From 3/19/02-9/19/02

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was really pretty boring.
9/18/02 9:49 PM-I had one of the more aggrevating days i've had in a while. The focal point of this torrent of suck was the fact that despite the easy connection to our new cable enjoyed by gus and aaron, my computer was (and is) being ridiculously obtuse. I exhausted all of the networking tricks that i know, and nothing even came close to working. After my call to the tech people tomorrow morning, I may begin the slow process of copying irreplacable files to disk before the inevitable formatting of my hard-drive followed by the reinstallation of windows. Fun.
So after screwing around with this for a half hour this morning (after an hour or more last night) i went to class. Now this advanced classical mechanics class forces you to work in groups. I normally work alone (incidentally kyle does as well, and i think that our GPAs attest to the benefits) and I begrudgingly worked with this one kid. I don't have time to meet with him for long, so we have the agreement to work on the problems by ourselves, get them close to done and then combine what we have. Needless to say i have everything done and he has nothing. So i dictated the answers to him and he wrote it up and put both of our names on it. Well, he doesn't show for class. So i was forced to work with someone who couldn't even show up to hand it in. Also, every day 2 people present the material we're going to do for the day. A five minute job, but a presentation nonetheless. It was our turn today. So i did that by myself too.
I have no idea what pisses other people off, since i am annoyed by vastly different things (so i've noticed). Am i correct in guessing that that sort of thing would be universally frowned upon? Anyway, after hammering my double sub-6:00 style, i felt much better. It didn't help for the run this afternoon, but it was neccessary. Anyway, what this all means is that updating will be spotty for longer. The second I get online at home, i will write a celebratory post exclaiming how i love the world. Until then, i'll be a little pissier than usual. Except for when i'm get the job fair, where i will gather up all of the good cheer that i possibly can (like i do for FCA) and unleash it on the unsuspecting employers.
E1st

9/15/02 1:57 PM-I'd like to thank Andy (john) for keeping my web journal up to date yesterday. Like a good stalker, he was able to incorporate several inside jokes and articles of information that those who follow the minutia of my life would understand. I was just recently bemoaning the fact that I was logged in on half of the computers which i updated this from, mostly because windows and IE both love to auto-complete things. In any case, feel free to impersonate me if i'm logged into your computer, just be sure that people know that it's not REALLY me.
By the way, I just found out that a guy i sort of knew from bucknell (owen bartels, a thrower) transfered to UPS. Andy goes there, which is why that makes sense to put here.
So i haven't written for a while. When i get this internet connection at home in two days, that problem should cease. I have, however, built up a repository of stupid information in the past several days. First off, i ran a meet yesterday; my performance was fair and the team did very well up front and consistant in the middle. Overall, it was a decent day for us, as we beat army and cornell.
After a few weeks of not having any real dreams, i had several in the last few days, so i'm going to write them out in case anyone can interpret them. Maybe i should make a matt jankowski style contest with them. I will warn you up front that at least two of these dreams are disturbing.
First one featured my brother and I (it transitioned to myself and someone i didn't know half way through) travelling to this school which apparently was located by old minisink. As a side note, i've been dreaming about the top of N. Church St. and Old Minisink too often, if you're in goshen, be careful around there.
Anyway, so we go to this school, and i know vaguely how it's laid out. I'm trying to get to this one place i've been before with this person i don't know. This is related directly to my experience finding the showers at Penn St. last week. Anyway, we get to this big long metal stairway which winds down to this auditorium. Stop reading if you don't want to be disturbed.
So there's this mother and baby also going down the steps. Somehow the baby crawls to the edge of the metal staircase and falls off. He falls about 10 feet before hitting this platform (the sort you might see at a break in a metal staircase). He lands, cries for a second and then tetters off the edge before falling another 50 feet and landing directly on his friggin head! There's a pause then a half cry. At this point my eyes are just about popped out of my head; i was absolutely stunned. The mother says something to the effect of "You have got to be kidding me," and she and i sprint down the steps past stunned onlookers. I have no idea how it ends, because i transitioned at this point.
Now i'm in my room back home, only its not my room. There's some sort of beast like thing who's trying to get me down off of this high perch (like the top bunk sort of thing) but i'm throwing crap down at him, such as knives and heavy jars of stuff. He retreats, and i have to clean all this stuff off my floor, which is a pain in the ass because much of it shattered. In my opinion, the monster type thing should have had to clean.
Transition again to this house where this somewhat supernatural mass murderer lives. Here's another location where you should stop reading if things like plummeting babies get to you.
Anyway, his whole thing is that he takes humans, makes hamburger meat out of them (often while still alive) and eats it. He looks really sick. He has the ability to telepathically lure people down to his basement, where he does his disgusting trade. So the police and Stephen and I (who knows why we're here) arrive, and apparently these police don't have guns. Why should they, being small town police and all. So they call in the national guard, but before they can get there, this evil guy/thing kills a few people. The police, stephen and I for some reason go into the downstairs of the house (not the basement) and arm ourselves with the equivelant of broken beer bottles, waiting for this thing to come up the stairs and get us. We figure we'd have a fighting chance, even though this thing is super human. So we're standing there and all the sudden Stephen tried to leave, and go downstairs to this beast. He's obviously under the things control, and I can hear the murderer's saranade(sp) as well. I concentrate and pound a thought of my own through his brain to counter the beast (i have a strong mind), and temporarily gain control back, but he's too strong and steve goes to leave again. That's how it ends.
I'll skip the jovial one. It includes wes and lou in some sort of high-flying circus production, and wes is dropped in a funny sort of way.
Finally the next night, i go to save this cat from the lurching alligator (who happens to be intelligent, though not human-like intelligent) and he cases me instead, before treeing me. Townsfolk come together and rescue me.
That was long and disturbing, but, as i've mentioned before, i'm all about jotting down eerie premonisions for posterity's sake.
E1st

9/14/02 3:08 PM (PDT) - I went for a run today, it was a 10k workout with moderate elevation differences which I took in good stride. During my run, whenever I was running past this gi-normous tree on the side of the road, I decided it would be fun to live in a tree. This desicion has come with much forethought however. My thinking goes as follows: I would need one of those bed/hammock things like rock climbers use, I would also need earplugs (depending on where the tree was located, near a large road, by an airport, etc.), and as a final condition I would need an address for my tree to which I could have my Sports Illustrated issues sent. Of course, a large problem could become how to transport myself and my Sports Illustrateds in and out of the tree. I think, however, that a simple pully system could be employed for this matter. Of course, weather must be taken into account, but I think within a week I could have my tree-top pallace in operation.
In other news, I may be developing a hatred for the girl that sits next to me in biology. She seems to be one of those types that likes to answer every rhetorical question posed by our wonderful, deoderized, professor. She's also one of those "Buck nell" short wearing girls. At least she's not bad looking.
Right on.

9/12/02 9:34 PM-I think in a few days I'm going to segment this year's word's section, since it seems like it's getting a little too big for easy access. Once this year is done, i'll have right around 100 pages of single spaced, 10 size writing. I may turn it into a book and sell it to my mom.
I'm up at the observatory again, making infinitesmally small changes to the alignment of the scope. To put it in perspective, the star is as focused as possible, and i have it so that it's tracking to within 1 radius of the star over a span of 8 minutes. But I want it better damnit! Next step is to see if i can star hop accurately.
I'm tired though and this zaps creativity, so i'm going to go stare into an eyepiece again.
E1st

9/11/01 9:56 PM-I was going to write what i wrote in my other journal (which is now defunct) about september 11th last year. But then i saw how commericialized this was becoming and decided i didn't want to contribute to that. I think that talk about something so much devalues it; like the people that say "i love you" 12 times a day.
You may or may not have noticed that life has gone on EXACTLY as it had before for 95% of the population. After a few weeks of shock and/or spiritual/moral change, most people went right back to being their old selves. It's like the guy that goes backpacking for 2 days and is all the sudden mr. nature boy, since he had to eat spartan food in a spartan environment for 45 hours. He goes back feeling like he's accomplished something, like he's been part of something, but really he's just the same guy and in two weeks he'll have forgotten it. We got a couple week glimpse into the life of terrorism and war in the surrounding world and thought about how special we were because of it. "Oh yeah, well we were bombed worse than you", and then back to our normal complacency.
Go USA.
E1st

9/10/02 11:19 PM-FCA went well. My group did at least. That's because only people that i know go to my groups, since i am apparently "intimidating".
Anyway, as promised, i'll talk about something that i have found interests only me. I want to get a hold of the record of times at which cards are swiped at the caf. I bet that the dinner rush occurs at different times everyday of the week, different enough that after taking a sizeable data set the differences would stand out from error. Then one could theorize the socialological mechanisms required to create such changes. Are people more lazy on Monday? Does everyone go there early on thursday? I wonder. I would definetely make a histogram, though this idea has met harsh criticism at the hands of infidels who say such things as, "Listen to this kid, he's talking about how it would be FUN to make a HISTROGRAM."
E1st

9/10/01 3:05 PM-Sorry about that. On the 17th, we'll have cable installed in my house. Once that time comes, I should be much better at updating.
While I have been derilect in actually writing things, I have had a couple thoughts since last I wrote. I'll just throw them up one at a time, hopefully that'll mean that i have several entries today.
First off, has anyone ever watched the show "Quantum Leap"? I have this new theory that when people screw up and start acting like they have no idea what is going on, it's because Sam Sheppard (scott bakula in QL) has entered their body and begun to control them. Anyway, the premise of the show was that this guy is caught travelling backwards and forwards through time "righting what once went wrong." He becomes some person for a few days and fixes their miserable lives. However, when he first arrives in his new host, he is completely confused and unable to carry on activities which are commonplace to his host.
In case you haven't guessed, I think this phenomonon effects my genetics teacher about 3 times a class. It's possible that scott bakula is invading her body on a daily basis, stripping her of any knowledge of genetics which she may have attained over the years.
If there is any better way to describe completely anamalous behavior in people, i can't think of one. Occassionally people just do stupid things which are completely out of character, and i think Scott Bakula is to blame. Incidentally, he's a starship captian now. If i were like matt, I'd throw dozens of links in a key points of this diatride, and perhaps a few pictures.
Remember that QL where Sam leaped into a crash test monkey? High comedy.
E1st

9/7/02 9:25 PM-Other than the fact that i have a headache, the main news for the day surrounded the first meet. I didn't do poorly per se, but i think i could have done better. It was a positive start, but to be honest, i'm praying for rain next weekend. Literally. My feet were so hot today that it ended up being the limiting factor on my race. Some rain would help that. In either case, it looks like i'll definitely travel to Great American in 3 weeks, and everyone will probably run at home the week after. That means that i don't really have to prove myself as a varsity guy until then.
I'm currently up at the observatory aligning a telescope stand so that it tracks properly. That's the first part of my job for this fall: getting telescopes to be able to point at the same star for a long time. I don't think that this is related to my headache, though it is rather annoying at the time being.
E1st

9/6/02 9:22 PM-After realizing that i had not had an interesting thought for 2 straight days as i blankly stared at my moron bio professor, i decided it was time for a change. The first thing i noticed in my heightened state of consciousness was that the previously mentioned prof thinks she's in a deoderant television commercial. She is essentially a charicature of herself. Let me explain.
Every face she makes is too well defined and too over-emotional. There is no smirk, no look of half astonishment or subtle trace of comprehension. Everything is over-blown and entirely too detailed. Instead of gesturing towards something, she flails are arms in the direction of the item and makes huge sweeping motions. If you were on a commercial, and you had 5 seconds to show that you were a dynamic person, you might make these movements and faces. However, after 40 minutes of watching you gesticulate wildly with grotesque facial distortions, people start looking for things to throw.
Speaking of biology, katie told me that people can't get pregnant again while they're breast feeding, which is essentially the limiting factor in how closely separated babies can be. So i think that might be a new form of birth control. Don't ask me where that thought came from, and if it makes no sense don't try to understand it.
Finally, has anyone noticed that 1/3 of the girls at bucknell have something written on the asses of their shorts? "Buck nell", "Per fect", and "Kick It" can be read from the buttoxes (?) of girls in every corner of campus. This one freshman on the team (the most attractive incidentally) has graced her behind with "Defense", as though implying that the fabric was the only line of defense for whatever lies beneath. In general that's not something you brag about, but i guess some people advertise it. In any case, as a decent sized subset of the guys teams passed her on a run today, I got the "Defense...clap clap" chant going. Eventually she understood and feigned embarrassment.
It was, however, a victory for her. That's why they put that on their butts, for attention. Its like the hot girl yawning in class to see who else yawns so she knows who's watching her. Only now it's "who's staring at my ass?" Hanlon had a good suggestion for guy's ass-writing shorts:
"One Way"
E1st

