Happy New Year

So here I sit, waiting for Molly Dull to pick me up and whisk me away to Chicago for New Year's Eve. I of course checked facebook and noticed a few 2009/2010-related things, and thought a little recap of the year might be in order. If you tend to hate this type of stuff, stop reading.

Things I did this year:
-Tried blogging
-Turned 21
-Went to Salt Lake City
-Applied to grad school (last application just turned in!)
-Toured in the Summer
-Cabrewed (Callen fell in)
-Got a camera
-Took lots of pictures
-Met some new people
-Published a paper
-Worked as a newspaper photographer (if you count a 3-week stint)
-Became an impromptu graphic designer (and got paid)
-Reconnected with long-lost (and admittedly, forgotten) rec soccer teammate Molly Dull
-Had one or two transient relationships
-Slept in a racecar bed

I know there's more, but it's early (Molly still hasn't called) and my brain isn't functioning properly. I don't know if it ever does, but whatever. I expect 2010 will have some major life changes...I blame graduation and grad school for the most part. Who knows where any of us will be in 6 or 8 months from now, but I'm interested to see where we all end up. I hope whoever still reads this has a happy new year, and a good start to 2010.

Post Christmas

Its cold. Christmas was good at my house. We got my mom a Kithenaid mixer so she can make us cookies, and we got my dad a gun for god knows what reason. They both love their gifts, which in the one case is a little unsettling.

My days have been filled with visiting friends and family and doing a nearly impossible 1500 piece puzzle. Now that it is nearly half done other people are starting to help.

Going to Cinci tomorrow, coming home Friday. Katie is coming to visit next week. My family will finally meet my best friend and they can stop saying she is just imaginary.

I am still friends with these people

What? I'm posting? Yes I am, thanks to Eric. Because this is a national holiday that I don't celebrate (You may call me a heathen if you want Matt Smola) I will now give you the rundown on what the lone 212 Jew does on Christmas Eve/Day:

Dinner at a Jewish Deli

Movie

Chinese Food

What an eve/day.

Its Late

So, it was the gf's birthday today. I was reminded of this at almost 1pm when I was checking facebook at Best Buy on an HP Touchsmart PC. Probably the coolest computer ever. I want one rather badly. But yeah, I felt kinda bad about not remembering. The feeling passed quickly.

Christmas is coming up. I am set with gifts for the people I will be seeing Christmas day, however, I have yet to get gifts for people I am seeing tomorrow...in like 15 hours...at least 9 of which will be spent in bed...and 1 or 2 more will be in the car. I best get to work.

I need to figure out what to get Courtney for her birthday and Christmas. I have gotten a few good suggestions, but nothing has been purchased yet. This may be my fault. Actually my mother has a gift for her and I do not. On the other hand, I know exactly what I am getting Katie Blake. Bree would be upset by this I am sure. It helps that me and Katie have conversations about what we want. There is also a lot less pressure. Hence a flask and some coloring books sufficing.

This is turning out to be a pretty entertaining post I think, go me. There is a hole in one of my contacts and it is quite painful. Also, it is late. So I will bid you farewell, and Merry Christmas to all if I don't tell you again.

Still in Oxford

So I had a Christmas gift shipped here and it is not coming until Monday. This kind of stinks. I did everything I could think of today so I have nothing else to do tomorrow. I think it is going to be a boring day. I have watched all my movies, ate all my food, and gone to church and Wal-Mart. I might make a trip to Batavia tomorrow. That sounds better than sitting around. This evening is being devoted to backing up my hard drive and maybe getting to wiping my computer. It needs a fresh start.

You better like your present mom!!!

Instead of Studying

I'm on a list kick. Things I've done this week instead of studying for finals:

-Blogged
-Trivia Night
-Margarita Night
-Packed
-Learn flash animation
-Visited Dave & Kaitlan
-Lunch with Kaitlan
-Bdubs with community council
-Visit TKD
-Play with my camera
-Skype
-China Bistro

Highlight of the week: Michigan invited me for an interview!/I'm going home tomorrow!

Closest I Have Been To Heaven in a While

Double stuffed mint cream oreos and eggnog.

A Shortie

I got on a computer in the lab today and when I first went in a set down my stuff then went to do something else. When I got back I moved the mouse and a background I had set popped up. I could not remember if I had logged in or not, but I was pretty sure not. Turns out I had been logged in to that computer since last Thursday and it happened to be the one I picked again. That sums up my week (I don't know what it sums up to)

It's just finals week no big deal

So Capstone has messed up my sleep schedule so much that I can not physically fall asleep before 4AM. As in my body refuses to calm down...I think I will be high strung until this week is over...so if you talk to me and I am freaking out that is why. I am hoping that all of my grades stabilize to a B average this semester...even though I do not think that makes up for the total lack of sleep and almost nonexistent social life this semester has given me (some of my friends that are graduating in 5 days I have not seen more than twice this semester). Ugh.
In other news I got to have dinner with Carrie, Courtney, Eric, Stephen and Draper last night which was would even if carrie and I learned we can not eat even close to entire pizza.
This semester has left me burnt out and unmotivated which is great news for the two finals I have yet to take...it is a struggle.
Ugh well here's to trying to keep my GPA from crashing and burning.
Peace out!

The Big Test

I'm a little nervous this morning. The biggest test of my good mood yet is coming up. No, not a final exam, those don't phase me. This is worse. I signed up for a shift in the dishroom. There must have been nothing else available. Its unfortunate. The dishroom sucks all the feeling out of a person. My 44 hour run of not being more than slightly annoyed and never for more than a few seconds might be at an end! I hope not. I have a circuits exam tomorrow that I would like to be in a jovial disposition to study for and take. I will let you know.

Good Mood Counter:
44 hours

Pretty Sure You Can Comment on the Posts

Hey Matt, I am a jackass, thought you knew that. And it is not Christmas, not for 11 days. Andy has a countdown on the fridge. You loosen up, my posts are meant in jest. I got an awesome Christmas gift today. I can't wait to give it out.

Good Mood Counter:
34 hours

Here's a Comment

Eric, most of your posts make you sound like a jackass. Loosen up, it's Christmas.

Who Thinks the Survey is Dumb?

I feel like there should be a 'never' or 'rarely' option. Or maybe an 'Eric's posts are the only thing that keeps me coming back' option. One of those would be helpful. Also, the other options are weird. I think I choose the meal one, but none of them really fit.

I took my first exam today. It went alright. I don't really know, I wasn't paying attention. Its over. I am pretty sure about that. Only two more. I should start studying for those.

Why doesn't anyone make comments? I feel like that is one reason the blog died off last time. There was no obvious interest. If something makes you laugh then say it! If Matt's post put you to sleep at your desk, tell him! Sure we love telling you what we think, but we would also like to hear what you think.

Since everyone loves them so much, here is a list:
Options for dinner
1. Dinner on campus (Courtney pays)
2. All you can eat spaghetti at La Rosasa (I pay)
3. Ramen
4. Oreos and eggnog
5. Doritos and Rockstar

I'm hoping for #2

Things I Enjoy More Than Instrumental Analysis

-Facebook
-Wikipedia
-InterfaceLIFT
-BallDroppings
-Lady Gaga
-Watering my aloe plants
-Looking for food
-Eating
-Blowing my nose

Finals Make Me Hate the World

So I completely sympathize with all of Eric's posts - I am pissed at everything right now and would love to punch a wall or clean(Shut up it helps me destress) (but oh wait I can't go home).
Things I currently hate:
1. Capstone
2. Capstone Instructor
3. Capstone
4. OSU
5. People stressing me out
6. Lack of internet on campus
7. Finals
8. Not being Uptown right now
9. Italian
10. The fact that caffeinated beverages are not free

This has without a doubt been the worst semester of my college career. My GPA will take a massive hit...I slept very little...saw almost none of my friends as much as I would like...hated the majority of my classes...stressed out non-stop...AHHHHHHH! What the hell happened to all of that "Oh it's your senior year it will be so much fun, so easy." I haven't even had the chance to figure out next year...which oh by the way capstone was meant to prepare me for...False...FML

In other news, Molly Dull came on a surprise visit last night and let's just say we surprised the hell out of everyone...BOOM! It was fun and a much needed break before diving in to the study marathon that will ensure until I leave for DC on Thursday...CAN'T WAIT!

Peace out!

Don't Have A Trashcan? Throw it on the Ground!

More stuff I saw next to the sidewalk...

A tailgate tested, tailgate approved blue foam finger.

A digital camera (broken).

An 18ct. carton of eggs, some eggs included.

Tinsel

Things That Can Burn In Hell

Self Reflective essays that have to be 3 pages long and single spaced

"Feels like" temperatures of 2 degrees when I have to go outside

People who are obsessed with things that are not worth obsessing over

The things the people are obsessed with

Anything flammable (I would imagine)

American Towing

Sinners

What Are the Odds...

Of getting this self reflective essay done tonight?

Of getting A's on my finals?

Of Mike posting on this blog ever again?

Not good I'm guessing. Think its time for a beer.

Is This Depressing?

An actual quote from me today...

"I turned in three project reports today, so all I have left is three finals, two reports, and a presentation"

And I am relieved by this fact! This semester is beyond too much work. I am done with it. Those three finals can take themselves. I recently received a coupon for a free bloomin' onion from Outback (I believe the promotion was called Giving away Heart Disease) and I have had to push back the dinner date twice already. I am going to go do some work now. Peace out, not busy people.

