2007

Oct182007

Progress

Dad and I were rather late getting to the office this afternoon. We waited at the house a while for the new TV stand to be delivered. Dad ordered it from Ethan Allen ages ago and we finally got a delivery scheduled. The delivery schedule was 10-1 but I think they came closer to two. We left soon after they made the delivery.We finally arrived at the office at 2:45. We only stayed for a half hour before leaving again. Dad wanted to be at the west bank office by four to be present when a bunch of patients arrived. Dad dropped me off at the Tidewater building to catch the shuttle bus to campus. On the ride I continued to study for a math test this evening.When I arrived on campus I got a smoothie and took a seat in the dining area of the student center. After I’d been there a little while, Andrey saw me. He, Shona and Veronica joined me with their lunch. Andrey and Veronica left and I walked with Shona back to Mayer and then went over to Tilton to get to class early.As I suspected, there were a handful of people there already going over the material for the test. I sat in with them for a bit trying to pick up on a few things. The test started reasonably promptly just before six. There were 25 questions which weren’t especially hard with a couple exceptions. We were allowed the use of our notes and the textbook. The book is completely useless but the notes were quite valuable. I took about two hours to finish the test.After finishing, I walked over to the PJ’s to sit with my laptop and a muffin until the dancing thing started at nine this evening. Patrick, who I met last week, showed up while I was there. More often than not, we talked about movies.Turnout at this evening’s lessons looked like it was going to be a bit light but several people showed up a little late. A good portion of this evening’s session was spent on recap on last week, which was very valuable to me after an unproductive student practice on Tuesday. We also learned a couple new steps including another sort of spin. While I still don’t quite look like I know what I’m doing, I felt like I did a lot better tonight and really enjoyed myself.Andrey and his friends wanted to go out this evening, but not until after 11. While I waited, I walked back to PJ’s and intended to wait there a while. Patrick caught up with me and suggested we go get something to eat. We walked to his car and went to Felipe’s Taqueria, a little Mexican place near campus I’d never been to before. I wasn’t really hungry and just got some chips and salsa.After eating and trying to figure out what was going on, we went back to campus and met up with Shona and a bunch of other people in her dorm. We waited there for a good while for Andrey and Veronica. They finally made it at about 11:30. They arrived with Chelsi, who I first met earlier this evening.There was a good sized group that went to Vera Cruz this evening. There was a pretty good crowd there when we arrived. The music, dancing and the 2 for 1 margarita pitchers are the main attractions. I was there until about 1:30, not much longer than Andrey. There was a cab outside waiting for a fare so it didn’t take long to get home.

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Oct172007

Pompeii

It was wet outside throughout the day, raining on and off. Dad and I made it to the office at 10:30 this morning. I spent the workday doing a few discharge reports and getting the work of the past couple days ready to mail out this afternoon. Later on Dad dropped me off at the Tidewater building and I caught a shuttle to campus. During the ride, I finished the homework I started last night, creating ten quiz questions on Etruscan art.This evening’s art class was pretty decent. It was the first in a two part lecture on Roman art. Most of what we looked at was architecture, both ruins and some intact structures. A good part of the lecture was about Pompeii. We got our mid terms back and I didn’t do very well.Dad picked me up after class. He was working late. That evening I watched some TV, cleaned up my room a bit and talked to Krystle on the phone late before bed.

