Only 9.5 hours 'till I leave Seattle!

That's right people I'm leaving at 4am. At least, that's the intention. :) But I'm usually pretty good about getting up in time for my road trips. I'm really looking forward to this drive. Some time on the open road will help to releive some of the stress I've placed on myself lately.

I'm definitely looking forward to this 1.5 weeks of vacation in general. :) Lakers game, magic mountain, visiting friends and family in san fran, san luis, san berdo... only thing that's missing is san diego. Unfortunately, only so much time to spend :)

< sigh >
yeah, I definitely feel lighter right now. :)
Why can't my whole life be a vacation :)

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!!

For anyone interested, my holidays will go as follows: I am making a road trip along with Rachelle down to California for the holidays. I am leaving this coming saturday, the 18th of december from Seattle. I'm going to try and make it all the way to San Francisco on Saturday. Hang out there for the night with my Uncle Gabe hopefully.

On Sunday, it's off to San Luis Obispo. Maybe the housemates will still be around and we can drink some beer and reminisce... Visit Theresa and Gary, hit Pismo, and then off to Southern California.

Most of the week before Christmas will be spent in Southern California. Rachelle and I are going to hit Magic Mountain one of the days, so if anyone wants to join us, write me and I'll give the scoop on what day as it gets closer. Maybe even use the Twicket for a $1 second day! (if they still give those things out :)

Celebrating christmas day with the fam in San Bernardino and probably going to AZ to have x-mas celebration with the Gasca side of the family. And then a long trek back to Seattle, because I've got to be back at work the Wednesday after Christmas!

Well, I've gotta go throw the laundry in the dryer, so I'll speak at you all later. :)

Absolutely nothing new to say

I know there's been tons going on in my life, but to be honest, I've been tired and a little stressed lately. When it comes time to write a post to my blog, I just can't seem to mete it out.

I do have a friend from school coming up to the area next weekend. It'll be nice to see him, haven't seen him in a couple years. I need to do a better job of keeping in touch with all my friends. But you all know that.

I still don't really know what my plans are for the end of year holidays (other than getting away from work for a couple weeks). I've only been working since mid-August, but with the deadlines hitting me, I know I'll need the break.

Well the girlfriend just showed up, so I'm gonna use that as an excuse to leave the post for another time.

I'm still alive

but have had absolutely no time to post. So what have I been up to since last I posted that's been keeping me so busy? Spending inordinate amounts of time with the mysterious "chica" that I mentioned once in a post, oh about a month ago. And I've been loving every bit of it. We've got quite a bit in common, yet we're also quite a bit different. It works out well. Oh yeah, she's Seattle born and bred, so she's my acting tour guide as well. :)

Also been pretty busy with work. Deadlines, deadlines...

I did end up making it up to Vancouver the first weekend I had my car. That was fun. Lot's of good food and drink. Although, if you are ever in Vancouver don't go to Grouse mountain! It was recommended to me by a co-worker and it was definitely not worth the $25 canadian to ride the Gondola up and down the mountain. At the top, there was no view becaue it was overcast. It was also quite cold. There were a couple caged bears and timber wolves, but other than that (and a tasty treat called a beaver tail) there was nothing at the top. To top it off, they were doing "annual maintenance" on the main gondola and the wait to go back down the mountain was like 3 hours long! But enough of my ranting. Overall, it was a great trip.

My friend Elfred also visited this weekend. Didn't spend a whole lot of time with him, but I'm sure I'll be seeing him somewhat frequently considering he's back together with his girlfriend who is also a 'softie. We were going to try to get together with our friend Ron, who just moved to Wa this weekend, while he was here but it didn't quite work out. Cest la vie (or however you spell it).

Well, I'm gonna get going. Just got my internet connection recently. DSL. Gonna get static IPs. Hopefully this site will soon be hosted from my apartment. We'll see.

P.S. Mike, if you read this. Your check is written and in an envelope. I just need to get a stamp to throw on it and send it off. Sorry about being so lazy.

Ok, so here's the skinny

My new car is an '05 Scion tC. Now, before you all go "eeew, that ugly box on wheels" listen to what I have to say! My car is not the aforementioned "box on wheels" that seems to come to everyone's mind when they hear "Scion". I myself was of the opinion that that "box" was the only vehicle they produce. Well, we were both wrong! The tC is the new 2-door coupe they introduced in July.

Here's a link for a preview of my new "ride" to help tide you over until I get some pic's posted.
link

If you click on the Colors tab and choose white, you will see a good likeness of my car. :)

I'm waiting for the questions to start pouring in: "What?? an import "tuner" type car?" "Where's the '49 merc?" "What happened to the AWD Magnum with the hemi?"

You know what my response is?
"Labels, I don't need no stinking labels!"
:P

I got my new car!!!

More to follow soon...

Has it really been two weeks?

and it's not like the last blog entry was at all substantial or informative. Getting lazy again! Well, I've gotten to the point that I can't deal with not having a car. Horrible. A byproduct of the modern, fast paced lifestyle. I should have a car early this coming week. Hopefully.

So what's new in the life of Miguel? Hmm... I guess the last post with any updates was September 26th. So what's been going on in the past month? Not a whole lot worth mention, other than the fact that I met a chica last week who's quite nifty and fun to hang out with. But besides that, not much. I'm pretty boring aren't I?

