As if I didn't want Guitar Hero II enough already...

And if you don't know Trogdor...what's the matter with you?! Go to HomeStarRunner.com immediately!

Woo! I've finally and officially paid off a student loan from waaaaaaaay back when I went to Specs Howard back in Michigan! The reason it took me so long was because - for a while, at least - I was thrown into half-time deferment on the loan, due to taking classes at FDU, so I didn't have to make any payments on it. Once I went on hiatus a couple years ago, though, that half-time deferment status ceased and never kicked back in, even when I started classes back up again. Weird. Anyway, it's one of my many debts that has finally been erased. Next in line is probably my Dell Preferred Account and then on to my illustrious credit cards.

Oddly enough, I'm actually familiar with the other 'me' out there; I've conversed with him in the past through random e-mails and such.

Additionally:

- There are 1,009,394 people in the U.S. with the first name Kevin.
- Statistically the 34th most popular first name. (It's nice to be popular sometimes.)
- 99.7 percent of people with the first name Kevin are male. (So there's an 0.3% out there that are females named Kevin? *blink*)

- There are 570 people in the U.S. with the last name Wojtaszek.
- Statistically the 44773rd most popular last name. (tied with 3752 other last names)

While I went into a building tonight to take care of equipment deliveries, someone from Public Safety (presumably a n00b) decided to ticket my car for illegal parking. You know, never mind the fact that I'm a service vehicle on campus, transporting equipment back and forth from early morning to late evening. Like I said, I'm assuming it was a n00b who wasn't familiar with my car (even though I have a sticker above my staff sticker that reads "Instructional Media Center") and he figured I was just some random staff member who didn't feel like walking from the parking lot to the building for class. But then again...there were at least 3-4 other cars parked back there and not a single other car had a summons on it. Hmph.

Needless to say, I'm appealing it with the head of Public Safety, as I haven't had a problem being ticketed in years. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $50 because I was, you know, only doing the job I've been hired to do for the past seven years as I've done it for the past seven years.

It's always something around here, ain't it?

Mike Greiner is my new hero. I finally understand why the grammar skills of college students seem to be sorely lacking - it's because they were never taught in the first place!

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

This documentary looks damn interesting. I'm hoping that a theater around here will play it when it releases.

You know you're tired in the morning when you walk up to an equipment closet and try to unlock it with your car remote.

And Circuit City of Livingston, New Jersey? One of their managers, Ryan, is a kick-ass, stand-up guy. You remember my choice words for Magnavox yesterday? Well, Ryan is the anti-Magnavox.

FUCK YOU.

Maybe if you ever learn to support your products and stick to your word, I might buy a product from you again.

Until then, you can go fuck yourselves.

Urgh. My aching back. Excrutiating pain.

I need a vacation. A long one. Away from technology. Maybe with an exception for my PS2. And even then, I'd still be in pain while playing it.

Well, I found out today why the other job in my department hasn't been posted yet and why I've been forced to bust my ass 70 hours a week for nearly two months straight. It was just complete apathy from two different parties, resulting in the job posting sitting and collecting dust since August, all because one person couldn't bother to answer a few simple questions about the job description and the other party never followed up on those questions.

Needless to say, I'm furious.

They're lucky I'm so close to finishing my degree (well, I would be if I had time to take classes this semester), otherwise I'd be looking for employment elsewhere pretty damn quickly.

To add to my pissy mood, Cablevision still hasn't activated my NHL Center Ice package, despite my having A) ordered it online back at the end of September and even receiving an e-mail confirming that I had done so and B) called last night during the Wings/Coyotes game to find out why it wasn't activated. Apparently, the computer order never got into human hands, so they apologized and said they'd activate it then. I waited for my channels to show up...and waited...and waited...and eventually just resigned myself to watching the Tigers game on ESPNHD.

So I just called again now (from work, since, you know, I'm stuck working these late night hours) and got bounced from operator to operator. When I finally got to someone that I thought would help me, she couldn't because I'm not in front of the cable box and unfortunately, Danielle didn't pick up her phone for me to act as the middleman, so that was another wasted call to Cablevision.

Argh.

I'd look forward to the weekend, except I have to work on Sunday.

Anybody know where I can find some inexpensive surround sound systems? Nothing too fancy, something less than $50, and no built-in DVD players. Needs to be an online vendor too, preferably someone that will accept purchase orders if at all possible. I've been checking 6th Ave. Electronics, but nothing's come up lately that matches what I'm looking for. As always, any assistance is greatly appreciated.

When I answer the phone at work saying "Instructional Media", I am constantly puzzled when I'm met with one of two responses that shouldn't occur:

1) "Is this Instructional Media?"

Nope, I just like answering phones using their department name. Looks like you caught me. I'll transfer you.

2) "Is this (insert other completely non-related department name here)?"

Yep, I was just trying to throw you off by answering as a completely different department.

*sigh*

Congrats to the Detroit Tigers on vanquishing the New York Chokers, er, Yankees in Game 4 of the ALDS!

What is it with me and electrical wires that has been causing them to, uh, ignite lately? First, it was the power cable inside my desktop comp at home. Now today, the AC adapter for the wireless microphone unit in Lenfell Hall decided to start wafting smoke from its wires. Fun fun fun. Radio Shack better have a suitable replacement AC adapter for me or a lot of people on campus are going to be very unhappy. Thankfully, this ain't my fault. Someone, while moving the amplifier cart, apparently slammed the adapter into something and messed up the wires, causing them to heat up and start smoking. Yay. So unless I can find a replacement adapter, that unit's going to be out of commission for at least a few weeks.

Also, I'm breaking my policy of not mentioning names on here for something positive. Barbara from the President's Office deserves a special shout-out today for helping me maintain my sanity this morning. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Should I be disturbed by this?

I saw a sign this morning on a classroom door mentioning that a professor would not be teaching class today because he's home with the "flue".

So...he's at home working on his fireplace?

*shakes head*

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

If you have a halfway decent indie movie theater in the vicinity, you absolutely must go see The Science of Sleep. It's absolutely brilliant, both visually and in terms of story. Danielle and I went to Millburn yesterday to see it (after my whole non-work debacle) and while Danielle left with a "Uhm, I'm not sure if I understood that..." reaction, we both greatly enjoyed it. It'll be one that I definitely get on DVD just to hear (or read, since it'll likely be subbed from French) the commentary to be able to fully "get" the writer and directors' vision.

And while it could easily be described as a simple "trippy" film, it's really powerful in terms of its romantic storyline. You're never quite sure how you're supposed to feel about the main character, Stéphane, or his pseudo-love interest Stéphanie...but whatever and whenever I felt it, I felt sadness for both of them. It was a film with plenty of "WTF?" moments and just as many moments of terrible emotion.

Go see it. And if you don't like it...uhm...I don't know what to tell you. Go see the new Kevin Costner/Ashton Kutcher flick, I guess.

Okay. If you're going to request an equipment setup from my department for an event scheduled on one of my rare days off, it would be nice to actually, I don't know, NOTIFY ME IN ADVANCE IF THE EVENT'S BEEN CANCELLED!!!

I came in early Sunday morning - one of my rare days off - to set up equipment for a group on campus. I waited around for well over an hour in the pouring rain...and no one showed up. No one bothered to call me and tell me if the event had been cancelled or anything.

So let's sum this up:

-Didn't get to sleep in on a day off.
-Had to go out in the early morning pouring rain.
-Waited over an hour.
-Left campus in a profanity-laced tirade.

Pardon my language, but this is bullshit. That group is dangerous close to ruining things for the rest of the campus in terms of my kind-hearted weekend service. Fuck that. Argh.