Fine by me's Journal
[Most Recent Entries]
[Calendar View]
[Friends]
Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Fine by me's LiveJournal:
[ << Previous 20 ]
| Friday, March 24th, 2006 | | 12:16 am |
Well, UW grades have been posted, and I've officially completed my undergraduate degree. I feel relieved, but I suppose it will take a while for it to really sink in. Next challenge: somehow accumulating at least $2000 over the next two months to finance the road trip -- WILL HE DO IT??? Current vacation fund balance= $140. Stay tuned. | | Tuesday, March 7th, 2006 | | 1:10 am |
Well, things are looking up here. My permanent replacement teeth have been seated and I can once again chow down on all the apples, carrots, and saltwater taffy I want - they're BETTER than real teeth; JEALOUS? You too can have your very own porcelain beauties for the very reasonable price of a piggy-back face-plant. My Terminator red-eye is just about cleared up, too. Today, while sipping on some coffee in the wait station, it struck me that this is my last week of college classes. The worst is over, and finals should be easily handled. F'in AWESOME. Before long, I'll have a diploma to slap on my wall at home and the adventure of a round-country roadtrip before me. | | Monday, February 13th, 2006 | | 10:40 pm |
Who is this mysterious saint, and why do we celebrate his holiday?
What do a supposedly martyred Roman Catholic priest, the pagan sacrificial festival of Lupercalia, and the medieval belief that birds mate in February all have in common? Yep -- Tomorrow. On Valentine's Day, two things happen: (1)Those without romantic interests with whom to share the day are left feeling a bit excluded and wistful, and (2)Those with romantic interests are filled with some degree of stress and anxiety about what the hell they should do for the other to live up to the expectations of the holiday. If you're in the latter camp, I wish you the best of luck with your passionate plans. If you're in the former group, call me up and we can go boycott cupid AND his nasty little arrows over some beverages. As an aside: Why do they have to be arrows?? You'd think think that if you were going to set a special day aside to celebrate romance and love, you would avoid associating it with pain (however often that turns out to be the case in non-fantasy land). Cupid should go around strewing about love-impelling lubricant, morning after pills, ear-muffs, long underwear, SOMETHING, NOT a freaking INSTRUMENT OF COMBAT. A winged INFANT flying around willy-nilly with a weapon certainly can't be making the most sound decisions regarding relationships -- which Roman deities are to blame for their complete negligence as parents? Cupid's never been laid; no wonder relationships so often go awry. I'm sticking with the subtle-yet-unexpected-any-time-of-year approach to romance. Although I suppose it really hasn't worked out that well for me recently. Shit. Any ladies need a date for tomorrow? I'll bring the roses, heart-shaped box of assorted chocolates, and my three shiny new temporary front teeth, courtesy of Soos Creek Dental. CRAP I need to be up at 5:30. Goodnight! | | Monday, February 6th, 2006 | | 9:43 pm |
Piggy-back rides kill
It seems that about once a year my life is punctuated with a particularly unfortunate incident. I got it out of the way early for '06. I was giving a young lady an innocent little piggy-back ride last night, when I managed to stumble over a slightly raised portion of sidewalk. My startled passenger instinctively clutched me tightly as balance gave way - so tightly, in fact, that my arms were pinned, and I was completely unable to extend them in an effort to brace for impact. To put it bluntly, I basically broke her fall with my face. SLAM. A little trip to the ER courtesy of Mr. Roberts led to tetanus shot, several sutures around my right eye, and some surprisingly humorous banter with the medical staff. A little trip to the dentist today led to the discovery that the necessary dental work to restore my teeth will cost me somewhere between $1200-1700 and consist of an always-pleasant root canal followed by three crowns. Goodbye tax return. I will be rocking the "razor-toothed cyclops" look for a bit here, but should be good as new sometime next week. If you're not queasy and you want a good laugh, call me up and come visit me -- I'll be in hermit mode out in the U-District. Following my recovery I will post some pictures of my beaten face. Later. | | Wednesday, February 1st, 2006 | | 10:35 pm |
Yep
