Our engineering thing is so cool. Lego MindStorms shall not be disrespected for engineering project prototyping. Plus, I may have landed myself a healthy summer internship! Regradless, we got it all coded up; the light sensor detects, it stops, picks up the object, and then takes it to the ‘trash’. It even has an initialization loop to zero everything and put the arm where it should be. I have Sarah’s dragging (which is mostly what coding involves on these MindStorms things) abilities to thank for that.
So I was in that engineering room from 1pm until 7pm yesterday. An absolute blast of a time. I knew (I knew) it all along this is what I like; and it’s becoming more sure everyday. Speaking of which, I’m still doing the dentistry thing. Looks like the internship program might be delayed (I’m a lowly freshman), which could stink. I’ll see what happens; they might be able to squeeze me in. Oh, and I forgot to mention, my newest design project is up at KaplerPartnership.com - it’s a fixed width, variable font size, standards-compliant, intuitive, dynamic, custom-logo project. I’m starting to be happy with my work (would you believe that). Next step, my own server and modrewrite. Or, figure out modrewrite on this one. Scratch my own server, I really (Thank you Justin) like this one, I just really like mod_rewrite as well. Continuing on, SimpleBits evolved their design a bit; clever, stylish, and clean as usual.
I made a logo for a site called typographica, we’ll see if it gets posted. Oh, and calc.org is using my logo again. Who knew?
Ah me, what else. Oh yes, while down at class (after having my face frozen off by -20 windchill), I found the Evanescence CD. There was no case, and no one had been around to claim it. Thus, I just finished ‘listening’ ;) to it on here, and I was able to listen to the bonus track online which is only available with the CD product key. I am a happy camper. I think I like the straight version of My Immortal (with orchestra) better than the Band Version. I’ll just return it to its home tomorrow.
Piano is going well. So is Theo (I have more bible quotes than I want to share right now). I am going to make a bowling collage, perhaps.
Dan and I made the coolest scale. It goes from 0 (meaning that person wants to kill you) to 100 (70 years old and still as in love as the day you were wed). I will post the progression sometime. Dan’s progress is being charted right now using a thumb tack. Hilarious. You ask, who are we charting on Dan’s list? Can’t tell you that.
Steve is being kept up by beautiful women in his dorm room late at night. We (me?) are/am devising a plan to save him and get him some sleep and uglier people.
HARRY: Would you like to have dinner? … Just friends. SALLY: I thought you didn’t believe men and women could be friends. HARRY: When did I say that? SALLY: On the ride to New York. HARRY: No, no, no, I never said that.
(pauses and thinks) Yes, that’s right, they can’t be friends. Unless both of them are involved with other people, then they can - this is an amendment to the earlier rule. If the two people are in relationships, the pressure of possible involvement is lifted. (another pause) No, that doesn’t work either, because what happens then is, the person you’re involved with can’t understand why you need to be friends with the person you’re just friends with. Like it means something is missing from the relationship and why do you have to go outside to get it? And when you say “No, no, no it’s not true, nothing is missing from the relationship,” the person you’re involved with then accuses you of being secretly attracted to the person you’re just friends with, which you probably are. I mean, come on, who the hell are we kidding, let’s face it. Which brings us back to the earlier rule before the amendment, which is men and women can’t be friends.
Tonight was the first night in a long time that I turned on my lava lamp. That blue ooze slowly dancing around in a cyclic pattern has the uncanny ability to slow a person down and make them think. I am one of the last left here in Woodbury; the Exodus back to college began about two weeks ago. Now, only Matt, Shayla, and I remain. John remains as well, but he doesn’t leave; I think that still counts, though. Steve and I ran some errands and by the end of them, he had exactly $15 from what his dad had given him to buy mid-semester school restocking supplies. So, we pulled into the gas station and started filling up the car. “You know,” Steve said as he and a freezing wind jumped into the car, “I hope the gas doesn’t go over fifteen dollars, that’s all I have. Though, it sure would make a great story if I hit exactly fifteen dollars.” I thought for a second and mentioned the quarter I had in my wallet. But Steve was looking though the rear window at the pump. I glanced back as well and, seeing the “total sale” value rapidly climbing to fifteen, I was pretty sure he would go over. I turned away for a second and then heard a resounding “thump.” “Uhh, Alex.” “Yeah?” “Look.” “WHATTHEHECK. NOO! YOURKIDDING. OHMYGOD! What the HECK?” Total Sale: $15.00 - there in undeniable orange and black. I still think we should have gone to the casino, or at least bought a lottery ticket. When it was all said and done, Steve couldn’t help but muse, “Why do I get lucky with stuff that doesn’t matter?” I don’t know. Fun times.
