The Misspent Life

AWOL

I will not be blogging for the next week as it is the first of my two end of term crunch periods. A lot to do between now and next Wednesday.

Back In the High Life: Weekend Report

Thanksgiving is over and I have returned from the Windy City. I expected to be very sad about going home without it actually being my home, but I wasn't. I spent an enjoyable Thursday with the family, helping out around the house and drinking my share (one and one half bottles of wine and several beers, to be exact). On Friday I read and read and read since a student never really gets time off and on Saturday I ventured into the city to see some friends. Boy, was it crowded. Tons of people. Marshall Field's, soon to be Macy's (don't get me started on that one, this is a family blog) was especially crowded. But my friends treated me to a nice Indian buffet and we went looking around for a pair of gloves to replace the pair my friend lost. I wasn't expecting to get anything, but I found a great grey tweed hat for only $19 and I had to buy it. Then I left my friends to see some other friends, Mr. and Mrs. Blandings. Mrs. Blandings cooked a delicious meal and we had some beers (Leine's Red, how I miss you!) and watched a travel show on Iceland and the state high school football championship.

The most surprising part of my visit into the city (besides my not being gripped by sadness) was the Daley Plaza Christmas tree and the surrounding Christkinder Market complete with nativity scene and baby Jesus. Daley may be a corrupt SOB, but I will give him props for keeping a little bit of Christmas and the Christ in the city square.

On Sunday I read and read and read and watched the Bears win (GO BEARS!!!!) and on Monday I woke in the wee hours to catch my flight back to the District. So here I am now, writing a boring post for you since I have so much work I can't even catch up on the episodes of Star Trek: TNG I've TiVo'ed. What a life!

What Better Way...

To finish up an essay than by listening to some records by Claudine! Nothing gets the juices flowing like a lilting Frenchwoman singing songs in English. Going through my records it seem that there was a requirement that all female singers in the 1960s have at least one song on their record that contained children singing along. Some sort of A&M conspiracy, no doubt. All in all, a nice way to cap off a few days mostly spent avoiding (I didn't get around to starting until yesterday afternoon) writing a crappy essay (although I am feeling pretty good about it--which is a bad sign).

Procrastination

I have an essay to write. I've outlined it and everything, but I simply don't want to write it. It has gotten so bad that I will probaby clean rather than write. Oh! I forgot that I have a movie from Netflix to watch--Spanglish. Yes, my procrastinating is that serious.

Thumpidy, thump, thump. Thumpidy, thump, thump.

Saturday Night Not-So-Special

It is something of a cliche to talk about how bad Saturday Night Live is, but sometimes you have to use a cliche. Saturday Night Live is bad. Let us discuss last night's episode to see why:

Misspent Podcast

Here.  I have a lot of work to do today, writting an essay and reading a ton so I decided to waste the afternoon fiddling around making a podcast.  It isn't very good, either in content or in sound quality, but give it a try.  It is a large file, so don't try it on dial up unless you want to take some time with it.

UPDATE: My bandwith is being eaten up for some reason and I'm closing in on my monthly allowance. If you really want to hear it (it is very cheesy and depressing, hence Misspent) let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Still #1

For I am a prude on Google. Fantastic.

Is There A Better Song

About love than John Denver singing "Annie's Song"? But that isn't what I want to talk to you about today. What I want to talk to you about is beer. I had a lot of beer on Tuesday night. This is what I had:

Weihenstephan Korbinen (16oz)
Augustinerbrau
Czech Strobrno
Some Polish beer
Some Lithuanian beer
Sapporro silver bullet

I think that is all, but I may be mistaken. I didn't have much to eat that day. A waffle for lunch and a chicken sandwich for dinner, so the beer was working its magic early. OH! It was good time.

Thank you.

Strange People

I spent a good deal of money last night at a used book store. But it was well spent. I got two boring books that I will need to read for class or studies and two cool old books, a two-volume book on nationalism that was written around 1900 so it will provide a nice pre-WWII viewpoint and an old, thick copy of the Reformation in Germany. I also got a Poison LP.

What was fun was listening to conversations taking place between customers. Of course a used book store is going to attract old hippies and leftists. That is just the nature of the place. But some of the conversations were priceless. One woman was complaining and complaining about this guy who kept bugging her. "Why won't he just leave me alone" she kept saying. "I'm going to be so glad when he leaves so he won't be bothering me anymore." She wasn't talking about an annoying neighbor or co-worker or spouse or child. Instead she was talking about President Bush. It is amazing that someone so busy could take the time to personally annoy this old woman. She could not stand it. She had had enough. He would just not leave her alone! This woman is crazy. Can there be any doubt about it?

I enjoyed listening to her ranting about Bush's being allowed to live, his being the son of Satan and all. I also refrained from saying anything to her since I did not want to get beaten by everyone in the store. You see there were several of these conversations going on in the place. There was also some discussion of the relative merits to mushrooms versus acid. It was agreed that the only way to enjoy studying the South American indians was to do so while taking mushrooms, since that is what they did. Strange people. I would enjoy following these people around for a while to see what their life is like.

I would not like to follow the people I overheard while having some tea in a coffee shop, however. You see, they were male escorts and they were talking about their "jobs." TMI. I should have thought to tell them that if they listen to Mrs. P. they would know that what they did for a living is actually a fine English word. I'm sure they would have appreciated that.

Torture

This week we are discussing identity movements and one of the big strands is "women." I have therefore had to read page after page of drivel about "women's movements." It is torture. While I have not experienced it, I liken it to having my testicles removed, by hand, through my bellybutton. Painful. My pages are covered in rants written in the margins. What rubbish! I haven't decided how vocal I will be during class discussion, but I do know that I have a few choice things to say.