Inconcievable!

For the first time in a few years, I did not attend a 24 hour game day.

It 's not that I didn't want to go, but I woke up Saturday morning and decided that I wanted to clean up the apartment. It's nowhere near done, but I did get a lot done. I also made plans with Heather for the night time, so by the time I was worn out on the cleaning, it was time to get ready and go to her place.

I've decided that her and I can't watch movies unless it's in the theatre. Everytime we've tried to watch one at her place or mine, we just end up talking through the whole damn thing. I was trying hard not to talk this time, as it was a Woody Allen movie I hadn't seen. It just didn't work though.

Then after that, it was mindless TV. The show "Next" on MTV. All friggin' night. If you've never seen this show, they take a man or woman, and then five potential dates for said contestant. The five potentials sit on a bus. I have guessed that they have a gas leak in said bus, because the people act so stupid while on the bus. So, one at a time the potentials come out of the bus, and do some sort of crazy thing with the contestant. At anytime the contestant can say "Next" for them to go away. For any reason. Usually, this leads to some witty banter between the two people. Such as "You're ugly anyway!" Now the potential gets a dollar for every minute they were on the date. If the contestant decides they like one of the potentials, they can give them an option. They say "We've been on this date for (insert amount of time) minutes. Now you can take the money equal to the amount of time, or you can go on a second date with me." Now here is the part that drives me insane. We've been watching this date, for the past ten minutes or even less. When the question is postulated, they give us a flashback of the date! I've been watching for the past five minutes, I don't need to be reminded. Is this how bad the memories of America has become.

But this show is like a train wreck of stupidity. It's so dumb, you can't help but watch. Plus, you can almost tell that the whole damn thing is scripted. I'm not sure on that, but I've got a hunch. Also everyone that is on the show is so damn arrogant. I want to be on the show so I can say "Honey, I'm slightly overweight, and not that attractive, plus I snore...oh, and I...um...drink...a lot."

Anyway, watched that for a good three hours or more. Yes, it sucks you in. Beware the show "Next".

No 24 hours of games for this kid though. Maybe next time.

A question asked, and a long winded answer.

First, I wish that Blogger had some sort of feature where when someone comments, you can respond to it, that way they know you responded to what you said, instead of always looking at the comments. LiveJournal has such a feature, but I like the Blogger interface much better.

But, this post is in response to what Jennifer had asked about music.

You shouldn't feel old. All those bands hardly hardly ever get air play. Stephin Merritt's bands especially. Public Radio seems to dig him. He doesn't perform under his own name(ok, he has two albums under his own name) and he has I think, five bands. But they are just him, with help from his friends. Anyway, I'm getting off topic.

How do I find out about these bands if they aren't on the radio you ask? I'll start by saying that music is an obsession for me.

At first, I was much like a casual listener. Music was on at work, or on in the car when you went from place to place. Strangely enough, my first CD I bought was a country music CD. I got into country music for a few months. After a few months I found that there wasn't much different at all in country. I had outgrown it and wanted more. So I went to other radio stations. I started getting into Top 40 stuff. I grew out of that as well in a few months. But since I was so into music I was picking up magazines and voraciously reading what my favourite artists were saying. They'd mention these tiny independent bands that they were really digging. So I'd go out and get a CD of that band. Then it would just become reading reviews and if the reviews of said CD sounded very interesting, I'd get it. I remember my first blind purchase not hearing a single note from the band, but almost every music magazine out there was saying "this is THE album!". I bit and bought "OK Computer" from the band Radiohead. I was so paranoid that I'd thrown away money by buying a CD that was going to just be horrible. By the second track, "Paranoid Android", I was absolutly in love. THIS was the most amazing thing I'd ever heard. As I said, I was getting tired of what was "popular" on the radio and wanted something different. Here it was. Three guitars playing completely different things, yet sounding so great together. Thom Yorke's signiture british whine, which seemed so much more sincere than anything the pretty boys on the radio were singing, and if you'd ever seen Yorke, you'd know he's not one of those guys either. Horrid teeth, one of the biggest lazy eyes you've ever seen and he always looks like he just got out of bed. THIS was what I had been looking for.

I, of course, ran right out and bought anything that Radiohead had put out. Since then, this is how it's been for me. If someone in a band I liked, played guitar on some other bands CD for one song, I go get it. I've downloaded a ton of live shows off the interet, because I'll read that live a certain band played one of their songs different than it is on the album.

I've went to all sorts of genre's too. I've listened to them all. I've become disgusted with them all, just to come back to them. When I was in college I was really digging punk music, and then got tired of it, just to come back to it now. (and not the "punk" that seems to be on the radio now. Green Day is a hybrid of true punk and this punk crap that is labeled that now. Give me my NOFX, or Rancid...hell, go classic, Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys...now that's punk!)