9/4/02 9:05 PM-I missed yesterday, as you may well be able to assertain from the lack of update. Yesterday was, however, the first FCA of the year and it went very well. We had 43 people, which is a good number, and not only were only 6-8 on the XC/track team, but only half had i ever seen before. The speaker was OK, and i hope that no one was scared away for next week when we start our real studies.
Last night was oppressively hot in my room. I barely slept. Today was also hot, but i have a very busy MWF schedule, so i don't have time to notice it. I'm not going to have anything useful to write about, so i'm going to spare everyone the hardship of reading drivel.
E1st

9/2/02 9:32 PM-Topics which i jotted down in my new, "remember the interesting thoughts that i had throughout the day" notebook included a summary of my running experience yesterday (which would focus on my diamond sharp nipples), my dream (where i was a male stripper in waiting, as well as a different one where i got lost in the women's locker room; surprisingly they were funny and not at all inappropriate), and a social commentary which i'll save for a rainy day.
In the end however, i'm going to talk about why it is that i like to run by myself. I decided to formulate a defense for myself on my double this morning, since i slipped out the back door so that i wouldn't have to run with a couple waiting teammates. Basically, it boils down to this: when i run by myself, I, and no one else, determine how fast i go, how long i go, and where i go. But more than that, when i run by myself I am not subordinated by the current conversation (which is stupid and puerile 80% of the time) so I have the freedom of my own thoughts. I have the freedom to engage in creative endevours which are necessarily squelched by the herd mentality intrinsic to running in groups and thinking in packs. Even on a silent run with others, i am forced to consider their existance constantly, be it subconsciously or otherwise. "If i take this angle, will i run them into a tree? If i dart across the road now, will everyone make it safely? If i spit will i hit someone's shoe?" I am forced to recognize others' existance simply because they are in my field of view; because they are there. As a result, i cannot be free, i cannot think for myself and i cannot create.
That's why i, and everyone for that matter, need to separate myself from others on a regular basis. Otherwise how will I have an existance of my own, one that does not depend on others for its substance. Solitude leads to the development of ones own self, unconstrained by the social norms which dominate group behavior.
E1st

8/31/02 7:16 PM-I'd like to say, while i'm thinking of it, how retarded this biology class that i'm taking is. It might just be the current professor, who seems to be either new or incompetent, but whatever the case, who in their right mind is stupid enough to scan in a multiple page lab full color even though it's black and white? 14 pages, the damn thing is like 118 mb's in size. You know how long it takes the printer to print a 118 mb file? Have you ever used a computer before in your life for something other than powerpoint? It's bad enough that mendel doesn't list the errors in his measurements like a real scientist, but now i have to deal with a fake scientist who is so fake that she's computer illiterate. In other news, the class seems to be very easy, so i can't complain too much. I spent a solid 5-10 minutes of last class creating my little notebook map of the world, which is always a fun endevour.
I had the michigan workout today, and did very well in it, thank God. It was pretty awesome actually, i felt good and finished highly. After running another couple miles in the afternoon, my sunday to saturday week hit 102 miles, my all time best, rebreaking my family record. I also did some weights. That's all i have to say. If only this damn thing would finish printing.
E1st

8/29/02 7:30 PM-Mccarthey posed an intriguing question today at dinner; a question which, at the very least, deserves a moment or two of my time. "How many Aaron Hanlon's can one fit in a regular family sedan?"
After a few seconds of thought, i arrived thusly: 22. Here's how it works. Starting from the front, you lay one hanlon on the dashboard and crumple two into the place where your legs go. You then must stack (i'm assuming no stick here) four hanlons on their stomachs and also 3 hanlons on their sides. This is due to the fact that there would not be enough space to lay hanlons side by side in the front seat, especially if it is put into a forward position. Though i did not factor it in previously, one hanlon can lie on top of the seats.
Before i move on to the back seat, i would like to state that in AP english i was the only one who correctly used "lay" and "lie" (and their various forms) correctly in this one quiz we had. I've apparently lost that understanding, i have no idea which i should be using. Since hanlons are now cargo, i think that lay can work. Who knows.
So in the back seat, we start from the floor and stack 5 hanlons flat on their stomachs starting at the place where one's feet go. Then again in the back seat put 4 hanlons on their stomachs and 3 on their sides. Finally, one can go behind the back seat. This apparently adds to 24. I don't know where one of those extra ones came from.
However, i forgot that the trunk may also be used. This might be difficult, since hanlon is comparatively rigid. So I'm thinking we can put 4 hanlons on their sides spooning each other and perhaps lay 2 flat on their stomachs up top. This brings us to 30 hanlons, or roughly 3000 lbs. Realistically, 4000 would probably be very accurate. If one of these hanlons could drive, he wouldn't be able to because my car cannot pull the weight of 30 hanlons.
Over the last two days, the emphasis of my website has shifted to a much more practical aspect of our daily existances. Instead of wading through some silly philosophical gobbly-guck, these treatise on how to take 4 or even 5 showers in a day and how to fit 30 hanlons in a car are my pragmatic contribution to humanity. This will be my legacy, I've realized that i'd rather change lives through providing real life solutions than to add to the already vast repository of useless ponderings.
You're welcome in advance.
E1st

8/28/02 9:38 PM-Once again, i have taken 3 showers today. I have probably taken more showers in the last two weeks than any month while i was in AZ. I think that my record is 4 showers. Here's a scenario which leads to 4 showers:
Wake up early to go to a doctor's appointment. Shower before leaving. Run a morning double around 10:30, shower when finished. Run again at 4:00, shower when finished, especially since it's 90 and humid on this particular day. Finally, at 10 PM lift weights, requiring a 4th shower. Had these weights been done at 8, followed by going out for the evening, it is conceivable that 5 showers might happen in one day. In fact, i think that might have been what actually happened the two of three times i had 4 showers, axing the doctor.
All kinds of drama is going on around me, since i'm still in katie's room doing this. I can't concentrate. It's upsetting. You might consider petitioning my hosts for a more quiet room.
E1st

8/27/02 10:35 PM-I think that when you update your website from the stalker's den, they are no longer stalkers. So i'm doing this from lara, my one fan's gateway, and specifically from kristine kengor's computer, in one of the more random possible locations. Maybe i'll try to update my website from a different computer every night. I bet i could get all of the public computers around campus before the end of the year. Eventually i could start knocking on people's doors and presenting the situation.
It's a stupid idea. I think that this room isn't condusive to creativity. As i look around i notice that kristine's boyfriend/friend/brother in one of the pictures is exceptionally tall. There is also a guiness toucan nearby, a necessity. I lost my train of thought because lara's talking. And i'm giving up.
E1st

8/26/02 9:49 PM-I'm at one of those foolhardy laptops, this time in hanlon's room. You know what sucks? This little pad thing, it sucks. Anyway, not much is currently happening here. I still don't have internet service, and there are still dishes in the sink. That's because those are the two tasks which i did not do thus far, while i have essentially covered everything else. I'm currently enamored by a little red tag on the cord of hanlons lab top. It says "gold card", but it's more of a burnt orange hue. Curious indeed.
The only other thing of note was the failed attempt at setting the VCR clock without the manual. I'm quite confident, after a prolonged struggle, that whatever mechanism is used to change anything other than the month on it is broken. Gus assisted, and found it to be impossible as well. So in other words, i couldn't change the clock. I'm not smart enough, and neither is gus.
E1st

8/24/02 9:08 PM-I still suck at updating this for now, but i have gus' assurances that it will be up relatively soon. If he sets up DSL connections as fast as he runs in the training runs, we'll be set. If it's related to racing, we might be stuck for a while. Anyway, I was just mesmorized by a cup of water sitting on the desk here, and if i had a train of thought, i lost it. You'll have to take my word that it was an interesting glass of water. You ever hear about the guy that took so much LSD that he thought he was a glass of orange juice? The biggest problem with that feat is that he would have to believe that glasses of orange juice could conceive their own existance. Since he can consider himself to be a glass of orange juice, he must necessarily think that glasses of juice sitting on the table can have the thought, "I am a glass of orange juice. I hope that someone doesn't spill and/or drink me." The self-perservation trait is also implied. I think that LSD gives too much credit to liquified fruit.
I'm looking around katie's room looking for inspiration on what to write next. I have found none, sorry katie. She suggests the lawn gnome, but i'm rather tired of that freakish little man. Which reminds me of the "in media res" ending of the Lord of the Rings, which required a sequel. What gall. I think i've said something like that before. Girls are chattering and giggling outside the room, it's distracting. Loud outbursts are GREAT!
E1st

