Brain Squeezin’s XXXVII
Current mood: jubilant
Category: Life

Just a quickie tonight... I have to work in the morning.  Okay, I don’t and I’m just being insensitive.  Now go make some breakfast.

For those not in the loop... Butch and Nikki welcomed Molly Grace Owens into the world on March 24, 2008 at 12:03 p.m.  She checked in at 7 pounds and 14 ounces.  Mother and daughter are doing fine, and as of this writing, the father has not suffered any "coronary episodes."  The only potential issue is that Molly doesn’t have much of an appetite, which has prompted the compiling of a list of all the skinny mailman in New Madrid County.  This sort of genetic questioning is probably the irrational rantings of a first-time father, but you never know... congratulations to Molly, her lucky parents, and to first-time Uncle Jib, too.

Fight on.  (Just be quiet about it, there’s kids trying to sleep.)

"Goodnight, my angel
Now it’s time to dream
And dream how wonderful your life will be
Someday your child may cry
And if you sing this lullaby
Then in your heart
There will always be a part of me"

-"Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel)," Billy Joel (1990)

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Brain Squeezin’s XXXIV
Current mood: good
Category: Life

Whoo nelly!  Squeezin's!!

(How sad is it that I'm willing to let that stand as an introduction?  I can practically hear old Dr. Dawson lecturing me on that one.  I've become a lazy writer in my old age.)

Thanks.  December was kind of a rough month.  I often use this as a means of venting.  I apologize for putting you through it.  The problem was, of course, that December started off very well, with high expectations abound.  They fizzled, one by one.  One measly accounting error racked up enough bank fees and almost led to my being unable to buy Christmas presents for some of the family, which is unacceptable to me.  Thankfully, I had enough in reserve to pull that together at the last minute.

Thanks also to those who sent Christmas cards.  I always think that "this" is the year I'm going to start doing that, and then I forget about it for six or seven weeks, and remember on about the 27th.  Curse that retail schedule!  Special thanks to the Chandlers for sending pictures.

Currently... I'm in a pretty good mood, as I have blue Powerade and microwave popcorn (Marsh brand, no butter) to munch on.  I had a good night at the gym, despite being attacked by ducks (twice) and accosted by someone I can only assume was a "lady of the evening."  The Giants pasted the hapless Buccaneers.  It's 55 degrees outside, and it's January 7 at 2 a.m.  All in all, I'll take this one.

Just a quick pop-in to say hello.  I have to get back to another project right now.

Fight on.

"Can you teach me about tomorrow
And all the pain and sorrow
Running free?
'Cause tomorrow's just another day
And I don't believe in time."

Currently listening : Cracked Rear View By Hootie & the Blowfish Release date: 05 July, 1994

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Brain Squeezin’s XXXVIII
Current mood: melancholy
Category: Life

Greetings, all.  Just a quick note before bedtime.

Happy New Year.  This is my least favorite holiday of the year.  There are several reasons for this.

First, I worry about the people I care about being out on "Amateur Night," when everybody and their third cousin thinks they're okay to drive.  They drink about twice a year since the twins have come along, but they can still pound 'em back like they did when they were in college, and they're great to drive, yessirree bobby!

Bah.

Please, for me... don't put anyone in that spot, and don't allow yourself to be put in that spot.  Have a good time, and come home safe.  I'll be out in it all, too, so please don't maim or kill me.

Second, as many of you know, there are two things I hate to say: "hello" and "goodbye."  New Year's is both of them, rolled into one night.  I'm going to hate turning the page on 2007 for the same reason I did for 2006, 2005, and so forth... I don't feel like I've had any kind of progress to hang my hat on.  I'm stuck on some conveyor belt of mediocrity, and every attempt I make to change things up just goes... disastrously.  I still feel like I can't quit on trying to fix what went wrong in '07, and I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to the fights of 2008.  I imagine I'll feel a little better about them on January 2, but it's a little daunting to look into a year's worth of abyss in one night.  I don't have it in me anymore to be the optimist I was in my younger days.

What I need for 2008 is to get the right people back into my life, and force out the wrong ones.  I need to put myself in a better financial spot.  I need to travel more, and to that end, get myself into a more economical car.  I need something to go right for a change.  Just something small.  We don't have to fix all of "broke, overweight, lonely, and generally unsuccessful," but one out of four wouldn't be all that bad.  Hell, if I can knock one out by midyear, I may shoot for two by the end of the year.

