Category: Uncategorized

Well, it was surprising to hear about ‘s recent medical troubles, but by the time I heard about it, it seems that things were quite under control. It’s good to know that he’s being well cared for, and I hope for a speedy recovery.

My week and weekend has been much less adventurous. Gym stuff, groceries, installing freebsd (which happened far more smoothly this time than in any prior experience), clinic. Ro left for Albuquerque early yesterday. This morning I’m doing some atypical stuff, doing laundry, and in the wait times, I’m doing dishes, messing with my window manager (yay pwm), and what not. Definitely doing the gym and getting some work in today. Probably going to head down to south bay to hang out with tonight or tomorrow.

Tomorrow is my first day of my first post-secondary class anywhere other than cmu, and the probable arrival date for my new-to-me laptop.

Things have been feeling very blase to me lately. Many times in my life, the ones I’ve enjoyed most, have been experientially rich, vivid, and complex. Time is flying in CA, but like flying in a jet, the scenery has quickly become monotonous. Not sure how I’m going to ‘touch down’, but the time is coming.

Taking one course at cal costs as much as my share of one month’s rent. Good heavens. I definitely need more paying work. Bleh.

Well, it looks like I won’t be going to Albuquerque this time after all. I really want to make a good impression on this prof and do well in this class, and skipping the first meeting of it seems inadvisable. Maybe the external office will make it easier for me to do work on my own.

So, awhile ago, recommended I check out Lois McMaster Bujold. Said she did good stuff. I’m actually pretty impressed with the first one I sampled, Ethan of Athos, which I just returned to the library this morning. The characters are complex, yet likeable, with a great deal of verisimilitude. The story never jumps into anyone’s head but the protagonist’s (something I think is a big deal for , but not sure). It’s a suspense/mystery/action/espionage type book.

Furthermore, it’s the only scifi depiction of a gay protagonist I’ve seen (though, arguably, he’s not exactly gay as we understand the word), and even if we include fantasy, specifically, Lackey’s stuff, this is hands down better (unless you’re still in, or just coming out of the closet, then go for Lackey). But she does a good job of making it a human character. None of lackey’s neurotic obsessions with what it means to be gay. This guy has background worries about his designated alternate parent/lover’s irresponsible flakiness, and that is rapidly replaced with the much larger concerns about the reproductive fate of his planet, and the imminent safety of his life.

That’s a side note. I would rank it as great pulp, well worth the read. Think I’ll be reading more of her stuff. Yay women who write scifi. (Ms Bujold, Ms Butler, and Ms Cherryh coming specifically to mind).

And in the spirit of side notes, my rotator cuff feels like it’ll be sucking it for a little while, but I can do a fair amount of upperbody stuff at the gym without bothering it at all, and I think I will. Just have to stick to the machines, for now.

Also, my dad just called, and wanted info on howard dean. Yay! =)

So, I went to see ‘s play this evening, and I have to say I was quite impressed. It was way better than the showing of ‘Making Porn’ I saw in pittsburgh, lo those many years ago (as well as a couple of lesser known things I saw in chicago). The goings on were complicated, yet connected and interesting. The characters had some real development. I liked it. It was better than cats. I’ll see it again and again….

(went with , , and , enlightening political conversation on the way there, and love/sex talk on the way back.)

My shoulder is still broken, but it’s very selectively broken. I’m learning what specifically makes it unhappy, and plan to do upper body stuff tomorrow, slowly, gently, and at light weight, to see what I can do. I did do lower body today, and despite twinging, it was not a serious impediment either to that, or to biking to/from work. Yay.

Ro is leaving for Albuquerque next monday. I will join him tue sometime, after I see the first day of housing policy class. Here’s hoping.

74 fucking virus emails in one day? Damn, that’s actually pretty fucking impressive. In the past, the most I’ve gotten was like 4 or 5.

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.

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.

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! =)

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.