Top 10 Ornaments on Our Christmas Tree

10. Tiny glass mushroom
9. 8" football-shaped thing
8. Bert & Ernie ice skating
7. 10" ear of corn
6. Eagle & Shield (7" wingspan)
5. A small barn
4. Durante the snowman
3. Wizard of Oz composite (feat. Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow, C. Lion, Emerald City, & Rainbow)
2. Philmont Boots
1. Space Shuttle

So I remebered my password...

Eric, I am sorry you have group members that suck at getting their work done and accomplishing anything worthwhile in life (hmmm seems like Mike this summer - kidding - kind of). Anyways I now feel slightly sad after reading Matt's post - I am allergic to pine, my throat closes up, I kind of die and thus I never get to experience the joys of a live Christmas tree. I love to be sustainable I really do, but life factors beyond my control hold me back at this point.
In other news I gave my capstone presentation on Wednesday, following an all-nighter. A lack of sleep and pure fear pushed me through to the end of the presentation. I thought I was doing good because my prof smiled during it, I then noticed a second later that she did the same thing while looking at the ceiling...so hence I still do not know where I stand...all that is left is the final edits and to turn it in (drunk) on Monday - Skippers before watching the rest of the presentations? I think so. I also realized that capstone simply blinded me to all of the work I had waiting for me once it is done. Needless to say I still have a lot I need to accomplish before tomorrow, all while trying to get over this epic cough Nathan and I have...FML. I was also sick for pretty much the entire week after thanksgiving...that has put me way behind and made this last week HELL! Hence why I am blogging, clearly I have nothing better to do.
I kind of wish APT 212 still lived together or at least saw each other more often...then at least we could have similar stories...ok so I more or less miss the fact that Bree is not around and thus we have no one to make fun of...sigh.
In true style I have not pro-read any of this...I hope my grammatical errors make you feel better about your life.
I am excited for what will come tomorrow...Matt Smola know why...no one else does but more on that later.

Devo tornare a lavorare in italiano...FML
Next semester will be better!

Think Before You Hug (Trees)

Found an interesting article today talking about how going out and murdering a tree for Christmas is "greener" (ha-a pun!) than buying a fake tree. Here's the article. And here's the skinny:

Live trees: do the "good tree" thing while they're waiting for you to cut them from their roots (ha-another pun!), then do the "good dead tree" thing when you get rid of it.

Fake trees: are bad.

Which brings me to the ritual of finding a suitable Christmas tree. Every year it's the same: 8-ish feet tall, not too fat, not to skinny, plenty of space to hang the ornaments, some of which are downright obnoxious. In fact, I'd say we have enough outrageous ornaments to post about later. So it used to be my dad, sister, and me. Trekking throw rows and rows of trees just to get to the blue spruce section. Douglas fir? Fuck that. Blue spruce or bust! In the past few years, my mom--bless her pointed heart--has decided to come out with us since her "boy's at home and [she] want[s] to spend time with [me]!"

We always' go to Fred's. Located in...I actually have no clue. Dad knows where he's going. Anyway, Fred's Tree Farm has never let us down. Like any tree farm, there are small holes and stumps all over the place. The fun part is that they're usually covered in snow and thus invisible. So we look for a tree, usually narrowing it down from 2 or 3 that seem particularly suitable. The job of severing our new decoration from its home has fallen (pun?) to me in recent years. (Eagle Scout) My mom and sister insist on yelling "timber!" when the tree comes down, even though they typically have a few false starts.

Getting the tree home is usually an interesting experience. When there were only 3 of us, we just put the tree in the van and someone got the shaft and had to sit next to it. Now we strap it to the roof. I usually tie it down and then pray that it doesn't fall off. We listen to side 1 of the Muppet Christmas tape on the way out, and side 2 on the way back. I can't help but think of our tree when John Denver sings about Alfie, a personified tree in the forest that wishes all of humanity will think about wildlife this Christmas season. For a while, I always just assumed the tree we were cutting down was Alfie. Oops.

Putting the tree up is another ordeal entirely, so I'll stop here for now.

Boring Presentation

I made a presentation on my senior design project yesterday evening. I wanted to shoot someone afterward.

My team is a decent mix of talents. Some of us are good at research, some are good at experiments, some of us are good at bull-shitting. Its this last one that makes me angry.

Our presentation was kind of thrown together at the last minute. This is due to my team mates not getting anything done when it should be. They were doing tests 2 days ago that should have been done weeks ago so they could be reviewed and evaluated. Cause the results were useless. My tests had been done for a few days at least (I had to wait for some equipment but did it as soon as I got it) and my tests showed exactly what I was hoping for. I got graphs and pictures and putting slides together took about 20 minutes. Done. I also knew what I was talking about.

My product was presented first. I rocked it. Replex domes can totally be used for early season cultivation of seedlings. Next came light fixtures. Light fixtures made from Replex domes are ugly and don't improve lighting effects. Next came skylights. I have no flipping clue what the actual design idea is for this product. I am pretty sure there is not one. The kid covered holes in a box with tracing paper and called it an experiment cause he used real light sensors and a data logger. Sorry but me sitting with a computer gathered more useful data than you did. Actually that might be a lie, I zoned out during that portion of the presentation and woke up about 10 minutes later to him still talking. The entire talk time was supposed to be 20 minutes, he took 15. People were asleep. I have never heard more mundane things explained in more minute detail. Especially when there is a time limit. He seems to think that B.S. is a good alternative to a shorter presentation that contains real information. The kicker is that he couldn't even field the single freaking question we got asked. I had to. The professor asked the question 3 times and got similar completely unrelated answers from this kid every time until he gave up, the kid stopped talking and I could step in and give the right answer. I am so done with this semester.

In other news, Transformers was on last night. That movie is pretty good. Optimus Prime flying? I almost died. With parts from an SR-71 Blackbird no less. Hell yeah!

Time to continue my project reports. Ciao

So I Seem to Like Lists These Days

Things I Found in the Pockets of the Sport Coat I Wore for a Presentation Yesterday Evening

• 4 sticks of Wrigley's Doublemint gum still in the pack

• Shout instant stain remover wipes

• A ticket stub to 42nd Street. $71.10 was the price of admission. The show better have been way better than my presentation.

• Proof that inspector 13 did in fact take the time to put a small piece of paper in one of the pockets

I think that is all. I was pretty bored during presentations (including mine) so I looked through my pockets. I bet that gum is 10 years old. I didn't think to look for a date on the ticket. Maybe when I get a little less angry at my team mates I will do a post about how the presentation went.

Until then, enjoy the freezing, I know I'm not.

Things I Like

So some of you poor saps still check this blog from time to time. Congrats--I mildly appreciate your dedication. At the same time, I question what you do with your life. Anyway, the average time spent looking over old blog-a-roo here is about 13 seconds. Here's something to spend some more time on.

Things I like, as of December 9th, 2009 at 4:46 pm:

1. Wind
2. Snow
3. Cold
4. Christmas songs set to the tune of "Africa" by Toto
5. Christmas songs
6. Christmas lights (the big bulb kind)
7. Christmas cookies
8. Having electricity
9. Not having class tomorrow
10. Being exempt from my Spanish final
11. Oreos
12. The small, mildly creepy nutcracker on my nightstand
13. The decision to put aforementioned nutcracker on my nightstand
14. Liking the cold--it makes it much easier to handle
15. Clementines
16. Dark chocolate cherry granola bars
17. Eggnog (I'm going to have some now)
18. Napping
19. Sweatpants
20. Thundersnow (it seems like a cool concept)

Things I saw on the Sidewalk Recently

* indicates things I picked up

1* A perfect condition Libby Glass Scotch glass

2 An unopened can of Bud Select

3 A packet of Ramen Shrimp flavor seasoning

4 A wrapped stick of gum

5 A rather comfortable looking light blue bra

6* A dime

7 A batting glove

8 An unopened Met-Rx Big 100 meal bar (I was really tempted with this one, those things are like $5)

New Tasor Polices That are Better Than the New Tasor Policy

1. Go back to guns you pansies!

2. Tase at random so law breakers don't feel so bad when it happens to them.

3. Ninja throwing stars.

Too bad no one reads our blog so these great ideas will never be discovered. If you do happen to read this, consider suggesting these changes to your town or city's taser policy.

Beer Lids

Don't try to unscrew caps that are not twist-off. Even sober you can easily slice your hand open and not even realize it until you are half way back to school and find that your shifting hand hurts right where you touch the shift knob. Pumpkin beer is almost worth it though.

It is time for a change

Ok so if you have not noticed I have been a wee bit absent from this blog...or very absent your call, but my semester has been without a doubt ridiculous...in a good way (I think)
As my mother kindly pointed out we are halfway through the first half of senior year (and commence freak out). I feel as if this semester is flying by and that I really have not had the chance to enjoy it...the primary culprit is school. I really do enjoy my classes (most of the time) as in I enjoy capstone when I am not in class and am working on my project (our professor makes us all want to cry). But I really do love my project and I hope it can make a pretty strong impact when all is said and done. I'll give you a preview of the overly catchy title:

Motiviating Student Advocacy in Sustainability:
Are our universities holding students back?

Make you want to learn more, well I will let you read the full 30+ page document (minimum) when all is said and done. Excited yet? Additionally Italian is a struggle like always and International business is really really really dry to say the least. My urban geography class is awesome though with the focus on sustainable urbanism etc etc, I love going to that class! Oh but did I mention that my capstone prof puts us on really strict deadlines whenever she feels like it and thus it owns my life.
Outside of that everything is great! I love what I am involved in and feel that I am really making a difference, plus Homecoming is next week so after that is over my schedule will be a whole lot more open and by that I mean a few extra hours a week to do homework. Hooray, but maybe that would mean I would get to bed a bit earlier.
Okay so I guess all is not bad...I just wish I had a little more time to breath, but I can do that after college!
Molly Dull came to visit two weekends ago (has it really been that long) but it was a magical experience, aka a lot of fun and well worth the break from life. Plus she will be here at the end of November with her accapella group and we all know we could use more M.Dull in life (plus she'll get to use her house key finally).
Off to my next adventure and hopefully you will hear from me more often.
Peace Out!

