Deep Thoughts by Ludemonkey

Dr. Tran

2007-04-15T17:38:41Z

I Want My Money, Bitch!

2007-04-14T20:42:32Z

Will Ferrell and Adam McKay in a new short called, The Landlord.

read more | digg story

Chaser's War - TShirt Punishment

2007-04-05T12:19:19Z

Unnessary Censorship

2007-03-22T12:36:19Z

MadTV - iRack

2007-03-15T22:08:36Z

Teehee

The Simpsons: Best of Ralph Wiggum

2007-03-04T20:50:37Z

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

2007-02-08T00:51:21Z

Death Pony

2007-02-02T23:49:43Z

Courtney Love does the math, or Why you needn't shed any tears for the RIAA

2007-02-02T03:26:45Z

Per Courtney "I want to start with a story about rock bands and record companies, and do some recording-contract math..."

read more | digg story

Linux Guitar Project is not a solo act

2007-02-01T21:40:11Z

Artistic geeks often find creative ways to combine technology and art. A love for good software and beautiful guitars is what inspired Canadian luthier Mark Kett to begin the Linux Guitar Project.

read more | digg story

Saving Private Ryan vs Finding Nemo

2007-01-25T13:20:26Z

HAHA

The Greatest Martial Arts Movie Moments Ever

2007-01-16T12:54:46Z

Maxim gives a rundown of the greatest scenes from the best chop-socky movies ever, including video clips, of course, for every scene.

read more | digg story

Official Apple iPhone Website

2007-01-10T00:38:27Z

So sleek, so clean, so pretty. What is it about Apple products that makes them look so yummy?

read more | digg story

The Real Hustle - How To Get Free Drinks 2

2007-01-05T07:19:33Z

hmm

Kids In The Halls - Killer Monkeys Sketch

2006-12-29T00:41:17Z

My fave!

Happy Holidays

2006-12-27T06:23:10Z

Transformers Trailer!

2006-12-21T04:07:03Z

Fuck ya!

Henry Rollins kicks ass

2006-12-12T23:59:10Z

Check it out

My last entry

2006-11-27T04:44:42Z

Think this is going to be my last livejournal post. I haven't been posting much on here anymore, and various community sites already have blogging capabilities if i need or want them. Most of the people I originally came here to correspond with have left so I should probably do the same.

As for what is worth reporting this time, I'm really not sure. Things are going pretty well at work. The job pays decently and there are many opportunities to do various engineering type tasks but I don't know if my heart will be in it much longer unless I change it up a bit. Right now I'm finding dealing with some of the people harder than the engineering problems. I'll probably try send out some resumes in the new year to have some feelers out there to see what other job opportunities are out there. My ideal job would be working with cutting edge technology in telecommunications, nanotechnology, or computers. Ideally I'd like to start my own business by age of 30 and do it full time by at least 35.

Things are going pretty well with Mel, over 5 months now and no serious hiccups. Outsiders seem to think we are a good fit for each other, so only time can tell. Sometimes we can be a bit to similar which is scary sometimes, only time it causes trouble is with our indecisiveness and stubbornness =).. anyway enough bout that stuff... she'd probably beat my ass for saying anything at all =P

I turned 26 almost a month ago now, feeling a bit older and wiser but still young at heart. Around that time I got a notice on my car saying i was parking illegally in my apartment (my previous manager had let me park for free for over 2 years and for some reason she left). So I parked outside for one day... ONE DAY.. and my car got broken into... so ive been driving the last month without a radio which sucks big time. So i now pay for parking in our apartment, and our rent has also increased recently and its just not the same great deal it once was. Now i have to figure out what I want to do next, which is either find another apartment or maybe buy a house. Id really like to keep my options open in case I want to move later for work so that would make me lean towards an apartment, but I'm kind of getting tired of apartment living (8 years, 4 different apartments). I'll be talking to a banker soon to find out what my options are. If I'm cramped for time I may move home for a bit until I find a place or another job. I probably wont choose a job just based on $$$, more on doing interesting stuff.

