I was keeping a tally of the number of passwords/numbers I have to remember to function in my life. Let’s start with the most imporant ones … I have my bank member number, my account pin number, the phone number for the TellerNet service, my credit card pin number, another miscellaneous pin number, and my social security number. To change courses at St. Thomas I have a pin number matched to my social security number. To access email I have three passwords (at least). AIM has four passwords (no I won’t tell you my other screen names). This website has four passwords (admin file, the server control panel, the mySQL password, and the FTP password) to make this all work. My St. Thomas account has (thankfully) one password for email, blackboard, and the fileserver, but that has to be changed every 120 days. Oh and then there’s my snail mail box has a three digit combination. Ah, my VoiceMail has a pin number, too. My gym locker has a lovely combination as well. Oh, the service I used to register this domain also has a password. What else … the Outlook Express account at home has a password as well and this computer has a password. As for the websites, here’s a list of websites I have an account at (that’s username and password to remember): waferbaby.com, phpfreaks.com, audiokarma.org, fool.com, sparknotes.com, and audioasylum.com - ok well what’s the total? counting Ok, I can conclude that to function in this world I need 31 passwords. Just to function! That’s terrible. But it’s secure.
Moving on, I stapled my finger while messing with this girl’s stapler. Now, being a guy and wanting to make a good impression, I had to hide the fact that a.) I had been stupid enough to staple my finger and b.) it hurt a lot. Thus, I quietly pulled the staple from my finger and began making it bleed to get the germs out. All while continuing the conversation. Reminds me of those “smooth” ads for beer. Except, I don’t drink. Hmm. What would you think if someone you had recently met stapled their own finger right in front of you with your stapler? I hope you all don’t judge too harshly.
Shayla, Matt, and me (that violates so many English rules, I’m not even going to try to fix it) were in Probe Deutsch and concluded that making a running motion with your arms while looking out the windshield at the moving road you feel like you are “running at an incredible rate of speed!” Yes, that’s from a movie. Yes, it really does work and yes is is unbelievably awesome!
In a complete and random change of pace, I want to share some lines from “The Spirit Level” by Seamus Heaney.
The ones we learned to love by waving back at
Or coming towards again in different clothes
They were slightly shy of.
Who never once forgot
A name of a face, nor looked down suddenly
As the plane was reaching cruising altitude
To realize that the house they’d just passed over-
Too far back now to see - was the same house
They’d left an hour before, still kissing, kissing,
As the taxi driver loaded up the cases.
That’s from “The Flight Path” which is an excellent poem. Part of the reason I enjoy these poems so much is their ability to exist on so many levels so elegantly and flawlessly. But here is another excellent line from the same poem:
Skies change, not cares, for those who cross the seas.
ajmicek: 13/69
alyahsear: ….
ajmicek: ha same color
alyahsear: whats going on?
ajmicek: somethings fishy in the state of denmark
alyahsear: omg stop being random and just talk normally!!
ajmicek: there is no true randomness - its mathematically impossible - only approximations of randomness are possible - so its really all falling into a pattern
alyahsear: explodes
ajmicek: i’m working on the pattern still, in the meantime i request you try to maintain uni-shaylaness
alyahsear: eh?
ajmicek: uni as in one
alyahsear: well it’s too late Alex
You can’t forget this one either:
alyahsear: I WANTTOGOOUTWITHDROGETSERP
I still laugh at this one:
ajmicek: hey wait a second
ajmicek: matt being there messes up my logic
ajmicek: so shayla is not in the room
ajmicek: and shayla’s computer is idle
ajmicek: where is matt?
ajmicek: how does he fit into the picture?
alyahsear: …. lol…
alyahsear: matt has been with me the whole time…
ajmicek: I KNOW
ajmicek: thats whats so confusing
alyahsear: lol
ajmicek: the logic is convoluted
alyahsear: …. eh??
ajmicek: whatever shall i think of the idleness now?