8/21/02 8:389 PM-I'm still not online so this is going to be short. I apologize for not making more effort to meet my readership, but, well there aren't too many of you, so i'm sure you can handle it. Lean on each other for support. I should make a message board for the "Friends of Eric Furst". Anyway, i'm out.
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8/18/02 9:15 PM-I forgot to write yesterday; it just slipped my mind. I did, however, watch the "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring" movie. While it was good, I have never seen a movie which so blatantly called for a sequel. There was no conclusion, the good guys barely even got into enemy territory, let alone cofronting/defeating the bad guys. I'd like to see those semi-retarded little hobbits, who accompanied cry-baby froto, to fall off the edge of a cliff. Those things have done nothing but get in the way, wake legions of sleeping evil-axis soldiers, and make noise at inappropriate times. If they didn't exist, the middle world would be a much better place.
Why is "Big Daddy" the only movie ever made that doesn't have a happy ending? We need more movies where the bad guys win. I'd like to see 9 hours worth of hobbitilicious fun come to an end when froto with his ring stares down that dark spirit guy only to be obliterated by the snap of a finger. That would be awesome.
Today featured a lot of TV and a expert car packing. I'm training to be my father when I grow up, which is scheduled to occur nearly a year to the day from now. At that point, once I have finished my senior year in college and officially entered the "real world" I will be elevated to the status of "grown up". I will then be able to say, "when I was a kid....". My dreams will, at that point, be officially shattered, and my existance officially significantly less important than I had hoped it would be. I could have been a contender.
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8/16/02 8:47 PM-Today is stephen's 17th birthday. He hasn't been at the house since yesterday afternoon.
I have been able to understand something on my run today. My second run, at 8 PM, when it wasn't so damn oppressive. Some people seem to run because they love running, because they are pressured to, because they want to keep in shape; any battery of reasons. I figured out why i run, but it's not about love. Passion, perhaps, but from an ownership standpoint more than anything else. When i run through a town, i own that town. I cross the street when i please, i go wherever i want, and most of all i see that locale in a way that no one else sees it. I learn more about a town in an hour long run than a resident can learn in a lifetime. There's something about that semi-unconscious state which gives reality a slightly different flavor. This is something which no one can understand, but when i run i understand it, and absorb it. Each run down a street or a trail compounds my ownership over it. Each person i pass indicates my ownership over them
Consider the mountain in Flagstaff. I ran up mnt elden, a 9300 ft lump, in three and a half hour 22 mile trek. When i finished, i had conquered the mountain, and that mountain was mine in a way that others could not have experienced.
Incidentally, more than one person can own one thing.
Also, if you want to get a doctorate, you don't need to be a genius, brilliant, or even remotely intelligent. All one needs is a niche; a topic so estoteric and complicated that no one cared enough to become an expert on it. A scientific doctor must be an authority on a topic. Stupid topics still lead to the "dr." title.
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8/15/02 9:04 PM-It probably would have been nice if i had announced that i would be leaving for Long Beach Island for a few days. In case you were wondering, it was hot there, as here. The running has been miserable, though i sort of revel in the fact that i can literally ring sweat from my shorts when i finish.
Anyway, i have compiled a few topics while i was gone. Yes, this does mean that i have begun to think about the webpage even when i cannot update it. Instead of just letting these topics go to waste, i decided to write them down and see if i can recapture some of the magic that was flowing through my head when i first envisioned them.
First off, is there anything has half-assed as a jersey shore surfer? Seeing these veritable beach bums ride 4 foot breakers for 30 feet was a sight to behold. They looked the part, and seemed genuinely worthless as one might expect, but the jersey shore is hardly the locale to find "the big one". Unless the big one is 5 feet high. However, when category 5 hurricanes are churning the surf, as they were many years past during hurricane felix, then the east coast is pretty damn hard-core. Ten foot breakers are nothing to sneeze at, especially considering the number of deaths caused by them. Now that was something.
Anyway, the second item is a social commentary. Have you ever noticed that the poorest third of the population has the most expensive array of completely needless merchandise on their cars? I came up with this after hearing eminem blasting out of the millionth white trash mobile in the last month. The fact that i could hear it was ridiculous in and of itself. Why someone who can barely afford a meaningful meal would spend money on huge speakers, tires or rims is beyond me.
Consider this: perhaps the "man" has set this social construct in place in order to subjugate the masses. Why do the poor feel it neccesary to spend what little money they have on things which can in no why raise their standard of living? Because the man doesn't want them to change, so he's put people like kid rock in charge of constantly pushing for the continuation of this value system. Regardless, it's something of a social darwinism thing if you ask me; if you're so stupid that hydrolics on your car is more important than a suit for your job interview, you don't have my pity.
Has anyone seen the new TNN's Godfather commericials? It's a bunch of people in a modern dance club watching the Godfather on a screen. They are young and hip and have no business being in a dance club which is showing the Godfather on a big screen.
Finally, as matt did a month or so ago, i'm reading Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead." It's an altogether good book, i like her style etc. I'm not finished with it yet, i'm a bit worried it will piss me off in the end, but so far i like it. One qualm i have is that the characters are a bit too clever/perseptive. They speak in a sort of transcendential code all of the time, but the intellictual elites always know what's going on and are able to take what they hear in perfect stride, responding in the right code.
Incidentally, like matt did i'm sure, i can relate to Howard Roark. So far i like what he's done, excepting a rather grotesque act that i didn't quite approve of. I do have a few quotes which i approved of. How many sentences can i end with "of" in a row? Looks like two.
Anyway, here they are, both from a scene early on in the book: "The young men, whom he did not know stood about for about for a few minutes, trying to be included in the conversation by smiling blankly, then wandered off." I think miss rand watched me at every party i've ever been to to get that description. The second quote, which i will now paraphrase, comes from Dominique, one of my favorites. She states something to the effect of she doesn't really care what people say as long as it surprises her. All too often people say exactly what their person-type should say and it bugs the hell out of me because they're so damned predictable. That's all i really need, someone to say something that's not straight of out a text book. I imagine it's worse among the religious circle of which i am a part. Everyone knows the mumbo-jumbo explanation about things and thats all i ever hear. No original thought EVER.
Anyway again.
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8/10/02 10:06 PM-I figured out why Echo Lake is thought to be haunted today as i ran in the general vicinity. While the eerie fog etc does play a roll, i think that it is a case of human nature and the way in which our brains work more than anything. Stephen's comments from the day before lead me to this conclusion.
Consider this scenario:
In 1872, a vagrant strays from the railroad tracks and finds a nice place over by echo lake. There's a little stream for water, some fish, and several farms nearby. For the next 10 years, he steals the occasional pig or chicken for meals, each time disappearing into a hidden alove beneath a pricker bush in the bog to the rear of the pond. He does nothing out of the ordinary, save for the one or two occasions where he stumbles upon the farmer's children while stealing the pigs and scares them, but does them no harm. The children report him to their parents, where they are told it is foxes snatching the chickens, and likely a coyote eating the pigs. The children, knowing better, begin to fear this apparition who general causes his stir at night. After a while the parents resort to the "maybe it's the boogy man" tact.
And the legend is born, harmlessly enough.
Ten years after the man's death in solitude in 1885, some boys walking down the railroad tracks find his skull. Terrified, they tell their neighbors, who recall the fears of their youth, mentioning the bizarre creature which haunted their nights once a month. And so the "ghost" of echo lake is born, the distant memory of a homeless vagrant. For the next 15 years, this ghost has no meaning and little acceptance. However, in 1905 a train ran over an injured dog, killing it. Vaguely remembering that the dog was killed near echo lake, school children begin to talk about the ghost of the dog, not the man who had lived there many years earlier. "If you listen late at night, you can still hear him howling," they say.
By 1920, disaster has struck yet again. While the memory of the dog has faded, several locals still know that something creepy is nearby to echo lake. In a driving snow storm, an early car on a primitive road skids into echo lake. The driver dies while his passenger escapes. Within 5 years, the children speak of the ghost of the man who drove his car into the lake. While they were 5 at the time when it happened, making the memory very vague, they do somewhat remember the event. Based on some reality, a myth is formed. 15 years later, second generation children hear about it and consider the myth to be ancient. "It's been haunted since i was a child, i believe," says a 80 year old man. He seems to recall a crazy chicken stealing dog or something like that, but maybe it was a guy in a car.
The tale propogates itself in this fashion for the next 50 years or so. Every 15 years, someone dies, or is injured in the vicinity of the lake. In fact, the 80 year old man, who fished in the lake his whole life and died of a heart attack shortly after last we heard, once haunted the lake according to the children. All because of a homeless man who stole pigs and chickens. In 1980, or sometime nearby, a car perhaps crashed into the lake, killing a teenage girl. This is the story that i heard. While i don't particularly remember any details, i heard it long ago, perhaps when i was 8. Maybe someone's older brother knew the girl. Everyone knew the lake was "haunted" for some reason, and the older brother's kid sister decided that the dead girl was responsible.
Here is my one shread of evidence for this tale. Yesterday, when i mentioned i was running past echo lake, stephen declined to join me, because it was haunted by the murder victums of nathaniel white. Supposedly, they were not yet dead when he disposed of the bodies in the lake.
This was a real event, sort of. White did kill on the order of 6-8 prostitutes, and some of the bodies were found near echo lake, somewhere in the early 90s. I was old enough to remember the actual news event, stephen and his generation were not. I don't think anyone was dumped in the lake in that incident, but those in stephen's grade had heard that it was haunted, and heck, why not White's victums? It was on the tip of their subconscious afterall, and a scary event indeed.
And so now the lake is haunted by some dead prostitutes. The lure continues, though it all traces back to boogy man stories about a real life person. Nature provides a lake and some fog, fate provides the occasional calamity and the human mind extrapolates towards the mysterious and terrifying.
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8/9/02 11:32 PM-It was a busy day today, with many planned activities. However, the unplanned, and in fact quite random, event dominated the day's personality.
First off, i got my belated birthday present, a damn fine suit for job intervals. I must admit i look dead sexy in it. After throwing together both a smoothie and bean concoction (separate of course) for lunch, i began phase two of the day: running to my grandmother's house. It is about 15 miles away using the back roads, and it was a nice scenic run. While i felt good, there still wasn't anything special about my condition i think. Anyway, when we got to my grandmother's we went to grandpa's grave to commemorate the year anniversery and then got a pizza. However, for about an hour and a half before and after those events, one of the more bizarre events occupied our time.
There was this kite about 30 feet up in Grandma's maple tree. Incidentally, completely unrelated, she got a little dog about 3 weeks ago despite everyone saying she shouldn't. Then literally 4 days after that, she brought the dog to NJ and lost it. It's gone. Funny story.
Anyway, we start throwing stuff at this kite. Eventually Stephen uproots a 22 foot talk branch. I say 23 because 22 plus 7 is 29, and the kite was 30 feet up. So naturally, we had to duct tape (world's greatest substance) a curtain rod to the end of the tree/stick. After a half an hour we got frustrated and started poking a huge underground yellow jacket's nest instead. After finding some raid we sprayed the crap out of it. I then stuck a 3 foot long branch in and rattled it around some as steve buffeted the opening with raid. They were scrabbling out of the hole like iraq's from a radar station, but the result was, in the end, similar.
Then next step was to throw the roll of duct tape at the kite. After climbing the first level of the tree(the kite itself was inaccessible), i missed a few times from an arial venue. Anyway, we eventually decided that it would be better to tie twine around the duct tape, loft it into the tree, and then start pulling on it. My father was, by now, fully immersed in our ridiculousness also. I think the "throwing projectile at target" thing got him interested. After a few more minutes of this it was time to eat.
When we got finished, my father had broken into the supply of all curtain rods. At this point, we knew it would be a production. In fact, i had dreamt last night that going to grandma's would become a production, i kid you not. Anyway, the next step was to throw this straight projectile into the tree at the kite. After doing this like 10 times and getting it stuck in the tree at least 6 of those, we realized this was fruitless. We even spent 10 minutes trying to get the rod unstuck using the 22 foot tree/stick at one point.
Finally, we started duct taping the extra curtain rods together, so that we could get a longer poking utensil. After using a quarter roll of duct tape, and tacitly sacrificing the curtain rods to the cause, we were able to poke the kite with increased force.
Meanwhile (i run out of transition words quickly), after failing at our attempts from the bench and the top if the table, we got the ladder. I also killed the bees some more; it was yet again worthwhile. Anyway, after climbing onto the freaking roof my brother and father had a much better view of the damn kite. We had a hooked rod (intentionally bent with no regard to the safety of the rod) at the end of the contraption, and eventually steve was able to latch onto the kite and start yanking. At this point, we realized that it was VERY stuck in there, and the only way to get it down was to break the string. So everything we had done up to this point was useless. As stephen prodded with his metal stick perilessly close to powerlines, eventually a good hold was acquired and down came the kite to our jublilation.
