Blargh, back in Richmond but all my stuff’s in Williamsburg now. I thought my sublet was hot before, but now I have to endure it over the weekend without a fan! I am so toast. I’m really sleepy because I’ve been running errands all day. While at the DMV, I noticed a license plate option proclaiming Virginia as the “Internet C@pital”. Who decided this??? Anyways, I finally got my Virginia drivers license, but the flash was so much brighter in one of my eyes than the other so now I look like Mad Eye Moody on my card. Like this –> o__O.
The whole incident got me to thinking though: You know those colored contacts that they make nowadays? Why aren’t there Sharingan contacts?!?! I’m a huge Naruto fan and I plan on working on this spoof as soon as possible! I look at the above link and I can just see the Kakashi tie-ins.
One good thing about these awful computers at the bookstore is that now I know that this blog looks just fine in 640 x 480 resolution.
My time in Richmond is drawing to a close, so I thought I’d reflect a little on the place where I spent my summer. To begin with, my sublet was a strange bright blue color and this one section had bricks painted on it. I was later informed that these “bricks” were actually real bricks that had been covered by a layer of drywall and then painted over again with a brick design. I was speechless. When considering my actual room, there are two important qualities to note: 1) My room is very hot, and 2) Everything in my room is very low. The first stems from the fact that Richmond itself is muggy and hot and my room has no A/C. My window faces an alley which is very cleverly designed to stop any air flow into my room. But why not open my door and allow the cool air from the other parts of the apartment waft in? The answer is simple: the only thing that would be wafting in would be the stench from the decaying garbage in the kitchen down the hall. As cute as furry food and sentient muck is, I don’t think I will miss the horror that is our kitchen. And so, I spend the day in a scorching room with the door shut and my fan on high.
Fortunately, everything in my room is also very low. I used the knowledge I gained at Cornell to deduce that plasmafied air would probably be lighter than scorchingly hot air and so I placed everything low to the ground. Some say that it is also a result of my being lazy and not having any furniture because I plan to move soon, but those reports have never been substantiated. It is interesting to note that the radiator is actually the tallest object in my room. I have placed my PC on the floor and type hunched over on my air mattress. My air mattress and I have a wonderful relationship. It’s like a pet. It’s constantly deflating and I have to keep refilling it, almost like feeding it. I know it has its flaws (e.g. the small hole in it, the fact that it’s uncomfortable, the lack of a bedframe) but we have a symbiotic relationship. I fill it and feed it battery power, and it gives my tush the power to hover several inches off the hardwood floor. Everything else in the room is either on the floor or on a bin or Yaffa block. This may sound like Hell but actually it’s more like purgatory since I have DSL and don’t plan on staying here for all eternity ^__^ v.
I can’t wait to move to the new apartment. There is A/C there, real windows, and plenty of IKEA furniture. I would like to take this chance to once more commend the Swedes for their contributions to meatballs, furniture, and…. um, other Swedish stuff. Recently, I’ve been getting some emails from friends as the summer ends; some who I haven’t had a chance to talk to in several years, and some who were getting back in touch after a long summer break. The search for comments capability paid off as well, as I got two whole real comments, woot! I can hardly believe that this blog has been up for 3 months but time flies by fast when you’re roasting in boredom. Ok, maybe it doesn’t, but at least I have something nice to look forward to once the summer ends. Finally, to conclude, in spite of the heat, the lack of interest in sports and anime, the constant panhandling, the extinction of Asians, the rampant drug use, the humidity, the Confederacy (I’m such a Yank…), and the general unfriendliness of city inhabitants, I still do have a fondness for Richmond. The food is great, the food is cheap, and the parts like Monument Avenue and Carytown, while inedible, are beautiful.
Ahhh, took Greyhound bus (which was 2 hours late as usual) back to Richmond and was greeted by the sight of my deflated air bed and steamy hot (no a/c here o_o) room. Took a look in the kitchen and the garbage had piled high again and reeked something horrible. A quick gander into the fridge showed that my mooching roomies had helped themselves to half a gallon of my ice tea. Maybe Williamsburg isn’t so bad! At least I don’t have to worry about living in filth, having food stolen, or sleeping on an air mattress. Anyway, I celebrated my return to my Richmond sublet with a hot dog from 7-11.
