Chapters ending, beginning

It's been a little while since I posted, but I wanted to be sure I was "settled in." I'm not sure I'm there yet, but there's promise. The place I'm subletting is working out fine, except for the fact that I have no Internet there and the guy who I'm subletting from neglected to tell me he only paid the cable bill through June. So, I'm not necessarily "roughing it," but it's not something I'm used to, either.

I found a new place a couple of blocks from where I live now that's $20 cheaper a month and has two bedrooms. I'm not sure what I need with a spare bedroom, but for the dates I needed to move and the price range I had, it was the best bet. I will probably sign the lease on that tomorrow, when my mom and nana come up to visit. Exciting times.

My brother decided that he's going to join a fraternity when he starts at Mizzou this fall. This caught me off guard. I immediately told him I didn't think it was a good idea, but my mom broke it down for me, and for him, it just might be a good fit. To each his own, that whole thing. Here's the thing (and I realize I might offend some people with this): I've never met anyone from a frat who turned out to be a good person. The few I did meet who seemed like good people actually quit their fraternities during the time I knew them. For me, there's just something wrong about paying to live in the same house with a bunch of guys you don't know. Most of the frat guys I ran into were egotistical morons who thought belonging to a frat somehow upped their status on campus (which it did, to my dismay). I've always felt some of the best friendships I've had were because I was put into a situation where I met the other person by chance, not by paying to be put in that situation. When I moved into the dorms, the guy across the hall introduced himself the first night, as did my next-door neighbor. We lived by each other in the dorms for two years, then in an apartment complex for two more. We never would have known each other existed had we not been placed in the same dorm purely by chance. Some say fraternities build on this concept and make it better by having a bunch of guys with similar interests live together. Now, I haven't really gotten into frats, so I don't know which ones specialize in what, but really, can there be that many different groups of guys who share the same interests? When I moved into the dorms, I found out a guy down the hall from me was on my hockey team back in middle school. I ended up rooming with him for two years in an apartment. I didn't have to pay to live with him (well, I paid my part of the lease, but that's not the point). I'd rather know the person I'll be living with than pay dues to be put in a house with other guys who share "similar interests." And besides, so much of college was learning to fit in all over again, just like in middle school and high school, that I'd rather not have one more group of guys I don't even know that I have to impress enough just to feel I belong there. But like I said, to each his own.

The part that threw me about my brother, though, is that, up until this decision, he's always followed in my footsteps. It's not that he really had a choice; being four years apart, I was always just finishing a chapter as he began it. Thus, I was already a year into high school when he started middle school, I got my diploma when he graduated eighth grade, and, just this summer, I walked across a stage in a black robe in Columbia right before he walked across one in a red robe in St. Louis. He's always taken slightly different paths once he got into these new parts of his life (I played an instrument for seven years, he gave it up after two; I worked on the newspaper for three years in high school, he shifted more toward different extracirricular activities), but he's always entered and left them the same way I did. To wit, when I started school at Mizzou, I moved into the dorms, as did about 70 percent of the freshmen class. When my brother received his housing assignment in May, it was for the same dorm I lived in for two years. I was looking forward to showing him around, getting back to the old stomping grounds, etc. Most importantly, I had a loft built in my old room, and I still know how to put it together, which I would have been a big help for him. Now, with him joining a fraternity, I'm not sure what kind of help I could be moving in. I'm sure he'll have plenty of "brothers" and "pledge fathers" helping him (another reason I don't like frats -- too much coddling). That's fine with me, but different. Maybe this is where he's supposed to be. Plus, it's not like I can't give him all my old notes to look at and help him.

On another front, I've started a new workout regimen and diet just this past Saturday. Since money's tight and it's summer, I'll wait to sign the gym contract for a few months. That means salads and soups for a while -- no chips or junk food -- and limiting my beer intake (which won't be hard since I'm already low on funds and in a new place with few friends). I'm trying to lose at least 40 pounds by October 9, which would be three months. Every time I post here, I'll keep a section for this stuff, just so I know how far I've come. It won't be everyday, because (a) the body's weight fluctuates too much on a daily basis, and (b) there's no way I'm posting everyday here. To wit:

Vital stats

Days into workout: 2
Current weight: 245 lbs.
Miles ran today: 2

Starting weight: 246.5 lbs.
Desired weight: 200 lbs.

