I swear, people are getting dumber. My Japanese professor likes to use clipart when she’s trying to get us to work on vocabulary, and oftentimes, it’s very strange clipart. For instance, when she was trying to get us to learn about locations of objects in a room, she had a lion on the bed in the room. Today her clipart included a picture of George Washington and a cherry tree next to a desk. The first student got “George Washington is to the left of the desk” all right, but when she went to the next student (who, by the way, is a graduate engineering student and at least ten years older than me), she pointed to the tree and asked him if he knew what it was. He replied (in all seriousness), “Yeah, it’s an apple tree.” And she rolled with that, so everyone else just kept calling it an apple tree. One other student tried halfheartedly to voice protest, but it didn’t work. Now, I understand our professor maybe not knowing the story, cuz she’s Japanese and it’s kind of an American thing (like how I didn’t learn the story about Guy Fawkes until sometime while I was at Denison) and the cherries on the tree were kinda big, but as for the student…isn’t that supposed to be one of those cutesy tall tales that we get told in kindergarten?

 Last night I learned what a “plantar fascia” was and ever since I’ve been a little grossed out. I don’t know why the thought of a tendon that extends all the way from your heel to your toes grosses me out, but it does.

My mom and I watched the finale of Dancing with the Stars last night. Oddly enough, both of us wanted Mel B to win, but that didn’t happen, and my mom was especially annoyed. I’m kinda used to my pick not winning, so it was kinda same old, same old for me. The only time my pick won was last season, and that was Apolo Anton Ohno, and I like him better than anyone else that’s ever been on the show, so you gotta believe I won’t get lucky like that again. I will say this, though: Helio Castroneves’s suit sure was YELLOW. It also looks very familiar, but I can’t figure out why. At least Apolo never wore anything like that.

Have I ever mentioned that I really miss the Denison library? I prefer it over the UT library in oh so many ways. First of all, Denison’s library has so much more character. For one thing, it’s older (The oldest part of Denison’s library is from the ‘30s; I’m not sure how old UT’s library is, but I know it wasn’t there when my mom went to UT). At the Denison library, there were so many isolated areas and hidden nooks and crannies (not to mention a door on the fourth floor that had a sign on it reading “NOT AN EXIT: Wall behind door”). My favorite area was the Music Reading Room Annex, but I also liked the Music Reading Room, the Fine Arts Reading Room, and the President’s Room, plus there was a desk on the second floor in amongst a bunch of empty shelves in an alcove where people would rarely go. Here at UT, everything’s all out in the open, which isn’t any fun. My specific beef today is about the computers. Denison’s library had two computer “areas,” one in the reference section right as you come in, and one tucked away in an old classroom on the second floor (by the way, the entrance was on the third floor). The ones by the reference section were usually pretty busy, but you could normally find an open one if you looked hard enough, or you could just go down to the second floor. At UT, there’s only one computer area (called the “Information Commons”). It’s on the first floor, and it contains about the same number of computers as Denison’s two areas combined. The problem is that UT has about ten times as many students, which means that there are never any free computers. Ever. It used to be that each floor (other than the first, and presumably the basement) had three computers as well (one in front of the elevator, and the other two near the stacks), and one of those would usually be free. Well, with UT’s effort to condense everything into and promote the hell out of the Information Commons (which included closing down the student union computer lab), they have removed the two computers by the stacks on each floor, leaving only the one by the elevator, and not surprisingly, it’s always busy as well. This is intensely annoying when you just want to quickly check if the library has a specific book and/or where it is. Plus, I noticed that there are three computers near the entrance that are set up on high tables (think bar stool level chairs) with the monitors suspended even higher up against the wall. Basically, everyone who walks into the library can see what you’re doing on this computer, which is stupid. Granted, Denison’s library had its warts (Climate control was a big one, as was the fact that most floors had either a men’s room or women’s room, but not both), but they were a lot better than UT.

We had “partner” work in Japanese, and I got paired up with the Australian guy who probably struggles more than anyone else, at least as far as the in-class stuff goes. His first comment to me was, “Wow, you’re really good at this. You always know all the answers.” This isn’t the first time someone from the class has said this to me, and I still don’t know what the appropriate response is. This guy seems more intimidated by the language than anything else, cuz he had trouble translating the questions, but when he tried answering them, he was usually right.

