So, after my first full weeks of props work, it seems one can sum it up with two basic concepts : foam and adhesive. Once I understand all possible times of foam and all common adhesives, I feel I will know most of what I need to. I am learning all kinds of things about a plethora of crafting materials. My favorite so far is wood filler. It looks like hummus, but you don't want to eat it.
I keep saying I'll get productive things done, but then I spend all my off hours watching TV, playing video games or goofing off. Fortunately, there isn't very much productive stuff that needs to get done, so it's ok. I haven't been blogging much mostly because my computer is in my room, and I like to spend as little time in my room as possible because it has an atrocious smell. I am not responsible for this smell. I don't know who is. Jonah reckons someone peed in my radiator. Other grievances against my room include the window not opening, and the door not locking.
I've been spending half of my lunch break in Chalkey's office bringing him fruit from Lowry. He has an office, but he needs me to bring him food. Speaking of food, I've been having an odd experience with it. I bought all this stuff to make myself meals, but I haven't gotten even one chance to. Someone always invites me to contribute. Unfortunately, I never have any food the would compliment theirs, so I end up basically mooching off of them then doing dishes. This has happened with three or four different groups of people. Eventually I'll buy them all food and things will sort themselves out.
That is all I have time for. Please don't eat me.
The real crime...was the beard.
31 May 2008
In which post is posted in the nick of time
My month has been an interesting one, a wholly blogworthy one in fact. I've had mixed feelings about the summer so far - on the one hand, I'm working very few hours compared to everyone else and compared to my contract and that's hard - part of the point of the summer is to make money. Also, the job has been a series of disappointments - it was supposed to be $9 and hour but was really 7, I was supposed to have a second job but both those opportunities disappeared for stupid reasons (the newspaper job that the Wooster e-mail server cost me, for instance), and now it turns out my 30 hours a week is MAXIMUM 30 hours a week. Since I have to fund most of my own meals, I'm not sure this summer is going to turn out to be much of a net financial gain.
On the other hand, the main goal of the summer was to spend real time with Saralyn - not weekends or days, but months, and that part has been awesome. We're living in two single dorm rooms down the hall from one another, so we're effectively living in a two-part double. We sleep in my room, with a double bed set up (two beds pushed together) and hang out in Saralyn's room. Of course there are beds in both rooms so we're not bound to this arrangement, but for the first few weeks that's more or less how it's gone. We've had a fair amount of down time in the evenings to hang out, watch DVDs, play computer games, etc., and it's been really nice.
The other day we decided to go out to eat, on a whim. We were looking for a place we'd never been to before and we ended up wandering into a really fancy (read: overpriced) restaraunt, despite being ridiculously underdressed. Before we could bow out gracefully, a very smarmy waitress had seated us. Well, as soon as we looked at the menu we knew we weren't going to have dinner there, but the attitude of the waitress ha convinced Saralyn that we had to order something just to prove a point. And then she brought us water and bread, so we couldn't very well leave without looking like homeless people in search of a free meal. So we split an appetizer (which consisted of three very small scallops) and asked for the check, all along suffering the judgemental stares of the staff (at least in our minds). Finally, after paying for our scallops (scallop and a half each, really) and exchanging very insincere pleasantries with our server, and tipping better than we probably ought too, we left and headed directly for Wendy's, where we followed up our $10 appetizer with a $5 meal.
Well that seems enough bloggation for now. Nathan wishes everyone to know that he will post to meet quota by the end of the night.
The real crime...was the beard.
On the other hand, the main goal of the summer was to spend real time with Saralyn - not weekends or days, but months, and that part has been awesome. We're living in two single dorm rooms down the hall from one another, so we're effectively living in a two-part double. We sleep in my room, with a double bed set up (two beds pushed together) and hang out in Saralyn's room. Of course there are beds in both rooms so we're not bound to this arrangement, but for the first few weeks that's more or less how it's gone. We've had a fair amount of down time in the evenings to hang out, watch DVDs, play computer games, etc., and it's been really nice.
The other day we decided to go out to eat, on a whim. We were looking for a place we'd never been to before and we ended up wandering into a really fancy (read: overpriced) restaraunt, despite being ridiculously underdressed. Before we could bow out gracefully, a very smarmy waitress had seated us. Well, as soon as we looked at the menu we knew we weren't going to have dinner there, but the attitude of the waitress ha convinced Saralyn that we had to order something just to prove a point. And then she brought us water and bread, so we couldn't very well leave without looking like homeless people in search of a free meal. So we split an appetizer (which consisted of three very small scallops) and asked for the check, all along suffering the judgemental stares of the staff (at least in our minds). Finally, after paying for our scallops (scallop and a half each, really) and exchanging very insincere pleasantries with our server, and tipping better than we probably ought too, we left and headed directly for Wendy's, where we followed up our $10 appetizer with a $5 meal.
Well that seems enough bloggation for now. Nathan wishes everyone to know that he will post to meet quota by the end of the night.
The real crime...was the beard.
30 May 2008
The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began
Ahem. And now begins my Epic Graduation Post.
First, of course, I'm sure you want to have what I consider to be the prelude to my graduation-- my first Night Out Drinking. The Wednesday before graduation, a bunch of the theatre seniors were going out to Shipley's (the popular townie bar at the moment) with a junior friend as their DD. They asked me to come, not really thinking that I'd agree to go. But I figured, I really ought to go to Shipley's once before I graduate, and if I don't go, I'll just sit at home being sad. So I agreed, and they immediately got very excited, because they'd never seen me drink before.
