I got accepted to the internship at the Cato Institute!!!!!!! w000000t!!!

D.C., here I come!!!!!

It amazes me that people still seem to be reading this blog even though I haven't been updating it. At least with my real blog, I know everyone's coming via a Google search. But what's your excuse?

Anyway, I've been lax on cross-posting stuff here from my LiveJournal (and I've been mostly posting stuff there only visible to my LJ friends). Does anybody want me to resume that? Speak now or forever hold your piece. Peace? I figure it's piece, and that you aren't allowed to shoot it anymore. I mean, you can't hold peace because it's intangible, right?

Yeah, I'm not making any sense. Dangit, it's too early. Why are you bothering to read this again? But in case nobody comments, and people are still coming by, here's a brief update:

Life is good.

(I said it'd be brief)

 2006 was not a great year for music for me. Not a lot of my favorite artists came out with albums, and several that did had disappointing ones (like Shawn Colvin). Plus my iBook is running out of disk space....

Burning Man was awesome, but I don't think I'll have a chance to write too much about it. You'll just have to rely on the photos, I guess (still uploading).

Anyway, I'm going through a lot of personal crap, and grad school is kicking my butt right now, so I don't think I'll have time to be dicking around on MySpace for the foreseeable future.

As always, you can reach me at fling93 AT gmail DOT com.

I think I have most everything I need for Burning Man. Just need to finish packing it. Meh, maybe later. I've got too much totally random shit that I just have to write about.

Sadie the Saturn is in the shop, getting tuned up before the long trek into the desert. Not too much broken this time, aside from the oil leak that they had fixed last time and so are refixing it again without charge. But all four tires were about to go bald and need to be replaced (I knew it was getting close and had kept putting it off, figuring that I could just pretend they were racing slicks, but I guess doing that in the middle of nowhere might not be such a great idea). So that wasn't a pleasant bill. Gotta wake up at butt crack tomorrow to go pick her up. Ugh.

Also getting my bicycle tuned up (hmmm, don't have a name for the bike -- maybe cuz I never ride the damn thing anymore). It'll be ready Tuesday afternoon, but since I'll be working, I'll probably pick it up Wednesday morning around the same time as I pick up pirategrrl's very overdue birthday present. A tuneup was prolly overkill, but I figured that was also way overdue. This Burning Man thing is ending up costing a lot more than I expected. I guess it's a good thing I'm still working at this job that I seem to hate so.

It also means I can buy new camera stuff. My spiffy new Crumpler bag arrived today. My old Tamrac was a great value (less than $20!), but it barely fit my workhorse tank of a lens, the 24-70 2.8L, and it definitely couldn't take it with the lens hood mounted reversed. I'm sure there's some crude sexual joke in there somewhere, but I'll leave that up as an exercise for the reader. But basically, this meant I'd have to tote the hood around somewhere else (usually in my backpack). Very inconvenient. Got a black 6 Million Dollar Home, as they call it, which can handle that lens with the hood reversed just fine, as well as plenty of other stuff (why does all of this sound dirtier than it really is?).

The hood matters because I like to keep it on the lens all the time because I always forget about lens flare (caused by direct light hitting the lens) and, more importantly, the hood is really good at just generally protecting the lens (this one cost twice as much as Kaylee did). So I'd been thinking about getting a bag for a while, and I figured the new semester would be a good time. I like the bag a lot so far. Not only is it roomy and ergonomic, but it looks stylish and doesn't scream "Camera bag! Come steal me!" at you (which is kinda annoying, especially when you are trying to sleep).

In other news, as I was getting into Erika's car after dinner tonight, I said, "Parallelogram!" No, the car is not shaped like one. This was just for no particular reason. I mean, there weren't any parallelogram-shaped objects anywhere in sight (well, I guess there was probably something rectangular somewhere around, which I know technically qualifies, but nothing that has that stereotypical parallelogram tilt to it). Sometimes I try to say something completely off-the-wall and random to amuse Erika, and this one certainly did, but I swear that I didn't run through the standard "come up with some random shit word to amuse Erika and create the illusion of being somewhat spontaneous" process (no, that one's not random enough... this one sounds too much like an insult... I think I've already used "Cookie Monster" the last seven times... aha, that's the one...). No, without any conscious thought, I just said it.

After Erika was done laughing at my weird-ass-ness, she of course asked the question that just begged to be asked, namely, "What the fuck?" At which point, I racked my brain for a plausible explanation, but the only one I could come up with was the fact that, as a grade-schooler, I used to have, for some bizarre reason, an eraser shaped like a parallelogram that was named "Paula Parallelogram." No, I didn't name her. She was apparently both an eraser and a nifty educational toy, all built into one. At least until you used her too much to cause her to deform and look more like a vaguely trapezoid-ish ovoid of some sort. This is a pretty weak explanation, but apparently, just that I ever had a Paula Parallelogram eraser is a hilarious fact in and of itself.

