Kablammo!

As promised or whatever, I’m posting a bunch of pictures I’ve taken recently, or at least semirecently. Some of them are good, some of them are pretentious, some of them I took when I was drunk. Some are all three.

» » Continue reading . . .

In honor of finally picking up the piece of paper yesterday that I occasionally struggled so hard to earn, and in honor of the fact that my parents evidently started subscribing to Harper’s while I was away, comes an idiotlist that’s designed to rip off the style of Harper’s justifiably famous Index. I suppose this is just thinly-(or non-)veiled bragging. But here it goes.

• Number of final exam essay questions answered in haiku: 1
• Number of final exams slept through: 2
• Average grade received for courses where the final exam was slept through: B
• Ratio of F grades received to semesters on the scholastic honors list: 3:4
• Final cumulative GPA: 3.4
• Minimum number of classes or exams attended still drunk from the night before: 15
• Number of ADoM victories: 3
• Number of explicit references made to Pink Floyd lyrics in papers on topics not pertaining to Pink Floyd: 2
• Months elapsed between fulfillment of all graduation requirements and degree being formally granted: 10
• Number of those months spent in Estonia: 9
• Number of courses taken with Professor Alan Wolf: 1.5
• Number taken with Professor Jesse Wolf: 3

This is my first post as the proud(maybe) owner of a degree from Cooper. In the past year, my unspeakable rage towards the school and everything remotely related to engineering has subsided quite a bit, so now I might not be entirely averse to actually using said degree to look for a job.

In other news, I look just like a rockstar.

Maybe.

» » Continue reading . . .

OK, fuck this shit. Computer go bye-bye now. See you on the other side, maybe. Or possibly still on the same side, but a step or two along the way back.

So it’s come to this: in little more than 32 hours I’m scheduled to be on an airplane heading to Warsaw. Tomorrow, I need to do the following:

• Finalize moving out, which includes
  • …atoning for the fact that I’ve essentially been squatting here for a while, as my lease expired at the end of June
  • …finishing packing
  • …bringing a few hundred empty bottles to the recycling place for the deposits, or letting some homeless guy strike paydirt
    
  • …probably mopping my floor and stuff because it’s absolutely disgusting
• Mail some stuff to myself, since everything doesn’t appear to fit in my suitcases
• Buy last-minute gifts and such for people, including Meie Mees CDs, and leather-bound blank books
• Get my ass to Tallinn
• Figure out what I’m going to do until the airport opens in the morning
• Say goodbye to all the people I managed to put off saying goodbye to
• Kick myself for leaving absolutely everything to the last possible instant as always
• EDIT: Return a library book

And here I am, posting on the internet instead of doing anything productive. Go me!

Based on glowing recommendations like this one, I recently finagled myself a copy of DJ Z-Trip’s Uneasy Listening, Vol. 1.

I’m not going to lavish quite so much praise on it as some have, but I’ll say that I certainly enjoyed it. It seems to me not so much a masterwork of turntablism as a mix CD with extra drumbeats everywhere, and a very well put together mix (full of awesome juxtapositions and transitions) at that. This is not to disparage Z-Trip’s turntable skills, just to say that his choices of what songs to include and how to arrange them are simply awe-inspiring.

I can’t remember the last time a mix CD made me laugh out loud by being so goddamn clever, but Uneasy Listening accomplished just that a number of times.

I’m never as tired as when I’m waking up.

See you in a few days; or, as the case may be, see you never again after a few days from now.

Need to bring certain things to Arne’s relative’s apartment, put other things in suitcases, put still other things in boxes to mail to myself, buy yet other things from stores and curse out loud when they won’t fit in suitcases, and figure out how I’m getting myself and my shit to the airport.

Wish me luck. Or don’t; things will be much more interesting if I’m unlucky.

Also, every time I listen to LCD Soundsystem’s «Never as Tired as When I’m Waking Up» it just makes me wish I were listening to The Beatles’s «Dear Prudence» instead. (Side note: it’s in fact due to LCD Soundsystem that I even bothered to learn how to play «Dear Prudence» in the first place.)

Which was invented earlier, the bicycle or the steam locomotive?

So I’ve been spending a good deal of the past few days practicing Jose Luis Merlin’s “Evocacion” on guitar, and I’ll say I’ve learned two things (two things other than how to play the piece in question, that is).

1. If you’re playing classical guitar, playing in the classic classical guitar position is actually a very good, helpful, and comfortable thing. Granted, if I’m drunkenly playing Radiohead songs I don’t really care how I hold my guitar (or whether it’s in tune, for that matter), but when each note played is of vital importance, you have to take certain measures.
2. Alcohol really fucks with your fine motor skills. Granted, if I’m drunkenly playing Radiohead songs I don’t really care how well I finger/strum my guitar (or whether it’s in tune, for that matter), but when each note played is of vital importance, you have to take certain measures.

Song of the Moment: «Evocacion» — Jose Luis Merlin (performed by Jason Vieaux)

Those Ubuntu people are as good as their word when they say “The Ubuntu team will send you Ubuntu CDs at no charge, for you to install and share. We will cover the cost of shipping the CDs to you as well.”

Today I went to the post office to pick up a package I was absolutely not expecting, and only when I opened it did I suddenly remember drunkenly requesting 10 x86-architecture Ubuntu CDs.

What the hell am I going to do with these now, I wonder — I suppose I should probably give them away to people.

Oh, and happy 16 Messidor to all of you.

Song of the Moment: «It’s Tricky» — Run-DMC