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 Posted December 5th, 2006 at 9:18PM
…But some are definitely worse than others.
I think I’m sick. I still have half a dozen papers floating over my head. It’s way too hot here. I’m tired. My cord of wood still hasn’t arrived. I could continue this forever. But instead, I’ll do that update that I’ve been meaning to do.
• Several weeks ago, for Thanksgiving break, I once again went to the SOA protest in Georgia. It was an alright time, but I think I’m completely past enjoying protests and actions of that sort. They don’t do it for me anymore, and they’re ineffectual.
• Some Ithacan reporter asked me a few questions yesterday. He was funny, a much worse interviewer than I. I’m getting better though, all of my interviews this semester have been quite easy and laidback.
• While I was down south, I visited a friend in Atlanta, and we went to a sports bar called The Dumpster. Enough information, right? The place was hilarious, everyone drank too much, it was a fun time. I met my friend’s new roommate, who’s into scooters. He goes to scooter rallies. Seriously, no one can bust my (or anyone elses) balls for going to MINI events ever again.
• I also ran the Tail of the Dragon twice. If this doesn’t make sense to you, that’s probably a good thing. For the people who do understand what this means. Well, that’s even better. For more information on Route-129, visit the “official” site. Also, check out my video that I made. I uploaded it onto YouTube, so check it out. I have no idea why, but I’m not able to insert YouTube videos into this blog like you see everywhere else. Something isn’t set up correctly.
• My cord of wood that I ordered more than a month ago is still not in my driveway or stacked neatly on my deck. First I was scheduled to get it the Wednesday of spring break. Then it was the Wednesday after that. Then it was this past Sunday. I get a time of delivery, I tell them where I live and directions, and then Sunday about noon I get a message saying that someone is in the hospital after an accident with a splitter and they won’t be able to deliver it today. Maybe tomorrow. (Today. It didn’t happen.) I’ll have to call them again tomorrow. I just want my wood. They better knock $20 off of the cost.
• Oh, and I put my snow tires on yesterday since it snowed an inch overnight. The MINI handles completely different, and I love the black rim look. I’ll have to take some pictures soon. They’re just steelies, but still. The car is slightly higher, it looks ready to rally!
That’s all. I’m now going to leave the Pub, go back to my apartment, and try to do some work before passing out. I hope I don’t have anything stronger than a cold. But it’s probably something like mono or bird flu. I’ve been exhausted for probably a week now. Bleh.
Posted August 30th, 2006 at 11:50AM
… in the Ithaca College library, using my laptop and schmoozing off of their free wireless internet. I decided to upload the photos I took of my new apartment, and make a brief post on this blog.
I open up iPhoto, and – surprise! – it says that there’s no library, that I need to either find one or create one. Whoops! My collection of pictures for the program was one of the first things to go last night, when I deleted a bunch of stuff, trying to free up some hard drive space (I need an external drive for archiving some of this shit). The PowerBook has a 60GB drive (that for some reason only says 55.77GB), and last night I was bottoming out at ~200MB. After purging a lot of junk, I’m now back to 5.02GB of free space. But I should have left my iPhoto library.
So now I’ll have to go back and re-shoot everything (big deal). There will be a post about my apartment in a few days, which is exciting for everyone, I’m sure.
In other news, today is Wednesday, which means the first day of classes. I only had two today, but it was quite enough. German 201 at 10am, and then Grants, Proposals, & Reports at 11am. German is going to be arduous. The prof will be speaking in German the entire time, which oddly enough is more than I got in German class in Germany. The Grants is a writing class focused on writing – you guessed it – grant proposals asking for money. I imagine it will help when I’m in the streets panhandling. From first impressions, the writing will be tedious, there are too many students in the class, and the professor tries entirely too hard.
Perhaps my other four classes won’t be as bad. Pff.
When’s the next break?
Posted May 26th, 2005 at 12:23AM
It’s the end of May and I’m putting the finishing touches on my trip abroad. I’ve done the bulk of the necessary planning. Most of the paperwork is done, and the passport is in the mail. It should arrive within the next two or three weeks. But before I go any further, let me write a quick refresher, since this is my first post in the travel blog.
This fall I’ll be heading to Freiburg, Germany, where I’ll be staying the entire semester. It is a specific program through IES, in which I’ll be studying the European Union. Because of where my interests lay — as well as a certain lack of requirements in other fields — I’m tentatively planning to take four politics classes and an intermediate German course. The classes cover a broad range of topics relating to the EU, ranging from the economics of the system, to its relations with the Muslim world.
I am interested in the workings of the European Union, to be sure (I’m not sure how many people would actually make a statement like that, but regardless). To be honest, the primary reason for this trip is to see the world — or at least large parts of Europe. Because when I say that I’ll be staying in Freiburg — it’s a bit misleading. The EU program includes paid trips all across Europe, to the key institutions which make the EU function. This includes Brussells, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Paris, Geneva, Budapest, Prague, and more. The specific field trips won’t be revealed until I actually arrive in Germany, however it certainly looks to cover most of Northern and Eastern Europe. At this point in time, it doesn’t look like I’ll be going to the more southern states, like Spain or Italy — but of course, when you’re in Europe, these places are only a train ride away.
I’ll be leaving August 30th, and will be returning December 19th. It’ll be only my second time on an airplane, my first time outside of the US for an extended period of time, and a chance to really nail down German. It’ll be a chance to live more independently than I have before, and to take in the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of a quite markedly different culture.
