Ain't Got No Sink

1. We're having stuff done to our kitchen.  Actually, we're almost done with having stuff done.  To quote B: "it really is astonishing how difficult it is to be without a sink."  But man...that kitchen is going to look tastefully appointed when it's all said and done!
2. My reconfigured +4 sword sounds great!  We're actively making plans for the initial Nervous performance, to be held in the basement where we normally practice for a group of our immediate friends.  That's about our speed, right now.
3. I am going to play some movies in some of my classes.  I have never done this before, ever.  What finally broke me is a combination of things: the kids are getting lecture fatigue, and The CC has one-hour-and-fifty-minute-long classes, so I am getting lecture fatigue, too.  As soon as I asked for suggestions for a "good video on Rome" from my colleagues, I got a flood of responses.  I am not alone in doing this, evidently.
4. You really should check out the awesome pictures that our homies B + C put up on flickr from the latest iteration of their annual Halloween bash.
5. Canker sores, man.  They are my own personal plague.  They last for fuckin' weeks.  I'm convinced I have weird mouth-chemistry.
6. On the plus side, I found out at the doctor's last week that my blood pressure is normal!  Hot damn!  It turns out having a better job is better for you!  Also, I'm convinced the switch from beer to liquor helped.*
7. That kid of mine sure is cute.

* Hunter S. Thompson sincerely believed that bourbon was good for heart ailments.  In a letter to a friend before he got famous, he suggested killing a bottle of Wild Turkey as a kind of cardiological cure-all.

Reconfigured +4 Sword, Also, Winded

Last weekend the girls were in California.  I spent Sunday in some intense Nervous think-tanking...we rocked, we recorded, we started the process of carving up (I wouldn't say "butchering" in so many words) a Bad Religion cover, and all was well. 

After actual music-playing was completed, Ransom and I got cart food and proceeded to dive in and tackle the great bass pickups replacement drive of ought-twelve.  This consisted of Ransom doing 98% of the work while I looked on and bullshitted with R (his partner), who was also doing something actually-useful at the time (assembling a coat rack.)  A few technical glitches remained by the time I had to jet, but I received a text shortly thereafter indicating that maximum rocktitude had been ACHIEVED.

In short: my bass has new pickups, and the likelihood of the Nervous implementing Plan Technocrat in the Pacific Standard timezone has thereby been increased ONE-HUNDRED FOLD.

Also, man, it is a lot of grading when you're teaching four classes at once.  Tomorrow I plan to really get the proverbial nose to the proverbial grindstone and crank out some midterm grades.

Coming Up Milhouse

This brilliant picture was on some "funny dumb pictures" site I look at occasionally.  I just wish I had thought of it (the tattoo, not the site) first.

The rain has returned!  I walked over to the Plaid Pantry after getting home from campus to buy a six pack, sans umbrella, just to soak up the Oregonian goodness.  I've got the basement window open a bit so that I can listen to as I'm tapping away on the keys here...

Speaking of hearing, I have a weird ear thing going on.  I'm going in to the doc, but not for two weeks...teaching obligations and meetings are keeping me away from Kaiser until then.  It's kind of worrisome; slight tinnitus, very weird tissue movement / behavior.  Normally I am cool with getting older, but this kind of thing is six gallons of bullshit in a three gallon bucket.

Since we can't do band practice tomorrow, 2/3 of the Nervous are going out for beers instead.  Rock n' Roll has to happen one way or the other, you see.

Note on teaching (and in defiance of my "I can't really talk about work online" thing from before): it turns out that I am part of a much smaller department than I realized.  My position there matters a lot more than I'd anticipated; I'm a reasonably large percentage of the total history crew, even counting all of the campuses, district-wide, all by my lonesome.  

No pressure.

Downs and Up

1. Apparently Obama didn't come at Romney hard enough the other night, especially considering all Romney did was lie through his teeth.  My mom reminded me to keep my chin up; I have a feeling the Barack-ness Monster is going to bring the punishment in the subsequent debates.
2. Oregon is experiencing the start of a drought; it's the driest July - September on record (i.e. ever.)  This kind of thing happens in El Nino years for us, and sadly, it's one of those.  I guess I should hope that the rest of the country gets some relief from its drought.  I just miss my precious rain.
3. I wish my friends didn't have to work, and hence we could all hang out more often.  

But it's all okay, because...

1. My job is so awesome.  I teach and write lectures and teach some more.  That's my job.  I don't have to research, ever again,  which is great because I basically sucked at it (basically.)
2. Swathed in tweed, I feel that I am comporting myself with grace and dignity.
3. I have succeeded, with a little help from my friends, in developing a taste for bourbon, a long-time goal of mine.  It just took good bourbon to do it.  Reclining with a rocks glass in hand, I feel that I am comporting myself with grace and dignity.