But that's my obsession. Ask anyone about theirs. I'm sure if you ask Bryan about board games, the story would be very simular to this. He played one, and had to try more, and then there was just one that blew it open for him. Same with Carmen, I bet there is some mini painting story where he said "Oh My God, this is just the greatest thing in the world!"

Heck, my obsession has went as far as I'm contemplating getting myself a guitar for Christmas. I'll probably be crap, but I want to mess around on a guitar.

Ok, that was fun.

Until later.

Oh, to clear something up.

On the Heather thing...

She didn't ask me to stop playing WoW. I stopped playing it because I was spending a lot of time with her. We'll see what she says when I start playing again here soon. It wasn't because of WoW or anything like that that made her come to her decision. I really have no idea what her decision was based on or anything like that.

I just know that before I went to Indy, we had discussed some things about her and I. Something happened that I thought threw that out the window, but came back home to find that it wasn't true. She was more adamant about the "just friends" thing.

The only thing that gets on my nerves is her telling me about how she can't find a nice guy that will date her. I don't know if she WANTS a reaction out of me or what. She's gotten it a few times. We'll see. If this friendship becomes more trouble than it's worth, than I shall have to end it.

Good day to you.

In which I talk about music.

I found a most wonderful artist, his name is Jonathan Coulton. You may of read about him in the Penny Arcade blog. The song I recommend most of all is this one right here.

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/lyrics/the-presidents

Click "Play song" at the top of the page to hear it, and the lyrics are on this page so you can sing along!.

Also on this page...

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/songs

are a ton of songs from him. I recommend "Skullcrusher Mountain", "Todd the T1000", "Millionaire Girlfriend" and "Re Your Brains". All the songs on there are great, so listen to them all.

Every other musician that Tycho had on the Penny Arcade blog I've been into for quite some time, but I recommend them as well...(for the record, Stephin Merritt, Colin Meloy from the Decemberists, and another I can't remember...)

In other news...

*crickets chirp*

That's right, nothing. Work could become more interesting, or more stressful, I'll have to wait and see. Perhaps if I have more to do, it won't be as dull. But I doubt it.

Couple of shows coming up at the M-Shop I'm looking forward to. That will be exciting and something different. I might go to some shows that I don't know the bands, just for a new thing to do.

That's it for today, have a good week.

The drugs don't work, they just make you worse.

For those wanting to know, Heather expressed that she has no interest in dating me. Though we are remaining friends. Friends that talk...all the damn time!

It sucks going from spending almost everyday together, to barely seeing her at all now. Though She's usually the first person I talk to in the morning, and always the last person I talk to at night.

Probably something I shouldn't share, but she had a date. Said date stood her up to play World of Warcraft. To which I told her, "I haven't played in about two months." Which she responded with a resounding "Good for you!". I replied with "I stopped playing about the time I met you, I'm just saying." Her response was "oh." and then a sad face.

So the lesson here. Don't ever even kinda sorta date me. I'm an asshole.

The Virtues of Being Too Nice.

So I thought I'd post, as I hadn't in awhile. I've got nothing I really want to say though.

I got reviewed at work. They said that I was one of two people that know how to do every process that the company has. So that was nice I suppose. But of course, I thought to myself, "Damn it, I didn't want to be here THAT long." But I suppose it isn't that bad of a thing.

Can't remember if I wrote about GenCon or not. It was pretty fun. The crap thing is, both times I've went, I've had some personal issues going on, so I'm thinking more about that than enjoying myself at the convention. I think that since it's the status quo for me, I think the slogan for the 40th GenCon should be "GenCon: A Sure Fire Way to Mess Things Up For Rob and Any Woman He's Interested In." But I tease GenCon.

Cutting my hair wasn't as bad as I thought it was. I thought for sure I'd instantly feel regret for having gotten rid of it. But the opposite was true. I thought, "I should of done this awhile ago." Oh well, no big deal, it's done now.

Ok, that's it for now I guess. I'm dull and boring. But you knew that already.

A long delayed entry.

So, Gencon was fun. When I first got there, I didn't know if I wanted to go back. But at the end of it all, I decided I ultimately had fun and shall return.

One thing needs to change when I go to Gencon. I've been to the convention twice. Both times, I had something going on where I just wanted to get away from Ames and certain people that lived in Ames. Hopefully next year I got no drama going on and can actually just focus on the convention, and not be thinking about what's going on back at home.

Tomorrow is back to work time. I don't really want to. I'm not sure how I feel about work really. I think I need something new and different in my life or something. I've felt very bored lately. Perhaps running across the highway during rush hour will get me the excitement I crave.

Ok, I really got nothing else to write about. Sorry to be so boring.

Thoughts and Gripes.

First off, comics have become way more expensive than they are worth in my opinion. There are only a few titles out there right now that I think are worth the money. Sadly, trades are worth the money in my opinion. You get the whole story at once, and they actually work out to be a bit cheaper than the individual issues. As much as I hate to say it, I think that's where the industry is going to be heading. Actually, in my opinion, is pretty much there. There aren't many individual stories anymore. There are always these huge arcs. Why? That way it can go into a trade. I really think they are going for the bookstore market. A trade is going to sell much better in Borders than an individual issue.

