Go to the Up

I am back in school for the fall semester. I am taking three classes, Japanese, Intro to Computers, and Business Law.
The Intro to Comp is a requirement and is going to be mostly a waste of time I think. Although I might get some knowledge out of the lab section because we will be working with Excel, Access, and Powerpoint. I have done a little with Excel, but I only have the slightest of knowledge on what you can do with it. I hope that I can get some more knowledge out of this class, but if the rest of the classes are like yesterdays, then we are just going to glance at the surface of the programs and spend more time with the basics of menus and stuff than with what you can do with the program.
At least I will be able to focus more time on my Business Law and Japanese class then. I already have a head start with my Japanese class as I have pretty much learned the katakana and hiragana already, but I do need to learn how to write them. So far I can only identify them when I see them, but am not able to visualize the character in order to write it.
My Law class is on a Saturday and this will be the first Saturday class that I have ever taken. We will see how I feel about it soon enough.

I had never heard about memes before today when I saw one on a blog.
I grabbed it and filled it out.

I have:

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten my own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than I could afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as I possibly could
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about my life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for my computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer then I was actually in love with the person
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan (hopefully soon)
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized my CDs.
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love with someone and not had my heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than six hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
83. Received flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one of my parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror Picture Show
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Created and named my own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when I knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an illness that I shouldn't have survived
105. Written articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of mine below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had my picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something I care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one "important" author who I missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared and animal for eating
137. Skipped all my school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written my own computer language
141. Thought to myself that I'm living my dream (every day)
142. Had to put someone my love into hospice care
143. Built my own PC from parts
144. Sold my own artwork to someone who didn't know me
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146: Dyed my hair
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved my head
149: Caused a car accident
150: Saved someone's life

My additions:

-went caving in Mammoth National Park

-had dreadlocks for 9 months

-had my picture taken for a college catalog cover

-had my name in the contributors mention page of a computer program

-watched a foreign show in Japanese with Spanish subtitles and somehow understood what was going on. I took 2 semester of Spanish and none of Japanese

-never had my own room

-walked over 5 miles just because I was bored

-biked 20 miles to get to college every day

You Are An ISTJ

The Duty Fulfiller You are responsible, reliable, and hardworking - you get the job done. You prefer productive hobbies, like woodworking or knittings. Quiet and serious, you are well prepared for whatever life hands you. Conservative and down-to-earth, you hardly ever do anything crazy. You would make a great business executive, accountant, or lawyer.

I happen to be studying for accounting.

I have been siting here just letting my mind wander while reading a blog about a couples two young daughters and their experiences and adventures in life. It got me thinking about my own childhood and the experiences that I have had.
I had a pretty easy childhood. Sure there were the chores that needed to be done on time. Especially the dishes. My brother and I alternated days of dish washing. The problem was we got lazy and ended up with lots of still dirty dishes. The solution if you had dishes that were not clean you got to rewash them and got the next days dishes to do. I remember doing dishes for over a solid week because I could not get them all clean. After our attitudes got adjusted the inspections got more lenient and we were allowed a few dished to slip past dirty. I wonder if this helped attribute to my want of perfection. I hate seeing something being done partially or half hearted. I always want to make the person immediately redo the task correctly, sometimes even resorting to redoing it myself after they leave.
I wonder how much effect a single occurance in life can have or does it take a number of occurances to make a lasting impression.
Take one of my school age plays that we had to perform in. I was always more of a quiet sort of kid, but I think that I only had the normal stage fright that everyone gets.
During one of our school plays we were singing a pirate song and all of a sudden the entire class skipped an entire verse, except for me. I faltered a bit and was unsure who had made the error. After a short pause and regaining my mental footing I started to feel both angry that all the others were singing the song wrong, but I also felt terribly embarassed because all the parents watching did not know that I was singing it correctly, they could only think that I was the one singing wrong.
Today I get terrible stage fright when doing any kind of public speaking. When I took my speach class at college it was real hard for me to deliver the speech in front of the class. I was terrified at making an error. Through the weeks of the course and delivering several speeches the fright did noticably lessen and got easier after each speech. It has been a few years since that class and I know I have slipped back into my previous mode of thinking and I want to get out of that way of fearing mistakes.
Does a single event like my play create an excessive fear of public display, or is it just a part of a series of events? Did the first event cause me to withdraw a bit and subsequent events cause me to shrink back more and more? Does it even matter how I came to be the way I am? Or is the way I want to be the only thing that really matters?

Something to think about when there is nothing else on my mind.
On a completely different tangent, I want to find a nice coffee/tea house. One that is not just a branch of a national/international chain. I think that such a place would be a great place to go and relax, let my mind wander and maybe read a good book or two in. Anyone know of any in my area?

