somewhere in the vasoline

tim left for new brunswick this morning. it doesn't really feel any different yet, especially since he'll be back for the fourth of july.

my head has been feeling terrible all weekend. i think its a combination of a cold and really bad allergies, but i've been wanting to drill holes in my forehead to drain all the mucus. i can't breathe out of my nose at all and i keep coughing nonstop. plus my head feels like it got hit by a truck, so i haven't really been feeling like moving at all. no wonder i've felt tired and groggy all weekend.

weekends are way too short. i'm already not looking forward to another long week of training.

the embers never fade in the city by the lake

billy corgan's solo album was released today, and was accompanied by an announcement in the chicago tribune that he wants to reform the smashing pumpkins. it's a pretty surprising statement, but it's also seemed like he hasn't been satisfied with anything he's done since the pumpkins (like zwan). here's hoping he gets chamberlin to join him, and that they can go back to the glory days. you can see the actual ad corgan put out in the mtvnews article.

i'm a walking shade

the bengals two-game ticket packs go on sale july 9. according to Bengals.com, there's been a big response to the packs, and therefore they don't know if they'll even sell single game tickets if they sell out through season tickets and two-game packs. so my question for you all is, does anyone want to get a two-game pack with me? or another option is for people to split the cost, so that one of them goes to game A and the other goes to game B. i'm guessing the cost will probably be around $110, or whatever the cost of two games would come to. so what do you guys think? our options are:

PACK A: Sept. 18 vs. Minnesota Vikings (Reg. Season Home Opener), and Oct. 23 vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
PACK B: Oct. 2 vs. Houston Texans, and Oct. 30 vs. Green Bay Packers
PACK C: Nov. 20 vs. Indianapolis Colts, and Dec. 24 vs. Buffalo Bills
PACK D: Nov. 27 vs. Baltimore Ravens, and Dec. 11 vs. Cleveland Browns

personally i would lean towards pack C, then A, and then either B or D. the other alternative is to wait and see if they sell single game tickets, but there's less likelihood of getting a good game or good seats. for more info on this, you can look here. so let me know what you guys want. like last year, i'd be willing to buy them for everyone who wants to go, but getting money ahead of time would be really appreciated considering the cost.

i'm so tired, my mind is on the blink

i'm three days into my training as a consumer service rep at p&g. it's getting better as we get into it. orientation the first day was painfully boring, yesterday was a little better, and today was much more interesting now that we're starting to learn the programs we'll be working with. of course the program they're teaching us that is used to record the details of each call is being replaced in october, so this will be useful for four whole months, and then as soon as we start to get used to it we'll have to deal with learning a whole new program. oh well. i've only gotten to know the other twenty or so new hires a little. there's only 3 other guys, and half of the people seem like they're either in or recently out of college, while the other half are middle-aged mothers getting back into the workforce. oh, and riding the metro is always an adventure.

we got paired with CSRs yesterday and listened as they took calls, which were hilarious as usual. lots of old people with way too much to talk about. i saw jen yesterday, and almost got paired with her to take calls, but the girl in front of me went with her instead. and she has a picture of robby in her cubicle. how cute. tomorrow we start learning about some of the products we'll be taking calls on.

i'm still trying to get accustomed to the schedule. even after working full time at the park from 7-4, the 8-4:30 five week training schedule takes up almost twelve full hours of my day from the time i leave to catch the bus to the time i get back to my car and get home. i'm probably going to be very anti-social for the next 4 1/2 weeks.

i've been listening to a lot of new music lately, including the newest cds from audioslave, moby, foo fighters, and system of a down. 2005 has actually been a little disappointing musically; while there's been a plethora of good bands coming out with new albums, all of which have been well done, but none of them have been downright outstanding. just good. continuing with that trend, billy corgan's first solo album can be listened to here.

down every inch of her spine

i never blog enough anymore.

its that time of the year again. time for yahoo fantasy football. we're going to do things a little differently this year; instead of ranking players and letting yahoo autodraft them, we're going to do some kind of live or offline draft. i know it will be hard to get everyone together at once but we'll work something out. i haven't created a league yet, because i wanted to see who was interested and what suggestions everyone has on how to do the draft. so let me know.

we took a step backwards in trying to move to clifton. the landlord for the place we were seriously looking at ended up being pretty shady and uncooperative, so it looks like we're going to pass on that house. we've still got some other options to look at, so we'll see how it goes.

work at p&g starts monday, which means i'll be working full time for a month till training is done. goodbye free time.

man or animal, i don't care at all

there are some things in this world that just genuinely frighten me, and this is probably at the top of the list.

edit: here the link to hot or not to vote for mister handsome.

you make that dance look so new

only two days of classes and three exams left to go. i can't wait to be done, although i'm surprised at how well i've been doing in most of my classes.

my last day at delhi park was yesterday and i'm taking a leave of absence from nick and tom's. it's great not having to work at all on the weekends now. i start at p&g two weeks from tomorrow. it'll be interesting to see how i like taking people's calls all day long.

