get your weekend started right

dcblogs linked to a post at not yet a wino that, in line with chuckles and i's discussion last night, seems pretty relevant. click and read the comments on the not yet a wino blog. and then think about it.

sorry, i know it won't really get your weekend started right, and that it is actually really depressing. but it's timely. for sure.

the picture is unrelated, kinda. i just thought it was cool.

it's that time of year...

and for me, it's quite possibly the worst time of year.

i have a fear of crickets. yup. they really creep me out. it's not quite, "scream like a little girl" scared of them, but i will definitely jump and run in the other direction when they start hopping all up on me.

so, it's that time of year when crickets somehow seem to multiply in the basement. in our basement, however, i'm not just talking about your average run of the mill black, or field, cricket. those kind of crickets creep me out enough. i'm talking about those gold colored camel crickets or whatever the hell those things are. they jump all over the place with reckless abandon... and it seems like they're always jumping right at me.

they creep me out so much i can't even put a picture of them up here.

i won't kill them, because i think that's mean. so, basically, they jump around and terrorize me all winter. i can't wait til spring.

another interesting story, i was talking to a friend of mine today who served in afghanistan while he was in the army. the subject of pests came up, and he mentioned the camel spider. i won't put a picture of one of these things up either, because trust me, they're nasty. but go to the web site and check them out.

he said they will run out from under rocks/bushes during the day and run at you. apparently sunlight hurts them, and so they chase after you to stay in your shadow. can you say really creepy? and no, you can't machine gun them to death, apparently. unless you don't care about an honorable discharge.

ok, i'm getting weirded out just thinking about all this.

more proof of the awesomeness of my blog (another im):

A********: dude, i'm in class right now and your blog is a great distraction...thanks:-)

i see a theme coming

keeping with the "list" theme from yesterday, check this out.

thanks to reddit

and also, clearly my blog is awesome. an im i got last night, after i went to bed at 10 o'clock (see above link)...

C*****: i just read some of you blog
C*****: when i first saw that you had one, i was like, oh man this can't be good
C*****: b/c let's be honest, most people who have blogs suck, and i'm being serious. they usually write about how depressed they are and people they hate or sexual things that you really don't want to read about
C*****: yours, however, is pretty interesting/entertaining/not depressing. so i give you props for that





what else is awesome? the busch beer special edition hunting pack!

chillin out, maxin, relaxing all cool

i take no credit for this post.

i originally saw this list as a group on facebook titled something like "You grew up in the 90's if..."

the list is fantastic, and it made me a little nostalgic. read on, because it's definitely true.

i take no responsibility for spelling, grammar, etc. errors, as it's just simply copy and pasted!

You're a 90's kid if:

You've ever ended a sentence with the word "PSYCHE!"

You can sing the rap to "The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air"

You remember when Kurt Cobain, Tu Pac, River Phoenix, and Selena died.

You know that "WOAH" comes from Joey from "Blossom" and that "How Rude!" comes from Stephanie from "Full House"

You remember when it was actually worth getting up early
on a Saturday to watch cartoons.

You got super excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.

You remember reading "Goosebumps"

You know the profound meaning of "Wax on, wax off"

You have pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.

You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.

You danced to "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, Females: had a new motto, Males: got a whole lot gay-er. (so tell me what you want, what you really really want.)

You remember the craze, then the banning of slap bracelets and slam books.

You still get the urge to say "NOT" after (almost) every sentence...Not...

Where in the world is Carmen San Diego? was both a game and a TV game show.

Captain Planet.

You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the green Ranger were meant to be together.

When playing power rangers with friends you fought over who got to be who............and still all ended up being Tommy.

You remember when super nintendo's became popular.

You remember watching home alone 1, 2 , and 3........and tried to pull the pranks on "intruders"

"I've fallen and I can't get up"

You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates

Two words... Trapper Keeper.

