I saw a sign at school today that I agree with whole-heartedly: "Roommates: cant live with them, can't afford to live without them." My current situation satisfies that situation completely, and I really need to correct it soon or I'll end up with a smaller, less decorated room and a new roommate named "Chuck" at the state penn.
My alarm went off at what I thought was its usual morning hour and I hit it, turning it off so I could roll over and get back to sleep. I managed to get another 15 minutes in before I opened my eyes and waited for the alarm again - bad idea. I rolled over and realized that Paul, my roommate, had set it off by three hours. I thought it was 7 in the morning. But no, I had been woken up at 4am.
I got back to sleep and then woke up to my cellphone alarm at 7 like I had planned. I begrudgingly showered and got dressed without shaving. The lack of sleep caused by the bad alarm made it hard to care about my appearance. Hence the hooded sweatshirt, torn blue jeans, and mis-matched socks.
I made it to campus and somehow managed to get through my one class in an oddly productive caffeine delirium. I passed the quiz today with flying colors, though I can't remember what it was about, and trucked off to a quick group meeting before lunch. We discussed a whole multitude of things, but I spent the few moments of lucidity I had plotting ways to get back at Paul. I dreamt of several different things, the most graphic of which I'll save you from, but they included everything from duct-taping his door shut to reporting his car stolen and then calling in its location while he was at work to have it impounded. I'm a crafty ass, aren't I?
I hopped back on the train to make my trip back towards home. About halfway there, the fare inspectors came on board and asked to see my transit pass. I casually whipped out my wallet and handed it over to the inspector. He nodded to his partner who rudely pulled me from my seat and pushed me towards the door.
When I protested, the first inspector handed me back my wallet and glared at me.
"Nice try, jerk. Now you're getting a ticket and have to walk home."
I looked at my wallet and, to my surprise, disgust, and downright anger, saw that it was not filled with credit cards, cash, and my ID but with neatly cut pieces of cardboard all labelled: "Ha ha, got you again!"
When the train stopped, the inspectors pulled me off the train and wrote me a $250 ticket. Then I bummed some change off a fellow commuter and used the pay phone to call a friend - the inspectors were watching closely to make sure I didn't get back on the train. The whole ride back to my car at the transit mall I reevaluated my plans to seek revenge on Paul.
I didn't come up with anything until I was getting ready for bed, but I still have to smile when I think about it. My plan is to just not do anything. He'll keep looking over his shoulder, waiting for me to play a prank. I'll just let him sweat in anticipation.
Besides, I put his name on the ticket.
Day 29 of 100 - Summary: Roommates can be mean, but I can be downright evil.
Day 29
Released to the public on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 0 comments
Day 28
Advice for your future: Keep a steady sleep schedule and don't rubber band from sleep deprivation to well-rested and back. It can be hazardous to your health. Consider the way my day went today. I woke up at o-dark-early in the morning and then died, or at least felt like dying, as I pulled myself out of bed and got dressed for class.
Then I made my way sluggishly to campus for class.
The rest of the day is kind of foggy to me. I vaguely remember language classes and then heading to a lunch with my program director. I'm not sure what we ate, where, or even who paid, but I remember enjoying the meal. After that, I spent time studying for my evening class and highlighted textbook pages in between sips of a highly caffeinated drink (so highly caffeinated that it should probably be illegal).
Right now is a few hours before my class and I'm writing mostly so I don't forget than for any other reason. I highly doubt I will be taking notes tonight and will probably find my way back to bed before I acknowledge the start of the lecture.
Tomorrow will bring more energy, more creativity, and, hopefully, clarity for the first time in a long time.
Day 28 of 100 - Summary: Rubber bands suck - particularly in your sleep schedule!
Released to the public on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 0 comments
Day 27
I slept for 15 hours last night! I am now a bouncing ball of rabid energy! Beware my jumping-off-walls mentality!
I didn't need caffeine at all today, but it was almost like I was using it from the time I woke up to when I went to bed. We had a guest presentation on the government and politics of South Africa. The downside was that I didn't realize he was actually into the meat of his lecture until halfway through because I didn't know what it was supposed to be about.
I took good notes after that point and plan to put together my write up on the lecture sometime tomorrow. Before I can do that, though, I need to do the write ups from the last two lectures we had.
Unfortunately, I need to stay up far later tonight to finish some projects so my daily post will be shorter today. I expect to continue working for another two hours or so ... before getting up in another six.
I hope the sleeping binge I had last night will help keep me going for the rest of the week.
Day 27 of 100 - Summary: Quality sleep is much better than caffeine; and legal, too!
Released to the public on Monday, January 29, 2007 0 comments
Day 26
I took a nice long drive today. I was upstate with my girlfriend so she could have a job interview. She got the job, by the way.
Afterwards, we took the time to drive out to the beach in celebration. We took some time to walk up and down the beach and sat down on a rock to watch the sunset. It had been a long day after a night of little to no sleep and we were elated to be spending time together in a relaxing environment.
Before we got back to the car I took some time to buy a rather large carbonated soda. I've been getting an average of 4-5 hours of sleep per night (when I sleep at all) and was not looking forward to the 3 hour drive I had ahead of me. My girlfriend got in the passenger side of the car and made herself comfortable while I found a radio station with up-beat music to keep me awake.
Then, with her sleeping next to me I made the midnight trek back home with the radio on and the window down. I decided against using cruise control, too, in efforts to give myself more to pay attention to during the drive. We successfully made it in one piece.
I don't remember the last two hours of the drive. The dreams I had were quite vivid, though.
Day 26 of 100 - Summary: Sleep deprivation is akin to intoxication; so don't drive!
Released to the public on Sunday, January 28, 2007 0 comments
Day 25
I scared myself today. On purpose. There's a skyscraper up north that's several hundred feet tall, surrounded by many square blocks of parking lot and 2-story buildings. And today, I went to the top floor.
It's been years since I've tried to get up the courage to ride the elevator up that monster, but today was different. I came to town with my girlfriend because she has a job interview. We decided that the best way to spot the building where her interview was at would be the top of the really tall building. Seems we were wrong; you can't tell a shack from an office building from that height.
So we rode the elevator up and I sat at the top floor long enough to stop shaking and open my eyes. Then, after another 10-minute fit of violent shakes I stood up and walked around the top-floor observation deck. It took us about an hour before I was ready to brave the elevator back down.
Now it's time to go to sleep and dream really random things because of that trip up the elevator. Usually, fear makes my imagination run wild. The problem is that my mind is so dark the dreams can be more frightening than what my mind is running away from in the first place.
Other times I just dream of flying.
I like flying.
Day 25 of 100 - Summary: Vertigo only affects you when you're awake; being high up while unconscious, though, can be fun.
Released to the public on Saturday, January 27, 2007 1 comments
Day 24
I went climbing today, and the wall got mad at me. I don’t know what it was that I did, but the wall decided to throw me off in punishment in the middle of a climb. Too bad for me that I was seven feet up in the air and hanging upside-down at the time.
I convinced some of my other friends to climb with me after class was over and for the first time was not alone in the gym. Peter was working today, too (remember, he got a job at the gym after I took him once?). This meant all five people in the gym were graduate students and good friends with one another. I helped my friends start off on some basic routes while I warmed up. Then I got to work on a bouldering problem that I've been working on for the past week or so.
It's a fun route with a tricky start. You start on an awkward hold with one foot directly underneath you and the other stretched out to the right. The only way to hold in is to lean backwards to the left and put all of your weight into the inverted hang. The next three holds are pretty much the same: your feet are off to the right while your center of gravity is to the left, forcing an upside-down hang from the handholds.
After that, it gets tricky again. You have to turn your body around and hang to the right with your feet to the left for four holds. The final hold is the last wrench in the works. You have to square yourself up and center your weight so you can throw upwards to the last hold. Keep in mind that at this point your butt is 7 feet in the air and you're hanging onto the wall with a precarious 1" x 1/8" toehold and a single handhold (unless you remember the other foothold you’re supposed to be using). This was where the wall decided to expel me.
I had given the large safety mat to my friends who weren't as courageous as me and weren't willing to be more than 3 feet off the ground without protection. That left me with a 3-inch mat to fall on, and fall I did.
I somehow managed to get my feet under myself before I hit the ground. No one noticed I had even fallen until I fell over backwards upon returning to ground level. It was a rush to be weightless for a few minutes and I now know what the base jumping I missed out on earlier this week would have felt like had that washed-up professor not ruined my fun.
