Had a busy few days here, and we’ll certainly hit on those topics in today’s update. First, though, the revelations:
1. I could open a small office supply store with the wealth of notebook paper and pens that I own.
2. I could provide towels to a 10-room motel with all the towels and washcloths I own.
3. I could open a soup kitchen with all the cooking equipment I own.

I got up at 5 AM yesterday to go to my local Wally-Wal-Mart? (wow, my computer knows how to spell Wal-Mart) to meet Dave Mohrman and my truckload o’ goods from Wisconsin. Got some much-needed help in bringing everything back to the apartment from my friend Ben. We dropped the stuff off, then I bought him breakfast, came back here around 8:30 and proceeded to unpack/reorganize the crib for the next 15 hours. Boy, is it ever nice to have this stuff again, though. I’m particularly fond of all the cooking equipment (I can have waffles for breakie or dinner whenever I want) and my desk chair. Oh, how I’ve missed my chair… (link points to a chair that is approximately the one I have, not quite exactly.)

So yeah, yesterday I was just workin’ on the house pretty much all day. I also gave the beer bottles that I do have a bath in preparation for the bottling process, which will go down on Saturday. I made a shopping trip in the morning as well, so I guess I didn’t spend quite 15 hours in the unpacking, it was closer to 13.5, since I drove to Belgrade for the few remaining beer bottling supplies I needed (some siphon tube, bottle-filler wand-thingy) and stopped at Home Depot on the way back for a bit o’ lumber (something that I’m quite ashamed of and will never do again — from now on, if I want decent lumber, I go to a lumber yard) and a can of clear spray lacquer.

I did some laundry for the first time in this apt on a day other than Sunday when I washed the towels Mom & Dad sent. I almost forgot about the last load completely, but remembered during the last commercial break of Smallville.

The return of my chair to this bedroom has complicated the sitting process somewhat. Now there is some climbing over the bed involved. It’s either that or push the chair completely out of the bedroom every time I get up.

Monday was kinda busy as I had reading and writing to do for my class this evening, and between doing that and all my procrastinatory activities, I filled up the day reeeeeeeeal fast. Additionally, I took a ride with Ewan & Meredith to Target, and, ummm, damn where else did we go?? Oh: it was Staples. Yeah. See, a steamer got spilled on their keyboard and they needed a new one. Check this out: they’ve got a volume control on the keyboard. I thought that was pretty sweet. Mine is pretty basic; the only thing I was looking for when I bought it was the single-row “Enter” key. If you’ve ever had the type with the big enter key, you know what a pain in the ass that can be, especially if you’re used to one with the narrower version.

You will take not with this here keyboard that the Enter key takes up just one row of the keyboard. It allows the keys above it (“|/” and “Backspace”) to be on separate rows. You get a keyboard like this one, and if you type a LOT (like I or most other web-dependent Americans) you get used to the layout and, even if you don’t practice textbook perfect typing technique, you use most of your fingers and you stop looking at the keyboard. Well, if you suddenly get to using one like pictured at left here (which retails for 10 dollars and whose manufacturer doesn’t even have a website)

it’ll mess up your whole system. If you squint you can see the massive enter key on this board, but look above at the Memorex to dig what I getting at: with the big enter key, the space devoted on the Memorex to the “|/”-key is enveloped by Enter, and they divide the area of the “backspace” key between backspace and “|/”. If you’ve grown accustomed to the normal-sized backspace, and man, you gotta switch over to a mega-Enter keyboard, suddenly you’re typing and you need to backspace, and you get this instead, “\\\…”

Well, that’s all I’ve got to say about that. Check this out: there is actually a video posted in a timely manner this week, on a Wednesday. Here you get a sampling of the shambles I found my apartment in with all the boxes yesterday, and there’s a brief tour of the goods that arrived.

‘Til tomorrow or so then, take it easy.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s only 10:30.

I was originally planning to save a review of Daredevil for Sunday, but then I just happened upon this week’s Onion, and Keith Phipps basically stole the opportunity from me.

You wanna read the review I would’ve made of this movie, follow the linkage.

Yes, here we are, a third birthday in less than two weeks! Raymond Chris Lorch, turnin’ the big 2-4 this very day. Please click here and send him a birthday beer: lorchrc at hotmail dot com.

Well, since the last time I was here, I had my first visitor from WI stop out to see me, also my first overnight guest since Dad left Johnstone Hall back in August. Mark Knuetson was on his way his way to Seattle with his mother, Chris, and it was a nice visit. We went out to dinner at Montana Ale Works, which is in a building that I think we all agreed had once been… something else. Either some sort of warehouse or a train station or something. I looked for a picture of it, but couldn’t find one, so… eh.

