Quickie

     Well, we did get a place and at that exact moment it was a freaking Rube Goldberg project getting everything together.  We had to run all over town after getting money orders since we couldn't cash them.  It has been hassle after hassle.  Tad had to head into DC last weekend for class again and I had to move.  But, I had work in the evening so I was moving and cleaning up at 3AM.  I got to the new place with the final load of stuff and into bed at 4:28AM.  Waah, made me want to cry.  I was completely sleep deprived for the last two days.  I've had more caffeine than I usually do in a week I think.

     We're right on the beginning of the Chinese area here in Dyker Heights (I don't know if that's where we are but sure, it's pretty close).  Across the street is a Great Wall supermarket that has a hundred and ten different types of veggies and even a traditional Chinese medicine counter.  Down at the corner is a tiny Chinese bakery where tea with milk is 80 cents and so are most of the sweet buns.  I cannot resist.  So sweet and fluffy!

     I'll take some pics of the new place but right now I'm running around getting the extra things we need for this place.  A trashcan for sure.  Definitely need that.  Biggest problem is that we don't have internet access.  I'm across the street at the library (really, one of the things I do is look at my proximity to the local libraries) using the free wifi available.  I need to update my podcasts so badly.  What am I listening to?

     Well, I always get Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me the NPR news quiz.  I also get BBC 4's In Our Time which is an hour about a specific topic (last week was The Bhagavad Gita) with experts from Britain.  I stated recently listening to The Naked Scientist which talks about the latest journal articles and then random science topics from the ocean, to earthquakes to why teeth wiggle and don't fall out immediately.  I also listen to free buddhist audio which is lectures from retreats of some Buddhist center in England I think.  I also have the San Francisco Buddhist center podcast but I haven't yet listened to one.  I know there are more I should be hearing but I don't know what it would be.  If you have any suggestions of awesome podcasts (audio, no video ones) please leave a comment and I'll try them out.  Oh! I also listen to Warwick University has short lectures on different subjects, such as symmetry in modern science or medieval Islamic medicine.  Just fun little things.

     I will try and update with everything that's happened last week, and man has it been fun! But I have to go get my laundry and then off to work again.  I hope everyone is having a good day and I'm thinking constantly about everyone I left behind in Orlando.  Don't forget me!!!

Paper faces on parade: Masquerade

     Haha.  It is still 85 degrees in the day here in sunny Orlando.  Sucks to be cold!

     BBC has caught me up again.  I finished listening to And Another Thing... as read by BBC 4 and stumbled around their site to listen to a very nice half hour show called The Grand Masquerade about the puzzle-book Masquerade written in 1979.  It created a whole craze about it since it was an actual treasure hunt.  There are some in America but most of them are about and in Britain.  The prize is usually worth every frustrated second of painful mind-bending and illogical puzzle solving.  If I had time and effort I'd definitely join this idea.  I used to do easy-peasy versions of this as a kid... although I did suck at those.  Maybe my mind is a little sharper now.  Although reading the answers to them are more convoluted than a well-fleshed conspiracy theory.

     So I don't want to brag but one of the roomies was editing a fellow's fiction paper.  I lent a hand since she was pretty flustered and all but this thing reads like an ideal version of the cult fiction I read about.  There was an idealized character who said everyone was blind except him.  He was isolated because he was so "smart" even though it wasn't anything great.  He had a philosophy that had to be understood without explanation and the whole thing reeked of Ayn Rand.  I commented that and in fact I was spot on.  Her writings were a cornerstone in the ideas for the story.  I called it straight out.  Although he didn't have black emo-hair.  Still, I got the big one.

     On the book front I have finished another two books: The Messiah of Stockholm and Animal Farm.  Neither were the book I had thought to grab at the library last post but oh well.  Messiah is an amazing book about  man discovering himself as a definition of who he is and not what he might be.  It's about losing innocence long after you should have lost it and how ideals can kill you as easily as save you.  Definitely worth at least a single read-though.  Animal Farm was just about what I expected although I kept applying it to Chinese Maoism as well as to USSR early history.  The pictures turned it into a gruesome storybook and made it a bit more horrifying to read.  Still working through some of the non-fiction on the 501 books but no luck getting through them yet.  They just drag on for so long!

501 Books current count: 35 read and 3 in the works

Visiting parents

     Time for car registration renewal and since it still comes to my parents I headed over there for a good 24 hrs or so of their love and care.  I actually used my laptop to listen to BBC's In Our Time for three separate episodes.  I think that catches me up although I am slowly wading my way through a few new podcasts.  Was able to actually do my partial differentials HW today, despite my total belief that I wouldn't understand anything going on in the chapter.  Now all I have due is three HW for my electronics lab and even more joy!! I have to finish a take-home test as well.  Then I have two tests on Thursday one of which is relativity.  Blerg.  Without a doubt that will be the worst test I take.

     In other news I started advertising the blog out to others.  I posted it on my facepage ((haha, thanks for that Meeples)) and gave it to a few friends.  I haven't decided my policy on using real names yet although I think I'd better soon.  Some people don't like to be mentioned on the internet and others completely take it in stride.  Hmm...  Will consult others and get a general consensus of all those whose name would likely appear in it at some point or another.  I should start worrying about pictures as well.

Oh well, not tonight.  Right now the lack of sleep has caught up with me.  Time for the sandman and his A Capella group to come.