Kevin is...
...sick of the number of calls and door-knocks coming from the Obama campaign.
It borders on an assault against one's privacy: five or six recorded and live calls per day, and sometimes two or three actual visits. Don't these canvassers talk to each other? Don't they say, "Hey, don't dial Number X or visit Home Y; they already told us to fuck off"? How the hell many times do I have to tell an Obama staffer on the phone that I'm an independent voter, and am not willing to help them with their canvassing?
The problem, at least in my case, is that my recent registration was performed by an Obama campaigner canvassing our neighborhood. The Obama campaign got my personal contact information, which apparently means I'm on their call list. I've been polite with these people up to now, but my patience is wearing thin.
...happy he finally saw the half-season "finale" of "Battlestar Galactica," which ends on a rather Asimovian note.
The BSG episode ends with an uneasy human/Cylon reconciliation, and is reminiscent of Asimov's Foundation series, especially the novel Foundation and Earth, in which questors discover that the earth, a supposedly legendary planet, does indeed exist, but is too radioactive to be habitable. The crew of the Galactica makes the same discovery when the ragtag fugitive fleet arrives at the BSG universe's version of earth: the wreckage of civilization is all around them, and the soil is highly radioactive (but at least the atmosphere remains breathable!).
...looking into ESL work through Craigslist ads.
The problem here is that, while plenty of places are advertising, many of them want a longer commitment than I can give (this is also true of other jobs I've been looking into, many of which say they seek long-term employees). Also, my French student's lessons are at 2PM, which narrows down the number of ESL-teaching choices I have. This also affects what's available through temp agencies. True: I could lie and say I'll commit to one or two years, then suddenly bag at the end of February. But that subterfuge might cause its own set of problems.
...impatient to sign up to work for that essay-grading service.
Ever since Alan mentioned it way back when, I've been wanting to sign on. A few hitches, though: until this past Friday, we've had a low-speed Verizon DSL service, and had been awaiting the upgrade to FiOS. As Alan told me, an online essay grader must, for security reasons, have a stable connection, i.e., no WiFi, no changing from computer to computer, etc. A sudden change in the nature of one's online service might be seen as a problem. That's one reason why I haven't signed up for the service yet.
Another problem has been that I want to do the essay grading on my laptop, which is currently out of commission and in need of repair. That takes funds, but I don't have enough funds right now to effect the repair. My French student will be paying me a few hundred dollars pretty soon, but that's going toward my monthly scholastic debt. When your income is low, it's kind of a vicious cycle, which makes me wish I were back in Korea with a steady, and significantly larger, income. Add to this the fact that I'm currently disputing some mysterious $150 charge applied to my PNC bank account through my check card, and you might say things have been a wee bit stressful. Not to worry, though; things'll work out, my credit rating be damned. I remain of good cheer.
Oh, yes: why the laptop and not Dad's computer? I need to use my own computer for this job because poor Dad needs access to his own computer, which I've been hogging (he's out shopping with Mom now, so it's not an issue). Dad's been very accommodating, but I'm starting to feel warm, steaming masses of guilt piling up on my shoulders. Ultimately, I need to get a splitter so that I can feed off Dad's Verizon service; whether this will cost Dad extra money is something I need to find out. I seem to remember cable TV being that way back in the 80s and 90s. The Verizon guy is coming back on Monday; I'll ask him then.
...becoming a veteran camper despite himself.
I've been camping for weeks in the back yard. While it might be nice to take up my buddy Mike's standing invitation to lodge with him and his family in Fredericksburg, the problem is that I'm needed here for things like heavy lifting and meal prep. Mike lives about an hour away from me, which would make commuting home every day a major pain. So I camp. We won't have functioning bedrooms for many weeks, which gives me a chance to get acquainted with winter camping, something I haven't really done before. I've done hot, warm, cool, cold, windy, sunny, cloudy, dry, humid, and rainy, in various combinations, but I haven't done wintry.
...itching to walk a lot more.
I haven't had the chance to walk long distances on a consistent basis, and my five-pound gain is worrisome. I can control my intake, but that's still not the same as doing the requisite exercise. If I were able to do some sort of intense cardio work instead of walking, I might be able to exercise within a shorter time frame. Possible solutions:
1. Wake up way early and get the walking done then. This is probably the best solution, but I've never been much of a morning person. That was an issue during the walk as well: I heard many people say that it's better to start early in the morning, before the sun is at its worst, then finish the 10- or 20-mile hike before things get truly hot. My own feeling was that this advice was rarely worth the trouble: if, for example, I hike 17-20 miles starting at 5AM, I'll still be ending around noon, when the sun is at its highest. There's no escaping the sun that way.
2. Get a bike and sprint with it. My brother David has my other brother Sean's old mountain bike with him; David told me he'd give it to me. That would certainly solve the high-impact issue; biking wouldn't be nearly as punishing on my knee.
3. Skip out on renovation-related activities to walk six hours a day. Possible, but not likely.
And that's about all the updates that're fit to print. My personal financial crunch makes me think I should reconsider that career in porn, but I see that that idea's already been taken.
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