Anyway thats it for now, if you want to find me you can find me on msn or myspace. Lucas if you could send me a friendly reminder when you come out with a new comic, for that is one thing I shall miss the most. Take care all.

http://www.myspace.com/scorpionmonkey

Testing out Flock

2006-10-17T01:18:05Z

ImportCentral.ca -> Nes Online

ludemonkey @ 2006-07-17T22:58:00

2006-07-18T03:59:20Z

SCN Photos
http://flickr.com/photos/jeremyjohnsonphoto/sets/72057594140655963/

Note: If you look carefully at the preludes you can see that two are still reppin' the solo-1 tuning stickers ;)

ludemonkey @ 2006-07-07T20:35:00

2006-07-08T01:53:45Z

ugh lots has happened... getting behind on updating this but i think i might start jotting ideas down here and there a bit more often

finished my thesis defence on may 30th... it went pretty well... i only re-read my thesis the saturday before.... made up a presentation sunday... tweaked and practiced it on monday tuesday (only 3-4 times) and then presented today in front of 3 advisors, my peers and my parents... it went better than expected and the questions werent too too hard... i was imagining getting grilled to the point that i may faint... but most questions werent too bad... my advisor even set me up for a few questions that he knew i knew the answer to... god bless his heart.... in the end my writen thesis needs about 12 changes it.. half of them requiring quite a bit of time but i hope to finish them soon.. however usually after a long day at work its the last thing i want to do.. but it needs to get done!

work has been going pretty well.. as one of my co-workers said the other day.. its like a rollercoaster.. some days you really feel like you're getting a lot done and the next day you feel you're back at square one.. sometimes its a little trying when you're a project owner for a number of tasks however you feel you don't have any control over the task at hand... luckily in the past few weeks ive become a "project lead" for a small group of people im working with which helps me co-ordinate my project a bit more.. however it is a bit strange telling people that have been there over 10 years about how to get this particular project done when you've only been there 3 months.... would love to get into more details and bitch a bit more but im not at liberty to say... but needless to say its going to be a challange and thats what keeps it interesting

what else is new is that in the last two weeks ive met someone who pushes all the right buttons and drives me a bit crazy sometimes... a good crazy tho... ive known her for about 2 months now but its only recently that weve both noticed each other on a different level... this also has some challanges but so far things are going pretty good... we spend a lot of time together and we might be doing some travelling in the near future... hopefully the more time we spend together will solidify things but like i usually tell myself is that only time will tell.. and that if i dont risk putting myself out there... theres a zero chance of probability of it working out

this month is going to be pretty intense... in the last month or so ive started keeping a google calendar to keep track of my life... it helps.. but unfortunately i cant make my weeks 9 days long... ah well =)

I'm pro now

2006-05-21T20:46:10Z

I've purchased a Pro flickr account so now i can upload 2GB a month. In the last 12 hours ive uploaded close to 1000 pictures.

http://flickr.com/photos/jeremyjohnsonphoto/

San Diego 2006

2006-04-11T17:55:11Z

For those that are interested in my trip, I had a lot of time to kill in the airport so I wrote about all my adventures. Or at least those ones I want you to know about. Its a tale told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing.

All Photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photomaps/sets/72057594099537616/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96868652@N00/sets/72057594104587135/

Saturday - April 1st, 2006

Expecting to get a call from my parents saying they would be coming to pick me up to go to the airport, i waited patiently by the phone. After calling them a few times at home and not getting an answer I called my dads cell, to which I found out that they were still in Toronto after missing an over night connection flight. My aunt Grace and her kids gladly took me to the airport, and we all ended up meeting my parents at the airport. My plane left around 2pm and I flew to Chicago for my stop over on my way to San Diego. The Chicago airport was quite large but i found my way over to my gate and waited for 2 hours. I had something to eat at the airport and had a conversation with someone from sacramento, who told me somethings to check out while in San Diego. My flight to San Diego was about 3 hours, tho i can't remember exactly because of the time change as well as daylight savings time. My cousin Elena picked me up at the airport after I gave her a call, and she picked me up in her sporty BMW 325 around 10:30pm. After dropping off my stuff at her apartment we went out for drinks downtown. There we lots of places that were "happening" that night, but we ended up finding a place called "Hennessays" which was a cross from a pub and a dance club. After a drink we went back to her place and i fixed up my bed on the couch, which would be my bed for the next week.

