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Mar272007
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My Lai |
I worked at the mid city office from about 11 to five this afternoon. There was a little dictation to work on but I depended on petty tasks to keep me occupied most of the day. Dad took me to class after we left the office.This evening’s “cold war history” class concerned the My Lai Massacre and America’s entry to the Vietnam War. Class started with a quiz on a book about My Lai, which the class was to read last week. Luckily the quiz was multiple-choice which made things quite easy as I’m not very good with names. Professor Fontenot lectured for an hour about our entry into the Vietnam War. He only got as far as the Kennedy assassination as the topic is obviously complicated.At the end of class, we got our mid-term exams back. I got a C-, which was quite a relief as I thought I bombed the test. I did quite poorly on the main essay which the instructor graded rather generously.Dad picked me up after class. Had it ended earlier we might have gone to the baseball game this evening but it was a bit late for that. Later this evening, I watched The Exorcist, a rather draining experience.
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Mar262007
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Weekend + Monday |
On Saturday Morning, Andrey and I drove back to New Orleans, or rather he drove. Before we left, Bianca cooked us a nice breakfast. She was a wonderful host during our stay. I only worry she preoccupies herself with the satisfaction of others and forgets to enjoy herself. The ride back was fine. We did hit a delay on the Bonnie Carrie Spillway. The only reason we had to be back so soon is because Andrey had to be for work at four o’clock. It must have sucked for him as he’s a delivery driver, so he was still in his car after the five hour trip home. The rest of that day was pretty uneventful.I went to church on Sunday, the first time in a few weeks. Dad and I have been going to the Sunday afternoon baseball games. They were away at Marshall this weekend, where they won all three games. That evening, I watched the series finale of Rome and the season finale of Battlestar Galactica.Today, Monday, I went to work with dad around 11 this morning. We stopped at Mid City before making our way to Metairie. I did a little dictation this afternoon and showed Darnisha how to do discharge reports, or started anyway. Dad and I left the office shortly before five this evening. The lecture of tonight’s sparsely attended IT ethics class was about privacy, or the lack thereof. The lecture was mercifully short and we were dismissed just after 7:30. Dad had just pulled up to take me home and we arrived just after eight. I watched 24 this evening and later saw Finding Neverland while working on last Friday’s entry.
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Mar242007
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Ruston |
This entry skips Monday through Thursday. I just worked and went home each day of the week, nothing worth detailing. The only remotely consequential event was me watching my 900th movie, A Christmas Story.I took the day off of work today go drive up to Ruston to visit Bianca and Khadijah at Louisiana Tech. I packed some things for an overnight stay yesterday evening. Andrey arrived at my house to pick me up around 10 this morning.We took the most simple and probably fastest route; I-55 up to Jackson, Mississippi and then west on I-20 until we reached Ruston. The trip up really wasn’t bad at all, even though it was some five hours. I didn’t have to drive and no pestering immediate family members were present. I brought a book to read but I was largely preoccupied with conversation so I didn’t really get to it. We talked about several things, but my memory says mostly cars.We pulled in to Ruston sometime around three. We parked a little further than needed from Bianca’s apartment. Bianca greeted us when we arrived at her apartment. After talking for a while, we called Khadijah and Andrey and I went over to her house to pick her up. The directions she gave me were complicated to I just printed a map. With that in hand we didn’t have any trouble finding her house, although it didn’t have a number on it. It’s been several months since I last saw Kali, although we do speak regularly. Andrey hasn’t seen her in at least a couple years, though. Khadijah wanted Andrey to meet his boyfriend so we drove over to the red tables where Gerard was with some friends. I’ve met him before on a couple previous occasions. We sat and talked for a little while before leaving to head back to Bianca’s place. We stopped at a gas station on the way to pick up some beverages for the ‘picnic’ later. Not long after we got back, we loaded Andrey’s car with the food and people and went over to Hideaway Park where some of Bianca’s friends were waiting. In addition to us four, Bianca’s friends Quentin, Matt, Laura and her roommate Krystle were there. I’d met all of them before with the exception of Krystle I think.We didn’t waste any time partaking of the food. There was nothing overwhelmingly unusual about the ‘picnic,’ or whatever you might call it. There was food, drink, conversation, laughter and the occasional “game.” We were there for an hour or two before we headed back to Bianca’s place. On the way, we stopped at a grocery store for ice cream to go with the cake she already had. Bianca doesn’t have a freezer so she couldn’t have bought it ahead of time.I couldn’t easily describe the rest of the evening in any great detail. We had the dessert and generally spent the rest of the time sitting around and talking. On occasion I went outside. Bianca’s apartment has a great view of Tech’s baseball field. Their team was playing Fresno State tonight. Later on, Gerard showed up as well as two more of Bianca’s friends: Steve, whom I’d met, and Jeremy, who I had not. Kali and Andrey disappeared from the party a couple times. I’m sure they had a lot to talk about. I hardly felt deprived of company, however. As the late evening wore on, things quieted down, guests departed. I think the last holdouts left around midnight.Andrey and I stayed the night at Bianca’s place. I made some calls yesterday for a hotel room but the whole town was booked solid for some convention and a Grambling football game. So, we just slept on her floor. Andrey was pretty tired and was practically unconscious when he hit the pillow. Bianca and I were up a bit longer, talking while she picked out clothes for the next day and painted her nails. I finally got to sleep around two.
