my life

Goodbye

2007-02-04T22:51:00.000-08:00

It's not like anyone reads this blog anymore, but just in case, I'm moving my posting energy to www.onthetables.com. Subscribe to that rss feed and redirect your bookmarks and the links at the side of your blog. Farewell, old black template. Hello, new white template.

Horrible Day

2006-11-03T22:21:00.000-08:00

Well, it was more just a horrible morning. I overslept my "write your paper" alarm clock, meaning I gave myself zero minutes to write the final two pages. The paper ended up being okay, the second half much worse than the first. We'll see how that turns out.

My method for writing my paper was write a page, sleep an hour. It seemed that was as long as I could focus. It worked fine until I didn't wake up at 6, but 8:15. Oh well.

I was considering skipping some class, but I had to turn in an assignment in Italian, my 9 am class, so I had to be on campus anyway. The paper was due at 10, so I had to sit through that class until 11. I was already in the hall, so I was obligated to attend my next class, then take the two midterms following that.

It was extremely hard to stay awake, let alone pay much attention in my lectures. Fortunately, my last two classes were midterms. No, not fortunately.

Since I didn't really study for the midterms at all (lack of time), I didn't do as well as I would have liked (perfect). Latin was worse than Greek, since I am more motivated to understand Greek. Also, the Latin class has been working with Dr. Rundin for the past year, so they're all in tune with his pedagogy (great Greek etymology). Bah. When I was turning in my second midterm, I left the room thanking Dr. Rundin for ruining my Friday. He laughed.

The rest of the day has been spent trying to recover from that. I did a pretty good job, except for the sleep part. I realized around dinner time that it had been about 28 hours since I had eaten a real meal. Good thing we went to dinner.

The guys were (are) playing in a kickball tournament, so they left directly from dinner. I opted not to go, so I walked home. It was a nice little walk home, over the freeway and through the woods.

When I got home, Riddy was sitting on the couch watching TV. Surprise.

I'm really tired and out of it. I have been like this all day. I'm going to try and fix it.

Some Stuff

2006-10-25T22:26:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to update this for the past few days now, but every time I think about it, I'd rather go to bed. So I do that instead.

One of the things I've been doing lately is planning the rest of my career here. I deeply regret not loving Classics my Freshman year, since it's totally screwing up my plans now. Oh well.

On Monday, I saw an academic advisor and met with him for over an hour. I also upgraded to Firefox 2.0, which is telling me that "advisor" is spelled wrong. But that's a different story.

Basically, the verdict was this: I am taking too many classes. Not so many that the university hates me, but too many for a sane human. In the next 5 quarters, I will be taking at least 21 units a quarter, probably more around 25. The reason I went in to talk to him was my fear of a unit overload. At 230 units, the university puts a hold on your records and starts yelling at you. We did the math and it looks like I'll be graduating with 259.5 units. He gave me three options.

Take 35 units my last quarter. As long as you have 224.5 units the quarter before you graduate, you can take as many as you want that last quarter.
Do Summer School the quarter after I graduate. The only problem is that my courses are so specific, I doubt any would be offered in the summer.
Finish in four years (twelve quarters) and sign a petition.

Option 3 seems to be my best bet. Apparently I can take as many classes as I want as long as I graduate in 12 quarters. Just what I needed to hear.

On that line of thought, I figured out the classes I want to take for next quarter. I looked at the list and discovered that I have 29 units. I think I'll be auditing at least one of the classes, if not two. I also think I'm insane.

Other news. Last night we had moose tacos. I made a ridiculously delicious salsa. Seriously, it was amazing. That might have been due to the juice of a whole lime, but I don't think so. It was seriously amazing.

I've been hanging out with Claire a bit lately. I've discovered I am much more productive around her. I think it's because she always studies, so I feel obligated to do the same. It's not like I would be studying if she weren't there, so it provides great incentive to make use of my college tuition. Which, by the way, is what I usually do. I get good grades... now that I'm and English and Classics major.

Monday night, Brandon and I watched The Man in the Iron Mask. I ended up going to bed at 2, which is at least two hours later than I normally do. I have the strange tendency to get a freakishly healthy amount of sleep. On a weeknight, eight hours of sleep is a small amount for me. And yet I'm always tired. Strange how that works.

I'm scheduled to take the Upper Division Writing Exam on Saturday with Brandon. It's one of those mandatory university requirements, so I figure I should get it out of the way now. And also Brandon is going, so it will be on the buddy system. We can give each other the answers. You know, to the one essay prompt.

It was extremely windy today. Everyone was angry at the wind. The past few weeks, the weather has been perfect. Incredible, actually. Then today, it just ruins everything. Harsh wind making me out of breath and cold by the time I get to school. You have to ride with your hands on the handlebars, otherwise you get thrown off. I choose to wear sunglasses or goggles since leaves like to fly in your eyes. It is not fun. I hope it calms down and gets cold already. I can handle the cold.

My lips have been very chapped lately. Not just the lips, but my hands and ankles too. It's just as a trumpet player, I notice the lips first. I have a crack on the bottom corner of my lip and it bugs me a lot. I am constantly trying to do something about it. It makes me sad.

I'm supposed to go to a Halloween party on Friday for the CSA. I don't really have anything to wear except for the Ares costume from Picnic Day. I suppose I'll just wear that, although I do wish I had something a little more creative. I was talking to Rasmi the other day, when she commented that she was either going to be a Ionic or Corinthian column. Ah, classicists.

Well, I think I'm done for now. I can't think of anything else urgent to say.

My Life

2006-10-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

My life is okay, but I'm kind of sad right now.

Yawn

2006-10-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

Today has been a very strange day. Not strange in the "aliens in my closet" sense, but strange like I don't know what I'm doing.

I had part two of my Italian midterm this morning. Having not thought about Italian in the past two days, I would say I did pretty well. My guess is a mid to low A. I got a 93.25% on the first part, so I'd say it's a pretty good guess.

I was planning on getting up to study, so I set my alarm for 5:45, knowing full well that I would sleep for another hour and a half. I'm sure there's some strange sort of psychology going on where it makes me feel better by getting less sleep instead of actually being productive, but if I thought about that, it might waste some of my precious procrastinating time.

I feel like I've been procrastinating all day, but I'm not sure it is I'm supposed to be doing. I don't have any major pressing issues. Sure, I have Greek and Latin quizzes tomorrow, but studying for those isn't a big deal. I could be doing some reading, but I always feel that it's sort of a waste of time. The stuff we're reading right now is so dense, I have a hard time comprehending it on my own. I find it so much easier to read the work after we've talked about it. Then I feel smart for noticing all these cool things going on.

In a fit of sheer boredom, I baked brownies from scratch. They were delicious and plentiful. Our apartment has a problem with brownies. Everyone loves fresh, hot brownies, but nobody likes old ones. As a result, we have brownies from four separate baking instances all sitting around our dining room because nobody has the heart to throw them away. It would be like eating a pet rooster or killing off Terry Schiavo. Something we all know should have happened a long time ago, but didn't feel morally up to the task.

In other news, I finally got my cuticle nipper back from the shop. Although, they replaced my broken spring with a much more wimpy one. It made me slightly sad, although simultaneously happy to have the nipper back. They also gave me a cool little case that probably cost them less than a penny. But it made me feel special and that's all that I care about. Well, I care about the spring, too.

I haven't been cooking a whole lot this past week. I think it's part of me feeling like this. Maybe I need to get some more physical exercise. I will guess that's part of the problem. I did bake four loaves of bread on Tuesday though. I brought them to the Nota Bene release party because Andrea requested that I do so. Two were a molasses bread, meaning I kept on adding ingredients so that it tasted like molasses bread. The other two were a garlic bread, meaning I made regular bread that had garlic inside. It's my sneaky way of pretending I know what I'm doing.

I'm sort of tired right now. I took a nap earlier and didn't want to get up. But I made myself anyway. Then I had nothing to do, so I felt kind of weird. Also, I got a haircut this morning, so I had little pieces of hair all over my pillow. That made me kind of sad and itchy. So I went and played the piano. My big thing for today was trying to play songs by ear. I've had "Norwegian Wood" and "With a Little Help From My Friends" stuck in my head all day, so I figured out both of them. I would say they sound decent. You can at least recognize the songs.

Blah blah blah blah. I enjoy how this post is about random things that come into my head in a completely random order. That's sort of how I feel about my life right now. I enjoy what I'm doing, but I feel like I'm in a haze. The end, for now.

Current Status

2006-10-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

That was the shortest relationship of my life. Not that it's completely over, but in a sense. I mean, when it's this long of a distance, the difference between friendship and going out is entirely intangible. It's intangibly intangible, even.

So last night Rachelle and I broke up. It was by far the easiest break-up I've ever been in. We had both been thinking about it, not wanting to admit it. There was something that didn't feel completely right. I'm not too worried about it though. We're still good friends. It's just like the past two weeks didn't happen. But they did, and I was happy. I'm still happy, just a little confused.

I feel like this has been very cryptic. I'm sorry, but that's the best I can do right now.

Junior Year

2006-10-02T21:35:00.000-07:00

My life has been fairly busy. Busy enough to not feel the need to mindlessly browse the internet and spend time posting. With four upper division classes, I actually feel the need to read most of my material. And with three languages and four literature classes, there is plenty of material. I actually have my Shakespeare anthology open on my recliner waiting to be read. I have one more scene in Act one of Romeo and Juliet left. I have three chapters of Bradford to read in a packet which I do not even own yet. And I have about a hundred pages of Shakespeare background I might read but will definitely not understand.

As far as the languages go, there isn't too much trouble there. It's just a matter of doing the assigned work, which isn't that bad. I imagine things will be much worse later in the quarter, when midterms and other things start clouding my vision. I will have 7 papers due at different times throughout the quarter. I am so excited.

Today was a Monday, meaning my life was pretty stressful. At least until 2 pm, when I got out of class. After that, my life was a breeze. The only problem is that after sitting through 5 straight hours of class, I don't feel like doing anything. The only productive thing I could do was nap. So I didn't.

I needed food though. So I caramelized some onions with some garlic, then put that on top of some bread I baked Saturday, then added some raspberry mustard. It was rather tasty, but that might have been due to my not eating for 7 hours. Meh.

I cleaned my desk. This was a big deal. Well, it had potential to be a big deal. I ended up really only dusting it, but that involved taking everything off. As a result, a few loose papers were put into drawers, so it looks a little nicer. The biggest result is that my computer no longer slides; the pads actually stick. Well, they would, except for the fact that I just noticed I lost one. Hmm. Curious.

Intending on cooking the chicken legs I started marinating, my dinner plans were set. Then AJ decided to cook tacos. The legs are marinating overnight.

I contributed to the tacos by making salsa. It was actually pretty good, probably because of excessive lime. AJ contributed by obtaining moose. At least we think it was moose. It definitely tasted more gamey than beef.

After a brief stint of football, I went to my room and read some Shakespeare. And that's pretty much where I am now, less a phone call to Rachelle. Yeah, that's about it.

First Day of School

2006-09-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

Take a picture of me with my backpack in front of our apartment! No, that was only AJ.

I just switched to Blogger Beta, so we'll see how this holds up.

I'm still pretty tired. I'm adjusting my sleep schedule to a more normal one. You know, one where you sleep at night.

I'm really enjoying this whole "own room" deal. I think this year will be a good one. I'm almost done moving in. Yesterday I arranged the furniture and tried to get things in the closet. Today was more of an organizing day. I rearranged the books, making the top shelf novels (alphabetically by author's last name, then by title of an author's books), then classics. Second shelf is languages, followed by reference. Third shelf is my anthologies, since it's reinforced and I noticed the flimsier shelves were starting to bow. Beneath that is my Religious Studies books and music. On the bottom is my CDs, then cookbooks, then extra paper. Believe it or not, the thing is entirely full.

I organized my closet sort of. Pretty much, my room looks like a room. The desk is still pretty messy, but I'll probably work on that tomorrow. I butchered one of Jayna's paper sample books and now have completely random art hanging on my walls from magnets.

I only had one class today, Italian. My professor is hilarious. Picture a pretty big Italian man with a completely shaved head except for an enormous grey beard. Then picture him here:

He was very funny. Kind of random, but funny. I think I'll enjoy him. Maybe not all the freshmen in the class though. Oh, who cares, they're kind of cute. Cute as in little bunny cute, not Rachelle cute.

And then I cleaned. Or did other stuff. AJ and I went on a quest to make sushi, so we went to the Asian Market and got real sushi stuff, things I still have no idea what they were. I know we had some gobo, but there was also either some sort of pickled vegetable or anchovy. No idea, but it was delicious.

And now I'm here. Or was, since I'm going.

Back

2006-09-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Davis and very tired. More on that later.

Contest

2006-08-14T23:17:00.000-07:00

Starting August 21st, I will be participating in

The rules are posted here. As you may or may not know, I don't feel that comfortable posting in this blog while I am not in Davis, so you might direct your browser to Rather Dashing for the time being. Also, apparently anyone can join the contest, so if you feel up to it, let Ben know.

Summer

2006-08-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

My most sincere apologies for not posting a goodbye note or something to that effect. I assumed that everyone would understand my location now being Santa Barbara, not Davis, thus the uncomfortableness writing in a blog about the latter.

I write today to inform everyone of a minor change to this site. You might have noticed (although probably have not) that I removed the link to Kirstyn's blog. I must inform you that this was not out of spite or bitterness to the somewhat recent ex-girlfriend, but rather out of an effort to keep my blog clean and free of dead links.

The link, kjirstyn.blogspot.com, was rendered inactive a while ago. I first noticed this when there were no posts for an extended period of time. Figuring she was busy moving her life, I didn't wonder excessively, but remained curious as to why she initiated a hiatus without informing anyone. As it turns out, she did inform people. A mass email was sent out indicating a new blog for a new life. Not surprisingly, my email address was not included on this list. Fortunately for me, my sister, and her entire office, my mother was.

The new blog, myslolife.blogspot.com, had an awkwardly similar tune to it. In fact, the title seemed to echo that of another blog I've seen. Anyway, that was that. At least, it was, until I mentioned in passing that I read her new blog. That sparked an explosion of fury and anger which resulted in her requesting that I never talk to her again.

Not much later, her constant posting subsided to the familiar halt we have seen previously. A quick look at her profile indicated some suspicious activity, mainly the formation of a new blog that looked almost exactly like her old one. Her old new one, that is.

The newer blog, myslocalledlife.blogspot.com, was only slightly different. She figured out how to include a picture with each post and to give her posts titles. Yet most importantly, she installed a statcounter that logs the IPs of all visitors. From this, I deduce that she noted a substantial number of hits coming from Santa Barbara IPs and changed all of her blogs to the beautiful 404 pages you see today.

While there are many witty and characteristic things I could say at this point, I will refrain from saying them all. Sometimes you need to think up these things yourself. But as of right now...

My ex-girlfriend is not crazy; she just likes making people think she is.

If you don't want people to see something, don't post it on the open internet.

If acting like a three year old gets you ostracized in public, why not try the internet?

No, I don't hate Kirstyn. I still stand by my word claiming that I'd like to be her friend. And as little as this post does to emphasize that fact, I'm completely serious. I just find it hard to do anything to come to any place of apology when she gives the "scowl o' death" to any member of my family. If she can't understand and accept my form of sarcasm and love for making fun of people, it's probably a good thing we're no longer going out. That, and the whole Olive Garden thing. Just kidding. No, I'm not. Yes, I am.

I Am a Bread Machine

2006-06-03T17:51:00.000-07:00

No seriously. I've been pumping out bread all day. I have 6 loaves trying and a sponge good for another 2 or 3 more. It's crazy!

The past few days have been rather eventful. The only thing is that I've been really tired, so not quite in the mood to post. I still am ridiculously tired, speaking mostly incoherent things for the past two days, but I just don't have anything else to do. Let me recap the highlights of the past few days.

Wednesday was a strange one. After our Koine Greek final, Tom and I were taking the elevator down to the lobby. A familiar looking man saw me and asked if I was at Classics Day. It turns out his name is Chris, an advisor for the Humanities Department and such. He continued to talk to us for a good 15 minutes about how it's a great thing that we're majoring in classics, blah blah blah. Pretty much just preaching to the choir. And the thing is, he's such an interesting character, with a questionably homosexual lisp.

After this strange encounter, we were trying to recover by standing around awkwardly. Then, a thug-like fellow starts walking towards us. Early twenties, black t-shirt, unshaven, I expected him to ask for spare change. Instead, he said the following:

Excuse me. I just wanted to let you know that Jesus Christ loves you both very much and that he came to earth and died for your sins. I hope you have a nice day.

I was a little put off by this. Perhaps he was dared by one of his friends. So Tom and I were muttering to ourselves how we just came out of a New Testament final. He turned around and continued the conversation.

Isn't it amazing all the Old Testament prophecies regarding Jesus? Like the one in Zachariah [sic] about the Lord being sold for thirty pieces of silver, later given to the potter? Then we read in the gospels that Judas betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver and the money went to the potter, just like the prophesy. Isn't that just amazing?

Then he proceeded on his way, leaving Tom and me rather confused. He kept on looking for a third "sign," since we were having too many weird occurrences in one day. I noted that our final was the passage in Acts 9 about Saul's conversion, so that might have been it. Apparently we are doing the right thing by being converted and Jesus loves us very much.

Dot dot dot.

After meeting, Riddy and I went to find some food. We settled on In-N-Out, a usual place. As we were standing in line, I joked to him about eating two double-doubles, since we did it before. In usual Riddy style, he responded with an enthusiastic, "Let's do it!" After a minute, he decided to tack on fries to it, which I promptly denied. I just don't like purchasing fries. Thus, the contest was born.

As I was getting my water, I asked him if it was a timed contest or merely for the enjoyment. Enthusiastically, he said, "Let's do it for time!" The next few minutes were spent in preparation and excitement.

Through not much time, we had four double-doubles animal style and a heap of fries sitting in front of us. Riddy's fries were nearly a double portion, so we split that. With a stopwatch ready, we began.

The first burger went down in a minute and a half. I would say the slowest part was the fries, since they are tricky. By this point, Riddy was beating me slightly, but still enough to call it neck-in-neck.

It was the second burger where the spread came. We were both slowing down, but Riddy managed to polish it all off in 4:35. About halfway through the second burger, I had to force the food down. It was not wanting to be inside of me. I finished in 6:03. I did not feel that great for the rest of the night.

Thursday night was the last CSA meeting of the year. With a shortage of people present, I managed to get inducted as the "Historian," a newly made up office in charge of taking pictures and being the webmaster. It shall be an incredibly exciting year.

Friday after school, I decided to cook the tri-tip that had been sitting in the fridge for a few days. It was on sale, and ended up being amazing. I coated them both with garlic powder, seasoning salt, and black pepper, then roasted them in the oven. Utterly amazing. I opened some rolls, slapped some mayo on it, the sliced the meat on top, covering it with the gorgeous salsa I made. Brandon said it might have been the best sandwich he's ever had. Such a high honor from the sandwich connessour.

Today has been spent baking bread. I would like to say there's more, but that's been about it. I read a little. I've played a lot of piano too. That piano is really old, so the plastic key coverings don't like to hold up to my playing. I have several cuts on my fingers from them. I'm so hardcore.

I guess that's all I have to say.

And Again

2006-05-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

Lately, I just haven't been feeling the desire to write in here. I used to be much more faithful to it, but life has gotten busy and emotionally draining. Yet I'm writing in this right now, so I guess life has gotten better. I've had some of the happiest days I've had in a while. Let us now figure out why (hortatory subjunctive, in Greek at least).

Well, okay. There isn't much to figure out. Kirstyn gave me the ultimatum that I'm only to talk to her when I start being nice, or something to that effect. No, maybe it was when my actions match my words. I'm sort of known for intentionally creating ambiguous sentences, but I really don't think this was the case. I have consistently told her how I was honestly feeling and acted thusly. But apparently this wasn't good enough for her. I think she was looking for something along the lines of "I want to get back together with you right now," which would be not at all along the lines of what I have been telling her. So apparently telling her the truth and acting accordingly is not acceptable to her. I guess this means that I'm not supposed to talk to her. I haven't for the past two days and my life has been great. I guess that's what I'm supposed to do then.

However, this is not the way I would have liked to do things. The end result is what I have been wanting: Kirstyn to stop clinging on to me and acting like that is her right. Yet I somehow believed it could have been done with us still being friends and the potential for us to get back together someday. As it is, the more we are not together, the clingier she gets. And the tighter she holds on, the more I push her away. The more I push her away, the angrier she gets and insists on forcing her way into as much of my life as possible. It's a downward spiral into as much anger and annoyance as possible. Rather quickly, too.

Anyway, life without Kirstyn is going much smoother and happier than she would probably like. I think going to Ireland and San Luis will be good for her. For once in her life, she will have control over most everything.

I was glad to be able to stay for teardown. As usual, it was done way before anticipated, mainly due to the fact that Sunday is spent preparing for it and they start at 5. By breakfast at 7:10, everything major was done. Afterwards, Amy and I went home. At 10:30, I was back at the apartment, where Riddy was still sleeping. Darren and Maria were hosting a get together at 1, so I got a load of laundry done and some unpacking.

I picked up Amy and we headed over to the park. There was volleyball and other park activities. It was a gorgeous day and I remembered how much fun volleyball is.

Around hungry time, we all headed over to the grocery store to pick up our respective items (Amy and I had chips). Then we went back to Darren and Maria's for them to cook and arrange everything. It was there where I got to discover how utterly awesome Rachelle is. We played the piano in our contrasting ways and played each other's songs. It was an all-around awesome time.

Amy and I made it back late, around 11 or so. I went to bed much later than my usual convention bedtime.

I woke up rather alert at 7:30. I did usual internet activities, waking up slowly. I breakfasted and raquetballed, as usual. Shower, then realize that I still need to do Greek. Please note the change into present tense there. It's to intensify the situation. That, and the fact that I really didn't want to go back and change it.

We went over a good 10-15 lines of Plato's Apology, which is pretty intense. Hard core Greek. It's like taking first year med school students and having them try and heal a cancer patient. Nice try, buddy, but you should leave that to Asclepius.

I came back and made a sandwich with my delicious garlic bread. It made everything else delicious. Delicious, delicious, delicious.

Our English lecture was as awful as ever. The confirmed number of "salient"s today was seven. Oh, how we hate her.

I did my Greek homework before discussion. That class went well, mainly because it's our TA, me, and about two other people talking the entire time. At least I'll get participation credit.

I got home, finished my laundry, got some groceries (tri-tip is on sale-$4/lb off). I made some salad and ate it. I am a salad fiend.

Well, it's night time, and I think I've written enough in here right now.

Hot

2006-05-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

Today has been very hot. Not hot as in the way everything is, but hot as in, ouch, it feels like I'm in an oven.

As I was the only college student in Davis whose mother was more than 2 hours away, I was the only one in meeting this morning. As a result of that and various other absences, it was a small, short meeting. I got out of there before the ratdog started attacking innocent bystanders.

My rearview mirror was wiggling on the way there, so I got in my car and inpected it. The wiggling was apparently a result of the stub glued to the window breaking in half and waiting for me to look at it to fall, dangling from the ceiling. I thought it was kind of funny.

I went home, changed, then embarked on my journey throughout the mysterious parts of Davis. Turns out Kragen is located roughly two blocks from my apartment (actually, a literal two blocks). It was surprising that the people working there were ridiculously helpful, since Davis is a bike oriented town. I was expecting them to reprimand me for driving a car or something. He even helped me fix my windshield wiper fluid problem (there was none in the tank).

With that all fine and dandy, I went to Safeway to get some pectin, corn syrup, and chocolate. I was going to bake a cake, but it was just so hot, I never got around to it.

I came home and scraped off the old hook, then followed the instructions to put the new one on. It was like sitting in an oven. Apparently it got up to 90 degrees today.

I've been eating chocolate covered strawberries all day. All all day long. I have a lot of strawberries. I was going to make jam, but it was just too hot.

