Douglas Adams - 61

Today Douglas Adams would have been 61.  He passed away on my birthday (May 11) in 2001.  I will always remember the day I found out.  It was some time past May 11 and I was at a Creeper Lagoon show with Amanda S.  We were talking to one of the musicians from Creeper and having a coherent conversation.  It seemed to me as if out of nowhere this guy spouts out, "Douglas Adams in dead"!  Obviously something spurred this thought but I was too shocked with his comment to think of anything other than finding out the truth.  That evening I verified the sad truth.  Douglas Adams was dead.  I can never listen to Creeper without thinking of one of my favorite authors.  Maybe that's not a bad thing.  (Google honored D.A. with a Doodle today).

I find it fitting that today my mantra is, "Don't Panic".  I have a couple of deadlines in the next 24 hours so I will repeat this to myself until I'm done.  But as always, we're never really done at the deadline, so I part with this quote, a dear Douglas Adams favorite...

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

Amanda Is Finally On Facebook

Blog-
Last night was rough. Today is bearable, I'll be leaving work at noon. Today's lessons:

1. Don't sweat the small stuff.
2. Don't panic and stress about the things for which you have no control.
3. Give yourself something to look forward to, always!
4. At the end of the day ask yourself if the choices you made, actually made you happy . . . if not, then on the next day, try to reconsider what you can do differently.
5. It's probably too far from your heart to kill you.
6. Don't let guilt guide you.

Recent updates: I finished Dog On It, super cute book that I am loaning to Chris. I am now onto Bloodsucking Fiends. We have Mama Skweak's birthday party this weekend. My window in my car was fixed thanks to Chris who went to the junk yard, got a window and put it in himself. Saved me loads of money too. I may have already blogged that. Amanda is finally on Facebook. Took long enough! I am still pondering the 6th installment of the Hitchhiker's Guide. Thanks to the Sutter siblings for providing me with exciting play by play on the ESPN spelling bee yesterday (when I needed the entertainment)!

Yesterday and today's comic Brevity, (that I am sharing this week because it's backwards)! See previous blog for clarification!





Likes/Dislikes-

People I know blogging; or getting to read interesting blogs.



So many bloggers, does anyone read any of it? And why aren't more people I know blogging?


Word-
yo

1. When followed by an apostrophe (yo'), a contraction of "you" or "your".

2.An informal address or title to one whose name is not known; can be used as an interrogative address.

3.A declarative or imperative exclamation, whether alone or within a sentence.

The Gospel According to Biff

It's Monday. I can't say if I'm glad or sad about this. On one hand, it gets me back to my routine, on the other hand it gets me back to my routine! In either case, my hands are full of routine!

Anyway hi-lights from the weekend and road trip to Kansas City:

Boca di Boppi (actually Buca di Beppo, but Eva and I took it to extremes and had a whole conversation that no one else understood! In fact, I am sure we didn't understand either!)

Matt and Erika Herring have an adorable child (looks like a baby). It, I mean she, cries a lot. I have a soothing effect on the child for some reason. Eva has a similar effect. I believe this is for two reasons. The child loved our plump bosoms, and we sang Rancid to her. Who wouldn't love to be serenaded by Rancid?!?! Her name is Molly and she's a cool little thing. For the record, they are good parents.

There were weird rabbits located around the Plaza in KC. Don't ask me where the Plaza is, all I know is that it was south of our hotel. Anyway, weird rabbits all over. Giant human sized weird rabbits.

Eva and I bought boots. Larry's boots. Pretty sweet if you ask me!

Free hugs were being given out at the Plaza. Free hugs guy restored my faith in humanity, but as usual, that quickly flew right out the door. What happened? Oh nothing really, just a accumulation of annoyances. I have a very very tiny list of people that are allowed on my planet (free hugs guy is one of them). Sorry, but there isn't enough room on my awesome planet for people that make me mad or annoyed. (Holly & Drew, you are both good, you are family that I like, you get to stay so don't get paranoid).

I think I drank sour milk, still alive though.

My newest Madness album showed up in the mail!