Sunday - April 2nd, 2006

We both slept in. The couch was quite comfortable but I had kicked off all the sheets. Lovely. We started off the day by going to the dog beach, a beach in correnado which was just next to a military base which happened to have a golf course on it. Nice. I now realize why there is such a desire to be in the military here in the US. Farley (Elena's dog) had a great time on the beach, enjoying the company of the other dogs, and his owner. Our bellies started to grumble a little bit so we dropped Farley off back home and went out for brunch at the Mission restaurant, a popular local restaurent chain in San Diego, with many delicions food selections with many different fruits and other goodness wrapped inside them. The wait to be seated as well as the wait to eat was quite long, but the food was well worth the wait. I had some banana/strawberry pancakes, and I can't remember quite what my cousin had, but it was laced with rosemary and was yummy. We went back to her place for a little bit, to take a bit of a nap after our big brunch meal, and then went to Pacific beach (more commonly known as "PB"). It has a number of shops and restaurents, and had a "gimli" like flavor to it. There were a few people trying to surf but the waves werent all that big so I never saw any of them catch a good wave. We ran into Elenas friend Dan at one of the local bars, the "Tavern" I believe it was called. She had recognized his laugh without seeing him directly. We all talked about going to the Padres game on Wednesday. I bought some flipflops while we were there since I had forgotten to pack my sandals. We went back to my cousins place, which I may refer to as home from now on, as she made me feel quite welcome into her home. I'm quite surprised how well we got along, and I don't think I could spend that much time in the same company of some of my other cousins without going completely insane. We were in need of groceries, so we ended up having soup and peanut butter (a different PB) and jelly sandwiches. My cousin liked to dip her sandwich in her soup, I prefered to keep them seperated however did try the interesting mixture. My cousin watch her favorite TV show "The Sopranos", while I tried to hijack one of many wireless networks which were waffling around her internet (at one time I had 5 to choose from). I'd like to thank "NEPA" for providing me with excellent wireless service throughout the week, and the one called "Not Yours" gave me a good laugh. We layed low the rest of the night, and just watched a movie that was on the TV.

Monday - April 3rd, 2006

Monday was the first day I was on my lonesome in the morning and afternoon. After sleeping in a bit and catching some good old american propaganda news, I took a stroll downtown into the Gaslamp Quarter/District, named for the Gaslamps which used to light up San Diego and still can be seen every few blocks if you keep a watchful eye in the sky. Elenas place is only 3 blocks from Petco Park (home of the San Diego Padres), and very close if not bordering the Gaslamp area, an apartment very close to downtown just like mine back in Winnipeg. I walked around and took a few pictures to capture the beauty of San Diego, and all the different architecture which had influences from many different cultures. I got back to her apartment shortly before 5pm, making sure I was home before she was to assure that she would be able to get back in her apartment, since I had her keys and dongle to activate the elevator. She got back around 7pm, and shortly after she arrived home we went to a wine store across the street and had a tasting of several different wines. She purchased two of her favorite wines after which we went back to her place to drop them off at her place. We then went downtown in search of sushi. The sushi place she had raved about since I first got there wouldnt serve us since it was close to 9pm, something I've never seen in Winnipeg. They were supposed to serve or allow seating til around 9:30pm so we were both kind of pissed. We found another sushi restaurant a few blocks away which. I had some eel nigiri, which was a first for me, as well as gojira and crazy monkey rolls. After sushi we went home and called it a night.

