I freaking chomped into the Apple and got served

Well, i'm a Carr, what else can i say?

So yesterday was the day. After receiving an iPod for graduation and pondering for many months, i decided to order my iBook from Apple. last summer Apple had a deal where you got a free iPod with any order, but i had been watching for an entire year and wellinto the summer and no such deal reappeared. Which is no surprise. With the iPods huge popularity, why bother giving them away? Also, a new iPod had been recently rumored, but all the speculated dates turned out to be bogus, so i had no problem asking for one for graduation. Then came this morning, when it all came down at once.

I headed to work at 845 and arrived to see only Craig sitting in front of the house. "we're not starting til noon. Kabes (our boss) says the wood is too wet." Well that's nice of him to inform us at 8:45 (when we are supposed to be at the house at 9) after not telling us when we were working til after 10 last night. But i was OK with that, i just headed over to craig's house and hopped onto the present computer i am typing on and went to the apple website to check on my recently ordered iBook. First thing i see: "New 20GB iPod." Well dang, not that big a deal. I mean a color screen and slightly longer battery life would have been nice, but i am cool with that. Still, my bad timing is pretty funny. Moving on to the main store site, i browsed the new iPod prices and was observing various other changes to the front page, when, buried in a bottom corner i see...no...it couldn't be. I got served.

"Student Union: College Students. Buy a Mac. Get a free iPod mini. And with your everyday student discount save up to $479.* But act now. This offer is good only through September 24, 2005."

Yeah, and you know when that offer started? mmmmmm, yeah, that would be June 28th...hmmm you know when i ordered my Mac....mmm yeah, that would be june 27th. After waiting for months to buy this thing, i decide to buy it the day before cool stuff comes free with it...bah, at least my iPod isn;t already outdated. I guess it could be worse. I could have paid $320 for my iPod at Best Buy a week before the new ones come out, but who wouldnt use their student discount (love you nathan :) ). OK, i'm done now i guess.

Go buy a Mac and get a free iPod mini (or $179 towards the purchase of one of the other members of the iPod family)

What Fools These Mortals Be!

So i was cleaning out my room this afternoon, trashing lots of old mail, sending clothes to the rescue mission etc., when i stumbled upon some "poetry" i wrote in 7th grade...wow. It jolted me back to the years called junior high which, for the sake of everyone's self esteem, should be deleted from all high schoolers' memories. The days of hanging out at the mall, relying on mom and dad for transportation (craig, ben m., you had the right idea :)), puberty, and "going out" are now fresh in my mind. And as ridiculous as it is, i think i need to post one of my love-ridden bombshells here on the blog just to boost everyones daily entertainment by a factor of ten. So here goes.

_____'s Poem {bonus points if u can guess who}
I had never experienced such a thing in my life
I looked into your eyes and forgot all my strife
If you only felt for me as i feel for you
At last in my life, my dreams would come true.

Your laughing gives me joy, and your smile gives me life
and as i said before, i forget all my strife
You are great to be around, and talk to (not on the phone)
But i wish i could get some time with you alone

There are so many girls that i have to choose from
But when i see you, i forget that great large sum
Your beauty surpasses all that i've seen
and your heart is so good, and kind, and clean.

I can only look to God to know if you're the one
Whom i will spend much time with, and have lots of fun
I feel deep down that you just might be
But i am waiting for that moment to know you're for me.

As time passes by, i miss you much more
and not speaking to you makes my throat very sore
But all i can say to you on this night
Is "there's a very special place for you in my heart."


Wow, that was hillarious. In retrospect, i can firmly say that this person is NOT the one :)...please comment on favorite/worst/most hillarious lines and generally make fun of junior highers :). The best part is that i probably thought that was money when i wrote it.

Cruise in Review pt. II

Jamaica mon! The land of overly friendly young males who really just want money but act like they are inerested in you and really make you think that they may actually be genuine. No, not all of them were like that. Here you can get an idea of how freaking huge our ship is. If you take the antenna off the empire state building, it is only 5 stories taller than our ship on end. And oh yeah, Royal Carribean is currently building one 90 feet longer than this one called Freedom of the Seas. The joke was that it only has to pivot to reach all of its destinations. Yo ucan slo get an idea of how beautiful and lush the plants/grass were.


