Man, Oh Man!

Has it been a while or what?!

Ok so a lot has happened since my last real post. Obviously, an entire semester has gone by. Well, where do I begin?

So my schedule was rather interesting, as I had previously posted. There was a lot of time between classes on some days and none on others. Well, nothing to worry about there anymore, since it's all done. Classes went very well. With only some grades in I know that I've done pretty well. I got a C in my Psychology class, which I'm not too happy about, but it's a lot of terms and people and other little things to learn that I just had some trouble grasping, I guess. I got an A in Billiards, but that's that and not much to that. I got a B in my American Literature class, which I am extremely happy with. There was a lot, a lot, a lot of reading to do for that class and the tests weren't the easiest, so I'm proud of that B. Still waiting for grades in my other classes and I'll share them as they come in if I remember.

Besides my classes there have been a few other things going on. My housing situation is wonderful. My landlord is still awesome, as is his pet doggy, Sheba. Unfortunately though, his step father, who was visiting here this past week with his mother, had a heart attack yesterday (Friday) morning. Fortunately he is okay. He had gone down to his car and was about to drive off when he noticed he had a missed call. Before he turned on the car he looked at his phone and actually passed out for a few seconds. When he came to, he worked his way back to the hotel room where he passed out on his bed. An ambulance came and got him and today he is doing okay. My roommate, Josh, can be a little annoying at times, but that's expected when you live with someone. My other roommate, Jensen, is planning on moving out before next semester, if he can, so I'll be getting to know someone else in a month or two. I have most of my classes scheduled for next semester. I think I just need one more, so I have to look around for that.

As for my little message right before this one about a bad week, that is because three days prior to that, on November 2, my girlfriend broke up with me. I was pretty upset and sad and all that stuff for a few weeks, but I'm doing a lot better now. We've started talking a little bit and are starting to act as friends.

Don't know what else I could possibly say right now. Feel free to ask me about anything.


Because I Can:

"Fettucini alfredo is macaroni and cheese for adults."

Real Short Post

So maybe I'll update later, but it's been a bad week this week. That is all.

Oh, Hi There :)

Ok, so it's been a while. This summer wasn't all that busy so I didn't really have much to report on save for a few things not important enough to write up.

Classes started this week. I'm lucky enough to not have any classes on Friday or I would be dead by tonight. Monday and Wednesday are easy days for me as I only have two classes with lots of time in between classes, Tuesday and Thursday are different stories. On Tuesday I have class from 9am to 8pm, with breaks in between and time to eat, and Thursday I have class non-stop with no more than 15 minutes between class from 9am to 5pm. Like I said, Monday and Wednesday are much better. My complete schedule is as follows:

Monday/Wednesday: 11-11:50am ~ Pocket Billiards (Pool)
4:25-5:40pm ~ Colonial American History
Tuesday: 9:15-10:30am ~ Physical Geology
1:45-3pm ~ English Composition
3:15-4:30pm ~ Psychology
5:20-7:50pm ~ American Literature
Thursday: 9:15-10:30am ~ Physical Geology
11am-1:30pm ~ Physical Geology Lab
1:45-3pm ~ English Composition
3:15-4:30pm ~ Psychology
Friday: All Day ~ Nothing :)

So it's a busy schedule but I have some time off and live much closer to campus now so I can walk if I wanted to, which I'm sure I will as long as the weather is nice. On days the weather is not nice I can take the Roo Express. The Roo Express is the school's bus system that goes to downtown Akron and also through neighborhoods surrounding the school. I got lucky witht he place I'm living in. I called one house that was renting rooms, but they were full. The Lessor of that house then gave me a number of a guy across the street that was also renting out his house and had rooms available.

The guy across the street, A.J., is super super nice, probably one of the nicest guys I have ever met. He is a landscaper that also does some contract work so he has completely remodeled the house. He put in new windows, fixed up the roof, built a back porch, put on new siding, took a low window in the kitchen and move it up about 3 feet, put in a new washer/dryer combo, new fridge, put an island in the kitchen, repainted, security lights, etc. and just did so much to the house in about a month.... by himself. In addition to all that, all utilities are paid for, cable and internet is paid for, he's putting cable hook-ups in all the rooms, he plows the driveway and the street from corner to corner, he shovels the walk, he's putting more space for parking in his backyard, AND he has a pet kitty and a pet husky. All that, and rent is $350 a month. Not too bad if I do say so myself.

This year has started off nicely so far. Things are looking good for me and I'm excited to move in this weekend. This past week was rough because I had to commute from Solon to Akron every day, but it was just for this week. I cannot wait until this year gets rolling and things start to settle down on campus, they usually do after the first couple of weeks. Here's hoping.


Because I Can:

“I think a rotisserie is like a really morbid ferris wheel for chickens. It’s a strange piece of machinery . . . We will take the chicken, kill it, impale it, and then rotate it. And I’ll be damned if I’m not hungry! Because spinning chicken carcasses make my mouth water! I like dizzy chicken. With a side of potatoes of some sort.”

Three Weeks Ago...

I went to visit the Happy Grandma with Erica to make pie. Today, I finally got around to writing a post about it because I've been super slow about getting it done. We went on Friday, but I am going to start with Thursday.

That Thursday, I decided to head back to Akron to watch the Cavs game rather than go to a bar in Solon and go back to Akron afterward. Well, turns out my roommates dad, who pays for the cable, decided that he didn't want to pay for the last two days that anyone would possibly be there so he turned off the cable. That's all well and good, I can understand why, but now here I am in an apartment all alone with nothing to do, no DVDs or video games to play -- because I brought them all home in lieu of moving out Saturday -- no cable, no internet, nothing whatsoever for me to do to occupy my time except play solitaire on my laptop for several hours. Luckily, my friends Carmen and Atlie gave me a call and asked what I was doing, upon telling them the story they decided to come by my apartment and go to Applebee's with me so I could watch the game and not feel totally alone. Yay friends! Yay Cavs, too -- they won! After the game I went back to my apartment and spent another few hours playing solitaire before finally heading to bed.

Friday, all the fun began. Erica picked me up and after fixing a blown fuse in her car, we finally got going. When we got to grandma's she didn't waste any time getting us started. Immediately we were chopping up strawberries and rhubarb for the pie, measuring everything for dough for a pie crust and working our tails off on pie. After everything was chopped, sliced, rolled and put together, we placed the pies in the oven and went across the street to look at some swans at their amish neighbor's house. Papa swan was fun to watch, he seemed awefully protective of his youngin's, but I don't blame him. After a little swan watching we went back to the house and I got a tour of the backyard as well as a showing of some quilts that grandma made. The quilts all looked amazing. After the pies were done Erica and I got on our way so she could make it home by dinner time. I put my pie away and waited until I moved home to share my pie with everyone else. The all loved it, in fact, my grandma was wondering if she could get the recipe we used :).

Saturday was move out day. Since I had spent the previous two weeks driving home anything I didn't need myself I had relatively little to move out. I had a few pieces of furniture and some dishes and that was about it. Matt's stuff, on the other hand, took a little more time to move out. Now I'm back home and looking for a job. I'm trying to avoid working in restaurants, but I may not have a choice in the matter at this point.

Because I Can:

"They say people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. OK. How about nobody should throw stones? It's crappy behavior. My policy is - No stone throwing regardless of housing situation. Don't do it. There is one exception though. If you are trapped in a glass house and you have a stone. Throw it. You an idiot? So really, it's only people IN glass houses who should throw stones! Provided they are trapped. In the house. With stones. It's a little longer, but yeah."

Oops

Over the past month-ish I had a few things I've been meaning to post but never really got to it.

I'll be moving from my apartment in Akron back home to Solon on Saturday. This means I won't have anywhere to watch games 6 and 7 in the Cavs-Magic Series so I'll have to go to a bar or something. While I am a little disappointed that they lost game 4 I am still 100% confident that they can win the series. Sure, they're down 3-1, but I don't see them losing 2 out of 3 games at home when they really only lost 1 game at home all season. Likewise, I don't see them losing 2 out of 3 games on the road. It will be tough. Only 8 teams have ever come back from being down 3 games to 1, but the Cavs will make it 9.

