conquering the world one oxymoron at a time
Archive for February, 2005
February 27, 2005 at 4:16 am · Filed under the internet
In typical procrastinating fashion, while “working on my problem set,” I installed the newest version of AIM on Ryan’s newly purchased/reformatted harddrive. I knew, going into this, that it had been some time since I last heeded the “Upgrade to AIM version 1043.3781″ message that does, or does not, sometimes still pop up when logging into AIM. Given such, I was expecting a newer version, some changes, some new improvements, and I was perhaps even a bit excited to see what the good folks over at AOL had been doing. However, I did not realize that one year of not upgrading AIM in my time frame meant 500 light years in AOL’s software development time frame.
This newest version of AIM is too much. I felt lost, confused, intimidated even. The buddylist window is much too big, too cluttered, too busy, too complicated and hard to understand. My brain just can’t process that much information anymore, nor can it learn all the functions of the much too fancy buddylist window version 5.98918203857. I felt like an old, outdated grandma trying to learn to use the radio, and failing miserably.
This was all rather very depressing. Holding on to IM for dear life this past semester was maybe a subconscious way I was trying to hold on to that feeling of “I’m still just another college kid.” Unfortunately for me, pretending to be a college kid doesn’t even get me in the door anymore with AIM marketing. They have long since moved on to reeling in the new, the fresh, and the able-brained teenyboppers-hooked-on-the-internet generation.
February 24, 2005 at 2:42 am · Filed under the internet
I read other people’s blogs, and they just seem more … attractive … than mine. I get the feeling that I ought to start writing substantive things in here instead of “i went to the zoo today” kind of entries. But then again, my blog is my place to relax and say whatever I want. If I have to think about things in order to write about them, then I am no longer relaxing, whatever that means.
So the current topic of discussion will be snobbishness. No joke, in all seriousness. I will sleep on the topic and write my discussion at a later time.
February 21, 2005 at 11:50 pm · Filed under random, pictures
A fellow UVA wahoo is in the top 24 of American Idol!!! You can check out his Idol profile, and you can watch Monday nights 8-9pm on Fox and vote for him :) He didn’t sing that well tonight, but I voted for him anyways. And FYI: I haven’t missed a single American Idol episode yet this season. I’m such a sucker for TV.
This past weekend was a bit crazy: lots of work, but lots of fun. Ryan and I went skiing at Mt. Sunapee with the S&P sponsored trip, came back Saturday night and immediately got ready for the Law Prom, the law school’s annual semiformal.
I think I sprained my neck skiing.
Because I have so much work, I procrastinate more than ever.
The fruit of my procrastination, using Law Prom pictures
The view from the peak of Mt. Sunapee
February 16, 2005 at 11:43 pm · Filed under grad life/MIT, daily grind
Here is the dilemma: my one and only class for tomorrow just got cancelled. Do I keep doing work? Or do I just call it quits for the night? Do I go to work tomorrow? Or do I just stay home and watch daytime television? They are all very appealing (okay, the work not so much appealing, more like necessary).
On another front, I signed up for a subscription of W magazine. As the “W” might suggest, it’s a women’s magazine, on fashion mainly (or at least I hope it is fashion since that was the reason I subscribed). I get a cute black tote bag for free with the subscription, another incentive. I figure that a medium sized tote bag is a good introduction to the toting world. I used to be against tote bags (along with several-months-expired ski lift tickets still attached to jackets–you know what I’m talking about?), but these days, I feel like I’m trying to edge closer to the sorority girl lifestyle.
So why the sorority girl image all of a sudden? I’m not sure. I just feel like I underwent this attitude change the past 2-3 years: from I wear baggy jeans and I carry a calculator to I’m going to try high heels and skirts everyday. Okay, I’m not quite at the daily heels and skirts stage (nor do I think I would ever want to be), but I’ve got to admit that my entire wardrobe has turned over to become more “girly”. Maybe I want to stand out in my own way at a place like MIT where girls are more like boys, and boys are just … well boys. Maybe it’s my own insecurity in the image I think I am presenting to others.
A true feminist would say “why should you have to be girly?” or perhaps “only airheads shave their legs” or something else equally feminine-tastic. I guess I have just really grown out of my feminist past.
