BrockLi Soup

I was planning on using part of this week’s paycheck to buy some RAM for my iBook. I’ve barely used the thing in the past six months, and I figured that it could be attributed to the fact that it’s hard to do much on a machine with only 256 MB of memory.

Realistically, the problem is co-op. I used my laptop all the time in class, either taking notes or wasting time when I was bored. Working full time for the past six months, I haven’t had much time or inclination to just dick around online or do much programming on the side. I feel kind of guilty neglecting the expensive toy that I spent almost a year paying off.

On the other hand, I haven’t been using my desktop much either. I don’t know if it’s because I spend all day on a computer at work or because I’ve been getting out more, but I’ve been spending significantly less time reading blogs and passing the time online like I used to.

I hardly think this is a bad thing; most people I know at RIT could certainly stand to spend less time at a monitor. On one hand, I’d say it’s good for me, because I’ve been spending less time sitting in my room and more time with people. Conversely, I need to find a real job soon, and should really be spending more time working on projects to beef up my portfolio.

My passion for technology and programming fell off a couple years ago, but I’m just now starting to notice it’s effects only my daily life. I still want to do IT for a living, but I don’t see it as a hobby any more.

I think a Porta-Potty truck just went by, because it suddenly smells gross here.

I’m sitting on Central Ave. in Lancaster, about 2 miles from my high school. An old friend mentioned that a coffee shop here has free wireless, so I figured I’d hang out there and read for part of the evening. They’re closed, but the wireless turned out to be something done by the Chamber of Commerce in different parts of the village, so I can sit at this nice table and do Internetting.

A couple weeks ago, everyone realized that the summer was almost over and we hadn’t been making it as awesome as we had said we would, so things started picking up to make up for lost time. I’ve barely had a chance to sit down and consider the deep things in life, let alone write about them here. It’s been three weeks of beer pong, board games, Mark’s runs, and other drunken tomfoolery. People are starting to come back for fall quarter, which will just make it more intense.

I’m home for the weekend to take a break from it all. My parents were on vacation all this week at Silver Lake, right between Rochester and Buffalo but further south. I drove down there yesterday afternoon to spend some time with them and to bring my brother Shaun back home for the freshman mixer at St. Mary’s (which is why I’m sitting two miles from the high school with some time to kill).

I got to meet Roxy, who is the cutest thing in the history of ever, and that includes infants and baby ducks. She’s so well-behaved it’s unbelievable. The folks at the SPCA say she was brought in by people that found her abandoned, but my mom’s theory is that the owner’s just didn’t want her and made an excuse. They didn’t have to chain her much at the lake, because she’d always stay right with them. She doesn’t bark, she was already trained to sleep in a kennel, and she’s good on the leash. I’m not convinced that she’s part Siberian Husky, though. She’s definitely got the German Shepherd look to her, but she doesn’t have long hair or any other characteristics of a Husky. The vet said she had a Great Dane’s facial features, so we don’t know how big she might get.

Life is good. Things have been exciting, and it doesn’t look like there’s an end in sight. I’ve FINALLY got a car again - almost 19 to almost 22 is about the worst three years of your life to go without a car. I’m meeting with someone tomorrow about some web coding work. The summer’s been good to me.

College is totally awesome. It’s the only place you can legitimately play beer pong on Wednesday night.

I need to start keeping a pad of paper and pen near my bed. My grandest ideas always come to me while I’m laying in bed. I came up with some great stuff last night, but now I can’t remember any of it.

On the other hand, maybe it just seems great because I’m half asleep at the time.

Things have been going pretty well lately. Financially, I’m doing OK. I’m buying Becker’s Saturn next week, and I’ve got plenty of money set aside to buy, insure, and register it. The Apple loan is paid off, so I can put a decent chunk of my last couple paychecks to the credit card bill.

I’m working on a new project at work for the big plasma screen in the college lobby. One of the secretaries in the Dean’s office makes slides to show on it, but the system is pretty crappy, so we’re re-writing it to just show a web site we’re designing. I’ve been working on the client side, to make use of templates and styles that we’ll define so she can build slides. It’s been a lot of PHP and JavaScript, so I’m happy.

Classes are starting soon, which means people will be coming back from break in a week or two. I have never seen our parking lot so empty; apparently, most people go home for this break. It’s the calm before the storm; RJ showed up yesterday, and I hear the RA’s are starting to come back for their training. Another week or two and everyone will be back.