Besides moving out I'm not sure what else I'll be doing over the summer. I'm having trouble finding a job and may end up just doing house/yardwork for my parents for minimum wage. If that doesn't work out then I'll see what happens. This Friday I'm very excited and totally looking forward to going to visit the Happy Grandma to make some pie! Yay pie!

Because I Can:

"I hope that after I die, people will say of me: ‘That guy sure owed me a lot of money.’" -Jack Handey

Long Overdue.

So it has been a considerable while since my last update.

Since last time, I have written three papers, taken four tests and two finals. Two of the papers were assignments due by the end of the semester which I put off until an hour before they were due (Yay me!) and the last one was a take-home final which I waited until the day it was due to write and turn in. As for the four tests, two of them were finals, but I did well on the other two as well. Hopefully if all goes well I'll finish the semester with A, A, A, B; though it may also end up A, A, B, B which is also pretty good I suppose. I'll let you all know how it turned out.

My last final was yesterday afternoon so I am all done now, officially. I should start to schedule classes for next year, like real ones. So far I have scheduled Billiards and Bowling but still need the real classes. Any suggestions for someone planning on being a mid level education major (grades 4-8)?

Well, as I said, I am all done now and I have my apartment until the end of May so I'm just relaxing for the next 20 some odd days I have left before I have to move out. This is going to be both a fun and boring stretch, I feel.

Because I Can:

"My sister wanted to be an actress, but she never made it. She does live in a trailer. She got halfway. She's an actress, she just never gets called to the set."

Procrastination Rocks

So I'm coming to the realization that I'm a lazy student. I have been awake for the past 20+ hours writing a 6 page paper on why lying is good. It was assigned over a week ago and is due today (Friday) in a few hours. Before I can turn it in though I have to finish writing a 5 minute speech on how to stop emotional/mental and physical abuse for a group speech project that is due, yup, today. I missed the last two classes, Monday I wasn't feeling well and Wednesday my car was blocked in, and so I was unaware when I would be going or what the speech was supposed to be on as my group hadn't told me yet. When I texted a kid in my group to ask him what the deal was he simply responded with, "We go tomorrow. You're the conclusion. Maria said she e-mailed you the topic. You have to say how to stop abuse. It has to be 5 minutes long." Sweet... thanks for the advanced warning people.

Today is my dad's birthday and I was planning on going home but now I'm not. A few things factored into this decision. 1) I am not going to drive the 35 minutes home after 30ish hours of being awake. 2) He's coming down here Saturday. 3) He's coming down here Sunday. 4) I have a portfolio due Monday that needs to include 2 papers, a letter and a revision statement. 5) I have 2 papers due by Friday online. 6) I think I have a take-home test due by Friday as well but since I missed the last 2 classes I don't know if it's been handed out yet.

Yea, I hate the last week of classes. On the brighter side, yay last week of classes! After this week I have 2 finals and then I'm done! Then comes the joy of a continued search for a job. Anyone hiring? :D

Because I Can:

"I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential."

Go Cavs!

So it's the weekend and with the weekend comes the start to the NBA Playoffs. The Cavs open the first round today at 3:00 against the Detroit Pistons and are in good shape to make it to the NBA Finals this year. I will be watching the game and rooting for my Cavs all the way. Go Cavs! As long as I'm on sports, the Indians are starting to look a bit better of late. Sure they're only 3-8 on the season so far, but that's only 11 games in. The Indians have 151 games left in the season and are only 3.5 games behind the Kansas City Royals. They had a rocky start but I'm looking for them to bounce back in the coming weeks and start to play strong the rest of the year. Still too early to talk about the Browns, but I will say that I think at this point it would be beneficial for the Browns to trade Edwards for some other lower tier wide receiver and some draft picks. I'm also convinced that Mangini is going to stick with Anderson as quarterback and so the browns should trade Quinn for some more draft picks. It doesn't make sense for them to hold onto him and Anderson and Anderson has mroe upside than Quinn. Also, his name starts with a "Q"... that's kind of strange.

This weekend I wasn't planning on going home, but now I am. I was going to stay here in Akron and work on a paper (procrastinate until Sunday night and then rush to get it done in time for my Monday meeting with my prof.) and just generally relax, but my buddy Zach gave me a call and told me his car broke down and he viewed it as fate that he shouldn't go back down to the University of Miami (Ohio) to celebrate his birthday but that he should stay up here and spend time with Matt, Jimmy and myself. So now I pack up and get ready to head on home for the night and to spend some time with my oompapa (dad) as well. He's an accountant and so he finally hs some free time so I think it's a good time to spend some time with him.

Because I Can:

"I went to a doctor, all he did was suck blood from my neck. Don't go see Dr. Acula."

School? School!

Today was a good day!

I had to give a persuasive speech in my effective oral communication class and, for lack of another topic, I gave it on why marijuana should be legalized. Now I don't smoke marijuana or do any drugs and initially went into this speech not even agreeing with it myself, but as I did research I managed to persuade myself. It really kind of makes sense to legalize marijuana because it would remove the black market demand which would remove large quantities of money from the drug cartels. If it was no longer sold illegally then crime rates on drug related charges would also drop, clearing prisons of non violent offenders and making room for more violent offenders. In addition, the government could tax it and help boost the economy by giving government contracts to farmers. I guess I did pretty well on the speech because I got an A, so yay to that!

After that class I had ethics where I got a test back that I took last Friday. Before class the prof was talking about how nobody failed, but there were only a few A's, some B's and mostly C's. I didn't get to finish the test, it was essay format, and so I was pretty nervous that I got a C or something. The prof started to hand back the tests and I was the last of my little group of friends to get the test back. First Kim got hers back and she had a C+, then Sara got hers back and she had a C+, next Teddy got his back and he also had a C+. At this point I was getting nervous that I got a C+ or worse, then I got mine back. A-..... Sara, Kim and Teddy were a little upset. I was a little happy :). Ok, I was a lot happy :D!

Now I'm waiting for my grandparents to stop by in about 45 minutes to pick me up and take me home. We're all going to my sister's house for dinner and I'm a bit tired so they asked if I would like a ride. Grandparents are awesome!

Because I Can:

"I know a lot about cars, man. I can look at any car's headlights and tell you exactly which way it's coming."

Yay Demo CDs

I was talking with a friend yesterday and for some reason she put her friend on the phone. Having never talked to this person before she was a little surprised to hear my voice. As some of you know, my voice is fairly low. Anyway, she really liked my voice and wanted to keep talking to me, but I had some work to do so I had to hang up and get going. While I was doing my work I came across my demo CD I had made for my high school senior project three years ago. I figured I would post it on here to be listened to. Unfortunately, audio files cannot be posted on here so I turned it into a video by adding some titles and some pictures to go along with it. It's not great but it works. Now back to work.




Because I Can:

"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read!"

I Used To Like Cops

Until one pulled me over yesterday for what appeared to me to be no reason at all. I was picking up my friend Jimmy in Reminderville so we could head out to Valley View to see Fast and Furious, which was pretty good. Anyway, Jimmy gave me a call at 6:45 and told me he was getting ready to head back to his house and he would be there in 15 minutes so I got all my things together and went over to his house. I got there around 7:00 and texted him to let him know that I was there. He didn't come out or respond me so I tried calling him a few times but he didn't answer. At 5 after he got home and told be he'd be inside for a few minutes so he could get his wallet and some cash from his dad. I guess his dad wanted to have a talk with him or something because he was in there for 10 minutes, despite the fact his dad knew I was outside waiting for him.

At 7:15 he came out and got in the car and we started on our way. The speed limit on his street is 25mph and I was, admittedly, going about 35, but as I was going around a curve I saw a cop on my right and so I slowed down to 29. At the same moment I came around the curve and first saw the cop, I was close to 200 ft away from him at the time, he was pulling out of whatever spot he was in and started driving towards me going the opposite direction as I was. I was thinking I was good, nothing to worry about, and then he turned around. He came up behind me at a stop sign but didn't do anything so I thought, whatever I guess he's just turning around or something. I turned left and kept going and then the cop sped up to get behind me and turned on his lights. The following is the dialogue that took place between us.

Cop - "Hey there, I'm officer *forgot his name* of the Reminderville police department, how are you doing today?"

Me - "I'm doing pretty good, how about yourself?"

