« Archives in September, 2005

Fire In The Sky

September 30, 2005 / posted in Photos / 2 Comments

My exhausted bones quailing at the thought of cutting a frozen chicken into parts or strugging with my deteriorated old stove, I walked down the street to the “Overland Cafe”:http://overlandcafe.com/ to get a turkeyburger and garlic fries. Then, turning the corner, the sky rose from behind the apartment building next door and the light of the world changed. The long blue of the evening suddenly became bright red and orange from the cloud rising above “the fires”:http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-093005fires_lat,0,4509311.story?coll=la-home-headlines. I could almost cry, thinking of the empty camera at my home. I walked a block in dejection, but with my face turned up to look hopelessly at the wonderful sky. Finally the scene overcame me and my desperation drove me to take low-res photos with my cameraphone. Better to get something than nothing. So, not nothing below. Actually, quite a bit more than not nothing,
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/38160050-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/849025/1/38160050
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/38160055-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/849025/1/38160055
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/38160060-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/849025/1/38160060
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/38160065-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/849025/1/38160065
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/38160069-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/849025/1/38160069
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/38160074-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/849025/1/38160074















Working Hard or Hardly Working?

September 28, 2005 / posted in B-School, Photos / 4 Comments

So this morning I wrote a 10-page paper. This is either a sign that I’m working really hard or that I’m a total slacker who puts big projects off ’til the last minute. Since I’m finding time to blog right now, one might be inclined to pick the latter.
Anyway, this brings up the big question of the second year, which is: “do I work hard and learn a shitload and get out in the world ready to take on any challenge, or do I take the easiest classes I can find and try to get out of here with as much of my sanity intact as possible, given that I get the same three letters after my name either way and Marshall doesn’t report GPAs to potential employers?”
If you know me personally, you can probably guess that I chose the former approach; I have been given abundant reason to reconsider said choice. There’s the magic surprise group project due this week that wasn’t mentioned in the syllabus; the 10-page paper that probably should have been 12; the new business feasability research I really should be doing rather than blogging; the Toastmasters club I’m President of; the case competition I just signed up for; it goes on. Sometimes, this all seems pretty overwhelming. My to-do list yersterday is still to-do, plus there’s all of today’s still to start on. I’m not ahead, but at least I’m not behind.
But often I remember how much I love all this. The charge of booking a new speaker I’m excited about, or of hearing a first-year speak more clearly in public than they had before; the excitement of seeing a new case and brainstorming solutions; the possiblity of coming out of school with my own, strong, business plan; the fact that I will never get a chance to do any of this again and that I know, for sure, that I’ve made everything of this opportunity that I could have. That feels good. Heck, it feels great, and I love it. I guess the answer is, I don’t _just_ want those three letters after my name.
Still, there are some times when I’d rather be taking photos. Like right now! I love photos, and, dammit, someday I’m going to be rich enough that I can go all around the world just to putter around and take photos of little things many others miss.
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/37918469-S-1.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/844601/1/37918469
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/37918465-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/844601/1/37918465
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/37918463-S-1.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/844601/1/37918463
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/37918461-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/844601/1/37918461
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/37918457-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/844601/1/37918457
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/37918316-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/844595/1/37918316
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/37918313-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/844595/1/37918313
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/37918306-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/844595/1/37918306
_(Edited some of the above photos because, hey, if I’ve got them digitally, that means they don’t have to look exactly like the shots I took — they can look better!)_















