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News
archived through April 2008.
Friday, November 14, 2008 - 12:12 AM
[Update by Frog] |
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If you
have a website, you really shouldn't let news updates from
more than two years ago still be sitting on your homepage,
so I archived all of those and got them out of the way. Unfortunately,
there are still some really old blog entries on the homepage,
which will be archived eventually, as well.
I would
really like to start blogging again, on that note. I don't
know whether to do it here or on the other site. Here I can
get a little more personal, at least.
I will
update the pic and quote soon, as well. As usual, we're way
past due, aren't we?
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Working
early.
Saturday, October 4, 2008 - 8:45 AM
[Update by Frog] |
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I am inexplicably
awake before 9:00 on a Saturday morning, and even though I
have a lot to do today, this is still something that never
happens. I have a stinking suspicion that Amanda is in some
way responsible for this, since she is awake and ready to
go by 4:30 on most mornings. Eh...if it means getting more
work done and having more free time to start rumors about
professional athletes on internet message boards, I suppose
it's worth it.
I can't
make it to Will and Danielle's wedding today, so in their
honor, today's new picture is of Will. Congratulations, you
two! Hope to see you at Thanksgiving, maybe.
There
is also a new quote, uttered last week when dodgeball miraculously
happened! Will it happen again? I dunno. I hope so.
I realized
that if I was at work today, I would have been working there
for two years now. I just can't believe it's been that long.
In a lot of ways, I'm still really enjoying my time there.
In other ways...eh, not so much. But that's a topic for discussion
for another day.
I have
to get going. Man, I really need to archive the news on this
site whenever I get a chance. See you all next time!
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Ooh,
ooh, almost on schedule!
Saturday, September 6, 2008 - 10:02 AM
[Update by Frog] |
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I only
missed it by a couple of days! Maybe I'll finally be on schedule
next time.
New pic
and quote, as usual. Besides that, nothing new to report...yet.
However,
it should be noted that football season started this week.
As always, I wish the best of Luck to my Philadelphia Eagles
and Cleveland Browns, and grim misfortune upon the New York
Giants, New England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Falcons,
Baltimore Ravens, Washington Redskins, Pittsburgh Steelers,
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Green Bay Packers.
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A
little better, but still not ideal.
Thursday, August 21, 2008 - 12:59 AM
[Update by Frog] |
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Well,
this update was still technically late, but three weeks between
updates is still a lot better than six weeks between updates
like last time. Fortunately, this week's pic and quote are
both really good, in my opinion, so maybe they will
distract you from my incompetence long enough that you won't
notice when the next update is inevitably late.
In the
meantime, I'll keep being super busy.
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Holy
crap a site update!
Thursday, July 31, 2008 - 12:35 AM
[Update by Frog] |
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I'm sorry,
guys. I've been such a jerk. I've been neglecting this site
way too much lately. I need to go get some funny pictures
and get back on the ball around here. And I need to put a
lot more effort into better managing my time so that I actually
make site updates on schedule.
The pic
and quote have been updated. Maybe I can start doing that
on a regular basis again. We'll see. Although, if I don't,
Brett might cut my tongue out, so it would probably be a good
idea to at least try.
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New
pic and quote!
Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 10:05 PM
[Update by Frog] |
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Finally,
a picture update that doesn't involve Cole in any way! Not
that Cole being involved is a bad thing or anything....
Also,
Matt wins the award for the longest quote ever. I think. I
probably should have done some research before making such
an outlandish claim, but whatever.
Still
planning on doing that blog I wanted to do that I mentioned
in the last update. I was trying to get all of my old blogs
organized before I did that, though, and while I've worked
on it some, I still have quite a ways to go. Although, the
next...oh, probably month or so is going to be absolutely
nuts, so I'm not getting my hopes up.
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Picture
monopoly.
Thursday, May 22, 2008 - 11:50 PM
[Update by Frog] |
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Cole is
monopolizing the picture updates on this site by apparently
being the only one of us left who still does very crazy, very
photographable things. The next picture update will probably
be of Cole standing in a kiddie pool of Jell-O or vat of ramen
noodles or something.
If time
allows it (and I don't seem to have much of that these days),
I'd like to do a blog pretty soon on being out of school for
a couple of years now. (Doing blogs again in general would
be nice.) I realized this whenever SEMO recently held its
graduation, and I started wondering about how I'm doing and
where I've gotten since graduating. Doesn't seem like far,
but in another sense, I think maybe I have. But that's a topic
for a future update. Until then, goodnight, and keep watching
the skis.
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What
a bunch of crazy kids.
Thursday, May 1, 2008 - 9:13 PM
[Update by Frog] |
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Things
are back to normal here with a new picture of us crazy kids
doing crazy things.
I'm doing
a sort of work-night thing here--trying to get a few things
done I've been putting off for too long now. Curious to see
how far I'll get. It's already not looking good.
Here's
hoping the number of pic and quote updates increases over
the next few weeks!
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Another
one of those sleepless Sunday nights....
Monday, December 10, 2007 - 12:45 AM
[Update by Frog] |
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I’m pretty sure I’ve spoken of
this phenomenon in which I can’t sleep on Sunday nights
here before, so I will spare you from that and just try to
talk about what’s been going on lately…if anything.
For about
a month now, I’ve been trying to get the staff to let
me write a sports blog for the newspaper’s website.
From what I understand, some of you don’t really like
it when I write about sports here, so I figured I would just
move it to a different venue. I really like writing about
sports. I’m not an expert, I don’t understand
much about it (which is why I never do much analysis or blabber
about stats), and I’m probably not the most logical
or rational sports fan. However, when it comes to the emotion,
passion, frustration, and humor involved in playing the game,
rooting for the teams I like, rooting against the teams I
hate, and all of the issues surrounding my favorite sports,
well, I just always seem to have a lot to say. And I’ll
even go so far as to cast aside my incredible self-doubt for
just a fraction of a moment and say that I think I could maybe
provide them with something that a lot of people would enjoy
reading, even if they don’t necessarily agree with my
crackpot ramblings about my fear of teams I hate joining forces,
or how I think there should be instances in which both
competing teams can lose a game, among other observations.
Anyway, I don’t have it yet, and I don’t
know if I’m gonna get it. I wanted to not tell anybody
about it and then surprise everybody when it debuted, but
I’ve chosen to vent my frustration instead. While my
suggestion was met with initial enthusiasm, communication
has since dried up, and subsequent emails I have sent haven’t
gone anywhere. I don’t know if I was forgotten, or if
it’s something nobody currently has time to address,
or if they don’t want me to do it and are just not telling
me. I sent another email yesterday asking for a definite yes
or no so I can stop worrying about it. So, if you don’t
mind, just hope for the best. I probably shouldn’t kid
myself, though. I thought maybe I had an original idea, but
when I thought harder about it, I figured they probably get
10 or 20 emails a day from people wanting to do sports blogs,
in which case I probably shouldn’t be too disappointed
if I don’t get to do it. I gave it a shot, if nothing
else.
