This headline was in my ‘science’ feed this PM…
“Japan Space Agency May Develop Space Suit”
And I was thinkin, “that’s a helluv’n idea if they wanna send people into space…” cuz I’ve heard that trash bag ponchos don’t quite cut it.
I can see someone out of the brain trust of JAXA in the office this morning, “I’ve finally figured out why we can’t breathe in space!!!! We need a SUIT!!”
So last night I was over at Dave Schrubbe‘s place, helping him to run some cat-5 into the various rooms where he wants it, and that wasn’t bad – it’s just uniquely challenging to undertake such a task when the building is as old as Dave’s house is, and you still want things to “look right” when you’re done. That is, the last time I ran cable in a house that old, it was 456 High Ave, and we didn’t really give a damn where the holes were, or how it would look after we were done. We just wanted the damn internet in all the bedrooms. Then when we did it at Joe’s townhouse, it was easier because the house was just newer, and running the cable was just a matter of pulling it along the same places as power and phone and things were already going.
But that is a minor digression.
Dave took me out for food after that to Fratello’s, and as I was on the way home (around 11), I was thinking I could really use a trip to Target for a gift or two I still have to pick up. I took the clothes I had dried out of the car and ran them upstairs, left the car running, and checked quickly on the web to find out if Target was still open, what with the holiday season, etc. They had closed at 11 o’clock, so, bummer, no trip to happen.
I went to bed around 12:30.
I was actually running “on time” this morning, and so the fact that I couldn’t find my goddamn car key at 7:30 sorta pissed me off. I scoured the apartment for six minutes or so, then thought good and hard about how I could’ve gotten home without having the key to the car.
Then I remembered that when I got home, I left it running, fully anticipating heading back out to shop. Balls, balls, balls, BALLS.
So I starting thinking about how, if the car was actually still there (after all, it was sitting in the parking lot with doors unlocked and key in ignition for 8 hours), it would most certainly have run out of gas (I had less than a quarter tank when I got home from Dave’s), and the battery would be dead. So good thing I’ve got this zippy “roadside assistance” thing built in to my purchase of a brand new Mazda.
I get downstairs and the car was STILL RUNNING. It was on *fumes*, but it was still running. Could. Not. Believe it. I was still about seven minutes late to work since I needed to stop for gas (my car has a 13-gallon tank—I put in 13.086 gallons this morning…), but all things considered, that wasn’t too bad.
How was your ride in to work?
If you’ve been in touch with me over the last few months (and part of the problem here is, you probably haven’t), you know that the fall semester really stressed me out. Between the work and the two classes, and the Wisconsin Review, I had a lot on my plate and the grades will probably reflect my lack of time.
THAT BEING SAID: It’s over! Finished everything yesterday, and one way or another, y’know, the grades will come across, and it will have passed, and I’ll be a better and smarter person overall because of it.
This weekend, I’m in MKE for visiting w/ Michelle and some X-Mas? shopping as well. We’re going to go to the Bucks game later on, and that will be pretty cool, since I haven’t seen one yet this year. That team is pretty much kicking ass at this point; fun to watch, their bench is deep, they play hard, etc… One of the things that I’ve noticed is that they seem to have some things that have been lacking, even on the (relatively) good teams that they’ve had over the last 5-7 years or so — they actually rebound, and they play descent defense when they have to. It’s quite refreshing when you’re accustomed to just hoping the Bucks shoot well enough to out-gun their opponents.
But that’s enough about that. Like I said, gifts to buy and stuff like that, so I better ramble on and get to it.
Be watching in the next several days for a more comprehensive list of goods and services required for the New Year hoopla…
So I guess Morgan Freeman is going to be on ’60 Minutes’ this weekend, and there’s a little something about it that I just pulled off the AP wire:
Take a look and come back here if you have any comments… mine is just this: the way I see it, Mr. Freeman says EXACTLY the thing that I’ve thought about whenever I’ve thought about race relations in America for a good long while. I think it’s important to remember the past, for sure, but what we need in the present is not a constant reminder of what makes us different; why not look past that to what makes us all the same?
Sorry this is short; I’m also working on a final paper that’s due in about 15 hours…
This isn’t much of a blog post, but here’s the latest:
The semester is almost over– one week to go, right or wrong, baby… right or wrong.
No class next term will hopefully mean more time for work on the site.
I’m already plotting my vacation for next fall, and work on my thesis. I’m thinkin maybe take the last couple weeks of October plus a little of November off… ?
Head over to the forums if need/want to talk about the upcoming New Year’s event in Osh Vegas!
Talk to you soon, I hope.
For a second there, I actually forgot the password for my own damned website.
Not really — didn’t forget, just typed the wrong one.
This posting was (most of all) necessitated by the update of David R. Schrubbe’s website. So there’s that to look at:
Update your Schrubbish links
Deer season starts this weekend. Thanksgiving is next. Mostly, this means that it’s panic-time for Jason. Only a few weeks of school left and a lot of work yet to do.
