I have very sick this week. I have had a very mean case of the flu. Since this is the case, I have done virtually nothing but sleep, watch TV and play video games.

I tried Dr. Mario (giggle) but he did nothing! I am hoping to be rid of this bug in a few more days! I will post when I get better!

I had a pretty fun day today. I got to hang out with a friend that I don't get to see all too often. We met at Hastings and went off to the graveyard. I was wondering why she wanted to go, but I had a good time. We sat under a mausoleum and drink energy drinks. She was normal after a few drinks, but I don't drink them all too often so I was bouncing off the walls! Then we moseyed onto Wal-Mart and shopped around some electronics and clothes. I managed to sneak another energy drink in to keep my bounciness going. It was cold outside and all she had on were hole jeans, a thin hoodie, and a worn down rag from the streets. I offered her my coat on several occasions so she could stay warmer, but she declined. When we were in Wal-Mart she found a jacket pretty much just like mine; a thick leather jacket. She was showing off her new jacket to the world.

I hooked my parent's Gamecube up to my TV downstairs today. It was either hat or hooking it upstairs. I could have also put it in the main room, but that place is wire central; I would have to hook and unhook crap that I have never dreamed of before. Either way, my dad is sitting right next to me playing Resident Evil 4. Mom might come down to play Animal Crossing later or not, who knows? Thanks to dad, I now have my blu ray player hooked back up. Now I can pick stuff from the blu ray collecton again instead of using my 360 or PS2 to play my movies.

I just wrote a short story called The Little White Rose. I am not going to post it here, but I'll get it on the internet eventually. It is about a young girl that struggles with, you guessed it, mental illness. Here is a copy of the story. I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! I tried converting it to PDF, but nothing I tried works! If anyone can convert it to a PDF, then by all means to it so I can post in that format.

Now here it is, in .wps format, but archived in a .zip, a copy of The Little White Rose!

Edit: I replaced the .wps with a .rtf. If there are any problems, contact me via the info below.

little_white_rose.zip

If you didn't notice, Nerblog went black yesterday in protest. Now megaupload is dead due to the massive protest, or so they say...

My mental health community is still not seeing a steady flow of traffic. I am getting new members, but they only leave a few posts. All in all, some practice is being made--people are helping people. That is exactly what I wanted the whole time! I could really care less if I stay at 28 members and 92 total posts with 26 separate topics. My goal when I started this community was to provide help to those suffering with mental disorders, and we (the community as a whole) are doing just that

The most popular subject seems to be dealing with depression. If you are suffer from depression, or are just have a case of the blues, join in on the discussions going on! The url is http://nerblog.net/mh/. The most popular forum is Chatter. This is where all of the talking is done. Even if you don't suffer from depression, you can still join in. We welcome all those who suffer from mental disorders.

I have been making fantastic progress through Final Fantasy. My party is at level 21 and I have exactly 150,120 gold! Yesterday I was at level 17. Thanks to the peninsula of power and an hour of my time, I shot up four levels with ease! It sure is a lot easier fighting at level 21 than at level 17. It was boring leveling up and all, but it sure was worth it. I am at the ice cave right now. I beat the tar out of this game about five years ago; I forgot quite a few things over time. I can't wait until I get the air ship so I can fly fly fly and get promoted! My party consists of two fighters, a white mage and a black mage. I ran into some trouble with mancats at the Castle Of Ordeals. Eventually I got the chance to run away from them and I got to progress through. I have 79 heals, 25 pures, 5 softs, 6 cabins and 7 houses at my disposal.

Enough talk about Final Fantasy for now. I am going to make a totally new layout for Nerblog. It will be optional though, so the main layout will stay the same. I am not sure how it will look yet, what the colors will be, etc. Suggestions are always welcome. Send a description and/or a sketch to me at agardner210@gmail.com.

I will be heading on up to Kansas City, MO around Feb. 18. I always look forward to going up there to see my family up north. It is also a good thing to get out of the house for a week or so .

Last night I got to play with one of my Christmas presents; the only reason it was this late was due to the fact that it took ages for me to figure it out. I was afraid that I would mess it up. It was a touch screen mp3 player. It is fcking awesome to the max! It, of course, plays mp3 files, but it also plays video and it even has a radio built in! The battery life can use some boosting, but it is okay so long as it is left alone on one playlist.



Today is a good day! A friend of mine turns 30 today. She's an old maid now (God I hope she doesn't read my blog ). Speaking of birthdays, I turn 24 on Feb. 10! I hope I don't start getting wrinkles and have to use a cane or walker!

I'm giving Final Fantasy a rest for a few days. I am at the earth cave and am using the giants to level up for a bit. I'm probably going to play Lufia a bit, or I might dive into Chrono Trigger. I'll post again soon!

I have been busy as of late. I am writing a short story and I have been playing Final Fantasy (the first one) on my Jnes. I have also been playing Mother, Lufia & the Fortress of Doom and Clay Fighter. I am really getting into these old Nintendo and Super Nintendo games. I am taking a break from the big boy game systems like Xbox 360. I am even taking a break from my Play Station 2. I have to watch the last episode of Maken-Ki! and look at the new winter lineup.

I am also having relationship problems . I am stuck in a rut and I don't know what to do with what I have. This girl really has my eye and I don't know how to convey my feelings to her. Usually I don't have problems with this sort of stuff; I used to, but I just think that, "She is more nervous than me." I don't know if this is the case or not, though.

