Month: April 2006

  • Random Download #3

    http://www.ctgmusic.com/song.php?id=10740

     

    There are moments when you feel overwhelmed by such deep levels of satisfaction that few things can express it. It’s just far too subtle to be able to communicate, unfortunately for you, it’s far too sublime for me to just let it pass without comment.

     

    Basically, I know that a new job/promotion is pretty much in the bag. I’m not going to put the cart before the horse, but it feels nice knowing that the work I’m doing is going to still be mine down the road. When I got bumped up to this position last July, I knew it was essentially an internship and that I was really just filling in until the next person came along. At the turn of the year I got a little depressed because I knew it was only six months until I would be done here at the library(where I’ve been working since early 2002). Last month I knew I was going to have to begin a job hunt and begin applying and interviewing at various places. I enjoy the library system and atmosphere(very calm!), and so I figured I’d apply at the Columbus Metropolitan Library first. I hadn’t done that yet and then a few weeks ago an opportunity presented itself, and I took it.

     

    It’s funny now to remember last June when Mary retired. I was a project student(which pays pretty nice), but I knew I was planning to leave OSU and so the same feeling of ‘things are going to end soon’ pretty much dominated my mind. Well I sat about 7 feet away from where Mary did, and it was just the most surreal feeling sitting there all of a sudden realizing that it was going to be a choice between ‘sit here, leave eventually, and only god knows what happens after that’ and ‘go inquire about the job’. It was just such a black & white decision defined by fear(sit and leave) and being opportunistic(get up and ask). I guess it’s kind of like asking that really hot girl(or guy) out when you have no idea what they’ll say.

     

    I cannot imagine how miserable I would have been had I sat there and then saw some pretentious grad student sitting in what could have been my chair for the last few weeks before diving off into the abyss of the job market(with no degree notably). Instead, I’ve got tons more real workplace experience in hand…er mind?….and now have my path set. I’ve mention the game civilization before. That’s pretty much what I do. Manage resources. Just like some who prefer action/adventure games would be horrifically bored by a game like civilization, I can understand how a job like this could bore those who prefer a more action/adventure type of job. Nevertheless, it’s fun figuring out ways to increase efficiency. I never knew when I was 16/17 playing civilization for months and months at a time just how much those skills would prove useful. It’s just plain cool.

     

    I guess all of this just sunk in today and it’s just seeping into my bones it seems. The only comparable feeling I can think of is the kind when you find a song that just echoes with your current good mood(remember diamond body). This is why I put up Alphadelta’s Speechless. This is slightly off topic, but the one thing I know for sure is that I want to be with the kind of girl that when I discover these kinds of songs, I can play them with her and she’d like them just as much. ‘You have to hear this song!’….5 minutes later…..’Is that awesome or what?’ ‘It really is. J’. That kind of reciprocal relationship could also bring about the kind of deep satisfaction I was attempting to explain earlier. Or! Or being in that kind of reciprocal relationship and just holding her close as she tastes ecstasy. Yeah, that’d be up there too.

     

    Well I got off topic and a little delusional, but anyways. Just listen to the song and know that I am in an extraordinarily sexy mood right now. That’s strange too. It’s too hot outside. I’m a scorpio, and usually only get in these moods during the winter. Who knew?

     

  • Jack and the Bonsai Tree

    Ok so as I mentioned elsewhere, my creative writing class was cancelled today so I decided to go ahead and post the fairy tale today. The original story was obviously Jack and the Beanstalk, but I played around with it a little instead of just making it more modern. We only had to do the first few paragraphs of whatever story we chose so that’s why the story is incomplete. Anyways….

     

    Back in the day there was a poor widow who lived in a run down apartment with her only son Jack. Jack had a lot of adrenaline, but was still very eager to please those around him. It had been a rough winter, and after it the poor woman had suffered from the flue. Jack sat on his butt all day doing nothing, so he and his sick mother grew poorer and poorer.

     

    The widow saw that they would starve unless they sold their computer; so one morning she said to her son, “I am too weak to go myself, Jack, so you must take the computer to Best Buy for me, and sell it.”

     

    Jack liked going to Best Buy to sell the computer a lot; but as he was on his way, he met a homeless man who had a bonsai tree in his hand. Jack stopped to check it out, and the homeless man yelled, ‘Bonsai! Bonsai!’ He told the boy that it was of great value and persuaded the naïve fool to sell the computer for the bonsai tree.

     

    When he brought it home to his mother instead of the money she expected for her computer, she was pretty pissed and scolded Jack for his idiocy. He was very apologetic, and mother and son went to bed depressed that night; their last hope seemed gone.

