I'm feeling a lot better today. I still can't turn all the way to the right, but the pain is mostly gone.

The Tease is living up to his nick name. The Tease and I took a road trip today-- to the Dungeness Spit. We hiked out about half way to the end of the spit, then we found some logs and took a nap between them. We started cuddling. And kissing. It was very nice.

Then it started raining, so we got up and headed back for the truck.

During the drive back, off and on, we held hands. Although, in hind site, it was more like me holding his hand when it just happened to be close to mine. We had dinner together when we got back. I invited him back to my place. The Tease said "No." He couldn't tonight.

I know I shouldn't chase the Tease. But part of me says "Why not?" It's not like there is another single, attractive man in my life that I should persue instead. For once I'd like to be persued by someone I find attractive and sane

Back to the road trip. It was a good day. I'd do it again..

I took friday off and slept. The drugs (Vicaden and Flexeril) really make me tired.

Friday night, Mat and Sandy picked me up. We had dinner with C2. Then I slept over at their place. I spend the day with Mat and Sandy.

I stopped taking the drugs on Saturday. But, it wasn't till Saturday afternoon that their effects wore off and I wolk up. Flexeril makes me constipated, so when it wore off I had to run to the bathroom a lot.

Saturday evening we had a white trash dinner party at Matt and Sandy's. We talked about the war and then we watched Sordid Lives. A black comedy about white trash. It was an ok movie.

After the party, the Tease drove me home. I toyed with inviting him in for a beer, but decided against it. Right now I only want to be with someone who wants to be with me. Plus, the Tease is becomming a friend. I don't want to wreck that.

I tore a ligament in my neck. It happened this morning while I was working out and got worse during the day. By late afternoon, I would have spazims that gave me a lot of pain.

I went to see a chiroprator at 4pm. He performed an adjustment, told me to ice it and to rest. This was the first time I went to a chiropractor.

I was supposed to have dinner with Mat and Sandy at 8pm. But, when we got to the restaurant the spazims became frequent and painfull. Mat and Sandy took me to a hospital. The doctor there ran some basic tests and shot me up with some drugs to relax me and help the pain. She said my spine was fine no ruptured disk, probably no pinched nerve. But the tendon was swollen.

I'm at home now. I'm going to rest and hope it gets better quickly.

Last night I had dinner with Steven. He regrets calling me up on the phone and telling me he found out about the journal. He wishes he toyed with me for a while.

We had dinner in old Bellevue, (if there is such a thing. Bellevue was built after 1970) In the 5.5 years I've lived in Seattle, I've never been to that area. There are a lot of cool restaurants there. We had dinner at Chantanee. It's supposed to be a great restaurant and the place was packed. It didn't turn out good for us. The lemon coconut soup was weak. Main course was good.

Steven got sick later on that night. I'm fine. It could just be something that's going around.

I'm done most of the hard work soldering on the pre-amp. I have to do some cleanup. Then test it.

On to what I'm actually doing today.

I'm playing hookey. I'm trying to finish off the pre-amp. It's hard. A big blob of solder accidentally shorted two finely placed wires. When I unsoldered the blob, the heat unsoldered the wires.

Soldering is like using fence posts for chop sticks. Frustrated, I went out and got a posible magnifying glass. The magnifying glass helps. Though, soldering is still like using fence posts for chopsticks, but now I can see!

Hey John. I'm not going to end this, though the tone may change now that people I know are reading. I've gone through a lot of the archives and there isn't a lot of incriminating evidence. Except for that one time Vic gave me a BJ in Steven's house while our friends ran interference.

Just kidding Steve.

Steven and the Sleuth (Vic's friend who first found these pages) have started sending me emails and using the pseudo-names, though they said they won't tell anyone else.

The Sleuth emailed this..

Hi man,
Hope your day goes well in Seattle. I’m the sleuth, who cracked the case of the pb. When I sent a few pages to Vic, he then decoded the identities of the innocent. Here is a copy of the page that triggered the initial CICS activities.I just read your recent entry about being busted. Hope we didn’t scare you too much. Sounds like Steven tormented you a bit about it. Please feel free to email anytime.

