Just Some Ordinary Blog Stuff

Some time ago, for about four years, I worked at a stand-alone Baskin & Robbins. They always had the widest variety of distinct, quality flavors, and making an ice cream cake without the cake (called a "fudge nut," even if the nuts were replaced by sprinkles) was NOT a big deal; we had it done the next day, usually without fail. In fact, some of them were ready-made and proudly displayed in the cake freezer.

Of course, that stand-alone Baskin & Robbins is now as ancient history as Caesar or Napoleon. As is the other stand-alone Baskin & Robbins that once graced the east side of town.

The two B&Rs left in this town are both sort of halves of Siamese twins, the other halves of which are Dunkin' Donuts stores. Having worked at a B&R for four years, I know full well how things are supposed to work there.

I went to one of the B&Rs today; it was like entering the Twilight Zone. I asked for a fudge nut cake, and they asked me what it was. I explained, quite clearly, I thought, what it was and how to make it. Just use the cutter, shear off two notches' worth of a Mint Chocolate Chip tub (that's my father's preferred flavor; it's his birthday on Thursday), put it on a round white cardboard thing, remove the bit of tub that surrounds the ice cream, smooth some fudge on top with a thick swirl near the edges, sprinkle some sprinkles (or nuts) on the sides and the thick swirl, write a message on top in your favorite color (red always looks nice) with the proper frosting, and put the whole thing in a 9" box. That's all there is to it.

They refused to make it.

I didn't bother to count the small number of flavors that they had there; it would have hurt too much. It's a lovely day today, and I can really do without such pain. Back at the one where and when I worked, we had a maximum of forty-seven flavors, and, with the possible exception of the occasional "sugar free" flavor (and that "chocolate ribbon" thing, which, thankfully, didn't last), they were real, intense flavors that you could taste and savor. Most of the flavors that remain now are the most boring things imaginable, and I can't help but wonder if any of the seasonal flavors still exist. Love Potion #31, Egg Nog, Pumpkin Pie......those were frickin' awesome flavors. And, of course, my beloved Chocolate Fudge.......rich, dark, gooey.......the way chocolate should be. It's not really any of the "seasons" right now, so I can't tell right away, but my beloved Chocolate Fudge, a year-round flavor where I worked, seems to be totally extinct in my town now. Last time I saw Chocolate Fudge was when I took a drive out to Springfield....was it, two years ago now? I don't remember.......but somewhere on MacArthur Boulevard in Springfield, a little ways north of Penny Lane (the main, and perhaps only, reason anyone would want to go to Springfield*), a stand-alone Baskin & Robbins remains. Hopefully.

I don't know just how interesting this is to anyone, but I could go on and on and on about ice cream........

Anyway, I have a ticket to see Gordon Lightfoot in concert tomorrow.

Peace...........


*The Lincoln Museum is okay, but that and Penny Lane aside, Springfield seems very much a wasteland, with empty parking lots and chain stores, and very few signs of life. And since I just discovered while creating this post that Penny Lane does indeed do business online, you can just take advantage of that and not waste time driving through an endless lack of scenery to a largely empty ghost town.

Poem (not a very imaginative title, I know; I'll come up with something)

Beautiful flower
So smooth and red
It holds my eye hostage
And plays with my head
Yet were I to touch it
I'd probably crush it
Beautiful flower........

I think my anti-virus software uninstalled Word!

Gates bless System Restore......

Me Dealing With People

I was hungry.......

.....Yeah, classic humor right there, right?.......

.....so, for the first time ever, I decided to try ordering delivery over the internet. Luckily, the particular place I was ordering from gave me the option to pay with cash, since I don't have a credit card......but that's beside the point. I was at work, and, apparently, I needed something else to have enough of a charge to have it delivered, so I offered, and one co-worker went ahead and added her order of choice to the bill.

Again, I don't have much experience with this sort of thing.

When the guy arrived, the two of us discussed our respective parts of the payment. She mentioned tip.......an ancient custom about which I had totally forgotten. I said something along the lines of "Oh.....yeah. Sorry.....I'm still getting used to this modern world." The guy's response to this was "What, were you born yesterday?"

