Life is rough.

(Composed on 1/6/2009)

I figured that this was the perfect windy/wavy day to take a break from fishing and take in some sunshine while fixing/updating a few things with my laptop. Speaking of laptops, it's damn hard to read a laptop screen outside on a sunny day, so this entry is having its first draft on notebook paper (Note: although this was a nice idea for writing outside, it's DAMN hard to decipher my doctoresque handwriting).

Vacation in the Florida Keys is a welcome diversion from the less-than-great aspects of the world. I've not heard a thing about the stock markets, conflicts in the Mideast, or Rod Blagojevich. If you ever get the chance to see the Keys, take it. You'll be glad. (I turned on the TV shortly after composing this to be greeted with news of down-turning stocks, a ground war in Gaza, and Roland Burris's attempt to be seated in the US Senate. So much for blissful ignorance).

A few days back, I had the privilege of having lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall place called "Keys Fisheries," on Marathon Key. It's the type of place that you would never (ever) find if someone didn't tell you of its existence. The ambiance of the place is reminiscent of a diner, except for the fact that it is outdoors and next to a marina (that makes sense right?). Also being a restaurant of the Keys, they have excellent (and fresh) seafood.

The thing I enjoyed most about the establishment, however, is the way they call out their orders. When your order is taken, they ask you an obscure question (the question du jour in the case of my father and I was "what's in your junk drawer?"). The answer is used in place of a number as a means of notifying the customer when their order is up. It's a relatively small thing, but nonetheless amusing to hear waitresses yelling out random objects ("PIECE OF SURFBOARD! BOAT KEYS! COINS!!!") at various intervals. I really wanted "condoms" as our object (how mature, right?) but my father chose "duct tape." Probably a good idea in retrospect.

much respect,
josh

Happy New Year and predictions for '09...

Happy 2009 and all that. Let's get to business, 2009 is going to be a damn good (or at least interesting) year. As such, I'm in a predicting sort of mood. Here are my thoughts...

-(minor things first) Oklahoma is going to SMASH Florida for the BCS Championship.

-(unfortunately) Amy Winehouse won't see 2010. Drugs are bad.

-Either the new "Star Trek" movie, "Watchmen," or "Harry Potter" will bomb, in terms of reviews. I would venture to say that each of these movies will make upwards of $40 million in their opening week of showing, regardless of reviews.

-Barack is going to have a good, but far from phenomenal, first year as President. (this one might be a little too obvious)

-Proposition 8 (in California) will get overturned. Regardless of where the California Supreme Court stands on the political sides of the issue, it's next to impossible to say that Prop. 8 was fairly, or even constitutionally, passed.

-(here's the longshot... maybe) The University of Iowa will undergo another major scandal (this time not involving a crime of a sexual nature) that will all but force UI President Sally Mason to resign.

-I'm gonna get paid.

Leave your predictions as comments!!

much respect,
josh

florida.

Luck was on my side with yesterday's trip to Florida (where I'm spending time with some family). No less than a few hours after I got out of Des Moines, sleet apparently overtook the roads and made everything icy. I feel guilty to be in 85-degree weather, but hot damn, it feels good.

I've been trying to keep a travel journal with some consistency (no promises). I'll convert it from handwriting to typing and I hope to get some of it posted up here in the next week or so.

Two more things:
1) Saw "The Spirit." Awesome, bizarre movie. Think of it as a less violent, more detective-like "Sin City." Samuel L. delivers some great lines and Scarlett Johannson steals the show for a bit. Solid "A-" movie.
2) Futureme.org. Before the new year, take a visit to this site. It allows you to draft an email that will be stored and sent to you at a date of your choice in the future. The really neat thing is to see what some other people have written to themselves (you can choose to draft a private email or a public, but anonymous, email). Neat stuff and kind of a cool alternative to new year's resolutions if you're into that sort of thing.

much respect,
josh

EDIT: also, I'm told another plane slid off the runway at O'Hare the day before last (just after my last post). Hey, if it's good for the economy... (thanks, Tim)

Inadvertent hiatus

Holy damn, I forgot to update this thing for a whole ten days! Sorry, kids. Finals week was bönanas. It was filled with cold weather, praying to the grading gods (AKA my instructors and TAs), and making up words when I got bored with studying (see above).