I had a rum and coke and some of Tiffany's fries. Then I was talked into doing a shot of rum-- I said I'd do it as long as I wasn't paying for it, because I knew it wasn't going to be pleasant. It tasted like drinking a permanent marker. I ate lots more of Tiffany's fries to cover the taste. Strangely, for a while right after that, I felt that I was thinking unusually clearly. Then, after a while, things got pleasantly... drinky? I then did a shot of tequila (again, I did not buy it) for the purpose of seeing if I could beat Seamus at tequila shots. This would require me having one shot of tequila without snorting it up my nose as he, somehow, did. I passed this test. Then I had another rum and coke. It was the most I'd ever had to drink at one time. This was all spread over the period of several hours, so at the end I was tipsy, but not actually drunk. Just enough to make the world a little spinny when I stood up and to make me talk more than I normally would. I got back to my room, and thought it was kind of hilarious that the words on the screen looked just a teensy bit weird, and that my fingers did not quite hit the keys squarely.
Toward the end of the night, some of my sorority sisters came into the bar, so the next day there were choruses throughout the house of, "ERIN WENT TO SHIPLEY'S?!" and lots of people trying to get me to go again that night so that they could see.
I spent a lot of the last few days walking around campus, feeling nostalgic and sad. Although four years seems like a long time ago, it also seems like not that much time has passed, if that makes any sense. It stormed Friday night and I was so nervous because, in case you have not previously heard this plan, my parents were flying down for my graduation. My brother's high school graduation was the same day, just two hours earlier. My parents decided they were going to charter a plane, leave immediately after Adam got his diploma, and be flown down to see me graduate. It was insane. At first I thought they were kidding. But they did it. I was really scared Friday that they were either going to crash and die or be unable to fly and have to split up, one going to my graduation, one to Adam's. I was incredibly relieved when the first thing that I saw when I woke up Saturday morning and the first thing I saw was the sunlight shining into the rack room.
Baccalaureate was that morning. The speech was given by a theology major, and it was really good. The best part, though, was when Shelley (who is a friend of mine) and Sarah sang "For Good" and I think pretty much everybody started crying. I cried. The only thing that held me back at all was the thought of my eyeliner. Oh! Then we all sang a hymn that included a verse about labs and boiling test tubes. I don't know if you know it, but it's the most ridiculous song ever. Jenaba had warned me about it, and I told her I was going to laugh. So pretty much the whole time I maintained eye contact with her as she sang in the choir, and I cracked up unabashedly, with the goal of breaking her, and I very nearly succeeded.
After that I went back to the sorority house to eat fruit and sandwiches. Then I went to the English Department reception and go to chat with all of my professors again. That was really nice. Then I met up with a bunch of people for pictures outside, and it was during this time that I got the phone call from my aunt, cousin, and grandma letting me know that they had arrived. They drove down. So I went back to the house to meet them and get my robe, and then I ran back for more pictures. I tried to show my family where to sit, but was not very successful, since we'd never rehearsed outside. At one we started lining up, in the loosest possible sense of the term. All I knew was that I was supposed to be in back with the honors graduates, so that's where I went. Standing around back there, I got the phone call from my mom letting me know that they had landed safely and were on their way. I was so excited. I turned to the nearest person I knew and exclaimed, "My parents are here!" They actually got to their seats with a good ten minutes to spare and didn't miss a thing.
The actual graduation ceremony was really nice. It was outside, on the point. They had a fancy podium set up under a tree, so that the tree was sort of overspreading us, and it was lovely. The weather was perfect. It was a little hot sitting in the sun all that time, even though they did provide water for us, and I got a bit sunburned, but that was fine. My friend Molly was the senior speaker, and she was excellent. She even managed to just barely not cry, and Molly cries at everything. She's one of the sweetest people I know; we have an ongoing joke where she pretends to hate me, and every now and then, even though it's completely obvious, she makes sure I know she's just kidding. Our grown-up speaker was a Republican congressman who graduated from Hanover. He was okay. He did a President Bush impression, but his normal voice is so close to that anyway that it wasn't much of a stretch. Then we lined up and got our diplomas, which are pretty fancy. I graduated magna cum laude. When I finally got up there and my name was called, this kind of tunnel-vision thing happened where I focused on Sue DeWine holding my diploma like she was at the end of a tunnel and all I had to do was get to her. My mom, my aunt, and Whitney were waiting to take my picture down by the other side of the stage, which was great. My mom kept gesturing for me to pause, and I was like, "We're not supposed to stop!"
Afterward, I circled the crowd twice trying to find my people and my camera. I got lots of hugs from my people, and I got my camera and struck out in search of the Battleses. I found them and talked to them for a long time. Dominique had a Hogwarts crest sewn or ironed onto her robe. I hugged them and got a picture which I hope will turn out. I'm so grateful to them for taking me under their wing for four years. I'm so, so lucky. They changed the whole course of my life and guided me along the path they'd shown me, and even though I'm leaving them, they're still pointing the way and warning me about obstacles up ahead. I couldn't ask for better guides.
After that I tracked down various friends and got pictures and hugs so tight I couldn't breathe. Tiffany, who is from Hawaii, looked like she'd been eaten by flowers. She had probably about thirty leis on, plus a head wreath. She was handing out leis to everyone she liked, so when she saw me she screamed my name and promptly leid me. It's a really cool one, too.
I then made my way back to my family, and we took lots of pictures on and around the podium, preventing the workers from dismantling it, and then at the point. I'm really happy my grandma got to come. And Aunt Barbara, and Katherine, my 15-year-old cousin who looked so grown up I almost didn't recognize her. And then we moved all my stuff out of my room. This process took a long time, and then since they're painting over the summer, I had to scrape all of the stuff off the walls, which sucked. It made me not so sad about leaving the house, let's put it that way. Then we drove out along Scenic, and I cried. I vividly remember the first time Mom and I drove up that drive, on my first visit to the campus, and how I thought it looked like Ithilien. And how the first time I walked around Hanover's campus it felt like home to me. Geez, I'm about to cry again just writing about it, so I'll stop. I definitely think I'll be one of those alumnae who come back to visit fairly often. Hanover was good to me.