Also on the topic of work, I managed to break
my email on Friday. The account name and stuff on my computer
was still under the name of the person who used to sit where
I sit now. Well, I’ve been working there like 13 months
or something, so I got sick of her name being on there and
changed it to mine. However, in doing so, I cut myself off
from my own email, because the network was recognizing my
computer based on the old username, and now that I changed
the username, it can’t find me. I submitted a request
for assistance to the IT guys. They are going to be very angry.
But that’s okay—I’ve never really screwed
anything up this badly at work before, so I was due. And it
was time to change that username. 13 months. Come on.
Well, I’m finally getting a little tired,
so I think I’ll try to pick this up again in a new entry
sometime in the near future, as opposed to a couple of months
from now.
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Flash
Entry!
Thursday, November 1, 2007 - 11:59 PM
[Update by Frog] |
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20 minutes until bedtime. Let’s see
what I can get out there.
Was at
work 13 hours today. Sick of working so much overtime. Every
Thursday is a nightmare. I have to stay really late to get
everything done by 5:00 PM Friday (if I’m lucky). This
week is the nasty week of the month, so we’ll see how
it goes tomorrow. Assuming I do things right the first time
and don’t get interrupted by a bunch of late ads, I
might be all right, but we’ll see. It hardly ever works
out so well. I’m having a lot of difficulty lately striking
a balance in time spent on ads. I either spend painfully too
much time on them, or I whiz through them very quickly and
forget to do half of the things I was supposed to do to them.
But there is no longer any of that desired middle ground in
which I can do things quickly and get them right.
I also fear sleep deprivation is definitely starting to impact
my performance. I need more sleep, and I think I have the
time to get more sleep. That also hardly ever works out the
way I want it to, though.
I’m noticing some pleasing increases
in stamina during my evening runs. It’s getting to be
the dark time of year, during which I find myself nearly running
into people a lot. I’ve considered running in the mornings,
but even the mere consideration seems like a fool’s
errand—I’ll never be capable of waking up so early
just to expend a lot of energy all at once. Instead, what
I may do to counteract the darkness is to run in a circle,
using the service road behind the dupe and the new sidewalk
that connects to the trail down near the rugby pitch. It’s
more boring than the trail, but it might keep me motivated
when it’s already dark before I even get out of work.
There are portions of the trail where you really can’t
see where you’re going or what you’re stepping
in when it’s that dark, so staying where it’s
(sort of) lit might be a nice alternative. We’ll see.
The most
exciting thing about football this year: It’s the NFL
versus the New England Patriots, a classic battle of good
versus evil, which the side of evil is handily winning at
the moment. I’m rooting for the NFL, of course, even
though all the other teams I hate are a part of this good
guy faction, and teams I actually root for stand no chance.
(Can I honestly say I’m looking forward to Eagles versus
Patriots later this year? Ugh. It’ll be worse than that
game against the Giants with all the sacks.) While I won’t
go so far as to say I think the Patriots are running up the
score on other teams (which I’m not entirely against,
after seeing so many ridiculous comebacks), I do think they’re
becoming the smug bullies of the league, who can get any player
they want at any time and stomp everybody who opposes
them. Tom Brady is untouchable in both the game and in life.
He peed in my Mountain Dew and got all my girl friends pregnant,
then didn’t get sacked for five straight games. Come
on. Somebody beat these guys. Bonus points to the first man
who can successfully lodge an object in Brady’s chinhole.
That’s it for me. Goodnight.
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Written
"with an intensity unknown to mankind."
Monday, October 15, 2007 - 11:46 PM
[Update by Frog] |
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Jim Harbaugh said
that was how he was going to approach his job as head football
coach at Stanford. I thought it was really funny in a sensational
sort of way, so I stole it. Several times.
Also, I was happy
to see that my brother’s prediction that the Patriots
and Cowboys would meet at the center of the field, hug, and
form an unstoppable super team did not come true. Instead
they battled as two undefeated teams in the NFL usually do—it
was close for awhile, but then one of the teams pulled ahead
by a thousand touchdowns. I was happy to see one team lose,
but it filled me with utter disgust that the other team had
to win for that to happen. Desperately yearning for some kind
of “double loss” stipulation or scenario just
ended up being a big disappointment.
Meanwhile, my Eagles
continue to play pretty good defense against mediocre offenses,
holding the pantywaist Jets to a measly nine points. However,
Brian Westbrook and Kevin Curtis remain the Eagles’
only offensive weapons. And fortunately for Donovan McNabb’s
back and tenderized innards, he was sacked nine less times
than in the previous game.
In regards
to the baseball playoffs, I was happy to see the Cubs casually
swept aside. I don’t want teams like the Yankees or
Red Sox winning the World Series, but I figure they will again
eventually either by aura or by talent or by absurd payroll,
so it’s difficult to root against them with the same
intensity that I root against the Cubs. I never want
the Cubs to ever win another World Series. That,
readers, is a cause to really get behind.
Of the remaining
teams, even though the Diamondbacks rank highest on my list,
I’m rooting for the Rockies, as pretty much everybody
else is. But really, as long as the Diamondbacks, Rockies,
or Indians eliminate the Red Sox somewhere along the line,
I’ll be perfectly content.
And I guess I probably
need to make some updates to that baseball list. And actually
finish my football list.
I sit here writing
this on a Sunday night, and I’m probably staying up
too late in order to do so. However, I never really get very
much sleep on Sunday nights. During the week I never get more
than six hours of sleep in a given night, and then on the
weekends I sleep a lot (well, sometimes), and I have all this
energy to burn, and I’m never tired when I need to go
to bed. At least I think that’s what happens. Now I’m
just wondering if I’ll sit here and write the whole
thing, or if I’ll pack it in and finish it tomorrow.
Yup, tomorrow….
*The following
evening….*
I finally fixed
the front door of the dupe. You know, the one with the broken
off handle. This is good because now the dupe looks less like
a place where vagrants congregate and hold illegal cockfights.
However, that good
looking door is also attracting some unwanted visitors. A
dude came to my front door to sell me steaks today. Normally
I would have been intrigued by such an offer, but his sales
pitch was uncomfortably askew. He arrived in an unmarked truck
that didn’t even seem to have the means necessary to
transport a large amount of cold meat. He told me he was in
the neighborhood to drop off some meat for the Rezettis down
the street, but they couldn’t take everything he had,
so he was going door to door selling the meat at market value.
