I don't think "it's a gas"...
...and it's definitely something not to get pumped up over!

Anguish by the gallon: I'm watching NWCN right now, and they featured a story about gas prices. No, the story didn't say that gas prices were falling, sorry. Turns out the west coast has the nation's highest gas prices; during the airing of that story, the cameras took views of gas-station signs where regular-unleaded was over $3.00 a gallon. So I shall offer you some great advice...when buying gas, you should:

*Take some valium, and if you don't have a prescription for that, go to the health food store and pick up some valerian, which is some kind of organic thing that is 'sposed to calm your nerves. And, bring a paper bag with you, and breathe into it. That way, you'll avoid hyperventilation when you find out how much you've spent at the pump. Which leads into the following advice:

*NEVER LOOK at the gas station's pricing signs; it won't do you any good. It's too expensive to go shopping around for gas. You need gas anyway, so just grit yer teeth and pull into the nearest gas station you can find. It's sort-of a monetary "out of sight, out of mind" thing. Which leads into the following advice:

*Try to use a debit or credit card when buying gas, and don't look at the prices, just slide yer card in n' out and pump your gas (or if yer in Oregon, let the attendant slide yer card). It's no less expensive that way, but at least you don't have to go thru the throes of actually seeing your cash disappear outta your wallet. It's a psychological sort of thing.

*Just assume you're getting overcharged, because, basically, you are getting overcharged. Redirect your frustrations at high gas prices by thinking to yourself that, "I really hate the oil companies, because those bastards are making record profits from the gas I'm buying." It's fun to be mad, after all, especially if you're mad at rich oil fatcats smoking expensive cigars and laughing at us.

Bloggers' note, especially for people not in the Northwest United States: NWCN stands for NorthWest Cable News. Which is a very informative network, although the disorganized weather presentations of Rebecca Stevenson are just kinda hard to listen to...
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My gosh, they're undefeated! Remember the New York Mets back in the late '60's? Truly abominable, embarrassing, just awful a lot of the time. Well, if you'd like to experience that same feeling, all you have to do is be a Seattle Mariners' fan. I am. Strangely, the old Elvis song, "Now and then, there's a fool such as I" comes to mind. Ah, but the Mariners won their first game of the new season...and it only took them one game to do it. Young pitcher Felix Hernandez was throwing heat, and they hit pretty well, too. I suppose it doesn't have anything with coach Mike Hargrove growing facial hair, not at all. As a matter of fact, as the summer temps heat up, he might wanna shave it off. NO, MIKE, LEAVE THAT GOATEE ALONE! WE'RE WINNING!!! Another quality which one must have to be a Mariners' fan...you have to be irrational. Such as I. Unfortunately, not every M's pitcher throws 'high heat' like Felix. 161 games to go...
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Goin' to college ain't what it used to be, evidently...Now, I know that things get quite psychotic in college as spring rolls around, for, finals aren't that far away, and students at colleges everywhere are trying to figure out how to party as much as possible and at the same time, get the highest grades possible. Wait, that's what I thought. There's probably a lot of college students out there who are more serious than I was. But I did have a 3.17 GPA. Of course, I didn't take courses such as Principles of Advanced Organizational Sociology, 400-level Calculus or Quantum Three-dimensional Physics Theories as applied to the Time-Space Continuum (!!!). But anyway...things are getting really strange these days. The other day, a student at the University of Idaho, where I went to school, was murdered. Then today in some sort of murder-suicide pact, two University of Washington students died. Which reminds us all, that guns kill. And too many people who shouldn't have guns, have access to them. I'm not anti-gun, I'm just saying...
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I wish I coulda taken one of these classes! I frequent used bookstores and second-hand shops, and among my purchases oftentimes can be found biographies of musicians, books on popular music, books on entertainment in general and other similar items. And, I have also found rock and roll TEXTBOOKS. You heard me right, textbooks on ROCK AND ROLL. And I would have found those classes highly interesting. After all, as my Dad once said, "I have a turntable in my head." (I'll never forget that). Then, as I thumbed through the rock and roll textbooks I found, at the end of each chapter, STUDY QUESTIONS. And rather than listening to rock and roll because it was FUN, you had to listen to it and analyze the roll of the lead guitar in modern American musical expression or some such thing. Ack. Takes the fun out of it, huh?

I imagine tests were given in these 'Rock and Roll' classes. And you probably had to stand in front of the class and give a report on a topic such as "Aboriginal influences absorbed into rhythm and blues which later began to be filtered through the experiences of skinny English guitarists, who then returned the blues form to American Musicians", yadda yadda yadda. That ALSO takes the fun out of studying rock and roll. Neverrr mind, I guess. But I'll betcha one thing never ended up in the rock and roll textbooks: Ozzy Osbourne (of Black Sabbath) biting the head off a RAT at a company meeting. Now THAT'S history! Oh, and another thing that probably never was covered, especially at more conservative colleges: The ORIGINAL meaning of the term, "Rock And Roll". (It was originally a 'slang' term for, um...well...uh....you know, the activity that results from 'hooking up'...) Okay, now I'm embarrassed...
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I actually proofread these blog entries several times. And the conclusion I've come to after reading this diatribe is, that if I had any common sense at all, postings of a more logical nature would be featured here. Which, in turn, would take all the fun out of blogging...