Ever since Christmas, I've been riding a manic wave.  There've been several nights I couldn't sleep until five.  Today, I kinda crashed while I was volunteering at Amy's work.  I took a nap for a few hours on a couch there. 

Our New Years is going to be pretty lame, but that's fine with me.  I'm still crashing.  Beyond that, we don't know anyone up here.  I've got a six pack, and we're cooking a frozen pizza.  Dick Clark will be on later.  Woot.

I don't write much when I'm manic, so... I'll make this quick.

Tonight's Game:
Denver over SAN DIEGO.  This game's in the fourth quarter right now, and Denver's up a lot.

NY Giants over OAKLAND. 

Sunday's Games:
INDIANAPOLIS over Arizona 
CLEVELAND over Baltimore
Buffalo over NY JETS
ATLANTA over Carolina
KANSAS CITY over Cincinnati
PITTSBURGH over Detroit
Miami over NEW ENGLAND
TAMPA BAY over New Orleans
Seattle over GREEN BAY
SAN FRANCISCO over Houston
Tennessee over JACKSONVILLE
CHICAGO over Minnesota
Washington over PHILADELPHIA
DALLAS over St. Louis

High Confidence: Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Miami
Low Confidence: Everything else.

Last Week: 8-8. (OUCH)
Overall: 172-68.

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 07:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chances are, by this point if you're one of the two people I sent Christmas cards, you've already gotten this letter. If not, then this is the highly impersonal letter I stuffed in the Christmas cards of two people and about 30 more that Amy sent.

Happy Holidays from the Rubber Capital of the World!

 

To say that our situation at the beginning of 2005 would be akin to labeling the Grand Canyon as a pothole… though Muncie residents would obviously disagree with this analogy. Back then, Andy was starting his last full semester of classes at Ball State, just wrapping up his masters in geography. While working at Uncle Monte’s Restaurant in Muncie, Amy was quickly mastering the art of cooking soul food. We lived in a modest two-bedroom apartment, handily located just 50 feet from the busiest railroad tracks in town. Even though Andy was about finished with his degree, we had no definite plans beyond graduation.

 

Apparently hoping to be a student for life, Andy applied for some opportunities to work toward a PhD in geography after graduating from Ball State. We made some trips early in the year to follow up on the applications, taking us to the distant lands of Kentucky, Ohio and Kansas. During one of these trips we managed to meet Sancha, a black headed caique parrot who has adopted Andy as her permanent person.

 

In March, we joined Andy’s parents for a Caribbean cruise that sailed from Galveston, Texas. Though the cruise was relaxing and enjoyable, we learned to never underestimate the power to annoy that’s held by drunken Texans in large groups. We were lucky enough to visit Merida, Cozumel and Belize City on the cruise.

 

In April, Andy traveled to a national geography convention in Denver, Colorado. While he was there, he presented his thesis research that examined tornadoes and mobile homes in the southeastern United States. His presentation received a very favorable response from a packed room. Of course, beyond meeting a number of professionals in his field and making a number of contacts for the future, he also managed to sneak away from the conference long enough to see a Colorado Rockies baseball game at Coors Field.

 

The month of May brought a change of the winds. Fed up with deep-frying, Amy moved to a job at a dog daycare in Muncie called Happy Clean and Smart, a job that she loved. However, this job would prove temporary, as we then finally received word from each of Andy’s school applications. He decided to enter the PhD program in geography at Kent State University in Ohio, which would start in August. This gave us less than three months to find a place near Kent, arrange the move and for Andy to finish his thesis and graduate. In June, we traveled to the Akron-Kent area with all four of our parents to find a suitable place to live. The last place, the one we called just before declaring the entire weekend a wash, somehow turned out to be a beautiful pet-friendly two-bedroom house with an office, garage, yard and basement located in a good Akron neighborhood. After about 30 seconds of consideration, we signed the lease.

 

In July, we began preparing to move to Akron. We wildly celebrated our first wedding anniversary on July 9 by renting videos and eating a pizza. Andy finished up his thesis and graduated with a Masters of Science in Geography on July 23. Despite this good news, we knew Andy’s old Oldsmobile simply would not make the trip to Akron. The Olds also had a bit of a smoking habit, which we were sure would not pass the Ohio environmental checks. We began to casually look for a replacement and came across a little old green Volkswagen Beetle. After some begging, pleading and offering of various limbs and organs as collateral, the bank ignored their better sense and reluctantly spotted us the cash to adopt this new family member, now named Pedro. Of course, Pedro wouldn’t come quietly. To protest his adoption, he ruined his clutch, which meant a couple of long hot days in the garage with Andy and Uncle Joe. To protest his registration, he ruined his alternator, which meant more days in the garage. He certainly hasn’t shied from displaying his temper. Right now, he’s sentenced to the garage again for his latest fit, which (we think) has something to do with the distributor. Santa may be bringing Pedro a few parts for Christmas. If he doesn’t like them or change his attitude soon, Santa will probably bring Pedro a new home (on top of his guaranteed lump of coal) by next Christmas.

 

We finally moved to Akron at the end of July. While that last sentence sounded simple enough, it consisted of moving a gargantuan Penske truck filled to the brim with our stuff, as well as a caravan of five other cars full of various family members and friends. The trip, normally one of about 4 ½ hours, took us about eight hours to travel with our caravan. After those few hectic days of moving and then saying goodbye to everyone that helped, we were on our own in a strange city three hours from the closest familiar person. It was certainly an adventure for the ages, as we found countless new ways to get utterly lost. Getting stranded by Pedro’s fits was even more fun in Akron, because not only did we have no idea where we were, but we didn’t know where to tell the tow truck driver we lived! The good news was the ease with which we settled into our little house, which has proved to be nothing but a joy through the months we’ve lived there. We quickly found our way around, discovering a number of area gems. Other pieces of good news were found in many area restaurants, each of which seem to have excellent hamburgers.

 

Amy was lucky enough (we thought so at the time) to find a job quickly, settling into a position at Avenue, a women’s retail store. Andy also settled in quickly to the new situation at Kent State, taking three courses and teaching one. It took Andy a while to get used to the reading assignments, usually about 400 pages per week, but he adapted well to the new workload. Soon, Amy found a far better job at Pet Guards, a local non-profit private animal shelter. She started as a part-time employee in October, and has been given more responsibility each week. She’s now the main animal care provider. She is responsible for the care of all of the animals at the shelter which consists of cats and dogs (about 50-70 animals each day). This is a job she really loves, and she’s working overtime most weeks. Amy also found a nice church in Akron to which she has become a member.

 

Andy has been very busy with his classes and teaching, but he still manages to make time for Amy as often as he can. He’s really enjoying the new challenges that this coursework is presenting, and he’s making good grades. Through this semester, he’s managed to put together a couple of papers that he’s planning to publish in the spring. One paper he wrote is based on his thesis research examining tornadoes and mobile homes. The other paper develops a new way to teach students, using NASCAR to help students better understand the global economy.

 

Andy is now finished for the semester and will start back on the 17^th of January. Unfortunately, Amy will not be getting any time off during the holidays, so we will be spending Christmas and New Year’s at our new home in Akron. Luckily, chances are very likely that we’ll have a white Christmas. Akron gets an average of 62 inches a year, nearly three times what Muncie or Westfield typically does! We hope to travel back to Indiana during the first week of January to visit family and other such questionable characters.

