posted 2004/04/29 at 18:39
I'm up in the Spectrum office now. In a little over an hour I'll be running my last meeting as President, and even though I'll still be President through 05.07, it still feels like tonight's the big night. I'm feeling very odd right now, and I wish I could explain it better but that would involve telling you the big story from earlier in the month that I've never gotten around to writing about. (I'll write about it soon, though.) Wish me luck, everyone; I know the new officers are going to do a tremendous job next year, but I'm not so sure I can get through tonight without having a breakdown.
posted 2004/04/28 at 23:46
Since I've got a cable modem at home now, I went out and bought Norton Personal Firewall 2004 to help keep me secure. It's got pop-up blocker and ad-blocker functionality as well, and I have to say that I almost don't like the ad blocker because it's screwing up the page rendering of so many pages. Strange that.
posted 2004/04/27 at 23:51
It was seventy degrees over the weekend. It'll be seventy degrees tomorrow. It was sleeting earlier today. Gotta love Toledo weather. Good thing I'm getting out of here ... oh wait, that's right, I'm not.
Things keep getting crazier and crazier here. I'm into the end-of-semester push here (hence the lack of updates), and let's just say I may still be working on stuff after graduation a week from Saturday. On top of that, Thursday is my last Spectrum meeting as President, and I'm getting a bit worked up about that. So yeah.
I'll have more to say about Iron Chef America in a bit here ... but let's just say I'll be saying it someplace other than here.
posted 2004/04/23 at 22:12
Okay, it's official: Iron Chef America fucking sucks. A step up from Iron Chef USA, yes, but that's not saying anything. I could write a boatload of reasons why, but I've got other things to concern myself with for now.
posted 2004/04/21 at 23:32
The college decision is made.
Or rather, it was made for me. It's not finalized yet, but I've been offered a research assistantship at UT. Not only will it offer a full tuition waiver, it will also give me a $4,100 per semester stipend. Yeah, that kind of tipped the scales.
Still, the decision was not easy; I've been crying for a good portion of the night, and it's hard for me to put my creative writing studies on hold, but as I've gone through this semester and worked on my Honours Thesis (which I've had to ask for an extension on because it got away from me), I've come to realize that the academic creative writing world may not be right for me. Hopefully over the next two years I'll be able to focus more on my own writing and not worry about the stuff I've had to deal with in my classes.
That's a rant for another time, though. Right now I just want to collapse in a heap and shut my brain off.
posted 2004/04/19 at 18:38
I just did some research on the whole Antioch LA thing. If I go there, then the cost of airfare, hotel and rental car for my first residency there this June will come to about $1300. And that's not counting food money, or time to go visit with people I know out there. (Although with Ariel back in Seattle, that really only leaves Bonnie, and I'm not sure she'd have the time to babysit me.) Antioch is really pressing me for a decision here, so I've told UT and BG to give me their best offers ASAP so I can make some sort of final decision. (By the way, I most certainly do not need this stress when my Honours Thesis is due in four days, thank you very much.)
Unfortunately my computer doesn't want to play with my digital camera right now, but when it does you will all have photo proof of today's big accomplishment: my first AAA (100% perfect game) in DDR. If you're interested, it was on "Jam & Marmalade" in Light mode. Not much, but a definite milestone.
posted 2004/04/18 at 23:29
85 degrees today, and the folks won't turn on the air conditioning. I kind of get the feeling they're doing this deliberately to make sure I don't play DDR. But between the oppressive heat and the headache, I haven't worked on my Honours Thesis either, and I am probably going to be in such deep shit with that it won't be funny in the slightest.
Oh, and courtesy "The Heartbreak Kid" Joe Petrow: Auto-Sean. I don't know if I should be honoured or insulted. Given he's using my own words for this thing, though, I suppose I have no one to blame but myself for it.
posted 2004/04/17 at 23:30
Geez, where did the time go? Quick update on the past few days here and what's to come:
Four out of the last six days I didn't get more than five hours of sleep a night, and more often it was three hours or so. That, combined with the unseasonable heat (we hit 80 today) and the stress I've been under, I'm incredibly tired and suffering from some killer headaches.
Yesterday I went down to the statewide conference being held by Vision, BGSU's GLBT group, and did my bondage safety presentation down there. Let's just say it didn't go well and leave it at that. Afterwards I went to their dance, but with as tired as I was and with my headache kicking up, I had to leave early.Next Friday I have my Honours Thesis due. The week after that I have my final writing portfolio due, then the week after that is finals week. So yeah, updates may be pretty spare here for a while longer.