You never got injured on a Slip 'n' Slide

You wore socks over leggings scrunched down

You remember boom boxes vs. cd players

You remember New Kids on The Block when they were cool

You knew all the characters names and their life stories on "Saved By The Bell"

You played and/or collected "Pogs"

You had at least one Tamagotchi, GigaPet or Nano and brought it everywhere

You watched the original Care Bears, My Little Pony, and Ninja Turtles

NANCY DREW AND THE HARDY BOYS WERE THE BEST MYSTERY BOOKS

Yikes pencils and erasers were the stuff!

All your school supplies were "Lisa Frank" brand.(pencils.notebooks.b

inders.etc.)

You remember when the new Beanie Babies were always sold out.

You used to wear those stick on earings, not only on your ears, but at the corners of your eyes.

You remember a time before the WB.

You've gotten creeped out by "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"

You know the Macarena by heart.

"Talk to the hand" ... enough said

You thought Brain woud finally take over the world

You always said, "Then why don't you marry it!"

You remember when everyone went slinky crazy.

You remember when razor scooters were cool.

When we were younger:

Before the MySpace frenzy...

Before the Internet & text messaging...

Before Sidekicks & iPods...

Before MIKE JONES...

Before PlayStation2 or X-BOX...

...Back when you put off the 5 hours of homework you had every night.

When light up sneakers were cool.

When you rented VHS tapes, not DVDs.

When gas was $0.95 a gallon & Caller ID was a new thing.

When we recorded stuff on VCRs & paid $3.50 for a movie.

When we called the radio station to request songs to hear off our walkmans.

When 2Pac and Biggie where alive.

When the Chicago Bulls were the best team ever.

Way back.

Tag.

Get Over Here!!!! means something to you.

Hide-n-Go Seek at dusk.

Red Light, Green Light.

Heads Up 7 Up.

Playing Kickball & Dodgeball until your porch light came on.

Hopskotch.

Slip-n-Slides.

Tree Houses.

Hula Hoops.

HELLO....HOT WHEELS!!!!!

"POWER OF LOVE" BY CELINE DION..ONLY COUPLES COULD SKATE TO THIS.

The annoying Giga Pets & Furbies.

Running through the sprinklers.

That "Little Mermaid"

Crying when Mufasa died in the Lion King.

Happy Meals where you chose a Barbie or a Hot Wheels car.

Getting the privelage to sit in the front seat of the car.

Drinking Sqeeze It "Squeeze The Fun Out Of It"

CAPRI SUN

Watching Saturday Morning Cartoons in your PJ's still wrapped up in your TMNT, Power Rangers, Barbie, Fairy Princess comforter.

The original Power Rangers

Or what about:

Hey Arnold.

Rugrats.

The Secret World of Alex Mac.

Ren & Stimpy.

Double Dare.

Rocco's Modern Life.

AAAHH!! REAL MONSTERS.

Wild & Crazy Kids.

Clarissa Explains it All.

CAMP NOWHERE

Salute Your Shorts(CAMP ANAWANA)

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

The original cast members of All That.

Kenan & Kel.

"CITY GUYS"...ROLLW/ THE CITY GUYS

Doug.

Magic School Bus.

Nick Arcade.

Flash Forward.

The Adventures of Pete and Pete.

Legends of the Hidden Temple

Hey Dude.

Dinosaurs.

Alladin.

Mummies Alive

Pinky and the Brain

Sailor Moon.

Blossom.

Hangin with Mr. Cooper.

Martin

Beavis & Butt-Head

Wishbone.

Bill Nye the Science Guy

MR RODGERS!!!!

Who could forget Snick? & Nick @ Nite with Bewitched, I Dream of Jenie, The Facts of Life & I Love Lucy.

Where everyone wanted to be in love after watching The Wonder Years.

or Nick Jr. with Face

Gulah Gulah Island

Little Bear

Busy Town

Under the Umbrella Tree

PEE-WEE!!!

The Big Comfy Couch

Kool-Aid was the drink of choice.

Wearing your new shoes on the first day of school.

