Thoroughly Distracted, Totally Confused

So, I'm looking for a job. It's hard to do that with the way the economy is and the fact that Tyson made another round of layoffs recently. I know, the economy is supposed to be getting better. That's what TV said and what the politicians said, and we all know that neither of them have ever lied to us. Among the many places in which I have applied is Wal-Mart. The great megalopolis of the retail world. Growing up I've always heard bad things about Wal-mart. Bad products, bad employees, really bad employers, etc. But I recently started talking to people who work there, or have someone they love that works there, and the consensus is that Wal-Mart may actually not be all that bad. So I applied. The Wal-Mart application process is...not right. They are much like anyone else: you can apply in the store or online. The actual application is the standard thing about personal data, employment history, education, etc. What they screw up on is the assessment test at the end. ...

As many of you may know, I am a history major. I have dedicated most of my adult life to the pursuit and study of the past. As some of you know, I have recently changed my academic pursuit to an MBA. Starting in the fall I will begin my life as a businessman. My reasoning is thus: I cannot rationalize spending my life justifying a discipline that I'm not entirely sure can be justified. Now I know some of you may be thinking "It's history. It's important." For those of you thinking that know that History, as an academic pursuit and viable career, is relatively recent. While there are histories, texts and such that were created and cared for throughout time those who did so did not identify themselves as historians. That started much more recently. Historians have been around for only a few hundred years. Since their creation Historians have been constantly defending and justifying their existence and necessity. Now, after a couple hundred years of effort, most peop...

For those of you who do not know, I have allergies. Sometimes severe, sometimes minor, but ever present. But despite my years of experience with them I learned something new the other day. You can get cysts on your eye if your allergies get bad enough. Last Saturday morning I woke up with what felt like an eyelash in my eye. After trying the pull-your-upper-lid-over-your-lower-lid trick it didn't go away, so I looked in a mirror to see what I could see. I had a small bump on my cornea. Weird , I thought That's new. I didn't give it too much thought throughout the day, but the scratchy something-in-my-eye feeling worsened. Saturday night I looked at it again. The bump was still there, but now there were three little blisters on it. I calmly walked to the computer and searched my symptoms. After a little reading I hoped that what I had was a simple scratch. The other options were having something lodged in my eye or Syphilis. How would I explain Syphilis to my mother? "...

For those of you who didn't know, I am back in Grad school. I am pursuing a Master's degree in History. Since not everyone knows exactly how grad school works I will try to explain. Grad school is hell. I'm taking a class right now dedicated entirely to communicating in every way possible, including branding it on your forehead so you can find it easily, that grad school is hell. Now, some of you may be thinking that I'm exaggerating, may be, just a little. Let me tell you about the program I'm in and the classes I'm taking. The overall program demands 30 credit hours and a thesis paper in order to get my master's degree. Sure it's only 30 credit hours and if this were undergrad school I would be done in two semesters and wondering what the big deal was. Grad school works a little different. I am currently enrolled in 7 credit hours. This is considered full time for a Grad student. My first class is called Intro to Grad Studies and is the class I mention...

So a couple of weeks ago the AC in my car kicked it. It wasn't a sudden death either. It was actually a few days of me hoping that it was my imagination or that my car needed to get used to the idea of working against the summer heat. No such luck. My AC died on June 3, 2010. It was a terrible day, followed by two weeks of very heartfelt and moist mourning. This last Friday I broke down and did something I never thought I would do. I bought a pair of shorts. I know what you're thinking: " What's the big deal? " or " So what? " But understand that I haven't worn a pair of shorts in public in about fifteen years. Maybe even twenty. I don't think it was a conscious decision on my part to not wear shorts. It just never occurred to me. So, now I'm wearing shorts. Exposing my legs to the light of day for the first time in well over a decade. And an episode of Celebrity Deathmatch keeps coming to mind. In this particular episode we see Hugh Grant ...

There are very few television shows I enjoy watching. When I do find something it's usually got a healthy mixture of comedy and violence. Of late there have been only four shows that I have enjoyed thoroughly: Monk , Burn Notice , Chuck , and Castle . My favorite program has been Monk for the last eight years. I absolutely love the character Adrian Monk and find it easy to sympathize with him and the many, many problems that he overcomes. There are scenes in this show that have made me laughed 'til I cried. Unfortunately, Monk has come to an end, this last season being the final season. Just this last week the third season of Burn Notice was released on DVD. I love this show. I'm not saying there's nothing better out there, there definitely is, but this is still a very good program. It satisfies the comedy through sarcastic comments, strange situations and some over the top acting on the part of the characters. But the intriguing part, for me anyway, is the narrative...