This is my dad with the beloved WillyBoy. He was out taxi driver around Ocho Rios (a town in Jamaica). He rocked. Opening lines in his city tour, "In my taxi 'Oh God' and 'Oh Lord' are swearing. No screaming in my van. Jamaica has more churches per square mile than anywhere else in the world. Right across the street from each one is a rum bar." And he rolled on from there.



Forgive the blurriness. This is at the top of Dunn's River Falls, the biggest tourist activity in Jamaica. Where strings of humanity crawl up treacherous rock formations (that have water pouring down them) while holding hands and being led by a guide. What had we gotten ourselves into? We knew there would be no hand-holding on our expedidtion. We got Chad (my bro in-law and accomplished rock climber) to lead our trek and sped up the falls, traversing areas that appeared near-impassable on our walk down (it wasn't as bad as it looked in general. There were lots of man-made footholds the whole way up. Still, there is no way any operation like this could exist in the States. Lawsuits would shut it down liek the Royals did the Yankees.) Good times were had by all in the end, and no one cracked open any skulls or got so fed up with the tourists that they shot anyone (unfortunately).




Ephraim's (our room attendant) handcrafted towel animals! These fellas were the high light of our post dinner conversation. "what do you think we'll have on our bed when we go to the room?" Towel animals were so popular in fact that the cruise staff decided to add a towel folding class to the regular on-board activities. Some of the not-pictured animals include a stingray (ruined it before ithought to take a photo) and a dog (not shown for obvious reasons).


The picaresque 7-mile beack on Grand Cayman island, where banks outnumber square mileage. Not really, but it is probably the most popular location for off-shore accounts besides Switzerland. The island in general was very corporate, especially compared to Jamaica. In these crystal clear waters, we went on the first of two scuba-diving excursions. Eleven of us and two crew members sardined our way onto the little boat with large block letters reading "8 Passengers Maximum." Despite that early bit of comedy/fear, the trip was very enjoyable. Our first dive was a "wall dive." Basically we descended to fifty feet, glided above some coral formations full of fish life, then BOOM, 6000 foot deep blue water as far as the eye can see. We made it as deep as 100-110 (the max regular divers can go is 120) as we hugged the wall looking to various nooks and crannies for sea life. Awesome. On the second dive we got to see a little nurse shark (3-4 foot probably) sleeping under a little ledge and some sea turtles, so that was quality. In the next week we should be getting a video our dive master made of our trip...neato.


Sara and i posing with the head chef after meandering in awe through the mignight buffet viewing. That's right, viewing. You couldn't even eat the food they had on display. Ridiculous, gaudy, and probably the greatest proof that cruises are way over the top and that Americans have too much money.


On the top deck of our dive boat in Cozumel Mexico. This baby was pretty big. In addition to our group of eleven, there were four other divers, and six crew members, some of whom were slightly shady. Our groups dive master, Jaimen (high-men) was great, despite his knack for giving excessively long dive briefings. The little guy was a great leader and i loved the little fisher-price etch-a-sketch style slate he took underwater to write us misspelled messages in english...good times. Again we saw a nurse shark (bigger, probably 5 foot) and turtles. But one of the reals finds, was a big spotted eagle ray feeding o nthe ocean floor...sweet. The coral formations in Cozumel were massive. It was like swimming through canyons, some of which got pretty narrow and fun at points. The coral here was probably better than in Cayman, the fish may not have been quite as good, but all in all, i liked it better.

No, that's not a pool, that's just part of the everyday scenery in Cozumel. Go ahead, be jealous. They want you to be.

Not the brightest moment for team Kansas. Here we are about to get stomped in pool volleyball by Team Navigator (a croup of cruise staff members), but hey we don;t care, we won on land, and that's where it counts :). This was our last day at sea, and i have to say i was definitely ready to come home. I can only take so much pampering, food, time w/o internet or ESPN, time w/o communication with friends, etc. Good ole Topeka really isn;t so bad guys, honestly. I'm sure i'll bring up mroe specific situations in coming posts, but for now, I'm out.

Visual Sunday: Cruise in Review pt. 1

This is kind of a large task, but i will do my best to summarize and emphasize the last week+ of my life in a way that isn't boring...her goes.


