waking + blinking

Today

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:56:41 GMT

I am a quarter century old. Goodbye, 18-24 year-old demographic! I just got upgraded to the grown-up table.

tragedy

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:54:19 GMT

I haven't posted in awhile, mainly because I've been busy and haven't had a reason to, but now unfortunately I do.

My old neighborhood in Boston, specifically the apartment I lived in for 3 years before moving down to Brooklyn, was spitting distance from a row of 7 or so restaurants. Very awesome restaurants. One of them home to the best burritos I have ever had in my life, bar none. My family had lunch in the Italian place after my graduation this year. The Japanese place gave out roses every Valentine's day. The bar & grille on the corner was packed to the rafters every time there was a game. And at 2am this morning, they all burned down to the ground.

My mom said "It's not like losing a loved one," but to me, it kind of is. That is how depressed this makes me. "Restaurant Row," as they called it, was a real focal point of the neighborhood. I felt spoiled living so close to such a diverse collection of eateries (and most of them very cheap, to boot). There are other restaurants in the general area, but none of them have the pull that these places had. Being insulated from the main drag, most of them had outdoor seating, so it was great during the summer to just grab some food and sit down at one of the outdoor tables to people watch. These were the places I'd go to get food to celebrate, to fuel a long night, or to cheer me up. Now they're all gone.

What really worries me is what's going to happen to that part of the block. It's unlikely that they'll all rebuild, considering the extent of the damage. Naturally, being Boston, everyone is joking (half-joking) that this was no accident: "Another mysterious fire - future home of the 28 story Sox-Menino, inc. Office Tower and Parking Garage Mall Office Complex." It would destroy the neighborhood if they replaced that single-story structure with a butt-ugly mixed-use luxury blah-blah building. Like Boston really needs another one of those. In all seriousness, those places were the reason I wanted to live on that block so badly, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

Anyhow, I am really glad that the last thing I did in Boston before driving away to Brooklyn was run into El Pelon to buy one of their shirts. I know it seems silly to mourn the loss of a bunch of restaurants, but it's as if my whole neighborhood went up in smoke.

You can't be serious.

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 01:24:13 GMT

I need AutoCAD software for one of my classes next semester, and despite my attempts at finding a cheap (erm, free) alternative to buying the software, it seems I'll have to do this by the book. So I looked at the software deals Pratt has set up (see: how I got this laptop at a discount), and even though the license expires after one year (rip-off, what?), the price seemed right.

Seemed. Huh, what's this about skills?

Turns out, if I buy the software from the recommended vendor at the price I can afford, I'll also get to do more work! Wow, where do I sign up?

Enter in a legally-binding contract to be in a competition, or buy my software somewhere else for more money? Hmmm.

Obama in Appalachia

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:27:40 GMT

This LA Times article is sort of terrifying.

You can't say you're not a racist, and then deliberately not vote for Obama (or anyone, for that matter) simply because he's bi-racial.

The part that really got to me was this:

"Obama "just doesn't seem like he's from America," said Beth Bailey, 25. Ben Bailey, 32, noted that Obama's middle name is Hussein, "and we know what that means."

OMG, he has Muslim heritage! Someone cue the danger music! These people must've been out of country when Obama very publicly left his church back in the spring. Church. Y'know, one of those God houses where people believe in Jesus. They have those in Appalachia, right?

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 02:25:36 GMT

Alex and I are all moved in. It took about 12 hours from when the U-Haul was picked up in Boston until the last box was brought upstairs here in Brooklyn (17' truck + 3rd floor apartment with no elevator = my legs still hurt). The place is finally starting to resemble an apartment instead of some kind of inconvenient place to store boxes. Once the new sofa arrives, it will be truly complete.

We haven't really had the time to get out and explore other than when we've eaten a meal or gone to the grocery store, but that will come in due time.

People should come visit this weekend, because by then we'll have tidied up more and my legs won't hurt!

