South (?) Carolina

Took me awhile to realize I was going to South Carolina and not North Carolina.

It was South Carolina - stayed in the Embassy Suites Charleston (Hilton Points!). Charleston was nice from what I can tell. (except for the slight smell, paper mills i'm told, and was also told about palmetto bugs) Also checked out Hyman sea foods - awesome mussels.

Received this bogus call today:

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-253-507-9196

be warned

and then...

... i'm getting ready for Ft. Knox this week.

back...

...from flying around.

Washington to Dallas
Dallas to Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara to Phoenix
Phoenix to Washington

Previous post

I wrote that sometime in high school, likely after reading God Emperor - which puts it freshman year while I was having knee surgery. Clearly that's the subject.

A Rant of the Holy Obscenity

A Dune Villanelle

I see the Now rolling in sand
the Future dictating the Past
Waiting in this human hand

With an Atreides in command
My endless dream loosed by a blast
I see the Now rolling in sand

armed with ghola at my right hand
long gone Tabr, a cache ever last
Waiting in this human hand

Son of the man-child unplanned
a place unseen where I hold fast
I see the Now rolling in sand

Stagnation! Can't you understand?
Four thousand years, never surpassed...
Waiting in this human hand

Even the bahr bela ma under the sand
Atreides are all that will ever last
I see the Now rolling in sand
Waiting in this human hand

a

rat scared me
i tripped, and
ripped my pants

on a guardrail.

shit.


12,12,9,7, and the guard politely asked me to leave.

steel tentacles reach for the sky.
with no hands
they can't grasp.

only gesture.

and

i'd have done the same as you

Again!

15,13,10,10,14

who cares?

^
|

+1

Today was day two for hundred push ups, 12-12-10-10-17. Did it outside, it was nice.

I'm actually at my ancestral home (or something) right now. It's certainly weird to be 'home' - my bedroom isn't my bedroom anymore. Nor are either of my sister's. Times change. There are also a lot more trees, my house backs up on a wood, lots of laurel's, oak, and holly trees.

it's nice.

ran some errands today, picked up a better clip for my keys, sae and metrix hex sets (ones that are all attached as one tool) some cable clips for cable tv cable, some washers so i can remove the lame dealership "frames" on my license plates (rather than new screw, the screws they used were funny, slotted hex head, 1/4 diam 1 inch long, and very few threads. kinda like a wood screw.

also, i've been itching to listen to smashing pumpkins recently, so i picked up melon collie and the infinite sadness. amazing how many singles came from that. also picked up two books, the next star wars book in the series i was reading and something new, called the gargoyle, looked interesting. english patient-y. (i never read that, but it makes me think of the seinfeld episode.)

three hundred divided by three

i started the program one hundred push ups yesterday.

http://hundredpushups.com/index.html

i took the initial test, and was able to do 26 push ups, which ranks me at level 3.

which means today i do, 10, 10, 8, 6, max (>=7)

something to try, i've got a few minutes 3 times a week.

time for the max!

your head would collapse

I just returned from 2 weeks of TDY in Flagstaff, Az (business travel for my job). It was a good trip and with the little downtime I had, I got to see a lot, check out my pictures.

Worked a lot of odd hours, at high elevation, and am also contending/contended with a difference in time zone. Hiking in the Grand Canyon also totally kicked my ^&*%#!*(@@.

As an excuse, I had gotten pretty sick and wore marks in the carpet between my bed and the toilet, as well as having gone through a roll and a half of t.p. You can fill in the blanks on what happened.

Anyway, there was a scary incident with my iron today, and I might have left the parking brake on while driving tonight, and confused it for something being wrong with my (brand new) car. I'm still nervous and will see tomorrow when I go to drive it to work.

Did I mention i'm nervous?

In other news N. is back from Siinnnnt Maaarrrteen, Saint Marten, Sassy Marvin, or whatever the island is called. I'm jealous, it's a week of vacation on an island. And you can sleep/get up whatever time you want, not 2:30 am to work an 11 hour shift. Very nice that she's back even though she'd probably prefer to continue laying on a beach doing aerobic zipline workouts through jungle rope courses.

but the grand canyon was cool.

