Well, I’m going to be heading home very shortly for Easter break so there won’t be anything new posted until probably Monday when I get back to work on my senior thesis defense (I give it on Tuesday night, wish me luck).
Yesterday we had gotten some pretty crappy weather up here—mostly slush, ice, and snow. It made for a very ugly day and the driving wasn’t the greatest, although it wasn’t overly horrible. I got back last night from taking Kristin home and curled up in my blanket, watched some television, and relaxed. I relaxed so much that I fell asleep right there on the couch, probably around 11:30 pm or so. It was a very deep sleep too, just to let you know, until my cell phone started ringing.
Being startled out of my sleep, I grabbed it and answered it. It was one of my roommates calling, but I didn’t know why as he constantly kept breaking up. My cell phone really blows out here on campus. I put it down and just wanted to get back to sleep. Nope, that wasn’t going to happen as the apartment phone started ringing. I picked it up and it was the same roommate. Turns out he wanted a ride home from his friends place in St. Joe, which is where he usually stays on the weekends. It was 1:30 am in the morning and I sure as heck didn’t want to leave our apartment. I was sleeping, dammit! Couldn’t you tell by my hardly being able to talk on the phone? Oh, wait, he probably couldn’t tell because he was drunk. Have I ever told you all how much drunk people annoy me? This is one of the reasons why.
I go get into my car and drive over to get him. I get there, he seems kind of sad and the girls at the place he was staying at told me he’d been drinking. I couldn’t have felt more like a parent then at that moment. It was like I was going to pick up my drunk kid from one of his friend’s houses where he’d been caught. Drunks are a lot like children in that they do a lot of stupid things and overreact. I was still sleepy, and when we got into the car, my roomie told me that he had been accused of being a parental figure at the bar. Yeah, one of his friends said that he should stop acting like his dad. Did you catch that? He wanted to come home because he got yelled at for acting like a dad. For crap’s sake, that’s nothing to get upset over……unless you’re drunk. I was not happy at all, and I’m still not, that I had to get up, get dressed, go pick up my roommate, and bring him home because of something as dumb as that. I should have just told him to stay there, but I’m too nice (which I think some people really take advantage of and aren’t appreciative of it *cough*Yen*cough*). Sorry about that, I’ve had a cold lately.
I would have thought that my roommate would have stayed away from the bars more since he just had a big incident a couple of weeks ago where his friend got jumped, beat up, taken to the hospital, and stitched up. Doesn’t something like that tell you something about the place you are hanging out at? He is always at that bar and always drunk. He’s even beat up on me when he’s drunk and tried hitting on my girlfriend. It’s so sad that all he wants to do is hit the bars and get drunk. When will people learn? Maybe they’ll only learn if I stop being so nice. Is it going to take tough love to get some people to turn around, or is it possible for them to find in their hearts that they should turn things around? I really don’t know. I just wish things would change.
Thursday, April 17, 2003
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
84 Degrees and Subtracting
Oh my goodness, how could you have any more of a beautiful day than yesterday? It was 84 degrees and sunny out up here. Summer is truly arriving in wonderful fashion……or is it? Thursday’s forecast for St. Cloud says 33 degrees and a 60% chance of snow. Only in Minnesota can our weather fluctuate that much. In the course of 3 days there would be a 51 degree swing in temperature! I am thoroughly amazed at how the weather works in our world. Any meteorologist that can predict the weather perfectly must be the second coming of Jesus, because I know that no one else can tell what the heck is going on with the weather most of the time.
Since it was so nice, there was no way you were going to keep me indoors for very long. After work and class, I picked up a couple of books, grabbed a chair, dragged it outside, and planted myself down for a while to bask in the sun and get a load of reading done. I am currently in the process of reading Albert Camus’s The Plague and The Case of the Speluncean Explorers: Nine New Opinions by Peter Suber.
I have developed a lot of respect for Camus after reading The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus. His writing is very unique in that it all seems so bleak, yet I don’t want to put it down. Not having read many existential works, I wonder if all the writings in that vein are as despairing as Camus’s works. The Stranger presented a view on life where lucidity and quantity were the only things that mattered. Aspiration, ambition, and self-improvement all seemed to be unimportant notions. Live the life you’re given as long as you can and live it with your eyes wide open. This is the best life. I found this hard to swallow, but the way Camus writes makes it seem like that is the only way. So far The Plague is a very downtrodden novel as well, and I am very interested to finish it (only about 1/3 left to go).
Anyhow, after I had indulged my nerdy reading fetish for the day, I took a quick little nap before going for a run. How could you possibly not want to just up and run all over when it is so nice out? I put in a few miles and did some lifting. Afterwards I felt so refreshed, yet I wasn’t actually tired. There’s just something about spring that invigorates the soul and keeps you from getting tired. Whereas winter is such a lazy time of the year, spring means movement, growth, and energy. Still having tons of energy, I played some sand volleyball. After seeing some of the people there at the courts, I realized that for as much time as I’ve spent in the sun, I’m still horribly pasty and white. I don’t know, but maybe the countless years of growing up on the farm have hardened my skin to the sun, which is a good thing, but I would also like to be like everyone else sometimes where it would only take a day in the sun to get tan. I guess I’d rather have conditioned skin than skin that burned easily, though, so I’ll quit complaining.
Since it was so nice, there was no way you were going to keep me indoors for very long. After work and class, I picked up a couple of books, grabbed a chair, dragged it outside, and planted myself down for a while to bask in the sun and get a load of reading done. I am currently in the process of reading Albert Camus’s The Plague and The Case of the Speluncean Explorers: Nine New Opinions by Peter Suber.
