So, my plan for next year was to live at EcoHouse in the spring and some dorm in the fall. I needed someone to switch out the room with - so that I'd be living in it in the fall and they'd be there in the spring. When I sent out an email to all the people going abroad in the fall, I got a letter back from the organizers of Food House, a project house like EcoHouse but devoted to food (cooking it, getting it locally, growing it) instead of ecology. They needed one extra person in the fall. So I agreed to that. However, the project houses hadn't presented their proposals to Housinge yet at this point. When Food House did that, they didn't get the 12-person house they wanted, but rather the 7-person house. I volunteered to be cut, because shortly before that, I had gotten an email from an EcoHouse person who had just gotten an internship that would extend from summer into the fall and leave a vacancy in EcoHouse in the fall. I offered to fill this vacancy. The interesting part is that that means I'm living with the person who would've been her roommate, Elissa.
-This is possible because this year Grinnell decided to make some areas of campus gender-neutral, and all the project houses are included because they only have one bathroom per floor. Gender-neutral means they don't ask the genders of the people applying to these rooms. It's meant to accommodate people who choose not to identify as either of the two widely accepted genders, but it also means that in project houses we're free to do pretty much whatever we please regarding rooommates. She and I are both cool with the whole thing. She sent me an email asking if I would have problems with various things, such as clothes strewn about, and I didn't, and she had no problems with any of the things I came up with that I might be liable to do, such as strew clothes about and have a pretty large snake cage. We've got a double with bunct beds and windows facing west and south for lots of sun. We both agree that it'll be fun and interesting.
-The snake cage is going to be one of my summer projects. It's already put together, but now I'm going to take it apart and put it together again with screws instead of nails, so I can take it apart and put it together quickly for ease of transportation. Tenzing's getting pretty big. When I got him he measured about 15 inches. Now he's about 29 inches. What I've heard about carpet pythons growing fast was true. Meanwhile, I think he's now longer than the longest dimension of his terrarium, so it's getting time for me to move him into the big cage. I think he'll enjoy it. Certainly there'll be more room for him to explore, and he'll have a better hiding place (the entire 6-inch-tall space beneath the bottom shelf).
-Another of my summer projects, I'm thinking, is going to be working at Manito-wish again. I definitely liked it. My only issue was with having to wear shoes all the time, but I think if I can find a comfortable pair of watershoes that are nicely vented and not too constrictive, I should be fine. I'm going to have to go to an outdoors store sometime before I go to Manito-wish, so I can get a nice lightweight sleeping bag and possibly some other implements. These would be handy not only for Manito-wish but also for a bit of wandering around the country that I might do sometime this summer. The part of camp that I'll be working ends on July 18th, but I've already been given the go-ahead to leave a few days early to go to Crowduck. All I have left to do is accept the job offer email that I've been sent. I think I'll do that tomorrow.
-Our books have been steadily getting done. We just sent the last one to the printer, so we should have proofs soon, and meanwhile the other two will be arriving within not too long. I'll bring copies of them all. We at Press certainly got our stuff together this semester and got the books put together much quicker, although it certainly helps that we're dealing with a competent company now.
-That's about all I've got, besides this:
-Mom, I really hope you start feeling better soon. It has to be the worst feeling ever to be held captive by your own brain's chemistry. It'll be better, soon or eventually. Take care of yourself. I wish I were there so I could help you through this. Just know that I'm doing fine, and I'll be around soon, and I'll be able to spend some of the summer at home.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Well,
Basically I've been working and reading a lot, except for some notable exceptions. The reading was for classes, and the working was mainly on the books we're making this semester. Book design is fun, but it can get tedious, and I don't think I can convey any of the sense of fun by writing about it. I'll just settle for this: We got to use so many fonts for the fantasy book! We've sent off two of our three books to the printers already, and the next one we're doing this week. These printers are far and away more competent than the company we worked with last semester. That company was, apparently, staffed by lobotomized dingos. The liaison who always got sent out to deal with us was really nice, but despite having been in the printing business for a claimed 29 years, he routinely gave us numbers that were completely wrong, lost things, couldn't understand for the life of him what exactly we wanted to print even after we made it repeatedly and abundantly clear, and once accidentally mailed something to himself that he was supposed to have at our meeting. Let that be my first lesson in dealing with incompetents, and let the present be my first lesson in dropping them like a bag of fish heads. As for how they stay in business, we think they probably hardly ever get contracted to make artsy stuff like ours, but rather for brochures like you'd get from a power tool company.