The real crime...was the beard.
First, of course, I'm sure you want to have what I consider to be the prelude to my graduation-- my first Night Out Drinking. The Wednesday before graduation, a bunch of the theatre seniors were going out to Shipley's (the popular townie bar at the moment) with a junior friend as their DD. They asked me to come, not really thinking that I'd agree to go. But I figured, I really ought to go to Shipley's once before I graduate, and if I don't go, I'll just sit at home being sad. So I agreed, and they immediately got very excited, because they'd never seen me drink before.
I had a rum and coke and some of Tiffany's fries. Then I was talked into doing a shot of rum-- I said I'd do it as long as I wasn't paying for it, because I knew it wasn't going to be pleasant. It tasted like drinking a permanent marker. I ate lots more of Tiffany's fries to cover the taste. Strangely, for a while right after that, I felt that I was thinking unusually clearly. Then, after a while, things got pleasantly... drinky? I then did a shot of tequila (again, I did not buy it) for the purpose of seeing if I could beat Seamus at tequila shots. This would require me having one shot of tequila without snorting it up my nose as he, somehow, did. I passed this test. Then I had another rum and coke. It was the most I'd ever had to drink at one time. This was all spread over the period of several hours, so at the end I was tipsy, but not actually drunk. Just enough to make the world a little spinny when I stood up and to make me talk more than I normally would. I got back to my room, and thought it was kind of hilarious that the words on the screen looked just a teensy bit weird, and that my fingers did not quite hit the keys squarely.
Toward the end of the night, some of my sorority sisters came into the bar, so the next day there were choruses throughout the house of, "ERIN WENT TO SHIPLEY'S?!" and lots of people trying to get me to go again that night so that they could see.
I spent a lot of the last few days walking around campus, feeling nostalgic and sad. Although four years seems like a long time ago, it also seems like not that much time has passed, if that makes any sense. It stormed Friday night and I was so nervous because, in case you have not previously heard this plan, my parents were flying down for my graduation. My brother's high school graduation was the same day, just two hours earlier. My parents decided they were going to charter a plane, leave immediately after Adam got his diploma, and be flown down to see me graduate. It was insane. At first I thought they were kidding. But they did it. I was really scared Friday that they were either going to crash and die or be unable to fly and have to split up, one going to my graduation, one to Adam's. I was incredibly relieved when the first thing that I saw when I woke up Saturday morning and the first thing I saw was the sunlight shining into the rack room.
Baccalaureate was that morning. The speech was given by a theology major, and it was really good. The best part, though, was when Shelley (who is a friend of mine) and Sarah sang "For Good" and I think pretty much everybody started crying. I cried. The only thing that held me back at all was the thought of my eyeliner. Oh! Then we all sang a hymn that included a verse about labs and boiling test tubes. I don't know if you know it, but it's the most ridiculous song ever. Jenaba had warned me about it, and I told her I was going to laugh. So pretty much the whole time I maintained eye contact with her as she sang in the choir, and I cracked up unabashedly, with the goal of breaking her, and I very nearly succeeded.
After that I went back to the sorority house to eat fruit and sandwiches. Then I went to the English Department reception and go to chat with all of my professors again. That was really nice. Then I met up with a bunch of people for pictures outside, and it was during this time that I got the phone call from my aunt, cousin, and grandma letting me know that they had arrived. They drove down. So I went back to the house to meet them and get my robe, and then I ran back for more pictures. I tried to show my family where to sit, but was not very successful, since we'd never rehearsed outside. At one we started lining up, in the loosest possible sense of the term. All I knew was that I was supposed to be in back with the honors graduates, so that's where I went. Standing around back there, I got the phone call from my mom letting me know that they had landed safely and were on their way. I was so excited. I turned to the nearest person I knew and exclaimed, "My parents are here!" They actually got to their seats with a good ten minutes to spare and didn't miss a thing.
The actual graduation ceremony was really nice. It was outside, on the point. They had a fancy podium set up under a tree, so that the tree was sort of overspreading us, and it was lovely. The weather was perfect. It was a little hot sitting in the sun all that time, even though they did provide water for us, and I got a bit sunburned, but that was fine. My friend Molly was the senior speaker, and she was excellent. She even managed to just barely not cry, and Molly cries at everything. She's one of the sweetest people I know; we have an ongoing joke where she pretends to hate me, and every now and then, even though it's completely obvious, she makes sure I know she's just kidding. Our grown-up speaker was a Republican congressman who graduated from Hanover. He was okay. He did a President Bush impression, but his normal voice is so close to that anyway that it wasn't much of a stretch. Then we lined up and got our diplomas, which are pretty fancy. I graduated magna cum laude. When I finally got up there and my name was called, this kind of tunnel-vision thing happened where I focused on Sue DeWine holding my diploma like she was at the end of a tunnel and all I had to do was get to her. My mom, my aunt, and Whitney were waiting to take my picture down by the other side of the stage, which was great. My mom kept gesturing for me to pause, and I was like, "We're not supposed to stop!"
Afterward, I circled the crowd twice trying to find my people and my camera. I got lots of hugs from my people, and I got my camera and struck out in search of the Battleses. I found them and talked to them for a long time. Dominique had a Hogwarts crest sewn or ironed onto her robe. I hugged them and got a picture which I hope will turn out. I'm so grateful to them for taking me under their wing for four years. I'm so, so lucky. They changed the whole course of my life and guided me along the path they'd shown me, and even though I'm leaving them, they're still pointing the way and warning me about obstacles up ahead. I couldn't ask for better guides.