For the past day, I've been living off Togo's and apple juice. See yesterday's blog for more details.

For an hour or so, I worked on a transcription of Jason Webley's "Music That Puts Everything Together." It's turning out nicely.

I read a bit of homework. I think I should do my tangible homework now.

Tardy

2006-05-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long. There has been a bunch of things going on in my life and only now am I getting the chance to try and tell them. Unfortunately, I'm really tired, so I'm just going to quickly mention some things.

Thursday I went to Jason Webley's concert. It was amazing, as always. He sung a song about aardvarks and had everyone huddle together and he told stories. It was simply beautiful.

I spent Thursday morning writing an English paper. I turned it in that afternoon and got my midterm back. It was disappointing to learn that I tied Tom with 100%. It was a ridiculous midterm.

Friday was busy trying to convince myself I wasn't going to fail the Greek quiz and trying to remember how to diagram sentences for my Grammar midterm. I think I succeeded in the latter. The former didn't work out so well, but I usually get a B, so I guess I'll go with that.

I skipped my Classics lecture for a dress rehearsal for our myth skits and 30 minute Odyssey. It was long, but pretty fun.

Today was Classics Day. It started out pretty slow, with everyone dreading the worst. There was one handful of high school kids, about 5, whose teacher once went to Davis. It was mostly alumni and friends and family of the students, which ended up being quite a bit.

We started off our pathetic morning at 10:30, which, we soon learned, is about 2 hours too early for college students. I was first in giving a monologue, which went well. The rest of the monologues went, then we went to respective rooms. The three options were for College life with Classics, a lecture by Dr. Traill, and Career Opportunities for Classicists. I went to the last one, since it was going to be the lowest in attendance and was actually the only one that interested me. I'm amazed at how much I learned. I'm really excited now.

Following that was the myth skits, in which I was the narrator. They went over very well, thanks to Raed's immature sense of humor and collection of strange props.

Lunch was great. The attendance was extremely overestimated, so they ordered about three times as much food as was necessary. No problem though.

After lunch was the performance by Stanley Lombardo. It was something that's probably on the same level as watching a rowing competition. It's sort of cool if you watch it for a little bit, but amazing if you actually row. Although, it was pretty much just a reading of the Odyssey. Except some of it was in Greek. Come to think of it, I think everyone enjoyed it. He has an amazing way with his voice, how pure emotion can flow out of it. His intent was to make it as close as possible to how Homer performed it, and I think he did a better job than anyone I've ever heard of. Except for Homer, because he's just amazing.

After that was a bunch of games, so I headed over to the Whole Earth Festival to hear Jason Webley begin his performance. That was fun, but really hot. His Thursday performance was more exciting, since it was almost entirely his overwhelming Davis fan base.

I ran back to the courtyard for the Odyssey in 30 minutes skit. I only had a little part in the beginning, so I spent most of my time holding the backdrop still. It was fun nonetheless. The crowd really enjoyed it, including Dr. Lombardo. We even included a part where Odysseus checks an old Lattimore translation to see what's supposed to happen, yet can't understand it because it's too literal. Then he whips out Lombardo's and exclaims, "Ah, a translation I can finally understand! With just the right amount of colloquialism! Isn't that right, Dr. Lombardo?" which at that point, everyone from behind the stage peeks out and gives him the thumbs up. Oh, good times.

Afterwards, I got him to sign my Illiad, Odyssey, and Hesiod. He even gave me a compliment on my Hippolytus performace. So we traded compliments.

In all, it was a fun day. At the end, I got to bike home with 50 cans of apple juice and about a dozen sandwiches. It was a slow and awkwardly weighted bike ride, but worth it.

Since I've gotten home, I really haven't done much. In fact, I'm going to go to bed right now.

Sore Eyes

2006-05-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

I would like to be in bed right now.

When I woke up, I rolled out of bed, made it, ate breakfast, blah blah blah. Racquetball was fun. We got one game in, cutthroat with Jon and Brad. It was pretty evenly matched for the first half, with Jon at 8, me at 7, Brad at 4. Then Brad got up to 13 in one go. It was a fun game nonetheless.

I got back to my place and showered. I was pretty tired, so I just did some other random things on the internet until class.

Greek was fun, but a little slow. Half the class was absent for some reason, nothing I can actually explain.

Immediately after Greek, I met with Claire to go over my monologue for Classics Day. Things went pretty well. I just need to practice getting angry and loud, which is hard since I tend to have roommates and am always around people.

With an hour and a half to kill, I went to the MU and got a bagel, read the paper, did my Greek homework.

My English lecture was possibly more boring than normal. I did two sudokus. After that midterm, it has come to my attention that I don't actually have to do anything in that class. I kind of hate it a lot.

After class, I rushed back to the apartment so Brad and I could start making pizza sauce. Unfortunately, Brad didn't get home until half an hour later, so we went to Safeway then and made the sauce. Just in the nick of time, I left for my discussion.

That was interesting. It consisted of Adam trying to explain how to write a paper to a mixture of experienced English majors, clueless non-majors, and a cynical me. It was actually relatively fun.

As I left the building, I snuck up on Emilia, then Lionel snuck up on me. We had a posse moment, then I went to bake some pizzas.

They turned out really good. Homemade pizzas tend to be a million times more delicious than not. Seriously. They're good.

I came home and have been wasting time since. I am going to bed now.

Break

2006-05-08T21:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, I realize it's been a few days. I was at Buttonwillow. And I've been pretty tired.

I woke up from the best night of sleep I've had in a long time. I only woke up once and didn't have to put in earplugs since Riddy wasn't snoring very loudly. I started and finished my Greek homework, which wasn't that much, then ate breakfast and did all sorts of other morning activities. At noon, I went to Greek.

It was pretty normal. Pretty tired. I got my midterm back, B+. About what I was expecting. We're starting the Optative mood, so that means more learning. Great.

Grammar was fine as well. More on conjunctions, parallel structure, etc. Stuff that nobody else cares about.

After walking to the MU with Cari, I got a burrito and read the Aggie. It was a slow time. I ran in to Alicia and Amanda, who tried to get me to go on a blind date. Fortunately, they found someone else.

On my way back to Olson for my bike, I ran into Claire and Kelsey (in separate instances). They are both faring well, in case anybody knows either. Claire and I set up a hot date for tomorrow to go over my monologue for Classics Day on Saturday.

Myth was a pretty normal day. Everyone was really tired and the lecture wasn't overly ridiculous, so I should modify that and say that it was less than average. Whatever.

Back at home, I started thawing out a chicken for roasting for dinner. In between the thawing and the cooking, I did my homework and addressed all sorts of other issues. Around 8:30, I was eating my delicious chicken. I love roasted chicken. My wife had better learn how to make herself love my chicken, because I sure do. I also love the onions roasted with it. Delicious.

No dessert, since I am way too tired. But I want some still. But I need to go to bed. Dilema. Either way, I should stop typing.

Red Eyes

2006-05-03T23:55:00.000-07:00

Tonight? Sailor's delight?

When I woke up this morning, I found myself talking to my mother. Unfortunately, she called around 8:56, four minutes before my period of wake up. Also, Riddy was sleeping in the room, so I was even quieter and more mumbly than normal. She opted to call back. (Never did).

From there, I slept for another 15 minutes, then did my daily morning activities. I ate cereal, then made something. This time it was some cookies from Betty's recipe. Betty is the old lady that works at the Segundo DC. I asked her to be my Valentine last year, but she declined.

Anyway, I mentioned that I love to bake. She got very excited and told me all about this great recipe for cookies. "It's the easiest recipe ever. There are only four ingredients. It's very simple. You only need four things." Wait, I might be confusing her with my own grandmother. Or my own father, for that matter.

No matter! I tried out the recipe she gave me (handwritten, on an old timey recipe card). The four ingredients ended up being butter, flour, sugar, and vanilla. When I first glanced at the recipe, it seemed odd to me that it called for 7 cups of flour. Then I realized that it serves 100. I quickly quartered the recipe and all came out well. Except the dough was really dry. I was the texture of moist sand. It was like muffin batter, except no milk. Well, that was essentially what it was.

Anyway, the cookies tasted pretty much like how you'd expect. Except once you start eating a few, they get addicting. You can ask Brandon about that. I personally prefer chewier cookies, but you just can't say no to Betty.

Once that was all squared away, I went to class with Riddy still in bed. Greek was as Greek usually is. The most exciting part was when Allison taught me about the awkward turtle. Probably one of the coolest turtles ever. And that's saying something, since turtles inherently possess amazing levels of coolness.

Grammar went as usual. For how exciting that class is, it sure can be kind of boring.

On my way out, I trailed Dr. Haynes to his office, where three other people had the same idea. It became apparent to me that I had a certain level of cockiness going in there figuring out why I only got 99% (it was his fault), as the others got around 65%. But I did have some other pressing issues that were resolved. So it was worthwhile.

I had my bagel at the CoHo and read the Aggie.

Myth was hilarious, mainly because we're reading Aristophanes's The Birds. He was a great Comedy writer, for his day. Think of it as taking the writing ability of a genius and combining it with the maturity of a middle schooler. The Greeks loved sexual puns, phalli, and poop jokes. As Dr. Rundin put it, "everyone had a huge padded buttocks because they thought it was funny." And of course, he was giggling the entire time, so the whole lecture hall was laughing at him. Great times.

In NT Greek, we went over our midterms. I got an A-, which was around what I expected. Dr. Bulman passed out this week's quiz, which ended up being more of last week's. We all became frantic, since after the quiz last week, those words were all gone. So we worked on the passage while Dr. Bulman printed out the right one. Once that was taken care of, we took the silly quiz. I think I got an A. It wasn't that bad.

After riding home with Hack, I went back to my room and perused the internet. Riddy came home, Brandon left for his LSAT class, I played my trumpet. Apparently Riddy has allergies, so didn't feel up to going to meeting. As I left to pick up Amy, he was consoling himself with video games.

Our meeting was small, as Daryl and Lois were gone, plus the Woods, and Brandon and Riddy. Nevertheless, it was pleasant. I felt a little out of it though.

After I dropped off Amy, I went back to my place, arranged some apples on a tray, threw stuff on top of them, then baked them. Essentially the same as last night, but in a different style.

When I was eating that, I got a phone call from Kirstyn, apparently regarding a miscommunication with Shawna. We ended up talking for quite some time, which I had missed. She's a good friend, and I would like to keep that part of our relationship.

Now, after doing my Greek homework and showering, I am exhausted and needing bed. Seriously, right now.

And Again

2006-05-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

Well, my life is somewhat surreal. It feels like it's coated in wax or something. I suppose that might be the heat, but it's more of an emotional wax. I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this. It's as if I'm still living my life, but everything is now intangible and I can't feel anything correctly.

It's not like the breakup hasn't affected me at all. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I get to explain the situation multiple times a day, so it's not something I feel is necesary to incorporate in a detailed description of my day. Besides, I think that dwelling on depressing things isn't going to help the situation any. So while it might not seem like it on the surface, I'm spending most of my waking moments feeling like something is missing. And I miss her too.

When I woke up this morning, Riddy was still in bed. Come to think of it, I never actually saw him get out of bed. Come to think of it again, I saw a glimpse of him walking just as I was going to class at noon. Problem is, we both have the same class at 9. Apparently he had a sore throat and completely different attendance morals than me. Pretty much the only thing that prevents me from going to class is a physical inability. Which is probably a good thing, since I was sick about a dozen times last quarter.

So in racquetball, we finished off our tournament. Jon won, because he's old. I played a game with Ryan, where neither of us actually cared unless the coach was watching. After walking around for a bit, I got invited into a game of cutthroat, which was pretty fun. One of my major problems with cutthroat is that it never seems to really be the best player that wins. I might just be a pessimist here, since it's my least favorite version of the sport, but it always seems like the weakest player is trying to bring you down. I don't really know or care about the truth though.

Once back at the place, I showered and got emotionally prepared for Greek. Which wasn't that big of a deal, since I love Greek. It was a slow day though. The past few days have been, so I'm going to blame that on emotions.

Since I had a haircut appointment at 1:30, I walked with Ken to the Death Star, having a nice little chat. Then I ran into Becca and friends, with whom I had a nice little conversation. Then I browsed the Bookstore, then finally went to the basement of Freeborn for my haircut.

Not being all that excited or enthusiastic, the conversation was mellow to begin. Then I mentioned how I was going to see my parents this weekend and needed to get my hair in shape. He proceeded to ask where, to which I replied, "a church convention." Apparently that struck some interest, so he wouldn't stop talking and asking questions about it. Which I found pretty amazing. He's an interesting guy. Barbers and their clients develop interesting relationships over the years. All of my roommates get their hair cut at Great Clips over by Safeway, but I can't stop going to John, else I'll feel like I'm cheating on him. What's worse is that he's verified that he remembers me by some comment today. So now I'm locked in. But it's not that bad a thing. It's traditional male bonding. A manly thing.

Anyway, on my way out, I mentioned that because of conventions, things are a little ambiguous right now, but invited him once things get back to normal. Coincidentally, that should coincide with my next haircut, so I told him I'd talk about it then. He seemed interested.

With that, I had about 45 minutes until I was supposed to meet with Claire to discuss the monologue. So I went to the CoHo and got another burrito for lunch. I ate it, then sat outside at our meeting spot for a good half hour, reading my grammar book. At 2:30, she was nowhere to be found, so I called her. Apparently she thought we were meeting Wednesday. We had a little schedule discussion, culminating with our changing it to Thursday.

As I was walking toward Hart, I saw a nearly naked girl biking across the MU. So I went over to reprimand her for biking past all the "Do Not Bike" signs posted everywhere. Amy had just finished running, and felt embarrassed for being immodestly dressed, so put on a t-shirt and we talked for a minute or so. Then she went to get an icee.

My English lecture was awful. We're reading an immigrant story, so we had an hour lecture on the modern day process for naturalization. I did the sudoku.

With an hour and a half until my discussion, I headed over to Olson, sat in room 109, and did my Greek homework. I love studying in empty classrooms. I take the teacher's seat and occasionally use the chalkboards to work out things. It makes me feel like nobody in my class cares enough to attend, but I still hold class anyway. Maybe I need a life.

In our discussion, Adam decided to make us play Jeopardy, which was an awkwardly failed attempt. His teaching style reminds me of a young middle school substitute teacher. One who is really enthusiastic, but not very good at teaching. A little awkward.

When I got back to the apartment, there was a small (Magic, the) gathering watching the Kings play. I did a little business in my room, then ate some of the pizza Brandon took out of the freezer and put into the oven. Since we were needing butter, I made a run to Safeway, one of my feel-good places. I love browsing there. I ended up getting a good $20 worth of odds and ends, including our much needed butter, eggs, olive oil, shortening, and probably something else too. I came back and decided to make some baked apples. I found a few recipes online, but they ended up being pretty awful. So I made my own. It goes as follows:

Preheat oven to 350.
Take 5 apples that are starting to go bad, then wash and core them, leaving the skin on. This works best with an instrument other than your hands.
Take a handful of walnuts, cut them into smaller peices, then pour them into the apples evenly.
Take a bunch of brown sugar and pack as much as you can into the apples.
Take a tablespoon of butter and try and force that onto the top of the sugar in each of the apples.
Awkwardly pour cinnamon over the tops.
Place on a cookie sheet with a lip and bake for 15 minutes, as some moron online said.
Realize that the butter still has not melted, then raise the temperature to 400.
Cook for a lot longer.
Take each apple off the sheet and onto a pretty plate.
Serve to your roommates's guests.
Wish you had done something better with the cinnamon.

They actually tasted really good. Joe liked the apple better than the strawberry shortcake. I'm not sure about that, and it definitely wasn't as good as the torte, but it was still pretty good.

Now this place is pretty quiet, and Riddy is still nowhere to be found. Not that I'm complaining. I should go make use of this.

Back

2006-05-01T22:39:00.000-07:00

First off, in case you haven't heard, Kirstyn and I are no longer going out. To answer your question, it was something that just needed to happen, despite the fact that we both still really like each other. I think we need some time and space alone in order to sort things out and set straight our priorities. Granted, we might not want to, but we need to.

My day has been a little slow, either because of some major life event or the weather. It has been really hot here in the past few days, enough to wear down anyone. And just shushy to anyone who likes the heat. It could serve to be about 5-10 degrees cooler.

I've been spending too much time on the internet being unproductive. This is a bad thing. I must start limiting myself again. I think it's a crutch for my pointless life or something like that.

It's weird. I feel so much better physically, emotionally, and productively when I'm not on the computer. Yet I get so many complaints from people when I don't blog. Maybe I'll start handwriting things and taping them to my wall. Anyone who wants to read them can come visit me. Or maybe I'll take pictures of them and we can bring back Blanks and Postage. Or maybe, or maybe...

So I woke up this morning around 9. I think I'm cursed with the affliction that I always wake up between 9 and 9:30 when given the opportunity to sleep in. It's really strange. About that time, I feel awake enough to start the day, even if my body isn't or whatnot. If it's too early, I go back to sleep, but wake up in the time span. It's not like it's that big of a deal, I just think it's kind of strange. Besides, I get plenty done in my mornings now. It's kind of nice.

Except for this morning, which I spent perusing the corners of the internet. Not a whole lot done. Although I did finish translating a passage for Greek, something that was nearly pointless, as I didn't get a whole lot of it correct. It was based on Thucydides, well known for being the most difficult prose writer of Ancient Greek manuscripts we have.

Greek was fine, as usual. It was a little cold and my eyes were sore from I don't know what, so my day was a little more subdued than normal. Although I did make a funny joke about Dr. Bulman. She was complaining how her watch battery died, so couldn't tell the time. Someone offered the idea of checking her cell phone, to which she noted that she's probably the only person on campus without one, as she's from the dinosaur age. To this, I mildly suggested that she break out her sundial. Now logistically, it wouldn't make sense, as we were indoors, didn't have a compass, and nobody really had a sundial, but it was a joke. And jokes aren't supposed to be worked out logistically.

After breaking out a sweat in the 30 second heated bike ride to Olson, I found myself anxiously awaiting my Grammar quiz. I ended up getting the verb type wrong, which was my one main dilema when taking the quiz. No matter, I still got a 99%. That, combined with my 300/300 homework assignment and my 102% from the last quiz, I think I'll be fine.

Wandering around the quad a bit, I ran into Keiz, with whom I had a little chat, then Doug, who overtook the conversation. It was nice catching up for a little bit. Then I went to the CoHo and got a burrito. I wasn't planning on getting a full meal, but I needed food and it worked.

On my way out, I ran into Danae, who was working at the Bookstore, so I had a little chat with her. I think I was really out of it. It's not often I have so many little chats in such a short time.

As usual, our Myth lecture was spastic, thanks to Dr. Rundin's uncontrollable giggling. I ended up getting an 87% on the midterm, which wasn't bad at all, considering my studying. I had a nice little time next to Allison and Jaina, as I was completely tired and hot.

When I got home, I wasted more time on the internet, then decided I should cook dinner. Looking through cookbooks for ideas, I found something that looked good. I took a chicken out of the freezer and started thawing it. Unfortunately, my methods of thawing are very primitive, as I managed to cook half the breasts in the microwave in the defrost setting. I feared the worst. Which actually ended up being relatively dry chicken, but not a big deal.

Once it was pretty much thawed out, I cooked them until colored on the outside, then took the pieces off the heat. I sweated a red onion in the remaining liquids, then added equal parts water and Cabernet Sauvignon. Once boiling, I threw the chicken back into the pot, and let cook for another 20 mintues. Once thoroughly cooked, I threw in a bunch of halved grapes and cooked until warm throughout. I suppose I could have thrown in a bay leaf or some garlic, but was more worried about the defrosting techniques.

Joe and AJ were still around, so I gave them some too. It went over really well. I really liked the flavor of grape and chicken. Try it. I dare you.

We're out of butter, so I couldn't make dessert. Seriously, I wanted to. Still do.

Since dinner, I've been wasting more time on the internet and doing my Greek homework. I haven't been that happy with my day, aside from the dinner extravaganza. I should go to bed now and put a cap on how much internet I can allow. I must parentally control myself.

Hiatus

2006-05-01T00:02:00.000-07:00

I know it's been an awful long time since I've last posted, but I've been going through a lot of things in my life, just trying to sort them out. I'll probably start posting a little more regularly now, as long as I feel up to it.

In other news, apparently the City of Davis has a law against being annoying.

Oh Whatever

2006-04-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

I feel rather lethargic. I haven't really done much all weekend, although I did bake some bread. Really good bread. I did my homework too.

Really, there isn't much to say. I've been tired, sat around. I either need a lot of personal interaction or none.

I know this post is kind of really lame, but at least it is better than yesterday's.

Sleep

2006-04-06T00:35:00.000-07:00

I've been really good about getting to bed early. Except for today, so I'll keep this one short.

I've been sore from racquetball yesterday, so it's been a groggy day. Greek was Greek, then Grammar was Grammar. After that, I went to Dr. Haynes's office hours to introduce myself and have a nice 20 minute chat regarding grammar, Greek, and anything else I could think of. He's a very nice person and enjoyed the chat.

As I was in Voorhies, I stopped by the Undergraduate Advisor to figure things out. I have to take at least 14 units a quarter with two English classes for the rest of my days here. I'll total at least 215 units, still under the max. So I'm doing well.

Myth was fun, since Dr. Rundin is a spaz.

NT Greek was hilarious, since it's a much more intimate setting. Oh, good times.

Since we were all in Sproul anyway, quite a few of us travelled up one floor for the Nota Bene release party. Basically, a nerdy thing Classics students do. Put out a book of essays, pictures, and creative works all relating to Classics. I can get anyone a copy if they want it. Please, want one.

We went to meeting, then came home and made some pasta. Claire came over since she needed to get out of the house, and left once her work was done. I am now here and tired. I apologize to Kirstyn for not calling her, but I am going to bed instead.

It's Been a Long Day.

2006-04-04T21:18:00.000-07:00

I'm tired and want to go to bed.

Bed rhymes with bread, which is what I baked this morning. I did my usual making the dough before class, then biked to racquetball. Riddy somehow got a bike, so I led the way, showing him how to use the bike path to his advantage.

Racquetball was really fun. I played one really good game against Aaron, a rather formidable opponent. When that was done, I was exhausted, so didn't really do a whole lot. I played a wimpy game agains Brad, then got tired and went home.

Luckily for me, it was raining. Pouring down rain. I was wet by the time I got home.

I threw my clothes into the dryer and did my other things, namely take a shower and work more on my bread. I threw the bread into the oven a little late, so I asked Riddy to take it out while I was at class.

Greek was fine, except I was exhausted. It was by then a thorough heavy rain, so several people didn't show up to class. Tom didn't, so I suspected he just got extremely depressed. He has been known not to go to Greek because he got a B on his English midterm.

After Greek, I went to Dr. Rundin's office hours to confirm the A he said he would give me in lecture. He admitted it was in jest and corrected himself, saying "You might get an A in the class." He seemed a little hurried until I mentioned that I was actually enrolled in the class and was also a Classics major. This news loosened him up a bit and we had a nice little chat. It turns out he knows English, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and at least a little bit of Hebrew and some other languages. That amazes me.

Since it was still pouring down, I went to Olson and read my Aggie. It still being miserable when that was done, I went to the MU and got a bagel since I was starving. There, I did some of my Greek homework as well.

At the correct time, I walked over to Hart where I sat for quite a long time waiting for our professor. She showed up a good 15 minutes late for no apparent reason, then went on to lecture incoherently for another 65. She has a tendency to go on long tangents unrelated to American Literature. This time, the main one was about some conference she went to in Birmingham, where they had some tribute to Katrina victims that was very moving. Tom actually showed up to class, and wrote on his paper, "Objection - Relevance?" to which I replied on mine, "Sustained."

Only having an hour and a half, I headed over to Shields Library and finished my Greek homework. I also read a bit in my Grammar book. Then Natalie Ridling called, having finished a tour of the campus. So I met her and answered her questions for a good 45 mintues before class. It was fun to see the high school eagerness in her eyes.

