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[ news @ sweetgoodness ] Archives - May 2006 // comments for your readability

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Friday, May 5, 2006 / 2:24pm

Someone Stopped Writing

Tell me something I didn't know. I know I haven't written in this magical online creation of mine. History should tell us that April is traditionally one of the busier months of Brian life. At the Museum, just under half of all the events I had since starting work in September took place in April! I know you're looking for that bright, little update of what's going on... and maybe I'll write it sometime. In the interim, I'll briefly state that I did not use my Ashlee Simpson tickets... I gave them to a friend in exchange for a CD. I also did not use my Yo-Yo Ma tickets. I ended up having to work that night, which I kinda saw coming... and I really didn't mind, since I knew so many other people that would have enjoyed it more than I would have (and did). This morning, I won the opportunity to throw the first pitch at tomorrow's Illinois softball game against Northwestern (which is a night game at 6pm, following the world's largest softball tailgate iii). And finally, I, as in the Brian Office of Managing Event Scheduling (BOMES) is planning a group trip to see Wicked on Friday, June 16. If you are interested in that, or doing anything else at all this summer (like, see a baseball game in Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, or go to Six Flags, or anything else), let me know. I like to do things. And I plan. My summer is already looking messy (as in full) of random galavants back and forth between Champaignurbanaland and Chicagoland. So, uh, yeah, email or call me. (P.S. The Wicked official BOMES deadline is Sunday afternoon.)

Friday, May 5, 2006 / 2:54pm

"the list"

four as of the 26th

Sunday, May 7, 2006 / 5:38pm

But I've Never Thrown Underhand Before!

It was all one big blur. Friday night, after dinner, I was warming my right arm up. I haven't thrown a ball in forever. Really, I just had to go out and throw a ball. Saturday, I dressed up in an orange Polo-ish shirt with a Block I logo and khakis. I even broke out the non-brown shoes! With a Sweet Goodness button on my collar (unpopped) and the orange/blue jester hat I got in New Orleans back when I was there on the Sugar Bowl road trip, I made my way to the softball field. I'd been to games before; I've been in the public eye before. I don't think I've ever been the sole focal point before, ever, in front of all those people. (Sure, graduation, but everyone had to do the same thing. I know I was really nervous before the welcome address I game at 8th grade graduation and that one solo I had in Concert Choir my sophomore year in high school.) Anyways, I had to find the Sports Information Director. He introduced me to Sarah, the radio station DJ. (Actually, we already knew each other- I've won tons of stuff from that radio station. When I won the call-in contest for this Friday morning, after I said my name was Brian, she asked what my last name was. I told her, and she responded, "I thought it was you!") I was walked to the side of the dugout and waited about ten minutes for the festivities to begin. While the lineups were announced, I asked, "do I have to throw underhanded?" Matt, the guy taking me around, said, "well, it'd be nice." I responded with "well, I've never thrown underhand before. I guess it'll be high and outside." I was assured that I couldn't screw it up. After the line-ups were read, I was on the field, just beyond the third base, next to the dugout, where I was given a softball. The national anthem started playing and I tried moving my arm in the underhanded-throw motion. I had split second visions of that scene in Rookie of the Year where the kid was told "just float it." Anyways, right after the anthem ended, I made my way to the mound, walking through the softball team, lined up along the third base line. I was announced, did a little stretch, and gave a wide, high, underhanded toss to the plate. I looked at the crowd, did the "whatever" shoulder shrug with my arms out and off to my sides, then held up a "number one" with my right hand, before running off the field and making the Dee Brown front-of-shirt tug. I was greeted by fives by the softball team and the softball coach shook my hand and thanked me. I really don't remember anything else. I didn't really register the crowd or get their response. It just sorta happened. But it was fun. Hopefully, there are pictures somewhere. Following the first pitch was another first pitch by someone who donated a bunch of money to get the softball stadium completed. (Well, clearly, it's there, but more work could be done to it... like getting a real box office and press box instead of little huts that do the job.) Anyways, that's what happened. And the team lost. And so continues the life less ordinary of Brian and his minor celebrity status.

Monday, May 8, 2006 / 6:06pm

The Word on the Street is Wrong

Friday afternoon at the Museum, I got mail! Why, yes, real world mail... with stamps and everything! It was a letter. The basic text of the letter said it was a pleasure to have met me... and my girlfriend... on unrandom night last month, and I was invited to use enclosed gift certificates at their places of business. First and foremost, I suppose I should clarify that there is no girlfriend, but most of you in the reading world would already know that. Secondly, this whole thing's pretty cool. I use my network of connections, groups, whatever, get some tickets to a concert, then run into random strangers following the concert. Random male stranger says "hey, what are you wearing?" I respond with "a [local unrandom dining establishment] T-shirt." RMS: "hey, [random female stranger], look! hi, i'm [random male stranger's name]. I own [local unrandom dining establishment]." So, RMS and RFS ask me how long I've been going to LUDE and I answer; we trade business cards, and we go our merry ways. I thought that was a bizarre and cool experience... and now, a few weeks later... free food! Oh, Brian life. It's the greatest.

