August 4th, 2005

Apropos of Nothing

I am still alive, despite your best efforts.

I am all moved in, and will hopefully have pictures soon.

Work is crazybusy. Teachers are back in a week and a half.

My cousin is getting married this weekend in Wisconsin. Congratulations, Nicole!

In what could be the worst possible timing ever, I have started playing World of Warcraft, an MMORPG* that has me killing spiders to “level up,” a thing I just recently denounced. Ah, well.

My cats still don’t seem quite settled with the idea of living in a new place.

My office decorations at work include a statue of Ulala with two Morolians, a foam skull, and a Batman Begins poster.

My van has some sort of a tire problem that causes the van to shake. Not good.

Speaking of vans, it costs me $50 to fill the gas tank. Also not good.

I am run-down and tired 90% of the time these days. I probably should go to a doctor, but who has the time?

March of the Penguins is one of the cutest, most adorable movies you’re ever likely to see. Go check it out!

Mandy Patinkin just doesn’t get enough mentions on this blog, so here’s a shout-out. You know him best as Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride.

I haven’t had an improv gig for a while, but my last excursion was so awful that maybe that’s been a good thing. Next one’s in two weeks. Hopefully “the funny” will have returned by then.

“Apropos of Nothing” is the new “Creek of Consciousness” title, in case you’ve been following along or wondering. Now you know!

I hope you are all doing well. Say hi in the comments, why don’t you?

*MMORPG = Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game

February 7th, 2005

Apropos Of Nothing

I made a trip to Lansing, Michigan this weekend with a couple of friends to visit the sister of the only one of us who has a sister (not me). It’s Michigan State University territory and I got great joy out of wearing my Purdue garb there. Sure, I’ve never attended a single class at Purdue, but I live near it and have been infected by its black and gold Boiler Virus.

I had a bite of baked potato pizza this weekend and it was better than it sounds.

I still hate driving/riding in cars.

I’m listening to music I’m borrowing from Brian that can be best described as “disco,” and I don’t hate it like I probably ought to be. I’m also not dancing, so it’s probably okay.

I have an automatic kitty litter box for my cats, but one of them is way too finicky for her own good. When the “reception box” is full, one of the little darlings will purposefully miss the litter box by about 10 inches. I suspect Dala, but cannot prove it. Grrrrr.

All I did this weekend was drive, eat, and sleep.

I’m a little afraid of Maya, and I know she’ll chastise me tomorrow when I show up for my workout because I didn’t workout over the weekend. I’m actually semi-considering setting my Xbox clock back a day so she doesn’t know I missed a workout on Saturday. How pathetic is that?

If you were to come up to me and say, “Hey, I really like ice cream and I know the best ice cream there is” but you’ve never been to a Cold Stone Creamery, please excuse me if I don’t believe you. I might also be expected to scoff at you, and chortle a bit. While I will still maintain that Culvers has the best frozen custard, Cold Stone Creamery will make your ice cream-loving taste buds dance like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.

That last analogy was kind of dumb and not really fitting. I blame the disco-ish music.

I don’t really care who wins the Super Bowl. As I write this, it’s 24-14 in favor of the Patriots, and I’ve watched maybe two minutes of the game. I’m contractually obligated to not like the Eagles since they’re in the same division as the Cowboys, but I have no love of the Patriots, either. Best I can muster is a “meh.”

As much as I wish it were possible, I really don’t believe time travel will ever be a reality. Sorry, dudes. I wish it were so I could go back and videotape historic events.

I can’t ask off work for May 19th because that’s when finals start for the students and I need to be there for that, I guess. I’m pretty bummed by that because it means I probably can’t go to a midnight showing of Star Wars Episode III. Though I don’t hold out any hopes that it will be good, I’m still planning to see it. I’m hoping Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader very early on so we don’t have to see Hayden Christensen’s tortured attempts at acting.

Even though the “celebrity” I most look like is Gordon Freeman and even though I’ve had Half Life 2 for months now, I haven’t finished it. My computer really isn’t good enough to handle it. What I have played of it is pretty cool, though, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. Now that I say that, though, it occurs to me that I really haven’t sat down and played any video game for a while now. The last one was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II over Christmas break. I go through spurts where I really get into games and I’m in a non-gaming spurt right now, I guess. I haven’t gotten any games to review for a long time, either, so that’s probably part of it. Again, meh.

Time for bed, I think. After two nights on a couch, I think a futon will seem surprisingly comfortable.

December 15th, 2004

Bits & Pieces

I watched Casablanca the other day, and it was really good. I know that seems silly to call a film hailed as one of the best ever as “really good,” but I tend to not like older movies for some reason. Give it a try if you haven’t.

Electronic Arts (or, EA) has finagled some sort of deal with the NFL to become the purveyors of the only licensed NFL games for the next five years. This is sad and ridiculous news. I’ve been playing the NFL 2K series since, well, since “2K” became a thing we could say. They’ve really been a great series, and this move by the NFL will effectively kill those games and any other rival football games. Remember that whole “competition” thing? Sayanora. Man. To me, though, it speaks volumes about how afraid EA was of the 2K series. This deal didn’t come cheap to EA, so you know they must have been shaking.

Since October I’ve had almost 40 hot chocolates. Have you noticed? Yeesh.

Christmas is coming soon and I’m in the same quandary I always am: what should I get for so-and-so? I’m an awful gift giver. I’d much rather someone tell me what they want and I’ll just get them that something.

I’m back to my old habits of not being able to sleep so well. I like sleep, but I feel like it’s kind of a waste of time, I guess. I mean, that’s 4-7 hours I could be doing something else, you know?

Along with that, I’ll be changing jobs in January – sorta. I’ll still be in the same school corporation, but I’ll only be at one school instead of three. The hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., which is nice, but I really, really, need to get my sleep schedule adjusted by then, as being late there will not be an option.

I have a little Christmas tree up – it’s about a foot and a half tall. Nutmeg chewed on it for a while, but she’s given that up and I’m glad.

It’s getting to be about time for me to get a new cell phone. I’ve never really liked this one, and now it’s slowly dying. I’d like to get a camera-phone, but they’re pricey. We’ll see what happens, I guess.

I’m not such a fan of the “reality” shows. I watched the first two seasons of Survivor, and an episode here and there of various other ones, but I usually can’t get excited about the hosers on these shows. At the same time, I always wonder if I’d be any good at any of them. My guess: probably not. I like to get along with people, and the conniving would be difficult for me. That and eating bugs or being in a tank full of scorpions or having to live with weirdos for any length of time. If they had a show about not being able to leave your house and having to take care of two cats, I’d probably be pretty good at that.

I haven’t played The Sims 2 as much as I thought I would. I had a house full of people that I left to themselves and they had all died when I came back to check on how they were doing, and I think that put me off it. It’s really quite good, but the memory of the little ghosts floating around the house turning on bathtubs and opening doors makes me kind of sad. None of the little dead people were based on me, but it still a little more disturbing than videogames are supposed to be.

Once December 23 rolls around I’m off work until January 4. That is terribly exciting for me. I have grand plans to write a novel, build a chicken coop, learn Portugese, and solve the cold fusion problem, but I bet I’m more likely to watch movies and play videogames. Around here we spell “loser” this way: M-A-D-M-U-P.

Okay, that’s enough rambling for a while. I guess I should try to get some sleep, even if it is a huge waste of time.