It's not rocket science

Yeegads life has been busy. Between work and school and whatever else there is, not alot of down time. But I have a little today. Why? Well, because instead of doing homework last night, I got drunk and played videogames and called in sick to work. And today was the most productive day ever. Work != productive.

Here's what I did today.

1)mailed out the computer bag I sold on eBay
2)went to bumblefuck (yea, exists around Chicago too) to pick up my new computer bag from the fedex place.
3)finished all the homework due Tuesday for GPH436 (which only leaves a handful of stuff due monday)
4)wrote a new song (actually did that while drunk last night... you can hear it...read on)
5)recorded the new song
6)got myself an interview monday as a part time web admin at a graphic design firm here in chicago (I REALLY want this job)
7)went on a walk to get a donut with steve and kels
8)played some metroid prime 3

So yea, productivity comes from not going to Motorola.

Anyway, I had said I'd be posting some of the graphics I made in my classes, so here's a couple from the first two assignments. They may look simplistic, but each of them required about an hour to assemble using only text... yea, that's right, I pretty much make them in a text editor using a scripting language.

Here's how to make a sphere.

sphere { <3, 1.25, 4>, 1.25
pigment {Red}
finish {
ambient 0.15
diffuse 0.75
phong 1
phong_size 100
reflection 0.6
}
}

so, here is the song I wrote. here is the first project I did. And here is a bishop I made.

Enjoy.

It for requirements I congratulations best.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for (really, you said so in the comments, you need it, you want it): My weekend.

To begin, the subject of this post is simply the first word of each line on this piece of paper at my desk. Make of it what you will.

Second, I've installed Google Analytics on this page, which lets me see all sorts of data about the visitors of this page. Don't worry, it doesn't tell me your secret fantasies or how many oreos you ate last night. Just computer stuff.

And now, the weekend.

Katie came into town Friday, the beginning of her birthday weekend extravaganza. (If you by chance did not wish her a happy birthday, feel free to do so here in the comments and I'll make sure she gets them). The plan was simple: Go see a free concert put on by the fine people at Threadless in celebration of the opening of their new Chicago store. The lineup was Freer, Anathallo, and Hey Mercedes. Now, some of you might be saying, "But Bryan, Hey Mercedes broke up four years ago..." Indeed they did, reader, indeed they did. But HARK, they re-converged for this one time only show. And oh how glorious it was. But let's start at the beginning.

Being a free show, we figured alot of people would show up. The deal was, you go to the Threadless store and they give you two free tickets. They gave away way more tickets than the capacity of the Metro, but added a disclaimer that once you had your tickets, it was first-come-first-serve to get in. We showed up about a half hour early... and had to wait in a line that went over a block down Clark, wrapped around the corner, and went almost an other block back. It was very intimidating, and we worried that we wouldn't get in...

But we did.

Freer was a good band. The guys had good stage presence, and the music was enjoyable. While we were listening, I mentioned to Katie that they sounded kind of like Elton John meets The Police, but obviously not up to that caliber. Stylistically, I think it was pretty accurate, and they put on a good little set.

Anathallo was unexpected. Yes, that is the term I choose to use: Unexpected. They were a 7 piece band with instruments ranging from the traditional, to the..well, untraditional. For a rock band anyway. Lots of extra percussion, some brass, some other things. What resulted was a pretty amazing live show. Unique time signatures permeated most of the songs, and delicate voices rose above them. They played with alot of passion, which made it a pure joy to partake in. Unfortunately, I went to their website, and the recorded stuff didn't strike me as much. Oh well.