-This weekend I went on a camping trip. I biked with three friends, and five other friends drove, to Rock Creek State Park, seven miles away. Such a fun ride. When we got there we set up tents and then made a campfire. Someone had forgotten the marshmallows, so a few people went back in the car and got those and some beef and such. We made beans and hamburgers over the fire, but the grill was set too high off the pit, so it kinda took forever. As we grilled, we discussed who would be picked off first when the camping trip turned into a horror movie. The group decided it would be me, since I was competent - I would have figured it all out, but then I would be killed just as I tried to warn everyone else. (I was the competent one because I set up the campfire and fixed people's bikes on the way and had a multitool.) We sat around the fire and talked, until Max decided it was time to start the Festivities, with a capital P. (Yeah, it's college.) Only five people partook of these Festivities, and afterwards I'm quite sure that I had just as much fun as the people who had. Unfortunately, instead of playing some sort of game (I was hoping to play my first game of 1000 Blank White Cards - there was a guy who'd played it before, and somehow both of us had brought index cards, even though he wasn't planning on playing it), we all just went to bed in the big giant tent. But we all lay there for like an hour making each other laugh. Madeline and I had a long conversation in Spanish, although unfortunately we couldn't tell secrets in it or anything, because one person there was from a Hispanic family and another was in my Spanish class. Oh well. At one point I could have sworn I heard a cow mooing outside the tent, but we all remained safe.
-We woke up the next morning very cold. Tired, we had breakfast and packed up our stuff and tried to warm up without our fire. We bikers biked back, but it was nowhere near as fun as the trip to the park, because the wind that had been with us was now against us and probably twice as strong to boot. My lips are still very chapped. Even so, I would rate myself "Completely Satisfied" with regards to the camping trip in general.
-Now here's the part of the blog that's not so happy. The financial crisis has been hitting home harder and harder. When Teva bought Dad's company, they liquidated all his stocks, and that caused him to have to pay something ridiculous like half of them in taxes. So it looks like we're going to be poor for an extended period, and furthermore I'm going to have to take out bigger student loans.
-What do I think of it? Honestly, I'm resolving to take it in stride. I already knew I was going to have student loans, and have to work for a good while to pay them off. I asked my roommate how long it takes the average person to pay off student loans, because he knows this sort of thing. He said it usually takes ten years, because you're not paying off very much of them with each payment. I plan to pay off as much as I can with each payment. You may not see it now, because all my expenses are being paid for me (by my parents and by my future self), but I'm a very frugal person. I spend as little money as I possibly can, and I plan to keep going like that until, for one reason or another, I no longer have to worry much about money.
-I don't economize because I hate to do it but I know I have to; I economize because I like to live simply and make stuff myself and take care of my own needs as efficiently as I can. I think one thing that led me to act like this is that I started thinking of purchases in terms of how many hours of work it takes me to pay for an item. For example, to have lunch at Subway, I work a little over an hour in Bob's ($7.25/hr). To buy a textbook, I may have to work upwards of ten hours - and since I work eight hours a week, that's over a week of work. When I find a job that pays better (I was going to say "When and if", but $7.25 is pretty close to minimum wage, so I shouldn't have much trouble beating it), small purchases will take fewer hours, but I'll still be leery of big ones. On a related note, I think being a hobo could be a pretty fun way to spend some time. I'm not being driven to desperate measures with all this frugality that I talk about. I would have done this stuff anyhow - it's just that now it seems more appropriate, and it'll put me ahead of the credit-card-maxing, Aéropostale-wearing pack.
-So Mom, don't cry over my economic situation. I'll make everything work, and once I'm out of college I plan to start giving rectangular Christmas gifts commensurate to how much you and Dad have helped me in life. I appreciate the fact that you're giving away so many of the dollars that you've earned to put me through college. Don't worry about me, because I'll be fine as soon as possible after college. If you can, keep your teacher retirement fund - even if it is small - and use it to help you retire, because that's why it is where it is.
