, this guy began the night by strolling into the party, without knocking, and left the door wide open. Later on he continued to be rude by throwing beer caps and chips on the floor. Perhaps if we were at some crappy college dorm, this behavior might be acceptable. But to come in and start trashing up my friend Kati’s apartment was not cool. It was then that I had had enough of this guy. I was already close to saying something to him but I was afraid I might regret later, so I spent the rest of the night avoiding him.

In the process of my avoidance, this guy somehow started several arguments over various topics with almost everyone in the room. It was almost like he was on a mission to piss everyone off.

When it finally got to the point that my friend Devin was in this guys face about to swing did someone actually do something about it. Was it me you ask? No, I was in the kitchen still avoiding the guy. It was however my flame head girlfriend, Heather.

As I stood there chatting with my friend John, I heard an all too familiar voice yelling at someone. Puzzled, I poked my head out the door to see my girlfriend with her finger in this guys face telling him to leave. Of course there were a few obscenities uttered here and there, but it was only necessary for this guy to get the point that he was no longer welcome.

After he left a small “slow clap” broke out and everyone sung the “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye” song off the balcony to him as he got in his car and drove away.

I’m sitting in class right now looking out the window. Yahoo weather says its 73 degrees outside. A guy is out there flying a kite while some girls sit on the grass reading. For some reason it seems to be really hard to concentrate about database design.

I think I’d much rather be outside riding my bike.

Ever since I first heard in the news that President Bush was strongly supporting a United Arab Emirates company taking control of six of our nation’s ports I’ve been somewhat uneasy about situation. Also I’ve really had very mixed feelings about this. On one hand our nation’s commander and chief says this is a good deal. On the other, I’ve heard this company may have terrorist connections. So what gives?

Thanks to a recent skit on Saturday Night Live I think I now have a better understanding about what’s going on. Here’s the low down:

For months now President Bush has been saying Beware the Axis of Evil. Then he sends thousands of troops to the one place he knows that Osama Bin Laden won’t be. Our whole country is freaked out by anyone from the Middle East, and now our president says “Hey these guys are cool; let’s let them control our ports”.

Then to further complicate the situation I’ve read that President Bill Clinton has been advising the Dubai Company on how they can better take control of our ports. But why would President Clinton be on the same side as these guys? I thought this was just another one of President Bush’s harebrain schemes.

According to SNL, Dubai may have a few terrorist connections, but its best to think of Dubai as Huggy Bear. Sure they may not be the best of guys, but like the pimp/informant from Starsky and Hutch, they know the word on the street.

All I’m saying is, if you want to know about what’s going on, why not be friends with the people who know. Maybe then we could get a handle on all this terrorist garbage.

Then again, I’m getting my political advice from Saturday Night Live. : )

My trip was generally ok, although I’m glad to be home. It was actually a little boring at times. Most of the time was actually spent just visiting with Heather’s family. Heather even got bored with our trip at times and was more ready to come home than I was.

Heather’s grandpa did take us into the city and to the Franklin Institute (it’s a science museum where we saw dead bodies that had been preserved and positioned so you could see the different body systems). Also we saw Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Philly is actually a really dirty town. They seem to have a real big litter problem there. Trash just blows up and down the streets. It’s not referred to as Philthadelphia as a term of endearment.

Heather’s cousin took us to Atlantic City. It was pretty neat. We walked up and down the boardwalk and went into several casinos. We gambled all day and only lost $30. I wish we could have won some money, but it was fun. Also we walked up and down the Jersey shore a little. I was surprised at how many shells covered that beach. I would be worried I would cut myself on them if I had gone in the summer.

My only real complaint about the trip was the flying. Although it was pretty smooth, it really scared me. It’s just not my thing. I was white knuckled the whole flight. I’ve decided that I’m not going to fly again until I see a hypnotherpyist. Perhaps that will cure me.

But that was my trip. Sorry it wasn’t written well. I just pasted the email I sent to my grandmother on here. Here’s some pictures to make up for it:

Me, kickin it

City Hall. That’s William Penn on top.

Ol’ Benny Boy

Me at the Liberty Bell. It was windy that day and man do I need a tan.

Independence Hall

Me, Heather, and her Great Grandmother.

Heather and her little cousins.

Me and Heather on the Jersey Shore

Me and Heather at her Aunt’s house

Right now heather and I are sitting at her aunt’s house in Philadelphia watching some MTV2 on directTV. I thought I’d take this opportunity to write about our trip so far.

Currently, flying and me still aren’t on good terms. Maybe one day we’ll work out our differences and be friends, but for now it’s kicking the crap out of me.

Yesterday Heather and I went to see the liberty bell (I’ll post a picture or two when I get home). Surprisingly we had to go through more security to see the liberty bell than we did to get on the plane. In addition to going through several heavily guarded areas, I even had to take my belt off and walk through the metal detector “real slow” to get in. Then just to add icing to the cake of my life, as we were walking out, three people walked in through the exit. It was only guarded by a single guard who was not paying a bit of attention.

I thought I would write this, simply to express how wonderful I found the process of handling my customer service needs via email.

Let me give you a little background information. Since I’ve had my cell phone with Sprint for six years now, it technically is registered in my mom’s name. I get a ridiculously good deal on it so there’s been no reason for me to cancel it and reopen it in my name. However, here’s where the problem comes in, the bill comes with my mom’s name on it. For whatever reason, my mailman won’t delivery mail to my mailbox unless it has the correct name on, even though it has the correct address. Also if I call someone’s home phone number it doesn’t display Blake Roberson on the caller ID, it says my mom’s name.

So why haven’t I fixed this before? Well I’ve tried many times. Every time I call though, I end up waiting on hold for hours on end and it’s just not worth it. I had almost given up hope. Then on Wednesday I just happened to be on Sprint’s website and I noticed an option to send them an email to get my customer service needs taken care of.

I punched in my problem and within minutes someone had responded back to me and was in the process of getting things done. A few emails back and forth and my problem was resolved in less than an hour. I was astounded. In fact I was so happy I responded back to the guy who was helping me with this email:

Apparently people don’t often tell the customer service department thank you because he wrote me back with this:

It’s nice to know that Phillip made my day by fixing my problems and I made his by saying thanks. I wish it was always that easy.

• I’ve had three tests.
• I’ve had to give part of a 45 minute group presentation on the hotel industry.
• I’ve had to prepare part of an eighteen page paper for said presentation.
• I’m flying to Philadelphia on Saturday.
• I just found out that the plane I’ll be leaving on is going to be quite small.
• I’ve had a headache now for three days.
• and actually I’M SCARED OF FLYING!

No stress whatsoever…