Mark and I that night went to Hasting’s, then to Barnes & Noble. I bought two things, both per Mark’s advice. The first, at Hasting’s was a movie: Sexy Beast, starring Ben Kingsley. I paid six dollars for a used copy, and on our way out of the store, I said to Mark that just about any movie is worth six dollars. Six dollars, I said, was one bad decision at the box office. Even if I think the movie sucks ass (and I’ve been assured I won’t) it was six dollars. I mean, I’ve got six dollars, I might as well just throw it in the street.

The second thing I bought was a book, Mark told me he read it last summer. And while certain mutual acquaintances of ours would rather see Mark reading screenplays in his wealth of spare time, I’m glad he read House of Leaves, or there’s no chance I ever would’ve picked it up. I’ve only just begun to read it, but already I can tell I’ll enjoy it. I like to read contemporary, progressive fiction, because I figure it can only help my own writing to see what’s on the cutting edge of literature.

Speaking of which, we also talked some about Blender, the only short story I’ve ever finished, and it was helpful to get another person’s input. That always helps with writing. The draft that I have posted right now I hope to replace with a new one some time in the near future, as the conversation brought my long-term intentions for that work back to mind.

I’ve decided just now that it would be fun to put up a single mp3 selection from the “what I listened to” CD along with the site updates. Since I have the space.

Well, I suppose I oughta save some of what I’ve got to say for tomorrow. Later today I’ve got to pick up some cheap hoops-playin shoes, ’cause I’m going to toss the rock with my friend from class, Ben. I’ve also gotta get primed up for Daredevil, and make sure I’ve got all I need to have to actually get the beer-makin done tomorrow. That whole situation actually is going to work out well, since I would’ve been gone to LA when it had been up for a month, had I made the beer last weekend. Anyway.

You should also take some time to give a read to the latest Interesting & Factual Tale, which, if nothing else, I had a good time writing.

Massive apologies for the Video That Wasn’t over the weekend… I totally forgot to take the camera when I went to the beer store, and then there were circumstances that led to me not having time to even make the beer, and then Sunday was full of things that had to get done prior to Monday, and, well… *sighs* here we are right now.

Good news is that a “filler” sort of video is here for you, and seeing as last week was a total disappointment, this week there shall be two (this being the first).

Tomorrow, Mark Knuetson is supposed to stop by on his way to Seattle. He’s going there to live with a cousin and her husband for awhile as he looks for a job (then hopefully) a place of his own. The way I understand it, he’s hopin for good things, but, if after a month, it’s looking bleak, he goes back home to Monroe. Not a bad plan. I’m just really excited to be getting my first visitor from back home out in Boze-ville.

Speaking of which, I may or may not have some Keifers out this way for the spring break season… Eric is taking off during Christine’s break from school, and they hope to be visiting the University of Oregon, one of the schools Eric is considering for graduate work. I talked to them back on Friday, and he got one acceptance so far — to U-Conn?, which is PDC (stand for pretty damn cool).

Speaking of the weekend and Pretty Damn Cool, Marquette beat #15 Wake Forest on Sunday, improving their season record to 17-3, and moving up to 11th in both major polls. Awesome. I find it easy to justify my loyalty to MU over WI’s other D-1 program given that my older sis Jen is a Marquette alum and I lived for a spell in MKE, and never in Madison.

On a related topic, Jen’s birthday was today, I called twice, but got the message both times… I assume that she was sleeping the first time and at work the second, so, no big deal. I sent a card. She’s 26 now, and it would be just fine for you to send a belated beer to jenjedi at yahoo dot com.

In other Jen-ish news, she finally got her commission over the weekend as well. Thanks to Joe M for sending a picture. And way to go, Sis.

Sticking with that “Falsehood” theme, my PDA led me astray for the first time this weekend regarding movie showtimes. It said that About Schmidt would be playing at the Rialto, and it was a stone-faced lie. I was unpleased.

You want more unpleasantness from the weekend? Oh, I can dig some up. The reason that I didn’t have time to make the beer on Saturday is that I became consumed with a city-wide quest for a case of beer in returnable bottles. I need these, of course, to bottle the product I will be brewing myself. After checking in every grocery and liquor store with the Bozeman city limits (and this is a spread-out town, lemme tell ya), I returned home in failure and looked up the phone numbers for the local beer distributors. Turns out that none of the nations leading brewers (Miller, Budweiser, Coors) distribute returnables ANYWHERE IN THE GREAT STATE OF MONTANA. Holy man, I told Ed that I was floored. So after communicating the reality of my fruitless search to the Wolff family, they agreed to take me to Costco (which is the MT version of Sam’s Club for those of you reading from home) to get some wholesale-priced local beers in re-cappable bottles.

