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Tagged by timderringer List your six current favorite songs, and pass it on to six other people.

This may change in five minutes but for now and in no particular order...

* John Cena - The Time Is Now
* X - Wild Thing
* Toby Keith - Beer For My Horses
* Frickin' A - CutNumber7
* The Rolling Stones - Like A Rolling Stone
* Frickin' A - Jessie's Girl

I'm not tagging anyone, lest this thing be perpetuated more than necessary.

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You Are 35% Normal (Occasionally Normal)

You sure do march to your own beat... But you're so weird, people wonder if it's a beat at all You think on a totally different wavelength And it's often a chore to get people to understand you

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Best. Episode. Ever.

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Well today was the big day.

Finally after letting "a few weeks" turn into more like "nine months" my mooching off of Adam and Delia has come to and an end. They were more than kind to me, but the time to go had definately come. A couple months ago.

Adam really went the extra mile today helping me load and unload the Uhaul. For some reason I was having one of those overly optimistic self-assesements and was thinking that I'd be able to do it mostly by myself. I don't know what was up with that, but I'm glad he offered his help. Because I'd never have gotten things done. Hell, as is I didn't get the Uhaul back to the Uhaul place until 5:59, any later and they'd have been closed, and I'd have been stuck paying for another day.

A funny thing about loading the Uhaul was that for some reason I put in the mattresses first, and then realized that this wasn't good, as I had to prop them up on a few big boxes under the corners, then crawl under the mattresses inside a little cave I'd created while positioning my stuff in there. It would have been pretty cool if I were still ten, but that kind of stuff isn't so easy anymore.

So anyhow I am now living in my new digs in Arlington Heights, a three bedroom house which I share with Dave and another Josh. Props go to Jeffy for plugging me into this oppertunity.

I'm thinking of trying to schedule a "I Live Here Now"-type bar-b-que sometime soon. Maybe next weekend? Any of you in the Chicagoland area or sufficiently-motivated types living elsewhere, will, of course, be invited.

I'm still working on (read: too lazy to do) a Wrestlemania Weekend Wrapup. It's comming, "soon."


COUNTDOWN: 328 days, 17 hours, 29 minutes and 46 seconds until WrestleMania!! LIVE FROM CHICAGO, er... Rosemont, ILLINOIS!

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Still pending: Wrestlemania weekend wrap-up.

In the meantime... it looks like I may have found a place to move to. I've been staying at Adam and Delia's for far longer than I'd planned, so hopefully this will work out. More on this as it develops.

Had an awesome time hanging with Jeff last night, with stops at Red Robin, A "party" that Marcus was at, the potenitial future Casa-de-Josha, and a bar that wouldn't let Jeff in with his shorts. Ok it seems pretty lame but trust me a good time was had by all who attended.

Finally, this is funny.

While we're at it let's start the...

Countdown: 349 days, 18 hours, 55 minutes and 33 seconds seconds until WrestleMania!! IN CHICAGO Rosemont!

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Well I'm up far to late/early and once again am unable to sleep. Must be time for some journalization.

Recapping the past couple weeks; The trip to GOMV for the Sigma Tau alumni event was a blast. From hanging with some of the old school alumni like Sammy Schroder, to lending a hand when some drunken idiot ripped the urinal fixture off the wall at the Hilltop, to some interesting orginizational-motivational type meetings, a good time was had by all.

Last weekend I got together with little Jonnie Marcus and Jeffy Gas, and much birthday shinanigans ensued. It was a fine fine time. I spent too much money, but it was worth it. Hands down the funniest part of the evening was watching Jonnie try to navigate the streets back to his apartment, and in the course of things turn up the wrong way on a freeway off ramp. It was pretty awesome. It was a good time hanging out with those guys again, and must be repeated before too long. Jeffy also indicated a strong interest in trying to get an apartment together around May-ish, that would be cool, as I'm sure Adam is more than ready for me to be getting my freeloading ass out of his house.

This past week was my last week in training at work, Monday begins the real deal. Training was actually kind of fun, for the people more than the subject matter, but now I'm really quite ready to actually start doing actual work at work.

In other work-related news my time off for WrestleMania has officially been approved, so it'll be excused and paid, so that's a good thing. This trip is beginning to shape up nicely. The tickets have been bought, flights and hotels booked, and now I've been approved for the time off. That's a good thing. Hell, on that note we better end this entry the right way.