I suppose this wasn't actually part of the cruise itself. It was kind of our pre-cruise exercise which we used to excuse our proceeding week of engorgement. This is one of the biggest gators we saw (not that big due to perspective...he was probably 8-10 feet long and really fat). Dad is on the bike trail. Yeah, they jsut roam right up and say hey. My favorite part of thsi 15-mile trek through the everglades was when we fed a giant grasshopper to some baby gators Animal Planet style. Chad was knocking the doomed insect into the water with a grass stalk uprooted from the surroundings. Eventually the grasshopper got away when the babies realized how disgusting eating grasshoppers is...seriously.



Aww, cruise check in. Here i tried to sport the face expressing the enthusiasm i felt upon seeing the labyrinth of cattle-herding barriers in front of us. Passports in hand, we slowly marched through the lines while issuing bovine moans much adding to the confusion of those around us. "why the heck are they mooing?" Here i also got a waiver signed saying i could consume beer and wine aboard the ship...score. Too bad i about upchucked at the taste of wine and would rather sip diarhea than the watered down bread dough that is beer.


MUSTER STATIONS!! The anitcipated pre-cruise safety drill arrived at last! Now, when the ship is sinking, will everyone really go calmly to their rooms (mine is on deck two and most likely submerged by the time i get there), retrieve their lifejacktes and ask for direction to the right muster station? I think i'd be tossing central american overboard in my mad rush to get on one of the lifeboats. Sure, they say there are plenty for everyone, but we've all seen Titanic (or at least the good parts...like when Leo dies...). Don't beleive their lives. Besides, the lifejackets will soon be featured in the new Clue game. They are far more efficient stranglers than ropes...plus, the victim never seas it coming. You may be floating, but try breathing...


Formal Nights. In addition to doubling the amount of clothes you have to bring, these babies are the one cruise event that make cruises feel like work. You have to set aside a block of time to change for dinner and primp. I suppose you don't have to, but the fashion bouncers (short Philipino men...surprise...) won't let you in the dining room if you don't. I decided not to bring a sport coat or suit, since i don't own one, and ride the line with a shirt and tie. It all worked out alright, and hey, don't we look pretty hott? (bring on the sister comments)


Our first port of call (cruise language for "where we stop so you can get off and blow money") was Labadee. A little chunk of Haiti fenced off in a Jurassic Park-esque way by Royal Carribean International itself for the private enjoyment of all the pampered rich tourists you could want. Really, it was a nice place. We did some snokeling out by a little plane wreck, ate some BBQ, chlled on the beach and...



DOMINATED IN SOME BEACH VOLLEYBALL. Yeah, those are gold medals, as in we got first. Team Kansas baby. After breezing through the first round our opponents in the finals looked to be our doom. These guys had a couple of kids on club teams at their respective colleges (one called Oregon or something), fortunately, i quickly spotted the weak link, a shorter stalky guy that could have beaten the crap out of me with one arm. He was the type that wears different Harley Davidson to match that days perpetual scowl. For that reason, i was hesitant to serve to him everytime, but these guys were solid, what else could i do? Putting your life at risk is just one of those things you have to do to be #1. We won 21-9. When the first round opponents of our fellow finalists heard how bad we won, they looked at us in awe, like some kind of volleyball gods (which we basically were). The legend of Team Kansas was born

Greetings From the Land Very Recently Dominated by Arlene

Well, i'll be honest, i felt kind of bad leaving home at 0445 this morning (yeah thats AM) without blogging or really sending any electronic messages at all. So here i am in the ramada inn in Miami Florida with free high speed internet access. What else am i supposed to do?

Flights went well today, no real delays. Grandma was freaking about about the bad weather when we arrived...hillarious. Imagine a late 70s puerto rican with a significant accent pacing and muttering about Tropical Storm Arlrene. Classic stuff really. But we don;t care, we jsut pester her, and really, she kind of deserves it. She htinks she knows more about everythign than anyone, so naturally, my dad has to put her in her place sometimes, but in ways that only we understand. For example, grandma doesnt want lots of people at her house (why i am here at the ramada) but at the same time she seems upset that those of us at the hotel won't be eating all the food she purchased for us. So i tell her that all ten of us are just gunna camp out in her room. She has a cow...awesome. You can never do anything right around grandma...it really kind of rocks.

I got security checked at the airport today. It was fun, i got the ole "if u feel uncomfortable with me patting you down at any time, just tell me and we can go into a private area." Now if you felt uncomfortable, would u want to go into a private room with the person? I don't know the breakdown, but i am guessing that lots more people get molested in private rooms than in the middle of the airport.

