April 2005 Archives

My last full week of class is just about over, and I can't really come up with anything profound to say about it. So far, it still hasn't really hit me that any big chapter is coming to an end. That's fine with me so far, especially since I've been going pretty much constantly in an effort to wrap up everything relatively early. We'll see how it goes.

In other news, the new Ben Folds album, Songs for Silverman, came out Tuesday. I pre-ordered a copy, but I did it late, so mine should be here sometime next week. It's the first of two major releases that I've been looking forward to for months!

Man, I can't wait until I have a few weeks to just sit around, play guitar, and write.

This past weekend, and really every day since, has been a whirlwind of action for the Project BS offices. Tom and I finished the DVD, a bunch of us celebrated Gina's birthday, and of course, there were the usual festivities on Saturday and Sunday. I think we sounded great during our singing, and Coffeehouse was a blast. I'll talk more about it later when I have time; for now, this week has been devoted to finishing up my last major projects for school EVER!

I'll tide you over with this picture, though. We danced like real merry men:

Today was Gina's birthday, so I took on quite a challenge in order to make it special for her: I cooked her dinner and baked a cake.

Now stop, take a deep breath, go back and read that sentence again.

Yes, miracles can happen. Even I, kitchen-averse for so long, can cook a full meal of chicken fajitas, rice, salad and dessert and not have any huge catastrophic failures happen. I cooked a couple of times back during the summer, with Gina's help, but this was the first time I struck out completely on my own. And this was in the Wesley kitchen, even, which is questionably reliable even in the best of circumstances! Granted, my nerves were a wreck at a couple of different points during the evening, but I pulled through it without breaking down. She helped out with sizzling the chicken since we were getting in a time crunch, so that made it all complete within our semi-limited time window tonight. Happy birthday, Gina! I'm glad you enjoyed the food and the evening. I don't think I'll be switching professions any time soon, but I think this shows at least a little glimmer of promise for when I move into my apartment in a few months.

Another Wesley Weekend preview: Tom and I spent a good chunk of the day in and out of the New Media Center, cutting the Tour DVD and recording several pieces of narration for it. It should be a good time this Saturday at Coffeehouse! Now I just have to decide what the final skit order is going to be and whether we'll need to cut anything for time (I always hate having to do that).

Until then, keep your ears straight!

Today's entry reveals a Wesley Weekend preview. We here at the home offices have been gearing up for quite a while to make this weekend spectacular for all the alums, parents, and friends that will be watching us perform. The traditional Coffeehouse is Saturday night at 7:30 in our very own auditorium, so I highly encourage you to attend that if you can, since we'll be singing some songs AND performing skits of all shapes and sizes. The Sunday morning services at BUMC should also be fantastic; come on by at 8:00 AM or 11:00 AM.

Remember the Riverdance spoof Swampdance that all the guys in Wesley performed my freshman year? Remember the Britney dance of 2002? No?

Well, I'm here to say that the Wesley Men are once again dancing. With a vengeance. Gina, Sarah, and Katie have choreographed a great set of moves, and they've very nearly trained us to be dancing fools. You'll have to come this Saturday night to find out just how tight the dance is going to be.

Since you last heard from me, a lot of testing things have happened. I apologize for not writing about it sooner; it's just happened that my head has felt like it's been stuffed full of cotton since the evening of the FE exam. I'm going to blame part of that on not enough sleep, part of that on the smoke smell permeating my room, and the other part on the usual wild temperature fluctuations at this time of year. I'm getting better. I'll press on.

Friday night was interesting. The FE only accepts four or five different models of calculator. I didn't own any of the right kinds, so in my silly disconnectedness with reality, I assumed that most of the stores would still have those types of calculators on the night before the big test, when hundreds of engineers were in the same exact situation I was. Needless to say, after a night on the town and the Juxta concert, when we went to Wal-Mart, there were no calculators. Thanks to Gina, Sarah, and Katie, though, for keeping me in a good mood. Sarah called the Radford Wal-Mart, who had one of the models I needed, and Gina drove us all down there for a last-minute late-night calculator-fetching trip.

The eight-hour FE exam was about as fun as you'd expect an eight-hour test on everything you learned in Engineering in the last five years to be. I honestly don't remember much of it, since I entered the Test-Taking Zone somewhere in the early morning hours of Saturday. I do, however, think I did well enough to pass... but I'll know for sure in 10-12 weeks. The Industrial Engineering part was certainly a lot easier than the "general" portion, thanks to stupid thermodynamics stuff that I don't have a clue about.

