Rocktober!!!
This week is proving quite busy as I have a Chinese test on Friday and even more importantly scoop08.com launches on Sunday and I have two features to do before then (Duncan Hunter's illegal immigration views and how wildfires have affected him). So I'm not getting a whole lot of free time.
So what have I been doing when I'm not working?
Earlier tonight Chris Zachau, the Station Manager, and I got together to do the annual KHDX care packages. He bumped up the price to $25, people still bought them, and we actually wound up making more money (price went from 10-25 but sales only declined from 70 to 45--it's like Berry's class in action!). We also had some primo get-to-know-each other time where we talked about our experiences at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, my summer working for Tom DeLay's opponent, and other smaller topics. It was fun.
What wasn't all that fun was this weekend. Ghost Roast is one of the biggest and best parties of the year. Unfortunately, due to concernss about the cold weather, Martin Hall moved it to Hulen ballroom which was a huge mistake. There just wasn't enough light and it wasn't open enough--we couldn't see each other's costumes! But it was a fun night of hanging out even if the party was kind of a wash.
So what was my costume? I was a killer bee. I spent all week working on it. Almost nobody understood it without prompting (some people had never even heard of killer bees!) but I think it was good. There were some other good ones. In fact, some guys I ran into at the costume shop decided to go as Blackwater. Tabitha was Miss American Pie (from the song, mind you), Conner became Dog the Bounty Hunter and Brian Sykes was a Mormon (short sleeved dress shirt, tie, backpack, and bicycle helmet--simple yet effective).
Ghost Roast ultimately became a late night of hanging out and getting acquainted with my former neighbors in Martin and new ones in Couch. But the party still fizzled.
After spending Saturday dedicating myself to video games old (Crash Bandicoot 3 from my old PSX which came in the mail on Thursday) and new (Bioshock from a certain former roommate of mine) it was time for the main event: the walk-in movie. Every year Soco shows two movies on a big projector in the brick pit. Kind of like with the dive in movie but this came first. Each time one new movie is voted on to be seen and another classic one goes along with it (the last two years these were Batman Begins and The Exorcist then Talladega Nights and Rocky Horror Picture Show) This year we voted Superbad as the first film and Soco had previously decided upon Dark Side of Oz as the second. I wanted to see both of these very much. Superbad was a fun movie that I and most of the crowd enjoyed and Dark Side of Oz was going swimmingly until midway through the second playing of "on the Run" when the Tin Man had just joined the group and the movie froze while the music still played. They tried to reset it but it failed again, then we just had a dance party in the brick pit.
For those of you who don't know the legend, it is widely rumored that Pink Floyd's classic 1973 album Dark Side of hte Moon was recorded to be an alternate soundtrack to The Wizard of Oz. If you start playing the album when the MGM Lion roars for the third time before the movie itself actually starts the album and the movie synch up. It really is pretty cool but as Nathan (if not explained, Jesson, my current roommate) said that you really have to be in the mood to listen to Dark Side of the Moon which I hadn't in nearly long enough. It's cool in general and synchs up nicely in a few parts (the first time the Wicked Witch of the West appears is exactly when "black" is said in "Us and Them"; best of all the ca-ching sound that opens "Money" comes exactly when Dorothy opens the door in Oz and everything is in color).
So this was a wash, nothing really happened for a while and I eventually retired to Couch to hang out with the guys down the hall and watch Orgazmo. What an odd movie.
Clare missed out on all this but she went to Voodoofest in New Orleans where she got to see the Pumpkins play and was blown away. She picked the right weekend to go away.
Guess who came to Hendrix for the week. No guess. Wrong. It's Shane Nunn, who you may remember as the main guy at Ginger Films (a Chinese advertising firm) and as Hendrix's liason in China. In fact, he guided us through the country which will be the subject of my next entry. It's nice to have him back.
I've decided to recommit myself more heavily to classes. A class survey for Chinese was the second wakeup call in a row that I haven't been working in that class enough. Also...actually that's the only one, I just am not caring quite enough about my others. I've been more concerned with stuff for the scoop right now (did I mention we launch on Sunday?!).
Last week went by both quickly and slowly. It was nothing short of unusual but remarkably unextraordinary, if that mnakes sense, which it doesn't.
One final thing to bring up is the weather. It's gotten chilly up here and I like it. I had such a long summer, such a long year (time is going so crazy slow, which I like, but it's starting to get a little draggy--there's still two more months of 2007 left???) that everything is refreshing, even novel. Seriously, it hasn't been cold enough for a jacket since slightly after me and Clare got together in early March. Okay, so it was chilly in Canberra but maybe that just makes it feel longer.
