4:59 AM:

It's about time for some more online quiz results, which, on the face of it at least, would seem to contradict one another:

How evil are you?

You are a Folkie. Good for you.

What kind of Sixties Person are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Friday Five:

1. What drinking water do you prefer -- tap, bottle, purifier, etc.?
   I just answered this the other day, didn't I? Tap. I've been considering looking into those pitchers with the filters in 'em, but it just seems like a waste of money...
2. What are your favourite flavor of chips?
   Unflavored (salted) corn chips are just fine.
3. Of all the things you can cook, what dish do you like the most?
   Hmm. I haven't made this in a very long time, but probably cinnamon toast.
4. How do you have your eggs?
   Mixed with flour and various other ingredients, in the form of cake.
5. Who was the last person who cooked you a meal? How did it turn out?
   Cooked a meal for me, specifically? Hmm. I guess that would be the pizza delivery people. It turned out pretty well, I'd say.

11:16 PM:

Have just seen A Mighty Wind. Enjoyed it hugely, and I don't even know all that much about folk music. I suspect those who do would appreciate it even more.

Very small American Idol update:

While I'm obviously not surprised at the outcome, I am surprised at how close it was. I wonder whether the results are getting somewhat skewed by the technological limitations on the number of simultaneous calls that can be handled by any of the given voting numbers during the voting period? That is, if they're all being taxed to capacity at this point, that leaves little room for a meaningful difference in the results...

12:13 AM:

American Idol update:

Actually, there isn't terribly much to report. None of the performances blew me away this week. On the other hand, with the exception of Clay's performance of "Vincent," nothing was particularly bad, either, and even that was... well, just a really bad song/artist match, which wasn't his fault. (Whoever came up with the "random song" idea, on the other hand, ought to be fired. Now.) I tried to vote for Clay, but didn't get through in the couple minutes I abandoned everybody else to do so while at a friend's house, after which -- not being in my own living room -- I gave up and let him fend for himself.

There is a slight chance that Kimberley will manage to edge out Ruben this week, but I really don't expect that to happen. Final two: Ruben vs. Clay. American Idol: Clay. Not that this is going to surprise anybody. (If Kim does make it through to the final two, Clay will still end up the winner. And if Kimberley and Ruben are the final two, there will be a snowball fight in Hell the next day.)

For once, I have nothing to say about who will gain the support of the fan base of the person who left the previous week. Josh may be the one case in which the people most devoted to him will drop out entirely, not really having cared about the show except insofar as it concerned The Marine; whichever supporters he got via Carmen who didn't jump ship at the end are most likely to move to Clay, I suspect. Kim's hopes are now pinned on her being the last remaining female contestant (which still left her behind Clay and Ruben last week), and on the underdog appeal (which is the only reason I'm not ruling her out entirely).

Anyway. First Kimberley goes, then Ruben. This I foretell. Not that it's a remotely tough call, on either count.

1:18 PM:

This-or-That:

1. Packrat or minimalist?
   Umm, both, in different spheres. The design of this journal ought to give an idea of my minimalist approach to design... but when it comes to hanging onto stuff, I'm a packrat all the way.
2. Computer: desktop or laptop?
   Desktop. The nice thing about desktop systems is that you can fix them when something goes wrong. My luck with laptops hasn't been all that great.
3. Seashore or mountains?
   Seashore.
4. Carpeting or bare floors?
   Carpeting.
5. Drinking water: bottled or tap?
   Tap.
6. Shopping websites: eBay or Amazon?
   Both!
7. Cute little kitties or big scary tigers?
   Cute little kitties.
8. Front door or back door?
   Umm... huh?
9. Lots of jewelry, or little/none?
   Little/none. (My minimalist aesthetic again!)
10. Thought-provoking question of the week: At the last minute, you obtain tickets to an event you're dying to attend. However, you have to work that day! Do you ask the boss for the time off, or just call in sick?
    It would depend on the exact circumstances, I'd imagine.