And then she started singing They Might Be Giants. She meaning Erika, not Paula Parallelogram (I'm not at Burning Man yet, sheesh!). Of course, she adapted it thusly: "Triangle Man, Triangle Man. Triangle Man hates Parallelogram Man..." which, if you knew "Particle Man", is way too many syllables for that line, which of course makes it all the more funnier. For that matter, why the heck is that song called "Particle Man" anyway? Triangle Man is the total star of that song, having two total verses in it. That's just false advertising, man (or maybe that should be the title of the song).

Such is the weird shit that makes up my life. Fear me.

Once in a while, I get reminded of our mortality and ask Erika to not ever die. And she always turns it around and asks me not to die either... but that if I did, she would just take all my money! It's kind of a running joke we've had (I don't have that much money, but her ex-friend, Tania, who briefly "dated" me was a total gold-digger airhead who had kind of a skewed view of how much money engineers actually made).

This morning, Erika gave our old joke a different twist:

"Yes, I would take all your money, ha ha! But I would miss you so much that I would spend it all on retail therapy and then be all po' again."

Which is, quite possibly, the strangest sweet thing anybody has ever said to me.

(whoops, behind on crossposting stuff from LJ, lemme catch up)

As I mentioned, one of my classes today, International Political Economy, is in danger of being canceled due to having only nine people there, when the typical cut-off is 16. So I went to two other ones I was considering. The first was an Anthropology course in Global Cultures, but that one was full. The second was International Economics, and it had plenty of room and seemed like a great class that covered similar material to IPE and had a section at the exact same time... but it doesn't give credit for Master's students.

I feel so drained. I lugged my camera and heavy tank of a lens around all day and didn't take a single picture. Didn't even take it out of the bag. Not a good sign. I'm really feeling like the semester started too soon, and obviously did not give myself enough of a break this summer. Maybe I'll just stay with 9 units if the class cancels, or just pick something fun and easy, like a PE class or rocket science.

On the upside, I met up with Erin for lunch, and we happened to run into Flickr pal Elea, who I didn't realize was going to SJSU. It's so weird to keep running into people I recognize on campus. That hardly happened at all last semester... which makes sense, given that last semester was my first semester. Yeah. Dizzying intellect must mean I'm just frickin' dizzy all the time. Argh, I think I just need to catch up on some sleep or something.

In a completely unrelated note, I am getting an awful amount of messages and mail from recruiters for some bizarre reason. Guess they don't realize I'm trying to quit engineering as a career, so I'm not exactly looking? Very annoying.

Oh, and on Pluto not being a planet and thus ruining the "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" acronym? Well, I have a new one:

"My Very Endowed Milkmaid Just Showed Us Nipples."

Of the cow's udders, you perv.

Erika and I just came back from seeing Wally Schnalle play a free outdoor concert at Santana Row as part of the Summer Jazz Series (organized by the same folks who do the Jazz Festival). Erika likes jazz, but can't stand the crowds and heat of the jazz festival (which is why she's not going to Burning Man). I'd seen them a couple of times before at the Jazz Festival, but not this year. Enjoyable grooves, as always. I don't think Wally is not exactly the best drummer in terms of time-keeping, but I do like the rhythmic complexity of his playing (I guess he's kinda like ELP's Carl Palmer in that respect). And damn, do they have an absolute kick-ass of a bass player!

Anyway, it occurs to me that I haven't posted my fall schedule, in case anybody cares:

ECON 102 - Macroeconomics with Hummel
ECON 190A - History of Economic Thought with Gonzalez
ECON 205A - Economic Decision Making with Watkins
POLS 155 - International Political Economy (IPE) with Montojo

My admission to the Master's program is conditional upon getting at least a B in Macro, but I'm not too concerned about it. I've also heard a lot of good things about Hummel. I dropped Math Methods for Econ and substituted Economic Thought because several SJSU people at FEE recommended it, as Gonzalez will be going into retirement. I believe both Hummel and Gonzalez are from the Austrian school (which is what I studied at FEE).

205A is a core class for the program and probably the most applicable class to my projected career as a policy analyst at a think tank or government agency. I've heard mixed things about Watkins, but he's the only one who teaches it. I'm taking IPE because Political Economy is a field I'd thought about going into when I had trouble deciding between Political Science and Economics, and I still want to have a broad background that includes political science. Also, I've taken Montojo before at Mission College (and I think I impressed him with my final paper), so it'd be handy to be able to get a letter of rec from him in the event I choose to try and apply to other grad schools.

Speaking of political science, my subscription renewal for Foreign Affairs this year comes with a free gift subscription, so if any of you happen to be interested, gimme a holler. I haven't really been keeping up with reading it (gee, what else is new?), but I imagine taking IPE will be an added incentive.

I'll also be shooting for The Spartan Daily again, but I'm not signing up for the class. They didn't have a problem with that last semester, and Neal, the new photo editor, seemed like he wouldn't mind it either.

Anyway, that's 12 units, which should be much more manageable than last semester's 18. Erika tells me expectations will be higher because I'm now a grad student, but I'm hoping this'll leave me more room to keep doing other things I enjoy, like writing.

Aw, poopie. I forgot to wish Tori Amos a happy birthday.

It's my last free day. Tomorrow, classes will start.

