Blast from the past..

So there's this girl, Jess, with whom I've IMed in the past.. don't know her last name, just started chatting on AOL years ago because we were both in NY. However, we hadn't IMed since early 2000 (according to a sparse few saved IMs here.)

Got an IM from her tonight, as she logged into an IM name she very rarely uses, saw both of my IM names online, and decided to say hi. Caught up a bit, she added my names to the name she uses currently, and off to bed she went.

A pleasant surprise, overall. And now it's time for me to get to bed, because there's no longer anyone talking to me keeping me up. :)

Vietnam, TJ, and a bird.

My dream last night took me to places both strange and familiar.

I was part of a squad of men going into deep woods in Vietnam. The foliage was exceptionally dense, despite each plant or tree being thin*--there was no clear line of sight further than a few feet. We forged ahead slowly, often crawling low, toting our pump-action rifles*, and got separated. In the end I was by myself, stumbled into a shallow pond and got soaked. In wading across this pond, I noted a small, blue and white bird perched near the water. It didn't flee my approach, and I found it could talk. It was a white-crown* pionus, the last of its kind, and it knew it was fated for extinction. It asked me to pull a wing feather to keep, which I did, tucking it into a leg pocket. A bit later, some enemy troops passed nearby; I covered us both in my camo poncho.

I then continued on, breaking out of the trees next to a small cabin. I saw one of the enemy through a window, sighted down my rifle, and pulled the trigger--nothing! Pumped it a few times, still nothing--most have been damaged in the water. He called for backup, I ran, chased by those two men. I broke out of the woods again, right by my high school, and ran inside to hide, still pursued. By running up and down several of the stairwells and hallways, including the third floor*, I managed to elude them, ducking into a bathroom to hide out. Pondered climbing into the drop ceiling, decided against it. Checked out my gun to see if it could be repaired, woke up.

* These things only exist in dreams.

Monday Mission

1. Have you ever bought something you were so excited about and found out later that it didn't work? Were you able to return it? How did it go?
Most notably, I got a night vision monocular scope off of eBay.. it was kinda cool, and worked as it was supposed to, but not as well as I would've liked. So I auctioned it off and recovered my expenses, with a following hassle about exchanging positive feedback, which never happened.

2. I have a Palm (Pilot) for my date book and such, but have been thinking of jumping to the PocketPC world at some point. Do you have a PDA (personal digital assistant)? What kind, and how did you decide? What do you like about it? If you don't own one, do you want one or do you do better without such gadgets?
I recently upgraded from a Handspring Visor Deluxe to a Handspring Visor Neo. Got Handspring over Palm in the first place due to the Springboard expansion possibilities; I've since gotten a GPS module, and the Neo came with an EyeModule camera., and my dad has the modem and memory backup modules. It's a great way to keep track of appointments, activities, phone/address info, to-do lists, and memos, as well as assorted web items and games and such. Worlds better than the DayRunner paper planner that I used through high school.

3. What illness do you wind up catching more than any other?
Minor colds, probably allergy-based.

4. Do you like going to see the Doctor (any type)?
Don't mind 'em, though I currently have no health insurance. All the more reason to get an engineering job with benefits!

5. How about the Dentist? Do you like going? Do you go in every 6 months for a check-up?
Don't mind those, either. Ordinarily I'd go every six months, but see previous response.

6. Are you a "Dog Person" or a "Cat Person?" Do you think a person's choice tells you something about their personality?
Cat, primarily. I like dogs, but I don't want to actually own one. This is probably because I find cats cute, affectionate, and low-maintenance--I don't want to have to housetrain a pet or take them for walks twice a day forever. I do think the choice tells you something, probably about insecurity, need for devotion, something like that.

7. I've mentioned before how me and a buddy of mine have just let our friendship lapse. There was no disagreement, but we've hit that point where we have nothing in common anymore. My life has progressed and he is still living in 1992. Have you ever had a friendship that just seems to have run its course? Where there is just nothing there anymore? What finally happened?
I have had some friendships sort of lapse.. just slowly moved apart until there's civil conversation to be had occasionally, but not much more.

BONUS: Do you want to see me beggin' baby? Can't you give me just one more day?
Nah, that just doesn't do it for me.