Cop - "Not bad, not bad. You in a hurry?"

Me - "Not especially, why do you ask?"

Cop - "Well I clocked you going 37 back there and the speed limit is posted as a 25mph zone."

Me - "Well I tend to pay pretty careful attention to my speed and my spedometer was telling me I was going about 30."

Cop - "Ok, well as I said, I clocked you going 37 just now and got you going 40 the other way a few minutes before that. I'm going to need to see your I.D. and proof of insurance please."

At this point I handed the requested documents to the cop and he went back to his car to run my info and Jimmy and I began to think about this. The cop was pulling out of the drive he was in before I even made it into his line of sight, he was headed in the opposite direction as me and he was going 25mph at the time that I passed him. He stopped and turned around in order to get me, said he clocked me going 35 just now and 40 going the opposite direction minutes before. On the way to Jimmy's house the cop wasn't there and I was doing 30, I waited outside Jimmy's house for 20 minutes and then did 30 going past the cop as he was doing 25 in the opposite direction, yet he claimed to clock me twice within minutes first going 40 and then going 37. In addition, instead of waiting until I passed him and then pulling out behind me, he was headed in the opposite direction and then spun around to come up behind me. Things just didn't seem to add up to me, and I don't think they did to the cop either.

Cop comes back from his car and says - "Alright well the posted speed is 25 mph."

Me - "Ok."

Cop - "That being said, I expect you to drive the posted speed from now on because you won't be gettign a warning next time."

Me - "Alright officer, thanks. I'm sorry."

Cop - "Alright now, you have a good day."

The fact that he just gave me a warning after claiming to have clocked me speeding not once, but twice; first going 15mph above the limit and then going 12 mph over the limit, and also spun around in order to come up behind me and pull me over makes me think he had me confused with someone else. Either way, I used to respect what cops did, and for the most part still do, but when they do silly things like that and waste my time and make me late for a movie for no reason it irks me a bit, I guess.

On another note, the movie wasn't bad. It was about what I expected of it. Unfortunately we got to the theater late and ended up having to sit in the 5th row from the front and look just about straight up to see the screen.

Because I Can:

"A waffle is like a pancake with a syrup trap."

Wow, It's Been A While

I didn't realize that it had been so long. I guess I just got all excited about school! Sorry, not nice of me to lie like that. This week has been decent. I missed a few classes because I forgot to set my alarm, but besides that it's been good. This week went by real fast too. Monday is going to be rough though. I have two tests on Monday, one in English and another in my Ethics class. Tomorrow I have a few friends in my Ethics class stopping by to study with me over some pizza. Besides that I don't have many plans for the weekend. Because this post was so short I hope these pictures of things that are cool make up for it.





Because I Can:

"I recently took up ice sculpting. Last night I made an ice cube. This morning I made 12, I was prolific. "

It's-a Me! Mario!

Yesterday was a pleasant day. More pleasant than I would have expected actually. I got a call from my friend Zach asking me to swing by for breakfast. By the time I got there it was closer to lunch, nothing wrong with that though, so he made some eggs and pancakes and we ate and talked for about 30 minutes. After we finished eating, we listened to some music on his computer and watched some videos. Most notably of the music were some mash-ups of different songs. Mash-ups are basically songs that are two or more songs combined, one that we listened to was 6 songs mashed together. There are a lot out there and this one is probably one of my favorites. We also watched a Penn and Teller video of one of their shows which was a pretty interesting look on drugs.

Around 4 Zach's mom called him and asked if I could drive him to get his little brother from school at 5 so I figured why not and we played some N64 for an hour. Around 5 we went to the school to get his brother, but he wasn't there, so we went to the library because I guess he'll walk there sometimes, but he wasn't there. After 15 minutes looking we went to get our friend Jimmy and then come back to look for Zach's brother again. So we got Jimmy and came back to the library, still not there. At this point we were like ok, maybe he's still at the school so we went back to the school and waited there for around 20 minutes until Zach's mom decided that we should just come back and let him walk home. When we got back to Zach's house we played Mario Party for about two hours and then watched this show called Lie To Me. It's a pretty good show, never seen it before last night. It's about this firm that investigates crimes and just about anything else they're hired to investigate because they're trained to be able to tell if someone is lying or guilty or embarrassed or anything based on body actions, like biting your lip or swallowing a lot. After the show I went home and got some food and felt pretty good about my day.

Becasue I Can:

"I once saw a forklift lift a crate of forks. And it was way to literal for me."

Surprise Fun

Today, after complaining to my friend Ryan about how bored I was at home, I went to my friend James' house to hang out with him. I never really thought about it before, but he's probably one of my best friends. We have a good time when we hang out and we talk about a lot of stuff. Not just like video games and school or whatever, but we also talk about relationships, music, life, armed forces, family etc. and it's a lot of fun. He's pretty awesome and rad. Anyway, at his house I helped him finish up some house cleaning while his dad was at work because I'm cool like that, /flex, and then helped him finish filling out an application for Cleveland State University for next year.

After we were done with all that he got the green light from his dad to hang out for a bit so we gave our friend Zach a call and headed over to his house for about 20 minutes. Would have been longer but his mom gave us the idea to go see a movie, so we did that. The movie we saw was Ms. March. It's about this guy named Eugene. Eugene is dating Cindi and they both decide to wait until marriage to "profess their love". On prom night, Cindi convinces Eugene to "profess his love" to her since they love each other and know they will get married after school. While celebrating with his friend before heading upstairs to be with Cindi, Eugene falls down some stairs and hits his head, winding up in a coma for 4 years. When he finally wakes up he decides to go find Cindi, who is now a Playboy model and also Ms. March. The movie itself was pretty bad, but it was extremely funny. It's a bit dirty and raunchy at times, but the humor was worth the $5 ticket.

After the movie the three of us went back to Zach's house and talked for about 20 minutes about stuff. Nothing specific really, just friends, family, school and general stuff. We then hopped onto the N64 and played Mario Kart for about an hour n hef! All in all, it was more fun than I actually expected to have considering how few people I can actually do something with right now.

Because I Can:

"My friend asked me if I wanted a frozen banana. I said 'No, but I want a regular banana later, so... yeah.'"

Spring Break

Well today is Saturday and the official first day of spring break. Last night my friend Bryan and I went to Matt's house and we hung out and spent the night. This morning, well afternoon really, I went and got my hair cut so I don't look like Sasquatch anymore. The rest of the day was spent sitting in my room. Tomorrow I'll probably also sit in my room. Come to think of it, I'll probably spend every day until Friday sitting in my room. Friday I may or may not hang out with Matt depending on how tired he is when he gets back from Florida. Saturday I'll probably head back to Akron and sit around there. I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to going back to class. I think this is shaping up to be my most boring spring break ever.

Because I Can:

"My belt holds my pants up, but the belt loops hold my belt up. I don't really know what's happening down there. Who is the real hero? "

Party Time!

Wayne's World! Wayne's World! Party time! Excellent! I saw Wayne's World for the first time over the weekend and it was pretty much awesome. It was incredibly funny and Dana Carvey was great. I honestly don't know how I managed to go so long without having seen it. Thanks Erica :). I also got to hear Erica play some guitar and sing. For those that have yet to hear her, get to it. She sounds real good in recordings and even better in person. I can't wait to hear her again.

Carmen Stopped by as well. He came down friday and spent the night. We watched some TV and played some cards and generally just hung out for the night. It was good to see him again. I'm glad he's doing well. He's on spring break now so I'm sure I'll get to see him again later. Speaking of, I have my spring break next week. While I'm not going fun places, like Naples, Florida, I'm still pumped to have a week off school where I can sleep in and just relax. After break it's back to the books for the long haul. Other than that, I got nothing new going on.

Because I Can:

"When someone hands you a flyer, it's like they're saying here you throw this away."

Watchmen

I saw Watchmen last night. It was amazingly good. Now, I haven't read the graphic novel so I wasn't completely filled in, but I thought it was pretty easy to figure out. My friends James and Mary didn't think so though. Afterward, they seemed pretty confused as to what had happened. Overall, I thought the acting was great by all parts, the special effects were off the chart and it was just very well put together. The only problem I had with it had to do with a certain part of Dr. Manhattan's "costume". I'll just leave it at that. Not that there's anything wrong with it though...