Take care eh,


Steven sent me this...

This is Stephen, your buddy you mention in your chronicles. It was only last night that you were busted by my friend we will call Sleuth in Victoria and my boy friend Vic. We were all a little surprised of what we found. We have all agreed that your chronicle is quite cool and we will not be disclosing information about such a place. I would have only loved to have been there when you were listening to me on the phone last night. WHY DIDNT I WAIT TO SEE YOUR FACE IN PERSON?
...

Barry, want to have dinner tonight? I think we should discuss your plan of action of what to do next. Do you pull it? Do you keep it? Lets talk about the consequences of this and if anyone else learns of your idenity!!! For now, I think you are safe. I personally would like to see you continue it. I have never seen you as that vulnerable but this shows you have substance to write down your thoughts and feelins whether anyone reading or your friends will agree is irrevelant. They are your thoughts and your feelings.

Your buddy,

Stephen

To the sleuth's in Victoria. Congratulations!

For the rest of you, I've been busted.

For the past 3 years I've kept this journal secret from my friends. Tonight that changed. Steven called me up and said "I'm laughing really hard and have to tell you something. Vic and his friend were searching the web for "PB" and this web site poped up."

Vic and Steven have read just about everything-- Steven mentioned entries that I wrote years ago. They've pieced together most of the names.

I don't know if I like this. I was sweating bullets while I was on the phone with Steven. Steven says he was impressed that I've been doing this for so long. Part of me wants to yank this off the web-- before someone else finds it.

I need to digest this. I'm going to start rereading most of my entries. Just to see how much dirt there is.

For some reason my hit counter has doubled over the past two weeks. Does it mean that more people are reading this journal? It could also mean that spam spiders, programs that search the web for email addresses to spam, are out in full force.

Tonight I had dinner with Steven. He does remember the longshore-man from Vancouver.

Steven is going through a lot of stress. You can hear it in his tone-of-voice. He's less perky than he usually is.

We talked a bit about the war. I told him that the war hasn't really affected me. Yes people are fighting and dying. But that's always the case-- Rwanda, Columbia, Zimbabwe, Congo, North Korea. The only thing that's different now is that it's on TV. I hope that after the war, people won't think it's over. That once Iraq becomes a free place to live, that this sort of thing will slip from our minds. Two thirds of the world lives under terrible conditions, not in the peacful, easy society we have in the west. Iraq is only the tip of the iceburg.

I went up to Vancouver for Saturday night. I ended up running into a lot of guys from Seattle. Strange. I went to Vancouver to get away from Seattle, but it followed me there. I did meet a nice guy in Vancouver. He used to be a longshore man. He just quit and is going back to school. He said he know Steven. I'll ask Steven and see if he recoginizes the name.

I had dinner and watched the Oscar's with Bruce and C3. C3 was glad Bowling for Columbine won the oscar for Best Documentary. Michael McDonough, the cinematographer for BfC, is a good friend of C3's and owes C3 a few favors. Now C3 is hoping to get some work through him.

Spam...

My main email account has been getting a lot of spam. So I opened up two new accounts to see what would happen. For one account my email address is my first initial and my last name. The other account consists of ten random letters. Today the account that starts with my initials is receiving spam! I haven't used the address at all, and it's getting spam! I knew they were throwing telephone books at hotmail, but I didn't think it was that bad. The account that is made up of ten random letters is still clean.

A co-worker, KC, is very sick and in the hospital. An interesting dilemma has poped up-- should we call his family? KC didn't call his family when he checked in. Also, the emergency contact is not a family member. A friend tried to ask KC, but KC is heavily sedated. KC mumbled "No. It would just worry them."

Do we trust the judgement of someone who is heavily sedated? What would you do?

So last night as the War with Iraq was starting, C2, the PB and I went and saw Ellen Degeneres. The show was sold out. The audience was three quarters lesbian.

