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Thursday, January 1, 2004 / 6:56pm
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A Matter of Speaking
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Happy New Year! Anyways...
All night long last night, there were random "New Year's Rockin' Whatever
Television Special Thing Eve 2004 Party of Music and Fun" on TV. And, it
didn't bother me until last night. They all say "New Year's Eve 2004"...
but shouldn't it be "New Year's 2004 Eve"? Because the NYE witnessed last
night was in 2003, and also, the only NYE in 2004 is in December - at the
end of the calendar year. Whatever, I'm a dork.
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Thursday, January 1, 2004 / 7:30pm
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From Solitude to Alex Trebek and Back Again
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I woke up Wednesday morning with no plans. There was nothing on the
slate for the night of calendar conversions. After waking up and
just chilling in bed for a few hours, I made my way to Krannert to do
some work until Piotr and Dyanna called. We had lunch at Hometown
Buffet and hung out for the remainder of the evening, ringing in the
New Year. There was playing of games and of Jeopardy. We switched
the TV over to the MTV New Years at 11pm, played more Jeopardy. Local
time countdown clock was watched on FOX, where apparently, I guess
2004 is presented to you by the American Wedding DVD (in stores
January 2). Half an hour past midnight, I left, dropped off some rent,
and went home. My New Year's drink: twelve ounces of Wild Cherry Pepsi
at about 1:30am.
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Friday, January 2, 2004 / 12:14am
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the two thousand three that twas
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So what has happened this past year? 2003 wasn't rung in, it was sung
in, accompanied with an open bar at home that didn't close (not that
I partook). I shuttled myself back and forth between Chicago and East
Central Illinois quite a bit this past year, beginning with the first
trip back to Urbana which had me there for my ninth Illinois High School
Theatre Festival. It was quite smoothly done and fun. Days later was
the first trip of the year, a road trip with a bunch of friends to a
quite cool (fun, and un-temperate) Washington, DC area to visit Chris.
I returned from vacationing to resume my job of the general maintainer
of the Krannert's Patron Services Department, and, along with the other
house managers, was involved with the hiring of new staff for the first
time. The year started with a list of one at four which became a two
for my sarcastically most favorite non-holiday ever. The Altgeld
Chime tower was toured (twice). Went to some Illini basketball games
(men's and women's), cleared the list, and Trivia Tuesday and Wednesday
Lunch continued throughout the year. Spring Break was had with my Mom
and my sister over in Greece. We endured anti-American sentiment in
an environment where we couldn't communicate. I ran around the ancient
olympic track in some house manager attire. We stopped through London
on the way back and went wild on the Underground and walked across Abbey
Road. The term "KranMaster" was coined, though I don't think it was by
me. I had one line in KCSA's "On The Rocks", which performed on three
consecutive nights in April, all of which were nights I worked as a house
manager for tons of shows, including the one I was in. I experienced
a whole day of Chicago baseball for Sweet Goodness Baseball Friday
(an afternoon at Wrigley followed by an evening at US Cellular nee
Comiskey). A superfun job was bequeathed onto me, and magically, I
could get hit by a car if I wanted to again (not that I do, but it's
nice to not have to worry about insurance again). I revisited Chicago
museums I hadn't been to in a long time (the Field Museum and Shedd
Aquarium) and rode portions of all seven CTA train lines, and that was
in one day. Went to my first Cubs/White Sox game. Witnessed the
wedding of my friend Angela in La Salle. Went to my first US internet
cafe, and then to my first strip club, and then took in the great times
as a part of Jack and Carolyn's wedding party with a ceremony that
was a performance in the Studio Theatre and a reception at my old place
of employment (Holiday Inn) where I snatched the garter. August wrapped
up my first "semester" in charge of my department, it marked the eleventh
move-in of my life, it marked the end of a three week or so "one at four"
stretch, and contained the Vacation of a Lifetime 2003 Sweepstakes. And
that little endeavor included ten bus rides, nine nights away, eight hour
layover in Chicago, seven hours of sleep in a hotel, six nights at
friends, five city hops, four train rides, three ballparks, two baseball
games or airplane days or Chicago airports, and one crazy New York City
history-making blackout. It was a relatively quiet Debbie Gibson day.
