Blinded By The Light

So here’s the problem with having worked almost ten years in the logistics and transport industry: you get to know a lot of truckers.. Okay, that isn’t in itself a problem, but stay with me as I explain to you how getting to know people might end up causing you serious discomfort and possibly lasting sensory defects..

Thing is, working with representatives of many of Denmark’s largest trucking companies for years, you can’t help but get to know a lot of fine, trucking people. Such people, contrary to what you might think, are actually pretty nice people and they tend to remember a happy face and be happy to see it again, and as such want to extend a handshake or a greeting.. Now, the thing with people who spend most of their day behind a wheel of a larger vehicle is that you don’t usually get to bump heads with them downtown, at the theatre, in church or even at work. More often than not you will, not figuratively mind you, run into them when they’re at work – behind the wheel.

The problem then becomes that it’s kinda hard to extend a handshake from behind the wheel of a moving truck, so their solution for extending a greeting will usually be to either toot their horn at you, or more commonly, to flash their high beams your way.. Again, a friendly gesture.. Was it not for the fact that trucks are fucking huge things and boast horns that can be heard from miles away.. And enough lights to safely light the way for a Boeing 747 looking to make an emergency landing.. So this small, friendly gesture can pretty quickly warp into a pretty overwhelming sensory experience.

See where I’m going with this? Let’s add up: I know a lot of truckers, a lot of truckers are active at night, I work nights and have to make my way home at night five days a week, you can run into a LOT of friendly truckers on a 70 minute walk home, and they all usually want to say hello – either by tooting their horn or flashing their high beams at you.. The result? I usually arrive home at the end of the week feeling overly loved and appreciated.. And legally blind, deaf and dumb from all the honking, flashing and startling going on..

I sure do appreciate the greetings and well wishes, though. Nobody said that being popular had to be easy..

Alright, so here’s the plan!

Things are shaping up on the old thesis front.. I think.. I hope. I’m at 92 pages right now which means that technically I have eight pages to go which are to mainly going to deal with assessing things and putting them into perspective, as well as a conclusion and some minor work on my background chapter. The plan right now is to write those last eight pages within the next week as to get the writing process done. Considering that I can usually write about four pages in a day on average, this should be doable baring any bad cases of writer’s block.

The week thereafter should be spent getting the last illustrations, code examples and appendices done as well as doing some cleaning here and there in the thesis itself.. Which then leaves two weeks for proof reading, double checking, random fits of panic and what have you.. Then a weekend or so for printing and making sure that everything is in order before finally handing my thesis in on the 31st and proceeding to get absolutely shit-faced..

Well, that’s the plan anyways.. Whether or not I’ll be able to stick to it is a totally different matter.. But I suppose I’ll have to, come hell or high water, I’m handing something in and/or getting shit-faced on the 31st.. This is such a weird feeling, by the way. For the last five months this thesis has pretty much been my life and taken up everything and now I’m almost done.. Well, sorta.. I’m still panicking every now and then, thinking I’ve forgotten something or something will go horribly wrong, but I guess that’s only normal. To be torn between that wonderful feeling of having everything under control and that gut wrenching feeling of having absolutely no overview or sense of control at all.

Blah, it’ll all be over soon.. In a month’s time, five years of university will be over and I’ll officially be out broke and looking for a job.. Hmm, I wonder what the real world will feel like? Is it cold out? Will I need to bring a jacket? Are the people friendly? Will there be punch and pie?

Strange, I don’t feel a year older..

28 years ago today, to the date, well, pretty much to the minute.. At 3 AM, I saw the first light of day.. Or dead of night, technically.. Strangely enough, I did so in what was to become one of the computer labs at Uni that I’ve spent way too much time in over the last five years.. No, don’t worry, this isn’t gonna be one of those “I was born under weird circumstances in a strange place” kinda stories, it’s just that, well, back in the early 80’s, Kolding was a much smaller town than it is now, and as such the relatively small building that was to become University of Southern Denmark, Campus Kolding was more than large enough to house the town hospital. Well, a lot of years have passed since and a lot of stuff has happened and I’m sitting here, exactly 28 years later, sipping a small glass of El Dorado 21 year old (Hey, so what if it’s Wednesday morning? It’s my birthday! So sue me!) wondering how all of those years passed so fast and at the same time feeling perplexed that so much has happened in so few years.. It’s a mind-boggling experience and I guess I’ve finally reached the age where I start getting sentimental about things..

