Friday, May 17, 2013

Friday is going to be just like Saturday and both will be just like the upcoming Monday

It's Friday.  But to me, it isn't any different from yesterday or tomorrow, because I'm living in the limbo of two months of not working.  I'm not complaining, mind you.  I am slowly getting rest and trying to gather strength and those are good things.  But when the week is just seven of the same days, differing only because television programming is different on weekends than during the week, the significance of it being "TGIF" seems lost.

I was going to see a movie today but decided I will see two tomorrow and one on Sunday or Monday.  Or maybe one tomorrow, one Monday and one Tuesday.  Aside from a doctor's appointment next week, and one I need to get scheduled (waiting for a call back), I have nothing on next week's calendar except trivia with my teammates, television watching and resting.

Except that recognizing that I need structure to make better use of the time, I'm going to find an hour each day to write things other than blogs and film reviews.  I also plan to spend an hour a day studying for the Enrolled Agent exam.  That will help.

People don't pay attention to history and sometimes it is important to do so.  There is no evidence, thus far, that anyone in the Obama Administration was involved in the decision to give much more scrutiny to applications for Super-PAC status by conservatives.  The same can't be said for the administrations of FDR, JFK, LBJ and Nixon.  In fact, one of the articles of impeachment introduced against Nixon was a charge that he'd used the IRS to intimidate people.  Paula Jones claims to this day that she got audited after she pursued legal action against then-President Clinton.  So before anyone goes accusing anyone outside of the IRS of wrongdoing, get proof first.

A lesson learned.  Pay parking tickets immediately.  I procrastinated a little about paying a ticket I felt I didn't deserve and in the end, I paid an additional 150% of the amount.  I should have either challenged the ticket, which I pondered before deciding against it, or pay it immediately.  Never again.

While I'll wait for it to come out in paperback, I am definitely going to pick up the biography of Captain Phil Harris, part of the cast of the reality show "Deadliest Catch", whose sudden illness and death involved some of the most watched episodes of that show, ever.  His sons wrote "Captain Phil Harris" and it looks like a great read.

This Date in History:

On this date in 1521, Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason.
On this date in 1536, George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford and four others are executed for treason.
On this date in 1590, Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland.
On this date in 1673, Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette begin to explore the Mississippi River.
On this date in 1793, the New York Stock Exchange is formed.
On this date in 1849, a large fire nearly destroys St. Louis, MO.
On this date in 1869, Imperial Japanese forces defeat the remnants of the Tokugawa Shogunate forces at the Battle of Hakodate, ending the Boshin War.
On this date in 1875, Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby.
On this date in 1939, the Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers play a varsity baseball game, the first ever televised sports event in the U.S.
On this date in 1943, the U.S. Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania to develop the ENIAC.
On this date in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in the case Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, KS.
On this date in 1970, Thor Heyerdahl set sail on his papyrus boat, RAII, to sail the Atlantic.
On this date in 1973, televised hearings on the Watergate scandal began in the U.S. Senate.
On this date in 1980, General Chun Doo-hwan seizes control of the government of South Korea.  This is the eve of the Kwang-Ju massacre.
On this date in 1987, an Iraqi jet fired two missiles into the U.S.S. Stark, a Navy warship.  37 of the crew were killed and 21 were injured.
On this date in 1990, the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of psychiatric diseases.
On this date in 2004, Massachussets became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage.

Famous folk born today:

Seth Warner (hero of the Revolutionary War)
Edward Jenner
Wilhelm Steinitz
Dorothy Gibson
Cool Papa Bell
Maureen O'Sullivan
Archibald Cox
Dennis Hopper
Grace Zabriskie
Taj Mahal
Bill Paxton
Sugar Ray Leonard
Bob Saget
Jim Nantz
Enya
Craig Ferguson
Trent Reznor
Danny Manning
Andrea Corr
Tony Parker
Derek Hough

Movie quote(s) of the day today come from 1983's "The Big Chill"

Meg: The last time I spoke with Alex, we had a fight. I yelled at him.
Nick: That's probably why he killed himself... What was the argument about?
Meg: I told him he was wasting his life.

#2:

Sam Weber: Do you think we're all trying trying to avoid dealing with Alex? You know, every time it comes up somebody changes the subject.
Nick: Hey, it's a dead subject.

#3:

[At Alex's wake]
Michael: Amazing tradition. They throw a great party for you on the one day they know you can't come.