-Meanwhile, because it's good and also because you're getting to the point where you don't have much choice, I'm encouraging you to be frugal. Think of stuff in terms of how long it takes to earn it, versus how long it might take to earn a cheaper similar thing, or even to repair an old one. Look around for stuff you can start selling. I'm thinking of selling off my coin collection, but I also note that precious metal prices are going up, and I want to take advantage of that as much as I can. I have some gold that I bought when it was something under $400 an ounce (¼ ounce for I think $97) back when I was so into coins. Gold is now somewhere near $900 an ounce, and it's been over $1000 in the last year. What kind of stuff do you have lying around? Dad, don't feel obligated to keep the Kawasaki around on my account, if that's got any bearing on why you want to keep it. You've already given me a car. Everyone, start cooking dinners more and eating out less. I guarantee you'll feel more like a family, and you'll save money, and you'll be healthier. And Mom, learning how to cook well will give you something to do with all that time you don't know how to fill. Websites are websites. Cooking connects you with the family and the real world. I think I'm going to stop now, because I'm starting to feel like I'm lecturing on how to be money-responsible, even though I don't have what you might call experience on that front. But, don't worry about me. I'm resourceful.
-This weekend I went on a camping trip. I biked with three friends, and five other friends drove, to Rock Creek State Park, seven miles away. Such a fun ride. When we got there we set up tents and then made a campfire. Someone had forgotten the marshmallows, so a few people went back in the car and got those and some beef and such. We made beans and hamburgers over the fire, but the grill was set too high off the pit, so it kinda took forever. As we grilled, we discussed who would be picked off first when the camping trip turned into a horror movie. The group decided it would be me, since I was competent - I would have figured it all out, but then I would be killed just as I tried to warn everyone else. (I was the competent one because I set up the campfire and fixed people's bikes on the way and had a multitool.) We sat around the fire and talked, until Max decided it was time to start the Festivities, with a capital P. (Yeah, it's college.) Only five people partook of these Festivities, and afterwards I'm quite sure that I had just as much fun as the people who had. Unfortunately, instead of playing some sort of game (I was hoping to play my first game of 1000 Blank White Cards - there was a guy who'd played it before, and somehow both of us had brought index cards, even though he wasn't planning on playing it), we all just went to bed in the big giant tent. But we all lay there for like an hour making each other laugh. Madeline and I had a long conversation in Spanish, although unfortunately we couldn't tell secrets in it or anything, because one person there was from a Hispanic family and another was in my Spanish class. Oh well. At one point I could have sworn I heard a cow mooing outside the tent, but we all remained safe.
-We woke up the next morning very cold. Tired, we had breakfast and packed up our stuff and tried to warm up without our fire. We bikers biked back, but it was nowhere near as fun as the trip to the park, because the wind that had been with us was now against us and probably twice as strong to boot. My lips are still very chapped. Even so, I would rate myself "Completely Satisfied" with regards to the camping trip in general.
-Now here's the part of the blog that's not so happy. The financial crisis has been hitting home harder and harder. When Teva bought Dad's company, they liquidated all his stocks, and that caused him to have to pay something ridiculous like half of them in taxes. So it looks like we're going to be poor for an extended period, and furthermore I'm going to have to take out bigger student loans.
-What do I think of it? Honestly, I'm resolving to take it in stride. I already knew I was going to have student loans, and have to work for a good while to pay them off. I asked my roommate how long it takes the average person to pay off student loans, because he knows this sort of thing. He said it usually takes ten years, because you're not paying off very much of them with each payment. I plan to pay off as much as I can with each payment. You may not see it now, because all my expenses are being paid for me (by my parents and by my future self), but I'm a very frugal person. I spend as little money as I possibly can, and I plan to keep going like that until, for one reason or another, I no longer have to worry much about money.