The English Beat were awesome. Eva and I almost didn't even go. The local KC crap radio station was holding a Prom Theme for the show. Eva and I showed up in our cowboy boots, jeans, and regular tops. Everyone else (except for maybe 3 other people) were in prom gear. Tuxedos, dresses, gowns, etc. We did however go in and skanked our happy little hearts to soreness! An adorable boy standing next to us (in a stylish and dapper hat (drool)) skanked with us. The girl he was with was not too happy about this. Oh well, we had a great time!! Great, and I mean great show!

My blog crush Justin Z. made the Toronto Star (local paper). You should read the article and blog!

I, as usual, bought a new book to read even though I am reading two books (and a third for work) as I write! Looks good though. A book by Christopher Moore called A Dirty Job. Very few people could vie for favorite author in comparison to Douglas Adams, but Moore is one of them! He wrote a book called Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal that I really enjoyed. I'm excited to read Moore (yes, pun intended)!

Well, this is where I need to stop and move forward with my routine! So now, the words, you know what I'm talking about:

Friday - bardcore: A pornographic movie with a Shakespearean plot.
Weekend - C and E: People who show up at church only on Christmas and Easter.
Today - girlfriend button: The button on the controller of an Xbox, Playstation, or Wii you have to press to pause the game when your girlfriend wants to talk.

Justin is Number 2

So if you have ever read any of my previous blogs, you will notice that I have mentioned Justin's HOK Blog. Justin Z. is an excellent writer with a sense of humor that I find uber-spectacular! Well I got into work this morning, and I read my blogs; if you recall I rarely read news these days and go straight to the blogs. Anyway, I was catching up and saw that Justin mentioned me in one of his blogs! It's a bit of an equivalent of Douglas Adams making me a character in one of his books! Okay, so maybe the latter would be so much more awesome, but Justin is number 2, and frankly compared to Douglas being number 2 is pretty damn good! When you read his blog, be sure to note that I am NOT the blog stalker, which I could very well have been. If a blog stalker exists, I'm sure I'm some where on that list!

In other news, which I did pay attention to, the East coast, where I just was less than 24 hours ago is being hammered by a snow storm. I guess I got out just in time. Or maybe I got out too early. I haven't made up my mind on this subject yet. Since I didn't have my boots, I'm going with "just in time" for the moment.

I'm making plans for future travel, Austin in May, Indiana in June, maybe England in July, and Canada at least once this year. I have also agreed to do Denver sometime as well, and maybe some white water rafting. My fear of water may inhibit this last one, but it's so intriguing that I'm willing to bite the proverbial bullet! If I died tomorrow, I want to know I made the right choices for me, and fear should never hold a person back from doing new things. Call it ambition, call it stupidity, I think I have a little from column A and a little from column B! If you have any interest in going with me for any of these adventures, let me know! They are all tentative on having a job though.

Well, I've blogged enough for this morning, so I will now leave you with the words of today and past!

take the L: Short for "taking the loss". Frequently used to describe flunking a test, being dumped, stood up, beaten up, or robbed. Also relating to losing one's money in the stock market, gambling, or through exploitative business schemes.

off the hinges: Awesome. Unbelievably good. Wild. Cousin to "off the hook" and "off the chain".

5 Lessons

Have you ever thought to yourself, "wow, smart people can do some really stupid things and sure don't know as much as they should"? For instance,I know this really smart, super intelligent fellow engineer who did not know in which time zone we lived. Been here her whole life, didn't know, coming from the same person that blows me away with book smarts! Then there are the really smart guys that still manage to catch themselves on fire! It blows me away trying to understand so I choose not to understand! I know where I'm going with this idea, I am choosing not to verbalize though, just a silly thought in a smart person's head.

I wanted to mention a few things that I thought people should know.

First:
When planning for the Apocalypse (see previous post), there are other things that might be really helpful or at least desirable, such as: clean underwear for when you literally crap yourself out of fear; a coat or blanket in case the world should freeze; a good pair of pink boots for both wearing and using as a signal of existence, a flare would also work in this case; a lighter and/or matches; a gun and perhaps several bullets (you and your friends who survive may just choose to shoot each other until one poor sap is left); a life jacket; extra socks, a lesson I learned from Ireland, just take the extra socks!

