Regens-blog The Regens-blog, a joint blog for all the MSU students on the trip I took last year has some great pictures on it. Go see!  ¶   12 comments

  Iliad for Dummies   ¶   2 comments

  MSU Updates... The Student Government Site is now officially powered by blogger. check it out.  ¶   0 comments

  Dungeon Life I love Clark College. It has the best staff of any RC, if you ask me. All 4 years here, I have never wished to live anywhere else. But waking up today to the smell of mildew, then stepping barefoot on a little black beetle, I began to wonder whether "D-Block" (D is for Dungeon) is really the best place to live.
Our window leaks. Badly. Some moron threw a brick-o-block through it a year ago last summer, and some of the cracks are still there. In addition to that, the air conditioner's leaking. Into the carpet.
And the bugs are a little more enthusiastic too. These little ground beetles really aren't that big a deal to me, so long as we keep it on a once-a-day-or-less schedule, but I don't want an infestation.
We've hung a "Welcome to the Dead Marshes" sign on the door. I find it fitting.
Housing Staff, if any of you are idle enough to surf the internet and find this blog, please, please come fix the air conditioner and the window.  ¶   0 comments

  Hobbitses! The Playhouse in the Park version of The Hobbit was definitely worth the $8 ticket price. 30 cute kids ran among a few adults, playing all the roles of the "younger" races of Middle Earth to the hilt. The blonde boy playing Bilbo was at least a passible actor, and most of the dwarves gruff voices were funny enough to listen to that it didn't really matter what was going on up there. By the time they were smashing up Mr. Baggins plates, I'd been drawn in.
The Playhouse is built in an old train station at the very back of the Murray city park. It seats around 100 people. Gollum sat in the seat behind me until it was his turn to creep out of the shadows and steal the show. The toy Sting's glow was surprisingly convincing in the low light, and with the exception of the wolves, all the puppet-creatures were well managed too. The narrator sounded closer to Rural Kentucky than Tolkien's homeland, but so did Beorn. Audience is everything, I suppose, and the kids in the crowd loved it. The play was a whimsical time that I think would have made Mr. Tolkien smile.  ¶   0 comments

  "I'm Not Scared" "I'm not Scared" proved to me once and for all that child narrators may be the best to write. The movie centers on a 10 year old boy who discovers another boy of the same age held prisoner underground. But that's a really weak description of it. Innocence and courage drive the film, but these are still oversimplifications of the main character. It is simply a must see.
After the film our confused pack of friends piled into the on-campus Starbucks to sit with the professor that puts on the films and attempt to be intellectual. We failed, but it was still fun.
Tomorrow I'm playing dodgeball with the Residential College, then seeing a play version of the Hobbit tomorrow night. Sunday is church, homework, and SGA site. Monday is the first RCA meeting (yay!), Tuesday is the Recycling Rally, wednesday is SGA, Thursday is something I've forgotten about, and Friday is another Int'l Movie + coffee.
It's SOO Good to be back here.  ¶   3 comments

  Nothing to report Getting into the swing of things still. My schedule's too erratic to set a good time for blogging. Today I read the beginning of Canturbury Tales, again. This time it's for Lit to 1760. In 2 months it'll be for Humanities. Yes, I'm just getting around to Humanities. It's a complicated thing. Also played a little Warcraft 3, just because it's fun. I wish I'd started playing it sooner. I'm going to be up all night reading the Illiad, so I earned a little Warcraft.
Anyway, I'll try and be around more. Really.  ¶   0 comments

  Hanging out with Rainy T Insomnia hit me like a terrible metaphor tonight.
I stared at the ceiling and listened to the party across the hall for about 20 minutes, then I got up. I couldn't really join them, they've never been my crowd, and Tristan was asleep so I couldn't shake it off w/some TV (even though it's Saturday Night and I'm missing Adult Swim!). So I walked.
20 minutes later I was watching a hummingbird eat out of our massive pile of newly planted flowers. I watched him for a while, until a group of girls from the Hughes Street Party walked by and looked at me like I was an idiot or a creep. Nothing like having people go to the other end of the street to avoid you.
Anyway, I left the hummingbird before someone called Racer Patrol on me ("There's, like, this creepy guy, and he's just standing there..."). I walked on up to the farthest corner of campus, looped around the President's House, and started heading back down. The whole time the racket from Hughes street was echoing across the silent campus.
Cutting across the quad, I ignored the Shoe Tree and landed at Rainy T's feet. Rainy T's our founder, and because someone back in the day said every college has to have a bronze statue of their founder, he stands there handing a diploma to the quad. The way he's standing makes him both a seat and backrest, with his cane to your left and the diploma dangling to the right. I sat there, looking across the misty quad and up at the fairy-ringed moon, and wondered what old Rainy T would think of MSU today. The noise from down the street still reached over. For a school that's a 60/40 majority female, it always seems like there's a lot of loud guys here. Maybe it's the party factor.
Rainy looks like a religious man. He has little glasses, a comb-over, and a patient look to him. He reminds me of the elders I've seen at other churches. The patience hasn't always been there, the lines of it being earned are plain.
Rainy T looks like the kind of guy that would have had patience for a lot of people. Leaning back on his bronze loafers, I wish I was a little more like him there. He's handing the diploma to some kid who's flown through in 3 years (and 2 summers), but under those Harry-Potter glasses he's saying "I hope you're ready for this." He knows. He's got his robes and his hat and his lines across his arms. The little hoods hang off the back in layers. He's earned his medieval hoop-la. And he'll help you earn yours.
But hopefully you'll be walking away with a little more than just some piece of paper. Hopefully an Education will follow.  ¶   0 comments

  The Freshmen are here Clark, my building and -if you ask me- the Gryffindor of our Residential Colleges, is packed full of them. About half the building is freshmen. Seems like a pretty big number to me.
Tonight I had the privilidge to show around 250 freshmen Tuesdays with Morrie at our first indoor outdoor movie. Why Indoors? It's raining.
Welcome to Murray.
I am having a great time doing the RCA thing. I hate beaurocracy, and I despise red tape, but today had little of that. Today I was just a guy in a T-shirt and jeans helping people move in. I helped move desks. I helped fix desks. I bunked beds. I sweated more than I have all summer. I have been hugged by 4 people I never knew before today.
It's been a great day.  ¶   0 comments

  Another list of excuses I'm in Murray now, Just FYI. I love it here, it's absolutely beautiful, but I really miss Nashville already. Hopefully NiT will help me feel like I'm at least still nearly in-town, even though I know I'm not.
I miss Portland Brew.

Anyway, I'm moved in and gearing up for the RCA biz. RCA = Residential College Association, I babbled a lot about it back in May. I'm president of it. Big job. Great job, though. And I'm in good company. I've been impressed by the last few RCA presidents, and I have 2 former ones here to help me now.
Thank God.
Clark, my Residential College, is a little crazy right now. I can't share details because some residents might actually read this (heh), but we're going to have some rearranging to do.
Anyway, I'm napping. I haven't slowed down yet. Here's why.

Why I won't be posting much over the next few days:

Friday

9AM make posters for movie night Sat.

10Am Carr Health Recycling Rally planning. Bring info on Recycling Reps for Clark / Hester.

12PM get Food.

1PM print posters

2PM (or whenever I finish posters) Go by RSEC and reserve games that I didn't reserve Aug 1 b/c I'm stupid.



