In Medias Res

2008-01-16T17:40:00.001-08:00

The Library of Congress posted thousands of copyright-free photographs on flickr recently. I thought that was pretty excellent. Check it out.

Treachery!

2008-01-10T20:22:00.000-08:00

Man alive. Remember last month when I told you my life was playing April Fool's games on me? Well, that little pattern hasn't quit. Last night, I was fooling around on my computer when it froze up. This has almost never happened on my computer so I was a bit concerned. My concern grew when it happened again after I restarted. I kept trying various things to avoid the crash such as avoiding Firefox since it seemed to look up each time I used that program. Issues kept popping up though ranging from the Blue Screen of Death proclaiming it intended to do a physical memory dump to the boot screen declaring loudly that it wasn't aware of this "hard drive" I spoke of. I turned the computer off, and left it for the night in hopes that the problem would just resolve itself (I'm a firm believer that computers, like cars, are self-healing organisms).

The next morning the computer did in fact boot up okay and didn't crash right off the bat. I still avoided Firefox but apart from some lag issues nothing happened until around one in the afternoon when it crashed again. It started the same trend of blue screens and boot errors as it had the day before so I grew morbidly concerned. I told my boss that I would be offline for a while trying to get the computer back up to its proper health. After much coercing, I got it to start up again and immediately backed up all my work files (I'd backed up my personal files the night before) and tried running virus scans and spyware scans. The computer froze. I rebooted it and it insisted that I did not in fact have any hard drive. I spent the next several hours trying things like booting from a CD (fail), flicking the computer (fail), and reinstalling Windows to one of my external drives (fail). This was very bad because my computer is my livelihood and I can't afford to buy another computer at the moment. Eventually, heartbroken, I performed an autopsy and removed pieces of the casing. I took out the hard drive, did things like blow on it (old fashioned Nintendo cartridge-style) and then put it back in. Only when I put it back in, the pins pushed into the hard drive further than they had been when I had taken it out. I closed everything back up, rebooted and voila. It works again. Or at least it does so far. Its not lagging though or having any of the other issues it was previously. So, the moral of the story is, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble by just poking at random bits of computer with my finger. So if anyone ever tells you that won't fix a computer then... like... punch them. Or something.

grass poop

2008-01-09T20:07:00.000-08:00

I mowed the grass for the first time today since we sold Two Trees back in 2003 (I think). While Jim was in town he had planned on firing the landscaper because they were doing a fairly weak job. He offered to buy a mower and take $150 a month off our rent if Kurt and I wanted to do the job ourselves so I immediately accepted. He also bought a lot of weed killer and sprayed the yard and told us if there were any other materials we needed to just say so. So I mowed today. I decided to do so because I still had an hour of daylight left and thought it hadn't rained all day. I was wrong. I had apparently missed the rain and didn't realize it. So the mowing was a bit rough and the clumps of wet grass the resulted felt like dog poop every time I stepped on one. I raked the front yard and if it doesn't rain tomorrow I'll rake the back then probably mow it again this weekend. Surprisingly, I'm actually looking forward to having a yard to mow again. Its nice to push a mower around, get a bit of low intensity exercise, and get in some self-reflection.

breathe the pacific

2008-01-08T21:29:00.000-08:00

My landlord came into town last night and showed Kurt and I a bit of the island today. I have to say, Jim is an amazing landlord. Apart from my mom (if you consider her a landlord from birth until about age 20) I've never had a landlord drive me around and show me the sights of a city, buy me a Christmas present and tell me that if we need anything around the house to send him the bill. We were going to try to get up to the Volcano but we didn't get to. We did, however get to see Rainbow Falls and the Boiling Pots which were pretty amazing sights. We also went to the Mauna Koa Macadamia Nut Factory where Jim's wife used to work. He said he'll be out to Kona again in February and we're going to try to get over there so he can take us scuba diving. I can't wait. Oh yeah, I also got to climb one of the most excellent climbing trees ever grown, as seen to the left.

