So I had a ticket to the Brewers game tonight. I didn’t go, but I had a ticket…

Lorch didn’t have a chance AGAIN to use his free BP ticket, so he was nice enough to let me have it instead. I was planning to drive down after work, and even nearly had the K-Man join me, but then at the end of the day, I just got caught up in making phone calls back to kids at work, and before I knew it, it was 5:45 and too late for me to make the game.

Idiot.

So I wound up doing some laundry instead. And it was a pisser, because it seems like I missed a helluva contest. Ah, well.

Not a lot else new to report today; I started looking at job listings at some Milwaukee-area colleges and universities this afternoon. This is not to say that I’m immediately planning on changing jobs and moving again, but I figure it doesn’t hurt to keep one’s resume sharp and know what’s out there. I decided that if I send the applications to a couple of these openings, my goal will be to get an interview. (shrugs) I don’t even know that I can do that… God knows the last time I really had to look hard for a job, it was not an easy proposition.

Yep, OK. Gonna go to bed early. Wanna get up early, too. Here’s hoping the Brewers can rip off about 6 or 7 or 8 wins in a row (haha, whatever).

So I got the filing done yesterday. I’m sure you were concerned.

This means that I’m very nearly to the point of being “caught up” with settling in to this joint. I might even be able to hang up some pictures on the wall soon.

What’s the point, though, when you’re only going to live in a place for 10 more months?

But whatever.

I haven’t gotten any writing done in a very, very, very long time. I think I’ve sort of forgotten how to do it. I’m not even really sure how to get started again. I suppose I should approach this in one of two ways:
– read a book, so I remember what writing looks like a page
– revise something that I’ve already written, so as to get back in touch with my “voice,” soft, girly, and confused though it is

One way or another, this professional stagnation has to stop.

I had a really brief meeting with the person who will, allegedly, be taking over management of The Wisconsin Review this year. I have to be careful not to influence the place that much. I think not going there that often will help. However, I don’t want to let Paul down, or Knitt, and at the same time, I don’t want to be in charge. I wish I just didn’t care. Then I would leave and it would be easy.

OK, well. I’m gonna start drinking now.

I had a very long post written here, in which I lamented having to work at the uni at this time of year, particularly with two people in my office out on medical leave.

I also mentioned Lorch dropping off a baseball ticket for me.

I accidentally hit the “back” button on the browser, which means that the whole damn thing disappeared, and I’m not going to be typing all of that again. So, I guess that’s the Internet’s loss.

I could say that if your computer is old and slow but you want to run a (relatively) speedy browser, I’ve found the following to be a good alternative:
http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/

Also, now that I have the home office set up again, I can bring the joy of being at home to my bedroom..! (Every man’s dream…)

I’m off to file.

I had a lot going on today, but even still, I found the back of my mind busy with figuring out how some of my co-workers’ jobs could be eliminated. Does that make me sound mean?

The server was up and down sporadically throughout the day. I wondered why, but didn’t do anything to rectify it.

Rectify.

Tuesday night, after Michelle’s grandma’s wake, we stopped at Nice Ash for a drink before heading home. I thought about calling Mundschau as soon as we got there, but as it turned out, he had beat us in. He bought us a few drinks, so that was nice. Made the evening a little less stressful, I think.

Thanks on behalf of Michelle to everyone who sent the prayers/wishes/regards… I think that, as one would expect, this will be an adjustment for the whole family, but they’ll get through it with support. Again, thanks to you for that.

In sunnier news… shit. I’ve got nothing. I really need to graduate. Bad, man. Real bad.

Maybe I should go to the doctor. Just for fun.

Michelle is coming up tomorrow night so we can go with Joe & April and a couple of their friends to the hibachi in Appleton. I’m looking forward to that.

Meanwhile, I’m anxious for the Brewers to be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs so that all the chumps and hosers holding a candle for this team will get a grip on reality.

Oh, but—do you wanna go to a game before the end of the season?

I’m offering this post as a little etiquette tip for all the young folks out there…

I know it’s difficult for you guys to imagine a time when most people didn’t have cell phones—and even harder to think there was a time when most people didn’t even have answering machines!

But it IS true. It hasn’t always been so easy for us to get in touch with one another on a moment’s notice. So, given this lack of knowledge, it’s understandable that you may feel compelled to pick up that cell phone each and every time it rings, regardless of where you are, what you’re doing, or what is requiring your attention at the given moment.

Have you ever picked up your phone just to tell the person on the other end that you can’t talk right now? Back when your mom and dad were your age, someone trying to call you when you were not at home might be met with only an endless series of unanswered rings. How would they know where you are or what you’re doing??? It seems like it would be troubling to be left under such a dark shroud of mystery, but one way or another, we dealt with it.