For the record, break was a little too short in that I didn’t get a whole lot of extra sleep, mostly cuz I worked all weekend. I’m kinda out of the loop as far as workplace conversation goes, cuz a lot of the discussion tends to be about football (both college and pro) these days, and I don’t get into football much. As far as college football goes, yes, I do root for Ohio State, but the ranking system is so freakin’ complicated. It’s not necessarily your record that determines your ranking. Instead, it seems to have more to do with when you lose and who you lose to, which kinda sucks. In baseball, a loss is a loss. It doesn’t matter if it’s in April, in September, against the Red Sox, or against the Royals. It’s still one loss (Now obviously, I mean this in an “on paper” sense; for the purpose of this semi-rant, I’m not factoring in the psychological element). As far as pro football goes, well, I don’t dislike football, and I watch the Super Bowl every year, but that’s about it. I don’t have a favorite team (I used to like the Dallas Cowboys a long time ago, but they’re kinda just part of the mix now), and when I pick a team to root for in the Super Bowl, it can be for the most random of reasons. For instance, last year I rooted for the Chicago Bears cuz my favorite band is from Chicago. One of the teams that I don’t like, though, is the Green Bay Packers. However, most of the people I work with are either Packers fans or at the very least think fondly of them. Here’s the thing that I think is weird. Whenever I tell one of them that I don’t like the Packers, their immediate response is ALWAYS, “But the Packers have Brett Favre!” They say it like that’s going to convince me to change my mind, which I don’t understand. It would be like me saying “But the Tigers have Magglio Ordoñez!” to someone who just told me that they didn’t like the Tigers (yeah, I wanted to use Pudge, but I know he can be somewhat polarizing, so he would not be the best candidate for this example). For the record, there are a couple reasons that I don’t like the Packers. One is that their hardcore fans tend to act more idiotic than any other team’s fans. Another is that they kind of had this “evil empire” aura about them in the late ‘90s. A third is that one time, probably about ten years ago or so, I was watching a (regular season) football game. I don’t remember who the teams were, but I do know that it was NOT a Packers game, and yet the commentator would NOT shut up about Brett Favre. I got so sick of hearing about him, although nowadays I don’t particularly have a problem with him and I acknowledge that he’s a good football player. Just a little too overexposed.

Also on Wednesday, one of the cats (Gray; yes, that’s her name) developed a seizure disorder out of the blue. She’s nine, which is kinda late for a cat to develop epilepsy, so my mom suspects that maybe that recall last year didn’t catch all the tainted pet food (there is one type of cat treat that only Gray eats). At any rate, she’s been put on Phenobarbital, and she hasn’t had any seizures since Wednesday.

...Not that I expect much of an audience, given that you're all probably stuck in that tryptophan-induced stupor. As usual, I watched the Macy's Parade (I did not tape it, which is my usual custom, although my mom may have DVR'ed it). I was slightly tempted to briefly tune into the the Detroit parade since Nate Robertson was the grand marshall, but I didn't (and yes, we do get most of the Detroit stations around here...just not their FOX station, which sucks when there's a game on the regional stations and Toledo's FOX station flakes out). Granted, I had never heard of about a third of the performers, and a great deal more were artists I don't particularly care about (although I found it somewhat amusing that I accurately predicted that the parade would feature cast members of High School Musical, which, for the record, I have never seen, nor do I understand, though my mom's students keep telling her it's an updated version of Grease). One last thing: Oh dear God, they're bringing back American Gladiators. The writers' strike is already taking its toll. To be fair, though, I used to love that show. I was, however, eight years old.

As it turns out, on the Ohio State football team, number 28 is one Chris Wells, who ended up being the big star of the game on Saturday. That’s a nice little surprise. Also, apparently Chris Wells is more commonly known by his nickname: “Beanie.” This marks the second time I have purchased a jersey bearing the number of a player who is addressed more often by a weird nickname than by his real name. I’m starting to sense a pattern here (although the first one was intentional)…

Also on Saturday, I learned just how much pizza my dad can eat in one sitting. I went to Pizza Hut and got two pizzas, one large, one medium. I ate one slice of the medium and two slices of the large. My mom did not eat any pizza. By the time we were finished with dinner, the medium was gone and there were only two slices left of the large. Yeesh.

