Once again, I'll be participating in the Friday Five. Every friday I'm going to answer the five questions posted at The Friday Five and post the answers here. Feel free to answer for yourself in my comments box or on your own site..

Greetings folks!
As y'all know, I'm all about helping a friend in need. It just so happens that one of my friends is trying to finance a living arrangement in New Zealand (complete with hired hands and animals). Now is the opportunity of a life time to contribute to to the Who Da Manny Ranch Fund and have joy and happiness for the rest of your days...

What are you waiting for!? Go there now!

I'm bland. Yes, that's right... I allow my computer to compose the poetry that I display on my site. Get over it and read these little ditties... :)

The way both easygoing,
damn funny IM though:
So little over to be participating in
Bed. Earlier than one problem
Picked up or trends, usually based on the place.
This earth I can smell, and best watched
in San Francisco!!! Killer.
Make a bit as they were Tyler and we argue.
Over there is some weird Kiwanian cult!!
The hopes of this, enormous....

---

I am fine
I have a dutch oven.....*
The international is a great universe.
Holds near an overwhelming, overly stressed sort.
Toon Erotica Sex Stories and many other facts
that we pushed halfway down,
with the leadership that had, never on my time, presence
and wanted the money and some bacon.

Bite me.

I never escape you after school in hot mature action,
in his second week, I like.
Lord this to Hollywood: gonna get very easy and eggs,
I layed in the ground... and Cindy ran unopposed.
Pete, is all that --
made a dream of frustration
and lived in his Cadillac dream.
Godspeed.

Participants: Me / Enemy of the State / Faith / Hoopty / Batgirl / Davezilla / SJ / Tyler / Cathy / Amy / Katie / and other sites for balance.

You want to know what irks me? Too bad, I'm going to tell you anyway. The "...for dummies" and "complete idiot's guide to..." series of books. They're fantastic to read, I'll give you that, but recently they've been trying to convince dummies and idiots to do things that they just shouldn't do.

These titles started out fairly reasonably, things like, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to AOL" and "MS Word for Dummies." Great! Fantastic! Idiot's are well equipped to use AOL and Dummies use MS Word all of the time. These are perfectly acceptable tasks for idiots and dummies and I applaud the authors and publishers for helping society's less intelligent members to function properly.

Recently, however, I've noticed a distrubing trend. There are still some books that deserve to be published: Communicating Effectively for Dummies and Cool Careers For Dummies, for example, but there are some that should just be left alone.

For your viewing pleasure, I offer a sampling of the topics that dummies and idiots should have NOTHING to do with:

• Homebrewing Great! Encourage them to kill MORE brain cells!.
• Magic - Look, kids, when I open the refrigerator door, the light comes on!
• Opera - NO NO NO! BAD DUMMY!
• Sex & Pregnancy - This happens enough already. Result: stupid kids.
• First Aid - "Get AWAY from me with that band-aid!"
• Indoor Grilling - This is trouble waiting to happen.
• Leadership - Did someone say "City Council?"
• Pit Bulls - On second thought... GOOD IDEA... "Go on, poke him with that stick!"
• E-Commerce - "Hey maw! I'munna sell the pig on that thar 'nterneck!"
• Success - What's in there? How to open a can of ravioli?
• Networking - That's just what we need... moron.net
• Anything Linux Related - Enough said.

That's right... I never learn. Despite the last hoo-ha that a post like this made, I'm doing it again. Hey... maybe it'll up my site traffic like it did last time.

Yesterday Jim, my fearless housemate, earned himself a dozen more lazy-points. "What's that?" you say, "MORE lazy points!?" Yes. More of them. In fact, I'm glad mass and not laziness is the basis for gravity, otherwise there'd be a distinct chance for a black hole right there in my living room.

What happened? Dont EVEN get me started. I was proud of Jim at first... managing to lift himself from bed at the oh-so-early hour of 4:00pm. I came to find out later, however, that his agent (read: Girlfriend) had been driving all over Tuscaloosa picking up job applications for him. Then, upon arriving at the house, I was told that she offered to fill them out for him. What next? Going to the interview as well? Hell, Amy, while you're at it, why not just go work and give him all the money?

Granted: I did say that she needed convince him to get a job... but I certainly dind't mean it that way. Good lord. This just makes the problem worse... and better. Yes, it is great that he could be getting a job. That's wonderful. HOWEVER, this just continues to prove the point that Amy doesn't need SOMEONE... she needs to be needed BY someone. Congratulations, Amy, you're now the hardest working, most underpaid agent in the minimum-wage job market.