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Oct162007

History Mid-Term

Dad and I got to the office sometime before 11 this morning. He left to go to the westbank with an intern for a couple hours so it was pretty quiet. When they both got back I relinquished the front computer so she could do the mid city billing. Dad bought a new router to replace the one that’s been misbehaving. The new one seems to be working fine. Later on I spent some time studying for a test this evening. We left at five sharp.This evening’s Louisiana History class was reserved for the mid-term exam. There was a decent bit of writing but it was actually a short test. I think I did reasonably well although my grade will hinge on what the professor thinks about my long essay.After class I went to the student center to get some dinner. After I finished eating I continued to sit around the student center for about two hours until I walked over to the Reily center for the student dance practice at nine this evening. There were only nine people there tonight including myself. The only one there who could run things was Andrey. He did his best, but he wasn’t entirely up on last week’s steps himself. The practice ended before 9:30 so it was over in under a half hour. Seeing as how the session was so unproductive I was sorry I bothered to show up, having taken some two and a half hours out of my day.As I left the Reily center the downtown shuttle was pulling up. I decided to hop on and see if I could save any money by calling a cab from Canal Street. The fare home from the tidewater was about $18, only about a four dollar difference.Later this evening I watched Boston Legal while I worked on a small homework assignment for tomorrow’s art class. I talked to Krystle on the phone for a while before bed.

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Oct152007

The Orange Box

Dad and I were especially late getting to the office this afternoon. This morning before we left, I watched a little of the Fox Business (HD) network that debuted this morning. It’s hard to judge a network from a half hour of viewing but it looks decent, certainly pretty in HD. The nature of the business news is definitely less hardcore than say Bloomberg TV. I also watched the 36th season premiere of The Price is Right, now staring Drew Carey. I was a little disenchanted when I heard the show would be continuing after Bob Barker’s retirement, if only because nobody could be as good as he was. There can be no expectation for the show to retire if there is still money to be made though. Mr. Carey is probably as good a choice for replacement as I can think of. He did okay on his “first day,” although he didn’t match the genuine enthusiasm Barker has kept up for 35 years on his debut episode.Dad and I finally made it to the office sometime around noon. I was waiting around for us to leave Mid City and go to the Metairie office but I never made it there. Dad decided to just take me to campus and go out to Metairie after dropping me off. He wasn’t going to be there long anyway as he went to see his mother at the hospital this evening.Dad dropped me off at the student center and I went to get something to eat. Shona bumped into me as I was waiting for my sandwich at the Quizno’s and had lunch with me. We didn’t talk about anything in particular. While we were sitting a couple of her friends, Ashley and Ashlie joined us for a little while. After everyone left I remained in the student center until 5:15 when I walked to Norman Mayer for my visual communications class this evening.This evening’s class was much like last week’s in that I don’t believe I heard anything of circumstance. We did receive a study guide for an upcoming test so I’ll be able to figure it out. After class, Dad picked me up from the student center.Later this evening, I started playing Half Life 2: Episode 2. I preordered The Orange Box on Amazon last week and it arrived today. I didn’t get very far so I can hardly offer much opinion on it as of yet. I also tried out Team Fortress 2, which was a lot of fun. I wish all this had been released in the summer, I would have had a lot more time to enjoy it.

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Oct142007

Yeah You Right!

This past weekend has been pretty quiet. The family was out of town until late Sunday. I shamelessly spent most of the time in front of the (beautiful) TV. I did get a good deal of laundry done though.On Saturday afternoon, I watched LSU lose to Kentucky in triple overtime, which was quite satisfying. Later that evening I watched The 40 Year-Old Virgin and Mission: Impossible III, both of which were underwhelming.I had NFL football on the TV most of the day Sunday, just because it was pretty with the exception of the Raiders game which wasn’t pretty at all. It wasn’t even available in high-def. Later on I watched the Saints play the Seattle Seahawks. Unlike the other games this season, they looked good, played well and actually won. Consequently it was a lot more fun to watch, even though I was by myself. After that I watched 300, which was visually interesting but I would stop short of calling it a good movie.

