I just uploaded a new user pic that shows my beard when it was in its full glory after not being shaved or trimmed for nearly four months. Due to the fact that I start my job a week from today, it has been put to rest and I look respectable (more or less) once again
Jesse

So, I had commented on this in but I am so obsessed with it, it deserves its own post. If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend that you check out the Gnarls Barkley Video for Crazy. It is one of the best videos (for a really good song) I have seen in a long time. It is a series of Rorschach inkblots with images of the band among other things interwoven into them. Here are a few samples:







You can watch it at overdrive.mtv.com. Click on "Search Music Videos" and search for Gnarls Barkley. This does require internet explorer and windows media player and it is a bit moody so beware. You also can download it here but the quality isn't as good . Eitherway, you should check it out. It is Craaaazzzyyy

So, the sabres lost and I am going to (try to) not dwell on it, but there are a few things I need to get off my chest, but before I start my beefs, I would like to commend and thank the Sabres for a great series and an amazing season. When everyone counted you out you kept fighting, just like the people of Buffalo. In the end, fate had it out for you, also like the city, and the injuries overtook you. But you had the biggest heart by far. Thank you and we'll get 'em next year.

Now for the Beef,

1. "The Loud House" - the goddam announcers on OLN kept talking about how the "Caniacs" were sooo loud in their "Loud House" and they even brought a decible meter to show how loud it was. The decible meter ranged from 100 - 110. They were saying how loud this was and in the same sentence mentioned the fact that in game 3 of the series (in Buffalo) the noise got up to 130 decibles. How the fuck is it such a goddam loud house and the fans are so goddam crazy if the Buffalo fans were that much louder. Plus the two sabres games sold out in 18 minutes. The canes games didn't sell out until game day and after they lifted the ban on people from outside the region buying tickets. Also, there were a couple of times I heard "Lets Go Buffalo" while they were in Carolina

2. Cam Ward - in last nights broadcast the announcers were going on and on about how amazing cam ward is and how amazing it was that he won 10 playoff games in his rookie year. Hate to break it to the assholes, but Ryan Miller had won 11 as they were talking and he had won 10 before Cam Ward had. Ryan Miller was never pulled and faced so many more shots and opportunities than Ward as 3 of his 6 starting defensemen were gone for most of the series

I hate goddam southern hockey teams especially when they were moved from an area that actually knows what hockey is (to all the "Caniacs" this applies to your team as they were once the Hartford Whalers, not that I would expect you to know that). In summation fuck the Canes, their "fans" (I use this term loosely as most of them did not know what hockey was until their team was in the Eastern Conference Finals), and the OLN announcers (for my money I'll take Rick Jeanneret

any day)

Thank you Sabres, we'll get in next year, but for now Go Oilers!

Howdy all,
Today is my two year anniversary on (e:strip). It is crazy to look back and think of all the stuff that has happened to me during that time. And if I feel motivated enough, I don't even have to think I can just read all the crap I posted (though I do regret not posting more regularily to have a better record of what I have done). It is also interesting to see who were the regular posters then and who they are now. Looking at the "Latest 12" list I only see two who were around when I first started (e:paul) and (e:southernyankee). ((e:metalpeter) signed up a few days after me). Well, no use getting sentimental, I will have plenty of time to do that in the next month as I will both graduate from grad school and get a real job as well as go to my sister's graduation from 8th grade, which will be the first time since I started kindergarten (18 years ago) that myself or one of my siblings was not at the small (my class had 21 people) christian school that I went to for K-8 (Covenant Academy in Tonawanda). Anyways, thanks (e:paul) for the site.

Onward. I hope all is well with everyone. Yesterday I drove to albany to sign the lease for my apartment. It seems to be a nice apartment, decent size rooms, right on Washington Park and a 15 minute walk to work. I will be living with another person in my MPA program. It should be good, and if anyone is in the albany area, feel free to look me up.

That is all for now. Bye

My roomate moved out yesterday, so I have the apartment to myself again, which is nice. We didn't really talk so the companionship really won't be missed. A good representation of our relationship is a story about when he first moved in. I had introduced myself to him when he first moved in, but after that we really didn't say much to each other.

Then a couple of weeks into the semester I had gotten a note from the postal service on the door saying that they tried to deliver a package and it had my first initial and last name on it. I came inside and my roommate was there. He asked me if I had seen the package slip. I said I had. He then asked me what my name was. I assumed he was looking for me to say how to pronounce my my last name because that is what was writen on the package slip and it is an oddly spelled polish name complete with the "cz" combination. So I replied, "It's (last name)" He said, "Your name is (last name)? People call you (last name)?" I said, "No, my name is Jesse (last name). People call me Jesse." He responded, "Oh, okay, I don't know if we ever introduced ourselves."

Who lives with someone for two weeks and has no idea what their roommate's name is? His name is Anthony and yes, I did know it when he asked me what my name is. So, he is gone and I have no contact information for him so I hope he wasn't planning on getting anything important. I also hope that I won't ever have to list all the people I have lived with and their contact information cause I would have no idea how to get in touch with him.

Well, that is all. Hope everyone has a good memorial day.

