LiveJournal Project - September 2003

Hummina hummina hummina....

Date: 2003-09-04 21:38
Subject: ima nan-ji desu ka?
that's right, kids, it's time for an update... vegas was cool, although i didn't come home with ben franklin and lots of his friends. the new cirque du soleil show is definitely worth checking out - it's much better than "O" but i think i still prefer mystere overall, especially in terms of music. otherwise, though, i didn't really see anything on this trip which particularly stood out. played some blackjack, dicked around on the slot machines, stared at the beautiful people, and mocked pretty much everyone else. probably won't be heading back for awhile, though: i've got far too much shit to do for school (much of it falling under the category of busywork, IMHO) added to a never-shrinking list of work-related crap that needs to get done to be taking off for a weekend and getting totally stupid. so we'll have to save the adventurism for later in the year.

in other news, i had the strangest dream-like experience today. i don't call it a dream because i'm almost positive that i wasn't sleeping. around 11:30 this morning i'd decided to take a break from coding and nap for an hour or two, and somewhere between 11:40 and 12:10 i found myself in what i would've normally called a lucid dream, except that instead of knowing that i was dreaming, i was convinced that i was actually awake, spinning records on a couple of turntables. and somehow, i thought that my arm was actually moving as i was cueing up the records and moving the crossfader. then after what seemed like about an hour, i rolled over and opened my eyes and realized that, alas, none of it was real. very, very strange. and i haven't even had any oreos recently. =/

ah well, i guess we'll see if it happens again, or if perhaps i've magically gained some enhanced abilities on the turntables through divine intervention. for now, i should really get to reading some supreme court decisions for tomorrow's class. woo.
Music: DJ Irish - Assorted Trance Vol. 10
Mood: calm

Date: 2003-09-08 14:16
Subject: i am ravyn's angry spleen, and i'm ready to rupture!
yeah, so, this is going to be one of those angry rant posts, because, well, i'm pretty fuckin' pissed off. and today, the target of my ire is, as it will probably be rather frequently over the course of the next few months, asu and those who inhabit it.

first... it's bad enough that people talk on their cell phones while they drive, but people who ride their bikes around campus during the periods between classes, straight through crowds of pedestrians and other bikers, while yapping away on their cell phones ought to have those phones shoved up their asses. given the overcrowded morass that is asu, it's hard enough to get from class to class while everyone else is trying to do the same thing without some fuckass on a bicycle trying to catch up on who got laid at last night's keg party and failing to remember that going in a straight line is a fundamentally important skill. and while i'm on the topic of people who deserve to have "i am an at&t whore" tattooed into their skull, what about people who walk and talk on their cell phones? one would think that this wouldn't be a big deal - after all, it's not THAT HARD to walk and chew gum at the same time. but today, as i found myself trying to go down the stairs in the physical sciences building, i found my forward progress impeded by some dumb bimbo who apparently needed all three of her brain cells to dial a number on her cell phone, thus taking that one overtaxed brain cell away from motor control and causing her to slow to a turtle's pace in the stairwell. hey, dumbshit! if there was a fire, we'd both die - now get the hell out of my way, or try to take more than one step every ten seconds. next time i'm just going to pull out my own cellphone and push the bitch down the stairs. oh, i'm sorry, i didn't see you there, i was too busy talking to my stockbroker. die, die, die, you asshats!

second... whichever asshole in the political science department decided that a 300/400 level class on the arab/israeli conflict should admit 100 students and be taught three times per week for only 50 minutes at a time deserves to be sent out to be yasser araftat's next suicide bomber. this is an absolute travesty. here we have an extremely interesting topic put into a class that's taught by one of asu's better professors (at least as far as the political science department goes) that's been turned into a complete fucking waste of time. we have about 50 pages per week, give or take, of readings to do. and after spending the time to do the reading, one would like to come to class and discuss it - but that's next to impossible to do when the TA who's running the discussion session can't maintain order, when a few opinionated morons monopolize the entire class period (it wouldn't be so bad if there were fewer people in the class, more time per class session, or better discussion control), and when there just isn't enough bloody time. at least the professor isn't mandating student attendance - i don't have any intention of going to that class ever again except on days when i have assignments to turn in; it's just a complete waste of time. there will be a letter written to the political science department about this fiasco; i just need to find out who's responsible for making class-size and schedule decisions.