I’ve gotten over the whole graduation thing. Usually, I only get stressed about money, when I realize I’ve got $1.64 in the bank and a $50 bill due in four days. I freak out for about 10 minutes before I convince myself that everything has worked out in the past, so it’s sure to do so again. And it has - worrying about it has never fixed the problem, so I don’t bother. My anxiety about leaving for the real world was a little more profound than that, but I’m over it. Things are going too well to worry much about what will happen a few months down the road.

BP bought himself a remote controlled blimp, the Fantastic Flying Funship. Apparently this thing was like the hallmark of his childhood, so he found one online last week. I haven’t been able to find a website - I’ll take pictures later.

RJ is back in town. He moved into his new place this afternoon, but got bored all by himself. With only a rough approximation of our apartment number, he started driving around UC until he saw us outside smoking. I was really glad we ran into him, because that kid’s always fun to hang out with.

We took the blimp outside. RJ and I wrote a theme song for it. It’s fantastic.

Every few weeks, I find myself without plans for the weekend. Once in a while, this is a welcome change: I can sit around and do nothing for a few days, catch up on sleep, do some reading, or catch a movie. It almost never happens, though. The weekends with no plans always turn out the busiest.

We saw Mr. & Mrs. Smith, then had some people over for drinks. Then we went mini-golfing, and had some people over for margarita night. Then we saw Murderball and had dinner at Stromboli Express, and I came home and had a drink and watched Universal Soldier, which was so bad it was great.

Weekends used to be for relaxing at the end of a rough week, but now I need Monday and Tuesday to recover from the weekend.

Against Me! will be in Buffalo on September 25. Who’s going with us? Tracy, I’m looking at you.

Sometimes it’s best to just bitch bitch bitch and get things out of your system, especially if you’ve been drinking.

I was just talking to my youngest brother Shaun on AIM and found out that my family is getting a puppy from the SPCA. As far as I know, there were no plans to get another dog, especially since my parents are leaving for a week-long vacation on the 20th - it makes it hard to train a dog if you’re away for that long in the first month. I guess she’s going with them though, so it should work out.

It’s a German Shepherd/Siberian Husky mix, so it’s gonna get BIG. I was wondering what it would look like, so I found some pictures online (the first one looks kind of retarded). The SPCA named her Diamond, but Shaun’s trying to convince Mom to change it. His ideas? Slaughter House, Strong Bad, or Refried Beans (he’s always wanted a dog named Refried Beans, apparently).

I’ve always wanted a big dog - I still want a German Shepherd named Hans Jurgen - but I’m not sure about this. My family adopted a black lab (Lucie) a year or two ago. A guy my Dad works with had to move and couldn’t take her with them, so we got her. I never really grew attached to her, but I haven’t been home a whole lot in the past year, either. And it doesn’t help that she barks at me every time I come home.

We’ve really only had two other dogs. We got Mabel (a black lab mutt) when I was about four. Sophie was a collie/yellow lab, and I was probably 15 or 16 when we got her. Mabel passed away at the beginning of my freshman year, and Sophie died of pancreatitis in November. I was very attached to both of them, but I’d seen them grow up from puppies.

So I’m hesitantly optimistic about this new dog. I like dogs, and I especially like puppies (who doesn’t?), but I’m not home enough to get close to a family dog.

Plus, if my brother has anything to say about it, she’ll have a goofy name anyway.

I know it’s Tuesday already (I’ve always been a couple days behind), but this past weekend was probably the best of the summer.

It started on Wednesday with a few drinks and a viewing of Cannibal: The Musical at Lux. I was surprised by how many people I knew there, but I’m not sure if they were there for the movie or my friends just hang out at bars on Wednesday nights.

Thursday was, of course, the Flogging Molly show, but I’ve already said quite enough about that.

After four and a half hours of sleep and a full day at work, I was pretty beat by the time we headed to the Flour City Brewer’s Festival Friday night. About 20 different local breweries were there, so we spent the evening sampling beers. I ran out of steam a couple hours in, but it was fun. I can’t even remember what beers I liked or didn’t, but I do know that Magic Hat Number 9 seemed overrated. After drinking for a few hours, we headed back to my place to meet us with people and head to Regal for Dukes of Hazzard. It was a lot better than I thought it would be, but I think we all braced ourselves for the worst and couldn’t possibly have been let down. It certainly wasn’t the Dukes, though - it was as if someone explained the characters to someone who had never seen the shown and let them write a script. Why was Uncle Jesse telling jokes? Why was Rosco so devious and competent? Why was it set in modern day? Why was the product placement so obnoxious? Whatever happened to button-up flannel shirts? Either way, it was funny, and there were lots of fights and car chases, and I was half-drunk, so I was happy.