"Basically, yes," I instinctively responded. I have my own ideas of spirituality and who-knows-what, into which I won't go here. Anyway, before he left, I told him, "It's all right; you don't know me."

I think, perhaps, it is much to his pleasure that I'm not ordering from them again anytime soon.

IGNORE THIS POST (This isn't the answer either...)

A while ago, I posted this question on here, and, naturally, got no response....well, no matter....I have a theory.....

When I leave the house, I leave the computer logged on under someone else's name. When I get to work, I log on as me and just kick off the other "user". The audio has worked every time so far since I started doing that.

Of course, I usually fail to do consecutive Remote Desktop sessions; I just do one at work and then come back home. But I may try, perhaps the next time I head into the city, to enable a remote connection for another user on this computer and then just keep kicking the other user or myself off as necessary.

Again, this is just a theory. I still fail to understand the logic of audio not always working the way it ought to via Remote Desktop. But I feel it's worth a shot.

Best of luck to anyone who has had this problem and might somehow stumble upon this obscure blog.....

Are there any text books that have original thoughts these days? I see all these footnotes, references, etc.......I get the feeling that, over time, the whole thing becomes like a game of "Telephone," where each person slightly changes the thoughts of their sources, until the most modern sources have totally garbled and unreliable information.

I work as a "text converter" (i.e. converting textbooks to electronic formats that people with certain disabilities can read/listen to), so I see quite a lot of textbooks........and who knows how many footnotes and references........

As Humane as is Deemed Sanitary

One of my mother's friends wanted to go to the "humane society" (an interesting name, I think, for a place that houses forgotten pets) to look at dogs after his own dog suddenly died last week. I tagged along with him and my mother, and, of course, I went to visit the cats while my mother and her friend went in the back to the dog section (which, I discovered later, has its own, um, "scent"; I suppose that would be inevitable....). They have a couple of sections where we can basically go in and freely mingle with the four or five cats that are in each of the two sections. While I was in one of the "cuddle rooms," I just sat for a moment and gazed at one particular cat who was on the window sill, staring out at the dreary, rainy-day plains with bare trees. I couldn't help but wonder what someone in his (I think it was a "he") position might have been thinking, stuck in a room like that, looking out at a grey sky and a sort of brown-and-yellow ground (Cats probably don't know from "brown" and "yellow," do they...?). Is this the best of all possible worlds? Is there something nice and worthwhile beyond these walls? It reminded me so much of me.....

.....But they were all nice cats there, although a few of them slept through my entire time there. I'm not the sort of person to disturb sleeping cats, although some younger people who patronize the Humane Society apparently are..... Anyway, one black cat cuddled up in my lap for a little while, and shortly thereafter, a much younger cat, about seven months old, I think, who sort of resembled Lily (picture link) but with more black, eagerly grabbed my fingers and gently teethed on them. She was quite adorable.

I could go on and on about cats.......

.....I'll just say that Lucy fails to have a problem with me smelling like other cats.

I am not interested in the octuplets or their mother.

A word of advice....

Do not store tea in one of those port-a-cups with lids for longer than, say, three hours. Man, that smell is going to haunt me for days.......

Nothing kills a good mood like my browser refusing to work.

(Thankfully, a reboot fixed it.....)

Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason (a quick review by ~C.A.~)

This seems to me to generally not be all that appreciated. I think perhaps it's another victim of people's tendencies to compare albums to other albums that bear the same artist name. I happen to think this album is a fine piece of spaced-out rock. I suppose the mid-to-late-Eighties production on this thing can be a bit of a turn-off at times; nevertheless, I think this album does carry a certain, spooky, far-out vibe about it that is especially amplified on days when the weather leaves something to be desired. Try it....some dark afternoon....

Oh, Baby!

Okay, NOW I've felt the fresh air of a spring(like) day. Far out.

On the bus today, I saw a baby. Ordinarily, I don't think much of babies...or children of any age, for that matter...but this was the sort of child that inspired high-quality mainstream records (no, that's not an oxymoron). She had wide eyes that contained separate worlds....galaxies all their own. Everything about her struck a euphonious chord. A kindred spirit.....wanting only to be happy and at peace.

