Here we are, the second week of classes, and already I have a couple of things to be proud of myself for. In an added bonus, some other cool things happened today that did not actually require any special effort on my part, but were welcomed nonetheless.
Let's start at the beginning, because that's what all the cool kids are doing these days. For the first time this semester, I actually walked into my physics class before 0800. (Yes, I will be using military time. Deal with it.) Not that I've ever missed anything substantial by being a couple of minutes late the past few times, but the fact that I actually managed to get out of bed at 0700 apparently boded well for the day. ("Boded"? Is that a word? *INTERNET SEARCH!* Huh, apparently it is.)
After returning from Intro to Comm, I decided that the fact that I'd gotten two emails on Tuesday telling me I had a package available for pickup wasn't a fluke, and that I should go pick up the other package. To my delight, it was the rest of the stuff I'd ordered from Valve a couple of weeks ago. I am now the proud owner of two Left 4 Dead movie posters ("The Last Stand" and "No Mercy," if you're curious), a Sentry Mechanical Firing Device mousepad which has a footprint almost as big as that of my computer, an Aperture Laboratories (A trusted friend in Science) coffee mug, and a GLaDOS hoodie. I topped it all off with a Sandvich from The Cutting Edge in West End.
Now we get to the good stuff. When I started running last semester I made myself a playlist of songs that I thought would be good to run to. While this worked out pretty well, I noticed yesterday after starting with two songs whose tempos nicely matched my running pace that I was a lot better at running (and also at forgetting how much the running hurt) when I could keep time with the music. After getting back from Intro to Film, I sat down with iTunes and my good old DB-60 and worked out a playlist of songs that had good running tempos. Wanting to test immediately how well this would work out, I proceeded to go run three miles. Continuously. Without stopping or making significant pace changes. (Except for the last eighteenth of a mile or so, where I doubled my stride length just for the hell of it.) I have never even come close to doing that before. I credit the music entirely for this. Hey Monday's "Run, Don't Walk" is quite possibly the best running song ever. (And while we're on the topic of artists I'd never heard of until this week, you might want to check out Owl City. You might find his stuff sickeningly saccharine, but I love it.)
The best part about the run was immediately afterwards. As I'm coming out of McComas, I spot the snack machine, and my stomach is all like "I WANT CHOCOLATE." So I slide my card and ask the machine for a Twix. It gets stuck. I give an exasperated sigh and walk to the side of the machine to give it a solid kick. Just as I'm about to deliver the blow, however, I hear a clunk. Cool, it somehow fell on its own. As I walk around to the front of the machine, I hear another clunk. Check it out, a karmic reward for my feat; two Twix bars for the price of one.
Can't stop the signal.
--
SMike
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Monday, October 13, 2008
Blogger time-travels in order to maintain update schedule
OK, so this wasn't actually posted on Monday; I just changed the date stamp. The idea was to have this be a weekly thing from now on, as I believe that's a schedule I could actually realistically maintain. However, due to the issue of having 87.6 metric tons of homework last Monday, and persistently forgetting to update after that, here we are. At any rate, I did plan to actually talk about stuff in this post, so, on to that, then.
Next, to further explain my tantalizing statement in the last post, wherein I mentioned that I was doing an English project involving railguns. It's nothing terribly exciting; we were creating annotated bibliographies for later use in writing a research paper, and I chose, as my research topic, railguns, the issues underlying their use, and the technology behind them.