Tomorrow we board the ship at 2ish (pm...thankfully). Before that we may go ride a bike trail with alligators, but more likely we will jsut sleep in...but alligators are cool (i've done it before, yeah i;m hardcore). I;m hoping to see some sweet stuff while scuba diving. I have my sights set on a Reef Shark, they are sweet looking and kinda freaky, but i ain't skerred :). I'm outta here. Prolly won;t post til next week, but hey, u never know what surprises may come...Bon Voyage...

(i guess you should be saying that to me...oh well...don;t feel like editing hehe)

Visual Sunday: Last summer

So let me return to what was just a short year ago. "The years have been short but the days were long" as the Shins so aptly put it in Pink Bullets.


Summer Sizzle last year. It kinda sucks that this is my senior year and i won't be getting to go to most of Aestivus Gestio (summer sizzle) due to the curse that is work. And i always used to wonder why so few older kids came... On a side note, the Roayals are worthless, btu still taunt us for some reason. Just go 0-162 and set some records. (that's crandall's head)


Dougie looks scary...and Mikey is intense.


The fam at the top of some mountain in Colorado


The three guys are my cousins. Two of those girls are their wives, and i honestly don't know who the third chick is...weird. On a side note, wet suits just make everyone look more attractive...or something...


Yeah, we stayed there. Grand Lake Lodge. What a place (sigh).


I know its blurry but these are a couple of moosen--a mom and baby--we searched for these suckers for quite some time, so i had to get photographic proof despite the lack of light.

Thats all i got...work way too early and late tomorrow...yay. leialala leia

Lost, more for real

Wandering aimlessly through cyberspace, i find myself visiting the same sites over and over again expecting something to be different. We live in a society that wants the busy signal to be gone two seconds later, and, monotonously, we will check every two seconds because hope is driving us. In my case, i don't think it is hope, it's a love of the familiar. I played Halo last night. One particular game of CTF (capture the flag) took upwards of an hour. During the course of said game, this was my coursae fo action: spawn (come alive), jump into the middle, run up ramp on left, pick up some extra grenades, turn right, zig zag down the long hall to the opposing teams flag while throwing grenades and shooting. Here is where my path would vary. Either i would a) die quickly b) get close to the flag before getting ambushed c) touch the flag and die immediately or d) actually grab the flag, jump off the wall, run to the middle and throw the flag before i die. During this strictly repetitive process i realized why non-Christians should be suicidal. Frankly its remarkable that so many people willingly subject themselves to a life without knowledge of their only hope. More evidence that people are indeed stupid, but hey, i was the one who played Halo for hours last night, and visited the same websites multiple times in 5 minutes. I guess the point that i forgot to come back to was that even in new things like Halo, we immediately look for a groove to wedge ourselves into. In those rare times that we do break out, people stare, surprised and a little confused if not angry, like when a marble pops out of one of those intricate maze designs...lalala.

Lost, but not

Having deposited my graduation money at the bank, I glanced at the passenger seat of my SUV. What?! No book to return to Barnes & Noble? Blast! My pre-order of HP&tHBP must wait for another day. So, what to do? Call crandall's...busy. Call Brady...in manhattan. Call Congdon's...no answer (surprisingly not busy). Call nathan...being exclusive. When all seems hopeless, just g oto Congdons. I am there right now. For all i know i am the only one here. Jim may be in his room pondering the meaning of life, but i am here, mooching their internet access, listening to the persistent beeping of an alarm clock left unattended, ignoring a phone that i don't feel obligated to answer. I didn't break in. No one would ever have to break into the Congdon's home. Just walk through the open garage door, or go around back to the sliding door that some little elf magically unlocks, or, if those two options fail for some reason, any code ending in 8 is a sure bet on the garage door keypad. Soon, i'll probably leave, with no evidence of my current visit betraying my presence. How many places are there like this? I think just two. Others come close, but there would still be a lurking fear of beign discovered. None exists within me. Should any member of the family venture into the basement, i would acknowledge their presence, they mine, and away i would type on my new blog entry. Just another home base, another place where nobody cares if you eat your boogers or have bed head. A place where you can go when you're lost, but not.

(what do you know, someone just woke up...i think its doug, let's go investigate!)