Class field trips.

When Christmas was the most exciting time of year.

When $5 seemed like a million, & another dollar a miracle.

When you begged to go to McDonalds for dinner everyday.

When Toys R Us overuled the mall.

Decisions were made by going 'eeny-meeny-miney-moe'.

Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming 'do over!'

'Race issue' ment arguing about who ran the fastest.

Money issues were handled by whoever was banker in 'Monopoly.'

It wasn't odd to have two or three 'best' friends.

Being old referred to anyone over 20.

A chance to skate as a couple at the local roller rink was like winning the lottery.

Scrapes & bruises were kissed & made better.

It was a big deal to finally be tall enought to ride the 'big people' rides at the fair.

When playing Nintendo was the hardest thing ever.

When Ninja Turtles ruled the world.

Another Baby Sitter Club and Little Sister (Karen) book came out and you put your name on hold for it at the library.

When Aladdin was new, before the trilogy was complete.

Before we realized all this would eventually disappear

Who would have thought you'd miss the 90's so much!!!!!

do you have a minute?

ok, so a friend of mine passed along the link to the rolling stone article about scientology. the article was published in february 2006, but somehow i missed it.

this is definitely worth a read. i enjoyed it because i find (although i'm not religious... at all) the discussion of religion to be really interesting. i like finding out about the bullshit that other people buy in to.

i think scientology, especially with tom cruise going off his rocker lately, is talked about a lot. i knew very little about it, and i think most people are in the same boat as me. this article is definitely enlightening. so, if you're bored at work and "have a minute," check it out.

all i can think about is that sci-fi class i took in college with crazy professor roy wagner - i would love to hear what he has to say about this... mixed in there somewhere with his personal feelings about the existence of aliens, unicorns, and mermaids. thanks, hickman.

also, totally unrelated... but this bird if fucking awesome. i want one. thanks to reddit.

football school? basketball school?

the beauty of being a uva graduate and sports fan is the ability to say to one's self that uva is a football, i mean basketball, no, football school.

after last night's 24-7 pummeling on national tv by georgia tech, i am very proud to say that we are officially now a basketball school.

who remembers the 2001-2002 football season, my first one as a student, when we barely beat richmond (yes, richmond, that's 1aa) by some ridiculous score of 16-13 or 13-10 or something barely squeaking by. i remember turning to my hallmates and we all agreed, "well, we're a basketball school!" although we might have missed the dance that year (and every year since) i'll remind everyone that we were ranked 4th in the country in both polls several weeks into the basketball season.

we also remember, of course, those years when pete's program went sour. but hey, i would just look to my friends and we would say, "well, we're a football school!" although we never went to a BCS bowl or won an ACC championship, i'll remind everybody that we did go to 4 straight bowl games and were ranked 6th in the country.

i mean seriously, who needs to have one dominant team (duke bb, carolina bb, fsu fb, miami fb)? you'd be bored the other half of the year...

this is the life of a uva fan - and i must admit it's quite a luxury. it's not quite the luxury of having both at the same time, but hey, when could duke or carolina ever say they were a football school? when could virginia tech or florida state ever say they were a basketball school? i hope that dave leitao and sean singletary know that, this season, they are carrying on their shoulders our proud football, wait i mean basketball, tradition.

and i hope, this time, they don't let us down. uva will be dancing this year. you heard it here first.

lame

ok, so i read this today in the washington post.

only 60 credits/8 semesters = 7.5 credits per semester.

i would have never even made it out alive. it's sad people don't use college for what it really is: the only 4 years in your life when you have zero responsibility and you can drink as much as you want.

a quote from the article, 'And the most important thing he learned in college, he said, "is to value the people you spend time with, your friends."' ... how did you do that? you only spent a year and you took 60 credits. did you have any free time?

i'm tempted to be an asshole and say that this guy just really sucks... but i suppose he just doesn't get it. i might not have graduated in 1 year and be an incredible genius, but i sure as hell have the best friends anybody could have asked for - and those, i did not get by sitting in a classroom taking 25 credits.

