The Blacksburg Rollercoster

Thats the name I’m going to start using when referring to the weather here. There are always a few days when it’s in the 60/70’s and sunny and just as I’ve started to open all the windows and get used to the spring weather, I turns bad. The past few days have been cold and miserable. It’s actually snowing outside as I write this. Now I like it when its cloudy and grey and rainy out, but it can still be warm.

So thats the Blacksburg Rollercoster; The extreme ups and downs in temperature. That fact that there is always a 15mph wind blowing in your face doesn’t hurt the name either.

I’ve been looking around the housing web sites again and I’ve found another couple of places that look promising but I still would like to move into that crash pad. The housing site lists a couple of places in that building but not the apartment I’ve been looking at. I think that it might have already been rented. I plan on calling the leasing company tomorrow and finding out. I could get the next place over but I haven’t seen it so I’m apprehensive. Also, I’ve been thinking about it and I’m not sure that the couch I like would fit into the living room of the one I saw. I could move into a one bedroom that is in the actual center of downtown but that has a higher rent and I haven’t seen them. What could happen is that I get the one bedroom place, my parents still give me the same amount for rent, and I just make up the difference by working. I dunno. I’ve had to much time to think about it and now I’m having doubts about everything. I need to just settle down and examine my options.

Currently listening to: ” Turn Me On” by The Shins

Super Quiet

Nothing really to report today. I got up, I mess around, I went to work, I came home, I sat on my ass the rest of the night. The only thing that comes to mind to talk about is that I got 440,000,000 points in a flash game called Boxhead: Zombie Wars. It’s a good game, find it and play it.

I Love The Apartment

This morning I went to check out the apartment that I was so excited about. It’s a great big house with lots of additions built on in a hodgepodge style. The original structure is an old farm-house from about 1900-1920. You walk through what was the front door into an entryway with a couple of apartment doors jutting off. The stairs were creaky and when you get to third floor landing, there is apartment no. 7; The one I was there to look at. The girl who is subletting was in the shower so I spent a few minutes talking with this guy named Jason whose room I would be living in.

When you walk into the place, you enter a short hallway with the bathroom on the other end. Almost immediately on your left is the kitchen which has a newer stove and refrigerator but an older sink; One of those big ones with the built in drain board on the side. There was a small table in the corner with the microwave on it and opposite the sink/stove/fridge was an old linoleum counter and a bunch of old glass fronted cabinets. The living room was the next room on the right from the hallway but you get to it through the kitchen. It was small and cozy and so comfortable looking that I wanted to sign the lease right then. The walls were an off-white/beige color and the furniture was all green upholstery and old wooden bookcases. From the hallway, on the right were two doors that were the bedrooms. I didn’t really look in those but one seemed small and one looked pretty big. I would be living in the smaller one over the summer but I definitely would move into the bigger one when the place was mine.

Their were really only two problems with the place as far as I could see. The first was that the door to the apartment proper was pretty flimsy looking, more like an interior door then something that would really keep a person. I didn’t inspect the door but nobody seemed to have a problem with it. Maybe I could get the management to put in a real door with lock. The second problem was that there was no laundry room in the building. I would have to use a laundromat down the street. Thats not terrible since I’ve had to haul my stuff to laundry rooms for the past few years. It’s more of an inconvenience then anything.

I like the place that I’ve already started to look at furniture online and see what kind of stuff I like. It was probably the most collegate/hippy-crash pad type place I’ve ever seen.

After that, I went through the day incredibly happy. I had a conversation with my roommate about an engineering problem he’s been having. He wants to build some sort of 3-d representation system based off those desk toys with the pins. The thing where you push something into the pins on one side and it leaves an image on the other side. He was talking about connecting each pin to a motor to get them into place but I told him that was impractical because of the number of motors and the size requirements. I told him to instead try putting a small magnet on the bottom of each pin which would react with a grid of small electromagnets underneath, one for each pin. This would be the best option because the pins would move to the correct height based on the repulsive force of the opposite magnet which would be triggered by a small current. The idea is easy in my mind but I doubt I could do it justice here so I won’t even try.