My brilliant computer has, yet again, produced an astoundingly breath-taking poem for your consumption. Enjoy.

The sun even saw Mark Haller?
Phi Mu nonsense consisted mostly of gas.
he clapped straight through every footstep
of the same house o’ groove
I need to be confused; I've only been exaggerated.
I will Work before I can.
Hear every day Pete and lo!
It comes to say shoes and house
after a few specific Gadsden groupies,
including Tom and I, went back to Waiting
She proved to be Beautiful; never had a sweetheart.
That if into a Spades player, and boring after a bit.
As possible on the Media page, working on yourself.
Outsmart your teachers with what you made my Phi Mu nonsense.

Participants: Me / Enemy of the State / Faith / Hoopty / Batgirl / Davezilla / SJ / Tyler / Cathy / Amy / Katie / and other sites for balance.

Today I came upon a "great idea". Whilst fooling around with Rob Malda's Poem Generator I thought it'd be neat to have the poem generater come up with some stuff based on SEVERAL blogs instead of just one. So I piled together a list of the blogs that I frequent, whipped up a little script, and viola! The poem generator now gleans snapshots of the various sites that I tell it to once a day and then (for the whole rest of the day) I can create poems to my heart's content. I'll try to post one or two of these a day... but I'm still searching for a clever name any suggestions? For Feb 25, 2002, Pete's Perfectly Peachie Poem Producer has come up with the following:

A million miles UNDER the backlots.
Been sleeping. bags.
That yoga where going well. Tuesday.
February 24, 2002
Life throws funny because I know is waning.

---

Talk to pass him on the week I bootleg.
burners of other sponsored youth people.
I have that painful, truth -- irresponsible
Deepa was actually doing things
I Asshole, YE*ASSHOLE*
Ooh...
advice I got out these girls.
Vaguely Blogish Things will arrive.

Participants:   Me / Enemy of the State / Faith / Hoopty / Batgirl / Davezilla / SJ / Tyler / Cathy / Amy / Katie / and other sites for balance.

I'm talking about GOOD support. Not like "I'm wearing my best underwear" kinda support, or "Hey! Let's put up another 2x4 for more support," support. No, I'm talking about that warm fuzzy "Nice job!" kind of support. Over the past few days, as news of my resignation from CKI VP has spread, along with the story, I've gotten random IMs, emails, and phone calls from people who just want to say hello and wish me the best. While I had never really lost faith in CKI, sometimes I felt like the leadership had lost focus. But, alas, I was wrong. Some of the things that have found their way to me are the following (names omitted):

Once upon a time there was Pete,
lived down where there was heat!
Did an awesome job in Indy,
till the conflict with Casey and Cindy.
Ran into some red tape,
too bad he didn't have a nifty cape!
Although he wanted to be the veep,
we didn't hear one frustrated peep.
Now he goes boldly on,
We should use binoculars, mon! (Jamaican accent)

"Pete Holiday for International President!"

"You have our district's support, and our governor can't wait to tell you in person!"

"Good decision...maybe we can use this to start sending a message to CKI about where its priorities should lie again"

" I was throughly impressed with your letter and support you 100% of the way. ... All I know is that the people related to the International board are really going to regret not compromising with you and working this situation out."

"Circle K'ers and Kiwanians who are in the organization for the right reasons will ALWAYS back you up on a decision like this."

"Too bad management isn't always rational or reasonable (trust me, it happens everywhere). But life goes on."

"We appreciate all your hard work on the International level. This district is here to support your efforts in helping your club strengthen back up."

"But, ... I understand your circumstances, and I know that it was a difficult choice, and the noble thing to do."

"I just wated to express my support for your decision to resign from the internaional board. I know it was a painful one for you to make, but I have a feeling you've done the right thing. ... I know [my club] will be there to help you whenever you need it."

Quotes have been anonymized as I've not asked for permission to post them.

Here's one more good reason to get a dog. :)

[ via Rien d'Importance ]

Not much to report so far on this Beautiful Sunday Afternoon... but, in checking through site statistics, I noticed something. Someone arrived at my page through a search for "assent burps journalized tremendous riddling" Who in their right mind searches for something like that?

People... Search Engines are a privilege, not a right. If you use them for stupid things like searching for "Friends Skinny Dipping" you should be beaten.

Who else has funny referal stories?

Update: It seems that someone has had an interesting day trying to find me. Search terms like "hot sex with Pete Holiday", "Pete Holiday, I wanna sex you up", and "Pete Holiday turns me on"... lol... and it's not even April 1st. As you would expect, I have no idea who it might be.

