it's that time of year again

El final del semestre...

I've got more than enough work to keep me busy. I'm starting to panic, but trying to stay cool so as to put that energy to good (and urgently needed) use.

Thanksgiving was a typical family affair (boring), although it's nice to see my sister, and even nicer to come back home. We didn't really do anything terribly interesting in Memphis and part of that is due to my tendency to keep going in the same direction for too long even when it's fairly obvious that we're going in the wrong one or worse yet, lost. Sorry. Rondevouz Barbeque is overrated as far as its cuisine is concerned, but is housed an interesting structure in that it is this impossibly tall and narrow (or so it seems from inside the odd waiting area) piece of downtown, only accessable via an alley.

It will be nice to someday have more time to spend there and better circumstances.

One of my cousins suffers from a small-town delusional mindset which creates fear of the city and, for example, advises against driving directly from Hwy 78 in Olive Branch to downtown Memphis (it turns into Lamar Ave.) because there be gang members along the way!!?! As if the criminals in question actually cared about us, even if they were an obstacle, which they are not. Little does he know what kind of shennanigans I've seen both here and in Madison (both relatively urban for the type of risk he is thinking of), not to mention Milwaukee, Chicago, Atlanta... Whatever. (No, these shennanigans do not really include criminal activity, not like my cousin was thinking of, i.e. assault with a deadly weapon, but this suburban raised dork is, thank god, a confirmed city slicker.)

I must return to the translation and the school work.

fuck off pretentious cunts

(myself excluded) though you probably aren't reading this, and if you were, still would not know who you are, or if you did would not admit it.

t shirt

Holly is making a killer t shirt by hand using naught but her wits and elbow grease. She kicks ass. Right now she is experiencing technical difficulties with her stencil but I know the end result will literally kick ass. Maybe I can talk her into scanning it.

time for more debauchery again

I still have plenty of work to do but classes are done until next Monday. I could use a strong drink right about now. I'll wait though, mainly because I am alone and have to do some driving very soon anyway. My brain is in a state which is not very productive right now. Resting. Recovering. Apathetic. Ready for basic human functions and for recreation but not much else.

I've got to make sure Holly and I get ready to leave early Thanksgiving morning for Byhalia, Mississippi. We WILL get to spend some time in Memphis no doubt. We'll see how it all plays out and keep our circle of friends and bloogophiles informed.

We want to come back to Athens on Saturday so we can have Sunday to ourselves, so to speak. I mean, I'm going to make some kind of token visit for "orientation" at the new part time job. More importantly, if we get back early enough we can see someone we miss named Rob play guitar in Chop Top at the 40 Watt Saturday night. That would be cool.

I looked to see if Chop Top had a website and they don't but a band by the same name in South Carolina has a myspace page. Hm.

Yeah, so Sunday night was my last shift at the institution. I'm sad I won't be interpreting on a steady basis anymore (though that is bound to change when Summer rolls around again), and there are some people there I will miss (and others I won't), but mostly I am happy to be free of that place. I put in a good four years there, three as an interpreter. That's plenty. I've accepted a shitty new part time job but one that will accomidate my scheduling needs. It's also one, some of you will be amused to know, that will draw on my extensive call center experience. (don't name names those lucky locals that read this, please. I'm all about anonymity and plausable deniability.)

Meanwhile, those of you who read Holly's blog know that this laptop is fucked up. Which vexes me like you can only imagine. I've got the power cable yanked just right so that it's getting power at the moment but it's only a matter of time before it stops again. More importantly it's only a matter of time before the internal connection gets fucked again... We need to get a port replicator. But will that work? What if we get one and it still doesn't get power.

Also, on this komputor there is some fucked up virus or spyware that pops up random IE advertisement windows (I'm using Firefox). Neither AVG free antivirus, nor Spybot Search and Destroy nor Lavasoft Adaware seem to do anything to detect or fix it. And I can't use Webroot Spysweeper again unless I pay for it which I am increasingly willing to do, if I had more spare money...

But enough bitching. Things are good when put in perspective.

I'm very much looking forward to the impending holiday and hope everyone reading this has an excellent Thanksgiving also.

time for a break from debauchery

Holly convinced me and Lindsey and Todd to see a musical performance by Bright Eyes yesterday which was worth it for the nice harp (an actual harp that you gots to pluck, not harmonica you stupid hippie). I acted as photographer on Holly's behalf and as always captured some choice images which she will no doubt post soon.

Mr. Oberst thanked the crowd for their (sparse, I thought) applause and said he was not accustomed to such a gracious response in Athens, Georgia. I very much wanted to shout in reply "Don't kid yourself dumbass!" but an opportune moment of silence did not happen for me in time. To his credit we all realized he didn't stink as much as we hoped but for me it's kind of just not my cup of tea. He gave a good anti-war talk that I thoroughly agreed with (the action taken by our government is immoral but we don't care because we are relatively wealthy and complacent and this type of evil savage behavior will always happen because those who perpetrate it are making money off of it), but which as a result kind of made me really sad.

No matter, the set was mercifully short and although there may have been an encore (hard to tell with such a lukewarm reaction from the crowd) we left for Lunchpaper and more drinks. A late night and drunken silliness abounded together with some sensible pocket billiards from Todd and me.

I have had two hours of sleep and I'm feeling fine on one cup of coffee. I have some homework to do now. I also have some freelance translation work I'm about to turn around so that I can get paid. Probably not in time for Thanksgiving unfortunately but there's nothing to be done about that anymore. Definitely in time for Christmas.

More importantly, now is the most crucial moment for school this semester so far. I can really get even more work done on my final projects over the next few days (i.e. start them not just scratch the surface of starting them), or I can not do that and be fucked later.

Sunday is my last shift at the institution. I couldn't be happier. I haven't gone out of my way to tell people I'm leaving because I don't want to deal with their response. It's kind of anti-social of me but it's a pragmatic psychological self-defense that I won't do without. Those who know me a little better there can track me down after the fact if they truly are sincere.

No classes next Wednesday which is nice, although I've scheduled a tentative recording session for a phonetics project. Thursday morning we leave for Memphis, TN area where we will meet with some of my family for Thanksgiving. That should be fun and interesting and probably at times tedious and scary, but in a good family fun kind of way. Looks like we will have Thanksgiving dinner in a casino, which will be fucking great. I'm not sure why one of my cousins wants to follow that up with a church visit but more power to him and his higher power.

I'm pretty stoked about the possibility of partying with Holly and my sister on Friday after thanksgiving in Memphis. Hopefully we can do so without getting into trouble with the family or Johnny Law.

OK-- time to try to get to that work I mentioned...

I wanted to say, Holly, I do love you so very much. Remember that as you sleep so peacefully on this, your day off.

I will kick ass all the same

I have an exam today in Spanish Phonetics and Phonology and could definitely be much better prepared for it at this point than what I am. I have it in the afternoon and will be making up for what I lack in the meantime...

another welcome, a little belated

To Lindsey, Holly's best friend. May she soon blog some more.

fux news

Check this shit out. Thanks to this blog for posting the borrowed image which led me there.

Apology to JPW

I just wanted to say it was kind of lame of me to request that you use a different blogger template, Jeffrey. Of course, had anyone in my circle of friends started using the same template as me I would have done the same thing; but I've realized since then that it's kind of petty of me and ultimately, stupid.

Like I said before, it's a free country. And I want to personalize my template, somehow, someday anyway...

Good news

I am quitting my part time job at the institution!

help me

I believe in god or some mysterious entity beyond our knowedge and understanding and hope that it helps me get a whole lotta work done right now.