EricHiltner.com

An update:

1. My house is thrashed.
2. I am broke.
3. There are basically NO jobs available in Coles County.

I don’t know what to say other than that.

Spring break.

2,572 miles. Charleston to Harrisburg, Pa to Nashua, Nh to Richmond Va to Charleston.
Ben, Bruce and Brian are all doing well.
I was a bit upset by the fact that I was driving within spitting distance of my favorite city (D.C.), and did not make a stop in to visit my favorite site (WWII Monument).
I got my mother’s TomTom for the trip, and while it generally worked well — there were a few kinks.

1. It tried to take me over a bridge that was out.
2. It also got me off the highway when heading through NYC and had me do an unnecessary turn-around in Jersey City.
3. It was going to have me drive through D.C., during rush-hour.

All-in-all, a very decent device. I was kind of upset that the Burt Reynold’s voice that I purchased did not share ancedotes about working on the films of “Cannonball Run” or “Smokey and the Bandit”. OH Well.

While in Richmond, I did get another tattoo. Well, 448 of them actually.

448 Tattoos

Each hashmark represents a day that I was deployed to Iraqi in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
So there you go naysayers, I have the photo to prove it.

What else?
I bought my ticket to go to New Hampshire for Bruce’s wedding in June.
I went almost 4 years without seeing him, and I am finding myself in the middle of a Bruce-a-polooza, and I am just fine with that.

School is almost done. Thank god.

And I had a bit of fun at work tonight.
Backstory- Since the economy sucks, and newspapers are failing, I have had to take on an additional task at work these days. I have to design an additional page.
Tonight was my first night designing the Talking Points page of the Times-Courier & Journal Gazette. And there is a spot on the page for a feature photo.
At first I thought about using a photo from the “Earth Hour” event, but quickly realized that it was not such a great idea. Photos of famous buildings, at night, with no lights on, is not the most visually appealing type of photo.
So I finally settled on a photo of a young buddist monk throwing flower petals.
EH, I am well aware that the photo is not the most visually appealing, but I had to use what I could find. The photogs must not have been taking their creative pills this morning.
The monk was Cambodian, in Phenom Penh, and the act of spreading the petals was an act in preparation for the Cambodian New Years.
So I had to come up with a headline for the photo. This is what I came up with: “Holiday in Cambodia”.

Ethical?

I had a hard time deciding whether this was the correct thing to title it. Even though it was simple enough, and might have drawn a reader in more than the alternative “Plenty of Petals,” or something like that, I do not think that it was appropriate do to the nature of the Dead Kennedys song of the same name.
So I decide to bring it to the attention of the copy desk. Neither Penny nor Jeff knew of the song, so Jeff googled the lyrics, and after short deliberation it was decided that even though maybe five people who read the paper would know the song, that it was better to change the title.
I, personally, thought it was pretty friggin’ awesome the way it was. Maybe I can get some props from some of the four people that read this for almost having the most awesome reference EVER!
(Another awesome reference I had the other day was a twitter update that read “Can’t stand the rain like Missy Elliot.”)

Other than that, Things are awesome.
It is Greek Week here on the campus of Eastern Illinois University. Party Time, Excellent!
I am probably one of the very few God-Damned Independents who actually, and thoroughly, enjoy greek week.
It is fun.

Also, I have met someone. And this girl is something amazing.
Here’s to hoping this is not being a typical-Eric-relationship.

2,408 miles, 42 hours

Monday, March 16th, 2009. 6am.
The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
What about a journey of 2,408 miles? A turn of the key? This is going to be the longest trip of my life.

42 hours, alone. Just me and the road.
Kind of sounds like every man’s dream, and to a point it is mine too.
I have driven long distances many times before.
Frankfurt to Amsterdam. 6 hours.
Chicago to Freeport, MN. 10 hours
Charleston to Miami. almost 24 hours
Charleston to Nashville. 6 hours
Charleston to D.C. 12 hours
Chicago to Atikoken, Ontario. 12 hours.
Baghdad to a port in Kuwait. 27 hours.
All those drives were non-stop, one way. And that is fine because each time I had at least one other person in the vehicle with me. Some one to talk to, or possibly take over driving when I start to nod off and swerve between lanes.
Not this time though. Just me.

