2009

Aug142009

Pho and Fox

This past Sunday, I went with Andrey, David and Patrick on an evening out on the west bank, a more than somewhat unusual occurrence. They wanted to go to a Vietnamese restaurant on the west bank for some pho soup. They picked me up and we drove past a few possibilities but they were all closed. We ended up at Three Happiness restaurant on Lafayette Street. I went there once before a few years ago with Jessica and the décor, or lack thereof, was nothing like what I remembered. The food wasn’t too bad though.After dinner we went to Honey’s pool hall on the west bank expressway. We played pool at a bar on Magazine a few weeks before but it was a bit cramped so this was a better venue for the game, if not the scenery. We played several rounds before leaving sometime around 11.Rather than go over the river, we went to a Rally’s on Gen De Gaulle and went to my house to eat and talk for a while. I think it was close to one before my guests left for the evening.On Monday I made some calls and was able to schedule an interview with Fox 8 for an internship for the fall. As part of my upcoming Media Arts Practium class, I am required to have an internship. I had the interview on Tuesday afternoon which went rather well as it seemed I was “hired” as soon as I walked through the door. I met with the managing news editor, Nancy DeCorte, and eventually was given a tour of the studio by a current intern and was introduced to a few people working there including Bob Breck, their resident meteorologist for evening newscasts.On Wednesday after work, I went to the movies with Andrey and David. I got a cab to David’s house and then Andrey picked us up to go to the AMC theater in Elmwood. We saw Funny People, a movie with Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen. I couldn’t call it a great film but it was funny and entertaining. We went to the 10:30 showing and I didn’t get back home until well after one in the morning.Thursday had the makings of a typical workday but Dad’s car broke down in the afternoon as he was picking Andrew up from an appointment. Mom retrieved them and eventually me close to six o’clock. We went to dinner near the office at Venezia where I had lunch on Wednesday. Dad and I had the lasagna, Mom had stuffed shells and Andrew had some sort of combination plate. That evening, I spent a lot of time doing laundry as I needed clothes washed for a trip I’m taking tomorrow.

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Aug072009

Unbreaking Toys

This week has passed with relative quiet although I did get out of the house this weekend. This past Saturday evening I met Andrey, Patrick and David for a little outing to Mona’s Café on Carrollton. Before that I went to Andrey’s house to try and resurrect an external hard drive belonging to Andrey’s friend Veronica that wasn’t working. Without having seen the drive, my best bet was a faulty USB controller so I brought along a universal USB drive adapter. Removing the drive from the enclosure and connecting it with the adapter didn’t work. The drive still read as having an 8 GB partition and the rest unpartitioned, probably caused by some sort of fluke involving another flash drive. I then tried restoring the original partition with a program called Partition Table Doctor which worked swimmingly. Mission Accomplished.With the drive fixed we eventually made it to Mona’s where we sat around for a while with a sampling of beers Andrey brought. Patrick’s friend Paige was working there and we saw a lot of her while there. Later on we went back to Andrey’s place and eventually made a run to Rally’s. I was rather tired when I left there sometime after one. Before I did leave Andrey gave me a battered Blackberry 8800 to play with.Over the course of the week I’ve been killing a lot of time with the phone. Apparently it had seen some liquid as there was rust inside but I was still able to revive it with some attention and a new battery. The outer casing is in pretty bad shape so I bought a new housing for it. I also discovered that the microphone is virtually dead and got the part to fix that as well. With the hardware side accounted for I’ve been playing with applications and other such things, this being the first Blackberry I’ve had time to play with for an extended period. The GPS receiver works and I installed TrekBuddy so I can use maps without a data connection.I also watched a few movies this week including One Six Right, How the West was Won and Cinerama Adventure, a documentary about the ground-breaking motion picture process that ushered in widescreen movies.

