Sam's L33t Journal

Erica has the week off, so we're visiting family.

For the first weekend, Julie arranged a last minute to visit her parents and sister's family in Dallas while her brother Sean was also visiting with his oldest, Owen. It was great to see everybody, we hadn't seen Sean and Owen in person in a long interval. Travel went reasonably well. Erica was a pretty good traveler, and I've managed to get together a reasonable setup where we can watch movies together on my phone on the plane. We watched Arietty on the way there (Ghibli's adaptation of The Borrowers is as charming as anything can be) and Belle on the way back (the pacing is inconsistent, and it probably could've been edited as short as the Disney adaptation it frequently references, but there's a lot that's compelling about it, so I see why Erica wanted to see it again).

On Saturday, we went out to brunch, then went to an all-you-can-play retro arcade in the afternoon. Was pretty fun, but definitely I enjoyed the DDR most of all (which, I guess, stood out as one of the less retro titles). Was glad that I hadn't totally lost my ability to read the charts. I really miss the MIT Arcade days.

Julie's dad was also showing off his new car, a Tesla Model Y, which was pretty cool, and a bit of a surreal experience. Seems like the beta version of some technology from the future. Very sleek and cutting-edge, but also rough around the edges in some surprising ways and suffused with Musk-esque humor.

I played some cribbage with Julie's dad, losing three close games in a row. And got in a little time to read and to play Magic on Arena, too, during the trip.

(Speaking of Magic, and something I should've mentioned in my last post, now that Erica's achieved enough sophistication about games to start getting interested in playing that for real, we've been playing some games together with decks from a Magic Game Night set I picked up a long while back with the thought of eventually using it for that purpose.)

We got home on Monday, and I had one day to look after Erica, get a bunch of laundry and household stuff done, and repack, before we head off tomorrow to visit Melissa and family in Baltimore. Should be fun. (The weather for that trip will range between 30 and 78 degrees. What a month.)

I'm writing this post on my new computer, a System 76 (again) Lemur Pro light-weight. My last laptop was seven years old at this point, and I'd basically stopped using it since I was more often on my work laptop. But figured my personal one was due for an update.

Today was my last day of work. My internship started off rough (bureaucratic mixups, culture shock, sudden change of the project I was working on), but it ended pretty well. People were interested in my prototype, it looks like my project will be turned into something useful for IBM, I learned a ton, made some money, and my performance review was all right (not great, but all right).

Tomorrow evening, I head back to Olin. Thursday, I've got classes (*sigh*). I'm all packed, and my apartmentmates are clearing out, too. The apartment doesn't have internet anymore, so I'm writing this in the MIT arcade.

The past week has been pretty good. On Sunday, I saw 13 (Tzamati) (a film noir thriller) with the Boston Sunday Night Film Club (that was fun, it was a pretty good movie). On Monday, I listened to an acappella performance in Lobby 7 (the acoustical properties of that space are amazing, and the group performing was really talented).

What else did I do this week... I had some tea at Bojau (sp?), so I think I've eaten at every cafe in Davis Square (unless you think Dunkin Donuts is a "cafe"; I say they don't count). I ate some good Indian food. I went into Nick's Famous Roast Beef and had a small heart attack (it was tasty). I beat Saints Go Marching on Heavy. I continued reading the "Beggars" Trilogy by Nancy Kress (very good sci-fi).

All in all, I think this has been a pretty good summer.

It's been a long week. At work, my mentor was away on vacation, and I spent most of the week feeling tired and congested. I still managed to get a lot done, though. And drinking good tea at the Someday Cafe was really nice (the Someday is great, especially because they serve Tosci's ice cream; unfortunately, they're closing soon).

Today, I saw Who Killed the Electric Car?, an excellent documentary. Three comments: See it; GM's executives are greedy and traitorous scum; and perhaps we can solve our energy problems by running a turbine off of Jimmy Carter spinning in his grave (edit: okay, so he's not dead yet, but still...).

Anime: I finished Stellvia (a good "kids in space" anime) and My-Otome (not as cracktastic as Mai-HiME, but still pretty darn cracktastic). I checked out Paranoia Agent and some more Monster from the anime club library, so that should be a good deal less cheerful. Anime club was more of the same plus Cromartie High School (a strange, silly anime about high school delinquents (with robots!)).

DDR: Beat Burning Heat on Heavy!

Sleep now.

On Friday, I went to anime club. They started a bunch of new series, including Kodocha (likely to cause cardiac arrest in large doses) and Hare+Guu (surprisingly awesome).

On Saturday, I played DDR at MIT. The arcade was crowded with ninjas and other assorted randoms. I can't seem to beat End of the Century (on Heavy) or Healing Vison: Angelic Mix anymore, so I'll have to get back into practice.

