I chatted briefly with an old buddy from high school today on AIM. She surprised me by telling me she thinks I am a “neat person” and that she still reads this area of my site. That’s very high praise from her, actually. It’s not like hearing that you’re cool from a family member or someone that loves you; strangers, acquaintances, friends, and enemies actually critique you, often in quite different ways than even the most nitpicking family members do. There’s a certain amount of distance in those four types of relationships that makes judgements both more and less valid (using I don’t know who’s standard of a valid judgement…).…

To Whom it May Concern: Sir or Madame International Baccalaureate Organization employee, my account at your Test Results site has been blocked. I am truly sorry that I was impatient and attempted to obtain my scores early in a persistant manner. I understand the error of my ways. However, two whole hours have passed since my last attempt to log in with my pin that you will not accept as valid; is it not in everyone’s best interests to let bygones be bygones and let me get my scores? My IB Coordinator is vacationing this week and I will not be able to get my scores from her. Likewise, I…

I keep a playlist called “Flat-out Coolness” in which I drop tracks I run across while I listen to music that I haven’t yet rated in WIndows Media Player. The song in there currently is called “Spill the Beans” by Fila Brazillia. It’s on a CD called Ultra Chilled Vol. 2 (I also have Vol 1). Each of the Ultra Chilled volumes is a set of two CDs of… well, I don’t know the label for that type of music. Think Moby, Orbital, and Massive Attack. They usually have tracks on the CDs, actually. Anyway, this “Spill the Beans” has a great combination of vocals and calming, yet driving music.…

I asked a grown man yesterday why he’d resumed an addiction that had landed him in his first bankruptcy and led him to have to fight off a slew of other addictions, all 13 years ago. I didn’t ask him in so many words, of course. I just said, “So why are you drinking again?” It was barely a question, given that I expected to be brushed off. He replied that what I thought was new had been going on for months, more than two years, in fact. He hadn’t told me at first because he didn’t want me to see him “that way”. He tells me he is doing…

The Books-A-Million interview went very well. The interviewer was cool and nerdy, and I’m at least nerdy, so we got along great. The job seems fun, with nice perks, and the atmosphere is relaxed. She was going to give me the job. Until I mentioned that I would be moving to go to school. Then, with both of us feeling horrible, she explained that she had already hired her seasonal workers and needed someone that would stay when they all went to school. Why do I suspect a trend is beginning?