Hair Care Product Whore

September 23, 2005 / posted in Otherwise Uncategorized / 1 Comment

Anybody who’s ever watched me primp for a date knows that I’m a total primadonna when it comes to hair care products. I like the good stuff, and I’ll spend on it (something which various of my hairstylists have loved, I’m sure). Usually, I go for some relatively cutting-edge product, then move on to the next cutting-edge product when the first one becomes hard to find anywhere outside of Sally Beauty Supply. But now it’s different. Now I look fabulous and I do it with product I got at Target — and at Target prices.
It all starts with my dandruff. See, I have a fairly mild case of the ol’ “don’t wear black shirts” disease, but I do wash with a dandruff shampoo every couple of days to keep the flakes under control. Sadly, these shampoos dry my scalp out, which brings my dandruff back from dry skin after a few weeks. I then have to switch dandruff shampoos so that my scalp is abused in a new way, gaining another reprieve from the head snow. And, etc.
The search for a shampoo that doesn’t dry my scalp has been a long and hard one, but, lured in by one of the few ads through which I didn’t fast-forward, I decided to essay a bottle of Garnier Fructis Dandruff Shampoo. The price was right, and why not? And then… it worked! My dandruff is gone and my scalp not too dry!
So, when I ran out of the paste I’d been enjoying lately, I thought, hey, I liked the last Garnier product, down-market as the brand may be. So I picked up a container of their new putty, and loved it too! My hair looks as sexy as ever, and at a sixth the price. Thanks, Garnier!















Dear Gods of Traffic (or Single, Unitary God)

September 22, 2005 / posted in Dear So-And-So / 3 Comments

Please let my Grandma get safely through the traffic jams surrounding Houston and to her friend’s country house much further inland. Then, oh Gods of Country Houses (or Single, Unitary God), please let her and all of her 90-year-old friends ride out this storm just fine despite being in the middle of nowhere.
Also if you could send someone by to check on them, say an EMT or something like that, that would be great. If he could be hunky, I bet they’d like it even more.
Thanks much,
Wade















Help Me Help Special Olympics

September 20, 2005 / posted in B-School / 1 Comment

This weekend, I’ll be hobbling through a one-mile fun run to help raise money for Special Olympics. I know everyone has given a lot lately, for the victims of Katrina (hopefully thorough the banner above!), but it would make a tremendous difference in the life of these kids if you could help me out with a donation to support my hobbling.
You can donate through my Active.com site at “http://www.active.com/donations/fundraise_public.cfm?key=juniorbird”:http://www.active.com/donations/fundraise_public.cfm?key=juniorbird.
Thank you!















What Should I TiVo?

September 18, 2005 / posted in Otherwise Uncategorized / 13 Comments

So it’s a new TV season, but my TiVo “Now Playing” list looks the same as ever. Nanny 911 is fun when you’re watching it with your sweetie, but, now that I’m sweetie-less, perhaps I need a little somehting with some explosions in it. Or some taut drama. Or, perhaps, good laughs. So, what do you like this year? What Season Passes should I add to my TiVo?















Arizona Photos

September 17, 2005 / posted in Photos, Travel / 4 Comments

So, Arizona may have been “hot”:http://juniorbird.com/archive/001661.php and “generally mediocre”:http://juniorbird.com/archive/001587.php, but it was, from time to time, pretty. Since I don’t feel like using my words, here’s a few photos for your entertainment.
Here are a few long-exposure shots I took of a thunderstorm heading for us. Shutter speeds were as slow as 5 minutes.
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/36385672-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/816370/1/36385672
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/36385675-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/816370/1/36385675
The next day, it was clear but the sky had incredible clouds.
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/36385849-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/816370/1/36385849
My friends in Tucson had some geckoes in their plants. Geckoes are surprisingly adorable!
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/36385844-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/816373/1/36385844
!http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/photos/36385845-S.jpg!:http://juniorbird.smugmug.com/gallery/816373/1/36385845















Southern Names are Special

September 17, 2005 / posted in Otherwise Uncategorized / 1 Comment

I deeply love that Tenessee Volunteers’ #3 quarterback’s name is Jim Bob Cooter.