Sometime around 2:30am I managed to fall asleep. This is pretty early for me, however, I had the fairly unpleasant feeling of hearing my alarm go off two hours later. Damn. It was time to get up and go work Kiwanis Pancake Day. It's the Kiwanis Club's annual fundraiser for, well, themselves. Circle K folks are expected to sell tickets and show up to work the event. Things get started at 5:00am and usually wind down sometime after 3:00pm. Most of the time Circle Kers come to work for the morning or the afternoon. (Jean called to say "Hey" because she was awake at the ungodly hour of 3:00am her time)

I swung by my Secretary-Elect's dorm and we rode to the local high school where the grand event was to be held. It was mighty early. At some point I was put in charge of youth-staffing. In other words, I bossed around all of the sponsored youth kiddos -- Circle Kers, Key Clubbers, and Builders Clubbers. That was fairly interesting and it allowed me to meet a few of the other sponsored youth people. It also meant that I did a lot of running around and general managing.

Everyone from the newly elected club board was present and accounted for before 9:00am. Yay! They're already doing things right! Speaking of them, we decided that Cathy would be in charge of giggling (she's probably over-qualified) and Rachel would end up being the board mother. Jonathan would be in charge of making fun of people (Instead of me... yay!) and I get to be the "toekn yankee." But I digress... I found it interesting that it took Matt (our current president) until 12:30pm to show up... and then he stood around and did maybe 30 minutes worth of work in the two hours he was there. Anyway...

I stayed for the duration of the project (9.5 straight hours of community service on 2 hours of sleep) and came back JUST in time to see Alabama beat Florida on the basketball court. Roll Tide! Now I'm hungry... but you probably don't care.

In talking with Kris and Jamie last night I determined that I was a broke college kid. So broke, in fact, that I'm the Vice-President of the club. I requested of Jamie (the president) that I be allowed to chair the "Bitching and Moaning Committee." She graciously allowed that and so I now have a(noter) new title:

Pete Holiday, Chair
Bitching and Moaning Committee
Broke College Kids of America

For the third consecutive week, I'll be participating in the Friday Five. Every friday I'm going to answer the five questions posted at The Friday Five and post the answers here. Feel free to answer for yourself in my comments box or on your own site..

Actually, this post applies to self-righteous zealots of all sorts. Currently, however, I live in the south and it's more relevant to speak to the issue of people who thump their bibles so fiercely that the wear holes in them.

As a human being, I feel that you have a right to think and believe anything that you so desire. I also feel that I enjoy that same right. I also have a conviction that I am intelligent enough to make my own decisions and my own mistakes. For that reason, I don't need you or anyone else telling me what I should believe or do.

I have an amazing group of friends, from a wide range of backgrounds and beliefs. I value their opinions and listen to what they have to say. What irks me, though, is when someone I hardly know decides that I should believe in something because it's obviously true, or I shouldn't do something because it's obviously just wrong. I'm usually willing to debate the mysteries of life and the universe... but goodness gracious, let's use rational thought and logic. I greatly respect and admire those of you out there with strong faiths... but even the strongest faith fails as a convincing argument for virtually anything except faith's own existence.

You see, the one thing that most of these people don't understand is that you can't argue with someone based on the premise that YOU are right. A Christian can't argue with an athiest based on the fact that it says this or that in the Bible.

More importantly than that, however, I am me. You are not me. See that guy over there? He's not me. Your mom isn't me. I am me. So if, one day, I decide that little cocker spaniel puppies are god (which I haven't, just for the record) you'll just have to get over it. What's that? You think that ducks are god? Well, too bad... I worship the little puppies, Ok? Good.

...oh, and don't even THINK about getting me a "Ducks love you" book for my birthday. I'll burn it and scatter its ashes out at the local pond... in front of the other ducks who aren't god.

Club elections were held tonight. I was elected President, Stephanie won Vice President, Cathy is the Secretary-Elect, and Rachel is the Treasurer-Elect. Two of the three board members were elected: Katherine and Jonathan. All ran unopposed.

The down side of that result, however, is that I was required to give up something very important to me in order to run. Today, I stepped down as Circle K International Vice-president so that I might lead my club, which desperately needs good leadership. If you're interested, you can see my open resignation letter here.

The decision to resign was one of the most difficult that I've ever had to make, and I appreciate those of you who have already offered your support. As the Semisonic song goes, however, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." And how true that is.

