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Friday, October 8, 2004 / 7:32pm

Last week, a discovery was made. In an attempt to find my box of checks (I was on my last one of the set), I came across quite the artifact: my "week at a glance" calendar book from 1995-1996. Apparently, one term in the Brian lexicon was in use back then. A little excerpt from Friday, October 20, 1995:

...the day I (Eva) stole your life for an extended length of time... =)

the day I (me) sat by the mailroom with Eva until 5:15 when I should have been going home.

Obviously, the italics indicate a different handwriting. Other interesting random notes and dates include September 21 (the day I was an MC for the Homecoming Pep Rally and took some shirts off in front of the school), October 10 (the UIUC application deadline), November 9 (the day the first "kiss of death" game started), and January 10 (first day wearing denim).

Saturday, October 9, 2004 / 4:39pm

"the list"

one at four (effective Wednesday, September 15, 2004)

Saturday, October 9, 2004 / 4:52pm

Fading of a Trivial Night

Call it a change in schedules aligning like moons do... the weekly gathering of people to celebrate good times and thirty-five cent wings known as Trivia Tuesday seems to have faded into history... or at least is on hiatus. I've been doing other things (galavanting all around going to random sporting events, working a bit) and others have as well, so, following the weekend where Illinois defeated Western Michigan, and after an hour at Buffalo Wild Wings alone on September 21st, Trivia Tuesday has fallen out of the regular scheduling rotation. Its timeslot in the Brian mdate master will be filled in with work at Foellinger or bowling with some other IMSA alum at the Union. Trivia Tuesday may return for several holiday editions following sweeps, with an occasional special on other days of the week.

Saturday, October 9, 2004 / 4:53pm

"the list"

one at four (effective Wednesday, September 22, 2004)

Saturday, October 9, 2004 / 5:04pm

Virtually Available

There was no plan for the day, except for the whole "maybe I'll attempt to buy some Cardinals playoff tickets" thing. Yeah, I'm a Cubs fan, but I love good baseball and the Cardinals are a good team. And, (at the time) who knows, maybe the Cubs and Cardinals would meet in the Championship Series. So, from just before 8am, I sat in bed in the invention known as the Virtuial Waiting Room, where potential ticket buyers sit and wait to be randomly selected to spend money. Thinking there must be a better way, other than listening to busy signals in both ears as well, I enlisted some help from a few other people as I did some investigation. Thanks to Tim, Engy, and my sister Cheryl, I'd determined that the URL isn't unique to different people, and I was sure that cookies weren't in play. A look at the source code pretty much revealed that the waiting room just counted down and automatically refreshed for you (and any attempt to preemptively refresh would be yelled at by JavaScript telling you to chill). Well, after finally getting lucky and being given a chance to pick numbers of tickets and random price level, I'm met with "sorry, yo... we can't process your transaction because we're super busy". Well, after tons of persistance, and repeatedly typing in seven digit numbers every 15 seconds or so to prove I'm a human being, it's a wonder that I scored tickets to NLDS games 1 and 2, and NLCS game 7, Now the fun part is trying to get there (whenever these games happen to be) and finding people to go with me. I didn't buy just one ticket... I kinda bought more for friends to be determined. So then there was hope that I didn't just waste $500... In all the madness, Monika was able to get me to come in and chill with Governor Jesse Ventura. That turned out to be a pretty fun evening. And it was nice to have earned a tiny bit of money as well.

Sunday, October 10, 2004 / 7:36pm

Oh, Can We Just Slide

Put your arms around me; what you feel is what you are, for on September 25th had me watching the starts of the ultimate decline. The Cubs fell to the Mets in extra innings, the Illini lost yet another football game, and I ate zucchini for the first time. Oh, the Life of Brian... which I saw late that night with Jack and Carolyn. Perhaps the Cubs were taking it for the team and making the sacrifice to make the last week of the season even more exciting, much like how film-Brian hung up there on that cross for that group at the very end. He didn't want to be there. The Cubs didn't want to be there. Suck was life, indeed. There was still a chance the Cubs could clinch the wild card at the last game I had tickets to on October 1st.

