Thoreau ( or something similar)

That select feeling about the natural world around us.  It's not quite a disease, but it's not quite naturally occurring in the human species at this juncture of human evolution.  He is such a desperate and lonely individual, cast away outside of human interference.  If anything, we need one another, despite the broken, calloused existence that intervenes between civilized existence.  Into the Wild.  Chris McCandless.  Alexander Supertramp.  His death breeds hope: no hubris in that understanding of the innate human cohabitation with the natural world.  He died so that we may live, unburdened by fear of oblivion within the wilds.

Fare Thee Well

Until we meet again.  I no longer wish to be the man you all know.  I'm sorry, but I must exorcise that weak bit of self from my identity.  Please take care.

March Madness and Stranger Things

No, this is not a basketball post.  Well, yeah, kind of.  Finalized my bracket last night, lost one match-up so far (Bucknell) and on the verge of losing a Final Four pick in the first round (South Dakota State).  Don't ask why I chose the mighty Jackrabbits, but I did.  They're my dark horse for the year.  Everyone else is relatively safe, though I have almost every top seed dropping in the sweet sixteen or elite eight, except Gonzaga, who I picked to lose to Miami in the championship game.  Don't ask why I picked the U.  They got super hot in the ACC tournament, and I feel like they have a legit chance.  What can I say, I'm a crazy person.  Not like there's any real money on the line here or anything, so I've got nothing to lose and I'd rather pick the underdogs than the storied, established programs.  That's half the fun of the NCAA Tournament, after all.

It's currently like 30 degrees outside.  On the second day of spring.  And I'm sitting here in my basement freezing my ass off like a pro.  It's pretty fucking cold down here at times.  Warmer than outside, but not warm enough during the winter where I can just rock out in my boxers all day e'ery day.  So, the winter of my discontent continues like a boss.  I really want to go outside and do stuff, but it's too cold for that shit.  Hopefully the weather breaks after this week so I can get outside.

On an unfamiliar note, I went on a double date on Saturday.  A friend of mine from my last job set it up with this woman he knows.  Went with him and his wife and this woman.  Had pizza, played board games, then went out to watch some MMA fights.  I had a good time, and she was really nice, but she doesn't drink.  That probably shouldn't be too much cause for alarm, but I like to drink, so it's potentially problematic.  But, if I'm so attached to drinking that I choose that over a potential relationship, clearly I have a problem.  That said, I'm waiting to hear back from her about a second date, just the two of us.  We'll see how it goes.

Oh Shit

So, I was sitting at home this evening, after eating a dinner of delicious steak sandwiches, complete with grilled onions, mushrooms, and pepper jack cheese, minding my own business while looking through job postings, when something happened.  I was listening to a combination of Modest Mouse and Listener, basically just dropping pages into bookmark folders for future reference (ie, Thursday and Friday) depending on the deadline for applications when I saw it.  IT.  The single job I have been waiting for the past three years.  The one job that requires a minimal amount of experience but is still the springboard into what I would like to do.  That potentially freeing job where I could sit at a desk in a tie all day, writing, and like it.

It's an entry-level writing job for a copywriting position at a good-sized company that makes backpacks and bags and the like (jansport).  The web-posting for the job even says that it requires a minimal amount of experience because, like I said, it's entry level.  Which is perfect.  It's an opportunity that I've been waiting for.  As far as I've noticed, Copywriting is a hard gig to break into.  Every position I've seen open requires at least three years of experience: I've applied for some of those, but never heard back, due to aforementioned experience requirements I suspect.

So, I've gotta give this shit my all.  My total commitment to getting this fucking job.  If I try and fail, so be it, but if I don't at least try my hardest, I'll never be certain what was going to happen.  Time to go to work.  Tomorrow's my fucking day after three years of toil and uncertainty, three years of heartbreak and sadness, and three years of a clouded mind and fear; like Sisyphus I have been trapped in Tartarus, repeating the same mistakes over and over again, but tomorrow my friends, tomorrow I cast the boulder from highest point of my mountain prison and stride through the river towards my destiny.  May the gods grant mercy to those who try to stand in my way, because I will not.

Edit: The job isn't for jansport.  I applied for a job at jansport for a simple administrative assistant position, and got it confused.  This company is Land's End, which does clothing and the like.  Still though, sweet position

Drunken Adventure!

I just wandered the greater downtown area of Madison, Wisconsin in a drunken haze, moving from bar to bar until my ride showed up (because I'm all responsible and shit).  Damn it, Madison is such a cool city, but i'm bored with it.  Someone come to town and I will be your sherpa on the mountain of awesome!

It's Never Too Early to Plan a Badass Trip

So, me and three of my friends are currently planning on going on a canoe trip in August up to my favorite place in the country, aka the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  Located in Northern Minnesota, in the Superior National Forest, my family has been going since my dad was about my age.  My uncle goes like three times annually, and the last time I went, I went with him and a family friend for a week of canoeing, fishing, and heavy drinking.  This ain't your grandma's camping trip.  This is packing only what can fit in a canoe, foods that only need water and fire to be cooked, no metal or glass containers, and miles of unspoiled wilderness.  Usually, yes, you see other people (especially on our planned route, because none of my friends have been there before), but you can get to the remote interior of the Wilderness and not see another person for day, especially in Quetico Provencial Park, which is on the Canadian side (hence the Boundary in Boundary Waters).  I'm super fucking stoked, even if it's five months away.  I've been wanting to take friends with me for years, and most of us are finally in a place where we have the flexibility to go on a trip.  It's gonna be baller.

Trying to shove my head through a concrete wall

 Edit: Everything went better than expected.  It was the distributor cap.  Which was only a little over a hundred bucks to fix.  My paranoia got the best of me yet again.  Thanks for letting me rant!



Shit always happens when shit starts to get better.  Period.  That is how shit rolls these past few years for me.  I catch a break, and shit goes to fucking shit.

My car died.  Like an hour ago.  At an intersection.  I stopped at a red light, and immediately when I tried to go after it turned green, it died.  Eighty-eight dollars later and its sitting in a parking space outside my mechanic.  I have to call them in the morning to have them start fixing it.  Then I have to call my insurance agent to see if I can get the tow reimbursed because I have roadside assistance, but they neglected to provide me the actual number for it.  Eighty-eight dollars to tow it like a quarter of a mile, because my mechanic was literally just down the street from where it died.

So, no more being picky about a job.  I can't afford to be.  I've been bleeding money at a steady rate, and I know this is going to take a major chunk out of my cash reserves.  I'm going to have to suck it up and find something that pays so I can get my bank account back on track for the summer.  So I can attend classes at a nearby community college to get my paralegal certification.  That's what I was going to do.  Get a good job so I can take a lot of financial pressure off of myself.  Which would give me a lot of flexibility in the future.  But, that shit costs money.  I figured I could do it with a part-time job, so I could kick major ass in class and try to boost my marketability after I complete the certification.  Now, not so much.  Gotta try and get something to pull me out of what is surely going to be a sweet financial mess.  Fucking A.

This Masked Intruder song is somewhat applicable, because I found out from the tow guy that if I had called it in myself, instead of letting the cop who showed up to block traffic do it, I could have save 20 bucks on the tow.  Hindsight.  20/20.  All that shit.