(can you tell I bought comics yesterday, and paid way more than I wanted to, and that was AFTER weeding out the crap!)

I'm just really slow at getting things done. The second series of Doctor Who has been done for almost a month now. 13 episodes total. I think I have watched six of these episodes. You'd think that they are broadcast once a week on Saturday nights, I could find the 45 minutes to watch it at some point in the week, and stay relativily up to date with it, but alas, I can't do that. Venture Brothers is the same way, I've only seen the first episode of this season. It's not that these shows bore me, they are some of the best there is out there right now. But, I just always put it off to do something else.

Heather went home to visit her parents this week. Whilst there, she got shingles. She is on her way back to Ames as I write this, deathly afraid of me thinking she will look "not cute" with Shingles. She can be kind of paranoid sometimes, but that can be for the best I suppose. She also has reason to be, which I won't get into.

Um...Kinda sorta looking forward to Gencon. I always feel just, "meh" to leaving and not sleeping at home. Plus I think I want a vacation where I'm not doing ANYTHING. I've never had one of those. I guess when I worked at the radio station, I'd take a week off and just play video games the whole time. They would tell me I wasted my vacation at the station. I said I wasn't there and didn't have to see people, so I was happy. I'm sure when I get there though, I'll have a ton of fun.

All right, started this post hours ago, so I think I'll just end it now. Bye.

Come in, she said, I'll give you shelter from the storm.

Hello all.

Yeah the week in review thing didn't last very long. Mainly because the weeks became mirror images of themselves. Each one only vaugely different than the one that came before it. Nothing at all wrong with that. It means things are going well.

This Thursday I felt bad. Heather's power cord for her Apple laptop shorted out and burnt through the insulation. So she asked me if I'd go down with her to the Apple store and then to Hu Hot. Well, when we left I wasn't feeling very great, and it just got worse as the afternoon progressed. The Apple store lived up to the pretentious tone I expected it to have. (Don't get me wrong, I liked it a lot.) The only thing that was a little much for me was the "genius bar". Mainly because the overuse of the word genius is one of the things that really get to me. If I remember right, the employee had the title of "genius" too. If I were feeling better, I would of probably mocked it a lot more.

She got her cord replaced and we were off. She then asked if I was feeling good enough to go to Hu Hot. I said that I wasn't all that hungry because of how I felt. She then said that we didn't have to go. I told her it was her birthday so we should go. She then said that if I wasn't feeling good we didn't have to go. So we didn't go. She was in an extremely good mood on the way down, and on the way back she didn't talk at all. When she dropped me off, she just said "I'll see you later." Which isn't how things usually go.

She then told me later that night that she was upset that we didn't go. I then told her that I felt extremely horrible that we didn't go, since she really wanted to. She then seemed very touched that I felt horrible because of this. She then said something about ex boyfriends never caring if she was unhappy or something like that. So I think I scored some major points by just not being a jerk. Which is something I do normally. (well, ok, to people I like).

I just downloaded a program called CleverKeys. It's suppose to allow me to look up words from any program I'm using. It is the nerdiest thing ever. But if I can figure out how it's used, I am going to absolutely love it.

It looks as if Heather is going to be around Ames for awhile. Which is good. She's moving out of where she is living now, and that is an EXTREMELY wonderful thing. She's a great girl, but has some trust issues due to some recent events in her life. Living by herself I think will help that a lot. For those who haven't met her, you shouldn't feel too bad. She is extremely shy, so anytime there is a possiblility of new people she hasn't met being somewhere she'll try to get out of going. But once she meets people she is more comfortable with being around them.

Um, nothing much else. That's about it. Many books and albums coming out that I'm excited about, but no one is probably that interested in that.

Oh, the other thing that has been on my mind for a few months now is actually cutting the hair. This means it would be the end of an era I know, but sometimes change is good. If this happens it will probably happen when I do a massive clothing shopping excursion. I haven't bought new clothes, except for a shirt or pair of pants here and there, for a long time. My thought on the clothing was to go for a little nicer, dressier look. I just have to go and do this, as I've been thinking about doing this since about March. The haircut thing has actually been for awhile, but have only recently thought more about it in recent months. I was thinking of going with the Weaver or Garvey look. Ok, not really. I will probably still keep it kind of longish. Not super long. I feel comfortable when it's longer. But then again, I'm horrible with going in and getting it cut as regular as some people. That is how it got long in the first place.

All right, I've droned on long enough. Nothing like killing time by blogging. Fun times!

Until another time.

Good Morning!

Haven't posted in awhile. But things have been boring.

