Now, I don't know about you people, but I'm a sandwich guy. Sometimes I like them plain, with just a little meat and cheese. Sometimes I like them elaborate, with every fixing to be found from here to New Delhi.

Mmm... New Deli. That one down the street, now THERE'S a place that knows how to make good sandwiches.

Anyhow, where was I? Ah yes, I love a good sandwich, almost enough that the one I had earlier makes me not hate Carlos Mencia quite so much as I normally would at this moment. I like them normal, sub-style and on flat bread. I like them toasted, grilled, and even deep-fried, in the case of a nice Monte Cristo.

But I have a question for you all, prompted by the comments at a local sub shop earlier today. As a true sandwich lover, am I doing a great disservice to sandwich-kind by not liking mustard? Is that gooey, brownish-yellow substance really so important to a good sandwich that I'm actually hurting my meal by leaving it off? Is a club with mayo really such an abomination? A ham and cheese with a dollop of horseradish instead of Fleischmann's really catostrophic?

I have a loaf of crusty sourdough downstairs, and a fresh package of oven roasted sliced turkey breast, but I'm afraid to open them. My leftovers might hate me in the morning.

Subnote: In lieu of sandwiches, I desire coffee. I am awake... but I need MORE!

Date:	2005-12-03 01:43
Subject:	Okay...
Security:	Public
Mood:	cold

So, I havne't updated in 17 million years. Honestly, I've got a good reason.

There's nothing freaking happening in my life!!! :P

Classes are okay, but not great. Probably passing, but not exceptionally. WOrk is kinda giving me troubles right now, but I don't think my job is in danger or anything. I DO get laid off after the holidays for a couple months, though, so I need to find something temporary. Randy says they MIGHT be able to use me upstairs, which would rawk.

Anyhoosle, what else.

Oh yeah, my relationship is FANTASTIC, and is going places. In fact, it'd already be on the way there, but I need to save for a ring first. I've been saving for about two months, and so far I've got $0. WHEEEEEEE!!!!

Hmm....

I suppose you're expecting me to tell some wandering, unfocused story, replete with odd words and non-standard grammar, eh? Or perhaps to make some strange and illogical little story or litterary work, which I use as an allusion to a current state that I occupy. Well too bad! I don't feel like it! FEH!

I will, however, afford you two of my Recipies of the Undefined Time Measurement:

Blaze's Ranchero Tomato Chicken Pasta (Single Serving Size):
1/8th to 1/4 lbs Chicken breast, cleaned and sliced into ~1 cubes
1/4 cup diced tomatoes (You may use "Mexican Spiced Tomatoes", if you like. Include some of the juice from the can, or add tomato juice if fresh.)
5-10 dashes Tobasco
1 tsp. Cilantro
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
Salt & Black Pepper to taste

1 serving penne or rotini pasta

Sauce:

1 can campbell's Ranchero Tomato Soup (Unprepared)
1/2 can milk
1 tbsp. Sour Cream

Bring water to boil. Add Pasta. Boil 12 minutes.

Sautee first 7 ingredients together, mixing occasionally, till chicken is fully cooked.

In seperate saucepan, combine soup, milk, and sour cream. whisk thoroughly while heating.

When chicken is done, drain excess liquid, and serve on pasta. Ladle sauce over.

Blaze's Simple Tuna Sandwich:

1 can Chunk White Tuna, in water
1 tbls. Helman's Mayonaise (Or Light)
1/8th to 1/4 chopped white or yellow onion
1 1/2 Tsp. Minced Dill

Medium sliced Sharp Cheddar, to size of bread.

2 slices Soft Baked, Stone Ground Whole Wheat oat bread.

Drain Tuna. Mix first four ingredients thouroughly. Spread over bread. Place cheese on top, and cover with second slice. Serve with your favorite sandwich sides.

Bon Appetite!

Date:	2005-11-08 01:37
Subject:	Le Sigh....
Security:	Public
Mood:	nervous

Liz's brother has taken a turn for the worse, and it looks like he will be needing that kidney transplant very, very soon.