 

We hope that this letter finds everyone doing well and happy. If you’re somehow bored enough, we’d love to hear from you. Our new address is:

 

Andrew and Amy Shears

(duh, think I'm going to publish an unlisted address?)

Akron, OH 44310

 

Have a happy and restful holiday season!

Andy and Amy Shears

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 01:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've tried to post this one three times before.  I have a feeling this one's going to be brief compared to the last three times.

Christmas is over, by the way.  According to the radio, it's been over since 11:00 am on Christmas day.  The stores and the mall all took on the opinion that Christmas never happened starting on the day after.  Our tree is still up, but Christmas ended for me when Amy went back to work yesterday.

We spent the holiday in the Cleveland-Akron metroplex.  This was my first Christmas away from my family.  It wasn't as depressing as I expected it to be, though I did end up taking Amy's advice and I tried to embrace it for what it was.  While it certainly felt shallow at first, it helped me get through the holiday with a pretty good outlook.

Of course, she works at Pet Guards, a humane no-kill shelter up in Cuyahoga Falls.  As part of her job (or mostly her moral responsibility, I think) she occasionally brings home dogs to foster.  She brought home Taffy, a wonderful three-legged german shepherd mix to spend the holidays with us.  I think Taffy really enjoyed our home, and she is a sweet dog.  She kind of acts like Rikki's retarded cousin.  She's back at the shelter now, and I miss her.  It rips my heart out that we can't give her the home she deserves, but we really can't save everything.  I hate it.

I got myself into the 'mood' on Christmas Eve while Amy was at work, downloading a veritable greatest hits list of Christmas songs, creating two full mix CDs.  I certainly couldn't do it from the weather, as rain all day on Christmas and Christmas Eve made all the snow melt.

I also planned out our day for when she came home.  I moved the futon mattress from the bird room into the living room, creating a nest of pillows and blankets and the like next to the tree so we could watch some important traditional television programs.  I also planned out dinner, which included my killer bacon cheddar cheeseburgers and deep-fried french fries.  When Amy came home about 3:00, we cuddled up and watched White Christmas with Bing Crosby and then cooked dinner together.  Of course, we required a grocery run, which we just managed to complete before the store closed at 6:00.  Then, we made dinner and watched It's a Wonderful Life.  I know, it's cheesy, but when you're alone on Christmas, you have to do things like that or it doesn't feel like Christmas.

I thought about going to church for one of my old traditions, which was attending a 10:00pm candlelight service.  I thought of this in spite of my general boycott of organized religion.  Remember, I am a Christian, but I have lots of problems with the ideas of church bodies, at least the ones to which I've been exposed.  Call it the subliminal Quaker roots that my mom instilled into me.  I decided against going to a service for two reasons.  For one, the idea of a religious Christmas is meaningless to Amy because she believes that since it wasn't mentioned in the bible, it's not valid.  I see her point, but to me if Christmas is not religious, there's really no point to have it besides the enhancement of capitalism.  (I was down enough on Christmas for a while between this disagreement and the fact that we weren't going home that I nearly took down the tree and started a Festivus tradition).  Secondly, I decided I'd rather spend Christmas Eve night with Amy at home than in the company of a couple hundred strangers.  I haven't been to a church, save one unsuccessful visit to Amy's early on (I freaked out from the number of people and nearly hyperventilated) over here at all, and Christmas Eve was no time to start.

We watched the movies together, and then went for a drive to allay our restlessness.  It's interesting to drive around on the night of Christmas Eve and see EVERYTHING closed.  And Akron takes it seriously... there was only one gas station, after driving all this large city, that we found open.  That's a far cry from Muncie, when at least Walgreen's and all of the VPs are open.  We hoped that Steak and Shake would be open, but were disappointed in that regard.

Amy woke me up nice and early on Christmas morning to open presents.  That's probably the one day a year that she wakes up willingly before I do.  In all fairness to her, she woke me up because she wanted me to open my presents.  She was excited to know if I liked them.

Being that the budget this year was pretty tight during the holidays, our presents were interesting.  Between the two of us, we spent about 30 bucks.  And honestly, I loved it.  I got Amy six CDs, all of them downloaded (one was actually legally downloaded).  She'd been asking for Nickel Creek CDs for weeks, and she finally got the whole catalog.  I also got her Painting Signs by Eric Bibb and The Dust of Retreat by Margot & the Nuclear So & So's.  She had never heard of Eric Bibb, and I thought she would like him.  As for Margot, she had been quite impressed with Tyler's "Open Door" track, and requested that I keep my ears open for anything he was involved in.  I downloaded that one legally.

For me, she got me a few really cool things.  Somehow, the Big and Tall has a 4XL AC-DC shirt, and a couple weeks ago we had gotten a gift check in the mail from them.  She put two and two together and got me an awesome shirt.  She also got me some of those mini-Sharpies I'd been craving (I have a thing for useful office supplies... no, I really do) and some much needed high-quality razors and shave gel.    Don't worry, the beard is staying, but I probably will clean up a little.  I'm always reluctant to clean things up with cheap shaving stuff because I get such terrible razor burn, and it's just not worth it.

After opening presents, a very merry Amy cooked us a breakfast to die for.  She made her patented addictive-as-heroin chocolate chip and peanut butter pancakes, as well as the leftover bacon from the bacon cheeseburgers the night before.  Then, we settled in and watched A Christmas Story on television, which is an important holiday tradition.  After the movie, we were a little bored, so we went out for a drive with all of the dogs (including Taffy).

We went up to Cuyahoga Valley National Park and drove through the entire thing.  While it was swampy from the rain, it was peaceful and there weren't many people out to compete with.  We took the dogs on a walk through part of it, and I think it made them pretty happy.  After that, we came home and had a huge meal of Guinea Pig Surprise (chicken cassarole), cheesy potatoes and corn.  For desert, we had chocolate cream pie.  Mmmmm. 

The next day, I went to work with Amy as a "volunteer."  Basically, my volunteering consisted of sitting there and talking to cats while she cleaned.  I helped with some sweeping, some mopping and some dishes, but mostly, I was there to hang out with her.  Everyone else at the shelter is gone for the holidays and the shelter is closed until after the new year, so it was just us mostly.  It was nice.

Today, I've stayed home and I've been working on turning my thesis into a publishable paper.  That's my main goal for the break.  Secondary is finishing the Indiana book, and third is to work more on the NASCAR paper.  I'm waiting for feedback from my peers before I do much more with that, though.  I may go in with her a few more times in the next week or so.

We go home in the first week of January.  It's looking like we'll be in Muncie from the 1st to the 4th, and Westfield/Indianapolis from the 4th to the 8ths or so.

The hair on my head is longer than it's been since kindergarten.  I had an awesome bowl-cut back in the day and looked something like an invasion-era Beatle.  For the first time since then, my hair is laying down on its own, being up to five inches long in spots.  I don't know what the goal is (if I even have one).  I don't want to pay people to cut my hair, and I got sick of the old short hair cuts I'd had for so many years.  It sure hurts like a bitch to brush when it gets tangled, though.  I had no idea!

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Amy's sleeping, I'm awake.  My mind usually goes into super-manic mode once I've recovered from finals.  It's suffering from a state of complete understimulation.  Cleaning the house is no way to use such a fine-tuned machine! 

Shut up.