Using the Secret

Here it is, doubters don't get rides. Help me out and visualize yourself riding in my Ferrari. I'm serious, I would really appreciate it!

I'm keeping this thing alive

I am working on a project for my senior design class that is in collaboration with a company that makes plastic domes. This company is in Mt. Vernon Ohio, which is not at all close to Oxford. We decided that this past Thursday was a good time to go and visit Replex.

We got a Miami van. 8 seats for 6 people. Pretty comfortable. Except the seats are made of a cross between cardboard and rocks. I am pretty sure I fell asleep on the way there cause it did not seem like 3+ hours of driving. Did I mention I got up at 5:30 to start this trip? So around 10 we stopped to get a snack cause we were close. I picked up a rockstar and some mini crullers. A balanced breakfast.

When we got to the place we were given a tour of the facility. We were not allowed to film or take pictures because some of the machines they use are custom made and not even patented because if they were they would be common knowledge and the Chinese would steal the technology and make the parts cheaper. That was a direct quote from the owner of a company, an MIT grad who is in the process of building up his second successful enterprise. He came up with the machines himself.

After the tour and a lunch/brainstorming session, we went home. I got to drive this portion. It would have been faster on the way back except for the traffic, rain, and bathroom stops (not my idea). Those vans have huge blind spots. I almost ran two cars off the road.

I don't have my Ferrari F430 Spider yet, but I will soon. If you want a ride, leave a comment.

Epic Fly Kill

Matt, I can make fun of whatever I want. Especially when your come back is to try and out bore my boring post.

Just now I was in the bathroom washing my face when a fly started buzzing around the light. This fly was spastic, like trying to fly through the ceiling dinging of the light bulbs. I decided to put it out of its crazed misery. I finished washing my face and waited for it to seize itself into a position where I could get a good washcloth whack at it. When I got my chance, I nailed it! It went zooming into the wall across the room, got knocked out from the impact and fell straight into the toilet. I'm not talking rolling down the sides either, he was dead on in the water. I just made my own day.

LAB!

I don't really think Eric can claim my posts to be boring after describing how "cool" our steam plant is. Million-year-old dead body parts go in, hot water vapor + other stuff comes out. Whoop-dee-flippin'-doo.

But I can't turn down an opportunity to give an equally field-specific recollection of my day...

This morning, I woke up around 7:30, which isn't typical. I had to pee. After takin' care of business, I went back to bed. Then I woke up around 9:00, like I do sometimes. I took a shower, ate a breakfast of grainy flakes and dehydrated strawberries rehydrated in milk. It was pretty good, made me feel like an astronaut. I piddled around a little, then headed off to the lab like I usually do.

But today was different...we had new results! Protein A from G. metallireducens exists in two forms, but we only want to study one of the forms. To do this, we tried using a modifying protein which looks alot like the Tri-Force from Zelda (I had to look it up, don't judge, at least on that particular point). So a few days ago I set up a reaction to convert Protein A to the form we want. We seriously keep tubes that have more than .5 mg/ml. That's a lot. During peak hours...we don't run out. But that's not even the cool part. In another room in the building, we have an instrument that blows the protein to tiny bits and bends the fragments around a big loop using a magnet. It's pretty much silent. We got the results back from that analysis today...and our reaction worked!

One of my classes is canceled tomorrow, should be great.

NO LAB!

I got up this morning at 7:10 like I do many mornings. I put on suitable clothes for leaving the house like I do sometimes. I ate breakfast, it was a bowl of small, bland, stale cookies with milk. I packed up my stuff and off I went. BUT today was different. Rather than going to my thermo II lab like I do most Tuesday mornings, I was going to tour the steam plant! The steam plant operates on a cycle much like that of the Rankine cycle. There is a boiler, and steam is produced. In a Rankine cycle the steam would be used to spin turbines to generate electricity, but here it is used only for heat. The plant burns coal. This coal is burnt at prodigious rates. They have a silo that holds 500 tons of coal. At peak operating times, they receive several truckloads of coal every day. They feed into three boilers that are painted like carnival rides and have plaques on them saying where they were built. Seriously, the hoppers above the boilers are blue and the boilers are orange.

That's not even the cool part though. In another adjacent building there are two natural gas motors that are used for power generation at peak times. This is under contract with Duke energy. Like I said there are two of these motors. Each of them is an 8000hp twin turbo-charged v-18. When they are running, the noise level in the room is around 113dB. That is really loud.

I have a test in the morning. I am going to do great on it.

This Week is going AWESOME!!!

I just literally fell asleep reading matt's post. He doesn't post for weeks then tells about a library. Thrilling.

I will tell you about my car. Much more exciting.

I took my baby to the shop last Thursday (an adventure in itself due to the fact that only two of the wheels had brakes), and got a call Monday saying I needed to come look at it before they would do anything. This freaked me out and I assumed that when I got there the entire underside of the car would be missing or something. The guy made it sound very ominous.
So i borrowed Andy's car (after he made me promise to wash my dishes more regularly) and headed over. Andy's car is crazy btw, the acceleration is so jerky, I was not comfortable driving it, but I made it, no worries. Yeah, where was I? Oh, when I got there they showed me the frame and one side looks like it is brand new and the other side looks like mater from Cars. I should have taken a picture, why didn't I? I know I was thinking about it, hmm... Also the brake lines are rusted out (obviously, they failed). The part that is most rusted is where the wheel is connected to the frame. One day I am going to be driving along and the wheel is going to fall off.

I took three tests in 26 hours recently, I apologize if this is not the most coherent post. The tigers need to win, otherwise I may jump off a bridge...into a ditch cause that is the only kind of bridge we have around here. I am not that emotionally tied to the team, it has just been that kind of mentally unsettling week. See three exams mentioned above. Pretty sure my brain is mush. I am rambling like a champ, time for some KDice before Senior Design meeting. Lata!

Here I Sit to Think and Ponder

So I'm at OSU this weekend visiting my close friends from high school. Since I'm not a huge OSU football fan and there's a home game today, my buddy who goes here is at the game, and I figured I'd get some work done. Dan, his girlfriend Meghan and I decided we'd go to the library, since Meghan had to download some huge .pdf file and it was taking upwards of four hours.

THIS LIBRARY IS HUGE. AND BEAUTIFUL. There's literally a wall of books: a huge glass facade stretching four to five stories when you walk in. The reading room I'm in right now is two stories tall with a vaulted ceiling...and an awkwardly placed statue of what I think is "Winged Victory." Dan and I have decided we might try to tip it over and find out if it's actually made of plastic, or if it's hollow.

So the library's great, but it's game day. Kickoff was 25 minutes ago, and up until then, there were random tourists walking in and out of the library as if no one was trying to work. Sure, I'm not a student here, but I'm at least being quiet and acting like one. Whatever, football seems to rule all here. I doubt anyone ever walks into King before a hockey game just to check it out.

Ok, back to pesonal statement writing...it's a bitch, by the way. It's hard to write about how awesome I am without sounding like a pompous or pretentious ass. Guess I'll just write what comes out and then edit hardcore later. Don't be surprised if I send you a copy and ask for your help, especially if you consider yourself a grammar queen (Molly Dull, I'm looking at you).

ITS NOT FOOTBALL SEASON!!!

Why is it a weekday night in SEPTEMBER!!! and I am trying to see highlights of baseball (not even of my team, I already gave up on that, i just want to see any baseball) and what is on ESPN? Freaking news reports about who is showing up to practice and how some no-name third string hack is performing in warm ups. Football in September is below NASCAR on my scale of what should be reported on until everyone wants to throw up. I already do. There are 2 types of football players, cry babies and those who have the potential to beat their girlfriend. Both of these are fueled by the people's undying attention to everything they do and say on and off the field. I hate football. A perfect example of why football should not be broadcast at all is number 85. He should be taken out and put out of his (and our) misery. If the NFL was disbanded, the world would be a better place. However, I don't know what the sorority girls would wear to jersey parties if they stopped making child medium sized Bengals jerseys. God I want to puke after thinking about this.

Maybe in October people will realize what sports season it actually is.

Go Tigers!

I almost died on a White line

So today it was raining. Also today I crossed the street at a designated cross-walk. This led to my near-death. When they make a road with cross walks, they indicate where the cross-walks are with wide strips of white paint. This paint becomes slippery when wet. The result is that, when it is raining, the least safe place to cross the street is in a cross-walk. I have never actually fallen, but I have slid several inches all the way to the other side of the strip where I hit pavement again and stop. I have heard of people throwing their phones in the rivers that form on the sides of the road when they almost bite it. Speaking of the rivers, has Oxford never heard of storm drains? Seriously, if it is raining hard enough you have to jump from the curb to make it across some of these.

A few nights ago it was pouring and I decided to go for a rain run since it had been a rather hectic day. There was at least a half inch of water everywhere and up to 4 in some places. I was running through a parking lot with storm drains so you could see holes in the surface of the water. Only one of them was clogged so I ran right through a huge deep puddle. Not that it mattered, I was soaked 10 seconds after I stepped off the porch. My shoes may never dry.

Bed time. I don't want to go to school tomorrow :(

Not Quite Potholders...

...but the decorations that have been springing up in our apartment certainly get the job done. I wonder what the cleaning lady (ha, we have a cleaning lady) thinks when she comes in each week and sees what we've hung on the walls. First the beer pong rules...and for a while that was it. Last week Scotty and I decorated (we know it sounds gay) the bathroom we share, with some "f***ing baller and a half" pictures of water. Come visit and we'll show you.

Later that same day, we hung some pictures up in the kitchen...food-themed, of course. The pair of avocado pits and splashy strawberry add a lot to a kitchen otherwise dominated by awkwardly short or shaped cabinets. I think a picture of a banana should go up next. They're ovaries, after all, and we could use some more of those in our apartment. And today, we hung some album covers up on the living room wall. Pat's family was in town and his Mom brought them down. It really adds to the living room, dare I say more than a stuffed monkey. Sorry George.

I have a test tomorrow in Instrumental Analysis. Matt Forrest claims it sounds like a personal problem...not too sure how that works, but I'm willing to accept it because few other people have the same problem. This blog post is helping me study. Don't ask questions.

I'm going to OSU this weekend! All of my high school friends will be there (and thanks to OSU being OSU, even my distant friends from high school will be there too! Awesome!), so it should be a good time...

...but I hope I'm back in time for volleyball! We're 1-1 so far, but our last game was uplifting--a huge win over a team, and I'm told we beat the provost's son as well. Ha! That's about all I've got for now, but hopefully Eric will stop complaining.

Finally Caught a Break

Aw man, that just reminded me of what happened yesterday. The brakes went out on my car. Guess I'll be taking that to the mechanic soon. Those two fruit baskets who were asking me to run them over uptown are just lucky it didn't happen 5 minutes sooner.

Yeah, but the break I caught was that one of my labs is not due until 5 tomorrow. That means that even though we failed to export some of our data and could not reconstruct our circuit, we still have a chance of getting a decent grade. I am happy. House is on for two hours tonight. Luckily I don't have too much to do for tomorrow.

Its been like a week

Come on guys. It take 5 minutes to jump on here and type really fast and not even think about what you are saying. The people just want something to read, they don't even care about content. Proof of this is that they like my posts the best.

Maybe I am just that awesome, I don't know (yes I do, I am). Its the weekend. I got up at 10:30, took a shower, got some eats, and now should be doing work. I am sacrificing my precious (HA!) time for you people. I hope you appreciate it. I have two labs due tuesday.

Katie read this book called the Secret of Life and it sounds like it is basically the motto of this blog, act happy: fake it till you feel it. I need to read it. Apparently if you want something bad enough and tell yourself you will get it you will, or something like that. If only little girls knew about this trick they would all have ponies.

My dad came to visit yesterday! He was way out of it from a head cold, but we had some brews and went to Smokin Ox with the ladies in my life and generally had a nice time. Then the Tigers had to ruin it! Damn them. I will be soooo pissed if they don't win the central. They have been leading all year and it will be their first Division title since 1987 and it is about time. Go Tigers!

This literally took me 5 minutes. Stop slacking 212

Scrub-a-dub-dub!

Last night was "girls night." Obviously, this didn't include Pat, Ben, Scotty, or me. The ladies in attendance did however think at some point in the night that it would be a good idea to stick 48 maxi-pads to our door. Would've been funny/stupid prank if the self-adhesive pads (learn something new every day, apparently. I didn't know they were "self-stick.") didn't leave sticky residue on the door.

So, as I sit comfortably to type, our redemption is occurring outside the door. If you listen carefully, you can hear the scrubbing sounds of last night's culprits. I took a picture, but I was yelled at for opening the door. How dare I inconvenience them!

Some Thoughts

So I was thinking the other day...

Who designs low level cars? Like I know there are high paid designers who spend weeks if not months or years designing the coolest cars. On the opposite end of the spectrum you have the low end cars that apparently have been expressly designed to look like shit. Lets take the Pontiac G line as a case study.

The G8 is the highest number I found. (my research consisted of typing "pontiac g" into Google and seeing what numbers it suggested I complete the phrase with) This car is rather attractive. It has tasteful styling, an aggressive stance, and lots of grilles and fancy accents. Its pretty, I want one.
The next car in the line is the G6. It is a decent car. I know someone who has one. I have driven it. Its solid. Not much to look at (especially white ones) but they are not ugly. With options, it can be made appealing. Its no G8, but its also not a G5.
The G5 is ugly. Its got a tiny grille, gross wheels, a wing that looks horribly out of place on such an obviously not sporty car. Its crap.
The G3 is a travesty. The people who decided to make the G3 a production car are some of the most vacuous people in the automotive industry. No wonder these companies go under. I could design a better looking compact in my sleep without the use of my brain. No wonder they only sold 141 of them last month. I have never seen one on the road.

So that is my rant on ugly cheap cars. These companies deserve to fail.

Now nissan, they make some nice looking cars.

I don't know why it is so blurry. Click on it to make it better. The little gold one in the back is also a real beauty

Selling My Car

I may not be the proud owner of a Z much longer.

I know, its sad. You all know how much I love that car. The way I zoom around Oxford with the t-tops off blasting music. Oh wait, no one has seen it...it wouldn't make the drive from Perrysburg to Oxford...and the radio doesn't work, crap.

So yeah, one of my little brother's friends is interested and I think it may be time to pass the torch. My dad is not helping with my wanting to sell. He calls me the day after the kid comes out to look at the car telling me how amazing it sounded when it started right up after 2 years of sitting. How the electronics started working as soon as a charger was hooked up to the battery. How they had five guys trying to push it and it still wouldn't move. Man, I miss that car. I smashed a refrigerator with it once.

Oh well, I could use a couple hundred bucks to keep the one I actually drive out of the scrap heap.

People Pestering for Posts

Welcome to Wal-Mart. Get your shit and get out.

Adam came to visit last night. Apparently in the real world every once in a while your employer tells you to take a week off and you decide to drive across the country on a whim. That's right, he lives in Seattle and this is Ohio and he came to visit. It was a chill time, pretty on the chain. We drank some Bud limes and chelada's (that's Budweiser and clamato juice for those not in the know [clamato is clam and tomato]) while I finished up some homework. Once feeling a little better we traversed uptown for some B&D. It was fantastic. Adam got a Messy Katie and I got a Cosby. We ate them sitting on a bench uptown, which we had selected carefully for its dry butt marks where someone had already sat down and absorbed most of the rain.
After our snack, I had to pee, so I called Courtney to let me in to Ogden so I could go there. Maybe I wanted to see her too, maybe. We stood around and talked for a while. I got free hand sanitizer three times. I got made fun of twice for doing things a pregnant person would do.

Miami University: Its like being in a candy store with no money.

I would make a great Wal-Mart greeter.

Business majors have it easy

My life is crazy - I don't know where all this shit keeps coming from (and I mean that in the nicest sense because I really do love everything). But really? Let's make the day longer....PLEASE!
Andy's party was fun - I am glad he is still alive. I throw better parties no matter what eric thinks - though out of the 4 of us I would venture to say the mike's are the best - if that isn't too far of a stretch - BACK TO STUDYING!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm officially signed up for the GRE - YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ali Babba and the 40

So hey, what's up? It's roughly 2:20am, and Pat and I just returned from uptown. (We call it uptown because if you're going downtown you're going out of town because Oxford is built on a hill.) This is my first blog post written while quite out of it--and it's interesting. The screen keeps floating upwards!

We had our first apt302 party tonight, (makes me miss apt212) and although it was spur-of-the-moment, we had at least 30 people here, which I would consider respectable since we didn't invite anyone until around 5:30 at least. We played some pong, cluster (!) and such, then went uptown. The highlight of my evening was the bagel & deli sandwhiches which were "donated" to Pat and I by B&D. Anyway, I had a blast and I think many others did too, so I'd call it a success!!

Matt hasn't posted in a while, and neither has Mike, but he's excused. I hope you start feeling better soon, I've missed hanging out with you!

Miami got killed this weekend in football, 45-0. Zero! Can you believe that? Pat broadcasted the game...I'm sorry he had to be there. Oh well, it's a three day weekend for a reason...and I think we've taken care of things.

Until next time, when I'll catch you up on the guts of Shriver (the building), ¡sianara!

Things I learned this weekend

1. My speakers are made of a thermoform plastic. This means that they can be melted again after their first melting and forming. Thermosets are the other type of plastic. These burn when they are heated after setting. I learned that my speakers were made of thermoform plastic because they were placed near a halogen lamp. They started to melt. It looks kinda cool actually.

2. Some people should not be allowed out of their own houses because they do not know how to act in public.

3. You got got is not so much fun on a padded table. I was fine, but the other players sucked rather badly.

4. I will never understand why some people are still friends with the people they are.

5. Our house hosts the best parties. (I already knew this actually)

For Anyone Who Thought I Was Kidding

The green line is my rough route and red X's are places I want to stop.

In the Guts of Shriver (Center)

So the year got really busy really fast. Stay tuned for details on this one. How was your day Eric?

Ask me How my Day Went

Today I contemplated running away. I even dreamed up a possible route complete with major stops. It was a good day.

Just a Quickie

I seriously need to go to bed actually, but people want to read what I have to write, its science.

Went to MegaFair!!! today. Saw literally everyone I have ever met. Mike, Ben, Bree, Pat, Scotty, Matt, everyone else...it was pretty cool. I am sad to say that I got more out of it this time than I did when I went freshman year. I saw so many clubs I would have liked to sign up for. Oh well. I did get some swag though! Half a package of Chips Ahoy! cookies from Natalie! She is my new favorite. I also got this cool flashlight from Matt's table. Then I showed him how the mini screwdrivers in the handle fit into the top so you can light what you are trying to screw...if you so choose. Anyways...

More class and all that tomorrow. Going to get that letter out to you Dad, so you should have it by the 4th, whenever that is.

