the impression that I get

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get (pops)

God, I hate Tuesdays and Thursdays.

It's bad enough the weird hours I've got to go, but do they have to have two tests on the same day?

This weekend, I was pretty much a basket case. Stress and I aren't best pals, so I spent most of Sunday trying not to vomit. Monday wasn't great, and this morning was rough.

But this afternoon wasn't that bad. The test in World Civ was as close to a cupcake as I'm likely to get. It was easy mostly due to me cramming like crazy with my friend Justin right before the class began. We spent thirty solid minutes going over every stray bit of information, so when the test came, it seemed easier.

Spanish, on the other hand, was a cold hard bitch. I left two questions blank, which I never do. One whole section was a mystery, and half of another I know I did poorly on. But the straight conjugation was good because I spent forty-five minutes drilling them into my skull right before the beginning of the class. The scrambles and pronouns, though, were not my friend. I did a good job on the essay section, so that kind of makes up for it. I have the feeling she's going to be a strict grader, which means I'm screwed. If I get above an 85, I will be genuinely shocked. I'm thinking somewhere around an 82 or 83.

I've got to do some book work in Spanish by Thursday, a two minute speech in Communications by Friday, a test in Human Growth and Development on Friday, plus four medical journal article summaries in HGD by the tenth, and a five-page MLA format paper for World Civ by the fourteenth.

I finally figured out the one bad thing asbout a two-year school. In a four-year program, you've got eight semesters to get rid of the little crap electives. In a two-year, you've got to cram all of the shit classes into four semesters.

So how was your day?

walking with a ghost

Tegan and Sara - Walking With a Ghost(pops)

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Measure Your Fears - Would You, Wouldn't You, You Did

Pet a snake: Did
Spend a week in an empty room: Would
Ride in a hot-air balloon: Would
Sky dive: Wouldn't
Sing in front of a huge audience: Would
Scuba dive: Wouldn't
Sit in the front seat of a roller coaster: Would
Deliver a baby: Would
Swim across the Amazon River: Wouldn't (although, more like "can't")
Change careers: Would
Disappear for a long period of time: Would (but you can argue "did")
Walk through the forest alone at night: Wouldn't
Join a space mission: Wouldn't

Tell everyone what you honestly think of them: Did/Do
Call off your wedding: Would (I'd have to have a damn good reason, though)
Walk naked through New York City for 10 minutes during rush hour: Wouldn't
Walk up to Mike Tyson and call him a girl: Would
Disarm a bomb: Would
Clean the outside windows of a skyscraper: Wouldn't
Draw a mustache on the Mona Lisa with a permanent marker: Wouldn't
Go on tour with Elvis: Would
Go swimming during a thunder storm: Wouldn't
Perform surgery on your best friend: Would

-----

Questionnaire

Q1) Sleep with or without clothes on? With

Q2) Prefer black or blue pens? Blue for writing, black for inking

Q3) Dress up on Halloween? Not really

Q4) Like to travel? Not particularly

Q5) Like Someone? Always, more than one, too

Q6) Do they know? Some do (and get quite a kick out of it), most don't

Q7) Who sleeps with you every night? No one

Q8) Think you're attractive? Borderline

Q9) Want to get married? Sure

Q10) To who? Lisa Loeb, or possibly Oprah Winfrey

Q11) Are you a good student? Except for Foreign Languages, yes

Q12) Are you currently happy? Meh

Q13) Have you ever cheated on a test? Yes

Q14) Birthplace? Athens, GA

Q15) Christmas or Halloween? Christmas

Q16) Colored or black-and-white photo? Halfway - sepia-tone

Q17)Do long distance relationships really work? Probably not for me

Q18) Do you believe in God? Yes

Q19) Do you believe in love? Yes

Q20) Do you consider yourself the life of the party? I can be, but I don't like to be

Q21) Do you drink? No

Q22) Do you make fun of people? Always

Q23) Do you think dreams eventually come true? Not my dreams, because they're entirely too weird

Q24) Favorite fictional character? Death from Sandman

Q25) Ever moved? No

Q27) What's up? The rent and the light bill

Q29) Last time you cut your hair? Two or three weeks ago

Q30) Last person you talked to on the phone? A girl from my Spanish class

Q32) Loud or soft music? Yes

Q33) McDonalds or Burger King? Yes

Q34) Night or day? Night

Q35) Number of pillows? 3-4

Q36) Piano or guitar? Guitar

Q37) Future job? Pornographic filmmaker or high school English teacher

Q38) Current job? Full-time student

Q39) Current thought? Why do fools fall in love?

