WCP #20: You Slay Me

Come on by this afternoon to watch the USA Ghana match & enjoy a few Mexican Slayrides for my big B-Day celebration, or come on by this evening to sit by the bon-fire & enjoy a few Mexican Slayrides for my big B-Day celebration. Either way, come on by. Before that, I'll be working on the Hen House some more & we may mosey on up to the Luna Lake thing @ Prospect Park. The USA match this afternoon should be a good one, or a least not the snooze-fest that we saw yesterday. Portugal's tactics worked, but they certainly didn't allow for much of the champagne football we here @ Visions of Ypsi demand. Spain produced some of said champagne football, but by they end only Fabregas was really trying to create something interesting. Had he been on for the whole match, he'd certainly have won himself another award, but as it stand, we have to go w/ the man who had the vision to put in a 50 yarder & then work his ass off to get the assist to Iniesta for the 2nd goal. Your Visions of Ypsi Player of the day: David Villa. He's excited because he heard there may be Slayrides this afternoon

New Employee ID Card

For some reason, namely: I haven't taken the time to go to the Student Center & get it done, I've put off getting a new ID card for a long, long time. My old one dates back about 9 years I suppose. I remember when I got it; I was still teaching @ WCC. I think it was my 1st semester as a Lecturer. Its time had definitely passed though. I haven't been able to get things out of storage @ the library lately which is contingent on having as updated card. W/ that in mind, I decided today would be the day because I wanted a couple of old Halloween DVDs. Of course it had nothing @ all to do w/ anything even peripherally related to academia. Looking @ the old one & the new one side by side, there are a couple glaring concerns. It looks like my hair may have gotten a little shinier & my eyes seem a little more experienced. Regardless of the hair color, it's also clear that my hair style has been ridiculous for a quite a while. You can also note that the top is cracked off of the old one after sitting in my wallet for 9 years. The final thing I need to point out is that I've apparently gotten a promotion. Maybe I need to let the union know about this loop-hole in the contract... the old one says "Lecturer;" the new one says "Faculty." Circa 2000 Circa Today

2 Things Distract Me: Soccer & Teaching

It's rare that things really go wrong, but when they do, they really do. On Sunday, I had about 20 minutes between work & soccer to deuce & chill, & during that time I found out I'd been served papers regarding my car crash last summer. The guy I hit, who didn't have insurance or an injury, is suing me for $3,000. His 1994 Ford pick-up was probably worth about $800. With these factors in mind, I'm not too worried about the case, but I'd be lying if I said the time consumption & the fact that 3 grand is hanging on this didn't affect me @ all.

I found this out, freaked out for about 5 minutes, & then went to play. Even though this ridiculousness was in the back of mind my before the game started, once we started playing I forgot about it for 90 minutes. It's 1 of the 2 activities that can always help me forget my problems for a little while. Of course, afterwards, I grabbed a couple beers w/ Dan before going home to continue the earlier freak out. Soccer worked this way a few years ago too when Stephanie & I were going through our dark times. Clearly, this court case isn't as bad, but @ the moment, it's yet another distraction I don't need, & it's nice to have something to take my mind off of it once in a while.

Teaching has always worked the same way. Once I get my game face on, Skynet could be taking over & I'd still be alright. As I was just on my way back from class I realized how much I really like my job. When I get into the classroom, the problems, the distractions, the general bullshit falls aside, & I'm completely focused on what I'm doing. I was wondering how the Hell I was going to do this today w/ a 3 grand law suit in the back of my mind, but it never crossed my mind once I started talking shop. It worked the same way a few years ago too. Even when I'm sick, the classroom has some sort of recuperative thing going on. I've walked into class w/ a 102 fever, but after a few minutes, I've been focused & relatively clear. @ 103 the hallucinations start which makes for an interesting lecture, but even then it goes pretty well... then again, I wonder if the students really notice a difference. Teaching is pretty awesome.

Shades of Grey: Yet Another Piece of the Puzzle Falls into Place

If you know me, you know I've never been secretive about my love for old hip-hop. By old we're talking about what I would point to as the "Golden Era of Rap," the period between Raising Hell & The Chronic. I wasn't loving Run DMC @ 1st, but when I was in 8th grade, I scored a copy of LL Cool J's underrated masterpiece, Bigger & Deffer. I saw LL on SNL in October of 1987, when he performed "Go Cut Creator Go." At the time, I had no clue that it would change my life. Afterwards, I drifted between an interest in hip hop & an interest in hair bands, but, thankfully, the hip hop won out. A few years later, I had the opportunity to see LL cool J in concert @ Joe Louis Arena. He was touring w/ a slew of smaller artists including NWA, Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, De La Soul, & MC Lyte. Although the gang warfare inside the arena made us leave a little early... to the sound of police in street clothes w/ baseball bats & brooms sticks telling us to get to our cars... I was sure that was the life for me. I got heavily into the political stuff being released by the Jungle Brothers, BDP, & most specifically, Public Enemy. This influence lead my friend Marques & I to start our own group along w/ a kid from down the street whose father hooked him up w/ a small mixing "thing" so he was our DJ. I think he went by Matt D... as his name was Matt & his last name began w/ D.Why am I taking this walk down memory lane? Because last night, after a completely unrelated conversation w/ Solstice & Aiden about balls & ball sacks, she refused to believe that I was ever in a rap group. She thought there was no way in Hell I could ever have been cool enough to be in a rap group, when in fact, I was never cool enough to avoid such ridiculousness. Obviously, it's not like we had a contract... or ever actually performed, be we had dreams & we wrote a shit load of songs. I only wish I could remember a couple of them. Oh, & in case you're wondering... Marques went under the Nom de Mic, Question Marq. Mine? A Plu$$ of course. It had less to do w/ my GPA & more to do w/ the fact that we fancied ourselves some sort of PE influenced group out there spreading positivity... of course.