Forgive me.  I'll be better tomorrow.  God Bless you all.

Fight on.

10:30 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Brain Squeezin’s XXXIV
Category: Blogging

Howdy all.

I've gotten messages from several of you about the update that I made last night.  I put some thoughts down that weren't for public consumption, and didn't think anyone would notice.

Of course, then I saw how many of you subscribe to my blog.  You're all either great friends or incredibly amused at how much I manage to fuck things up.  Perhaps a little bit of both.

Keeping along those lines, I mistakenly managed to set the original "Brain Squeezin's XXXIV" as preferred list viewing only.  So I wanted to get the word out there that no, you specifically were not disallowed from viewing the last blog.  (I don't even know how to set people up for preferred viewing.)  So, in an effort to keep everyone from being potentially insulted by being left out of the fictional loop, I deleted it.  Its purpose was served anyway.  Sorry for causing any confusion.

Be good to one another.

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Brain Squeezin’s XXXIII
Category: Life

Howdy, kids!  It's been a long layoff.  I've missed you.  So what have I been up to, you ask?  Oh, a little of this, and a little of that...

YO JOE!  At the end of September, I was in Atlanta, GA, for the G.I. Joe Collector's Club Convention.  It was a great time.  I finally got to meet a bunch of guys that I had only known as pixels and awkward screen handles before.  I got to nerd-out over little plastic soldiers to the nth degree, and I got to road-trip through the heart of the South with three guys who will probably wind up being good friends for life.  I haven't had a more fun four days in ages, and in all fairness, might not again for quite some time.  I took a (very) few pictures, and you can see them here.

Besides that... I've left Target for greener pastures.  I decided to take a position as a Front End Coordinator with Dick's Sporting Goods, largely because of a greater opportunity for advancement in the coming months.  In the short term, the pay is a little better, the hours are a lot better, and the strain on my body is a lot less.  Honestly, I don't know what else Target could have wanted from me for me to progress in my career.  In early September, I was refused the opportunity to apply for a promotion.  I sacrificed my nights, my weekends and my financial well-being for them, ran the most efficient and productive department in my store, and in the end, it just didn't matter... or at the very best, it would have mattered in another couple of years, while they continued to hire in 23-year-olds with a fraction of my ability and experience to be my bosses.  Bah.  I don't mind having to make a living in retail, but there needs to be the realization that I'm not just some guy off the street.  I loosened up my job-search requirements to allow for lateral moves, and took the job at Dick's as soon as they offered it.  I just finished my first week there, and when you combine all the new stuff to learn there with the thrashing that my last week at Target was, it's little wonder that I've decided to let this Saturday night go on without me.  I'm a little wiped out.  It's going well so far, though.  The hardest part has been getting used to waking up early enough to be at work at eight in the morning again.

Thirdly... "thirdly" isn't really a word.  Thanks to all of you who have contacted me about the lack of blog over the last few weeks.  Most of my non-work time in recent weeks has been spent asleep, as I was plagued by a sinus situation that just wouldn't go away.  As I've been pretty cash-poor since the Convention, there wasn't a whole lot going on besides, so it's probably for the best in the Big Picture.

Turkey!  I'll be at my dad's for Thanksgiving, then back at the grind for the rest of the dreaded holiday weekend.  I may actually be off that Sunday... I actually don't know yet.  Another benefit to Dick's is that I'll probably be able to arrange time off on shorter notice.  Can you tell that even minor job improvements are a major load off my mind at this point?

Every blog post should end with me laughing at myself like this a little bit, so I'm going to wind this up and finish watching the Pacers.  Be good to one another.

Currently listening : Cleveland Rocks! Music From The Drew Carey Show By Drew Carey Release date: 19 May, 1998

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Brain Squeezin’s XXXI
Current mood: tired
Category: Web, HTML, Tech

It just goes to show ya... the easier something should be, the tougher it always is.  That's a life lesson... from Brain Squeezin's!

This month's monthly absence.  Comcast shut us down.  When Jamie and I moved, the techs at Comcast changed our billing address, but not our service address, even though they had been out to the new place to upgrade us to digital cable a few weeks back.  So when someone moved into our new apartment and got cable hooked up, they shut down the old account connected to that apartment... ours.  After much yelling by Jamie (and, to Comcast's credit, refunding of monies), we managed to maintain our cable TV, but our digital-only cable channels were for crap and our Internet connection was out for almost two solid weeks.  They finally got everything sorted out and finished this morning (Saturday) at 7 a.m. ... I'm just getting here now, because as loyal BS readers know, it's a weekend and that means I have to work stupid hours.