Tuesday - April 4th, 2006

I was up early this day, having trouble sleeping because of my lingering cold. My cousin called me around 10am telling me about Old Town San Diego, and how I could get there by simply taking the trolley, which was about half a block from her apartment. I hopped on the trolley around noon and went to Old Town, which had a collection of different places one might expect to find 150 years ago, with a modern museam flavor to it. I walked around and took a few pictures and read a little about the history of San Diego and California. I got back home around 4pm, again wanting to get home before my cousin was done work.

Wednesday - April 5th, 2006

Spent most of the day inside since it was raining a bit in the morning. I looked over my thesis and started a new presentation for my thesis defence, since most of my previous presentations presenting my work have a little too much comedy in it. Caught up on some news and just chilled at my cousins place for most of the day, taking the odd nap here and there. Once my cousin got home, we went downtown to join Dan for a few beers and nachos before going to the baseball game. We got to the Padres game just when the first inning was ending, who were playing against the SF Giants. It was cold as hell, but I was a tough canadian in my t-shirt and roughed it out, as it was still warmer than it was in Winnipeg. I cheered for the Padres, so of course they lost. At one point I went to use the washroom, and was not gone for more than 4 minutes, but in that time I missed a homerun from the Padres. The three of us walked back to my cousins place, however Dan left shortly after we arrived. We threw on Alien vs Predator on video-on-demand, however both fell asleep less than half way through the movie.

Thursday - April 6th, 2006

I spent most of the morning writing emails, and catching up on my daily news on the internet. I called my great-aunt Helen around noon to see when my grandma, aunt, and uncle were expecting to arrive in San Diego. The three of them had previously been visiting Las Vegas and touring around Nevada and California. It was just a coincidence that we both happened to be in San Diego at the same time. I found out that they were arriving at my great aunts place around 7pm that day, so I planned on visiting them while I had the chance, since lately with school and lack of car I've been unable to get out to see my grandma. Before visiting them I was informed about a transit bus that would take me from downtown to pacific beach if i wanted to go there to shop or go to the beach. I checked it out as well as did some window browsing in a very interesting outdoor shopping mall, which is very nice and refreshing on nice days, but Im sure would be awful during days where its crummy out. From what I was told it doesnt rain much in San Diego, so this is likely why they had decided to design it in such a way. I wish i had taken my camera to take pictures of it because it had some interesting architecture. I went for tasty indian buffet at a place downtown called Monsoon. I got back shortly before 5pm, snacked on some food and watched Sideways via video-on-demand. It was good for a few laughs, and I learned a little bit more about wine and relationships. I went with my cousin around 8pm to visit the other side of my family (Elena is a Johnson, the other 3 are Greenhams). I introduced Elena to my Greenham counterparts, and we sat and talked about this and that until just before 10pm. It was set in stone that tomorrow we would go to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, which was quite a ways north of San Diego. When we got home we tried watching Alien Vs Predator again on V.O.D. however we both ended up falling asleep on our respective couches before the movie was over.

Friday - April 7th, 2006

I was awoken by a call from my uncle, saying that they were almost ready to leave my great aunts place, and were on their way to pick me up. I quickly showered and picked up my camera as we were on our way to the Wildlife park. The car was packed with 6, but the 45 minute drive to the park seemed quite short with all the beautiful scenery. We arrived at the park around 10am and proceeded to walk around and take pictures of the many animals. We then took the tram ride around the park, which lasted about an hour and showed several of the animals in a more "normal" habitat for them. As one would expect if another creature was patrolling around you every half hour, you'd position yourself far away from them, and sleep or hide. We stayed there til around 2:30pm, enjoying a bite to eat at the end of our wildlife park adventure. They dropped me back off at my cousins place around 3:30pm, so I sent a few emails and caught up on some news. When my cousin came home, we made the decision to go to the club Saturday, and just have a low-key Friday. We went out for Italian food in the gaslamp district and had a few drinks at a local pub. We both felt a little underdressed for the location, but we still had a few drinks and had a good talk while enjoying out beverages. On our way home we stopped at Starbucks and enjoyed a Cafe Latte (her) and a coffee (me). I was feeling quite wired so I ended up staying up til around 2am.