Second:
Don't bother thinking, there's no point to it! Half the time it's good, half the time it's bad, and the non-thinkers I meet are happy and carefree and just as well off as I am, except happy! So don't even think!

Third:
Revit is very cool and awesome and useful, etc. Don't be afraid of the change, it's sometimes fun!

Fourth:
When I say I am usually right and you are probably wrong, it's true. I might have a very misguided, confused, distorted, and harsh view of reality and this thing called life; but it's like the number 42, it just is, nothing else to ponder! For pondering, see my second note of this blog!

Fifth:
If you are on fire, roll on the ground!

Okay, so that sums of a few of my lessons for the day. I feel better already having cynically written. I should warn you that I will be out of town for the next couple of days, but I will journal my adventures and add them to my stephysite-vacay.blogspot.com blog when I ever get through Ireland and Taiwan. I'm slow (in so many ways), deal with it!

Word of the day:
showmance: A "show romance" that develops between reality show contestants or participants, especially one that ends as soon as the show is over. Often a ploy to gain more camera time.

Dead Version of Him

So this morning, as I wait for others to get to the office, I will write my daily blog. The problem with getting to work early is that often when things need to be done by others, I must wait. Anyway, so I had a lot of thoughts about what I wanted to write about today, so in my most awful penmanship, I jotted them down.

For starters, when I walked in today, I had to weave through a massive crowd of athletes all waiting to climb the stairs of my building. Here at Met. Square, is this crazy thing called, Master the Met, where individuals climb the stairs to the 42nd floor. Yea, I briefly thought about doing it, but when exercise without the stair climbing makes my knee swell to the size of a cantaloupe, I think maybe I should avoid this obstacle in life! So to the elevators I go, "Elevator going up"!

So speaking of hellish things like stair climbing, last night I had some nightmares. Actually two nightmares, but the same one twice (if that made sense). The basic premise of the dream is that my father killed my grandparents, chopped up their bodies and put them in a clear plastic trash bag stuffed in a closet in the basement of my house. Well in my dream the house that was "mine", was actually my family's (we're a happy family; me, mom, and dad) but actually took place in what is today my grandfather's house. In the dream, the guy who was my father was the dead version of him, the guy from the casket anyway. My mom was herself, but young like in her photos. My older brother and I were as we are today, but my younger brother was small, like 3 or 4, when I used to take care of him in those family crises that meant my older brother and I would sneak, with baby brother to the car (sweet Nova), get into the back seat, slink down real low and hide! Anyway, that's a whole different nightmare I called reality that doesn't get discussed; so in the dream, I find out that my father did this and I have to get my brothers out of the house so they don't find out. Well I don't know how the dream ended in this version, but the smell was very real, and awful. I cried a lot in this version of the dream, imagine that, I cry a lot all the time! In the second version, the basic same thing happened, but I had to tell my mom what happened and show her the body parts. I had to sneak us out of the house, I had to get clothes for everyone, I had to get our valuables. At the end, before calmly walking out the door, I told my dad not to take all of this personally, that he would always be my daddy, no matter how old I was. I got in my car with family and things in tow and started to drive off when my older brother jumped out of the car to get, of all things, the hose! By this point we were fleeing for our lives so I had to run out and help him as fast as I could and I was falling and trying to move without being able to do so. I was wakened by my alarm, so I'll never know how that dream ends, thankfully.

Since I woke up with what felt like little sleep because of nightmares, I got dressed half asleep. What was I thinking, red and white striped socks with pink and gray plaid loafers. Really what was I thinking??!!??!! Anyway in addition to my "getting ready soap box", I realized as I brushed my teeth, that I will be a really overburdening mother. I'll always be saying things like "stand up straight", "tie your shoes", "eat your food", "take your medicine", "stop slouching", "squeeze the toothpaste from the end of the tube", "pull the shower curtain out to dry", "clean up your mess", "wipe up your crumbs" . . . . etc. That could a really frightening thing to do to another human being. Poor children! Speaking of moms and children, I'd like to wish my preggo friend Rachel a speedy recovery. Such an enigma she is indeed!