Sunday, October 10, 2004 / 7:59pm

This, I Schedule You

It's very bizarre. Now I'm in charge of scheduling the student staff at Foellinger. Sure, it was two days before October 1st and I was in a rush, and I remember how much I didn't like having a schedule as soon as possible when I was subject to the scheduling whims of others. So, with my newly assigned project, I spent the entire Wednesday afternoon finishing it and touching it up, with all that was left to do was getting it approved before sending it out. It's like the olden days! Anyways, my work delayed my eventual appearance at the annual KCSA barbeque. By the time I got there, any Krannert staff that showed up was gone, which I guess was fine by me. A few days later, I did get some crap from some awesome people in Building Operations expecting me to be there for not being there. If only they'd stayed a bit longer; then they would have seen me. Arriving toward the end, I helped clean up... and by clean up, I mean "ate most of the remaining unclaimed food on the grill." Maybe six hot dogs was not the way to go, but it was free!

Sunday, October 10, 2004 / 8:09pm

The Random Texan Girl That Talked Smack

Following a delightful meal, and with lack of a Trivia Tuesday event, I made my way to the Illini Union Rec Room (which is the space previously occupied entirely by bowling lanes... now down to 14 lanes, the rest of the space has couches and the pool tables). Being early, I chilled and almost wrote a check for a phone bill while Erik worked on some homework. Then, a random girl comes over and comments on some mad crazy Dance Dance Revolution action nearby and asks if I played. I respond in the negative (after all, I barely even dance) and she agrees. And for some bizarre reason, the conversation turns to her saying that if she were playing a card game or Uno that she'd kick butt. As the minutes pass, more of the IMSA bowling crew arrive and the discussion grows. Now, one to have an entertaining time and looking to make things interesting, say that she would not defeat me in any such game. Support for my cause is evident as random girl is informed of all the times I seem to beat the odds and win more times at things than any normal person would. Anyways, playing cards are nonexistant, so I'm challenged to a best-of-three tic tac toe game. Given the nature of the chosen competition, I guarantee that I will not lose. (Tie, maybe, but not lose!) The crowd watches the event- a swarm of about 10-15 around a table. I started game one and finished it by causing two winning options to become available at the same time. Random girl began the second game; I carefully placed my moves to ensure the tie. In game three, I repeated my performance just like in game one, except from an alternative angle. And so, I announced my victory! Random girl was given the game sheet so she could forever remember her loss at Illinois, and a picture was taken to capture the moment. Which reminds me... now that I have the picture developed, I guess I should mail it to this now not random girl named Lindsey who lives in Texas.

Sunday, October 10, 2004 / 8:33pm

"the list"

one at four (effective Wednesday, September 29, 2004)

Sunday, October 10, 2004 / 8:35pm

Goodbye To You

A Thursday night Amtrak galavant to Chicago had me in place to watch the third to last Cubs game of the year... one that once could have meant something, but became "not so much". The Braves took the lead and kept it, with the Cubs making it interesting, in of all times, the bottom of the ninth. Of course, they failed after allowing a glimmer of hope to shine for a good 5-10 minutes. I spent the day with high school roommate Tim and Jess, bringing us to a fine dinner at Applebees before concluding the night at an opening night showing of A Shark Tale. And as the storm came and went through the area, so did the Cubs chances of a postseason appearance. Following Friday's games, it would take six consecutive miracles for the Cubs to make it, and that would be to just tie. Word on the street had Chicago hosting up to two tiebreaker games if that unlikely three-way tie scenario came about, and I was ready to go to them if I was able to. I hadn't determined my return trip to Champaign as of yet, so the schedule was free to be flexible. In some ways, at that point, as much as I would love to see the Cubs play, I wanted things to be figured out so I could make my postseason plans. I mean, I had tickets to the Cardinals' playoff games 1 and 2, but could only guess when those games would take place. Then I'd have to get there. But if the Cubs ended up making it, my projections for the playoff schedule would be wrong as both series would be delayed. And, if the Cubs did make it to the tiebreaker game, I'd have to decide on if I would go to that game or stay at home to try to buy Cubs playoff tickets. Oh, scheduling just made it all such a complicated issue. But, following the Cubs loss on Saturday, I bought a train ticket to come back to Champaign on Monday as their fate was sealed. That still didn't settle my schedule, but I guess I have one less thing to worry about. Wait til next year?

