Checksum Arcanius

My Birthday Weekend was quite fun and packed. As is often the case, there was no shcool on my birthday due to the Veteran’s Day holiday. So, I woke up late, did lunch and real-estate with my mom, then went to a DotA LAN party. I had never played DotA before, but with some guidance I found it to be quite a lot of fun. Next, I went to dinner with Courtney, roommate Dan, and Natalie, then it was off to bowling with the regular crew of Jon, Shai, and Theo. that made for quite a full day, but the weekend was just beginning. Saturday, I reviewed some more real estate, then went to the Huskies game (an ugly, terrible 20-3 loss to Stanford) before buying a mask and ending up at former roommate Kunlun’s housewarming party. I attended with Maria; the conversation was excellent and a good time was had despite having to rescue our masks from a couple of drunk girls. That concluded Saturday.

Sunday, it was back to work — consisting primarily of many more hours on the current Bioengineering Physiology lab. I then watched the end of the Seahawks game, played some pool with Maura at her place, then headed to my parent’s for a wonderful Sunday dinner and signing of a contract on some real estate (which seemed to be a common weekend theme). After dinner, I think I’ve conclusively verified a sneaking suspicion of mine: I am indeed allergic to chicken. I love the stuff, but my throat constricts and I feel generally crappy after eating it, a state which did not help when I got back to working on the BioE lab at 9:00. We ended — lab still not quite complete — at about 1:00am.

Today, I woke up late and missed my Bioengineering classes. I blame lack of sleep and chicken. Hopefully I’ll get back on track for the rest of the week — I don’t want to suffer too much from post-midterm slacking off. Later today there is a co-rec football game that coincides directly with the middle of a BioEngineering lab. If I can swing it, I will be missing the middle hour of lab to play in the game. I really want one of those t-shirts!

I had a ridiculously hard time getting to sleep last night. Right bout the time I had decided to just stay up all night, I fell asleep, only t wake up about 5 hours later feeling surprisingly good. It is amazing the trouble and power of that little thing called sleep.

Kaylee Graduates

Ryan is inspired by the Tube of Sound and Fire

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I just finished categorizing the several hundred posts that I recently imported from GreyMatter. About half way through, I stopped editing the posts for numerous question marks that had replaced em dashed and apostrophes. Maybe some day I’ll get on my horse and fix that stuff too, but don’t count on it. For the foreseeable future, I’ll keep the original Greymatter posts around too.

Going through this process has given me a lot of insight as well. Certainly, my blogging style has changed significantly from the early days. I still post a lot about my life, but generally my posts are much less rambling, and much more focused on the title. On the other hand, I have kept the same website address for quite some time now, which is better than a lot of people do. Also, this website has grown into a veritable cornicopia of information about my life and my recent history. I remember things because of this blog that I certainly would have forgotten. I see a lot of how I used to be, and realize that I have changed, much but not all for the better. I reflect on past struggles and triumphs, and I feel good about who I am and what I’ve done, even while recognizing that I still have a lot of room to become a better person, and I certainly haven’t even scratched the surface of what I want to accomplish. All in due time.

– Glasses
– Tripod

I just purchased a new tripod. Soon I will purcahase new glasses.

I just consumer whored.

I left Detroit at about 1:30 on Friday afternoon on a Greyhound Bus headed to Cleveland. We made one stop in Toledo on the way. For short rides like this, Greyhound is a pretty good way to go. It is still not suggested for long, cross-country hauls.

Upon arriving at the Cleveland station, I was immediately accosted by a homeless man who, after learning I was from Seattle, wanted to talk about the Seahawks, and of course money. I gave him some food, and then Scott picked me up. We headed to Scott’s old apartment, where I enjoyed his very big screen TV (56″) and we made soem banana bread. He then took me to an overpriced mexican joint where he main reason for going appears to be a smoking hot waitress. That establishment better hope she never leaves. That night, I slept fitfully on his couch; it was too warm all day.

On Saturday, I helped Scott move. Yeah, he just happened to be moving the weekend I showed up. It was alright though; I got to meet Ben (a jew!) and Scott kept feeding me the whole weekend for my help. Scott’s new place is a lot nicer than his old place; he is now on the ground level, has more space, a built-in air-conditioner, laundry a door away, and an attic to store his plethora or worldly posessions (as he continuously says, he is a consumer whore. Saturday night, Ben, Scott, Emma, and I went to the Boneyard, a Gameworks-like place, where we proceeded to have a good deal of fun, before searching endlessly (and fruitlessly) for a Taco Bell, before we gave up and went to one of the seven or so Wendy’s that we passed during the search.

Sunday, we lazed around, had a late breakfast at Denny’s, I got a tour of Progressive Insurance’s campus (and its extensive art collection) and then we ate again — Mexican (but not with the hot waitress), and then I was depositted at the airport, where I breezed through security, hacked into the wireless network, and had my flight delayed an hour. After meeting a Volleyball player from Trinity Western University who sat in my row, we landed in Seattle around 11:15, and Kunlun picked me up promptly after my baggage arrived just before midnight (Thanks!).

Now I am back, safe and sound in Seattle (well, as safe as that can be!)

I was hoping to travel to Toronto today, but further research has indicated that a passport is the only way to be sure I’ll ever make it back into the United States. Since I didn’t plan on having all sorts of extra time here in Michigan, I didn’t even think about brining my passport. But from now on, I’ll consider it an essential part of my travelling gear.

Meanwhile, having nothing to do is really starting to bug me. I want to rent a car, but that will be expensive. Probably worth it, but I still don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.