It's About Time

Last night I typed about the thunderstorm. Today in class the professor commented about the storm, asking something to the effect of "how about that storm last night, eh?" Someone from the back of the room said, "it's about time!" Was it about time? I hadn't noticed there was an expected rate of occurrence for thunderstorms, or that we were behind schedule in that department. I'm not trying to attack the comment, I just thought it was different. You don't usually hear people enacting deadlines on nature (unless it is from children expecting snow on Christmas, or on the due date of a heavy school assignment).
I wish I knew who said it, so I could find out why. Perhaps he is an avid Weather channel watcher and they predicted a thunderstorm for the day prior. Maybe he expected the storm on Monday night, leaving him understandably let down when no rain fell. Perhaps he waited all day Tuesday expecting dark clouds to form and those first few drops of rain to fall. Every time a large truck or motorcycle drove by he ran to his window to find the source of the rumbling. He was living in anticipation of the thunderstorm right from the minute he heard it announced by the Weather channel forecaster. It is possible that he went to bed Monday night with slightly less faith in the forecaster. If this were the case, then I'd support his "it's about time!" whole-heartedly. Unrealized expectations are never encouraging.
This is all just speculation, though, for all I know he had promised a friend that he would stop eating Lucky Charms (his favorite "complete breakfast" component, which he ate everyday) until the next thunderstorm. He made the agreement hastily after the friend accused him of being addicted to the "magically delicious" meal, never thinking it would be however long it wound up being between thunderstorms. Regardless of how long it was, it was too long. He loves his Lucky Charms cereal, a product of General Mills.
I'm done with that rain story now. I had to check on the supplier of Lucky Charms (I wasn't sure if it was General Mills or Post, though I was leaning towards GM) so I went to Wikipedia; I wouldn't trust it as a source for school papers, but for cereal and blogging? I think it'll do fine. I read the article on the cereal and have become adequately distracted so as to move on from my previous story.
What I learned about the cereal is that Brach's Circus Peanut candy marshmallows played a role in its creation. Unbelievable. I never thought anything good could come from those things. I may have enjoyed them years ago, when candy was candy, but today I can't get into them. It's not an awful candy, but it just isn't the best in my opinion. There are a lot of other candies I'd select before Circus Peanuts. I was surprised by this historical discovery. Another interesting piece of information is that the marshmallow bits in Lucky Charms are referred to as marbits, at least for the purposes of the Wikipedia entry. I will assume that marbits is the technical term for the pieces (which make up 25% of the volume of a box of the cereal) used by those in the industry at the Lucky Charms factory. I think the next time I see someone eating Lucky Charms I will use the word.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Charms
http://www.luckycharms.com/

My Computer is Melting

No it isn't. It feels hot though. So do I. The temperature has reached 90 degrees, farenheit, over the last day or two. Until 10 minutes ago when a huge storm erupted. It was so nice. I am no longer sweating where I sit, but my computer hasn't cooled down yet. I find it interesting how a thunder storm has a violent presentation, but it calms me. Another glaring difference between me and dogs, some dogs anyway, they don't like thunder. The thunder crashes and rumbles around the sky, sometimes so powerful you can feel the sound it creates. Lightning takes over all attention as it rips through the sky and exposes pure light and energy. I don't usually like the wind around here, but when it is raining, I mean when it is pouring, and that old man is snoring, well, I'm OK with the wind then. Mostly because I'm not outside in it; although, running wild in a big storm can't be beat. The sound of rain on the roof, the windows and the puddles creates a soothing rythm. And tomorrow it will be greener than today.
I think I will make Rice Krispie Treats now. Zen.

