29 April 2003
Tuesday
No song: roommate is sleeping and as his bedsheets smell like armpit, I don't want to piss him off.
Ok, its really damn late again, and I'd like to get my seven hours sleep if I can. Good news today was that my old pocket watch mysteriosly reappeared. Wouldn't you know, it popped up in my friend's couch. The friend who I frantically tried to call before buying my replacement pocket watch on ebay. Just my luck. Still its nice to have it back, although the replacement is nowhere to be seen. This is the downside to collecting. Things constantly disappear on you no matter what happens. But it is time to go shower and try to get my sleep. If you need a good laugh, check out www.ettiquettehell.com for the ugliest bridesmaids' dresses ever. Blind drag queens could do better.
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
28 April 2003
Monday
Again, I'm writing in the dead of night. Ugh. I found out over the weekend that my roommate was rejected from all five grad schools he applied to. I pity that because that kind of rejection just hurts. Yet I can't help but laugh at the complacency. In October, I had to listen to how my roommate was certainly going to Berkeley and how huge their engineering library was and how it was the greatest engineering facility ever. Yeah well, someone should have been studying instead of watching Star Trek every night.
Fate does things like that to us. We're happily, securely breezing along the Interstate with good moods and better tunes and then we pass a wreck, find our lane diverted, or get in an accident. I for one would love certainty in life beyond the givens of gravity, taxes, and mortality. But the fatal fall from grace was eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, maybe some of our ignorance of what lies ahead is really a small bit of paradise.
Monday
Again, I'm writing in the dead of night. Ugh. I found out over the weekend that my roommate was rejected from all five grad schools he applied to. I pity that because that kind of rejection just hurts. Yet I can't help but laugh at the complacency. In October, I had to listen to how my roommate was certainly going to Berkeley and how huge their engineering library was and how it was the greatest engineering facility ever. Yeah well, someone should have been studying instead of watching Star Trek every night.
Fate does things like that to us. We're happily, securely breezing along the Interstate with good moods and better tunes and then we pass a wreck, find our lane diverted, or get in an accident. I for one would love certainty in life beyond the givens of gravity, taxes, and mortality. But the fatal fall from grace was eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, maybe some of our ignorance of what lies ahead is really a small bit of paradise.
Monday, April 28, 2003
27 April 2003
Sunday
Its 2:20 am so technically Monday morning. I can never quite get these things done on the day I planned to. My thoughts are particularly random and uncollected right now. Whats on my mind right now is that general light melancholia that my personality type is supposed to be partial to. (For the record, Italian Scorpio, Myers-Briggs ENFP, Enneatype No. 4. If that isn't a strong cocktail nothing is.) I truly can't comprehend that four years of college will be over in the proverbial twinkling of an eye. I feel like I've just got here and that everything has just settled. It reminds me of when I was about 10 and riding a bicycle with my Dad. I was on this old 10 speed, and I remember trying to make a 180 in the street, and I didn't quite... well, I was catapulted over the handlebars and landed hands first on someone's lawn. Now I intellectually understood what happened, I saw exactly what happened, but ut was still "What the hell just happened?" And now its like I finally got to where I can get into the classes I want WITHOUT having to petition, I know most of my professors' moods, and its time to go. Thank the Almighty that I have essentially one more year left. Hopefully by then I'll have my head on straight and I'll know what to do with myself. History isn't a popular product in this country I'm afraid. But I have some love from some people who love me for God knows why. Eh, can't be too bad.
Sunday
Its 2:20 am so technically Monday morning. I can never quite get these things done on the day I planned to. My thoughts are particularly random and uncollected right now. Whats on my mind right now is that general light melancholia that my personality type is supposed to be partial to. (For the record, Italian Scorpio, Myers-Briggs ENFP, Enneatype No. 4. If that isn't a strong cocktail nothing is.) I truly can't comprehend that four years of college will be over in the proverbial twinkling of an eye. I feel like I've just got here and that everything has just settled. It reminds me of when I was about 10 and riding a bicycle with my Dad. I was on this old 10 speed, and I remember trying to make a 180 in the street, and I didn't quite... well, I was catapulted over the handlebars and landed hands first on someone's lawn. Now I intellectually understood what happened, I saw exactly what happened, but ut was still "What the hell just happened?" And now its like I finally got to where I can get into the classes I want WITHOUT having to petition, I know most of my professors' moods, and its time to go. Thank the Almighty that I have essentially one more year left. Hopefully by then I'll have my head on straight and I'll know what to do with myself. History isn't a popular product in this country I'm afraid. But I have some love from some people who love me for God knows why. Eh, can't be too bad.