Her parents and I didn't say a word to each other. The smiles said it all.

You ever suddenly feel the fresh air of a lovely day in late spring when the flowers have mostly bloomed and love is in the air, even though you're stuck indoors in the middle of winter?

mp3 host?

I realized yesterday, with Alex's help, that the mp3 host I had been using for my songs, boomp3.com, seems to no longer have any audio capabilities.....or uploading capabilities, for that matter.....meaning that the songs I had posted here are no longer available. Anyone know another good mp3 host that would fit this blog nicely? Or should I just create a MySpace page and be done with it?

Defective Show

Latest idea: "Monk" meets "Life on Mars." What could be better than Adrian Monk working with Gene Hunt in New York in 1973? It's a natural!

I'm as #@&%ed up as the day is short.

I think that, depending on one's appetite, one should be able to choose between either a loss of wisdom teeth or a larger mouth that can accommodate the extra teeth.

(Okay, I'll shut up about the teeth now.)

Last night, I dreamt I was eating large quantities of nuts.

......Not such a good dream to have when you've just had your wisdom teeth out......

Wow..............I don't know what's going on, but everything I'm listening to sounds slooooooowed down.......and I'm not listening to tapes or records......What is this????

Zarquon help me.....I'm still recovering from my loss of wisdom teeth, and all my mother can think of is having me "organize" everything.....

("Organize"....that means I know where everything is now, and will have no idea where it is after it's been organized. We have rather differing opinions on where things belong......)

I'm Okay

......just a little sore on the right side of my mouth. Why just the right side, I don't know. Eating might be a bit of an adventure for a little while......

......But I'm fine.

New Presidency, New Semester, New Supermarket, Same Cheshire

Right. Let's see if I can remember everything I wanted to write about yesterday, or I guess it was now the day before yesterday. Zarquon, I went to bed at midnight and, except for a brief bathroom break, didn't get up until ten at night or something like that. This was the day after I saw, among other sights, a sleep psychologist. I would, I think, have gotten up a little earlier, but American Idol was on in the other room, so I had to bury my head particularly deep under the sheets and the other pillow.

Good starting point, I think: Since maybe November, I've been on Prozac, or at least the generic thereof. Before I started that, I had been on (the generic of) Abilify. At that point, I was going nowhere in life and feeling rather depressed. Now I'm still going nowhere in life, but at least I'm content. And making the occasional joke or six. Two out of three ain't bad.....sadly, it's the other one that's causing my folks to be none of those. And that's the basic setup here. How it will relate to anything else in this entry, I don't know; of course, I've yet to write most of it.......

It's a New Semester!

I did it! I don't know how, but I did it! I got up around six thirty in the morning! On the first day of class! I was actually able to get to my nine thirty class! And I'll quite probably be easily able to make it to that class again today, seeing as I only got up a little while ago, and it's about five now. Rejoice!

Anyway, the teacher of this class seems like she'll be much more helpful than the guy who was in charge when I started the class last semester. And it looks like the requirement this time around is merely two short stories and a revision, rather than three short stories and a revision. I'm still not entirely confident, but I feel a little better. I feel a certain instinctive impulse to blur the line between straight fiction and tripped-out sort of post-modern poetry. I wonder if I'll really be able to get away with this kind of artsy inclination.........I suppose I can ask.......Or I suppose I can just be my radical self and recognize my own genius while being horribly misunderstood and generally held in contempt........

(I'm the most humble person in the world! YES!)

(I've posted that joke before, haven't I?)

After class, I went around to a couple of places searching for a PC with internet. Either all of the supposedly trans-platform computers in the English Building lab have been set to the dreaded Macintosh, or I merely dreamt that whole thing, and there is still hope that the whole university isn't just some anti-Cheshire conspiracy. PCs may not be the greatest thing on this planet, but, in my own experience, they're much better than Macs. I've never really gotten along well with Macs for some reason. Maybe if I can use Remote Desktop on a Mac to access this PC on which I am now, I might get into them more. I highly question whether or not this will be possible. Ever.

It's a New Presidency!

