Things That Make You Go "Arg"

"Can't never could, tried always will." WHAT THE FUCK? That sentence makes absolutely no sense. How did it ever make it out into public? But it's in a radio commercial for Cricket Wireless, which tends to have annoying commercials. The one with the Old School Funk song is kind of cool, though. But still not great. What is it with the exceedingly grating commercials lately? There's also the new Taco Bell commercial with the guy singing about steak tacos. Ick. I was surprised when I saw it on TV and noticed that the guy singing is a white-collar worker. I had pictured something different.

Something else I can't stand: the ubiquity of the word "wireless" and the way it sounds. Smacks of snooty cell phone people. I especially dislike the AT&T commercial with the "I can see wireless." Oh really? Dropped acid lately, have you? And don't get me started on the "I can still work while going to my kid's soccer game and taking my family to the beach" aspect of it. Sorry, but why the hell would you want to take your work home with you like that? I undertstand being into your job, and being busy, but really, there are limits.

On an unrelated note: the Quest's effort to get online has apparently been getting some pretty good publicity. First there was the Oregonian reporter who asked about it. And then recently a Portland radio station apparently mentioned our difficulties with Reed and having the website hosted; Reed doesn't really want to host it. (I'm not going to go into that right now; it's too late to get that worked up.) So, someone has offered to host the website for us. Sometimes people can be so cool.

And I think I'm going crazy. Things don't suck so much anymore, and I've been talking to myself again.

One Down, Six to Go

Well, I've made it through my first week of work. Still not terribly comfortable, but I'm getting used to it. Made new folders today, which is more interesting than just filing. I'm wondering how the last couple weeks are going to go. This week there was plenty to do, and there will be next week too, because there was stuff piling up before I got there. But somehow, I think I'm going to get through it all somewhat quickly, and then all that will be left is waiting for new stuff to come in. It will, but I doubt it will be enough to keep me busy the entire day. Which means that the job will eventually get to be the typical state government job: sitting around on my ass a lot. I remembered asking my friend Mary what she does at work last summer and she gave me that answer. Funny, I thought this week, I've definitely got enough to do, no sitting around yet. But today I was kind of running out of things to do. But that was before I started with the new folders. Somehow I think I'll finish that next week.

So, the plans for this evening didn't happen. But tomorrow, tomorrow, we shall go do something. I'm thinking Tempest, and hope there isn't an actual tempest to accompany the play.

Today my dad was nagging me about a schedule for Reed this year, as in when breaks start and such so we can get my plane tickets. I don't know. I don't have a fucking schedule. I know I have to be back August 23rd, but that's because I have some O-week stuff to do for the peer mentor program starting that day, and it's the day the dorms open. Then he kept asking if I was going to come home for fall break. Fuck no. But I just told him, "I don't know," because there's the possibility that other plans will come up, and I don't want to just flat out say no because I can tell he wants me to come home. That doesn't mean I'm going to. I doubt most of my friends will be in town. If I stay on campus, it's possible that most of my friends will be gone. So, few friends around in either case. So, as that's equal, I'd prefer to be at Reed. No dad around to bitch and nag. He could try, but it's kind of hard to bitch and nag long-distance, especially through e-mail. I can kind of gloss over it, and not respond. And I could probably find more things to do at Reed than at home.

They paved my street today. Everyone had to move their cars to other streets in the neighborhood during the day. I didn't really have to deal with it, though, because I left for work before they started and got home after they finished.

I haven't practiced at all this week. Part of the problem was finding time. Work kind of swallows the day, and then I don't like practicing when my dad is around, for reasons explained earlier, and he's been home a lot. And when he wasn't, like yesterday evening, I just didn't have the motivation. But, he's going golfing tomorrow, so there's five hours there where I can find some time to practice, if I don't sleep all the time away.

I still can't wait to go back to Reed, but the need isn't quite so urgent as it was. It seems so far away now. My imaginings of being back aren't so vivid anymore.

I'm losing things.