You Know What I Haven’t Had in a While?

Big League Chew. That’s right, I went to Dillon’s with Jason today and we found Big League Chew for $0.75 a pouch. So of course we had to buy some. I’ll have to say, though, we were a little saddened by the flavor choices including Curve Ball Cotton Candy and Super Sour Apple. Not exactly the original, though they did have Original flavor which is what we bought. I even bought two.

asdf

That’s a sign this post got derailed during the writing process. Rather than continuing on a different train of thought, I’ll end it here and start another later. I leave you with a thought: I hate doublespeak.

Did you catch the reference at the beginning of the post? Who knows? Jimmy, I know you know.

Currently Playing: Dashboard Confessional – Screaming Infidelities

Why is Boyd Hall even open?

There are about six people in this building. They are all adult counselors (or something) for a cheer camp that’s starting tomorrow. They don’t really need my supervision or have any reason to come bug me at the desk like the teenage girls will be doing tomorrow. So why am I sitting here? Apparently, it’s time to post.

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I have a thing for remembering names and faces. This is not a new thing, it’s been that way as long as I can remember. I just have a knack for remembering things about people, and if I can’t figure out why I remember them it will bug me until I figure it out. It doesn’t have to be someone I know. Sometimes I’ve only seen a person once, just long enough to notice something significant about them that I’ll recognize the next time around. I guess it’s kind of like the way I can recognize artists on the radio when they come out with a new song and identify announcers on TV commercials and stuff. Is this talent significant? Is it just attention to detail or something else?

Sometimes I feel pretty transparent, and I wonder how often someone actually recognizes me the second time around. I’m not talking about good friends, but people I haven’t necessarily met, just passed by on campus or had in class a semester ago. Occasionally I see the moment of recognition on a person’s face when they realize they’ve seen me somewhere before, but it seems like those moments are few and far between (for me at least). I wonder how long it takes before the impression I might make on a person is forgotten? Then I have to ask myself, what kind of impression am I making anyway? I’d like to think it’s a good one, but sometimes I’m not so sure.

OK, I think not having lots of stuff to do this summer may be my undoing. Anyone who knows me very well at all knows that I compulsively over-analyze everything. Guess what I start to do when I’m bored?

Well, I think this has been sufficiently random so I’ll wrap it up. Don’t forget to leave comments!

Currently Playing: Nothing! Strange I know, but there’s no radio in Boyd and I haven’t broken the rules to install Winamp on this computer yet. If I had the choice it would be Flickerstick – Coke.

Road Trip

So it’s been a long day. A few months ago when I found out that the third installment of the Harry Potter movie series was going to be released in IMAX format, my sister and I agreed we would go see it. We knew that would mean traveling a little ways, but we didn’t realize the closest theater would end up being in Tulsa. Still, we decided to go, and it became an all day event for me.

I left at 9am and picked up a friend. Two hours later, we’re picking up my sister, one of her friends, and another friend of mine in Wichita. Three hours after that (yeah my estimate of drive time to Tulsa was a little off, we’re true fans, what can I say?) we got to the theater. We still made it an hour early, and there were only about 20 or 30 people in line. So we stood around, hung out, laughed at the true Harry Potter fans wearing cloaks and Gryffindor colors. For the record, my sister was almost one of the ones in a cloak. Apparently there was some problem with a sewing machine that prevented it.

If you’ve never been to an IMAX theater, you really need to go. First of all the screen is huge, the sound is awesome, and the picture is crystal clear. Then there’s the movie…wow. It was different from the first two, which I was definitely expecting, but at the same time I still didn’t know what to expect. There were some little artsy transition type things that were obviously different, and of course all the kids are older. The story was modified to save time, but I thought it was done well. The style was great, and the scenes with Buckbeak the hippogriff were amazing. There was only a split second I didn’t believe the CG creation was real, as it takes off with Harry on it’s back for the first time. There were a few details in the story that I thought were important (namely Moody, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs and their history, the explanation of what Harry’s patronus actually is) that got left out to make room for more frivolous stuff (just my opinion). Oh, and I was really hoping to get to see the Sirius Black/Peter Pettigrew showdown in realtime, but I could live without it. There were definitely some excellent additions to the story (most are small), my favorite being near the beginning when all the third year boys are eating animal candy (animal crackers?). All in all, well worth the trip. Two thumbs up, four stars (five? depends on your scale). Go see this movie.