After the movie, James and I sat around in the parking lot for a bit just catching up. He's been home for about a month, but it's the first chance I've had to see him in the past year and a half since the last time he was home. What started with me just driving next to him and talking to him through the window ended up with he and I parked behind the theatre standing around and talking for 3 1/2 hours. We didn't really plan on it like that, but it was fun. We did a lot of talking and catching up.

I didn't get to sleep until around 4:30 and slept until around 3, but I got interrupted quite a few times. Matt called me once, I got a few texts from James and I had a guy call me twice looking for someone named Bob. I'm back in Akron now and just waiting for something to do. Matt should be back at some point and Carmen is coming in about an hour. Guess I should get some homework done while I can.

Because I Can:

"I had a stick of CareFree gum, but it didn't work. I felt pretty good while I was blowing that bubble, but as soon as the gum lost its flavor, I was back to pondering my mortality. "

Woo

So this is going to be a fun and busy weekend, but first... yay! I got a few assignments back today and was pleasantly surprised at how I did. First, I gave a speech on subliminal messages in one class and got a 96% on it. It was actually pretty fun. I was nervous at first because I was reading off the note cards, but as I got into it I moved away from the cards and just kind of went with it. People seemed to be pretty interested in it so that's pretty exciting. The professor really enjoyed it too. In fact, I actually had kids come up to me after the class and tell me I did a real good job on it. I was like, "whoa thanks." It feels good to be complimented so I will return the favor. All you that read my blog, you're all beautiful. Except Matt, you're a bit cocky; but I live with you so let's say that you're kind hearted too. Next up was my take-home Ethics test I turned in last week. Everyone in the class was getting really scared as the professor stood in front of the class saying, "Ok, you didn't do as well as you may think you did. I don't give you a B for trying, so if you deserve a D then you get a D. But don't worry, it's only worth 25% of your grade. Overall the class did decently. You should be happy if you get a C because that's passing." The entire thing is out of 60 points and when he handed mine back I saw a 13 on my grade sheet. My heart just about fell into my stomach... until I realized that my professor just doesn't know how to close a B so it looked like a 13 instead. YAY me!! Life is good.

This weekend should be fun, too. Tonight I should be seeing Watchmen with Matt and my friend Jimmy, just back from the Navy, and possibley my friend Zach if he gets off work. Hopefully we'll hang out a bit afterwards so that our friend Carmen can meet up with us for a bit. I've heard nothing short of amazing reviews from friends so I am absolutely stoked to be seeing it tonight. I don't remember the last time I was this excited. Hopefully Erica will have enough time to watch Wayne's World with me, that would make the weekend that much better. I only have one thing to do for school that shouldn't take me too long so I look forward to the weekend.

I'm just about out of Demetri Martin quotes so I'll be switching over to someone else soon, probably Mitch Hedberg. In fact, I think I'll start today.

Because I Can:

"An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience."

The Post of the Century!

I got my test back from my Childhood Development class. This is the test that I had to pull an all nighter to study for. Also, when I say "study" I mean I essentially had to read the first 5 chapters and teach myself all but a few things from scratch in about 7 hours. Normally that doesn't sound too hard, but you add in the 'tired' factor and it's much more difficult. Anyway, so I got this test back and was pleasantly surprised to see that I had managed a "C" on the it; though I probably could have gotten a "B" if I didn't rush through it so fast. There were a few questions that I looked at, after the fact, and realized what mistakes I had made, but oh well, I passed; and I learned an important lesson. To go to the class, take notes and pay attention.

Oh wow, I forgot I was writing this for about four hours. Let's see... I've also been doing pretty well in my other classes. I have an interesting week coming up though. I have to write a speech on subliminal messages that I have to give in 12 hours, I have to do an observation on children's toys, I have to come up with a mathematical idea for a paper and I have to do some other slightly less important things like buying food. Shouldn't be too bad though, the only thing due before the weekend is the speech, after that I'm set pretty good with the weekend to work with. I do have a test to study for too, though, so I suppose I should do that too.

Lately Matt and I have gotten back into playing Magic the Gathering. It's a fairly complicated game that is never really fully understood. The rules are often defined differently depending on who's playing at the time; and people will obviously also try to redefine the rules depending on the situation in order to help themselves out the most. It is fun though. Once you get into it it can become pretty addicting. That also goes to explain why it's 10 to 1 in the a.m. and I am just now starting my speech. It can also be fairly costly with buying new cards. I'm trying to avoid buying new cards though, I don't have a whole lot of money.

I'm also excited for the weekend. I have a few friends coming back for the weekend and spring break so I'll get to see them. I also have a friend that just go back from Japan after being in the Navy so I'll get to see him too. I should be seeing Watchmen either Friday or Saturday, so I'm excited about that. I would like to see Wayne's World at some point, but that will depend on other people. It won't be all good though. This morning my dad got rear ended while driving my younger sister to school. They were stopped at a red light and got slammed. They both had some whiplash, my sister worse than my dad though. She got placed on a board and taken to the emergency room in an ambulance. She's fine though, she was x-rayed and there's no serious damage. My dad ended up going to work anyway because he had a meeting but my sister just went back home after. My dad is especially ticked off, too, because it's a brand new car. He got it last Saturday. We should have seen it coming though. To date, this is what has happened to his last four cars, this one included: first - deer on highway (owned for 4 days), second - deer on streets (owned for 6 days), third - hit at a gas station (owned for 2 months), fourth - rear ended at a stop light (owned for 5 days). Good thing he leases...

Because I Can:

“I love women, but I feel like you can’t trust some of them. Some of them are liars, you know? Like I was in the park and I met this girl, she was cute and she had a dog. And I went up to her, we started talking. She told me her dog’s name. Then Í said, “Does he bite?”. She said “No.” And I said, “Oh yeah? Then how does he eat? … Liar.”"

Last Weekend

Last weekend was pretty fun, let's see if I can remember it though.

Ok, so Friday I went home around 8 and was hanging with ma and pa and lil sis for about an hour and a half and then I went to The Boneyard. Matt was supposed to come too, but he had some paper he forgot about and had to work on that. I got to the Boneyard around 9:30 and met up with Bryan and Mary in the restaurant for some wings. I was about halfway done with my wings when Bryans friends Katie and Mikey showed up with Katies boyfriend whom I will call Ben. I don't remember if that's actually his name because he didn't say a single word to anyone all night and then left early because of something Mikey said, but I'll get into that later. So now all these people are here and I have to hurry up and eat so we can go drink. Then Mary's friend Lindsey showed up.. Gah I'm so rushed!

I finished eating and so we all went down to the bar to get some drinks and dance to the Spazmatics. We were dancing and listening for about 40 minutes until they took their break and then we left the bar and went to the game room and the bathroom. While in the bathroom, a drunk Mikey started talking about how he and Katie had been all over eachother and were talking about maybe getting together later. After he said all this to me and Bryan he noticed Ben standing right in front of him... Ben wasn't happy... He left the bathroom, got Katie and they both left before the rest of us got out. A little upset, Mikey started walking around the game room hitting on everyone he saw, except for the girls that weren't there with a guy. Basically he was just walking around hitting on girls in front of their boyfriends. It was almost very bad for him... almost. Eventually we got control of him and we all went home. Bryan drove Mikey home and Mary followed them to take Bryan back home after. When I left I went to Matt's and we played some Halo. After about 45 minutes of Halo we went upstairs and watch 300 on bluray... O.O Amazing! I made it home around 4 and finally got to bed around 5.

Saturday was pretty boring for the most part. I just sat at home all day surfing the web not really doing anything. Then, around 6, I remembered that I had a paper due online by midnight for my ethics class. It was pretty easy though, I just had to find an article about something relating to morals or ethics and then report on it and give my opinion on the matter. I found an article on assisted suicide and figured that as far as morals and ethics go it doesn't get any better than that. It took me about 3 hours to do total, 40 minutes of which was actually spent working. After I finished the paper and turned it in I went back to Matt's and we played a few games of Halo with his younger brother, Dan, and then went up to his room for some Heroes on bluray because he only buys things on bluray now. After 4 episodes of bluray I went home and got to sleep around 3.

