I've just had an apostrophe

These are the amazing realizations I have had during my 5 hour shift this morning. They will be mostly random, due to the fact that I'm keeping this window open and posting it all when I'm done at 3.

Did you know you can buy a Bo Bice calendar for 2007 on allposters.com for only 12.99?!? Here's what it looks like:


Amazing, I know.

Have you ever noticed that Gwyneth Paltrow is in Hook? She plays Wendy's daughter. Which reminds me that I saw the other day on VH1 that Misha Barton plays the creepy dead girl in The Sixth Sense who pukes because her mom poisoned her. Totally weird.

Monday should be an interesting day with the 5th anniversary of 9/11. Pretty much every news outlet is devoting at least the morning to it. Not really any comment from me, just more of an observation.

Why can I not bring myself to do my investment portfolio management homework right now? And why can I not motivate myself to get a bed?

Bangarang!

Last night some people threw a birthday party for me, which I had a great time at. We played Pop 5, a gift from my parents, and Ben's game called Signs, both of which were thoroughly enjoyable. Additionally, Pete showed up with his girlfriend Alyson, who is town for the weekend and it was good to see her again.

I'll keep a running tally of the number of visitors I have to the store. So far, at 11:55, I am at 0.

The trailer for The Covenant makes this movie look like a good candidate for worst movie of the year. I sincerely hope I never have to watch it.

Here's a look at the next three Will Ferrell movies (thanks to imdb):

Stranger than Fiction (Nov 10)
Plot: An IRS auditor suddenly finds himself the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire life, from his work, to his love-interest, to his death.

Someone who saw a test-screening of the film said this:

It is a cult film with Will Farrell being at his absolute brilliance at what he does in a quirky but funny way. The film is a cross between Big Fish and The Truman Show with an amazing cast.

I think this has the potential to give Will Ferrell some actual acting cred, kind of what Melinda and Melinda was supposed to do. I'm pretty excited for this one, should be excellent.

Blades of Glory (Finished production today)
Plot: In 2002, two rival Olympic ice skaters were stripped of their gold medals and permanently banned from men's single competition. Presently, however, they've found a loophole that will allow them to qualify as a pairs team.

In case you hadn't heard yet, the rival skater will be played by Jon Heder. I'm not completely sure if this is going to work, but the mere idea of Ron Burgundy and Napoleon Dynamite doing pairs figure skating is crazy enough to be hilarious. Let's hope they don't mess it up.

Also, the imdb page for the movie lists Jenna Fisher of NBC's The Office on the cast. That bumps it up a notch for me already.

Step-Brothers (In Pre-production)
Plot: Two spoiled guys (Ferrell and Reilly) become competitive stepbrothers after their single parents get hitched.

OK, there's not enough information about this one yet to make any guesses. Pairing Ferrell and John C Reilly worked fairly well for Talladega Nights, we'll see if they can pull off the same chemistry in this one.

Hey, that was fun.

It is now 12:30. I have watched Hook, and have now moved on to Star Wars: A New Hope. Total people to walk through the door besides me: 0.

The new John Mayer album, Continuum, comes out this Tuesday, and Entertainment Weekly had some interesting criticisms in their review of it (they gave it an overall grade of B, I think). They said the album was "too perfect" and that it was too bad Mayer was "too classy" or something to that effect. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to learn from that type of criticism, other than that Continuum will be well-produced, well-played, and well-written. That's all I ever ask for. Those songs should make for a good live set on Oct 8th too!

At 12:52, after 2 hours and 53 minutes, my first customer walked in the door. She looked around for minute, asked if we had the new Ray Lamontagne album that we have posters up for (which we don't) and then left at 12:53. So much activity, I can hardly stand it.

I'm pretty pleased with the changes they made to the Facebook News Feed and Mini-feed. It's still a little annoying, but much better than before. I think they changed it enough that they're not going to do much more, it placated most people's problems with it.