The last two weeks of the NFL have been rough on the ego of my machismo, which of course must be fueled by knowledge of athletic competitions between overgrown and oversculpted men.  Meh.  I've gotten words of encouragement from unlikely sources (like Sondra) and have decided to continue onward. This week is interesting, because some teams are sending in the fourth-tier players, while others are fighting for their post-season lives.  Might Doug Flutie make an appearance for the Patriots?  Almost makes them less than satanic.  Almost.  I look forward to seeing the mighty Jim Sorgi quarterback the Colts to a certain though meaningless defeat. 

Remember the preseason?  0-5?  That last game, an embarrassing loss to Cincinnati on the 2nd of September was the last game they lost until December 18.  Meaningless games to this team are... truly meaningless.

I'm getting ahead of myself.  On to the picks.  As always, the home team's in all caps.

Saturday's games:

TAMPA BAY over Atlanta.  Man, had to start with a rough one, huh?  I think Vick is back, and if they'd let him be Vick, this pick would go the other way.  Jim Mora II has some crazy idea that Michael Vick should be a pocket passer, and he's got an arm like Johnny Damon.  It's hard to overlook Tampa's harsh defeat from last week, but it's harder to overlook the shaky last few weeks for the Falcons.

CINCINNATI over Buffalo.  Cincy's a solid team, playing at home in a stadium that's proven dangerous to opponents.  They're fighting for a first round bye.  Buffalo is terrible on the road and has nothing to fight for besides pride.  After this year, the Bills shouldn't have much of that left anyway.

CAROLINA over Dallas.  Carolina's a solid team coming off of a win over the hapless Saints.  Dallas is coming off of an embarrassing defeat to the Redskins.  If not for a miracle victory (that shouldn't have happened) over the Chiefs two weeks ago (not bitter), America's Team would be riding a five game losing streak into this one.  Dallas may be fighting for their playoff hopes, but it won't matter against the Panthers.

NEW ORLEANS over Detroit.  Does someone have to win this game?  Talk about the stinker of the day... These are the two most troubled franchises in the league.  I would call this the Toilet Bowl if the name wasn't taken by Gus Macker.  New Orleans has had the year from hell, and they weren't a very good team before Katrina and becoming homeless.  Detroit, one could argue was even worse all season long.  Detroit is using an interim coach, which is usually good for a first win once the team unifies behind its new man.  Even that didn't happen for the Lions.  In fact, the fans have been marching the past couple weeks trying to get the GM fired.  Who can blame them?  This team is awful.  I am interested in seeing how the revolt turns out... I think the ownership should listen to fans since they are the ones footing the bill. The Saints have a bastard owner and no home, and a terrible quarterback.  Someone shoot these teams and put them both out of their miseries.

Jacksonville over HOUSTON.  Isn't it true that Houston still hasn't had a two-game winning streak in its franchise history?  If so, that streak will continue.  Jacksonville, who is fighting for a playoff spot, should win this game easily.  If not, J'ville doesn't deserve to be in the playoffs anyway.

WASHINGTON over NY Giants.  Earlier in the season, the Giants beat the Skins in NY in a shutout.  So, why am I picking the Skins here?  For one, DC has a few things to prove because that loss way back when was terribly embarrassing.  Over the past few weeks, Eli has started to suck pretty bad in some cases, and somehow the defense has turned those into wins.  The Giants are God-awful on the road and the Skins are rolling into this one. 

Pittsburgh over CLEVELAND.  Remember a couple weeks ago when it seemed like the Steelers were done?  Well, they've since put up strong wins over good teams, ending two long winning streaks (Bears and Vikes).  The Steelers running game has been re-established and has allowed Rofeuteheleuseubeurogouleuar to settle back into his nothing more than serviceable role.  The Browns are starting to become a very good football team despite very lacking talent.  Romeo Crennel should be lauded as a genius for coaxing five wins out of these guys.  Number six will have to wait until next week when the hated Ravens (nee Browns) come to town.

San Diego over KANSAS CITY.  Fuck the Chiefs.  They Johnny Damoned me for two weeks.  I stood by them, telling all the world that they were coming around, and they took it in the ass both times.  Fuck 'em.  San Diego looked impressive last week, eh?  Save those Brees interceptions, they would've blown out the Colts badly, not that it wasn't bad enough.  The Chargers are back behind the 8-ball again, so expect a similar performance.

ST. LOUIS over San Francisco.  The Rams could be a good team next year.  They showed streaks of goodness during that first quarter of the Colts game.  The 49ers are a joke, and will be for some time.

MIAMI over Tennessee.  Man, the Dolphins have come a long way, huh?  Last year they were the laughing stock of the NFL with a terrible two-headed quarterback that couldn't do anything.  See, I never thought they were that bad last year, but the quarterback situation killed them.  This year, they're back to .500.  At the same time, isn't it remarkable how fast the former Oilers have fallen?  It was only in Madden 2004 (so, based on 2003) that the Titans were one of the hardest teams to beat.  Miami, next year expect playoffs.

Philadelphia over ARIZONA.  Fuck the Cardinals, too.  I thought I saw them coming around, and I was wrong.  Philly sucks, but Arizona sucks worse.  At least the Cardinals are finally getting their own stadium.  Only took 18 years after they moved... what's up Arizona?  Oh yeah, I forgot.  The team has been terrible that whole time.

SEATTLE over Naptown.  Yep, I'm picking against my guys.  I'm saying that after 13 straight wins, the Colts will lose two straight times.  Why?  Seattle is good, and they're fighting for homefield.  The Colts are mourning for the death of Dungy's son and they have nothing to play for.  It's going to be a dangerous few weeks here for the Colts until the playoffs start.  A few wrong moves, a little laziness and they'll lose in the first game of the playoffs.

DENVER over Oakland.  Shouldn't be a contest, though the Jake Plummer rule (if he goes back to throwing 15 interceptions... all bets are off) applies.

Sunday's Games:

Chicago over GREEN BAY. After last week, I'm pretty sure that Ball State's football team could beat Green Bay.  Retire, Favre!  It will only be close because the Bears just don't score very much.

Minnesota over BALTIMORE.  Ravens are AWFUL and the Vikings need to come back strong if they hope to threaten anyone for the playoffs.  Also shouldn't be close.

Monday Night's Game:

New England over NY JETS.  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Pats are looking tough.  Jets... aren't.

High Confidence: Miami, Chicago, New England.
Low Confidence: Tampa Bay, New Orleans, Washington

Last Week: 9-7.
Year-to-Date: 164-60.

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 02:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 09:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been cleaning the house this past week.  I took a few hours off of working on Monday and I was done with that resting shit.  Somewhere along the line, I became a workaholic.  Maybe it's because I see how the laziness of my parents affects their lives, but that's a topic for a whole other post.

Similarly, my spending habits have almost become tightwad-ish, overly frugal, like I'm an old person.  Again, I think it's a fear instilled by my parents who have preached continuously against debt because they're so far under.  That encouraged hyperconsumerism has destroyed the finances of much of our parents' generation, for the profit of capitalists through the prevention of overconsumption.

I've been reading too much Harvey again.

I've also noticed that on the profiles of a lot of people in my social arena, there is a flat rejection of television.  People's opinions are people's opinions, but as far as I can tell movies are no better which is the most common inference.  The majority of each are overly formulaic and commercial.  Perhaps television is more blatant about it, jumping on to each trend (reality TV?) and showing 12 1/2 minutes of commercials for each hour of programming. 

I would argue, though, that movies are no better.  Usually, there are 20 minutes of commercials for movies as well as paid subliminal placements of products throughout the film.  Movies also jump on trends (disaster films?  the politically charged films are popular now?). 