And check back tomorrow for "The Ball Sack Story." (Yes, it has something to do w/ the Tigers' tragic loss yesterday evening.)

The Mushroom Cup Incident

When I was little... like 4 or 5... my mom used a typical 70s style grey coffee cup w/ a mushroom design on the sides. I always dug that cup so a couple years ago, while I was helping her clean out her basement, I grabbed it. It had been in a china cabinet for ages & she wanted all the cups in there thrown out so it's not like I lifted it w/o her knowledge. The mushrooms are oddly psychedelic looking; sort of Allman Brothersesque. I don't know why that was the popular style back then, I can't imagine many small town, stay @ home moms w/ drug referencing cups today. I do like the idea of random people w/ bong imagery or crack pipes or needles on their coffee paraphernalia. Anyway, I didn't log on just to ramble on about drug imagery; I logged on to ramble on about my cup. After I grabbed it from the china cabinet, it fell into regular rotation & finally became my go-to cup of choice. That is, until last Wednesday when it came missing. I taught a couple classes w/ it on Tuesday,but On Wednesday morning it was no where to be found. I figured I'd left it in a classroom, but when I went back for it, it wasn't there. I checked all of the lost-&-founds on the 6th floor of Pray Harrold, posted an update on Facebook about it & was preparing to make a wanted posted & begin a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area. However, after class, singer/songwriter/Twain Scholar Joe Csicsila suggested it might be in the English office. Alas, it was returned unharmed.I know this seems stupid (& like a story Peterman would tell on Seinfeld), but it got me thinking about how attached people get to coffee cups. As I was looking for it, I got all sorts of sympathy from people, some of whom I rarely talk to. They all had similar stories. Of course, my previous cup was a Kucinich 2004 campaign mug. before that, I had an Oscar Wilde cup that I'd had since 1996. The Kucinich cup broke when I dropped it in the hallway on the way to class. The Wilde cup in MIA. Id it ever turns up though, it'll have a hard time regaining its place as my #1 now that I have the Mushroom Cup back.

I'm thinking about a new career!

Along w/ thins link, don't forget to check out the b-day links down on the sidebar!!!

Gear and Links

Not to bore you w/ a soccer post, but the other day @ a little neighbor hood kick-around I broke my glasses. I showed up and then realized I'd forgotten my sweet sweet soccer goggles. I said to myself "I'll just take it easy & this should be fine." W/in 5 minutes, I went up for a header & saw my former glasses explode in 4 different directions. I have an appointment for next week, so be sure to stay tuned & find out about the new pair... you can count on me to report back as soon as I get them, & if you're lucky, there will be some crazy optometry hijinks to boot. Until then, @ least you can enjoy this fantastic shot of the now defunct official eye wear of Visions of Ypsi.In other gear news, I the George Bush treated me to a new printer & as my 1st order of business, I've started making t-shirts. I have 2 shirts but 4 images so I might need a little help here. Of the 2, 1 will be an Arsenal shirt featuring Arsene Wenger & the other will feature 1 of these 2 images: here and here. I know they're both rather nerdy, but I'd appreciate it if you could look beyond the nerd-factor & cast a vote for the image that should adorn the shirt. W/ this in mind, I'd also like to announce the beginning of the new Visions of Ypsi t-shirt line: for 15$ you get a t-shirt (L, XL, XXL) w/ a picture of Tub Girl & the Visions of Ypsi URL. If sales go as expected, I'd be happy to introduce shirts w/ other images too. Come to think of it, the sales of the bumper stickers never really took off (go figure), so this could really open things up to a whole new market. BTW, here's the Arsene Wenger shirt I'm making (I don't know what's happening w/ his thumb, but it can't be good): Trust Arsene
Speaking of opening things up to a whole new market, here's the first of a few links I have for y'all today: If you like cereal in a way completely different from how I like cereal, than you might just like this. Then, of course, in other body image news... or for those of you interested in Children's Literature, there's this, My Beautiful Mommy. It's a children's book about how to explain your new boob job or your tighter ass or your fuller, cock-sucking lips to your kids. Dr. Michael Alexander Salzhauer is quite the author... I smell a Newbery! Finally, in an attempt to come full circle, check out this Darth Vader hot air balloon. The link is about a year old, but posting it while I'm considering a Darth Vader shirt seems mildly apropos. Last, but not least, when I got the new printer, I also scored a couple new hats that will join the Moonlight BBQ hat in helping get me through the awkward, growing out phase of my hair. (It's definitely past the product stage now.) You're going to have to settle for a phone-cam pic though because suddenly my camera isn't working. If I can't get it working, George Bush may be treating me to a camera too.