But I think the point of base jumping is to not hit the ground that hard. Hence the parachute.
Day 24 of 100 – Summary: Be nice to the climbing wall lest it throw you to the ground.
Released to the public on Friday, January 26, 2007 1 comments
Day 23
Papers are the bane of my existence. In the interest of saving themselves stressful deadlines at the end of each term, professors now assign copious amounts of essays rather than basing grades on a final exam. This sounds like a great idea on paper because it saves time studying. When every professor does this, though, the papers take on lives of their own.
I wanted to get ahead of the curve and finish my papers early this week so I could focus on actually doing the readings before attending lectures (for once). This was easier said than done, though, because of the sheer number of papers I have due this week and the ambiguity of the assignments.
For instance, I was writing my paper for Saturday's class today. We had to analyze "the company's" decision to open a factory in "a new country." Unfortunately, the professor didn't tell us what the company was, what country it was opening a factory in, or even what kind of factory it was opening. This left our paper very open-ended; besides the strict 600-word limit, that is.
So I sat down with my trusty laptop and tried to start typing. The little blinking cursor seemed to absorb all of my creative energy, though, and I wasn't able to figure out even how to put a heading on the paper. I'm not sure if it was regular writer's block of the fact that I had been staring at the computer screen for hours, but I couldn't seem to put anything into the word processor.
So instead I pulled out a few blank sheets of paper and my old familiar friend: Mr. Pencil. I started by putting my name on the paper so no one else could claim it as theirs. Then I added the professor's name and the course title so I wouldn't confuse it with any of my other courses.
Then, just to get myself started, I pulled up the essay question and wrote it by hand at the top of the paper. The act of writing the question must have activated something in my brain because I just started writing. I even implemented quotes from the readings I had done for class without having to refer back to my notes. I was on a role!
Until Laura sat down. She's one of the most annoying people in class. I think she acts so loud as she does to make up for her height (or lack thereof). Either way, my rapidly-flowing train of thought shattered as she started talking. I set down my pencil in frustration; I had stopped in mid-sentence and couldn't even remember where the thought had been going.
I pulled my laptop open again and started searching for random things as a way to try to ignore the whiny voice of the short person sitting (or standing, I'm not really sure) across from me.
"So what do you think class will be about tonight," she asked.
"No idea," I muttered as I read today's headlines.
"Has the professor sent out slides yet?"
"No idea."
"What about tomorrow's class?"
"I don't know."
"Have you finished the paper for tomorrow yet?"
I successfully spaced her out at that point as she went into a long diatribe about how she hadn't started her paper yet. She mentioned something about being a procrastinator and how hard things had been during her undergraduate. I heard the word "counselling" and chuckled as I began doodling in the margins around my not-yet-completed essay. I spaced Laura out so completely that I didn't even notice when she left.
I kept doodling and drew dogs, houses, and birds all over my paper. Then I started drawing mouths. I started with some smiley faces and then focused on just the mouth. I had happy mouths, sad mouths, and apathetic mouths. Then I drew an angry mouth. It was more intricate than the rest and I spent a lot of time making it look realistic; almost hungry.
Then the mouth opened wide, like a snake would to swallow an egg. It opened so wide that I felt my chair tottering towards the chasm within. It was such a detailed drawing that I could almost feel the heat of the disembodied mouth's breath on my face, right up to the time when I fell in ...
... and hit my head on the table. Apparently I had dozed off.
I looked at the paper where the mouths had been and saw just a few doodles of dogs and cats. One cat had a long tail that blended with a clean paragraph of cursive text. I recognized my own handwriting and realized that I had found my train of thought and finished the essay before dozing and dreaming about being eaten by the paper.
It wasn't that well-written, and had several references to an evil mouth chasing after the company as it opened its factory, but at least I had a start for when I transposed everything into my laptop. Maybe tonight I'll go to bed early and catch up on the sleep I've missed for the past week.
Day 23 of 100 - Summary: Caffeine leads to strange dreams during the day.
Released to the public on Thursday, January 25, 2007 1 comments
Day 22
I tried to learn how to pick locks today. In reality, I already know how to do so, but I thought I'd use MeBox to freshen up my skills a bit. Who knew they'd have so many videos about a border-line illegal art form online?
This desire to get past locked doors came from the fact that my roommate put a lock on his door. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem. However, I run the wireless network we have in our apartment and needed to get to his computer to change some settings (we were running an open network and the guys in the apartment above us are stealing our Internet). He keeps his door locked whenever he's gone, though, and won't let me near his computer when he's here.
So I tried using paper clips first, but that proved to be a fruitless use of three hours leading to very sore hands. Next I tried street sweeper bristles, but those were also ineffective because they weren't shaped correctly. Then I tried a technique I found online called "bumping." It involved time with a file modifying another key I had. Like the other methods, though, I once again got nowhere.
I was about to give up when I noticed a draft coming from under his door. Leave it to my roommate to put a lock on his door and then leave his window open. We live on the ground floor, too.
So I hopped through his open window and changed the settings on his computer. Now he can do whatever it is he does in private without having to worry about our neighbors looking at the same thing he's downloading.
I don't think he'll even notice I was in his room, either.
Now that I have access to his room, though, I can't resist just popping in to read or surf on his computer when he's gone. There's no reason in particular when I do it, I just think it's fun to bypass his security.
The ironic thing is I wouldn't have tried to get in his room had he not locked it.
Day 22 of 100 - Summary: A locked door is more inviting to trespassers than one without a lock at all.
Released to the public on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 0 comments
Day 21
I asked a friend for something to do today and he recommended I go snowboarding. Unfortunately, the mountain is too far away to walk to and I didn't bring my corvette into town today. So instead I decided to try my hand at base jumping.
It's hard to find a building tall enough to jump off of in town, though. The tallest building here is 24-stories tall and would be perfect, but they don't let you go past the twelfth story unless you work there. I was escorted out by security for trying to break into the stairwell. Good thing, too, since I didn't have a parachute. My friend hadn't told me I needed one.
So I found a nice 5-story building on campus and jimmied the lock to the roof. There was another guy on top looking over the edge. He yelled at me a lot because it was "his roof and I couldn't stop him from jumping." I figured that would be fine because I was planning on jumping, too.
I looked over the edge and decided that jumping without a parachute was out of the question. The ground all around the building was paved and I would definitely hurt myself if I jumped without protection. I told the other guy on the roof this and he just laughed at me. I wanted to tell him not to jump until I got back, but I figured he wouldn't listen to me anyway.
I went downstairs and took all the cushions off the lounge couches and piled them outside under where I planned to jump. I then went inside and found some old mattresses in a closet. They added to my pile and made it high enough that I felt I'd be protected from the asphalt.
It was then that a crowd started to gather. They weren't looking at me, though, they were all pointing to the man on the roof who had come to the edge and was shouting gibberish. Everyone started yelling, "don't do it! Don't do it!" at him.
I was confused, so I shouted up instead, "no one cares! Now's you're chance!"
He must've heard me because that was when he lept off the building. My pile was in the right location that it caught him and completely broke his fall. I think he only sprained his ankle when he hit the ground, too. That was a good thing because public safety showed up right then and made him walk to a police car.
Apparently he was some professor who had lost his tenure and wanted to end it all. The police officers who showed up to escort him away told me I would get an award for saving his life and took my name down. Then they took all the cushions and mattresses as "evidence" and left me in front of the building.
At least one of us got to go base jumping. And my day didn't turn out to be half-boring, either.
Day 21 of 100 - Summary: Selfishness can save lives.
Released to the public on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 0 comments
Day 20
I realized today why I like root beer so much. It's creamy, sweet, and has a nice and warm filling aftereffect. It's very much like real beer, only without the alcohol content and the social rejection you'd receive if seen drinking in public at ten o'clock in the morning.
I've found two particular brands of root beer that I enjoy the most. One is a privately crafted brand that is sold only on tap at certain area restaurants. I like it because of its smoothness and the warm honey flavor it possesses. The other one is a national bottled brand that I've heard a lot about but never tried until this year. I like the bottled one because it actually tastes a lot like my favorite dark microbrew. Once again, though, without the alcohol.
I had a bottle of it in the coffee shop while I waited for a friend to show up. It was entertaining because the bottle looks so much like beer that several people had to take second glances. I just sat in the finely upholstered chair enjoying my root beer and playing solitaire on my palm pilot to pass the time away.
