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Frog-Man.net awakes from 2-month coma to mediocre update. Saturday, May 9, 2009 - 11:50 AM [Update by Frog]

Brett was going to run a railroad spike through my left calf if I didn't make a site update soon. I was able to cobble an update together with a pic and quote Josh submitted that are both around four years old, but they get the job done, and you get to see Kelly mistreating an animal! Sensational!

This is one of my desigated "days to get stuff done," so I'm gonna go do that now. Take care, everyone.

Updating hasn't been this confusing since 2002. Saturday, March 14, 2009 - 3:56 PM [Update by Frog]

There's a new pic and quote, first of all. As you can see, we have more shocking visual evidence of people sleeping on couches! And in this case, sleeping on stuffed penguins, as well! Diabolical!

My "studio" is also now fully equipped with Adobe CS4 software, so I'm using all of that stuff for the first time today, and it's taking some getting used to because all of the versions I had were I believe seven years old at the very least. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up rebuilding all of my sites in CSS and PHP and all of those languages I don't know yet, because the newest version of Dreamweaver seems to really like that sort of thing. I was holding out as long as possible, but I don't know how much longer I'll be able to last without having to catch up to the rest of the internet.

So, we'll see where it goes from here.

Friday the 13th Update! Friday, February 13, 2009 - 7:55 PM [Update by Frog]

I think that would seem a lot more super scary if it wasn't February and if tomorrow wasn't Valentine's Day. But with all of that going on, Friday the 13th doesn't really have much of an impact, does it?

But on the plus side, you get a new pic and quote! That's something, right?

Nostalgic about dodgeball? Saturday, January 24, 2009 - 9:52 AM [Update by Frog]

I guess maybe I'm feeling a lil' that way this morning--today's pic seems to have been taken at dodgeball (Matt in his Expos hat, no less), and the quote is also related to dodgeball. That was actually a coincidence, but when I realized it, I thought, Hm, I miss dodgeball.

Welp, off I go to clean a toilet or something.

Starting the new year off right! Thursday, January 1, 2009 - 10:22 PM [Update by Frog]

We're starting the new year off right with a site update on the very first day of the year! You will find a new pic and quote that you might find amusing.

Besides that, there's still a lot of work around here that needs to be done.

Hello. There is a new pic and quote. Monday, November 24, 2008 - 7:10 PM [Update by Frog]

Regarding the picture, there used to be an image of it on this website somewhere, but it was apparently lost in a redesign or a site transfer somewhere along the line, many years ago. Recently I found the original flyer under my bed in my room at my parents' house, and now it is back for us to enjoy all over again. What were they thinking?

Regarding the quote, I guess Ricky just doesn't want to live in Detroit.

I gotta split--I have more work to do. But I wanted to update the site. For once.

News archived through April 2008. Friday, November 14, 2008 - 12:12 AM [Update by Frog]

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?

Working early. Saturday, October 4, 2008 - 8:45 AM [Update by Frog]

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!

Ooh, ooh, almost on schedule! Saturday, September 6, 2008 - 10:02 AM [Update by Frog]

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.

A little better, but still not ideal. Thursday, August 21, 2008 - 12:59 AM [Update by Frog]

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.

Holy crap a site update! Thursday, July 31, 2008 - 12:35 AM [Update by Frog]

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.

New pic and quote! Sunday, June 15, 2008 - 10:05 PM [Update by Frog]

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.

Picture monopoly. Thursday, May 22, 2008 - 11:50 PM [Update by Frog]

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.

What a bunch of crazy kids. Thursday, May 1, 2008 - 9:13 PM [Update by Frog]

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!

Another one of those sleepless Sunday nights.... Monday, December 10, 2007 - 12:45 AM [Update by Frog]

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.

Flash Entry! Thursday, November 1, 2007 - 11:59 PM [Update by Frog]

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.

Written "with an intensity unknown to mankind." Monday, October 15, 2007 - 11:46 PM [Update by Frog]

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.

Lack of appreciation. Friday, October 5, 2007 - 12:35 AM [Update by Frog]

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.

Probably the most mediocre week ever. Friday, August 24, 2007 - 12:20 AM [Update by Frog]

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.

Trying to get my swagger back. Thursday, August 16, 2007 - 10:03 PM [Update by Frog]

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….