Countdown: 21 days, 1 hour, 15 minutes and 45 seconds until Wrestlemania!!!

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Well, we're heading into the third week at the grind and I'm starting to adapt back into this whole 'working' mindset.

The workplace is really pretty cool, one cannot underestimate the value of a good free hot lunch, to get you through the day. I get along really well with most of my training class, and am even developing a couple of solid friendships.    I also have a nemesis.

Commuting though, sucks. I'm looking for and finding some interesting housing options that are closer to Lincolnshire. Problem is, with my overload of student debt, and a backlog on consumer debt to be paid my budget is pretty thin. I need to recruit myself a roommate. Or two, actually as a simple study of housing prices has revealed a three bedroom set to cost only slightly more than a two but obviously X/3 < X/2.

Eww... math.

I'm pretty tired if I'm putting mathmatical eqations inequalities in my journals. How in the balls did it get to be 11pm.

Tomarrow I'll be striking out directly from work to drive to GOMV for the Sigma Tau "Celebrating 15 Years of Excellence" alumni gathering. Of course, in classic Tau fashion our fifteenth anniversary celebration is actually taking place two weeks after our sixteenth anniversary, because we're awesome like that. Adam had to bail out on Tuesday, but I was able to recruit Colin to split the costs of a motel room tomarrow night. So that should be pretty cool.

I'm really looking to the festivities. Should be a good, diverse crowd, if not quite in the numbers I would have hoped for. But still, it promises to be much fun. Ok, I'm out.

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So today was the first day of the new grind. In typical first day fashion I spent all day signing forms and listening to presentations on my company's "vision" and fun stuff like that. I don't dig this "having to get up in the morning" thing but was prepared to give it the ol' College try.

I've gone to bed at "decent" hours the last two nights, but this morning, for some reason I woke up at 2:45 (a mere three and a half hours after going to bed) and can't fall back asleep. That sucks.

I've just discovered that the client that I've been using to post on LJ automatically posts with comments locked. This would explain why I never get any replies to my posts.

Dave emailed this article to the Tau alumni Yahoo group and it seems to have definitely stirred up some alumni feathers. Speaking for myself, I never in a million years would have voted to buy shirts that in any way seem to endorse a mass-murdering autocrat, and was even briefly thinking about boycotting pledging because of it when I first saw it on the website a month or two ago, but I quickly realized that it's just a Tau shirt and shouldn't be taken too seriously. However, hearing about CSSG trying to put the clamps on the group for this T-shirt choice has pissed me off something fierce. I know several Alums are talking about ordering the shirt just because of the controversy. So it'll could wind up being a decent fundraiser. Certainly the Cornellian feature will be a better promotion than any ammount of signs on the OC would be. I only worry that the Taus may be losing some of the diversity of ideas that has been a group value for so long.

Um... when I was thinking about this journal entry I figured it'd wind up being mostly about the new job/my lack of sleepyness and only briefly touch on the T-shirt issue, but my that's not how it turned out.

Oooh so here's a story about tonight.

So of course today was my first day at the new job, after driving Goddamnit home I came into the house and was taking care of some basic domestic-type chores. Around 6:15 with chores done I was talking to Adam and Delia about my frist day when I happened to pull out my keychain and noticed that my car key was no longer attached.

Understand that my key, being as it is a key to my car, is a broken piece of junk. Speciffically, there is a small crack in the loop that holds the key to the keychain, and when force is applied at the right angle this causes the key to pop off of the keychain. As I stared in surprise at my keychain I realized this had happened. Of course almost any other day in the past six months this wouldn't be a problem as I often went more than a week without driving. But I really need my car to drive to work tomarrow morning. So, I started searching around the house, searching mainly in places where I would have pulled my keys out of my pocket; front and back doors, (from unlocking them,) my bedroom, (from when I changed out of my work clothes,) etc. Unfortunately Goddamnit's key was nowhere to be found. Finally Adam suggested that I go out and look in the car, as perhaps I had left them in the ignition. I was pretty sure this wasn't the case. I mean I'm pretty bad about forgetting things, but leaving the keys in the ignition seemed pretty unlikely. A quick trip outside confirmed, I was right, I hadn't left my key in the ignition. But, it was sitting on the driver's seat, and both doors were securely locked.

