May your days be shiny and bright.

Ok, so maybe I don't check/contribute to this blog often enough. However, when I do, I usually upload amazing photos from those sweet days at Collins. I miss you all a lot.

Dating Is Worthless (to Me)

Time to vent... I've tried all sorts of dating sites. Every girl I meet is not right for me. I've been on all sorts of dates without anything coming of it. I've even created a set of superficial guidelines to determine whether I should spend time pursuing certain girls. I've had too many worthless dates to not have a screening process. I have resigned myself to being a bachelor. I'm perfectly content being alone. It doesn't bother me. I know I'm awesome. If no one else sees that, it's their problem. In other words, dating is worthless to me.

Testing 1-2-3

Does anyone read this anymore?

New job = MASSIVE CELEBRATION!

All my hard work and patience has paid off. I have a new job. Let's celebrate! When is everyone free for a financially irresponsible night in the city? Um, I didn't mean that. I've learned my lessons. Nothing but fiscal responsibility here. Regardless, let's celebrate!

Charles Benson: Machine or Man?

I still can't decide on this one. Janet said that after six years of dating him, she "thinks" he's human. I'm more inclined to believe he's a robot. That, or he's John Connor.

Epic Tweedy.

How did you bastards miss this show? I say Thom books him next.

How was the trip?

Mike and Waple- Tell us all about the trip out East!

The Movie of Your Life

Someone is going to make a movie about your life. What will it be called and who will play you?

Here are mine:

Comedy- "Laughing Giant" starring Jason Segal

Drama- "Will Write for Food" starring James Franco (because of his killer writing background outside of acting)

Too Much Sleep

I have come to the determination that I need more sleep than the required 7-8 hours per night. I'm not quite sure how much sleep I need, but I think it's closer to 12 hours than 7. In other words, my body wants me to sleep half of every day. That's absurd. What about you? How much sleep do you think you need?

Betty Ford

Was Betty Ford on any of our lists?

Story of My Life

Sometimes I feel like I am reconstructing my life ever so slowly. I once had a good job in my field before that industry did a nose-dive and I made some bad decisions; I once produced a brand-new major work of writing every year; and I once had a girlfriend. Now I'm taking small steps to regain those things: I recently accepted a part-time copy editor position and started my own editorial business; I'm trying to write something big every day and I hope to attend grad school for a creative writing MFA soon; and I keep going on dates with no love connections being made. In other words, I'm working my way back to where I once was; I am reconstructing my life. So far, it's all a way too gradual work-in-progress. I'm getting impatient...

$ = Power

George Ryan got to visit his dying wife in the hospital in secret several times, despite several requests by his lawyer and denials by a judge. The warden of the hospital let him go. I think this is total bull.

Ow!

I have a kink in my neck, and it hurts! End transmission.

Mr. Waple's Group is Awesome!

I just wanted to say that, if Mr. Waple ever feels bad about how things turned out at his last job, he can look at the Facebook group and judge by the comments that he was a well-liked, great teacher.

If you like meat like I do...

You should sign up for Texas de Brazil's e-club. Here's why. Sign up here. Also, enter here for a chance to win a free meal for four.

These Brazilian steakhouses, or churrascarias, are my favorite places to eat. If you are a man, you should sign up. If you are a girl or a girly man, man up.

Obligatory Updates

I've been keeping myself busy. I still have the same content screening job. But, I'm also doing this...

-New Zealand was incredible, as you already probably know. I barely had any time back home before I was called in to do some test scoring for Pearson. I was fast, probably too fast, at scoring tests. It was fun!

-I'm upset that the Bulls lost to the Heat. I wish the Heat would lose to the Mavs, but it's highly doubtful.

-Thanks to John's help, To a T Editorial Group is in business. Visit www.tteditorialgroup.com to learn more. You can judge how successful my business is by the thickness of my wallet. It's not all about the cash, though. Also, as a public service, To a T is on Twitter, offering daily grammar tips (@TTEditorial). It's also on Facebook (facebook.com/TTEditorialGroup) where short weekly articles about writing and publishing are posted. Thanks to those of you who liked the company Facebook page!

-I'm working on two major writing projects: One is really ambitious, and the other is a collection of all the Insanity's Cure columns from back in the day. Fun!

-I try to write on my personal blog daily. It's almost always fiction, poetry, or some other creative form of writing.