On to the big event: Homecoming. Dear Lord, was it ever good to see you all again. Wait, wait, let's go through this in order: first, the pep rally. I CANNOT BELIEVE THE SENIORS DIDN'T WIN MUSICAL EX. Seriously, teachers? Seriously? Can you please just judge something based on the quality of the performance for once? It's not like the girls were topless. Matthew Chamberlain, you are a god among men. I was actually rather surprised at the quality of the junior musical ex; usually they manage to give the seniors quite a run for their money. As for the skits, I'd have to say that my favorite moment (besides Nicole Boyd as Sarah Palin) was during the senior skit, when the senior adventurers defeated the movie-quoting "juniors" at their own game with "frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
Next: the game. I have an interesting story here. I was home until 1900 working on an engineering project, by which point I had forgotten about the game. I called Nicole around 2015 to ask whether she knew if she'd be coming to my after-party, and quickly realized what I was missing. I bolted for my truck and raced to TJ, getting there just in time for the TJMC show; you guys were great, by the way. Walex, you were the ONLY choice for homecoming king. I'm sorry to say that I didn't actually see Diana ask Robby to the dance, only the aftermath, but I do know that Robby is going to have rather a lot of trouble topping that. Barnside was an absolute fiasco; I'm pretty sure it took me somewhere on the order of an hour and a half to get a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich. Regardless, it was nice spending time with people. Also, I noticed something towards the end which was just awesome; "Nicole, listen!" Yeah, "Move Along" was playing on the restaurant speakers. Nobody except Nicole (and maybe Paul, to some extent) will even understand why exactly I find that so awesome, but suffice to say that it was.
Dinner was great; I swear there were three other groups from TJ at the same place we went. This is the second year in a row that I've been to a Japanese steakhouse for homecoming dinner; I don't think I'll ever stop thinking that those places rock, no matter how much the little cynic in the back of my head yells that I've seen everything they do. Our cook actually got the little cynic to shut up; instead of a smiley face like everyone else for the first big fireball, our guy actually drew a cartoon bomb on the wok, complete with a wick to light, which he did. He did another cool thing too, but it's a little too complicated to describe here. Also, I caught the bit of shrimp in my mouth on the second try.
The dance was nothing incredibly special; I really wished I'd brought my strings, but I guess I'll just keep that in mind for next time, whenever that ends up being. At least they didn't play "Soulja Boy" four gorram times this year. Also, there was a group of kids (freshmen, I think) that were playing Liquid War outside of Gym II for the entire dance. You have five seconds to think of something more utterly pathetic.
Yeah, I didn't think so.
Finally, the crown jewel: the after-party. This definitely ranks with Troupe Picnic and the parties I hosted over the summer as a memory I will forever treasure. And now I know that, thanks to me, there are a few more people that have shared in the phenomenon that is Troll 2.
I now have one task: make Thanksgiving even more epic. That and all the stuff my teachers give me to do, but frankly I care a lot more about you guys, on the order of billions and billions of times more.
Can't stop the signal.
--
SMike
Next, to further explain my tantalizing statement in the last post, wherein I mentioned that I was doing an English project involving railguns. It's nothing terribly exciting; we were creating annotated bibliographies for later use in writing a research paper, and I chose, as my research topic, railguns, the issues underlying their use, and the technology behind them.
On to the big event: Homecoming. Dear Lord, was it ever good to see you all again. Wait, wait, let's go through this in order: first, the pep rally. I CANNOT BELIEVE THE SENIORS DIDN'T WIN MUSICAL EX. Seriously, teachers? Seriously? Can you please just judge something based on the quality of the performance for once? It's not like the girls were topless. Matthew Chamberlain, you are a god among men. I was actually rather surprised at the quality of the junior musical ex; usually they manage to give the seniors quite a run for their money. As for the skits, I'd have to say that my favorite moment (besides Nicole Boyd as Sarah Palin) was during the senior skit, when the senior adventurers defeated the movie-quoting "juniors" at their own game with "frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
Next: the game. I have an interesting story here. I was home until 1900 working on an engineering project, by which point I had forgotten about the game. I called Nicole around 2015 to ask whether she knew if she'd be coming to my after-party, and quickly realized what I was missing. I bolted for my truck and raced to TJ, getting there just in time for the TJMC show; you guys were great, by the way. Walex, you were the ONLY choice for homecoming king. I'm sorry to say that I didn't actually see Diana ask Robby to the dance, only the aftermath, but I do know that Robby is going to have rather a lot of trouble topping that. Barnside was an absolute fiasco; I'm pretty sure it took me somewhere on the order of an hour and a half to get a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich. Regardless, it was nice spending time with people. Also, I noticed something towards the end which was just awesome; "Nicole, listen!" Yeah, "Move Along" was playing on the restaurant speakers. Nobody except Nicole (and maybe Paul, to some extent) will even understand why exactly I find that so awesome, but suffice to say that it was.