On The Way Out

I only have a few weeks left of school. I'm not going to miss homework. I have some to do right now. 37 pages of an article about values and Christian families. More philosophical stuff. I read three pages with zero retention so I decided to pause that effort. Class isn't for another 18 hours, I'll get it done. I just looked over my current grades for the semester. I'm not up to snuff with previous semesters. I know I'll have one solid A because that class is already over, it was a block class, meaning it lasted for half of the semester. Is that common knowledge? The definition of a block class? I don't know, so I defined it. I'm pretty sure one of my other classes will be an A as long as I keep doing the assignments. My ethics grade is currently at 93%, but the mid term hasn't been factored in yet, nor has the participation grade, which is going to kill me. 20% of the grade is based on participation, but some days I just don't have anything to contribute, and other days I raise my hand several times and don't get called on. If I can pull off a B- for the semester I'll be perfectly content. Yes, perfectly. My abnormal psychology and cognitive psychology class grades continue to drop with every exam. I'm at 87% and 85% with those classes, respectively, as of now, so a couple of B's will be fine with me. I have a 91% currently in my remaining class, but that's because the grade display on the web application used isn't set for assignment weight correctly. I'll have a solid A in that class when the points are all adjusted appropriately.
I can't think of anything worthwhile to type about today. I'm just killing time for another hour until the Mets game is on. They are playing the Tigers tonight. Last night was the first of the three game series. Mets won, 14-6. I like to watch the blowout games like that. Everyone is getting hits and scoring runs. It makes it more enjoyable. Of course, I also like to see the pitchers get wins, and John Niese was taken out of the game before he qualified for the win, but in the situation it had to be done to maintain the lead. He did let up 6 runs after all. Had they not had 11 of their own at that point, he probably wouldn't have made it that far.
I thought of something to say. I wanted some juice or something other than water to drink a few days ago, so I wondered if I could just let some herbal tea cool down and pretend it was juice. I finally got around to doing that today. There was actually a set of directions for preparing iced tea on the box. Cue reference to Brian Regan's surprise over the directions for toasting Pop-Tarts. I assumed iced tea would be prepared as follows: 1. Put tea in refrigerator 2. Drink it later when it is cooled. That is pretty much what the directions say to do. I wonder why those kind of things are necessary to have printed on product boxes. It seems intuitive enough, but perhaps it isn't. What it comes down to is this, the tea is better hot than cold. It is not a valid substitute for juice, not by any stretch of the imagination.
Did I mention there are only a few weeks of school left? One month from today, in fact, will be the last day of the semester, and I will be on my way out, back to where the sun rises from.

