Click I hate you

I can't stand the sound of a lighter now. Every time I hear that little click I wince, and the whistle and bubbles from the roommate's bubbler make me clench my fists to keep from shaking. With every inhalation I like him less and less.

Inspired by Nick

The brush and the trees were too thick to cut through. They made us have to look for a new path from the camp's fire to the lake. The boat was at the lake. To eat we had to catch fish from the lake, they were all trout. The trout hid deep in the lake, and to reach them we had to row the boat out far and use big weights to sink our lines deep. Deep was where the cold was, and the trout could breathe there and hide from the heat of the sun. To catch the trout we would put small fish and bugs that we caught on our hooks and sink them in the depths of the lake, where we knew the trout hid. But there was no clear path to the lake from our camp, and we had to spend the day in search of a clear way, or at least to find some brush that we could cut through and make our own new path. We had no time to waste as it was, and the brush was much too dense to get to the lake. Jim and Kate were still at camp, sick for lack of food, we had not had food for more than a week, and we were stuck out there and not a soul knew where we were, and if there was no way to the lake and the trout and the food they would die.

But there was no way, and they did die, and now Phil is dead too, and I will soon be dead too. Go not this way friend, or you will join us as we search for all of time for the food just out of our reach. I can't rest now. Phil and I must find the way. Jim and Kate need us. We must catch the trout and eat them and live. Phil will find the way. He will save us. Since we were kids he was the best, and he still is, and he will find a way to save us and catch the trout. First I will sleep. We will sleep and find the way and live.

All the words were one syllable words. I'm telling you this at the end because otherwise you'll pause after every word and have no idea what the story's about. It was fun to write it, I'm not sure how well it turned out.

One of my favorite parts about sleeping at home is having Teddy again. I don't think he'd survive college, someone here would destroy him.

I tried to put this picture in but it was too big so here's the link I guess. I hate when computers don't work for me.

I'm playing country music from my computer pretty loud right now. I don't even really like this song, but I'm keeping it on and loud because I know my roommate hates it. Immature? Probably. Justified? I like to think so.

The Nineties in one picture

Get me one

Two Cents

A word on the Lady Gaga-Kesha debate. A slightly ashamed that I am addressing it here word but a word nonetheless. Stop. It's too early. Kesha is too new to have a large enough body of work to compare to Lady Gaga's, so at this point the only fair comparison is between Just Dance and Tik Tok, their respective first songs. Wait at least a couple months and give the new girl a chance to get some more stuff out there before trying to do a real comparison of the two.

I was going to say that Kesha was the underdog here because of Lady Gaga's musical upbringing and time at Berklee but I guess Kesha's dad was a songwriter so there goes that argument. I still think that she rocks more of a trashy poor white girl vibe, whereas Lady Gaga's all fabulous and stupid stupid outfits, so points to Kesha for that.

I can't believe I had that much to say on the subject.

From here.

Freedom

Not that anyone cares but I'm thinking of dropping my Spanish major so I can get a couple more electives. It's only three more classes but I think I get more excited about school when I think of the options I could have if I did it. Right now I'm majoring in English with minors in Business Studies and Spanish and have all my credits booked up except for two, but if I drop the Spanish I can take five classes that I want to instead of just two. That is all, thanks for reading. Here's Mel Gibson.

Oh cool it's St. Patrick's Day. Awesome.

Our technology has reached astonishing proportions for which, in our heart of hearts, we are inadequately prepared, mentally or emotionally.

-Carl Sagan "Billions and Billions"

He wrote that in 1997. He's pretty smart.

TOMS

I've already sent this link to probably half of my readers (three people for those keeping track at home), but this company has a pretty cool idea. They're called Tom's and they're a shoe company whose whole deal is that for every pair of shoes they sell they give a new pair of shoes to poor kids, mostly in underdeveloped countries. I don't think most of the shoes are for me, seeing as the majority don't have laces and no laces=too hippy for me, but I think it's a cool idea and might end up getting a pair that does have laces. Plus I get a $5 discount if I use a promotion from my school. Sick.

