Now that you have that over with

Well, I did the annual tradition today. Christmas shopping for folks. It's the one day a year when I become a consumer and go to the mall with all the other people that like to buy things on a much more consistent basis. So, the lovely day of joy began when I got in my car and left for the haven known as Indiana, Pa. Now for those of you who don't know, Indiana houses IUP, which is my school's most bitter and moronic rival. So for me to have to go to the town is not something that I look forward to. On the plus side though, I went by myself which meant I got to speed up the process and not wait on other people to slowly pick out things, such as in past years. I'm not sure whether this helped out or not, but I went to the mall today again, not feeling well. Probably not a good idea to do a lot. Right now, I've been taking Tylenol Flu like it's my job, and I'll be doing that until I shake this bug off of me. I'm feeling better than I did earlier today and I just had ice cream. So now another day crossed off until Saturday. Now the funness of wrapping presents begins. Last year, I got laughed at because of the awful job that was done doing it. I expect much of the same this year.

Make a note

First off, let me warn you. I don't feel well right now. I've got some flu-like symptoms, like fever and headache, stuff like that. First time in a year, I've had this stuff and I had this strange premonition that this would happen right after I got home from school. So I got so so lucky and maybe I'll be better so I can go and get christmas shopping over with.

My grandpa's funeral was Saturday, and it was a nice and unique service. I'm glad it was like that. I got to meet my cousin Sharon who writes diligently. Sharon, you seem surprised when I told you I read your thingy, but I do. And by the way, I hate when things are spelled wrong too, very annoying. The entire family came back after dinner for eats, and after a while I had to vacate the surroundings for my basement room because of all the insanity.

Lots of talk about blogs during these last few days and that brought up some interesting thoughts. A blog is an online journal and I find it ironic that I actually write in a "journal" Why? Because throughout my schooling, there were numerous times that I had to keep a journal, most notably my english class in 12th grade. Let me tell you something: I hated writing in journals. I would procrastinate writing in it until I absolutely had to because writing a journal was for a grade. Yep, I would procrastinate, and my English teacher hated procrastination. But everybody does it. But here I am, writing whenever I get a chance to or when something interesting happens. But for now, it's back to trying to get better from stupid flu, and trying to get christmas shopping over with. Because going to mall is comparable to smacking my head against a wall.

93

I think I should write a nice little remembrance of my grandpa who passed away Tuesday. He was 93. (Closer to 93 1/2) When I think about that, I think it's great he lived so long, considering, sadly in fact, that I've known people that haven't made it past 20, yet alone 93. He wouldn't go until he was darn ready, kind of like he didn't want to cut a visit or a conversation short with you unless he was darn ready.

Um, what I'll remember most? Definitely goota remember that he drove a Buick, he insisted on taping me a lot, (there's probably an orange tape with me on it circa 1988ish, about 4 years old.) also gotta remember the car rides, pipe organs, him asking me ridiculosly difficult math questions and me not having a clue what he was really taking about, talking to anybody he could find on the street, making music tapes for others because he wanted to and felt you had to have them, trains, that low-quality Zenith TV, and of course, pipe organ music. But I think what should most be remembered is that I think he cared about others, and he was generous both with money and of his time. So have a good time, Grandpa, and go take a car ride.

It's finals week, time to head home

Finals week, is a different time than any other part of the year, and a much welcomed one for many kiddos. For me, knowing that I'll have two days to get out of bed when I want to is pretty cool. Getting out of this town on Thursday, even better. Maybe not the town so much, but getting away from school work for 3 weeks. Excellent. So the journey begins today. Right now, I'm trying to finish my new-media project so I can get that over with in a glorious manner. I have 3 finals, two tomorrow, one on Thursday. Wednesday night, the Rocket staff is going to Rachel's Roadhouse to gouge Dr. Zeltner from lots of money. (He pays for all the food) That's usually a good time.

Lights out

OK, let's get started with what happened Tuesday, the great blackout of 2004. I'm sitting in my Media Crit class, listening to presentations when right in the middle of this one presentation, snap. Presentation over. Class over. (There was only 10 minutes left) Bad thing was, the power didn't come back on until about 2:30 in the morning, not cool indeed. So after that enjoyable day, including having to throw out the mik that I had just bought yesterday, itwas on to the rest o f the week. Now I don't know how I managed to get through it, but I did. I did a six-page feature story,a media crit project, and edited by 10-page paper in issues. Also, I did 2 projects in Digital Imaging and worked on my New-Media final project. Wow. Now it's finals week and I"m going to relax for a little bit.

Everyone's got a case of the Mondays

I'm really on a kick about that line right now. Everybody I know is not having a very happy day today, especially anybody having to do final projects. From someone having a psychotic meltodown about a Publication Production project to people having mean faces in their AOL away messages the Monday bug has hit again. Not to mention the weather stinks here today. Rainy and gray. I barely could get out of bed this morning, typical Monday tradition after the wealth of sleep I receive each and every weekend. But the day's still young and now it's time to listen to more presentations.

How bout them apples

I'm writing this right after the Steelers beat the Jags, 17-16. Actually, a pretty good game, something that prime-time games simply are not anymore. No wonder the announcers were thrilled that they were seeing a close game, usually it's the borefests of a New England-Nuffalo, or next week, a Philadelphia-Washington extravaganza.

My weekend was interesting enough. In the sense that I realized that I don't have near as much to do as I originally thought. Now all I gotta do is get people interviewed for my feature story and I will be all set. There are other things that will need to be done but I can see the end coming right now. Right now, I estimate that I only have to take 2 finals because all 3 of my MWF classes have finals that are projects or just decide not to have one in the feature writing case. Well, it's off to Monday and the pure disgust that comes along with it. That's why in Office Space, people say: "Sounds like you've got a case of the Mondays."

nice job electricity!

Well, there was some embarassing moment this morning for the roommate. At about 8:45 AM the power briefly went out around the campus and guess what? My fan which is right above me suspended in the window fell right on top of my leg immediately waking me up. Chase is like "Oh, I'm sorry." I murmur some gibberish resembling "It's OK" Bad part about that is I couldn't get back to sleep eventually just taking my shower and having bookoo time to waste for an hour.

I got a good surprise in Feature Writing when the professor liked my original story idea which I thought was horrendous. The idea? Hunting safety. And by the way, everybody I know wants school to be over like right now. And the asst. photo editor Nathan is getting Chinese food along with myself. Apparently, he wants to get more into the SR culture, eating, laziness, and apathy.