Saturday, August 20
10 a.m. Residential Colleges open (help move people in)

1 p.m. – 3 p.m. Dr. Marvin D. Mills Multicultural Center Open House, Curris Center Room 110 (not required, might be nice of me to go)

3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Parent Reception, Susan E. Bauernfeind Student Recreation and Wellness Center

4 – 5 p.m. New students (residential and commuter) meet in their residential
college with their First Year Leader (FYL)

5 p.m. Opening ceremony - Taste of Murray, Regional Special Events Center (Manning SGA booth, come see me)

7 p.m. Lawn Party hosted by Campus Ministers, Winslow Commons (only in Murray...)

9 p.m. Residential College Association (RCA) outdoor movie, “Tuesdays with Morrie” (moving to Curris Center theatre if there are any nasty storms)



Sunday, August 21
whenever: Help Tiff Move in.

5 p.m. Dinner at Oakhurst (cookout and watermelon)

8 p.m. Student dance (skipping if possible) – Hosted by Interfraternity Council (IFC), Panhellenic Council and National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), Winslow Commons



Monday, August 22

MEAL PLANS BEGIN TODAY, ALL STUDENTS EATING IN WINSLOW OR T’ROOM MUST HAVE AN ACTIVATED MEAL PLAN ON THEIR RACER CARD OR PAY CASH

1 – 2:30 p.m. New Student Convocation, Lovett Auditorium

2:30 – 4 p.m. Meet with college head and Residential College Council (RCC)

4 – 6 p.m. Set up for Dinner

6 p.m. Dinner with residential college



Tuesday, August 23

10 a.m. Realities on Campus, Lovett Auditorium (may skip)


12:30 – 5 p.m. Student Government Association (SGA) poster sales, Curris Center (room decor!)

1 p.m. – 4 p.m. Campus Activities Fair and Interest Meetings, Curris Center

5 – 7 p.m. Dinner, Winslow Dining Hall

8 p.m. Hypnotist – Tom DeLuca sponsored by SGA, Curris Center



Wednesday, August 24
Classes begin
9 p.m. First floor meeting in residential colleges  ¶   1 comments

  Open Letter to All Writers: Dialect Dear Fellow Writers,

I realize the impulse to capture the nuiances of every characters speech is great. I, like many of you, believe that it gives each character "voice," both literally and in that wider sense that professors say haughtily.
However, that does not give you the right to render extended speeches in nearly unintelligible dialect.
I realize many of your favorite authors do this. It was acceptable in the first half of the 20th century, and maybe even a little later than that. Consider this passage from Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury

"Gret day," he says. "You mean to tell me dey chargin um to let um show here? I'd pay ten dollars to see dat man pick dat saw, ef I had to I figures dat tomorrow mawnin I be still owin um nine dollar and six bits at dat rate."

Faulkner was a southern man writing for Yankees. When he wrote, he wrote to show people a place they hadn't seen before. His stories took the dying embers of "local color" and fused humanity into them in the most grotesque of ways. Grotesque was the name o the game, and dialogue was exagerrated just like everything else. The main characters dialogue may be sprinkled with the occasional phrase, but it was the people they met that spoke in such thick accents.
Isaac Asimov sparked this letter. I'm reading his Foundation Trilogy, which is a monumental look at the shape of society. What he does in chapter 4 of the second book of Foundation is most painful.
Observe:

'Fwom the little of have seen of the efficiency of yoah Foundation, I have no feahs on that scoah.' And he nodded to Pirenne, who responded with a delighted bow.
Quite a love feast, thought Hardin. 'I wasn't complaining about the lack of effiency, milord, as much as of the definite excess of effiency on the part of the Anacreonians - though in another and more destructive direction.'
'Ah, yes, Anacweon.' A negligent wave of the hand. 'I have just come fwom theah. Most bahbawous planet. It is thowoughly inconcievable that most human beings could live heah in the Pewiphewy. The lack of the most elementawy wequiahments of a cultuahed gentleman; the absense of the most fundamental necessities foah comfoht and covenience - the uttah desuetude into which they -'

Are your eyes bleeding yet, or are you just laughing to tears?
Lord Dorwin (the first speaker) is, admittedly, as grotesque a character as any Faulkner wrote. He is the pompous, nose-in-the-air beurocrat from the decaying Empire at the heart of the galaxy. But, Mr. Asimov, when you tell me in the opening page that he "spoke in overprecise statements and left out all the r's", I believe you! You do not need to prove his pronounciation to me in the following 5 pages of dialogue!
I like to think that this type of writing is fading. I love Isaac Asimov's writing, but he and Faulkner both belong to a different era of literature. Now, in our media-heavy culture, we know what a southern accent sounds like. We have heard people speak without their r's.
Please, writers, trust the readers with a phrase or two and the occasional hint from another character. Don't let Lord Dorwin into your fiction.  ¶   0 comments

  Packing up and heading out I'm not going to be blogging much over the next few days. I really shouldn't be right now, actually. I'm trying to condense my massive piles of stuff into more managable boxes of stuff to take to college. It's not working.
I leave Wednesday morning, and by Wednesday night or Thursday I'll be back to my usual post-a-day minimum.  ¶   0 comments

  Busy Day Lunch, then an exit interview, then a second exit interview with the boss of my boss's boss. Not going to be blogging much today, sorry. This weekend I don't know how much I'll be around the internet. I may get a post off tomorrow night, and should have another one after taking David to see Stealth for his birthday Sunday night. Hopefully I can keep up my 1/day minimum.
I'm packing for Murray too. I leave Wednesday morning. Too little time left.
By the way, I forgot to mention that I fould the link for the Dr. Phil article on Chris Gonzalez's blog.  ¶   1 comments

  Dr. Phil Dr. Phil has been polluting my living room TV for a while now. His quick-fix, no nonsense attitude was even recognized in Germany, where one of my roommates compared Dr. Phil's method of fixing things to the more patient, "German" way. He wasn't talking about helping people, though. He was talking about how to cook.

I've always been bothered that Dr. Phil oversimplifies things to an extreme. I wonder sometimes if he even hears what his guests (I can't bring myself to call them "patients") are saying. I think he just has a stack of 8-minute responses to whatever diagnosis they make based on the interview video (audition tape, heh).

That long rant was to introduce this overview of exactly what Dr. Phil does. The article is from Psychotherepy Networker Magazine, and explains a lot about what he does and why his viewers love it.  ¶   1 comments

  More Christmas Wishes Das Keyboard.
Discovered it on Just Another Pretty Farce. This is "for Uber Geeks Only." $80 for a sleek, upward curved black keyboard. 100% black. No letters, no #'s. Uber geeks only, because looking down won't help you a bit.
There's also 5 different pressure areas, each key weighted slightly differently for max comfort. Free shipping to the US.
All keyboards are not equal.  ¶   0 comments

  Nazis This scares the daylights out of me.  ¶   0 comments

  Hobo Convention Today's the National Hobo convention in Britt, Iowa. In case you get confused between Hobos, bums, and everything else, here's a little quip from Word for the Wise: "A Hobo likes to work and travel, a bum likes to travel but not work, and a tramp likes neither travel nor work."

Northbank Fred's site has a great series of newspaper clippings from his 1984 visit to the Hobo convention.

Apparently Hobo Conventions have been going on for some time. This Britt convention will be the 105th. Dr. Cliff Williams of Trinity College shares this Hobo convention song from 1900:

1

Back in the Spring of ’90,
As everybody knows,
Green Castle, Iowa, was swamped
By a gathering of ‘boes.

They came from north, south, east, and west,
Everywhere you could mention,
And the reason they were there was,
They held a big convention.