Fully 98% of each medium is total bullshit, formulaic comedies and idiotic explosive dramas.  To have access to either, you usually have to pay -- $50 a month for cable, or $8 a pop for movies ($4.29 for rentals now!).  In my case, TV is free because cable is included with the house and convenient because it's piped in.  You can find quality works in each if you're picky and search a little bit.

I think that either media is a valid form of entertainment.  Many of the arguments against television are downsides to films as well.  Typically, those better films that don't suffer from the same pitfalls as television are not likely to come to theaters in most cities.  If they do and they seem worth the effort, I have no problem ponying up the cash to go.  Most movies are not worth $8 a person, though... and you can't get a refund for a bad flick.  If I have a desire to see a movie that's not worthy of $8 a person, I can rent it, borrow it from a library... or I can download it, if truly desperate.

Meh.  I know TV has some horrific flaws.  I hate local TV news, reality television (save the particularly macho selections of Monster Garage and American Chopper), made-for-TV movies, censorhsip of obscenity, commercials, Fox News, 24, The West Wing, Will and Grace... and many other things. 

But are these things any worse than Cheaper by the Dozen 2? 

American Pie 4?

Star Wars 38?  Star Trek 72?

Be picky about what you watch on either, and either can prove a rewarding, relaxing and stimulating experience.

Oh, and somewhere at some point, I surpassed views on the blog.  I'm up to 2039, which is approximately 2000 more posts than my old blog ever got in its 10 months of use.  Congraulations to me!

Woot.

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I posted this around a few comments, hoping to spread holiday cheer.  Maybe I failed, maybe some people won't get it, but as a kid who never ever ever ever believed in old Santy Claus, I thought it was fucking hilarious.  Enjoy.

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 07:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tell your complete life story using between 25 and 50 words.
Born in Muncie.  Overweight, caught shit through school.  Played viola, got good grades.  Four years of music camp, made friends, got confidence.  Ball State, did okay, seven majors, geography last.  Dated Satan, lost confidence, totally crushed.  Met Amy, loved, healed.  Masters Ball State. Married Amy.  PhD Kent, happily ever after.  (50 words exactly)

You find a magic lamp, complete with a genie. You get your three wishes and the genie goes away. What would your fourth wish have been, and why did it miss the cut?  My fourth wish would have been for wealth, right after world peace, supreme knowledge and the ability to perfectly play every instrument in the world.  It missed the cut because it was less important, and honestly with the other three I would've been more than happy enough.

Which would you rather have on a desert island: a stapler, a three-hole puncher or a highlighter. Why?  I would definitely take the stapler.  You could use it to attach things together, build things, or you could dismantle it and have a hinge and a spring for other uses.

Who is more evil, Bert from Sesame Street or Lawrence Welk? Why?  I know Bert is pretty evil.  Lawrence Welk brought (and still brings) happiness to millions of old people each week.  Bert never brought happiness to anyone, not even Ernie.

What is your favorite smell, and when was the last time you remember smelling it?  New rubber.  I remember smelling it when I took in one of Pedro's tires to get patched a couple months ago after I ran over one of the hundreds of nails that littered our driveway when we moved in.

Do you remember an especially disgusting fart you let? Describe with as much detail as possible what it smelled like.  Gross.  I let one last night that made the dog leave the bed.  Amy was asleep, and I ripped it off.  It smelled like burning garbage with a nice sulfuric aftertaste.

What song is stuck in your head right now? If one isn't, what's the first song you think of?  The Lighthouse's Tale by Nickel Creek.  I downloaded it the other day for one of Amy's Christmas presents (which she's already gotten).

Name one CD that you'd otherwise be embarrassed to admit to owning.  I think Amy owns an O-Town CD or something... I remember catching a glimpse when I was cleaning the basement yesterday.  What's mine is hers and what's hers... is mine.

Imagine you have a time machine. What single event would you travel back in time to witness?  Hrm... that's a hard one.  Perhaps the premiere of Beethoven's Ninth?

If you had to choose between Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Saddam Hussein and Josef Stalin to be featured on a nice portrait tattooed on your ass, which would you choose and why?  God.  Of these, probably Saddam because I guess he may have been guilty of killing fewer people...?  Either way, I'd have a lot of explaining to do to Amy.

You decide to buy a boat and become a pirate. What's the name of your boat, your parrot and your first mate?  My boat would be called the Turd Burglar, my parrot would be named Butt Nugget, and my first mate would be Stinky.

Name one dirty restaurant from your hometown, and recount a memory that you have of being there. Is this dump still open?  I remember this place, the Family Kitchen, which was soooooooooo dirty and gross, and most of the people that worked there were pretty gross.  One morning at like four after a strange night of partying, I think I went there with Jon and Natha and Carla.  I had chocolate chip pancakes.  The food there was meh, but you got a lot of food for the cash.  It closed a few years ago and turned into something else.

Imagine you've just been sworn in as President of the United States. Which country would you bomb first (and you HAVE to bomb someone)? And knowing that you could have any meal expertly prepared by the staff, what meal would you eat in celebration?  I'm a pacifist, but... I would bomb the island of Anuta which is out in the South Pacific.  Why?  Not because I hate the Anutans, but because this one colloquium that we had was this guy talking about Anuta, and it was the most boring colloquium ever.  That, and there aren't very many people there.  I would celebrate this bombing by eating a big fat sirloin cooked super-rare and some green beans.  Maybe some of my mom's meatloaf, too.

If you knew you could get through completely unharmed, would you hop in a time machine and fight in World War Two? For whom would you fight, and where?  I don't know... there's part of me that would like to live through that experience that has been so romanticized by our culture, and part of me who wouldn't want anything to do with a gun or any of that violence.

If you could instantly become a virtuoso, on which of these instruments would you choose to do so and why: ukelele, autoharp, kazoo or saw?  Hmm.  I already mentioned something like this in the genie question.  Definitely the ukelele, because I could draw Tiny Tim comparisons.

What is the biggest mistake you've ever made? How would your life have been different had you chosen another path? Looking at it from that perspective, would you have knowingly made that mistake again to get where you are today?  The biggest mistake I ever made was to date Satan.  That cost me so much in my life, and it dramatically changed me as a person.  But.... it did lead me to Amy, so I'd probably be too fatalistic to avoid the mistake again.

Describe your perfect mate in as much detail as possible.
Amy.  Enough said.

You get to invite any three people, living or dead, to dinner for a nice conversation. Who just misses the cut, and why aren't they quite worthy?  I'd probably invite Vonnegut, Jesus and Gandhi.  Weird Al would just miss the cut, because he's not quite on that level.

What is the strangest gift you've ever received, what occasion was it, who gave it to you, and where is the gift now?  Speaking of ukeleles, I got one for Christmas a few years ago from my parents.  I'm not sure what gave them the idea, but it sits in my closet of musical instruments right now.

Give three common names that you would never curse your children with.  Dick, Peter and Johnson.

If you were going to start a cult, how would your people ultimately kill themselves to meet up with the comet?  Weird.  Self-inflicted chainsaw wounds.

What was the greatest experience of your life, excluding losing your virginity, graduating, getting married or having kids?  Excluding these things?  Falling in love with Amy.  If that's not allowed because of the married part, then probably going to music camp and learning that I'm not all bad.

If you could rename a month in your honor, which one would you choose and why? Definitely October, because the weather rules and because it has the World Series and Halloween.

