Dave Dash

It all happened "just so fast"

1999-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Sorry Su, I’m going to use that phrase always.

Well I've actually gone out and done stuff. Let's talk about yesterday. Yesterday was New Year's Eve. As promised I was at the Borchert's. It was nice to attend. I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen for a while. I even talked with my alter ego. I even talked to Hayley. So much was done in one night. It was good to know that Mike Borchert and Tom Borchert among others are very into techno/electronic/wierd music like Daft Punk and Crystal Method. I loose uniqueness points, but oh well. Molly and I attempted sleeping around three or four in the morning, unsuccessfully because of all the people. At about 5:30 or 6:00 AM we went to Perkins (which Tina may find amusing). We had an amusing time. Ryan Hayle with some help won a Budweiser racing shirt and an elf in the claw game that they have. We had way too much fun because of the minimal sleep. We left a short time after the police came. That's right, the police came to Perkins to pick up some guy who passed out in a booth. They had a stretcher and an ambulence and everything. You've got to love the stupid things people do during New Years.

After Perkins I attempted to sleep again and eventually got my wish. In the meantime the elf was tortured. I woke up around 10 or 10:30 and started reading dilbert and ate some very delicious things that were hot... Cinnamon Buns. Pat Borchert was kind enough to make these in the morning (once at 7 and later at 11). Molly, Laureen, EP, Ryan and I went to see a Bug's Life at Shelard Park. I finally returned home at around 2:30.

Molly picked me up and I went over to her place for dinner at about 5:30 PM. It was nice having another meal. At about 8:30 we left for the airport and finally a bit before 10:00 I had to let go of her (physically) and she stepped on the plane to LAX. I shall miss her. I shall also miss Tom, who was on the same flight, but not nearly as much.

I feel like I should be going back to UI soon. Not that I am prepared to go. I've very little going on in my life until January 18th. Also, there is a correction to make. I was so pessimistic that I thought I'd see nobody especially not dear Molly over spring break, but alas a few days of overlap do exist. My break is from March 13 through March 21. More details will be spilled as I get them.

dave@icosahedron

1998-12-23T00:00:00+00:00

Well I completely formatted my NT Server system at home and installed Debian Linux. It’s been quite an experience. I’ve installed it perhaps three times, but each time I learned something new. In all actuallity I didn’t need to reinstall it so many times, it just seemed like a neat idea each time. So now, I finally have my computer working and Netscape works too.

So here's what I like. It loads fast. It's very configurable. There's a lot of software I can now download. Software is a cinch to install thanks to apt-get and dselect. What I dislike is the window environment (Window Maker). Of course I'm going to be changing that after I send this message. Several window managers have been created for X-Windows. I also dislike Netscape. It looks ugly when it renders forms and it crashes in certain places. Plus, I never really liked it for windows.

Life has been pleasant since I got back. Saturday night I was visited by Molly and my alter-ego, Katie. Sunday I finally recieved my luggage. I don't remember Monday. Tuesday we visited Katie to see how she was. Wednesday (today) we (Adam, Marc, Molly and I) made pancakes. They were good. We then went to the MSP airport and went to pick up Mike Jorgenson, whose flight was an hour late. We proceded to UNOs pizzeria, and ate delicious pizza. We then went back to my house to play Dr. Mario and pick up my gift for Katie and we then dropped it off.

Humourous things started happening afterwards. There was a knock at Katie's door and Mike was the closest one to it, so he answered. Lo and behold it was Mike's arch-enemy, Tanya Zhu. They don't speak to each other which makes things very interesting seeing as they both have information that when exchanged could add to a decent conversation. Anyway, I'll try to wrestle a picture featuring Tanya and Mike from Katie and post it.

We (reduced to Molly and I) decided at about 4:30 to drop off Mike Jorgenson since his parents were expecting him to be picked up at 10:16 and dropped off within a few hours, not at 4:30. Well that's what we figured. Then Molly and I came home and then she left and I went with my parent to eat at First Wok, a decent Chinese Restaurant. I was going to go to Katie's but I felt tired, and I'd rather save up my energy and do stuff tomorrow. Although tomorrow is X-mas eve. I'll figure out something to do.

It's strange. When I type my journal at school, I feel like I'm writing for my friends not at UIUC. When I type my journal here, I feel like I'm typing it for my friends at UIUC.

I am home

1998-12-20T00:00:00+00:00

I am at home. I miss the Allen Hall entities already.My trip back wasn’t that great. After Eric dropped me off I checked in my luggage. My plane was ten minutes late at least. I noticed a friend, Shiela, on the plane, but made no contact. We touched down and got off the plane at about 4:30 in DTW. I ran to my gate D4 for my 4:40 flight from the G concourse. It was maybe 4:37, and I found that the gate changed to E12. I missed the flight. I found Shiela missed it too and we ended up taking a 6:40 flight to Minneapolis, which was also very late at arriving. We got there almost a half an hour late. I had trouble with the luggage. I waited almost an hour and then found out that my luggage never left Champaign (thank you very much Mesaba/Northwest). It finally arrived a few hours ago, but it would have been nice to not waste that hour. So I’m home. I’ll try to post more entries lest I incur the wrath of Caroline.

NT for another semester.

1998-12-19T00:00:00+00:00

From the land of Kuwait, the mighty US launches an assault on Iraq.

My computer’s been producing a lot of heat recently, and I thought placement may have been a problem, so I moved it to the ground where their is more ambient air flow.

Tuesday I realized the massive fan was damaged. So I removed it and yesterday I purchased a smaller weaker fan, that will hopefully suffice. The computer isn’t as hot, so I think it will suffice.

Also, Tuesday I decided to format my `C:\` drive where all my programs reside. It took me hours to figure out that I needed to remove my Jaz SCSI card and then install NT, otherwise there'd be conflicts. It took me a very long time to figure this out. I installed NT alone, on a new video card, under Windows 98, everything. I was about to give up and become like Hackel, but I finally figured it out. Actually I was thinking about BeOS, because that has NTFS compatibility and looks pretty and is fast. It took me an entire day to install everything so it was back to normal. I am going to format again in six months, unless Windows 2000 Pro is being released around that time, then I will wait and upgrade. I need to get better at restoring my system. Although, it only took a day, which is amazing. Now I am running Litestep, which after sufficient tweaking runs pretty nicely. Unfortunately they don't have an easy way to add programs to the warf bar. I decided that that doesn't matter so much, because I only use a handful of things, and it's fun to make my own icons. The Virtual Window Manager will take a while to get used to as well. I've resolved most issues that made me retreat to explorer, so I think Litestep'll stay. It feels like a perpetual weekend with no homework, it's nice:) Here is some information on Northwestern's Photon Chip. It's basically that uses photons rather than electrons for computing. Quantum Tunnelling is used instead of gates. I forget what gates are, and I have no idea what Quantum Tunnelling is.

I'm somewhat scared of the consequences of our attack on Iraq in respect to opposition countries. Russia is not going to ratify START II and they have a poor view of our master Klynton err Clinton.

Pricescan.com is a nice interface. Use it when you buy stuff.

Finished my final final tonight, it felt good. I made some pasta too, it was also good. I'm ready to return home and relax for a month. Basic flight information is as follows: I leave CMI at 1:45PM. I arrive in DTW 4:10PM. I immediately leave DTW at 4:40PM and arrive at MSP 5:44PM via flight NW3306. Upon arriving I'll probably sleep.:)

I don't know how often I'll be able to update this page over break. My computer at home will be getting a new CD-ROM and a new Operating System (Debian Linux). Until then, the computer will remain very slow, since WinNT server is very bogged down )it's a bit hard to reinstall without that CD-ROM). Due to this slowness I'll refrain from using my computer whenever possible (I may leave it online a lot though). I'll spare you the details.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. My old ryche site got picked as a cool site...

Happy Channukkahhhaaahhhhh!

1998-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

World Wide Jewish Conspiracy trains even the youngest of conspirators in their rituals.

The monitor that I desire was featured in an ad for Southpark. Those creators are cool. I knew they used an O2, I didn’t know they bought the coolest monitor for it. Somebody buy me this monitor. Once it drops to around $1K, I’m game for buying it:)

Guess which post card I sent in to pair Networks.

I had a cool dream on my beanbag last night... I guess for some reason my dorm was somewhere else, it was like a warehouse type place, the rooms were much larger. Anyway, I went outside of the building and decided I'd be back really soon so I could just leave the door shut, not locked. I come back and Jack is in the room and I see stuff is moved around and I don't see my computer... none of it. I ask Jack and he says he doesn't know where it is. So it was stolen. Well for some reason I just find an IBM Laptop, but I am still worried about my computer, because I was working on a paper or something and well it was stolen, which sucks. So I guess I tell my brother that it's been stolen and we end up like seeing these boxes of stuff and we look at it, and I guess one of them has my machine in it. We had to mark it so they wouldn't get rid of it, and then we eventually got it back I guess. I wondered about my monitor as well. I explained why it was my fault, but my brother understood. Well I just thought it was really strange. If you ever want to make someone really worried. Steal their computer.

Since this is such a geek entry, Apple is coming out with an iMac Notebook. You could save yourself the money and just buy an Etch and Sketch.

I purchased a new HEPA air filter as advised by my brother. Supposedly it is shooting out air that will make it easy for me to breathe... we'll see. I also bought this watch band that cost me a fourth of what my watch cost. Although, my watch looks like it's brand new, which is nice.