Well, at least the mystery of the missing key had been solved by this time it was like, 6:45. I placed a call to a local 24 hour locksmith who informed me that it would be "only a $55 service charge" to unlock my car door. This wouldn't be so bad except, I don't have $55, not in my bank account, and certainly not in avaliable balance on any of my myriad of over-the-limit credit cards. However, I had a clever plan. I started calling around to area Honda dealerships knowing that they could probably cut me a new key if I gave them my VIN. Unfortunately, at this point of the evening, most parts departments were closed. I started close by and started slowly expanding my search to check dealers further out. Dealership after dealership informed me that their parts office had closed at either 5 or 6 o'clock. This was no good, finally at 7:05 I dialed the number for O'Hare Honda in Des Plaines (as obtained from Honda.com) of course I got some stupid VRU that wanted me to dial my party's extention, but not having such an extention, I just hit '0' and asked the receptionist who answered if their parts department was still open.

No, she informed me, they had just closed at 7:00. Cursing under my breath I complained that I should have called there first. And she, of course, was right on top of things and said, "You should always call here first." As I contemplated my dispair, it did occur to me that this receptionist was far sharper than most of the previous ones I had spoken to already this evening, most of them had to check to find out their own parts department hours, but she not only knew off the top of her head, but also had the presense of mind to fire of a little mini-commercial, that made an impact with me, because in my experience it appeared to be a correct statement.

Anyhow, at Adam's suggestion, and because I figured this person had it together, I decided to take a long shot and ask if she might have any idea where I might find a Honda parts department that would be open at this time of night. "You wanted the Honda parts department?" She replied, "I'm sorry, somehow you got put through to the Pontiac dealership, the Honda parts department is still open." She transfered me over, and actually got me right to the Honda parts office, instad of making me go through another receptionist. The Honda parts guy was able to pull up my VIN number and said he could have a new key cut immediately. Delia drove me over to the dealership, and after presenting my ID and proof that I owned the car, he gave me my new key, for the whopping price of $3.94 (including tax). Suffice to say I was pretty happy with the way things turned out, because according to my way of thinking paying $4 and getting a new key (so now I have a spare) out of the deal, is far better than paying $55 not getting a spare key, and possibly having my car damaged in the unlocking process.

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I suppose some journalization should be devoted to last weekend's trip to GOMV. I could say quite a bit, but don't feel like going into too much detail. My unexpectedly driving out there, and the surrounding circumstances, was an interesting beginning, but I'd say that other than a minor bit of drama that probably had to happen, I'd have to chalk it up under the classic heading of "a good time was had by all." Of course, I leave town and all hell breaks lose, neh?

I've spent the past week trying to get myself ready to rejoin the ranks of the employed. Filling out my W-4's for the new job, washing the "workplace appropriate" attire, and just mentally trying to get into a "I have a job" kind of mental frame. The toughest part is yet to come though, when I try to get myself into a routine that will have me in Lincolnshire and ready to work by 8:30am every day. That will require waking daily around 6'ish (at least until I figure out a reasonably reliable commute estimate.) If you know me, you know that I consider six o'clock AM far more reasonable as a bed time, then a time to be getting out of bed. It just seems that I have a hard time considering 10pm-Midnight as a reasonable time to be calling it a night. It just seems to early. I've got to start behaving like a normal diurnal mammal instead of, whatever the hell else I tend to want to be. I'm also slightly worried that one of these mornings my car won't want to start. It happened last week, I had a dead battery, and that would really suck if it happened now that I've got work to go to again, if it happens in the first couple of weeks I'm especially screwed since I couldn't even call for a jump, since I'm that damn broke.

But soon, yes soon, my brokeness will be reduced. Damn, I'm loking forward to that.

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Normally I don't like to talk about politics in this jornal, but a recent story has really gotten my dander up. It's really bugging me, so I've decided to share an entry that I originally wrote back on the 21st for my political blog, with everyone that reads me here.

Imagine This...