My friend showed up and we had our regular study session. When we started meeting at lunch time to study it was at the pub down the street. That seemed to be relatively unproductive because of a) the atmosphere and b) happy hour. We elected unanimously to move to the coffee shop after the first week. The beverages here are somewhat more contributory to a study session and don't result in missed lectures afterwards.
We studied for about an hour, discussing everything from last week's lectures to next week's impending essay projects. Then we parted ways and I went home. I actually don't have class on Mondays and I make the trip downtown only for my friend's sake. I figure he'll owe me enough in the future to pay me back with one big favor. Spending my day off on his study session is my way to guarantee limitless payback when the time comes.
For now, though, I'll settle for being able to pick up root beer on my way home from the place that has the cheapest prices in town. It just so happens that the coffee shop is right next door and Monday is the only day I have an excuse to be over there.
Another week, another six pack.
Day 20 of 100 - Summary: Everyone has ulterior motives; even me.
Released to the public on Monday, January 22, 2007 0 comments
Day 19
I enjoy weekends. I get to sleep in and be relatively unproductive for the entire day. Today was really no exception to that rule, but I actually accomplished some things today.
I woke up around 8:30, which is still sleeping in, and listened to the music on my radio for a little bit. Then I got up, showered, and went to the kitchen for breakfast. There were donuts on the table; not having to make myself breakfast helped move me on with my schedule much more quickly. I went to church and then came home to do some work on a research job I'm consulting on.
After a few hours on the Internet, I went to the mall. I had planned on just walking around and people watching - you'll have no idea how fun it is to just watch crowds of people until you do it for yourself. I shopped through a couple of computer stores and then parked myself in a bookstore.
I like to read the comic books and graphic novels they have set out. They tend to be short and the artwork is always fairly well done. I read two different graphic novels and the newest superhero comic book before the employees noticed me and gave me an ultimatum: "Either buy something, or leave."
I put my reading material away and walked up to the front of the store. To my surprise, there was a book signing at the front of the store. I walked over to the table and looked at the books strewn across it. It was one of my favorite authors!
Ironically, though, there wasn't anyone else at the table and no one seemed to be walking towards him. I took the opportunity to have a nice conversation with the man. We talked about his current book, all of the other books I had read, and even the projects he had coming up.
Our conversation went so well that he offered me a ride home after the signing was over. It had come up in our chat that I write a lot on my own and he was very interested in reading my work. When we got to my house, I pulled out a couple of short stories that I had finished recently for him. I was elated to see how impressed he was with my work.
My idol, impressed with my work.
We exchanged business cards before he left. He wants to work with my on one of his future projects. He's co-authoring a book with someone from Europe and they wanted a third writer on the project. He did say he's have to talk with his partner before anything could be finalized, but I'm optimistic.
I know this might sound dorky to you, but it would be like a basketball fan being asked to play a game of 2-on-2 as Michael Jordan's partner.
How cool would that be?
Day 19 of 100 - Summary: Networking with strangers can be incredibly productive.
Released to the public on Sunday, January 21, 2007 1 comments
Day 18
Today was a wonderful career seminar. After waking up at o-dark-early to take my parents to the airport, I went to campus for my six-hour Saturday class. I was exhausted to begin with, and waking up extra early did not help much for the focus I had left to direct towards the lecture.
I actually took good notes through the 2 hours guest presentation we had. I took a full three pages; that length of notes is very unprecedented, if you know me. I then managed to keep my focus for another hour and a half and took notes up until we took a nice long break.
It was that very break, though, that destroyed my mental capacity to absorb new material. I sat down and we still had another two hours. Unfortunately for me, though, I had just gotten comfortable when the professor said, "Have a good weekend and I'll see you next time."
I had missed the last third of the class.
Completely spaced it out and didn't notice the professor was even talking!
I managed to pull myself together enough after that shocker, though, to focus on the two-hour career workshop we had. I'm glad I did, too. Apparently it's a $250 seminar that I got for free. Talk about cost savings!
I got a lot out of the presentation. I'm meeting with the career coach later this week so that I can continue to improve my resume. I have little to no job experience, so he told me to be "creative" with the way I describe the positions I have had. His example: He worked for 20 years as the minister of a church. On his resume, he lists 20 years of experience as the "executive of a non-profit organization."
It's completely truthful, but puts his actual experience at the forefront of the human resources representative rather than the stereotypes typically associated with the word "minister." I just wonder how much I can do with the part-time jobs I've had.
I've still got a while before I graduate to figure it out.
Day 18 of 100 - Summary: Six hours of lecture on four hours of sleep is a bad idea.
Released to the public on Saturday, January 20, 2007 0 comments
Day 17
I should really think about a career change. With the things I see every day in my life and the people I meet commuting on the train I could be a great comedian. Take Mr. Kleenex from today; I've never had a more useless yet entertaining day on the train than I did today.
For those of you wondering how the rest of my day went before I move on to comedy, here's a short summary: I woke up late, forgot my notebook, went to class, and then left just moments before my brain shut down from overuse. Typical day for me. And truly not that exciting for those of you who would be tempted to think otherwise.
As I walked down the block to the train, though, my day became more exciting. First of all, the train waited for me a whole ten minutes. For me! I saw it sitting there, about six blocks away with several people running frantically to catch it. I wasn't really in the mood to run and figured it would be gone by the time I got to the terminal anyway that I just kept going my slow pace down the street reminiscing about the wonderful 5-hour lecture I had just left.
To my surprise, though, the train waited at the terminal the whole time. The driver even opened the door for me when I got to the station. First a corvette, now I have customized train service. Who could have ever imagined that my life could be going so great?
Actually, the train just couldn't get a door shut and was sitting there while a technician worked on it. They opened the door when I walked up to test that it was working again.
Then I met Mr. Kleenex. He was standing in the doorway because all the seats on the train were taken. I call him "Mr. Kleenex" because he was wiping his nose every thirty seconds and seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of Kleenex tissues in his right pocket. I'm actually glad that he wiped his nose that often because the one time he didn't I was immediately stricken with fear for my own health. His nose seemed to be drooling; but I'll save you the rest of the word picture so you might be able to sleep tonight.
He commented as I got on the train that I had made it just in time and would have had to wait another thirty minutes had I missed the door. I agreed and regretted responding a moment later. The rest of the train ride consisted with person anecdotes about basketball players with Ph.D.s, the army's ability (or lack thereof) to properly inform officers of flight times, and stories about who in Mr. Kleenex's family does what or is related to whom or works where or did what favor for what other family member ... Needless to say, I seemed to be expected to know every member of his family because he used only nicknames to refer to them and I have no idea who they are.
In between nose-wipes he told me all about his brother with a doctorate, who is married to a very nice woman and has three daughters. The eldest shares a birthday with Mr. Kleenex and the other two are quiet and hard to get to know. Mr. Kleenex also has a close friend in the legislature upstate who changed the entire government bureaucracy to help him get out of one rule or another when he was in trouble. He was in the army for a few years and lived in Korea, but missed his flight and was almost counted as AWOL once.
There are many other details to Mr. Kleenex's life, but I'll spare you the long story. It was an interesting conversation to be involved in and I learned a lot about his life and character. But I never did get his name, hence the reference to "Mr. Kleenex." He apologized the whole time for his cold, so I can't really blame him for the nose-wiping.
What makes this comical was his insistence that he shake my hand and wish me luck with school as I got off the train. I'm glad he had the courtesy to switch his tissue to his left hand before shaking mine, though.
Good thing my hands are washable.
Day 17 or 100 - Summary: Life can be funny when little ironies present themselves.
Released to the public on Friday, January 19, 2007 0 comments
Day 16
Today was my first day back in classes. Thank God for warmer weather. One more day of staying inside due to snow and I would have lost it for sure. Well, according to some I already have, so one more day might not have changed anything at all. If you read the rest of this blog you might also realize that my sanity went the way of the dinosaurs some years ago.
For some reason, though, I didn't sleep well last night. As per the usual, I was kept awake by strange dreams of demons, people, rain clouds, clowns, blue bunnies, and all sorts of other odd and possible frightening things. When I woke up to the sound of my radio, I realized they had a special guest analyzing dreams on today's show. Too bad I couldn't remember the radio station's phone number. I could have seriously messed with her mind.
The rest of my day was actually productive for once. I got to class and participated for the first time in a long while. I raised my hand and shouted out answers, wrong or right, every chance I got. I was just happy to be back in class (see above note about my waning sanity).
My afternoon was filled with studying and working on papers for class. The weather had cancelled our group meetings along with classes and we were forced to cram 8-page analyses into the 2 hour break we had before lectures began. I'm not sure how clear the essay is, but at least the pictures I drew in the margins with pen look nice. Hopefully the illustrated paper helps illustrate the point.