At this point my grandmother admitted that she had lied when she said the kite belonged to a little kid up the street, and insisted that little stephen (17 in a few days) play with it instead. After pointing out that it, like half of the curtain rods, was broken due to the massive shock of the metal contraption, we instead convinced her to let us nail it to the hallway to the basement, thus memorializing the day properly.
And that's the reason why there's a kite nailed to my grandmother's wall.
Afterwards we played monopoly. I can't buy a friggin break in that game.
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8/8/02 12:05 EST-It's really techinically the 9th at this point, but as far as i can tell it's 9 PM. So i'm hope, i take it. It is much different than when i left. For instance, there is a futon downstairs which i just now discovered. But that's not what is important now. What is important now is that somehow this canister of soy sauce discharged in my luggage, which i find hilarious. Some people already associate me with soy sauce. Now that my clock radio smells of la choy, this effect should be uniform. Maybe that should be my scent from now on, soy sauce.
Also, i finally drained that massive mutant blister on my big toe which has been around since a week ago sunday. It literally shot its ejecta a foot. Luckily, it doesn't even sting, though i was rather disgusted when all that crap shot onto my hand.
The only other thing of note is the disgruntled welshman who was almost thrown off of my flagstaff to phoenix flight. Even though he was wearing a 3 foot wide american flag on his back, he was clearly a foreigner looking to cause trouble. I think the trouble of choice, however, was a football brawl (soccer for you americans), and none were to be found in the airport.
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8/6/02 9:36 PM-Stephen's gone, and I'm tired. I better go to bed soon too, since i have taken on a challenge of epic proportions yet again, this time in order to be johny nice guy for my colleagues here at lowell. They want to to dinner, which means i can't really run at night. So i'm going to try to squeeze in what will likely be a 16+ mile run before 10 AM when i have to go up for presentations. For those keeping count, that will be in the last 3 days, a 12.5 miler ending at 7:30 PM, a 8.7 miler ending at 10 AM today, followed by a 9.8 miler ending at 6 PM today and a 16 miler by 10 tomorrow. That will be about 47 miles over a span of something like 39 hours. Madness.
Then that, ok, i just took a break from writing and i have no idea what "then that" was leading to.
I'm leaving.
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8/5/02 8:50 PM-As it approaches 12 midnight on the east coast, matt is apparently 29K away from breaking some sort of web posting record. He'll never get it, 29K worth of straight text is like 8 pages or somesuch. For comparison, this file, ranging from the middle of march to now is about 150K. Measured in kilobytes this is.
So steve leaves tomorrow, and once he's gone I'll hopefully be putting the finishing touches on my summer job. At some point i think i'm going to walk about 100 yards into the woods and start giving my paper as though the trees are my audience. I should become some sort of public speaking guru. Actually, that's a good point, i need to be a guru of some sort. Ok, so how about this. ATTENTION PEOPLE THAT READ MY WEBSITE: WHAT SHOULD I BECOME A GURU IN?
Everyone needs to be a world expert in some way of doing something. There is one caveat. It cannot have something to do with masturbation. If i don't put that in there, about a dozen people will give me responses involving masturbation, and each will feel as though they've come up with something clever and unique. "Furst can be an expert at masturbating to gay-porn," one might say. Well, i can assure you, many others have had this same clever thought. It's amazing how uniform the human experience is when it comes to trying to be funny on the spur of the moment. It's always deviant sex or toilet humor.
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8/4/02 9:42 PM-Went to the grand canyon again today. Wasn't quite as interesting this time. Nothing much has happened since then, i ate and now i'm waiting for andy. However, his window of opportunity is closing, if he's not willing to help himself, why should i help him?
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8/3/02 10:15 PM-After running this morning, stephen, shane and i went to hike up mnt humphreys. It's 12,633 feet tall, and we started at about 9300 feet. It was 4.5 miles from the trailhead to the top, and of course the same back down.
Anyway, most of it was fairly uneventful, however, once we got above 11,800 feet or so, the temperature started to drop pretty quickly. By the tree line, which i would guess to be right around there, it had gotten to about 50 degrees with about 20 mile per hour winds making it even colder. Completely unprepared, we trudged to the summit, where it must have been 45 degrees. Highlights include small hail (they seemed to be too big to be sleet, maybe snow pellets though) which fell on us for a total of 5 minutes total. There was also a little bit of cold rain right near the summit. Finally, we had some nearby (two miles about) thunder when we were at around 11,400 feet though nothing came of that.
The views were pretty awesome, and we were able to get some video footage of it, though nothing terribly interesting.
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8/2/02 8:59 PM-Stephen got here etc. We're now doing not much of anything, because not much is going on. It's about 60 degrees and rainy here right now, though nothing like what happened at home, where apparently all hell borke loose. I have nothing useful to say, so i won't.
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8/1/02 9:31 PM-I know that in general runs are boring, but this is another instance where i'd like to describe my journey for posterity purposes. Though not of the scale of sunday's 22 miler, today's 18 miler had it's high points as well.
First off, right before i left i noticed the ominous clouds to the east, and checked the radar loop to find that they were indeed coming this way. I hoped that i could get to the top of the hill, titled Woody Mountain (and 8045 ft tall) before the storm hit.
Well, i didn't. It caught me about 3 miles from the mountain, or about 30 minutes into the run. What happened, actually, was that it formed in front of me, associated with the gaining storm behind. So i saw three ground strokes within a mile of me just to the north of where i would be running. Though i was shaken, i was under the impression that it was just as bad, if not worse, behind me, so turning back was no better of an option. I decided to keep going.
It got worse before it got better. I stopped running in the power line trail because it was too much in the open, and began to run about 10 feet into the woods on the side. There were 3 or 4 strikes within a half mile of me, including one less than 100 meters behind me. I was pretty scared at this point, praying a good bit and the like. Eventually i just became numb because of all the strokes within a mile (maybe a dozen or so) and only the really close ones startled me.
I had decided i was going to summit the mountain regardless of the storm, it is, afterall, called woody mountain and it's always pretty well sheltered. Since i couldn't find a trail that would get me to the top, i decided to just run through the woods. So i was just free ranging once more, only this time i was probably 2 miles from any house in any direction, whereas yesterday i was always withing a mile or so of civilization. At about 1:05 into the run i finally made it to the top, where i found a ranger lookout station manned by a dog, and presumably a person. The dog got all excited that i was there, and i decided i'd rather not meet his owner so i followed the official road down.
Anyway, this road went to the far side of the mountain, and it required going under one fence and over another to get to someplace that i recognized. Also, by this point, the storm had slipped to the north, leaving me in sunlight for the last 3 miles of the run.
So that was my run. It was fun. A fun run if you will. 18 miles or so in 2:08.
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7/31/02 8:54 PM-It was another burrito night tonight, as rice a roni (safeway brand), refried beans (safeway brand) and sort of ground beef (below safeway) were incorporated into the cozy confines of a tortilla wrap. It was respectable. It was not, however, as respectable as the 5 candy bars i got for a dollar at safeway today. That's two 100 grands, two butterfingers and 1 spree. They weren't little either, they were normal size. For 20 cents a piece, i buy candy bars. Of course, i've already eaten three of them.
It looks to me that i'll have to make it so that parts of my journal are archived sooner than a full year this time. It's looking like i'll fill up a full 300K in text on this puppy before next march 21st, or 18th, or whenever my year ends. One of these days i think i'm going to start to translate this into html instead of angelfire language, and start a real webpage. Maybe after i get a new computer. Graduation will happen first. But then i'll be like matt, a legitimate member of the cyber elite.
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7/30/02 10:54 PM-I don't know what happened to yesterday's entry, but since i'm on the same crappy mac again today, i can't guaruntee that anyone will see this. In which case i'm talking to myself, which certainly would not be out of character. I've been talking to myself a lot these days, especially on runs. Mostly it's criticizing cars for doing stupid things and/or imploring them to drive in a different fashion, though occasionally i whine to myself. I even made up a song. It goes like this: "Long ass run,Long ass run/ This is a long ass run./ I have a long long way to run on this long ass run." Or something like that. I forget exactly, it changes a lot. Today i went through this, "where in the hell am i?" stage, which was concluded by one of the bigger surprises of the summer. Normally when i'm lost (I'm never lost so much that i don't know which way to go, i just don't know where i am) i pop out of some trail like a half hour away from school. This time however i popped out right next to this huge trailhead that i always run on, about 12 minnutes from the dorm. I was hoping i wouldn't be really far away, but as always i was fearing the worst.
Uhhh, in other news i'm up at the observatory again, only this time i came here after getting a $60 parking ticket. Which i'm protesting. That's not a sentence. Most of my presentation is finished. Most of my paper is finished. Half of my programming description is finished. I could be 96% finished by the end of tomorrow. That would be lovely, and buttery and mad nice. I hope that i am able to save this particular entry.
Otherwise, i had fun talking to myself.
By the way, check the new pictures on the main page.
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7/28/02 10:47 PM-Mine is a story of the triumph of the human spirit. Today was my battle with the mountain, man versus nature in a winner take all slugfest. It all started our innocently enough, as i found that the first 9 miles could be accomplished with a steady stride and a respectable pace. After 9 miles, however, the battle was afoot. The mountain launched an offensive which included a nearly 2000 foot climb within two miles. The rest of the climb had been gradually accomplished in the first 9 miles. However, in a triumph of man over nature past, switchbacks were present which allowed for a laborious and steady ascend despite the conditions. After a solid 40 minutes of this i was in the clear.
What i found at the top was amazing. The other side of the mountain is beautiful, and by nothing other than a gift of God, i was given temporarily clear vision. As i surveyed my surroundings i pondered what had been accomplished. The answer was "not much yet" as i was still only 11 or 12 miles from the start, and now at the "halfway" point. I spent maybe 20 minutes or so at the summit, running between the twin peaks and appreciating the aspen forests and errie beauty.
But alas, i couldn't stay there. I began my descent into abject misery relatively quickly. The typical sequence for me for the next hour was four steps, dodge from rocks, 4 more strides, jump over a log, 4 steps, shuffle around the switchback. Repeat. It sucked. While i felt pretty good at the summit, that soon faded as i decided that my current plight sucked horsey balls. Eventually i became numb to reality as a defense mechanism to the annoyingly jarring run. I had a nice 6th sense which kept me from plummeting to certain death, and my unconscious mind took over. At one point, i saw a tree with it's roots around a rock. Before i realized that was what it was, it looked like people in earth-tone clothing having sex. It was out of it to say the least.
I arrived at the trailhead and started to look around. I couldn't figure out where i was. I did determine that i was roughly 16 miles into the run. After getting to the main road (the famous route 66 incidentally) i found a Buger King. At this point i was rather dehydrated, and they were kind enough to let me drink some water. I instantly downed 4 cups and a sugar packet to boot.
Back on track, and trudging at the most difficult 8 minute pace ever run, i realized that i was about 2 miles further away than i thought i would be. I think that the whole 2 mile closer idea was a delusional, switchback induced pipe dream, but either way i was pissed off. I passed this chinese food restraunt that took like 14 minutes to DRIVE to and decided once more that this all sucked.
At this point i looked back at the mountain and reached some sort of nirvana/zen elightment thing about the mountain and i not being in competition but instead being brothers or some crap. I've since decided that was fool talk. After another mile or two i decided that my bowels were in too much duress to continue, so i went to a subway and destroyed their toilet while drinking more water. This whole water consumption thing was unsettling, especially since i was just as thirsty again about 46 seconds after my last consumption. In any case, i was now only 2 miles from home, as i passed the 20 mile mark in this marathon of sorts. I don't remember the rest of it now that i think of it. I do know that i crossed a 5 lane highway in there at some point (my third time. One after BK, one to get to Subway and one last time to get to the proper side for the finish). Actually, i remember a lot of people on sidewalks, and they were all in my way. Watch where you're going, can't you see i'm on the brink of death?! I also recall getting back on campus only to find the entire 14 year old cheerleading camp walking back to campus. Miserable and haggard, i thought to myself, "Wonderful, now i have to run faster near the girls." That failed and frankly i think i had forgotten they were there within a few seconds. I don't remember them being insulted.
Anyway, i made it back. The total distance was around 22 miles. I'd say the range would be 21.5-23.5 (which does not average to 22, but i'm doing a sig figs thing). The total time was a ridiculous 3:20 minutes. Of that about 10:00 were walk/jog as i climbed the mountain. The watch was stopped for a total of about 20 minutes as i took pictures and drank water.
The moral of the story is veni, vini, vici. After several hours of uselessness, i'm suddenly a viable human again, though generally fatigued. I'm at work now, since i'd like to finish to the point where i can chill with my brother when he comes to visit, and i have arranged for myself to sleep late tomorrow, unless the friggin drum band decides to practice again tomorrow. On a side note, i'll come close to hitting 90 miles on 7 runs this week. Last week was 83 miles on 7 runs. I run 13+ mile runs often. My resting pulse is now a near-dead 34 beats per minute and i've lost about 6 pounds.
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7/27/02 9:26 PM-I spent the day doing nothing. It included getting up late, spending an hour adjusting to the fact that i was no longer asleep, running, eating, taking an hour and a half nap, screwing around on the computer, laying down in nap-like posture, eating again, and arriving at the present. See right there? That's called "parallelism". Notice how everything ends in "ing"? Had i said "i was running, eating, and i had a beer," then that would sound stupid.
