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.

• sigh*

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.

bi

Hi.

It’s been a while, but cry me a river.

Today I’m at Jen & Joe’s, doing some heavy-duty document scanning.  Later on, I want to go to the baseball game, but I’m short on people with whom to do that.  We’ll see how it goes.

I am (sort of) actively compiling that list of my 50 all-time favorite records, and I’m sure you are as well.  Looking forward to comparing!

Ummm… lemme see, what can I do in terms of updating you?  Well, y’know that I’ve got another year of grad school left, and after that, things would pretty much be up in the air, right?  Well, I’ve got an application in for a full-time, permanent job at the Financial Aid office, where I’m working as a grad assistant right now, and if I landed that, it would (at least) cement plans for the next couple of years.  And it would also mean that I could go to the doctor, so that would be cool.  They still haven’t begun the interview process, and I have no idea where I rank against the other candidates, and I’m also terrible at interviewing, so I’m certainly not counting on anything yet.  We’ll see how it goes, and I’ll let you know…

I’ve been spending a lot of time this summer with a young woman that I met at Jen & Joe’s wedding back in April.  Her name’s Michelle.  We have a really good time together, and in this short span of a few months, I already have some interesting stories I could tell you.  So, y’know, basically just in case her name comes up here or in person in the future, you have some foreknowledge.

I haven’t done as much writing lately as I’d like, but I think I still have time to do another draft of my novella, ‘Timepiece,’ before the summer is over.  I’ve been doing some reading as well; right now I’m in the midst of the newest Harry Potter book.  Have you read it?  DON’T tell me how it ends or I’ll hate you.

Somewhat related to reading/writing, I’m also going to be the fiction editor of the Wisconsin Review this year, which I think is pretty neat.  It’ll be fun, a good chance for me to hone some ‘management’-type skills, and will probably look OK on a resume in the future.  For those that don’t know, Wisconsin Review is a literary magazine published at UWO.  It comes out twice a year.  I’ll let you all know…

That has to be it for now, I’m afraid.  The drivers for the scanner are done downloading and Joe is all "get moving on the scanning, eeehhh…"

So anyway.

Last thing, give me some feedback and/or discussion:
what’s with the space program and the fate of the shuttle as a launch vehicle?  Balls…

(Not to be confused with the Fred Savage show that was regrettably shuffled around the NBC lineup before being prematurely canceled.)

I should’ve written it down, because now I can’t remember how the conversation came about, or what the context was. I was talking with Mom last weekend about work, and how every job falls into one of two categories: you either have a sit-at-a-desk-job or you have a movin-around-job.

Most jobs are pretty boring unless you’re talking about them with people who do similar work, or understand the industry you work in. Occasionally, something really generally facinating might come up (like if you do medical research and you find a cure for cancer or something), but more often than not, when asked “how’s work?” a person could respond with “I’m still sitting,” or, “I’m still moving around,” or, “Well, I used to move around, but at my new job, I sit,” etc. In the grand scheme of things, that response will probably have just as much meaning to the person making the inquiry as something longer or more specific.

I will, in the near future, need some assistance in updating/revising/revamping my resume. I won’t be looking for a new job exactly, just one that’s almost the same as what I do now, but for more money. And insurance. Man — going the doctor would be super-neato. I would get allergy meds, and asthma meds, and checkups, and flu shots, and all kinds of cool stuff. Even better would be a dentist. I would get my teeth cleaned twice a year, and maybe I’d get those wisdom mothers yanked out. And maybe I’d even go get my eyes checked, too! I am totally like a car that you’ve owned for 5 years, and the only “maintainence” you’ve ever done is washing it and buying gas.

In other news, the heat/humidity wave in Osh Vegas has temporarily subsided. I have the windows open and the fans blowing, and it is a comfortable 74 degrees in the apartment…

This weekend I’ll be going up north again w/ Joe for the father’s day and whatnot. I’m trying to plan some other “up north” weekends for the rest of the summer, too…

Yesterday Joey K was nice enough to let me borrow his wheels for an evening trip down to Madison to see Modest Mouse. My plan was to meet Dave Slotten at his place, then proceed to the show, at Orpheum Theatre on State Street, in tandem.

I was about 2 or 3 miles southwest of Oshkosh on hwy 26 when Dave called and asked what the date was that was printed on the tickets.

Yeah the show had already taken place the night before. So that kinda sucked. I don’t know how I got it in my head that it was supposed to be June 7, but I never even looked at the date printed on the tickets.

Since I had Joe’s car, I took advantage and stopped at Target for new pillows, and the grocery store for milk bread cereal and cheese.

The evening turned out to be fairly productive anyway, as I cleaned the floors, the bathroom, the kitchen, the dishes, sorted through mail, and even dusted the whole apartment. My TV was particularly dusty. It’s much better now.

Hoping this evening will work out better, when I travel w/ Jim Droste down to Milwaukee for the Brewers game. We shouldn’t have a problem getting there in time, and I have it on good authority that this game is definitely going to happen. Crew’s won 2 in a row against the Team Which Personifies All Things That Are Evil In Major League Baseball, so I’m guardedly optimistic about the prospect of a sweep.

You may recall I was there for Capuano’s last start @ Miller Park as well, and his fine effort was wasted when the offense couldn’t muster 3 runs. That kid’s pretty good, though; I like him. I think I like everybody on the Brewers staff except Obermueller and Tommy Phelps. I wish both of them were more consistent.

Hope everything on your calendar is unfolding as expected and without incident.