I am baked.  Completely.

Went to the Brett Favre Celebrity Softball Game yesterday at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton.  It was a good time.  Joey K, April, BryGuy? and I were in attendance.  We sat on the grass along the left field sidelines, where the sun had a great shot at us from 11:50 to 2:30 Sunday afternoon.  My legs are burnt the worst, but my arms and face aren’t far behind.  Actually, I take that back.  My face is not as bad as the arms.  Still, legs much worse.  I am "medicating" all burnt regions with Noxema, and it seems to be helping a little.  What’s really creepy about sunburn in my book is how the skin keeps right on burning after you get out the sun.  I was sitting at my desk today, and my face got redder as the day went on.

Enough about the burn, though — the game was entertaining if nothing else, and Bryan and I had a good time doing our commercial-top-40 radio voices, mocking the announcers that called the game.  They were a little annoying, but we made our own fun.  Afterwards, we *were* going to go to the hibachi joint in Appleton, but it turned out they weren’t open until 4 pm.  We were there at around 3:30.  I think the consensus was that we were a little tired at that point anyway.  When I got home, I took a nap and let the skin continue to sear.

Later on Sunday evening, I finally hooked up with Jim Droste for the post-semester smoke, which we enjoyed on the steps of Breese Hall, in stark violation of university policy.  That’s sort of the best part.  We took a walk to Oblio’s for a couple beers and then had burger’s at Brooklyn’s for dinner.  It was a nice little Sunday, and Jim and I commented that there’s really no reason to ever leave college if you don’t have to.

Right now, I’m working on cutting the commercials out of the ‘Alias’es that I taped this year.  I figure I’ll put the whole season on disc, and who knows, maybe Mom and Dad will have time to catch up before next year gets rolling.  *Sigh* I really couldn’t believe the finale, as usual, but I guess that’s why we watch the show.

Busy week ahead — Modest Mouse tomorrow night in Madison, Brewers on Wednesday in MKE, then out with Bruiser on Thursday night here in Vegas.  I was hoping to maybe get up north for the weekend, but it doesn’t look like it’ll happen.  Unless Joe feels like going up, I dunno… he’s probably gotta work.

Lemme know if something interesting happens, eh?

I looked up at myself in the mirror while I washed my hands this afternoon, and for a moment I thought, “What the hell am I doing here in the men’s room on first floor Dempsey on June 1, 2005? Wasn’t I supposed to be somewhere else by now?”

I concluded that I shouldn’t dwell on anything too long, and quickly reminded myself that everything that happens is supposed to happen. There are always possibilities, of course, but what we experience is right.

Right?

I listened to an old 80’s Rewind the other day, too. That was already four years ago. I missed the show a little, and thought maybe I would record a new one in the apartment. It could be fun. Maybe I could make it a podcast. But I think I would run into some copyright infringement issues. I’ll look into it, though.

If you haven’t been here for a while, things are generally good. It’s summer, I don’t have a car anymore, I’m working fulltime during these months at the FAO, and the floor in my apartment is fairly clean.

If you’ve known me over the course of the last 12-18 months, you know that I’ve given myself one of Ray Lorch’s old, most annoying habits: turning anything anyone says to me back around into an action which I will perform “in said person’s face,” or something similar. For example, if we were engaged in conversation, and you said to me, “Let’s go down to the park,” then I might retort with, “I’ll go down to the park. IN YOUR FACE!” You can see how this makes no sense at all, which makes Lorch doing it completely understandable.

Anyway, I don’t know how I got started on it, but the other day, Joe-my-brother-in-law said something like this to me, and I immediately recognized how annoying and dumb it is to say. Since then, I’ve been trying to break myself of the habit. I am up to the point where I have good control over saying it out loud, but internally, everything is still hitting people’s faces. Maybe in another week or so it’ll be all over.

I dunno if you’ve seen the movie E.T., but that is one show that was wildly popular with my generation, and I pretty much thought it sucked.

