One Year Anniversary!

Exactly one year ago to the day I created Sycophantic Laughter. Little did I know at the time that I would document so much shit on this blog, and I can say in honesty that it has been a joy. I have a good time looking back at the beginning of this blog. My first few posts are very raw and if you actually read the posts, you can see how the blog has transformed. I am happy with the direction I have taken with the blog. When I started, the posts were somewhat disjointed and are quite random. I do enjoy randomness quite a bit, but I have altered the randomness to fit into the events that occur in my life. The largest change I have made is blogging almost exclusively about my life and my thoughts. I enjoy doing this and I think it makes for a better comprehensive blog than the disjointed group of posts I was creating in the very beginning.

Sycophantic Laughter has been a wonderful learning experience and I hope that it continues to function as a memoir of the events in my life and a place where I can freely display my thoughts, ideas, and opinions. I remember starting this blog. I had just got back to college after Thanksgiving break and for some reason I wanted to blog. What a wonderful idea that turned out to be! Blogging is by far my favorite social networking medium. I like blogging so much because there is way more to it than any other social networking site. You don't have 140 characters to say what's on your mind and you don't have to constantly see stupid updates about your friends that you could give less than a shit about. With blogging you get to express your thoughts and ideas to the full extent. If you want to bash on something relentlessly, blogging is for you. If you want to share the events of your life, blogging is for you. If you want to express your opinion on society, blogging is for you. All of these reasons are why I blog. The substance involved in blogging is far greater than any other social networking site. If you don't enjoy writing and thoroughly expressing how you feel, blogging is not for you. I love blogging because you can expand upon your thoughts to whatever extent you desire.

Speaking of my thoughts and ideas, I'm ecstatic that my sister recently introduced me to the genius that is George Carlin! My sister suggested that I check out the stand up comedy performed by George Carlin and I can assure you that he is hilarious! He questions and pokes fun at society in a way that I wish I could. If I was a comedian I would want to be just like him because I think I view the world in a similar fashion. He, along with Dave Chappelle, are my favorite comedians. I could listen to both of them hour after hour and still find myself laughing. Chappelle is great because I don't think I've heard a joke in any of his stand up routines that I have not laughed at. Carlin is great because he shows how stupid many things in our society are. I enjoy laughing, in fact, laughing is my favorite thing to do. I spend many hours on YouTube watching comedians and funny videos. I think a lot of people need to lighten up and look on the bright side of life and I practice that every single time I blog. I like to blog, therefore I do.



There are way too many negative vibes thrown around all day, everyday. I hear it when I go to class: "now's a terrible time to be graduating." I hear it when I'm at my townhouse: "I'm so busy I don't have time to take off my suit." I hear it when I go to practice: "If you want to do that, then you can find a different coach." Maybe if everyone didn't act as such depressing fucks we could enjoy ourselves a bit. I try to enjoy myself as much as I can. Take this very moment for instance. I should probably be working on a memo and analyzing a case for auditing class, but both of those things suck ass and blogging is way more fun, so fuck them for now. I'll do that shit, but I don't want to do it right now because I want to enjoy myself. I think people are far too constrained by the bullshit rules and ideologies instilled on us from a very young age.

Bullshit, now there's a word that I very much like. I think "bullshit" might actually be my favorite word in the English language. I like "bullshit" so much because it accurately describes so much of life. Work is bullshit, education (to a certain extent) is bullshit, business is bullshit, and the list goes on and on and on. Tests, exams, quizzes, they're all bullshit, too. I am so sick and tired of taking tests. I don't think tests prove anything except how well you can take the test. Tests are bullshit because you have no resources, I need say no more. There's even a degree named after the wonderful word, the BS. Instead of bitching about what is bullshit, I would rather look at the beautiful word and think about how useful it is in communication. Everyone who is reading this, go on and say "bullshit" out loud right now, you'll feel better.