One of the angelfish kicked the can already. Bah, gotta make a return trip to PetsMart now.
I was skimming some of the higher rated weblogs listed on The Weblog Review today and stumbled upon two rather rich and informative gems: Plight of the Reluctant and also Urban Scrawl. Both sites had some interesting entries about the California recall election. I am starting to wonder if Arnold might actually win. Because of the mechanics of the recall election, it seems that with some well managed publicity, Arnold can simply ride the wave of voter apathy to the governor position. Absolutely amazing. I know I’m not really in a position to judge, but it sounds like most California voters are like most Lakers fans, if you know what I mean.
Oh yes, I’m getting really close to the front of the queue. I can’t wait, although I’m sure the actual event will be rather anti-climactic. I do like that RBJ actually updates and is proactive in promoting updates to member sites.
Blargh, I missed episode 5 of FLCL because I was playing too much EVE. I just recently got a cruiser and so I have been actively hunting down NPC pirates in hopes of phat lewts. I placed my character on a long training program for Caldari Cruiser V for while I’m off at Williamsburg. Hopefully I can find a computer lab or library with internet access to update my blog over the next 2-3 days.
And finally, since everyone else is posting it, go here if you’re worried about the latest hole in Microsoft security.
Ahhh, back in Richmond. I spent the last day and a half visiting my new apartment in Williamsburg. I’m going to learn yet another new zip code, bleh. The apartment wasn’t nearly as small as I was afraid it would be and when it’s finished being decorated with fun IKEA furniture, everything should be all nice and cozy. I absolutely love IKEA stuff. If I could, I bet I’d be like Edward Norton in Fight Club, except for the blowing up the apartment part. The ingeniuty of the Swedes was thoroughly imprinted on me during the trip. Sadly, however, there was no way to watch FLCL and so I missed episode 4, I think. On the other hand, I did see a live hummingbird for the first time! Pretty exciting stuff, although after 1.5 hours of waiting for the !#%@$#@ Greyhound bus (which was 1.5-2 hours late on every portion of this trip….), the hummingbird started to make me all antsy.
In blog news, I joined the queue to be accepted into the Rice Bowl Journals community. Once I found out they were accepting submissions again, I knew it was my duty as one of 4 or 5 Asians in the entire Richmond area. A nice thing about Williamsburg was that I didn’t feel like a rare creature being displayed in a zoo while I was there.
Went running again yesterday, and might again today since it’s looking to be a really beautiful day. My roomie and I like to go along Memorial Ave. which is aptly named after the many statues along the street, the majority of which are Civil War heroes. We start at the house and the first general we see is Robert E. Lee , and the ending point is Stonewall Jackson. I’m starting to grow an almost Southern respect for them now because when you can see one of them it means that half of the run is almost over.
Concerning Naruto…wow. I’m so happy Sasuke managed to not totally wimp out and instead put up quite a feisty attempt against Orochimaru. I love how wonderfully choreographed the fight sequences are. There’s nothing worse than seeing animators take the easy route and simply draw some flashes and explosions, or use stock sequences, and then have the enemy fall down. The fights in Naruto are so much more entertaining! The music is luverly too ^-^.
In much less interesting news, I finally got tired of my partially deflated air-mattress and went out and bought some replacement D batteries. The poor motor that pumped the mattress had been dying for about a week and could barely manage to half fill the mattress with air, but when I put those new D puppies in, the motor roared to life. It was almost enough to bring tears of joy to my eyes, since it meant I no longer had to sleep (essentially) on the floor. As I sit on the mattress and type this now, I can’t get over the fact that the motor was powerful enough to fill the mattress with so much air that my rear is hovering suspended over the hardwood floor of my room. I feel like I should take a nap to celebrate. Life is good.
Elsewhere Online, General | Kabitzin 8/22/2003 | 
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