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09/03/97 - Thank beautiful God for the caffeine rich coffee beverage in my cup. It's 8am in Richmond but my body is on Colorado time... 6am. Ok, I had a good time on vacation. Right now the thing on my mind is humidity. Colorado is so dry... even when it rains. I didn't notice this until I got back east. Like most good things I don't appreciate it until it's gone. A couple of quick things: 1) I'm no longer that afraid of flying. I spoke, at length, with a pilot and I feel much better. We'll see how long this good feeling lasts. 2) Radio Roulette... the mountains block radio signals. The scan button on our car radio sent the radio into 15 minute scan loops through the FM range landing, finally, on the Spanish polka station... strangely entertaining, though. 3) Did you know when you pee west of the Continental Divide you're polluting the Pacific not the Atlantic? I bet you did. 4) And a last thought from my friend Brian: 100 years, all new people. What does this mean to you?
09/04/97 - Suddenly I have the urge to listen to the Beatles. No reason... unfortunately I didn't bring any with me. I had a dream last night. I dreamt when people die life doesn't leave it just spills into what ever is near. And it's not just people; it's all living things. Chances are, according to my dream, death makes new insects because there are millions of insects per other living things. I woke up scared. Very Hindu, though, don't you think? It's after dreams like that I hope dreams are just a product of a restless mind and nothing more insightful. The music to which I am listening is grinding along nicely. A good seething grind is very relaxing. I think the music is near a mental massage; sometimes it takes a little force to loose up tight muscles.
09/05/97 - My next door neighbor is a lawn fanatic. He has a beautiful lawn. He's always mowing, watering or something. This morning I watched his housemate's pickup drive off with water spilling out the bed. It was quite funny especially when I realized the sprinkler had filled the pool. How did the Beatles go from screaming girl band to the greatness they are now? I don't get it. Duran Duran never had that luck... thankfully. But here I am in 1997 listen to the Beatles, absorbing there genius and wishing I had a cup of coffee. A coffee shop opened on campus. I'm probably going to grab my new truck owning friend Steve and pay $1.50 for a cup of nice brew. I hope your morning/day goes well.
09/08/97 - Well, I forgot (until last night) that homework is actually work... it takes time. Did I tell you I'm taking an accounting class? My first class in 5 years. Accounting?! What was I thinking? As I did my homework I remembered why I don't balance my checkbook... THIS SUCKS! So, in your opinion are membership fees capital stock or income? Geez, who gives a rip? And onto important things... I got 1/2 my vacation pictures back! Yippee! I'll scan some of them and tell you about my cool trip to Colorado. Amongst the pictures are: Brian panning for gold; Many big, natural things (including, strangely enough, a big deer); evidence that Help Wanted is HUGE in Colorado; people in backpacks; A short concert at 14,048 (a killer song called "Dammit Rain"). Well, that's about it for today. I was reminded last night that all good learning literature asks questions at the end of a passage (well, my accounting book does). Q1: If Lee finds accounting's first week's homework tedious will he likely enjoy the remaining stuff? Q2: Compare and contrast Colorado and basic Accounting.
09/09/97 - Accounting class was fun. Do you have any idea how much that pisses me off? I want to make fun of accounting and here I am actually liking the class. I thought I'd have trouble staying awake in class so I chugged a Mountain Dew before things started. Not only was I awake through class, but I couldn't fall asleep when it was my bed time. How come I like accounting? I think I figured it out. (I've ended 2 sentences in prepositions thus far today.) Accounting is a tool; Accounting is to business as math is to physics. Anyway, as a guy I like tools. Craftsman, there's a name every guy likes. As a smart person (mostly) I'm above my own prejudices (mostly). So I thought accounting was a boring, boring, boring subject. I admit interest. What the heck is going on above my office? It sounds like the vacuum cleaner has gone nuts and is trying to eat through the floor but its trainer doesn't like that so she (the trainer) is beating it (the cleaner) with a heavy chair.
