manaknight's blog

Wow. Hospital, macbook, museum, not in that order.

So today was a fun day. During my normal bike ride I ended up nearly passing out and ended up in the hospital. First hospital visit ever! I felt really nauseous and then I went blind for about a minute, some people called 911 for me. My poor folks were coming up to have lunch, and they ended up having ti sit in the hospital for two hours with me while I got lots of tests. They said I just had a severe drop in blood pressure and probably exhausted myself because I hadn't fully recovered from my head cold a week ago.

So after that little incident, yay health care! I went over to the Apple store and got a shiny new MacBook. And my folks decided they want a iMac for Christmas. The computer they have is about 7 years old, and my old laptop is 5 now. It sucks to spend so much money, and I was tempted to get a MaCbook Pro. But really all I'm paying for is a video card, and some fancy keyboard gimmicks for an extra $700. I figured it was better to go with the weaker machine, and thereby prevent myself from going windows dual boot and starting up PC gaming again. No time for that really. Also, saving $150 by staying w/ the white one was a no brainer. It was amazing how many people were buying the black ones, total rip off. Also, it was tax free! So I saved an extra $80, plus the student discounts. Got the free ipod nano, but will probably ebay it for the cash.

On Thursday I checked out the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum. Very cool, but a bit too much for me. The whole integrated presentation of the work in the museum made it really hard to appreciate and take my time with various works. I think its the type of thing you have to be a visually aesthetic person to truly appreciate, and I am not that type.

So now I have two computers, guess it's time to scrap the old one for parts and make some cash back. Maybe this MacBook will end up only costing me $1000 w/ all these discounts and the selling of the ipod and my old pc.

Lunch!

Fruit

Cheese

Today's lunch consists of French Bagette, Chipolte Chedder Cheese, Champagne grapes,and Rainer cherries.

Yum!

Say Hello!

This is Brady! My co-workers new chocolate lab pup. He came to work today, but had to go home for being a brat. He raided my trash can and stole the remains of yesterday's lunch! He is pretty neat. I definitely need to get me a dog. Total chick magnets.

Shakes and History

Today was annoying, for some reason my legs are bothering me after going on a 15 minute jog Sunday. What is with this every time I jog I seem to have to suffer for three days? This never happened before, only the last three times I jogged. Now I have to only bike for exercise? Eh. Jogging is so much more exhausting and strenuous. Biking makes me feel like I haven't really done much. I prefer the pain, what can I say. I'm sure if i just push it my body will stop being so annoying.

So yeah, in light of that and a blah work day, I got myself a tasty shake from Bartley's, and remembered that they are damn good and cheaper than the one's I was getting from B&J's, even though those were buy one get one free w/ coupons. So I drank my shake and read Hellenica in Harvard Sq for a bit then walked home.

Xenophon is sort of odd. It's decent enough and interesting, but one goes, "What the hell?" a lot, and i think even without the helpful commentary form the editor it's just blatant how skewed and absent minded his history is. Useful, yes, enlightening, no. I guess I now understand why virtually none of his work is taught. AFter I finish this I should probably refresh my Hegel and Kierkegaard.

It's been a long long time since I actually read any Philosophy. Maybe that's why I find life to be so incredibly dull this past year.

Yes, no, maybe so, arg

I finally finished Thucydides, now moving on to Xenophon, how I thought I could read all of today. 400 pages isn't a lot really..., but Xenophon's Hellica is rather dull and makes you go 'huh?!' a lot. Good think I read the 50 page intro, fills in some of the gaps as to why there are so many omissions and random leaps.

Yes, stayed in all day. But only read about 200 pages. Did some chores. Listened to people's anxieties over IM. Man, I just don't know what I should be doing. Studying hardcore is probably the truth.

Yeah more of that, and less of anything like an attempt at being social or getting out. Last night I sat at Cafe Pamplona, had a Greek salad, dessert, and tea and smoked a  cigarette. I spent twice as much as I planned, but hey it ate up two hours and a I wrote a little and just found it very awesome. As much as I need to not spend any money ever, I also need to frequent that place regularly. It's the only place I like in Harvard sq, mostly because it's never busy or crowded. It's like a real cafe, and it's very European. Too bad they don't have a liquor license, that would be the best. Sitting there alone, drinking, with a book and notepad, perpetually annoyed at the nonsense people are talking about and admiring the wonderful demeanor of the wait staff there.

Strange how I find it so hard to just do the things I really love. What's up with that? Probably because they are in conflict with the vast pressure of the 'supposed to'. Sigh.

Today things happened

Holy carp! My sister got pregnant. Now I have to like, be and uncle, and get another in-law at the same time! Next March is going to be whacky.

In more mundaneness, I checked out the new ICA on the waterfront today. It had some neat video installations, and the architecture is pretty sweet, but it seemed more like a venue than a museum. They devoted about a 1/4 of the inside space for a theatre/function room. And my inability to be impressed by art still remains. I find it curious, but I just don't get the 'wow' factor. A lot of the pieces didn't provide much to reflect upon either. There was this really sweet one that consisted of mirrored glassware that was perfectly arranged to create reflections of infinite glassware armies, but other than that and the video installations most were pretty bland.

The worst was a video of this guy going into a convenience store and shooting items he wanted to buy with a bow and arrow. He only bought items he shot. That one was really what I'd call desperation. Things like that remind me why my relationship with an art major was so bad, and really just made no sense entirely.

Maybe I should get married and have a kid too.

Decisions

I like NYC a lot. If i don't get into graduate school I will most likely move there and try to tough it out. God knows how I will get a job that supports me enough, but I'm sure I will find a way to get by. And besides my bestest pals and most supportive/critical friend persons live there and probably aren't moving away anytime soon.

Yay for two weekends in NYC. Yay for Brooklyn Parrots!

One Year Later

Things to look forward to:

Boston College course on Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Blondel. Yay for obscure metaphysical religions causation arguments!

Apply to graduate school and hoping to do something I want with my life.

Things to go ugh:

Getting a probation extension at work because I made some stupid typos and my boss doesn't communicate well.

Sad state of gaming industry and severe lack of games that look worthwhile.

RPG issues

"Most RPG gamers are novelist wannabes, and writers aren't as needed in computer game production as they are in the roleplaying biz"

Yes. This is why I fail to understand, why I stare dumbfounded at the way people play and approach these games. They aren't games to them, they are stepping stones into fantasy worlds. I'm too wedded to reality. I play my games in reference to the real world, rather than as an escape from it.

And I hate wannabe writers. They are such butchers most of the time.

Goodbye

oh EVE, the realization that you are a trial account and that I will not buy a new computer to run you outside of my workspace has destroyed my love affair with you. Maybe when I am in a sad and lonely place I will fondly remember our time together, and the endless possibility you seemed to offer. But that is love.