Back to School

My computer is broken at the moment. I don't know how it happened, but I can't boot up into Windows Vista. Luckily, I can access a Rescue and Recovery section, which allows me to access the internet, but not to use any applications, so I have limited abilities. I can get to my email, I can't get to Facebook, and apparently I can write blogs. I called Lenovo Support yesterday and ordered a Recovery CD for 50 bucks. It should be here sometime this week, and hopefully it will fix my computer.

I haven't blogged in a very long time! There have been plenty of things I wanted to write about since I've been at school, but I simply haven't had the time. I'm happy to be back going to class and apparently doing something with my life, but it does make it more difficult to do the things I like, such as keep in touch with friends and practice my many hobbies.

Anyway, school is going well. I'm in five classes: four are engineering courses, and the fifth is a general education requirement. I like all my teachers, and the workload is not as heavy as I expected for this type of schedule. Typically, I have homework due once per week for every class, and the material has all been within my grasp so far. Time has passed quickly; it always seems to when I'm at school. I have two midterms next week! It is definitely hard to believe, but I've already been here for over three weeks and am well into the semester.

My living arrangement is very good. My roommates and I get along very well. Jeff and I were worried about the roommate assigned to live with us this year by random selection, but we definitely lucked out. Our third roommate, Moises, is a very cool, friendly guy who has taken on more than his fair share in keeping the apartment clean. We couldn't have asked for a better roommate. And the pool! We have a pool! I can't upload any pictures right now or my computer might explode, so you'll have to trust me when I say the pool is the size of a football field and forty feet deep. That might not be technically true. But it definitely fits into the category of 'pool' rather than 'bathtub' or 'puddle.' I've swam in it almost every day since getting to school. It has been great for making friends, since it provides a reason to hang out in the common area in our apartment complex, and we've had a couple parties in which it has played an integral part. Our apartment complex (called Stardust, I should have mentioned. Isn't that a weird name for an apartment complex? Especially one that's not imaginary?) is very close to Figueroa, a busy, commercial street lined with tons of fast food restaurants and businesses. I live just down the street from a Bank of America, where I can closely monitor my plummeting bank balance, and one of my favorite restaurants, Pasta Roma, where I can buy a twenty-dollar pizza to assuage my monetary woes. It's a pretty great setup. The only downside is our distance from campus: probably a fifteen-minute walk. I've learned how to ride my longboard enough to get to class and back without any major head trauma or other fatal injuries, so it takes me about seven minutes to get to campus.

The longboard was a good purchase overall. It looks very nice when I walk around campus cradling it in my arm when I'm too frightened to try to ride it any more, and on those occasions that I do ride it, I can feel it is a benevolent spirit and doesn't really want to throw me at the ground. But throw it does. For a couple of reasons: the trucks are very narrow, making it super tippy and difficult to balance, and the wheels are a bit smaller than normal longboard wheels, so it hits bumps in the sidewalk pretty often and stops in its tracks. It did this most notably a few days ago while I was with my friend Louie. He said I flopped like a fish as I hit the ground. I wasn't very scratched up though, which, as engineers, we attributed to the fact that a large surface area of my body struck the ground all at once, preventing the force from concentrating at any one point. Thank heavens for that. I'll stick it out with the longboard until I can afford to buy something better. I would like to stick with boarding, but I think I want to get a regular skateboard, rather than a longboard. That way, I can jump over curbs and stuff instead of stopping to get off and lift my board onto the sidewalk. I've seen guys ollie the curb, and they are by far the coolest guys on campus.

My roommates and I made banana bread yesterday. It turned out really good, and I don't know why. I really expected to mess it up, but it tasted delicious, so I'm going to try again today and see if I can't achieve more typical results.

I'm running out of money, as I mentioned before, so I think I'm going to return to my old job setting up banquets at the University Club. It pays pretty well and I get a free meal every time I work.

I'm joining the Marathon Team.

The SC Outfitters trip to Sequoia a couple weeks ago was really fun. The first day we learned a bunch of handy stuff about tying knots and reading a topographical map. A few of the guides are trained as Wilderness First Responders, and they want us all to go to a camp over Winter Break so we can become WFRs (called Woofers) too. The second day, we went on a 14-mile hike to the summit of Alta Peak at 11,204 feet. On the way up, we found an abandoned campfire smoldering on the side of the trail. It was on top of a ridge, in sunlight. I think if we had left it, the wind would have picked up in the afternoon and it could have ignited a fire in the dense forest below. We stayed there for about 45 minutes to mop it up. It was a good opportunity for me to share my knowledge with the group. I gave a short talk about how it's not enough to bury your fire, since that doesn't put it out, and how holdovers can last for a very long time. Since we didn't have enough water to spare on the fire, we each had to pee on it in order to extinguish it as much as possible. I peed on it first, then mixed it around, and spread it out to let some heat escape. Ten minutes later, we pushed it all back together, and peed on it some more, and spread it out again until there were no smokes left. I didn't feel completely comfortable leaving it there, but it was right near the path, which was pretty busy with hikers, so we figured they would help out if it sparked back up again. On the way down, there were no smokes again, so I think we did a pretty good job.

I've become a weekday vegetarian this year. I want to feel lighter (not necessarily be lighter) for climbing and running and general health, so I've decided to only eat meat on the weekends. Or special occasions, like when we go out to dinner. Or when I have some pizza left over from the weekend which has meat on it, like today. I'm the worst vegetarian ever.

Yesterday, I went out to the Santa Monica Farmer's Market with a friend of mine. We ran on the beach and shopped for produce. It was a pretty splendid time. We also wanted to adopt a dog, but neither of our apartments allow pets. We are both super bummed.

I'm continuing my work with Professor Stephen Lu on the World Classroom and iPodium this semester, and applied for a 1500 dollar research fellowship to continue this work. I'm excited to see it get off the ground, and I think I am part of a pretty strong team to make this happen. I'll tell you more about it later.

I think this is a pretty long blog. I'll tell you about the rest of my life at a later date and time.