CrazyHoboManisms

It has been some time since I made a blog entry, but I’ve had a bit of a long weekend… Oh and I have an hour and a half of math homework to do every night — guess I got what was coming to me taking “accelerated” pre-calc. Ho hum. Grr crap I just realized I didn’t set an away message before I went to class. Sorry to those who tried to talk to me earlier today online.

I have discovered how to stream my favorite radio station, KPLU (”NPR and All That Jazz”) over the internet, and am now happily grooving to the jazzy tunes of… someone on the radio.

I’m pretty pumped for another jam session going on this Thursday. When the sun goes down, the Delta Jam Collection will get down in the Delta Lounge. That’s the actual time Paul (another Paul, with curly hair) and I set for it. When the sun goes down. It’ll rock. We will rock. The lounge. With rock and roll. And stuff.

Well, life goes unabated, and time waits for no one. That means I have to do math before the evening when the party really starts.

Today was the first day of classes. First I had a class on Shakespeare, which was fun. AND the professor is one of the few film guys at Western, so I’m going to make sure to talk to him sometime. Math was cool. I actually got excited when he started talking about functions, then explicitly defining domains. It reminded me of an if-then-else statement, and he actually mentioned that while writing it.

Afterwards I ate lunch with a suitemate, Steve. He’s pretty cool. The food was delicious, and I was really hungry. I’m hungry right now, to tell the truth — even though I eat a lot already. I think all this college stuff makes you hungrier, or they put inverse MSG in the food i.e. it makes you more hungry instead of more full.

Afterwards, did some hanging out, some homework, eating with Maureen, Kess, and Colin. Kess is a pretty cool guy. Not afraid to eat a lot. I’ll probably start doing the same. Then stop, since I’ll get sick of the food.

After that I did a bit more TekHELPing, and then went to get a lightbulb from the office of my Dorm. Apparently there was a hall meeting going on, and I stuck around for it. I signed up as webmaster of Ridgeway Beta. Or maybe Beta and Gamma. Can’t remember.

Then I went and hung out with some people outside, they were playing instruments and pretty much jamming. They said at 9:00 in the Delta lounge there’d be a big jam session.

Oh how there was.

We jammed for a few hours. It was awesome. Lots of people came. I played a small African drum. Other instruments included a piano, three or four or so guitars, two other drums, and two violins. It was awesome. I had forgotten how cool it was to play music with a bunch of other people. It was great. Especially when we started attracting a crowd.

Man, does life rock. If only I had some food right now. Ah well, I’ll get some in the morning.

Morning was pretty cool today. Got a mini-fridge, did some hanging out with Maureen, ate food–food is good. I have obtained a renewed undying love for food.

Then I started my TekHELP shift, and it was KRAAAAAZY! Enough so to warrant a K at the beginning and repeated As. Everyone’s computers were LOADED with spyware and viruses (ok, not everyone’s, but a considerable amount) and many of my tickets took over half an hour. A lot of them I couldn’t finish and had to leave to the hands of the Restek staff. Despite me being extremely tired, I enjoyed working with computers and people with computers.

From 2:00-9:30 I lived off a couple Cliff bars from colin, a kudos (candy/granola bar type thing) from one resident, and a bagel from another. They were all delicous. Then I went back to my room and showered and went down the the Viking Union Commons (all the way down the ridge) to eat food, since Viking Union is supposedly open until 10:30. It wasn’t. I went back and rummaged around Colin’s food bag (ha ha, that funny to say) and found a package dried thai noodles with some powder and oil stuff. Despite probably using too much water, it was delicious. I am now sitting here eating a Granny Smith apple — one of my least favorite apples — and enjoying it. I love food. If I could only bring one type of food to a desert island to live forever on, it would be food.

I decided to write a haiku about food.

Food rocks everything
Eat food and you’ll be happy
Word to your food, G

Man, what a weekend I have had. Moving in Friday, training to be a TekHELP (which apparently involves a lot of frisbee throwing), running around campus, and hanging out have made for a pretty busy time.