For those of you uninformed, Liz's brother was born with one bad kidney and one majorly underdeveloped kidney. He was on dialysis for several years, and recieved a kidney about 11 years ago from a cadaver. As is the case with such things, the kidneys do not last forever, and his has been starting to go for about a year. Looks like it's teetering on the edge of being done for, now.

After some testing was done, it turns out Liz is by FAR the best match in her family to help her brother. Because Andy (his name) couldn't get back on the waiting list till his current kidney started to go, he'd be on Dialysis probably at least 5 years waiting for a cadaver kidney. He cannot afford that, and likely would not survive that. And certianly, his baby boy doesn't deserve that.

So, Liz is lined up to donate one of her kidneys to her brother. While this is overall a fairly safe procedure, that shouldn't affect her too much in the long run, I worry terribly. This is the girl that makes me happier than I have ever been before, and the girl I will marry. This is the girl that, when I dance with her, I can see dances extending far into the future. Weddings. Anniversaries. Children's Weddings. Etc.

I've been reading up, but I'm not finding a lot of information on caring for the donors. Only for those recieving the kidneys. If anybody has any good recommendations for carring for a kidney donor, I'd appreciate it. Looks like I'm going to need it, soon. I'll be taking a week off work to take care of her, but I need to know WHAT to do to take care of her.

Also, please keep the situation in your thoughts/prayers. It may be "safe", but it's still major surgery for the most important person ever in my life.

Date:	2005-09-01 01:50
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	MALE!

Seeing as I don't recall if I entered it here or not, let me give you a brief synopsis of what happened some weeks ago.

My car, that is to say, my Taurus, was rear-ended at a local gas station, destroying the rear bumper, one brake light, and bending the trunk lid up a bit. The girl who hit me was not the owner of the car which she was driving, and so I had to get that owner's information myself. When this man refused to respond to phone calls, I had to drive down, locate his house, and talk to him personally.

Threats on my life and wellbeing are not fun.

Anyhow, fast-forward to this week. The car owner's insurance company, AAA, finally realizes that they can no more blow me off by ignoring me than the car's owner himself could. They finally conceed that I am deserving of the repair costs for my car, and sent me a check. Into the body shop my car goes.

Of course, they also clued into the fact that I would need a car while mine was in the shop. How nice of them, then, to send a second check I could use to cover the costs of that. So indeed, renting a car is just what I did.

Now, if you're not familiar with car rentals, here's how it works. If you want to rent a specific car, you call around until you find a rental place that has one available. Not too difficult. However, if you just need a vehicle, you go into your local rental joint, and they tell you what they've got, right there, right then. Sometimes you luck out, sometimes you get crap.

This time, I got a tank.

I'm currently driving a 2005 Dodge Dakota 4x4. And asside from parking it being akin to squeezing into a dry full body wetsuit, I am having a BLAST.

Let nobody ever tell you that pickup trucks are useless for someone who doesn't do much hauling. I feel like pure, 100%, unadulterated MAN.

PENIS SAUSAGE!

My god, what a disaster. My dear lord.

I don't care much for the discussion of, "Would it have been so bad if it weren't New Orleans?" I'm not big on the talk of what needs to be fixed... if it's even fixable.

All I want is for people to pray, or remember, or whatever it is that you do. There are several million people with NOTHING right now. There may only be a few hundred dead, but there are millions scared, alone, and uncertian as to what comes next. Whatever you do, keep them in your hearts and minds.

I'm not sensationalist, but I think it important.

Date:	2005-08-30 00:43
Subject:	College days: Penis Sausages and String Panties
Security:	Public
Mood:	satisfied

So, for those of you unaware, I'm now living in the dorms down here at UT. Ottawa dorm, to be specific. I'm a freakin CANUCK! Even worse, it's Ottawa East. Everyone knows, if you're going to live in Canada, the WEST coast is the place to be. GRRR!

