Gifts

Here is most, if not all, of what I got for Christmas:

Magic Bullet Express (blender)
shoes (brown, leather)
pair of jeans
long sleeve shirt (red)
Lost Season 1 DVD
2 boxes of Girl Scout cookies (Peanut Butter Patties & Peanut Butter Sandwiches)
throw pillow (Christmas themed)
pair of heavy gloves (black)
set of light(er) gloves with matching scarf and headband (gray)
snowman decoration (bendable head, arms, legs.....hard to describe)
$180
$20 Best Buy gift card
shoe shining kit
teddy bear Christmas tree ornament
keychain
clip-on radio (will be good for running till I can afford my iPod)
OneWorld-brand Merlin PDA (very basic functionality)
mini loaf of grandma's cinnamon bread

What did you get?

Current song: "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon & Garfunkel

Merry Chrismas and a Happy Ne.....sorry, got shit to do.

So it has been a week since my last post. I meant to write something sooner but did not. Last Thursday night my roommate and I went with some friends of his to Brother's (bar) in downtown Iowa City. We had a pretty good time with the help of half a dozen beers and a few Jager Bombs. We crashed at the friends' place for the night.

Over the weekend I started and almost finished my Christmas shopping. I actually got the last gift I needed to finish it tonight. I felt I was behind in my movie-going so I've seen Aeon Flux, Just Friends, King Kong, and Pride & Prejudice all since my last post. There are still several movies in theater that I wish to see.

My temporary job at UPS as been going fine. It's not as many hours as I had hoped though.

Tomorrow I'm headed up north for the holidays. So I might not have any more new posts for several days.

Links:
Happy Holidays, Jon (Stewart)
Just funny.

Current song: "The News" by Jack Johnson

Driver Helper

I had my first day of work at my temporary job yesterday (Tuesday) with UPS. I went in at about 12:30, but it wasn't until 1:30 that the actual work began. It was a fairly nice day (mid to upper 30s, I believe) to make many, many trips from the truck to doorsteps and back. It's also a decent workout when you add all those trips up. I found it to be a rather enjoyable way to earn some quick cash, at least for the first few hours before it was getting dark and colder and I hadn't eaten since about 10:30 or had a drop of anything to drink since noon. I'm pretty sure if I'd just been able to had some water throughout the afternoon I would have been feeling a little better when I got home at 6:00.

I got another call to work today (Wednesday) but I never got to cause the guy never called me back like he said he would in our first conversation. My car situation is the ultimate reason for this. Poor timing CAR! My dad is coming in the morning to help tow the car to the shop, thus saving $65. That is definitely helpful. I need to be getting to sleep though since he'll be here midmorning.

My favorite line of the day is from defective yeti: "Penury Is Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose"

Current song: "Buggin'" by The Flaming Lips

Down with the moral majority

My first day of work is tomorrow. My last day of work is 12 days from now. That short span of employment should bring in enough money to subsidize my current lifestyle for at least an additional month beyond previous estimates. Hopefully I get a "real" job really soon now so that it becomes a moot point. That would require one of the numerous places I'll applied to get back to me EVER. I highly doubt the application numbers are so high for any of these positions that a brief response of acknowledgment from the HR department or whoever is totally unreasonable. That's just how the game is played though.

My car won't start. Current speculation points towards the problem being the starter or spark plugs. I will be making inquiries at a nearby repair shop tomorrow. Pray for a cheap fix.

I know the day is fast approaching when other, more "important" concerns such as work will reduce or eliminate my ability to do other things I enjoy, like taking in a nice view at the window. Society will be much happier with me if I'm being a productive worker though. And society is always right.....

Current song: "Destiny" by Dave Matthews Band, followed by "Minority" by Green Day

Uninteresting, but short

It's been snowing here all day. Just a light snowfall without much wind that makes for a very picturesque view of the park outside my window. Several times today I have taken the time just to stand by my window or sit on the edge of my bed in front of it to stare out at the scene. The pond is almost completely frozen over, only a little circle out near the middle of it is still open. This is where the ducks are all gathered together. Most are in the water while a few sit on the ice encircling the hole. All the geese seem to have figured out that heading further south might be a good idea and are nowhere to be seen.

Current song: "Prove" by Fuel

College storytime

A friend of mine is taking Com S 342, Principles of Programming Languages, this coming spring and in talking to her about it I was reminded of a amusing incident that occured when I took that class. It was a class that had a ton of tricky, time-consuming homework. There was something due pretty much every single lecture and recitation starting the second week of class till Dead Week. One of my roommates at the time, Todd, would return from work in the early evening and I would almost always be glued in front of my computer with multiple terminal windows open pounding out some beautiful Scheme code. He would take a step into my room on his way past and say "Still beating on it?" to which I'd reply "Yep". It very quickly became something of a tradition.

Anyway during the middle of the week before Easter weekend the professor assigned a brand new homework assignment (each of which were pretty time-consuming) that would be due just a couple days after Easter. Now all the students were disgusted by the high volume of homework and we'd complain to each other (and not infrequently to the professor and TAs) about it. While walking from Atanasoff Hall to Physics 3 (fuck that room by the way, 5 too) for the last lecture before Easter weekend the guys I was with and I were doing some such complaining. I started on a little rant about how many students go home to their parents for Easter and how it was unreasonable to assign a big homework to be completed over this particular weekend. The best part was I capped it off by saying, "Apparently you don't get to practice religion if you're in this class". A second later someone in the group shot me a glance or cleared their throat or something and I glanced over my shoulder. The professor was walking RIGHT behind us. Sweet. We started casually chatting with him the rest of the walk to class. After we reached class and took our seats and the prof prepared to start class we laughed amongst ourselves about it. I never got any indication that the prof had definitely heard me, but I'd be surprised if he didn't. Luckily I stayed away from any personal insults during my rant. He actually was one of my favorite com sci professors in the end.

Current song: "Spoon" by Dave Matthews Band