Realm of the Imponderable

RDOC #92

Just had a marathon happening weekend with 90% of my waking hours spent out of Ann Arbor.

Saturday was mega shopping day. The SSA had one mass trip to Birch Run, a massive collection of factory outlet shops located an hours drive north of here where almost anything can be bought for prices that are usually lower than anywhere else. Granted, the main objective was to let the freshies get their winter coats and whatever other clothing they needed but we also took the opportunity to get stuff too. And at the end of it my car had a pretty full boot too. And I spent a grand total of $129 on:
1)$50 for 2 pairs of Levis Jeans
2)$25 for a rice cooker
3)$21 for an Eddie Bower shirt
4)$14 for Clinique face moisturizer
5)$10 for a Coleman foldable shovel
6)$6 for a cookbook
7)$3 for a pair of Columbia shorts

All in all I think the least savings were on the shirt but then again, Eddie Bower shirts last a lifetime so it's still good value for money...

Sinday was Renaissance Festival (commonly called Faire). I was there with the Ring of Steel managing a bunny fencing booth. It's quite a cute game. We have two combatants donning a fencing jacket and mask with two balloons tied to them so they look like rabbit ears. Then each of them has a fencing foil and the objective is to pop the other person's balloons. It's quite entertaining to watch, and it was really interesting to just walk around Faire and see what people were doing or selling. There were perfornamces of medieval dances and other performance arts, people selling handicrafts (and they were horribly expensive) and the centrepiece was a huge rousting arena where they actually have horses and mounted knights in heavy metal armor. Granted, they don't use proper lances; those would kill people. Rather, they use something that looked like bamboo and designed to break on impact so it wouldn't cause too much injury. However, their fights are for real, except they use padded weapons so fighting skill does play a part here unlike in ROS where everything is choreographed beforehand.
Yep.. renaissance faire was a really interesting experience.

RDOC #91

Today is relac day!
Only 2 classes. And ME350! I'm getting to like this class more and more. It's starting to look like a class in lego building except you have to do a bit more analysis of the parts and you custom make the parts yourself.
Now let the grandmaster lego builder take the helm for this...

Right now in (as Jo would say) super hyper mood... I have a good and interesting set of classes, a Birch Run shopping trip this weekend to look forward to, a good computer desk and most importantly, Doom 3!!! heh heh. Best game to play at night when you're the only one in the house (or the only one awake) with 7.2 surround sound. Spooked the hell out of Eugene the other day, what with demonic decorations in the room, disembowled corpses and evil disembodied laughter in the background.

I was at a party with Eugene last weekend. One of the freshies had a 21st birthday party and we were the suppliers of the booze. Didn't get anyone drunk, though, only high enough to be unable to walk straight. And I think we annoyed his room mates a little cos' they just spent the evening locked up in their half of the room and didn't come out. We took over the toilet too because the drinks were kept on ice and we didn't have an icebox. That's a recipe for lots of messy leaks, so we just put everything in the shower cubicle. No bath for room mates till drinks got finished..:P

I am so in love with my new devilstick! It's so easy to do stuff with it, and it looks great for performances. heh.. I think I'll be getting another one from Dube before this year is out. Maybe fire. Fiery Fiery Devilstick of Doom...

RDOC #90

Got my webcam!
harr..
Just went for ROS today and discovered that there's nobody around. Apparently there's Renaissance festival going to and they're deeply involved in to. Oh well...

Tonight we might be cooking our first dinner at our house. As in cooking from raw food, not reheating takeouts. It's a major milestone. Hopefully the pots won't get burned or something... The last time Tat tried frying an egg he didn't use oil and he used a metal spatula on my nonstick pan. That was a pretty disaster. Messed up egg, scratched frying pan...

K. Tonight when Iron Chef Kai takes the kitchen we're going to have no accidents or disasters here.

Classes are good, no boring lecturers or wafflers. I have yet to get into a project group for ME350, but one thing is not to get into a group full of slackers. Shouldn't be too difficult...

RDOC #89

Alright, that's it. Mo more rides for people, with the exception of housemates, unless it just so happens that whoever it is who wants a ride happens to be going in the same direction as me. I'm sick and tired of being called on by the whole world for transport of furnature and whatever. Seems wherever I go people just happen to bump into me and they just happen to need a ride and I just happen to be minding my own business (which at that point of time amounted to not very much at all). So that's it. No more rides. Period.

I was at the pre-class bash in the middle of Palmer field with Eugene and guess what had to happen? That's right. Fuckin' Murphy happened. Thunder storm erupts with 5 seconds of warning. Needless to say, everyone got drenched. Oh well. It's going to be a nice cold night because of the rain.

dagnammit where did the weekend go? It's over before I realise it's come. arrr..
That's what happens when you're busy and (occasionally) having fun...

RDOC #88

Week #1 and counting. Just set up house, waiting for those sluggards at the furnature store to get the deliveries that they owe us and then we'll be in (relative) order.
Devilsticks are coming next week!

And my computer is still set up on the floor. ergh..
at least there's internet now so I can do almost everything I want to do except it's at ground level and not high and mighty like I'm used to.

Just played ah mat for another dangerous job, navigating the streets of Ann Arbor during move in week when Central Campus is a madhouse with everyone moving stuff into the dorms. Drivers create obstructions by parking their cars helter skelter, police leave landmines on the road that explode if you're travelling too fast and people walk on the roads like they own them or something. Basically it's like Bankok and you have to be a traffic ninja to ever get anywhere at this time of the year.

Just made 3 trips to the airport over the past 2 days and I can now effectively do it blindfolded. And not to mention that all this driving around has given me pretty intimate knowlege of the lay of the roads here. Yup... soon I'll be another traffic ninja, able to navigate the toughest jam and evade the most cunning speed trap. muahahaha