Sunday, October 10, 2004 / 8:49pm

She's All That

Okay, so in that delightful film (one of only a few I own on DVD), a bet was made that required a certain attire be worn on a specific date. If you haven't seen it, I won't worry it for you. But anyways, flash back to July 26th, when the Cubs were ten games behind the Cardinals. (Side notes: The Cardinals took the lead and never took it back in early June. The Cubs were closest to the Cardinals in the month of June and found themselves sliding down in late June and early July. The Cubs last finished a day in first place tied with, of all teams, the Reds on May 23rd... the Cardinals were in 5th place that night.) Well, that fine Monday evening, I made a little bet with Jenn. If I knew then what I knew now, I wouldn't have made the bet... but here are the terms and conditions, from a fateful IM conversation:

Brian, 7:42pm: there are still, like 75 games left for each of us. don't worry... my Cubs will keep it interesting... until they win the division
Jenn: ha, Brian, you're so funny!
Brian, 7:43pm: just you wait, it'll happen!
Jenn: let's bet on it
Brian: and if I'm not here when they win, I'll come back and laugh. you want to?
Jenn: yep
Brian: what are the terms? money? food? i must warn you, I can't cook.
Jenn, 7:44pm: yeah me neither... how about you have to wear a cardinals shirt and take a picture
Brian: and if the Cubs win?
Jenn, 7:45pm: then i have to wear Cubs garb :'( for a whole day
Brian: how about... whichever team wins the division... (Cubs or Cards) we both wear appropriate garb (fully decked out) for the monday following the end of the season and take pictures or something.
Jenn, 7:46pm: alright, its on!
Brian: (in the event of Houston, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, or Pittsburgh winning the division, the bet is null and void)
(in the event that neither team wins the division, but one of us is the wild card, we shall consider that team the winning team for the bet)?
Jenn, 7:47pm: fair enough
Brian, 7:48pm: if a tie-breaking game is necessary (163rd, 164th game, whatever), then the day to wear garb is the day following the last game of the season (as opposed to that Monday). garb to be approved by the other. good enough?
Jenn: you'd better write this down, i'm sure to forget! but yeah, sounds good
Brian: alrighty... I'm in. I'll put this on a webpage somewhere so I'm sure some random cards fan will remind me if I'm wrong.
Jenn, 7:50pm: okey dokey
Brian: how exciting... I can't wait!
Jenn: i know... seeing you in Cards garb will be so great!
Brian, 7:51pm: seeing you in Cubby Blue would be even more awesome!
Jenn: well that's not going to happen!
Brian: just give it time... you never know.

Well, a few days after the Cardinals clinched, I regret to say I bought a Cardinals cap and T-shirt. The clothes wearing event hasn't taken place, as I was out of town for part of that Monday (at home in Hillside), and it has yet to be rescheduled. Then, one day, some day, there will be evidence of this unfortunate event floating around. Like me dancing.

Sunday, October 10, 2004 / 8:57pm

By Way of Springfield

I'm all about plans and backup plans. With the baseball season ending just about a week ago, it was then that the playoff schedule was announced. So begins another Brian logistical planning scenario. Now, all of a sudden, I now have tickets for a game to take place in 42 hours with no one to go with me and no transportation. All I knew was I'd be in Champaign by Monday night, with a little more than 19 hours to go before game time. If only I'd be in Champaign earlier, or had my playoff tickets in hand in Chicago... then this planning nightmare wouldn't be so bad. As it was, the plan was to leave Champaign that Monday night around 10:30pm to Effingham via Greyhound, where I would sit outside of a closed McDonalds from midnight to five in the morning, where I would get onto a connecing bus which would take me into St. Louis. Yeah, that's the only remaining method of public transportation that would get me to St. Louis by the noon game time. It's a good thing I decided to wait until arriving in Champaign to buy my bus tickets as opposed to doing it before leaving Chicago, for as the train I was on pulled away from Union Station, I checked my email and found just the delightful message from Tim (different Tim from a few days earlier) that said he was possibly free and would go! Hooray! And all was right in the world! Tim arrived in Champaign around 3am, we crashed, then made the morning trip to St. Louis. It was there that I met up with former ticket office Autumn and friend... I called her on the way down and offered her the remaining tickets, so all was supercool! The Cardinals went away with an 8-3 victory following a ton of home runs, and I left with a picture of Ronald McDonald and myself as I held up a sign reading "I'm Lovin' It!" Upon my return, I opened up a package delivered to me while I was gone (of all the times I ever receive a package, it happens when I'm not around to get it! and I never get packages), which ended up being a welcome surprise. More on that some other time.