Ithaca College has large programs in London and Australia, but I’ve always heard that to get “The Full Experience,” you need to live in a country where English is a second language. Germany or Austria were my main avenues, since I’m taking German at college. And studying the European Union ties in nicely with my politics major (the Chair of the Department said that I will be “basically done” after I get back).
At this point in time, I’ve completed 90% of the paperwork required to go. I’m waiting on the passport, and then I’ll be O-K with IES. I had everything in order at school by the time I left. Right now, I’m actually focusing on getting a few recommended immunizations, as well as a cyst removed from my wrist. The surgery is going to be bothersome, requiring a total of three visits to the surgeon, as well as the actual operation which will take at least two or three hours.
But besides a few other loose ends, my main concerns right now are buying plane tickets and a notebook computer. Unfortunately, both of these are turning out to be large expenses. Roundtrip tickets from Albany, NY to Frankfurt, Germany look to be about $1000. And the 12″ Apple Powerbook is $1300. My parents are buying, but I still feel bad about dropping that sort of cash. Ultimately we’ll just have to take the plunge.
A few people who know me might be getting sick and tired about all of this. I’m nearly tired talking about it. But the plan is to set up an independent travel blog while I’m abroad. I’ll be figuring out the technical aspects in the weeks to follow, but eventually I’ll have a pared-down, distinctive section of the site, where I will be posting while I’m in Europe. Expect a lot of pictures. Probably become the main page of the site, since I’m thinking right now that I’ll stow away the rest of the blog during this time. Right now I’m not sure what will become of other parts of the site, like the conga lines I’m advertising, or the forum. I don’t know if I’ll have time to constantly administrate it all. Time will tell, but if people keep the forum nice and active (hint, hint), I’ll be more inclined to keep it afloat. That reminds me, on a last note, I plan to do a slight redesign to the menu bar, for the main sections. This will hopefully make the link to the forum stand out more, potentially adding users faster. That’s the plan, anyways.
Posted April 30th, 2005 at 12:45AM
School Mistakes Huge Burrito for a Weapon
CLOVIS, N.M. (April 29) – A call about a possible weapon at a middle school prompted police to put armed officers on rooftops, close nearby streets and lock down the school. All over a giant burrito.
Someone called authorities Thursday after seeing a boy carrying something long and wrapped into Marshall Junior High.
The drama ended two hours later when the suspicious item was identified as a 30-inch burrito filled with steak, guacamole, lettuce, salsa and jalapenos and wrapped inside tin foil and a white T-shirt.
“I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,” school Principal Diana Russell said.
…
After the lockdown was lifted but before the burrito was identified as the culprit, parents pulled 75 students out of school, Russell said.
Russell said the mystery was solved after she brought everyone in the school together in the auditorium to explain what was going on.
“The kid was sitting there as I’m describing this (report of a student with a suspicious package) and he’s thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh, they’re talking about my burrito.”‘
Afterward, eighth-grader Michael Morrissey approached her.
“He said, ‘I think I’m the person they saw,”‘ Russell said.
The burrito was part of Morrissey’s extra-credit assignment to create commercial advertising for a product.
…
Wow. And you know, if this kid was black he would have been shot. I joke. Sort of.
Posted February 2nd, 2005 at 6:19PM
I have to do the reading for my politics class tomorrow, the professor told us Tuesday that we were having a quiz on the material. He then layed out exactly what it was on, to the question. He then said, in so many words, that the people who weren’t there at that point (half a dozen students) were screwed.
It’ll be the first time I’ve read all of the reading since the first assignment. It’s really dry, drawn-out discussion about race, ethnicity, “primordialism.” A lot of it so far has been talking about obscure groups living in present-day Nigeria, or the Pacific Islands.
I got my last shipment of books from Amazon. Most of them were books for the politics class, hopefully the books will be a bit more entertaining.
I have a fair amount of stuff to do for my other class. And I really should at least draw up a rough proposal for my article in the alt. college rag. It’ll be an opinion piece on the recent elections in Iraq. Hint: inconsequential, largely symbolic.
But otherwise, I’m still sort of just going through the motions. The weather is still nice, but I think it’s suppose to be cloudy tomorrow. Which will mean a drop in temperatures.
Modest Mouse — The Stars are Projectors
In the last second of life, they’re gonna show you how
How they run this show, sure, run it into the ground
The stars are projectors, yeah
Projectin’ our lives down to this planet Earth
The stars are projectors, yeah
Projectin’ our minds down to this planet Earth
Everyone wants a double feature
They wanna be their own damn teacher, and how
All the stars are projectors, yeah
Projectin’ our lives down to this planet Earth
Posted January 18th, 2005 at 10:46PM
After attending every class once, I can tentatively look forward to the rest of the semester. I don’t know if I’ll necessarily enjoy all of my classes, But I know one thing – my schedule is awesome.
Done by 2pm Mon-Wed-Fri. No classes before 11am. My Tues and Thurs are alittle out of wack, but who cares.
It looks like I’ll be enjoying my one politics class the most, again – race issues in the US. The professor seems good so far, he was recommended. My writing classes look a tad weak. German will be arduous again. “Environmental Ethics” could go either way. But hopefully I’ll pull some better grades and boost the ol’ GPA this semester.
Books only came to about $350 this time around. Quite a bit less than last semester, or the one before that.
I’ve been getting tired really early lately. Been going to sleep at ten, eleven. It’s odd.
Dining hall food is bad, but comfortable.
It’s snowy, slushy outside.
I don’t like the way the blog is turning, always more personal, always less political. But if I don’t have the chance to post a whole lot of politics, then what’s the alternative? There’s nothing worse than visiting a defunct blog. I’ll get around to it sometime. Classes look like they’ll inspire me somewhat.
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