Dinner was great; I swear there were three other groups from TJ at the same place we went. This is the second year in a row that I've been to a Japanese steakhouse for homecoming dinner; I don't think I'll ever stop thinking that those places rock, no matter how much the little cynic in the back of my head yells that I've seen everything they do. Our cook actually got the little cynic to shut up; instead of a smiley face like everyone else for the first big fireball, our guy actually drew a cartoon bomb on the wok, complete with a wick to light, which he did. He did another cool thing too, but it's a little too complicated to describe here. Also, I caught the bit of shrimp in my mouth on the second try.
The dance was nothing incredibly special; I really wished I'd brought my strings, but I guess I'll just keep that in mind for next time, whenever that ends up being. At least they didn't play "Soulja Boy" four gorram times this year. Also, there was a group of kids (freshmen, I think) that were playing Liquid War outside of Gym II for the entire dance. You have five seconds to think of something more utterly pathetic.
Yeah, I didn't think so.
Finally, the crown jewel: the after-party. This definitely ranks with Troupe Picnic and the parties I hosted over the summer as a memory I will forever treasure. And now I know that, thanks to me, there are a few more people that have shared in the phenomenon that is Troll 2.
I now have one task: make Thanksgiving even more epic. That and all the stuff my teachers give me to do, but frankly I care a lot more about you guys, on the order of billions and billions of times more.
Can't stop the signal.
--
SMike
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Blogger discovered in wreckage of own procrastination: Forced to resume posting
So, it may have come to your collective attention that I am lazy. Good for you, here's a prize. Now then, on with the events of my life.
I've been spending a lot of time burning my way through the House archives lately, thanks to Greg, who owns all four seasons. Now on to the first season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and then leisurely through the Lost archives. Once again, thank you ABC for putting all four seasons of Lost on the Net. Also in television, the Heroes premiere was nothing short of epic, and has completely banished all of my fears of the show descending into mediocrity after the rather lame second season. The Knight Rider series premiere, unfortunately, presented itself horribly, riddled with worn-out cliches and badly written dialogue. The only thing it had going for it was the incredible animation for KITT, but that was hardly enough to save it.
Enough about TV, let's move onto . . . TV! More specifically, lets move from broadcasting to hardware. A few weeks back, Chris picked up an open-box 26" LCD HDTV, discounted from $500 to $426 due to its open-box status. We soon found out the reason it was originally returned; the DVD player was completely out of whack, rejecting half the DVD's we put in with "cannot read" errors, and only playing half way through many of the DVD's it did accept. We both found this incredibly annoying, so this past Saturday we took it back and explained the problem, and Chris picked up a shiny new 32" LCD HDTV. Yeah. That's right. We now have the biggest TV in the hall. Unfortunately, our cable still sucks.
In other recent (and not-so-recent) events, I attended the Newman Community Dreams & Visions retreat on 19-20 September, which was great. I met a lot of people, made a lot of friends, and had a lot of fun. A few of us who met on the retreat have started going to brunch (or lunch, as the case may be) after the 10AM Mass. Also on the topic of Mass, I lected for the first time today. (Yes, I use "lect" as the verbal form of "lector". Sue me.) Note to self: read the reading at least once before coming to Mass. Finally, John Beatty, Kevin . . . someone, and I have started having short circles hosted by Dr. Hughes, an Opus Dei numerary, before Mass.
Also, I'm doing an English project on railguns.
Alright, that should be enough to tide you over. You can thank Ashley for making me get off my butt and do this. (In a purely figurative sense, of course. I've been sitting the entire time I've been typing this.) You will hear from me by Thursday.
Can't stop the signal.
