As far as the contenuing legendary saga of the road trip goes...it will be concluded soon. But I want to write about other less legendary things as well.
---
So I'm here at Texas State...my life, despite all of the random challanges and circumstances, has been much happier lately. I'm seeing people...I've got a new job here in San Marcos and mabye another one that I'll also enjoy as well. However, a lot of things have been "getting to me"...one of them is being pretty much broke for now. My computer is also broke, after it fell out of my bag and onto the driveway in a dramatic fashion.
I just need to learn to be more content with my situation reguardless of what it is.
One thing that I do have is relashonships with some really awesome people. Last night I spent time with several of them at Sewell Park...but I am also bogged down with countless projects and tests for school, as well as some long term things that I am not getting done but need to.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Road Trip Part 2: The Epic Contenues to Progress in a Contenuious Fashion (Rated PG-13 for Strong conspicuiously masked language and partial-nudity)
We raced toward the ever widening chasm on Edward Gary Drive. Sorority girls looked on in horror at the upcoming gust of wind that would frazzle their already unraveling hair. Just before we were to tumble into the canyon I pushed the secret red button under the dashboard and the jet turbo boosters in my car kicked into gear, allowing my car to gracefully leap the chasm. We landed to the sound of squealing tires and numerous expletives. The car spun around several times and we came to a halt. Danny was laughing maniacally while threatening my life. I grabbed his wrist as he was lowering his arm to drive a bowie knife, one that has been in his family since long before the time of James Bowie, into my shoulder. IT WASN'T MY G-----N FAULT MAN...I DIDN'T KNOW THAT CANYON WAS GOING TO BE IN THE MIDDLE OF EDWARD F------ GARY DRIVE!!! Paul the hurdler looked stunned...I took the knife from Danny who was now crying as I explained that he was forgiven, and then tried to justify my outburst of profanity to Paul. Cody in the meantime sat expressionless in his seat, counting the days since the last time he had ridden in a car as it used a jet engine turbo blast to jump a newly opened urban canyon.
We drove on in stunned silence. Cody at times attempted to interject with akwardly timed statements over the rising price of milk and how it inversely affects the sorghum market. Danny mixed a couple of chemicals that he had secretly brought along, Paul pulled his finger out of his nose, wiped off the residual brain tissue, and began to laugh at the clear blue sky above. We pulled up to the odd looking traffic light at University and L.B.J. I put in a Slowreader cd to try to soften the tense mood in the car.
"I don't know if this quiet music is appropriate in this post 9/11 world, a world of rising gas prices, religious fanaticism and high anti-depressant use", Cody said. I assured Cody that I wouldn't play music if I thought that it would be un-patriotic. Danny stroked his crossbow, Paul drew a monkey on his shirt with a marker he found in the pile of trash on the floor of the car, and then ate the marker. Five minutes later, we still sat at the intersection.
"Why isin't the light changing"?...I wondered aloud.
"I think I know", Danny said.
The wait contenued.
We drove on in stunned silence. Cody at times attempted to interject with akwardly timed statements over the rising price of milk and how it inversely affects the sorghum market. Danny mixed a couple of chemicals that he had secretly brought along, Paul pulled his finger out of his nose, wiped off the residual brain tissue, and began to laugh at the clear blue sky above. We pulled up to the odd looking traffic light at University and L.B.J. I put in a Slowreader cd to try to soften the tense mood in the car.
"I don't know if this quiet music is appropriate in this post 9/11 world, a world of rising gas prices, religious fanaticism and high anti-depressant use", Cody said. I assured Cody that I wouldn't play music if I thought that it would be un-patriotic. Danny stroked his crossbow, Paul drew a monkey on his shirt with a marker he found in the pile of trash on the floor of the car, and then ate the marker. Five minutes later, we still sat at the intersection.
"Why isin't the light changing"?...I wondered aloud.
"I think I know", Danny said.
The wait contenued.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Road Trip!