Tuesday, May 9, 2006 / 12:40am

Technomological Mumbo Jumbo

Way back in the day, and by back in the day, I mean last February, and by last February, I mean February 2005, I was in the middle of devising a way for me to get a hostname to point to a specific dynamic IP address. Yeah, I said it: a dynamic IP address. I didn't want to have to install some random third party software, and I didn't want to have to pay to do it. Anyways, I developed a wacky system of using scheduled tasks to access web pages, and from the logs generated, I'd check IP addresses to see if any of them changed, and if so, I'd autoupdate the DNS. As a whole, this magically insane process worked for over a year with one mishap: the secret URLs I needed to access also became dynamic. I quickly modified the script to do random, bizarre things to somehow parse the appropriate URLs out of the mess instead of hard-encoding it. Well, another flaw in the system just recently caused major headache when computers were not reporting their hostnames. Well, whatever it was, it should be fixed now. I know. This means nothing to almost all of you, but if you're interested in what I did or how I did it, let me know. And just so we can all talk about something today... I saw Akeelah and the Bee Sunday afternoon with Suzi. I was bored, and it turns out that she wanted to see it, too. Let me tell you... quite delightful. I enjoyed it and would possibly buy it on DVD. It makes you feel good in that "underdog" sports movie sort of way. It's relatively family-friendly as well, and it made me wish I knew how to spell. Actually, I don't do so bad for myself in terms of spelling. I wonder how well the kids of the late 1980's will spell, having had the use of computers and spell check. I'm of that borderline era, where I can still claim that my freshman (in high school) papers were either typewritten or hand written. (Ha... when I would lay out the middle school newspaper, we had dot-matrix printed out articles that we taped to graph paper, then sent those to the printer!) So, yeah, decent movie. It's May... there are going to be other movies I want to see. (There will also be a lot of people I'll need to say goodbye to, too. This is one of the reasons I'm not a fan of May. I've been in this town for ten years, which means this will be the tenth set of college farewells I'll experience... and that doesn't count all those December people.)

Wednesday, May 10, 2006 / 2:38am

It's For You, Not Them

Well, of course, I'm talking about six feet of bubble gum. More generally, I refer to what people do... what you do. Do it for you and not for anyone else. Yeah, kids, it's May- my second least favoritist month of the year. It's the homestretch of finals week, and, in a few days time, some of you will be leaving the fine campus of Champaignurbanaland. What could even be true is that I've already seen you... for the last time... ever. (Clearly, that can change, and let's hope that efforts are kept to see that it does.) I very much am not a fan of goodbyes. And, it's true... no matter how much I'll try, there will be someone I just won't ever see again. The end of the school year is a brutal reminder that things are always changing. Sure, it happens all throughout life. What's wild is that school seems to have a kind of way of (for the most part), squeezing the changes into a few key days in any given year. I can't stop but think about everyone that's moved on and has been a part of my life. I wonder what everyone's up to and how everyone's doing. That even goes for the random people I've met, and those even more distant. I'm always reminded of the songs we (Chamber Choir at the high school) had to sing at graduation like "Honor and Glory" and "You Are The New Day". These crazy days are just like what yearbook girl said in Can't Hardly Wait: "These are memories frozen in time, people!" So, let this be my official annual May entry where I get all sad and wish that [sung:] until we meet again, may god... may god... may god hold you in the palm of his hand. That goes for all of you. And next time I see you, I'm sure I'll still be my reported height of five feet, six inches. Not six feet or 5'7". At least that's what I'll continue to believe until proven otherwise. Oh, and in not sad news, the Brian Office of Managing Event Scheduling (BOMES), with Julie, are awaiting processing a contract for a group sale of 23 tickets to go see Wicked. How wild is that? I knew I was a planner, but this may very well be one of the largest events I've helped do (in a non-professional sense)! There is a slim chance the someone may drop out and/or there will be an extra ticket. So, if you're interested if something like that happens, make sure I know. Also, someone believes I'm 5'7", or, at least 5'7". Clearly, I disagree, and now I vow to avoid getting measured until directly called upon by a certain height disputer to settle said disagreement. (An exception will be made for reasonable circumstances, like if I'm arrested or something or buy new clothes to ensure a proper fit... both of which are extremely unlikely before this gets settled.) Well, glad that's unsettled. Just like the rest of life. Go out there, have fun. Eat, sleep, and be happy, and do it for you. Not because your parents or anyone else told you to. (Way to pull off the full-circle!)