Apparently the Illini Precision Dance Team was selling "Tuck Ins" for $2-$5 last week. They tuck you in bed, read you a story and kiss you goodnight. I find this odd. Actually it said packages from $2-$5. It's like a prostituion ring, in training.

Sunday I was very sick. I don't know what I had, but it forced me to sleep most of the day. Monday I was still sick and forced myself to do a paper. After finishing my math final I walked home and I was very very cold. I was shivering. This was with three layers. I came back to my hall and my temperature returned to normal. Today I feel much better.

I am a threat to my own security.

1998-12-08T00:00:00+00:00

Fort Max - poking into God's territory for over 100 years.

I want to see Patch Adams this weekend. I just might do that. I also want to see Star Trek: Insurrection. I think I want a gun. A ray gun…

Cool Info is moving to pair networks. I will be working on a news article entry system that mimics what I use right now. I'll work on it over break.

I use my workstation as a development machine for my web pages via Front Page and the Personal Web Server. The root page used to be an old web site that I had for Fort Max that I only developed on my computer and uploaded to the Internet. It was very corporate sounding, back when I cared about that stuff for ftmax.com. It never occuured to me that if CCSO did a scan of my computer, they would notice that my workstation is the host of a corporate web site. Here is some mail:

Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 08:48:01 -0600 (CST)
From: CCSO Security <security@staff.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: security@uiuc.edu
To: davedash@uiuc.edu
Subject: dorm room connection

I have noticed that the machine 130.126.72.54 has a web page for a commercial
entity. This is strictly in violation of university policy and state law.

If this page is not removed immediately, your network connection will be 
disabled and student discipline charges filed.

-- 

 [      Security Officer                |       CCSO/University of Illinois   ]
 [      security@uiuc.edu               |       1304 West Springfield         ]
 [      (217) 265-0000                  |       Urbana, Illinois   61801      ]

Don't bother entering that address, there's nothing there, since I deleted the site (it was a dated one that I never used) and locked it. It's so strange some of the things that I take for granted can be stripped away so fast.

I finished reading Xenocide. Very Deux Ex Machina, I've heard bad things about Children of the Mind as well. I can imagine why. I will, however, finish reading the series as I am curious as to what Mr. Card is trying to achieve. I did like the book. I read at least over 100 pages on one day.

The Onion will have an MTV Christmas Special supposedly. This should be interesting, hopefully someone will record this for me. It's funny, Onion is one of the better sources of humour, we need more things like that on TV. Canadian TV has funny stuff that crosses the line, as does British TV. It's in our best interest to mimic these, instead of remaining prudish about our humour. Damn you America for spawning crap like SNL and MAD TV.

Since I have no original ideas, here's my Christ Day wish list:

Sony Netman or Diamond Rio PMP300
PCS Cellular phone with cellular service for one year (so next year someone else can get me a year of service)
IBM Laptop SCSI whatever you can or a DELL Inspirion must have DVD support
SGI 1600SW with Number Nine card
SONY DCR-PC10
Soundblaster Live
UMAX PowerLook 3000
Lego Mindworks
Something with a pretty LCD screen that goes on my computer.
A ray gun. </ol> That's my Christmas want list. It's unlikely that I'd ever get any of these (for Christmas this year) since most things are in the $1000+ range. I will however go for the laptop this summer (with DVD support) if you people fail to appease me. If you do get me an LCD toy, it better be pretty. None of that stupid LCD stuff.
I ate at Burger King yesterday. It was very good after a disconcerting school dinner. I shall eat out more often. I will try to avoid Burger King for a while. Their sandwhiches are good, but they are the kind that make you not want to eat their for a few months.

The other travel log?

1998-11-30T00:00:00+00:00

This is from yesterday while I was at DTW:

My flight landed ~5:26 in DTW. I decided to walk to gate G10 from C12. Its a long haul. I'd do it again though if I have no carry on suitcase. My flight for CMI leaves at 6:50. I dislike waiting this long. I ate at a bagel shop. It was okay. Hopefully I'll get to CMI and have a ride to my residence hall. [Note: Thanks to Eric and Karl for rescuing me.]

The flight to DTW wasn't that great. I did some math. I had an irritating person sitting next to me (actually she took my seat, but I didn't care enough to demand my window seat). [Note: My ride to CMI, I didn't get the window seat that was assigned to me either.]

Travel Log

1998-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

The following was composed throughout yesterday.

The Willard Airport (part of the U of I Institute of Aviation) is beautiful. It's also the size of a car-dealership (they have Saab's:)), but what do you expect froma tiny town like Champaign. In front of the airport terminal is a nice pond. The airport makes me proud of UI.

I learned my driver's permit expired last December. For some reason I don't care. I should probably get a new one and then eventually get my driver's license. If oudn this out at the ticket counter.

I expected trouble at the security checkpoint. I carry a large multi-tool thing which I assumed to be the cause of my being beeped. The swiss-army knife that I also carry is quite loaded with metal as well. The wand found nothing. The bag I carried also had miscellaneous things like a modem, a caller ID box and various cables, etc. Showing them the modem made them feel better. I'm glad I don't have to go through security at DTW where they have it very beefed up.

I sepnt $20 on this legal pad and legal pad holder. I should have just purchased this device from Cross that is an electronic legal pad that allows you to transfer stuff from your pad to your computer. I bet the OCR would not be able to read my writing, though.:)

I often wonder about the future, this would make me a futurist.:) I wonder what technology we use today will exist 50 to 100 years from now.

Groundcars - we may be able to create hover cars, but nobody is trying to mass produce these things. Currently we are concentrating on low to zero emissions. Even if we do see a hover car, it won't be common place. Not until we can reduce the hell out of hover car emissions, which I would imagine to be harder. Much more, I doubt we will see hover cars that suspend themselves several stories of the ground for quite a while either.
Telephones - even if we do have videophones, not everybody is going to want to use them. I mean, do you want to see everybody you talk to? Probably not. Do you want everyone to see you while they talk to you? Probably not. Not everybody at least. What about telemarketers? Nazi's? Robots? Video also takes a high ammount of bandwidth, but that can be solved in the future. What'll end up happening is we'll disable video on videophones as often as possible. </ul>
Daniel will be happy to know that I'm riding a SAAB-340 aeroplane. It's not that comfortable, but it will do. I've never been in a tiny plane, and have never had to climb into a plane except in India where planes are tragged by high-speed elephants until they reach a fast enough speed to fly into the air. I feel like killing air-hostess, Krystal. She has a voice that sounds really irritating. Traces of Southern, black and that annoying Mexican-gangsta-woman accent that purposely sounds annoying.
People complain about the take off on small planes. It's not that bad. I kinda like it. Wow, IL is all corn fields, and stuff. I forgot to bring batteries with me. I'm so used to using other power sources for my cd player. I should have taken Stinky's batteries. I may have to buy some at DTW if there is time.
Sitting next to someone with a PalmPilot has made me realize how untechno-savvy I am. Well I'm making a list of things I want.
- A thinner CD player w/ better skip protection.
- A portable MP3 player.
- CrossPad XL even though it's a bit smaller than a legal pad.
- PalmPilot III or the Razor
- Gatway's Fireant because it has a cool name, and then I'd have a DVD player.</ul>
 The flight from CMI to DTW went well. It seemed very short. 10:25 to 12:55 minus one hour for Time Zone ... half an hour? WTF? Neat! This flight is about 1:52, a lot longer, oh well. I quickly went from sector G to sector C14 of DTW and I had a few minutes to call my mom, buy some batteries and board the plane in which I am sitting. Despite what the person sitting next to me thinks, this DC-9 is roomy compared to the tiny aeroplane I was in 45 minutes ago. Now I can finally listen to the songs in my head.
 
 Okay one more technology thing:
 - Email - this or some variation will last forever. I mean, we've had letters, and telegrams and fax machines and now email, this is just such an easy to use quick form of communication that it will perhaps never end.
 
 If I were at UI, I'd be doing laundry and hanging out waiting for my CS lecture... or I'd be researching my draft for Speech Com which is due Monday. I'm hungry. I'm always in the wrong Time Zone when it's lunchtime. It's lunch in the Time Zone in which I was just in and where I am going... but not here. Crap.
 I'm sorry, what I purchased yesterday at IUB and on which I am writing is a bifold writing pad according to NWA's gift catalogue.
 We are flying over Minneapolis. I saw a Jesus fish (anybody know where this is?), the three towers of Minneapolis which look very small from up here. I see a Yellow building which is on the road that goes along side Lake Calhoun when coming from Excelsior avenue! That's really cool. I'm looking for... and I just saw the Lake Harriet Bandshell. Reminds me of all the fun we had this summer:)

Homeward

1998-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

Caption not available.

Well one final journal entry before I leave here and go home. Sunday I bought a new CD called For The Masses. It’s a bunch of remakes of Depeche Mode. Since age three or so I’ve been listening to Depeche Mode and the Cure. My brother was into those two bands and it just rubbed off on me. Lo and behold their is the Cure doing a cover of World in My Eyes. Meat Beat Manifesto which “Kwis” introduced me to sounds like an even more electronic version of Depeche Mode. They did a remix of Everything Counts which is one of my favorite dM songs. Rammstein is a scary band, they did this version of Stripped, another of my favorites… this sounded very very scary - a stalker version of the song. A lot of it was very “alternative” sounding. In the 80s Depeche Mode was alternative… alternative today is so different sounding. I don’t even want to get into this topic of genres. Some of the songs I missed were Blasphemous Rumors and A Question of Time. That’s alright though, the originals suit me just fine.:)

I also bought a $65 keyboard drawer. It has neat gel rests for my keyboard and mouse (which is on a sliding tray), it's easily removed so I can use it at home too. I love this thing and is definitely worth getting. "It feels like breast" as one floormate remarked about the gel rests.