Which is not to say that I feel old, because honestly I don’t. I know in earlier years I’ve moaned and groaned about getting older, I know I’ve frequently made comments about approaching the big 3-0, I know I sometimes refer to myself as an old dog.. And Tina deservingly scolds me for it, even if I say it just for shits and giggles. And she’s right in doing so coz, y’know, quite honestly.. 28 isn’t all that bad of a feeling. I don’t feel older, or old for that matter, I can still do what I want, I’m maybe not as far ahead in life as some other people my age, but then again.. What’s the rush? I’ve had a good 28 years so far and lived them to the fullest.. Je ne regrette rien! Well, a thing or two, maybe, but mistakes are what make us smarter, right?

It’s 3:01 AM, I’m officially 28 years and one minute old now, and I’m digging the feeling.

Yes, I said retard, so sue me!

Working nights has a way of turning your life upside down, and quite frankly I’m happy I won’t be doing it much longer. It’s not so much the working part that bothers me, not even the late factor. It’s just the impact it seems to have on my days, my sleeping patterns and my life.. It’s something that just sorta came to me this “morning” while I was brewing my morning coffee and scrambling a few eggs at the bright and early hour of 1 PM.. I’ve never really been a morning person, but I realized it’d been a while since I’d even been out of bed before 10 AM which is rather depressing considering that by the time I then get up and get ready for the day, most of my friends and whatever have been at it for several hours.. Then I’ve got to finish my six hours of work on the thesis and possibly put in a hour on whatever other chores I have to do.. And by the time I’m done with that, a lot of normal people would be about ready to call it a night.. Woo! Did I mention I’m pretty happy I’m only doing this part time night work till September?

Either way, it’s been a fun day.. In so much as reviewing and testing code can be considered fun.. It’s a pretty relaxing chore for me anyways, it’s just a slow and lengthy process.. That at the same time makes you feel both really smart and real stupid-like. Because, if you’re like me, you can’t help but at times be impressed with the ingenuity of some of your own solutions.. While at pretty much the same time being downright appalled by the stupidity of some of your errors.. Long story short, it took about six hours, but my code and the results thereof are starting to look somewhat decent and presentable.. Yay me! A few more hours tomorrow should do the trick and then we’re ready to write some more documentation and set up some meetings with my mentor to show off and hopefully not get slammed too badly.

Speaking of getting slammed, that’s about the only other thing that has really happened today. As some of you may have noticed, I woke up to this rather amusing comment accusing me of using my endearing comment about Tina being “adorably retarded” as a way to “make myself look cool by demeaning people with special needs” Okay.. Yeah.. Right, that’s exactly what I was trying to do.. Look, I know me.. And I’m not cool.. Why would I try to make myself look cool? If anything, I’m demeaning myself by being perfectly honest about a lot of the really dumb shit I do in my life. If you’ve come here for political correctness, then I’m sorry, but you’re in the wrong place. I’m not very politically correct and I never will be.. I am, however also neither cool nor mean, so if you see demeaning on here, you can be pretty sure that it’s either targeted towards myself or jokingly against the people I love and care about (or, quite possibly, Chad Kroeger and Fred Durst, but they’re fucktards, they deserve it).

Calling Tina a retard is no more meant as an attack on people with special needs than it is meant to imply that she really is mentally retarded. If you really want to employ faulty logic here, you might as well say that it’s an endearment of retarded people, given how much I care about Tina.. Or, we could just stick to the facts and not read meanings that aren’t there into random innocent statements.. It’s funny how political correctness seems to have suddenly become more important to some people than personal hygiene. I mean, come on, have just at least a hint of a sense of humor and stop taking everything so gosh-darn serious.

I find it strangely ironic that I happen to know several people who work with people with special needs, or have relatives with ditto, who have a much more relaxed view of things and a better sense of humor about the situation in general than the poster of the most recent comment..

That being said, I’m sorry if anybody feels the need to be offended by my writings, but this is my life, my thoughts and my blog.. And this is who I am: I’m loud, I drink, cuss, swear.I say and do a lot of stupid shit, and I have a borderline rough sense of humor which some people love and other’s hate. That’s just who I am, and this is my place to vent and express whatever I want and I stand by my right to do just that..

Now, can we please move on?

