| Monday, 2-28-05. Sunny and cool | |||
|
Tonight I was inspired, in a rather sudden urge, to listen to about an hour's worth of my favorite songs on the headphones. As most of my friends know, I tend to associate music with the time and place I first came to enjoy it. As a result, I was hit with a lot of rather gloomy visuals of my last place of residence in Santa Rosa (particularly centered around early 2004), as well as a lot of memories driving in the old truck. Since I had to part ways with it, I've tried to distance myself from my memories by playing the pickup off as just another material object, but it's moments like this that make that a near-impossibility. I feel that my 4 years in Santa Rosa were largely unproductive, aside from gaining what I could from a few scattered general credit classes and growing that much older. I feel my life since then, however is at least going somewhere, as I look upon those days as a passenger on a departing train might look at a 4-hour layover waiting in the station. I'm still not quite sure where I'm going or how long the trip will last, but at least I'm not just walking in circles anymore. It's almost like looking back at one's time they served in prison, and that view feels the most appropriate, defining most of my life until recently.
My sleeping patterns haven't quite been what they should be lately, but I'm trying to get back on some sort of regular schedule. Yesterday I donated a fair portion of the day to assisting my sister's move from the east bay, and my hands now feel as though someone smacked them with a baseball bat. I'll be joining her in about 3 weeks time, it appears... German word of the day: Holz (n) - Lumber, wood |
||
| Monday, 2-21-05. Drizzling and cool | |||
|
Woops. We have a project due this week in Arch 22A where we have to recreate a site plan on an 18 x 24 sheet of vellum, so last week I went out and bought a pad of the stuff... for fifty f*cking dollars, and that was at the cheap store. If that wasn't bad enough, I discovered last night that the pad I bought was graphed vellum, which won't gel with my project. As a result, I took BART down to return it today on a gamble (most art stores don't accept paper-related returns), but they did take it. This, after scraping ambiguous yellow funk off the receipt, which had been at the bottom of my garbage can since last week. If you're considering to be an architecture major, be prepared to spend several hundred dollars on supplies alone each semester.
It appears I've been accepted as the 4th roommate in the house my sister is set to move into. In celebration, I made brownies tonight at mom and dad's. Cubes of chocolate cake-ness never tasted so good. Though I'm giving up a lot by moving into a place with roommates again, I feel I'll gain more than I'll lose. To see if this is true, I drew up the following list: Positives: Much cheaper rent An amazing view of the mission and downtown Hardwood floors There will be people around to socialize with An oven A dishwasher A garbage disposal Access to a freezer No loud guy upstairs playing and singing Elvis Costello tunes... badly No loud guy upstairs making stomping and crashing noises at random hours No people staring down through my windows at me as they walk past on the sidewalk Less hassle with parking, and 50% less streetsweeper parking ticket bullsh*t Negatives: Sharing a bathroom with my sister Having people around that will want me to be social Not being able to walk around my apartment in my underwear Being subjected to roommates' music Having to cram a lot of furniture into a small room Having to move all my crap yet again The drive to the college is ten minutes longer Access to 280 is more difficult Indeed, it's definitely weighted on the positive side. Well this sucks. R.I.P. Hunter Thompson. German word of the day: Reklamation (f) - Complaint |
||
| Sunday, 2-20-05. Drizzling and overcast | |||
|
In preparation for my next Arch 22A project (drawing up a site plan from an existing one), I went to Kinko's today to make an 18 x 24" printout of a nice plan I found in a design book, only to find out it cost me over $30... and this at a time when money is extremely scarce in my life. So, the moral of this story is: if it costs more than $10, just print the damned thing out at home in pieces and tape it together, because it's not worth going to a print shop. While I was waiting, I did, however, become impressed with the Noah's Bagel Shop across the way. I'll have to return there to sample the delicious bageldom. Er.. bagelity? Bagelness?