Here is a song I discovered. The artist is Michael Leviton, and the song is called "Summer is the Worst". I like it a lot, and going to check out more of his stuff. He has a shirt that says "You will pay for your day on Pleasure Island". I might have to get that one. Here is the song.

http://www.acefu.com/MP3s/MichaelLeviton-SummerstheWorst.mp3

I know some was probably wanting a post about Heather here. All I have to say is she's taking away from WoW time and I haven't mailed a Netflix movie back in a long time. Well, one is Ice Pirates and waiting to watch it with Carmen and Charlie. But still.

That is all you get for now.

Know all of your enemies.

I've been lax(i think that's with an x, let me check...yup) in doing the Week in Review or just updating in general. Why? Nothing at all has happened. I get up, I go to work, and I come home or go do something. Nothing out of the ordinary. I'm not complaining. Sometimes boring is just wonderful.

I have been wondering about work though. I'm not sure if I should stick it out or go somewhere else. I got about a year or so on the student loans and then I plan on going back to school. Kingland would be a great job for during school. But I also plan to try to get a job at WOI, since that's the only job I ever had that I absolutely loved. It's the only job I've had where if I didn't get paid, I wouldn't of cared(that is to say, if bills and food and what not was all taken care of.)

Oh well, right now I don't think about it too much. No reason to cause worry.

Also over the past couple of months I've had a few dates and wondered if I was ready or not. Pondering if I still wanted time to myself or not. Or maybe if I just wanted to stay single for awhile longer. A lot of questions really. But, talking to a friend at work, she pointed outthat I always asked her if I knew what someone's name was(always female) and then my next question is always if they are single. She said that if that's my second question, that must mean I'm ready. I think I agree with that.

OK, enough Lonely Hearts Club. Time to go do something else other than sit at the computer. I spend all day at work at a computer, and spend a lot of time at home at the computer. Better than sitting in front of the TV, which is hardly on anymore. Mainly to watch movies.

The King of Carrot Flowers

I didn't do a Week in Review on Sunday. I'd like to say I feel bad, but I don't.

For those keeping track, the Title of this post is a song title from the band Nuetral Milk Hotel. This is some of the best music I've heard in a long time. I've listened pretty much to just this band all day today.

At Frank's behest...yes, I had a date last week. Her name was MJ. How cool is it to say you had a date with someone named MJ? Especially for a comic nerd.

I honestly don't know what I thought of her. She's very nice. I haven't decided if I should ask her out again or not. The person that had us meet hasn't said anything to me about it since the date, and kind of just ignores it if I bring it up. Since I wasn't bored to death by her and she was very nice, I suppose it wouldn't be a bad thing to see if she wants to do something sometime.

The date also made me think of how I pretty much just kind of let things die with Valerie. I haven't called her or anything since the "I don't know if I want to date right now" conversation. I have no idea what to do in that kind of situation. Do I just forget about it like i have the past month or so? Or do I still try to be her friend? I'm looking at it from my point of view, as in I would think it odd if someone wanted to keep trying to be friends after I said no to dating them. But then again, as I was telling someone this week, when someone flirts with me, my reaction is usually "Why are you being annoying?" I don't really catch on to those kind of things, and I'm just an odd person.

There is someone at work who I think is very attractive. I'm trying to find out what her status is. I should also actually try to talk to her too.

That's it right now. Mainly posting for Frank since he asked about the date and said I should of blogged about it.

Good night.

She ain't fancy, she ain't fine, and her fingers number only nine

I've been reading an essay a night before bed from the book "Naked" by David Sedaris. A lot of these essays are about him hitchhiking, or mention his hitchhiking that he did whilst in college. It reminded me of a hitchhiking story or sorts that I have.

I grew up in a small town called Barnum. It's about eight miles west of Fort Dodge. Coming home one morning from class or somesuch, I turn off the highway onto the stretch of road that leads to Barnum.

On that mile stretch of road, there was a woman walking along the side of the road. She flagged me down. I figure she either wanted to ask a question or a ride into town. So I pull off to the side of the road, and roll down the window. She tells me she wants a ride into town. Sure, it's only about half a mile into town.

She opens the door and sits on the passenger side. Along with herself, she brings the smell of the Budwiser Brewery. Her breath smelled as if she licked a barroom floor, and then went back for seconds.

She tells me to just take her up to the bar, because she's going to use the phone. This is followed by some nonsense and jibberish. Then she asked if I knew John Smith(I can't remember the actual name, so this will have to do). I told her that I did not. She then tells me how she is related to this John Smith, and how it used to be that you did not fuck with him or anyone in his family. If I did, I would come to regret it.

We get to the bar, and it's closed, she can't get in. I put the car in reverse and tried to slowly eek out of there before she could think of how I could give her a ride elsewhere. It didn't work she ran up to the passenger side and remembered that I said I lived in Barnum, and she could use my phone. What could I say, you don't fuck with John Smith or his family. Which I heard about four more times in the three block drive to my house.