You know what bothered me today, on the fucking one year anniversary of Sycophantic Laughter (the audacity, another one of my favorite words!), one of my professors shit on video gaming. He said something about how playing video games is a waste of time that could be spent doing something else. Well, speak for yourself. I can't stand the amount of shit that video games take. Here's some more bullshit, who would have guessed. Video games get blamed for violence, obesity, and are considered a waste of time. So instead of playing a video game I should read my accounting book. I'll SIT around (obesity risk!), learn nothing because the book is as interesting as a blank wall (waste of time risk!), and proceed to get outrageously angry at how bullshit all the information is (violence risk!). I am probably alone on this, but I get significantly more angry at many academic books than I do at anything else. It might be strange, but it is absolutely true. Video games are not as bad as the media and some people make them out to be. I like to have fun, that's probably why I like video games. All the things that are fun are the same things that I'm always told are a waste of time. I would rather blog than do my homework. I would rather play video games than study. I would rather read the books I want to read than the books I'm told to read. I have to say, I feel rather oppressed sometimes. There are too many customary standards. I don't think I'm a retard just because I get Cs in my accounting classes. I hate accounting, it's bullshit because it's all completely made up. If for some reason there was a revolution because all the blind people realized what bullshit they are subject to on a daily basis, then all these business experts would be screwed. Business, the way it works, is completely arbitrary. Science, language, mathematics, and communication, you can't change them. The real experts reside in these fields.

This turned out to be a much longer post than I had originally planned. I only wanted to pay my respects to the one year anniversary of Sycophantic Laughter and I ended up going off on a few tangents. However, this post shows how Sycophantic Laughter has evolved and matured over the year period. The randomness of this particular entry is what I was referring to at the beginning. My posts are random, but only due to the randomness of my thoughts. I love random! I also love happiness, which I am experiencing currently. I've watched a lot of comedy today, including George Carlin, Rodney Dangerfield, and Yakov Smirnoff (who Chase just introduced me to today!), while getting some bullshit school work done as well. I'm happy that I got to see a few of my friends over Thanksgiving break and that I've reestablished communication with some friends who I've not spoken to in quite some time. What a great day for Sycophantic Laughter, thank you all for reading!

I Can't Get Enough of this Guy!

The sheer brilliance that is Dr. K never ceases to amaze me. I have to acknowledge this guy's greatness before doing anything else. I'm putting the post I was working on for the study I performed a month ago on hold just to give Dr. K the attention he deserves. I love this guy! Dr. K fires on all cylinders all day, every day. He was speaking about unemployment today, more specifically on how the way the government reports unemployment statistics is bullshit. He has a point, too. He handed us an article from October 24, 2011 titled What Is the Real Unemployment Rate? Turns out the government leaves many people who don't have jobs out of the equation, in the words of Dr. K, bullshit!

Dr. K in all his glory!

He also told us a personal story about when he was diagnosed with cancer. This is a sad subject, but he found a way to make it absolutely hysterical. The way he introduced it was even comical. He was talking about how some years ago he had a doctor's appointment and the results yielded that he had testicular cancer, or as he referred to it, "cancer in the balls." Then Dr. K went on to tell us how he went to many different doctors to discuss treatment of the cancer before it got too late. While I cannot remember the specific names he gave to the procedures, I remember very well how he described each process. One of the doctors told him he could remove the cancerous area by cutting it off. "Snip snip" as Dr. K referred to the process, I think you know what this means (cut IT off, it referring to the "sack"). The doctor also told Dr. K that this would cause incontinence. Dr. K told him he could not have that because he's a teacher, "I can't be walking around all day peeing myself." The doctor's response to this was that he could wear a diaper. Dr. K: "Yeah, I'll wear a diaper" (as he proceeded to raise his middle finger and perform the "fuck you" arm motion, for lack of a better word. I wonder if that motion has a name. I'll have to find out.). I can say with absolute certainty that I have never witnessed another teacher/professor do this, though. I cannot stress how much I wish I was related to this guy in some way! I could listen to him day after day, the hilarity is like nothing I have experienced before.

This is very similar to the gesture I reference , does it have a name?

Another doctor told Dr. K that he could perform a procedure where he could "shoot" the cancer with radiation. The only problem is that he wouldn't hit it every time. His reaction spoken in my lingo: "yeah, I'm definitely doing that." Or even better yet, "go pound sand," (inside joke alert). Keep in mind that this is a story Dr. K is telling us during class. He goes on to tell us that another doctor tells him he can freeze the cancer, or in Dr. K's words, "they put your nuggets in a freezer." Once he said this, I was laughing hard enough that I felt some tears gathering in my eyes. Once again, something I have never experienced in a classroom before, and during a class. There was another doctor who had yet another procedure, but I cannot remember it, probably because I was too busy laughing. He finally found a doctor who could help him out with a more precise way of hitting the cancer with radiation or something like that. The process was more careful and took longer, but it saved his life, completely worth it.

Frozen Nuggets!

