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cranialt
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Name: Cranial
Country: United States
State: Florida
Metro: Orlando
Birthday: 7/5/1977
Gender: Male
Interests: Cooking, painting, writing, reading, meditation, drums, philosphy/spirituality, contrarian behavior, camping, tinkering w/ my motorcycle, riding said bike, Tai Chi, Chai Tea, and more!
Expertise: Paradoxical Contradiction Manifestation
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  villainousmonk
Member Since:
6/13/2003
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| I just wanted to make a quick post to say "hi" to everybody, and explain that I'm not dead yet. There's a lot I suppose I could write about, but I'm not going to at this time. Here's the skinny in a nutshell... 1) I've decided that I like writing. A lot. So, I've started writing short stories and stuff for fun, while I'm at work. I've even posted the first section of one on my "public" blog (http://www.cranialtyro.com). It's my first attempt at science fiction, and I'm currently looking for "peer review" feedback. marne has already been kind to give me some of that, but I'm interested in as much as I'll get from people. Besides, I know some of you subscribers are also fellow sci-fi geeks. 2) I've decided that the Education department at UCF is pathetic/irrelevant/poorly mismanaged. Case in point: every Ed. major I tell that I'm switching my major to Creative Writing says "So you've decided not to be a teacher?" Not at all. I've just realized that I'm 10x better off by learning how to teach English through careful observation of my English Department classes, than by all of the Education Department classes combined. I've modified the old hacker rule--Don't program in a language that doesn't compile itself--to fit my educational experience: Don't waste your time in Educational theory classes that don't practice the theories presented. I've had enough of the Education department to know that it is only useful insomuch as I can learn what not to do as a teacher by watching most of the professors teaching there. 3) marne and I have moved into a house with a friend of mine that I knew way back in my days as a netadmin at EWI. I'm still in love with her, and am glad she moved here, we moved in together, etc. 4) I'm currently working in a call center, yet again. It doesn't pay what pizza delivery did, but there's a lot less wear and tear on the car, nobody is afraid of me getting jacked/robbed/etc. on a delivery, and it provides plenty of time for reading and writing. Anyhow, that's it for now. Ask questions about whatever I've left out that's important "I'm not dead yet" information. PS. What's this bullshit about "Rating" in xanga now? | | |
| OK, OK, so I've been gone for a really long time. Here's a brief run-down of the last 6 months or so and what's happened of note.
School: Finished my last semester with 2 A's and 1 B+. Not too shabby. Currently, I've got two classes this semester, which ends at the end of June (roughly). I'm in class Tuesdays from 1-10pm, and Thursdays from 1-5pm, with a bunch of online crap every week. This is made possible due to unemployment (see below).
Work: Just before the end of last semester, the following series of events happened. On a Monday, the pizza place I worked at was sold. On Friday (just 4 days later) the new owner declared bankruptcy. The next morning (Saturday) he came in early to close the store permanently (I found out when I went in to open the store that he'd declared bankruptcy and closed the store). The next afternoon (Sunday), he killed himself.
Hence, I'm unemployed. Right now, I'm living off of a combination of savings, credit card and parental help. I'm also trying to get as much money in grants, student loans, etc. this coming Fall semester. Hopefully, I won't need nearly as much, due to moving and such (see below).
Romance: marne has moved down to Orlando from Chicago.  We're basically living together right now, though I've still technically got my apartment and she's in my friend's girlfriend's extra room. We're looking for a new place to move into at the end of July. We figure, if we move into a place that we can afford (if necessary) by ourselves, then we can scrape by with a 2 bedroom. So, we'll get a 2 bedroom apartment, live in one of the rooms ourselves and have a third roommate in the second room--and split the rent/bills three ways. Thus, it should be significantly less than what I'm paying right now for rent, which helps out my work situation (see above).
I'm trying to get school done and over with, so I'm going to avoid working and just do school if it'll mean I graduate at the end of 2007.