The radio station has now switched to Christmas music full time (as I was driving home from Pizza Hut, I was indeed serenaded by the dulcet tones of “O Holy Night;” By the way, I only said that just now because I really, really wanted to use the phrase “dulcet tones”), which means they’re probably gonna be following suit at Kroger’s pretty soon (I don’t know what channel they usually have the store music on, but it’s pretty eclectic, ranging from the ‘60s to the late ‘80s. Seriously, there are times when you get the Beatles, Madonna, “Space Cowboy,” Abba, and The Cure all in succession; still, the music is generally tolerable). We used to have someone in the pharmacy who hated the Christmas channel, but I really don’t have much of a problem with it (Trust me, the 4^th of July channel is much, much worse). When I worked at Bath and Body Works, we had a loop of Christmas music that lasted about three hours. The problem was that I normally worked five hour shifts, so the music got old really fast. I don’t know how long the loop lasts on the Kroger Christmas channel, but it’s a lot longer than that, cuz usually I’ll only hear any given song once during my shift. The only times I have issues with it are when they play one of the songs that was on the Bath and Body Works loop, cuz I’ve heard those enough times to last about 1000 years. There’s also one song on the Kroger Christmas channel that I just don’t get. It’s some country song that I’ve never heard of, but it’s supposed to be one of those “nostalgia” themes where the woman is singing about spending Christmas with her family or something like that. However, as she’s singing what amounts to a list of traditional Christmasey-type things (trees, stockings, decoration), one of the things is “turkey bacon.” What the hell? What does turkey bacon have to do with Christmas, especially in a “traditional” sense? And why would you sing about it in a country song?

UPDATE: They've announced the AL MVP, and there's no surprise there. Unfortunately. But be that as it may, they really should learn how to spell:

I finally got to the mall today to buy Ohio State gear, since the OSU-Michigan game is this Saturday, and yes, I did get a jersey. It’s got a number 28 on it. I have no idea who number 28 is on the Buckeyes, but I do have a rather positive regard for the number 28 that I DO know, so that’s something, at least. Speaking of which, I found the Tigers UNO game at one of the kiosks in the mall (it was the same one that had the Yankees UNO a month or so ago). However, though it was really tempting, I did not buy it, because A) I had already spent too much money, and B) I’m kind of hesitant to buy something like that until the Kenny Rogers situation gets resolved one way or another. It’s not really a matter of thinking I’m gonna jinx it, cuz I’m not really superstitious (though, as I’ve said before, I’m not above manipulating the superstitions of others to achieve an effect that I want). In fact, I’ll probably buy it even if Kenny Rogers does not come back (as long as they don’t sell out before I get back there, which is a distinct possibility). I just want to know first. I will say this, though: I generally have the worst luck in the world as far as sports and movies go, both in terms of their success and of the individuals involved (you can look at the Academy Awards and the Olympics for prime examples of this). I got very lucky last month. Very, very lucky (and I think you know what I’m talking about). And that’s an incredibly rare event. As such, I do not expect to get lucky again (And hey, as far as I know, this whole Zumaya injury thing may be the universe’s attempt to rebalance itself).  

I think I’ve discovered the creepy religious items of the month. When I go to work, I usually walk by the children’s books area on my way to the pharmacy. For a while now, there’s been a book there with a picture of a tiara on the cover called God’s Little Princess Devotional Bible. I never really thought much of it, other than finding the title to be somewhat condescending. However, it has now been joined by God’s Mighty Warrior Devotional Bible, which is a tad more disturbing. Also new to the children’s books section is a bible bound in camouflage print. Guys, I think you might be taking this whole “Army of God” thing a little too far (though those are not nearly as tacky and tasteless as this)…

I meant to post in the last couple days, but I got a bit sidetracked. I’ve started a “project” that is probably one of the biggest and most pathetic wastes of time ever imagined, and yet I still feel compelled. And as such, it is rather time consuming, but that’s really all I have to say about it. By the way, be it sympathy pain or human voodoo doll (as Laura calls it), my foot is no longer sore.

We didn’t have class yesterday (“in observance of Veteran’s Day”), which still seems kinda weird to me, cuz this is the first school I’ve been to that does that. We didn’t do that K-12, nor did we do it at Denison (in fact, the only reason I was aware of Veteran’s Day at Denison was because we didn’t get any mail, except for the year that I got the Magical Time-Traveling CD). My mom decided it would be a good time for me to get new shoes, which I did, though I was somewhat dismayed at the fact that Sears doesn’t seem to carry Nikes, for some reason. Also, they were playing Christmas music on the radio over the weekend, but they aren’t anymore (though I’d imagine that’s not gonna last long).

