All That Is Left Is All I Hide

It's my birthday. Hoorah! Not a particularly exciting day, but it'll pass. Besides, I'm 20 - nothing really fantastic other than no longer being a teenager and feeling just a little older because of that.

As you can see, I've be rather neglectful of this poor blog over the last month or so. Partly a lack of ideas, partly my renewed involvement with the world outside of work and class. Hell, I even took last weekend off to visit Hanna.

As such, I'm going to go on a temporary hiatus, a la the newly-returned Heather Funk. Temporary means that I do plan on coming back, and relatively soon. Poke your head in sometime during June to see what, if anything is up. Until then, I bid thee adieu.

I leave you with an odd moment from what was a pretty awesome weekend.

Words, Sans Wisdom

My god.

It's been a week and I haven't updated. What's sadder is that I don't even have a life.

However, I got a nice little trip coming up this weekend.

I actually wrote some of the screenplay (I'll post that at my leisure).

I managed to keep my car in one piece.

I worked a grand total of 12 hours over the weekend.

My room is almost habitable.

Things are looking...better. Yep.

Alas, I am lamenting the the cancelled Decemberists' show a few months back. ALso, I re-obsessed over The Crane Wife. And I even found "The Perfect Crime #1".

It's not on the album for a reason. It's not bad...it's just not them.

I should be sleeping.

Workin' It - An Original Playlist

I'll be honest. This month's mix sounds like a "Greatest Hits".

Colin: "We'll return you to Labradors and the Women Who Love Them shortly. But first, we have a wonderful collection we'd love to share with you: Songs of the Prostitute!"

And so on.

But really, prostitutes have been a bit of a staple of rock since they were allowed to sing about that stuff (this particular collection stretches all the way back to The Animals' 1962 hit, "House of the Rising Sun"). Narrowing it down to one list wasn't really easy - digging through blog lists, playlists, and SongMeanings.net for hours and days. But lo and behold, here it is, the grand list: Workin' It



1. The Animals - "House of the Rising Sun"
2. The Police - "Roxanne"
3. Ida Maria - "Stella"
4. David Lee Roth - "Just A Gigolo/Ain't Got Nobody"
5. Nick Gilder - "Hot Child In the City"
6. Spinal Tap - "Sex Farm"
7. Arctic Monkeys - "When the Sun Goes Down"
8. Queen - "Killer Queen"
9. AC/DC - "What Do You Do For Money Honey"
10. Funkadelic - "Cosmic Slop"
11. Tina Turner - "Private Dancer"
12. Patti LaBelle - "Lady Marmalade"
13. Blondie - "Call Me"
14. The Rolling Stones - "Honky Tonk Woman"
15. Sting - "Tomorrow We'll See"
16. Morrissey - "Piccadilly Palare"
17. The Decemberists - "On the Bus Mall"
18. Tom Waits - "Christmas Card From A Hooker in Minneapolis"

And as I am compelled to include, the bonus track.

MegaUpload
Rapidshare?
Mediafire?
probably not.

My Big Fat Lyrics Game (Part 1)

If you've not played (you have), here's the deal: I have set out the first line from 25 songs by assorted artists - the frightening truth is that I was able to pull these from memory. Your job, if you so choose, is to name as many as your freakin' can.

1. "Joanna drove slowly into the city, the Hudson River all filled with snow"
2. "It's a shame about the road block"*
3. "It's been a long time, a long time, since I've seen you smile"
4. "Brian, top marks for not tryin'"
5. "A heart that's filled up like a landfill"
6. "I wanna be bigger, stronger, drive a faster car"*
7. "Spare me the suspense"
8. "Aw, here she comes, just a walk-, just a walkin' down the street"
9. "Blue jean baby, L.A. lady"
10. "Why everything that's supposed to be bad make me feel so good?"
11. "Drink up baby doll"
12. "My head is a box filled with nothing"
13. "Don't get upset, don't make a fool of yourself"*
14. "City's breakin' down on a camel's back"
15. "Adieu l'Émile je t'aimais bien"*
16. "There's a plane, and I am flying"
17. "They made a statue of us and they put it on a mountaintop"
18. "Sally was a 15-year-old girl from Nebraska"
19. "Trudging slowly over wet sand"
20. "On the lawn before the bouquet fell"*
21. "Gotta make the move to a town that's right for me"
22. "Germany was havin trouble, what a sad sad story"
23. "Your subtleties, they strangle me"
24. "Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking"
25. "Some people say I'm a no count, others say I'm no good"*

*Gold star lyrics. More obscure than the rest. I dare you to name them.