The Ghost of Michael Jackson and the Youtube generation

Wait, what? Yeah, so.. I saw this silly piece of footage on Youtube earlier today:

It’s supposedly a clip from Larry King Live on CNN showing an anormality spotted on camera at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. Umm, okay.. Yeah.. So, anyways, clips like these aren’t new on Youtube, but unlike most others, apparently this one got a fuck of a lot of attention.. And a lot of comments to boot!

Now, the obvious downside to social media and user-generated content is that everybody and their mother can offer their two cents on the issues. And apparently with this surfacing now everybody and their mother and/or dog is an expert on the paranormal.. Which wouldn’t actually be that bad, if it weren’t for the fact that there are a hell of a lot of idiots out there!

I don’t know about you, but I can think of a lot of reasons for an unidentified shadow caught on tape, not many of which are very paranormal. Heck, if that there is the ghost of the King of Pop, then the King of Pop makes several daily manifestations in my living room! Though, these usually coincide with people walking past my windows or the sun reflecting off something and casting a shadow.

Still, I spent some time looking at comments and was kinda confused by what I saw. Most people spent no time in sweeping away rational arguments with comments such as “Oh, that there is no reflection/shadow/trick of light!” with no reasoning whatsoever.. While proudly stating their reputation on it “definitively being paranormal” with such good reasoning as “because it looks like Michael Jackson” or “it just can’t possibly be a shadow” .. Really, let’s jump to conclusions, shall we? It’s a three second event on a piece of live footage that has not been examined by experts, and with no way of knowing who or what may have been in the vicinity when this was shot, info on lighting or anything.. Surely it can’t be a shadow or reflection of a person or something passing by outside.. That’s silly talk!

Now, now, I’ve had my share of “paranormal” experiences, but I call them that because they defied every logic explanation I’ve thrown at them and have usually been experienced or confirmed by others, not because “They’re paranormal.. Coz yeah!” – When did we become so inclined to believe that we’ll not even try to listen to reasoning before making up our minds?

But wait, that’s not all.. No, there’s more! See, the paranormal explanation isn’t the only one.. No-no, the conspiracy theorists are at it, too.. And what they want us to believe is that the footage has been doctored! “Since there is no natural explanation,” they conclude, “the film must have been tampered with!” Again, I fail to see how they rule out a natural explanation, but let’s leave it at that, turn the board on them and go “Why?” – So far the most entertaining answer I’ve heard to this question has been that of: “CNN did it to boost ratings!” .. Again.. Wait? What? First off, I hardly think Larry King Live needs better ratings, certainly not on a day where the topic at hand is the death of Michael Jackson.. Secondly: Wait? What? CNN, the biggest news network in the world, choses to boost their ratings and increase their number of views by airing bogus footage of a ghostly encounter at Neverland? With no further mention of the incident what-so-ever? Guys, sorry, but I don’t think you’ll be seeing CNN airing a “Ghosts are real, and you saw it first on Larry King Live!” story any time soon.. It’s all about a few small things called “keeping it serious” and “credibility in the media world.”

Incidentally this revolutionary theory were set forth by a couple of Danes in a comment threat where they, not five minutes earlier had entertained themselves with comments about Americans being stupid and gullible.. Kinda ironic, isn’t it?

Either way, since we’re apparently at a place now where we don’t need to provide reasoning or backing for our arguments and opinions, I’ll pass my judgement on the footage now: “There is most certainly a natural explanation for this footage because, yeah!”

Danish word of the day: Overspringshandling!

There’s a new word sweeping the Danish speaking part of the world (all six million strong!) like a kind of literary inflation. No, I’m not talking about “finanskrise” (financial crisis), “svineinfluenza” (swine flu) or even “Hyskenstræde” (a street in Copenhagen ravaged by anarchists run amok last weekend).. No, I’m talking about “overspringshandling” – a word that is enjoying increasing popularity with Danish students, young and old alike, every year at right around this particular time as they gather round to start work on their BA projects, MA thesises.. Or exam projects in general.

It’s kinda ironic that even with five years of studying communication, language and translation, I haven’t been able to come up with a fitting translation that really convey the meaning and semantics of said word. A literal translation would be something along the lines of “the action of vaulting over something”, whereas a more explanatory and paraphrased translation would be something along the lines of “to perform any arbitrary action with the main purpose of postponing the undertaking of a pressing chore at hand.”  - An overspringshandling may come in many ways, shapes or forms, such as spending time on Facebook, hanging with friends, getting drunk or going on impulsive or unmotivated road trips to random countries and/or places.