Sunday I went shopping with my dad, which I'm apparently not allowed to do anymore... I managed to get him to buy me a bag of Twix, a bag of Snickers, Oreos, M&M cookies, 2 bottles of juice, some gum and a big can of cashews... Mommy was not pleased that I got him to get me all that stuff. After all that I went back home for a bit and then eventually came back to my apartment back here in good 'ole Akron. Now I have some homework to do for tomorrow and then more for Wednesday and a speech to research and write that I have to give Friday. On top of that I have to help a friend revise his paper to get a better grade on it in English. Busy week!

Because I Can:

“Some jokes are short and elegant, like a mathematical proof or a midget in a ballgown.”

Woo Hoo!!!

Good day today, eventually. I didn't get to bed until 5:30 am because I'm a bit of a night owl. It's not all bad though. As I said in a previous post, my first two classes were canceled today so I got to sleep in until noon which was very very nice. Since I was able to sleep until noon I still managed six and a half hours of sleep so I'm doing very well. My first class was a little boring. It's a speech class that I have to take in order to get into the College of Education so I can teach all your children how to count and read. The class itself is pretty pointless. It consists of 50 minutes of listening to a professor teach the obvious using power point. An example would be, "when giving your speech make sure that you're organized. Ways to be organized are to arrange the events of your speech chronologically." Thanks, I was planning on doing a speech on the detailed history of the U.S. starting with WWII, moving on to the Gulf War, then the Revolutionary War and wrapping it all up with a bit of information on man landing on the moon in 1969. It's a real snooze fest so I just about struggle to stay awake in it.

My next class was my ethics class which is a lot of fun. The professor is pretty much hilarious so the class is a lot of fun. Today we had to turn in a take home test, the reason of the awakeness until 5, and I think I did pretty well on it, I should know by next Friday. After my ethics class I got to wait outside my english profs office again for 40 minutes so I could have my conference for my paper. I got in there and he really didn't have much to say. He told me that there were a few little problems that I needed to work on but it was, otherwise, very well written and I got an A on it. WOOHOO!

I am now officially caught up on all my work and back in the habit of going to class. All I have left to do is a one page paper I have to write for my ethics class that's due on Saturday so I'm taking it easy for a day. I finally have a stress free night with nothing due for three days and no class until 2 tomorrow afternoon. Happy Jared is happy :)

Because I Can:

“I was making pancakes the other day and a fly flew into the kitchen. And that’s when I realized that a spatula is a lot like a fly-swatter. And a crushed fly is a lot like a blueberry. And a roommate is a lot like a fly eater.”

So Little Time

I'm surprised with myself. The last three days have been, in my opinion, the most productive three days in the last year for me. I managed to tech myself enough of a class to do somewhat decently on a test (I think I may have gotten at least a C), I wrote and gave a speech that I got an 89% on, I've made all my classes in the past week and a half, I've been getting more sleep, having more fun, and generally just been doing a lot better. I feel better too. I've been a little depressed or something the past month or so, but I really am feeling a lot better and think that it's all passing. I think a big part of it has been coming to terms with a few things, understanding that it is what it is and that things, and people, don't change. Once I realized all that I was able to move on with all of this fun stuff my profs have assigned me.

I'm not totally out of the woods yet, though. I still have a take home test to do for my Ethics class that's due tomorrow and a paper for said Ethics class due online by Saturday. I also have to see my English prof about the first paper we did because I got the days wrong. I sat outside his office for 40 minutes yesterday because I thought that's when I was supposed to meet with him. That is until I walked in the same time as someone else and was informed that I was supposed to meet with him on Wednesday and not today, which at the time was Monday. Today is Tuesday. Things are finally coming together and I'm doing great! I'm even starting to follow my own advice and get things organized as best I can. It helps that, because of conferences, my English class was canceled all week and my Childhood Development class was canceled for tomorrow so the rest of my week goes something like W/F class from 1:00-3:00 and Th class from 1:45-3:00 with my conference tomorrow at 3:40. Then comes the weekend.

Friday Matt and I are most likely heading to The Boneyard with Mary and Bryan. Gotta get our drink on! Spazmatics are also playing there. They're this 80's tribute band that gets all dressed up and has a lot of fun. They're pretty good, I like them a lot, especially while consuming beverages of the alcoholic variety.

Because I Can:

“The easiest time to add insult to injury is when you’re signing somebody’s cast. 'Get well soon... Jerk.'”

Too Much To Do

As is custom with the second half of the year, I have once again begun to completely slack off and get into some trouble with classes. That being said, why should this year be any different? This weekend I have a lot of work to do, but am already getting deeper and deeper into this mess. On Monday, I have a test at 9am consisting of multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions all worth a total of 100 points. The problem with this is that I know pretty much nothing in regards to what's actually going to be on the test... I have to teach myself just about everything in about 8 hours. In addition to this test of doom, I have to give a speech on Monday. On what I do not know yet, though, because my prof has yet to e-mail me back and tell me what it is supposed to be on. I was supposed to give it Wednesday, but wasn't sure of the guidelines so I asked via e-mail if I could do it on Friday. In the e-mail the prof said yes, then in class on Wednesday told me to e-mail him to get the guidelines and that I would do it on Monday. I e-mailed him and still nothing.

That's not all though! I also have to read 3 chapters for the same class I have to give the speech in, read a chapter in my book for English and meet with my English prof regarding the first paper we turned in last week. Then on Tuesday I have to turn in some homework for my math class. I am in real deep. Yea, it's my fault, I should have stayed on top of things, but this always happens to me. I get distracted way too easily. I sit down to work and get distracted by dust floating by. It's a big problem and I think I may need some help with it, I don't know what though. Any ideas, readers? Any advice or help or anything would be greatly appreciated. Greatly. There are a few causes I can think of, but they're nothing more than excuses. They probably had no effect what-so-ever on me getting my work done. I mean, I have been a bit depressed lately, that's a bit of it, but it shouldn't prevent me from doing my work or going to class. I could use some help. I don't know what to do at this point. I'm trying to get caught up, but I'm scared it might just be too much to overcome. Halp me!

I'm going to bed now. I hope I can get all this work done tomorrow. If I don't I don't know what's going to happen.

Because I Can:

“‘Sort of’ is such a harmless thing to say. Sort of. It’s just a filler. Sort of - it doesn’t really mean anything. But after certain things, sort of means everything. Like after ‘I love you’ or ‘You’re going to live’ or ‘It’s a boy.’”

Short Post

I'm tired. So so tired.

Because I Can:

“I like parties, but I don’t like piñatas because the pinata promotes violence against flamboyant animals. Hey, there’s a donkey with some pizzazz. Let’s kick its ass. What I’m trying to say is, don’t make the same Halloween costume mistake that I did.”

Because I Should

So it has come to my attention that I cannot cook. I mean, I was under the impression that Easy Mac and egg sandwiches was cooking, but I guess I'm mistaken. Today, my grandma and I did some shopping. She took me to Marc's and got me some food and some pans and tried to give me some advice on cooking. So far the few things I have to work on are spaghetti, ravioli and stir fried veggies. It doesn't seem too hard, let's just see how lazy I am about it. After we were done shopping she and I sat around talking a bit as we got things ready for dinner. About 30 minutes later my grandpa got back from the gym and we started talking about cooking for some reason.

Well, he started telling me about this huge scary guy he used to know. He described this guy to me as an African-American ex-con, over 6 feet tall, 250 lbs. or more, just about all muscle and very athletic. He told me of a conversation that they had when he asked this guy how he went about picking up girls and asked him what he said. Apparently the guys response was this, "Well you see, Kenn, it's easy for me. I just approach the lady and say, 'Hello. How would you like to come over to my house, you can bring your kids if you have any, and let me cook you all some supper?' and I have yet to be turned down." My grandpa got a huge smile on his face, looked at me and said, "That's why you need to learn to cook!" Thank you grandpa, you have motivated me! After dinner, we had pasta, I got all my groceries together, came back to my apartment and put them all away. Also, just because I don't do well on Sunday nights when I have class early on Monday I think I'm going to stay up all night... yea, that seems like a good idea.