09/10/97 - The humidity in Richmond is so high right now that we're essentially in the water table. 70 degrees F and 100% humidity is a very weird sensation it's not hot but it's stiffling, smoothering... almost unbearable. It sets my nerves on edge; Everything angers me. The garbage stinks. The car is uncomfortable and my stereo sounds crappy. At least I have music, right? Well tomorrow I get a new officemate and I bet all music will cease to be free in my space but will have to be contained close to my head with some binding headphone doohicky... bummer. I have this plan in my head to incorporate a handless phone with the CD player in my computer... I need to visit Radio Shack. 15 minutes until coffee time... that's good. I have to remind myself fun is a choice and choose to have fun even here and now. Why do I feel like I should be writing about ants? Did I dream about ants or something? How should you know? Well, if I figure it out (and it's not too loony), I'll tell.
09/11/97 - No word on the ant feeling of yesterday. I get a new officemate today. I'd thought about shaving my head and bringing Metallica discs but decided extreme, while fun and different, probably would cause more harm than good. So I left my head alone and brought mellow music. My desk I left alone, too. It's a royal mess... but then have I had time to clean it? Well, maybe, but that's beside the point because those times have passed. Do you ever confuse "past" and "passed"? I do constantly. I had Frosted Cheerios for breakfast this morning... blah. I like regular Cheerios; I like Cap'n Crunch; I like regular Cheerios mixed with Cap'n Crunch... This tells me nothing about Frosted Cheerios; you must really be lost. I was measure for a tuxedo last night; want to know my measurements? 6', 170lb, 42R coat, 35" waist, 16" neck, 11.5 shoe, 40" chest, 48" overarm, 41" outseam, 34" sleeve. Zowie! I feel like a... cheap piece of meat. No, not really. Is it just me or is there really no logical order to those numbers? That's how they're listed on the form... weird.
09/12/97 - Well, I have to remove all the offensive stuff from my PC. While the Federal Gov't can make no law to limit my personal expression, my employer has every right to do so. My favorite part of the previous sentence is "to do so"... Let's say it together: "Two Due Sew"... no nearly as cool; ok, let's try it again: "Too Dew Sue"... oops, almost lewd. It even rhymes this time but, I have to say, I prefer the visual rhyme and the simplicity of the original: "To Do So". Well, it's friday. I've skipped dinner in favor of beer the last 2 nights so friday night is not going to be too special.... In fact, I plan on reading the Accounting chapter we're studying... that's excitement. My sister will be in town this weekend; I haven't seen her in a while so that will be nice. Only 8 or so more hours of work this week!
09/15/97 - I came into work this morning to find the computer system in shambles. Luckily I have Marvin Gaye and a working CD player. I don't yet have coffee. I need water. How does Marvin do it? I sit in the car and sing "Baaaaayyyybeeee, I need secs shoe awl heal in" and I sound pathetic but Marvin sounds like a king. Marvin sings like Leo Kottke plays guitar. I sing like I play guitar... It's quite depressing. But the computer, ah, the computer. It's not working well. Some might say it's "a few swigs short of a shot"... but the world might call an individual using alcohol related metaphors an alcoholic so I'll say it's "a special surprise short of a happy meal"... I don't care if people accuse me of immaturity or stupid metaphor writing. Well, off to help fix the computer (or bug the capable people who can).
09/16/97 - I was on a roll this morning... I wrote an incredibly confusing letter to a few coworker/friends. I hope they're not too upset. Sometimes I wonder if I'm appreciated or mocked for inability to get to the point without a bit of mental stuttering. I think my roll has sputtered to stillness. Ok, new motivation but then an interuption which leaves me back at my initial point... nowhere. I'm headphoned now. I have an officemate and I'm afraid to unleash the power of music into the shared space. At least the power of Jimmies Chicken Shack or the Foo Fighters... I think I'm ok with Dave Matthews and Marvin Gaye... like I said yesterday, Marvin can sing... I can't but I digress. Well, off to start the day.
