bob marley

Last week, I drove some of Tim's students to... I don't even know what. But that's not important.

On the way back, there were three students in the van I was driving. One student was on the phone. He was the only person talking in the van. His side of the conversation went kind of like this:

"Four months or four years? Months or years? How long is he going to be in prison? Yeah, I know... How long is he going to be in prison. Four months? Oh, that's not bad for what he did. OK, that's all I wanted to know. Talk to you later."

It's true, I did. On Mass. Street. I was going to meet Kyle Cohlmia at Papa Keno's for lunch, and the guitarist for CCR happened (Grady) to be outside a guitar store (imagine that). After some hesitation, I said, "Hey, you guys are playing tonight, right?" I already knew the answer to that question, as I had a ticket to the show, and I was standing across the street from The Granada's huge marquee that featured the name "Cross Canadian Ragweed."

But, he humored me and said yes, they were playing, shook my hand, etc. I told him (and the bassist and manager, who were with him) I was from Stillwater, and I was really glad they came. It was a cordial conversation, but Grady seemed distracted. Then I told him I was in a music video they filmed in Stillwater. Grady said, "Oh yeah, the one filmed at the spider dome..."

Then I said, "Yeah, actually, I'm one of the guys who dropped my pants..."

Grady's demeanor completely changed. He smiled, and started laughing boisterously. He kept saying, "That is awesome." Grady high-fived me, and Jeremy (the bassist) and the other guy shook my hand. Jeremy did an imitation of the audition. They all kept laughing and telling me how cool they thought that was. In fact, Grady was still laughing when I left.

Apparently, writing a thesis is a big project. I'll probably be in the office more this semester than the previous three semesters combined... and that office has no windows, poor circulation, and fluorescent lighting. This semester is a tricky one... it's slowly and subtly killing my will to live. God bless all of you office-dwelling folk... you are hardier men and women than myself.

And, so, I ask: is it a coincidence that 2/3 of the graduate students in the department are currently ill? I think we all know the answer to that question.

For those of you who were worried... yes, I did do the Baylor bear scratch at last night's KU/Baylor game. And so did my friend Thomas.

Due to other responsibilities I had, I missed much of the OSU/UT game. I tried to catch the highlights on Sportscenter later that night. And you know what I got? About a minute and a half of Cowboy basketball--four college games reviewed in all--and a lot of NASCAR. Y'know, if you like NASCAR, fine. But racing is not a sport. Here are some definitions of "sport" from dictionary.com: "Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively," "An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively," "an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition." Driving is not physical exertion! Hence, NASCAR shouldn't be on Sportscenter, taking up valuable basketball air time.

I read an article in The Pitch, a free Kansas City newspaper, a few days ago. Apparently Sprint (along with MCI and AT&T) are aiding the government in its FOIA crap. (Note: Sprint is the focus in the article because they are based in KC). It seems Sprint is just granting the government "access to their systems without warrants or court orders" and "cooperating on the basis of oral requests from senior government officials." Perhaps it's my background as a journalist, but I feel the FOIA is perhaps the worst thing the Bush Administration has accomplished. And Sprint is an accomplice. Certainly, Sprint would make it to my list of boycotts... if not for the fact that the only person I talk to every day on the phone has Sprint service... I am weak...

The thesis beard is moving along. So's the thesis. I turned in a proposal to my committee today, and now it is time to schedule oral exams.

I need some advice. I just saw the eye doctor in Stillwater, and he told me about precision corneal molding, a type of non-surgical vision correction. Apparently, you sleep with these hard contacts, and it changes the shape of your eye so that when you wake up, you don't need anything to correct your vision. It's only temporary, but if you wear the contacts every night or every other night, you'll be fine. Cost-wise, one pair of lenses would cost me about the same as three-years' worth of daily disposable contact lenses; however, the hard lenses could last up to five years. This is very tempting... I would love to be able to see without the use of contacts. What do you guys think?

This weekend is surely going to be a momentous occasion. It's going to go like this: visit Dan/Emily's sorority formal in Dallas/my mom's birthday (early)/become Nathan's temporary legal guardian/Valentine's Day (early)/KU@OSU/etc.

Here is what I propose to you, however, loyal Swingin' the Blues readers! Emily and I will be driving north on I-35 from Dallas on Saturday. I'm toying with the idea of perhaps eating some kind of a meal in the OKC area. I don't know what time the event would occur... maybe between 11 a.m.-1 p.m. But I would like to see if anyone in the vicinity would be interested.

Happy Bob Marley Day! If Marley were still alive, he would turn 61 today. To celebrate, I'm going to listen to nothing but Bob Marley music today (starting right now).