All posts by jason

General, Sports, Uncategorized

Quiet (Good) Friday

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I finally have a couple moments to breathe today.

It’s been a really hectic week of work, just due to the volume of processing that had to be accomplished. I feel bad that I haven’t really been inclined to blog even when I get home, in part cuz I’ve missed the news for most of the week…

What *can* I tell you?

I thought the end of the business with Iran and the British sailors was pretty interesting. I don’t think anyone can really fool themselves into believing that anything Iran does right now won’t have some effect on the international response to their nuclear program. Personally, I can’t imagine why any nation’s leader with half a brain would want to get into a pissing contest with G-Dub– just give us 21 more months, and it’ll all be over, everyone will be able to relax and stop sleeping with an ICBM under their pillow.

Well, except for Israel, of course.

In sports, the Brewers 2-1 start to the season is nothing to sneeze at. They can’t win every game all season, but hell– if they win twice as many as they lose all season, that will make them… (ponders the math)… 108-54. They’ll never win that many games. They could get sort of close to that and still be unbelievably awesome. I’ve been saying to people, “less than 90 wins will be disappointing.” I’m going to stick by that. It’s only 9 more victories .500 ball, and should be totally do-able for this group.

The only two things that have been troubling to me so far this year:
1. Carlos Villanueva’s shaky first appearance of the season (I think he’ll be OK in the long run)
2. Jose Capellan’s crybaby attitude

Note that both items relate to pitching, which is the most important thing to this club– they’re still very young, and are going to be prone to streakiness at the plate. They need consistency somewhere, and there are a lot of dollars invested in the pitching staff.

Last sports comment of the day: If you want to believe for a second that the Bucks are NOT trying their damnedest to tank the season while appearing to not tank the season, then please follow this link to some listings for a lovely condominium development I’ve recently invested in down in the Mississippi delta.

I went off a couple weeks ago about the integrity of my profession, to the confusion of some and the disinterest of others. If you are at all interested in what has become the hottest news item in financial aid departments across the country, check out this article from Inside Higher Ed on some new info that’s being turned up. I still think that the vast majority of my colleagues are ethical and honorable people. It’s this 1% or less that are (A) making the rest of us ill, and (B) going to cause some changes in the way we do business. Just a matter of time… Until then, my hope is that the students don’t suffer more confusion or stress than they already have.

I’ll be in Madison this evening (Friday) and then the Milwaukee area for the duration of the weekend. Plan accordingly.

Have a happy Easter!

General, Uncategorized

This is a Zippy Post

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A great week for lists– if you have any Easter weekend prep, make sure you write it down. I know I’ll need to.

I have a lot of time-sensitive stuff keeping me extra-busy @ work this week. So somewhere, I need to carve out time to make my ‘work’ and ‘home’ lists. Already Wednesday, tho, so I hope there’s time for it all.

Wednesday. LOST is on again. *sigh* God I hate that show…

Sports, Uncategorized

Sign of the Times?

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So now we have Brewers (rather than Packers) demanding to be traded.

Wow. This is the quote, from Capellan’s agent, that really blew me away in that story: There are a lot of organizations that don’t have the pitching depth the Brewers have. I think his services could be better used elsewhere.

A lot of organizations that wish they had our depth???

You kid? Wow, you don’t kid.

My response to Jose and his agent would be, “Sure, you can be traded. Go find us a starting 3rd baseman and you got a deal.”

Sports, Uncategorized

Finally Time for an Opener

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It has been a bleak, bleak winter in Wisconsin if you enjoy professional sports.

Not to take anything away from the accomplishments of the Badgers and, to an extent, the Marquette men’s basketball team, but if you live in Wisconsin and you enjoy following your hometown pro teams, this fall and winter were fairly forgettable. In every way.

I said to a co-worker back on October 1, “I’m just counting down the days ’til spring training.”

And count them I did.

Now, after the most optimistic spring I can recall since 1993, the Crew takes the field for the first day of the season right here at Miller Park. And if you ask me, there is no team more fun to follow when they’re playing well than your hometown baseball team.

They’ve got the longest season, spanning nearly everyone’s favorite season of the year. They’ve got a fantastic atmosphere surrounding a beautiful park, and a number of young players poised to make some great strides in their respective careers.

And who’s to say how everything will turn out come next October? For today, that doesn’t matter. Regardless of what happens, you can’t beat the feeling of a gorgeous Opening Day, and the optimism of the long summer ahead.