Speaking of which, since i'm now 21, i do have what has been almost a daily beer in the last week. I figure they're good for me. I need this sort of energy in a bottle for my big adventure tomorrow. I was sluggish today from my long ass run yesterday, but due to my lack of doing anything today, i feel that i will be prepared to conquer the mountain tomorrow. Either that or i might die. Either way, it's something to do.
I wonder who had those thoughts mentioned on Matt's website today. Those are actually very similar to thoughts that i might have. Also, noticed a disturbing development in his obsession with the olsen twins. The last "mail" which he "received" from "them" actually included snipets of my email to him. I wonder if he pictures their collective head on my body when i see him. Either way, it can't be healthy.
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7/26/02 10:10 PM-Today was a longer run than it was supposed to be. Next for me is an easy day tomorrow and then the battle with the mountain. I will conquer it. That's why mountains are there, for us to climb them. I'm just going to climb it in the middle of a 18-20 mile run. Then, i will have conquered my adversary. However, since my run ended up being about 16 miles when it was supposed to be 14. It turns out the trailhead that i'll be taking on sunday is further than i thought it would be. As a result of the long run today and the other one on sunday, i'll have to skip the trip to meteor crater on saturday. I hear they don't let you go around it anyway. Rip off.
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7/25/02 9:29 PM-The paper writing process has begun up at Lowell. I hate writing scientific papers. In fact, last summer, when i decided i didn't want to do the worthless esoteric minutia of astronomy for the rest of my life, it was because of an edition to last year's paper. I looked over the changes, and while many were neccessary for clarity, absolutely every single piece of flair, personality, and vitality to the paper was deemed improper and eliminated. Writing a scientific paper is a formalized life draining process. Basically, you write the paper first, and then go through and take out anything that could possibly deemed interesting. What's left is science.
It's no wonder why reading those papers is like pulling teeth. If anyone wonders why science isn't popular, isn't embraced by the public, all he needs to do is look at the facts. The scientific community fosters, and even demands a type of exclusivism which keeps the simple folk out and secures their positions as beacons of intelligensia amongst the crowds of fools. It's some club, i wonder why anyone would want to be in it. It's amazing what people will suffer through in order to be able to think of themselves more highly than others.
But then again, i go to a liberal arts college, don't listen to me.
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7/24/02 8:26 PM-I'm about to go to Tar-get to get those pictures i dropped off. Wagner is laughing at me. Her shrill voice mocks my ineptitude. I cannot write, i cannot think and wagner pokes and prods at my exposed soul. How shall i continue amidst this mockery? Wagner you swine!
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7/23/02 8:54 PM-I think i'll take a temporary break from destroying trent's computer to write in here. I have not much to say, other than i now have two distinct treks, journeys if you will, planned for the next 10 days. The first is going to take place on sunday, and will involve summitting Mt. Elden in all of it's 9300 ft glory. It'll probably be about 18 miles, with a huge climb in the middle. I expect for it to take me about 2:15.
I also have one tenatively set for next thursday, which will climb this hill in the complete opposite direction. All told, the two mountains are around 17 miles appart from each other, but i will run to each of them from the same starting location. That's pretty friggin cool, i own this town.
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7/22/02 8:55 PM-We went to this chinese food restraunt again. It was high quality once again. Trent entertained with his ludicrous(however one spells that) antics and delusions. I've hit some sort of intellictual wasteland once again, so i find it difficult to come up with any clever banter. So i think i shold just call it a night.
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7/21/02 9:25 PM-I have to go. I'm watching a movie. The Big Lebowski.
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7/20/02 9:17 PM-All sorts of things happened today, and though i've forgotten most of the high comedy, i do remember some. First and foremost, we went to the grand canyon, and it truely is grand. It's bigger when you're actually in it. So the first item of business was that i went on my run there, and i realized about halfway through that i was doing my reckless Flagstaff trail running on these little narrow rocky trails. The only thing is that about 3 feet to my right there's a 700 foot drop-off. So i'm an idiot, but it was worthwhile anyway.
So a couple other things. First off, Trent was passed 16 times on the way to and from the Grand Canyon. SIXTEEN friggin' times. I've been passed about 5 times in my life, and 3 of them were when i had my permit. This is 16 times in like 3 hours worth of driving. Ridiculous. If the people in the other cars knew the truth about his driving skills, not only would more pass him, but they'd do so even if it meant passing 3 wide and driving through the woods.
In other news, there are these mules that carry people up and down the 4500 foot climb up the edge of the canyon. What a miserable existance. Not only are they sterile, but they are also carrying tourists up a damn mountain. Which leads to the question, "Do sterile mules still have sex with other mules (females presumably)?" I wonder.
Also, Trent decided that since he thought hitler was short, and hitler was, by his estimation the same height as other germans, all germans must be short. I pointed out that i was german, and not short, and this other guy whose last name is Heinreich for crying out tears wasn't short either. So, naturually, it came up that mexican's always have children with black hair. Needless to say, this principle is reversible.
For what that's worth.
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7/19/02 8:16 PM-Every time i go out on a run, it's one of the best runs i've ever been on. I bet that of the top-50 most enjoyable runs i've been on, 25 or 30 have been here, and that's without other people to occasionally make it better. Today i got lost again, which entailed getting stuck in these trails that seemed to go nowhere between Mars Hill and the railroad tracks a few miles to the east of the city. The net result was that i had to haul my ass back of the damn trail. It was steep. But it was worth it.
I didn't have any super clever thoughts today to write about. I was too busy doing work. I could tell you about how IDL deals with vertices which are out of the range of the image. But you probably don't want to know. In case you're wondering, it handles them wonderfully, with very few problems. Maybe i should pretend to have a conversation with someone. See http://jankowski.bigwhoop.org for details. Those in the computer lab who wonder why i have a picture of the friggin olsen twins on my screen are quite creeped out by his habits.
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7/18/02 8:37 PM-Uhhh.
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7/17/02 10:11 PM-So matt is really creepy. He makes believe that he's talking to the olsen twins. I think that he should probably step back and look at the situation for what it is. The girls aren't even that attractive, they look like twins, and all twins look kind of funny. Actually, it was amusing when i said that to his girlfriend without knowing it. There's something about sharing the same zygote that just takes something from each inhabitant. Not enough phelopian tube to go around i guess.
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7/16/02 9:29 PM-I don't know what totalk about today. As always, i had an idea earlier, but forgot what it was. Mainly, this website represents a localized cross-section of my thoughts. It basically includes whatever comes into my head starting 2 minutes before and running throughout the 3-10 minutes that i typically spend writing. Matt's invention, whose details i won't expose, lest someone beat him to the production line, will greatly enhance the retention of useful ponderings. I wonder how often my entries in here are about writing entries in here. What would that be called? Thinking about one's thoughts for instance. Pondering one's ponderings. On the most basic level it is that concept of self-consciousness which differentiates us from other beings, but one can be self conscious without this existential examination. I'll make up a word for it. Zaamboing is the word. I was just waxing zaaboingic.
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7/15/02 11:14 PM-John/Andy is on the phone and Trent isn't in this room, so i'm using his computer. He leaves dozens of windows open. Also, in a bizarre turn of events, his sister is fairly cute. Who would have thought?
Meanwhile i did this GRE review thing today. First off, i got 32 of the 100 questions right on my first time through. Upon further review i'm not that stupid, however, i find the test to be culturally biases. There are no questions representing the brothers and since i'm down with my peeps i'm feeling ripped off too. If there were questions about the exponential rate of the man holding us down, then i would be hooked up.
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7/14/02 5:26 PM-The weather here is interesting, but I'd say it'd only the third most interesting thing to which is happening at NAU this weekend. This place is bustling. As we speak, there is currently a Bagpipe Camp and a Quilting Conference on the premises. That seems to be a strange combination. But at a school with such varied talents, this eccelectic mix is to be expected. In another brilliant move by the administration, the quilting conference is taking place right next to the graveyard. Considering the intensity of the activity, it's left to speculation as to whether or not anyone will be able to discern when the participants have died. And if any of my readership's grandparents happened to have died at a quilting bee, i apologize for my ill-timed comments.
Earlier this week there as a law enforcement conference of some sort. Everyone i saw there reminded me of every police officer i've ever seen. I even overheard a conversation about dougnuts. Which leads me to wonder if people are born predestined to become pigs, or if they just emulate the fuzz once they establish their life goals. Either way, it was quite a homogeneous crowd.
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7/13/02 5:13 PM-The last entry was a few minutes before this pretty cool experience with a thunderstorm on top of mars hill. But i've told that story too many times, and it's not THAT good, so it does not get mentioned here.
Yesterday was inauspicious, and today has mostly been as well. We went to this place called Walnut Canyon, which was interesting. I appreciated it, but it wasn't a real long trip and you exhaust it's interestingness after about 15 minutes. But for those 15 minutes it was cool.
Yeah, that's it.
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7/11/02 10:07 PM-I have to do this from an apple today. I hate these things. If i ever buy and apple, shoot me.
It was a busy day today. Twas the best of times, twas the worst of times. First off, have you ever tried running exactly 8 minutes after waking up from a dead sleep? That's how my day began. Dead sleep, 7:20 wake-up, 7:28 out the door en route to a 7 mile run. That was a jolt. But i did it so that i could go to this dinner with the post docs and REU students. It was pretty cool, talked about a lot of BS, laughed about a lot of stupid stuff and even learned some useful information. Once you can laugh with people over just stupid stuff that no one else would know about, that's when you've broken the ice. It's fairly amusing here occasionally now.
I now find myself up at lowell, in the planetary research center computer lab. Why I would go hang out on the top of a silly mountain at 10 PM is beyond me. I think it's because i have keys and I have the power to do it.
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7/10/02 9:50 PM-Had a beautiful run today. I found yet another direction which i can run in. I now have several, i'll try to list them so that the search parties can be coordinated.
There's the two trail branches to the east, splitting at this little pond. One of them requires jumping a fence and runs to this place called Little America, where the prarie dogs roam free and the injun's own the range. The other way turns south and ends up going who knows where. It's closed over there, but i've prodded some, making sure i can run to safety if i am seen. These trails eventually run back along the highway and dump out on Lake Mary road.
I can go north, towards Macpherson and Buffalo Parks, or just in the Urban Trail system towards the mountains. I know that the trail continues past where i was able to go, and to get further in this direction than i already have would require a 12 mile run. I already have an 11 that goes straight out and then straight back.
I can go more northwest onto the Urban trails past thorpe park. The one that heads straight towards the big mountains is boring, however, there are some awesome ones that go up mars hill and in the area around there. They are closed now, but even if they were open, it would still take a long run to open up any ground due to the time i spent in there when the signs were avoidable. I really appreciate those trails, and will start going there again when it rains more, open or not.
Finally there is the south FSUT which goes past Walmart. The main trail runs to this fairgrounds and equestrain park, which i had deemed boring before, leading to my neglect of the trails. However, with a run of over 10 miles i can get into fresh ground on the far side of the park. It's closed however, and there are too many people around to chance it. However, starting on the UT and turning to the west leads to these awesome powerlines. The trails are rugged, but they seem to go on for miles and miles, as 10 miles just got to a fork in the road. They were closed however for the last few minutes on my way out.
Once these trails open up, i'll have to go 12 miles a day just to explore them properly. Either that, or i'll have to be ready to throw down some fast miles on rocky trails in flight. Either way, I have a few more long runs worth of legal running to exploit.
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7/9/02 9:47 PM-We're getting some respectable rain here right now. IT's been a steady sort of light rain for about an hour, with some periods of heavier. It should go a long way towards giving me an excuse to go on those trails. I really don't have much else to say for today. The thunderstorm was fairly interesting, but not super special. You hear me, you can't touch me thunderstorm! I love setting myself up for ironic deaths in the future. "He shouldn't have taunted the thunderstorm," people will say.
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7/8/02 8:26 PM-So lets see. We're now 13 days until the day which came up as being a bad day in one of my dreams about 6 years ago. I don't remember much of it, but i dreamt that on july 21st (it wasn't the 21st at the time) some guy came around and started picking people out in their sleep for death. I had decided at the time that it was something to remember. My watch has been going off every year since then.
As for today, i did the regular work routine, netting a free piece of cake while i was there. That's always a plus. I really don't like cake much either, i just never understood why it was so well loved. It's just some bread with frosting on it. But i eat it when its free, and enjoy it very much in such situations. I eat anything if its free, even strange japanese noodles which sit in a bucket of ice. That wasn't the most pleasant free-food experience, but it was edible and probably healthy. There aren't too many fat japanese after all. Except for the sumo wrestlers, and that's a bizarre tradition. Probably similar to our fascination with midgets, only reverse.