On Friday, I was to meet my group (Ridgeway Beta, Gamma, and Kappa dorms) at the tennis courts, and was surprised to see that our team comprised of four people: three TekHELPS and Kyler, our supervisor. When we all met at the Comm building, I was even more surprised to see that the whole TekHELP staff numbered about twenty-five-ish people, excluding the full-time Restek staff. Last year, they said, they had twice that number.

They talked to us about the schools network that night, but it was just a breif overview, and the real training would begin the next day. Afterwards we played capture the flag on the yard outside the comm building with beach balls. It was pretty cool.

Next day was the REAL training. We talked about some more stuff in the Comm building, then we went to the Ridgeway Commons computer lab. They had “broken” the computers, and it was our job to fix them. It was pretty cool to talk with people that new what was going on. One of the computers had huge amounts of spyware on it, including bonzibuddy, and it told many a good joke. Ha ha ha! Afterwards we had lunch, and then we roleplayed potential TekHELP scenarios. I got to be an angry neighbor who needed his computer fixed RIGHT NOW.

We got out early, and had some free time. I met some of my suitemates, and helped them with their computers. I fear I may become the tech department for my suite, but I guess that isn’t too bad, since I enjoy doing it anyway. After that, a little more training, then back to room to hang out a bit more.

Then I entered a deep slumber. And woke up the next morning. Sunday. A day where everyone moved in. A day of destiny! Hung out with neighbors in the morning, Maureen in the afternoon, and Colin in the lulls during my TekHELP shift. There are a lot of stairs on the Ridge. I know. I climbed a lot of them. It was tiring. After work I hung out with Colin, and Maureen came over a little later, and we chilled for a while. It’s somewhat weird living less than fifteen minutes away from everything and everyone, as I did in Enumclaw; it’s really cool, though.

When everyone parted ways, I went to bed. Then I woke up, showered, got a mini fridge, ate (and met one of my future classmates, Dominik — not sure on spelling…), brushed my teeth, tried to get lightbulbs for our bathroom only to find the office was closed, then started writing in my blog. Then I finished writing in my blog. Then i clicked on publish. Oh crap, I haven’t clicked that yet. Then I wrote that I clicked publish but I actually hadn’t, and said Oh crap, I haven’t clicked on that yet. Then I wrote about the clicking publish incident and saying Oh crap, I haven’t clicked on…………………………………..

I just finished packing everything I need for college (well almost, some things will have to wait for the morning). Let me tell you, I had a hectic last day at home before leaving for school. First, one of our phone lines stopped working, and I had to call Qwest to fix it (they weren’t supposed to do that till tomorrow). Then, I went to get glasses, but they are only temporary since the FedEx truck carrying the frames I wanted hadn’t come into the office (fortunately, the temps were free). Then I went to Fred Meyer to do some last last last minute shopping for school. After that we went to Jasmine Mongolian Grill in Federal Way. It was delicious. Then I packed, which was kind of hectic in it’s own right. Now I am finally sitting here, able to chill out.

I’m a bit on edge right now. Every now and then I’ll stop and wonder if there’s anything I forgot to pack. There are some things I’m not sure whether I should bring or not (a couple of CDs and such). Those I have decided to just not bring. Oh crap, I have to get my Film Fest DVDs after I write this. Ok, maybe I’m more than a bit on edge.

Man, school is gonna rock. I hope. If things suck for the first two days (I move in two days early), they’ll pick up once everyone else moves in on Sunday.

Today I did some last minute shopping for college. It’s somewhat hard to believe that it is so close. I feel pretty calm about moving (although there are other things i’m excited for); it’s kind of weird. Mayhap it is due to the many times I have moved around during my childhood — the only difference is that I’ll be without parents.

Strangeness aside, I have some big plans for Western, as follows:

Rule the computer science department. I plan to own the computer science department, and make everyone bow down to what I say. If they don’t, they can go in the ‘386 room and be forced to write modular operating systems in all assembly language. HA HA HA!

Rule the film department. There is no film department yet, but there is a hodgepodge of indie film followers in the form of clubs and a few classes. I plan to unite all of them and turn Western into a school where people can go to make films for in-state tuition. HA HA HA!

