Snow....Again....Why?

Why did it have to be snowing when I got out of bed this morning? Can't we be given a respite from more snow at least until the previous seven storm's worth have actually finished melting? I wish. One thing, and only one thing about it snowing is that the temperature has to be a little higher in order for that to happen so despite the fact that everything is covered once again, at least my face doesn't hurt on the way to class today. Luckily I don't need to spend much time outside over the next couple of days.

Anyone who missed the BYU vs. Air Force basketball game this last Saturday missed a great sporting spectacle. BYU won the game by nine points, in what was a very high-energy game that contained some great moments. Trent Plaisted made his presence known and the 22,700 folks in the Marriott Center loved every single minute of it. My ears were ringing after his sublime dunk-block-dunk sequence to open the second half of the game.

Playing the Discombobulated Game

I like it when my life is caught up and in focus which is the state it remains in 9 days out of 10, but when I get to that day (like today) where I feel like I have hundreds of little five-minute projects that need to be finished before going to bed and that I have very little time to do them in it begins to feel like I am trapped in some kind of a challenge or game. Granted, the challenge is called life, but sometimes I still don't think it is very fair, or at the very least it is sometimes quite inconvienient.

To be completely honest, I don't really have very many things to do today, but I think that deep down inside maybe I wish I had tons of things to do today. I was telling Holly a couple days ago that I am starting to get bored on some afternoons when I'm finished with my homework and she is at work. Although, that should change in a week or so once mid-terms get up and running and I switch to my new afternoon job. Maybe I will make some flashcards for my German 101 class or something this afternoon. I guess that would give me something to do.

I've been keeping track of the number of pages that I've read for 2007 alone and the total has reached 1,124 and I'm not even finished with the first month. Next on the agenda is Catch-22 which I think counts towards my goal of reading 3 classic novels this year.

Check It Out

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I finally got some of my old writing posted up on the blog I've created for my writing. The link to Writer's Block on my links list will take you there. I can't promise that the writing that will be getting posted will be worth anything, but if you read it please give me some feedback, that would be great.

Checking In

It has been a couple of weeks since I jotted down a few goals I have for this year and I figured I would do a little self-evaluation on a couple of them to make sure that I am doing well. In the new job realm I have accomplished that goal at least temporarily in that on Feb. 5th I will be starting work over at Helaman Halls working in the afternoons instead of the evenings. Holly is thrilled at the prospect of having me home each day at 4:00 instead of 9:00. I may have to do homework when she is at home, but just being able to be in the same house at the same time will be enjoyable.

I haven't begun to write in a journal every day yet, but that is because I haven't felt that if I were to start I would be consistent yet. I have been working on making a routine that will help me with that and I'm making good progress. So far my email address is the same: caleb.flanagan@hotmail.com which is pleasing several people from what I hear.

I thought for a long time on what my new hobby or activity would be for this year and I am leaning towards joining the staff at a campus literary journal called Inscape. I've decided on this for a couple of reasons, one that it would be good experience for my major and will help me find a job that is not custodial next fall, two I think it would be fun and finally that it will only take a couple hours out of my week at any given time. My good friend Reece is planning on joining with me, so perhaps we will get to work together at some point on editing the submissions.

Today is also the day that I am going to try writing in lowercase letters again to see how it works. I'm a little worried that everyone I know will have no clear idea of my identity any longer and that my posse will rebel in a mutinous moment of rage. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that nobody will actually care. I just want to see if it helps at all with the hand cramps that I have been having lately because I have noticed that I grip my pen or pencil much more tightly when I am writing with all capitals. I've also set myself up with a project of personal interest. I am going to do the best I can to total the number of pages that I have read since the beginning of high school or slightly before. I have a feeling that it is going to be a very big number, but I'm curious to see what exactly it is. This idea comes from wanting to know if I have read 1,000,000 pages in my lifetime yet. I am pretty sure that I haven't, but it would be cool if I could accomplish that at some point. Luckily for me I can remember lots of the books that I have read over the years so I should be able to get an accurate count.

Daughtry

I have decided that my new favorite song is "Over You" by Chris Daughtry of American Idol fame. I listened to that song lots of times last night while I was driving around on a floor machine (something I honestly can't wait to not do any longer). So it is now my new favorite. I tried to sit here a couple of minutes ago and make a top ten list of songs, but I'm far to indecisive to do something like that. At least right now.

There are probably very few people in the world that have this problem, but today I can't seem to stop scratching myself with my fingernails. I trimmed them last night and the clippers must be dull or something because they have left my fingernails jagged and rough. I tried to remove an itch from my face and I'm pretty sure flesh came off with nothing more than a gentle scratch. I think it is time to invest in some new fingernail clippers. It would be 99 cents well spent.

The Powers That Be

I think that the powers that be are going to have to accept that fact that I aspire to become one of them at some point in my life. I am going to be "a power that be" and there is nothing any of the rest of these so called powers can do about it. Bring it.