I have developed a lot of respect for Camus after reading The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus. His writing is very unique in that it all seems so bleak, yet I don’t want to put it down. Not having read many existential works, I wonder if all the writings in that vein are as despairing as Camus’s works. The Stranger presented a view on life where lucidity and quantity were the only things that mattered. Aspiration, ambition, and self-improvement all seemed to be unimportant notions. Live the life you’re given as long as you can and live it with your eyes wide open. This is the best life. I found this hard to swallow, but the way Camus writes makes it seem like that is the only way. So far The Plague is a very downtrodden novel as well, and I am very interested to finish it (only about 1/3 left to go).
Anyhow, after I had indulged my nerdy reading fetish for the day, I took a quick little nap before going for a run. How could you possibly not want to just up and run all over when it is so nice out? I put in a few miles and did some lifting. Afterwards I felt so refreshed, yet I wasn’t actually tired. There’s just something about spring that invigorates the soul and keeps you from getting tired. Whereas winter is such a lazy time of the year, spring means movement, growth, and energy. Still having tons of energy, I played some sand volleyball. After seeing some of the people there at the courts, I realized that for as much time as I’ve spent in the sun, I’m still horribly pasty and white. I don’t know, but maybe the countless years of growing up on the farm have hardened my skin to the sun, which is a good thing, but I would also like to be like everyone else sometimes where it would only take a day in the sun to get tan. I guess I’d rather have conditioned skin than skin that burned easily, though, so I’ll quit complaining.
Monday, April 14, 2003
Karma Readjustment
Things have gone a lot better since Thursday. I always like to think that after a horrible day such as that, the next few days will be a lot better so that my karma doesn’t dip too much in one direction or another. I think my theory holds, at least from how the weekend went.
Friday night Vu and I went to the T-Wolves game against the Clippers. This was his first game that he’d ever been to, and he got to see the Wolves do some stomping as they obliterated the celler-dwelling Clippers by 16. SJU had at least 100 seats in our section reserved for all of the people who were in the Johnnie-Tommie 3-on-3 tournament, but Vu, myself, and only about 6 other people showed up. I don’t understand why you would miss a T-Wolves game if given the opportunity, even though it was against a horrible team. I knew there wouldn’t be much competition, but it was still great to see the Wolves in action with my own eyes.
After the game, since we didn’t have to be back anytime soon or have anything to do, we headed off to Mystic Lake Casino to throw some of our money away……and that’s exactly what I did do. I managed to lose $25 in a little over 20 minutes. Ouch. Vu also went down $35 right off the bat, but we (and by we, I mean he) stayed in and kept playing. Over the next hour and a half or so, he managed to win back all of his losses, then he won back all of my losses, and then he went up about $25. I was amazed. The luck just seemed to shift towards his end of the table. I also can’t thank him enough for giving me $25 since I lost mine so quick. That small gesture (well, it wasn’t really so small since it was $25 after all) was the best part of the night. Just knowing that I have a great friend like that who would go out of his way to do something that nice when he could have just as easily kept the winnings all to himself. He didn’t lose my money, so why should he have to give it back to me? He was just nice like that……unlike a little someone who borrowed my car and was too damn cheap to put any gas in the tank even though I told her that was the one condition in which she got my car. I’m not going to say any…*cough*Yen*cough*…names, but that just wasn’t cool.
We got home really late Friday night so I headed right to bed since I had a volleyball tournament in the morning. When I reminded Chen of this fact he only then realized that his thesis defense and the tournament were at the same time. I was now down to two guys for a 3-on-3 tournament. The next morning Casey and I called everyone we knew, but no one was around so we eventually picked up some random guy at the courts to play with us. We won our first two games, but lost our second two. Being it was a double elimination tournament, we were then done. We did have a fun time, though, which is all that really mattered to me. They also had a lot of free food, and not just crappy free food, I’m talking grilled burgers and dogs. Casey and I got our fill before we left. As we were leaving I found out Casey would be here next year as he was taking grad classes at SJU, so we’ll still have another legacy player on our volleyball team (which is good since it is a lot harder to replace guys on volleyball teams).
That night my family came up to visit and see Karl perform in The Crucible. Seeing it again was really fun. I think they did a wonderful rendition of it, even if they changed the costume and stage to be weird just for weirdness sake. After the play, my family and Kristin hung out at her room until the late hours of the night. We had a little celebration for my mommy’s birthday since we were all together.
After my parents took off for their motel, all of us went back to my apartment only to walk in and find it taken over by Luka, his brother, and a bunch of their random friends. None of them lived in our apartment, yet they had commandeered our living room for their use. It wasn’t too big of a deal except my brothers and I wanted to go to bed. They could have went over to Luka’s apartment, which was only a 20 second walk from mine, but they just didn’t leave, which was not cool in the least. I had commented a couple of times that we were going to bed and even brought our pillows and blankets out into the living room, but they didn’t seem to take notice or care. Not wanting to kick them out and seem like a dick (even though I had every right to, and should have), Ryan and I went down to the lounge in the basement and slept on the couches down there.
The next morning my family had to take off for my cousin’s confirmation in Janesville. It was really nice having them all up for a night. I kind of get to missing them a little bit while I’m up here. Anyhow, after they left I went against my better judgment and cleaned up after the people that had stayed in our living room. No one else in our apartment ever seems to want to clean so I usually give in and do it. If I didn’t take out the trash in our apartment, it would not have been emptied once yet this year. It’s just a little annoying that our place gets so dirty (especially since I’m a tad bit of a neat freak).
I spent the rest of the day reading out in the sun, going for a run, and then watching the new Simpsons and Malcom over at Kristin’s place. It’ll be weird during the summer not going over to her place on Sunday nights to watch tv as it has become automatic for both of us. Anyhow, I think the weekend turned out a lot better than last Thursday. It’ll be even better when I get all of my gas money ($10), and not only part of it (the proposed $6). The money really doesn’t matter to me, it’s just that I hate it when people don’t follow through on their promises and aren’t appreciative. I guess some people just have a hard time realizing that the world doesn’t revolve around them.