Wednesday, May 10, 2006 / 2:46am

"the list"

hmmm, null

Thursday, May 11, 2006 / 11:57pm

Well, Clearly, That's Brian

For the second time ever, I have been unceremoniously unfriended on Facebook. It happened a few days ago. I'm not going to go into the details of who it was, since it's really not relavant. I'm just saying... of course I know it happened. I notice things. I'm not particularly sad or upset that it happened, and, no, there was nothing bad that happened or sparked it. I presume it was a cleaning up of "friends" on unrandom person's part, and even I know that I haven't really had a real conversation with unrandom person in forever. And speaking of unrandom, I just realized that it's another unrandom person's birthday today. I think I'm going to email unrandom person ii a quick birthday greeting, even though we haven't spoken with/to each other in over two years. In other Brian activity, today I had the great pleasure of conducting another round of interviews for random undergraduate students to work for me. The interviews were loads of fun... for me... and maybe not so much for the flipside. I've gotten better at making sure they run on schedule, which was almost a problem last semester when I added two additional rounds to the "Brian interview". Apparently, my interviews are legendary, dating back to when I started conducting interviews back in January 2003. I'd describe what happens in greater detail, but I don't want any brilliant, potential interview candidates to get any ideas... so if you really want to know, ask me in person. Continuing in the "oh so Brian" seemingly official theme of the day, I've traveled to the fine home of Hillside and general Chicagoland for about 40 hours. I will be heading downtown tomorrow morning to sign a contract and pay for the super order of Wicked tickets to see Wicked, immediately followed with an afternoon in the bleachers of Wrigley Field. Good times. I'll be returning to the county Champaign Saturday evening, so I can catch the tail end of commencement activity and squeeze in any finalities I can get. So, folks, if you see a Sweet Goodness cap, or, I guess, technically, an "SG Hair Concealer 2K6", try to record it and let me know I'm a minor celebrity. Oh wait.

Friday, May 12, 2006 / 11:06pm

Facing Nitorgen, Hydrogen, Oxygen...

My goodness, it was a pretty crappy day in Chicago. I was up and about a little earlier than normal, as I had to stop by downtown to pay for the Wicked Wicked tickets before going to the Cubs game. (You know, I just might start saying Wicked Wicked all the time.) I eventually arrived at the place of business around 8:40, before business was having business. I decided to walk around for a little bit before coming back just after nine. Whilst walking about, I saw the Chicago Theatre in front of me and remembered that Conan O'Brien was filming his show in Chicago this week! I'd tried to get tickets last month when it was announced, but, alas, no such luck. I stopped by there to find out what the standby ticket policy was, if any. A standby line had, in fact, formed... but what did it matter? I had tickets to the Cubs game at 1:20, and it wouldn't be over until after the 4:00 "Late Night" show started... or would it. The elements were not too kind to the city last night. Last night's White Sox game was cancelled and the Cubs game was questionable. By then, it was almost nine, so I returned to place of business and paid for the Wicked Wicked tickets. Now it's 9:30, and I don't have to be at Wrigley until 11:20 so I can get into the bleachers if a game were to take place. In the off chance that the game gets cancelled, I decide to grab a quick breakfast and stand in the standby line. The line stretched around the corner of a block and I ended up being somewhere around 230 or 240 in line. (Clearly, it's natural for me to either count and/or estimate sizes of lines and crowds. Ha!) Randomly, starting at 10, the line would move up as standby tickets were being released. I hadn't gotten a ticket by the time 11:00 came around, and after calling the Cubs every fifteen minutes, the game had not been cancelled, so I sadly left my place in line to, yes, stay outside in the mist/wind/rain/frozen water for even more hours. The Cubs game went on as scheduled without any delays. Halfway through the game, my scorecard was so wet I couldn't write on it anymore, so I gave up... which I guess could not have happened at a better time, because the Cubs pretty much lost it around then, too. After hanging out in Wrigleyville for a few hours, I made my way home. For the day, aside from all the time outside, I took six different buses/trains in my travels. And, wow, I'm tired. And I made some friends in the standby line. And, no, we're not facebook or friendster or myspace friends now. Yeah, that's pretty random. Here's another random thing: yesterday, I renewed my rights to one of my domain names... specifically the one about random info. If you don't know what it is, ask me for it. Also, today, I just discovered that the Metra UP-West line now goes past Geneva, through La Fox, and ends in Elburn. I knew it was planned, but when did that happen? I just might have to take a random trip to out there and back during one of my many expected visits to Chicagoland this summer.