English discussion. This was for the tangential lecture class. I really like the TA. He has quite the history and is pretty cool. He seemed to stimulate discussion rather well, so I actually volunteered some information.

Afterwards, I got a message from Claire that was very garbled, so I assumed it was something about Film in the Ancient World, so I went to Wellman to see if I could find the class. I couldn't, so I went home.

My bread was enormous and delicious. I made a gangsta' sandwich with the leftover corned beef and cabbage. Basically, it was last night's meal, just cold and between huge slices of bread. Tasty.

Since then, I've done some reading and studying and have managed to get a headache. I'm going to head to bed.

Spring Break Part II

2006-04-03T22:13:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was a continuation of my Spring Break. It was funny of the University to put us back in school for two days then give us a three day weekend, but oh well.

I drove back from Kirstyn's this morning around 10. I put some Starbucks in my stomach which made it a little uneasy, then drove home. Once in Davis, I opened my packages (2) and took a shower. Cleaning up to the standards my life has set in this apartment, I went to Greek.

It has been a pretty mucky day, so I wore relatively grungy clothes. It was hot in Wellman, as usual. Some random guy was sitting in my seat, so I sat in the back next to Nick. I didn't like that seat very much. Thanks to Kirstyn working both Friday and Saturday, I knew my Greek very well and did a great job sight translating.

After Greek, I headed straight over to Olson and sat next to Cari for Grammar. Dr. Haynes lectures very quickly, cramping my hand. It's interesting stuff, but he goes slightly too fast to take it all in.

I wandered back to the MU and grabbed some lunch, then did a bit of my Greek homework. Tyson was looking for a place to sit, so we munched our lunch together and chatted about good Greek times.

At 3, I hurried over to Everson for Myth. Our Greek posse had disbanded, so I sat next to Allison Loveland and Jaina. We were briefly starting Hesiod, so I got excited. Dr. Rundin saw this and exclaimed, "Oh, you like Hesiod?" to which I replied, "I love Hesiod!" Then he went on to make the usual teacher comment about me getting an automatic A in the class. I'm going to hold him to that.

Back at home, I threw the corned beef into a pot and let it simmer for the next few hours. In that time, I got most of my other homework done. I went to the grocery store for some cabbage, potatoes, and mustard. I got Sierra Nevada mustard, which is probably my favorite stuff in the world. I would eat it right out of the jar, except that would be gross.

The corned beef turned out pretty good. In fact, aside from the aesthetic properties, it was pretty much the same as Dad's. It's a familiar taste that I got late this year, but it still came. I actually wish I had more so I could make sandwiches with my delicious mustard.

That was pretty much my day. After dinner, I read some Hesiod and did some Greek. I did some dishes as well, and also activated some yeast for bread tomorrow. Oh, the life of me.

New Quarter

2006-03-29T22:56:00.000-08:00

Today was the start of a new quarter, a new leaf in the tree of my life, another page in my book of bad analogies.

As I don't have class until noon on Wednesdays, I got up around 9:30 and baked some bread. It actually turned out delicious, so I brought a fresh hot loaf to my Greek professor. I believe she enjoyed it very much.

It was good to see my Greek class again, as I'm used to seeing them everyday. It's a very intimate and cozy environment and we all know each other very well. We went over our finals, then turned them back in. It's a ritual that is pretty much the only legal method for us to see our finals, something to which only Dr. Bulman adheres.

Speaking of awkwardly phrasing sentences to avoid common grammatical mistakes, I then attended my English Grammar lecture. Dr. Haynes seems like he should be less than boring or disorganized, although the book is apparently pretty awful. I was informed of this by Cari, who is the TA for the class. She had no idea I was taking the class until she did the usual glance-around-the-classroom-to-see-if-you-know-anyone survey and caught my eyes. Her own ones lit up.

We sat through a lecture of the history of grammar and the English Language, which was pretty unbearable for me, a student of the Greek Language. I had to hold back from asking questions like, "Would that be comparable to the genitive case?" or "How does that relate to the periphrastic structure?" to avoid becoming the guy everyone hates. Should be fun.

After class, I had a little chat with Cari as she trotted to the bus, where I branched off to go get lunch at the MU. Since it's heavy textbook season, there was a huge line at the bookstore, so I checked my bag to avoid doing that later. I ran into Keiz, so I talked to her for a bit about English 46C, then some other things. Apparently she's putting together a pot luck in honor of Cesar Chavez Day, the only stipulation being that no one bring grapes (he boycotted grapes).

I got my burrito (it was delicious), then went to the bookstore to get some notebooks and paper. I was a very good boy and did not buy anything else. But I came close.

Running off to Classics 10, Ancient Myth, I met up with Bocce outside the lecture hall. A friend from Greek, she is also the reader for the class. Inside, we found Allison Loveland, Jaina, Rasmi, Summit, and Nicole, so we had our little Greek posse in the middle of the lecture hall.

Dr. Rundin is a spaz. Something happened in the middle of the lecture that made all the lights go off and a huge (enormous) projector screen descend, so he sort of freaked out, then continued the lecture in the dark. It was kind of weird. Also, he tie was backwards for most of the lecture and it bothered me.

For New Testament Greek, Dr. Bulman reserved a seminar room in Sproul, the tallest building in Yolo County. The most interesting thing I learned in that class is that Davis is flat. Very flat.

It was pretty cool to have everyone sitting around a big table though. It was more intimidating, since she could see all of us clearly. Tom was being Tom and kind of creepy strange, but we just sort of ignored him.

Back at the place, I learned there was not enough time to cook the corned beef, so that was put off for another day. I had a slice of my bread though. It was delicious.

I got started on my Greek homework and wondered where all of my textbooks are. That still confuses me.

The three of us went to In-N-Out for dinner, with me sitting quietly as they talked about boring things. Then we picked up Amy, who is always nice to have around. That way it's Brandon and Riddy yakking in the back and me leaning over to Amy and whispering "I don't care." Oh, and singing Schnappi.

Meeting was rather long. It was fun to play with the little kids afterwards. They all seem to gravitate towards the candy bowl, for some reason. I don't know why. Maybe because there is candy there.

After that, we went home and blah blah blahed until now. That means I did my homework and talked to Kirstyn. That was pretty much all I did. Seriously. Blah blah blah.

Cock to Asclepius

2006-03-28T22:53:00.000-08:00

I'm still pretty tired. School exhausts me.

Lots and lots has happened. I still enjoy my life outside of the internet, which is something new in the past several months. Damon still enjoys telling me that I don't blog enough, which is normal for Damon.

Today was a lazy day. I woke from my slumber around 9:30, which was surprisingly early. After the long car ride back, I was amazed I was coherent at that hour. But I got up and got a move on my day.

Kirsten Kinsella called and let me know they were in town on a tour, so I met up with her, her sister, Katie, and Carli for lunch and to show them whatever else they wanted to see. It ended up being a rather long tour, so my legs were pretty tired afterwards.

At home, I finished my laundry, baked my bread (it turned out delicious, even more than normal), then heated up some pork from two days ago. The bread complemented it very well.

Later in the day, Joe came home. Brandon had been here since morning. The three of us watched the Thomas Crown Affair, one of my personal favorite movies. It's just so great.

That's pretty much my day. Sometimes I like not blogging just to spite Damon.

I think I have a new favorite phrase. "Cock to Asclepius." Go figure it out yourself. Impress your classicist friends.

Works and Days

2006-03-14T21:33:00.000-08:00

After a long stretch of busy stuff, my life is calming down just in time for finals. Ew, gross.

The past few days have been full of not a whole lot and getting out of class early because of teacher evaluations. I totally slapped Lucy today on that one. Dr. Robson did well, as did Dr. Bulman.

It seems my life is pretty boring. Maybe I'm just enjoying actually doing stuff. Like eating oranges, for example. Or reading. Not stuff I'm supposed to be reading, mind you. I've been reading my Greek bible because it's awesome. Seriously, it's crazy fun. Try it. Oh wait, learn Greek first.

I think I'm tired and crazy enough to go to bed now.

Miss You Too

2006-03-11T01:00:00.000-08:00

I should be sleeping right now. This past week has been full of not enough sleep days. I spend my time in a constant state of hazy awareness, taking tests, writing papers, reciting poems. Seriously. But I hope that it all pays off in the end.

Today I got my Greek Bible and Iliad and Odyssey, both translated by Stanley Lombardo, my favorite translator. I think it's definitely a sign of nerddom when you have a preferred translator and get books to have him sign when he comes to visit in a few months. He's just that cool.

I've been eating food. I'm not dying yet.

Seriously though, really tired. I'm just going to go now.

Time Away

2006-03-07T22:21:00.000-08:00

Hey, so it's been a long, long time! Crazy, isn't it? Yeah, I don't really care. I've had paper after paper after midterm after quiz after journal after not enough sleep. And it's still going. I have a final tomorrow, then a paper due Thursday, so it's a little break for me right now.

Yesterday, I baked eight pizzas. They were all delicious, but there were too many of them. It gave me the opportunity to reach out and make some neighbor friends, so I offered some to Brad, Dan, and their roommates, who then came over and hung out for a bit. Nice to have some of my own friends over, who are capable of doing more than play halo.

A few days ago, I updated Rather Dashing, so check that out.

I've been a little stressed out today over due dates and such. I've had a headache for the second half of the day and am rather annoyed at Kirstyn right now. I need to go.

Oh, Great.

2006-03-02T21:43:00.000-08:00

Guess what. I am sick again. This has to be like the fifth time I've gotten sick this year. This is not fun. Something is really messed up this year. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I think I need to pinpoint it and get it out of my life. Fairly confident it's not Kirstyn, just to throw that out there.

I feel gross. Sometimes my brains like to drool out of my nose.

My throat is really sore from coughing so much. I don't like it.

School was fine. I made it through without falling asleep. Surprising.

Damon is here for the weekend. Here apartment here, for the night, here Davis here for the weekend. The roomies have spent a high majority of their waking hours in the dark, in front of our wall. It surprises me when I see them elsewhere.

I went to another reading tonight. It was pretty interesting. The first girl read a long story about a woman going through a separation and her friend is going through a sex change operation. The second read one about a summer camp counselor who is afraid of bees and water.

I am here now and my nose is leaking.

Manly Month of March

2006-03-01T22:34:00.000-08:00

Celebrate the Manly Month of March by giving up shaving for Lent. I think it's a great idea, even though I have no idea what Lent is. What a better way to finish off Furry February than to kick off the Manly Month of March? Try: sleeping.

Yesterday, I was so amazingly caught up on homework. Today, I seem to be incredibly behind. I have no idea how that happened. I am disgusted.

Lots of stuff has happened, but I have no time to tell it. I am procrastinating from writing one of my three papers due next week, though this draft is due tomorrow. I should get to that.

I bought another bible today. That makes... 5? I think. Except this one is the best translation of all: No translation! I finally broke down and got a Greek copy, which is spectacular. And another copy of the Iliad and the Odyssey, both translations by Stanley Lombardo, my new favorite translator. I think I might be a nerd.

Right. English stuff. Bah.

Too Much Excitement

2006-02-26T23:45:00.000-08:00

I need to force myself to go to bed. I just discovered the Perseus Project, where there are hundreds of classical works online, in their original languages! Hey, check it out. I'm reading the New Testament in Greek! Probably the coolest thing that's happened to me in the past five minutes, maybe even ten.

Gah! And now college and high school facebooks are merging. You can add friends from each! This is too insane. I think my entire world is now collapsing.

Today was bleh blah. We were late to meeting, since Riddy decided to jump in the shower at 9:55. It was a big meeting, but still nice.

Lunch at the Grad, as usual.

The afternoon was spent trying to fix our internet, which sort of worked. Yeah, whatever.

Gospel meeting was nice, since a special girl decided to show up. I'll let you make guesses as to who that was.

Rushing to get back to town, I met with my English group, where three of us stood in Border's for five minutes and then left. It was actually the most productive our group has ever been. Ever.

Since then, I've actually done stuff. I ate some curry, it was delicious. I started reading, but it got boring, so I flipped around, then glanced at the words. They were utterly ridiculous, so I read the whole thing. I forgot to do my Greek homework, so I'll do that tomorrow before class. And now I've been wasting away in amazement at the internet. I really do need to get some sleep.

Yeah.

2006-02-26T00:53:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a little while, now hasn't it?

I've been busy getting murdered by multiple midterms. I'm not looking forward to hearing how I did. It was pretty bad. Not good.

It's late, I'm tired. Let's sum up the past few days with some nice little words from my head.

I like bread. Baking it. I have baked three batches of bread in the past 4 days. I am a bread fiend.

I do not like midterms.

I do not get enough sleep.

Kirstyn and I can resolve most of our problems through wrestling.

There was a huge party next door, involving a stretch SUV (no idea how it got back here) and a peeing contest.

I am a huge fan of baby names.

Brandon feels sad for not dressing up like a nerd.

I could probably remember more if I was fully cognizant, so I'm going to try and achieve that.

Yeah, Whatever

2006-02-21T23:38:00.000-08:00

So it's been a while. I've had things to do. I'm really not in the mood for writing, since I have three midterms and a quiz this week, regarding two novels and a handful of poems I haven't read and a language I don't understand. Oh well.

My life has been going along as usual. I see and talk to Kirstyn quite regularly. I spent yesterday with her, attempting to study. In my book, this usually means procrastinating. I did it well.

Realizing it was the end of a three day weekend and everybody was going home after skiing, I decided to spend the night and get up in the morning, just in time for rush hour traffic. Bah. I got home, jumped in bed for a good 45 minutes, then went to racquetball.

That was fun. I was really tired, so I played a few great games with some people slightly worse than me. I had a lot of fun.

English was spent conversing to Tom in Greek. It's like killing two birds with one stone, except the English bird never actually died, as noted by the butchering of the overextension of an analogy.

Greek. Same as always.

It was good to feel clean. And eat. And read my paper.

English again. Really slow. The entire lecture hall was falling asleep. Same thing in discussion, but this time our leader was falling asleep too.

Now I've been home, have eaten part of the wonderfully prepared meal, and am falling asleep. Okay bye.

Parents in Town

2006-02-17T22:57:00.000-08:00

Seeing how half of my audience has lived this day with me, and I just spent half an hour telling about it to the other half, there isn't too big of a point in writing it down. Oh well.

It's a Friday. That means awkwardly suffering through a lecture on a book I didn't read, trying to concentrate in Olson 109, and taking a Greek quiz for which I was ill-prepared. I forwent the weekly Greek lunch for a more personal gathering with the family. And I have spent the rest of the day with them.

Lunch was Pho. It never really fills me up, probably because it's pretty much drinking large quantities of salty water. We toured downtown Davis, stopping at such exotic locales as some Asian market and the Co-Op. Good times.

We went to Safeway and cooked four dinners, then stuck them in their appropriate storage containers for when I actually eat them. Then for our real dinner, we ate at Round Table. Delicious.

Then we vacuumed the carpet by hand. Not fun.

Now I'm tired.

Yeah, Just Hush

2006-02-16T23:40:00.000-08:00

I know, I haven't posted in days.

I spent Tuesday night at Kirstyn's dad's new house in honor of the day (Tuesday). Nothing exciting happened before that.

Yesterday, I learned that our router is funky and sometimes doesn't like letting us view web pages. Fancy that. No blog, bitter Jeff.

Today. Well, I've been in front of this too long (not very long), so my head is starting to hurt. I will try and make it as interesting as possible in not too much time.

At 7, I went and saw a lesbian read stuff she wrote. Not going to lie, I thought she was a dude. Seriously, check it out:

That's a rather feminine picture, too. She was hilarious though. She had a great reading voice and knew exactly how the author would have wanted them read. I bought one of the books she read from and had her autograph it. It's my way of paying for her reading stories to me.

Other than that, I have my usual Greek quiz tomorrow, for which I am ill-prepared. I haven't been doing much (any) reading as of late, so I really need to catch up on that. The parents and brother are in town and in my living room, respectively. I should go to bed. If I race, I can make it before the cock crows thrice.

Spite

2006-02-13T23:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I suffered a stern reprimand for not keeping up on my blogging. So out of spite, I wrote nothing last night. Actually, I just forgot.

My life is pretty interesting, but I don't think it's worth putting it in words. I'm going to claim it's just one of those things you need to experience. So turn off your computer and come visit me. Human interaction can be so rewarding. This is one of the things I've learned in my month without internet. Another is that you don't get up to the minute weather updates. Also, it's a lot easier to not spend money.

Today was a very normal day. It's been getting hotter, to the point where if I wear pants inside, I start feeling gross, as if I've been sweating a lot but it's all dried up. But it's still that point in Winter where I feel naked and uncomfortable wearing shorts. Oh, the dilema.

I felt so accomplished by not doing any homework over the weekend. I got to Classics this morning with my clean copy of the Iliad, opening it only to learn what the professor was talking about. Afterwards, I went downstairs to make up sentences for the Greek homework, due an hour after that.

There's an interesting phenomenon with my Greek class. It's very much a big family. Everybody tends to look out for everybody else and feel comfortable with them. After class, it's not surprising to see 5-10 people just sitting around talking for a good 20 minutes. It's gotten to the point where you feel late if you're not in class 20 minutes before class. There are usually a good 7 people sitting in the hallway waiting for the classroom to open. But we all think that's normal. It's also kind of creepy how much we know about everyone else. I can tell you rather surprising things about most everybody in our Greek class, yet can barely tell you the names of a handful of people in any of my other classes. Oh, how I love Greek.

So afterwards, Ian, Allison, Nick, and I stood by our bikes talking about how cool we all are, then I went home.

My lunch consisted of the second half of my BLT from yesterday, then probably random bits of food. I really can't remember.

It's strange having the internet. I waste so much time on here now. I really need to ration off my time. Staring mindlessly at a screen can be my reward for getting tangible work done. It's too bad I don't consider reading tangible work, since I'm way behind in that.

After fixing (heh, aorist participle) the network, I went to Safeway and Officemax to pick up some soy milk and super glue, respectively. I was bored. However, I did manage to have my sketchy moment of the day in the parking lot. It went as follows:

As I was getting into my car, a red SUV pulls up behind me and shouts out rather quickly, "Do you want some speakers?" Confused, I asked what he was talking about. Eventually, he pulls over and explains the situation. They got a shipment in, twice as many as they ordered, if he went back to work, their boss would just take them all. Since apparently these speakers were worth $4,000, he thought he could make some money and help out some stranger. At least, this is the story he claimed.

Now, the speakers in question were either a set of surround sound with satellites, or tall ones, a left and a right. If you know me at all, I am known for deliberating incessantly over large purchases. I'm not going to make a large purchase such as this on a whim. Unfortunately for them, they seemed pressed for time, so they tried to rush through everything. Not working for me. I insisted they show me proof that they're worth the value they labeled and could open the boxes and prove they were the same speakers. Also, they wanted me to name the price. Being me, I opened my wallet and offered them the cash inside. Thirty dollars. Hey, I'm not in need of any speakers. Apparently it wasn't good enough. The haggling got down to $100, which was the price I labeled for speakers even if I did need them. He gets discouraged and goes back in the car, but his partner jumps out and starts putting the towers in my arms, saying that $100 for a left and $100 for a right is the best they're going to do for the time. I went on to explain that I meant $100 total, which was not enough for him, so they went on their merry way, and I went to get some glue. Oooh, sweaty palms. I don't like rushed big decisions.

Back at the place, I discussed the options with Brandon and Joe, both of whom thought it was extremely shady. Interestingly enough, Brandon had the same thing happen to him in Chico, with nearly the same story. That's some shady business there.

Oh well; I don't need speakers.

I did some homework. Crazy.

For dinner, we went to Redrum. Honestly, cooking at home is not a default for my roommates. This really bothers me. I think they hate cooking or something. I would, if only I knew how and if they would help pay for it. It gets really annoying. I really want to cook something, but every time it's time to eat, they offer up suggestions for eating out. It's getting old. Even older than pasta.

Blah blah blah. Those two 1/4 lb burgers never settle perfectly in my stomach. I need to get going to bed before I fall asleep right here. I hope I play better tomorrow than I did on Thursday. That was miserable.

Happy Valentine's Day, Kirstyn. Oh, and anniversary today. Apparently I'm supposed to remember and tell her of this every month. Are we going to keep on doing this forever? Because you do that for babies for a little bit, then it just gets old. No respectable person celebrates his hundred something month birthday. Where are we drawing the line? Just curious.

Saberday

2006-02-12T00:06:00.000-08:00

So, in deepest guilt, I went to visit Kirstyn today.

In order to make sure I didn't stay the night, I left all my overnight stuff at home. I got her really pretty flowers, hid my car, and waited. She was happy.

We had a nice, quiet evening. Went to Sizzler with the family for dinner.

I think I might have pink eye. My eyes were crusted over this morning and have been sore all day.

I am tired. I am going to bed.

Sleep

2006-02-11T00:20:00.000-08:00

So I didn't write last night. So what?

I spent 13 hours at school. I didn't really feel like writing. I felt like sleeping. So I did. And oh, it was good.

I have been rather sick in mind for the past few days so I would first like to apologize to the world, most specifically my girlfriend. I'm feeling better physically right now, just a little loopy.

I did a bunch of stuff. I watched a terrible movie entitled "Hercules in New York." Probably the worst movie ever made, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first time on screen, you know, before he developed those wonderful acting skills. It was horrible in every way imaginable. My favorite part was when Hercules wasn't doing so well, so the gods decided to send some help. First they sent Atlas, failing to realize that if he was there, nobody was holding up the world. Then they decided to send Samson, a completely biblical character. It was as if they were joking.

Other than that, well, I don't know what I'm saying. I took a quiz today and I think I did rather poorly. We had our usual after Greek lunch party, our number growing. I am sick. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm very confused.

Yes

2006-02-09T00:15:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I am still up. I'm drugged out on NyQuil even.

Although, that didn't really help last night, so why bother? I woke up with my sheets completely upside down and I don't really know how that happened. Directly on me was my fuzzy blanket, then my comforter, then my sheet. It was the strangest phenomenon. It made making my bed awkward.

Class, class, class.

Kirstyn came, it made me happy. I really like her. A lot.

We all went to Applebee's, then meeting. Large, as usual. I am sick and loopy.

Loopy, loopy, loopy.

Eggs

2006-02-07T22:05:00.000-08:00

What do you do when you have too many eggs? Apparently the answer is to give them to our apartment. We must have gained about 2 dozen eggs in the past hour or so. Granted, they are now only good for making our balcony smell and awful to clean, but at least we have eggs, right?

My thinking is that Joe really angered somebody today by throwing water balloons at the bike path. This person, or group of people, presumably male and not Asian, according to throwing accuracy, then went to comment on how many commas are in this sentence. They did so by throwing eggs all over our balcony. I must say, their aim was dead on.

Other than that, I've been sick and tired all day. I've been falling asleep in all of my classes, especially the evening ones. I just chugged a dose of NyQuil, so I'm getting even more loopy as I type this. Okay, I'm heading off to bed.

Not Again

2006-02-06T22:33:00.000-08:00

Thanks, Riddy. Thanks for passing on your illness.

I guess I deserve it for giving you HIV over the break. But I would much rather have a plush doll of an STD than a sore throat, runny nose, and inability to function normally. But what can I do?

It didn't really start to kick in until after I got back from school. I had a mildly sore throat this morning, but I made it through class all right. When I got home, I shoved food into my body, then curled up across the room from a snoring Riddy and went to sleep. A few hours later, I awoke from extreme heat. I've taken off many layers, but my head still feels hot.

Through the course of the day, I've done my Greek homework, a bit of organizing, wasted a lot of time on the internet, and eaten at In-N-Out. I really wish I could have been more productive, maybe even by baking some cookies, but I'm going to blame illness. Take that.

Well, I should get some rest. Even if I don't actually go to bed right now, I should still get some.

