Last update: 11 Dec 02, 14:44,
MST
This is Jason’s site, and whoop-de-doo, I’m updating every damn day.
So I really need to do an update on the ol’ website here,
but as soon as I got to town (
Go to the80srewind.net Check the80srewind.net webmail Go to the regular first page
These are the vital stats I have for you:
100 Johnstone Hall Room 4415
Oh, this is the university’s web address: www.montana.edu
This is the number you can dial to reach me by phone:
(406) 994-4992
Since the only times I have to be somewhere else are 6 hours of class and 8 hours of work every week, I’m online fairly often. Here are your IM options:
AO-Hell: Kenobi 5 19
Yahoo!: tonyshangrila
MSN: tonyshangrila@hotmail.com
Of course, you can always e-mail me as well, and the e-mail address is: Jason@the80srewind.net
12/11
This... is... Comedy.
Ok, so I thought I’d
pop in to say that the first paper and subsequent presentation was just
swell. I don’t have to turn that mother
in until I leave on Monday, so still ample time to revise and whatnot. The second paper has actually begun to be
written yet, but a list of “things I’m going to say” has been formed and is
currently being ruminated upon. It’s
rough-drafting will occur this afternoon/evening/tomorrow, with its
less-substantial-than-the-other-paper-just-by-its-nature revisions to occur in
the ensuing three days.
So I was “browsing” a
bit this morning, and I happened to visit a very nice site that I used to visit
more often, but now I only stop by with the
randomness of a pair of axe-wielding breasts in a comic strip. I was looking for the copy from a sketch
Steve Martin did on Saturday Night Live once, and foolish me, I shoulda
known Colin would have it. Mucho
gracias.
If
I had one wish that I could wish this holiday season, it would be that all the children
to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace. If I had
two wishes I could make this holiday season, the first would be for all the
children of the world to join hands and sing in the spirit of harmony and
peace. And the second would be for 30 million dollars a month to be given to
me, tax-free in a Swiss bank account. You know, if I had three wishes I could
make this holiday season, the first, of course, would be for all the children
of the world to get together and sing, the second would be for the 30 million
dollars every month to me, and the third would be for encompassing power over
every living being in the entire universe. And if I had four wishes that I
could make this holiday season, the first would be the crap about the kids
definitely, the second would be for the 30 million, the third would be for all
the power, and the fourth would be to set aside one month each year to have an
extended 31-day orgasm, to be brought out slowly by Rosanna Arquette and that
model Paulina-somebody, I can't think of her name. Of course my lovely wife can
come too and she's behind me one hundred percent here, I guarantee it. Wait a
minute, maybe the sex thing should be the first wish, so if I made that the
first wish, because it could all go boom tomorrow, then what do you got,
y'know? No, no, the kids, the kids singing would be great, that would be nice.
But wait a minute, who am I kidding? They're not going to be able to get all
those kids together. I mean, the logistics of the thing is impossible, more
trouble than it's worth! So -- we reorganize! Here we go. First, the sex thing.
We go with that. Second, the money. No, we got with the power second, then the
money. And then the kids. Oh wait, oh jeez, I forgot about revenge against my
enemies! Okay, I need revenge against all my enemies, they should die like pigs
in hell! That would be my fourth wish. And, of course, my fifth wish would be
for all the children of the world to join hands and sing together in the spirit
of harmony and peace. Thank you everybody and Merry Christmas.
**A Post Script: Thanks to
Dave, here’s an
mp3 of that very sketch.**
12/09
Aftermath, Part III
Well I did say I would
do this, so here we are again, the way I think the NFL Playoffs will now break
down. Devastating to my predictions
over the past week were Pittsburgh’s loss at the hands of lowly Houston, San
Fran’s last-second victory in Dallas, and Tennessee’s romp over Indy. Later, eh?
12/04
Happy Holidays
Well, this will be it for a while. I've
got a lot of work to get done over the next two weeks or so, so I will bid
farewell until about December 18. May all your holiday preparations proceed
without incident. Since all my decorating is already done, mine will include:
watching White Christmas. That's it. Take care, hope to see you all
soon, but if I don't before the 25th, have a Merry Christmas.
12/02
Aftermath, Part II
Per last week’s
message about the rest of the NFL season, here is my re-vamped playoff
tree. Biggest difference is in the fate
of the Eagles, who won twice sans McNabb since I wrote on this topic
last. Still, I see Tampa and Oakland in
the Super Bowl, with Oakland coming out on top.
11/28
Transit
So here I at MSP
Intern'tl Airport. The flight out of
Bzn was delayed about half an hour cuz of fog.
Then the plane arrived at gate G-40, which is at precisely the opposite
end of this gigantic airport from my departure gate, A-14. All that did was to keep me from having both
a beer and a meal. There was only time
for a beer (6.00) and a king-size Snickers (1.25) from the vending
machine. This leads me to an
observation about candy bar sales -- there is far less frequently an option to
even get a regular-sized bar (this machine being an example of that) so why even
call the 'king-size' such? The way I see
it, the candy bars were a hell of a lot bigger when I was a kid anyway, so
let's just cut the crap, y'know what I'm sayin?
Whew. A 24-oz, 6-dollar Sam Adams will make you go
off about stuff. It will also make this
little pda keyboard look fuzzy, so I'll wrap this up.
The only other comment
I really needed to make was about women.
There were at least a half-dozen GORGEOUS ones on the flight from Bzn
this morning, all accompanied by their husbands/boyfriends. I think the odds of meeting a normal, single
one go down a little every day.
Oh, that, and I met a
bloke at the bar coming from Colorado Springs on his way to Dayton and then to
Japan on Sunday. Apparently, this
eastbound detour (to his hometown) saved him 200 dollars on the fare. Sometimes the planets are just aligned, I
guess. More from ER.
Oh a PS after I got on this plane: I am glad I had a drink first. I will be impressed if this thing leaves the ground.
11/27
Super speed
Wow. Quickest update EVER. I am ultra-late gettin outta here, so I’ll just say here’s the last video of the semester, bye!
(ps – more to say over the weekend)
11/27
Less than Sane
It’s Wednesday, the 27th of November, 2002. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. This is a college campus I’m living on. At least fifty percent of the student population has vacated the for the weekend already, bound for their parents’ or friends’ homes, their favorite ski destinations, or some other secluded refuge from the bustle of academia.
A PRIME TIME, one would think, to do some last-minute laundry before leaving on an extended weekend away, so that the load when one gets back is a bit lighter. Ought to be able to go down the stairs, one would think, and find a silent, vacant laundry room, the majority of the kiddies already out the door, and dragging with them the bag of dirty clothes they’ll probably manage to convince Mom to wash for them when they get home.
NOT THE BLOODY CASE. Nonono, at 9:30 AM on this day, the place is BOOKED SOLID. ‘Nary a washer to be had!! Even at 4 on a Saturday afternoon (roughly two hours after your average student will rise) in the heart of the fall, when no one has good reason to be anywhere but SHACKED UP IN THE DORM have I encountered such a high laundry demand.
I am perturbed. More to come later on, things to do, then the previously-promised “last video.”
11/26
Creativity, by God.
Glad to know that it hasn’t left me completely. I have sat down numerous times in the past couple weeks trying to start a new story about a radio DJ in a small Midwestern town (writin what I know, Jen) and I didn’t really know anything except that that guy would be in it. I would sit and lament that all the academic drivel I’ve had to produce this semester crippled me somehow and stole my ability to think outside that strict and stiff discourse. But ah, not the case!
I got something started today, and it felt really nice. Y’know, I’m finding that it is so much damned easier to write about someplace you’ve been, something you’ve done, some situation you’re familiar with. There’s a lot less about the environment you have to imagine to life, leaving you only concerned with the lives of the characters and their relations. It’s nice.
Well, time for me to watch 24 and Smallville now, so that’s where I’m at on that... tomorrow is going to be the Final Video Address of the Semester, so look for that, eh?
If you’re going to be in ER this weekend, see you there!
11/25
Aftermath
Following a long NFL conversation with Josh Schneider this morning, I see good reason to prognosticate on the remaining NFL season as it stands this Monday morning. Me thinks I smell a feature for Mondays the rest of the year....
Josh contends that there is a “conspiracy” in the NFL, not only to have the NFC playoffs all travel through Green Bay, but also for Brett Favre and the Pack to hoist a Lombardi Trophy in San Diego in January as a “farewell” to Favre, who will announce his retirement shortly thereafter. I believe Josh to be full of shit, and I’ve told him as much. Here is how the playoffs will shape up:
As you can see, yesterday’s game will wind up costing the Packers a first-round playoff bye and what would’ve been a home game in Rd 2. In the AFC, Jay Fiedler back in the lineup and the overall parity in the conference will get the Dolphins a home game in the Divisional Round, but they will choke as usual, and San Diego’s youth will be exposed when the Senior NFL Tour drops by from upstate. The only thing I’m changing my mind about already is that it will, in fact, end up being OAKLAND that wins the Super Bowl, not Tampa. The savvy Raiders will find a way to score more than 23 points in that game, putting it out of reach for the O-less Bucs.
So yeah, Super Bowl matchup: Tampa Bay vs. Oakland, Raiders win.
Greatest travesty in the playoffs: Philly’s loss of Donovan McNabb. With him under center, they had a legitimate shot at winning out for the year, and later winning the conference, but with Koy Detmer @ QB, they will win 3, lose 3, and quickly and silently bow out in the Wild Card round.
11/22
Lazy Bastard
Hey, since I wanted to give the “Newsletter” more substance today, my info here is limited to the declaration that there IS a new video online for your consumption. Enjoy.
11/20
Revelation
I went out on a short shoppin trip to day for a few misc items:
· New backpack (zipped broke on the 6-yr vet)
· Drain-O (drains been slow all year, and I totally wasn’t thinkin about how bad it would be to wash all that hair down the drain when I shaved my beard)
· Toothbrush (I like to keep two around all the time: one for my travel bag, so I don’t forget, and one for regular daily use. I’ve been down to one for a while.)
· Tums (Runnin low again, and you can never have too many. I wonder when they’re gonna come out with the 10,000 tablet container?)
So I drove to Target for these items, because, as has been well-documented, I don’t like Wal-Mart and you really can’t count on the K-Mart. So I get out there, and I was walkin past the cards, and I thought to myself, “Todd Lucas gets married next week, I should buy him a card so it actually gets there on time.” Me and buyin cards usually doesn’t work out that well, but now all I have to remember to do is put a stamp on this mother and drop it in the mail. I hope that works... Anyway, if you feel like sending Todd a beer for his birthday (he’ll probably need it) you can click this link, and just remember his e-mail addy is BigToddStud@aol.com.
I was looking at ink for printers and stuff too when I was there, just for fun, and it made me decide to get a lot more conservative with my printing. To replace both cartridges in this mother would be a COOL SIXTY BUCKS!!! Holy crap.
I did buy a DVD lens cleaning disc, though, and like an idiot, thought it would work in my DVD-ROM drive. I am a great big steaming heap of stupid.
I did the math of that armful of purchases (which this “no sales tax” thing makes sooooo easy) and realized that that would already put me over quota for spending this week. That’s cuz I dumbly bought a used copy of Mallrats on a whim from Amazon last night.