It was an interesting weekend. Too bad you wern't here to see first hand.

Updates and Issues

So it's become apparent that I might not blog as much during the year as I once anticipated. On the list for today we've got: grocery shopping, homework, MegaFair (maybe I'll make off with some t-shirts?), and getting my room finally clean.

I have a new "job" this semester! I'm working as a "staff photographer" for the Campus section of the Miami Student. I'm pretty excited and hopefully I don't screw up too bad. There's one other guy who alternates with me, so keep an eye on the Friday edition!

I'd like to clear up a little bit of controversy that I encountered the other night. And if you check Facebook as religiously as others I know, you probably saw it too. I was making pizza with Pat, Ben, and Scotty--the guys I live with in my apartment. I set my Facebook status to something along the lines of "pizza, beer, and the guys." No harm done? Not. A comment-fest ensues with Eric and Matt leading the charge. (The guys of apt212). Apparently, I'm not allowed to have roommate bonding with my new apartment-mates without inviting the old ones. So I figure last night that I should see the rest of apt212, which I did. Visited Mike, then eventually met up with Matt Forrest, and Eric arrived a little later. It would've been great except that Matt kept giving me shit the whole time. There was definitely tension. And we may have pulled each other's hair. Then I get a text message later saying he just misses me. Doesn't make much sense to me.

Oh well, things'll work out eventually. For now, I'm gonna get ready to do that whole MegaFair thing. If you're going to be there, stop by the (hold judgment) Miami Chemical Society (judge away) table.

History Has Been Made

So i was sitting in class this morning and actually awake, unlike monday, when the prof suggested that we read the first two section of the textbook. I'm like oh great I loves textbook reading. Then it hit me...I already read the first 4 section of the book! I am ahead! Maybe I will pass all my classes this semester afterall. I think this is a good sign.

I realize 'afterall' is not a real word, i just felt like using it.

This semester will be ridiculous

So I have officially completed two days of senior year (WTF!!!!) and realized that I will basically live in a hole of books all semester. I know I know I should be working now but I had to take a break to let you all know.
Italian 301 - How do you even say that!?!?! I've been reading it forever and will admit to be completely confused.
Geography Senior Seminar (GEO 491) - I want to cry
Advanced GIS (GEO 442)- Ummmmm wow I forgot a lot more than I thought
International Business (BUS 371)- well the profs mom died so I have no gauge for now (consider it a mixed blessing)
Urban Geography (GEO 454)- will be amazing, with my favorite prof but a whole lot of work.
All in all that equal 3 semester long research projects on who knows what...ekkkkkk
Oh and add in everything I will be involved in, well don't expect to see a whole lot of me this semester. This is a statement of fact, not a complaint. I love what I'm studying and what I do around campus so it will be worth it for me, just know I wont be around as often as I would like.
I'm sorry, please forgive me?
I teach class in the morning, it should be interesting. Updates soon.
PEACE OUT!
(I added course numbers to make life seem more intense)

What a Day!

First day of our last year of undergrad. Fun! Some highlights include:

-A great walk to class with Scotty, Pat, Ben, and Alex. We looked like old freshmen, minus the lanyard 'round the neck. I still rock the pocket lanyard.

-I saw a "little person" driving a car. It made my morning.

-Dr. Tomoyashu played a clip of Sarah Palin being dumb in regard to fruit fly research in France.

-I saw a couple canoodling on academic quad after having a great lunch with Pat. (I had lunch with Pat, not the canoodlers)

-Saw some freshwomen joggers nearly get hit by an SUV on my way home after class. I chuckled a bit to myself, and the women driving the SUV shook her head in dispair and gave me that "yeah, they'll learn" look. We had a moment through safety glass...it was something.

-Alex made chicken pesto pasta. It was excellent, and it damn well ought to be, since she didn't have a single class today!

-I went running, and felt really good. I blame the copious amounts of pasta I've consumed lately. Stopped to say hi to Matt and Nathan while I was running down Spring. They were painting a beer pong table.

All in all, a good day. I have a biochem lab tomorrow and I'm not sure how much pre-lab I'm supposed to do. The instructor was a little scattered completely confused about what should be done for this week, all I know is that it's "welcome to your last 'welcome to the library' day" tomorrow. Should be fun!

Is It Over Yet? (sob)

This is the most intimidating first day of class ever. I will fill you in on what I have experienced later.

...

Since you have been waiting so patiently, here it is. While my lovely girlfriend was lamenting having to dance both the male and female parts in her social dance class (grandpa Ray would be so proud), I was being reminded over and over how little I actually retain from year to year. I wonder what I am going to end up having for dinner? At 8 in the morning, being told that you need to remember how to do Eigen value problems by a small Indian man (forehead, not feather) is enough to make you cry. Then at ten I learned that complex numbers will be important in my circuits class. For all of you who forgot high school math already, complex numbers are also known as imaginary and the teaching of them stops at "they exist" for most people.

Two of my classes handed out review sheets to exactly quantify how much had leaked out of our heads. A quick survey revealed the answer to be "more than we thought was supposed to go in in the first place." I think the saddest moment of the day came when I realized that one of the classes I felt least dumb in was the one that continued off of a class I got a D in.

A good note is that I am actually excited for aspects of three of my 5 classes. The two in the morning are just going to suck entirely. Also, since it is the first week, two of my labs are not meeting tomorrow so I don't have anything until 2:15 unless I want to get up at 11 and learn what I need to know about imaginary numbers.

OH! I picked up an intramural sign up sheet so if anyone wants to be on my volleyball team they best tell me soon and start practicing. Mediocrity will not be tolerated. And go to the rec and check out the awesome action shots taken by our very own Matt Smola, featuring Bree Erwin and myself. I hear we look pretty good. But seriously, I already have 3 people who want to play. Sand is only 4v4 so if we get enough we will make 2 teams. Let me know.

Vanvertisements and Refrigerattitude!

My room is still a mess. A big one.

In other news, living with Pat, Ben, and Scotty has been great these first few days. We'll see what happens when classes start. I imagine doing work will suck. And blog posting may decrease proportionately with the number of pending tests and projects.

Eric's party was excellent. Perfect mix of people in a great space. Eric's house is quaint and starkly decorated (as in not decorated), but still nice. The basement is a creepfest...I'll let Eric elaborate because I wasn't down there too long before I decided I never wanted to be there again. Ever.

Today was the Heritage Commons LLC kickoff featuring several things. First, an incredibly awkward RA trying to act cool in the face of upperclassmen, one of which he has a history of puking on, [Edit: Apparently, he's just like that] followed by a cookout with a bunch of people who didn't seem to be trying to hard to meet other people. I'd at least like to know who lives on my floor. I seem to know a bunch already. The cookout was fun, but I waited in line for a long time for food, but whatever, it was free!

The title of this post has no relevance to anything I just wrote about, so here's the skinny: We saw an advertisement for "Birdwatcher's Digest" during move-in weekend, and Ben dubbed it a silly "Vanvertisement." Tonight, Scotty brought a ton of groceries back, and I rearranged the refrigerator so as to fit them all effectively. He thanked me for my "refrigerattitude." Time to clean my room--class starts tomorrow!

Your Party Got Owned!

Two nights ago, as we were walking from place to place, Andy suggested that we should have the people come to us soon, for all the walking was getting old. Yesterday afternoon around 4:30 or so we discussed this idea further and decided that it was a good day for a gathering. I sent out a text (sorry if you didn't make the text roster, Verizon only allows me to send mass texts to 10 people), Andy called some people, there was a little interest, things were looking good.

A break in the action followed where we did nothing. I put a lock on "my" bike and rode it around town a bit. Invited some people in person who will not be invited to future parties and came home to play internet games for several hours. Internet gaming time was interrupted by a trip to the old apartment to acquire surfaces. AND I FOUND MY DEWEY'S PIZZA GLASS THERE!!! That made my day. I immediately came home, washed it, and started drinking (out of it). I warmed up Olive Garden leftovers for dinner. Courtney came over to eat. I confirmed that a party was happening. Courtney called a few more friends. Andy ate the breadstick that was for Nicole. And we all waited for the fun to begin.

During this time we came up with the back-up plan that if no one came to our house, we would go to Matt's, drink as much as we could, and break things. I feel a house rivalry coming on.

As it turned out, all the people I wanted to come did and it was a great time.

We wanted to play beer pong, for everyone loves a little alcoholic competition, but Andy and me do not own a table of proper proportions. Thinking quickly I recalled there being some plywood in the creepy basement (i will blog about that more later). It was kind of dirty and only about half as wide as regulation, but it was the perfect length. The thin aspect made it much easier to carry up the stairs. We set it on a card table and the day was saved.

In the end it was unanimously voted that our party rocked and we should have another one in two weeks when Andy turns 21. That too will be off the chain.

You're blowing up a pool wearing a rain coat?

I'm sitting outside the girls across the street are blowing up a kiddy pool...with rain coats on...ummmm hmmmmm We stuck out again because we didn't have a bike pump or hose...fail on TKD
We need to finish putting the house together today. It is a slow process that we hope to finish today!
I have not written in a while but it has been a very busy week wrapping up work, touring to groups of 50 (thanks to everyone who was "too busy" to work) and trying to finally get moved into the house. Pair that with everyone coming back to Oxford at the same time and as you can imagine nothing gets done. :-(
But do not worry I am alive and well...I really need to buy some text books. We still have a lot of furniture to get rid of...any takers?
Peace Out!

Would You Like A Hand Massage?

So it's been awhile. Sorry to the avid readers. It's also 7:04 in the morning on Saturday. Ben and I were gonna go to the rec, but we got there at 6:45ish and they were closed. Til 8:00.