It has become a triditon on Monday around the hour of 5 p.m. to undertake a road trip in Diego "my car" from Central Campus to Harris Dining Hall, over a mile away. The food is a bonus but the real perk are the crazed hijinks that follow. Accompaning my on both
trips so far have been two of my favorite people: The venerable Cody Cheeves and none other than Danny "future President of the United States of America" Rodriguez. Each trip has had a cameo guest star, Matt Luna, who gained worldwide notoriety in the great Santa Cruz heroin bust of 2004, and this week Danny's hallmate and accomplished marathon hurdler known only as Paul the Hurdler of Venice.
The following reports of last Monday's trip are sketchy, and may or may not be merely a really awesome legend.
---
With the venerable one in the front seat, we drove by the musty and humble confines of Beretta Hall only to find Danny and Paul waiting disguised as gargoyles flanking the front steps. I approached them cautiously, emmitting sanskrit phrases that only Danny can comprehend and they came to life, resumed their normal forms, and got into the car. There were no clouds in the sky and yet we all felt a sense of cloudy prospects of unforseen danger lurking ahead on our trip. I peeled out cautiously, watching for terrorist and we began to circumnavigate the campus...with Cody using the word circumnavigate to describe everything that he had done that day. My first sign that things were not in their normal state was the gigantic chasm that opened in front of me as we flew down the hill on Edward Gary drive at 75 miles per hour. Cody screamed, Danny yelled, Paul ignorantly picked his nose and then screamed, the force of which jammed his finger up his nose and partially into his brain. I knew I had one option...but would my poorly installed jet boosters work?
To be contenued...
trips so far have been two of my favorite people: The venerable Cody Cheeves and none other than Danny "future President of the United States of America" Rodriguez. Each trip has had a cameo guest star, Matt Luna, who gained worldwide notoriety in the great Santa Cruz heroin bust of 2004, and this week Danny's hallmate and accomplished marathon hurdler known only as Paul the Hurdler of Venice.
The following reports of last Monday's trip are sketchy, and may or may not be merely a really awesome legend.
---
With the venerable one in the front seat, we drove by the musty and humble confines of Beretta Hall only to find Danny and Paul waiting disguised as gargoyles flanking the front steps. I approached them cautiously, emmitting sanskrit phrases that only Danny can comprehend and they came to life, resumed their normal forms, and got into the car. There were no clouds in the sky and yet we all felt a sense of cloudy prospects of unforseen danger lurking ahead on our trip. I peeled out cautiously, watching for terrorist and we began to circumnavigate the campus...with Cody using the word circumnavigate to describe everything that he had done that day. My first sign that things were not in their normal state was the gigantic chasm that opened in front of me as we flew down the hill on Edward Gary drive at 75 miles per hour. Cody screamed, Danny yelled, Paul ignorantly picked his nose and then screamed, the force of which jammed his finger up his nose and partially into his brain. I knew I had one option...but would my poorly installed jet boosters work?
To be contenued...
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
I Love School Most of the Time
You learn interesting things in this place known as the Texas State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
The following are random facts that I picked up from classes that I had no clue were...well, facts.
- The song "Happy Birthday" is actually copyrighted, and you have to pay the copyright owner to use it in a film.
- Television Networks are requried to provide at least three hours of educational childrens programming per week. ABC Television once tried to defend against the accusation by stating that The Flintstones and the Jetsons met the government's requirements...because the Flintstones told kids about the past, and the Jetson's told kids about the future. They lost their case.
- The only thing in the United States that cannot be patented is a fully developed human being. Certian microrganisims have actually been patented. Past copyright law stated that living things could not be patented but that was overturned in a court case.
- The "nusiance car ordinance" in the city of San Marcos states that if a vehicle is found with expiried registration (even if it is parked on a private lot or driveway), the city has the right to tow the vehicle.