On Saturday night, we hosted the Redneck Party, which wasn’t as well-attended as I’d expected, but a lot of fun nonetheless. We lost some money - less people came, but drank more beer - but that’ll happen. My brother and his girlfriend made it up, which was great. We drank and danced and drank some more, then made breakfast for everyone who spent the night. I’m hoping we can have a couple more parties before I leave in November, because they’re always worth the time and money we put into them.

BP and I drove down to Binghamton on Thursday to see Flogging Molly with Sharon. Taber and his cousins met us there too, and we ran into Wanker when we got there. The venue, Magic City Music Hall, was perfect for this kind of show. It was about the same size as Water Street here in Rochester, but instead of being narrow and long, it’s really wide and short. Even back at the bar, you weren’t too far from the stage. It was easy to get up front because you could fit twice as many people right up at the barrier. They had ceiling fans all over the place, which was really nice toward the end of the show when everyone had been dancing and knocking each other around for a couple hours.

Gogol Bordello opened the show, and they were absolutely ridiculous. We were outside smoking when they went on, and I honestly expected to see clowns on stage when we went back in. It was like Hungarian gypsy circus punk. The band was all over the place, and these two girls were there to just dance around like nobody’s business. At one point they came out with cymbals and a giant bass drum and just went nuts. They were a lot of fun and I think I’m actually going to buy their album when it comes out Tuesday.

Throw Rag was the second opener. They weren’t as good as Gogol - more straight punk, which isn’t really my taste - but one of the guys just did backup vocals and the washboard. They had guitar pickups on it or something, and he spent their set just wailing on the thing with spoons. I didn’t really like the music, but that guy was fun to watch.

Flogging Molly put on a pretty good show, but not as good as the one in Rochester. Dave King (the singer) said he had been sick that week, so they did a shorter set. On the other hand, Bridget Regan was there - she was really sick when they were in Rochester, and Molly without the fiddle just isn’t the same. It was the sweatiest pit I’ve ever been in, even with the fans making a nice breeze.

We left here around 4:30 in the afternoon and didn’t get home until 12 hours later. The show was definitely worth the trip, even if I was barely functional at work Friday.

Preparing your home for a party is very much like preparing your home for the arrival of a baby: make sure you’ve got plenty of bottles, hide anything valuable that might get knocked over, and pray to God you don’t get puked on.

I done got me a belt buckle! James and I went belt buckle shopping last night, but neither of us really knew where to go for them. Jym got his obnoxious “I’d rather be bowling” buckle at Pac Sun, and there was a belt buckle pagoda in the mall the last time I was there, and it was already about 8, so we figured the mall was out only option.

We wandered into the first store we came to (Zumiez) and found the belt buckle display right in the middle. I got this beauty, and James opted for the rose and revolvers. We had to go next store to Pac Sun because Zumiez didn’t have any fat guy belts for me, but it all worked out.

I tried using the bottle opener on three different beers last night, and learned an important lesson: if you’ve already cracked the cap’s seal, turning the bottle upside down at your crotch is a bad idea. By the third one, I didn’t get any more beer on my shorts, but I only managed to get the cap halfway off. I figure I just need some practice, so stop by if you need a bottle opened.

Weekends used to be for relaxing, but lately, they’ve been more taxing than the rest of the week. I have to take Monday or Tuesday evening to myself to recharge emotionally for the next round of socializing.

I began Friday with no plans, which usually means it’s going to be a busy weekend. Friday night featured mini-golf and MacGregor’s with Sarah and Ryan, and a small shindig here at Ben and Scott’s place. I was all over the place Saturday night: the Old Toad, Tristan’s birthday party, Lux for Sara’s birthday, A-Street Pub to hang out with Jess, and back here for another throwdown at Ben’s place. On Sunday, I played more mini-golf (with Shane, Gillian, Bill, and James this time) and spent more time at MacGregor’s. Last night, Bill, Gillian, and James came over to barbecue before James and I went belt buckle shopping for the coming weekend’s festivites.

Tonight, I’m staying home to read.

We’re getting to that point in the summer where weekends like this one start happening. People are getting tired of class, we’re starting to really miss the people who left for the summer, and we’re all realizing that we haven’t been making as much of the summer as we should be. It happens every year, and things pick up around this time. We were in a slump for about a month there, but the next few weeks promise to be interesting, and folks will be coming back in no time.