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Jul272009

Sunday and Monday

I was up earlier than usual Sunday morning as Bianca woke up at eight to be ready to leave at nine for her flight today. Since I was awake I was able to go to church without any problem. The rest of the day was rather uneventful.Monday was rather uneventful as well. The radiator on Dad’s car broke last Friday and this morning he took it to Steve’s on Gen. DeGaulle to have it fixed. We didn’t hear from them until about four in the afternoon when the work day was near its end so I never got to the office today. I took the time to clean my closet, do some laundry and waste time on the computer. I also finished watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas which was not entertaining despite whatever artistic merit the film might have.

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Jul252009

Shirts and Snug

Earlier this week I heard from Bianca who said she was going to be in town today to catch a plane tomorrow morning. She needed a place to stay and I was able to oblige. I took care of some chores before she showed up at one this afternoon. Not long after she arrived and got settled, we went out to Metairie to do some shopping. There aren’t any malls where she lives and she expressed a desire to look for clothes and shoes.Our first stop was Clearview Mall. I think we only went there because she thought there was an Old Navy store there. There isn’t one and we weren’t there long but we did stop in several stores first. After walking through Clearview we drove down Veterans to Lakeside Mall.We were at Lakeside for a few hours and stopped in several stores. Our first stop was Express. Bianca bought a few items and I got a purple collared shirt. We then went to the food court to satisfy Bianca’s craving for cookies. Later we went through good number of stores including several that cater only to females. Before we left the mall we stopped at Eddie Bauer where Bianca helped me pick out a short-sleeved collared shirt and an undershirt. I wasn’t really happy with what I was wearing and wanted something else to wear for dinner.We left the mall at about 4:30. As there was no longer an Old Navy in Lakeside either and Bianca still wanted to go, we drove out to the nearest location in Elmwood. Bianca seemed disappointed in what they had to offer but she did get a couple of shirts. I got some undershirts myself. Before we headed to dinner we also stopped at two other stores nearby, K-Mart and Rue 21.We took Earhart Blvd. back to the city. We had a 6:30 reservation for dinner at Snug Harbor. As we were driving across the Quarter on Decatur Street we both saw Ray Nagin at a crosswalk and waved at him. He waved and smiled back which was pretty cool.There was a healthy crowd in the restaurant when we arrived. I ordered the blackened fish and Bianca ordered a hamburger. During dinner we got to talking to a couple semi-regular visitors from Florida. After dinner we took our seats for the first set of the evening with Astral Project.I’ve seen Astral Project several times here but this was one of the best sets in memory. All four members were in attendance and the music was great. They played several songs from their latest CD and some new compositions including what was billed at the “premiere performance” of McCoy by Steve Masakowski. They also played Sophisticated Lady featuring a solo by Tony Dagradi on his newly-purchased baritone saxophone.After the set, Bianca and I walked to Cafe Du Monde for some beignets. Neither of us had been there in quite a while so it seemed an obligatory stop. It was quite crowded even though it was about 10 PM but we were able to find a table without any trouble. I decided to try the Cafe au Lait even though I don’t like coffee. I was reminded why. The beignets were excellent as always, though. Having had our fill, we walked back to the car and home for the evening.

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Jul242009

Meh

Not much happened since my long weekend out of town and I was not very interesting I posting virtually nothing, although I should have posted last Saturday after going to a little gathering at Patrick’s house in River Ridge. Not a great deal has happened lately. On Monday I saw a career counselor at Tulane regarding an internship I will need in the fall. I bought some floor stands for my new computer speakers… and that about covers it.