ANNOUNCEMENT: When I mention an MP3, I normally will upload it to "the MP3 Server." Some of you wonder what this server is. This server is not run by me, and is not mine to delegate access. A good number of the visitors of this page know of the server and how to connect to it, this is why I frequently use it to upload my MP3s. If you do not have access to this server and want one of the MP3s I mention, I can send it to you if you live in my hall, or I can at least point you in the direction where I found it (usually MIRCX).

I finished Speaker of the Dead. My hall has not yet purchased Xenocide which means I am bound to magazines and writing on the flight home. I should have just purchased this book at the bookstore today. What I did get at the bookstore is a nice legal pad and pad holder and a nice shirt. That cost about $40 total. I think I'm going to have to buy less stuff and start saving money.

Yesterday while watching the X-files there was an add for Ally McBeal featuring Ally going at it with some other woman. I watched it while packing up. What a stupid show. I think I know a Chinese version of Ally McBeal back in Minnesota.

Okay, so I am going home tomorrow. Leaving UIUC at 10:25 AM to Detroit. I'll be at Detroit at 12:55, leaving at 1:40 and then reaching my final destination at 2:32 PM. My incomming flight to MSP is 1137. I will be coming into gate 18 I believe.

Stinky makes a stink.

1998-11-20T00:00:00+00:00

"Whee!" Soaring through space, Stinky's PSX will never be seen in Urbana-Champaign for a very long time.

Wednesday we were little kids again at Fat Don’s (a campus specialty restaurant). We played with the Ketchup and the Steak Sauce Bottle.

I hit the jackpot for MP3s. I've found all these neat live Aphex Twin and Orbital songs. The only difference from a studio and live cut is an audience and it sounds different slightly. Sometimes the sound is a little low quality, due to who recorded it, etc. The Orbital songs from Birmingham tend to have too much bass... that forces me to have to deal with Winamp's equalizer. The song of the week is an Orb song. Supposedly it's Toxygene live in Moscow, but it sounds nothing like the two other versions of Toxygene that I have. It's very space-future sounding. I've listened to it so much that I can't place it with another song that I've heard, becuase it's too familiar. The other two Toxygenic songs are mass-media-future sounding. Like something we'd have sometime soon. Supposedly the new Winamp (2.04+) are supposed to get rid of skips and stuff, but that's not happening. Oh well. I'll try to get my latest collection to the MP3 server in the sky before I leave. I'll at least start uploading by Sunday. I'd hate to go home and find myself musicless... although my CD-player supposedly works... and I could go CD shopping with my Jewish friend.

I'm really being pushed I guess. My Thanksgiving break will be relaxing, but I fear I'll be spending a lot of time composing a rough draft for my speech on an inclusive education model. Dammit, I need a day. Not just a day where I have no obligations, but a day where I have no future obligations to worry about. I have an outline due Friday, stuff to read, a paper due next week, a speech in a few weeks, end of the quarter soon, immunization tests that need be done, credits that need to be transferred properly, class registration that needs to be properly done.

Stinky made a stink tonight. I have witnesses, Neal, Mike, and anyone else who was unfortunate to walk by my room. I had to leave my room and go talk to the Katie with the red hair. Eventually the stink faded away. I don't want to sound like I'm exaggerating, but it was really bad. Mothballs and open windows should cure the room.

I heard Stinky talking to Josh in the hallway and I asked Josh in ICQ what Stinky said about the PSX (PlayStation):

You'll be really happy...he said he's not bringing it back after Thanksgiving...cuz he's gonna have to study for finals...Don't celebrate TOO loudly...:):)

If all goes well, this is a permanent thing.

(no title)

1998-11-12T00:00:00+00:00

"Kiss me, for I am a magical creature."

I have a problem with this article. Read through it. Look at the last two paragraphs. The problem I have is that those last two paragraphs don’t flow at all with the article. I think the press should stick to more fact-based information rather than this human side stuff. My sympathy for the victim and the victim’s family has been lowered because of the weak conclusion to the article.

I finished my Ventura article. It's not as organized and documented as I would have liked, but under my current time constraints, it is the best I could do. I've got two nice and long research papers to write by the end of the quarter (which is coming very fast).

Check out this week's poll at PopSci.com. I like what the results show.

Wow... I'm full and it's after midnight. I went to eat at Fat Don's. That's the first time I've eaten so much. Depending on what they serve, I'll go there as a weekly thing.

My friends are missing tonight... hmm where could they be?

(no title)

1998-11-11T00:00:00+00:00

"There are some things I wouldn't want to recieve as a gift."
"Like what?"
"Herpes."

iMacs are inferior… even to the magical Celeron’s.

Thanks to Tuesday morning's wind dynamics that I don't quite understand in Allen Hall the doors here keep making noises, as if someone were pushing and pulling on them. I think I fixed it in my room by applying poster tack.

For those of you who want ICQ 99a, you can get it here at least temporarily.

Umm... looks like I fixed the biggify button on the left. There is now a "debiggify." I finally found the phrase that I was missing from my Javascript at cnn.com. Speaking of CNN. CNN's custom news sucks, it gives you less information. I found more things that interest me on the regular cnn page.

Download this Ventura clip. A singing, rocking and rolling governor...

Not much is happening. This week I am a good chemist and no the entire weeks worth of chemistry. Unfortunately that doesn't help me with my pending assignments. Damn! I have math homework... and math class!

I started to work on this stupid, useless project of the Hindu Mandir registry/address book type thing (again). I doubt anybody will make propper use of it, I'll see. If I do anything tonight it will be a new project for Med Rx using this.

Diwali, Intel, Snow

1998-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

"Rabbi, isn't that your car?"

I’m very confused… Diwali was being celebrated at UI Friday and will be today (Saturday). It’s being celebrated at St. Olaf according to Katie. It’s also being celebrated at UW recently. Diwali was a few weeks ago… very odd that it’s being celebrated now.

Intel's new demand on the computer industry is cool. I'd say it's more comparable with the SGI O₂s than the iMac (as far as looks). I think there is a more important issue at hand though. Getting rid of old ISA technology, getting rid of 1.44MB floppy drives and getting rid of stupid ports and replacing them with USB ports.

I think the media and as many non-Minnesotans as possible should make fun of Jesse Ventura (for their own reasons, not because I say so). The reason is this. If Jesse is ineffective, nobody's hopes will be down. People will just expect that. If Jesse does succeed then people can be surprised. I was going to continue on this train of thought, then I thought, that it may end up filling the journal systems quota. So I wrote a more organized 'entry' and will stick it in the words section eventually. I am only half way done.

It snowed tonight. I think we beat Minnesota.

Diwali Night 1998

1998-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

"This 52 lbs. package shall be our new God!"

Mmm.. Pokey sticks. If anybody knows of a good pokey-stick like recipe, I'm all ears. I had them last night.

Everybody loves my contact paper that's on my door, including the cool janitor. I should take a picture of the door sometime. I'll just wait until I get the NetCam.

The had a little kid (someone's son), Johnny, on KQ this morning. They were interviewing a coach of some team and the kid asked all these questions, like if the coach still smokes, if the team curses, fights, etc. It was pretty cute. Of course those Carl Sagan type kids do get annoying after a hundred or so "Why?"s.

Ah... my 52 lbs. package has arrived. It sounds really awesome. So now I have a total of seven speakers dedicated to the audio I want to hear (5 speaker stereo + 2 speakers for computer).

It's amazing what you find out in my halls. I found out about a Diwali function presented by the Indian Studen Association. My friend Anand had a few extra tickets so he let me tag along. It was very good. It was meant for a smaller amount of people than most functions I attend. They performed in the Illini Room of the Illini Union. We were sitting at a table with this one annoying lady who complained about the music they used for some dances. It's almost worse than people who talk during a movie. The food was mediocre, but compared to residence hall food, excellent. The performance was great. They had this cool backdrop with these eyes that would stare at you. I think they used a black light to make it glow. The dances were great too. What really made it an awesome function was the sound. The sound was crisp and clear. The only problems were those inheirent with some Indian singing, such as singers who attain high pitched notes. The event also had a lot of comedy sketches by the emcees. It was mostly second generations which was nice, because second generation people know how to put together an appealing event. I think Molly, Adam, Katie, Tom, Nick and anybody else who's been to an Indian event with me would have loved it.

ICQ

1998-11-04T00:00:00+00:00

"I feel like a diabetic kid in the sugar free section of Mr. Bulky."

Dang, these journal entries are getting long… there’s only room for three entries on this page. I think I will double the limit size limit (the entries are limited based on how long the entries are, not the actual number of them).

ICQ 99a is in limited beta (i.e. you cannot download it). It's cooler than all hell. I've had one major problem with ICQ. My list had too many people, and I wanted to organize them. The other thing that was a wish was to get rid of those stupid headings that say "Online" and "Offline" these are now offable. So here's a list of new things.

Groups - You can organize people on your contact list in groups (reshall, friends, family etc.) The groups are collapsable for those of you who have a ton of contacts.
Global Online Alert - When a user logs online there will be a knocking sound, an icon will flash in your system tray and the user's name will flash in on your list. You can configure this. I have it so it makes no sound, but the contact list (which I keep open at all times) will have the persons name flash a little. It can also flash to notify you if someone's come out of away.
key shortcuts
(just found this out) When you get a message and have no clue what it's about, you hit "History" and the message box gets bigger and you can read the history and reply at the same time all in one window.
Annoying typewriter sounds when you compose a message. (Easily disabled).
Colored Messages - You can color your messages so the recipient will get a colorful notice from you.
Reminders - Set ICQ to remind you of future events and activities. open in new browser

There's a 52 pound package coming from a warehouse in NY. It was last seen in Island City. Hopefully here by Monday.