That sunny day, the twelfth of May,
They collected in a mob,
Hoboes from Chi’ and Kokomo
Clear down to Eagle Knob.

There was some ‘boes I never seen
They came from far and near;
They all laid in and tanked-up ten
Big wagonloads of beer.

I put my peepers on them all,
And recognized a few,
And now if I remember them,
Here’s their monikas for you:

There was Pete the Shive from Slapjack’s dive,
And Wino Bill from Cal,
Parson-faced Ed and Wingey Red
And a ’bo named Sugan Al.

There was Boogie Sam and Biff ‘n’ Bam,
And a little punk from Q.
Hikes and Spikes and Old Ring-tail Sykes
And a Philly ‘bo called Lou.

Back in the shade of the jungle’s glade
We slopped up on that beer.
Each ‘bo throwed his guts while the other mutts
Laid back and lent an ear.

The night was getting started
When someone heard a clatter,
And the clowns from the town came swarming down
And maybe we didn’t scatter.

Some flipped freights to other states,
And others stayed behind,
Some glommed the rod and hopped the tops
And others hit the blind.

Now here I am in Omaha,
A hungry, ring-tailed bum,
Tooting ringers for poke outs,
When what I want is slum.

Toot! Toot! There goes a highball now¾
The rattler’s under way;
They’re reefers for New Orleans, ma’am,
I’m off again—good day!

Another song, and a little more info, can be found here.  ¶   0 comments

  Books and stuff Shlog's wrapping up a 4-part series of posts on the historic definition of a "Just War". The series is a good overview of Aquinas and Augustine, though I'd love links for further exploration. I have a massive copy of Summa Theologie sitting at home, but, alas, it's in Latin. I bought it to remind myself that I should learn Latin someday. This reminded me again.
Also, if anyone's wondering what to get me for christmas, check out Loomes Booksellers.

The Antique and Rare books are wonderful. Of course, the most expensive would catch my eye. Actually, the Slang dictionary from 1869 is only $75. That could be fun.
#24 is pretty neat too.
Wow. There's a "next 50 books."
I have to get off this site and get back to work.  ¶   0 comments

  Glimpse of the Future, sort of While scrolling through the NiT blog feeds I came across this and just had to share.

A Wednesday night work session at Metro Council turned into an eye opening and jaw dropping experience for everyone in the hallowed chambers. Bronson Marshall, 46,Nashville's 2105 City Planner, dropped by in his time machine to warn city leaders of the future of Nashville.

Only on the internet....

drop by The News from Nashville for more of this wierdness.  ¶   0 comments

  Perseids :) The Perseid Meteor Shower is here! I think I'm going to stay up Friday to watch it :). I've at least glanced at the Perseid's just about every year since the seventh grade. One year I shared my binoculars with a total stranger at my neighbors party. Two other years my other neighbor and I used his telescope to watch them. Then for most of the remaining ones I tended to notice them when I was up to early or out too late.
Not this year. The extreme range of the meteor shower is actually from the end of July to the end of August, so if I don't see them Friday I may stay up late enough to watch them from Murray next week. I don't know that I could get far enough from the light pollution, but anything's possible.  ¶   0 comments

  Travel! Yesterday's last post was my 121st, making this blog bigger than the travelblog I kept last semester. This one will keep growing, because I don't really plan on moving any time soon. This is more of a personal stint, and I don't think I'll run out of opinions any time soon. The Travelblog was written with the knowledge that plenty of people back at Murray would be reading it, and really just for my Europe trip.
Speaking of Travel, in an email yesterday Tiff asked if we could travel more this fall. Had she asked me in person, I would have just hugged her, but since it was email I had to put my enthusiasm to words.
I babbled for a while, deleted it, then wrote "I thought you'd never ask."
I can't wait to go see something, anything new. When in Murray, I tend to stay in Murray. I went to the SCA's Gulf War in 2004. We went to a frontier re-enactment in Indiana that same semester. I've travelled twice to Frankfort, KY, to protest higher education cuts. And I've been to Land Between the Lakes, right next to Murray, a couple of times.
Not really enough travel, if you ask me.
So, hopefully I'll be giving the Travelblog a facelift and put in some new content from around here, between everything else I'm hoping to do.  ¶   0 comments

  Naruto Dreams So after reading issues 200 - 240 of Naruto last night, I had another series of very Naruto-like dreams. I say Naruto-like because there were none of the Naruto characters, but we were all in a very similar situation.
Yes, I was a ninja.
Or at least on my way to becoming one.
Oddly enough, it resembled the Chuushin exam that I read over a month ago. I was definitely as bull-headed as Naruto, but that's about all we had in common. I don't remember much of it, but I remember Tiffany also being in the exam, and screaming her head off to me that I was ridiculously outmatched and would get myself killed. She was probably right, my opponent was a HUGE guy that somewhat resembled the football-playing valedictorian of my high school. I had some kind of plan, though, and knew I could do it.
I never got to see it, though, because I woke up.
Just thought I'd share.  ¶   0 comments

  Another SCA Practice   ¶   0 comments

  Australia So here I am at my nice Internship, wondering what everyone else at Murray State's doing. I google "Murray State"+"Blog" and, after a little work, find out.
They're in Australia. I know at least two of the guys in all those pictures, and will have to get more stories out of them when they return.
I am so jealous.  ¶   0 comments

  Divine Command, what, what, and what?!

You scored as Divine Command. Your life is directed by Divine Command: Your god and religion give you meaning and direction. ?Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.? --King James Version of the Bible ?Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion--human religion--but any number of faiths.? --Mahatma Gandhi More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page... Divine Command 80% Utilitarianism 75% Hedonism 65% Existentialism 55% Kantianism 55% Justice (Fairness) 40% Nihilism 30% Apathy 20% Strong Egoism 15% What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03) created with QuizFarm.com

While I'm not really surprised about #1 there, the Utilitarianism, Hedonism (those two are close enough anyway) and Kantianism really disturb me. Then again, it was a poorly designed quiz. At least it got a little of it right. I think we had a conflict of what I believe for me vs what I believe for society. That, or perception of society vs. utopian ideal.
Heck, I dunno, maybe it was just a crummy quiz.  ¶   0 comments

  Pushkin's "The Shot" Today's dose of literature, provided again by Bartleby, is Alexander (or, Aleksandr, depending on your source) Pushkin's "The Shot."
"The Shot," published in 1830, takes place in rural Russia. A young narrator shares the story of a duel between a former Russian soldier and an aristocrat. It is similar in its cruelty to yesterday's "Mateo Falcone," but told in a less compressed way. It doesn't really seem to be Pushkin's most popular piece, which makes me wonder why it was chosen for Matthew's Short Story survey. I guess a representative of Russian lit was needed, but even Matthews concedes that, for this style, Mateo did it better.
I hope the next story I read doesn't also have to revolve around a macho character with a gun.