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Jul072009

Extended Weekend

Some days of this past week deserved their own entries but I have decided to summarize my recent change of scenery with this one entry. I am writing this log entry from the lounge car of an Amtrak train on my way back to New Orleans after a few days in Ruston. A few days ago, Krystle told me she had a chance to come down to New Orleans with a new roommate and asked if I might like coming back up to Ruston for a few days. As I already had a three day weekend and a couple more days off would be no big problem, a change of scenery was appealing.She arrived on Wednesday night. I was trying to unclog the bathroom sink when she arrived and couldn’t have looked presentable. Later that night we watched Changling on my newly-purchased Pioneer Blu-ray player. It works well but it’s painfully slow compared to the PS3.We left for Ruston the next day. We stopped at IHOP on the way out of town. I suspect that destination is in danger of becoming a tradition. If I remember right, we had dinner at Ponchatoula’s that evening.The week kind of blends together although I can easily recall individual events. One of the days I was there, we had lunch with Krystle’s roommates, Sabrina and Jose. Later that day we drove to Monroe to go to Best Buy. Another evening, Krystle and I went to see Public Enemy. IT was a well crafted film but I found the handheld cinematography rather distracting as it was a period piece.The evening of the fourth, we drove out to Pea Ridge where some relatives and friends of Krystle’s folks were celebrating Independence Day with plenty of booze and explosives. We were there for an hour or two before we decided we had seen enough fireworks.On Monday we went out to Monroe in the afternoon. We just needed to get out of the house and I wanted to go to Bed, Bath and Beyond to buy a clock. Krystle’s roommate Jose had a rather interesting wall clock that I just had to have. When we got there we stopped at a new sushi place for something to eat. After a late lunch we did our shopping and I found the clock I was looking for.Krystle and I left this morning to head to Jackson. Rather than have her drive me all the way to New Orleans, I just caught the train to go the second half of the way. The trip was not unpleasant although I the run from Jackson to New Orleans can be done in half the time by car.

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Jun252009

The Death of Spring and Celebrities

This is probably the first post in quite sometime that isn’t the summary to some outing. I figured I would write an entry before the weekend to mention a couple things.Work has been droning on as normal with a little dose of melodrama. A couple weeks ago we started opening the office on Mondays with doctor’s hours which generally is working out so far and is relieving the patient load on Wednesdays. Yesterday was the first full eight hour day I’ve worked in a while. Dad and I left the house earlier than usual so he could take Mom to the airport. She is going to Florida for a few days to visit her sister.Over the last couple weeks, spring came to an abrupt end with increasingly hot temperatures. Yesterday was the hottest day on record ever in New Orleans with temperatures reaching 104 degrees. This morning, Dad took me to Moldaner’s Camera on Maple Street to pick up some film I dropped off last Friday. I had a roll of black and white film I shot years ago developed and I had some film negatives from my high school graduation scanned. Afterward we had lunch at Camellia Grill. I had an omlette and dad had hot sausage on bun. Later this evening after work I fooled with my “new” pictures and watched Deconstructing Harry.Today also completed another unfortunate celebrity death trifecta. Ed McMahon died earlier this week and then today, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson passed away. The first two were not exactly surprising but the death of the king of pop was pretty shocking to me… maybe just because I never really followed him. In any event, I suspect the media circus that started today and will no doubt continue is going to be more depressing than his death.

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Jun222009

City Zoo and DJ Soul Sister

On Saturday evening, I met Andrey, Patrick and David at the Woodward Loft Apartments. Jeff was home for the weekend and happened to be going out so he offered a ride. Apparently this was a birthday party for somebody. The only connection any of us had to anyone there was that Andrey was very loosely acquainted with the drummer in one of the two local bands that was performing. The bands were interesting if nothing else and there was all the beer you could drink for five bucks.After an hour or so at the rooftop party we drove to a little place called Mimi’s in the Marigny where DJ Soul Sister who has gigs there regularly and specializes in “deep funk and rare grooves.” The music was quite good but I was up to attempting to dance. I think we were there for an hour and half before heading out. Afterward we made the traditional Rally’s run and went to Andrey’s house. At some point the conversation necessitated we watch American Pie although we weren’t there long enough to see all of it… pity.