Family: This is the kinda shitty news. A couple of weeks ago (Mother's Day weekend, actually) my dad was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had brain surgery. It went pretty well (as far as brain surgery goes, right?), and the doctors said they got all of the tumor. My dad's been recovering nicely. He's making sense when he talks, can tell time again and actually work with numbers (being an accountant, that's a kinda big deal), and has even been given the OK to drive (he drove my Aunt, who has been here in order to look out for him (she's both his sister and a nurse in Lubbock, TX) to the airport just two days ago). So, that's good.
The tumor was a metastasized melanoma (sp? I'm too lazy to dictionary.com it). It was an aggressive one, growing to about the size of a cherry in what they estimate to be 4-5 weeks. The docs are pretty certain it wasn't the only one, but don't know from whence it came. They can't find any evidence of it in the lungs, which makes the next most likely place the brain. So, he's going to start radiation treatment on the whole brain in the next week or two.
Ummm, that's pretty much it for this. I'll try to get another update on my life sometime before the start of 2007.
Later,
CT | | |
| Warning: Unusually emoticon-filled sappiness below.
So, I guess it's about damn time for yet another xanga update on the happenings of my life. Where to begin...
First, the best news. marne has been here for the last few days to visit me.  I took her to the airport almost 2 hours ago.  To say that I'm going to miss her is, well, an understatement. To say that right now, I feel like I'm coming down from the best trip of my life is probably a bit of an understatement, too. So, let me just move on to the second point:
A slight retraction of a previous post. Once upon a time, I wrote something to the effect of: Heaven is a state of being: specifically, the state of being drunk and in love. I was wrong. Heaven is a state of being: specifically, the state of being drunk on love. What can I say? I'm being a bit introspective as I wait for the time when I have to go to work later today.
Moving along to the standard Cranial Tyro fare. I got my grades back a few weeks ago from last semester. Somehow, the B I was certain of became an A. I guess "class participation" doesn't require the level of participation I had assumed. All of my classes decided to drop the minus signs, too. So, I rocked the GPA charts with a solid 4.0. The new semester starts Monday. I'm not entirely thrilled, seeing how I never actually got to the "shit to do on break" list, with the exception of the above to points. 
Oh, and I've also been jamming in a band, too. I even coughed up the money to buy myself another double-bass pedal for my drums to replace the half-a-double-bass pedal that I was left with as I lost one pedal to a church I used to play for (it would've been a bit assinine to quite literally take my pedal and go home, leaving them with a drum set but not ability to play the bass drum). The guitarist is one of my roommates. We practice in the garage where I've got my motorcycle and drums stored (along with a fake Christmas tree an old roommate left, and a truck tool kit a different old roommate asked me to store and has basically forgotten about), and now some mics and a P/A system. So far, the cops have only been called on us twice, and the apartment security has only shut us down about three times. Not bad, seeing how we're a metal band that always ends up practicing at around 9pm or later on weekdays.
Christmas was cool, even though I really don't celebrate the holiday. I celebrate it with family, though. Celebrating Chanukah with marne was cool, too. Mad delicious treats to eat, plus some wicked cool presents, some of which I'll probably post pics of at a later time.
Ummm, I guess that's enough for this entry. Now to go eat some breakfast before I go work all day and hopefully start making enough money for air fare and a spring break vacation... | | |
| "No more pencils,
No more books,
No more teachers' dirty looks
..."
Well, almost. I've got one more final left. On Friday, of course. But, I've got enough grades back to know that I've definitely got the following minimums:
Advanced Expository Writing: A
Classroom Learning Principles: A-
World Literature II: C
Theories of Literature: C
I don't know my grade on my final paper in World Lit II, but if it's the A I suspect, then I've got an A in the class, overall. Or, an A-. Depending on how much of a stickler for that crap he wants to be. The A- in Classroom Learning Princ. could be an A, but I'm betting it stays at an A-.
Theories of Lit, I need to get an 88% or higher on the final to get an A- in the class. Anything over a 40% and I've got a B-, at least. So, I'm expecting to get an A, 2 A-'s, and a B+.
So, that's the Collegiate Nonsense update. On to the rest of this semblance of a life...