arrrrr

i found out that today is international talk like a pirate day. so, i thought to myself... how can i honor international talk like a pirate day? i came up with two things. first, 2 of my favorite pirate jokes:

1. what's a pirate's favorite kind of socks? arrrrgyle
2. a pirate was walking across a field when he came across a boy walking his dog. as the pirate walked by, the boy noticed the pirate had a pirate-ship wheel in his pants. the kid exclaimed, "hey! pirate! you've got a wheel in your pants!" the pirate replied, "arrr! it's drivin me nuts!"

the other way to honor international talk like a pirate day? well, of course, with plenty of photos of everybodies favorite pirate...







here is keira actually being piratey.














here is keira just being really hot















more being really hot.


















and finally, here is keira at the pirates 1 premier. still hot.














enjoy talk like a pirate day!

damn those shopping cart thieves...

sign seen today at the smoothie king shopping center:

Attention Shoppers!

Our shopping carts will lock if taken past the parking lot boundary. The boundary is marked by a series of special yellow lines.

has it really come to this? i mean really. i don't see people here walking around with shopping carts. do you need one at home?

how about those special yellow lines, you ask? well andy and i had to drive around for a few minutes to actually find one. we're pretty sure it's an idle threat... but we intend to see whether they are telling the truth or not.

thoughts from the weekend

so, after a nice weekend in charlottesville (minus the football team, of course) - here are a couple of thoughts from the weekend:

• it sucks that you now have to pay $5 to get a program at a football game. i mean seriously, there isn't even that much to read... and nobody wants to pay to look at pictures of al groh and dave leitao holding bottles of pepsi (at least it's not sweaty pete gillen, i guess)
• i forgot how much i hate football games when it's still 100 degrees outside. i seriously thought i was going to die a couple times yesterday when the clouds weren't out
• cavman was a huge disappointment... the w. mich horse wasn't terrorizing people or destroying university property, etc. and cavman kicked his ass way too easily. how about a cav man's horse vs. the w. mich horse battle? seriously it was lacking creativity. but in reality, the horse should've pummeled cav man
  
• jason snelling was a beast. i think playing sewell was a bright idea from al groh. hopefully we can prepare for the future cause we're sure as hell not going to win this season
• i was way too sober during the football game. PS* was not. CC* was not. those 2 stumbling together = watch your drink. nothing sexier than bourbon and pepsi all over your face
  
• being old means that you have to nap before you can go out again. and when you go out again, it's not strong
• the return of "it smells like dude in here, but it's warm."
• Me: "um, PS*, i think you have jizz on your chin." PS*: "well, that would be impossible because i just washed my face." right.
  
• i got a 1st years number. no o-hill though.
• alumni dominate undergrads at flip cup. we also dominate at getting drinks from the bar.
  
• chris is a saint
• telling your love interest that you make a super batch of chocolate chip cookies and challenging her to a bake off is... yes, just making sure... definitely gay.
• the ABC store in madison smells like subway
• the bathroom at the subway in madison is for customers only. or those who sit at the tables by themselves for 10 minutes
• the bathrooms at the food lion in madison are for anybody. it's also the most redneck place i've ever been in. too bad we didn't go to the dollar general. next time.
  
• drive-thru starbucks are much quicker than going-in starbucks. at least in redneck towns.
• earl makes damn good mashed potatoes and gravy
• opal, ruckersville, new baltimore, kellysford, summerduck (or sumerduck, depending on whether you're going north or south on 29), warrenton, gainesville, madison, culpeper - seriously people, learn your rt. 29 geography!
• gas is much cheaper in gainesville than anywhere on planet earth. see picture.
• therefore, andy is ripping us all off. i paid 2.76 at your station on wednesday, buddy...

