Domestication/Lost Baggage

Well, I am back in Oregon, it's raining and about 35 degrees. In other words, it is winter. I am waiting for my bread to rise, which is my first attempt at making homemade bread. I spent most of my vacation watching the master cook (my mother) and am now trying my skills. Hopefully it will work out well. All of my other attempts at rolls and such usually turn out pretty crappy, although now I have learned that getting the yeast to activate correctly is about 90 % of making bread. I think being impatient and thinking that I am screwing everything up has always caused me to screw it up. Sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy sort of deal. Also, in doing this I am realizing that domestication is now in full swing. I suppose now that I am almost thirty it is inevitable. Still, I have a lot of friends my age and older, that I am pretty sure still eat mostly things that come out of a box. I guess aging hits us all in different ways. I wonder what my mid-life crisis will be like?

I am also waiting for a call from United, who lost my bag yesterday. I checked on their website and they apparently found my bag, and are going to call me to arrange shipment. Until I get my back, I am stuck wearing the one change of clothes I have. Luckily I don't smell too bad yet, But if I don't get it in a few days, myself and those around me will not be so lucky. Not only am I waiting for a call from United, but also from the GRE people who were supposed to get back to me over a week ago about getting my scores sent to another university. They are really starting to piss me off. For how much money it costs to take the GRE, they sure aren't very helpful. You would think getting extra scores sent would be easy. Plus, you have have to pay for them, which is really cool. What a racket.

Well, it's nice to be back on the west coast again, having a great time being domestic and hanging out with the missus. Looking forward to New Year's Eve and then two months in the desert.

big belly christmas

Another Christmas holiday is coming to a close. It has been a really great trip, I am in Chicago and flying back to Portland tomorrow morning. It has been snowing here solid for the last few days, which I am really excited about. Others are not so excited, but it's been either below zero or raining here for most of the trip. I guess it is easier to be excited when you are leaving and don't have to deal with the snow. I am very excited to get back to Oregon, although I have had a really great trip hanging out with family and friends, I don't know if my stomach can take anymore of this marathon eating. I have been constantly full for about a week, every meal bigger than the last. I feel like I am starting to resemble most midwesterners, shape-wise. My pants barely fit anymore. This is not an exaggeration. I am also looking forward to spending some time with my lovely girlfriend, whom I haven't seen for three weeks and won't see for two months while I am in Mexico. Definitely going to be the hardest thing about being gone for two months. Pooping in holes, sleeping on the ground, and stomach parasites I can handle, but being away from the missus for long periods of time is really difficult.

This trip was a lot less hectic than years past, I spent a lot of time just hanging out with my family. I didn't get to see my friends as much as usual, but it was really nice to be back in the midwest for a while. The rock show was lots of fun as well, the turnout could have been better but I had a really good time. Maybe we can do it again in the summer.

Well, it's my last night in Chicago, gonna have one last huge dinner with the family. Should be a rockin good time. The Swansons know how to party. See you tomorrow Oregon!

Furious Jebediah show/Impending doom

The time for the Furious Jebediah show is now upon us, as is some awesome Iowa weather. The first thing I saw when I got up this morning was the neighbor children sledding on the sidewalk. There is no snow on the sidewalk mind you, just ice. Apparently this great weather is going to continue through Christmas. Hopefully it will become snow at some point, this freezing rain crap is no fun at all.

Well, the show must go on, as they say. I just hope that the weather won't scare any FJ fans away, it is going to be a really good show.

Here is the setlist:

Intro
Ballad of Larry
Coffin Cake
Milk
Spy
Digging The Grave
Strength Beyond Strength
Excerpts From A Film
Any Woman Can Be A Lesbian
Dog Balls (Wall Tapestry Song)
Breeding Ground
Tourette's
Good Word
Let's Lynch The Landlord
Caffeine
Give Me Your Love

Oits' Tailgator's, 9 of the clock. Hoping for a good crowd, Iowans usually don't let the weather make plans for them, but it may be enough reason for people to flake out.