Unfortunatly, they taped the show for an HBO special-- that probably made the show less raunchy. I thought the show was ok. C2 said the show stank. They rest of the guys liked it.

C2 ended up spending the night at my place. My truck had to spend the night at a garage for some service. So, C2 drove me around. Rather than drop me off, drive to his place, sleep, drive back to my place and then pick me up, we slept together again. No sex this time.

Weirdness Part Three.

I had lunch with C5 today. C5 is Harry's ex. Today, for the first time in nine months, Harry called C5. C5 said that Harry said "Hi" to me. I told C5 that Harry has been giving me the silent treatment for the past year. C5 said "That's weird. Harry acted like you two were good friends."

C5 speculates that Harry has burned a lot of bridges and is running out of friends.

Weirdness. Part One.

Wells Fargo set me junk mail via overnight courier. When I got home tonight there was a sealed Fed Ex overnight express package at the door. When I opened it up-- junk mail.

Weirdness. Part Two.

Some guy named Al called me up and said "Hey Barry, what are you doing this Saturday? I have tickets to a play..." I have no idea who Al is. I've dug through my email and can't find any from someone named Al. I think I'll call Behr up and ask him if he knows.

Sunday I installed a wireless network at home. This blog entry is beamed from my computer to the web, through a wireless network. It's kind of cool.

Setting up the network was easy. Then I started tinkering. It was amazing how easily slight tweaks would bring things down. Everything is up and healthy now. My computers are talking to each other (TommyBoy and Snookums) But, there was a lot of frustration along the way.

The cool thing about home-wireless is that you can see all the networks near by-- there are two other networks in my neighbourhood. Maybe I should open my network up to the general public. Just to see what happens. Right now I've turned up all the encryption settings, so I should have lots of privacy.

Afterwards, I went out with Behr to the Cuff. We had two pichers of beer. Behr and I drink a lot. We need to cut down. He wanted to go out tonight (St Patricks) but I didn't feel like drinking more beer.

The Cuff is geting quiet. I'm going to start going to other bars.

Yesterday I had one of those great days that you don't plan for. Now that I've reread it, the story is kind of lame. But still, I want to remember it.

Right now the Snoqualmie Falls are very big. The snow is melting in the mountains, swelling the rivers. So Friday I sent around an email to a bunch of Friends saying "Hey, let's hike down to the bottom of the falls. Meet Saturday at 11am at the top."

Saturday at 11am, only the Tease showed up. A bit disappointing but cool. I don't often get a chance to spend time alone with the Tease. At the same time, nothing is going to happen between us, so whatever

When we got the bottom of the falls the view was increadible. Even better, you could hike around the edge and get very close the falls. We were covered in mist.

After a bit we pulled back and started sunned on a rock. That's when Steven and Mat showed up.

We hung around and walked up close to the falls again. Then made our way back up to the top.

That's when Behr caught up to us. I think he wanted to see the falls, but he didn't want to hike down and up. So, he delayed his arrival.

Had lunch in North Bend at Twede's, the place where they filmed part of Twin Peaks. That's where Bruce and C3 caught up to us. (Aren't Cell Phones great)

After that we hiked around Lake Tradition.

After that coffee.

After that a spaghettii dinner at Bruce and C3's

All in all, a great social, outdoors day.

Saturday we had a big group dinner at Picorra's Pizza. About 14 guys showed. It was a good dinner.

Sunday I worked on my amplifier. The soldering is stressfull. There are so many small parts. It's hard to keep them in place.

Monday night I had dinner with Steven. The buyer for his house fell through so he's kind of bumbed about it. After dinner I worked on the amplifier again. I think I'm getting better at soldering. It wasn't as stressfull as Sunday.

Oh yeah. For the first time since I cracked my rib, about six weeks. I'm 99% better. Some exercises still bug the rib, but I'm 99% better. Too bad hockey is almost over.

I'm buying lots of stuff lately. I'm building my own stereo amplifier from spare parts. Through the mail, I received most of the parts on Thursday. So I've been driving around buying the remaining pieces.