September included some galavanting to Milwaukee and Chicago for playoff
bound Cubs sports. I learned I can receive calls but not make them from
my cell phone atop the Sears Tower. I've won a number of radio contests
this year including movie passes, CDs, basketball and football and
tailgate and concert tickets, parties, gift certificates, and a certain
(still unused) board game. Had an issue. Hired, fired, promoted, and
gave raises. Went to my first concert (by a band you'd hear on the
radio). Was almost a local straight queer culture expert. Was ranked
tenth nationally in an MTV contest if but for a week. Made Hilary Duff's
"So Yesterday" a daylight saving memory. I relived the childhood by
wandering town and working as Spongebob Squarepants on Halloween, and by
visiting Enchanted Castle in Lombard during Thanksgiving Friday (where I
played laser tag for the first time ever). Attended the annual Illinois
Basketball game at the United Center, and made it onto the video display
in my Santa hat. On a different day, met the Women's Basketball coach.
Realized I've now performed on all five Krannert theatre stages plus the
lobby. Yeah, what a year. Oh, the TiVo I won in 2001 broke, so I bought
a new one, and my list is now empty, but I guess it hasn't been a bad
year. I guess now let's see how 2004 will go. Well, that's all for now.
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Friday, January 2, 2004 / 12:21am
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Projecting a Bad Year?
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So, on the night the year changed, I was watching MTV, right? Well, one
of the first songs I performed was that "Move, get out of the way" song.
What an interesting way to start the year! Does that mean that MTV just
wants to get 2004 over with and start up 2005? I looked at Piotr and
said "maybe they're not saying 'move', maybe they're saying 'MMV'
(pronounced like move, but without the vowel)". Then we laughed. I'm
such a dork. "MMV! get out the way!"
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Friday, January 2, 2004 / 12:29am
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From the Art Institute, Please
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So, randomly over the last few months, I'd try to find a soundtrack to
Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Now, research has revealed that no such
album ever existed. If ever I had one, I would be superwonderfully
happy. There are just those times where you could imagine that Art
Institute song in your head and how cool it would be to be able to hear
it (without having to cue it up on the DVD or anything). Well, in between
my many games of Minesweeper Thursday afternoon, I did one of those Ferris
searches, and finally found a copy of that Art Institute song on some
random webpage that was, like, somewhere in the 40's in terms of search
result page number. Hooray for me! It's called "Please Please Please
Let Me Get What I Want (instrumental)" by The Dream Academy. So, yeah,
if only I had a compiled soundtrack.
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Saturday, January 3, 2004 / 2:01am
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Actually Saw a Movie #1 (TNT)
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Dave (1993):
I always thought I could be President. Dave is a super guy that randomly
looks like the President, and ends up playing the role of President
because the real one can't and his staff doesn't want the Vice President
to take over. It's crazy times, indeed. Title character Dave demonstrates
that there is still right in the world and that anyone can make a
difference. It's a nice movie and a plesant way to spend two hours.
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Saturday, January 3, 2004 / 2:18am
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Actually Saw a Movie #2 (TNT)
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200 Cigarettes (1999):
This is a fake story, put together by MTV, about random friends, family,
and strangers magically in pursuit of a good time to ring in the New Year.
Early 80s style. It's all about the relationships between the people, man.
And what better time of year to express that than when you want to be in
the company of others having a grand old time? (Because nobody wants to
be "that guy" that throws a sucky party.) It's easy to get lost or
disinterested in this. You'll have to keep track of random characters
if only to see how they connect, and, of course, you'll have to wait until
the end to see how. Had I not watched this at 1:00am, maybe its odds of
being reported as better would have been, well, better. Maybe not. But
it's allright. Not something I'd necessarily force myself to watch again,
but I'd leave it in the background if nothing was on.
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Saturday, January 3, 2004 / 4:31pm
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Ice Cold Sneak Preview
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So, yesterday, I feel that maybe I should do something. So I call
Sam up, and, after I run a few errands like pick up some pictures and
get measured for a tux, we go have dinner and see a movie. We went
to Wendy's, where I ate the cycle in record time. I caught her up
on the stories of my life, and talked about PSPS and my quest to
learn the words to Outkast's "Hey Ya". We then drove over to the
Beverly, where the song on the radio is "Hey Ya", and we watch a
sneak preview of "Win a Date With Tad Hamilton" which doesn't open
for, like, another three weeks or something. And then, just after
the movie, the radio presents nothing other than "Hey Ya". Well,
that's more fun than staying at home!