On my way home I saw something interesting: there was this 8-point muley buck randomly walking across 19th Ave, a 4-lane city street. Never seen that before, even here in MT. What the hell, eh?
Gonna wait til tomorrow to do a video, just because it’s so close to Sunday night when I did the last one. Yep.
Oh, and it turns out that, much like Canada, Mexico also has its very own government.
11/19
Zany Canucks
You know about Canadians, right? Our northern neighbors? To quote Dave Foley, “... like an American, but without a gun.”? Well for some reason, I came across some Canadian website while I was looking for info on Charles Lindbergh earlier today, and it got me to thinking how cute and funny Canadians (and Canada in general) are. Here are some of the things I’ve found out about Canada that are particularly humorous.
First, the flag: Look at that! It’s red and white! Y’know, like an American flag except those silly Canadians missed a color! Hee-hee!
Next, Parliament: In Canada they call Congress “Parliament,” just like they do in England. It does the same kind of stuff as Congress does, too: they make “laws,” and they have “commitees,” and “bills,” and they even meet in the same building all the time, just like the Congress does in America.
If you go to Canada’s Parliament’s website, there is a section titled “How Canadians Govern Themselves.” Can you believe it?? They have their very own “government”! And they do it without any help from America, I guess...
Languages: In America, most people speak English or some derivative of it. In some places, like Florida, Texas, and California, a bunch of people living in America speak Spanish instead. For this reason, if you buy stuff that has “directions for use,” here in America, a lot of times the directions will be written in Spanish as well as English. In Canada, people don’t really speak Spanish, but in certain parts, called “Quebec,” Canadians speak French, the language of France. This is because when the British Empire pushed all the French settlers out of places like New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts in the late 1600’s, the obstinate and moody French people went north instead of south, but they were happy, cuz Canada turned out to be cleaner anyway. The French people in Canada are almost as big of assholes as the real French. So much so, they have tried a few times in the past to split Quebec off into its own country. So anyway, if you buy stuff with directions on it and some of them are translated into French, that’s a tell-tale sign that people in Quebec are buying the same stuff.
Speaking of language, even when the Canadians do speak English, they sure have a wacky way of doing it! One of the best known, and let’s face it, cutest thing that Canadians say is “aboot.” Used in context, one Canadian might say to another one, “Hey, what is that book you’re reading aboot? Can you pass me a Molsen Ice, eh?” Translated to American English, this phrase would read, “Hey dufus, what’s your book about? Can you grab me a Bud?”
Another curious linguistic tic the Canadians have is to refer to the graded progressions in primary schools backwards. In America, as we all know, after Kindergarten comes “first grade,” followed by “second grade,” “third grade,” and so on. Up in Canada, though, after Kindergarten, the kids go to “grade one,” then “grade two,” “grade three,” etc. On a related topic, Bruce McCulloch did all his acid in grade eight.
Concluding my study of Canada, I discovered that “Quebec” was not just a funny name for a region of the country (like Midwest, New England, or Pacific Northwest here in America) but actually a “province” of Canada. Canada has a bunch of these “provinces,” which could be compared to the American “states.” The Canadians must’ve gotten bored thinking of crazy names, though, cuz there’s nowhere near 50. The provinces are: Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon Territories, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Ontario, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Greenland, and Vancouver. Which is your favorite? I’m partial to “Manitoba” myself. Try saying that a few times in a funny voice: “Man-i-to-BA,” “Man-i-toba!”
So anyway, next time you’re looking at a map of North America and saying to yourself, “what is all this space north of America and east of Alaska?” think about our jolly, gun-free, zany Canadian neighbors.
Er, sorry, think “aboot” them.
11/17
Anniversary Issue
I knew it, I just knew it, that if I predicted a Packers victory today, we would seem them fall. Ah well, plenty of the season yet to go.
I’m working quickly here, what with the Simpsons starting in 10 minutes...
This week’s video is #10. I know, I know, several days later than usual. Explanation for that contained therein.
Beard continues to fill in, I’m happy about that.
Make sure you’re getting plenty of iron, more tomorrow, as today was fairly point-free.
11/16
I’d Like to Thank the Academy
So I was just updating my “Bockbuster” spreadsheet, a phrase first coined by JR Bock @ Marquette University in the mid-90’s. This is a list of all the movies that I own, and I haven’t made additions to it in... more than a year now, and since I don’t have all my movies with me, there are certainly a number of titles I added between October 2001 and September 2002 that I just forgot about and couldn’t put in. Suffice it to say, my list now stands at “over” 160 titles.
I have the movies cataloged according to four categories: Title, Director, Year, Format (VHS or DVD). I’m sure it wouldn’t interest you at all to hear some of the stats I’ve compiled about that list, so let’s proceed, shall we?
Most Pervasive Director
... and the award goes to: Robert Zemeckis. Surprised me at first, but I guess it really shouldn’t have. I own six of his movies, three of them are Back to the Future’s. Ironically, I have none of them here with me in MT.
Most Movies in a Series
... and the award goes to: Star Trek. Yes, nine of them, a victory ruled by my geekitude and the sheer volume of films produced. The next one looks cool, though.
Most Common Unique First Letter of Last Name of Director
... and the award goes to: “S.” Unique in this case means individual directors with a common first-letter last name (the L’s only get George Lucas once). So “s” wins, with Joel Schumacher, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, William Shatner, M Night Shyamalan, Bryan Singer, Kevin Smith, Steven Soderbergh, Barry Sonnenfeld, Steven Spielberg (and I happen to think it’s creepy that MS Word is so well acquainted with Spielberg’s name, it doesn’t suspect that it’s a misspell), Roger Spottiswoode, Oliver Stone, and Mel Stuart.
Oldest Movie
... and the award goes to: Reefer
Madness, 1938.
If you’re unfamiliar with the film, I quote from a summary written on IMDB by one Rick Gregory: “Propaganda film that
relates the story, as told by high school principal Dr. Carroll to parents at a
PTA meeting, of the scourge of marijuana.”
Two words: Hi. Larious.
Most Movies in a Release Year
... and the award goes to: 1999, with 13, beating out 1989 by 1. The 13 from 99 are: Bringing Out the Dead, Fight Club, Frequency, The Green Mile, The Hurricane, Magnolia, Man on the Moon, The Matrix, Pushing Tin, The Sixth Sense, Star Wars: Episode I, and Three Kings. I have five of these here with me, same number as I have present from 89.
Most Common Format
... and the award goes to: DVD, with 81, which has just recently eeked past VHS, standin still or goin down at 79.
It’s a Trap!
... take evasion action.
So that’s that. Oh, and “where the hell’s my video?” is a great question which I don’t know the answer to; maybe one will show up tomorrow??
Football predictions as well, just 12 hours before kickoff now....
PACK – 24 QUEENS – 22. A last second field goal will save the G&G a major embarassment.
BEARS – 17 RAMS – 38. Marc Bulger breaks his own record for the Rams?
11/14
Meesa Gettin Very Very Scared
I saw the following Montana state license plate in the parking lot yesterday evening (not making this up):
“JR JR BNKS”
I was temped to wait by the car and punch the guy in the kidney.
11/12
Capitalism
I think “11” is the channel for the WB everywhere. They start a new WB affiliate somewhere, they ask the Frog, “Well, uh, wha-what spot y’want on the cable?” and the Frog goes, “What’ll it take to get 11?”
So I don’t know if told you this or not, but I was really excited when I saw the following ad in the Sunday paper this week:
A similar ad in the Wal-Mart circular quoted the price at like 19.97 or something, so I didn’t think much of it, I was just like, “Hey, I’m goin to K-Mart on Tuesday for Episode II.”
So right after I get home from class today I go ahead and call my ma and pa, cuz Dad wanted to talk to me about maybe flyin home for T-giving (which I am gonna do; kinda neat) and right following that I was dashin out the door to visit K-Mart and pick up that DVD.
Well I get to K-mart, and uh, I’m, y’know, lookin’ around for the movie, and uh, I’m not findin’ it, and so I’m like, “heywhatisthisbullshit?” I flag down senor la electronic K-Mart boy, and he’s all, “Can I help you find something?” and I say, “Well! I hope so! Where’s the Episode II? The Star Wars? Where is it?”
“On DVD?” he asks.
“Well of course.”
“Yeah, we don’t have it.”
* Jason gapes at him, confused. *
“We only got like, four copies of it.”
Again, befuddled, I ask, “WHY?”
* Young man shrugs. *
“It’s K-Mart.”
Fair enough, my young friend. Fair enough.
So I drove next door to Wal-Mart where they had approximately 90 million copies and, conveniently, they were on sale for the low-low price of 14.77. Rock. And. Roll.
Speaking of which, I had a damn fine drive out of that parking lot, cuz I had Michael Sembello’s “Maniac” on the tapedeck and I was doing the Night at the Roxbury head-dance thing.
Have a good evening.
11/11
Mousey
I can’t really recall any time in the past when I just ate cheese. Cheese: by itself, nothing to augment it; not placed on a cracker, or a sandwich, or melted over tortilla chips, not with wine, not with beer, not with coffee, just cheese, alone and sad in all its solemn cheesiness. Yet yesterday and today I found myself cutting up a block of cheddar that came with my package from Usinger’s and just poppin straight cheese into my mouth. I don’t know which of the following this sudden change can be attributed to:
· new proximity to Wisconsin
· desire to try new things
· simply nothing to put it on
Well, anyway, I’m busy with some writing and research, not too intensely, though; I’m also watchin TNG. Oh, look: there’s a commercial for South Park. We don’t get South Park in Bozeman because our city has a morality council that decided it shouldn’t be on the cable. Creepy, eh?
My beard continues to progress, and I think it should definitely be back in good shape by Christmas.
right before I shaved (well a few days) earlier today (9 days growth)
11/09
Res (for)Lifers
I had to work early this morning. I agreed to work for some hoser kid who couldn’t make it or whatever. Didn’t bother me. He gave me plenty of notice, called like last week Saturday or Sunday. So I went to bed a little early, although not as early as usual on those working days. I was in the sack at 9:45, had to get up at 3:30. And since I didn’t get out of bed that morning until 9 AM, this was a pretty early time to put myself down. Took me til about 10:30 to finally fall asleep.
Right round 10 past 11, I am stirred from my slumber by a ringing, a noise which I assume, of course, is my alarm clock (aw shit, time to get up…) and no, that wasn’t what it was. My phone was ringing. Bear in mind I don’t have friends around here, and definitely not friends that would be calling me at 11 PM unless it was on my cell phone to meet me at a bar and two more issues: 1) I don’t have a cell phone anymore, 2) I don’t go to bars around here. Whoever could it be calling me at this hour?
Well, at first I thought maybe it was Christy, which wouldn’t bother me terribly much, she’s a college kid and keeps really strange hours, and she’s called me at that time before. But nonono, it was NOT Christy; she is in LaX this weekend visiting Grandma & Grandpa.