I also broke with my New Years' resolutions today and had a soda. The caffeine is playing weird tricks with my mind so far. I actually started to take notes when the panda in the front of the room started talking. It took me nearly an hour to realize he wasn't the professor and was talking about the culinary properties of bamboo rather than corporate logistics planning.
To be honest, though, the panda was more interesting.
I wonder if bamboo is really that tasty.
Day 16 of 100 - Summary: Caffeine should be a controlled substance.
Released to the public on Thursday, January 18, 2007 0 comments
Day 15
The neighbors made a snowman. He's sitting right across the street. Grinning, and staring directly into my window. I think he's mocking me for not making a snowman of my own. But I showed him up today. I walked all the way through the snow the three blocks to the grocery store for some root beer. He can't walk; doesn't even have legs.
There was a lot of snow on the ground still, and it was incredibly cold outside. I made sure to put on my boots and grab my extra-heavy coat before I stepped out the door. Wintry weather is fun until it gives you a cold, then you sit in the drizzling northwest with a runny nose and sour temper. Heavy clothing is a must this time of year, even if you're only going to the grocery store.
I was amazed at how fresh the snow still looked even after sitting all night in the sub-freezing temperatures. I had expected it to all turn into ice and make the day's commute even more hellish (or at least that's what the weather people told me would happen). I was pleasantly surprised, though, as I walked away from the 6-foot tall silent but laughing white figure on the lawn across from my apartment and made my way towards the grocery store.
It was foggy out still, and I could see a few new snow flakes floating down from the heavens. Just out of curiosity I stopped and tilted my head back, sticking my tongue out in hopes of catching some of the mysterious white powder falling from above my head. I stood there a full five minutes before I felt anything. Even now I'm not entirely sure if it was worth the wait.
When I finally looked down, I was in a different world. Everything was white and I couldn't tell where I was. I thought I was still on my street, but I couldn't tell for sure. I walked up the hill a little bit farther but could still not distinguish any landmarks.
After what felt like an hour of walking into the wind, I curled up next to a small boulder and pulled my coat as tight as I could. I did not want to stop walking, but with no reference points I had no idea where I might end up! I sat and waited for help for what could have been days or hours; time seemed to stand still in the white place.
A man approached me and helped me up. He walked me around the boulder I had been lying next to and took me into a house. Why hadn't I seen this before? was the only question I could ask myself. Then I realized I recognized the house. I was sitting on my own reclining chair.
Apparently I had tilted my head back far enough that I fell backwards on the ice and hit my head. I had pulled myself next to my own car and had lain there for a total of three minutes before my roommate came out looking for me. He had wanted root beer, too.
And now, thanks to my lack of coordination, neither of us get any root beer. He'll keep drinking coffee, and I'll sit with an icepack to my skull to keep it from swelling.
Round one to you, Mr. Snowman.
Day 15 of 100 - Summary: The snowman always wins.
Released to the public on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 1 comments
Day 14
When it rains, it pours. Now if only there were a similar saying for snow.
I woke up this morning to a completely white front yard. This was not too much of an issue because I was sure the 2 feet of snow on the ground would mean a definite closure of campus today. Just to make sure, though, I pulled up the school's website to check. Nothing. No information or even a suggestion that school was closed.
So I turned on the news. Every public school in the area was closed; except for my wonderful public university. I pulled out my cell phone to call the school's office. The only information was about the closure yesterday for the national holiday. I decided then that it was time to stop standing nude in my apartment and start getting ready for the classes I knew no one would be at.
I ate a filling breakfast of my usual Cocoa Puffs and kept checking the news channel for a change in the report. When nothing had happened as of 8:10AM, I got in my new corvette (see yesterday's post) and headed towards the train station.
There were cars spun out on both sides of the road, but my extra-wide snow tires helped me get to the train station entirely without incident. That, and the 20 MPH I was forced to go by the SUVs in front of me. I waited at the train station and then descended into town towards my awaiting classrooms.
I reached downtown just fine and began my trek up the hill to campus. Surprisingly, none of the buses in the public transit fleet were using chains. There was one bus stuck at the bottom of the hill and another with its wheels chocked about halfway up. It was parked next to a curious line of dented and damaged parked cars, all missing their driver's side mirrors. I wonder if it was purely coincidence.
I made it all the way to campus and headed upstairs in my program building to check on my class. As I walked past unlit classrooms and closed office doors, though, I realized the joke was on me. There was a note on the door: "All university classes, meetings, and activities cancelled due to weather." The note was marked "8:15am."
I worked my way all the way to campus only to find out that had I waited another five minutes I could have saved myself a trip and gone back to bed.
At least snow is pretty.
Day 14 of 100 - Summary: If you think you've waited long enough, just give it another 5 minutes.
Released to the public on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 0 comments
Day 13
Thirteen. Wonderful lucky number thirteen. Who could have predicted that today would have been day number thirteen? I know that when I woke up this morning I had no idea the day would turn out this way.
Now I have you roped in, you see. Most people think of thirteen as an unlucky number, but Day 13 was very lucky for me. I woke up late, watched some television with my girlfriend, went shopping at the local market, and then made my way towards home so I could get some work done before sundown. I can never seem to get any work done at her place.
I hit out on the freeway around noon. I had a meeting later that afternoon with some prospective clients. I wanted to make it back in time to read a couple of job-related articles before they interviewed me for the job, though. Long story short, I made it with an hour to spare and read through the materials twice. Now, I have high-paying clients through June. Hopefully the bills will stay paid now and I can keep my late-night cable television.
The real excitement was on the way back to my place. I once again hit the freeway, and then was in a terrible car accident. Before I get started with details, though, I'm perfectly OK.
I was following a dump truck down the freeway when the car in front of him lost control and plowed into the guard rail on the right-hand side. Neither I nor the truck in front of me had time to stop. The truck rolled over top of the car and I ended up wedged under his rear bumper. Then the back of the dump truck sprung open and dropped a huge load of fresh asphalt all over my car.
I sat still, frozen, not knowing what to do. I could still see out the back windows, but I couldn't force any of my car doors open. The asphalt was steaming, and I had to breath through my sweatshirt until the fire trucks arrived. They broke my rear window and hauled me out over the new expressway that was my car.
I was perfectly OK, as was the driver of the dump truck. The guy who had lost control in front of us was fine too, despite the DUII he got at 3:30 in the afternoon. There was no one in front of him, but he hallucinated and swerved to hit what he swore was an elephant in the middle of the freeway.
Needless to say, my car is toast.
But the guy in the front car is some sort of millionaire and he bought me a corvette as a replacement so I don't sue him.
Day 13 of 100 - Summary: Who said thirteen was unlucky?
Released to the public on Monday, January 15, 2007 0 comments
Day 12
I spent the whole day at my girlfriend's house today. It was relaxing to finally be able to sleep in and not really worry about anything for an entire day. I woke up late, made myself a small breakfast, and settled back to watch TV while I worked sporadically on my homework. It was relaxing to do next to nothing except for the commercials, where I would actually mute the television to work on my reports.
I was disappointed though, a friend of mine had led me to believe my favorite TV show started its new season today. Unfortunately, he was wrong. It doesn't start until next Sunday. Oh well, life shall go on without the show.
As I said, today did not consist of much, but my girlfriend tried a new recipe for ribs for dinner. It was orange-ginger-bbq or something like that. I have to admit, it was excellent! We had bought what we thought was a rack of ribs for $6 last weekend and put it in the freezer. To our surprise, the rack of ribs was actually two racks; one was stacked on top of the other.
To think, last time I bought a single rack of ribs for $13. What a waste of money.
The ribs we had tonight were great. We went to the movies after she got done with work and then came back and put them in the oven to roast slowly. They were tender and the meat melted off the bones (which was good for me. I don't like to actually hold the ribs, they're too messy. So I pull the meat off with a fork and eat it what way).
Other than that, I didn't really accomplish much today. I wrote up a couple of case studies and finished my short story, but neither is really a major accomplishment. I still haven't decided whether or not I want to publish the story. (Author's note: this paragraph is real, as opposed to the rest of the blog, which is fictional.) I might post little sections of the story on my other blog, Unpublished Art, but I'm not sure yet. I'll make a decision by the end of the month.
(Back to the fiction...)Tomorrow I have a big meeting back at home and have to leave early to make it, unfortunately. Considering it's a holiday, I was hoping to spend some more time with my girlfriend.