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Saturday, January 3, 2004 / 5:12pm
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Actually Saw a Movie #3 (Beverly Cinemas)
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Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004):
Judging from the previews and commercials, you already know that this is
just a fun movie. No "Best Picture" here. Guy likes girl, and all girls
love superstar hunk Tad. Oh, poor Topher Grace of Eric fame from "That
70's Show". How would he know that the girl of his dreams would beat the
odds and win a national contest scoring her a date with Tad! How sad!
See? Dreams really do come true in that life just sucks sort of way.
Twists? Plot? Surely, there are attempts but they're predictable. But,
boy howdy it's fun just to take it in. And, yes, I did shed a tear at
the end. Like all good cheesy romantic comedies, it's resolved and all
is right in the world.
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Saturday, January 3, 2004 / 5:40pm
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Illinois State at Illinois (Men's Basketball)
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The University of Illinois (Urbana) (9-2) beat cross-state Illinois State
(4-6) at home in comfy Assembly Hall where Illinois's only lost once in the
last three years. At first, it looked like Illinois forgot there was a
game going on, but they stepped it up and came back to tie the game just
as halftime hit. It was pretty close the rest of the way, with Illinois
State holding the edge throughout the remainder of the game. It didn't
get settled until after five minutes of hott overtime action. Or something.
Once play began in that extra session, you just knew that Illinois had
taken control and it was only a matter of time. Like five minutes. Now,
I would have gone to the game if I had tickets. And I was going to buy
tickets. But no, I was snug and in bed when the box office opened today.
And it was pouring rain, so I became lazy. Whatever. They won; momentum
on their side as they enter Big 10 play next week. Programming note: if
you at home watching the game on TV and missed the first minute and a half
of play because the last minute of North Carolina/Kentucky basketball,
well, you weren't saucy enough to find that Champaign's UPN was showing
the game in that tiny bit of time where nothing much really happened.
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Saturday, January 3, 2004 / 7:42pm
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Actually Saw a Movie #4 (ABC Family)
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This Time Around (2003):
Nothing says "I love you" like a nice little TV movie about screwing
over those that messed with your heart back when, you were, oh, say,
dorky and in middle school. Revenge is a dish best served in a restaurant
setting as former 90210 star Brian Austin Green, who dropped the "ustin"
and left it as "A.", hooks up with a long lost girl from that era before
driver's licenses. Threre's not much you can say about a made for TV
romantic comedy, but if I'm watching it and it's supposed to be set in
Chicago, it better not blatenly demonstrate that it's faking the Chicago
experience. I thought that I saw a subway map, and I thought it looked
authenticly CTA. But I didn't pay too much attention, and web research
says it's filmed in Canada, anyways. But they did talk about being from
Chicago suburbs that really exist, so I guess that makes it okay, even
though you can tell that the subway cars used surely can't be real CTA
rail cars.
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Saturday, January 3, 2004 / 8:21pm
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Actually Saw a Movie #5 (ABC Family)
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Picking Up and Dropping Off (2003):
It happens. Bring on a magic tale of how two people magically meet, don't
quite get it right through a series of random circumstance, and finally
leave the viewer with a picturesque postcard picture of happiness. I don't
know about you, but these romantic comedies can still get to me. This one
not so much, since it was the second time I saw it, but still. It's cute,
but whatever. Although, it is nice to see some non-high school/college
people go through that silly thing that is the trials of the dating game.
Because that game so totally sucks, especially when it doesn't work out
the way it's planned. That, and you're not allowed to wait at the gate
of an airport for departures or arrivals anymore if you're not a ticketed
passenger. What was up with that?
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Sunday, January 4, 2004 / 12:22am
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Actually Saw a Movie #6 (ABC Family)
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Autumn in New York (2000):
I remember one time I thought to myself, "hmmm... that looks like some
sort of cheesy romantic thing I'd like to see". Thank goodness I ended
up forgetting about it and only seeing it just now on cable instead, and
not even on HBO or something like that. Gee, as much as I can enjoy the
whole love story thing regardless of how it's set up or whatever, I
totally couldn't invest myself in the story at all. It was very blah.
Just like autumn (the season). Even though autumn can be very pretty
and stuff. I guess this is one instance where I can't say "well, there's
$5.50 I'll never see again" since I didn't actually go to the theatre
and paid money to see it.