Shameless Human Age plug

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:55:00 GMT

One of my psych professors got me into this game. You don't have to download anything, it's free, and has social aspects to it. I just like the idea that you work your way through different ages of human civilization, and each time you do it, your character can turn out different. /end shameless plug/

Virtual human development game

www.human-age.com

Wed, 28 May 2008 23:36:34 GMT

Okay, MBTA. Enough is enough. Every day we put up with your "rerouting," lack of scheduling, and general inability to get anyone anywhere on time. Do you really need to try to kill us twice in 24 hours? In the past month, trains have jumped the tracks and hit a car, twice. Yesterday, an electrical fire shut down Park St and Downtown Crossing stations (two major transfer stations in Boston), and at 6pm this evening, two outbound D-line trains collided.

That's the line I ride 6 times a week, to and from work. Ironically, on the way back today some people in front of me remarked that the train was traveling a lot faster than normal. If the trains ran on any kind of regular schedule, this sort of thing would be a lot less likely to happen. As it is, I can be waiting for an inbound train for at least 15 minutes, and 3 outbound trains will go by, one right after another. All I can say is that I'm glad I disembarked from the Death Line at Fenway.

Obligatory photo:

Needless to say, I'm not exactly looking forward tomorrow's commute.

Bedbugs on the go

Thu, 08 May 2008 17:56:51 GMT

A little FYI to those of you in Brooklyn, in case you hadn't heard already... apparently bedbugs are now on the subway. Those things give me the creeps in a whole new way. Blech.

Now I can take my 50 cent plates on the train!

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:51:41 GMT

Holy shit! IKEA in Somerville! Cheap, T-accessible Swedish goods! Apparently Good Times Emporium is going bye-bye to make room for it. I know, I know, "evil big box store" and all that jazz... but they're breaking ground this summer!

Man, I wish they'd put it there in the first place; the Stoughton IKEA is a pain in the ass to get to. Annnnd... if I were to move to Brooklyn, there's (going to be?) that one in Redhook too. Subway accessible IKEAs. They really know their target markets.

Woo! :-D

PS3 and laptop

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 01:34:37 GMT

So I haven't been able to update or really do much of anything computer-related since Thanksgiving, because my laptop is broken yet again. I am in fact typing this post on the super spiffy PS3 that Alex and I acquired this past weekend. Since it takes forever to type anything, it isn't great for email writing, but works well for general browsing. That much said, Alex is being a dear and has offered me the use of his laptop til mine is fixed or replaced. It's old for a laptop, so it's probably on its last legs, since I require a powerful and reliable machine. Used to be the former, and is definitely no longer the latter. Anyhow, that's all for now.

A luddite I'm not

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:58:02 GMT

Who's getting HD? Me! I'll finally be putting to use that beautiful idiotbox I bought back in August. Admittedly, the fact that House, MD is broadcast in HD played a large role in convincing me to get it. But I also looked at my TV up close the other day and realized how very fuzzy regular service is on a screen that size. When I watch Hugh Laurie browbeat his patients, I want to see every crisp detail in his flame-emblazoned cane.

Hooray for technology. And being a slave to it.

Enter the riot police

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 02:55:35 GMT

I'm a prisoner in my own neighborhood! And we haven't even won the game yet...

Cool grand is not so cool

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:43:47 GMT

Any artist can tell you that his finished creations don't always equal the sum total of his sweat and blood. Sometimes people put a lot of effort into something that ends up being meaningless, irrelevant, or simly not the manifestation of the creator's original idea. Such is the nature of art. But this is not art. This is what happens when a person with no understanding of the value of a penny finally realizes he has wasted away years of his life and wants to reclaim it, financially. Call me judgemental, but I suspect that this man (and it most certainly is a male) only experiences reality through the filter of his Massive Multiplayer Online RPGs. Within this realm, there are (virtual) social circles who value his work and skill, and they express this value in a denomination called "respect" (resale value: 0.000001/penny).

The bottom line: Son, you have wasted your time. Your game account is not worth jack in this place called reality. Get a clue.

drawing class

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:26:14 GMT

So I just got out of my drawing class (early), and get this: they give us our supplies. The drawing pad, the charcoal, the erasers, everything. I emailed my professor last night asking what I should bring, since I had my old Pratt drawing board brought down from home just for the class, and he said to just show up. What kind of magical charity art department is this anyhow? I realize that those supplies are pretty damn cheap, but still... they give them to us?

