Category Archives: General

Not Lazy, Just Not a Lot to Report

Let me tell you this right here– work is crazy nuts right now.  Freshman orientation is probably the most hellish time of the year.  Combine that with all the paperwork, and, well… there are things happening.  Not as much time to look at or think about the interwebs of late.

Continuing to work on my thesis and move along on that whole deal.  Trying to get my committee all put together and my prospectus done so that I can actually register for the thesis credits.  After that, it’s kind of just a matter of deciding that the work is done…

As I’m working on that prospectus this evening, I’ve also got an ear on the Brewers, and a Firefox on the Cubs.  I would really like the Cubs to keep on losing whenever they wanna get around to it.  The Crew continues to slowly but surely climb, record-wise at least, but Chicago just doesn’t seem to want to lose.  It’s kind of frustrating.

Hey– Mike Cameron just hit another one.

Also officially got a letter in the mail today saying, “Hey– you can has apartment!”  I did think it was funny that the form letter I received encouraged me to get my phone service locally through Ameritech, because “other telephone carriers may charge an additional connection fee to access the Ameritech owned lines.”  Yeah.  Well, y’know, that first merger only happened about 10 years ago, so they might not have updated the template on that WordPerfect 5.0 floppy.

OK, so I’m going to get back to work on this bibliography.

More Moving Tidbits

I made sure that I got home in time to do some spot-cleaning around the apartment last night– I knew Marty was showing the place this afternoon, and I figure the better it shows, the fewer times somebody else will be trouncing around your apartment before it’s rented again.  That strategy seemed to pay off, as I got back from work and found Marty with a couple in the kitchen, filling out a lease.  Suh-weeeet.

I also called up WE Energies today and got the ‘lectrics set up for my new place.  Check this out (blew my mind, but I’m the one writing the checks): budget plan at my current place: $106 per month.  Budget plan at my new place: $25 per month.  Holy.  Balls.

I’m also going to look into DSL as an option for Internet rather than cable, because AT&T seems to have Time Warner beat on price at this point.  And now that they’ll let you get DSL without a contract or an existing phone line, well… hey.

13 days to go…

Quick Notes Slash Recap

Hi.

Successful weekend for the most part, but I still have more to get done this evening…

  • Brewers took until today to win a game, but at least they avoided the sweep.  What the hell is with the Cubs?  How long do you think they’re going to wait to start losing?  All-Star break?  Maybe.
  • Here is my new address, effective June 28: 4121 N Ardmore Ave, Apt 9, Radio City, WI, 53211.
  • Grandma’s floor is back, it’s dry, and it only took about 4 hours to finish up.
  • Since Marty and Lise are going to start showing my place tomorrow, I have to go now and get some stuff picked up around here.

Twinkies and the Weekend

Schrubbe couldn’t make it to the baseball game last night, because of the flooding up in Oshkosh.  He didn’t miss much.  Just 12-20 thousand g-damn Twins fans making a ruckus and the Brewers doing exactly squat at the plate.  Seems like they’ve had a tendancy to make average or below-average pitchers look like Cy Young a lot this season…

Anyway, Michelle went with me to the game instead, and we still had a good time.  It was hat day, so we got those, and the weather was really nice for a game.  Summer is 100% officially here, and I don’t mind one bit.

I have to make a run today over to my new apartment building to confirm which unit I want– the one that I’ll probably move into is occupied right now, so I wasn’t able to see it the other day.  Worst-case scenario, if there is something horrific about this one (I don’t anticipate that, but…) I will take the other that I saw on Thursday.

When I get home, I think I’m going to get busy with packing.  I’m going to pull all my stuff down from the hotter-than-hell attic, and see if there’s anything there that I can get rid of.  If not, it’ll just be time to start putting stuff back in boxes and getting it set to move.  Two weeks to go, and I’ll be on my way out.  After this afternoon, I’ll know my exact new address, too, so I could make calls to arrange for moving my electricity and cable services, forward my mail… I could probably get the trailer booked, too.  So I’ll be busy.

Tomorrow, Joe and I are putting Grandma’s kitchen floor back together.  So, y’know, fun weekend top-to-bottom.