Last night over dinner, we noticed that Dan Savage used the phrase "Google their kinks." i.e. Go to Google.Com and use it to search for your kinks. I asked who had done so. Everyone begrudingly admitted they had. We also laughed that Google has become a mainstream word.

After dinner, I ran into Behr and the Tease. We ended up at the Cuff and drank a lot. This weird guy kept cruising and chatting with me. Then he'd take offense at something minor-- if I looked briefly at Behr for example-- and walk away muttering about how I wasn't interested in him. Then a few minutes later, he'd start cruising and chatting with me again.

That cycle happened at least half a dozen times. It's too bad he was so weird because he was kind of cute.

Now C2 has quit the company. He gave his two weeks notice today. He did it for a few reasons. One, the investigation into the software theft. He's hoping if he leaves then the company will forget about it. Two, he wants a real career. His job at the company is very menial with no opportunities for advancement. He wants to take some time off of work, take a few courses and get a real job.

C2 hasn't told anyone but me and his manager. Today we had lunch with the Company Bears and he didn't say a thing.

Tonight I had about 10 guys over for a chili dinner. Again, C2 was here but he didn't mention that he quit. Bruce was also here. He too didn't mention that he was fired.

Dinner was good. Conversation was good. Let me try and remember who was here. Mat & Sandy, John, Bruce & C3, C2, C6 & J, the Tease, Behr, Officer Bob & Faf.

I've never made chili for that many people before. The Tease and Mat helped. They brought other courses, so I only had to worry about the chili.

I just got this from Bruce...

Hey Barry,
A couple of things I have to tell.

First, I got fired from CompanyX yesterday. I knew it was coming but it was so long in coming that it was still a shock in the end. I wasn't really ready for it. I thought it would have been better to get fired than to quit (because of unemployment). However time will tell on this one. You can let everyone else know. I don't have anything to hide and I would rather everyone know the truth.

One thing: I do need a copy of CompanyX software. You said you might have enough in your account to purchase this for me.

What are my plans? Well first I have to get to Canada to apply for UI. Next I have to start applying for work down here. I want to work a further 6 months in the US. C3 and I will be moving to Canada this summer or fall (hopefully and not before), He for work and me to get into the film business.

Second, I don't know about C3 and I showing up on Thursday night. Given what has happened I'm in a bit of a rut but I should probably just get back on the horse and ride through this. Still it's not everyone who gets fired from CompanyX.

Finally, I didn't hear back about working on the prints on your computer / printer. If you have any objections, that's okay but I have to know so I can let the rest of the film crew know.

I'll be around today here at home. Give me a call. Luckily C3 is back to hold me together.

Last night we celebrated John's birthday at Mat and Sandy's. Mat and Sandy went all out with the food. We also saw the season premier of Six Feet Under. It was the first time I saw it. It's an ok show. I didn't really like it, but some of the people at the party were raving about it.

Friday I had lunch with C5. He mentioned a minor tiff he had with his BF. That kind of news always makes me feel good, because I think C5 is hot and want him to leave his BF, and date me.

Yeah, I'm selfish.

Saturday C2, Mac, John and I hiked up Rattle Snake Ledge Most of the photos are of C2. C2 mentioned that I rarely take photos of myself. FYI that's me in Rattle Snake Ridge 003

Saturday evening, C6 showed Pink Flamingos at his place. Pink Flamingos is a really disgusting movie. There is a plot, but the only point of the plot is to let the characters do really sick things. One character has sex with a chicken. Another ties sausages to his dick and flashes women with it.

There is a lot more, but I won't give any more away.

Thursday I went snowboarding with C3. This was the first exercise I've had since I cracked my rib. It felt good to be outdoors and moving.

On the way back, C3 and I talked about Steven's dinner party. C3 said his heart went pitter-patter when he saw Steven. Right now things are a bit rough between Bruce and C3. They'll work it out. But still it was weird to hear C3 admit he has a crush on someone.else.