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Oct122007

Long Cab Waits and a Little Dancing

With my folks still out of town, I had to get myself to work again this morning. I wanted to get to work earlier than I did yesterday but it didn’t work out that way. I called a cab at ten and it took about an hour and two more calls to finally get on at my house.Although Friday is a doctor day and we had a couple new patients scheduled it was a calm afternoon. I was tied up more than I would have liked and didn’t get much tangible work done. Annisha was going to Dillard’s on the west bank after work and gave me a lift over the river. I figured I could go to Sears, maybe buy something and get a cab the rest of the way home.I wasn’t really interested in anything particular but the two pairs of headphones I carry around and getting worn and I did walk out with a pair of those Sony ‘street style’ headphones to replace the pair I have now that’s getting worn out, cosmetically at least. The news ones are nearly identical although the cord is thinner and these are more comfortable.I called a cab to get the rest of the way home, three times, and it took about 45 minutes to arrive. It only took 20 minutes of waiting for me to regret not just going straight home from work. I finally got home at about 5:30. I cleaned up my room and got some laundry going, checked eBay and that sort of thing.This evening, the Tulane ballroom dancing club had an outing at Ray’s Boom Boom Room on Frenchman Street. Every Friday, Freddy Omar gives free salsa dancing lessons at nine followed by a regular performance from ten to one. I called a cab from my house at about eight. I got a call back almost immediately from ‘Elliot,’ the same driver that took me to work on Thursday. He said he recognized the address and was on his way. On the way downtown, he told me a little about his years as a cab driver. He told me a story about a guy who called for a ride all the way down in Venice, LA back to New Orleans.I arrived at “Ray’s” at about 8:45. Another act was playing when I got there. I think they were called the “Soul and Spirit Band,” but I’m not sure. For a lead-in act they sounded pretty decent. Their female vocalist could really project. Freddy Omar started the lessons a few minutes after nine, before most of the other Tulane students arrived. They didn’t miss much though, just a simple set of steps to the left and right. I presume Mr. Omar was aware who most of the participants were because he made a handful of comparisons between ballroom dancing and salsa dancing. There were two sets of movies he went over. The steps done by oneself weren’t so bad, but the pairs moves were more than I was able to pick up on in under an hour and it showed.During the lessons I was in the front ‘row’ with a couple people including Megan, who graciously served as my partner during the lessons. Mr. Omar used her as an example later on. Since I was right up front, Freddy saw me stumbling around and tried to help me himself. He was patient but I wasn’t quite picking up on the more complicated things. Megan didn’t seem to mind much though and did seem enthused when we did get something right. The hour passed rather quickly. After a short break, the band started their first set.I found a spot to stand off to the side with Veronica, Shona and Andrey. I didn’t get to rest too long though. Nicolle, who was my partner through most of last Tuesday’s practice, asked me to dance and I happily obliged. It was a lot of fun even though neither of us really knew what we were doing. After one or two songs we both needed a break and went to sit down. I went to the bar to get some water. I think I got the last two bottles they had. We talked for a little while and were soon joined by some other wary souls. After a short while, Megan asked for a dance. I still didn’t know what the hell I was doing and she was visibly disappointed but still cordial. I went to sit back down after that. There was plenty of rotating company.Not long before 11:30, Andrey called the “last dance.” The students who came from campus were on a couple of vans that were scheduled to leave on the half hour. Nicolle got me up for one more before they left. Neither of us looked like we knew what we were doing but it was a lot of fun anyway.After everybody left I closed my tab and grabbed a cab home. I had a nice conversation with the driver who was from Gabon, Africa. He was much more educated on matters of current events and politics than most natural born citizens I encounter.After I got home I put a little laundry on, took a shower and talked to Krystle on the phone for a while before I finally went to bed around two.

