Author: cheerfulchaotic

farewell my sweet laptop

Laptop’s battery now fully dead. Grrr. Hip feeling better, shoulder feeling pretty bad, but still usable, if I’m careful (guess who won’t be at the gym as much for a week or two. bleh)

Had a nightmare I recall. Like many of my nightmares, this one is a repeat, with a ‘repeating the day until you get it right’ feel to it. Over the past couple years, several times I’ve had a dream of the segment of suburbia where I went to high school. In this dream, people, who look like normal suburbanites, from somewhere else pillage, murder, and burn through my old neighborhood like a raging barbarian horde. By whatever virtue or chance, I survive.

This one was a little different from the others. I think this is the first time I saw the murders up close and personal. And where previously the victims of this arrangement fled and the horde butchered them brutally, this time there was simply resigned terror, and the invaders, after some momentary confusion, shrugged and killed them quietly, impersonally, and quickly, like putting away the dishes.

After I woke up it occured to me that it might be related to all the time I spent yesterday thinking about the damage of our car-centric culture (particularly in terms of loss of life), the unthinking acceptance most have of it, and the adamant resistance to alternatives.

Also, bleh, new pictures were on laptop, don’t even have gimp installed on new machine, it may be a bit before those new pictures become available.

So, should I buy a ‘new’ (used, but new to me) laptop for like $350 (my old laptop has issues galore, case is falling apart, it occasionally freezes when I try to pop the keyboard back into the broken case, and it has a vertical red line through the right side of the screen, as well as some bad graphics)? That’s what I did last time, and I got a little under two years out of it, replacing one hard drive, and an ac-adapter (the first one was because I wrapped it up stupid and damaged the wires). Or should I not abuse tom’s generosity, get a mostly new desktop for about the same amount (slightly cheaper), plugging in the hard drive and other stuff from my old computer. Would certainly have a better computer, but wouldn’t be able to do my net stuff downstairs anymore.

Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

Oh and this evening…

I ran the cable upstairs, hammering staples into the baseboard, setting up the router, and putting all my wannabe unix-geek apps (putty/mozillafirebird, emacs, etc) onto tom’s-desktop-that-I’m using.

Ro is definitely going to Albuquerque for work next week. I really don’t really want to miss the first week of the class. Fortunately, it is a tuesday only class, so I could fly out on wed. Unfortunately, it is a 3 hour long class, but dem’s da breaks.

Also, contemplating flying out to DC for ‘s birthday, seeing Liz and Craig, (my sister and her husband for those not in the know), and maybe checking out a grad school program there (over the weekend of the 13th).

And finally, I have a few pics taken on sunday, some of which my mother will never see. One which mom can certainly see will probably be my new lj icon. If any of y’all wanna see ’em, just ask.

Doo doo doo doo doo. Nuttin else major going on.

Suckorama

So, fun things that happened today

At the start of it all, my laptop ac adapter fried itself, melting through the insulation. Quite exciting that. So no more laptop, and thus, no more im, until I replace it for a ‘spare’ $300 or so. (Currently using one of tom’s desktops, previously volunteered for my use. But this is only temporary, dammit.)

I also had some twinging in my right hip. Well, after lifting, and overbalancing a weight backwards during a seated dumbbell military press my left rotator cuff is also not happy (I didn’t let it go, but didn’t really resist the fall, though I did try to bring it forward. There was an interesting sound, and no immediate pain, though my arm is sore now, I still have a full range of motion).

On the good news front though, the professor of the housing policy course is happy to let me take it through the extension. =) Woohoo! =)

more bits of my absence

I have developed an addiction to Puerto Rico. It’s a neat game, requiring at least 3 players and up to 5 players. Players plant fields of crops, build buildings (each of which does some special thing), import “colonists” (brown colonists, and you choose the work they do. Hmmm, I wonder) to work on those fields and/or buildings, and produce goods which you then sell for money or ship for points. Buildings are also worth points, and in the end, shocker, the person with the most points wins.

It’s a little complicated (I glossed over alot of detail in that description). I like it lots. Unfortunately, I think it’s wearing thin on the people I know who like such games. But a new game store in berkeley has gaming nights on tuesdays. And I still like the other games in the genre. Hrm.

Anyway. Other things.

Recently started going to express 20’s at the pacific center. A very friendly group of guys. Not heavy on the analytical types, but not bad for occasional mass social interaction.

Also went to a Renn fair in Novato. Turns out one of the guys I went with knew the first guy I fooled around with (where consent was never an issue, anyway). Also, party in the city.

Last night, went out to dinner with . Original plans were for the cheesecake factory, but my vegan-ness was saved by the line, so we went to Lucky Creation, followed by dessert at herbivore. Afterwards went to express 20’s party at someone’s apartment, significantly smaller than my own, yet more packed than, say, the dore alley street fair, on a person/sq ft basis. I wished Dan (whom I barely know, but is going back to Nawlins soon) a safe voyage, and bugged out.