Late Entry. Friday, August 3, 2007 - 11:52 PM [Update by Frog]

[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.

Etcetera. Monday, June 25, 2007 - 12:12 AM [Update by Frog]

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.

"There it is in the rearview mirror." Monday, June 4, 2007 - 11:03 PM [Update by Frog]

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.

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]

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.

The webbest of logs. Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - 1:15 AM [Update by Frog]

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.

I was going to go more in-depth with this thing, but I think it’s long enough, and I’m desperate to finish an entry, so I’m just going to leave it at this.

Nighty night.

Who am I to say? Monday, February 26, 2007 - 12:48 AM [Update by Frog]

You know what I’m excited about? Daylight Savings Time starting early and ending late this year. There’s just something about getting out of work and seeing that the sun is already setting that’s so discouraging. It’s not so bad now that the sun is setting at around 5:45 or so, but I’m still eager to see the sun high in the sky when I get out of work. Then I don’t have to worry about it getting dark before I’m finished running in the evenings. I know a lot of crybabies (internet personalities, mostly) were upset about the change because it’ll screw up their VCRs, DVRs and Tivos. Oh no, you’ll have to change the time manually. What ever will you do? Maybe you should go outside. It has ducks. And other stuff.

If I had it my way, it would always be Daylight Savings Time. I don’t mind it being dark when I leave the house in the morning. Probably because I grew up doing that—the bus picked me up at 6:45 or 6:50 in the morning. It’s a long ride to Jackson when you’ve got all those north county kids like us to pick up. Me being one of the most northern-dwelling kids in the county, well…I had to get on that bus early. To put it in perspective, Kelly got on the bus 10 minutes later than I did, and in all the years of riding the bus together, we estimated she got about 390 more hours of sleep than I did. I thought to myself, no wonder I’m so tired all the time.

Anyway, the point is I don’t mind it being dark in the morning, so long as it’s still light out when I’m done putting in my time.

So I think I might be making a little bit of progress in my attempts to become less stiff and uptight in the workplace and in life, in general. Now, as opposed to feeling like I have ten rods up my ass, it’s more like six or seven. That’s progress, but still a lot of rods up my ass. I’ve found that with a little effort in the workplace, I’m capable of greeting people, saying goodbye to people, joking, sassing, and other common workplace actions. Hell, I even told a story the other day. Me! A story! It was the one about when I ripped the cornea off my eye this past summer. It was relevant to a conversation some co-workers were having.

Communication. This is something that is apparently normal in the work environment, but obviously still fairly new to me. I’ll keep you updated on how it goes from here.

I also like to play a little game. I like to see if I can deliver proofs to the salespeople without them noticing I have done so. The easiest way to accomplish this is to just wait until they are away from their desk, drop the proof and run. But that’s bush league. The real challenge is seeing if you can do it when they’re there. It’s possible—you just have to be sneakier about it. Wait for them to engage in conversation with another co-worker, or to make a phone call. Or wait until they are embroiled in heavy, frustrating paperwork. Then go for it! Drift in, carefully plant the proof on the edge of their desk, and glide away without making a scene. Like the wind! If you’re good enough, they won’t notice or suspect a thing.

Or, if you’re really, really good, you can sneak that proof in even when they’re not majorly distracted. That’s pretty hard, though.

I also like to see if I can get in and out of a room without being noticed. This is along the same lines as the sneaky proof deliveries. I try to get to the person I need to go talk to without drawing enough attention to myself that causes other people to notice me. Not only can I do that, but sometimes I end up scaring the person I went to talk to in the first place because they didn’t notice me approach them. See, I’m sneaky like that.

The sneakings are becoming less and less frequent, though, now that I’m attempting to communicate more.

I also think I’m going to start bringing my lunch to work and reading or writing during my lunch break, as opposed to driving home to the Dupe, eating, screwing around on the internet for 20 minutes, then driving back to work. It’s just not a very time-efficient lunch break, since about 20-25 minutes of it ends up being transit time. And even though transit time is that much more time spent with Frogmobile Mark II, it’s probably not worth it in the end. We’ll see how it goes. The real challenge will be waking up 5 minutes earlier so I can prepare a lunch to bring along. That’s a lot of lost sleep.

And if I’m gonna pull that off, I probably better go to bed now. I didn’t have too much to say, so maybe I can pump out another one of these soon. Goodnight.