Another sporadic update?

Another long weekend, a little more detailed, and I suppose heavy on network-friendly lessons on family.

Dad wound up in the hospital Saturday morning; nothing severe, just a nasty case of cellulitis and a fever. He got out this afternoon, a few hours ago and is home and doing well. Still, it throws a lot of other things for a loop. I visited him yesterday and he was pretty good. If anything, he was bored more than anything else. The only reason they kept him through this afternoon was for a few tests, which in a hospital that sees as much emergency action as Mt. Carmel (right in the heart of the Hilltop), can require quite a bit of waiting.

This also happened to be the weekend we decided to take on another room in our ongoing "Painting The Whole Damned House" project. The washer decided that after just under ten years of duty, it was time to fritz out. Lo and behold, we ordered a new one Thursday, with delivery set...for Saturday. Hospital or not, we got the thing home, and precariously perched on a wagon right before I left for work.

My manager woke me up Sunday at quarter after nine and wanted to know if I could open at ten. I love being dependable.

A typically busy Sunday, I got out around 3 and joined up for the aforementioned trip to the hospital.

And we still had a laundry room to finish.

I suppose tearing up floor, putting in new floor and moving the appliances back in isn't really harder than it sounds, but were still proud to have it done in, oh, about four hours (give or take a few breaks). Drinks were had, all were merry.

Weekend from hell? Hardly.

Studying? ....shit.

Listen Up! (A Serious Note)

Nothing major of note, I just wanted to pass this along.

A woman was killed today here in Hilliard. She was a crossing guard at Scioto Darby Elementary; she was helping a couple of boys across the road when a dump truck came through the school zone without slowing down in time. She got one boy out of the way, the other wasn't as fortunate. Both the boy and the woman were hit; she died in the hospital about an hour later.

She had a name: Diane Sharp. I don't know who she was, other than she lived in the neighborhood near the school. The driver says he didn't see the school zone signs, nor the kids. Regardless, it's a pretty stark reminder that you gotta watch out there.

I used to go through that intersection almost daily about that same time of day when I was a senior; I still use it regularly anytime I head into that part of Hilliard. It's not necessarily the best place for a crosswalk, but it's there, and it's our responsibility to keep ourselves in check. I'm not the best driver, as my post last Thursday may attest; still, I just would like to remind you guys to be careful. Leaving that extra two minutes early honestly can help.

Just a thought on a tragic day.

Full story link here.

3 Days of Silence

...because I have a life. Sort of. Does working for a business that will suck your soul one weekend at a time count?

Anyway, I have some news stemming from work: along with a few other people from Movie Tavern and elsewhere, I'm possibly taking to internet radio, with my very own show!

More details coming soon, once things get set. Be afraid.

Dismay in the Parking Garage (OR: The Day Ray's Bumper Fell Off)

It was the end of yet another lovely day at Columbus State (i.e. a cold and blustery day in April). Yours truly was leaving from my spot in the parking garage, the warm fuzz of Blur's "No Distance Left to Run" when suddenly I hear a loud...something. Much to my horror, what sits on the ground a few feet in front of me but my own front bumper.

Yes.

A concrete support met the bit of my bumper that hung off the right side and ripped the whole kit and kaboodle off.

And for pure entertainment value, I give you pictures And yes, I drove the thing all the way down US 33 (Spring St./Dublin Rd./Riverside Dr.) with the bumper off. I think I scared a guy in Grandview when he looked over - I smiled, patted the bumper, and laughed as he backed waaaaaaay off.






Hey, I had to put it somewhere.






Me holding...er, something or other in my hand. This got rrrrrrrrrripped off the spot you saw in the last pic.

Thankfully, we have a nifty little body shop down the road, so we drive on down there. For fifty bucks, they put a few screws in to hold it in place. Seriously. Took an hour, it's already back in the driveway.


Look closely and you might see the paint marks, too.


Better view of the paint marks.


And the screw that's now holding it all in place.

So has this pretty mild ordeal taught me anything?

Probably not.

Posting: An MS Paint flowchart

In Soviet Russia, You Rickroll YouTube

Go to YouTube right now.

Click on any featured video.

And be amazed.

4Chan lives on, cancer and all.