Friends

So when they say winter quarter at Rose is hectic? They're not kidding. I just found my first solid chunk of downtime since I came back to school two weeks ago. What have I been up to, you ask?

For starters, the Festivus, Christmas, and New Year's celebrations that occurred over my last break were all most excellent. This year was the fifth consecutive Festivus celebrated within the group, and it was by far the smoothest a Festivus has ever gone. The Airing of Grievances was trouble-free, the introduction of a white elephant gift exchange went smoothly, and our Feats of Strength involved that classic game Set. For Christmas a few days later, hordes of relatives (from both sides of the family) descended on the house for almost an entire week all told. (Most hilarious was our cousin Keith, who's two and just being ridiculous all over the place. He got an iPod Touch for Christmas. He's two.) Lastly, New Year's went well overall, despite some illnesses on part of a couple of the partygoers. Mario Kart is never so hilarious as when played sleep-deprived at 4am. Continue reading "A couple updates"

Our floor is a pretty boisterous one, and the guys who live here are prone to getting into certain predicaments that most dorms might not encounter. So when I hear someone running down the hall screaming "We have to go to the hospital!", I figured it was only a matter of time, really. But that shouldn't stop me from going to see what the fuss is about. Continue reading "In stitches"

Snow Leopard, the sixth iteration of Mac OS X, came out today. Being the good little Apple fanboys that we are, Chris and I decided to go get copies as soon as we could, which meant when the Apple Store opened at 9am this morning.

So we drove down to the store, getting there around 9:10 (Chris overslept slightly), and walking in to a very sparsely populated store with no visible employees, except for one sketchy guy who darted into the back as soon as we came in. The doors were unlocked, though, and there were several people inside who were just playing with laptops or waiting at the Genius Bar, and it was one of these people who eventually told us: the store doesn't open until 10.

I was mildly upset. Continue reading "Big Cats, Part VI"

So wow. Summer's gone. I head back to school the morning of the 30th, then dive right in with freshman laptop orientation the 31st and a Learning Center tutor "retreat" (two-hour meeting) on the 2nd. Classes begin the 3rd.

In light of all that, I thought I'd take a moment and recap what my summer was like this year. Continue reading "Summer summary (summery?)"

Long-distance relationships are hard. So when Jessica and family offered to have me visit for a few days, I was only too happy to oblige.

I stayed in Germantown, TN for a total of four days and three nights. I took the Amtrak both ways, and got back home with just enough time to do laundry, repack, and head off to Pennsylvania for the family reunion. (More on that later).

I left home at around 4pm on Saturday, July 25, taking the Metra from Barrington into the city for a 9pm departure from Union Station. Apparently, due to the boat parade, it was the fourth-busiest day of the year for the Metra into the city, and everyone was drinking on the way. Through random happenstance, I wound up sitting next to a few soon-to-be-partiers that knew Aiello from the high school. They seemed reasonably surprised that he turned out to be a teacher - "the last thing," one of them declared, "that I thought he'd wind up being."

Once in the city, I stopped at Garrett Popcorn to pick up a two-gallon tub of delicious popcorn for Jessica's family, by way of a thank-you gift. Regrettably, the store in Ogilvie was closed on the weekends, so I wound up hauling a backpack and duffel bag eight blocks by foot across the city to get the popcorn, then carrying it all back ten blocks to the station. I was reasonably tired by the time I got there.

The train left Union Station pretty much on time, and but for a distinctly mean and unhelpful conductor, the ride was pretty standard. I wasn't able to buy business class like I was on the way up to MSU - this train, the City of New Orleans, had no business-class cars - but it was mostly empty, so I was able to stretch out across two seats. There was also an electrical outlet right next to me, so I could charge my phone and laptop and get a meager amount of work done on the train. I slept about half the 10.5-hour trip, and arrived about a half hour late in Memphis to Jessica and her father, who were awaiting me at the station. Continue reading "Hello Germantown"

The title might not be exactly fair, given that I only spent one day at IU Bloomington, but I did spend less than ten dollars, so I think it counts.

The backstory goes something like this: U of I and Tulane were both on spring break right now, so Randall, Jessica, and Natanya were all at home. It was the perfect opportunity to come down to Indiana and spend the weekend with Sam, Griffin, and Crissi, who were still in school. And it just so happens that Terre Haute is more or less between LZ and Bloomington, so why not pick me up and take me along?

