So, it’s been a super long time….and nothing has changed with this site (hosting, etc.), but it’s just been way too long, so I figured I should write about, I don’t know, something…if anyone still wants to read about it 
So anyway, I should be doing some homework right now, but I was inspired to write because of the amazingness that happened last night. I had never been to the City Museum in St. Louis, but I want everyone to know that it is definitely awesome. It’s kind of hard to describe what it is…it’s like a playground/jungle gym kind of thing more geared toward adults. Lots of crawling in tight spaces, 3-story long slides, and being up in incredibly high places. Just an example, this is something you can climb up if you don’t feel like taking the stairs to the top floor It’s just hard to describe how great this place is, but I think everyone should visit if they can. Alright, homework time..
So, many may have noticed that confabuler has been acting up a lot lately, and this has been a major factor in the lack of posts (at least by me — whenever I’ve tried to post, I can’t even login or the page won’t load, etc.). Well, soon enough, most likely after thanksgiving break, we’ll be hosting confabuler on our own server, so the issues should be resolved. After that’s fixed, there should be more consistent posting again
So, mostly my days have consisted of homework, and I don’t think this is going to change in the near future. I already had a full schedule, and I just started physics to add to the fun….oh well. Since this is mostly what I’ve been doing, I’ve had to find some good homework music to listen to.
I’ve been listening to Arcade Fire a lot, and I’ve really come to like them. Jordy introduced me to them this past summer, and to be honest, I wasn’t super impressed. However, after a few more listens, I started to like them, and now I can’t get enough. I’ve also listened to the new Radiohead album, which I think is very good. I’ve always enjoyed listening to Radiohead for homework or studying, and I’ve really liked listening to this one, also.
On a break from homework recently, I watched the movie Raising Arizona. I, personally, thought it was great. I’d been told it was good, and since it’s a Coen bros movie, I figured I couldn’t go wrong. It was hilarious.
Also, I take a couple hours a few days of the week to watch some quality tv. Mondays, I watch Chuck, Heroes, and How I Met Your Mother. On Tuesdays it’s House and Boston Legal. Then Thursdays, it’s The Office and Scrubs…although I need to catch up on 30 Rock so I can watch that, too.
Chuck - this show is a pleasant surprise since it’s by the same guy who did the OC (sorry if that offends anyone, but I’m just not fond of the show…)
Heroes - Jared and his friends suggest I start watching this one, and I have to say, it’s been pretty addictive. The season finale last season was pretty weak, but other than that, I’m pretty happy with it.
How I Met Your Mother - has given me more of the same from the past seasons, and I’m completely fine with that since it’s great
House - has improved drastically since the end of last season. It’s back to what it started off with in the first season, and I hope they can continue it at the same level.
Boston Legal - I’ve only been able to watch like one episode this season, but it was good. It has gotten considerably sillier as the seasons have progressed, but I still think it’s quite good.
The Office - I think this is probably the funniest show I watch on tv right now. It seems to make me actually laugh out loud every 10 seconds. The writing/acting is so well done, and I love the plot for this season so far.
Scrubs - well, the first episode was just last week, so I’ve only seen one episode. While the “funny” was there, I wasn’t very happy with what they’re doing for the storyline…so, hopefully they can change my mind.
PuzzleCrack 2k7 is underway! It’s been an exciting time especially considering it is the first year that we, the Big Enchilada, have run it. We’ve had a lot of people working on the puzzles, which is great to see. However little sleep we got the past two years working on the puzzles, I think running it has drained us even more. We can’t just finish a puzzle and be done for the day…no, we’re up until 3 or 4 (sometimes later) still helping people along (and finishing up other puzzles…wups). So, anyway, check out the puzzles at puzzlecrack.org and have fun!
So…I think it’s just that time of year that most people are pretty busy, and I’m definitely one of them. I was almost happy that I had two tests this week because that meant I wouldn’t have as much homework. As of right now, one test down, and one to go for this week. Then, I have another the following week…after that, PuzzleCrack 2007 starts!
For those of you who don’t know, which you should…, I am a member of the team that is creating PuzzleCrack 2007. Woo hoo! It’s one of those things that if you’ve never run and planned something like this before…wow, there are a lot of details to work out to make everything happen. We’re slowly making progress, and I’m confident it will be a great year for PuzzleCrack.
And that’s basically my schedule these days: work on homework, work for a class here at school, work on puzzleCrack if I have time, eat, and sleep if there’s enough time for that (usually not too much of that going on these days). Ah, well, that’s college, right?
Note: one of these days, I will seriously get some pictures up…
So….it’s been a long time. Since my last post, I’ve moved into my apartment at school, school has started, and I’ve actually already had some very long, annoying homework. After having lived in a really nice apartment for the summer, it was a little bit of a downgrade to move into a campus apartment. You see, our apartment building has only been around for 4 years, but it looks more like 20 years with the damage it has undergone. Now, don’t get me wrong, with a massive amount of cleaning and some new paint on the walls, this place is great, and I have really enjoyed living here so far. Also, I want to point out, that our apartment building is MUCH nicer than most on this campus, so I’m quite happy. By the way, when I’m saying “our,” I’m referring to my roommates, Jordy, Derrick, and Matt.
Now, there were some problems in the apartment when we moved in, namely:
1. one of our balconies’ roofs was sagging and partly coming off due to the drain above getting disconnected
2. derrick turned the oven on to see if it worked, and it seemed to not be able to turn off after that…
3. the dryer appeared to run with an extremely high screeching noise
4. two outlets in the kitchen didn’t work
5. the floor was just plain old filthy
however,
the balcony roof is in the middle of being fixed, the oven no longer stays on, the dryer doesn’t make the scary noise anymore, the two outlets have been fixed, and with a lot of hard work, we cleaned the floors quite well.