Maybe I'll have an update later this week about exciting exploits in my new car. A road trip, that's what I need. hmm... Maybe next weekend I'll break the new car in with a good old fashioned road trip. Vancouver? Portland? I'll keep you updated (maybe I'm not that boring after all)

Random Blog

Why do people think seem to think that the reason I don't like cats is because I'm allergic to them? I mean, I'm allergic to avocado, yet I eat avocado whenever I can. I love avocado regardless of the fact that I'm allergic to it. Though I am less allergic to avocado than to cats... In fact, I'm less allergic to avocado than I used to be... Maybe it's because I eat so much avocado... hmm.... Maybe I should start eating cat.

New Apartment Pictures

Well, they're up and there's a link to the right -->. The place was still a bit of a mess when the pictures were taken, but you all should know that's normal for me anyways. :) In the picture of the outside of the building, I'm on the second floor on the right. Oh, and yes, that is my nifty vespa you noticed in front of the building!

Well, I feel like crap right now, so I'm going to crash and try to sleep through it.

House Warming!

OK, so I've been in the apartment for a couple weeks now, so what? I can still have a "house warming" event! Anyways, this is the first weekend that the place is furnished. So if any of you faithful readers want to drop by and help warm the place, you are more than welcome. That being said, I don't think I'll see any of you because I don't think any of my friends up here in the great Pacific Northwest read/know about my blog. And I don't think any of you will make a "quick trip" from California, or Florida, or Texas, or some random country (Sean and Julia, you out there?) just for the night! :)

I've got alot of work to do before the festivities tonight. Most of my stuff still needs to be unpacked, and then I'll have to clean up all the debris (or at least push it all into a corner).

I don't feel well.

I didn't get much sleep last night. Well, at least tonight is my last night sleeping on a hardwood floor. Yep, the movers show up at 8-9am tomorrow with all my furniture. Yeah, I guess I didn't really mention it again in my blog, but it has taken much longer than a few days for the movers to get my stuff to me. 9 days of hardwood floor so far. Well, I crashed on my friends couch the other nice. heh, best night sleep I'd had in awhile. Of course it helped that I was somewhat inebriated when I fell asleep as well.

Well, my brain is only at half-mast right now, so I'm going to get going, finish my dinner and get some sleep.

Enough of my complaining. Good night all.

Fixed the link to spring break pictures...

...and will hopefully have links up to more pictures soon

Such a small world, and is anything really a coincidence?

Once again, I join you from the depths of perkatory. I was looking for something in my jacket pockets the other day (I can't remember what it was I was initially looking for) and found something I wasn't looking for. I happened upon credit card receipts from perkatory. "So what's the big deal," you ask me. Well, it turns out that the receipts print out Planetary Espresso as the name of the business. Most of you probably don't know, don't remember, or just plain don't care (you can stop reading now) but Planetary Espresso is was the coffee place across the street from my old apartment on Olive Pl. The one that I went to every morning last summer.

So I asked one of the friendly baristas about the receipts. I was told that perkatory recently changed owners, and the new owners used to own a place called Planetary Espresso. Methinks this doesn't bode well for perkatory. You see, Planetary Espresso was originally owned by a guy named Kevin (while I went to it) but recently changed ownership shortly after I left Seattle. The new owners got rid of all the old employees, all the regulars stopped showing up, and the place eventually went under. <Toast>Here's to hoping the same thing doesn't happen here.</Toast> Maybe they've learned their lesson?

First Hill

So it seems that my apartment is in First Hill, not Capitol Hill. Or maybe even the top of the Central District? Who knows where the borders of the neighborhoods exactly are. I've moved most of the stuff from my temp. housing to my apartment. One more trip and it will all be done. Then I need to contact the movers to get all my crap out of storage. Since it'll probably take a few days to get that arranged, I'll probably be sleeping on a hardwood floor for a few days. :)

I'm currently sitting in a coffee house a couple blocks from my apartment called perkatory enjoying a cappuccino and free wi-fi. I've taken advantage of the internet connectivity to use the King County Metro trip planner. So it turns out that I'll probably be able to get by without a car for awhile. I can catch a bus right outside my apartment, make one transfer and be at work in about 45 minutes. Good reading time! I can also take the bus from work to the doctors and back to Seattle (I've got 3 appointments this coming week for massage and chiropractic adjustment).

Hopefully I'll have all my furniture and have the apartment in some semblance of sanity by this coming weekend. I figure that's when I'll have my house-warming. It would do no good to not have places or room for people to plop themselves, now would it? So who's going to come in from out of town to help me warm my house? ;)

Long Labor Day Weekend

So it's Sunday the 5th of September. Bumbershoot weekend in Seattle. This weekend was/is dedicated to finding an apartment and having fun! So far, I've been succesful at both goals!

I put a deposit on an apartment yesterday. It is a 1+ bedroom on 17th street in Capitol Hill. It's a decent sized place, which is nice (approx. 800 s.f.). Hard wood floors are being refinished this week, linoleum in kitchen is being replaced and it is being painted. I should be moving in next weekend, which is just in time. :) My temp housing assignment expires next Sunday @ 11am, so I need to be out of the place by then. This also means that I will probably be buying some kind of a car in the next week or so as well. Man, the money is already flying out of the bank account.

So, on to the fun! Friday night, I caught Death Cab for Cutie, the Presidents of the United States of America, and United State of Electronica at Bumbershoot. Yesterday, I saw the Black Keys, Pedro the Lion, part of Drive-By Truckers, part of Face to Face and some other bands I didn't know the name of. I was thoroughly dissapointed with both the black keys and drive-by truckers. Oh well. Today I plan on catching at least These Arms are Snakes and Cobra High. Tomorrow! Oh tomorrow! Toots and the Maytals, the Pixies, Built to Spill, the Killers, maybe Harvey Danger, who knows what else.