After that I tracked down various friends and got pictures and hugs so tight I couldn't breathe. Tiffany, who is from Hawaii, looked like she'd been eaten by flowers. She had probably about thirty leis on, plus a head wreath. She was handing out leis to everyone she liked, so when she saw me she screamed my name and promptly leid me. It's a really cool one, too.
I then made my way back to my family, and we took lots of pictures on and around the podium, preventing the workers from dismantling it, and then at the point. I'm really happy my grandma got to come. And Aunt Barbara, and Katherine, my 15-year-old cousin who looked so grown up I almost didn't recognize her. And then we moved all my stuff out of my room. This process took a long time, and then since they're painting over the summer, I had to scrape all of the stuff off the walls, which sucked. It made me not so sad about leaving the house, let's put it that way. Then we drove out along Scenic, and I cried. I vividly remember the first time Mom and I drove up that drive, on my first visit to the campus, and how I thought it looked like Ithilien. And how the first time I walked around Hanover's campus it felt like home to me. Geez, I'm about to cry again just writing about it, so I'll stop. I definitely think I'll be one of those alumnae who come back to visit fairly often. Hanover was good to me.
The real crime...was the beard.
27 May 2008
You need to get out either more or less, I can't decide
So my computer has had the create new post screen up for a full three days, and I keep having other things to do, mostly rehearse. I am paid hourly, so I won't complain about the hours, but it'd be nice to know schedules more than a couple days in advance. Still, from shows alone, I'm getting a minimum of $1200, and I didn't even think to calculate possible overtime when I figured that. I've already got 40 hours from the first week. This hourly thing will probably have me paid almost twice what they originally promised. Rehearsals have been pretty intense; we sing through it, we stage it, we stumble through, then we sing through the next show. We haven't spent more than four days on any given show except Oklahoma, which got five. While not nearly as physically intensive as last year, it is kind of crazy to be off book in two or three days. Czarevitch will give me a bit of a break, it's only got a few chorus pieces.
There are those weird thumping noises again. more of a clunk, really. It kind of sounds like people climbing the stairs, which it probably could be, now that I think about it, but sometimes it happens really late at night. The beat doesn't really sound like steps, but there are a lot of them, so I guess they wouldn't have to. I'm on the fourth floor of a dorm, and my room is right next to the stairwell. The place for cooking is on the first floor. You can imagine how often I feel like cooking. I've got my minifridge, so I generally just make a sandwich of some sort. I'm slowly acquiring dishes and utensils and things, and I'll spend more time in the kitchen after I get my first paycheck on the 13th (which should be something like $560) and have more money to spend on real food.
I got my first sort of evening off tonight, so I decided to start my D&D campaign, despite being horribly under-prepared. It didn't go terribly well, though I guess it didn't go terribly badly, either. Really, it was just a random encounter with a tiny bit of exposition tacked on. Keeping track of multiple opponents' HP is really annoying, not to mention multiple npc's. Not that more than a couple of you even know what that means. Either way, I hope to have an actual adventure planned by this weekend, instead of just a single battle. There will be intrigue and plot twists and character development and everything.
The real crime...was the beard.
There are those weird thumping noises again. more of a clunk, really. It kind of sounds like people climbing the stairs, which it probably could be, now that I think about it, but sometimes it happens really late at night. The beat doesn't really sound like steps, but there are a lot of them, so I guess they wouldn't have to. I'm on the fourth floor of a dorm, and my room is right next to the stairwell. The place for cooking is on the first floor. You can imagine how often I feel like cooking. I've got my minifridge, so I generally just make a sandwich of some sort. I'm slowly acquiring dishes and utensils and things, and I'll spend more time in the kitchen after I get my first paycheck on the 13th (which should be something like $560) and have more money to spend on real food.
I got my first sort of evening off tonight, so I decided to start my D&D campaign, despite being horribly under-prepared. It didn't go terribly well, though I guess it didn't go terribly badly, either. Really, it was just a random encounter with a tiny bit of exposition tacked on. Keeping track of multiple opponents' HP is really annoying, not to mention multiple npc's. Not that more than a couple of you even know what that means. Either way, I hope to have an actual adventure planned by this weekend, instead of just a single battle. There will be intrigue and plot twists and character development and everything.
The real crime...was the beard.
In which computer people suck
Well, it's almost Lrrr feeding time and yours truly still has no real posts for the Musty Lonth of May. So, it's time for an edition of "Computer people suck."
I love my laptop. I love it as I imagine I would love a child. It and my guitar have to vie for my affections and, let's face it, Gordon is fighting an uphill battle. One reason I adore my laptop so much is that, despite what Mac fans might say (*cough*Michael*cough*), it never crashes. It has on perhaps two occasions failed to start, but a nice nap always clears that up. Two years into our relationship, my laptop and I have had a blissful life together.
Twice I have felt the necessity to take it into Frye's. Once, earlier this year, was because it wouldn't play DVDs (They'd get all choppy). I took it into Frye's, he popped a DVD in it and it played fine. We watched a few minutes of every DVD they had out, no problems. I took it home, couldn't play DVDs. Took it to Evan Boggs the next time I was at IU, played fine for him. Took it home, broken. Now it's working again, but I'm fairly sure it was just taunting me before - it's way of making sure I knew it was in charge.
The second time was last week, and it was much more complicated. Basically for several weeks I had very occasionally experienced horizontal white lines crossing my screen and then disappearing. I reinstalled my graphics card and some other things to no avail. It started to get worse. Soon the lines would appear on the bottom of my screen and not go away (without a restart). So, distraught, I took it to Frye's where (surprise!) they couldn't recreate the problem. Of course for them it worked perfectly. I asked if they could replace my graphics card anyway, and they replied that they could but that would cost money, and it was almost certainly a software problem and that if I restored my hard drive it would go away.