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Sunday, January 4, 2004 / 10:40pm
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Illinois at Mississippi State (Women's Basketball)
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Finally, the Illinois Women's Basketball team wins a game (6-6) on the
road, ending their non-conference play on a good note. Much like
the men's team a day ago, the team fell behind and was playing catchup
for a good portion of the game until finally squeaking by in the last
minute of play. The surprise for me is that the game against Mississippi
State (5-7) was nationally televised on CBS just before today's NFL Wild
Card game. Don't get me wrong, I love our team, but I would have figured
that the country would have loved to have seen "a better game" - what
ever that may be, considering that at tip-off, neither team was ranked
nor had a winning record. But, hey, now the country can see our supercool
women's team post a victory. It was "the Road to the Final Four" as far
as CBS programming portrayed it, and March Madness is still two whole
months away and Big Ten play hasn't even started. Eh, the day's full of
oddities, like I guess Britney Spears got married yesterday. Where was
I? Well, there goes my hopes and dreams. Not really.
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Wednesday, January 7, 2004 / 12:41am
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"the list"
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empty... that was close!
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Wednesday, January 7, 2004 / 12:49am
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Ice Cold S'team
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All last night (Monday night), I'm up late being because it matters
and talking because I'm awesome. And I'm like, "I should really
really go to sleep, because tomorrow's the first Tuesday of the month
so I have to be at Kran at 10am when the sirens go off so I can do
the monthly test of the Emergency Building-Wide PA." Not that I
actually make myself leave, getting to sleep just before four. So,
sleep sleep sleep, sleep sleep sleep more. And then, it's 9:58am!
There's nothing like throwing something on and running in below
zero wind chill or something for two or three blocks. Yeah, that's
cooler than being cool, punk bastard weather. I did my thing, then
went back home to actually officially start my day.
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Wednesday, January 7, 2004 / 1:06am
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An Ounce of (noun) is Worth a Pound of (noun)
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Let me demonstrate a new "feature" (if that's what you want to call
it) of your very fine news website. You know how sometimes, URL's
have those "#something" tacked on to the end that takes you to a
specific place on a web page? Yeah, well, that's here, too. In
the middle of my converting my old sites into the new ("reinvented?")
form, I've started hiding these little tags all throughout these
articles. So, if you go to the archives page, and pick a month, you
can go straight to a day by adding "#yyyymmdd" to the end of the
URL. Each new news story is also tagged with a letter. Here's an
example: My "2003 year in review" was the first thing I wrote on
January 2. So, you could go straight to it by going to
http://news.sweetgoodness.org/archive/200401.html#20040102a ...
See? I am such a dork. An Ounce of Planning really is Worth a Pound
of Links. Pound. #. Get it? Oh, whatever.
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Wednesday, January 7, 2004 / 10:32am
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Providing Enlightenment?
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Web search utilities are awesome. So, in my "reinvention" process,
I discovered that there was a web page that linked to a (now not
existing) web page on the former news.sweetgoodness.org. It was
about the random activities of a TiVo. I feel so special! Anyways,
I moved content around... moved, renamed, edited, deleted pages and
stuff, and I realized the link that he had to my page would no
longer work. So, thanks to crazy cool htaccess redirect action,
I've redirected all traffic to that specific page he linked to to
a new, working location. Go ahead and try it... see how the URL
magically changes to the new place? Here's my place in web history:
http://www.jeffiel.com/tivo.php
... Jeff, whoever you are, you're awesome!
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Thursday, January 8, 2004 / 11:48pm
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Ohio State at Illinois (Men's Basketball)
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Wednesday night marked the start of the Men's Big 10 season as they
cruised to victory (10-2, 1-0) over the visitors from Columbus (8-6,
0-1). But, hours before the game, a stunned campus community found
out that one of its players, #4 Luther Head, was involved in a little
incident. For, apparently, late Tuesday night, he was pulled over
at Green and Busey for rolling through a stop sign, and was subsequently
arrested for driving on a suspended license. No one knew if he was
going to start or not until the lineups were posted on the Assembly
Hall scoreboard just minutes before tip off. It was a very full stadium,
complete with a very tiny portion of OSU fans. One tried to distract
Dee Brown while shooting a free throw early in the first half by yelling
"You can't read!" out into a very quiet UI free throw shooting
environment. He didn't much else to say as the Buckeyes started taking
a beating, losing 85-63- so much so that in the final minutes of play,
the players you never ever see play had some time on the floor, notably
(and my favorite entry into the game) #34 Fred Nkemdi who came in with
less than one minute to play and got a rebound (more rebounds than
minutes). The game also had #25 Jerrance Howard getting more points
than minutes (a three pointer - his only shot attempt, in two minutes).