Well, I've got to go get started on having fun for the day. bye.

Coffee Messiah

that's where I am right now. Back in ye olde neighborhood in Capitol Hill. I spent this weekend apartment shopping, sort of... I walked around the neighborhood yesterday and wrote down contact info for some places that looked interesting. I had planned on calling on them all today, but that didn't happen. I did send out some emails to building managers for ones that had email addresses though. We'll see. I have a couple weeks yet to find a place. However, the time is ticking away quite rapidly.

I went to a restaurant last night with a couple of friends. The name of the place is Marakesh and it is in Belltown, on 2nd street for anyone that knows anything about Seattle geography. It was awesome. We all sat on really low benches or cushions around a table that was about 1 foot off of the ground. There were no utensils, so we used our hands to eat everything. There were 5 courses to the meal. We started out with a tomato based soup with squash, next was bread with a couple different sauces. The third food item brought out was a pastry that tasted somewhat like baklava, but had chicken in it and was topped with powdered sugar. Very tasty! Next was the main course. Well actually 6 main courses that we all shared family style. There were lamb kabobs, some kind of plum chicken, game hen, a cous cous dish, and I can't remember what else. All of the dishes were good. Finally there was dessert, which was tea and a sweet meringue like dish. The server brought hot water and a wash basin to the table and poured the water over our hands both before the first course and then before dessert. He also poured rose water over our hands before dessert. We had 3 bottles of wine and a belly dancer to entertain us while we enjoyed our meal. All in all it was an excellent experience, one I definitely plan on doing again. Next time, we are going to get the whole lamb (which we would have done this time if you didn't need 3 days notice).

After the meal, we hit a couple of capitol hill bars and had a few brews. We wanted to make sure our stomachs were completely full! My friend Theresa was kind enough to allow me to crash at her place and avoid the drive home. The next morning Chris, Theresa and I hit the Broadway Grill for a greasy breakfast and a bloody mary. Man I love Seattle! Well, I'm going to get going so I can finish my coffee and vegan sandwich (which is surprisingly good!). Have a good night all.

So Here I Am

...in Redmond, sitting at my desk, at work. I don't have internet connectivity at home currently, so I'm staying after work to take advantage of the free access. Won't spend too much time though, so it's going to be a short entry ;)

The arrival and move into my apartment went smoothly. They rented me a Pontiac Grand Am which is a nice roomy car, and the temp housing they put me up in is about 5-8 miles from work. Today is my second day of work. My first day consisted of NEO (New Employee Orientation) from 8:30am untill 2:30pm, meeting the team, setting up my office, getting some reading material, and leaving at about 4pm. Not too shabby! I'm sure it will prove to be the easiest day I will ever have at work here :).

I'm sharing an office with another new guy (he's been here about 2 months) who also happened to be an intern over the summer. In fact, I met him over the summer. It also turns out that Justin Wilcox, another Poly grad and friend of mine, is on the team as well. It really is a small world after all! Heh. Truthfully though, I should have remembered/realized that Justin was on the team (since he told me when I ran into him during one of my trips here for interviews), but we all know how Miguel's mind works sometimes (or doesn't work for that matter).

Well, I'm getting hungry so it's time for me to say goodbye.
goodbye.

Tiring week

Wow, back in the states now. There's still so much I'd like to say about my experiences in Chile, but it will have to wait for another time (if ever). So I got back in the middle of the day on Monday.

The movers came yesterday, packed up all of my crap and are now on their way to Redmond. I myself will be on my way to Redmond at 6am tomorrow morning. BBQ with the fam last night, then off to Larry's for awhile, I'll be visiting with Wayne tonight, and finishing packing :). Speaking of which, I gots'ta get goin'.

Tiring week

Wow, back in the states now. There's still so much I'd like to say about my experiences in Chile, but it will have to wait for another time (if ever). So I got back in the middle of the day on Monday.

The movers came yesterday, packed up all of my crap and are now on their way to Redmond. I myself will be on my way to Redmond at 6am tomorrow morning. BBQ with the fam last night, then off to Larry's for awhile, I'll be visiting with Wayne tonight, and finishing packing :). Speaking of which, I gots'ta get goin'.

6 minute blog

I've got 6 min until my time at the internet cafe expires, so a quick entry it will be. I have one more day before my Chile experience is at it's end and I must return to the real world :(. Well, it's been a great experience, and I can't wait to be able to take a vacation and travel again. lol

My parents left on Friday, so it's just been my sis and me. We went to her friend Peter's house for a party on Friday night and I drank too much for my own good. There weren't very many people that spoke English, so I only ended up talking to like 4-5 people. There were other foreign students living at the house, so there were alot of French people there. Pisco, beer and wine, mmmm... Speaking of drinks, they drink some odd things here. Fanschop is beer mixed with orange fanta, and they drink red wine with Coke. Strange.

Well, I'm gonna go so that there is enough time to post this page before I'm kicked off. Later

A Day Alone

Today is the first day that my sister is attending classes for her new semester. My parents are going shopping at these little "artisan" shops in the city. I´d rather not be doing that, so this is my day to myself. I said to my family last night that it won´t be until today that we actually realize how much we´ve been depending on Rebecca.