Well, apart from my apparant infection of Canadianism, the dorms are more or less cool. Actually, they're somewhat borring, much of the time. But they've yet to be BAD, and when they're not borring, they're very cool. So, seeing as right NOW is a borring time, I shall bring to you, my less than captive audience, some of my favorite happenings from the first week+ of school. I now present to you:

( Eric Fischer's TALES from the DORM (cue 'tales from the crypt' music) )

Date:	2005-08-14 17:17
Subject:	I wouldn't trust me, if I were you.
Security:	Public
Mood:	EVIL

Date:	2005-08-04 02:01
Subject:	Hey, it's a faster update than last time!
Security:	Public
Mood:	contemplative

I realize that I never say anything on this, which, you know, can be attributed to both a general lack of things to say and a massive, nay, critical case of the lazies. Possibly mortal case. I'm not sure. If I become too lazy to eat, I'll try to let you know. SOMEBODY will need to be unlazy enough to call the coroner and let them know there's a dead body here.

At any rate, I do have a bit to report this evening, so I've taken every ounce of my power, as well as the time I'd otherwise be devoting to trying to draw one of my new comics I'm sort of semi-working on, and let you all know what was up. I've little doubt you're salivating, nay, FOAMING to hear what I have to announce. I'm certian you're nearly rabid in your mad desire to have my knowledge. Were it that I had a helmet handy, I'd be making sure to wear it. One can never be to safe when there's glinting fangs hovering nearby, waiting for that critical instant to rend a hole in one's scalp.

Where was I? You know, before my ominous forewarning on the dangers of unprotected craniums around diseased, vicious, thought carnivores? Ah yes! I had things to tell you. I shall endeavour to lighten the mood from bloodletting to something softer by beginning with a humerous annecdote.

This evening, as I journeyed home from work, I was caught through two stop lights in the left turn lane at Alexis and Secor roads, where I make my regular left turn while heading for home. It's not unusual to be caught for two lights there, but it is unusual to be caught for two lights, and make no forward progress at all. So, finally, giving up on my portly adventure (We'll see who gets THAT), I surrendered my position in the turn lane and moved into the adjecent lane to go straight through the intersection. It was then, of course, that I saw what it was that had been blocking up the works.

A pickup truck, or rather rust in the shape of such a truck, sat at the front of the lane, immoble, four-ways on, its rear tires pressed neatly into the wheel wells, as though the drivers had determined the tires were too thick, and were hoping to burn off a little rubber on the frame. Indeed, I can't think of any other reason to stack a 50 year old truck 4 times as high as the cab with metal scrap. Piled just like a garbage heap, pieces wedged in, without strap or rope, to form a massive interlocking 3d puzzle of wasted appliances, I couldn't believe the scope of what they'd wedged into their truck's bed. Between the ancient washing machines, sliced up folding chairs, broken window air conditioners, steel tubing and iron I-beams, one could guestimate there was at least triple the weight of the truck itself stacked in its back end. So I was amazed to see that the drivers of this vehicle were SUPRISED it had stalled out. They ran around, between the cab and the open hood, beside themselves, trying desperately to restart their hilariously hump-backed beast. They couldn't push it, it weighed to much for that. They couldn't tow it, that'd dump their precious rusted treasure. And they couldn't just stay there, for fear a police officer woudl write them more tickets than one usually sells to a major league baseball game.

The light in my lane went green, and I drove off, watching these frantic, suprised boys, and their laden conveyance disappear in my rearview mirror. By my guess, they're still there, trying to decide just how to get that truck onto the back of a tower without wasting their wares.

And so it was.

Item number two on our agenda this evening, while not exactly bad, is slightly more disheartening. Most particularly because I feel lousy being disheartened by such a thing.

My girlfriend, Liz, has a brother, well two. But only one of them has a genetic condition which left him kidneyless as a child. He spent quite a few years on a dialisis machine, until finally a kidney became available for him, and he was made well. Now, as you all may or may not know, kidneys for such people do not last as long as that person lives. They have an average life of about 7-10 years. So, it wasn't too surpising when, about 9 years after its implanting, Andy's new kidney started to go.

This is not the news which has me disheartened, which is even more of a reason to feel like a jerk.

Here's what has me disheartened.

Rather than wait and search for another cadaver kidney to become available, a tiring and crushing process of hope and lost hope, Andy was informed that it's possible one of his family members may be a good match to donate a kidney. He refused to ask, but of course, after informing them, they offered. Tests were administered, and the results are back.

Liz is the best match, and will be donating a kidney to him before too long.