I'm bummed that we don't even get a model until halfway through the semester (why?), so it'll be mostly still life til then. But I guess it's better than nothing. I'm going to be regularly comparing this to the drawing class I had 6 hours a week with Professor Blaustein (versus 3 hours here), and I know there are going to be a lot of differences. But this guy seems okay.

Hooray for being a senior in a class full of freshmen.

He can dance, he can dance...

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 02:09:18 GMT

Hey STA alums, remember Nick Campolo? Did you ever wish you could make him dance? Well, now you can. And even if you didn't go to STA, you can still make him dance... maybe. I'm a big fan of the dances on letters Q and Y, personally. I actually bumped into him on the T a few months back. I think he recently graduated from Emerson. Anyhow, enjoy.

P.S. - When I got back from work, my bathroom was clean. And there's no smell!

Good God, why?!

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:52:45 GMT

Why is my bathroom flooded? Why is there brown-yellow water in my bathtub? Why can't I take my shower now, hmm? Why did the maintenance guys leave without fixing anything? Why is no one cleaning this up? Who is the deadbeat in the apartment above who couldn't flush his toilet properly? Why is water gushing at an increased speed out of my toilet bowl? Why is my bathmat now beige for all the wrong reasons? What is a 'mainline,' and why is it broken? WHO is going to replace my destroyed belongings?

Finally, WHY is my bathroom FLOODED???

Behold!

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 03:22:25 GMT

True to my word, I'm posting a couple photos of my new (possibly uninsured?) toy.

It looks super slick next to the PS2, whose graphics also look slick on the television itself.

Anyhow... now I can begin saving my money again, for things like new shoes (which I direly need), and a region-free DVD player (which I direly, uh, desire). Vacation next Tuesday!

Emmanuel in the Weekly Dig

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 06:39:43 GMT

For the EC kids on here, Emmanuel was mentioned briefly in this week's Weekly Dig issue, in an article about the Artists Foundation ("Art Palpitations," by Lisa Harris). It concerns the self-employed and health insurance, considering that it is now MA law for all residents to have the latter. Apparently Kathy Bitetti, the executive director of the Artists Foundation, was speaking at Emmanuel (in front of an appallingly small audience, I might add) about how laws defining independent contractors affect artists, and how such independently employed people go about paying for health care.

Anyhow, it's nice to have such a unique speaker come to our school, and even nicer to see it all mentioned in my favorite local weekly. Just a shame I didn't even hear about it til after the fact!

Avalon

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 03:53:52 GMT

Oh, Fenway. The park and the neighborhood. I'm proud to call it my home. Just now I could hear the entire ballpark singing along to Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" (BA BA BA) in the middle of tonight's Sox / Yankees game. A minute before, I was dismayed and aghast to read that the owner of Avalon and Axis (two clubs on Lansdowne St, near where I live) is planning on tearing them down to make way for a combination restaurant / palladium music venue. In the near future, I see: overpriced tickets, seated concerts (ugh), and irrelevant big-name reunion tours (Hello, Police). One of the things I love about Avalon is that they get both popular and obscure artists to play, the venue is intimate but not cramped, and it is ALWAYS general admission. First-come, first-served. None of this "pay 20 extra dollars and get a whole foot closer to the stage" crap.

Anyhow, people are organizing a protest, which I realize sounds sophomoric and pointless in theory, but it really means that much to people. Losing the Avalon would mean there's one less decent rock club in town, and let's face it, Boston doesn't have very many anymore. And I realize how expensive it is to run a rock club - that's why patrons pay 5+ dollars for the coat check, and at least 6 dollars for a semi-decent drink. We pay that much because we love the venue, we love the bands who love the venue. Not everyone plays the Middle East, which is a good venue but a little too small for some bands. Once Avalon is gone, the Orpheum and Paradise Lounge will be two of the last rock clubs in Boston proper. Pretty soon we'll need to trek out to Cambridge to see anything decent and live. Don't even get me started on concerts at the Garden (see above remark about seated concerts).