We get to the house. Drunk Woman gets out of the car, and goes into the house before I do. My Mom was there and was in shock. I made a "drinky drinky" motion, and said that Drunk Woman wanted to use the phone. The woman used the phone, couldn't get ahold of anyone. She then says to Mom that I must be a very nice husband. Mom says that I'm her son. Drunk Woman was shocked for some reason. Then she tells Mom about John Smith and how he's not one to fuck with. Then she asked if we had a beer in the house. Mom went to the fridge, and we indeed did have a beer. The woman grabbed it, reached in her purse, and pulled out a ten dollar bill. She hands it to Mom and says, I have to pay for the beer. She then asks if she could have a ride back to the bar until it opened. I said sure. I never saw Drunk Woman again, and John Smith never came to get revenge.

This week went very quick, and was extremely busy. Even though it was only a four day work week. Not much at all happened. Very dull, but busy none the less.

I can't remember what I did in my free time this week. I think just watched movies and read mostly. I finished "A Long Way Down". Very very good. I think my next book will be another Nick Hornby book. The only two fiction ones I haven't read are "How to be Good" and "Fever Pitch" which isn't really fiction. It's a sort of an autobiography of himself, and how much he's addicted to football(or, to us stupid Americans, soccer).

There is something else I could talk about here, but am going to wait for a bit. To see how things go. Plus it's something for readers to look forward to.

Until next time.

Three day weekend. (Week in review..kind of...nothing happened)

Are always nice, but seem to go quicker than the actual two day weekends.

When I was younger, I used to carry around four or five books with me around the house. Out of those four or five books, I would be reading one of them, MAYBE two. Mom would always want to know WHY I was carrying around all those books. My answer was always because I was looking at them, or trying to decide what I was going to read next. Which was at not at all true. I honestly don't know why I carried them around with me all the time.

I was remind of that because over the past decade or so, I've tried to keep myself to reading just one book. Here is a list of the books in my apartment that have been started...

1. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
2. Naked by David Sedaris
3. The Complete Bone by Jeff Smith
4. Cerebus, Vol 1.: Cerebus by Dave Sim
5. V For Vendetta by Alan Moore
6. Watchmen by Alan Moore
7. Pure Drivel by Steve Martin
8. Longest Day byMichael Collier(an abysmal Doctor Who novel, I can usually read these in a day, and am at least entertained. This one has plodded along as if it has the next decade to get where it's going. I should just abandon all hope, but haven't)
9. The Pythons by The Pythons

The past month or so I haven't done well at the "one book at a time" thing. 5 of the books on the list have been read previously. One should just be burned, and then burn the ashes. Three I've never read before.

The Pythons is a coffee table book. An autobiography of the Monty Python troupe. It's a big book and hard to hold to read.

Naked is a book of essays, so I read one a night before bed. It is excused from my "one book at a time" rule. It's a very good book. David Sedaris has a very sarcastic take on growing up, and just in general, from the pieces of his I've read on "The New Yorker" website. I like it a lot, and find myself laughing out loud at parts. Which I don't do often when reading a book.

A Long Way Down is excellent, as I figured it would be. I think Nick Hornby is probably my second favourite author. Mainly because he's got a huge love of music, and music plays a huge part in most of his books. This book is about four different people that decide to commit suicide on the same building on New Years Eve. They all decide to stick together. The author tells both a sad and funny story, and doesn't take the cheap shots or plot devices you'd think he would from a story dealing with such a touchy issue. I'm about half way through it. Very good stuff.

A sad Week in Review. Nothing at all happened. Nothing. Nada. Work and then home, or out doing things. Nothing huge happened at all. Dullest week ever. Except Bryan was in town for the weekend, which it was nice to see him again as usual.

I'd like to say I'm going to go out and shake things up this week to have an interesting week. But I'm not. I'll be happy with dull and slow. Maybe I can finish one of those nine books up there. One can only hope.

How can you not love me?! (Week in review)

Sorry, no story or diatribe this week, just right into it.

Things accomplished this week: Finished the tenth book in A Series of Unfortanate Events. The Slippery Slope. I like how there are jokes in there for adults. Sunny, the baby of the three siblings in the book, speaks in one word sentences. Then the author translates it into what Sunny meant to say. My favourite jokes with this device in this book was "Godot!" and Sunny meant something along the lines about waiting for someone you never know when they will get there or who they actually are. How many kids are going to get that is a Waiting for Godot reference. Actually, how many kids know what Waiting for Godot is? My other favourite Sunny joke was when she said "Rosebud!". She was talking about something that was symobolic and didn't actually represent what it actually was. You'll always get my respect with a Citizen Kane reference. Daniel Handler(oops...I mean Lemony Snicket) is a great author. I should find one of Mr. Handler's adult books and see how well of a writer he is.

I also finished Scrubs: Season 3 this afternoon. I think Scrubs is my favourite TV show. This season had the Micheal J. Fox episodes. Which are two of the best episodes. Also this season featured my two favourite jokes. The pancake in the silverware drawer joke, and the double prizer cereal box flashback. Wonderful stuff. Will probably watch it again.

