Finally got the computer up and going again. At least I think. Spent all night testing just about everything. Then Nate made the suggest to get a BIOS update. Wish I would’ve thought of that. So now it works. Saw I Heart Huckabees the other night with Elaine, Liz and Liz’s sister. It was a pretty good movie. Kinda layered in a way that it’s deep if you think about it, yet still entertaining on the surface. Probably the best existential example I’ve seen in a while. Hopefully this’ll be a relaxing weekend. Pick a few things up, make a few more flashcards, watch some movies. I head back to the doc on Monday. Hopefully they can do something. They’ve been a hurtin this week. The tech fair went pretty well. A few faculty weren’t really impressed with the software package I was demo-ing. My boss’s wife also came up and told me the ripple effects of what I do are affecting a lot more than I realize. That was kinda cool to hear.
Now there’s a fire alarm going off at Fairlane. That’s gotta suck. It’s been going off for a while. I just realized it’s a fire alarm. All this staying up late has gotten me quite hungry so I had to make some sandwiches. Am I ever glad I don’t live in Fairlane. Well, time to fall asleep to a movie.
Palabra del día: la pandilla
Word of the day: gang
It’s always the little things that seem to mean so much. Like today somebody left me a sticky note that said, “Thanks so much”. What I had done wasn’t really anything, but I know that person meant it. It wasn’t just the reactionary comment. Or the other day when I was informed somebody thought I was the “more cool” and “real” person at the ETC they dealt with. This week is turning out to be pretty good. Tomorrow I’m going over to the soup house for paella and Thursday I’m finally going to see “I Heart Huckabees”. I’d have to say I’m looking forward to the paella more then the movie. Even though this movie is gonna be awesome, how often do you get the chance to eat real spanish food (not mexican) prepared by a spaniard? Haven’t been posting as much cause my computer’s having some issues. I’ve been troubleshooting it little by little. Justin gave me a few ideas yesterday. I don’t think it’s memory. My latest guess is trying my other network card cause I’ve been having the problems when I’m doing internet stuff. Had that 6:30am Bible study again today. I felt like I fit in a bit more today cause we weren’t just talking about wife stuff. I’m the only not married person there. Today I felt much more able to participate in what we were talking about. I’m liking it. Also got another dr appointment setup about those things that connect my arms to my body. I’m hoping we can figure out what my problem is. I don’t think anything is seriously wrong, but when something gives you major problems for years you’d think it wouldn’t be that minor….anyways….Tomorrow is Wednesday which means the week is almost over and it’s also one day closer to the First Annual Taylor Technology Fair where I’ll be hosting a booth on a piece of software that just came in the mail at the end of last week. Guess I need to make sure I’m pseudo familiarized with it tomorrow to be better prepared for Thursday. Oh yeah, and apparently God doesn’t like Red Lobster
Well, it’s officially that break time. The ETC is closed so I didn’t have to go into work today. Got up early to lift this morning with Crickit and then went in for a couple hours to figure out how to use Camtasia and Snaggit. They’re both very useful programs and extremely easy to use if you’re minimally computer competent. Right now I’m at Nathan’s doing my laundry and killing time. I can go home and come back to switch loads, but that kinda wastes gas and if I just stay here I can switch stuff right away and my clothes actually get done a lot faster.
Last night watched Casino. Love that movie. Classic DeNiro and Pesci…and I sometimes hear people asking why they’re “labeled” as mob actors. Pearls before swine my friend…..pearls before swine. So I’ve invited a few people over for some movie watching tonight. Not sure what we’re going to watch, but that should work itself out. Still working on the spanish. I wish I could just “download” the language into my head like in the Matrix. That’d make things a lot easier. I’m really enjoying doing the studying though because I can tell that stuff is coming back to me. Like I can more easily understand music and people talking fast. I try really hard not to eavesdrop on conversations, but sometimes when I can hear people talking I can at least make out everything they say even if I can’t remember a couple words they use. I need to go hang out a bit in Mexico again. That would bring stuff back really fast.
Tomorrow I think Toll and I are going to go visit the venerable JRod. Should be good times. We all miss that kid. Maybe even go visit the local Taco Bell. I really have a like/hate relationship with that establishment. The food tastes alright to good, but I eat some real stuff and I realize how bad it really is. Maybe they should change their name to Taco Mierda. Not nearly as offensive as when they offered chilitos on the menu and it still sounds “mexican” for all those gringos out here with their mild salsa. Oh what a day that would be.
