The Soap Box
A place for me to dump my brain and you to pick thru it

Don't Ask How This Pertains To My Life
11:42pm

Soldier: This is the worst part. The calm before the battle.
Fry: And then the battle is not so bad?
Soldier: Oh, right. I forgot about the battle.

Things Worse Than Working On My Thesis...
10:22am

• Cleaning out a fridge full of "liquid vegetables"
• Cutting caca out of the long ass fur of my cat
• Paying bills (easier than the thesis but more depressing)
• Cleaning out my closet
• Family reunions
• Writing Thank You notes from my wedding 11 years ago
• Reading journal articles about reliability and validity of personality testing
• Cleaning the fish tank
• Getting rid of carcasses from my cats' hunting expeditions
• Regrouting the shower
• Cleaning just about anything

Why Am I Not Asleep?
12:46am

Well, not that you care, but my thesis is now a whopping 44 pages. Gawd I hope I get to the end of that thing soon! My life is basically go to class, come home and write, go to bed, get up and start again. It's just a joy a minute! I promise this blog will get more interesting once the damn thesis is done.

One in a Million
5:02pm

Jay Gibbons, of the Baltimore Orioles, fouled a ball back behind home plate, hitting his own wife in the ribs with the ball. Is he trying to send her a message? Could she not move out of the way? Whatever the circumstances, you gotta admit you don't see that every day! I'm sure that's going to make the blooper reel for the next few years!

Quick Update
8:42pm

Regarding my thesis, my mentor no longer says "how about these 5 things." Today he said, "what if we look at this one thing 5 different ways?" I figure that's progress. I defend the damn thing on October 27th. If it's not accepted I might just go induce an alcoholic stupor until Christmas.

Can I go to bed now?

You Know Who You Are
10:54pm

To the person in my class who once said my thesis would write itself: fucking bite me.

That is all.

Stars in Albuquerque
7:05pm

This is currently filming in Albuquerque (of course it's sci-fi) and MAN is it a pain in the ass. They have been filming down the street from campus in one of the trendiest parts of town (Nob Hill for those of you that know something about Albuquerque) right on Central Ave, which I drive on just about every day. They've closed one of the two lanes each way and have a cop stopping traffic when I guess they don't want moving cars in the shot so you have stop and go traffic on the busiest, most famous street in Albuquerque. (Central is also the original Route 66.) They even had a guy yesterday saying when we could cross the street just in case we got in the fucking shot. Hello? I pay fucking taxes in this town and if I want to cross the damn street, I'm gonna do it. Seriously, what could they do? Arrest me for ruining a few frames of film of some stupid mini-series? I seriously don't know how those of you who live in popular movie/TV locales stand it. I don't give a shit what stars are here. I say the same thing to you Hollywood types as I do to the tourists in Santa Fe, "Drop your money and leave town, thanyouverymuch!"

Proving Once Again that Truth is Stranger Than Fiction...
4:50am

...is this story. Just go read it.

Beat That!
9:32pm

I just paid $2.36/gallon of gas! Woohoo! I filled my entire tank for under $30 for the first time in over a year! What are you paying where you live?

Strange Occurrence
6:35pm

So at the beginning of August, I agreed to do a cultural swap via this web site with a very nice person in Canada (I believe the Toronto area). She received her goodies some time ago but the package bound for the southwest kept not arriving. Tee Gee, my swapping buddy, was already gathering a new package of stuff for me, fearing that the package was lost forever. (Isn't she sweet?) Then at the end of the week, a package arrived! Yay! It had wonderful things in it including the cutest material, some dragonfly ribbon, a Canadian patch, some beautiful beads, a jar of jam, a box of tea and some canadian candy! However, the two packages of candy were empty, I swear! I think it was those adorable little kitties on the material that broke into the gummi fruit and smarties (very different from US smarties). I mean, how else can I explain the missing candy? Certainly I did not eat all the candy as soon as the package got here! And I can only assume that the jam arrived intact because those little kittens did not have the dexterity to open the jar.