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Mar182007
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Siena Swept |
This post covers Wednesday through Sunday well it actually ignores Wednesday and Thursday because my memory isn’t that good. There’s no loss though, as the only events of remote circumstance were the baseball games I went to this weekend.Dad and I went to all three games versus Siena College of New York, all of which were shutouts. Sean Morgan pitched a great game on Friday, breaking the strikeout record he tied last week with 14 strikeouts in a single game. On Friday, Tulane scored six runs, two in the 4th and 4 in the fifth on four hits and three Siena errors. It was cold and windy this Friday evening so Dad and I left the game early after the fifth, confident that the match was decided, which it was.Shooter hunt pitched on Saturday and also had a good showing, allowing only three hits. The final score of this game was just 2-0. It was a remarkably quick game clocking in at 2:05.Tulane broke out of their hitting slump during today’s 19-0 game. It was all goose eggs until the bottom of the fifth when Tulane scored nine runs on seven hits started off by a hit to center field wall by McFadden. It looked like a T-ball game.Jared Dyer homered to score one run in the sixth. In the seventh, Seth Henry hit a home run as well, scoring three more runs. In the bottom of the either, Tulane scored six more runs on five hits. The final score was 19-0. The only ‘bad news’ was that Tulane stranded 16 baserunners on the pads, a recurring theme at Tulane games.There’s one more little thing worth having in the log. I bought a “new” digital camera on eBay this week, which I took to the baseball games, a Canon 10D, a four year-old digital SLR. I’ve wanted one of these for quite some time but they’re prohibitively expensive, especially for a kid who just takes pictures as a casual hobby. Assuming the shutter on this camera doesn’t break within the year, I got a great deal on this camera, which actually came with a 24-85mm lens. It’s a fun camera to shoot as you can snap away to you hearts content with the burst mode and memory buffer. Even though you could consider the 10D obsolete, it still takes pretty good pictures. However I’ve found the included lens isn’t remarkably sharp on the far end. I also scored a 50mm f/1.4 so I’ll soon have a good idea of what this camera is capable of without dropping two grand on glass. With Jazz Fest coming up I wanted something better than the Sony point and shoot I have now. I really wanted to like and buy the Sony F828, which has a design I love, but this camera has inferior image quality and is going for about the same price as the 10D so purchasing it didn’t make much sense to me.