Where will you be in 48 hours, to the best of your prediction abilities. Will you be happy?  I'll be sitting here, in the house, probably cleaning or if the cleaning is done, working on a paper.  I'll be mildly content but lonely because Amy won't be here.

What author would you choose to write your biography? Who would direct the movie adaptation, and who would play you? Explain each.  Vonnegut would write my biography, Spike Jonze would direct and... Paul Giamatti would be me.  Vonnegut would write it because he seems to put things together like I do (or maybe I subconciously emulate him?), Jonze because he rules... and Giamatti because he's so likeable but strange enough to be unique.

Your son or daughter, whenever you have kids, buys five guinea pigs. Help him/her name them.  Raul, Pablo, Ming, Methuselah and Abdullah.

Would you eat your own shit on national television for $1 billion? Why or why not?  Yes, I would.  Even if it would risk being known as "The Shit-Eater," I could do a lot of good things for a lot of good people for a billion bucks.

If you could own an entire state, which one would you own and why?  Probably Wyoming.  I'd get Devil's Tower, Yellowstone, a bunch of mountains, a cute little city in Cheyenne, and a lot of wide open spaces.  Paradise.

You've been chosen to write the newest disaster movie. What disaster would you use, and who would direct it and star in it? Give a very brief (like 12 word) synopsis.  I would use a super blizzard, directed by Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks.  Wait... that'd be like a cold weather version of Cast Away, right?  Meh.  He survives by eating snow, dreaming and the dreams become his reality.

Above this line, write a new question for this survey and answer it. Try not to use questions that evoke yes/no answers. Then, pass it on to your friends.

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Johnny Damon, a hero of the title run by the Boston Red Sox in 2004 has signed a five-year, $52-million dollar deal.  With the Yankees.

Now, I'm no Red Sox fan.  Hell, I barely follow the AL, and if I did I'd follow the Tribe.  I always liked Damon because of his different attitude, hustling play, solid hitting... and man, the guy had the speed to patrol center field at Fenway, no easy task.  He looked like Jesus, which is certainly against the trend in the clean-cut jock-filled world of baseball.  Sure I got overloaded with his personality and face after the Sox won the series (Queer Eye?) but I figured that was a testament to his likeability.

Now this?

Even NL fans like me can agree that the Yankees are the Great Satan of Major League Baseball.  They're the Evil Empire that keeps trying to build a Death Star to destroy the rest of the universe through overwhelming power and intimidation.  They practically had an All-Star team on the roster last year, and they keep signing more and more amazing players for more and more money. 

Couldn't Steinbrenner pay someone to make a World Series trophy cheaper?  Would it be any less of a fraud?

Anyway, the main thing I can't understand with this is what (besides the  lined pockets) that Damon had to gain by this.  Dan Shanoff, on the ESPN Daily Quickie (an excellent daily instant-history sports psuedo-blog... in fact I found the news about Ball State there yesterday) said that since Damon seeks stardom outside of baseball, and NYC is the place to achieve this.  I agree, but joining the Yankees is the antithesis of everything Damon; as Shanoff even says, he'll have to cut his hair and shave.  This will transform him into just another hard-working player, costing him much of his identity to non-baseball fans.

And why leave Boston?  Seriously, consider this: if you were in Damon's shoes, you were nothing less than a GOD in the Boston area.  You were the quirky lead-off hitter on the team that ended the curse!  You probably never had to buy a drink, never had to search more than 10 seconds for a date... I mean, the man was universally loved and revered in America's most rabid fan base.  Why lose that, go to their hated rival and punch all the fans (you know, those who helped make you into a national star) right in the stomach?

Money. 

Would I have done it differently in the light of all of those dollars?  Sure.  Even if I had gone to a different team, I wouldn't have been so disrespectful to the people who helped me get to that level.  Instead of the Yankees, I might have looked up the Tribe, or the Blue Jays, or the White Sox... or even the dreaded Angels.

Johnny sold out.  He's done exactly what I mentioned earlier: he became just another hard-working player.  Not only is he going to cut his hair, but he's proved that he's in it for the money instead of the fun.  For all of this, he's lost my respect, Boston's respect and probably millions of other casual fans.  Too bad.

Endnote: I'm looking forward to this weekend's football games because the Colts will be nationally televised, and I'll get to watch second and third-string guys play for teams that are already in the playoffs.  Many fans think this is a bummer, but I think it's kind of like watching the end of a PeeWee football blowout -- you never know what craziness will happen.  My NFL picks for the week will probably be up about Thursday because of the holiday.  Hopefully it will be an improvement over last week, though the earliness can't help.

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why is it that whenever Muncie's in the news, it's for something pathetic or embarrassing?  Remember a few years back when that female hillbilly got completely wasted and decided to remove a wart on her toe with a shotgun? 

Only in Muncie.

I've already caught shit from the department's college football fans early in the season for Ball State's stellar start, where they lost the first four games of the season by an average of 40 points.  Why does Ball State keep playing these huge opponents with whom they have no chance of even keeping it close?  These are called "buy games," where these big schools pay some stupid little school like Ball State to come in and essentially be a crash dummy for an easy win.  So, Ball State's administration is sacrificing their kids to those at the big schools for cash?  Nah, it's a learning experience for them!  It gives them a heads-up to how their asses will be kicked in the real world workplace by the big school kids.

(At least they brought the season around and went 4-7, basically having a winning record against comparable programs.  I might add, Kent State went 1-10, only winning against South Eastern Central Missouri State Technical Institute of Diesel Mechanics, a Division-46 school equivalent to a high school team.  We were at that game... it was pathetic on both sides.)

Again in the sports world, there's another case of Ball State sacrificing its players, this time sending the women's basketball team for a hard-fought battle against Duke last night.  When it's bad enough that Sportscenter features women's college basketball (not that I care about the difference between men's and women's basketball, but it's not popular) just to show the severity of the loss... that's just not right.  I mean, exposure is an unmeasurable asset, but wouldn't this qualify for negative exposure?

I wonder how much cash Ball State made for that game, and why they couldn't keep the programs they ditched a few years ago with this cash flowing in.  Oh, it's because you have to pay to keep 80-some-odd players under full scholarship for a failure of a football team.

Okay, away from sports.... Apparently a robbery was foiled at a Puerto Vallarta, Muncie's premier Mexican restaurants because one worker didn't understand what the robber was saying and the other pretended not to speak English so he could call the cops.  Heard this one on NPR... amazingly it never made it into the StarPress.

I mentioned this last week, but the story made the national news (NPR) up here.  The James Dean Museum and Gallery in Gas City, north of Muncie about 20 minutes, is closing.  Big whoop, right?  James Dean was an actor who though famous has been dead for 50 years, and he gives nearby Fairmount, Indiana its only claim to fame.  Well, read the last two sentences of the story.

Meh... that women's basketball story put me over the edge today.

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 09:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Global Economy: A-.
Quantitative Methods (Stats): B+.
Geographic Thought: A.

GPA: 3.667.

I know I shouldn't complain, but that's the first time I've gotten anything below an A in a long long time.  In a doctoral program, B=C, C=F.  So basically, I got an A, a high B (in the A-), and a low B/high C (in the B+).  Well, I guess the competition and expectations are higher in a doctoral program, you know...

(shrug)

Either way, I officially made it through the first semester without getting booted (anything below a 3.0 would've done that) and I've made it through my LAST STATISTICS CLASS. 

EVER!!!!

