And it's not a cry that you hear at night...

Yeah, so beyond being lax about this thing, I've been downright ignorant about it. It's just fallen completely off my radar screen. But then again, many, many things got added to my radar screen recently, so one little guilty blip is nothing:

• Keeping up with my grades. I have a good GPA right now, and I want to keep it that way. But my J2 (Journalism 2 for the uninitiated) class is harder than anticipated, my Bible class, though without any appreciable homework, is very difficult when it comes to tests, and my Russian class comprises two people. If there's a quiz we don't want to take, we can usually swing a one-day extension out of the professor, but I think that's cause he likes me. I'm good at language stuff, when we get into a pattern. Retaining it has been an issue.
• My computer. I reformatted the other day. Well, re-installed Windows, anyway. Didn't really have a choice, my computer just turned off of its own accord twice during the Patriots' game, and I was fed up with it's general slowness. So, reformatting took place, keeping me up until 4 AM on a day on which I had a job interview.
• Speaking of which, co-op is rapidly approaching. I've had three interviews, with probably about another half-dozen companies possessing my resume right now. I've talked to the Boston Globe (not a good interview; IM me if you want to know why), the Patriot Ledger (which I liked, but it's 19 candidates for 1 or 2 jobs, so my chances aren't great), and CHEN PR (which I also liked, but don't have a good feel for exactly what I'd be doing.) Honestly, I don't have a top choice anymore. A week ago, I'd have said the PR job at Wentworth Institute of Technology, right across the street. I'd be one person reporting to one other person, and the two of us would comprise the entire PR department. But I can do similar, if not the same work at a real PR firm like CHEN or Forrester, and that might look better on a post-graduation resume. Then again, that's not journalism writing; it's public relations. I have PR in my blood, and it's something I'm very confident I could do, having played the other side of the coin, but I don't have experience in it, and it might be less helpful, when eventually applying to a newspaper, in getting a reporting job. I don't know - I guess anything is good, but I don't have a favorite anymore. Just not the Globe.
• And while I'm on the topic of jobs, I picked one up a week and a half ago, refereeing intramural soccer games at the old gym. It's simple work; the bastardized form of soccer (it's really just basketball with feet) is fast-paced, but three referees cover it very well. My problem is that after 8 years of outdoor refereeing, it's surprisingly hard to adapt to blowing the whistle every time the ball contacts the boundary net, and to enforce a 3-seconds-in-the-key type rule. I do my best, but it's not soccer. Which reminds me,
• The Revs are in MLS Cup. If you're a MLS or Revolution fan, you know how big a deal this is to me. As I told a friend that I brought along to the Eastern Conference Championship last weekend, "If you think I'm a hardcore Red Sox fan, wait until you see me at a Revolution game." And it's true, as I've lost my voice on consecutive weekends. And it's kinda fallen to me to plan and organize the on-campus MLS Cup viewing. It's in Dallas this year, so I can't go myself, and the next-best thing is to watch it with like-minded friends. This is my goal. I wanted the people at Curry Student Center to set up the big projection screen for the game like they did during the MLB playoffs, but the request I put in Monday has still not been processed, it seems. And I kinda need to know pretty damn soon so I can send out messages to on- and off-campus friends who may be interested in watching with me. (Curry is open to the public, provided they behave.) If this doesn't go through, I need to try and organize a trip to the MidWest Grill in Cambridge, where the Midnight Riders will be watching the game. A nice group of 10 people or so would be a fantastic NEU contingent to bring along, and I would be damn proud to parade this group through the seating section of the restaurant to the back where the crazies sit, scream, and shout at the television. I created this group, and I am responsible for it, including its success and proliferation. Which is why Curry would be best: passers-by could stop and watch for a while, ask questions, and celebrate with us when we win.
• You knew it, my entry here was eventually going to get to church stuff. Always does. Well, I've been to church twice since coming to school. That's it. And only once where the Northeastern crowd goes. Basically my problem with St. Cecilia's is the same as it is with St. George - I have a visceral reaction when I approach and enter those buildings. There is a physical sensation of betrayal and hatred that wells up in the pit of my stomach when I go near them. So I don't. I went to the Basilica in Roxbury once, before my stint with the Drama Department began, but since then, my one trip to St. Cecilia has been my entire church-going experience. And it occurs to me: this is how people leave the Faith. They get to college, where they're not dragged by the ear, and they just stop going. And surprisingly, it's almost as if I don't care. I want to continue to be a faithful Catholic, but not at the expense of my own sanity and not if it means I support a lying, betraying Archdiocese. I will never be a parishioner at another church in this Archdiocese, as long as I live. I may attend church, but I will never belong anywhere.
• And then there's the tagging fiasco. One of my roommates, who shall remain nameless, has been tagging his food articles since shortly after we moved in. Which isn't a big deal, when it's something like a Snapple or a can of Coke: a one-shot item is completely fair. But when the salad dressing and barbeque sauce are off-limits, that's a bit much. And when those items are never consumed, but merely take up space in the fridge, that's downright annoying. In addition to the tagging that this person has done, he's also left little notes in places across the apartment. The note that started this all was a note saying that he had friends coming in, and that we all needed to clean the apartment. He even "took the liberty of assigning jobs." Mine was to clean the bathroom. Thanks, dude. But I did it, after much deliberation and a mocking note of my own put up next to his, which I signed, "Sir Snarky." People generally learn not to screw with me. I screw back. He proceeded, a couple days later, to leave a note by the sink telling me that "It would be great if you cleaned the bathroom before my friends got here." Well, seeing as I had already cleaned it, I wasn't going to stand for that. I put an addendum on it, saying that I'd done it. I stopped short of saying, "I'm sorry if it doesn't meet your cleanliness standards," but only just. I signed that one "Not Lumberg." (Office Space reference) And, well, this person also doesn't really contribute to the daily chores and tasks that need to get done. Like trash-emptying or dish-washing. So I left a note of my own in the fridge the other day. "Start washing the dishes, or I start tagging the milk." I honestly don't care all that much about the milk in particular, it's just a symbol of foods that should be communal. Milk, bread, toppings, condiments, juices, maybe. Those should all be up for grabs. Whoever finishes a container buys the next one. Not so hard. But this person has, predictably, not done the dishes. He doesn't even use them most of the time - food that is "his" has been vanishing up into his girlfriend's apartment. But it's the principle - we all pitch in. I've washed dishes from which I haven't eaten, so should he. And if he doesn't by this weekend, I'm going to tag the milk and consider tagging the dishes themselves. And I may tag them with the three initials of the other people in the apartment who DO give a damn.
  

