Monthly Archive for November, 2006

Holidays

Published on November 29, 2006 in Family & Friends, Random Thoughts and Web. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

Feeling generous, or really, really generous? Threadless gift certificates are always a good idea, too, especially with the big sale going on. I’m gonna work on getting the Amazon Wishlists built into this site. I tried a little bit, today, but I think it’s beyond my current mental abilities. Maybe after some more sleep.

After my sixteen hours of driving, I came home to a cold and smelly apartment, due to the food in the fridge not getting eaten and the windows being left open. Then, when I woke up and tried to get dressed, I realized that a piece of the ceiling had fallen in my closet… there was dirt and stuff everywhere. I thought I had heard something in the middle of the night, but in reality, it could’ve happened anytime in the last two weeks. I wonder if animals from the attic came down to investigate my closet.

Thanksgiving was very different this year, but definitely fun. Christmas should be fun; Sarah is going to come out and spend the weekend with me for Mom’s family feast thing. The holidays last year seemed to be all about adjusting to having them without Dad. This year, I think I’m so distracted by the move to Chicago, that I might forget to really enjoy them. The plan is to have everything cleaned out and be completely moved when I fly out there on Christmas day. Hopefully, the cleaning will go smoothly. Today was supposed to be my day to rest before cleaning, but it turned into a 12 hour workday, instead… bummer.

Florida + Wii + Sarah’s family = so much fun, I’m exhausted

Published on November 25, 2006 in Random Thoughts. Closed Tags: , , , .

I came out to Chicago a couple weeks ago, to start some early job-hunting and move a carload of my stuff out here. The hunt revealed a lot of team-building and ropes course work out here, probably won’t be able to start in on anything like that until the spring, but it looks like I have lots of options. I met with a few people and talked to a bunch more and everyone seemed friendly and helpful.

Then we went to Florida. United airlines delayed us on the way there [and the way home]… so they lose points with me. Sarah’s aunt went to Australia for a while, so we stayed at her house. It was pretty nice, a good change of pace and scenery. It was bound to be a relaxing kind of vacation from the get-go, since Sarah and her mom were getting away from stressful/long hours of work… so no big adventures out to the big amusement parks. The longest ride was an hour and a half, to eat at a cool Mexican place they’d been before.
… and we got a Wii. Nintendo’s newest console, complete with motion/speed sensing controller (playfully dubbed the Wii-mote by us and many online vendors/fan sites). The Wii Sports game it comes with is tons of fun, and we also picked up a handful of others, including Zelda. I bought one, too. I don’t know what I’ll do with mine, yet. I could give it as a gift or try to eBay it or keep it so I’m guaranteed my own Wii time when I move here. We shall see.

Heading back to Woonsocket in a few days to finish cleaning out the apartment. Speak up now if you want Sara’s couches, a kitchen table, a beat up old coffee table, a futon or anything else you may have seen at my apartment that might still be there… you just have to come and get it. The less I have to store at Mom’s or throw out, the better. Maybe I’ll hit up Freecycle if I get desperate.

test-drive an apartment?

Published on November 8, 2006 in Family & Friends. Closed Tags: , , , .

Most of Sara’s stuff is now out, and I’m starting to move some of my stuff around. A carload of stuff went to Mom’s, stuff that I don’t wanna throw out, but also don’t want to bring with me. Gotta finish putting together a carload of stuff that I wanna bring to Chicago, but don’t need to have here with me, when I come back to finish packing and such (basses, extra computers, etc.), plus a bunch of clothes and stuff I’ll need for the two weeks I’ll be away… which brings me to my proposition: I am expecting a couple packages to come to the house while I’m away and the usual amount of mail. UPS drivers in this town are notoriously stupid and incapable of following instructions left on notes for them, so I am worried that these packages will end up back at UPS in Warwick, and then returned to senders. Anyone wanna house-sit? Anyone have an inkling to sublet my apartment, but don’t know about the neighborhood or change in commute? Try it out for all or part of the next two weeks and bring in my mail/receive my packages! I think I can have Sara or her boyfriend, Dan, or Drew do the mail retrieval and stuff… but I thought I’d throw this out there, just to see if there’s any interest. I had a lead on a guy and his friend looking for a place, but it seems to have fizzled out.

warm weather, mmm

Published on November 7, 2006 in Computers, Family & Friends, Music and Web. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Doing lots of cleaning and packing this week. Gonna pack up the mac and zombie (which now has a legal copy of Windows on it, due to a find while cleaning a closet) as well as a couple basses, and at least the top half of my bass amp. Those things plus most of my clothes and maybe all my movies/books/etc. will come in the car with me, out to Chicago, and stay out there. I’ll come back after Thanksgiving and clean out everything else that’s here. Looks like that means everything, too, cause nothing seems to be happening on the sublet front. I got an extra day to clean due to a day of work being rained out. It’s decreased the pressure of the whole cleaning/packing situation, and made it seem a lot easier to accomplish. It’s been pretty easy so far, but there’s definitely a lot to be done.

Hey look! My girlfriend’s a model (perks of working for Threadless, I guess):

Sarah models threadless shirt

I’m very excited about being with Sarah, and the job hunting, and the trip to Florida for Thanksgiving… should I try to contact my brother and see him while we’re there? Or my uncle? or both? I’m not sure.. brother Ernie is not really good at keeping in touch. It could prove to be more trouble than it’s worth. I’ll give it an honest attempt.

listening party?

Published on November 2, 2006 in Music and Random Thoughts. Closed Tags: , , , .

I got the 5.1 speakers hooked up to my TV earlier this year, and have been pleasantly surprised by the occasional movie or TV show that makes really good use of the surround sound. Even when it’s not used well, like that weird Wal-mart commercial I was watching, where all the sound suddenly shifted to the back speakers for no apparent reason, it’s still kinda cool. It creeps me out for a second, and then I remember that there’s speakers back there and it’s intriguing. Sometimes I just think about the guy who mixed the sound, and what was going through his head while he was putting sound back there.

Today, I listened to two old albums in a very different way. A few years ago, a bunch of us tried to get the necessary CD players and coordination to play the Flaming Lips four disc album the way it was meant to be played… but it proved a bit too difficult to really experience it as intended. So I was thrilled to find out that it wasn’t just a fluke or a phase for them, and that they’ve re-released a couple albums in 5.1 surround sound. Not only that, but the liner notes include these big long explanations of the entire concept and the mindset and the steps that led to this style of recording. They also included maps explaining what kind of stuff got mixed where and a little bit of why and how. It’s a lot of fun, and it makes me want to tweak my speaker set-up so that it’s just right.

So, does anyone want to come over and listen to this stuff? It’ll motivate me to clean and pack faster if I know company is coming, I think. It’ll be a listening party… I’m not sure when I might have time, but lemme know if you’re interested.

woot