It's a safe, while painful, procedure, and her life should not be in ANY way adversely affected by it. So why is it, do you suppose, that I absolutly, positively, want to help save her brother's life, but absolutly, positively do NOT want her to donate a kidney?

Sigh... :(

Ah well.

Tommorow night is the tractor pull at the Monroe County Fair. I'll try and get some good pictures of that for you people. Also, quick note... I don't suppose any of you know good resources for how to ink pencil drawings, either by hand or digitally? I'm FAIRLY happy with how these comics have turned out in pencils, but I ALWAYS ruin drawings when I ink them. HELP!

Date:	2005-07-16 00:20
Subject:	Well, I've arrived..
Security:	Public
Mood:	sleepy

I am currently safe, holed-up in some sort of hotel intended for "express holidays", as near as I can tell from the building's title posted outside. It claims to be only a few miles from that magnificent wonder, the Grand Canyon. Tommorow I'll be enjoying that, and I'll have some better updates of what's going on once I'm in a room with a net connection that works. Currently, I'm pirating the connection from the hotel next door, because this Holiday Inn, while it DOES have free high speed internet in every room, has evidently elected to BREAK it in my room, just for kicks. So I'm working from a "very low" quality connection. As such, my ability to connect is a little sporadic. Also, this table is a mite too high for typing, so I don't feel like going on at length. Hopefully tommorow I'll have a better chance to update, and if not, then Sunday.

Short and sweet of it:

Flew into Vegas.
Drove Route 66 to the Grand Canyon.

What follows are some accounts of the day's air related travels, typed as I experience them, or slightly thereafter. The first takes the form of sarcasm, with the latter two being more direct in their meaning.

( The Joy of the Airport )
( Seat 10F )
( Arrival )

Well, today, actually. Following sleep. Sometime in the next several hours. Yes, that'll do.

Ahem.

Sometime in the next several hours, I get on a plane and leave for Las Vegas.

w00t!

Then I get in a car and drive 5 more hours.

*sad panda face*

Where I will arrive at the Grand Canyon!

w00t!

Then I will drive 5 hours back...

*sad panda face*

To spend 4 more nights in Vegas!

w00t!

I want to attend a wedding at the little white chappel. Could be fun! :P

Date:	2005-07-11 02:04
Subject:	Behold, the power of food.
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired
Music:	Low-ride-er....

Alright, little recipie here for you all. Just a modification, but it came out nicely.

1 serving: Favorite pasta type, al dente.
~ 1 - 1 1/2 cups Dei Fratellia pasta sauce
~ 2 strips lean bacon, crumbled to about 1" pieces
~ 8 1/4" cubes aged Gouda (Smoked or non)
~ 1/2 tsp. Diced dried onion
~ 1/2 tsp. Minced dried garlic
Salt & Pepper to taste

Combine sauce and all subsequent ingredients, and heat till cheese cubes just begin to TRULY melt. Not mixed in, but to the point where they do break up and mix a bit when stirred. Serve hot over pasta.

Easy, delicious. Enjoy!

These comming weeks are going to be interesting. NEXT week, I'm going on vacation with my family (Probably our final "family vacation", so we're doing something a little special.) So THIS week, I'm working double normal hours to make up for the lost hours next week. This is fine and dandy, as I need the money, but it leaves me strangely without time to do a lot of my normal stuff for two solid weeks. So, as I sit here sipping my water bottle, I'm thinking mostly only one thing...

I hope Liz doesn't kill me after going two weeks with hardly seeing me! :P

I suppose I should mention that. My relationship is going QUITE well, and Liz and I get along great. She's highly unconcerned with WHAT we do, so long as WE are doing it, which is nice for me. When something special comes up, we can go do that, and have a blast, but if there's nothing really going on, I don't have to try hard to come UP with something. We just kinda... hang out. :P I think that's how a relationship is supposed to be. Not really work. Just fun.

( Dog Show )

Oh, also, dad won a local car show with his Vette. Did I show you his vette?



