i have been coming up with lots of lists recently.

a list of expenses for 2007 to 2008
a list of cd’s that i want
a list of things to get done at work
a list of the few remaining audio toys that i am looking at purchasing for my recording rig
a list of the prices for said toys
a list of features that i want to put into a 19″ rack cabinet i will build that will house my audio gear
a list of wedding related things
and this list of lists that i have been making recently

Yesterday at work I went out on my first solo trip to investigate a part of the plant that i’m installing sensors in. I’d been out with a fellow co-op and my boss before.

I clipped on my badge, put on my hard hat, changed to my safety glasses, and took along some engineering drawings to guide me on my journey. It was a beautiful day outside in the plant, and I was getting more and more eager. My first unattended project, and I was responsible for going into the field and producing a design that will be constructed for every-day use.

The plant is so large that they maintain a smallish fleet of electric carts (not quite golf carts) to putt around in. I drove one before, but like I said, never solo. I hopped in and away I went. The carts are governed to about 8 miles per hour, when the pedal is floored. Practically crawling for a vehicle, but fast enough to be better than walking. It’s a company courtesy to wave (or do the “while-driving-palm-sideways-salute”) to someone when you pass them on the road. I did a lot of saluting. But then, halfway to my destination, I realized my badge was missing. It must’ve fallen off somewhere… I felt like such a noob. The whole time, I was feeling rather green, being excited about a trip to the plant, but now i just felt like a dork. I turned around went back to the garage, and found it on the ground next to the carts. No big deal. Back to work! When I got to the area I was working on, I put in my bright orange safety earplugs and moved through the complex array of piping and equipment. I saw what I needed to see, and took notes on the various drawings. Then I thought about it. Is that all? It turned out to be a pretty inconclusive trip. I just checked a couple of things, I didn’t get any new information, really.

Oh well!

Hop in the cart, and creep back to the office, to draw lines and circles on the computer!

i’m not a big gamer. I played the original nintendo, some N64 in my jr. high days, and a few computer games here and there, but as soon as i played the Wii for the first time (at my students’ house), i was hooked. affected. enchanted. I sung its praises to everyone who cared to listen. It’s not about how cool the graphics are, how awesome the games are, how cutting-edge this system is. Just playing the Wii… controlling and using it… is quite a magnificent experience.

I recently was helping fix my students’ HD television setup. Apparently, when they purchased the Wii for their kids, they had to get 2 of them, because they were packaged together in an eBay deal. They had an extra Wii. Their mother suggested that by tutoring the boys this semester, I could get the Wii as reimbursement.

This is a fantastic arrangement. I tutor 2 hrs. per week, which is normally just pocket change and spending cash.

So i’ve been playing my own Wii for the last 3 days, and every time i pick up the controller again, i am giddy. It’s unlike any excitement i’ve ever had for a game before. I know that when i bring the Wii home and let my parents play on it, the same parents who were able to spend several hours on 8-bit Dr. Mario and Tetris, they will be equally impressed with the amazing technical and cultural achievement that is the newest Nintendo.

It’s revolutionary: in fact Nintendo “Revolution” was the code-name for the project. People like my aunt Pat, who study and work with Human Communication and Interaction, would be enlightened.

I haven’t posted in a while. I haven’t had much to write about lately – life has just been moving along at a pretty steady pace, nothing too fantastic, nothing too awful. I feel like I’ve been in a kind of mental ‘dry spell’ since the new year – most of my thoughts have been the same old things I’m always thinking about, and I’d rather not repeat ramblings I’ve already written about here.
This is my last semester in college, and appropriately enough, it really does feel like my final semester – complete detachment. I think my mind has been elsewhere since this time last year, but recently my schoolwork feels more restrictive, more oppressive than usual. I think that this has partly to do with my light schedule of classes. Normally, I’d be spending more time in class, and the more time I am ‘in the zone’ mentally (to turn an awful phrase), the more I think I absorb and really think about the material I’m being presented. This semester, I’ve been working much more than in the past, and going to class feels almost like an afterthought – an ellipsis at the end of my academic career.
Every morning on my way into campus, I listen to the flocks of wrens and blackbirds, speaking their glossolalia to one another, completely oblivious to all the learning and business going on underneath them. Strangely, I feel a certain connection to their chatter and chirping – their speech is gratuitous, generous, and does not carry profound ideas, great meaning.
Perhaps it should not surprise me that I’ve grown tired of the college learning experience – many things, even good things, can become difficult when pursued past a certain point.
Thinking back, I do have a kind of nostalgia for my early days at the university – living with my sister, the freshness and newness of the whole experience. I see freshmen and sophomores on campus, and in a way I envy them – they have their best moments in front of them.
Graduates like myself are on the way out. We are the old wood, dry and ready to be consumed by the fires of the ‘real’ world where our various talents and abilities can be put to good use. This is all fine and good, I think (who am I to judge anyway?).
It seems to me that maturity is an over-rated concept – likely a front for cynicism. I’m glad to be moving on with most of my youth still intact.

by the way, i was right, and a duck’s quack does echo.

it’s just a freaking acoustic wave. it will echo. stupid DJ.