I realize the last post was made last Tuesday, nearly a week ago. That's a little pathetic, given our previous streaks of several posts within one day. I don't want to write a book, but here are some of my highlights from the past few days.

-Drove home to get things for school. Also got a haircut from a strange place since the normal lady that I've gone to since birth isn't working currently. Let "strange place" = "day spa," and you can imagine how fish-out-of-water I felt. No, I would not like a hand massage while you wash my hair (?!)

-Moved into the new apartment. For future reference, my roommates are Scott, Pat, and Ben. Ben is Mike's brother. Pat's visited a few times this summer. I don't know if Scotty's been referenced before. We're working on a name for the apartment.

-We participated in the harassment of freshmen as they marched to convocation. Beer at 8:30 in the morning is about as good as it sounds, but since they thought they'd dodge the party on Tallawanda by marching through North Quad, we brought the party to them. Scotty, Pat and I step into the curb lawn to go find Mike (an RA in Emerson!) just as everyone else seems to get the same idea. My point: We looked like we were leading a mob across the street. I got a Class of 2013 (?!) pennant from two of the freshmen. They're gonna wish they had those later in life.

-Matt Nathanson came to campus last night for a concert. It was really enjoyable and I had more fun than I expected, then made a mini tour-de-parties, stopping at Slow Idaho, Kristel's, and then back to Slow Idaho before a jaunt uptown for bagels. Ben went with me and met some of my summer Tour Guide friends. I saw Matt for the first time a few days, and Eric too!

That's all for now, but I imagine there'll be more coming in the next few days. My room is currently a mess, so that's priority number one until it's finished. If you're on Skype, look me up!

I don't Have Any Cups

Neither does Courtney

But if you have any that you are not using let me know. Same goes with outdoor furniture. Apparently the pile in front of Matt's house is not up for grabs.

I'm pretty sure you could die in my room

I moved into my house that I am going to be living in for the semester over the weekend. Its nice, has high ceilings, a dishwasher, new microwave, washer and dryer, counter tops, and a really nice bathroom. Still waiting on the first visitors though.

Anyway, downstairs is rather cool most of the time, like bearable. Upstairs is like a sauna only not luxurious. I have yet to move my mattress upstairs and sleep in my living room. My desk is also still in the living room. Its heavy and I would just break things if I tried to move it myself. The only thing I do upstairs is get clothes and take cold showers. Its times like these I wish I was rich. The house has central air and my room has a window unit, so I could make the place cold, but it just costs too dang much.

I just glanced around the library (it took me three tries to spell around correctly) and I am pretty sure computers are killing posture. Every person in sight is hunched over looking at the screen.

Marines ROTC has been eating at Martin this week. They are so intense about everything. I like food too much to be in ROTC. They sit down and eat in silence excepting the officers yelling at the new recruits. I would be like "Man alive! This chicken is DElicious!" and then an angry sergeant would kill me.

Come visit me.

Oh, I was recently quite bored and counted how many posts I have made. Out of the 137 posts on this blog, 54 are mine. My math is a little rusty, but I am pretty sure that is over my rightful quarter.

MatsMatsMats!

The rec opened up again this morning. It'd been closed for two weeks for annual maintenance or something. All I noticed today was that the pool was drained completely. Good thing I gave up my swimming kick a couple months ago.

It was an interesting and heartfelt weekend for the men of apt212. On Saturday, Eric, Matt & I packed up all our last tidbits and left apt212 forever. (I also cleaned the toilet nearly barehanded...there were bits o' poo...eck.)I don't miss it all that much, but I will miss seeing everyone so often. I'll simply have to visit a lot!

In other news this weekend, I was attacked by red ants, took a spiderweb to the face, played some sand volleyball sans Eric (he wasn't happy to hear this), and essentially dine-'n-dashed an impromptu potluck dinner at Laura Flamm's.

I'm going home tomorrow for the 5th time this year, and it's going to be a whirlwind of unpacking, sorting, repacking, shopping, birthday celebrating, friend visiting, and driving back. But Scotty and Pat move/stowaway on Wednesday, and I'm moving in Thursday! It'll be good to see everyone again. More on that to come, obvi. Yeah, you read that right.

P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

I keep forgetting to tell everyone about the most hideous shirt I have ever seen in church. I will tell you now. To start, they are bright teal. They have the cut of Hawaiian shirts, never tucked in. I am using the plural because a whole family wears these shirts. To top off the horror, the pattern is a series of ovals about a foot high with Obama in the middle. This shirt is gross anywhere, and highly out of place at a church service. What would people say if ANYONE wore a McCain shirt like that?

Not that the parishioners of St. Marys have the best church fashion sense. There is the old guy who wears the cut off white T-shirt every week. And by old I mean 70 if a day, flabby arm skin, white pit hair poking out of the arm hole. Or the girl with the booty shorts. Or the dude who wore a cut-off leather jacket with sunglasses inside. He was pretty cool.

I don't like Obama. If you do, whatever, but this is what the Canadians think and they don't even live here. I especially like the opening quote.

Coming back to Oxford tonight. Can't wait for the first backyard party!

Ok I honestly do love you all

So it has been a hectic few days with moving out of the apartment and into the house and here and there and getting everything done. Needless to say I did not get to post. Though I do have Internet where I live - but no computer because it's being repaired - fail.

In sadder news almost all of my stuff as been removed from Apt. 212 and Eric is the last one remaining there :-( Though we get to have a lot of fun cleaning it the next two days! YEAH!

I am barely all settled into the TKD house and by that I mean not at all though we do have an awesome new house sign that I touched up and now you can finally read it. I'll take pictures, I'll post them so you can see it in all of it's glory.

Eric's last post is debatable, and Matt does not know what he is talking about it was dark there was no way of seeing the tears in my eyes knowing if I was teary eyed.

On another note everyone is starting to come back to campus! YEAH!!!! Though I am very defensive of Oxford and do not want people flooding back into the city we have had all to all selves all summer it will be awesome to see everyone again! I am really excited.
We got one last weekend aka tonight and tomorrow to truly enjoy the Oxford summer (aka get drunk :-)! ) and then everything winds down. I will be sad to see summer go, not going to lie but it will be exciting nerve-wrecking terrifying WTF an adventure to start of senior year.

I propose we keep the blog going if our hundreds of devoted readers want to see what ridiculous shit we get ourselves into over the next year then I say we keep going! Let me know if you're with me!

PEACE OUT!

August 14 1848 – Oregon Territory is organized by Act of U.S. Congress. - OREGON TRAIL!!!! AHHHHHHHH! Salem, Oregon was also the last reported sighting of Carmen Sandiego. Don't you think I have given up on this one! More information to come as the story progresses!

I swear I am a Happy Person

I have been told that my posts have been angry lately. I find it disturbing that the people who made these statements do not know me well enough to realize that that is how I am sometimes. Either that or they have never had their most useful mode of transportation stolen.

Today I set up utilities for the new house. Water sewage and refuse was an easy quick stop by the municipal building. Oxford knows its place as a college town and has everything nicely bundled together. Gas was a depressing jaunt to the outskirts of town, where I had to pay a 132 dollar deposit. I somehow feel like I was being ripped off, even though I will be getting that money back someday.

Work was okay. Linda Jones keeps trying to make me feel bad about working at Harris this semester. I had no idea these halls were such bitter rivals...either that or I didn't realize how much everyone really loves me.

Bree, you are an eyehole

I was once taught a game wherein you drive around a town or suburb that has sidewalks. When you pass a person you yell out the window "Hey! Its you!" It works even better if you have a sunroof or even better the fully open roof of the new Jeep Liberty. Just hope you don't run into fireworks traffic and the people walking catch up to you. Its awkward.

Is that nice enough? Not too much anger here? Geeze, this blog is not supposed to be analyzed to find the underlying feelings. Its just a spontaneous expulsion of ideas onto a virtual page.

I am also sad the summer is over. It hurts every time I come home and the place is empty. I hope they all turn their keys and passes in so we don't get charged. Bree, make sure Mike has done this please.

Hey! Its you!

Change of Pace

I will never spend another night sleeping in apt212. Wednesday evening, I moved the futon which had been my bed, and most of my worldly possessions out of 212 and into Matt's house, "Tappa Kegga Day." It is definitely the end of summer.

On a happier note, a lot of my friends are back in town for RA training, so although I don't see them very often or all the time, it's good to run into them when I do.

I saw Alex last night! She'd been working in DC as an intern for the Library of Congress and we met her in Colerain for a late dinner (I had cheesecake). Scotty, Sam, and Nick were there too. You probably have no idea who those people are. Ask me about it sometime.

After we moved Matt's stuff and my stuff from apt212 to TKD, we "hung out" with Matt's mom. It was fun--she brought really good "oar-dervs" (I can't spell French, ok?), and beer! Sadly, a 95-lb. 45-year-old (I get my stats from Matt) beat me and Audree in beer pong...but Matt bitch-cup'd her in Cluster/Boom/You Got Got.

Last night during one of what have now become almost "traditional" post-drinking pre-bedtime talks, I asked Matt what will become of the blog. He got all teary-eyed and said he thought I was rushing into the end of the summer that he didn't want to think about it. That being said, we haven't really thought about what's gonna happen with the blog once summer is over. I guess stay tuned?

You're An Eyehole

I suppose now is the time to back track to the copious amounts of fun I had while at home last week.

Lets see...

Courtney came up, that was kind of fun. We went to BWs with my friend Emily. I love that place so much. Everything is so good. And the one we went to gives you 2 cups of ranch FOR FREE!!! I got 4. It was awesome.