- A Federal Court decision actually stated that it is legal under the First Amendment for a media outlet to falsify news, denying whistleblower status to fired reporters who were suing a Local Fox News station in Tampa that was doing just that in order to please certian advertisers.
- Americans view, on average, 3,600 advertisements per day.
- It is a common advertising strategy to market their products directly to children, knowing that they will then effectivley nag their parents to purchase those products for them.
I'll likely add more when I think of them.
The following are random facts that I picked up from classes that I had no clue were...well, facts.
- The song "Happy Birthday" is actually copyrighted, and you have to pay the copyright owner to use it in a film.
- Television Networks are requried to provide at least three hours of educational childrens programming per week. ABC Television once tried to defend against the accusation by stating that The Flintstones and the Jetsons met the government's requirements...because the Flintstones told kids about the past, and the Jetson's told kids about the future. They lost their case.
- The only thing in the United States that cannot be patented is a fully developed human being. Certian microrganisims have actually been patented. Past copyright law stated that living things could not be patented but that was overturned in a court case.
- The "nusiance car ordinance" in the city of San Marcos states that if a vehicle is found with expiried registration (even if it is parked on a private lot or driveway), the city has the right to tow the vehicle.
- A Federal Court decision actually stated that it is legal under the First Amendment for a media outlet to falsify news, denying whistleblower status to fired reporters who were suing a Local Fox News station in Tampa that was doing just that in order to please certian advertisers.
- Americans view, on average, 3,600 advertisements per day.
- It is a common advertising strategy to market their products directly to children, knowing that they will then effectivley nag their parents to purchase those products for them.
I'll likely add more when I think of them.
Monday, October 17, 2005
I Think I've Contracted Avian Bird Flu
That or I need to use the bathroom.
Apparently our nation cannot survive without an apocalypse looming on the horizon. I would like to think that people would be content to think that the world is not about to end, but observation proves otherwise. The latest apocalypse revolves around a strain of avian bird flu mutating and being spread somehow by humans creating something called a "pandemic".
I'm not exactly sure what a pandemic is...but it sounds delicious. It sounds like a clinic where you learn to make bread...not just any bread, but medical bread with great medicinal properties.
Perhaps this bread will be the next cure for the next apocalypse. Y2K had generators and non-perishable food. For every dirty bomb threat there is a roll of duct tape. Gas is supposed to hit $8 a gallon or something in the next month leading to the collapse of the American lifestyle. Now, in the face of this grave and almost certianly apocalyptic pandemic...we have medical bread that is laced with stuff that is probably a cure, or at least something that will help us pass the time while we're dying. Corporations could market this bread, with an ad campagin declaring that if people do not purchase the special bread they will be killed by falling planes and civil unrest after the power goes out.
Apparently our nation cannot survive without an apocalypse looming on the horizon. I would like to think that people would be content to think that the world is not about to end, but observation proves otherwise. The latest apocalypse revolves around a strain of avian bird flu mutating and being spread somehow by humans creating something called a "pandemic".
I'm not exactly sure what a pandemic is...but it sounds delicious. It sounds like a clinic where you learn to make bread...not just any bread, but medical bread with great medicinal properties.
Perhaps this bread will be the next cure for the next apocalypse. Y2K had generators and non-perishable food. For every dirty bomb threat there is a roll of duct tape. Gas is supposed to hit $8 a gallon or something in the next month leading to the collapse of the American lifestyle. Now, in the face of this grave and almost certianly apocalyptic pandemic...we have medical bread that is laced with stuff that is probably a cure, or at least something that will help us pass the time while we're dying. Corporations could market this bread, with an ad campagin declaring that if people do not purchase the special bread they will be killed by falling planes and civil unrest after the power goes out.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Banished to Suburbia (or, Exiled to Spend My Days Almost Exclusivley in Beautiful Sunny San Marcos)
The past week has been a somewhat turbulent one for myself, but beneficial at least in the short term. The turbulence began to turbulate (is that a word? Spell check says no but my heart says yes) last Tuesday when I was, with no advance warning or even the slightest hint, I was suddenly and not so gracefully let go from my job. I know am doing something that millions of other “bloggers” do, which is don’t work. There is not much to explain about it because my employer did not have much to explain to me about it. I told my manager how much this screws me over and makes life exceedingly difficult for me financially but I also said thanks for not hardcore firing me but instead just “letting me go”…and how that still sucks.