Currently Playing: Staind – Epiphany

Rant and Stuff

Summer staff gets taken for granted all the time. It really pisses me off sometimes (OK, maybe a lot). Last summer it was maintenance replacing toilets without notice, then screwing things up so they had to come through a second time. Next was fire alarm testing starting early in the morning. Then it was dining center staff giving us crap about taking food to go for other Cool Cats, then it was getting treated like crap when we had to eat with the football players at the training table. Heaven forbid we sit in the nice chairs at tables near the TV before they’ve even arrived, or go through the same line as the players.

This summer hasn’t started much better. Over a week ago I wrote a work order to have my flickering bathroom light replaced. Today, Bozo (not his real name), the wonderful (sarcasm) maintenance man (did I mention sarcasm?), finally came to replace my light. He starts messing around with it and tells me he needs to replace the ballast too. I’m thinking, “Why are you telling me this? I don’t really care, just fix my light so I can take a shower without feeling like I’ll have a seizure.” So he leaves. Two minutes later he’s back and messing with it again. Meanwhile, there are other maintenance men talking on the radios using their Echo, Foxtrot, Charlie codes. I’m just wondering if they realize how ridiculous they sound when I hear one of them say, “Yeah, I’m about to shut off the water in Putnam. Everyone who needs to know should know already.”

I’m thinking, “Bullsh*t! What about me? I didn’t know about this, and I’ll guarantee none of the other Cool Cats knew either…”

So Bozo turns to me and says (and I quote), “Oh yeah, by the way, they are shutting off the water.”

I’m thinking, “WTF? I haven’t taken a shower yet and I still need to do laundry. Thanks for the warning, @$$hat.” So I ask him how long it will be off. He says a few hours, which translated from maintenance-speak equals “I have no idea.” Then he says, “Well, I got your light fixed.”

Gee, thanks.

In Putnam, shutting off the water means there will be absolutely no water pressure. I can’t even wash my hands. I’m glad Bozo is a lazy bast*rd and didn’t come five or ten minutes sooner. I might have been in the damn shower when the water slowed to a trickle. If I’m lucky, it will be back on in time for me to get cleaned up and do laundry before I work tonight at seven. It would be nice to have clean clothes to wear tomorrow.

Luckily I was looking at this as Bozo left, so my mood has lifted a little. My favorite is King James: Lost in Translation because it’s something I’ve often thought about myself. Enjoy.

Oh, and by the way…to quote Stewie from Family Guy: “It’s not so much that I want to kill him, it’s just, I want him not to be alive…anymore.” In all seriousness, he’s not horrible, but I have been less than impressed with his work. He’s managed to put a dent in my door and screw up the door frame of my bathroom, not to mention the stupid stall door he nearly demolished when we asked if it could be removed. He’s not always as inefficient as this case either, but it wouldn’t be a rant if I didn’t exaggerate a little, now would it.

Currently Playing: Seether – Driven Under, Flaw – Best I Am, Saliva – Rest in Pieces

Summer is Here!

It’s official. Training has started (and luckily will be over soon). The games have begun. I’ve been in my room approximately 30 minutes total today. Instead of running around with 500 things to do, I only had to worry about two things: getting through training without falling asleep and doing whatever I wanted to do.