The Superbowl

2006-02-06T01:06:00.000-08:00

Imagine this:
A beautiful apartment, snack food galore. A barbecue on the balcony cooking beef-moose-elk burgers. Inside, there's a high definition projector lighting up the wall with a 12 foot diagonal view of the most hyped football game of the year. There are around 20 people there, all friends.

Now find me, in my room, listening to banjo music and trying to do homework. Luckily, I got to go to gospel meeting in the afternoon, so it wasn't that big of a deal, but still. There were a lot of people there, and not the type that I would usually desire to befriend.

It is now late and I am tired, but what else is new? I have the internet, for one. Another is that we have a washer and dryer finally. I've been doing my laundry. I did my towels, lights, and dark heavy fabrics tonight, and will finish up with my softer darks and whites tomorrow. It's a system, don't mess with it.

Riddy's snores are on a low. I should go to sleep before they get bad again. Oh shoot, I think I heard a moan. No wait, a growl.

The Internet

2006-02-05T00:15:00.000-08:00

I'm back. I just wanted to throw that out there before I went to bed. Quite a bit has happened since I last posted, but the fact that I'm always tired remains. And alas, I go to bed before really saying anything.

Oh, right.

2005-12-09T22:50:00.000-08:00

So, I'm such a slacker! I haven't posted in quite some time.

Well, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to make this very detailed. I have been running with an average of about 4 hours of sleep a night, even after I turned in and took my exams. So I'm running on empty now.

Let's see. Up until Wednesday, I procrastinated doing my work. It wasn't too bad though, I just went to bed at 5 am on Wednesday. That was a long day, only getting more intense.

Thursday was lovely. I did my class stuff, then went to Woodland to open up the storage units then have the movers move our stuff into the apartment. It is awesome.

Today, I went to class, blah blah blah. Review session for John, then dinner at Round Table. I am so extremely tired and I have a headache. We're moving into the apartment tomorrow, but we won't have internet until January. Maybe not gas either. And our washer and dryer are not in there. But it will be nice.

Okay, bye.

Ha!

2005-12-07T03:53:00.000-08:00

Check it out! I haven't posted for a while! I guess that means I must be at Kirstyn's, right?

WRONG!

I have been terribly busy working towards my Wednesday goal of having nothing on my plate. That means scraping off my two 10 page papers, midterm, and quiz. I really should figure out how to put the timestamp on these posts, because I'm writing this at 4 am. I am wanting to go to bed.

Oh Bah That

2005-12-03T23:04:00.000-08:00

Yeah, so I'm not at Kirstyn's right now so I can get some homework done, but so far I've been spending my time procrastinating. I'm such a terrible boyfriend.

No seriously, I have a lot of work to do. On Wednesday, I have:

One 10 page Christian Theology paper
One 10 page John paper
One Psychology midterm
One Greek quiz

I'm sure glad I don't have two of anything. Well, that is if you're counting the two ten page papers as different things because they're for different classes. But they're for the same professor, so what's the difference? I'm still going completely insane! Look at me go! I'm crazy!

Let me reflect on the worth of the past few days.

That was quick. I spent most of yesterday pondering when I would start doing anything, then later kicked myself in the shins because I had still yet to do anything. I am so terrible. I even went to bed late without even opening a document in which I could potentially write a paper. So terrible.

Today, I woke around noon, such a rarety that I took it despite the potenial downfall of my GPA. When I got up, some random guy in the hall decided to get mad at me because I was still asleep and he was up since 8. So boo him.

I had some donuts that Brandon got. This reminded me why I don't eat donuts. It's always refreshing to do that, except for the disgusting feeling of fat induced bile journeying up the esophagus of my imagination. Too much imagery!

I was pathetic for a while longer, then Brandon and I went to Chipotle. Once again, that didn't settle too well in my stomach, so I sat on my bed, keeping everything within arms reach. I went through my books and flagged down the pages that seemed potentially useful in an essay. Then I opened a document. I have about half a paragraph of one essay done. I am so utterly awesome.

Riddy went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra with his parents and was planning on staying the night with them. So this freed up my evening. I could comfortably work on my papers without the distraction of TV.

Blah blah blah. I played some accordion, some trumpet madness. Go me. I wasted much much more time in the other rooms.

By soon time, it was dinner. Brandon and I went to Pluto's for dinner. Afterwards, since we officially became either Friends or Family of the Gap, we went there to take some hard-core advantage of our 30% discount. Offer still valid online through the fourth. Email me for details.

As it is Amy's birthday tomorrow, both Brandon and I spent much time deliberating over presents for her. I think I had too much fun. No, I think I am just weird. I find myself having too much fun in the oddest of situations.

I almost bought some amazingly comfortable pj pants. The only problem was their small ranges from 30-32. It's a sad day when you don't fit into the smallest size they offer. Unfortunately for me, that day is everyday. I guess it's a good thing they didn't fit me, since I was initially hesitant that they would be way too much like the velour pants of high school cheerleading fame. So whatever. They were cozy. And I did walk out with something pink and fuzzy.

Well, Richard came back to the hotel instead of going home. This means even less of a chance for me being productive. As soon as I got back, I could hear the TV blasting from the hall. Now I sit in the lobby, after doing my Greek homework. I told myself I couldn't go back to the room until midnight, so I have an hour to procrastinate. I better get started.

I Still Hate TV

2005-12-01T23:36:00.000-08:00

I have a TV induced headache. It hurts. And the TV is still on.

Well, blah. I slept today. Mmmm, good. Racquetball was fun. Brad and I played doubles... against each other! Crazy. The girls on our teams were decent, so it was actually a really fun game. Very close too. We played two games. They were both fun.

As a result, Greek was very very sweaty and smelly. I was gross.

Well, it started raining. Not just raining, but pouring. So Ian and I were talking after class and ended up spending about 10 minutes standing under the awning talking about how it's raining. Seriously, yeah.

Since it was pouring, I didn't want to bike and get drenched, so I went to the bookstore. There, I ran into Jill, so we had a little chatty chat and browsed the place. We went through everything drying off and killing time. It was nice to see and hang out with he again.

After nearly an hour of wasting time, it was still pouring, so I just went home in the pouring rain. I was wet.

Done with class, I sat in bed for a while. Then I ate lunch at the Posh Bagel. And that's when I got my headache. So I sat in bed while Riddy watched TV. So then I napped. For a long time.

When I woke up, I stumbled out of the room to find that the gang had already got back from Dos. AJ was walking out of his room bitter about this, so we went to Chipotle together. It was good.

Back, they all went to play basketball, so I stayed, cringing at my headache. I also tried to play trumpet and accordion, but not to much avail. Then Riddy came back, so the TV turned on. I went downstairs. I got some advil from the lobby, then did my Greek homework and marked some pages in my library books.

Now I'm back and feeling better due to the Advil. I will go now.

From My Electrical Well

2005-12-01T00:30:00.000-08:00

I'm sleepy. I should be in bed right now. Too bad my lack of sleep has nothing to do with the two papers and midterm that are due tomorrow.

I woke, got ready, then went to the lounge to eat breakfast and cram for my Greek midterm. Bah.

It was like any other quiz, except longer. Scary. I really need to work on vocab and the middle voice. I think I got a B on it.

Following that was an exceptional... sitting on the bed browsing the internet. Go me.

Then Theology. It was a pretty controversial lecture, as Hurst basically denounced all forms of religious heirarchy, priesthood, and ordination. The class was silent as he gave the lecture. I think everyone was a little too shocked to ask questions.

Lunched at the MU, then browsed the bookstore for fun.

At the beginning of John, Hurst showed us about 10 minutes from the original King Kong, which he claimed had "absolute relevance to the Fourth Gospel," yet never explained that further. From that, I gained a huge respect and amazement for King Kong and am excited about the remake. Although, the original is still pretty cool.

After that, He lectured for a bit about the Upper Room, then we watched more of Jesus of Nazareth. We ended right after the public chose Barabbas, to which Jonathan excitedly asked, "But how does it end?" He has been on vacation, so I told him that he should read the book because it's better. I've missed his complete lack of common decency. And Claire too. She's hilarious as well. Oh for fun.

Psych was blah. Blah blah blah. But that class is making me really good at Sudoku.

After that, Brandon and I went to Dos Coyotes for dinner. Riddy and Amy were both not feeling well, so they stayed home. Brandon and I went to Safeway so he could get his manly whatever stuff.

Meeting went well. I'm really liking the location.

After getting back, I had a long lovely chat with my lady, then spent the rest of the time deteriorating. I even did my Greek homework. Bah, I should go.

A Fun Day

2005-11-29T23:15:00.000-08:00

My computer is dumb. It's being slow. It might just be the internet, but I got a warning about virtual memory being low. What do I do about that? David? Meh.

Today started slowly. I had a slow time waking up, getting my stuff together, etc. I finally got to breakfast about 10 minutes later than I would have liked, then slowly made my way to the ARC. I was about 5 minutes late, so I stretched while everyone did their thing. Then I went on to play with Patrick and the guy whose name I do not know and should be embarrased because of that. It was fun, but got a little silly.

Greek was sweaty. Seriously, gross. I smelled. But midterm tomorrow, so learn learn learn. The usual.

After class, Ian caught ahold of me and conned me into joining him for a review. I've always thought of him as a strange cookie, so I was a little hesitant. Finally, I decided it would probably be the best for me too, so I gave him my number to call when he was free.

I went to the bike barn and pumped up my tires. They were getting low and saggy. Now I feel every bump in the road. Go me.

I came home, cleaned up, then ate lunch at the Posh Bagel. It was pretty good.

For the next little while, I sat browsing the internet. After a while, Amy came online and casually announced that she was going to bike to the DMV. Seeing how it's halfway across town, freezing outside, and she's accident prone, I offered to drive her there. She graciously accepted.

Well, after the DMV jaunt, somehow the Domes came up in conversation. A quick right turn and there we were. So I showed her around and her reaction was similar to mine: sheer amazement. So after walking around, explaining everything I knew, I took her back to her place then met Ian at his apartment.

It took a little while to find his place and a suitable parking spot, but I managed. We studied for an hour or so, probably more, going through the paradigms and passages, as well as old homeworks. Then we just started talking about everything. I have a much higher respect for him now. He knows quite a bit, which is why he is so argumentative. I can understand why he's ostracized in most classes, but he's really a nice guy if you get to know him. The conversation shifted from our Greek class to our Theology class to beliefs of specific religions to personal beliefs. From there, I handed him an invitation to the gospel meetings in town to which he said he would definitely attend. He then proceeded to ask more questions over dinner at the Quarto DC, after which I left for home.

It was a nice little evening, I must admit. As I was getting off the elevator at the third floor, my roomates were crowding in and forced me to go back to the basement. They were heading off to their champion floor hockey game. I was planning to go see them, but I got caught up in other things. I was also still bitter that I was not invited to play on their team. Only four-fifths of our apartment was on it, no reason for more. Hey, I would have at least liked to have been asked. Instead, I got to wonder where my roommates left Monday nights, only to learn that they took our mutually agreed plan and ran off with it. Bah them.

Now I'm here, bitter, and angry at my computer.

Time

2005-11-28T22:55:00.000-08:00

Sorry about last night. I was in a pretty bitter mood, mostly due to Kirstyn and her lack of being able to talk to me.

Today was an average day. I did a lot of procrastinating, which is not good. I realized I have two papers and a midterm next week, all no later than Wednesday. I better get cracking.

I woke up slowly after a night of uneasy sleep. I realized later that my pillow was upside down. Seriously, it makes a difference. I had my breakfast and cup of green tea, then went to Greek.

Slow day, except for the stormy weather. The power went out three times. It was so exciting. So of course, we had to prove our mad Greekiness and continue learning despite lack of vision. Hard core, I tell you.

Since my ears were starting to chip off my head, I stopped by the Gap on my way home and made a rush purchase of a matching scarf and beanie which I proceded to wear for the rest of the day. Wisest purchase I made all day, except perhaps my two other purchases that both went on to provide nourishment and existance. But I like them. They keep me warm.

In Theology, we got our midterms back. I was not too happy. I really really need to study and do well on both the final and paper. Seriously. In both classes.

I made a quick stop at Hurst's office to ask about a book, but Kevin was in there, so I sat in while he was talking. Kevin is a nice guy. Typical super-Christian.

Once Kevin was done, I asked Hurst about a book he mentioned, so he scoured the room for it, but no luck. Instead, he found a book that he mentioned several times in class, "The Human Face of God" by J.A.T. Robinson. Interestingly, I noticed the book had a library card taped to the back page, with several stamps in it. It also had Shield Library's famous categorizing numbers on the spine. Yet most interesting was the "Lincoln D Hurst" written on the front page. Has Hurst been stealing from the Library? We shall see.

For lunch, I had my usual at the CoHo. I said hello to Kevin and met his girlfriend, soon to be fiancee, then wife. Weird. Seriously though, I had that discussion with him today. He says that as soon as she gets accepted into a nutrition program, they're going to get married and move to wherever for school. Strange.

John was fine. Claire was back, so we caught up. There really isn't much to catch up on, so she basically gave me her email address and I would later send her my notes for the days she missed.

We're finally closing up the quarter. It's scary.

Psych was blah. I did my Sudoku in record time and realized that the midterm is next Wednesday. And that I have to do well on it. Really well. Bah that.

Back, I went to dinner with Brandon and Riddy at Woodstock's. It definitely wasn't bad, especially with the student special. I'm still full, which is a good thing. I feel like I need to drink a lot of water though. I love how I associate feeling gross with the need to drink water. I am so utterly awesome.

Getting back to the room, I learned more about our apartment. We can start moving things in next week, but can live there two days before finals. That's pretty bah. We're going to try and ask them if we can stay, since they are finals and we are not wanting a life change during them. I'm sure they'll be understanding.

As everyone was off doing IMs, I spent my evening talking to dozens of hot chicks online. Well, at least one. Man, I'm pathetic.

I played my trumpet, got my Greek done. I think I'm going to head on over to the shower, maybe read some of that book. Oh shoot. Papers, midterm, finals, blah.

Nonsense

2005-11-27T22:03:00.000-08:00

Well, it surely has been a while since I last posted. Let me check what last happened. Okay.

Wednesday, I went to Greek, came home, got my stuff, then learned that Theology was cancelled, the paper moved a week back. Joyous occasion. That meant no class except for psych, which I opted to skip.

I packed up, then grabbed a bite to eat. I went to Chipotle and got a burrito bol, but my stomach was not handling that well. It felt like there was a really long stick awkwardly shoved in my stomach. I had to stop by Watermelon Music for a rest, then on a bench on the side of the road. It was pretty bad. Because of that, I spent the next few hours lying in bed, trying to soothe the pain. I eventually decided that it wasn't going away and I better just get to Kirstyn's, so I went to the florist, picked out pretty flowers for a pretty boquet, then hopped in my car. I first stopped by the storage unit and grabbed slash dropped off some stuff, then went to my dear's place.

When I got there, I probably did something. We went to meeting, except Kirstyn stayed home and worked on homework. When we got back, her uncle was there. He went on to spend the rest of the weekend there.

Thanksgiving was thanksgivinglicious. It was weird having a traditional traditional Thanksgiving dinner. But tasty. Too many pies, though. Way too many.

Nap time or something.

I don't remember this weekend. It was mostly spend doing nothing. Actually, if you want a nice idea of the weekend, I'm going to direct you to Kirstyn's blog, except keep in mind that I was there too. I think she likes mentioning me as an afterthough because she doesn't like me very much. I mean, she'll stay home feigning sickness and I'll go hang out with her cousins. Or she'll choose homework over me. And I'm joking too.

Hum, Double date with Kyla and David. Okay, I'm conducting a poll right now. The three of them opted to eat at Red Robin instead of the PF Chang's that was right next door. Their argument was that they didn't want to waste too much money. Now the question for you: Where should we have eaten, Red Robin or PF Chang's? My vote was for the latter, but they all disagreed. They really need to learn to listen to me.

I absolutely hate television. I just thought I'd throw that out there. It's loud, annoying, distracting, and on. Please turn it off. I hate it when I'm trying to read my bible, but can't concentrate because the television is on. I can't hear Kirstyn on the phone because it's too loud. I can't get homework done because the only place I can do it is right in front of the tv. Basically, my range of motion is now limited to only places that are in direct view and earshot of the television. I have seriously considered taking an ax to that thing, except I don't have an ax. Bah.

Well, I'm sick of this. But feeling better physically. I came home after gospel meeting. Kirstyn was not there. I did not eat dinner. I did my homework, then was going to bed, but the television was on. Seriously. That thing is going to die.

Poker

2005-11-22T23:23:00.000-08:00

Well, what a fun day. Richard is pokering, so my internet is not plugged in. This is annoying.

I woke sleepily, got ready, and went to breakfast. This morning, I tried regular flavored oatmeal, which was a terribly bland mistake. The tea is starting to wear on me, but I'm still drinking it. Unlike regular flavored oatmeal, that's for sure.

Racquetball was fun. Brad showed up late, so I played one game with that fun guy whose name I still don't know. We were both not caring and agreed we left the court worse players having played. oh, how I love that game.

Greek was as usual. I'm still getting over my snotty self, so it was slightly annoying. Also annoying was that I left my copy of the Aggie in the room, so I had none to read. Bah that.

After Greek, I hopped over to Shield's Library and stole all the books on Karl Barth. I now have about 25 books checked out of the library. My back hurts.

I came home and showered. That made me feel much better. I was dirty.

I ate lunch at the Posh Bagel, a strangely smelling bagel shop run by full blown Asians. The food is pretty good though.

When I came back, the internet was mysteriously not working. Annoyed, I took my computer to the lobby and abused the free wireless there. Surprisingly, it's a better connection than with the cable in the room.

When I got back to the room, I discovered that the internet was not working since I was not plugged in. Oh, Riddy.

Speaking of which, he had a midterm, so I played my trumpet and accordion in his absence. Then I did my Greek homework.

Sat around, blah blah. Around hungry time, I went to Pluto's and got the special. It was delicious. Seriously. Then I browsed the Gap and almost bought a lot of things.

Home, I sat and read while listening to music on random. I have way too many different varieties of music.

Gospel meeting surprise! Tuesday night. Riddy was taking his own car, so I waited for him to tell me, meaning I picked up Amy a little late. It was interesting, as Brandon noted, that it really was a very gospel meeting. Very simple and straightforward, as if intended for outsiders. Afterwards, we learned it was. There's a foreign student that was in attendance. He seems like a nice guy.

Back. It was cold, Riddy was playing poker. I took a shower and am now typing in bed. He's done now, so I should post this and get to bed.

Blahday

2005-11-21T22:31:00.000-08:00

I woke up slightly late on the wrong side of the room. Actually, I woke up early, but got out of bed later than I would have liked. I got my life ready, then went to the lobby and ate breakfast. I brought my own tea bag to brew my own tea.

Once in the lobby, I ate, then studied for my Greek quiz.

As far as the quiz went, I think I aced the paradigms. Vocab was slightly shaky. For translations, I did averagely. The rest of class was spent making fun of Nick and Tyson while sniffing up snot.

Back in the hotel room, I sat on my bed and browsed the internet. I also stopped by the front desk and got my new parking pass.

Theology was fine, a little slow. I had a nice chat afterwards, then went to lunch. Before going to class, I went to the library to pick up some books on Barth. I ran out of room in my bag and will have to go back for more.

John was a slow day. I finally got back my midterm. Not good. A 67. With the curve, a C-. Oof. Lecture, then we watched more of the movie.

Psych was again boring. Bah bah bah.

Back at the room, Joe and Brandon were going to eat, so I went too. We went to El Mariachi. It was delicious, as usual. When we got back, I digested my food while wasting time online. Then I played my trumpet, then wasted more time.

In all, it has been a boring day. But the internet has become happy again, so I'm not complaining too much. I should drink more water.

It's a Post!

2005-11-21T00:21:00.000-08:00

Crazy, I've been so utterly lazy when it comes to posting in here. But ha! I'm tired and it's late. I guess I'm just not caring again!

Let's see. Thursday was postless because I finally got to bed around 3:30 or so. I didn't feel like spending that typing a bunch of nonsense.

The day panned out as usual, except for me being sickly when playing racquetball. It was whatever weird. Greek was Greek, shower, lunch. Man, it was a pretty slow day. I did manage to walk to the Co-Op for the first time. Let me tell you, it's like they managed to create a hippie government and this is their headquarters. I bought tea.

Then Kirstyn and Shawna arrived. I was in the middle of taking a nap, so I was lying in bed with Scooby Two (see, it's a play on words). Then they sat on me or something. Bah. I finally decided to get out of bed, then the three of us went to Borders.

Kirstyn was being a girl, but I was still too waking up from my nap to care. We ate at Pluto's because it's better than Subway.

When we were walking back to the hotel, the line was already wrapping around the theatre, so we jumped in, taking turns going back to the room slash car for needed things. I got some blankets and tea. Books, stuff, long line boring, four hours. Riddy spent the time braving it in the hotel room while we comfortably sat on concrete inhaling secondhand smoke from the fat woman who must be in a race to kill herself. Poor Riddy.

The movie started, played, then ended. Well, it started half an hour late because the lady with a megaphone probably likes women. She was mean. And kind of manly.

I think Viktor Krum resembles Ryan Winterswyk. Anyone caring to disagree with me will not be tolerated.

Friday was spend in sleepy mode, not unlike every other day of my life. I got up early and finished packing my stuff up since they were kicking us out of the hotel for the weekend. Apparently there was a 110 member orchestra performing at the Mondavi Center and the city of Davis has only that amount of hotel rooms. Also, they had reservations and we were supposed to be living in an apartment. Imagine.

So we had to be out of there by 11, yet I had class until 2. Meaning I was living out of my car for a few hours. Once class was over, I went to Kirstyn's.

I stopped by her work on the way there. Apple cupcakes are pretty good.

I think Friday was a pretty calm day. I can't remember what happened.

Saturday, the family was going to see Harry Potter, so I went too. This time, since I had already seen it, I took a complete cinematographic standpoint, analyzing the movie for its film characteristics and ability to let me catch up on my sleep. Seriously, though. Check out Krum.

Then we went back and I did other things. Then Kirstyn got home and we continued to do other things. If this sounds really boring, it's probably because it was. Well, not boring in the "Shane's Camping Pictures" kind of boring, but boring like a quiet evening at home. And not the quiet evening at home that includes dogs in the microwave, picking at flesh wounds, and chemically persuading life to avoid the dirt under the eucalyptus tree. Just simple doing nothing, playing the piano, quiet evening at home.

Oh wait, I did my laundry. Yet everything went so smoothly, I didn't even remember it. I am so utterly amazing.

Sunday, today (crazy). I didn't really want to get up. I slept on my alternate couch since Kirstyn wanted to sleep by the fire. I actually like that couch better since it's more comfortable, yet it seems there is more action by it in the mornings. Maggots eating breakfast and stuff like that.

Getting ready was much easier when I didn't have to wait for the shower.

Meeting was bigger than normal. Odd.

For lunch, much to the surprise and dismay of everyone, we went to KFC/A&W. Enough said.

While Kirstyn napped, I packed up my stuff while Stephanie got a massage. Just normal Sunday afternoon activities.

Gospel Meeting was nice. It's amazing how many people I know in the field, which is surprising. When I first went to that meeting, I didn't know anyone. I think that's silly weird.

Afterwards, Kirstyn was going to go with her mom or something like that, but she never showed up. So we went to her dad's house instead. Turns out she decided to make some aesthetic adjustments to the back of the van and spent the time reevaluating her decision. So we met Shawna and the girls, then went on our respective merry ways.

On the ride home, I had a lovely chat with Jayna and my mother. Then I ate dinner at Dos Coyotes. It was delicious. Dinner, not the phone call.

Getting back to the hotel, we apparently have to go through the whole check in process, but I forgot about that and didn't really do that. Eventually. It's nice though. We have developed a level of trust with the people who work at the front desk. They put me in AJ's room, so I just went downstairs and asked for a different room's key. All they asked was, "What room do you need?" and there I had it. Amazing.