It was one DANA MURPHY, a man (well, technically a man; I mean, hardware-wise) who lives in my hall and works at the desk. He is also the “president” of the hall or some such bullshit, whatever, y’know? But this moron is callin me up after 11 to see if I’m working at 4 the next morning. Well, chumpy, I reckon if I were, I’d probably be in bed right now, eh? Yeah, he was just wondering if I wanted him to work it for me. Well, once again, S-fer-B, if I wanted you to work for me, I probably woulda called, eh? Ok, so I can call him back in his room or on his cell phone if I want him to work! Yippy frickin skippy.
I don’t know, this is another of those situations where I dunno if it’s exclusively Midwesterners that have manners or something, but can honestly say I’ve never called someone I don’t know at 11 o’clock in the evening unless their child was bleeding to death, and since I’ve never had to call anyone about a bleeding child, that talley remains at ZERO for me. Who the hell calls when humans are sleeping? Dammitall.
Anyway, I called his machine back and reamed it right the hell out, cuz I just found the late-night calling really rude. Plus, I never liked the kid from the word “go.” He’s a Res (for)Lifer, and worse than the RA/CA-division of that breed, he’s on the “hall government” side, and those people are far more fake, fruity, and stupid. I’ve met this chump like five times, and he introduces himself like we’ve never met every single time, but we’re still best buds right away, y’know? He’s a politician, and man those people (the politicians that don’t actually hold a public office) really piss me off. So I guess in a way, I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to nail this kid to the wall.
Yeah, the Res (for)Lifers… it’s uncanny how they’re the same wherever you go.
11/08
81,204
That’s the number of characters in this document before I started writing today. Yeah, had a busy week, so didn’t have much time for the ol’ site here. Big things were that I finished The Two Towers, so now I can just concentrate exclusively on reading stuff for class for the rest of the semester, I kept my room nice and tidy so that I didn’t need to “clean” it on Friday (today) and I printed a couple more pictures out, put em in frames and hung them on the wall. It’s starting to look like a grown-up lives here.
Yeah, and then I called the theater about 10 this morning to see what they got in new this week (hopin for Truth About Charlie) and low and behold, in a town out here in po-dunk MONTANA, Eminem’s new feature, 8 Mile can be seen on opening weekend, still no TAC. Oh – but in case you missed it in the first 90 weeks it ran, My Big Fat Greek Wedding is STILLLLLL THERE!!!!!
Congrats to Jim Doyle for winning the governor’s race in WI, now let’s just hope he gives Schrubbe a job.
I need to brush my teeth right now.
So what’s the deal with toothpaste splatter? It’s all over the mirror, but usually my mouth is closed while I brush. How does that happen? (Shut up, Jerry.)
It’s a good thing I write stuff down in my notebook, cuz then we’d have things like this that I thought about and wanted to say about three days ago but just didn’t have a chance to, and I woulda forgot, and no one would benefit from the wisdom of my experience.
I get two stations (usually) on the radio here in Boze-ville. Sometimes only one comes in, and that’s the oldies station. The call letters are “KOBB,” and their little station slogan is “Fun Lovin’ Bob!”
…..
….
So, what I wanna know is, in what the hell state does “OBB” spell “Bob?” I’ve thought of a better slogan for the station, and I think I’ll call the GM with it on Monday: “KOBB – Crap-playin’ Kob!” Trust me. Far more truthful.
On that trip around town (musta been Tuesday or Wednesday) I bought a tape at K-Mart for those occasions when I forget to bring the CD magazine along, cuz I’m done with the radio in this market. Just awful, awful, awful. But that tape quest was kind of a trip, too, cuz I found out Target doesn’t actually sell audio cassettes anymore, at Wal-Mart they’re in some mysterious way more expensive than CD’s, so yeah, K-Mart, last resort as usual, but they still had the discount rack. 4.99 and I got Billboard’s Top 10 from 1983. Ask Jen what they are.
Oh back on Monday Christy told me that Storyhill is playing two shows this fall: one in Minneapolis the day before Thanksgiving, one here in Bozeman on Dec 6. I’m gonna go to the one here, but I don’t think I’ll make it to the other one.
I got an exciting package FedEx-ed to me yesterday, but more on that in this week’s video address, full of phat flav-uh.
And it’s getting close to 7 now, when a show comes on that I like watching, so real quick, here are your football predictions:
Lions coming to Lambeau to face the 7-1 and suddenly nationally renowned Packers. This is typically where the Pack shudders under the pressure. Detroit CANNOT win in Green Bay, though, no matter how lightly any of the Green & Gold boys may take them. It will be startlingly close, though: PACK – 26 LIONS – 20.
Oh, and the Bears are still playing, too, I guess… don’t know why, but it’s probably some fine you can get from the NFL or something if you don’t finish the season. Not only do they face the revived defending champs in IL, but they’ve got Chris Chandler back under center. Ouch. BEARS – 12 (all field goals) PATS – 31.
11/04
Elections
Thank the LORD that election day is tomorrow and that means the end of the commercials. I have definitely had enough. Anyway, if you live in WI, make sure you go, you gotta vote for a governor, and if we haven’t talked about it already, let me take this opportunity to officially endorse Tomah mayor and Libertarian candidate ED THOMPSON. Why not Ed? Look at all the BS that the other mainstream candidates have gotten involved in over the years, and then look at Ed. He’s just a businessman who wants to run the state in a sensible way. Why not Ed?
I had two things happen to me today for the first time in the history of doing laundry:
- The machine stopped running in the midst of one of my loads (specifically, during the spin cycle) with the error UNBALANCE displayed on the little digital readout. I had to run the machine again cuz there was zero spinnage.
- Having already wasted 75 cents on a load that only needed to be spun, I was scanning my card for an extension on the dryer and accidentally punched the button for the washer I’d been using. This was after I had completed the “wash” phase. So I hope the bastard kid that washed for free appreciated it.
Let’s see, let’s see… report on the weekend? Movie was good on Friday; wound up running into English (dept) people there, so we were there “together,” I guess. Then Saturday night was good as well. Driving to Three Forks from Boze-town is about the same as going from the south side out to Waukesha, so, y’know, whatever.
Ok, well I’m digging in for the game tonight… make sure you watch the Fish get filleted.
Oh, one last thing: I just found out the other day that I have to pay extra to stay in the dorm over the turkey holiday. What a buncha crap.
Don’t forget to vote for Ed tomorrow. Dave will thank you, too.
11/01
Catharsis
Yeah, how bout that? I feel better, by the way. Better than I did last week around this time or so. I think it was around this time. But more on that in the new video.
Mom and Dad sent me cookies. They sent me a prescription for my glasses, too, so I went right out and got some new frames right away. That was fun. I went to a one-hour joint in the mall, so it was quick, painless, and expensive. I dropped almost 3 bills on 2 pair of glasses (bought the first, 2nd one free) but the insurance covers it I guess, so, no harm, no foul.
Speaking of foul: Yes, that is a foul odor you detect coming from Champaign, IL, and what a segue into football predictions for this week!
The Bears are just awful. As I knew they would be. I don’t think there was ever any doubt in a Packer fan’s mind that last year was the longest sting of luck in the history of pro football. Welcome back to Earth, ye Midway Midgets. EAGLES – 41 BEARS – 20.
The Packers, meanwhile, have amazed me to this point. After a weak first couple games, they’ve come to the mid-point in the season with little doubt of a division title. That’s if Brett stays healthy. And that is a very small if. The Fish, on the other hand, God-laugh-at-em, don’t have the greatest first string quarterback, so their second stringer, well… it’s not good. They signed an ex-player off the staff of HBO’s Inside the NFL last week, but they picked the wrong one.
That being the case, it’s really no contest on Monday Night,
FISH – 9 PACK – 27
Finally get to see Punch Drunk Love tonight at the Rialto, and tomorrow I’m going to a party with other English grads. Should be fun. Well, I’m watchin TV right now, so I’ll catch up tomorrow most likely.
10/31
Sorry Forgot One
- My Big Fat Greek damn Wedding has been playing at the Campus Square theater nearby my residence roughly as long as Cats played in New York. For God’s sake, I hope they have another movie there this week…
10/31
Peeves
Boo. Halloween.
So I have a couple general complaints to put forth at this point.
- My damned computer. Disaster was averted yesterday, when symptoms identical to those when the motherboard fried back in early September turned out to be indicative of merely a spent power supply. However, since that meltdown, problems have continued to surface at the least ideal times, and I have come close to tossing the tower out the window on a couple occasions. The screen stopped me. I reasoned yesterday that all these things are probably fallout from the damage caused by the meltdown, and I pray it wasn’t a lie.
- The bathroom on my floor smells like a septic tank. Or worse; y’know that smell of the “bathroom” at a public beach or a park, or an old wayside or what have you? That rotten odor of ancient fecal decomposition? That smell that makes it difficult to breathe? Yes, the bathroom on my floor smells like that. It’s gotten progressively worse throughout the week, so that now, I can’t stand to be in there long enough to even take a leak. I have to go down the stairs to the second floor for all of my bathroomin’ activities. These conditions may be acceptable if rather than Bozeman this were Beruit, but c’mon, we live in AMERICA.
- The thermostat in my room is a useless wall decoration. The current temperature in Boze-town is 12 degrees Fahrenheit. My thermostat is set at 55. My window is open. The temperature in my room is a balmy 71. And there are now posters hanging on the walls in the hall warning residents, “Don’t try to regulate the temperature in your room with your window; you’ll break pipes.” Well, I would ask, then, how we should regulate the temperature. I guess once the winter REALLY gets here, I’ll have to bring buckets of snow in from outdoors and spread their contents on the floor.
- Use of the clothes dryer is not intended as a contest with one’s self to see if you can, in fact, pack more garments in it than you did the last time. Several residents of my building seem to be hellbent on answering that age-old question, “Can my entire wardrobe fit in ONE DRYER???” Yes, you simpleton, you probably can squeeze all of them in there. And at that capacity, they will probably only take 8-12 hours to dry.
Computer problem is explanation for my lack of a new video yesterday, but it’s on the way, most likely tomorrow.
10/28
Hyperactivity
Had a bunch to get done today, and a bunch to say as well, but my brain was going too fast to keep them all in order so I had to quickly jot down a list.
· Turns out I had too much confidence in the Chicago Bears this weekend. Trust that I will remember that in the future.
· Congrats to the Anaheim Angels, who beat the San Francisco Giants in the World Series in seven games, just like Lorch and I predicted.
· I decided to go outside yesterday round football time and I shot a roll of film around campus. I tried to do some things with point-of-view that I haven’t tried in the past, so I’m eager to get those back and let you all look at them.
· I’m hummin through The Two Towers now, and I want to make sure I finish before the flick comes out mid-December. The only thing is, I should probably be reading something else. Eh, if I finish this one right away, then I won’t have to worry about it anymore, right?
· I went out this morning to drop off that film I took yesterday, and I bought some whiskey and 2 DVD’s, since they were used and on sale for 7.50 apiece. Well, first, with regard to the whiskey: it’s waaaaaaaay more cost-effective to buy a 1.75 liter bottle and pour its contents into your glass bottle with pour top. However, to accomplish this, you’ll require some means of keeping the whiskey from spilling all over the sink during this transfer, e.g, a funnel. Which I don’t have. Which means I gotta go get one of those. Second, with regard to the DVD’s: the two I picked up are A Beautiful Mind and Gosford Park (which Jen and I saw together, and, funny story, I thought we both thought it was pretty good, and she thought we both thought it pretty much sucked. Huh). I didn’t notice until I got home though that the copy of ABM that I grabbed was formatted, not widescreen, and we all know that widescreen is better. So now I have to take this mother back and exchange it.