*note* If you're following my reading, you'll notice I jumped around a little on Bartleby's short story section. I'm going in order now, but am not talking about some of them (the first 6 I read a week or so ago and just didn't feel like sharing on, the 9th I addressed a few posts ago). I'll stick to the order now, but I'm skipping House of Usher. I've read it too many times. If you want an essay on it, I'll dig out one from American Lit.
So, next on the list is Hawthorne's "The Ambitious Guest." Haven't read that one. Hmm.  ¶   0 comments

  Walt's Joke Disney's 2D days are finally over. From Opinion Journal:

In the 1960s, Walt Disney joked that one day he'd replace his elite corps of animators, known as the "Nine Old Men," and their slow, expensive way of making hand-drawn movies, with Audio-Animatronic figures.
At the end of last month, Walt's joke came true. The studio bearing his name announced that, due to a "changing creative climate and economic environment," it will be shutting DisneyToon Studios Australia next year. The studio, which turned out sequels (such as "Tarzan II," "The Lion King II" and "Bambi II") was the company's last remaining facility creating hand-drawn (or 2-D) traditional animation. To compete in the 3-D computer-generated imagery (or CGI) arena, the house that a hand-drawn mouse built will become a pixels, rather than a paper-and-pencils, place.

The article goes on to ponder what Walt would think and discuss a little of Disney's 80 years of hand-drawn history.
It's a good article, you should read all of it.

As for me, I know I'll miss the look of animation. CGI's great, and I love the style of movies like The Incredibles, but it's strange to see pencil cartoons go.
hey, we still have anime.  ¶   0 comments

  Auto-discovering podcasts by keyword. Rex Hammock has a nice summary on how to hack an auto-discovery of podcasts by keyword I know several of my friends are getting into the whole podcasting thing. I haven't yet, but might eventually. This makes it look a little more appealing.  ¶   0 comments

  Practical Magic   ¶   0 comments

  Dave's Baha Bug I heard a "David story" this morening that I've just got to share. David's my stepdad. He grew up in rural Kentucky, and brings stories like this up fairly often. They usually start with something like "My cousin Earnie's Daddy's brother's friend..." or "Back in the day when I was, hell, I dunno, about your age I guess...." By the end of the story you'll have been introduced to about 5 more people in Dave's vastly populated world (I never figured out how you could live miles from anywhere and still know so many people). Generally, they're not called "David stories" until they've been told to everyone in the household at least 3 times, but this one's a special case because it's just such a great set of images.

David launched into his story this morning while we were on the way to work. We had just passed a Baha Bug for sale on Charlotte, and since I'm still on the car hunt I was trying my best to read the price. I think it said $5k, but it may have been $1500, or even $500 (which would mean it doesn't run). Anyway, on with David's story. I'll edit out the descriptive explatives he usually uses.

When Dave was in his 20's him and a buddy of his bought a '63 Bug for $200. He didn't say whether he'd "Baha'd" it or whether they'd bought it that way, but it didn't really matter. It was a Baha Bug. The roof had been cut out to make a crank-back top that went all the way over to the doors, and the entire Bug had been painted like an American Flag. The exhaust pipes stuck up so tall they looked like a pair of [beepitybeepity] antennas.

David wasn't really taken by the American Flag Motif, so one day he decided to repaint it. He took to sanding, and found coat after coat after coat of paint. He got creative, or fed up, with this after a while and started sanding off in creative places. He turned it into a "psychedelic" design by sanding in patterns and swirls.

Groovy.

So now we have the psychedelic baha bug. This is rural KY, so you know what happens next.

It's time to get Dukes-of-Hazzard-stupid in it.

David and his buddy (I think it really was his cousin Earnie, come to think of it) take off to the nearby lake / park. They go tearing through tall grass, zipping around trees, and generally have a field day testing the neigh-indestructible nature of a VW Bug.

Then they come up on this big hill.

It should be noted here that Dave's not from this area, and neither of them are really in a full, clear thinking state of mind.

Dave's buddy (Earnie?) tells him to floor it over this next hill. "Okay" Dave says, and does just that.

A second after they're airborn, David looks down and says another of those words I'm not going to print.

They crashed straight through an abandoned shack without slowing down.

The Baha Bug died about a month after David bought it. He sold the broken down remains for $50. It remains the best $200 he ever spent.  ¶   0 comments

  March of the Penguins I saw March of the Penguins last night and have spent most of the day trying to form my opinion on it. About halfway through the nearly-all-French list of names in the opening credits I'd written it off to "too artsy for me," or at least smarter than I am. Then Morgan Freeman started talking, and it became more like the National Geographic specials PBS used to air to put children to sleep during nap time.
Tiff was delighted, and the penguins were cute, so I buckled down for the 100 minutes.
By the end of it, I was as enthralled as a two year old brat watching teletubbies.
I can't place my finger on it. There wasn't really any particular element that made it so endearing. The story-telling does an OK job of humanizing the penguins, the struggle is at once tragic and heroic, but it's still just a nature film. If I had seen it channel surfing I would have just kept going.
But on the big screen I had to see it all, and by the end I was glad I had.
Go see this movie. It'll bring out a little bit of that child-like wonder we're so often lacking.  ¶   0 comments

  World's Ugliest Dog This is just one more random, wierd site floating around the internet. Be brave, it's pretty freaky.
Meet Sam, the World's Ugliest Dog  ¶   0 comments

  Mateo Falcone I just finished today's lunch-break Bartleby visit. Today's morsel: Mateo Falcone.
Boy, I didn't know what I was in for.
From Bookrags:

Prosper Merimee's "Mateo Falcone" (1829), originally subtitled "Les moeurs de Corse" ("The Ways of Corsica"), chronicles the killing of a ten-year old boy by his father. ...[Walter] Pater called "Mateo Falcone" "the cruellest story in the world."

I concur. It's seriously disturbing in a way that only a casual, journalistic narrative can be. Merimee tells us every bit of the story without flinching away. The narrator never slips in the slightest bit of emotion. Everything's as bare as if you're standing out in the hot sun watching it happen.  ¶   0 comments

  Starbucks everywhere Today's one of those days. It feels more Monday than Monday did. I get the feeling that since this is my last week of work, I'm in for 4 Mondays before Friday.
I'm deeply dissatisfied today. I have changed my mood icon three times, and finally just settled. I want to work on my book, but can't find the words. I want to do something to get my mind off the absolute NOTHING that I'm doing right now, but there's nothing to do. I want to have a conversation, but there's no one to talk to.
The fire alarm at work's going off. Go figure. All the construction in the building means someone sets it off at least twice a week.

There are at least 20 Starbucks in the greater Nashville area (which includes Franklin and Smyrna for some reason). That list comes from Starbuckseverywhere.net, a site observing the spread of the dark side.

I don't really hate starbucks, but I'm too cheap to go there regularly.

I have now seen everywhere on Google sight seeing. I need a new site to wander around when I run out of places to go on the net. Someone across the cubefarm just begged for an assignment too. Apparently I'm not the only one out of work. I never thought I'd complain about that, but if I stare at the ceiling tiles much longer I think I might go bonkers.
That's the real reason there's so many corporate smokers. They get change-of-scenery every smoke break.

My new box of 100 Paperclips only had 97.

I'm going to go find the missing 3.  ¶   1 comments

  5 Things (today's FWD) Ten years ago: Ten Years Ago I was five months shy of twelve years old. I'd just started going to James Avenue regularly, I was watching Star Trek religiously, and my parents were still living together.

Five years ago: I was 16. I was getting over being Stupid. Caps. Bold. STUPID. I'd been dumped by Grace, sworn off women, then met Tiffany. Tiffany was great, and the more I talked to her the more I realized it. We'd just managed a couple of dates by this point in the year, and were finally really starting to consider ourselves "going out." I was going back to NCS because I realized I liked it better than East.

One year ago: Gearing up for my trip to Germany. A little less smart, a little less ready for reality to sneak up and bite me in the butt. Really starting to realize how much Tiff rocks.