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7/7/02 9:45 PM-Skipping days is no way to keep a loyal fan base. I apologize for my oversight. Yesterday, yesterday. Hmmm. I called home. I went on a run, not even a special run. Played Bobby Sh-ay in chess, and i wasn't slaughtered as badly. But i did realize that i'll never beat him because he thinks about it on way more levels than i do.
Today included that big ole 2 hour church service in the morning, which is still good. I very much enjoy their company, though i think that the cute girl is too young and also possible related to the pastor who is a TV-pastor style guy and scary for that situation. I also went to the other church service in the evening, probably for the last time, but i was able to cook for them. I made massive amounts of quesidilla's, 24 to be exact (they're really heavy). About 10 remained afterwards, as well as probably a pound of the unused meat and rice.
Anyway, they're kicking me off of the computer, so i have to bounce.
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7/5/02 8:13 PM-I think that i have decided i don't like laptops. For two reasons mainly. I hate the mouse alternatives. Mice are the way to go. By the way, any idea why my cursor keeps moving away from the place where i'm typing? The computer seems to be deciding that i really don't want to be typing where i am. Well computer mind your freaking business. Holy crap this is annoying. It's not even an option in control panel to fix it. At least not obvious. This is now reason number 3 for why i don't like laptops. Reason number two was the fact that it gets hot beneath my left hand on both of the laptops that i occasionally use here. One day i'm going to figure out how to spell occasionally and neccessary, both words which mystify me.
I've had enough of this autoselect mouse crap. You think this is a Linux machine mouse? No, no it isn't.
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7/4/02 8:50 PM-I was kicked out of the room i was writing in before. But as i was saying, i ran about a minute faster in the race than i had expected, and the woman who did the measuring insisted that it was the proper distance. So i'll take it.
We went to this chinese restraunt tonight. It was quality. Good food, large portions, several surprise additions to the entree and perfect service. I was very pleased, and i ate a lot of chinese food. In general chinese food isn't well suited for massive consumption. I don't know why, it might just be my own personal problem. But i gave it a good go. It's unfortunate too, because a lot of chinese food places have buffets. After two plates, i'm already hurting at those places. Now Golden Corral, they have issues when i come. And souper salads, i can take them down nicely. But those chinese, they've foiled me in the past. They talk junk about it, but i'm all "Boxer rebellion, What now?"
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7/4/02 1:29 PM-The race went very well. I didn't try very hard at all, and still ran 32:54 for 3rd. I have to go.
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7/3/02 8:38 PM-Today was an exciting day. The weather was different, breaking the streak of about 30 straight days where the weather was nearly identical. Some sort of low pressure system apparently came through, leaving it a nice nippy low 70s. Unfortunately, i already had run this morning, when it is always cool. It did, however, rain on me slightly, making me day. We've probably gotten several hundreths of an inch of rain in the last few days. Oh boy!
I was what i would consider productive at work today, and tomorrow is my day off. I will be running this race in town. I'm number 665, dodging a bad number by one. I saw it sitting there after i got mine, and i pity the fool that gets stuck with it. The battle plan is to go out rather conservatively, perhaps in the 15-20 pack for the first mile. Once the idiot kids die, that will put me in about 8th through the second mile at the same pace. Ideally i'll drop 5 seconds per mile for the next two, hopefully hitting around 11:00 for that two mile, still just chilling. That'll probably move me to 5th or somewhere therein. The last two miles will depend on whether or not i feel like racing. This early in the training with no speed work, all i really need is a tempo day, so just chilling home at the same pace for something around 34 mins mid would be fine. If it feels good, i'll see about rolling with it though. Depends on where the leader is too.
Regardless, Robin's uncle wes is signed on to her screenname. He is quite befuddled by the fact that i messaged him. He tried to get fresh with me too. I calmly explained that he was signed on to her name, and that the little yellow man was responsible for the mix up. He then just recently gave me his e-mail address and told me that he was looking forward to hearing from her. In case robin reads this, the address is wblum@bright.net. I think he's computer illiterate.
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7/2/02 8:56 PM-My arteries are slowly constricting, so i'll try to make this quick. I ate hamburger helper tonight, of the bacon cheeseburger variety. About three minutes after its completion, a half pound chunk of grease and "cheese" became lodged in my aorta.
In another bizarre twist, Andy, who i feel like i should call john for some reason (john arbuckle perhaps?) has become obsessed with me and is now telling his family of all people about my website. Not too many families frequent my humble cyberspace abode, but this one at least deserves mention. Apparently John's mother writes speeches for the Tacoma, WA mayor. Here's a sample of her early work:
Mayor speaking:
"People of the great city of Tacoma. Today is truely a sad day in the history of this, the finest city in the great state of Washington. One of our most cherished landmarks, the Tacoma-Narrows Bridge, mysteriously began to gyrate early this morning, before finally surrendering its illustrious life to the Tacoma River in an uproarious crash. Despite the efforts of a US Geological Survey Task Force in conjunction with the Tacoma Police Department we have, as of yet, no explanation for the destruction of our beloved landmarks. We have not ruled out communist subversion, but there is currently no cause for alarm. We have posted armed guards from the Washington State Militia at the Tacoma-Puget Bridge, the Washington-Narrows Bridge and the Tacoma-Big-and-Wide Bridge.
"Thus far, there are no reports of human casulties, but a scottie dog plummeted to his furry little death. We mourn for his loss. I will brief the community when more information is available. Try not to over-exert yourselves in this time of mourning; it is times like these that will show the world the true strength of this fine city."
You may remember that speech from countless newscasts.
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7/1/02 7:54 PM-It's time to up my production again. As of last night, i may have opened a new market for this website, which means that if innovation and creativity do not follow, i could lose a sizeable consumer base. Like 2 or 3 people for instance. When you average something like 5 hits a day, 2 or 3 more is huge.
That being said, i have nothing unique to say today. I could whine about how my knee is swollen, but what's more interesting to whine about is the damn attention that it accidentally got. Not wanting to walk down the hill on a bum knee, i, in passing, asked sally oey, my mentor type person, if i could get a ride down the hill with her. So she sends this e-mail out to the entire staff requesting that someone take "my injured REU student" back home. It was wonderful, everyone thought i was mortally wounded. Last time i ever mention something like that to sally again.
It has been said that i should make more reference to people that i know when writing on this website. I'll keep that in mind.
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6/30/02 4:08 PM-I went to a pentacostal church this morning. Although it lasted over 2 hours, it was still very worthwhile. They have perhaps the best worship band i've ever seen. They actually sound like a viable band, it's something. Other than that, i haven't had much in the way of time to differentiate this day from any others. I ran, and it was almost even cloudy today, so that was nice. Hazy is probably a better word. I bet the humidity is approaching 20%, happy day!
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6/29/02 5:25 PM-I went sightseeing today and got some good pictures of things. I'm hoping to get them developed better than normal so that i can blow some of them up. Anyone know anything about that stuff? If so mail me.
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6/28/02 9:55 PM-I ate a lot of cheese and man cookies about 2 hours before i ran today. I almost lost them. I did, however, in my quest for more trails, find a whole new set of trails which have an absolutely gorgeous view of the massive mountains to the north of the city. The only probably is that it's a solid 20 minute run just to get to the trail head. Getting lost didn't help. So feeling rather ill, lost and already 50:00 into my run, i was under the distinct impression that i was in for a long day. It wasn't so bad, since the road i was on dumped into another road, as i had strongly suspected.
I was worthless at work again. This time, i brought a book. I was not working to the point where i just started to read something blantantly not work related. ESPN's website, or course, isn't work related, but it's on a computer so it almost looks like i'm working.
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6/27/02 9:26 PM-I think i can safely axe that "PST" from the header for a while. You know, I always think of cool things to say during the day, and then i forget. One thing that i do remember, is that the girl on matt's website today is in no way, shape, or form related to matt. If that IS her picture, which i sort of doubt, she is the most anamalous girl in the history of female-dom. I went to that website and read some of her stuff, and while she does have the whole whore thing going for her on occasion, she's definitely in the wrong field. Hot girls aren't web people. A much more likely scenario is that she's a normal looking web person (like matt...) who found pictures of some girl on the internet and then assumed the identity. If she had a screenname it would be "sexywebgrl21", regardless of whether or not she was sexy, a girl, or 21.
They closed more of my trails today, this time the ones that run through what i now understand to be a compound named "little america". It sounds like a) the sort of place matt and his people would live, or b) the sort of place people exactly opposite matt and his people would like to live. I did get on the property anyway, but it was creeping me out with the little prarie dogs trying to out flank me and whatnot, so i took this trail i had never been on. I saw some more elk, and those things must weigh over 250 pounds. They look like a mix between deer and horses.
One last thing. You know how you see deer trails in the woods? They're always narrow trails, amazingly reproduced by the deer and tend to have a 5 foot high ceiling. Well anyway, i saw chipmunk trails today. The chipmunks here are actually pretty big, in fact they may be small prarie dogs, i can't tell. But one of these little things was running down what was obviously a 4 inch wide trail through the thick grass. I even stopped and went back and looked. It was a chipmunk trail, the damnedst thing.
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6/26/02 9:44 PM PST-Another day of surfing the internet at work today. It was, however, alleviated by the fact that i took this 3 hour practice physics GRE. Either i'm an idiot, or it was just way over my head. I figure i got about half of the 100 questions right. Good thing i don't want to go to graduate school.
Meanwhile, went to a Bible study tonight, which was good. I'm going to make my famous quesidillas at the lutheran church in a few sundays; i hope they come out well.
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6/25/02 9:13 PM PST-I was worthless at work today. First off, i had to walk because my ride disappeared. Second, my advisor is gone and the data is screwy and i don't have the permissions to the secondary project. So i surfed the internet for hours.
Then i went exploring again on the trails that remain open. This time i split the highway, whereas last time i ran down the far side of it. I've always wanted to run between the lanes of a highway, and there is a solid 150 meters between east and west bound. I say these things just in case i end up not coming back one day, since there are so many miles of trails, i thought i'd mention where it is i'm exploring. The terrains actually pretty rugged; my ankles will be ironclad by the end of the summer.
I also had hamburger helper again. And again i have gas. If i may be blunt.
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6/24/02 9:33 PM PST-Despite being lost on my run today for a solid 4 miles, i still managed to get back within 7 seconds of the time that i had planned on running for before i left. I'm quite proud of it really. It was another nice run, on trails that i had never been on before. If all the forests were opened, i think that i could go 12 miles a day on a different course every day. There are just so many of these things, i have only scratched the surface. Unfortunately, most are now closed, which is probably a good idea since i live in a towering inferno waiting to happen. I just found out that i'm not allowed to be on the lowell land because of the forest closings, whoops, oh well. Too bad, i'll just have to run faster.
Meanwhile, i'm quite upset about the attention that my neighbor (not the supermodel) is giving me. I've read somewhere not to ever all the crime scene to become mobile, so i won't be travelling a hundred miles away with her any time soon despite whatever entreaties i might encounter.
I think popcorn is on order tonight. By the way, in case anyone is wondering, the safeway brand fettucine alfredo in a box is as good as the name brand, for 40% less. It's worthwhile. Next up will be testing the dollar store to see how that compares. What a good store.
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6/23/02 7:37 PM PST-It's been a more eventful than usual day. I went to a pentecostal service this morning. I was supposed to meet someone there, but i didn't find her until after the service. But it wasn't too bad. They weren't as out there as i had thought they might be. They did hold their service in a public square, which was pretty cool, and they had one of the best worship bands that i had ever heard.
I took pictures on my run today. I hope the camera can hold up to being jiggled for an hour straight. Anyway, the scenary is beautiful there.
I then went to the 6PM lutheran service. They feed me afterwards. One interesting phenomanon is that each week an entirely different set of people show up. Today, for instance, none of the people i knew were there, and a half dozen people i'd never seen before were. Mysterious.
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6/22/02 2:32 PM PST-I'm alive and well.
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6/20/02 8:44 PM PST-I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, and tell you about the ghetto nature of this institution. They charge 5 cents for each printed page here. Isn't that absurd? The also charge $1 for students to use the pool. The mail room is only open from 10:00-4:30, making it impossible for those to work to go to it. A TV is considered a neccesity by the students, however, a computer is not needed. The football players are on the top of the food chain.
As annoying as being $60,000 in debt is (future stalker/wife types take note...baggage galore pour moi), I'm glad bucknell's not as silly as this.
Five cents for a freaking printed page for crying out tears.
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6/19/02 8:51 PM PST-More wildlife today, as i saw this elk on one of the trails. The thing was like half deer half moose. It was pretty hUge with a captital U. I had plans to gripe about something, but i forget what it was. I made this Fettucine Alfredo from Pasta-roni. It was quite soupy, but it was all right. Yeah, i went to work too, but that didn't really accomplish anything. Just ran programs for like 7 hours, and then went on the internet in between.