· I saw this kid in my hall earlier today that was some sort of mutant cross between me and Wordy: he was fat like me, and dumb lookin’ like Wordell. It was really creepy.
This is also creepy:
and this is even more creepy if you ask me:
That’s all for now; need to do something productive today.
10/27
Brainiac
Yesterday, I had to consult my website to remember what my phone number is, cuz I never call it and rarely have to give it out.
10/27
Late Night
No David Letterman on this program, folks, but if you haven’t watched Dave lately, holy crap, you really should cuz he’s been letting this Dr. Phil guy just have it on the show all the time and it’s hilarious.
Oh, and I should probably mention Conan too, cuz he’s on NBC’s Late Night now, and his show is also funny. But no one beats Dave. That much is certain.
There’s a new video hap’nin right now, and it’s a shortie, so even if your attention wanes easily while watching me yap on in a chair in my room, you may have the patience for it… who knows? In any case, this leads me to yet another revision of the policy on the weekly videos: due to considerations of disk space conservation, the CURRENT video and the FIRST PREVIOUS video will be the only two available online at any one time. So I hope you’re either keeping up or don’t care. And what the hell, I’ll take this opportunity to say once again, just in case you maybe are new or haven’t scrolled down or whatever the reason, videos are in Windows Media format, if you’re on Internet Explorer and you just click the link, it’ll play in your browser, if you are on Netscape or would prefer to download, right-click and Save. That is all on that.
BUMMER FOR ALL HARRY POTTER FANS: This guy just died.
Let’s see, let’s see… Halloween coming up this week. I was over at Ewan & Meredith’s earlier tonight for dinner and a flick, and they were telling me that Kyle & Robin went to a murder mystery shindig @ the Mahoney’s house (I don’t even know if I spelled that right) and that sounded like fun. I remember we always had a good time at the Halloween parties in Mad-town… well, two of ‘em anyway. The last one we did after most people were done with school and I went as “radioactive” was fairly lame. That time, it was just nice to be with friends and all that.
the men at the Madison Halloween gig in 99, before Lorch showed up. I think he was working.
I’m listening to Dave Matthews Live @ Red Rocks, a move motivated by the signature of Jen’s e-mail. It’s a good record.
Quickquickquick, before the games kick off for this week, a quick prediction on the Bears game: given that I just picked up Daunte Culpepper to be my backup QB in my fantasy league, and given that the Bears will go into the Twinkie Dome without their (can’t help but chuckle a little here) star quarterback Jim Miller, signs point to another branch to run into on the Chicago freefall. No doubt, that “let’s play 16 road games” decision that the Bears’ brass made for this year is biting them in the ass a little. I say Minnesota – 27, Chicago – 16. BUT, Culpepper will still throw 3 INTs, and Randy Moss will not be that effective, which will piss off the Bears fans that much more. Yep. Oh and the Fish won’t lose, cuz luckily, they have a bye.
10/25
Positive
Living in a single 15’ x 12’ room, if nothing else, makes it pretty easy to find your keys.
10/24
Things I Love
Personal identity has always been both very important to me and very troublesome for me to grasp hold of. The questions of “who am I?” and “what will I be?” have perplexed me for more time that I can remember. My inability to find an answer to these questions is one of the things that drove me to where I am today. A few “truths” that I can pull out of my struggle are the following:
· Other people don’t have the same problem answering these questions. I surmise this from the observation of people going about their lives in a very certain (as in unconfused) way, and proceeding from one point to another with confidence and success. If other people in fact do have the same problem, they hide it or ignore it far more deftly than I.
· The answers to these questions cannot be found by reading any amount of philosophy, religion, psychology, or biography. Each of us is unique, and our struggles with these questions are part of what defines us as individuals.
· Like so many things, the answers don’t make themselves more apparent and don’t become clearer the harder you look.
I came west to go to graduate school, yes, but why did I choose to go to grad school? I came here to “find myself,” to invoke a common phrase. I came to the end of 23 years and the end of college within 15 days of each other, and I had no answer to the questions, “what am I?” “Who am I?” “What will I be?” I’ve ruminated on these things textually in the past, and for academic purposes or for reasons of social commentary, I’ve angrily pointed to my culture and blamed it for shaping me. I’ve said that is it was you, Western World, Capitalism, America, all you giant, evil, faceless, soulless entities, you forced me into a box; you make me pick a title and an explanation for myself. You won’t just let me be.
But what is that argument, really? It’s only an adversarial stance that empowers me; it lets me play the part of the martyr, the shapeless man who gallantly fought off the ridgedness of society. And why did the man do that? He was bigger? He was better than that? Perhaps. That may be true, and there are applicable instances of this Man vs. World dynamic in all our lives, but still: all that is won is a few more steps in a race away from what is designed as a more esoteric, personal question: “Who am I?” “What will I be?” It’s not Culture or Capitalism that drives my mind to address these questions. It is a fact of human nature. We ask these questions because we are reasonable, rational beings desirous of form and order. After all this time, why do I have no response?
Perhaps my life (and subsequently I) is far simpler than I wish it to be. My ego then would be the obstacle to an answer.
Many of the things in our world are defined by what they are not. Down is not up, under is not over, start is not finish, etc. To a great extent, we must define ourselves the same way. I came here because the places I’d been gave me no answer. I was not a man who would find contentment living in the pot where I was planted, so I left my mom and dad. I didn’t see enough on my second stop to make me think I would be happy, so I left my friends in college. I sank as low as I could get and thought I would lose my mind at my third stop, and as quickly as I could, I came here. The logic was simple: this isn’t working, so try something else. I said I needed to be alone. I blamed the things around me and the things that had come to be about me for my befuddled complacency, and I reasoned that if I could just get away, be alone, and think about it, an answer would come. But it hasn’t. It doesn’t seem to be on the horizon, either.
I fooled myself into thinking there was something better to be found far away, and that I would reach some new heightened state of self-awareness through the simple metamorphosis caused by living in this new space. But there’s been no metamorphosis and if anything, I’m all the more confused. I fled the security of the things I knew, and now I’m here: facing the stark and ice-cold reality alone, without the answers.
When I decided to come here, I said I wanted to learn. But I didn’t say what. Perhaps all I’m really trying to learn are the answers to the questions: “What am I?” “Who am I?” “What will I be?” There’s no course in that here, so maybe I chased a phantom across the country. Maybe I’m kidding myself and there really is nothing left to discover. Perhaps all I see in the mirror is all there is to see. “What am I?” Right now you’re really… nothing substantial. “Who am I?” You’re just “Jason” and that’s it. “What will I be?” Looks pretty bleak at this point.
But of course, I’ve said all these things and been in this place before. I don’t know; maybe that’s the point.
10/23
Got Guinness?
10/22
Restoration
Wow, what happened to the weekend??
Honestly, after such an exciting Friday, I simply didn’t feel all that inclined to update the site over the weekend. I did do something fun on Friday night, though; I scanned a ton of photos that I have in my store here, and that was the first time I did that since early last spring, and of course, I wouldn’t have needed to scan anything at all if my computer didn’t hate me, but that’s another topic all together.
That was also one of my longer run-on sentences ever.
Anyway, here’s a couple of the photos:
That’s Dad on the road while we were driving through Badlands National Park on our way to Bozeman. On a related topic, I bet you didn’t know that today is my dad’s birthday. He’s 49 years old. Just 365 more days ‘til the big 5-0. I remember when Dad turned 40; we shot the spud gun out in the garage. If you want to send my dad a beer for his birthday (which would be nice, wouldn’t it?) click this link. His e-mail address is “donnybock@hotmail.com”
That’s me with Mark Knuetson and Nick Petters at Eric & Christine’s wedding back on the 1st of June.
Speaking of weddings, here’s one that I liked from Sarah & Dan’s.
Yeah, my computer hates me, though, and that’s why I didn’t update yesterday; I was reinstalling Windows AGAIN. I’ve grown quite tired of putting up with this machine since I’ve been here in MT, and in order to vent yesterday, I snapped a stack of 3 CD’s in half (don’t worry, they had errors, they were coasters anyway). One of them poked my finger and made me bleed for a few minutes, but I was really really angry.
Ok, time for me to do some writing now.
10/18
Puttin Out Fires
Today is Friday, and usually on a Friday, I’ll have some things on a list somewhere that should be taken care of, and since I don’t have to go to class the next day or anything, I put homework aside and go do those things. Such was the case today and I decided that trip would also be the subject of this week’s video. It’s on the longer time side (8:41) and consequently the file size side (14.6 mb) but heavy in content, people, so take a look.
Last night I went to see The Bourne Identity for a second time. It was only a buck, so that was nice. I still enjoyed the movie even though I’d seen it before. Schneider’s keeping me on my toes as far as predicting football games goes, and where he had the audacity to predict scores in the Bears, Packers, Vikings, and Dolphins games, I will only be predicting the PACK and the Losers (I mean Bears).
GB’s at home this week to take on the Washington Redskins, a team now coached by former Florida offensive guru Steve Spurrier. On paper, the PACK should dominate. The ‘Skins just don’t have the personnel. However, recent history of the Packers will show that in games they should win, they tend to play down to their competition, sometimes to the point where they’ll drop a sure “W.” Case(s) in point:
· Dec 16 2001: Coming in with a 3-game win streak, and having the opportunity to seize control of the NFC Central, the Packers travel to Tennessee and lose to a 5-7 Titans team that disappointed from the season’s opening kickoff.
· Nov 18 2001: The loss that came right before that 3-game win streak, and right after two BIG division wins over Tampa Bay and Chicago, Packers lose to the Atlanta Falcons at home. The defense got shredded by Atlanta’s FULLBACK, Bob Christian. Also wound up being LeRoy Butler’s last game.
· Nov 27 2000: The Pack was pretty pathetic this year (finished 9-7) but one of the only more pathetic teams in the NFC was the Carolina Panthers, who wrapped up at 7-9 but shalacked the Packers on the Monday Night stage, due in large part to Green Bay’s five turnovers.
I think this week will be another one of those times. So, my prediction is: Washington – 31 GB – 24. Now, I will qualify this prediction by saying, if the Packers do pull it out on Sunday, I won’t have any choice but to bank on victory every week from here on out, because to me, it will mean the team is taking every game seriously.
The Bears, meanwhile, still hurting after the bye week, will continue their freefall back to earth with a surprising loss at the hands of young Lions quarterback Joey Harrington. Bears – 19 Lions – 26.
I think I’m gonna start doing some other things on my list now, so peace out.
10/17
Caffeinated
I should be writing a paper right now but
I’m too wired on JOE.
I wanted to wear some non-jeans pants
today, but all my non-jeans require ironing, and I’m too lazy to do it. I just noticed that the jeans I put on smell
bad, so that means I have to do something else with my pants choice today (I
mean, I’m not going out with smelly pants).
