2005

May062005

Tony Blair Elected to Third Term

I went to work at the westbank office today. There were some reports which I did throughout the day, but I was only occupied about half of the time. I met the new nurse that Dad recently hired seems nice. We left the office shortly after five. We stopped to wash the car on the way home. Later in the evening I did some laundry and a lot of other inconsequential things. I had an eye on the UK election returns and saw Tony Blair win a third term by a reduced, but still overwhelming majority. I also completed my review writing exam, which required a revision on last week’s assignment. It was originally due Monday night but we didn’t receive our comments so the deadline was extended. Before bed a watched a portion of Return of the Jedi from the newly released DVD set. I also talked to Bianca on the phone for a little while.

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May052005

End of My Freshman Year in College

Today marked the end of my 1st year of college. I went to work in no hurry this morning and arrived at 11. The filing and discharged patient input was backed up a bit and I spend my two hours on the clock taking care of that. We left at about 1:15. Dad took me uptown for my film class final exam this evening. I spent my time in the library hastily typing up a film journal for class. One of the class’s assignments was to write 1-2 pages about tem movies seen out of class. Of course I procrastinated and did it at the last possible instant. I got a fine grade on it though. The exam, which started pretty promptly at 5:45 consisted of ten terminology questions, a simple matching section and two essay questions pertaining to movies seen in class. My essays were a bit lacking in substance but otherwise I think I did pretty well. I figure even odds between an ‘A’ and a ‘B’ for the semester. After I finished the exam I stuck around for a good while longer. Ms. McPherson offered to remove an absence if we stayed to be audience for a couple of class presentations. One student took a good while with the essay portion of the exam so there was a bit of a wait. A good portion of the class remained to hear two presentations, one on Dave Chapelle and another on Marilyn Monroe. Neither was stellar but the class enjoyed the clip from Chapelle’s Show that was played. With that out of the way we were free to go. It is certainly a relief to be done with school for a while. Although my classes were pretty easy, not having to worry about school work is rather relieving. During the summer I’ll be working, but when I clock out I forget about the workday, it need not come home with me. This leaves only one remaining concern, but I suppose that’s out of my hands. I thought I’d be taking the bus downtown but I called Dad, who was already waiting for me in front of Gibson Hall so he took me home. Mom made some chili for dinner, which was exceptionally good. The homemade variety is the only sort of chili I’ll eat. Later in the evening I watched His Girl Friday, a 1940 romantic comedy by definition. However, it decends into a level of sheer lunacy in the latter half at a level I couldn't have imagined.

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May042005

Last Rock and Roll History Class

I took the day off from work to get some last minute school work done. I wasn’t really needed at the office anyway. I did some reading for this evening’s history final but I wasn’t all that productive with my writing assignments. I took a shower and was out of the door at about 4:45. I just missed one bus as I approached the stop but there was one right behind it so I didn’t even get to sit down. I arrived at the Centre at about five, after finally depositing last week’s paycheck. I looked over notes and such but I don’t think it helped any. The exam wasn’t especially difficult but I didn’t feel like I did especially well. Even so, with a ‘B’ on the midterm and an ‘A-‘ on my essay I’m reasonably confident I’ll come away with a ‘B’ in the class. After finishing and wishing Randy the best, I left and called Dad, who was at Macy’s downstairs. We left the mall and drove down to Zypher Field where Tulane’s baseball team played UNO this evening. As we were driving there the score was tied at one. The game started at 6:30 and I just finished my test at that time. It was 3-1 as we were finding a parking spot and 5-1 when we took our seats. Tulane had a big second inning with five runs, after which the score was 6-1. Both teams got a single run in the 3rd as well. There was a steady breeze blowing towards right field throughout the game, sometimes increasing in intensity. It got hold of a few balls that would otherwise have been home runs and blew some hits along the right field line out of play. The next episode of scoring was in the top of the 6th when UNO scored four runs, bringing the score to 7-6. Although there was tension to spare for the remainder of the game, especially when UNO loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, there was no more scoring and Tulane won 7-6. As UNO is a pretty unremarkable team, Tulane would have had a larger margin, but a win is a win. I did just a little bit of class work in the evening but I was tired and went to bed around midnight.

