Category: Uncategorized

Fun birthday

Today (yesterday, whatever) was fun.

I got up late. I went over to ‘s place where I tried valiantly to study, with mixed success. I met his roommates or, more accurately, met one of his roommates, and saw one of his roommates for the first time in a long time. A good time was had. I kinda expected I wouldn’t be able to go climbing, but at the last minute Matt called and said he was borderline. I encouraged him to take me.

I embarrassed myself repeatedly at the climbing gym. I only made it up to the top on one route once. Partially, I’m out of shape, partially I’m not that good at climbing, and partially, the fear of heights is strong within me. But I enjoyed it. And some of the climbing was just wow. Like the guy who used the autobelaying simple route like a stairmaster. I’m convinced his calves are bigger than my thighs. And the lead climbers who were literally climbing along the ceiling. I flipped out a couple of times on a straight up and down. It was neat. Assuming I have time I may go again.

WAA was there, we had a couple brief chats. She encouraged me to think about our shared fear on the wall as a more advanced sense of self preservation. She also told me to try the rainbow tassel. Then after a moment’s pause, she told me not to tell “them” she’d told me that. I <3 her. We ran out of the climbing gym and arrived at the thai restaurant just in time, where we had discussions ranging from linguistics through various society's pooping technologies to a painstaking dissection of the bill. Mmm, tastiness. This was followed by a trip back to ‘s place, where hard ciders were had and discussion continued. Someone asked me about final fantasy, and I traced the history of rpgs from their wargaming roots to digitization and the differences between WoW and FFXI. People started dropping off not long after that. Then I came home and won a 2 player game of caylus.

Now, to sleep. ciao.

I’m 30

Most of yesterday I spent working on my papers & stuff. Then I went out to dinner with Matt, and a couple friends of his from Chicago and his roommates, followed by the Gay Law Students bar crawl. Matt was somewhere between endearing and annoying, making a big deal out of my birthday. It’s definitely nice to know he cares though. Today will be more paper writing and the wall-climbing leukemia/lymphoma fundraiser thingy. Currently blowing off some paperwriting time, but I’ll get to it soon…

Paperwork, post-graduation, and my nomadic existence

Paperwork in the morning, a bureaucrat’s delight.

So, the first meaningful thing I did this morning was get to the DMV about 10 minutes after they opened. An hour later (most of it, of course, spent waiting in lines), I got a receipt, a corner nicked off my CA driver’s license, and the assurance that my license would be along in 3-6 weeks. Ugh. Considering I plan on being on a plane to London in 5 weeks, I’m hoping it’s closer to 3.

Then I came to campus, had a bagel, and picked up my graduation packet. It’s actually not all that bad. Just a couple of sheets of paper. Graduation, coming up so soon…

Well, let’s see, I have to move to chicago, deal with my stuff. I don’t think a good idea to u-haul it down. The expense of a u-haul or other arrangement is probably more than the cost of my bookshelves. The books can be sent for less than $100 guestimate (yay media rate mail). Most of the clothes aren’t worth much (when your pants provide no barrier to fisting while worn, it is perhaps time they be thrown out). Computery bits, well, I got the monitor for $25 a couple years ago. I’d give it away and be happy. The computer itself isn’t bad, but isn’t rockstar. I’d want to keep my hard drives, but the rest of it I’d gladly sell, probably for $100 or so. My Box(es) of Emotional Baggage, I might want to sort through and reduce. I’ll probably store some stuff either in the basement or in a self-storage facility, and come and get it some weekend in August or September.

is taking my room when I leave.

Then poof. Another city I’m done with. Another set of friends to say goodbye to. Graduate and head on down to Chicago a couple days later. Spend a day or two in town before heading off to Europe for 3 weeks. Head to San Fran on my return trip and stay there for 10 days or so. That should leave me in mid-to-late June. I’ll probably take a week in Pittsburgh, and a weekend Seattle before the Gay Games. I’d like to do a bike/camping trip for an extended weekend. I may also head to southern illinois and spend some time with the extended family. Then I swim in the Games and start work the following Monday.

I’m still not sure about the chicago office. I like the people. The location will probably be more tolerable now that Thai and I are on better terms. But the lack of the natural resources & the environment team in the office makes me wonder if I couldn’t do better somewhere else. But I’m also sick and tired of moving. My current mood is “switch to somewhere with the NRE team”, but I’m open to persuasion.

So, that’s the course I’ve charted for my future. =)

In the theme of utter bullshit

So, the first of 5 problems on a POLICY homework assignment, assumes that the student is capable of determining the density of air at arbitrary temperatures. I say “assumes” because the information is nowhere to be found in the chapter in question or in the index.

I did not come to grad school for policy to be tested on my ability to google air density tables.