By the way, it has been around 30 below wind chill lately. It’s not at the “nose hair freezing” cold level yet, but it’s enough to freeze your pants into stiff pieces of fabric. It’s the kind of cold that makes you happy that sheep give us wool and geese give us down (and DuPont gives us MicroHyperUltraGoreTec). I will reiterate: thank goodness for my scarf. If I had a digital camera I would share a picture of it.
What a warming trend, isn’t it?
I don’t know about you, but good Lord, I need a back massage. [Coldplay - Moses - Live Cut]
New! We here at tumbledry, in our never-ending quest to serve you better, can now bake cookies. That is, we now use cookies (little bits of information that your browser stores, more here) to save your username and email when you send mail using the QuickMail form. Those of you who have turned off cookies in order to enhance your privacy will not benefit from this function. The cookie is set to go stale after one month.
Last night, Steve, Nils, Mikaela, and me went to MOA as a part of the “say goodbye to Nils” evening. He had to leave sooner than he thought, which was really too bad. First off, I would have hoped for Nils sake that he could have had a little more home time to think about his decision about a major. Secondly, he took the looping pedal that says “Nick I will kill you” in 8 part harmony sung by Matthew. To continue on the musical tangent for a moment, I finally got around to writing down some more songs on the piano. That puts me at around 12 songs for the next album. I will probably write to 20 and then cut some or combine two into one song and cut back down to 12. Also, I discovered my mom still has her guitar, so I hope to take that with me to my dorm and continue working on my chords and finger picking - what a fun instrument. It’s a funny thing; last time Steve got into guitar I started playing. Then he stopped for a while - but now he is back into it again and has re-inspired me to pull it out and play again. Besides, now that I don’t play french horn, I need to fill in my “secondary instrument” gap. “Gap” reminds me of MOA, which is where we were. Anyways, I bought a scarf (finally) for $6.99 (which doesn’t beat Nils’ $10 AE pants) and we also tried on tight pants at Gap (now don’t take that the wrong way, nobody suggested buying them). We re-visited LoveSac, tried on tons of other stuff (determined that Mikaela can go from looking French to Russian with a simple change of a hat), Steve liked the silk and cashmere shirt from Banana Republic (but not the $80 price), and we all heartily agreed Nils could pull of the “nu prep” look. Which reminds me of Nils’ hilarious silent movie that Alex, Nils, and Lars created over this break. Entitled The Death of a Gun Salesman, it emplified the natural evolution of Nils’ film skills. In other words, it was really, really funny. Thus my list of things I have to get from Nils is: “Nick I will Kill you” and a movie. Good? Good. Continuing on, Nils had to go home (and I do hope his trip back to Madison has gone well) and so we stayed up ‘til ‘round about 2:15 talking. It was really a lot of fun - so was watching Little Women the night before. I admit, I cried. I wish I had seen that movie earlier. It’s funny; everyone starts to drag at around 1:00 in the morning but by 1:30 we get all punchy and things get really funny. It’s great. Steve coined one phrase: “let’s not be modest, let’s be honest.” And one more, which makes me laugh everytime: “Clock, clock, clock, clock.” I would explain the second one, but that would ruin it’s comedic elegance.
Songs to get: that new one by Jessica Simpson which, for some reason I can’t explain, I really like. “Takin’ Care of Business.” And “That’s What I like About You.”
Have you ever been walking through the light mist of a gray day when someone stepped in and turned on the sun? Has anyone ever helped you stop looking at the stones in the road and start gazing in wonder at the clouds in the sky? Have you been playing minor chords when someone gave you a reason to stop? Inspiring, isn’t it?
Katy has been ice skating a lot lately. I am pretty sure it’s her new hobby. She has inspired me to consider ice skating as well. Yay! She’s lucky, her room faces south and west so she gets plenty of sunlight. Sunlight. DJ Sammy - Sunlight; what a great song.
