Best Toy Ever?

I so wish I had a zillion dollars so I could spend money on things like this.

IM

I had to post this conversation I had with my friend today. I edited out the boring parts and left the funny. (well, maybe funny, if you know Matt)

Matt: I had an awful dream about you a few days ago
Matt: well it started out and we were fighting about something, I don't know what but we were tackling each other
Matt: and here is the horrible part
Matt: I suddenly saw that you had no hand
Matt: and I was like "WHAT HAPPENED???"
Matt: and you started sobbing, it was so sad
Matt: and you said, "Somebody chewed it off!"
Me: LOL!!
Matt: lol, it sounds so hilarious... but serious, it was awful
Me: I'm sorry
Me: sounds like our own little soap opera
Matt: lol, I woke up and I was like...... woah.....
Matt: that was weird

Go Naz, Go

For those readers who join me in attending the Naz, and care anything about sports, here are a few articles I found interesting.

Kenny goes Pro en Francais

Be the Next Cal Ripken

Here we go again

I started working at the Dalton Library today. It's not a horrible job, but doing this library thing for 2 years has got me burnt out. I'm looking forward to the spring when I get to try a new form of job.

By the way, as some of you may know, I work with Chuck's mom. And today she moved in a way that was like 100% Chuck. It was like deja vu. It was strange. Anyways, just some by the way stuff for me to ramble about.

Oh yeah, Go Tribe! Finally beat the Tigers!

I do one of these every now and then just for the hey of it.

	You are Fozzie! Wokka Wokka! You love to make lame jokes. Your sense of humor might be a bit off, but you're a great friend and can always be counted on..
Take the What Muppet Are You? Quiz!

Monday at Movies Part Deux


I thought since I was talking about Will Smith being awesome before, I'd post some of my movie favorites and least favorites.


Fav. Actor - Tie Kevin Spacey and Will Smith


Fav. Actress - Julia Roberts


Fav. Drama - Beautiful Mind


Fav. Comedy - Meet the Parents


Fav. Movie - Moulin Rouge


Least Fav. Actor - Tom Cruise (I think he's a horrible actor, what's so great about him?)


Least Fav. Actress - Janine Garaffalo (she just... annoys the snot out of me.)


Least Fav Movie - The Talented Mr. Ripley (it had no ending, it just stopped! it was horrible!)

Monday at the Movies

I saw quite a few movies this weekend. Here's some summaries of what I thought.


Ali - I found this movie very interesting. Will Smith is awesome. Fresh Prince or World Champ, he can do it all.


Bandits - Ok I watched this too late at night and fell asleep, but the first 30-45 minutes were good.


Riding in Cars With Boys - Another interesting movie. Definatly different. I liked it. Drew Barrymore did a great job with the role.


Men in Black - I've see this movie a dozen times but I still love it. I watched it with Alexis so we can go to the sequel this summer. I'm really looking forward to it. Once again, Will Smith rocks.


Spiderman - I told myself I wouldn't buy into the craze, but I ended up really wanting to see it. I'm glad I did. I ended up liking it. Not quite as much as the Batman flicks, but the Bat has always been my favorite. I'd never read/watched Spiderman before. I thought they did a good job setting up the whole how-he-became-a-spider thing quickly yet effectivly. Much better than the hour and a half Lord of the Rings took to introduce itself. I have to say though. Peter Parker is a dork. At the end of the movie (stop reading if you haven't seen it even though it's a classic cookie cutter ending) he picked being a guy who dresses like a spider over M.J. (Kirsten Dunst). What the heck is he thinking? His best friend just told him he was going to hunt out Spiderman so why not avoid that conflict and take the girl he has wanted since he was six??? ARGH! What a dweeb! Sorry. Anyways, I give Spiderman the Monday at the Movies highest honer :-D for doing a good set up job, having an enjoyable plot, and setting up the sequel well. Well done, Spidey.

Ok, so here I am. At home.

I've had one issue after another getting the internet into my room. First the phone cord wasn't long enough, so I went and bought a connecter piece to put two cords together. Then I couldn't find another cord. So I went and bought another cord last night (at Walmart where I got the rare privlage of talking to Abe in person). Then I found out freaking Juno doesn't have a number in Wooster or anywhere else I can call for free. Plus it connected really slow (yeah I'm used to a cable or T3 but still, it was even slow for a modem) So I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I might do another AOL trial under a different credit card until I get my laptop which will probably come with some other free internet trial. I don't know. We'll see. But I will be checking comments on Alexis' computer so behave everyone!!