Q40) Current longing? A nice big sandwich (I live in the now)

Q41) Current disappointment? Spanish

Q42) Current annoyance? See above

Q43) Last thing you ate? Chicken Alfredo

Q44) Last thing you bought? Gas

Q45) Most recent thing you are looking forward to? The summer

Q46) What are you wearing right now? T-shirt and shorts

Q47) Plans for the weekend? Homework and studying

Q48) What did you do today? Went to school, came home, watched TV, ate dinner

Q49) DO YOU LOVE THE PERSON WHO DID THIS? Meh?

Q50) Didn't you just love this survey? Not particularly

Everyone has their firsts...

First best friend:
Joey Morgan

First school:
Statham Elementary

First concert:
Split 50

First screen name:
piledriver328

First Funeral:
Great-grandmother when I was a month old

First pet:
Fish named Gizmo

First piercing/tattoo:
N/A

First big trip:
Chattanooga?

First flight:
N/A

First time out of the country:
N/A

First job:
Website designer


Everyone also has their lasts...


Last person you hugged:
my mother

Last song you heard:
"Walking With a Ghost" - Tegan and Sara

Last car ride:
From school to home

Last time you cried:
can't remember

Last flight:
N/A

Last movie you watched:
Shall we say a "blue movie" and leave it at that?

Last food you ate:
Chicken Alfredo

Last item bought:
Gas

Last Shirt Worn:
navy blue "The Cheat" t-shirt

Last time at the mall:
At least three months ago

Last drink:
Water

Last thing you typed:
Water [:)]

my favorite headache

Geddy Lee - My Favorite Headache (pops)

Headache. Drug-resistant headache, no less. No post for yesterday or today. Maybe tomorrow. Tons of work to do this weekend, though. Don't hold your breath for anything resembling coherence.

Uggh.

nth degree

Morningwood - Nth Degree (pops)

Today was long and draining, just like I predicted it would be.

World Civ is possibly the most pointless class there is. If she would just say "Here's the study guide, here's the book, the test is on the 26th, be ready", I'd be okay. But no, she has to drag out the class, and validate her existence on some level, by showing movies and passing out busywork. We all know the only thing that matters is the test, and everything on the test is on the study guide, so that's all we focus on. She publishes the study guides on the first day, so there's really no reason to come to class other than the bullshit busywork grades.

If given the opportunity by the curriculum director, I want to have a solely essay-based high-school writing class. No worksheets, no quizzes, no bullshit grades, just four essays, each covering a section of the curriculum. You get the topics at the beginning of the semester, and it's up to you to get them done on time. Each is twenty-five percent of your grade, and you get as many revisions as you think are necessary, within the alloted time. One essay is due every month, with the last essay getting whatever's left of the year after three months (probably a month and a half). Day to day class would be showing different writing styles and techniques, with emphasis on how it applies to modern writing-based occupations. Simple, and perfect for building the self-motivation required in not only future academic settings, but it also teaches working on a deadline and working with an editor, both skills necessary to become a writer. I think it would be perfect for upperclassmen with a literary bent to fill up their schedules with.

Well, pipe dream and all that. It'll never happen, and I'll probably get stuck teaching dim-witted high-school juniors their ABC's.

Spanish sucked, as I did the math and I have approximately an 85 in the class. I've gotten three grades I know of: a 100, an 82, and a mystery number you'll just have to figure out for yourself. That last one is what I got on the quiz I got back today. Not exactly encouraging. Plus, the class itself was mind-numbing repetitive stuff.

I'm beginning to think that certain people, those who acquire high-level English skills early, have a really hard time assimilating foreign languages later in life. Also, I think I'm one of those people. It runs in my family, as my cousin had to be spoonfed Spanish to get through her college degree. Literally, she had to go in and sit down in the office with the teacher and have him whisper the answers as they worked with flash cards. She's about as proficient as I am when it comes to writing and English grammar, but foreign languages escape her completely.