Yesterday my little sister sent me my birthday present:

I love it.

Besides Continuum, I'm also looking forward to several new albums this fall:
1. Sam's Town - The Killers
2. James Taylor at Christmas - James Taylor
Hmm, maybe that list isn't as long as I imagined it would be. I'm sure I'll find some new stuff I want, plus I'll have a good chance to pick up some albums I otherwise wouldn't have, like Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere. Christmas music is just around the corner, and I can't wait.

I wonder if anyone is still reading at this point, or if I've simply rambled for so long that I've driven everyone away.

Wow, I now have three people in here at once! I can hardly believe it. They came in at 1:19, and have been in here for 5 whole minutes. I feel so loved.

Star Wars is great background noise, I've decided.

The group left at 1:30, after feasting on the free stickers and posters and purchasing nothing.

I just won 8 games of Free Cell in a row. Gotta love minor accomplishments.

My goodness, the people are coming in droves all of a sudden. I now have two people in the store, bringing my grand total to 6 for the morning. And now they just left, so my sales remain at $0.00.

Have I mentioned yet that I started a fantasy football league on ESPN.com? Well I did. It's really addicting, none of my players have stepped on the field yet, and I could spend an hour just looking through profiles and opposing teams. This week, my matchup is against the Dover Hooded Seals, who already have 18 points from the Miami/Pittsburgh game. My plan for vicotry includes my QB, Donovan McNabb, doing better form y Djibouti Miners than Daunte Culpepper did for the Seals. I think that can happen

Less than an hour to go, and still no sales. Star Wars is almost over, and there's not enough time to watch The Last Crusade, so I'll probably be switching to season 4 of Friends in a few minutes.

Is this as boring to read as it is to write? I hope not. Otherwise I will have wasted quite a bit of your valuable time.

One of the managers of the store just stopped in to see how things were going. In an effort to inflate my numbers, I'm adding him to my tally.

Random quotes from overheardinnewtork.com:

Mother: So, if you could be any animal, which do you think would represent you the best? I think a horse fits you.
Daughter: What? A horse? No. I want to be a unicorn.
Mother: You're mentally ill.

Guy: You know, I never noticed she had an accent before.
Girl: Yeah, she's German.
Guy: Oh...I always thought she was slow.

And, from overheardintheoffice.com:

Engineer #1: If you flush the toilet, you lose water pressure?! So it's like, "Sorry, the dishwasher is running. We have no fire protection."

Pause.

Engineer #2: Who flushes the toilet if their house is on fire?

17 minutes left. I've moved on to the season 4 Thanksgiving episode of Friends, the one with Chandler in the box. Next up to finish off the shift will be the one with the embryos, where they have the contest to see who knows the most about each other.

I found one of the potentially coolest sites ever this week. It's www.bookfaced.com, a site where college students can get connected with others from their university to buy and sell used textbooks and save on shipping. Such a great idea, I might e-mail the webmaster and see if they have anything I can use to promote it on campus. Seriously, I spend an hour passing out fliers and putting up posters and save a ton on books! The service charges 8% of sale price, which isn't too bad.

OK, time is up. I had 7 people on my shift, no sales. Wow, what a waste.

Lonely and forgotten, never thought she'd look my way

Another weekend passes without the purchase of a bed. I am a complete dork.

Although sleeping on Ryan's air mattress hasn't been completely uncomfortable, and I am the only one to blame for the fact that I haven't picked one up yet.

The long weekend was good on the following counts:
1. They closed Reverb, so I didn't have to work until today (see below)

2. I did a sum total of nothing beyond:
a. make home-made ice cream
b. play sand volleyball in the park
c. play catch phrase at the basement after eating pizza
d. record "when she loved me" (Sarah McLachlan, Toy Story 2) with ben and tim
e. watch the sum total of close to a season of friends

3. I miraculously found the digital camera I thought I had lost back in April! It was hiding in a random pocket in my backpack. Now I just need to find the cord to connect it to my compuer...