We'll see how this goes. It's at least a step in the right direction.

I think I'll stop there for now. That's a hell of a post, even for me. Catch ya on the flip side.

Starting Anew

OK, so, yeah, I had what could be referred to as the trappings of a blog way back when I was just a young college whippersnapper (as in, like, 4 months ago).

Now, I've graduated from Mizzou and found me a J-O-B (I know, I'm scared, too). I start tomorrow. I was sitting at Panera today, going through old sites I hadn't visited in years, and I thought I'd bring the blog back, being that I'm alone in a new city (sniff sniff, I know.)

So, for today's first entry: I moved up to Champaign, Ill., last Friday. I've subletted a place that's quite nice (if not a tad bit expensive) until August, when I have to sign a new lease. This being a college town (like Columbia, Mo.), all the leases start in August, and most of them have (conveniently) already been signed. This should be interesting.

Well, not much more to write about now, but I assure you, dear reader(s), that will change. A new chapter has begun. Let the fun start.

Below, you can find all the old postings from my blog on my Mizzou space. It's still there, but it will probably go away when my Mizzou e-mail does in about 5 months.

Good to be back.

All the effort you are making will pay off someday.

So, I'm at the paper right now, finishing my 1A/jump page design shift. Not a lot of news today, so my pages are almost ready, and it's coming up on 9 p.m. Fucking sweet.

On the flip side of that coin, I've been here since 2:30 p.m., and I will continue to come in at that time until Christmas. Those of you who are sports-inclined will know what terrible news this brings: Football season is basically null and void to me. There is a TV at the paper, but no sound is allowed. That's like paying for a lap dance and having a 20-second song come on. Not worth it. Oh, but what's that you say? It's OK, Niko, you can still catch Monday Night Football for a great game. Well, you'd be wrong on that front as well, because I work on Mondays, too, from 4 p.m. to midnight. On the plus side, I get paid for that shift, but I'm still missing most of football, and that kinda pisses me off.

This weekend was, in the best words I have for it, a tease. It had all the makings of a good time: Beer, girls, sports, girls, more beer, etc. But everything just sort of crapped out at the last second. A recap:

• Thursday: Looking back, this was the best day of the weekend. I went to work first, then class, then a shift at the paper, then to the gym with my friend Matt. He was working the door at our watering hole that night, so I joined him in taking people's money/ID's. It was the easiest $40 he and I pulled in. Sit at the door for two hours, charge cover, look over some ID's, finish up around 11:30. We made friends with pretty much all of the waitstaff, which is a very good thing. We started drinking after the shift was up and ended up drinking away our pay, which we expected. End of the night, pick up some chairs, put down some chairs, walk out the door. On the whole, a great evening. Then came...


• Friday: This day would start off well. In our usual rhythm, Matt and I went to the gym, made an appearance at Legends (our bar of choice), and then went to meet a friend of mine from work, en route to a club -- most likely Shattered. After leaving Legends, we went to Trops South (for those of you not in the Columbia area, that's Tropical Liquers, a food/mixed drink place), where we met up with said co-worker. We hung out for a while, when someone I swore I knew walked in. Sure enough, it was my old roommate Dan's girlfriend. She greeted me much more warmly than I expected, then pleaded with me to go to Dan and her new house. I thought, free drinks, girl begging you to go to her place, why not? and said yes. We went over to Dan's drank some Jack and Cokes, and played Circle of Death and Sevens late into the night. Ended up just going home and passing out. Bad news -- no club, so club outfit went unused but still got smoky and dirty.


• Saturday: This is where it all came crashing down. After being turned away from the gym because it closed early, Matt and I skipped that and got ready to go out. This time, he was going up to Legends to learn the regulars for when he worked. While we ate there and chilled out prior to investigating the club scene, he got a phone call from one of the girls he hangs out with. He talked with her for a while, gradually becoming annoyed. I didn't make anything of it, since I was eating. Next thing I know, her friend wants to talk to me. The conversation went something like this:
  
  ME: "Hello?"
  
  HER: "What are you guys up to tonight?"
  
  ME: "Eating right now. Probably heading to the Vu [Deja Vu, a comedy club] later on."
  
  HER: "Cool! That's where we're heading! Why don't you come with us? I'm drunk and I need to kiss someone."
  
  ME (concentrating and carefully choosing my words): "Well, we have to finish here first, then we'll be there."
  
  Now, to any man who's a part of that conversation, that's an open invitation for a make-out session. And I could have said "I'm planning on going to the nearest alley to hassle drug dealers and prostitute myself," and I would have gotten an answer like "Cool! Which alley?" So, Matt and I abandoned our plans for a different club we wanted to try out and head to Deja Vu. When we arrived, we found said girls and said hi, and started dancing. I bought mine a new drink, and then she and Matt's girl went over to "talk." It was at this point that I found out from Matt that a) She is interested only in males of Arabic descent, and (by some curse of God upon me) b) she likes when males she's involved with treat her horribly. This does not bode well for me, mostly because I'm of the crazy persuasion that girls should be treated with respect. I must be nuts. (By the way, if you're still mystified as to the origins of the title of today's entry, the explanation is coming up, I promise.) Needless to say, minutes later, she's all over a guy with slimy black hair in a T-shirt and jeans. At one point, I'm pretty sure she had a quickie with him right there on the dance floor. Inexplicable. I mean, I'm not perfect, but who actively seeks out bastards like him that use them for what they need and toss them away? I just don't get it.

As you can guess, we left empty-handed, both in a female and monetary sense. I went home, alone, having just spent every last penny of the $60 check I received that day. But all was not lost, since Matt got a booty call from his girl and went over to her place later that evening. I guess the moral of this weekend was "Nice guys finish last." Quite frankly, I'm sick of being the nice guy, but it's all I know. There's just something inside me that prevents me from treating people like shit, and I can't help it. It helps me get walked all over sometimes, but there's nothing I can do about it. To quote a great movie I just saw: "Just let it go, man. The Universe will work itself out." Or, as the title suggests, maybe all this bullshit I put up with has a reward in the end. I mean, I did just spend a summer in Florida while being paid to do a job that I hope is my future career. Still, if last weekend repeats itself anytime soon, someone's getting hurt. Bad.

Oh well, at least I can relax on Sunday and watch football. Wait a minute -- shit.

That's it for now, folks. I'll be back -- oh, I don't know when. But sooner than the last time, anyway. Peace out.

The (brief) return

OK, so it's been quite a while since I've posted on here. Quite a while meaning oh, a little more than five months. A lot has happened. For the short rundown, here we go (in convenient list format, if I can remember the code):

• I did, in fact, turn 21, and Hell has been unleashed upon the known universe.


• I left for a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund copy-editing internship in Bradenton, Fla. (just south of the Tampa Bay area)


• I completed said internship, and while I was there, the Lightning won the last Stanley Cup for a good long time, Reagan died, and Hurricane Charley rolled through just as I was leaving.


• I returned to school, and to my old hot spots.


• I started a diet and workout regimen to lose the extra weight I put on not eating right or exercising down in Florida.


• I returned to my favorite bar, and ended up visiting so much in the past three weeks of school that my friend and I have been offered the doorman job on Thursdays and Fridays (we worked together last night, when the Tigers blew a fuckin' tire on national TV and the damn Pats won on a missed Vanderjadt field goal. Read those last four words again. He goes 38-for-38 last season, and can't make a 48-yarder to tie the game. It looked horrible just coming off his foot. Also, my friend's fantasy team, which I have invested time and money in, has Edgerrin James, who scored 0 touchdowns but managed to fumble twice in the Indy loss. Fan-fucking-tastic.)


• I started hanging out with girls (Girls!) at the bar and elsewhere, even befriending one of the waitresses at said bar.


• School started.

So, a lot can happen in five months. Take, for instance, Ken Jennings winning an unprecidented 75 episodes of "Jeopardy!" in a row, and taking home more than $2.5 million after finally falling in a taping this week, to be aired in mid-October. I'm at the point in my life where I need to finish school only because I need the degree. I have all the training I could possibly get from here, and I'm ready to be thrown to the wolves, but I have to go through the motions to make sure I get that piece of parchment with my name on it and a degree and several fancy signatures. Good times.

