2006

Sep042006

Back to School and Labor Day Weekend

After having the summer off, I had my first class of the fall semester this past Thursday. Although I’m not sure I’m going to keep it, I’m currently signed up for an elective class, Introduction of Architecture for Non-Majors. I’ve always had a casual interest in the subject and from what I was able to tell of the professor’s description, it fits the bill nicely. The class is taught by Errol Barron, whose work includes the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. I arrived at he first session of the class early. The only other person in the room was Vi Le, a classmate from Karr who I didn’t immediately recognize. The class seems crowded enough with twenty-something students. As I said earlier most of the class time was spend detailing what the class is about, although the professor also spoke at length about the history of the city of New Orleans as it relates to city planning. After class I waited for a few hours in the library for my evening class, Art and Craft of Television. The professor didn’t show up this evening. Someone stopped by to pass out the syllabus and let us know there was no class tonight. I was more than slightly pissed when I looked at the syllabus and found it stated there would be no class, meaning this was no sudden incident and the teacher deprived us the courtesy of an e-mail or something. Since there was no immediate opportunity for a ride some I got on an RTA bus to go downtown. When I got to Canal St. I waited a while for the Gen. De Gaulle bus but I got impatient and got a cab the rest of the way home. The driver was a civil engineering student himself who just got out of a class himself. I didn’t work this weekend, I remember that much. I also remember wasting a lot of time that could have been better spent doing something. The only non-event of circumstance was a problem with my car, it wouldn’t turn over. On Sunday, Dad discovered the starter was sticking after we replaced the ignition module with no effect. Simply tapping on it gets the car started but apparently you have to do it every time. That being the case I’m going to have to have it repaired or replaced.

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Aug312006

Second Half of August

Yet again, I’m starting another log post saying I’ve been neglecting the log, probably for the longest stretch in the nearly four years I’ve been doing it. With the exception of the little vacation the family took, the whole month has been especially uneventful. I’ve also determined that not using my laptop with school being out is largely responsible for the log neglect. For some reason, it’s just painful for me to type the log on my nice desktop computer. I’m strangely compelled to type all entries on the small keyboard of my 10 inch Vaio notebook. The last couple weeks have been exceptionally dull and I haven’t had much good reason to post a day-by-day account. With little exception, my days have consisted of getting up shortly after nine, leaving for work sometime around noon, being home by six, eating and then playing on the computer and maybe watching a movie before bed… all shamefully mundane. I picked this date to catch up because I’m starting school again tomorrow and I’ll actually have something to write about. For the sake of documentation, I’ll list the movies I’ve seen since the last post: Interview with a Vampire, Carlito’s Way, Beverly Hills Cop, High Sierra, The Producers (2005), Munich, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Sin City and Walk the Line. I also recently watched the first few episodes of Firefly, a short-lived science fiction series. It’s unusual in that is has a sort of western motif to it which is strangely appealing. It’s a damn shame the show didn’t last beyond one season.

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Aug152006

Destin

I’m skipping over a work week again there just wasn’t much of circumstance to report. This weekend, the whole family including myself drove out to Destin, Florida for a long weekend vacation. We left the house early Friday morning at about seven. We arrived sometime around one I think. We arrived two hours before we could check into the condo so we had lunch at a seafood place we’d been to before. Apparently we’d been there before but I didn’t remember the place. I don’t remember that much about the last time we visited Destin a few years back. After lunch we went a place called The Track, which I do remember because it’s next door to the hotel we stayed at last time. Dad and I spent our time in the small arcade while Mom and my brothers played mini golf in the blistering heat. There wasn’t much in the arcade to keep me amused. The one pinball machine, Terminator 3, was being repaired. I did get t play it later on though. We left after a couple hours. We stayed at a high-rise condo right on the beach called the Pelican Beach Resort. It’s actually quite nice. The suites have two bedrooms, two baths and a deck overlooking the shoreline. I remained here for the rest of the evening although the others went to the beach and the store this evening. Late that night I watched V for Vendetta. On Saturday, we took a sail boat cruise aboard the Silent Lady, manned by two amicable and easy-going gentleman. This was my first time on a sail boat, as well as the smallest as my experience with sea-faring vessels is basically limited to ferries. The cruise lasted a couple hours. We sailed from the harbor out to the gulf for a little while and then back again, going under the Destin Bridge to Choctawhatchee Bay briefly. The masts barely cleared the overpass. Later that evening, Mom and Dad got pizza for dinner and I watched V for Vendetta again with them this time. Sunday was comparatively uneventful. The family went down to the beach for a while. That was about all I remember. On Monday we drove home in the morning. We got there around 1:30 I didn’t go to work though.