So late Sunday evening/early Monday morning, it came to my attention that this week I was to face TWO midterms 9 (ugh), TWO papers (arrrgh), and ONE really stupid memorized acting performance (...noiseless look of disgust). Blindsided by these demands (which reveals how completely unfocused I've been this final quarter), I have nevertheless emerged on the other side... almost. One exam left on Friday. Drama 101. SHOULD be a cakewalk. It's about 10:45 and I have class tomorrow morning at 8:30; however, enticed by the fact that no major tests or homework assignments are due mañana, I am probably going to go take part in a wild game of Cranium™. Never played it, but I plan to win. Or be a very ungracious loser. Bye. Thanks to all those who attended MexiMargarita Night the other evening, except that really drunk annoying guy who somehow physically reminded me of a young, malnourished Gene Wilder on LSD. Anything else? Not that comes to mind immediately... 'Night. | | Wednesday, January 18th, 2006 | | 1:04 am |
It's been a while. I'm pleased to discover that no site administrators have purged my account from the system due to lack of activity in the 7-or-so months since my last update. Sweet. Sleeping until 4:00 today pretty much guaranteed that, come bedtime (now), I would be wide awake. This is indeed the case. Not sweet. I guess it says something about my academic efforts this final quarter that I find the sudden rekindling of an old online journal to be way more important than the contents of (1) "¿Sabías que...? 4th ed. Beginning Spanish", (2) "The Essential Theatre 8th ed.", or (3) "Essentials of Meteorology: An Invitation to the Atmosphere 4th ed." School is a joke this quarter, but my total freshman-style schedule of M-F classes beginning at 8:30 is taxing enough, particularly on days when I have to rise early, sit through lectures till 1:20, prepare for, travel to, and clock in at work, and run around the restaurant until I lock the doors and depart sometime after midnight. Then I get home and have a staring contest with the fine texts mentioned above. Closed, of course. // Life's good though. There's a giddy excitement slowly developing in me at the thought of graduating and taking off on a massive round-country roadtrip in my horribly battered Mirage. By the way Zach, you and Ben and I should all sit down soon and work out a few more details about the trek. // Several of us Seattleites have started a new hungover Sunday brunch tradition (unofficially dubbed "Brunchover"), and I would encourage everyone who's interested to join in -- I'll try to start spreading the word as far as time/location via my journal. Hangover optional. Later! | | Monday, June 20th, 2005 | | 11:48 am |
Just like the old days
Having not done so for some time, Nate and I hosted a rather rowdy party last night. I'll spare all those who were not in attendance the details, but in short: shitty Kent law enforcement was out to ruin our festivities. Sure we were wrestling and screaming "TITO" at every entrance of new arrivals and playing music loudly, but it's nothing we haven't done before. I blame the newer upstairs neighbors, and I absolutely do not feel sorry at all for disturbing them; those M-F'ers are the parents of the most unhappy baby ever to grace this city, and it cries and squeals at about 7:00am every fucking morning. For like 3 hours straight. I hate it. So you can take our noise complaint and cram it into your infant's bottle of milk you jackasses. The cops came twice; the first time they were real dicks, and they were trying to bully us around with "allegations of rape" (which they either made up on the spot or were told by our idiotic neighbors) -- we were extremely offended, and, accordingly, we were quite impolite to them. Eventually they departed. We turned the music down for about 5 minutes and then cranked it back up and continued on with our merriment. They returned with their sergeant a bit later and shut the party down for good, kicking nearly everyone out (which, in hindsight, Nate and I have agreed was completely illegal). We are in the process of filing a formal complaint with the Kent Police Department. We'll probably keep things mellow around here for a bit, but come the end of July there will be an enormous bash to celebrate our departure from "The Pad," so stay tuned for specifics. Thanks to all who came last night, and sorry about the bastard pigs. I will be camping tonight at the spot to celebrate the summer solstice (longest day of the year), so give me a ring if you're interested and want directions. | | Saturday, June 11th, 2005 | | 12:40 am |
Campbell's beef and barley soup is sort of lacking in the flavor department, and the broth-to-beef/barley/other vegetable ratio is way to high; I'm fishing for barley plankton in an ocean of beef fluid. Tomorrow I'll be heading out to my first city of residence in WA (Maple Valley) for the annual Maple Valley Days event. Pancake breakfast at 7am sharp, parade at noon, and various unplanned activities will fill the gap -- I wonder if they'll have a beer garden? If you wanna join us call Alan or myself. After MV Days, I head out to Seattle for a screening of a DCFC documentary, and from their straight to the Doves concert. I have to work a nasty double on Sun., which really chaps my ass because I thought that I'd permanently removed myself from weekend lunches and their hordes of tea-sipping elderlies, shirley temple slurping primary schoolers, and diaper-crapping infinitely unhappy crying babies. This will all be compounded by the fact that I will get very little sleep tonight and tomorrow night. And there's a fighting chance that a hangover effect could come into the scheme. Ah well. Ben's 23rd birthday is today, and after he's off work Saturday night some people will be meeting up in Redmond to celebrate appropriately -- the more the merrier. My soup has now cooled to the point of being nearly inedible. I wish you all a good morning. | | Friday, June 10th, 2005 | | 1:35 am |