Then answering machines came along, and instead of trying over and over to call someone back when they were home, we could at least leave a recorded message for the person we wanted to reach—something like, “Hi, this is Timmy. Could Billy call me back when he gets home? OK, thanks! Bye-bye!” It seems archaic, I know, but it was significant progress at the time.

Some older people (like me, or your mom and dad) got used to occasionally missing a call, and needing to get back to folks (or “peeps”) later on. That’s why we’ve embraced a service that comes with most cell phone plans these days, called “voicemail.” It’s very similar to the answering machine, except that you don’t need a box and a clunky old “cassette tape” to make it work! You can call in to your voicemail right from your cell phone and pick up that message from your friend or loved one, without having to be at home!

With the voicemail system that accompanies your cell phone, you can go ahead and let that call ring through..! I know it will probably be hard at first, but the person you’re talking to or doing business with when your phone rings will appreciate such a rare and singular devotion of attention. The weird part is, by paying closer attention to the people you’re interacting with in person, you may actually find it’s not necessary to call them on your cell phone later, to be reminded of what it is you talked about…

Michelle’s Grandma Brown passed away earlier today after a slow declination of health over the past several months.

On my way down there to assist the fam in any way I can. Hope to have something more cheerful to share again soon…

Hey. Been busy the last couple evenings, so my time for blogging has been limited.

On Wednesday, I headed down to MKE immediately after work to head to the State Fair. I met Jen at home around 6, and Joe dropped us off so we wouldn’t have to park and stuff.

We were waiting for Michelle to finish work before starting on the rides @ the midway, so we ate, and milled around the various animal barns. I like seeing the animals at the fair. My top three are the horses, cows, and pigs. Goats are OK, too.

We also went into the “birthing barn,” and visited the (relatively) new offspring.

I ate like a horse while we were there and at the end of the night, still felt like I had room for more. Here is a list of what I ate/drank within the 4.5 hours or so that I spent at the fair:
Cob of corn
14 oz. Leinie’s honey weiss
Corn dog
16 oz. MGD
1 cream puff
1 “thing” of cheese curds
16 oz. Water St. Brewery Bavarian weiss
Ice cream bar
Half of Michelle’s elephant ear
Frito Pie

I had not had a Frito Pie previously, and it was flipping fantastic. The rides were fun, although the carney running the Gravitron was the biggest dick in the history of carneys. He had a whole mess of absolute rules for riding the Gravitron, and he actually threw someone off for violating one of them. It was completely absurd.

At the end of the night, it started raining like hell and the three of us got completely soaked on the way to Michelle’s car. My clothes didn’t dry overnight, so it was a good thing that I still had some laundry from our road trip at Michelle’s house (wearing wet jeans = not fun).

Then on Thursday night after work, I took a trip over the Poquette’s house to visit the fam and see the new baby, Harper. She is very baby-tastic—cute, small, relatively immobile, and, from what I observed, possessive of a very calm disposition.

I also got a chance to construct a train track for Kilian while I was there, and we also played outside a bit and read a book. Amanda made dinner and it was tasty. I ended up being there later than I originally anticipated, but that was fine with me; we had a good visit…

Tomorrow I’m going to have a visit up in Oshkosh from Kyle and Robin and Punkin, so I’ll have to do a quick sweep around the apartment tonight, and make sure that I’m ready to receive guests. I don’t quite remember the last time they were up in Vegas, but I know it was at least a year ago (shrugs).

Other than that, I should probably just stay on the workie train…

Oh—one last thing: if you try to call me over the next couple days and you’re greeted by a British woman, think nothing of it and please leave a message. My phone is really screwed up for the time being, and until I can either get it fixed or get a different one activated, I’m trying my best to “make due.”

If we don’t talk, here’s hopin you have a good weekend…

I wanted to draw a distinction between that little diatribe and the other stuff I could talk about here.

I did laundry today at a new place, on the southwest side of town. It was on South Park, just past 20th. The building used to be an auto parts store.

It was a reasonably priced laundromat, and not very busy. I’m getting more accustomed to having wifi available when I do the wash, because I try to get some web-type things done while clothes are in the dryer. Today I did the month’s bills and balanced my checkbook while I was there. It’s a good system, I think.

The other laundromat with wifi only gives you 8 minutes per quarter for the dryer. At this one, it was 12. That’s a big diff, man– the same 36 minutes for a full quarter less. When Michelle and I were in Bozeman, we did a load of wash and it was 25 cents for FIVE MINUTES. Talk about taking it in the butt…

I hope that the management of this laundromat appreciates the irony of having a soda machine that DOES NOT take quarters– dollar bills only.

I also swung in to Target and bought MASH and some chalk. I might throw darts yet tonight.