Then we went home and played five dollars. I hope most of you know how that works. One person bats, everyone else is in the yard catching, its pretty simple. Well Courtney likes to let the ball hit her and now has a bruise on her wrist and her hip. We tried to tell her to use the glove to catch the ball but to no avail. I don't have a whole lot of room to talk though, but I was using a glove that is essentially a piece of leather with no padding. Plus our yard is scary. Only the ignorant get in front of a ball once it hits the ground.

The next day I don't know what we did. Not much. That night we went to my friend Tony's house. He is the first of my high school friends to meet Courtney. It was pretty fun, played some ping-pong, played some pool, good times.

CEDAR POINT!!! That's where we were Friday. Millennium Force is so fast. Best coaster in the world. Argue all you want. Rode Magnum three times cause its its birthday. Raptor twice, too bad there was a chotch telling people where to ride and we happened to get put towards the back both times. I wanted to ride front row. It is so much better. Dude had stupid hair too. I hate him.

Sat around Saturday

Lake on Sunday! Went out on the boat twice. Swam a lot. Almost drowned once. Too bad the boat was full one of the times they took it out so me, Katelyn, and Joe had to stay at the cottage and watch Stick It. Gross.

Check it out, three posts in a row by me...again.

You're an eyehole

People are Idiots

Earlier I watched a lady put spray sunscreen on a child (possibly a brother, she didn't look that old, but you never know). She took at least 2 minutes taking care to cover every inch of him. As soon as she was done he jumped in the pool. I hope they both get burned.

On my drive down yesterday, three people left their turn signals on. I don't mean like they changed lanes and left it on for a few extra blinks. I am talking like it was on when I saw them in the distance, as I caught up to them, and as I continued on past them. One person in particular even changed lanes the opposite way and STILL had the other blinker on. Pretty sure everyone around them thought they were morons. Cause they are.

I don't think mandolin music is a must have M of summer

Today sucks

I drove 3 hours in the searing heat.

I have to work from 5:30-8 tonight

My bike is gone

My class schedule is messed up

Century 21 still won't return my calls

I am kinda pissed right now.

Oh, and my computer still takes three tries to start up, awesome

True Life: I am an Eagle Scout

So we went cabrewing last weekend, as roughly outlined in Matt's last post. In my last post, I said I'd provide all the nutty details later. The time has come.

10:30AM--CVS PARKING LOT
Some tour guides have assembled as Matt and I walk up from apt212. We head inside to buy Dr. Pepper, since Mr. Boston needs a friend. Matt also bought allergy medicine. We load up the cheap styrofoam (yay Earth!) coolers with the liquid consumables people have brought, and after waiting what seemed like forever (in actuality, 10-15 minutes), Callen, Kristel and Kristen (the two of which shall be abbreviated Kristel/n) show up. Callen looked baller and put Kristel/n to shame with his limitless towel-based headwear. With everyone present, we depart CVS with the simple directions to get to Brookville.

11:10--SOMEWHERE NEAR THE OHIO/INDIANA BORDER
We see the directions forget a small detail, and face a decision to turn left or right, even though the street isn't marked as it should've been at all. We make the wise choice to turn left, and then intuition tells us to turn another random street. It pays off and we find where we're supposed to go.

11:20--WHITEWATER CANOEING
We pull in the gravel parking lot and see several signs which read "Parkin" "Campin" and "Johns," all shaped like arrows pointing to parking lots (glorified fields), campgrounds, and restrooms (didn't explore these). We get in line to rent what we'd hoped would be rafts, and wait for everyone else to show up. The line was long and before we got to the front, we were a complete group. We were then told that they were out of rafts. At this point Kristen begins complaining how we should've left sooner/canoes suck/I can't canoe/etc. We ignore her panic and get 6 canoes for 12 people. I'd like to note I was somewhat hesitant in putting my information down as the contact person, as I would've likely been stuck with the $1,200 cost quoted for a lost canoe.

12:00-4:30--WHITEWATER RIVER
We're getting into our canoes, and Callen, my canoe partner, fell in. In an effort to keep his shoes (who wears shoes?) dry, he laid in the river with his feet over the side and in the canoe. It was a sight. I have to admit I also doubted his canoing abilities. He turned out to be a great canoe partner.

A little ways down the river and it's clear that we're not good at staying together as a group. We pull over, distribute beer, and pair up, so that two canoes are tied together with the life jackets we were no longer wearing (the river was really shallow and yes it only takes an inch to drown but deal with it). Callen, Brittney, Avery and I were together. Avery and I enjoyed watching other canoes zig-zag down the river since they had no idea how to steer. Not to name names, but it was Kristl/n and Rachel/Jen. The entire time we were on the water my history as an Eagle Scout was brought up, and not always in the reverent way it deserves. It's ok though, because some of the mockers were thanking me later when I helped steer them down the river.

The group is doing well, and we played in the current and skipped rocks when we took a break, but shortly thereafter, it happened. Tied to Jen and Rachel's canoe, Kristel/n's canoe is rocked into the water when their partner canoe does something silly. There are few, if any witnesses other than the victims themselves. Bottom line, canoes were full of water, the river was full of beer, and my small flotilla of Callen, Brittney, Avery and I stopped to help. By "stopped to help," I mean that Brittney and Avery (but mostly Brittney) clung to a dead tree near the shore while I caught the paddles floating downstream of the wreck. I started walking upstream against the current so that they could have paddles. I later found a small piece of rust in my heel from my 50 yard trek upstream. Thanks ladies. When I reach their canoes, the Eagle Scout comments rage on and I help them get set to go again.

Things are scooting along down the river, although the pair of canoes holding Matt, Audrey, Laura and Kahlil have abandoned us. And, to their disappointment, the beer. We set off thinking we'll see them "just around the riverbend," but no. They're probably 30 minutes down stream as we're leaving our dead tree. Brittney's a beast. So things are going alright, and then Kristel/n, who seperated from their buddies, managed to flip. Again. Seeing that they weren't too terribly screwed, we left them, expecting them to paddle and catch up. That didn't happen, and we didn't see them until nearly an hour or more later.

In the meantime, we caught up with the rest of our group who had abandoned us. They were fairly loud (read: drunk) at this point, and we were happy to see them because they had food, while they were happy to see us because we had booze. It was at this point I realized I was missing the true meaning of cabrewing: the brew. I tell Avery, who's next to me, that I'm not in the right mindset for this, so she makes me chug Mr. Boston and Dr. Pepper, who it turns out are rather good friends.

With a better mental outlook, we continue on and eventually stop to wait for Kristel/n. I skip some rocks, recall how CALLEN FELL IN, and eventually Kristel/n show up. They're acting rather forlorn and need to stop to pee. They do so, and Callen and I pair up with them to make sure they get back ok. They did. Eagle Scout comments abounded.

Like Matt said, we took a janky (thanks to Nathan for the adjective) bus back to where we started. And from there, the night continued.

Sorry for Partying or "Callen Fell In!"

No wait I'm not and that also slightly contributes to the lack of blog posts. However, I was talking to my mom and despite all our fun this summer I was the only one in my class I'm taking now to get an A on the research paper and I just got an A on my second exam so I think I'm doing ok. Now I only have one final to make it through and success, so keep on chugging! (Sorry Mom)

So where to begin so much has happened since Thursday. I got into my house for next year on Friday and then followed that by a fun night of a tour guide pot luck. Check out Matt's post he provides vivid ok detail through the blur of the beverages that were provided that night.

Saturday it was time for what we had been waiting ages for...TOURGUIDE CABREWING and it was very cafun! We got to Podunk, IN (better known as Brookville) and set out for a fun day of canoes and drinks. After fighting through the line and one pissed off women who thought we cut (we did not!) We made our canoes to the water - Laura and I also witnessed this girl eat a massive sub and made countless sexual innuendos ("Do you have a bag big enough for that?").
We boarded our Canoes, my capartner was Audree and off we set - sadly we realized we had very little beer in our canoe (Oh yeah! Callen fell in while trying to get in his canoe) and so we were made to stop and gather more from the other canoes. At this point we decided to tie two canoes together - we choose Laura and Kahlil because they went fast like we did. And off we went slowly moving down the river, drinking and avoiding getting stranded on rocks. After a rather uneventful few seconds we stopped at a rocky island and decided a shot gunning was in order - the champ that Kristel is told us we all suck. The we played in the current and got raped by this log that hid under the water and comes out of nowhere as the current pulls you along. Once Laura was able to stop being bladder shy and pee we were off again. Naturally our two canoes was hours ahead of everyone.

We tried unsuccessfully to commandeer several rafts, saw a pirate flag, begged for liquid and sang several rounds of "Just around the river bend." However, luckily because we were moving so fast the 4 of us saw a rope swing and got to stop and have fun. We had to do this shady shimmy up some roots to an over crop and climb a tree and swing into the river (and once done avoid landing in a canoe). Laura did great and then Kahlil freaked out once he got up there and we had to convince him to do it. He finally did and he instantly wanted to do it again (we didn't), I enjoyed it was well and then back to canoeing. We floated on and finally Jen and Rachel caught up to us, followed soon by Matt, Callen, Avery and Brittney. Apperantly because we were going so fast we missed the part where Kristel and Kristen flipped over (TWICE!) and lost all most of our beer - Kristel also lost her bathing suit bottom - missed that too. So we were required to pull over and wait for them to catch up. We did and successfully made it to the end (even if Jen had to get out and pee 50 some times). We then jumped on a janky bus and headed back to the cars (Yes we brought DDs don't worry).