Check it all out here. Just gotta get my Kentucky pics up now.

the kentucky moon

2008-01-08T20:36:00.001-08:00

My my my, Kentucky was blast. I got in late the night of the 22nd, Yale and Keebler coming to pick me up. We actually ended up seeing Amanda Mills (Jesse's halfsister) at the airport. She was on her way back from the Bahamas where she had been for her honeymoon. We made a few calls and then headed over to a party to meet up with April and Shelley. The host of the party was apparently a wedding photographer and he had set up a photobooth in his living room. I don't know how it worked since the equipment was all boxed up but it worked fabulously and I got a number of new pictures to look back on in nostalgia. At then end of the night, I also had the chance to showcase my Rubix Cube skills.

So the following day, I traveled from Louisville to Georgetown to see the Willetts. It was the first time in a long while that all of the Willetts kids and all of the Adkins kids managed to be in the same place at the same time and it was fantastic. Topics of conversation ranged from time travel to television to books. Another one of the reasons I miss New York is having Simon around the same city. I headed back to Lancaster later that night and the following day was Christmas Eve. I spent most of the day shopping, as I hadn't done any Christmas shopping. Katie took me around and brought Leah with her along with her friend Eva's couple children. Leah is just as adorable as I remember her from last May. She greeted me with a hug and during lunch put her french fries in her hair. That night, Katie and Leah came to Christmas Eve Mass with my family and got to see all of my uncles, aunts, cousins and Grandmother at the same time. This was a first for her, and a welcome reunion for me. After mass, we went back to the farm and ate oyster stew. Again, this was a first for Katie (both seeing the farm and eating the stew) and I was really glad she got to spend the night with us. Jerry (who I'd met for the first time the previous night) brought a bottle of Elijah Craig which Kyle and I (and a number of my relatives) highly enjoyed.

Christmas was as it always is, my absolute favorite holiday. It consisted of snack foods all day, lots of wonderful presents, games of Balderdash, and a movie at the end of the night. The entire day was with my family and it was fantastic. We should have Christmas every month.

Most of the rest of my week was spent with my Mom during the day and with Katie and Leah for a few hours each night. A few highlights throughout the week were seeing Chris and getting drinks with him, Katie, Chris' lady and Ty, my mom cooking fried chicken and fettuccine alfredo and Katie and Kyle joining my family for dinner and a game of Apples to Apples and Taboo. I also got to go back down to my farm again for our extended family's gift-giving and Hot Wheels race. We actually managed to win first place in the race for the first time in fifteen years of racing with our car "Erasmus" (named after John Blackthorne's ship in "Shogun"). My last night in town I went to Winchester and helped Katie study for the ACT and said goodbye for a while. My final day in Lancaster was spent with my mom and we eventually said goodbye before I headed to Louisville. I'm really going to miss my mom over the next six months or so.

I got into Louisville and spent New Years at the Pour Haus watching some cover band that April and Shelley knew. They were surprisingly good for two reasons. One, they didn't bother doing their own "take" on the songs. When they covered a song it was as close to the original as possible. They also had an amazing stage presence. They were dancing the entire night. I even asked a random girl if she would take me on stage and she did. I stood there for a few minutes, waved to the audience, and then got off stage. I ended the night fairly early since I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before and the next day I ate with Dougie and Shannon, watched football with Bryan and Keebler, went to see "I Am Legend" with Brian and Brendan, and then drove around in the freshly fallen snow with Yale. I actually got a bit worried that my flight would be cancelled because of how hard it was snowing at times.

The snow in Kentucky was magical because it came just in time for me to see it. If you know me, you know I love snow and that week was the only chance I'd really get to see snow the entire year and it was provided for me. Then I flew home and ended up seeing the snow covered tops of the volcano as I landed back in Hilo.

Christmas with the snow

2007-12-20T22:13:00.000-08:00

So I'm going to try to sum up what's been going on with me since my last update in a mere few paragraphs. After a couple months of roughness in Hawaii, I'm starting to enjoy it. I sort of expected to be unhappy there for the first couple months when I moved there due to a period of adjustment and I think that period has started ending. Within the last few weeks before moving, I went to the beach three more times than the total number of times I had been prior. In addition, I went to the Kona (more touristy) side of the island with a group of friends and slept that night on the beach. It was a magical evening that ended with me attempting to build a sandcastle at three in the morning, all the while drunkenly stating that the sandcastle was "in honor of my brother", as Brendan would have built a sand castle had he been at the beach. During the day. Sober.