That, and there's still snow on the ground here.
Day 12 of 100 - Summary: If doing nothing else, watching the snow outside is fun.
Released to the public on Sunday, January 14, 2007 0 comments
Day 11
I had both been looking forward to and dreading today all week. I had a new class that I was not really excited before, had an ominous dream on Monday about the day's events, but knew I would get to see my girlfriend before I went to bed. Fortunately, the third item both outweighed and out glorified the other two and my day ended up rather well. Or at least it did after I finally got to my girlfriend's place.
I had to get up early to accomodate the ungodly meeting time for my law class. Saturday classes are evil enough on their own, but whoever decided to make them meet at 9am must've been poker friends with Satan. I woke up shortly before my brother went up to the mountain to go snowboarding and wished him a safe trip on my way to the cereal closet to find my Cocoa Puffs. He had to leave earlier than I did, but he got to go do something fun, not listen to a 6-hour law lecture.
After breakfast I packed up everything I needed for class in my new messenger bag - which I got for Christmas. Thanks Mom! - and packed up a few changes of clothes in the other one. I grabbed both bags and my climbing gear and threw them all into the back of my car so I could drive to campus. I normally take the train, but I wanted to leave to my girlfriend's place straight from class so I had to park close.
The trip to school was fine, and I found my usual back-row seat near the power plugs so I could keep my laptop on for 6 consecutive hours. I'm not the kind of person who surfs during class, though. I actually take notes with my computer. If you don't believe me, I'd be happy to email you the several pages I've taken thus far this year.
The class was about as dry as I had expected, but not really that bad. I think the combination of "Saturday" and "early morning" dried out the subject material. The professor was engaging and I was actually interested, I just couldn't seem to focus. My computer now has 4 pages of typed, single-spaced notes, though (in case you don't believe I paid attention).
The trip to my girlfriend's house was the next issue I had problems with. Sometime last Sunday night I had a dream about the end of the world that involved this particular trip. I kind of summarized it on Day 7, but it's a highly abridged description as I'm turning the dream into a story at the moment. I was just worried because the vivid dreams I have sometimes turn out coming true. Luckily, this one didn't. I never really wanted to be turned into a chipmunk anyway, so I'm glad it didn't pan out.
After I got there, we went straight to the rock gym to see how long I could hang like a monkey before I lost the ability to flip light switches. My girlfriend is a far better climber than Peter, the guy I went climbing with yesterday, is. It was refreshing to watch someone with that much natural talent move on the wall. Even the grunts she made when she lunged for challenging holds seemed graceful.
Now I'm sitting back at her apartment while she watches some strange sit-com with her expanded basic cable (what an oxymoron!) and I'm trying fervently to ignore it. It's getting late and my brain can use the rest. Who knows what end-of-the-world dreams a day of law class with a dessert of rock climbing will bring?
My only concern is whether or not chipmunks like Brazil nuts.
They're my favorites and I'd hate for that to change.
Day 11 of 100 - Summary: One pro can outweigh hundreds of cons.
Released to the public on Saturday, January 13, 2007 0 comments
Day 10
Today, Friday, is my best schedule for the week. Rather than having a huge break between my language class and my other core class, I have them back-to-back. The downside is that I have so much class packed together in one 7-hour period. To offset that, I go climbing after class gets done. Today I even had a friend come with me. We grabbed a quick dinner after class and then headed over to the rec center.
My friend, Peter, had never been climbing in a gym before. He had gone once on a real rock surface, but gym climbing is so different from natural face climbing that they don't even compare. I thought it would be a good idea to take him with me today because the gym was giving out free climbs for the week. That way, if he didn't like the experience of gym climbing, there was no dent in his wallet from the day in the gym.
We got to the gym at about 5:30 after dinner. It was supposed to be open until 8, so there was no rush for us. After Peter finished filling out his "if I die I won't sue you" paperwork, we got him a pair of shoes and went to work on the wall. I'm a fairly experienced climber, so I started on some of the harder routes just to warm up. Then I helped Peter figure out one of the beginner routes so he didn't feel left out.
Most of the routes at the campus gym are sit-starts. That means you sit on your butt at the base of the route and put your feet on either a free hold or a marked one. Then you reach up to the double-taped starting holds and try to pull/stand yourself up to the next hold. With any route, getting the sit-start is the hardest part. I let Peter off the hook and told him to just start with his hand on the double-taped holds and go from there. I was looking for more of a challenge, so I worked with the sit-starts.
After a while of bouldering on my own I walked over to where Peter was working. He's a lot skinnier than I am, and looks more athletic, so I wasn't too concerned about the large group of people watching him. What did shock me was that he was on the hardest route in the gym and almost all the way to the top.
For a moment, I was impressed. Then I was agitated because he had told me he couldn't climb. It made things worse that after he finished the route and made his down that the manager of the gym offered him a job as an instructor. I had applied earlier this week and was refused because they had already maxed out their quota of instructors!
At least now I had a friend in a high enough place to get me free stuff from the rock gym.
The pun was intended.
Day 10 of 100 - Summary: Being outclassed by a novice sucks.
Released to the public on Friday, January 12, 2007 0 comments
Day 9
Today was another long day on campus. I woke up at the usual hour and made my way from the house to school. Then I sat and attempted to osmosize as much from my language class as possible before I started my real day. I rushed out of class and jumped onto the nearest bus that was headed across town. My goal was to go shopping before I had to be back to my 5:30 class. God knows that I would get nothing done if I didn't capitalize on the time between my language class and my evening classes.
I was on the number 12, headed over and across the river, when I realized that I was completely out of my element. I had looked the route up on the big map at the information kiosk on campus but had no real idea where the bus went, where I could get off, or where I should get back on to make my return trip to campus. As the bus crested the artificial hill the bridge seemed to make as it crossed the river, panic finally started to set in.
I looked at my watch, plenty of time to walk back if I need to. I just didn't know what kind of neighborhood I was coming in to. I had never even been in this part of town before; my experience with the city extended to the college campus and the shopping mall on the train line downtown. I'm not afraid to admit that I was more than a little scared of where I was, but I had faith in the public transportation system and didn't doubt that I would end up where the map had said I would.
Just to be safe, though, I walked up to the front of the bus and grabbed one of the take-away map/schedule brochures for the route I was on. Immediately I realized this was a mistake as the man I had been riding next to took the opportunity to find a seat for his bag where I had been sitting. He was bigger than me, so I figured his bag deserved the seat and decided to stand, holding tight to the overhead rail that ran the length of the bus to keep from falling over.
When we were stopped at a red light I opened the brochure and looked again at the map. To my dismay, this was one of the few routes that went far enough north to end in the next state. Much too far for me to walk back in time for class. But sure enough, it was supposed to go right past the store I wanted to stop at.
I settled in to my little square-foot of standing space near the center of the bus and waited for us to near my destination. I knew absolutely none of the landmarks near the beginning of the route but began to recognize things as I got closer to the store. I saw there was a stop up ahead about a block away from the outdoors shop, so I pulled the nifty cable running along the bus' windows to signal the driver that I wanted to get off.
The air smelled like barbecue and I spied a burger restaurant across the street. I had skipped lunch to catch the bus and I was starving! I went in with the aim of just grabbing a small burger to-go, but ended up getting the extra-large value meal to dine in. It came with a larger order of fries and I opted for the milkshake. It was probably the least healthy meal I could have eaten considering I was going to an outdoors athletic store in a few minutes.
I polished off the last of my potato grease sticks and jay-walked over to my final destination. I pulled on the front door, but it didn't budge. Agitated, I peered through the window, seeing only a "Closed Until Monday" sign on a large easel a few feet inside the door.
Just my luck, all that panic and worry about whether or not I'd make it to the store in one piece and it was closed. I walked back over to the bus stop and sat down next to two other men waiting for the bus. They both looked younger than 40, but each had an "honored citizen" bus pass hanging around their necks.
Maybe an honored citizen would've gotten into the store they wanted to without issues.
Oh well, I still had class, right?
Day 9 of 100 - Summary: The best laid plans ...
Released to the public on Thursday, January 11, 2007 0 comments
Day 8
On Wednesday I woke up uncharacteristically early; not at all by my own choice. Something woke me up around 5am and I just could not find my way back to the Sandman's office to drift off again. I instead took the opportunity to get up about an hour and a half early, take a long shower, cook and eat a large breakfast (and prepare a tasty sack lunch) and work on some side projects in my room. I have a model of a Cessna airplane that I received as a Christmas gift that I need to finish soon. It came with a voucher for a single pilot's lesson and I want to finish the model before I sign up to take my trip up into the wild blue.
