05.10.08
Posted by Varies at 9:03 am in Uncategorized
After having watched sports news talk shows for 3 or 4 years now, I’ve developed a subconscious knowledge of the big newspapers in many cities around the US. Can you name a newspaper for the following major cities? There are more than one option in some of these cases, but if you know at least one newspaper for each of these cities, that’s pretty impressive.
Denver
Seattle
Miami
Orlando
Washington D.C.
New York
Boston
Los Angeles
Chicago
Houston
Dallas
Atlanta
Kansas City
Detroit
Philadelphia
You can see my quick list after the break.
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04.12.08
Posted by Varies at 7:17 am in Uncategorized
I don’t say enough about it, but I volunteer every Saturday morning, from 6:30-11:30. It’s not as labour-intensive as something like Habitat for Humanity or cleaning up a park, but it’s still better than nothing. In fact, anyone could do it — and if you look at it like that, there’s really no reason why we should always be short on volunteers. I’m at the crisis line, answering calls from people with messed-up lives, and, even though it’s a hassle-and-a-half sometimes, it’s something that I can be proud of. Sure, I sometimes go 4 hours and only pick up the phone 6 times. Sure, I spend more time at the work station reading manga/sporting news and playing DS than I do on the phones. But, if someone calls in with a problem, I’m the only one there for them, and that’s something.
For a guy who wakes up most days at around 10 AM, it isn’t easy getting up at 6 AM once a week to get ready. And it certainly isn’t fun to listen to people’s problems and show them empathy while helping them arrive at a solution (without giving advice, no less), but I daresay I have nothing better to do on Saturday mornings. What’s more, being in a quiet place for 4 hours is actually pretty relaxing. I won’t fool around with you though. Am I here to change the world, making one difference at a time? No. I’m not awesome like that. I’m here because it’s right. I’m here because it’s good. Even though I’m not a righteous person or even a good one, the idea of giving up your time for others is something that I believe in.
So why don’t more people volunteer their time to do stuff for other people? It’s the same excuse that people give for not exercising, for not talking to the people they care about, and for not trying hard to do things that they claim to be interested in.
Yeah, we’re all busy, all the time. Busy lying to ourselves.
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04.01.08
Posted by Varies at 2:52 pm in Uncategorized
Isn’t the idea of a 13 month calendar sublime? The idea is that the year is divided into 13 months that are each 28 days long. That means that there are 364 calendar days, and a special “new years day” that is essentially a holiday and not considered an actual day of the week. In addition, every 4 years there’s a “leap day” that’s a similar special event.
The beauty of this system is that every month is exactly 4 weeks long. This means that every numbered day falls on the same weekday every month. The first of every month is a Sunday, the second a Monday, etc. It’s a very elegant system, and one that has been around for a long time. But for whatever reason, no one wants to change the existing one that, frankly, makes little to no sense. I mean sure, the whole birthday issue would be weird, but so what? Calendars have historically been shifted around before (the last change having been decreed in 1582), and people tend to get with the program eventually. I once talked to a crisis caller who insisted that we were all celebrating Jesus’ birthday 2 months too late (he reasoned that December as we know it is 2 months later than it was back when Jesus was born, thanks to the fact that the Gregorian calendar has 2 more months than the old Julian one). The guy was mentally unstable, had a plate in his head, and was generally unpleasant to talk to; and sure, his reasoning was flawed; but it does raise an interesting point. You see, the calendar is an arbitrary construct and the way that we keep track of days right now is a flawed system that was created over 400 years ago. As such, I don’t see what the big deal is with regard to changing the calendar system into something that is more functional and elegant.
All we’d have to do is agree on what the call the 13th month, and we’d be set.
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03.31.08
Posted by Varies at 4:47 pm in Uncategorized
1:57 PM albuhhh: check this out
For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest sleeping in the unplowed ground. Is our world gone? We say “Farewell.” Is a new world coming? We welcome it — and we will bend it to the hopes of man.
-LBJ
people don’t talk like that anymore
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12.03.07
Posted by squidink at 11:04 am in rock, love, Uncategorized
The Enrichment Center reminds you that this blog is titled Love and Rock, and encourages posting on the subjects of love, rock, or both love and rock. Any appearance of drama is merely a device to enhance your posting and/or reading experience. When the posting is over, you will be missed.
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Posted by Varies at 3:54 am in Uncategorized
Against the advice of my attorney, I’m going to issue a statement.
Early last month, I decided I was getting real sick of Richard’s accusations of being negative and pessimistic all the time. He’d pegged me as some dude who “doesn’t understand [things] despite [his] intelligence,” and he started writing off my opinions by telling me that I just didn’t understand.
I was like, “Fine. I don’t want to understand your silly emotions anyway.” Of course, I didn’t say this to him so bluntly. Instead, I pulled up notepad and knocked out a letter of resignation.
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