Anyway, I went to the Union to watch the Inauguration. Nice, crowded Courtyard Café, full of people applauding when the time is right, and occasionally giggling for reasons which aren't likely to become apparent anytime soon. The broadcast was shown on some kind of projector, projecting onto the screen at the "front" of the café. It was also shown on the usual televisions that hang from the ceiling in various places around the café. It was one of these that I saw. I heard the audio from the big projection, and I saw the video on the television. They were horribly out of sync; the video must have been a full fifteen seconds ahead of the audio. What were they, on different channels or something?

Nevertheless, I got there I think more or less in time to catch the swearing in of Joe Biden. I think it was after that that Aretha did a bit of singing. (Her glory days are behind her.....) It was then beyond noon, Eastern time, and, according to the voice-over, Biden was president for a few minutes, seeing as he had been sworn in before noon, and then Dubya's term expired. Of course, I heard or read later, I forget which, that the elected Obama should have become president at noon, so I don't know.......anyway, the crowd I was with burst into applause when they heard about Biden being the president. They then did a bit of chuckling during Obama's swearing-in, which was notoriously bungled by both Obama and Chief Justice Roberts (mainly Roberts, I understand). (From what I've read, Obama took the oath again today, just to be sure. I assume they got it right this time.) Obama's inauguration speech, which followed, didn't really feature anything particularly special, but it did draw applause at a few junctures. And that's about all I stuck around for; all in all, I don't feel the inauguration itself was anything special, but everyone seems to insist that it's historic. It is, I feel, still too soon to judge the man; coming into the presidency, my reasoning was that all we knew is that he's a good talker. I think he made a good impression on his first full day, though......I think........

I did vote for him......if only because he knows how to talk.......

.....And possibly because he's simply more, I don't know, likable than McCain.

Anyway, all my best to the man. And good luck...........

It's (Going to Be) a New Cheshire!

At my one o'clock (Central time) appointment, we determined that, this Friday, I'm going to have my "wisdom" teeth out.

(I'm sorry......I couldn't find the right emoticon for this.)

It's a New World Order!

(I do have an emoticon for this one, though: )

I don't go shopping very often these days......I mostly leave the shopping to my mother. This time, though, I accompanied her; there wasn't much point going home between two appointments at the clinic on the other side of town. I had seen this "self checkout" thing before at that store, but the last time I was there, there were only two or three of them. This time there were.....well, I didn't count them exactly, but I'm tempted to say seven or eight of them. And only two or three regular checkout counters with actual employees were open.

Does anyone else see what's happening here? Someone, somewhere, is trying to abolish all kinds of human contact in favor of aggravation-inducing machines that are less likely to accept your wrinkled cash and are probably buggy. It's a way to rob people of job opportunities, and it's a blatant attempt to promote a robotic, characterless society where people are nothing but numbers on credit cards. I, for one, will sooner starve than live in a world where the only way to get processed food is to be processed yourself.

Or I can go in late at night, eat some food right there in the store, and walk right out.

(As you may have guessed, I do not have a credit card. Nor do I have plans to get one.)

Some day.......I picture a small group of real people leading a long, dark revolution against the plastic people. Phone companies......credit card companies......you name it, they're goin' DOWN. These are our own creations. We created them. If they make us unhappy, we can just as well destroy them. I saw in a comic strip once, there is a distinction between the pursuit of happiness and the actual attainment of happiness. I would be delighted to see that officially changed.....nevermind the pursuit.....simply "happiness" will suffice, thank you very much.

****

It looks like I'm starting to meander a bit; I take that as a sure sign that I've done enough writing for now.

See ya later

ungh

I had all kinds of stuff I wanted to write and post here today, and, wouldn't you know it, I'm too tired now. But I'll see if I can remember most of it tomorrow when I have a moment or seven.

Just know that I'm listening to Obama's inauguration speech right now.

Why are those candy-on-a-stick things called "suckers"? Shouldn't they be called "suckees"? The person is the sucker; the candy is the thing being sucked. Who names candy, anyway?

Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A. (A quick sort of personal account by ~C.A.~)

I guess I was in high school when I first heard this album in its entirety. Man, I was ravaged by hormones then; I was on some kind of bizarre high all the time.......and, wow, did "Born in the U.S.A." intensify that high. I have no idea how to explain it.......most of the lyrics on the album are actually rather a downer......but there was just something about the music that gripped me.....made me feel like some kind of stud or something. All I knew was: Springsteen rules.

These days, I've kind of drifted away from that album; I look more to "Born to Run" to get my Springsteen fix now. But every once in a while, I might feel a strange pulse in me.....and reach for the Bs on my CD shelf (Yes, I organize my CDs by first name; I prefer it that way)......and turn it up.........


I played it this morning.

AAAARGH! I thought I'd have gotten the tickets by now. Trying to get Dead tickets has turned into an eye-clawing nightmare. I'm supposed to be at work by now..........

Eighth Grade Career Day

I just heard something on the television about someone holding an "eighth grade career day." What the hell kind of eighth grader knows what they want to do every single day for the rest of their life? Am I missing something here? I'm twenty-two, some nine years after eighth grade, and I still haven't the faintest idea of what I want to do. Let these kids breathe!


(Can I use the word "hell" without offending someone who reads this?)

xkcd

Every once in a blue moon, I somehow find my way to this site. I don't know how I get there....I just do.

Anyone else find themselves inexplicably sucked in to this site every now and then?

Classy

Right. This semester I'm fully intent on my second attempt at the "Intro to Narrative Writing" class that seems to be the prerequisite for my relatively new major, which is Rhetoric. Apparently, I have no trouble at all being in charge of a blog with nice little short-and-to-the-point messages that are easy to digest. Coming up with ideas for a full-blown "short story," on the other hand, is rather more of a challenge for me. Last semester, I was in the class for maybe three or four weeks before declining mental health at the time dictated that I drop down to one class. Had I stayed with that class, three short stories plus a revision would have been required from me in the space of some fifteen weeks. With the trouble I have coming up with one idea, coming up with three ideas would take me.....geez....a LOT more than a semester, that much I can tell you. Now, I certainly don't expect the structure of the class to change very much, so.....(deep breath).....I'm going to try. I'm going to bloody well try.

But I think I have my first idea now: a young blogger tries to persuade "the establishment" that old-style literature has had its day, and that The Blog is the new form of popular literature—simple blocks of ideas in simple language for a simple-minded public. (No offense.....) Unsuccessful with the mainstream, our hero(ine) goes underground and stirs the boiling cauldron of revolution, or some such metaphor, and sees just a small bit of progress right before his/her untimely demise........

How 'bout it? Worthy of anything?


(Forgive me if this post seems unfocused; listening to Zappa and writing at the same time is a bit of a trick.......)

Is it just me, or has macaroni & cheese gotten more foul-smelling in recent times?

(Gosh, this blogging thing's a gas, ain't it?)

My circadian rhythms were written by Neil Peart.

Someday........I shall clean up my hard drive........

I wonder if Lucy fantasizes about her combing hideous mats out of my hair.......

WARNING!

Chocolate-covered raisins are highly addictive!

Cheshire Adams - Frequent Flyer

I prefer to spell it that way. So there.

Primitively recorded acoustic psych, with a bit of something that sort of resembles reverb added in Audacity. Vocals recorded separately, so that they may be audible. I wrote this just before the fall '08 semester began.

Your comments are welcome.





My blood is flowing
Rushing down
Above my head
Hovers the ground
Just floating
Hanging around

Then suddenly
It revolves
All reasoning
It dissolves
It's a mystery
I cannot solve

Don't know how I got here
Don't know how I'll return
Don't know a goddamned thing
My brain has burned

I feel I've been
Here before
But I just cannot
Place it for sure
Can't help but wonder
What it's all for

Instinct tells me
I must alight
But I'm so distant
And filled with fright
Suspended
In this bright night

Don't want to stay up here
Don't want to go down
I sense it far off looming:
The stone-cold ground...........

Cheshire Adams - It's Psych

One of my first songs here. It's a somewhat outdated ode to one of my favorite hang-out spots in cyberspace:

It's PSYCH



Download

If you feel you're in a wasteland of trash and ennui,
Let me open your eyes to the fact that this need not be...
Just shed all your thoughts.....hop on your White Bike,
And fly into the ports of It's PSYCH!

