Checksum Arcanius

So far, I am greatly enjoying living “on my own” again. Sure, I don’t own the place, but I feel like I’m in a good place. Certainly, the 8-minute ride to school is unbeatable — just long enough to make sure that I use the bike, just short enough that I don’t mind it. Furthermore, its downhill to class, and uphill back, so I get extra speed on my way there (which is exactly what I need) and a little workout on the way back (which I have found is also quite nice).

Yesterday, I went on a shopping spree before breaking the kitchen in by making some lasagna. I didn’t have the right tools to ix the mozzarella and ricotta, but other than the chunkiness of the cheese, it turned out quite well. My floormate Mario was attracted enough to the dish to offer me money to have some; instead I simply gave him a piece. As he’s in CSE 142, he’ll need such nourishment to make it through.

I get along with all of the housemates, but I still only remember two of their names: Dan and Mario. The guy who lives next door, the French exchange student, and the Asian dude upstairs, I need to hear a few more times before they stick I guess. No one has noticed, I don’t think. Speaking of names, I finally picked up the name of the girl who sits next to me in Biology. We exchanged names on the first day and then I promptly forgot hers. Reviewing things right before the test, however, I managed to see her name on her notes, and being a visual learner, I managed to remember it this time.

And speaking of Biology tests, the first one happened today. I feel that I did alright, with the exception of some memorization that I didn’t do. In hindsight, I should have known — in fact, I suspected that three of the four values would have been important, but I chose to believe the teacher when she said that her tests were about understanding concepts and not about memorization instead of going with my instincts and going over the numbers a few times. Oh well, I’ve learned and I’ll do better on the next one.

Yup… it was Courtney’s birthday, so after dinner at Wild Ginger in downtown Seattle, and a brief hiatus for the girls to sleep and for me to design a robot with Dan, I headed back to Courtney’s where I met up with Nick (Courtney’s boyfriend), Ann (whom I’ve mentioned before), and of course Courtney. After wandering around Seattle for a while, we ended up at Belltown Billiards, where there were indeed billiards, though we never got closer than about 25 feet from the tables. Instead, my three companions got some alcohol and I got a cranberry juice (courtesy of Courtney — what a babe). After sipping and chatting (aka yelling in each other’s ears) for a while, we decided to hit the dance floor. I’m not a big fan of dancing usually, but I decided I wouldn’t let that stop me from having a good time. Sure enough I ended up enjoying it even if I never took my eye off of sportscenter for more than a few minutes at a time (which time was mostly spent making funny faces at Courtney or checking out the other girls there). Not that I’m itching to go again right away, but it certainly wasn’t a wasted $5 cover either.

8:30 — Awake, breakfast, read news
9:10 — Shower
9:25 — Leave for school on bike
9:32 — Arrive at Biology lab, begin dissecting rat
12:22 — Finish dissecting rat, go to Biology lecture
1:20 — Head to hub to grab some food
1:40 — After a chat with Angela, head to the Quad to study for Ochem quiz
2:30 — Ochem quiz section starts
3:10 — Ochem quiz
3:20 — Walking bck to bike, at Biology lab
3:30 — Drop off bike, jump into truck
4:30 — Arrive at work
12:30 — Leave work
12:50 — Back to the house, read and reply to email
1:30 — Grab a snack
1:45 — Blog, get ready for bed…

Although I watched the last half of X2 tonight after getting out of class at 7, I still haven’t slacked off much since school started, and I’ve been constantly doing stuff. Yet I haven’t really done any Organic Chemsitry yet. I’m wondering how this quarter is going to work out.

Great-game delayed one day, but here I am, half a mile from campus for the night. I no longer feat 8:30 am classes! w00t. All of the housemates seem pretty chill.

While I have all of the neccesities, there are still a few things I want to get done:

• Get the landlord to kick the neighbor out of the parking spot I intend to use, which is on this house’s property.
• Purchase and install a room door lock
• Transport the bike(s) here (I don’t know if I’ll bring the road bike just yet)
• Possibly bring Kaleidoscope (my desktop) here. (A guy upstairs has the same speakers as me!)
• Establish a good routine
• Sign the lease

I think thats about it… but I’m sure something else will come up as well.

Well worth getting no homework done for.

Vince Young and the Texas defense were spetacular; USC was just not good enough. As an underdog-rooter, this one felt really nice.

Chroni-cles of Narnia