I think I’m just not a party kind of guy. Which is a shame, because that seems to be the best way to meet friends of friends, which, I’m told, is the best way to find someone compatible. And I mostly believe it. Ah well.

A long time gone

So,

Stuff and events that have happened since last I posted, or at least, some of the big things.

I went to Albuquerque for work related stuff, which was not exciting, but highly productive. Over the weekend I was in NM, we went to Los Alamos, and went hiking through a mountain stream. This partially involved jumping off waterfalls taller than me into the murky depths of pools (thankfully) over my head. All in camo pants and a tshirt. On the way back, I traveled solo, and didn’t have the same destination as the rest of the group, oops. But hanging out by the highway, I was quickly found. (had I known the way to go, I would have run in to people more quickly walking, but oh well).

I also had an unprotected bottom in anal sex experience with an off-the-net hookup for the first time in, oh, over two years. It’s slowed me down, but not freaked me out (the way I was freaking out, oh, say, a year ago, right before I came out here).

Oh yeah, the anniversary of my first day in the bay area has passed. Yay that. =)

We have a sublessor for simon and a fifth roommate, Shannon Wu. Shannon is a vegan anthro senior at cal. She has a bf who she met through their internships at tivo. She was arrested during peace protests in sf (and the charges were dismissed). She’s fun, enthusiastic, insightful, tidy, and seems like she’ll be a generally interesting roomie.

Ro and I had several headbutting conflicts over the way the house should be. From my perspective, I’m for not taking a chance on doing something that’ll piss people off, and he’s for expediency. From his perspective, I’m betting I seem lazy, and he’s trying to bring order to the house, and clean up potential sources of conflict. There’s also the throwing away/making space, v saving for (admittedly unlikely) contingencies. Had a better time of things in Albuquerque, and with us settling into relatively independent lives (his very not house-centered, mine very house centered), conflict is reducing.

Ro got an office in soutwest berkeley. It’s spacious, cheap, and not much to loook at, though much more so now that we have a marker-able wall map of the world. He also got an exercise bike to pursue the entrepreneurial effort of setting up a game to link in to an aerobic machine.

I beat final fantasy IX, and am looking for other goals. Perhaps applying to grad school. =)

Volunteering for the Dean Campaign is kinda nerve-wracking, haven’t been keeping up on my duties as the GMHC rep for the HIPAA committee, and what not. But I’ve been surprisingly good about keeping the place clean.

Finished reading ecocities, seen pirates of the carribean, finding nemo, terminator 3, and probably one or two others. Found a guy who I’m kinda surprised that I like so much, but haven’t heard from him or seen him recently.

Really bumped up the workout stuff, (6x/week at the gym), biking 3 miles each way (and the return trip is grueling at the end) to work and back.

Other than that, not much to report. Heading off to men in their 20’s gay group discussion night. Not expecting much, but I’m prepared to be surprised.

more later.

a light at the end of the tunnel

Yay sublessor found, and should have a roommate selected before the end of the day tomorrow.

I was told that I ought to record the following phrase, used to describe the way of geeks:

“the reservation that spills over into passionate intensity, then vanishes”.

It’s kind of lame out of context, but still, it was a good thing at the time.

I still have goals of a real update. Oh, and reading my freaking friendslist at some point in time. So…. sleeepy.

G’night all, gym in the morning.

roommate search

Perhaps a lame way to return to lj, but better this than nothing. Continuing the search for roomies:

We have a great two-story five bedroom house, with yard, washer, dryer, dishwasher, deck, fireplace, hardwood floors, five minutes walk north of the cal berkeley campus. We have two rooms available until september and one room available after that.

We are four guys (one of whom is out of town), we’re intellectually inclined, politically active and progressive, vegetarian (2 lacto-ova’s, one free ranger, and one vegan), with some unusual hobbies, including strategy board games, intentional communities, urban design, and volunteering as well as some slightly more standard ones including soccer, volleyball, martial arts, yoga, time at the gym, cooking, computer rpgs, and comic books. One computer science grad student, one systems administrator for google, two research contractors for boeing, one of whom is considering grad school for next year.

We’re looking for someone who will be part of a home, not just sharing the rent. We cannot have smoking, children, or pets in our house. We vary in our neatness levels, but try to keep the public areas tidy. Sex and sexuality don’t matter to us (1 bi guy, 2 gay guys, 1 straight guy).

Rooms are of various sizes, rent will be no more than 675/month, depending on the room. We have cable with tivo, and broadband internet, as well as an in house network with wireless access. Utilities are not included, and will be split evenly. Security and last month’s rent total 1350. Near the corner of leroy and cedar.