Wednesday I went down to Welch for Jeff's last Wed. as a bartender. I only planned to have a beer or two and come home. I started playing pool with some people, and we eventually went to Paddy's. While there, and still pretty sober, we(this being a friend of Jeff's who's name is Dave, and another guy named Will, and myself) discovered the best way to break the ice when trying to meet girls. We'd walk up to them with Will and he's ask them if he went to high school with them. They'd start talking about high school and whatnot, and then after that, Dave and I would start talking to them. The most interesting of these was one of the girls we went up to and started talking to, it was her birthday. So Dave and I took her to the bar to buy her a birthday drink. So while we were sitting there, her and I started talking your typical small talk type things. She was pretty drunk though and would talk nonsense every once in awhile. But at one point while I was talking to her, she was acting very sad. I asked her what was wrong and she just casually tells me that she isn't cute. She was very wrong in this assumption. I then told her that she was very wrong, and she was very cute and gave her a hug and kissed her forehead. At this point, I started thinking how a jerk would of taken full of advantage of that. Not me, I'm one of the nicest guys to ever grace God's Green Earth, so I walked her back to her friends, gave her another hug and told her to enjoy her birthday. Then went back to using our method of meeting girls. Eventually went back to Welch until close and then came home. Made a drunken post on Blogger. It was deleted, but not before Charlie read it. Maybe some others did, I don't know. But Charlie made sure to give me much sass over it. I actually don't rememeber at all what the post was about. Whenever I drink, I come home and take asprin and drink two big glasses of water, to make sure I don't get a hangover. I got to do something while I'm drinking the water. It usually is to sit at the computer.

Another thing that happened this week was I helped Frank put in flooring at his house. I'm always willing to help people if they ask me. I also always forget that my back isn't the greatest, and that I'm stupid when it comes to stuff like that, but I'm always willing to help. It was pretty interesting and something different to do, which is something I always welcome.

Came home from Frank's at about one in the morning. Sat and talked to people online for quiet some time. About two AM I went to Perkins with Lori, until about 5:30 this morning. Alas, since I believe there should always be a bit of mystery around someone, I think I'll end this Week in Review now.

(But, for the record, I'm still very much single...before any rumors start circulating.)

My Problem.

Everyone that reads this knows that music is a huge part of who I am. Usually at any point in the day, you could ask me what song I have in my head, and I will probably have an answer. Tonight, at Frank's game, I had a song in my head and couldn't wait to get home to hear it. But the crap thing is, I can't remember which song, and can't find one of the CD's it might be on. The song was from the now defunct band, Tarkio. It's a two CD set called Omnibus, collecting all the EP's and one album they put out. This said compilation was put out by the the label Kill Rock Stars. (Sadly, all that info was from memory. I looked up none of it.)

Anyway, I can't find the first disc of this set, and I'm sure said song that was in my head is on that first disc. I can't even remember what song it was, since it was just two lines that were in my head. I don't even remember the lines. Knowing me, it was probably cleverly written depressing lines.

You don't know how much it's bothering me to not find it. I thought writing a short blog entry would help put it to rest, but it didn't. Guess I'll just go to bed. It is midnight.

Sing me to sleep, second disc of Tarkio: Omnibus.

Week in Review...yeah.

Really quick this week. I remember that I didn't get one in last week either. Perhaps I'll catch up, perhaps I won't.

Nothing too eventful this week. Officially got my promotion at Kingland. But also on a sad note, a friend of mine was let go from Kingland too. Hutch and I had a good time and made each other laugh. But he wouldn't show up a lot for work, or leave early. His quality wasn't the greatest either. Hutch is a good guy, a great guy, but Kingland just wasn't his thing. He will be missed.

Something else this week I realized about myself is that I want to do something creative. I see Charlie (trying) to do Awsomen, or Alter Egos now. I see Gabstur talking about and working on his Mickey and Joe stuff. Hell, even Frank with his GURPS game. I want to create something. I really loved that in college. The things I'd do for audio and video classes, were some of the most fun I've had. I loved sitting around thinking of stuff for Sofa Kings with Chad, and then writing them down. (For those wondering at home, we called it Sofa Kings for a reason. A very clever way of being juvenile. If you can't figure it out, say the next sentence out loud. Rob Dietz is sofa king awesome. ) Thinking up visuals to go with prerecorded PSA's was a lot of fun too. Anyway, I think I'm going to try to start writing things. Just try to build on ideas I have for stories and whatnot. I don't know if I could use them in a role playing setting. I'm too controlling over what would be going on story wise. Role playing should be able to flex with what the characters do. I'd want to tell a story and have happen in it what I want to happen.