alyahsear: lol…. I uh… dont know
ajmicek: the answer, unfortunately, does not appear clear
alyahsear: lol
ajmicek: mayhap we can consult our panel of experts
alyahsear: lol and who is on that panel/
ajmicek: this panel is made up of only the most highly educated scholars in the area
ajmicek: and since matt happens to be on the board
ajmicek: his expert opinion will be consulted momentarily
alyahsear: lol k
ajmicek: matt: concerning this issue of computer idleness as it relates and is possibly caused by your presence, would you like to express you opinions viewpoints thoughts AND feelings as to why this is the case?
alyahsear: no
ajmicek: damnit why not
Here we examined whether or not the “Rocket Buddy” icon would work when clicked, turns out it didn’t:
Bt saber: i clicked rocket buddy, do you feel anything?
drogetserp: my butt is started to heat up, but nothing abnormal yet
Bt saber: LOL!
Bt saber: seriously
drogetserp: hmmm, well, now my chair is starting to shake
Bt saber: really? sure?
drogetserp: the ceiling is getting closer, but amazingly i can still reach the keyboard
drogetserp: hmm, i can’t go through the ceiling, the button must not work right
I think I’m out for now, though. You all have a good day and take time to remember a memory, one memory, that makes you happy. I guarantee that if you take a little time and think about it, you’ll feel great once you get that memory. Don’t live in the past, but don’t ignore it. There’s a lot of experince back in those dimly lit recesses of old thought that make up who we are. I’m going to go journey there now. Take care.
Friday night kicked all the other nights of college so far right in the butt. We all had an absolutely fantabulous time. Early in the afternoon, after I carded myself into the room (I locked myself out … I am a moron) I finished getting ready and awaited Matt and Shayla’s arrival. They found St. Thomas pretty easily and then we searched for a parking space; we ended up north of north campus. Ah! Then I gave them the tour from north to south of our lovely school and we killed time that way. They met my roommate; unfortunately he was dressed in only a towel when I introduced everybody. He was cool about it and we hung out in our room for a while. Matt and Shayla are right in saying having a wall in between rooms is nice - I really underestimated our living conditions. I should be more grateful. Anyways, we piled in Probe Deutsch at around 4pm and promptly ran into rush hour.
After wading through traffic, the trip to River Falls was very smooth and we arrived in time for the dinner and poster fair. I bought Katy the poster that I was going to get her and got one of my favorite paintings, called “The Accolade.” It’s an excellent work of art. We had some excellent food and I looked around the River Falls campus for some time. We chatted and caught up and walked around. It was a beautiful cool late summer evening.
The night took off starting when John called. He came over with the extra DDR pad and one other interesting thing is his trunk. That’s right, Steve drove all the way down from UMD in Friday and didn’t tell anyone. He hid in John’s trunk and surprised Shayla when she looked in there. I wasn’t there, but I hear Steve’s getting pretty good at jumping out of dark places. In a natural progression, Steve hid in Shayla’s dorm closet and then scared the crap out of all of us (especially Matt) when he burst forth from that dark recess and scared the rest of us. So it was quite a group; Matt, Shayla, Steve, John, and me - partying it up. We visited Other Matt from the clinic as well. So, we played DDR, went to Dairy Queen, played more DDR, and then walked around Main Street. It was an absolute blast! Now I’ve never drunk alcohol, but I can imagine how it would be by how small our inhibitions became. We wandered into the EconoFoods in search of Wheat Thins for Shayla. Now, the store was closing and we had just got in so it seemed a futile possibility to find the Thin Wheat Snack Item. Which is when Steve belts out at the top of his lungs “Shayla, we’re finding the damn Wheat Thins!” and he said it with such passion and conviction that we all just exploded laughing. It was great. Unfortunately, we had to buy the aforementioned snack item at a gas station. Those places get strange late at night, let me tell you; the people in line were definitely not sober. Anyways, we headed back to the dorms and chilled for a while. John had to take the GRE’s today - so he had that hanging over his head. Imagine this: John’s going skydiving. Wow I envy him; it’s only $180 and he’s going at the end of this month. I could go if I wanted to. I said, however, something like skydiving needs to be planned further in advance than 15 days. I got thinking how much of a rush that would be; I should try it before I have a family or anything. It would be the event of a lifetime!