In an attempt to ward off complete boredom I have burned a couple audio books.
Paradise Lost, American Gangster and other Tales from New York (or something like that) and Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway. Total audio time: somewhere around 27 hours of audio. Having another human voice in the truck with me should stave off the madness of endless asphalt.
This has lead me to an interesting dilemma: After listening to these books, can I really say that I have “read” them?
****NOTE: I also downloaded War and Peace, but decided not to burn that to CD because it is over 60 hours of audio.****
The dilemma, as I see it, is that sitting down, opening the book, and turning hundreds of pages is much more of a commitment than popping in a CD and letting my ears do the work.
I feel as though it is a cop out.
If I rented 1984 and watched the movie, could I really say that I read the book? No.
How often is it said that “the book was much better”? But it will be the book, but I will not have read it
I guess I am just conflicted about the topic because I have loved reading ever since my mother would sit me down at the dinner table and make me read aloud from whatever book she had picked out as she made dinner.

Oh well, on a pretty cool note …
I think that I am going to buy and download the Burt Reynolds voice for the tomtom GPS my mother is lending me.
I really hope that randomly Burt will pop in with a fun anecdote about his life or working on “Canonball Run” or something. Should be interesting. At least the voice will be a lot more mellow than the shrill UK Janet set now.

2,408 miles….
WTF am I doing?

Wish me luck, and follow me on Twitter (I will be updating constantly)

I have been meaning to write something for a week or two, but I haven’t had a whole lot to say.

Things that have happened as of recently

– I cut my hair.
Karolina came over Sunday night to work on a project (more on that later), and I had her bring the mohawk back.  I was in the newsroom today when Lola came rolled in, and the first words out of her mouth was “Looks like Spring is here.” And that is pretty much true, I tend to cut my hair with the change of seasons.
Told my mother about the hair cut, well I actually sent her a picture, and she called it goofy. Whatever mom!

– I drove 666.0 miles to and from Nashville.
It sucked because we left at 2:30am on Friday, and I drove through on about 45 minutes of sleep since i woke up at 9:11am on Thursday morning. No biggie, I only almost drove off the road 10 times while the other passengers slept.
After I shot the OVC semi-finals, we grabbed some BK and 40’s of Colt and headed to the hotel. I ended up passing out around 1:30am after a good long talk with Bruce. The other weak-asses fell asleep somewhere around 11pm after drink a beer or two. 120 ounces of malt liquor is ALWAYS a good choice.

– I watched the women’s basketball team lose the OVC championship game.
Double overtime. It sucked. I started at EIU with the seniors, and have covered them for the past 4 years. I really enjoyed covering them all year.

–Got pulled over by a cop.
41 in a 30 in Martinsville. The cop wrote me a warning, I believe, truely, because of my veteran’s plates.

–Finally made a cast of my head.
I have been working hard on an idea for xmas gifts for my family. It will be awesome, and step one is complete.

–Planned spring break.
2,408 miles with 1 day and 17 hours of drive time according to google maps. I will be visiting the “B’s.”
First, Ben in PA. Then Bruce in NH, and finally Brian in VA. All old army buddies, and I am truely looking forward to seeing everyone.

–Missing Bentley.
I only just realized how much I miss that bastard. I miss him being all excited to see me when I get home, and how I always have to shoo him from my side of the bed when I go to bed. Oh well, I will have him back after break.

–My camera broke.
err 99 and the shutter will not stop firing. Not good. What really sucks is that I had just sent it in back in the fall. If I spend as much on getting it fixed this time as I did then, I will have spent more to keep it working than it is worth.
I am having to decide whether or not I want to just trash it, and buy a new one (read: take out a student loan).
I know I can get an xti or another 30d for what I would have spent on fixing it OR I could take out the loan and but a 5d Mark II. Kind of having to decide if I am serious about not using photography as anything more than a hobby.
I just do not know what to do.

what else?

oh yeah!

– Got revenge.
So as many people know, I had been having a long on-again-of-again relationship with a certain “ole girl.” It hasn’t been a good relationship for, well, since like month 2.
Well, upon returning from Nashville, I heard from her. She wanted to come over. She did, and things took their normal course with us. Well, while sharing some pillow talk, I told her that I wanted to send a text to her “boyfriend” from her phone saying that it was eric, and then to proceed to share with him the general details of the course fo the night. Just to let him know the type of woman that he was dating. I hadn’t, but I told her that I wanted to.
Upon arriving back at her place, she sent me a text asking whether or not I sent that text. I think I may have over-estimated her intelligence and I told her I had. The thing was, we were apart for approximately 10 seconds the entire time she was at my place, definately not near the required amount of time needed to A. find her phone, B. Learn how to send a text, and C. send a text to her man.
Well, she believed me.
She wont share details (all I get in return when I inquire about what happened is “Stay out of my life”), but here is what I think happened…
I think she attempted to do some damage control, by texting him at approximately 5am (after she probably told him that she was going to bed around 1) saying that the text wasn’t true and that someone was messing around on her phone.
I don’t know, but I do know that she had told him the previous day that she kissed some dude Friday night.
She is quite the scandal sometimes. I am just glad that I am no longer on the receiving end of her drama.

