Seriously, I'm on Xanga right now.

Just haven't logged in in like a month and a half, just checking things out.  I might still use this site but we'll see.

I remember this as it were yesterday. Two of my best friends gone forever : (

This story is nearly five years old but still pisses me off.  I was reminded of it and now I can't think of anything else.  March 17, 2002 was the one of the worst if not the worst day of my life.  It was a cloudy dreary sunday and hearing that two of my best friends died that evening was the worst thing I've ever heard.  I still hold back tears to this day.  Here is the article of that Malin fuck trying to get off easy.  Honestly if I found him and met him I'd probably beat him to a pulp and I'm not a violent person. 

From The Northwest Herald [May 15, 2004]

Penalty cut out of order

A drunken driver who killed four people wants his 10-year prison sentence for reckless homicide reduced.

And no way should the courts grant it.

David Malin, 34, of Park Ridge, was drunk – his blood-alcohol level more than double the legal limit – when he crossed the center line and crashed his car into a minivan, killing four people.

The tragic collision occurred March 16, 2002, on Route 12 in Richmond. Families in Burlington, Wis., were devastated.

Bruce Thieme, 43, Lynn Thieme, 45, their daughter Stephanie Thieme, 17, and friend Renee Kleeman, 16, were killed. The Thiemes' two other children, Angela and Nicole Thieme, did not accompany them to Las Vegas.

To his credit, Malin pleaded guilty in January and expressed profound regret for the crash. By all accounts, he is a good family man who never had been in trouble. He is married and has two young children. Malin made a horrible mistake when he got drunk and drove away in his car.

As good a man as Malin may be and the hardship the sentence imposes on his family, his appeal should be denied. The gravity of his mistake is too severe for him to get a break, let alone ask.

"Every statement I have heard, whether it was from the prosecution or the defense, was from the heart," said presiding Judge Ward Arnold, who imposed the sentence, which could have been 28 years. "I wish I could hold these sentencings in high schools." No movie or re-enactment could approach what played out in the courtroom.

More than 80 people were in the courtroom, most in support of the Thieme family. Malin's 7-year-old son wrote a letter, pleading for leniency.

Reducing the sentence would show disrespect to the Thieme and Kleeman families, as well as to the memory of the four dead people.

No penalty can salve the wounds of the families, and the friends and family that were affected by this terrible tragedy.

But to reduce the sentence would be to reopen the wounds and send a message to the public that drunken driving isn't so serious.

A guy on Yahoo Answers asks: Why is it so cold? What happened to global warming?

This was my response:

Christmas is over, and we can now get back to being mean to eachother.lol.

Anyway my Christmas was alright, I got invited up to my friend Rick's new place in Watertown (Watertown is a little over an hour north of Lake Geneva) but I'll get to that later. 

I would've visited my Dad for Christmas but his stupid ass got evicted from his apartment a few weeks ago for not making up the rent he owed (He had six months!) so I'm a little fed up with my Dad right now.  First he loses the house I lived in for the first 19 + years of my life, then he loses his job in March after being there for 25+ years, and now he gets evicted from his apartment.  

My Mom on the other hand visited her boyfriend Greg's family for Christmas Eve and Christmas.  Greg's family is really nice, like his Mom and his brother Tom, but the rest of them seem a little snobby so my sister and I have always felt awkward visiting them for holiday festivities.  I think the last time my sister and I went over there for the holidays was maybe 1997ish? so it's pretty much a given now a days that we don't go over there, despite my Mom inviting us every year.

With all that stuff happening I had nothing else to do on Christmas.  Christmas Eve was just like any other jobless Wednesday, just sitting around my place doing not much of anything.  That night I called my friend Rick to see if he wanted to hangout this up coming weekend, and we got on to the subject of what I was doing on Christmas.  I explained to him I really wasn't doing much, and since he was on his way to visit his Dad close by.  He figured on stopping over by my place to meet up and follow him up to his place to spend the night and go over to his girlfriend's family for Christmas. 