A couple weeks later, I flew to Oahu to see my new friend Naomi. This girl is pretty fantastic. Its actually her birthday today so happy birthday to her. I hope its going well. She's a teacher for "Teach for America" and actually worked at a school right down the street from my New York apartment while I was living in New York. So it was quite serendipitous that we met. She actually knows my friend Daris, who used to work at that school as well and also was with "Teach for America". Naomi is like a beautiful girl version of Aaron Hawkins. Those of you who know Aaron know that this is a very big compliment. Naomi took me all over Oahu for the weekend I was there. I got to see Waikiki and Honolulu and I got to hike up into the hills around the Army Base and see some beautiful sights. I also saw waves larger than any I ever saw in Los Angeles or the entire Atlantic. Apparently they weren't even particularly big for that area either. If she'll have me again, I plan on visiting Naomi often in the coming months and I really want to do the Shark Dive (among other things) near where she lives.

Kurt and I also had people come over for a night of entertainment for the first time the week before I left for the mainland. Annie, Maddie and Meagan (the same girls I went to Kona with) came over on a Saturday night and Kurt cooked Barbecue Chicken with a number of sides (scalloped potatoes at my request). We ate, at sat for a while then had a few drinks and played video games. The night was decently tame but a huge amount of fun. I hope I see more of them in the future.

When I started packing on Thursday for my trip to LA, I got very eager to be home. I can't wait. Despite my anxiety though, I've fully enjoyed my time here. I had some issues getting here but the weekend held a Christmas party with my co-workers and I got to see Kristina and John's new apartment (which is only a couple blocks from my old apartment in Glendale). There was a lot of food and some Cranium playing and drinks and a great time. The work week has been hectic but fast-moving. Sam and I even worked from Sam's apartment one day which was a nice break for Sam, I think.

That brings us tonight. Pam picked me up from work and we picked up immediately were we left off last time I saw her. We chatted about her sister's engagement (which she actually seems fairly supportive of), we talked about Kentucky and her plans for a month long vacation (during which she may come to the Big Island for her Mom's wedding) and her eventual move to New York. (I'm a bit envious. I miss those New York devils.) We ate dinner a nice place in Pasadena and eventually headed home as she has to go to Vegas tomorrow and I have to work bright and early.

So all in all things are going well, however I do believe December has been somewhat of misplaced April Fools month for team Ian. Starting with realizing that I had an expired license when I tried to fly to Oahu. This resulted in a pat-down and dust up both coming and going and with me arriving at my gate amidst an announcement of "Ian Adkins report to Gate (insert gate number here). The gate will be closing in one minute." Prior to my flight to LA, I choose to try and get a new license (FAIL)*. I did get a state ID after a few hours, however which would suffice. On my walk home (the cab company takes hours to pick people up) it began raining with a vengeance. I got wetter than I've ever been in my life. When I shower, I'm dryer than I was at this point. When I've been swimming for hours on end, I'm less wet. I believe I may have been dryer when I was in the womb than I was on this walk. Needless to say, I took my phone out of my pocket to protect it from the rain and put it in my backpack. This was like removing a kitten from a tree in order to protect it but choosing to put the kitten into a room filled with fast moving bullets and razors. All the rain pooled at the bottom of my backpack and my phone was destroyed. It didn't just turn the water damage square in the back of the phone red but soaked it enough that the square fell off. No warranty, no repairs, no replacement phone. I'm S.O.L. when it comes to my wonderful Blackjack. Brendan is coming to my rescue though and giving me a phone to use so I don't have to buy a new one just yet. The next prank I played on myself was to miss my connecting flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles. Why did I miss it? The flights were on different airlines from Hilo to Honolulu and from Honolulu to Los Angeles so I had to exit the airport, wait for my bags, go through agriculture inspection, get my ticket and go back through security. I may have had time for this (I got my bags with forty minutes to spare), but Hawaiians are sort of lazy. So, I went to the ticketing counter which had shut down for three hours despite their upcoming flight. So I had to sit outside the airport from 7:30 am til 11:30 am. Yes. Awesome. I flew to LA and had to sit on the tarmac for another half hour or so due to a plane being in our gate. The most recent prank I've played on myself was to break the only belt I brought with me while trying to buckle it. This is a two-fold prank because 1) my pants are much too big since I've lost a lot of weight since about this time last year, so my pants fall down while I walk and 2) despite the aforementioned weight loss, the fact that my belt makes me look like a fatass. Hurrah. Go team!**

Again, I've had some setbacks but things are looking up. I can't wait to get home and see my family and my Louisville friends and Katie and a number of other people. You all are the greatest people in the world. I love each and every one of you. Enjoy my update, belated as it may be.