My only alternatives are the wear the pants I wore on Tuesday, which
everyone else in class already saw this week, or go wrinkled. Wrinkled probably could be interpreted to
mean I was just too busy with all my work to iron my pants. Wearing the same pants as earlier in the
week could potentially say the same thing.
Dammit what to do?? DECISONSDECISIONSDECISIONS!
Ummmmm… elsewhere, all the previous videos
are now back online. I got more space
from my hosting folks today. So you can
even get the big one from the 28th of September if you haven’t seen
it yet.
“But what about a new video??”
Good question. Valid. Perfectly reasonable. That video to come most likely after class today.
Ok gotta write.
10/16
Mark Your Calendars
I figure to be back in WI again on Monday, the 16th of December. I’m tentatively planning New Year’s in Oshkosh. I think this is a reasonable compromise since I’d like to be in Eagle River, Oshkosh, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis all at the same time for that holiday. Let’s all go to Oshkosh! We can paint the town… a variety of colors.
Oh the other thing you can mark on your calendars is May 8, 2004. That’s a Saturday. I’ll be graduating from college round two that day. I don’t expect a bunch of you to show up, but if you wanna send a card or something, y’know, it’s never too early to get that shopping done.
I was looking up an address on mapquest earlier today, and there was the option to see an aerial photo of the spot I was looking at, which I thought was neat, so I said, “Hey, I could download an aerial photo of my building and put it on the site!” Wouldn’t that be neat? I thought so. But they didn’t have one for Bozeman so I put up one of Grandma’s house in Milwaukee instead.
Oh and here’s one of Nelson Hall, where Christy lives.
But that’s black and white, that sucks.
Here, check it out: this is Schrubbe’s building, but of course, he’s living with Kyle and Robin right now, so… whatever.
I’ve got some things to do around the “house” today as well, so I may not have time for a video. I’ll try real hard though.
10/14
Coup
Much like last Thursday’s “Pressure,” the Coup is two-fold.
First, and looking back, I now realized that I failed to predict a score for the weekend’s Packer game, but way to go GB, pulling the upset in New England. In all honesty, I’m not ashamed to admit that while I was ruminating about a final score last Friday, I hadn’t come up with anything specific, but I definitely was banking on a Packer loss. This will balance out the loss they’ll have at the hands of the Lions or something later in the year when I predict a win. Oh: hey Joshie, 2 ½ ahead, buddy, we’re 2 ½ ahead… haha. And to you Vikes fans… ummm… if you’re a Vikings fan, get the hell off my site.
The rest of my weekend was mostly boring. I tried to get some work done on an update for the website, so as to make it more exciting for potential strangers that might be visiting, what with the search engine indexing and all that, but instead wound up looking at the old site, not sure about how to reconstruct it in a new and exciting way. Also wished I could do Flash.
Oh, I saw The Rules of Attraction on Saturday. It was good. I recommend for all 17 and up. I especially recommend it for people in my age demo (18-34). Oh and especially for the WB fans. What with James VanDerBeek and Jessica Biel and all that.
The other Coup was one that I pulled today… I left the “house” intent on picking up a couple things at least on my list:
· Rules of Attraction soundtrack
· new power supply for my computer
· a new bottle of Contradiction
· masking tape
In the whole of Bozeman’s bustling metropolis, the only item on this list that I was able to procure was the tape. Yay tape. “So wait,” you’re saying, “I thought there was a coup.” And there was. Having failed in all these endeavors, I turned to a tertiary (or however many) goal and went to Hasting’s to scope out the used DVD rack.
Ok, so this place, I think maybe I mentioned it a couple weeks ago when I got Vanilla Sky and Black Hawk Down? Yes, all be it briefly. I will now expand.
This joint is like a bad marriage of Barnes & Noble and Blockbuster. Books, coffee, music, video (rent and sale). Why a bad marriage? Well, I think when you try to bastardize two viable corporate entities into some sort of deranged neo-capitalist hybrid, you’re doomed to failure from the start. The store won’t be able to decide which one it is. Even if it’s successful, (and this one definitely is) it will never supplant either of its parents as America’s perennial destination for consumption of whatever product is being marketed.
Point though, is that, like any Blockbuster, when a new release hits the shelves they get like 40 ka-trillion copies of the movie. When people stop wanting to rent it (or rather they want to rent something else) all that overstock needs to be liquidated, so that’s how I got Vanilla Sky for 15 bucks and Black Hawk Down for 12. Today’s coup was Harry Potter for 7.50. Damn, am I glad I didn’t get it last time I was there; at that time it was 15. So I figure, as far as shoppin for new DVD’s in Bozeman goes, I’ll just bide my time, hang back, wait for that hot new release to cool off, and pick it up at 50, 40, or (like in the case of Harry here) 25 percent of retail.
Hells yeah I am a wise consumer.
‘Course, I bought some dumb stuff too…
This is all I’ve got for today. Two things, if you could please help me out:
1) I have to mail a CD to Mark Knuetson, and he sent me his address a week or so ago, but I lost the e-mail. Cuz my computer semi-broke again; it wasn’t my fault. Yes, I should’ve mailed it right away, yes, I’m a baaaaaad man, and… aw, jesus, would you just send me his address if you have it?
2) I am working on a website overhaul, it’s just that it’s in the shadows and may not “go live” for some time to come. I would like to hear any ideas you may have, though, for things you think you should stay, things that should go (“you” is not an eligible response to the second question). Communuicate with me on this front.
10/10
Pressure
The first sort of pressure we’re talking about here is the kind that’s in my head. Oi. I started coming down with a cold or something yesterday evening, and today I feel just TERRIBLE. I have skipped class to rest because I have to go work at the desk tonight from 10-4. This is my half of the swap some dude did with me earlier this week; he worked my early Monday morning shift for me so I’m going in for him. Really, I got the short end of the stick, because 10-12 anyway, there are people around, things going on, 2 AM the bars close, so there’s way more happening than 4-8. There are also those two extra hours to consider. But hey I was desperate.
The other sort of pressure is the new pressure I feel to perform on this site. I recently (as in, less than 20 minutes ago) discovered that the80srewind.net will now be found by all your major internet search engines. This means some bloke from wherever is into the 80’s, man, he can type “80’s Rewind” in there, and BOOM, they’re gonna hit me in the top 5 for sure. Why is this pressure, you ask? Well, damn, that means that people I don’t know, while not likely to visit the site, potentially could find it, and so I’d like for it to suck less. Pressure, man. And hey, to those of you who are also connected to the site, man, search engines hit yours, too. Doesn’t anyone else feel this pressure???
The site re-vamp timetable may be movin on up.
10/9
Show and Tell
Holy jeez while I was reviewing this week’s video here
someone shot a gun outside my building.
That’s new. Unless you live in
South Central… and I don’t.
So today I cleaned up the room, watched Jedi, did some laundry (and this doin laundry once a week or more is the best… no more spending five-ten hours on it for me, no way) little reading, now I’ve just got this, more reading, and West Wing left to go for today.
Did I tell you about my BS Budget? I don’t remember and don’t really feel like scrolling. (Listen to me: “don’t really feel like scrolling,” yeah cuz slapping your lazy fat American hand on mouse and moving a finger 2 or 3 net inches is such a major pain in the ass. Kinda like this time Matt Reigle and I were having a conversation at Applebee’s about how hard it can be getting used to your new cell phone ring. Oh lord, the trials are just too many! But I digress.)
Yeah, so my “BS Budget” is what I’ve put myself on to conserve the leftover cash from my student loan this semester, which I am entirely depending on for living until next January. I decided that I would allow myself 60 dollars a week for misc crap that you just don’t really think about, but you’re going to have to/want to spend money on (things like beer, pizza, gas, air freshener, tacos, DVD’s, burritos, film, pocket watches, soda, enchiladas, Simple Green, popcorn, cheese, chimichangas, stuff like that). I started the budget right away about 3 weeks ago when I got my check. I went over by 9 dollars the first week, and then rolled that 9 into week two, where I did a lot better, cuz I only spent 54, then this week I’ve got 20 left, but a bunch of crap I wanna get. It’s frustrating, but I’ve never really… done anything along these lines before, so it’s probably good for me. I mean, how am I gonna fly to LA for spring break if I don’t save some cash?? And related to that, I just decided in this moment that THAT is what I’ll direct my paltry desk clerk earnings toward.
Yeah, so then I got my new hard drive (remember when I was talking about that?) from the UPS dude and everything, so that’s cool, but there’s this one little problem: I think I need a new power supply, cuz if I have the second drive plugged in and drawing power, the machine will just randomly turn off, sometimes without even enough time to start Windows. So there’s another new thing I have to get. Yes, probably fire-related.
Last things last: if you want the 3rd video, I hope you downloaded it by now, because I took it off, strictly due to the overuse of space. You should be able to see all the others, though.
10/8
Fully Interactive
So I was thinking today as I was doing other things (and for the record this Tuesday was a lot better than last, although I’m pretty sure the struggle with “why I’m here” will be a continuing thing), I was thinking that I should try to find a way to make this site more interactive, for you, the curious observer. Do you have any news you wish to share with Jason’s Fledgling Online Community? Do you have any comments/questions you’d like to make about the site in a public forum? If so, just drop me a line, and let me know. I think it would be neat.
I discovered today that I need more air freshener, as I came back to my room after lunch finding it smelling like armpits and farts. And dirty socks. You get the idea.
Congrats to the Packers on being in the driver’s seat in the NFC’s weakest division.
More to come later; now I must to class…
10/7
Two to Go
Well, watchin the PACK right now, and so far, I’m satisfied with the progress, GB up 21-7, Brett looking unstoppable. I tried calling Schneidie to ask him if he thought Favre would get 400 TD passes for his career before halftime or after (he came in needing five, after the three he’s thrown so far, two to go). Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), he was at school.
10/7
Back in the Absaroka Air
Well, this here update certainly is from the Twin Cities, but contrary to what I thought it would be originally, I’m now on my way back to Boze-town. (My ba-tree ran out on the flight from there the first day.)
It was a really nice weekend. I had a great time at Sarah & Dan’s wedding, it was terrific to be home to see everyone, and I wish I could’ve had more time… Thanks to Mom and Dad for picking me up, Auntie Chris for arranging my travels, Grandma for letting me sleep at her house, Sarah & Dan for asking me to be in their wedding, and Uncle Bob, for buying it. I’ll see everyone sooner than it seems at Christmas.
So today on my departure from Milwaukee, our flight was delayed about 45 minutes on the ground because Minne had a traffic control issue w/ too many planes arriving around that time. It didn’t affect me too much, though, as I had originally been scheduled to have about 90 minutes between flights, and as it turned out, I had about 65. Unlike on Friday, when I had to hike just about allllllll the way across this airport, my MKE flight got off just 4 gates down the hall from the Bozeman one. So I had time to pee, stop at some bar for a Guiness (lovely day for it), and still do this update before starting boarding.
However, it is just about 20 minutes now before we’re supposed to leave, so that will be all for this trip. See you back @ good ol’ MSU.