Now, I’ll admit to always having had a strange fascination with this particular word, mainly because I find it pretty hilarious that given  the relative limited vocabulary of the Danish language, we have words to cover concepts such as this. But I will also say that I have in my five years of studies.. or at least recently, been pretty good at not falling victim to such childsplay, I’ve actually managed to concentrate on my thesis.. Ahem.. Till this week anyways.

Maybe it’s because we’re off to Rock Am Ring in less than a month and I feel that I need to do some planning. Maybe it’s because Tina and I finally, on pretty short notice, arranged to go to Brussels this weekend and be with Zascha on her birthday and I feel I need to somehow plan that, too.. Maybe it’s because I’m working extra shifts at work.. At any rate, apparently I’ve been in need of some time off and as such have had a pretty hard time concentrating on the chores at hand.. At any rate, I find myself spending an increasing amount of time doing things such as travel planning, researching camping arrangements at the Nürnburgring and the compilation of road tripping playlists.. Sheesh!

And it’s not like I haven’t tried.. I really have! I did my very best at doing research Saturday evening.. And it went pretty well for a while. See, I’m doing a pretty decent effort at integrating a technology called Topic Maps into the work for my thesis – I won’t bore you with the details coz I know most of you don’t come here to get your geek on, but it’s a pretty interesting technology that I hope will really help me in my quest. So, I was reading up on it and trying to exemplify the core concepts of topics (or objects if you will) in my own words using examples revolving around the person “Lars Marius Garshol” (one of the key players in the creation of the topic map standard) and, since I found him to be a blogger as well, the concept “Lars Marius Garshol’s blog” (his personal blog, duh!)

This endeavor went well for all of five minutes until I actually started reading parts of Mr Garshol’s blog and discovered that he was not only a really good writer, but also had a profound interest in beer, pubs and all things good in life.. Uh, so yea, you can probably imagine where things went from there.. Fast forward about four hours and I’m still busy sipping a quality brew and reading reviews of beers I’ve never had, looking at pictures from pubs I’ve never been to and reading recollections of events I’d no idea ever took place. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “Web 2.0 is such a delightful waste of time!” – and, as you’ll be able to guess, I didn’t get a single constructive thing done for the remainder of that evening.

So thank you very much, Mr Garshol, for keeping me entertained for a good 6+ hours, and for completely screwing up my concentration! Overspringshandlinger, indeed.

Favorite concert moments

A few days.. Or weeks.. Or whatever.. ago I posted a video of my favorite ever concert memory  on Facebook. It was pretty much in that context I got to thinking that it’d actually be kinda funny to try and post a top five of my favorite concert moments. Well, as it turns out, it WAS pretty funny.. It also was PRETTY damn hard!

But I think I’ve finally nailed it.. Bear in mind that most of the videos are fan cams or bootlegs, so they may not be pro quality. I’ve included them still, though, as they paint a pretty good picture of what was going down.. And simply because I get all nostalgic like just watching them.

1. Iron Maiden – Run To The Hills – Horsens Denmark, July 2008

When talking about charismatic and enthusiastic front men, I don’t think they come much better than Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden. He just seems like a generally super nice, engaged and happening guy.. And even in his late 40’s his still jumping around stage like a fucking mad man. I’d waited 12 hours in the sun for this moment and when it arrived, I was the happiest aging metal head on the face of the planet.

2. Metallica – Battery – Roskilde Festival, Denmark, June 2003

Yes, I’ve given Metallica a lot of shit over the past few years.. But the fact remains, I am a HUGE Metallica fan and there was a time when they were good.. Like really, really good! This was my first 70,000+ show, when Lars walked in stage the place absolutely erupted, the opened with this song and tore that motherfucker up.. I’ve not talked to a single person in attendance that night who doesn’t rank this amongst their top concert experiences ever.

3. Rage Against The Machine – Guerilla Radio – Rock Im Park, Germany, June 2008

A lot of people slammed the band for their performance.. At times probably rightfully so. But the entire mood at this show was.. In a word.. INSANE! I’ve never seen so many people in one place in my entire life and literally ALL of them were going absolutely crazy. I mean, I’ve heard reports that the earth shook at times during the show. I was watching the entire show from the very back.. It was surreal!