Hey Mercedes was amazing. They played everything I wanted them to, with the exception of Oh Penny, but I was ok with that. I'm not sure the exact reason the band had dissolved, but it was obvious that it was on good terms. It was sort of like a reunion for them, all having a good time. They passed around a bottle of Jack and looked like they had a blast playing. Katie and I had taken in the first two bands from upstairs, as there was a bar with no wait, and a really good view. Plus, I'm an old man now, I can't be down in those mosh pits... Well, the old desire to throw some elbows and lick other people's sweat kicked in, and I took off downstairs to thrash about a bit. I later found out that Katie had wanted to join me... and I'm sad she didn't. That brought me back though, I mean, it has probably been over 5 years since I've been in a pit. It really made me want to see more shows.

Anyway, I've probably already put many of your attention spans to the test, so I'll not embark on such elaborate journeys for the rest of the weekend.

After the show, we wanted sushi. And when Katie wants sushi, Katie gets sushi. I knew there was a place down Clark, but it was all the way down by Belmont. We started walking anyway, and stumbled upon some classy looking Chinese place with a sushi bar. It ended up being really good. Like, really good. Typing has no vocal inflection. Like, really good. There, italics = inflection.

Then we went back to the apartment and crashed. Exhausting evening.

Saturday, we headed out to State St pretty early and did some shopping. For once, I walked away without needless purchases, but Katie found some pretty cool stuff. When we got back, Gina and Nick were just about there, so we scarfed down some Taylor St pizza (and salad), then jumped in with Gina and Nick as they drove by and headed to Shred's Inferno.

Katie and Gina both got tattoos, Gina on the back of her neck, and Katie behind her ear. Gina got three stars, shaded all cool, and Katie got a small lily. Both of them turned out really cool, and I was impressed that neither showed much pain.

By the time we got back from that, it was time for dinner at Rosebud with Steve and Kels joining in on the fun. It was delicious, as I knew it would be. Our server was a squat woman with a demeanor to match, which was amusing to say the least.

We topped off the night with Doug Small coming in from Rockford and a night of a little too much booze and alot of fun.

If you're still reading by now, I'm impressed. You can sign your name in the comments and put the words "is a ball licker" after it to prove how loyal of a reader you are.

Sunday, Katie and I embarked on an interesting adventure to find in Chicago. We went kayaking. It turned out to be really cool, and a perfect day for it. We started maybe a mile north of the loop, and leisurely paddled our way down to Wacker, and then out towards Lake Michigan. The city looked gorgeous from on the river, and aside from some choppy water/hangover blues, it was an excellent trip.

That was pretty much it for the weekend, definitely one of the best I've had since moving to Chicago. Lucky for you, I don't have huge plans for another week or so, so you can just read my clever, but brief, updates until then.

Ciao,
Bry

PS. If you're confused by the 'Bry' posting in the comments, that's Poole. I'm not so vain as to comment on my own blog... yet.

The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own weekend

I will tell you about my weekend, but not now. Later.


No really, like I'll probably update this tomorrow when I need a break from homework.


But now you're drooling and want to know what I did.


It was cool. Really cool. Lots of fun. You're dying to know.


There were beavers and ice cream and about 6 or 7 dozen Eskimo love songs.

You'll find out more later.

Finally Living Up To Its Name

I think grad school should be called "Harder than those other schools you were in before school" because that would be more accurate. Though, I suppose Grad School is accurate...

Either way, I have now had oen of each of my classes for this term: CSC 425 and CSC 436. See those 4's? That means "Hard". Don't worry, I get to take some with 5's later.

CSC 425 is gonna be really fun. It's a 3D modeling class, but there's no point-and-click interfact, like in Paint, where you click the circle button, then draw a circle. Nope, it's all done in a scripting language, which is kind of like computer coding, but a little different. I won't get into it. Either way, the prof (who is really cool, and interesting, and into it) showed us some stuff some people in the class have created in the past, and they look amazing, and I'll be posting stuff I make on this blog.

The other class is gonna suck ass. It's all 3D vector math, understanding exactly how the computer draws all the stuff you tell it to. I don't like math that much anymore...at least not when it's taught by a monotonous overweight guy who starts every sentence with "So...". Ugh. That class is gonna really take some work.