* initials used to protect the guilty

the only socially conscious post i will ever make

wow, somebody actually requested i put something up here today since they were bored at work. i'll take it as a sign that they were simply bored at work and not that they are totally enamored with my blogging abilities.

i am a (part-time) graduate student at george mason. i'm working on my MA in applied history. i just started this semester, and there was only 1 class that actually fit my schedule. what class is that, you ask? a women's studies class that the history department decided to crosslist. topic? women and work in america. excellent. well, i thought to myself as i signed up... at least there won't be a whole hell of a lot to learn or talk about. should be easy. kidding - maybe.

but, enough girl-hating, and let me get to the point. we read a book last week by Liza Featherstone, Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Worker's Rights at Wal-Mart. The whole book: shocking, simply shocking.

want facts? click here. these are all real facts. these all appeared in the book. it's incredible. just stuff off the top of my head that bugs me about wal-mart...

• the difference in pay between top level executive men and women doing the same job? 33%
  
• wal-mart's business model is so dirty that they pay their employees so little that they have to apply for federal aid (food stamps, etc) but the trick to that? is that by getting paid so little, they can only afford to shop in one place. where? you guessed it
• they are so anti-union that they literally have an anti-union SWAT team that, at receiving word that discussion of unionizing(even the mention of it by one employee) has taken place, they get on a the anti-union SWAT jet in arkansas and fly to the store

ok i have to go to charlottesville now. maybe i'll post some links about the class action lawsuit up at a later date.

go hoos!

oh yes, poking still exists

after eating lunch with andy today, just a couple of thoughts. actually, it's 3 reasons why i am better than andy.

1. i can type text messages faster with t9 than he can on his $600 phone/computer thing
2. i have written, and actually know, what a cover letter is. haha e-school.
3. despite andy's claims, facebook poking has yet to actually be eliminated. it's not as prevalent as it used to be, however. i think we should bring it back.

also, since i'm obsessed with smoothie king, and if you are too, then this is something that you need to know. when i look up at the menu and it tells me that "turbinado" is going to be in my smoothie, i assume it must be something incredibly healthy. no, that's not true. what is it exactly? click here to find out. bullshit, i want my $6 back.

"yeah, it's kinda broken"

i was interested to find this morning, as i was surfing around the internet, somebody linking to washingtonpost.reddit.com. connor maybe? anyway, as an avid reader of the washington post, i thought it was something i should probably check out.

so, i talked to alexis, who informed me that while they were working on getting it set up right, that it still wasn't quite where they wanted it to be. actually, he really said, "yeah, it's kinda broken."

regardless, it's still, and in the future i imagine it will be, a very cool way to read the post. quite frankly, i don't usually find most of the articles posted on the homepage of the wp.com to be of great interest to me. and so i think that this would be a cool step in the right direction.

if you're unfamiliar with the reddit concept, go here and check out an article written last year.

anyway, so yah, check it out and start promoting or demoting your favorite post articles. i already spent about 20 minutes demoting everything about maryland :)

what's in a name?

ok, so i figured that seeing as this is my first official entry, i would do everyone the favor of explaining the name of the blog.

if you know me, then clearly you know that music, at least listening to it, is a huge part of my life. in the last several years, i have spent way too much money on cd's, which, for some reason, after abandoning purchasing them for several years (i think it had a lot to do with napster), i've found that i really prefer actually owning the cd and the jewel case. i can't really explain it, but i digress -

so, i'm a huge van morrison fan. i own a lot (almost 30, now) van cd's. i even paid $250, face value, this summer for floor seats to see him play. anyway, although i don't have a favorite van morrison song, or any favorite song for that matter, i really love the message in van's song, "cleaning windows." so, read the lyrics below, and you'll know that i really relate to them.

and, once again, if you know me, i don't think you would argue.

"What's my line?
I'm happy cleaning windows
Take my time
I'll see you when my love grows
Baby don't let it slide
I'm a working man in my prime
Cleaning windows (number a hundred and thirty-six)"

the link is from the van morrison website which is definitely worth checking out.