I officially announce my intentions to re-achieve a 4.0 for next semester.  Luckily, next semester will have more classes that are interesting instead of pseudo-mandatory.

I really have nothing more to say.

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Amy's asleep, and I'm awake.  It's that simple.

I saw the presidential address last night, and what I saw was a very very desperate president.  It takes a certain level of panic to hold a speech just to answer critics.  Clinton did it during Lewinsky.  Bush Sr. never really did, as far as I remember... and he puked on the lap of Japan's prime minister.

A couple of highlights included:

1. A strong unspoken linkage between 9/11 and Iraq, continuing the trend from a long time ago.  See, he's not quite lying because he doesn't come out and say it, but he implies it allll dayyyy longgg.  Didn't OBL and Saddam hate each other, constantly using the biggest dis in Islam, the dreaded "infidel"?

2. Admitted that there were no weapons, though blamed it on intelligence of the international community and said there was capacity and intent, neither of which have been proven.

3. Renaming those fighting in Iraq against the US as terrorists.  I found this to be an interesting change.  Not only does it realign Iraq as a front in this "Global War on Terror" that we're supposed to support, but it changes the name of the "enemy" from "insurgents," which implies people fighting from within, to "terrorists," which implies multinational fighters.  A couple of thoughts: obviously Dubya doesn't want to make it sound like the people of Iraq don't want this new government, and perhaps he's opening the door for Iran or Syria?

4. Completely ignored the domestic spying thing, which I think (if the media would get off their ass and run with it) could actually become a defining scandal (finally) of this presidency.  It's ironic that 2100 dead bodies weren't enough to piss people off because of this propaganda preaching "freedom," but that same propaganda might come back and bite Dubya in the ass because he authorized spying on phone calls.

Other than that, it was typical Dubya bullshit, though he seemed far more desperate than times past.  Maybe he realized that the pompous asshole leader schtick wasn't winning him friends while the body bags piled up?

Remember, 58 million people voted for this fuck-knob.  Only a party as worthless as the Democrats could come up with someone as unlikeable as Kerry to run against this fuck.  If they'd found someone with any charisma or connection to the people whatsoever, they would've won in a landslide.

Fuck John Kerry, for that reason alone.

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've gotten three messages today asking if I wanted to see someone's webcam.  What the fuck?  Does I look horny in my picture or something?  Or reasonably greasy enough that I want to see your webcam?  I mean, I am kind of homeless looking... though Niti from the department thinks I should start smoking a pipe because I would look very professor-like.  Looking at this picture, a cigar and a uniform would make me look like Castro.

Colts lost.  That sucks.  The Chargers can lick my left nut.

Amy's dozing on a lazy Sunday afternoon.  It's the last Sunday before Christmas.  We went to Wal-Mart earlier today.  Those two sentences should send more chills than any horror movies.  It was rough, but we needed some things.  On the television is some movie about Yellowstone erupting as a huge volcano.  It's about as corny as 10.5 was that was on last year.

I'm sooooooooooooooooooooo bored. 

I found the myspace of some girl I had a huge crush on my freshman year of college.  She lived in my dorm... I only got up the balls to talk to her once, and that was on move-out day.  How lame is that?  I got her email address and we emailed a couple times.  I think I chickened out again or she got bored.... either way, nothing ever came of it.  Weird to see her, though.

"She's on the fucking Myspace?  Girls like [her] aren't on Myspace!  She should be on fucking Neptune!"

I've been working through a dummy syllabus for the Geography of Rock and Roll class I wanted to put together.  Finding a book has been rough.  I asked Mike for suggestions, being that he his one of my best contacts in that arena being both a music and book junkie. 

The class is going to consist of three parts:

1. A look at the historical cultural diffusion of music.  How did the music get from place A to place B?  What influence did local scenes have on diffusion?  Why was touring so damn important?  What about the effect of MTV, etc?

2. A look at how space and place is represented in music, and what music means when combined with certain spaces and places.

3. The economic geography of rock and roll, touring, distribution, etc.

The first two parts are likely to get the most emphasis.  What I've been kicking around in the way of books is this: a decent and carefully selected rock history book to help with topic one.  One I've found that's decent is Rolling Stone's take on the history of rock, because it looks at how the local scenes contribute.  It has some obvious holes and it came out in 1992, so there's a whole lot missing but for a general history text, it might work.

I thought about Fargo Rock City to help with topic two (and/or another novel-type read... High Fidelity? though that's more about love), and I'll probably conquer number three on my own without a text.

Since it'd be a seminar, movies are also good.  What rock class would be complete without Almost Famous or perhaps This is Spinal Tap?  I think I may post a bulletin about this or something.  I can use all the advice I could get.

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have you ever been to a party where you're pretty sure that you're the most interesting person there... and that's despite the fact that you have a pretty tame ego and you find yourself to be pretty boring?

That happened to us last night.  A girl in the department, Vanessa, is a very nice girl.  She invited us to an end-of-finals get-together for a tame evening of entertainment.  I've been seizing every social opportunity lately, almost as if I've got something to prove to myself and to Amy about how I'm conquering SAD.

We went to Vanessa's tiny apartment and hung out with... well, filler people.

Filler People. NOUN. People that are so average and uninteresting that you normally wouldn't give them a second look even though they probably make up a majority of the population.  Homonyms: scenery, extras, the faceless.

I mean, they weren't particularly stylish, fashionable, athletic, political, musical, opinionated, passionate, funny... or really very entertaining in any way.  They just didn't have anything to really say. Don't get me wrong -- all of these people were very nice people, and all were quite intelligent.  They were just... (ugh)... boring.  They all seemed to be interested in very normal things, and all seemed to have very normal personalities.

I feel like such an elitest bastard for saying something like that.  Who am I to judge?  If people want to hang out with some jerk like me, shouldn't I be more than willing to oblige?  I mean, I'm certainly not God's gift to humanity or anything.

I wanted to leave more than anything... and not because I didn't want to be social, but because I was so bored.  Like Amy said to me, board games are usually underlying noise at parties like this.  For us, after about 10 minutes, the party became only about the board games, and hence was pretty dull.

We left after two hours or so.  Slowest two hours of my life.

I'm such a dick.

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 12:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Week Two of this noble experiment.  Last week was rough on my sport-watching ego, but hopefully this week will be better.  This is also that time of year where the NFL starts putting some games on Saturday.  Why, I'm not sure, but I appreciate it.

Saturday Games:
NEW ENGLAND over Tampa Bay.  New England is a good team that's having a bad year, and they're starting to click.  Tampa Bay, on the other hand is a really good bad team in that they've been shaky all year.  Foxboro is going to be coooooooooooooold, and the boys from Tampa are going to be frozen.  If Tampa wins this one, they could be a surprise in the playoffs.

Kansas City over NY GIANTS.  Last week, I picked the Chiefs to beat America's Team, and they should have pulled it off.  I think that KC is quietly putting together a great year.  Their defense is much improved over years past.  Eli Manning's season, on the other hand, has been going in the toilet.  As Eli goes, so go the Giants.  Tiki Barber is due for one of his six fumble games, too.

Denver over BUFFALO.  One reason that Bills teams always seem to get better late in the season has to be the immense homefield advantage that their nasty climate offers.  The Broncos won't have any problems.  As always, all bets are off if Plummer turns into... well, Plummer.

