LET THE PAINTING BEGIN!
< 1 minute read
February 13, 2004, 9:40 PM
Well! The floor has been cleared, the walls have been cleared, the walls have been spackled, the walls have been sanded, and now it is time to paint. After work, I bought three gallons of Colorplace paint, in that “Manatee” color that I told you about. I also bought a Mainstays brand roller kit, and a plastic shield for doing the top of the walls so I don’t get the ceiling like I did in my Potomac Hall room, as you can see:
Continue reading…Categories: Bedroom remodel, JMU
Somehow I know we’re getting six more weeks of winter…
< 1 minute read
February 2, 2004, 10:27 AM
My good friend Ellen Bowman Kokinda had this on her away message:
Thanks a lot Punxsutawney Phil for the crappy prediction……you suck
Somehow, I think the groundhog saw his shadow. And it doesn’t bother me… I like winter.
I had a professor one time who actually was a major groundhog fan, telling us how he used to keep a groundhog as a pet. He said he had to get rid of the groundhog when his wife said it was either her or the groundhog. Then of course he also said, “I celebrate Groundhog’s Day with a test!” A real one, worth 25% of the class grade. I kind of doubt the authenticity of his groundhog stories, but they were amusing at the time. But you never know for sure, since the guy was from Deerfield anyway.
Categories: JMU
Today is Katherine Watts’s birthday
< 1 minute read
January 2, 2004, 10:32 AM
Just one of those random things you remember about people… today is the 23rd birthday of Katherine Watts, a friend and classmate from elementary school in Rogers, Arkansas. I haven’t seen her since we moved to Virginia back in 1992, and so in June it will be 12 years since I saw her. We still have an apple-shaped ornament that she did for me in preschool that we still put on the tree every year. Still, happy birthday to Katherine Watts.
Otherwise, today is my last day in the Staunton Wal-Mart as an associate. Monday all of us Waynesboro associates will be starting down there for the big January 21 grand opening. I’m excited. And I get this weekend off. So I’m going to Washington DC on Saturday (as in tomorrow) to ride Metro and take photos of stuff.
Categories: Elementary school, Walmart
Newest D-Hall security device that would be amusing to see: Iron Maidens
< 1 minute read
December 12, 2003, 6:43 PM
While I was talking to the D-Hall cashier today, we had two people try to sneak in without paying (they were tracked down and made to pay). That led to two discussions…
First of all, we discussed how silly it was to try to avoid paying in D-Hall, since you pay with a punch, which is already paid for with tuition.
However, the second part was amusing. How do we keep people from, shall we say, “jumping the turnstile”? It came up that turnstiles would help, with people swiping their JAC cards like New Yorkers swipe their Metrocards. Metrocards, for those of you who don’t know, replaced the fabled subway token for good in 2003.
So you swipe your JAC, it’s verified, and the turnstile opens. Go eat. But you want to really be secure about it, and prevent people from simply going out the in? Install what is known as an “iron maiden” at the entrances and exits. An iron maiden is a big wheel with bars radiating out from it that only turns one way, and only lets you go one way on it. New York’s used them for entrances and exits on the subway for years. Swipe your JAC on a reader, the inbound iron maiden unlocks and lets you in, and then on the way out you use the outbound iron maiden. In the event of an emergency, people can still exit through the iron maidens. And like I said, New York’s been using them for years in the subway.
I think it would be quite amusing to see an iron maiden-style turnstile installed in D-Hall, and is HIGHLY unlikely to ever happen, but you must admit that an iron maiden would be effective…
Categories: JMU
The scary part about finals is…
2 minute read
December 11, 2003, 9:41 AM
The scary part about finals is when you finish the final exam and turn it in, and know that you have completed all the work for the course, and you now have a final grade, and it’s just a matter of finding it.
It’s downright scary, too. You’ve finished your final exam in a course. So now, you have a grade, and there’s nothing you can do about it. And you don’t know what the grade is, for that matter, until some time next week.
So now is what we call the waiting game. La dee da dee doo… waiting, waiting, waiting. Nerve-racking is what it is. But anyway, on another topic…
I was waiting for the elevator at Taylor Down Under and talking to the desk attendant, and the fire alarm went off. Since I was in TDU, I went out through the main door, past the annunciator. It said that the alarm originated from a second-floor duct detector (a smoke detector in an air duct). Don’t know what caused the alarm, though. But it was cool to hear, plus see the strobes, needless to say.
Categories: Fire alarms, JMU, Transit
It’s interesting way up here!
2 minute read
December 7, 2003, 2:54 AM
Well, my new chair was good, had no rips, was assembled, and my big can is sitting in it.
So how is it? It’s good! It’s firmer than my old chair, and arms that are shiny metal in places and padded in other places. The old chair had arms that were all wood (real wood, mind you). This one also has an all-metal wheel setup, whereas the old one had all the structure made of metal, and wood covers (again real wood). The wood covers were only glued on, though, and were known to come loose from time to time and had to be kicked down. It also raises up higher than my old chair, which is rather interesting, since I can actually dangle my feet in this chair, which I couldn’t do before due to not being able to elevate that high.