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Jun152009

New Sound

As I mentioned in the last entry, I’ve been spending time lately on the audio components for my computer. When I haven’t been fooling with new toys I’ve been reading about them online. This past Thursday, my new Audioengine speakers arrived in the mail. I set them up on my desk and the sounded great out of the box. They are light years ahead of my old Logitech set. The clarity and soundstage of these speakers is awesome. Supposedly they will sound even better after they’ve been broken in a bit. The only shortcoming is the lack of a subwoofer. The speakers handle lows quite well considering their size but they don’t really cut it for video games where things are exploding all around you. Most of my usage is music though so I suspect it will be a while before I feel compelled to add a subwoofer to the mix.On Saturday, I received the E-MU 0404 USB I won on eBay. It’s an external audio/MIDI interface to replace my current sound card. Removing the audio circuitry from the computer case eliminates electrical noise issues and in general should serve as a far better source for my new speakers. This particular unit offers a very good DAC for the money and a headphone amp that drives my Sennheiser HD-595 headphones satisfactorily. Generally speaking I’m pretty happy with it although I have some mild functionality issues I haven’t figures out yet. This afternoon I cleaned, photographed and packed my old Logitech speakers and listed then on Craigslist. I’ve never sold anything through the site but as the whole set and packaging weights 43 pounds, putting it up on eBay was an unappealing prospect.Saturday evening, I met Andrey, Patrick and David at d.b.a. Apparently there was supposed to be a larger contingent but only the usual suspects showed. One of them brought a deck of cards and we played a few rounds of Tien Len, which was commonly played when Andrey and I attended Edna Karr. I had to relearn the game but it’s not difficult. I didn’t win any rounds although I was nearly always first loser. We remained there until nearly 11, almost an hour after the Zydepunks were scheduled to start their set. We elected not to wait any longer and venture elsewhere. We walked down the street a bit to Cafe Negril where a band was playing. They were good although I have no idea who they were. After a few numbers we departed. Patrick had driven the other and we went in his car. We stopped at Rally’s per “tradition” although none of us had nearly enough to drink to make it “necessary.” Fries in hand we went to Andrey’s house. Automobiles dominated the conversation as they often do when Andrey is present. I got a cab home after one.I slept in on Sunday. I only had a couple bites for my old speakers and I contacted the person who made the best offer. He picked them up after five this afternoon. Not long after that I noticed the memory card reader on my computer was not working. As I was planning on removing my old sound card eventually anyway I used the issue as an excuse to pull out the case and clean inside while affecting necessary adjustments. It occurred to me when I removed my X-Fi card that I would be losing the ability to output HDMI with audio, although I had not really used the feature anyway. Later this evening I worked on a design for some speaker stands that would fit my new speakers alongside my monitors.

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Jun062009

Three for Three

Regrettably, I’ve let the week go by without an entry, passing at least a couple of days deserving their own posts. Outside of work, a lot of my time has been spent with one thing or another taken apart on my desk.On Wednesday, maybe, a flip clock I won on eBay arrived. The latest addition to my collection, a Panasonic RC-7053, is in good shape although it was more than somewhat dirty. It’s an interesting model and includes a day of week indicator. The main neon illumination bulb was bad so I harvested one from a broken clock I have on hand and installed it without incident. After a couple hours work I had the clock looking great.Yesterday, a non-functional laptop I bought out of curiosity arrived. It is a Sony VAIO QR20, a nine year-old novelty that featured a carrying handle. It was packed rather poorly but arrived well enough. Like the notebook I fixed earlier this week there was nothing visibly wrong with it, but I hard to rebuild it and add RAM and a hard drive. I ran out of spare laptop drives and had to pull the drive from my first MP3 player, an Archos Jukebox 20.Once I confirmed it was functional I started cleaning each component. The cosmetic condition of the computer was pretty good but it was quite dirty. It appeared it was used as a place mat by the previous owner with little bits of food everywhere, even inside the casing. The keyboard was especially filthy. I spent several hours completely disassembling the laptop including the LCD bezel and cleaning each component individually before reassembling the laptop. Later I installed Windows XP and searched for the drivers for this model. I am still trying to get the hotkeys and jogdial to work.Today my handiwork with a screwdriver was much simpler. I accompanied Mom to Harry’s Ace Hardware to buy potting soil and some other odds and ends. We left the store with a mailbox for the house. It has been in need of replacement for quite some time but only now did she find a suitable replacement. I mounted it when we got home. Later in the afternoon I installed a mini-pci Wi-Fi card I ordered for my recently resurrected ThinkPad. I thought I was buying an IBM “authorized” card but I had to use the no-1802 fix to make it work.Later this evening I decided to pull the trigger on some new speakers for my computer. I’ve been spending time these past couple weeks reading about speakers, amps, headphones, DACs, etcetera. I’ve been less than content with my current Logitech Z-5300e 5.1 speaker setup. Most of my usage is music which only utilizes 2 of the five speakers I have and I have never been able to properly position the rear channel speakers anyway. I considered purchasing some passive bookshelf speakers and an amplifier but ultimately decided on a simpler arrangement. Tonight I ordered the Audioengine A5 powered bookshelf speakers, which apparently sound incredible for their size and price point. Later on I may purchase an USB Digital/Analog Converter and an amplifier to power my Sennheiser headphones and perhaps a future set of passive speakers.

