Happy Thanksgiving!

Here you go, knuckleheads.

Notice the fantabulous photostream to the right. All you have to do is post a photo to Flickr and tag it "smithgroundblog" and it'll show up. Do it. Do it now.

I'd make it so you knuckleheads can add photos as I have them now, but there's all kinds of coding involved. Wapes, how's yer CSS and HTML these days? Maybe Mike should do it. Or Randall. They're both web friendly.

adding photos

Anyone know how to add photos to the side of the blog like the two that have been there forever? I want to put some up. This blog needs an injection of new spirit.

ranting

Not sure anyone still reads this, but I will rant here anyway.

I got fired yesterday. For real. It came out of nowhere, I walked in to what I thought was my normal weekly meeting with my boss, and there's the HR director sitting there, telling me they're making some changes to the therapist position, and one of those changes is that I'm "dismissed." They gave me a sheet describing what I've been doing wrong, mainly that they think I'm not doing enough to push the kids to work on their issues, and that my skills and experience aren't a good match for the severity of the kids we work with. I've never been written up or given any kind of formal warning about my job performance before this. I got an above average rating on my yearly evaluation in May. However that evaluation was written by my old boss who loved me. But she quit in june and was replaced by a new boss who apparently does not love me and thinks I'm a bad therapist. I had to clean out my office and leave immediately, I couldn't say goodbye to anyone. My coworker, who is black, has also been written up twice in the last two weeks and is about to be fired also. She's convinced the agency is discriminating against non-latino people, and wants me to join her in a lawsuit against them. When I was fired they offered me a $1200 severance package if I sign a contract agreeing not to sue them. The fact that they offered me that shows that I do probably have grounds to sue them, or else they wouldn't be bribing me to shut up. However, I'm not really a vengeful person and would much rather just take the money and move on, instead of putting effort into a lawsuit that probably won't go anywhere. I don't want to work in a place where I'm not appreciated anyway.
Obviously I was crushed when this all happened, but I'm trying to look on the bright side now. I hadn't been happy with my job for the last few months anyway, I didn't like my boss, the commute and the hours were killing me, and I agree the kids deserve a better therapist than me. So I'm excited to look for a new job where I fit in and can use my strengths and excell. Ideally with a much shorter commute, or a commute into the city so I'll have a reason to then move into the city. I'm also kinda excited about all this free time stretching out in front of me, I'll finally have time to go to the gym everyday, clean the house, hang out with people on weeknights, and all the other things I never had time for before. So, I'm kinda at a crossroads in terms of what to do with my life, but hopefully it'll work out for the best. Let me know if anyone knows of any social work jobs.

Thom Yorke's new band

In case you missed the news, Thom Yorke has a new band! I'm pumped! By the way, this doesn't mean Radiohead is broken up; they're just on hiatus. Yay for supergroups!

Seriously?

I file-system-checking HATE this town. Honestly, can't a guy have a new car for more than like a month before someone rear-ends him?

Damnit.

Some more live Radiohead

The site with live Radiohead shows went down for a while, and much to my surprise, is back up! There's a nice live show they have on there to download from a BBC3 broadcast. Not the whole thing, but what's there is nice.

http://www.radiohead-notforprofit.com/2009/09/01/radiohead-live-bbc3-reading-083009-mp3s/

October 10th

I'm excited for Charles and my birthday celebration. Let's us this as a forum for ideas. Sara already came up with a Jungle theme, but last time we tried a theme (vampires), we only got as far as a cape, red cups, and Ben talking in a hilarious accent. So maybe a theme is more than we can handle. If we really wanted to, we could do that. I do love Rainforest Cafe, and there is Congo River for putt-putt, but beyond that I don't know.

Questions to answer:
Where? City/Suburbs? House? Bars? My potential place in the city?
When? I'll be busy from noon-3pm on Saturday and in the city already, if that matters.
What? Drinking is always fun, but I always enjoy just the company of friends, and so far we have me, Mike, Sara, Thom, Mark, Tim, Charles (& Janet, I assume). I think I want to see Charles drunk, and Janet. And Sara. And everyone.
Gifts? No. Well, maybe a drink. And a hug and a smile.
Dinner? Sara suggested Rainforest Cafe, which is good, but I'm not tied to it by any means. Personally, my favorite restaurant is Cheesecake Factory. And maybe we can go somewhere that takes coupons to make paying the bill that much more complicated!

A place to call my own

I am putting in an offer for a condo tomorrow. I'm excited, but I still have a long way to go until I actually have a place. It might not even be this one in the end, but I'm going to be buying something. It's the orange one.

Mike and Waple go to Memphis! And come back (a photo essay)!

Jesus really IS everywhere! Even Bumblefuck, USA!
Hah. Can't find us out on my uncle's farm in southern IL, can you, Jesus?
I wish Jesus was here to help me cool my swamp ass. Instead, I'll have to struggle to funnel the a/c into my shorts. Nice.
At the Memphis Zoo. It's all Egyptian because Memphis is named after Memphis, Egypt. Highlight of the trip. Three words: Otters fighting Gibbons.