Riddy and I switched sides. I think he just wanted his computer on the desk. It makes sense, since it's a desktop, but I miss having my deskspace. It's so much easier to get homework done when you have a desk. Also, now I'm directly in front of the TV. I should ask for remote control rights. Then I will hide it. Oh the fun.

I've been catching up with life. Greek quiz tomorrow. I talked to Patrick for a little bit. Twenty minutes or so. He seems to be doing well. We need to hang out sometime.

I need to get to bed sometime. Seriously. Like right now.

Bah

2005-11-17T00:36:00.000-08:00

I'm still awake. What's up with that?

I've been sleepy all day. I realized this morning at breakfast that I need to be more conscious about what I'm eating. Too late.

Greek was fun and fine. Small, since Tyson wasn't there. Still fun though.

To soothe my nerves, I went back to the storage place and checked my unit. Much to my relief, the unit was completely intact and locked. So I grabbed my Camelbak and Real Book, then went back to the hotel. I filled up my Camelbak, then went on my merry way.

Theology was fine. I forget what we learned. Afterwards, Robin saw me, so we ended up talking for half an hour. It was nice catching up. Then I got some food, then I ate it.

John was interesting, since he handed back the midterms. I spent the entire time fretting about what I got, only to learn that he forgot a stack of about 10 midterms somewhere. I'm really hoping he lost them, since it would mean automatic A's. That would be nice, since there were only three A's in the class. He lectured, then we watched some more of the movie.

Psychology was psychology. Blah blah blah.

For dinner, the three of us went to Pluto's and all got the special. It was delicious.

Surprise! Gospel meeting at the university extension. As Brandon put it, we were attending a lecture at the university on religion by two ladies with long hair. It was a nice place, so I'm glad they're going to continue holding them there.

Got back, blah blah blah. Now I'm going to bed.

A Sneeze

2005-11-16T00:29:00.000-08:00

What am I still doing awake? I have failed one of my three requirements to try and get rid of this cold: Cut back on sugars, drink lots of water, and get some sleep. I never really eat candy, so the sugars isn't that hard. I've been drinking so much water, it hurts. But that sleep thing. Man, it's hard.

Woke up at 8:30, got some breakfast. I tried some tea, but it wasn't that great. I miss my teas.

Racquetball was bah, since I was sick. Brad and I tried to play seriously, but that went downhill quickly. It was pathetic.

Greek was Greek. The material we're covering is awesome. It's really cool.

After that, I took my shower and felt good. Then I sat around, lethargically. I went to Chipotle for lunch, getting a burrito bol. It was really good. I will remember that for the next time.

On my way back to the room, I grabbed a dolly to help move stuff to my car. Then I spent the next hour or so sorting through my stuff, filling up my car. I have way too much stuff I don't use. I'm a terrible person.

Once that was done, I hopped in my car and went to Woodland to put more stuff in storage. That went well, except now I'm left with the lingering paranoia of whether or not I locked my unit. It's still bugging me. I'm probably going to go back tomorrow to check.

Since then, it's been a mad rush to do nothing. I sort of took a nap, then watched some poker. It's amazing how addicting absolutely nothing is. I got caught up on the internet. I drank a lot of water. I peed a lot.

Amazingly enough, dinner rolled around. Brandon, Riddy and myself went to In-N-Out. I got my usual Double Double Animal Style. I was getting jittery from all that water. That's also when it started to hurt.

Well, when we got back to the place, I got to play both the trumpet and the accordion. Then, at 9:30, the front desk called to inform me that I had a package. I found this really odd. Where they waiting until it was awkwardly nighttime to call, or did they truly just get the package? The things we'll never know.

I took it back to the room and the roommates made fun of my nerddom. I still think I'm cool.

I wasted more time and drank more water. Now I am going to bed.

Nerds

2005-11-14T23:33:00.000-08:00

Riddy and I are Nerds. Well, at least we're full of them.

After thinking about it long and hard, I've decided that neither San Luis or Santa Barbara are Davis, therefore I'm at no obligation to write about my time spent there.

Picking up where I got back to Davis, I said goodbye to Kirstyn after a long and eventful weekend. I realized I had two midterms and a quiz the next day, so I got cracking.

I woke up this morning with good intentions. I finally rolled out of bed at 8:30, then weeded through my Theology notes. It turns out Riddy's internet doesn't work either, so I've taken to leeching wireless off of somebody's router nearby. It works, I'm not complaining.

At 9:20, I went to the lobby, ate breakfast, and studied for Greek. Then I left to take it.

I don't think I did too terribly. It was mostly the usual stuff, except this time we had to explain why we needed different cases. Then we talked more about third declension nouns and self reflexive pronouns. Oh the joys.

Back at the place, I finished going through my notes, trying hard to retain everything. I failed at that.

When I took the test, I knew where to find so many of the answers in my notes, but they just weren't there. It's really frustrating. But that's why I like the essays. Just write as much as you can remember and you'll do fine. If it might have something to do with the topic, throw it in. Oh for fun.

I ate lunch at the MU while studying for psych. That was the first time I thought about that test.

John was pretty fun. I sat next to Jonathan, some random friend of Claire's who is hilarious. I took quite a bit of notes too. We're now starting to go through chronologically instead of thematically. For fun.

After that was all said and done, I went to my psych exam. I knew practically nothing on that test. It was pathetic. Luckily, it's all multiple choice, so it was just fun guessing. Bah that class.

Out of there early, I went home and had some fun. I played my trumpet, then went to seek Brandon to see if he wanted to eat. He had just left, so I called him. But he did not answer. So I went to Pluto's by myself. I had the special, as usual. It was delicious.

Afterwards, I caroused Border's. Oh, I miss books.

Back at the place, I got caught up on the internet. It's been too long, good friend.

I wasted time, then did my homework. Pretty boring, now that I think about it. I need to get some sleep. But Scooby is cozy, so that might make it more enjoyable.

Home

2005-11-13T21:39:00.000-08:00

I just had an amazing weekend. Unfortunately, I spent it having fun instead of studying for the two midterms and quiz I have tomorrow. So I'm going to pull an annoying Jeff trait and tell you to check out Kirstyn's blog since I'm sure it will be highly accurate and you will get a good picture of what happened. Perhaps I will write about it later.

Bah Internet

2005-11-09T23:37:00.000-08:00

The internet isn't working. Bah that.

Today was an interesting and somewhat productive day. I tried to get up early and study for John, but that really didn't happen. I got maybe an extra 20 minutes in, which was mainly spent briefly reading over my notes. Not well enough though.

Greek was actually really fun. We're getting to know each other's personalities better, so all of us, including Professor Bulman, feel we can make fun of each other. It's funny watching a professor openly make fun of a student. Seriously. Fun.

Back to the room, I read over my notes. I have a lot of notes. Four hours a week of lectures will do that.

Enough studying. Before leaving, I changed my desktop background for Kevin, then left for class. Interesting stuff, but much deeper than the history we studied earlier.

After class, I followed Professor Hurst, asking questions that had been bugging me. We ended up going to his office, since it was his office hours. This involved running around Sproul, getting his mail, making copies, getting his key, etc. After talking for a little bit, a student came in with special needs, meaning double time for the exam. Since she wanted to start right away, he got her ready, then we finished our conversation in the hallway, on the floor. Actually, since there wasn't really a point to the conversation, we continued talking about random things. Two other girls in the class came to visit, meaning they had as much purpose there as I did. So the four of us sat on the floor outside his office, just talking about stuff. It was quite fun, I do say.

The only problem was that it took an hour, meaning I couldn't eat. Oh well.

The midterm wasn't terrible, just moderately bad. Turns out Hurst wrote it around 4 this morning with no sleep prior. There were a few questions that I was clueless on, but most of them I either knew or knew where to find the information. I'm guessing B or C.

Funny thing. In the middle of the test, he got up and went out of the room. Twenty minutes later, he still wasn't back. I finished my test, put it on the stack, then went to the MU for some food. Hilariously, as I was waiting in line, I saw Professor Hurst sitting at a table, reading the paper, drinking a cup of something. And there were still people taking the test.

After I got my food, I said hello, to which he explained he went out to get a paper but got distracted. Oh for funny. My carne asada sandwich was delicious.

I spent the next half hour wandering campus. When I was in Shield's Library, I saw an older man reading an enormous book that looked like it survived several fires. Turns out it was Dr. Traill, the head of the Classics department. So I went up to him and had a chat. He remembered me from the open house and had a few suggestions. There is an accelerated Latin course over the summer, shrinking a year of Latin into 12 weeks. I might look into that, since it would give me the chance to take 2 years of upper division courses in both Latin and Greek. Hm.

Psych was boring. I read two papers. We did get to fill out midquarter evaluations though, so that was fun. I nailed her. I dug her grave then pushed her in. I was harsh.

Back at the hotel, the three of us went to Pluto's for dinner. Their special was extra delicious or something. Man, it was good. Also, it seemed the three of us were extra giddy or something. We were weird.

Picking up Amy, we went to meeting. Much to our surprise, the chairs were all facing one direction and the workers were at the front. Brandon whisper questioned Lois "Is this a gospel meeting?" to which she nodded. For fun.

After meeting, we were all still giddy. Especially Riddy, since it just rhymes.

Getting back to the place, I started my Greek homework. Kirstyn called just to tell me she's awesome, so I acknowleged the fact. Then we talked for a bit, which was seemingly silly since we'll see each other tomorrow anyway. Fine by me!

Well, I finished my Greek, then whined because the internet is being sad. Now I'm going to shower.

Nosegay

2005-11-08T22:00:00.000-08:00

True story. The word of the day really is "nosegay." Too silly.

The internet has been PMSing all day today. It makes formatting really funny. I don't like it.

Since Greek was cancelled today, I put an extra focus on racquetball. Not really, since my first game with Brad was incredibly silly. It was really fun, but had a complete lack of focus. After that, we decided to have a serious game, focusing strictly on hitting shots with good form and intention. Not surprisingly, we played much better, rarely hitting shots we weren't meaning to hit.

Once our games were finished, we waited around to see if anyone wanted to play us. Turns out nobody did. We had a lovely chat with the coach, who earlier in the class handed out a whopping guide on how to eat right. Probably not a good idea for me, since it seems like something I would follow strictly for no reason. I tend to do things like that.

Getting back to the hotel, I showered then wasted time. I had to sort through possible classes, then register. I'm currently at 14.5 units, but will probably take on another class or two by the time the quarter begins. I'll be taking Greek 2 and New Testament Greek, Racquetball, and two English classes focusing on Fiction. Oh for fun.

Hungry, I ate at Chipotle. Some new girl was making my burrito, so it was slightly drippy. Still delicious.

Doing more nothings, Riddy decided to take a nap. Not wanting to bother that, I decided to actively seek my right to vote. I went to the MU, the place I was told to go when I registered, but after waiting for ten minutes in a two person line, I was told to go across the city. It amazes me how inefficiently government associates manage to get things done. That meant I was to bike back to the hotel, get my car, then drive to south Davis. Which I did.

The polling place there was much quieter and seemed actually happy to see someone vote. Everything was right in order for me there. So I went to a booth and whipped out my prepared sheet of yeses and nos that I had so quietly notated earlier. The only thing I had little clue on how to vote was the school board, yet since it was "Choose three of the following four," I decided it wasn't that big of a deal. I left happily with my stubs and "I Voted" sticker.

Riddy was still sleeping when I got back. That left me to actually get some homework done. I did most of my Greek, since it was two days worth. Lots of stuff.

Brandon, a season ticket holder for the Kings, invited Riddy to go to tonight's game with him. So the two of them played hockey then went, leaving me to my peace and quiet. I finally got my trumpet out and played for a while, then switched to accordion. Oh how fun. Then I opened up my lecture notes for John and set them as my background in case I really wanted to read them. They're incredibly dense. Bah.

Hungry, I started walking downtown. I stopped in Woodstock's, but they told me slices wouldn't be available until 9, so I walked out. Instead, I went to Subway and got a meatball sub. It was okay.

I was getting sleepy reading my notes, so I pulled out my textbook. Bad idea. It turns out a textbook author is even more dense than my interpretation of my professor's words. Instead, I called my Kirstyn and talked to her for a bit. That made me feel better.

I think I'm going to pull a leaf from the "Good Study Habits" book and go to sleep early. I may or may not have skipped the chapter entitled "Actually Study," though.

Life

2005-11-07T23:23:00.000-08:00

I've noticed I seem to be focusing more on enjoying my life than telling you about it. I guess I win.

So this weekend was nice. I got to be with my lady friend.

Friday was Friday. The quiz went well, as usual. I missed a few things, but nothing to worry about. Eat. More class.

Once packed, etc, I went to the florist and had him put together an awesome boquet for Kirstyn. I figured it would totally rack up points in the boyfriend category, so I went for it. Totally worth it.

The drive to Grass Valley always seems longer than the drive back. I think the reason for that is at least in part because it's usually no less than half an hour longer. Bah traffic.

The boquet was well received. It was a gorgeous boquet, if I do say so myself.

That night was pretty fun, whatever we did. I don't really remember.

Saturday morning, Kirstyn had to work, so I spent the day with the family. I feel pretty comfortable around them, which is probably a good thing.

For lunch, we visited Kirstyn. Oh right. Barbara Fleck and a friend were there getting a massage, so we all went to lunch. Kirstyn called ahead and told me to bring the flowers so someone could rearrange them, meaning she wanted to show off. So I did.

I think it was that night when we went into town for pizza. It was delicious. Then we went to the grocery store, yet since everyone was left of sane, we parked clear on the other side of the empty parking lot. It was interesting. You should have been there.

Sunday morning, a rushed getting ready. Union meeting was smaller than normal, since I guess that's how it is. Strange.

Lunch was spent eating my people with some other people from meeting. Afterwards, we visited Bob's investment, an extensive Victorian house completely filled to the brim with stuff. And not just any stuff, but amazing, intriguing antiques. Clocks, phonographs, player pianos, jukeboxes, cameras, etc. I could spend hours in each of the rooms. It was like exploring a past I've never lived.

After that, I couldn't really find anything to compare. So I spent time with my lady. That worked. Dinner, homework, sleep.

Waking up just in time to get ready to go, I went. Greek was all right. Sleepy, that's for sure. Come to think of it, this whole day has been sleepy. I've been falling asleep in all my classes. That was the only exciting thing that happened. Well, then there was me fantasizing about a sniper picking out my psych instructor. And me getting a new notebook. Then Riddy and myself going to In-N-Out. Man, I am going to sleep.

Well Then

2005-11-03T23:27:00.000-08:00

I'm as ill prepared for my Greek quiz as always.

Thursday morning. Racquetball at 9. It was a singles tournament, so I won all three games I played. I didn't get to play with Brad though, so it made me sad. Oh well.

Greek was actually pretty fun. It's getting more personal, where we kind of are getting to know each other. How odd.

For lunch, Brandon and I went to Chipotle. Delicious.

After that, I did my regular waste time activities. Read the Aggie, browsed the internet, played the accordion and trumpet. I actually got a lot of accordion time in. I moved on to minor and seventh chords. Seriously awesome. I just need to get my feel for rhythm and using the bellows correctly. With time.

A big bunch of meh all day long. Brandon and I went to Pluto's for dinner. I got a salad, his sandwich took forever to make. It is cold outside.

For the first time, I tried the headphones-to-nose speaker trick. It's pretty awesome. You should try it. Right. Now.

I got to talk to my Kirstyn again tonight, probably not good for my Greek grade. But good for other things, so it's okay.

Man, I need to do something exciting with my life.

Gar.

2005-11-03T00:15:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm up later than I should be. I felt like I had to hurry since they're turning off the water between 1 and 7 am, but whatever.

So I woke up this morning as usual, then did usual things. Nothing unusual. Greek was as usual, blah blah blah.

Seriously, today was such an average day, I don't feel like I need to tell you about it.

During lunch, I saw Chip, so I had a nice little chat with him. It seems he's liking doing grounds work, yet he misses the people from student housing. Nice guy, that Chip.

We kept on watching Jesus of Nazareth for the second half of our Wednesday class in John. That movie is good, just really really long.

Psychology kept me asleep. That's the only class I've ever been so bored, I've pulled out the crossword puzzle. It's just that bad.

Back at the hotel, I picked up Riddy and we went to dinner at Pluto's. It was delicious. When handing me my food, the guy threw half the sandwich on the ground, so they had to make me another. I felt sad I didn't get anything special out of the deal. Oh well, it was still delicious.

Riddy has a midterm tomorrow, so he stayed home and studied. Brandon was in Sacramento with his family stuff, so it was just Amy and me. Interestingly enough, Daryl spoke about Economics and how we all made the choice to go to meeting. We all have midterms only hours away, yet we were there. Sort of ironic, since Riddy is the only economics major out of all of us.

Well, it was nice having some chat time with Amy, since most of our conversation time is spent with Brandon and Riddy talking about manly things, stuff neither Amy nor myself are interested in.

Back at the hotel, I got to talk to my Kirstyn. Then I showered, now I'm here.

To Myself

2005-11-01T23:17:00.000-08:00

Man, I wish I was in bed.

I got to bed pretty early last night, around 11. That meant when I woke up at 8, I got more than an average sleep time. I was actually awake today.

Racquetball was fun, despite lacking a serious tone. Brad and I played singles. It was intense, yet not really competitive. Then we played cutthroat with the coach. Fun times. I had some amazing dives.

Greek was very sweaty. I don't recall much. It was all about pronouns, yet they can also be used for emphasis, or to show similarity. Too much information.

When I got back to the room, they were cleaning and Brandon was walking out, so he invited me to lunch. We went to Pita Pit and had a lovely chat. I couldn't tell you what it was about, but sure.

I got back and did normal procrastinating things. When Riddy left for his midterm, I took a shower and felt clean.

More stuff happened. Then Brandon, Riddy, and I got in a huge monster fight about absolutely nothing. We were practically clawing at each other's necks over the inconsequential pedantic aspects of Chicago. It turns out we were arguing completely different things, too. Seriously, it was so pointless and boring that it is not even worth spending the time to write about it.

While they went to play their hockey game, I stayed home, did my homework, played my trumpet. They got back and brought In-N-Out for dinner. Delicious.

Brandon's mom made cookies, so I asked if I could have one. He gave me his key, so I walked in his room. To my surprise, Joe was in there with a girl. So I stepped back, knocked on the door, then continued in. I thought that was hilarious since I didn't plan or think about doing that at all. But the cookies were delicious.

Well, I talked to a lady for a while tonight. Now it's time to go to bed.

Hilarity Ensues

2005-10-31T21:22:00.000-08:00

I'm not used to not posting for such an extended period of time. Oh well.

Friday. It was like any other Friday. I spent most of my morning and afternoon pondering the events of the evening to come. Oh right, I had a midterm. Greek. I really should have studied more for that, but I ended up knowing more than I thought I did. Not bad. Especially when I got to leave when I finished the test. Go me.

I calmed my thoughts, etc, then went back to Olson. Oddly, Hurst never showed up. Very unlike him. Respectfully waiting twenty minutes, I finally packed up my stuff and went home.

There, I gathered nearly all of my belongings and stuffed them in suitcases. I was desperately in need of doing laundry, so I figured doing it would be a good way to spend my alone time when Kirstyn was at work. Turns out that was a bust.

Eventually getting things together and getting on the road, I managed to run right into a little bit of traffic, setting me back about 5 minutes, just enough to make time run uncomfortably. So I parked at Starbucks and waited for m'lady to meet me there.

Abandoning my car, we took off to Wal-Mart for the girls to take pictures. It has been way too long since I have experienced the department store photo shoot. I didn't feel like I was missing out on much. That might have been my really tiredness though. Coupled with the fact that I was put in charge of holding everything, from brushes to hairclips, purses to dogs.

After the glamour shots, we browsed the store, leaving me amazed to find shoes that cost the same as my lunch. I really need to step outside of Nordstrom.

Dinner was Chinese food. It was nice to eat family style again, but I would have to declare that there were too many fried entrees for one meal. Good, but dense.

Following dinner was a Buffy the Vampire Slayer date for the girls. I actually endured a full episode. Daniel Boggs would be proud.

Then the decision came for how I would spend Saturday morning. I declared I would go race karts instead of do laundry, as it would not only be more fun, but more manly. The plan? Go to Mom's, stay the night, then drive back down to Dad's in the morning. Things went disgustingly according to plan.

Well, until Shawna nearly decided not to answer the door. Good thing I went racing, otherwise that girl would have never woken up. She forced random food upon me, then we drove to the Kart place.

Racing was immense fun. We got fully suited up, then trained in the ways of the flags. My only concern was that they didn't quite instruct us well enough to actually look at the flags, so I just gunned it from the start. Meaning I was bad. But not too much after that.

We had two races. I had the fastest lap time in the first, then improving, yet getting third in the second. It made me sore, but still happy. Driving a regular car was just not the same.

On the way home, we grabbed food at Taco Bell. Why, I do not know.

Once back home, I started the labor intensive job of doing my laundry. Lights, then Whites. Everything as planned. Then I did my darks. I'm sick of hearing this story, so if you're really interested, you can read what Kirstyn had to say:

So that night Jeff got started on his laundry. Apparently he hadn't done any in about two and a half weeks and he had a lot of it to do. He got through his whites and lights without any problem. His darks, however, caused some trouble. He dumped them in the washer. Half an hour later the machine began complaining. Mom went to investigate. She came out and said "Jeff, has anyone shown you how to do laundry?" Apparently he'd thrown about three loads worth of laundry into one dryer. My orders were "Kirstyn, go teach your boyfriend how to do laundry." I dutifully went back and looked at the washer-- and started laughing. I started pulling out clothes- and more, and more, and more, laughing until I was nearly crying. Jeff was standing there, and I don't think he found it quite as amusing, but I really couldn't stop. It was hilarious.

Anyway, the problem was that the washer couldn't spin with that many clothes. Actually, it was clear to the spinning part and not all the clothes were even *wet* yet. So I cut the load down to one instead of three and ran the entire cycle again. Didn't work, it whined again. I emptied the entire thing out and tried it again, but it still didn't work. So I gave up. This was highly amusing because my boyfriend came up to visit me this weekend and broke our washer. Huh. His only comment was "You need a man in this house." My answer- "What, so he can break our *dryer*?"

Then retelling the story to her mother:

Mom didn't find out til tonight about the whole fiasco so we filled her in with plenty of details. Poor Jeff, sitting there wondering when we'll be done making fun of him, it's only been 24 hours so far... He attempted to defend himself "Hey, if I can get the lid shut it should be fine!" Mom, who was already laughing at the whole mess, just about died when he said that. Far from sparing himself further humiliation he got the whole lot of us laughing even harder. Huh. Poor boy. I'd feel sorry for him if I wasn't so busy laughing at him.

So there. Funny. Ha. Although, I must admit there was something rather amusing about the color of her face.

So the laundry didn't get done since I broke the washing machine. The problem was that I needed clothed for the next day, so we dug through and found my slacks, hang drying them on my music stand in front of the fire. Not a bad idea, except it proved disastrous for ironing. But at least I had pants the next day.

DST ended!

Well, at least I had pants. Less could be said about the sock situation. I remembered this mere minutes before we had to leave, so I tried ironing them dry. Keep in mind these socks had been soaking in a pool of water overnight. Wringing them got most of the water out, but they just refused to get completely dry. I spent the ride to meeting with my feet by the heater. I spent the rest of the day with freezing feet.

I really don't know what to expect from that meeting. It seems the roster is in a constant state of flux. It's as if they rotate or something. Oddly, they all seem to know some connection to me.

Lunch plans changed from something to going to the cousins's house to eat free food and try and break their washing machine too. That was fun. It was a nice relaxing afternoon, using the utilities of a nice strange family. Sounds totally like something I would do. Fitting, since I did it.

Dinner was spent eating priorly frozen food. At least my feet had warmed up by then. It was a nice comfortable evening.

