Now Presenting

I know it's been awhile, okay? Let's try to move past that, we have a lot to discuss today.

First of all, finals are over, thus ending my first term at Portland State University. All I have to say is, thinking about how much money I spent last year at U of P, and how much I hated it, is becoming more and more frustrating. There were things that I liked about it, but this year is coming along so much better. It fills my heart with joy, and makes me want to play among the stars.

Regarding next term, for those of you interested, my class schedule is as follows:
MWF 7:45 - 8:50 Latin 102
MW 10:15 - 12:05 Introduction to Business and World Affairs
TR 8:00 - 9:50 Medieval History 1100 - 1450
TR 10:00 - 11:50 Introduction to Microeconomics
T 7:00 - 8:50 Jeet Kune Do II
F 10:15 - 11:55 Fencing

That's a grand total of 18 credits (16 actual class credits, plus two PE). I'm technically a junior this term, but because off all the confusedness with switching my major, I have to take Freshman classes like business 101. It sucks, but I really need to get prerequisites out of my way, so I can take classes actually within my major, so I can graduate. Who knows when that's going to happen.

Apparently Halo 2 is making a far greater impact on the gaming world than I expected. It's sort of like the TV show Friends: just about anybody you need to make conversation with will have at least something to say about it. Even people who don't normally watch sitcoms probably have some small experience with it. Halo is the same way. Even Becky's (my sister, for any of you who don't know) started to play, ever since her boyfriend got into it and demanded that she try. She was estatic when she managed to get five kills during a rockets-only match.

I haven't exactly been constant and unyielding when it comes to the name of my blog, and it's okay to feel superior because you have. However, it turns out that primus metropoli isn't the correct Latin declension, and I don't care for it much anyway, so I need to find a new name. Fun times will be had by all.

The pain...

Sometimes, you just know you're going to feel it in the morning. I just got out of jeet kun do, which is a fun class, but absolutely devastating on the physique. It doesn't help that I am an utter newb, and the class has a pretty big skill dichotomy even in the first year class. I'm doing stuff slow, to learn form, and this guy with probably twice my mass is blocking all of my jabs and hitting me in the face, over and over. It sucks. Don't even ask me about what happens when I have to get in close. My combined height and low weight make me easy enough to totally destroy.

On a less painful note, I have decided to apply for a position at the student IT help desk on campus, just for a little extra spending money. It's (hopefully) a fairly low-stress job, fills the hours, and kind of plugs me into the system here, so I can set my double-secret plans into motion. We'll see how thing develop on that front.

Looks like Kerry is up in the polls across the nation, especially in Oregon. Too bad. He wouldn't be a terrible president (better than Gore, at any rate). He has a massive advantage coming into the race in that he's garnering a large amount of votes from people who just don't want to see Bush in office any more. Let's see if he can avoid the fate George McClellan suffered in 1864 running against Abraham Lincoln (another extremely unpopular president, at the time).

Curiouser and curiouser

As much as I appreciate the fact that my boss is willing to keep be on for at least a few hours while I'm at school, I wish he'd leave me some stuff to do. Even the minute bit of website editing he had me doing (you can see my work at www.hi-schoolpharmacy.com) only took about an hour. So I'm alone in the office at 6:00 in the evening, with absolutely nothing to do. It is in this circumstance that I finished the A Game of Thrones. It's one of the best books I've ever read. You can read any rant I'd spew forth at Amazon.com, so I'll spare you except to say this: read it. Read it now.

I'm trying to get back into a swing of reading loads of webcomics. I had a bunch when I was a senior in high school, but one by one they've fallen by the wayside and most of them are no longer worth reading. I've recently discovered Mac Hall, and it is good, but if you have any more suggestions please share them.

I almost lost control of my truck today, driving home. At one point, I have to over cross I-405 right after I take the exit toward PSU. It's a pretty sharp turn, and the terrain on the bridge is a little different from the surrounding road. As soon as I started the maneuver, I felt myself start to hydroplane, so I let up on the gas and started to turn away from the bridge rail. Usually that's the end of it, but this time the whining of my tires got almost harmonic and my truck started to shudder, and I started heading left, toward the center of the road (it's a one-way street). I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I let go of the gas and just held the wheel straight, and the shudders stopped with the tires finally getting traction. Not a huge deal, but enough to get my adrenaline flowing, and praise God it didn't get any worse than that.

Addendum: it may be only a "spiritual successor," but I'm excited about it nonetheless. And none of you are going to spoil it for me.

A New Sensation

For some reason, whenever I have a major change of scenery, such as going to college, moving back, whatever, it totally disrupts my life for about a month before I can actually get back into a reasonable frame of mind. This probably has something to do with the fact that I'm too lazy to make any effort toward adjusting, but for whatever reason all cerebral activities are out the window for the duration.

It's for this reason that such things as blog updates, doing laundry, shopping, things that require some semblance of responsibilty, are just not getting done. Basically, it's just video games, and that contributes to a general sense of ennui that perpetuates the whole cycle.

At any rate, hopefully I'll be able to knock myself out of it, since school starts in about a week and there are some required activities ("homework") that'll kinda need to get done.

On an unrelated note, it's been a long, long time since I've done any real roleplaying. Soulless whets the appetite, so now I'm absolutely starving.

Another picture of the view that doesn't really give you the feel for it. Oh well.

The view. The picture doesn't capture it.

Another view of the front room

My baby

Kitchen!

The front room

Your's truly

I am a bad person

Although I suppose that's relative. My lack of posting is less evidence of laziness than evidence of a pathetic, pathetic life. What do you think about that?

It hurts so much

Every once in awhile you just decide to break out of your normal routine and try something a little new and original. I made such a decision two days ago when Nastassja finally, successfully begged me into going to a club with her.

There's a relatively small 18-and-over club called FX down on Taylor and Naito, right on the waterfront. We arrived, unfortunately, right after they opened at night, and just sort of watched the crowd slowly grow. In some ways, it was pretty cool. The crowd built up nicely and I was observed busting several moves myself. I would say that I "got down" rather effectively at least once.

By around 12:00 the more hardcore dancers started to show up and we were interrogated in a ruthlessly friendly fashion by person named Scott who claimed repeatedly that he was on ecstasy that he had purchased for cheap. Fun times.

Someone remind me, I need to make and post some pictures of this place. A few people have asked and I keep forgetting.