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December 2000 to Now
Friday, November 30, 2001
9:28 PMThe suprise party for Giulio went off without a hitch. Going back to it now.
3:21 PM
Some more small changes, added a Friends section, but most of my friends don't have websites. Oh well.
Dinner tonight at Pho, then.....
3:08 AM
Late Night
Schedule fucked. Its 3 AM.
Some updates to the site, minor, just wanted to make sure all links worked. Still have to post the Content and Me sections. I did them awhile ago but never posted them. Gonna work on that and 53 this weekend,
Thursday, November 29, 2001
7:19 PM
Which Evil Criminal are You?
3:36 PM
Boston University Report : "Poor Men better at Picking up the Chicks" in The Onion (thanks to Rob Guazzo)
11:56 AM
All your Tourist are Belong to Us
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
6:15 PM
I'm HOME, but the front door was open and no one was here. Ooops. Doug or Hidaei screwed up. No one else is in Boston, G is in NYC and Chris went home to Bermuda. Luckily Kona was guarding the house.
Off to darts.
Tuesday, November 20, 2001
12:08 AM
little.drug.seller
"Being the good host, asking Evan if he wanted to buy any E from my friends. Realizing moments later, in horror, that I just asked the Nebraska-born CEO of Blogger.com if he wanted to buy drugs. Suddenly feeling like the bad guy from an ABC Afterschool Special." from little.yellow.different
Monday, November 19, 2001
11:08 PM
100 things to do: 21-25
21) Take a ride on the Orient Express.
22) Navigate by the Stars.
23) Brew my own beer.
24) Visit the South Pole.
25) Enter Outer Space.
1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20
4:17 PM
Your Career is somewhere
Well I found out today that I am still in the running for that job at Ametek. Of course it wasn't like I just called up the company and said "hey what's up". No, I did that and never got a reply.
You know if you have an interview on a Monday and the company HR rep says email us on Thursday if you don't here from us and we'll give you an update on your status. Then you email them and never get a response. Then the next week you call and get no response. You might, just might get the feeling that they don't want to hire you. Especially when they say that they need to fill the position as soon as possible. You might get the feeling, especially if your friends keep telling you that you should have heard by now, its been almost 2 weeks, that they aren't going to hire you.
You start to feel as if something has gone dreadfully wrong. Like maybe the fact that one of your references no longer works in the store that you gave the phone number of, that he has moved to another store within the company. That no one who works in the main office knows who you are because they are all new. The fact that the HR office at the store couldn't find your file when you went in to work for them in a temp position in August and September. So maybe instead of talking to your reference the Ametek HR rep talks to the new Barnes&Noble HR rep and she says that "Michael only worked for us in August and September" Even though you quit the job in March.
So as you think by now that everything is so screwed up, you go to the career center and get them to call. They find out that you are still in the running for the job.
Now you feel like a fool. But it was ok to feel that way because the only reason that you really panicked is because........YOU ARE REALLY, REALLY LOW ON MONEY.
Sunday, November 18, 2001
6:10 AM
Leo's
So I went to a party at my friend Rich's house last night. I knew while I was at the party that I wanted to watch the Leonids, but was wondering if I should go to sleep before I went. Well I stayed at the party til 3 am then left. I got lost, and so got home around 4.
If I had this to do all over again I would have gone North or West of where I live. Instead I went to the Charles River. Too much Light Pollution in and around Boston so the light show wasn't as good as it could have been but there were still some damn cool trails.
One thing that would have made it a whole lot better was if there was someone who could have gone with me. Time was so much slower in the cold with no one to whisper, "there's one" to. Well at least there were people near by, and I was looking at the same meteor shower as friends were all over the world (at least from the east coast to asia's east coast).
Must sleep. Cold. Tired.
Friday, November 16, 2001
6:32 PM
Well I know what I will be doing from 4 to 6 am on Sunday.
I also wonder if that falling star I saw on Wednesday morning was a pre-Leonid.
3:47 PM
Oh just too funny. Christian messes with Witchcraft, Loses House to fire.