If You Build It, They Will Rock

This morning I awoke from a dream. In the dream I was in a class. I had shown up late because I lost the group traveling between classrooms. It wasn't a large class, only two other students. They were people I know and have had classes with. I don't know the correlation with them being in the dream. Before the class left the first room, I was in the hallway and there were pennies on the floor, just a few. I wanted to pick up the pennies, but I didn't want anyone to see me do so. I waited for them to all be walking away in the direction of the new class room, a computer lab to be exact. Once they were facing away I picked up four pennies, thinking it was well worth it. I started walking after the group: one professor and two students. As they turned a corner at the end of the hall, I was passing the water fountains. I rinsed off the pennies, as they were pretty dirty. For some reason, one of the pennies was in my mouth, which I rinsed off by putting water in my mouth from the fountain; the other three pennies were in my hand for the rinse. I spit out copper-colored water in the fountain and continued on my way after the class, but by this point they were out of sight. I turned the corner and passed a girl I used to know, I said hi, but the penny was clenched in my teeth still. I thought she must have thought I sounded weird. I got to a stairwell and there was construction going on and some workers. I went up to the third floor, which was blocked by some "caution" yellow tape. I just went into the room under construction and looked around. The class wasn't there. I turned to leave and some school administrators and a contractor were coming up. I asked if they saw the class and the contractor - who was about two feet tall though still proportionately accurate, just miniaturized - told me that they went by about 14 minutes earlier (I guess I was wandering around that room for a while) and if I hurried I wouldn't miss class. I was also told that they had entered the second floor. I went down to the second floor and found the computer lab. In the middle of the room were 3 computers. The other two students were each at a computer. The professor was angry at me. I told him I got lost. It was the professor I work for. He's never been mad at me in real life, that I know of, so I think it is funny that he was in the dream. I sat at the empty computer, but then the professor was a different one. The professor was now one that I have had for a few other classes. He is a fan of punk rock music, which is why it makes sense that the topic of discussion that I had just missed out on was hardcore rock music, and how it related to some town during a certain span of years. While the professor changed, his demeanor didn't, he was still mad at me. I missed the lesson, but I had arrived just in time for the quiz. I had a piece of paper that was some kind of letterhead. I don't know what the logo was at the top, but there was light blue writing and an image at the top of the page and then half way down in either margin was some light blue-colored symbol. Just below the header I wrote the name of a location and below that, two dates, which is why I think the topic had to do with a span of time. At the level of the symbols, half way down the page I wrote a 1. The first question of the quiz was regarding an image. I don't know how the image was shown to us, I just remember the image. It was of an old Greyhound-style bus lodged broadside in the side of a hill, a gentle slope of a hill. The question was "How would you best describe what is in this picture?" My answer was "hardcore amphitheater." That is when I woke up.
I'm lying in bed with this thought and image fresh in my mind. I looked at my phone to see what time it was, 7:40 something. Time to get up, I've been sleeping in lately, as in this semester. The next thought I had was "if you build it they will come." It wasn't until later that I thought of the line "if you build it, they will rock," which is much more appropriate for this Field of Dreams style punk-rock venue I had dreamed about. With that thought I got right up and grabbed some paper and a clipboard and a pen and got back into bed. I drew out the image I had seen, but with one side wall of the bus missing. In place of this wall was a stage that extended from the bus with a railing around the edge, so performers don't fall off and go rumbly-tumbly down the hill, of course. Safety first. Then I decided that it would be best if along with the railing there was a sloping platform that acted as a slide from the stage down to the ground, just in case anyone went over the rail they could just slide safely down. The back wall behind the stage would be the inside wall of the other side of the bus. The windows would be replaced with lights and speakers, as would the windshield and back window. With this setup, the audience would stand down hill from the bus, but as I think about it now, this is a horrible set up for an amphitheater.
Here's why it wouldn't be so great. First off, the audience has to look up to a level platform above their heads. You'd have to be down the hill and a stretch further back on the level ground to be able to see the stage. Second, the sound is going to be generated mid-way up the hill and projected outward, it would dissipate and drift upward. Originally I thought the inside of the bus would be good for acoustics, but all that would translate down to the audience would be bass that rumbles through the ground. I said first off and second, but I guess that's all I've got as far as dings go. It would be a much better plan for this bus to be positioned at the bottom of the hill, like every other amphitheater in the world. Without looking up the definition, I imagine "facing a hill" is probably part of it. That might just be an association I've made in thinking about the amphitheaters and other theaters I've seen throughout my life. So put the bus at the bottom of the hill and the sound rises up to the listeners on the slope. Much better; only now, why use a bus? That's a small theater and stage. The bus was only useful in this design when it was a part of the hillside. I'm not sure why the bus is there, but I guess I thought that if it was there this would have been the best use for it. I keep waiting for that dream that features a brilliant idea, I thought this might have been it, but it is obvious that upon further analysis this is not the case.
One last story under the "rock" heading. Last night I was at a social gathering at a friend's house. As you know, when someone has a lot of people over to their house they are usually strapped for sufficient chairs and official seating arrangements. You get a collection of chairs that don't match all jimmied into a circle in the largest room in the house, that's just how it goes. Sometimes there is the stack of newspapers bundled up for the recycling pile that is temporarily honored with the title "chair." My favorite is the stack of 15 lb. bags of dog food. Unfortunately, there were enough legitimate chairs available, and some just sat on the floor. There weren't any makeshift seating devices. I was sitting in a rocking chair. We all went around and introduced ourselves: name, major (college students), hometown, such and such and so forth. When it came around to me, I was gently rocking in the chair, as I had been ever since sitting down. I said my name, my major, the much anticipated event of my soon-to-be-realized graduation, my home state and the fact that "I like to rock." Most everyone there knows me and knows that I play the guitar. I thought it was a brilliant word play. It took a second or two, but the reactions came. It was like a wave that slowly washed over everyone there. There's nothing like a well-placed word play. This is the third time I've related the story since I made the joke, less than 24 hours ago, obviously, I have no shame in repeating a joke, or patting myself on the back for a joke well done.
That is all.

