Episode #1: STFU already!

This is the first edition of something new I am going to try. You know how sometimes there are just certain voices in the world that just keep spouting off to the point where all you want to do is shout "STFU already!!!"? (That's STFU = shut the fu#@ up, for those of you not down with the abbreviations.) Well, here's a column (with hopefully many episodes to come) dedicated to those special people

1. Helen Thomas

Telling the Jews to "Get the hell out of Palestine." Oh my! Could you think of anything more controversial, racial or antisemitic to say? Now I know you are like 320 years old and probably pretty senile, but with all that experience being in the press corps, shouldn't you be better at being an unbiased reporter of the news? Though your stellar record indicates otherwise. So please...

STFU already!!!

2. Paul McCartney

Recently won an award from the Library of Congress (The Gershwin Prize) and upon accepting the award stated how after the past 8 years "...it's great to have a president who knows what a library is." HA HA HA... HA HA HA... oh, look at the celebrity make fun of President Bush's intelligence. So edgy and fresh. We've never seen that before. Except isn't Bush's wife Laura a librarian and a teacher... and didn't President Bush graduate from Yale, which I am pretty sure you need to know how to read in order to be accepted. Come to think of it, Paul, you never even went to college! You're no comedian Paul, so stick to writing songs (though thouse kind of suck anyway).

STFU already!!!

3. Arianna Huffington

According to you the Gulf oil spill was "...a thousand percent Bush-Cheny's fault." OMFG! Thousands of people blaming Haliburton and Bush/Cheny for the spill... really does nothing to solve the problem now does it? How far are people going to push this passing of the blame concept? Gulf oil spill... Bush/Cheny's fault, We're stuck in Iraq... Bush/Cheny's fault, I failed my math test... Bush/Cheny's fault, I have a paper cut on my finger... Bush Cheny's fault.

STFU already!!!

4. Barack Obama (Honorable Mention)

Not too long ago I herd a sound bite where President Obama gave a warning to the Jonas brothers about making a pass on his daughters. "I have 2 words for you... Predator Drones." OK, I am going to have to give the President props here. I withhold my STFU already! and instead deliver a Pretty damn funny! You know there are other fathers worried about their daughters out there who would love to have some Predator Drones at their disposal. he he he.

Hippity-hoppity Easter's on it's way!

Wishes for goodwill and happiness from friends and family on my 25th birthday.

An e-birthday card sent to me from Jon with the following message, "The card says it all..."

He he he.

Thanks for the greetings and kind words on my birthday everyone!

You know what... a girlfriend abroad *is* worth 16 [monogamous] weekend benders... or in my case, 7!

I recently read this article and wow... it hit the nail right on the head! I refuse to be mired in feelings of missing Emily's presence for the next 2 months. (*DISCLAIMER... remember, I do miss Emily, but I am trying not to let those feelings and thoughts overtake my day to day thoughts. I AM NOT AS TERRIBLE OF A BOYFRIEND AS YOU MAY THINK! HA HA HA.)

So anyway, this article discusses how to deal with significant others who are abroad for a summer. I am in that situation at the moment and am stuck here feeling jealous and nervous. How can that be dealt with? By one-up-ing everything it is that they are doing with your own experiences at home! How does this work? This quote from the article may put it into perspective:

"But the truth of the matter is, no matter how excruciating [his or her absence] is for you, no one will ever ask you 'so, tell me about your summer of celibacy'… Unless, and this is a big unless, you have what it takes to blow that stupid summer abroad out of the water."

So yesterday afternoon over lunch, Jon and I put together this list. I know I am already on the right track because we did this even before I read this article. Jon is fully on board because he's just that kind of crazy adventurous good friend who will do stuff like this! I can't ask for more!

1. Published my first scientific paper. The day before Emily left, I (with the help of my adviser) wrote, revised and submitted my first scientific paper for publication. I am damn proud of that! Other things in my posts recently have kind of overshadowed that. As soon as it is accepted, I will be happy to post the actual paper here.
2. I'm going to New York City! I've never been there. Andy, one of my college roommates lives there. He has a guest room. He's welcoming me. I'll be there for about 4 nights or so in the beginning of December. We're going to rip it up.
3. Hit up the driving range. Jon and I are working on our golf skills. We need to improve them a bit if we're actually take up this sport.
4. Crazy random Band of Brothers/Movie drinking day. Buy some beer and booze. Pop in some movies, mini-series, video games or something. Commence watching and drinking. Get rowdy and see where things go.
5. Wine tour. Get some friends and take some time appreciating the flavors, textures and colors of the finger lakes wines. (And maybe get sloshed too.)
6. Crazy drunken limo bus. Get some friends together. Pool our money for a limo bus and alcohol. Have a night out in the city.
7. Get something published in the Library of Congress. That would just be some awesome and random bragging rights!
8. Test drive a Porsche. Need I really explain that one!
9. RIT hockey game. I hear they are pretty crazy.
10. Play some tennis. In the interest of our wanna-be rich preppie-country club snub nosed inner child, we'll take up this activity too.
11. Find a place to learn and play some curling. 'Cause 'dem Canadians have one crazy sport, eh.
12. Make a short mocumentary film. We're accepting ideas right now for the script. We already know that this scene must be included!
13. Get my passport! When I was a teenager I equated having a car with freedom to travel. Now I equate having a passport with freedom to travel. With this document, Jon and my other friends can continue our randomness on an international scale. And when the opportunity arises for me to blow everything off here and travel abroad... I can do so without hesitation!
    