Yesterday: Went to church. Slim pickings this week. Cochrans and preacher both on vacation. Others just out and about. 67 at Worship. Michael, the old youth minister, shared a pretty good sermon. Then we went up to grandmoms, ate a lot, napped for a couple of hours, watched TV and talked. More church, less people. Evening service might have had 50. Michael preached again, much shorter this time. Brought kids from his new church. Afterwards had dinner at Cracker Barrel, saw 3 people who went to HS with me, talked a lot to Tiff, and slept.

Today: Going to see March of the Penguins with Tiff. Trying to look busy at my last Monday at work.

Tomorrow: More of the same. Fencing instead of Penguins. Will remember my "essential gear" this week.

5 snacks I enjoy: Snickers, Kit-Kat bars, dried bananas, Starburst, PEZ.

5 bands that I know the lyrics of most of their songs: Five Iron Frenzy, Audio A, DC Talk, Green Day, Pink Floyd

5 things I would do with $100,000,000: Wow. That's tough.
1) donate to Missions, lots of missions, state side and abroad.
2) donate to church in general
3) New house for Mom
4) pay off all my debt (I don't want to think about how big a chunk that would be)
5) Hopper Library at MSU :)

5 locations I’d like to runaway to: Greece, Italy, Bavarian Alps, New Zealand, Ireland

5 bad habits I have: I drink way too much caffeine, I get bored with and quit doing important things, I overextend myself, I lose things, and let my mind wander and forget where I put it.

5 things I like doing: Reading, watching movies, having extended conversations, hearing live music, and watching people.

5 things I would never wear: cowboy hats, super-tight Levi's, Belt buckles, cowboy boots, or a moustache (can you tell I'm a Nashville native?).

5 TV shows I like: Frasier, most of Adult Swim (lumping that together, sorry), X-Play (that show formerly known as Extended Play), Simpsons, Star Trek TNG

5 movies I like: Monty Python & the Holy Grail, Dead Poets Society (once every couple of years), Star Trek (evens rule), Princess Mononoke, Airplane

5 famous people I’d like to meet: JK Rowling, Tom Cruise (unique kind of crazy, might be fun to see what buttons I can press), Ray Bradbury, Anne Rice, Terry Pratchett. Wow, all writers except the famous guy I want to annoy. I'm a dork.

5 biggest joys at the moment: Tiffany, Artemis, writing, reading, family

5 favorite toys: My computers, my gamecube, my dog, my book collection, and my jacobs ladder.  ¶   0 comments

  Wierd story for the day Here's this weeks wierd story, compliments again of Bartleby. It's one of Grimm's Household Tales, centered around a poor woman gaining riches. The sisters One Eye, Two Eye, and Three Eye and the magic goat are especially bizarre.  ¶   0 comments

  Blog blog blog... nothing new. Blogging in 1847 W. McDaniel shares the story of Henry Clarke Wright's daily journals, which reads much like today's blogs. Blogging in the Early Republic He goes through a concise history of blogging, then points to journals like Wrights as early examples of the same impulse, the need "to write down what I see and hear and feel daily," to "let off" rants, and so on. In a world where newspapers were rising to cover stories faster than readers could absorb it all, wright sought to "journalize" (Wright's word) these sources into a brief reflection.
It's worth the read.  ¶   0 comments

  Geeky stuff I just read a good post via NiT:
Katherine at Just another Pretty Farce has a post about D&D Geeks that makes me feel just a little less dorky. When I played in high school we all took ourselves a bit too seriously, and probably paid more attention to our D&D game than we did our schoolwork. Now I play with a different group at college and I don't think it'd be possible for us to take it less seriously. The game is an anime-farce, each of us playing stereotypes to the hilt. It's gotten a little more... intense ... lately just because we've started facing off against some pretty ugly foes, but we still spend most of our time making fun of everything anime. It's a good time.
Anyway, I'm a geek.
We knew that already.
I'm fighting my case of the Monday-blegh, but it's not really working.

Liz has posted pictures (on AOL, sorry everyone) from Tara and Sarah's party Friday night. That's me trying to dance. I'm still no good at it. Actually, I've gotten worse. I think I'd be a little better at it if the girl led, but not really much. I just don't process that information well. Tiff says she's going to put me through Social Dance II this fall (we took Social Dance I our freshman year). I think I might have to break my legs.

Finally, I took a Harry Potter personality quiz I friend sent me. It's one of those four letter ones like you always take in early psych classes. I think I get a different answer each time. According to this one, I'm...

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.
heh, now I just can't help but picture me going all werewolf and tearing up my little white shirt/black tie before I attack the cubefarm.  ¶   0 comments

  Blah, Monday Tiff's new cat's name is Artemis. I can't spell. Sorry.
Today's really just another Monday. It's actually my last monday as an intern. It's been fun, interesting, and a great learning experience.
I'm ready to get back to Murray.
I realized last weekend that many of my friends have never seen Murray, and that all this talk about it probably doesn't do a bit of justice. So here are a few images of my home away from home. Here are a few more images from around Murray. I've never actually known most of the places existed, but since finding this site I hope to explore a couple of them.  ¶   0 comments

  Katze Cute new pictures of Tiffany's kitten, Artimus (sp?), are up on my flickr site. See the sidebar for the little ones or go to my flikr for more.  ¶   0 comments

  Tin Heart Just got done reading Hans Christian Andersen's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" on Bartleby.com. For those that haven't discovered Bartleby yet, it's a great online library. I tend to go there whenever I want a quick read, but they have volumes of the longer stuff too.

If you haven't read that story yet, you ought to. I want to talk about it, and the rest of this post is assuming you've read it.

Andersen's toys are always more perceptive than their owners, but still bound to the will of their owners. Toy Story has polluted my brain, here. It's a great imagination that can breathe life so well into something as simple as a piece of tin. But here Andersen is careful never to break the reality of the toy. "The Tin Soldier" never outwardly exhibits anything other than toylike behavior. He reacts, never acts. He stands where he is placed, sees whatever he is positioned to see, and leads the reader.
Children are in a similar situation, of course, and I think Andersen's playing to that. Even when they see things adults don't, it's the adults will that drives them. But after reading about the Tin soldier melting, I can't help but wonder if H.C. Andersen's warning that a passive life brings us quickly into the flames.  ¶   0 comments

  Some reading for the geeks This link isn't for everyone. It's a discourse on language. Foul language, to be exact. And I mean foul, so if you don't care to read those words over and over again, don't go there. From an English-geek perspective, though, it's interesting. As a matter of fact, if you find yourself pondering this silly jumble of words we use, all of Linguistics Gone Wild is a pretty good site to read.
My grammar's still terrible, but it's a fun read.

Dean Dad, of Confessions of a Community College Dean, has a great story on dumb things tenured staff have done. I know there's some of this type at Murray, though I'm naming no names.
If you're looking to teach Higher Ed, his advice seems pretty sound too.
Not that I would know, yet. But I'd like to someday.
It took me a while to find bloggers trackback links. by default, they're the little "#" beside "add a comment." Since my comments bar is a little script, I don't have one right now. So I'm going to tweak the template and make it so there's trackback links in each title.
I also found this really cool "who's linking me" tracker yesterday, but I've lost the link to it. If I find it I'll tell you.  ¶   0 comments

  Blogging, Politics, and Cheesecake Last night I was told that I wrote the best of blogs and that I wrote the worst of blogs. We were at the Spaghetti Factory for a birthday party, and I had just discovered that an old friend is also majoring in Creative Writing. Her cousin, Joe, has been a friend of mine for a while and we got on the topic of Nashville is Talking. Joe, like most people I know, loathes uninformed political commentary. He feels that sites like mine, journalling the day-to-day lives of people, are really the only ones worth reading.

