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32 Footsteps, Counted Them Myself
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| | Security: | | | Subject: | I'm alive | | Time: | 12:48 am | | Current Mood: |  calm |
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| I'm alive. I know I haven't posted in like forever and a day. Just looked over my last previous post after being away from livejournal for since evidently August. Those tests still seem pretty accurate to me.
I'm got a thesis defense date now. D-day is June 13 which means my thesis document needs to be complete by May 16 (May 23 at the latest). So not much time ^^;; | comments: Leave a comment   |
| Just got back from a party so I'm a little drunk.
Had to say goodbye to Jenny T.T. She left reasonable early since she didn't know many people and needed to go to a frat party. She'll be back in a bit, though.
Spent most of the party drinking while discussing politics. Basically, there was one guy at the party that was planning on voting for Bush. Everybody else was basically for Kerry. Had a bunch of discussion/arguments about why one or the other candidate should get the vote. Btw, heard about some site called fuck the vote (fthevote.com) which as near as I can tell is a scheme whereby liberal chicks will fuck guys planning on voting for Bush to get them to change their vote to Kerry. Anyway, back to the discussion/arguments. So, first off the guy had an advantage in that he was the only sober person arguing about the subject. As near as I can tell through my beer tinted goggles his argument mostly boiled down to alternating between Kerry will fuck things up/Bush has done nothing wrong and there is no effective difference between the candidates. He kept trying to win points by arguing that he had better knowledge about the current situation of the world than any of the people he was arguing against. Indeed, his knowledge of current events was impressive. However, most of the facts he espoused were irrelevant to determining who to vote for or how would make the better president. The leader of Zimbabwe is just irrelevent, regardless of what you think of Zimbabwe in other spheres. As a practical matter, Zimbabwe had no influence on international affairs so who the fuck cares. Most of the arguments went something like this (I will use B to represent the Bush devotee and O to represent others [to protect the guilty]) (all text paraphrased and summarized with possible distortion):
B: There is no difference between the foreign policy of Bush and Kerry
O: Oh really. Then why does all of the world hate us?
B: What are you talking about? Spain is with us, if maybe not with troops and Japan sent troops for the first time ever.
O: But the people hate us now.
B: There is no difference between Bush and Kerry on domestic issues.
B: Do you really think that Kerry/Edwards will institute tort reform?
O: I think they are more likely than Bush. If Bush was going to do something about it, don't you think he would have already done it.
B: Kerry would have done the same thing in Iraq.
basically, we failed to convince him of the errors of his ways and he failed to convince anyone that Bush was better in any respect to Kerry.
amusing, argueing while drunk is. Less cageeness, less strategy, more factoids and points. Less coherency though :(. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Ever notice that some bags get off your plane and never get picked up? Ever wonder why that happens?
Well, wonder no more! Not only do I now know why there is luggage that never gets picked up. I also know why sometimes there is a little luggage on the carousel before the luggage from the plane seems to have gotten in.
I just got back from Snowbird, UT and connected through Chicago, O'Hare (ORD). My plane from Salt Lake, UT got in to ORD about 3:20. There was a flight from ORD to PGH leaving at 4:05 and another leaving at 5:55. I was booked on the 5:55 because I figured if I booked the other one the plane from Salt Lake would be at least 30 minutes late. I actually asked about switching planes but they reminded me I had checked luggage. Anyway, looks like my luggage went on the earlier flight! When I got to baggage claim, my bag was already there and the carousel hadn't even started spinning yet. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Realized that daylight savings should be happening sometime soon, so I googled for it and found out daylight savings starts on the first Sunday in April and ends on the last Sunday of October.
This means we spring forward (set clocks forward 1 hour) _THIS_ Sunday!
Found this fascinating link that explains how this all came about:
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/index.html | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| peanut butter is yummy, especially when combined with chocolate
btw, the girl scouts changed the name of there peanut butter cookies from Tagalongs to Peanut Butter Patties at some point. I'm guess cause noone knew wtf a Tagalong was.
This has been your random thought for the day. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Security: | | | Subject: | blah | | Time: | 04:02 am | | Current Mood: |  numb |
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| Haven't made an entry in a while so I thought I would write a little bit.