I am very grateful that he was able to find a good doctor, but the story does not end there. Dr. K told us he got a bill from the hospital for $2,500 to speak with the doctors about the possible treatments. To make matters worse, his insurance was not going to cover any of it. Of course Dr. K found this complete bullshit, he had only been in the doctors' offices for a few brief minutes to discuss treatment possibilities. He called the hospital to tell them that he thought this bill was absurd. They told him that they had a "white knight (night?)" for him to speak to. Dr. K called this "white knight" and said he sounded like one of the guys from the Godfather on the phone, like a mobster. Dr. K explained his situation to this guy. The "white knight" told him "he would take care of it." Later on Dr. K received a call from his insurance company and the person on the line apologized to him and said his insurance would cover the costs of the doctors visits. Just take a moment to let this all sink in.

And one last thing about Dr. K's class today. Back on the subject of unemployment and money. Dr. K told us he knew someone who made $11 million last year and his job was J.O. He asked if anyone knew what J.O. was and someone in the back of the class said jacking off. This was the correct answer!

The Results are In!

I don't know how, but I almost forgot about the study I was conducting. I conducted a survey on my Facebook "friends" on October 5, 2011, and I've had the results folded up and concealed in my room somewhere for about a month now. I guess it's about time that show my findings. I am aware that you all know how much I dislike Facebook, but this survey actually has nothing to do with my hatred for the site. The survey shows how much my life has changed over the past four years, basically since I entered college. So take a moment to rejoice over the fact that I am not going negative Nancy on social networking, and you should all thank Chase Robertson for this because he is helping me cease to post as such a negative prick so often. Also you should go check out his blog and his latest article because both kick ass. But don't forget your shark repellent.

Do not leave home without it

The reason I started this study was because of my curiosity in how much interaction I actually have with my "friends." One of the good things I found is that I have never spoken with only three people on my friends list. I think that is an impressive number and I am willing to bet that most people have way more than three "friends" that they have never said one word to. I must add that this is out of 343 people, too. I know that's nothing compared to everyone else's 4,393,454 "friends," but don't try to tell me you haven't spoken with less than 1% of those people ( I used math here, 3/343 is 0.87463557%). I had to conduct the actual number generation for this study in one day (I can assure you it was as long as my.... index finger!) because of the changes in "friends" total. No I'm not popular and have an increasing total daily, I usually have less "friends" each time I log in. This doesn't bother me because I probably would not consider myself a friend of those people anyway. What I find comical is the actual process. In my case, I just don't care enough to even do that. Sure I have people on my friends list that I don't really consider to be my friend, but I sure as hell don't take the time to go remove them. I have better shit to do, like blogging for instance. I am currently sitting here, at my computer, imagining people going through their friends list deleting people. What an interesting process: here's so-and-so, they're cool so they can stay. He's cool, she's cool... wait a minute, so-and-so. Fuck them! It's such a deliberate process that I find amusing.

I held off making a Facebook profile until May of my senior year of high school. Once I got my college e-mail address I decided to create it. Upon creating the profile I friended one person: my sister. She was already attending her second year of college across the country and I thought Facebook would be a good way to stay in touch with her. If only I knew then what I was getting into (cue flashes of Holden Caulfield thoughts... if you don't get it, I feel like everyone is superficial/fake on Facebook... and if you still don't get it, then never mind). I had a good group of friends in high school and they began to add me and I added some of them. Again, I thought this was great because I would have a medium of communication with people I wasn't going to see on the regular basis that I was used to. I actually enjoyed Facebook at this point in time because it was serving the purpose I was looking for. Freshman year of college and a bit into sophomore year, Facebook was great. I did keep in touch with my friends while adding new ones I met in college and our friendships remained relatively good and strong. Sometime during sophomore year and quickly escalating during junior year, Facebook's good use evaporated for me. I attribute this to the lack of time I actually spend hanging out with my friends anymore. Actually, never mind hanging out, I don't even see my friends anymore.

As of October 5, 2011, I had 343 "friends" on Facebook. I conducted a study to discover just how much interaction I have with these "friends" currently and what I think about these "friends." The results I found backed up my thoughts. I really do feel like I don't see people anymore and that's what I found. Actually, it's not only that I don't see many of my friends anymore, I rarely even communicate with them at all. I guess I should describe the different facets of the study conducted. The study consists of four areas of focus and a subgroup of answers for each particular person involved in the study. The four areas and subgroups:

1. Last time I have spoken with (insert "friend")

• Today
• Within a week
• Within a month
• This year
• More than a year
• Never

2. How often I hangout with (insert "friend")

• Often
• Sometimes
• Rarely
• Never

3.Friend Label (who doesn't like labels?)

