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May. 2nd, 2009 @ 11:04 am
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This trip is going to be great.

I've been chatting with my Colombian pen-pal, Karen, and she is trying to explain to me how cell phone service works in Colombia. I assumed I would just buy a pre-paid SIM, put it in my phone and start making calls.

Well, apparently in Colombia there are tons of people on the street that have like 5 cell phones on them and they sell minutes. They are able to sell them much more cheaply than you can buy them from your cellular provider, so if you have to make a call, you pay them money to use one of the cell phones they have. !!!!!!!!!

Of course, you still use your own phone to receive calls.

I haven't left and the culture shock has already started. Haha, I'm so looking forward to this trip!
May. 1st, 2009 @ 11:17 pm Odd one out
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I don't normally go out on both Fridays and Saturdays (usually just one, if at all). With most people I usually hang around with, going out on the weekends seems to be 'the thing to do'. Work all week, go out on the weekends. But I'm always left wondering if there is more to life than just that. (To clarify - I try to make every day of the week enjoyable, no matter what I'm doing on those days.)

For almost the past two years, I've put in a lot of hard work during the week and even on weekends in order to try to learn Spanish. It is the third biggest chunk of my time after sleeping and work. I want to learn Spanish so that I can be bilingual and won't have to feel like a stupid ignorant American any longer (instead I can call myself a recovering American). I want to learn another language so that it will help me travel and explore the world and search for the 'more' that is out there. Even if English is probably the most useful language for that task, Spanish is still widely spoken. And even if there isn't 'more' out there, at least I went and looked instead of going to the same bars in the same city weekend after weekend.

So one might logically believe that a Spanish course at the local university would be a good place to connect with like-minded people who are also interested in learning a language. That belief would be dead wrong. Everyone in my class thinks I'm some sort of super smart genious, but the truth of the matter is that I probably study 3x as much as most people do in that class. Granted, most of them are full-time students and I only work full-time and Spanish is my only class. After all, I put off taking a foreign language until I graduated due to the demanding nature of my undergraduate coursework. But, in reality, I think an engineering curriculum is probably a lot more time-intensive than many of the majors for the students in these classes.

So in both cases, I end up being the odd one out.

And I imagine this will continue to be the case for quite some time yet, altho the situations will probably change significantly (and I will as well, I probably just won't change in a manner that brings me into conformity with those new situations.)
Apr. 15th, 2009 @ 10:50 pm Why I can't stand Americans: Reason #5921
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I was trying to sleep and get to bed early in order to recover from this stupid cold. Instead, I kept thinking about the upcoming trip and other trips I am kinda planning in my head over the next 3 years.

Whenever I've been talking to someone about my trip to Colombia, I mention the places I'm visiting in Colombia. I tell them how I will visit Bogota for 2 weeks, then off to Cartagena on the Caribbean and then to Zona Cafetera - the coffee-producing region. Everyone thinks the greatest joke at this point is to say "Don't you mean the cocaine producing region?" The joke wasn't funny the first time I heard it and it didn't get any funnier the next half a dozen times.

Before I go any further, I will get one fact out of the way: Colombia does produce 80% of the world's cocaine.

But Colombia is so much more than just cocaine! They mainly produce coffee and oil. They also have some pretty amazing geography, the main reason I'm going there. And Colombia is trying to work against the cocaine problem because it is part of what has hindered their efforts towards a stable democratic society. The Colombian people don't seem to be very happy about the cocaine problems mainly due to the very high crime rates that came with it all. The hostels I'm looking at staying say right on their webpage that if you came there to do cocaine, you are in the wrong place. "Money spent on cocaine goes directly to support armed groups, fighting in Colombia's internal conflict, leading to assassinations, kidnappings, massacres and one of the world's largest refugee problems."

I might just start introducing myself as being from the US, where all the fat, rich, stupid, and closed-minded people come from. That's the stereotype the rest of the world gives us, and I'm beginning to agree.
Mar. 31st, 2009 @ 09:18 pm
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Today in spanish class we were leaning vocabulary about jobs and the economy and whatnot. For an exercise, the profesora split us into groups and everyone was given a career. We then learned that we were in a hot air balloon that was leaking, so we would need to throw one person over (as a sacrifice) in order to not crash. The decision would need to be unanimous (with the exception of the person we are throwing over).

My group consisted of a stock broker, a judge, a model, an architect, an accountant, a politician, and a police officer. I was the architect.

Our decision was made quickly. We got rid of the model.
Jan. 9th, 2009 @ 06:06 pm
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Apollo got to come home last night and he appears to be doing better. He has both of his front legs shaved, his underside, and a patch on his neck so he looks pretty hilarious akshully.