Sunday, October 10, 2004 / 9:10pm

"the list"

empty (effective Wednesday, October 6, 2004)

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 / 2:29am

Ghostbusters!

Last Wednesday, I had a relatively light schedule planned with nothing to do than the usual Wednesday lunch in the Union with the Wednesday lunch people. Oh, that and trying to figure out how to get to St. Louis the following day for NLDS game 2 and attempt to fill 5 remaining seats. (I had purchased a total of 8 tickets for this game, which cost $240.) With the absence of a plan, I chose to catch up on life from the confines of one of the places where I hide to get work done. This particular time, it was the KCSA office. Now, I don't normally answer the phone, but since Joe knew I was there, I answered it when it rang just before three. He called to tell me he was going to the game! Yay! The phone rang again just after three, and, silly me, I answered. "Krannert Center Student Association; may I help you?" The voice inquires as to my identity. I respond with the same request. Repeat. On the other end was the new me. "Hey, It's Brian. Nope, no one's here." But for some bizarre reason, I said I'd give the daily tour. I started saying one of my quick responses that would express the "yeah, I'll do it, but I'm very disappointed in you" sort of voices, but held back because I didn't want to sound like a punk. It was cool, though. I hadn't given a real tour to people I didn't know in a while, and they had a good time. And, I guess that I'd done enough to attend the Dock Party that was happening that day. Now, that experience was kinda weird. I kinda felt like a welcomed ghost for the most part. But, hey, yummy food. By the time the day was ending, I'd agreed to sell my then three remaining tickets for the game to some people in St. Louis. Barely a minute later, I get a text message from Diana inquiring if I had tickets remaining. No such luck! If only interest was decided a few days earlier or even a few hours earlier, but, alas, I couldn't hold out any longer than I did and plans had to be made. Eh. Another day in the books. In summary, I need psychic powers... or that office needs Caller ID.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004 / 2:30am

By Way of Effingham

The Thursday trip to St. Louis for game two of the NLDS was fun as well! It was such a relief to have been able to fill all eight of my seats, too. A night game, and a good one at that. The score was the same, and aside from Autumn being in attendance, the entire crowd filling my seats was different. No pictures with Ronald McDonald this time, though. And, I almost bought one of those foam cardinal head hat things. The key word is "almost"... I told myself I'd get one if it was $10 or less, and, alas, it was fifteen. It's a good thing to set limits in advance. I mean, I don't want to own too many ridiculous things. (Hey, now... no comments about that... especially about my recent book purchase, which was the best book ever!)

Thursday, October 14, 2004 / 2:16am

They'll Stop The World... Not Melt With You

It was a largely unproductive weekend. For the most part, I just hung around the apartment. In fact, I've probably been more productive in the apartment this past evening doing laundry and all that all last weekend. And the one time I decide to do something productive last weekend was an attempt to deposit some checks into the ATM of choice at the Union Sunday night. Well, they were out of envelopes, so I figured I'd just wait until Monday. I'll come back to that. So, I spent Monday afternoon catching up on Brian-life (after all, I had to run the end-of-week...). I had to do one thing, though, and that was call the unemployment people to get them to change my name in their records. They'd made the same mistake I'd seen on a bunch of Valentines I got in elementary school: my name was spelled "Brain". So, I ran through the options menu on the phone, and was placed on hold for about, oh, an hour or so, until I am disconnected. And all this time, I could have been working on something else, like Foellinger schedule stuff. So, I call back, but am unable to even get back to being on hold. And I can't even get a hold of a single person. So, yeah, almost two hours after the whole ordeal, I realize it's Columbus Day. That's probably why no one is over there. Way for me to think I'd actually get something done if I tried. And, of course, this also means that the ATM of choice wasn't restocked with envelopes as well. It's alright. I saw "The Italian Job" again Sunday night with the movie people, and Monday was a good night, too, as I think some of "random, weird circumstance" that has prevailed in the last month or so that probably got in the way of a really great friendship got cleared up. For the first time in a long while, I was pretty happy. Or maybe I'm over the Cubs now... Eh, maybe both.

