Writing. Studying. Researching.

I've spent the vast majority of the day researching a communication theoretician for a paper that I must turn in my 11:59PM Friday. The only reason I was doing it today was that, while I was writing in Devil's Handiwork last night, I suddenly remembered that something was due on February 1st. So, I checked, and a 5 page paper was what was due. Sigh.

Yesterday, like I said, I wrote in Devil's Handiwork, but I also did a bunch of domestic things. I did up all the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. Carl came over and helped me install the lighting fixture I bought for the bathroom.

As for Devil's Handiwork, here's a brief excerpt of some stuff I wrote yesterday:

"So, you're the psychic," Victor said after a while, breaking my reverie.

I forced myself not to react. "No," I said, finally. "I'm not a psychic, but I’ll take four-ninety-nine a minute to tell your future."

He laughed. "Got a smart mouth on you. Rich never mentioned that." He was silent for a moment. "So what is it that you do, anyway?"

"Is it important that you know?"

"I guess not," Victor said. He smiled and flipped some switches on the panel. "Let's just say that your reputation precedes you."

"Do you mind if we don't talk?" I said.

He grinned. "Yeah, actually." He cast me a side-long glance. "How about some small talk? That okay?"

I remained stoic, to say the least. The last thing I needed was a lovesick cling-on in the likeness of a casino high roller. No, thank you.

I managed to keep him off the topic of me for about three hours. I got him talking about his casino and the day-to-day operations involved with that for almost an hour. Then, he went off on some tangent about the government for another hour or so. When I came back from a trip to the restroom – finally free of the God-awful sequins and wig – somewhere between Denver and Houston, he started in again.

"So, how did they recruit you?" he finally asked.

"You don't give up, do you?"

"No," he said. "So, how about it?"

"Not on your life."

"I can handle it," he prodded. He reached out and laid his hand on mine.

I placed the index finger of my left hand on a nerve at the back of his neck, and I watched as his face went slack. "Listen, Victor," I said. "I think you’re a decent guy and probably don’t mean any harm, but I have to warn you, now, okay? You're on thin ice. Trust me: you do not want to know anything about me. The less you know, the safer you are." I removed his temporarily paralyzed hand from mine. "In fact, it's probably for the best that you forget you ever saw me once this plane lands."

As soon as I took my hand from his neck, his muscles twitched back to life, and he glared at me, his face bright red. "You could have just said, 'no'. You didn’t have to go all Spock on my ass."

"Did I make myself clear?" I asked.

"Crystal."

Interesting Video

Click here (I can't get the embed fuction to work today.)

Vapor Lock

I've been in a funk. Nothing really set it off, but, in a funk, I remain. Le sigh.

Friday, I got my refund check from my school money, so, Friday night, I went out to dmajorfifth's and the cluster picker's house and repaid them the last of the money that Kenny borrowed from them almost 2 years ago. Then, I went up to Sandpoint.

My first stop was at Home Despot (intentional misspelling) to try to buy the casting resin I need to create the Weinie Award for the winner of the Pick 'Em League I've been hosting on the band's message board. This is the second year I've done it, and, this year, I wanted to continue the "Great Weinie Caper" by gifting the winner of the Pick 'Em League with a "trophy" of this petrified, ancient breakfast sausage. (God, that sounds hilarious!) Anyway, [unscheduled rant break]

Arg!!! Sprint just sent another of their customers to me via my toll free number!!! Do these people NEVER LEARN?!?!?!?

[end: unscheduled rant break]

Anyway, back to Home Despot: I went there to look for two things. One, I want to get a portable dishwasher; and, two, I needed that acrylic resin. They didn't have the dishwasher, so I went to the paint department to look for the resin. The guy in the paint department immediately said that they didn't have the resin, but they did have a polyurethane-type stuff that would do the job. They were out of the stuff, which is $20 per quart. So, I bought nothing there. After that, Kenny and I went to this Mexican restaurant in the same parking lot with Home Despot, and we had dinner. The food was decent (not as good as the Mexican restaurant in Newport, but edible).

After that, we went to a friend's house and we stayed there for quite a while, talking, so we didn't get to Wal-Mart until almost 9PM. I hadn't been shopping in a good long while, so there was a LOT of stuff that I needed. Rather than bore you with that, I'll tell you this: while there, I saw this little sweeper vac thing that looked perfect for small vaccuuming things around the house. It was misplaced on the shelf, so I had no clue how much it was, but I bought it, anyway. Also, I purchased some hair color. When I got home, I took the vaccuum thing out of the box and started to assemble it. That's when I realized that the manufacturer had not included the part that attached the handle to the unit, and they had not included the battery charger plug. So, that had to go back.