Yes laundry, must do laundry. But maybe if I do this spell all my clothes will be clean. Laundry.
Wednesday, November 14, 2001
5:14 PM
The shut in will be leaving the house shortly to go to a lecture on "Why the V-22 Osprey Keeps Crashing" at the photonics center tonight at 6:30 pm. Talk to be given by Dr. Eugene Covert, Professor Emeritus, MIT.
3:17 AM
Happy Birthday Monet. MFA trip
fave pictures at MFA Boston.
Claude Monet, French, November 14, 1840 to 1926
"Boulevard St.-Denis Argenteuil, in Winter" (1875)
"Valley of the Petite Creuse" (1889)
"Ships in a Harbor" (circa 1873)
"Rue de la Bavolle, Honfleur" (circa 1864)
More Monets at MFA
3:04 AM
Went for a walk. Just got back. I used to love, and in fact, still love to go for walks late at night. It is always so quiet and peaceful. I walk down deserted streets, and look at the houses. I try to walk in a neighborhood with a history. Houses with an architectural appeal. When I was in school and living in a dorm (1053 Beacon Street) I loved walking in the Cottage Farm district. There are some beautiful houses there. Especially the Amos Lawrence house (built in 1851 info from AIA Guide to Boston) at 135 Ivy Street.
The house is now owned by BU and President Westling lives there, but back then it was up for sale. I dreamed of being able to buy it. My friend Jake showed it to me one night on a walk and I was attracted to it from then on. I especially love it in winter when the surrounding property is covered in fresh snow fall. On some nights when I was up late from studying I would leave my dorm and wander the city.
So I did that again tonight. I needed out of the house. I went for a walk, and thought the houses aren't as grande, there are some interesting turn of the century buildings in the area. (One of these nights I must walk around Harvard Square and the surrounding areas.) But most of all I just like the peace. Sometimes I get to see something that makes it all worth it, light coming through a stained glass window, or a statue or garden in an unlikely place.
Tonight I saw a falling star. It burst in the sky and was unlike any other that I have ever seen. It fell apart, the fire spread out as it broke up in the sky. It was brighter and wider then any other I have ever seen. It was over all too quickly but lasted longer then I thought.
It made the walk worth it.
Tuesday, November 13, 2001
5:28 PM
Persian Canal in ancient Greece. (need nytimes free account) Amazing what the ancients could do with enough manpower. I also thought the fact that it was only built for invasion of Greece and never for long term use was a statement on how militant that age was too. It was also odd in the fact that the canal did not save that much sailing time but was made just to miss a spot where the last invasion fleet sank. Map..
Other articles:
Pictures
Herodotus, The Histories 7.22-24, 7.117 an account of how and why the canal was dug.
3:18 PM
Of course it might not be a cold but delayed symtoms. Psy Spy (from Syntheticzero)
Good thing I am not paranoid. (Yep not paranoid, nope not at all, not me) Even though the game was exactly 2 months after 9/11. (Nope not paranoid at all) But if any of you wouldn't mind buying me some Cipro. (Not paranoid now. Perfectly calm)
3:10 PM
I'm sick. I have a cold and I am pretty sure that I caught it at the Patriots game. I took some Nyquil (Cherry) last night, and it zonked me out for 12 hours. I woke at 2 pm.
I don't think I will be going out tonight.
AND STILL NO WORD FROM AMETEK. I figure by now that I don't have the job. I'll email them again this thursday, which will be a week after the last email.
Sunday, November 11, 2001
1:15 AM
Eating dinner at midnight. I have to reschedule my life.
Goint to the Patriots game tomorrow. Oops, make that today and in less then 12 hours.
Saturday, November 10, 2001
9:22 PM
Movies I want to see soon:
Waking Life
The Man Who Wasn't There
Amelie
and maybe
Mulholland Drive
Friday, November 09, 2001
3:05 PM
100 things to do: 16-20
16) Be prepared to save a life, CPR.
17) How to set a broken bone.
18) Enter the Amazon.
19) Go to Giza, enter a pyramid, touch the sphinx.
20) Sleep in an english castle.