For those of you stuck at work, home, or school today, I will try to update the flickr stream with some regularity during the day…

Off to the game!

General, Uncategorized

Quick Glimpse

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I caught a glimpse of the future this afternoon on my walk home.

I was listening to a little-known record that I really enjoy, and I realized that in 20 years or so, when my kids are starting high school, they’ll go through a phase where they get really curious about Mom & Dad’s CD collection(s). They’ll run across a little album called Shame-Based Man, and they’ll laugh. Hard. A lot.

Kind of like I did with Let’s Get Small.

General, Uncategorized

A Man Walked into a Bar Quick-Moving 4×4 Peppered With Giant Spikes

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This is probably my busiest “processing” week of the year at work. We got started on the upcoming aid year, and trying to juggle two at once always presents a lot of time-consuming issues. On top of that, I have to get a whole mess of nursing students set to go in the next couple weeks…

I understand that for most of you, what I do at work is not really interesting or relevant, but I thought I would just mention “what I’ve been up to.” Yesterday, as I communicated to a few different people, my brain was mushy enough at the end of the day that I just wanted to be beaten over the head repeatedly with a heavy, blunt object. Like a 2×4. Or something. Next week will probably be better. Opening day on Monday, anyway…

In other news:
Joe & April had a good time in Germany, judging from the reports I’ve received. April’s folks are coming into town this weekend, now that the Knitts actually have enough room to house guests at their domicile. I was surprised that I didn’t get any feedback about the wallpaper that was on the computer when they got home, but I decided that there is probably some revenge scheme afoot that I’ll be surprised by later.

Jim Droste asked me to read at his wedding in June. I graciously accepted ((I also just realized that saying I’ve known someone for 10 years really isn’t that mind-blowing anymore. This fall, I will have known people I’ve known only since college for 10 years. That really doesn’t mean much, I guess, other than 10 years used to seem like a significant segment of time.)). Unfortunately, Michelle won’t be able to join me, since that’s also WILS seminar weekend. I’ll be looking forward to it either way…

I caught myself up on some things about the house last night that have been nagging at me, so I’ll feel OK doing some “recreational tinkering” this evening. I think I might get a HDTV tuner card for the PC. I’m curious about the sort of reception I’d be able to pull through the air. I guess I should go the Internet to find the facts about how well that would work.

I’ve had to type the word “verification” in a number of emails this week. Makes it seem strange that I have consistently been misspelling it– most often, it’s “verfication” instead. Spell check is good. I think you should consider spell-checking all your email before you send it. Even the casual/personal messages. Just push F7. That’s it. Every time. Make it a habit. F7 to check, then F9 to send. Unless you do the mail through the interwebs, then I don’t know what the hell you got going on.

I’m really just rambling here, time to tune in for Brewers baseball ((Yesterday, I sent the guys an email with the subject line “Could someone please pot Kent up?” but if my experience in broadcasting is any indication, the message was met with a middle finger, and the delete button. Doesn’t hurt to ask, I guess)).

General, lists, Uncategorized

Yet Another Peeve

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So I was thinking about how much I hate it when people here in WI bitch about winter, cold, short springs, etc., when they’ve lived here for many, many, many years. You’ve been here, you know about what to expect, if you don’t like it, then do one of two things:
– Move to someplace where you fucking like the weather
– Bitch to somebody who gives a shit
– Just shut the hell up all together
(My preference is for 1 or 3).

But then I was thinking about it some more, I think this peeve is actually a derivative of my abhorrence of small talk in general. Because if you think about it, why do people complain about weather? Because our experience of the weather is something that everyone shares, and so you can have a conversation about it with absolutely anyone who speaks the same language.

But at the same time, I don’t see why we have to complain to one another about the weather when there’s not a lot you can do about it, and since we all have experienced it already, you’re not gonna blow me away with some facinating new insight about weather.
“Did you notice how warm it is out there today?”
“Why no– my dermal layer has recently and mysteriously lost the ability to process external sensory input through nerve endings and relay that information to my brain. I’m sure you can imagine this really complicates processes like driving, holding a fork, and protecting myself from injury. But in addition to all that, it makes me thoroughly and genuinely interested in your experience of atmospheric temperature.
“What? No, I didn’t notice that my elbow is bleeding profusely. Thanks for pointing that out…”

If you know me, you know that I often have times where I don’t have lots to say, particularly to strangers, in large part just because I don’t enjoy/see the point of talking for the singular purpose of filling up silence.