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Mar142007
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Full Day |
Today was a reasonably busy day compared to most… by my standards. I had Dad drop me off on Frenchman St. this morning in lieu of going straight to work. I met Christy for lunch at 13 Monaghan’s, a place I’ve walked past countless times but I never knew they served food. Although I talk to Christy online with reasonable frequency, I think it’s been well over a year since I’ve seen her in person for any significant length of time. I arrived first sometime before 11 and she followed not long after that. We both ordered sandwiches. Between the bar and Washington Park after, we talked for a couple of hours, mostly about what we’ve been up to lately. We parted ways shortly after one and I took the streetcar down Canal St. to the Mid City office.I don’t remember doing much in the line of work at the office. Anyway, we left sometime around five, I think. After we left the office, Dad took me to Tulane for class this evening. I had a mid term exam in my US foreign policy class, which I think I did rather poorly on. Neglecting the read the entire book on John Dulles really did me in. I read a couple chapters but apparently not the ones that mattered. Consequently, I finished rather quickly.Dad was waiting for me when I finished and we went out to Zephyr Field. Tulane played UNO this evening. As this entry is late I don’t remember many details of the game. I do remember it was certainly a pitcher’s duel. Tulane scored one run in the first and one more in the fourth, and that was it. The final score was 2-0.
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Mar112007
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Baseball & Jazz |
Dad and I arrived at the Mid City office at about 10:30 this morning. With all my dictation done yesterday, I didn’t have much to do at the office. I did finally get around to routing some phone cables in the baseboards. I went to lunch not long after 11. I walked along Carrollton to a place called Little Tokyo. It’s a very decent looking place and the food was good. It was nearly empty when I arrived, however. I had the beef teriyaki which was a well-portioned dish either that or it seemed that way because it took me so long to eat with the chopsticks.At about one, Dad and I left to go out the Metairie office to get some things done. The billing and phone list were three months out of date. There were some other things I wanted to get done but I didn’t get around to it. We left the office at four and went to the mall for a little while before driving out to Zephyr field for this evening’s baseball game.Tulane played the first of three games versus Loyola-Marymount tonight. It was a pitcher’s duel the whole way. Sean “The Captain” Morgan pitched nine innings for Tulane and gave a phenomenal performance. He tied a career record with 13 strikeouts and he did it in exactly 100 pitches. He walked nobody, allowed only five runs and one hit. Coach Rick Jones said it was one of the “greatest performances that I’ve seen.” It was very exciting to watch.There was no scoring until the fifth inning when Marymount managed to get a run in. Tim Guidry answered in the bottom half with a home run, tying the score at one. In the bottom of the sixth, Warren McFadden homered as well, driving in two run and giving Tulane the lead. Tulane extended the lead in the bottom of the eighth with another run on two hits. That was the rest of the scoring, Tulane won with a final of 4-1.After the game which ended around nine, Dad drove me down to Frenchman St. I met Andrey and two of his friends, Veronica and Shona, for a show at Snug Harbor this evening. Ellis Marsalis was doing his usual Friday night show with two accompanying musicians and a couple of guests. Herlin Riley was on the drums, Peter Harris played bass and Roman Skakun was a special guest on the xylophone.I’m not in the mood to type up a play by play of the 10 o’clock set. Suffice it to say, it was one of the best Ellis Marsalis performances I’ve seen, second only to the first time I saw him at Snug Harbor when Ellis’s sons were with him. The music was great, more up-tempo than the last couple times I’ve seen him and there were a few good quips between the numbers.After the show, we stood outside on Frenchman St. and talked for a little while and were entertained by a street performer. After that I walked with them back to Andrey’s car and said good bye. I walked back to d.b.a. where my Dad had been late this evening. After hanging around there briefly we both went home.
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Mar082007
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Whatever |
It’s been about two weeks since my last entry. I haven’t been especially busy lately but it has felt like it at times. Even though enough has gone on over the last several days to justify some entries, I haven’t had enough quality time with my laptop for it.The highlights of the last couple days include the colonial history of Louisiana mid term, which I very well may have bombed, writing a paper for IT ethics class, a few Tulane baseball games and attending my first wedding.I worked every weekday since the last post. Generally speaking I’ve had enough work to keep me busy. I was at the west bank last Wednesday doing the billing work.This past weekend, I went to the wedding of my dad’s first cousin’s daughter or something like that. This was the first time I’d ever been to a wedding and the first time in quite a while that I wore a suit without someone having to die first. The ceremony itself was mildly disturbing. It was conducted by a woman (odd) who giggled more than somewhat intermittently (also odd). I didn’t get to talking to anybody at the reception so I was a bit bored, but there was free food and booze so I couldn’t complain.I watched a couple movies over the last several days: Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, The Crying Game and Midnight Cowboy.
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