Friday, April 25, 2003
24 April 2003
Thursday
Song: Wagner, "Ride of the Valkyries" arr. Lemare
Its 3 am, I'm broke and had to dip into the debit card. Not a good thing. But its late and the shower calls. I'm feeling excellent for some odd reason. Roommate declared tonight that God cannot possibly exist within this universe as His physical presence has not been discovered. Yeah, and the Coelecanth isn't supposed to exist either. Well, he has to get up early. So I treated him to a program of organ music courtesy of Pipedreams,www.pipedreams.org, a most excellent place for organ addicts. Thats where the Wagner came from. It shall be followed with a radio show from 1950. Well I shall bid my dear cyber-audience a good evening, clip my nails, shower, try finding my bed under clothing and library books and hopefully wake before class. I think its a good plan.
Thursday
Song: Wagner, "Ride of the Valkyries" arr. Lemare
Its 3 am, I'm broke and had to dip into the debit card. Not a good thing. But its late and the shower calls. I'm feeling excellent for some odd reason. Roommate declared tonight that God cannot possibly exist within this universe as His physical presence has not been discovered. Yeah, and the Coelecanth isn't supposed to exist either. Well, he has to get up early. So I treated him to a program of organ music courtesy of Pipedreams,www.pipedreams.org, a most excellent place for organ addicts. Thats where the Wagner came from. It shall be followed with a radio show from 1950. Well I shall bid my dear cyber-audience a good evening, clip my nails, shower, try finding my bed under clothing and library books and hopefully wake before class. I think its a good plan.
Thursday, April 24, 2003
23 April 2003
Wednesday
Song: Ben Folds Five, "Cigarette"
See how friends come and go...
Well here I am up at 2 am again doing homework. What else is new? This school year is nearly over. My 4th of college. A number of the people that I took for granted as being around here forever will be parting. Perhaps I shall never see them again. Now, I know I have this melancholic disposition, but it seems so terribly sad that people go. I remember starting up as a Freshman with the guys in Rebmann, most of them are graduating or have left already. Makes me feel like its all a rotating marching band on the field. We come together and play our parts and then go back home, or on to the next field show. And in there were so many meaningful moments. But they are just moments, fleeting snatches, experiences. I wonder who will think of me.
I am so glad that I shall not graduate this year. I'm not ready for the next step, not that I even know what I shall be doing. They say that college is the last stage of childhood. A final hurrah before the full brunt of reality (or honestly just paying all the bills yourself) broadsides you on the freeway of life. And in those four years I haven't found my full niche. I have found love and friends and dear sweet moments but yet not the grand cadence, the keystone to hold it all in place. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing the last song from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band waiting for that grand E Major chord to come crashing down. Oh well. Here I sit before the computer with a book to be read for tomorrow. Some things are constant. :0)
Oh, and I forgot to add, I glanced at my Kazaa downloads. Someone has been downloading my copy of "My Blue Heaven" played by Django Reinhardt. I hope they enjoy it.
Wednesday
Song: Ben Folds Five, "Cigarette"
See how friends come and go...
Well here I am up at 2 am again doing homework. What else is new? This school year is nearly over. My 4th of college. A number of the people that I took for granted as being around here forever will be parting. Perhaps I shall never see them again. Now, I know I have this melancholic disposition, but it seems so terribly sad that people go. I remember starting up as a Freshman with the guys in Rebmann, most of them are graduating or have left already. Makes me feel like its all a rotating marching band on the field. We come together and play our parts and then go back home, or on to the next field show. And in there were so many meaningful moments. But they are just moments, fleeting snatches, experiences. I wonder who will think of me.
I am so glad that I shall not graduate this year. I'm not ready for the next step, not that I even know what I shall be doing. They say that college is the last stage of childhood. A final hurrah before the full brunt of reality (or honestly just paying all the bills yourself) broadsides you on the freeway of life. And in those four years I haven't found my full niche. I have found love and friends and dear sweet moments but yet not the grand cadence, the keystone to hold it all in place. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing the last song from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band waiting for that grand E Major chord to come crashing down. Oh well. Here I sit before the computer with a book to be read for tomorrow. Some things are constant. :0)
Oh, and I forgot to add, I glanced at my Kazaa downloads. Someone has been downloading my copy of "My Blue Heaven" played by Django Reinhardt. I hope they enjoy it.