So how was your Memorial Day weekend? Do anything exciting? I was in Milwaukee, and had a fabulous time in all my various activities. I did forget to gas up the rental before I took it back. I figured it out, and it wound up costing me an extra 17 dollars. Could’ve been worse, I suppose.

I’m looking at the calendar here and realizing that I’m not going to make it up north until Father’s Day this summer. That’s crazy. Last time I was there… was it Easter? Nah, couldn’t have been. Actually, y’know what? It was Easter. Jeez. That’s longer than I usually go. My whole summer is booking up awfully fast, as usual. This weekend I’m quasi-booked, next weekend I’m open, then it’s Father’s Day, then it might be Milton for croquet, then the 4th, then Summerfest, then I’ve got some time, but man. Y’know?

BTW, this year’s Summerfest lineup totally caters to my parents’ generation. Look at all them dried-up old crackers they got to headline! At least I know I won’t want to blow any cash @ the Marcus. You know anybody with free tickets yet?

The FAO is a virtual graveyard today. Lots of folks I think have the 3-day weekend on the brain, and a good portion of them have slipped out early. I am one of four in the office today; eight are out.

It looks like it could be a helluva nice weekend, provided that the rain holds off. Yesterday was just gorgeous in the afternoon, so I took some photos. I should probably put them up here in case you’d like to have a look.

Right, so Memorial Day: not always that memorious, what with all the visits up north and the comings and goings and cursings and rantings on the highway, but y’know — it’s important to keep the reason behind the holiday in mind. I guess I didn’t realize that it started way back during the Civil War, so there’s a little trivia for ya. I think that, especially during these times when we have our servicemen & -women strewn across the globe risking their lives all the time, we should be seizing the opportunity to remember the people who made the ultimate sacrifice. For those who were fortunate enough to come home again and have since died, we should remind others of their great deeds and lift them to a special place in our minds and hearts this weekend.

So take care this weekend, have a good time with family and friends, and may your summer begin on an enjoyable note.

Has it really taken me this long to figure out the flaw in my writing philosophy? Possibly so.

Last night, I had what one could characterize as “an explosion of creativity,” during which I rapidly whipped out a short narrative of 1100 words. I thought more about those words later in the evening, and realizing that I have a lot of similar ideas that I could string together, I figure I could have myself a neat little 5-8 thousand word story by the end of the week.

And my question of myself today is, “why the hell haven’t I always just acted on these impulses?” My tendancy has always been to catalogue them, file them, allow them to percolate and eventually have them lead to nothing. I have a file drawer full of half-good, under-developed ideas, but what good is that doing me? Really nothing.

I should be acting on all of these ideas as quickly as possible, because a completely written story that’s shit is always better than a fleeting idea that’s awesome. At least the shit story gives you something to work with. And, if you have some shit stories, when people ask you what you’ve written, you can say, “Well, this, this, this and this. They need a little work, but they’re done.” The other nice thing? The more you just do, the better you get and the less you have to follow up on later.

In all honesty, what I’ve been trying to do the last couple weeks is to use the Internet only for things that are absolutely required, and leave the TV turned off unless I’m actually watching one of my stories, because those two things alone have freed up a considerable amount of time.

So anyway, I’m at work and I’m going to do some other stuff. Have yourself a fine Tuesday…

I’ve had a very nice extended weekend here in the greater Milwaukee area… all four screenings of Episode 3 were good (although, I have to admit that by the 6:20 show on Thursday, I was getting pretty tired, what with having slept just 3 hours the night before), I had a very relaxing and enjoyable Friday, my Saturday night was great, and now I just have to find a way to get back to Oshkosh.

Jen called me last night with her initial reactions to the movie and I was a little bummed that we couldn’t see it together on opening day like we have with the other two. But, I anticipate going another 2-4 times over the course of the summer, and I know Jen will want to see it again, too, so…

Christy also said it was really good, and she had to run out and rent Attack of the Clones to see the goings on in that movie (relative to the third) again. So I think that goes to support the notion that this new flick did such a great job of sewing up the events of the whole saga, it makes the less-than-spectacular episodes in the series better.