The drive was long to say the least.  It wasn't the first time I've been up there, but since him and his girlfriend moved into a different part of town.  I was unfamiliar with the route we took once we got off of I-94 in Oconomowoc, so it was important I followed them.  We left around 10:30 Wednesday night and got up there around 11:40ish.  I was really tired by the time I got there but I really wanted to see how nice their apartment was and it was pretty nice.  It reminded me of the Ridges in Lake Geneva back when I lived across the street from Wal Mart.  It had a similar layout as the lower levels at the Ridges.  Infact one of the rooms looked almost identical to my room at the Ridges, except for the giant closet with a giant mirror.  I don't like mirrors that take up an entire wall cuz I see no point.  That night I settled in and watched digital cable all night.  I watched a long documentary about Kurt Cobain's life which dragged on but it was rather interesting.  Afterwards I ordered South Park on demand for free.  Watched that until I went to bed around threeish.   

On Christmas day I woke up rather early, about 8:30ish.  Watched some TV while Rick and his girlfriend went to a friend's house, they said they'd only be gone for a couple hours and I didn't have to go if I didn't want to, so I decided to stay at their place.  I watched more on demand programming, mostly the rest of the South Park episodes I didn't watch the previous night and I went on the internet for a little bit to check my email and randomly do a new years Myspace survey that occupied my time.  Once I was done I took about a 15 minute nap before Rick and his girlfriend came back.  I really wanted to sleep more but I figured that I give myself a good kick in the ass and play Guitar Hero.

I never played Guitar Hero before but I got hooked right away.  I think the reason why I got so hooked so quick was that I loved the songs in the game and I wanted to improve.  I stunk early on but once I got warmed up I was jamming out pretty good.  Slow Ride was my favorite despite being the easiest one along with that song by heart that I really got into.  The notes were rather easy on those seeing they followed a easy to remember pattern but later down the list of songs the notes got harder.  Like one of the songs by White Zombie was really difficult and quick.  Where the notes really confused me and it was like my fingers had a mind of their own.  Pressing the wrong button or just missing a few notes consecetively and yelling at the screen saying, "I hit that one!".  All in all I now want Guitar Hero, if I had I job I'd get one.

Unfortunately I had to stop playing Guitar Hero : ( and get ready to go over to Rick's girlfriend's family get together.  I had no idea who any of em were so I was naturally nervous.  When I got there I noticed that every one had their shoes on in the house, I was going to take my boots off but since I noticed everyone had em on I figured to keep mine on so that my feet and sox didn't get wet.  (Rick's girlfriend's name is Jana just so I don't have to type Rick's Girlfriend"s family again.lol.)  Jana's family was the typical disfunctional family, always giving eachother crap so I had to be on my toes in case something headed my way, or in case I said something that sounded wrong.  I just laughed along with everything, poked a few jokes and fit in just right.  I found myself a comfortable spot in the living room to watch the end of Christmas Carol.  After that was over we all watched Napolean Dynamite on Comedy Central while the food got ready.

It wasn't my typical Christmas Dinner that I was used to, with an ecxeption to the ham.  They made green bean cassarole, Polish scaloped potatoes, the ham obviously, a chunk of meat that was seasoned and shaped like a potato, these mini hot dogs soaked in barbacue sauce, and cheese, sausage, and crackers.  I tried everything but the mini hot dogs, something about em didn't seem right to me, even though I bet they were good.  The Polish scaloped potatoes mixed with the green bean cassarole was actually really good together, but I'm not a picky eater.  Some people hear the word cassarole and think eww without even trying it.  While unlike them I think, yummy!  I love cassarole, especially chicken cassarole with cheese, awsome.  Too bad they didn't make that!  I ended up having two servings and I was stuffed.  It actually felt good to eat a lot seeing I haven't ate that much in a few weeks.  I've been eating once a day on average and just drinking water to stay hydrated.  No soda in my diet ever, but I bent that rule and made an exception seeing I hadn't had a soda in awhile.  I also had a cup of beer out of one of those 6 liter Hieneken kegs.

Later on when we made it back to Jana and Rick's apartment.  Rick called his brother and his girlfriend over, while I got prepared for more Guitar Hero!  When I turned it on and played the first song I couldn't hit a single note and my timing was way off.  It took me a few of the easy songs to get my focus back, it was like all I did earlier went out the window and I was back to how I was before I played Guitar Hero.  Once I got my timing and focus down I was actually better than I was before.  Rick started vacuuming and his brother came over, so I had some distractions to over come.  In fact I think I was better with the vacuum going than I was without it, it was weird.  I played for over an hour unbelievably and took a break to let Jana play, I was mentally wore the hell out and had to sit down. 

