The End for Now

So yeahhh. I don't think I'm gonna really be posting to the ol' bloggie anymore. Not that I have been, anyway, but now if you asked me, I'm not going to say "yeah, I have a blog."

...at least for the time being...

This originally started as a way for people who care about me who live far way (and who I don't talk to very often) to keep tabs on what's going on in my life. I'd say at this moment in time, I keep in touch pretty regularly with the people I want to. There are definitely certain people who live far away (and even some who live relatively close) that I wish I spoke to much more often, but I feel like those aren't the people reading this anyway. I really need to be calling these particular people on the telephone. But that's neither here nor there.

I had the idea to sort of adapt this thing into a daily/weekly running commentary on current events or things that I found worth sharing with everyone. I can't lie, however, that just didn't happen. If I ever do get the bright idea to post a running mental narrative on the internets, I will probably start over from scratch with a new web address.

Besides all that, there's really not enough exciting shit going on in my life that would make for interesting reading... or perhaps I'm just not a good enough writer to make it seem worth your time. I could juice things up by sharing all sorts of innermost thoughts, but that's not my style, and doesn't strike me as a psychologically healthy thing for me to do (not to say it doesn't work well for other people).

So this is my formal [indefinite] resignation from the blogging community. I might be back if I (or everyone I know) moves far away, or if I decide to change up subject matter/format entirely, but until one of those things happens, there is no reason for me to be doing this anymore. Any objections to my decision can be left in the comments section.

Thanks for reading.
BYE!

Sometimes I Suck at This

Well, I had all these plans to put out this huge post about my fun trip to Burlington, VT, since it was the only variety occurring in my life after a dry spell of routine-induced monotony. As so much time has past it almost seems sorta dumb at this point. It's just not news anymore. Anyway, I'll summarize real quick just in case your interested... The following things were awesome:

- Got to see a lot of Lara and Corey
- Got to see a UVM hockey game
- Went to the Magic Hat Brewery and tried two brand new previously untasted-by-the-public beers (for free!)
- Got to experience the quaint but fun Burlington nightlife
- Got to eat lots of delicious food (Burlingteers take their munchies very seriously)

It was cool to just walk around and check out the city, which isn't very built up, but still seems to have a good amount of stuff going on. Lots of parts of Burlington reminded me of JP, architecturally speaking as well as vibe-wise, although people were definitely nicer up there. I haven't had so many passing by strangers say "hello" and "good morning" to me in my life.

So, as I mentioned before, my computer was down for the count for a bit as I found out that not only did my power supply sizzle, but my motherboard fried in the process. After ordering each new piece one at a time, and having dad graciously put all the labor down, I am hooked back in to the internets.

The job hunt continues... nothing to report yet in that department... grr

I'm throwing a big birthday party for myself next Saturday which, if you're reading this, you've probably heard me mention. I want it to be damn good, so I'm putting lotsa effort into it. By some stroke of insanity (or loyal friendship), Matt has decided to spend a bunch of money to fly over from England so he can attend. He's bringing the girlie, Naomi, so I get to show them around the city a bit which I always enjoy doing. My friend, Steph, who I met in Spain has also amazingly decided to fly up from North Carolina to partake in the festivities. I feel pretty grateful to have friends willing to travel so far at expense to come see me. Hopefully the weather holds up and am able to show everyone a great time.

In other news, I'm completely re-addicted to downloading music. Tim sent me a coveted Invite to Oink, a private torrent tracking website that specializes in high quality music files, comics, and computer applications. It has these strict-as-hell standards about maintaining a high share ratio, so you gotta upload a lot to download a lot, which is stressful to say the least, because if you lag behind you get your account shut down. This is incredible to me since Soulseek (the greatest music downloading program ever) started crashing my computer for no known reason months back. So far I've been able to find a ridiculous amount of rare and hard-to-find stuff. Hog heaven. mmm.