4. Kid Rock – All Summer Long – Rock Im Park, Germany, June 2008

Yea, I know.. Kid Rock.. Gay, huh? Umm.. Yea, all I can say is, don’t knock him till you’ve seen him. We saw him not really knowing what to expect at a major rock festival and were pretty much all blown away by one of the most convincing performances of the entire weekend. This was my first time hearing this song, too perfect timing what with summer slowly rolling along, the sun up and all. I remember thinking something along the lines of “there’s your feel good hit of the summer right there” I guess I was right!

5. Rammstein – Sonne, Gentofte Stadium, Denmark, June 2005

HEADBANGING!! Okay.. Umm.. If you’ve never seen Rammstein live.. GO SEE!! Seriously!! They’re on tour come winter and the spectacle of lights, pyro and stage show is beyond ANYTHING you’ll ever see.. I was flabbergasted back then and still am.. These guys are nuts! And dangerously close to the flame! And possibly on drugs! (Yes, I know I kinda cheated and used a pro recording from another show on that one.. But same tour, same stage show, so eh..)

I should make a lower half of this list at some point and turn it into a top ten.. Or make an honorable mentions addendum.. So many great memories..

Three years of drunken rants.. And still going strong!

Today is exactly three years ago, to the date, that I started this blog. Back then I had no idea if it would even catch on and if I’d even still be blogging after three weeks, let alone three months.. Or a year, two.. even three for that matter.. But hey, here we are.. Three years later, and apparently I still have more or less coherent, relevant or sane commentary to provide on my life, every day events, recent happenings and the world of all things related to good food, good drink and random acts of self-destruction.

It always amazes and humbles me whenever I stop and look back like this.. I mean, I started out with two regular readers and no real sense of direction and purpose.. Three years down the road, I still have no sense of direction or purpose, but I dare say I have a little more than two regular readers. Of course, people have come and gone over the years, but still, in the long run, an average of 70 or so of you drop by on a daily basis.. Which is just plain cool! And with my 710 posts in 1095 days, I’ve almost fulfilled my intention of giving you a reason to drop by every day.. It’s still 0.64 posts per day, after all.

Apparently research shows that the average personal blogger is female and in her early to mid twenties. My long hair and the fact that I relate well to women aside, I think I’m failing pretty miserably at fitting into this stereotype. A lot of my readers do, however, so maybe that makes it all okay..

Another thing that makes me a misfit is my above mentioned lack of sense and direction. Apparently to gain success and long-time following in blogging, you have to narrow your scope, pick a single topic and a sense of direction in your blogging. I never really found out about this until about six months ago and in true Johan FTW (Fuck The World) fashion, I’ve chosen to blatantly ignore those directions in the six months or so I’ve know about it.. Apparently I’ll never have success.. I don’t know.. 70 readers a day, fans on four continents and a peak record of 1450 visitors in a single day.. I’d say I’m doing pretty well! And I, of course, thank every single one of you for making the whole ignoring the rules thing  still worth doing.. It’s mad for some pretty.. Ahem.. Interesting posts over the years and some quite interesting experiences..

I sometimes wonder why I’m still doing this after all these years, and then I’m like.. Oh right.. Coz it’s a hell of a lot of fun.. And because people bitch if I ever stop updating for too long.. I guess I’m a bit of an eccentric exhibitionist.

Of pandas and Jethro Tull

I spent a surprising amount of time last night on MSN discussing whether or not a Giant Panda’s supposed inability to maintain its own equilibrium while standing on one leg and playing the flute should necessarily disqualify it from becoming the front man of British classic rock band Jethro Tull.

Hmm.. Wait, that probably sounds a little weird, and it probably was.. At any rate, it made me think that I probably needed to get more sleep.. And/or a new job as to keep my mind occupied and not wandering so much.. It all started with this pic:

Which for whatever reason instantaneously reminded me of this rather famous shot of Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull:

The similarity, as you can tell, is striking.. Which of course sparked the, at that time, humorous discussion of a giant panda fronting Jethro Tull.. My only problem being, that a panda couldn’t possibly stand on one leg..

No worries, my worthy opponent countered, Ian Anderson was probably doing so many drugs in his heyday that he was lucky to get up on one leg as well. Which then spawned a heated discussion about whether or not Ian Anderson was ever on drugs.. Which lasted for all of five seconds until this gem of a video was discovered on Youtube

showing Ian Anderson more drugged up on stage than you’d thought humanly possible.. But, for some reason, still able to perform.. And they claim LSD is bad for you? Tsk!