How’s your day?

Climate, General, Sports, Uncategorized

Potpurri

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One of my favorite things to do is argue with Dave Slotten about whether or not climate change is a myth. D-Slo is full of shit, of course.

Anyway, thinking of that made me want to whip this tidbit from the AP out there, because it features some of the Senate Republicans turning global warming into a partisan issue when Al Gore sat down to chat with them last week. Follow the link, or check out my summary:
AL GORE: Polar ice is melting at such an alarming rate, there probably won’t be any during the summer by the middle of this century. That is tragically fucked up.
JAMES INHOFE, R-OK: Piss off, Al– I distinctly remember shoveling last month…
JOE BARTON, R-TX: Yeah– and didn’t you leave the lights on at your house when you flew to L.A. for the Oscars? Prick?

And speaking of dumbasses working for the federal government, file this one under “surprise, surprise.”

Elsewhere, the Brewers finally traded a damn outfielder today, and by my count, that means they only need to move one more to get down to a reasonable number for the season. The prediction that I offered Schrubbe was “Jenks or Mench will be gone as soon as Nix is healthy.” Even though Laynce Nix is the least of the three, the fact is I think Ned will wind up with a king-sized bitchfest all year if those two really, really, really actually platoon for the balance of the season. That being said, one has to go and let the other take the bulk of the work.

Even if the Crew winds up with Geoff being their everyday guy back in left and he tanks, you’ve got 3 more guys in the system just clamoring for PT.

It’s warm today in a not-so-comfortable way. It’s too random and early for this sort of shit. On the positive side, I think it’s kept a lot of students off campus…

Finally, I think I should try to take some more pictures than I have been over the last few months, but I tend to fall into subject-ruts pretty quickly. Any suggestions?

Climate, General, Uncategorized

The Return of the Monday

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I said to Michelle last night that it would be nice to get Mondays back after the conclusion of my basketball season. Like I mentioned to her, when you typically only spend 4 nights a week at home, getting a 33% boost in time to do stuff is pretty huge. I think I’ll work on… well I don’t quite know what I’ll work on tonight yet, but I know that it’ll be at my house.

Had a somewhat non-descript yet enjoyable weekend. Got a gradual start to my Saturday, wherein I made it to Milwaukee eventually, and spent a little time reading a Ron Rindo story while I drank some coffee in Red Arrow Park. Michelle was looking at an apartment someplace up Prospect with her mom, then met me there afterward. It was a really nice afternoon.

We took a walk around downtown for a bit, but when the wind picked up it got sort of chilly. It was right about then that the fog rolled in off the lake, and it was IMPOSSIBLE to drive near the water. We swung over to Grandma’s house to drop off her other 2 dollar coins, but nobody was home. Christy’s phone was there, though, so we changed her wallpaper.

Had dinner rather early (about 5:30) at Louise’s. We ate a pizza. It was good. The booth was a little cramped, though. We were thinking of going out and maybe bowling or throwing darts after that, but we didn’t want to get started right away. We didn’t want to drive all the way back to waukesha, either, so we stopped over at the Mundschau’s and watched a DVD for a while. Michelle had been up really early on Saturday in order to get to a meeting for work at about 7:30, so she zonked out pretty quick. We watched 1 disc worth of The Office, then called it a night. Pretty low-key.

Made it to St. William’s for 10:45 mass on Sunday morning, and it was a pretty full house. I noted that the deacon was a very, very young guy. He had a well-constructed homily that started to drift at one point, but I was impressed when he tied it all back together and made some sense.

Michelle has been stalking Girl Scouts for about 5 or 6 weeks now (ever since the cookies went on sale), and after church she made what I imagine will be her final purchase of the year– a dozen boxes of Thin Mints. Yes, that’s correct– TWELVE BOXES. I hope she can make them last. When I have treats around the house, I can’t help but eat them, so that’s why I usually don’t. Michelle has a lot more self-control…

We took a ride into Pewaukee and had lunch with Michelle’s mom @ The Chocolate Factory. They were woefully understaffed, but I think that had more to do with the uncharacteristically warm weather than anything else. I imagine that they can usually get by with 2 people working there on a Sunday. Anyway, the sandwiches and ice cream were good.

We did stop over to visit Grandma and ate another sandwich a little later in the afternoon. The drive up to Vegas was quick, and there was no need to eat anything else.

Now that the kids are back from spring break, I could go for a week or two of vacation.

Hope you had a nice weekend. I’m back on the job…