• Close friends (notice the lack of quotations surrounding the word friends here)
• Teammate
• Family
• Coworker
• Don't know why we're "friends" (quotations!)
• Friend
• Acquaintance

4. How I feel about (insert "friend")

• I like you
• Neutral
• I don't like you
• I hate you
• Depends
• I don't know

The simplicity of the study combined with the stunning realizations it brings about make it a study I think we should all perform. So on October 5, I embarked on the data collection! On October 5, I spoke with 21 of my "friends" at some point during that day and spoke with 15 more within that week, for a total of 36 (21+15) throughout the whole week. That number isn't too bad, at least I don't think so, given that I'm at college and people have stuff to do. What I found very alarming is that I have not spoken to 169 of my "friends" in over a year! That's very nearly half of the list of people. While at first that number is alarming, after further consideration I realized that I don't care. Out of those 169 people, only about two or three would actually have any impact on me. In other words, there are only about two or three of those people that I would like to still have communication with. Also, as I stated previously, there are only three people that I have never spoken with. I really believe that many people cannot say the same about their "friends."

I should have made this a category

One thing that's great is that I have a few of the greatest friends that I could ask for. I like this part, too, because I get to label people! I have come to the conclusion that I have seven close friends, which I think is a good amount. These are the people I have very frequent communication with over various medians. For instance, Chase Robertson goes to school the furthest away from me out of all my friends (notice the lack of quotations again), but I actually communicate with him the most without a doubt. In fact, over the last month or so I've had communication with him just about everyday and it's great! This is possible because we don't always use the same mode of communication. First off, we both still use AIM. I really like AIM because it works very well. AIM lets you instant message your friends without any lag and I have never experienced one issue with the service. I really think it's too bad that so few people use it anymore. Chase and I also speak with one another while at school from time to time via Xbox Live. This is really fun because we can game and have sweet conversations at the same time! And of course, we use text each other and that works very well, too.

As you can tell by acquainting yourself with the design of this study, I did not make any differentiation between males and females. However, I can tell you that out of the seven close friends I have, six are guys and one is a girl. This result also did not surprise me, and really it shouldn't because anyone should know who their close friends are. Also, I must add that I did not include any family members as close friends. Personally, I have historically spent way more time hanging out with other guys. I don't really have a precise reason for this, but I think it is just because of the way I am wired. I know a lot of guys, including a few of my roommates that try to get all the girls they can. I just don't think that way. I only want one girl, not a different one every night. I don't know why I am like that, but I've just always been that way and I think that is why I only have one female friend that I consider a close friend. I also have no problem with this because I am happy with the seven people who are always there to speak to about practically anything. I've tried to include more people in this closer circle of friends, but it has only really worked out with a very small group. It makes for one hell of a group, though! The funny thing is that of these seven people, I only hangout with four of them on a regular basis. The four of you know who you are. As for the other three, there are certain circumstances that prohibit hanging out to some extent, but I can see the number of often hangouts increasing by at least one in a relatively short amount of time. I won't tell you why, though, life's no fun without mystery.

Chase and I should add this to our communication devices 

I'm always hanging out with the same people though. The nice thing is that I have that one core group that I hangout with often. This group is mainly comprised of the great friendships I developed before and during high school and with a couple people at college. What I found interesting is that the study says that I only hangout with 23 people with some regularity. That means that the other 320 people I barely ever hangout with. This brings up a funny point that I only recently have come to realize. One thing about me is I really enjoy running around like a lunatic. This is why I run track and like to play pickup games of ultimate Frisbee and soccer. All of these things involve running around and I love it! The realization that I came to is that I have a group of friends back home that I only see when we play Frisbee. There is nothing wrong with that, but it's just funny that I practically have no other interaction with these people unless we are playing Frisbee. And now that we are all getting older, people are becoming lazier and we don't play as much. So now we only play very sparingly and that is probably why I find myself very rarely hanging out with a more diverse crowd.

 For some reason I usually find myself getting along quite well with people that are older than me. For instance, in college I always hung out with people one grade above me. I use the past tense here, because I am still in college, but they are not. This year has been strange for me because all these people that I used to hangout with are just simply not here anymore. The hangout number is also very low because it is so hard to get people to do anything. I struggle all summer, or I used to because I don't really try anymore, to get people together to hangout. The excuses are just unbearable. I can understand if you can't hangout all the time, but some people have an excuse everyday. How is everyday someone in your family's birthday? You study every second that you're not in class? Why are you always busy? The busy excuse, so classic in every sense of the word, makes me laugh. Whether I'm trying to hangout with people or just talk to them, the busy excuse always gets me. Who isn't busy? I go to college, too, and I run track, but look at this, I still find time to do shit like blog! People who constantly tell me they're busy are the same people that I stop inviting to do things. It's not that I don't like these people, I just stop doing it because it's a waste of my time. There are people I know/used to know that I would absolutely enjoy hanging out with/talking to from time to time, but they have just pushed me away (intentionally or unintentionally, it doesn't really matter) to the point where I just don't bother anymore.