Randall/Jessica/Natanya drove down here Friday morning, arriving just as I finished my DISCO II test. We had lunch on campus; they were able to meet Jessica and Catherine, but wanted to hit the road shortly thereafter, so they didn't get to meet the rest of the gang (including Jarek, who was on an FTX). I packed up the bare minimum amount of stuff for one night, and we were off. Continue reading "How to Vacation on Less than Ten Dollars a Day"

Another holiday season has come and (almost) gone, and I thought it'd be nice to take a few minutes to look back on my week and see what went on.

Christmas was obviously the dominating event of the past few days. Among the big gifts I got were a terabyte hard drive (for the RAID array - more on that in a minute) and a nice new office chair to replace the one I have at school. Rose provided a batch of chairs in all the dorms, but they are pitiful excuses for seating apparati, especially considering the amount of homework and coding that is intended to go on in them. So my parents got me a big new padded black leather executive wheeled chair that I can take with me, and I put it together yesterday and tested it out. It's not quite an Aeron, but it's good.

Another big chunk of my time has been spent working on a new iPhone app. I won't say exactly what it is, but it's a big departure from my previous utilitarian apps, and I think it should be a fairly big hit. I will say that it's an adaptation of a preexisting game, and that it involves pretty much every feature of the device I could get my hands on (accelerometer, orientation sensor, sound facilities, and multi-touch capabilities, to name a few). Regrettably, it's still a ways away from being done. Although most of the functionality is there, a huge amount of polish has yet to be applied. In a few days, I'll hunker down with Photoshop, GarageBand, and Audacity and see what I can accomplish. demonic laughter

Back to the RAID. You may recall that I promised a big, in-detail look at the array around Christmas. This is that entry. Be warned. Continue reading "Happy Holidays"

The entire saga began about a month ago, when I found Coldplay tickets still on sale for their United Center concerts. I bought four, on the assumption that I could find at least three other people to go with. I had no idea how hard that was going to be.

I found two pretty quickly - Steffi and Kyle were both excited to go (it was Steffi's first concert ever, so there was pretty much no convincing required). The fourth ticket, however, sat unsold for weeks on end. I actually started to get worried about having to scalp the thing outside the United Center. Matt, however, took a stunning last-minute reversal on the ticket, solely on the basis that he got paid the same day as the concert, and could therefore afford the outrageous $93 it cost to attend. Thanks for making me drive through the bank, Matt. Always a pleasure.

We got to the Center at about 6:30pm; the show allegedly started at 7:00. Curiously, we ran into Greta, Kyle's sister, in line to buy T-shirts; Kyle had taken her to the train station just before we picked him up, and she and a few of her friends had beaten us there. We killed the time in line discussing Kyle's newly acquired faux-hawk. Turns out Greta had actually styled Kyle's hair at a party two days ago, and he saw no reason to remove the 'do. Continue reading "Coldplay, live in concert"

Never has a Modest Mouse lyric been more appropriate.

I was rudely awoken this morning by Marissa, who called to demand I post up some pictures I've taken over the past week or so. It was about 10am; I usually sleep past noon, so this was quite unexpected. Anyway. After about five minutes of haranguing, I staggered out of bed and started wandering around the house, where I remained in a half-asleep state until I got another call, about an hour or so later. It was Steffi, with some rather unpleasant news:

Matt was missing. Continue reading "Are you dead or are you sleeping?"

So there it is, 3am in Bryan's basement, and we've just finished the first half of a brutal and grisly campaign against two Empire Earth automatons set on the hardest difficulty level. The game's gone on for a good three or four hours at this point, and we're all exhausted. Plus, Bryan has to work in the morning. We decide to save the game, get some sleep, and pick it up again at a later date. Bryan wanders off to his room, and Sam and I prepare to bunk down for the night. When suddenly, we hear footsteps. Eerie.

I turn around to see a middle-aged woman in a nightdress standing on the stairs grinning at us. We exchange a little small talk, and she heads off towards the bathroom. As soon as she's out of sight, my head whips toward Sam, who is standing with a look of complete befuddlement.

"You know her?" I mouth.

"No," he whispers back.

We stare for a moment longer, then crack up with laughter. Two minutes later, just as we start to calm ourselves down, the shower starts. At this point, it's about 3:30 in the morning, and for no discernible reason, an anonymous woman is taking a shower in Bryan's basement bathroom. I'm still laughing.