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May032005

My Man Godfrey

Dad dropped me off this morning and arrived at the mid city office at 10, he went to work at the west bank. I was mostly there to keep Diedre company as there wasn’t anything in the line of work for me to do. I spend the work day trying to study and get some final work done for my classes. I wasn’t very productive. I just couldn’t muster any motivation perhaps I was just feeling lazy, but I’ve never gotten much done in the line of school work at work. I remained at the office until five o’clock when mom picked me up. I did a little school work at home in the evening but not much. I did more laundry. I finished watching My Man Godfrey. Screwball comedies from the thirties aren’t exactly my thing but this movie was surprisingly amusing and entertaining. Unlike most comedies of the depression era, My Man Godfrey relies on snappy dialog rather than slapstick violence for humor. I got to bed at a decent hour.

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May012005

End of Jazzfest

After breakfast, Dad and I left comparatively early to attend the last day of this year’s Jazzfest. We got our usual parking spot, again, and got in the gate without incident. We arrived at the economy tent in time for the first act of the day, the Dukes of Dixieland, a pretty traditional jazz band. They put on a pretty decent show. When they finished, we walked to the Acura stage after stopping by Acura’s car exhibit tent thing. They had the NSX on display along with a concept SUV that was pretty cool. Bonerama was performing at the Acura stage. They were kinda interesting but nothing to write home about in my opinion, although they drew a substantial crowd. We were there for about 15 minutes before walking a short distance to the blues tent to see Eddie Bo. We saw a good portion of his show before leaving. We saw Otra perform at the at the lagniappe stage in the grandstands. They’re a very entertaining afro-Cuban jazz band that deserved to perform on a bigger stage. The lagniappe state generally serves for lightly drawing performers. Otra crowded the paddock more than I had yet seen. They gave an excellent, if short performance. We saw them at the French quarter festival a few weeks ago. It was about 2:30 after their show and we were both ready to eat by then. We walked to Economy Hall and ‘set up camp’ and went to get something to eat. I had a Cajun crawfish rice and etouffee pastry sorta thing, which was excellent. Jamil Sharif was performing as we ate, who was pretty good. After I finished eating I took a quick look at the CD tent but didn’t buy anything. After I got back, Dad and I walked to the Sprint stage where Los Lonely Boys performed at four. They put on a good show and drew a huge crowd, nothing to write home about though. After Los Lonely Boys, we walked to congo square, where Isaac Hayes was to perform at quarter to six. He was a half hour late in starting, right after we agreed to wait five more minutes. They said they were having equipment problems, which I didn’t believe until I saw stagehands buzzing about after the set started, not to mention the sub-par sound. We didn’t stay for the whole performance. We left the stage around seven. We walked around a bit and then near the crafts area in hoping to get the bread pudding we enjoyed yesterday, but they already closed. We left the fairgrounds and stopped by Liuzza’s for a drink briefly. We got to our car before the sunlight was gone. We got home sometime after eight. Later in the evening I did some laundry, used the computer for a while and played Doom 3 for a bit, an Xbox game that I’ll be reviewing for a makeup assignment.

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Apr302005

Wet Fest

Conjuring memories from last year, it was a wet day at Jazzfest. Dad, Jeff and I left sometime after 11 and got our usual parking spot. There was a light drizzle as we left the car to walk to the gate. As I understand, a power outage of some sort was responsible for the fact that the gates had been closed and a very long line formed. We probably stood in it for about a half hour as we inched our way to the gate, which I also presume was opened just after we got in the line. After we got in we made our way to the blues tent, mostly just to get out of the rain. Shortly after we took some seats to dry off a bit, Raful Neal Jr., a reasonably traditional blues musician, started performing. His set bared resemblance to a family reunion. Some of his family was in the band or appeared on stage just for the hell of it. By the time Neal’s set ended the rain had stopped. We walked over to Economy Hall where Topsy Chapman & Solid Harmony was performing, a female vocal quintet. Dad, Jeff and I took turns getting something to eat. There was a striking amount of standing water near the large line of food stands near the economy tent so I stuck to a smaller group on drier ground. I got some jambalaya and crawfish bread, which was pretty good. We ate in Economy Hall and proceeded to the jazz tent to see Astral Project. They’re a remarkably talented contemporary jazz band I happen to be rather fond of. I’ve seen them at Snug Harbor a few times but I’ve never seen them with such a large audience, and they packed the tent pretty well. They put on a great set that featured a lot of the music I heard when I saw them back in March. After they finished we walked over to the Acura stage so more-or-less see Jeff off, He was going to see Dave Matthews Band perform there in a little while. Dad and I then walked back towards the blues tent. We stopped and got some white chocolate bread pudding, which was remarkably tasty. We then stood at the rear of the blues tent and saw a good part of Eddie Bo’s performance. Dad and I then proceeded to the Sprint stage on the other end of the track where Elvis Costello and The Imposters were performing at 5:30. Costello drew a pretty substantial crowd, a feat considering he was up against Dave Matthews, who is quite a draw at Jazzfest. Elvis put on a decent show, although I can’t say I enjoyed it nearly as much as I thought I would. I wish he would have played more of his older stuff. After the set we walked back to the grandstands to meet up with Jeff before leaving. After slowly making our way out of the fairgrounds we made the obligatory stop at Liuzza’s for a drink. We probably hung around there for about an hour before walking back to the car. We drove down Esplanade and made our way to Frenchman St. We had dinner at the Praline Connection. It took almost 40 minutes for us to get seated, largely because our name was called out incorrectly after about 15. As I was still rather busy digesting bread pudding, I wasn’t very hungry and just got an appetizer, fried catfish and cocktail sauce and orange juice with ice. Jeff and Dad got dessert after the entre. Having finished a late dinner we all walked up and down Frenchman a few times before making our way to the car and heading home. After getting home I cleaned myself up and went to bed around one.