For now, I stashed the old chair in Sis’s room (she’s at Tech, so it’s not like I’m inconveniencing her or anything), along with the box, since I don’t feel like taking the box out right now (it is nearly 4 AM), and someone might want the old chair.
I remember when I bought the old chair and retired my two-chairs-ago chair, Kevin Carlton and Chris Derusha, my next-door neighbors in McGraw-Long, gladly took it, removed the base from it, and lashed it onto one of the JMU-issued chairs.
Karaoke is definitely something else…
3 minute read
December 4, 2003, 5:50 PM
D-Hall had their “Breakfast for dinner and Karaoke” night this evening, and it definitely was fun. And I didn’t know about it coming into it, but it still was fun.
After eating dinner, I decided to look through the catalog for songs that I knew well enough to try and sing. Then I thought, Why don’t I try my hand at it? So I really went hunting.
Now all my really favorite songs are oddball songs that most people haven’t heard of, but I do enjoy some mainstream songs. I originally wanted to sing something by Valdy or Bruce Cockburn, but they didn’t have it in their catalog. So back hunting I go. They didn’t have Five O’Clock World by The Vogues in there, and so I finally found two I felt really confident in singing, and went to choose.
I had narrowed it down to the Macarena and Macarthur Park. Both songs I knew quite well. I ended up choosing Macarthur Park, because of what version Macarena was. It was the Bayside Boys Mix, and besides the fact that it wasn’t my favorite version of the song (preferring the all-Spanish versions of the song), the English lyrics were definitely written for a female. I think people would start to talk if they heard me sing:
Yay for snow…
2 minute read
December 4, 2003, 1:37 PM
Yippity-hoo. It’s snowing. And as such, I slid right into a ditch on my way up to Harrisonburg today on I-64. I was not hurt, and neither was the car, but still, it’s an excellent example of why you need to drive carefully. And if that’s not enough, seeing a huge semi with a big chunk out of it jackknifed in the median of I-81 (thankfully not blocking traffic) should convince you to take it, as gangsters on The Flintstones would say, “Nice and slow.”
But yes, it is indeed snowing outside. Augusta County schools were closed today. So were Harrisonburg City schools, Rockingham County Schools, Blue Ridge Community College, and a host of others. JMU was in session.
Meanwhile, a brief discussion of the rules of the parking lot: there are none. See, some JMU students are some seriously spoiled brats. Now due to landing in the ditch on my way up, I was late for class. So I had to seriously hunt for parking. I first went to the gravel lot, which was full. So I went to J-Lot, my usual lot, which was also full. There was this one girl in her little yuppie SUV sitting smack in the middle of the end of one of the (wide) lanes in the lot. Turns out that sitting and impeding traffic was her way of hunting for parking. But we’ll get to that later.
Categories: Driving, JMU, Weather, Winter weather
Why does everyone ask me about their public speaking performance?
< 1 minute read
December 2, 2003, 8:49 PM
After my international relations class today, where two groups did a presentation about different books, a number of people asked me how they did on their presentation as far as performance.
Why me?
Well, I presume that they respect me enough to value my opinion, which is nice to know, but here’s why I found it strange that they asked me. I was the only person in the class who thought ahead and weaseled out of having to speak in front of the class.
I did, however, spearhead the whole PowerPoint presentation for the group. It worked out for us, though, since I commute to JMU from out of town, and thus group meetings would have been very hard to pull off.
Still, the people who asked me did a good job, and that’s what I told them. But nonetheless, it was odd that they asked me of all people, the one who weaseled out of a public speaking appearance…
Categories: JMU
Sometimes I just amuse myself…
2 minute read
November 18, 2003, 11:32 AM
I had my CARR (Case Analysis Research Report) presentation today in PUAD 420. And since all the projects in that class are individual, I’ve been known to embellish my projects somewhat to make them amusing for myself. And I know I’ve mentioned it here before, but my CARR was about the fictional transit agency called the Carinthia Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, otherwise known as CMATA, which is loosely based on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, otherwise known as WMATA, or Metro.
So I did my presentation, and spent hours preparing it. And thus the amusing parts come in. All the characters were named for Metro stations. I had a guy named Farragut West as the chairman of the board, a guy named Dan Loring (after Dunn Loring/Merrifield station) as the general manager, Woodley Park (after Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan station) as the financial manager, Forrest Glen as the CASHRail Manager (CASH stands for Carinthia Accesses Surrounding ‘Hoods, by the way), Amanda McPherson (after McPherson Square station) as the CASHBus Manager, and the maintenance supervisor was a woman named Franconia Springfield. I also had customers named Addison Rhodes (Addison Road), Naylor Rhone (Naylor Road), Anacostia Rivera (Anacostia), and Ford Totten (Fort Totten).