*- I didn't actually fail the test, they just said I'd have to start over with a permit again, which I'll do sometime in the coming months.

**- I stole this little saying from Naomi.

Singing along with the song of the pacific

2007-09-27T15:02:00.000-07:00

So, its a couple weeks later than I originally wanted to write my next post but at least I'm writing it, no? I've successfully made it to Hawaii and successfully survived my first weekend. I'll write more about actually Hawaii soon but I want to finish filling you in on my road trip first.

I made it into Seattle at about 10 o'clock Pacific time and Noah met up with me. We cabbed it back to his place with my stuff and then headed out to see Seattle for the one day I was there. It was honestly about what I expected, which was a good thing. I did want to move there for a while my sophomore year of college after all. It was pleasant outside and not rainy (although I hear the rainy season has started up again already). Noah took me to a Chowder store near the sea port. I got a Cajun Chicken chowder in a bread bowl which was delicious. We then walked around in Sculpture Park (which was basically what it sounds like), then to the Space Needle (but didn't go up). Finally, we grabbed some ice cream, saw the giant Lenin statue, the troll beneath the bridge (from Ten Things I Hate About You), Bruce Lee's grave and then headed back so Noah could get ready for work. I went to his bar with him, had some drinks met a few of his friends and then walked home (and got lost) so I could prepare for the next day.

We picked up the car the next morning around nine and headed on our way. It actually took us a little while to get to the coast and I got very fed up with the Washington Highway System (in order to go south on US-101 you have to either go north on it or go west on another road.) But eventually we made it and the weather was basically what I wanted. It was cloudy and mild, but there wasn't any rain. We stopped a few places along the way and made it into Oregon by nightfall. I really want to say that I think driving down the Oregon coast is something every person in the world should attempt to do some time in their life. Washington and California and even the Northern train trip I took were beautiful but nothing like the Oregon coast. There were so many little signs for Scenic views it was hard to believe but every one was stopped at was indeed beautiful. And if the view from the road wasn't enough, they generally had a small trail leading off onto a cliff where the view was even better. It really is hard to explain it. The pictures just don't do it justice.

At the end of the night we stopped in a town called Lincoln City and got settled in for a bit, then headed out for some drinks and a bite to eat. We went to a sports bar of a sort (there weren't a lot of options) and got some burgers and played pool with a couple girls from around there for a bit. They told us to hit up the Seal Caves the next day (which we would) and then suggested a second bar for us (since we were getting ready to leave) which was closer to the hotel. The second bar was awful, however so we headed back and crashed for the night.

That, my friends was the first day of my road trip. I'm going to do my best to fill you in on the rest of them and eventually get this blog up and running. In the meantime, if you wanna check out the rest of my pictures from the trip they can be found here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ian.adkins/NewYorkToLosAngelesRoadTrip

I hope you enjoy them.

trails and rails

2007-09-13T19:50:00.001-07:00

I’m into my third day of train travel and here is what I’ve discovered thusfar. I’ve decided that anyone who rides trains around the U.S. and Canada are of an entirely different culture and mindset than most of the country. A number of the people are European but that stands to reason because there is a lot more train travel in general in Europe, so why wouldn’t they travel by train in the States as well? Also, and this may seem obvious, but people don’t just take a train to get from one place to another, if they are on the train then there is usually some sort of adventure in their background.

On my train from Chicago to New York, I had a seat of my own at first and so the beginning of the trip was fairly uneventful. I sat, read, and watched some TV on my ipod, nothing excited. At one point an elderly couple boarded the train but there were any free adjacent seats. So, as my momma taught me, I offered to move and let them sit together. They were very grateful, and offered their thanks, as did some of the other passengers around them. “What a sweet boy”, was the general sentiment.