Morning rolled around rather awkwardly and quickly. I made the decision late the night before to stay, since I would be tired either way. Might as well stay with the lady as long as possible. So the plan was to leave at 8, giving me a good 2 hours to drive the 1.5 hours and make it comfortably in time for my 10:00 Greek class. However, goodbyes take a long time, leaving me on the road around roughly 8:40.

While simultaneously falling asleep and eyeing the clock, I assumed I would just be skipping Greek. I watched it turn 9:35 when I suddenly realized I was on the causeway, meaning less than 10 minutes until I was home.

Hurrying into the parking structure, I ran over Brandon biking to school. I hopped out of my car, ran to the room, grabbed my bag, then made it to Greek in perfect time. I am totally amazing. Well, I thought I was until I found I got a B- on my midterm. I should have studied more. Oh well. I will work harder next time.

That whole escapade set a lovely tone for the whole day, leaving me to nearly fall asleep in all of my classes. Unfortunately, none of my classes promoted that.

Hurst explained how he nearly died, then went on to start a light lecture on who God is. Not a good day to barely understand my own language.

For lunch, I ate a burrito at the MU. I had a lovely chat with Diana and Alicia. I pleged Calpirg to support our friendship. I think I was still sleepy.

In John, we did not have a quiz. Not very surprising, but very relieving. More on the logos, the trinity, and starting John the Baptist. The thought that really interested me was the idea that Jesus did not know He could not sin. We've been battling with His humanity and divinity, so this fit in rather nicely. If Jesus knew He could not sin, He could not have been tempted. Interesting.

That was a long class. So was Psych, which came after that. Bah psych.

When I got out, it was dark. Meaning I had to bike back in the dark. Bah dark.

I waited about an hour for Brandon to get hungry, then the two of us went to dinner. But in the meantime, I played the trumpet and the accordion. Yay music.

He wanted to go to Chipotle, so we did. I was waiting for the past week to go to Chipotle wearing a tin foil outfit and getting a free burrito, but Brandon was not up to it. On the way, he admitted he would do it, but we didn't have any tin foil. Bah Brandon.

Luckily, the people in front of us were all decked out and I knew one of the guys from my math class. He graciously let us borrow their roll, so we made tin foil suits. It was such a lovely feeling, ordering a burrito and drink, then watching the cost disappear.

Free food is just so much better than the stuff you have to pay for.

Since then, I've just been in here, digesting and catching up on the internet. It continues to exist, even without my encouragement. Interesting. I should go do my Greek homework.

Accordion

2005-10-28T00:42:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I have a sleeping problem.

I didn't want to wake up this morning due to the air conditioner again. But I did. I put on dirty clothes, then ate breakfast, then played racquetball. I was paired up with stupid girl again, so I basically stood in the corner and let her miss the ball. Then I drilled for a while, making me feel better. Brad was silly and made some fake excuse about hurting himself. Bah.

Greek was as Greek does.

I went home, but first stopping at Watermelon Music and gazing at their accordions. Then I ate a pita. But I first found a different accordion, even cooler and cheaper.

At the place, blah.

I had a haircut at 1:30. I got it cut short. It feels fuzzy. Then I went to Dr. Bulman's office hours, got some papers about stuff, and learned. Good for me.

Then I went back to the place. I talked to Brandon, then we decided to go to Watermelon and get the accordion. Oh boy. I checked to make sure everything works, then made an offer $25 lower. I got it for $275. It's a vintage Wurlitzer from the 50s. It looks really cool.

Well, we got back to the place, then Joe, AJ, Brandon, and myself went to Da Vinci to look at how things are coming. Not well, is the answer. Then we went to Rite Aid for whatever, then Dos Coyotes. Amazing.

When I got back, I went to play my accordion, but several of the keys were stuck. It made me sad. So I called Watermelon and they said they could probably fix it or I could return it. So it's cool. I just wish I could play it. Her. I should name it. Her.

So that put a damper on my evening. I would have spent most of it practicing, to the dismay of my hallmates. Instead, I whined about it to other people. I pretty much spent the whole night whining about it and procrastinating from studying for my Greek Midterm tomorrow. Hey, I should go do that.

Headache

2005-10-27T00:15:00.000-07:00

I've been too lethargic today. My head hurts.

I didn't want to wake up, as usual. But I did, again, as usual. I'm still in dire need of doing my laundry, so I had to wear my Aggie tube socks. When I went to breakfast, I saw it was wet outside. It's finally getting cold. Rain, rain rain. Weird.

It was cool and all, until I went outside to bike to class. I was all bundled up too, but the hands were not having fun. Bah.

Greek was fine. I spoke to Dr. Bulman afterwards and she gave me some people to talk to. One of which I already knew, so that was cool.

I spent my break doing something I can't remember.

We watched a movie on Luther. It wasn't bad. But it was raining outside, so for some reason, I was really craving pho. Really really craving it.

When class got out, I made a mad dash to the MU and got a bowl of pho. It was delicious. I didn't care that there wasn't enough lime, or that the peppers were burning my mouth, or that my nose was crying. It was just so beautiful.

I tried to visit Hurst's office hours, but he wasn't there. So I went to the library instead and checked out books.

In John, we learned more about the logos, then watched some more of Jesus of Nazareth. It was explained to us why it took so long to get through last time. The whole movie is 6 hours long. It's intense.

After that, I went to psych. Bah psych. I was fighting to see since I was yawning so much. Bah bah bah.

When I got back, the three of us went to Subway for dinner. There was only one guy working, so by the time I got my food, Brandon was finished eating his. Kind of awkward.

Meeting was huge, as always. Come to think of it, I've only been to one Sunday morning meeting here since I've been here. That's a little weird.

Since getting back, I've been a wonderful procrastinator. I should go.

In Other News

2005-10-25T23:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I should be getting to bed now.

My day started a little later than normal since we left the AC on last night. I've been too lazy to do my laundry, so I've run out of undershirts. If you know me at all, you will understand what a feat this is. This means I have been sleeping without a shirt for the past few days, leaving only a thin sheet, blanket, and comforter to protect my emaciated body from the frigid air. So I kept warm (in the relative sense) for a little while longer than I would have liked.

I managed to find myself in the breakfast lounge eating with Brad. At the time, we went to his room and collected his bike, then rode our way to the ARC.

Racquetball was the most fun I've had in a long time. Brad and I played singles, the best game I've played all quarter. I miss the feeling of intense competition, especially when there are people gawking outside the glass. I had one amazing dive, coming in on my left leg, hitting an amazing backhand drive shot. That deserved a good game.

After our exhausting game, Coach challeneged us to a game of doubles with one of his better players from the 11:00 class. I was really tired and I think Brad was too, so they won with only a little fight. I'm really liking singles now though.

All sweaty and gross, I went to Greek. That was pretty normal. Enough said.

When I got back to the room, they were in the process of cleaning it, so I went to the lounge and read the Aggie. Oh for fun.

When I got back to the room, Riddy was already there, so I took my shower and proceeded to do my regular activities.

Once satisfied with the internet, I went around to get food. I decided on Chipotle, so I walked past Watermelon Music. Okay, I had to go inside. There, I found two Bach Megatone mouthpieces, 1 1/2 C, silver plated, for $50.25 and 30% off. Amazing. So I had to try one out to see if it was worth it. I couldn't really tell, since I didn't have anything to compare it to but my own lips. So I declared I would come back later.

Chipotle was as always. Did you know that if you visit them on Halloween dressed in a costume made of aluminum foil, they will give you a free burrito? True story. Try it.

I went back to the hotel and did a little research on Megatone mouthpieces and Accordions. Man, I want that Accordion.

So I went back to Watermelon with my trumpet and mouthpieces and declared that the Megatone didn't make any difference. It felt and sounded exactly like my regular 1 1/2 C. But that Accordion. Man, I really think I might get it. I'm waiting to hear back from some experts, then I'm going to call some locals who know what they're talking about and find out if it's worth it.

Well, I went back to the room, dropped off my horn, wasted time saying hello to the roommates, then went to Sproul. The Classics program was having an open house, so being a prospective Greek minor, I stopped by. I had quite the long and lovely chat with my professor and others, giving some insight and direction for my life. And they had a fruit platter. It was delicious.

Back at the place, I don't remember what I did. It was around 5:45, so I guess I didn't do much. At 7:30, Brandon came over and we went to Pluto's. Riddy was starving, so he ate a lot. I got onion rings because I wanted some. And Brandon got mashed potatoes. It was all amazing.

Since then, I've been alternating between being lazy and lethargic. I did my Greek homework though. Always a necessity. I would die if I didn't have homework in that class. Weird. Liking homework? What has college done to me?

Sure has made me sleepy.

Oof

2005-10-24T22:47:00.001-07:00

I am pretty sleepy.

After the huge events of last night, I had a hard time getting up and staying awake in class. But I did it, unlike Riddy.

Greek was fine. I got a B+ on my quiz, which was a little higher than I expected. Midterm on Friday. That should be interesting.

I was sleepy. So I checked my email.

It was hard to stay awake in class. Seriously. But I did.

For lunch, I had my turkey sandwich, then printed out my psych notes, then bought the course catalog. Creepy. We start signing up for classes next week.

On my way around the quad, I saw Shani so I had a little chat with her, catching up on life. She now has a job helping freshmen get situated with their lives. Less technically put, she is now one of the people she hated last year.

John was good. Again, it was hard to stay awake, but at the end, he left us with such a deep, contemplative thought. Basically, he revoked all validity or purpose in what he does. But he did give us the great useless phrase "existential dialectic."

Psych was as usual. I think she really wants me to hate her more. I mean, come on. Her lecture notes are now even in Comic Sans. She really wants people to hate her.

When I got back, everyone was gone. So I checked my mail, blah blah blah, went to dinner. I went to El Mariachi, since Brandon gave me the great idea. I had a mole burrito, but it just wasn't up to the standards of some of the mole I've had before. On the way back, I got asked for my opinion of a good Thai restaurant and directions. Sure made me feel like a local. Good thing I was wearing my Locals too. That must have been what tipped them off.

Since then, I've been retarded. I really should do something productive. Blah blah blah. Meh.

The Weekend?

2005-10-24T20:27:00.000-07:00

So maybe I will never get to writing about the weekend. I think that's probably the case. Hey, I'll do a brief summary.

Friday was spent taking a Greek quiz, taking notes, then driving. Friday night was spent with Kirstyn and Kyla driving to Tracy to pick up David Denio. Then back. Big party that night, we spent it at Kyla's house of confusing ownership.

Saturday morning, Kirstyn and I woke with difficulty to drive back to Grass Valley for her to get ready to be at work at 9. I then spent the day doing regular Jeff stuff, also some homework. That evening, when Kirstyn got home, Kyla and David came. We went to Olive Garden for a sweet double date. It was actually way more fun than I'm making this sound, so just go with me on this one.

Things that made the evening fun:

Massage chairs at Sharper Image
Giving dialogue to the couple on their awkward first date
Throwing bread into the fondue pot
Pointlessly racing to the car
Sitting four people in a backseat meant for two of a car failing to go anywhere
"Mom, can you come pick us up?"
Fatty fatty fat fat fat fat

That was a hilariously confusing evening.

Sunday was spent in a meeting very small, then doing lazy Sunday afternoon activities. The evening was much more productive, if you count a full body massage as productive. I sure do. Then I drove home, almost falling asleep. But I didn't. I don't think.

The Weekend

2005-10-24T00:04:00.000-07:00

What? I didn't post for a few days in a row? What the devil could I be up to?

Having an amazing weekend, that's what. Too bad I'm really tired right now. I'm going to bed instead of retelling the story. If you want the girl's view, go for it.

Waste.

2005-10-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

Bah. I wish I would stop doing this with my life.

I didn't want to wake up, as usual. I forced myself to get out of bed a little later than I would have liked. Breakfasted, etc. By the time I got to the racquetball courts, there were a few people there, so I stretched. Blah. But Brad was there, so we partnered up for the doubles tournament. We only played two games, but we were amazing. It was a pretty bad team, but we both knew how to play, so we were awesome.

Greek was sweaty, as always on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Man, I love that language.

After that, I showered then Brandon, Joe, Riddy and I went to Woodstock's for lunch. It was pretty good. Fun times. It took a while to figure out where we were going though. But it worked out.

Needing to get out so they could clean the room, I went to the bank and cashed both of my checks. Then I went to the Domes to see if anything was going on. Nothing was. I saw one person there after walking around for 15 minutes. Oh well.

After that, it was a bunch of nothing. Settling down, napping, more napping, etc. Okay, it was a bunch of napping. Pretty much until 6, when Riddy and I met Juan for dinner at Pluto's. When I was there, I heard an excited "Jeff!" Turns out it was Meredith, Rebecca's old roommate. We chatted for a bit while Riddy drove there. Caught up on stuff. Oh for fun.

Dinner was delicious. I got a salad. I like salads. It was good. And the company was great too.

After that, I went to the Gap to see if anything was good. They just don't have my size. So sad, but not for my wallet.

Since then, I've cleaned my room, etc. I went down to the lobby and studied a bit of Greek. A bit. Then I talked to Brad for a while. Now I'm back and regretting the way I spent my day.

Bugaboo

2005-10-19T23:51:00.000-07:00

Gubba buh buh gub. I'm sleepy.

It started off with breakfast, etc. I ate with Brad and his friends. Nothing extraordinary.

Greek went well, as usual. I finally realized we were learning cases of nouns, not verb conjugations. It explained why I was so confused.

I really had good intentions today, honest. They were just never fully executed. I meant to study for Psych, but that Sudoku just got in the way. Had to read the Aggie. Had to check out the internet. You know, basic procrastination skills.

I packed up my stuff and went to class. It was actually really nice. We finally finished up history and now we're moving on to theology. The reason we're taking the class. Today's lecture focused primarily on revelation. It's interesting stuff.

Lunch was great. Lots of spread. Delicious.

I mean to study some after I ate, but I got distracted by Vilija Vaitaitis, sitting at a booth for Relay for Life. We were in an English class way back when, so we caught up. And I didn't study for Psych. Prior to that, I saw Nick and talked to him for a bit. I got harassed by a voting guy, so reregistered at Da Vinci. Good thing too, since I've been wondering about that.

Well, we lectured for an hour, beginning the long trek into the concept of the logos, then started to watch the Zeffirelli film, "Jesus of Nazareth," which we amazingly did not watch last year. My funny comment was that it was already half an hour into the film and the main character had yet to even be born. Wasn't bad though. James Earl Jones was a wise man.

Well, it was time to take my Psych test. I didn't do too poorly considering the circumstances. I think I got a B or a C. Luckily, we can drop the lowest exam score. Cool.

Well, it was nice getting back an hour early. I settled down, did my Greek homework, played my trumpet. Brandon was being silly, taking a nap, so we decided to eat after meeting instead of before. Maybe a bad idea.

Meeting was huge, as always. I had a lot to say. So I said it.

Afterwards, we went to In-N-Out for food. It was good. And In-N-Outie. Enough said.

We got back, they played Halo. I got sleepy. I now will go.

fMRI

2005-10-18T22:39:00.000-07:00

It has been a long day.

I did my usual Tuesday/Thursday wake up routine. I actually got to racquetball a little later than normal, not giving me the time to warm up by myself, only with others. I suppose that hindered my game a little. But not like it mattered. Today was probably the most fun I've had in that class all quarter. I played doubles with two of the better guys in the class and the coach. I actually played a pretty good game. My favorite part was that our coach was wearing a "Lennie Zalesky's Wrestling Camp" shirt. How cocky. But the games went well.

I had to cut off the game to get to my class. I was really sweaty, so Dr. Bulman commented. She's a nice lady. A good professor too. I'm learning, you see.

After that, it was the usual calm down, check out the internet, dry off my feet hour or so. After I sufficiently showered, etc, I went to Pita Pit to eat lunch. It was good. On the way back, I stopped in Watermelon Music. As I was entering the building, I heard a guy shouting at me. It turns out it was Yoav, a guy from my English class last year. He's a cool guy, just picking up some ethnic drums. Fun times.

Anyway, I came close to buying an accordion, yet logic struck me. Go home and make sure it's a good accordion. I will be back, Watermelon. You can count on that.

I got home just in time to change then bike to the Young Hall parking lot. There, I was picked up by Michael Lombardo, the guy performing the study. He went over everything that would be happening, then I went through and signed all the forms.

We finally arrived at the UC Davis Medical Center, specifically the Research Imaging Center. We went through some special doors, most of which were opened by him scanning an ID card, all of which had increasingly vibrant warnings about magnets.

I put my belongings and metal objects in a locker, then we headed over to the training room. The task was simple. A word was shown, belonging to one of four categories: Positive, Negative, Metal, or Fruit. There was also a question mark representing a mystery word. If the given word was outlined in orange, there was a 50% probability that the mystery word was in the same category. If it was outlined in blue, there was a 25% probability, or a random probability. So I just had to sit there and make guesses as to this unknown. Any confusion is due to my poor explanatory abilities; the task was really simple.

Once I was comfortable, I went to the waiting room for the other study to finish. Maybe 20 minutes later, we went in.

The magnet was huge. I didn't realize that until I was out, but it was enormous, with a huge GE symbol at the top. I first had to put in earplugs since it makes loud noises, then a Vitamin E pill was taped to my right forehead to indicate which side is which. I hopped up on the little tray and they put pillows and cushions all around my head, then the little brace. The part that made me nervous was that they only put markers for me to feel where my head is when it's still, not braces to make sure I didn't move. So I was really good at not moving at all.

The did a few structural scans, taking 30 seconds, 90 seconds, and 3 minutes. Then they did the tests 3 times, each taking about 20 mintues. Then they took a high resolution full scan, taking 9 minutes. By the end, I was pretty much paralyzed. It was good to move again.

It was cool getting to check out my brain. All the right parts were there and I looked pretty healthy. Well, from what I could tell.

The ride back was just as exciting as the ride there. By that, I mean not very.

Settling down, I played my trumpet, then went to eat dinner. I was wondering where everybody was, but then I realized that they had a hockey game. So I went to Chipotle by myself. It was good.

Around 8 or so, I went over to Melissa and Mei-Ling's place to study for Psychology. It turns out they live at their Sorority house. That was a big letdown. They were pretty much the only ones there. It was dark and lonely. I suppose that set the theme for studying. Meaning, I read through my notes, then realized both girls had left the room. In short, not much studying took place. But I did manage to borrow one of their books so I could have it for a day. Oh, the chances that I'll use it are slim, but hey. I no longer can say that I don't have the book.

Since getting back, I have yet to be productive. I take that back. I spent about half an hour doing my Greek homework. But I really should get going. I have an even bigger day tomorrow.

Long Day

2005-10-18T00:22:00.000-07:00

I should have been in bed hours ago. My day was long.

It was just one of those days.

I woke up, then managed to get out of bed at 9:20 or so. Breakfast was as usual, blah blah.

Greek went well, but it was hard to concentrate. It felt like I just needed to go to sleep. I forgot there was a second page on the homework, so I had to scramble and write down stuff at the beginning of class. We're learning plurals and more conjugations. It's a lot of memorization.

In the midst of all my classes is the ongoing saga of my psychology textbook. I still don't have it. I contacted the seller, who says the tracking system says it was delivered on the 11th. Nobody told me. So I contacted the front desk, then Da Vinci, who didn't know anything about it. Actually, Sandy told me that they didn't have anything since the last batch of packages, one of which was only a torn envelope. Turns out they had that at the front desk too. Oh, the things they forget to tell me.

Sure enough, the package was supposed to carry my book. But it didn't. The post office marked it as "Received in Damaged Condition" and "Received Without Contents," yet the seller doesn't believe me. Oh come on. She mailed a textbook in a manila envelope. It looks like it could even have been a used envelope. Oh bah.

Now I'm in the process of contacting Amazon.com to resolve the issue. That whole part is annoying, but doesn't bother me as much as the part about me not having the textbook when our midterm is in a matter of hours. Oh bah.

Classes continued in a downward trend. We watched a movie, which wasn't that bad, except it was an educational one. That meant I was supposed to pay attention. Too hard.

Lunch was delicious. The student making my sandwich accidentally put too much spread on it, just the way I like it. Yum. I also saw Chip for the first time since last year. It was good to see him, but it doesn't seem like he's really liking the grounds over student housing. I'll have to catch up with him.

Two more classes, two hours each. I can't really remember much of what happened. It was all very sleepy. I think I took notes. Or something like that. I did make a psych study date with Melissa and Mei-Ling though. Much needed. Or something like that.

Home. Finally. Brandon was studying in the lobby, so when he finished up, the three of us would grab something to eat and check out the game. That meant one of three options: Woodstock's, The Grad, or Applebee's. We went to the Grad. Man, their burgers are delicious.

Being full, we went home. I sat around. The usual nighttime activities. I chatted with my lady friend. I still like her a lot. I didn't get too much actual work done, which is slightly disappointing, yet not at all unexpected. Meh. I should go now.

Happy

2005-10-17T00:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I really need to get to bed, but I also really need to write in here.

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I made a quick trip to visit my lady friend. It went indescribably well. Let's try and recap.

Riddy and I woke up around noon. We got out of bed, then went to breakfast lunch at Woodstocks. Not bad, but they were really there to watch the game. Oh, football.

After that, I packed stuff in my bag then got ready to go. It's actually not that hard to get there, but there are a lot of directions. It's cool.

I really like Kirstyn's family. Way too many girls though. It gives me an idea what it must have been like being my mother. Good times.

Once I got settled, we were to pick up the littler girls from their dad's. Actually, we met halfway at a Thai restaurant. It was so incredibly weird ordering individually. It's just not how you do it. It was as if it's a completely different type of food. Good, but still a little weird.

Back at the place, we spent a wonderful evening doing absolutely nothing. We took turns playing the piano, I played Stephanie a game of chess, a fire was built, etc. They're a very down-to-earth family and I love them. I'm still getting over the initial awkwardness, but I have no fear it will become a second home.

Well, morning came. I learned that five girls get ready in a completely different manner than one Jeff. Oh fun. Everything worked out nicely though.

So we get to Special Meeting. I think they overemphasized the fact that nobody from outside the field was supposed to come, so there were a few empty seats. I would go into detail about what was spoken, but I'm tired and it's dark.

Lunch was fun. I actually got to ask people if they had seen my girlfriend. Oh for fun.

Somewhere in there somebody spoke about how God answers prayers. There are three answers: Yes, no, and not now. Each has a different meaning, but they are all definite.

After meeting, there were a few get togethers, but we went to the Naef's for Jenica's birthday party. It was slightly awkward since everybody there was either older or younger than us, but it wasn't that bad. I finally got to see how Rodney butchered Jayna and Shane's wedding through the magic of editing.

The drive home wasn't bad at all. It only took 45 minutes. Not saying I should go visit my cousins at all, but it's not terrible.

Well, I've been trying to sort through things since I've been back. I'm really tired, but very content with my life.

Time In

2005-10-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

I don't really remember much of today. It was all very fuzzy. But I'm sure liking this new format. Especially that picture up top.

Well, I woke up at 8, then went back to sleep in 8 minute intervals. Finally, at 9, I got myself up. When I arrived at the breakfast area, I noticed the taiko drummers were all there, so I did my one finger in the air, "be right back." I went to my room, grabbed my program from last night and a pen, then went back downstairs. Since they were all eating breakfast and don't speak English very well, I decided not to interrupt them at the moment. I grabbed my food, then watched them leave. Blast.

Still being a little early, I opened up my book and notes to study for the quiz. Finally, right about the time I should have been leaving, the elevator opens and they start their way to check out. I pack up my things, then primarily using hand signals, indicate that I enjoyed the show and asked if they would sign my program. Since there were 10 of them in different intervals all leaving, I only managed to get 5, but still, it's better than none. Meaning it's better than anyone else.

My Greek quiz went well. A lot of it was luck. I really should study harder throughout the week. I made a few guesses that I believe turned out well. Not how I'd like to get an A, especially in a language, so I need to work harder. But I'm still satisfied with an A.