Okay, so I've written a lot already, so I'll save the following topics for another day this week, the apocalypse (and my preparedness), Mardi Gras, Teaching at SIUE, and guitars (redemption song and crazy little thing called love).

I'd like to give you the word of the day and finish this with a tiny list of small things that make me happy.

tramp stamp: A tattoo above a woman's ass crack. In use: Her pants were so low cut, you could see her tramp stamp

A few of my favorite things:
-The sound of a guitar, more specifically when you can hear the finger glide along the strings of a guitar.
-Lyrics, especially the kind that mean something to you
-Being so sleepy that there is no lying awake thinking and staring
-The way Listerine kills germs, and anything inside the mouth, I'm amazed I still have a tongue!
-My favorite T-shirt, the Airstream T-shirt!

Friday the 13th!

Today is Friday the 13th, and so therefore my topic. People that are (irrationally) afraid of this day are paraskavedekatriaphobia. It's greek, can't you tell?

Some historians speculate that the the origin is based on mythology that describes the banishing of Frigga (converted to Friday), a Norse goddess, after tribes converted to Christianity. It is said that every Friday she hooked up with 11 other witches (which she was labeled after banishment) and the devil (do the math 1+11+1=13). This hellish group then plotted many ill fates upon the newly converted fools. Other historians beleive the origin to be from the Knights Templar who were ordered under arrest by King Philip on a Friday the 13th. I believe the Knights Templar to have more substantial origin than the 'goddess turned witch' story; but then again I also believe that historians like to make stuff up and think that popularity can be gained by using a useful story like the Knights Templar. Enough soap box for now. In one odd case it is even speculated that the origin may be from a biography of Rossini (composer of Barber of Seville) that states that he died on Friday the 13th. He thought both Friday's and the number 13 to be unlucky, how interesting?

In any case, it's an interesting day to have a reason to celebrate by wearing bright pink boots, at least that is what I did. I find that Friday the 13th is neither lucky or unlucky for me, it's just a Friday near the middle of the month. I am slightly superstitious, but for rational reasons. Of course that is an oxymoron! Here are some examples; a black cat crossing your path. ANY cat crossing your path is bad, they suck your breath out while you are sleeping. Walking under a ladder brings bad luck, well it does, you have no idea what tools that clumsy handyman dragged up the ladder that could fall on your head and knock you unconscience. Another is that you should never tell someone you are preggo until the second trimester, well that is just bad if you do. You won't show until after the first trimester anyway and if something does happen (miscarriage) you have to sob to everyone that inadvertently congratulates you. Telling an actor to 'break a leg', well if you say good luck, or do your best, it suddenly brings to the forefront that the individual is expected to do well, that could cause a panic situation, so it's just nicer to say 'break a leg' and hope they don't! Horseshoes, for which I am lucky with, I believe is good luck. If for instance one has a horseshoe in the shape of a "U", it is good luck, like a cup holding the luck, if however it is upside down like an "n", it is bad luck, like you are pouring the luck out! I believe that everyone needs a symbol of what they feel is lucky, rightous, or whatever, for some people it's a cross, others a crinkled up spoon, for me, it's horseshoes.

One of my favorite superstitions, is the fear of the number 13! Some buildings won't even use a 13th floor, rather it gets skipped becoming the 14th floor right after the 12th floor. In some horse racing stables, the 13 is skipped over in stalls. I think people should be more afraid of the number 42, but no one listens to me, it is afterall the answer to Life the Universe, and Everything!

Oh well, enough blabbering for the day, and onto the word of the day!

premature evacuation: 1. Getting caught wuile sneaking away after a one-night stand. 2. An early post-sex exit, i.e. before your partner is deep asleep.

In Use: He hooked up with some girl last night and got busted for a premature evacuation.

Good luck today! ;D