Class is gonna start, so that's all for now, but I thought it might be good to check in after five friggin' months. So, the return is complete. Now, if the Rams can just beat the Cardinals Sunday and if the baseball Cardinals can keep the cruise control on, this will be one hell of a September. Later.

A fool and his money are soon parted.

From now on, the headline of my site will say what I'm thinking. And what I'm thinking is that's a pretty accurate interpretation of my life. If I were transported back in time to Shakespearan England, I would totally be the court jester. Keep in mind that in most of Shakespeare's plays, the fool was often one of the wisest characters (damn you, irony!).

So yesterday was April Fool's Day, and I had the best prank played on me. This letter came right? And it was addressed to me and it was from the City of Columbia. So I open it, and I see this note from the finance department saying my last month's rent check had been returned for INSUFFICIENT FUNDS (that's the city's writing, not mine). What a hilarious joke! I mean, it has to be a prank, right? Since having to pay the $25 return fee plus the original $87 bill, combined with my other bills, would mean my new $400 paycheck just got zapped down to $8.54. Man, those people at the Water and Light Department sure are funny.

On a related note, I pawned my ex-girlfriend's (read: psycho hose-beast's) ring today. She told me it was a 10 karat, platinum-banded diamond. I believed her, since SHE bought it for me to give to her, when I was ready of course (Cue ominous music). She told me at the time (over a year ago) that it cost her around $300. Either she was saving face, or I just got hosed, because I went to all three pawn shops in town and eventually sold it for $35. Let me repeat that in words: THIRTY-FIVE DOLLARS. And that was the highest offer. Shit, what a crock. I feel a little guilty, but then I realize she was fuckin nuts, so I don't feel as bad.

What else? Let's see, there's this girl in one of my lab classes who is phenominally attractive to me. If I had to use the standard scale, I would guess other people might give her a 7 in looks, but she's so intelligent and witty and stylish, it bumps her to a least a 9.5 on my scale. And that's a tough number to get from me, because my scale only goes to 9.9 (and before you ask, no, not even a supermodel can achieve the ever-coveted 10, because noone's perfect.) The thing that does me in though, is her eyes. Beautiful, exotic, brown eyes. Every time I look at them I have trouble speaking. Enough of my pining, though. I still have to figure out if she has a boyfriend, then work the courage up to ask her out. Which means by this time next year I might have a date! Also, she's one of the few I find hot who doesn't yet have a ring on her left hand, so I got that going for me.

That's it for me today. My hands are tired of typing. See you later.

Six days. SIX FRIGGIN' DAYS ...

God, I'm getting so sick of this. There's only six days left until I can be social, have a life, etc. I'm trying to plan where exactly I'm going to go when I finally turn 21. Most likely, my first stop will be all the places that told me no (this means you, random bars in Kansas City!). I will drink myself into a stupor and make them haul my slobbering, almost-passed-out ass out into the street. I might even force myself to projectile vomit all over their bathroom. (Probably not that last one -- I heard they charge you like $25 for that now.) Where I won't go is to the two or three nice, friendly establishments that realized that excluding me because of my age just wasn't right, because I wasn't going to be drinking, and I just wanted to have fun with my friends. A whole new door will open, and I'm ready to run right through it.

This would be the time when I have that J350 class, but it's over for the year. Now THAT'S how a class is supposed to work. Go to lecture for three weeks, have the instructor tell you what to write to produce certain results, then spend the next three weeks developing a Web site, then you're done. I love it. Good stuff.

Car trouble

Great. I've finally almost completely paid off my car, and it looks like it's been stripped for parts. I mean seriously, I've been pouring $210 a month into this thing for the past four years of my life, and only now, with the end in sight, does it decide to fall apart. At least it's lasted a long time. I would advise you to buy a Saturn. They're pretty cost effective and they keep up really well. Mine's a 1996, so it's about to be eight years old this year, and it still runs beautifully. Go to the Saturn Web site to check them out. Those Ions look pretty sweet, and they can get up to at least 110 mph. Trust me on that one.