Back at the hotel, I cherished the signiatures and whatnot, then cleaned my laptop's insides.

That thing is heavy. I am reminded of this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when I have to carry it to class. Oh, Elizagerth. Either luckily or unfortunately, we watched a movie on Martin Luther for most of the class, so she wasn't needed all that much. Oh well.

On my way out, I saw Jill as usual. She was very jealous of my taiko connection, as she's in the group on campus. We talked for quite some time. John Hausserman stopped by, so we said hello to him. Oh, the dorms.

Back at the hotel, I did my normal settling tasks. I ate the half of a sandwich that was in the refrigerator for lunch. It was delicious. I started the day's Sudoku, saving the rest for when I had time. Oh, and I changed the format of my blog. The only slight thing that irks me is that it doesn't list the time of the post, so I've been trying to figure that out.

They were wanting to clean the room, so I packed up my books and started heading to the library. I first checked at the front desk to see if I had any packages though. Turns out I had two. One of which was from Amazon, getting here in a little over a day. Man, I love free super saver shipping. The other, amazingly enough, was my iPod Shuffle. How awesome. It's really growing on me.

Well, on my way to the library, I ran into (not literally) Christina Hawkins, a girl from my Physics lab last year. We started talking, wasting a good half hour or so in the middle of the road, straddling our bike seats. Eventually, I decided that it was pointless to go to the library for that time, so we headed back. She lives in Lexington, which is right by our hotel.

It was good to catch up with her. Last time I saw her, I'm pretty sure we both found each other rather annoying, so it seems things have changed.

Time passed too quickly. My psychology review session was beginning. I biked there, then spent the next hour falling asleep. Seriously. It was run by the TA, an Asian guy who I would prefer give the lectures, but not so. Too bad.

After that, I had to make the decision whether or not to visit my lady friend. Something felt wrong, so I opted for the no, changing the date to tomorrow instead of today. It's probably better, since she has to work most of tomorrow morning anyway. But I hate arguing when I'm sleepy, so I'm not sure I made much sense.

I then spent my time setting up my iPod, charging it, and being awesome. Brandon and I went to dinner at Dos Coyotes. Kyle, a guy who lived on my floor last year, was working there. He was always one of my favorites. He was rarely on the floor, but whenever I saw him, he was always friendly laughing at whatever I did. He gave me a free soda. Good times, iced tea.

After that, I can't really recall. I was really full and really sleepy, so my time wasn't well spent. Or so I think. Speaking of which, goodnight.

New Look, Same Boring Life!

2005-10-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah, it looks different. Well, at least it's not one of the standard blogger templates. It's still taking me a little while to get used to, seeing the inverted headlights and whatnot. It will grow on me though. I decided I needed a change here. Things are perking up in my life; I might as well make my description of events just as awesome.

Oh Happy Day

2005-10-14T00:52:00.000-07:00

You know what happened this morning. I don't need to tell you. In fact, you probably won't care after I tell you what happened tonight. Seriously, it's that awesome.

School school school school, blah.

I spent my afternoon slowly going through stuff. NOT IMPORTANT.

When I made my list of Mondavi shows to see, I included the Yamato Taiko Drummers, since taiko drummers are cool. When I was buying my tickets online, I set some aside in reserve. Not really wanting orchestra seats, I tried again, but there were none left. So I quickly purchased the ones in reserve. The last tickets in the house. And they just happened to be right next to each other.

That was a side story. It gets more awesome. Here goes.

My lady friend gets here around 6:15. I take her to Pluto's where we eat delicious food. The new sandwich of the week is up; it's a pumpkin something something. Not bad. In fact, it was definitely up to Pluto's Standards.

Well, we head on over to the Mondavi Center, pick up tickets from Will Call, then head on in. We were there a little early, so we sat on the balcony way up high. The weather was perfect, so was the view. I love Davis.

The show was amazing. Imagine crazy Asians, big drums, and amazing talent. Despite the fact that they could only speak three English words (herro, sank you), they managed to communicate a hilarious rivalry through their body language and rhythms. Seriously, it was amazing. So was the company.

Anyway, believe it or not, that was my first real date. And it was awkward at first. But she was great. She made me feel comfortable. I like her a lot.

Maybe you're wondering who I'm talking about. It would be silly to wonder, since there's only one girl I would take on a date: MY GIRLFRIEND. Oh, did I not mention that? Well, now I did. Her name is Kirstyn. We tried that once before, but that ended not so well. But now it has not ended, so I can't tell you about that. Good. Good for me.

Seriously, I'm really tired. It's a mix of tired and excited. And the need for a life. Okay. I said it. I admitted it. I'm going to bed now.

Study Study Study

2005-10-13T00:17:00.000-07:00

Oddly enough, I did none of that today.

Waking up at 9:15 or so, I got on my way to breakfast, then back up for clothes, then back down to school. The usual routine. Oh, except I saw some of the Asian guys who have been spending a lot of time in our hotel walking up the stairs. They had the same crazy hair as usual, but this time, they were holding taiko sticks. Putting two and two together (taiko sticks and awesome hotel), I concluded that tomorrow's performers at the Mondavi Center were staying in our hotel. Seriously, the hair gave it away.

Greek went well, as always. I fumbled through a sentence or two, but it wasn't bad. Still cool.

In the bike rack, I was parked next to Jill, who was leaving the same time I was. She's a member of the taiko drummers on campus, so I bragged to her that they are staying at our hotel. She wasn't as impressed as I was hoping.

I went back to the hotel, sat around, basically did nothing.

Back to school. I brought way too much stuff. My bag was heavy. Really heavy. Stupid laptop. But it sure helped me take notes.

I ate lunch. It was delicious. As I was eating, there was a handicapped man that was handing out Gideon bibles, but nobody was taking them. Watching him get more and more depressed, I went over and graciously accepted one. It seemed to make him happy.

In the remaining lunch period, I went to Hurst's office hours to talk to him about the textbook edition as well as paper topics and other related things. He suggested the best idea would be to buy the newer edition, and suggested a book to read. Interestingly, the book he recommended was one he helped write. Oh, Hurst.

Well, the next class with him was great. His lectures never seem to lead where they start. But they're always full of great information. It ended early, for no apparent reason. We somehow got started talking about baseball, then he closed his notebook and told us we could go. I think 2 hours is a little long for him to lecture. At least, I seem to think he thinks so.

With my extra half hour, I went to Shield's Library to check out that book he recommended. Finding it was no problem, but finding the part he told me to look at was. Also checking it out, since incompetent people wanted to do things they couldn't do, yet were all in front of me in line. Bah.

Psych wasn't that bad, since I had an extra copy of the Aggie. Speaking of which, check out the front page article. That's us. More interesting than my instructor, that's for sure.

When I got back, I grabbed the extra book that came today, ordered my new one, got changed, then went to dinner with Brandon. That went well. Chipotle was quick. We proceeded to pick up Amy, then go to Natomas for gospel meeting. Brandon needed to study and stuff, so we sort of rushed out of there. I say sort of since that was our intention, but wasn't executed that well. Afterwards, Amy needed some milk, so I took her to Safeway to make the purchase. After dropping her off, I went home, but sat in the parking garage for a little bit.

Now I'm here, and have been for perhaps too long. I guess I should go.

Yan Can Stay in the Same Hotel as Me

2005-10-11T23:05:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I'm pretty sure he can.

Today was interesting. I went racquetballing after a brief fueling period prior. I need to force myself to go there and drill. I have so much wasted potential. It feels gross and dirty. But it's still fun to play.

Greek was great. As usual. I seriously love that class. I encourage every person in the world to study the language. It's just that amazing.

When that was done, I went back to the room and got cozy. I had a little chat with Katie Kelly. It was good catching up with her, reminiscing about good times on Malcolm 5.

After not doing a whole lot, Riddy came in and declared that his car was broken, citing the fact that the alarm would go off every time he started the car. His solution? Stay home from class all day. It kind of hindered my plan for studying, but I did eventually get something done.

I finished off a few more psychology experiments, online surveys. The one I took a while ago sent me an email about going in for an MRI where the actually look at my brain. Totally exciting. I don't really have to do anything either.

In my excitement, I told Brandon about that, who then got excited because AJ did the same thing last year. He forced me to listen to what they put AJ through. Afterwards, this saddened me a bit, since they might have been depending on ignorance if it was the same study. So I sent an email to the guy telling him what I know.

Around 2, I needed to eat something, so I walked around downtown. I eventually decided on Starbucks, getting a tall iced tea lemonade and a muffin. It sufficed.

Dinnertime, Brandon, Riddy and myself went to Pluto's. I got a huge main salad with beef. It was delicious. I cleaned that plate.

Afterwards, I decided that I wanted to check out those pants at the Gap, declaring that I needed nicer than jeans. They still had them, so I got them. They're nice, I'm excited.

Back in the hotel room, I spent some time studying, reading, and doing homework. Like a good student. I try.

It was an interesting night. Random things happened in the hall, such as a putting contest and a whacking AJ with as many newspapers as you can contest. Interesting, I tell you.

When I was in the lounge studying, I saw an Asian man walking to the elevator that looked remarkably like Martin Yan. Now, I know that all Asians look alike, so this wasn't an extremely precise statement to make, but still. I remembered that he went to UC Davis. Then I remembered that he's giving a lecture tomorrow. I'm pretty sure it was him, but I didn't want to just go up to a random Asian guy and seem insensitive. Also, it was cooler to think that it was him than to discover he wasn't.

As for me, I'm going to bed.

Happy Columbus Day!

2005-10-10T23:44:00.000-07:00

Did everyone have a good Columbus Day? Did you rejoice in all the traditional Columbus Day activities? My bet is no.

Today was a pretty average day. It's gotten to the point where I know what my days are like and I feel comfortable describing one as "average."

I woke up at 7 to the sound of Riddy's alarm, then again just before 9 to avoid hearing mine. I ate breakfast, then left for class. Greek was as fun as usual. I really love that language. It never ceases to amaze me.

When I got back from class, I had this conversation with Riddy:
R: How was class?
J: It went well. Didn't you have a lab at 8?
R: Yep.

Now this conversation might not have seemed that odd, but it just so happened that he was still in bed with all the lights off, exactly where I left him at, oh, 9:45. Oh, Riddy.

The rest of my day was pretty routine. Class, print notes, lunch in the MU, more class. I'm terribly behind in the reading though. I discovered that one of my main textbooks is a first edition, not second, so all the pages are screwed up. I'll have to go to office hours about that. Psychology wasn't as bad as usual, since I sat next to Melissa in the back. I've found I learn better in that class when I'm not actually paying attention, since when I do, I'm so focused on how much everyone annoys me. Oh, that class.

When I got back, it was pretty much dinner time, so I went to dinner with Brandon, Joe, and AJ at El Mariachi. It was delicious again. I got a super burrito this time and managed to finish it. I ate three full meals today. Not bad, but yesterday I ate four. I should win an eating prize.

Well, Riddy went to do his laundry, so probably won't be back until tomorrow. That means it's a party in my room. I should go be a good host.

The Weekend

2005-10-09T23:37:00.000-07:00

Man, I'm sleepy.

So let's see. Saturday was a busy day. Not really though. For a Saturday, waking up at 7:30 is a bit ridiculous, even if you're going to a bike auction. Which Riddy and I did. The doors opened at 8 for viewing, so we got there around 8:30. I think we were in the 250s. I forget.

There were something over 400 bikes for sale. We walked down the lines checking them out. Riddy just wanted something cheap that would work, I wanted a road bike that would fit my frame, plus plenty of other specifications. I had a few options, but my main interest was a Schwinn Varsity. Baby blue and awesome. I might have fallen in love with it.

Well, the auction got underway at 9:10. It was packed. The highest number that won was 517, so there were probably more than that. The auctioneer was hilarious. He didn't seem to really care that it was a professional auction and that he was getting paid. He had to charge the batteries in his camera in the middle of an item. My favorite was when he answered his phone while shouting out numbers. He also made fun of people who bought bikes for parts. It was great. I would go back just for him. And for a beautiful racing bike.

Alas, Riddy got a bike for $15. It needs a seat and a tire, but should be ridable eventually. We decided to wait around for that Schwinn, even though I wasn't going to buy it. I just wanted to see how much it was going for. That beautiful bike went for $70, a little bit out of my budget for the auction. Sadly, we took Riddy's mangled bike and left TAPS.

We stopped by the Domes to see if they had any extra bike seats, but they were in a community meeting so I didn't want to bother them. Riddy was afraid he would catch a disease, so he stayed in the car. Silly boy.

Being the hungry men we are, we went to In-N-Out for lunch. Tired of starving myself, I ate two double doubles animal style, while Riddy had his 4x4 animal style. It took me a while to realize that I actually ate more than him.

Being lethargically full, we drove around Davis looking for garage sales with hopes they would have a vintage road bike. Apparently people in Davis know how to use bikes and value them higher than garage sale material. So sad.

After such a productive morning, there wasn't much left but to relax into complete lethargy. That lasted several hours until Kirstyn called me for directions. Kind of shaking me awake, I packed and got mentally prepared for the journey.

Well, she came here, I got my stuff, we left. Oddly, she has this thing where if there's a guy in the car, it's his responsibility to drive. So I did. It's not often someone not only lets, but demands that I drive his/her car.

We made it to Santa Rosa without any major hitches. Well, the city is big. We were supposed to meet Forrie, Damon, and Dustin at a sports pizza restaurant establishment, so we got directions from Damon through Forrie, I believe. The directions we were given were:
Exit Rohnert Park Expressway
Left on Industrial
Right on Commerce

And it would be on the left. Well, Commerce turns out to come right after the exit, so we turned left there. After a few miles, we turned around and went back. Maybe there was another Commerce, after we turned on Industrial. A few miles later, no luck. We called them when they finally corrected us that Commerce was before Industrial. So we went down that road, looking for Industrial. No luck. Miles later, we turned around, called them again. We were supposed to turn at the McDonald's. Turns out the McDonald's was on the corner of Enterprise, not Industrial. Turns out there's no Industrial at all. And worst of all, the entire dinner party was an elaborate plan for the three of them to watch their sports and not feel too bad about it. They were there for hours and had only gotten breadsticks and soda. I feel ashamed to know them.

A bit later, we finally left for the Tank. Their place is not too shabby, if you ignore the parts that are still "works in progress." There were quite a few people I met, but most were the standbys. There ended up being a lot of sitting around talking right where I wanted to be sleeping, so I finally got to bed around 12:30.

I slept all right, but I was in the living room, so any action woke me up. Not bad though, since I would have gotten up earlier by myself.

We all showered and dressed, then went to get smoothies for breakfast. I got some soy something. It wasn't bad, just immense.

We arrived at meeting early, so I stood in the back until I wanted to sit down. I sat next to the Veldkamps, mainly because I'm related to them so they're obligated to let me.

Morning meeting went well. Nothing went majorly wrong.

Interestingly, the meeting is right behind a supermarket and plaza, so most people just walked somewhere to buy lunch. We went to Subway. After sharing a footlong ham sub with Kirstyn, Courtney asked if I would like an extra sandwich they had. Not being one to reject free food, I accepted. It turns out this "sandwich" was a baguette with brie and tomatoes in it, also absolutely delicious. Then Courtney came over with tea, pumpkin bread, and chips. I asked if she was trying to fatten me up. No, she's just trying to repay my family for the dinners she had at our house. Luckily, I'm the closest one to reap the benefits. Probably the most needy too.

Well, having finished two complete meals, I was ready for a nap. The second meeting seemed longer than the first.

After meeting was a barbecue at the Tank. The food and company was delicious. It was nice to relax. Especially before another road trip.

It's acutally not that far from Santa Rosa to Davis. Much less far than you would think. But still, I'm back here and not asleep.

I'm going to go then.

Saturday

2005-10-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

Going to Santa Rosa for Special Meeting. Be back tomorrow night.

What Am I Doing?

2005-10-08T01:07:00.000-07:00

Today has been weird.

Nine am, I wake up and get breakfast. Riddy has the day off, so it's no surprise he's still in bed. When I come back to get my bag, he's still fast asleep, curtains drawn.

My Greek quiz wasn't that bad. I nailed the vocab, but maybe screwed up some breathing marks somewhere. I'd say it was decent for how I studied.

When I went back, Riddy was the same as I had left him. Hey, college students can be lazy.

Closing all my computer things, I packed up Elizagerth and we headed back to campus, leaving Riddy sitting up, with a light on. It's an improvement.

I was a little more sleepy than usual, but still took more than adequate notes thanks to the lappy. Well, not the lappy, just the concept of typing notes instead of handwriting them. I still hate Elizagerth since she has a fondness for not waking up or turning blue.

When I got back from class at 1, Riddy was pretty much where we last saw him. Oh, the joys of a lazy Friday. I got my stuff together, then called Lois to see if she was there. The plan was that I would go do my laundry over there since it would be more interesting than at a laundromat. Sure enough, she was free and everything worked out nicely.

We had quite a lovely chat in the 3.5 hours I spent there doing my laundry. I got to play the piano, so that made me happy. It was nice having a quiet resting time too. Not much on the mind.

Now the surprising part for me was when I got back at 6, Riddy was still in bed, this time taking a nap. It turns out he had been there the whole day, excluding a trip to the bathroom and heating up frozen food. I have to give him the award for the ultimate college student. Around 7, he left for something and I haven't seen him since. I don't think I'm going to wait for him either.

Well, being the crazy person I am, I hadn't eaten since breakfast, so I ended up going to dinner with Joe and Brandon at El Mariachi. That place is insane. I was hungry, so I ordered a super combination burrito. It was bigger than my head. I am still disgustingly full. But it was good. I did my usual salsa sampler, since they have an interesting selection. I'd say my highlight was the strawberry salsa since you could really taste the strawberries. The other ones in the running were mango, pineapple, pumpkin, and cactus. They all had unique flavors though.

Well, since then, I've just been messing around. Enough of that. Bedtime.

I'm Fine Now

2005-10-06T23:27:00.000-07:00

Whew. What a day.

I like Thursdays. I get to play racquetball, I get to go to Greek, I don't have to do anything after that.

Breakfast was hard to eat. Not sure why, but it just didn't want to go down.

Racquetball was a little annoying. Neither Brad nor Dan was there, meaning I was all alone. After reviewing the rules, we went to respective courts, so I asked if I could just stay in court one. Zalensky said that was fine, and asked to see me practice the serve. So I set my stance and gave him a near perfect drive serve to his backhand. Then came the, "Oh, have you played before?" followed by my, "Yeah, I've taken this class a few times." Meaning I then got to play with people who were instructed to "admire my serve." I always find it fun to play with varying experiences. You can actually learn a lot by teaching someone else. Or so I try.

Rushing off to Greek, I ended up being really sweaty. Oh well, I can still learn.

Having been in the class for a week, it's amazing how much it has changed my perspective of language. I randomly have flashes of Greek words in my head. Occasionally when I read, I don't understand a word because I'm reading it in Greek, with Greek pronounciation. I am in love with the language.

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped by Dutton Hall to pick up the remainder check they have been nagging me to claim. Good thing, because it turns out to expire in a few days. Thus, I stopped by the bank on the way home, depositing $68.00 in my account. I think I'm going to go to the bike auction on Saturday with Riddy and if there's a road bike that fits my frame that I can get for $40 or less, I'll get it. That's my plan.

Much to Damon's dismay, I chose not to eat lunch. Instead, I did an online survey for my Psych class, taking until 2:00. When that was done, I went to Sproul to visit Dr. Bulman's Office Hours. It was actually really nice to have such personal attention with something so confusing. Good job.

When that was complete, I went over to check out my old dorm. It turns out that Micah is now living in Robin and Jill's old room, so I visited with him for a while. Interesting. I went over to the Domes, but ended up just walking around there for a while. It's still cool.

Back at the hotel, I played my trumpet, then did some other lethargic things. Finally, at 6, Brandon and AJ were going to dinner, so I went with. Pluto's again. Amazing sandwich. Pesto spread, goat cheese, mmmm.

When I got back, I was determined to not be stupid. So I started studying for the Greek quiz tomorrow. I should have studied earlier, but too late. Eventually, I went to the lobby and studied there. It's actually a pretty good place to learn. I read some of my textbooks too.

Well, it's almost midnight. Time for rest.

The Most Boringest Lecture Ever

2005-10-05T23:53:00.000-07:00

I'm really sleepy.

I finally woke up at 9:15 or so and ate breakfast. By myself, big surprise.

Greek is actually really interesting. I'm pretty excited about the prospects. But as for now, it's all memorizing and working at it. That's not that exciting.

Mondays and Wednesdays are full of class. I sit a lot. And take notes, mostly on my laptop. So that's cool, I guess. But it means I have to lug my laptop to class. Which is not cool. I would go into detail about my classes, but I'm too sleepy and you're too not carey.

Lunch was pretty good. I ate at the Coffee House, forcing them to make me a sandwich. It was good. When that was done, I found a computer lab so I could print out my psych lecture notes. That took a surprisingly long time. Bah

Class took a while. Kevin finally asked Hurst if he knew that class went until 4, instead of 3:30 as it was apparent he was convinced. The entire class groaned. Apparently we now get to stone Kevin. Now that's exciting.

Now let me tell you about psychology. Being the second lecture, I can safely say that this is the worst class I have ever taken. Our instructor is a grad student who doesn't seem to have taught before. She is dot Indian with an expected level of awkwardness. She thinks stupid things are interesting and explains things as if we're in Junior High. Remember Stupid Questions Girl? Well, this is Stupid Answers Girl. Oh, and everyone in the class is as equally inane. Well, only the people who actively participate and think the class is fun, so that narrows it down to maybe 10 people. I would much rather take the class from her TA, a quiet Asian guy. She makes me want to vomit intelligence. I am seriously considering not attending lectures.

Finally out of there, I went back to the hotel, expecting to go to dinner with Brandon and Riddy. The two of them weren't especially hungry, so I didn't eat either. And I was hungry.

Picked up Amy, meeting was large. It was really big. And that's how it's going to be.

After meeting, us guys went to Dos Coyotes for snack eat. I got a burrito plus every salsa they offered. It was good. I am still satisfied.

Well, tomorrow I must do stuff.

I Should Be In Bed.

2005-10-05T00:32:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I think I'm sleepwalking.

I woke up aroun 8:15 and went to breakfast. I ate with Brad, then Brandon came and consumed with us. It was very breakfasty. Granted, not much I can add.

I got to racquetball about 10 minutes early, so I stretched and started to warm up. Brad shows up and we played for about 2 minutes. Finally, our instructor shows up and looks remarkably like Matt Durham. Turns out he really doesn't know a whole lot about racquetball or how to teach it, so it should be an interesting class. Also, the syllabus noted that the majority of the class shouldn't have played before. Oh well. Brad, his brother Dan, and I played cutthroat while everyone else worked on their forehand. I have a feeling we might be doing this often.

It's a hustle getting to Olson from the ARC in 10 minutes. I got there fully sweaty, just in time for roll. Greek is getting more and more exciting. I'm starting to recognize words and pronounciations, but the meanings are still a little difficult. Time will tell.

When class was out, I went to the bookstore to return the Greek book I bought. The line was looped around the room, then out the door, then scaling the wall. It was just that long. But I got my books returned rather easily.

When all that was done, I went back to the hotel and got some work done. I got a lot of work done, actually. I did most of my reading, except for the 80 pages that probably won't get read. I did my Greek, etc. I ripped all of my Jason Webley CDs and had a good listen. I called the maintenence guy and had him look at our refrigerator. He turned the knob down even more and said that if it didn't work, he would try and get us a new one. I'll just claim it didn't work.

An interesting decision on my part, I skipped lunch. Meaning I didn't eat from 8:30 to about 6. Brandon and I went to Pluto's. It was good. But as always with Brandon, we went gay male shopping afterwards. We went to the Gap and got sweater shirts. They are cozy. If you know Brandon, you know what I'm talking about.

When we got back, I decided I needed to get out again, as I spent about 7 hours in the room. I went over to Lily's and we watched This is Spinal Tap. Good times.