Saturday - April 8th, 2006

One of the most interesting days of the trip, at least of what I can remember of it. We slept in, which was needed since my poor cousin had been working hard all week and had to get up early for her long drive to work. We snacked on some fruit which we had picked up the previous day, and then proceeded to the San Diego Zoo around noon. The Wildlife Park had been very interesting, however it was nice going to the plain old zoo to get closer to the animals, something which was a little harder to do at the park. We stayed there from noon til around 4pm, got a great walk and got to see a ton of animals. I got a number of great pictures and movies, however my battery died around 3:30pm so I missed out photographing a few animals, most notibly the koalas (the 3-4 varieties they had there were all very adorable). My cousin snapped a few on her small Canon which i was unable to photograph.

Right after we left the zoo we went to a supermarket to pick up some fixings for dinner. We had decided to make lasagna together earlier in the week, and tonight was the night. We also bought a few bottles of wine, energy drinks and vodka, since we planned to get a little lit before going out on the town. We started fixing the lasagna around 6pm and started dipping into the wine. We each contributed in the cooking of the lasagna and it turned out quite wonderful with the italian salad on the side. By the time we had started our 3rd bottle of red wine, we sat outside and talked about life and all that fun stuff. There were a couple who were making out in the hot tub below, when they left I wanted to shout something but my cousin being more wise than myself told me not to. We played some cards and enjoyed the rest of the wine as we listened to some oldies coming from the TV. My cousin was a lot better at guessing the songs than I, however I blame the wine. We left for the bar around 10pm, and I made the mistake of having a redbull/vodka before I left, which turned out to be quite strong, however some of you might know how well redbull can mask vodka. We walked for a bit and then took the richshot (sp?) to decos. The driver weaved in and out of traffic, and got us there quite quickly. I paid the man (or so I am told) and we then went into the club. The rest of the night is a bit of a blur, but I do know that I had a night Ill never forget, though some of it I did. Haha. What happens in San Diego stays in San Diego.

Sunday - April 9th, 2006

Spent most of the day recovering from the wild saturday night I had. Not much to report. Had leftover lasagna when i felt i could keep it down. Watched a bit of tv while my cousin did some work.

Monday - April 10th, 2006

Woke up early, packed my stuff, and my cousin dropped me off at the airport before she went to work. I had a small bite to eat and a frappucino from Starbucks, and began writing about my adventures while I waited 3 hours to board my plane. I arrived in Vancouver around 3, and by the time I arrived at my departure gate it was around 4. I found a plug to charge my electronic belongings and again began to waste away time until my 6:30pm departure. My parents picked me up in Winnipeg at around 11:30pm and thus ends my vacation. Back to the real world. Just in time. My Visa was bleeding to death.

Good News. Bad News. Great News!

2006-03-30T00:54:51Z

First the good news. I'm going to see my cousin Elena this saturday in san diego. So happy to get out of this godforsaken town. She called me up a few weeks ago and said she wanted me to come down, so I said sure why not! I was originally supposed to go down and see her when she was living in Virgina, but she recently packed up her stuff and moved west. Ill post pictures when i get back.

Bad news. I got a cold on Sunday. I don't know whats wrong with me. I always seem to get colds just as its getting nice out. Im thinking its because i was wearing too much, sweat a bit, and then caught a draft. I really dont understand. Hopefully I can kick it before saturday so my trip can be cold free, so i can give 110% on my trip.

Great News! I finally have a job offer. After almost a year of firing around resumes, a number of interviews, and waiting for responses, Standard Aero is giving me a job offer tomorrow morning. http://standardaero.com/

Lastly if you haven't checked out my new photopgraphy/map site, you suck. Just kidding. But check it out at http://www.photomaps.net .