Speaking of that, I have to get back to a paper that I may or may not have to hand in tomorrow. Most likely, will.
1. What is the problem with getting everyone in America a high-speed Internet connection? Did getting everyone a phone take this long?
2. October in WI: scrape your windows in the morning, roll them down in the afternoon.
3. Realizing that while in college, I’ve “read” entire books of whose content I have absolutely no memory.
4. The Packers are screwed.
5. I want to be a superhero — not for the powers, but I figure they barely have any paperwork to worry about.
I got out of class at 5 at had to promptly consult my list.
There are plenty of things I wanted to get done at home, but tops was some work I didn’t want to have to do in the AM at work. So I was there until about 6:30.
I’m glad to not have class the rest of the week, because it means I can let myself listen to the Brewers tonight and do some housework that’s been falling behind.
I just don’t know yet about this working full time and going to class twice a week. It’s not going to be easy at all.
Thank christ we’re done reading the first book in my 18th century english novel class, because it was pretty much god-awful. If not for this course, there’s no way I would ever have read Moll Flanders, but compared to that first one, it’s like a Harry Potter novel.
I’m going to try to get up north this weekend, so I’ll have to cut you loose and get down to the other things occupying my evening.
You could help me out if you know of an SSH client for Windows Mobile…
Michelle would be proud of me, because I’m making this entry from an iMac.
It is strictly out of necessity, however; I am fullfilling my promised “office hours” at the Wisconsin Review, and this is the machine that we have available in this room. There is the iMac handle on top of this box (for easy throwing to the curb), and from what I’ve heard from the the returning staff members, it might not be the worst idea to make use of it.
But that’s neither here nor there. I came to tell you what is “up” lately.
I have a marvelously stressful first few weeks of school, and not due to class, but rather to work. When I swung through here last, there was news of a new full-time job @ the Financial Aid office. It sucks to begin work somewhere that is just hitting it’s “peak” time of yeay current position get done in September, February, and June, because it is a helluva lot of answering questions which to us might seem simple, but to a lot of students just are not. And there are so many fires to be extinguished, you never feel as though you’re making any headway.
Or so it was for me.
This monitor is dusty, or out of focus, or something. I’m squinting, seriously, just to see this.
In addition to my job, I have two classes this semester. This is the first time I’ve ever worked full time while going to class. I hope that my school work doesn’t suffer too much, but I’ve also been watching far less TV than I did last term. I’m wary of getting caught up in it again at all, but I know that in a matter of a short week or two, I will be wondering what’s new with Clark, Lana, Jack (both of them), Sydney, and Vaughn. *sigh* What’s a junkie to do?
I did see this movie yesterday, via Netflix, called Saved!. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t need to make a copy or anything.
My netflixing is going well. I think I’ll be able to cancel my membership there before Thanksgiving.
Oh, this is interesting… the new job has afforded me a few “luxuries” previously reserved for those that I (aptly) regarded as “far better off than I.” I have all sorts of insurance now (renter’s, health, life, dental, even auto), and I have the ability to make a monthly car loan payment, so I went ahead and used the proceeds of the sale of Grandpa & Grandma’s LeSabre? to put a payment down on a brand new 2006 Mazda3. It’s a pretty sweet ride, as budget imports go, and I plan to own it for a quite a while to come.
So that’s new.
I’ve been reading some submissions to the Review, and I have to keep in mind that we only need to select about 5 to put in this semester’s issue, so I can be fairly selective. If the story’s not that great, don’t worry about it, right? You can’t do that to yourself…
I sent an email yesterday night to my apartment building’s manager AND cc:’d the president of the company that owns the building, because I’ve been living there for 15 months, and only one of the two dryers in the building works. It has been that way since before I moved in there. I don’t get it, and yesterday, I decided I was fed up.
It’s not the building manager’s fault at all; if you ask me, they’ve got that woman stretched too thin over a number of different properties, and what they really need is to hire more people. I know a lot of students that are going to graduate college with degrees in English, so maybe that’s a place to start…
You may have noticed the absence of new photos since the spring. I’m taking care of that today. It has to wait until I get home, of course, but I am going to take care of that today.
Oh, and if you’ve missed getting links to weird stories from the AP wire (which I’m going to guess you haven’t), the truth is I haven’t read any of them lately. I should get back on that horse, too.
Do you think anyone would notice if I left here at 5:30 instead of 6?
Ah, I can stay, right?
I’m at Ma & Dad’s house up north, so this post is going to be very short (I’ve waited long enough just for the goddamn page to load).
Wanted to let anyone out there know that I got a full-time, permanent job @ the financial aid office. This means the following:
– full-time 12 months a year
– insurance/benefits, etc
– actual money
– I will still be working in Oshkosh after I finish my master’s degree
More on this as you ask or it develops…
Oh, and an update on my summer movie viewing: I’m not gonna be able to catch War of the Worlds until it hits the budget, I still have to go to Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, and Michelle & I saw ‘Dukes’ the other day– it was pretty stupid, but definitely funny. I recommend to any and all former Duke-viewers.
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