Just a quickie tonight, kids.  Hope all is well, and thanks to everyone who wrote, wondering where the hell I was.  Be good to one another.

10:52 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Brain Squeezin’s XXX
Current mood: determined
Category: Life

We're back to the original!  Lesson learned... that much green is tough on the eyes, even for Brain Squeezin's!

History and digital cable.  I've been up late the last couple of nights, waiting for the always contemptible Barry Bonds to hit his 756th home run and break the all-time record.  He's swinging like a rusty gate these days, and the very good numbers he put up in the first half have settled into pretty average second-half ones.  Again, I don't necessarily want to watch this, but as a fan, I feel like I have to, provided that I can.  Does this make sense to anyone else, or have I finally gone over the edge?

My exciting vacation.  I spent last week, my vacation week, at home, thanks to some car repairs that drained my budget.  I was supposed to be helping Butch run his band camp again, but I had to be an adult (*sigh*) and perform my civic duty by making sure my car would actually stop when I hit the brake pedal.  Six days is a long time to stew about how you wish your job was good enough that three hundred measly bucks didn't completely annihilate your plans, especially since you've got your degree and work harder than about anyone else you know.  I took a good deal of it out on the weight machines in the apartment complex's workout center.  I also spent about thirty-five hours on the computer looking for other, more lucrative jobs.  Time will tell if those hours were wasted, but history hasn't set the most enthusiastic of precedents in that regard.

Last-minute salvation.  Last Saturday, I did make my first pilgrimage to Wrigley Field with Jamie, Cheryl, and the Wagon.  We saw the Cubs beat the Mets, 6-2, then grabbed some pizza with Katie, who was also at the game with some of her friends.  It saved what would have been a really shitty week besides.

Update.  Bonds just hit his 756th, off a 3-2 fastball from Mike Bacsik of the Washington Nationals.  There was one out in the fifth inning, and it put the Giants ahead 5-4.  The guy who caught the ball was escorted away under armed guard, and strangely enough, was wearing a Mets jersey.  On with the hoopla.

I'm going to skip the Spotlight this time, as now that history has been made, I'm going to go work out.  Be good to one another.

8:33 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Brain Squeezin's XXIX
Current mood: frustrated
Category: Life

Breathe in through the nose, and out through the mouth... or do I have that backwards?  Crap, I'm gonna hyperventilate... oh, and it's time for more Brain Squeezin's.

Hopefully, I can bring my average up to .333.  God willing, the marriages I've given speeches at will start to work out at some point.  Congratulations to R.K. and Rhiannon, who need to pop us out some grandbabies.

Dell DJ: 2005-2007.  My mp3 player died yesterday.  My world has been strangely quiet ever since.  The funny part is, it didn't lock up or have a real computer issue, the button-wheel fell off.  I slid it into my back pocket, walked thirty feet from my car to the door of the apartment, pulled it out of my pocket, and bam!  No wheel.  Oddly enough, the last song it played (as its charge had died just before I pulled into my parking space) was Blues Traveler's "Sweet and Broken."  Ah, well... iTunes is really damn easy to use.  I probably should have been using some kind of iPod anyway.  As if I needed more to save up for.

Work still blows.  I was scheduled to work the Saturday before my vacation technically started.  'Cause apparently, I had nothing to do on what was supposed to be a weekend off anyway.  This is becoming a yearly trend.  I am not pleased.  Seriously, I put myself through college to get treated like this?  I don't know to be madder about the job I have now, or the 3-10 employers who ignore my resume every week.

HOW?!?!  How have the people at Cartoon Network not licensed a $4 slab of blue plastic that I can keep on my computer?  I'd pay five if they made it in the baseball motif...



Oh, yeah... I'm there.  "Foster's" toys.  I need a couple.

Brain Squeezin's Spotlight: Stinky!.. er, Katie
Nicknames bestowed:  Stinky, obviously, by our brother Rob.  Originally, it's rumored to have had something to do with Joe Besser on the old "Abbot & Costello Show," but now we just attribute it to her smell.
How I know them:  She's my sister, so I'm kind of stuck with her.  It's probably more the other way around, though.
I've met them:  the majority of days since 1982.
What I'm sure I know: it's funny what you say that sticks with your younger siblings... for example, "Any song that gives a shout-out to Samoans is a classic song."  I'll also probably be buying her a pizza sometime this year.  The mooch.  Is it too late to bestow "Moochy?"