Also, Chuck what's going on? I miss you and your blog.

The school year is done.

See you in Dalton.

Complaining: The American Disease

I'd been trying to think of something that I could Blog about that actually meant something. Not how my day was or how my finals are going. But real stuff. Lo and behold, a senior prank brought my answer.


First, background. Last night, some people hid in the library when it closed and over night pulled one side of the libraries books off the shelves and put them in mixed up piles on the floor in the aisles. I got a phone call about 9:30 this morning from one of my bosses who was asking all library workers to come in during thier free time today to put the books back up. I got there after my marketing exam and surveyed the damage. Most of the row couldn't even be walked through because of the piles. I thought it was good prank. I started putting books up with about 6 of my co-workers. Obvioiusly word of the prank got around and people came in to see what happened. A lot of people laughed and said it was funny. A few of my co-workers yelled that them and said it wasn't funny and they should be putting the books back up. I told my co-workers that being angry about it and yelling at people wasn't going to put the books on the shelf any faster, and now they're mad at me.

So I say: Why Complain?? If something bad happens, what good does it do to complain about it. I'm not self-righteous here, I have my moments too. But, because of things I've seen in my life (i.e. my Grandpa having a crippling disease for 30 years and not complaining and what I wrote about in the aforposted essay) I have taught myself as much as possible to roll with the punches and get over the bad stuff because complaining isn't going to change it.

Most of us made the reshelving fun by joking around and enjoying time to talk with our friends. Others complained that they had studying to do. They didn't have to be there, they were volunteering their time (well sort of, we got paid which was another thing to be happy about) but yet deemed it necessary to be known that they didn't want to be there. What does that help? Why make life miserable?

Like I said, I'm not perfect when it comes to this. I've been very down about having a boring summer ahead of me and I've tried a lot to make it positive and it's been hard. But little things like a prank, I don't think it's worth the worry. Senior Pranks happen. This one happened in the library. They work at the library and get paid to put books on the shelf. What's the problem? The way I saw it, they could have done a lot worse. They stacked the books, they didn't just pull them off the shelf. They didn't vandelize(sp?) anything. They left the books in somewhat of an order. It really wasn't that bad.

So anyways, my challenge to you and to myself is the next time something doesn't go your way, or just plain sucks. Look for the bright side. Find the good. Don't make it worse by complaining about it, that only makes you and others around you feel worse. And never forget the words of the great 80's philosopher Bobby McFerrin, "Don't worry, Be Happy!"

In Memorium

Because almost all of my daily readers are from Dalton, I decided to post my Satori Essay from my Advance Composition class. I hope you all enjoy a minute and take a minute to remember Chris for who he was and what he what he was to you.



A New Life Raised from a Death



I was mowing the lawn. I was on our Yard-Man behind the house on our half-acre lot when my mom came out and told me I had a phone call. It was our neighbor.

“Ross, this is Debbie. Chris Dobbins and Danny Conrad got in a car accident today. Chris didn’t make it.”

I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. As she told me the rest of the details my mind started spinning. This was my first experience of someone close to me dying. It was the summer of 1997, two weeks after my freshman year of high school. It wasn’t a grandparent who died; it wasn’t a great-aunt or great-uncle. It was a friend.

Someone my age, in my class, that I’d played baseball and basketball with was dead. I hung up the phone and called some other friends and then sat on our living room couch. I just stared out the window as my mind flew and circled and dove to the far reaches of all human thought.

Someone my age, my friend, was dead.

I thought of all kinds of things: how I was going to be driving soon and what if I was behind the wheel when one of my friends died, what would happen to Dan, how were Chris’ closest friends handling this, what was my last interaction with Chris? All these things loaded my brain over and over. But one thought stuck the entire time.

One of my friends was dead. His life was over, done with. I thought of how this could happen to anyone. How any day it could be all over, and I started to analyze my life and what would happen if I died at that moment. How would I be remembered? Would I die with any regrets? Would anyone even care? So I decided to take Chris’ death as an inspiration, as a reminder. Live today and every day as if it was the last. Don’t live with regrets. Don’t live with grudges. I began to not let the little things bother me. I slowly but eventually came out of my introverted shell and introduced myself to the world. I started to live by the theme of my favorite musical, Rent: “No day but today.” I tried and make every day live up to its potential as the best day of my life.