My family is solidly monolingual. We do watch a lot of Univision and Galavision for some reason. Mostly, "Bailando por un Sueno" and Lucha Libre. Seriously, you've got to watch the Mexican version of "Dancing with the Stars". It's the best thing ever, because it's completely understandable even if you don't know a lick of Spanish.

I'm going to bed. I've written too much, and I've got to get up in the morning.

do you sleep

Lisa Loeb - Do You Sleep (pops)

If and when I ever get married, I want one "out". One instance where cheating is allowed and even encouraged should the opportunity arise.

My out? Lisa Loeb.

I don't really have to consider it. It's an automatic response.

I don't know if it's the glasses or the hair or (most likely) the personality, but I'm fairly certain I would cut off a digit to spend a week with her.

So I ask you, gentle reader, who would your "out" be? You only get one, and it has to be someone who you would never encounter in normal day-to-day life. If people respond (doubtful), this could be quite the revelatory moment.

This weekend, I spent the better part of a morning wandering around the local hub of culture known as Wal-mart getting my oil changed, or more accurately, wandering around waiting for thr wrench monekys to get around to my car.

At my local Wal-mart, there's always one woman who fills out the paperwork for the new customers, then two old (60+) men manning the actual service stalls. I've only heard unsubstantiated rumors of other people working in the Auto Service department, and never actually seen them. I'm operating under the impression that there are no other technicians, and that those three do everything, from tire replacement and rotation to full lube jobs.

Or at least it's funnier to imagine that, anyway.

Tomorrow is the worst day of my schedule, as I've got two late classes and very little time to do the homework assigned in them before Thursday. On Thursday, I've got five days to do any work, including the weekend, but on Tuesdays, I've got just two, with an early day sandwiched in the middle. It sucks.

I'm going to head on to bed (or more accurately, go to sleep, as my bed doubles as my office chair and workstation). Arrivederci, i miei amici.

take on me

Reel Big fish - Take On Me (pops)

Yeah, so, I'm really lazy, and also, I don't have anything of great importance to say, not even by my meager standards of "great importance".

I got my first credit card bill yesterday. I paid it off immediately.

I got my financial aid check yesterday, too. This is good, as it means my house can have electricity, high speed internet, and satellite television for six more months. Everything else is secondary.

Tomorrow, I'm going to finally get my oil changed, after planning to do it for over a month but never finding the time.

I also have another speech to plan for Friday, and I have a composition in Spanish due Tuesday. I'll have at least one, probably two quizzes in HGD this week.

I would also love to find time to go to the doctor, but I've got to wait for my college's certification to get to my insurance company. This is probably my last year on my mom's insurance, so I better make the most of it. Hopefully, after I get my Associate's, I can get a part-time or full-time job, so that I can either get on an insurance plan at work (not likely) or be able to pay for insurance directly (not really likely, but more likely than the first).

So yeah, I guess I'll see you next week, same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel. Adios, muchachos.

peanut butter jelly time

Family Guy - Peanut Butter Jelly Time (pops)

Yeah, about yesterday... Blogger was being weird, and didn't want to load a "new post" dialog. So whatever I had written didn't get posted. And now it's lost to the sands of time, because I didn't save it. Way to go, computer age.

For once, I had no homework today or yesterday. Just had to study for a quiz in Spanish tomorrow. I've got to get the stupid lab work done, though, because my test is next week. I really hate spending extra time at school. Even though it's not like I'd be doing something worthwhile, it's still an intrusion on my personal time.

I finished Sandman, and now I definitely want the extras that aren't the main series, especially the Death series. Sandman #72's art was just so good. It was the complete opposite of an Alex Ross or a photo-realistic artist like that, but it was still so well laid out and fully realized.

I have a question for the males in the audience: Do the girls in Playboy really do anything for you? I can't bring myself to fantasize about Playmates, when there's so many girls I see everyday at school that are much better looking, that I can actualy see up close and in person. There's even the off chance that one will speak to me. The plasticized and Photoshopped fantasy that the classier skin mags offer just isn't what I want. I'm being completely and utterly serious when I say I read it for the articles, because that's how much of a bore I am, and how little the girls in there do for me.

So, yeah, I'm going to go back to sleep. I'm increasingly tired these days, and my insomnia isn't helping.