I rode the metro to school with Rebecca. I´m currently sitting in a computer lab, catching up on emails (more relocation stuff mostly) and writing to my blog. It´s a familiar feeling, being in a computer lab like this. The drone from the fans in the machines and the buzz of quiet conversation surrounding me. It´s really no different from the labs at Cal Poly. It doesn´t matter that I can´t understand a word these people are speaking, I´m not listening. They just provide the background noise that allows me to sink my mind into my work, which at this moment is writing.

I´ll go grab some coffee as soon as I finish this entry and watch the people walk through the buildings here on campus. I´m also going to go do some shopping of my own today, if I can manage to find my way around this city without Rebecca. Beyond that and eating something, I don´t really have any plans for the day. Just relaxing. :)

Chile Segundo

So, I´m in another internet cafe in Chile. Apparently, they are abundant here. (I guess they are in the states too, but I´ve never needed to use them) The one I am at is about 1/2-1 mile from my sisters place. She exchanges time on the computers here for time working with the owner on his english.

I´ve had tons of good food and drink since last I wrote. Much too much of it to comment on all of it. I´ll make it back to the food on a future post. For now, it´s about the other experiences.
We´ve pretty much been running around non-stop. We went to all three of the houses of Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize winning poet from Chile. One of them had closed for the night, so we didn´t have a chance to ´tour´it. (All of his houses have been converted to museums per his request in his will) The houses were awesome in and of themselves. They also housed many interesting and amazing things. He was obsessed with ships, so there were women masthead figures from actual ships all over. Also rooms that were architected to seem as though you were actually on a ship. There was also original art from many famous artists. Among these was a painting of his third wife by Diego Rivera. My memory may be failing me (which it seems to do more and more so as the days go by), but I beleive that Diego and Frieda housed Neruda for awhile during the whole Allende, Pinochet "thing".

There´s so much more I´d like to write about the trips to the Neruda houses, but I only have so much time before this place closes. I should write when I have time when I get back, but of course I probably wont. Anyways, on to the next thing.

I went snowboarding in the Chilean Andes! Actually, there shouldn´t really be an exclamation point. I was pretty dissapointed with the conditions and the equiptment that I rented. However, the mountains were beautiful and I can imagine how incredible they must be after a good dump. (We went a couple days after just the second storm of the season) The trip up and back was pretty incredible though! haha It was filled with steep climbs and tons of switchbacks. You could look up or down the mountain and see 5 or 6 roads full of cars criss-crossing each section of the mountain. Pretty impressive both during the day and night.

We´ve also had the chance to visit a few museums. Pre-Columbian art, history of Santiago, and an exhibit from a Chilean artist by the last name Chavez (can´t remember the first). All pretty neat stuff, especially the art from Chavez. Look him up on the internet, because I don´t have enough time to describe his stuff in this post. In fact, I need to get going so I can try and sort some stuff out with the movers that will be moving me a couple days after I return!!!

In Chile

So, I´m in Chile right now writing a post to my blog.  I arrived in Santiago, Chile yesterday at about 7:30am.  We took a bus to my sisters apartment and dropped all our stuff off.  I walked around with Rebecca and ran a couple errands while my parents took a little nap.  After that, we hit up my sis´ friends´family´s restaurant.  Traditional Chilean food was not at all what I expected it to be.  It was good though, and very cheap. The entree with a salad and a drink cost the equivalent of around $3.50 (not sure about this, my monetary conversion skills aren´t great.  regardless of the exact price, it was very inexpensive).  We walked around the city some, took another quick nap, ran a few more errands and then it was off to dinner.  We ate at a Peruvian restaurant that was AWESOME!  The food was excellent, as were the drinks.  The national drink here is something called Pisco.  It has a flavor reminiscent of a light tequila and it is made using grapes.  We had pisco sours as an aperatif, and considering that I don´t like mixed drinks, they were pretty good.  The Picante Camarones I had were reminiscent of a creamy mild orange Indian curry.  The flan I had for dessert has got to be some of the best I´ve ever had in my life.

This morning we jumped on a bus that took two hours to get us to Valparaiso.  Valparaiso is a coastal city, the second largest city in Chile.  The city´s layout reminds me a little of Seattle (as does the fog), the streets near the dock parallel the water and are surrounded on all sides by hills.  The neighborhoods on the hills are littered with narrow, windy, cobbled roads.  We are staying at a quaint bed and breakfast on Cerro Alegre, which means ¨Happy Hill¨.  We had a traditional Chilean breakfast of goat cheese, bread and fruit (I also had brewed coffee which is very NON-Chilean.  In fact, it seems that brewed coffee is quite rare).  We had empanadas for lunch while we had a boat tour of Valparaiso, and a dinner at a good semi-expensive (for Chilean standards) dinner at a place on the hill that had a view of the harbor.

My sister and I are currently in an internet cafe in Valparaiso reserving a trip to the north of Chile that we will be making at the end of this week.  I´m going to get going so that we can finish up and then go out and have a few drinks.
Have a good night all!

Well, that was fun...

Just got back from Austin yesterday.  The new EB labs are a lot roomier than they were when I was there, which is great for them since they have 6 teams over the summer instead of the 3 they had while I was there.  Boy did I miss Texas BBQ alot!  I got to hit Rudy's for some brisket and hot links, but I forgot to buy a bottle of their sauce while I was there.  I also had some Stubb's BBQ before the They Might Be Giants show I caught while I was there.
 