The place where the accident happened is one of the main intersections where I’m from. I drive through it a lot. Hardly a time goes by when I don’t think about Chris when I drive through it. I can still remember exactly the way I felt from the time I got the phone call through the rest of the evening. I remember a lot of the things I did with my friends in the week that followed, even some of the conversations. I remember flawlessly the details of the calling hours and what happened there. I remember what I saw and how I felt when I slowly looked at my friend for the last time.

Chris was a friend to everyone and just about every clic in our class was brought together by his passing. But from that phone call, to our graduation when we each put a flower on what would have been his chair, through my dying day, I will continue to remember to make my life the best it can be. I will know any day could be my last, and I know the power a person’s death can possess, all because of the phone call I received while mowing the lawn that tragic day in June.

It's Monday

I have two exams today.

I find out about two possible jobs today.

I work my last hours at the library at school today.

What a day, what a day, what a day...

It's Sunday

I guess I should start studying now.

Hey! A Sailboat!

After a fun trip to Polaris, Alexis and I watched Mallrats one of those so stupid it's hilarious movies (i.e. all of Kevin Smith's movies).

Tonight was a great night.

And now I get to go to bed and sleep until WHENEVER I WANT!!!!

Friday Five

I haven't done one of these in awhile. So here we are.


1. What shampoo do you use? Herbal Essences (or however it's spelled)

2. Do you use conditioner? What Kind? Yep, same as above

3. When was the last time you got your hair cut? no idea

4. What styling products do you use? Aussie Gel, but I'm out now

5. What's your worst hair-related experience? I don't like it really short. So I'll say the many times they cut it too short.

Baseball

I know most of you who read this don't care much about baseball. But I do. If you don't, skip this one and move on.

David put up a post about the possiblity of a strike happening in August. My feelings on that is that with already declined attendence, and everyone hating the Yankees and them being the ones that are winning the majority of titles of late, if the players strike MLB will never recover as it did from the last strike the last two years. Fans are already ticked at ticket prices and poor players and a lot of other things going on, and I don't think they would tolerate another strike. I know I don't think I could. Seriously, how much money can a guy spend?? How can they complain? The number one thing they need to do is get rid of Selig. #2 is get a salary cap. #3 um... trade A-Rod and Schilling and Johnson and Luis Gonzalez and Barry Bonds to the Indians. Hmm.... maybe that should be #1....

Sigh...

I'm done with classes now. Exams await.

I really have mixed feelings about this situation. Although I know I really need a break, I'm not looking forward to summer at all. I worked 40 hrs a week last summer for the first time and enjoyed the money, but got sick of the job. I'm not going to be working quite as much but that just leaves me more boredom at home. I'd like to just take a two week break of relaxation and then start the next school year. I don't have a vacation or anything to look forward to (not suprisingly, I haven't been out of Ohio since the New York trip my freshman year of high school) and nothing else too exciting and out-of-the-ordinary planned. So here I sit in my apartment, resenting the fact that I have to start packing but knowing I'm moving out on wednesday. So, I'm making a list of goals for the summer so even though I don't have much to look forward to, I'll have something to do.

1) Lose 10-15 lbs. I'm hoping five a month
2) Get some ideas/starts on writing some things
3) Buy my laptop and get it all set up nice
4) Do some sports research for my editing position next year (if I get it, officially)
5) Paint my room at home

I think that's a good start for now. It will give me something to do at least. So now I'm going to resume putting off cleaning and packing. Hmm... now how am I going to do that...

Welcome David

Now appearing on my links list, my friend David.

He just started his own blog and it testing the system.

This guy is an incredible writer and a great friend, I'm excited to read his blogs.

Check his site out at http://friskysman.blogspot.com/

A Late Monday at the Movies

Yeah, it's Wednesday, so what.

Last Thursday I got The Sopranos: The Complete First Season DVD set from the library. Since then I've watched the first eight epidsodes. That's all I'm watching. I like the show a lot. The plot is great, the acting is superb, it's dramatic, it's funny, it's great. But I can't get past the graphicness of it. It was like watching an eight hour R rated movie. It was too much for me to take. Like the strip club for instance. Instead of just showing the sign out front to show that they're in the back of the strip club, they felt the need to show the dancers almost every single time. And some of the killings were a little graphic for my liking, too. I know it's a show on HBO not NBC, but still. I can only handle so much of that. I don't think I should have to fast forward and/or hide my eyes two or three times in some epidsodes, the nudity gets ridiculous and it's not even necessary to the story. Like I said, the acting was awesome. And I really got into the story line. But too much is too much. And I've had too much.