Weblog 2: Return of Weblog: The Sequel…Part 3 Monday, February 12, 2007 - 12:37 AM [Update by Frog]

You can tell I haven’t been in school for awhile, and that I haven’t been doing enough writing lately based on the following two facts.

1) Microsoft Word is no longer on the list of frequently used programs in my Start menu.
2) I forgot where Microsoft Word was on the computer when I went looking for it.

I feel simultaneously good and bad about this.

Well, it’s probably best for you that you didn’t have to suffer through any blog entries during the site’s downtime, because as I recall, there weren’t too many exciting things going on, with the exceptions of Tribe Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the Eagles closing out their season with six consecutive wins before falling to the Saints in the playoffs. There were other good times mixed in there, as well, but not really anything worth putting a significant amount of writing into.

To be perfectly honest with you, I haven’t really been pleased with my blog entries for awhile now. They seem to follow this rather stale and rigid formula:

- Self-deprecating introduction in which I make a crack about how the weblog isn’t worth your time.
- Sports update.
- Work update.
- Maybe one or two lines about something that happened recently.
- Inside joke about said recent happening.
- Maybe one or two lines about some video game I’ve been playing or a movie I recently saw (since I’m too dumb to say more than one or two lines about anything like that).
- Emo whining.
- Promise to do blog entries more frequently.
- Surrender to sleep.

That’s all well and good, but I really couldn’t take it anymore. Maybe a break was what I needed. Part of this repetition was because life had gotten somewhat stale there for awhile. It’s better now, but in November and December, it’s safe to say I was just going through the motions, for lack of a better description. I’m not saying the weblog is going to see drastic and experimental changes. In fact, if there is a formula, it’ll probably stay pretty similar to what is listed above. Hell, this entry is turning out to follow the formula above. But I will try to put a little more life into it. Believe me, there is a lot more that I *could* talk about, but let’s face it—this ain’t no 17-year-old girl’s tell-all about what boys are soooo hawt and which girls I’m going to tease until they develop eating disorders. Some stuff that goes on just shouldn’t be on here.

Did I ever mention I finally finished reading A Confederacy of Dunces? It took about six months, but I did read the whole thing, and I’ve already read another whole book since then. Confederacy was good—I have a feeling I probably didn’t like it as much as most other folks that have read it, but that’s okay. It’s a very well written affair, and it captures dialogue extremely well. However, the fact that I hated the main character probably made a big contribution to me taking so long to read the stupid thing. He was kind of a big jerk, and not in the lovable Holden Caulfield sort of way.

And how am I, you may ask? I’m fine. In fact, I’m better than fine. For once. Although, I’m not sure if this is going to be a long-lasting thing, or one of those things that only lasts a week or two, and then something minor, but disappointing will happen that I’ll blow way out of proportion in my head and be sad about for two months. I guess whenever that something happens (and you can bet your sweet English booty that it will), I’ll try my best to keep my head on straight and not freak out about nothing. For once. I’ve wasted way too much of my life moping and being a jackass, and probably causing people a lot of unnecessary worrying. I gotta stop doing that. And I have…for the time being. I feel good, both about myself and what’s going on around me these days. Right now, there are just a couple of things I need to improve upon.

For one, productivity around here is at a dead standstill. No writing, no drawing. I am exercising consistently, but that’s in a different category. As far as creativity goes, there’s nothing going on. That’s part of the reason I’m writing this thing—gotta start somewhere. That and I’ve decided I need to loosen up and stop being so uptight and uneasy all the time. This is sort of a perpetual thing, but it’s really been irritating me lately. At work, I’m all business. No chatting, no joking around—I just go in and do my job. I’m sure there are some in the workplace who would appreciate this approach, but to me, it feels like I have ten rods up my ass. I’m just not that social, which seems to create more awkward situations than it does to help prevent awkward situations. I’m gonna try to work on that this week. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’m gonna go to bed. Take it easy out there. It’s gonna rain today.

Goodbye, Frogmobile. You have served us well.

Political diatribe, etc. Thursday, November 9, 2006 - 11:56 PM [Update by Frog]

Well, the 2006 election has come and gone. And, much like the 2004 election, X-Men 3, and how Cocoa Pebbles taste these days, I found the whole thing to be pretty discouraging.

“But wait!” you interrupt. “Republicans kicked butt in 2004, and the Democrats kicked butt in 2006! Surely one of those elections was to your liking!”