Oh, one other thing– I’ve downloaded this Skype software, so if you’re on that, you could probably call me by such means whilst I’m at home. I haven’t actually set it up yet, so I don’t know what sort of info you’ll need…. I’ll probably update this post later.

But if you’ve tried the ‘SkypeIn’ service, I’m curious to hear your feedback. I’m thinking it might be worthwhile, depending on the limitations of the incoming service…

PS- If you’re on the Skype, my username is jason.a.bock, and if you’re not, you can still call me on the ‘puter by dialing 415-287-4077

OK, well, off to try that, put away clothes, and try to keep the place generally tidy.

So I was walking home yesterday. And I was at the corner of Irving and Jackson. At the stoplight there was a car with a couple of young men inside. It had out of state license plates. I watched the one on the passenger side try to subtly drop some trash out onto the curb. I was standing right there as he did it.

I wrote down the license plate number of this car, as I talked to Lorch on the phone. I asked him for his opinion, if I could call the cops or something, because frankly, I was more appalled that this had been done in plain sight of another human being than anything else.

Who does something like that? I’ll tell you who. Goddamned savages.

These are the same people that walk into my office or others on campus rudely chatting on their phones while trying to conduct business at the reception desk at the same time. They’re the same ones that let their kids do what the hell they want, whereever they are, without any consideration of how to behave in a civilized society.

I really just can’t believe at times that I turned out the way I did, while at the same time, there are all these savages sharing the streets.

I didn’t call anyone about the littering, because, as Lorch and I discussed, what the hell would a cop do about littering? I didn’t say anything to the young men in the car, mostly because they looked to me like fellows that could kick my ass. A little garbage is probably not worth a trip to the emergency room, but as I think back, I probably could have just picked the garbage up and thrown it out at home.

What I should probably do, beyond lamenting the existence of the savages, is to find some way to tame them– I should focus on what human knowledge and civility I can pass on to their ape-like kind.

To begin, let me share three simple rules for beginning to not be a savage:
1. Have some respect for yourself and the other humans around you
2. Don’t say or do things to others that, if done to you, would make you upset, angry, or otherwise put-off
3. Have respect for the world at large, thinking of it not so much as something that belongs to you, but something that belongs to a person that you care deeply for

I very nearly let it go for three days, sans update. But here I are.

I went up north for the weekend. Got into ER at about 8:00 pm or so. It was a very quick trip. I passed Erika and Patrick on the way. There were bound for the NPHS class of ’96 reunion. I tried to get in touch to hook up with them for drinks on Friday evening, but the cellular gods conspired to defeat me. I stayed in and played Oregon Trail instead. It worked for me.

On Saturday, I helped Dad and Uncle Mark with the lean-to that Dad’s been wanted behind the garage for about 2 or 3 years. It didn’t *look* like a lot got done in the course of the day, but I’d say some of the most difficult, time-consuming measurement got done that day.

We also went go-karting. Uncle Mark bought the tickets. We went to Elmer’s in St. Germain. It was fun.

I left pretty early on Sunday, with the expectation that I would need to head down to Milwaukee in the afternoon. It didn’t turn out that way, so instead, I cleaned out my car and just relaxed some at home.

I’ve been living here for over a month now, so I decided I’ve pretty much had it with living in the disorganized mess. I picked up a lot in the living room today, took some more stuff out for storage in the garage, and I hung up the dart board.

I think I might have come up with a way to get the desk to fit in the bedroom upstairs, but I’m not yet sure I’m going to like it. The thing is, with any design I’ve thought of so far, I’ve been trying not to block the loft railing. I’ve come to the conclusion that won’t be possible with the furniture I want to put up there. I think I’m going to put the headboard of the bed against that railing and the dressers roughly in the position that my bed currently occupies.

I understand that only a few of you have actually been over here. I guess you’ll have to use your imagaination for the time being…

PS- Here’s a pic. -JB, 8/8

I also got ultra-frustrated with my phone again today. I had it plugged in for HOURS and it hasn’t finished charging. Then Wordy called, we were talking, and when I jostled the cable, the phone died. So I don’t get it. I’m going to try turning it off to see if it charges. That seemed to work before.

I did log on to my Verizon account, and one new thing that they have is a gauge that tells you when you’ll be eligible for the “new every 2 (years)” discount on a new phone. I was happily surprised to see that I have that coming up on 12/3, where I thought it was a good three months more than that.

So Wordy, who has been using my old phone for a while, is getting a new one soon. I’m going to have him send that old one back, and I think I’ll re-activate it for a couple months. What a crock, though, eh?

Well, it’s now about 11, and I need to get some sleep. Damn– I could just about sleep on the floor in the living room…