     

    Early in the morning Jack got up and went into the little area of grass behind the apartment. “At least,” he thought, “I will plant the bonsai tree. Mother says that it is just a common bonsai tree, and nothing else, but I may as well plant it.” So he took a stick, dug a hole in the ground, and put in the bonsai tree.

     

    That day the each had only a bologna sandwich for dinner, and went to bed depressed, knowing there was nothing more to eat, and Jack, unable to sleep from grief and frustration, got up at dawn and went out back.

     

    To his astonishment he found that the bonsai tree had grown in the night, and climbed up and up until it reached the roof of the apartment building. The branches had twisted together until they had formed quite a ladder.

     

    “It would be easy to climb it,” thought Jack. And, with no further consideration, he at once resolved to climb it, for Jack was a good climber. However, after his foolishness about the computer, he thought he had better check with his mother first.

     

     

    Yeah that’s as far as I went. I think he may have found garden gnomes living on the roof instead of a giant, but I don’t really know.

     

    -Dan

  • On The Way To The Zoo

    Ok so yesterday in the Creative Writing class one of the exercises we did was we first wrote down a sentence of exposition, and then passed the paper/notebook to our left and the next person wrote a sentence of narrative, then to the left again for a sentence of dialogue, then left again for a sentence of description, then left again for a sentence of indirect dialogue(I think?), then left one more time for a sentence of interior dialogue.

    So basically, only the first sentence of this short story was mine. The fifth sentence belongs to Erin, and a sense of humor like that is a very attractive quality. Keep in mind, as we got farther along in the process, we fed off of each other’s smirks and got weirder and weirder. Twas a fun day yesterday. Oh yeah, and an assignment for next Tuesday is to rewrite the first few paragraphs of any fairy tale in a more modern form. It’ll be short enough, like this one today, that I’ll post it up.

     

    It had been years since we had been to the zoo.

     

    I drove the car with Katie and the kids in the back, and it felt like a sitcom family.

     

    “Are we there yet?” Jacob asked in that whiny ‘kid on a road trip’ voice.

     

    ‘There’ was a hot and arid place filled with sand and a giant reptilian monster was standing in the middle of the lane that led to the zoo.

     

    Katie screamed and I told her it would be ok because I packed superman in the trunk and he would save the day.

     

    I was thinking that if that monster was real he’d be fighting Mothra now, “Mmm, Mothra!” I thought.

     

     

  • Headaches are fun!

    I have no energy and a brainkilling headache so I’ll make this brief.

    Meredith Viera is one of the most fake personalities to be put on television. I tried watching the half hour version of millionaire and she reeked of disingenous-ness(that even a word?). So the fact that she’s being put on the Today Show, which from 7:00 to 7:22 has become part of my morning routine, is terrible. The Early Show on CBS has Julie Chen and Hannah Storm who are even worse though, so it kinda sucks.

    Anyways, I’m tired and annoyed and have a two hour writing class in a little while, so hooray! I like the class for the most part, but except for the possibilities that may be showing themselves with a girl named Erin, I’d much rather be heading home to get some sleep.

    I’d much rather be this guy:

    Image obtained from: http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/vet_files/5132005836-pic3.jpg

    Peace out homies(see how tired I am? I’m using leftover 90′s slang)

  • Four jobs I have had in my life:

    1. Paperboy(2 weeks total)
    2. Administrative Assistant
    3. Project Student
    4. Claims Specialist

    Four movies I would watch over and over:

    1. Dumb & Dumber
    2. The Goonies
    3. Midway
    4. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure

    Four places I have lived:

    1. Fostoria, OH
    2. Cincinnati, OH
    3. Columbus, OH
    4. Umm…only 3.

    Four TV shows I love to watch;

    1. The Office
    2. Amazing Race
    3. Lost
    4. My Name Is Earl

    Four places I have been on vacation:

    1. Dominican Republic
    2. Mount Rushmore/Crazy Horse
    3. Gettysburg
    4. Niagara Falls

    Four web sites I visit daily:

    1. Xanga
    2. Yahoo Mail
    3. NHL.com
    4. Netscape Mail

    Four of my favorite foods:

    1. Reese Cups(Yes I’m an elitest)
    2. Tombstone Pizza(and cultured)
    3. Pizza Combos(and have well-developed taste)
    4. Sno-caps(I wrote a poem about them once)

    Four places I would rather be right now:

    1. Asleep
    2. In the 1400’s
    3. In the 2400’s
    4. With Jennifer Love Hewitt

    Thanks to Megan for emailing me her list so that I could swipe the idea. !