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Aug072006

Week of July 30

I decided I might as well finish off July with another weekly summary post as again there wasn’t much going on this week. This week was ‘different’ in that it rained most days this week, I had Friday off and Bianca came by the house Monday evening because she was in town briefly to have her braces out. We originally had plans to have dinner or something but she backed out of those and just visited me for a while after work that evening. I blew a lot of time play Elite Force or fooling with one of my new toys. This weekend I bought a copy of Hitman: Blood Money and started playing that on Sunday. IT seems a lot more challenging than the previous games, at least to me anyway. I watched a several movies this week including Clear and Present Danger, Broken Arrow, Casino, The Corporation, Mississippi Burning, In the Realms of the Unreal and The Aristocrats.

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Jul302006

Week of July 24

I decided to wait and just do another weekly post. Again, not too much going on this week. I worked Monday through Friday. I didn’t work on as many reports as I usually do in a week. During the lat few days I watched The Battle of Algiers and Firewall. The only event of remote circumstance this week was another toy. The Gamepark Holdings GP2X, an open-source, Linux powered hand-held gaming device. After a little bit of research and a lot of forum lurking, I finally decided to get one. The main appeal is that it runs emulators for several older console systems and handhelds like the Super Nintendo, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, Game Gear and several more. It also plays MP3s and DivX videos. SD Cards are the main storage medium, which is appealing as they’re rather ubiquitous. During the last few days I’ve spent a lot of time fooling with it, learning how it works and enjoying some old SNES games on it. So, yeah it’s really cool, perhaps my best gadget buy yet.

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Jul242006

Week of July 17th

For another week I just haven’t gotten around to posting, but again, not much has been going on anyway. I worked everyday this week but not that many hours. Jeff worked with us a few days this week. The only unusual occurrence at work I can think of is that the strip mall across the street, which has been vacant since the storm, was demolished this week. I watched a few movies this week including The Constant Gardener, Talk to Her, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (800th movie I've seen), A History of Violence and Blues Brothers 2000, which was so incredibly bad I wasn’t up to finishing it. It’s going on my list though because I think the pain and suffering I endured entitles me. This Saturday, the whole family including myself went to Mississippi for a birthday party of a distant relative, Dolores, my grandmother’s sister’s daughter, on my Dad’s side. We left at about two in the afternoon and it took about two hours to get there. It was raining a good portion of the way there. The party was at some restaurant. The guest of honor was 75 and the nature of the party reflected that. There was good food and an open bar though, so I couldn’t complain. We were there from about four until six-something. That evening, I watched Coach Carter. Not long after church on Sunday, Arien came by. She’s been in town this past week to see a friend. Mom, Dad, Arien and Myself went to Lakeside Mall. I didn’t need anything but I was in the mood to spend some money so I rode along. I ended up buying a Nintendo DS Lite on impulse as the system is only $130. I also got a copy of Brain Age, which I was previously interested in, and New Super Mario Brothers, just because. I wasn’t impressed with the pictures of the DS Lite I saw online but I was thoroughly impressed when I got it in hand. It’s a lovely piece of hardware, reminiscing of the Wii controller probably not a coincidence. Brain Age is surprisingly fun, even though it’s not really a game, and even though it makes me feel stupid. Later this evening, I watched Once Upon a Time in the West.

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Jul152006

Work Week

Once again I’ve neglected the log again. Not much has been going on anyway. I worked every day this week, which doesn’t happen very often. Jeff was with Dad and I most days. I spent most time working on report, both transcribing myself and correcting Jeff’s work, which regrettably is about as time-consuming as doing it myself. It’s not his fault though since he is new to this. This week I watched a couple movies including Capote and The Best Years of Our Lives, the latter of which puts me closer to seeing all of the IMDB’s Top 250.

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Jul082006

Dinner and a Movie

This evening, the whole family including myself went out to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Before seeing the 8:15 showing, we stopped at Chevy’s for dinner. The theater appeared to be sold out, which is hardly surprising this film just made history with the biggest opening day in history, taking in 55.5 million dollars. The movie itself wasn’t too bad, it wasn’t especially good either. The ending was a bit ridiculous as the audience is most likely aware a sequel with the full cast is on the way.

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Jul072006

The Bicycle Thief

Dad and I went to work at the west bank for a couple hours this afternoon. We stopped at the store on the way home to get some things for dinner. This evening I watched The Bicycle Thief.