There's nothing too terribly exciting going on today. That's probably a good thing. Me, and my site, had enough excitement yesterday to last for a while. Helped by the controversy, this site managed to show 124 visits to the main page, 89 unique visitors, and 869 total pageviews. That doesn't include my visits to the site, which aren't logged. Those are pretty good numbers, really.

In CKI-Land, elections are tomorrow. I'm currently running for President, Candace for VP, Cathy for Secretary, and Rachel for Treasurer. As of now we're all unopposed. That speaks volumes for how much UA Circle K needs leadership. I don't know if I've ever seen all four of our exec offices go unopposed. The fact that I'm running for Pres, however, is causing trouble with the International Office. One way or another, that should be resolved by tomorrow when the elections take place.

This discussion in particular regards whether I'm allowed to "actively campaign or run for another elected office" while I'm still an International Officer. By every piece of policy I've read, running and campaigning is fine... so long as you don't HOLD the offices concurrently. I have no intention of holding them concurrently, but it makes virtually everything imposible if you can't run for it. At any rate, I'm sure I'll hear something soon.

It's also time to fix my car. The last two tanks of gas, I've gotten horrendously low gas mileage (18mpg, to be exact) and it's really messing with me. You see, my gas guage doesn't like me so I have to decide when to refill based on mileage. Well, I usually get a little over 400 miles to a tank of gas. Recently, however, I've been getting a little over 250. That's bad. So, guessing that my problem is that the car isn't firing on all four of it's little cylinders, I'm going to check the rotator cap and spark plugs. This'll be the first remotely mechanical thing I've done in a while, so we'll hope it turns out ok.

I also have to ambassadate tonight. Well, not really. The A&S Ambassadors are having dinner with the Dean tonight. That should be interesting. There's a possibility that Haley (remember her?) will be there. What do you say to someone who doesn't return your phone calls after seeming interested... do you say anything? I guess only time will tell what I'll do.

I'll probably end up adding a few comics to the page today, keep your eye on "what's new" to find out for sure.

Update: I popped the hood and chatted with the engine gnomes. The needed more oil to bathe in, so I got that for them. I wasn't quite able to get at the rotator cap, so I'm gonna give that another whirl tomorrow.

I didn't go to the ambassador dinner. Instead I went to a service project with Circle K. That was fun, but it wasn't free dinner. In other Circle K news, there still hasn't been resolution to my conflict with the office. I received an email about it, but it didn't answer any questions, just more encouraging me not to run for Club President. I just don't think they understand.

In other news, I got two emails from the feedback page from people who didn't have the integrity to put their names on them. Nevertheless, I used my strange powers to discern that one of them was, more than likely, Jim's brother Matt. The other was sent from Jim's home, more than likely his mother (as best I can tell). Let it be known that if you don't feel strongly enough about your opinion to put a name on it, it's not worth my time to respond to.

While I don't really have time right now to write a full fledged update, suffice it to say that stupidity from stupid people continues to flow like flannel and overalls from their closets.

Such stupidity includes a phone call from Matt asking why I said he would drive 3 hours to "whup my ass". Which, if you can read, you realize I never said. Anyway... class is calling, so I'll write more later.

I managed to get an A- on this paper, and Dr. Summers was quotable again today: she said "Read the rest of this on your own to see how desperately we need sex."

Wow.

it should be noted that, for a while, it was impossible to post comments. I'm trying to keep the more ignorant members of our society from lowering the signal to noise ratio in the comments. This problem is now fixed, however.

So we've already determined that Friday night didn't have the entertainment value that it was supposed to. I took that all in stride assuming that we were going to be throwing a great party last night. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

Let's start with the facts. When it was all said and done we had maybe 20 people attend the party for any length of time. Most of those people showed up shortly after nine and left shortly after ten. Seems like an early night, right? Well... those people went to another "party" being thrown across town by a group of people that normally attend our parties. Now, that's all well and good, except that the people who threw that other party knew about ours well in advance and chose to compete with it. What really wasn't cool was when one of the other party throwers showed up to get people from our party and take them somewhere else. One of the most disturbing parts of the situation, however, is that Jim and Michael went with them.

From my standpoint it's pretty difficult to believe that this wasn't an intentional effort by someone (probably including Michael, Jim, and Jim's GF Amy) to ruin one of our parties. Sounds paranoid? Give me a second to explain.

