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I am the version of Abed (from Community) that saw 1/10th as many movies.

February, Where Art Thou?

So I missed blogging in February. No one called to see if I died. No one commented to ask when I would blog again. In short, no one noticed. Such is life.

I have a gift card to B&N that I'm ready to use. I think I'd like a collection of Lewis Carroll's poetry. The Hunting of the Snark is a must have. Isn't it astounding how the word poetry is poetry in itself? I think someone planned it that way.

I'm old now! Really old. Like, double-digits, old. Where the first digit is a two, and the last digit looks like an egg.

I have three college tests tomorrow. Why am I blogging. God only knows.

Fun fact, Italy is not shaped like a boot. If it was, you could put your foot it. But you can't, so it's not. Take that, world.

Ramblings

JURY DUTY!!! I got selected for jury duty! It's on a school day so I'm going to try to get out of it, but it's still exciting nonetheless.

I'm going to a civil war reenactment this weekend. I just remembered that I have braces. I'll be period correct until the moment I open my mouth. Maybe I'll pretend to be mute.

I'm putting the job applications out by the dozens and waiting for the offers to come rolling in by the hundreds. The math of this phenomena is completely absurd, but I'm waiting for the offers just the same.

Words with Friends is a bucket of fun; it's what you might call a Fun Bucket. My username is JakeStilesOwen if you'd like to play with me. No cheating, please.

I gave Bella a bath today and took her for a walk. She now gets excited when she hears the ducks quacking on my iPod alarm. Way to go, Mr. Pavlov.

The book, The Phantom of the Opera, isn't anywhere as epic as watching the play on Broadway, but it's still worth the read. I'm in the middle of listening to the book on tape right now.

I have a lot of schoolwork to do. Wish me luck on my first test of the semester tomorrow.

Until we meet again...

Two Zero One Two

The new year is already 2% of the way over. Time really flies, you know?

32 is my new favorite number. The reason is that 29, 30, and 31 are the first 3 sequential numbers to each have an odd number of distinct prime factors while 33, 34, and 35 are the first 3 sequential numbers to each have an even number of distinct prime factors. 32 is divisible by the same prime five times and is excluded from either of the other categories. It's a hard life being the number 32, but somebody had to do it.

My last semester of college (unless I pursue graduate work) begins for me in just 2 more days. I've purchased all my extremely expensive books and all my extremely cheap lined paper, but I still need to register for one of my classes, and I also need to pick up a few dozen extra mechanical pencils. I have only 4 classes compared to my usual 6, and only 3 days a week that I have to be in Orlando. I'm looking forward to a slightly lighter course load. My courses are Corporate Finance, Matrix and Linear Algebra, Biology, and Physics. I'll leave it to you to guess which two of the four classes make me excited.

I just received word yesterday that I passed my third actuarial exam. Epic beyond belief. Now I just have to pass two more before I get to the real ones. Wonderful.

Life is good. If you don't believe me, look at this:




The boat proves everything.

Pavlov To My Dog

The title of this blog post originates from a Pretender quote. I bring it up because I've been attempting to train Bella, Micki's (and now also my) black lab, to do a few different (and ever so slightly amusing) things. I'm working on 1. Having her come to my side when I say "Heel", 2. Teaching her to associate the sound of a duck (from my iPod's alarm) with me getting her leash for a walk, and 3. Getting her to walk in between our mailbox and our neighbor's mailbox when returning home. So far only "heel" is sinking in, but I'm hopeful for the other two conditioning treatments as well. I'll be sure to update if anything cool happens.

"Iiiiiiiii've played the field, the game, the park, the arcade....."

I started studying the 1200+ page manual for the SOA's Exam C today. It's kind of fun, but fairly time-consuming. Moments, expectations, skewness, and kurtosis are exciting only the first 8 dozen times you encounter them.

I also finished The Hunger Games today. Great book. I'm anxious to finish the next two, but I don't see how they'll be able to match the excitement of the first. That book along with http://xkcd.com/337/ has inspired me to try to be more epic on a daily basis.

The New Year is coming soon. If the world wasn't ending in 2012, it'd be really exciting. 2012 = 2*2*503 just in case you were wondering.

I might be a Dr. Pepper addict. If anyone wants to help me start a DP-holics Anonymous, let me know. Just be sure to think of a good fake name before contacting me. Only so many people can call themselves Bob before it starts getting confusing.

"And for the rest of you: jury duty, jury duty, blackmail, eviction notice, pink slip....." - The the the the, THE GRINCH!

Follow Suit and Follow Me

To all the readers, the writers, the Raiders: I greet you in the name of Golb, the god of blog. His throne is a QWERTY keyboard, and his beard is a brilliant shade of automatic black. His language is HTML, and his kingdom exists throughout all runtimes and cyberspaces. He can be reached on his cell at 426-4652. Not really.

I'm a married man. It's very wonderful. My last name changed and everything. Not really.

Michelle and I went on a cruise for our honeymoon. I ate SO much good food that it was absolutely ridiculous. I've developed a new obsession with buttered sourdough rolls. When we got back, I read a week's worth of posts from jessescottowen.com and almost died from the overwhelming sense of awesome. That guy should post more often.

If Pandora was left on long enough, would it repeat songs or run out of songs?

I'm in the process of building a dresser. It's not that much fun.

"So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it." - Willy Wonka. This quote is the story of my life at the moment.

When I think of the best video games ever, I think of Paper Mario, then Animal Crossing, then Call of Duty. It's a strange combination, I know.

I hope to eat Cheesy Potatoes soon. Heavy whipping cream can do a world of good to almost any food.

Christmas is coming so very soon. It's amazing how a Caribbean cruise can distort one's sense of season. Only watching The Santa Clause will cure my inability to believe I'm already this far into December.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Happy December

The first day of the month is always exciting. Don't ask me why, because I don't know. It just is. (I started typing this post yesterday, but didn't publish until Dec 2nd.)

"Mawwiage is whut bwings us togever today. Mawwiage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweem within a dweem." I'm getting married to my best friend in 8 days, and I'm just a little bit less than a lotta bit nervous. I'm keeping my mind on the calming things: the bachelor party, the food, and the cruise.

Sometimes, some things somewhat confuse me. For example, people. People are quite odd. For example, one of my professors recently described himself as an atheist who is "subconsciously Buddhist" and who reads the Bible "for fun". What does that even mean? I wanted to insult him, his intelligence, and his (lack of) religion, but I didn't. I'll wait at least until final grades are released.

I'm very excited about next semester. Only 4 classes, only 16 credits, only 3 days a week. Two glorious weekdays off: Tuesday and Thursday. Of course, I have to study a 1000+ page study manual and hopefully pass Exam C in February and Exam MLC in May. And I need to apply for jobs. But it will be a good semester anyways; I've already decided.

I like Checkerburgers. I like Wendy's sea-salt french fries. I like Cocoa Puffs. I like food. Quite a lot. I'm thinking about the cruise buffets, and I'm starving already.