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 Posted November 9th, 2006 at 1:42PM
I’m sitting in the Pub, using my laptop, working on an article for a class. I look across, a few tables over, and some total metrosexual (no, on second thought he probably is gay) has a small, sleek, black laptop with the ubiquitous glowing apple on the back of its cover. I think “ooh,” look at my poor PowerBook, and then go back to working on my article.
A few minutes later, I realize. It’s an intel Mac Book. Apple never had a small black laptop before. I look again. His is small, thinner than my 12″ PowerBook. I suddenly get Apple envy. It’s sort of like penis envy, except that my inadequacies are lying right out on the table, for everyone to see. (But I also imagine, again like penis envy, that I’m the only one dwelling on it.)
My 12″ 1.5Ghz PowerBook has really gone downhill in recent months. The left-hand side near all my ports is bent. There’s a ding in the rear and I have no idea how it happened (but it must have been a rather hard impact). And yesterday, I dropped my backpack a bit too far: the next time I got the PowerBook out, I had trouble opening it. The little clasp wasn’t springing. I’ve noticed that the screen isn’t square or flush with the rest of the computer.
Am I intentionally trying to break my laptop? No. I don’t have the money for a new one. And I couldn’t even begin to justify the additional price increase to get a black Mac Book. (Although god they’re sexy.)
I need to get back to my article.
Posted November 8th, 2006 at 1:48PM
As far as my general requirements go, I still need one “artsy” class. So I’m looking through the art history courses being offered this spring. And nothing really appeals to me.
Then I remember! I’ve been trying to get into a printmaking class for the past four years, but they only offer 3-4 spots for nonmajors. But with “107+ credits,” I’m registering pretty early this time around. I check, and there are two seats available! I look at the time that it’s offered, and it conflicts with a writing course that I’m already registered for and need to take.
Gah!!
Posted November 2nd, 2006 at 7:35PM
Quantifiable snow today, enough to coat the ground briefly. By the time I got to campus, it had stopped and melted on all but a few cars. But it’s only downhill from here. I’m going to need to mount my snow tires soon. I was hoping to take one trip back home on the tires that came with the car, put as much mileage as possible on them. The fronts are pretty worn, past the wear bars. The rears still have a few thousand miles probably.
The November issue of Buzzsaw was put out last night. The design is nice and the writing is consistently good. My article came out pretty well, no huge glaring copy-edit problems and so it’ll work as a clip.
At 7pm there’s a free showing of An Inconvenient Truth on-campus. I haven’t seen it yet so today might as well be the day.
Otherwise it’s same old, same old. I’ve got a lot of work piling up, and not enough time to do it all.
Posted August 28th, 2006 at 1:14PM
We came down to Ithaca last Wednesday to look at apartments. We found one, which I’ll write about in a later post. Then I had a few days to pack, before moving in on Saturday. The apartment wasn’t furnished, so we had to bring my bed, furniture, and a variety of odd knick-knacks for the kitchen, bathroom, etc.
My parents slept over Saturday night, then returned on Sunday. I busied myself around the house. Everything is pretty much settled, except I still need to find a chair for my desk. Going to check out the Salvation Army and the odd used furniture store here and there.
Typing this post up in the pub on-campus. Still no internet at my place, although my neighbors in the same building sometimes get a wireless signal from one of the other houses in the area. I’ll have to investigate this further – my laptop doesn’t pick up any signal. Or perhaps I’ll just forgo internet at home. It’s not terrible. Forces me to do stuff other than surf the interweb. Like read newspapers.
Classes start this Wednesday. Not looking forward to it. Glad this is my last year, I’m over college. I hate people my age.
Posted April 26th, 2006 at 6:18PM
Today Al Franken broadcasted his radio show live from Ithaca College. I was fortunate enough to snag a ticket at the last second (they were free, but I had forgotten all about the event and never went and picked one up). Three hours, but it was generally fun. Variety of guests, from Ithaca mayor Carolyn Peterson to several professors from Cornell and IC. It was a good crowd, most of Emerson Suites was filled. Entertaining. I didn’t get a book signed however. I wanted to buy his newest (The Truth (With Jokes)) but it’s currently only out on hardcover, and I didn’t have the money to swing that.
Tomorrow is my last day of classes. Another semester down, only two more to go. Phew. The end of the year workload is really not that bad, but that won’t stop me from bitching. I need to work on two essays for my Public Essay class, I have two reviews, an essay, and a full-blown article between my Feature Writing and Writing as a Critic classes. A final in Macroeconomics.
Again, not that bad, but I’m also going to be moving out of my sublet this coming weekend (before finals). Speaking of which, I only need to be around on Tuesday and Wednesday next week, so I’ll drive to Ithaca early on Tuesday, then stick around, sleeping in the car, doing my stuff on Wednesday, and then jetting back home.
Posted March 24th, 2006 at 3:27AM
I present you, my faithful-but-sometimes-wavering reader, with a local Ithaca College event that will be kick-ass and which I encourage everyone to attend. From IC’s Intercom system:
“Know Occupation” Week Coming Soon
“Know Occupation: Israel/Palestine†week will begin with an art exhibition of political cartoons by an Israeli and a Palestinian artist on the Ithaca Commons on Sunday, March 26, and will continue with a series of films and speakers at Ithaca College about the consequences of military occupation for Israelis and Palestinians. The “Know Occupation†events, which have been organized the IC Students for a Just Peace, are free and open to the public.
