Of Long Weekends and Short Work Weeks

There's just something magical about coming to work for the first time in a given week, and having it be Wednesday already. While I don't always advocate working for a large corporate giant, sometimes it does have its perks. For example, we get every Friday afternoon between Memorial Day and Labor Day off. We work an extra hour each day Monday-Thursday, but it's worth it. Plus, they gave us both Monday and Tuesday off.

So, to sum up: this work week consists of 2.5 actual work days. Nevermind that I brought work home over the weekend and did some of it on July 4th. 2.5 work days. Can't beat that.


What's on my radar this week? Well, we picked out our wedding bands yesterday. That's a cool experience; trying on and deciding what rings will be on our fingers for the rest of our lives (assuming, that is, that I don't balloon up to 350+ or something). I went with the white gold motif, and the ring has shiny edges and a braided pattern in the middle. She went with two bands: one on each side of her engagement ring, each with small diamonds set in. She's going to look like a gangsta rapper, and I couldn't be more excited.

The Indians have been on an absolute tear lately. I believe the last time I wrote about them they were 37-30, and they then proceeded to lose 4 straight games. They have since, however, won 9 out of 12 to run their record to 46-37, with five more games before the All-Star break. When one considers that this team was atrocious in April and for a large chunk of May, the fact that they're still on pace to win 90 games (and I think even more than that, when all is said and done), one finds that to be pretty amazing. If they can make a move for one more bat in the lineup (preferably a right-handed hitter with some pop) before the trading deadline, look out.

House of Cards has a show this coming Friday night at Bernie's down on campus. We're opening for two other local bands, which means that (for a change) my friends might actually be able to show up, seeing as how it's a Friday night and it won't be too late. Word on the street is that my parents (who will be in town so that my step-father and I can finish the deck) might even make it out. We've got a new song that we're putting the finishing touches on this evening, and it's a little more rockin' than some of the other stuff. Plus, don't forget the bullhorn (see previous entry, below).

Finally, I'll leave you with this. Check this site out: apparently, Yellowstone Park is just a huge super-volcano. He writes:

The last eruption of a super volcano was in Toba, Sumatra, 75,000 years ago. It had 10,000 times the explosive force of Mount St. Helens and changed life on Earth forever. Thousands of cubic kilometres of ash was[sic] thrown into the atmosphere - so much that it blocked out light from the sun all over the world. 2,500 miles away 35 centimetres of ash coated the ground. Global temperatures plummeted by 21 degrees. The rain would have been so poisoned by the gasses that it would have turned black and strongly acidic. Man was pushed to the edge of extinction, the population forced down to just a couple of thousand. Three quarters of all plants in the northern hemisphere were killed.

Scientist[sic] have discovered that the ground in Yellowstone if[sic] 74cm higher than in[sic] was in 1923 - indicating a massive swelling underneath the park. The reservoir is filling with magma at an alarming rate. The volcano erupts with a near-clockwork cycle of every 600,000 years. The last eruption was more than 640,000 years ago - we are overdue for annihilation.

To quote Kent Brockman, Channel 6 News: "Hmm. Alright. A grim portrait of things to come."

The point? The site on which I found this link included some friends of mine discussing the relevence of a prophecy that, according to the Mayan calendar, the world will end on December 12, 2012 (Mitch's assertion: due to an eruption of said volcano). My response? Well, first, a little background.

You know that guy that we all know? The guy who has to be right about everything? The guy who, no matter what the argument, pitches his $.02 in and calls everyone else bitches if they disagree with him? Well, this sports forum has one of "those guys" in daily attendance. We'll call him (actually, he calls himself) "jdawg". So, back to the question of annihilation due to Yellowstone Super Volcanic eruption. My response?

This is the kind of argument jdawg would get into:

The world would end, but as we're all laying there dying, he'd be sure to remind us all that he was right and we were all wrong, and that even though the world is ending, Pac Man Jones is still a great cornerback: best in the 2005 draft.

What's the point? If it happens, we're fucked. If it doesn't happen, we still have plenty of things in this country/world that can fuck us. Worrying about a volcano that can't be stopped seems pretty pointless to me. Bush would somehow find a way to blame the terrorists. Or, the volcano would be erupting because it "hates our freedom."

Probably only one person will find that funny, but if I can reach one person, I've done my job.

Hopefully, our neighbors have a Flanders-like streak in them, and are prepared with bomb "shelter-inis" in their backyards that we can mooch into. Godspeed, little doodle.