You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here…

“Lazy Sunday wake up in the late afternoon…”

It’s the start to one of the only awesome things Saturday Night Live has done in the last seven or eight years. It’s also how things shook out today. After last night, that’s hardly surprising. Allow me to explain…

Last night, was of course, the Visitor’s Center celebration marking the end of the Open Houses for the year. As one might expect, the occasion did not pass quietly. Instead, one of the tour guides decided to throw a bit of a party at his place. Attendance was stellar, and things were going pretty well until we saw this:

Wait, that isn’t right…More like:

Albeit with angrier faces and less diversity…Anyways, apparently some rather uptight fellow or lass decided that college kids having a bit of fun is as dangerous as global warming, and called Amherst’s finest to deal with the situation. They proceeded to clean the house and the street out, leaving many people in a difficult spot – they couldn’t stay there, but they couldn’t drive home, for obvious reasons. Stuck in that position, I decided to stop by the local sorority house. Surrounded by good people and good friends both, I was showered with hospitality; I did particularly well in the quesadilla department. Eventually, the good times had to end, and I ended up home around 4am, which, as you might expect, led to the late afternoon wake-up call.

Once the day started, it was pretty much one long unproductive mess, full of video games, a Red Sox-Yankees that was again won by the Boston nine, and a big Patriots trade. Via ESPN:

“Convinced in discussions with Randy Moss that he believes his NFL legacy is tied to winning a Super Bowl and not to individual accomplishments, the New England Patriots on Sunday acquired the electrifying but enigmatic wide receiver from the Oakland Raiders in exchange for a fourth-round draft choice.”

It’d be foolish for me to pretend to know how this trade might work out, but for now, I am quite excited about the possibilities for next year. Now, in keeping with my pseudo-promise from the other day not to overly focus on sports, I will immediately change the topic. To what, you might ask?

Well, frankly, I have no idea. This post is meandering a bit, as I am still trying to find a consistent and reliable voice for my blogging. I really am rustier than I expected to be coming back after the hiatus. In lieu of actually being inspired, I suppose I could just pull a cliche out of the blog book and write about the future. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole to report there, either: this week seems to be shaping up as one full of work, class, and not much else. I’d rather watch paint dry than write about class, and work might be fun for me, but it probably wouldn’t be nearly as much fun to read about. So, I’m going to give up the illusion that I have anything worthwhile to write about, and instead, just wrap it up for now. The weekend is done, long live the weekend. Catch you all later friends…

Weekend Musings

So I finished up some design work on the new style for the blog. The pretty colors and lines come in handy as I consider trying to make this blog a somewhat appealing and pseudo-professional blog. As some of you might have guessed, I do enjoy writing, and also like to express my thoughts, on occasion. As such, doing the blog thing might turn back into a regular thing like it was in the golden days of 2004-2005, and if I’m going to ask you all to come here frequently, I might as well sweeten the pot by making it aesthetically appealing for you.

In less important news – life stuff. Today was the last Open House I will ever work at. Showing off the school to hundreds of excited students and, for the most part, excited and pleasant, but occasionally rude and often confusingly ignorant parents. It marks the end of an era though, and so as always, there are going to be some mixed emotions. Right now, I’m mostly just feeling tired and irritated that the weather is so overcast and chilly – it would be an ideal time to have a drink outside and enjoy the freedom and fresh air.

However, I’m not going to throw a pity party for myself just yet – it is the weekend, after all. The plans are starting together, but all I know for sure is I will be watching plenty of baseball, since the Sox are spending the next 3 days in the cesspool of obnoxious accents and questionable personal hygiene known as Yankee Stadium. Beyond that, the future is unknown, but if you were a Charles Barkley type who couldn’t resist a good bet…I’d put my money on there being some of the following involved:

and

Both of them, combined with a beer or seven, should make for an entertaining evening, and that’s just the start of the weekend. Speaking of starts, its about time I got started getting ready for a night of relatively lazy partying. So…that’s about it for now. Catch you later kids…

Part One in a Series…

of blog posts that really have no purpose whatsoever. You see, its been a mighty slow week here in my part of the world. Work, class, homework, sleep, repeat. I wish I had some fantastic news to report, or even a trippy dream, but no such luck.

Which brings me one of the strange phenomenons that comes along with blogging. Once you begin blogging, you feel a persistent, yet subtle, guilt to post more often than you are. I am well aware of my place in the blogosphere right now, I am fairly certain I can count my number of readers on one hand. Maybe even on one of his hands:

But even with that few readers, I still feel bad when I don’t post, because I feel like I am letting people down – they might have planned on killing ten minutes of their workday by reading what I have to say about the world. I can’t even imagine how bloggers like Bill Simmons or Arianna Huffington feel, trying to write for millions on a near-daily basis. But, enough sympathy for now, I have my own problems, like studying for a huge exam. So, wish me luck folks, and I promise I will write something more substantial soon.

I love technology

I was going to title this post “Alanis Morrissette,” but I think I dropped enough contrived musical references in the last post. In any case, in a “Isn’t it ironic” twist, this is a blog post about blogging. I am to WordPress, so some of whats going on here is quite frustrating. For example, they are very restrictive with what can be put in the sidebar, and they make no allowances for change, unless you pay big dolla. I do not so much feel like paying, so I’m kind of screwed over with linking and Flickring. The interface is also not as intuitive as I would have hoped, and I have yet to find capability for adding a signature or avatar at the end of each post, and that too is annoying. More problems to come, I assume, but I’m hoping not so much – we’ll see.