With much trepidation I restored my hard drive, backing up my files but resigning myself to reinstall all my programs and recreate all my bookmarks (a surprisingly painful blow) not to mention my music which I lacked the patience to back up since I have most of it on physical CDs and my iPod doesn't work anyway.
Despite all that, I reset my entire computer. It did not fix the problem. However, for whatever reason, the problem had begun to crop up incredibly sporadically so it would work wonderfully for two weeks then be bar city all of a sudden. And this was problematic because Frye's Guy said if they couldn't recreate the problem, they would bill me and do nothing to my computer. (I mean, at least up until now they had done nothing for free.) So I was faced with a conundrum. Luckily, I made a convenient discovery (that would have been even more convenient before I wiped my hard drive): When the white lines appeared, all I had to do was adjust the angle of the monitor and they would instantly vanish. So, now I'm just accepting the lines. I haven't seen them for some time, so maybe they got bored with me and moved on. Or maybe this was my laptop telling me once again not to send it in to get fixed - just be nice to it and it will solve all it's own problems.
Some time in the next four days: The rest of my life lately.
Other people in danger of being eaten imminently: Everyone but Michael.
The real crime...was the beard.
I love my laptop. I love it as I imagine I would love a child. It and my guitar have to vie for my affections and, let's face it, Gordon is fighting an uphill battle. One reason I adore my laptop so much is that, despite what Mac fans might say (*cough*Michael*cough*), it never crashes. It has on perhaps two occasions failed to start, but a nice nap always clears that up. Two years into our relationship, my laptop and I have had a blissful life together.
Twice I have felt the necessity to take it into Frye's. Once, earlier this year, was because it wouldn't play DVDs (They'd get all choppy). I took it into Frye's, he popped a DVD in it and it played fine. We watched a few minutes of every DVD they had out, no problems. I took it home, couldn't play DVDs. Took it to Evan Boggs the next time I was at IU, played fine for him. Took it home, broken. Now it's working again, but I'm fairly sure it was just taunting me before - it's way of making sure I knew it was in charge.
The second time was last week, and it was much more complicated. Basically for several weeks I had very occasionally experienced horizontal white lines crossing my screen and then disappearing. I reinstalled my graphics card and some other things to no avail. It started to get worse. Soon the lines would appear on the bottom of my screen and not go away (without a restart). So, distraught, I took it to Frye's where (surprise!) they couldn't recreate the problem. Of course for them it worked perfectly. I asked if they could replace my graphics card anyway, and they replied that they could but that would cost money, and it was almost certainly a software problem and that if I restored my hard drive it would go away.
With much trepidation I restored my hard drive, backing up my files but resigning myself to reinstall all my programs and recreate all my bookmarks (a surprisingly painful blow) not to mention my music which I lacked the patience to back up since I have most of it on physical CDs and my iPod doesn't work anyway.
Despite all that, I reset my entire computer. It did not fix the problem. However, for whatever reason, the problem had begun to crop up incredibly sporadically so it would work wonderfully for two weeks then be bar city all of a sudden. And this was problematic because Frye's Guy said if they couldn't recreate the problem, they would bill me and do nothing to my computer. (I mean, at least up until now they had done nothing for free.) So I was faced with a conundrum. Luckily, I made a convenient discovery (that would have been even more convenient before I wiped my hard drive): When the white lines appeared, all I had to do was adjust the angle of the monitor and they would instantly vanish. So, now I'm just accepting the lines. I haven't seen them for some time, so maybe they got bored with me and moved on. Or maybe this was my laptop telling me once again not to send it in to get fixed - just be nice to it and it will solve all it's own problems.
Some time in the next four days: The rest of my life lately.
Other people in danger of being eaten imminently: Everyone but Michael.
The real crime...was the beard.
21 May 2008
20 May 2008
Yeah, I should probably have a title
I probably should have posted a while ago. My week at home was not very interesting though. Most of it was spent watching TV, sleeping, or staring at the wall. I did get a little music arranging done, but It was only a week and then I was back in Wooster. So all in all pretty dull. I did watch half of the first season of Angel in one day. That was kind of fun.
Props looks like it's going to be amazing. I have three really cool coworkers - Matt, a really cool guy who''s friends with a friend of mine from high school, Max, who is in an actual set design program and appears to have been designing since he was six, and Andrea, our boss. Andrea has been a professional prop master for several years now, and swears it's the best job in the whole industry. I'm withholding judgment on that until I've been doing it for a whole summer, but it's definitely gonna be a while before it gets boring - in two days we've done carpentry, sewing, sculpting with foam, and flower arranging, as well as shopping and pulling stuff out of stock. At some point in the next couple of weeks it looks like we'll be building a couple of World War I era machine guns, which I'm kind of excited about.
Living on campus without homework is a lot of fun. Most of my college friends are still here, and in the evenings I've been hanging out in Chalkey's room playing Brawl, basically just like a normal day during the school year, only there's not as much to procrastinate from. I should probably still be arranging music for Monkeys and Lethal Inflection, but I do have all summer.
The main thing I'm worried about is eating. Not because I can't afford food, but because I tend to be too lazy to prepare it, so I just end up snacking unhealthily all night. Hopefully that'll improve once I fall into a better pattern.
The real crime...was the beard.
Props looks like it's going to be amazing. I have three really cool coworkers - Matt, a really cool guy who''s friends with a friend of mine from high school, Max, who is in an actual set design program and appears to have been designing since he was six, and Andrea, our boss. Andrea has been a professional prop master for several years now, and swears it's the best job in the whole industry. I'm withholding judgment on that until I've been doing it for a whole summer, but it's definitely gonna be a while before it gets boring - in two days we've done carpentry, sewing, sculpting with foam, and flower arranging, as well as shopping and pulling stuff out of stock. At some point in the next couple of weeks it looks like we'll be building a couple of World War I era machine guns, which I'm kind of excited about.