I have a bit of a knack for holding completely random and useless conversations with random people.

Example:
Yesterday I went to Rural King with Colin. I needed batteries. We walk in, get some free pop corn, and procede to walk aimlessly around the store and catch up.
Finally it was decided that it was time to make a purchase so that we could go and get a beer at Marty’s.
After circumambulating the store, I had absolutely no clue where batteries were. They weren’t by the tools, and I did not want to get a 4-pack out of the impulse aisle, so I asked the girl working the cash register.

“Back behind sporting goods,” she said.
I walk hurriedly in search of some alkalines, and come to the desired location.
So many choices, and I decided to go frugal. Pairdeer offered me about a thousand AA for $9.99. The packaging was camo and I seem to recall a 10-point rack somewhere near the logo.
I grab Colin (who had gone in search of batteries in a different location of the store) and we head to the registers.

This is somewhat how the conversation went with the 17-year old girl who I will refer to as Audrey.
Editors note: Audrey was not her name, and came to the author at random.

Me: Thanks for the help finding the batteries. Pairdeed. I have never heard of this brand. Are they good?
Audrey: Umm. I don’t know.
Me: Do you not use batteries?
Audrey: Well, I don’t really buy batteries.
Me: Do you not use things that require batteries?
Audrey: No… I really don’t have anything that uses batteries.

(this is not a verbatim transcript, but my attempt to remember something that happened 25 hours ago and while still trying to shake to cobwebs of a loooong night of drinking Keystone and Dr. McGillicuddy’s until 7am)

What makes this conversation so amazing is the fact that both Colin and I were able to not lose our composure after getting this young girl to admit that she does not use a vibrator.
Once the transaction began, I started to talk to this girl, she bit hard, and I ran with it.

Colin and I erupted with laughter the moment we were outside of the store.
I murdered the story, sorry.

STORY TWO

So I decided that I needed some food to help me recover from the before-mentioned all-night-drining-binge.

I got my truck from the party locale and oulled into the drive-thru of the local McDonalds.
GnR’s “Sweet Child of Mine” was playing on the airwaves.
I placed my order and pulled up to the second window.
The window opens and I immediately ask the employee if she liked Guns and Roses.
She asked me to repeat what I said, and I do.
She says that she does while wearing a smile.
I say good and pull away after grabbing my food.

How can you not say that my butchered stories are rather awesome?
Happy now Jane?

For the past few weeks I have been down.
Usually all it would take for me to get out of it would be a good night of drinking with good company, and the next day I would wake up feeling like shit, yet like a million bucks.

Back in the day I would have Marco or my Black Knights to commiserate with, but these days both are gone.
Marco is working some horrible, dead-end job in Des Moines with the Associated Press, and there has yet to be a decent showing for a BKE meeting in a while.

See, Marco was my longest friend at EIU, and we understood the pressures of journalism and would often put down many pitchers of cheap beer talking away our daily stresses of working at the Daily Eastern News.

The Black Knights of the Embarras, the veterans group of which I try to run, has been less than stellar the past few months.
Our motto is “Serving those who serve.” None of that has happened in a very long time. No one shows up to meetings, the excuses are always something about work or school. Fine, I understand. But many of the members neither work or take their studies too seriously.
We keep trying to come up with fundraisers, yet no one seems to want to do anything but have bar crawls. FINE. I get it, we are MORE than allowed to drink our memories away as often as we would like. I love bar crawls, I love organizing them (and I am actually not too shabby at doing that) but our group is about more than that. It has to be.
I used to drink every night with a couple of them, and rarely see them anymore, at meetings or the bar.

But the lack of a Marco and seemingly impending implosion of the BKE is not what is bugging me these days.