Major things in my life right now: Evanescence - My Immortal [it’s collaboration time, Matt!], subbing, and LoveSac’s [fingers crossed as usual]. Which reminds me, I have an experiment for you. See how long you can hold someone’s gaze. It’s tough for two reasons a.) It’s uncomfortable and b.) Hard to find an excuse for why you are staring at someone. All cultures have their norms about eye contact, and since the American way is pretty easy going concerning that - it’s fun to stretch the limits. Can you tell I’m on vacation? If you call J-Term class a vacation, which I consider it as. Although it’s not like I am going to Texas, or Thailand, or skiing in Colorado, or a cruise around Mexico (is “around” the right word?). Right now, I don’t feel the need to leave (to vacate) to feel like I am on vacation.
I recently realized that someone could react to my entire website with “who cares.” This, contrary to logic, does not discourage me. I rarely write for other people. If I entertain and inspire, that is excellent; but my main goal right now is to get my thoughts out. If they help others, fantastic, but I am not currently in the state of mind where I want to bend over backwards to “wow the crowd.” I like journaling.
Friday night was me, Steve, almost Matt, Matt, Alex, and Cheston. Absolutely hilarious. First time ever that my jaw hurt from laughing so much. Alex’s hair is massively awesome (read: huge, curly, and aviator sunglasses-compatible). Vladamir Horowitz provided the soundtrack for the evening, complete with his “ivory” look (it accomplishes similar goals that “blue steel” from Zoolander did). “Ivory” involves the index and middle finger of both hands on the temples gazing at the camera with virtuostic concentration. I can’t begin to list all the other hilarious events from the evening; but I can say that Alex’s shirt said “Your mullet just winked at me.” and going to LoveSac at MOA was awesome. We were there at the same time as Matt and Shayla and didn’t see them! Which, I suppose, isn’t surprising considering we were at the former largest mall in North America. Another thing we learned: the solution to cold winter driving is packing five (5) people in a two door Cavalier. Matt might be able to get road signs for us. Cheston is the wake up and smell the coffee. Alex had three (four?) college women stay at his house on Saturday. At Applebee’s, I am pretty sure we were the loudest (but funniest) group in the restraurant. Only discouraging thing was waiting in line and watching people go in, eat, and leave before we were seated. Final thing to add from the night: “fresh squeezed uice!” See what happens when you mess with j’s, Steve?
Saturday was some awesome bowling. Confronted with another long wait (I think I have bad karma when it comes to waiting), we hit Culver’s and consumed. Steve won. Then we went to Matt’s Shayla’s and said “bye” to Matt and “hi” to Shayla. All in all a thoroughly entertaining evening.
Mr. Bina is a funny, funny guy (we visited him on Fri.). Wish I was as funny as he is. Band sure was a great class.
Home Star Runner - What to say - you just have to visit. An animated series with great voices and clean stylistic lines. StrongBad emails are funny in their own sophmoric way; I especially like the guitar email.
So Matthew asked this question and I can imagine he expects it to be answered: “How do you know when you are in the right place at the right time?” The key to this is experience. You experience over and over being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the right place at the wrong time, the wrong place at the right time, and finally the right place at the right time. You learn to see what it is like, how it feels to your “gut instinct”, and what happens as a result. It’s not something that anyone can teach you or tell you, it’s something you have to learn for yourself through experience. Unfortunately, that probably doesn’t help you at all in your current situation, Matthew. Therefore, skirting the question I would reply, we do not always need to know if we are in the right place at the right time, we simply need to function and flourish with the knowledge that things will turn out right.
This is the ultimate post because of it’s high level of randomness. First, let’s start with music. Howie Day’s latest is solid, I need more Jimmy Eat World, and I should get a hold of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. Dashboard’s newest is growing on me. I still declare that Dido’s “White Flag” is an excellent song. I like some parts of the lyrics and other parts I don’t like. Either way, the tune is excellent. The song I am getting to here is by Evanescence. You may know them because they got big’ly huge with their song from the Spiderman soundtrack. Regardless, their latest is much more mellow - and it doesn’t have that huge shot of ultra low bass that “Bring Me to Life” has at the beginning. I’ll be right back, I have to go find the lyrics. Found them. Interesting - good thing Amy has such a recognizable voice or my search for this song might have been a lot longer. I will only give you an excerpt - if you are that curious why I like the song then go buy it - yes that’s the new tough love motto here at tumbledry.