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Apr292005

Fixed and Unfixed

I went to work with Dad at the westbank office this morning. I didn’t have anything to do for the first few hours. I was really only there to type reports and there was no dictation until some time after doc arrived after one. I got lunch around 11:30. Doc arrived around one with a birthday cake for Trish. The clinic was rather busy in the afternoon. I had work to keep me busy about half of that time. The other half of the time I felt pretty useless as Trich and Dad were running around dealing with patients. We left sometime after six. Dad stopped on the way home to wash his car. Dad dropped me off at Roxana’s house this evening. A few days before, I agreed to look at her computer and get it working. I was there a couple hours and I managed to get the old thing working fine. However, as I was finishing things up I shut it down to move it and it never turned back on again, it was as if it was unplugged. I tried everything but I couldn’t get it to start up again. That being the case, I pretty much wasted an evening and accomplished nothing. Roxy took me home shortly after nine

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Apr292005

Last Film Class

I went to work with dad this morning and arrived shortly before ten. I was only there for a few hours so the small amount of work wasn’t necessarily a problem. We left shortly after one and Dad took me uptown before going to the east office. Dad dropped me off at the library, where I remained for a few hours. I had not yet finished the powerpoint that went with my class presentation on Stanley Kubrick for film class. I also had typed up my talking points for my monologue. I walked to Norman Mayer pretty early to make sure my laptop and the classroom projector would work properly, which it did. I spent some time trying to go over my little speech. We watched a short documentary on Citizen Kane and Orson Wells first in film class. I gave my presentation first after that. Although I was pretty down and distracted most of the day, I was able to complete my presentation pretty coherently and I had a kick-ass powerpoint to boot. I ended with a clip from Barry Lyndon. There was only one presentation after mine. A lady stumbled through something to do with Beauty and the Beast. I feel kinda bad saying it but it was unbelievably pathetic, although pretty amusing at the same time with the ‘neighbor next door’ persona in front of the class. We were done after that. I took a bus downtown and the ferry across the river to meet Dad. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home. We needed some things at the house and Dad took his good old time picking them out. Later in the evening my self-discipline expired and I called Melanie. We had a pleasant two and a half hour conversation. Although nothing was really resolved, it was very nice speaking with her.

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Apr272005

Last Marketing Class

I took a bus downtown this morning for my last marketing class. Overall this class has been pretty cool, largely due to the great instruction of Ms. Ann Snell. I have no particular interest in marketing but it’s been an enjoyable elective. I got to the mall early so I had time to touch up my presentation before class started. The hour-long class session was spent on student presentations. The project called for students come up with a new product and then discuss how one would go about marketing it. There were some interesting ideas, a couple of the presentations involved student’s actual entrepreneurial endeavors including a local magazine, Liquid, and a portable walkway system for construction sites. My product was a geared hub system for manual wheelchair wheels, like a ten-speed mechanism on a bike. I thought the product idea was pretty good. I thought of it myself although I learned that its development is already in progress. I got a perfect grade on my presentation although I could have been more eloquent had I prepared my speech ahead of time. After class I took a bus up Tulane and got to work pretty quickly at about 1:30. There was no dictation but there were a few bills to check. I was hardly busy, although there was steady traffic through the clinic. Dad called at five to tell me he was stuck in traffic due to a big accident on the bridge and I’d have to get a cab to this evening’s class, which I did. I arrived at the Centre with ten minutes to spare. Randy discussed the 90’s for a little while before a short break. He then spent 20 minutes summarizing the semester for the upcoming final exam. Class was dismissed early at 7:15. I walked to Tulane Ave. and took the medical school shuttle to Turchin Stadium where Tulane played Nicholls State this evening. I arrived during the seventh inning stretch, Tulane had a 2-0 lead. The game had been moving rather quickly and it continued to do so after I arrived. Tulane scored one more run in the eighth. The ninth passed quickly without incident and Tulane won 3-0. The game clocked in at under two hours at 1:50, remarkably fast for a baseball game. Also worth noting is that this was the first no-hitter for Tulane in quite some time. Dad and I went home after the game.

