Roughly 1400 words of nothing in particular

60% of the work week gone - eyes on the prize baby. eyes on the prize.

It hasn’t been a bad week, actually, although it started out a little guilt-ridden . On the one week anniversary of being stranded with a dead car battery and being helped by a Good Samaritan, I was forced, by company policy to deny help to a customer asking for a jump, thereby earning me one more day in purgatory down the road.

Still, other than that it’s been prety good. Keeping the ol’ spirits up, keeping busy, enjoying my time at home to balance out work.

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I conducted an odd interview the other day. For those of you who don’t know, one of my Big Dreams was to travel the world as a vagabond after college, changing jobs every other week, getting into fights in Shanghai and falling in love in Stockholm. Didn’t happen, of course, seeing as I met my wife and settled down.

No regrets, mind you. But it turns out this candidate earned a history degree as I did, then traveled the world doing odd jobs, from being a cab driver to a bouncer to an English teacher and a deckhand. He is fond of the local library system (where I worked a number of years), can teach but doesn’t want to (ditto) and wants the job at hand in part just to have time to read and, you guessed it, write.

The other manager who sat in on the interview kept giggling. “It’s like he’s your soul mate,” she said later.

Eh, more like my Bizzaro World Mirror-Image Danny.

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Memo to self: I bleeping hate typing in the dark, even as a ‘touch’ typist of 55wpm. It’s darn annoying, but the baby is sleeping in the swing behind me.

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I’m working on some new graphics to replace the outdated sidebar (man I hate that pic) and the ‘masthead’ I run at the start of each post.

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One bad thing about the Packers in the Championship game: seven long and tortuous days filled with Packer related this and that, from human interest stories to interviews with players to morons who make snow statues of their favorite players. Two stations have even extended their newscast each night by ten minutes for the duration of the week, thereby knocking out the HD version of the talk shows that are scheduled to run next.

Just watch the &@*# game

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Stolen Joke: What’s the difference between American Idol and the NFC Championship game?

Answer: American Idol is in Dallas this week.

I watched American Idol, as usual. Not overly exciting,. Weird to see a tamer Simon, but it does appear genuine. Thank goodness he’s finally mocking Paula over her inclination to constantly side with Randy.

Loved the Simon worshiper. Let’s face it, the whole night brought home the point that most folks respect Simon’s word far more than Randy or Paula’s.

That woman from Kelly Clarkson’s home town . . Yowzas. Shame her voice doesn’t match the look because I wouldn’t mind seeing her all season.

To the woman who went off about Simon for no reason, as he simply said she would best be served by singing in a band: he was right, and it wasn’t an insult. You have a good voice for a rock band.

Complaint: I am annoyed and bothered by the fact that AI spends entire 5 minute segments on people that are clearly mentally impaired. Not the kooks, mind you, or the freaks, but the honest to goodness Flowers for Algernon contestants. Poor taste and exploitive. Plenty of ‘normal’ losers to waste airspace on.

By the way, that Princess Leia contestant bothered me greatly. She wasn’t impaired, so she doesn’t fall under the above criticism, but she was obviously suffering from extremely low self esteem and self-loathing. Remember her first tear filled words to her Grandma when she left the audition? I paraphrase, but “They looked at me and just said dork, like always”

And earlier, when they were talking to her and she said that she didn’t find herself remotely attractive . . to me it was painfully obvious that the whole Star Wars/Leia thing was a way of explaining away a failure and salvaging some self esteem.

I used to do that a lot, sabotage my own efforts so that if I failed I could look back and disregard the loss by saying “Pff. It wasn’t like I tried my best. It’s not like the result counts”

It does, and that’s just a way of announcing to the world that you’re uncomfortable in your own skin.

It really bothered me. Sometimes I’m still the little kid who bawled after watching Dr. Detroit and wanted to deliver a bag of groceries to the homeless drunk who approaches Ackroyd in the movie.

And sometimes I feel like a heartless bum. Go figure.

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I have a shed in my backyard that I took apart and moved from a friends house late this fall. My friend graciously gave itto me for free provided he didn’t have to partake in the move or construction, but one of YaYa’s friend’s Dad lent me a hand. The frame was put back up, three sides went upand then you guessed it, it was on to the 4th or 5th snowiest December on record and the project sat untouched.

Now it’s in the 40’s, there’s no snow and I was gearing up to spend an off day this week working on it . .and the news says we can expect two inches of snow tomorrow followed by bitter cold.

Ain’t life grand?

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Enough of the Britney Spears coverage. She’s honestly going to kill herself and then the whole world will fall over itself looking to place blame, without bothering to look in the mirror.

Reporters followed her into church and yelled “Are you praying Britney?”. They followed her into church.

Leave her alone.

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Memo to parents-to-be: four year olds are, day in and day out, as much trouble ,and just as prone to emotional fireworks, as two, three, and five year olds combined.

Now that I mention it, 5 month olds, two year olds, and six year olds aren't a piece of cake either.

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I had the misfortune of sitting in a meeting this past week and listening to a local recall-the-elected officials group speak at the request of the board. The speaker was charismatic but very loud and aggressive. Nothing was said that was out of line (save for the fact that I believe this to be a democracy, and if I person in office sucks vote him out, don’t talk to me about a recall ) but the whole atmosphere of desperation and anger in the audience. . Shiver. Not for me, thanks.

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Watched Alvin and the Chipmunks and dang near peed my pants at times. The kids were flat-out laughing out loud too. Unexpectedly a lot of fun.

Wish I could say the same for Eastern Promises. Boring, boring, boring, and excessively violent.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles was very entertaining and well written. Even Lisa liked it. I wonder how long it is until Terminator fatigue sets in though. I mean really, I’m already adding up the ‘bots and wondering how Skynet or John Connor found any time to fight a war with all the tinkering and tampering with time travel. Just between the three movies five cyborgs and one human were sent back in time. In just one episode of the show we’ve seen three cyborgs and four humans that traveled, and presumably at least a few more stuck back in 1963.

If you have time for plans that intricate, shouldn’t you have time to think of a way to stop the whole madness? And if Skynet succeeds, how do they ever know that they need to go back in time to kill Connors? Likewise, if Connors succeeds in stopping Judgment Day, his father never goes back in time to conceive him.

Lose lose in logic land, no?