A Short Update

So, I’ve finally updated to the new Blogger beta. I won’t be making too much use of many of the features, because it seems like the most dynamic of them enables easier template editing that doesnt require HTML. Since I enjoy HTML, as much as it can be enjoyed, I’m going to refrain from using the shortcut.

I also made a few changes to the template…see if you can catch them. That’s all for now folks, much more to come sooner rather than later.

Word Vomit!

Its going to be an interesting week, to say the least. This paper is cramping my style big time, I wish it was just done. I may have an old friend stop by as well, which could prove to be an exciting time. Other than that, I have no idea what the week will hold.

So, remember this guy?

You know, my whole tirade about him and 50 Cent having a feud? Well, as you no doubt recall, my plea for peace did the job and they are cool again. But, it went one step further. Now they have made a song together. And, they followed another one of my pleas. I have always wondered why when two artists collaborated, they didn’t share credit for the song and both place it on their respective albums. Well, this is what they did. And in my mind, its the best hip-hop song of the year so far.

As keen-eyed observers no doubt notice in the video of the song, one of the Game’s homies (that is what the kids are calling them nowadays, right?) is wearing a Red Sox cap. In an earlier post, I lamented how the Red Sox were apparently becoming fashionable and trendy. I am willing to overlook that here because the homie is anonymous, and therefore, unlikely to establish mad rushes to redsox.com the way lingerie sales drives women to the mall in hordes. Anyhow, the video is fairly enjoyable, and I don’t think its a bold prediction to guess that the song will be quite popular. I think they owe me a slice of the profits for inspiring their reunion and song idea.

So, some of you may have noticed I haven’t been writing serious posts in here very much lately. Don’t worry, its not because I don’t like you. If I didn’t like you, Id be more obvious about it. Instead, Ive been pouring my blogging attention into building my new Europe blog and putting some posts on there. If I do so myself, its looking pretty hot. I’m doing some more advanced things with it, and I think you’ll all like it. When its fit for public consumption, you will be allowed to see it. Until that time, it shall remain private. Anyhow, thats it for now, bed is calling. See you on the morrow.

Friday Night Writes

Its Friday night. I’m waiting for everyone to get back from town so that plans can take shape. In the meantime, I’m watching the Red Sox, having a high quality beverage or two, and generally, being restless and bored. Restless about life. Bored with my night. So I didn’t hear about IPO today. Apparently they are still checking references and such today. I prefer to think they are just taking their time to find the right candidate, and hopefully that candidate will be me.

Tonight needs to be a good night, as well. I am on duty tomorrow night, so there wont be much fun had except for tonight. Let us hope it lives up to expectations. I also need to write a paper this weekend for English 348. I have no idea what to write-any ideas? At least it only needs to be 5 pages.

So this run of beautiful weather seems to be ending as the rain comes down outside. According to my handy little Mozilla Forecaster Extension, its gonna be rainy all weekend. What crap. But, for the most part, I cant complain too much about the weather conditions. I just hope it gets back to good sooner rather than later.

Lots of good feedback over my latest article. Apparently, you tackle a serious issue and people actually start reading. Maybe my snide comments and witty observations should be a thing of the past. Nah…

Work on the Europe website is progressing nicely. For those of you who dont know (which is about everyone short of one or two of you) I am working on a new bloggy type site for when I go to Europe. It’ll work in addition to emails home to tell everybody whats going on. It will be much more effective for showing pictures and other things off to a wide audience. However, Im not entirely happy with the format yet, so you dont get to see it yet. When I am happy, you will know. And you will be able to see it. And you will be amazed. I hope.

Alright, thats about it for now, I do suppose. Not a whole lot else to speak of. Expect more later this weekend. Bye for now.

Snow Day-ish

Preface: This entry is for everyone who complains that I don’t update my blog nearly often enough. As I have maintained, nothing dramatic has been happening lately, so its pretty routine living. Nonetheless, I figured I would write about a typical day so you could all see that what I say is true. Here you go. Stop complaining.

So campus closed at 5:30 PM today due to the Siberian-like wind and snow conditions. No lie, the walk from Whitmore to Hills was the most difficult 4000 ft of my life. As a result of this early cancellation thing, I missed a whopping 1/2 hour of class. Mother Nature, you sure are a tease. But then again, that doesn’t make her different from any other girl.

Reason Number 11 – She doesn’t remember my birthday

Got some work done on the English paper done tonight. Its basically done, I just need to add a quote or two and edit and revise. That’ll come tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, it’s an apartment hunting date for Thomas and I. Now that is a trip. Obviously, this apartment thing is entirely new to me. I’m not really sure what to expect tomorrow, but it will be interesting no matter what. Then I have to work housing selection and finish my paper tomorrow night. Yipee kay yay.

Tonight, I also worked on updating my Curriculum Vitae and resumes tonight, in preparation for talking an office on campus about next year and such. Spring break is only a few days away. To the surprise of no one, I will be going absolutely nowhere. Belmont sounds good right now though, I need to relax and just have nothing on my plate for a few days. Then when I get back its a sprint to the finish. 2 more months left. Egads. What comes next, nobody knows.

Good night.