-I don't economize because I hate to do it but I know I have to; I economize because I like to live simply and make stuff myself and take care of my own needs as efficiently as I can. I think one thing that led me to act like this is that I started thinking of purchases in terms of how many hours of work it takes me to pay for an item. For example, to have lunch at Subway, I work a little over an hour in Bob's ($7.25/hr). To buy a textbook, I may have to work upwards of ten hours - and since I work eight hours a week, that's over a week of work. When I find a job that pays better (I was going to say "When and if", but $7.25 is pretty close to minimum wage, so I shouldn't have much trouble beating it), small purchases will take fewer hours, but I'll still be leery of big ones. On a related note, I think being a hobo could be a pretty fun way to spend some time. I'm not being driven to desperate measures with all this frugality that I talk about. I would have done this stuff anyhow - it's just that now it seems more appropriate, and it'll put me ahead of the credit-card-maxing, Aéropostale-wearing pack.
-So Mom, don't cry over my economic situation. I'll make everything work, and once I'm out of college I plan to start giving rectangular Christmas gifts commensurate to how much you and Dad have helped me in life. I appreciate the fact that you're giving away so many of the dollars that you've earned to put me through college. Don't worry about me, because I'll be fine as soon as possible after college. If you can, keep your teacher retirement fund - even if it is small - and use it to help you retire, because that's why it is where it is.
-Meanwhile, because it's good and also because you're getting to the point where you don't have much choice, I'm encouraging you to be frugal. Think of stuff in terms of how long it takes to earn it, versus how long it might take to earn a cheaper similar thing, or even to repair an old one. Look around for stuff you can start selling. I'm thinking of selling off my coin collection, but I also note that precious metal prices are going up, and I want to take advantage of that as much as I can. I have some gold that I bought when it was something under $400 an ounce (¼ ounce for I think $97) back when I was so into coins. Gold is now somewhere near $900 an ounce, and it's been over $1000 in the last year. What kind of stuff do you have lying around? Dad, don't feel obligated to keep the Kawasaki around on my account, if that's got any bearing on why you want to keep it. You've already given me a car. Everyone, start cooking dinners more and eating out less. I guarantee you'll feel more like a family, and you'll save money, and you'll be healthier. And Mom, learning how to cook well will give you something to do with all that time you don't know how to fill. Websites are websites. Cooking connects you with the family and the real world. I think I'm going to stop now, because I'm starting to feel like I'm lecturing on how to be money-responsible, even though I don't have what you might call experience on that front. But, don't worry about me. I'm resourceful.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Busy Week / Musical Note
It just seemed so wrong to work on schoolwork over spring break. So I didn't, much. I did write five pages for a 7-page paper that I've sinced finished and turned in. And I read a little. So when I got back, I had to do work more or less continuously until now. What did I do? You're about to find out.
-I decided that after all I'm not going to go to Granada. I guess there are two main things that made me decide it. One is that I really like Grinnell, and I wanted to take all the courses I could here. The other is that I feel like if I'm going to see a country, I'll get a more thorough experience if I'm not trying to take college courses and experience the country at the same time. Hopefully I'll go see another country someday. Such as Spain. Or perhaps I could go see Lake Baikal in Russia, or the Amazon - those would be cool too.
-I finally ran out of time to vacillate, and had to declare my major. So I declared anthropology. I should note that I'm also majoring in indecision, so it's quite possible that I'll change it sometime before I graduate. I am decided on the fact that I'm going to declare a linguistics concentration soon, and stick with that. I'm looking forward to some anthro courses, especially the Archaeology of North America course that I'm taking next semester. And the anthropology-linguistics course, which I think is next spring or so. Some of these are ones that I might not have had time to take if I had gone to Spain. I do know that I would've missed out on the Archaeology of North America course. I'm okay with my decision.
-I started laying out the fantasy book. We have a title now: it's called The Captives' Quest. Layout work is nice and relaxing, because you don't have to think a bunch when you do it.
-I didn't sleep much.
I wrote something on Facebook, and I thought I'd put it here too.
I'm going to collect here the bits of music that always give me an involuntary spasm of being amazed. There aren't many so far, but I'll add to this with comments whenever I find another. [The comments thing is for Facebook. Here I'll just put them in my next entry.]
1. Gustav Holst, The Planets, Mars. The moment is about 6½ minutes in, depending on the performance. All the chaos, built up the whole time by the 5/4, yields into a long, warlike chord held by what sounds like the entire orchestra in fff, and then—here's the part—the strings come in with a low note, and bend it up to their own long chord. That bend does it every time for me. Sadly, few orchestras play it that way—most play it as two separate notes, which just has no magic at all. I don't know what the name of the orchestra is that plays the version I have. I wish I could help you with that.