I caught a few movies while I was there.  I caught I Robot with Aaron, Elfred and one of Elfred's friends from UT. It was much better than I thought it was going to be.  However, as I suspected, it has almost nothing to do with the Asimov book by the same name other than the three laws of robotics.  According to the credits, the movie was "Suggested by Isaac Asimov's 'I Robot'".  Right...  I also hit The Drafthouse with Elfred to catch Fahrenheit 9/11.  The Drafthouse is the best movie to hit movie theatres since the motion picture.  They remove (or don't install) every other row of seats in the theatre.  Instead of the seats, they install a bar.  They have servers that help you throughout the film to beer, wine, food, etc...  Great idea!  The newer Drafthouses show the new films and blockbusters.  The old Drafthouse shows art, indie, cult films etc...

Regarding 4th of July and also my travels

So the fireworks display on the 4th was interesting. I was in my sister and brother-in-law's back yard, which is on a hill overlooking San Bernardino. This was the first time I've been in San Bernardino for the 4th in years. I expected seeing the usual big shows, which didn't happen. I'm not sure where the big shows were supposed to be at this year, but I missed them. However, I was not dissapointed since about 1/2 of San Bernardino had purchased an inordinate amount of illegal ordinance. And I'm not just talking about things like M-80s. I mean big ass, high flying, colored spark shooting, awe-inspiring fireworks. These were no bottle rockets. I had a 270 degree view of the show that blanketed all of San Bernardino. There was one house that was probably about 3/4 of a mile from us that seriously had to have lit off close to a hundred of them. I didn't hear a single siren all night either! It was kind of amazing.

So on to my travels. I said last post that I probably wouldn't be going anywhere other than Chile. Well I lied. Actually, I believed myself when I typed it, so technically it wasn't a lie... Right? Anyways, I just booked a flight to Austin for next week. Leave on Wednesday and return on Sunday. Should be a good time. I'm hoping to be able to hang out with the everyone from the Exreme Blue labs, as well as Aaron from Cal Poly (who is an EB co-op right now) and Elfred (who was an EB co-op with me last year). I've been thinking alot about the last year or so recently (I have enough time to), and I've realized that I like Austin alot more than I initially thought I did. Maybe I'm just remembering the good and forgetting the bad, although god knows I'll never forget _ALL_ the bad (but that's not a story I want to get into here). I guess I'll find out in a week.

Three weeks late and a dollar short.

Wow, I didn't realise it's been so long since I last posted. Well, fyi, I did graduate :). Dyed my hair and chops pillarbox red for the graduation ceremony. My sister Jessica, mom, dad, g-ma and g-pa were in attendance. They got some pictures with a digital camera that I'll have to upload somewhere for any interested parties.

I tell you, the packing was a real pain in the ass. I still haven't really unpacked and setup my room here at the parents house for the summer. Slowly but surely. I did unpack the x-box though! Finally had some time to get around to playing some of my games for the first time.

Had a graduation party this past weekend (the weekend after I walked). It was nice, I got to see some relatives and friends and have some good food and drink. Plans for the rest of the summer? Still not sure if I'll do any travelling before Chile. Since time is ticking and I don't as yet have plans I probably won't be going anywhere else unfortunately. I am going to the Hootenanny on July 3rd with my buddy Rob though. That should be swell. The Cramps, the Rev., Big Sandy, Hellbound Hayride, aw heck, just check out the website.

Well, I'm gonna go crack a soda, grab a bite to eat, and plop my self in front of ye olde x-box. goodbye.

Well, the weekend is over and it's time to study for my final

Been studying most of the day for my only final, which is tomorrow at 10am. I have a book that I'm about 1/2 way through and a paper to write that is due at the final. The book is entitled "Reshaping World Politics: NGOs, the Internet, and Global Civil Society." It's an ok book, but a little dry to be reading the entire book in one day on minimal sleep. Oh well.

So I figure I'll start packing at a leisurely pace after my final Tomorrow. I've got the rest of the week, so I figure if I take a couple hours per day, I should be done by the weekend. I can't beleive it's over. I know quite a lot of people graduating this year too, and not just within my major. It seems like alot of people were going to graduate unemployed, but I know quite a few people who have just gotten and accepted offers in the last few weeks. Congrats!

Now THIS is a weekend

Sigh... sitting here in the shade on our newly tiled front porch. It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon, I'm drinking a beer and posting to my blog. I'll be heading over to my friend Map's house soon for a bbq, then back home to celebrate the end of the quarter with roommates and friends at the house. I can't wait for this next week to go by so that I can move out of this town and move on. Hopefully I can get the Vespa on the road soon after I move down south. Truthfully though, I should just wait until I get up to Seattle. I really don't have the money to repair it if I'm going to try and do the travelling this summer, which I am of course going to try and do.

No more classes, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks!

Ok, well, I have one more book to read, one more paper to write, and one more final to take. But the no more classes was true! :) I just had the final acceptance test for my senior project yesterday and turned in a draft of the complete paper. 89 pages not including the Appendices for code listings and data base document. I'd like to find out how many lines of code I wrote, I'll probably do a quick search online for a tool that counts lines of code. Let's see how close I can get with a guess. I'll say 3500 lines of code. I'm just talking about my part of the project, not the entire thing. We'll see.

The next week will be spent doing alot of packing and alot of beer drinking. lol WHOOHOO! It's over!

procrastination nation

been putting off working on the paper for my senior project for long enough this weekend. I started working on it about an hour ago and am taking a "small" break to post to my blog.

