Month: October 2004

Huis Clos

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I don’t remember if it was sixth grade or seventh grade, but either way it was before or slightly after my bar mitzvah. I know this because I was in Hebrew School at the time, and the year after my bar mitzvah—known as eighth grade by all the goyim—I left Hebrew Junior High School for something more interesting: Hebrew High School. These Jewish studies, which supplemented my mainstream public school education, were both irrelevant and relevant to me at the same time.

The irrelevancy is evident from this story, since Judaism and what I am currently writing (and what you are now currently reading—both the same) have nothing in common except for the initial location.

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Good Realization

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I looked at the calendar this weekend and realized that I have three paychecks coming to me in both October and December. That will definitely help ease my money issues since I budget for two paychecks monthly.

I didn’t quite reach all my goals for the weekend, but I did manage to complete the most important one: laundry.

Plan for the Weekend

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These are the things I’d like to get done this weekend.

  • See a movie. I’m not sure which one yet, but I suppose I’ll figure that out between now and the time I sit down in a theater.
  • Laundry. That really needs to get done. It’s such a pain not having a washer or dryer in my apartment. I’ll have to make sure I have enough quarters stored up.
  • Web work. I’m going to take a look at Bryan‘s redesign of Darren‘s company’s website and see if I can bring this project to a closure of some sort. Maybe I’ll look for some other opportunities for web design work. (Speaking of this, I added three more languages to the English-to-Englsh dictionary.)
  • Get a mailing list together for jobs in which I might be interested across the country.
  • Add more information to DrumCorpsWiki which has stalled lately due to my lack of attention.
  • Clean?
  • Plan next weekend’s possible trip to New England. Last night, when I went out after work at a local bar with some co-workers, someone who lives up in Vermont gave me some location tips.

That’s probably enough to keep me busy. I need more hours in the day… and I need to make the most of that time.

Meme Screme

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The flicker on my computer monitor screen at work gives me headaches, as far as I can tell.

I’m going to try really hard to refrain from discussing politics here for the time being. Talking about it here really doesn’t do anything to calm my anger. So that’s it for now on world and national topics. The issue I’m having problems with lately is unfortunately money. Luckilly I have some saved up, but it just isn’t much. I’ve been hit with two large car insurance payments (almost $1,000 each) that I’ll need to make this month and next month due to having a new car and losing the multiple vehicle discount. The comparatively low salary at my job isn’t helping. It’s been about a month since I’ve brought that up, so maybe it’s time I do so again. But I’m looking for outside ways to bring in some extra funds.

A Reggae Tribute to Amazon.com

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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. It’s great to come home to a new CD in the mail. I will have to spread the goodness.

In celebration of the collection of music on my hard drive, I’m now streaming everything randomly. Check the link on my sidebar for My SHOUTcast Station. The link should work until my IP changes, anyway. You may have to load this link directly into your MP3 player (WinAMP, Windows Media Player, iTunes, etc.) if the program is not associated with your browser. I should have enough music to provide hours of entertainment, so I’ll just leave it online twenty-four hours a day. Maybe I’ll be able to listen from work.

UPDATE: I changed the link to use my web server as a repeater, so now I don’t have to worry so much about connecting to my home computer which didn’t seem to work from my office.

This Is Utterly Insane

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Bush is planning to give a national speech on Wednesday to address the accusations Kerry made during the presidential debate. First of all, why didn’t he address the issues during the debate? Second of all, will Kerry get equal airtime? Third of all, it’s much easier to read a scripted speech then it is to actually have to think while facing an opponent head-to-head. The speech would give Bush the opportunity to “debate” an invisible opponent. Here’s Bush, trying to take the spotlight away from the actual debates (which are not really debates) and the normal electoral process by using his status as the current president to minimize the effect of his weakness in debate technique (and in actual thought).

Don’t fall for it. By the way, planned job cuts soared to an eight-month high in September. Also, here are some letters from soldiers who are or have been in Iraq over the last few years.