I had also purchased a new lighting fixture for the bathroom (which will have to be installed with the electricity shut off), and a clip-on desk lamp to go over the stove, so I could see to cook. Well, Saturday, Kenny went to the store, I had him get me more lightbulbs, since the kids used them all. He bought 100 watt bulbs. I told him when he was putting one in the desk lamp thing that it was too powerful for the lamp, but he said that he "didn't buy weinie bulbs." I let it go. I was cooking some chicken at the time, and boiling some pasta. I'd just taken the pasta off the stove and drained it and gone over to the fridge to get the butter when I heard this horrible BANG behind me. I turned around to see that the lightbulb had exploded all over the top of the stove. Luckily, the pasta was well away from the glass fragments, and I'd put a lid on the pan with the chicken in it, so the food was all right. But smoke was rolling out from the desk lamp. I thought it was ruined, too, but, the next day, Kenny went and got some 60 watt bulbs, and the lamp still works and it hasn't exploded that bulb.

Last night, after failing to find a portable dishwasher at either Home Despot or Wal*Mart, I went online and found exactly what I was looking for. So, I ordered it! Now, I don't have to do the dishes anymore!! Yay!!

As for me, I should be working on Devil's Handiwork.

Ding Dong

The engineer finally sent me the last two songs. Out of the five, I like what they've done on one of them. I don't know about you, but 1/5ths of something isn't a lot to me....

Anyway, I've conveniently uploaded the songs to my server. Internet Explorer should "Right Click/Save Target As..." and Firefox should Right Click "Save Link As." Both work the same, I found out today....

The Cover

Strings

My thoughts: I like "The Cover." It's starting to sound like an actual song, and they are doing things (that I like) that I wouldn't have thought to do, which is what I would actually pay a producer to do. As for "Strings," it is the most important song to get right, and they've clearly blown the feeling the music needs to have to support the lyrics. The verses are okay... but the choruses and the bridge are not right. The choruses and bridge will have to be completely redone. The music has to tell the story the same way the lyrics do because, if these get sold to TV or film, they probably won't use the version with the vocals and lyrics. And right now, the music isn't doing that.

I spent the entirety of the day watching football, and the Superbowl will not be "super" anything. Were it not for the fact that I have several people playing in the football pool, I might not watch it at all. As it is, I will be having a party here for the Superbowl and will likely give out the prizes for the pick 'em league.

Tomorrow, we are to have band practice, and the kids are out of school for the day. Tuesday, I don't know. Wednesday, Kenny has pool league. Thursday should be band practice again and I have a paper due.

Blech

I have heartburn and it refuses to go away. If I eat a Rolaids, it will go away for two or three hours and then be back, burning my throat. Arg.

Band practice went well. We got through some of the tougher songs, but it is apparent to me that we still need to practice them a BUNCH more.

I don't have that much to say right now; I'm only posting because today is the 4th anniversary of this blog!

Fun

Cait and I played Scrabble and - would you believe - she got 429 points and I got 435?!?! No, seriously: I spelled "christen" (building off an 'r' already there, and using all my letters) on a double word score, and, a play later, Cait spelled "virtual" on a triple word score and also spelled "rarer" at the same time (building off "rare" with her 'r'). I spelled "zephyr" on a double word score, and Cait spelled "zodiac." We also spelled "qua" and "jade" and "axes" and "phantom" and "nature" and "sword." Aw, hell. I took a picture with my cell phone. Here it is:

Circulent

I did some work on Devil's Handiwork! I actually created a name for the company Shelby worked for as a spy: Circulent.

I know... you're thinking, what the hell is that? Well, I was looking up stuff on corporate symbology (and got all sidetracked on how Freemasons and the Illuminati are rumored to influence corporate logos and branding and whatnot, which I don't buy, really)... and the star, Sirius, kept coming up in the symbols. Sirius is, of course, the brightest star in the sky... the Dogstar... Canis major... aaaannnyyyyyway....

So, I am thinking, "Sirius... Sirius... Sirius...." while looking at a Wikipedia article on the naming etymolgy of companies. And I kept reading on there where these companies just jam two unrelated words together and create a new word for their company. So, I looked up Sirius in the dictionary for ideas. And it said "bright, shining" and I thought, Luminescent.

So I go to look that up, and my eye lands on another word: lucluent. I forget the exact meaning of that, but it is pronounced, "LOO-ku-LENT." So, I combined that word with "Sirius," spelled it with a "C" and got Circulent. (Which would be pronounced as "SIR-ku-LENT.")

Now that word has some connotations! Light, brightness, the star as a symbol(more Freemasonry crap, if I need to add it for some reason), the star as a... star... PLUS... it sounds like it could have something to do with a circle, which could come in handy, too!

Well, I Did It

I am officially a Gonzaga student. I now have to buy books, contact the financial aid office, and get acquainted with my professors. I can't wait!

Happy New Year

Well, lessee... My last journal entry was just before Christmas. We had a nice holiday, and I kept myself very busy, as usual. I've got one major project to do, and then I am probably going to do some work for a friend of mine this coming week.

Dad and Carl came over here for football on Sunday, and we played Hearts, which was fun. I spent the vast majority of the New Year's holiday with my cousin, his girlfriend, and The Twins playing Dungeons & Dragons (showing my nerd colors here). We went out to the Legion on New Year's Eve and listened to a karaoke band (which is just as weird as it sounds; amazingly, they were still able to mess up) and drank.

Other than that, nothing's happening. I have the urge to write, but I don't have the motivation at the moment. I am in limbo because this school thing is taking so long to get going.