So here's the most recent news concerning my vespa. I ordered a new front axle, and it finally arrived earlier this week. I took apart my front wheel assembly. I pulled out the old wheel bearings and axle. I cleaned out the housing, the bearings, and miscellaneous other parts, repacked them with new grease, and then tried to reassemble with the new axle. The new axle didn't fit!

I made it a point when I ordered the part to ask the vendor if I was ordering the correct part. I informed them of the year and model of my scooter, of the fact that it is now on 10 inch wheels instead of 8 inch and that their shop had done the restoration of it! The shop emailed me and said that "yes it is the correct part". Well, obviously it is not. I don't have the time to deal with the shop before graduation, so I'll have to put it off until I move down to my parents for my post-graduation break. I had really been looking forward to getting it back on the road.

This doesn't feel like a weekend.

I was up until 2am working on my senior project. I crashed from 2-8:30am and then got up and got ready to go do my _required_ "habitat enhancement project". Yep, that's right, I decided to just suck it up and do it. So I met with my class and pulled hemlock and ivy in a creek bed from 10-12. That really sucked.

After I finished with that, I ran a few errands, got some lunch, and started working on my senior project again. And here I am at 10:30pm on Saturday night still working on it. I've taken a few small breaks, but I've been working on it pretty much all day.

Tomorrow I'll be meeting with my partner to install code, configure devices, and do some integration testing. Does all of this sound like a weekend to you? The good thing is that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My implementation for my senior project is due on Tuesday (thus the mad rush to finish) and my paper is due a week from Tuesday. After that, any minor changes that need to be made and a final in my Political Science class and I AM OUT OF HERE!

HOORAY FOR ME!

Oh, yeah, speaking of graduating and stuff, I just found out that if I had paid a little more attention to my transcript/records over the last couple quarters, I could have graduated with a 3.81 cumulative which would have been Magna Cum Laude. As it is, I am graduating with 3.61 (Cum Laude). It's all because of my first matriculated quarter at Poly in Fall of '94. I attended for one quarter (actually about 1/2 a quarter), failed all my classes, and subsequently dropped out of school for 4 years. So those F's from my first quarter drop my cumulative gpa by an entire 0.2 grade points. If I had realized this before this quarter started, I would have re-taken Calculus I and found something to replace the Biology class I took (I already replaced the comp sci class). As it is, I'm going to see if I can find some loop-hole that will allow me to graduate Magna Cum Laude. I'll try to keep the blog up to date on my pursuits.

Well, time to get back to the senior project. It's amazing how often I post to this thing when I really have more important things to do, and how infrequently when I have nothing better to do.

And so begins the long arduous journey that is...

... this weekend. Woke up at about 9:00am this morning. Just got back from a quick errand to school (which incidentally included getting a large coffee). Will need to go back @ ~1pm to pick up a laptop. I'm taking a few minutes to check email and write this post, and then it's chug time for ye' olde senior project.

Watch, with my luck I'm going to finally receive the vespa part that I've been waiting for to fix my scoot today. That'll be distracting me all day long. No, I really can't let it distract me. I already have a CSC awards banquet I'm supposed to go to at 6:30pm today. Oh yeah, I also found out what a "Habitat Enhancement Project" is. It is manual labor! :P I'm supposed to be working in a creek bed tomorrow pulling weeds and stuff. I'm considering not doing it at all. We'll see.

Next stop, Graduation

So I bought my cap and gown and paid for commencement fees today. $60 total. I'm graduating with honors, so they threw in yellow cords to boot. That reminded me that I need to order my cords from Golden Key, and my cords and stole from Upsilon Pi Epsilon (no, not a fraternity, a computer science honor society).

Today's free stuff was burgers and a movie at the local drive-in. Too far out of the way so I didn't make it. Tomorrow's is free hot dog's, and I think it's during UU hour, which means I won't get any because I have a Computer Science Department Student Fee Committee meeting I have to go to then. Oh well, at least I got free pancakes!

This is going to be a _VERY_ busy weekend for me. I have to have my implementation and testing for my senior project done by Tuesday. Then the paper is due a week later. Plus I've got a "Habitat Enhancement Project" for my Political Science class on Saturday as well as a paper to write. What exactly a "Habitat Enhancement Project" is I don't rightly know. I should look into it. Hopefully it's not manual labor :p.

Well, my roommate just finished making fried chicken and mashed potatoes, so it's about time for me to go. Till next time, alskjdf

10 minute break

I've got about 10 before my bowling class starts, so I figured I could squeeze in a quick post. This week is designated as "A Week Of Leaving" (or AWOL) here at Poly, and is supposed to be like an inversion of WOW (Week of Welcome). What exactly WOW is will have to be saved for some other time. What it means to me is that I get free food! Today was a free pancake breakfast on Dexter Lawn. It also means I have to pay my commencement fees and order my cap and gown.

At one point I was planning on trying to grow a mohawk before graduation, but I ended up forgetting and chopping off my hair. I wanted to cut holes in the top of my graduation cap and pull bright red mohawk spikes through the holes. Now I'll just have to settle with red hair and chops. Oh well, cest la vie (? on sp). Well, off to bowling, gotta try and bring up my score. It's been declining steadily over the last couple of weeks.

A Blog/Week is better than A Blog/Month, no?