Not really.

I’m not much into politics these days. Not at all like I used to be. My rants used to be pretty political all the time. I’d let you read them, but like an idiot, I didn’t even keep the first four or five I did. I don’t know why I didn’t—I thought they were pretty good. But that’s neither here nor there.

Politics in general irritate and discourage me to no end these days. Not so much the actual politicking, but the atmosphere in which the politicking takes place. Over the years I’ve become something of a moderate. I try to vote for who I think is going to do the best job, and on a lot of issues I can go both ways. Some would probably consider this approach to be indecisive and ultimately weak, but I think it’s a fairly reasonable system. I don’t trust arch-conservatives or arch-liberals because I believe they tend to blindly preach/follow the left or right without looking at an issue from all sides. I don’t align myself with any political parties because it eliminates the individuality from politics—politicians mold themselves to the party platform to appeal to the greatest number of people. Politician A can be on the far end of the spectrum, but as Politician A climbs the political ladder, his beliefs mysteriously begin sliding into the moderate category to rake in as many votes as possible. What about all that stuff he believed 2 months ago? Whether or not I agree, it’s more satisfying to see people stick to their guns. I realize a politician pretty much has to adapt to the party platform to succeed at a high level, but I still don’t like it. It seems so…I dunno..fake.

But enough about all that. Let’s get to it. So the Democrats smacked the Republicans around on Tuesday. The Democrats are taking back the House and the Senate. To Republicans: it’s all right. To Democrats: big deal. These things happen. Power shifts in Congress happen all the time. The Democrats will be in power for awhile, then somewhere down the road the Republicans will take back a house or two, and the winner’s circle of life rolls on, with or without the Crimson Tide or the Cardinals. (Right, Brett?) Issues passed or didn’t pass, some of which I voted for and some of which I voted against. But that’s also not really where I’m going with this.

What discouraged me about the whole thing, and what discourages me about politics in general these days is the attitude toward the result of this election, or any election. I’m not saying everybody thought like this, but riding the subway on my way to work, this is what I heard:

Democrats: Woohoo! We won! Suck it, backwoods redneck Bible-belt war-mongering WASPs!

Republicans: Boohoo! We lost! Our country will be taken over by the peace-loving, sophisticated, godless, baby-killing city slickers, homosexuals, women, and minorities!

(I didn’t really hear this, nor do I ride the subway. Cape doesn’t have a subway, stupid. Unless you count the restaurant Subway, of which there are about 50, and I heard they’re adding another.)

Maybe I just haven’t been paying attention, but when did elections, government and politics become a damn sporting event? Our government is serious business, and personally, I don’t take much comfort in the idea of one “side” “winning” or “losing.” I don’t think one political party taking control of Congress is something that should be celebrated or mourned. All this does is create more unnecessary tension and separation between two political factions that already seem to be at each other’s throats more then ever. I know the volume of attack ads in politics today is becoming a pretty tired subject, but I’m going to touch on it briefly. Seriously, it’s pretty bad. I listen to ESPN Radio most of the day at work, and Colin Cowherd had this great segment on where the top candidates for the Heisman Trophy were running attack ads against each other, and it pretty much summed up how ridiculous attack ads can be. Here is an extremely inaccurate transcript of some of them now:

“Don’t vote for Brady Quinn. His team beat up Navy. Brady Quinn beat up the navy! Brady Quinn hates our armed forces and is un-American!”

“Don’t vote for Garrett Wolfe. His last name is Wolfe. Wolves eat children. Garrett Wolfe will eat your children!”

“Troy Smith’s head coach wore a hooded sweatshirt last week. Do you know who else wore a hooded sweatshirt? That’s right—the Unabomber. Troy Smith supports serial killers. Don’t vote for Troy Smith.”

There were more, but those were the best ones.

This nurturing of a constituent’s distrust is a really sick approach to getting into office. Who am I supposed to believe when each candidate is skewing every known fact about his or her opponent into a filthy lie? And don’t tell me your candidate is obviously right, while the other candidate is obviously lying. How the hell do you know? Well, sometimes we know, but definitely not always. When I evaluate a candidate, I don’t want to know all of the bad things the candidate’s opponent, AKA Satan, has already done, and all of the bad things Satan is going to do once he’s in office. I want to know what you (yes, YOU) are going to do in office. Don’t give me a reason to worry about what could be; give me a reason to look forward to what COULD be.