Sort of excited about the party coming up this Saturday but it seems so abstract at the moment, like something out of dream. I have _way_ too much beer for the party but at least it is all good beer so I can go through a fair amount of it later. I suspect I will still have too much left over even for that and will have to have people over again some time to finish it off. So tragic. Feeling kind of listless.
Thought I had more to say than that but I guess not. Oh well. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Fiona Apple - Sullen Girl | | Security: | | | Subject: | cool day | | Time: | 01:46 am | | Current Mood: | happy with lonely undertones |
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| Had a really great day.
Started off by going over to D's Six-Pax and Dogs with Luisa. Never been then before. Had some really great hot dogs. Cool place inside with a neat atmosphere. I was a little confused by the way we ended up paying. Went in and ordered some dogs and I kind of expected to pay then. Soooo, I got some money out but the girl behind the counter didn't seem to be expecting payment then. So I figured maybe you pay when you get the food. We waited a bit for the food and generally chatted for a bit which was fun. Then the hot dogs came up and I'm like ok surely this must be the time we pay. But we had two hot dogs so it took both of my hands to grab them and I put them down on the table turned back to pay and the girl behind the counter was off doing something else and didn't seem at all concerned about getting any money from me. So we ate. We both got these bacon and cheddar hot dogs and boy where they ever delish. Very good hot dog, reasonable bun (with poppy seeds on it), excellent cheddar cheese sauce, and mighty tasty bacon. After eating, we sat there a little bit and then I wanted to get back to the beer celler which is the reason I wanted to go there in the first place. Got up to go back and then the girl behind the counter seemed to be ready to take money. Seemed a little odd ordering, eating and only at end playing since it didn't have a restaurant vibe at all.
Anyway, went back to the beer celler which is actually raised above the rest of the joint and oh... my... god... that is a _LOT_ of varieties of beer. Took me a while just to get my bearings and figure out what I was looking at. It kind of feels like you are taking from someone's private collection (and a mighting fine collection at that). They let you mix and match six packs so you can get whatever you want in whatever quantity you want. Prices aren't too bad, but nothing to compare to what you pay for cases per bottle. Oh, and did I mention the selection fucking rocked! They had German beers, Belgian beers, Mexican beers, Chinese beers, micro brews, macro brews (who cares about those though), French beers, any kind of beer you can imagine. Stoudts, lagers, ales, those Belgian almost champaigne beers, malt beverages, fruity beers, chocolatey beers, oatmeal beers, lions and tigers and bears oh my. Took me a while to make my selections. My only complaint was that many of the beers where missing prices under them and some of them were >$5 a bottle so I really wanted the prices. Picked up some Arrogant Bastard Ale (oh yeah, tasty, hardy, and oh so alcoholic), some German beer, a little Mexican beer, some Tsingtao, and a couple of things to maybe try later. Got 2 bottles of the Arrogant Bastard which goes for $4 a bottle if bought by the case + 10 other beers (mostly imports) for $33.75. So, I'm guessing I averaged about $2 a bottle on the other 10 bottles but got some _nice_ beer. Can you tell I like beer?
After D's, we took the beer to the car and went over to McBrooms Beer Distributing (which I hadn't been to before either). Seems to be a little more than Sav-Mor Beer and Pop which is where I usually go but a little better selection of good beers. Btw, I was getting all this beer for the party and not just because I am a total lush (I'm not really, although sometimes I wonder whether I should be). Anyway, wanted to pick out some beers that a wide variety of people would like, that I could drink if they were left over, and that weren't the same as any of the beers I already had for the party (had Blue Moon and Smirnoff Ice from before). Figured I needed 2 cases. Got 1 case of Tecate which I remembered as being a lightly flavored Mexican beer and 1 case of Samual Adams Winter Lager (since you can't really go wrong with a Sammy Lager).