Two Down, One to Go

I unofficially got my second job on campus for next year. I have an interview for another one Thursday morning.

So far I'm an Admissions Tour Guide and Sports Editor for the paper. Career Specialist is Thursday.

Crikey....

It was funny at first, but his is going way too far...


The Crocodile Hunter movie

Momma's Day

Alexis and I went home and suprised our moms today. It was fun :-)

Weekend Update

Friday - Movie night. Alexis and I watched The Bodyguard and then Nathan joined us for The Mexican. The Bodyguard wasn't too bad. Didn't change my opinion that Kevin Costner is a bad actor, but the movie was good despite him.

Saturday - Alexis and I spent 10 hours in Columbus. First we went to Tuttle Crossing and then to Easton. We had dinner at Bon Vie which was expensive, but good and went shopping for awhile. We ate desert at Maggie Moo's and after a trip to Best Buy spent the rest of our time at Barnes and Noble. It was a great afternoon/evening/night.

Here we go

Ok, here's what I have for now. I'm pretty pleased everything worked in the transition.
I know these colors are exaclty or almost exactly the same as Abe's, but it's the only one they had that I liked.

The Future of my Blog

I just wanted to let everyone know what I'm planning here over the next couple of weeks.

1) I WILL get this and all my other links transferred around so that the blog is on my index page. I experimented with it before and I think it works better. The thing is I'll need to change links on my other pages (why I don't know because nobody looks at those anyways. But I'll do it none-the-less.

2) I was thinking about taking down the comments through the summer since I can't see them at home or work (stupid SSSNet) but I think I'm going to get myself a Juno account over the summer so I can have the internet in my room. (Parents have cable modem on their computer) so I will probably leave them up.

3) I'm hopefully going to find a template that more pleasing to the eye. I'm getting sick of brown.

There you go.

the Benjamin Gate



This weekend at Sonfest, I saw a new band that I'm really growing to like a lot. They are called the Benjamin Gate and they hail from South Africa. They have the sound of Pink/No Doubt/Shakira only with Christian lyrics. Since that's the kind of music I've been listening to, I'm really glad to find a Christian parallel to it. Check them out at http://www.thebenjamingate.com they have a music video and stuff on there. They will be at Alive Festival this summer so if you're going there, make sure to check them out.

Sidenote: Chuck, knowing your music preferences, I think you'll really like their sound.

Yesterday

Yesterday I took the top off the Jeep (I let my brother borrow the 'Stang for awhile) and threw in Alexis and I's bike and we took off for Mohican. We tried Mountain Biking for the first time and found out it's a whooooole lot harder than it looks. We don't quite have half the endurnace it takes for that. So after braving and failing a few gravel hills and such, we placed the bikes safely in the back of the Jeep and went to a hiking trail. We hiked from the covered bridge back to Lyon Falls. It was cool. We climbed to the top of the falls and sat on the top and watched people coming in and going out for awhile. I've never seen so many Mullets in my life. Jeez. Older guys, middle aged guys, even a kid. It was really scary. So anyways then we came back and while Alexis was doing homework I watched Fast and the Furious. Then she came over and we watched My Best Friends Wedding and she wanted to see Fast and the Furious so we watched that again. Overall it was a great day. And the fact it's supposed to rain forever (see previous post) is very sad.

Get out yer rain gear

Doesn't look like the next couple days are going to be much fun.

Yay

I had a really good day today.

Details later. I need to rest and recover.

ARRRRRRGH!!!!!!







This losing thing sucks. So this is what the late 80's and early 90's felt like (minus the 10 game win streak to start). They need to get back to the little ball they played the first 11 games. Singles, steals and whatnot.... that worked. They won then. Why'd they stop?!?!?!

Jeez...

It's been a such a bad day but such a good day.
I had a lot of fun this evening but found out my great aunt, one of my classmate's grandma, and possibly one of my classmates
Man. This is weird. Too many conflicting emotions.
I need to go to bed.

ATTN: Charlie Manual

Ok Charlie, I'm officially worried here. The Tribe needs to win and soon.

oh and by the way, I just heard the rumor is Bartolo Colon to the Reds for Juan Encarnancion and Danny Graves... If that happens, I think my team loyalty will pack up and head elsewear. I just don't think I could deal with that.

I'm still here

It's been a couple days since I've posted. I've had tests and projects and papers to get done. But I'm still here.