This was exactly my beef with the 2004 election, particularly at the presidential level. Maybe I’m wrong, but from what I could tell, the 2004 election wasn’t about electing John Kerry to office. It was about eliminating George W. Bush from office. A poor approach to any election, in my opinion, and it didn’t work, to the mighty chagrin of the Bush haters.

Fast forward to 2006. THIS time it worked. Perhaps not at a local scale, but on a national scale I could sense a sort of “eliminate the Republicans from office” attitude. I’ll cite ESPN Radio again…on the Dan Patrick Show, Keith Olbermann said that he believed people were not voting for Democrats, but voting against Republicans. He said that this might be a good idea—I tend to disagree. While Republicans have drawn a lot of deserved heat lately, this attitude goes back to blindly voting based solely on political party, which I’ve always believed is a big no-no. What if some hard-working, honest politicians (*choke*) were voted out of office just because they were a Republican or a Democrat? Personal ideals? Toss that shit out the window—you belong to Party X, and therefore I hate you.

This is the attitude toward politics, as well as life in general, that I despise. When everyone is (usually negatively) lumped together based on political views, religion, thick southern accents, etc. Also, if you’ll look closely, this is usually the result of one or two outspoken twits who ruin it for everyone. I can’t stand it when somebody stereotypes or says they hate/dislike/whatever all Republicans or all Democrats, or all liberals or conservatives, and that what they believe is wrong. How is that different from any other form of prejudice? Nice work, dumbass—you just alienated half of your fellow Americans. I strongly believe that the “Fuck everyone who doesn’t believe the same way I do” approach is going to get this country nowhere. We have the obvious exceptions (racism and other forms of bigotry or hatred) that should be ignored outright, but other than that, there are a lot of viewpoints, political and not, that should be considered and respected…or tolerated, at the very least. Don’t like all those uppity libs? Think all conservatives are uncultured, ignorant scum? You better reconsider how you look at your “opponents.” Because it’s all of them put together that make America work, and I’ll bet you a pretty sizeable portion of them don’t think the same way those couple of twits who gave everyone else a bad rap do. And your friends in the other parties are going to be around for a long, long time, so you might as well get used to it.

I’m probably wrong about a lot of things. I probably haven’t looked at every issue from each possible angle. You probably don’t agree with me on a lot of this stuff. And realistically, I probably make it out to be a lot worse than it actually is. But that’s fine—I’m not asking you to think the same way I do. And I’m sure my vision of a government where the political parties don’t want to kill each other is a pipe dream. After all, disagreement breeds discontent. Even if it’s just a little bit of discontent—it’s still there. Alls I know is I get pretty sad whenever Election Day appears on the horizon, not because I’m afraid the people and things I believe in are going to lose, but because I know in the end all the campaigns are going to break down into various mudslinging events in a big muddy mud pit. Which would only work if all politicians were hot babes. And they definitely aren’t.

I love this country. It’s awesome. It has its flaws, sure, but if you really think about it, we’ve got it pretty well in these parts. And I’d like to think that Democrats didn’t “win” the 2006 election, and that Republicans didn’t “lose” the 2006 election. We should all hope and pray that in the end, America will be the real winner. Because that’s what we should be striving for in the first place.

*END POLITICAL TRIPE*

Guitar Hero 2 is cool. I don’t think it quite captures the magic of the original, but then again, few sequels do. There was no initial “holy crap, this game is awesome” sensation because it’s essentially the same game as the original with new songs and some new features. Don’t get me wrong; it’s still great. I’m still debating whether or not I like the songs on this one better than the songs on the first one. Each has definite highs and lows. (I’ve always hated “War Pigs,” for instance, and I don’t think there’s enough to the song for it to even belong on this game, but I digress. It’s just really friggin’ long and boring, in my opinion.) I also bought the 20th anniversary edition of Transformers: The Movie that just came out this week, but I haven’t watched it yet. I’m really excited about watching it, though, it being one of my favorite animated movies of all time. Plus it has a soundtrack that just can’t be beat—Stan Bush, Weird Al, Vince DiCola’s awesome score…yeah. I’m not afraid to geek out about this one.