Smoking cigars is cool. Smoking cigarettes not so much. The roommate has made me not like pot; he talks too much and smokes too much in the room. Pipes are cool too.

Hmm.

"Rather than warehouse their children in factory schools invented to instill obedience in the future mill workers of America, bourgeois rebels will educate their kids in virtual schools tailored to different learning styles."

"While the higher-education industry continues to agitate for college for all, many young adults are stubbornly resistant, perhaps because they recognize that for a lot of them, college is an overpriced status marker and little else. In the wake of the downturn, household formation has slowed down. More than one-third of workers under 35 live with their parents."

My school has a vampire class next semester. English and History crosslisted to look at the development of the vampire myth from the original Dracula by Bram Stoker to Vlad the Impaler (the real Dracula) and everything else. I am very excited, this is a great day.

Nine D's

People seem to be making a decently big deal of the death of Corey Haim, including kids my age. Maybe I was out of touch as a kid, and I probably still am to a certain extent, but I have no idea who Corey Haim is (was). He and Corey Feldman apparently were quite a big deal as child actors, but I only recognize Feldman from The Goonies after Googling him and jogging my memory a bit. I always just assumed that they were the two kids from Boy Meets World, but I guess not.

Kids my age love to reminisce about the 90's and all their splendor, always saying "That's so 90's", and comparable things, but I really don't see what the big deal was. I was born in 1990, so by the end of the decade I was ten years old, which I don't think is old enough to be culturally in-touch to be able to look back longingly on a time period. I mean ya, I watched Doug and Hey Arnold and whatever other shows kids love to remember and miss and I played Pokemon and had Pogs and Crazy Bones, but I don't see what the big deal really is. I don't think of myself as a product of the 90's, I think I was just too young for the culture of the decade to have had that big of an impact on me. This past decade, whatever you want to call it, has been much more memorable for me, which leads me to think that it shaped me more than whatever was going on in the first 10 years of my life.

I use way too many, commas.

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow.

-Mary Ann Radmacher

Never underestimate the value of time spent alone. You'll miss it when you're stuck in a dorm and your roommate never leaves and all you want to do is cry for a bit because it's getting real hard holding back those tears.

Am I a slacker because I think that watching Scrubs is better for me than doing homework or going to Spanish class?

Am I addicted to my job because I spend way more time working so I can make money in the summer than I spend doing anything else (other than watching Scrubs, though it is very close)? Am I an alcoholic because I can't wait for Saturday when I can get drunk with Joe and it's not considered a problem, even though this whole week I've been wishing I had beer in my fridge or vodka in my flask?

Am I a coward if I want to run away to an island and spend the rest of my days alone in the sun (alone with Connor of course)?

Am I tapped in the head that my favorite part of Scrubs are the times when Dr. Cox is the most tortured and down and alone?

Am I crazy that I half-want to get on his level?

Am I damned to hell if I think there's a chance that man created God and not the other way around?

Am I an insomniac because no matter how much I would like to start getting up early and starting my day with a run around campus and a healthy breakfast I always find myself awake at 1, 2, 3 in the morning doing stuff I had all day to do?

Does it matter if the answers are yes?

Back at School

Ugh.

Wish you were here

The New Boss

It's weird being the person who people are trying to impress and get hired by. I put up a Craigslist ad yesterday to try to find painters for the summer and immediately my inbox was swamped with emails and my phone was ringing off the hook. I literally laid in bed from 8-10 this morning watching Scrubs on my computer and answering the phone every ten minutes. I wasn't expecting this big of a response so quickly, so to try to get some semblance of control over the situation I asked everyone who called me to send their resume to my email address so I could look it over. The majority of the guys who called me were of Latin descent, which is cool because so am I, but also a bit troubling because they didn't have the greatest grasp of the language. A couple responses were from legitimate painters, one from a guy who ran his own painting company for like 11 years and now is looking to work for me. I think he could be either a really good hire or a dangerous hire, as he could either teach me and my crew a lot and keep the crew producing work efficiently, or he could take off as soon as he finds another gig with better wages.