Where to start. I got back from my vacation a little early, but only by a day or so.
I think I will give a basic overview of my adventure.
Sunday we had our family reunion up in Wisconsin and I left on my vacation straight from there. So all Sunday afternoon and evening I drove down to Kentucky.
I stayed at a motel in Cave City Kentucky and visited the Mammoth Caves the next day. I went on the Historical Tour. This was the first time I had ever been inside of a cave before. It was amazing. I was not expecting some of the caves to be so huge. The temps in the cave are 54 all year round so it was a nice break from the 90s outside.
I left from there and started off down to Florida Monday afternoon.
I ended up stopping at a motel about 3 hours from Tampa.
Tuesday morning I finished my drive to Tampa and drove around the city a bit getting my bearings.
I went for a walk along the beach. Unfortunately the beaches were closed due to run off water. The temperature was pretty high in the upper 90s. My car does not have air conditioning, so the only cooling I got was from driving and drinking a ton of water. I also went for a walk in one of the more suburban areas of Tampa.
I was starting to get a little sunburned so I went inside and went to bed early so I would be refreshed for the next morning.
Wednesday I had planned on visiting Busch Gardens, but I was feeling a little worn down. I had not eaten much the last few days so I figured a good breakfast was the best wat to start the day. I stopped at an Ihop and had some pancakes, but I had almost no appetite. It was difficult for me to eat them as I was feeling a bit queasy. I decided that spending the rest of the day in the sun at Busch was probably not going to help me any.
I instead went to the Florida Aquarium. I have not been to an aquarium since my grade school days. The exhibits there were amazing. The plexiglass walls in the wetlands dome were only 3 feet tall so you could lean over the tank and see the fish and turtles from above as well as from the side. There were the wetlands birds just free to fly about the dome and they would hop right above your heads. It was like they took a section of the wetlands and just moved it inside a building. I took a bunch of pictures at the aquarium. I am getting the film developed and put onto a CD as well. That should make it easier for me to post some soon.
I went on the Behind the Scenes tour which was a little bit disappointing, but was worth it when I got to help feed the fish. I think I got some good photos of the fish swarming the surface of the water to eat.
I also bought a ticket to the dolphin tour out into the Tampa Bay. It was my first time being on a boat like that and getting to see dolphins swimming nearby. I enjoyed it greatly.
From what I had seen on the news last night Tampa was supposed to get some rain and thunder storms heading in soon. I decided that I would rather beat them on the way out, so I left and headed back to Kentucky.
I had enjoyed the tour at Mammoth Caves so much I wanted to go on another. I had seen that they offer a Wild Cave tour where instead of just walking along a paved path through the cave with a hundred other tourists, you get to crawl around in the dirt and scale rocks, squeeze through the tunnels. I immediately wanted to go on that tour.
So I drove all of Wednesday all the way into Thursday morning and drove straight back to Kentucky. I found out that the Wild Cave tour was already sold out, so I went on one of the other tours to the Frozen Niagra section. As I was waiting for my tour time I decided to ask if they had any Wild Caves for Friday available. It turns out that there was one ticket left! I snatched it up immediately.
I enjoyed the Frozen Niagra tour. There were cave formations that were quite amazing to see there. By the end of the tour fatigue and lack of sleep were catching up to me so I went and crashed at the Days Inn in Cave City. I fell asleep for about 4 hours when I woke up to a torrential rain storm. It was pouring buckets of water outside and the parking lot was flooding. I dashed out and rolled up my windows all the way.
I watched some TV, dried the jeans I was going to wear on the crawl tour and waited for the rain to stop. I then went to a local diner Jerry's I think it was called and had delicious liver and onions with green beans and mashed potatoes. I also had a slice of excellent pecan pie. The waitress was so nice, she did not charge me for the pie because she made me wait a while. I left her a nice tip.
Back at the motel with a full belly I dozed off to sleep after finishing off the rest of the peaches I bought down in Georgia.
I woke up bright and ready to go in the morning ate some breakfast and headed to the park.
We were short 4 people for the tour so there were only 10 of us.
Our guides Nichole and Nick took us down the New Entrance after equipping us with our helmets, helmet lights, and kneepads. The first thing they took us through were a series of crawls. Some of the crawls are so small and narrow that you basically had to pick a side to turn your head because you could not turn it until you got to the other side. We then did all sorts of climbing on rock piles, canyone walking across gorges. It was exhilirating. The size of some of the caves are amazing when you are walking the tourist path, but are just breathtaking when you are actually caving through it. Our group was really enthusiastic and fit. We were making great time and not having any trouble with the climbs so the guides led us on the harder routes that they normally don't get the chance to go on. We got to make more crawls and more challenging crawls than most groups ever do. The people I was with were verry friendly and even shared some of the food with me because I had forgotten to grab some granola bars to take with me.
Our crawl was 5 1/2 miles over rocks, canyons, and tunnels and it took us about 6 hours to move that distance with the break for lunch included. It was the most amazing 6 hours in my life. I was charged up and alive when scaling the rocks. Normally I don't like heights at all, but I had no problem climbing down the cave walls with a drop of 30 feet below me, even with no protective harness of ropes to keep me from falling. It was awesome. I enjoyed myself so much that I think I will look into any caving groups based in my area and see if I can't join one and go on caving expeditions every now and then.

Well I guess that is enough rambling for now. I will see if I can figure out how you post pictures once I get my film back.
Later.

Vacation time is coming up soon. I can hardly wait. Only a few days left and I am free, absolutely free for a week. I will see about grabbing a camera and taking some pics of the sights along the way.

That reminds me, I never did post any of the pictures I took when I went to the Botanical Gardens. Most of them were not very good anyways.