I could not resist the urge to warn you all of this DIRE THREAT!

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Drunk elephants kill six people

What kind of a world do we live in where the elephants are now getting drunk and going on murderous rampages... *tisk tisk*

DAAAAAAAAAMN... It could be a lot worse...

Don't get confused about my last few posts. I am not a cynical person who is constantly in a disenchanted state due to current events... I am only in that state sometimes (!). But that's what this blog is all about. Sometimes I will be posting things of a more personal nature, what have I been up to, etc. and other times I will rant and rave about what's pissing me off in the world.

But I do have hope now. Why? Last night I went out with Emily and her roommate Meredith and a few others to Acme's. I know I mentioned Acme's before in this blog. One of the best places in the city... where you can spend less than $5 and that will take care of cover charge, a couple of beers and a slice of NY style pizza the size of your head!

Meredith had a particularly stressful day working at the hospital (she's training to become a nurse) in which according to her for one reason or another all of her patients were covered in shit... literally! And that in turn required cleaning and so forth.

So the quote of the night, according to her was;

"Things could be a lot worse, there could be shit EVERYWHERE."

I think I am going to remind my self of that every time I am experiencing a tough time!

We figured out what we want in order to be productive in life!

So earlier this week Jon and I figured out a few things that would really help us to become much more productive in life. Here goes.

1. The ability to function without any sleep. We have to spend about 8 hours a night to function at our best and we can't seem to work to our fullest potential when we are even feeling sleepy. Imagine what we could do with those extra 8 hours.
2. The ability to function without eating. Not only will this free up the actual time spent eating, but also free up time spent preparing food, grocery shopping and doing dishes. All activities that are a pain in the ass.
3. The ability to function without bathing and have an unlimited supply of clean cloths on hand. Showering and getting ready for a day at work or a night out ranges from 10 to 30 minutes. Always being clean and always having clean cloths would save that time. And there would be no need to do laundry, another pain in the ass activity!
4. Maintaining a healthy physique without spending time at the gym. I do enjoy the gym, but imagine how that time could be used if it did not have to be spent at the gym.
5. Functioning without the need to use the bathroom. Let's face it... POOPING TAKES TIME! Time that could be spent else ware.
6. And finally... Teleportation. Commuting to work and having to walk from building to building, office to office and lab to lab... all a pain in the ass.

That's it. So basically, we want to be gods. Is that so much to ask!

Lately I have been functioning while being stretched pretty thin. Hence why I have been contemplating these things that will never be attained. Oh well. All I can do it keep at it.

Yesterday was a much needed break from the day to day struggles with the many aspects of my life. More on that later.

Yesterday Emily and I played miniature golf. It had been on our "to do" list for date ideas for quite some time. The place we played at also had a golf driving range. So we bought a bucket of balls and took some shots. Neither one of us are particularly talented golfers, but it was fun to fake it.

We then went to "Lollypop farm" which is a humane society for dogs, cats and other animals in need of new owners. I think there were about 6 dogs that Emily wanted to take home. There were also a couple of goats in the farm animal area that were fighting for my attention and eating my shorts, no joke!

We went to church late in the afternoon. I must mention here that we were entertained through mass by a small blond haired girl about 2 years old who kept making faces and smiling at Emily and I. I think that Emily just has a natural attractive quality with children and they gravitate to her has a result. I always tell her she will make a great teacher and mother someday.

We wrapped up the Saturday with a very fancy dinner at the Mendon House with Emily's family for her parents 25th anniversary.

And now... another work week!

I have not left the building!

Don't you worry. After a steady and consistent string of posts during the past month of August I don't want you to think I have already given up on this blog like my previous ones. I have been preoccupied with relaxing over the holiday weekend and starting work/new school year (extremely demanding and hectic). Also, I have had some problems with my internet connection at home... mainly being that it works only when it feels like working. The other residents and I are working on that.