My two favorite emails were from established painters who either feel threatened by me or just hate college painters. I was going to summarize them, but I think copying and pasting them will be more effective, as well as adding my responses.

Email #1

Thanks to pathetic painters like yourselves... We have tons of CORRECTIVE work to fix your screwups. Thank God for all the college "professionals" painting for keeping everyone else in business. When you pay people $8-$14/hr you get exactly that quality of work.

Good luck... you need it

My response:

Hi Mr. (removed),

Thank you for your email. I'm a hard working 20 year old trying to pay for my college tuition. Myself and all my painters will be trained and certified by Sherwin Williams before we can think about painting a house. If you have any jobs that you are unable to get to, I'd would be very grateful for a referral. If not, I hope that my screwups provide enough corrective work for you and your crew. Also, any advice you might have to a new painter would be very much appreciated, as you've noted yourself I could use some help and luck this summer. Thanks again and good luck this summer.

Email #2

We have a group of ten small companies watching for you to lie and miss lead customers. Your lead in of collage kids making a difference has gotta old . The public first questions will be what collage does your workers attend ? So drop off your three ladders and two kids that know zone about painting and sleep well at night. 8 to 14 dollars per hour what a scam. We'll be watching

My response:

Hi Manor Painting Company,

Thank you for your email. I'm glad to see that there are professional painters in the area as well as my college painters. If you receive any jobs that you can't get to, I'd greatly appreciate the referral. If not, any advice you might have for a new painter will be very much appreciated, especially with the 35 years experience that your employees have. Thank you again for your email and good luck this summer.

I guess I have enemies.

My brother doesn't always snore but when he does he is a monster. I'm scared.

Goal Crushing Attitudes

As I mentioned before, I had Sales Training for my painting job this past weekend. Not to get too mushy on you or toot my own horn too much, but I think I'm going to do pretty well this summer with this job. I think it's one of the better things that's going on with me these days. It provides me with a great distraction from everything else that might be bothering me, be it schoolwork, housing issues, or occasional problems with the girlfriend. I'm honestly very excited that I have the chance to run my own legitimate business this summer. I've had a couple other businesses that I've started in the past, namely my lacrosse stinging, building maintenance, and firewood selling jobs, but this is the first one that forces me to hire employees, market to customers, manage my employees, produce work, and actively sell my services to potential customers. I know that it's going to be really tough at times, and I know I'm going to hate it some days, but I think that for the most part I'm going to enjoy it very much. Either way it will be a really good experience for me, not just for business or to put on my resume or whatever but to try to determine and push the limits of what I can do. I'll admit, I'm nervous about how I'm going to find leads and how I'm going to react when I find myself by myself in a customer's home trying to prove to them that I am the person they should trust with their hard earned money. I'm a college kid who has hardly ever painted before, much less painted a whole house and managed a crew of other college kids, why would someone ever think that it is a good idea to entrust me with their money? It's really mind blowing when I think about it, the fact that people are going to be trusting me to paint the biggest investment they've ever made, but the thought also excites me and I know that they won't be making a mistake.

I'm really excited about this job. My executive came up to me after Sales Training ended and told me that he thought I did really well during training and that he thought I was going to kill it this summer. I'm not being cocky, but I know he's right.

I guess I'm wicked tough

I got my wisdom teeth taken out at 11:00 today. Other than feeling some momentary dizziness when I got out of the dentist's chair, I've felt pretty much fine. I haven't had any pain, and the Vicodin I took that was supposed to knock me out has done nothing. I'm almost disappointed, I was interested to see how being on Vicodin feels but I got nothing. The only thing I've noticed is that my mouth is full of blood, and when I spit it is true blood diluted with a drop of saliva. In the word's of Dr. Cox, "I am bulletproof!"