Imagine this scenario: A Democratic president has nominated an African American to a prominent cabinet post. This nominee is not just any African American, but a highly talented policy genius, with a PhD, who has already served four years as a senior White House advisor. What's more, this candidate just happens to be a woman, in fact if confirmed she would become the most powerful 'woman of color' in American history, in the event of a disaster, fourth in line for the Presidency. Let's imagine just a bit further, after being overwhelmingly approved by committee this nominee's candidacy now stands ready for approval by the full senate, when things take a turn for the worse. A senior senator from the Republican minority, an aging southerner who, when his party was in the majority not-so-long-ago, had been chosen by his party to serve as Senate President Pro-Tem. (third in line for the Presidency,) announces his intention to hold up the confirmation process.

Can you imagine the outcry? But while we're on a roll with this imagining thing let's just keep the ball rolling. Let's imagine that this same senior senator admits to having once been a member of the Ku Klux Klan! Can you imagine the headlines? We would expect New York Times to most likely write a front-page headline to the effect of, "REPUBLICAN SENATOR REACHES BACK TO KKK PAST" CBS would doubtless devote an entire hour broadcast of 60 Minutes II to investigating the subject. What we can imagine they would find would be shocking. Let's imagine that they find a clip from an interview with a major news network from as recently as 2001, in which the senator used the "N-Word," twice! Let's imagine that this senator personally filibustered against the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 for fourteen hours straight. And when the congress was debating military desegregation the very same senator said, "I should rather die a thousand times and see old glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again than see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen of the wilds." Good God! We'd expect to see this be the #1 issue on cable news twenty-four hours a day. We'd expect media-induced pressures from both sides of the aisle for the senator to, if not resign, then at the VERY LEAST to withdraw his objections, apologize, and vote for the nomination.

Whew... that was some tough imagining, except this scenario isn't imaginary. This scenario is exactly what's going on today, except for two tiny differences. The first difference is, of course, that the party affiliations are reversed, the President is a Republican, as is his nominee for Secretary of State, Dr. Condaleeza Rice, and the senator is a Democrat, former Klansman Robert Byrd. And of course the second difference is the media reaction. There is no massive outcry, there will be no 60 Minute reports on Byrd's racist past, there will be no NY Times front-page headlines putting "Democrat" and "KKK" on the same line. Imagine that.

A lot to cover since the last entry, so lets get down to it.

-I've been officially offered the job I mentioned in my last real post, it looks pretty good, but the problem is that my Unemployment money is now, officially used up, and the position doesn't start until Feb 7. So January looks like it's going to be a very tough month. I guess I'm going to have to break down and find something part timeish until then.

-This February start date also throws into question my ablity to go to Wrestlemania, although I'm sure I'll figure something out on that front. There are, after all a ton of flights, even latenight between Chicago and LA.

-With a job offer secure I was able to go back to Montana for Christmas. It was really good to see the family again, although at this point a week is about as long as I can stay in the house without starting to feel... cramped.

-New year's eve was a quiet affair, well relatively so, back here in Evanston. Apparently I was so "caught up in the festivities" I decided to start calling just about everyone in my phone book. And then it was morning, well afternoon.

-I think that I've been up since 1:30pm on 1/1. Yet I'm strangely not sleepy. Wierd.

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...for some actual journalization.

Since I do actually have something to talk about.

Believe it or not I actually had a job interview last week for a position I just might like to take.

-It's a customer service job, but at least there's not sales component (to the best of my knowledge).

-It's in Lincolnshire which is like 35 minutes north of here, but at least when I drove there during morning rush hour last Wednesday it still only took like 35 minutes.

-They haven't hired me yet, but at after the interview one of the interviewers told me I did well, and quite frankly I kicked ass in the interview and I could tell that the two interviewers were very impressed. I guess that the combination of working in sales and basicly constantly, (basicly constantly?) being on a job search for the past two years, has resulted in me becoming extrordinarily comfortable and confidant in interviews.

- That last one seems to have screwed up my what I was trying to do with this whole bullet point gimmick, but at least I'm keeping the gimmick going.

- The job offers a decent salary, but the benefits are pretty damn cool. I mean, they serve free hot lunch! They've got a full-fledged Sodexho cafeteria, and as much as I complained about Sodexho in College, it's actually alot cooler than any alternative.

- I should find out this week, if I get the job. If I don't I'm going to be really REALLY upset and probably fall into a fit of depression, but right now I'm pretty solid that I'll get it.

- Even if I do get it, it won't start until sometime in January, so I might have a couple of really lean months in here. And by lean I mean I hope to not pay enough bills that my checking account will stay barely positive.

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Here's my first...

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