welcome to the future/rob's on a plane right now
a plane destined for england.
he'll later be on a plain destined for barcelona.
it'll be tomorrow when he arrives.
it's pretty crazy, i'm happy and jealous for him, and i miss him a ton.
in preparation for the lack of cellphonages over there (or, rather, lack of service), i got a webcam and downloaded skype.
i tested it out today with my mom and dad, actually (my mom recently got an ibook, so she's got the camera built in).
i'm still kinda (really?) weirded out by it, i can't really explain it well, maybe it's just a new thing anxiety, but i dont know, we'll see how it goes.
it's also gonna be a bit hard with the time difference (spain's 5 hours ahead of florida), so we'll see how that works.
yeah, so i bought the webcam and a new external hard drive yesterday (and i picked up a few cds [kaki king and lee perry] from best buy , too, so i spent way too much money).
my older external hard drive is already 5 yrs old, the size of a shoebox, makes some interesting noises sometimes, has a fan (loud) and an ac plug, and is pretty much full.
so i got a new, quiet, tiny, usb-only, 160 gb drive.
i put all of my music on there and will use the shoebox for backing up files from my computer.
--- --- ---
the vacation was pretty awesome.
it sucks being back here and having to go to work and not having rob or other friends from there down here.
i mean, i do have some good, solid, nice friends here, but not quite the same...
there were many memorable events, including graduation, michelle's party, many trips to bars, the bbq, a trip to alerton, and hookah on the quad.
here are some select photographs from the trip:
bbqish.
alerton.
finally, my name on a damn bronze tablet.
me with the grad
piggyback!
julia is great to photo.
whow! crazy!
toldyaso.
postmodern?
street smiles.
champaign content.
things here are ok, but ya know.
work was ok, but it's hard to get motivated after 7 work days off, traveling, and little sleep.
and field work.
not that im bitching, i mean i like my job and it's interesting and good, but i would rather be hanging out with friends and relaxing instead of working.
but, honestly, who wouldn't?
this weekend wasn't without its good moments, however.
friday, joe and i ended up going to the pizza place, but got calzones.
which ended up being huge (2 meals for ~$8!!), or as the girl working there, "girthy".
that's right, she was dropping innuendos ("man, those things were huge, it could really stretch you out if you eat all of it") and being all flirty, it was hilarious and great.
she was very cute (kind of reminds me of monica) and really nice.
but then we came back here, and i chilled out and pretended to be creative for a while and then hit the sack.
last night, however, we went to a lebowski party at a grad student's house.
pretty solid.
i went as the "corvette owner" bit character.
great costume, good excuse to not wear pants but have high dress socks and dress shoes.
i had a pretty good time there.
not a huge party (15-20 ppl), but i knew everyone there pretty much, so it was nice.
i like the smaller get togethers.
(like the bbq at rob's place i mentioned earlier).
most of the last two days during the day has been pretty relaxed though. which is nice.
although i don't like sleeping in, i needed to catch up on the sleep from the post-trip work days.
--- --- ---
the car thing is coming along, i'm a member of the credit union now, and now we've got a loan in for review for pre-approval for me.
i tried to do it by myself first, and i would have had a 12.64% interest rate, which is way too high, so now we're doing a joint one with m parents.
i just don't have much credit yet.
oh, and apparently there's a blemish on my record.
from a hospital bill that didn't ever get paid because it never came, and even though i was insured by my parents and therefore not responsible for the bill, i was over 18, so it went on my record on my social security number.
fuck!
we're in the process of taking care of that, i best get it off my record.
--- --- ---
in book news, i finished reading cat's cradle in urbana.
i thought it was a pretty solid book, very vonnegutesque in style and concept.
i don't know if it's my favorite of his, actually, i don't know what is my favorite (breakfast of champions or hocus pocus or timequake or maybe slaughterhouse five), but im pretty sure it's not cat's cradle.
i don't know, it was good, but i think somewhat tame by his standards.
maybe it's like when you listen to a piece of music that seems normal now, but was groundbreaking when it first came out.
