Having done nearly ten months in exile, an opening at my old house may be opening up in the next few weeks and I've got dibs on the room! While I enjoy living by myself, the need to scrimp and save combined with only being in driving distance of anything cool meant that I hardly ever went out and spent much of my time alone. Again, I enjoy that, but only to some extent and it'll be nice to live someplace where there are people to chat with downstairs, and things to walk to down the street. The MAX is only a few blocks away, even! It only takes me 45 minutes to get back from a Timbers game, not nearly three hours!
As you can tell, I'm pretty excited. In the meantime, I've got school to worry about and a week long hunting trip for which my dad is picking me up tomorrow at SIX AM. He lives a ways away, meaning he will have to leave his house at around 4 am. That's lunacy if you ask me.
My classes this term are all online. That's nice because I wouldn't be able to do this hunting trip otherwise, but they seem to require more work than an ordinary class. I'll probably have to take a hit on participation points this week as I don't particularly want to drive into some hick town, steal a wireless connection and do some bs just for a few points after spending ten hours hiking in the mountains. I get paid just as much for Cs as I do As.
Next term, I've decided to go back to PSU, change my major to geography and use up every last bit of benefits. And since the new GI Bill has gone through I now have an extra 12 months of those bennies! As much as I hate school and am bored to death of it, it pays better than a minimum wage job, and I've yet to get so much as a phone call about one of those anyway, so I may as well continue. Hopefully the economy will have stopped sucking by the time I'm done.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Mouseland
This was making the rounds on Facebook today and since it made me chuckle, I thought I'd share. It's a great speech of course and it's probably lost on many people, but the really interesting part is that even after all this time, what has changed? Well, perhaps a lot in Canada. Not a whole damn lot down here, though. I love the way people talked back then, too. Makes me wonder what people will make of our accents 60 years from now when watching old film clips (on whatever the future youtube will be).
Monday, August 16, 2010
The Camping Wrap Up
There's a new post over on my travel blog on my last camping trip. Click on the doggy for the link.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Camping
The camping trip I just took with the family went about the same as all our camping trips. There was a lot of driving, lots of pretty things, at least one disaster, some fighting, but no one nearly died. I don't want to go too deeply into the disaster, but suffice to say, Yosemite is really overrated.
Over on my travel blog, I'll get some pics posted.
I'm back now in Portland, doing not much of anything. Still looking fruitlessly for a job and running out of money. Hopefully I can get some GI Bill money for the next term, but that's not a guarantee. No prospects for employment on the horizon. I hope moving back in with the parents isn't in the cards, because that would be agony for someone in her late 20s.
At least it's that time of the year when just about every soccer league in the world is going, so there's something to absorb myself in that doesn't involve stressing over anything consequential.
It was 91 degrees by 11:30 am today. What the hell? It was chilly and cloudy just about all summer and just when I get back from camping up in the mountains it gets all nasty. Sure, the camping was in the desert, but we were high enough in elevation that it was only hot in the sun, cool in the shade and chilly at night. In other words, it was perfect up there. This is sticky and gross.
Over on my travel blog, I'll get some pics posted.
I'm back now in Portland, doing not much of anything. Still looking fruitlessly for a job and running out of money. Hopefully I can get some GI Bill money for the next term, but that's not a guarantee. No prospects for employment on the horizon. I hope moving back in with the parents isn't in the cards, because that would be agony for someone in her late 20s.
At least it's that time of the year when just about every soccer league in the world is going, so there's something to absorb myself in that doesn't involve stressing over anything consequential.
It was 91 degrees by 11:30 am today. What the hell? It was chilly and cloudy just about all summer and just when I get back from camping up in the mountains it gets all nasty. Sure, the camping was in the desert, but we were high enough in elevation that it was only hot in the sun, cool in the shade and chilly at night. In other words, it was perfect up there. This is sticky and gross.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Hello
I'm boring.
No, really. I'm not much of a fiction writer, so I blog when I have something worth blogging about happen in my life. Happenings haven't really been happening, so there's been no blogging.
Here's my daily life. Please don't die of boredom while reading it. Take breaks, if necessary.
Get up around 10. Undarken the computer screen and check usajobs for my dream (read: part time underpaid entry level crap) job. Upon it's inevitable absence in the listings, I close the tab in a huff.
Time to make coffee. While heating water and grinding beans, marvel at how gross and smelly the kitchen has gotten even though I swear I just cleaned it yesterday. Or the day before. Or something.
After coffee is in my cup, head back to the computer to open all the new tweets posted since last night. Click on every interesting soccer blog entry and read for awhile.
Sit, contemplate what to do with the day. Check TV listings, weather report.
Suddenly it's 2pm, which means it's hot and rush hour has started so there's nothing worth doing outside the house for at least several hours. Maybe tomorrow I'll go fishing or camping. Maybe.