Thursday, October 14, 2004 / 2:40pm

Gloomy Season!

Now it's really feeling like fall. Not the nice, pleasant orange days with a cool breeze, but rather, the gray "makes you not want to do anything and stay in bed" and possibly accompanied with a steady flow of showers from the sky sort of thing. Not that I'm necessarily all sad or depressed or anything right now... just the usual. But, yeah. I don't really want to do anything. I don't really want to go anywhere. And, of course, the rest of the world's got classes or something, too. But, since it's probably better that I actually do something and leave the apartment at least once a day (probably a good idea considering how much food you know I store there), I went out and saw a movie by myself (Yeah, no kidding. I'm a big kid, now look what I can do. I can wear big kids pants, too!) I saw "Mr. 3000" because I wanted to see something baseball related and playoff baseball on TV was hours later. This was Tuesday, by the way, since I failed to state that, though the "do-nothing" feeling continues through today. Wednesday, I hung out with Wednesday lunch at the field trip location of Murphy's, then spent the afternoon with Mel at the mall. A Halloween costume has been procured... watch for it Homecoming/Halloween/Daylight Saving weekend! (Speaking of the bestest holiday ever... so great it happens twice a year: I think I've selected this year's song, so I'm working on that, too.) Okay, time to leave the apartment for once today, as well.

Thursday, October 14, 2004 / 2:51pm

"the list"

empty (effective Wednesday, October 13, 2004)

Thursday, October 14, 2004 / 2:54pm

I Never Said This, But...

Now, you all know how much I feel about little inaccuracies on TV and film. Here are two I've seen in the last two weeks, and I really had to tell someone who cares. For lack of someone that would humor me 100% in this time, you're all blessed with such a wonderful present! First of all, in "The Italian Job", the group's headed for train 59 leaving from Los Angeles to New Orleans. Yes, it's true... train 59 does go to New Orleans, but it originates from Chicago- the "City of New Orleans". And secondly, in the season premiere of "Will and Grace", when Jack on the New York Subway with Karen and Jennifer Lopez, there are two subway maps that can be seen on the subway train car wall: the one on the right half is of New York City, and the one on the left half is of Chicago. Sigh, why do these things have to detract from my entertainement enjoyment experience! It's just like that whole "High Fidelity" thing. Yeah, I guess I am a dork.

Friday, October 15, 2004 / 2:02pm

A Weekend of Giving

It's quite the busy weekend... a weekend of giving. So, here in the land of U of I, it's "Foundation Weekend" where all the superdonors are in town to party. If it were the olden days, I'd be at work right now with the "Krannert owns my soul" away message. Ha, ha, not today. I think they've severely undertaffed themselves for tonight, but I'm sure I'll hear about it sometime. And, in this season of gifts, it's also "Bosses Day" which means no gifts for me. I'm not your boss. And tomorrow's "Sweetest Day" which means no gifts for me. I'm not your sweetheart. I'm not downtrodden or anything, I never expect anything for those days (or any day, for that matter)... I'm usually the one that reminds everyone about those days, that's all. It also looks like the University of Michigan will be in line to give the Illini a loss tomorrow morning- not that that wasn't expected. But, if they win tomorrow, that'd be supersweet like supersweet corn, yo! Actually, along the sweet lines, I went grocery shopping last night. I know, that just sounds wrong. And, I ended up buying about $30 in candy for all of those Halloween folks that will knock on my door at the end of the month. They'll just have to get past the security door. Ha! I guess that means I'll have to eat the leftovers. Actually, I'll probably just carry tons of candy with me all weekend and reverse trick-or-treat. And, if people feel like contributing candy into the bucket to further the cause, "paying it forward" would be allowed. So, find me whilst in costume and get your sweet tooth on. Or, if you wanted to be sweet on me, too, I guess I'd tolerate that, too. Ha.