• Leading up to the party, neither Jim nor Michael seemed interested in contributing to the alcohol fund. This wasn't a big deal because at the last party we made almost enough in contributions to cover our expenses
• 
  
  
• In talking to a friend of mine online, Jim made the comment that he didn't think anyone was going to come to our party. Thanks for sharing with the group, Jim.
• 
  
  
• The crowd stuck around for our happy-hour (half priced drinks) and left shortly after it was over. That's just bad style.
• 
  
  
• When confronted about the "other party" before last night, asking three different people yeilded three different responses. Michael: I'll probably be at both for a while; Jim: I don't know if they're having a party; Amy: There's no other party, everyone will be at yours.
• 
  
  

I had high hopes for Friday night. There was no pre-party party at the house... things were kinda laid back, but I got some work done on the website while I waited for Brianne to call. After her and her roomie with to a play we were all gonna go hit a party she had heard about.

The party had a GREAT setup. The apartment complex that it was out had a configuration where four or six apartments per level shared two staircases. This party blocked off both of them and the eight or twelve apartments above were the hosts. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived there were two cops standing out side just WAITING for a reason to break it up (as if there weren't enough already: no liquor license and charging at the door, people who were PLAINLY not 21 drinking in PLAIN sight, etc...). We went up anyway to see if we could get in. We were on the guest list (Yes, the guest list) but the party was not free (as we had been told) is was $5 a head. So we left to go get cash. When we came back there were no cops outside, but the party had died in a major way. No doubt the party got broken up.

At this point, we didn't have many options. Not only are virtually all of the bars/clubs 21+, the rest are 18+ and Brianne's sister was with us (who's not 18 yet) but we decided to try to get into jupiter by allowing Jennifer (the sister) to use Brianne's license and have Brianne get in on her Student ID. That worked just fine. The problem came after getting in.

It wasn't a logistical problem, though, it was an entertainment problem. The band sucked. And I'm not talking "sucks like a dirt devil" kind-of-suck... I'm talking "industrial size shop vac" kind-of-suck or "jet engine intake" kind-of-suck. They were bad. Really, really, really bad. Did I mention that the band was awful? I really did want to just rip my own eardrums out with a little cocktail straw.

If, by some chance, you happen to get a chance to see the band Ira Towns... don't... unless you're some sort of masochist. In which case, you'll love it.

So after the second attempt failed, I purchased a small quantity of alcohol for the girls and they went back to their dorm. I went home and Ry and I discussed tonights party. Things are coming along nicely... you should come!

The moral of the story, though, is that Friday wasn't what I had hoped it would be. That's alright. I got a chance to add something to the site that I think you'll all appreciate. Go look!

From now until, well, I feel like quitting, every friday I'm going to answer the five questions posted at The Friday Five and post the answers here. Feel free to answer for yourself in my comments box.

Ok... the new new design is up. Let me know what you think. The comments box will change shortly. :)

Thanks to Amy, Cathy and Katie for helping me through the process.

Another week brings us another rant. This week our topic is the wonderful animal rights organization: PETA, and it's many supporters.

Now don't get me wrong, I love animals. One of my favorite things in the world is my dog back home, but let's get one thing straight from the very beginning: they are animals. They are not people.

I also understand that each person is welcome to his or her own opinion and I respect that. I take no issue if someone wants to not eat meat because they think it's unhealthy or cruel to animals. No problem. More steak for me. I do take issue, however, when your "opinion" begins to adversely affect my way of life.

But let us first look at what I'm going to call the "PETA Mindset." I am not attacking vegetarianism or anything of that sort, but when you start to think "Hey! That cute furry thing deserves the same rights as us" I think you've got issues. Let's have a look at some excerpts from their Frequently Asked Questions.

"[Animal rights] means recognizing that animals are not ours to use—for food, clothing, entertainment, or experimentation.": Nonsense! Let's look at the obvious example: testing of various drugs, cosmetics, and other things. If we don't test on animals, what on earth will we test on? People? Only if we start with PETA members. And then there's food... I realize that it's not mandatory to eat meat to live, but it sure is the easiest way. Besides (and you can quote me) Meat is Yummy. Now I have no idea what people taste like, but my guess is that not many PETA members would be willing to sacrifice themselves to save a cow. Put up or shut up.

"animals don’t always have the same rights as humans, because their interests are not always the same as ours and some rights would be irrelevant to animals’ lives.": Let's be perfectly clear... animals do not have the same rights as people because they are not sentient. They may or may not be self aware, and certainly (most animals) don't possess very strong reasoning capacity. PETA would liken this to mentally handicapped humans... and this shows you exactly where these peoples minds are: gone to lunch. Riiight: Stray Dog = Mentally Handicapped Human. Nice try, but it doesn't fly.