Well everyone, summer vacation has arrived. I think I've nailed down some pretty nice grades this quarter, which kicks things off rather swankily. I want this summer to fill in what was lacking last June-August; I want this summer to be one of romance -- or at least satiated lust. I'm certainly not adopting a man-whore policy or anything, but a guys gotta have somethin, ya know? I will also utilize this time away from school to put forth a renewed effort musically, something that I've been meaning to do but have never gotten around to. I spent over a grand last year building a computer primarily for the purposes of recording, and that little fucker has been dormant for months gathering thousand dollar dust. So. I'll be at the sure-to-be-excellent Doves concert on Saturday. Tuesday and Thursday are my regular days off, but I am willing to expand the enjoyment of my summer to all days of the week, so call me up people! And now I will go sip some wine. | | Thursday, June 2nd, 2005 | | 8:29 pm |
I'm nearly free for the summer; two finals (one Monday, one Tuesday) and I'm out. I will not graduate on schedule (i.e. in a week), but I don't care much -- I'll coast on out winter quarter. Any big plans for the summer, everyone? In addition to camping, backpacking, BBQing, etc., I propose a group event -- maybe another road trip or a little vacation to New Orleans? I got a terrible haircut today. It really doesn't look bad, but it's not what I wanted at all. I'm really disgusted with my recent experiences with hair "stylists"; I explain to them at length and in great detail precisely how I'd like my hair cut, they nod and smile and assure me that they understand, and then they proceed to almost immediately fuck it up. I became very frustrated with the the lady today and argued with her for some time, but she kept defending herself by saying that I'd told her how to cut my hair incorrectly, which only irritated me more. I wanted to accuse her of being mentally inadequate for her job position and refuse to pay for the cut, but instead I said something like, "It's OK, it'll grow back," paid her, tipped her, and left. Refusing to pay seemed like such a slimeball thing to do, I just couldn't. I tipped the bitch solely because I knew she had already written me off as someone who wouldn't. The night before last I had the most white-trash meal ever. It didn't even occur to me until I had already started eating. I had before me (1) canned tuna, which I was eating right out of the can, (2) a piece of birthday cake (white cake, not chocolate, with decorative frosting and colorful sprinkles) and (3) an ice cold Coors Light. I just grabbed it all and sat down to watch a movie. A few bites later I stopped and laughed at myself. Deeeelicious. One of my professors today said something I liked: "If you're conservative be a compassionate conservative, and if you're liberal be a pragmatic liberal." There was some context to the quote but I don't care to type it all out. I've just finished filling out my extremely belated FAFSA on the web, and have nothing to do with the remainder of my evening except look forward to a lovely double shift tomorrow. Later. | | Tuesday, May 17th, 2005 | | 4:59 pm |
I poured over my textbook until 4:30am and slept for 2 hours in my car, and I'm still experiencing mild bouts of caffeine shakes after all the coffee I drank last night and this morning in preparation for a midterm today. It went OK, but the test was a bitch. A real toughie. My feelings of less-than-complete victory over that exam were quickly swept away with the discovery that I'd aced the midterm in the following class, however. In class today, I was struck by a thought that I found funny: isn't there a terrible irony in the fact that religious fundamentalist terrorists use the internet to plot their schemes? Like, "we hate your capitalist consumer culture and the globalization it precipitates but hey Osama hit me up on IM so we can coordinate some suicide bombings," those fucking crazies. Sonics game at 6:30 - it'll be a pleasure to view. I'm in a celebratory mood and would not at all mind "hittin' the sauce" a little bit tonight, so if any plans are brewing for this evening call me up. GO SONICS! | | Friday, May 13th, 2005 | | 2:34 am |
BANGARANG!