I was flattered, especially since just a few hours prior to that I'd been in a rather lengthy email-conversation about how "lacking" my blog has been.
"Why don't you ever say what you think about our country?" she had asked me, "Isn't that what this psuedo-journalistic mess is all about?"
She wasn't harsh about it, she just couldn't understand why I avoid what so many other people seem to embrace.

So, I was called the best and the worst. It seems like lots of bloggers out there right now have this division. In America, politics are the day-to-day common ground for us all. We divide everything along party lines. And to me, it's silly. I don't want my blog split that way, so that liberals come to cheer me on and conservatives to pick apart my arguments, or maybe vice versa. I want my blog to be me. So, to my political-blogging friends out there, blog on. Some of you are great at it. Others of you, well, will probably get better. But hey, either way, it's what you do. This is what I do.
Ramble.

The rest of the evening was great. We went to the Melting Pot to continue the celebration, and as a result I'm working through my Friday with even less energy than usual. The party's continuing tonight, both for Sarah and Tara. Then tomorrow afternoon it's a lunch cookout for my stepbrother, Matt, and an evening dinner for my stepdad, David. Then Sunday it's up to grandmom's.
What a week.

By the way, I found the Melting Pot to be a bit of a disappointment. It was fun being there with everyone, but Tiff's made better Fondu at school.
Except for the cheesecake. That was some awesome cheesecake.  ¶   2 comments

  Pic of the Day: How not to ask for Edjamacashun $$
Thanks to BobKrumm.com for posting this. I just had to share it.
Also, somebody in the cubefarm has the original "whistle" sound that the on-board communicators had on the classic Star Trek. I keep wanting to dash dramatically down the hall and talk into the switch of a nearby light fixture.  ¶   0 comments

  Special 100th Post: 100 Things About Me. In honor of my 100th post (not counting the posts on href="http://travel_blog.blogspot.com">travel_blog), here are 100
Things About me:
1) I am a Christian
2) Even though my Dad was baptist and my Mom presbyterian, I went to a Southern Methodist Elementary School and ended up being baptized into the Church of Christ at age 14.
3) I've gone to that same church of Christ, James Avenue, my whole life.
4) I'm not a very "church of Christ" person. I'm a huge fan of the 90's Christian Rock movement, particularly Audio A, Third Day, FiF, and (pre-secular)Skillet. I don't like the typcial CoC approach to church and state, I don't really have a "problem" with musical instruments in church (though I respect the CoC approach to it), I realize CoC is a denomination like any other, I don't think we have it all right (in fact, I think many CoC members overlook a lot of it), and I try to stay open minded about others interpretations of scripture.
5) I've preached about 8 times (I can't remember exactly), never on any of the topics above.
6) The first time I preached was when I was 14, roughly 6 months after I was baptized.
7) I have never been afraid of speaking my mind, and I've only gotten louder.
8) I'm a drummer.
9) ...but not a very good one. I haven't really played in 3 years now.
10) I spent the first 3 years of college living with a percussion major. I'd practice on his stuff occasionally, but only occasionally.
11) In high school I played Jazz drums and (my senior year) keyboards. I was ok at drums, I think, though the kid 3 years younger than me was better.
12) Between second and sixth grade I took piano lessons at Maureen May's Studio when it was out of her house, before she moved uptown (she's still teaching, you can email her here).
13) I wrote my first book when I was in 5th Grade, but I'm not sure it counts because we all had to write them. The first one I wrote completely on my own was 85 hand-written pages and vanished soon after I wrote it my 8th grade year.
14) The current story that I'm working on has been written and re-written in various forms for the past 4 years, and stems from a story that I started 7 years ago.
15) I'm 21 years old
16) my birthday is on dec 16 (well timed, that entry was...)
17) I've been a Star Trek fan since I was 3.
18) When I was 10, I began learning Klingon
19) I published my first newsletter at age 11. It summarized the latest episodes of TNG and offered (somewhat silly, in retrospect) commentary on the "current events" of the series. It was advertised in the pen-pals section of Odyssey, a science magazine for kids, and written on an Apple IIGS. I sent out 2 issues.
20) I <3 Oregon Trail
21) I went to East Lit for Middle School and my first year of High School, but a little confusion over a pocketknife and a boy scouts event sent me back to private school after a brief homeschool hiatus.
22) At Nashville Christian High School I wrote for the school paper, and absolutely hated it. Because of that, I still avoid writing for papers, even when it would be easier and more profitable than me piddling my life away in fiction.
23) I also ran Friday chapels there. It was my responsibilty to either find someone to speak, or speak myself. I spent a lot of Fridays speaking in Chapel.
24) When I wasn't doing all of that, I played Dungeons and Dragons with 5 of my friends. That group grew to 7 my senior year, and split when we all went to different colleges.
25) I'm part of Clark College at Murray State University, where I'm majoring in Creative Writing / Literature and Minoring in Technical Writing and (maybe) German. Yes, I know that's enough for 2 degrees with room to spare. That's why I'm taking 5 years.
26) I spent the Fall 2004 Semester in Regensburg, Germany, and wrote about it at Travel_blog.
27) I'm wrapping up an internship in Vanderbilt's IT department, where I've been trying some hands-on Technical Writing.
28) I never intended to study Tech Writing. It found me via an elective credit and a couple of really good professors.
29) My dad got our first computer when I was 8.
30) I took it apart when I was 15 and never got it back together again.
31) I built my first website when I was 12. It was a member index for an online RPG I was in via AOL.
32) As of 3 years ago, that site's still out there.
33) I learned most of my HTML myself, but studied CSS and a little XML in class.
34) I've lived in the same house, with the same neighbors on one side, since I was 3.
35) I don't remember when I got my first video game system. Dad had an Atari that never worked. The first one that was really mine was my Sega Game Gear, which I got around third or fourth grade.
36) I bite my fingernails.
37) I love coffee.
38) I hate tomato juice and tomato juice-based drinks (like V8).
39) I'm not really fond of tomatos at all. I think it has something to do with the long stretches of Cherry tomatoes that have been grown in our backyard my entire life.
40) I love used book stores. I used to frequent Book Trader in west Nashville until that jerk bought it just to resale the space and move to FL.
41) Both my parents have remarried remarkable people, and in Dad's case brought along two step-sibs that are a constant adventure to be around (in a good way!).
42) I know 42 is the answer to everything.
43) I never watched Anime until I came to college. Now I watch fansubs instead of TV.
44) My favorite super-hero is Spiderman. Before that, it was batman (the 90's animated series was awesome!)
45) I'm a terrible speller.
46) Genetically speaking, I'm mostly German. My Mom's parents both have German in them, my Granddad's actually mostly German, and my Dad's side has German and Dutch. They've been in the hills of Tennessee for ages, though, so I guess I'm as much Hill-billy as German.
47) I was born with white-blonde hair. It's darkened to brown. My dad's darkened all the way to nearly black.
48) I wrote puppet scripts for the James Avenue VBS several years, and the skit scripts a couple of times (I think... maybe it was just once?).
49) I've been involved in VBS for 8 years now. At JA, that means being at the church at least 3 hours a day, every day, for two weeks and devoting at least 12 hours one saturday to it.
50) I listen to NPR.
51) Despite being somewhat lazy myself, I have a strong dislike of people who are lazy at work. I like to think that I know exactly how hard I need to work to work, and that when I'm lazy I'm conserving energy for future work.
52) I'm not afraid of criticism, because I am my own worst critic.
53) My favorite video game is Descent. My next door neighbor and I played Descent over a dialup connection in the late 90's. Then we played Descent 2. Now we play Descent 3. I'm a decade-long Descent user now.
54) I spend an average of 5 hours per day on the internet.
55) I really have never chosen a favorite book, but some of my favorite authors are Hemingway, Stephen Crane, JRR Tolkien, Steven King, Robert Jordan, and J.K. Rowling.
56) I own over 700 books, and between my Mom and I that number goes up to around 1200.
57) about 150 of those belong to my "circulating collection." They are books that I take to the nearest book trader and trade for new books to read, which are then either promoted to the "Standing collection," or tossed back into the circulation pile.
58) I generally don't get poetry.
59) I am an unofficial member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. I write Shire Redwolf's newsletter, fight light weapons with them, do a little live weapons, and help print whatever they need.
60) I have helped coordinate the Clark College Medieval Festival three years in a row.
61) I have been involved in Student Government, in one part or another, for every semester I have been in College except the one I spent abroad.
62) I have read about 25 Star Wars novels, and generally enjoy them more than the movies.
63) I saw Star Wars Episodes I and II opening day.
64) I skipped Episode III's premiere because Tiffany and I wanted to see it together.
65) I've seen Audio A live 4 times.
66) I've lived in Nashville my whole life, never been to the Grand Ole Opry, never been to the Mix Factory, never been to the Melting Pot,never been to the Country Music Hall of Fame, never been to a Titans game, and only gone to 328 twice.
67) I've seen an emergency exit window pushed off a moving MTA bus, and since that day I never sit in the seat by the exit.
68) I love all things Nintendo.
69) I rode the dread MTA Magnet School Route during its first year, when 300 kids would cram on a bus made for 150.
70) I love my Danners.
71) I love to hike.
72) I love to sing church hymns, even if I'm not always good at them.
73) I love seeing a beautiful landscape and feeling like all the work to get to that view was worth every minute.
74) I've been indoor rock climbing a few times, and would love to do more.
75) I climbed trees when I was young, often worrying the neighbors.
76) Family's very important to me. I have a small family, one uncle on Mom's side and one aunt on dad's. Both with two kids. I have one sister, one step-sister, and one step-brother. I am also lucky to have all 4 of my grandparents, and my great-grandmother still with me.
77) I love Tiffany, who may have been worried that I'd forgotten her, but has really just gotten saved until I could reach the double-perfect number :).
78) I've been with Tiffany since I was a Junior in High School, 5 years ago now.
79) We've both spent our entire college career at Clark College.
80) Even though I'm president of the Residential College Association, I still can't help but sometimes call them "dorms."
81) I've only stayed in two rooms of Clark College. Carlos and I shared 122 until I went abroad, then we moved to 126, where I am now.
82) I can't spell.
83) Even though I'm an English major, I'm not very good with grammar. I made a C in my College Grammar class because our teacher thought that she had developed a new, better way of understanding the functions of words. Her new way further confused me. Learning German actually straightened me out again, because I began to look at the implied Accusitive and Dative cases in English (who / whom, She and I, me and her, etc).
84) I didn't get a driver's license or a car of my own until I was 21, and I'm still a really bad driver.
85) I haven't gotten in a knock-down fight since elementary school, though sometimes I've come really close.
86) Family is very important to me. Every year I go to a family reunion and "reconnect" with the people who have influenced so much of my life, and who touch it even now.
87) I get along with girls better than guys.
88) I don't have much patience for feminists who think the solution to everything is to oppress the men of society, or African Americans who think the solution is to punish the White Supremists.
89) I am registered as an independent voter, but tend to support democrats over republicans.
90) I don't like talking politics, but often find myself in such conversations.
91) I still pray in school, and found more Christian practice and more christian people in a public school than I ever saw at NCS (sorry to those who take offense, but truth is, we were the minority).
92) Like most Christians, I hate hypocrasy. Unlike most Christians, I know how often I stumble into it.
93) I love hearing people of different faiths talk peacefully together.
94) I am fascinated by the history of Christianity, and spent last summer reading volumes on it.
95) I am equally fascinated by medieval, renaissance, and early modern history. They are more connected than many people ever realize.
96) I hate red wasps. They always swarmed the pear tree in our backyard, eating away at the pears as they ripened and turning our outdoor play area into a dangerous field.
97) I believe that education is one of the most noble things a person can do with their life.
98) I still want to be a "dusty old English professor".
99) I hope to never lose my thirst for knowledge.
100) I hope to never lose my connection to the internet.