Well even though all this typing is fun, I think I’m going to get back to my chilled Doctor P and go through some preterit tense exercises and see if I can remember which verbs have the stem changes and which don’t. Then maybe make some more flash cards.
So I hear the Chip has returned to the deuce for a visit. The real reason he’s here is to see his woman, Gungelle, of course. But we can always pretend he missed us too. Not a whole lot has been going on…just normal stuff. I had to go to anti-sexual harassment training today. I thought it was going to be really dumb but it was short, informative and to the point. I appreciated that. Steve Brogan won some points in my book today. Fall break is coming up this weekend but I’m not really doing anything special. Planning on visiting the JRod in Indy. I was also informed there’s a chance I might get to eat some paella courtesy of la Sra. Sanjaime. I’m excited. That would be very cool. I’ve been working on the spanish a bit more lately. I’ve been making flash card dealios of verbs. Most of them I already know and a few I’ve forgotten or haven’t ever really used before. Trying to beef up mi lengua materna as much as possible before taking that placement test. I really hope there’s room in a class for me to squeeze into. It would be so much fun, plus, I’d get to use my brain a bit. Gotta use it or you’ll lose it - so the saying goes. I think there’s more truth in that than most people would want to admit. Also started going to a 6:30am Bible study today with Chris. That should be fun. I think there was 6 of us. I’m the only not-married guy there. I guess that makes me the minority - kinda like I’m usually the only white mexican anybody’s ever seen. Well, only got a couple more days of work before a long weekend of chillin. Now that’s something to look forward to.
Rest of my day went pretty well. Had a few “emergencies” at work that weren’t too hard to handle. I like those cause it gives me a chance to efficiently help out the profs. Ended up hanging out with Chris and Phillip tonight. Definitely good times. We finished off the enchiladas and watched the ever-classic Bottle Rocket. Chris had never seen it and I think he really enjoyed it. It’s always really cool seeing Chris interact with Phillip cause I always had the impression my dad didn’t give a hoot about me. Sometimes you forget there are good father figures out there. I also found out today that a freshman from the deuce went home. His grandpa died and there’s some other family stuff going on which has got to be really hard for him. I feel really bad for him. Didn’t really get a chance to get to know him at all, but I emailed him. I hope he stays in touch with some guys from the floor and hopefully he’ll come back to Taylor next semester or something. He was the new Asian Sensation since Mr. Guy left. I also thought he looked a little like Data from Goonies. I don’t know if anybody else agreed with me on that point, but I was always really hoping to hear him say ‘Booty Traps!’. Well, hopefully tomorrow I can get some more reviewing out of the way and get things cleaned up a bit. However, at the moment I think some sleep is the most important thing to worry about.
Well it’s Friday which means the week is almost over. It’s chapel time right now and I bet you can guess that I’m not there at the moment. The goldfish are staring at me again. It’s kinda weird. The big goldfish has been forceably picking up rocks and spitting them out this morning. I’ve imagined he’s trying to show me he’s tough or something. Got to hang out with some Friedbergs last night. Watched that Natalie Portman movie where she gets ditched at Wal-Mart while barefoot and pregnant. It was decent. Elaine kept saying it was a horrible-mushy chick flick but I’ve definitely seen much worse. Whenever I’m at my grandma’s house during Christmas my mom and her and are always wanting to watch those Hallmark movies or something on that PAX channel. Now that stuff is cheesy. I think that medicine for my shoulder has been doing something cause i forgot to take it this morning and I can tell. So hopefully I remember to take it at lunch…or maybe i should just not take it today and see what happens.
Wow, there’s two fish swimming laps around the tank right now. It’s like they’re training for something. They are the two smaller ones. Maybe they’re trying to beef up so when the big goldfish bullies them they can stand up to it. Slap it with a strong right fin or something. Hopefully that confrontation doesn’t go badly cause it’s not like they can run and hide anywhere.
I went to Kohl’s yesterday to buy some pants and then saw some camo boxers so I had to buy them. Camo has been a weakness of mine since I was 4 or so. When I come home I noticed the tag and had to share it with the world.
