It's January and the Australian Open is in it's second week right now. I usually pay the least amount of attention to the Australian Open out of the major tennis tournaments, but this year there is something exciting to watch for. Rafael Nadal has an opportunity own all 4 majors at the same time, something that hasn't happened since 1969. It's not secret I'm a big fan of Nadal by now, and by nature that makes me a hater of Roger Federer. I'm still quite amazed at how he has managed to stay consistently good for so long. Since 2003 he has never dipped lower than number 3 in the rankings, which is probably the best run in the top 3 in tennis history.
In other news, one of my best friends from Ireland is coming to visit me in San Diego this summer. I was surprised because he had been saying he would come for a long time, but I didn't actually believe it until I opened my email and saw the flight details saying July 7th :) I'm really excited for his visit, because that should be an exciting time for me here, as I will be hopefully nearing the end of my time in Southern Cali for greener pastures, literally.  ¶ 11:23 PM

 
It's January and typically back home people get very depressed this time of year. It's been several weeks since they have seen the sun, the weather is bitter cold, there's generally snow on the ground, and I'm usually at my happiest point. This year, things are a bit different, the sun is shining, its 75 degrees F. People are out and about it feels like summer here in San Diego, and of course I'm miserable.
I was content with my job for more than 2 years, I was never thrilled with it, but it was enough for me to get by, and I didn't hate it. That all changed slowly over the last few months. When I got back from my vacation in October, I was glad to be back at work for about a week, then I realized I was doing the same stuff day in and day out. I don't know why it took so long to sink in, but then one day last week it changed from discontent to hate like the flick of a switch. It's no secret the job has been the only thing keeping me in San Diego for well over a year now, and now that I feel the way I do, there is nothing left here for me.
About 5 or 6 months ago I seriously started looking into grad schools in different places. I had only been casually doing it for well over a year before that. I didn't realize it was even possible for me to attend a school overseas on the budget I had, until September. The plan I have in place right now is quite out of the ordinary, but that's what makes it appealing, and if it works out I should be in school this time next year in Europe. The hardest part of the whole thing is keeping the motivation to go into work everyday now however...  ¶ 12:32 AM

 
Over the weekend there was a shooting in Arizona where a local congresswoman who was holding a rally was shot, along with 19 other people. US. house of representative member Gabrielle Giffords was shot by a district member who apparently was disgruntled by the way things have been going since she was elected in 2006. I have seen countless hours of media footage and stories from different angles, about how they try to paint the shooter as a loner to being linked to Sarah Palin's Tea Party movement. The one thing I haven't seen the American media do is bring up how none of this would even happen if the second amendment was taken off the books years ago. The right to bare arms is one of the original 10 United States Constitutional Amendments, and 322 years ago when it was written it was fitting. The times were unstable, Americans needed to protect themselves from the threat of invading armies from all over the world and even right here in this country. 322 years later, the law is absolutely ridiculous. If people didn't have such easy access to guns, these things wouldn't happen on a daily basis. I hate to always point to other nations, but look at the examples set in Europe where people can't readily access guns when they want to. School shootings are far less popular, and assassination attempts are limited. The argument that guns don't kill people, people kill people is 20th century, we need to look at the facts. Americans having access to guns in 2011 is pointless, the threat of invading armies is long gone, the only two reasons people buy guns today, are to hunt and to shoot other people. A Republican might argue that hunting is a persons right in society, be it that it may, its a right that I can live without, as could 300 million other Americans.  ¶ 12:56 AM

  Just got back from San Francisco, literally 30 minutes ago. I couldn't wait to post this even though its 6:30 am. The trip was a lot of fun, that city really is world class, however the drive back took over 16 hours because Interstate 5 was closed. We had to take smaller routes that were backed up for hours. That's the bad news, the good news is, we got stuck in a blizzard in the mountains on the way back. I actually got to see a snow storm on the West Coast. I took this video at one of our many stops. I was waiting to for my two friends to come out of the bathroom, and while I was filming the snow, two ladies walked by me and looked at me like i was crazy. Enjoy
  ¶ 2:57 PM