Evening rolls around and I get on my bike or get in my car and head to the college campus to kick around the soccer ball for a little while. When it gets too dark or there are too many mosquitoes, drive home.
Contemplate bed, since there's absolutely nothing to do. Nothing on the tube, nothing really worth reading on my bookshelf or online. Finally get to sleep way late/in the early morning.
Repeat.
Would you want to read about that on a daily basis? I thought not.
Next week I'm going camping for a week with my parents in California. Somehow, I've never been to Yosemite, so we're going there as well as the Lava Beds National Monument. Haven't been camping yet this summer, so that should be good, plus I get to see my dog again.
No, really. I'm not much of a fiction writer, so I blog when I have something worth blogging about happen in my life. Happenings haven't really been happening, so there's been no blogging.
Here's my daily life. Please don't die of boredom while reading it. Take breaks, if necessary.
Get up around 10. Undarken the computer screen and check usajobs for my dream (read: part time underpaid entry level crap) job. Upon it's inevitable absence in the listings, I close the tab in a huff.
Time to make coffee. While heating water and grinding beans, marvel at how gross and smelly the kitchen has gotten even though I swear I just cleaned it yesterday. Or the day before. Or something.
After coffee is in my cup, head back to the computer to open all the new tweets posted since last night. Click on every interesting soccer blog entry and read for awhile.
Sit, contemplate what to do with the day. Check TV listings, weather report.
Suddenly it's 2pm, which means it's hot and rush hour has started so there's nothing worth doing outside the house for at least several hours. Maybe tomorrow I'll go fishing or camping. Maybe.
Evening rolls around and I get on my bike or get in my car and head to the college campus to kick around the soccer ball for a little while. When it gets too dark or there are too many mosquitoes, drive home.
Contemplate bed, since there's absolutely nothing to do. Nothing on the tube, nothing really worth reading on my bookshelf or online. Finally get to sleep way late/in the early morning.
Repeat.
Would you want to read about that on a daily basis? I thought not.
Next week I'm going camping for a week with my parents in California. Somehow, I've never been to Yosemite, so we're going there as well as the Lava Beds National Monument. Haven't been camping yet this summer, so that should be good, plus I get to see my dog again.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
My Absence
I'll admit it: I'm a nerd. I was so emotionally drained from the just the group stages of the World Cup, not to mention the USA's run at it, that I simply could not write about it or anything else. While I'm feeling much better, I'm still not entirely healed and I'm upset that I have to miss the Germany-Argentina match on Saturday that I had hoped would finish off my cure. Alas.
No, nothing has really been going on other than that. I've applied for a bunch of jobs and gotten exactly zero phone calls. Why advertise for a job if you don't actually have one available? Do they get some sort of financial or tax compensation for listing employment with state agencies? Well, I guess they might. Figures.
4th of July is around the corner and as usual, I will be at my grandparent's lake house up in Washington. Should be good times even if it rains again, which judging by the current conditions and what's been happening since winter supposedly ended, is likely. Hooray for fireworks, beer and for standing on top of my car with my phone in the air, hitting refresh on the Guardian's minute-by-minute report of the Germany match!
No, nothing has really been going on other than that. I've applied for a bunch of jobs and gotten exactly zero phone calls. Why advertise for a job if you don't actually have one available? Do they get some sort of financial or tax compensation for listing employment with state agencies? Well, I guess they might. Figures.
4th of July is around the corner and as usual, I will be at my grandparent's lake house up in Washington. Should be good times even if it rains again, which judging by the current conditions and what's been happening since winter supposedly ended, is likely. Hooray for fireworks, beer and for standing on top of my car with my phone in the air, hitting refresh on the Guardian's minute-by-minute report of the Germany match!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Things I Learned During My Cold
I just had a short, but unexpected and nasty cold. For some reason, even though I don't have a job and school is done so I don't have anything to do anyway, this gave me the opportunity to try some new things.
-- I like reading. I know I like reading, so why don't I do it more? I finished Lies my Teacher Told Me, which has a rather misleading title, because the focus is on history textbooks, not the teachers themselves. I also started A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, who is one of the funniest writers around right now. A Short History is a history of science type of book that focuses as much on the scientists themselves as the things they discovered. He has an easy writing style that lends itself to explaining even the most convoluted of ideas - like string theory in physics - to those of us who never made it through a chemistry of physics class. And from the stuff he describes that I already do understand, it seems pretty accurate too. Some things I didn't know that I've taken from the book so far: The same guy who thought it'd be a good idea to add lead to gasoline also invented CFCs, those things we banned after we found out they ate a hole in the ozone layer (Bryson says the guy had "an instinct for the regrettable that was almost uncanny"); even in 19-friggin'-88 (I was alive then!) more than half of American paleontologists didn't believe the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid strike; humans today have 685 times more lead in our bodies than people a century ago.