Behind them, an Indian man about my age offered me the seat next to him and we chatted. He was born in India but grew up in Los Angeles. He had taken a train from there to New York and spent some time with his friends and was heading back. He was missing a leg (though I never found out why) and so I made runs to the snack car for him a few times and we basically hit it off. We talked about girls, drinking and our jobs (he’s also a techie) and basically hit it off. He also kept me company in Chicago while we both waited for our next trains.

My train left about an hour before his and when I got on I sat behind a girl who I’d noticed on the first train (from New York) and noticed she was heading all the way to Seattle as well. At one point, one of the… flight attendants (?) asked anyone who was sitting in a seat by themselves to move to the back of the car as she was reserving the front of the car for couples and families so they would be able to sit together. So I asked the girl ahead of me if I could sit with her and she agreed.

So my current seatmate is a sweet girl named Rachel who is from Switzerland, where she teaches elementary school. She’s in the United States because her brother lives in Vancouver and she is going to go to school there for a few months to learn better English (although apart from a few words, she seems to know it quite well). Prior to heading to school though, she took a train from Vancouver across Canada. She visited Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, New York and a number of other cities. She’s been traveling for about a month and a half and is now heading back.

As far as other people I’ve met, at my first night’s dinner, I met a large, crazy man (albeit quite friendly) who gave me advice on what to eat and what not to eat in the dinner car (he’s not a fan of vegetables). At my second dinner I met two elderly men, one of whom is retired from Amtrak and now has a lifetime supply of free train trips and is using them to see America. The other recently went to his daughter’s wedding in New Mexico and bought an All-American Pass. In his words, “now that my children are married and I’m retired, I figured I should see a bit of the world while I’ve got the time.”

Lastly, I met a man on the scenic view car (I know it has another name but I can’t remember what it is) who was on his way back to Seattle from Nova Scotia. He had biked for 67 days across the United States and then taken a train to Nova Scotia. He told me that a lot of his route had been following the train tracks and so a lot of what we were passing now he had seen before on his way out.

The lunch car just opened so I might go grab a bite. I get to Seattle in less than a day now so if anything exciting happens before that I’ll update you again. I miss and love everyone in Kentucky and New York.

two greats gone

2007-09-07T15:48:00.000-07:00

Madeline L'Engle died today.

This makes me sad.

2007-06-07T23:51:00.001-07:00

Its very rare that I would post a celebrity news item on my blog but I liked this particular press release. Isaiah Washington was let go from "Grey's Anatomy" after the show's season finale and his response to the news was "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!". Now, why do I report this response? Simply because I'm a huge fan of "experience et auctoritas". I love it when someone quotes a familiar figure or source in order to validate their point. Isaiah's quote was a reference to the 1976 film "Network" and I appreciate the reference.

Headline!

2007-05-31T00:06:00.000-07:00

Best Onion article written in a long time.

Out on the Oregon coast line, where the fog blankets the sea

2007-04-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

So I've officially bought my train ticket to Seattle. I leave New York on the 8th of September and arrive on the 11th. This is the first leg of my trip to Hawaii. Kurt has said he's no longer "considering it". He said "unless something major happens then I'm out of here". So I won't be moving on my own which I'm humongously relieved about. I think I will reserve my rental car for the trip down the Pacific Coast Highway sometime tomorrow since it only costs a small down payment to reserve it and then wait a bit to buy my airline ticket from LA until Kurt can get a date. Tentatively I will leave the 18th of September but if he needs to wait a few days then no biggie because I know Sam will enjoy having my in LA a few extra days. I've gotta say I'm really excited about driving down the PCH. Not only do I have no doubt that it'll be a beautiful sight, but I can't wait to get to spend some more time with Noah for a while. I really miss that kid.

In layman's terms...