I didn’t stay over at River Falls and I regret that. It would have been a lot of fun to do the “sleepover thing” because everyone gets so punchy when it’s late. And with the punchiness everything is funny and it’s the best feeling. That’s a bit like what the entire night was like on Friday. But I will finally conclude this long summary by simply saying it was great to see my great friends and stay connected; it was the best night since Prom.
Today was great as well; I ate some brunch and din-din with my sister - I really like being able to talk to her and that she is a really cool sister. I will miss her when she is at graduate school. I got some homework completed and hit the gym pretty hard; I need to sleep more so this gym schedule doesn’t grind me into the ground. I think I have been running on adrenaline for the past two weeks.
I played piano for two hours straight this evening; it felt wonderful. I haven’t hit on the tune that I am looking for that will drive my ballad of loss. However, I feel like I am cranking out some really good progressions and ideas and I hope these will blossom soon. One of my dreams for this website is the ability to digitally record and post my piano/sound/tune ideas online. I would love to deliver a new snippet of song to the public on a weekly basis. That, however, lies in the future. In the present, my mom visited campus to pick up my sister this evening. Thus, I was presented with the opportunity of going home. However, I have been trying to stay here for the entire month of September to break myself in to college life. That way, I have something great to look forward to, and I will be adjusted when I do journey home. I love my home. One of the quotes I added today went something like this: “home is an invention on which no one has improved.”
The final quote of this post comes from my roommate when he offered Matt and Shayla a pop-tart: “what, you don’t want pop tarts from a naked man?” … still makes me laugh. Good night/morning/day to you all; I will see some of you soon in my dreams.
Hi, it’s your friend Alex. We haven’t talked in a while, and I guess I wanted to announce some things that I have learned. You can react however you would like, but I think you’ll be happy to know that since we last talked, I have come to some conclusions, put to rest some demons, and worked out some priorities in my life. I’ve decided to be the best person I can be. Because if I am the best person I can be, everything else will fall into place. Working to maximize my potential will help me meet people who have the same goals. There is not a plan for us, that is, not in the limiting sense of the word plan. World, I will not confront you but realize that you encompass me. I will accept you and love you and do unto you as I would have you do unto me. I am slowly learning to appreciate the magic and wonder of the unknown and to look at each day not as a blank slate but as tightly wound bundle of cords, waiting to be unraveled so the beauty of each strand can be appreciated. But I ramble.
I was wading through my daily dose of Philosophy and I stumbled across a very good quote from Katha Upanishad:
When he has been comphrehended by the thought “He is”
His real nature manifests itself.
When are liberated all
The desires that lodge in one’s heart,
Then a mortal becomes immortal!
It’s funny how passages can jump out at you and surprise you with the intensity of their meaning. I haven’t come across one authentically and thoroughly boring piece of literature in any of my classes.
The view from 5th floor Grace is spectacular. You can see the Minneapolis skyline and tonight there were fireworks (why?) in some suburb and you could see them illuminating a little space on the horizon. Of course the wind was ridiculous, it would just tear through the room and make the loudest racket imaginable. Up there on the top floor, it feels like you are on the top of a ship; you can see for miles, feel the warm wind, and let your mind wander past the confines of your immediate space.
I did laundry today. I feel so wonderful coming back to clean clothes, clean towels, and clean sheets. I’m going to shower, put on some clean evening clothing, and get into a nice clean bed. God bless washing machines!