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Jul062006

Thursday

I reactivated my Netflix account this morning, after having it suspended since the hurricane. Dad and I worked at the west bank office today because there was a nurse absent and a heavy patient load today. I spend the day working on the current patient billing, just as I did yesterday. I worked from 10:30 to about 5:30 this evening. I think we picked up Taco Bell for dinner this evening.

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Jul052006

The Rest of the Way Home

After staying the night in an Ocean Springs, MS hotel, we left to drive the rest of the way home at about 9:30. Dad bought a tire to replace the bad one earlier this morning. It took about an hour and a half to make it to New Orleans. Dad and I went to work this afternoon at about one I think. I updated the current patient billing this afternoon. I think we left the office around five. Later this evening I did some laundry, started playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and watched Lord of War.

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Jul052006

Another Trip Home… except this one really sucked

Mom, Dad, my brothers and myself left Uncle Larry’s house around eight to head home. Before leaving Atlanta we stopped at the Coca-Cola museum. The brochure has enough pictures to save me the trouble to describing the museum in detail. Suffice it to say, it’s a nice facility and there was a lot of interesting paraphernalia surrounding Coke’s long history and global reach. The end of the museum allows you to sample Coke products from all over the world. None of the ones I tried were bad. I was slightly disappointed that they didn’t have regular Coca Cola from around the world to taste. There is certainly difference in taste in that one product around the globe. After we left there, an old friend of Dad who moved to Atlanta met us, George. Dad and George worked together at Red Robin in Colorado Springs. George was with one if his sons and one the kid’s friends. We all talked briefly outside the museum and they walked to Johnny Rocket’s, a burger joint in Underground Atlanta. We got something to eat and they continued to talk for an hour or two. I think we left to head home at about one. When we got back to the car, we had a flat tire, the left rear. Dad inflated it with a can of fix-a-flat and the portable air compressor we had on hand. The tire was a recurring ordeal throughout the evening. We had to stop several times to inflate it. Dad paid someone to ‘fix’ it. The man found a nail in the tire and patched it. Later, however, it seems as though the patch didn’t hold. About 90 miles outside of New Orleans, we stopped to check it and found it was nearly flat. Since we couldn’t really continue, we had to stay overnight at a hotel and have the tire fixed/replaced in the morning. Dad patched and re-inflated the tire again after we got to the hotel, but he didn’t want to risk driving far on it after dark.

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Jul042006

untitled

The whole family including myself got up early Saturday Morning to leave the house shortly after seven this morning to drive to Atlanta. We were going to visit grandma Laughlin and pick up Andrew, who’s been spending the last three weeks with Uncle Larry and his family. We were late is getting started because of trouble with a tire. I don’t remember exactly when we arrived but it must have been around six or seven o’clock. When we arrived we learned grandma wasn’t doing well and Uncle Larry, Chelsea and mom went over to the hospital. Dad, myself and my brothers remained at the house and had dinner. Later that evening we got a call that grandma Laughlin passed away. She was diagnosed with lung cancer about two years ago and her condition had been worsening since then. Having to leave her home because of the hurricane probably didn’t help matters but she was near family in Atlanta/Lawrenceville, where she’d been staying since. For me personally, seeing the physical and mental deterioration of a kind and otherwise healthy loved one was more depressing that the inevitable end. The next day, Sunday, Dad, myself and my brothers went to the Mall of Georgia to get some dress clothes for Grandma Laughlin’s funeral on Monday. We were at the mall for about five hours but I had everything bought long before then. I should have went to see a movie. Lauren and Arien arrived from Florida at Uncle Larry’s house this evening. Later at around nine, nearly everyone went over to the neighborhood pool for a little while. Everyone was up early to be at the funeral home for the viewing which started at nine. The funeral service was at 11. Since I won’t have any trouble remembering it I’m not compelled to detail it here. After that we went to the cemetery where an internment ceremony or something was done and then we all went home. There were a number of guests at Uncle Larry’s house that evening whom I don’t know.

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Jul012006

Friday

I had a lot of time to kill this morning so I played the Hitman: Blood Money demo I downloaded overnight. I had some trouble getting used to the control scheme but I enjoyed the game and I’ll be getting it. I went to the office with Dad for two this afternoon. We had to pick up Jeff uptown on the way. I spent most of my time looking over some the work Jeff did while I was gone and made corrections. We left the office at about 5:30 this afternoon. I made soft tacos for dinner this evening. Later on I packed up a few things for another trip. The family, including myself, is driving to Atlanta tomorrow to visit my grandmother and pick up my brother Andrew, who has been spending about a month or so with my Uncle Larry.

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2006

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