Did you ever have a night when your brain wouldn't turn off? That's a constant for me. 24/7, my brain is on, all fires burning. It would be nice to just be able to switch it back to pure reptilian mode every once in a while.

heard 'em say

Kanye West featuring Adam Levine - Heard 'Em Say (pops)

Well, there goes another three-day weekend, and the last break I'll have until Spring Break. It always seems like I fritter away my vacation time, and I could have spent it better.

As it is, I got a haircut, shaved off my beard, and filled out my voter registration form. Plus, I went to the library, bought a new pair of steel-toed boots, and read most of the Sandman series.

That's a lot, or at least it is for someone who lives as sedentary a life as I do.

And now I can't stop feeling my chin. It's weird to have a bare chin after having a beard for most of the past few years; in some ways it's weirder than having a shaved scalp after having a full head of hair. You end up noticing a beard more than your hair. You touch your face more than fifty times a day. You only touch the top of your head a few times if at all.

I need to grab all of the Sandman Mystery Theatres, plus the oneshots and all of the mini-series. So far, I'm really liking the core Sandman series, and more importantly, I like nearly all of the secondatry or supporting characters. Cain and Abel particularly are a hoot, as are Merv Pumpkinhead, Lucien and Matthew. Of course, all seven of the Endless are fun, particularly Delirium's stories.

Tonight is the big UFC show on Spike, and I'm looking forward to seeing it tomorrow on TiVo. I'll have to avoid spoilers, which will be pretty hard considering all of the sites I go to every morning.

I'm dreading going to school tomorrow and the day after, because I've got a Spanish quiz, a speech to give in Public Speaking, and a quiz in HGD. I'm not particularly prepared for any of them. I guess my inner Tommy Flanagan will have to come out. Yeah, that's the ticket. The one thing that has served me better than anything, more than my memory or my ear or my booksmarts, is my good old Irish blarney.

Though, since I'm not Irish, I guess the correct term would be "Anglo-Saxon bullshit".

The skill to talk your way out of situations is invaluable. I can't count the number of times I could have got my ass kicked, except I averted crisis by spinning a yarn. School, work, just general life, it's useful in all arenas.

Oh, and Kate, I've got to add another recipe to that collection you got for Christmas. It's sort of a cheesy cornbread that's dead simple. Really good, too.

Well, that about wraps it up. Good night, and good luck.

put the needle on it

Dannii Minogue - Put The Needle On It (pops)

And now the boredom sets in.

I've got three days to do nothing with.

I'm actually glad for the break already. School is such drudgery, or at least on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are pieces of cake. Today was really easy, as all I had to do was watch and listen. Wednesday, I'll have to do my first speech, and I'll probably have a quiz in HGD, but I'm not worried. I just really dread going to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm glad in a way that I go in so late on those days, because I don't know if I'd make it every day if I had to go in at 9:00 AM or so.

I'm getting a chest cold, so I'm going to go on to bed. I'm getting a haircut tomorrow morning, and I've got to go grocery shopping, which is always fun. Buenos noches, mis amigos.

bittersweet me

R.E.M. - Bittersweet Me (pops)

I didn't update yesterday, because I'm basically a lazy creature. Also, I didn't feel like it, and my birthday is a national holiday.

Or at least it should be.

A boy can dream, right?

Today was okay. in World Civ, we split up into groups to "get to know one another", so I met Bart and Anna, in addition to Devin, who I've now had four classes with. That was about it, but it was a thousand times better than listening to her lecture for an hour and fifteen minutes.

In Spanish, I did all the homework correctly, except for past tenses (which I never learned in the first place). My quiz grade in there was an 82, which I am perfectly happy with. I don't mind getting a question wrong, so long as I can go back and tell exactly what I did wrong. My problem is if I have no idea where I messed up. Then, I worry. I didn't see any higher grades, though I'm sure there were some, so I'm content. If I can get that grade throughout, augmented by some extra credit, I'm good.

Tomorrow will be easier than today, as I have two classes I like. In Public Speaking, I'll go over the first speech we have to give (a mini-introduction), and in HGD, we'll continue reviewing stuff from Intro Psych, so I'm golden.