Well, I don’t know the Rezettis, and therefore I don’t
know if they actually live down the street or not. I detected
some sort of clever ruse and politely said I wasn’t
interested, but asked if I could have a business card or some
kind of information for future reference. He said he only
had brochures in the truck with coupons for repeat customers.
So, with no evidence to support that he was, in fact, a legitimate
business at all (or even an illegitimate business), I would
not follow him to the truck to check out his selection of
meats, in fear I may become part of the selection. Although,
I probably shouldn’t have shown any interest, because
now I think he may actually come back. Really nice guy, though,
but I guess that’s how they get you.
The unfortunate
part about all of this is that he could be at home right now,
eating the best steak he’s ever had. And it could be
mine! How do I know if I’ve really missed out on a great
deal, or successfully preserved my own life?!
My car told me
one of my tires was low. Technology has either become too
fantastic or too frightening. I can’t decide which.
I’ve been
getting the stink eye from a lot of people lately while running
on the trail. Usually it’s just the women, but now the
guys seem put off by me, as well. Am I doing it wrong or something?
I can’t see how I’m being that offensive, but
I’m getting a lot of really nasty glares. The only thing
I can think of is that I’m usually thinking really hard
about stuff while I run, so maybe I am giving everybody who
passes me an unintentional, hard-thinking stink eye and just
haven’t realized it, and they are simply returning the
favor. I dunno.
Still not getting
a lot of work done, but it has been a busy and stressful couple
of weeks, particularly with regards to my real job, which
is usually the main killer of my motivation. So that’s
not a good combination. But somewhere along the line, I suppose
I’ll figure it all out.
That’s all
I’ve got this time around. I’ll try and do better
next time.
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Lack
of appreciation.
Friday, October 5, 2007 - 12:35 AM
[Update by Frog] |
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I’m getting really irritated with myself
because I keep starting to write blog entries, but then I
don’t finish them, and by the time I get around to finishing
them, everything I wrote is irrelevant or out of date. I’ll
try to do a better job this time.
One of my folders is missing. There isn’t
even anything in it, really—just a pad of paper and
my resume (which I can always print another copy of). I don’t
need those things right now. In fact, I don’t need the
folder right now, either. I’m just mad that I can’t
find it. It’s the folder I take on job interviews with
me. I took it when I got the job at the paper. And now I’m
trying to retrace my steps over the past year to figure out
where it went.
Did I leave it at the paper the day of the
interview? Quite possible—I was pretty nervous that
day. Did I drop it on the way back to my car? Also possible.
It is at my parents’ house? It could be, but I can’t
think of a reason why I would take it there. Did somebody
borrow it? That seems weird, but I guess it’s not out
of the realm of possibility. Did I leave it in the Frogmobile
when I was moving stuff from it to the Mark II? Is it in the
Mark II right now? I dunno. It’s probably just in a
box in here somewhere, but I forgot which one. I turned my
room upside down (and got a bit of needed cleaning done in
the process) looking for it, but no luck.
I really want that folder. Incredibly irritated
at the moment. I know I just saw it, and now there’s
no sign of it ever even existing. Guess that’s how it
goes sometimes. Hopefully it’ll turn up. I’m really
starting to think otherwise, though.
I haven’t been getting enough work done
lately on the stuff I want to work on. Too many distractions—changing
of roommates, cleaning and minor repairs around the house,
my day job, trying to beat Fallout 2 night after night (which
I finally did), exciting sports on TV, and delays and boredom
with web design, which is amusing because just a few weeks
ago I was excited about getting to do some new web designing,
which I haven’t done for a long time. I need to get
over this hump already, make time for myself to work. Because
my real job is not going to get any easier, I’ll soon
start playing another video game, and sports on TV is only
going to get more exciting from here on out. If I’m
really passionate about these things that I do, I’ll
find the time to work on them.
That’s the problem, though—I don’t
know that I am passionate about it. If I was, I’d be
getting crap done all the time. I’d draw every damn
day. But I don’t. I know real life gets in the way sometimes,
but is it really that big of an obstacle? Well, occasionally
it is, but definitely not as often as I might lead you to
believe. Then again, it’s also difficult for me to really
define my passions, because I don’t think I’m
passionate about very much stuff. Maybe sports and some video
games, but that’s probably about it. I don’t have
a favorite movie, I don’t know the names of all the
members of my favorite bands (well, some of them), and I can’t
even give any real, definite reasons for liking the things
that I like. Is that normal? Am I ever going to make anything
of myself at this rate? Do I even like doing the things I
want to do when I “grow up?” You’d just
think I’d be more into them.
I’ve been fixing some broken things
and cleaning up around the house, which feels pretty good.
I feel slightly more handy than I used to, which, for me,
is a good feeling. A very good feeling. I still need to tackle
that disgusting shower, though….
Today marked exactly one year of me working
at the newspaper. Fastest year of my life.
In the meantime, I’m trying to re-develop
my appreciation for running. Ever since I’ve gotten
back into the swing of things after my ankle injury, it’s
been all about getting into shape. But my evenings on the
La Croix trail have been, and should once again be, so much
more than just attempts to eliminate flabbiness. It’s
fun to go out there and try to go a little farther or a little
faster than the last time. It becomes ritual, passing the
same landmarks and occasionally the same people on each trip,
leaping the same potholes while hearing the same dogs barking
from their territories on the other side of the creek. It
becomes meditation as I pound out all the built up frustrations
from work and from life. In the summer, the trail is congested—little
kids chasing each other on bikes, athletes maintaining themselves,
elderly couples out for an evening stroll, and families walking
the dog. In the winter, it’s often just me and my music
braving the cold, either out of stupidity or necessity. On
the rare occasion somebody else is dumb enough to be out in
the nasty weather, we give each other the courtesy of a nod
or a wave and press on. Or if it’s a girl, she usually
just looks the other way or gives me the stink eye, probably
because I’m a creep or something. There are those certain
energizing songs on the mp3 player that give me a burst of
speed and adrenaline for just a few short moments, not unlike
grabbing an invincibility star. Those moments are always exciting.
So are the times when I have to race a thunderstorm home.
In passing I watch the baseball games and the football practices,
the rugby players and the folks at the driving range, wondering
what the score is or if they’re ready for their next
game, or if the golfers are going to slice one on purpose
and try to peg me in the back of the head. They haven’t
hit me yet. Finally, there are those unfortunate times when
I’ll see a girl I liked somewhere along the line pass
me with her boyfriend in tow. No words are spoken, and existences
are not acknowledged. But what does come to mind is what a
dope I am for ever thinking I have a shot in the first place.
I try not to worry too much about that sort of thing anymore,
though. I just keep going.
Just gotta keep going.
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Probably
the most mediocre week ever.