Well, I'm sitting here in the Cal Poly library listening to some cd's of Rebecca's. Mom found 'em lying around the house and asked if they were mine. I figured that she (Rebecca) wouldn't be using them any time soon ;) so I borrowed them and brought them up to SLO when I returned from my trip to SB. Speaking of my trip to SB, it was fun. Amtrak is definitely much better to ride than Greyhound, and as I mentioned earlier, also cheaper. Got to spend Saturday afternoon/evening with my mom & dad, grabbed dinner at Mongolian BBQ and caught Kill Bill: Vol. 2. Second time for me, first for the parents (watching Vol. 2 that is). Also got to have breakfast with mom & dad on Mother's day morning before dad & I took off for the Laker game.

The game was awesome. Lakers played like they should have been all series. Brought a digital camera and took some pictures. The camera has like a 2 second delay from when you press the button and when it actually captures the image, so it was difficult to get any good shots of people in the act of shooting. I got a few good ones though, and one really good one of Shaq dunking.

Got back to SLO at about 12 midnight and hoofed it home. It was a nice night and I enjoyed the walk. A short nights sleep and here I am hitting the proverbial books again. I've got a mid-term on Thursday to study for so I'm gonna get going, but I'll try to post more often than once a week, really!

Two Entries in One Day!!!

Wow, I didn't realize how little I like writing anything more than snippets of stuff using my pda. I haven't used the different sip's (soft input method) available in pocketPC enough to decide which one I like the best. The transcriber is nice sometimes, but doesn't recognize my writing very well (most humans don't either). I mostly use the keyboard because of that. (the other two forms are similar to the block recognition on the palm os).

I think I might spend some time looking in to the things that can be done with web design to allow for different form factors (i.e. screen size/resolution/graphical capabilities). Mostly I'm talking about dealing with different mobile devices with limited screen real estate and resolution, not complete lack of graphical capabilities (yeah, yeah, I know, we've got to be nice to those lynx old-timers too;) We'll see if I can find the time. Staying pretty busy with the senior project still. Making good progress though.

I'll probably borrow a laptop from school again this weekend and take it home with me. I'm gonna head down to San Bernardino for the weekend. I'll be able to see my mom on mother's day weekend and I'll be able to catch the Laker game on Sunday with my dad. I'm gonna take amtrak this time instead of greyhound. I think I've had enough of greyhound for awhile. Greyhound's never been a good experience, and I've ridden it at least 10 or 15 times throughout the years since 1994. Sometimes the schedules of Amtrak won't accomodate though. Luckily they will this weekend. It's even cheaper to take Amtrak than it is to take Greyhound. I took Greyhound a couple weeks ago and it cost me over $100 round trip. I'm taking Amtrak and it's costing me just ~$61. Granted, it's dropping me in Riverside instead of San Bernardino, and I'm taking it from LA to SLO on Sunday instead of Riverside to SLO. However the difference in price to have gone from Riverside was just another $9. So I save ~$30, but have to get someone to pick me up and drop me off in Riverside. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Yeah, I know, it's been awhile.

so, this is my first post using my PocketPC. that being said, it will probably be ashort post, and rife with spelling errors.
I signed up for the beta of gmail today. Although 1--m still not too sure how I feel about an instance of their ad-sense rifling through my email content. I mean, it's obvious that it's a big privacy issue. It'S one thing togive my consent for my outgoing mail to be datamined (Not that I'm ok with that.-,). it's another thing entirely for them to mine my incoming mail.I mean, the people who write me didn't give their Consent
I'm still interested to give it a whirl. It's gOt some nifty features that I'm looking forward to checking out.
Well, I guess it's getting Kind of late (or early as the case May be)so I shoald get going and get Some shut-efl. Nighty-night allI!

Posted Some Pics from Mexico

OK, so I finally got around to posting a few of the pictures taken during my Spring Break in Erendira, Mexico. The link can be found to the right under the "Link" heading (imagine that!), or you can just click here

The weekend is over

Another Monday. Week two of the Spring quarter. Nine more to go after this one (including finals week). Held a shindig on Friday to celebrate my birthday (which I alluded to in my last post). Quite fun if I do say so myself. Some old friends from Stenner and CDM Tech. were able to make it which was great. First time I'd gotten to hang out with some of those people in years. Also a lot of new friends I've made while living in this new house this year made it.

Then on Saturday, there were two parties that I decided to grace with my presence. First, it was off to a Hurricane party at my roomie Chelsea's friends Liz's place. I stayed away from the hurricanes and had some Amber Bock. When people started leaving Liz's place, Mike and I went to my friend Nate's house. He was having a cocktail party with mandatory dress and all. An excuse to wear my zoot suit, how could I turn that down. Finally turned in sometime early Sunday morning. Needless to say, Friday and Saturday weren't very productive as far as school is concerned.

I got a decent amount of work done on Sunday and Today though. I'm thoroughly enjoying the reading for my PoliSci class so far. Hopefully it holds up throughout the quarter. I'm planning on heading down to Berdo for the Easter weekend to spend some time with the family. I'll have to borrow a laptop from school again so that I can work on the Senior Project over the weekend. Rebecca, wish you could be there. We'll be at Angelita's on Sunday, so give us a call SINCE NO ONE HAS YOUR NUMBER! ;)

Go me, it's my birthday,

we're gonna party like it's my birthday,
get a keg because it's my birthday,
and i don't care because it's my birthday!

It's been awhile since my lazy ass posted

I just got an email from my sister bugging me to post. It's exactly the motivation I needed. I think that not having an internet connection available while in Mexico broke me of my somewhat consistent habit of posting. Anywho, here I am.

