So I have an unexpected issue…. I was hoping to renew my lease but prices are going up.  The complex I live in is very quiet, and nice.  In Kalamazoo that comes with a price – and the price just got higher.  Along with the price of electric heat in the winter (yes, I pay sometimes over $80 a month in electric for a studio) and the expectation that it will be colder this winter I have decided its time to start packing.

This is an unexpected expenditure coming up and I hope in the next month to be able to raise $600 for a new apartment fees like security deposit, utility hookup, etc.  So how can you support me?  Simple, if you love the quality of the posts visit one of our sponsors.  Also check out my other sites AspieWeb, Kalamazoo Info, Disabled Christians, and Autism Insurance which is still under construction.  I’m not asking you to click 400 ads a day – just one a week if you appreciate this and my other blogs.  I would really appreciate it – thanks!  You can also try purchasing items from my personal store or if your into Autism Advocacy the AspieWeb store.  I get 10% of the price.

I’m not sure where I’m moving yet… but I hope to have that figured out by the end of the month.

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls and morons who go by the name Strikethebox online…. presenting my new identity.  But before we unveil my new identity lets talk about something else…. changing my name.

Some people sent me emails asking if I was going to change my name to Kate’s last name Kenitz….. Kate and I actually have discussed this before and if we got married it was what we were going to do.  Kate and I have a mutual friend who changed his last name to his wife’s when they married and we though it was so sweet.  I’m not going to do it before were married (if we get back together) as frankly I need commitment for that big of a change.

Call Signs

As many of you know I’m an amateur “ham” radio operator.  I don’t know where the ham came from, and frankly I prefer turkey as a white meat.  Anyway the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issues every ham radio operator a call sign when there licensed – much like your favorite radio and TV station.  Mine was KC8OFR which meant absolutely nothing to me.  Most radio stations and TV stations have a call sign that means something to the radio station or its audience…. here are a few locally…

• WWMT – Were West Michigan Television
• WOOD - A tribute to Grand Rapid’s former furniture industry
• WKZO – Kalamazoo
• WKFR - Were Kalamazoo’s Favorite Radio
• WAKV – Allegan Kalamazoo VanBuren

Those are just a few of the call signs in the area that you may know of that mean something to the station or their audience…. well now I have a call sign that means something to me.

WX8ZAC

Yes my call sign is no longer KC8OFR…. it is now WX8ZAC.  Now let me break down why I picked this call sign below.

WX = An abbreviation for weather which is becoming a huge interest of mine.  In fact I’m thinking about going into meteorology.
8 = 8 is the region of the country Michigan is… the FCC divides the country into 10 regions 0-9
ZAC = Short for Zach…. which is my name.

So tomorrow I get to start using my new identity.  I’m quite excited about it, and by 6AM tommorow there will be a notification on this site of my new identity.

Until then heres an update on the local oil spill, and a proposed plan of action.

So lately I have been feeling like I have no future… I feel like there is nothing really left for me to try to succeed at. In the last year I have lost so much, and frankly it makes me very irritable all the time which makes me loose even more.  Its an ongoing cycle, and I want it to end – but then I just get irritated again.

I miss Katelyn a lot.  She is a wonderful, charming and beautiful woman.  She is so loving and caring and last night while in prayer I came to the conclusion that I need to get it better for her and my daughter.  I know Katelyn loves me, shes tried reaching out to me against her guardian’s wishes and her parents as well.

I’ve never met my daughter, and I’m starting to cry as I type this paragraph.  I was not able to be there during the pregnancy, I was not able to support Katelyn, take her to appointments, hold her, give her massages, comfort her and all those things a father should do.  I remember sitting with Katelyn just after I found out the pregnancy and I promised her I would be there for her and not abandon her like all the other guys do, and that I really did love her.  But I did abandon her.  I was not there for her.  It makes me so angry, so hurt, so devastated.