I mentioned games…Let me just talk about that for a minute. First was Spades. It’s been months since I played, but last night I got the invite and I just couldn’t pass it up. We were losing, but hey, it was fun. And when our last hand was just really crappy, we decided to call it quits. In the days to come I foresee my partner and I bagging out or getting set as games continue late into the night.

Lunch Money. Let me tell you, this is a great game. You play as Catholic school girls hell bent on taking away others lunch money. Not a game to be taken lightly, it must be played with incessant trash-talking and increasingly elaborate verbal attacks. This could get very interesting…*grin*

Alright, it’s already later than I wanted to stay up, and I’ve got more training tomorrow at 9am. I’m gonna try and start putting in the song I’m listening to while writing. Here’s a new(er) one that’s pretty good.

Currently Playing: Lost Prophets – Last Train Home

A Fresh Start

Wow, it’s been entirely too long since we posted anything. As you can see, we’re going for a fresh new look here. Blogger recently changed a lot of stuff around and added some functionality including profiles and comments. We decided to take the opportunity for a fresh start. So we dropped our initials, created our Blogger profiles, and changed our layout. We hope you like it.

A lot has happened in the last few weeks while we weren’t posting. There’s way too much to try and recount it all, so I’ll try and hit the highlights. First was the unfortunate departure of our third member, Jimmy. I’d like to apologize for those of you who came here to read his posts, as I am partly to blame for him leaving. Most probably know by now that we had a difference of opinion, but I hope that it won’t keep people from reading Common Exception. Also, go check out Jimmy’s new site over at Xanga; his posts are as good as ever.

In other news (thanks Trenary), Manhattan is empty again. Most people left on Friday, and the rest of the stragglers left Saturday. I’ve been sitting in this gigantic room for 3 days wondering what to do with all this space. It’s awesome. And sad. It really is like a completely different place when everyone goes home.

Despite my major suckage (yeah, I made it up) in the last two weeks of the semester, I think I’m going to pull off A’s again. Sometimes I don’t think I deserve the grades I get. I ended up with middle B’s on both my finals, though not low enough to pull my grades down too far.

Now it’s time to look ahead. I’ve got 3 months of summer ahead of me. My only responsibilities are my job as a Cool Cat (best job ever) and to myself. I’ve still got that list of goals around somewhere and I plan to stick to it. I just hope I’m not bored out of my mind. Training starts tomorrow and I’m sure it will be as exciting as last year (sarcasm). Once we actually start work, things should get more interesting. I can’t wait for camp after camp of spoiled little kids whose parents send them here with $250 in their pocket.

Well, that should bring everyone up to speed a little bit. Look for a lot more posts from me now that I have free time again. Free time…wow…is this what it feels like?

Song: Switchfoot – Meant to Live

Busy

My apologies for my absence. I’ve got two ongoing projects at the moment and a test tomorrow (today). Believe it or not, things will really calm down once finals week arrives. Don’t expect much from me until then.

Bored

I’m so lazy. I’ve been at work for 2 hours already and so far I’ve done nothing to work on my projects that are due soon. It’s just hard to get motivated on the weekend. Plus, there are distractions out there on the web that make life so much more interesting than typing a paper. Ok, I don’t really have much more to say so I think I’m going to abandon this post and order some food.

Song: Seether featuring Amy Lee – Broken *Winamp required to listen

Good Stuff

This week has been pretty good so far. Tuesday night was the leadership banquet and I was really impressed with how it turned out. Winning a scholarship might have helped make it a good night too. Then yesterday we had the shortest ARH meeting of the year, so D and I went to Sonic afterward for some food.

Now I get to focus on the things to come: 2 tests, 1 group project, 1 individual project, a web project for MIS Club that isn’t finished, and finals. If all goes well, I’ll only have 1 final for the 3 classes I have left. That would be most excellent. Like summer.

Ok, this post is really just a technique designed to put off some of the work I have to do. Procrastination = bad.

Edit: Apparently I’m Lois. I’m kinda hot for a cartoon character.

Who knew?