Maybe i'm losing my brain, maybe i've lost it.

work tomorrow and things to do

don't push too hard, cause... well, you know the rest

travel

I'm currently on travel, staying in the Econolodge.


Enough Said?

ugh

Moving is stressing me out, even more than in the past few days. I don't feel at peace, or relaxed, and that's what i desperately need.

I'm shutting down.

I want a layout for my room that really excites me. so far, nothing. Where i'm at now i hate, and hopefully that won't affect my sleep.

just ugh.

Big Move

the big move!

I've moved to arlington county, which is very exciting, a little sad, but a big improvement!

Much nicer, and much closer to work.

As always, I'll try to document this more later!

Number 3: Power Out

So, I'm at it again. Another storm, and the power is out again, so I'm back at Caribou taking care of business.

I've started work, (been there a week), and also my car is still stolen.

I've started the car shopping/search. Ugh

Gone.

So the internet/cable is still out and I'm at Caribou coffee using their wifi on my laptop. (Because who drags their PC's out anymore)

So I waited today till 2:30-3ish so that the mail would come, and I checked it, and I then realized that what I was waiting for from work, was probably email, and I hadn't gotten it. So I called my man E. (Not the E. from college) and that either their power troubles, or my forwarding email were to blame, he sent it to my actual email, and I decided to drive over to Caribou to check it. Nice Plan. Except when I walked outside, my car was gone. uh, wtf?

So I walked around the parking lot. Nope, definitely didn't park it somewhere I didn't remember. Spoke to N. We parked it the night before where I thought we had. Shit, must have been towed by accident.

I went and asked Ms. F. where they keep a record of towings. "Why?" she asked.

Cos like, my car isn't where I parked it.

"Oh, it wasn't burgundy was it?" she said.

Well, it's red, close enough.

"Well let me tell you a story then."

And she told me this story (a few times over, so it's a little hard to forget)

"Well I was coming back from some errands and the drug store, and the mailman (fedex the second time around) was here, so I didn't want to get a $250. ticket for double parking, so I drove my truck around the back to park back there. I wanted to park in the front cos it's hot out, and I didn't really want to park in the back, but I didn't want that ticket, so I'll drive around to the back. ('86 Ford Ranger, with like 75k miles, talk about low mileage) So I drive around, and as I'm coming around there's this burgundy car backing up and the guys not looking so I stop so he doesn't hit me, and there's a couple guys in the back and the one is looking at me, and he keeps looking to see if anybodies coming or whatever. So they pull away, and there going pretty fast. And it's got NJ plates, starts with a Y. I'm always nosy, always looking into things. I only remember because the guy was going fast, and the other guy was looking at me, and the driver wasn't looking where he was going. So I thought that was weird, and then the maintenance guys came in (Luis and Hector) said they saw them get in, and they were going pretty fast so they remembered. They thought the plates were NY or NJ, they weren't sure, but I told them it was NJ because it's got the beige stripe across (across the top, yellow on the bottom).

So I ask, any idea what they look like, white, black, any kind of details?

"I couldn't really say, but I think it was four black guys"

It took four guys to steal my car, uh what? It's a 97, and aside from being not at all flashy, and pretty easily blends in, it's not really a car you'd want to steal. It's just not worth it. But then, to a car thief, or chop shop, or whatever, what is worth it?


Yeah did you read that, my car was stolen, shit.

Sturm and Drang

So if you've been on the East Coast lately you may have experienced the thunder storms and humidity we've been having lately. Also the tornado warnings and watches.

We're a little bit north in Silver Spring for the Tornado stuff, but I believe I heard that Prince George's had a warning/watch.

Anyway, it's nice that it's warm, and it reminds me of the big summer thunderstorms when I was little (Whenever I was little, as in tall, not FAT! [not that it's a bad thing, to be fat])

So yesterday I was stir crazy, and chatting with B. about being stir crazy. I've done nothing but be in my apartment and go to the gym the past few days (good for me, the gym part at least) and I couldn't take it anymore. So I decided I would leave to go get a sketchbook at the Staples in Metro Center. So I left. As I'm walking to the intersection of 16th and E. West Highway, a really light rain starts, so I open my umbrella. There was also a really eerie sound of the wind rushing through this wood on the other side of the street, and it was blowing little dead tree blossoms at me.

So I'm walking and then CRACK CRACK CRACK, tons of lightening, booming thunder. Immediately it's like somebody dumped a bucket out. Just a rush of water. I struggled to get my rain jacket on (I was prepared, boyscout days?) but it didn't matter, my shirt was soaked, and my entire lower half. I had flip flops on which was good and bad. Shoe's would been soaked, but then at least there would have been SOME rubber between me and the ground. !

It was crazy, coninciding with the rain and thunder and lightening and Armageddon, the lights at the intersection of 16th E. West went out. I stood at the corner and watched traffic for awhile trying to navigate it, as well as the flooding waters.

Eventually I walked to the corner where starbutts and the metro is, and overheard a lady say that on the other side, all the power/computers were out and the automatic doors wouldn't open to let people out.

Lock In!

Maybe the worst part was, that the cable went, and I couldn't watch top chef.

:(

T Minus

I start work in less than a week now.

Time is moving so fast right now, it seems like I was just starting at my other job, but that was now a year ago. In that span I got another degree. Crazy.

That's all I've got now.

Sorry!

Silver Sprung

We're moving out soon, so we walked around Silver Spring today and took pictures.

Check out the results.

Outside the Canon

From now on I think I can stray from my themed titles.

I've been watching Spider-Man: The New Animated Series on instantwatch via NetFlix. It's voiced by NPH. Anyway it inspired me to catch up on The Amazing Spider-Man comics. So I have. and well, I'm outraged.

Aunt May is old. and has been old for a long time. She was old raising peter, old through high school, old through college. now he's in his thirties. I know time doesn't work the same way in the comics world. She get's shot, let her go, let the comic mature... The status quo with Aunt May... it's been done, for decades. Let it address more serious issues.

It was a beautiful set up, the pain of peter parker was palpable. the return to the black costume, he meant business, he'd do anything to save her, even talk to tony, but the end it wasn't enough. let him fail.

that's something that at least in my opinion, has always been true of peter parker and spider-man. sometimes he doesn't succeed, and he lives with the consequences (gwen stacy? the ups and downs of mary jane? i'm sure there's more, but while i love it, i'm not a details nerd for it)

so at the end of it, he makes a deal with mephisto? really? REALL? that's pretty dumb. Stan Lee may have had a vision, but it's not Marvel's job to generate the same comic forever, things can evolve, isn't that the point? (man becoming more than man)

also, if m day/decimation showed us anything, it's that peter could be, and would be, perfectly happy if everyone knew he was spider-man. he got to live the dream of it being out in the open (it's like a giant in the closet gay story, keeping the secret is part of the fun, but it's nice to know what happens when you come out [or so i assume])

we were finding that out, and it seriously wasn't explored enough.

and now that i'm reading the 'brand new day' i'm summarily disappointed. it's so... old looking. spider man looks like he's wearing pajama's. i know it's classic or whatever, but i really enjoy the modern make overs. (ultimate spidey, xmen, anyone?) or at least the edgier, darker, grittier look of the black costume issues. i think it captures new york.

damn. i'm just annoyed, i was really enjoying amazing spider man, especially when i had really only gotten into comics beginning with ultimate spidey. the story lines are just clearer, with less ret-conning b.s. it's just like, if you're making a decision with the story, make the damn decision adn stick with it. stop waving the magic stick around when you get bored or lazy. just keep up some quality writing, or hire somebody that can maintain it.

too many drivers i guess.

and so ends my rant.

Celeste

I bought a PS3, and have been subsequently addicted to GTA: IV. It's quite good, although I'll agree with the reviews that you need to play for awhile until it really gets good.

I'm currently doing the "fixer" missions, via the pay phone. I'm over 50% completion of the game.

I acquired the lamborghini . I'm doing missions for "the guy in jail" and one of the Mafia bosses.

That should give you a pretty good idea where I'm at, without giving any of the plot points away.


Oh yeah, and I graduated.