Yesterday was a blur, but the Wesley Band performed its last praise set for the year last night. It's been really fun getting to play my bass for more than just Singers every week. I had a great time, guys! "Hands of the Potter" sounded awesome. Best of luck getting things worked out to play more Sunday nights next year!

Today had another "last-time-I'll-do-this" vibe: pulling College Trick #3 to get up really early and finish studying for an exam. That's right, after the Environmental test today, I'll be free from tests until exams! That's not saying much, since there's a load of other stuff to do, but it's still something.

This promises to be a more fun week than last week, as long as my supply of allergy drugs holds out. Look for some interesting tidbits leading up to Wesley Weekend!

I'm getting ready to head out to take the FE exam. That's where I'll be from 7:30 - 5:00, with a lunch break in there somewhere. More on this in about a day, once my brain recovers.

Don't get me wrong, I love my home state of West Virginia. I really do. It's not perfect, mind you, but no place is. There's just something about the mountains and the general atmosphere and attitude of most of the people there that make it home to me. That being said, when West Virginia makes national news, it's usually with something pretty embarrassing that will only invite more jokes to be made at our expense.

So, I submit to you this bit of news from Tuesday, when West Virginia legislators accidentally voted English as the official language of the state. Apparently, sneaky Whip Billy Wayne Bailey placed a tiny amendment into another bill having virtually nothing to do with the language topic, during one of the last few rushed days of the session.

In the grand scheme of things, I can't imagine what the impact of this will be, if any. I don't agree with the reasoning behind lobbyists wanting to make English official; I don't think it's really fair to say that making anything an official language will encourage people to learn that language . If anything, maybe this will make the next legislative session in the Mountain State more interesting.

I haven't had a lot of free time this week so far, and it doesn't look like that's going to change anytime soon. I did want to give you all an update on my housing situation, though. Otey and I spent this past Saturday driving around and looking at apartments, and we finally have our list narrowed down to about three or four of our top choices. Basically, there weren't any surprises with the rent (we already knew that it was going to be outrageously expensive), but I was impressed overall with how nice some of the places were. We've basically found the fine line between cost, comfort, and distance from work so my commute isn't too hellacious and we can still afford to live. It was still a little too early for most places to give us anything definite, though, so the jury is still out on our final dwelling place.

...Speaking of people finding new places to live, congratulations must go out to Gerritt on the purchase of his new home: a houseboat on the Washington Channel in D.C.! Check out the pictures and story on his site. How cool is it that I know someone who lives on a houseboat? Actually, out of all the people I know, Gerritt's the only one I would peg to end up on one. Very cool.

...In other news, the Senior Symposium for the ISE Senior Design class is this Thursday. The FE Exam, 8 hours of engineering craziness, is on Saturday. That means that most of my huge gibongous projects will be over by Sunday. Holla!

...I also wanted to thank Amy for the comment the other day about my similarity to Ethan Hawke. As far as I know, he's an intelligent and mysterious actor/writer, so I can handle that! As for him being my brother... you never can tell these days, can you?

There's a lot happening in Blacksburg this weekend! I won't be in town for any of it, though, since I'll be up in northern Virginia beginning the good old apartment search with Josh. Yes, I'm just a few weeks away from entering the next nebulous phase of my life. Good times.

Before I get into that, let's check out the random items for the day:

... Fellow Resident Evelyn has come up with the new nickname for what I was formally calling the Hundred Years War: the Senior Inquisition. Don't worry, though, everyone: with just a few more weeks left of college, I think I can make it until graduation.

... Author Homer Hickam is in town this weekend to sign books at the Easy Chair Bookstore and participate in a Corps of Cadets tradition. The signing will start tonight at 7PM, I hear. I once met Hickam at some sort of reception in Charleston when I was a senior in high school. He signed my paperback copy of "October Sky," and we had our picture taken together. I've driven through his hometown of Coalwood, WV. If you saw October Sky and are at all interested in the true stories behind movies, check out Homer's site as well as this one. It's got lots of cool stuff about the people behind the characters.

