Now on Sundays

Doing the blog thing again both appeals and appalls. I'm the guy who sucks, plus I got the depression; so I'm not exactly rarin' to chronicle my endless wasted days. Yet if I don't purge once in a while in lexical catharsis, the gerbils in my head may stop running on their wheel and start gnawing on my brain. So maybe I'm going to post weekly. We'll see how that works out.

Again, not in the mood for expansive commentary, but here's a rundown.

(1) Am tense as hell about work. I've landed in the soup twice in the last two weeks. Most recent offense: apparently I talk to the young children in too sharp a tone. The week before, some third graders accused me of calling them "stupid." This didn't happen, of course, but I had to apologize to them anyway for losing my cool with them, which I did. I got worried about it, but it turned out to be a non-event. This sharp and supposedly sarcastic tone of mine coming so quickly at the heels of it, however, has depreciated my stock at Prestigius considerably. Hopefully I can repair the damage and get back to being the golden boy.

(2) Unless I get fired, I'll be doing summer camp for a few weeks after school. That might be fun.

(3) I'm going to 'Jeopardy!' auditions later this month. I passed the online test, which I took a few months back. I'll get to play a mock game and have a personality assessment!

(4) Health situation is neither ameliorated or deteriorated.

(5) I joined Facebook. Boy, that Scrabulous sure is fun. Also the other word games.

(5) Here's a meme Samurai Frog passed on.

1. Ten years ago I was: I'm terrible with dates. Checking the archives... Ah, my graduate transcript from my teaching portfolio informs me that in May 1998 I was in Oregon, finishing my master's thesis on colonialism in Asia. (I find was asked this question three years ago.)

2. Five things on today's to do list: 1. Get gas for the car (done, to the tune of $35). 2. Buy groceries for the next week or two (done, to the tune of $110). 3. Take the car in for repairs and new tires (put off until another day). 4. Play some internet trivia games and record the answers to the ones I don't know in my research book as practice for Jeopardy! (done, but will do again). 5. Worry like Peter Lorre in 'M' about work tomorrow (continuous).

3. Things I'd do if I were a billionaire: 1. Hire specialists in many fields to teach me things, like languages and how to fix a car and so on. 2. Go around the world on a ship (with a crew, I mean, not like crazed missing adventurer Steve Fossett). 3. Donate lots of money to charities: preventing animal cruelty (but not those nuts at PETA), cancer cures, saving rain forests, community-based education programs for poor kids, etc. 4. Eat like a king, baby! Japense sushi chefs, the finest filet mignon, Kobe beef, exotic fruits! 5. Swim in a money bin. No, not really. I would pay David Milch to finish 'Deadwood' the way it should have been.

4. Three bad habits: Biting my nails, worrying, being acerbic.

5. Five places I've lived: Texas (two cities), Oregon (two cities), New York (three cities at least), California (Los Angeles), Maryland (Baltimore).

6. Six jobs I've had in my life: Frozen yogurt store guy, after-school daycare assistant, alternative weekly editor, Alzheimer's ward aide, private school teacher.