Uhhh. I guess that's it.

someday we'll look back on this moment and plow into a parked car

evan davis

Uhhh, oops.

I was gonna give ya'll a big post about my weekend up in Burlington with pics and everything, but my computer's power supply decided to shit the bed on me. So until I can get that puppy replaced I got nothing for you. Hopefully I can remember everything by the time I get this straightened out. Stay tuned... I think it should be worked out by the weekend.

Cheers!

(Lack of) Happenings

You may have noticed I haven't posted much lately. This is because there is precious little happening right now in my life worth conveying in print. I'll mention a few things that have been going on, despite their general lack of interestingness.

My job hunt continues, with me trying to decide how far I want to stray from my desired profession of choice out of necessity for making a non-laughable amount of money. Sallie Mae doesn't have a sense of humor (nor a soul for that matter) after all, and that 6-month grace period continues to wind down on me. Various prospects in disparate industries seem to be presenting themselves on a fairly regular basis, but should I stray too far from TV/video or not? hmmm. Taking suggestions...

Went to the Extreme Beerfest a couple weekends back with Benny. We both had an enjoyable time, although I think I preferred the bev selection at the Belgian Beerfest last October. I mean, they've been doing it for a hell of a lot longer than the American breweries represented at the Extreme one, so what do you expect? The average percentage ran somewhere around 7 or 8% this time around, with some reaching as high as 18% (hence the "Extreme" moniker) so we were rather, uhhh.... worse for the wear towards the end of the night and the next morning (for Ben, well into that evening). Still, I love those things and will continue to attend them as they run. The next one is the American Beerfest in June. Tickets are already on sale. Anyone interested?

The dog's been shitting less on the floor (a Good Thing).

I've been cooking a lot lately and I'd say I'm really starting to become rather kitchen-savvy. I think I still have a long way to go, but I've impressed myself on many occasions at this point.

Speaking of good eats; One of my roommates, Joe, is leaving the house come June and the spot will need to be filled. Greg, one of my old NU roomies showed interest in jumping in on the lease, which I think would be great. He's a very agreeable person in general and a (more or less) self-trained gourmet chef in the making who loves to cook for others, which makes him a pretty damn ideal roommate in my eyes. Hoping he'll have the chance to move in, although Liz expressed a desire to have another female in the house, thus leveling out the ratio and providing her with slightly more domestic sanity. I can understand where she's coming from (I know I probably wouldn't want to live with three females), but I think once she meets Greg and experiences his culinary deftness, she might shift her priorities around. I'm not holding my breath, but we shall see.

I'm addicted to yerba mate, the tea like beverage that they drink down in Argentina (and surrounding areas). It's apparently rather good for you (nutrient rich) and provides a much more "red bull" like jolt, thus increasing mental concentration rather than just making you jittery like coffee does. It also is better for your blood pressure and is easier on the kidneys. The Latin food supermarket in my neighborhood sells the stuff for cheap, so I am well supplied as long as I'm in JP. Marliese just picked me up an extra pita y bombilla (gourd and metal straw) en Peru so I can enjoy mate con mis amigos.


And finally... I apparently won a 2-night trip to some Orlando hotel from the radio. It was a promotional thing for some new resorts they just built downtown and the first 50 callers won 2 free nights, tickets to a "show" of some sort, and a couple meals. I never listen to the radio, so I thought this was pretty sweet since my phone was readily available. I called in and they said I won, so they are sending me stuff in the mail. It was aptly pointed out to me by my mother that plane tickets could very well not be covered. The more I think about this point, the more sense it seems to make. I can't recall too well whether or not airfare was ever mentioned at any point, but my shaky memory is telling me it was not. I've yet to receive the details in the mail, so I'll probably know by halfway through the week. I might consider taking the trip even if airfare isn't covered if I can get a deal on a dirt cheap ticket. Those seems to come around pretty often, especially for Orlando.

Well. Time for me to turn off my computer. It's getting too hot in here. I'll keep ya'll posted on developments surrounding all aforementioned aspects of my life.

