Blog Shmog

What's all this calling for me to blog? Did I constantly harass the rest of you when you went through your long, dry blogless spells? I don't believe I did.

I've been too busy to blog, really, and when I haven't been busy, I haven't had anything to say because the coffer was bare, as it were.

While I was in "crunch" on the last magazine, I worked 19 days straight, including a handful of evenings there toward the end. Ask the wife how much I was home. I'm not complaining, mind you. It is what it is. Do the job.

It's kind of funny, really. I can actually see what I'm doing making a difference in someone's life, so it helps with the motivation.

How does it help? Well, POSSE was created to help drive membership for the OSU POSSE, our athletic booster organization. POSSE basically exists to get alumni and fans to donate money to the athletic program. That money is then used to help pay scholarships or operating costs. Sure, that means you're helping a team compete, but a lot of these kids are in college because they are playing sports. If they weren't, they might not be getting an education at all. So in a very real way, POSSE membership is helping shape a life.

Sounds like I drank the Koolade, doesn't it? Kinda. I find it hard to be bitter toward it all when I interview these student-athletes and they're telling me how much their scholarships mean to them and what they want to do with their degree. In the face of that, it's hard to maintain any degree of pessimism.

For the record, the POSSE has gained almost 1500 new members since the debut of the magazine, and this after having been pretty much static at 6,000 members for the past umpteen years.

Anyway, getting the last magazine out was a bitch. Half my writers flaked out on me and I ended up writing way more of it than I planned, which cut into my editing time, which mean the magazine didn't go out as polished as it should've. There are two huge typos that I know of, and probably more. Ugh. The blame is all mine, of course. Gotta love accountability.

Ah well. Could be worse. I could be still be bored off my ass and hating my job.

No Ironing
I typically iron every day. Shirt and pants. Get up, take a shower, go iron, get dressed, get to work an hour late. Every day. Same thing.

I iron because i hate going to work wrinkled. It's goddamn tacky and I can't stand the thought of someone looking at me and going, "goddamn, lookit him. he just rolled out of bed and threw some dirty clothes on."

It's funny, really, because I almost never tuck my shirt in. So it's not like I look "neat." It's worse in the summer. There's no way to avoiding having to iron my shirts.

Now that it's turned cold (blessed cold), however, I have more options. I have two pretty kick ass OSU pullovers (you know, like a combo sweatshirt/windbreaker without the cotton lining), and then Paula just hooked me up with a black one, which I'm wearing right now.

So this morning, I didn't have to iron a goddamn thing. My pants .... okay, I started this new thing back in the spring. I wear my pants twice before washing them. I typically just sit at work. No manual labor. I can't hardly call them dirty. Saves water. Increases the longevity of the pant. Anyway, didn't have to iron because I'd just worn them last week and hung them back up so as to avoid wrinkling.

Threw on pants, plain white tshirt and the black pullover. Awesome. I understand why Einstein wore the same fucking thing every day. I'd do it, too, if I could pull it off.

The Girl
I've been thinking a lot about her lately. For instance, with the weather change, I was imagining her first Halloween and going trick'r'treating with her. I can't freaking wait. Yeah, I know it's a few years down the road, but c'mon, it's going to be awesome. Her first xmas morning when she knows what's going on.

This is why I wanted to be a parent. I may have had it rough in the Dad department, but we had a pretty good family life (we have a huge extended family) and all the family stuff ruled. Most of my happy memories from my childhood, if they don't involve my friends, involve our big family get-togethers.

I just can't wait to do all that stuff with her.

And, just by way of teasing, we're pretty sure we have the name picked out. And now, we're not telling you. Any of you. You can ask all you want, but you ain't gettin nothing.

Phil
Dude, I don't know if you're still out there. If you still stop by, but I've lost your phone number and I can't find you. This bothers me as it's your freaking birthday today and I always call you on your birthday.

Movies
Been struggling with the critic gig lately. I just don't give a fuck about it anymore. It's not that I don't like writing, I just don't care about the movies anymore. Nothing really gets me excited. I don't really give two fucks about 90 percent of what I watch anymore.

Sure, I can still "review" them, but the passion is gone, and now I feel like I'm just in it for the money. It's $2k a year, after all. That'd be a substantial thing to give up. Even if I take out the cost of steph's tickets, it's still $1500. It's a little at a time, but I'd notice.

I've officially been a reviewer for nine years now. That means, conservatively, I've reviewed more than 1100 movies. I don't watch movies the same way civilians do. It's not the same experience. Even if I'm sitting beside you in the theatre, we're not there actually doing the same thing.

Added to this... my weekends are insanely busy. On top of the movies, if there's a home OSU game, I'm required to be there. That's 10, 12 hours out of my Saturday, and it dictates that Friday night must be a movie night, and usually Sunday at 1 as well.

Then There's Bowling
I actually enjoy the bowling. I'm getting better at it. They got me a new ball w/fingertip grip. This means, bascially, you're not putting your fingers all the way into the ball. Makes the ball easier to hold onto and gives you a little more control... once you get used to it. Before you get a feel for it, however, you suck donkey balls.

First weekend I used it, I bowled a 95, 96 and a 103 or someshit. I wanted to quit. But in many ways, it's like poor-man's golf. A bowling shot isn't much different than a golf swing. There are a lot of tiny things you have to do right to get a good shot, and inconsistency is a killer.

I'm finally starting to get it down. Sorta. I mean, I don't bowl 200's every game like my teammates, but I did bowl 141, 133, 144 the other night. Not too bad. I'm loving having something sorta physical to try to master.

That said, being committed every Sunday night... well, it adds another something to the weekend. Ugh. I won't continue the bowling probably after the Girl arrives.

Anyway, so... yeah, been really fucking busy with everything. No time for love, Dr. Jones.

out.