Dropped of the beer at my place and then went over to Luisa's to pick up a chair for Jim and move it to his place (no idea why it was at Luisa's to begin with). Loaded the chair into the car, got Jim up, and headed over to his place. Watched Jim put together the chair while chatting and joking around. After that he had a chair to get rid off and then they remembered that Luisa had a monitor to get rid off. Loaded up the chair and monitor and headed off the drop them off. After that we were really indecisive about what we were doing next. Eventually decided we would eat and I was driving from CMU towards Squill on Boul. of the Allies when we decided to go to Tom's Diner on the South Side. 'Course we were heading the wrong way so I had to get creative with the routing. Proud of myself for knowing several shortcuts to help on the way. Turned onto the road that goes to the Greenfield bridge down by Pocusset, went across, and turned left to catch the parkway (shortcut 1). Took parkway east to I-579 exit path and turned right in this little hole in the concrete wall on right (it is a road, not just a hole) before you get to downtown. Turn more right turns and right onto Birmingham Bridge (shortcut 2). Anyway, I guess I'm little overly proud of that but hey, it took me years to garner that knowledge. Anyway we ate at Tom's and it was good. Then everyone went home.
So I did my laundry which went swimmingly (got 4 loads done quickly) and started cleaning up the mess I had made since the last time I had people over (which wasn't that much since I don't make messes that quickly [I don't clean that often either, but I digress]). Was doing that while my laundry was going in the machines. I have 4 little clips on my fridge that my mon got me for some birthday or Christmas or something that I never use but leave up there because the look kind of cute in their sudo rainbow colors (red, yellow, green, blue) which I think I like because they are kind of like a gay pride rainbow flag light... or something. You still with me and my rambling? Good, while it lasts. Anywho, I decided that (arg, the lack of emacs bindings in this editor is really irritating, I keep hitting Ctrl-A and Ctrl-E expecting to get to the beginning/end of line and one does nothing and the other selects all my text). Anway, I decided that since I had 4 clips and 4 main beers in stock and that I know more about beer than most of my friends and they may not have tried some of the varieties that I had that I would make little sign for each beer giving a rough description of what to expect if one were to try it and each sign could go in one of the clips. I made signs for the Smirnoff Ice and the Blue Moon and then realized that it had been a little while since I had had a Tecate and that I didn't remember what the Sammy Winter Lager tasted like (I remembered the Boston Lager and figured they would be similar but wasn't sure how close they were). So I figured I would have to try a bottle of each, purely for academic purposes so that they could be properly labelled, you understand. Had a Tecate and it had more of a beer flavor than I remembered. I remembered it having a very mild flavor and while it is more lightly flavored than many beers it still is distinctly beer flavored (Mexican beer flavored, but beer flavored, I think they use less hops or something but it tastes different).
Was looking through movies since I felt like going to see a movie and 3/4 playing at the Manor looked really cool. Also looked at the Loews' selection but that didn't add any more movies that I wanted to see right away. Decided on going to see "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" since it sounded cool in my main review guy's review (I mean the guy I usually listen to reviews from, it's not like I know him or he his my pet or anything) [James Berardinelli is his name by the way in case you want to check out his reviews some time (I go through www.mrqe.com via the Pittsburgh Movie Page [duh, since I maintain the site])] and he liked it. Ok, I'm a little frightened that I needed to put ])] in that last sentence to close things out properly but hey it's my blog and I'll write in whatever style I feel like which evidently seems to be primarily some sort of stream of conciousness thingy (thingy? what do you mean, thingy?)/ Back to the story, I IM'd Luisa to see if she felt like coming along since I didn't really have a reason not for inviting her and she's good company figuring that she was probably up to something already. Anyway, she wasn't and was like "sure" without even really knowing anything about the movie or nuttin'. So, we went. The movie was awesome. A very intricate and creative story about love, life, the eternal need of the human race to seek easy fixes (memory wipes in this case). It was really creative. Reminded me a little of Memento (which was also an awesome movie) but definitely was its own creative work. The relationship in the movie was so warm and real. It felt like real people and real love with its real problems. Also, there were lots of couples and people there in boy/girl groups and people who looked to be on dates. Anyway, it got me to thinking during the movie. Here I am watching a movie with Luisa next to me and I'm happy, but she's not my girlfriend and then I was thinking I should have someone that I could be happy with who was my boyfriend/girlfriend and I got to feeling a little lonely because I don't have someone like that :(. So I ended up in this strange emotional funk since I was really happy because I had an awesome day with great company and had just seen a great movie and done all these things I like to do and yet I was feeling lonely and kind of sad at the same time.