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Oct112007

Better… Not Great, But Better

Mom, Dad and Andrew left early this morning to fly to Detroit. They will be gone through the weekend so I’ll be running the office and have the house to myself. I got a cab to the office and arrived at about 11:30, later than I would have liked. The office was pretty quiet today as it usually is on Thursdays. We did get two new patients called in though.I left the office at 4:15 to catch a streetcar downtown to catch the medical school shuttle to get to school. I left later than I liked but I was able to just catch the shuttle to go uptown. This evening’s math for information technology class was a continuation of sets and we actually talked about venn diagrams, bringing back memories from middle school. The class was actually somewhat entertaining.After class, I walked over to the Reily Center. I attended the ballroom dancing lessons again this evening. The turnout was lighter than last week but there’s wasn’t a large disparity between guys and girls which works out better. The first 15 or 20 minutes of the class recapped the steps we learned last week. One of the first things the instructor mentioned was to keep your heels off the floor to making moving about easier. I suppose it was acceptable for her to assume people would notice but since I’m a complete moron I was trying to dance flat-footed last week, which didn’t work out so well. With this newfound knowledge I did much better this week. I nearly have the steps from the first week down now. A few new moves were introduced this evening. I didn’t do so well with the new stuff but I know I’ve made a lot of progress which was nice and made this evening a lot more fun than last week.Andrey invited me to accompany him and his friends to Vera Cruz again this evening. It was largely the same crown as last week with the exception of Sona. I met two new people this evening, Patrick and Angela. The crowd was pretty tame when we arrived although things picked up later. Andrey and Veronica left at about one and I got a cab home not too long after that.

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Oct102007

Mon., Tues., Wed.

Work the past three days has seemed unproductive, partially due to low hours. I’ve been leaving work early for one reason or another.Class this week hasn’t been bad, it certainly could have been worse. Monday’s visual communications class was exceptionally dull and the demeanor of the somewhat sparse class reflected it. I have no immediate recollection what the class was about. Luckily the boredom was not lost on the instructor and he mercifully dismissed class early at 7:30.Tuesday’s Louisiana History class wasn’t bad. We discussed the early American period and Louisiana’s relevance in the War of 1812. Class ran longer than I would have liked but it wasn’t a big deal because I had something to do after class other than run for the shuttle.Following the dancing lessons on Thursday, there was a practice session this evening sans the instructor. There were only eight of us present including Andrey and myself. It was a good sized group to practice with though. I had the same partner through most of the hour-long session. We went over the steps we (sorta) learned last week. I did slightly better but I still suck. I caught a cab afterward and arrived home at about 10:30.Dad dropped me off downtown by the shuttle stop early this evening because he had to go to the west bank office for some reason. I cracked open my art survey book to look over some things and found the study guide for this evening’s mid-term exam. I completely forgot about it. I was somewhat fortunate though in that I had time to study both on the bus ride and later on campus before class. After I got off the bus, I walked over to the Reily Center to get a special club sport pass so I can get in for the dance lessons without buying a full membership. Andrey sent me the forms for this earlier at work.With this taken care of I walked over to the art building and poured over the study guide with my textbook before class. The test involved identifying slides with photos of ancient works of art. I figured the best way to try and cram this much material was to look at a photo and then handwrite the name of it. I find I often remember the act of physically writing something down.Although most classes reserve an entire class period for an exam, Professor Bayer gave an hour-long lecture on Etruscan art prior to the test. He does this with quizzes too and it bugs the hell out of me. It’s a severe disservice to us slackers who try and cram just before tests by bombarding us with a bunch of new information that is not immediately relevant.After a ten minute break we began the hour-long test. There were 20 multi-part questions with accompanying sides. We had three minutes for each question. I could have done a lot better but my last minute studying definitely saved my ass. In the future I will be writing assignments in a small notepad rather the notes on my computer which I seldom read. Dad picked me up from class after class. Later this evening I watched some TV, the first half of a movie, talked to Krystle and did some laundry.

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Oct072007

Late Losses

I was fortunate enough to be able to stay home from work on Friday. Dad had something to do early this morning and was gracious enough not to subject me to rising early, which was nice because I got to bed so late the night/morning before. I did have to wake up at 8:30 to cover the phones for about an hour and then went back to bed for a while. I didn’t do much of anything the rest of the day.I was at home all day Saturday watching football. Tulane played this evening and there were some other big games going on that night. I moved my TV into the living room so we could watch the Tulane and LSU games at the same time. Tulane played at Army this evening. Speaking frankly, they have a pretty lousy team and we should have win, and nearly did. With three minutes left in the game, we had a 17-7 lead. Army managed to tie the game with a one-in-a-million hail mary catch on the last play of regulation. We held Army to a field goal in the first possession of overtime. Army’s defense held us and we missed the field goal, ending the game with a humiliating defeat. That wasn’t the biggest upset that evening, though, as Stanford defeated USC this evening.On Sunday, Dad and I went to the Saints game with my co-worker Bianca. She had some spare tickets because her husband was out of town. Like the Tulane game, things were looking up until the end of the game approached. There were a couple of critical interceptions that kept the Saints from pulling ahead. Carolina scored a tie-breaking field goal on the last play of the game. The Final was 13-16, sinking the Saints to 0-4.