--
SMike
I've been spending a lot of time burning my way through the House archives lately, thanks to Greg, who owns all four seasons. Now on to the first season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and then leisurely through the Lost archives. Once again, thank you ABC for putting all four seasons of Lost on the Net. Also in television, the Heroes premiere was nothing short of epic, and has completely banished all of my fears of the show descending into mediocrity after the rather lame second season. The Knight Rider series premiere, unfortunately, presented itself horribly, riddled with worn-out cliches and badly written dialogue. The only thing it had going for it was the incredible animation for KITT, but that was hardly enough to save it.
Enough about TV, let's move onto . . . TV! More specifically, lets move from broadcasting to hardware. A few weeks back, Chris picked up an open-box 26" LCD HDTV, discounted from $500 to $426 due to its open-box status. We soon found out the reason it was originally returned; the DVD player was completely out of whack, rejecting half the DVD's we put in with "cannot read" errors, and only playing half way through many of the DVD's it did accept. We both found this incredibly annoying, so this past Saturday we took it back and explained the problem, and Chris picked up a shiny new 32" LCD HDTV. Yeah. That's right. We now have the biggest TV in the hall. Unfortunately, our cable still sucks.
In other recent (and not-so-recent) events, I attended the Newman Community Dreams & Visions retreat on 19-20 September, which was great. I met a lot of people, made a lot of friends, and had a lot of fun. A few of us who met on the retreat have started going to brunch (or lunch, as the case may be) after the 10AM Mass. Also on the topic of Mass, I lected for the first time today. (Yes, I use "lect" as the verbal form of "lector". Sue me.) Note to self: read the reading at least once before coming to Mass. Finally, John Beatty, Kevin . . . someone, and I have started having short circles hosted by Dr. Hughes, an Opus Dei numerary, before Mass.
Also, I'm doing an English project on railguns.
Alright, that should be enough to tide you over. You can thank Ashley for making me get off my butt and do this. (In a purely figurative sense, of course. I've been sitting the entire time I've been typing this.) You will hear from me by Thursday.
Can't stop the signal.
--
SMike
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Slideshow finished!
So that slideshow that I mentioned a couple of times is now finished; if you haven't already seen it on Facebook, or you'd like to download it, here it is:
I've been sick for a couple of days now, but my cold seems to have been relegated to just a stuffy nose now; hopefully I'll be entirely over it by Monday.
Something I forgot to mention in the last post was that I'm now a lector for Newman, the Catholic community here. Apparently I need to speak slower, but I'm fine on projection, emphasis, etc.
The weather here can't seem to make up its mind; it's either in the high eighties or the low sixties. It's kind of annoying when I get up and put long pants on, then discover that the temperature has jumped back up again.
I found out that in addition to being a Browncaot, Prof. Cover is also an xkcd fan. This is going to be a fun year.
I'm pretty excited about the fall movie lineup: Eagle Eye looks shiny, definitely going to have to see that, and some of the comedies coming out look absolutely hilarious. Looks like The All-American Rejects and Trans-Siberian Orchestra have albums due before the end of 2008, and the upcoming Oasis album looks like it's going to be great; I heard "Shock Of The Lightning" on the radio a while back and loved it.
Alright, that's all for now. See you all Tuesday.
Over and out.
--
SMike
I've been sick for a couple of days now, but my cold seems to have been relegated to just a stuffy nose now; hopefully I'll be entirely over it by Monday.
Something I forgot to mention in the last post was that I'm now a lector for Newman, the Catholic community here. Apparently I need to speak slower, but I'm fine on projection, emphasis, etc.
The weather here can't seem to make up its mind; it's either in the high eighties or the low sixties. It's kind of annoying when I get up and put long pants on, then discover that the temperature has jumped back up again.
I found out that in addition to being a Browncaot, Prof. Cover is also an xkcd fan. This is going to be a fun year.
I'm pretty excited about the fall movie lineup: Eagle Eye looks shiny, definitely going to have to see that, and some of the comedies coming out look absolutely hilarious. Looks like The All-American Rejects and Trans-Siberian Orchestra have albums due before the end of 2008, and the upcoming Oasis album looks like it's going to be great; I heard "Shock Of The Lightning" on the radio a while back and loved it.
Alright, that's all for now. See you all Tuesday.
Over and out.