Oh, and Antioch LA just e-mailed me to say I've been accepted there. Still no word from BGSU, and while I know UT's accepted me, I don't know if they're going to give me a TA position or not. So yeah, I'm finally in somewhere for creative writing, but I need to think through what I need to do. As if I don't have enough on my plate already.
posted 2004/04/13 at 16:48
Quick tour around the sports horn here:
- I said it last June, and I'll say it again: the Wings will win the Cup this year. Especially with the possibility of a long lockout next year, I think we're seeing the last of Yzerman and Hull, and possibly more. Thankfully the Wings have enough strong young players and a healthy farm system that while I don't think they'll be as dominant in the next ten years as they've been in the past ten, they'll still be in the upper echelon of teams.
- I hope the Pistons go far in the playoffs, but from what little I've followed them this year it seems like they're a one-trick pony (with their strong D), and since Joisey's been able to figure out the Pistons' D over the past few years, I think the Pistons will go down to the Nets in the second round.
- As I've always said, the draft is always my favourite thing about the NFL, so I'll have that to look forward to here. The way things are shaping up now, though, it looks like the Bengals are going to have another season around .500 while they adjust to all the changes coming up, so I'm trying to look forward to the 2005 season and not focus too much on the upcoming year.
- And please, no one remind the Detroit Tigers that they're the Detroit Tigers and they shouldn't be at the top of the standings right now. I know this honeymoon won't last too long, so I'm trying to enjoy it while it does last.
posted 2004/04/11 at 22:56
Okay, so why didn't anyone tell me that Food Network had moved Iron Chef to Saturdays only? Still, I arranged my schedule to watch both episodes that night, and that felt good. Real good. Still, I wish they'd chosen other episodes for my first episodes back because -- and I know most of you still remember this old refrain -- Sean hates live ingredients.
In other news, I had cable modem access here for a little while today, but now it seems to be on the fritz. We're still having some reception problems here, so they're going to come and install an amplifier on the signal tomorrow morning, so hopefully that will fix whatever the problem was. At least I can get the Music Choice stations again, which is cool because the classical and new age stations provide a good backdrop for doing homework, which I desperately need to do at this point. (Less than a month before I graduate now.)
And just a note to myself here: do not go shave your legs after doing two hours of DDR. Your legs really don't want to get down in the tub after all that exertion.
posted 2004/04/09 at 21:55
In a few minutes here I'll finally be able to watch a new Iron Chef for the first time in nearly three years. I'm excited.
And I'll write about recent events sometime this weekend, I hope; it's definitely worthy of its own .journal entry by this point.
posted 2004/04/07 at 17:20
Antioch University Los Angeles: Waiting List
So basically I didn't get in on the first round, but if enough people drop out, I may yet get in. Wish me luck; AULA was always my first choice in my heart, but the lack of TA opportunities there made me hope I could get a full-ride someplace else, plus exigent circumstances forced me to put another school, which I've already been rejected from, at the top of my list.
Oh, and I did get accepted to UT's MA in Lit programme, but of course that's still a back-up plan for me. And I haven't heard if I'll get a TA here or not; if I don't, then I may not want to go here even if I am accepted, just because I don't want to take out any more student loans.
posted 2004/04/05 at 20:33
I'll write about last week when I get the time, things have been kind of crazier than usual here, and somehow I managed to sleep through almost all of yesterday. Guess my body was trying to tell me something; I just hope I've given it what it wants.
While I was out earlier today, I saw a couple of guys at a street corner. Real nice looking guys; clean-shaven, dressed in new dress shirts and Dockers, nothing too remarkable. Except that both of them were holding up cardboard signs reading, "Will advertise for you for food." I'm not sure if this was a prank or what, but if it wasn't, just fill in my usual anti-Dubya discussion here.
In other news, I finally have cable again. Since I know I'm going to be here in town for a couple of more years, I figured I might as well get something to watch on my TV again. Unfortunately my father and I are having trouble installing the cable modem, and to top everything off we're not getting the extra channels I ordered right now, so I'm still not able to watch Emeril Live right now. Hopefully that will change by Wednesday night, since Tuesday night I'll be busy with Spectrum stuff.
posted 2004/04/02 at 01:20
I'm going to have to write about tonight's happenings another time. It's easily enough to fill a Backwash column. Maybe even enough for a .journal entry. But just ... whoa.
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