I saw him drink from his new fountain, so hopefully that will help. I'm also mixing water into his wet food to turn it kinda into a soup, which he eats (drinks?) with no problem. Hopefully this issue will stay away and not come back.
Jan. 7th, 2009 @ 01:12 pm Apollo
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The vet called this morning and told me that even though they've been hydrating him with an IV and giving him medicine, he still hasn't gone so they are going to put a catheter in him and he'll be there for 2 more days.

He hasn't even been gone 24 hours and I'm already missing seeing him around the house.
Jan. 6th, 2009 @ 09:36 pm What a day.
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Apollo is spending the night at the animal hospital b/c tonight when I got home from work I noticed he kept going to the litterbox and would try to pee, but nothing came out. The good news is that he's probably going to be alright and I should be able to pick him up tomorrow. The bad news is its going to cost so much that I may need to start eating ramen noodles and drinking cheap beer. Oh, and I'm going to have to try harder to get him to drink more water from now on. (Getting Apollo to do anything is considered difficult.)

Also, starting tonight I'm going to be working third-ish shift for a week or two. The application I'm testing runs their QA environment on the same server as production, so they don't want me to test it while a lot of people are using it - just in case I break anything.

Here's to not going to bed until at least 5am.

Cheers.
Nov. 19th, 2008 @ 09:12 pm
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Oct. 19th, 2008 @ 02:00 am Calmer than the eye of a hurricane...
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Current Mood: lonely
Current Music: Five Horse Johnson - Hollerin'
Drinking holes in my belly, theres holes in my heart,
holes in my shoes, what keeps us apart
Oct. 1st, 2008 @ 09:08 pm One year
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Current Location: Stone Sour - Zzyzx Rd.
Current Mood: lonely
I had written a big long entry about how I feel and summing up the past year, but I re-read it and decided I didn't like it. So I'll keep it simple.

It's been a year since I've seen Kristina. I still really miss her a lot.
Aug. 11th, 2008 @ 09:25 pm i want to ride my bicyle....
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I found out about it too late this year, but I definitely want to ride in the Riverwest 24 next year.

http://www.riverwest24.com

Its a 24-hour bicycle race around the Riverwest neighborhood with different categories. The team/individual in each category with the most laps completed wins. The categories are: individual, tandem, team with 1 bike, team with many bikes.

And my first thought was that they should add a Big Wheel category because that would just be awesome.

Altho it brings an interesting question: is a Big Wheel a legal road user or would they have to ride on the sidewalk? Either way, completing just a single 5 mile lap with plastic tires and your knees against your chest would be impressive.

Maybe this big wheel desire just stems from the other race that I want to take part in some day: Bring Your Own Big Wheel in San Francisco

Aug. 4th, 2008 @ 05:12 pm AT&T keeps trying to sell me the interwebs
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This is the second time they came door-to-door. I guess its a 'new' offer in my area.

I tell them that I already have roadrunner business class (thru my work). They can't compete on price and speed.

'What do you have for regular cable?'

Well, I don't own a TV.

'Our U-Verse website has a lot of tools and things to help make the internet safer and more secure.'

I work in IT security.


---

That shut them up and made them go away.
Aug. 2nd, 2008 @ 10:31 pm Can opener
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While in the process of going to the store today to get ingredients for dinner, I realized that tomato sauce really only comes in cans and that I don't think I have a can opener at home. The only can openers Whole Foods sells are like some super safety ergonomic thing that costs $15. I'm not paying $15 for a can opener, that would cost more than the food for the meal!

If nothing else, Google will have the answers, right?

Turns out they do. Use a knife. Altho it is kinda dangerous, so I would not recommend this if you are typically bad with knives. Or if you have a large scar on your leg from using a knife. Especially if you were using that knife while trying to cut a shoe..

And for the future, screw getting a can opener, I'm getting one of these!

(Yes, I've spent at least an hour watching YouTube videos of people trying to open cans without a can opener and researching all possible alternatives.)
Jul. 31st, 2008 @ 10:07 pm
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I haven't posted anything for awhile. The last two things I posted were vehicle troubles (car got flooded, lost the license plate for my motorcycle).

So I got a new car! It's a 2008 black Yaris hatchback 5 speed. I had a hell of a time finding one with a manual transmission, apparently most americans buy cars that are automatic. I'm still getting a little used to learning how to drive stick tho, even if I have had the car for a month and a half. See, I have barely driven it. It has pretty much just sat there while every day when it is sunny I take my motorcycle or my bicycle.

