Sorry about the unscheduled hiatus there, folks. Remodeling of my, um, server farm, *cough*, and a bad ethernet cable put my sites down for a while, but as you can see, I’m back.

Yesterday was my birthday, and I’m fuckin’ depressed. I’m a 27 year old substitute teacher. I hate my job, I’ve struck out at every cool job I’ve ever applied for, and I’m feeling absolutely useless. Wah.

Okay. That’s out of my system for now. If anybody knows anybody who’s hiring outside the education field, drop me a line.

On the happy side, the tractor arrived yesterday and I spent a few hours mowing the weeds down. That felt productive, and everything looks better. Oh, and I got my digital camera a bit ago, so maybe I’ll post a picture of the cool tractor.

You ever met the girl who fits all the love songs songs? Not just one, but all of them?

I knew her in high school. The first song that comes to mind is Invisible Touch by Genesis. It’s a little corny, but if anybody ever had such a touch, this girl did. She was cute, but aside from her amazing hair, she wasn’t particularly remarkable in appearance. She was smart, but not brilliant. She was fun to be around, but never really gave of herself. She nevertheless had every guy around her wrapped around her little finger, and most of the girls too. I guess it comes down to a powerful sense of self-confidence. Or perhaps just the ability to fake it. Whatever it was, she had everyone she met eating out of her hand. Including me.

And that hair. Wow. Indoors, you could be forgiven for mistaking it for ordinary chestnut brown hair, but when she went outside, or under the lights in the theater where we all spent so much time, it absolutely shone. It sparkled in a dozen shades of blond and golden brown. Absolutely enchanting. Brings to mind Drops of Jupiter.

She used to host parties in her family’s house on a hill with a spacious second-floor deck which commanded a fantastic view of the valley below. Back then, most of the valley grew wheat, which naturally led me to associate her to the song Fields of Gold. ‘Course now many of those fields are part of the cancer that is Wine Country, so the view is rather spoiled for me. Still, “Her hair reminds me of the one safe place where as a chile I’d hi-e-ide . . .” (Sweet Child O’Mine) Even though I was a little more than a child, and I went there to socialize, I guess you could say I hid out on occasion. I’d just sit out on the deck and watch the stars, as the party wound down around me.

Then of course there’s Brown-Eyed Girl, ’cause she had beautiful kind brown eyes. Turns out they were a little misleading, since she developed a nasty mean streak. More recently, there’s She Fuckin’ Hates Me, by Puddle of Mudd, because she apparently does. I’m pretty sure she knew I had a painful crush on her, which never quite fades away, (Love of a Lifetime – Firehouse) but I never thought I made an ass of myself about it. Anyway, we were friends for quite a while before she burned that particular bridge, which was a Slaughter song, back in the day, (Burnin’ Bridges).

There’re more, but I’m tired now.

Hey, you out there! It’s pronounced with a short “I”, not a long “E”. Ridiculous, not “Reediculous”. Knock it off! Or I may just have to start kicking some ass.

Man, I’m getting old. I remember when cell phones were banned in school, and you actually ran the risk of getting busted for having a CD player in class. I’m in the middle of a seventy-something strong band class and I’ve seen two ipods, two game boys, a portable DVD player (which I had to shut down, because the schmucks were watching Jackass), a crapload of cell phones, and several sets of headphones connected to who knows what. All this while Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is playing behind me on a TV bigger than mine. Kids today are utterly spoiled. I just wish their intelligence and capability had grown as rapidly as their privilege. This is the same band room in which I learned to play saxophone, and in the office are pictured of many of my friends from back in the early nineties. hard as it is to accept, their clothes are already looking not only dated, but almost puritanical. Granted, people tended to dress up a little for the pictures then, but still. Not a midriff to be seen and I know we didn’t carry so much entertainment with us into class. I think the saddest thing I’ve seen while teaching is the simple lack of pleasure-reading. Nobody carries a book with them anymore. I think that’s a sad commentary.

I now have official Someguynamedjoe.com schwag for sale on a brand new cafepress.com web store. Check it out! While I’m self-promoting, I’m working on getting some audio books available. I hope to have a combination of free and paid downloads of public domain works read by yours truly. More on this as it develops.