Rick made me a drink and we got ready to watch the movie Death Race.  That's about a guy who get's framed for murdering his wife and in order to be set free from prison he had to race to the death on this reality show taking place at the prison, and the warden tries everything in her power to prevent him from winning.  It's a really cool movie with lots of crashes and action.  After the movie we took some shots and played some dice games, I had no idea how to play any of em and was honestly lost during all of it.  I'm so used to regular card games like asshole and fuck the dealer, so I played just three games and played the anti-social one on the computer.  I went on you tube for awhile and watched tornado videos.  I also checked my facebook and everything email wise.  I wanted one more drink and made myself a mixed drink of UV and Lemonade, which tasted like Kool-Aide.  Everyone else decided to go out to get a drink.  I saw no point in going seeing the bars close at two and it was 1:25.  By the time you get there, they're already kicking you out.  Besides, I had no money to be spending at a bar.  I don't like going out if I don't have the money.  I was getting tired and just felt lazy anyway, so I just stayed at the apartment and watched South Park episodes online.

Everyone left when they got back to the apartment.  Jana and Rick said that once they got there to the bar the bartender called last call practically when they walked in the door and only got one drink in before everyone had to get out.  It was one of those told ya so moments and mainly the reason I didn't go.  All that was left for the night was getting ready for bed and I slept well on their couch.  I slept so good that I actually slept a full eight hours, which never happens.  That just says enough about my shitty mattress which I've had for a dozen years now.

Friday I awoke as Rick's alarm started going off in the other room.  It was around eleven in the morning and I was still sleeping a little bit.  I could've slept more but figured there'd be no point in sleeping more and I was at a point where I wanted to go home.  I sat up and watched TV with Jana and Rick until I was fully awake.  I got all my stuff ready and to go home and I tried to leave, but my car wasn't starting.  I had to call Rick back out to give me a jump but apparently I didn't need a jump.  Rick just said I probably have water in my fuel line and I probably have dirty fuel injectors complicating the problem, so Rick kicked me out of the car and floored the gas pedal until it started and it eventually did.  That was a sigh of relief so I just went to a gas station to pick up some Heet, hopefully that cleans my fuel injectors and gets the water out of my gas tank.

Anyway during my car issues my Sister called me to tell me she was heading by Mom's so I figured since I was on the way down from Watertown that we'd get down there at about the same time.  My Sister lives in north Milwaukee so it was about the same distance away.  The funny thing was that when I arrived at my Mom's my Sister pulled into the drive way shortly after I did.  We sat at my Mom's for about a half hour or so and decided to go out to eat.  While on the way we stopped at a music store and I looked at all the electric guitars and wished I had one.  I'd love to learn how to play but for some reason my Mom kept saying I should play drums.  I wouldn't mind drums but I'd rather learn guitar, I'd love to make my own music with a guitar.  My Mom, Sister, and I stopped at a resturant called Fork in the Road.  I ordered a chili cheese burger with fries, my Mom ordered some chicken wings, and my Sister ordered a small order of Mexican Nachos that ended up looking like a large order.  The portions were relitively large and I loved it!  You get what you pay for, and the food was awsome.  I definently would love to go there again.  My Sister and my Mom couldn't finish their food so they gave the leftovers to me seeing I can't stand wasting food.  Went back to my Mom's for a bit longer, my Mom gave me a bunch of apples and a bunch of cookies she made for Christmas.  I tried a couple of em before I left and they were awsome.  They were simple chocolate chip cookies but they were made perfect.  Not too hard not too soft.

Well, that was pretty much my Christmas.  It turned out being better than I thought it was going to be.  Though I wouldn't of cared whether I did anything for Christmas or not, but I don't think it would've been healthy for my sanity to do nothing.  I'm agnostic and not religious at all but Christmas is about doing things with people your close to and love.  Whether they're friends or family.  I can care less if I get nothing for Christmas, frankly I'm used to it.  Too bad I didn't have money to spend on Christmas cards and lottery tickets this year, but none of that matters in the end.  It's all materialistic crap and if Christmas presents are the only reason you like the holidays, than you've lost touch with what matters, and when you lose touch you become selfish, shallow, and just plain out spoiled rotten.  Anyway I hope everyone's Christmas was awsome and I need to seriously get away from this computer because I'm tired of typing.lol.

Take Care,

Matt ^_^