These wounds won’t seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There’s just too much that time cannot erase
I’m reading the Silmarillion - a great gift from Nils. What a fantastic book. The ironic thing is, when I started my Theology class, the bible (Genesis) reads just like parts of the Simarillion; so I need to adjust to what is part of the class and what is part of that book. After all, I can’t afford to get God mixed up with one of the Noldor, the Valar, etc. Nevertheless, I bet I will end up answering a question on one of the quizzes with “Fingon King of the Calaquendi, son of Fingolfin, who was killed in the 5th great battle for the Silmarils: Nirnaeth Arnoediad.” That would be embarrassing.
The side of my water reads as follows: “wake up. take shower. get dressed. eat cereal. brush teeth. kiss dog. pet wife. wait - stop. reverse that. o.k., continue. read paper. drive to work. sit in traffic. sit in meetings. kiss butt. eat lunch. sit in more meetings. kiss more butt. drive home. sit in traffic. kiss wife. pet dog. watch favorite reality TV show. sleep. what does this all mean, you ask? well, if this sounds like your day the last thing you need is the same old water. so, enjoy, o.k.?” This is tangerine-pineapple-guava flavor. Smells very good, tastes very little. Then again, if the flavor was more intense it’d be Gatorade - so I am not complaining. It’s called smartwater. Try it, and visit their website.
Why did Britney Spears get married to a childhood friend and this annul the wedding hours later? Well, a common viewpoint would be she simply is an irresponsible celebrity. I disagree and put this action on the same plane as her “let’s kiss Madonna” stunt. Publicity. Free publicity. Lot’s of free publicity. These execs at Jive aren’t stupid - they understand that a large part of their wealth lies in the staying power of their stars and starlets in the eyes of the public. Ridiculous. I realized it’s not really her music I like - it’s the unbelievable skill with which the stuff is produced and engineered by the people behind the scenes. In the end, it doesn’t really matter who is singing flimsy lyrics about teen love - it’s the catchy, skillful, and engaging methods and style with which the music is assembled that gives the music it’s power to hook a person in the first 30 seconds and keep them there for the next 2 minutes 30 seconds. I would love to see these awesome people work with real artists - and they do - it’s just hard to follow them because albums aren’t usually advertised as “Produced by” or “Engineered by.” There’s lurking talent in the music industry - it’s just our job to find it.
Back to the Silmarillion. Quote time! “and I would take what joy is here left, untroubled by memory. And maybe there is woe enough yet to come, though still hope may seem bright.” page 127, Second Edition. “And however that might be, Idril loved Maeglin not at all; and knowing his thought of her she loved him the less.” page 138, Second Edition. Second one is taken out of context. I should watch out for more quotes - the writing style is historical, epic, and poetic.
I was sitting (actually, driving) in the car listening to music and started thinking (as that is my usual activity). As I frequently have mentioned here, I like all kinds of music. Some music is more fatiguing for me than other types (I can listen to solo piano longer than Metallica), but I still like them both and respect them for the level of musicality which they both display. I realized I don’t mind country sometimes. It is fatiguing in a different way than Metallica (in one I just want the distortion to clear sometimes and in the other I just want the slide guitar to take a break sometimes) but I still enjoy some songs a lot. Obviously, I am making stereotypical generalizations, but like I said - I still like some songs from these genres a lot - but making overarching conclusions dictates that I make some generalized statements. But anyway, I really didn’t understand and it struck me as odd as I, for the first time in a while, flipped on K102 and listened to a song. I sat there and wondered, “Why am I enjoying this,” and then decided “I better write about this.” And so, here we are. If I enjoyed it, why question the reasons? “Ours is not to wonder why, ours is just to do or die.”
In Theology, (my 2 credit J-Term class of Fun) we have assigned readings. Whilst intellectually buried in the midst of one of these, I started thinking. Let’s assume God created the Earth. Fine. What was around before God then? Nothing? Isn’t nothing outside of the universe? But doesn’t nothing come from nothing? Regardless of that problem, let’s go to present day and get inside the universe and start traveling in a direction, will we come to an edge where past that is the outside/nothing? It would seem that we wouldn’t come to an edge, which perhaps indicates the universe is circular - so - like the Earth - we begin driving at one point and as long as we keep driving straight sooner or later (in the case of the universe much, much, much later) we will end up where we started. But still, we would be left with the sphere of the universe - what would be outside of this? Oh, and time. Does that loop too? Does any of this matter? Yes, I believe it does. Why? Because of this: if there is no God and hence no spiritual world, we are forced into some conclusions, namely free will becomes hard to argue for. What if we don’t have free will, stemming from a spirit (as only free will can - because our minds have been found to be a large series of chemical reactions governed by the same rules of any other chemical reaction), and our bodies (more importantly minds) are directed by the rules of science (like everything else that we have studied up until now). Religion makes provisions to avoid this problem and gives us “answers” to very frightening questions. Without religion the materialistic philosophy (which I don’t believe in, but I have been outlining above) triumphs and our lives become chemical reactions governed and pre-determined just as the laws of physics govern and pre-determine the way in which a dropped object falls. Nobody wants to be the bullet from a gun, shot out with it’s plan laid out for it. Lift your left index finger. Did you? Did you not? What if, regardless of if you thought you had a choice, that everything in the universe has led up to this instant and that you never had a choice and whatever you just did had already been decided? What if free will is an illusion?
