I've already been through school once.
I've been out long enough so that the students in college now, were in
elementary school when I was in college. Yeah, that's freaky.February 2004 Blog Archive
From www.gravyboy.com
February 23, 2004
I've already been through school once.
I've been out long enough so that the students in college now, were in
elementary school when I was in college. Yeah, that's freaky.
So I'm back in school...and it irritates me when professors feel
the need to pitch a fit to get students to talk. Especially during
evening classes when some of us have been working all day.
Sometimes, we do just want to be lectured.
Brian's mood today = irritable.
Brian
February 19, 2004
Nearly every year in elementary school I seemed
to find a personal project that I would be borderline obsessed with.
In the third grade I was going to build a robot. I remember it was
going to be seven feet tall. I had wires, recruited kids from
school to work on it, and drew the design over and over. My dad
even said I could keep it in the house. That is, of course, if I
could fit it through the door.
I hung on to those plans for a year, maybe more. I can't be
sure because time goes really slow when you're a kid. It felt like
a decade. The great robot project was phased out, however, by
plans of a new and grander scale. Helicopters that joined to FORM
a GIANT robot. Oh yeah. I was going to be rich. Once
again I drew and redrew the plans, but I needed pilots. Just like
Voltron, there would be five parts. I think I had two pilots lined
up...maybe three, including myself. I think this was the same year
that I was also going to start a band. I had seven saxophone
players lined up*.
These plans had to give way to something even more prodigious by
fifth grade. I can't remember now what it was called, but I was
going to build a giant mobile fortress like the one in Jayce
and the Wheeled Warriors. I was also going to build the
vehicles to go with it. With a giant circular saw mounted on the
top of a car, how can you go wrong?
All this planning ended when I entered middle school however.
I guess I felt the pressure to be cool or grown up. I specifically
remember that I stopped drawing transformers, and buying toys. Two
activities that I picked up again in college...by that time I guess I
just accepted the fact that I wasn't cool.
I retrospect elementary school was much more fun than middle
school.
*Or maybe it was 3 saxophones and an Omnichord.
Brian
February 18, 2004
Have you ever noticed that the anti-depression
drugs offered on TV seem to, when you get right down to it, give you the
chance to feel good about the rest of your life falling apart?
Side effects may include: dizziness, drowsiness, excitability,
sexual dysfunction, nausea, constipation, the munchies, athlete's foot,
ringworm, Molly Ringwald, and nuclear fission.
Where do I sign up?
Brian
February 17, 2004
I'm at work digitizing an audio file for
Volvo. It's going to be the CD that comes with a tractor trailer
cab that teaches drivers where everything is. So far it sounds
like this cab is far nicer than any car I will ever own. Perhaps
I'm in the wrong business.
Okay I know I'm in the wrong business, but for different reasons.
I sit with my back to the TV here in the "office".
All day long I hear jingles. I have grown to hate jingles.
Most commercials are so poorly written it's excruciating. I
can't take much more.
Also, my wife asked me to buy stamps* today. :sigh:
*see January 20th
Brian
February 12, 2004
I have no inspiration as to what I should write
about...so I'll just document what's going on here at work.
One of my coworkers is popping bubble wrap.
The other is watching TV while my supervisor surfs the net. I
can hear that someone just flushed the toilet since the sewage pipes are
not to far from me.
My arm itches.
I scratched it.
The show classmates is on. I keep turning around to see how
different people looked in high school. Even though I don't know them.
This annoys me.
I stop looking.
My caffeine free Diet Coke is, as anticipated, unsatisfying.
there...wasn't that worth reading?
Brian
February 10, 2004
Okay major gripe here.
I just tried to read a story at Foxnews.com and noticed when I
tried to scroll down that the page had frozen. I left it alone for
a moment. Then two. Then long enough to start to get
irritated at my browser. Just when I was about to get really mad
the page loaded and I discovered why it hung up.
It was loading an ad embedded in the page.
No strike that, not an ad, AN ENTIRE VIDEO COMMERCIAL. That's
right...a whole commercial...the same Fed ex commercial I've been seeing
on TV lately. It loaded the entire clip.
What kind of moron thought this would be good advertising??
Let's load a video onto the page that has nothing to do with anything.
And I used to think those stupid flash ads that cover the screen and
have a tiny "click to close" button hidden in a corner were
bad.
Which they are.
Brian
February 5, 2004
Last night I found myself outside my parents
house where the Decepticons had all decided to leave the planet.
Soundwave, for a reason unknown, decided to stay. So we hung out.
Soundwave tagged along with me long after the other Transformers had
been forgotten about. We were both concerned at the reports of a
disturbance at a local coffee shop where people were getting violent.
Soundwave wanted to go check it out, but I told him it was a rough place
and he backed down.
So eventually we went to my old church. I had grown up in this church
and left when it started having major problems...it's all but dead now.
I decided to have a look around just to reminisce. Soundwave tagged
along.
On the second floor of the educational building we ran into William
Shatner. Soundwave was much taller than William Shatner. We walked to
the end of the hall where I found lots of people I used to go to church
with. They were very upset. Someone had died.
I didn't know who, but I couldn't just leave, so I sat down for a while.
I didn't want to look insensitive after all. Everyone was writing
eulogies. I finally figured out who died, but quickly forgot. I got up
to leave. Where was Soundwave?
Finding my way back down the hall I came across the stairwell that
separated the old part of the building from the new. The youth used to
meet on the 3rd floor. I wonder if there are any up there now? I thought
it would be fun to wax nostalgic. So I headed up the stars. It was dark.
Where was the light switch? I finally found 3 or 4. None worked. I
started to get creeped out. Finally making it to the top, I saw through
the window in the iron door to the stairwell that the hall was dark.
There was no one there. It made me sad. Also, the creep factor was
increasing...so I quickly descended the stairs, holding on to the rails
as I skipped 5 steps at a time.
It was hard to see. I was trying to get out as fast as possible. The
cloaked figure I ran into at the bottom of the stars didn't help ease my
panic. I didn't stop to figure out what or who it was...I punched it and
pushed it over.
Problem solved.
I made my way to a lighter part of the hall. There were still no people
around, but I found Soundwave here. We went into a room where a bunch of
toys were displayed. Things get hazy here. But Soundwave was trying to
talk to someone and convince them of something...maybe this happened
earlier. Anyway, He had stopped using his
cool, digitized voice and had been using a normal one. I suggested he
would get what he wanted if he started using it again. He did and he
did.
Someone came and led me out of the building. I left Soundwave behind.
The rest of my time involved my friend Chris and one other person
escaping an explosion by hitching a ride on the back of missile, as well
as me riding down the road playing air guitar with Chris Thile of Nickel
Creek.
I'm a work now.
I need a nap.
Brian
February 3, 2004
I'm out of witty banter today...so here's a
haiku:
I'm tired of Cold
The warehouse is very cold
Close the frickin' door
Brian
February 2, 2004
As if is didn't get enough hip-hoppin' crud at
last night's superbowl half-time show (I had enough and hit mute after P
Diddy's little piddly diddy that went "Hey Diddy you're so
fine" set to the tune of "Hey Micky") this morning was
hip-hop day at the gym. Actually, every day is hip hop day at the
gym. Whether 6:30am or 5:30pm, I get to listen to guys rap about
how hot it is in here, or how cool they are.
I can only stomach so many acts consecutively claming to be the
coolest mo-fo on earth. And last night's halftime show was just
one crappy song after another. I also missed the big Janet
Jackson/Justin Timberlake fiasco because I stopped watching. I'm
really broken up* about it.
Brian
*disclaimer: Brian is not broken up.