Something else I've been working on this week is eye contact. I'm really bad with looking at people when they are talking to me. It's not that I'm nervous around people or whatnot, it's just that I've always been a person that looks around at everything. I'm sure it's wierded some people out as I try to stay focused on them when talking to me, instead of looking around, like I'm disinterested.

Also, to go along with the eye contact thing, I've been trying to be a little more outgoing. Stupid stuff like doing the small talk thing with people I buy my candy bar at the store from. Even just being a little friendlier to people I interact with. I feel that I've gotten into a comfortable rut, and just doing these small things to shake things up a bit.

What the hell, we'll cover last week right now too. It was nice to see Bryan again, and to actually play some board games again. We've played games since he left, but just not as focused as when he's around. I think with Bryan leaving, I've found out that I'm a little picky when it comes to board games or perhaps I'm just not as interested in them as I used to be. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy playing games. Just not like I did a couple of years ago. Could also just be a phase I'm going through. That happens to me from time to time.

An example of such a phase is that I recently thought about cutting my hair. This happens about once a year, at around this time. This time it was a little more serious and almost happened. It was kind of like the article Carmen wrote about cutting his hair. I felt like I wanted a change. To leave a part of my life and step into something new. I then eventually decided, if I did cut it, I'd probably just let it go long again. I don't feel comfortable with short hair. I don't understand it, but I don't. Everytime I did get my hair cut when I was younger, I felt uncomfortable until it got longish. With curly hair though, when it would get so long, it would look pretty stupid, and so it would get cut. I was finally able to get it this long by being way to busy to find time to get it cut, and it went out of the stupid phase, into being long. Now, it's seven years later.

Someday though, I will probably go through with getting it cut. This time while going through my "should I cut it" phase, I decided when I do get it cut, I'm going to still keep it longish, and go for the messy, not combed look. Like Jeff Tweedy. Not that anyone that reads this knows who that is.

Ok, that's two weeks rolled into one. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there(So...Jennifer).

Fun with Robots.

So, ocassionally you run into bots on the net that are just selling stuff. The most fun ones for this are the bots that are on IM. Here is a recent conversation I had with one of these bots. I knew full well the whole time it was a bot. So I went in with smart ass intentions.

RobGDietz3: Hola.
Natty4u212: Hey, Who is this? :-)

Auto response from RobGDietz3: Am I actually going to take a nap?!?!?

RobGDietz3: Rob...you messaged me on MySpace.
Natty4u212: Oh hey babe i loved your myspace profile. I was hoping you would message me. Was not sure if you had AIM though.
RobGDietz3: Nope, I do.
Natty4u212: Listen hun, I'm just about to start my webcam show with my roomate Tiffany, it's eaiser for me to chat ya in my chat room if u wanna log in? can u cum watch and chat me there?
RobGDietz3: I don't know...
RobGDietz3: I'm not sure about "bad" things.
Natty4u212: I can show u how to watch for free if u promise not to tell anyone else how to do it???PLEASE:-RobGDietz3: But I barely know you.
RobGDietz3: Think I'm going to go take a nap.
Natty4u212: well since its the law that u gotta be 18 (nudity involved), u have to sign up with a credit card for age verification! BUT.. Once you are inside, just clikc on "Webcams" and that section is 100% free... let me know what name you use to sign in with so I know it's you babe! natalielove.slickcams.com fill out the bottom of the page then fill out the next page as well and u can see me live!
RobGDietz3: What about my nap?
Natty4u212: Please dont mention anything about that in the chatroom once u get in ok?:-X
RobGDietz3: What my nap?
RobGDietz3: Why would anyone care.
RobGDietz3: ?
RobGDietz3: If they want to take a nap, no one is stopping them.
Natty4u212: OH SHIT.. k I'm late to start my show, I gotta get off AIM...I'll see ya inside my chatroom babe.. remember to just click on the "webcams" button, thats FREE... You can use your msn name to sign in so i know it's you
RobGDietz3: But this is AIM. You won't know my MSN name.
Natty4u212: Auto Response: I am SOOO wet oh my god! Just in my cam show now with Beth and Melissa.. Click the link to come watch natalielove.slickcams.com :-)
RobGDietz3: I'm going to cry.

We do on stage things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.

Week in Review time.

The quote is from "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead." A very good movie, with some very good quotes.

Sorry, no Pat story this week Jennifer. I should tell a Glen story though. But there are a lot about him too. One involves him getting beat up on air. Now you know that has to be a good story.

This week's story actually pertains to me, and actually happened to me this week.

I hate when buisness calls pretend like they know you on a personal level. At work, there is a program I use called Bloomberg. It's this huge financial THING. There is a magazine, they have Bloomberg Telivision, and Bloomberg Radio, and then this program. It's even got a special keyboard, with a thumbprint dealy on it. I've yet to actually use the thumbprint dealy. Which is saddening.

Anyway, so ocassionally they call you to tell you of "the great new features on Bloomberg". So, I didn't recognize the number so I let the call go to voicemail. Even in the voicemail, she was acting as if we had a connection on a personal level.