This is why my homework can take some time.
To shift gears to a much simpler observation, I have noticed that the ClearType feature on WindowsXP (mentioned here previously in equally glowing terms) is a Microsoft feature that is a.) Not annoying, b.) Stable, and c.) Never gives me the blue screen of death. I have found that, when writing papers, it does actually reduce the strain on my eyes by smoothing out the edges of characters. Features like this are what we need. We need bigger displays with higher resolutions and more lifelike color - not another GUI with bells and whistles in the icons and sounds.
My mind was wandering in Theology. Here would be a good way to ask someone out: ensure that you and person of Interest attend the same party. Write message on bottom of shoes. Make sure person of Interest is sitting opposite you. Place feet strategically on table surface. Await response. I can assure you, I won’t be trying this. But if I do convince some poor bloke to give it a try, I will share the results (I promise to change names for privacy).
I just earned 9 out of 10 on Josh’s quiz. On a tangential but unrelated note, I am happy because I am currently quoted in three (3) profiles at once. I’d reveal what I said in these profiles, but that is unnecessary disclosure of private conversations, not something that I condone. Ladies and gentleman, it has been fun, and as they say, “Lord willing n’ if the creek don’t rise” I will see you next time.
You are tense right now. Feel how your shoulders are scrounged up around your neck? How your fingers are curled up with tension? Let your body droop into the chair and onto the desk. Bad ergonomics? Probably. Good relaxation? Definitely.
Now where did that piece of advice come from?
Hmm, I suppose I could re-live the past couple of days. We built the sub - it is huge and it shakes the entire house. By “shakes the entire house” I mean we haven’t even gotten the courage to turn it up past half way because the ceiling starts rattling so bad. Fun times. Katy hates the TV in the basement, so we’ll move it back here pretty soon for her. Thank you to Steve for helping me move the TV downstairs in the first place. Christmas was excellent. It’s the greatest experienece to eat Christmas dinner and then be able to take a couple mile walk with your 78 year old grandpa - I think it’s great he is full of “vim, vigor, and pep.” Last night it was Matt, John, Nils, Matthew, Tommy, Nick, Steve for the first Matrix movie. As Nils would say “Alex, I need more bass.” I’m sorry Nils, we’ll try for more later.
Thank you, dear reader, for enduring tumbledry’s holiday sabbatical.
Perhaps I will borrow a digital camera to take some pictures of the sub, speakers, etc. Or perhaps I won’t. I’m happy with my grades this past term - you’ll never guess what they are. Then again, I don’t want you to. I’ve learned my stuff and I am happy. J-Term is going to be a nice change of pace - bummin’ with some Cretin folks will be great. As Sagert would say: “video games + policy violations = J-Term.”
The first day of winter was a couple of days ago - maybe we should all go skiing. Or snowboarding. Steve goes snowboarding. He got a new guitar. Matt is going on a cruise to Mexico. Shayla is in Texas. John [as Dan would say] smoked a curb with his car. Justin has a metal DDR pad [how have you been doing anyways, Justin?]. Und so weiter.
Matthew why on Earth didn’t you tell me you had Yalda’s number sooner because then things would have been a lot easier. (Oh, and if you are even trying to guess what I am talking about, stop because you’re wrong.) Bargh, man.
I think I will go write some more music, shower, get ready for tonight, and continue working for my client. Summer job suggestions are welcome. Have a bodacious New Year everyone.
Steve did point out “Isn’t it ironic.” And I said “Yeah. You know, it’s like rain … on your wedding day. Or more like a free ride, except that you’ve already paid. Even better - it’s the good advice, that you just didn’t take. Well, who would’ve thought, it figures.”