The Sonics edged out a victory over those dirty Spurs these evening, and I was fortunate enough to be in attendance for the win. Fuck Tony Parker, that little frenchie shit (I can't F'IN BELIEVE he's banging Eva Langoria). Anywho, I'm about to go play some intoxicated chess, so I'll LJ with all of you later... (I do believe I've broken new ground using "LJ" as a verb). F-word. Later. | | Wednesday, May 11th, 2005 | | 6:42 pm |
It is currently 6:42PM and I have just woken up and crawled out of bed. I'm really quite confused as to why I slept so long, considering that last night was a not-so-crazy evening of watching The Life Aquatic (great movie) and enjoying a couple beers before retiring at around 2:00AM. I suppose that sometimes ones body just decides that sixteen hours of sleep is the right ticket, although I've now slept through most of the day. Bad body, bad. I'm famished and am going to do something about it. | | Sunday, May 1st, 2005 | | 2:56 am |
AHHHHH POLTERGEIST
I was just sitting here, reading through various friends' LJs, when Nate's Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart "Super Hits" CD did a belly-flop off of the entertainment center. Freaky. Sort of. Ah yes, and for all of those who missed it the first time around, LJ username "slurves" is the roadtrip journal of Alan and I, soon to be punctuated with lovely pictures. | | Wednesday, April 20th, 2005 | | 12:15 am |
BBQ trout, turkey burgers, and Widmer Hefeweizen are an odd but tasty combination. 2 midterms down, one coming up next week -- the quarter is moving along surprisingly quickly. I work a double shift tomorrow, at the conclusion of which I'll be heading straight out into Seattle for The Good Life concert. Alan and I are heading out Thursday afternoon on a 4-day road trip to San Francisco and back, during the course of which we'll be seeing The Good Life in concert a couple more times, sampling the wares of every little brewery (and possibly some wineries) along the way, hiking out to Alamere Falls in Point Reyes National Seashore, and (hopefully) swooning local ladies with our unkempt, bearded, road-tripping, testosterone-radiating charms. Yep. The road-worn Mirage will once again be called upon to defy mechanical failure and transport its voyagers a considerable distance. We will do our very best to bring back wild stories and photos to document our exploits. Later. | | Tuesday, April 12th, 2005 | | 5:36 pm |
I am now the proud owner of (1) a brand new, entirely toilet-water/urine-free cellphone, and (2) a new pair of glasses, which have delivered me from the agony of old, worn contact lenses. In fact, I'm wearing them right now; as anyone who has experienced it knows, it's strange wearing glasses again after such a long streak with only contacts -- there's a very weird and awkward, "I'm looking out from inside a fishbowl" visual distortion that'll pass within a few hours, but in the meantime I'm ogling at the room around me like a newly pubescent teen would a porno mag. I'm still lacking many phone numbers that I once had, so call me up. One of my professors today, in discussing the transition to the "new financial environment" of the U.S. (during which a number of regulations regarding interest rate ceilings and reserve requirements were loosened in such a way that commercial banks greatly benefited) started saying something wild about "the bankers celebrating their new fortunes and their fountains of champagne were lubricating the wheels of Congress." The words themselves, combined with his mediterranean accent, were just plain hilarious. OK, I'm off to go get some food. Happy birthday, roommie! | | Monday, April 11th, 2005 | | 12:58 am |
Burnin' the midnight oil
I've heard and used the phrase many times, without knowing the precise definition, so I looked it up in an idiom dictionary. I can't say exactly why it's funny to me, but I laughed heartily when I read the definition, especially the last example. Burning The Midnight Oil: You are "burning the midnight oil" when you are working hard late into the night. Example: "I could see the light in your window last night. It looks like you have been burning the midnight oil." Before they had electric lamps, people used oil-burning lamps to read or work in the darkness at night. When you are working very hard until late at night you are "burning the midnight oil." "Has your son been working hard to prepare for his final exams?" Reply: "He sure has. He's been up each night burning the midnight oil." Just finished whisking away the evidence of card playing, junk food eating, and alcohol consumption that had accumulated over the past couple days here at the ol' pad \\ I have a bottle of Ridge Sonoma Station Zinfandel and "Cold Mountain" rented on DVD (which I've never seen, but have been meaning to) \\ With a little luck, tomorrow I'll be enjoying the pleasures of cellular communication while sporting a new pair of specs \\ Tonight was Euro-night in my section at work, and those thick-accented pricks never fail to tip poorly, even given their high-value currency \\ Fucking women. Adios. | | Thursday, April 7th, 2005 | | 8:09 pm |
karma got me