More to come soon.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/11/0239205
Maybe Taylor should make like China…and then again, maybe not. Superman is dead of a heart attack. Didn’t see that one coming. My mom also called me tonight and another person from my town died. There were a couple guys I played football with and their mom is now dead. She was riding on a motorcycle with her husband (who gave me a hefty scholarship) and they had a wreck. Mr. Schneckloth is ok, but she definitely didn’t make it. Seems like a lot of people are dying these days.
Work is going pretty well. I lifted again tonight and my shoulder has been doing ok. I even pushed myself a little tonight and as of yet, my shoulder isn’t screaming at me…at least not that badly. So maybe it’s *flared* down or maybe this medicine is working…who knows. All I’ve got to say is boo to ibuprofin and yeah to ice. Watching some Freaks and Geeks right now while enjoying some grilled cheese before hitting the sack.
Tonight little Jimmy, otherwise known as Phil Beta, filled me in on exactly how muscles work. That’s some pretty complicated stuff. You should look into that sometime if you’re interested.
Well, it appears I took a little vacation from spilling my thoughts into this text box every day or so. Things have been going pretty well. Friday night Tara, Bethany and JRod came over and we watched Eternal Sunshine. That was fun. I feel kinda bad cause I’m always inviting them up here for something and they drive the hour so I try to make food for them to make up for it. Yesterday I rebuilt my computer and picked up Elephant and Ned Kelly at Blockbuster. They were previously viewed so I got em for a decent price. Today I came upon http://tvshowsondvd.com . This site is cool. Because of it I found that the first season of That 70’s Show is coming out on DVD this month. There’s a good chance I’m not gonna pick it up cause it’s gonna be around $40 and I have all the episodes on my machine anyways. I also found out that TLoft started a blog up a little while ago so I linked him off to the right. Haven’t really done much today except sit around. Watched Thirteen with the commentary on which was cool because a lot of the things Liz, Neville and I talked about on the way home from seeing that are some of the things the actors and director talked about in the commentary. How the color changes, how certain actors are doing certain things, how the billboard picture changes, etc. It was kinda cool cause it makes you feel like you’re not completely ignorant about film. The shoulder has also been ok. Can’t really tell if the medicine they gave me is doing wonders or not. I’ve tried to just do what I normally do with my arms and have ok days and ouch days. Luckily I don’t have any sharp stabbing pain, just the aching, build-up kind. That just means I get to ice it some days.
On a side note, if you’re in need of some one-liners, watch an episode of Freeks and Geeks. I’ve noticed Toll has been putting them up for away messages as of late.
Well, I had some people over tonight and we feasted on some of those enchiladas I made. I also cooked some vegetables and whipped up some spanish rice. I’ve never really made it with stuff in it before and I just kinda threw some stuff together. Wasn’t sure at all how it would taste, but I think people liked it. I’ll have to make it again. One weird thing that happened was I was asked by somebody why I’m called Chalupa and so I told the story about Tab bringing one back and me saying it wasn’t one and us arguing and they saying I’m just a stupid freshman and don’t’ know what I’m talking about, blah blah blah. So basically they started calling me that because they knew it made me really mad. A little background might be needed here. I’m spanish-mexican and basically grew up getting offended when people would crack on my heritage/people group/whatever you want to call it. So I came to Taylor still being that way, but loosened up quite a bit on that issue. Although, I still get worked up about that kinda stuff sometimes. So, anyways, everybody started calling me Ben all of a sudden. It was really weird cause almost everybody there had never called me that before that I can remember. I hope they don’t continue doing that - it’s just really really weird. It’d be like if somebody from Iowa called me Chalupa; it’d just be way too weird. I guess it really isn’t that big of a deal but I feel like Neo from The Matrix when he corrects Smith and says, “My name is Neo”. On SammyII it’s hard to get a decent nickname and I feel like I really had to work for mine. A lot of times somebody gets called something cause it annoys them. Then if they accept it, after making a big deal about it, people usually stop just to annoy them more. Well, people didn’t stop with me so I don’t know if that means they respected me or what. But I feel like I had to do something to earn it. I also like it cause it’s a spanish word and stuff. Maybe I’m just having a hard time facing the fact pretty soon there’s gonna be nobody around here that knows mi nombre es Benjamín pero mis amigos me llaman Chalupa.
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