Sunday, October 17, 2004 / 12:49pm

Never In A Lifetime

So, I managed to score a ticket to the good ol' Illinois/Michigan football game yesterday. Why, it was only four years ago that I went to my first Illinois/Michigan football game, and a night game at that. It was sold out for forever but I managed to get tickets from some Michigan fans the night before while I was working the overnight. Whoa, that was way back in the day. We almost won that game. Two years ago, the family attended, and we were up at the front. Good times... we even made it onto the new video display! Well, this time, I was up in the first row of the East Balcony. Sure, it was cold, but as play progressed through the first half, it looked like we actually had a chance of winning; we entered halftime with the lead! Alas, the second half was riddled with untaken opportunities, leaving us scoreless in that half until the last minute when Michigan was nice enough to concede a safety to us, virtually ensuring we wouldn't have a chance at catching them. I was so let down... I really thought they could pull it out. In fact, I was disappointed. Not that they lost, though, because I wasn't necessarily expecting a victory when I woke up. I was disappointed that we didn't cheer our last two points. The cheerleaders did no push-ups. The bell did not sound 19 times. Maybe this break in tradition was done because we were handed the points. Or it was cold. And we just wanted the pain to end. So ended the game, and possibly my last chance to watch us pull out a victory against Michigan in person. I don't think those guys from Ann Arbor will be stopping by until at least 2007. Well, what can you do, I guess.

Sunday, October 17, 2004 / 1:01pm

Sometimes It Hurts To Smile

Gosh, Brian, can you sound any more depressed? Well, in this instance, I make this statement. Seriously. This morning, maybe once or twice, it really hurt to smile. Well, folks, you have to check this out from back in the Thanksgiving 2002 day, yo. So, I'm sitting around chilling in front of the tele, watching all those Real World San Diego episodes I've missed (yes, all of them... it was my unofficial week-long project) and having some McD's and not watching the baseball game (postponed due to Boston rain), and I spit out a piece of tooth. So, these impacted teeth I have that didn't ever hurt seem to be crushing a tooth. I guess I really should have visited the dentist once while I was working full time at Krannert (whilst insured). Of course, with Krannert's insane schedule, I didn't really have a good opportunity to go. Ha, I even told myself back in May that I'd take care of it in August in the lull before school was to start. Who knew then that that would be when I would be unemployed and uninsured. And along these lines of "say what", my holding out for something cool in terms of a job may just not happen, as I think I just might get any job that has health and dental insurance. Which might work out, because apparently, there's a question about my eligibility for unemployment insurance and they want to interview me. They'll probably tell me "hey, you said you don't work at U of I, which is true, but they also say you got hired by them, too. a few weeks later." Then I'll respond that I work an hourly job with very few hours that are random, but when I work, yes, I do make that much money because I'm awesome. But it's still a student job, for the most part. I almost don't want to have to deal with it. I hate all of this. Oh, and I just checked my MBNA crap online, and it looks like my APR was switched from fixed to variable (thusly, going up by 2.5%ish) this month. So, the interest rate went up. Apparently, in July they sent out a change in term for the credit card, and I didn't notice. It's not like I can pay off that card any time soon, but it was something I didn't expect. So, when I called to get an explanation, I told them to send me an updated complete "terms of use" for my records. Sigh. Stop the madness. Give me money.

Sunday, October 17, 2004 / 9:00pm

A Diamond in the Rough Dirt By Home

I spent all afternoon and evening camped out in the office of the Kran student volunteers, randomly checking out baseball scores and what not. Then, I saw a headline off of the main baseball page talking about this wacky view called the "Diamond Cam" that Fox has been using on occasion. It's pretty much a little tiny spy camera type thing and it's kinda neat. Anyways, in addition to this little headline was a link offering me the chance to watch a live feed from the camera. Now that's just crazy talk. I never thought of watching a whole game like that, but it's cool. And, it's actually running being presented to me at this computer in the office at about the same time that mlb.com's Gameday application is updating. It's pretty neat! If only I'd known this was going to be happening... then I would have had baseball in the background the whole day!