Rule the Ridge. “The Ridge” is the area in which my dorm (among a few others) resides. I plan to lead all the people of Ridgeway to capture the rest of the WWU campus, claiming it as our own! Then I’ll Bellingham, then the world! HA HA HA!

Tripple Major. I want to tripple major in Film Production, Computer Science, and 1337 pwnage. Then I’ll be able to show those jerks who didn’t believe in me! HA HA HA!

Procure booty. My pirate crew and I will sail the seas of Western Washington University in our ship, taking all the treasure that we want. I already went and to a flintlock pistol at Fred Meyer today, and my cutlass is razor sharp! They won’t know what hit them! HA HA HA!

Or maybe I’ll just have a slightly modest college career, take my Computer Science degree, and get a nice job somewhere (with the occasional filmmaking stint). HA HA HA!

Faulty RAM is bad
You think you screwed up your comp
But it’s just the RAM

Ok, so here I am, all excited on Friday to get DSL. It doesn’t work, and my ISP is busy with some catastrophic network disaster and can’t help me all day.

Monday, I call them, and they say that I need to call Qwest. I call Qwest. First they tell me to turn my modem off and on. I already did that, numerous times. They then told me that I need to have DSL line filters on all the phones connected inside my house. I told them I already knew that and that they could shove a DSL filter up their ass if they didn’t actually try fixing my problem. Oh wait, I mean their problem. They then say check the phone line. Qwest calls back the next day and says that there’s a problem with the cable somewhere between my house and their office, and that it would be fixed by today. So today I plugged the DSL modem in, and it actually connected to my ISP, but my connection was hella unstable. I called Qwest and was told that only phone line technicians were sent to fix it, and a DSL guy won’t be there for a day or two more. Thanks a bunch, Qwest. If you weren’t the only phone company in my area I would go to your headquarters, headbutting the door open, beat all of you up, and then switch to another company. Maybe I’ll do it anyway. I have a suspicion that it still won’t be working afterwards. I hate Qwest.

Otherwise I’ve had a pretty good week. Heh heh…

Today was my last day at work. Although I will miss all the people I worked with, I will not miss the grocery business. It was a long day, full of slacking and the condition of my uniform became increasingly worse as the shift wore on due the the effort of my co-worker Brian — attacking me with the dust mop (the big broom we push along the floor), a normal mop, cake, a discarded melon, and periodically ripping a hole in the knee in my pants until it grew incredibly large and eventually stretched from the bottom of the leg to a point somewhat higher than the knee. Afterwards I got to hang my apron up in the helper clerk Hall of Fame, and I went home.

During my two years in the grocery business I have seen much, and am a bit glad to have gained so much insight into people in general, food, and what actually happens in a grocery store. I won’t miss the crap I had to put up with, though, and the rampant understaffing (although at the time I left we had been getting progressively more hours).

I will remember out many backroom antics, including throwing wooden poles at boxes like javelins, singing along to the musak played on the store radio station, playing Jenga with high-stacked product, locking each other in the freezer and cooler (they can be opened from the inside, but not of you put a pallett full of something in front of them), throwing yogurt around, throwing cardboard, throwing rubber toys, and throwing many other things around. We actually threw a lot of things back there. Probably the best thing to throw was pallets, since it makes you feel manly and strong.

Good bye, grocery business. You have treated me well. Sort of. I guess.

Yesterday, my ISP began having a “vendor problem,” which meant the internet wasn’t working. I assume it had something to do with domain name resolving (turning www.something.coms into actual IP addressess, a series of four numbers seperated by periods, which every computer connected to the internet is assigned). It could also have been however Tx3 (my ISP) connected to the rest of the internet wasn’t working I could only connect to my their website, and I could check the e-mail server as well. This made me somewhat angry, because I now can’t get them to set up the DSL connection I have been waiting for until Tuesday (not open weekends or Labor day). My dialup has been working on and off, and I don’t know when it’ll go away again. Perhaps very soon. I’m scared. I think the Bush Administration blocked internet access to everyone in the blue states because of the New Orleans crisis. Damn them!