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Oct052007

Swing

The office was nice and quiet, partially because of the frequent rain which consistently keeps the patient’s away. I got a phone list update done but I never managed to get to any initial reports like I wanted. Dad had to go to the west bank office later this afternoon so he had me a Tulane by quarter to five. After stopping at the bookstore to get some bluebooks, I walked back to the Tilton building and camped out with my laptop for a while before class started. The professor arrived a bit late but that gave me time to catch up on my log, including this very entry.This evening’s class was largely about decision tables, which were covered briefly last week. The second half of class after the break was about sets. Class ended after 8:20 so I would have to get a cab home. Before I called one I listened to a voice mail from Andrey who called while I was in class. He invited me to a session of swing dancing lesions at the Reily Center, sponsored by the ballroom dancing club. There was a good sized crown of about 30 at the event this evening, which started at nine. The crowd was unfamiliar with exception of Andrey and his friends Veronica and Shona, whom I’ve met once before. There were twice as many women as men, so the girls had to take turns with partners. One could argue whether or not this was a problem.The hour long session focused on a single triple-step swing dance. It did not seem very complicated but I could never quite get the first basic steps. This was the first time I attempted to learn any sort of dance at all, and I had practically no success. Dancing is something I’d like to be good at, but I would have to start learning on the most basic level and this wasn’t it. I did enjoy myself though. I wasn’t the only one struggling and the others were very forgiving and supportive.The class ended at ten. I was going to head home but Andrey invited me to join hem and his friends who were going to Vera Cruz, a little place across the street from Bruno’s.It was a little while before everyone was there. People had to do this and that before we all wound up there. Eventually everyone was there. In addition to myself, Andrey was there, his girlfriend Veronica, her roommate Shona and a few people I had not met before, Austin, Kerry and Sona. We just sat around for a while with our drinks and talked. Eventually they decided to enjoy the music a bit more actively. The place has a DJ working that played a little hip-hop and varieties of Spanish music and people dancing to match. This went on until sometime after two in the morning. Andrey and Veronica had left a while earlier though.I was going to get a cab straight home from Vera Cruz and offered to share it to help the rest of the crowd get home but they insisted on walking. I decided to tag along because it’s best to have numbers when walking around in the middle of the night and one of our party was conspicuously intoxicated and could barely walk. Austin was quite a trooper and carried the girl when she wouldn’t walk. The 10 minute walk back to the dorms took about a half hour with the slow pace and occasional stops to rest or vomit. After they got the girl in a bed I walked to the student center and called a cab to go home. It took about 20 minutes to arrive. I finally made it home at 3:30 and went to bed not long after.

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Oct032007

Greek Art Continued

Dad and I got to the office for 11:30 this morning. It was a somewhat loud day at of the office but not overwhelmingly busy. I wasn’t as productive as I would have liked but I did get the week’s mail out this afternoon. We ordered pizza for lunch, a lot more than we needed.This evening’s art survey class continued last week’s lecture about Greek art, mostly sculpture. Although we saw pictures of a lot of original work, most of the slides showed marble Roman copies or original brass sculptures. Apparently many such sculptures were melted down centuries ago for the raw materials. This is also the case with a lot of antiquity’s architecture, in which people just walked away with the stone for other structures. There was a quiz at the end of class on Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. We were instructed to familiarize ourselves with these works last week but I forgot about it and bombed the quiz, which was very frustrating.After class, Dad met me at the Boot and gave me a ride home. Later that evening, I worked on my math homework for tomorrow and finished watching Yankee Doodle Dandy. I normally find musicals unenjoyable but the songs in this film had proper context since the movie is about the famous Broadway producer George M. Cohen, writer of such famous songs as “Over There” and “Grand Old Flag.”

