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It has been way too hot around here lately. According to Weather.com, it is currently 99° in Starkville, MS, but it feels like it’s 105°. I heard that there is a national heat wave, but I haven’t been paying much attention to the news lately. I do know that there is a severe weather alert for this county. I don’t remember it being this bad last summer. I’m used to the heat because I grew up around here and I usually prefer warmer weather, but this is ridiculous. Air conditioners don’t seem to be working as effectively and last month’s electric bill was crazy. I can’t wait for those fall temperatures to get here.

I won $100 and I almost never win anything. Of course I’m going to blow it on something I don’t need.

Yesterday, we and I decided to order pizza from Papa John’s and dessert from Dominos. I thought it would be funny if both deliveries got there at the same and that’s pretty much what happened. The Papa John’s guy got there first and as he was walking back to his car the Domino’s guy pulled up. Papa John’s guy looked at Domino’s guy and then looked back at me like he couldn’t believe what we had done. I can’t help it if Domino’s has good sides.

It looks like this is ant week at work. That’s what I get for having candy around here. They are getting on my frakkin nerves. So far I’ve been bitten only once.

The 4th of July was another lazy day this year, but it was still a lot of fun.

I slept late. When I got up I watched some more Jericho and read Fast Food Nation a little.

My roommate John and I finished the story mode of Rayman Raving Rabbids on the Wii. My opinion of it hasn’t changed – it’s fun, especially if you’re playing with others. We also played Super Mario Bros. 2, Justice League Heroes, and Mario Party 8.

I didn’t eat as much as I normally do on the 4th, but that could be a good thing.

Things have picked up at work lately and it may get even busier by the time the school year starts. My boss just took a 2 week vacation. I guess I should have done the same thing. I think I’ll still go on two trips this year. I may just have to move one to the fall.

We got raises at work. Who doesn’t like raises?

I’ve been seeing a lot of people I went to high school with on facebook and MySpace. Last night I had a dream in which I was at Metrocenter Mall and people I went to high school with were everywhere. Some were calling my name to get my attention while others were throwing things at me. Some were shopping at the mall and others were working there. I wonder what it all means if it means anything.

Safari for Windows…ouch! At least they are patching it.

I got bored with Titan Quest. Too much of the same old thing and not getting much out of it. It all just kind of blurred together. No use in sticking with a game I’m not enjoying just to say I completed it.

I started back reading Summer of the Monkeys. I got bored with it too. Maybe it’ll pick up. If not, I’m going back to Stephen King.

My 10-year high school reunion is the first weekend in August. I think I’m going.

I just got a sudden, strange craving for spaghetti. Time for lunch.

I’ve been hearing about the Folding@Home project more lately and it has made me want to participate in it again. I think I’ve been hearing about it a lot because PS3 owners can now participate in the project and soon Xbox 360 owners may also be able to do so soon. I don’t have either one, but I still have PCs. My last work unit was completed on November 8, 2004. I remember deciding that I wanted to stop at 100 units, but my stats say that I completed 101. Maybe I did one more for good measure. Right now I have the client on my work computer, but I may install it on my desktop and/or laptop at home.

I graduated from high school 10 years ago this week. I’m not sure if it was on the 22nd or 23rd. Time really does fly. I haven’t heard anything about any kind of reunion.

It seems like things are actually started getting back to normal after being shaken up for a while. I like it.

I saw Pan’s Labyrinth on 2 consecutive nights last week. A fairy tale for adults, huh? It’s definitely worth checking out.

We’ve been playing Rayman Raving Rabbids for the Wii. It’s a cool game. I’m not sure it’s as good as Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, but it’s a lot of fun nonetheless. Like Wario Ware, it’s more fun when you’re playing with other people. I think a sequel to this game was just announced.

Titan Quest was the game I ended up starting on the PC Friday night. I’m having fun with it. I’m not sure it’ll have the same replay value as Diablo II. I need to buy the expansion soon.

The season finale of Heroes was really good. A lot of people are complaining about it, but I don’t think they have much to complain about. There was much more closure in this episode than I’m used to seeing in season finales. Tonight is the LOST finale and maybe tomorrow I can watch the 24 finale that I missed on Monday. I hate that these good shows are ending for now, but I will have The 4400 and Kyle XY to watch over the summer.

I’ve been watching season 1 of Dead Like Me. It’s another one of those weird, good-but-cancelled shows that I find myself liking. I’ll probably be checking out season 2 soon and they recently announced that they are making a straight-to-DVD movie.

Work is going fine. I like being busy and I haven’t had anything to complain about in a while. It looks like there could be some cool new stuff coming up soon.

I think I’m launching a major household cleaning project within the next few days. We’ll see how that goes.

Saturday took me to County-Line Road and the Northpark Mall area. I hit all of my favorite stores, but I didn’t buy much.

I went to see a movie (28 Weeks Later) at the theater across from the mall. Before the theater in Clinton opened, my friends and I always went saw movies there. The last time I had been to this theater was the summer after my freshman year in college when I went to see Armageddon. I got to see a 4th of July fireworks celebration at the mall after the movie. Memories…

After I been away from Northpark I headed back that way. In the parking lot, I saw a police car parked next to 2 cars. I assumed that there may have been an accident. I then noticed someone sitting on the ground and wondered if someone was injured. I looked over and saw someone on the other side of the car lying on her side. This is when I noticed that the guy who was sitting down had his hands cuffed together. An officer was reaching into the police car for some reason. I didn’t stick around long enough to see more of what was happening.

It was good seeing Jackson and Clinton again. I bought stuff for me, for my mom, and for my roommates back in Starkville. Enough shopping for now. I’m glad that I’ll be able to see Mom on Mother’s Day. However, it’ll be nice to go back to Starkville and get back off the road again.

On Friday I made what will probably be the last trip I make to Metrocenter Mall in Jackson for a long time. I think I last went there around Thanksgiving or Christmas. When I was growing up, it was the mall we went to the most. I spent so much time there. It was closer than Northpark, it had a decent selection of stores, and there were other good stores in the area. Things have really changed. It seems like more stores have closed every time I go there. It’s not that I had any hope of it getting better; I guess I just wasn’t expecting it to keep getting worse. Now I hear that Northpark is becoming the new Metrocenter.

My sole purpose of going by Metrocenter was to find a TV show on DVD that I could use to pass a little time tonight and then take back with me to Starkville. I checked Wal-Mart and didn’t find anything interesting, so the mall seemed like the next best thing. It turns out that the music/movie store (I think it was an FYE) has left since the last time I had been there. What kind of a mall doesn’t have a music/movie store? Even the mall in Columbus has one. The Waldenbooks and the cookie store that I used to always go into are still there, but I wasn’t interested in those this time.

Oh well. If only I hadn’t talked myself out of buying X-files when I was in Dogwood Festival earlier in the day. I ended up going to Blockbuster and renting Into the West, which has been in my Netflix queue for a while now.