Earth

I recently installed the jscript manager/thing firefox add-on. It's been pretty interesting so far. A little annoying to have to physically allow java scripts on sites, but... it's also nice to know more about what's going on when you visit a page.

Since having my laptop I have not had any problems (aside from dropping once, which almost gave me a heart attack, the lock that locks the screen to the keyboard broke off, and I haven't yet figured out what sending it back to dell entails to get it fixed) but about a week ago AVG found a virus.

The first one I've had. It scared me pretty good, because I don't really visit sketchy sites, and so I'm not sure where it came from. So, a healthy dose of paranoia later and I'm taking more precautions.

Online privacy and security are big concerns of mine. theFacebook scares me, but I still use it. I probably should be more paranoid and get better security, but, I don't really want to pay for it. My experience with Norton is that it gets it all, but that it slows your computer to a crawl, while it examines every single thing you do. Annoying. And, my parents computer still has some bot trojan thing that Norton finds, and then when they reboot, it comes back. Awesome.

So the jscript thing blocks all scripts, and you physically have to allow them. Interesting, we'll see what happens when somebody else tries to use my computer and their webpages don't load.

Kime

Updates on my to-do list.

1. I bought my Mom a Mother's Day present (A Color Your Own Gauguin Book [with stickers and temporary tattoos])
2. I have not yet found or looked for the key to the rope chain lock.
3. I haven't bought my Dad a birthday present, but I know what I want to get.
4. I practiced and gave my presentation. (And got an A in the course)
5. I studied for and took my CompMethods Final (And got a B in the course)
6. I still need to take the Check to Wachovia.
7. I studied for and took the Vibrations Final (And Got an A in the course)
8. I have not finished my collage yet.
9. I have not finished or started my blanket yet (That's for this week)
10. I have not finished the patches bag.
11. I have not started spring cleaning yet
12. I have not found a frame for new hulk poster
13. I have not figured out when to cancel cable
14. I talked to miss francis about moving out
15. I finished college, but haven't graduated yet

Still a lot that I need to do, and I'll get on it. I also want to purchase a nice-ish leather journal, and remove my old journals from xanga to a word document or something. There's a lot on those (there's two) but they are all private, and it'll be one hell of a trip to go through all of it.

MorningLightMountain

I finished. I'm feeling exceptionally... nostalgic? probably not the right word, but it's the first that comes to mind. I'm just thinking about the past 4 cross that, 5 years of college. And it's amazing how fast time passes. Damn.

I took a break from the yoga I was doing to quickly write this. The side pose with the leg out when you are bent over to one side, kills me. I was super flexible when I first started doing this, but now I'm not.

Artful Dodger

To Do List
5/5/08

1. Buy my Mom a Mother's Day Present
2. Find the key to the rope/chain lock
3. Buy my Dad a Birthday Present
4. Practice final presentation
5. Study for computational methods final
6. Take 401k check to wachovia
7. study for vibrations final
8. finish collage
9. start/finish blanket
10. finish patches bag
11. start spring cleaning (getting rid of shit)
12. find a frame for new hulk poster
13. figure out when to cancel cable
14. talk to miss francis about moving out
15. Finish College

Prime

Updates:

Great News from work.

Iron Man was awesome (stay past the credits)

Free Comic Book Day was cool.

There Will Be Blood = They Will Be Bored

Quantumbuster

Classes are all done for the semester!

Only a few finals left, so close!

I need to go grade papers for dynamics

Quantumbuster

Classes are all done for the semester!

Only a few finals left, so close!

I need to go grade papers for dynamics

High Angel

I'm going to see Iron Man tomorrow night at 8 at Gallery Place. I'm excited.

Free Comic Book Day is Saturday too, cool.

Silfen

I was going to leave the laptop on all night, with an away message counting down the days, but I don't want to jinx myself. I'm so close and I feel like I'm racing the train, running the gap (?) shooting the needle (?)



did I make those last two up, are they actual phrases?

Is it terrible that it makes me think of spencer's sister asking, "water under the bridge.....is that, that's the right phrase right?"


Yes.