Friday, August 24, 2007 - 12:20 AM
[Update by Frog] |
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It all started on Sunday (the day upon which
weeks typically start) when I came home to the dupe to find
that the air conditioner froze up. And it didn’t thaw
and completely drain until 7AM the next morning. Not sure
what the problem is—I just changed the filters not that
long ago. Might be low on Freeon or something. I don’t
really know anything about air conditioners. I will direct
the problem to the landlord the next time we speak, as much
as I hate asking for assistance. The air conditioner is running
properly now, but we are not pushing it very hard. At least
we have one, though—I am too much of a weiner to imagine
life without it. One night without it was bad enough. At least
the lack of sleep gave me plenty of time to think, though
those thoughts usually turn to unpleasant things when I’m
trying to get to sleep.
The work
week has been unusually stressful with the regional football
preview and a couple of other special sections coming out
soon. I was swamped, and then I got caught up for about two
minutes, and now I’m behind again. My satisfaction with
the job is waning a little bit, I think, but it’s mostly
my fault because I don’t give myself the opportunity
to enjoy it. I’m familiar enough with everybody there
that I don’t really play the game where I sneak proofs
onto the salespeople’s desks anymore. But at the same
time, I still very rarely have any actual conversation with
anybody there. God knows I’m never going to
start a conversation with anybody, and when people try to
start conversations with me, I’m too much of a retard
to keep up. I was always hoping that maybe someday I would
develop some social skills, but I’m still as much of
a weirdo as ever. It usually leaves me pretty discouraged
by the end of the work day. I’m trying to better myself,
to connect, to feel like a part of the team. Maybe I’m
just not there yet, but it makes me worry. Then again, maybe
it’s just not my place in the world to be good at that
sort of thing. I’d like to open up more to people, in
general—coworkers, friends, and family. I don’t
really talk to any of them enough. I don’t know how
much people really know me. Maybe they know me really
well, and maybe they don’t know me at all. I can’t
tell. All I know is I don’t help matters one bit.
I woke up Monday morning feeling the first
effects of my late-summer allergies. I have an incredibly
sore throat and a cough, which will soon be followed by coke
eyes and a complete inability to breathe. Great way to start
the week.
My exercising
didn’t really go very well this week. I simply haven’t
felt that well, for one thing. No energy at all—no sleep,
and my metabolism keeps getting more screwed up all the time.
I never thought I’d say it, but I don’t think
I eat enough anymore. I ran once this week, didn’t
go as far as I should have, and felt really sick when I got
home, probably a combination of too much heat and being out
of shape/having poor metabolism. I really haven’t had
the desire to go out again since then. I thought maybe my
whole “love cold, hate heat” trait was fading,
but it has become quite clear trying to do anything in this
weather that I’m not engineered for these temperatures.
It can’t stay one thousand degrees forever, though.
I’m hoping maybe highs will only be in the 80s again
by mid-November or so. Maybe by then my ankle will be totally
better, too.
My problems with sleep are getting worse.
As always, it takes one to two hours just to fall asleep.
Then I usually wake up within a half-hour or an hour, and
my mind is full of delirious sleep gibberish, which I typically
have to fight my way through in order to get to sleep again.
That usually takes another half-hour or hour. After that I’m
usually okay for the rest of the night, but I usually wake
up one to five minutes before the alarm goes off, which is
unspeakably frustrating. I don’t really do anything
stressful before going to bed (aside from talk on MSN, which
is sometimes stressful, but not always), so I don’t
understand why this happens all the time. I imagine the lack
of sleep also makes work a little more miserable and generally
makes everything harder to do. It doesn’t matter when
I go to bed or how tired I am—the results are always
about the same.
But despite all of that, it was still kind
of a productive week. I am taking some (very) slow steps towards
getting my ass in gear.
I can’t muster anymore. Time to go wait
around for a couple of hours before I fall asleep. |
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Trying
to get my swagger back.
Thursday, August 16, 2007 - 10:03 PM
[Update by Frog] |
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I’m pretty sure that’s some ridiculous
new sports lingo, presumably used whenever a player underachieves
for a time and needs to improve his or her play in order to
provide the team with a boost or something like that. The
lingo is used inappropriately in this case, as I have never
had, nor will I ever have, swagger. The best I can do is shamble,
and that’s on a good day.
All of that is neither here nor there, however.
Regarding getting my shamble back, I’m officially back
on a regular exercise schedule. My near-perpetual ankle injury
is still lingering, but I think it actually is continuing
to improve with time. I also bought new shoes with good arch
support (as recommended by my doctor) and these seem to be
helping to an extent, although I haven’t had them long
enough to tell just how much of a difference they’re
making. I have noticed that with these shoes, my feet no longer
turn in when I walk, which is supposed to take pressure off
the injured area of the foot, so it would seem they are doing
their job in that regard.
However, I have picked the absolute worst
time of the year to get back on schedule, now that temperatures
are exceeding one thousand degrees and all of the once-happy
sunbeams shining delicately on our planet have become deathrays
of misery. Those, combined with me once again being out of
shape thanks to a month of little to no activity, make it
a rough go. I’m kind of sick of having to start over
all the time, but I guess that’s the way it goes, and
I’ll deal with it. I’m just happy to be active
again. Although, I can barely run a quarter of a mile in the
heat without getting sick.
I also started lifting weights again and doing
push-ups and crap. It has apparently been much longer than
I realized since I last did anything like that…ow.
I’ve also started to work on all of
my zillions of projects again. One of my short stories has
entered what I hope to be the final editing process, and I
have another one that I believe I’ve mentioned before
on here that needs a new ending. I’m kind of stumped
right now, but I’m putting actual effort into developing
a new ending, so I’m considering it progress nevertheless.
I don’t know if the stories are actually good or not.
I hope they are—everybody in my creative writing class
enjoyed them when they went through peer editing, if that
means anything.
In addition to this, moving the websites to
their new server has me really excited about web design and
just flat-out having websites. I think I’m going to
do a bit of redesigning and maybe modernize things a little
bit, depending on how much new coding I’m willing to
learn. There are a couple of really neat features that could
be added to make things a little more interactive and fun.
I’d also like to make a dedicated page for the weblog
instead of just slapping entries onto the homepage like I’ve
been doing. I also wouldn’t mind naming the weblog instead
of just calling it “weblog,” but I don’t
know what to name it…yet.
Barry
Bonds surpassed 756 home runs somewhere along the line. Yes,
he is a good player. Yes, hitting 756+ home runs in a career,
despite possible foul play, is remarkable. Yes, he has handled
himself extraordinarily well this season. But he’s still
a prick and he’s still a fraud, and the sad thing is
that I have a bad feeling everybody will forgive him in the
end some years down the road. I often joke that Bonds will
probably end up being the only player during the so-called
“steroid era” to NOT use any illegal performance-enhancing
drugs. He will make the Hall of Fame while other questionably
enhanced athletes such as McGwire and Sosa will be left out.