You Can Really Actually Call Off the Dogs Officially This Time– No Kidding, I Am Absolutely Certain

I’m going to be moving into the place I looked at yesterday afternoon on Ardmore Avenue in Shorewood.

A few of the major features that sold me on it:

  • Less money overall per month than the one I saw on Knapp the day before, and more space
  • wood floors– look nice, easy to take care of (the other one had carpeting)
  • I am dead serious– the storage unit in the basement is about TEN FEET by TEN FEET.  It’s frakking huge.
  • Parking readily available, and cheap
  • Month-to-month.  If it becomes necessary, I can check out at will, with a scant 28-day notice.

More on this as info becomes available.  To my peeps in Osh Vegas: stay the course, good luck bailing out, things will get back to normal.

See you at the Brewers game later if you end up there…

Scrambling

So I found out on Monday morning that I did NOT get the apartment on Capitol Drive.  Since that afternoon, I’ve been working madly (with some help from Jen) to try to find another place, and soon– I’ve got just 18 days left on Wright Street.

I told the manager at 1029 E Knapp yesterday that I would take one in that building.  I wanted to secure something as a backup, and since that building is owned by the same folks as the one on Capitol that I didn’t get, they already had my application and a security deposit.  They don’t have a signed lease yet, though, so I’m still going to take a look at this place on Ardmore Ave in Shorewood.  This place that I’m going to see this afternoon could be a LOT cheaper per month overall (50 bucks or so).  An extra 600 clams in your pocket at the end of the year makes a diff, y’know?  The description is a little frightening, though: “small but charming.”  In apartment hunting for me, size is going to matter a bit, and if it is somehow smaller than the place on Knapp, well… I’ll have to cough up that 600 bucks.

Well, Let's Try That Again

Like I said the other day, I’ve got a handful of new pictures that I’m putting up.  I noticed today that I forgot to “re-size” them, so they were taking an agonizingly long time to load (a 2-meg photo will do that on a residential connection).  They’re fixed now, so if you tried earlier to look and ended up closing your browser in frustration mumbling, “goddammit Bocko…” you can go back now and enjoy.

Also, I could go for a sandwich.

A Welcome Addition

A part of me is very afraid of all the information that Google is collecting.  The scariest part is that unlike people, who reach a certain capacity point and then begin to purge (“Whoops, closet’s full– what can I get rid of..?”), Google is just looking to find ways to store MORE information.  They never throw anything out.  What are you going to do with all of that in the long run, y’know?

That being said, I am a frequent user of serveral of their software products.  By default, I use both their search engine and their map software.  An addition to the latter that is just AWESOME in my book is the “public transit” map option that just recently debuted for Milwaukee.

I pay about 30 bucks a month for an UNLIMITED bus pass through the university.  It’s great, because I don’t need to pay for parking at work or worry about finding a space, and I also save the gas money and wear-and-tear on the car.  However, I really don’t use the bus other that for getting to work (and occasionally to Michelle’s), in large part because figuring out how to get from point A to point B on a particular schedule is sort of pain.

No longer a problem with the public-transit-google-mapping.  Tell it where I want to start from, where I need to go, and what time I need to get there, and it gives me all the info I need.  VERY cool and FANTASTICALLY convenient.  I just might start driving even less…

Try it out– here’s just an example of a route I have to take to go see an  apartment tomorrow morning (different unit in the same building I mentioned last week).

Minor Accomplishments

Yesterday I didn’t leave the house for a very long time; I think I was gone a total of 40 minutes, but I felt good at the end, having gotten a ton of little stuff done.  I got my kitchen and bedroom cleaned up, did a ton of laundry, and I figured out two or three little nagging problems I was having with computers for quite a while.

It’s rare that I feel good enough about what I did during the day that I’m OK with just kicking back and relaxing in the evening, but Saturday was just such a day.  I think tackle another room or two and get some writing done today…

Just a Couple Weeks to Go!

Justin Roth is going to be playing that house concert at Jen & Joe’s in just two weeks.  If you can make it, shoot Jen an email to let her know…  It should be a lot of fun! Here’s another Justin tune from YouTube.

firing from the hip since 2002