10/4
Homeward Bound
Well this is interesting: this update is coming from the plane at about 9:30 AM MDT. (Although the time on the site won’t reflect as much, cuz they won’t let me connect to the Internet from the plane. Fascists.)
It’s a nice aircraft, I’ve got an aisle seat and there’s a woman in this row here with me on the window. I kinda wish I had the window. Sorta. I dunno, well, maybe I just wish I had the window on takeoff and landing. Cuz that’s when it’s neat to look out the window.
I had a cup of coffee here a minute ago, and combined with the donut I had at breakfast, I hope my colon holds up til I get to Minne.
There’s a small amount of turbulence, and the last time I flew (which was the first time) we didn’t have any of that, but I know that some people really get freaked out when the plane starts shaking. Knowing this, I was afraid I might be one of those people. Turns out I’m not.
The seat is kinda cramped with the computer on my lap, though.
There’s a girl in the row immediately behind me and to my right who hasn’t been home since April. She was out in Bozeman working on a ranch. Y’know, with horses and stuff? Last time her folks were here (Boze-town) was August. Nice to go home.
It was kinda cloudy and crappy when we took off, but now we’re above all the clouds, so the sun’s shining. I always thought that was weird/neat about flying.
Couple observations I made about myself yesterday which I wanted to mention to everybody:
- I’ve noticed that I’ve taken recently to brushing my teeth a minimum of three times and occasionally as many as five on a daily basis. I wonder if you can brush your teeth too often. Why am I always brushing my teeth, other than having the time and the toothpaste nearby? I think it’s because I talk so seldom these days, y’know how your mouth gets that sort of pasty, yucky, stomach/mouth-juicy film basically just from… I dunno, being alive, I guess? Yeah, I think when you’re talking, you open your mouth and air comes in and out a lot, and it kinda dries out that pastiness to a certain extent. But if you’re just reading and/or being by yourself a lot, well, you’re not gonna say much unless you’re some sorta frickin loon. So I get that “paste” action all the time, and I want to clear it out, so I brush my teeth whenever the mood strikes me, like I was sayin, probably 3-5 times a day. And coffee too. I mean, after I drink a pot of coffee I feel like I oughta brush and y’know, brush and paste are right there. Oh: and that doesn’t count the morning and night times that everyone should brush their teeth.
- This is not so much an observation about my behavior as it is a useful discovery that I made: an empty plastic 35mm film canister thinger is GREAT to keep a travel (or class)-pack of Tums in. You can actually fit more in there than you get when you buy em by the roll or whatever, and hey, you don’t have to buy a roll. Oh, and I thought of something that relates this to my first item: if I have 3 or 4 Tums, that’s another one of those times I feel like brushing my teeth, cuz they’re kind of chalky.
I read the Bozeman Daily Chronicle today cover to cover, seeing as I was just sittin on a plane with nothing much else to do. Can you tell I’m bored now? What with the rambling? Yeah.
More fun when I get to the Cities!
10/3
I’m not even s’posed to be here today
The video address for the week is a day late. Sue me.
Related to that, I sorta ran out of disk space on my site with all these videos up there, so I’ve taken off the first two for the time being, but hopefully they will make a triumphant return in the future. If they don’t, I’ve still got ‘em, so I’ll put em on CD eventually.
So yesterday I had some running around to do, went and got that new printer that was talking about on Tuesday (which sucked cuz I don’t exactly have the excess capital) and then I went to the bookstore for a tape dispenser, a binder for my reading pack for my Tuesday class, and I bought a t-shirt, too, since I decided the money I was spending wasn’t really mine anyway.
This is gonna be kinda short today, since I’m coming to Milwaukee tomorrow, and I have some homework to do yet today, but mainly what’s worrying me today is that I can’t find anyone to work for me on Monday morning at 4. I reeeeeeeally didn’t anticipate all these people being such assholes about it, but, well… I guess they are.
So I hope I still have a job when I get to WI tomorrow, but if not, ah well.
Just in case I don’t have time/inclination for an update tonight or tomorrow morning, let me say now that the Packers will be defeating the Bears on Monday night. The score will not, however, be as lopsided as my Bloomington-bound-Bears-boy colleague Josh thinks it will. PACK – 23 BEARS – 18
Ps – looks like I will still have a job when I get to MKE; one of the kids I called yesterday about working/switching with me just rang my phone and said he would. Phew…
10/1
Suff’rin’ Suckitude
So I need a new printer. I went to print out my paper for class today, and it spit a blank page out at me. In the past, I thought this problem was related to under-use; the ink cartridge, I theorized, would “dry out” if not exercised regularly by spreading ink across a page. Well, these days, that mother is getting plenty of exercise, so it’s become clear to me now that the problem lies with the printer: it’s a piece of crap. I s’pose you get what you pay for, and I paid less than 50 dollars at Sam’s Club. I wish I could afford a laser printer. Anybody got a hot lead on a corporate surplus? Lemme know…
So outside of that, I had an otherwise pretty awful day. The writing I did for class had no focus, the discussions I was ready to have in class about our readings were the wrong ones (what I mean is I didn’t come prepared to talk about the things that everyone else came prepared to talk about), I felt like hell just sitting through class because I poured nothing into my gullet all day except two pots of coffee, and by the end of our discussion I was having another panic attack about how I’m going to survive graduate school. That being said, I’m going to bed because I have to get up at 3 for work. Good night then.
9/30
Anticipation
Remember a couple days ago when I talked about checkin the mail eagerly cuz I was waiting for a shipment from SarcasmWear? Yeah, finally got it today… Now, in all honesty, I was a little, eh, nervous about receiving this package in the mail, because the only other thing I ever got that Café Press printed was a mug from Wil Wheaton’s website. It had a crude remark about William Shatner printed on it, and you can barely read it. I didn’t want the same thing to happen w/ two shirts and another mug, and I’m happy to report it didn’t.
You can see I’m definitely pleased with the purchases I made. And I’m also very pleased with this X-Files marathon…it’s kept me from reading very much, though, so I’ll probably not have time for football later. But, that’s not a big deal, seeing as how the Baltimore Ravens are a bunch of stinking, pathetic, wannabe, wish-we-never-woulda-dumped-Dilfer LOSERS.
So, I guess that’s all I’ve got for today; I’m gonna wear my new 80’s Rewind t-shirt tomorrow. Maybe I’ll get a photo.
Oh, and check this out: I got started this morning while I
was at work on a new short story I’ve wanted to write this fall… it’s all about
budgeting (time), people.
9/30
End of an Era
Hey today there’s a 10-hour X-Files marathon on FX… after this it’s movin to TNT, which you know (if you’ve ever watched TNT) typically plays 1-hour television shows in 95 minute timeslots so as to accommodate the maximum amount of commercials. So watch “X” RIGHT NOW if you wanna see it on TV while a normal amount of commercial fun. Currently we’re almost done with the episode “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” which is one of Lorchie’s favorites. It was written by Darin Morgan, who also wrote “Humbug,” “War of the Coprophages,” “Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’,” and he acted in “The Host,” and “Small Potatoes.” All quality episodes. I just hope they don’t play anything from the last two years. They sucked ass.
Well anyway, you better hurry up; that one just ended. Be back for football.
9/28
Tragedy & Celebrity
“Where the hell has Jason been?” has no doubt been the prevailing question for all who visit here. That’s to be expected, it’s been FIVE DAYS. In the golden days of my Milwaukee residence, a gap like that would not even warrant passing consideration of an update. Ah, how times have changed.
Today I introduce “headlines” if you will, a sort of topical 1-4 word summary in bold of the contents of the update. You like that? You want me to get to those things, eh? Ok.
I bought a second hard drive for my computer when I was in MKE, boy, had to have been May or June at the latest… Schrubbe, do you remember when that was? Damned if I can… Anyway, I needed another one cuz my 20-gig drive was too small for all the multimedia crap I wanted to get done. So I get this sweet 60-gig drive for like, less than a hundred bucks. When I had the Mobo Meltdown, I wound up using that drive to hold my operating system (Windows) and some other key program files, etc. Well, maybe I shouldn’t have done that in retrospect, cuz it turns out there’s some irreparable errors on that disk, and, well, it’s a piece of trash. It quit on me on Wednesday, and I spend a large part of Thursday and Friday getting back to where I am now. (Windows installed, operating normally, all other key software re-installed, important data that I was able to save backed up.)
Now, unlike previous OS reinstalls I’ve had to do, I was not able to save everything. One reeeeeally important item that I lost was my e-mail address book. Jen and Petters have already sent me theirs, helping me to reconstruct part of it, and there are some addresses that are just really easy or I remember them or whatever, but I still need a hand on this if you can offer one. Go ahead and e-mail me with your address book, if you please, or, if we don’t have a lot of mutual contacts, just the people that you and I both know, and before you know it, I’ll have all that info back. Thanks a ton.
So that’s what’s held me up as far as updating since Thursday. “Yeah, well, where were you with the video on Wednesday? Huh??” That’s another fine question. I was sitting here doing homework Wednesday daytime thinking, “I’ll wait until the evening on this one, cuz I haven’t done a video at night yet,” and instead of getting that done, Ewan & Meredith drove me to our local BIG K so I could pick up this lovely television which you will see in the video that you are just dyin to download right here right now (just like Van Halen.) After that, we came back here and watched the 2-hour season premiere of West Wing on NBC. I’d never watched it before, but I guess they’re fans, and since they don’t get NBC over at their house, I said, “Sure, we can watch it here,” and it was pretty good. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret watching the last season of Voyager on UPN in that timeslot instead two years ago when West Wing started, but still.
Oh yeah, celebrity. So I took a walk downtown in Bozeman today, and I saw Steven Spielberg on the street. Swear to God, I’m…. nearly certain it was him. Then, I needed to get razor blades at Target, and just as I’m leaving, BOOM, in walks Kurt Warner. Couldn’t believe it. They’re all over the place in this peaceful little mountain town.
Oh speaking of that: there is not one iota of peace to be had on the streets of Bozeman between the hours of 3 and 6 PM weekdays. The traffic is UNCANNY. When I needed to go out for shoelaces yesterday, a trip that would take me 20 minutes at 10 AM took me a FULL HOUR at 3:15. Kind of a bummer.
Checked the mail today right after I got home from running errands (among them picking up a used copy of Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down for a paltry 12 dollars) cuz I’m anxious to get my shipment from Café Press dot com that I ordered from SarcasmWear. Did you know that they’re the only place in the world you can get an OFFICIAL The 80’s Rewind t-shirt? No jokin.
Ok, well, I’m kinda hungry and the cafeteria’s only open another hour, so, that’s all for now. Prediction for tomorrow? PACK – 30 PANTHERS – 23. And I’ll take a page out of Schneidie’s playbook and predict the BEARS as well: CHICAGO – 22 BUFFALO – 24. My fantasy QB (Drew Bledsoe) continues his reign of terror…
Oh ps – look at this.
9/23
I switched browsers again today. I’m on Opera 6.05 now. I used to see ads for it all the time in Eudora (back when I ran the ad-supported version) and, eh, never really gave it much thought. But then I was telling Petters about how I switched to Mozilla, and he’s all, “give this a try.” So I did and he was right: it is fast. I never noticed a real different in “browser speed” before, but this one starts fast, loads pages fast, closes fast, it’s sweet. Y’know what else is sweet? Tampa’s ahead of St. Louis on Monday Night Football. I like to see the big teams get knocked down. Those and the Vikings. Good gracious, I loathe the Vikings…
this is one of the biggest reasons I enjoy Monday Night Football on ABC.