Today was bad on the following counts:
1. Class + headache = annoying

2. Facebook and their "improvements" are ridiculous
I posted commments about how this hadn't happened yet in March:

Can I just say that facebook has yet to add a stupid feature since I've joined? Each one is very useful in its own way. I'm still not a fan of the whole "poking" thing. Kinda creeps me out.

Now poking is the least of my problems with news feed and mini-feed (more so the latter)

3. Reverb started today, and not on a good note. The schedule for this place fluctuates so much when it's getting set, I was supposed to work today from 5-10 originally, then had them switch it to 4-7. I thought this was all set til I got the most recent schedule, which I thought still had me on from 5-10, but I read it wrong and it was really 4-10. Suck. I was all ready to lounge for a bit between class and work when I get a call that I was supposed to be at work 15 minutes before.

So now I've been here for 2 and a half hours, and I'm not yet half done. I've listened to Brandtson's "Hello, Control" (amazing), and am now a bit over halfway through watching "Goblet of Fire". After that, I have no idea. Helping people with accounting or something I imagine. Maybe actually reading for class (a novel concept, I realize).

Tomorrow brings sleeping in, Showdown, and Principles of Management. I can hardly wait.

And I still have a headache.

and PS, why was I not surprised to see that Steve Irwin had died?

Why'd you make a shrimp slushy? 'Cuz I was hungry and thirsty...

Ok, it's already September. That's insane.

Matt, Doug, Ben, and I went to see "Accepted" a few days ago, and I must say it was hilarious. Definitely one of the funniest movies I've seen all year, I can't wait until it comes out on DVD. Afterward we played Settlers of Catan, a German strategy game. This game is tons of fun and pretty addicting. All of this leads me to believe that I have further solidified my nerdness.

I've been to my internship twice this week. Both days were kind of slow as I'm figuring out what they want me to do. I think things will come together eventually, and everyone there is really nice and friendly and stuff.

My classes are intriguing this semester. There's not a single teacher that I don't like, and several that I actually enjoy quite a bit. The stuff they teach, on the other hand, isn't quite so great. Investment Portfolio Management and International Business are pretty interesting so far, especially once I learn more what they're about. I haven't had enough experience with Management Communications so far to make a judgment, but the other three classes are uncommonly boring, particularly Business Ethics. Probably the least exciting two and a half hours of my week.

I will buy a bed this weekend. I will buy a bed this weekend. I will buy a bed this weekend.

We've got a party at the commons tonight. Should be a rousing good time.

And, besides work at Reverb tomorrow from 10-3, I have no commitments until Tuesday. Sweetness.

So much time and so little to do! Strike that...

Wow, so quite a bit has happened since I posted on Tuesday.

1. I got my internship! It's with Showdown Management, a smaller company with three full time employees. I'll be working in their publishing department mainly, but there will be lots of other opportunities in different areas as the semester goes on. Should be good, and I'm there on Mondays and Wednesdays.

2. A group of us went to Little Miss Sunshine, which is at times awkward, at times hilarious, and on the whole an excellent movie. There are several things that you will not see coming until they're happening, and that made those events that much funnier.

3. Classes started on Wednesday, and between Wed and Thurs I had all of my classes once. Most of them will be extremely easy, just a bit time-consuming with weekly or daily assignments. This translates into me actually having to buy most of my books, a rather unfortunate turn of events. Whatever, I'll get over it.

4. I figured out my schedule for this semester at Reverb, which currently is Mon-Tues 5-10 and Saturday 10-3. I may revise this a bit, probably try and get Tuesday down to 4-7 or something like that, and if they want to add an hour to Saturday or something I guess I can do that.

5. All of this translates into a completely open Friday, with no responsibilities in the world. I spent yesterday getting the house ready for...