In the mean time I will say I had a great holiday weekend (tell me about yours in the comments section!) even though my first day of classes was yesterday. Yes, no joke. RIT starts class on Labor day! One of the sucky perks that comes with attending RIT.

On the IL league baseball front, Rochester was defeated by Buffalo again on Saturday (in the 10th inning) thus eliminating Rochester from the playoffs. The following day Rochester returned the favor and took Buffalo out of the playoffs with a 3-0 victory. So much for rooting for Buffalo baseball in the post-season. Who cares! Next weekend is opening day for the Bills anyway.

Hopefully I will be able to tell a bit more about what has been going on these days once I get my home internet connection fixed.

I will leave with this. On the way to a Labor Day party on Saturday, Emily and I managed to see and spook a chipmunk at the foot of the wall to her apartment building. Now chipmunks are like mice on speed given the fact that they are the super-hyper skittish kings of the rodent world. This one was no exception. We meant no harm as we walked by yet he decided to flee from us by jumping head first into this drain pipe (you see his tail sticking out?). He did manage to escape after a moment, so no chipmunks were harmed in the construction of this blog post!

Check it!

So the song "Extreme Ways (Bourne's Ultimatum)"... track 10 from the "Bourne Ultimatum Soundtrack" has been running through my mind, car stereo and iPod nonstop. You know how some songs seem to elicit a certain image or scene in your mind's eye? As this song was blaring on my car stereo while Jon and I were out the other night we formulated the BEST FILM SCENE EVER!

So here's how it goes down... It bears a slight resemblance to the opening scene of "Reservoir Dogs". Now I'm no Quintin Terantino, but Jon and my idea is 1,000,000 times better, at least! The scene is of course is all happening with the above mentioned song playing in the background. Two guys (Jon and my self) roll up to a curb in a jet black Escalade. The doors open and we get out of the car [all happening in slow motion]. We both have black suits on, white shirts with an unbuttoned collar, black tie still around our necks but with a loosened knot. [The viewer has no idea who these guys are and how they got there or even if they are good guys or bad guys.] One of us has a bit of a gash on our face, looking disheveled like we have been in a fight... the other bobbing his head as if he is jamming to the music being played to the sound track of the movie. The guy with the gash reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a crushed pack of cigarettes [which got crushed in the fight he was in], and pulls one out [the last one], that is bent [because he in a fight], and he puts it in his mouth. He pulls out a Zippo lighter and in slow motion, whips open the top in a swift motion. The camera takes a closeup slow motion view of the sparks flying off of the flint as the wick of the lighter bursts into flame. At the instant the flame ignites the camera pulls out to reveal a massive fireball-explosion that destroys the hideout of the bad guys as Jon and I walk away.

We are not sure if this should be the beginning or end of a movie. Or maybe it should just be stretched out into one continuous movie!

So yeah, am I the only one who makes up these crazy scenes in their heads like this?

Well, needless to say, Jon and I need some investment capital to film this. So any film producers, feel free to leave contact info and we will get back to you and tell you where to mail the check.

HA!

The Lemmings are back!

And by Lemmings I mean college freshmen around RIT. Fall classes start next Monday and the new freshmen have moved in. It's kind of funny how Lemming populations mimic the population of an incoming freshmen college student class on a campus...

"It is unknown why lemming populations en mass fluctuate, roughly every four years, before plummeting almost to extinction."^[2]

They are so fun to watch! All of them wandering around with that uncertain dear-in-the-headlights look on their faces. It's priceless. I almost miss it.

Don't get me wrong, I was a freshmen "Lemming" my self complete with dear-in-the-headlights look and all. I think I even had that as a sophomore too! It seems like SO LONG ago for me though. As a graduate student, on Monday I am starting up what I hope to be the last class I will ever have to take.

Last night I went to Acme's. Check the pictures below. Jon and Jen are in the top picture and I'm in the bottom picture with Emily sneaking a kiss. She will likely kick my ass for posting that!

I almost ended up in Washington D.C. today at the conclusion of last night. No joke! Jon and I were really into the idea of a random trip. He enticed me by offering to pay for air fair to D.C. to visit our friend Chris (another member of "The Four Drunken Horsemen of the Apocalypse"). We were so floored about the idea we actually stopped at the airport, which is just off the highway on my way home! Since it was 12 AM, and their were no flights until morning we kind of got bored with the randomness and called it a night.

While parusing through the grocery store.

Mmm... Yummy! Not only do they taste good... But they are good for you!

***Yeah, so I discovered how to post with my cell phone. I know, big deal, right. But hey, I love playing with my electronic toys in new and fun ways.... so this will probably get annoying and lame really fast!