Nerd Alert

All told, things are pretty good right now. Despite last night's strangeness and being forced to think about things that I'd much rather avoid, I woke up today in good spirits. With no immediate obligations I just lay in bed for a while to look at the way light filters through my curtains. I read a couple chapters in A Clash of Kings which helped to further keep my mind off those previously mentioned, best-avoided things. Afterwards I lay in bed some more, and, despite my best efforts, thought about the things--and was surprisingly unbothered by them. I felt...okay. Serene.

I then remembered that my bittorrent download consisting of a batch of DnD books was probably done and my geek instincts took over. So I was paging through the v3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide, still in my boxers, when my phone started buzzing. It was my interviewer, the head of publications, or, more accurately termed, my new boss. I got the job that I wanted. I'll be spending my days this summer in an upper room of an old farmhouse-turned-office on the big ol' field out in front of Hampshire, sitting at my little corner desk working in photoshop. Sounds pretty sweet to me. I really like the people I met when I went to interview there. Plus, I'll be set as far as money goes, and that's a nice feeling.

Vikki and I found an apartment that we're leasing from a nice UMass computer science grad student named Ting. Ting is leaving all his furniture with us, because he's moving back in in the fall. So that's another thing we don't have to worry about. We're a brief walk from downtown Amherst, an even briefer walk from a sweet little asian foods market (think super cheap bulk tofu) and a five to ten minute drive from Northampton (home to one of my favorite comic book shops). Amherst and Northampton both have famers markets once a week during the summer on conveniently evenly spaced days. Fresh fruits and veggies twice a week ain't too shabby. I'm living with one of the preeminent geeks of the Hampshire campus, my nights will be free for writing DnD and GURPS campaigns, painting Warhammmer models, coding, learning to be a hacker, (hopefully) writing books, reading books, watching hours upon hours of geeky television shows and movies, and lets not forget baking! And I'll finally have the money to keep up with my favorite comics. Also, we've got the Pioneer Valley as our backyard, so I'm sure there will be no lack of outdoor type activities at our disposal (many of which Vikki has experience with). Well, now that I think about it, this has the potential to be my best summer yet. It's safe to say that I'm more than a little excited.

Oh, also. It seems like I'm going to be babysit the bed of (at least) one friend over the summer, and we have I think two couches. What I'm getting at is lots of extra sleep space. I'm expecting visits! That means you!

Well we both know that our day will come
The revolution has begun
So raise your fists and take a stand
With your super cool...
Super cool wrist bands!
We broke out
And now we're running crazy
Down the middle of the boulevard
(Spaced out!)
There's a nerd alert
There's a nerd alert
And you'll never, ever
Never take us alive
Never take us alive
You'll never...!
We're fat, young and hungry
But we don't care
We got big old brains
Like Mexican candy
We got some complex flavor
Running up in here
So get stupid on your time
Get the bud bowl off the air
Diffuse the land mines
I'm alright
You're alright
We're alright

Things that cheered my day considerably:

1. Ken Hoffman
2. iterated function systems and fractals
3. Going into Central Records to find Rory working the front desk, reading an old battered copy of I, Robot whose cover is resplendent in bad 70s sci-fi art, clad in a bright T-shirt with the statement: "Scotland is for me!" laid over a gaudy cartoon rainbow.
4. The Smiths

Excitement!

So I was having a pretty average day until lunch. Then things started to get a little more interesting. I noticed a sign at Saga for some free shifts, so after eating I went to talk to the lady, I believe her name is Marcy, and I grabbed a free shift--the only one left actually. So I am no longer unemployed. I have a day per week, and possibly more depending on who calls me to sub for them. I plan to take a lot of those calls, cause I really need the money.

So that provided a welcome bit of security in my life. Spurred on by this development, I filled out some forms that I had to do (financial aid stuff) and generally got things in order. Then I went to my class, The Structure of Randomness, with one of my favorite professors so far in my relatively brief Hampshire career: Ken Hoffman. We had some wonderful tangents (from an already wonderful class topic) and ended up talking about current cosmological theories, including the idea that the universe is shaped like a Klein Bottle, or alternatively, that the universe is contained inside a massive black hole and that there are infinitely many others (with some leakage of information between them!) There was also some discussion of string theory, and how/why scientists have conjectured that there are 12 dimensions, of which we only experience three consciously. This brought us into unifield field theory and quantum menchanics. All very mind-bending-in-an-extremely-cool-way kind of stuff. The discussion ended up bleeding over into after class time when it was myself, the professor and two other students just kind of hanging around talking about the nature of the universe. I. love. my. life.