Yeap! He won! Trophy and all! Best of all, he didn't JUST buy it. He's done quite a little bit of work on it since he got it. Changing some coroded exhaust stuff. Replacing bad belts and hoses. Fixing the interior a bit. So not only did he win, but he won with a vette that he has now truly made HIS, not just a vette he happens to own. :)

Date:	2005-07-09 19:28
Subject:	Time to update this again!
Security:	Public
Mood:	greatful to anyone still here

Not writing ANYTHING lately. Maybe working on my journal will help me get back into it. Also, I need to get my writing portfolio back from school. I need that info on what he thought of it. That'll encourage me. (I hope. :P)

ANYHOW... Lets see... I guess I'll start with an interesting story.

( Accidents and Lying Men )

Nothing much new other than that since my last post, except I'm sorry for deserting you all. I shall make every effort to post and read more here. In FACT, having just written that spiel about the accident, I feel better. Towards the end, I felt like my writing style was comming back to me, which is good. "Use it or lose it", as they say.

Wait, there is something new. I'm currently typing this from my LAPTOP! w00t! Yes, indeed, yours truly now owns a laptop, and more importantly, one he has purchased himself! :D In FACT, obtaining this machine in my lap is a bit of a story in itself. However, I won't bore you with massive details. It should suffice to say that even having had a credit card for 3 years, and a co-signed car payment for one, obtaining credit is still enormously difficult. NOBODY would finance me. Well, scratch that. Dell would, but only at 25% interest with no time interest free. So, you know.... SCREW that. In the end, Best Buy was my friend. They approved me for a $700 limit on a Best Buy card, which is 20% interest, BUT, all laptops there are also 12 months interest free, SOOO... put with $350 I paid cash, I have to pay a little more than $50 a month and I'll own this free and clear, zero interest. w00t!

Other than that...

( Little story I wrote tonight. Its meh. )

But that's ok. I'm going to start fixing that. And I'm going to start right now.

I warned you all it was comming. I did, but you didn't believe me.



You didn't believe me at all, and now it's too late to escape. Pages 1-3 are HERE.

http://blaze.reallifehosting.com/images/collide1.zip

ENJOY OR DIE!

Date:	2005-05-19 04:20
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	VINDICATED!

Revenge of the Sith? Revenge of the Sith, you say? You wish to know if it's worth seeing?

Ok... take Episodes 1 and 2, grind them into a fine powder, sift in a river pan until you've sluiced out most everything sucky. Proceed to place this unblemished Star Wars powder into a bowl, and pour onto it "Pure Awsome" brand Liquid Awsome. Mix thoroughly and bake under high temperature action sequences. Serve with attractive CG.

Serves several million ravening Star Wars fans. We guarentee rave reviews!

(A.K.A. If you don't see it, you are a MORON!)

Also, Jesus was at the show! Seriously!

There were a bunch of people in costumes, and they all had big saber fights down in front before the show. A little kid in a Yoda costume killed 4 Vaders! :D Then Jesus stood up and won the costume competition! He Rawked! ( I still can't figure out Jedi Jesus, but heck, it was great.)

Date:	2005-05-14 00:15
Subject:	I ought to take care of this thing!
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired

Let see... what has happened lately?

I've started my new job, but then, you all know that, right? It's actually pretty good, and evidently I'm pretty good at it. Allow me to explain.

Last week, my third or fourth, whatever, week with the job, I was helping a lot of customers one day. The shelves were mostly stocked, so most all there was to do was to walk around and help out customers. Hence the title, "Customer Service Associate". Anyhow, as I was doing this, one of my bosses (I have several) came up and motioned me off to the side for a moment. I was, of course, expecting either instruction for a new task, or a reprimand of something I had done incorrectly. The first will come all the time, and the latter can be expected in the early weeks of a job.

I was enormously suprised, to say the least, then when he pulled from his shirt pocket an envalope with my name, and said that a customer had some to him, asked my full name, written it on the envalope, and given it to him to give to me. According to my boss, he said he had recieved "Excellent customer service", or something to that effect, and he wanted me to have a little something for how well I had treated him. So, I took the envalope, expecting to find maybe like, a dollar, or some sort of "customer appreciation" card he had gotten from the service desk or the like.

Inside that envalope I found a $50 gift certificate to the store where I work. For me. Because I evidently helped him so much. I don't even know which customer it WAS! I give the same level of service to everyone! Man I rock!