Anyway, thanks Tee Gee for all the wonderful Canadian treasures! I love them all!

Random Ramblings
11:19am

I got a lot of thoughts but dunno if I can organize them in any logical way so here it goes:

It has been determined that there is no way I can get all the work done that is assigned to me this semester. Now the name of the game prioritizing. If I had my druthers, I'd just work on my thesis full time. Every time I think I'm somewhere toward the end of a section of my thesis, my mentor says, "That's great! Now, how about these other 5 things?" Gah! It's never ending!

I'm baffled by the possibility of actually reliving the events of 9/11 in real time tomorrow. CNN.com has the actual footage from 9/11/01 you can watch real time all day tomorrow. Why the hell would you want to do that? I guess it's time to rip open that old wound once again with a dirty nail. If I could, I'd just go to the movies all day or some other place where there wouldn't be constant reminders of that day. Trust me, without being bombarded with it, I won't forget what happened, thanks.

My local CBS affiliate, in their infinite wisdom, decided not to show the US Open Women's final or the mixed doubles final last night so that they could show college football instead. Charming. Don't show Martina Navratilova's final professional match. I mean, who really wants to see that? Thanks, jerks.

I'm jealous of people who have working metabolisms. I'm just sayin'.

You Know You're Tired When...
8:52pm

Took a nap this afternoon. Slept like a dead person. Kept dreaming that I couldn't wake up. Now THAT's tired!

I'm Sorry...
6:28am

...but there is something disturbing about this baby. I think it's the drugged out/strangely serene look in her eyes coupled with what looks like a baby wig. Am I the only one who is not comforted by this pic of TomKat's kid?

TV News
3:45pm

Tonight is a brand new House episode! Yay! No more repeats...well, at least for this week. It's on an hour earlier than usual which means it's on at 7 in Mountain time zone. You other time zones can figure it out for yourself. In this season, House gets busted for having prescription meds without an actual Doctor's prescription. Yeah, I know. He's a doc. I guess they aren't supposed to write scripts for themselves?

Grey's Anatomy starts up with new shows on September 21st. Yup, that's right. It's a Thursday. I guess the idea is to pit Grey's Anatomy against ER (which I've heard nothing about lately). Rumor has it that the pretty blond model doc's (Izzy! Sorry, forgot her name) baby she gave away at birth makes an appearance.

Amazing Race moves to Sundays starting the 17th. You got your typical soccer moms, models (ex-Miss America contestants and ex-cheerleaders actually), gay couple, parent-child couple (father and gay daughter) and in a new twist, a team made up of African-American muslims. Should be interesting. I bet they are treated WAY better in other countries other than the US. The race at one point moves to Mongolia where there are some uhhh...translation problems. Betcha not one team (and not even the hippies from last season) speak Mongolian!

Well, that's it for spoilers for now. Don't forget House debuts tonight!

What's Wrong With This Picture?
9:42am

On my last day of my long weekend, I had planned to sit on my ass and watch the US Open (kinda like yesterday). However, on my TV this morning, I have 2 stations showing the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon and NO stations with tennis! Now, I appreciate the want/need/desire to raise funds to fight this horrible disease, but wouldn't one channel be enough? Is there really a reason I have to have it on two stations simultaneously?

All telethon and no tennis makes Jen grumpy.

Did Someone Catch the License Plate?
9:35am

While I don't recall being run over by a bus, my body sure feels like it this morning. Seriously, what's going on? I had to go to bed at 10pm last night because I couldn't keep my eyes open and today my body is sore. Charming. If I could ever use a 3 day weekend, it's now. Perfect timing for once. I think I'll just watch the US Open all day in bed and try again tomorrow to get some stuff done.

Please Put Me On the Do Not Call List
10:18pm

Tomorrow is the first morning in 2 weeks in which I do not have to be awake at any particular time. Hooray! There is NO WAY I am going to be awakened by the phone. The ringers are being turned off so if you try to call, you will not reach me. Just FYI.

Blog Name: The Soap Box
Email: jenben[at]g-r-c.com
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