On the train home today, I ran into a girl who seemed really familiar for some reason. I introduced myself, trying to figure out where I knew her from. Apparently, I don't. However, she (her name is Shlomit (Shulamit?; sp?)) was in the movie Hineni: Coming Out in a Jewish High School. (I haven't seen that movie, but I'm certain someone mentioned it to me recently.) We had a brief convesation about Judaism and books; I reccomended Telushkin's Jewish Wisdom, and she reccomended Schachter-Shalomi's Jewish with Feeling.

Aside from that, my life has been fairly uneventful...

Unfortunately, Sarah seemed to suffer a run of bad luck today. She ran into her ex (who she hasn't seen in years) at our hotel in Aurora (crazy coincidence, eh?) and ran (the car) into a pillar in a parking garage (a mitigated disaster in that the damage was only cosmetic (and only to the car)).

On the other hand, the day also contained much excellence:
- Good food
- Interesting conversations
- Hanging out with Nate (who we ran into (figuratively) on the highway yesterday, for another crazy coincidence and a rather spectacular loss of the Olin Challenge)
- Getting the AC in the car fixed (unfortunately, that also counts as bad luck for Sarah, as she was the one paying for that)
- Seeing X-Men: The Last Stand (which was awesome)
- Meeting _skye_ et al for some DDR (and similar games: Pump It Up and In the Groove)

( The Obligatory Group Picture )

I adjusted the radiator in my room so that the room won't be boiling hot in the mornings anymore. Unfortunately, that means that the room is freezing tonight. Maybe once I get that drafty window fixed... (I've done some weatherproofing, but that isn't enough.)

Yesterday: More hibernation. Helped on the MIT Mystery Hunt a bit, but not really.

This afternoon, I went to Parmatown Mall with Melissa to play DDR (taking a train to Tower City and then a bus; just as well, since things are pretty icy). A handful of other people were playing, but the place wasn't crowded. It's amazing how out-of-practice I can get after only a few weeks of not playing that game. Still, it was a lot of fun.

For dinner, I was in the mood for something on the fancier side. After considering a few places somewhat outside of my price range (Melissa: "It's dark in here. That means it's too expensive.") we ended up eating at the Houlihan's at Tower City. The food was awesome. ( Probably excessive description of said food... )

All in all, an awesome day.

I am done with work for the semester. Done, done, done! W00t!

Evening: Talked to Jenny, played We *Heart* Katamari, then played DDR Max on Heavy for an hour and a half (almost continuously; beat some new songs, too, including Healing Vision (Angelic Mix)).

(Three more days and I'll be home!)

I took the train in to MIT today to participate into a training LARP for the new guild members ("Thieves-R-Us Standard Training", run by Phaeton).

I stopped by the arcade a little before the game. Eric was there at the same time, so we played a few games of DDR on versus. Even had an audience, as there was a fairly large group just watching and singing along with the lyrics. So that was fun.

The LARP was pretty fun, too, but an overenthusiastic frosh injured someone during combat, then ninja-rolled into my shin while demonstrating the aforementioned occurrence. My leg still hurts. I have a bit of a headache, as well...

What's-her-name (the one who played Starke?) seemed really angry at me, too. I wonder what was up with that... I guess I was annoying; I still talk far too much...

Friday afternoon was anime club. Watched Memories, which was really awesome.

I spent Saturday afternoon playing DDR with other Anime Club members, then we went and got sushi. In the evening was Orange Tours, which I frobbed myself into on the pretense of being a frosh. The tour was to mostly places I'd already been, but the Jacks did a very good job, and the stories were pretty entertaining. I ate breakfast at Random at about 3:30 in the morning and was asleep before dawn.

I spent most of today sleeping. Spent some time in the arcade in the evening.

In the news, Katrina is coming on strong, a change from earlier predictions which stated that gulf oil production would be left high and dry. Oil is hovering around $70. More alarmingly, New Orleans may be facing massive destruction. (The city is currently being evacuated. I hope everyone gets out okay...)

This weekend has been pretty good.

Yesterday evening was "Fade to White", an action/horror LARP run by Carl Stern, the guild's best GM. Unfortunately, I wasn't cast, but the game was still a lot of fun to watch, especially the NPC ultimate spirit of retribution, who provoked some rather amusing scenes (Phaeton: "Guys, just so you know, alcohol is awesome! Uh, spirit? I didn't mean that!").

Today, I ate breakfast at Picante (if a meal eaten at 3:00 PM can be called "breakfast"; but I've been eating on a weird schedule, my previous meal had been buffalo chicken at just after midnight), and the food was good even though their hot salsa wasn't really hot. I bought some food at Star, had a session of DnD, and played some DDR (I beat Can't Stop Falling in Love (Speed Mix) on Heavy).