Friday, 19 April 2002: What are your guilty little pleasures? You know what I mean, those evil vices that control your life in moments of weakness (hell, they control you in moments of strength, too). It can be a movie that you would never admit to liking or a music group that your friends don't know you listen to. That sort of thing. No, reading my website while you should be working does not count. On second thought, maybe it should. I guess for me, some of my vices include a cheesy 80s flick by John Waters starring Johnny Depp called Crybaby or one of dozens of 1970s/80s/90s slasher flicks like Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, or Friday the 13th. My brother and I love classic cinematic crap like Hudson Hawk - for some strange reason, we just love that movie. Musically, I live for Duran Duran and 80s hair bands like Poison and Cinderella. See what I'm getting at?

Well, I succumbed to another vice today... corny rock ballads. Yep, I was listening to Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell" today. Remember that one? Really godawful album with "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" on it. I know... moment of extreme weakness. I'm ashamed it happened. But, I can say that there is one positive in this situation... it is not my album. My brother owns it. I don't feel so bad anymore.

Thursday, 18 April 2002 (a little later in the afternoon): I guess I can start being happy again. Not only was Eric's computer returned, but I, with help from AU's Mac Guru Justin, figured out what was wrong with my computer and now things are running just fine (keep your fingers crossed for me). That means I should be able to return to my routine of semi-regular updates. Yay me.

Thursday, 18 April 2002 (very friggin' early in the morning): A note to my fair readers (that being you)... I apologize for the lack of updates recently, things have been rather tricky at work. Yes, I admit, I make many of my updates from work during my lunchbreak or before work actually starts. I prefer to make all updates there because I have a T1 connection... hence, faster uploads. Plus, as I've said before (I think), after spending all day in front of a computer, the last thing I wanna do when I get home is spend even more time in front of one. That is why it is rare that you will see an update posted in the middle of the night or on weekends. Tonight being one exception.

At work... ahhhh... work... shoot me now... please. At work, my coworker Eric's wife had her twin babies last Friday early in the morning. As a result, he is on two weeks vacation. Hence, his graphic design work has been dished out to myself, our staff writer Juliette, and the Lake Geneva campus designer Mary. None of us are really proficient in Quark. I've had some experience (okay, more than just some), but I'm not nearly as good as Eric. So we were taking solice in the fact that all we would need to do is take Eric's predesigned graphic and layout work and make tweeks to it. Just jump on his computer and go to work. Only problem is that his computer fried the day before he left. Hard drive was shot as was the logic board. Not good news. As a result, we don't have the files that are necessary to make changes to his design work. Not only are we sweating, but nearly every department on campus is shitting solid gold bricks.

Seemingly, our last hope was that Eric's files could be recovered from the hard drive and given to me to make tweeks on using my Mac at work. Like I said above, this would normally be no problem. They managed to recover most of Eric's files from his computer. However, yesterday, my computer fried. I am getting errors saying that I don't have enough memory to run a program and that I need to shut down some of my other files. The problem is that I have absolutely no programs open. So, each and every application I try to run shuts itself down before I can get it up and running. Fun, huh? No Photoshop... no Illustrator... no Quark... no PageMaker... no Dreamweaver. And Dreamweaver is the program I use to maintain this site. Ergo, no updates. I'll try to get some news up here as I feel the desire to fire up my laptop at home. We shall see.

Have faith, though, I will return. I hope.

Monday, 15 April 2002: Were you a semi-bad little American waiting until today to file your taxes? Well, HA! Katie and I finished our taxes last month. Mailed those bad boys in a few weeks ago. Nope, no procrastinators here. In about ten years, Katie and I will have our state and federal refund checks in our grubby little hands. Nice.

I don't understand why some people see the need to wait until today (or, even worse, tonight) to file their taxes. Is it really that big of a deal? Most companies will give you all your necessary forms usually at least two months in advance. God knows that accountants rank in sheer number almost as high as lawyers in America. The IRS now has efile so you can do it all online. I believe it can also be done by phone. It's not as though you're waiting in a line of a million people to use the one source available to file your returns. So what's the deal? Why do people wait so long? Why is it that so many people can so easily relate to that episode of "The Simpsons" with Homer waiting until 11:59.59.999 p.m. on April 15 to throw his shoddily taped, football-shaped package of receipts and other forms through the closing gates of his post office? Not that any of you will actually respond, but please tell me.

Sunday, 14 April 2002: It may seem a bit petty to bring this up, but the act in itself was petty as well. Last night, Katie and I went to see Changing Lanes at the Charlestowne 18 Theatres at Charlestowne Mall in St. Charles, Illinois (sick of the use of "Charles" yet? Blame them for their lack of creativity). When we came outside to go home after the movie, Katie noticed that someone had stolen the Mickey Mouse ball off her antenna. Okay, I know it's only a $3 novelty item at the Disney Store, and I shouldn't really worry about it too much. But, if that $3 novelty item is available for me to purchase at the Disney Store as a replacement, that means the dipshit who stole it off Katie's antenna could have purchased one just as easily for him/herself instead of stealing the one that was part of my "good luck with your new job" gift that I bought for Katie back in August. The petty bullshit we have to put up with living in this day and age. Christ amighty.