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
22 April 2003
Tuesday
Song: Cristina, "Is That All There Is?"
Sorry for no Monday
Ok, it is no secret amongst my friends that I despise my roommate for being an overeducated idiot. Then again he is a civil engineering major. Now last night he and I got into yet another of our famous arguments. He and I utterly, completely disagree as to what constitutes a good design. I am in awe of designers of the past, those who designed and built things above and beyond the merely necessary. Indeed, this is often only that which endures to become great. For instance, the Eiffel Tower is an overkill structure. The famous arches at the base are decorative as are the cornices of the observation deck. Another French example are the pipe organs of Aristide Cavaille-Coll. He massively overengineered his wind supply systems so they would "bounce" a little. You play a big chord on full organ and the wind dips and then starts to crescendo. Or say they tell me. I've also been told that at the turn of the century piano makers had a sort of private code of honor that their instruments were good for fifty years use although they were never guaranteed for more than twenty five. In working on vintage automobiles, the quality of many was excellent. Ford had superlative steel, and a model T engine block can usually stand to be overbored 0.100 inch. I think if something is to be designed, and particularly if it is complicated or difficult to access pains should be taken to insure availability of components and accessability. Nothing sucks like having to pull an engine to replace the clutch. Now my roommate is completely contrary to all of this.As an engineer he does not believe in overbuilding at all, whatsoever. Everything should be just good enough, nothing should be better than it needs to be. He has mentioned his custom house that he wants to build. He sees no reason why the building should outlast him. In fact he sees no reason why the building should even have to last as long as him, just sell the place to someone and let them deal with it. Building anything so that it endures for centuries is wasteful, impractical, and foolish. This is coming from the guy who marveled at Notre Dame although he didn't grasp the concept that 11th Century gothic did not use steel girders and stone veneer walls. Add to the idea the permanance is superfulous, my roommate decried the urban sprawl of Spokane. Also, he said that he will design his hundred story office tower so that it will not collapse in a 7.0 earthquake, but it will not be habitable afterwards. It will have to be torn down. This is so because to make it withstand a 7.0 earthquake would require the building to be so stiff that people on the top floor would get hurt if not killed by the gyrations of the structure. Machinery likewise would get damaged. So, to keep people from getting whiplash and copy machines from getting dented, he argues that it is better and more humane to make the building deliberately strong enough to withstand the shaking but not strong enough to dent copy machines or give people on the top floor whiplash. Now I hope I'm not the only person apalled by this notion of "just good enough." It seems that everything is just good enough to meet the minimum requirement. Now that breeds mediocrity. And frankly we have enough mediocre shit in this country already. Why not build quality, why are we not building superlatives? If you want something to really endure, it usually has to be really good. The Titanic exists in our minds because of the tragedy of such an incredible ship. People still know what a model T is because it was such an incredible car for what it was. But instead of building landmarks and milestones we should build an office tower with the deliberate weakness that it won't hurt employees' backs or their precious file cabinets. Where the hell did enginners go wrong?
Tuesday
Song: Cristina, "Is That All There Is?"
Sorry for no Monday
Ok, it is no secret amongst my friends that I despise my roommate for being an overeducated idiot. Then again he is a civil engineering major. Now last night he and I got into yet another of our famous arguments. He and I utterly, completely disagree as to what constitutes a good design. I am in awe of designers of the past, those who designed and built things above and beyond the merely necessary. Indeed, this is often only that which endures to become great. For instance, the Eiffel Tower is an overkill structure. The famous arches at the base are decorative as are the cornices of the observation deck. Another French example are the pipe organs of Aristide Cavaille-Coll. He massively overengineered his wind supply systems so they would "bounce" a little. You play a big chord on full organ and the wind dips and then starts to crescendo. Or say they tell me. I've also been told that at the turn of the century piano makers had a sort of private code of honor that their instruments were good for fifty years use although they were never guaranteed for more than twenty five. In working on vintage automobiles, the quality of many was excellent. Ford had superlative steel, and a model T engine block can usually stand to be overbored 0.100 inch. I think if something is to be designed, and particularly if it is complicated or difficult to access pains should be taken to insure availability of components and accessability. Nothing sucks like having to pull an engine to replace the clutch. Now my roommate is completely contrary to all of this.As an engineer he does not believe in overbuilding at all, whatsoever. Everything should be just good enough, nothing should be better than it needs to be. He has mentioned his custom house