Cornie, Zach, and I, who coincidentally sat next to Cyril, enjoyed the
game, which lasted forever, thanks to the 55 fouls to go along with the
standard 8 media timeouts.
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Friday, January 9, 2004 / 12:40am
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Kiss Today Goodbye
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Thursday marks my last day of work before I go on a little vacation.
Much to my dismay, I asked Illinois State a little too late if they
needed any more volunteers to help out at the Illinois High School Theatre
Festival. Not needed... eh. Well, anyways, the start of what
could be the last family vacation can't start earlier now, since I'm
sure plans are already made. But, lets not let my not volunteering
there prevent me from taking some time off while I can. So, Friday
I leave Champaign County for a week of non-here-ness, eventually
arriving at home before we all fly to our destination. And, since
all that is happening so soon (me leaving, that is), there was much to
do today in preparing to leave. Besides getting out letters to the
volunteer ushers about what shows they're doing, Kellie and I packed
up the entirity of the Patron Services belongings in the office because
the office will be repainted while I'm gone. And, after it's repainted,
they're taking out all the furniture and "techlining" the place (pretty
much, converting everything into this long contiguous contertop with
workstation spaces spaced out in there somewhere). So, no more really
big desk for me. Apparently, that desk was a piece of original Krannert
furniture, too. At least, when I get back, I can complain about a wall
color (or three) I really don't care about for a day and finally, after
all this time, actually move into a fresh space and make it my (or FOH's)
own.
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Friday, January 9, 2004 / 12:52am
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Ohio State at Illinois (Women's Basketball)
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A great group of eight convened to witness the .500 unranked women's
team take on the 22-ranked Ohio State team in front of a crowd an
order of magnitude less than that which filled the hall the night
before. And, all was well as the Illini steadily increased their
lead to 17 at halftime. And, little by little, the lead dwindled
away, until we all looked up and realized we were only up by 11...
9... 6... Ohio State put the pressure on and made baskets, while
on the Illini side, there was a scare when star #30 Aminata Yanni
took a spill and lay on the floor under the basket while play
continued for another half minute or so on the other end of the
court until an Injury Time Out was called by the officials. Carolyn
yelled at Ohio State when they talked plans while the rest of the
stadium was hoping all was well for Yanni. And, much to my dismay,
the Injury Time Out doubled as the 2nd Half 4:00 Media Time Out,
which meant that the band did not play Outkast's "Hey Ya" as they
had planned causing minimal disappointment. Yanni was helped off
the court and into the North Tunnel while play resumed, coming down
to Illinois being up one with six seconds left and Ohio State taking
the ball. They spent just a bit too much time passing it around,
not getting a shot off and falling 52-51 to the underdog Illini
(7-6, 1-1). Too bad, Ohio State (9-4, 1-1), though your hard work
did not go unnoticed, as Cyril and I kept on referring to Beth Howe,
OSU Junior Guard, as "Stealthy Number 5".
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Friday, January 9, 2004 / 8:33am
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Point Me Toward Tomorrow
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This past week, contrary to what many people may believe, I finally
signed up for an amazon and eBay account. I've also become a member
of the University of Illinois Alumni
Association with a life membership. Things... they're changing,
but in some ways are staying the same! Or something.
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Sunday, January 11, 2004 / 7:38pm
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Won't Regret, Can't Forget
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Friday began my "vacation" away from Champaign County. I was all in a rush
Thursday to take care of everything I needed to take care of, and I did
I think. So, that Friday morning, I hopped onto a bus taking me to
Bloomington, where I had a little lunch, and then walked about two or three
miles East into the main area, and then North past Illinois Weslyan and
all the way up to the North edge of the Illinois State campus, where I
purchased a Theatrefest T-shirt. I continued my stroll back South to the
general home area to their theatre department, where I met up with Kari
and had lunch and hung out for a while. Afterwards, I made my way to the
Amtrak station, where I boarded the last train to Chicago, got off at
Summit, walked a few blocks, and then got on Pace Bus 307 which took me
to Oak Park, where I got on bus 313 which took me to the McDonald's that's
about a mile from my house, where I got dinner and my brother picked me up.
And that was my Friday. Lots of travel. Lots of walking. And, my whole
body started feeling sore... I guess it got used to carrying two really
heavy bags and walking miles the whole day; no PSPS or anything.
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Sunday, January 11, 2004 / 8:28pm
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"That's the Best Move I've Ever Seen"
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Back in the day, like, super way back, I played this game called "Tetris
with an Attitude". I miss that game. It would insult me, trick me, move
pieces around, made them appear and disappear. It was a pretty evil game.