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May312009

Blueberry Mojito and a Screwdriver

Following church and an uneventful afternoon, I went to dinner with Andrey, Patrick, David and Veronica. We went to Nine Roses on the west bank so Andrey was willing to pick me up. Before we left he gave me a broken laptop of which he said had been rained on and no longer worked. Dinner was nice. Everyone else had pho soup which they always get there. I’ve had it before and don’t care for it, especially not in the huge quantity they serve. I ordered general’s chicken instead which was decent although a cowardly selection.As we were finishing up dinner Andrey was looking on his phone to see what was playing at the movies but there was nothing compelling. We all went over to St. Joe’s Bar on Magazine Street apparently because they have a pool table. I rode with Patrick and we picked up a friend of his whose name escapes me at present. We were at the bar for two hours, maybe less. I think just about everybody including myself tried the blueberry mojito which this place is apparently known for. I would say the notoriety is earned.We left for the evening at about 10:30. Patrick drove me to the Boot where I caught a cab home. There was one parked when I arrived. I was his first fare of the evening.After I got home this evening I had a look at the laptop Andrey gave me, a worn Averatec 3280. First I tried turning it on but the power light was the only sign of life. I proceeded to completely disassemble and clean the parts. There was some evidence of water damage on the casing and DVD drive. There didn’t appear to be any damage to components, however. I installed a hard drive and RAM which the computer was missing. After a partial reassembly I turned it on again and found the notebook worked fine. Before bed I installed Windows XP and found some of the drivers for it.