Enough about Star Wars I guess. I was sitting here for a bit at Joe’s computer, just surfing the web and not really reading anything of consequence, then all of a sudden I had this pang of paranoia where I tried to remember what it was I needed to be doing today: ‘OhmigoddoIhavetoreadsomethingforclassorwhatohcrapI’msupposedtobewritingI’mgonnafallbehinddammit,’

But then I remembered that it’s summer, and it’s all good.

Hope to be back soon…

George,

You are still a selfish, egomaniacal, money-grubbing dick.

But Episode III was awesome.

Best,
Jason A. Bock

I walked across the pedestrian mall between the side door of Dempsey and the library this morning to quickly return some overdue books.

I looked up at the overcast sky, solid white with clouds, but still blinding, and I noticed that all the leaves were on the trees.

I figure this must have happened at some point during my 2-week hiatus from most aspects of living, as I consumed myself with work for classes.

I had a minor epiphany as I looked at the trees, realizing that I marvel at the change of every season, every year, and I always note how the passage of time, while constant, seems to speed up in memory. N’ary a winter melts into spring, or a spring bloom into summer, or so on and so on, without me taking a moment to remark to myself how beautiful and refreshing each change is. I’ve seen the Earth cycle through so many times, but each new season feels like a rebirth, and in the same moment, I find comfort in the change and anxiety knowing it’s fleeting.

This summer, I think I’ll try to enjoy the (relatively) carefree weeks a little more. I should try to be inside less. I should go to the lake and do my writing outside. I should try to visit with people and build some good memories.

Hope to see you this summer; get out and into it while you can…

I’ve got a couple minutes here while I’m at the front desk here at work, so I thought I’d let you know what I’ve been doing the last couple weeks:

– research
– writing
– avoiding writing
– avoiding research
– class presentations
– studying for a final
– writing
– going to Mt. Morris to write (thanks, Behlings)
– sending movies back to Netflix almost as fast as I get them

So I’ve got a test tonight, and I have to do a little more studying for that when I get home, and thank goodness I have the upcoming weekend in which to get the balance of all my writing done.

It’s going to be pretty cool to have written a novella a week from now. Almost like I’m actually a writer.

I started to write this *on* the site itself, but recent post-disasters in which I pushed the back button by mistake made me rethink that scenario.

Today is the first of May, and that is indicative of at least three noteworthy things:

– Jen and Joe’s wedding on Friday was a great time–everything from the shooting range in the morning, to the ceremony in the afternoon to the party in the evening went just swimmingly. I impressed myself by being able to get home without incident after all the hoopla ended, despite the fact that I was alone and pretty much intoxicated.

– Grandma’s birthday is today, she turns 74. We had a little party for her on Saturday night, where the food and company were once again very good.

– On a more panicky sort of note, I have two weeks left in the semester, and still plenty of work to be done.

Currently, I’m still at Jen and Joe’s house, although they took a trip up to Uncle Bob & Auntie Chris’s cottage in Mt. Morris for the weekend. Mom wanted me to unload the dishwasher, so I suppose I ought to do that before I go. I might also try to get some of the aforementioned school work done while I’m here.

The Brewers are playing at home this afternoon, and I would kind of like to go to a game, too… but I suppose I have all summer for that.

I might have more matrimonial/weekend reflections after I have some breakie.

I had a large post all typed up here, it went on at some length about my malnutrition and lack of exercise, and pointed out that Christy (my little sister) would have some choice words for me on that topic.

After that, I went into great detail of today’s episode where I visited Dairy Queen and paid a charge of 2.60 with a 10 dollar bill and a dime, and in return received a five, two singles, a quarter, two dimes, and a nickel… what are people thinking about?

Unfortunately, I accidentally tapped the goddamn back arrow and erased the entire post with a simple keystroke.

And I’m not going to type it all over again.

In lieu of the entertainment you expected here, please see the following:

Everyone on the Internet is a Lunatic

Now I’m going to make a sandwich.