Friday night Vu and I went to the T-Wolves game against the Clippers. This was his first game that he’d ever been to, and he got to see the Wolves do some stomping as they obliterated the celler-dwelling Clippers by 16. SJU had at least 100 seats in our section reserved for all of the people who were in the Johnnie-Tommie 3-on-3 tournament, but Vu, myself, and only about 6 other people showed up. I don’t understand why you would miss a T-Wolves game if given the opportunity, even though it was against a horrible team. I knew there wouldn’t be much competition, but it was still great to see the Wolves in action with my own eyes.
After the game, since we didn’t have to be back anytime soon or have anything to do, we headed off to Mystic Lake Casino to throw some of our money away……and that’s exactly what I did do. I managed to lose $25 in a little over 20 minutes. Ouch. Vu also went down $35 right off the bat, but we (and by we, I mean he) stayed in and kept playing. Over the next hour and a half or so, he managed to win back all of his losses, then he won back all of my losses, and then he went up about $25. I was amazed. The luck just seemed to shift towards his end of the table. I also can’t thank him enough for giving me $25 since I lost mine so quick. That small gesture (well, it wasn’t really so small since it was $25 after all) was the best part of the night. Just knowing that I have a great friend like that who would go out of his way to do something that nice when he could have just as easily kept the winnings all to himself. He didn’t lose my money, so why should he have to give it back to me? He was just nice like that……unlike a little someone who borrowed my car and was too damn cheap to put any gas in the tank even though I told her that was the one condition in which she got my car. I’m not going to say any…*cough*Yen*cough*…names, but that just wasn’t cool.
We got home really late Friday night so I headed right to bed since I had a volleyball tournament in the morning. When I reminded Chen of this fact he only then realized that his thesis defense and the tournament were at the same time. I was now down to two guys for a 3-on-3 tournament. The next morning Casey and I called everyone we knew, but no one was around so we eventually picked up some random guy at the courts to play with us. We won our first two games, but lost our second two. Being it was a double elimination tournament, we were then done. We did have a fun time, though, which is all that really mattered to me. They also had a lot of free food, and not just crappy free food, I’m talking grilled burgers and dogs. Casey and I got our fill before we left. As we were leaving I found out Casey would be here next year as he was taking grad classes at SJU, so we’ll still have another legacy player on our volleyball team (which is good since it is a lot harder to replace guys on volleyball teams).
That night my family came up to visit and see Karl perform in The Crucible. Seeing it again was really fun. I think they did a wonderful rendition of it, even if they changed the costume and stage to be weird just for weirdness sake. After the play, my family and Kristin hung out at her room until the late hours of the night. We had a little celebration for my mommy’s birthday since we were all together.
After my parents took off for their motel, all of us went back to my apartment only to walk in and find it taken over by Luka, his brother, and a bunch of their random friends. None of them lived in our apartment, yet they had commandeered our living room for their use. It wasn’t too big of a deal except my brothers and I wanted to go to bed. They could have went over to Luka’s apartment, which was only a 20 second walk from mine, but they just didn’t leave, which was not cool in the least. I had commented a couple of times that we were going to bed and even brought our pillows and blankets out into the living room, but they didn’t seem to take notice or care. Not wanting to kick them out and seem like a dick (even though I had every right to, and should have), Ryan and I went down to the lounge in the basement and slept on the couches down there.
The next morning my family had to take off for my cousin’s confirmation in Janesville. It was really nice having them all up for a night. I kind of get to missing them a little bit while I’m up here. Anyhow, after they left I went against my better judgment and cleaned up after the people that had stayed in our living room. No one else in our apartment ever seems to want to clean so I usually give in and do it. If I didn’t take out the trash in our apartment, it would not have been emptied once yet this year. It’s just a little annoying that our place gets so dirty (especially since I’m a tad bit of a neat freak).
I spent the rest of the day reading out in the sun, going for a run, and then watching the new Simpsons and Malcom over at Kristin’s place. It’ll be weird during the summer not going over to her place on Sunday nights to watch tv as it has become automatic for both of us. Anyhow, I think the weekend turned out a lot better than last Thursday. It’ll be even better when I get all of my gas money ($10), and not only part of it (the proposed $6). The money really doesn’t matter to me, it’s just that I hate it when people don’t follow through on their promises and aren’t appreciative. I guess some people just have a hard time realizing that the world doesn’t revolve around them.
Friday, April 11, 2003
Could Anything More Go Wrong?
So I really didn’t fix the problem with my website, it just kind of went away all magically and crap, which is good……but weird. Apparently just SJU and CSB students couldn’t access it for a couple of days, and for what reason? Who’ll ever know? Thanks to the couple of people who actually emailed me and helped me out—there weren’t many of you, so that either means my audience base is waning or that no one wants to send me emails. Either way, it’s not going to deter me from my writing.
Yesterday seemed to me to be a day of contradiction…well, not contradiction exactly, but maybe more of extreme opposites. I had some awesome highs and some deprecating lows. Life always seems to be like that, though, in that you rarely ever remember the mediocre times, but instead only remember the highs and the lows. I guess it’s only natural that we wouldn’t want to remember what was boring or mundane.
I hopped on this tilt-a-whirl of a day yesterday between classes. Up until that point, everything was cool and normal, but then I got a phone call from one of my friends asking, well, more so demanding that she use my car because she had a job interview and her best friend just left her hanging. Before I go any further, I’m just curious as to what kind of friends people have if their best one just bails on you when it comes to something as important as a job interview. I would never be able to do that to one of my friends, let alone my best friends. Understandably, I sympathized and going against my better judgment, I loaned her my car for her interview, however, on one condition—that she fill the tank with gas. I figured that would be repayment enough, especially considering this person had a very bad track record with using my car. After loaning out my car, I headed down to frisbee practice.