Well, this isn't news to anyone who knows me, but now I've been added to the official Assholes Webring. On top of that, the owner of said webring has graciously complimented my work on the official site "I, Asshole". yay! Speaking of assholery, I'm about due for a Weekly Dis, aren't I?? Any suggestions for topics?

In other news, still no word from Haley.

In still OTHER news, I've seen a huge influx of traffic over the past few days. Much of it is from the Friday Five, some from the Z-List, and still other traffic is courtesy of great people who link to me (Katie, Faith, Melissa, etc...). Anyway... thanks for visiting. Leave a comment, read something entertaining, and smile, damnit.

Tonight I displayed my masterful talents of grilling. This was particularly annoying to some of my AIM friends, as I kept teasing them with the thought of a good steak. Yumm. (This is for those folks at PETA: I don't care if the cow suffered, it tasted damn good -- HEY! Maybe that'll be my Weekly Dis. PETA... hmmm...).

Anyway... party this saturday. Should be a good time. C'mon out if you're out and about. If you're not, well, get your ass out of the living space and do something!

Happy Tuesday to all, and to all a good ________.
This is a choose your own ending journal entry.

I guess "almost-date" was an appropriate way to put it. Right about now you would be expecting me to write about picking someone up, going to eat/drink/whatever, the silly little missteps that are mortifying at the time (but really quite funny), and a happy ending. Unfortunately, I cannot provide you with those things. Why?

Well... I still maintain that she is a real person. However, much to my dislike, I was "almost stood-up" on my "almost date". Whoooah! What? Yes... that's right.

I actually called her LAST Monday and we talked about our schedules noting that really neither one of us had time to do anything last week, so we decided that this tuesday we would get together. One of us would call the other on Monday and we'd make plans. If I recall correctly, she was to call me when she finished up with a particular meeting. If I didn't hear from her, I'd call her. Having not heard from her by 9:00pm, I gave her a call and left a message on her cell phone. As of 1:30pm, I still hadn't heard back from her.

I almost hope that there isn't a good explanation for it, really. I really don't think that the events that might constitute a "good explanation" would really be all that fortunate. Observe:

"My cell phone ran away."
"I ran away."
"I was being held hostage."

In a valiant attempt to keep me from completeing my paper for Women in Ancient Greece, several friends and fellow bloggers have been salivating for details on my almost-date tomorrow. Despite their best efforts, this paper still got finished, and didn't turn out too poorly, I don't think.

But that's not what you're all here to read, is it? Judging by the comments on the previous journal entry, some of you (Amy, Katie, and even Hoopty) are really dying to hear more about the mysterious girl crazy enough to go on an almost-date with me tomorrow.

About the girl: She actually exists, this is not some ploy to drive up traffic to my website... but it would work if it was. Her name is Haley, and we know each other by virtue of a mutual friend but also because we're both ambassadors for the College of Arts and Sciences. A&S has over 6,000 students (it's the largest college) and of these, only 25 are selected as ambassadors. So that says something about her, i guess. Of course, they also let me in, so I guess that says something about THEM. She's a junior Communicative Disorders major from southern Alabma, and a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority here on campus. Of course, no red-blooded american male is able to give a description of a female without also mentioning her physical appearance... but suffice it to say that she's quite attractive.

About the date: Much of the detail here is yet to be determined. We'll be chatting this evening to get things finalized, but the almost-date will probably take place at a local eatery and conclude in a very friendly manner (as opposed to a very romantic manner), hopefully with each learning a thing or two about the other. I'm open for suggestions as to where to go, (That's right, this is your chance to tell me where to go) because I'm not terribly good at making decisions like that.

What's an "almost-date": I'm not calling this a date for a few reasons. First of all... it's just lunch. This may not automatically preclude it from being a date, but it doesn't feel nearly date-ish enough for a first date. Secondly, well, that's one of those things that has to be a mutual decision (right?) and it may be easier to tell intentions after the fact. I'm sure my reluctance to call it a date is also some sort of subconscious attempt to keep me calm.

So... does that answer enough questions for ya? I certainly hope so... I wouldn't want to let my loyal readers down. Comments are welcome, as usual.

PS: Much love to Kathryn G. and Brandi B. who passed along some nice compliments on the site today and yesterday.

Paper due tomorrow at 2:00pm. Is it done? C'mon now... what kind of a question is this. I may be trying to turn over a new leaf, but I'm still Pete Holiday, King of Procrastination.