We had our first fire drill this evening. I was trying to read. Having been forced to leave the building, I
took the opportunity to go across the street to
Well, back to work I must go… have a pleasant evening.
9/23
LAX. That’s what I’ve been the last few days on the updates here… Sorry to say I’ve simply been busy/distracted. But, with the coming of a new week, time for a re-commitment. And so here it is. Last Thursday came and went with nothing much to note at all; just class as usual, and then after some messing about the Web, off to bed.
Friday, on the other hand, I got up fairly early and took
Neighbor Matt with me on a short drive around the town, and down the road to
the South that leads to
that’s the new Barnes & Noble they’re putting in at the Gallatin Valley Mall.
that’s Matt in the parking lot of said mall.
this here peak is a little southwest of
I just realized that I went on that drive Thursday morning, not Friday.
On Friday then, that’s right, that was the day that I was running errands all over campus and whatnot, buying a couple more books I needed, talking to English colleagues, etc. Friday night, I went out for drinks at the Eagle’s Club and the American Legion with some people I’ve gotten to know in my classes:
- Mike, who studied film at USC
- Ben, who studied English… somewhere
- Rodney, who spent a little while as a ski bum
- Natalie,
who hails originally from
We had a good time, and after we’d had some beers, went for
a meal at the 4B’s Restaurant on
I squandered Saturday by sleeping in too late and then reading the newspaper too long. Afterwards I did five hours of laundry, but it was nice to have clean sheets. I also watched Evolution on HBO, starring David Duchovny, Orlando Jones and Julianne Moore. It was really, really average. At best.
Yesterday (Sunday) I went to church at 9, but decided I would try out another Catholic parish in the area as well, just to see if I like one better than the other. When I got home, I started to watch a little of the Saints-Bears game, which I was surprised to see the Saints win, seeing as how they were very quickly down 17-0 in the first half. I called Ewan & Meredith to see if they would help me pick up a TV at Wal-Mart, since my car’s not big enough. We got there and I was bummed to learn that Wally World no longer carried the set I wanted. Undaunted, we headed to Target, only to find out they were sold out of the same one. Anyway, now I have to call back on Wednesday or so to see if they get any in.
I got home from that trip yesterday right around
I went to bed early last night, cuz I had to get up at
that’s the lobby of the Johnstone Hall here. Part of it, anyway. The “desk” is out of frame to the right.
I guess that puts us on the up-and-up, so I’ll take me leave
until later, at which time there will most likely be some photos from
9/18
Well, I put up a second video address today. There’s a tour of the room where I live. That’s pretty much it. More exciting stuff to follow… now that I have a tape (two, actually) I can go out and aboot for external footage. One thing to keep in mind: disk space is limited!! So it’s best to get in those video viewings early, as there will not be room for them on the site at some point… I figure I can do two or three more before I have to start wiping em out.
What else, what else?
Watched Dead Poets Society last night.
Figured I’d fall asleep right away, since I started at
Oh ps – sorry the “poll” from the other day doesn’t really work. Don’t know why that is. It should. I’ll try another one soon.
9/16
Sorry there was no update for the weekend; I worked all day
both days at the home of one Greg Morgan, a semi-retired man of 62, who lives
at
Today I had the desk worker training session (although there is a more detailed, hands-on session for “new” people like me) at 5 PM and it was just fine. There is a very cute girl I saw there that also works at the desk. Somehow, I will have to try to get up the intestinal fortitude to speak to her in coherent sentences. (I’ve also been reading another one of my hoity-toity lit textbooks today, in case you didn’t notice.)
I wasn’t going to update today, either, as I found myself at this late hour in the throes of academic ecstasy, but I was distracted with another pressing task in my room and became frustrated, which led me to want to rant. This thing that frustrated me is one of the greatest reasons I find myself missing living with Kyle: I cannot put the goddamn sliding closet doors back on the track once they fall off. Laugh if you will, as I expect this is a relatively simple ordeal for most socially functional Americans. But for me, it is a task I can engage in for 10-40 minutes at a time, only to be beaten into sniveling, whimpering, defeated submission by an inanimate piece of plywood. One of my two doors has fallen off and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. Mark my words: if I ever purchase a home of my own, there will not be a single closet of this variety in it. All of them will have actual doors with actual knobs/handles that need to be turned/operated in order to be opened. This is my solemn oath. If I have one closet with the sliding track doors, I run the risk of someday being outwitted by my offspring, when my son or daughter, no more than 11 or 12 years old, will call me into their room and say, “Dad, how come you can’t do this? It’s easy.”
9/13 (ooooh! Friday the 13th! SPOOKY!)
But really not that frightening.
Yesterday was very… normal. I got up in the morning, did some reading, wrote a 2-pager for Thursday night’s class, went and bought a dictionary, I guess that was something. I decided I would feel more like a young English professional if I had an expensive Oxford dictionary in my bookcase, so I got one. This is kind of it, but mine was a little cheaper. I felt ok about buying it, cuz I took back one book that I’d spent 14 bucks on last week; got it at half.com for 4 bucks. I mean, you gotta be a wise shopper today, y’know what I mean?
In the mail yesterday I got the tapes for Dad’s video camera that Mom sent, along with some stuff for my student loans.
I had an interview for a desk clerk job here in my hall
yesterday at
Oh, then last night, I’m surfin channels and labeling them on the computer here, and channel 3 wasn’t on my list of channels on the cable that they gave me when I moved in here. So after a little investigation, I find out channel 3 is HBO. Which is kinda cool; there’s good stuff on HBO now and then. I tried watchin the Sopranos once though, and I didn’t really get into it. Maybe I should try again.
That reminded me to send an e-mail to Kevin. Good thing I remembered that.
Last thing I did last night was to clean up my sty of a room, and I rearranged my desk a little bit. There’s not a lot of room to do that, but I did. I put the printer on the stool, moved the mixing board to the upper-right corner, put the phone charger, CD player, and answering machine that used to be there on the bottom shelf where the printer was, and moved the phone from the window ledge to the lower-right corner of the desk. This must be hard for you to imagine having never seen the room.
I went “out” today, for a bit of shopping/car-bound exploration of the town here, and these are the stops I made:
- Target (finally took back the frame from earlier this week; kept slippin my mind)
- Gallatin
Valley Mall (near as I can tell, this place looks like Park Plaza Mall in
- Radio Shack (got a stereo quarter-inch coupler to free up the stereo mini splitter I needed in a different place, and needed another stereo RCA-mini adapter)
- Staples (needed some of those little page-markin flag thingers)
- Wal-Mart (realized I forgot to get deodorant at Target)
- K-Mart (realized I forgot to get soda, a phone cord, and air freshener at Wal-Mart)
- Campus Square Theater (wanted to see what was playing later)
When I got home, I checked the mail, and I had a bank statement in there, but I never really look at those, cuz I do all my banking on the internet. I came back up and filled out a schedule sorta thing so the people who run the desk would know which shifts I’d be interested in. I took it down for ‘em, and LuAnne who runs the desk said, “Hey you got the job.” I said, “Neat.” So there’s “training” for that on Monday.
That also means I will, for the time being, be cutting off my association with the temp agency, but I am working one more gig for them over the weekend: concrete. I’ve never done that before, but hey, if Mark Hollis can figure it out, I’m sure I can handle it.
I’m tired; are you tired?
|
Drowsiness |
||
|
Ok, well, that’s about it for today. Predictions for the weekend? Oh, ok.
I’ll tell you the same thing I told Josh earlier today:
9/11
(the day I added some pictures to this page)
So today’s kind of a memorial event sorta day, and let’s take a moment to think about that, ok? Thank you.
I was working late last night and then this morning on getting the TV card in my computer (which was a big problem before the meltdown) to work, and, like magic, new motherboard = working TV card. Whoo. So I watched some tube this morning, Peter Jennings was on ABC (and probably still is; I turned it off now) talking about 9/11 and whatnot. It’s definitely important stuff to listen to, think about, remember, etc.
This afternoon, I am planning a trip to Target to take back a frame and get some different flavored air freshener. After that it’s readinreadinreadin time!
Significant development today related to TV card repair: I
went ahead and hooked up Dad’s video camera to the computer, see how that would
work, and it worked just splendidly. I
recorded a video message which is now available for download
right here! It’s in Windows Media
format. *sighs* Yes, that’s what I
said. It was the smallest format (disk-wise)
that I could use. I recorded an MPEG
message, about 75 seconds long and it was 15 megs. This one clocks in at
Couple more details about this file: you (obviously) need Windows Media Player to view it, and if you have Windows, you have that, and since I don’t know any “Mac”-daddies, everyone shouldn’t have a problem. You’ll be able to either download it or open it in your browser, but either way, it’s gonna take just as long to download. If you do have any problems viewing it, I just got the latest version of Windows Media Player today and it works great there. I swear, this is the last time I will EVER advise anyone to download a Microsoft product.
So… that’s really all I have to say at this point. Hope you dig the video. Remember the awful things that happened a year ago and tell your whole family that you love them.
9/10
One more quick note for today: good news about the computer being back up is that the site is in for an overhaul once I teach myself Dreamweaver MX, so look forward to that…
9/10
Spoke with sis Jen on the phone this evening, and she said she showed the log here to Grandma & Grandpa Bock, who were at the Behling house for some wedding preparatory activities. Apparently it (the site) was good clean fun for all over there… glad you folks enjoyed the show… I’ll be here all week.
Why no update for Monday, 9/9, you ask? Marvey question. I got my new motherboard and fans and whatnot yesterday, so amid other things, I was working tirelessly with my buddies Dave Schrubbe & Nick Petters on installing that schtuff… and for those who don’t know or were concerned, nonono, I DID NOT meet computer geek friends here in MT, these are buds that joined me from WI in cyberspace and walked me through a painstaking installation process… but I think we had a nice time chatting, too.
If you wanna have a nice time listening to a CD like I’m doing right now, may I recommend the soundtrack from the motion picture About a Boy, entirely recorded by Badly Drawn Boy? Thanks, I will.
So, yes, yesterday: I ran some errands in the AM, among them dropping off a timecard at my temp agency, then I had to go to Target for a couple things… what were they? Yes, that’s right, I bought a frame for my college diploma; I decided I should be more proud of it, and I’m going to put it in a frame. I also need some more stuff to hang on my walls here, since I’ll probably be in this room for a while… but the one I got was too big, which is fine, cuz I saw one that was the right size for a lot less, so I’ll be exchanging. Lemme tell ya something else right here: if you’ve never returned/exchanged something at Target, you need to go and do that as soon as possible. Like, buy something you don’t even need, the next day take it back, receipt, no receipt, whatever. Cuz Target is about the best damn place to return merchandise EVER. That’s why I love it so much. That and Wal-Mart usually smells. Or there’s dirt on the floor, either way, no good. And too many screamin’ kids at Wally-Wal-Mart, too.