Motherholme

Some updates on my virtual presence, my digital existence, my eSelf, or keeping up with the times, my iSelf.

I just joined GoodReads, which is kinda like librarything, but it looks to be completely free. Feel free to friend me. Initially K. from my suite in Walton day's asked me to join, she's looking for suggestions for books to read. I asked my sister and J. to join, because I know they read a lot. (I asked N. to join, but I don't think she's interested, it has however sparked some interesting conversations about R.L. Stein, the Hardy Boys, Matthew Christopher, and the "girl" versions, like Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley High, and so on)

I added over 200 books to goodreads... and that was in the initial two brainstorm mass additions to the site. I'm actually glad, because I had tried keeping track of the books I've read using a word document in the past, and I never kept it updated, maybe now I can catalog (I wanted to add a ue to the end of that) everything I've read. It's not to boast or really to network with anyone, but for personal interest. I'm curious what my eyes have looked at over the years.

I also tried to find World War Robot, after seeing that it was a web comic in this issue of Wired. I found a link to the site, but no web comic. I can buy a rather large and detailed toy of Bertie the robot, but, other than that, I get some glimpses of interesting art. I added Ashely Wood's blog to my reader, and tried subscribing to the info list. We'll see where that goes.

The Great Heist

Initiatilly I hzve to apologizw me left pinky is asleep os the speling is crap.

Paula

Between yesterday and today, me and N. watched the second season of Dexter online. We had to use links from alluc, as it hasn't been released on DVD or put on Instant Watch via NetFlix. I really enjoyed it, and it's really interesting to see how the books and show are diverging. Quality was pretty good too, just on the small side.

Had it been on NetFlix the quality would have been awesome. It's a little bit of a blur, since we watched so much in such a short time, but it's definitely worth checking out. I tried to get my parents into it, but they just weren't as into it as I am. Generational thing maybe, who knows.

Myo

10 days until I'm finished... graduation doesn't count because that is, literally, a walk in the park.

N. and I visited the National Arboretum this weekend, and we plan on visiting again soon. It was absolutely gorgeous, the weather was fantastic and I took some great pictures. Such as:





In other news, I'll post again in a second.

Cat's Claws

I just finished reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It really caused me to put some serious thought into a lot of things brought up in the book, and with some related subjects.

Tolkien has a great quote (I believe at the beginning of the Silmarillion) about the relationship between father's and son's, and this story I really think touched on that subject quite a bit. I'll try to avoid giving anything away if you haven't read it, but I'd enjoy discussing it once you have (whoever you are).

The semester is approaching the end very quickly, and I have a lot to do. I'm both excited to be done, to start a new job, and stressed and a little sad/nostalgic/contemplative over where the time has gone. It took awhile but I really can think upon the entirety of my college experience and enjoy it. It happened right, it's not happening, and I can say I learned a lot. A professor said once how undergraduate education teaches you how to learn, but post graduate education teaches how much you haven't learned, and how much more there is out there (I've got to butchering that, it sounded so much better at the time).

I've definitely experienced that. There's a thousand directions I could go from here, and I'd love to go in every one.

Also I have to comment about something that happened. I made guacamole two days ago, and after getting chips, I turned around and the pyrex bowl of guacamole flew out of my hand, shattering on the floor. the glass exploded everywhere quite violently, but the delicious green mass stuck where it landed. This event now tops the Worst Things That Have Ever Happened To Me, List. This list has public and private entries on it, and, as of this consideration, that is now number 1.

1. Dropping bowl of Guacamole 4/22/08
2. Diagnosis of Osteochondritis dissecans (both knees) ~4th grade
3. Leaping onto the Tarzan Swing at Bethel Mill Park, only to find it was chained to the ground below the mulch ~Childhood

Those are the absolute top three, until someone reminds me of something else horrible that happened to me. Such as the time I got my dad's jeep stuck in the woods. ANYWAY.

Further comment of Number 2.
from MayoClinic:

When blood supply to the area at the end of your bone is cut off, a condition known as osteochondritis dissecans may develop. The affected bone and its covering of cartilage may stay in place and cause no symptoms. Or, a fragment may gradually loosen, separate and cause pain.

That's what happened, all of it. In my right knee (initially the worse of the two) it stayed in place and other than occasional pain, there were no to few symptoms (excruciating pain). In my left a fragment loosened (separated) and again, excruciating pain. After waiting from the 4th grade and then into my freshman year of highschool, I didn't do anything other than avoid sports. But come freshman year I started to mature so my doctor was like, okay, time for surgery and then a couple weeks later I had my knee scoped and drilled. The new unnatural holes allowed blood to flow in (and out) of my knee*, to promote healing.

Then my junior year it was time for surgery again, and bone screws (they are absorbed by your bones) were used to secure the fragment in my knee. Tada! Now I'm okay and allowed to do whatever. The first time I was hopping within a week, and the second I was in a chair for a week, and then crutches for 8 weeks. PT both times, and both times I had to relearn how to walk. Relearning how to run was probably the worst experience. Suddenly realizing that I didn't know how to run was probably one of the strangest things that ever happened to me. I can't explain it.

And that's enough of that.

*Those holes, or channels in my knee, the blood still flows in and out. Sometimes after waking when I stand up I can feel the blood rush into my knee. And If I put my feet up for awhile, same thing. I also have the stereotypical old man knee, that causes pain when the weather changes suddenly.

Inigo

I was finding it a pain to have to jump back and forth between gmail logins to post to my own blog, so I added myself as a contributor. Maybe I should come up with a classy new name to call myself? or actually pretend that I'm myself contributing to my own blog? What?

Anyway, I came across this while being addicted to google reader on the wired blog, GeekDad (it's what I aspire to be someday) and I thought it was hilarious. N. didn't think it was so funny, but, anyway, maybe you will

This guy makes his own action figures, but in a different style, for example this is the Star Wars figures, but as if they were Steam Punk.

anyway, here's his site,

and here's GeekDad

Sheldon

Due to the Pope visiting, I have the rest of the week off. Not a bad deal.

In other news, I want these shoes:
Which can be found at this link. They're 'green' shoes, go check them out, I don't want to have to explain everything. I also watched Charlie the Unicorn 2 today, over at Newgrounds. Something else I want is a LoveSac, which I'll probably actually buy in May, because the salesman told me they are having a Dad's n Grad's sale. They're kinda like bean bags, but with cut up pieces of memory foam instead. Also they're a little expensive, I almost bought one around Christmas last year when they had a really serious sale, but I chickened out, while it's as big as a couch, and meant to be one, I don't know, can you really be an adult with a giant foam bean bag in your place? Anyway, they're at lovesac.com if you're looking.

Nigel

I'm absolutely exhausted from this weekend, and working on homework. I need to finish my modern controls take home exam, as it's proving not difficult, but unexplained properly.

Justine

Also to note, my unplayed playlist has been reduced to 38 songs, or 2.7 hours. I might be able to finish that up tonight, it consists of some Rage against the machine, red hot chili peppers, and radiohead. Again, that's not to say I haven't heard the song, just that when I revamped my ipod, I hadn't listed to it again.

Kazamir

Power blogging!

N. and C.'s go to White Castle, or Birthday Bash '08

Haven't posted so I'll post a few. What else is new? Epic trip this weekend, N.'s birthday was this weekend, Saturday, and her friends usually throw a big birthday bash, because her, L. and P.'s birthdays are all around the same time, hence instead of a series of birthday parties, one big party.

Simple.

I agreed to go because she wanted me to (it's a really work centric weekend for me, two assignments and a take home exam. Also, really loud bars and lots of drinking, aren't really me anymore. After last New Year's Eve, and the New Year's Eve before, I've truly learned my lesson, and I'm not keen to make that mistake again.)

So, Friday I picked her up from West Fall's Church metro, which isn't far from her work stop, and we headed to Tyson's. She found a birthday shirt, went home, checked out BSG and crashed.

Saturday morning we got up early to leave (9ish to leave by 10ish) left by like 10:30am, immediately it starts pouring rain out. Nicki's battery is dead again, and she's parked in the "a$$cr@ck" parking spot, and someone is parked in the non-stop, so it's pretty tight, and I start pushing her car awkwardly in the rain so that we can get it in the middle of the parking lot, and I can jump it with my car.

randomly the people parked next to her come out, and offer to lend us a jump. Perfect.

We're rushing to get it done and the jumper cables are really short, so it's hard. In the rush either I, or the other guy mix our cables. Almost immediately the jumper cables start to smoke, and I realize what's going on, I rip the clamp off the battery (because I'm pretty sure more dangerous shit than melted plastic can happen) and the clamp comes clear of the cables all together in my hand. F%*^! So I tell the guy we'll figure it out because he doesn't have cables and there's nothing else we can do.

Drive to rite aid, get new cables, grab a bagel from the Einstein's (where we see the guy getting bagels) and head back, successful jump, time to go. Leave Md, stop in at home in NJ for a few hours (2hours 15 min approx travel time) I worked on my take home test, and then we left around 6:30pm for P.'s. Leave there to go to L.'s, then get a ride to the Path station, and ride into NYC. Head over to Proof.

Typical super loud, slightly gross bar, but the $30. open bar from 10:30pm to 1:30am isn't bad (until I order a rum and coke, and it's like rubbing alcohol) I wasn't have the best time ever, but I was fun. N. really enjoyed seeing her friends. 2am rolls around however and it's like time to go. That's around the time bars close in DC so that's like normal, except nobody wants to leave, except they tell us they are. So we wait, and wait, and deal with the drunks, and wait, and it's late, and wait, and we're tired, and wait. This is a three person bday party, and one of them wants to go, that means it's time. We're dependent on P. for a ride from L.'s house, so we can't really leave without her, much as we'd like to. Eventually we get them out of the bar, except P.'s drunk and doesn't want to leave, it's 3ish Am. We hail a cab, they don't get in. Cab leaves, I hail a cab (My first). I get N. and L. in the first. I hail a second (My second, ever) and I get in to babysit C. and P. because I know if I don't, they won't come back with us. We get to Path, and then wait until 4:45am for a train. It was ass cold, and I was the only one remotely dressed for it.

Finally get to L.'s house, sleep on a couch. Leave this morning, stop at white castle (i'll post pictures later) drive all the way back here.

Maybe I didn't capture the length of this journey, or it's crap factor. But it was intense. According to google maps, street to street it was 550 miles in two days, with sleep from 5am to 10am, and no showers.


And I still haven't even gotten to finish my take home test and homework for this week. Let's see if it's appreciated.

Gore

I haven't updated in a few days, or a week and a half. Whatever.

Also I hate the word 'whatever' because it's dismissive, and often used inappropriately, because really, saying whatever is like asking for whatever, do you really want to get punched in the face? Whatever. SMACK!

So what else? Campus is getting all spruced up for the Papal Visit, that should make it pretty obvious where I attend school, because I don't think he's visiting any other universities, it's not like any other's are under is control. It's pretty cool that he's coming, the last time a pope visited was in like the seventies or something. Also though, I'm a pretty dumb person because I signed up for tickets to go see him, but never picked them up, so I can't go and visit. I = Dumb.

If I manage to grab some pictures of campus I'll post them.

CST

I forgot to mention, while I'm not sure if I'll catch it tomorrow night, I'm excited for the 4th and final season of Battlestar Galactica. Tomorrow is the first new episode.

Also to clarify, I didn't watch until the first three seasons were already out, I had seen the original as re-runs on the sci fi channel it was... dated. But my sister told me I had to watch it, and it was really good. Also the guy from the Soup likes it, so, that justifies it being not that nerdy/geeky to watch it.

Also, the actress [tricia helfer] (I had somebody give me a hard time once, and told me that male/female, they are all actors now) who plays Caprica6 has posed nude for Playboy. I found that a bit surprising when I reading an interview today, not exactly sure why, but I was. (surprised)
here's the wired interview.


If you haven't checked it out yet, I suggest at least watching the mini-series, if it's not for you, it's not for you, but if it is, it's worth it.

Bradley

I'm working on my vibrations homework. It's a beast. I know that it is not as hard as it seems, but the way the problems are worded, it feels like running into a wall. I have to finish by Monday night though, so hopefully get through it.

"The Darjeeling Limited" came yesterday via NetFlix (I really enjoy NetFlix by the way) and so we'll check it out tonight, see if it was any good. I think N. came up with a good description of Wes Anderson's movies, that they're pretty to look at, interesting, but kind of goofy. (I probably mis represented part of that, but anyway) In my opinion, I think they have great scenes, but aren't necessarily any good. I agree with her they're pretty to look at, and I think we agree that they aren't always any good but yeah.

Like anything else, we'll find out.

Here's a picture I took the other day in my office sanctum sanctorum (kidding)

Rejuvenation

I'm grading a huge stack of papers. Absolutely massive. I finished the first stack, which was old homeworks, now for the new stuff.

Also I ate a lot of these:

Centurian

Keep your eye on the prize.

It's only about 6 weeks until graduation, and I'm losing focus. Rather keep my head in the here and now, I'm looking ahead to what I'll be able to do with my free time. This really isn't a minor point, as this marks the point in my life where I'll have a break from being in school. I don't know how my oldest sister does it, she's five years older than me and still going strong.

I know I'll get sucked into doing Ph.D. work however, she's setting a precedent, the benchmark, (are we competing?) and the temptation to be called doctor is too strong.

But really, what a lame complaint that is, to be able and willing to further your education. Brings me to something we (N. and I) were discussing last night. It's about your frame of reference. My complain maybe the hard work of a continuing education, but that's because I've had different (arguably better) opportunities and circumstances. Someone born in a different country, in a different situation has a different frame of reference, and therefore, different day to day complaints.

We were specifically talking about the teaching profession. (My parents were both teachers, so I have a pretty good understanding) They have off in the summers, all the major holidays, spring breaks, winter breaks and so on. And they get paid a full salary for the year (however it may be less than some other job) and as tough as the work may be it doesn't compare to the stresses of some other professions; for example blue collar shift work, or manual labor like landscaping or construction.

But once a person becomes settling in that teaching lifestyle, they get accustomed to their own realm of daily complaints, which, in our opinion, their complaints pale in comparison. Is their life really so hard?

Is my life really so hard I have time to think about it?

Second Chance

So with the notes/comments out of the way.

I'm still waiting on my new work to get back to me about my clearance (and whether I have it). Once that goes through I can get a start date, and then post graduation I'll be ready to roll. I'm excited for the new work, I really think it is in line with my interests, and better aligned with what I actually want to do at work.

Some background, I interned and worked at a small NASA subcontractor, and primarily assisted with analysis work associated with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) - then I was offered assistance with going back to school for my Masters Degree, so I took the opportunity. Because I had only just graduated (May '07), and had already enrolled in the accelerated program, I ramped up the course load, and I'll graduate again this May with a Master's in Mechanical Engineering.

[Even more background, a graduate program is 10 courses - because I was in the accelerated program and did it immediately after my bachelor's, 2 courses are double counted in both degrees, so now you drop the requirement to 8 courses post grad. In anticipation of wanting to continue my education, I took an extra course as an undergrad, drop the requirement to 7 courses post grad. I took 3 courses fall semester, and now I'm taking 4 courses in the spring semester. Think about that. 4 grad level classes. Also to note, fall semester I worked 3 days a week, TA'd a course, and had the 3 classes. This is still hard, but the time commitment is different. (I grade for 3 classes)]

Speaking of --- I have class. (Computational Methods)

Endeavour

So here it is, a new blog/journal/writing - general-update-on-my-life text space. The last few failed (and were subsequently deleted) due to inactivity, and the previous Xanga versions (nothing against it, and it's 'private/public' feature was nice, if something else similar exists here I'll have to locate it) failed as well, because they were primarily written as a diary, and diaries tend to have private thoughts and musings, and when they become public, and are read, they hurt people.

Moving on! and some general notes; because I like it to be semi-private (it's the internet!), at least slightly anonymous- I'm going to use my middle name, and I'm using an alternate email. The blog address and the email are of different references, so for the in-the-know, maybe you'll enjoy it.

Big15

First Post - More to come.