09/17/97 - Hola, I had a crappy experience last night. I'd better watch my adjective choice. Some words you can use to describe general things but when you use them specifically they become too foul. I'll leave this topic and take the small step back to my evening. The toilet jammed and almost (we're talking millimeters) overflowed. "Hmmm, Mr Unsavy Renter Guy," (that's me talking to myself) "what do I do now?" I paged my roommate; he called back from his Mom's place. "Andy, it was horrible! As the water level rose and rose and rose I, in about half a second, noticed I couldn't see the shut off valve so I took the top off the back part of the toilet (what the heck do you call that back part anyway?) and, I don't know if this was luck or what, but, whatever doohicker I grabbed seemed to shut off the water. What do WE do?" "Go get a plunger, Lee, see if that fixes things." "Oh." So I left the house; I bought a plunger and a 6 pack then returned. Fortified with a beer the plunger and I entered the bathroom and fixed the problem. I cleaned up the mess. Is toilet bowl cleaner supposed to fog? I didn't think so... this stuff must have really had to work. Do you see what I mean about adjectives?
09/18/97 - I... uh... went a touch overboard with the razor last night. My head feels like shark skin... you rub it one way and it's smooth, you go the other and the teeny, tiny little pieces of hair cut like Ginsus into your hand. The coolest part, as always, of giving myself a haircut was sweeping the remains into the dust pan. I'd guess this time I had enough to build a brown and red Chihuahua. I spent some time drawing a self portrait. My computer's mouse sticks so it took more time than I'd like to admit. I zoomed and did about 50% of it dot by dot in grid mode. Well, for your viewing pleasure: Here's my view of me.
09/19/97 - What's in a Slim Jim? I didn't understand the ingredients so perhaps it's best I don't know. A friend sent me the URL to a list of Movies involving math. Being a nerdboy I liked the site. I'll share it with you:
Hopefully the link won't go stale anytime soon. Ok, there's a problem implied by the Die Hard with a Vengence review. How do you get exactly 4 gallons with a 5 gallon jug and a 3 gallon jug. I assuming you have an unlimited water supply (or at least 10 gallons). I'd fill the 5 gallon jug then pour this volume into the 3 gallon jug. The remainder, when the 3 gallon jug is full, is 2 gallons. Saving your 2 gallons in a bucket and repeating the process gives you 4 gallons. I've more reading to do, perhaps there are more problems buried in the page. I learned how the Pentium floating point problem was discovered on this page (well I learned the story, the problem wasn't actually discovered on the page). Have a good weekend.
09/22/97 - Still no answer to the Slim Jim question but suddenly it doesn't matter as I had an excellent weekend that didn't include Slim Jims at any time. My band played saturday night in Williamsburg. This guy named BRUCE HORNSBY heard about 15 minutes of our stuff. Of course no one spoke to him, and he might have thought us the worst musicians in the world, but he saw us. I wish I'd seen him. The songs he saw involved me playing the bass which I don't do very well (or even enjoy for that matter) so I was looking at my hands or forgetting my parts or something equally self absorbed so I missed the 6'6" famous guy standing right in front of me. As for the band, we hope rumors spread that we're Bruce Hornsby's favorite band. After the show we hopped on a boat and went camping on a beach... could the weekend have been any better? My accounting homework only took an hour... see, good things keep getting better.
09/23/97 - Whoa, I dazed. I just sat there staring at the screen wondering where this card game I had as a kid went. In this game players draw 5 cards, each with a number. Then a card is flipped in the center. The object was to, using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, get the number on the middle card from the 5 in your hand. I loved it. Where did it go? I had a similar plastic thing with 5 dice on arms around a center die. You'd flip all the dice then have to get the number on the center die from the 5 arm dice. Changing subjects, people who park their cars in the fire lanes while running "quickly" into shops are really starting to anger me. Traffic snares up around their cars so everyone else ends up being inconvenienced. From now on keep eggs in your car. When you see someone illegally and inconsiderately parked give their paint job a test... *thwack*! This has been a message from me.