The Chem test today was bad. It's okay. I understand the subject material. They ask a lot on tests. I think my problem is I learn certain things just to be familiar with them, not to answer all the questions on a test. I should learn differently.

Jack's posters fall. Not the Taco Bell poster though. I wish that would fall. His other posters fall though. I think it's annoying. My posters don't fall. I have six. One is on the ceiling. Heck, a CD I stuck on the ceiling hasn't fallen yet either.

Jack's not used to my being used to coldness. Like my room is cold now. (Same temperature as my basement normally is.) I like it that way. It's like free airconditioning. Actually now that I think about it, it is cold. But I just hate climbing the stairs where it's burning hot and then getting into a burning hot room with Glade Plugins which are being used to mask dorm room smells. I need constant cold fresh air to flush my room out. Maybe I'll shut the window tonight.

HDTV is now available at an alarming price. Most people don't need it. In fact most people are better off throwing their damn TVs out the window, but that's another story. You see, people could care less if their TV looks sharper or not. For the most part, it's not that big of a deal. It's nice when watching a full screen movie, but that's about it. Nicholas Negroponte wrote an article (which you can find on his page) about why HDTV is a waste. He basically says TV is crap with euphemisms.

My eye is severely red. I think I need a new one.

I went to a loveline-type thing at Allen Hall. It was very amusing and interesting. Much better than the real "loveline" on MTV and Westwood 1 Radio Network (or whoever puts out Loveline).

All saints day...

1998-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Meijer is really annoying. They often change their prices every week, thus causing confusion on how much you are paying. Like I paid almost $8 for a 24 pack of Lipton - almost as bad as a vending machine, but not quite. Yesterday Mike (my neighbor) and I went to Meijer, and since I was there I felt compelled to buy something. So I bought a some Frappuccino, I ended up paying $4.80. WTF. Meijer also doesn’t price all their products on the shelves. That’s the most annoying thing in the world. Of course, I wasn’t doing my part in asking for a price check, but really, $1.20 for some fancy yuppie drink? You’ve got to be kidding me. I may have to go shop at Target for more stuff.

Mike and I noticed a Perpetual Dawn (sorry, it's a song from Orb) yesterday. It looked like it was 6AM, 7AM and then 7PM at various periods during the day. In otherwords, no day yesterday. No day today either, although I was never outside. It has been cold, but I have to tolerate it. I think Jack starts to smell after some time in the morning, so I keep my window open and my door open to bring fresh air into the room.

<img height=207 width=196 src=http://www.ftmax.com/images/flockhart.jpg align=left>If you step into my hall you can smell the boo-puke left by somebody who didn't know his boo-beer tolerance this Halloween. Drinking to the point that you are going to vomit is stupid. Vomiting in the hallway is stupid. Stupidity doesn't belong in Allen Hall.

I guess my neighbor had a talk with Jack and pointed out that we don't get along. Jack and I had a talk. I hate having talks with Jack. I mean, I don't mind talking to Jack, but addressing issues is really annoying. Mainly because it deals with a lot of judgement. I suppose it's something I should get used to. I guess both of us just get "pissed-off" at each other and need to tell each other when this occurs. I suppose it's a good thing. I went into this whole roommate business negatively to begin with. I will still make fun of Jack and post updates that are demeaning, because Jack is wierd. He admits it. I am also going to have to find a clever way of recording him on my computer, Cooledit is too big. Okay, I just found some shortcuts... :)

Laurel Prussing When asked to indicate which principles she supports concerning education in a survey from Project Votesmart said, "Give children vouchers to choose their parents." Perhaps a typo, I like it anyway. I decided instead of seeing whether I like Ewing or Prussing (for House of Representatives) to screw it. My vote goes to Prussing, because she seems like she'll support the things I like. I'll make up my own arguments for not choosing Ewing. "Ewing is the demon-seed spawn of the devil. His last term in congress brought the devil one step closer to taking away everything in which you believe. This Novermber when you vote, don't vote for evil, vote for non-evil, vote for Laurel Prusssing. Laurel Prussing lets kids choose their parents."

Sounds like India has it's own "religious right," known as the Vidya Bharati, making educational demands. They want to ban certain poems and stories. Schools shouldn't teach the young "graphically about the female body and her emotions."

Our school has this cool thing. Let's say you are going to a web site. If it's busy or down or just hard to connect to, this webcache system (128.174.0.245 or webcache.gw.uiuc.edu) takes up the task of trying to connect to the site for you (I'm assuming that's it's only task, so it's faster). I also think that it just serves you frequently vistied pages. So if you go to Yahoo, and someone else does, it's their right away, and the webcache thing just gives you what it has. That is kick-ass.

Little things

Today we can celebrate the fall of the Ottoman Empire (1922).
Jack got a "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" poster Friday and put it up Saturday. It's scary.
I've cleaned up my new "better-than Adam's loft" desk. There;s a lot of space to work with. Of course that space may change in a week or two.

(no title)

1998-10-31T00:00:00+00:00

I guess Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0b2 was not supposed to be announced to the world like BetaNews did. Luckily, I installed it before Microsoft did anything. I should probably redownload it for a better build, but I don’t care that much. Beta 2 fixed my shortcut/shares and other miscellaneuous icon problems. It installed smoothly (smoother than any other IE, that I can remember). It’s worth upgrading to if you have 5.0B1 otherwise don’t bother, it may not be worth the hassle.

My mom sent a signed affadavit (actually my dad signed it) for my netcam. I forecast that I will get it around the middle of December at the latest. She also sent a package via Airborne Express filled with Candy. :)

I'm voting for senator Mosely-Braun, the incumbant. It was between her (Democrat) or Jim Davis (Natural Law Party). The Republican candidate didn't fill out this election survey, the libertarian and the US Taxpayer both annoyed me. The Reform party was okay. I agreed with a lot of what Mosely-Braun and Davis had to say, but Braun was a little bit better in most issues. I'll decide on whom else I should vote for later. I'll probably default to Democrat or Natural Law Party (because they are a promising third party with many views akin to mine).

My song of the week is Juno Reactor's Feel the Universe (Kox Box remix)... I'll upload Feel the Universe to the MP3 server of choice. It prompted me to download more Juno Reactor and more Kox Box and other Techno MP3s I could dig up. It's funny, I tend to always have more Techno MP3s than the MP3 server. Even after uploading all I have, I end up finding more stuff.

I ran today (Friday)... out of assumed necessity. It was nice.
The web site for Maximum PC is finally online. I think it will be equivilant to the other computer sites I visit, but who knows.
Hate Microsoft, Love Linux? See this.
Look at this. I fully expect that this site would use mouseovers (the buttons change when you put your mouse over them). Strange. </ul>

Live Forever!

1998-10-29T00:00:00+00:00

Ray Bradbury’s (he’s older looking in real life) lecture at Foellinger Auditorium was the most motivational thing to which I have ever gone. His lecture was mostly his childhood and about his interests. He spoke of how it was his desires and love for the things he did that got him where he was. I won’t detail to much of the event here, as he spoke of a lot of things. I was so tempted to run after the car that drove him from Foellinger to wherever he needed to be. He had a few good lines, “Find something that makes you hyperventilate and scares your friends.” “Find something you really love and find a girl who can stand you.” He was a real advocate of doing things that you loved and doing it for the rest of your life. He did announce a few things. Farenheit 451 featuring my favorite actor, Mel Gibson, is due this January or February (IMDB says something different, however). He also said next year to look out for a redone Martian Chronicles. He said the original is too boring. He talked about the endings he redid for a bunch of movies. He’d watch a movie, hate the ending, and then he’d rewrite the end to make it better. I love that. He wrote, because he loved to write. What a cool guy. He’s inspired me to write. Something, anything. I’ve always loved the future and robots, so I’ll write about that - regardless if it is crappy. I now want to go buy Legos. I love Legos. I love making my own little universe of the future using Legos. It’s the funnest thing in the world. Oh yeah, umm… PS. He still writes books. He’s in the middle of four right now.

Ray Bradbury

1998-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

If anybody really really wants a signed copy of a Ray Bradbury book, I may be able to work something out. His books go on sale Thursday at 3:00 PM (probably going to be actually marked up), and he will be there signing books at 4:00 PM. I’m sure I could work something out. I just need to know sometime on Thursday before 3:00 PM.

32 and 1 day

1998-10-26T00:00:00+00:00

I have a short term memory. I noticed this last year when I started using ICQ heavily. I’d message people and they’d reply and I would have to constantly look at my message history to figure out what they were replying to. This happens less and less, but it was disturbing dealing with such a short term memory. I’ve started to notice it elsewhere as well. I can’t pay much attention in class because taking notes is difficult and keeping a lecture together in my head is hard. When I read a book I often miss important details. This happens especially if the subject matter isn’t filled with vivid description or interesting. I’ve started taking it easy instead of constantly being stresse over work. It’s helped. It’s funny my hobby is web site development and I chose the school that created graphical web browsing. It’s fun to go to Help|About Internet Explorer if you use MSIE. If you like space, you’ll like <a href=http://cnn.com/TECH/space/9810/24/deep.space.01/”>this</a>. Our school has crappy Pizza delivery. It’s just Totino’s party pizza. It’s nasty. If you go to UIUC, eat dinner, don’t get the pizza from URH, if you must spend $5 and order pizza. Winamp 2.04 has Aural Stimulation support for MP3s. I hope this is what I think it is. In other MP3 news, I just found a bunch of new MP3s from Aphex Twin, Tangerine Dream, Orb (an awesome live Toxygene), Orbital (as if I didn’t have enough), Skinny Puppy and Underworld to name a few. I should be set for a while.The Simpsons yesterday lacked some intelligence that the older Tree House of Horror’s had.Jack is back today. He woke up early (a few minutes after my final awakening). He’s awake now.

1 Free Hour With the Purchase of Two. Limit Only One.

1998-10-25T00:00:00+00:00

I found a link here and here referring to the shooting. Apparently they had the wrong guy. It’s a bout time that somebody came out with a phone that hooks up to your PC. Unfortunately you can’t use this with talking over the Internet. It wouldn’t be that hard. Just make it a USB device that doubles as a microphone/speaker and you could talk to people via netmeeting with a phone. Friday Night I watched Omen IV with some friends. It’s actually the second time I saw the movie. It’s very funny. Watch it with girls. There was a seen where snakes bit people and Cheryl, a friend of mine, screamed a little too much. I’m not implying that all girls will scream, there are probably quite a few exceptions. One exception, I think, is Molly. I can’t picture her screaming out of fear of a movie. Or having any fear of something in a movie. That’s why I love her. Looks like Windows NT 5.0 Beta 3 and subsequent 5.0 releases will not have as cool of an active directory interface as I thought. Originally it was to be a type of metadirectory where virtual links could be made, similar to Unix type systems where you can type “ln -s” to create a symbolic link. Oh well. One day I hope to be running this. Probably a legal copy too. My friend Chris has gotten me into this legal kick. Crack.com is folding over supposedly because of lack of funds. They made cool Linux games. One game Golgotha has great music. I remember Tom playing a song, Meathook when it came out, it’s now called Munich Germany. You can get these of the MP3 Server. These are, by the way, legal MP3s. All the legal MP3s I have are pretty cool. Also on the MP3 server is an mp3 of Jack, my roommate. It’s in Chinese. It’s his mom calling about the shooting that happened. I have a translation available too. It’s under \D\Dave’s Roommate, Jack Lin. I shaved yesterday. I look a lot less credible, but I also look like I’m not fresh off the boat. I also noticed that some of my hair has a copper color. I think it would be cool to have more uniform copper hairs. I’ve noticed that it only takes me a small amount of time to set up a web site. Here is one for Millenium 3. It’s our team that’s competing in a robot design competition. The sad thing is, if Peter were in the competition, he’d beat everyone’s ass.

Jack's messages

1998-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

Again, I wake up and no Jack. The difference? I woke up at 7PM (naturally with no alarm clock). He came back within a half hour or an hour.Here’s the funny thing Jack did. When you read it you will know the what the funny thing Jack did was. Today, I’ve motivated myself to go researching after dinner and when I came back around 8PM. Jack wakes up when I enter the room and turn on the light. There were 6 identical phone numbers on the Caller ID display and another that was from out of town. I’m assuming from the phone outside Allen Hall/Unit One Housingplex (sounds better than Residence Hall). I check my messages. Jack realizes the time and waits until I finish my message check and he checks his messages. Then he says, “Bullshit… my mom called at 7:34 PM.” Well actually his Mom called at 7:34, 7:38, 7:51, 7:54, 8:00, 8:16. He slept through all six phone rings. He asked, “Where were you?” I told him I was at the library until now (then sometime after 8:16PM).As the Chick tracts would say, “Poor stupid Jack, you’ll never get into heaven if you sleep all day.” Well Jack is finally gone. Not forever, but for the rest of the week.Here is a quote to motivate “all y’all:”<blockquote> We have now progressed in our thinking about giftedness and realise the static nature of our previous approach. Giftedness does not refer to something that is fixed for life but, rather, to a dynamic quality that is influenced over time. We do not seek to identify a fixed reservoir of ability and to calculate an ability score but rather to nurture and develop abilities to a higher level of performance.-Eddie J. Braggettof Charles Sturt University: in “a developmental concept of giftedness: implications for the regular classroom”</blockquote> This is the type of stuff that interests me and takes up my precious time at the education library and speech class.

Essay...

1998-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

Wow… I thought I wrote a somewhat decent essay for my C Lit class, but it turns out I got a C-. I guess it’s because I am not a good essay writer to begin with, this is my first real essay in a while and this is my first college essay. I’ll see on what I need to work. There may have been loose ends and I may have not written enough. Grr. Chemistry is so easy. I enjoy today’s unit, VSEPR models. It’s not terribly complex, but it looks like it is, and it deals with Geometry. UMTYMPs intervention programs have made sure that I enjoy hands on geometry. I’m thinking about getting some style sheets for this page. Make it look a wee-bit nicer. I think I need to go through this site one day. I wish there was somebody here that would go through it with me. It’s neat when you look at your page with someone who’d been to it. They point out things that just don’t make sense. Like “bigify.” WTF is that? If you click on it, hit Alt-F4 to get out. I haven’t been able to work cookies out well enough that it informs you on how to close the window. I think I have to shave now. I don’t like hair on my face.

Bang Bang

1998-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

Here is a followup to the shooting @UIUC.

Graph Theory

1998-10-08T00:00:00+00:00

Oh yeah, I had a test a few nights ago (tuesday) from like 7 PM to 10 PM on Graph Theory. I think I may have passed. The test seemed remarkably like UMTYMP. 8 problems choose 6. You are in a classroom with mounted desk/chairs and it’s up to three hours long:) Show all your work.

Tonight I got my haircut obscenely short. I think it’s cool.

Lobster Night

1998-10-06T00:00:00+00:00

Oh my.. Lobster night at UIUC. Most of the residence halls server Lobster. It was mildly incredible. I didn’t eat any because lobster looks disgusting and I don’t like sea food too much. Some people went a little overboard. One person was about to eat ten lobsters. For some reason all seafood disgusts me. No wonder why the Jews don’t eat most sea food. They secretly want me on their team.

Shoes

1998-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

This week has been considerably easier for me. Nothing too big is happening. Heather is having her best friend visit her tomorrow. Some of the showers stay relatively clean. My softsoap has tiny beads oof Vitamin E that supposedly get absorbed by my skin. I personally believe that the shower washes them off of me.Caltech started school a few days back. That also means I have to find a computer for Molly soon. Speaking of computers, I got an RMA number for my hard drive and I am thinking of shipping it out soon, except… I now can no longer re create the defects that I was experiencing. In fact my hard drive makes normal hard drive noises. I have no idea if I should cancel my RMA number or just wait a few weeks. I think I’ll wait until a week from now before I ship. It turns out that 75% or so of my MP3s will fit on my old drive, so I’m not to worried about shipping this bad boy… Hopefully tomorrow they will debrief me on how long a replacement will take, etc. If it doesn’t take too long, I may just send it out right away whether or not the problems occur. If it’s like a week or something, I’ll try to push my drive over the edge before sending it. My brother bought me some shoes the other day, they should be arriving sometime early next week.My life isn’t that exciting. Imagine if I was so silly that I updated this page daily. You could take this entry and split it up among the days and just read these crappy one or two line things that describe my life. Suck, no? I’ve decided that tonight I may want to take a walk around the quad around 10:30 at night. Just to see what it’s like walking around on campus. They recommend not to. So well… gee I don’t know why the hell I’m doing it, but I think I will. I don’t exactly believe our schools outrageous night crime.

Nevermind

1998-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

Nevermind, I don’t have shoes and it’s bitch-cold outside.

Mr. Tambourine Man

1998-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

That song that I couldn’t find the title of, (after Spy) I think is Mr. Tambourine Man. That’s what I thought he was singing when he said “Jingle Jangle.” Adam sent me the lyrics to verify my findings. It is by Bob Dylan (not William Shattner:))

They Might Be Giants over Urbana

1998-09-26T00:00:00+00:00

To sum it up, the concert ruled. I walked to Foellinger Auditorium with a group of Allen Hall residents who were going as well at about 7:30. I didn’t buy anything, so I sat down. Third row from the stage on the right (facing stage). It was too near the speaker, but my ears acclimated to the loud sound during the opening act, <a href=http://www.ubl.com/ubl/cards/080/5/03.html”>Michael Shelley</a>. He and the band he had was okay. It’s that alternative filler music you hear on the radio. He was funny so that was nice. They Might Be Giants finally came on stage at about 9:15 PM. They played Dr. Worm, New York City, Particle Man (with Kumbaya towards the end), Mammal, She’s Actual Size, Twisting, “The Famous Polka” played once at normal speed, then sped up, Battle for the Planet of the Apes (I was a person, and yes… People did win), Spy, some song that I don’t know the name of (one of the lines was “hey mister please play a song with the jingle jangle”), Lie Still Little Bottle, Birdhouse in Your Soul, The Guitar and the Conga. I followed the Conga, but didn’t really Conga. The problem was, is when I tried to get back to my seat, I couldn’t because the people in charge were telling everyone to go to their real seats, unfortunately mine was a third row seat. I managed to get back, they played Ana Ng and Pet Name while I struggled. They followed that with Spiraling Shape, Shoehorn with Teeth (which is neat live), She’s an Angel (everybody loved this). They shot confetti out of a cannon for James K. Polk. This was about the time I was thinking that the next song would be Why Does the Sun Shine and it would be the last. Well it was, kinda. We demanded encore (like in every concert) and they came back (like in every concert) to do two more songs, Istanbul and Dr. Worm again (with a little bit of “The Boys are Back in Town” thrown in). The show was great, and I suggest all of you to see it. Here are tourdates for places where I know people:

9/28/98	Madison, WI	Barrymore Theater
9/29/98	Minneapolis, MN	First Avenue
10/2/98	Chicago, IL	Vic Theater
10/3/98	Chicago, IL	Vic Theater
10/7/98	Cleveland, OH	The Odeon Concert Club
10/8/98	Pittsburgh, PA	Metropol
10/13/98	Philadelphia, PA	Theatre of the Living Arts
10/15/98	New York, NY	Bowery Ballroom
10/16/98	New York, NY	Bowery Ballroom
10/17/98	New York, NY	Bowery Ballroom </table> Other venues are here. Now I will try to regain my hearing.