But I digress.
I also bought some air freshener at Target, cuz I decided my room stinks. Well, I got some stuff that sounded good… like, how could you go wrong with “Renuzit SUPER Odor Killer?” Well you can. My room smells like a freshly-changed trash can liner. Not the odor I was going for. And yesterday I made some popcorn in the afternoon? Worst marriage of smells you could imagine. I had to open the door and air the dump out, but I felt sorry for my fellow residents then… ah, well.
In the afternoon yesterday, I readreadreadreadread, then
there was a social gathering of new English grad students at the home of our
program coordinator, Linda Carel. It
was nice; I got to talk to some of the people I’ll be in class with on
non-class-type stuff, and that was good… I’m sure I’ll have a few friends in
there. This is just so different for
me, because I didn’t actually “hang out” with the people in the Comm dept in
About a Boy’s over, I’ve switched to U2’s The Unforgettable Fire now.
After I got home from the socializing yesterday it was all about the motherboard installation, which I’m glad to say went well, the men were a big help, and I did have to reinstall my OS, which I wasn’t thrilled with, cuz it also means reinstalling all my software, but it coulda been a TON worse; all my hardware is still just fine, so I didn’t lose any data or have to buy any equipment over again… and really, this is kind of a nice thing to do a fresh install of everything; there were certain programs, etc that I put in ass-backwards before, and now I’m following all the rules, so maybe overall system/software performance will be a little better… I’m telling myself that, ok? Let me have that.
Today was decidedly duller.
I got up at 7, went down for breakie, then came up to the room and
read/wrote a paper straight through til
This eve, I’m just working on getting the desktop system back up to peak performance… I’ll let ya know tomorrow if I got the TV card to work and maybe I’ll even get to see Dave (Letterman). But he’s on in only an hour-point-five, so I’m not holding my breathe.
9/8
Just got home from Spectator’s Sports Bar & Grill,
located just off
While we’re on the subject, though, I need to mention this: no matter where you go, Vikings fans are dicks. They are big, big, dicks. Now, I hate the Bears quite a bit as well, but their fans are more like bizarre-o Packer fans… they’re ok people, usually (although I saw some real dickhead Bears fans once at Lambeau as well) they’ve just been “led astray.” Vikings fans, on the other hand, are dicks any time, any place, no matter what. I sat next to this asshole at the bar who was barely even watching his loser Vikings tank a game they had in the bag all the way through, instead he was watching my game, for the sole reason to root against the Packers. I was glad to ultimately see his team lose and mine win. Dick.
So that’s been my Sunday so far, now I need to study, but I
can catch you up on the rest of my Friday night and Saturday as well: Friday
after I got done with the working, I did get together with Meredith & Ewan,
they bought me pizza (thanksabunch) then we watch most of Harry Potter
at their place (cuz, y’know, no TV yet) but I left by like 11 cuz I had to get
up and go back for more furniture movin on Saturday, which I did. Until
But, I really need to get to work now, got lots to do before my new computer parts should be here tomorrow.
9/6
I went to work today at Gallatin Valley
Furniture. This is a gig that the
temp agency set me up with, they’re located on
It was cool, though, y’know, move furniture, move furniture, move furniture, stand around, stand around, move furniture, break furniture, move furniture, sit around, stand around… you get the picture. These are the people I met there today:
- Robert, like the furniture-movin’ foreman I guess you could say
- Dave, the senior member of the furniture-movin’ staff
- George, the junior member
- Michael, the big boss dude
- Diane, she must be like the place’s interior decorator or something
- Bart,
the other guy from Express Personnel who was there to help. He’s from
Yep, and they asked me to come in tomorrow, too, cuz Diane I guess needs help putting these “accessories” or whatever in the house. Sounds like tomorrow will be a light lifting day. I also hope it only like half a day, because I have an ass-ton of reading to do that’s not getting done while I’m lugging furniture.
On a related topic, I got my bill today from the University for $5,922.20. They want this money on Monday. Today is Friday. I thought they might give a little more warning than that. I’m getting financial aid that should cover it, but still; I kinda need that aid, otherwise they’re gonna be sticking me with late fees. Would’ve called over there right away today, had I been home. I should’ve come in at lunch…
So I’m s’posed to call Meredith and Ewan tonight, get together for something fun. For those that are unaware, Meredith is Robin’s sister and Ewan is Meredith’s relatively new husband (like last month, or wait; I think it was late July they got hitched). If you don’t know who Robin is, please see this page.
Oh yeah, and if I don’t have time to add anything over the weekend, go, Pack, go… My prediction for Sunday’s game: GB: 27, ATL: 10.
9/5
Ok, one last thing I’ve got to mention regarding today: this evening’s class afforded me the unique and rare opportunity to uncover the solution to one of the great Mysteries of graduate-level study at a university. The question is, “What does a graduate student do for fun?” The answer: he or she studies. More. A related question: “How does a graduate student take a study break?” The answer: he or she studies something else for a while. After completing my first week of class, I don’t see how it could be possible to maintain the highest level of academic performance without filling every spare moment with study. I would go into this further, but I’ve got LOTS of reading to do…
9/5
Actually got up at a decent hour today, was in the shower
by…
Talked to Nick Petters on AOL for a spell. He suddenly logged off, and I thought he was
done with his class (yes, he was IM-ing from class) cuz when I checked the time
it was
For breakfast I had two bowls of cereal and a plain
donut. Mmmmm… dooo-nuuuutt…. Nice thing about going down for a meal early
in the day? My complimentary copy of
the Bozeman Daily Chronicle is there waiting for me. Today’s front page headline?
“Hiker Mauled by grizzly in
Uh, yeah, called a guy about a courier/armed guard job,
(hopin’ the being armed part doesn’t necessarily have to be me) but he wasn’t
there, so I guess I hope to hear back.
Also called this dude named Dustin at “Express Personnel,” one of those
temp joints. So I went in there, spent
about an hour, hour-and-a-half filling out an application, skills survey,
whatnot, and the good news is he hooked me up with a job already for
tomorrow. I’m going to be delivering
furniture starting at
9/4
Ok, so today I was planning on getting up bright and early
so I could go find a job, but last night I went out for some beer with some of
the people who live in my hall here. It
was a hall-sponsored event I guess you could say, and I met a few people I
probably wouldn’t have met (as fast anyway).
What does that have to do with getting up early? Well, if you’ve ever gone out for beer and
stayed close to when the bar was gonna close, you don’t need to ask that
question. So I was a little hung over,
and I would up in bed til about
After I got up, I sat in front of the computer and read the
paper til about
I took a shower after that, then I sat down at the computer again and decided I would play a quick game of Tetris. At 12:20 when I finished, I thought maybe I should go down to the dining hall and get some “breakfast,” but then I was thinking about how much physical activity I’ve been doing since I’ve been here, and decided it would be best if I limited my caloric intake during this period of lower-than-usual activity. I had a handful of pretzels instead.
Since I wasn’t gonna have to go downstairs to eat, and since I was in my room, I thought I should pick up the stuff on the floor so it doesn’t get to accumulating too much. The rest of the afternoon was really… not that eventful, as I started reading this book that I have to read and then write a five-page essay on by next Tuesday. It’s pretty boring as books go. This British bloke wrote it, and it’s very, very dry, so I wound up falling asleep a few times, and I read the book for about two hours, and I probably slept for about… one-and-a-half of those.
After studying so hard, I decided I could probably use a quick
Tetris break, so I took one, then I at about quarter-to-six, I went downstairs
and ate dinner. I don’t recommend the
“texas toast.” Tasted like they shipped
it from
I got upstairs from dining, and realized I hadn’t actually left the building yet today, so I grabbed the 20 I needed to deposit in order to cover the check I wrote for my grad housing application, my list of stuff that I needed at Target
- Something to stick my dry erase board
to the wall
- Printer paper
… and I got in the
car and went.
Once I arrived at
Target, I realized that part of the problem with shopping is that I don’t
actually have any money right now. So,
I milled around the store a little, made a list of things I would buy if I had
a job
- Something to stick my dry erase board
to the wall
- Printer paper
- Full Metal Jacket
- Milk
- Cookies
- Mace Windu angry action figure
- Laundry detergent
- Dryer sheets
- Ironing board (small one)
- Pen refills
… and I did browse
at the TV’s, since Mom and Dad told me they would buy mine from me and send
cash. Well, a check. They wouldn’t put cash in the mail. That’s silly. The
one that I was thinking I’d get is on sale right now for 279.99. And here in
After Target, I
went down the street to the grocery store, Smith’s, ‘cause there’s a Wells
Fargo branch there and I made an ATM deposit.
Once I got home, I
pretty much just started doing this… been chattin a little with Jim Droste and
Dave Schrubbe (on Yahoo! and AO-Hell, respectively) and I did make one phone
call to Mom and Dad, fielded another from Grandma Markowski.
Jim sent me this
link and I laughed my ass off: http://www.threebrain.com/weeeeee.shtml
8/30 – 9/3
I was gonna try to give
you all a day-by-day account, and now that I’ve started this page, I probably
will after this, at least til my other machine gets fixed, but here are the
high-points, in order from the 30th:
Took Dad to the
airport Friday morning, stayed parked there long enough to watch to the plane
take off, spent most of the day pretty bummed, realizing I was all alone
here. Fell asleep listening to shitty
web-feed of Packers game Friday night.
Oh, this was also the day that there was a fire/meltdown, whatever you
wanna call it, INSIDE my computer.
Fried motherboard, nothing works anymore.
Saturday. Don’t really remember. Probably just bitched to Joe and Dave about
my computer and sat around being pissed off about that.
Sunday. Went to church like the phone book said for
mass at 10 AM (through Labor Day, the book said) but they had already switched
to their winter schedule, so I went to Target and Wal-Mart first, then went
back for mass at 11. Realized during
the day Sunday I should stop thinking about what time it is in
Monday. Bought a couple more books for my Thursday
class with some money I don’t have, put in order for new motherboard and other
needed equipment for computer repair, talked to some people on the phone
(really all weekend talked to some people on the phone, some I called, some
called me) and they were, in no special order:
- Mom and Dad
- Grandma M
- Jen
- Joe
- Wordy
- K-Man
- Lorch
- Christy
- Amanda
- Ewan and Meredith’s machine, I think
Tuesday. I got up bright and early to look for a job,
and I was really disappointed in the offerings at the “careers” office or
whatever they call it in terms of campus employment. I dropped off a bad check at the Grad Housing office so I could
get on a waiting list I probably won’t see the top of until like March. Called the ResNet office to find out why I
can’t SMTP or FTP, they helped with both, that was nice. Drank some coffee and perspired profusely,
chatted online, went to class @
- Kate
- Steph
- Mary
- Rob
- Larry
- Devin
- Chris
- Sally (my RA, who, in my
semi-drunkenness, I called “Sara”)
- James
- Matt
- Tim
That’s about all
I’ve got right now… I will be updating the site for real and for normal as soon
as my other computer is back up and running; for now, here’s a link to the rest of
it. Just bear in mind, if you click
a link in there going to “Jason’s Main Page,” it’s gonna bring you here, and
then you’ll have to click this one again.