1-5 6-10 11-15
4:17 AM
Just finished the new look for the Scourge website. I gotta sleep now.
Thursday, November 08, 2001
6:09 PM
I was getting depressed recently, it seems that I have become addicted to NextDraft. No updates in the past few days, but I just got a new dose in my mailbox.
Still no contact with Ametek. Sent the email, no response, and the HR contact I have only works Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
3:58 PM
So I woke up real late, 3 hours ago. I didn't want to pick up the phone. If I pick up the phone there might be a voice mail message. That message will tell me if I do or do not have a job with Ametek. What would be even worse is if there were no messages. So I didn't wake up. I stayed in bed.
Around 2:30 I pick up the phone, I had been watching TV for the last hour and a half, there were no messages.
None.
So I log on to the net to see if there are any email messages from the company.
Nope. Now this means I have to send an email message to the HR rep and see what is up, this is what they said I should do if I hadn't heard by now. But I log off first to see if they had called while I was watching "laid off". (by way of urbanforest)
Nope, no messages. So I took a shower. Now I write this entry, next I email.
2:45 AM
Writing
It's around this time in the night that I used to write.
If I couldn't go to sleep and there was nothing on TV (which was all the time as I didn't have cable) I would pull out the old Composition Book and start to write. In the beginning I would write very stupid and very bad poetry, and song lyrics, typical Later I would just write anything that popped in my head. Usually fiction. Short stories. Depressing letters that I would never send to my friends. Even later it sort of became a diary. Around this time I would start to write story ideas down. Story ideas instead of stories. I would jot these down while half asleep. The next morning I would look at it and think about it but never write anymore on that topic.
At this time I only had a dumb terminal, a Digital VT 240, for web access, attached to a 14.4 modem. Slow, amber, using lynx to travel the web. What fun that was.
Then I got cable. I had HBO. There was never a time when there wasn't at least 1 show that interested me. Then later on I got my laptop and it has been down hill since. I started a diary on the computer. I started visiting new sites left and right; I had colors and pictures now.
I wrote fewer stories and more ideas. Until I stopped writing the ideas. By then I was in school.
Now I am on the verge of knowing if I will be joining the industrial world. I can't decide if I really want to. It has been nice being broke. It has been nice not having a career, in some ways I wish that I don't get the job, then I can get another temp, sales or food job. I could pretend that I am still young.
I really don't know what I want to do for the rest of my life.
Wednesday, November 07, 2001
11:59 PM
100 things to do: 11 to 15
11) Learn at least 2 languages.
12) Build my own house.
13) Learn to fly.
14) Learn knots.
15) Learn to play piano.
1-5 6-10
1:56 PM
Okay this is a funny comic strip, Jeremy. by way of invisible broadcast system.
Monday, November 05, 2001
11:43 PM
I got a 56/100 on the "are you a blogaholic" quiz. Which as it said on the bottom, "You are a dedicated weblogger. You post frequently because you enjoy weblogging a lot, yet you still manage to have a social life. You're the best kind of weblogger. Way to go!" - yeah social life, right.
Wish it had a graphic.
10:51 PM
Security
You know what, I think that we should keep the current system in place but have federal supervision. Yeah, sounds like a good plan, why waste all that money training new and current bag checkers and then make them federal employees. Cause if we make them federal employees then all those small companies who can't currently protect our skies will be out of business. This way we keep them in business so that they can keep the same underpaid people but have federal scrutiny.
Federal Scrutiny, by whom? The FAA? Well they already do that, though not well. Hell how can you have an agency that is supposed to police but also promote flying? You can't. Someone else will have to do it.
Currently we have more stingent security guidelines. With more supervision. But people keep getting through. This has to stop. Damn the employers, because the only way that they can offer a higher wage is if the airports pay them more, so each airport will still have a different level of security, because smaller airports won't be able to afford it. If the federal govt. took over then each airport would be consistant. People say that if we have federal employees then they can't be fired if they screw up. So then if a private employee screws up and someone dies then everything will be a-ok because that employee will be fired.