I really like this branch of psychology, not so much I'd want to do it for a living, but enough that I'm not going to bitch about the research paper we'll have to write. I've already got my topic ready: Childhood interactions with violent sporting activities and its impact on aggressive tendencies in later adolescence. Basically, that boils down to: if you played or watched a lot of hockey, football, or wrestling, you're probably more aggressive than the average kid who didn't. I think the gender gap will be interesting to deal with, as I wonder what impact exposure to violent sports has on aggressive tendencies in females. The male link should be a piece of cake.

I'm probably wrong, but as long as my research is valid, it doesn't matter what my hypothesis says. No one said you had to have a correct hypothesis to conduct a valid study.

Anyway, I'll be going now. I've got to get some sleep.

where is my mind?

Pixies - Where is My Mind? (pops)

Why, oh why, is this video listed under "T"? There is no "the" in this band name!

It's the little things that bug me. And there's a lot of little things in the world.

I figure that if I'm so crochety now, by the time I hit seventy or so, I'll be completely unbearable. I will literally be reduced to yelling at kids to get off of my lawn. I just hope my kids pick a nursing home with an attractive staff, so I'll have something to do in between yelling at poeple and writing angry letters to the editor.

This weekend, I need to go get a haircut, and if possible, go by the doctor's office to get my ankle looked at. I've got a sore patch of dry skin on there that won't go away. I also need the doctor to look at a mole on my neck that I cut to pieces every time I shave. I think it can either be burned off or frozen off with little or no fuss.

Spanish sucked today. We had a quiz, and I was semi-prepared for it. I knew around half of the stuff on there right off the bat, and the next half sort of came to me during the course of the test. None of it was completely foreign to me, so that's good. I was a little fuzzy on some of the irregular conjugations, but that's to be expected with an almost three year layoff in between classes. I'll have to really tighten up in there if I want to do well. One of my friends' girlfriends had this teacher last semester, and she got an A by just doing all of the copious homework and doing every extra credit assignment that was offered.

World Civ was extremely boring. It's just a straight lecture with no "audience participation" as it were. I took about a page of notes, but I had to consciously make an effort to stay awake. I hate those kind of classes, almost more than the foreign language model of busywork. Strinking the balance between mountains of busywork and boring students to death with endless lectures is the key. Otherwise, you don't learn anything.

I'm going to knock off early. I've got a headache which is probably the beginnings of a cold. So just like every other year, I'll be sick on my birthday. Go me.

lonely day

Phantom Planet - Lonely Day (pops)

-------

I could tell from the minute I woke up
It was going to be a lonely, lonely,
lonely, lonely day.
Rise and shine, rub the sleep out of my eyes
And try to tell myself I can't
go back to bed.
It's gonna be a lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely day.
Even though the sun is shining down on me and I should feel
about as happy as can be,
I just got here and I already want to leave.
It's gonna be a lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely day

Everybody knows that something's wrong
But nobody knows what's going on.
We all sing the same old song
When you want it all to go away.
It's shaping up to be a lonely day.

I could tell from the minute I woke up, it was going to be a
lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely day.

-------

I hate that that video is so small, but my regular video site's search function decided to go out on me. Either way, it sadly sums up how I've been feeling the past couple of days.

You ever get that feeling that you're going through life without anyone there to help along the way? It kind of feels like that.

But enough of that. I don't want this to turn into something Adkins would write. (Cheap shot, I know. I apologize.)

School was fine. I didn't really do anything, though. I just listened in Public Speaking, and I took notes in HGD. Nothing more than that. Getting out of the parking lot was more of a hassle than usual, but I think it's because I parked in a different spot than I usually do. Also, I require a little more room than the average car to back up because my car's a little bit bigger than your average two-door coupe.

I got another cigar catalog in the mail today. I was thinking about ordering a sampler, but I don't really know. There are some nice seconds in there that I could get for cheap, too.

I've been messing around with one of the new (to me) games I got for Christmas, the first WWE SvR game. It's fairly fun for a technically oriented fan like me, who gets into the psychology of it all. Honestly, I spend more time in the Creation section than anywhere else. I unlok everything first with my codeBreaker, then go to town with the moveset creator. Going through the actual gameplay is secondary for me.

So I guess that's about it. Birthday's on Wednesday, so send something to me. Either a gift or a little note.