Happy Birthday Katie

1998-09-24T00:00:00+00:00

I didn’t mention it in the last entry, but on Monday Katie Romportl turned 19. For those of you who don’t know Katie Romportl was part of my graduating class at Hopkins High School. Congratulations Katie. I finished my speech yesterday. I feel more free. Although now I have to do Laundry, read Chemistry, do four hideous problems of math and write a two page paper by tomorrow. I’ll try this one step at a time. I came up with this idea. If you have public showers with partitions like at my school, bring a bag of rocks into the shower. Throw rocks over the partition until you start seeing red on the other side. I haven’t tried it, and I don’t think I will. It sounds a bit evil.I am on the road to fixing my hard disk problem. It skips a lot less now that I figured out a bit more about drive termination. I think I’m on the road to having a healthier hard disk.

September Cycle

1998-09-16T00:00:00+00:00

I am caught in what I call the September Cycle. It’s when all the first major assignments are due. I have a speech due next week and a presentation due next week. Nothing really exciting will happen to me for most of the month, so the updates will be sparse for the next week or so. I ate at FAR’s Pizza Parlor. It took a few hours to get our food and finish it, but it was worth it. Best meal I’ve had from this campus. The Pizza was mediocre, but the salad was nice.

Labor Day Weekend

1998-09-08T00:00:00+00:00

My parents came on Sunday and I stayed at the Holiday Inn which is better than my dorm. It was nice, they came bringing many gifts (birthday). They left yesterday. My brother sent with them a cool mat and a nice window fan. I’m happy.Today I enrolled for the “They Might Be Giants” lottery. Basically I can buy my ticket sometime early on Thursday. It’s wierd. I saw them last month… I want to find somebody to go with me, but I don’t know people who like They Might Be Giants on campus. I may just do a solo thing. That’d be neat. By the way, the song that’s been in my head this week is Ana Ng.Oh yeah, today is the day that I decided to update my “friends” page. If you have a web page and it’s not listed in the friends page, then send an email or ICQ me and I’ll add it.

Upside Down Car

1998-09-04T00:00:00+00:00

That last message was really screwed up, sorry.Today outside of Follett’s (on Green and Wright, busy campus intersection) Stefan and I saw a car that was flipped over. It was pretty neat. If I had a camera I would have taken a picture and scanned it. I decided instead of being a gawker, I’d read about it in the Daily Illini. I’d link to an article next week, but I don’t think the DI archives quite as well as the Minnesota Daily.

UI as Dune

1998-09-04T00:00:00+00:00

After a week of classes and a couple weeks of living here, I’ve recognized that UI is actually Dune. That’s right. I’m taking the ficition that I’ve been reading and applying it to the real world where it doesn’t belong. I was brought up in Minnesota, where you’d get the most unexpected weather. It was generally cold. I have grown accustomed to cold weather. I long for cold weather to come. During the summer in Minnesota it gets quite hot, so we retreat to our Air Conditioned hideaways.

Now my home for the greater part the year is Urbana, Illinois. It's hot here. Retreating to airconditioning is not an option. It's deathly hot, but you get used to it. When I moved here, I had to get acquainted with the fre(sh)man. I had to become a fre(sh)man. I have ridden the great busses which travel at great speeds. But I prefer walking. The real comparison is that Urbana is a training ground for me. I am to be educated here, but I don't think the classes will be the only thing that shape me here. I think the environment will force me to be more adapted to different places.

You start to learn things. You are forced to be organized. You are forced to explore. When I walk from Allen Hall to the Quad, I take a short cut, or sometimes it's a long-cut through another building that is Air Conditioned. I learn lots of silly things here.

I don't know why I'm going off on such a strange tangent. I got a new desk from the Residence Halls. This one allows me to put my large computer monitor on the desk and my tower case without wasting too much space.

All of the above was pre-written yesterday. Today I got speakers from my neighbor and they are large. I don't know if I like them. I got my new telephone. I think there's a link in a previous entry to it. I love it already. I should run a wire to a friend's room and thus have a second phone line.

Hey, thanks to silly American holidays like Labor Day, I have no roommate this weekend! My parents are coming to visit. It would mean something if I missed them, well wait it does mean something. I guess I do miss them, but I'm just not realizing it. Hopefully I'll have fun with them.

Email is great. I think it strengthens my friendships. I ramble so I'll be quiet.

I love UI

1998-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

I’ve decided that I love this University. Not because it is anything special, but because I think that’s how the University wants me to feel. No wait what the hell am I saying. No the <a href=http://www.uiuc.edu/”>University of Illinois</a> is a very decent school. I don’t know why I like it, but I do for some reason. Maybe the good balance with academics and cultural diversity, etc. I dunno. Probably because it has a large library. A library that gives away good cookies. Well speaking of, thanks to the Residence Hall Interlibrary system, I have Heretics of Dune. My class schedule is slowly getting smaller and it looks like school will suck only once in a while instead of twice. The food service in Allen is poor. Today I had snickers ice cream from Edy’s that was good. It was bad when the machine didn’t work during dinner time. Grr. The food was bad for dinner, I didn’t eat much. The hot cocoa machine still does not work. Woe is me.Unit One is really cool. This week we have Barbara Trent, Oscar award winner of The Panama Deception. I went to a talk yesterday and she talked about all these cool programs she was involved with. She talked about how she fled from the FBI. She talked about how she made movies that exposed the government. Yesterday I watched some of her other movie, Cover Up: Behind The Iran Contra Affair. I watched some of it because it was too cold for me in the main hall. Today I will dress appropriately and watch the Panama Deception and hopefully stay for discussion. The fact that I can do this in my own hall is just so neat. I mean talking about all these cool issues with some person who has a shiny award that sits at the Front Desk of our hall and stuff. Wow, Allen Hall is cool.My best friend in the whole wide world got her ICQ password today.

Smoking

1998-08-31T00:00:00+00:00

Why does he leave the TV on when he’s doing his homework? What the heck is wrong with this kid?Well the library does not have me listed and won’t for a few days nor do they have Heretics of Dune. However ISR (a local res-hall) has it and they will loan it to me tomorrow as long as they have it unchecked out. They probably do since nobody likes to read.I hate people who smoke. Especially if I see them smoke. I hope my roommmate gets cancer and dies. I hope he gets it while watching football. No I hope he’s at a football game and a football hits him in the face while he smokes and it shoves the cigarette into his throat and then he dies.That’s my rant for right now. I may regret saying that, but if I do, I’ll just delete that part of the entry. (ed: In retrospect, I wish I didn’t say that, it was very mean-spirited. For historical purposes, I sort of wish to keep it here. I might change my mind later. 5/26/2006) The general idea is, don’t smoke around me, or don’t let me know you smoke. Especially if I have to live with you.

Overheard

1998-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

Well you know you’re in college when you here things like this in the hall:

Boy: "Can I lick your dirty cunt?"
Girl: "You'll lick my dirty cunt and you'll like it! You'll love it!"

I have a math assignment due next week. Homework sucks when your sick.

2.5 years in the making...

1998-08-25T00:00:00+00:00

Molly should be returning to the camp today and reading my letter. She probably is having more fun than I, since she is not sick (and doesn’t have classes tomorrow). Right now I have a sore throat, which seems to be going away. Unfortunately iced tea has been sold out. My neighbor, Brian (pre med), told me to not take orange juice as it will make my throat worse, and suggested iced tea as a friendly substitute.

I skipped out on Quad Day today, and will review some of the stuff that Heather picked up. I'll also talk to some of the Indian people I know and ask them what they are going to join if anything.

I went to First Year Impact. It seems like a good leadership program. My room is a god-awful mess. I just have too much everywhere. I have begun posting my Geometry Center posters everywhere. It looks neat.

The cooling problem in my room is being improved with a box fan that I purchased. My roommate, Jack, will be getting another fan this Friday when he goes to the mall. I am thinking about getting a new phone.

First Day at UIUC

1998-08-23T00:00:00+00:00

(ed: Title changed from “Day 24-27 No Molly… for that matter nobody” to “First Day at UIUC -5/26/2006)

Thursday I could really tell that I had friends. Adam helped me the whole day with packing. Mike Jorgenson and Marc helped me throughout the day by keeping me company and Katie joined us for dinner. We marveled at how neat it was that we made a very good meal buy ourselves (well actually Marc and Katie made a good meal).

So I ended my traditional life as a Minnesotan resident that night. I barely slept. Tried to catch up on reading and packing. We left at about six in the morning on Friday. The ride was pretty fast. We made a slight mistake that cost us 20 miles or so. We arrived at Allen Hall at 3 PM.