I have recently decided that I will not be pursuing a job as a photojournalist. (Marco, you win.)
With the horrible economy, and monthly lay offs within the failing newspaper job market, it just does not seem like there is room for me.
I am not a great photojournalist. I am miserable actually. It is just not within me, and I am not sure it ever was.
I have taken some real pretty pictures, and that is all.  I have never been a Journalist while taking photos.
Taking photos on the sideline of a football game is great and all, and I love the sheer amount of people that I have met working as a photojournalist, but I really have been lying to myself for the past few years.

I just do not have the drive.
I quit.

What is funny about this decision is that I will be joining the ranks of both my brother and sister. Neither work in the field in which they studied.

So where do I go from here? What will I do?

I have a couple ideas of what to do when I graduate.

• move to North Dakota and work on an oil rig. I hear there are plenty of jobs for the taking our there.
• teach English in Korea. I absolutely loved when I lived in Korea, and I can speak some English.
• become a carpenter like jesus.
• move to the Yukon and become a hermit/trapper.

Any suggestions?

Pile of Trash

So… tomorrow my father comes to visit. Still unsure as to whether or not he is staying the night (even though he promised to let me know by the start of last night).
Well, as many people know, I am not much of a cleaner. Usually my computer desk is covered in layers of empty beer cans, cigarette boxes, unread mail and past due bills. My kitchen is usually a cluttered mess. I have actually been REALLY good about dirty dishes as of late.
My bathroom, well … the sink is a mix of facial hair and ash. The toilet is mostly covered with read Time, Fur Fish and Game, VFW magazines and the annoying pull-out subscription cards.
The shower, it used to be blue (homecoming got really ridiculous), but it typically isn’t nasty.
My bedroom is always a mess of clean and dirty laundry intermixed on the floor with the random read books.
My living room? Well, Bentley is about the only thing that ever enters that realm. I have actually thought about boarding that room off.

Anyway, back to the topic of this post.

I do not really know why it is that I dislike cleaning so much. I think that it is because I hate to throw stuff away. Not so much that I am attached to it, but I think that I hate the process of it all. Like, first getting something, having it around for a while until I am finally motivated enough to throw it away.
There is very little that I actually like having.
The short list of things that I like have-

1. Jeep
2. Bentley
3. Camera & accoutrements
4. Computer with internet
5. Somewhere to sleep and bathe
6. Some of my things from the Army

Outside of those things, I don’t really need much. I have accumulated so much bullshit.
A book shelf of books that I have read, and never will read again. I pass them off to people and secretly hope they never return them.
Clothes! Where the hell did all these clothes come from? I have about a dozen and a half bar crawl shirts, the only ones that I wear though are ones that I designed (because they are always SO AWESOME!). I have taken to turning down the t-shirts that I receive for donating blood. The ones that I have taken away with me typically stay in my truck until I decide to clean that, and they get thrown away with the bags of McDonalds and McHughs because the shirts almost start to rot because they have been rained on a million times.

I am not complaining because I am have so much stuff, but rather that I don’t need them.
I am really tempted to see when the next community/church fundraiser/yard sale is going on and donate pretty much everything to them on the stipulation that THEY have to come into my house and collect all of it.

And what kind of really sucks about cleaning, is that I have to now load all the trash into my truck, and find some dumpster to fill with all my refuse. When I first moved into my house I paid for trash pick-up. What a waste of money!
I do not really produce a whole lot of trash. Mostly cans and paper products. All recyclable, but since the city decided to move the recycling I have no clue where to drop it off at.

Enough of the break from cleaning. I think it is time to clean the bathroom. Then on to the kitchen, then the bedroom, and finally – the living room.

So, one of my many unofficial NY resolutions was to blog, a lot.

Some of my others:

• Cook/eat at home more often.
• Quit smoking.
• Keep my house clean.
• Get back into decent shape.
• Be nicer.
• Cuss less.

I have been cooking some (and not hungry man in the microwave,) I got a slow cooker for xmas and that has met with mixed reviews. But I also have found that making a calzone is quite easy, and delicious.  But that is also not so much by choice though either. Deciding to either have no heat or eat out is surprisingly an easy choice to make.

Next up, probably quit smoking. And once again not exactly a personal choice, but rather an economical one.

I think that cussing less and being nicer are going to go hand in hand.

Cleaning the house. . . well … I am lazy. So probably when I either decide to clean my house or do some exercising, the other will follow. At least since I have been cooking more, the sink is not overflowing.

Here is to hoping I can keep up the blog.