"Don't give up. No matter what, don't give up. You're intelligent, and you've got a good head on your shoulders. Your parents raised you right. Screw all those rich bitches. You've worked real hard. Just don't give up, and you'll be alright."

So it was a bit of a teary goodbye today. The above quote is from one of the instrumentation machinists. We didn't work together directly, but he was one of the main people who really made me feel welcome here. I'm not really sure why, but I felt compelled to make sure I told him goodbye, more-so than anyone else here (aside from my advisor), even people who had more of a direct influence on my internship. We just had a sort of connection, I guess.

He was floored that I had gone to find him in the shop specifically to say goodbye; so we shook hands, had a good heart-to-heart, swallowed a couple of tears, and then I got most sincere hug I've had in a long time.

Had a late lunch / early dinner with my advisor and his wife. Great little Mexican place near the edge of town, FANTASTIC food. It was pleasant, albeit a little bittersweet. Did the whole handshake-hug thing and promised to keep in touch. I think only then it really sunk in that I'm leaving.

My gods, I never thought I'd feel like this, leaving here.

... when a blogger tags his or her post as "satire". Seriously, if your writing weren't shit, readers would likely detect the tongue in your cheek. Unless your readers are complete morons. In any case, if you have to explicitly cite a work as satirical, it isn't a very successful example of it, now is it?

Speaking of complete morons: I get real pissed when I read a poorly written entry only to scroll down and read comments praising the author's craft. NO! Your post was NOT well-written; it looks as if it were organized by a one-eyed monkey shitting darts on a keyboard. You're not witty simply because you cobble together some awkward imagery and pass it off as simile. And "literally" is not a word to just throw in the mix to emphasize a point, it means that something is to be taken in a literal sense. If your eyes were literally glued to the television, you would not be able to read this complete idiocy you're publishing on the web. Oh, perhaps that IS your problem. Not reading - and therefore, not being able to realize - the absolute crap you've produced. You're not clever, you're not insightful, and there is nothing special, unique, or inspiring about your Frankenstein sentences and schizophrenic tangents. And YOU! Yes, you. The one writing the encouraging comments. Use some punctuation every so often, yeah? And maybe some capitalization? Oh yes, and "you" is spelled with three letters, not one.

Now fuck off - it's Monday.

For those of you living under a rock, Mother Nature is going apeshit on Japan right now. Earthquakes, tsunami, and subsequent damages (including nuclear instability and oil fires). Several hundred are dead, countless others missing and otherwise unaccounted for. I've been able to confirm the safety of about 90% of my friends in Japan. My coworkers are still waiting to hear from all of their families.

Here in Hawaii, we were faced with our own tsunami threat. Fortunately, the damage here has been fairly minimal, considering. Still, I had to confirm my family's safety; they live on the Big Island, which was affected much harder than my current island of residence.

Now, maybe I'm biased, but when I read idiot douchebags posting dumb shit on Facebook and elsewhere about this being "karma" for "Pearl Harbor", it makes me want to scream and bash someone's brains out. Seriously, I want to reach into their skulls and yank out their useless fucking brains from their eye sockets. First of all, Japan did not start WWII. Yes, they attacked Pearl Harbor, which marked the beginning of the United States' official involvement in WWII. But where is Pearl Harbor? IN HAWAII. WHICH WAS ALSO AFFECTED BY THIS DISASTER. So shut your fucking pie hole, you ignorant, landlocked, mother-humping hick. Second, this is not "karma". Ignoring the actual theological definition of "karma" and just going with the social definition, which seems to be equated to "payback", obviously these people have never opened a fucking history book. At least not so far as to read about the part where we DROPPED NUCLEAR BOMBS on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. THE UNITED STATES DROPPED BOMBS ON CIVILIANS. I think that's enough fucking payback for the Japanese BOMBING A MILITARY BASE.

I know, the Interwebs is infected with trolls. But seriously, this is disgusting.