I have the main chassis put together already and I'm working on assembling the wings and attaching them to the main body. It looks very realistic and I've been taking my time to detail paint everything (dials included) with pins and toothpicks so it looks as lifelike as possible. So far, I'm very close to having it look like a bona fide, working miniature.
So close, in fact, that I started to daydream about flying it. It was either the insomnia that I seemed stricken by that morning or the fumes from the model glue (or both) that transported me to a world of miniatures where I was flying in my little plane. I soared down my street and over my old elementary school. Then I drifted through the clouds to downtown. I flew amongst the plastic model buildings that seemed so real in miniature-land and turned towards the airport by the river.
I began my approach, but then realized that I had painted my miniature radio wrong. I forgot to paint on the microphone jack and had no way to talk to the plastic people in the control tower!
I looked through every window I had and saw a plastic Hawaiian Airlines 747 bearing down on me from behind the plane (I believe that's aft). I banked sharply towards the river to the right (starboard) and looked for a vacant runway. It was about then when my master caution light began blinking red-yellow-red-yellow (it was made of plastic and couldn't actually light up to blink). I had painted the fuel gauge at near-empty and was now running on fumes.
I'd never really flown a plane before, and doubted I could dead-stick it in on a runway without hurting myself or my little petroleum-based plastic aircraft. So I turned towards the river and tried my best to glide down to it.
As the plane began skipping across the surface I heard singing. There wasn't that kind of radio in the plane, I thought as I looked around the inside of the cockpit and saw not aeronautical controls but a wooden desk with a partially-assembled Cessna model on top of it. Then I realized that I had dozed off and was hearing my alarm from next to my bed behind me.
I stretched and got up, ready to start my day for real this time. I headed off to language classes and then went to the rock gym for a light workout afterwards. After I got home for the day I put my model away and pulled out my homework for tomorrow.
My second real class of the term is tomorrow; something about operations management.
Who knows what that means anyway?
Day 8 of 100 - Summary: Model glue and insomnia make life much more interesting.
Released to the public on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 0 comments
Day 7
Today was the first day of my classes for the new year. I can say wholeheartedly that I am glad I bought all of my books ahead of time and actually did the readings for once, too. Considering that I was called on first thing and all. The professor for my Tuesday class, Communication Skills, apparently has a habit of putting the names of the entire class down on note cards. Rather than calling on raised hands when he asks questions, though, he will pull a card at random from the deck and call on that individual.
Participation is 25% of our overall grade. If you don't have an answer when he calls on you, half of your participation points are immediately forfeited. This means that if you don't know an answer, the highest grade you can get even with a perfect score is a B. If you don't know the answer when he calls on you the second time during the term then the highest score you can get is a C. In this program, more than one C in a year will get you kicked out. This means reading ahead of time is an absolute necessity and I am elated that for once I did it and my preparation paid off.
Class wasn't the entirety of my day, though. As a matter of fact, class didn't start until 5:30 at night. I had my language class at 10 in the morning and then was left to my own devices for the rest of the afternoon. I had bought a membership to the rock gym already, but wasn't quite ready to start going because I wanted to learn my schedule first. The gym is open from 10-12 in the morning and 4-8 at night. Unfortunately, I have class from 10-11:30 in the morning and 5:30-10 at night. I won't have a problem working out from 4-4:45, but I want to attend at least one session of each class first to make sure I will actually get a dinner break during our class meeting. It kills me to work out and then sit for almost 5 hours with no food. Literally.
So during the afternoon hours, I pulled up some carpet in a corner of the library and sat down to type. I continued to work on my time-magic fantasy story, but took a different direction with it. I had a rather disturbing dream last night that seemed to fit right in with that universe and needed to get it out of my head and onto paper. I'm a little wary to put the specifics here, but I'll at least give you a brief synopsis: Main character is driving to visit a friend. When he reaches his destination he realizes everything has changed - buildings, cars, landmarks, people, everything. After a few minutes he realizes that he, too, has changed into a completely different person with a different life, career, family, social circle, everything. The story follows his revelation about what has happened and his struggle to hold on as his new life begins to cloud memories of his old one and take over.
There, was that cryptic enough?
It was fun to sit in the library, but not nearly as serene as it had been the past few weeks. The regular course schedule was now back in line with my own and there were hordes of students on campus. The library was not its usual quiet and peaceful place but what a hubbub of activity with people meeting up, checking out books, returning books that had been borrowed over the break, and studying (yes, there were people studying on the first day of class!).
My little corner in the back was quiet enough, though, and I got a lot of work done before I made my way over to Subway for dinner. I'm trying to eat healthier as one of my new year's resolutions and Subway is a better option than McDonald's for a quick and easy bite before class. Then I found my classroom and took my usual seat in the second row towards the center. As I mentioned before, I was called on. It was early in the lecture, too, and I almost stumbled with the answer. The question had something to do with the percentages of people who are better visual versus auditory learners, but I can't remember for sure. My nervousness helped me find the answer in the cob-webbed catacombs of my brain and spit it out before I lost points.
Hopefully I'll be better prepared for Thursday's class. I only have language tomorrow.
Day 7 of 100 - Summary: Reading ahead almost always pays off.
Released to the public on Tuesday, January 09, 2007 1 comments
Day 6
It's been almost a week since I started both this blog and my new target for life. Unfortunately, I don't feel like that much has changed in the last six or so days. It's true, there have been a few minor changes, but I don't think anything major will happen until I return to school tomorrow. We'll see how things go there. I'm not sure if I mentioned before or not that I'm in graduate school. When I moved on to graduate school I was immediately introduced to a new and very unique group of people. I'll introduce you to them in turn throughout the next 94 days; I hope you find them as quirky and entertaining as I do.
Today, though, was filled with a last ditch effort at reccouperation before I started my new school term. I already had everything from my previous two terms put away and was finished putting things together for my next term. Today consisted of a quick trip to campus to buy the last of my textbooks and sign up for a gym membership to the school's rock gym. I woke up early, went through my new morning workout, ate a healthy breakfast of eggs, toast, and fruit, and then jumped in my car and headed for the train station.
The train into town was abnormally empty for a Monday morning, but I enjoyed actually having a seat for the trip. Typically the train is so full that everyone is either standing or leaning against one another. During cold season, this isn't the most pleasant way to travel. Who knows what the tall guy breathing on you might have that you'll inhale and be stuck in bed with a few weeks from now. I can't afford to take time off from school for a cold. Thank God for flu shots and multivitamins!
After I got to campus I went to the gym. Buying the membership for the climbing center was easy. And it was cheap. For less than a monthly membership at the other gym I climb at I had a term pass to the school gym. The downside is that I can't change in the climbing center; and it doesn't have showers. Unlike the last college I attended, this one requires you to pay to enter the locker room. In order to change your clothes on campus you are forced to buy a term pass to the locker room. At least now I can use the showers after I work out.
I then trekked through the glorious Oregon liquid sunshine to the bookstore on the other side of campus. I had two books left to buy, and three course packets that I picked up at the copy place on my way. It's ridiculous how much I have to pay for a packet of photocopied material. Especially when the copys are low quality and frequently cut off sections of pages or leave pages out altogether.
The bookstore was very busy because of all the students who actually had class today (My term doesn't start until tomorrow, so I get an extra day off). I made my way downstairs and found both my $80 and $120 textbooks. Then I stood in the largely too-long line through the apparel section upstairs to check out. All the hustle and bustle in the store distracted me enough that I actually started to look at the clothing hung around me. School logos were on everything and, ironically, made each item's price double from what it would have been otherwise. Some of the hoodies looked pretty comfortible, though. So much that I almost bought one before the price tag nearly made me have a heart attack.
I redoubled my efforts to the task at hand and started going over my mental to-do list. Gym membership: check. Locker room pass: check. Textbooks: check. Rule the world: ... oh wait, that's not supposed to be there. Grocery shopping for dinner: not yet completed.
Remembering that I had to go shopping reminded me of how hungry I was now that it was lunch time. Such a horrible time to go shopping. I always seem to buy more crappy food when I'm hungry because it's in attractive packaging and I never seem to buy what I went in the store for in the first place. I pulled a piece of paper out of my messenger bag and scribbled down a hasty menu for the next week so I would know exactly what to get. Then I walked up to the cashier to check out and put the paper in my back pocket.
