This soon!

Damn, my fourth day of work and I was an hour late! The truth is I just read my schedule wrong and went in an hour early yesterday. But still that doesn't look so good. Thank god next week there is only a half hour of difference on my schedule.

Beyond that, this job is more interesting and demanding than the gas station. I do realize that I am nothing more than a glorified copyboy at this point and I can barely even use the color copier. Of course every time I try to learn it a customer comes in to use it and I have to do something else. The weird thing is, I don't have to be a smart ass there. I can actually interact with the customers and help them, plus I haven't has to get directions to Walmart yet.

For once it's true

So I got this forward email today from my sister entitled "The end of NPR and PBS". Usually I am skeptical of email forwards, many times they turn out to be hoaxes or really off from the original story. When I get the urge I'll check them out at Snopes.com and today I did. Well it turns out this email is true and there is a decent article about it in the Washington Post from Friday the 10th (this site requires registration but you can get around it by going to bugmenot.com and getting a fake username). There really is activity in the House that would completely cut funding for public broadcasting within a few years. Moveon.org would like you to sign their petition. This is all fine and dandy but at the same time if people actually want to get heard they should also contact their local House Representative. And encourage others in the same district to make contact as well.

Oops

Apparently I posted a link last night that would lock up some Windows machines (unless you did End Task). Sorry about that, on my Mac and in Firefox I had no problems and there isn't a single Windows machine in the house to test that kind of thing. Yeah I'm in Mac heaven. Now if someone would give me a compatible router I'd be all set.

Speaking of oops or to be precise "oopsing", I've been curious about this in respect to pregnancy. Most of us have had the stories of a girlfriend or wife sabotaging or stopping birth control to have a child without the knowledge of the man. There is an old article on Salon that I found provocative, written from a female perspective. Of course there is the possibility of a genuine male contraceptive but according The Stranger it's possible but not likely that men will use it. At this point in my life none of this is really a concern to me as I haven't involved myself in carnal pleasures in what seems (and could be) years. I guess if I were to go out and meet people instead of looking at this screen my chances would be better but then what the hell would you people do at work? Hang out on myspace all day?

The end

Well, after finally giving up and searching for the end of the Internet I have found that there are multiple ends of the Internet. I have no idea what this means with respect to the space-time continuum but it does sort of remind me of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books from when I was a kid. Now if I could just find the first page of the Internet. Nah, there's got to be more than one.

The search is over...

The one thing I did do today is find employment. Which is really cool because it was the first job I applied for and it is not a gas station. Thank God. It is a day job so I'll have to learn how to go to bed early again but I think that is possible. I'm stoked. Apparently, I'll eventually end up in the design department. Cool, I never saw that in my future but I think I can handle it.

Completely unrelated, last night I mention a lawn gnome party. In hindsight I realize I've never explained it here (a few here in town have heard it). To be honest, it might work better in another city as I haven't seen to many lawn gnomes here. Anyway my idea of a lawn gnome party is this (and it takes some planning): on one night get a group together to scout all of the locations of lawn gnomes in town, on another night steal all the gnomes (make sure you leave invitations to the party) and set them up at a central location (preferable a park or the like) like their having a party. In my head it sounds great and just the visual imagery of a bunch of lawn gnome in a park cracks me up.

Pranks

One thing that Steamboat hasn't had in a long time was a good prank. In fact, I can't even remember any in the last few years. There was the poka dotting of the dinosaur at the Sinclair but that's been a really long time ago.

There is an improv group in NYC called Improv Everywhere that does some improv type pranks or missions as they refer to them. Including the Best Gig Ever and Ted's Birthday, both missions were featured on an episodeThis American Life. Improv Everywhere also sort of reminds me of flash mobs, which are groups that seemingly appear out of nowhere at one spot and do something odd. Like twenty minute pillow fights in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Things like this are rather elaborate for Steamboat I realize but we really need a new, big prank. Although I still think a lawn gnome garden party could be cool.

Congrats

p&c1
Originally uploaded by surly monkey.

Well Paulie and Courtney got hitched today and I say Congratulations!

It was a wonderful wedding with good people and good weather. Their ceremony was probably one of the coolest wedding services I've ever seen. Instead of a judge, minister or friend performing the ceremony they had some form of priestess. I've never heard the four cardinal directions invoked and it quite moving and interesting. The vows that Courtney and Paulie wrote for each other were powerful testaments of their love for each other.

I wish them much happiness in their future together.

And tomorrow/today is going to be nuts.

Gone missing

Kevin Drum has an interesting post over at Political Animal about the new television news phenomena of the missing white girl (usually blond). Personally I don't even watch television news, I don't really get anything out of it. To me print, radio (NPR) and the Internet provides me with the more indepth coverage that I prefer. This whole damsel in distress has been bothering me for a while though. One never hears about missing minority women or even men of any race. And I know that people other than white women go missing. The other thing is adult (and child for that matter) abduction really doesn't happen that much. Not to say that it never happens but it is much more rare than the broadcasters would have us believe. But broadcast media is in the business of stirring up fear and this is just another case of them doing it again.

So it begins...