it really is days like today which make me wonder why the hell i'm even bothering to put up with this pathetic excuse for an institution of higher learning. i suppose it's because i live in phoenix and i don't have any other choice, and if at some point i would like to take a shot at something like law school, i have to suffer through the trenches of undergraduate existence just like everyone else. the more time i spend in college, though, the more i'm convinced that the entire system is completely broken. for example: in order to graduate from asu with a political science degree, there are four 100-level classes that i'm required to take. well, that wouldn't be so bad if i were an 18-y/o freshman, straight out of high school and without any substantial knowledge of things like hegemonic stability theory or the notions of realism and idealism as they apply to poli sci theory. but i'm not. and every poli sci class i've taken at asu has been at the 300 or 400 level. so how is it, then, that despite having taken world politics (360), international security (467), and a seminar on terrorism (498), i still have to take global politics (160) which will most likely be a class with 100 or 200 people, 90% of which will be younger than me, 95% of which won't give a shit about the class? it just doesn't make sense. there ought to be a way for students that are actually interested in learning to bypass these pathetic intro / survey-style classes and do something with a little more substance. hell, i still need to take POS 101, and i'm dreading it to no end because i know i'm going to be stuck with people who think that marxism is named after groucho and that a political party is someplace you go on friday nights to get drunk and watch CNN.

oh yeah... and dumbass minimum-wage people who work at fast food restaurants and put so much liquid into their beverage cups that when you get them at the drive through and insert them into the ever-so-convenient cup holders in your car that they begin to leak out the top, thus creating a cold wet mess in your pants that you have to clean up, should be sent to the 8th circle of hell. if i want my pants to be wet, i'll pee on myself. since i don't go around pissing in my pants, i obviously prefer them to be dry. please keep that in mind next time you're operating the soda machine.
Music: DJ M.S.TRANS - E-mix Vol. 5
Mood: pissed off

Date: 2003-09-09 04:08
Subject: the amusing link of the day
you've heard the mp3, now see the movie:
uh, i forgot what we were doing, krammit.

Time: 12:52
Subject: ??????????
so let me see here... i've just

a: had someone rip me a new asshole on
b: what are, as far as i can tell, completely baseless grounds and then
c: had the same person tell me that i'm not allowed to defend myself while i
d: received said reaming via email, which indicates that
e: the asshole-ripper does not have enough respect for me to discuss the matter in person, especially considering that
f: said email indicates that this matter probably will not be brought up again.

now, you know, if i've gone and pissed someone off, if said person is someone that i give two shits about, then obviously i'd want to know what it is that i've done wrong so that i can try to avoid doing it in the future. but if i don't know what i've done wrong and nobody bothers to explain it in such a way that makes sense, then there's really no way for me to react to such a reaming other than to fire back with both barrels and tell the person in question that he or she is full of shit. however, if i'm then told that i'm not allowed to defend myself, what am i supposed to say? i can't say "hey, get your head out of your ass, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about, and you've got absolutely no short-term memory" because that would be defending myself and it might smack of the same sort of hostility which i'm told i'm not allowed to do, even though it was just done to me in a rather blindsiding manner. i also can't say "well, i'm sorry, i'll try to fix it" when i don't know what "it" is, and when the examples given to me of what "it" supposedly is (or is not) just don't seem to make any sense. so it looks i'm backed into a corner with no other options than to just say and do absolutely nothing, but then nobody knows what the fuck is really going on and nothing gets resolved, so that's not going to work either.

so, to recap, one attacks me via email out of nowhere, thus keeping the conversation completely one-sided and putting me immediately on the defensive without sufficient explanation to me so that i can try to figure out what i've done wrong, and then proceeds to tell me that i'm not allowed to defend myself and that said matter probably will not resurface (apparently, unless i bring it up, but i'm not allowed to be pissed off).

yes, this is a good way to make it on my shit list.
Mood: indescribable

Date: 2003-09-18 15:55
Subject: in case shit happens, pay us money.
back at the start of july, i posted this detailing the struggle i've been having with the morons at state farm about getting my health insurance. unfortunately, that was not the end of the saga. after that little rant, they proceeded to completely lose part of my application. ok, so i fill out another piece of paper, and assume that they'll use the check which i sent the first time. well, the letter i get says that they've sent the check back to my agent to give to me due to the fuckup previously mentioned. but the agent never gets the check, so i have to write another one. so yeah, finally somewhere around the middle of august i have everything filled out and another check ready and it all gets submitted again, and i tell the agent that i think the whole thing's kinda ridiculous. she agrees and apologizes profusely, and tells me that the process is done as soon as i sign the paper, and then all i have to do is wait for my shit to come in the mail.