It's obvious that the owner (one Patrick Lyons) doesn't realize what a staple this place is in the Boston alternative scene. He's talking about making it a space to "complement Fenway." As I said earlier, I love my neighborhood, but if there's one thing we DON'T need more of it's places that complement Fenway. I'm sick of these anonymous sprawling sports bars (baaaahz) catering to ill-behaved park patrons. If he thinks that he'll be able to get the same bands to come and play for peanuts at this proposed "entertainment complex" then he's got another thing coming.

Anyhow, if anyone in the Boston area feels as strongly about this as I do, and would be interested in going to the protest, it's going to be Friday, June 22nd, from noon til 5 at Government Center. I don't know just yet if I'm going to go (filling Mr Lyons' mailbox with outraged letters is more my style). But there you have it: out with the old, and in with the new, in Boston of all places. It's a sad day for the music scene.

I can breathe easy. No, really.

Tue, 29 May 2007 00:39:56 GMT

So after a week of feeling like varying degrees of crap, I'm nearly back to normal. Apart from intermittent coughing I feel fine. The only annoying aftereffect is the congestion, because it means I still have trouble breathing when I sleep. Oh well.

Saturday Alex and I walked around Back Bay a bit more. I took a brief video of the reflection pool and surrounding buildings by the Christian Science Center, since it's so picturesque. Yesterday we went to Target so he could pick up some replacement appliances, and I got to daydream about what my life could be like when I finally have money to spend. Imagine: big screen TV! designer sunglasses! toilet bowl cleaner! There's a never-ending list of exciting possibilities.

Over the next couple of days I'll be kept very busy finalizing my annotations, which means that in less than a month my project proposal is due. Thankfully I'm blessed with the ability (perhaps it's a deficit?) to not let things like that frighten me until the very last minute, because intellectually I know how intimidating that is. I think the only thing that will really bother me is having to do the presentation itself, but it's a class of six students, so even that should be relatively painless.

Sometime soon I'm hoping to hit up Trident with Greg, a long-standing tradition which has been on hiatus for awhile as neither of us have much money. I know I can bring my work along and get it done at the bar there, so there's no harm. I've also been meaning to pick up the most recent copy of ID, so the sooner we go the better.

And that is all from the World of Katie, for now.

Fri, 25 May 2007 22:00:27 GMT

I started my jorb at the front desk on Monday. I caught on quickly, and it's pretty easy-going thus far. That was an especially good thing this week, since some killer virus lodged itself in my head Monday night and hasn't let go since. At first I thought it was strep, but apparently strep doesn't present with cold-like symptoms. So it's just a massive sore throat, cough, fever, and sinus blockage. Sniff.

Experimental psych is in high gear now - my 30 articles / annotations are due Thursday. I'm still trying to figure out how I can tweak previous experiments for the proposal I have to give, but I have a little more time to think about that.

*hacking cough*

The plus side is that I haven't been very hungry since getting sick, and I get to eat hard candy til my throat feels better. When I say "eat" I really mean that I'm supposed to suck on them, but because I'm impatient I chewed on them. And then I chipped a molar. And then I kept chewing.

Anyhow, it's in the high 80s, the reflection pool over at the Christian Science center is filled, and I'm feeling well enough to go downtown this weekend. That is a great thing, because there's a Sox/Yankees series here this weekend. Plus I just don't get to walk around town as much as I used to do, so I'm looking forward to it.

Vacationland, indeed

Tue, 15 May 2007 05:26:09 GMT

Maine State Trooper and Maine driver. Belligerence, anyone? "YOU'RE &!*#ing CRAZY!!!" "... if you don't pick this up, sir, I'm going to summons you for littering."

The Mii Lebowski

Sun, 13 May 2007 02:37:30 GMT

MARK IT ZERO!!

Tue, 08 May 2007 03:47:47 GMT

Hmm, so it appears that my cell phone's adaptor has finally bit the dust. Therefore my phone won't be on much (if at all) til I get a replacement. So until then, if you want to reach me, email or IM is the way to do it. I'd wanted to send the graduates congratulatory texts, but that may not happen now :-(

Anyhow, that's all. RIP adaptor.

Captain Ahab wishes he'd thought of this

Fri, 04 May 2007 23:52:33 GMT

This is simultaneously the funniest and most offensive thing I've seen all week. Enjoy!