Random Video!

I want to kidnap this kitty!

Wake Up!

So, I tend to have this chronic problem of being 15-20 minutes late for work. It's not that I'm a complete slacker or that I keep my finger glued to the snooze button each morning. I'm just a heavy sleeper and will often completely sleep through my multiple alarm clocks. Since I'm sick of leaving the office at 5:20, I've been shopping around for a new alarm clock and have found some interesting discoveries which I figured I should share.
One of the more interesting alarm clocks I have found is the amazing helicopter alarm clock. This alarm clock wakes heavy sleepers like me, by launching a mini-helicopter in your bedroom. There is no simple snooze button available on this clock. Instead, the sleepy-eyed person must get out of bed and catch the flying alarm clock in order to turn it off. At first, the concept of this not only sounded hilarious to me but also genius. That is until I had visions of me either spraining my ankle or stepping on my cat in my crabby-morning state.
Another alterna-clock, is the alarm clock on wheels. When the alarm goes off on this clock, it rolls off your night stand and around your bedroom, which also forces you out of bed, running around trying to turn off its obnoxious alarm. I worry about this alarm clock slamming into my walls, and thus making enemies with my neighbors.
I also found a surprising number of specialty alarm clocks with a bed-shaking unit. The bed shaking unit is a pad that hooks up to the clock and basically vibrates when the alarm sounds.
I was amazed at the number of cleverly designed alarm clocks I found in the short period of time I spent googling. Perhaps I will purchase one of these fancy clocks and will start a new trend of showing up early for work!

Jitterbug Days

Typically on my days off of work I feel as if I have a long list of things I need to do or things that I should be doing. Today I woke up with the overwhelming urge to do absolutely nothing on my day off. The hot, rainy weather was just begging me to stay inside, relaxed on my couch with my book. Though the thought of doing nothing made me feel guilty and honestly a little anxious. My days off of work are precious to me and I feel the need to spend this time wisely and productively. As I was contemplating what to do, I looked over and saw my cat, Jitterbug. There he was, sprawled out on the floor on his back, legs in the air and eyes closed. This is a common pose for him, as he is a very calm cat who spends 90% of his days lounging around my apartment. I know it sounds strange, but seeing him so peaceful motivated me to give myself a Jitterbug day. A day to do nothing, but relax, read, and laugh my ass off while watching South Park reruns.

Not So Random Cotton Candy...

Random Video...

Painting and whiskey...

What's Goin' On...

Some days I find myself wondering if the world has completely given up on common decency. Treating others with respect, displaying good manners, and simply minding your P's and Q's seems to be totally out of fashion. I'm not claiming to be Polly Perfect, but I do put forth the effort to follow the golden rule. Sometimes I'm successful, sometimes I'm not. However, the past week I've been witness to several situations that has made my inner cynic grow stronger. I could blog on each separate occasion that I've seen these random acts of rudeness, but for fear of sounding like a whiner I decided to condense them into this one little post so that I can plead to the few readers of my blog (if any?) to stop the madness! Please, remember the manners your parents taught you! Be nice to others! Don't honk your horn when you're in traffic for no good reason. You can't move your car because no one else can move theirs in rush hour! Don't talk in movie theaters. It's not your living room. Your seats don't face each other for a reason and your fellow movie-goers didn't pay $10 to hear your commentary! Don't flake out on your friends. If you don't want to honor your plans with them, at least have the common courtesy to call and make up an excuse, any excuse! And finally, don't dump your beer on baseball players. Yeah, they get paid an insane amount of money to play the best sport ever created, but that doesn't give you carte blanche to get drunk and act like a douchebag and make us other fans look bad! My point is, if we all start treating each other better, then people are going to start treating us better. So, just be nice!

My Guilty Pleasure

One of my favorite summer guilty pleasures is the television show Big Brother. Before you get all TV snobby with me, hear me out about why this show is so fantastic. First of all, Big Brother is basically a sociological experiment for our viewing pleasure. The season begins with a mixed bag of characters, who are forced to live in one house together. In this house, there is no television, music, reading (except for the Bible, of course), and no telephone. Essentially, they are cut off from the outside world which really messes with their minds. Since it is a reality show, there are of course a variety of competitions, wherein the houseguests must compete with each other for food, luxury prizes, and the title of Head of Household. As with other reality shows, people are voted out of the house each week and the last person in the house earns a sizable amount of cash.
So, each summer I become obsessed with this show. It's strange and somewhat shameful how I am always able to choose my favorite people in the house and root for them all summer long to win the prize. Sadly, most of the time the most vile people end up winning. Perhaps I'm just a creepy voyeur, but I like to think of Big Brother as one of the smarter of the reality shows.

Friday Fun Flix!

I miss 80's music videos!

A Tribute to Walker and Dunn-Barton Halls

This past weekend I visited my good friend Adam in Bloomington-Normal. During my visit, Adam and I took a tour of our old campus at ISU. As expected, many things have changed at ISU. One of the saddest changes to see was that my old dorms, Walker and Dunn-Barton are no longer in existence. All that was left of my beloved dorms, was a mess of a construction site. I'm assuming ISU has finally decided to tear down these old dorms, so that they can offer newer and better housing for their students. So I've decided to share with you, some of my memorable moments at Walker and Dunn-Barton.
1. Sister Bertha
Sister Bertha was my freshman year RA. She was a 40-something year old nun from Kenya, studying at ISU. Obviously, I was very surprised when I first met my RA, but not nearly as surprised as when my boy-crazy, club-loving roommate asked Sister Bertha to help her mend her favorite sparkly, green thong. Yeah.
2. The Tissue Incident
My sophomore year at ISU, I was sitting on the front steps of Walker Hall with a friend one evening. While talking and enjoying our cigarettes, we noticed a couple, sitting in their car in front of Walker getting a little frisky at the end of their date. After finishing our smokes, my friend decided to go inside and grab some tissues from the front desk. She then proceeded to walk down to the car, knock on the window and hand the couple the tissues, before adding, "Looks like you'll be needing these."
3. Chatters
Chatters was the coffee shop/sandwich shop/pizza shop/smoothie shop, located in Walker Hall. I spent many hours at Chatters hanging out with my friends, listening to bad Open Mic night acts, and was also an employee at Chatters my junior and senior year of ISU.
4. Sweltering Hot Dorm Rooms
At the beginning of each fall semester, ISU posted signs throughout the dorms reminding students that Walker and Dunn-Barton were the oldest dorms on campus, and due to the age of the buildings they were unable to provide air conditioning. Thus our affection for these old dorms were tested during the fall days when our rooms felt more like an oven.
5. Top Gun Moments
In the space between Walker and Dunn-Barton, was a sand volleyball court. My friends and I were very appreciative of this volleyball court, as it provided us with our very own Top Gun moments while we watched tall, attractive, shirtless men playing volleyball in the sun.
6. The Porch People
In the front of Dunn-Barton Hall, was a large porch, on which my friends and I used to smoke cigarettes and of course, people watch. During the day, you would of course find other smokers and the occasional guy acting as if he could play the acoustic guitar and sing (not easy on the ears!). However, in the evenings, especially the weekends, we could be endlessly entertained by the drunks who would congregate on the porch. We were witness to girl fights, heavy make-out sessions, and of course drunken Tom Foolery.

So these are just a few of my most memorable moments of Walker and Dunn-Barton. This list could go on and on, but the point is that ISU will never be the same to me without Walker and Dunn-Barton.