A lot of good and bad things have happened in the last couple weeks, leaving me feeling decidedly... neutral.

The bad:

- My desktop PC's primary hard drive failed. Fortunately, I still have my laptop (sort of- I'll get to that), and I was able to salvage all of the data I wanted without too much difficulty... nonetheless, I need another hard drive.

- My laptop is acting a little wonky as of late, mostly in the internet connection-ness and speed-ness. I think the two go hand in hand. I always say that whenever I get symptoms of computer issues, they are always rather fresh and original, and that's the case here: after being on for 10-20 minutes or so, my internet connection drops (whether wired or wireless), and windows start taking a long time to open. I discovered that when investigating the cause of the connection drop... when I tried to open up Network Connections and nothing popped up, three times in a row. Over the course of the next twenty minutes, the window opened those three times. So... yeah, issues. I also need a memory upgrade- 512MB doesn't cut it anymore.

- I was planning on going to Michigan with my bestest friends Zach and Franklin (and Mark? I think?) this weekend, but I was working three of the four days and wasn't able to get off. -_- At least I was around to perform an emergency harddriveectomy. (And I probably earned $70-ish to contribute to the PC hardware fund.)

The good:

- Following my hard drive crash, I bought myself a new hard drive ^__^ It's a 500GB SATA drive, a huuuuge upgrade from the 120GB ATA that failed. (It will actually hold all of my music! Shock!) Aaaand I figured that as long as I was paying the shipping... I might as well ALSO buy 2GB more memory for my desktop. So I'll have 3GB of memory and 620GB disk space on it shortly ^________^

- I've rekindled my long-standing love affair with my Sega Dreamcast. I mean, hell, DC is in my screen name, of course I love the damn system. So I played through Sonic Adventure, grabbed a few more emblems in Sonic Adventure 2 (I'm at 175/180 now... still have 3 All-A emblems and the last 2 goals on Cannon's Core left), got the internet on the thing working FINALLY (admittedly about five years too late to play Phantasy Star Online online), and... obtained some of the games that I never got around to buying so many years ago (Soul Calibur, Skies of Arcadia, Shenmue II). Apart from some disc-reading problems stemming, I'm sure, from old age, it's doing excellently.

- In related news, as I somewhat implied, I also rekindled my Sonic the Hedgehog addiction. I kinda let that slide since Sonic Adventure 2's release, so I never got around to playing Sonic Heroes or (lol) Shadow the Hedgehog. (I'm sort of dreading the latter based on the reviews, but what the hell kind of Sonic fanboy am I if I don't play EVERY Sonic game? And besides, I liked Sonic 3D Blast against all odds.) Very much looking forward to the two upcoming Sonic games- I honestly will admit that I was not seriously considering buying a console from this generation until I heard about the upcoming releases.

- I have money!! (Admittedly less, after buying a SATA drive and 2GB of memory.) w00t for having a job.

- Since I still haven't gotten into my intro Japanese course, I picked up a few more credit-hours' worth of class: I'm taking an intro Piano course! I'm hoping to achieve a proficiency that will actually assist with my composition (which I might actually start up again, really). Here's to getting a Comp Sci Master's by taking piano, drawing, and poetry reading!

- I have every episode of Mythbusters, which I'm steadily working my way through ^_^

I dunno where I'm going artistically. I'm unlikely to do a lot of (read: any) photography anytime soon, sadly, because I can't exactly afford to use film (I actually do have access to a darkroom for free, but chemicals + scanning = $$). And digital SLRs really, really don't come cheap. Music just hasn't been there for me- I probably need discipline to keep composing, but I've stubbornly relied on inspiration this far, and I'm hoping that someday I'll get some more of it. Poetry is likely- I was happier with GMT-08:00 than almost all of my previous work (perhaps all of it), and I hope that I reached a new level of skill rather than got lucky. I've been getting some good writing done at Ravinia (another bonus to working there, I guess), so here's hoping that tonight is a slow night.

And on that note, it's time for work.

Listen to this:

I just got back from orientation at Indiana. And my overwhelming sensation is that I need to go back there. ASAP.

And academically it's going to be pretty sweet. Here's my courses for first semester:

- Linear Algebra and Applications
- Honors Intro to Computer Science
- Oral Interpretation
- Studio Art--Drawing
- Waitlisted on Japanese I (will drop Studio for it)

I also have 33 credit-hours going in from AP testing and from the Spanish assessment that I took at Orientation (I somehow managed to score 4 credit-hours for guessing my way through a test I never learned the material for in the first place). Yay for reading from context. Anyway, that basically means that I'm done with freshman year. Furthermore, I'm going to go with a course path that will net me a Master's in Computer Science in five years--and, since I have two semesters' worth of credit-hours already, that means that I could quite possibly have a Bachelor's in both Comp Sci and Math and a Master's in Comp Sci in just four years. It is a sweet deal.

Listen to this:

About a week (?) ago, both my internet and phone line simultaneously went down, leaving me pretty much entirely isolated from humanity. It's astonishing how much we rely on those two means; remove them, and you effectively drop off the face of the earth. (After three days, Zach and Franklin showed up at my house to make sure that I wasn't dead... seriously.) So here's what I did without any human contact outside of work:

- watched four or five movies
- completed two RPGs (FF6 is amazing, although in true FF fashion the ending sucks)
- tried & failed to write some new music
- wrote a poem or two
- read a book or two
- worked a lot
- slept

What a lame week.

Listen to this:

omg!! it is sexy



That is all for now.

Listen to this:

Here is my life for the last couple weeks:

- wake up/shower (2-3pm-ish)
- go to work at Ravinia
- go home and eat
- waste time until 7am-ish
- sleep

Not highly exciting. Occasionally something will break up the routine (like the Brokeback party! ) but that's pretty much it. Why, then, have I not died/reduced to a mindless drone from the boredom? Largely because the Ravinia Gate Staff is awesome. My work is tedious and mechanical, to be sure (taking tickets... woooo) but the people make it worthwhile. Today, we had a party for JPR's birthday--JPR being the guy who last year gave us his driver's license as collateral to get into the park on a sold-out night and never returned; we still have his license. To fill the mindless hours we have heated competitions (today: guessing JPR's weight from his picture; there was even a prize) and tell wacky stories and just have a plain old good time. It sure didn't feel like I worked 5 1/4 hours today. Yay for Gate Staff!

Anywho, I'm starting to get a bit back into the swing of doing some productive stuff. Last night I typed up a poem that's been sitting around waiting to be edited; now I'm doing probably my most ambitious fractal since Lifelines. I keep meaning to sit down and compose, now that I've had plenty of time off to recharge. Things are looking good. w00t!

Listen to this: