thank God for Twinkies

the Minnesota Twins gratiously allowed Detroit to stay 0.5 game up by getting trounced 6-0 by the Boston Red Sox yesterday.

one week almost down, and one week to go. 90% rigged for TFM. just need to receive and rig the end-of-show backlight setup. then focus, drop color, read the show, and cue it. whoops.

things i learned today:

1) What the "Magic Number" is in major league baseball.

this is an obscure number that somehow has some meaning near the end of the season, when we're close to determining who will win the division championship. Detroit's is 13 as of today, and it means that if the sum of Detroit's wins and Minnesota's (2nd place as of today) losses add up to 13, Detroit wins the divisional title.

uhhhh. ok. I can see it getting more interesting as we get closer to the end of the regular season, but, right now it just seems like something statisticians have invented to keep themselves busy in between recitation sections of MA134: Collegiate Algebra.

2) Even Credit Unions are crooks.

I took my ATM card into my credit union today because it's all splintered and cracked, and only works about half the time i try to use it. i got this card in 1998. the expiration date on the card says 02/12. 14 years? this thing is supposed to live for 14 years? even the credit card rapists give you a new card every 3 years. so, i order a new ATM card: 5 bucks. it wasn't lost, or neglected, or stolen. just used once or sometimes twice a week for 8 years. haven't i earned a new card? whatever. i have no problem with the $25 ODP (over-draft protection) they charged me two weeks ago when i didn't calculate correctly, and would have bounced a check. fine. i'm a dumbass. a poor dumbass. but you'd figure they'd support and even encourage my weekly ATM withdrawals (after 4 of which, they get to charge me $2.50). but no, let's screw him out of an additional five dollars.

3) every significant person in my life has their own band

when the radio plays their band, or i insert a cd into my cd player, someone in my life is summoned; with or without my being conscious of it. some ethereal connection is made between every person in my life and some band which may or may not be represented in my cd (MP3) collection. perhaps some day in the future i'll post a list of these connections, and encourage comments about who i associate you with. some are obvious. others will probably require a bit of explanation, though i have the feeling that it still won't really be enough to convince you.

here's an example: the Killers is Christa. it's a stretch, but i can definitely explain it.

most likely, it was the music you either introduced me to, or it was what i was listening to - either of my own accord, or it was being thrust down my throat by the mega-music-machine that is for-profit commercial radio- but sometimes it's a bit more subtle. it's not unlike playing 6 degrees of kevin bacon. sometimes it takes you 2 films, sometimes it takes you all six.

other times it's more personal. it's things that only i experienced. or maybe both of us did, but you may or may not remember.

i'll have to start that list in my favorite crutch: Microsoft Excel. if i weren't on the chassis dyno first thing tomorrow morning, i'd have it done by lunch.

my friends of summer are gone... again.

well, this time it feels even better (and worse) than it did last year. yeah, Seth won last year, as did what's-his-face from Hell's Kitchen... but this year, Mike Boogie won BB7, and Janelle not only won the audience-chosen $25,000, but was on almost the entire season.

The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have had Will in the final 2, and Alison making it farther in the game.

but, it was a good summer, Big Brother, and I can't help but love you. as we put this year to bed, I will recall fondly the moments during commercial breaks when I said aloud, while clapping my hands: "i fucking love this show!" three times a week. God Bless you, Big Brother All-Stars.
and HELLO?!?!?! give Chill Town their own show. that stupid whore from Laguna Beach gets her own show, but Will and Boogie DON'T?!?! whatevs.

anyone else think Pizza Hut has finally run out of ideas for novelty pizzas, only to witness them introducing yet another? that's why i'm not in advertising. i'm out of ways to reinvent a bastardized pizza to have Queen Latifah shill on national television.

God Bless you too, Pizza Hut.

the last five years

five years ago i was standing in my hotel room at the Extended Stay America in Madison, Wisconsin pondering how my graduate defense would go.

and then i watched live as a second plane flew into the World Trade Center.

how far i've come. how little i've done. how fragile life is.

perspective is a powerful thing... when it is what you need, life can be incredibly hard. when it is something you have, it is incredibly hard to watch those around you yearn for it.

i wish i had the answers. i wish i knew my own ass from a hole in the wall.

but tomorrow i will get up and go to work and do the best that i can in this little corner of the human experience i've carved out for myself.

and i hope you do the same.

Bubble Boy

"oh no, i'm sorry. the card says 'MOOPS'."


passed my electrical inspection today for EALC2. have to change out some extension cords they didn't like the look of, but that's about it. mow my lawn today, buy some extension cords, switch some slides around in my computer, and meet an old friend for some pizza.

will be taking a shower for the first time in 2 days in a few moments. i'm very excited.

have yet to buy a battery for my watch that stopped working on April 17th. yet, i still wear it every day.

at some point i really need to play catch up. seriously play.

the clip show....

so, i've spent the last half hour or so [by the way, if you didn't read the previous post because you haven't been back for a while, it's worth reading. i know it's been forever...but i have been busy.] reading old posts. and one in particular struck my fancy. i know, i know: kill your darlings. but you have to start somewhere...

i wish every day could be like a retirement party for everyone, all the time. i've been to several, including my father's. and looking back at one of my posts in particular, made me wish that we could end our days each day with such an outlook. that i could get up every morning and carry such an idea around with me all day... look back at it... it's worth it. the post about Le Tire...

the idea that so many of life's moments pass us by, and don't become memories only because we happen to be alone... that SUCKS! so, i hereby promise to try to live each moment as it comes, and appreciate the moments, alone or with someone, that define the human experience. i don't know what it means to be human, but i bet i could figure it out if YOU'D CALL ME!

when the bevy breaks...

there are so many thoughts in my head tonight that seem to be appropriate topics for a blog entry... but none of them seem at this moment to be worthy of an entire post by themselves. if there was some tenuous link between them, i'd try to slew them all together in one big string, as mr. kudzia described to us when talking about the musical term "legato."

but i can't seem to find that tenuous link tonight, my friends.

but, it's been a while, and i feel a certain responsibility to fulfill... even though i'm at peace with the idea that mine are probably the only eyes that gaze upon these words anymore.

how the mighty have fallen.

so sleep tight former readers... in new york, and royal oak, and romeo, and birmingham, and san francisco, and berkley, and texas, and phoenix, and ferndale, and los angeles, and east lansing, and rochester hills. i wish i could gaze upon your sleeping toes, laying vulnerable and unclenched in your slumber.

there is something about the picture of the sleeping's feet... something about their toes laying peaceful and silent. a part of the body that goes so unnoticed, and so heavily overabused, just laying there sideways, hovering in the air, as their parent appendage rests on the heaven of a protected mattress. open to attack, and perpetrators... but lucky enough to not have to worry about such things while their parent-parent bodys rest peacefully.
i want to watch the world sleeping. that time of day when all is forgiven, and we all become angels.

i hope your job search goes well. i hope your graduate study goes incredibly well. i hope you find peace in knowing that window will be fixed. i hope you're this happy next year. i hope you raise those boys with all the gifts you've been given. i hope you find another professor that instills the passion of those who have come before. i hope you and i will always be friends. i hope for the best for all of you... despite the cards that life seems so willing to deal us all. i hope to someday learn everything you know, and one day make you proud of me.

in no particular order....