that he wants to build. He sees no reason why the building should outlast him. In fact he sees no reason why the building should even have to last as long as him, just sell the place to someone and let them deal with it. Building anything so that it endures for centuries is wasteful, impractical, and foolish. This is coming from the guy who marveled at Notre Dame although he didn't grasp the concept that 11th Century gothic did not use steel girders and stone veneer walls. Add to the idea the permanance is superfulous, my roommate decried the urban sprawl of Spokane. Also, he said that he will design his hundred story office tower so that it will not collapse in a 7.0 earthquake, but it will not be habitable afterwards. It will have to be torn down. This is so because to make it withstand a 7.0 earthquake would require the building to be so stiff that people on the top floor would get hurt if not killed by the gyrations of the structure. Machinery likewise would get damaged. So, to keep people from getting whiplash and copy machines from getting dented, he argues that it is better and more humane to make the building deliberately strong enough to withstand the shaking but not strong enough to dent copy machines or give people on the top floor whiplash. Now I hope I'm not the only person apalled by this notion of "just good enough." It seems that everything is just good enough to meet the minimum requirement. Now that breeds mediocrity. And frankly we have enough mediocre shit in this country already. Why not build quality, why are we not building superlatives? If you want something to really endure, it usually has to be really good. The Titanic exists in our minds because of the tragedy of such an incredible ship. People still know what a model T is because it was such an incredible car for what it was. But instead of building landmarks and milestones we should build an office tower with the deliberate weakness that it won't hurt employees' backs or their precious file cabinets. Where the hell did enginners go wrong?
Monday, April 21, 2003
20 April 2003
Easter Sunday
Song: South Park, "Taco Flavored Kisses"
and Jethro Tull, "Bouree"
Mors et Vita. Surrexit Christus hodie, alleluia.
Today was a very good day. First off, I managed to grab a dear friend as he went online. This is a big thing for him since he's always online but never at the computer. It was a nice chat. Then I prattled about getting things ready for dinner. Mass was relatively painless, all I can say is that its all about the pieces of music you can play blindfolded with one hand. Dinner went well, everyone enjoyed what was available. I guess I can successfully prepare ham, salad, corn, green beans, jello salad and peach pie. This is good. Dinner was a success, everyone managed to get along, which was something of a small miracle. People stayed late, and I was probably most pleased that I finally managed to have a bunch of people over for dinner successfully. I always wanted to entertain. It was a good day. I'm happy, but I have to reboot the old machine now. Oh, and the girl I like still likes someone else, go figure.
Easter Sunday
Song: South Park, "Taco Flavored Kisses"
and Jethro Tull, "Bouree"
Mors et Vita. Surrexit Christus hodie, alleluia.
Today was a very good day. First off, I managed to grab a dear friend as he went online. This is a big thing for him since he's always online but never at the computer. It was a nice chat. Then I prattled about getting things ready for dinner. Mass was relatively painless, all I can say is that its all about the pieces of music you can play blindfolded with one hand. Dinner went well, everyone enjoyed what was available. I guess I can successfully prepare ham, salad, corn, green beans, jello salad and peach pie. This is good. Dinner was a success, everyone managed to get along, which was something of a small miracle. People stayed late, and I was probably most pleased that I finally managed to have a bunch of people over for dinner successfully. I always wanted to entertain. It was a good day. I'm happy, but I have to reboot the old machine now. Oh, and the girl I like still likes someone else, go figure.
Sunday, April 20, 2003
19 April 2003
Holy Saturday
No Song
Today has been wierd. At the moment I have quite a headache, but the caffeine should be hitting in rather soon. (I gave up the second daily serving of caffeine for Lent, now I can get back to being an addict.) Ok, I got up and was out by noon to buy $60 worth of Easter Dinner. After that, I have cleaned the Living Room, hit two second hand stores and bought a jello mold($0.49) , prayer rug($3.99), and pie plate($1.78). Value Village had ghetto people, but St. Vinnie's up on Trent was good for people watching as usual. Teenagers boheme and a middle aged tall homosexual with an extraordinarly good long beard. Think ZZ Top if they went to a barber once every ten years. So after that I sallied home and begain cleaning up the abysmal pit that is the apartment. (At least I was able to get a couple bucks woth of change from the couch. Sometimes life is good like that.) Since then, I've done a load of laundry, washed a rug, made two jello molds (#1 was an abortive test run) and three peach pies. (Again #1 was a delicious abortive test run.) I have since realized that jello will do wierd things to you, flour gets EVERYWHERE, and pie crusts are a btich unless you have a bigass kitchen, and a rolling pin. It is now 12:23 so technically Easter Sunday, but more is to be done. I need to go though my laundry and hopefully have to iron only a couple things. Woo hoo. But, hey I've got caffeine. Oh and I was finally able to download the Vaughan-Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.