So yeah, that's cool. :P

Also, last week, Liz and I caught dinner together. I'd had a gift certificate to any one of the Cousino's Restaraunts (The Cousinos being very rich people in Toledo), so I figured we'd use that. It was for $25, and I had my new job, so we hit the Navy Bistro, in downtown Toledo at The Docks.

The Navy Bistro is a four star dining affair. While it is not Black Tie, and people are free to dress casual, many people go in suits and ties, and the menu, experience, and view are very four star. I had NEVER been there before, but I thought it was high time I did so. So it was, one evening last week, that Liz and I came to sit on a patio, on the Eastern Shore of the Maumee River, on a beautiful, sunny, 70 degree evening, with a SLIGHTLY cool breeze that kept the sun moving off of you.

The eastern side of the Maumee River in Toledo, you must understand, overlooks downtown Toledo. Now, while downtown Toledo isn't very active these days, it consists of several all glass skyscrapers and a beautified shoreline that are absolutly magnetic! I don't think I've seen more than two or three views that really compare with that in my life. It was incredible. And if you add to that some of the most wonderful food on the planet... well!

Yes, it's true. Not only is the atmosphere perfect; Not only is the view to die for; Not only was the weather idellic; but so too was the food indescribably wonderful. From the fresh bread loaf, to the mushroom appetizer, the medium-rare New York Strip, and all the way down to the 2 glasses of 12-year GlenLivet I had for desert, it was high society dining at its best. It TRULY was.

Truly, these have been a couple of weeks to remember.

And the moral?

Work hard, and you'll be rewarded with things you can sell to your parents so that you can afford a $70 dinner. :P

Second Moral?

Even if you know you like scotch, you should make sure and try the good stuff. It really really is better. If anyone wants to buy me a bottle of 12, 15 French Oak (Or French oak Reserve, 18, or 21 year GlenLivet,
( Price List, because I KNOW you're considering it :P )
Please feel free. I won't mind a bit!

(Ok, that was disjointed. It's late, and I haven't been writing enough lately. I'll get back into the groove here shortly.)

Questions from teh Voy Conmingo:

1) Considering all the experiences you've had since you lost your hearing, if you had the choice, would you go back and find a way to change time/genetics so it had never happened?

Sure. I don't doubt that it's made me stronger, but it's not worth the cost. Absolutly. Plus, I don't like the prospect of dying all of a sudden if a tumor takes a mind to grow.

2) When you are faced with a moral dilemma, what process do you go through to find an answer? Has there ever been a time when you COULDN'T find an answer?

Not really. Generally speaking, I evaluate the problem, see if there's an answer, pray about the problem, see if there's an answer, and then ask others and see if there's an answer. I've never not gotten one yet. Usually I have an answer by phase 1, but sometimes I know it's self serving, and have to ask more people.

3) Cliché, but if you could meet one figure from history, who would it be? Why? What would you talk about?

Hmm... Lots of historical figures I'd want to meet. Plato or Aristotle. We could rap philosophy, yo.

4) What is your wildest fantasy (sexual or otherwise)? If you could act it out, who would it be with, and where?

My wildest fantasy? Well, I have several. One involves Tyra Banks, and sweet, passionate love in a bedroom. Another involves Sasha (Garr would know), and many fetishes. Gosh... I just have dozens.

5) Why are you a Christian? Have you ever challenged your own beliefs, or considered following another faith?

I'm a christian because I know it to be the truth. I know it with every fiber of me. I question and challenge my beliefs every day. It's the only way to be.

Well, I had my first real day of work today at Andersons. Actually, a very good job. I enjoyed it muchly. But I am exceedingly tired. I believe I will go to bed soon.

Note it is only 8:30 PM.

Date:	2005-04-14 01:49
Subject:	I admit it, sometimes I like fashion and class...
Security:	Public
Mood:	stressed

Somebody PLEASE buy it for me! I don't care where you get it. It retails for about $400. NBC was selling it for $200. I must HAVE it! I've never seen a more beautiful watch in all my life.

My... my beautiful Rosetone Stuhrling Skeleton Dial watch. My precious.