Now I'm back and wanting to go to bed. I have class at 10 tomorrow. Not bad, but I still have to go.

Jason Webley

2005-10-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

Jason Webley is one of the most amazing musicians ever.

Today started slowly, with me actually going to breakfast. I met Brad there, so we chatted and consumed food. It was getting late, so I went to class.

Greek was great. Really really fast, though. And there are people who understand everything already. I hate them. Meh, they should help me study, so they're not all that bad. But it's really going by fast.

After that, I met Amy at Shield's Library and I gave her her Chemistry textbook.

I went back to the hotel, did something, then went back to class. Olson again, so it's not like I moved a whole lot. Hurst was as compelling as always and I took a lot of notes. It's like I'm a good student or something.

Being 1, I went and grabbed lunch at the MU. Turkey sandwich, it was okay. When that was in my stomach, I went back to the hotel and grabbed my laptop. This is heavy. Bah.

When it comes to non scientific lecture classes, the laptop really helps. I took so many notes, I am amazing. Too bad it was mostly information Hurst covered in the other classes I've had of his. But that was just today. Things will change and times will be different.

We got out at 3:20, but class was scheduled until 4. I'm not sure Hurst knew about that. But it did give me time to transcribe the notes I took before I starting bringing my laptop. Not a bad way to spend my time.

Psychology was all right. That's my least exciting class, which is too bad. My instructor is new and isn't all that exciting, so the class doesn't look too great. The material is interesting and she's excited, but goes off on way too many tangents and values the oddest things in her lecture. She seriously spent 10 minutes telling us the story of Psyche, only to conclude with "And I still don't know why she is connected to Psychology." Oh well.

Funny, I'm more excited about the class right after that in the same hall. I knew about half the people walking in. It was good to see all my old floormates and such. Oh, good times.

Back at the place, I started doing my Greek homework, then Brandon came over informing me that he, Joe, and AJ were going out to eat. We went to Baker's Square and managed to be the only people there not taking advantage of the Senior Citizen discount. The food wasn't bad, but they treated us like we were a disgrace to society. They put us in the corner, walled in on three sides, when there were plenty of seats in the middle. Oh, us young ruffians.

When we were finished, I left them for Jason Webley. The Delta of Venus was half a block away, so I just went straight there. It was more packed than I've ever seen the Delta. It was also the craziest I've seen that place. I was standing in the back, looking over shoulders for two hours, but it was great. If you ever have the chance to see him live, go for it. It's worth the money you're not paying.

Feeling bad that I enjoyed a free concert, I bought all four of his CDs. It ended up only being $30, which is a reasonably priced concert ticket. Plus, I got his sincere handshake and autographs, so it was worth it. Great, great stuff.

I got back around 11, where I then finished up my Greek. Tomorrow is a fun filled, action packed day, so I gotta go.

Got to be

2005-10-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

I've been terribly sleepy all day.

It started when I finally got to bed at 1:30, then continued when my alarm went off at 6:30. That was a total of not enough hours of sleep. Picking the least wrinkly clothes from my closet, I got dressed. At 7, I went down to the lobby, but it was already packed, so I skipped breakfast. Instead, I picked up Amy. We arrived at the Greenway's around 7:20, then we picked up Jonathan. Interesting roundabout way of getting things together, but whatever.

Special meeting was good. A little sleepy though. Maybe I should have slept more. We heard lots of things and I wrote most of them down, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to read them.

Lunch was great. The Greenways made some extra sandwiches, so being the moocher I am, I ate some. Delicious. There were quite a few people I knew. It was good seeing some of them. It might have been my lack of sleep, but I'm pretty sure I saw Jill Arrellano. I was confused.

The afternoon meeting was my favorite because we kept on hearing about how we need to keep awake. My favorite part was when we heard that being sleepy makes you silly. It was as if they were speaking to me. They were, in part.

The drive back was equally as long as the drive up there, but I slept better so I couldn't tell. We dropped off Amy and Jonathan, then I picked up my car from the Greenway's.

Back at the hotel, I informed Riddy that his sister told me to call him some sort of name for not going to see her, but that it was probably for the better anyway. She had to speak in the second meeting and would have been too busy chatting with him beforehand anyway. Blah.

Richard and I went to dinner at Chipotle. Crazy enough, I saw a girl I used to swing dance with in Junior High walking down the street. I directed her to Pluto's for dinner because they needed somewhere to eat. I hope it went well.

That was essentially my day. It was in fact a lot weirder, but I just can't convey my personality effectively through the internet. But I'm sure you know what I mean.

The Ghost in the Machine

2005-10-02T01:16:00.000-07:00

I've decided I really like that phrase.

Today was actually a pretty productive day. I slept in, getting up at 11. Breakfast was long over by then, so I adjusted to the fact that it would be a while before I ate. Around noon, I decided I should get out, maybe eventually finding food.

My actual intention was to get my laptop fixed, so I lugged that around. It turns out IT express doesn't open until 1, so I went to the bookstore first. My Greek textbook has yet to arrive, so I bought an extra copy with the intent to return it later. I also saw that someone sold back a copy of Amy's Chem book, so I bought that for her since when we went before they only had new ones.

In my extra time, I tried to check the internet for when things open, but my wireless wasn't working. Another thing for them to fix.

With about 45 minutes until they opened, I sat in Shield's Library and did my Greek homework. When that was done, I read the paper again, and when that was done I sat. I sit a lot. Sit and think.

When they finally opened, I ran in there and got the guy working on my computer. Wireless was easy, but getting Symantec off the computer then back on was a little more difficult. It looked like somebody tried to unistall it but something happened in the middle, so it wouldn't let you finish uninstalling or reinstalling it. That meant we, by which I mean he, had to find several hundred files, keys, and whatnot and deleting them manually. It took a while, but it didn't really matter. I mean, who spends the first Saturday afternoon of the year at the library?

Biking back, I heard the Band-uh playing. I dropped off my stuff then ventured out to lunch in that general area. It turns out they were going through their entire set but were on lunch break. I forced Judy to get me some pizza, so she got me one slice with the agreement that I would go get my trumpet and play with them. I would do anything for food.

It was fun playing in an ensemble again, but not fun enough that I would join. That group is crazy. It's been a while since I so effectively screwed up my chops like that too.

After that, I rejoiced in my computer glory days and wasted time. At 6 or so, I started walking around to find dinner. I eventually set my sights on Pluto's since they changed their sandwich of the week. It was good. Then I got some boxers at Gap. While it wasn't completely necessary that I buy them, I came close to buying two other pairs of pants, so I had to reward myself.

At 7, I was looking nice and on my way to the Mondavi Center. It was a whim. The lecturer was Steven Pinker, a super professor at Harvard and best selling author. His lecture was about the modern denial of human nature. He brought up some amazing points that I have completely forgotten as of now. I think I need to read his book. But he really was a good speaker. He kept everyone entertained. And speaking of everyone, the place was full. Jackson Hall, the huge main theatre, was pretty well packed for a guy lecturing. Granted, there were probably only 5 UC Davis students there (all sitting in the cheap seats by me), but still. Speaking of students, the one directly to my left lived in Malcolm 2 last year and I knew him rather well. What are the odds of that? A thousand seats and we end up sitting right next to each other. Crazy.

Well, it was weird biking to such an event, so I had to go home and do other stuff. That stuff led me to where I am right now, which is wanting to go to bed. Make that actually going to bed.

Sleepy

2005-09-30T23:37:00.000-07:00

I'm convinced this computer is going to die soon. If there's anything on the hard drive that's needed, well, that's your reward for not getting me a new computer.

Once again, I prepared my day with the intention of eating breakfast, yet the plan was thwarted when I reached the breakfast room at 9:33. So instead, I just went straight to class.

Hungry, I learned some Greek. We started reading a paragraph today. It's going so fast. I'm excited, yet concerned at the speed.

After class, I went to the bank then back to the hotel room and checked my email. That's about all I did, then I went back to campus to the same building, this time getting a muffin before class. It was a good muffin.

Afternoon classes start 10 after the hour, so I got there 20 minutes early. It was surprising to find that I didn't know anyone in the class, but then Jennielynn walks in. I think we were both equally excited. Anyway, Hurst seems like he will be as always, and the class definitely seems like one of his.

After class, I went back to the hotel to find the whole house present. Brandon was getting ready to go to class, but first going to get lunch. Having only eaten a muffin, I chose to join him. We went to Pita Pit. I really need to branch out.

I hate when I eat after not eating for a long time. The feeling of unsatisfactorily being full is unsettling. But that's what happens. Also, it seems Davis High decided to have a parade without warning anyone, so they just started going through town, annoying the drivers. Bikers didn't care, since we can just go anywhere. But drivers were piling up at the stop signs. Annoying, I'm sure, but still pretty funny.

With nothing else to do, I went back to campus. I went to the Domes to work on my bike, but nobody was there to help me. So I ended up staying for an hour or so, looking around, talking to Chris while he cleaned. Fun times.

On the way back, I needed some good piano playing, so I broke into a dorm and played in their lounge. Oh, good times.

Back at the hotel, nothing exciting happened. Nothing. Brandon left for Chico, Riddy went to dinner with his parents. I sat here.

In the evening, I decided I was starving, so I waited until 8:30 to get food. I walked around downtown until I went to Chipotle. I really need to branch out.

Well, I brought it back and ate it here. And that's about all I did today.

School!

2005-09-29T23:03:00.000-07:00

I ate too much. I'm full.

It was the first day of school today. Delicious. I got up at 7:30, but more like 8:15. Breakfast on my way out, not too pleasing.

My first class was racquetball. There were about 20 people sitting outside court one, and none of them really looked like they knew how to play. Once I saw Brad, I motioned him to come into the court with me, where we started to play a game. It turns out our instructor never showed up, not getting a change in day or something. But we got to play, so that was good.

Right after that, I went to Greek. That was fun. I'm really looking forward to that class. It's going to be tough, but worthwhile. Also, it's five days a week, so there's no fudge time. I sat next to Tyson, so it's cool having someone I know beforehand. We'll see.

That was the end of my classes. I went back to the hotel, listened to some music, then went to lunch at Pita Pit. I really had nothing to do, so I went back to campus. It holds up well without me. I checked out the domes, but nobody bike competent was there and free, so I went to the Arboretum instead. It was nice just sitting there.

I called Becca because I went to the Domes, but she was going to work. It turns out "work" is at Cargo Coffee, the one right next to Mrak hall, which is right next to the Arboretum. So I went and visited her, buying a peach smoothie. It was actually pretty good.

Nothing else to do, I went back to the hotel. It was a long time before anything interesting happened. Nap time, trumpet time, reading time, etc. I was sitting on the balcony, then I realized that I was taking a nap. My eyes were shut and not opening, etc. Oh, nappy.

At 7:30, Riddy and I met up with Joe, AJ, and Brandon to go to the welcome rally. It was packed. They really played up the fact that we beat Stanford. Also, they had fireworks. But I didn't get anything free. So sad.

Since we didn't get any free food, we were all hungry. For this reason, we ordered two large pizzas. They were good. Now it's time to get ready for bed.

Brandon is Here

2005-09-28T23:10:00.000-07:00

School starts tomorrow.

Waking up at 9 or so, Riddy and I go to breakfast. There, we decide to play racquetball, choosing 10 as our time of preference. So we get all ready to go and such. We decide to drive, so we get to the ARC at 10:05, then find a spot. Riddy had yet to get his parking permit, so we were restricted to the meters. Unfortunately, the only working ones were 45 minutes, so we just had to end early.

Racquetball was miserable. We looked like beginners, except with much more equipment. It was pathetic.

Afterwards, I decreed that Riddy get his parking permit since we were already there. So we did. It was about then when I realized I didn't get much sleep so I was pretty much sleepwalking all day. I also realized that I mumble when I'm tired. Like, really mumble. Incoherently. It's just a bunch of bugumblmeh...

Back at the hotel, I take a shower and Brandon shows up. So we helped him get situated for a while or something like that, then the whole house decides to go to campus. Joe and AJ were going to the ARC afterwards, so they rode their bikes. I didn't really have anything to do either, so I rode my bike too. Brandon and Riddy actually had a purpose, so they drove.

Once on campus, I realized there was no point in my being there, so I called Negin. She was doing RA stuff, so I relaxed in her room, helping her residents. It was better than doing nothing at the hotel. Besides, I'd much rather be spending time doing nothing with her than rotting away in my room.

When that was finished, I went back to the room. Bah. Nappy time though.

Around 6, Brandon, Riddy and I went to dinner at Chipotle. That place is delicious, however full it makes me. We had a nice yelling chat over the music. When that was done, we went to Tercero to pick up Amy. Taking a place in my dorm life hall of fame, she kept the tradition by being late.

Meeting was really long, but that was probably just because I really had to go to the bathroom. Everybody missed me. I know they did. Especially those kids. Man, they're silly.

Well, that's pretty much it for me. School finally starts tomorrow, so I should get some rest. Maybe I'll stop mumbling. Probably not.

Rotting Flesh

2005-09-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

I feel like my body is deteriorating. That's what happens when I stay up late, get up early, eat at odd hours, and spend free time in a dark hotel next to Riddy watching TV.

Well, I wasn't about to skip breakfast again, so I went down there at 9:20. I saw Brad, so we talked a little bit. Then I ate by myself. At 9:45, I decided to go to the ARC and get back into racquetball. I was there at 10:05.

Man, I've lost my game. It was kind of unsettling. Oh well. I will get better.

After that, I wandered around campus, then back to the hotel room, where I started to atrophy. Finally, around 2, I convinced Riddy that we needed to eat. We went to the Grad. I had my usual, a Grad Bacon, and Riddy had his Ultimate. They were delicious. When we were finished, Riddy needed to go to Rite-Aid to get some shampoo and shaving cream, so we went there. I felt kind of embarrassed for how I act when my body feels like this, but then I realized that I don't usually act any better, so it's cool.

After that, it was more of the same. I felt awful, so I biked back to campus and pretty much did nothing, but it was better than being inside. Seriously, I feel like my skin is just going to give way and leave my organs to flop on the floor. I did clip my nails though. That was needed.

It wasn't until 9 that anything exciting happened. I managed to get Riddy to go to dinner. Pluto's again, but that's cool. This time I got a salad. I had a bunch left over, so being the college student I am, it will become lunch tomorrow. We then hopped over to Borders so Riddy could buy Dane Cook's new CD. I'm not that big of a fan.

Now I'm back, complaining about my day. I should get a life.

The Tweenie Time

2005-09-26T23:38:00.000-07:00

We're all moved in, but school hasn't started yet. So it's still like Summer, but not quite as free. It's the tweenie time.

I awoke today at 9:45, ready to get some breakfast. It then occurred to me that there might be some sort of organized schedule for breakfast, so I checked the book. Sure enough, it closes at 9:30 on weekdays. So I sat and contemplated this for a while, then eventually decided to read a book.

After coaxing myself out of a state of lethargy, I went to Da Vinci to sign the lease. In case I really felt like signing, they gave me a whole bunch of other papers to sign. My name is really pretty. I saw it a lot. Sandy then showed me the floorplan and how it changed. Then I walked over and say the scaffolding and how it really is not ready to have people living in it.

A quick bike ride to F street found me at Wells Fargo, where I met with a very friendly teller about cashing my first $70 check. Not bad. Immediately following this, I went to Chipotle, then Watermelon Music. There, a very friendly, clueless old man saw me looking at trumpets and asked if I wanted to try one out. I agreed, then he proceeded to hand me a french horn mouthpiece. When I decided they had no extra trumpet mouthpieces, I told him I'd be back later with my own trumpet.

I lolled around the hotel room for an hour or so, then went back with my trumpet. The trumpet I tried out was a beautiful Leblanc Arturo Sandoval trumpet. The tone is amazingly dark and the horn feels great. Fortunately, I have enough sense to not buy a trumpet right now. But I did look around and found a good Simon and Garfunkel music book for 30% off. Now I just need a piano.

Following this was a bunch of melted college students. So I went to the bookstore to help Amy get the rest of her books. We wrote down the ISBNs, then went back to her room to search them. We got one, but the other was a packet, so it's likely it's only available at the bookstore. From there, she needed to eat dinner, so we biked to Segundo. I left her at the DC, then went to Ryerson to visit Negin again. She wasn't in her room, so I was really cool to some of her residents. Just as I was leaving the building, she came up. So I helped her buy her books. Such a sweetie.

During all of this, the weather decided to get angry. Riding to Segundo, I was getting drizzled on and it was thundering and lightninging. Oh, Davis.

So with that coloring the background, we were lazy. Riddy, AJ and I went to Pluto's for dinner. There, I saw several people I knew, including Tara, a girl who worked at the DC last year. Almost awkwardly, she gave me a hug and we chatted about life. But it was delicious. The food, I mean. You know what I'm talking about.

After all that, I settled down for an hour or so. Then I hear a commotion in the hallway and decide to check it out. Riddy comes in with what seems like groceries: a gallon of milk, some frozen something, and some orange juice. As it turns out, the gallon was for chugging. So I had to witness that.

Joe, AJ, and their friend Jeff found that if they submitted a video to some site and it got posted, they would get $300. Abusing my friend and roommate's willingness to consume, they decided to tape him drinking and undrinking a gallon of milk. It took him 6 minutes, and it was disgusting. Great footage of not great stuff. We'll see if they make it.

As for now, I have a night to worry if my roommate will die or get very messy. Oh just talk and moan. He does that too.

Settling In

2005-09-25T23:26:00.000-07:00

I have missed biking, but my body hasn't.

Getting up at 9, Riddy and I assumed we would have plenty of time for getting ready. As it turns out, 9 is actually more like 9:20, letting us get to breakfast at 9:30, then meeting at 10:32. Meaning we were late, but not by much.

It was great being back in the Woodland meeting. Apparently everybody missed me too, or maybe I'm just making that up. Amy and her parents were here, so it was fun seeing them.

After meeting, Riddy wanted to watch the game, so we went to the Grad. Unfortunately, the entire freshman population was there too, along with the parents to pay. So we went elsewhere. Our backup plan, as always, was In-N-Out. We came back to the hotel and ate while watching the game.

Being the amazing person I am, I called Nordstrom to see what's up. The manager was leaving at 5, so I had to stop by sometime before gospel meeting. Richard gave me the directions, then I went on my merry way, first stopping for gas. Unfortunately, the pump decided not to pump, so it took me way longer and $0.45 more than normal. Also, when I finally got to Arden Fair, I could not find Nordstrom. I circled the mall completely before I found it. Bah. It will save me time next time, I guess.

After talking to Vanessa for a while, she gave me the run down of her department. It's a lot more logically set up than Santa Barbara. I learned where everything is, how things are done. It's a bigger and much nicer floor too. However, when we started talking about scheduling, she misunderstood my explanation. When I told her that I have classes Tuesday and Thursday in the morning, she thought that meant I needed them off. To me, that meant I could work in the afternoon. Little did she know, I have 6 hours or so of classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So that upset her a little. It seems like I might not actually get the job. Which could work out nicely. I could have more time to do other things, such as IM sports, building bikes, and all around playing. Oh, maybe studying too. We'll see.

The plan for gospel meeting was simple. I would go straight from there and Riddy would go straight from Davis. I left pretty early, so I got to the mortuary pretty early. Since my bible and such were in Riddy's car, I was just going to get them from him when he came in. So I sat down next to Kirstyn and used her bible bag to save Richard a seat. Two old ladies thought it would be nice to sit there, so the whole bench moved over. Then Darren came over and wanted to sit next to me, so I kindly pointed out it was reserved. Then the two old ladies wanted him to sit next to them, so he sat in Riddy's place, effectively making me lose access to my bible, hymn book, and notebook. So I shared with Kirstyn and wrote notes on the back of a Death Manual. Oh, it was interesting.

After meeting, Dale Schultz thought I was a Cruz. I have nothing more to say here.

Riddy, Kirstyn and I went to dinner at Applebee's, Kirstyn's choice. It wasn't bad, but still, there are better options. Then there was a long Harry Potter conversation in front of the cars.

Back in Davis, I settled myself down, doing random stuff while Riddy, Joe, and AJ played Halo. I called Amy to check up on her, and she effectively managed to not have any idea what she was doing. I registered her computer through my laptop, but she forgot to bring a CAT5 cable, so she couldn't do anything. It was nearing 9, so I asked if she just wanted me to come over. So I did.

It's not that bad a bike ride. Ten minutes, maybe. Probably more if it's during the day and there are cars, but not bad at night. A little dark and creepy maybe.

Amy's place is nice. The one downside is that it is in Tercero, so it smells like cow. I finally understand what people are talking about. The entire last year was fragrance free for me, but Amy get s the nice ripe smells.

I brought my CAT5 cable so we could test things. They worked fine. I got her all set up and dandy, but ended up staying there a few hours. Things are fine. She's a nice girl.

The bike ride back was a little creepier, but oh well. Right, Riddy gave me a call while I was gone, informing me that his uncle or somebody died, so he had to go to Placerville. Funeral, I assumed, but no. Taking care of the dog. What a Riddy job. So when we were talking, I asked if he had any extra cables (Amy also forgot her USB printer cable). He'll try and snag some.

So I'm back now. A little tired. I need to get used to my bike again. Then finish building my new one so I can get used to that one too. Man, I'm awesome.

The Project

2005-09-24T23:19:00.000-07:00

It's great to be back in Davis. I really have missed this place.

This morning was full of hopes and dreams. It was not full of me, since I was in a King sized bed. Those things are huge. I am not.

First breakfast in the hotel. It was kind of creepy. Pretty much like the DC, except with a smaller selection. The parents were with me, but weren't guests at this hotel, so they just watched me eat. That multiplied the creepiness. I pretended to be full from not a lot of food, then we went on with our day activities.

They pretty much consisted of moving stuff into storage, then getting my bike from the Greenway's. Storage was windy. It's also far away in Woodland, so it's seriously for storing things. No joke, I couldn't really live there. I got a 10 by 10 unit, more than enough for my bed and a few boxes. I also think the guy working there was completely bored out of his mind.

The Greenway's was great. I just broke into their house, stole everything, then picked up my bike. Fortunately, their side gate doesn't really close, so it was an easy theft. Over the Summer, my tires decided that air was not supposed to be in them, so I had my parents drop me off at school so I could pump them up. After the drop off, they went to who know's where.

Riding on flat tires is not a very fun experience. Pumping up flat tires is better, but not by much. Forgetting that my bike skills have been inactive and nearly crashing into things slightly tops that, but again, not by much.

All day, Doug and I have been playing phone tag, first to try and get together for him to find a bike, then later because we just kept on getting sidetracked and forgot to call each other back. In the meantime, I grabbed lunch at Pita Pit, then biked all over campus. I called Negin to see what she was up to, then visited her over in Ryerson 5. As an RA, she had to take responsibility over the bushy tailed freshmen, so I went elsewhere.

Doug was still busy, so I went to the Bike Church by myself. I ended up staying there about 7 hours, helping resurrect the establishment. Erecting the dome, moving the tools around, setting up shop. Also, I've started building my own bike. I have no idea what I'm doing, but they're there to help. So that's my big project for the year. It will probably only take a couple of weeks, but hey, I'm working on it. It will be a beautiful road bike. I'm already in love with it.

After spending too much of my time there, I started biking back to the hotel, stopping at Chipotle for dinner. As I was walking out, I saw Adam, so I stopped to chat with him until my burrito was cold. I've seen a surprising amount of people I know. Kind of creepy.

Back at the hotel, I learn that Joe and AJ have moved in. Craziness ensues.

I just did a bunch of hotel stuff, then AJ decided to move into the single. So I had to get an extra key from the front desk. Basically, the people who work here are retarded and if we have any problems, we have to fix them ourselves. Only Riddy could get access to another key, so after three tries, we finally got it. And now I'm sharing a room with Riddy.

That was pretty much my day. I'm really dirty from doing bike stuff all day, so I need to go shower. We'll see how tomorrow turns out.