Now I have a bad reputation with everyone.  A bad reputation with Kate’s parents, the fire academy, Kate’s guardian, so many friends.  I feel like I’ve lost my family – Katelyn and Julia.  I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get a decent job, and because of that I will never be able to support Kate if we got back together.  But the chances of that happening are about nil as her family and guardian hate me.

I can’t help but feel there is no future.

So I have revamped my long abandoned online store where you can buy stuff I design, photos I take and a few other things.  I got this urge to do so after Fellow Storm Chaser Wes Carter commented that he really loved my photography.

So now the store is officially up.  You can click the image to the left to go to the store, and the image is also available on the side bar as well as a link along the top bar and sidebar.  Please note that there is not much in the store right now, however I will always be adding things.

I get a 10% cut of everything bought from the store, so if you would like to help me out and get some really cool stuff – BUY FROM THE STORE MKAY? (okay maybe that was a bit pushy)

So it seems I had a moron call me at 3:12 AM last night telling me there was a storm front going through, and claiming to be from a local TV station.  The call was really quite lame, honestly.  I’m sure a 5 year old could of done a much better job.

The voice mail lasts for 11 seconds with the caller saying “This is WWW… news 13 we got a storm front coming through.”  Theres a couple problems with this already, first off while my number is publicly available – and you can also call me using the call me thing to the right I don’t think WZZM News 13 would call me.  There are several other more reputible severe weather fanboys in the area including Ben Holcomb, L.B. LaForce and a few others.  So why call me?  Next off I’m sure a rep from WZZM would actually leave a number, and more details about why they are calling.  But just to entertain you all….. heres the troll’s voicemail

If anyone else would like to call me and try and get under my skin feel free to use the thing on the right, but just be aware if your not on my contacts list you go to voicemail automatically – so troll away.

So I was reading the local news website and it seems like some of the local illegal immigrants are bit upset that they are being asked to leave because they are here illegally.  If this was not as serious of a situation as it is, I would be laughing right now.  But in order to keep this fair and balanced, unlike major media outlets including FOX News I thought I would give them there little speech area as well – So I have included the news video below for you to review before I make my comments.

Okay illegal immigrants, the current unemployment rate in the state of Michigan is 13.7 percent as of April.  The truth of the matter is you are here illegally, you are taking jobs away from American Citizens and are draining our economy.  The truth is you are not wanted or needed, you work for substandard wages forcing Americans out of jobs.  In my opinion you need too….. bah I’ll Bob Barker tell you

Oh and one more thing.  How is telling someone who is in our country illegally to leave racial profiling?

Heres a funny weather map.  Its the RUC surface forecast.  It gave me a good laugh.  Its really screwed up.

Screwed up weather maps are funny.

So Sunday was a day of death and brokeage.  It started out at the field day site when we were notfied that the weather was going to give us an ass kicking in a few hours so we went to yanking antenna’s out of trees moving large trailers and all that stuff just in a enough time to see a funnel cloud on the horizon.  It only lasted 45 seconds but it was indeed a funnel cloud. 

Then on my way back something in my car seized up causing my serpentine belt (I don’t think I spelled that right) to fly out of the place it was supposed to be.  Now remind you that my car had been dead for several months and I just spend about $800 to get it roadworthy again after saving up doing odd jobs for people.  I hate cars.

Then when I get home my interenets stops working.  I think the modem took a lightning hit or something.

Oh…. and when I was laying in bed relaxing and pissed about all this my bed breaks.

So yea…. Fuck this weekend in the ass with a sandpaper condom!  But I can’t afford even a sandpaper condom because I only have $3 in the bank.

Heres a video of what I’m dong all weekend long.  I came home to take a quick shower and I’m heading back to field day in a few minutes. 

What I’m saying is our call sign “W8VY” and asking him to copy Eight Alpha (meaning 8 stations on emergency power) Mike India (In Michigan).  Seems simple….. but its not.