This has been one hell of a year to say the least. It has gone way up high only to crash to find the worst disaster that I have ever ran across. Hell, this has been the worst year that I have lived. It was on May 22 that I came back down south from Kansas City, Missouri back home to Joplin. I arrived at the bus station at around 3:30pm. I was home for around three hours before the disastrous tornado hit. It was raining fairly hard and I wanted to check it out. Right about the time I went out on the back porch, I saw a rotation headed toward our home. I yelled at mom and she grabbed Buttons and we headed to the basement. It was all quiet for about a minute--then BAM! It hit the house at full force. To make a long story short, after about five minutes of pure hell, we made our way out of the wreckage and opened chapter X+1 in our lives. I would like to thank the Lord for sparing us. As if the Lord wasn't as work, the local Catholic church was totaled, but the Father was safe and the cross that stood above the church managed to withstand the mighty EF-5 tornado.

I hope that the year 2012 will be better. Even though the Mayans predict that on December 21, 2012, the world will undergo a radical shift. Sure some people say that the world will "end", but that is not necessarily true. I used to believe that the world would end, but then I found religion. I believe that the world will end when Jesus will come back to judge the living and the dead. I say this, but I have been having apoplectic dreams for ages now. Does this make me a hypocrite (I don't think so). I apologize if my views are found offensive in any way, shape, or form. On a non-religious matter, the year 2012 has to be better than 2011 by a long shot. If, by some chance, the world does come to an end this December, then so be it. Just live each day like it is your last; like you will die tomorrow. Be a risk taker!

What are your resolutions this year? The most popular one is to lose weight. Mine is to cut back on soda. I will cut it to two days a week of drinking. Then, come lent, I will cut it out completely as my sacrifice. One step at a time, friends, one step at a time .

This year is also special because it is a leap year! For the life of me I don't know why I call it "special", but it is kind of cool having another day in the year. I have a few friends that were born on February 29. One is my age, or will be my age, 24. So on the leap day, he turns six!

That's about it for today! Stay up till midnight to shoot off firecrackers! Be sure to welcome the new year with welcome arms wide open! I'll post again sometime next year .

This Christmas I got a lot of money put on to gift cards. I had (yes, had) fifty dollars on a Vintage Stock gift card. I spent that on comic books, a wireless PS2 controller, a copy of Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly and a couple cans of Java Monster energy drink. The comic books I purchased were, of course, Fantastic Four. I haven't put them in my database yet--I plan on doing that tomorrow after work. The wireless controller is just plain epic. I can fully recline and play my PS2 the way God meant to, lounging; it's the same way I play my 360. Now if only they made a wireless N64 controller... they don't, do they? It is much easier to play Sonic and burn things on Spyro while leaning back with a pillow!

My other gift card I received was for Wal-Mart. Yesterday I bought lunch on it. Not my real intent, but I was hungry! Today I made a worthwhile purchase--I purchased a generic 360 wired controller. I say generic because why buy the original for 5 dollars when I can buy a knock off for a wee $30. I took it home and plugged it into my laptop. Windows did its thing and installed the drivers. Guess what... it works! Now I can play my SNES9x with a controller. Better yet, I can get Project 64 again and start cranking out those fun 64 games.

Aside from the wonderful gift cards and what I purchased with them, I am a very happy individual what with all the clothes I received and all! Get ready, New Years is rapidly approaching...

This Christmas has been an especially great one. I would like to take time out to say "happy birthday" to Jesus, and to say a few prayers for family and friends. May the Lord God shine blessings on Little Margie, Charlie, Stephen and Mary Carruth, my Aunt Sissie, my Uncle Brooks, Grandma Anita, Sharon, Shannon, my beloved mother and father, and my other friends and family.

Gift wise this has been a great holiday, too. I received a TON of sweaters and other clothes. I also received a touch-screen mp3 player of which I can't for the life of me find the wand for . Seriously though, the sweaters are for the win here. I am wearing a hunter green sweater that just makes me want to curl up and take a nap. Oh and I also got 100 dollars worth of gift cards! It evens out to fifty dollars worth of Vintage Stock dollars, and a VISA gift card; it might be a Wal-Mart card though, I am not quite sure on that one .

We (the family) were going to attend a mid-day mass yesterday, but nooooooooooo the line was outside the door! So we split up our worship: Mom went to mass this morning, and I went to my usual Lutheran worship around 11am this morning. Actually the worship I went to was "mixed". It was held in the Presbyterian church we have been using since the 5/22 tornado, and there were both Lutheran and Presbyterian worshipers attending. It was very sad--I counted no more than 25 people at the service. I have to hand it to the choir though, it was AMAZING! I was sad that they didn't sing my favorite carol: Silent Night.

Happy birthday to Jesus and pax vobis!

I did something very stupid yesterday. I tripped over thin air and sprained my ankle! Right after i did it, my ankle got numb and I was free to walk on it. Around two hours it was very different. I couldn't walk at all after that; the only real way to maneuver was by crawling. My pain just grew worse as the night progressed. I popped some Tylenol, sat in my recliner, and put my foot up. The pain was still very intense. To say the least, walking to my restroom was no fun act. No matter what position I set myself in, my pain never went away.

This morning was very different. My foot still hurt, but I could walk on it with much less pain. At this time, I am on my recliner, foot up, on my laptop, and watching Law & Order: SVU. I must be a rapid healer, because I can put full weight on my right anklel with much less pain. Who knows, I might be able to get Mom's Christmas present tomorrow. I might be able to go to work on Thursday and Friday, too .

I wonder what Christmas is going to be like this year? I am going to Mass with my parents on Christmas Eve. I will go to my church and sing Christmas carols for awhile at 11:00am on Christmas Day.