Get this: my unlucky number is 784 [days]. Right, that’s 2.1479 years. Yes, that’s exactly 112 weeks (wow). Assuming i’ve been alive for 18+1/3 years, that comes out to (18+1/3)*365.25 = 6696.25 days I have been alive (roughly). Take 784/6696.25 and you get .11708. Why is this significant? Because 784 days out of my life is 11.7 percent of my time here on earth; over 10 percent of my life!
Time flies when you’re having fun.
I’ve concluded that, no matter how I hard I look, there is not a song out there expressing exactly how I feel. And I have listend to many songs so far. Therefore, I will set out to write my own. As we write the books of our lives, so may we write the songs that express ourselves.
I woke up this morning with one thing on my mind. Depending on the day, that certain thing on my mind will fade from my conscious thought, stay with me the rest of my waking hours, or randomly blindside me when i’m drinking a glass of orange juice. Things don’t really change, do they? Oh, we think we’ve turned ourselves around and changed our lives around. Change takes time; you can’t look back and say “wow I have totally changed since last month” - it doesn’t work that way. Check with yourself from 3 years ago - now that’s change. Check with yourself from 10 years ago - that’s real change.
waferbaby has recently finished a redesign, and I happened to wander into the “sleep project” section of it. It got me thinking; I wish I had more pictures from times in my life. I love photography and if I could, I would always carry a camera. However, my propensity towards landscape photography has shorted my supply of group pictures of people. I should have taken the Canon RebelX to prom. Nothing was stolen there, I should have taken it. We all long for the clear, crisp, detailed images that a nice camera provides; they make up for the fuzzy memories we find ourselves left with when the vivid experiences of bygone days are long past.
This is the best/funniest lab/research write up in the history of man. Also, two things here are wonderful as well.
Our RA is forbidden to speak all of today; this is a project for one of his classes. Some of his hand gestures were priceless. Sagert is a great guy and deserves all of our respect; I am lucky to have such a good RA for my first year here.
Don’t you hate it when you sneeze on your monitor?
I made the worst bowl of oatmeal this morning. It might have been that I ran out of milk and had to switch to water during the preparation stage. It might have been it was in the microwave too long. It might have been the mega high viscosity. Either way, this oatmeal was like concrete. When your oatmeal is like concrete, it’s simply not appetizing. When I restock my oatmeal-making foodstuffs, I will try again and generate The Best Bowl of Oatmeal; the oatmeal I remember from Sundays at home.
In my Into to Engineering class, Prof. Jalkio brought up something very encouraging: pre-dental undergrads are not just majoring in Bio anymore; Mechanical Engineering is a very real possibility for this track. I hope that I can make Electrical Engineering work with the pre-dental track as well. Tomorrow I have a 7:00AM meeting with my advisor, so I need to remind myself “Alex, go to bed early tonight.” There are so many things to do but it’s all so much fun! I would never use the phrase “stressed out” to describe me; things are simply going too well. I even did some public service by doing some tech support last night.
Learning to ride the bus. I think I’ll get a SuperSaver stored value card. It’s a buck 75 for this trip that i’m looking at. Times two, that’s $3.50 … so if that price is worth my time on the weekend (let’s say I’m really busy and gotta get down there quick), then I’m going to go with it. Bus riding will have to take place in bad weather too. So, it will be at most once per week. Assuming 7 months total, that’s 28 times 3.50 so that’s $98 even! Looks like the busses leave about 2 times per hour. Just gotta figure out the changing routes. Awesome.
This is not my speed, but I think it’s rather funny.
I need to do more English writing, I actually questioned: if you write “i’m” in a sentence if the “i” is capitalized or not. I think it’s not. Good lord where have my writing skills gone? I think I left all of my eloquent phrases at home in dusty love letters. The skills will be broken out again soon.
Glorious Jesus, my Lord! Oh, how glorious you are!
Blinded by fear and doubt
Because of my sins,
a thousand times a day I fall.