It was a beautiful day so I was looking forward to playing some good disc in the sun. Needless to say, after we got done throwing around and practice actually started, it got crappy quick. The guys team was going to put a zone on the girls team so that they could get some experience against it before the tourney, but they only had six people and you need seven for a team. I said I would play with them, but their captain, Maggie, told me absolutely not and that I’d watch. She picked someone else to go in instead. What a bitch move! I was inches away from back-handing her on the spot. Lil’ B sympathized and let me in to play after a bit. As I was playing, it was just no fun, and no one was subbing so I was forced to watch most of the time on the sidelines, not wanting to be mean and just sub myself in and make someone sit. I don’t like being a jerk like that. Being it was so nice out, I didn’t want to waste the day so I just left and went for a run.
My run was so peaceful and serene that it made up for all the crap the day had presented me so far. I bathed in the sun, got a good work out, and simply smiled because it was so beautiful out. As I got home, I saw my keys on my chair, which means that Yen brought my car back, which is good because she has been known not to in the past. Of course, the good had a bad side—she didn’t leave a note as to where my car was. Cute. Well, I got ready to go out for the night and Yen showed up walking by my apartment so I asked her where my car was, so that dilemma was resolved. She also said that she had put gas in my car, which was also nice to hear. Things were back on the upswing…
…Until I got out to my car and got in. The gas gauge sure didn’t read full, in fact, it was lower than when I borrowed it out. Put gas in the tank, my ass. Maybe she just farted a lot on the way home or something, but there sure wasn’t any gasoline put in the tank. Why would you lie about something like that? Am I not going to notice the gas gauge when I get in? Did she really think that I was that stupid? I don’t really know, but I do know that I should trust my instincts more and not give in to her any more. I’m always getting screwed for being nice, I don’t get it. I guess no one has any gratitude anymore. More proof to show that people suck.
I was still determined to have a fun night, so Kristin, Vu, Laura, and I decided to go out and hit up bingo. At the Emporium, if you’re new you get in free so we would get to play for nothing!!! When we got there, though, we found out they had quit doing that a couple of months ago and also that Thursday nights are the only full-price nights. We just picked the wrong night. Now instead we decided to hit up a movie at the cheap theater. Unfortunately, none of the good movies were playing at the late time, so that was also out. Things were just not swinging our way at all, so we hit up the mall for a while. That was a lot of fun, and it helped bring my mood up.
Still determined to do something we went bowling and had a blast. I even bowled a game left handed!!! And got a 59 doing it!!! Thank goodness the night finally turned out good. We all had a great time, we were all happy, and I could end the day on a positive note…or so I thought.
Back at CSB, Kristin was going to buy us a pizza to eat so I asked them to put in a pepperoni for us, which they did, but when it was ready, they asked me how many pieces I wanted. Uhh…all of them? I ordered the entire pizza remember? Oh, you did? Well, we already put half of it out and people took it. What the hell? We already paid for it, you know. Oh, well here, just take this cheese one. Fine. Just so I can get out of here. Dammit!!! Fate just had to come back, smite me down, and laugh. Well, today is another day, so let’s hope for the best……or at least better……
Yesterday seemed to me to be a day of contradiction…well, not contradiction exactly, but maybe more of extreme opposites. I had some awesome highs and some deprecating lows. Life always seems to be like that, though, in that you rarely ever remember the mediocre times, but instead only remember the highs and the lows. I guess it’s only natural that we wouldn’t want to remember what was boring or mundane.
I hopped on this tilt-a-whirl of a day yesterday between classes. Up until that point, everything was cool and normal, but then I got a phone call from one of my friends asking, well, more so demanding that she use my car because she had a job interview and her best friend just left her hanging. Before I go any further, I’m just curious as to what kind of friends people have if their best one just bails on you when it comes to something as important as a job interview. I would never be able to do that to one of my friends, let alone my best friends. Understandably, I sympathized and going against my better judgment, I loaned her my car for her interview, however, on one condition—that she fill the tank with gas. I figured that would be repayment enough, especially considering this person had a very bad track record with using my car. After loaning out my car, I headed down to frisbee practice.
It was a beautiful day so I was looking forward to playing some good disc in the sun. Needless to say, after we got done throwing around and practice actually started, it got crappy quick. The guys team was going to put a zone on the girls team so that they could get some experience against it before the tourney, but they only had six people and you need seven for a team. I said I would play with them, but their captain, Maggie, told me absolutely not and that I’d watch. She picked someone else to go in instead. What a bitch move! I was inches away from back-handing her on the spot. Lil’ B sympathized and let me in to play after a bit. As I was playing, it was just no fun, and no one was subbing so I was forced to watch most of the time on the sidelines, not wanting to be mean and just sub myself in and make someone sit. I don’t like being a jerk like that. Being it was so nice out, I didn’t want to waste the day so I just left and went for a run.
My run was so peaceful and serene that it made up for all the crap the day had presented me so far. I bathed in the sun, got a good work out, and simply smiled because it was so beautiful out. As I got home, I saw my keys on my chair, which means that Yen brought my car back, which is good because she has been known not to in the past. Of course, the good had a bad side—she didn’t leave a note as to where my car was. Cute. Well, I got ready to go out for the night and Yen showed up walking by my apartment so I asked her where my car was, so that dilemma was resolved. She also said that she had put gas in my car, which was also nice to hear. Things were back on the upswing…
…Until I got out to my car and got in. The gas gauge sure didn’t read full, in fact, it was lower than when I borrowed it out. Put gas in the tank, my ass. Maybe she just farted a lot on the way home or something, but there sure wasn’t any gasoline put in the tank. Why would you lie about something like that? Am I not going to notice the gas gauge when I get in? Did she really think that I was that stupid? I don’t really know, but I do know that I should trust my instincts more and not give in to her any more. I’m always getting screwed for being nice, I don’t get it. I guess no one has any gratitude anymore. More proof to show that people suck.