My brother and I with some help quickly loaded my boxes of stuff into my room. We went shopping for a refrigerator and a microwave. Then we ate food at a Steak and Shake. We came to my room and loaded all my new stuff inside. We set up everything as much as we could and then my brother left. It's was disconcerting to part with the one person who was always looking out for your best interests for your entire life.

I went to the orientation night activities. It was there that I met Heather, my neighbor who lives down the hall. She's a cool person who hails from Omaha, Nebraska. I skipped out on the movie and decided to hang out with Heather, and explain to her some things about her computer. I felt very Adamish. I talked her into housing my IBC rootbeer collection for the night as well.

I found some guy who knows as much about computers as I do who was also the network guy for our hall. Luckily he's on my floor. He picked up the cable I needed to connect to the Ethernet. Unfortunately I was too incompetent to get DHCP up until Saturday (Day 26) afternoon. I also met Brian, my neighbor who doesn't like to walk.

I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to sleep on the bottom bunk since my roommate is not yet here. That worked. I woke up and had enough time to get ready before day orientation stuff started but had to skip out on breakfast. I met Stefan Pfister during lunch. Stefan went to my Jr. High and Highschool. We ate lunch and went to a bunch of orientation sessions together. We later met up with Heather and went book shopping. Books are expensive.

Stefan and I went to eat at the Luau but ate inside instead of outside, since the inside has AC. We skipped the rest of it, because weren't into dancing and stuff. We hung out watched south park I saw his room. I later went to my room and attempted to sleep or clean up my room or something.

9 PM rolled along and when I popped downstairs Stefan caught me and asked me if I wanted to see Blade. I ran upstairs and got Brian and we all saw it. The movie was very cool. Oh yeah, sometime that day I gained a roommate.

I had a tremendous sleep-deprived headache which is still persisting. I had trouble sleeping more than a few hours last night as well. I have to talk my roommate into reconfiguring the air flow of this room. I ended up showering and going to the basement where it's cooler and hung out. I later decided hanging out won't cut it. I slept. Some janitor guy pitied me.

I went upstairs and decideded to finish some things. Then I went downstairs for brunch with Brian. We met this girl Mary who has a baton. She's one of those people who fares well solo.

Brian and I made an excursion to Walgreens and some other place to get some stuff we needed. It was hot and annoying outside.

Not much else has happened today. This weekend has been pretty good so far. I like it. I just need a new telephone and a large fan. I should shave my head and put heatsinks on it. It's neat being from anywhere other than Chicago, or for that matter any place not Illinois.

Day 22!!! :( No Molly (Tuesday)

1998-08-18T00:00:00+00:00

Well today my cousin and her family left. Today I had a fun day. Katie, Marc and I and later Daniel watched Freakazoid! We later made some food out of all the things we could find. Then we went to Marc’s where I read and they watched British TV. Well I ended up watching some TV. Katie was saddened that it would be the last day that she’ll see me for a while. For some reason I can’t express the sadness as she does. Perhaps it’s because I am reading the Dune series. The time for being sad about leaving is not now. I should enjoy leaving in order to start off on the right foot when I go to college. Perhaps I just adapt in order to survive. I make light of leaving everyone by telling them that I may never see them again (which is improbable) or that the next time I see them will be far from now. For now, I just wonder: What would a McKatie sandwhich be? What would it look like? What would it taste like? Well overall, today was a good day. Tomorrow my mother arrives from India.

Day 17 and 18 No Molly

1998-08-14T00:00:00+00:00

I got most of my shopping done for Urbana. Now my problem is getting there. I have to talk them into letting me in early or I have to get there by 9AM on Saturday or maybe something magical will happen and I can go whenever. Hopefully tonight my brother will give me a schedule to work around. Looks like all the good computers at Micron’s refurbished division are being purchased as they are added. Oh well.The Hindu Mandir email thing is coming along. Now I am working on how the sign up form works. It’s a long form because it’s collecting data for the Bulliten Board as well.Want to see something cool? Check this out.

Day 16 No Molly

1998-08-12T00:00:00+00:00

I did nothing today. I would normally not have an entry but then I’d be missing day 16. What did I do? Hmm… I woke up later. I started reading Children of Dune. It’s working thus far. I’ve studied more Japanese. I installed a fan for my hard drive. I think I’ll no longer have to open that case for a while. At least not until I move. I noticed temporary no parking signs issued by the Edina police on both my neighbor’s lawns… I’m a bit suspicious as to why this is. I wonder if this is related to friends and acquaintances of mine parking on the street… I hope not, but you never know. I personally do not care, because I am leaving in a week. This is my last Wednesday that I will get to spend at my house at least until December. If any of you are looking for a cheap computer, Micron has a few refurbished 300MHz machines available with 64MB of RAM. They are nice machines, except that they are desktop models. They are about $1K each no monitor.

Day 11 No Molly

1998-08-07T00:00:00+00:00

Since many of you are going to college soon, you may need to arm yourself with this pieces of scripture:<blockquote> And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.-Mathew 6:5-6 </blockquote> This was on the KQ morning show. Some listener was complaining about football players who pray when they make a good play. I think it works well with the god people on campus. Today I got a card stating that I’ve been accepted into the University of Illinois’ First Year Impact program. Yay? Actually, now I have a new NIC card and 128MB more memory… hmm that brings me to 192MB of Memory. 64MB was manageable, 128 is comfortable and 192 is luxury for me, but memory was cheap enough for me to go for this.

I broke one of our casarole dishes today. I don't know exactly how it fell, but it did. We have so many, I doubt my mom will notice.

I got a call from my roommate today. He seems really cool. He's bringing a TV/VCR and a play station. I don't require any of these things, but it's nice to know it's there. I guess we're getting a microwave/fridge. This is good... oh yeah, I can drink hot cocoa in the winter now... I can even steal food from the cafeteria!

It's my sister-in-law's birthday today. We took Kelly to Buca to eat. The food was very good. I don't think I'll eat for a while.

Day 9 No Molly

1998-08-05T00:00:00+00:00

Wanna know something neat? Well upsetting too, I guess.

On Thursday night, July 30th, the facility that hosts Merriam-Webster's Web site was burglarized and its servers were stolen. We've managed to restore limited capacity, but we need to obtain new hardware from our suppliers before we can return to full service. We hope to have the entire site active again in a few days. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope you will bear with us as we deal with the situation.
Thank you for your patience.
--The Merriam-Webster Web Team </blockquote> I wrote a note to my roommate and a letter to my inamorta. Sorry, I'd give a link to that word, but they are using some Dictionary scripts that were made on the fly, and I don't want to use a non Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Mail is coming late again today.
I went to see Saving Private Ryan. If you like to watch serious movies, I recommend it. It's a bit gory, but every movie that you have seen that involves gore has been preparing you for this movie. The violence and cruelty in this movie strengthens may hatred of war. It's not just the destruction of resources, but the humanity. This was a good movie, but not something that I could see another time.

Day 1, No Molly

1998-07-29T00:00:00+00:00

Well she’s gone. She left yesterday, early in the morning. I won’t see her ever again until mayhaps September. I think I’ll be okay though. Monday I decided to go over to her house in the evening. Yesterday - Day 1 of no Molly went okay. I got a lot of things finished. I finished most of the remaining thank you cards (I have a few more from people who have sent me stuff but gave no card). I also did laundry for the first time by myself. It was easy. (Thank god for the Internet.) I also ordered a very expensive hard drive. If any of you care it’s an Ultra Wide SCSI (the only thing better is Ultra 2 Wide) 9.1 GB Seagate Barracuda. I have no real idea on how to install a second SCSI drive, but I assume it’s quite simple.Today I will finish the thank you cards and send them out and later I will attend some kid’s birthday party.

UIUC... more details.

1998-07-09T00:00:00+00:00

Whopping out my schedule…

Day 1: I ate breakfast. It was bad. I went to take tests. I did unusually well. I am normally nervous during tests and do very very average. Then we went to the Krannert Center for the opening ceremonies. Krannert Center is a Transformer. It turns into a giant monster and eats families. It follows the quota system. The rest of the day was mediocre. The campus issues at the Krannert Center was reminiscint of High School politically correct skits. We had ones on getting drunk, getting raped, getting assaulted and getting a lesbian roommate that is black. Afterwards the kids got to discuss this and make posters. Very High School like.Day 2
This was the good day because it went fast. Breakfast was okay, they have waffle irons there. The Personal Safety issues sucked and I left when they started to talk about the World Wide Web (wasn’t safetry related… but…). I went to some success oriented things and then… hmm I went to a special interest session on Unit one/Allen Hall which is my dorm this fall. That was cool. Helped me as far as signing up for classes goes. Then I ate lunch and then got my ID card… (I look like a dork) and then signed up for classes. My schedule is:<pre> Comparative Literature of Non-Western Civilization Intro to CS Chemistry What is College Graph Theory hopefully more… </pre>

Umm then I went home.

Oh yeah, I've e-dopted Sunita as my e-sister. She's cool.

UIUC Summer Orientation

1998-07-08T00:00:00+00:00

It is really hot down here. I’m typing this via telnet, so I am not used to the way the screen looks. So forgive me if I have no formatting. Anyway I’ll be picking classes in a few minutes. I will be majoring in Math & Computer Science and that’s about it so far. The weather isn’t the greatest… just all around crappy. I did find out my residence hall is really cool. Anyway I head home tonight, should be there tomorrow.