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May282009

Baked Silicon

Nothing of circumstance happened at work yesterday and today. Last night I finished watching Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. This evening, I took another crack at fixing a laptop I’ve had on hand for a while.I kept Krystle’s IBM Thinkpad T40 at my house after my trip to Ruston last New Years. I was not able to fix it as I determined that the onboard video chip had a faulty connection which caused the laptop to lockup randomly and whenever the laptop was bumped in some fashion. As this wasn’t something I was able to fix at the time I sent Krystle a “new” laptop and shelved the broken one until I could fix it. I read about how people successfully repaired the video chip connection with something called a solder reflow in which the chip and board are heated, melting the solder and repairing the connections. The method described involved a heat gun and infrared thermometer. I wasn’t interested in purchasing those items to fix a laptop worth less than $200. Replacement motherboards on eBay were prohibitively expensive so I just stuck the laptop in my closet.On Wednesday I read an interesting topic at [H]ard|Forum in which someone repaired a broken video card, presumably with a chip connection issue, by heating his card in a standard kitchen oven for a couple minutes. I immediately recalled the Thinkpad in my closet with the same problem and was intrigued by the possibility of fixing the laptop with “equipment” I already have.After doing some reading online I learned that others have successfully attempted the reflow fix in conventional ovens, toaster ovens and even skillets. With a possibility of success in mind I decided to give it a shot. At worst, a laptop that only works when you don’t touch it would not work at all. I spent a good portion of this evening tearing down the laptop. I open up laptops somewhat frequently but I seldom have to gut them like I did tonight. With the motherboard stripped of everything that could be removed, even stickers, I set it up on a cookie sheet. I set it off the metal surface with three little balls of aluminum foil. I was careful to rest the foil on bare areas of the board away from bunches of little circuits. I set the board in the oven preheated to 425 degrees for five minutes. I determined the time and temperature from various estimations and solder melting points I read online. I watched the board through the five minutes just in case of some sort of catastrophe. I never saw any solder appear to be melting so my first thought was I didn’t leave it in long enough.Later after removing the motherboard and letting it cool, I started to reassemble the laptop. I first connected just the display, keyboard and battery to confirm the computer would still POST. It did boot so as I was putting it back together I at least knew I did not fry the thing. It took over an hour to fully reassemble the laptop. I was on the phone with Krystle through a good deal of the process although I was not able to give her much of my attention. I had not documented which screws went where to it took a bit longer than it could have to get the Thinkpad back together. I turned it on a couple times during the job to make sure I didn’t screw anything up.There was no operating system installed so when I was finished I booted a formatting tool from CD and did a zero wipe and format of the hard drive to see if the computer could remain working for an extended period. After that completed successfully I booted a Windows XP installation CD and tapped the touchpad repeatedly while it loaded files. Normally such activity would promptly lockup the computer but again there were no problems. I also installed Windows 7 RC without incident.Following the installation I fooled around with the laptop for a while and still no lockups. I am typing this entry on the resurrected Thinkpad right now, something I would never have been able to do. Keying 750 words is the most substantial stress test I wish to carry out at present but so far it appears baking the motherboard actually worked, which is perfectly logical and astonishing at the same time. I’m quite pleased with myself just now.

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May262009

DMV Adventures

After getting a proper night’s sleep, I got up early this morning with Mom to go get my driver’s license. It’s something I should have done years ago but it was never a priority. Mom had me drive to the DMV office in Gretna for a little practice before the road test. It was my most circumstantial bit of driving since taking the 36 hour course back in 2004.

When we arrived I got in line and after a few minutes I spoke to the woman up front who said I had the wrong copy of my driving course certificate. I brought the pink one and she wanted the original white one. More than somewhat miffed, Mom and I went back home. I found the appropriate copy and returned to the DMV, arriving back sometime after nine. The line was a lot shorter this time. In about 15 minutes my number was called. After presenting some paperwork, answering a few questions and taking a quick eye exam I was directed to a computer to take the “written” portion of the test.

I did well enough on the test. However, after question 37, three from the end, the test failed to load. I made the staff aware of the problem and they had me sit and wait while they sorted it out. I had missed too many for them to just mark the last three wrong and pass me so I was asked a couple questions orally. The lady who administered the question disappeared for about 15 after asking the second one. By the time I actually “passed” the written exam it was 10:50. As there is no road testing between 11 and one, I would have to wait a couple hours to finish the process. I was instructed to return as close to one o’clock as possible.

With two hours to kill, I offered to buy lunch someplace. Mom and I ended up at Zea Rotisserie & Grill on Manhattan. I was not particularly hungry but I skipped breakfast so it was nice to get something to eat. I had the shrimp etoufee which was decent and Mom had a chicken sandwich of some sort. Lunch only killed 40 minutes so Mom and I went to Barnes and Noble and Best Buy respectively. We left at 12:30 to be sure to be early.

One o’clock came and went and I didn’t notice people getting called for road tests. I wasn’t called until 1:50. I took the road tent in Mom’s Taurus with a pleasant woman of about 50 years. She had me drive through a couple of the surrounding residential streets and across the expressway around West Jefferson High School. After the road test I had to wait a little while longer to pay and have the license printed.

By about three, I finally had my first driver’s license in hand. Mom dropped me off at the office for the remainder of the work day in which I didn’t do all that much in the two hours I was there. Dad and I left the office for the day at 5:15. We stopped at the uptown post office on the way home. That evening we had red beans and rice for dinner. Later I watched Sunset Blvd. with my parents as I didn’t have anything better to do.

