So let me tell you a story about going out...

My roommate called up about 10 of his friends to join him at a local music club to see a band called Blaze. The music was nice enough, but I guess it wasn't really my thing. The roomie was totally geeked to see this group, but I just wasn't feeling it. On top of that, seeing all the beautiful people around with their equally beautiful partners didn't make me feel any better. All of a sudden, I started hating my singleness. I swear, this whole "greener grass on the other side" thing can really wreak havoc with my mind sometimes. All the while, I was seeing my roommate being his charming self. (He can really piss me off sometimes...)

Four of us ended up going to another bar later that night. During this time, a female in our party just crashed out on one of the couches. (She said she was tired.) Between my suave roommate and seeing all the pretty women that I couldn't talk to (much less even have a shot with), I really wasn't feeling high on myself. At the end of the night, I had to drive a car to our place so that the aforementioned woman of our group could have a place to crash.

I'd been thinking about what one could do to improve their status in the dating pool. This piece over at The Volokh Conspiracy has some ideas on what I could do. (Andrew Sullivan has other thoughts on the topic.) There's even a TV show designed to improve people's chance's with the opposite sex. And yet I'm still in a slump. I hate to sound whiny here, but this sucks. Maybe one of these days I'll get out of this funk...

Day 2 of Job Search 2004: Nothing.  Just been poking around online for positions. Also dropped by the station to turn in my outprocessing forms. Saw a couple of friends working on resume tapes and what-not. I tell you, it still feels almost like a vacation for me. I don't think it's really hit me that I'm out of work.

I've been meaning to give my two cents about this post. I had asked if the good folks at Campus Crusade were hiring. CJ told me that they always, so I moseyed around their site looking for openings. (Mind you, this is back when I had a j-o-b.)

When I was looking, I found the following caveat:

Understanding of various considerations about joining our ministry.

Now, I'll be the first to say that I haven't been the best Catholic/Christian/spiritual person in the world in the last few months. Haven't gone to mass in a long while, regularly use God's name in vain, don't pray all that often, etc. But after reading those considerations for only a few seconds, I knew I would never be eligible for ANY spot there. This part really killed me:

Moral Conduct: As a ministry we must evaluate the moral character of applicants in light of the biblical standards of purity. If a person has been involved in premarital sex, at least a one-year period of sexual purity is required prior to acceptance as a Campus Crusade staff member. If extramarital sex has occurred, there must be at least a two-year period of sexual purity. A past, established lifestyle of homosexuality will most likely disqualify an applicant for staff. In cases where occurrences of homosexual activity have been limited, a minimum of three years of sexual purity is required prior to acceptance as a staff member.
 
Under these circumstances, I'd probably have to come clean (pardon the pun) about my self-abuse. Not that I'm trying to knock these guidelines; you wouldn't want a guy with a criminal record working for the police. But it almost seems a bit overboard.

Who knows? I may be applying with these folks if enough time goes by...

So it's Monday... I ain't got no job... and I ain't got shit to do!

Due to legal stuff, I can't really talk about it here. Feel free to read the article I linked to in the last post. But now, I have a lot more free time on my hands. It's weird, I really don't feel TOO bad about what happened.

More later...

I'm a bit tipsy to blog right now after 3-4 bottles of Bud, but here's a development that I'll fill everyone in on later...

 

So tired... can't sleep.

My new favorite show...  all staff meeting tomorrow... Messenger keeps ringing...  I just want sleep....

So anyone out there wanna help me figure out how to best respond to this?

Okay, so after a day of surfing, I found a grand total of ONE blog mentioning Ken Jennings' winning streak. And it's a grammar snob dissecting how Jeopardy responses should be formed. Fer fuck's sake...

Alrighty, time for some elaboration.
 
- BLIND DATES : My folks set me up with a gal last Sunday. She used to work with my mom about a year or so ago, now she works in a different department. My parents, she and I met up at a casual Mexican restaurant (is there any other type?), then her and I went to Dave and Buster's for some game-playing. (I was off my ass, had the best Skee-Ball game of my pro career with almost 400 points, winning over 600 tickets in the process. Twice, I had to call attendants to refill game machines with tickets because I emptied them. This is almost akin to a 3-homerun game, I tell you.) She was nice enough, brown too. (A rarity for me, take my word for it.) No dates since then, just a couple of phone calls. She's supposed to call me up tonight (or was it me calling her?) for a movie.
 
- TURNING THE PAGE : Because of this date, things between Suzanne and I were gonna change. Long story short, we decided to not talk for a while. Lately, we'd been hanging out a lot. Going to dinner and lunch sometimes, watching TV while spooning on the couch. (Okay, so maybe that's more than hanging out...) I needed to stop it, and this seemed like the perfect way to do that. We'll see how this round of "separation" goes.
 
- THE BLUES: Kinda felt like crap afterwards. More Melon Collie than Infinite Sadness, but it still sucked.
 
In other news...
 
So I've been trying to read more "high-falutin'" blogs lately (Instapundit, Relapsed Catholic, etc.), and yet there's no mention of one of the biggest intellectual phenomenas of the year.
 
The Ken Jennings Machine.
 
Why the Internet intellectuals haven't discussed, lauded, dissected or otherwise brought up his performance is beyond me. Yeah, yeah, Joe Wilson, gay marriage and other issues are probably more important. But I'm surprised that smart people aren't giving dap to one of their own.
 
Okay, off my soapbox now...

THINGS TO BLOG ABOUT WHEN I HAVE MORE TIME:
 
-Blind dates.
-Ending a chapter of my life (hopefully).
-Sadness.

SO I guess I should explain the previous post.

My computer is back in service. After a call to a computer repair company, my poor Dell is back in service. It had been running real slow. Turns out I had chingos amounts of spyware, some hijackers, and even the Sasser worm. (Enough stuff to impress one of the IT guys at my work.) Now that I actually have programs to combat these things, hopefully you'll be hearing more of me in the future.

I have actually been keeping a paper journal in the last few weeks, at the request of my counselor. I may put some of those entries up here, but that may be a while.

Until then, here's some things that I think everyone should check out.

Kristiface in the Middle East - You may remember me linking to this blog in the past, but lately it's been a real eye-opener for me. The adventures of a grad student in Jordan for the summer.

F The Vote (via Wonkette)- I've heard of trying to swing the vote, but this is ridiculous...

Enjoy, and I hope to be on this thing a lot more in the coming weeks.

I'm back, baby!