2007-04-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update. So March was the second month of me trying to get in shape for Hawaii. This time Jesse and Willie started coming to the gym as well and here are my numbers for the month. I went running 18 times for a total of 29.5 miles. I walked (not including around the city walking but just before/after running walks) an additional 12.25 miles and I biked 13 times for 47.8 miles (the incline/resistance levels for these were fairly consistent but did fluctuate some). The total calorie count according to the treadmill/stationary bike was: 8565. April is off to a good start as I've gone to the gym three times already and I'm trying to incorporate pushups/the plank/crunches into the mix this month. Unfortunately I think I did something to my left shoulder and so the pushups were a bit hard today.

2007-03-09T20:54:00.000-08:00

"I can believe things that are true and I can believe things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not. I can believe in Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny and Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen--I believe that people are perfectible, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkledy lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unpricipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like the Martians in War of the Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that its aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there is a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says that sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it."
--Samantha Black Crow in "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman

Derby Days

2007-03-02T08:46:00.000-08:00

I had meant to mention this in the last post but maybe with a post of its own more people will notice it. I will be returning to Kentucky in May for the Kentucky Derby and to see all those I love. I will be flying in the night of Friday, May 4th and will stay in Louisville that night and the following (as Saturday, May 5th is Derby, also Cinco de Mayo). Then I will most likely be returning to the Richmond/Lancaster area for the following week with the possibility of minor excursions to Danville, Casey County, Northern Kentucky and Bowling Green. We will have to see. However, I would love to see as many people as possible while I am home.

A fortnight gone

2007-02-28T08:06:00.000-08:00

Its been a couple weeks since I've posted on here and I can't really say that nothing has happened. Jesse left Monday morning for France and only returned this past Friday, but did so with all sorts of stories. Tuesday we watched "Network" for movie night at Mike's, and Friday night I went to see Ghostrider with Yale and went to Hifi afterwards. Brian and Lyndsey were there and Brian and I played pool most of the rest of the night. The following night we went to Willie's show at Maxwell's in Hoboken. It was a fantastic show. The band was spot on, Willie got me in for free and even got me free dinner, I finally got to see Marah live and they were a treat. Just a great time. It took us a while to get back to Brooklyn afterwards and we went to the Country Club for a bit but I didn't really enjoy myself there so I didn't stay too long.
Sunday night, Willie played another show, this time at Rockwood but again with the full Band. Liz and Tessa played prior to him and they were pretty fantastic. Willie then played a few songs solo and the drummer showed up right as he was bringing the rest of the band on stage. The show was at 1 in the morning on a Sunday night so we hadn't really expected many people but there was actually a decent turn out. I also got to see Khara and Brittney who I don't see regularly but they are always a treat.
The Monday night Living Room show, on the other hand, wasn't terribly exciting. Not a lot of people showed up but I guess that was just because of the two shows the nights before and the fact that Willie played at eight thirty which is a bit early for his crowd. Tuesday, we watched "Dog Day Afternoon" and Wednesday I went to Ash Wednesday Mass with Aria at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown. The cathedral was beautiful but there were just so many people trying to get ashes that the set up of the service was very awkward. Still, I'm glad I got to go.
This past Friday, Jesse got home but was understandably too tired to do much of anything and Willie's mom was in town so he was spending time with her. So I went to Hifi on my own with the hope of playing a bit of pool like I had the week before. That didn't happen but Aria and some of her friends were also there for a while and after they left, I hung out with Nadir and Fozzie (I don't know how he actually spells his name) and I watched Thriller. Aria texted me kind of late in the night and I met up with her again at one of her friend's places. I stayed there for a bit but then just went home. I guess it was a decent night.
Saturday Yale came down and we hung out here for a while and played video games. Then around one we went to the country club and met up with Aria and basically the same friends I had seen the night before. Jesse showed up at some point as well as Daris and some of his friends. I actually enjoyed myself Saturday night which had been the first time I'd had fun at the Country Club in a couple weeks.
Sunday was a relaxing day during which Yale, Jesse and I went to see "Reno: 911" and then went to Hifi for a couple drinks and couple games of pool and a game of Scrabble with Stephen and Sean (I won based solely on the word "high" which was on both a double letter score and a triple word score). Monday night's Living Room show had a better turn out than the week before and even Thomas (one of the Country Club bartenders) showed up. Last night was movie night and we watched "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and I can say its been one of my favorite's yet. Mike definitely hasn't disappointed with his selection thus far. And that catches us up.

