A Collection of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict

[flwyd]

More or less. First off, here's a test I must take. Those who've seen me know why.

I am a Redhat. I'm too much of a geek to be a genuine hat of any sort. I was hoping my result would be 'white-hat' or 'black-hat', and am disappointed that those results weren't even available. I probably think the cup-holder story is funny. What Sort of Hat Are You?

Whatever. Alternatively, I'd be...

I am an Origami Hat. I am generally dissatisfied with the products of others, so I make my own; stronger, faster, better. I'm a creative and inventive person. What Sort of Hat Are You?

I suppose that's a little better. My collection is mostly novelty hats, but this test seems to think some other sort of people wear novelty hats. But I am pleased that this test exists.

So. What's happened in the last two weeks? While transferring the phone line from my mom's laptop to my Cube I jiggled the hella-ghetto ethernet card setup the Cube has, tipping it to the "doesn't work" side of things. Shortly thereafter (possibly because the Cube was on its side and running for a while), OS X stopped booting. There was a hard drive error that Apple's Disk Repair could detect but not repair. Fortunately I could boot into Classic. Unfortunately, since my ethernet card didn't work, I needed some other way of transferring important files to the other computer sitting on my desk, a G3. I grabbed my brother's USB ZIP drive and plugged it into my Cube. I plugged the SCSI ZIP drive into the G3. Unfortunately, the latter didn't work. I therefore loaded the first 93MB or so onto a ZIP disk and carried it across the hall, along with the drive, attached it to my brother's computer, and copied the files over the ethernet to my G3 (at a wonderful 10 megabits per second). It only took a couple trips to get school work and a few important programs over. Then I went to work on the mp3s on the Cube. Dear lord. I think I carried that smegging drive 20 feet 100 times. Our hallway experienced some serious gross flux.

That wonderful process complete, I borrowed an OS X install CD, wiped the drive, and started all over. I ordered an ethernet card indirectly, since Apple won't smegging sell it to me, since it's not a user installable part. ("Look. I took it out, I can put it back in.") Concerned that I hadn't heard about it yet, I called The Mac Shack today and learned that there had been a problem with my Cube's serial number not being recognized, so the card hadn't been ordered. Given that I'm returning to the land of hella bandwidth tomorrow, I'll be mighty annoyed about this pretty soon.

Moving on... My Winter Consumer Holiday take included a funky warm hat my mom found somewhere, a Tao Te Ching calendar, and a pair of pairs of boxers, even though I wear tighty-whities. I guess my mom thought I might feel left out since she got boxers for my brother. She also took me to the Boulder Bookstore, where I got Merlin Donald's Origins of the Modern Mind so I can return my library copy I've had since March, as well as his second book, A Mind So Rare. I also got The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka (save his novels), The Feeling of What Happens by neuro-psychologist Antonio Damassio, and Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson. My dad also got me a 2' bendable reaching claw from McGuckin's. It's so entertaining. He knew I'd love it. Oh, and mlechan got me a bicycle helmet attachment that's a jester's hat. That's my real "What hat are you" test result. I can't wait to go biking soon.

New Year's Eve was... odd. My brother had a whole bunch of friends over and we listened to Zaireeka, the Flaming Lips album which comes on four CDs that you have to listen to simultaneously. Since my dad has a recording studio, we're sort of the natural place to have such a party. It was pretty cool, and you could really fuck with your head if you sat in a spinning chair in the middle of all the speakers. And the end of the album is so cool.

Anyway, Harper's friends went off to another party after that. I stuck around and reinstalled OS X, dev tools, and some essential software. Shared a few glasses of Stone's Ginger Wine with my parents, along with some pie. Not too bad. Resolutionwise, I usually pick more appropriate days than January 1st to make them, but I'll reassert some that I've been lacking on:

• Spend more quality time with my residents. Play games'n'stuff.
• Do schoolwork efficiently. I've got only two classes, and five days off a week, but I need to write a 6K word paper with 20 references and finish this incomplete. So I need to read efficiently and effectively, use my time well, and keep up with the interesting stuff in class.
• Work out. With five days off a week, I have no excuse not to make it to the Rec. Center. Especially since I don't have to do any work for Burl.

I've watched a lot of football this break. CU managed to lose to lowly Wisconsin, in part because they were essentially playing with about half of their first team by the end of the game. All year I was impressed at how well CU did when essentially the only weapon was the offensive line and Chris Brown. I think I got about 80% of my bowl predictions right. I even had a feeling Ohio State was going to win. I think I'm going to try to avoid the NFL playoffs, even though the wild card games were hella exciting.

I've also spent some time planning my summer trip. I need to chat with a career counselor about job search strategies when my intended work location is "the west." Since MLE's graduating the Saturday after my brother is, I think the first week of my travels will look like:

Monday

Boulder to Zion National Park. Probably going through Staircase, maybe not getting all the way to Zion.

Tuesday

Enjoy the Utah desert. Spend a couple hours (and not much money) in Vegas.

Wednesday

Jaunt into the Mojave National Preserve, taking the long way up Cal 127 to Death Valley, arriving a few hours before evening. Dig the Death Valley sunset.

Thursday

Dig the Death Valley sunrise. Head up US 395 or US 95 to Yosemite. Dig the California mountains.

Friday

Drop several thousand feet to Santa Cruz

This gives me some time flexibility. If I don't get caught up somewhere I might slip down to the North Rim or Joshua Tree. Another approach would be to head to 4 Corners, then down to Saguaro National Park, then up through Joshua Tree, the Mojave, and Death Valley. That might be too much driving, since I'd need to retrace quite a bit of longitude. But whatever route I take, it'll be a delicious desert.

Preparing to head back to school for training, I'm making all of my fellow staff members a mixed CD with the following tracks:

1. Colcannon - Kilkelly
2. DJ Shadow - Fixed Income
3. Tom Waits - What's He Building?
4. Captain Beefheart - The Past Sure Is Tense
5. Captain Beefheart - a quick comment
6. Phil Ochs - Ballad of Alferd Packard
7. Booker T - Green Onions
8. Frank Zappa - Don't Eat the Yellow Snow
9. The Moldy Peaches - Steak for Chicken
10. Allen Ginsberg & Paul McCartney - The Ballad of the Skeletons
11. Squirrel Nut Zippers - Ghost of Steven Foster
12. Cookie Monster - C is for Cookie
13. Lamb - Five
14. Pink Floyd - Childhood's End
15. Dar Williams - The Christians and the Pagans
16. Crash Test Dummies - Superman's Song
17. Loreena McKennitt - Mummer's Dance (radio edit)
18. MC 900 Ft. Jesus - While The City Sleeps
19. Apocalyptica - Beyond Time
20. Massive Attack - Tear Drop

And it's neither as weird nor as eclectic as I'd anticipated. Ah well. If you want an electronically delivered version of this CD, lemme know.

The high point of the break was probably getting to take a couple hits off the MLE crack. But who wouldn't enjoy spending time with the Divine Feminine? Hey, stop blushing. You're so wonderful doll. I'm working on a package of stuff to send to you soon. :-)

Comments

[slyviolet.livejournal.com]

The high point of the break was probably getting to take a couple hits off the MLE crack. But who wouldn't enjoy spending time with the Divine Feminine?
*blush*

Hey, stop blushing.
D'oh! You know me so, so, SO well. You also make me way happy.

I'm working on a package of stuff to send to you soon. :-)
Really?!?!?! Ooooh, I'm all excited and bouncy now!

I have been gone less than a week, and I miss you already.