-- The sleep aid in nighttime pain relievers, the cough suppressant in overnight cold syrups and the antihistamine in others is all the same drug. Benadryl. I kind of felt sorry for Benadryl, because once the world invented an antihistamine that didn't make you unconscious, Benadryl faded out of use fast. It seems to have taken its greatest flaw, it's hypnotic effect, and made it its greatest asset. Well done to it, I guess. I remember fighting the need to take antihistamines as a kid, even if I could barely breathe or see due to hayfever, because even a half of the children's dose would knock me out in the middle of a sunny, summer day. I normally hate taking medication and avoid it until absolutely necessary, but by night three I really needed some sleep and sure enough I was out cold until the early morning when I woke up soaked in sweat, but feeling much much better. Amazing what a little rest will do ya.
-- A potato has 45% of your daily vitamin C. I had no idea! So during the cold I ate at least one potato a day, covered in raw garlic (also a lot of vitamin C and sure cleared my sinuses!) and washed down with some echinacea tea. God I'm a hippie sometimes.
-- I need more fishing line. We finally had a sunny day, the one where I woke up feeling cured, so after I watched the Americans beat Australia in a World Cup warm-up match, I drove up to Mt. Hood to fish at Timothy Lake. Surprisingly, considering how crowded it was not far away, there weren't a ton of people. Still, I took my small pole, since the big salmon rod seemed a little excessive for a stocked lake, and went for a bit of a hike to a secluded spot a ways from where I'd parked. It wasn't until after I'd settled down, had a bite to eat, baited my hook and cast that I realized that I only had about 30 feet of line on the reel. It reached the end mid-cast and as it jerked to an abrupt halt I watched the bait fly off into the lake. I wasn't about to hike all the way back just to exchange rods, so I made do for an hour before I reluctantly acquiesced to the reality that I just wasn't going to catch anything in twelve inches of water. On the way back no less than two fish did some spectacular flying triple jumps to bid my adieu and every child with I walked past had a fresh catch on his/her hook. Yeah, rub it in.
-- I like reading. I know I like reading, so why don't I do it more? I finished Lies my Teacher Told Me, which has a rather misleading title, because the focus is on history textbooks, not the teachers themselves. I also started A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, who is one of the funniest writers around right now. A Short History is a history of science type of book that focuses as much on the scientists themselves as the things they discovered. He has an easy writing style that lends itself to explaining even the most convoluted of ideas - like string theory in physics - to those of us who never made it through a chemistry of physics class. And from the stuff he describes that I already do understand, it seems pretty accurate too. Some things I didn't know that I've taken from the book so far: The same guy who thought it'd be a good idea to add lead to gasoline also invented CFCs, those things we banned after we found out they ate a hole in the ozone layer (Bryson says the guy had "an instinct for the regrettable that was almost uncanny"); even in 19-friggin'-88 (I was alive then!) more than half of American paleontologists didn't believe the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid strike; humans today have 685 times more lead in our bodies than people a century ago.
-- The sleep aid in nighttime pain relievers, the cough suppressant in overnight cold syrups and the antihistamine in others is all the same drug. Benadryl. I kind of felt sorry for Benadryl, because once the world invented an antihistamine that didn't make you unconscious, Benadryl faded out of use fast. It seems to have taken its greatest flaw, it's hypnotic effect, and made it its greatest asset. Well done to it, I guess. I remember fighting the need to take antihistamines as a kid, even if I could barely breathe or see due to hayfever, because even a half of the children's dose would knock me out in the middle of a sunny, summer day. I normally hate taking medication and avoid it until absolutely necessary, but by night three I really needed some sleep and sure enough I was out cold until the early morning when I woke up soaked in sweat, but feeling much much better. Amazing what a little rest will do ya.
-- A potato has 45% of your daily vitamin C. I had no idea! So during the cold I ate at least one potato a day, covered in raw garlic (also a lot of vitamin C and sure cleared my sinuses!) and washed down with some echinacea tea. God I'm a hippie sometimes.
-- I need more fishing line. We finally had a sunny day, the one where I woke up feeling cured, so after I watched the Americans beat Australia in a World Cup warm-up match, I drove up to Mt. Hood to fish at Timothy Lake. Surprisingly, considering how crowded it was not far away, there weren't a ton of people. Still, I took my small pole, since the big salmon rod seemed a little excessive for a stocked lake, and went for a bit of a hike to a secluded spot a ways from where I'd parked. It wasn't until after I'd settled down, had a bite to eat, baited my hook and cast that I realized that I only had about 30 feet of line on the reel. It reached the end mid-cast and as it jerked to an abrupt halt I watched the bait fly off into the lake. I wasn't about to hike all the way back just to exchange rods, so I made do for an hour before I reluctantly acquiesced to the reality that I just wasn't going to catch anything in twelve inches of water. On the way back no less than two fish did some spectacular flying triple jumps to bid my adieu and every child with I walked past had a fresh catch on his/her hook. Yeah, rub it in.
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