Living on campus without homework is a lot of fun. Most of my college friends are still here, and in the evenings I've been hanging out in Chalkey's room playing Brawl, basically just like a normal day during the school year, only there's not as much to procrastinate from. I should probably still be arranging music for Monkeys and Lethal Inflection, but I do have all summer.
The main thing I'm worried about is eating. Not because I can't afford food, but because I tend to be too lazy to prepare it, so I just end up snacking unhealthily all night. Hopefully that'll improve once I fall into a better pattern.
The real crime...was the beard.
15 May 2008
And thus it passed on from Candlemas until after Easter, that the month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom
This past Wednesday I went to the annual medieval congress in Kalamazoo. I am now back, and am here to tell you all about it.
I rode down with the Drs. Battles and their son, Perry, on Wednesday. It's about a six hour trip, and most of the time Perry took it upon himself to entertain me. He is eight, and a genius. First he read me one of his books, and then he told me stories which he made up himself about knights and Jedi, which were really at least as good as most children's books. He's really creative. I wish I could still come up with stuff on the spot like that, and part of the reason I think I can't is just shyness and inhibitions which come with hitting puberty. I was worried that it would be weird riding all that way with my professors, but it wasn't at all. They are just as nice in a domestic context as they are in an academic one, it turns out. It was great. And Perry and I were great friends by the end of it, to the extent that he actually asked, "Are we ever going to see Erin again? Because I like her."
So, we got to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, where the conference is held, and successfully checked in. I was really nervous about that, that something might have gone awry with my registration, but it went very smoothly. I stayed in one of the dorms on campus-- I was in the room by myself, but I shared a bathroom with a girl I saw all of once. The room was good, other than being kind of dirty. And I got free wireless internet in the lobby! Which means that I got to watch The Office and 30 Rock on hulu before I even got home!
Thursday was the most overwhelming day. Being there as an undergrad, you really get the feeling of, "What the HELL am I doing here?" I went most of the day without seeing anyone I knew, all while being surrounded by people who somehow all knew each other. I went to a paper in the morning about fairy otherworlds, which was really interesting and gave me some ideas on expanding my research on my IS topic. I ate lunch next to a one-eyed priest. That was something interesting about Kalamazoo-- seeing priests and monks and nuns in full-on vestments just walking around everywhere. Thankfully, in the second session that day, which was on Malory and also really cool, I ran into Rowan, one of the girls I'd met who goes to UIUC. And Paul Battles. So I got to sit next to two people I knew and chat. That session was also my first experience with Felicia Nimue. This woman is in every way the scariest scholar I have ever seen. She wears teal eyeshadow up to her eyebrows and dresses in crazy outfits-- the first day she wore a huge lacy black hat, and the next day she looked like something off the "It's a Small World" ride. When she asks questions on papers, she basically calls the presenter a fool because they can't quote huge paragraphs of Malory. She snaps at you even when you're trying to give her a compliment; when the person who was introducing her paper for the next session called her "I hope you don't mind my saying, an elder in the field," she interrupted to say very sharply, "Yes, I do mind because I've only been a Malorian for ten years. I am not an elder in anything." She frightens me. If I ever give a paper on Malory, I am going to post someone outside the door to tell her that she's entering the wrong room. Because she comes to all Malory papers. Also, she insists on being called "Felicia Nimue." Never just Felicia. Never EVER. She has a last name, too, but I won't put it here.
After that I went to the book exhibits, where I was overwhelmed again, wondering how I knew what to get, what I was supposed to get, HOW DO ALL THESE PEOPLE KNOW EACH OTHER WHAT AM I DOING HERE? That night I went to dinner with the Battleses and Kimberly, a Hanover alumna who goes to UIUC now. She's incredibly nice. But after that I still had to take a long walk and wonder exactly what makes me think that I can do this for a living. How can I continually come up with paper topics and new readings of texts? How can I teach other people about this stuff? I love it, but I felt (and still feel, a little) that my skills are woefully inadequate. Hanging out with the UIUC people the next couple of days helped with that. I got to see people who were in the in-between stage, and that helped a lot. That seems more attainable to me.
Friday I went to a paper on medieval drama, just to learn, and then I ran into all the UIUC crowd going to a medieval weaponry demonstration, and from that point on I pretty much latched on to them and held on for dear life. The weaponry demonstration was really cool. It was a lot of what we learned in stage combat, except more specifically employing techniques from a medieval Italian fencing master. It was really interesting-- and also instructive. I learned easy ways to beat people in wrestling. The questions in that session were pretty hilarious. "So, when Lancelot and Gawain beat each other for hours in Malory, could that really happen?" "What if you were fighting on a spiral staircase?" "What if you were at the top of the spiral staircase?" "What if you only had a dagger on the spiral staircase?" We spent a lot of time on that spiral staircase. Eventually, Kimberly and I started leaning over to each other and whispering, "What if you were on the side of a volcano, and your opponent had a flamethrower?" After that I went to dinner with them. It was the first time I'd been to an Indian restaurant, and I liked it, even though we had to wait forever because Kalamazoo was so crowded. After that I went back to Kimberly and Anne's room to just sit around and talk for a while.
Saturday I went to a session on Tolkien and then a session on the beheading motif, mostly because of the paper on Gawain, but I learned some interesting stuff about other beheading stories. And that session was really entertaining-- as was the Tolkien session, actually, which was about monsters in Lord of the Rings, comparing barrow-wights to Norse ghosts, and stuff. It was after this that, after having gone to the book exhibits every day and actually bought a couple of books, I got up the nerve to ask exactly how the purchasing process went at certain vendors, and I got myself a copy of the Prose Merlin. Which is pretty awesome. It's in Middle English, and I also got the Arthur section of Layamon's Brut and Wace's Roman de Brut, both of which had the original Old/Middle English and Old French texts next to the translations. Also, I got a free magnet that says, "Aelfric is my homeboy."