Sunday games:
Seattle over TENNESSEE.  The joke of the week.  If it wasn't for the walking injury, Steve McNair, Tennessee would be the worst team in the league.  Seattle is probably the second best, behind the winner of Colts-Chargers.  This should be a blowout.

ST LOUIS over Philadelphia.  The Rams can really roll if they get going, as they demostrated in the first quarter against the Colts.  However, they're really not that good (as demonstrated in the other three quarters).  Philly, though, is mailing it in for the rest of the year.  Too much controversy and really, they're getting a little old.  Expect a post-season change or two with them.

Carolina over NEW ORLEANS.  Another joke game.  Carolina's a pretty strong team.  The Saints were bad even before Katrina.  It won't even be close.  If it is, it'll be the win of the year for New Orleans.

Arizona over HOUSTON.  The Texans are AWFUL.  They would lose to the Muncie Burris Owls right now in football.  The Cardinals are also not very good, though last week I thought they were getting their act together.  A solid win, even over a bunch of losers would be a good feeling for next season.

INDIANAPOLIS over San Diego.  Another set of experts are trying to be soooo smart and pick when the Colts' reign will end.  It will not happen this week, even with starters resting.  Remember, San Diego has a bad coach in Marty Schottenheimer, and the Colts are in the Dome.  This has a larger chance of being a blowout than many people give the Colts credit for.  And really, could you vote against the Colts right now?  Even if I had doubts, I'd take the risk at this point.

MIAMI over NY Jets.  Wow, Miami has turned things around!  Give these guys a good quarterback and they'll be kicking some ass next year.  The Jets?  Not so much.

JACKSONVILLE over San Francisco.  Boy, this weeks' games are stinkers, aren't they?  Jacksonville is fighting for a playoff spot, and they got a huge boost to their ego at the end of the Colts game when they rang off some meaningless points.  San Francisco sucks.  Period.

Cleveland over OAKLAND.  Cleveland is getting much much better in a hurry.  Maybe this is North Coast media bias?  Oakland is not doing so well this season, and I expect a statement game from the Browns.  Look out for next season -- the AFC North will be a tough tough division.

Cincinnati over DETROIT.  Another stinker.  Talk about a team in a tailspin... Detroit is in deep shit.  Their fans are so disgruntled that there is a large movement among season ticket holders to wear Bengals gear and cheer for the Bengals... in DETROIT.  Ouch.  I could see two outcomes: either the Lions will have their asses handed to them, or they'll finally get pissed off enough to do well and keep it within 10 points.  Either way, I really want to watch this game... high-flying Bengals (I know, weird to say) playing a god-awful and hated Lions team.

Dallas over WASHINGTON.  Bo-ring!

CHICAGO over Atlanta.  Warm-weather dome team with an injured superstar quarterback playing at Soldier Field in December against the best defense in the league?  I didn't think so.

Monday Night:
Green Bay over BALTIMORE.  Neither team deserves to win this game.  They're both terrible.  However, I think the Corpse Formerly Known as Bret Favre will prevail over the terrible Ravens team.

High Confidence Picks: Seattle, Jacksonville, Chicago
Low Confidence Picks: Kansas City, Dallas, Green Bay

Last Week: 10-6.
Season To-Date: 155-53.

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm finished with the semester.  I turned in my final in Global Economy about four hours ago.  I felt okay with it, I suppose.

We were given seven questions a few days ago, told that we'd have to choose two from five.  Any genius would tell you that you only need to learn four then, right?  That's what I did.

The question I answered asked for me to provide possible perspectives offered if Neil Smith, David Harvey and Thomas Friedman (authors of earlier readings) decided to discuss de Soto's The Mystery of Capital.  De Soto's idea is that "squatting" land ownership in the third world should be legitimized through creation of titling and such, saying essentially that it would empower the masses with capital.  Smith and Harvey, both Marxists, obviously would reject this as another means of neo-liberalizing space for exploitation.  Friedman, the self-proclaimed "free trader," would support this.  What I ended up doing for this question was writing a script between the three where the Marxists ended up verbally backing Friedman into a corner.  I included a few jokes, and I thought it was quite funny.  I'll be interested to get feedback.

I got an A in geographic thought, which thrills me to death... even though the prof doesn't believe in grades.  I don't really either... I'm a fan of a pass/fail system where an 85% is needed.  Amazing what three years away from my undergraduate laziness can do for perspective!

I'm waiting for grades from Stats and Global Econ.  I could end up with all As.  I could end up with two Bs.  I don't foresee any Cs, but even if somehow I got one, I'd basically be covered since I got the A in thought.  If I get a 4.0, I'll be dancing all over this blog.  Drinks will be on me.

I'm thinking of working on a syllabus for Geography of Rock & Roll tonight or tomorrow morning.  The Global Economy class has discussed going out to see Syriana tomorrow, which is quite tempting, though it'd be a matinee while Amy is at work.  She might not approve, but I'll ask her later when she's off work.

I took the Impala to the local Chevy place, and it is now fixed.  All of it was covered under warranty.  Yippee!  Apparently some of the wiring had gone bad, and now it's fixed.  Talk about a load off!  Their courtesy transportation will be coming in just a minute to pick me up.  The dealership is like a mile up the road, but the sidewalks are treacherous with the melt-refreeze that happened last night.  There's also a really really big hill... like 150 feet up.  Yuck.

There's a party at Vanessa's tonight.  We're supposed to go, but I'm having second thoughts.  It may be terribly lame.  Meh.  The fact that I've convinced myself to go to a party is one hell of an improvement in my socializing ability over a year ago.

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 02:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm pretty tired, so excuse the pedestrian nature of the post.

I'm quite close the being finished for the semester. I finished my stats final on Tuesday, and my thought final last night.  That thought final was pretty hard core, though.  Four questions, which took me two full blue books (front AND back) to answer.  That's a total of 32 written pages.  In two hours.  My mind had never been so exhausted from a single short exercise like that in my life.  I am confident in my thought grade -- I should get an A.  Stats could be anywhere from an B to an A, including the relevant pluses and minuses.  Either way, it doesn't look like I will be kicked out after this semester.  Anything below a 3.0 is grounds for immediate dismissal, and it looks like I'll surpass that.

The Global Economy class is the one final remaining, and it will probably be the hardest of the lot.  It's tomorrow morning, and it will also be essay.  I've always liked essay exams better, but for once I would love the ease of a multiple choice.  So goes a doctoral program.  Honestly, this material has been harder for me because I started to lose interest in the class toward the end.  It seemed like the most interesting authors were at the beginning, and the ones at the end added nothing to the discussion.

All I have to do is make it (and make it well) through this exam, and I get a month off.  If I don't do well, of course... I get a lot more than a month off.  It's only over two books and three chapters.  Cramming in grad school never works, I've found.  There's simply too much to take in to actually cram worth a shit.

I fixed the distributor problem with Pedro last night, only to have a nice little trickle of oil start from the oil cooler.  It's not a very fast drip, but in a couple trips to Kent and back, I've lost half a quart.  Half of a quart out of 2.6 total is a lot of oil.  I think his oil cooler is bad, which is not an expensive part (100 bucks or so) but the labor is intensive.  It would involve pulling the engine (I think) so it's something I could not complete on my own.  I called up to Euclid Foreign Motors, the place that I finally got an alternator during that debacle and got a recommendation for a place to take him.  If nothing else, I can get an estimate and punt. 