Once the paper's done, though, I've got all sorts of stuff to look forward to this week. We have our second week's worth of nominations for UA Circle K club elections... this is very good. So far, Candace is running for VP, Cathy for Secretary, and (we think) Rachel will be nominated for Treasurer this week. Woah. This is like the club officer all star team. Should those folks be elected it'll be a good year.

We have another party coming up... that should be fun. Of course, these things have come to be fairly common. Wanna hear what our last two parties were like? Check out this and this.

Maybe the most revolutionary thing going on in Pete's little world is an almost-date sometime early this week... probably Tuesday. Granted... I don't know that I'd call it a real date... but it could possibly lead to one. Wow. Someone who seems reasonably sane might go on a date with Pete... who knew? Wish me luck... I haven't played the dating game in a while. ;)

Ahh well... time to write a paper for my "Women in Ancient Greece" class.

PS: Feel free to leave a message for me on my desktop. Do that by going HERE.

Geez. Saturday already almost gone... where'd it go? Let me tell you...

Last night I went to Jupiter's with Ry and Pam... we saw a few good bands and made it back to the house fairly late. Sometime shortly before 5:00am I came to the shocking realization that I wasn't supposed to have gone out last night. Why? Because I was supposed to work at 7:30am for the College of Arts and Sciences as an ambassador. Damn. I jumped in bed as quickly as I could and grabbed a little under 2 hours of sleep before getting up and putting on my nifty little crimson blazer and tie. I went and did gopher work for a few hours and then came back. I returned only to find the sun blazing through my eastwards facing windows. I'm still hoping that maybe some day the sun will rise in the west. (Nevermind the planetary and physical implications)

I reawoke sometime after 3:00pm and spent several hours on the phone. Just a few minutes ago Ry came back from the Basketball game. As usual they boy is complaining about the officiating. It's a sad situation. He's never once come back from any kind of Alabama sporting event NOT complaining about the refs. Granted, sometimes it's valid... but I never believe him. It's kinda like the boy who cried wolf, ya know? The Refs this, the refs that, he actually told me once that most of Alabama's losses have been because we were screwed by the refs and that the refs have never made calls to help Alabama. He then corrected himself and said that maybe twice they had helped us. Huh?

Yeah... I'll bitch about the refs as much as the next guy, but when the game is over I can't think of a single game that I'd say it was the ref's FAULT that we lost. Moreover, there is seldom more than a play or two that I'll continue to complain about AFTER the game. Ry can go on for hours about this stuff... and does... much to the annoyance of EVERYONE else. Yes, everyone.

I have some theories as to why he's so shortsighted and unreasonable... but I'll expound at a later date. For now, it's time to throw some clothes on and go grab a bite to eat while he continues bitching and moaning like someone just stole his favorite toy. <sigh>

I know I don't have any. I'm going to be doing a bunch of reading, probably. I'm a little behind in my classes and I'm going to be doing my best to catch up. I have a paper due Monday, and I really need to get caught up in Japenese.

Aside from school work, my taxes need to get done, this site has gone a LONG time without a significant update, and my room is just a mess!

So... what about you? Any big plans for YOU this weekend?

Fellow BlogSnobbers, Z-Listers, and Friday-Fivers: Don't be shy... I want to hear from you too!

I'm jumping on a bandwagon... every friday I'm going to answer the five questions posted at The Friday Five and post the answers here. Feel free to answer for yourself in my comments box.

Welcome to a new feature on the site: The Weekly Dis.

Why? It's true... I have a lot of pet peeves. Sometimes things just bug me. Sometimes other people complaining about things that bug you too can be pretty funny. I'm not, however, aiming to be funny... just trying to rant. Sufficiently popular entries may make the SoapBox.

This Week's Dis: Slow Wal-Mart Walkers.
I understand that some people need to be leisurely about their shopping. I understand that sometimes people like to just take their time, meander around the store, find things, lose themselves, and daydream.

This is all well and good... unless these stupid people are in MY way. Don't act like you've not seen this... all you're trying to do is by-pass the candle section and get to the food when, lo and behold, what do you find but a 400 pound woman and her cart (which happens to be filled with half her weight in fritos and bean dip) in front of you.

Granted, 400 pound women (in general) bother me, but that's a rant for another day. Leave it to the slow walmart walker to be going the same direction as you, slowly, and with no particular direction in mind. This, my friends, drives me nuts. (I know, it's a short trip... but anyway...)

