have you ever noticed that once you learn a new phrase or word, you suddenly start hearing said phrase or word all the time? For example, the other day my sister told me about the phrase, “i’ll be there with bells on.”

I had never in my life heard this phrase before. when she told me about, i had no idea what it meant.

call me clueless.

anyway, this phrase is apparently very popluar. since learning it two days ago, I have now overheard it in 3 cell phone conversations on campus, had one teacher use it, and had a friend tell it to me. what could possible account for this explosion of usage? Did I just never hear it before because i didn’t know what it meant, so my mind unconsiously filtered it out?

if that’s the case, what else am i missing?! What if every sound conveyed some meaning to me? I would be overloaded with sounds!! Every little click, bump, clang, or utterance would have some remote bearing in my mind!!

so maybe ignorance is bliss. well for some things. in a relative sort of way.
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you know strange things happen when you get promoted.

take my status on the web for example.

As you might have noticed, I now appear along with grand web master Dave in the title graphic. But since this new fame and fortune has been relegated to me, i’ve hardly posted at all.

So, leary of a pending demotion down to “pc consultant”, i have torn myself away from my school work to say hello to the world.

School is busy. that’s really my only excuse. but it’s a good one, and as everybody knows, it has to slow down sometime. and hopefully that sometime will be soon.

oh yeah, what i really wanted to say: its a warm balmy 77 degrees F today!
One word: Finally.

time to break out the sandles and fishing poles and head off to the pond back home, so i can start practicing for summer….

well this week is the “halfway point” of the semester for me. spring break comes next week, and then a month and a half more of school, and suddenly summer is upon me. Wow. that’s fast. if i sleep too long i might miss it.

the last day of my phone job here at mercer was thursday ::sigh of relief that sounds alot like a scream::. I can now return to my previous college-bum status, which included many naps and lovely moments of guitar solitude and READING. i have almost finished my Vonnegut book, and i anticipate that i should finish another novel over spring break. so i went to the store and bought 2 more.

My friends Heather and Holly, who are identical twins, but not really so identical, made another observation. It’s a double-edged sword, this job ending business. No job = no paycheck = no new toys.

AHA but here is where i surprise everyone and say dum dum dumm… i have everything i want (ahem except for a g5) for now meaning i don’t need to spend any more money on equipment!!! hopefully!! which is good news!! Through this christmas and birthday presents, i have obtained the right gear to get me recording anything i please and maybe even set up live sound too. 7 mics, a 10 channel mixer, some headphones, and a computer can do almost anything. Now with all this free time, i can develop musical ideas and record them for your listening pleasure.

speaking of music (well i guess i’m always talking about music), here’s a great resurrected music selection of the week: Earl Klugh, on the album “Livin inside your Love”, and Chris Parkening, playing selections of Tarrega classical Flamenco guitar.

Now you’re wondering why the title is “it’s all downhill… sort of.” Well maybe you weren’t wondering that until i told you that you were. but here’s why: after i come back from spring break, i have tests in all my classes and a major engineering project to design and build. so technically, it’s all uphill until the climactic Final Exams. and then *poof*.

good morning.

Me: “So dude, did you get your part of the project done last night?”

Innocent Friend: “I was running Excel and trying to pull the file off of my Hotmail account, but it kept opening up as a Word document. So i tried using Outlook, but that didn’t work either. Then my computer told me i had a virus and all operations have ceased, so i had to go get the new XP patch and then download the virus scrubber from the Norton site.”

me: “so you didn’t get it done?”

IF: “naw i was up until 3 am fixing my laptop.”

me: “hmm.”

IF: “stupid computers. i hate microsoft. bill gates just wants my money.”

me: “yeah. i know.”

IF: “Although we all owe Mr. Gates. What he did was wonderful.”

me: (taken aback) “Excuse me?”

if: (still innocent) “for the personal computer and everything. If it weren’t for Microsoft, we’d all be using adding machines instead of Excel Spreadsheets.”

me: (choking back an incredulous cry) “Ummmmm… are you serious?”

if: “Think about it. Microsoft goes all the way back to DOS man! And we all know Windows changed the WoRLD!!!”

me: (faints)
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