  ¶   0 comments

  I'm sorry everyone, I'm still getting popups. And since I didn't get any while my chatterbox was down, and now that the chatterbox is back so are the popups, I'm blaming flooble.com. As soon as I find me a new one, or maybe even before then, I'll be dropping that service. My hatred of popups burns like Vader's for... well... most everything. Rebels. Like Vaders for the Rebels.
Or the sandpeople.
Anyway.
No more popups soon, I hope.
In other news, all the posts coming over from 43 things may have seemed a little bizarre, that's because I was mostly making up content just to test my graphics and my code for them. I played with a couple of different things





or


Different fonts and formats


but finally just decided to stick a 43 things graphic on top of them.
For now, anyway.
So, for those of you who are wondering why I felt the need to post "still kickin," that's why.
By the way, Happy Birthday Tara!  ¶   0 comments

  Fair Time The Williamson County Fair flyers hit work today. A friend of mine's Uncle has been really helping to get this off the ground, so it's exciting to see how well it's coming along. I'm not a big Williamson County person. Franklin's too rich for me and Cool Springs is just too far away. But I might go to this. This year's also the TN State Fair's 100th year, so I'm hoping to go to some of those festivities. I enjoy the TN State Fair. There's just something about that many people crammed into a small space that's neat to be a part of. I'm not big into rides (especially not fair rides), but I love the food and the games. There's just something satisfying about beating a rigged game. Until you realize you were going to buy your dinner on the money you just spent on it.
The State Fair's always been a sign that summer's almost over, and sure enough, my internship's winding down. I have an informal review of it on Monday. I'm not sure what I'm going to say yet, but I think I'm going to devote a little time tomorrow to figuring it out. I discovered a while back that I'm always better at speaking my mind if I write it out first, so you'll probably get to hear all about it (if not before, than after).
That's about all there is today. I'm preparing a special 100th post for tomorrow. I hope you enjoy :).  ¶   0 comments

  Blogging and Testing   ¶   0 comments

  Chatterbox broke Not my fault.
From their site:

So, yeah. They might fix it. I might make a new one. No big either way. We'll see how it plays out.
Just thought you'd like to know.  ¶   0 comments

  43 Things Layout Changes I've been playing with my 43 things this morning. I figured out that I can use my site codes in the comment box for 43 things, then when it carries over it'll apply it. It doesn't do anything to the look on my 43 things page, but it does here. So now I just have to build a CSS class for my 43 things, and they'll come up in some kind of snazzy-little-offset way. Probably a header like the "My 43 things" graphic on the earlier two posts, but a little cleaner. Or maybe a side-graphic. I'm playing with it tonight. Expect to see some more odd looking ones over the next couple of days as I try to choose a layout I like.
Actual insightful entries to come later. When I'm awake. And on lunch.  ¶   0 comments

