The Big Block of Cheese

lymanlover —> theabedguarantee

Because I love The West Wing but Community is my favorite show.  And it’s going to be hard to beat it.

Because I see myself as a weird mix of Annie and Abed (and hopefully, one day, a lot more Britta).

Because I wanted to be thewingerguarantee but let’s be serious, I’m no Jeff Winger.  If I want a seat at that throne, I’m going to need to bring a much more powerful ass.

Because perhaps now I will finally learn how to spell guarantee.

So Much for Being Normal

Well, it’s been about a month and a half.  That was longer than I thought I’d be gone.  I figured four weeks, tops.  I still don’t quite know why I left.  I’ve always thought people turning off their facebooks so that they could “focus” was stupid.  When you give up one “time-waster” you’ll pick up another.  I started checking twitter more and in the past 60 or so days I’ve become an absolute AV Club nut.  We always finds ways to put off doing things.

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I Think I Need to Say Goodbye for a (Short) While

I didn’t know I was going to be writing any of this.  I was sitting on a blank text post, waiting to write something, when I found myself typing the title.  And it feels right.

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State of the Block: My Big Boring Text Posts

A quick housekeeping note, as you may have noticed, when I’m back in Wisconsin I update the old BBOC less.  I think it’s funny when I look in the archives and see how many posts there are in months like September, October, and November, and then see how those numbers are slashed in half over Decemeber/January and the summer months.  I’m not exactly sure why but for some reason I haven’t needed to write as much here.  Maybe that’ll change.  Anyway, no more regular intern posts, no more TV to rant about…okay that was a joke, there’s plenty to rant about over the break.

State of the Block: Themes

So one of the endgames for this blog is to publish it.  Not officially or anything.  But after college graduation I’d like to sit down for a week or two, go through all of it, pick out the good posts, edit them, then self publish a nice little hard copy of my time in college.  It won’t be a cohesive plot like I always insist upon, but it will be a collection that tells about my time in college.  That’s why this is a text based blog, by the way.

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State of the Block: Sidelines

It’s been a really long time since I made a website.  I used to run a fan site for a great series of books called Phantom Stallion.  They sound really stupid, I know, but man they were great.  As a horse crazy kid there are a ton of flimsy chapter books.  Some of them are good, most of them aren’t.

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State of the Block: A History, a Summary of My Writing Style, and a Look to the Future

Introduction

It’s been a little while since a State of the Block and I’m giving myself 15 minutes before I delve back into reading.  So I’m going to do a riff on the blog in general and how I write for it.

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State of the Block: Intern Update

I just did the math and I’m set to work 173 hours at the DCCC this fall.  Unfortunately (or perhaps very fortunately), this is the last you’re going to be reading about it.

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Okay, every once in a while I feel really guilty about taking a pretty awesome West Wing domain name from people who might actually use it to talk about the West Wing, and instead I just use it as my personal blog. My tumblr/lj/youtube/twitter name, LymanLover, isn’t super obvious but if you know Josh you know what I mean.

Anyhow, I’ll always love talking about the West Wing, so thank you for the question anon!

I’m not sure about a Big Block of Cheese month, but on the show the chief of staff, Leo McGarry, advocated Big Block of Cheese days.  While they were supposed to happen once a month, we only had two episodes featuring these days and the characters themselves admit that they can often go long stretches without doing these days.

Anyway, Big Block of Cheese days were Leo’s tribute to Andrew Jackson.  He would always start the days off with a staff meeting and this speech (and I love getting to make this speech).  Andrew Jackson had in his white house a two ton block of cheese, there for any and all who wished an audience.

In this spirit, Leo would use these days to assign meetings to senior staff with people and organizations that would not usually get the ear of the white house.  Notable examples include World Bank protestors and my personal favorites which were assigned to CJ, the Press Secretary - wildlife advocates who wanted a wolves only highway, and my personal favorite, Cartographers for Social Equality.

(Fun Fact: the incredible Nick Offerman aka Ron Swanson of Parks & Rec is one of the wolf advocates.  Talk about a 180 from Ron.  Definitely worth a watch.)

I loved both the episodes because they’re notably pretty funny even though they have their dark tones throughout.  While the idea isn’t feasible in government today, the spirit that they’re done in is noble.

Well I Was Moving, Changing, Proving

I know I’ve been posting a lot of quotes and conversations lately, rather than essays.  Good to switch things up right?  I figure since I’ve been having more fun and less sad lonely tap away on the laptop quiet time that posts will get shorter.  But I want to keep you updated, so I figure that instead of trying to create a situation that was a heck of a lot for me but would inevitably turned into a strained retelling for you, I’ll just try and put up any funny texts, bits, or conversations to show you that I’m having quite the old fashioned good time (ie: sans booze and cocaine!).

I’m going to catch up on the moving posts I haven’t actually put into blog form, and I’ll also do a write up of tomorrow’s early morning adventure.  So stay tuned for great things from the BBOC.