09/24/97 - So I was walking back from the Financial Aid Office singing a song I learned as a kid. I don't know if I even know all the words; the part I was singing was the part that goes "Skip toodle oo my darling...oh whoa skip toodle oo...". Then I listened to what I was saying... Skip to the Loo. In British speak this means bounce to the bathroom, which, when you really have to go, is exactly what you do. Hmmm, all this in a children song. Ok, subject change. This is an SAT type question: Is Couple to Few as Both is to All? I think not, but it's close. Both Couple and Both imply 2. But Both and All imply complete sets whereas Couple and Few imply supersets outside of their subsets. So maybe the word pairs are similar. Well, I asked my boss... he didn't know, but we started talking about musical talent... you wouldn't believe the logical steps that got us from word pairs through testing to musical talent and then to evolution. I love conversation.
09/25/97 - I went home yesterday and had an evening beer. I sat down in my favorite chair as the sky was darkening. Sade played on the stereo and I dozed into dreamland (I guess) next thing I know this green 3 foot tall birdlike critter with one big eye and a roundish mouth is saying "It's the vestibule; It's the vestibule." As I'm trying to figure out what the hell is going on the color and lightness and a bit of the shape fade from my vision and my eyes are open and focused on the desk across the room. A drawer handle is where the birdguy's eye was and the handle for a lower drawer is where the mouth was. "Whoa," I say to myself, "that was weird." Then I notice my friend Sam was at the house and had been knocking at the front door as I was tumbling out of whatever state in which I'd been. I decided, pretty much unconsciously, to ruminate on my experience before sharing it. I can't imagine from where my brain conjured that weird group of images. The only time I've heard "vestibule" recently was in conversations about tents. Hmmm... strange.
09/26/97 - Well, no weird dreams last night; at least none I can remember. I dreamt the other night that Peter Tork (the Monkee) was actually a bitter, unhappy person pretending to be an idiot because he could make lots of money that way. His favorite music was Metallica. I got my own pager yesterday. UR got it so they can get us at a minute's notice. People like this used to be heroes, now we're chastised because "as fast as I can" isn't fast enough. My pager is pretty cool; It has a big screen and the ability to store messages but I only have numeric paging service so I can store about 4 billion phone numbers unattached to any explaination. If I work quickly today I may get to go with my parents to Philly this afternoon otherwise I'll have to go, by myself, tomorrow. So, if you work with me... oh, never mind; I like to talk to people. Going back to something I wrote earlier: Is "minute's notice" correct? Should it be possesive? Hmm, it's the little things that crack my mind.
09/29/97 - Ok, my aunt asked me to write about her. I don't know exactly what to say about her... she's witty, fun and looks like a 6' supermodel, right? I could be wrong about the height thing. Well, I spent the weekend in Philadelphia with my parents and uncles, aunts and cousins. Family overload. Then I came back to Richmond and had to work on datafiles and accounting homework. As usual, I seriously underestimated the time accounting would consume. At least when I got home last night (finally) I got to watch Bob Saggett (did I spell that correctly?) goof on stupid people. I also got to have a beer. Today I get to work more on datafiles and accounting and hopefully I'll get a beer.
09/30/97 - Well, here I am on the last day of september. I have bunches about which to think. In some ways my life is about as traumatic now as it's ever been but I think I'll talk about the insightful words of my big haired friend Sam. Sam's insightful remark is "Wealth breeds beauty". The habits of the wealthy tend to be more beautiful than those of the less fortunate. But I have seen my share of ugly, priveleged people. You can't really count the Mick Jaggers because they worked hard and some ugly is unaidable. I'd guess the real beauty is concentrated in the children of the rich and some of this fades when they hit the real world. Boy, am I shallow. Ok, back to the world of humans with feelings. Beauty rocks but it's untouchable as it's mostly an illusion. Illusions are simply tricks played on the eyes. That's my official stance and I'm sticking to it because I don't want to be kicked by someone feeling differently.