Jim Droste gave me a good idea the other day when he started posting some photos from his recent trip to the Dells– rather that upload a whole big mess of pics at the same time, he’s treating us to just a couple a day. Easy for him, easy for you to not miss something.
So, yeah– stay tuned over the next few days for some updates to the photo galleries…
In the process of working on some thesis-related paperwork, I had occasion to review a story that I wrote about three years ago for a fiction class. I enjoyed most of it, and I did feel like I was able to give it a solid, honest critical assessment, having not even looked at it in such a long time. I was saying to Wordy that I could probably clean up the ending a bit and try to send it out for publication.
Then just this afternoon, I was having a conversation with Ron Rindo, my thesis director, about a very similar thing: what a fabulous idea it is to finish a piece, set it aside, and don’t even think about it for a couple months so you can look at it with a fresh perspective. That not something that I’ve always taken the time to do in my academic career, but where this thesis is concerned, I think it’s absolutely necessary. It’s a shift of thinking to go away from a standard, stone-set academic calendar to the notion that this is MY project, that I get to do at MY pace. Quality has to be most important thing, and I’m going to try to be mindful of that from here on out.
I believe that I found a new place to live.
I can’t say that with 100% certainty, since I haven’t heard back yet about the application that I filed on Wednesday, but I think it looks pretty good. All things considered, I will be trading a lot of space and the free & available washer/dryer that I have now for a significantly shorter commute and slightly lower overall per-month living expenses. I’m glad that I’ll now be able to focus on thesis work and getting packed in the short term.
I was told when I saw the apartment that I would have the opportunity to move in early, paying a pro-rated portion of a month’s rent. I’ll probably shoot for a week ahead; I took a few days at the end of the month off for that very purpose. I’ll now be just under 2 miles from work; an easily bike-able distance. Maybe I’ll even get a chance to shed some of this doughy flab with the balance of my summer, too…
Been very busy at work, which is my excuse for the gap of several days between posts. In the meantime, what’s happened? The Brew Crew is on a tear— here’s hoping they can carry that momentum through the road trip. Even if the Cubs haven’t gotten around to losing just yet, you know they’re not going to win out for the rest of the season. Brewers just have to keep it up, and put the lengthy losing streaks behind them. It’s a well-documented point that a season is going to have ups and downs, but Milwaukee has pretty much used up their allotment of “downs” already.
Also very glad to see the Democratic presedential primary season finally coming to a conclusion. I was glad to deliver the news to Petters last night that Hillary is going to officially leave the race at the end of this week. In the short term, that means that focus will shift to Obama selecting a VP. I am NOT at all in favor of the Obama/Clinton ticket for one major reason: I would be concerned that Hillary was trying to run the show from the backseat all too often. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the Clintons are really, really, REALLY pushy when it comes to politics, and that’s probably putting it lightly. Barack needs her to be a valued campaign resource, and he definitely needs her endorsement, but he also needs to make this potential presidency his own. I’m pretty sure that’s what we (his supporters) got on board for.
OK, back to it. These phone calls aren’t going to ignore themselves…
Had a couple unrelated thoughts this afternoon after discussing a point or two with different people– interested to hear from others on either or both:
Carry on with your weekend. I have 64 minutes to go.
There are a lot of things that I will not miss at all about living in this apartment. The astronomical energy costs during the winter are probably number one. The water that takes at least 2 or 3 minutes to heat up (and sometimes quite a bit more) is another. There’s also this ridiculous issue of hardware with my cable.
Back in February or March I started to notice a major upload-speed issue, and I had to have a tech come out to install some signal dampening device on the modem. Then about 2 weeks ago, my connection went down, completely, and I was only able to get back online by removing that device. Well, today it is virtually impossible to get connected to my house. I waited around 4 minutes for my website to load, and retrieving email is more or less impossible.
Don’t know why I’m ranting about this, since no one is going to be able to read this entry today anyway. But yeah, I’m looking forward to living somewhere where they’ve had cable before, and probably have the whole neighborhood network regulated a bit better.
Just 33 days left til moving day…
Back to work after a long weekend. Glad that I’m only in for a half-day today…
I’ve had some inquiries, and just wanted to let any curious parties know right off the bat– nothing particularly exciting happened over the weekend. Had a pleasant time in the Apostle Islands region and that was it. Madeline Island is nice. The weather was pretty good. It rained a bit on Sunday, but wasn’t too big of a deal. Kayaking was fun. I’d like to do it again.
Michelle and I are going to go to the Brewers game on Wednesday; they extended that $10 outfield loge special for an extra day and we managed to get 2 seats together.
So, after the average price of gas in the Milwaukee area topped 4 frakking dollars today, I said to myself, “hey, is that new Honda hybrid rumor I heard anywhere close to fruition?”
Still haven’t found any photos or drawings of this car, so what it’s gonna look like is a bit of a mystery– but they say it’s a “futuristic five-door hatchback,” for what it’s worth. I’m excited. I wonder if it’s too early to get on a waiting list?
The Republican Party’s best hope for winning elections ever since we invaded Iraq in 2003 is to make a certain segment of malleable voters too afraid to pick a candidate OTHER than them. It is going to be a long, long, election season, and this will not even come close to being the last you hear about it:
McCain criticizes Obama over Iran comments
McCain’s camp is counting on people hearing buzz words like “reckless” and “inexperience” and “terrorism” as a means of planting doubt about any possible course other than guns-blazing and unconditional deference to the United States. There was another very successful international superpower in world history that operated the same way– The Roman Empire. They’re not around anymore, but…
When sifting through these stories, it’s important to get all the details and sift down to the facts of the respective arguments. When Obama says he’s willing to meet with the leaders of Iran, he’s not saying that Iran is awesome, or even that they’re no threat. He’s saying that the American President should have the courage to look the leader of an adversarial nation in the face and say, “let’s settle our differences peacefully.”
It’s not going to be easy to keep standing up in the face of the constant GOP beat-down on this issue. They will do everything they possibly can to make it seem crazy, illogical, and impossible to support Obama’s position on foreign affairs. I feel like if you really think it through, it’s easy to see that Obama is looking to be more inclusive of all nations, while remaining vigilant as to the risks. McCain, meanwhile, is more vested in the infallibility of the United States, and conducting diplomacy through the barrel of a gun.
L.A. resident, UW-Oshkosh alum and general chum Matt Marshall would like us all to be aware of the following video clip starring his state’s governor. You may have to crank the speakers a little bit.
Logged in to my checking today to find a pleasant $600 surprise. Well, it was only a mild surprise, of course, but nice to see it a little ahead of schedule anyway. For those that might wonder what this means for YOUR rebate, be aware that I get my tax refunds by direct deposit, and the last two of my SSN are 99.
Off now to do the opposite of what the administration was hoping, and chuck this money into savings…
