Somebody To Shove, Words and Music by Dave Pirner, Copyright 1992 WB Music Corp./LFR Music (ASCAP)

This is my What I did in May essay aka the Missing May Blogs.

In May I finally had postcards printed up so that I could distribute them to future clients. I showed them to my Dad he said that they looked professional. The above picture is the one that I had made up for my postcard. I have 500 postcards to send out to potential clients. My challenge is to come up with the names of 300-500 publishers that my style is suitable for.

I finished my poster for the Sowebo Festival and submitted it to Scotty Stevens. Click Here to see picture of the poster I did, l. I was surprised to find out that Scotty lived several blocks up the street from me. The part of my neighborhood that he lives in seems very dangerous. He must be very brave to live there. My trip to drop off my artwork made me realize that I know very little about my neighborhood. The part I live in mostly has foreign grad students from UMAB and retirees. The reason why I haven’t ventured out much in my neighborhood is that I have a slight case of agoraphobia. I only venture out to go to work and buy supplies, (eg. food, art supplies, books, light bulbs, etc.) By the way the celebrity Scotty most resembles is Jean Reno. He’s a French actor who has a knack for playing cool characters.

Fad of The Month:
I’ve started crocheting religiously while I catch up on my soaps. The soap opera’s I tape are The Young and The Restless, The Bold and The Beautiful, the first 30 minutes of As The World Turns, the last 30 minutes of One Life To Live, and General Hospital. Anyway back to my crocheting.... I’m almost finished crocheting a rainbow Afghan that I saw in a Knitting magazine and have started on two Afghan projects from books. I also bought a crochet video from eBay. It features an older lady who shows you every thing you need to know about crocheting.

This month I read a lot of books on tape as well as regular books. The books I physically read in May were; Janet Evanovich’s Four To Score, and Visions of Sugar Plums. I also read Kinky Friedman’s, When the Cat’s Away. I read Dennis Le Hane's Mystic River. The Books on tape I devoured this month were two Dori Sanders books, Clover and Her Own Place. I also read on tape James Elroy’s LA Confidential. I read Anne Tyler’s Dinner at The Homesick Restaurant. The best damned book on tape catch of the year at The Enoch Pratt has to be John Grisham’s latest The King of Torts. This book was published a few months ago. The tapes are new and it smells like new plastic! It’s practically a virgin. Anyway the version I read was unabridged and it featured perennial Grisham reader Michael Beck. I’m glad Beck is back at being the voice of John Grisham books. For a while they were using other readers and, well, it just didn’t feel the same.

New Cd’s:
One of these days for the hell of it I might just list all the cd’s I own, and boy, would that be a long list...

Bob Marley-Legend cd: I got this cd off of eBay to replace the tape version that I have. The tape works fine I just feel it’s time to update the media. I had wanted to replace it for the longest time but it would have cost me well over $20 at the music store to replace it and I am after all a cheap bastard. My only complaint about the cd is that it does not have the dance version of Buffalo Soldier that appears on the cassette version.

Ryan Adams-Gold cd: I got this cd because I like the songs that they play of his on WTMD. My copy is unusual because it appears to be an advanced copy version that has a release date of September 11, 2001 printed on the back. Ironically enough, the lead track is New York, New York. It’s not the version popularized by Sinatra but one written by Adams. I love all the tracks on the cd. However, my absolute favorite song on the cd is, La Cienega Just Smiled.

Joseph Arthur-Redemption’s Son cd.. I got this one, again because I liked what I heard on WTMD. I can listen to the entire cd continuously it’s that good. My favorite tracks are the title song, Redemption’s Son, Honey and the Moon, Dear Lord, and Let’s Embrace.

The New Pornographers-Mass Romantic cd: I got this cd again, (I know it’s starting to sound like a mantra) because I heard it on WTMD and (here’s a new one1) I’m a fan of
Neko Case. The cd is reminiscent of 80’s happy Brit pop. The cd won a Juno award for best Alternative Rock cd. The Juno’s are Canada’s version of the Grammies. My favorite track on the cd is the title track, Mass Romantic. All in all it’s a happy finger popping cd.

Seabiscuit book: I bought the book because the movie version is coming out later this summer. I plan on seeing it because Tobey Maguire is in it. I’ve liked his work since, the TV show, Great Scott. I can’t say that I’ve seen every Tobey Maguire movie. However, the ones that I’ve seen him in have been very good. I love his eyes, they seem so mysterious as if he’s hiding a big secret or either stoned out of his mind. I’m not sure if my wanting to see this movie because Tobey Maguire is in it has assured me my own Special Place in Hell. Tobey’s legal, isn’t he?

About a Boy video: I got this because I’ve been dying to see the film version. I’m a big fan of Nick Hornby’s books. I’ve read every last one of them. I’ve also seen every movie Hugh Grant has been in. Hugh Grant comedies are a guilty pleasure. I would never tell anyone I was a fan because...well, you know.....

Leopard Print Knitting Case- I have a lot of knitting needles that are laying around homeless in my apartment with the ever encroaching threat of losing their partners. I needed a place to give them a home. So one day I won a leopard print knitting case on eBay. I tried snaring a case for my crochet needles but I was outbid.

Movies I saw:
I saw Identity for obvious reasons. I’m a John Cusack fan. If he made a movie where all he did was read the phone book I would still have the urge to see it. There’s something about Cusack in a movie I just can’t explain it in mere words.....

TV Shows I Watched:
I don’t watch TV much. I’ve never watched the TV shows that people rave about at work eg Fear Factor and American Idol. I do watch occasional shows on PBS. Recently, I was intrigued by a show I saw about the Human Genome project.

This was a subject that we talked about constantly in college. We talked about the pros and cons of the project as well as whose genes were they mapping anyway? Was the ultimate goal the development of designer babies.

This subject intrigues me because I used to be a biotechnology major before I transferred to UMAB and became a Medical Technology major. I had to switch over because at the time you could not get a bachelors degree in Biotechnology the closest match was Medical and Research Technology at UMAB.

I still believe that the future of scince lies in biotechnology. I still would like to find a job doing research in a biotech lab. All in all I prefer research labs to medical labs. This is mainly because I feel that researchers are allowed to be more creative than those in other labs. You get to create the science that everyone else follows.

Alas, I do not own a car and the majority of jobs in that field are in the county eg places that do not have public transportation readily available. So my goal has been for the past 3 years that I have been employed at a place in Hunt Valley that shall remain nameless has been to save up enough money to buy a car and get a job in my preferred field.

I don’t have cable and will not be getting it in the future. When I lived with my folks after I graduated from college I was responsible for paying for the cable bill which I noticed had a nasty habit of creeping up year after year. When I first paid for cable it was just $32. Before I moved out of my parents house it was up to $68 a month. I’m afraid to find out how far the price has gone up. Besides, it’s less expensive for me to watch cable over David’s house.