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Oct022007

Ignored Week

An even week has gone by since the last post and I’m not inclined to bother covering it much. Classes were fine, overall. Things were looking up this weekend with the Raiders finally winning a football game. Although Tulane lost to LSU this weekend, they played quite well. I was more impressed with their performance this weekend than their win the previous week.The office was very quiet today. We only had a couple patients and Dad was gone for a few hours. After work, Dad took me to school with time to spare before Louisiana History Class this evening. The first half of the class discussed a book about Marie Laveau. I fully intended to read the book. I ordered it a few weeks ago but I’m still waiting for it. I did, however, pass the quiz on the book I didn’t read last time. The second half of class was about late Spanish Louisiana and the Louisiana Purchase.Class ended just in time for me to catch the shuttle downtown. Dad picked me up at the medical school and took me the rest of the way home. I watched Boston Legal this evening and later started watched a movie.The Zune 2 was announced this evening. As a Zune owner this was of interest to me. While I’m not thrilled with the new hardware, I did find some of the news quite fascinating. All the new features available on the new Zunes will also be made available to early adopters of the first generation Zune. I think this is pretty awesome, rewarding those early adopters that put faith in this new brand. It sure would be nice if Apple was interested in maintaining support for their two year-old products rather than soldering the batteries to the main board and expecting their “iSheep” to buy new iPods every 18 months.

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Sep252007

Bloody O’Reilly

Dad and I made it in to the office at about 10:30 this morning. It would have been a little earlier had I managed to get up on time. This being a quiet Tuesday, I was expecting to get a good deal of work done but it didn’t quite work out that way. One of the interns used the computer later in the afternoon and we left the office early at 3:45 because Dad had to take care of something at the westbank office this evening and he wanted to get me to campus before that.I arrived at Tulane at quarter past four. I sat in the student center for a while, browsing eBay and whatnot until 5:15 when I left to head to the classroom, still with plenty of time to spare.This evening’s history class was about the Spanish asserting control of the Louisiana colony after the War of Spanish Succession. The professor had some interesting stories this evening and the class was reasonably entertaining. The advantage I’ve had taking Colonial Louisiana History last semester should come to an end next week. I’m assuming we’ll get to the Louisiana Purchase.Later that evening after I got home, I started watching Giant, a sprawling epic noted as James Dean’s last film. It’s quite long though and I did not finish.

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Sep242007

Dat Hurts

Dad and I got to the office for about 11 this morning. Unlike Monday’s past, the doctor was at the Mid City office today to see a slew of new patients. I wasn’t there through the day, however, as I needed to get myself to class this evening. After picking at a couple reports, I left for the day at three. The weather was wet today and it looks like it will stay that way most of the week.I took a streetcar down Canal Street to the Tidewater building where I eventually caught a shuttle to get to the uptown campus. It wasn’t the quickest way but I did get there. With a couple hours before class, I went to the student center, browsed the bookstore briefly and then took a seat for some quality time with my laptop before heading to Norman Mayer.This evening’s visual communication class couldn’t have been terribly important because I can hardly remember anything that was discussed. The instructor was mindful of the Saints home opener this evening and class was dismissed early in time for the 7:30 start.I called a cab after class but one never came. I suppose between the rain and the football game this evening they were rather busy. Dad was still on the eastbank for a meeting and came by to pick me up. The game had been on for a little while already when we finally arrived home at about eight. The game itself was entertaining for about a half as they managed to stay in the game against the Titans. The second half was painful however. The Saints were plagued by turnovers and the defense had trouble stopping Vince Yong and the Titan’s offense either because they just suck or they were worn out being on the field so long. The final score was 34-14 and the Saints are now 0-3, which essentially guarantees there won’t be any post season action for the boys in black and gold.

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2007

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