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Dec272006
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Johnny Vidacovich Trio |
I went to the office for about noon today. On the way to Metairie we stopped at Winn Dixie for some bottled drinks, the bank and the new office in Mid City which finally looks to be about ready to open. It looks like the installation of fixtures is all that remains to be done.I had very little work to do today. Only two discharge reports justified my presence for six hours. Most of my time was spent with headphones on and a game of FreeCell, or typing this log. We left for the day shortly after six.Dad dropped me off on Frenchman St. This evening, I went to Snug Harbor with Andrey for dinner and the 8 o’clock set. I hadn’t seen him at length is quite a while and he wanted to catch up to this seemed as good an idea as any. I met his there at seven. Over dinner we mostly discussed cars and what we’ve been up to in the last several months. I had fried shrimp and I think Andrey had the shrimp creole.Immediately after we finished eating we saw the eight show, featuring Johnny Vidacovich of Astral Project and ‘special guests.’ Tonight, Steve Mazakowski, also of Astral Project performed along with Steve’s son, Mike I think… on the bass. His son actually attends the same school as my little brother.While I wouldn’t have called the music bad, I would also be unable to say it was particularly entertaining. Both Vidacovich and Mazakowski are excellent musicians but making interesting music with a drum set, an electric guitar and a bass is obviously a tall order. A piano or wind instrument like, say, Tony Degradi on sax would have made the act so much better. We stayed for most of it but left a little early.After leaving Snug Harbor we stopped in d.b.a. for a drink. I wasn’t planning on staying more than a few minutes but we were there for about an hour and a half until we left at 10:30, when it got too loud to hear our own conversation. Andrey gave me a ride home and I arrived at 11:15. I was more than a little tired but I stayed up for a while to play with a new toy that arrived in the mail earlier today, a Sansa e280.
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Dec262006
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Day After Christmas |
I was expecting to go to work sometime today but that never happened. Overall the day was decidedly unproductive. I did help mom clean up the garage so she could get her car back in. It had been crowded with trash after moving a lot of empty boxes out of the attic. I watched some TV this afternoon, and later the Firefly pilot with Mom and Dad. That was about it though.
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Dec252006
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Christmas 2006 |
I woke up shortly after nine this Christmas morning. If any breakfast was served, I missed it. We all opened gifts around ten. Luckily all us kids are too old to be crazy enough to get up early for this age old tradition. This year I have Jeff and my parents each a copy of Firefly: The Complete Series, a great show I’ve previously discussed in this log. Dad gave me a Sandisk Sansa e200 series MP3 player. This was a very nice gift, only tainted by the fact that I bought myself one the day before Dad suggested I not buy any gadgets before Christmas. When Rockbox is finally working on this player, I’m sure I’ll have a lot of flattering things to say about it. Jeff and Andrew got iPods. I suppose I would have received one myself but I openly dislike them. I also received some nice books.Later that afternoon, we had a nice dinner with pork roast, sweet potato casserole and a lot of the thanksgiving sort of side dishes. Shortly after that, we loaded up the car and went over the Aunt Dionne’s house to see her, Uncle Larry, Brandon, Grandma Janet, Aunt Doris and Uncle Joe. Unlike some years past there weren’t quite as many people, but there was more than enough noise and conversation. Having sufficiently mingled with family, I spent the better part of the evening there watching the Cowboys play the Baltimore Eagles. Although I have no love for either team, an Eagles win is of great benefit to the Saints in the playoffs. The Eagles won handily.I got some money from the Aunt Dionne and Grandma. Aunt Doris gave me a sweatshirt, same as every year. We left to go home sometime after nine. As I recall I got to bed at a decent hour that night.
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Dec252006
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Holiday Season |
With school out of the way, things have been quiet lately, even with Christmas fast approaching. I went to the office most days but didn’t work all that much. I might have remembered more had I not waited until the day after Christmas to write this entry. Dad and I went to the Saints game on Sunday, where they lost to the Washington Redskins 10-16, another rather painful game. They were in it for the duration though, unlike the Cincinnati game.Jeff arrived back in town this week for the holiday and didn’t hesitate to be decidedly inconsiderate in his arrival, making Dad and I wait for hours on the east bank at the mall and Dionne’s house after work and then stay the night with friends.I watched a couple of movies this past week: Amores Perros, Wild Strawberries, Diabolique, All the King’s Men and Cowboy Bebop: The Movie.
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Dec152006
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Finally Done |
The last couple of days have been a bit dull. Dad had me stay home to answer the phone and wait for packages. He was out of the office at a trade show. I killed some of the time playing F.E.A.R., a creepy but very entertaining shooter. The game uses a number of subtle devices to screw with the player’s head. I finished the game on Wednesday.This Thursday I had to get a cab and a bus to Tulane as Dad was gone all day. I had one last class, the final exam for Art and Craft of Television. The exam was pretty easy. I got my Battlestar Galactica essay back. I got an A on it although it was a crappy paper due to the ridiculous requirements the professor wanted. The subtitle of my paper was “A laundry list in sentence form,” as that’s basically what the instructor asked for. That night after I got home I watched The Elephant Man.I was home today as well. I had one last assignment which I completed this afternoon, an essay on an architecture thesis review. I doubt I’ll be getting much of a grade for this as my essay sucked. I didn’t have nearly as much source material as I needed to write an intelligent critique. Mom, Dad and I went out to Eastern Chinese and Japanese restaurant on Manhattan Blvd. for dinner, which was actually quite decent.I watched the mid-season Galactica finale tonight, which was one of the better episodes of the season in my opinion.