This uncredited performance has it.
2. Flobots, "Handlebars". The climactic verse where the song's protagonist, who has been becoming steadily more corrupt and perverse for the entire song, shouts out,
The music video enhances it even more.
3. Jean Sibelius, 2nd Symphony, Movement 2: Andante ma rubato. This entire movement comes close to that breaking point, but the spot is right at the end. The movement leaves room for you to breathe, or hold your breath, while you listen, and is painted with minimalist strokes of bright color. At the end, the orchestra has been getting quieter for a few minutes, and is winding down for the next movement. After a silence, the basses crescendo from nothing. The trumpets join them, and together they slowly go to two or three f's. Then they stop in mid-air, they wait silently for you to move to the edge of your seat, and the trumpets blast their final three notes, falling away to nothing to let the srings quietly end the movement.
The movement is 15 minutes long, so it's in three parts here. You really ought to listen to the whole thing. The conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, is feeling the music too. At one point he has tears on his face.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
-I decided that after all I'm not going to go to Granada. I guess there are two main things that made me decide it. One is that I really like Grinnell, and I wanted to take all the courses I could here. The other is that I feel like if I'm going to see a country, I'll get a more thorough experience if I'm not trying to take college courses and experience the country at the same time. Hopefully I'll go see another country someday. Such as Spain. Or perhaps I could go see Lake Baikal in Russia, or the Amazon - those would be cool too.
-I finally ran out of time to vacillate, and had to declare my major. So I declared anthropology. I should note that I'm also majoring in indecision, so it's quite possible that I'll change it sometime before I graduate. I am decided on the fact that I'm going to declare a linguistics concentration soon, and stick with that. I'm looking forward to some anthro courses, especially the Archaeology of North America course that I'm taking next semester. And the anthropology-linguistics course, which I think is next spring or so. Some of these are ones that I might not have had time to take if I had gone to Spain. I do know that I would've missed out on the Archaeology of North America course. I'm okay with my decision.
-I started laying out the fantasy book. We have a title now: it's called The Captives' Quest. Layout work is nice and relaxing, because you don't have to think a bunch when you do it.
-I didn't sleep much.
I wrote something on Facebook, and I thought I'd put it here too.
I'm going to collect here the bits of music that always give me an involuntary spasm of being amazed. There aren't many so far, but I'll add to this with comments whenever I find another. [The comments thing is for Facebook. Here I'll just put them in my next entry.]
1. Gustav Holst, The Planets, Mars. The moment is about 6½ minutes in, depending on the performance. All the chaos, built up the whole time by the 5/4, yields into a long, warlike chord held by what sounds like the entire orchestra in fff, and then—here's the part—the strings come in with a low note, and bend it up to their own long chord. That bend does it every time for me. Sadly, few orchestras play it that way—most play it as two separate notes, which just has no magic at all. I don't know what the name of the orchestra is that plays the version I have. I wish I could help you with that.
This uncredited performance has it.
2. Flobots, "Handlebars". The climactic verse where the song's protagonist, who has been becoming steadily more corrupt and perverse for the entire song, shouts out,
And I can end the planet in a holocaustAnd an entire crowd screams in unison behind him. And suddenly we flash back to when he could just ride his bike with no handlebars, and that's the end.
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaaaaaaaaaaaust!
The music video enhances it even more.
3. Jean Sibelius, 2nd Symphony, Movement 2: Andante ma rubato. This entire movement comes close to that breaking point, but the spot is right at the end. The movement leaves room for you to breathe, or hold your breath, while you listen, and is painted with minimalist strokes of bright color. At the end, the orchestra has been getting quieter for a few minutes, and is winding down for the next movement. After a silence, the basses crescendo from nothing. The trumpets join them, and together they slowly go to two or three f's. Then they stop in mid-air, they wait silently for you to move to the edge of your seat, and the trumpets blast their final three notes, falling away to nothing to let the srings quietly end the movement.
The movement is 15 minutes long, so it's in three parts here. You really ought to listen to the whole thing. The conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, is feeling the music too. At one point he has tears on his face.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
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