Read:
CNN "House passes GOP-backed air security bill"
ABC "House: No Federal Bag Screeners"
USAToday "Federal airport security blocked"
12:21 AM
Next 5 in Things I want to do before I die:
100 things to do: 6 to 10
6) Bike across the USA. (Bicycle not motorcycle.)
7) Visit Africa
8) Tour Europe
9) Live in Ireland and Britain
10) Read as many books as I possibly can :)
1-5.
Sunday, November 04, 2001
2:47 AM
You know what really scares me? These articles about smallpox. NY Times. Washington Post. LA Times. USA Today. among others.
My question is, where did these articles come from. What was the trigger that started them. Was it a goverment source that stated that Smallpox might be a threat? Was it a scientist? Was it a speech (that we no longer get full translations of) of Usama bin Laden or another member of al qaeda? I want to know why I keep seeing and hearing about smallpox, I want to know what started the media attention. I was born in 1973, just a couple of years after innoculations ended.
This is one virus that I hope stays dead and buried.
Saturday, November 03, 2001
3:37 PM
So seriously, I am broke. But for some reason I keep on going out. Last night I went to Crossroads with John. He paid. Which is good as otherwise I would have spent some money that I shouldn't have. Tonight the gang is going to Crossroads again. Oooooh the variety. The spice of life, repetitive, repetitive, repetitive, and I'll probably go.
Now all I have to do is call some people, friends of my father, people who said that they would help me out with my hospital and doctor bills from my broken elbow. I have never called. I should, I still owe $300.
So the start of the 100 or so things that I want to do in my life before I die.
100 things to do: 1 to 5
1) Sail around the world, either solo or with friends.
2) Ride on the Concorde, its flying again.
3) Hike the Appalacian Trail.
4) Get Married, have kids.
5) Write a novel (should have done NaNoWriMo)
More later.
Friday, November 02, 2001
1:34 AM
You are as special as a blue stapler.
12:58 AM
Ok now I am a Mets fan but that doesn't mean I am not happy about the Yankee game.
And this, this is just too funny. Cleaning the Fucking Kitchen for Dummies. I could have used this site for some of my roommates. What am I saying, I should read the site.
"Your a real living writer." - one of my favorite lines from Mrs. Parker and the Viscous Circle. Which I was jumping back and forth to from the ball game. As you can see from this, I have written about this before. But not to extent.
Thursday, November 01, 2001
6:42 PM
Ahh, that thought came back, and of course I am hungry and not in the mood to actually write it in way that is articulate and good for my morale. Oh well.
The administration has been telling us time and time again to go on living our lives like there is nothing wrong. Then they remind us that we are at war. They make bills to lower taxes. Then they remind us that we are at war.
I think that they are handling the public wrong. They should be out here telling us that we are at war, that we will be for a long time, Rumsfeld kept trying to get that point across today. But there is a general feeling that what we are involved in is just bombing that we are not at war, that we should be living our lives the same way we did before Sept 11th, although with rubber gloves when checking the mail. I really want Bush to give Ridge more control. I still feel that Ridge has no power or say in what is going on. If this keeps up the war might not go so well because more and more people will forget that empty feeling they had when someone turned on a TV on Sept 11th.
Like I said I am hungry. Maybe I'll try again later.
5:09 PM
I had a thought earlier. I forgot what it was.
We weren't hit by the usual assortment of Kids at the door last night. It could have been Kona. He barked his head off whenever a 6 year old walked to the door. I had to put him upstairs eventually. More than likely it was fear.
Yes FEAR. Less kids because the parents were afraid that a terrorist, who might have moved in the area, covertly mind you, hell he could be that new tenant in the apartment building down the street. (I got my eye on him, he says he's from Waltham, but I don't believe him.) Well this guy could have been putting anthrax in the candy. Then when the parents ate it they would die. Or that 8 year old who was dressed up as Usama bin Laden, HE COULD HAVE BEEN BIN LADEN. Then he really was sprinkling anthrax on me when I gave him some candy. Horrible Horrible child.
In other news, I have a second interview at Ametek for a Quality Specialist position. Wish me luck.