austin, doug, and i finally looked at a house in clifton this past week. it was a big five bedroom, at for a decent price considering that its in the "nice" part of clifton, if there is such a thing. i liked the house, there are only a couple downsides to it, but i'd say the good outweighs the bad. now we just need to find two or three more people to move in with us *cough*ROB*cough*.

your time has come

wow... revenge of the sith was great. lucas pretty much made up for his faults in episodes I & II. there were only a small handful of things i didn't like in this, especially compared to the first two. the whole thing was great, there weren't really any parts i can't think of that felt boring or unnecessary to the plot as a whole. most of the dialogue didn't seem quite as bad, and the actors seem to have gotten more adept at doing a good job in spite of lucas' poor dialogue and directing. the story and resolution all flowed well, and it resolved everything nicely. my biggest complaint wasn't with the actual movie: the sound was way too quiet in the theater. the surround sound didn't seem to be in full effect; most of the sound seemed to come from up front, and many of the scenes weren't nearly loud enough. way to go, amc. but all in all, it was a satisfying end to the prequel trilogy (and the entire star wars movie saga), and to over six years of anticipation, excitement, annoyance, and enjoyment. i really think i might try and find time to see it again tomorrow, but i don't know if it'll happen. i'd go on about the movie, but it's almost 4 am, and i have to get christy up for school in two hours.

i made it ten miles high

i love the work ethic the professor in my 9 am class has. although he has mandatory attendance, which is annoying since you don't need to go to class to do well, he also has the wonderful habit of canceling class every so often, especially if we have homework to do (which we just turn in online). this morning he announces that we have an assignment due the next sunday (may 22), then proceeds to cancel class for all of next week. beautiful.

so i can't find the Team Sleep album that came out this past tuesday at any local retailers (okay, so i've really only checked best buy and meiers so far, but still). i can find it online for $13-14, but since retailers usually sell cds for $9.99 the week they come out, i've been trying to find it cheaper. i did get a great deal on two of 2004's best looking pc games at best buy. i got Men of Valor: Vietnam and The Game With the Longest, Most Rediculous Title Ever (aka The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher's Bay - Director's Cut) for a mere $10, thanks to the "buy one for $20, get one free) sale at best buy and my $10 coupon on top of that.

the parents are out of town. i was going to post the party schedule online here, but then i remembered that my dad read's this, so i'll have to let you all know some other way. haha, just kidding mom and dad, have fun skiing in colorado. oh, and happy birthday mom.

i almost forgot, i officially put in my notice at the park today that i'd be quitting. i got a call from p&g yesterday that my background check and drug screen came back okay, so i told howie today that i was leaving. but to prevent him from having a panic attack like he does over everything, i told him i'd work the last three weekends in may to help them out (which basically covers what i should work by giving them two weeks notice now anyway). i also found out that when i start june 13 for training, i'll be working full time for the first four weeks. i'm not sure if that means it'll be a full 40 hour week or just five days a week with my normal shift, but either way it'll mean lots of money.

crazy jamie puckett just stopped by and talked to me in the library here at uc. that girl's hilarious. and insane.

everyone's got their chains to break

had my health screen at P&G today. both times i've been down there i've been very lucky to find a spot right around the corner. hopefully they'll get back to me fast so i can put in my two weeks at the park. considering how much garage is generated in this nice weather, weekends are already ten times worse than they were before.

only a little more than a week till revenge of the sith. my anticipation just keeps growing every time i see something related to it. i don't even care how bad the dialogue is going to be, the rest of the movie will make up for that. it's also been getting good reviews online so far, and most of the negatives are what you would expect (bad dialogue, directing).

i'm still trying to come up with a topic to teach small group on when its my turn. i've been thinking of stealing something from eldredge's waking the dead, but there's a lot in there and i'm not sure how i'd condense it down. anyone have any good ideas?

i slacked too much at the beginning of this quarter, so i'm going to buckle down for the rest of the quarter. only class i'm worried about too much is american history 1920-present. the midterm sucked big time and i don't think i did well on it (he's one of those wonderful profs who likes to put lots of emphasis on one topic in class and then give you an essay exam on something he barely mentioned), and if i depending on how i do on my book review, i might have to withdraw from the class. that wouldn't be real good, but in the long run it would definitely be better than risking my scholarship just to get 3 credit hours i can make up some other quarter. besides, since i took extra last quarter and the ap credits i brought in, i still won't be behind. yes, i know, i shouldn't have slacked in the first place, but there's nothing i can do about that now, so i just have to see how it goes.

i'm just a face in the clouds

went to the reds game tonight against the cardinals. it was, predictably, pretty boring and pathetic. but going with my dad's dental study club is always fun, and it was cool this year with jeff, elly, and jess coming with dad, tim, christy, and myself. it was cold too, but that didn't stop me from getting my annual frozen lemonade. it also figures that the reds would score their only runs in the 9th after we'd left, but oh well they still lost.