Saturday night I went to dinner with the UIUC crowd to a local brewery, which was different and a little bit scary for me. That night was the dance. I did drink at the dance. In fact, I drank two whole drinks at Kalamazoo, so whoooo! Most of the time I spent talking to Luke, another Hanover person who got there Friday and who I didn't actually see until Saturday, and watching the old medievalists dance. Sixty-year-old academics grooving to "Love Shack" and Britney Spears? Awesome. I'm glad I chose a discipline that has an annual dance at which to be silly. Althought it was a little creepy how blatantly a couple of the old guys were checking out the young girls. I stayed at the dance until it ended at 2, and did dance a few times during those hours.
Sunday morning I got up at 7:30 or something insane in order to go to Kimberly's paper. Shortly after that, we left. Although Perry was under strict orders to let me sleep if I wanted to, we spent a lot of time taking turns telling each other the Star Wars saga, only describing the characters as various animals. Then we played several rounds of "Would You Rather." Perry was very sad when we met Mom in Indy so I could go home for Mother's Day, which was really sweet. Fortunately, I saw him again today for a while. I like having an eight-year-old fan, and I'm his fan as well, because... coolest eight-year-old I know.
The end.
"Majesty, you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself!" "I TOO CAN COMMAND WORDS THAT RHYME! I DO IT ALL THE TIME!"
I rode down with the Drs. Battles and their son, Perry, on Wednesday. It's about a six hour trip, and most of the time Perry took it upon himself to entertain me. He is eight, and a genius. First he read me one of his books, and then he told me stories which he made up himself about knights and Jedi, which were really at least as good as most children's books. He's really creative. I wish I could still come up with stuff on the spot like that, and part of the reason I think I can't is just shyness and inhibitions which come with hitting puberty. I was worried that it would be weird riding all that way with my professors, but it wasn't at all. They are just as nice in a domestic context as they are in an academic one, it turns out. It was great. And Perry and I were great friends by the end of it, to the extent that he actually asked, "Are we ever going to see Erin again? Because I like her."
So, we got to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, where the conference is held, and successfully checked in. I was really nervous about that, that something might have gone awry with my registration, but it went very smoothly. I stayed in one of the dorms on campus-- I was in the room by myself, but I shared a bathroom with a girl I saw all of once. The room was good, other than being kind of dirty. And I got free wireless internet in the lobby! Which means that I got to watch The Office and 30 Rock on hulu before I even got home!
Thursday was the most overwhelming day. Being there as an undergrad, you really get the feeling of, "What the HELL am I doing here?" I went most of the day without seeing anyone I knew, all while being surrounded by people who somehow all knew each other. I went to a paper in the morning about fairy otherworlds, which was really interesting and gave me some ideas on expanding my research on my IS topic. I ate lunch next to a one-eyed priest. That was something interesting about Kalamazoo-- seeing priests and monks and nuns in full-on vestments just walking around everywhere. Thankfully, in the second session that day, which was on Malory and also really cool, I ran into Rowan, one of the girls I'd met who goes to UIUC. And Paul Battles. So I got to sit next to two people I knew and chat. That session was also my first experience with Felicia Nimue. This woman is in every way the scariest scholar I have ever seen. She wears teal eyeshadow up to her eyebrows and dresses in crazy outfits-- the first day she wore a huge lacy black hat, and the next day she looked like something off the "It's a Small World" ride. When she asks questions on papers, she basically calls the presenter a fool because they can't quote huge paragraphs of Malory. She snaps at you even when you're trying to give her a compliment; when the person who was introducing her paper for the next session called her "I hope you don't mind my saying, an elder in the field," she interrupted to say very sharply, "Yes, I do mind because I've only been a Malorian for ten years. I am not an elder in anything." She frightens me. If I ever give a paper on Malory, I am going to post someone outside the door to tell her that she's entering the wrong room. Because she comes to all Malory papers. Also, she insists on being called "Felicia Nimue." Never just Felicia. Never EVER. She has a last name, too, but I won't put it here.
After that I went to the book exhibits, where I was overwhelmed again, wondering how I knew what to get, what I was supposed to get, HOW DO ALL THESE PEOPLE KNOW EACH OTHER WHAT AM I DOING HERE? That night I went to dinner with the Battleses and Kimberly, a Hanover alumna who goes to UIUC now. She's incredibly nice. But after that I still had to take a long walk and wonder exactly what makes me think that I can do this for a living. How can I continually come up with paper topics and new readings of texts? How can I teach other people about this stuff? I love it, but I felt (and still feel, a little) that my skills are woefully inadequate. Hanging out with the UIUC people the next couple of days helped with that. I got to see people who were in the in-between stage, and that helped a lot. That seems more attainable to me.
Friday I went to a paper on medieval drama, just to learn, and then I ran into all the UIUC crowd going to a medieval weaponry demonstration, and from that point on I pretty much latched on to them and held on for dear life. The weaponry demonstration was really cool. It was a lot of what we learned in stage combat, except more specifically employing techniques from a medieval Italian fencing master. It was really interesting-- and also instructive. I learned easy ways to beat people in wrestling. The questions in that session were pretty hilarious. "So, when Lancelot and Gawain beat each other for hours in Malory, could that really happen?" "What if you were fighting on a spiral staircase?" "What if you were at the top of the spiral staircase?" "What if you only had a dagger on the spiral staircase?" We spent a lot of time on that spiral staircase. Eventually, Kimberly and I started leaning over to each other and whispering, "What if you were on the side of a volcano, and your opponent had a flamethrower?" After that I went to dinner with them. It was the first time I'd been to an Indian restaurant, and I liked it, even though we had to wait forever because Kalamazoo was so crowded. After that I went back to Kimberly and Anne's room to just sit around and talk for a while.
