It's the Finals Countdown

By this time next week, I should have completed everything for my first semester of graduate school, unless something truly unexpected comes up.  In the past four months, I have had to read over a dozen novels (okay, one might technically be called a novella), about half-a-dozen short stories, and well over one hundred poems.  This doesn't include the lecture materials, articles, extracts, and non-fiction books I had to read to complete all of my assignments.  During this same period, I think I have only read one novel for my own pleasure, and I sped through so fast that I may have skipped some of the more boring parts.  There are at least three books I have been waiting to read, but I haven't had the time to spare, not with all of the required reading, assignments, and the other things I do to pass the time.  I have a backlog of over two weeks of puzzles I have been wanting to solve, but I just didn't have the time or enthusiasm to do so.  Tonight, I will probably take a short test about my researching knowledge, before tackling the big tasks.  I have the first of three theses due this Friday, with the other two next week.  I will also have to tackle my lone (hopefully, the other syllabi didn't mention anything) final test, as long as I can find a three hour block at a location with strong steady wifi to take it.  Strangely enough, the wifi at my store is horrid, at times.  It can take over five minutes just to load Facebook, with another ten minutes or more to start a game.  At home, I really don't have a three hour block that I can take a test comfortably, unless I cut out something minor, like eating or sleeping or cleaning up.  If the test were available on the weekend, I wouldn't have this problem, but it will only be online from Monday through Wednesday.  I am still trying to figure out how to do everything.  At least next semester will be better.  I am currently only taking two classes, one on syntax and an advanced writer's workshop.  None of the other classes even halfway feel suitable.  So, I will go back to writing theses soon. Checking online sources.  Confirming facts.  You know, all that fun type of stuff.  To be honest, I actually like doing that sort of thing, sometimes.  May the blogcast be with you.  I will try to make that a real word, and soon.

But Sir, Where Are Your Pants

Yesterday, I took a day off of work and went on a short trip to Lexington,  Excuse me for not telling anyone.  I found out where I would be going to take my GRE.  It is located in the corner of a strip mall.  I would have thought it would be somewhat larger.  I saw more turkeys than I could shake a stick at.  Literally, I would have needed a stick to chase them all off.  One field had over three dozen! That is too many turkeys, even fo this time of year.  I also did a little shopping.  I found a few shirts, but what I really looking for was some pants.  For some reason, I keep having problems with my trousers, and they need more updating than I would like.  While I did find some I liked, they all had a problem.  Their stretchy waists made it so that they wouldn't fit.  Now, by some miracle, I have managed to keep a 34 waist, possibly a little less, with diet and exercise.  The picture shows that while I am no cover model, I am not that bad either.
So, I tried on a pair that were on sale.  While the tag said they were the right size, the stretch made them just a little to loose.  Even with a belt, it would have been uncomfortable wearing them, due to other features that I really didn't like.  I went to another store and found some other pants on sale.  These were actually in a better color and with a better discount.  However, the first pair I tried on were way too big.  I couldn't wear them even with a belt.  These weren't supposed to have as much give, but they did.  I even tried a smaller size, a 32.  These were still too loose.  I could take them off without unbuttoning them!  I might have been able to wear them with a belt, but it was still too much.  I couldn't try anything else on, as I was too despondent.  There are a few brands I like, but this was the first time I ever encountered not being able to wear anything that I found.  Why two pants have to be so stretchy nowadays.  Are other men so not wanting to admit that they are a larger size that they are getting a smaller size?  I would rather get something correctly labeled that fit than getting something "labeled" as my size that wasn't and didn't suit me.  Although, with Thanksgiving coming up . . .

Something Not to Marvel at

Earlier this week, I heard the news about the death of longtime Marvel comic book creator Stan Lee's death.  I almost couldn't believe the level of coverage it received.  It was a headliner event on the news.  Much higher than other famous people.  Most celebrities were lucky if they  got in after the first commercial.  Lee's death mad the first segment.  Sure, he helped create the intellectual properties that became a multi-billion dollar film franchise.  That still does no qualify his death to be a featured news story.  I was quite surprised that it garnered so much coverage.  I am still amazed, not sure why. There have been other famous people whose deaths didn't warrant so much.  I don't mean for this to be sour grapes, not really.  It is just that I have never liked Marvel comics.  There, I've said it.  For some reason, I just never really got into them.  I've always been a DC or Disney fan.  Marvel characters just didn't appeal to me.  I have purchased less than a dozen Marvel super hero comics over the decades.  By comparison, I get over a dozen DC comics every month, and usually one or two Disneys as well.  Maybe another one or so every few months.  I haven't bought a Marvel comic in a very long time.  Sure, I glance at a few every now and then, but I don't buy them.  I only look at them so that I now what's going on, just in case I need to strike up a conversation with someone.  I wouldn't want to seem a complete idiot, since Marvel is so popular.  While I must admit some of the stories seem interesting, I just don't feel u[p to actually buying any of them.   Yes, I know that Lee wrote some stories for DC, his take on some iconic characters for a special event.  Those stories are now part of a special world in the DC multiverse; it has been conformed, somewhere.  Just this morning, I heard a news story from his daughter, that Lee had been working on a new character, just this past weekend, 'Dirt Man.'  I have no idea what publisher, if any, this work was for, but I am not sure how good an idea or how much of it had been developed.  Anyway, I know many people loved the man and what he helped bring into this world.  He will be missed.

That's What Friend Requests Are For

So, I get online this morning, and I discover that today, the day I am writing and posting this, mark my two year anniversary on Facebook.  In all honesty, I only joined it as a means for trying to drum up business for my store, Booknotes.  It hasn't helped that much, and I might to be needing it for too much longer, but that is a tale for another day.  It took me almost three months, give or take, to look for friends, but I finally reconnected with so many people that I had missed for so long.  It sometimes left me in an emotional mess, realizing just how much I had missed out on, but I eventually balanced everything out.  I rejected a few requests I should have kept.  I began playing way too many games, especially all the iterations of Candy Crush Saga.  I just won my second week in a row on the "Popsicle Planet" promotion.  Lately, I have been getting some strange, random friend requests.  In the past two weeks or so, I got two requests from random women, complete strangers.  They weren't connected to any of my friends, so I have no idea how they found me.  When I clicked on their pages, one had a close-up of her chest in a very tight top, while the other had her rear end suggestively pointed towards the camera, again in very revealing clothing.  Now, while I admit that I am single and technically looking and available, I really don't think I would want to meet a random stranger in this way, especially since I don't really know how to date.  (If anyone wants to teach me, I would be an eager apprentice/wingman.) Things got weirder this weekend.  Saturday morning, I played a quick match of Golf Clash against someone from Asia.  This is only a guess, as he had a cartoon character in his photo and his name used characters I couldn't read.  It may have been Korean.  He made a huge mistake, and he had to forfeit, right while I was putting for the win because there was no way he could catch up.  That night, I got a friend request from him.  At least, it could have been him.  I didn't look too closely at the pic and name at the time, but it was another person from Asia, so it could have been him.  Just yesterday, I got a request from a person whose only friends were business pages, no humans.  He seemed to be some sort of game company entity, if not an actual corporate member.  It almost goes without saying, but I rejected each of these requests.  Each of them seemed just a tad off, in one way or another.  I might not be the best at social media, but even I could tell that this might not be fully authentic.  Anyway, I am thinking about starting a new wave of friend requests only own.  There have been a few people I was thinking about asking, and this seems about the right time to do so.