Cash always accepted.

dr. worm

They Might Be Giants - Doctor Worm (pops)

Today didn't suck nearly as much as yesterday.

I wake up, take a shower, get dressed, and eat breakfast. My grandmother comes over to help plan a surprise party for my grandfather on Sunday. She also brought my birthday card, containing some money. Always nice.

As I'm walking out the door, my uncle calls and wants to know if I can help him move back into his house. (It's a long story, but the moral is simple: get a good divorce lawyer, and don't give up everything even if you want your kids to have a smooth transition. It just gets messier and messier.) I tell him that I'm walking out the door to go to school. He says okay, and to call him when I get home and see if there's anything that he still needs help with. I said okay. Later, I did call him, and he was practically done, so no need for me to drive from Statham to Bethlehem to Winder to Bethlehem and back to Statham. My gas tank thanks him.

So anyway, I go to school, and my first class is Speech. The teacher was pretty cool, except for me having to buy another book on top of the required textbook. He was the stage announcer for the Libertarian Presidential Convention in 2004, so I have a feeling we're going to get along just fine.

HGD was fun. I like the teacher, and the teacher likes me, to the point of making fun of me for essentially acing the prerequisite course he taught. Interestingly enough, he said that Stacie and I were pretty much the only ones who made above a 90 in his Intro Psych, and that out of 28 students in the class, 17 failed. So I feel much better about my academic abilities. Ego = stroked.

Then I came home, watched "The Office" and "My Name is Earl", and piddled around for a while. I had Domino's delivered. The new 7-7-7 deal, where you can get three mediums any way you like for $7 a piece. I got Hawaiian, Mom got the all-meat, and Dad got the supreme, sans mushrooms.

He's as allergic as I am, if not more. Then again, he's had more opportunities to get sick off of them. I had a great-uncle who, when he was a kid, found out the hard way he was allergic to mushrooms. He ate a full plate of them and wound up in the hospital, where they had to pump his stomach. So we avoid mushrooms in my family like the plague. Actually, we'd probably take our chances with the plague.

So that was pretty much my day. Not too exciting, but I prefer boring to disastrous any day. This weekend, I'm going to re-learn Spanish, and do about a dozen online worksheets. That's about it. But it's enough, right?

last goodbye

Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye (pops)

Today kind of sucked.

It was the first day of classes at GSC (but apparently nowhere else, college-wise). I wake up at 7:00, since I'm going to have to wake up then tomorrow, and I want to get into the rhythm. I piddle around for five hours, watching Martin Short on "Sit-Down Comedy with David Steinberg", an episode of CMLL from the end of November (that's how far behind I am, sadly), and an episode of SNL on E.

That is to say, I didn't watch it while under the influence of ecstacy, but rather on the "E!" network. Much less fun that way, I know.

I drive to school, and traffic's not that bad. It shouldn't be, at 1:00 on a Thursday with no UGA classes. I go sit in the Atrium, since I don't have a class for about half an hour. I intentionally left early to see how bad traffic would be. I see a couple people I know, but not many.

I make my way to World Civ. The teacher, Sezgin, starts in with the scare tactics, designed to make you drop the class. See, once enough people sign up for the class, they'll keep it around no matter how many drop it, since it would wreak havoc on the schedules. Ergo, less work for her. I can't say that I blame her. Otherwise, the class was completely uneventful, and it let out forty-five minutes early to boot.

So I sit around for an hour, waiting for Spanish 1002 to start. Eventually, the clock rolls around, and it's time.

I look in the classroom, and I realize we're in a computer lab. Weird, but later it's explained that the campus has become so overcrowded that every available room is being used. Well, excpet for offices, since we know we couldn't be trusted in those.

She starts with a conjugation chart and I realize: "I have forgotten well over three-quarters of this."

It got a little better as the class wore on, except for the fact the bookstore sold me the wrong book, and I had to go buy a new one, and come back tomorrow with the receipt for the old one. Plus, the new one was fifty more dollars. Yay.

I already hate the lab component. We have to spend at least an hour or two in the library each week doing the equivalent of busywork. Remember the workbooks in high school? Well, they're on the computers now, and they don't trust us enough to do them by ourselves, so we have to get a TA to come check us off. They claim they treat us like adults, but they don't trust us enough to do our own work, on our own time, before the deadline.