The scheduled events follow:
• Sunday, March 26, Political Cartoons Exhibition on the Commons, Across from Unique World, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., features the works of Loui Jameel, a Palestinian student at al-Quds University in the West Bank, and Amitai Sandy, an Israeli artist in Tel Aviv. Refreshments and music provided.
• Monday, March 27, “Home Demolitions,†7:00 p.m., Textor 101, Ithaca College, presented by Daniel McCarey, IC senior, who participated in a human rights summer work camp organized by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
• Tuesday, March 28, “Breaking the Silence†movie and presentation by Tamir Sorek, an Israeli who has refused to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces in the Palestinian territories, Textor 102, Ithaca College, 7:00 p.m. Tamir, currently an adjunct assistant professor in the sociology department at Cornell University, studies the processes in which ethnic and national identities are produced, re-produced, and dissolved.
• Wednesday, March 29, “Arna’s Children†movie and discussion with IC Politics professor Beth Harris, Textor 102, Ithaca College, 7:00 p.m. The movie, written and directed by Danniel Danniel and Juliano Mer Khamis, tells the story of a children’s theater group that was established by Juliano’s mother, an Israeli, in the Palestinian Jenin refugee camp. Juliano returns to Jenin during the Second Intifada to film what happened to the children who had participated in his mother’s theater project.
• Thursday, March 30, “The Separation Wall,†Williams 323, Ithaca College, 7:00 p.m., presented by Haley Singer and Nicole Brierre, seniors at Ithaca College, who visited the West Bank and Israel over their winter break on a delegation with the Faculty for Israeli Palestinian Peace.
Posted January 15th, 2006 at 10:57PM
Typing up the title, it was telling me that I already had a post entitled “Back in Town”. That wasn’t originally going to be the title for this one, but I decided to continue the tradition. Last time I was talking about “home”. This time around: Ithaca.
I took the first place I looked at. Three-hundred dollars a month, for a large room in a small house. Utilities, high speed internet, and a washer all included. There are two other roommates — one I’ve met (he seems alright), and another one who will be getting back in town at the end of this month (she’s in Colombia during research or something). Three bedrooms upstairs, and an open, flowing dining room / kitchen / living room downstairs. It’s a narrow house on a small street — it only goes on for two blocks, and one end is barricaded off. The house neighbors a church — Zionist such and such (a quick Google told me that it’s a strain of Catholicism originating in Africa (thought so)). The neighborhood does seem to be heavily black. Change from Freiburg? I suppose, but largely inconsequential. The bigger change is that I’m most likely the only undergraduate on the block. I’m thinking the majority of students live on their respective hill, although I’ve known people who live downtown (all of the cooler heads, naturally).
It’s downtown Ithaca, about squarely in the middle of things. The walk to the Commons is probably ten minutes (although sorry, it’s freezing and I’m not attempting it till it gets warmer!). Wegmans is probably fifteen, twenty minutes. Great location, me-thinks. Of course, I do have the Honda with me.
Like I said, my room is damn large, although the previous occupant / sublet-er (/owner?) has left a few rubber bins of belongings behind, stowed in a corner. I can afford it; with all of my stuff moved in, the room still feels sort of bare. It’s also pretty nippy in the house, and more specifically, my room. I just received a voice mail from the woman, and she said they “usually keep the thermometer at 65.” Not that I’ve seen a thermometer, and not like my room feels anything like 65 (the rest of the house is a good five to ten degrees warmer), but whatever. I’ll leave my door open, make sure the windows are closed (a few were cracked when I first got here), and wear an extra layer. It’s a good temperature to sleep in, and it’s been unusually cold these past few days.
EDIT: The temperature thing has been solved, the radiator was off during the night, and this side of the house is an addition, with a different thermometer, which was set at 60, now pegged at 65.
Wait a second, what am I talking about? Yesterday, and the day before, I was walking around in short sleeves. I had spring fever, it hit sixty something! But that was back home, and in the time that we left there and finally arrived at Ithaca, the temperature dropped dramatically. How depressing. Anyways.
Today, besides just idling in my room doing nothing, I went up to Pyramid Mall, to Best Buy, and bought a router. The house has Roadrunner, and it’s damn speedy, but I wanted to set up a wireless LAN, like I had in Freiburg. I got really use to having (wireless) internet on my laptop. What a luxury. Setting up the router and getting my laptop online was effortless, although the house computer’s CD-ROM drive doesn’t seem to work.
It’s begun to snow once again. I’m still debating whether or not I should sit in on German 202 tomorrow. I need to take a placement exam, and my expectations of getting into 202 are pretty low. I’ll probably just go tomorrow to make an appointment to take the exam, and see if I bump into my German professor. Then Tuesday I have my first classes. Four classes on Tuesday and Thursday, three of which are writing classes, all of which are right after one another. Those two days are going to be hell, but having the rest of the week free will be redemption.
Oh wait, I really need to get a job too.
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