  Still kickin   ¶   0 comments

  Rapier, Glaedenfeld Style   ¶   0 comments

  Progress   ¶   0 comments

  Maybe the Best Blogger in Nashville Right Here. Gas Guy takes an amazing look at his ordinary life (that of a gas station attendant). I don't think there's a more literary blog out there anywhere. All the angsty teens with spelling deficiencies and bad poetry that pour into our Creative Writing department should read this and tremble.
It was this post, linked from Nashville is Talking that got my attention today. In the past I've been mesmorized by this contemplation of death and karma via a bug dead for 74 days, and his theories on the booze circuit.
Gas guy's just one of those bloggers I thank the internet for daily.
So go read his blog already!  ¶   0 comments

  Flickr update While happily sorting through all my europe pictures in order to find the ones worthy of being uploaded to my new Flickr account, I made a sad discovery. I can upload 20 megs to Flickr. 20 megs is barely enough to make an introduction to all the things I want to share with you.
So now I'm on the search for a Flickr Pro Account. I want to show off all my pictures for the travel blog. Flickr pro costs $25/year, but registered members get 2 free to give away. So if anyone out there's got a spare one sitting around, you'd have my enternal gratitude....
If the Flickr thing doesn't work out I may just go for turning my HP into an image server. I'm not totally certain on all the details of setting up my own server, but I know plenty of people who are. Then it'd just be a little skip to my own domain, and I wouldn't freeload off Cochran space anymore (wouldn't that be nice?).
Anyway, that's for once the car situation's worked out. Setting up the server wouldn't cost any money, whereas flickr would, but registering a domain might be going a little overboard. And I'm not sure how the school network would take to a server sitting in my dorm room.
I guess I could always donate the box to Jared. Hehe. "Hello, Cochran hosting service, I'm having a problem. Mind checking on the server for me?"
Of course, we tried the image server thing at dad's once already. No offense dad, I know it wasn't your fault, but that went pretty rough. At least if it's sitting in my room I can kick it whenever it's not working.
Just thoughts. I'm going to sleep now.  ¶   0 comments

  Popups??!! I just swung by my site to follow the links to my friends blogs and was assaulted by popups. I also noticed my google ads weren't on the footer. Is google allowing sponsors to send popups instead? Or does this have something to do with my little chatterbox's service?
I'm going to hunt down the responsible parties and remove them. It could also just be ad/spyware on my PC. Sorry again to any readers being similarly assaulted.  ¶   0 comments

  Things I will not include in my upcoming novel:   ¶   0 comments

  Blogging about people who are Blogging about people who read Blogs Hillary Johnson has a very interesting definition of blogging:
"Most people think of blogs as public diaries kept by the kinds of egotists who make loud, inappropriate political comments at family barbecues or hog the discussion at book clubs, or wannabe journalists who post inflammatory stories with no fact-checking...."
She goes on to explain why she reads the business blogs she reads. Business blogging is another of those things I would look in to closer if I was a little more money minded and a little less artsy. As it is, I'm content to spend hours contemplating the possibility of mentally controlled microbes altering the surroundings in a very Harry-Potter like way, but 15 minutes on the was businesses work and I'm out like a light. On a more functional level, I guess it's that I love to work to make things happen, but I hate to work to learn to work.
That, and I'm still not really friendly with the business majors. They scare me a little.
I love how Hillary goes on to describe the "blogosphere" (I still can't admit that word into my own vocabulary. It has to have quotes around it so I don't feel silly using it):

The blogosphere is a vast, anonymous, and surprisingly intimate place inhabited by all manner of exotic creatures--or is it just that blogging brings out the exotic in people? From Hornik's official bio I know that he has a degree in computer music from Stanford and another in criminology from Cambridge, and earned his J.D. from Harvard, magna cum laude. But from his blog posts I know that he has a thing for sumo wrestling, and that his 9-year-old dressed up as Danny Zuko from Grease for Halloween.

In an age when everyone is talking about information overload, this may seem like more than one wants or needs to know about any total stranger, but I find quite the opposite: This is exactly the kind of information that helps me decide whom I really want to listen to. Yesterday I decided to contact a possible software engineer for my company based solely on a joke he posted about mad cow disease, to wit: "Why are the cows so mad?"

By the way, that story was linked on The Entrepreneurial Mind, then appeared on Nashville-is-Talking's sidebar, then was snatched up by BillHobbs before I got around to it. Isn't our little community great?  ¶   0 comments

  College Scheduling Woes First, I want to apologize for not blogging any this weekend. I spent Friday and Saturday in Murray, and Sunday at a cookout. I'll try and make up for it.
I don't know what new to report. Do you ever have those dry spells where you just don't really fell like writing anything? I'm on one of those. Finishing HP6 left a bit of emptiness in me, I guess. I'm just not "feeling it."
Of course, I'm already stressed about school, so that may be part of it too.
Eh.
I backed down from the coffee pot this morning, but I'm considering going back to it just for warmth. Our office, always kept around 65 for the computers, is probably about 10 degrees cooler than that today. I'm seriously considering bringing a jacket or sweater.
My internship here ends a week from this Friday. I've learned a lot, but won't be recieving 488 credit for it. The school would have required me to pay tuition, something I couldn't really afford to do. Besides, if I don't get 488 credit, I get another tech writing class, and I certainly don't mind that.
I'm have to look at the long term, though. This spring and next fall (07) I'll take my last two creative writing classes. This fall and next spring (07) I'll take my last two Tech writing classes. I'm almost done with Honors Program credits (I have Humanities this fall, International Business next spring, and Thesis Spring 07). After Adv. Comp and Lit to 1760 this fall I'll have to take Shakespeare, Contemporary Lit/World Lit, and 3 other Lit Surveys (Chaucer will probably be one of them). I think that's all of it. It really doesn't seem like that much when you sum it up that way, does it? (13 classes, I take 5 a semester usually). And that's for the lit area. If I just get I creative writing major / tech writing minor, I don't 3 of those need those (bumping it down to 10 classes, even two semester and I'd graduate on time!). I want Lit, though, for when I go back for MA / Doctorate studies. Medieval Lit still seems like it'd be a lot of fun to study.
I already almost have a professional writing minor. The Technical writing certificate actually requires less, which seems strange to me. For me, though, it's one more. It's got a more narrow range of courses, and I've taken the ones that don't line up with it. Whoops. I'll end up taking 2/3's of it anyway, though, so I may toss the third in for kicks.
Everything depends on the scheduling. If they'd offer these classes in a good rhyme / reason, I'd be able to get out "on time" (in a total of 4 years). But they overlap, or fall on odd semesters, or have some other conflicts. So I'll attend for 5, or at least 4 1/2. If I added a German Minor (making me a Creative Writing/Lit Area Major with a double minor in Technical Writing and German), I'd have 5 more classes to work in. Since I'm not taking a German course this fall, that'd mean I'd probably have to do the Summer in Austria program (knocking out 2 or 3 courses, making it manageable). I'd probably drop the lit requirement, then, earning me the space to do it. I would be taking 15 classes, 3 semesters worth in an ideal world, over the course of 4 and a summer, which is how long it really takes). I'm keeping that possibility open, but without taking 301 in the fall it's hurting my chances.
I've just always wanted to be fluent in a second language. I feel like our fixation on English here in America is a serious shortcoming. Language studies reveal so much about the culture and the history of a place. And going somewhere that isn't English accessable is one of the most humbling things us spoiled Americans can do.
But hey, I like stuff like that.
Ugh. This is making my head hurt.  ¶   0 comments