And I don’t like that. The argument perpetually raised
is that Bonds was a great player before he allegedly
used any illegal substances—great enough for the Hall
of Fame, even. But why does that make it okay? Sure, he was
good, but he didn’t break any records until he was a
superhuman, so how are we to know he really was good enough?
In my opinion, sports writers will have to take a stand and
either leave all the steroids-era players out of the Hall
of Fame, or put them all in. I’m not too comfortable
with the idea of some guys who set records and helped define
a part of baseball history being left out because “we
think they may have cheated,” while others from the
same era get in because “they were still good enough,
even though we think they may have cheated.” In the
end, they should probably just let them all in, or there will
be a never-ending shitstorm for the next 20 years as nobody
will be able to agree on which players are legit and which
players don’t belong. Besides, there is always something
in baseball that skews the numbers. Steroids have skewed the
last 20-25 years. During the Dead Ball Era, the raised mound
and sheer quality and quantity of pitching talent held hitting
down. There are whole generations of potentially eligible
players from days prior to integration that will never see
the Hall of Fame because they were black and toiled in obscurity.
There’s always something.
To the St. Louis Cardinals: Ride the momentum.
RIDE it! Do NOT lay down for the Cubs. This roadtrip may define
your season, and there are four more games to be played. It’s
not over yet. We haven’t given up yet, so don’t
let us down. Everything is in your favor right now, so if
there was ever a time to peak, by God, this is it. Don’t
give the Cubs any reason to believe they haven’t run
into an unstoppable buzzsaw.
That is all of the sports-related ranting
I can do at the moment. I have to go talk to friends and/or
work on stuff I want to work on. Yes sir, everything is alllllll
right….
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Late
Entry.
Friday, August 3, 2007 - 11:52 PM
[Update by Frog] |
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[I actually wrote this last Sunday, but the
website server crash delayed its posting until now.]
Really, I just want to see if I’m still
capable of doing an entry without having to take a break at
some point and think about what I’m going to say for
hours or even days at a time, which usually makes me not want
to do them at all. The things I want to talk about either
become out of date or outright irrelevant by the time I get
them typed. It’s very disappointing, to be honest. I’ve
been thinking about these sorts of things for awhile lately.
There are all kinds of stuff I want to do, but I no longer
seem willing to do the work that goes into them. Which, at
this rate, I’ll never do any of the stuff I want to
do, and I’ll get stuck in a rut and be working at the
newspaper for the next 20 years, all the while still single
and living in piles of my own filth (and perhaps some cat
filth, as well), pining for days long gone. I cannot allow
this to happen. I spend far too much time just sitting around
and thinking, or sitting around and wasting time. I think
about the same things that bother me over and over again,
rather than doing anything fun. I wish I knew why I do that
all the time. Much of what I worry about is out of my hands,
anyway, so I don’t know why I’m so willing to
let it consume me.
Comics and stories and fun stuff await. I
just have to stop being such a lazy and do some damn work
for once.
Anyway, as a departure from recent trends,
I’m going to try to do an entire entry in one sitting.
I have softball in about two hours and 15 minutes, so that
is my time limit. Plus, there is no reason an entry should
ever take that long in the first place. Let’s get to
work.
Last Friday, I allowed myself a day off from
work and left town for Chicago at about 3 in the morning for
a long overdue visit to my brother. I had initially asked
for this Friday off to go to the dodgeball tournament in Schaumburg
the same weekend, but that plan fell through. However, some
months ago I told my brother that if for any reason we ended
up not going to that tournament, I would just go up and visit
that weekend instead. And that’s what I did. He and
his wife just moved to a new house in South Elgin, and I figured
it was high time for a visit. To give you an idea of how long
it’s been since I’d last visited them, I never
actually saw the last apartment they lived in, and they lived
there for about 4 years or so. They come down here a lot,
so I owed them one. It turns out my sister-in-law actually
had to go out of town, so it was just my brother and me. And
his cats. They’re fun.
I really couldn’t have asked for a better
weekend. The weather was surprisingly cool and not humid.
When I left home at 3 in the morning, it was 75 degrees here,
but the temperature got down to 59 degrees at one point about
halfway to Chicago before it started going up again. And,
walking around downtown on Saturday morning, it was almost
uncomfortably cool—I really liked that. We went to the
Art Institute, we ate at a number of fine restaurants, found
a nice comic book store, bought crap we didn’t need,
I finally found a left-handed baseball glove, we went to the
Ikea store (I really just wanted to look around inside), rode
the train, explored the western suburbs a little, played video
games, watched movies and wrestling and baseball, and even
found time to catch up on sleep, although both mornings up
there I was rudely awakened by the sun shining brightly through
a very high window and directly onto the living room couch.
But that was okay. I just wish I’d had more time up
there.
The trip was thoroughly refreshing. This past
week was the best week I’ve had at work for a long time.
This probably means I should allow myself a few more days
off here and there, as this was the first day off I’d
taken in nine and a half months of working there.
I have a few things to say about the Cardinals.
I was going to say that the season is over, but I guess by
taking 3 of 4 from the Brewers, they have delayed that for
maybe a week or so. They could make a big jump by smashing
the lesser Pirates and Nationals, their next two opponents.
But they’ll probably lose all momentum for no reason
and drop two of three to each of these teams.
As a staunch proponent of good pitching, the
Cardinals irritate the hell out of me. The grand experiment
of spending zero dollars to maintain the existing pitching
staff, electing instead to replace them with super-athletic
cyborgs, has failed. Mostly because super-athletic cyborgs
haven’t been invented yet. Instead, the starting rotation
was assembled from bullpen components and stiffs like Kip
Wells, whom I’ve been pulling for all the way, but…well,
I don’t think it’s gonna work out, despite a couple
of recent quality starts. Wainwright, Looper, and Thompson
have all been all right, but just all right. Looper has probably
been most impressive, considering he is coming off a 10-year
stint as a reliever, whereas the other two are supposed to
be good young starting prospects (despite Wainwright’s
bullpen success last season). I just think they would have
been better off just spending the extra $4 or 5 million necessary
to keep both Suppan and Weaver, rather than being so cheap,
but who am I to say? As much as I hate the high-dollar world
of baseball, you can’t just refuse to spend money where
all the other teams will. You can’t sign any players
that way.
The bullpen has been great all season, and
the patchwork rotation occasionally shows signs of brilliance,
but for every 6+ inning quality start, there seem to be four
or five savage beatdowns that take the Cardinals out of the
game by the second or third inning. They still have so much
to prove if they really want to be contenders.
