| Current mood: | energetic |
| Current music: | Soul Asylum -- Misery |
Stop shouting at me!!
Several people have bitched requested that I update my blog, since it's been awhile and I'm way behind again. Here goes, though I only have an hour before class and I'm likely to get distracted anyway.... Hey look! Something shiny!! : )
I don't even remember the last time I put anything here... I'm trying to load the page to see what I said last time but blurty is being slow again. I really like this interface, I just wish they had better uptime/reliability.
Wow. Has it really been 2 full weeks? Damn...
I had my AmeriCorps phone interview Friday with a nice-sounding young woman named Amy. It felt like it got off to a slow start, but got much better as we got into it. The whole thing lasted just under an hour, and it felt like it really flowed well. It was almost conversational at points, and I have a good feeling about it. I'll hear within another 2 weeks or so if they want me or not.
I may have an awesome job opportunity that would make me seriously reconsider joining AmeriCorps even if accepted. Digium, home of the computer god Mark Spencer, has an opening for a C programmer doing core development of asterisk, the Linux VOIP software. Capouch knows Mark now from conferences and stuff and has been telling him about me, and Spencer wants to see my resume. I put one together last week using a template of Phil's. Now I'm working on a 'Candidate's Statement'; when that's done Capouch or I will send the links to Mark and see what happens. This would be an incredible job -- Mark Spencer really is one of the geniuses of the trade, and it would be awesome to work with him. I think about it almost like medieval painters -- He's like the reknowned master, and I could work as his apprentice in his workshop. Shut up, I know it's silly. I don't care.
Tony and I have been making significant progress in our asterisk hacking. We're still working on our voicemail overhaul to email-ize the voicemail storage and retrieval system. We're nowhere near done, but we're learning a lot about C and we get a little further every time we sit down together. It's awesome to code with someone else that is focused on the same thing, and to have someone to bounce ideas off of.... I've never 'team-coded' before and I love it. Even if it is Tony. : )
The Colloquium was last week and wasn't anything too exciting. Our presentation of the work we had done to date went alright, I guess. Not much to talk about there.
We performed Anything Goes last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I think people were really impressed with it. It's hard for me to judge the quality of a production from backstage, but a lot of people seemed to genuinely love it. I'll take their word for it. I think John Rahe is an outstanding director, though I grant he's the only one I've ever really worked with. I had a hell of a lot of fun with this show, and met some great people I'm sure I wouldn't have otherwise. The performances were somewhat emotional, especially closing night, since for us seniors it was our last appearance on the SJC stage. I'm very pleased I went out on a limb three years ago and decided to take a chance being in a show. It's been fun.
Calvin didn't come see the show because he hates me. That, or he was just drained from going to school 6 hours a day and work 8 hours a day all week, I can't figure out which. The least the fucker could have done though was not string me along.... he teased me all the way until Saturday afternoon, finally calling at like 3 to say he wouldn't be able to make it. Dick. Chicago must not love Kenny. : )
The cast party was something else. There was green puma punch that didn't taste really strong but apparently was. After an hour or two there I went to the bar with Phil and some other people (Becky? I don't know.... this is when the drunkenness started hitting me). We found a wiffle ball in the IM field and were whipping it at each other until I found a broken chair that for some reason I carried to Halleck. I left it in the front entryway and it's still there, tucked in the corner when you first go in the door. Random. The bar was a bit of a blur. Sandra was there, and Brandy, and some other people. Jen was bartending and wasn't very sober, so she was handing drinks out for free to almost everyone. Bartrom was being obnoxious in a cowboy hat, making loud "Boooo!!" noises. Next we went back to the cast party, where I pretty much succumbed to total inebriation. I had a few conversations with people I don't at all remember, and then as we were leaving to go to 207 I puked over a balcony. I'm sure that made me friends. Then I puked in the bushes behind the apartments. Then I puked at 207 for 15 or 20 minutes. Finally we went to Halas and Brandy put me to bed on their couch, where I was still puking. Sandra just laughed at me all night, because I was so drunk and sick. Thanks. : ) Peewee was down, that was fun. I drank with him Friday night and saw him Saturday though I was done drinking by the time I found him.