So Mexico.... Well, it was great. I'll post some pictures soon and link to them. As far as the specifics go, I'm not sure where to start. So I'll just start typing and stop when I stop. People: Met some great people while we were down at the hostel. First was a trio of rowdy gentlemen from London, who incidentally ended up getting thrown out of the hostel at the end of their stay. Alex, Mark and Mark. Drank lotso beer with them, went to the beach and rented a jet ski from a local (a story in and of itself to be told at another time), had mucho fun. Had many a drunken discussion about cockney rhyming slang and other linguistic idiosyncracies found in England.

We also met a couple from England, Sean and Julia, who were alot of fun. When we met them they were on the first week of a year long journey around the world. They provided us with a url for the company that they purchased their tickets through. I still have as yet to check it out, but I plan to. Sounds like a good deal. They paid something like $1500 American and can fly to any number of places, a given numbe rof times, within a certain time period, or something... The two of them caught a ride into Ensenada early one morning and so, initially, we weren't able to give them a proper goodbye. However, the 7 of us (from SLO) were going to Ensenada ourselves that day. So I'm walking down the street by myself at about 4pm and I hear someone yell out "MIGUEL!!". I peer in the direction of the voice thinking someone is calling to me. I don't see any familiar faces, and at the same time realize that I am in Mexico and I'm not the only person named Miguel (I'm a GENIUS!). A minute later and I hear my name again. It's none other than Julia. It turns out that they were staying in a little hotel on the corner of the block that I happened to be waiting at. How random is that? So we all headed to Hussong's and had a few beers together, took a few pics and were able to give them a proper goodbye.

I also met a group of girls from Bellingham, WA. That gives me someone to visit when I move up to Seattle in August.

New Subject. Food: Yes. Good stuff. Went to the beach a few days while down in Mexico. Picked mussels and ate them raw. Yum. Also brought a cooler full of them back to the hostel and cooked them up. Had lobster, lots o' tacos, and way too much beer and tequila (that qualifies as food right?).

Ok, I'm tired of typing, so the post ends here. I'll see about getting those pictures up on the net. After all, a pictures worth a thousand words right?

Whoa, St. Patti's Day!

Ok, so I've forgotten like three times that today is St. Patricks day. That is unusual for me, since I am half irish and I am always looking for a reason to raise a pint of Guinness. Speaking of which, I think I'll go try to convince my roommate to go lift a few pints with me while the night is still young (got plenty of studying to do tomorrow).

Wednesday of Finals week

So I just had my English final. "Shakespeare in Film" is the class. The final was 35 multiple choice on film terms, and specifics of the plays and films, and tragedies in general. The second half was two essays that each ended up being about 3-4 pages each. The class was definitely not as enjoyable as I had hoped.

Well I've got a Senior Project meeting today, and another final on Friday (Biology) and then I'm done for the quarter. We're leaving for mexico at around 7:30pm on Friday. ...um, did I mention I was going to Mexico during spring break? I can't remember and I don't feel like going back to look at an old post, so I'm going to assume the answer is no. So I'm spending most of Spring break in a small Mexican town with my roommates and some friends. The town is named Erendira and is about twice as far as Ensenada past the border, on the Pacific side of Baja. We're staying at a small hostel there in town from Saturday through Thursday. I'm sure it's going to be a blast. I've been there before, but it was only a weekend trip. This time it's close to a week long and there'll be between 4 and 8 of us.

I should work on my Senior Project some during the break so I might see about borrowing a laptop from Poly over the break. If I'm going to be working on it, what better place than on the beautiful Mexican coast sitting around with my friends, cold beer in hand?

Man, I can't beleive it's only like 3 months untill I graduate! I'm getting really excited about my summer travel plans and my move to Seattle to start my new job! I dropped by AAA yesterday and got my passport pictures taken and picked up an application for a passport. I'll drop off the application when I get back from Mexico and should definitely get it back in time for summer. 6 weeks right? I think that's the processing etc. time. I'll check and make sure. If not, then I can always rush it.

Well, I've got to get something to eat and do some work before my Senior Project meeting.

So untill next time kids, <insert pithy comment here>

Procrastination Nation

It's a beautiful day here in sunny San Luis Obispo. Probably about 75 degrees or so. I'm sitting here at a coffee place having a tasty spinach salad and an iced chai. As soon as I finish with it, I think I'll have a pint of Guinness. One of the things I've missed from Austin is coffee places that also serve beer and/or alcohol, so it was nice when this placed opened about a month or so ago.

Oh yeah, I'm also working on completing my journal for my art class while I'm sitting here. Or that's at least what my intentions were when I came down here. I've been here for about an hour and have yet to start working on my journal. In fact writing this entry is just an excuse for me to procrastinate and put off doing my school work.

I definitely have senioritis. I can't wait for Spring break (less than a week away!), and I can't wait for the year to end. I'm definitely looking forward to going to Chile to visit Rebecca. I'm really hoping that I'll be able to make it to Puerto Rico to visit Elfred as well. Oh yeah, and then there's Europe with Sean. Whew! Hectic summer it will be.

Of course I'm looking forward to start working at the end of summer as well. I'm glad that they were willing to work with my start date so that I could do this travelling. It'll be nice to not be a starving student any more! It'll also be nice to get out of SLO and into Seattle. I can't wait. I'm glad that MS is hooking me up with a furnished apartment for a month so that I can take my time to find a place that I really want to live at.

OK, enough of putting off doing my journal. Back to work. ...or something like that

So I finally decided to try this whole blog thing out. This is entry numero uno. Not much to say right now, just taking the time to set things up.