"Hey Rob, this is Ah-lease.'(this is how she pronounced it, though I have a sneaking suspicion that her name is just Alice, and she's trying to be more cosmopolitian) We haven't talked in awhile, and I thought I'd just check in with you. I'm with Bloomberg and want to tell you of the great new features so if you could call me back at 555-555-5555, and we can chat, that would be great. Hope to talk to you soon Rob!. Bye."

When I hear "haven't talked in awhile" I start racking my brain trying to remember the person. My first clue was that I don't think I'd ever actually talk to someone if their name was "Ah-lease". I wouldn't talk to them on the principal that their name is "Ah-lease".

Next time, I hope to actually take the call. I'd love to just mess with that familiarity that they try to make.

"Hello is this Rob?"

"Yes, this is."

"Hi, this is Ah-lease, how are you?"

"Well, my wife left me this morning, taking everything but the coffee table. So I'll have to eat a microwave dinner that I'll heat up with a lighter and sit on the floor, using the coffee table as my dinner table, while I hum Beatles tunes to myself for entertainment. I also have just been told that I will either have to quit my job or pay them to allow me to continue working here. Also, my dog committed suicide this morning. He even left a note. All it said was "Rut Row." But other than that I'm doing great. Also, just admit, your name is Alice...like, the chick in Wonderland. C'mon."

"...yes...um....well...Bloomberg has many new features.."

Please, buisness people. You don't know me. If you did, you'd probably not want to "hang" with me. Stop it. Just tell me what you need to, and we'll call it good.

As for the week. It was a typical week. Ate out for lunch much more than I usually do. But Thursday was Charlie's birthday, so that is excuseable. Jeff also has an every Friday thing at Carlos O' Kelley's. I'll try to do that every other week or something like that.

The "promotion" thing at work is turning out to be pretty cool. I'm getting to do different things. Which is making me less bored with it. I'm still not sure if Kingland is something I'd want to do for a career. There just isn't enough creativity in it to keep me entertained. But it's a job I don't mind when I get bored with it. I don't want to be hopping around from job to job, just because I want a creative outlet. There is always going back to school as well. I still haven't been given the full blown duties of this new job either, so we'll see what happens there.

Yesterday a lot of WoW was played. I'm starting to enjoy it more in a group atmosphere. Solo is fun don't get me wrong. But much more fun with a few more people.

Finished the book "High Fidelity". Better than the movie, and I like the movie a lot. It's about a guy named Rob who just loves music(you can see why I probably like it so much). I thought the characters were switched around a bit in the movie to fit the people that played them. But the Jack Black character was exactly the same in the book. That was nice. Good book. I'm not sure if I like "High Fidelity" better or "About a Boy", bookwise. Movie wise, it's "High Fidelity". "About a Boy" I think might of gotten a bum rap, since it had Hugh Grant in it, so it got played as a romantic comedy, when it really isn't at all.

Nothing much else really. The Valerie thing was a bust, but thank you anyway Jennifer. Not sure what to do on that dating front. I'm not in a HUGE rush to get into a relationship really, but it would be nice. As harsh as it sounds, the five years with Rebecca were my early 20's and mid 20's. As a guy in his late 20's, I have no idea how to go about this meeting girls thing. I wish Rebecca and I would of decided to end things the first time things were bad. Oh well, you can't change the past. I'll just know to break up with girls at the first sign of trouble. (That's a joke.)

Ok...I've went on long enough. Until later this week or until the next Week in Review, were I'll promise not to talk about music, and try to remember a Pat story. Glen stories are golden too. I just remembered the time he put his coffee in the microwave, and told me to bring it to him when it was done heating up. There wasn't a lot of coffee in that cup. In fact, I think I got drunk smelling it.

Everything I try to do, nothing ever seems to turn out right.

(for those keeping track...the subject line is a song from the Decemberists)

Talked to Valerie tonight. She's not really interested in dating anyone. Which is very cool. It was one date, and some phone calls. She said it wasn't me, I'm fun to talk to.

I try.

The thing I hate about a situation like this, is the oddness it presents. For myself it would just seem odd to hang out as friends. Am I the only person that is this way? I mean, even after one date, it seems odd to me. The point of a date is to see if you can develop a relationship that is something more than a friendship. Once you cross that line, it's hard to see it differently. Am I making sense here? I've had many dating experiences where either myself or the girl decide that it shouldn't go on. But we'll be friends. Then it just kind of dies. I always feel bad too. They are nice people, really nice people. But, it just ends. Maybe I'm the wierd one.

Anyway, I'm going to spend the rest of the night feeling a little down, a little sorry for myself. Start tomorrow as my usual chipper self. At least I met a really cool, intelligent person from this. Maybe I'll actually try to stay friends with her. Make an effort.

Crazy, fire chick at Welch Ave. Station, here I come!

(That above is just a joke...it's funny. Laugh.)