OSA 1998 - Monterey, CA

1998-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

Okay, wow, I have a lot to say. OSA, for those of you who do not know, is the Orissa Society of Americas. These are a group of people from the state of Orissa, India who get together once a year on the fourth of July weekend. Normally it’s a mediocre way to spend the weekend, not much goes on, you meet a few people you haven’t seen in a year or two, etc. There are also seminars and other things that I’d attend as well and Youth activities.This year there was virtually no youth anything. It was perhaps the worst convention which I have attended. I did however have a lot of fun with my friends (Minnesotans and ex-Minnesotans). Here is a detailed account of what happened the last few days: Thursday I went to the airport for our 11:25 AM flight which was delayed to about 12:40. My dad had upgraded his ticket to First Class and he gave it to me. That was very cool. It was my first time in First Class and I think it is really cool, especially on long four hour flights. My food was very edible indeed.We arrived in San Francisco around 3PM Pacific. We were picked up by my cousin and her husband and went to their Sunnyvale, CA apartment. I learned that I really like math. I had in my posession a book about a mathematical genius and a math text-book. Both which I enjoyed reading. I also decided that I want to do at least a minor in mathematics. Not because I am good at it (the only thing that says I am good is the fact that I’ve completed UMTYMP with little trouble), but because I find it very interesting. We left later and went to Monterey (over an hour away). We arrived at about 8:40PM. The convention was at a Hyatt Regency resort. It was a very nice hotel which was on the old Del Monte golf course. We checked in, registered for the convention and then put our stuff in our room.I first met with friend whom we call Titu (many Oriyas have nicknames that they are always referred to by) in the conference center where most of the activities took place. We went to the lobby and met with Leena and Tina (they are sisters, there is a neat little convention to naming children that we’ve noticed this weekend). We seperated our selves from Leena and Tina temporarily and went back to the conference center. Titu and I met up with Sunita and Monty, former Minnesotans that were really good friends with us. We were trying to passively avoid someone who was drunk. We re-met up with Leena and Tina and they did that thing with Sunita that girls do when they meet another girl they haven’t seen in a while. I think Monty, Titu and I and another kid wound up at the sports bar at the Lobby. Titu and I ate a pizza and we were kicked out because it was past 11PM and they can’t have minors then. Sunita, Leena and Tina joined us later and we went to Sunita’s room (which was next to her parents, so we had to be a little quiet). We decided to hang out there for a while. We watched a movie, the Wedding Singer. If you haven’t seen it already, see it. It is the funniest movie I have seen in a long time. It also had the right amount of romance. It’s kind of like the Princess Bride in some respects. It’s a movie that has a chick-flick title, but it’s just a really funny movie that can appeal to all. I was earlier told to see it with Molly by Raj and Kelly.I told people about my “friend” this weekend. They were all surprised that I was able to keep this in hiding for 28 months. They thought the whole thing was neat. I was happy about that.We went to the conference center and then the lobby and hung out there for a while. It was about 2 in the morning. We went back to Sunita’s later and then were kicked out, becuase Monty was tired. I guess he also wanted Sunita to not stay out with us all night. So we left and it soon became Titu and I just hanging around. We went to the conference center (which was conveniently near Sunita and Monty’s). I fell asleep on the floor. I woke up at about 4:00-4:30 AM and went to the lobby. We waited till 5:00, thinking the restaurant would open then. We found out it opened at 6:30 and were really tired and went to our respective rooms after I got a new key. I was supposed to eat breakfast with Titu at 7, but I woke up late and got out of my room at about 9:30/10:00. It was now Friday, and the convention began. We could now officially say the convention sucked. I went to eat breakfast at the restraunt, and discovered Titu and the others (save Leena who was at UC Berkeley) at the sports bar. After I ate pancakes I went there and played some games. We later played Air Hockey and other games. We went to lunch to find it was bad, and then later we came back to the convention center. Titu went somewhere else, while Tina, Sunita and I went to the spa only to put our feet in the water, just because it was really cold outside, and we didn’t want to be wet outside at all. Sunita got her pants really wet. Tina for some reason made a point to mention that we all had on our pants.

We kept hanging out at the sports bar when we were bored. The cultural activities sucked. We decided that the five of us and would go to the dinner gathering (the girls dressed up), just incase it was different from lunch (i.e. didn't suck). It sucked. We came back, peeped at the cultural show. Hung out. Went to knuckles near closing time and got some curly fries for almost nothing. That was fun. We later went to Sunita's room again and hung out. Shilpi left and then the rest of us left to see the dance. The dance sucked. Eventually we went back to Sunitas again. Titu, Leena, Tina and me decided we'd spend the night (or early morning) at Sunita and Monty's. We stayed up until 5AM, woke up at 8AM. Titu was gay, but I was a pimp.

Actually only I woke up at 8AM. Everyone else was very asleep. Saroj Uncle (Monty and Sunita's dad) woke up when I was about to leave. He was confused when he looked at the odd sleeping configuration.

I went to my room at 8AM, my dad was unhappy that I didn't tell him I'd be gone. I went back after showering and everyone besides Monty had left. So I went to the conference center to read a book. Rita Auntie (Leena and Tina's mom) told me that the girls were hanging out in her room. So I went there. Watched a dumb cartoon with Tina and Sunita while Leena showered. Then we left and ate breakfast. The breakfast was good. I had a belgian waffle. We met Shilpi on the way to breakfast too.

We skipped lunch (Monty and Titu went) because we ate a late breakfast. We hung out some more around the arcades and just walked about. We went back to the pool in this somewhat larger group. Sunita got her pants wet again. I commented earlier that she had a nice "Asphault." Rather I asked her if others did, because that was the brand of jeans she wore. Well her Asphault (brand jeans) got wet again. We went back to the sports bar, or something and hung out. You'd have thought we were bored of that place, but it's amazing how much pool you can play. We were annoyed at the concept of always going there, but the area of Monterey we were in was desolate. We met Titu there and some other people and played some pool, shot some hoops with the basketball machine, and yeah... We took a group picture in those photo booth things. I will scan and send it to people with email addresses (everyone uses AOL and/or Hotmail).

Our group of friends grew a bit for a while and around dinner time we hung out at my room since Sunita's room was checked out. We ordered a Pizza and talked a lot. Sheila and Smita (sisters) met up with us. Sheila goes to UIUC. I pumped her for useful information.

The girls went to the spa (girls only) and Titu, Monty and I crashed it. Well we did more than that. What I'm about to say is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen done... We walk up to the spa. The girls put up a fit about how it's girls only. Some of them start splashing us. I step back. Then out of nowhere Titu pushes Tina into the pool. She's upset because she's wearing her dad's shirt and well she's wet too. She chases him around the big pool and after sopme time stops. She talks to her sister Leena and tells her that she is cold. So people give her some towels to keep warm. She's still shivering and looks very cold. Then she pushes Leena in the Pool. When I found out that all of this was planned earlier by Tina and Titu I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Leena was very upset and complaining how you can't push people in the pool if they are wearing white...

The dry among us went to the cultural show, while others went to change. We decided to skip out on the cultural show after it showed signs of being on the boring side. We hung out at the conference center's basement in a lot of the rooms. We just sat around talking. Everyone was really tired. A little after 2AM Sunita and Monty left. Shortly after, the rest of the group dispersed. I went to sleep and woke up at about 6:30 and rode to San Francisco and we went home.

I really like spending time with these people. There's nothing specific about them that I like. Perhaps it's just a long history of knowing them. Perhaps it's being raised similarly. I feel bad about not keeping in contact with them except once in a while. But hey, now I have their email addresses and can start an e-relationship. I don't think I am going to attend next years convention in Toronto. I'd much rather go to Convergence.

Today I am off to UIUC and will perhaps not have such a lengthy entry. Hopefully tomorrow I will do well on the placement exams.

Site 4

1998-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

Here is more information on Site 4. I’m just posting a nice little update, if you look back, you’ll see I’m behind schedule. So here’s what I “plan” to do after I come back from sunny California and UIUC:<pre> 10 June Web design pages 11 June How this site was made 12 June Style guides 13 June web usability 14 June What’s new. 15 July Humor page 16 July Rewrite RSG in PHP3 (with help from Nada) 17 July RSG Information page 18 July Links page and add-a-ma-tron. 19 July Survey Script (with help from Jason Waye) 20 July Education site…. 21 July Add people to friends page 22 July Scan pictures 23 July Window closing script (I need help on this). 24 July Add more people to friends page 26 July Beta testing of site begins 1 August Site is copied to root directory and replaces ftmax.com/ and ftmax.com/x </pre>

Wave Pool

1998-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

I Sunday I went to the Wave Pool with Adam, Laureen, Kit, Jenwa, Kerry and Ben Schack. It was a lot of fun, albeit the $6 admission + $2/2hour increments for the tubes was a little much.Afterwards we (well all of us besides Kit) went to Good Earth. Unfortunately I went with Molly and her parents to the Good Earth in the Galleria on Saturday. It was fun none the less. We had a nice waitress and gave her a large tip and a children’s menu that was all colored.The whole day was very very fun. It was one of those days that made summer and friends seem enjoyable.This week Molly and I work at the ITCEP/UMTYMP office. Doing inventory and stuff. It’s pretty dull, but it is a nice environment. I found a few files from the Summer Institute I attended. That was cool. Today Katie [Romportl] came over to email people about something at Orchestra Hall featuring women composers on Thursday 16 July.Hopefully I’ll finish most of the Thank You cards tonight. Yesterday I asked my mom about the cards I had trouble with. Tomorrow I’m going to a wedding and Thursday morning I will for my first time fly to California. I come back Sunday and leave again on Monday for UIUC.