In kvetch again

A follow up to the one they ran last week. I wrote that one over two years ago. This is about something that happened last month:

Date had great big shades.
I should have turned, walked away.
But I didn't. Damn.

Too mean, I know. There are some good people who wear big sunglasses and say they really like them for how well they block out the sun, etc. Still, walking away would have been a damn good move.

Top Kvetch!

They printed my haiku:

Girls with great big shades.
Think they look like movie stars.
Like, yeah, whatever.

and this is why I should never read the comments in the DTH

Have to remind myself that the internet is not a random sampling of public opinion (thank God). Of course there's a contradiction in saying I shouldn't read the comments and then passing them on to you. I guess I just don't like to suffer alone.

lifting weights is easier when angry

Today made three weeks in a row of going to Body Pump. I've heard you're supposed to notice a difference in the way your body looks after a month. I'm trying to make a habit out of going every Wednesday. But it's definitely nice to have a little anger to channel into that bench press.

yay NATO!

For giving us the NATO phonetic alphabet. I'm going to start using it to spell my last name over the phone:

bravo. india. tango. hotel. echo. romeo. hyphen. tango. echo. romeo. romeo. yankee.

in hindsight it was inevitable...

I just dropped my pick into the whole of my guitar while playing "Stuck in my Head Like A Pick in My Guitar." Probably won't be the last time, either...

UPDATE 4/16/08: To be clear, this post is to be read in the most literal fashion. As in, I dropped my plastic pick in my guitar while playing the song, not as some funky simile (which, of course, the song was).

Confirming what we already know about Duke

Duke was the team most despised by those in Facebook. There were almost as many Duke haters (76,492) as there were for the next six teams on the list (North Carolina, Florida, Ohio State, Kansas, Indiana) combined (link).

Tour guides wanted

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions is seeking undergraduate students interested in becoming tour guides for Summer 2008.

Hmm, I wonder why they don't hire grad students for the job... Just the thought of that amuses me greatly.

Sponsor me in the Crop Walk

April 13 I'll be walking in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Crop Walk. I'm designating the money I raise to Heifer Project. We've put together Team Hamilton, a group of grad students from my building (currently me and some historians). You can sponsor me here.

How many songs does that make?

I've been at 30-something for some time, but I've lost count of how many songs I've written. So here it goes.

1998

1. Alone

1999

2. Quiet Desperation
3. A Snowball's Chance in Hell
4. An Incredibly Bitter Song
5. Agnostic Prophet
6. Log in Your Eye
7. Crappy Protest Song about Clinton [new title]
8. The That Girl's Got a Boyfriend Blues

2000

9. Natalie Portman*

[those, minus quiet desperation, make the first CD I put together]

10. Amazing Girl
11. Rambl'n' On*
12. Bagel
13. Here's Number Three
14. Liberty Street*

[Ecuador]
15. Los Niños de la Calle
16. Birthday
17. Weird Random Song Whose Title I Forget
18. 419
19. Election Blues
20. Angry White Man
21. Back to the States*
22. Mostly I'm Just Lonely*
23. The That Girl's Got a Boyfriend Blues II
24. Song For My Generation

2001

25. Untitled
26. Untitled Love Song #2
27. T.S.G.F.M.*
28. Going Away*
29. Tonight I Wish I'd Never Met You
30. A Tuesday in September*

2002

31. September 10, 2001 [about being shot down by someone I liked, not politics]
32. Happy Thought

2003

33. Unprepared
34. Drunken Fratboy*
35. Bon House

2004

36. Ballad of Ben Linder*
37. Toy Aisle*
38. Bad for Me

2005

39. Sith Lov'n'
40. Aunt Sally

2006

41. Katie*

2007

42. Why Does it Have to Be So Hard?

2008

43. By The Way
44. Stuck in My Mind Like A Pick Stuck in My Guitar
45. Even Dook Passed the DSP

Wow, so I guess if we include the bad ones I've passed the 40-mark. But there's about half a dozen I wouldn't mind never seeing the light of day again. Still, I clearly already have enough material for my second CD, even without including any covers. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

*= On the CD that's about to come out.

EDIT 3/7/08: Forgot two songs so I added them and renumbered.

EDIT 5/1/08: Remembered the last Ecuador song, and added the song I just finished.

Stuck in My Mind Like a Pick in My Guitar

Wrote it Saturday morning. 12-bar blues, up-tempo. The night before Ben was trying to get the pick out of my guitar and the idea came to me.

Chorus: Stuck in my mind like a pick in my guitar
I toss and turn but still there you are
Stuck in my mind like a pick in my guitar

I ask myself, "Russ what for?"
When it comes to picks, you got plenty more
I ask myself, "Russ what for?"

For all I know the pick might be wrong
Not what I need to play my song
For all I know the pick might be wrong

I guess I just can't take the sound
Of you all rattl'n' round
Yeah, I guess I just can't take the sound

One of these days the damn thing's gonna fall out
Crossed off my list of things to worry about
One of these days the damn thing's gonna fall out

Wait too long and you're gonna find
That you're so far from my mind
Wait too long, that's what you'll find

good friends are worth their weight in gold..

...(even at current prices).

Last week was bad for a variety of reasons--personally and professionally. The kicker was on Friday when I got my teaching evals back from last spring. The numbers were well below average and the comments were universally negative (except for two that actually were for my friend Nick...). One was totally vitriolic and just ripped into me.

But I went with Ben to the concert to which I'd won tickets and had a good time. Then when I got home I called Jan to tell him I was too tired to go to the party celebrating Allison's MA defense, but, being Jan, he convinced me to come over. I'm very glad I did. The two of them and Steve and Aimee rebuilt me emotionally. I don't know how I'd survive without them.

I still remember a book report I did freshman year of high school on Gulliver's Travels. I made the comment that you get the idea Swift didn't have too many friends. The teacher (Mr. Holland) wrote in the margin "a few good ones is all you need." While there's something to be said for having a "deep bench" too---a topic for another time--I largely agree.

So, Aimee, Allison, Ben, Jan, Liz, Sanjay, Sarah, and Steve--thanks for keeping me sane(ish)!