Summertime.... and the livin' is way too easy.

June flew by, no? It seems like yesterday that I was doing, well, the same exact thing that I'm doing today. That includes, but not limited to: Netflix marathons (often alone. Currently trying to get through FX's Sons of Anarchy. Good-ass show, if you're into middle-aged men playing with motorcycles and shit. Or that troubled blondie to the right. <3. Intervention's good too; I actually might be addicted to it. Ope! Too far?); driving to and from every town in Western/Upstate N.Y. that borders the Genesee Valley and/or the 390; reading all of the books and magazines (I read the same issue of People twice at work. Mind you, it was on two different occasions. No excuse? I'm sorry); and laying in bed in the dark... at 3 p.m. Like right now, except it's 7. This week we especially wasted our time with Food Network's Chopped and BBQ Pit Wars. Too addicting. Too awesome. I now like to pretend that I'm a participant in a cooking competition on national television when I make sandwiches and omelettes. It makes things go by faster, and it makes my food taste a little bit better. A little.

Now, I don't know about you, but all of those things above (except maybe the driving, although it has gotten more tolerable lately, possibly because I found Rochester's NPR station - 88.5 for those who are wondering. It's just me, Renee, and Steve every morning. With the occasional interjection from inferior and local WXXI. Just kidding, guys. But seriously) are awesome.
Note: Sorry about the long-ass parenthetical remark up there. I got carried away. I am aware that you probably had to reread that sentence a good three, four, maybe 19 times, both with and without the phrase, like when you were in second grade. I don't really care. I just hope we're all caught up now and/or those who were angered have since exited off of this tab. They only helped me by adding to my view count. Thanks folks!


Awesome, in the sense that my brain may or may not be melting. Disintegrating. Right before (behind?) my eyes. I can feel the knowledge that once occupied a small part of my cranium where active and critical thinking took place; it's slowly easing its way out, little by little, with every new lazy and bedridden day. Yesterday I woke up drenched in my own  cerebrospinal fluid. Could've been sweat, highly likely.
Cells are leaking out of my skull like a slashed tire. Actually, it's probably more like a child stabbing a balloon with a fork. I'm pretty sure everything's just gone. But the balloon isn't that one that was on the infomercials in the '90s. Remember? For 30 minutes they'd mesmerize us with the same scene with the magic balloon being tested in various and dangerous situations for a balloon to fall into? What was that balloon called, anyway? I couldn't find it on Google and I searched "magic balloon," "magic balloon with fork," "fork stabs balloon," "balloon As Seen on TV." Let me know what you guys find; you'll probably have to delve deeper. EBSCO Host, perhaps?

I Google Imaged "melting" and this came up.
Pretty accurate.

You see, although I no longer spend long hours (until 1 a.m. Seriously Milne, 24/7 would be where it's at) in the corner of the upper-level of the library and although I don't wonder anymore what terrible project/paper/assignment/problem set will be thrown at me next, and ALTHOUGH I don't pull an all-nighter every Wednesday toiling away to produce a newspaper in the basement of a college union, I kind of miss having a nice daily brain cardio session. Summer has deemed itself successful, once again, at putting me in this weird lackadaisical too-chill state that is anything but intellectually stimulating. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Not that it's a completely bad thing.

But it's an awful and frightening thing. I feel like Charlie in Flowers for Algernon.

I could, and we all try to at one point or another, argue that watching biased and somewhat (barely) informational documentaries on Netflix and reading a couple New Yorker/Economist/Glamour magazine articles are thought-provoking activities that nourish our brain cells. Like, the whole "I read the news every morning, so I'm up-to-date on current events and therefore I am convinced that my brain is still functioning at the same level as when I was reading the news + 15,000 more pages every day. Oh BTW, because I do that, I'm better than you."

Yeeeaaaaah.

So what are you guys doing about this brain melting phenomenon? Is everyone suffering like me, or have you not even realized what's happening yet? Are we picking up new hobbies, learning new languages? How do you guys convince yourselves that there are still some gears turning up there? I'll share with you some of my pseudo-intellectual activities and hobbies that I use to make myself feel a little bit better and a little less like a waste of space, air, and food.

I'm currently reading The Stories of John Cheever.
A big thumbs up and suggested for those who just can't seem
to finish a whole book. (I know, it's hard sometimes.) Seriously, these stories take about eight minutes, not even, to read.
Cheever likes to take the facade that people routinely hide behind and contrast it directly with
 their opposing and often hidden corruption and oddities with which we're all familiar.
If you are a human being, you will relate to this.
Not recommended for those who like books with a lot of action,
but then again, eight minutes people.

Yup. Pullin' out the language card. I'm working at computers a lot lately so
I toss on some tunes sometimes and Radio France Internationale is on my presets!
But it's pretty hard to keep up with what these people are saying, especially when I'm
only half paying attention. No matter how many French classes I take,
they will always speak too quickly for me. I'm hoping the whole "passive learning"
thing will be effective.

I've been cooking and baking a lot! Like I said above, Chopped contestant is the character
I take on when I'm in the kitchen. I've gotten quite good at stir fry (thanks to BRAND NEW RICE COOKER!!),
cookies, and oh dude, we made black bean burgers one night. Those were reaaaaal good.
But, I don't know. Does that even count?
Adults cook all the time. Kind of. But I think that because I'm learning and stuff,
and exploring my options, it's ok. I have food literature that I've been reading.
And by that I mean, I stalk foodgawker every day.
I'm really stretching it here, aren't I?

Wow. So, I thought I had more. I'm reading more books but I'm not going to tell you everything I'm reading, listening to, and watching. Superfluous. Unnecessary. Trite. I also work every single day of the week, so like, throw that in my credentials too. I'm not just dicking around and dabbling all day. Oh, and dude! Friends! They're great! I have them and we all hang out a lot. Dennis Green and many others came over for taco night pot luck this week and it was oh-so-good. Oh-so-good. Who doesn't love a good taco? Riddle me that.

I would, and had high intentions, of posting about my internships and exactly what I'm doing there, but then I got really wary of my bosses/supervisors seeing this blog and I decided it was a bad idea all together. I just replayed the GIF that I created in my mind of them seeing this blog and immediately decided to scrap the internship post. I'll take being mysterious over looked at with laughing eyes for the next two months, please.
But, I don't know, what do you guys think? It's work-appropriate, right? Besides, all the hype about workplaces not hiring workers because of Internet activity is buuuuullllshiiiiiiiiiiiit. If you're curious as to what my internships are and what my 9-5 life entails, my LinkedIn is a somewhat up-to-date self-promotion.

BTW, sorry the colors/text of the blog keep changing. I can't seem to find a scheme that I find aesthetically (or, Megan, Jesse, Laura, Dom, whoever's out there, should I say athletically??) pleasing for over a week. I don't know, am I allowed to change colors more often than not? I feel like it's against the rules of blogging but it's not like MadQuest is the Huffington Post or Perez Hilton. Yet. In due time I will come up with a concrete design but for now, trial period!