And I get to do all of this tomorrow, but with Speech and HGD. At least I know what to expect out of the HGD, and I have inside information that says my Speech teacher is a joke and an easy A.

With Spanish on my plate, I think I could use an easy A. Honestly, if I get out of Spanish with a B, I think I'm going to be happy. All I need is a 3.2 to transfer credits to UGA, and if I get my degree outright like I plan to, they won't care what my GPA is. I only have to worry about keeping my scholarships, and a 3.0 will do that nicely. Anything on top of that is gravy.

So how was your day?

walk away

Joe Walsh and Friends - Walk Away (pops)

My God, is that some horrible hair on Joe's head. Drugs are bad, kids.

My dread-o-meter is officially on high, since I go back to school tomorrow. I go in at 2:00 with World Civilization 1111, followed by Spanish 1002 at 3:30, and hopefully I'll be back home by 5:30. Friday is a little earlier, as I go in at 10:00 with Speech 1100, followed by Human Growth and Development 2103 at 11:00. I should be home by 12:30 then.

My stomach's acting up again, but I'm 90% sure it's stress brought on by the impending semester. Shots of Mylanta will be downed, just to make sure.

I already know that Mom bought me some stuff off of my Amazon wishlist (pops), but she's doing her best to keep it a secret. Too bad the list only defaults to Christmas mode (i.e., not letting the creator see what's been bought) during Christmas. The stuff should be here by the 10th, leaving a full day where I can be tempted by the thought of fresh presents meant for me, yet beyond my grasp.

I'm dreading Spanish more than anything, because I can bullshit my way through Civ and Speech, and HGD is just more of the same from last semester. I'll have to tap my resources and see exactly what level of proficiency is needed for the class. Hopefully, my regular schedule of lucha-viewing is keeping my high school Spanish skills alive and kicking. If I need to do a project, I've got a great one built in. All I need are some DVD's from either Cubs or Fredo, and I'm set. I've already got the mask and the knowledge.

I wonder how well Super Porky would go over at GSC? Probably pretty well.

I've got to get my beauty rest, so I will bid you adieu.

Or adios.

One of those Romance language farewells, anyway.

first day of my life

The rasmus - First Day of the Rest of My Life (pops)

I really haven't done anything these past few days. I didn't do anything for New Years, but I usually don't.

My work's been pushed back to whenever I can get to it, since the servers are getting switched over and I don't have a clue when they'll be back up. That's a hardware problem, and I'm a software person in this little business. I think the actual server's in Colorado or Wyoming, so I couldn't do anything anyway.

Friday night my TV in my room died, so on Saturday I had to get a new one from the mecca of modern shopping, Wal-Mart. Hopefully, this TV will last more than a year, unlike the broken one. It's not that it's a huge expense, but it is money I'd like to have back, you know?

So, let's get to the good stuff. Nobody came forward with the 20,000th hit, and it's been about a week, so I'll just have another contest.

It's a song contest this time, so a little knowledge is required on your part. No straight Googling allowed (i.e., plugging the quote directly into the textbox of any search engine and hitting enter). Any other use of internet resources is iffy, but may be acceptable upon review. Honesty is paramount.

The theme is "first lines". All of the ten following phrases are the first lines of songs. They may be obscure, they may be well-known. It's a crapshoot. I can tell you that at least one of these you will either know right of the top of your head, or be very disappointed in yourself when you see the answer. Anyway, onto the lyrics.

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1. "I never jumped in and rescued you, but I wanted to."

2. "For a small girl, Barbara sure has got a big crush."

3. "Make a hole with a gun perpendicular to the name of this town in a desktop globe."

4. "Just when I believed I couldn't ever want for more, this ever changing world pushes me through another door."

5. "I'm becoming less defined as days go by, fading away."

6. "If he was from Venus, would he feed us with a spoon?"

7. "I want to love somebody, I hear you need somebody to love."

8. "While the music played, you worked by candlelight."

9. "Close your eyes, give me your hand, darling. Do you feel my heart beating?"

10. "Let me tell you how it will be: there's one for you, nineteen for me."

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There you go. Game on!

the new year

Death Cab for Cutie - The New Year (pops)

Happy New Year, Auld Lang Syne, and all that bullshit.

Mainly, don't suck this year. Okay?