Month: October 2013

Random 10 10-11-13

Last week. This week:

  1. “One After 909” by the Beatles, guessed by Occupant
    I begged her not to go and I begged her on my bended knee
  2. “Don’t Leave” by Faithless
    Packing your bags like people in the movies do
  3. “Sentimental Heart” by She & Him
    Piece of the puzzle and you’re my missing part
  4. “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live” by Bruce Springsteen
    Martha, get me my sixteen gauge and some dry shells
  5. “Cry, Cry, Cry” by Johnny Cash, guessed by Occupant
    I think you only live to see the lights of town
  6. “Shining Moon” by Cowboy Junkies
    Come on and crawl up to your window, darling
  7. “‘Til I Fell in Love With You” by Bob Dylan
    I feel like the whole world got me pinned up against the fence
  8. “Good Golly, Miss Molly” by Little Richard, guessed by Occupant
    When you’re rockin’ and a rollin’ can’t hear your momma call
  9. “No Bad News” by Patty Griffin
    Try to kill your own disease
  10. “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” by Prince & the New Power
    He just pushes her away in a huff

Good luck!

Sunday

I have done nothing more interesting in the past two days than watch the entire eighth season of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix.

I’d fallen out of the habit of watching it, but honestly I think the show is best when experienced in big blocks back to back. I really want to continue watching, but at the same time I worry about getting caught up and therefore falling out of the habit again. (The again, the ninth is apparently the final season, so maybe that’s not an issue.)

On Friday night, I re-watched Running Scared, inspired by this article about it and the discovery that it’s also on Netflix. It really does hold up very well. Then last night I watched Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing. I really think he and this “Shakespeare” fellow are going to go far. Also Amy Acker and Reed Diamond should be in everything. Everyone’s delightful — and Joss Whedon has a lovely house — but those two are really something special.

I’m off from work next week. It’s maybe not the single best week for it — I have my computer home with me and will probably read and send a few e-mails — but I’m nevertheless glad for it.

No writing group again this week — still on hiatus — and not much else going on.

Random 10 10-4-13

Last week. This week:

  1. “Not a Pretty Girl” by Ani DiFranco, guessed by random passer-by
    Isn’t there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?
  2. “Everyday People” by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts (orig. Sly and the Family Stone)
    My own beliefs are in the songs I sing
  3. “Vertigo” by U2
    Girl with crimson nails has Jesus around her neck
  4. “What a Wonderful World” by Willie Nelson (orig. Louis Armstrong), guessed by Clayton
    They’re really saying I love you
  5. “Mrs. Robinson” by Simon & Garfunkel, guessed by Clayton
    All you see are sympathetic eyes
  6. “Stickshifts and Safetybelts” by Cake, guessed by random passer-by
    I say, “Baby, scoot over, please”
  7. “Good Times, Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin, guessed by Clayton
    In the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man
  8. “I Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love With You” by Emilian Torrini (orig. Tom Waits)
    These old tom-cat feelings you don’t understand
  9. “Fire and Rain” by James Taylor, guessed by Clayton
    Lord knows when the cold wind blows it’ll turn your head around
  10. “Polyester Bride” by Liz Phair
    Do you want to flap your wings and fly away from here?

Good luck!

Thursday

I spent yesterday on campus — that’s a photo of, I think, the school’s mascot up above — talking with instructors and bookstore employees. I tried talking with someone at the library as well, but I was only able to leave my card thanks to the (quite noisy) renovation that was happening.

This is the first of three campus visits I’ll make this month — we’re tasked with about six meetings each at three different schools a semester — and this one went reasonably well. I still have to pull together my notes, and follow up with a couple of people by phone, but the heightened nervousness I was feeling at the start of it kind of went away. To be replaced only by ordinary nervousness, but at least that’s a step up. I think I was just so out of practice, since we don’t have to do this over the summer, and had such a difficult time actually scheduling these appointments, that I was fearing the worst.

I wouldn’t say yesterday was the best, but the weather was nice, the campus was small and easy to get around — it’s ten minutes from my door and I’d never been there before — and I think I walked away with some interesting feedback. And my hat’s off to the one professor at the end of the afternoon who still agreed to meet despite having her young ear-infected son and nowhere for him to be except for underfoot.

Anyway, today was a pretty good day as well. I had three phone calls with instructors planned, which turned into one. (The first wasn’t there but called me back; the second apologized for giving me the wrong day; and the third was apparently on the phone with someone else when I called…and, in all fairness, hadn’t confirmed the time with me anyway.) But, more important, I finished the large report I wasn’t expecting to finish until at least tomorrow afternoon. It’s been delayed a lot longer than I wanted it to be, and I’m glad to finally have it off my plate.

Not least of all because I won’t be in the office at all next week.