She's headed the same way... and with no regard for people stuck behind her. On top of having the worst scenery in the store, and she doesn't seem to know you're back there. If she did, she would obviously be bound by common social practices to GET THE HELL OUT OF YOUR WAY. If you were headed in opposite directions it would be much easier to subtlely convey: "Hey... fat ass... get your damn cart out of the middle of the aisle." As it stands, however, you just have to hope she hears your footsteps over the swishing noise that her thighs make when the rub together.

She's in the middle of the aisle for no particular reason. This means that you have to flip a coin to see which side of her you're going to attempt to navigate. Most courteous people will try to determine which side she's heading towards and go the other way. This, of course, fails because the Slow WalMart Walker is much to experienced to let you get around her with a little trick like that. No... she'll weave, careen, and drift all over the aisle (slowly, still) until you really can't decide if SHE even knows where the hell she's going.

ARGH! What on earth are you to do!? You have now, because of the indecisive one in front of you, begun to walk so slowly that continental drift becomes plainly apparent and any slower would require moving backwards. With almost clairvoyant skill the Slow WalMart Walker seems to counter your every move. For being completely and totally oblivious, she sure is observant.

So you wait, and wait, and wait... and FINALLY you get past the hulking mass of a woman... granted, you spent the better part of your afternoon or evening behind the single largest rear-end within a 100 mile radius, but you're free. You sigh with relief as you try to remember what it was that you were trying to get around her to find.

So what is the solution? Easy... the solution to this problem can be found by putting two common english words together: "Cattle" and "Prod".

People who have a goal when they enter walmart are given these glorious devices along with a license to use them to provide a little direction for the aimlessly wandering.

Until WalMart institutes said Cattle Prod Policy, I recommend taking your own.

For months now people have been wondering: "What is Pete Holiday going to do in the 2002-2003 CKI Administrative year?" The answer has been a long time coming.

There has been a great outpouring of support for a potential campaign for '02-'03 CKI President. I've had some really good discussions with people I'd be working with. I'm pretty sure I'd do a good job. All of the support, kind words, and what not have really made me give serious thought to the prospect of being a club officer.

I've never been a club officer. I have no actual experience to speak of. It's not really my forte. It's a ton more work. It doesn't necessarily involve meeting cool people from all over the US and the World. To a person like me, holding a club office seems to be infinitely less attractive.

Throughout my service to the Kiwanis Family I've been driven by two basic tennets: 1) to make a difference and 2) to give back to a family that has given me so much over the years. During the 2002-2003 year, I hope to make a tremendous difference as President... of the University of Alabama Circle K Club. Surprised? Read on...

It all comes down to making a difference. Making a difference in my life, In the lives of other service-minded folk, and in the lives of those who need the service. But for those who need (or want) a little more detailed account... here goes:

1. If you can't make a difference at the club level, you can't make a difference. Period.
   
2. I need some time on campus. I've been slacking and being gone every other week isn't helping.
   
3. The past few years have been off years for UA. I'd like to return the club to its previous status.
   
4. It's a new challenge, a way to grow as a person and a leader.
   
5. Being a club leader seems much more rewarding than being an international leader.
   
6. Maybe most importantly: It's what I want to do.
   

I came to a realization today that isn't really a realization. I've not been working nearly hard enough to ensure that I can graduate and get a job. Why? I don't know, exactly. Maybe it's because I'm afraid to try and fail... maybe I'd rather have an excuse, even a lame one, instead of having evidence that I'm not adequate. Granted, those aren't very reasonable fears, and they just sound silly when written down, but maybe that's what I needed. There is no doubt in my mind that I can be a successful student. No doubt that I can adequately handle any class at this university. No doubt. But still, old habits (and especially bad ones) are hard to break. But they're being broken tomorrow, and every day thereafter. I will go to class. I will study. I will take my classes seriously.

The reason that it isn't really a realization is that I've known this all for months and months know. This is more of an acknowledgement. A way for me to say, "Damnit, Pete, you're going to quit being a slacker." Maybe not all at once, maybe I won't see immediate change, maybe it'll be a slow and painful process of forcing myself to do things that I should be doing by habit already, but eventually I'll be back to a point where school is second nature. So that's my promise to me. Not to you, not to my parents, not to my friends or enemies. To myself.

The only question is: Where do I start?

Well folks, hopefully by Wednesday I'll have made a decision regarding the 2002-2003 CKI administrative year. I'm still bouncing between International President and a Club Office. This site will be the first place to carry the news...

In other news, I've been playing a game called greed recently. It's a fun little dice game. Also, if you don't like cats, try this game.