Monday, October 18, 2004 / 3:57pm

Investment For The Future

Between my letter of recommendation writing and my full day of job searching online, I did a little online investigation and discovered how to make those little icons you see next to the URL in some browsers. And make an icon I did! Head over to the sweet goodness holiday website and check it out! More little baby icons are forthcoming. And speaking of forthcoming, the Monopoly game is back at good ol' Mickey D's. There's an added component where you can enter each pieces' unique ID onto their website and win more crap (like, 10 copies of a game I anticipate is semi-lame or those cool sounding ring tones for my super old school phone that won't like them). Anyways, I've decided to invest 74 cents a day (two stamps) to get some additional "no purchase necessary" game pieces... which isn't too bad because I'm guaranteed to get at least a $1 "Best Buy Buck" plus maybe some free food. So, yeah, good times. And no, I'm not going to mail something in every day. That'd be ridiculous.

Wednesday, October 20, 2004 / 9:45pm

"the list"

empty

Tuesday, October 26, 2004 / 12:43am

Annual End of DST Reminder

In following the long standing tradition of rewriting songs as a reminder for friends that Daylight Saving is ending, I present to you this year's fine addition to the collection. It follows the great line of other hits from 1997 (Spice Girls), 1999 (LFO), 2002 (John Mayer), and 2003 (Hilary Duff) (they may be posted upon request). Here you go, based off of "The Reason" by Hoobastank...

    I'm not a perfect person
    There's many things I wish I didn't do
    I forgot 'bout the time change
    I didn't mean to give bad times to you
    And so I have to say before I go
    I shant forget this, ya know?
    
    I've found a reason for me
    To stay in bed and just be
    The reason where clocks change at two
    ('s) Daylight Saving for you
    
    I'm sorry that it hurt you
    A messed up little two-five hour day
    But now this time, sure, you'll get through
    Unlike when April took that hour away
    And this October upon all your ears
    "Spring forward, fall back"'s what you'll hear
    
    I've found a reason for me
    To stay in bed and just be
    The reason where clocks change at two
    ('s) Daylight Saving for you [x4]
    
    I'm not a perfect person
    I didn't mean to give bad times to you
    And so I have to say before I go
    I shant forget this, ya know?
    
    I've found a reason for me
    To stay in bed and just be
    The reason where clocks change at two
    ('s) Daylight Saving for you
    
    I've found a reason to show
    As green leaves turn to red and gold
    October's last Sunday: undo
    Daylight Saving for you

Wednesday, October 27, 2004 / 3:27pm

"the list"

empty

Thursday, October 28, 2004 / 11:59pm

Photographic Uber-Ridicularity

So, we all pretty much know I'm maximizing what I'm getting out of the current McDonald's Monopoly game, with my mailing in for free pieces and all. Yesterday, actually, I received three of my envelopes from good ol' Young America, Minnesota. Nothing says good times like opening up some pieces and best buy bucks while eating La Bamba. The pieces come with the backing still on there, so, theoretically, I could stick them to anything. Anyways, so you can go to a website and enter each piece's code to get more stuff, and this week, if you land on a Chance space, you get 25 free prints from a photo website. So far, I've landed on Chance six times so I now have 150 free prints from random website. It's wild. I might actually use that prize, as opposed to the random games I could download! (It's actually not too terribly difficult to win, actually.) I live for this! Actually, it's all I can live for now, since the World Series is over. Congrats, Boston! And, while I'm actually typing something, give me another moment to express myself. Boston: I'm happy for you. Quit whining about your curse; hooray. St. Louis: Suck it up. Yeah, the world didn't want you to win, and you're great fans, now, don't be sore losers. I, being a Cubs fan, you know I'm not going to be up in your business mocking you 24/7 for losing, though you would have done (and have done) that to me in the Cards' rise to the top. Sucks to be on the receiving end, eh? Boston won it and they deserve it because the Cardinals didn't show up. St. Louis celebrated like crazy for even making the World Series, it kinda felt like they were the Cubs for caring SO much. I mean, at that point in the year, you expected to go. Whatever. In general, I'm upset about several things that I won't rant about right now. Find me in costume sometime this weekend starting Friday morning through Sunday night... you'll know I'll have candy so you need to find me.