A Dixie Carpetbagger

Remember this day all the people who cannot be with their families this Christmas, and be thankful more for who’s around the tree, than what’s under it.

You know, I know I’m old fashioned, but is it just me, or are honor, dignity, truth and faithfulness out of fashion these days?

I’m finishing up a paper for one of my classes, and I’m battering my head against a brick wall.  You see, the original professor of this class was replaced… because he died.  The replacement is bound and determined to keep to the original’s syllabus, including the portions of it that make no sense… whatsoever.  Including that the paper be in APA format, with 1 1/2 line spacing– not double spaced.  (Really?  1 1/2 line spacing?  Is that kinda like “we want white space, but not enough to be useful?”)  Cue me emailing the replacement about whether or not I could use Turabian style instead.

No go… the Computer Science department requires all papers, including theses, dissertations, and ALL term/course papers to be in APA style… which was designed for publication, not for classwork.  The irony?  Turabian style was designed from the ground up for classwork… not for publication.  Hence why it’s officially known as “A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations…”

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to return to beating my head against my desk, and seeing which breaks first.

Can I start an Occupy movement?  Like “OccupyMyThoughts” or maybe “OccupyMyChair?”  Because, I kinda need to…

(I not only had to blow cobwebs off the WordPress Dashboard, I had to shoo some raccoons out of the boiler room.  Hopefully, I got ‘em all.  If not… boiled ‘coon.  [shrugs] Win-win.)

To the ladies, gents, household pets who have learned to use the Internet, and sentient Artificial Intelligences who make up my readers– if you would, please scrounge all the loose change from underneath the couch cushions, and deposit it in yonder tip jar to help me recoup the renewal fees for the domain here.  I know I haven’t posted anywhere near regularly (8 posts in 8 months… ), but I plan on changing that in the next little bit.

Thanks.

… I’d have no luck at all.  On top of all the crap I’ve been dealing with, I’ve had a wee bit of trouble with kidney stones.  Normally, I just have bad back pain for a day, and the nice little sand-grain-size buggers go away.  Nope, this one was bigger… and managed to get jammed “in the tunnel.”  What happens when a sharp, jagged stone gets jammed in a tube with lots of pressure behind it, class?  Pain, agony, screams, and blood.  Lots of blood.  And an ER trip… on Friday the 13th.

I’m tellin’ you, I had to have stepped on a friggin’ leprechaun to have all of this happen…

So, apparently we finally brought Bin Laden’s reign as hide-and-go-seek champion to an end.  (Kudos to the SEALS who did the job.)  From everything I’ve read, he was in a house (fortified mansion, really) within spitting distance of a police station and a military academy.  Maybe Obama is learning that unilateral action is the way to go sometimes?

Also, it’s an odd feeling… I was a sophomore in high school when the Twin Towers fell… and here I am, a decade later, and the leader of the other side’s finally dead.

I’m sorry for not writing here.  I know that there’s a few of you that like to read my scribblings, but I’m not feeling it right now.  In the past month, I’ve marked the 5th anniversary of my father’s death, celebrated my birthday alone because I was ditched by two of my best friends, and have been told by a woman I care about that she wanted no part of me.  All of this in addition to the fact that I’m hundreds of miles from my family, and looking desperately for a job.

In short, right now, what reserves I have are going towards keeping me going… I just can’t muster any to make the words appear on screen.

Dixie

Okay, what’s happened in the past month?

Short form: I’ve moved to a better place (no, not there), I’ve made an utter ass of myself, and one of my favorite eating places has burned.  As usual– The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good:

Moved in the new place the last of January.  I like it– it’s quiet, isolated, but only about 15 miles from the university.  I pay the utilities, and I get the run of the place.  Great deal.  While it is an older house, and does need some work, it is essentially my domain now.

The Bad:

One of my favorite eating places (one I recommended to Jay, no less) burned down about a month ago.  Crap.  Now where am I supposed to get my good barbecued brisket?

The Ugly:

Remember the female of the libertarian persuasion I mentioned here, here, and here?  The one who recommended the Apartment From Hell mentioned here?  Well, I sent her an email letting her know what the situation with the apartment was, which I wrote at 1 in the morning.  Which she read a little later.  While sick with the flu.  Needless to say, some of the content didn’t translate well from “sleepy sarcasm” to “sleepy sick.” Which is why she’s no longer talking to me.  As in, “blocked on Facebook” not talking.  Enter apology email.  Also enter much angst on my part.

So, I managed to offend the girl of my dreams.  On Valentine’s Day.  So, any and all prayers/good wishes would be much appreciated… I’m going to have to dig myself out of a mighty deep hole here…

Yeah, I’m not built for apartment dwelling.  Especially when my room-mates turn out to be up-all-night party types, instead of the quiet, laid-back types they presented themselves as.  Oh, and the fact that the guy who lived in the apartment before me was a slob.  And the fact that the rent, which was supposed to be all-inclusive… wasn’t.  (Hello, blown budget!)  Two weeks of blown sleep and constant irritations makes Dixie a very unhappy fellow.

Luckily, a friend of the family needs a house looked after (wow, wish I would have found out about this BEFORE the apartment…) that suits me to the ground.  It’s actually the same distance from this house to the university as it was from my house to my high school… but I didn’t have to get on the Interstate to get to my high school…

Well, hopefully the new pad will mean better posting… or at least more.