-I created a fan page for myself on Facebook. At first, I wasn't sure if it was a good idea because I hate seeming egotistical, but then I realized that I had a Facebook group devoted to my writing and Facebook plans on phasing it out, so it made sense to start the page. I've always been bad about promoting my writing, so I figure this is a good way to do it. Hopefully, I'll get some fans on there, because that "0 People Have Liked This Page" makes me depressed. Then again, I suppose I could like it, which would make things even more pathetic: "You're your one and only fan."

-I exercise as often as possible.

-I'm hitting the road for Kansas City tomorrow morning. Wish me safe travels!

Feel free to update all of us on your lives, if you want! I'd love to hear what's been going on as I'm sure everyone else would. I realize most of us saw each other last month, but it doesn't hurt to stay updated. Plus, I was hoping we could get the Smith Ground blog going again.

I hate my knee and other new things

Hello.

As you may know, I injured my knee a few weeks ago, in the dumbest way possible. It's an overuse injury from WALKING TOO MUCH. It's basically all new york city's fault. I was there for three days, which pretty much equated to three solid days of walking, as that's the main thing to do in NYC: walk around the neighborhoods, walk around central park, walk around art museums, etc. By day three I had a serious limp and excruciating pain. Not really an ideal vacation, plus it was cold and rainy the whole time. I would much rather have been relaxing on a beach somewhere.

Anyway, after continuing to limp for 2 weeks with little improvement, I finally gave in and went to the doctor, where I was diagnosed with patellar bursitis. The fluid sac between my knee and thigh bone is all inflamed from overuse. So I was given an anti-inflammatory/painkiller, and told to avoid excessive walking, and if it's not better in 2 weeks I can get x-rays and try physical therapy. The two week period is almost up, and I am walking significantly better. However I still have to be really careful with it, it still hurts to bend it in certain ways, which means I can't dance. Not being able to dance is absolute torture. I think I do need physical therapy, because clearly I don't know how to walk properly if I could hurt myself so easily. I'm just worried I will not be able to afford it, as my insurance sucks.

In other news, my birthday is soon. I've decided not to do anything for it this year though. Since I'm turning 28 I had the idea to have a "28 days later" themed party entitled "28 years later," but I couldn't figure out how to translate that into decorations and activities, probably because I've never seen the movie. Trying to think of something cool to do ended up being too stressful so I gave up. I will just be going on a quiet dinner date with matt, which I'm actually quite excited for.

Also, I moved into the most amazing new apartment with matt and our other roommate kevin. It's in Wicker Park, right near the intersection of milwaukee north and damen. I hope you guys can come see it one day, the neighborhood is really cool.

I'm excited to hear about thom's trip to australia!!

ROAD TRIP

For the third summer in a row, I want to try a road trip to the New England area. And for the third year in a row I assume it will fail. But I am going to try anyway. I want to have at least 2 people come with (but ideally 2). That way gas prices won't be quite so disheartening, and there will still be room in the car for stuff. I also don't know if my car will be the best vehicle for this trip, so it's doubtful it'd happen unless someone else said, "Yeah! Let's take my car!" Really, the only reason my car wouldn't be good is because it doesn't have working AC, but that can be fixed easily enough. It also doesn't have a whole lot of space in the back (hence only 2 other people) and it isn't fast (over 70 and it is just loud, as if it's saying "What did I do to deserve this?"). So I want to know what all of you clowns think of this. I foresee it being about a 10-day trip. One day there, one day back, and 8 days in a lot of states.

Discuss:
availability/vacation time
car use
duration
ideas for making the trip better (I am flexible on the location, but if you have ideas on things to do/see in the area that'd help motivate people, like me)

Also, I have family/friends in Baltimore & DC that we could stay with for free, and Randall & Jayna are in RI. Just sayin'.

This celebrity death pool is KILLING me (get it?)

Both Elizabeth Taylor and Jack LaLanne have died, and I had both on my list last year and not this year. I'm going to have to start taking matters into my own hands.

Update us!

Let's get an update from everyone who reads this blog! Since it is my request, I will go first: I'm getting by, working that one job, hoping to write more often, and I plan to double up on my exercise routine. That, and next month it's off to New Zealand! Then, the month after that, it's the official launch of my business! Since I can't seem to catch a break, I'll make my own luck.

Oscar Prediction

The Oscars are tonight. I have one prediction: M. Night Shyamalan won't win anything for "The Last Airbender."

Adding photos

Can anyone (probably Mike) tell me how to add photos to the side of the blog? I gather that it's not easy, and/or that it requires a picasa login. I want to put some more photos of us up.