wrong!!! phone rings today, and guess who it is? apparently, they also lost my entire medical history interview, so i have to do that again as well. what the fuck is going on here? i kinda wonder, if at some point over the last month or two, if i'd gotten really sick and couldn't pay my doctor bills if i'd be able to sue those fuckers for incompetence. you can sue doctors and attorneys for malpractice, what about insurance agents? so, after going through the last 10 years of my medical history yet again (which thankfully is not that long or involved), we'll see how it goes. but you know what really gets me -- they ask you all these questions about whether or not you've had x, y, or z wrong with you over the last 10 years... as if i'm really supposed to remember?! if i get sick or injured, if it doesn't affect me anymore, i forget about it. sure, i screwed up my back, and i fucked up my knee and my ankle, but it's all since healed, so don't ask me to remember when the hell it was.

at least i still have a few more months until ski season starts, so hopefully by the time i'm flying down the mountain, straight at a tree, i'll have my precious little insurance card. =/
Mood: annoyed

Date: 2003-09-21 04:15
Subject: high school reunion madness...
yesterday (i.e., friday) was my 10-year high school reunion. and out of sheer perverse curiosity, i put on my baggy raver pants, spiked up my hair, and headed out to the scottsdale hilton to see what i could see, fully intent on talking a bunch of shit and making a mockery of the whole thing.

it was indeed amusing, but i also have to give it credit for not being quite as lame as i was expecting (still lame enough that i didn't go to the second day of it all, which would've been tonight). a lot of the people that i had hoped to see weren't there, which isn't all that surprising, since they don't strike me as the reunion-attending type (not that i really strike myself that way) and live out of state, but i also did see people that i didn't expect to see. ultimately, the people fell into three main categories. people i knew and actually enjoyed talking to - a good portion of my core friend group actually did show up, and we sat around a table chatting about random shit for awhile, people i didn't know, and people who i knew but really had no desire in talking to. after all, if i didn't like them during HS, then i'm sure that i wouldn't like them now either.

various observations...

• first off, my mom was right. she said that when she went to her 10-year, everybody was still hanging out in the same cliques that they ran in during high school, and it was more or less just an evening for people to show off their wives or husbands or kids or whatever it was that they felt excessively proud of. that pretty much sums it up. (and, according to my mom, the 20 year will be all the same people, but fat, balding, and divorced - we shall see, indeed).
• second, it really amazed me how poorly some people aged. my friend tony, who was a scrawny dude during high school and went into the navy right after graduation, looked like he packed on at least 50 pounds or more. a girl that i remember as being pretty cute in HS looked like a 3-dollar white trash ho, and i overheard her saying to another trailer-park barbie something to the effect of "let's go inside and see if we can make some cash" while standing outside the reunion ballroom. heh, sorry, honey, but if you think you're going to make some cash looking like a reject from billy bob jim bob's house o' doublewides, i suggest you think again. not even the drunkest guy in the room is that desperate. there was another girl who looked like she'd exploded - not only had she eaten the hostess factory, but she must've had a gallon of silicone in each breast. too bad she didn't spend any of that money on hair care - might as well have been a bowl of spaghetti on her head. yuck. and the guys... some of them looked pretty decent, but a lot of them were already on the road to fat and balding. guess i should be thankful that baldness does NOT run in my family and i still have all my hair, despite the funky-ass coloring adventures i've been on.
• third, people that i really wasn't that close to in HS turned out to be the best company of the evening. i went up to a guy that i thought i recognized from my humanities class because i saw him standing off to the side with another dude and they appeared to be engaged in mockery of the whole event, and we spent a good hour or two shooting the shit and just having a good time. i guess in a way i find it surprising - it wasn't like we'd picked up anything from where we left it 10 years ago, but more like we were just three dudes hanging out at a social gathering with some recollection of each other's existence from awhile ago. i got jeff's phone number, so who knows, maybe i'll actually make a new friend (can't really say rekindle an old friendship) and find more excuses to get out of the house.

