This Tuesday at work, I got to fence with sharks. Basically, I was handed a 3 foot long piece of 1.5" PVC pipe with some electric tape wrapped around it, and told "Don't let the sharks eat Jeff". Now, these are 8 foot long, 300-400lb Sand Tiger Sharks. They have considerably more mass and much more impressive dentition than your average Ivy League fencer, on the other hand, they are less likely to bite you than your typical saberist. Well, to cut the story short, Jeff is still alive, and more-or-less a whole man (the missing parts aren't my fault).
The next day I got to go to the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Baily Circus in Knoxville. Olivia surprised me a couple days before and informed me that we would be attending, so despite an oncoming illness, I went and had a lot of fun. It was full of Cuban acrobats, Asian elephants, miniature ponies, some trained house cats, 6 lionesses, and an exuberant golden retriever. There may be pictures to follow. Mine aren't that great, but Olivia had her zoom lens and was able to get some better ones than I was.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
Well, I've done it again. Not learning my lesson from the incident in Miami, I went and got another dog. This one is a border collie/blue heeler mutt who was picked up free from a run down trailer in Union County, Tennessee. On the other hand, I do live in a bigger house, with an actual yard, and a job that allows me to EARN money rather than slowing the rate at which I lose it. After nearly a day and a half of trying names on for size, he has been harnessed with the moniker "Puck". (He was nearly stuck with Othello, because he's black, but the desire to name him after a troublemaker in a comedy rather than the main character of a tragedy won out.) Here, for your viewing pleasure, is my friend Puck
String is fun.
Playing is hard work
In other news, the Knoxville News Sentinel (newspaper in Knoxville...go figure) ran a segment about our aquarium. To do this, they came and followed the late night aquarist around for 3 hours, making it nearly impossible to do any work and asking lots of questions. How do I know what they did? I was that aquarist. Here is the 5 minute video supplement that was also run with the print version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgvQA48tiqI
That ought to satisfy my parents for my goings on for the past few days. Have a good weekend Mom and Dad, you'll probably have to watch that video at the library or school.
String is fun.
Playing is hard workIn other news, the Knoxville News Sentinel (newspaper in Knoxville...go figure) ran a segment about our aquarium. To do this, they came and followed the late night aquarist around for 3 hours, making it nearly impossible to do any work and asking lots of questions. How do I know what they did? I was that aquarist. Here is the 5 minute video supplement that was also run with the print version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgvQA48tiqI
That ought to satisfy my parents for my goings on for the past few days. Have a good weekend Mom and Dad, you'll probably have to watch that video at the library or school.
Monday, January 11, 2010
How I spent my New Year's Eve
In a fit of artistic...genius? genocide? Olivia and I drew pictures for the other to color. Here are the results. I'll leave you to guess which was drawn by whom.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
One year and disjointed other happenings.
I've been here one year as of Tuesday, I've been working at the same place as of Thursday. That's the longest time I've been anywhere since I graduated (longer if you count moving betwixt dorm rooms/buildings as "not the same place"). I start getting paid more next week (good thing it's the start of a new pay period) and I couldn't be happier about that. Hurray for $5000 raise! I'm trying to adopt a dog, specifically a border collie, from an animal shelter around here but I haven't heard back from the adoption agency yet, I'm going to play D&D tomorrow... It's like I've established a routine or something. I didn't win anything at the Christmas party this year (same as last year), I spent about 4 hours underwater this week, and my car is slowly (and sometimes not so) falling apart. I learned the scale for bagpipe last week and will hopefully be starting lessons this week. It snowed ~1.5 inches last Saturday and has been alternately warm and freezing this week.
That's all I can think of right now for this episode of "What has been happening with Justin's life". Well, all that I can think of that's fit to share on the internet anyway...
That's all I can think of right now for this episode of "What has been happening with Justin's life". Well, all that I can think of that's fit to share on the internet anyway...
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sometimes you seize the day...
Other times the day seizes you.
Picture this:
There is a large man with a beer gut, a total of three teeth and 11 toes. He stands about 6'6" and weighs a meager 375lbs and his name is Leroy. Leroy has been in prison for the past 10 years and he's startin' to get REEEEEAAAAAL lonely and he thinks you've got a purdy mouth.
Actually, let me take that back. That analogy would imply that I had one big problem, which is patently untrue. Today was more along the lines of this:
You're Joe Pesci trying to break into the McAllister's house while they are on Christmas vacation, but this little twerp has been plunking away at you with his BB gun all evening, and you'd wring the little bastard's neck if you could just get ahold of him, but unfortunately he's turned the entire sidewalk to ice which results in you losing your footing and landing squarely on your ass. Once you finally regain your feet and trap the little twerp in his tree house, as you climb up to administer the coups dé grace, just as you grab the top rung, you realize that it's been cut 3/4 of the way thru and you plummet 10 feet back to the earth. That's what kind of day it's been. Lots of little Kevin McAllister events that add up to one gigantic Leroy of a day.
Picture this:
There is a large man with a beer gut, a total of three teeth and 11 toes. He stands about 6'6" and weighs a meager 375lbs and his name is Leroy. Leroy has been in prison for the past 10 years and he's startin' to get REEEEEAAAAAL lonely and he thinks you've got a purdy mouth.
Actually, let me take that back. That analogy would imply that I had one big problem, which is patently untrue. Today was more along the lines of this:
You're Joe Pesci trying to break into the McAllister's house while they are on Christmas vacation, but this little twerp has been plunking away at you with his BB gun all evening, and you'd wring the little bastard's neck if you could just get ahold of him, but unfortunately he's turned the entire sidewalk to ice which results in you losing your footing and landing squarely on your ass. Once you finally regain your feet and trap the little twerp in his tree house, as you climb up to administer the coups dé grace, just as you grab the top rung, you realize that it's been cut 3/4 of the way thru and you plummet 10 feet back to the earth. That's what kind of day it's been. Lots of little Kevin McAllister events that add up to one gigantic Leroy of a day.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Birthday
I had a birthday, ymmmmhmmm. There was dinner, a circus, coworkers and friends, and Olivia. It was a pretty good time all in all. However, it's become strange to me; I've had my 26th birthday in Tennessee, 25th in Hawaii, 24th in Florida, 23rd in Pennsylvania, 22nd, 21st, 20th, and 19th in New York, and all the preceding ones in West Virginia. I've become accustomed to moving so frequently that nowhere really feels like "home" any more. I think I've mentioned this to some of you faithful readers before, and it still distresses me. I've lived in Tennessee for nearly a year (Dec. 8th it will be) and I'm still not convinced it's home. There's a line in Garden State:
"It's like you feel homesick for a place that doesn't even exist. Maybe it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I don't know, but I miss the idea of it, you know."
I'm not sure if that's exactly how I feel, but it's pretty close. I'm proud to say that I have friends all over the country, friends that I could count on, but where do I get to stop and have a home again?
"It's like you feel homesick for a place that doesn't even exist. Maybe it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I don't know, but I miss the idea of it, you know."
I'm not sure if that's exactly how I feel, but it's pretty close. I'm proud to say that I have friends all over the country, friends that I could count on, but where do I get to stop and have a home again?
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