I was still determined to have a fun night, so Kristin, Vu, Laura, and I decided to go out and hit up bingo. At the Emporium, if you’re new you get in free so we would get to play for nothing!!! When we got there, though, we found out they had quit doing that a couple of months ago and also that Thursday nights are the only full-price nights. We just picked the wrong night. Now instead we decided to hit up a movie at the cheap theater. Unfortunately, none of the good movies were playing at the late time, so that was also out. Things were just not swinging our way at all, so we hit up the mall for a while. That was a lot of fun, and it helped bring my mood up.
Still determined to do something we went bowling and had a blast. I even bowled a game left handed!!! And got a 59 doing it!!! Thank goodness the night finally turned out good. We all had a great time, we were all happy, and I could end the day on a positive note…or so I thought.
Back at CSB, Kristin was going to buy us a pizza to eat so I asked them to put in a pepperoni for us, which they did, but when it was ready, they asked me how many pieces I wanted. Uhh…all of them? I ordered the entire pizza remember? Oh, you did? Well, we already put half of it out and people took it. What the hell? We already paid for it, you know. Oh, well here, just take this cheese one. Fine. Just so I can get out of here. Dammit!!! Fate just had to come back, smite me down, and laugh. Well, today is another day, so let’s hope for the best……or at least better……
Tuesday, April 08, 2003
Housing Lottery Nightmare
Looks like I’ll be living across the hall next year. We had the housing lottery (well, the second one) yesterday and got into the apartment that Jared and Berg have across the hall here in Virgil Michel. It won’t be too bad. I like their apartment set up better than ours, but that doesn’t change the fact that I would still like to be living in the nice apartments of Placid and Maur where I’d have my own room and bathroom. Instead, I will still have a roommate and communal apartment bathroom, but it’ll be fine living with Karl again.
Now the lottery itself was a fricking zoo. They assign everyone in the lottery an exact time to register for your room. Mine was at 4:16 pm yesterday. The lottery started at 4:00 pm, just so you know. As 4:15 rolled around they said they were taking people with the 4:02 time slot. Great, so in the 15 minutes of registration they managed to get 2 minutes worth of people through. It also didn’t help matters that they kept everyone who was not registering in the hall outside of the registration room. There were about 100 guys in that hall crammed in awaiting their time to register. I felt bad for the people who had some of the times that were way later than us.
We finally got in to register at about 4:50 pm—a solid 35 minutes after I was supposed to get in. When we got to register we easily got the apartment we wanted, mainly because everyone wants to live on lower campus. I really don’t know why since it’s so far away from everything, but whatever. While I was waiting, though, I got to wondering how they actually did the lottery process. I was easily one of the people with the most credits there, so why did I have such a late time? Apparently your credits don’t mean too much. They just lump everyone with more than 95 credits into one bunch and then randomize the times. This is retarded because someone with 132 credits such as myself got put behind many people with less credits. In fact, the first pick in the lottery went to some guy with 96 credits. I even asked a lot of the people who went before me how many credits they hand and I didn’t talk to one person with more than me. Insane.
Each day that I keep spending on this campus, the more I get to hating it and the more I love it. It is such a weird dichotomy. I love my friends and classes more and more, yet I come to loathe the administration and students more and more. I truly love the friends I’ve made up here and my classes are actually get interesting for me. On the other hand, the rest of the people on the campus prove to be assholes more each day, further proving that most of the campus is a collective waste of life. The administration also has that wonderful ability to piss me off on a weekly basis. There really is no middle ground of experience for me, yet I am stuck in that middle ground because all of my experience falls into the extremes and their average creates a middle. Maybe it’s good that I only have one semester yet, but who is to say that the real world might be any better. I’ll keep hoping, but I’m well prepared for disappointment.
Now the lottery itself was a fricking zoo. They assign everyone in the lottery an exact time to register for your room. Mine was at 4:16 pm yesterday. The lottery started at 4:00 pm, just so you know. As 4:15 rolled around they said they were taking people with the 4:02 time slot. Great, so in the 15 minutes of registration they managed to get 2 minutes worth of people through. It also didn’t help matters that they kept everyone who was not registering in the hall outside of the registration room. There were about 100 guys in that hall crammed in awaiting their time to register. I felt bad for the people who had some of the times that were way later than us.
We finally got in to register at about 4:50 pm—a solid 35 minutes after I was supposed to get in. When we got to register we easily got the apartment we wanted, mainly because everyone wants to live on lower campus. I really don’t know why since it’s so far away from everything, but whatever. While I was waiting, though, I got to wondering how they actually did the lottery process. I was easily one of the people with the most credits there, so why did I have such a late time? Apparently your credits don’t mean too much. They just lump everyone with more than 95 credits into one bunch and then randomize the times. This is retarded because someone with 132 credits such as myself got put behind many people with less credits. In fact, the first pick in the lottery went to some guy with 96 credits. I even asked a lot of the people who went before me how many credits they hand and I didn’t talk to one person with more than me. Insane.
Each day that I keep spending on this campus, the more I get to hating it and the more I love it. It is such a weird dichotomy. I love my friends and classes more and more, yet I come to loathe the administration and students more and more. I truly love the friends I’ve made up here and my classes are actually get interesting for me. On the other hand, the rest of the people on the campus prove to be assholes more each day, further proving that most of the campus is a collective waste of life. The administration also has that wonderful ability to piss me off on a weekly basis. There really is no middle ground of experience for me, yet I am stuck in that middle ground because all of my experience falls into the extremes and their average creates a middle. Maybe it’s good that I only have one semester yet, but who is to say that the real world might be any better. I’ll keep hoping, but I’m well prepared for disappointment.