New Radiohead!

Ahem... the new Radiohead, "King of Limbs," went on sale today! Check it out: www.kingoflimbs.com

A Career-Ending Grammy

I'm working tonight, and I believe the Grammys are going to be airing. I don't really care that I'll be missing them: Muse is the only performing act that I care about, and they aren't even that great anymore. I feel like the Grammys ruin things. If The Black Keys win anything tonight, I hope they don't start sucking. Perhaps I'm being too harsh. My apologies to those of you who enjoy the Grammys and the artists it supports. I just don't know why an awards ceremony that is supposed to honor the best in music can be so repulsive to me, and yet an awards ceremony that is supposed to honor the best in cinema (the Oscars, for example) tends to interest me. Music has always been a huge interest of mine, but the Grammys make me ill.

Three Decades

This summer, I will turn 29. I'm almost 30. If I'm still where I am now in terms of my accomplishments and my life next year, I fear that I'll die from despondency. Seriously, though, I realize life isn't all about achievements, but I never want to feel unfulfilled or at least left with the feeling that I could have done more in the time I was given. There are many things I have done in my life so far that I'm proud of, but it is not enough to quench my thirst for accomplishment. It's almost like an addiction. Anyway, I guess if I ever did feel completely fulfilled, life wouldn't really feel like it's worth living anymore. I suppose my lack of fulfillment is actually a driving force for me to be ambitious and do better. What about you all? Are you satisfied with where you are now in your life?

Super Bowl Party!

If you're having one, enjoy it! And think of me: I'll be working and unable to watch.

Compromised?

I'm guessing since Andrew is feeling like he is the only one who uses this blog anymore, I'll go ahead and write something. All I have to say is, random note: Should I be worried that e-mails keep randomly disappearing from my inbox on one of my many accounts? What's weird is that I had a practically uncrackable password. I'm hoping it's just a technical glitch since I'm syncing between numerous devices and desktops.

On another note, I think the elliptical is the ultimate exercise machine: It's not too hard on the muscles, but you can still feel the burn. I'm only saying this because I used a stationary bike today and barely broke a sweat. I'm guessing I should have increased the resistance or something.

And finally, I miss you all. My current working situation makes it such that I don't see anyone anymore. It's kind of disappointing. But I suppose I should be happy that I at least have a job.

Anyone else want in on music sharing with me, Thom, John, and Brad?

It's easy to start. We use this program called Dropbox. It's awesome, at least it is when people actually share music (I'm looking at you, John, Thom, and Brad). No one has been using it lately, and I'm trying to enliven it, much like this blog. Am I wasting more of my time?

Who did we lose?

If you live in the Chicago/midwest area and don't respond to this post, I'm going to assume you were killed by the blizzard. And if you didn't see my fb post, my building's lobby windows were blown out and there was snow indoors. Proof:

Come see an improv show!

Below is the page for my improv group at the iO theatre. We are called Nogat, which is what we imagined would be a name for an off-brand candy bar. It was that or Tuzzler.

http://chicago.ioimprov.com/io/teams/73

Come see a show! The schedule is on the link, and they're usually free, though we perform usually Monday or Wednesday nights, which I know are not the easiest. And, to be frank, while we are decent, it is improv and in all likelihood you could see a shitty show. Regardless, it'd mean a lot to have you come. If not, that's okay. I'm really just filling up space on the blog. Soon I'm just going to change the name of this to Andrew's Life, cause I'm the only one that posts on this *(@#()*!*$(# thing (this makes six straight posts from me).

I can't believe it

http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/01/23/obit.jack.lalanne/index.html?hpt=T2

And I didn't put him on my list again cause apparently he was really fit. I hate the world.

Is it June yet?

My job is quickly wearing me out with stress and frustration. Will one of you please bail me out with one of the following?
1) a time machine
2) a quadrillion dollars
3) students who aren't lazy and uneducated
4) hilarious fart sounds

New celebrity death pool

Thom and anyone else who wants to partake:
It is time to start the new celebrity death pool. I propose the following rules:
1) You choose 10 people
2) If you participated last year, you are able to take a maximum of 5 of your 15 chosen.
3) At mid-year, 5 extra people can be chosen
4) If someone chooses any of the same people as you, the person who submitted the names first gets precedence
5) Each entrant must forfeit $10 to the winner
6) In the event of a tie, monies are split

Any other rules?