Because I Can:

“I saw a guy at a party wearing a leather jacket and I thought, ‘That is cool.’ But then I saw another guy wearing a leather vest and I thought, ‘That is not cool’. Then I figured it out: ‘Cool’ is all about leather sleeves.”

Valentine's Day

First off, happy Valentine's Day to everyone. Valentine's Day is a fun day, in my opinion. Not for the obvious reasons of spending a nice day with the one you love, no; but rather because it's a day that lots of people get to spend getting things done they would have normally put off. Take me for example. I put off so much work that when it's time to turn it in I'm a little lost. Today, though, is the perfect day for me to get caught up. You see, normally I let me friends and my laptop dictate what I do throughout the day. I start some work, then I see something online and get distracted. When I'm distracted I become susceptible to other distractions. In walks Matt. 'Nuff said. And so on this day, with my laptop back at my apartment in Akron and me at home in Solon. And so on this day, with all my friends out with the ones that they love and me at home. An so on this day, with nothing to do but to catch up on work, I work. I didn't initially intend that to be like a proclamation, but it works so I'll stick with it.

So I was playing some Halo with Matt and his little brother, Dan, yesterday. I guess Dan had some problems with his friends. He's in a few cliques (in 8th grade) and so people from one got mad at him for hanging with he other and vise versa. I guess this caused a bit of a firestorm and so a lot of his friends on both sides stopped talking to him for stupid reasons. Matt and I did all we could to cheer him up and help him forget about it all and I think we did a good job. As I was getting ready to leave and head home last night he said, "Hey, I forgot I was mad at my friends, thanks." That, to me, shouts 'SUCCESS!!'

Because I Can:

“I used to play sports. Then I realized you can buy trophies. Now I’m good at everything.”

Because I Didn't

Today should have been a good day. It started off very well with me actually getting more than two hours of sleep. Yay! After ten hours of sleep I woke up and got ready for class. I was pretty excited because I was going to get a test back that I thought I did decently on. I was expecting to get either a high C or a B, figuring a mid C was most likely. I got to class, got my test back and noticed that I barely got a D.... Now, I don't mean, barely missed getting a C, I mean barely didn't fail. It's my fault, I suppose, I didn't study for this test as much as I should have. I now have a new goal though, not do any worse than a B on the rest of my tests. Wish me luck!

In other news, I don't actually have any other news. I thought I did, but then I forgot. Let's go with this. My laptop was broken and then I fixed it. It wasn't reading discs or CDs and so I had to find a long and complicated solution online that took me two days to fix. Now, Matt and I are able to play Civilization together via the internet. Yay! That is until he decides something isn't going his way and quits regardless of how well we're doing. Maybe next time will be different. Also, because I tried to post this in a comment on Brit's blog and it didn't work:


Because I can:

“I like sports; I like professional football. I like to get to the stadium and see the games live, you know. And I paint my chest before I leave the house. But I don’t have many friends, you know, so I usually just do punctuation and tack on a group already in progress. But sometimes it works out kind of weird because we ended up on TV one time and it said ‘BROWNS?’”

Because I Don't

So I think at this point I have nobody to blame but myself. After complaining about not having enough time to do this two page paper and write a two minute speech I have sufficiently wasted the past two days that I could have been working on it doing just about everything that does not constitute school work. I thought about getting to work on it several times, but I just haven't felt motivated. Not that I don't think doing my work is important or anything, I do; but I've been in a really weird funk. I sit here with my work and I start writing. I get a sentence or two out and then I just completely lose focus and can't concentrate. I'm not sure exactly what it is that's causing it, but I need to figure it out muy rapido (very fast). Yay Spanish!!

As you can see by my newly updated time stamps that now tell the correct time, it is around 1 a.m. and I am chugging Dr Pepper. I really shouldn't be doing this because of my terrible habit of failing, but it appears an all nighter is in order. I don't know why I put myself through this. I don't know why I'm finding this specific project so difficult either. Normally when I put things off until the last minute I'm able to get into a zone, get focused and pound out the paper in about an hour. When I do this I usually get an 'A' because I really do work best under pressure. Unfortunately, as I said, that is not the case for this paper. There is something wrong with me and I don't know what! Gah!! Exclamation mark!!!! (Haven't had one of those in a few posts).

I think that this paper is just my form of writer's block. It's in my way and until I get it out of the way I'll be stuck in this rut with no way out. That brings me to a good news/bad news scenario. Good news: Paper is due tomorrow no matter what as my last attempt at an all nighter, to finish this paper, left me asleep on the couch and missing class; and tomorrow (today) is the last day to turn it in. Bad News: Since I missed my turn in day and tomorrow is the last day, no matter what, to turn it in, I have no choice but to pull an all nighter regardless of whether I wanted to or not. Oh what foolishly tangled webs I weave myself into without realizing how much of a mess I make. D'oh!

Because I can:

I heard this lady say “I love kids.” That’s nice, a little weird though. It’s like saying “I like people, for a little while.” “How old are you? 14? F*** off!” You can say “I love kids” as a general statement, that’s fine. It’s when you get specific that you get in to trouble. “I love twelve-year-olds.”

Because I Can

Yay weekends! Saturday I procrastinated a lot. It was fun at the time, but I would later grow to regret this decision. I spent the entire day watching movies and playing games when I should have been working on some papers due today. I did a little work on them, but nowhere near enough to make it count. Yesterday was fun. Around 2:30, I think, Erica stopped by before she went back to school. We went to Chipotle for food and then came back to my apartment to surf the interwebs and watch the Cavs game. The Cavs lost. Way to go Erica.

It was a good day. I needed a day like that. Spending time with someone not Matt (no offense Matt) was nice. I had been very burned out over the last week and getting out and having fun was much needed. I feel good. Then last night happened. Last night I tried to work on my papers/speech that were due today but wasn't doing it fast enough. I decided I would just pull an all nighter, get it done, turn it all in then come home and sleep. Well, at 4 a.m. I fell asleep on the couch and didn't wake up until 1:30, thus missing my classes. Bad. Very bad. Fail even. I have a test tomorrow so now I have to study for that as well as work on these papers. At least I have more time to do it all.

I have decided that Demitri Martin is a mad mad mad mad mad mad genius. That being said I'm going to end my blogs with some of his jokes for the forseeable future until I stop.

Because I can:

“About a month ago I got a cactus. A week later, it died. I was really depressed because I was like ‘Damn! I am less nurturing than a desert.’ (Ladies, that’s not true)”

Hooked On A Feeling

It's nice to have someone to talk to. For most of my friends I have the honor of being that person. It has its ups and downs, but overall it's a good feeling. When someone has a problem, they're sad, need to vent or just have an urge to talk about something they often come to me. I like being there to help them and to get them through whatever situation they are in or problem they have. I like making them feel better. The downside for me, however, is that I don't really have any one person to talk to. Yea, I have lots of people I can talk to about different things, but I don't have just a single person I can talk to about anything. Sometimes I miss that. It can be hard having personal things you want to talk about, but not having anyone to talk about it with. I don't think that there's anything specific I want to talk about, but it's easier to just have someone you can trust and count on.

The last week or so I've been in a weird place and haven't really known how to deal with it. I don't know if it's something that's going on around me. I don't know if it's something I'm feeling and I don't know if it's just the weather. Whatever it is I hope it will be gone soon. I don't really remember the last time I've felt like this. In fact, I don't think I ever have. It's a strange feeling. I'm not really sure where to go with this. I think writing about it and getting it in the open is why I'm taking the time to write it out now. Keeping it all bottled up inside is part of the strange feeling, I think. Only one way to find out I guess.

In other news, House is on and House makes me feel better. I'm going to go watch that now.

Afternoon Naps

I have discovered the wonderfulness of the afternoon nap. Over the last week I have been so incredibly tired that I have been unable to make it a full day of classes without dozing off at some point in class... several times in each class. However, upon returning to my apartment I have taken up the habit of relaxing for about two hours watching t.v. and then dozing off for 45 minutes to an hour. I feel absolutely amazing when I wake up. I don't mean I wake up and I'm awake and that's that. I mean I wake up and it's as if I'm floating on a cloud in the heavens, angels are singing, the sun is shining, birds are chirping, the Indians are winning the World Series, the Cavs are winning the Championship and the Browns are winning the Super Bowl. So, when I say I feel amazing, now you know what amazing means.