[i'm thinking the rite of spring]
but yeah, the books that i read during the trip (cat's cradle and crime and punishment) were both very good.
and i'm digging on the mcsweeney's issue i got a few weeks ago.
some of the stories are really good.
they make me want to work on my writing more.
and i also realize that i don't have to be so ambitious with shit at first.
i always have that problem.
he'll later be on a plain destined for barcelona.
it'll be tomorrow when he arrives.
it's pretty crazy, i'm happy and jealous for him, and i miss him a ton.
in preparation for the lack of cellphonages over there (or, rather, lack of service), i got a webcam and downloaded skype.
i tested it out today with my mom and dad, actually (my mom recently got an ibook, so she's got the camera built in).
i'm still kinda (really?) weirded out by it, i can't really explain it well, maybe it's just a new thing anxiety, but i dont know, we'll see how it goes.
it's also gonna be a bit hard with the time difference (spain's 5 hours ahead of florida), so we'll see how that works.
yeah, so i bought the webcam and a new external hard drive yesterday (and i picked up a few cds [kaki king and lee perry] from best buy , too, so i spent way too much money).
my older external hard drive is already 5 yrs old, the size of a shoebox, makes some interesting noises sometimes, has a fan (loud) and an ac plug, and is pretty much full.
so i got a new, quiet, tiny, usb-only, 160 gb drive.
i put all of my music on there and will use the shoebox for backing up files from my computer.
--- --- ---
the vacation was pretty awesome.
it sucks being back here and having to go to work and not having rob or other friends from there down here.
i mean, i do have some good, solid, nice friends here, but not quite the same...
there were many memorable events, including graduation, michelle's party, many trips to bars, the bbq, a trip to alerton, and hookah on the quad.
here are some select photographs from the trip:
bbqish.
alerton.
finally, my name on a damn bronze tablet.
me with the grad
piggyback!
julia is great to photo.
whow! crazy!
toldyaso.
postmodern?
street smiles.
champaign content.
things here are ok, but ya know.
work was ok, but it's hard to get motivated after 7 work days off, traveling, and little sleep.
and field work.
not that im bitching, i mean i like my job and it's interesting and good, but i would rather be hanging out with friends and relaxing instead of working.
but, honestly, who wouldn't?
this weekend wasn't without its good moments, however.
friday, joe and i ended up going to the pizza place, but got calzones.
which ended up being huge (2 meals for ~$8!!), or as the girl working there, "girthy".
that's right, she was dropping innuendos ("man, those things were huge, it could really stretch you out if you eat all of it") and being all flirty, it was hilarious and great.
she was very cute (kind of reminds me of monica) and really nice.
but then we came back here, and i chilled out and pretended to be creative for a while and then hit the sack.
last night, however, we went to a lebowski party at a grad student's house.
pretty solid.
i went as the "corvette owner" bit character.
great costume, good excuse to not wear pants but have high dress socks and dress shoes.
i had a pretty good time there.
not a huge party (15-20 ppl), but i knew everyone there pretty much, so it was nice.
i like the smaller get togethers.
(like the bbq at rob's place i mentioned earlier).
most of the last two days during the day has been pretty relaxed though. which is nice.
although i don't like sleeping in, i needed to catch up on the sleep from the post-trip work days.
--- --- ---
the car thing is coming along, i'm a member of the credit union now, and now we've got a loan in for review for pre-approval for me.
i tried to do it by myself first, and i would have had a 12.64% interest rate, which is way too high, so now we're doing a joint one with m parents.
i just don't have much credit yet.
oh, and apparently there's a blemish on my record.
from a hospital bill that didn't ever get paid because it never came, and even though i was insured by my parents and therefore not responsible for the bill, i was over 18, so it went on my record on my social security number.
fuck!
we're in the process of taking care of that, i best get it off my record.
--- --- ---
in book news, i finished reading cat's cradle in urbana.
i thought it was a pretty solid book, very vonnegutesque in style and concept.
i don't know if it's my favorite of his, actually, i don't know what is my favorite (breakfast of champions or hocus pocus or timequake or maybe slaughterhouse five), but im pretty sure it's not cat's cradle.
i don't know, it was good, but i think somewhat tame by his standards.
maybe it's like when you listen to a piece of music that seems normal now, but was groundbreaking when it first came out.
[i'm thinking the rite of spring]
but yeah, the books that i read during the trip (cat's cradle and crime and punishment) were both very good.
and i'm digging on the mcsweeney's issue i got a few weeks ago.
some of the stories are really good.
they make me want to work on my writing more.
and i also realize that i don't have to be so ambitious with shit at first.
i always have that problem.