... Earlier this week, I neglected to talk about what a great time Gina and I had at the Ring Dance! Dinner at the Farmhouse was top-notch. The band at the dance was great and not too cheesy (they at least played songs that everyone could dance to), and we got to hear Dr. Torgersen give his speech as the guest of honor for this year's ring collection. (Torgersen and I go way back.) I missed the pig release, but Gina got to see this year's oinker. Gina was also made famous by agreeing to do an interview for a video that Tech will show for next year's Ring Premiere (I got her autograph, don't worry). Aside from freezing temperatures and snow that kept us from enjoying the midnight fireworks, we danced the night away and had a fabulous time! Thanks for making it a fun night, guys!

While in the greater D.C. area this weekend, I'll be hanging out with a lot of my graduated Tech buddies. I'm looking forward to it! Have a good weekend yourselves.

Are you going to be in or around Blacksburg this Saturday? Do you have facial hair (specifically a mustache)? Can you grow one pretty quick if you don't? Are you a lady that just has a fondness for men with mustaches? Well, listen to Tom Selleck and head over to the only big non-birthday party I've actually considered going to in a long while: the Mustache Bash.

My friend John-Michael lives in the apartment complex where the Bash will be going down, so I heard about this from his AIM profile. As it turns out, one of the founders is also in my Environmental Engineering class, though I've never actually talked to him. So, I do have some sort of tenuous connection to this, and you've got to love the spirit of the Mustache Bash mythos.

Hmmm, I'm only a couple of weeks removed from totally shaving my goatee for the water polo championship. Might it not be time for a more mustache-oriented facial hair configuration? Perhaps some handlebars? Should I shrug off the yoke of the Goatee Generation?

The answer is probably not. It's a pity I'm going apartment hunting this weekend and will be unable to attend. I do, however, urge all who will listen to go!

Here's a fun excerpt from a writing assignment we did in Creative Writing class last week. I've been typing up my journal to turn in, which makes for some long hours in front of the keyboard. Add to that a research paper coming up, and I've been basically using all my time lately. Keep in mind that this story is meant to mimic the style of Lorrie Moore's famous short story "How To Be A Writer." Mine is titled "How To Be A Love Machine."

Here goes:

First things first: talk low, talk fast, and say a lot without saying much at all. Before you go out for the night, be sure to check yourself in the mirror at least six or seven times. Ensure your various pieces of bling are clearly visible from two blocks down. If they池e not, stop what you池e doing. Polish, shine, and repeat as necessary, since there痴 a strong correlation between the vibrancy of your jewelry and the number of girls who will look at you. This is key.

If your mom calls, tell her that you池e going on a date. When she asks if the girl is nice, tell her that you池e sure this one is the right one for you. Add just enough sincerity to your voice to make her believe you. When she doesn稚 believe you anyway, say that you池e on the way out the door and end the conversation quickly.

Stop to check yourself in the mirror again. If it is 1982, ensure your perm is sufficiently puffy � somewhere between loofah sponge and cotton candy. If it is 2004, pop your collar and roll up your sleeves. It痴 important to appear casual and unconcerned about most things in life. If you actually do have some sort of strong opinion on current events, this does not have to be a liability. Just make sure the girl is intelligent before springing your opinions on her. Make sure she値l agree with you beforehand, which is not often easy � that痴 why no opinion equals a good opinion. Talk about your car instead. Talk about it often.

Tonight is the Class of 2006's Ring Dance. More specifically, it's Gina's Ring Dance. The dance is another Virginia Tech tradition that's been passed down through the ages. Every year, the junior class at Tech receives their class rings in a special ceremony filled with all kinds of hoopla, swords, fireworks, and pigs. Gina went with me to my own Ring Dance, shortly after we first started dating, and now I am thrilled to be able to return the gesture as her date. It should be a great time tonight!

... I was going to post some kind of April Fool's Joke on here, but lots of people in the outer blogosphere did the same thing and did it better than I would have. Thus, I did a reverse psychology deal and didn't post anything yesterday. April Fool's!

... In heavier news, the celebrity death triumvirate is complete, unfortunately, as the news of Pope John Paul II's recent death trickled in early this afternoon. While I am not Catholic, I recognize the achievements he made. The other two celebrity deaths this week were Mitch Hedberg, a comedian that many of my Tech friends discovered over the last few years, and lawyer Johnnie Cochran. Obviously, the Pope carried more influence to many more people, but it's so strange how the rule of three continues to work. At any rate, rest in peace, fellas.