Just bad, bad stuff. Like the Illinois Men's basketball team losing.
Punks. And why didn't St. Louis run one or two more plays with about 25
seconds left instead of settling on running the clock and kicking a field
goal to tie and sending the game into overtime. Stupid teams. They make
me sad.
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Sunday, January 11, 2004 / 8:59pm
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Losing Touch
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Monday morning, my family and I are leaving for our vacation. We'll be
in Cozumel, Mexico. So, if you need me, you can find me there. If you
need anything, email me because if I were to check anything while I'm
gone, that'd be it. And I'm not even planning on it. So, have a great
week! Notes: no official Trivia Tuesday this week; the list will be
decided on Wednesday but obviously won't get posted until I'm online
after that happens. Back in the country Thursday, and back in Urbana
late Friday night.
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Saturday, January 17, 2004 / 6:27pm
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A Million Miles From Ordinary?
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Monday brought an early start to a day of travel. After five hours of
not restful sleep, the family was on its way to O'Hare Airport to check
in for an 8-something flight to Cancun. About four hours later, we
arrive in Mexico, get our passports stamped, and get through customs.
We encountered this red/green traffic light and we figured out that they
wanted one of us to puh a little button, so I did. And then the green
light lit up, and they just waved us through customs. I guess if you're
unlucky, you get a red light and they search through your luggage. But
who knows... We hopped onto a bus that shuttled us about 45 minutes away
to Playa del Carmen, where we found the dock and took a 40 minute-ish
passenger ferry into Mar Caribe (uh, the Caribbean Sea) and arrived at
Cozumel. We took a taxi to our place of residence, the Hotel Melia Paradisus,
on the Northern shore of the island. It was, by far, a supercool
"all inclusive" experience! A buffet for all meals, and multiple open
bar locations proved to make an awesome do-nothing experience. I
especially enjoyed the omelette station and breakfast buffets, along
with the beach-side grill where, throughout a day of lounging on the beach
or sitting by the pool playing cards or doing long overdue holiday cards,
I'd restock myself constantly with juice, cheeseburgers, fries, and ice
cream. Joy oh joy! The rest of the family enjoyed the trip as well.
Since money doesn't have to be carried around for anything, and my dad
felt the need to tip at the bar, it seemed like he got automatic drink
doubles. I'm sure the family plowed their way through all drinks posted
at the bar, if they weren't kayaking or hanging out at Senor Frog's! The
good times ended on Thursday, where I had my only fast food experience
in Mexico (there was no need to find a McDonald's or anything with constant
access to food at the hotel) while waiting at the airport to depart. It
was at the Burger King just past security, and I conducted the entire
transaction in Spanish. "Comida completa numero ocho, por favor." Not
bad for taking two years of high school Spanish and forgetting it all
when I didn't use any of it and also taking a year of Japanese after that.
And, from 80-degree days to 20-degree days. Back to Illinois, I guess...
and back to paying for food and doing... stuff.
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Saturday, January 17, 2004 / 8:55pm
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"the list"
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empty (effective Wednesday, January 14, 2004)
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Saturday, January 17, 2004 / 10:11pm
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Actually Saw a Movie #7 (Cinemax)
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Old School (2003):
It took it back to the old school with some old fools who were so cool.
They knew how to get down, and they showed some young (and old) kids
the way. Whoomp, there it is; I thought you knew. Refreshing and
funny for good old college times, although, in the grand scheme of
things, not so much... but it was fun to watch. What if I said that
there's still hope in life or something, no matter how old you are.
That, and you don't have to be in college to live the college life.
(Don't I know it!) It's not utterly ridiculous, just a nice hour and
a half spent just fine.
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Saturday, January 17, 2004 / 11:32pm
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Won't Forget, Can't Regret
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Just like that last Friday, here's the sequel: Next Friday. A day of
transportation connecting the endpoints of home (Hillside) and home
(Urbana), except in the reverse order of last time. In line with the
Brian scheduling process, an attempt was made to maximize opportunity
potential. So, lunch was had with some friends I hadn't seen in a
while out in the suburbs. Then, I jumped onto a Metra train taking
me almost to Chicago, where I trotted over to take some time out of my
normal everyday life to paint me a Sweet Goodness picture frame at the
Mad Potter Pottery Bar
in Oak Park, before jumping on the Green Line taking me to Union Station.
