friday, 8:45

Twas a meticulously planned trip, really. Inasmuch as I meticulously plan anything. Wake up with the phone alarm, 6:30. Leave for Union Station, 7:30. Arrive 8:00 for the 8:25 Hiawatha to Milwaukee. Meticulous enough.

Wake up at 8:05, holding my phone. Insert contacts, 8:07. Throw on clothes and leave the building, 8:14. Realize that there’s no way I’m going to get to Union Station in ten minutes, 8:14. Call a taxi, 8:15. Watch three other taxis pass a block away, and conclude that the taxi really isn’t coming, 8:26.

So yeah. Missed that one. I blame the sleeping on not getting to bed until 4 (math is not my friend this semester), but I’m somewhat surprised that I managed to silence my phone without remembering taking such action.

But there you are.

Heading home is always so… stressful… In preparation, I mean. (You’ll excuse me while I continue to whine a bit?) The carpool leaves Friday afternoon out of Milwaukee, meaning that I miss two CS labs and a math course with homework due. This nearly always comes down to staying up ridiculously late Thursday night to finish the math, having missed work earlier in the week to complete the CS labwork.

Mm. Amtrak>Greyhound. For future reference, the Student Advantage discount card only works for tickets purchased three+ days ahead of time.

For sound cards with no wave channel for recording, note also that one can rip Pandora streams (or anything else) manually by connecting the line-out port to the line-in jack, using a 35mm audio cable. Tis an ugly hack, but it works. Two point four hours of floor(); queued up.

Left my camera at home the dorm again. A shame, that. This is beautiful.

Glennview stop. Three females board, delighted to be in each others’ respective presence and being exceedingly vocal about it.

much later

At home now, Saturday night. The house is quiet, virtually no ambient noise with the exception of my harddrive. Bare as well (the house), what with the out-moving and all. They’re leaving on the 30th. It’s starting to feel weird for me, knowing that my family’s going to be quite literally out of the country for a year. Not inaccessible, but… just very far away.

Though apparently their housing contract over yonder comes with DSL. So that’s good.

For those that I haven’t told the story to, my dad’s sabbatical-ing (”[taking] a prolonged hiatus, typically one year, in the career of an individual”) in Germany, bringing the family along for the colloquial ride. Which is cool, really – Mom and Dad have wanted to take the ménage offshore since more or less forever, but it’s never quite worked out. This time, it has – every little detail (and I mean that – everything) has worked out perfectly. I’m fairly sure it’s God saying ‘yep, this is the time’.

Anyway, this is their last weekend here. Celebrated Aaron’s Nov1 birthday this evening. Watched a movie with my little sister cuddled next to me. Hauled furniture to the basement and migrated Dad’s work materials to his laptop. If it’s weird to me now, I can’t imagine how the last few weeks have been for them.

Going to bed now, for the last time here at home till next year. I’m not sure where I’m going to go when school’s out, come to think of it. Given that another family will be in this house until mine comes back. … An apartment isn’t quite practical yet, unless I find someone to share it with. And I really don’t want to impose on anyone in town. I’d stay in Chicago, but I have a job here…

something two several things you must look over, because I said so

Boomshine. A, it has a cool name. B, it’s a game with supporting musical sound effects that complement the looping acoustic piano.

Remember The Milk. To-do lists gone web 2.0 – actually kind of nifty. SMS integration via Twitter.

MediaStorm – “Photojournalism, Photography, Video, Audio, Storytelling”. Like Time and National Geographic’s love child gone online.

because one can never complete too many personality tests

The accuracy of this is debatable. (Obligatory plug: get yers at imagini.)