Well anyway, I don't have much to say right now, because it's pouring out and work is boring. Guess I'll actually have to work on that Accounting correspondence course for the first time since August. I love how they give me 9 months to complete it, and I can apply for a 3 month extension for $35 more and make it a full year. How sweet is that? If I were to take it at school, I'd have to do it in one three month semester. Cheating the system is fun!

Spring break woes

Another day, another dollar. Man, working all week really sucks. At least I have something to look forward to for 55 years after I graduate college.

Like I said in my last post, it's spring break and I'm lapping up the sun (translation: avoiding the spot thunderstorms which can and frequently do break out only above me) and working my butt off. It's not fun, but it's money, and Lord knows I could use some more of that.

NCAA REPORT: My brackets are thoroughly and completely fucked. If they were any more fucked, they'd be a featured adult entertainer. Also, fuck the entire state of Alabama. C'mon people, you give us racism and segregation and then go on to knock off not one but two No. 1 seeds? Christ on a cracker! I didn't have Stanford winning it all but I damn sure didn't have Kentucky going out in the SECOND ROUND! You know what this means: once more, those shit-for-brains at kU have an easy chance at getting to the Final Four, which means I have to be subject to another set of shitty-ass T-shirts and douches who wear them with jeans and socks with sandals yelling and spilling beer on me. Fuck.

My 21st birthday is going to happen in 19 days. These will be, certifiably, the longest 19 days of my life thus far. I hate not being 21 while everyone else is. That doesn't mean I just can't drink, it also means I can't be social, since establishments that people around my age go to are only open to non-minors (majors?). What a crock. I can elect the next leader of the free world, introduce tens of thousands of carcinogens into my lungs and bloodstream, and die for the freedom and principles of my country, but because some dumbshits decided to shove a stick up their ass, I can't throw back a beer after a particularly stressful day? This means I could be seriously wounded in the name of my country and not be able to enjoy a frosty beer when I return. What a fucking crock of shit. If the age limits on cigarettes and alcohol were switched, we wouldn't really have a problem would we? You wouldn't see bars not letting minors in because they only wanted people who could smoke. Fuck that shit.

Also, if you like to go to Shattered for the Q106.1 dance party on Fridays and you're a minor, go early and stand around because you might get to the door and have to wait while three douches try for 15 minutes to get in with expired IDs, only to get to the bouncer and have someone come outside and say "sorry, we've reached our 'cap' on minors for the evening. Have a nice time explaining to your friends how they can't do what they planned tonight and then blame you for being too young."

On April 13th, I unleash hell.

Top 'o the Mornin' to Ya

Holy thongs and tan lines, Batman! Spring Break is now officially two days from fruition. In the meantime, Happy Early St. Patrick's Day! Brilliant! Start drinking now, and you might actually get the chance to be legally intoxicated for an ENTIRE 24 hours! Not being sober for a whole day? BRILLIANT!

On a different note, while Spring Break is so close, it also remains so sooo far away. I have at least two tests still to happen this week, as well as a project proposal that will determine the work I do for my final grade in another class. It's like being at a club and getting ready to dance with the hottest girl there, and then being cock-blocked by her douchebag "best friend" of the moment.

Woo-saaaaa. Wooooooo-saaaaaaaaaaa.

So close

One week left till Spring Break. Not that it matters for me, since I'll be working all damn week. But I'm OK with that since I just got an internship in Florida over the summer. Ten weeks in St. Pete's Beach is better to me than one week anywhere else.

I'm about to start the class for which I originally created this Web site -- J350G: New Media Basics. It's enthralling, to say the least. Although it IS the only class I have where I can get through the entire 50 minutes without sleeping. Maybe that's because I have the Internet goodness here. That's a nice thing.

Happy Monday.

Holy crap -- I'm on the Internet!

OK, I'm still learning HTML code, so bear with me. This is supposed to be my new Web site. It started as a lame J350 page, and I figure since I have the server space, I'm going to use it. So behold the newness that is Niko.

I'd post something else right now, but I don't really feel like it, since it's 3:00 in the morning. I'm distracting myself from Journalism work, so I thought I'd spruce up the place a bit. Anyway, feel free to e-mail me if you like it so far (even though I've only posted once). The address is nikodugan@gmail.com. Catch ya on the flip side.