The weekend in review

2007-02-12T06:28:00.000-08:00

Pretty crummy weekend. Friday night I really wanted to go out but Willie was in Asbury Park, Jesse was taking it easy, Yale was in Park Slope and Aria had to stay in Manhattan because of an interview the following morning. I didn't want to go to Hifi or the Country Club by myself, going to Park Slope would have been a really big hassle and Aria was going dancing which I had no desire to do. So I stayed in.
Saturday night I drank before meeting anyone out and was in a bad mood anyway so when I met up with people at the Country Club I just wasn't enjoying myself and so I went home. Sunday I met up with Yale and we walked around the city for a while and then went to see "Smokin Aces". The movie was good enough. It was very entertaining which is all you can ask from a movie like that. Afterwards I met up with Willie and Jesse at Hifi and stayed for a couple drinks. I played a game of Scrabble but didn't do too well. Then I just went home and went to bed, wrapping up a crummy weekend.
On a lighter note, Jesse is going to France today and I'm excited for him about that. Its something he's wanted to do for a long while and I think he will really enjoy it.

We used to swap shots between drinks or drinks between shots.

2007-02-07T13:34:00.000-08:00

Last night was movie night at Mike's (the owner of Hifi) place with Jesse and Aria. We watched "The Big Sleep" (the original with Bogart and Bacall). I'd been wanting to see that since I read the book a few years back and Mike happened to have it. I'm actually going to let him borrow my copy of the book next week since he hadn't read it. The movie was pretty much excellent. Bogart played Marlowe pretty much spot on the way I'd imagined him while reading. My favorite lines from the book were pretty much all in the movie but they did change the ending some and edit a few scenes to make there more of a love connection between Vivian and Marlowe than there was in the book. Overall, I thought it was fantastic though.
After the movie, we all went over to Hifi together and had a few drinks and Mike, Jesse, Stephen (from the Scrabble game the other night) played a few games of pool while Aria spent most of her time on the phone. We grabbed a cab and dropped Mike off and then headed back to Brooklyn where we went to the Country Club for a while. Jesse and Aria ran around and took photo booths while I sat at the bar and chatted with Reggie and this guy George about horror movies. At one point Jesse shot me with a water gun. Then we went home and called it a night. I stayed out entirely too late though. Movie night is supposed to an early night but last night was definitely not. Good times though.

When you do things right, they'll hardly know you've done anything at all

2007-02-05T11:35:00.001-08:00

So, I made it home. Hooray! My flight went pretty uneventfully. I watched "Flushed Away" during the flight (Meh.) and an episode of "King of Queens". Once I got back, I waited oh so long for my damned baggage (not the emotional kind, silly) while the late night airport attendants played on the intercom (they were pretending to be cats, apparently). I got home to a kittenless apartment. That actually requires a little bit of explaining. Jesse and Willie informed me (via myspace comments to myself and each other) that they had gotten a kitten while I was gone and that it was staying in my room. Well, I wasn't entirely excited about the idea but reconciled myself with it throughout the week and was ready to meet the kitten when I got home only to find out that they had been lying and had actually forgotten about the lie until I asked where it was.

Jesse went to bed after not too long and Willie and I went to the Country Club to meet up with Daris and Luke. Aria came out as well and over all it was a nice little first night back in New York, although nothing overly exciting happened that I remember. The following night, I did my taxes first (rock) and then Yale came over and we went into town to a place I'd gone back in September with him called "The Peculiar Pub". We stayed for a couple drinks, Aria met up with us, and then we attempted to go to Aria's friend Caitlyn's party. We failed.

We walked about (I swear) 700 blocks trying to get to the JMZ (a subway) while I complained about just taking a cab. Apparently there were no cabs in New York on Saturday night, however (this is not true). We finally did find one, drove about three blocks in the wrong direction before realizing the cab driver didn't know where he was going. We got out and walked back to the JMZ and stood and waited for it for about twenty minutes before realizing that we didn't know which direction to take the train (both direction lead to Brooklyn and we didn't know where in Brooklyn we were going exactly). We got back out of the train, back into a cab and just went to the Country Club instead. Rachel, Willie, Daris and a few other met up with us there and it was a successful night in the end.