6. Jess' going away party. I was pleased with how it went; everyone seemed to have a good time. I met a couple of pretty cool people and hung out with a bunch of cool people I already knew, so that's always a good night. Jess leaves for Italy on Monday, and I hope the party wasn't painful or anything but that she was able to see her friends once more, play some cards, take some pictures, and say goodbye. She's only gone 'til Christmas, that's not that long anyway.

All of this leads up to today, and me sitting here at 9 when I wanted to sleep in until 10 and was unable to get past 8:30. Kind of stupid, but at least it wasn't 5:30 or something REALLY stupid like that. The rest of my day is pretty open. I'm playing Rummikub with Pete, Kurt, and Tyler at some point, and Ben and I are watching some Alias this afternoon too. I'm still trying to decide if I want to go to the Dave Barnes/Andy Davis/ David somebody show, which would normally be a no-brainer, but it costs $15, which is about $5 more than I want to spend on that.

Things on my current To-Do Eventually list:
1. Spend a late night over pancakes
2. See Snakes on a Plane
3. Finish reading the Ted Dekker book I started last month
4. BUY A BED!

Are you dead or asleep? Either way you're worthless to me

All right, I'm down here finally. Actually, I have been for a couple days now, but that doesn't make a difference. I've got everything moved into my room, and almost set up. Now all I need is a bed. A minor inconvenience.

My car continues its quest to break down as many times as possible, and quite successfully I might add. The new starter should be installed sometime today. I'm really hoping it's done in the morning so I'll have time to get groceries. Then a bed. That's kind of the hierarchy of importance: car - food - bed. It's a nice little progression.

Last night Jon, Matt, and I went to the Counting Crows/ Goo Goo Dolls show. Good things about it:
1. It was free (best thing)
2. Goo Goo Dolls sounded great as long as the bass player wasn't singing lead
3. Counting Crows were pretty dang sweet too

We didn't stay for the whole Crows set because we all got tired and they were in they slow part of their set, so we just left. But it was a good time anyway, I'm hoping I get to go to more of these this year.

Classes start tomorrow, I've just got one in the evening. I've got an interview for my internship today at 1.

Must... get... groceries.

Jigga What?

They made an arrest in the JonBenet Ramsey case? That's frickin ridiculous. Wow.

Well I've got another day of work and then I'm off to Nashville. That means 2 days. Again, ridiculous.

I was just watching America's Got Talent, and they've got this girl from Franklin, TN who yodels. In their little pre-performance video, they showed her in Franklin and tried to make it sound like a small hick town in the hills. And I laughed, because Franklin is so insanely rich it's sick.

Snakes on a Plane comes out this weekend. I'm going to see it, unless I don't. If not this weekend, then next. It just has to happen.

I did get to see Talladega Nights the other night, and it was quite good. Definitely, like most Ferrell movies, needs to be watched several times, because it's about the lines more than the plot.

I need to pack.

Greasy mullets and vengeful "teens"

Ok, so Miami Vice was quite a disappointment. It hardly had any good action scenes, let alone an interesting plot. And there were about 5 too many sex scenes, all pointless.

John Tucker Must Die, on the other hand, was quite entertaining. I would put it on the level of She's All That and 10 Things I Hate About You, at least in that vein. It had a pretty decent soundtrack too, if you're interested. Tomorrow night will bring what should be my favorite movie of the summer, Talladega Nights. (Please don't suck, please don't suck)

I now have 11 days until I head back to Nashville. I'm having a hard time thinking of things I need to get before heading back. Mostly I'll have to buy stuff when I get there.

One of the things I've done this summer to pass the time is fdoing and glueing together a bunch of jigsaw puzzles. I just completed my 12th puzzle, I think. The goal of this project is to cover one wall in my room with puzzles, which will hopefully look as good in real life as it does in my head. It has potential at least.

The Twins need to figure out some way to beat the Tigers if they're going to make the playoffs. Right now, not looking so good.

Work was 7:15-6 today. Tomorrow will start a bit later and hopefully end a bit earlier. And with that, I'm out.