Lot's of people have commented on the fact that I write my words on paper using all capital letters. David Wallace got me started on this while he was my companion on my mission though I cannot explain why I decided to pick it up. Perhaps I just thought it was cool. Today however I decided that maybe I should go back to writing with lower-case letters as well since writing quickly in all capitals has led me to numerous hand cramps today alone. I'll think on it a little longer and decide sometime soon. I know that my handwriting is a lot harder to read if I don't use all capitals, but maybe that isn't the real point here after all.

I had a great weekend, very relaxing, some fun mixed in, it was great, but despite seven and a half hours of sleep last night I am in an awkward phase today. I have reviewed my lists of things to do and I don't have much of anything that is required of me today, but deep done inside the depths of my inner soul I keep thinking I am forgetting something and it has made me slightly frantic. Not frantic like a gerbil on crack, but frantic like a hyper-active slug perhaps. It's been a rocky morning so far.

Welcome To The Breezy Season

I think that if it takes until 4:00 in the afternoon for the temperature to slide into the double digits that there must be something inherently wrong with the entire balance of the cosmos. Such has been the weather lately and I will admit that if I was in charge, there would be no winter, but rather just a breezy season where the wind blew all the time. I'd rather it be windy than cold.

Today I made it official and did something about the fact that I am beginning to dislike my current employment more and more each time I clock in. Hence I went to talk to Sheyla over at Helaman Halls where I worked this past summer to see if she would be interested in allowing me to work for her instead to which she readily and heartily agreed seeing as she had tried several times previously to lure me over there. The upside to this new arrangement is that I get to be home at 4:30 in the afternoon each day and since Holly works during the day that works out perfectly. I will also not have to deal with Gayle any longer. She isn't a bad person, in fact she is a very decent person who strives very hard to do her best at her job, however, blame it on a personality conflict if you wish, I do not think she has very great managerial skills. It finally got to be too much, simple as that. I will do the right thing and give her a full two weeks notice however, I feel that is only fair seeing as how most of her employees think it prudent to just quit unannounced half the time. Unfortunately I will have to take a pay cut from 7.75 an hour to something lower from what I can tell. Luckily it will be no lower than 7.10 but I'm hoping for something in the middle, we'll have to see.

I signed up for classes this semester thinking I would make some solid progress towards graduation, but due to scheduling conflicts and a slightly abnormal slot for priority registration I will be making no quite so much progress towards actually finishing my major, but significant progress in improving my overall GPA. That's good news. I enjoy my classes, some of them more than I thought I would, English 322 for example. I'm not someone who normally makes comments in class or even asks questions, but something in that class excites me to want to actually learn it and learn it well besides.

On a personal note: Peter Budaj is the starting goalie for the Colorado Avalanche. He makes $650,000 a year. His backup? The over-rated and extremely overpaid Jose Theodore who makes $5,500,000 a year. Does it make sense...no, not exactly. Is it extremely cool that Budaj is the starter...hell yes.

English Is A Crazy Language

English is the most widely spoken language in the history of our planet, used in some way by at least one out of every seven human beings around the globe. Half of the world's books are written in English, the majority of international telephone calls are made in English, and more than seventy percent of international mail is in English. English has acquired the largest vocabulary of all the world's languages, perhaps as many as two million words, and has generated one of the noblest bodies of literature in the annals of the human race.

Nonetheless, it is now time to face the fact that English is a crazy language.

There is no butter in buttermilk, no egg in eggplant, no grape in grapefruit, neither pine nor apple in pineapple, neither peas nor nuts in peanuts, and no ham in hamburger. To make matters worse, English muffins weren't invented in Englad, French fries in France, or Danish pastries in Denmark. Sweetmeats are candy, while sweetbread, which isn't sweet, is made from meat.

Language is like the air we breathe. It's invisible, inescapable, indispensable, and we take it for granted. But when we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, public bathrooms have no baths, tomboys are girls, midwives can be men, silverware can be made of plastic and tableclothes of paper.

And why is it that a writer writes, and a stinger stings, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, hammers don't ham, and humdingers don't humding? If the plural of tooth is teeth, shouldn't the plural of booth be beeth? One goose, two geese--so one moose, two meese? One index, two indices--one Kleenex, two Kleenices?

Doesn't it seem just a little loopy that we can make amends but never just one amend; that we can never pull a shenanigan, be in a doldrum, get a jitter or a heebie-jeebie; and that sifting through the wreckage of a disaster, we can never find just one smithereen? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and you get rid of all but one, what do you call it? If the teacher taught, why isn't it true that the preacher praught? If a horse-hair mat is made from the hair of horses and a camel's-hair coat from the hair of camels, from what is a mohair coat made? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes you have to believe that all English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what other language do people drive in a parkway and park in a driveway? Recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? In what other language do privates eat in the general mess and generals eat in the private mess?

Did you ever notice that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown, met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly peccable?

Still, you have to marvel at the unique lunacy of the English language, in which your house can simultaneously burn up and burn down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which your alarm clock goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it relfects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't really a race at all). That is why, when stars are out they are visible, but when the lights are out they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch I start it, but when I wind up this essay I end it.

Condensed from Crazy English by Richard Lederer.