Well there are some leads on this job hunt and there is even a chance that I already have one. But we'll just see about that. Eggs, chickens and baskets or something like that.

It's kind of strange that I haven't really seen that many people since I've been back in town. Of course, I haven't stepped foot in any of the local watering holes yet either so that may have something to do with it. Personally, I'd feel better once I know I have a job and there is money either coming or soon coming in.

I did take a silly personal add out in the Local today. Something about an unemployed blog writer is looking for female companionship/sponsorship...well you get the picture. I'll be curious to see what if any response I get.

I've been scouring Google trying to come up with some interesting links but there is a lot of stuff to wade through out there and I also just don't know what to look for. There is wheresgeorge.com and I could show my hit map but that would just prove what kind of geek I really am. Oops I slipped. I'm seriously at a loss. Maybe some of you regular readers (I know there's a few of you) should leave me a note in comments and point me to some things. It'd be nice to here from ya'll.

You owe money

Did you know that "Happy Birthday" is still protected under copyright? Now don't worry, royalties only have to be paid if is sung in a commercial setting. So singing it at home is fine, but if the staff at the restaurant sings it, they owe.

Who does own the publishing rights to "Happy Birthday to You"?

They were acquired by a New York accountant named John F. Sengstack when he bought the Clayton F. Summy Company in the 1930s; Sengstack eventually relocated the company to New Jersey and renamed it Birch Tree Ltd. in the 1970s. Warner Chappell (a Warner Communications division), the largest music publisher in the world, purchased Birch Tree Ltd. in late 1998 for a reported sale price of $25 million; the company then became Summy-Birchard Music, now a part of the giant AOL Time Warner media conglomerate.
Snopes.com

This all makes me wonder what other common cultural items are actually owned by some entity or another. Is "He's a Jolly Good Fellow" protected? "Amazing Grace"?

A few updates

In the spirit of not really having anything to say, let me just remind you that PostSecrets updates every Sunday. If you haven't checked out yet please do, there is some powerful pieces there.

I still want to try my own version of Camera Mail, so when I start getting a paycheck again, check your mail Paradox. Speaking of Paradox make sure to check the comments on previous posts, he leaves some awesome music recommendations.

As for shameless self-promotion, there are some newish photos up on my Flickr page. Hopefully I'll be taking some more here soon and have more to show.

Haunted High School

Apparently the high school I went to (Decatur Central) is haunted. At least according to several site on this here Internet. Suspiciously, all of the entries look exactly alike:

Indianapolis - Decatur Central High School -In the 1970's, a girl named Anjie and her friends were recklessly riding around the school parking lot. They crashed and Anjie was thrown from the car and killed. Strangely enough, the school's electricity would not work for several weeks after and the entire school smelled like burnt rubber. Every year, around the time of her death, the electricity still goes out and burnt rubber is smelt. Some people have even reported seeing a young female ghost walking up and down the stairs crying.
-Shadowlands Haunted Places

The thing is, I never heard that story, ever. One would think that would be something the seniors at least would tell the freshmen to freak them out. To be honest, I can't remember the smell of burning rubber, the power would go out once and awhile but I would alway just think it was the weather or something.

Now I just might have to find some others and ask them what they remember.

Wasting more time

I'm beginning to think myspace is starting to become a bit of an obsession for me. Way too much of my time is wasted there. Looking for people I may know, looking at random people and just plain looking around. Since my cover was blown by the Pilot anyway, ya'll can see my page. I really need to get a new photo up there of myself but that's neither here or there.

Not that long ago I would just waste time at cruel.com or memepool, which both provide some interesting links. I would put more up myself but I don't even know where to begin.

That's ok though because Monday begins the hunt. I did see the Liquor Store is hiring when I went there tonight.

Time to breath

It is done. Pulled into Steamboat at 8 pm after leaving about 1 pm yesterday. Don't ask me to figure out the time it took because I'm not going to. I can tell you this much, Kansas has some crazy thunderstorms. There was one I went through today that was very intense, so much so I couldn't see more than ten feet in front of me. Talk about white knuckle driving. And I've delivered pizza in blizzards up here.

The next step is to start looking for a job. There may be the possiblity of some guest shifts at the gas station for survival money. But there will be no permanent return. The search starts on Monday. Those of you living in Steamboat, if you hear anything let me know.

Off to wind down.

On the road again

Sometime tomorrow I will be heading back west to Colorado and for those of you who know, there will be no side trips to either Texas or Oklahoma. As to when I actually get home is a wild guess. It took almost 24 hours to get here and I bet the same going back. Although after watching The Lords of Dogtown tonight I may have to stop and skate once or twice.

The movie was good, it was a dramatization of Dogtown and Z Boys which was Stacy Peralta's film about skating in Venice (and Southern California) in the mid 70's. If you haven't seen Dogtown and Z Boys I highly recommend it. Obviously Lords of Dogtown is the Hollywood version and highly compresses the history but it still is entertaining and worth checking out.

There be some new (and old but new to me) tunes rockin' in the Surly Mayfly on the way back. Including yet another Paradox recommendation Quasimodo: The Further Adventures of Lord Quas. So far it's really good the few times I've listened to it. More on that later.

The road awaits.