Unconscious Mutterings:

1. Want::You to Want Me
   
2. Pleasure::Pain
   
3. Sugar::Spice
   
4. Special::K
   
5. Pure::Evil
   
6. Right::Now
   
7. Something::Else
   
8. Cherish::The Thought
   
9. Pub::lic
   
10. Snap::Fingers
    

Tonight's karaoke report:

My first song was "Eat It." The karaoke recording of same pretty much sucked (the guy running the show apologized for this afterward, both publicly and privately), but my performance wasn't bad. My second was "99 Red Balloons," which I pretty much hit out of the park. The only thing I might have done differently in hindsight was that, in the second-to-last stanza, I went the Goldfinger route and interpolated the corresponding stanza from "99 Luftballons." Which would have been fine, except that the crowd in front of the stage was singing along by this point, so as I was singing "Neunundneunzig Kriegsminister / Streichholz und Benzinkanister" they were bellowing "Ninety-nine knights of the air / Ride super-high-tech jet fighters" and so on. Still, I switched back in time to do the "Ninety-nine red balloons go byyyyyyyyyyyyyy..." bit, which may be the best part.

Also, it's two weeks, and I already seem to be becoming a regular. Shortly after my first song, this woman comes over to me, slaps me on the shoulder, and asks me whether I'd performed yet. As I told her that I'd done my first song, but that I'd have another one coming, I was trying to place where she knew me from. One of my classmates? No... One of my students? Nuh-uh... and then it hit me. She'd seen me perform last week and remembered me, and wanted to see me perform again.

I am so going back there every Monday night until I leave Ann Arbor, that's all I'm gonna say.

Oh, and tonight's booze count would be two alcohol units. I still seem to be functioning normally. The research is scheduled to continue next week... (Elaine mentioned in a conversation earlier today that most people don't analyze their drinking the way I am. What can I say, I'm weird... not to mention a bit leery about messing with my body chemistry without getting a good idea of the effects...)

6:23 PM:

Okay, let's admit this and move on: it's amazing how well things have been working out in my life of late, albeit in a slightly perverse sort of way.

It was over a dozen years ago when I came up with "Shmuel's Reconciliation." Actually, the full title is "Shmuel's Reconciliation of Murphy's Law and Hashgochas Protis," and even that's not quite true, because instead of "Shmuel," I used my last name, which alliterates nicely and works ever so much better.

Hashgochas Protis, to clarify, refers to the way in which God micromanages the details of this world. This is popularly (if inaccurately) taken as meaning that everything happens for the best.

At any rate, Rhymes-With-Crosses' Reconciliation goes as follows: In the short run, whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, and it will do so at the worst possible time. But in the long run, everything tends to work out anyway.

The beauty of this philosophy is that if you believe it -- and for quite some time, I did -- then when things go wrong, that simply affirms your faith in the basic principle, and lets you rest easy in the knowledge that the second half of the equation will come to fruition too.

I will now get to the point.

For the past four months and change -- far longer than I ever intended -- I have been unemployed. I have spent my days watching TV, having long conversations with my sister over the Internet, surfing the Web, posting entries to this journal, and getting reacquainted with the local public library. From one standpoint, I've been doing nothing.

On the other hand, all that energy had to go somewhere. And it did. Internally, psychologically, I've been doing more than I had in years. I can't count the number of issues and decisions I'd put aside for another day, for when I had the time, energy, and opportunity to deal with them. And that time finally arrived this year. For the first time in ages, I haven't been busy and stressed out over my classes and my job. And it may have been the best thing that's happened to me in a good long time.

But getting thrown out of my grad program without being allowed to stay for one last semester -- thus providing me with all this free time -- has been only half the equation. The other half is that the only way I've been able to afford to be out of work for this long is that I've been living off my share of a legal settlement from a van accident I was in, back in August of 1999. And while it admittedly would have been more financially prudent for me to have gotten a job here and invested that nice little sum for the future, on the whole, I'd have to say it's been worth it to have gotten this space just now. Which means that, in a strange sort of way... well, I'm still not prepared to say that it's a good thing I was in that van when it skidded out of control and flipped over, but I've got to admit that its silver lining has been pretty darn helpful.

God works in really mysterious ways sometimes.

If you want a serious case of the warm fuzzies, check out Pamie's index page. Wow.

In contrast to Mary Anne's impressively long list of things to bring to WisCon, mine currently consists of the following:

• Clothes
• A towel
• Shaving supplies
• A book or two
• Discman and CDs
• Corn Flakes (will purchase milk there), bowl and spoon
• Peanut butter (will purchase something to spread it on there), perhaps a knife

Oh. Yeah. WisCon. Basically, it's like this. If I end up moving that weekend, which is not outside the realm of possibility, then I don't expect to attend. If, however, I'm still in Ann Arbor at that point, then I'm going; in fact, I've already booked a bed at a local hostel. On the other hand, I still have time to cancel that without penalty, if this doesn't turn out to be possible. Stay tuned...