And as always, there’s more news regarding my boys of summer. First of all, the Tigers have re-signed Todd Jones, which perhaps will make dealing with a Zumaya-less first half less of a scramble (but it’d probably still be a good idea to find someone who can platoon the eighth inning along with Rodney; as long as the price is right, that is). Also, it seems that the Tigers have finally gotten that left-handed outfielder they’ve been looking for, cuz they’ve acquired Jacque Jones from the Cubs in exchange for Omar Infante. I don’t really know a whole lot about Jones (though THAT’S gonna get confusing), but his stats look decent, and he could still platoon with Marcus Thames depending on whether the other team’s starting a lefty or a righty. As for losing Infante, well, I kinda saw it coming. He’s a decent (though not spectacular) utility guy, but Ryan Raburn was better offensively, and Ramon Santiago is better defensively, so Infante had pretty much lost his job by the end of the season. And since he’s spent most of the past several years with the big club, it really wouldn’t be fair to keep him down in Toledo. Besides, Jim Leyland himself pointed out that Infante would actually be a nice fit on a National League team because of the double switches. I mean, Infante can do pretty much everything on the field except pitch and catch. At any rate, I wish him well and I hope Jacque Jones does lots of good things for us next year. I suppose now the only big burning question left is that “veteran pitcher” slot in the starting rotation, now that Kenny Rogers has decided he’s gonna test the market after all (though I think that was more Scott Boras’s doing than anything else; Boras may be the guy you love to hate, but he’s not definitely not stupid). One more little side note: Former Tiger Craig Monroe has been traded to the Minnesota Twins, so chances are we’re gonna see him a little bit next year. I would imagine that there’ll be lots more news in the next couple days. The market, after all, is now open for business.

A further note regarding piano games: Just because they don’t exist doesn’t mean you can’t see them. Mickey Mouse does not really exist, but yet I can still “watch” him. Cinema is a wonderful thing like that.

I woke up yesterday morning and my foot was really sore. It still hurts, and I can’t figure out what I did to it. And it’s not an achy type of pain, either. It’s more like it’s bruised or something (though it’s not). I’m always getting these weird little injuries, aches, and bruises that I can’t find a cause for (well, maybe not that many bruises, cuz I don’t bruise easily; they’re more like sore spots). Back during the summer, Jim, a former co-worker of mine, used to joke that I was developing sympathy pains for some of the Tigers. As a matter of fact, there WAS a long string of rather strange coincidences in that regard. There was one night in June (I think) where I was at work and I was talking to Jim about fencing. I mentioned that I tried to get back into fencing last semester, but I pulled a hamstring during the first practice, which took me out of commission for about three weeks, after which I never got back into it (though I’d love to try again). That night, I was watching the Tigers on TV and lo and behold, Pudge had to leave the game with…a hamstring injury. A few days later, I woke up and my hand was really sore, to the point where I could barely open child-proof bottles (which are the types of caps on about 90% of the bottles in the pharmacy), and it remained sore for several days. That night, Magglio was hit by a pitch in the hand. And so those little weird coincidences continued for most of the season. I had a sore back, and then Brandon Inge missed a game with back spasms. Pudge and I both had issues with dizziness around the same time, although I was dizzy because I was sick and he was dizzy because of side effects due to sleeping medication (I’m telling you, these boys NEED a team pharmacist). So…apparently somebody in the Arizona Fall League fouled a ball off his foot last night?

Before I begin the main discussion of my post today, I’d like to mention that there is a girl at a computer a couple rows in front of me who is watching piano games on YouTube. I just happened to look up and notice that. Rather amusing, if you ask me, especially since I’m still kind of out of the piano games mode. I’m sure I’ll get back into it before Christmas, though.

Well, they announced the Gold Glove winners yesterday, and lo and behold, two Tigers were winners: Polanco (his first) and Pudge (his thirteenth). I expected Polanco to win, and I was thrilled about it, but Pudge came as a delightful surprise. I know his numbers were down this year, especially in the caught stealing percentages (though just about every article that brings this up has gone on to point out that a lot of that was due to the fact that the Tigers’ pitchers weren’t holding runners on very well), even though he did get better later in the season, and as such, I really wasn’t expecting him to win this year. Then again, I was kind of comparing him with himself and not with the other catchers in the American League, most of whom I don’t really have a good read on, since the most I would’ve seen any of them in action is probably about 16 games. At any rate, I’m not about to complain, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

Yesterday I also discovered MLB’s Japanese site, which was kind of fun. I couldn’t read a whole lot on the site (since we haven’t learned Kanji, and won’t until next semester), but I did decipher every team name, and once I got to the page on the Tigers, I was able to read almost every player’s name, although some names, like “Inge”, do not translate into Japanese syllables very easily.

That’s all for today.

In case you’re wondering, yes, I am sick once again. I’m starting to think it may be a tonsillitis issue, cuz this is the third time in three months that I’ve gotten sick, and all three times, I’ve started off with a severely sore throat. Hopefully it’s not, cuz I get the feeling that having my tonsils taken out would suck. Plus I can’t really afford to miss a whole lot of school/work. I’m at school right now, but only because I had to turn in a paper in my Intro to Patient Care class. I don’t have to go to Spanish (and I won’t), and I might make it as far as Japanese (mostly cuz I also have homework due in that class), but I don’t think I have the stamina to hang around for Anatomy. By the way, I did not watch The Amazing Race last night (didn’t feel like it), but I did tape it, so I’ll probably watch it sometime today.