So after class I called my mother to tell her the good news about a job, and we discussed my summer plans, which went over suprisingly well. I'm staying in Amherst, getting an apartment, and hopefully a summer job on campus. There's all sorts of stuff that needs to be done at Hamphsire in the summer, so hopefully I can get in somewhere. If not, there's plenty of restaurants in Amherst and Northampton, and while I'd rather not be washing dishes or bussing tables, if it means living on my own, I'm totally there. I'm excited about finally getting the opportunity to really cultivate a life of my own, outside of any specific group or institution. I've been delighted with my things so far, but there comes a point when you have to learn to stand on your own--and I'm not frightened of it, because it'll be something that is truly mine.

Now, to begin the summer job hunt. I'm going to systematically call or e-mail any office that has any job that sounds interesting to me. Here goes!

This is how life is _supposed_ to feel.

Oh my (nonexistent) God I feel good!

I've been developing a new story idea recently that I'm really souped about, and I've even found time to write about it quite a bit in the past few days, but, even so, I felt really shitty today. After class all I really wanted to do was curl up in a ball and sleep or read Clash of Kings. I forced myself to go to T'ai Chi, which was a good move. I love how it relaxes and sweeps worries away with simple body movements, but also encourages alertness and mindfulness. It's a good feeling. At any rate, when that was over I talked to Sam (a boy in my class) and we decided we should meet and do T'ai Chi in the morning on weekends. So we set up a 8 o'clock time slot for Saturday and Sunday to meet out by the cornfields and practice. It's going to be amazing. It's getting warmer, and it's going to be at a really nice spot. Fields laid out ahead with mountains on the horizon. :)

So after discussing that, I wandered over to check out what was happening on the gym floor and lo and behold I see Phil meeting with Hampshire's small (but spirited!) fencing club. He calls me down and I go meet Jeff, the coach, (who was not present the only other time I've fenced at Hampshire) and they invite me to join practice. So I run back to my room to grab my stuff and change into my knickers and I run back over to get suited up. Phil and I fenced hard for about 45 minutes. It was great. Phil is a fantastic opponent--challenging, but with a great attitude. It was just a whole lot of fun. I got a lot of really solid advice from Jeff about my fencing. Incidentally, he kind of reminds me of Potter in the way he asks questions and phrase sentences, so that was comforting. Jeff had to go around quarter of nine so phil and I wrapped it up, then we chatted and watched two of our saber fencers goin' at it. Then we said goodbye for the night, and now I'm back here.

I'm planning to attend fencing now on Mondays and Thursdays, and besides that I'll have T'ai Chi on Mondays, a bit of practice with Linnea on Wednesday and Saturday evenings, and also on Saturday and Sunday mornings with Sam, Linnea, Zahra, and whoever else we get to show up. Also, capping it off with whatever spontaneously physical activities I embark on with Vikki (42 David Tennants!) it looks like I'll be pretty active, which excites me very much. I always forget how good it makes me feel to use my body. Let this post stand in testament to that fact.

*cue dramatic music* As the earth turns and warmth flows back into New England, I embark on a new form of quest--a quest of health and renewal, my body active, my mind calm, my whole being in harmony.

And fade dramatic music. Wash to white. End.

You know you're a *nix geek when...

...you don't think that the phrase "really bad-ass text editor" is an oxymoron. I'm considering trying out emacs. It's supposed to be really versatile and generally pretty cool. Plus it was written by Richard Stallman, who is the definition of badass (despite the complete lack of singing abilities: http://www.gnu.org/music/free-software-song.html).

In other news, Penny Arcade continues to be one of the best things ever.



They're discussing an RPG called Kingdom Hearts which is an adventure spanning all the fantasy worlds in the Disney universe and brings in a lot of characters that you wouldn't really expect to see in a game that serious geeks are obsessed with. The whole concept amuses me, but the punchline in this strip is just fucking brillaint. The guys at PA just never fail to deliver.

It got weird when I wanted to add more than two photos...so this is last post continued...




It's Buttons! This picture was so adorable, I just had to do something with it.





Made this one for jon and his roommates. Not only did I remove james from one of my favorite photos of them, but I made them a poster for the TV show that is their lives.




A very special photo for jess. I figured she could use it on facebook or some such.


These last two are photos I edited for my facebook profile.



and my personal favorite...



And there you have it. One of the many quirky things I do in my spare time...

I've been tooling around in the GIMP (the Gnu Image Manipulation Program) the open-source alternative to Adobe Photoshop that comes with most distros of linux. It's a really powerful program, packed with all the juicy little functions of photoshop, and it's extremely well documented. Anyway...here are some projects I've done as of late.



This one was done in about two minutes flat. Just a composite of two sepearate wallpapers I found to make one.











This is Alice in the moon. I wanted to play around with transparency and color.