Insane Yet?

No, not the shorts you’re thinking of. My exercise shorts were just washed and are now in the dryer. Since I have some time before my walk to the library and my stint in the gym, I figured I’d blog a bit about stuff.

What stuff may you ask? I dunno, I’m just gonna ramble.

Worst. Transitional sentence. Ever.

Last weekend, the Jets lost yet another AFC Championship game. I’m not the biggest football fan, but I grew up watching the Jets. I also pull for the Giants (some old college buddies had my leaning their way) and everyone who is playing against the Cowboys.

It would have been nice to see the Jets in the bowl, seeing as how I’ve seen the Giants there a few times, Buffalo four times (those were sad days, when I liked the Bills) and those damned Colts once. I think Peyton Manning is a douchebag, but I can’t take away from his skills on the football field.

I’ll still be rooting for the Saints, in deference to one of the few coworkers I respect.

Baseball starts soon. Since the season is so long, I’ve promised Amy that I’ll stick to my usual baseball routine of ignoring everything but the standings until the All-Star Break, then listening to every Yankee game on my iPhone until they’re on free TV in the playoffs.

But hey, pitchers and catchers soon. Can’t wait to see how this new pitching rotation works out.

Speaking of the Yankees, I didn’t get the chance to comment on their World Series Championship. Because I’m lazy, and I was too busy being happy. Say what you want, but the Yankees are another team I grew up with, and it’s always fun to see them play.

They’re coming to Arlington to play the Rangers in August. I plan on taking Amy and sitting in the outfield seats that come with food. Not a bad deal for $40/ticket.

Typically those seats are $35. The two Yankee games are considered “premium games,” which nets an extra $5 for most seats. So even in Dallas, home of the most overrated quarterback in history, they know who people are really coming to see.

Yes, I’m taking potshots at Tony Romo. No, I don’t care.

I’ll Howl again soon enough. Work has become extra stressful. I’m the only team lead on first shifts on the weekend, so I have more to worry about. I’ve also been asked to take more calls, though I thought I’d been managing the call volume successfully.

One of the other accounts just finished up. Nearly all of our overflow agents were with that queue, and they’re all gone now. Including our one Spanish speaking overflow agent. Net overflow agents for the majority of the day: one.

I’m currently seeking better employment. I can do nothing but take phone calls elsewhere for more money. I’m miserably underpaid, more than most people think they are. People I’m responsible for make more money than I do. Which sucks.

What doesn’t suck is exercise. I’ve turned into quite the gym rat. Which has turned my calves into gelatin. New shoes will be necessary, and soon.

Over in the sidebar my DailyMile exercise posts should load. If you follow my Twitter (@attackman) or have me as a Facebook friend, you’ll see them there as well. If you don’t see them for a while, let me know. It means I’m slacking off.

The dryer should be done soon, which means I can walk to the library to acquire the book Flatland, a wonderful science fable. I’ll then head over to the workout room and bust it for 30 minutes on the elliptical.

I would have gone in dirty shorts (eww) but the iPad announcement was this morning. Yes, I want one, but it’s not an immediate must have for me. Not waiting for any features, just the money and maybe a better job so I can consider spending money on things like this.

All morning people have whined about the iPad not having Flash. This will be the last time I say this: Flash sucks. We allowed one company to have control over web content, and they’ve failed to keep up. They continue to make poor software, forcing you to watch your processor melt to watch a video. And it’s not the video that is killing your playback, it’s the Flash container.

I use Weight Watchers eTools on my Mac, which is a Flash app on their website. They have a decent mobile app made in HTML and AJAX, but it doesn’t have all the necessary features. They could implement everything in a nice looking, proper web app, but I gather their devs are lazy.

I looked at the CPU usage for this app earlier. Flash Player, with nothing going on, was eating 5% of my cycles. Anything that requires that much CPU to idle is crap.

John Gruber has a great breakdown of this terrible tech over at Daring Fireball, which is currently pretty trafficky. I guess everyone would rather listen to him, even though he hasn’t said much yet. Here’s the article.

There, now I won’t have to subject Amy to the rest of the rant I started ten minutes ago. Sorry, love. Does Austin have a speaker’s corner?

Time to split. Later cats and kittens.

Been enjoying the first series of Torchwood. It sure beats sleeping when you have to use CPAP.

Haven’t been “Howling” much recently. Between the holidays, work and now this nasty cough I’ve come down with, my thoughts have strayed from my project.

Amy has us working on “uncluttering,” or the purging of all the crap from our life, leaving only things we need and have a place for. Thus far, it’s working. We’ve reduced our wardrobes severely, and finally attacked the mess that was our dining room table. Soon, we might actually be able to eat in there.

I’ll post updates on the Unclutter 2010 project as well. I hope to have photos of our spaces once we’re done.

I’m on lunch at work right now. Today is Friday, for me. For most of you, it’s Tuesday.

Damn, it feels good to be a Timelord.

Took a short break from Howling today. I’m still digging though. And I got a neat idea.

While reading the poem aloud to try to nail down the inflections, I decided to perform it and post it here. I haven’t recorded yet, but I should have it up here in the next week. Hopefully my Bluetooth headset holds out.