Speaking of which, I got a new license plate for my motorcycle. The DMV wasn't too painful and I think it cost a whopping $7. Altho of course I didn't have a license plate for it when I also didn't have a car, so I ended up taking my motorcycle to work sans license plate and thankfully never got pulled over.

I've also been cycling to work (as in pedal-bike), which is really awesome. My goal is to do it once a week and I've been doing that for the past 5 weeks (minus last week). It really makes my whole week feel 'better'. Hopefully there will be a week within the next month where I end up taking the bicycle twice in the same week. I guess it all depends on the weather and how I feel and stuff.

Speaking of bikes, there has been a video going around the intertubes that shows the NYPD tackling a cyclist during Critical Mass last friday. Reminds me of old times.. and almost makes me want to ride on another CM ride. I just am still not convinced that CM does anything to help promote cyclists rights..

Also, this blog is fricking amazing (if you like bikes): http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/

One of my favorite quotes from his coverage of the Tour de France: "I also died a little bit inside each time that anti-bike Autozone commercial ran"

So true, I really despise that ad. Wtf were they thinking running an ad like that during the Tour?
Jun. 15th, 2008 @ 11:35 pm
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Because I am fucking retarded:

http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/laf/721183327.html

*sigh*
Jun. 8th, 2008 @ 11:05 am If it keeps on rainin....
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Current Music: When the levee breaks
I ended up with a carpool at Claudia's graduation party yesterday when it flooded. Now the car won't start. I'm pretty sure it is b/c the computer unit is located under the passenger seat.



I was planning on getting a new car this year anyways, I guess it'll just be happening a little sooner.

Jun. 6th, 2008 @ 05:03 pm Slayer
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I always look forward to it and always forget National Day of Slayer.

Not this year!!

Happy National Day of Slayer!

May. 29th, 2008 @ 09:03 pm Weeds
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I just finished watching the first 3 seasons of Weeds. That show is awesome! I love everything it has to say about white middle class suburban america. It's a really brilliant show. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out.



I'm never living in suburbia again if I can help it.
May. 20th, 2008 @ 09:13 pm
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The damn squirrels are gone. The smaller one camped out on our porch for another day and chewed up part of the railing, but once we saw that we chased him away and put cat hair where he kept laying in the corner and tobasco sauce where he was chewing. Haven't seen either of them since.

Let's see, what else.. I fixed up my motorcycle and got rid of the fuel leak. The petcock was busted and that was where the gas leaked. I also did a touch-up paint job with some cheap spray paint I got at the auto parts store - it looks 'ok', unfortunately the spray means its not as smooth and polished looking as the rest of the bike, but the color matches pretty well. It also doesn't really cover up the ridge where the old paint had gotten eaten off by the gasoline, but you can only tell its not perfect if you get up close. I'd say its good enough for now and I'm not sure if I'll invest in a new paint job for it.
May. 16th, 2008 @ 09:23 pm fucking nuts...fed up with em always. I long for a grapefruit.
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Today I had a squirrel inside my house.

I rode my bike to the hardware store to pick up some parts for my motorcycle (thats another post itself) and the garden hose. Upon getting back, I saw one of the local squirrels sitting on my front steps near the door. As I approached, the squirrel hid under the railing.

To give you some backstory, these squirrels are nuts. They find trash around and then try to climb up onto our roof in order to reach their nest on the neighbors roof (they jump across). We have found half-eaten pieces of pizza and chicken wings on our porch when these stupid squirrels can't carry the items up to the roof and they drop them.

So back to the squirrel today. Apollo was laying near the door, waiting for me to get home, like always. As I opened the door, the squirrel decided to run inside the house. And of course my cat decided to chase the squirrel. I dropped my bike and ran after my cat. I didn't want him to get bit (he doesn't have all his shots, which he will soon). I grabbed my cat as he was chasing the squirrel and threw him into the computer room and closed the door.

Of course, the squirrel was still in the house. He now hid under my dropped bicycle. My roommate and I tried to shoo him out, but instead he ran further inside the house and curled up into a ball underneath the cabinets. I grabbed gloves, my roommate grabbed a towel, and we tried to pick him up and carry him out. He started crying, obviously he was very scared. I went to go prop the front door open so that the squirrel could get back out.

As we are trying to capture the poor thing inside a towel so we can take it outside, its mother is standing in the doorway. I ran over to shoo her away (don't need a second squirrel in the house, one is enough). We finally got the poor little bugger outside and he sure did run fast!

Then I was outside working on my motorcycle and fixing the hose and the freaking mother kept making noises at me. I think she was pissed at us or something.