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Dec122006
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Winding Down |
With all but one exam in school to go, this semester is drawing to a close. I had my architecture exam last Thursday. I probably didn’t do especially well as I did not look over the ‘case studies,’ handouts from three classes devoted to a single building. This evening, Monday, I had my history of radio final. It was pretty easy thanks to the study guide we got last week. I’m not sure what grade I’ll be getting in this class. I missed an assignment or two, got a C on the mid-term and I have a feeling the professor is not going to like my research paper. I know I did well on the final exam though, so that’s something. Today, I did not go to work but went to Tulane early instead. There is one last assignment for architecture class. Students were instructed to attend a theses review and write an essay on it. Senior architecture students design some elaborate project and then present their case to a panel of professors. I saw a few of these although I decided to go with the first one which was about accommodating neo-nomads. The concept is intriguing although the presentation itself left a bit to be desired. At the risk of sounding cruel, I did not see one presentation done by somebody that appeared to have an semblance of public speaking skills, which is somewhat odd because students are required to take a course of the subject to graduate from Tulane. To be fair, however, these kids are obviously under a great deal of pressure and have good reason to be nervous about how the instructors will react to their ideas. I understand some reviews are downright vicious events. I can’t end this post without a word about the amazing Saints game yesterday. The bless you boys pounced the Cowgirls for a final score of 42-17. The game was over by the third quarter. I don’t mind saying I was completely shocked to see them play so well against the lauded Dallas team. It’s always nice to see the home team lay down an ass-whooping on national television.
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Dec072006
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The Post that Shouldn’t Have Been |
Although plenty of things have happened in the last week or so, including the Thanksgiving holiday, I’ve been too preoccupied to update the log� definitely a rare occurrence as things are nearly always resembling tedium. Thanksgiving was rather pleasant this year. Aunt Lauren and Arien came to visit from Florida for a couple days. We also had a neighbor over for dinner. His family was out of town so we invited him to dine with us. I had not met him before but he seems like a pretty decent guy. He is currently in the Air force. The food was great this year, as always. Having not had to cook made it taste even better. That evening, Dad, myself and ‘the kids’ went to see Casino Royale. It was a pretty decent movie. I wouldn’t argue the claim that it is the best Bond movie ever. That Friday, everyone including myself volunteered with the St. Bernard Project. It’s a ‘grassroots organization’ that is rebuilding houses in St. Bernard parish. We drove out to their office in Chalmette where we met the other people that were helping that day. I believe they were nearly all Loyola students and their parents. We went to a house that was already gutted and electrically wired. We spend the day hanging drywall. I don’t believe many of the volunteers had done it before. I know I didn’t. One of the regulars there gave us a lesson on the work involved. It doesn’t seem complicated although long term experience would certainly help. Most of the people there found a singular task to help out. I spent nearly all the day with a drill and drywall screws in hand. We left around 5:30 as the sun went down. There wasn’t any light after dark. Later that evening, Dad, Aunt Lauren and myself went to the Maple Leaf Bar to see Bonerama. They’re a pretty entertaining brass band, although unlike other such groups. It was a pretty enjoyable evening, although I was also ready tired from the day before. This semester is drawing to a close. Final projects and exams were topics of discussion in my classes last week. I didn’t post this week because of a couple papers hanging over my head. One was just an essay for TV class. The other was a research paper for my history of radio class. While the TV paper was a simple laundry list in sentence form, the radio paper was pretty open-ended. My topic was the “Limbaugh effect,” discussing exactly what impact Rush Limbaugh is having on American politics. I had one book which actually explores the matter, unfortunately that was the only one I was able to locate. So in the end I was unable to make any definite conclusion on my topic. That Tuesday, we had a little project in architecture class. It’s basically an abstract map from construction paper. We got some of it done in class but had to finish it at home. We discussed them on Thursday. Last weekend I went to the Saints game versus the 49ers with Dad. We had some pretty decent seats in the club level. The Saints played well against an admittedly dismal team. Both Reggie Bush and Deuce McAlister played great today. Bush had four touchdowns and Deuce rushed for over 170 yards. The final score was 34-10. After work on Monday, Dad dropped me off at the Basin St. Station near the quarter. There was a bit of a field trip in radio class to the home of American Routes, a radio show my professor works for. Only myself and two other students showed up. The professor showed us around the small facility and familiarized us with the production of the show. I found it fascinating that a two hour radio program could be produced within just a little bit of office space. After a bad experience on eBay, I bought another Antec P180 on Newegg. It’s a computer case designed for quiet. Over the past couple of months I’ve been making little upgrades to my computer to try and cut down on the noise, but they didn’t help as much as I’d like. This new case delivered in spades, however. My PC is nearly silent now. Although I’ve been pretty busy in the last couple weeks, I did manage to see a couple movies: The Proposition, Witness, Modern Times, Hulk and The Da Vinci Code.
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