God I love that apartment.

Currently listening to: “California Waiting” by Kings of Leon

I Fear For Our Future

Sometimes I think that every day has a particular theme whether I notice it or not. This little theory of mine comes from how some day’s I will see articles or shows or have conversations about a single topic at different times and places. Today’s topic was creationism.

I think that creationism is complete bullshit especially the young Earth variety. If you take the biblical account of creation as allegory or symbolic, then I won’t really have a problem. It’s the literal people I hate. I saw a video on youtube that was taken from a recent episode of Nightline. It was a group who gives creationist tours of a natural history museum. I was appalled by what I saw them “teaching” these children.

For starters, the tour guides didn’t seem all that qualified because they were lacking basic math skills. They said that before the flood (Noah’s flood), people lived for about 800 years and that there were about 7 generations of these 800 year-old people. Now, maybe my math is wrong but that means there were 5,600 years between creation and the flood. that would mean Moses, Solomon, Harod, The Egyptian and Roman Empires, and Jesus himself were around in the last 400 years. But then again, maybe these particular guides just didn’t have their facts straight.

The next problem I had was with their exclusion of certain information. Their was a sequence where they talk about scientists dating fossils. They say that fossils are dated by the sediment layer they are found in and that the sediment layers are dated by the fossils they find. After getting a bunch of small children to yell “circular reasoning” they walk right past a display on radiometric dating.

While the two “informed” tour guides came off as buffoons, the museum curator struck me a rather intelligent and open-minded person. While the guides were saying that the t-rex must have been praying for Eve to bite the apple, the curator was saying that it was the creationist’s right as Americans to believe whatever they wanted. On one side, there are people indoctrinating small children and on the other side is a guy saying it’s their right. I’m scared of what these children are going to be when they grow up. (Video on YouTube)

I later that afternoon came across an article on another site about a paper recently published in Nature that posits that evolution doesn’t slow down in more complex creatures. This apparently refutes a claim by creationists. The creationist side of the argument is not explained in the article so I can’t rant about it but YAY science. (Wired Science)

Now, I’m the type of person to deny someone their beliefs, but I hate creationism. The creationism tour wouldn’t have upset me as much if they had fully explained evolution. I’ve been following the creation/evolution debate for awhile and one thing I’ve noticed is that creationists seem to like misrepresentation. They either don’t fully explain evolution or focus on the phrase “theory of evolution” without explaining the difference between a scientific theory and a normal theory. If someone wants to believe that the Earth is 6000 years old, that’s their business, but forcing that belief on a small child without giving them an alternative is bullshit. To borrow a favorite creationist line: Teach the controversy

Currently listening to: “Silja Line” by The Rosebuds

At Least I’ve Never Done That

This is one of the few times that I can see myself completely devoting a post to a single episode of a tv show but tonight South Park deserves it. It was probably the funniest episode I had seen in a good, long time. The boys discovered that you could get high by sniffing concentraited cat piss (called “cheesing”). Kenny did it and goes into this long, Heavy Metal inspired trip focusing on a woman with tits the size of watermelons. Cat are banned by the town which leads to Cartman taking in neighborhood strays in a riff on Anne Frank. Kyle’s Father turns out to be a recovering cat piss addict and ends up sharing a trip with Kenny where they fight in a “boobtorium” with boob themed weapons. In reality they are wrestling half-naked in a local sandbox. The episode then ends with Kyle’s dad making a public apology a la Eliot Spitzer.