One thing that I am very happy to report after conducting this study is that there is no one on my friends list that I hate. I did not make one single tally in that section. In fact I reported that I like 155 of my "friends." I do realize that only comes out to 45.189504%, but I found myself answering "I don't know" for many people, either because I don't know them all that well or because I haven's seen them in such a long time that I really don't know. People can change, so for all I know someone could have become a complete jackass. Of course the opposite could have happened, too.

Basically what I found confirmed my beliefs. I've thought for quite some time now that I always see and hangout with the same people. I don't mind because I like the people I associate with, but it does show a transition in my life. As I get older, lots of bonds have broken, but the ones that remain have grown even stronger and I believe they will last. I don't bother to add people on Facebook anymore because I find it rather worthless and pointless. It's not like I communicate with anyone on there anyways. I haven't sent out a friend request in over a year now and I'm not Facebook friends with some people that I see and interact with on a daily basis. I know this might be confusing to some people, but yes I am friends with  people who are not my Facebook friends.

I think that if I had conducted this study sometime during freshman year of college, the results would have been very different. I used to stay in touch with many more of my friends back then, but they are not only to blame for the lack of communication lately. I'll be honest here, I make very little effort to communicate. I text about four of my friends with some regularity, AIM with two almost daily, and no longer use Facebook as a communication device. I no longer use Facebook as a communication tool because I don't like the lack of privacy. With each "update" (I would call it a downdate because it gets worse each time), Facebook becomes less private. I do realize that people could see what you had "written on someone's wall" before, but now there is a stream on the right side of the homepage that tells all your "friends" when you do anything. I look at and this is what it looks like:

So-and-so commented on so-and-so's picture
So-and-so commented on so-and-so's wall post on so-and-so's wall
So-and-so likes some stupid shit
So-and-so commented on so-and-so's wall post on so-and-so's wall
So-and-so likes some stupid shit
So-and-so likes so-and-so's pointless status
So-and-so commented on so-and-so's pointless status
So-and-so commented on so-and-so's pointless status
So-and-so added 2,394,902 pictures to the album "What happened last night?"
So-and-so liked so-and-so's picture
So-and-so posted on so-and-so's wall
So-and-so likes some stupid shit
So-and-so commented on so-and-so's post on so-and-so's wall
So-and-so commented on so-and-so's picture
So-and-so updated their status to song lyrics
So-and-so commented on so-and-so's picture
So-and so likes some stupid shit
So-and-so added 4,328 pictures to the album "Who put those handcuffs on?"
So-and-so commented on so-and-so's status (by adding the next line in the song)
So-and-so likes some stupid shit
So-and-so is now friends with so-and-so
So-and-so likes some stupid shit
So-and-so commented on so-and-so's wall post on so-and-so's wall
So-and-so commented on so-and-so's status (added another line to the song)
So-and-so is attending some stupid shit
So-and-so liked so-and-so's status
So-and-so commented on so-and-so's wall post on so-and-so's wall
So-and-so likes some stupid shit

If you don't get it, Facebook broadcasts everything to everyone. Not only do I not care about a single one of these events, but I would also not like my "friends" to be aware of everything I do. I also believe I state at the beginning of this post that I would not bash Facebook right now, but I think you can see where I'm coming from. I rarely ever write on anyone's wall anymore because Facebook broadcasts to everyone that you did so. If I really want to get in touch with someone I message them. I will also add that I don't do this with many people, so these people are in a special category and they know who they are.

With all this said, I would be more than happy to reconnect with any of my lost friends. I think I will at some point, too. I can' say why, but I have a feeling. The end of the semester is approaching, it's almost Thanksgiving and not long after that is winter break. I hope to see some old friends over this period of time, especially this year because I don't know what my life will be like a year from now. I might have a job, and if I do, where I will be located I know not. My friends might have jobs, too! There is a good possibility that I will not be on the same school schedule that I've grown accustomed to over the past sixteen years, I guess. As for the people I know I am going to see over the break, I think we will have some fun. Chase and I have some good ideas about possible mini-movies to make and put up on YouTube. I really hope these come to fruition, it might be a way to get Retentive Gibberish out of it's current recession.

Well, here are the complete results of the study, and you should conduct it yourself!


Last Time Spoke With

• Today                                                             21 (6.122%)
• Within a week                                                 15 (4.373%)
• Within a month                                                43 (12.536%)
• This year                                                         90 (26.239%)
• More than a year                                           169 (49.271%)
• Never                                                               3 (0.874%)

Hangout with

• Often                                                                4 (1.166%)
• Sometimes                                                      19 (5.539%)
• Rarely                                                             61 (17.784%)
• Never                                                           259 (75.510%)

Friends Label

• Close friends                                                    7 (2.041%)
• Teammate                                                      17 (4.956%)
• Family                                                            14 (4.081%)
• Coworker                                                      11 (3.206%)
• Don't know why we're "friends"                      72 (20.991%)
• Friend                                                            55 (16.034%)
• Acquaintance                                                167 (48.688%)

How I feel about you:

• I like you                                                       155 (45.189%)
• Neutral                                                            57 (16.618%)
• I don't like you                                                 12 (3.498%)
• I hate you                                                          0 (0.000%)
• Depends                                                          33 (9.621%)
• I don't know                                                    86 (25.072%)

I think it is only fitting to end this post with a quote from a literary legend, Bilbo Baggins:

"I don't know half of you as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

College Living: The Townhouse

Senior year in college has been much different simply because I no longer live in a typical dorm. I'm still on campus, but I live an area a bit removed from the rest of the school in a townhouse. I really like this style, no more meal plan, I cook for myself and I have a single. I live with four friends from school (there are five of us total in case you can't count/are confused) and it's quite hilarious given everyone's different lifestyles. Getting along with them isn't hard, but I find myself so different than them that it really is comical, especially from my perspective. One of my roommates is very messy, in the kitchen and just in general. It's annoying and funny how he just leaves his dishes and dirty utensils and cups in the sink. I will wash them or put them in the dishwasher, but only because I might need to use them. I think he's just used to not washing anything at home that he doesn't realize we, his roommates, are the ones who have to clean his shit. That's just the kitchen, though. Get a look at these pictures of the bathroom.

 Yes, all those towels are his. I think there are four in the picture, but I am rather certain that I have seen more. And yes, those are the tops of fast food cups on the counter top next to his male fitness magazines. I didn't get a picture of it, but his clothes were also scattered about the floor. I'll be able to get a good shot of that soon. The bathroom was recently cleaned by one of my other roommates, but the toilet is clogged now (again) and I'm sure that the clothing and towels will begin to build yet again. What I find amazing about this is how he can just leave his towels and clothing on the bathroom floor... for weeks. Guess he's not too worried about them getting dirty. I wonder if he uses the towels off the floor? He was also my roommate freshman year and I remember one of my towels going missing. I think I know where it ended up now, the floor. I'll have to get a picture of the sink sometime, but that won't be hard. I usually find myself fuming in the kitchen more than once each week, so I can bet on that happening again very, very soon. The more I think about it, the more I think that I'll probably be in that situation tomorrow. Regardless of when I actually post this, I will probably find myself in that situation tomorrow. In case you don't get it, the sink is full of dirty shit all the time.

I am quite happy to prepare my own meals, though. I have certainly taken a liking to cooking. My cooking expertise lacks depth right now, I only know how to prepare a few different dishes, but I think they sure are coming out well. Learning by doing and experimenting is how I've been operating. My roommate, the messy one I was talking about before, actually told me that he thinks I am by far the best cook in the townhouse. I'll take the compliment, but I'm also willing to actually prepare my meals. Often my roommates have frozen meals or meals that do not require much preparation at all. I don't think the meals I make are complicated, but they do take a little bit of time to prepare sometimes, but it is always worth it. Even when I haven't done it completely correct, the end result still tastes good so I could care less because the next time it will be even better!

Must be hard to screw this up

I'm a huge fan of stir fry, which also isn't very hard to prepare. I just like the idea of cooking a bunch of vegetable and some type of meat and dumping it on top of rice. Always tastes so good! Last year I ate stir fry practically everyday in the dining hall, but now I get to chose what kind I have and I don't need to hope that the lunch serves don't completely flood the whole thing with sauce. Sometimes they put so much sauce on the meal that it looked kind of like soup. Best of all, though, no more waiting in the tremendously long, slow line for stir fry. Along with cooking/preparing meals is getting the ingredients. I do grocery shopping now! I actually like grocery shopping because I'm in total control over what I want to buy. I have fun buying food with the knowledge that I'm going to cook it and eat it! And that it will be delicious of course. In my estimation, my cooking skills have grown significantly since I moved in to the townhouse in September. I also might have mentioned before that one of my friends from school is studying abroad this semester, but she told me that she wants me to cook her some meals when she gets back so it's a good thing I'm getting in some practice now!

While going through the random pictures I have from this year, I came across one from the first full weekend of school. That weekend there is an event that has become known as "Around the World." Basically townhouses prepare different shots and the rest of the school comes down to the townhouses to take a shot at each house. This isn't my thing at all, but it sure is hilarious to watch. What I found really funny was my townhouse's shot. My roommate, the messy one again (he's quite a character), and his friend from back home were talking up how awesome the shot they were going to have was going to be so great. They called it PMV, but I will not say what that stands for because it is somewhat vulgar. You might be able to guess yourself, so go ahead! Come the night of Around the World, all the people coming into our townhouse would take a shot of our stuff and continually say how they didn't like it. After all the hype and talk about how good the drink was, it turned out to be a huge bust. Who would have guessed?!

The picture above shows all the alcohol that my housemates gathered for the weekend. Quite a variety, but Busch light, come on, everyone knows that beer sucks.That weekend was certainly interesting. For some reason we have a bunch of sand outside the back door of our townhouse and during Around the World there was some precipitation. This led to one hell of a mess in our common area. There was mud and dirt all over the floor. I should have taken a picture of that, but we were all too concerned with getting the place cleaned first. I don't think the floor has fully recovered from that weekend yet. It's still somewhat dirty, but we barely use the common area for anything, which I find comical. We basically only go down there to use the kitchen to prepare meals. We barely ever eat down there, I eat most of my meals in my room. I attribute this to the fact that we rarely eat at the same times. I'd rather eat in my room than sit at our table in the common area and eat by my lonesome. We go down there to use the other bathroom, too, now that the upstairs toilet is clogged, again, one or two days after we just unclogged it.

One of the biggest things that has happened recently is quite random. I believe it happened two weekends ago. I remember getting up that Sunday morning, it was a normal Sunday morning, nothing unusual. I was just chilling in my room before the rest of my roommates got up (they sleep in much later than I do). Once they finally did wake up, I could hear them speaking about how they had a cat and that they were going to raise it. My messy roommate had an apartment with some friends during the summer and one of his friends living with him had a cat. Apparently the cat got pregnant and had four kittens I believe. My roommate decided to take one of the cats with him and raise it in our townhouse. The kitten is living with us now and has been name Wiz (Whiz, I don't know how to spell it). I believe he named him after the rapper, I don't know why though. I thought the name was very appropriate at first because the cat was peeing on them and their beds. He's grown up a lot since then. He knows to use the litter to do business and he's actually very people friendly.

He looks so cute, right? Well he is, but he can be a little bastard. He scratched one of my roommates on the face already, not too bad, but he still did it. His claws are just really sharp. Wiz also likes footwear and climbing things. The best part about the whole thing is what my roommate is trying to use the cat for. He constantly shows girls Wiz. He does this because he thinks it will help him get an in with them! Absolutely hysterical!

So that's what's going down in the townhouse. Well, there is some other stuff going on, but I don't want to discuss that right now (bet you can guess). That means it's random picture time!

Cheap Machete at Walmart, only $6.88!

Spectacular Parking Job!

Counterfeit Windows!

When I Grow Up I Want to be...

We have once again reached November, there's something about this time of year regarding school. For some reason, in my experiences, from the end of October until the mini break for Thanksgiving school work just ass-rapes students. Every fall semester I have projects due right before Thanksgiving and tests galore! I also don't like the fact that practically every class now is based strictly on examinations (quizzes, tests, whatever you want to call them). I also find myself increasingly not wanting to do anything relating to my major: accounting. If I knew what a terrible profession accounting was earlier there is no way in hell I would have chosen it. Actually, there's nothing wrong with the profession, it's just not for me. At least the degree isn't strictly for accounting, business for the win!

I've been very preoccupied as of late with a bunch of tests and projects. I even forgot to study for a quiz I had today because I somehow overlooked that there even was one. At least I know I got the bonus question right. When I think about it, I really should have majored in English or communications or something of that nature. I enjoy writing (hence why I continue to post blog entries that I believe only 2 people actually read) and reading certain things. I read Huxley's Brave New World this past summer and absolutely enjoyed it! The problem is I don't like being forced to read certain things or write about things that I'm not interested in. That is why I didn't pursue English as a major, plus I also don't like it when my writing style is constricted to how someone else wants. Everyone has their own style and flow, there is no right or wrong way. I'm rather certain that if I were to produce any of Shakespeare's plays for a literature or English class, that the professor would find something "wrong" with it. Given Shakespeare hadn't written it, but my point is that there is always something "wrong" with a paper. I say bullshit.

Should have gone with this method

What don't I like about accounting is mainly that I flat out suck at it and I don't enjoy it at all. The other thing that bothers me about it is that the only reason there is a "right way" to record items for accounting is because some assholes decided on the "right way." Science is hard, too, probably even harder than accounting, but at least there are scientific facts that back it up. Accounting is governed by GAAP, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or as I like to call it, Genuinely Arbitrary Account Preparation. I am more interested in people. I enjoy watching people and taking note on their behavior and tendencies. This is probably why I rip on Facebook so much. Again, I don't want my areas of joy to become a burden. I would much rather suffer through bullshit business/accounting classes and watch people on my own for fun! And blog of course! Maybe at some point I will reveal this blog to some of my friends in an attempt to spread it's already incredible fame.

I attribute some of my enjoyment of literature to the man himself, Dr. K (read about him in my other posts!). I will reiterate that I wish Dr. K was my grandfather or uncle, anything in relation to me. This is the third class I have had with him, and to be honest, every class is practically the same. The names of the courses he teaches do not matter, the only thing that matters is that Dr. K teaches them. A lot of people take him because they think his class is a joke and doesn't require an obscene amount of work. While it is true that you will not have to do a ton of work, I find myself intrigued by all of his theories and his views in general. I remember the second class we had this year he was going off on a rant. I don't recall what he was angry about, but he kept saying that it was bullshit! His ideas about Hamlet are thrilling and could very well be true. I choose to believe him and I now find Hamlet my favorite play by far. There's something about English professors, they are different than all other types of professors. Two of my favorite teachers/professors of all time teach English. I can't quite say what's different about them, but they are unique. In my estimation they have much deeper thinking on a much wider range of topics. Not like an accounting professor who knows the ins and outs of tax. Knowing tax is more concrete, there are certain things you should do in particular situations. Not that a tax professor can't be interesting, but in my interactions with different teachers/professors, I have tended to like the people who teach subjects such as English, sociology, psychology, or communication classes the most.

Back to the subject of majors, the common advice that is given to students attempting to choose a major is very weak. One of my favorites is the one that goes something like this: "if you choose a field that you enjoy, then you never work a day in your life." I completely agree, but what kind of job lets you play sports, play video games, and study people/blog? That's my perfect job right there. Anyone want to pay me to do those things? I argue that this is also a far better job than most out there, aside from being a professional soccer player. The job that I would love to have has the perfect balance. Playing sports/doing athletic activity gets you exercise and keeps you in shape. I don't want to sit at a desk all day and get overweight like the rest of the nation. Now there's something I can never understand. Obesity is such a large issue today, but who has looked at the nation that we have created? The lifestyle of this country promotes doing nothing at sedentary jobs. Back to my main point though, about the perfect balance. Playing video games lets you recover and take a break from physical endeavors. Video games are so enjoyable because I think they are like interactive movies. I feel like I'm in action/horror films when playing, but I get to make all the decisions! And despite many "experts" claiming that video games don't help people think, I disagree. Video games make the player think in varying ways depending on the game. Gamers solve puzzles, develop strategy, and overcome problems on the fly. As for my final piece, studying people and blogging, just so much fun. People fascinate me and I enjoy communicating my thoughts through blogging, even if no one reads my garbage. Maybe one day I'll make it to ten followers!

The only career that comes close to my perfect career is that of a professional soccer player. I think being a professional soccer player would be a dream come true, but the prospect is even enhanced because I'm American. I say this because soccer is sadly under-appreciated in the United States. Yes, I think anti-soccer people are fools. But how great would it be to be an American professional soccer player? You could make money playing the wonderful game and during the off-season you could reside in the United States and barely anyone would know you are! Make decent money and maintain anonymity.

Well, I guess I should get some sleep so I can get up in the morning and study! Remember, studying is important. You need to know everything because when you get a "real" job in the "real" world you'll be locked away in a room with absolutely no resources and need to perform your job completely from memory.