I went through that whole story just so I could say that I found one that I picked up only cuz they had an airplane on the label and it’s really good.
Sorry for the lax attitude about the updates last week, but after I got the desk, I actually found myself sitting at the computer a bit less. This may actually be a good thing, as last semester, I spend virtually every moment I was at home in front of it. Regardless, the good news for those of you who enjoy regular updates is that I have a full week-and-a-half schedule all plotted out, so stop back in the near future.

Right now, I’ve gotta go to bed…

So I was spending a good part of the morning here surfing the web looking at other web hosting companies, etc, and I was checking out what they had back at GeoCities? (and let me tell you this, you gotta pay for more and more stuff on the web all the time) and realizing that, in fact, the deal I have here with these people is pretty good, and what am I lookin around for anyway? They even left my site online and everything during the month of January, when I owed them money and couldn’t pay it cuz I was broke. I realized that my time would be better spent updating the site. Which I should try to do daily, but don’t always succeed.

Speaking of which: There will be a “dual-post” today, as I have a mind to shoot the video early this afternoon, capture it and upload early this evening.

I’m also excited because About Schmidt finally came to town (although we’re still waiting for 25th Hour) and the boys said that it was good, I should take a look.

If you’ve been one of the less fortunate who’s heard my bitchings about the on-again, off-again connection I was getting here in my new apartment (is it still new? how long does it stay new?) then I’m glad to report I’m done bitching, it’s fixed. Turns out I had to upgrade the firmware on my router.

Let’s see, let’s see… I watched Friends last night. Phoebe and Joey were trying to set Ross and Rachel up on really bad dates so that they would realize that they “belong together.” Personally, I don’t think you’re gonna see that happen again until the show is over and done with. But who knows for sure, in light of this news.

Couple other small things: I had my first dropping something in the toilet incident here the other day. The cap from the Tums went ker-sploosh, but I washed it with some nice hot water and dish soap, so I think it should be fine.

Oh, then I was watchin CNN the other day, and Larry King was gonna have Bill Clinton on that evening to talk about… whatever. Lots of stuff, probably. I realized that Bill wants to be Jimmy Carter. Real bad.

Last thing, then I’m going out for beer-makin supplies: the return of the poll!

This is my heading strictly because I’ve waited too damn long since the last update – an error on my part.

So, there was some news over the weekend, and it was very bad. Dave Schrubbe woke me up at 7:30 on a Saturday, and before he said anything, I wondered what the hell I was doing on the phone with him; then he told me. Then I found out. Then I watched CNN for 5 hours until there had been a press conference and the president had spoken, saying that the crew of STS-107 on board the space shuttle Columbia, 16 minutes from touchdown at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, had been lost. The debris from their craft, which burned up on reentry, we came to find out today may have been spread over some 800 miles across the southern United States. I was exhausted and sad by the end of the day, and I felt bad talking to Mom and Dad and Christy on the phone that evening, as I had little to say and not much energy with which to say it.

I felt especially bad because they were celebrating Christy’s birthday before she had to go back to Oshkosh for the new semester. Her b-day is actually today, and now I realize that this update won’t be posted until most of you have either gone to bed lost the opportunity to send her a beer in observation. She’s not old enough to have a beer, anyway. But she’s not a teenager no more!

Well, what happened over the weekend worth mentioning otherwise? I really can’t recall doing much. I cleaned up and did a little shopping. I bought a desk and put it together Saturday evening. Sunday night I shopped for groceries. Yeah, boring weekend.

I did go to a bar with classmate Ben on Friday night to watch basketball. That was fun. Even though the Lakers won. We had some beers, etc.

Oh, and I now realize that my last update was on Thursday during the day. Since that time, I saw two movies: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which I enjoyed quite a bit, I thought Clooney did fine work in directoral debut. Last night I went to see Adaptation, which may have been the best movie I’ve ever seen.

Today, among other things, I watched Apollo 13. I was chatting a bit with Wordy at the start of it, and I told him that I still tear up when Neil Armstrong first walks on the Moon every damn time I watch that flick. He says the liftoff does the same for him.

Yeah, we’re weenie-ish that way. You got a problem??

There’s a new I&FT (see, they’re hipper now, with an acronym) so you can check that out at your leisure.

Well, g’night, then. Happy Birthday one more time to Christy; love ya, Kid.

It’s a great idea, isn’t it? You get done what you know will have to be done at some point in the future earlier than it needs to be done, but if you don’t behave in such a way very often, you often forget to go ahead with what you got done ahead of time.

In any case, shot yesterday, and nearly forgotten to be uploaded today, I present the latest video, #1 in the “Rooms of Jason’s Apartment” Series. The room in question: the bathroom. Enjoy. More later/tomorrow.