And this is what I'm doing instead of completing this edit of my story for J2 or studying for the Russian quiz I got postponed until tomorrow. Fantastic, Adam, way to go.

There you go, a nice long entry for anybody who may have given a flying fuck at a rolling donut about this page back when I still updated regularly. Enjoy.

Google Bump

I'm wondering if adding a post to this will make Google recognize it again. The greatest search engine ever used to have it at the very top if you typed in the title of this journal, now, nowhere to be seen.

So, yeah, this is a test. Maybe I'll get back to this. Hopefully I'll get back to this.

New Column and Some Other Notes

I imagine I'll get better at updating this again when I'm back at school and I have some semblance of a routine.

Sell: The Personal Demise of Chuck E. Cheese

Ran last week. I may have one in next week centering around the Harry Potter book release, which I attended (to my later chagrin).

Picked up a couple of CDs yesterday - Ralphie May "Just Correct" and Mozart's Requiem. The Ralphie May one was a little disappointing, as a lot of the jokes seemed cookie-cutter, but if I pick and choose which bits I keep on my computer, some of it may make the rounds in the same method the Dane Cook bits did last year. I'm listening to the Requiem now - I've for no apparent reason gotten into classical music recently. Whatever.

The money has FINALLY started coming in, after eons of waiting. Two nice, large checks from the Town's Soccer Club, for the Memorial Day Tournament, and from the State League, for the regular season. A nice check from the newspaper for which I continue to write a column (going on two years now - my portfolio will be quite nice by co-op time). And as soon as I bother to put together a timesheet, a nice check for the data entry work I did over the summer. However, that's it. I didn't pick up a real job for the summer, thinking I'd be occupied with the typing. Such has not been the case. Alas, I may get two more columns beyond my Harry Potter one, which would be another nice check, but outside of that, no income for the rest of the summer. I'll have to be as miserly with my money as I was when the bank account was empty.

Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you.

I'm so tired it's hard to really comprehend. I've done eight of the overnights up at church, and it's messed with my sleep schedule so much it's absurd. Instead of 2, maybe 3 AM until a little before noon, I go from about 11 PM until about 6:30 AM. Doesn't work out so well. As a result, I've become more of a coffee drinker in the last three weeks than I've ever been before. Enh.

I've been on the front page of the Boston Globe, above the fold no less. I've been on local television, lead story, and been quoted in no fewer than a half-dozen articles in the local paper, one of which prompted Archdiocesan response. Power of the press.

Of course, the craziness up there has put me behind on the data entry work I'm doing. I'm trying to catch up this week, but it's monotonous, tedious work. I'm gonna have to put in some serious hours Friday and Monday after my games.

Speaking of which, this weekend is going to be tough. 12 games in three days - most I've had in a couple years. Thankfully, most are on the line, which involves less running and gives me the chance to call the offside rule to the best of my abilities. I feel like I know that rule better than at least half of the refs I work with, and I want to prove it.

Seen Star Wars twice. Neither time was it planned. Enh.

I love how this entry here is starting to sound very much like my column for this week. I'll throw that link in here when I see that it's up.

I'd write more, but I don't have anything to say. Oh well.

And all I ever learned from love...

Apparently I don't add to this site frequently enough to satisfy whatever readers I have. (Yeah, you know who you are...) So, even if only for this one time, I'm going to completely ignore my whole 'this isn't a what-do-I-do' page and write about just that.

Most of my time has been at home, some of it doing work. 'Work' would consist of typing up brochures and manuals designed for promoting tradeshows. It's stuff that someone my father knows needs in a Word document format. It's just taking what's in front of me and typing it up - I can do it pretty quickly, it's just mind-numbing. It's also kinda dumb, as the stuff I'm typing seems like it'd be obvious to even the most naive first-time exhibitor. But hey, this will pay about as well as refereeing does for me. (And that pays DAMN well - average of 22 bucks for a game, and I typically do three in a weekend. That's not even counting the big Memorial Day Tournament, where I can get as many as 15 in a three-day period. Refereeing can be very lucrative.)

Speaking of which, I'm not sure I'm going to be refereeing for too much longer. My interest in it has just waned to the point where I've actually thought about giving it up, a position which, only a couple of years ago, was unthinkable. It's primarily the aggravation of dealing with coaches I can't tolerate, assignors who seem like they're out to get me (and I hope they're not), and other officials who just don't give a damn about convenience. Yes, it pays very well, but it's not a career, it's not something I want to do forever, and it's just not seeming to be worth the amount of time and energy I put into it. I don't know.

Within the next 72 hours (I'm not allowed to disclose exactly when.) my church will begin its prayerful vigil. We will take control of the church and inhabit it 24/7 until the Archdiocese presents us with a solution to the problem of insufficient churches in North Framingham. St. Albert's is pushing 10 months, and St. Anselm is going on 9, so we know we can do this. The Archdiocese is terrified that we will go on vigil, because they know that we can play the media. And that's exactly what we're going to do. No vigil that has sustained past the first 24 hours has failed.

Checkmate.

New Column in Framingham TAB

Pope Column

I've gotten some feedback from the St. Jeremiah crowd on it, all of it positive. I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

C'mon, Strahan, do your worst, and don't forget! The more you attack me, the more resolve you give those pushing for a vigil. Mistreatment can come in many forms.

Maybe there's a God above...

I got an email from my editor today. I'd asked him whether he wanted me to write this week's column on the Pope stuff (from the perspective of a militant Catholic) or on the building behind me which blew up last week. He picked the former.

Well, he asked for it.

I'll be writing that as soon as I get some of this J2 assignment done. Either that or between my class and my rehearsal for my Acting final on Friday. I can say right now, though, that's it's not going to be as complimentary as all of the other pieces that have been written about him.

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.