German word of the day: Erniedrigung (f) - Humiliation |
||
| Saturday, 2-19-05. Drizzling and cool | |||
|
The folks have required me to make numerous visits this week, mainly to help unpack, put together furniture, and set up electronic devices. I'm beginning to think the experience of moving is contagious, as I might be moving out of my place in the coming months. There's an open room in a house my sister is moving into, and I'd be able to save considerable monthly funds if I were to join her there. It's not a sure thing, however, but something will certainly be needed soon in regards to saving on my monthly bills, and rent is my largest expense by a rather wide margin.
Justin and B came down today. After searching for parking for an excessive amount of time, we wandered around the Haight for a couple of hours looking for various items of clothing and footwear. It was a pretty rad time, as I'd never really explored the shops down there that much before. We followed that jaunt up with a stop by the pizza place down the way, then we watched Saw on DVD, before they headed back. I thought this was a rather interesting finding. German word of the day: Aus der Puste - Out of breath |
||
| Tuesday, 2-8-05. Overcast and cool | |||
|
Last night was the unintended sequel to a test I conducted on myself years ago. Being the awful procrastinator that I am, I began work on a major project that was due today late yesterday evening. I'd originally estimated that I'd be working until 3 or 4 am, but my old computer refused to make some vital printouts due to memory problems. Several hours of tinkering and swearing later, I managed to get everything done. Unfortunately, by then the sun was coming up, so I decided to see what would happen if I just loaded myself up with caffiene for the next day and stayed up until I normally go to bed. The whole experience was intended to see how I'd do, as I'd previously attempted this experiment years ago with less-than-favorable results. This time around I fared much better, and I kept myself busy this afternoon putting up scanned bits of my project into an album. The project presentation went extremely well, though I think I might have made one guy jealous or something, as, after not having said one word to me since the semester began, he suddenly began to offer nothing but a constant stream of criticism and negativity. I've also put up a timeline of significant events in my second lifetime experience in sleep deprivation.
German word of the day: An die Arbeit! - Get to work! |
||
| Sunday, 2-6-05. Sunny and cool | |||
|
Yesterday was rather interesting, as I woke up to my landlord pounding on my door and exclaiming about a gas leak. Apparently the crew of morons building a new house down the street hit a gas line in the back yard, and the fire department had to evacuate the whole block and dig up the street. I got dressed, grabbed my laptop, video camera, and a piece of banana bread, and went to visit the folks, who had just begun their ordeal to move to a new building free of the constant noise of 2 pile drivers. I helped dad move furniture and boxes, then set up all the electronics in the living room and office.
Today is the unofficial holiday of chips, dips, and beer: Superbowl Sunday. Amazingly enough, most big things have been unpacked and arranged at the folks' already, so we were actually able to lounge around to watch the game just like we normally would have otherwise. This evening I managed to pound out 3 starter iterations to this semester's design class process, and discovered that oil-based modelling clay is a bitch to work with. My favorite and final iteration is a little jutting figure made out of balsa wood and wire. We'll see how it all fares tomorrow. This was too funny not to watch. German word of the day: Bananaebrot (n) - Banana Bread |
||
| Friday, 2-4-05. Partly cloudy and cool | |||
|
Today was the day of ramping up on an effort to catch up with errands and procrastinated tasks. I vacuumed up a ton of spider webs and crud, went to the market, made a huge dinner of miso soup and teriyaki chicken with rice, and washed all my bedding. The best part, however, was when I finally re-strung my Jackson this evening, as the A string had decided to commit suicide last week. Instead of standard tuning, I tuned it all down half a step, which I haven't done since my last band. It was nice finally being able to play along with my old demos without having to bust out the Capo. Super Bowl Sunday is coming up, and the folks are moving tomorrow. I also somehow have to fit in making 3 baby-step iterations to kick off this semester's degin studio project. I think someone in the building stole my large red ice chest.
RIP, Ossie Davis. I was going to give this a vague reference, but the title says it all: Guess the Dictator or Sit-Com Character. German word of the day: Essenszeit (f) - Lunch/Dinner/Mealtime |
||