ROCK

Iowa Haikus

People here are fat
Too many fried things and ranch
Iowa likes food

Iowa smells bad
Big factories and hog lots
Crunch berries kick ass

Its really damn cold
Snow as far as the eye sees
I am really bored

Carl vs ETS

Applying for grad school is one of the most harrowing experiences I have ever been a part of. Not only does it cost an incredible amount of money (about 500 dollars so far), but it is a mess of bureaucracy and hoop jumping so complex that you should be given a degree upon completion of your application materials. The first major hurdle I encountered was getting my transcripts from Lane Community College sent to Oregon State University. For the other two colleges I attended, getting transcripts sent was a breeze, it took about a total of 2 minutes for two schools. Lane, however, was not about to make it so easy on me. I couldn't order online, because I didn't have a valid "L" number (student ID number). I tried to call Lane, but every time their automated phone service forwarded me to the enrollment services department, the phone would just hang up. I finally decided to go down to Lane and take care of it in person, but to my chagrin they were closed that day for an inservice. I was really happy at this point. The next week after my anger subsided enough I went BACK to Lane one last time, and even though I had to wait in line for over an hour, I got the transcript sent. Lane is also the only school that charged me to send official transcripts. Complete and utter failure.

Now to the latest problem...

I am now applying to Central Washington University, which I kind of decided at the last minute but figured I could do during the Winter Break. The first hurdle was my "extremely reliable" 4 month old mac laptop breaking for the second time, which I had to ship out to the service center to get fixed. It is now fixed, and luckily I didn't lose any of my stuff. After this I got all of my application material sent in about an hour, except my GRE scores. I figured this would be the easiest of all the things I needed to get in. Boy, was I wrong. The website asks for a email conformation number that you get when you sign up for the test to log in to the website. When I put the number in, I get an error message that says it is an invalid number. It is the only number I have received and should be correct. I tried emailing ETS and got a automatic reply that said "due to high email volume allow 7-10 days for a response. I tried calling them today and after navigating the maze that is their automated phone system, the phone began to ring for a customer service representative. After about 20 rings, the service informed me that it too is receiving high call volume and wait times were extremely long. After about 10 minutes holding I was given the opportunity to leave a message stating my problem. This evolved recording separately your first name (spoken and spelled), your last name (spoken and spelled), your city (spoken and spelled), your state (spoken and spelled), your conformation (which is the reason I am calling), and finally the trouble you are having. I basically shouted my problem, which probably won't help my case much, but it's better to yell at the recording than a person, I suppose. Lets all hope this ends peacefully and without any bloodshed. It really makes no sense that this is what is holding up my application, but I guess it had to be something.

First post

For a long time, I have been a naysayer of blogging. It always seemed to me like a forum for untalented writers to ramble on about nothing in particular. Although this is in fact still true, now that Twitter has come along I realize that is the type of forum I have been against the whole time. I start this blog with no preconceptions. I have no delusions that people really care what I am doing, nor will I blog Twitter style (tweet? twit?) and update to the world when I am stuck in traffic, my thoughts on a sporting match, or when my bowels are acting up. For me, the decision to maintain my own blog has come from my love of writing, which is a thing I do very little these days. I used to write all the time, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Now that all of my undergraduate prerequisites are over, the only writing I do these days is either scientific writing, emails, or facebook posts. While scientific writing does require a certain amount of creativity, it is expected to be non-conversational and employ only data and observations. For me, scientific writing has been difficult to warm up to, since everything I write has always been naturally conversational. Unfortunately, I do not make the rules of the science world. If I did we would most certainly have jet packs and those kick ass hoverboards from Back to the Future part 2. Anyways, this blog is created to give me somewhere to write whatever I want, however I want, ungraded and unscrutinized. I hope whoever reads this is entertained (if anyone reads it) but I honestly am not doing it to entertain, or delude myself into thinking that people actually care what I am up to or what my thoughts on certain things are. I just want to write. Essays, updates, and the like. If you like it, great. Thanks for reading. If not, I don't care. Don't read it.