The ride home was uneventful, we made it back around 6 and Matt and I decided we needed to keep going otherwise we would crash and lose steam. So we showered (separately) and rallied. And Pat came too! And Courtney! So we went to my house for next year and Austin and Nathan were here too! Matt and I worked at convincing demanding that as many tour guides as possible to join us, some like Kristel had no choice because she was locked out HA. Did I mention Callen fell in? Anyways, so several rounds of beer pong, cluster and letting Cooper out (Bree made us watch her roommates rat like dog) we headed uptown and went to skippers? Yeah! That's where I ran into Stephen (sophomore year roommate) and much reuniting and shots we had by all. Apperantly I got really tiered really fast and without saying a word got up left and walked home (sorry everyone I'm not sure of my reasoning either.) I was more surprised when I woke up and remembered that upon taking Cooper out I accidentally walked to my apartment instead of Bree's and decided he could just sleep in my room - that was a surprise to find a dog in my bed in the morning (and I still had a pink headband on - hmmmm)

All in all a pretty awesome amazing outstanding KristelChrissyOrmond type weekend.

Peace Out!

Home For Cedar Point

I came home from a night out and found blood on my shirt and shorts. Matt said I killed a guy. I'm hoping not.

A recent dinner conversation:

Mom: I stopped reading your blog, I don't think it is mom rated.
Me: So I can stop censoring it?
Mom: No, your father still reads it and he repeats everything he reads.
Dad: Its off the chain!

It was raining really hard when I left Oxford yesterday. I ran from the door of my apartment to my car and back and I was soaked.

There are 11 people here for lunch. My house is nuts.

Yeah, so it was a pretty gnarly storm. At one point I was driving down the road and could feel the thunder. Thunder is one of those things that you don't really think about much. Some people are afraid of it, others think it is angels bowling. But really, how cool is it that air rushing into the space vacated by electricity can cause a shock wave that shakes buildings miles away? I think its pretty bomb. Thunder is generally stupid phat.

Its rather upsetting to me that there are 4 contributors to this publication and I have three posts in a row. Get your asses in gear boys.

Hulu at Shrives

That's what I'm doing. Watching Royal Pains to be specific. On my second episode. Still have an hour till I need to be back at work. Maybe I will snag some food before my shift starts. I am getting hungry. Man, watching TV on the internet really drains the battery. Since I started sitting here I am getting these weird pains in my stomach, they are putting a serious damper on my afternoon. Maybe I need to eat.

Its my brother's birthday. Everyone say Happy Birthday Adam. Hope its off the chain.

I got to Work an Hour Early So You Get This

I wish they would tell me when they serve meals. The schedule says 7-10, turns out that means 8. I am going to clock in wayyy before 8. I specifically checked this last night, so I will be real surprised if I am the only one here. Real surprised and a little steamed.

I think I am going home tomorrow. I think Courtney is coming up Thursday. And I think we are going to Cedar Point Friday. I am pretty excited about all of these things.

It was a cold ride to work this morning. I don't like this weather at all. Its August and it has been cold more than it has been warm. Scientists are doomsday morons. There is no global warming. And since it seems to be getting colder during all seasons I would guess it is going the other way. I don't like the cold when it is supposed to be uncomfortably hot outside. It was hot the day I wanted it to be nice, which figures.

Yeah, so no one knows why we are here so early. This is on the chain.

4 Days 4 Time Zones

So I'm back in Chicago now after spending a day in Ohio, a night in Salt Lake City, and the day before in Tahoe. It was quite a journey.

We left Tahoe for Reno and got to our flight 2 hours early like we are supposed to. Turns out our flight had a mechanical delay. This meant we took off two hours later and missed our flight to Cincinnati. As a result, Delta Airlines put us up in a hotel for the evening. However, this was not before they had sent the most important luggage we had (all our scientific samples and equipment) on a much later flight meaning we had to spend 4 extra hours in the Salt Lake Airport. This included us leaving the security checkpoints, but then reentering security to use our meal vouchers for dinner because we couldn't leave without our samples that had to be frozen overnight.

Finally, we got everything we needed after 4 hours of waiting and went outside to catch a shuttle to our hotel. Only they didn't have a shuttle coming. They told us they would be at the airport in 35 minutes. Eventually, Miguel shows up and takes us the 2.5 miles to our hotel which shall remain nameless because as I found out today a woman in Chicago is being sued for an offhand comment about a company on her twitter followed by 17 people. Anyway, we get inside at 10:30PM (We need to get up at 5AM to catch our flight) and we get comfortable. While arranging my pillows I find an unopened banana laying in between a couple of my pillows. Not thinking much of it other than this is really really disgusting, I threw it out, went to bed, and got up for the airport.

Getting to the airport, Andrew (The Graduate Student I work with) was told we could check in at the kiosks. I was told we had to use an attendant. As a result we waited 30 minutes in the full service line until we realized we had an hour to catch our flight and we had moved 13 feet. We took a chance and tried the kiosks, it worked, we caught our flight and got home. 

Bree met me at the airport and we came back to Oxford. As I was telling the story to her, she kindly reminded me that if there was a banana in the bed, clearly no one had changed the sheets from the night before...I still feel dirty.

I'll be back in Oxford in 5 days for RA training. Hopefully the doctors will get me healthy tomorrow.

The Wheels Stayed On

I made pudding for the tour guide pot-luck. I am not a tour guide any more than I was an Eagle Scout last year, but I think I would give a damn good tour. I made Kroger brand instant pudding with a hint of Ryan's Irish cream. It was cheap and delicious. Everything else was alright. The games were kind of lame, but I won Apples to Apples. Matt was judging the word Cosmopolitan and said that all we had to do was make him laugh. As he was deliberating I suggested he pick mine. He did. That was a better story when it happened.

Last night was fun. Courtney got let off work early and I convinced her to come up and spend some quality time in Oxford. I made a drink in one of those jars with the lids that seal with the metal latch. It tasted like Christmas, ask anyone. It was off the chain. I think some other stuff happened, who knows. I sent Matt a text telling him about someone taking a mint.

The freaking dog keeps touching me.

Thats all. TTYL

(419): Oh for sure. She took a mint.

There's a LOT to write about/remember/try to remember from the past couple days. I'd keep it short, but I've never been particularly good at that, so suck it up and deal. Here's what's on the agenda for today's post: Tour Guide Potluck, Cabrewing, Last night.

Tour Guide Potluck:
So last week, Avery brought up the idea of having a tour guide potluck. We were all rather supportive; however, some tour guide who has since left the state offered to host, then retracted his offer a day before the event. Anyway, after work Friday, Matt and I went to Kroger to figure out just what the hell we were each going to make. Having RSVP'd a "main dish," I couldn't cop out and bring chicken fingers with parmesan and vodka sauce (although we found out on Thursday just how tasty they really are). Besides, I like to cook. So I bought bowtie noodles, a tomato, red onion, bell pepper, alfredo sauce, and two packages of imitation crab meat (which ended up being a good choice because imitation crab is actually fish [surprise!] and is therefore kosher). The end result? A concoction I now call "Cajun Crab Alfredo with Wheels." If you want to know where the wheels bit gets in the name, come visit me, I'll make some for you, and I'll tell you. Or Eric can blog about it. Whatever.

Anyway, Eric, Matt and I went over to the potluck and ate of the goodness. Everything was really really good. Even Laura's lentil salad thing. I might ask her for the recipe. We sat around eating and then played some Apples to Apples, a game which I find a little more frustrating than entertaining, but you get an interesting combination every now and then. After a round or two (there were 15 of us, so a round was plenty long, mk?) we switched to "dirty Jenga," with each block having some sort of--dare I say--task, usually involving drinking, kissing, lap dancing, or phone calling. Mine were fairly docile, but I did get to call someone's friend and act drunk (because I wasn't actually and a legit phone call would've been boring). I added a british accent (it was nece'sry) and managed to really piss this guy off. It was great. I told him my name was, I wanna say...Walter Stanforth? No, Walter Stanforth, Esquire. I even spelled it out. Anyway, we all headed uptown afterwards, but Matt Eric and I joined up with Sam, who turned 21 at midnight. Yay!

Cabrewing:
Matt and I woke up Saturday morning and got ready for Cabrewing, a tour guide event in the works since roughly July 8. Actually, thinking about it now, it might deserve it's own post. Yeah. It does. Stay tuned!

Last Night:
So the must-know details of cabrewing are that Matt and I reached the desired end goal of cabrewing by at least 3:00 in the afternoon. I guess there's only one detail. Whatever.

We get back from cabrewing, and decide to shower, eat, and head over to Matt's house for the year, where a somewhat impromptu party is beginning. We played some pong, clusterfudge (you're not an avid reader if you need help on that one), and just hung out for a while. It was fun, and my mental state progressed as expected. Eric and I made Irish Carbombs...I owe Austin a Guinness. By the time I left to go uptown with Pat (!), who was visiting, most of our beloved tour guide friends were there, as well as Courtney and Eric.

Pat and I left to go uptown, and met a couple people he knows at Steinkeller's. I was offered some beer from someone, but only if I didn't take "pussy sips." I think I succeeded. Anyway, we left after a little bit and met everyone else at Skipper's. There was general revelry at Skips, and I think before we left I had a bagel from Bagel & Deli. Yeah, I did. So Nathan, Kristel and Kristen were the only ones sticking it out for "latenighting." I don't really know what happened to everyone else. We picked up a pizza at Bruno's, and headed back to the Blumpkinn.

Latenighting changed to "damn, I've been drunk for 12 hours...shit;" however, I managed to stay enthralled in conversation and left the Blumpkinn at roughly 5am. While never as late, this has happened before.

Anyway, that wraps up the past few nights, with the exception of Cabrewing, which will receive its own super-awesome account, dripping with details (haha, get it?). Stay tuned.