Holy Saturday
No Song
Today has been wierd. At the moment I have quite a headache, but the caffeine should be hitting in rather soon. (I gave up the second daily serving of caffeine for Lent, now I can get back to being an addict.) Ok, I got up and was out by noon to buy $60 worth of Easter Dinner. After that, I have cleaned the Living Room, hit two second hand stores and bought a jello mold($0.49) , prayer rug($3.99), and pie plate($1.78). Value Village had ghetto people, but St. Vinnie's up on Trent was good for people watching as usual. Teenagers boheme and a middle aged tall homosexual with an extraordinarly good long beard. Think ZZ Top if they went to a barber once every ten years. So after that I sallied home and begain cleaning up the abysmal pit that is the apartment. (At least I was able to get a couple bucks woth of change from the couch. Sometimes life is good like that.) Since then, I've done a load of laundry, washed a rug, made two jello molds (#1 was an abortive test run) and three peach pies. (Again #1 was a delicious abortive test run.) I have since realized that jello will do wierd things to you, flour gets EVERYWHERE, and pie crusts are a btich unless you have a bigass kitchen, and a rolling pin. It is now 12:23 so technically Easter Sunday, but more is to be done. I need to go though my laundry and hopefully have to iron only a couple things. Woo hoo. But, hey I've got caffeine. Oh and I was finally able to download the Vaughan-Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.
Friday, April 18, 2003
18 April 2003
Good Friday
Song: Mozart, Ave Verum Corpus
This is my first entry in my brand spankin' new blog site. Here goes. Today is Good Friday, a day which should be one of the most important days in the year of Christians, but I fear Christmas is that much more popular because you get stuff. I suppose Easter would be big if we got Easter presents beyond chocolate eggs. I am a Roman Catholic, and they recommend you doing something on Holy Week to actually remember the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. So I went to Stations of the Cross. The grade school kids reenacted the Passion Story, so I buried my head in the pew in front of me so as to not laugh. (People that had to reenact the Passion Play in 8th grade will understand this. Oh, and I only got to be one of the Roman Soldiers.) Its days like this that I realize how important Christianity is to me, although I usually act contrary to Christian teachings. To me Good Friday is a great tragedy and the anniversary of probably the most heinous act in history. Today, many many years ago a people murdered God. We as humans turtured and murdered Christ! And through His Passion, Death, and Resurrection (a Death He freely chose in accordance with God's Will) Christ saved us all and gave us eternal life. Wow. Now being that I probably won't die for my beliefs, its absolutely flooring for me. But thats not politically correct, so now we have BCE and CE instead of BC and AD. Thats the modern era for you. At least they haven't deposed Mozart yet, and God still loves us, no matter what we've done to Him in the past.
Note: No offence is meant to any reader of non-Christian inclinations. I don't hate Jews or anything like that. PC historians are something different through...
Good Friday
Song: Mozart, Ave Verum Corpus
This is my first entry in my brand spankin' new blog site. Here goes. Today is Good Friday, a day which should be one of the most important days in the year of Christians, but I fear Christmas is that much more popular because you get stuff. I suppose Easter would be big if we got Easter presents beyond chocolate eggs. I am a Roman Catholic, and they recommend you doing something on Holy Week to actually remember the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. So I went to Stations of the Cross. The grade school kids reenacted the Passion Story, so I buried my head in the pew in front of me so as to not laugh. (People that had to reenact the Passion Play in 8th grade will understand this. Oh, and I only got to be one of the Roman Soldiers.) Its days like this that I realize how important Christianity is to me, although I usually act contrary to Christian teachings. To me Good Friday is a great tragedy and the anniversary of probably the most heinous act in history. Today, many many years ago a people murdered God. We as humans turtured and murdered Christ! And through His Passion, Death, and Resurrection (a Death He freely chose in accordance with God's Will) Christ saved us all and gave us eternal life. Wow. Now being that I probably won't die for my beliefs, its absolutely flooring for me. But thats not politically correct, so now we have BCE and CE instead of BC and AD. Thats the modern era for you. At least they haven't deposed Mozart yet, and God still loves us, no matter what we've done to Him in the past.
Note: No offence is meant to any reader of non-Christian inclinations. I don't hate Jews or anything like that. PC historians are something different through...
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