I must actually be a nice looking guy because the cashier flirted with me before ringing up my purchase. Then I noticed that my total was $30 less than it was supposed to be. Attractive or not, I'll take any edge that gives me that much of a discount on a $200 purchase. I smiled warmly and handed over my credit card. Then I signed the charge slip and wished the woman behind the desk a nice day. She said the same thing and turned to the next customer: a husky man in what seemed to be his last 40s. She didn't look as happy to see him walk up as she did when I put my books on the desk.
I smiled to myself as I walked out the door. Then I pulled a scrap of paper from my back pocket and spit out my gum.
Walking away from the trash can I swore to myself.
That scrap was my shopping list.
Maybe those ribs with the pretty pictures on them will taste better this time.
Day 6 of 100 - Summary: Easy errands can be distracting.
Released to the public on Monday, January 08, 2007 0 comments
Day 5
For the first time in a long time I woke up early today without an alarm clock. I got up at around 7am and took a nice scalding shower. I started off with a delicious bowl of Cocoa Puffs and a healthy banana. Then I went down stairs and got to work on my computer. I think of myself as a bit of a writer. The problem is, I don't get much time to actually devote to creative writing. Sunday mornings are the one exception. Church doesn't start until 10, so I have two uninterrupted hours before everyone else starts getting ready to be alone with my computer and imagination. Today was very productive.
I started out by working on a story I've been mulling over for the better part of the past five years. It's about a family that lives in a city where everyone seems to be reincarnated. The issue is that no one realizes the reincarnations are happening. The story is told mostly through flashbacks occurring throughout a massive disaster. I talk about how two younger people become friends while one is searching for the other through the rubble left over from a chemical plant explosion.
The story came to me the way much of my ideas do, as a dream. I had it the beginning of my freshman year in college and have been struggling to put it to paper since then. It seems that the more I care about a story, the more trouble I have actually writing it. I'm about halfway done with it now, though, and hope to have it finalized sometime before the end of 2007.
The second hour of my morning was spent brainstorming ideas for a new fantasy story I want to write. I've been inspired by all the recent stories of dragons, wizards, and elves and want to try my hand at that kind of story. I don't want anything I write to seem too derivative, though. Too many books and stories borrow from those that have come before and I don't want to steal ideas from other writers.
So I sat, closed my eyes, and stretched my fingers over my keyboard (Yes, I can type quite accurately with my eyes closed). Then I let my mind wander. I walked amongst the typical elves, dragons, warlocks, dwarfs, and knights of Tolkien-esque legends. My mind's eye drifted past angels and demons. For a second I passed through the worlds of space-faring science fiction, but then settled on a world where magic consisted not of fancy sounding words and bright lights but control over time.
It was a different sort of fantasy where wizards didn't wave their hands, chant, or brew potions, but merely moved through time to bring different elements together. Rather than moving a boulder, they would make time drift so the boulder was in a different location - had always been in that different location - and went about their business. The nonexistence of magic or magical creatures made my fantasy unique. The only things that kept it from merging with the world of science fiction were the setting and the main characters.
The story took place in the past and present, rather than the future. Science fiction too often takes place on far away planets with unimaginable technology. My story took place here, and with no technology. The characters are also a tribe of normal people, rather than some weird alien race with special powers. Like the elves and wizards that use magic, these people use time with skills garnered from years of training.
After an hour of explaining the places, people, and activities that happened in my fictitious universe I returned to normalcy and opened my eyes. Apparently, after explaining the basic principle that you see above, my fingers drifted to different parts of the keyboard and the last four pages I wrote (I only wrote 4.5 pages in the first place) were completely illegible and nonsensical.
I swore to myself and threw an empty soda can at the floor in frustration. Then I grabbed my coat and headed out to the car to go to church. The rest of my day consisted of church, lunch, watching football with my brother, and cursing my bad luck with my typing skills.
At around 8 o'clock I finally reopened my document and crossed my fingers hoping I could fix it. Unfortunately, I could see no way to translate the mistyped text to real words, so I just deleted everything that didn't make sense. At least I knew what the story would involve, I just needed to rewrite the story.
But this time without the errors.
Day 5 of 100 - Summary: Creativity is great whether you can read the results or not.
Released to the public on Sunday, January 07, 2007 0 comments
Day 4
I made it back home yesterday, but didn't do much until today. Today my goal was to tidy my bedroom a bit. Well, "a bit" is an understatement as my room was an absolute mess when I began. I had textbooks strewn about everywhere and discarded papers lying on the floor, bed, desk, and somehow even in the laundry hamper. Unlike most men, I don't leave dirty clothes on my floor, but there was a laundry basket with clean, yet-to-be-folded clothing sitting near my bed. I had my work cut out for me.
I started first by picking up books and replacing them on the makeshift wire bookcase I had by the door. I keep my recreational books on the wooden bookcase by my closet, but all of my academic text books go near the door so I can have them within arms reach when I'm typing at my desk. It makes paper writing go much more easily. I had textbooks from my summer term and both of my fall terms (my program is divided into a different term schedule than the rest of the university). None of my winter books had arrived in the mail yet, but I kept the top shelf free for them so they'd be more reachable later.
After picking up books came the task of sorting through and either recycling or filing the assortment of papers that seemed to cover my bedroom. Most were easily recyclable. They were either old worksheets that I wouldn't ever need to study off of again or supplemental lecture material that professors had given out but never actually covered. The few essays I had lying about were immediately placed into a three-hole notebook so I could look at them later as examples of how bad my business writing was when I started my program. Even in the few months since we started my writing has improved dramatically. These essays will hopefully prove useful in the future.
After cleaning up the loose papers I had on the floor I folded my clean laundry and crammed my clothes into my dresser. I had to roll some of my t-shirts to put them in between the rows of neatly folded shirts I already had set up. The dresser was built for me when I was about 5, and my clothing was a lot smaller back then. I never seem to have as much room for my clothes any more.
It was about 3pm when I finished with my laundry. I took a short break for a strawberry smoothie and some science fiction TV. Even though I'm just watching television, it's nice to be in another room for a bit. The people on the TV also give me the illusion of not being alone when I'm at home, too. It brings a little shred of sanity back in to my long days of lonely cleaning. Yes, my family was still home, but they were once again watching football downstairs. I love football, but after so many games I can't remember which team is which or who is who on the starting line. I try to keep myself down to one game per week rather than the three per day my brother watches.
After downing the last spoonful of my sweet ambrosia smoothie (it was really that good) I trekked back downstairs to finish the job with my room. I had yet to clear out the clutter from under my bed and vacuum my floor. I figured it would be best to clear the bed first so I didn't pull dirt and grime out onto the vacuumed portion of my carpet by mistake.
I knelt down and then flopped on my belly. The dust bunnies had set up a picket line under the edge of my bed, but I brushed it away with little effort. I was outnumbered and, as evidenced by the sneezes that followed, outgunned by the bunnies; but I had the size and was confident that I would win the day.
I grabbed two snickers wrappers from the far corner under the head of the bed and rescued a stuffed puppy from the dust bunny guards at the other end. I surveyed the field of battle for a minute more and then pulled out my secret weapon. The dust bunnies tried to run from my vacuum and I'm almost sure now that I left a few survivors. Like their larger flesh and blood counterparts, they breed like ... well, you know ... so I guess I'll have to crawl once more unto the breach sometime in the near future.
I vacuumed the rest of my room in record time. The last time it was this clean was three months ago, when I started my last term. The next few months would see it fall once again into disarray as I suppressed my neat-freak persona to focus more on classes.
I only spend a few hours a day in there anyway, so it's not the most important thing for my room to be spotless all the time.
And my eyes are usually closed for those few hours.
Maybe that's how the dust bunnies do so well taking over my room. It's hard enough to catch them conscious.
Day 4 of 100 - Summary: A day of pre-term cleaning.
Released to the public on Saturday, January 06, 2007 0 comments
Day 3
Today was one of the most fun, albeit useless and frustrating, days of my life. I went to the casino. That should tell you everything. It was actually my girlfriend's idea because her other plans had changed for the day. Rather than "wasting the day" as I had been doing gladly throughout the earlier half of the week, we wanted to go out and have some fun. It really was a good idea.
We slept in for a little bit because we had no real place to go and no schedule to keep. I never used to think getting up at 8am was sleeping in, but when you get up as early as we do on a regular basis, it really is. After a small breakfast of french toast, she helped me pack all of my stuff into my car. I was going back to my house after we got back from the casino and didn't want to spend a lot of time packing later. It would give us the opportunity to just sit with one another for a bit before I hit the road home.