I was listening to NPR Thursday, and I heard president bush talking about the proposed pipeline to supply Iranian gas to India and I couldn't believe the phraseology our president used:

"Our beef with Iran is not the pipeline, our beef with Iran is in fact they want to develop a nuclear weapon and I believe a nuclear weapon in the hands of the Iranians will be very dangerous for all of us," said Mr Bush.

Yes, you heard correctly, the President used the term "beef" to describe our disagreements with Iran. That is pretty freakin awesome. I am just surprised I haven't seen any shows or blogs pick up on it.

Also, on to other odd political items. There is a bathroom stall in my school with a bunch of political graffiti in it. It has everything from quick "Bush sucks" to long diatribes about socialism (My school is full of poli sci, public administration, international relations, economics, etc majors).

Someone saw all this political graffiti and responded "What happened to graffiti about bjs in bathroom stalls?"

To which the response written: "The market was flooded with bjs"

That is so nerdy and so hilarious.

I will now apoligize to nonnerds who read through my entire entry and did not find those amusing. Hope all is well with everyone. Stressful here. 5 weeks to graduation. Bye

Happy Birthday (e:maureen)!!! hope you have a great day

You know it is time to do dishes when you drink your morning oj out of a bowl because you ran out of cups

In a nostalgic mood tonight.

Stalked a lot of people I use to know on LexisNexis and Google.

Wonder if anyone/who does that to me.

All of the hits on my name as a phrase come from articles I wrote for my friend's now defunct website, articles I wrote for my internship at CAGW, quotes in my undergrad school newspaper, the abstract for my undergrad thesis, and a petition I signed for Arrested Development. (e:strip) is not on there as I have not put my last name in any of my journals (a conscious choice, both so people I have/do/will work for cannot find this and because I don't want everyone who knows me to know about my journal (even though if they are clever in what they search for, they can find it))

(e:maureen) was here the past couple of days. It was nice seeing her and I had a good time while she was here. We saw V for Vendetta . Not sure how I felt about it. Thought it wasn't that great til the end and I really enjoyed the ending. I am a sucker for melodrama. The movie prompted me to buy two CDs, Rolling Stones - Forty Licks (Street Fighting Man was in the closing credits) and Antony and the Johnsons - I am a Bird Now (Bird Guhl was played on the jukebox in the movie). I am listening to the latter now. His voice in Hope There's Somebody is just chilling. I had heard about the album on NPR. And wrote about it previously (e:jessbob,124)

First day o' frisbee tomorrow. should be good. I should go to bed. Happy belated b-day (e:mk).

Warm nights always make me feel weird and bring back a lot of memory feelings.

Called out again by (e:mk) on posting. Not posting in over a month is a bit long. I will try and give you the run down on what has happened. First, congrats to (e:mk) on "basically officially" becoming a teacher. Second, happy b-day to (e:jill), hope you had a great day.

On to what I have been doing the past month. I just got back from Georgia, where I spent my spring break with Siv, Jess and Dum. It was a really good time. Finally got to meet siv's gf lucy. She is really nice and I really like her. Hanging out was just how it always was, so much so that last night when I went to bed, I got a bit sentimental for living in Park Bethesda, specifically late spring junior year and the summer between junior and senior year. Not any specific incident, just the feeling of the warm air and just hanging out. While there we went to (among many burrito places including chipotle and a place that actually tasted better than chipotle) an exhibit at the Atlanta Civic Center of human bodies preserved and with their skin removed so you can see all of their different systems, nervous, muscle etc. It was really creepy and cool at the same time. We also went to the Georgia Aquarium which is the world's largest aquarium and has two whale sharks (the world's largest fist). It was really cool. Overall, it was a great trip.

Also, this past month I got a job for when I graduate. I will be working in the NYS Division of Budget, on the newly formed Public Authorities Budget office. I am really excited about it, it was the job I wanted most. What the office will be working on is looking in to public authorities, like the thruway authority and Buffalo Control Board, which have come under a lot of scrutiny lately for taking on a lot of debt with little oversight. To interview for it was a really intense process. They brought all of the candidates, there were 10 for 6 positions, out to albany for 3 days and we interviewed with a bunch of high level people, including both deputy budget directors and heads of different sections in the Budget office. It was both cool because we were interviewing with some pretty high level people, but it was also pretty terrifying because all you are doing is interviewing and going to receptions (including one at the Governors mansion which was really cool, the governor wasn't there) where are you are mingling and have to be on all the time. Luckily, they made the decision pretty fast and I got a call the next day from the Budget Director personally offering me the position. I am superexcited about it, but it will be really intense. First, most people start in may or june but because my program doesn't finish until june 30th, I have to start late and I graduate on a friday and have to be at work the next monday, which will be pretty stressful. For the first 8 months I will be in the public authorities budget office, for the next 8 months, I will be in the budget office's debt unit to look into the bonds that the authorities are issuing and then for the final four months, I will actually work in a public authority helping them to work with the budget office. After the 2 years, I negotiate my position in the budget division. I am looking forward to starting and hopefully it will be as good as I think it will be.

One thing I am not looking forward to is the rest of this semester. I have a bunch of papers to work on that will all be a pain in my ass. Ugh. I guess it was only a matter of time before I had to do work in grad school. Well I better go get on that because it is not getting anymore done now. Talk to you later
Jesse