Yesterday was Super Bowl. Bryan Hamilton called me a bit before the game to wish me happy Super Bowl because he said he remembered how much I liked it. I thought that was awfully sweet. He said that Super Bowls haven't been as much fun since I left. We chatted for a while and the Jesse and I went to Hifi to watch the game. The crowd at Hifi was fantastic. All the regulars were there and even Sky and his girlfriend KJ (who Aria apparently knows). I played a couple games of pool with Jesse, a couple games of pinball with Mitch and even a game of Scrabble with Shawn and Steve. Again, it was a very good night, even if the game itself didn't do too much for me.

Perfect DRM

2007-02-01T10:26:00.000-08:00

This is an excellent article on Digital Rights Management. Everyone who has any interest in media, sharing, copyright protection et cetera should read it. It basically discusses the mistakes that the MPAA and RIAA have made in trying to protect their media and how they should take a hint from the book publishing industry in the way they deal with intellectual property protection. Good read.

Steak stuffed with shrimp is a good idea.

2007-01-31T10:26:00.000-08:00

I got my W-2 from work yesterday and went back to Sam's with the intention of doing my taxes (I'm always very punctual with them) but started instead playing with scripting in photoshop. Then Jen (Sam's new wife) made me a couple drinks and told me all about the wedding (she said at one point during the reception, the song "Amore" was playing and the large number of Armenians there were dancing and singing and it couldn't have been more "Mafioso" if it had tried) and the couple times she's broken mirrors and had resulting bad luck and about Kristina (Sam's sister) when she was little.
Before long, Kris showed up and then John and Sam and a number of other Sarkisian family members. They were going out to a swank restaurant/bar called "Boa" and Sam asked me to come along. So I put aside me plans to do my taxes and went out. I was definitely an odd man, being the only non-Armenian in the party (aside from Jen, who is married into the family now) but I had a lot of fun anyhow. I drank some bourbons and everyone was terribly friendly. John (Kristina's boyfriend) kept me company as well during dinner by talking about the Derby. I ate two things I had not eaten up until now. I ate escargot (which was probably my favorite part of the meal) and raw oysters in a half shell (which I also enjoyed and since I liked them I'm going to actually try oyster stew next Christmas because surely it must be better than I'd previously believed). For my meal itself I had culotte steak stuffed with shrimp and there were a number of side dishes from mac and cheese to mashed potatoes to asparagus. All in all, it was an excellent meal. It was good to get out another night while I was in LA. It made the trip a little more worth it.

Meahwhile, in the City of Angels...

2007-01-29T20:54:00.001-08:00

I travelled to Los Angeles on Wednesday of last week. I was at the airport and was through security with about half an hour before my plane was scheduled to leave but the bumped me to the following flight anyway. I still got a window seat and the flight was uneventful, thanks to my Lord Michaels. I out here because my boss got married on Thursday of last week and was in Hawaii for the wedding. He flew me out and is letting me stay in his apartment so that I would be there to help make sure everything gets done in the office.

Since arriving, things have been pretty slow. The only real exception was getting to see Pam on Friday night. I wasn't sure if things were going to be awkward between us but thankfully they very much weren't. She brought me to a restaurant near her work, we ate (along with a guy who she isn't sure if she is dating or not) and then headed to a bar she thought I would like. She was correct and I had a very good time. Neither of us were overly social with the other bar patrons because we were too busy catching up, but since I was getting to hang out with Pam like old days, that wasn't all that important.

I went home after the bar and spent a relaxing weekend doing next to nothing. I was going to meet up with Pam again after leaving work today and help her move into a new apartment but by the time work was up, she was finished. So instead, I headed back to Sam's apartment, watched a couple episodes of Futurama and then started creating a new blog.

I miss New York immensely. I need to say that. Nothing against my friends in LA, its been nice to see them all but there is just so much going on in New York that I want to be there for. Granted most of it is stuff that happens on a very regular basis like Willie, Christine and Adam playing upstairs at the Living Room but its stuff I really don't want to be missing. Aria's been keeping me company during work hours on instant messenger but again that just makes me want to be back in New York. I'll be here til Friday and that day can't come soon enough.