Normally I'm not one for naps. In fact, in high school I would stay awake until I was ready to go to bed anyway, regardless of how tired I was, simply because I despised the nap. The last week, though, I have gone out of my way to nap, which is really just missing an episode of CSI: NY. I lose out on some early time to do work and stay up a little later at night, but to nap is to love and to love is to live. I think that means that if I don't nap I'll die.

I bought a clock, but then the big hand broke off so I just added "ish" to each number.

Pizza bagel time!!

Everyone Else Is Doing It

I haven't had a meaningful post in a while, and wasn't really planning on posting one today since nothing interesting has happened recently. However, everyone else that has a blog that I read made a post today and I am not one to not conform to everything around me and so I post as well. I talked to Erica earlier and decided that since she embeds so many things into her blog, I will do so, as well.

I'm pretty excited for my friend Ryan. He lives out in California and got married late last year. Well, Sunday night/ Monday morning at around 3 a.m. he texted me to let me know that his wife had gone into labor. I didn't see the text until I woke up and was sad that I may have missed the entire thing, but as it turns out the baby hadn't turned at one point or another during the pregnancy and so his wife, humorously also named Ryan, had to have a C-section and did not have it until 8 a.m. (11.a.m. EST). I'm very excited for both of them. They both work at a high school. Boy Ryan is an 11th grade Special-Ed teacher and girl Ryan is a teacher's Aid. It is their first child and I know that they'll be great parents. I am unsure of the specifics on baby weight and length and all that other stuff people seem to be so concerned with, but I do have the following picture. This is both the first and only picture available to see.

It is a girl and her name is Isabelle.

Tonight I Sleep

It is 3:15 a.m.. As of this moment I have been awake for 37 of the last 39 hours and 45 minutes. I have no idea why I am still up as I was planning on going to sleep around 12. There is really only one person to blame for this and I believe it is fairly obvious... I have nobody to blame but my good friend Walker: Texas Ranger. It is over now so Chuck Norris has allowed me the privilege of sleeping. That is what I go to do now. Goodnight.

Weekend Update With Jared Kass and Tina Fey!

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted. Where does the time go? Let's see... Saturday I got woken up abruptly at 2:30 in the afternoon, thanks Erica!!! Kidding! I shouldn't be sleeping that late anyway, no matter if I was up until 3 a.m. the previous night. Matt and I were initially planning on coming back to Akron around 5 in the evening so rather than work on my 6 page paper that was due Monday I sat around playing Civilization 3 for a few hours. It's an awesome game, I get to conquer the world as pretty much anyone I want. I could be Shaka Zulu!!!!! Where was I, oh right, I was playing Civ 3 when I noticed it was about 6 So I gave Matt a call. Then I texted him. This was followed by a few instant messages, a few more texts and 2 to 3 more calls. Eventually He got back to me and told me that he had a family problem and wasn't getting back to Akron that night. Yay!! After much convincing and playing the "I have a 6 page paper due Monday that I haven't started yet and can't do at home" card I managed to get my dad to drive me back to my apartment. As it turns out this worked to my advantage because my mom and sister were on their way back from Athens, Ohio visiting OU to take a tour and have an interview.

We met up at my apartment and then decided to go out for some thai food. This is said advantage because my fridge is empty and I have no cash. Yay free food!! After dinner I came back to my apartment and procrastinated until 5 a.m. watching 'A Knight's Tale' and 'U.S. Marshals'. Both of which are very good movies, in my opinion.

I woke up Sunday afternoon and began to start my paper. After about 3 hours I managed to complete 2 paragraphs. Darn t.v. and internet being so much fun! At 4 I slinkied over to my grandparents for the Super Bowl. Yes, I slinkied. I moved in a downward motion practically doing cartwheels all the way there. It was cold though so after the game I drove back. I spent 6 hours at my grandparents house watching the game, eating tastily delicious pizza and talking with them. Good times were had by all up until the last 40 seconds of the game. That is when good times stopped being had my me. I was rooting for the Cardinals and the 40 second mark is about where I lost all my happy. I made it home and got to work on my paper, distraction free. Then Matt showed up....

When he got back at midnight he turned on the t.v. and here I go again. 7 hours later my paper is done, sources have been cited and my blog has been updated. Now I am in for a long day of class followed by an even longer day of staying awake until the end of Erica's radio show since her internet is still broken that that is the only time I can have an actual conversation with her. Besides, if I went to bed right when I got back from class at 4 I would sleep until 2 a.m. and be in a bit of trouble for tomorrow.

So ends this incredibley long post. Ta ta for now!

Beer! The cause of, and solution to, all of lifes problems!

Today was a rough day for me. Last night at 2 a.m. Matt and I went to dig my car out of the enormous amounts of snow so that when I went to class today I would be able to, well, get to class today. When we got back into the apartment at around 2:45 Matt looked at me and said, "Oh crap, I forgot to do my blindfold experience." The experience of which he speaks is a project he had to do for a class. He had to spend 2 hours blind folded and then record his feelings and reactions to be 'blind' for the allotted time. It was recommended that he have someone around just in case something happened to him while he was blind folded so i said sure, why not.

After 10 minutes of being blind folded Matt put on some headphones and began listening to music, he then went to lay down on the couch to relax a bit. Periodically I said something like "Hey Matt, how's it going?" just to make sure he was still with me and for the most part it seemed that I was getting a response. Well the responses that I got seem to have been completely coincidental. At 4:30 a.m. I started shaking the pillow he was laying on and it wasn't until I started shaking extremely hard that he actually woke up. I asked him how much of the time he was actually awake and his response was, "Most of it." He then rolled back over and went to sleep. Since I didn't actually get to bed until close to 5 a.m. I was a little confused as to whether I had done some things or not, such as set the alarm, and just went to sleep.

I woke up at 2 in the afternoon, just in time to miss my final class of the day. After that I just sat around the apartment for a few hours before Matt decided that he was going to come back to Solon to meet up with a couple of our friends and go to The Boneyard. I have had a very rough week and decided that since he was going back to Akron Saturday evening I would go back to Solon too in order to get some liquid pleasure with some friends. We played some games, played some pool, had some wings and did some drinking. I am a little bit happier now.

I Hate Snow.....

Last night Matt and I got hungry so we decided to go get some food. When we got outside we noticed the cars looked a little something like this.












We were determined, though, to get the heck out of Dodge so we spent the next hour digging Matt's car out with our hands and feet. It wouldn't have been so bad if the snow was just powdered and soft, but when stupid snow plow drivers push all the snow from the parking lot in front of your car and pack it in there, it makes things a bit more difficult. After we finally got his car dug out we went to a diner for some food. At the diner was a table of 8 gay guys that, I swear, wouldn't stop checking me out; though it's possible they were looking at Matt too. As flattered as I was, that's not quite my thing.

When we got back to the apartment at 3 a.m. I got to work on doing some homework I forgot about on the off chance that I actually managed to wake up 2 hours before I had to leave to have time to shovel my car out and get to class at 1:45. At 5 a.m. I noticed that I was doing the homework from the previous week and was just about done with it. I tried to get to work on the homework from this week, but my brain was way past gone. I could barely remember how to turn off my laptop. I tried for the next 2 hours to do the work, but I just couldn't comprehend it, so at 7 a.m. I went to sleep. When I woke up at 1:30 I put on some shoes and took some pictures of my car, which I texted to a classmate and e-mailed to my prof. to let her know why I wouldn't be able to make it to class. I haven't gotten a response from her so I hope I'm not too screwed from having missed 2 classes already. We'll see.

I look forward to tomorrow. Making it to the weekend will be a nice way to deal with the snow. I won't have to go anywhere so that will be nice. However, I will have to dig myself out of this....

Until tomorrow.

Snow Day!!1!!!1!

So after having been to pretty much 1 class since last Wednesday I was actually really looking forward to getting to class today. So much so that I went to bed at 12:30 which was the first time in about a month I had gone to sleep before 2. When I woke up to my alarm at 7:30 I checked my cell phone for missed calls and text messages which has become a habit in the past few weeks since certain people like to text me early early! I see I have a text and actually get excited because now that I'm awake on my own I was all like, 'Ooh maybe it's Erica and I can be all like look at me I'm awake and it's morning!' Turns out though that the text was from school, which is equally as exciting. The text pretty much said all UA campuses are closed today due to weather and the university will do their best to get everything all clear for class tomorrow. I went into Matt's room to let him know he could turn off his alarm and just sleep then went back to bed for about 5 hours.