Normally, they give each episode one theme or item to rip on but tonights had it all. I laughed and once it was over I was left thankful that of all the drugs and intoxicants that have entered my body, none of them was cat piss. I wonder if it really works

Cautiously Optimistic

I think I’ve found myself an apartment. Last night I was looking through the listing on Craigslist and I found a place that’s a block from the center of downtown Main Street Blacksburg. It’s a three-story house that was converted into apartments and the place in question is the top floor. The ad said that I would be living with the current resident from May to July but that I could possibly sign a full year lease after that at which point the other person would move out. I know I probably explained that in as confusing a manner as possible but here’s how it breaks down

• Great location
• Rent is cheap
• Definite place to stay during my summer courses
• Possible permanent housing needing only a new roommate

I have an appointment for this Friday to talk to the girl who I would be staying with. Her name is Bethany Imbody but aside from that and that she’s a grad who will be leaving in July, I don’t really know anything about her. Depending on how she looks, I might be a little apprehesive about living with her. If she’s really hot, I would probably be really awkward and nervous around her and that might make me go creepy on her. But that pretty low down on the list of potential problems so I feel pretty good about this whole thing.

The rest of my day was pretty normal. I went and picked up my class ring this afternoon and I think they did a great job on it. It’s big and clunky like every other class ring ever made but it’s just one of those things.  Inside it’s engraved with my name, the words “We are Virginia Tech”, and the date “April 16th, 2007″. I had those inscribed there because no matter what else happens, that will always be how my class defines their time here at tech.

Currently listening to: “Sky Starts Falling” by Doves

Nothing to Report

I didn’t really do or experience anything worth writing about today. There was a problem with getting my food at work tonight and I still haven’t heard back about either of those two apartments but thats about it. Maybe I’ll have something to say tomorrow.

Currently listening to: “Happy Kid” by Nada Surf

Forgetful and Disappointed

I almost forgot to post tonight. There is really nothing to report about my day. Work was surprisingly busy. You would think that since it was slow for the holiday weekend, that the holiday itself would be even slower but that wasn’t the case.

On another note, I read an article today that really got me down on Northern Virginia and the surrounding area. In Bethesda, the county council once to take an abandoned home and use it to shelter a homeless family of 14. It’s the kind of nice, logical thing that you just don’t see any form of government doing anymore. Unfortunately, the locals are being asshats and trying to block it. I grew up listening to alot of the bullshit that comes out of the Capital Area but this is probably one of the most despicable things I can remember hearing. It reminds me of that South Park with the homeless where they were so worried about the homeless getting money that could be used to buy homes because then they wouldn’t know who was homeless and who wasn’t. That probably didn’t make much since but if you’ve seen the episode you should get it. Original Article

Currently listening to: “The Travel Song” by Pilate

Super-productivity Has A New Name

And it’s name is Jeff. I was super productive at work today. I had my station cleaned up and hour earlier then usual and then used the extra time to gather all the utensils and servers that we would need later, close down one salad station, get a mop bucket, and do a couple of other things. That was all before we closed. Anyone who reads this might not find that very impressive but thats only because you weren’t there. I was proud of myself.

I haven’t heard back from either of the 2 apartments I mentioned yesterday but I’m hoping that because it’s Easter weekend and everyone is out of town. I took the first steps toward packing up today by taking down my posters and tomorrow I’ll probably start packing up my trunk. I really don’t want to move but there’s nothing I can do about it.

Currently listening to: “The Great Salt Lake” by Band of Horses

Apartment Hunting

My goal today was to go apartment hunting. I had been thinking about it and I decided to give Tech Terrace a try. Tech Terrace is a small complex down the street from my apartment so I figured that if they had an opening it would be the best option. Unfortunately, They only have 4 bedroom apartments. I checked a couple of local housing websites and found 2 real promising option. One is a new, fully equipped house. The plus for that one is that it looks really nice but the downside is that it might be pretty far away from campus and the guy who I would be living with looks kinda like a douche. He could be very nice except his facebook shows him mugging for the camera with a proposterous number of friends and his favorites just make him seem like the classic “bro”.

The second apartment I saw was real close, only a block away. It’s actually closer to campus then my current place. The rent is really reasonable and the guy who is looking for a roommate seems really good. He is listed as a grad student who likes anime and alot of the same music and movies. I could see myself getting along with him very easily. I sent both emails asking some questions and letting them know I was interested and I hope to hear back soon.

On another note, I’ve been wearing my helmet around the apartment. I think it’s awesome. Here’s a picture.

Currently listening to “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)” by The Arcade Fire