As in, the opposite of “income.” For those who want to be “in the know,” yes, I did get that loan check I was itchin’ for on Saturday. I paid my rent, paid my web server rent, bought dishes, bought shelves for the living room, bought my books for class, bought some groceries, and bought some crap I need for the computer (a new CD-RW drive among the crap).

I also did a rudimentary budget for the semester, since that plan seemed to work out so well for me last time. I wrote all my checks for all my regular & static bills, so I know exactly how much I have to spend on the eating and any sort of entertainment that I care to enjoy. The final verdict? I need to find a job reeeeeal bad. This is one of my goals for the day, I’m going to head to the union and check out the “employment” office, see if they’ve got anything for me. As I told Joe M yesterday, I’m looking for something with lots of mindless paper or computer work at a desk; y’know, a job I’m reeeally qualified for.

The sun’s shining again today, after some snow again last night. The temp had been in the 40’s for three days, and most all of the snow/ice was gone from the roads, then it rained for about an hour before turning to snow, so you can bet walking and driving are fairly treacherous today.

It occurs to me that I should call Ewan & Meredith, find out what happened to their jeep.

You should really see these mountains. It’s somethin’ else, on a nice day like this. The “out the window” shot really does them no justice.

Hey, buy me a digital camera if you’ve got the cash and inclination.

Oh, the Writings section is now online, but it’s all stuff that was on the old site as well, so… well, I guess Blender has been revised, so that may be worth your time. I dunno, whatever.

Finally, in about… 4 hours, Katie Mac is going to be taking a GRE test. For those of you who are unfamiliar, this is the college equivalent of the SAT or ACT. It’s the test they give you to find out what you learned in college, intended to reveal whether you’ve accumulated enough knowledge to go to grad school. Understandably, Katie’s a bit nervous going in… if you wanna know about nervous, just ask D Slotten. Anyhoo, if you happen to remember, send Katie some positive energy right around quarter-to-three Central.

So I dunno if you tried to get online last night (or, technically, I guess, early this morning) but there was ZERO chance of it hap’nin, my friend.

I was a bit pissed cuz I meant to send a file via the Internet to the LA Boys, and of course, was unable to do it. I watched a full hour of “Blind Date” on TNN, though. Those people are pretty hilarious. Especially when you just don’t have the energy or necessary motivation to change the channel.

Today I play the waiting game once more with the loan check. So you know how that goes.

I’m hoping it comes, though, because Ewan & Meredith’s jeep was in a accident in the parking lot at Barnes & Noble yesterday, and they need a ride about town later on, and if they’re at all like me (or other normal people) they’d like to get their shop on.

No major advancements on the page here today… hey, it’s the weekend. I think I’m going to shoot next week’s video later today, though.

There’s other stuff I could talk about, but I really wanna take a shower, so I’ll just leave you with the photo here, which Wordy took, which is of me, outside of Field’s in Oshkosh, on New Year’s Morning. Have a good weekend.

It was a very good year.

The sun is blazin so bright today, I have to wear sunglasses while I’m sitting at the computer… really! Look at that “out the window” shot from today: see the sun comin over the X? Damn.

Really excited to have a phone again… yes, in case you missed it, it was turned on yesterday, so you can now call me if you like, or maybe just maybe I’ll get in touch with you. So far I’ve called Mom & Dad (although Mom wasn’t home) and Mark Knuetson. I fielded a brief call from Wordy, but that only to confirm my cordless was still working.

Last night, went to see LOTR for the 4th time. Went with Mike, Natalie, and Ben from class. Mike & Ben had each seen it once before, Natalie not at all. They were all quite flabbergasted to learn I went to the flick four times. Hey, some people just like movies.

I was finishing up the Links page last night, and I was meaning to put a link to every single one of my bookmarks in there, but realized some of my bookmarks were fairly useless, thank God, cuz then I didn’t have to bother. What you have there is a mostly complete list.

Trying to think of things to get for my sisters for their birthdays, which take place 6 days apart in early February. Drop a line with ideas, if you have sisters, or have purchased gifts for other people’s sisters, or are a sister yourself (in the genetically related sense).

Based on an e-mail received from Josh Schneider earlier today, I was going to have a “guess the dufus in the bed” on the Interesting & Factual Tales page, but, it turns out I’m not crazy, and I did say who it was. So that sorta cashes that idea.

I’m reeeeeally hopin for the loan check today so I can buy some more food and a few other essentials (like some cheap dishes I saw at Wal-Mart), but I’m not holding my breathe. I’d also like to go see Confessions of a Dangerous Mind later on, but again, the financial concerns. I’ll keep you up to date. In the meantime, you should probably look at this.