I felt like I was dying when I woke up Sunday morning. Stupid time change. I tried to eat breakfast, and that really didn't work out at all.... I had three bites of eggs I could barely get down, and drank half a glass of OJ before I realized I had had a screwdriver at the bar the night before, and almost threw it up. It was interesting to talk to people that I had run into the night before, I heard stories about me which I don't remember at all. That hardly ever happens to me when drinking (like 3 or 4 times ever). At least I didn't make too much of an ass of myself. I think. (Not counting the yakking off a balcony).
I sang in Ligda's Palm Sunday choir Sunday afternoon. A long shower and a couple ibuprofen really made me feel better, and I made it through all right. I actually had a really good time doing that -- I've recently realized that I love singing, and I'm not completely awful at it (prolly just mostly awful). And I was with Phil and Tony in the choir, they're both funny guys. While we were waiting for Ligda and Doc Egan to finish playing a long opening song, we were making jokes and making fun of people. My stomach hurt from laughing so hard. Some of the songs were really pretty. I had never heard any of them before. "In Remembrance" was my favorite, I want to get a recording of it so I can listen to it again. I still sing some of the songs in my room, how much of a nerd am I? : )
I thought Ligda did an awesome job conducting us. I don't know how hard it is or how much talent he has, but he definitely impressed me. It looked really difficult and he was just on top of everything. I have a lot of respect for him, and I sorta regret that we haven't always gotten along. I'm excited for Lent to be over so that he can drink again and we can take him out. : )
Core 6 class was pretty ridiculous today. We were supposed to pretend we were cave people making cave drawings. The point was that modern anthropology/archaelogy can't really determine with certainty the meaning of cave art, but we didn't need to play with markers for an hour to understand that. We were supposed to draw something that they might have actually drawn. I drew a dinosaur. : )
Phil and I threw darts Monday night. For the official dart league game, we did phenomenal. At one point, I hit 2 single bullseyes and then a double 16, which we needed. I think it was my best showing of darts ever. The rest of the night sucked for me dart-wise. Phil had emailed Brandy to encourage her and Sandra to come cheer us on and they got to the bar just a few minutes before we finished our game. But we all stayed for a long time anyway, throwing a few games and having a good time. At first. Some inappropriate comments were made and the mood turned sour for some of us (me included), but everything ended up alright later. I thought it was going to end a crappy night, but it got a lot better at the end, after I left the bar.
I think I may have made some enemies in Peter's Core 8 class yesterday. We're reading the book Savages by Joe Kane, about the Huorani people in Ecuador who at the beginning of the book (I'm not done yet) are in danger of being destroyed by American oil companies. The question Peter posed to class was "Why should we care about these people who have contributed nothing to our way of life? What would you be willing to give up in order to preserve their lifestyle and culture?" My responses were I think typical of humanitarian (and even Christian?) sentiments -- "We have a responsibility as stewards of the earth to care for her peoples and resources, our position of power in the world doesn't give us the right to trample others, our way of life is no more valid than theirs, etc." I had the sense that a lot of people wanted to believe that but either just didn't, or maybe did a little bit but didn't live it. I don't mean to say that I do live that idea constantly, but I feel I make a genuine effort. When asked what I would give up, the first example that came to mind was SUVs (the Huorani, after all, are in danger in the book because of oil interests in "their" land). When there are automobiles that use less than 1/5 the gas, there is room for sacrifice to be made. This upset 2 or 3 tall kids in class (I don't know who they are) who drive Blazers, it seemed like they wouldn't let that point go and that they really were alright with a culture being destroyed because of their desires (I refuse to accept that they are 'needs' as some people maintained). I wasn't totally alone in class, but there were fewer people that agreed with me than I would have hoped for. One comment was made that "There are more of us than them, so we have the right to do with them what we want". That idea seemed to be generally accepted as mathematically sound, but I definitely didn't accept it. It was a good discussion, very informative and eye-opening. Anyway.
I went running last night shortly after dusk, and the full moon was rising blood red in the direction I was running. It was an awesome sight. Plus it was a good run anyway. : )
And now it's time for lecture. Did I say everything I wanted to? Prolly not. : / At least it's something.
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