Where does all the time go?

So here I sit in the library out at USF waiting on my most interesting class, Comparative Translation in Lit. and Film, to begin. Now I've slowly come to the realization this semester that I am attempting to bite off quiet a bit more than any normal human could possibly chew. I have 15 hours AT school. I usually work about 30 or so hours at Macaroni Grill, I've started another part time job where I do about 8 hours a week, with a bit of driving time. So when we look at my total week hours I'm at 53 hours actually doing something and probably about 7 hours of driving time. So 60 hours are accounted for. Now I'd say I probably average about 7 hours of sleep per night so that's another 49 hours bringing us to 109 hours that are definetly being used. There are what, about 168? hours in a week? (confirmed with calc. 7 * 24) where are these 59 hours I'm supposed to have going? even if I averaged about 9 hours of sleep bringing me to account for 123 hours that's still 45 hours I can't find. I believe the evil viewing box in the downstairs living room to be the evil culprit, though perhaps it could be friends and alcohol. I try to read for homework as much as I can but it just seems there isn't any time. I'm going to have to study my habits closely this week in order to see where all this damn time is getting off to. I think football ate some of it this weekend but that was a decent investment as I won $90 off of a football pool at work. With Stites's help I picked 13 winning games out of the 16 played.

Well I leave you with this message from E. B. White found here
“I get up every morning determined to both change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes, this makes planning the day difficult.”

and from Aristotle found here at the bottom
“We live in deeds, not years; In thoughts not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs...”

Signing off for now,

The New World Order

I really shouldn't title this post that, but I'm currently drawing a blank on what else I might call it. Anyways, let's see what else is going on. I actually went to my classes today (well not the 6pm one because that hasn't occured yet though I am rushing this post off in order to grab some Starbucks and still make class on time - or close to it), so that makes three successful days of classes, only about two dozen more to go. Anyways, the primary elections were yesterday and sadly Rhonda Storms (searched for a webpage but couldn't find one in time) won the Republican primary for State Senate so I'm looking closely into Stephan Gorham who is the Democratic candidate for the State Senate in my district. So when I have a bit more time I'll post more, for now I have to grab some Starbucks and run to "Comparitive Translations in Film and Literature" or something like that, we're watching Lost in Translation. Everyone else have a great night and we'll talk later. I may be able to provide a review of Beerfest later on.

How terrorism is winning....

Okay so, here I am at school once again (the whole my comp doesn't work thing) and my first class of the day is canceled (after 15 mins and the teacher not showing up we made a roll and left). I head over here to the library to check a few things, one of them being Crystal's blog (I've been way out of the loop but I picked a great week to get back in). In her blog she talks about her friend Andy's blog which was discussing an article written by an Arab-American. Here is a quick little excerpt from that article but I'd recommend linking through the title of this post to the entire story:

He said "people are feeling offended because of your t-shirt". I looked at my t-shirt: I was wearing my shirt which states in both Arabic and English "we will not be silent".

I said "I am very sorry if I offended anyone, I didnt know that this t-shirt will be offensive". He asked me if I had any other T-shirts to put on, and I told him that I had checked in all of my bags and I asked him "why do you want me to take off my t-shirt? Isn't it my constitutional right to express myself in this way?" The second man in a greenish suit interfered and said "people here in the US don't understand these things about constitutional rights". So I answered him "I live in the US, and I understand it is my right to wear this t-shirt".

Okay so now you're getting interested and beginning to wonder why I titled my post this way. Well think about it folks what are the goals of terrorists? To corrupt and destroy the culture of the West (for us that's the American culture, life liberty pursuit of happiness and so forth). Who cares what the t-shirt says even? It is a person's constitutional right to express themself through free speech. I understand shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre is illegal. But standing on the street corner and decrying the state of our government is not. If a guy wants to wear a t-shirt that has arabic script on it, I'd still get on the plane and not give a rat's ass about it. If there were a plane half filled with people wearing t-shirts with arabic script I may be a little more hesitant but I'd probably try to start a conversation with one or two of them to figure out why so many folks on the plane were wearing an arabic t-shirt. In any case I've got to run off to class (if this one is canceled as well I may just call it a day).