There never was any conclusion as to whether or not a panda could do the job.. Who knows, maybe Ian even thought he was a panda during the performance, or thought himself chased by pandas.. The only real conclusions that were drawn were that people did a fuckload of drugs in the 70’s, that I don’t think I’d want to see to see a panda on copious amounts of LSD attempting Ian’s dancing and chasing about in this video.. And of course that Jethro Tull are strangely cool in some way. And that I need more sleep.. And something to keep my mind off things.. So I don’t end up having discussions like this and wasting my time telling the world about them..

I feel all.. Growed up like..

Wait.. Something isn’t right around here.. Or maybe things are finally right.. I don’t know.. All I know for sure is that things are different! I have for the first time in – God knows how many years spent my Easter sober, effective and working.. And truth be told, I don’t really know how to feel about that.. Good, I guess.. A little sad, somehow.. I don’t know.

Somehow it feels weird to be all serious like and keeping busy when everybody else are out enjoying their days off, having fun and acting irresponsible. In Denmark, Easter time spells a LOT of public holidays, so for a change I’m pretty much the only person left inside, keeping serious and getting work done – it’s usually quite the other way around. It has sucked at times, especially when the weather has been good and I’ve been wanting to get out and enjoy it.. But such is the way of the student. I have an intermediate deadline on my thesis a week from now and due to flu spells, inefficiency and a number of other reasons, I’m running more behind than I’d initially wanted to admit to myself – so I don’t really have a choice.. Bite the bullet, shape up and get back on track! So serious the new ways of the Johan.. So unlike me.

In other aspects, it hasn’t been too bad. My mom dropped by a care package the other day which was really nice of her, though it kinda confused me as it mainly contained chocolate, sweets and cookies from her trip to Italy.. A real sweet gesture, if not for the fact that I don’t eat chocolate, sweets and cookies.. But then again, she’s only known me for 28 years, how would she know? It did, however, contain some gourmet coffee and a nice tea blend which made me really happy as it has greatly approved the quality of the ritual that is my morning coffee and afternoon tea. I even ended up putting the cookies to good use in a sorta sad way as I ended up eating them one evening when I was hungry and didn’t really have anything to eat around the house.. Did I mention that Easter means a lot of public holidays around here and that stores are closed on holidays and that it’s all pretty much a major nuisance?

In other good news, my grandmother sent me a nice card the other day containing a nice personal update from her and an “easter egg” in the shape of a few hundred DKK – a tradition she’s come to apply for a few reasons. For starters she knows I don’t eat chocolate, and on top of that she worries, probably due to my scrawny build, that I don’t get enough to eat.. So every now and then, this Easter being no exception, she’ll slip me a few bills and ask me to buy myself a pizza or two.. Which I’d do, if it wasn’t for the fact that I hate Danish pizza more than most things in this world (EMO kids, duck and hardstyle music not included).. So generally I’ll slip my dear grandmother a little white lie and tell her the pizza was good while in actuality I’ll usually spend the money on real food, i.e. groceries.

So yes, what a new kind of Easter experience it has been for me. Not only have I been working and keeping busy, I’ve also drunk copious amounts of.. quality coffee and tea, and have been eating.. Really well, varied and all healthy like.. See, after having written off my many sick days to a staggering immune defense owing probably to vitamin shortage and a very simple diet, I’ve started doing weird shit such as eating salads, greens and vegetables that aren’t largely comprised of starch.. A huge step away from the usual beer, junk food, schnapps and more junk food plus beer.. I feel so grown up and responsible all of a sudden! Knowing me, though, it will probably all change once I get my thesis back on track, find the angle I’m sorta searching for at the moment and get back on schedule.. For now I’ll just enjoy my days without binge, a gut busting diets of fatty foods and alcohol with which to wash it down.. And the inevitable hangovers.. I don’t miss it at all.. Really.. Maybe.. Only ever so slightly..

Okay, I do a little.. As well should be.. It’s just not right having a blog entitled “Random Drunken Rants” devoted largely to discussing quality coffee and dinner salads.. Right? Right! I’ll see to it that I we get this ball rolling on the whole thesis issue so there’ll be time for some fun to be had, too..