And therefore, you get to read a _really_ long entry in my blog (lucky you, :P). So I've been writing this, listening to some of my favorite music to south the soul and sampling the Sam Adam's Winter Lager (for the sign of course, I had to do it after all). Must try not to drink too much beer before the party or I will have to run out and get more (I guess there are worse fates). Of course, my computer speakers decided that this would be a good time to stop working (or it might be the cable, who knows?), but I was in too good of a mood for that to bother me so I figured out a makeshift solution pointing one of my living room speakers down the hallway to my bedroom. Currently listening to some Erykah Badu (oh yeah, feel the soul).
"My soul flies free like a willow tree"
- Erykah Badu album Baduism song Appletree | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Seem to mostly update this thing late at night.
Anyway, spent a large portion of the day trying to take care of the flat tire I spotted on my car right before I left for L.A. Was not looking forward to it but figured I could handle it since I know how to change a tire and have road hazard insurance on the tires and everything.
Anyway, got the car jacked up ok. The lug nuts didn't want to come off though. Got 4/5 off by kicking the tire iron but when I tried that on one of them the bolt broke :(. Couldn't get the stupid wheel off of the hub. Ended up having to call AAA anyway (should of just let me do the whole thing I guess). Took the AAA guy 5-10 minutes to get it off and he had supplies I was missing (most notably something like WD-40). That made me feel better about my inability to change the tire on my own.
Got it to NTB (National Tire and Battery) and got everything fixed for only $25 including the bolt I broke off so worked out ok.
Tried to get some stuff done at work on the AIBOs only to find out that I had to do a bunch of unrelated work first in order to get the information I needed. Very frustrating, especially since I shouldn't even be working on AIBO stuff since I should be working on thesis stuff. The AIBO stuff needs to get done though and I'm not sure it would get done in a timely matter if I didn't do it myself. Argh.
Seem to be rather sleepless since getting back from LA. Don't really understand why. Maybe the weekend will straighten out my sleep schedule. Looking forward to the party next week. Don't have much prep to do since my place is still reasonably neat from the last party. Just need to pick up a little beer and sundries. Haven't decided on what kind of beer to get yet. The Blue Moon seemed to be popular so I might get more of that in the future, but I think I will get another variety for this party. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Security: | | | Subject: | back from LA | | Time: | 05:03 pm | | Current Mood: | tired, content |
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| Just got back in town from LA. Conference was boring but went fine after all the adventures on the way there. Airline managed to lose about 30% of our bags but at least we got them back fairly quickly (next morning). Had a hard time packing for conference since was throwing up in between packing. Noticed my car has a flat which is irritating (have insurance on tires so shouldn't cost me anything, at least).
Stayed over the weeked in LA with my uncle and his long-term boyfriend. He's got his garage set up as a guest house which is awesome. Has everything you would want, bed, bathroom, kitchen, all in a very compact space. Hung out along the Venice Beach boardwalk a fair amount during the days. It's a really nifty path right along the beach with all kinds of people and lots of stores and stuff. The stores are pretty interesting because its not like a mall at all, more like a flea market or something. Went roller blading along the boardwalk and biking. Also went out the several gay bars and a gay party. Interesting seeing my uncle in his home environment.
Came back on the red-eye and just got back in this morning. Really cold coming back because I only had a light jacket. The snow/hail was an awefully rude welcome back. Not much going on at work because everyone just got back recently from LA. Got a little sleep on the plane and a little more this morning but suddenly feeling tired. Got my paper off to IROS and my plane flight to Snowbird booked so done with the critical stuff. Should really process email and organize party but feeling a little too tired right now. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Security: | | | Subject: | first entry | | Time: | 01:07 am | | Current Mood: |  tired |
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| This is my first entry. The first of maybe many to come depending on how
much I like this livejournal thingy. Anyway, enough general blabbering. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
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32 Footsteps, Counted Them Myself
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