Howdy. So I was briskly walking to my car in the rain out at UW today, when I realized that I very much had to urinate. Being only a few short yards away from my vehicle, however, I decided that I would just hop in, hit the freeway, and hold it until arriving home. This was a terrible idea. Despite my belief that I could beat rush hour nastiness, I ended up in thick traffic on I-5, 405, and 167 for an extended period, creeping homeward sloooooooowly and clenching my soon-to-erupt bladder in the excruciating need to let loose some serious piss. I probably could have fought through the back-ups to an exit and made it to a gas station or something, but that would have involved both considerable time making it to the station and then back onto the freeway -- plus, I was pretty sure that I could not walk upright at that point, and I wanted to avoid the embarrassment of a frantic hobble to the restroom. Anyway, I finally rolled into my parking stall at the pad, and as I limped to the door folded over at nearly 90 degrees, a very funny idea struck me: when I at last could release the tide of fluid that was swelling inside me, it would no doubt be the single longest urination of my life to date, and what better way to celebrate that fact than by calling up a friend and leaving the entire outrageous stream as a voicemail??! (<----ugly punctuation, I know) I could single-handedly prank a buddy AND audibly document my incredible feat. I stormed into the bathroom phone in hand, called up Nate, and let the dam burst. It had to be some kind of record. Laughing and feeling very, very relieved, I clapped shut my phone in triumph........ only to DROP IT STRAIGHT INTO THE TOILET. I yelped and panicked and floundered and juggled and cursed as instant karma shattered my light-hearted moment of humor. I recovered the phone, but it was done for. As several of you are aware, the phone was practically brand new, having replaced my previous one only a month or so ago. I had just re-assembled my phonebook dammit. Frustrated and feeling like a real jackass, I got things all squared away with insurance and my wireless provider. My new new phone will arrive Monday. If you would care to help me get my phonebook going again, just leave me a voicemail with your name + number and I will access the message when my new phone arrives. Later. | | Sunday, April 3rd, 2005 | | 12:37 am |
Fuck "Spring Forward"
So, I already dropped my much-feared Econometrics course at UW (which, in terms of prerequisite math and statistics knowledge, I was totally unprepared for and almost certain to fail), and have replaced it with a no-sweat, freshmen level on-line environmental science class. Tally 5 easy credits, please. However, the rest of my school schedule remains very demanding, and the overall outlook for the quarter has been bumped down from "guaranteed academic suicide" to "difficult but manageable, even tolerating a small degree of procrastination. But not much." A book that I'm currently reading for class, "Prosperity and Violence" by Robert Bates, is very readable and recommended to anyone with an interest in political economy. I'd like to have a beer right now, but given the amount of cold medicine that's in my system, it would be a terrible idea (apparently, acetaminophen + booze = one very unhappy liver). After suffering with my current pair of contact lenses (which are one-month disposables that I've been using for no less than four months), I have a fresh supply plus a brand spankin' new pair of glasses (which I've been without ever since the Keg X-Mas party) en route and due to arrive in the near future. This is fine news indeed. I have all of Sunday off, some of which must be devoted to studying, but the rest of which is absent of plans. Call me up. Goodmorning everyone, I'm going to bed and losing an hour of precious sleep. | | Monday, March 28th, 2005 | | 11:29 pm |
$356.48 = My total expenditure on books for spring quarter. Ouch. That oh-so-good NyQuil warm, comfy feeling should ensure a decent night's sleep in preparation for my first day of classes tomorrow. I do believe that this quarter will be my most difficult academic experience ever, but I hope that I'm wrong. It's not that I don't appreciate a challenge, but if I have to spend hours each week crunching numbers for my econometrics course I just might lose it. There might be a serious issue with my choice of major considering my distaste for math, because it seems that the further I delve into Econ, the more high-level calculus and linear algebra they try to cram down my throat. Ah well. Spring break was not nearly what I hoped it would be, largely due to the nasty swan dive face plant that I took last Sunday -- looking like Leatherface can be seriously damaging to one's confidence and charismatic abilities, especially considering that I'm a server by trade. Band aids + facial wounds aren't particularly appetizing. Anyway, I'm 90% healed, but spring break is over, a large load of schoolwork lies ahead, and that Nyquil is reeeeaaallly kickin' in now, so I bid everyone a pleasant evening. A few of us are going to catch some quality music tomorrow night at Chop Suey (Western States and Hypatia Lake, amongst others), so anyone interested in friendly banter over drinks and sonic goodness should come along. 'Night. |
[ << Previous 20 ]
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.6){kind=small}
pens_run_dry's journal