Ajax is in Bad Shape

It is 12:00 am on the button as I type this. I’ll be posting it later, so I guess it doesn’t matter when I type it, or post it for that matter. Needless to say, I will be posting it. I will digress to discuss this phrase, “needless to say.” I heard a doosie today. I love when people misuse this phrase. Before that though, just the phrase itself is pretty ridiculous, the mime of literary idioms if you will. “If you will” is another good one, maybe it can be the clown car gag of literary idioms. Basically “if you will” is just for people who want to make their writing sound snootier, which is why I use it. But “needless to say,” well, if it was really unnecessary to be said, then why are you saying it? It is either an affront to the intelligence of the audience, as in, “I shouldn’t need to say this, but I did notice your knuckles dragging while you approached me, so…” or it falls into the category of trying to enhance the appeal of your communication. I can’t just say, “The kids went crazy after the football game and three of them wound up being arrested.” I’d have to say “The kids went crazy after the football game and, needless to say, three of them wound up being arrested.” That doesn’t really seem “enhanced.” I guess I’m going to change my statement to “the only reason to use ‘needless to say’ is to imply that your audience is in the cognitive slow lane.” There is intrinsic laughability in the phrase being used at any time, but the best is when it is used improperly, such as, “well, the dog has been chewing up everything in sight, and I mean EVERYTHING. Then add in the attack on the mailman, and they say that once a dog tastes human blood, well…you know. So when the neighbor asked if I’d watch their 2-year-old, I was pretty nervous. Needless to say, everything was fine.” Needless to say?! No, I think it was very needful to say. If you are leading up to a certain conclusion you can’t just throw in a needless to say and then turn the story around, it doesn’t make sense. Anyway, I heard a good one of those kinds today and was just thinking about it a little.
End of the digression. It is midnight. Recently my roommates and I have been doing a lot of talking about getting some exercise going. As the title states, Ajax is in bad shape. This goes back to my joke about trying to save some money, you know, tightening the belt, so I quit going to the gym. Well, my pants are getting tighter, just a bit. What can you do when Ben and Jerry’s is on sale for $2.30 a pint. I’d be wrong not to buy several. And then Oreo cookies, well, you gotta have those! Needless to say (checkmate!), I need to get back to the gym. This is the way our conversations have been going lately. It got really funny yesterday when one of my roommates was talking to a mutual friend and then I had dinner with her last night and I was talking about my plan to exercise again and she said that my roommate had just been talking about that too. It was funny to me and him anyway. I don’t think that is proper grammar. I’m not worried about grammar though, I’m worried about my cholesterol and this little stomacher I’ve got developing. If this was 1770’s Philadelphia it wouldn’t be a problem. You know the rest. You see, I want to develop a Brad Pitt type appearance. He’s a good looking fellow. Right now I’m on a young-Steve-Buscemi plateau. Nothing against Buscemi, he’s a funny guy, but he’s no Brad Pitt. Ben and Jerry aren’t going to help me get to where I’d like to be, I know that, yet I continue to sit all day and eat ice cream. Until tonight. My roommates decided to start running. They’ve done their run once so far and invited me tonight. Usually I’m in bed earlier and get up earlier, but lately I’ve been letting that schedule slip back. When they said run at 11:30 pm, I said OK.
Here is the run: about 2 blocks to the gas station to buy soda and energy drinks (The energy drinks are so they can stay up all night to watch the World Cup broadcast from South Africa). Let me tell you, or, needless to say, it was pretty funny that we ran for about 4 minutes and then they bought 40 oz. sodas. I bought a Gatorade. I at least wanted to look like I was trying. We get out of the store and start jogging again, but we couldn’t stop laughing. There we were - me with a Gatorade, each of them with a 40 oz. soda and one with a bag of energy drinks. Shuffling/jogging along, at break-neck speeds…yeah. It must have been some sight for the passing motorists: three young guys in exercise apparel, jogging along with huge soda cups in hand. Kind of like the folks ordering a diet soda at KFC (I know, diet soda is blah blah blah and just because blah blah blah. Whatever, it’s an easy joke to make, so I made it. You laughed, even if only slightly, and even if only subconsciously).
I don’t know if what I’ve typed here has done justice to the experience I just had, but it had to be said. Our little expedition took all of 20 minutes and covered 4 blocks. The first thing I did after getting back to the apartment? Eat a cookie. A tragic tale? Perhaps, but you’ve gotta start somewhere. In my defense, it was a peanut butter cookie; I hear protein is a good to eat after exercising. There’s still protein in peanut butter cookies, right?