Alright, it's time for bed. Well, shower and a bed but I think Nathan's going to beat me to sleep (oddly eough, we go to bed at about the same time every night).
So what have I been doing when I'm not working?
Earlier tonight Chris Zachau, the Station Manager, and I got together to do the annual KHDX care packages. He bumped up the price to $25, people still bought them, and we actually wound up making more money (price went from 10-25 but sales only declined from 70 to 45--it's like Berry's class in action!). We also had some primo get-to-know-each other time where we talked about our experiences at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, my summer working for Tom DeLay's opponent, and other smaller topics. It was fun.
What wasn't all that fun was this weekend. Ghost Roast is one of the biggest and best parties of the year. Unfortunately, due to concernss about the cold weather, Martin Hall moved it to Hulen ballroom which was a huge mistake. There just wasn't enough light and it wasn't open enough--we couldn't see each other's costumes! But it was a fun night of hanging out even if the party was kind of a wash.
So what was my costume? I was a killer bee. I spent all week working on it. Almost nobody understood it without prompting (some people had never even heard of killer bees!) but I think it was good. There were some other good ones. In fact, some guys I ran into at the costume shop decided to go as Blackwater. Tabitha was Miss American Pie (from the song, mind you), Conner became Dog the Bounty Hunter and Brian Sykes was a Mormon (short sleeved dress shirt, tie, backpack, and bicycle helmet--simple yet effective).
Ghost Roast ultimately became a late night of hanging out and getting acquainted with my former neighbors in Martin and new ones in Couch. But the party still fizzled.
After spending Saturday dedicating myself to video games old (Crash Bandicoot 3 from my old PSX which came in the mail on Thursday) and new (Bioshock from a certain former roommate of mine) it was time for the main event: the walk-in movie. Every year Soco shows two movies on a big projector in the brick pit. Kind of like with the dive in movie but this came first. Each time one new movie is voted on to be seen and another classic one goes along with it (the last two years these were Batman Begins and The Exorcist then Talladega Nights and Rocky Horror Picture Show) This year we voted Superbad as the first film and Soco had previously decided upon Dark Side of Oz as the second. I wanted to see both of these very much. Superbad was a fun movie that I and most of the crowd enjoyed and Dark Side of Oz was going swimmingly until midway through the second playing of "on the Run" when the Tin Man had just joined the group and the movie froze while the music still played. They tried to reset it but it failed again, then we just had a dance party in the brick pit.
For those of you who don't know the legend, it is widely rumored that Pink Floyd's classic 1973 album Dark Side of hte Moon was recorded to be an alternate soundtrack to The Wizard of Oz. If you start playing the album when the MGM Lion roars for the third time before the movie itself actually starts the album and the movie synch up. It really is pretty cool but as Nathan (if not explained, Jesson, my current roommate) said that you really have to be in the mood to listen to Dark Side of the Moon which I hadn't in nearly long enough. It's cool in general and synchs up nicely in a few parts (the first time the Wicked Witch of the West appears is exactly when "black" is said in "Us and Them"; best of all the ca-ching sound that opens "Money" comes exactly when Dorothy opens the door in Oz and everything is in color).
So this was a wash, nothing really happened for a while and I eventually retired to Couch to hang out with the guys down the hall and watch Orgazmo. What an odd movie.
Clare missed out on all this but she went to Voodoofest in New Orleans where she got to see the Pumpkins play and was blown away. She picked the right weekend to go away.
Guess who came to Hendrix for the week. No guess. Wrong. It's Shane Nunn, who you may remember as the main guy at Ginger Films (a Chinese advertising firm) and as Hendrix's liason in China. In fact, he guided us through the country which will be the subject of my next entry. It's nice to have him back.
I've decided to recommit myself more heavily to classes. A class survey for Chinese was the second wakeup call in a row that I haven't been working in that class enough. Also...actually that's the only one, I just am not caring quite enough about my others. I've been more concerned with stuff for the scoop right now (did I mention we launch on Sunday?!).
Last week went by both quickly and slowly. It was nothing short of unusual but remarkably unextraordinary, if that mnakes sense, which it doesn't.
One final thing to bring up is the weather. It's gotten chilly up here and I like it. I had such a long summer, such a long year (time is going so crazy slow, which I like, but it's starting to get a little draggy--there's still two more months of 2007 left???) that everything is refreshing, even novel. Seriously, it hasn't been cold enough for a jacket since slightly after me and Clare got together in early March. Okay, so it was chilly in Canberra but maybe that just makes it feel longer.
Alright, it's time for bed. Well, shower and a bed but I think Nathan's going to beat me to sleep (oddly eough, we go to bed at about the same time every night).