While painting, I started planning with what I wanted to do in terms of
colors and style, and, for once, I was like "forget planning... it won't
be perfect, but it will be awesome." It felt good; it was a nice change
from the normal everyday "I am concerned about everything and it being
just right"-ness that, um, normally exists. It'll get shipped to me.
Anyways, so I'm hanging out at Union Station, waiting to board a train
that ends up being delayed an hour (which is besides the point, but
anyways) behind this girl (no, not like that. really, now.) who's talking
with some other guys who were waiting for a different delayed train.
They were in high school. It was painfully obvious to everyone that
these two guys must've had a thing for her... apparently they'd walked
by her, like, fifteen billion times before one of them actually got up
the courage to talk to her. It was hillarious to hear about and watch
in the first person, providing a delightful time while waiting. Anyways,
Sara, have fun getting your driver's license. Next random encounter: the
guy that sat next to me on the train, Jeremy. An NIU transfer to
W-Madison, he manages a coffee shop in downtown Chicago with his English
degree. He'll end up as a lawyer, probably, or so he says. But he's a
cool guy. Never talk to strangers? Okay, maybe if you're young. But
meeting cool people is cool. As Ice Cold as watching the Simpsons in
Spanish, except when they break out into song, in which case, it stays
in English. Yeah, I have no point on this one.
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Sunday, January 18, 2004 / 12:08am
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What I Did For Ferris
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Kellie was kind enough to drive me home from the train station, which
was supernice, since it was raining. You know, because I was kind
enough to bring some precipitation back from Cozumel for everyone.
Anyways, aside from the 100+ emails and 8 work voice mails that await
me, oh, and bills, I received my first eBay auction thing - the thing
I signed up on eBay just to bid on: a Ferris soundtrack! And now, my
hopes and dreams have come true. My crazy efforts can now be diverted
to other projects and the like. Hooray!
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Sunday, January 18, 2004 / 12:53am
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I Can See Clearly Now The Crap Is Gone
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Am I inspired or what? I was going through some of the junk I have,
and I found my camera. Not the current one, but the one I had just
before it. Which is exactly the same make and model as the one I use
now. Now, most everyone knows you can't see through my viewfinder
(but it still takes awesome pictures) due to a certain incident in
December 1999 (the "it fell in the ocean, or rather, the ocean fell
on it..."). Well, I was unpacking my stuff just to get some Q-tips
Saturday morning, and, with the old, non-functional camera on my desk,
I thought, "Oh yeah... I can use a Q-tip to clean out the viewfinder
like Kellie said I should, but never did because I was lazy." So I
did. And now you can see more clearly. But still crappy. I noted
that the front part was still dirrrty, but couldn't clean it. Being
the resourceful person that I am, I experimented on the old camera,
prying off the corresponding offending part with an exacto-ish knife
in order to perfect my operating skills, and then repeated the
procedure and cleaned off even more residual whatevers, so, now the
view is so much clearer than before (though still not totally
unobstructed by dust particles and whatever) that you can actually
see people's faces through there now. Hooray! I also worked on making
the panoramic button function again, and I was successful by embedding
a staple in my camera to help it along. Hooray again! So, how's that
for being an inspired dorky engineer? In other news, I've changed the
number of "recent articles" posted from 20 to 25. I've also reordered
some procedural calls so the current archive page is now updated with
new articles as they are posted on the main page (as opposed to the
previous 12 hour delay). (Exception: the first of the month... a month's
archive page shouldn't be created until the second. Whatever.)
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Sunday, January 18, 2004 / 11:07pm
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Iowa at Illinois (Men's Basketball)
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What makes walking many many blocks on a very rainy Saturday morning
after a long vacation worth the journey? Watching Illinois (11-4, 2-2)
win and avoid a third straight loss. The game seemed to last forever,
though not as painfully obvious as the last game I attended. That's
because the game versus Iowa (9-5, 2-2) was pretty close throughout the
entirity of the game. We didn't dominate... play was pretty sloppy, and
it wasn't until the last minute were we secure that victory was to occur.
Maybe this means I need to watch these games, because those two losses?
I was at a party during that first one, and out of the country for the
second. I mean, I didn't know we lost to Northwestern until Mark looked
it up online well after the horrible incident. Hopefully, the won't
need me on Wednesday - the school year's back in swing, and I'm working.