I’m hoping to see a doctor sometime
this week in order to check out my ankle, which is still not
better. I can walk on it without pain or discomfort, but doing
anything else hurts it. I can feel myself getting fat and
out of shape again. I have to exercise or else my body degenerates
into a glob of fat slime. I hope I don’t have a serious
problem with my ankle and it’s just something that will
go away with a little more time.
That should be enough material for this installment.
See you next time.
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Etcetera.
Monday, June 25, 2007 - 12:12 AM
[Update by Frog] |
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Written
over the course of last week. Sorry. New pic and quote to
come later tonight, I hope.
*MONDAY*
It’s raining outside. I wasn’t
entirely certain that sort of thing still happened around
here. Not only were we in dire need of rain, but this will
also provide a quick and easy fix to all of (no, probably
just some of) the bug goo piling up on my windshield.
Unfortunately, it did not rain like this any
earlier in the day. It rained for about 2 seconds sometime
during the afternoon, causing it to feel about a thousand
degrees hotter outside than it already was. Naturally, I went
out running in this stifling haze and about made myself sick—I
couldn’t run very fast or very far, but at least I went
out and did it, regardless. I almost didn’t. The heat
surely didn’t help, but I figure the fact that I ate
at Lambert’s on Wednesday, had nothing but pizza and
fried chicken on Friday and Saturday, and then had Red Lobster
on Sunday probably also contributed to my sluggishness. But
hey, at least no desirable, yet unattainable women rode past
me on bicycles this time, and that always makes things a little
less miserable.
This weekend we had an auction at my grandparents’
old estate in New Wells. It went very well, but the whole
day had an eerie nostalgia to it. Ultimately this is a sale
that nobody wanted to see happen, simply because my grandparents
mean such a great deal to so many people. They played a huge
role in so many lives, as family, as friends, as store owners,
as churchgoers, you name it. And to see much of the accumulation
of their lives separated and sold off to a throng of auction-goers
was somewhat disheartening to many. But at the same time,
it was something that had to happen—Grandpa is no longer
of this earth, and Grandma is in the nursing home and won’t
be returning to her New Wells residence. It is better that
these items or memories or whatever you wish to consider them
are to be are passed on to those who will use and appreciate
them, rather than be left in unoccupied buildings where they
would eventually succumb to disuse, or be ransacked by goons
that could never know their true value.
And so began saying goodbye to my grandparents’
former homestead. The property itself is still to be sold,
but both who and what made it another home to me are gone
now. I just hope the property is sold to someone who will
take good care of it. I am definitely glad the auction is
over, though—we’ve been working and planning for
it for about three months now.
*LATER THAT WEEK*
So the whole eating breakfast thing hasn’t
helped out as much as I was hoping it would. I still feel
pretty awful at the end of the work day. Are you supposed
to feel like that? Can no amount of sustenance remedy it?
Although, I guess I have neglected to take into account the
fact that I never get enough sleep. And while I never fall
asleep at work, a lack of sleep is probably also contributing
to feeling crappy by the afternoon hours. But let’s
not kid ourselves—I can make positive lifestyle changes,
but there’s no way the amount of sleep I get is going
to be improving significantly anytime soon. The only problem
with that is that my weekends have been so busy lately that
I haven’t had much time to catch up on sleep, but I’m
not quite sure of the impact that is having on my everyday
life—perhaps more so than I’ve realized?
And speaking
of work, it’s absolutely killing me this week. I was
there until almost 7 Wednesday night, and then Thursday was
as stressful as ever. Sometimes I get the feeling I’m
becoming too reliable. I very rarely turn down extra work
if they ask me to do it, because I’m trying to be a
good employee and just get stuff done that nobody else is
going to want to do in the first place. But where do I draw
the line? I’m willing to put in the extra time if they
need me to, but I don’t want to become the go-to guy
who can be pushed into anything. I’ll just burn out
faster, at that rate. But at the same time, I wonder if maybe
I have the same amount of work as everyone else and just work
slow? I don’t want to voice a concern about me getting
too much work, and it actually turns out everybody
else is doing more work than I am. Basically, I just need
to learn when to say no. I’m sure they would understand.
I am also in need of two (2) testicles. I’m
sure that would help out a great deal. In all aspects of life.
Well, except for “fewest testicles” contests.
So long for now.
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"There
it is in the rearview mirror."
Monday, June 4, 2007 - 11:03 PM
[Update by Frog] |
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I don’t know
what it is. Maybe my metabolism is churning at a pace it hasn’t
churned at for years. Maybe it’s just the fact that
I’m getting older. All I know is one thing is certain….
I’m going
to have to start eating breakfast again.
This is
something I stopped doing regularly a good eight years or
so ago, and it has never really been an issue until recently.
I’ve noticed at work I’m getting headaches, feeling
nauseous and often getting the shakes. I also eat a light
lunch, so this probably doesn’t help. But where my body
used to be able to sustain itself without food all day with
ease, it is now struggling to do so. In those woeful college
years I could arrive at school at 8:00 AM and often go without
any sustenance at all until early afternoon, the 5:00 hour,
and even after 9:00 on those unending days when I had night
classes. Apparently these days have passed. Even with a light
lunch, I find myself frequently unable to resist buying sodas
and junk food from the breakroom machines to help me get through
the day, and by the time I go home, I am wracked with ravenous
hunger, which is then usually compounded by the fact that
I run 2-3 days a week upon getting home from work.
As much as I dislike
the idea of getting up even earlier, it will probably be a
lot better for me in the long run instead of bunching three
or four meals into an approximately 6-7 hour period like I
usually do. Apparently you’re supposed to eat all day,
which is preposterous—I don’t have time for that.
But I guess I’ll try it out for awhile and see if things
improve. Y’know, assuming I can get up in the morning,
which is far from a guarantee.
Today was the semi-annual
spraying of the dupe for bugs. I think I’ve only seen
two spiders this entire calendar year, but one of those was
last night, when a brown recluse elected to emerge from hiding
and skitter across the floor directly toward me, causing me
to freak out and almost fall over backwards in my chair. I
don’t know where it went during the ensuing chaos, though
I’d guess it’s sitting in one of my shoes or on
the backside of my bathroom towel (which actually did happen
one time). Fortunately, the dupe is not infested with spiders
like it was last summer. The first time I sprayed the house,
I couldn’t count on all of my digits the number of spiders
I saw die in pools of poisonous spray on that fateful night.
Thank goodness things are under control today.
As I type this,
they are probably dive-bombing from the ceiling.
We had a little
more trouble with the air conditioner recently. This time
it was an issue with condensation backing up due to a clog
in the drainage system (or torso chute, as I like to call
it). But I think I took care of that, too…for now.
I got a 75-cent
raise at work a couple of weeks back. That was pretty cool
and seems like a pretty big raise. I was happy about that.