She’s A Real Boy Scout

September 13, 2005 / posted in B-School / 5 Comments

Yesterday we had a “fun”:http://gtf.org/yef/2005/09/who-needs-terrorists-weve-got-dwp.php “power outage”:http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-power13sep13,0,1192306.story?coll=la-home-headlines. Popovich Hall was blacked out (making my bathroom break rather interesting), but at least it was a beautiful day out and we could all sit in the courtyard comfortably.
But then came the problem of class. The lights were back on by the time my Advertising and Promotions Management course started, but the computers were down. Every session, Prof. Badame shows Clio-winning ads and we discuss them; then we work through a case, with the help of her PowerPoint. Well, no ads, no PowerPoint this time — but Badame was prepared with the old-skool solution of transparencies that she could put on the overhead projector. This was pretty impressive, given that she gave an entirely new lecture for this year — she wasn’t just pulling from an archive, she had printed out transparencies just for us, just as a backup.
And this sure makes me think! I would have kept my PowerPoint on the network, and had a backup copy on CD-ROM or USB thumb drive. Neither of those works when the computer doesn’t. Sometimes it takes someone with long experience to be prepared for the failure of modern technology. Next time I have a big presentation, I think I’ll bring transparencies myself.
Still, the case sucked. So there were two sides to it all.















A Bad Day For A Bird

September 11, 2005 / posted in Junior / 9 Comments

Hello! How are you? I’m a pretty bird! Whatcha doin’? Today I got groomed! I wasn’t planning on it — I was going to sit on my boing and arrange my feathers precisely, put my plastic toys in my water (so they soften up and I can destroy them), then drag my wooden toys along the bottom of my cage to make that loud noise. Fun, huh?
But, instead, my dad took me out of my cage and stuffed me, struggling, in my travel cage at about noon. Then he trucked me into the back seat of his car. I got to see the outside! It was sunny. I made sure to look upwards in case there were raptors looking to eat us, so I could see them first and warn him.
I like my new travel cage. It’s not like my old carrier; it’s big and spacious and I can hang on to the side and see out the front of the car and look out the windows too. And there’s even enough room for my dad to reach over and scratch me!
But I don’t like traveling in the car. It’s fun when we drive on the freeway, like when we came back from Phoenix, but it’s awful on the surface streets. All starts and stops and bumps. Bumps are scary! Every time we go over a bump I have to say “hello!” to my dad to make sure that he knows that it was scary and doesn’t forget to check on me! And oh so many turns! He turns so fast, my dad, and makes me hold on so hard with my beak and my feet. I also have to hold on hard when he brakes. I don’t like slowing down, I like going fast and straight! When my dad slows and turns it makes me feel dizzy and then my stomach hurts. Today I threw up in my cage. It was like sneezing seed everywhere! I felt so sick but I said “hello!” to make sure my dad said “hello!” back so I knew he still liked me.
But I got back at him. I projectile-pooped on the back seat! Take that, fine “Coach leather”:http://auto.consumerguide.com/auto/used/reviews/full/index.cfm/id/2055/.
Then he took me into the bird store to get trimmed. I said hello! to all of the gay men at the Coffee Bean next door, and hello! to the homeless man who was in the store talking to the birds. He talked to me while my dad looked for new toys for me. Then the skinny lady in the “IDF”:http://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/homepage.asp?clr=1&sl=EN&id=-8888&force=1 t-shirt took me out, I was so happy to get attention! If only she hadn’t wrapped me in a towel. Then I heard the other man turn on his “Dremel”:http://www.dremel.com/HTML/home_fr.html and I got scared! He trimmed my nails and smoothed out my beak and then he clipped my wings. I squealed and squealed but my dad only looked through the toys harder. When I squealed more he even went and played with other birds. I didn’t feel like a pretty bird then.
Then the skinny girl put me back in my travel cage and my dad took me back to the car. I felt awful! And on the way back I threw up again. Then my dad let me hide in my cage in my room all afternoon. In the middle of the afternoon he put up my new toy, which was kind of nice. And, when he was watching the Baltimore-Indianapolis game later (which for some reason caused him to scream in pain, which I ignored, since he’d ignored me), I sat on my tree and went to sleep for a while. I hope I don’t have a day like this again anytime soon.















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