Dear White Bulldog

Like a fighting bull from Hell, you came barreling out of your garage towards Sebastian and me on our evening walk. Probably because you noticed that my meat would be acrid and metallic, you went for the sweet meat of Sebastian. You got a couple good bites in, but your fate was sealed when later I returned to the house to make sure you were OK and your shots were up to date. Your master, who refused to have a civilized conversation with me, was combative and no less aggressive than you (though he didn't bite my leg). For his obstinacy, you can expect a visit from Animal Control tomorrow who will inevitably write your bulldog of a master a $50 ticket for violating the county leash law. I hope you are prepared to produce shot records as well. By the way, it'd be to your interest if you have had no prior convictions because after the third complaint, you go big nappy time. You mess with the bull, you get the horns; you mess with Basty, you get a world of hurt (or at least a $50 ticket).

The Virtues of Brother Hood

Because I think it probably goes unnoticed too often, I feel compelled to acknowledge the generosity and good nature of my brother, Josh. Without him, I could not have made my trip to the Netherlands because of my parental obligations; however, he agreed to watch my canine companion, Sebastian. Once I returned to the US, he let me take up residence in his apartment for over a month. When I had to go to PA for a job interview, he did not hesitate to take care of Sebastian on short notice. He does the dishes after every meal and is very considerate; for example, once I had the television on and I noticed him unplugging the Xbox to take it to his room. when I asked him what he was doing, he mentioned that he saw that I was watching television (though actually I was just surfing the internet) and did not want to disturb my apparent television-watching. How considerate is that?! For those who don't know, my brother and I had a rough patch that lasted basically from his birth until very recently. I don't think we were that fond of each other for a long time. Little did I know that there was a great guy lurking there. He probably thinks of me as an inconvenience because of my constant needing for him to help with Sebastian, but I think he's a pretty great guy.

The Latest Greatest Thing

Today I officially submitted the dissertation and printed out EIGHT copies of the 205 page document. Matt was kind enough to donate some of his print quota to the cause, and IU mistakenly gave me a summer print allotment, all of which I used. That's 1640 pages. And guess what, after spending nearly and hour printing out all this, I found out that it was all wasted. Earlier in the day when I was formatting the document for submission and making minor revisions, I had to delete the bibliography because Endnote is the worst program in the world and lets you basically do nothing to your document without screwing it up in some way or another. In a feat of virtual jerry-rigging I got everything set, or so I thought. Little did I know that Word, under the influence of the nefarious Endnote program, overwrote my section preferences so that the pagination was totally screwed up. I didn't notice this until after all the printing was done (who would have thought to check that, of all things?) and I had HAND COLLATED 3/4 of the dissertation 5 times (also took about 45 minutes, which was wasted). So I had to go back and fix the document and resubmit it to the Graduate School online. Tomorrow I have to print out a fixed copy and pay to have it copied 7 times since my print quota is gone and Matt can't afford to spare 200 pages. I'll also have to find a way to reimburse Matt for the 430 wasted pages (because I feel terrible about it) of his print quota. I also fear that IU will charge me for their mistake in giving me a summer print allotment when I'm graduating in the Spring.

Of course, I would not have had to print out all these copies if the bindery accepted electronic copies of the dissertation; however, when I called and asked if they'd accept pdf's, the lady responded "I'm not familiar with that technology, and we don't do any copy services." First, what idiot who is in the printing business or has ever seen a computer is NOT familiar with pdf format? Second, why hasn't the only bindery in a college town caught on to what is not even that recent of technology, especially in the age where dissertations are submitted online in pdf format? I'm amazed that there is not another bindery in town that can do this. I have a headache.

And don't even get me started on the hassle that my move to Lewisburg, PA is causing me. It never ends. But I guess I knew that there'd be some bullshit that would come up here at the very end that would complicate everything.