Paris

I feel really alone right now.

So much so that I'm back on here posting ... although I don't know why.

Where's a nice big hole to swallow me up when I need it.

Schadenfreude thy name is American Idol

Tonight was the end of the first half of the PUACL season, and by this point, we can see who the powerhouses are.
Let's break down tonight's performance.
Katzenjammers
Robert Robertson III's non-traditional conducting style, in which he alternates looking like a duck trying to fly away, and someone involved in a tug-of-war may be what's holding this group back. While not at the bottom, they aren't at the top either. Look for some trade talk during the all-star break, and of course, they are known to have their eye on a hot prospect coming out of South Northwood High School in Alabama.

The Tiger Lilies
This perennial powerhouse was depleted by free agency and graduation. However, they have a strong rookie class that is showing a lot of potential. They will benefit from the experience of 5th year senior Shannon Lukowsky. There are a few trade rumors, but don't expect much. It's a rebuilding year.

Koleinu
The first of two groups from the Mid-Eastern Conference, they followed tradition and brought their girls out in red shirts. The guys on the other hand, were dressed nice and casually. The group benefited from Ezra ben Shlomo's "Smack the bitch" conducting style and showed a strong performance. This team will be one to fear when we see them again come playoff time.

The Footnotes
Another one looking to make some trades. They have a lot of rookies in their starting lineup this year, and need some senior leadership. Look for Arnold Lichter to step up to the plate here in the second half and prove why they made him captain in the offseason.

Tigressions
With a large contingent of juniors and seniors, and only a few underclasswomen in their starting lineup, they show what experience brings to the party. However, the lack of experience in soprano shows. Trade talks with some of the Muslim groups on campus are ongoing, but you have to keep in mind that prime trade-bait Shari Hufnagel negotiated the no-trade clause that could kill the deal.

Roaring 20
The pride of the Princeton Math Department -- all 13 of them. They started out with some really strong solo performances out of Harris O'Dwyer and Sandy Elk. The scary moment during their number occurred early on when freshman Allison Porterhouse seemed to pop a leak, but she was only attempting the percussion part. A little more experience is clearly needed.

Wildcats
An uneven performance as experience mixed with raw talent. This is a group that needs its senior leadership to step up. That said, they are a powerhouse and could easily get a high seed in the tournament.

Nasoons
The favorite. However, they are not without their concerns. Jeffrey Winkler has just come back off of the DL and they lack the depth at right alto to replace him if he goes down again. Another team supposedly active in the trade talks, but they are only offering draft picks.

Kindred Spirit
The other entry from the Mid-East, they showed some strength as well. This team comes in ranked high and has been knocking off competition quietly and without fanfare. Expect them to be waiting come playoff time without much concern for their competition.

Shere Khan
The Oakland Raiders of the PUACL, they stand by their outcast reputation. They brought a decent performance but can't compete with the big teams. Look for them to work on their farm system to try and build up their depth.

Last night was my second rock climbing class... and I got up the wall to the top twice. Granted they were bunny walls, but still. One of them was 32 feet high (that's really high for those of you using the metric system). I left at around 9:15 feeling so amazingly stoked

And then I realized that I had no one to call to share the feeling with. Sometimes I get really lonely.

But still...I got to the top twice. And I definitely made some progress on my overall technique.

My attitude has been crappy. Work has been really frustrating for the past few days and I've been feeling it. I've been tired, I've been moody. I was really ready to snap. I went to my guitar lesson today. Have barely practiced and it showed. I had also forgotten my music. So I'm not in the best of moods. I walk out after a slightly longer lesson than my half hour is supposed to be (it was close to an hour, working on chords and finger picking and integrating the two as well as music theory) and there are a bunch of kids all over the place. Now this is no big store, so with a bunch of kids, it can be madd tight. Now one kid went in because he had the next guitar lesson (hope it wasn't at 6) and two kids were with their father finding out the fate of the boy's trumpet. The other two, also belonged to the father, but they were much younger and ... bored. So they were bopping around. And then they decided to try out the guitars. I saw the disaster that this would be, so I intervened. They liked the banjo, so I held a couple of strings down and held the boy's hand (he was maybe 3) and showed him how to strum. Then his sister tried. Then we moved onto an Ibanez nylon. And they each strummed while I changed chords. Finally we tried an electric bass, which I don't think could have been as satisfying since we didn't plug it in. They wanted to keep playing, but I had to go make some final preparations for Emma's birthday. I did think about plugging in an electric guitar and showing them a couple of tricks though, but I was good.

So I walk out of the store, and I feel ... AMAZING! I felt completely rejuvenated. All of the shit that's been getting me all riled up at work, gone. The father thanked me, but in reality it was me who should have thanked him. Playing with a couple of kids for a few minutes brought me back to my peace. It was incredible.

So I have two things to write about. The first is that when I was out today, I discovered hamster races at Petco. This was the funniest thing I have seen in a while. They had three lanes of hamster tracks, and you put your ham in a ball and then on "Go" ... well you let go of the ball and hoped your hamster ran. There were four strategies in use. The first was the non-chalant "My hamster will run" strategy which had limited success. Then there was the "Show the hamster its house" strategy. Some success. Third was the "Tap the track" strategy which was quite successful. Finally, there was the beg and plead method which didn't work at all, but made me laugh. It was a thrilling event and you could tell from the first heat that it was going to be a big day -- one of the hamsters fell asleep in their ball.