I’ve also determined that to fully grasp what “Howl” is all about I need to have more knowledge on Dada. Another subject that I know squat about. I’ll let you guys (all zero of you) know what I find out. If you know about Dada, please share. There’s no reason not to turn this part of the project into a discussion.

The “Howl:” designation for post titles has been ditched as well. It didn’t look good to me any longer. If you want posts on “Howl” and my journey, use the tag cloud on the right. All “Howl” posts are tagged “Howl.”

No, I’m not out of my Vulcan mind!

Speaking of emotions, or the lack thereof, Happy Saturnalia to those so inclined. My mother has convinced me to take part in the pagan tradition of acquiring a tree, so we’ll be doing that soon. We’ll probably keep it through Christmas, as is the modern way.

Enough for now. Pizza tonight, Amy graduates tomorrow and next week, a two part Christmas celebration with two families.

Amy has an interview this morning, and the Aveo, while running, doesn’t sound like a car that can make it to Pflugerville. So I drove on the rented Beetle, and finished “Howl.”

I was never into the Beats. I took one look at On The Road and thought Kerouac was a moron who heard about Finnegan’s Wake, dropped acid, and started writing.

I sound like a classical lit major.

In any event, I’ve gotten through a reading. Just one for now. I liked the meter, but I couldn’t tell you what the hell Ginsberg is talking about.

That will take additional readings coupled with research. I figure if I learn about Ginsberg, and his muse Carl Solomon, I’ll have a lock on the first part of this project.

I hate being so clinical about poetry. I’d like it to be emotional, but I can’t tell if this poem is a celebration or if it’s an epitaph.

Ten years ago this past June, I was eighteen years old and graduating high school. My English teacher, Mr. Schneider, gave me a copy of Alan Ginsberg’s poem “Howl.” Within, he wrote a personal message inspiring me to find my own “howl.”

Yesterday, I turned twenty-nine. Over ten years have passed since that day.

I found a that book while looking through some things in our hall closet. I thought about Schneider, and I thought about what he wrote.

To this day, I’m not sure what he meant, nor mad I sure if I have a “howl” to speak of. And it made me sad.

Now, I tend to get sad around my birthday as it is. Since meeting Amy this has lessoned, but it still stings a bit each year. Therefore, I decided I had to do something to alleviate my moroseness.

I decided the answer would be an experiment. I need to blog more; this goes without saying. My writing is not what it used to be, and I could use the practice. I also wanted to explore Ginsberg’s classic poem, Ginsberg himself and try to figure out what Schneider was trying to tell me.

By the time I’m done, I also hope to determine what I think my “howl” is, and if I’ve found it.

I have all kinds of new toys on my Mac thanks to MacHeist and their crazy bundles. I also intend to spend more time with the Mac Mini on my desk rather than feeing me crap on my TV. Perhaps we’ll all learn something.

Come on a journey with me, friends.

Damn near forgot this was here, I’ve been so busy and horribly stressed. I have a lot to say, but no energy to say it.

That should change rather soon.

Ten years ago, when I first went to college, the only way I could follow the Yankees on most occasions was to listen to the free audio stream from MLB.com. They had the real WCBS AM audio from New York, and I could listen in my room whenever I was free.

That all changed when the MLB realized they could make a few bucks off the Internet. They even forced blackouts on the feeds of stations that broadcasted baseball.

Flash forward to now. I’m living in Austin, the YES network isn’t offered here and I’m starved for some Yankee baseball. What’s a displaced New Yorker to do?

The answer came in the form of a $10 iPhone app called MLB AtBat 2009. For my ten bucks, I get audio of every single game through the playoffs. I can even pick which team’s announcers I get. Of course, I always pick John Sterling.

Next year I might buy the MLB.TV package, as it will let me watch the games in HD on my Mac and in SD on my iPhone. But I’ve discovered something this season.

I really like listening to baseball games.

There’s a neat feeling, hearing someone describe the action, fill in stats, and make idle conversation while a pitcher waits to deliver. It’s a very old school feeling, one that’s hard to duplicate.

It really hit me when a Saturday afternoon Yankees-Red Sox game was on Fox. I saw that Tim McCarver would be calling the game and winced. Rather than just watch the whole thing on mute, I hooked up the iPhone to my receiver and listened to Sterling call the game. Sure, the Yankees lost, but he is so good and so unique that I could listen to him read the phone book.

So here’s the the Yankees, having their best season in years. Here’s to the Texas Rangers, who might give the Red Sox a run for their money in the Wildcard race. And jeers to the Red Sox, because they’re the Red Sox.

First Look: Ellen Page Ready to ‘Whip It’: “

(Via Cinematical.)

So October will be a great month for Austin. I’ll be getting married (really, you didn’t know? Hit my wedding site for more info!) and Whip It hits theaters.

Starring one of my favorites, Ellen Page, it’s about roller derby. In Austin, Texas, my adopted home.

So go see it. That’s Drew Barrymore and Kristen Wiig flanking Page in their “Hurl Scout” uniforms, and Barrymore directed. Zoe Bell and Juliette Lewis show up as well.

May-haps this could be the beginning of my bachelor party festivities.