I'm listening to "Free Bird." I used to yell out that request to bands all the time, but just as a silly joke (yes, I am a walking and talking cliche). I didn't realize that this was an insult to the band until my trip to NYC when my sister explained it to me. I feel bad for all the bands I've inadvertently insulted throughout the years. But is it still an insult if you request it from a cover band? I think that might be at least half of them. Oh well, it's not like I threw anything at the stage.

I was hoping and expecting to be a lot more productive with my free time in August. I always have unrealistic expectations of my productivity. I was hoping to write a few posts to my much-neglected "real" blog. Instead, I spent most of my free time putzing around on LJ and Flickr (yes, I'm currently favoring LJ over MySpace right now). Erika tells me to not be disappointed with my lack of productivity. Summer break exists because people need a break from school, after all, and if anybody needed a break, I sorely did. And yet I filled most of the break with summer school and the economics seminar at FEE. Plus I processed a ton of photos.

Getting close to finishing the NYC trip photos, finally. So at least I have that. Of course, once I'm done, then comes the decision of what to upload next. I was hoping to have gotten through my backlog by now. Some of the photos probably aren't even worth going through now, due to the lack of timeliness. Does anybody care to see photos of Sharks games with the season long over? Of assignments I shot for The Spartan Daily last semester?

Well, it's not like too many people care about the photos I'm uploading now. I'm kinda disappointed in the lack of attention that my photos garner. I was pretty proud with how a few of them turned out, especially some of the MOMA ones, but the only photo I've taken that's been favorited more than once is the one I took of my dessert there. Flickr folk are so frequently fickle. Then again, I should just be excited that my photos are getting viewed at all, let alone considerably more views than they used to get.

I'm not really excited about classes starting. Not sure what this means. Does it mean I'm depressed? Does it mean I didn't give myself enough of a break from school? Does it mean that the novelty of school has worn off? Does it mean I've picked the wrong field, and am just going to end up trapped again in a career that I hate? Argh.

What do I plan to do with my last day of freedom? Well, I've tentatively allocated most of it towards this Mind Flame project for Burning Man. We need software on a laptop to convert sound information (and hopefully later EEG data) through some sort of FFT algorithm to control the servos that set the color and size of the flame. Lisa found some code that we're trying to get to compile. I'm not knuckling down like I ought to, but just keep poking at it here and there while putzing around on LJ and Flickr.

Thus this post, an exercise in procrastination. But I guess I can count it as structured procrastination, as I did also want to spend part of the day being creative. I know I used to count MySpace blog posts as being stupid, and thus lumped into unstructured procrastination, but now I think they oughtta count for being at least somewhat creative production. Not like a novel or film or anything, but it's still something produced and (presumably) consumed.

Oh yeah, saw Night Listener with Erika, Silvia, J0n, and another friend of his. The movie was okay. Good acting, and it was quite effective at creating a creepy and suspenseful mood. But it didn't really end up going anywhere.

Kinda like this blog post, I suppose. Maybe this one oughtta get categorized as unstructured procrastination after all?

Yes, I am going to Burning Man. In case you're also going and want to meet up, the camp is "Mad Science" and is at 9:00 Plaza and 4:00 (Tokyo). But I won't get there until Thursday night. Haven't yet bought my ticket, but I did head to REI to pick up a tent, along with a wide-brimmed hat. Yeah, I know I need a lot more than that. I'm going with some Burning Man veterans (including one who's gone for seven straight years), so I'm in good hands.

I've finally finished processing and uploading all the photos from the Austrian Economics seminar at FEE. But of course, one of the other attendees has sent me a CD with a bunch of his pictures, so I still need to go through and upload those. But it's kind of a relief to be finally done going through mine. Still in the process of adding titles and descriptions. I guess this is a real labor of love for me.

Yesterday, I drove up to the city to... um... do a delivery for my cousin Jeanne and pick up a bike rack for Burning Man that she'd been borrowing from Rich or somebody. She wasn't free until the evening, so I met up with Rich for lunch, and he gave me a nice goody bag full of Burning Man stuff. Both things that I would need and things that would make for good barter items (just having been through a lecture on how money forms naturally due to people clustering upon the more popular barter commodities, I don't get the ban on money transactions, but maybe it'll make more sense after I've been through it).

Jeanne talked a lot about her boyfriend who's going through a divorce. Guess there are time and space issues, but this is all nothing nothing compared to that one asshole of a boyfriend who treated her like shit. She does enjoy her new job at the Asia Foundation. She's been bouncing around a lot, so I'm glad for her. Coincidentally, when I came home, I chatted online with Danielle, and she also talks a lot about a guy she's been obsessing over. I wonder what is it about me that gets women to talk about their love life problems? Guess I'm a good listener, or maybe that I also tend to be obsessive. I guess it's kind of a good thing that both of these women are off limits to me, cuz I might otherwise be really frustrated. Also quite coincidentally, it was Danielle's first day at her new job shooting for the Pinnacle News, and it sounds like she's pretty happy so far.

Me, I'm not sure I really enjoy my job. Been thinking about quitting, but Erika keeps telling me that it's too sweet a deal to walk away from (which it is). But maybe in the fall, when my graduate studies start? Or maybe things will get better when I get into the coding phase. We'll see.