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Apr252005

Last Review Writing Session

I went to work with dad this morning. We went to the west bank first for a couple hours. I didn’t have any work to do so I picked at a project for marketing class. I got some lunch while we were there. Dad and I left the westbank for Mid City around one o’clock. I had some dictation to do there, as well as bills to check. We left the office at ten to five. Dad took me uptown for this evening’s review writing class. This was the last session of the semester. Dr. Houston had each student mention something they learned in the class. She also described the situation for the final exam. The assignment we turned in today would be revised and graded as the final. All students will email two comments on everyone’s review which we’ll received, then revise our reviews and turn them in. Class ended exceptionally early around 6:30. I took a bus downtown and went to the Sheraton to sit around with a drink and my laptop for a while. I took a ferry across the river around 8. Dad picked me up on the other side to take me home. I worked on the marketing project for a little while longer and went to bed around 11. Khadijah called me at about quarter past midnight. I was awake and I haven’t been sleeping all that well the past few days anyway so I didn’t mind talking, which we did for about an hour before I finally got to sleep.

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Apr242005

Passive Sunday

I skipped church this morning. I cleaned my room and did some laundry. I finished watching The Big Sleep. Later in the afternoon I washed my car and fixed the windshield sprayer. The lines were clogged. It’s always quite nice to fix something. The evening passed quietly, Mom and Dad went to the movies. I watched the episode of Enterprise I missed on Friday. I started on a Marketing class assignment later in the evening.

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Apr232005

Jazzfest 2005

I woke up in much better spirits this morning. Dad and I went to the second day of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. This was my third of forth year attending. The weather was cool and sunny exceptionally pleasant. It’s usually stiflingly hot. Dad parked in his usual stop not too far from the track. We got in just after one o’clock. We bumped into Aunt Lauren and Arien just after getting in. We made our way to the economy tent. The New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra played at 1:45. The band’s clarinet player used to be my boss, or one of them, at the uptown bookstore. I had been telling I would catch a performance. The New Leviathan is an 18-piece revivial orchestra that plays a pretty wide range of music dating back as far as 1895, including proto-Jazz and ragtime. While I didn’t overwhelmingly enjoy their performance, their talent and purpose is unmistakable. There are very few groups around preserving such musical forms. I went to get something to eat for Dad and I during the performance. Just afterward we went to see Ellis Marsalis. The sizable Jazz tent was quite full. We had to stand on the left end. Ellis’s son Branford was there as well as some other great supporting musicians. The show was excellent, no surprise there. After the Ellis Marsalis performance, we made our way through some thickening crowds to the Sprint/Sanyo stage where the Meters were to perform at 5:30. We took some seats on the track itself and then moved up shortly before 5:30. It was insanely crowded around the stage, so much so that it was difficult to enjoy the music, which wasn’t exactly stellar anyway. We remained in our spots until they finished at about ten past seven. After a trip to the potty, we left the fairgrounds and walked to Liuzza’s. We were there for a good while along with a hell of a lot of other people. We made our way home sometime after nine. I was pretty tired and I went to bed at a decent hour.

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Apr222005

Bad Day

update to come

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Apr212005

Last Marketing Lecture

I took the bus downtown to class this morning. Today was the last day of lecture for marketing class. Today’s session dealt with person-to-person marketing. We filled out class evaluations after, which I was ‘in charge’ of. As I was leaving, Ms. Snell informed me that I need not take the exam due to the high grade I have in class, which was as surprising as it was nice, since she never mentioned exemptions before. I took another bus to work after class. There was a good deal of dictation to do, which kept me busy for most of the workday. Mom picked me up around five to take me home. The evening was uneventful. I stated on an assignment for Monday, did some laundry, and watched the better part of The Big Sleep.

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2005

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