Monday, April 07, 2003
More Food Stolen
I found out that even more food was taken from our place yesterday morning. Karl also had a case of Gatorade taken to add to our running total of missing groceries. How do you deal with a crime like this? Do I go over to the neighbor’s places and check their freezers and pantries? What if they eat the same type of food as us? What if they do have our food, then what do we do? Do I just take it right back, being a thief in my own right (even though it seems justified)? Do I try to turn them in and get it back? They could just say they bought it and it is coincidence that we have the same tastes. I just don’t know what to do.
I alerted our faculty resident and life safety about the theft, but I’m sure nothing will actually be done to deter it from happening again. Sending out an email saying that food was stolen and that we should keep our doors locked is not taking measures against theft—it’s a cop-out to keep from actually doing something. Two years ago when I actually did have something valuable stolen (my bike), I also alerted life safety thinking that they would be able to do something about it. I was so unbelievably wrong. The life safety officers that I talked to then said that all they could or would do was when they were out on patrol (probably giving parking tickets) they could look for a bike that looked like mine and then would alert me to it. They wouldn’t take any action besides letting me know they saw a bike like mine! In fact, they didn’t even do that because someone in Flynntown had it that entire winter right outside of their apartment. It was there for a solid couple of months and life safety would always patrol down there. I am still frustrated from that experience and I am sure that it will be the same this time. They’ll log a report and file it away before they head back out to give out some more parking tickets.
On a positive note, I would like to send out a big birthday wish to my mommy! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY! It’s hard to imagine that you’re hitting the big 43, as I know I’ll be there before I want to. I hope that you have a wonderful day today and I will try to talk to you sometime. Can’t wait to see you next weekend. Enjoy!
I alerted our faculty resident and life safety about the theft, but I’m sure nothing will actually be done to deter it from happening again. Sending out an email saying that food was stolen and that we should keep our doors locked is not taking measures against theft—it’s a cop-out to keep from actually doing something. Two years ago when I actually did have something valuable stolen (my bike), I also alerted life safety thinking that they would be able to do something about it. I was so unbelievably wrong. The life safety officers that I talked to then said that all they could or would do was when they were out on patrol (probably giving parking tickets) they could look for a bike that looked like mine and then would alert me to it. They wouldn’t take any action besides letting me know they saw a bike like mine! In fact, they didn’t even do that because someone in Flynntown had it that entire winter right outside of their apartment. It was there for a solid couple of months and life safety would always patrol down there. I am still frustrated from that experience and I am sure that it will be the same this time. They’ll log a report and file it away before they head back out to give out some more parking tickets.
On a positive note, I would like to send out a big birthday wish to my mommy! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY! It’s hard to imagine that you’re hitting the big 43, as I know I’ll be there before I want to. I hope that you have a wonderful day today and I will try to talk to you sometime. Can’t wait to see you next weekend. Enjoy!
Sunday, April 06, 2003
Food Theft at a Private Catholic College
Some times I have to wonder about how smart college students actually are. More and more I come to realize how stupid most of the people who go to the combined campuses of St. John’s and St. Benedict’s really are. There’s always the massive drinking binges, the stupid stunts and pranks pulled on campus, and freshman stupidity, but now there has been a new precedent set for idiocy. Not only was this act idiotic, but it was also mean, openly deviant, and just wrong. This act is theft. Sure, theft happens all the time all over the place, but his act was different than any normal theft. There wasn’t a stereo stolen, or laundry ripped off, or a bike ridden away with, but instead our freezer was emptied of its food.
WHO STEALS FOOD??? We’re on a private college campus so it’s not like anyone is starving and needs the food. Besides, if they needed food, we have food boxes in the lounge for Lent. This is the season where we are supposed to be giving food to the less fortunate, not stealing from your neighbors. I had a box of pizzas, a box of egg rolls, and a box of philly steak sandwiches all taken. My roommate, Chen, also had food stolen in all of the food he had on our kitchen table. I really can’t figure out why someone would want to take our groceries. I simply wanted to cry because of the absurdity of the whole thing. It is so stupid to steal your neighbor’s groceries.
How am I supposed to guard against this? Our refrigerator is right by our door, which made this crime pretty easy, so how do I stop it from happening again? Do we have to lock our doors even while we are here? Must we alienate all our guests in order to protect our food? This should not be happening on a campus such as ours. Do I have to put a padlock on our freezer door? But then who’s to say they wouldn’t raid the fridge and cabinets? Should I put locks on all of them? Do we need to lock everything up in order to keep what is ours in our possession?
Because of this situation, I have decided to not buy anything more to put in our freezer. I’ll stick to the groceries that I have in my cupboard to keep these evil, thieving wastes of life from getting free food from me. No more pizzas, no more hot pockets, no more frozen goods. It’s going to be stir fry, ramen, soups, and sandwiches for the rest of the year on out. I’m sure I’ll crave what I can’t have, but at least those bastards won’t get any more free food out of me.
WHO STEALS FOOD??? We’re on a private college campus so it’s not like anyone is starving and needs the food. Besides, if they needed food, we have food boxes in the lounge for Lent. This is the season where we are supposed to be giving food to the less fortunate, not stealing from your neighbors. I had a box of pizzas, a box of egg rolls, and a box of philly steak sandwiches all taken. My roommate, Chen, also had food stolen in all of the food he had on our kitchen table. I really can’t figure out why someone would want to take our groceries. I simply wanted to cry because of the absurdity of the whole thing. It is so stupid to steal your neighbor’s groceries.
How am I supposed to guard against this? Our refrigerator is right by our door, which made this crime pretty easy, so how do I stop it from happening again? Do we have to lock our doors even while we are here? Must we alienate all our guests in order to protect our food? This should not be happening on a campus such as ours. Do I have to put a padlock on our freezer door? But then who’s to say they wouldn’t raid the fridge and cabinets? Should I put locks on all of them? Do we need to lock everything up in order to keep what is ours in our possession?