Saturday I went to a session on Tolkien and then a session on the beheading motif, mostly because of the paper on Gawain, but I learned some interesting stuff about other beheading stories. And that session was really entertaining-- as was the Tolkien session, actually, which was about monsters in Lord of the Rings, comparing barrow-wights to Norse ghosts, and stuff. It was after this that, after having gone to the book exhibits every day and actually bought a couple of books, I got up the nerve to ask exactly how the purchasing process went at certain vendors, and I got myself a copy of the Prose Merlin. Which is pretty awesome. It's in Middle English, and I also got the Arthur section of Layamon's Brut and Wace's Roman de Brut, both of which had the original Old/Middle English and Old French texts next to the translations. Also, I got a free magnet that says, "Aelfric is my homeboy."
Saturday night I went to dinner with the UIUC crowd to a local brewery, which was different and a little bit scary for me. That night was the dance. I did drink at the dance. In fact, I drank two whole drinks at Kalamazoo, so whoooo! Most of the time I spent talking to Luke, another Hanover person who got there Friday and who I didn't actually see until Saturday, and watching the old medievalists dance. Sixty-year-old academics grooving to "Love Shack" and Britney Spears? Awesome. I'm glad I chose a discipline that has an annual dance at which to be silly. Althought it was a little creepy how blatantly a couple of the old guys were checking out the young girls. I stayed at the dance until it ended at 2, and did dance a few times during those hours.
Sunday morning I got up at 7:30 or something insane in order to go to Kimberly's paper. Shortly after that, we left. Although Perry was under strict orders to let me sleep if I wanted to, we spent a lot of time taking turns telling each other the Star Wars saga, only describing the characters as various animals. Then we played several rounds of "Would You Rather." Perry was very sad when we met Mom in Indy so I could go home for Mother's Day, which was really sweet. Fortunately, I saw him again today for a while. I like having an eight-year-old fan, and I'm his fan as well, because... coolest eight-year-old I know.
The end.
"Majesty, you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself!" "I TOO CAN COMMAND WORDS THAT RHYME! I DO IT ALL THE TIME!"
13 May 2008
Golden Age of Zelda?
Old School (Original through Link to the Past) | 2 (22%) |
Nintendo 64 (Ocarina and Majora's Mask) | 3 (33%) |
Game boy games | 1 (11%) |
Four Swords! | 0 (0%) |
Something else | 1 (11%) |
Huh? | 2 (22%) |
"Majesty, you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself!" "I TOO CAN COMMAND WORDS THAT RHYME! I DO IT ALL THE TIME!"
11 May 2008
I once shot a man in Reno, 'cause they cancelled Firefly
I'm home for the week. I started with no plans, but I have this dreadful feeling that a week isn't going to be enough time to do the things I need to do. There are people that want to see me, including my family, before I go away for a long time and there's a mountain of Things that need to be Sorted or Thrown Away. There are probably other things I could do, and I haven't so much as glanced at my music since I first got it, and I feel like I need to be memorized by the time I start rehearsing.
Yesterday I went to get corvair stuff with my dad. Apparently this guy is having his barn demolished, and offered to let the corvair club dig through it for magic items before doing so. We got a handful of airforce manuals from the 40's and 50's, some old radio tubes, a police bicycle, and other items of interest. I also picked out some bucket seats that I am having installed in my car so I will no longer risk losing my head to back-lash. Here is an amusing excerpt from a conversation with Erin on this topic:
"Majesty, you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself!" "I TOO CAN COMMAND WORDS THAT RHYME! I DO IT ALL THE TIME!"
Yesterday I went to get corvair stuff with my dad. Apparently this guy is having his barn demolished, and offered to let the corvair club dig through it for magic items before doing so. We got a handful of airforce manuals from the 40's and 50's, some old radio tubes, a police bicycle, and other items of interest. I also picked out some bucket seats that I am having installed in my car so I will no longer risk losing my head to back-lash. Here is an amusing excerpt from a conversation with Erin on this topic:
"Erin" (12:02:56 AM) : not getting your head ripped off is good
"Erin" (12:03:03 AM) : That's something I learned at the medieval congress.
Pinball jedi 42 (12:03:17 AM) : sounds like a knowledgeable group
"Erin" (12:04:42 AM) : yes. people presented papers on the unfortunate effects of losing your head.
"Erin" (12:04:50 AM) : they include but are not limited to eventual death
In the original conversation, I spelled "Knowledgeable" wrong, but that's not important. What is important is that it bugs me that copying and pasting from an IM window messes with the font, and I'm not sure if I fixed it. Anyhow, I've got bucket seats, now. They are red. Also, If anyone wants a box of random crap, just let me know.
Oh, why the title is relevant. I bought Firefly a while back during spring break, and didn't have time to watch it until I went back to school. Turns out I've got two disc three's and no disc two. I went back today, and was told to come back later. Even if I don't get my second disc, I was able to get Fight Club for five bucks, and a friend can burn disc two for me anyway.
In the original conversation, I spelled "Knowledgeable" wrong, but that's not important. What is important is that it bugs me that copying and pasting from an IM window messes with the font, and I'm not sure if I fixed it. Anyhow, I've got bucket seats, now. They are red. Also, If anyone wants a box of random crap, just let me know.
Oh, why the title is relevant. I bought Firefly a while back during spring break, and didn't have time to watch it until I went back to school. Turns out I've got two disc three's and no disc two. I went back today, and was told to come back later. Even if I don't get my second disc, I was able to get Fight Club for five bucks, and a friend can burn disc two for me anyway.
"Majesty, you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself!" "I TOO CAN COMMAND WORDS THAT RHYME! I DO IT ALL THE TIME!"
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