February 16, 2005 at 11:15 pm · Filed under the internet
Okay, are you all familiar with Golden Palace Casino? Your computer may be, and you may not even know it. I know that I for one at one point or another, inadvertently got downloaded the stupid spyware from Golden Palace Casino when I was surfing the web (no, I was not looking up porn, and yes Golden Palace Casino is a legit company).
So, tonight, I decide to go to the Fleet center website to check the public ice skating schedule, now that the NHL season has been officially cancelled … and what do I find? Golden Palace Casino won an eBay auction to name the Fleet Center the GoldenPalace.comCenter for one day–today, February 16, 2005. No joke. Check out the article on the Fleet Center page.
February 13, 2005 at 10:55 pm · Filed under going out
This weekend, Ryan got an invite to a “dress to impress” party, which further cemented my interests in such parties. Maybe they are a new thing, or maybe I’m only just now becoming old enough (or more probable, “cool enough”) to know about their existence. What exactly is a dress to impress party? If I want to impress the nerds, do I dress up as a calculator?
But somehow, I think that’s not exactly the point of dressing to impress. Ryan was lost when he read “dress to impress” and said something along the lines of “what exactly is THAT supposed to mean?” I, on the other hand, immediately got very excited as I saw yet another opportunity to get dolled up and go out. Maybe it’s a girl thing, maybe it’s because my friend Gretchen introduced me to it on her blog (forget the exact entry), maybe I just have spider-senses for dolling-up parties, but I knew what “dress to impress” meant as soon as I read the invite.
Anyway, so it’s cool that Ryan got an invite to dress to impress, but not cool because he can’t go (which means I can’t go) because we have to get up early the next morning to go hit up some slopes. So much for all the excitement.
February 11, 2005 at 11:55 am · Filed under the internet, grad life/MIT
The people at large extended the deadline for GRT applications until the end of this month. Despite all my indecision I decided to go and apply for a GRT, but then they go and extend the deadline, saying that the deadline extension will get more applications, thereby lowering my chances of getting the position. grrrrrr. Also, interviews with various dorms were supposed to be this month, but seeing as how they extended the application deadline to the end of this month, interviews will probably not be this month. Such a mess … why does everybody have to go and change up plans on me all the time?
On a separate note, everyone should join thefacebook. Does anyone else get random emails every once in a while asking you to “explore friendster, by request”? I feel like friendster’s on some kind of email ad campaign to regain momentum after thefacebook left it in the dust. thefacebook does have its limitations … one thing that consistently frustrates me is the face that I can’t view somebody’s profile unless they’re from my school and/or they are friends with me. This is very frustrating because there are some people I stumbled upon whom I knew in middle school, but I can’t see their profiles. I’m not about to add them as friends since I haven’t even heard their names since 6th grade, but I’d still like to see what they’re about nowadays. Such is the stalker in me.
Or for instance, I’m technically no longer at UVA now, but in order to list MIT on my facebook account, I have to start a completely new account. How stupid is that? I should be able to just add another school to my existing account.
February 2, 2005 at 6:40 pm · Filed under friends, tv/movies
A couple of college friends flew up this past weekend to go skiing with us at Killington. It was a lot of fun, but I don’t feel like I improved much from my last skiing adventure about a year ago. If anything, I think I got worse. The slopes seemed scarier, steeper, and all in all I just didn’t have it in me. Next time I go anywhere near a mountain of snow, I’m going to take some lessons.
On another note, Gary, one of the friends who came up to Boston this weekend, mentioned that he recently signed up for Blockbuster Online with his roommate. I’ve heard people using Netflix, etc., but it always struck me as being super expensive. But I realized talking to Gary that it really isn’t a lot of money … for $15 a month (the price of 3 in-store rentals), you get unlimited to-your-mailbox DVD borrowing AND 2 free in-store rentals a month. So, I’d break even if I just get 1 DVD mailed to me a month. Sweet deal, eh? So Ryan and I signed up for Blockbuster Online on Monday ($3 cheaper than Netflix and you get 2 in-store rentals per month), requested three movies. Yesterday, all three were shipped out with estimated arrival date of 2/3/05. Well, today’s Wednesday the 2nd (groundhog’s day!), and we’ve already received 2 of the three movies. REALLY sweet if you ask me.
Anyway … a couple of pictures from the ski trip:
Group shot at Killington Peak. Left to right: Jake, Ryan, me, Gary
Ryan looking spiffy on his snowboard, while I’m trying very hard to snow plow down a bunny slope.