So i'm done talking now.
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6/18/02 8:28 PM PST-As usual, the run was the event of the day which stuck out. I found a loop sort of thing in the forests around Mars Hill (which is incidentally the place where i work also). The bad news however is that they put up a sign saying that the forest was closed in a different location. I knew it was closed, but previously i could access the trails through other locations and never pass a sign, hence never actaully breaking the law. Alas, i'm a trespasser and a fire risk these days. The trail was stunning however. I saw my first large mammals, with these friggin rabbits that are at least twice as big as any i've ever seen before. They look like 2 foot long deer almost. And those things can jump. I swear the one was bounding 6 feet in the air as he fled from my approach. I also saw some deer, which look pretty similar to our deer only maybe 10% smaller. They also have less flexible hind quarters, as theirs stay rigid all the time, not just when they bound.
So that was nice. Once again the people i work with couldn't hold out a half an hour and ate without me. Last year everyone always waited for me, but i guess these are different people. That's one thing about working in the Focus on Minorities program last year; minorities are, from my limited experience, more personal people. I can't make a sweeping judgment of course, but i'd say it's say to say at least that african americans who are striving for educational excellence (that was the main category which i worked with last year) are very good people.
I learned two things about angelfire in the last 10 seconds. One is that they use the word "snippet" in a professional location and the second is that Carnegie Mellon developed it. You learn something new every day.
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6/17/02 9:29 PM PST-I ran with those people. It was incredibly slow, i was surprised. I'll probably show up on easy days. Like really easy days.
That's about all i've got. How about that soccer game last night? I think i'm going to start following that more.
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6/16/02 8:49 PM PST-For those waiting for the results, the goshen DMR missed our time by a second with a 10:33. Tommy ran 3:15 on lead-off, followed by a 53, 2:01 and steve's 4:22 at the end. He apparently closed in 62 which is too fast. He was too tenative in the middle, sitting on josh conklin who's frankly not that good.
Meanwhile, tomorrow i'll go running with the locals. I don't think i'm going to make it a regular occurance, as i'd rather just go wherever i feel like going at this point. Not to mention it's a 3 mile round trip to get there, so a 10 mile run is all the sudden 13. Not to mention i'm sort of falling out of the running cult these days. When i'm here for the summer, doing a good job at work is the priority, first because they pay me (unlike bucknell who i pay so i can run for them) and two because it'll help me get a real job some day.
In other news, i can't stand the verbs they use to describe world cup teams. "Germany are a strong side" and the like. I'm used to refering to nation names in the singular. "Germany is a country." It bothers me every time they use that silly wording.
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6/15/02 2:06 PM PST-Had a few decent runs on some awesome trails the last few days. However, the news of the day is steve's split at nationals in the 4x800. As a whole they didn't run too well. John lead-off a little below average, leaving them about 15 yards off the main pack. Stephen blasted a 1:57.7 to catch the pack and pass about 4 people. Tom, who shouldn't have been on it, i don't know why he was, ran a 2:04 and change for the second straight week, making him this years JB. Dave Carey ran great for himself at the end with a 2:03.something.
The DMR this evening is their real event. It all hinges on how well Tom leads off. They NEED a 3:12 out of him. If that happens, john'll be in it after the 400, leaving their best to legs to come. A fresh ross is good for a 1:58-1:59 and steve can run 4:17.0. I got his 800 time exactly right with my guess of what he could run, i'm banking on him hitting this one too. Best case scenario, they could run 10:20, which is pretty damn good. Lightning strikes twice in Goshen apparently, as we have had two flukish sets of national caliber teams in the last 8 years.
I have to go to some other website, but i can't remember what it is.
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6/13/02 9:03 PM PST-Nothing much to say today. E-mailed the runners in flagstaff (the people that run "letsrun.com") so hopefully i'll have some people to run with in the near future. And hopefully they won't smoke me.
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6/12/02 8:14 PM PST-There is one fact which strikes me as i sit here. My slippers smell, and the smell is eminating all around me. Luckily, i don't care.
What of today? I can't think of anything. However, i do have a social commentary which i've noticed since i've been here. It turns out that the big meathead football players are at or near the top of the food chain here. It's somewhat surprising, since they're not even D1, but i've seen a bunch of goonish football players (albeit some have seemed like nice enough guys) and so far they've done pretty well on hot girlfriends. It's an interesting trend, i don't quite understand it. At schools more focused on academic and future economic success meathead dominance doesn't seem as prevalent. Here it's a survival of the biggest sort of thing.
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6/11/02 9:02 PM PST-Not a bad day today. I had an interesting run. There was this strange field which i skirted a few days ago, so i decided to run on the other side of it today. It turns out there were several hundred, maybe even a thousand of these pairie dog things in there. They looked sort of like squirrels, only maybe 20% bigger in general, with a distinctively bigger head and not much of a tail. They were all popping in and out of their holes like alligators in that game where you smack the alligators on the head with a mallet. They were also making funny chippy noises at me. If they weren't so damn cuddly, i would have been creeped out, especially since i'm running in the middle of nowhere. I bet they could take me down if they wanted to. And eat me alive. Ouch!
I also saw a GOOD runner today. In fact, i'm pretty sure i've seen him before, but i can't put my finger on where. Next time i see him i'm going to make an effort to walk him down, even though he must have been doing 6:00 or better pace when i saw him. My lazy 7:00 pace (i did do 9 miles!) must have seemed pedestrian.
What else? Gorged myself at the all you can eat soup and salad place, and my rather attractive waitress felt bad for me since i was eating by myself and only charged me for the salad and not the soup, saving me an entire dollar. I ended up consuming 2 full salads, one which had everything that i can stand on it and was heaping huge, and the other a typical sized spinach and broccoli plate. I also had about 8 of the biggest damn strawberries i've ever set eyes upon. Well, maybe not, but they were very big and very good. Must be straight from California. That was accompanied by whipped cream. I had the double-baked potato soup with two chunks of corn bread to start my meal, and finished it with a bowl of ice cream. The meal itself, despite its girth, was a mere $4.72.
But i have a nasty habit of giving attractive waitresses big tips. That's probably why they're waitresses. I bet there's a correlation between hotness and the size of tips which is stronger than the connection between service and tips.
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6/10/02 9:22 PM PST-I was just warned for the umpteenth time that i may be entering an insecure area where people could access my information. God forbid someone actually come to my WEBSITE and access my information. I would be distraught if that were to occur. I'm tired. Like last summer when all i talked about was how tired i was. That's not even a sentence. Not even close. But that's about all i can complain about. Everything seems to be going fairly well, in my own complacent little way. I think i'm going to set the "go to bed" ball rolling, so that hopefully i will accomplish that by 9. That would be nice.
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6/9/02 2:27 PM PST-It is ridiculously windy here today. There have been several windy days thus far, and the only thing in common between them is that no matter which direction i run, the wind is always in my face on the way back. As has become custom, i was belted with sand as i struggled to get back to my room.
In other news, stephen ended up 5th in class B in the mile, and the 4x800 was 6th in B. I don't know the times for sure.
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6/8/02 12:34 PM PST-While i'm waiting for this 4x800 to happen (which i'm incidentally a little worried about, it has 8:13 written all over it), i just found out that i once fought a kid who ended up being a murder. That's right, good old rob labar from a 6th grade lunch showdown. Go to matt's webpage, which i won't link at jankowski.bigwhoop.org for details.
And finally (12:58) race time is here. Goshen's in the fastest heat, unfortunately.
Good start by john...hands off 2nd to last, probably 2:01 or so. Tom seemed to run terrible, handing off in almost last, with something like 2:04. They didn't even wait until they crossed to switch the view, we're way back. Ross out about 59, still way back. He ran about 2:01, they keep switching views before we come through the line, since we're so far back. Ross gained a spot however. And how's this freaking logic. They show the finisher walking around after he's done, because that has a lot of bearing on EVERYTHING, while neglecting every finisher after 3rd place.
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6/8/02 11:25 AM PST-Well, the mile didn't go too well. When you are thinking about another race, you won't do well in the current one, and then you'll still be tired and blow the second one too. We'll see how that works out. He ran by my watch 4:22.8 for something like 6th in the unseeded and perhaps 14th overall. He'll probably steal a medal for class B, but nothing high. He hasn't run a fast race all year in the mile, or anything really, since he's been such a sit and kick runner, so it just didn't look like he was ready for this meet. I'll post more after the 4x800.
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6/8/02 10:44 AM PST-Big day today. I have a few things to talk about. First and foremost, i've found a pay-per-view site that is broadcasting the NY state meet where stephen will be running. His first race is scheduled for about 20 minutes from now. I'll keep this updated on how he does. Second, it's my father's birthday, happy birthday to him.
Before i discuss last night, i'd like to mention how nervous i am about this race coming up for steve. It looks like i'll be able to get splits, and it'll be all i can do to keep from yelling at the computer as he's running.
It turns out that last night i went observing at the 72-inch telescope on Lowell's dark site. The Mesa, as it is called, is about 20 or so miles away from flagstaff and in the middle of nothing. While i confirmed that being an astronomer is mind-numblingly boring, it wasn't that bad when someone was there. The telescope was giagantic. The best time, however, came when i decided to leave, around 11:30. It was pitch black out there (which made driving under the mandatory parking light restrictions next to impossible) and the sky was absolutely brilliant. I've never seen anything like it. The Milky Way was prominent and distinct. Their were probably 2 dozen stars that appeared brighter than even the brightest that we have a chance to see in NY. Same stars, of course, they were just all kinds of bright. It was difficult to pick out the constellations, because cheesy little stars looked like important stars. The ~8 degrees that flagstaff is south of NY came in handy when seeing constellations that we never get a decent view of, such as Sagittarius and Scorpius. The latter was awesome, with antares being redder than i've ever seen, and the entire constellation being visible. Anyway, steve should be going off in about 10 minutes, so i'll write when he's done then grab lunch and come back to watch the 4x800.
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6/6/02 8:35 PM PST-Another beautiful day. After awhile though, they all seem the same. I think that beautiful days in the northeast are much more enjoyable, simply because not only are they beautiful but they are also unique. The weather here doesn't seem to surprise you, it's just peachy keen all the damn time. Eventually it gets annoying. It's supposed to rain this weekend perhaps, i look forward to it.
I finally got some stuff done at work today, and am currently talking to richmond, whose screen on "quick aim" keeps getting all up in my grill. It's pissing me off, so i'm going to wrap this entry up.
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6/5/02 9:30 PM PST-Today sucked at the lab. I spent basically all day writing about 9 of the most simple lines of code possible. I suck at IDL. The run was good, i'm up to about 7.5 now putting me well on my way. I'm used to Pacific time (though tired anyway) and the altitude only gets me when i'm running up hills.
I ate at this all you can eat soup and salad place. For $5 it can't be beat. Silly west coast hippies got something right. There's a starbucks nearby incidentally. In other news, yesterday was my birthday. No one here knows, but i got a call from my parents which is always nice. And i just remembered i have to change the address on my sports illustrated account. That's a life-saver.
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6/3/02 3:19 PM PST-I was under the impression that Arizona was in mountain time. And it is. However, they do not follow daylight savings time, and use the exact same time all year. This came as a surprise to me, but luckily allowed for me to make my flight. So i got here yesterday just fine. I'm meeting people, and one observation that i must make is that my hall is about 80% girls with a solid several being gorgeous, including my neighbor. Meanwhile, i have a nice double to myself, which i feel bad about, but it was their problem to begin with. The view out my window isn't spectacular, but out my front door there's a courtyard that overlooks the San Fransisco mountains which reach almost 13000 ft. They're huge, and still look huge even though i'm on a 7000 ft plateau already.
I've learned that most of Arizona is completely barren wastelands. Flagstaff, compared to NY is also a wasteland, but the weather is absolutely gorgeous and i really can't complain. There's a lot of dust around, but at least Flagstaff has fairly dense pine trees. The rest of the state is mostly nothing. Nice to look at from a plane, but i wouldn't want to live there.
I'm going to attempt a real run today, as opposed to the 3.5 mile variety which i did yesterday. Hopefully my lungs can handle the lack of oxygen.
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6/1/02 9:24 PM-Tomorrow morning i will wake up at about 4:00 AM for my 7:00 AM departure from JFK. It's really tonight, as opposed to tomorrow morning. That is such a miserable hour to wake up at. Or i should say, "at which to wake" though that sounds silly. I have no idea when i'll next be able to update this, but when i get situated, i'll look for a friendly computer. Hopefully someone will have brought one, or perhaps i'll have to trek to the library, wherever that is.
I will be living out of two suitcases and a backpack (carry-on size) for the next 10 weeks. It's daunting for me, especially since i'll be running so much, and there is no one that will wash my clothes like at bucknell. However, when you combine the weight of my two suitcases you get 81 lbs, so they're meaty.
Also, i constantly think something is crawling up my legs. It's probably some sort of psychosis, i should lay off the hallucigens.