Because of this situation, I have decided to not buy anything more to put in our freezer. I’ll stick to the groceries that I have in my cupboard to keep these evil, thieving wastes of life from getting free food from me. No more pizzas, no more hot pockets, no more frozen goods. It’s going to be stir fry, ramen, soups, and sandwiches for the rest of the year on out. I’m sure I’ll crave what I can’t have, but at least those bastards won’t get any more free food out of me.
Friday, April 04, 2003
The Crucible
Last night I attended The Crucible with a large group of friends. Karl, my roommate played the role of Proctor in the play and I must say that he did a wonderful job. I thoroughly enjoyed the play, even though it was a little bit different from the way the play is traditionally presented. The director added a few dance numbers and updated the look to a gothic style.
I had read The Crucible before and I fell in love with the story when I did. I had been looking forward to seeing this play ever since I found out that Karl was in it back around Christmas time. Coming into the play, I was wondering how the new look of the play would affect the content of the story. I’m glad that they didn’t change the story at all, but because of this, the gothic costumes and stage didn’t really have any impact upon the performance besides the initial shock value. It was interesting to see the play performed with the costumes they had, but I think the play would have had the same effect with traditional costumes. However, it was interesting to see everyone dressed in ripped leather, chains, and gothic attire. Not only was the dress gothic, but many of the characters were half naked and covered with tattoos. They also all had unique haircuts, most consisting of shaving part of their head, dying what was left, and putting it into either a Mohawk, spikes, or dreads.
The stage was also in a metal/gothic style. The background was sheet metal and most of the stage was made up of iron fencing, barrels, and pillars. It worked very well for the story and fit with the overall tone that was set by the costumes. The only other difference from the original story is the dance numbers that were added to the beginning of the play and right after intermission. The opening number was very well done and I thought it was an interesting interpretive dance—it was, I think, the dancing that the witches were doing in the woods when Parris found them. The “demons” of the dance reminded me a lot of the borg from Star Trek. They had lights attached to metallic, wired sections of costume that gave them a very eerie look.
All of this led to an interesting rendition of the play that was pretty much weird just for the sake of being weird. I enjoyed the story, just as I always have, and I thought the dance numbers were worthy additions to the play, but the costuming and staging didn’t really do anything unique. Still, I would recommend everyone to go see this play while it is still open, even if only to see my roommate in action. He does a spectacular job of playing his role.
I had read The Crucible before and I fell in love with the story when I did. I had been looking forward to seeing this play ever since I found out that Karl was in it back around Christmas time. Coming into the play, I was wondering how the new look of the play would affect the content of the story. I’m glad that they didn’t change the story at all, but because of this, the gothic costumes and stage didn’t really have any impact upon the performance besides the initial shock value. It was interesting to see the play performed with the costumes they had, but I think the play would have had the same effect with traditional costumes. However, it was interesting to see everyone dressed in ripped leather, chains, and gothic attire. Not only was the dress gothic, but many of the characters were half naked and covered with tattoos. They also all had unique haircuts, most consisting of shaving part of their head, dying what was left, and putting it into either a Mohawk, spikes, or dreads.
The stage was also in a metal/gothic style. The background was sheet metal and most of the stage was made up of iron fencing, barrels, and pillars. It worked very well for the story and fit with the overall tone that was set by the costumes. The only other difference from the original story is the dance numbers that were added to the beginning of the play and right after intermission. The opening number was very well done and I thought it was an interesting interpretive dance—it was, I think, the dancing that the witches were doing in the woods when Parris found them. The “demons” of the dance reminded me a lot of the borg from Star Trek. They had lights attached to metallic, wired sections of costume that gave them a very eerie look.
All of this led to an interesting rendition of the play that was pretty much weird just for the sake of being weird. I enjoyed the story, just as I always have, and I thought the dance numbers were worthy additions to the play, but the costuming and staging didn’t really do anything unique. Still, I would recommend everyone to go see this play while it is still open, even if only to see my roommate in action. He does a spectacular job of playing his role.
Thursday, April 03, 2003
Winter's Icy Fingers
To think that I thought winter might be over. How could I be so foolish? Mother nature is intent on leaving little tidbits of winter weather around just to remind us that, indeed, we are living in Minnesota. This could be evidenced by the thin coat of ice on everything this morning. I walked outside of my apartment on my way to work and almost took a dive right into the garbage can because my feet didn’t seem to want to work. After waking up a little more than I usually am on my way to work, I realized that I wasn’t experiencing some type of odd gravitational anomaly, but instead the walkway was covered in a layer of frozen water. I spent the next 15 minutes waddling to work so that I didn’t fall over. I’m sure anyone that would have seen me would have swore that I was some odd type of duck/human hybrid bred by some evil genius that lives in the basement of my apartment complex.
It was also easily apparent that this is Minnesota during our frisbee practice yesterday. We were practicing on the prep school’s football fields right next to the lake so the wind was unbelievably strong. Wind usually isn’t a big deal. I like the wind actually as it can make a nice day seem even more alive, or it can alleviate the blistering heat of the summer just enough to make it tolerable outside……but yesterday it was only a little bit over freezing out. The combination of the extreme wind and extreme cold (well, at least for this time of year) made for a cold and slightly unattended practice. We only had 8 people there so we were unable to hold a scrimmage like we usually would, so we played the box game, which is basically like playing half-court, 3-on-3 basketball. It felt oh so good to take a nice warm shower after we were done.
Now many of you may have noticed that the last few posts have been pretty negative in tone (if you didn’t……well, good for you, I guess). I’m hoping that things are back on the upswing now. I just handed in my first draft of my final research paper yesterday which takes a good load off of my shoulders, a 23 page load to be exact. Now all I have to do is prepare my 15 minute defense that I have to give on the 22nd of April. I don’t know if I’ll be able to condense everything I want to say into only 15 minutes, but that’s all of the time that I am allotted to use. I suppose it’s a good thing to know that I have more material than I can fit into the time than too little.