Oh and tonight?  Tonight, Molly went to New York and Shelby was who know’s where, so I got to spend time with the two people I like most on this floor right now, Jackie and Mary.  Mary and I are, of course, kindred spirits, and while I undeniabley wasn’t so sure about Jackie in the first place, she and Mary have seemingly sawed off each other’s edges and Jackie is an absolute blast to hang around with.  Yeah, she’s cooler than I’ll ever be, but it’s fun to have a friend like that.  Plus it’s far less intimidating once you hear about her quirks (can you say pirate’s obsessed?).  I got plain pasta and shrimp, weak lemonade, and too rich cake.  And it was absolutely lovely.  For a week filled with drama and my living situation totally up in the air, it was nice to have a good long meal with people who were just ready to relax and joke around.  And it was equally nice to joke about rooming with them, because even though I can’t, it’s nice to know they’re game to have me hang out.  Sure it won’t be the same as last time, but maybe that’ll be good.

I won’t think too far ahead, I won’t get my hopes up.  Yes, I think these are the makings of my first real and good college friends, not just the quirky sometimes hang out acquaintances or the smile and say hi and then avoid people.  Actual, pretty good friends.  Yes, they likely won’t stay in DC (hell, I’m far from sure I will either), Mary will be gone for all of junior year, studying abroad, and it doesn’t mean I don’t have to keep being open for new friends in the mean time (though I insist that Mary comes back for the inauguration and the inaugural balls).  But we have the rest of this year, and next year.  And while I hate growing and changing (as Abed would say, it’s not really my jam), they sure as hell make it easier.  It’s nice to know I can do it too, and that other people are game to do it with me.

Nighty night.

State of the Block: Tumblr Frustration

Disaster Strikes

This is a quick post since I think I’ve spent about 2 hours working on four posts and only three remain.  In the act of trying to clean the site and my computer up, I accidentally deleted most of my posts and all of the copies I had of them that were saved on my hard drive.  I’ve tried everything, and there’s nothing I can do to get them back.  So I threw myself a five minute pity party.  

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As You Might Have Noticed…

We have a new layout!  The other one was a free one, meaning it’s nice but a lot of other people could have it.  Since I end up spending so much time here, and that time is meaningful to me, I figured I’d dive right out in and pull out the stops for a $9 theme!  I figured the BBOC deserves an upgrade.  You’ll find posts that I have “liked” from other blogs on the left, and all of my content will be on the right.  You can search the blog now by scrolling to the very bottom.  And everything’s still here, so not to worry.

What do you think?

State of the Block

Hey everyone - Tumblr was down for about a day so I had a forced hiatus, and when I tried to make this post last night it went down again for me.  So here’s the summarized version, the version you write when your e-mail doesn’t save but you still have to send the e-mail so you write a slap dash one insetad.

Since I’m in the full throws of exam season, yes, that time has come.  It’s risen from the bog, a horrible beast!  Because of that I’ll be cooped up at my desk (which is now an L desk thanks to my lovely hospital table which I slide next to it.  It could be a U desk if I use my bed to spread my stuff out on too.  Hey why not pull my dresser up and make it an O desk so I can never, ever escape?) or at the vern.  My classes technically end on Thursday, but of course there’s no cause for celebration till the exams over.  This all means that there won’t be much fascinating stuff happening and my time for writing at all will be limited.  I’m sticking to my goal of only interesting posts (save for these little logistical updates) meaning they’ll be a little more sparse till I’m back home, when I know there will be plenty to write about.

But I’m not just telling you about our change in post frequency for, oh, 9 more days.  I’d also like to announce something very special to me.

I…

Declare…

BANKRUPTCY!

Just kidding, I just wanted to do that.  But I do want to talk about one of my plans for the new year.  My course evaluation for my Mad Men writing class made me realize how lucky I was that I was in a class that not only really improved my writing, but also taught me the basics of critical film writing.  Anyone who’s followed the BBoC knows that television has become a very real love in my life lately.  I’ve done critical writing about Mad Men and loved it, so why not expand on it?

I’ve tried pleading with you to watch a certain show.  I mention a great storyline our character.  Lately I’ve been posting gifs, those little moving pictures, to give you a taste of how great the show is.  But those are much funnier when you’ve actually seen the episode.  So my new tactic as to try and go up there with the big boys and do an actual review.  Not just raving about how great a show was, but breaking it down and giving my interpretation of why.  A little argumentative essay every Thursday, because I want to review Community, obviously.  But if there’s an episode of 30 or the Office that strikes me and I have the time, they’re fair game too.  So are old Arrested Developments and West Wings, because why shouldn’t we revisit the classics?

So I hope you can look forward to that while I nervously consider whether this could be a disaster.  Oh I’m only teasing, I’ve no time to worry about this!  I have geology to study for!

See you when I see you