Mostly I just try to not piss people off or run into people
when I’m up walking around. I guess I’m doing
an adequate job of that right now. On my evaluation they said
I’m a little slow at times, and too introverted, but
those were the same things I said about myself on my self-evaluation.
I’m sure I’ll continue to improve in both areas
in time.
On the issue of
me needing to do more creative things, I have stepped it up
a little bit, but things are still moving pretty slowly. This
weblog is coming just two weeks after the previous one, so
that indicates mild improvement. I’m also writing in
my other journal more, which none of you see, but it needs
attention, as well, and helps to keep me in the habit of writing
in general. And I wrote a script for a future comic strip
last night. So I’m getting back into the groove when
it comes to writing, but my drawing habits are still languishing
a bit. I will tackle that soon as well, however. I think I’m
going to give the comic strip site a mild redesign, as well—I
can debut it when I start posting comics again!
I had a pretty
good time at the camping/float trip. As usual, I couldn’t
sleep worth a damn, but I guess that’s part of the draw
of camping trips. I assumed that my giant freak head would
be covered in bug bites in the morning since I slept in the
grass, but there isn’t a single one on there. And no
ticks, either, unless they’ve already burrowed into
me.
I don’t get
to play video games enough anymore. I really don’t.
It’s sad. I play my DS on the weekends more than anything.
Usually my issue is I’m not reading enough. I finally
found time to do that without having to sacrifice time doing
other things, but now I’ve somehow lost the time to
play video games.
I don’t really
have anything else to report that I’m willing to talk
about here. This was fairly brief, and nothing very exciting
or insightful, but I hope you enjoyed this little slice-of-life
entry.
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Some
things need to change –or– I will never
get a chance to finish this entry.
Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 10:30 PM
[Update by Frog] |
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According to my records, I’ve been trying
to do this weblog entry since April 19.
PART ONE: QUASI-SELF-MOTIVATIONAL BABBLING
I need
to get back in the groove of things here. In a lot of ways.
I’m getting complacent. Andy and I talked about this
once several months ago, about becoming content with my day
job and more or less forgetting about working towards what
I really want to do in favor of sleep and doing fun things
or hanging out with my friends. There’s nothing wrong
with any of that stuff, believe me. But the creative output
got lost somewhere along the line, and now I want it back.
I know I complain frequently in the weblog about my lack of
creative output. But it’s different this time—it’s
been quite some time since I’ve let it dry up to this
degree. Not only do I not do anything anymore, but
now every time Joe Ettling sees me, he’s been making
backhanded remarks about how there haven’t been any
new comic strips for a thousand weeks now. I find these remarks
offensive, but also completely accurate. I will admit, the
comic strip hiatus is the result of both work and dissatisfaction
with my artwork. There is still a lack of detail that is,
for me, off-putting. In addition to that, my characters lack
expression and body language, and end up looking too stiff
almost 100% of the time. Even when I try to make sure to get
their look down exactly the way I want it, it still comes
out looking bland or mechanical. But I guess I’m never
going to present myself an opportunity to fix these things
if I don’t get back to work.
I have some ideas for a couple of other series
of comic strips, as well. But if I can’t put work into
the one comic strip I already have going, I don’t have
any business getting involved with any new ones.
Ironically, around the same time I wrote this,
a whole horde of people all at once started telling me to
start drawing again, so I guess I should probably do that.
I was also just looking through a few old
short stories of mine. One is finished, and I am completely
satisfied with it. One of them is finished, and entertaining,
but needs a new ending. Another one is about baseball, and
I think it has a lot of potential, but it needs to be severely
retooled. The last I think will be the best of them all, but
it’s only about a quarter or so complete, and I’m
afraid of working on it because I’m afraid it will get
repetitive, and I’m looking for a way around that. I
really want to finish these things because I think they might
actually be good, and I never think about any of my stuff
in such a way.
There’s other unmentioned stuff, too.
As you can see, I need to get to work.
I think
about Scott Kurtz, creator of PvP, or the Penny
Arcade guys, or any number of other webcomics personalities,
or other comic book guys or writers or whatever. They get
to go to work in their own office that they’ve acquired
(legally, I might add) through hard work and determination.
They go to their office to draw their comic strip. Or they
go there to write their stories. Or do whatever it is they
do. That’s what I want to do. I’ve been thinking
about it since Kurtz recently moved his operation out of his
home and into his own office. I’m never going to be
a rock star or webcomics mogul, and that’s all right—I
don’t really care much about that part of it. That’s
not really the point. But I’m realizing the thought
of reporting for work in the morning every day to write stories
about baseball or draw pictures of robots smoking cigarettes
is my dream. And I don’t know if it will ever happen
or not, but it would certainly beat sitting in a corner in
an office not my own with a dead rat stuffed in my mouth.
(That’s not to say my current work is bad. It is, in
fact, quite good. But as I’ve told everybody, I don’t
want to do it forever.)
Also, it turns out I’m not in very good
shape. I thought I was doing okay, but according to softball
and ultimate Frisbee, I am not. Therefore, I’m just
going to assume that I never was in shape in the first place
and approach exercising as if I am starting from the beginning.
I’m pretty sure I had become complacent in these endeavors,
as well. I always add distance when I go running, but I was
walking too much of the trail instead of running. I also took
a week and a half off when I was working a lot of overtime
a couple of weeks ago, so that didn’t help, either.
Today was the first time I’ve actually felt pretty good
running since coming off that brief hiatus.
PART TWO: EVERYTHING ELSE
The air conditioner at the dupe seems to have
officially broken. I’m sure many of you will be angry
with me because of this, but you’ll just have to deal.
Fortunately, it’s not August. The outside unit runs,
but no air blows from the vents in the house. The filter was
clogged (and replaced), and now I’m waiting for the
block of ice that has frozen around one of the pipes to melt
before I try to run it again. Still, I don’t think that’s
the problem—we had filter issues last summer, but I
don’t think it kept the air from blowing. Then again,
I could be mistaken. If I can’t figure it out and fix
it myself, I’ll just call the landlord. I wish I was
more mechanically inclined. My knowledge is limited to just
computers and video game consoles, really. And toilets and
bathroom fans—I have to fix those things a lot. But
that’s it.
[Edit: I fixed the air conditioner…I
think. Turns out it was the filter…I think.]
Softball
is off to a slow start. We’re 0-4, and our games keep
getting rained out, which is irritating because they haven’t
been announcing the rainouts like they are supposed to, which
has resulted in me having to drive all the way to Frohna from
Cape on a couple different occasions only to find there is
no softball game. I didn’t mind so much the first time,
but I was pretty angry the second time it happened. Sorry,
I don’t live in Frohna, so I can’t just assume
that there won’t be a game because I CAN’T
SEE HOW MUCH IT RAINED THERE! I don’t want to just
not show up and find out later that we had a game and I missed
it—I’m just trying to be a reliable ballplayer.