We kissed the kitty goodbye and then jumped in the car for our hour-long trek through the coastal mountains to the casino. I let my girlfriend drive because I expected to be driving for a few additional hours later in the day. It also meant that I could sit back and either nap or read a book. I elected to read (my girlfriend started reading this interesting mystery series and I was trying to catch up with her).
We pulled in to the tiny casino and found parking easily near the entrance. It was more of a tent with gambling than a casino, but at least it had card tables and slot machines. We went inside and looked around. It had been about a year since we had been to this particular casino and it had changed a lot. The restaurant was bigger (when it was only a bar before, this was a big change). They had also changed the color of the carpet from light red to maroon, a change I didn't immediately notice but that my blackjack dealer later pointed out. Apparently the darker color hides dropped chips better; the casino keeps any chips that fall unclaimed onto the ground.
After losing several hands at an exotic form of blackjack I only half-understood I moved on to the slot machines. I really dislike the electronic slot machines. Video poker, too. I always feel like the machine is trying to cheat me. No wheels, no dials, no hamsters spinning the symbols on the screen. I just don't trust them. So I made my way straight over to the "antique" section with the real slot machines.
I found a nice big machine in the corner that had all the normal BARs, cherries, 7s, and jackpots and plugged in a $5 bill. It was a quarter machine, and I always bet the full amount. I played for the better part of a half an hour before I finally got my jackpot. Triple BAR + full bet = $20,000. I can't remember exactly, but I think they heard my cheers in the next state.
Jumping up and down I was shocked when the lights went out. My machine's backlight blinked off, as well as the "credits earned" display. The color from my face must have drained right about then because I woke up leaning against the man at the machine next to me. The lights had come back on and my machine was blinking: "GAME OVER," taunting me.
Apparently, the slot machine reset to zero when the power went out. Unlike the fancy newfangled digital machines, it doesn't keep track of how much the last player won when it turns back on. Yay for me. On the upside, I really only lost $5.
Good thing I had already won $1,000 on the blackjack table. An entire day of gambling on ten bucks.
Maybe next time I'll use the digital machines.
Day 3 of 100 - Summary: Easy come, easy go.
Released to the public on Friday, January 05, 2007 0 comments
Day 2
Once again, I decided to spend a day in complete and total relaxation. Another day of unproductive laziness and horror movies, with few trips outside to distract from my final refresher before the renewal of my academic year. I woke up shortly before my girlfriend went to work, just in time to say good morning and promise to run some errands for her. Then I sat down with my computer to work on some personal projects I had going. Nothing in this town opens until after 10am, so I had plenty of time to burn.
The biggest disappointment of my day was that my school's email server was down. I kept trying to log in with Outlook, but couldn't get a connection. Out of a desperate need to feel connected to the virtual outside world, I broke down and opened the school's webpage, trying to login through their email web portal. Unfortunately, that route was also closed to me. The server will probably be down for a few more hours. Hopefully Outlook will click back in before the shakes set in. Digital withdrawal is horrible.
After a while I finally decided to take a trip to the video store so I could rent my horror flicks. My goal was to get one or two and have them watched all the way through before my girlfriend got off work. I decided to leave as early as possible, too, so I could drive confidently before the digital depression took full force. I didn't even know if I'd be capable of walking in a straight line, let alone driving, after the digidrawal (short for digital withdrawal) got bad.
I picked up two horror movies and a romance film for my girlfriend to watch with me. I try to be a nice guy every now and then; life is more fun that way. After the video store was a trip to the landlord to pay the rent and then to the laundry room to run a load for my girlfriend. Then I sat down with my computer to see if the internet had started working again. Nope. No email. None at all. I couldn't believe it! I had no connection to the real world. I needed my email!
After the hyperventilation subsided I was able to stand and put in the first DVD. I hoped the whole time I watched FBI warnings and short "do not pirate the DVD you paid to watch already" films that the horrific attributes of the film would help me forget the digital demons ravaging the network. It was obvious that my digidrawal was heavy today, so I turned up the volume on the surround sound and wrapped myself tighter in the blanket I hadn't even noticed I'd picked up in the first place.
Despite the gore on the television, I could see the little robots that jammed my email inbox crawling the wires inside my computer. If I stayed really still, they might not see me. God knows I wouldn't want them screwing around in my head. A scream on the movie made me jump, and the data mites saw me and started to close in. I tried to move away, but they were too fast. Then I heard a chime from across the room.
I had new mail.
Suddenly I realized it was only noon and I hadn't really done anything with my day. Oh well, at least the digidrawal was gone.
Day 2 of 100 - Summary: Beware the data mites and digidrawal!
Released to the public on Thursday, January 04, 2007 0 comments
Day 1
Today, Wednesday, is the first day of my life. Well, not my life, but the way I have decided I want to live from this moment forward. I decided my life, as it was before the dawn of 2007, was incredibly boring. I never did anything new, met anyone different, or accomplished anything unique. My goal for the next year is to step so far outside the box that was my life that it is not only forgotten but disappears entirely.
The first day of my experiment was a success, though many might see it as a massive failure. I was staying with my girlfriend out of town. As I would only be there a week, I had no intention of ruining the rest of our time together, so I put aside the major changes to my life for a while. Today was meant to be a simple, relaxing day on the end of our Christmas vacation together. I wanted nothing more than to sit around and watch movies while she worked and then spend plenty of quality time with her after business hours. That, and I had errands to run.
It was January, so I couldn't use the excuse of Christmas shopping. Instead, I needed to go out shopping to start building my stores for when I get my own apartment after graduation. My one and only stop for today was the Granary. It's an eclectic little store down by the railroad tracks that sells all sorts of knicknacks and miscellaneous other things. What I needed was a cedar folding chair to go with my new wooden desk. I had gone by during the Christmas shopping season and knew the Granary had EXACTLY what I wanted.
With no students around during the break, the Granary was dead. The only employees working were the Burnham twins, two old men somewhere between their mid 50s and late 90s. The two make a habit of playing pranks on unsuspecting shoppers, confusing them with their identical features and dress. I had known them for a few years, though, so they didn't even try to play games with me. Burnham #1 helped me find my chair and Burnham #2 rang me up at the front desk. Then they decided to play with me.
Every now and then, Burnham #1 would think he was really clever. He would offer half off the price of an item if you could solve a riddle. The catch was, if you couldn't figure out the riddle you had to have a piece of his (utterly disgusting) home made rhubarb pie. I had never taken him up on his offer, but the chair I wanted cost $50. I could use the extra cash to spoil my girlfriend with.
I cautiously nodded my head and he ran over behind the counter with his brother, Burnham #2. My stomache sank as they both lit up like kids in a candy store.
"This is a 'What Am I?' riddle, Eric," said Burnham #1.
Speaking so quickly that I didn't even realize the conversation had move from Burnham #1, Burnham #1 added a swift "good luck!"
"Forwards I am heavy. Backwards I am not. What am I?"
I stood there for a long time, dreading the rhubarb pie. I was usually pretty good at solving the Burnham's riddles, but this time I was stumped. I racked my brain and paced back and forth. With every step, the Burnham's smiles grew wider.
"I give up. Where's the pie?"
Burnham #1 chuckled as he took an already cut piece of apple pie from beneath the counter and slid it across to me.
"Where's the rhubarb?"
Burnham #1 just similed as he walked across the store and picked up a broom from the back corner. Burnham #2 handed me my reciept and smiled.
"Ton," he said. "Spell it backwards and it's N-O-T."
I said thanks and took my new chair out to my car. Who said my life wasn't interesting to begin with?
Day 1 of 100 - Summary: Not a ton of change.
Released to the public on Wednesday, January 03, 2007 2 comments
Day 0
I started this blog on January 2, 2007 (That's today). My goal is to write a daily journal of fictional activities from this point onwards for as long as I feel like. I'm shooting for at least 100 days of 1-2 page entries. We'll see how I do! Today is "Day 0," and there will be no real entry today. This is just prep time for me so I can come up with a script for the next hundred days.
Remember, what I write about is fiction and not necessarily an accurate account of what happened during my day. Feel free to leave comments either regularly or sporadically. I will try to have each post up by midnight the day of.
If you like my writing, you can check out my other two blogs as well: My UnpublishedArt and Eric's Asian Adventure. In addition, I also write for Aberdoober.com on a semi-regular-but-not-really-all-that-often basis.
Released to the public on Tuesday, January 02, 2007 0 comments