Don't let his cuteness fool you. He's got like 10 friends that'll beat your punk ass. It happened to a bunch of gibbons. Seriously.
Where you get herpes.
Stay classy, Conway.
While Mike was getting drunk off shitty booze, I chose to play it cool and just have some apple juice.
Mike tuning his guitar for NerdHero.
The competition was fierce for champion Nerd. Mike won.
Lowlight of the trip: Civil Rights Museum where Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. My fault. I heard it was good. It was tons of reading and standing.
Note: it looks like Steve is saying something about the Motel sign, and I imagine it's something racist and offensive like, "Hey, I bet there's a vacancy now." Get it?
We ate at a famous burger joint downtown called Huey's. The burgers were good, but the best part was shooting toothpicks into the foam tile ceiling as you can Steve demonstrating. Beth approves.
We then stopped at the Peabody Hotel downtown to see the ducks that live in their fountain in the lobby. Don't ask.
On the roof of the Peabody. Nice photo ruined by a bunch of morons.
That's better. That's the Mighty Mississippi/Big Muddy/Old Man River in the background.
We found a time machine and jumped back to 1931 so I could get a black and white photo of downtown. AWESOME!
When we returned, we found that somehow we'd altered the space-time continuum so that all drinks only came in gallon buckets. AWESOMER! If only that were true and we weren't just on Beale Street drinking a gallon of booze in the middle of the day at a bar with goats...
Another great photo ruined by those same morons. Mike kept the bucket-o-booze.

At Rendezvous waiting for our table, which was reserved under the name "Bieznootz," per usual. And mispronounced, per usual. "By-ez-notz." Morons.
Back to Beale Street for a night photo.
If you want to know how big that thing is, go find out! It's got its own website! Bible Belt Five!

Things I learned this week

1 - Memphis is an extremely poor city, but has an awesome zoo

2 - Otters are the greatest thing ever

3 - Driving long distances sucks

4 - A 4 and a half ton ford truck will sustain no damage when flattening a Honda Civic hatchback. The hatchback will be totalled.

Protip: Watch both ways before driving across the street. Stay safe, everyone!

yo sup

To Waple I recommend live in the city - it is fun!
I am currently not "in the city" (Austin is half-suburb half-city), though i have new apartment and it is perched quite lovely in the trees! cawww!
So um, to Thom - sorry I missed your call. I've been working 9-5 this summer in our Arabic program, then I walk home in 104 degree Fahrenheit and pass out on my futon.
Then I awaken at midnight, to have a cup of coffee, grade homework, dance and then try to bang my head against the wall for not resisting the vicious cycle of pass-out naps, midnight coffee and banging my head against the wall.
It's not likely i'll be able to get to Chicago this summer - our midsummer "break" is saturday and sunday, and then we have only a week and half between the end of the program and the beginning of the fall semester. yikes! right?
Peace out to y'all in yo' comfortably below-hundred-degree North.

Buying a house

So I'm probably going to start looking at places to live soon. Any input on whether I get a place in the burbs (if so, where? Closer to the city or out here?) or in the city?

Creepy News to Start your Monday

First off, we'll go with the slightly ominous, but also slightly cool:
Biological fuel cell - A device with a lot of useful potential for implanted devices, such as heart monitors or blood sugar detectors (for people with diabetes). Not so bad, though a little odd if you start thinking about 10 gallon drums filled with blood to power heavy machinery.

Then you get into the nightmare fuel:
Carniverous Clock - A clock that powers itself by capturing insects, dumping them in a vat of bacterial solvents and harvesting their life force to power its terrible difference engine.

The matrix wasn't THAT far off, it looks like. Except in the future the robots wont bother keeping us alive, they'll just be breeding us like cattle and tossing us into big dissolution vats after sucking out our blood for their fuel cells.

I'm going to go cry in a corner now.

Celebrity death pool

Thom, wasn't it you who told me a year or so ago that you and your coworkers were in on a celebrity death pool one year? Someone has gotta be raking it in right now, although I don't know if I'd put pitchman Billy Mays on a list of celebrities...

If I had to guess who's going to go next, I'd say Nelson Mandela or Queen Elizabeth II. They're both so OLD.

My dark horse in the race would be Kirstie Alley.
The person I most wish would die: Dick Cheney or Fred Phelps (of the Westboro Baptist Church).
Others that are likely to die: Wilford Brimley, Joan Rivers, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger

My favorite candy

I am curious as to what everyone's favorite candies are. Here are my top 3 chocolate and non-chocolate, in order.

Chocolate
1. Twix
2. Kit Kat (close second)
3. 100 Grand

Non-chocolate (this was tough)
1. Jelly Bellies
2. Skittles (all kinds, but has anyone seen those chocolate skittles? WTF?)
3. Lemonheads

Honorable mention:
Plain Hershey's
Malted milk balls
Snickers
Rock candy
Those swirly multi-colored lolli-pops
Lifesaver Wint-O-Green mints
Any candy stolen from children

IQ test

I'm tired of just assuming I'm smarter than everyone and want to prove it. Have any of you ever taken an IQ test? I want to take one.

MEMPHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!!!

I am going to go to Beale Street and the MLK museum and Graceland, and I'm going to be stone drunk every step of the way and it's going to be awesome. I'm going to puke on Beale Street. I'm going to puke on the spot MLK was shot. And I'm going to puke on Elvis' garage door.

Get ready to get puked on, Memphis.

Grossly inappropriate

Anyone care to guess why? We can make a game of it!

Your daily dose of madness

Presenting ... ZLAD!

5... 4... 3... 1! OFFBLAST!



And of course, the clear follow-up!



Best cantaloupe imagery used in a fake balkan state keytar assisted 80's metal anthem? I think so!