Eh, that's all I got.  Be good to one another.

Currently listening : Sex Packets By Digital Underground Release date: 26 March, 1990

8:23 PM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Brain Squeezin's XXVIII
Current mood: cheerful
Category: Life

Witty introduction!  Brain Squeezin's!!!

Relocation.  Jamie and I packed up and headed to the west side of town this past weekend, which is news that the Missouri crowd should like, as I'm now about thirty minutes closer to them.  There are still a few items of importance left to bring over (like my bed), but we're pretty much set up in our new base of operations at 86th and Michigan.  My car/renters' insurance is going to drop almost $200 per year.  Yikes.  I didn't know we had been in such a crummy part of town.

The pains of staying connected.  The moving story gets more interesting when you realize that it took three tries for the cable company to get us reconnected.  They blew us off twice for appointments (which includes one that I dragged myself out of bed at 7 a.m. on Sunday for).  I don't understand cable companies.  There are alternatives, however crappy they may be; why do they make it so difficult to give them money?  Anyhow, Comcast sucks.  In spite of this, they provide us glorious baseball at all hours of the night.

Speaking of which... I'm gonna have to watch more Rockies games, because that is one incredibly hot sideline reporter.  Even among sideline reporters.  Yowza.  Bless you, FOX Rocky Mountain.

Nuptuals!  We managed to get R.K. to Chicago and back for his first major league baseball game to see the White Sox play the Astros a couple of Sundays ago for his bachelor party.  (Ask the blushing groom for pictures, as I didn't take any.)  Up next, the wedding on June 29.

Brain Squeezin's Spotlight:  Bleak House Books
Nicknames bestowed:  None.  It's tough to bestow nicknames on businesses. Good ones, anyway.
How I know them:  I met Ben, who founded Bleak House, on the Cellar Door Publishing website forum.  Plugging his business is a no-brainer, as he's good people.
I've met them: How does one "meet" a company, anyway?  I should've thought these questions out a little bit better.
What I'm sure I know:  They publish books.  Check out their website, because they can tell you oh-so-much more.

Be good to one another.

Currently watching : Supernatural - The Complete First Season Release date: 05 September, 2006

11:31 PM - 4 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Brain Squeezin's XXVII
Current mood: tired
Category: Life

Back by popular demand!  It's Brain Squeezin's!

He threatened to send naked pictures of himself.  Gary deserves special recognition for prodding me into writing this one, hence the link to his page in the intro.  In all honesty, I don't forget to squeeze the ol' cortex, I just wait for something to happen that's worth writing about.  The fact that it's happened so infrequently lately is a big part of the issues I have right now.

Monkey suits.  Finally, a date is set for R.K. and I to get fitted for tuxedos for his wedding on June 29.  If Wednesday doesn't work out, we're going to try again in August, once that pesky ceremony is out of the way.  I haven't been in a tux since Butch and Nikki's wedding, so it'll be interesting to see how the "new" body looks in formalwear.  (Speaking of Nikki, she bumped me from her friends list.  Next time I'm out there, I'm gonna lose her dog for real!)

I need tech support!  I've been shut out from Charlie Weis Ate My Baby for a while because the McAfee security program on my computer won't let me sign in.  There's lots of stuff I'd like to go on and on about in the world of sports, but I can't.  I'm also frozen out of my eBay and Photobucket accounts in a similar way.  If anyone knows what I'd have to shut off in order to correct this situation, I'd like to hear from you.

Brain Squeezin's Spotlight: Becky Marshall
Nicknames bestowed: "Destroyer of Worlds."  It never really caught on.
How I know her: Somewhere in the countless hours spent in Brandt Music Hall, I met Becky.  She was Craig's girlfriend then, she's his wife now.
I've met her:  many times.  Usually, I threaten to kick her ass.  To her credit, she doesn't back down, even though I totally could.
What I'm sure I know:  I could totally, totally kick Becky's ass.  Totally.  I been workin' out.  I don't get to Cape enough, but when I do, Becky is one of the folks I look forward to seeing most.

That's all for now, folks.  (Are you happy, Dolphin?!?!) Be good to one another.

Currently listening : Queen - Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 &2 By Queen Release date: 14 November, 1995

7:50 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment