I need one less job

Things have been busy. I have three tests and a project due next week, and I have way too much stuff to do and not enough time to do it. So here, have a couple of pictures and we'll call it good.

My roommates.


Do the Happy Dance.

Just a quick post before I get back to chemistry

Recently, I've dabbled in new operating systems. I tried linux first. After trying to install 4 distributions and failing at different stages during each one, I decided to give the newest Vista Beta a shot. The install was much less painful than the XP install and went prettty smoothly, and this distribution featured SATA support, so I could actually use it.
Anywho, I finally got my wireless card working even though nobody makes a Vista driver for it, so I'm not sure how that happened. This is a damn pretty operating system. Not pretty enough to fork out several hundred dollars when it comes out, but still nice to look at. It makes XP look clunky and outdated (which fits, because it is).

After my first real day at the water plant

This is the best line someone could hope for the first day on the job at a wastewater facility:

Derek, the guy showing me the ropes:
Ok, you don't need to brown-nose or nothing, but keeping this lab clean would earn you serious brownie points since you are new here and you don't know shit yet.

I asked if there were any puns in that last sentence, and he just gave me a confused look. Oh well. I forget what he said I'd be doing tomorrow, but it involved the words "mucking" and "solid," so I won't be wearing nice clothes.

Waiter, there's a bacon in my hair

I'm not sure exactly who did this or where, but since there's bacon and a cat involved I'd wager almost anything Dane had a hand in it. Being in Korea doesn't help his case much, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, I'm back up here in B'ham for the summer. My room is a pile of boxes and clothes that I should probably be working on instead of doing this. Meh.

Was it worth it? Heck yes.

Things that suck:
~Spending lots of money on a computer
~Computer not working
~Spending hours (and I mean real, consecutive hours) bent over computer disassembling, examining, and reconnecting every part and cord, trying different combinations.
[repeat]
[repeat]
[repeat]

Thing that rocks:
~Computer posts and boots up on 117th try for no real reason. Nothing is different than the first time. Computer continues to work just dandy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nice thing about having a fast computer:
~It's fast. Things get done fast. Very fast.

Bad thing about having a fast computer:
~Whenever the hourglass cursor shows up, yelling "WHAT? You are faster than any computer available a six months ago! Don't give me that shit! What do you need to think about? Give me a fuckin' break!"

He had it comin'!

(In the car while driving across the country)
Anna: Have you seen the movie Chicago?
Me (chewing gum and driving): Yeah, we watched it together. Why?
A: There was a song about women who killed their husbands. One woman killed her husband because he kept popping his gum.
B: Hmm. Yeah? And?
A: (Pointed stare)
B: (Takes out gum) Sorry.


Mr. Andrew Strobel was able to take enough time off from hating Syracuse to drive down to Ithaca to hang with us yesterday. We ate at a natural eatery by Cornell for lunch, then walked around the Cornell campus a little bit and laughed at the geeks. "So, I was cosplaying last night..." was overheard and we didn't even try to stifle our laughter. There was no doubt that this kid was a member, if not the president, of the anime club at Cornell. In a strange way, it reminded me of being back home. Ah, good times.


We saw one of the waterfalls Ithaca is known for, then we stopped in for what Anna described as a "hippie-cult smoothie." As the old hippie man was taking our order, Andrew and I found out that she was actually serious when he asked us where we were from and started telling us about how the "Merrymaker's Caravan" was working its way along the west coast. It was a little creepy, but proselytizing aside Andrew was happy to see some genuine hippies in their natural habitat.
After smoothies and waterfalls, what else is there to do but go wine tasting? Seriously, this is one of those things I had just assumed I'd never do myself because I'm not a wine fan, but there was a winery just up the road and we thought "what the heck?" It was actually a very pleasant place with great wine (and a great way to get a cheap buzz. 6 wine tastings for $1!). We were served by a former philosophy major from IC, so I guess that answers the question of what you can do with a degree in philosophy besides teach and collect unemployment. In the end we were charmed into buying a couple of bottles of white wine that we are slowly enjoying. Strobel is now back in Syracuse at his college of environmental science and forestry, and dominating our agenda for today is sneaking into the college to do some free laundry. Let's hope it goes as smoothly as sneaking onto the campus to dispose of garbage.

There and back again

The Saturday before last, my mom and Casey took me and Anna to the first Seahawks game of the pre-season. It was interesting and kind of fun, but we took off after halftime because all the good players were taken out of the game (which didn't count anyway) and the Cowboys were killing us.


On the following Wednesday, Anna and I packed all of her belongings, at least the ones she cared about, into her Rav and headed to New York. Here we are at Price Creek (still in Washington) for a stretch.


Those who have been to the Gorge in George might recognize this sculpture. Anything with horses about to fall to their doom gets Anna's approval, so we thought this would be a good spot for a bathroom break. Except, of course, for the lack of bathrooms. Luckily, I was the only one the coffee was doing its magic to. Time to find a bush and watch for rattlesnakes.


...and here's Montana. A good chunk of Montana looks like this; the rest contains a lot of rocks.


Here are a bunch of those rocks, the "Painted Canyon." I learned a little about this place in a geology class, so I had to stop and take in the sights. Honestly, Montana is a geology major's dream. Also, something like this can never be properly captured by a camera. We stopped in Billings for the night at the Dude Rancher Lodge. It was a pretty funky place, which was just what I needed after spending so much time on the road. Fuck Holiday inn.

In the Midwest, it got pretty hot and muggy. Luckily for us, these windmills were around to keep us cool.
"WINDMILLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!!!"
Seriously though, the rest of the country didn't have much to offer, except the relief that you do not have to live there. I feel very lucky that I've been able to take this trip twice now, and think it's good to see one's country if you have the chance. I'd like to drive the southern route sometime in the future, but that can wait. For now, I'm just hanging out in Ithaca helping Anna get her stuff in order at her new place. More to come later, hopefully.

More proof that the grass is always greener

I used to miss the folks at the P-town Hut for their ability to talk about things other than sports. I gave up pretending to even know which sport the crew at the Bellingham Hut were talking about a long time ago, and used to actually *shudder* miss my old crew. Now that I'm back, all anyone ever talks about now is World of Warcraft and what their orc did to that dragon. Remembering back, last summer all they could talk about was Magic, the card game.
What's the real lesson here? That I need a new job? That I should stop listening/talking to my coworkers?

Micro Reviews:
Boogie Pop Phantom (anime): I didn't finish the series. It started to have potential, but I sat through 2 disks out of 4 and I wasn't hooked. C

The Office (BBC version, comedy): Hi-larious. It's kind of sad that the American version uses the same script, and the BBC one is way better from what I've seen. A

Lately, I've learned...

It's always nice to be liked, but sometimes it can be interesting to be loathed for no reason by a very small group of people.

24 feels like 23, only more even

Anyone that wants to see what I've been up to this summer can check out the photo section of the Puget Creek Restoration Society website, featuring yours truly (scroll down). I headed up to B'ham over the weekend to move stuff from my old place to my new place, which should be a big improvement. And...that's it for me.

Think about it

Of all the signs at the World Cup, this one has to be the truest/coolest.

Working hard for the [hippy] man.

I had my first day on the job at my internship yesterday morning. It mostly involved pulling up invasive plants like blackberry bushes (ouch) and using a GPS device to map the area. It's kind of weird to do labor without getting paid, but I keep reminding myself that it's not like I have anything better to do with my time.

It's that time again: SUMMER TIME!

I got up at 6 AM and did some working out with Anna this morning. Time will tell if it'll happen again. I don't much care for the facilities in her building. I really miss Western's gym. In other news, I have an interview for my summer internship tomorrow. I'm not too worried about it, because they seem like a pretty small operation and I doubt I'd be doing much more than clearing ivy and blackberry bushes.
I also think I'm going to participate in the Windows Vista beta testing this summer. I already downloaded the 3.2 gig DVD iso and burned it, I'm just going to backup my system and take the plunge. I'll try to write about any interesting experiences (an amature tech blog? have I reached a new level of dork?).

*Update*
I ran the install program, and Vista won't recognize my RAID drivers. This means that it can't see my hard drives, so I have nothing to install the operating system on. Oh well, it probably would have been frustrating anyway. I do kind of miss the constant crashing and freezing earlier versions of Windows brought. XP just isn't exciting anymore.

Give me a break. I've been busy

Over Memorial Day weekend I attended Evenson's bachelor party. I and 14 other guys went out to a raucous margarita-filled dinner where, of course, I run into my mom. What are the chances?


Right now I'm trying to set up an internship for the summer, a job for next fall, and study for my finals (which are going to suuuck). Summer's looking pretty good.

What's in the box? Music!

The future has shown itself to be awesome once again. My latest find has been Pandora, which is a customizable internet radio station; you put in songs/artists you like, and it recommends stuff, which you rate thumbs up or thumbs down. It has a pretty decent amount of music on it, too. I really hope someone makes a Firefox plugin for this thing soon.

Way overdue

The Holy Trilogy? Released in its remastered but unaltered form? It's about damn time!

Is summer here yet?

The past few weeks have been pretty uneventful. I'm not sure how much I like my toxicology prof, who also happens to be my faculty advisor. She keeps drawing her benzene rings/phenyl groups without double bonds, which makes me squirm. She also says things like "Ok, in this slide the little smiley faces are the toxin, and the little pink box is the receptor they are trying to bond to. In this slide, the toxins are now metabolites and have been activated, as you can see by the fact that the smiley faces are purple." I guess I can't blame her for being girly, and she just isn't accustomed to teaching the chemistry side of toxicology. I probably just haven't seen her upsides yet.
On the other hand, I'm really liking my organic chemistry professor. We were making these things in lab that involved melting a small glass tube in a flame, then stretching it out. When it was my turn, I guess I impressed him with my technique, because he clapped me on the back and said "Wow, that's great! You are a master of flame." I had already known that for years, but it still made me happy to hear.

The first

Happy April 1st, everyone. I'm never sure whether to look forward to this day or not. There are always the stories that are funny and obviously false, like China buying Google and there finally being a working review of Duke Nukem Forever.
Some things, though, are a little trickier. Google Romance? It looks real, but...I don't know. Google did start Gmail on April 1st, and last year they upped our inboxes to 2 gigs. But "with Soulmate Search(TM)?" I just don't know anymore. And how about a wireless extension cord over at ThinkGeek? Apparently, it is your ticket to the future. I'm at a loss.
Below is the awesome reworking of Slashdot, just in case you see this after the first.
*UPDATE* As for the wireless extension cord, I finally noticed that the availability is "no suing." I knew that anything you would put in the path of a 100+ watt beam of microwaves would be cooked, burned, fried, and killed, but a part of me still wanted to believe it. For shame :(

A good week

The day started out with an 8 AM final in my organic chemistry class, then Josh was kind enough to skip some classes and drive me an hour and a half south to SeaTac. Then, a 50 minute flight to Vancouver where I spent an hour sipping a gin and coke with some duty-free liquor I snagged (bought) back in the states and watching the Simpsons. Best layover ever.
Anna picked me up at Heathrow and we jumped on the tube. We headed back to her flat only long enough to dump off my luggage, then we headed out to London to see the sights. We first went to Parliament so I could see Big Ben, Westminster Abby, and the building where she worked. Parliament was a very good lookin' building; it was almost a shame to see it blown up later in the week (in a movie, for those of you who haven't seen V for Vendetta). Lots of gold, lots of statues, and a very ornate outside. I have to admit that if I lived in London and was dirt poor, maybe I wouldn't mind so much if someone blew the thing up.
After that, my memory gets a little hazy, but at some point we had dinner with Ms. Elaine and Mr. Gene, then we headed back to the flat where I was kept up until 2 AM by Anna's flatmate because it was her 21st birthday. Bad times, especially since I had been up since 8 AM the previous day. 6 AM roles around, and we jump up and head to the train station to catch the Chunnel to Paris. It's not as exciting as you might think, taking a train under the ocean. There are fields, then it's dark for about 30 minutes, then there are fields again.
In Paris, we met up with a couple of Anna's friends who helped us find our hotel, which was right across the river from the Eiffel Tower. A few metro stops later and after realizing that even French streets are ostentatious, we found our hotel but our room wasn't ready yet, even though it was 3 PM. I guess that's what a 30 hour work week gets you. We left our bags there and did some sight-seeing, including a church, some French students protesting, and, of course, you have to see the red-light district of any city you happen to be in.
After being approached by a French police officer and answering his questions with blank stares while huddling outside a theatre for warmth, we made it back to the hotel at about 1 AM and collapsed. We drew the curtains and relished the thought of getting a full night's sleep. Later, we woke up. The room was still dark from the curtains. We found a clock. 3 PM. Shit. We hustled out and saw what we could with so little time left and night approaching. We saw the Louvre, but only from the outside because it closed at 5. We did make it to Notre Dame, though. I thought Parliament and parts of London were ornate and grand, but they have nothing on Paris. It was way too much to take in with just a couple of days. Hopefully I can go back someday, learn some conversational French, and see everything again.
The next morning we made it back to London via the Chunnel. Anna went to work, and the rest of the day we just took it easy. On Tuesday, we went to St. Paul's cathedral--built by, designed by, and the resting place of Christopher Wren--but they wanted way too much money to wander around inside, so we just looked around the outside. We went to the Tate Britain and saw the Gothic Nightmares exhibit, which was very interesting and creepy.
Wednesday, we went to the Tower of London, which was awesome, and we went on a tour of Highgate Cemetery. Well, a tour of the east side. The west side was where Marx was buried, but we didn't feel like paying twice to see one cemetery. Anyway, the side we saw was really cool, and had some obscure but kind of famous people, like the guy who founded the YMCA and Michael Faraday. The cemetery was founded in Victorian times, which was evident from the fact that it was very overgrown and at the oldest part, the path was strewn with volcanic glass. That's right, they paved the cemetery path in obsidian. How awesome is that? Pretty awesome, I'd say.
Thursday and Friday Anna had to work all day, so I wandered around London on my own. Thursday I went back to the Tower and had some Starbucks, then I went to the Tate Modern and saw some "art." The highlights were seeing Monet's Water Lilies and Dali's Lobster Phone, both for very different reasons. There was also a very strange exhibit in the main floor of the museum, which used to be a power station, that looked like a bunch of stacked sugar cubes. I couldn't help but be reminded of a video game level, though. I was trying to figure out how to push the boxes together so I could jump from stack to stack and make it across. *Photography was allowed on this level, obviously*
Friday, I went to the British Museum and saw lots of old and shiny things. They have the largest Egyptian collection outside of Egypt, so there were a lot of mummies and bones, which creeped me out a little. There were also a few rooms dedicated to Asian, Arabic, African, Native American, and Babylon. Pretty interesting, and you can't beat a free museum. Right at the entrance, there was a huge covered area with a large reading room in the middle, apparently where Marx penned Das Kapital. Yep, so there ya go. Museums are free, but churches charge you a fortune.
Friday night, we had one last bash at a local pub, where it happened to be karaoke night. I could tell that a few of the singers couldn't actually speak English very well by the trademark way they would interject gibberish instead of words, but keep it consistent with the melody (Dane, I imagine you've encountered this a lot). I also splurged on a £10 Cuban cigar, which was oh-so-smooth, and even got Anna to take a few puffs. I washed it down with Guinness, which does definitely get better the closer you get to Dublin.Saturday, Anna escorted me to the airport and I flew home. Air Canada was nice enough to give me a couple of beers for the flight back, too. Good times.

*For more pictures, visit the London and Paris photo sets on my Flickr*

V for Victorian

Yeah, I know not putting many pictures up here until I get home is a copout, but what can you do? I just don't feel like wrestling with the pictures right now, so I just posted a few to Flickr. Ok, fine, here's the Starbucks I went to this morning, right next to the Tower of London.

For some reason the British don't believe in cream, so it's milk or nothing in your coffee. Literally, you order it either black or white. Crazy.

We saw V for Vendetta last night, and I agree that it was awesome. Not sure how I feel about the end, though, but a good movie for sure. Also, it was awesome to see while in London because they were very faithful to local scenery, including the tube station right by Parliament. Twas quite creepy.