I've told everyone that typically buys me random shit for Christmas that the only thing I want this year is for Pedro to really really work.  Don't go buy me underwear or shirts or whatever.... make Pedro run, and that'll be the best Christmas ever.  My parents, though, typically ignore what I ask for and buy me something 5,000 times more expensive and complex... then get offended if I take it back and get money.  They mean well, but why do they bother to ask what I want?

With an estimate in hand, maybe they'll help and make my Christmas merry in the material sense?  It'd be great not to have to commute an hour and a half each morning by carpooling with Amy.

Now if I could just get up the guts to pick up the phone and call this mechanic...

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 03:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I appreciate everyone's concern over the last blog.  Really, I'm all right.  I just wanted to ponder some things and let my writing trace my thoughts in hopes of figuring them out.  That second half actually turned into a decent little essay, though I suppose only the theme song to "The Gilmore Girls" would do it proper justice. 

Why do I have such a problem with "The Gilmore Girls"?  I'm not even sure.  It was the first show that I thought the mom was wayyyy hotter than the daughter, which I guess is a sort of milestone in everyone's history.... kind of like when you realize that the biggest baseball and basketball stars are younger than you are, or when you realize that freshmen in your class have no idea who Mr. Miyagi was because they weren't born yet.

If you're a new reader to my blog because I just found you from my name searching, please don't be offended by all that.  I only searched for people I wanted to find, so if I found you, I wanted to.  Trust me, there are people I don't ever want to find again, and I purposely haven't even looked for them.  It's good to see that people are doing well, regardless of how much living in the past we actually end up doing together. 

The strangest thing was how few of the names I remember anything about from music camp, which was a huge social milestone for me at the time.  I looked through pages and pages of a book that I had everyone I wanted to remember sign, and so many of the names draw complete blanks.  It's almost like walking through a graveyard where the stones are all marble and worn to nothing by acid rain.  So many people and no memory.

If you're an old friend from camp and I found you, you should feel special.  I only looked for those about whom I could remember something substantative.  Everyone else is gone like a fart in the wind. 

So sad.

Posted by Your Friendly Neighborhood DJ at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The more confusing stuff is at the bottom of this entry...

Apparently, the serpentine belt on the Impala is about to give up the goat.  It's been smelling like burning rubber, and Amy reported that it was acting weird this morning, with various engine lights going on briefly then going out, etc.  Serpentine belts are the biggest pile of shit ever invented by automakers.  Wouldn't it just be easier to have ten different belts, that way when one got screwed up I could fix just that one?  Anyway, I'm scared that she might not make it home.  In a strange twist, the Bug's tags are in the Impala, meaning I couldn't rescue her.  So hopeless.

It's 300 miles until the warranty runs out on that beast.  I'm quite tempted to take the thing to the dealership down the street and have them find the problem to make sure.  Since it's under warranty, I won't have to pay for an estimate if I play stupid and am sure that something covered by the warranty is wrong.  This way, if there is a real problem, they can also fix it.  Otherwise, it's me and my tools.

A serpentine belt is only like 25 bucks, and supposedly it's easy to install.  I may find out soon enough.  I certainly enjoy subscribing to this aspect of the gender roles enforced upon me by this society.  Doesn't a set of balls guarantee that I should be able to fix this car?  No, but I feel more independent if I can.  Of course, I will be worried for a week or so after the fact because I'll be sure that I screwed something up and that the car will soon explode.

After receiving the call telling me that the Impala was sick, I went out to work on the other sick car in our fleet.  Ah, yes... Señor Pedro.  He was, well, mostly working when he was sidelined so that we could use his plates on the Impala when GMAC decided to keep a 12-foot dick up their ass and not send us the title for 3 months!!!  (not bitter).  Before being sidelined for a month and a half, Sr. Pedro was running sluggish, like he wasn't firing quite right.

After a bit of tinkering, a few starts and a close examination of some parts, I've determined that he needs a new rotor and distributor cap.  The distributor is what sends the ignition spark to each of the spark plugs. The distributor had a hairline crack in it, which makes it (perhaps) not run as smoothly.  The rotor is a rotating device that enables the distributor to do it's job.  It's contact was filthy and rusted, making a poor connection to send spark to the distributor and plugs.  Fixing either of these things could make him run much better, so I'll be replacing both.

This is 12 bucks of parts and literally two minutes of repair.  I know his points are okay, since those were changed after we moved.  And honestly, today he wasn't running too badly though the cold could've shrunk the distributor, negating that crack.

Attempting to navigate our ice sheet of a street was fun in Señor Pedro!  I've forgotten how light the old bug is, and how this really fucks things up on ice.  On top of that, the weight is in the back, making it like a pendulum around the corners.  Tire chains are tempting me.  Or added weight... I could get a few sandbags for the (front) trunk for probably 10 bucks. Or both.  His tires are practically new, so some other adaptation has to be made.  These might have to wait a while, since they seem to take excellent care of the main thoroughfares up here.  Muncie could take note!

I've come to a bad habit lately of typing names of people into MySpace from the past and seeing if they come up.  I don't know what to make of it.  I've crossed paths with a lot of people over the years, and I'm managed to alienate a large majority of them.  For some reason, it seems, adding them as a MySpace friend fixes things.  Don't get me wrong --everyone I've added on MySpace is someone I've cared for and typically still do.

I understand why I alienate, as it's not rocket science. My personality, while somewhat charming at first (ha ha ha!) is quite grating after a time in my presence, and was especially so when I was younger.  The today me would've hated me when I was younger... you know, the time when I was so overly optimistic about life that a simple wrong would depress me for days... when I was trying so hard to fit in and was without the capabilities socially, emotionally or intellectually to do so. 

Honestly, I'm not sure about what I'm like to be around today because I tend not to give people a chance to find out... that tends to make them leave.  I'm pretty convinced that Amy could tolerate just about anything.  Maybe that's why God brought us together.

For so long, I was too much of a Romantic, thinking that the only thing important in life was to find the love of another, a soul mate of the opposite sex.  When I thought I had found this, I cashed in all my chips and put them all on one bet.  Needless to say, I lost, but I lost so much in the process.  I lost many friends during that relationship who I generally ignored, consciously or not.  I became a bad friend who only communicated when caught online or in public.  I put all of my effort into making that person happy and fulfilled and I forgot who I was in the process.  I can blame that certain Satan for a lot of things... but this isn't one of them.

Nearly three years of this isolation severed ties with even some of my closest friends.  My little world soon came crashing down.  Hard.  Beyond a few phonecalls to let old friends know what had happened, I barely spoke to anyone for two years.  I don't recall making a choice to do this; it just happened. I only spoke to family, people at work, and occasional chance meetings or inbound phone calls (usually from Carla) over that period.  Looking back, how I ever got the gumption to meet Amy during all of this is beyond me.  Some things are apparently meant to be.

Now, here I am, five years after the start of all of this.  I think that moving to a new place where I knew nothing of anyone was a good way to wipe my slate clean.  Getting on MySpace certainly helped me think about some things and be social at an arm's length, just the way I have to.  The unlikelihood that I'll see any of my friends from this thing make MySpace almost more of a fantasy social world than a real one for me.  But it has fulfilled my social needs, which I had also ignored for five years.  I've "talked" to more people on here in the past month than the five years before.

It's nearly impossible to for me to trust.  I trust Amy more than any other living being, but I guard myself with her.  It's not that I think she'll leave or that she'll hate me, but it's almost some sort of built-in defense mechanism at this point.  Getting torched a few times will do this, especially when my trust was so easy to obtain before.

I don't think there is