After I woke up I just sat in front of the t.v. for a couple hours before I finally got in the mood to make some breakfast. I made myself an egg and cheese bagel with Mozzarella cheese and some buttered toast and I made Matt some scrambled eggs since he was there. It was all very delicious, but now I'm not quite sure what to do with the rest of my day. I guess I could do some homework I have due tomorrow. I would go do some food shopping but I'm hesitant to go out driving today with more weather on the way in. That and I don't want to brush the snow off my car.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that I did not have class today, whereas two readers of this blog did? Just wanted to make sure :D

Short One Today

Dear Diary,

Today, me and my sister were kidnapped by Hill Folk never to be seen again. It was the best day ever!

Jared

Chicago Police

Chicago cops are going beyond the call of duty, really. A few days ago a 14 year old boy walked into a Chicago P.D. and asked to be put on assignment. The chief looked at him and decided his services could be best used out of a squad car. For five hours this 14 year old rode shotgun with another officer going on patrol and responding to calls. I wasn't until after his "shift" was over that some officers finally noticed that he wasn't an actual police officer. Some officer realized that not only did this kid not have a fire arm, but that his uniform was not a real Chicago police uniform. I applaud Chicago police for being breached by a 14 year old boy with a fake uniform and no gun. That takes skill, true skill.

That's really all I have for today. Nothing fun and exciting going on here.

Cable Go BOOM!

Today was my perfect Sunday. I didn't wake up until after noon and then pretty much lounged around most of the day. All was going well until Erica IM'd me. I guess my internet was so shocked that she was online because less than a minute after receiving her IM, the cable internet and t.v. both went bye bye. At first I figured it was just some issue with one of the lines, like maybe one got too bent or something. I tried to fix it by unscrewing all the cables then putting them back it, but that failed hardcore. Next thing I did was try to simply unplug the power for a few minutes to see if that would fix it, but again, nothing! I was pretty heartbroken to say the least. My awesome Sunday was now just some other day :(

With nothing else to do I took it as a sign that I should do the last 3 days of homework from classes I've missed. That actually worked too because I really don't have anything left to do tonight besides go to sleep and wake up at 7:45 tomorrow. That won't be fun though because I'm not a fan of waking up before 10.

After I got my internet and cable back, over 2 1/2 hours after it went out, I went for some chipotle, got comfortable watching X-Men 3 and then just lounged around. I suppose the day started and ended good so I can call it a good day.

I suppose that's the end of this post. Hope it wasn't too mundane for you.

Good Job Matt...

Not much happened today, least of all anything exciting. My mom did stop by for about an hour though, which wasn't too bad. She attempted to give me recipes for things that I could cook by telling them to me. Despite my telling her I would not remember them she continued. Now she has to write them all down and e-mail them to me anyway. Besides recipes I had the lovely honor of explaining to my mom the drinking game Kings. It wasn't all that bad, but I then had to explain to her why there was a certain quote written on our marker board along the lines of, "Matt is done....." If you have any interest in knowing what it said, ask me for a complete story. I'm hesitant to say it here with grandma reading, so I won't. Also, way to go Matt!

Apparently it would take about 400 lbs. of TNT to kill a giant mutant shark which is good to know. Also, for any of you gun owners out there, make sure not to store any of your loaded guns in the oven and forget about them, you'll die. Have I mentioned how awesome MythBusters is? Supposedly, if one takes two phone books and puts them together a la overlapping the pages one by one by one and so on that they can hold together with nothing but friction up to about 8,ooo pounds of pressure. That means you could hang two compact cars from it and it would still hold. They couldn't get it to break until they attached it to two tanks and had them ride in opposite directions like torturing someone by pulling them apart by two horses. That's pretty cool, in my opinion.

I suppose that's the end of this post. Hope it wasn't too mundane for you.

Shout Out!

Little late on the post today, got distracted with... everything. Everything from Alltel commercials to food and even t.v. shows.

Today was an "ehh" day. I woke up at 10:15 and felt like crap, but figured it would go away. At 10:45 I actually felt worse so I just went back to sleep until 2. When I woke up I felt a little better but still had a slight headache which has since gone away. Since then I have managed to wipe out Persia and set up a nice little border between myself and the Ottomans. I am confident they will suffer the same fate as the rest before them.

I noticed something about myself today. I noticed that I could do anything I wanted if I put my mind to it. I didn't actually do anything, but I did do some thinking. I suppose that counts as doing something though. I wish life were easier though, then I wouldn't have to try so hard, but I think half the fun of completing a tough project is completing it. If something were easy, then completing it wouldn't be half as gratifying. Some things are just too hard though and I don't think I can do them without help from the people around me. I used to be such a slacker. More than I am now, and if not for people pushing me to do things like going to class, doing my homework, not keeping myself locked up in my room, then I would be so far off from where I'm at now. So to those of you that have helped me get things done, thank you.

Also, I want to give a shout out to grandma who is joining us from Erica's blog. Glad to have you aboard, please make yourself comfortable.

I suppose that's the end of this post. Hope it wasn't too mundane for you.

I've Been Burned!!

Last night while watching Burn Notice I got this crazy idea. My idea was to get up real early, as in 7:45, so that I could just stay home all day and watch the Burn Notice marathon on USA in preparation for tonight's new episode. Then another episode came on, and another and another... Oh god, they just wouldn't stop. So here I am pulling second straight all nighter, except this time to watch Burn Notice and not do homework. Thankfully for me though around 5:30 USA Network, and only USA, went out and I managed to get 6 hours of sleep.

Around 11 I began my marathon again and in conjunction with watching a spy show I decided to play Civilization, too. It was pretty gnarly. I managed to completely destroy Egypt and Zululand which was fun. I'm working on Babylon now, but they seem more difficult. This is my problem I think. When I first got this laptop it was so that I could do my homework and do schoolwork without distraction, but what ended up happening was I just put all the distracting things right onto it and so now I never get anything done. I think I need to borrow Erica's virus, that would probably work out to my advantage. Also, I have a question for you Erica. Does the Burn Notice marathon count as either training for or running in a marathon? I think a better question is does watching any t.v. marathon count as training for or running in a marathon? If so, I am in tip top shape. /flex

Awe, I just remembered all the work I didn't do the last 2 days that I now have to do all for tomorrow. Two chapters to read for my Ethics class, my M.E.T. II homework... actually, I think that's it. I suppose that's not as bad as I thought. Guess I should get to work, huh?

Also, I kind of like how I ended my first post so I think I'm going to stick with it, it has a nice ring to it. So....

I suppose that's the end of this post. Hope it wasn't too mundane for you.

She Made Me Do It

So here I am, minding my own damn business when all of a sudden the phone rings. Is it my mom? nope. Dad? nope. Cable repair man? nope. Damn... it's Erica! So I answer the phone she starts going on about how I should blog. Now I blog.

I'm not quite sure what to write about so I guess since I'm doing this for Erica I'll start with all the silly things that she's made me do. This list includes, but is not limited to: going to sleep before 4 a.m., training for a marathon, eating food, doing my homework even, and of course writing this blog. Some of those things I can understand, like eating and sleeping, the rest I'm not so sure about. But it's Erica so I go with it and it usually works out.

Something that did not work out was buying food tonight. Normally one thinks, "Hey I'm buying food" and it all works out. Not in my case. Matt and I went to the store for what was supposed to be a quick snack pick up for, as Matt said, "Just you, me and Sara Lee." Well we got all of our incredibly unneeded groceries and continued to the check out. Of course, after the cashier checks us out and tells us that our total is going to be $155 is when Matt decides to tell me he doesn't have his wallet... go figure. We spent about 15 minutes walking around the store looking for his wallet to no avail when he finally decided to just head back to the apartment and hope it's there. Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be?

I suppose that's the end of this post. Hope it wasn't too mundane for you.

Oh, as a side note: Erica, you still owe me food in the near near future and I plan on collecting!!! *raises fist*