But where I really amuse myself is with some of the visuals. I introduced what the fundamental problem in the case was (which was capital planning) via two pictures. Here they are:
“Never use a big word when a little filthy one will do.”
< 1 minute read
November 13, 2003, 12:22 PM
Johnny Carson once said, “Never use a big word when a little filthy one will do.”
Thus today on the way to JMU and then on the way to and from classes, in the wind. And goodness, what a bunch of wind we’re getting, too. Supposedly, it’s supposed to get up to almost 50 today. With this wind, it feels like winter coming to visit with a vengeance. And let’s not forget my car, which is a tall, large vehicle. (Recall that it’s a Toyota Previa) Blown around like a leaf on the freeway.
Now a driver seeing me get blown all over Interstate 81 could say, “I am lacking a conception of what the operator of the conveyance ahead of me is attempting to accomplish.” Big words. Compare, though…
This is what we say when we use the little filthy ones instead: “D—! What in the f— does this a—— f—ing think he’s doing?” That gets the point across just as well.
Who’s worse? Your run-of-the-mill spammers, or JMU?
< 1 minute read
November 6, 2003, 1:15 PM
It’s a toss-up. JMU likes to spam its students on a regular basis. Sure, it’s not anything like the run-of-the-mill spammers who want to get me a mortgage, a supercharged sex life, stocks and more stocks, and porn out the wazoo, but JMU is really getting on my nerves with their school-wide Emails, which really should only be reserved for emergencies. Look at this one:
Now is the time to grab some great deals for the holiday.
Support JMU’s Adult Degree Program’s online auction. Go to
http://www.bisauction.com now! Get registered and then have
fun bidding on some fabulous items like a 2 night stay in
Williamsburg, some great JMU items including a JMU Gumball
Machine, and a cute puppy dog. The auction will continue
through November 21. For more information, e-mail adult-
degree-program@jmu.edu.
There you go. Unsolicited commercial Email from JMU. Let’s say it together: SPAM! The subject even started with the word “Adult”. It’s now really now a case of the pot calling the kettle black, because JMU’s IT department on one hand has all kinds of weird spam filters that eat all kinds of legitimate Email, and then on the other hand facilitates almost any JMU department or organization’s sending its own spam out…
And the story comes back from my first college party…
3 minute read
November 1, 2003, 5:04 PM
Well, I went out with a number of former Potomac-ers, like Patrick, Chris, Jackson, Jason, Will, and Adam, as well as several others. You’ll of course recognize the people from College Life. Since it was Halloween, I wore the scariest thing I owned, which is how I describe my “I Bleed Schumin” shirt. Patrick went as a crocodile (in an inflatable costume no less!), Jackson went as a lifeguard, Chris as a pirate, Jason was… something else (hard to describe), plus we had a hula dancer, road signs, a cop, Billy Joel, and much more.
I think all in all I had like five beers, maybe four or five shots of vodka, plus a trip with the “ice luge”, which is basically where you put your face on the end of a groove in a big block of ice, and people pour alcohol down the groove into your mouth.
Needless to say, I was blasted. Totally smashed. However, I was a happy drunk, getting very friendly, even as I was kind of running into one wall after another and leaning on everyone and everything. I would dare say I was hanging on everyone at least once through the course of the evening. Still, I felt so light on my feet! My legs felt like rubber as I tried to maintain my balance. My face also felt like rubber, which was an interesting feeling. But yes, I was very drunk.
Categories: JMU
I’m going to my first college party tonight!
< 1 minute read
October 31, 2003, 6:19 PM
Yes, it’s halloween, and I’m going to my first ever college party. Oh, I feel like such a freshman, but unlike the freshies, I’m legal to drink.
I feel like such a nerd… I’m 22 years old, and a fifth-year senior, and only now am I going to my first party.
Categories: JMU
Wilson Hall is starting to look like a campground!
< 1 minute read
October 30, 2003, 8:36 PM
The night before Halloween, there’s bunches of people camped out in Wilson Hall waiting to sign up for Alternative Spring Break trips. From what I understand, there are limited spaces on these trips, and so if you want the one you want, you really have to get there early and then camp out to hold your spot.
Alternative Spring Break trips, for those of you who don’t know, are basically community service trips to different areas both in the United States and in other countries. And it has quite a history of high involvement at JMU.
I did something similar quite recently – an alternative fall break trip to Pittsburgh about two weeks ago, where we worked at a soup kitchen, a drop in center, and Sojourner House.
However, the camping is where I draw the line. With the LPCM alternative fall break trip, we took as many as wanted to go. All I had to do was fill out the proper paperwork, which took five minutes. But there is no way in HELL that I’m camping on the floor of Wilson Hall, no matter how noble the cause. There’s just something about a cold, hard concrete floor that doesn’t go over well with me.
All in all, I commend them for their dedication to service, but I’ll pass on the floor, thank you.
Categories: JMU