The spectral spade digs deep through the annals of time....
Each artifact conquers your senses and channels your mind....
Then sets it aflame.....like a match that you strike,
Sending colors.....through the animate skies of It's PSYCH!

Every tiny aspect of life reverberates so loud....
A tangerine sun shines down through babelfish clouds....
A scenic and breathtaking view....we see on this hike
Look! In the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane!

It's PSYCH!

I just realized....the new background here is a truly beautiful shade of black.........

Dear lord......my mother's yelling at the top of her lungs in the other room. HELP!

Linus — 1993 - 2008

Rest in peace, big boy.........

Who thinks....

....I should get rid of the background on this blog?

(edit: You know what....I'm just going to go ahead and do it.)

Adams' Theory, No. 49

Far out. Been up for some twenty-eight hours now. I have a theory that the more tired I am, the trippier my writing is. Just a theory.

You ever sit at the front of an otherwise empty bus (except the driver....) and just gaze around the rest of the bus.....? After a short while, does it look like a toy model or something....? All those seats and support bars? Does it seem like something you could easily pick up with two fingers and a thumb and run back and forth on a track making RUUMMM—RUUUMMMM noises?

Finished the semester today. Yay! Nine down, TBD to go.......

Just a theory.

Someone suggested to me today that Vitamin D may be helpful in regulating circadian rhythms. Hmm....eh....it's worth a shot, I suppose. I doubt I'll be able to afford a two-hundred dollar light box. I wonder if that prescription has an expiration date......

Zappa for the holidays.....Zappa for the holidays......

All this buzz about the Obamas' new puppy......Why a puppy? Why not a kitten? Is someone allergic? It seems you only ever see cats in the media nowadays being made fun of in stupid Internet "viral" videos......

WHEN YOUR ECONOMY HAS COMPLETED ITS COLLAPSE, YOU'LL BE WASTING AWAY IN THE REMAINS OF THE STREETS, AND THE CATS WILL RULE THE WORLD! YOU WILL SUBMIT TO THEIR EVERY WHIM OR SUFFER AT THE PAWS OF THEIR NEW TECHNO-CLAWS, WHICH THEY GOT TO REPLACE THE CLAWS THAT WERE SO BRUTALLY TAKEN FROM THEM SO LONG AGO..........

Just a theory.

Speaking of Claus, can anyone tell it's December? Christmas has been advertising since at least early August. ("Putting up that real Christmas tree can send you straight to the dugout." —some artificial tree company advertising during a Cubs game) I wonder how the future's historians will interpret our culture...... "They worshipped* a god called 'Santa Claus,' and they believed that they would achieve eternal salvation if they regularly sacrificed small bits of paper to the high priests, which were also called 'corporations'........"

Yeah. Jesus would totally approve of this.

I think if I ever wrote a holiday-flavored song, I would call it "Visions of Sugar Plums." Or maybe replace "sugar plums" with some slang term for a drug that resembles "sugar plums." Yeah. It would be a meandering pseudo-prog-rock-type-thing with some psychedelic tendencies. And it would have anti-romantic lyrics that border on jarring. Just the thing. I get sick of traditional holiday music pretty darn quickly.

Just a theory.

The United States of America. Yes. Just the thing. As soon as I can dig out my turntable from underneath all these papers and who-knows-whats....what is this, a measuring tape?....good grief...., I'm going to play this record. It's been far too long since I've heard it.

I've been taking a class on modernist poetry. Now I'm having nightmares where my words are all utterly obscure references. Thank Zarquon they're only nightmares........

Just a theory.

Far out. Been up for some twenty-nine hours now. I have a theory that the more tired I am, the more random and meandering any blog posts I make are likely to be.

Hope I did well on that final. It was a take-home......

Back on the other side of dinner and/or a good nocturnal anomaly's sleep........

Zappa for the holidays.....Zappa for the holidays......



Just a theory.


*I prefer to spell it that way. So there.

I'm Still Here