i ended up leaving around 10:30 to go hit up requiem and chill with _purpleglitter_ and listen to some gothic music while under the influence of vodka - and i'd say that overall i'm glad i went. i didn't get to talk shit to anyone (mainly because i didn't make the effort) but i definitely had a good time mocking people and taking in the absurdity of it all.

so of course this whole event was a good trigger for some nostalgia, and i can't help but notice that aside from the physical changes, a lot of people really didn't seem like they'd changed very much. maybe it's just my own egocentric view, and others might draw the same conclusion, but i know i'm considerably different than i was 10 years ago. today i look different, many of my views and thought processes have changed, and i really just don't give a fuck and refuse to take shit from anyone, compared to being the uptight little nerdy-type who was concerned with nothing but grades and college. i'm sure there are people who wouldn't approve of some of the choices i've made and paths i've taken - hell, i'll be the first to admit that every once in awhile i make a pretty fucked-up decision and usually have to spend a good bit of energy digging my ass out of the hole i create, but all in all, i'd say that i'm pretty happy with where the time has taken me and what the prospects are for the future. i guess we'll see what happens in another ten years.
Music: Talamasca - Crystal Matrix
Mood: content

Time: 16:17
Subject: check it...
hey folks - for everyone that's on a high-speed line, i've put out a new demo mix. if you get the chance, you can check it out here: http://www.deadbunny.com/mixes/ (no, you can't) - Ed.

it's the one at the bottom - "music for kicking ass" and represents my first foray into doing a hybrid DJ set using both vinyl and CDs...
any comments, leave 'em here or via email or harass me online.

Date: 2003-09-27 11:24
Subject: the week in review...
by and large this has not been the most spectacular of weeks. we can start back at the beginning, last sunday, when sometime on sunday afternoon or evening my mountain bike was stolen out of my office down at webexpress. apparently some miscreants broke in and stole two flat panel monitors and my bike - nobody can figure out how they got in or why they didn't bother to steal anything more valuable (like the servers). what's rather amusing about all of this is the way that everyone reacted. brent, chuck, and i all pretty much had the same response - "oh, that sucks." nobody was freaking out or terribly upset or anything, which, given brent's tendencies to get worked up over all sorts of things, is rather surprising. me, well, yeah, i'm not exactly thrilled about losing my bike, but i know i'm not going to be getting it back, and i've taken the attitude that since i got a good 5 years of service out of it, including many trips to ASU without it getting ripped off from there, i've done pretty well. so, as you might imagine, in need of a replacement i hit the bike store this week and picked up a new one.

the week itself was relatively uneventful, although i've come to the conclusion (not that this should really surprise anyone) that there's really just no point in me going to class this semester. note that i didn't say there's no point in being in school (i'm not that fed up with it yet this semester) - just that with the exception of my japanese class, i really don't get anything out of sitting there for 50 minutes at a time, three days a week. all the stuff in my constitutional law class is in the book - we don't discuss anything new in class that wasn't covered in the text, and the same holds true for my abstract algebra class. what, exactly, are professors for, anyway? shouldn't the point of going to class be to learn something that you couldn't get out of the book? bleh. since i've been taking internet-based classes this semester where the sole source of knowledge is the textbook, i've been reminded that it really is quite easy to learn most things out of a book; all you need is a set of assignments to complete.

last night _purpleglitter_ and i met up with djskott, lilredravingurl, katryn and az_r2d1 for sushi happy hour, and much mockery was made of scott as he proceeded to get drunker and drunker. (more and more drunk? ah, whatever, fuck english). afterwards we saw the new movie with stifler (seann william scott) and the rock - "the rundown". it was entertaining in parts but overall kinda lame and cheese-laden. but if any good thing came out of it all it's that the wheels of vegas are turning again. scott found out that tiesto is playing at house of blues this halloween, so much discussion ensued and it was agreed that vegas for halloween would indeed be a fun adventure. so yeah, people, buy your tickets and get your hotels. =P unfortunately, the evening could not end on a pleasant note - some dumbfuck teenybopper pissant decided that it would be cool to throw a milkshake or something on my windshield while i was in the movie theatre. it's a good thing that i didn't see it happen or who did it, or i'd probably have run the little fucker over. weee.