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May252009

25

This year I was committed to writing entries for every day of Jazz Fest 2009. As my limited time management skills are practically non-existent during the summer, it took three weeks to get around to it. Consequently, what little time I spend on this log was spent on the Fest. Now three weeks behind on the log I need to catch up. Unfortunately I don’t have photographs, notes and a festival schedule to help we remember things between Jazz Fest and today. The remainder of this entry will likely be a smattering of memories of the last three weeks.

On May 4th, the Monday following the festival, Krystle and I had lunch at Mandina’s before she left for home. I wanted to take her to a place on Cleveland Avenue called the Ruby Slipper but they were closed on Mondays. Since Krystle isn’t here much I like to take her to new places but if you have to repeat a restaurant, Mandina’s certainly isn’t a bad choice.

Later that week on Thursday the 7th, Dad, Andrew and I went to see the new Star Trek movie. I was not happy with the premise of the film as I find it imprudent to “reboot” the franchise and recast the original series cast. However, preceding the film’s release was a wave of critical adulation which made me cautiously optimistic about the movie. However, I left the theater feeling ill. The franchise I have enjoyed for years has been reduced to generic summer blockbuster garbage with lots of explosions and a minimum of story. The main villain was just a plot device for a script that made no real sense. I could go on for a while. Let it suffice to say that I am hard pressed to think of much anything I liked about the movie. I know my opinion isn’t widely shared as much of the press and the public enjoyed Trek’s accommodation of the lowest common denominator.

The following week, the lamp in the radio dial of my Panasonic RC-6551 alarm clock died after 40-something years. Luckily they still make fuse lamps which is what I needed. Replacing it was as close as I care to get to making a ship in a bottle. The following day I brought another flip clock of mine home from the office to clean.

On Friday the 15th, I got a call from Andrey during work inviting me to join him and some family and friends for the Wave Goodbye party at Tulane. The event is put on by the university president and is held in the Gibson Quad. Andrey picked me up from the office at about five this afternoon. His father who is visiting from Russia and his younger brother were with him. We went to Andrey’s house for a little while and then walked to campus, meeting up with David along the way. At the party we also saw Patrick, Jason and Andrey’s mother. It was a rather large gathering that spanned the quad from Gibson Hall to the environmental science building. There was plenty of food including grilled oysters and Bonerama was performing. We were there until about eight o’clock.

Later that evening Andrey, David and I went to Patrick’s place in River Ridge for his sister Taylor’s graduation party. We were “early” but several others arrived in due course, many of which were Taylor’s relatives in friends I was not acquainted with. It was a nice little affair with pizza and beverages. I think we were there until sometime after 10.

On Sunday the 17th after an uneventful afternoon, Andrey invited me to join him and a few others at D.B.A. Washboard Chaz was playing that evening. It took quite a while to get a cab to my house to everyone was there when I finally arrived after 10. Andrey, Patrick, David, Andrey’s father, Veronica and Ella were there. The girls are usually gone by this time of the year but they were still in town because they are traveling to Spain for a summer semester with Tulane.

The next day, my 25th birthday, I saw the same crowd at a barbecue at Andrey’s house. That got off to a gradual start as some of them had been strolling downtown that afternoon and Veronica lost her phone on the way home.

I can’t remember what day it was but Jeff returned for a brief stay around this time. On Thursday the 21st, Jeff and I went to the Westbank Palace to see Terminator Salvation. There were lots of ‘splosions but the plot left a lot to be desired… in that there wasn’t one.

Yesterday, the 24th, I went to Patrick’s place in River Ridge with David again for a little barbecue at his place with Andrey, Veronica, Ella and Liz. Again, I caught a cab uptown and rode with David the rest of the way. It was a pleasant gathering although it did rain that evening. After enjoying our hamburgers we settled down and ended up watching Superbad. Later after David dropped me off in front of the Boot I decided to browse the Mushroom record store. I ended up walking out with a copy of The Dark Knight on blu-ray.

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2009

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