My play time has been somewhat diminished because I suck,
so it’s justified and gives me additional motivation
to work hard. I don’t remember the last time I felt
so uncomfortable and unprepared playing softball as I do now.
Even when I don’t screw up, I still somehow end up feeling
as though I’ve done something wrong. Then again, I tend
to feel that way about everything I do. I also need a new
glove, but it would appear local stores no longer carry gloves
for left-handed players (or perhaps never did). Well, Hibbett
Sports had some, but the only adult ones they had that I trusted
were like $100. I guess I’ll order one off of the internet,
perhaps. That doesn’t really sound like the best approach
to finding a glove that’s right for me, though. I can’t
touch it or try it on or anything. I don’t know that
I’m comfortable with that. If nothing else, I guess
I could go to Dick’s Sporting Goods in St. Louis—I
hear enough of their commercials on the Pardon the Interruption
podcast that my defenses can’t possibly hold up forever.
That’s enough this time around.
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The
webbest of logs.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - 1:15 AM
[Update by Frog] |
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Hey man, they were the ones who started using
“web” as an adjective in the first place. As far
as I’m concerned, I’m allowed to manipulate it
as I please.
And for the record, there will be a pic and
quote update tomorrow. I have been meaning to do a weblog
entry for a week and a half now, and I find myself trying
to pump this thing out virtually every night. But as usual,
things keep coming up, and it never seems to get done. Fortunately,
many of these distractions that come up are of the fun variety,
so I cannot in my right mind complain about something like
that.
This shaving business is getting ridiculous.
And the sad thing about that is that I usually only shave
once a week as it is. Maybe twice if I need to look like less
of a bum for some reason. These reasons, at any given time,
may include:
- impressing somebody at work
- church
- won/lost a bet
- gave up on beard-growing contest
- sticking it to girls who say I’d look “good”
with facial hair, but are sorely mistaken
No matter
how infrequently I shave, it still gets in the way of something.
Hey, I’ll finish that mission on Warcraft 3 before
I go to bed tonight. Oh, wait, nevermind—I have to shave.
Or, there’s Hey, I have time to prepare myself a
nice lunch to take with me to work today. Oh, wait, nevermind—I
have to shave. And such. You know how many Warcraft
3 missions I could have finished in all the times I’ve
had to shave in the last month? Four. Four missions.
I’ll never finish all of those now. That game just goes
on forever.
I am still in favor of a switch that is located
somewhere in an inconspicuous spot on the human body that
controls hair and nail growth.
On the subject of the human body, the day
after my birthday I contracted some killer poison ivy, which
came as a shock to me because I never really get poison anything.
It was pretty awful, all bubbling up on my arm and oozing
fluids without my consent. I typically like to be in charge
of my oozing fluids, but then something like this comes along
and breaks all the rules. Then I was shunned at work and people
were scared to touch me (which people are normally afraid
to do that, anyway, and with good reason, but that is beside
the point) because they were afraid they’d catch it.
However, it is a well known fact that once you wash the irritant
from your skin, you’re not contagious anymore. Yeah,
so. All that time I spent feeling like a leper could have
been avoided. In the defense of everyone, the poison ivy was
incredibly disgusting in appearance. I would have stayed pretty
far away from it, myself, if I were in anyone else’s
position.
In my last entry, I spoke of a scheme in which
I’d start bringing my lunch to work and spend my lunch
break reading and writing instead of coming home and screwing
around on the internet. So far, it’s working. Except
“lunch” is usually just a sophisticated term for
“Pop-Tarts.” But that’s okay. The amount
of reading I do has increased dramatically, and I occasionally
take time out from that to work on writing some outlines and
backstory for something I plan to write/draw sometime in the
future. That is also going well. I also drive approximately
24 fewer miles each week. Hey, gotta conserve gas somehow.
On that note, Frogmobile Mark 2 just hit 1,000
miles a couple of days ago. And I’m pretty sure the
gas mileage is still getting better.
I’m
trying to beat the high score on the Ms. Pac-Man
machine at Broussard’s, but I just can’t do it.
It’s around 240,000, which, even though I’ve never
gotten a score that high, I don’t think it’s out
of my range. But I just can’t seem to get any higher
than something in the 160,000 range on this machine. Part
of it is that I can’t adjust to the machine’s
crappy joystick, which likes to believe that I want to go
left or right when I’m actually pressing up on it. But
I don’t want to blame everything on that, because that’s
the easy way out. I’m just out of practice, mostly.
Or I may just not have the necessary twitchiness anymore.
I did set the high score on their Donkey Kong machine
by 100 points, though. I could have done better on that, too,
but I’m just not a very good Donkey Kong player.
My brother could easily smoke the score I set.
Work is good, but kind of frustrating lately
in that I honestly haven’t had that much to do. I kind
of have to drag out my workload so that I appear busier than
I actually am. Or I take work from other people who have more
going on than I do. I also have a lot of spec ads, which are
ads that really flex designer muscle—we’re given
fewer instructions and parameters and more or less have creative
control on what the ad looks like. They’re a welcome
change from what we usually get, but at the same time they
can be hard to deal with because we frequently don’t
get a deadline on when they need to be done (which leads to
procrastination), and there’s the added pressure of
designing something new and interesting that appeals to the
customer. Sometimes I really like what I can come up with,
and sometimes I think it looks like total garbage. Then I
usually waste a whole day working on it and I still think
it looks bad. I tell you, those ads frustrate the hell out
of me sometimes.
I’m happy to report that Facebook and
Myspace may finally be releasing their hold on me. For one
thing, none of my friends ever seem to communicate on MySpace
anymore, with the exception of one or two, so the attention
I pay to it has diminished remarkably. As for Facebook, my
self-esteem and self-satisfaction apparently no longer rely
on the number of people who post on my wall and tag me in
photos and whatever, because I noticed I no longer have to
check it every hour or so for these things. And I don’t
even know why I was interested in being tagged in pictures,
since I hate pretty much every picture that has ever been
taken of me because I look like a complete dink in all of
them. It’s funny to look at them because these photos
often reveal to me that I am even more socially awkward than
I realized. I’m always ringing my hands or scratching
the back of my head and stuff like that. What a weirdo.
Anyway, I also stopped getting bent out of
shape when my friends were talking to other people on Facebook
and not to me, which was really ridiculous and just plain
out of line. Personally, I think it’s kind of extraordinary
how far I’ve come in the past few months. I finally
have faith in my friends again. I no longer think I’m
being abandoned, even when people can’t give me their
exclusive and undivided attention, which I once ferociously
demanded.
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