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5/31/02 10:51 PM-The time is coming near. I have to leave for arizona. It's pretty hot here today. That's what i have to say.
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5/30/02 11:03 PM-Goshen made states in the 4x800! It was a coup, with everyone running perfectly to orchestrate the upset of cornwall. The time of 8:06 is, by my calculations, the 6th fastest in school history, and ten seconds faster than anything other than the time we ran my soph/junior years.
So steve;s running the mile, which he didn't run fast in intentionally, and the 4x800 at states next week. I wish i could see it. I'll have to look for a webcast. Anyway, i'm getting caught up in conversations so i can't concentrate on anything.
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5/29/02 10:11 PM-Lets see. Stephen qualified for the 3200 for states today, even though he doesn't plan on doing that race. And Miss Russia or Cyprus should win the Miss Universe contest if there's any justice in the world. Or universe for that matter. It's the only chance Cyprus has to have any sway whatsoever in the universe. If i were Cyprus, i'd try to breed Miss Universes. Make a farm of them. A "Clone a 'Miss Universe'" factory. I think i already have the floor plan laid out from about 6 years ago.
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5/28/02 10:19 PM-What do you know, same time as yesterday. This fact is obvious to me because when i first start typing, today's date is directly above yesterday's date, making it the most apparent connection to be drawn. However, by the time i write a couple of paragraph's the dates and times connections become obscured.
Today featured a discussion on word usage. I think there are certain words, actually 90% of words, that can only be used rarely. For instance, a word like "flamboyant" can only be used perhaps 50 times in one's entire life. I mean in conversation or print, that previous usage didn't count. So Stephen, Rich and I used it about 50 times in a 15 minute span, so now i never have to say it again. There are many words like that. I started flipping through the dictionary, and noticed that most words can only be used a handful of times in an entire lifetime. "Flim-flam" and "crummy" are two such words.
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5/27/02 10:19 PM-I've been encountering some really annoying pop-up ads of late. And they're not even pornography related. They're just annoying. They're occassionally impossible to close without alt-control-delete and they get in the way of what i'm really trying to do while spawning numerous other advertisements. That's got to be illegal. Also, i know that the point of advertisements is to hawk your product, but whenever i see one of those things i don't want to buy the product, i want for the company that produces it to go extinct. Take the X-10 camera for instance. If you work for X-10 and you're reading this, i hope your product fails.
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5/26/02 11:24 PM-Another night of badminton. Tonight, stephen, oddly enough, was on fire, so he took 2 of 3 from me. Steimers and I continued our doubles domination however. The court is very professional these days, with no less than 5 flood lights now giving perfect seeing conditions all over the court.
Nothing else happened all day. My church here is very dead, it seems. Dinner was good, i'm fat. Also, i got a real haircut, as opposed to one that i gave myself.
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5/25/02 11:51 PM-Either i didn't post anything yesterday or i forgot to save it. Either way, nothing important happened. Today, on the other hand, was a oasis of activity within my desert wasteland of worthlessness. First off, we bought a car. That's right, a car. A 2001 VW Jetta V6 all pimped out. So that was pretty big, and it only has 20,000 miles. Compare that to the combined 350,000 miles for my mother's (soon to be brother's) car and mine. Hopefully we'll get similar production from this beast.
After we purchased the vehicle, we went out to dinner with my grandmother (aka nani) and i got a sizable steak. After eating 4 bread items, 2 salads, 16 oz of NY strip plus potatoes and a full quarter of my mother's meal i had ice cream and was then officially full. In other news, i've gained nearly 10 lbs in the week that i have not been running.
If those two items of interest weren't enough, Matt and his girlfriend Jill showed up for a couple hours. We talked about ranging topics, such as how twins are generally deformed (and i then learned she was a twin) and clock placement. They left about a half hour ago and that leaves me here. As i always do at this time of night, i've just realized that i haven't showered today. I should probably get on that. For the last week, i have showered every night after 11 PM. I wake up the next morning with the same area of hair sticking up. It looks like i have a cowlick. Maybe i do. That's right "cowlick" because it looks like a cow licked your head. I have no idea the real spelling.
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5/23/02 11:28 PM-Today consisted of nothing until Badminton made its triumphant return to my life this afternoon. After not even picking up a racket last year i wasn't all that rusty. Turns out the "cool" thing to do for the kids in my brother's grade is to play badminton at night at my house. I'll be damned if 10 kids didn't show up. So me and this kid ran everyone in doubles, winning through for about 7 straight matches until we had double eliminated everyone. Later on he and i played, and he beat me 7-5. Could have gone either way, he was pretty good. Meanwhile, we had the yard rigged with lights to make this possible. Something like 10 lights in all.
Anyway, i'm tired, i never use these muscles.
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5/22/02 9:43 PM-WEll today was exciting. Goshen is now the section 9, class B champion in Track. Little Stephen Furst won the 3200(9:53 chilling till kick time), 1600 (4:29, same deal) and anchored the 4x400 in 52.5, which is a 1 second pr for him. Even though we didn't score any points in the throws (much like Bucknell), we went 1-2-3 in the 100, which is amazing for us, and won the 4x100. We incidentally should have been disqualified from that because of some exchange shenagans, but who knows.
Incidentally, it's the first time since 1983 that we've won. We would have won my junior year if our defending long and triple jump champ hadn't sprained his ankle playing basketball. We ended up losing by 9 points, and he was a solid 18 point swing, gaurunteed.
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5/21/02 9:56 PM-Another frost advisory tonight. You'd think summer might come soon, this mid-50s crap is befuddling. The only other newsworthy item that i can think of is that Stephen has his section meet tomorrow. He's coming off of a 3:12 1200 timetrial, which i paced him through the 1000 for. Basically, he closed in 61, and i decided i'd rather not race him through the end of it. Man, i suck.
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5/20/02 9:40 PM-Since i'm not presently annoyed by anything, now is a good time to write in here, even though i don't have anything to write about. I've wasted all of my oratory skills elsewhere, and my spacial perception was left at the puzzle upstairs. I sit here a shell of my former self, and since i have no topic to write on, tonight's entry seems as though it'll be boring and pointless. The highlights of my day include going to the pharmacy and bank. That's about it.
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5/19/02 10:52 PM-The failure of a certain file to open has erased all memory of everything else that has happened in the past several days and filled my head with blinding rage towards my computer instead. So i'm going to go deal with that.
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5/18/02 11:00 PM-I made it home safely from IC's. It was a frustrating race, much like the leagues 800, only this time there was even less that i could have done to remedy the situation. I was boxed worse than anyone has ever been boxed before. Eventually i had to do the old, "slow down, let everyone pass you, then swing outside and pass them back" trick, which worked on half of the field, but still didn't lead to a fast time. It was really lackluster for me. Lou ran well, hanlon did his "i can't run with anyone" routine and ran 3 seconds off of his pr for our slowest split, and Walshie ran well and pr'ed. All and all it was a fine trip.
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5/16/02 9:54 PM-I leave tomorrow for one last meet of the season, my junior year. It's definitely scary how little time i have left and how much i have left to accomplish. C'est la vie. I'll be leading off the 4x800 at princeton in the IC4A meet on Saturday. I've been living at home all week, and i'll be driving myself down tomorrow.
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5/15/02 9:49 PM-I don't have much to say tonight. Experimented with a new meal in the kitchen today and it was critically accliamed by my family but i think it needed something else. Chicken and broccoli over fettucine alfredo, only it was fettuchine, it was egg noodles. The sauce was from scratch, but it seemed to me to be a little bland. Definitely needed a little more pepper, and i think some basil would have helped, but i'm at a loss for the moment as to what else could have improved it. The consistancy was good, though i personally thought i could have made about 25% more sauce for the amount of noodles we had. The rest of the household disagreed. Chicken was good, i experimented with some salad dressing for marination and i thought it gave it a decent taste (you could barely taste it, subtley goes a long was with chicken though). I can't quite put my finger on what i needed on that sauce though. A sharper cheese might have complemented it well.
See, nothing happened today, nor did i think of anything interesting.
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5/14/02 10:41 PM-Welcome to my good mood! Grades came back, and it seems as though i'm orchestrated a coup. If i add an "e" to "coup" it becomes a car right? Not the other way around? Anyway, got my second highest semester, and continued my trend of kicking ass in the spring.
In other news, i started writing something today. It sucks, but it doesn't seem like it'll end in 10 pages or less, so for now it's looking like a book. If you have any ideas as to what i should put in it, and/or make it about, send them to me. So far i'm writing about this kid (who is so blantantly me that i won't even try to hide it) who is on a quest to write a book. I have what i think is a marvelous title, and our character commentates on stupid stuff as he goes. At least that's what he's done for the first 5 pages, he might end up as a porn star in the future.
As for Matty J in his bombastic revolutionary web site, i mean no ill will towards him, I was more upset with that horridly over-simplified correlation that his chart making compatriot created. I'd imagine the end result is probably the same. I wonder which figure is more related to our decision to make war; the money or the race. I'd guess money. By a little bit. I'm a realist, but not a revolutionary.
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5/13/02 9:30 PM-I'm torn over what my far in the future book will be about. Maybe it won't be far in the future either, i figure my mind will likely decay, or at least lose originality at some point in the near future. I'd rather get this book out before i'm completely brainwashed by my doctrine and society.
Or maybe i have to beat out that time when they start putting chips in my head. Matt can attest to the eminence of that. I think he should leave the country if he hates everything about it so much. Actually, more than anything, i feel kind of bad for him that he sees everything as so bleak. Speaking of which, some guy made this info-graph thing relating GNP to skin-color to US foreign policy. It was a wonderful premise, however, this particular graphic did nothing but expose its creator's bias. It's interesing how he included only countries that supported his hypothesis and none that did not. There are over 200 states currently, and many more variations of states in the recent past, yet the chart only included the 30 or so which supported his point. I guess the government isn't the only propaganda agent at work out there. I wonder which is worse, or, if given greater influence, the new world order that these people suggest would end up evolving into exactly the same institution as they so ardently fight against. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I don't care if you grew up in a gargage punk band. Here's the website by the way. I suppose i just extended their silly platform to about three more people. With all this free advertising they may actually be able to afford real research.
Meanwhile, i was going to talk about my upcoming book, but i got side-tracked so i'll shut up instead.
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5/12/02 9:35 PM-It was just about the worst possible driving conditions in existance for may this morning. You know it's not good when, though you're only going 60 (i really was going htat slow at time), the speedometer ocassionally jumps to 85 since your wheels are moving that fast even though your car isn't. Those instances are accompanied by the car lurching sideways as neither gas, steering, nor brakes have any influence on its behavior. It was fun.
In other news, i watched A.I. tonight, since spiderman was sold out. What a creepy movie. Unfortunately, it was 45 minutes too long. The entire last half hour was unneccassary.
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5/11/02-11:25 PM-I'm back and all is well. I didn't run too fast, but i still pr'ed, slightly, so it wasn't a total waste. I was forced to sign at kareoke night at some random bar, and that's something of a story, so i'll have to tell it some time. In addition I got some nice sun burn, especially near my knees and on my feet. So all and all it was a good weekend.
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5/9/02-3:28 Pm-I'm off to JMU, hopefully to run some fast times.
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5/8/02 10:42 PM-I have this strange set of morals. I think i'm just missing something. You see, when someone does something wrong, against the rules, deviant from the laws of the government, i don't think it's injustice to get in trouble. You did something wrong, you should get in trouble. Yet all you ever hear about is how people are trying to squirm out of their self made distasters. Just don't break the law, and you won't get arrested and won't need a slimy lawyer that tries to circumvent justice.
For instance, everyone knows that serving alcohol to minors is against the law. Yet when people get caught, they say what a raw deal they got. Or if they were serving alcohol to minors and the police only charge with a noise complaint, they will bemoan the injustice that they received for that noise complaint, disregarding the fact that they were going against the law in numerous other areas. Take some damn responsibility for your actions every once and a while humankind.
In other news, Lou and I are most likely the one of the two fast heats on friday night at JMU. It'll be fast. However, we'll run fast just to look respectable, which is the whole point of getting into that sort of race. It should be cool.
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5/7/02 11:57 PM-Apparently the day is over. And i did a bunch of stuff, it just didn't seem like it. I really don't know what to do with myself these days. I just float around. By tomorrow, i will have finished a fairly heavy book called "Wild at Heart" in 4 days. It's not that big, 220 pages, but you have to pay more attention to it than some books. At peak production i can go 200-250 pages a day. But that's when all i do is sit around and read.
Meanwhile, this book is about how the modern church as emasculated mankind by making them timid and weak, when they really shouldn't be. So far, I think that i've re-realized my biggest feat from reading it. I figured out a few months ago as well that i'm most afraid of making the maximum possible effort, giving everything i have toward some endevour and still failing. As long as i have some sort of excuse it's not