I had to buy a sympathy card today. I hate buying them, and never buy them before it becomes necessary. I feel that it's bad karma. But they sell them in packs of 6. Just strikes me as wrong.

In other news:

• My library is having a used book sale. I got a few books today, and I will probably go back tomorrow or Monday and see if I can find more treasures


• Work is going well, although we are looking at how we can improve business processes. We use a really expensive contact management program and the question is whether we need it or not. We are actually talking about switching to Google Calendars, which indicates that maybe we have more power than we need.


• Rosh Hashanah is in two weeks. I am, I think, done card shopping. If anyone wants a card, let me know.

Finally, a poll. And I ask that those of you with more extant friend lists than mine pass this on to your own journals and have people reply.
When you lay in bed mid-day, do you

1. Stay in your street clothes


2. Get undressed

Let me stress, this is not when you are going to sleep. This is after work, before dinner, just watching TV for a little bit. As many responses as possible would be appreciated.

So long kiddies.

Okay, first of all, nobody has purchased the cello of death for me yet. I understand that it might be hard to find, so I am giving you some places to buy it.

Secondly, it seems very hard for me to buy my allergy medication. I need Claritin-D which uses pseudoephedrine. Which can also be used to make crystal meth. So clearly, we are all to be treated like criminals. There is a federal law that limits you to purchasing 15 pills a day. So I went to Target and purchased a 10 pack. Then I went to Wegman's and ... that's right, purchased a 10 pack. Since I will be away for a week and a half, I need to have more than a 10 day supply on hand. Of course, that doesn't matter to the government, which has taken to looking at its citizens like criminals. I thought of going to other pharmacies and purchasing more, just to see what would happen. I bought all of the pills with my AmEx and it could get interesting if the government puts 2 and 2 together.

On a related note, the Justice Department is appealing the decision by the courts to rule warrentless wiretaps illegal. Tony Snow was asked about this during today's press briefing. I have excerpted the relevant passage from here.

Q The court ruled yesterday that the wiretaps were illegal.

MR. SNOW: Well, let me first say that the Justice Department will have a full briefing on this later. But there are two important things to remember here. The first is that the court's ruling won't go into effect until after a motion to stay the decision, and two, we are going to appeal.

Q On what grounds?

MR SNOW: State secrets.

Q So the feeling is that the wiretaps were not illegal?

MR SNOW: Yes.

Q Why?

MR. SNOW: Because.

Q Because why?

MR. SNOW: Because because.

Q Because because why?

MR. SNOW: Because, uh, state secrets.

So basically, what we are dealing with is a government that treats us like criminals beforehand. They are listening in on our conversations, and they are keeping us from clearing up our allergies (granted I've not yet figured out the sinister plot behind the latter endeavor). All this under some guise of "state secrets". Our government is hiding information from us, and they are monitoring us. Listening in on our phone calls (mine aren't that interesting, but you know they are popping in on those 976 numbers all the time), and tracking what we read, where we go. At what point do we say enough? At what point do we tell the government that we elect them, they answer to us, not the other way around. When do we stop accepting the government in our homes, in our offices, in our minds. When do we stand up and say "enough!" When do we remind them that we are allowed to be different, that we are a melting pot, and that we are not all criminals. When do we stand up for ourselves.

Probably not today. Probably not tomorrow. This country isn't ready yet.

And no one will ever read this.

For those looking to buy me something, I want this

It's over. 14 months, and now it's over.
I don't know what I'm going to do now.
She doesn't love me anymore.

In my office, on the wall, I have a white board. I write quotes ("I'm so sane, it's driving me crazy" from BNL), and facts (the Mets are 4-1 on Thursdays (or they were a few weeks ago when I put that up)) on the board. The subject of today's post -- not going to make it. But I have been rocking out to Everclear pretty much all day. I have been listening to the greatest hits album (10 Years Gone) and I found that there's a "Brown Eyed Girl" cover on it!! I don't think I ever made it that far on the playlist, because there are some REALLY kick-ass songs in the first 8 tracks or so. Plus, I was in my car for a whole bunch of hours today. There was traffic coming back from Long Island in 3 different places so I really got to listen to it for a whole while.

When you need one, they are never around.

I came home today and practiced guitar. On Thursday, I took my first lesson, learned the CMajor scale, some finger exercises and started working on barre chords. My next lesson is this week, and then I miss two weeks, because I am going away. Three days in Hamburg (actually, Quickborn, which is a suburb of Hamburg. That means that I will have to take the train into Hamburg so I can go to the red light district ... not that I would ever go there. No, not me. Never), and then a week on a cruise around Croatia. I am really looking forward to it, but I already know how crazy work will be when I get back. Oy. But, back to the topic of guitar. So I have been rocking out for a few hours, and just generally having fun. My fingers hurt a bit, so I need to get the callouses back. Maybe I'll play a little more tonight.

On "Feasting on Asphalt", AB ate a fried pig brain sandwhich. As I think about that scene (get it? Think about the scene, brain sandwhich, think ... lol), all I can get out, is EWWWWWWW. I am watching "Friends" now, and Chandler is in a tux with a bow-tie and a vest. It's supposed to be one or the other, not both. I am pretty sure that I am right on this one. Someone want to back me up?

Okay, there we go post-wise. Everyone be well. I will be online during the week, in case y'all want to