Each time you open my eyes, O Jesus,
each time you touch my tongue
Send your Holy Spirit to me now
as you sent him to your apostles.
I am off to email many people about a wide variety of things. I have errands about a wide variety of things. Isn’t it interesting that when we expand our horizons, we expand our contacts and our paperwork? I look forward to getting into a routine that doesn’t include bunches of superfluous freshman activities.
Finally, I noticed we’re getting a lot more traffic here at tumbledry. Please, tell your friends and spread the word! I like talking to the anonymous public.
I’m not sure why I have stayed up so late tonight. I think going to bed early would have been admitting defeat to all the factors affecting me. I plan on getting up early tomorrow and getting my work done, and resting on Sunday. We all need a Sabath even if we aren’t religious. I don’t miss the summertime nearly as much as I thought I would. I am sincerely and truly enjoying the richness of the college intellectual experience.
We went to the Casino night and saw a great turn-out combined with great prizes. I won a free meal at Old Country Buffet. That’s right, good ol’ OCB. We played pool at Grace with some Grace women for a long long time. It was all fun. Right now, however, I would have preferred to study. It simply interests me more. I am finding happiness from the inside rather than the outside. When you feel that contact with the crucial wellspring inside you, it becomes fulfilling to study in a room on your own. Meeting people is the least of my worries; it comes very easily. You see a person, talk about something, talk more, and the two of you know if you are compatible. If you are, then you talk more later. I simply see it as that cut-and-dry right now because I realize it’s not a big deal. My friends-to-be are out there and I will meet them. There is nothing to worry about and no friendships to force into being for the sole purpose of making myself feel better. I’ve learned that external things can’t patch our own problems on the inside. The outside person may help you solve the problem, but the truth is you make the decision yourself. I do believe in the power of love, however. I believe it doesn’t seek to change (the famous bible passage says “alter”) and that it makes the person want to be a better person. That reminds me of that movie … As Good as it Gets … “You make me want to be a better man” …. or what was the movie? … “you had me at hello … you had me at hello.”
Again, I am rambling.
My Mom stopped by today and it was great to see her. I am saving a trip home for some weekend where I really need to get away and feel at home once again. Frankly, this room and dorm seem God-forsaken sometimes. However, that is more than made up by my Philosophy classes in one of the most beautiful classrooms on campus. Aquinas Hall Room 302 has the most wonderful sunlit, breezy, expansive, and relaxing view on campus. The classroom felt like an entirely different world. When Dr. Laumakis discussed his annual trip to Hawaii to teach philosophy, it was very easy to picture this classroom there. If I ever need to relax, that is where I will be, at least while the weather holds.
I have a secret plan which I am currently on Phase II of. You’ll never guess what it is, and I may not even post the outcome if it does not succeed. I have had plenty of help from many resources and I pray for and look forward to a successful outcome. It has great potential. I understand you may not be religious, you may not care about what happens, and you definitely don’t know what I’m talking about. However, I still request that you pray for this project of mine. Great things are possible.
Destiny exists; free choice moderates. You know the answers inside you. Go on a journey within your being and find the truth. You’ll know when you’ve found it. It’s been there all along.
Adam Smith points out that people who lose their mental faculities are the objects of our compassion even though they themselves are not aware of this loss: what is significant is the magnitude of the loss, as the onlooker estimates its role in the life of the loser. This requires, in turn, a highly complex set of moral abilities, including the ability to imagine what it is like to be in that person’s place (what we usually call empathy) , and also the ability to stand back and ask whether the person’s own judgement has taken the full measure of what has happened.
Hope for compassion; it will save us all. Guess where that’s from? You got it right; Cultivating Humanity by Martha C. Nussbaum. Assigned reading for my English class - I love that boook. I love that class. I love all these classes. I was talking to a guy today from Woodbury and he thought I was being sarcastic when I said “I love that class.” I really do. Having fun and learning - holy crap!