The new challenges for me in life are to keep up with school, continue to make money for bills, and stay up to date on all the political and social retardation that is occuring within this once great nation I currently call home (I will be relying on some of you out there to keep me updated with stories like the one I stole from Crystal). In any case have a great day everyone and keep it real.

A bit of a revealing tease....

So I figured I would attempt to start this school year off properly and once again take up the torch of my long forgotten blog. Well first things first. I am currently single, so all you ladies feel free to drop me a line any time you happen to be in Florida or even if you're not in Florida as I enjoy conversing with the opposite sex on matters intellectual, social, and ridiculous. So now that the big good news is out of the way on to the more mundane.

Yes, I am still in school. Unlike John though I am not pursuing a Master's degree I am still attempting to find that damnable Bachelor's one first; they have it hidden rather well down here at the University of South Florida, I think they like the AKA of U Stay Forever. To be a bit more precise within this news I am currently enrolled in four classes: a writing class, American Lit 1912-1945 (the teacher being Stone from my Con(temporary) Lit. class the previous Spring), Early Shakespeare (we're doing Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Henry IV - Part I, and Hamlet, and Brit(ish) Lit. 1616 - 1780 (one that has been a plague before); I am also attempting to get enrolled into another Selected American Authors class (depending on the authors), as well as a Form and Technique of Poetry (this one just requires a form to be filled out plenty of slots). So feel free to bug the crap out of me regarding how any of these classes are going or if you are really insane and wish to have any discussions on any particular topics that touch upon these classes let me know because I may be insane enough to engage in such conversation - perhaps from the mingling of our two insane conversations a genuinely brilliant thought may form.

Next up on the list is the discussion of work. God how it is horrid. I watched Office Space the last night and I realized that this is most definitely how I feel about being a server/bartender at Macaroni Grill (or most likely any restaraunt if I were to try somewhere else). I have begun looking/training in another part-time job (yes I'm a busy busy little bee or whatever). The new job basically involves doing financial services for families. It's a company called Primerica, a subsidiary of CitiGroup (red umbrella). What I do is both recruit new associates/agents and I do complimentary financial needs analysee (is that the proper form of analysis?). We then help the family/individual get on track for becoming debt free and prepared for retirement as soon as possible, so we sell Life Insurance, Mortgages/Loans, and we do Securities Investments. Don't ask me how the pay is I don't really know yet but I know that the person in charge of the office I work out of has only been with the company about two years and already makes over 200k per year (not such a bad chunk of change). If anything it should prove to be a rewarding and lucrative part-time job.

So for this evening what is planned you ask? First, I need to finish this up. Next, I'm rereading an article "Can Poetry Matter?" by Dana Gioia (first published in The Atlantic Monthly, May 1991 (we're discussing this in poetry on Wed.). Then I'm heading out to some bar with Katie to have a few drinks and then chill out at my house. Ah, yes something I forget completely about because I haven't realized how long it has been since I updated this. I no longer live at home. I moved into a house with that girl from the last post, Gibson (we went out but that is no longer occurring and I have to say I'm really glad about this because I realized how completely different we were), there are also three other guys living the house, it's pretty damned big so it's not a huge deal to have five people living in one place; in fact I barely ever see my housemates except the two I work with and I really only see them at work (my god what a horrid run-on but I like it). Needless to say with five folks living in a house rent is cheap but utilities are high, I seem to have reallocated all my going out to dinner/drinking money towards bills instead so this necessitated a change in lifestyle to being a bit more of a homebody so books and movie recommendations are always appreciated, intellectual fare preferred for during the course of the semester, though weekends may be great for vegging.

Last bit of news. I don't really have a computer right now (no idea what's wrong with the current just crapped out), however I will attempt to post an entry as often as I can by stealing time on the 'rents' comp as well as the roomies' comps. If you are feeling particularly generous drop me a line on how to send donations we here at the Matthew Robinson Needs Money Foundation are willing to accept cash or check and make sure that 100% of the donated money goes towards our cause with no administrative fees what-so-ever. (I'd be willing to wager you'll not find another charity with that kind of usage rate (double meaning on the word usage). )