I bought a new bag for which to carry stuff to and from work. I was using my laptop bag, but it’s pretty heavy and cumbersome for the six or seven items I take to work with me. (Those being a copyediting guide, an Associated Press Stylebook, radio, mp3 player, notepad, pocket dictionary, a ruler, and a secret agent pen…so eight items. Or 25 items if you count all the tools hidden in the secret agent pen!) The new bag largely resembles a European carry-all. I also bought a pretty blue travel mug in order to entice myself to drink more fluids at work instead of just sitting there dehydrating all day. So, now that I’ll be packing these new fashionable accessories, if people didn’t already mistakenly think I was gay, they certainly will now! Work is still awesome, by the way.

As for the rest of that stuff I always complain about in the blog, I still don’t have it figured out, by any means. But I’m getting closer. And dare I say, maybe I’m learning how to trust again.

That’s it for me this time around. That was a doozy.

I forget things a lot. Thursday, November 2, 2006 - 12:35 AM [Update by Frog]

[This is a weblog entry, for future reference.]

I could ramble on for a long time about the Cardinals. I’m not really sure if I thought they could actually win the World Series or not once they got there. I don’t really make predictions (except for believing the Series wouldn’t be a sweep by the Tigers), so I didn’t approach the Series with a “[team] in X games” attitude. If this year’s postseason taught us anything, far too much is put on statistics in baseball. When the Cardinals won game 1 of the World Series, I was ecstatic because they already outperformed the abysmal effort they put up in the 2004 World Series against the Bad Sox. In the end, I’m just grateful that they won. My favorite team won the World Championship. That’s the first time I can say that about any sport. To be honest, I could stop watching baseball right now if I wanted to, because I’ve seen what I came to see. I’m not going to do that, obviously, because I’m a huge fan of the sport, but it’s comforting knowing that while I’m sure there will be tons of heartbreak in the future (but hopefully a lot of jubilation, as well), I’ve seen them win it all. Some fans don’t have that luxury. Suckers. Go Cards!

Now if my Eagles would stop being idiots and play like I know they can play….

Work still gets a big thumbs up. I do wish I was more social with my coworkers, though. Not much else new to report regarding work at this time, however. I did realize I still don’t have my own name badge. I need to see about getting one of those, already. Also, using a Mac at work all the time screws me up, because when I’m at home I try to use Mac shortcuts and hotkeys on my PC, and nothing happens.

It was fun to catch up with everybody Friday night. Halloween (both the weekend and the actual day) was uneventful, which sucks because I really like Halloween, but I just had no spirit this year. I could have gone and done some stuff Saturday night, but I elected not to. I sat here and caught up on some webcomics and fought myself over some of my personal issues you’ve had to suffer through my blabbering on about in the previous few entries. I think I’m starting to understand…a little.

I was looking through some old weblog entries, and I happened on a batch of them that I haven’t seen for a long time. All my blog entries are split into two different files. When I was keeping it for my fiction class last fall, I made a new file, and once the class was over, I continued to keep them in the new file. These entries were at the very end of the old file, and they were entries made during spring of 2005. While Spring 2004 is loudly hailed as the worst semester of college I ever had, Spring 2005 was definitely the best semester I ever had. And it shows in my entries, too. The writing style itself is so different—looser, funnier, relaxed, more conversational, far less cynical. To sum it up, I was more positive. Much more positive. Nowhere near as negative, brooding, mopy and moody like I am now all the time. In fact, I even found the entry where I resolved not to be like that. Here’s an excerpt:

“…it's stupid to let insignificant things get you down, it's stupid to assume the worst when there's no evidence of the worst, it's stupid to second guess the people you love, it's stupid to dwell on the past, and it's stupid to worry about what could be when you don't even know what ‘could be’ is just yet.”

I need to say that to myself about a hundred times before I go to bed tonight. It sounds like I was trying to teach myself a lesson when I wrote that. And it worked at the time. I was happy. I remember it. Incredibly happy. I remember, and if you need documented proof, the blog entries show it, too. And I was happy for a long time, until sometime during that summer. But I inevitably forgot about all that somewhere along the line, like I always do. It looks like I need to re-teach myself this lesson. I shouldn’t have to, but, well, I’m an idiot. I could stand to be a lot less tense and uptight. And I need to stop worrying about EVERYTHING. That includes the things I will literally make up just so I can worry about them.

I’m starting to figure it out.