i picked up the revenge of the sith soundtrack today. it's good, a lot more brooding and aggressive as a whole, compared to some of the other soundtracks. that's expected though, considering the plot of the movie. the album came with a dvd, which has music videos of songs from all six movies, and they play out a basic timeline of the events from the whole saga. it also contains new shots from episode 3; this movies going to be insanely good, no matter how terrible the dialogue is.

i drove past springmeyer elementary today on my way home, and saw some crazy guy in a black pickup doing donuts on their baseball infield, stirring up a huge cloud of dust. it was pretty funny.

jess has pinkeye, and so my eyes have been itching all day. as usual, i'm sure it's just in my head, but if i get it she gonna get a beat down.

what if all the world you think you know is an elaborate dream

i finally heard back from P&G today. they offered me the customer service job, working monday, wednesday, thursday, and friday from 8:45 am to 2:15. i think i'll take it, as it'll be a lot better than working at the park all summer full-time. i'll have to see how flexible they are with scheduling before i decide if it's gonna work with school in the fall. parking downtown will suck, so i think i'm going to get a bus pass instead. one problem that has already come up is that they scheduled me for a health screening on may 6 at 2 pm, but i have a biology midterm at that same time. so i'll have to conact P&G about moving it.

this is such a pity

well the bengals draft went fairly well, i think. we made some good additions towards addressing our problems on defense. i can't quite understand why we drafted two wide receivers, but i'll just hope that marvin knows what he's doing. unfortunately baltimore and cleveland both had good drafts, so i think that the afc north will be one of the toughest divisions in the nfl again this year (mostly because of the steelers and ravens, not the browns).

the new weezer cd make believe is quality. yes, i know you're thinking that it doesn't come out for two weeks, and you'd be right. but i have my sources. they have a song on there that sounds exactly like it's out of the 80s, it's pretty sweet. i wasn't real big on the first single, beverly hills, so i was afraid the album wouldn't be good, but i like it so far.

also got the new garbage cd bleed like me from daniel, which is okay. same basic garbage formula, and the lyrics are kinda weak, but dave grohl's drumming on the first song is great. speaking of which, i heard good new singles from foo fighters and billy corgan, both of whom have new cds coming out in june (justin, i think june is looking to be an extention to "the month of lovin"). best of you isn't exactly groundbreaking work for foo fighters, but it's still a good song, and A100 sounds like something off adore by the pumpkins, in a good way. oh, and add the self-titled debut by team sleep to the may wishlist, even though i'm probably the only one that is interested in it.

i think i've pretty much exhausted the dvd supply at the green township library, now i'm branching out to the west fork branch. they had the entire godfather trilogy there today, i need to get that.

oh yeah, and you should go see kung fu hustle.

pink ribbon scars that never forget

all of my revenge of the sith tickets are now spoken for. i've always loved the energy of these big movie events, like the other prequel movies or the back-to-back-to-back lord of the rings marathon for lord of the rings.
my dvd burning is into full swing again. dvd burner + library dvds = goodness.

it's a short update, but at least i'm posting something.

fulfilled a promise made of tin

the bengals schedule for next year has been released. we got screwed big time by the lack of primetime games; despite winning on sunday night and upsetting denver on monday night, all we got was a sunday night game in jacksonville. so what game does everyone want to see this year? indi and green bay have been mentioned so far. opener against minnesota? cleveland again? i'm willing to head up getting tickets again if we can reach an agreement and everyone gets me money. take a look at the schedule and tell me what you think.

and i knew the silence of the world

i'm glad our public schools have solved all their other problems so that we can worry about the color of ink teachers use to correct papers.

i'm floating down a river

nothing like getting up and driving all the way down to UC to find out that your class seems to be canceled, because the prof decided not to say that he wouldn't be there.

we're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year

i think everyone's heard the news by now (at least everyone who reads my blog) that Jon Miles was killed in a plane crash yesterday. he was a great guy, and the whole thing is really sad. as everyone said, at least he died doing something he loved. i'm glad i had the privelage of getting to know him at oak hills. he'll be missed.

peel me off this velcro seat and get me moving

it's official, revenge of the sith will have a PG-13 rating. i can't say i'm very surprised, considering the whole main point of the movie is watching anakin completely fall to the dark side and become darth vader, seeing palpatine assume the role of emperor, and the slaughter of the jedi order (if you didn't know that was going to happen, you've either been living under a rock or star wars means nothing to you anyway, so i don't think any of that counts as spoilers). there's not going to be a happy, cheerful, return of the jedi ewok celebration in the end of this movie. at least there better not be, george...

so impressed with all you do

wonderful news today: valve has decided to give me a little something to hold me over until half-life 3, with the announcement of the first expansion to HL2. Aftermath is due out in june. which means no school work to worry about doing. could the best game of 2005 turn out to be an expansion pack? i hope so.