I’ll admit that, while they had no specific reason to let me go (very vague were their reasons), I was getting a little burned out. There have been subtle benefits for me losing my high-strung, busy and distant job which I had to commute to though often heavy traffic on the far side of Austin. None of them are, of course, financial, but do have a lot to do with my social life and my mental health. The major ones are as follows:
- A return to a normal heart rate
- A substantial reduction in swearing
- Less overall enmity toward mankind
- Fewer instances of saying things like “I want to burn this town to the ground”…and halfway meaning it
- Seeing and talking to people that I don’t work with, including my roommates
- No more “crazy eye”
- Going to bed before three a.m. on school nights means less gorilla like behavior the next morning.
- Seeing people I don’t recognize but know my name and ask me about things that I don’t remember doing
- No more scent of coffee flowing from my hair in the shower
- A regained ability to control the tone of my voice
- A 68% drop in “road rage”
- Fewer trips on the asphalt cauldron of death and super-fastness known as Interstate 35
- Going to Austin will now always be fun
- I no longer work for a guy that writes propaganda…er…speeches for President Bush
- My ears will no longer be damaged by senseless and irrational yelling by certain co-workers after closing
- I don’t have to bother taking off work after I get the pleasure of having my ingrown toenail removed tomorrow, because I’m already off the schedule.
- I get to see people that I like more often and for longer periods of time
- Stronger motivation to look for jobs in San Marcos, where I reside and learn, and hopefully soon, work.
Those are just a few of the subtle benefits…a few are slightly exaggerated but the overall theme is accurate.
I’ll admit that, while they had no specific reason to let me go (very vague were their reasons), I was getting a little burned out. There have been subtle benefits for me losing my high-strung, busy and distant job which I had to commute to though often heavy traffic on the far side of Austin. None of them are, of course, financial, but do have a lot to do with my social life and my mental health. The major ones are as follows:
- A return to a normal heart rate
- A substantial reduction in swearing
- Less overall enmity toward mankind
- Fewer instances of saying things like “I want to burn this town to the ground”…and halfway meaning it
- Seeing and talking to people that I don’t work with, including my roommates
- No more “crazy eye”
- Going to bed before three a.m. on school nights means less gorilla like behavior the next morning.
- Seeing people I don’t recognize but know my name and ask me about things that I don’t remember doing
- No more scent of coffee flowing from my hair in the shower
- A regained ability to control the tone of my voice
- A 68% drop in “road rage”
- Fewer trips on the asphalt cauldron of death and super-fastness known as Interstate 35
- Going to Austin will now always be fun
- I no longer work for a guy that writes propaganda…er…speeches for President Bush
- My ears will no longer be damaged by senseless and irrational yelling by certain co-workers after closing
- I don’t have to bother taking off work after I get the pleasure of having my ingrown toenail removed tomorrow, because I’m already off the schedule.
- I get to see people that I like more often and for longer periods of time
- Stronger motivation to look for jobs in San Marcos, where I reside and learn, and hopefully soon, work.
Those are just a few of the subtle benefits…a few are slightly exaggerated but the overall theme is accurate.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Panda Watch
I've been assigned my first package story for my TV News class that will be due this Monday. I'm thinking about doing a piece on the preposed park above Aquarena Springs (where they were going to build the hotel/conference center before people found out and got pissed)...there will be a bond election on November 8 for the City of San Marcos to provide money to the park fund along with the county funds that have already been preposed. I think this story will work but I need a backup plan if it doesn't. If you guys can think of anything that you think will be a good idea just let me know. Thanks.
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