Work is going ok. It's taken me months, but I've finally worked out a schedule that's good. I open the store on Sat and Sun as the only driver, which means that I can make a good deal of money and still get out of there by 8pm or so. It's taken me about 4 months to get back my Sunday afternoon shift from when the idiot and asshole took over and took me off of that shift to piss me off. I'm glad I got it back, cuz last week we were really busy. I made as much money on the two weekend days in tips as I usually make all week. Plus, I work more overall hours because those two days are "full-time" days, as opposed to the shitty "four hours at best" nights I was getting.
Social life is about the same as it ever was, except that my roommate has moved a PA system and some amps into my garage. We've been jamming every now and then. It's a fun hobby, and inexpensive, too. Well, mostly. I'm already wishing I had a new floor-tom drum head, some plywood and carpeting under the set to keep it from moving, and a new bass pedal. Heh. I won't be buying them, though, until I've saved up a good chunk of money first.
In the meantime, I've gotta listen to the mp3's of some songs they've got written already (my roommate and his friend, the singer/bassist). I'd like to not be totally lost all the time.
Oh, and last but not least, I might be getting a new(er) car sometime soon. On Thanksgiving weekend, when I was down visiting the family, my mom and dad mentioned that they'd pitch in to help me get a car, up to $3K each. For now, I'm still planning on running my car into the ground; but, I'm also checking out various prices, models, etc. Who knows, maybe things will look up this coming semester...
Anyhow, for now I'm reading the book my mom gave me, as a chance to remember what non-academic reading is like. Tomorrow, I sell back some books and pay down some credit card debt... minus a few bucks for a bottle of vodka, in anticipation of Friday night's post final "celebration:" Some will drink to remember; some will drink to forget.
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| So, I don't know how much of my mid-termish stuff I've commented on, and I'm too lazy to read what I've already posted to figure it out. Hopefully it's not too redundant.
Anyhow, I've finally got all of my midterm grades back, with the exception of one paper (the one that I posted on my other blog). So far, I'm still an A student, though most of them are "A-" which means that I can't say I'm a 4.0 student. Stupid GPA weighting bullshit. Anyhow, I did get a non A- (AKA: "A, fuck you") on a paper, which is pretty sweet. My paper on Voltaire's Candide ("Proposing Not: Antithesis As Thesis in Voltaire's Candide") got a 99 out of 100. Just a couple of stupid typos, really. There was even a comment at the end that "You are a good philosopher." I'm not sure why he underlined "you" like that, but oh well.
I just turned in my ESOL modules for one class today, so that's cool. I've got a paper due in Theories of Lit where I'm going to apply Marxist criticism to one of the closing chapters of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I think Marxism will be the easiest of my available choices (others are Psychoanalysis and Cultural Poetics/New Historicism), and have even figured out a way that'll free me from having to do external research (cuz, well, I really don't have time for that). Anyhow, that was going to be due tomorrow, which would mean I'd be writing it right now; but, the class got an extension until Monday. So, I'm going to work on it tomorrow, instead.
For tonight, I've just gotta read some more Kafka (Metamorphosis) and write 15 observations on a shot glass. I might even reward myself by taking a shot after each observation. 
Oh, and last week I went to observe a 1st grade class and help "tutor" the kids on reading. It was pretty fun, though there was way too much hyperactivity for me to consider elementary education (besides, I'd much rather teach Voltaire and Twain than Dr. Seuss and The Barrington Bears). Those kids are pretty damn cute and fun, though. I'm going to go back some time next week, I think... I've gotta work it into the rest of the schedule, but I do need to get another full day in before the end of the semester... and write all of my "reflections" on it.
For now, I'll wrap this up with the following statement: The Boondocks cartoon on [Adult Swim] Sunday nights at 11:00pm ET kicks much ass. If you get cable, turn it to the Cartoon Network to check it out....
Huey: "You can't counteract the racist White establishment by offering them cheese, grandad!"
Later on... Grandad confronted with the White banker talking to him about keeping the neighborhood "family" friendly...
Grandad: "Would you like some cheese?"
Whitey: "I'm sorry, did you just offer me cheese?"
Grandad: "Yes."
Whitey: "Why, thank you, I love cheese!"
Grandad to Huey: "What? You can't tell White people the truth! They'd riot!" | | |
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