--
SMike
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
English instructor found to be "one o' them scumbag innapennants"
For those of you who missed the reference, my English instructor is a Browncoat. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry about it.
If you somehow missed this in the last post, Chris and I now have a TV. We went to Best Buy in Christiansburg to get Chris a webcam and found an open box TV. Turns out that the built-in DVD player is broken in a big way. But we still have a TV, which is nice.
Nothing else has really happened since Monday . . . so I guess I'll be ending this here. Hopefully more stuff will happen between now and Saturday.
Over and out.
--
SMike
If you somehow missed this in the last post, Chris and I now have a TV. We went to Best Buy in Christiansburg to get Chris a webcam and found an open box TV. Turns out that the built-in DVD player is broken in a big way. But we still have a TV, which is nice.
Nothing else has really happened since Monday . . . so I guess I'll be ending this here. Hopefully more stuff will happen between now and Saturday.
Over and out.
--
SMike
Monday, September 8, 2008
Blogger misses update
Alright, so I missed Sunday's update. But! I have a lot of exciting stuff to show you.
First of all, dorm photos!
Here's my desk and bed
The foot of my bed and closet
The sink
Chris's closet
The door and Chris
Chris's bed and desk
The fridge and TV
The dresser, toaster oven and microwave
And finally, the whole room
I went to the Furman game on Saturday; rough first half, but we wrecked them in the second. I forgot to wear sunscreen, so now the left side of my face is burned, but I'm fine now.
I also went to the scene shop for the first time today. They have a LOT of different saws in there. The show we're building for is A Skull in Connemara, by Martin McDonagh. It's apparently some sort of dark comedy. Guess what I'm helping make for the show? STONES! For a flagstone floor, not a wall, but still.
One last thing before I go: I mentioned in the first post that I was making a senior year slideshow. Thanks to Picasa 3, it's done, but I'm having some trouble getting it on the internet; let's hope I figure it out soon, because it turned out REALLY well, and I want you all to see it.
Finally, just because I missed the Sunday update doesn't mean I won't keep to the original schedule. Next update will be Wednesday, and hopefully I won't miss many more after that.
Over and out.
--
SMike
First of all, dorm photos!
Here's my desk and bed
 |
| From Freshman Dorm Room |
 |
| From Freshman Dorm Room |
The sink
 |
| From Freshman Dorm Room |
Chris's closet
 |
| From Freshman Dorm Room |
The door and Chris
 |
| From Freshman Dorm Room |
Chris's bed and desk
 |
| From Freshman Dorm Room |
The fridge and TV
 |
| From Freshman Dorm Room |
The dresser, toaster oven and microwave
 |
| From Freshman Dorm Room |
And finally, the whole room
 |
| From Freshman Dorm Room |
I went to the Furman game on Saturday; rough first half, but we wrecked them in the second. I forgot to wear sunscreen, so now the left side of my face is burned, but I'm fine now.
I also went to the scene shop for the first time today. They have a LOT of different saws in there. The show we're building for is A Skull in Connemara, by Martin McDonagh. It's apparently some sort of dark comedy. Guess what I'm helping make for the show? STONES! For a flagstone floor, not a wall, but still.
One last thing before I go: I mentioned in the first post that I was making a senior year slideshow. Thanks to Picasa 3, it's done, but I'm having some trouble getting it on the internet; let's hope I figure it out soon, because it turned out REALLY well, and I want you all to see it.
Finally, just because I missed the Sunday update doesn't mean I won't keep to the original schedule. Next update will be Wednesday, and hopefully I won't miss many more after that.
Over and out.
--
SMike
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Boy unable to properly hit volleyball
It would appear that it's time for another update. Now, I could just cheat and stop there, but that would make me something of a jerk, so I won't. As you may have noticed, today's title is in the form of a headline. I've decided that since I named the blog "Headlines of My Life," and because it would be funny, I'm going to lead off with a headline-style title from now on.