That's all for now... I need to watch some Flight of the Conchords to unwind.

I propose a new rule

I'd like to add something to the "Scooterer's Handbook for the Road" (which would technically be the first entry to this nonexistent book).

~Don't scoot when you have a stuffy nose. This results in breathing through your mouth, which leads to you eating things you don't want to.

...And then a Dragon comes

This is what I did today. Just me, my iMac, and a Casio keyboard.

(Let me know if you can't download it... not sure how reliable that file hosting site is. I changed the host... though it would appear it sometimes doesn't work. Sometimes it does though, so keep trying!!!)

The Real World

Walking from the café back to my cube here at Motorola, I overheard a phone conversation between a father and who I assume was his son. It went like this:

"Well you've done something wrong so you have to be punished. Welcome to life. I know you're 12, but welcome to life."


It was awesome.

This Place Would Be Busier Than O'Hare

Man do I love long weekends. And the fact that I don't work Fridays or Tuesdays ha turned this into a 5 day weekend, which is really just a like a week off. Sweet.

Friday was lazy, as a Friday should be. I had been playing The Darkness and I came really close to finishing it up... but I didn't. I found out that it was based on a graphic novel, which really makes me want to pick it up, because the story in the game was really good.

Friday night I was going to go out with a bunch of cats in Wrigley Ville to celebrate Schubchub's b-day, but they decided to move the bar hopping to Arlington Heights. The last train home from AH was around 9:30 which really made it not even worth it to go out there. A shame. But Cass was downtown with her boyfriend Christian, and they felt the same as I did about the whole thing, so they came over and we just hung out for the evening, topping it off with some delicious Taylor Made pizza.

Saturday, my little sis came in from Mokena, where she was spending the long weekend with her boyfriend's family. Her train was a little late, but no big deal. It was a freakin gorgeous day, and our plan was to hit up Michigan Ave, as I owed her a b-dy present. After having one of the worst Subway sammiches I've ever eaten (she was NOT a 'sandwich artist') we decided to just shop State St, which has alot of the same stores, but it's a bit cheaper and, as Steve put it, "you don't have to be blinded by collagen."
She found some stuff she liked, as did I. Some nice tight brown pants. Yea, that's what I got, not her.

We came back, lounged a bit, then had some delicious Thai Bowl (I will be eating her leftover garlic chicken for lunch later today) and then rented Bench Warmers...which was awful. Steve and Kels came back by (After going out to dinner with Steve's rents) so we sat around, had a few drinks and played some cards. Liss may have been "over served" a bit and decided to just pass out on the air mattress. The rest of us headed out to a bar and sat on the patio for a while just chatting. It was a pretty good relaxing night.

Sunday morning, Liss wasn't feeling to hot, so she opted for the 12:30 train back in instead of the 10:30. I guess all the sugar in those Bacardi Silver things can wreak havoc on your sleep.

After I sent her off on the train, I scooted around town a bit to take care of some errands, then plopped on the couch for a day of finishing The Darkness (which I did). Very satisfying.

Monday was a pretty successful Labor Day. I woke up, played a little Blue Dragon (which I picked up during Sunday's errands...can't be left without a video game to play...heavens no.) I then cleaned myself up and scooted out to Dave's for a BBQ in the park. Mike came out too, and the three of us lugged a grill and a bunch of meet out to Lincoln Park which was a rather huge gorgeous park right on the lake. Sadly, the grill we brought was out of butane, so we had to wait for Had, James, and Had's sister to get there with more. But they also brought more meat, so that was fine. Eventually Tony showed up, and there was lots of frisbeeing, footballing, and attempted kite flying.

I came home and ended my triumphant weekend with some more Blue Dragon before bed.

Now, I'm gonna scoot out to DePaul and get my UPass for the autumn term, then scoot up to the gym and workout, followed by some more Blue Dragon. Sucks that I have to go to work tomorrow...