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Sunday, January 18, 2004 / 11:48pm
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Actually Saw a Movie #8 (Disney Channel)
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Pixel Perfect (2004):
What happens if you have a band, and you have no front (wo)man who can
dance? You trust your friend's advice and get someone who can, if you
can find one... and obviously you can't, so your friend is smart and
makes one for you. Three girls, and they can't dance. I can't either,
but that's besides the point. Besides the whole "make a super lifelike
hologram" concept, you must, of course, throw in some teenage love angst
and tension, and there you go: now that's a movie ready to go. Cool
concept, though, so I enjoyed watching it. As far as the flow of it was,
it started out feeling like you were watching some teen sitcom turned
into a TV movie, like "Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style". Except, now
you had the feeling like you were watching an extended "Small Wonder"
episode (remember that crazy robot girl show?) with more heart involved.
There was one bit that was very "Tron"-esque; maybe it was a subtle
homage to it or something. It was quality, but it was quality Disney,
and it was a quality Disney TV movie. So, it was okay.
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Monday, January 19, 2004 / 6:07pm
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Actually Saw a Movie #9 (ABC Family)
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I Want to Marry Ryan Banks (2004):
It really is an oddity that this long-titled movie should be making its
debut just one week before another similarly contrived opens up in the
theaters (Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!). It was just another romantic
comedy that does just fine filling two hours of time. Doesn't seem to
drag, and you really do want to just hang out through the end to see what
happens. Ryan Banks is an actor who is on the right half of the bell
curve of his career, and in an attempt to shift the x-intercept of the
function, he's put on his own romantic reality TV show, where, of course,
there is a case of people liking other people and situations not being
right at the right time. It's a classical plot, as one would see, but
I won't get into the details. But if you loved Brandon Walsh on 90210
(which I didn't), you'll like it. I liked it anyway.
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Wednesday, January 21, 2004 / 1:25am
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"the list"
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empty... too busy to think about it
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Wednesday, January 21, 2004 / 1:32am
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Krannert's Everywhere You Want To Be
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So, early Tuesday evening, I put up a posting on UIUC's Virtual
Job Board to get some people to apply for my handful of positions
available, and, now that it's just after 1:00am, I have about 45
of these things to go through. It's just absolute craziness...
I even set up a little web page that explained some of the
information, and to eliminate some of the back-and-forth emailing
to schedule an interview. Go me! Now, if only I could watch
"Clone High" on TV once again, life would be superawesome. That
was such a funny animated experience. I miss it. I now have
the theme to that on my playlist. Oh, yeah, as of this minute,
I do not have an official office space. They were still working
on installing the new desks, so obviously there's no computer
for me to work from in there. I'll live, I guess.
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Wednesday, January 28, 2004 / 11:52pm
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"the list"
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empty... still just outright too busy
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Wednesday, January 28, 2004 / 11:59pm
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Sign of the Times
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Today wrapped up the interview portion of hiring new people to work for
me. All in all, with a listing on the virtual job board that was up there
for, like, three hours shy of three days, there was a super big response.
It was on the order of 142 for a total of, about 7-8 spots or something.
It was madness. Things have been extremely busy, and, while I just might
say that once in a while, that really is the case! With the moving back
into the office, unpacking, starting up with performances right away, and
almost non-stop interviewing for the last week, I've been so drained to
do anything else. Want to know the true sign of how bad it is? It's
still officially Saturday, January 17. Yeah. Well, the whole hiring
thing will be done soon enough. Later, yo.
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Thursday, January 29, 2004 / 12:11am
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Gauntlet to Inferno
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This is just a quick note that you should try to win a car from MTV
in their Fantasy Challenge on mtv.com. Head over there (or to the
features page), join the league (Punk Freakin Madness, password:
whataver) and fun times will be had. mtv.com account, required, though.
Oh, and I didn't win a car last time. But who knows... this time?
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Saturday, January 31, 2004 / 1:37am
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Placate Those Engineering Masses
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So I was reading former engineer
Engy's
livejournal and she'd taken an online quiz that told her what
irrational number she was. While I usually don't bother doing things
like that, I thought, well, why not? (I'd seen this one done by others
as well, so you can't take full credit, Engy!)
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What Irrational Number Are You?
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You are √2
You are in good company, many other square roots are also irrational numbers. Just by being a square root you have been branded a radical. You are considered very attractive, especially by Europeans (at least on paper.) You fear that a relationship with another √2 may somehow end up complex and ultimately imaginary. In reality, only another √2 will make you whole. Your lucky number is approximately 1.41421356 |
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