I also got to register for my classes for next semester yesterday. I’m going to have the absolute crappiest schedule imaginable. This is going to easily be the worst schedule I’ve had yet. On days 1-3-5 on our 6 day schedule I will have exactly 0 classes. Yep, no classes on odd days, so what does that mean? Yep, you’re absolutely right—all 4 of my classes are on even days! Starting at 9:40 am I’ll have Modern Philosophy, then at 11:20 am I’ll have Philosophy of Science, then at 1:00 pm I’ll have Business Ethics, and finally at 2:40 pm I’ll have Philosophy of Law. I’m thinking of switching my Philosophy of Science course over to the Morality and Human Nature course, but since I’ve taken both a human nature course and a morality course I’m not sure if I really want to revisit all of that stuff. The reason I’d switch is that I’ve heard the professor for the Philosophy of Science class is horrible. I’ll have to see, I guess.
It was also easily apparent that this is Minnesota during our frisbee practice yesterday. We were practicing on the prep school’s football fields right next to the lake so the wind was unbelievably strong. Wind usually isn’t a big deal. I like the wind actually as it can make a nice day seem even more alive, or it can alleviate the blistering heat of the summer just enough to make it tolerable outside……but yesterday it was only a little bit over freezing out. The combination of the extreme wind and extreme cold (well, at least for this time of year) made for a cold and slightly unattended practice. We only had 8 people there so we were unable to hold a scrimmage like we usually would, so we played the box game, which is basically like playing half-court, 3-on-3 basketball. It felt oh so good to take a nice warm shower after we were done.
Now many of you may have noticed that the last few posts have been pretty negative in tone (if you didn’t……well, good for you, I guess). I’m hoping that things are back on the upswing now. I just handed in my first draft of my final research paper yesterday which takes a good load off of my shoulders, a 23 page load to be exact. Now all I have to do is prepare my 15 minute defense that I have to give on the 22nd of April. I don’t know if I’ll be able to condense everything I want to say into only 15 minutes, but that’s all of the time that I am allotted to use. I suppose it’s a good thing to know that I have more material than I can fit into the time than too little.
I also got to register for my classes for next semester yesterday. I’m going to have the absolute crappiest schedule imaginable. This is going to easily be the worst schedule I’ve had yet. On days 1-3-5 on our 6 day schedule I will have exactly 0 classes. Yep, no classes on odd days, so what does that mean? Yep, you’re absolutely right—all 4 of my classes are on even days! Starting at 9:40 am I’ll have Modern Philosophy, then at 11:20 am I’ll have Philosophy of Science, then at 1:00 pm I’ll have Business Ethics, and finally at 2:40 pm I’ll have Philosophy of Law. I’m thinking of switching my Philosophy of Science course over to the Morality and Human Nature course, but since I’ve taken both a human nature course and a morality course I’m not sure if I really want to revisit all of that stuff. The reason I’d switch is that I’ve heard the professor for the Philosophy of Science class is horrible. I’ll have to see, I guess.
Tuesday, April 01, 2003
Bigger and Bigger and Bigger
There are times in your life when every little thing seems to swing the other way—nothing you do, no matter how hard you try, can change the fact that the fates have aligned against you. The more things that go wrong, the more your defenses against other things going wrong weaken, exposing you to more harm. Little things start growing and taking on more meaning because all the big things have already went south. It’s when these little things start going awry that you truly lose your sense of control on life. The pile of grievous wrongs done to you by fate, small or large, grows because you don’t take the time to shrug some of the things off of your little hill of hate. Eventually the hill will become a mountain and anything, once tossed on the summit, will break your back. That’s when you hurt the most.
It is quite possible, and usually is the case, that when this time comes you feel too many things all at once—a complete sensory overload. Frustration, rage, angst, remorse, lost hope, regret, and self-loathing all pour from your body. Like the sweat of your pores, emotion flows out of you. As you overflow you could care less for anything else than the appeasement of your own need to break something, to hurt something, to inflict your pain on something else. Only then, when someone else sees your hurt or watches you express your revolt at the universe, can you start to throw things from the mountain.
Many times, however, we are denied that chance of expression which can only lead to a growing of the mountain that has already broken your body. All you see is opportunities to explode, but you can’t do it. It builds even further—to the point where snapping another person in two would not even alleviate your suffering. You lash out, you don’t think, you indulge in pure rashness. Then, only after being broken as you have been, can you let go. Lying crushed, you curl up and cry knowing that there is too much on your shoulders. You’re buried and you don’t have the will to dig yourself out. The tears will flow, your anger will flare, and you will either perish permanently, or you will start to recover. If you’re lucky enough to recover, the mountain will have all but disappeared. You can now start building another one, but this time you hope it will not become an insurmountable behemoth……
It is quite possible, and usually is the case, that when this time comes you feel too many things all at once—a complete sensory overload. Frustration, rage, angst, remorse, lost hope, regret, and self-loathing all pour from your body. Like the sweat of your pores, emotion flows out of you. As you overflow you could care less for anything else than the appeasement of your own need to break something, to hurt something, to inflict your pain on something else. Only then, when someone else sees your hurt or watches you express your revolt at the universe, can you start to throw things from the mountain.
Many times, however, we are denied that chance of expression which can only lead to a growing of the mountain that has already broken your body. All you see is opportunities to explode, but you can’t do it. It builds even further—to the point where snapping another person in two would not even alleviate your suffering. You lash out, you don’t think, you indulge in pure rashness. Then, only after being broken as you have been, can you let go. Lying crushed, you curl up and cry knowing that there is too much on your shoulders. You’re buried and you don’t have the will to dig yourself out. The tears will flow, your anger will flare, and you will either perish permanently, or you will start to recover. If you’re lucky enough to recover, the mountain will have all but disappeared. You can now start building another one, but this time you hope it will not become an insurmountable behemoth……
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