On to the headline itself, then. For the second time in as many weeks, Chris and I (and a bunch of other people) played a game of volleyball after sundown. I probably hit the ball six or seven times, and every single time a bumped it open-handed, which is exactly the wrong thing to do; the ball loses way too much energy if you do this. Even after the second and third times, though I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I was doing it wrong. Hopefully I'll get better; after all, it's not like we're keeping score.
On Wednesday, I overslept for the first time since I got here. Chris and I have been doing pretty well as far as waking up goes normally, but on Wednesday he hadn't plugged his iPod into his alarm clock the night before, depriving me of the chance to wake myself up by waking him up and telling him to turn off his bloody alarm. That's not the real story, though. So I wake up late and get to my Engineering workshop as fast as I can (just my luck, couldn't have been late for a lecture class, could I?). I walk in and apologize to Anand (all the workshops are TA-run) for being late, explaining that I overslept. Anand asks my name and then tells me that he conviniently happens to be standing with my project group. I walk over and introductions ensue, I'm SMike, you're Francesca, that's Thao. (Both girls, if you're curious). As I sit down and they fill me in on what I missed, I notice that Francesca seems startlingly familiar. I realize that she looks just like a junior that I knew back at TJ (at the time, I couldn't remember the name). I mention this, and Francesca says, "that's weird," and we go on working. As I mentioned, this is my project group, so we exchange contact info at the end of class; turns out Francesca has a 703 phone number. I say "ah, from northern Virginia, then?"
She says, "yeah, Great Falls."
Me: "Oh, I went to TJ."
Francesca: "My sister goes to TJ!"
Me: "Wait, what's her name?"
Francesca: "Lexie."
Me: "That's it! That's who I know that looks just like you!"
It turns out Francesca's a nerd, too, which I was grateful for; I was beginning to think I wouldn't find anyone else who read xkcd who I did'nt already know from TJ. Truth be told, there are probably lots of people as nerdy as me that I just haven't found; I haven't met a whole lot of people in my classes yet.
Alright folks, I've pretty much exhausted my supply of interesting stuff to say. See you all on Sunday, over and out.
--
SMike
On to the headline itself, then. For the second time in as many weeks, Chris and I (and a bunch of other people) played a game of volleyball after sundown. I probably hit the ball six or seven times, and every single time a bumped it open-handed, which is exactly the wrong thing to do; the ball loses way too much energy if you do this. Even after the second and third times, though I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I was doing it wrong. Hopefully I'll get better; after all, it's not like we're keeping score.
On Wednesday, I overslept for the first time since I got here. Chris and I have been doing pretty well as far as waking up goes normally, but on Wednesday he hadn't plugged his iPod into his alarm clock the night before, depriving me of the chance to wake myself up by waking him up and telling him to turn off his bloody alarm. That's not the real story, though. So I wake up late and get to my Engineering workshop as fast as I can (just my luck, couldn't have been late for a lecture class, could I?). I walk in and apologize to Anand (all the workshops are TA-run) for being late, explaining that I overslept. Anand asks my name and then tells me that he conviniently happens to be standing with my project group. I walk over and introductions ensue, I'm SMike, you're Francesca, that's Thao. (Both girls, if you're curious). As I sit down and they fill me in on what I missed, I notice that Francesca seems startlingly familiar. I realize that she looks just like a junior that I knew back at TJ (at the time, I couldn't remember the name). I mention this, and Francesca says, "that's weird," and we go on working. As I mentioned, this is my project group, so we exchange contact info at the end of class; turns out Francesca has a 703 phone number. I say "ah, from northern Virginia, then?"
She says, "yeah, Great Falls."
Me: "Oh, I went to TJ."
Francesca: "My sister goes to TJ!"
Me: "Wait, what's her name?"
Francesca: "Lexie."
Me: "That's it! That's who I know that looks just like you!"
It turns out Francesca's a nerd, too, which I was grateful for; I was beginning to think I wouldn't find anyone else who read xkcd who I did'nt already know from TJ. Truth be told, there are probably lots of people as nerdy as me that I just haven't found; I haven't met a whole lot of people in my classes yet.
Alright folks, I've pretty much exhausted my supply of interesting stuff to say. See you all on Sunday, over and out.
--
SMike
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