I always like these points of the year, especially when things like finals are already out of the way, as it really provides a good time to look back upon the year that was. For a writer, it's usually a good way to get some ideas flowing, so I may turn my attention to developing something of substance over break.

This year hasn't had a whole ton of ups and downs, but the ups were typically really good (graduating, meeting my current girlfriend) and the downs were really bad (unexpected death of my uncle, etc.). On the whole, it's been an unbelievably cool year and I've got a hell of a lot of blessings to count.

-----

Also, what the hell is it with airplanes skidding off of runways at major American airports around the holiday season? I blame the economy... everybody knows it's cheaper just to crash the damn plane than land it normally with, you know, wheels and landing gears and stuff. I mean, come on, it just makes sense (cents?).

much respect,

josh

Hay babay...

Long time no see and all that. Finals week has arrived at the University of Iowa and the temperature is somewhere between uncontrollable swearing and involuntary body spasms. Studying has of course taken precedence over posting recently, but there has been some decent news recently, especially with the recent scandal concerning Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. 

As most readers of this blog might be able to guess, the UI is composed mostly of people from "a suburb of Des Moines," or "a suburb of Chicago." I would venture so far as to say that we Iowans are the minority at the UI. Having spoken with my friends about the Blagojevich scandal, not one of them is at all surprised. Allow me to repeat that: no one from Illinois is surprised that their governor allegedly attempted to commit fraud. 

Furthermore, no one seems to be surprised that Blagojevich is refusing to resign. It would be one thing if this case were unfounded, but tapes of Blagojevich have been released where he explicitly states that he is selling Barack Obama's senate seat. I have never been this confused with how someone could possibly belive that they'll keep their job having been caught ON TAPE plotting to commit a felony. 

And I thought Chet Culver was dumb. Thank God for the Big Lug, I guess.

much repect,

josh 

Oh good.

You know it's going to be a great day when the driver of the bus you take to your morning class tells the passengers to hang on "for dear life" in the event that he loses control of the bus in the icy conditions. Six Flags has nothing on the UI Cambus system (except safety, perhaps).

much respect,

josh

Let me sing you the songs of my people.

So I went to the library the other day with a friend to do some studying and research for a speech. I brought my trusty MacBook Pro along with me, and for whatever reason, going to the library caused the WiFi system on the computer to stop working.

Completely.

So I ran diagnostics and every trick in the book to no avail before taking it into the campus tech support people. They identified the problem as a glitch in the software update for AirPort (the Mac program which regulates a computer's WiFi connectivity). Their solution, and I'm not joking, was this:

Tech Support Guy: So, there's a problem with AirPort, basically.

Me: Ok, that sucks. What should I do? Can I revert to a previous version of AirPort?

Tech Support Guy: No, actually, our Apple-certified expert recommends that you re-format your hard drive.

Me: Wait, what do you mean by re-format my hard drive? Are you suggesting that I erase everything on my 160gb hard drive?

Tech Support Guy: Yes, but back everything up first of course.

Me: (contemptuous stare)

Yeah. Way to go Apple. You certified someone who rather than going online to find a solution, suggested REMOVING EVERYTHING FROM MY COMPUTER. Speaking of going online to find a solution, I did just that after I got back to my dorm. Apparently this is a fairly common problem and therefore decently documented. I fixed the problem in 10 minutes, with no effect on my hard drive. 

Long story short, UI Tech Support is stupid. Don't let them within 50 feet of any electronic item that you value.

much respect,

josh

PS: Just a little PSA here: what happened to my computer is apparently a glitch with the most recent update for AirPort that causes any computer that operates in a large WiFi network (such as one that might exist on a college campus) to lose wireless internet connectivity. If you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro and you go to college, it's probably a good idea to avoid the update. If you should somehow accidentally install it, simply restart your computer in "Safe Boot" mode and then restart it again to fix the problem.