So, now we’ve cleaned and decorated to make for a pretty nice apartment, including a couch in the dining room to serve as a booth for the dining room table
stay tuned! pictures to come soon
So, since I’m done with my internship in Colorado, I’m staying in Seattle for a week. Time just flies by when you’re having fun . We went to a small barbeque at Jordy’s manager’s house my first night here. His house was really nice, but the best part was the amazing backyard he had. Basically, his backyard was a huge mountain known as Mt. Si. I’m not joking; you walk like maybe a quarter mile and you’re at the mountain. Needless to say, it was very pretty.
My second day here was mostly spent driving to and from Canada. So, going into Canada was very welcoming, but leaving Canada was not. I mean, c’mon, I have a US passport/I’m a citizen…there’s no need to be rude and play 50 questions with us as to why we were in Canada and why we’re coming back. It ended up taking about twice the time to get back into the US as it did to get into Canada. That same day we went to go see Bourne Ultimatum. I really enjoyed it. I can’t say it was my favorite, but that’s mostly because I can never decide between the parts of a series like that. Anyway, I thought it was good, so that’s all that matters.
Other days have been spent going out to eat and shopping. I haven’t really bought much shopping, but I might get some new shoes today. Also, there are so many restaurants to eat at around here that it’s pretty fun trying out something new every day.
We went to see the Simpsons movie last night at a huge movie theater. The theater looks pretty crappy on the outside and only has one screen. However, it was pretty nice in the inside, and the one screen was gigantic. I also thought the Simpsons movie was quite good and funny. It gave me exactly what I expected, so I was satisfied.
I’ve also decided that I seem to attract the hassling of homeless people. Seriously, I cannot stand near a bus stop without having like 5 people come over and hassle me. I do everything to try avoid it, but nothing seems to really work. I think I just look too friendly or something 
. I don’t know, it’s beyond me. I mean, I have headphones on, and I’m not looking anyone in the eye, but they seem to seek me out. Today I had a yeller/spitter approach me, which was quite unpleasant. I can say I won’t miss that one bit once we leave, and if anyone has some suggestions to avoid this, please…let me know.
Well, now that I’ve described the new phone a bit, I figured it was time to show some pictures of where I’ve been living (since now I have a camera that can do such things). I’ll start off the pictures with the apartment, and hopefully I’ll get some pictures up of the area that I work (my cube, the building, etc.).
So here’s the kitchen, pretty basic, but still pretty nice.
The dining area is right next to the kitchen, to the right. I don’t think we use it that often, but it’s there in case we ever feel like it, I guess.
Next is the living room. That’s one of my roommates sitting on the couch. Again, it’s not my style, but it’s still pretty nice for temporary living.
My room is reached by walking past the kitchen and dining area. That’s my bed right there…what was that? Doesn’t look very comfortable? Well, that’s because it’s not, hehe.
We have two bathrooms, but the one I use is reached from inside the bedroom. It’s a pretty big, nice bathroom. That’s right, that’s me in the mirror 
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My closet is probably the best thing here. It’s just huge compared to anything I’m used to. You might be thinking that it doesn’t look like I have a lot of clothes hung up, and that would be because I’ve already packed most of them in that suitcase on the ground. It was an amazing feat, how much I got in there.
There’s the utility room that leads to the garage.
This is the way to the other bedroom, and the other bathroom is the door to the left.
So that’s the apartment I’ve been living in for a little over 2 months. More pictures coming soon!
Alright, so, I’ve had this phone since last Friday, but I guess I was just too excited to even write about it. The phone is a Sony Ericsson W810i, and it’s really nice from what I can tell. Keep in mind, the last phone I had was my first cell phone, and so at that time, anything was good. Since I had had it for 2 years, I started wanting a little more out of a phone. Well, this phone is great for me. It’s got a very nice camera, mp3 player, it’s quite small, looks nice, easy internet access and all that jazz. I’m not even used to being able to make my own ringtones, so this was a nice change (now almost everyone in my phone has their own special tone ). I mean, look at this sweetness:
Well, it’s my last week here in Colorado, and I’m very excited to be done. Overall, the internship has given me some very valuable experience, so I’m glad I did it. This week is going to be weird though…mainly because I don’t know how much work I’ll really be doing. I have a presentation to give on Friday (my last day), but other than that, I don’t think anyone really wants to give me work that I won’t be able to finish before I leave. Actually, I’m at work right now. I got bored of my reading, so I decided I’d write a little update.
I wrote earlier that I had finished Harry Potter, which was great to have at work when I was bored, and now I’m reading a biography on J. Robert Oppenheimer. I know to some of you this may seem completely boring in itself, and I have to admit, I was a little worried that it wouldn’t occupy my time that well, but overall, it’s been pretty interesting. Although, it’s really baffled me that someone could love physics that much. I mean, c’mon, this is physics we’re talking about here…
I’ve also occupied some of my time thinking about PuzzleCrack 2007 that the Big Enchilada will be running. I think it could really turn out well, so I would suggest when it begins (in October, I believe) to check it out. Don’t worry, I’ll keep the updates flowing on that.
Lastly, the way I’ve occupied my nights and weekends has been to watch Arrested Development and House, both, as I’ve said before, quality television. Every time I watch Arrested Development, I catch some new joke or comment that I never noticed before, and that’s pretty good, considering I’ve probably seen the seasons like 3 times each. I think it just shows that there was some very intelligent and thoughtful writing going on for that show. As for House, I just like it. Granted, not everything about it (stupid plotlines that make you say ‘oh no! House is getting into real trouble this time!’), but other than those moments, I just think it’s really good..and a good time waster since each episode is about 45 minutes on dvd.