Stop the Hate

Blogger renovates and Dan's blog gets a minor Botox injection

Just realized it'd been a while since I graced ya'll with my liquid eloquence, so here's a nice tall glass...

As you may or may not have noticed, my blog has a slightly different aesthetic tang these days. Blogger decided to make page customization even more dumbass-friendly, so now I can change the entire color scheme or general layout piece-by-piece without needing to know a whit of HTML. I'll probably play around with the look a bit more in the coming weeks/months, just cause I can.

I have a HOTT link up on the right side of my page to my three main video projects from Fall semester. I had another project whose main focus was audio, but I figured it's a waste of time posting it since much of the subtlety would be lost through the crappy quality of YouTube. Anyhow, if you'd like to see what I've slaved away at from October through December, feel free to take a look

So, life is puttering along ever-forward. Starbucks has been alright, although I badly need to get a promotion as my current wage isn't really cutting it. It'd be much nicer to get a decent production job, even if it's just doing PA bitch work for a while 'til I can try to move up. I'm looking around but the market for such work is complete balls. I'm wondering how long I'll give this field before I give up and try to act on one of my get-money-quick schemes (I have 3 worked out already). The specter of student loan re-payment is looming ever closer as my grace period passes on day by day. Sallie Mae might sound like a dainty pleasantly-mannered lady, but she's actually a cold-hearted calculating bitch that wants all of her money back... plus interest.

Sadly there's not a hell of a lot else going on. Been trying to get as many people over as possible to check out my new place. I really love it here so far. All the roommates are turning out to be good people, and I definitely feel at home. It's been interesting living with a career dog-walker/sitter as at any given moment there might be 2, 3, or even 4 dogs running around the house (one of which lives here all the time). I learned rather quickly that I have an allergy to these critters, although it doesn't seem to match the severity of my cat allergy, which is a relief. Still, I don't let them into my bedroom so as to avoid sneezing in my sleep and getting my blanket all soaked. Nobody likes a wet blanket.

I'm learning to like dogs... in a way. I'm also learning many of the reasons why cats make far superior domestic pets, however. Dogs don't know how to chill the shit out and leave me the hell alone. I'd say 60-70% of the time, I'd rather ignore the presence of a dog, yet this is apparently impossible. It seems a dog's very existence is hinged on whether or not you decide to acknowledge it by talking in stupid voices and running your hands all over its body. Plus dogs smell like dogs (hmmm) and drool all over you. Unless someone owns 3 or more cats and doesn't take care to clean the litter box regularly, it's impossible to tell (by scent) whether or not one is in the home of a cat owner. I suppose I'm just venting because of the golden moment I had this weekend when I managed to step in cold, runny dogshit while walking around barefoot in the middle of the night. I suppose I did at least learn never to walk around without slippers and to always turn the hall lights on during late trips to the bathroom. Nothing like experiential learning...

I could go on easily for another 3 paragraphs about why I prefer living with cats over dogs (far longer if I really think things out), but I know it's a waste of time. Cat lovers will agree with everything I say and dog lovers will sneer at my cunning, acute observations.

I was thinking of talking about China's recent missile test and the US's rather hypocritical response, since this extremely important story seemed to cruise under most peoples' radars, but I decided I'm tired of writing in this box so I'm just gonna read and go to bed instead. But speaking of horribly dispiriting political shit, I saw an incredibly done hour-long documentary that is built around Arundhati Roy's ultra eloquent speech Come September. If you have an hour to spare, please do check it out. Not gonna lie, it's a bit depressing in parts, but it's a rather fair assessment of the dismal state of the world as a result of Western-style Globalization. I'm posting about it because it really left a strong impression on me. Besides all that, it's a top-notch illegally made documentary (it's composed entirely of copywritten material sans the holders' permission) and is inspiring for anybody who is interested in the art of documentary film making.

Goodnight!