General – mekosh.org

Category: General

Less of a Blog

Somehow, this site has become less of a blog and more of a quarterly periodical—and a thin one at that. In order to make me feel better, I’m going to quickly run through a list of things I wanted to talk about here but didn’t. It’s not definitive or complete, but it hits the main points. I think paragraph-format will suffice, don’t you?

Annie and I went to Baltimore’s book fair and to Cape May, New Jersey two weeks later. My car reached 200,000 miles and is still going. Red Bull Flugtag at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor was one of the strangest and coolest things I’ve seen. Sadly, Annie’s grandfather—a B24 navigator in World War II and a great person—passed away at age 85.

I’ve been driving a lot more than I’d like. Taking Gough Street instead of Fleet Street or Eastern Avenue to my apartment cuts my evening commute by 15 minutes. My new digital camera works even better than I had hoped (full review coming soon). The Plot Against America is a great book; it reads like Steinbeck to me. I’m looking for a new apartment because our new landlords suck. I’ve been trying to revamp Scranton Student, Northumberland, and start a new Baltimore site but I can never find much time to devote to them. Finally, Netflix is wonderful and The Wire is the best TV show ever; it might be better than 24!

Maybe I’ll start writing more often, but not likely. I have been posting more photos to Flickr, so there’s some new content. Pathetic, isn’t it?

Amazing Spring Weather

The weather over the past five days has been unbelievable! Living in Northeast Pennsylvania all of my life, I’ve grown accustomed to overcast winters and hazy summers; rarely does the weather deliver bright, sunny, cloudless days. I honestly don’t remember the last time we’ve had blue skies for five days in a row. When I went to Spain in high school, the sky was a brilliant shade of blue every day, for ten days. I’ve never forgotten how nice that was and I’d love to go back for a longer stay.

I posted a few photos on Flickr that I took over the weekend of my dogs and flowers at my house and some I took today in Scranton.

Sour Skittles Suck

It really surprised me just how disgustingly sour Sour Skittles happen to taste. I like a lot of sour candies like Warheads and Sour Patch Kids and I love Skittles so I thought that I’d also like Sour Skittles—the best of both worlds. But unfortunately, they’re disgusting. I ate half a pack and threw the rest away. Now if only I could rid myself of how sensitive the roof of my mouth feels right now from this sour rainbow.

Dolphins and a Locksmith

Over the weekend, I drove to Baltimore to visit Annie for the weekend. It had only been a week since I had last seen her, but it seemed like a few weeks had passed. On Friday, Annie and I went with Veronica to visit the Aquarium and then to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. I tried to take a few pictures at the dolphin show, but my digital camera is so slow that most of my shots were of the water or the dolphins’ tails as they re-entered the water. Veronica seemed to have the same problem with her brand new camera; I have to find one with a much quicker response once I have enough income to justify it. I uploaded a few photos from my weekend to Flickr.

Annie and I went to the Owings Mills Mall on Saturday for something different. Later, we went to Blockbuster to rent a DVD and I locked my keys in the car. Luckily, we weren’t far from Annie’s apartment where we waited for the locksmith because there was an icy wind that cut right through us. What amazed me is how fast the locksmith was able to get into my car; using simple tools that you could make in less than 15 minutes at home, he had my car open in under five minutes. That’s a bit alarming, considering that the guy was really taking his time walking to his truck and back to the car. If he needed to, I’m sure he could get into my car in less than a minute. So much for locking the doors.

Holiday Recap

Well, I’m back in Scranton after the whirlwind of holiday festivities that was my Christmas break. I meant to post several times to cover each little event, but time is rarely on my side. However, Annie and I managed—somehow, I’m still amazed by it—to do all of our Christmas shopping within 36 hours, much of those hours on Christmas Eve. Once we got past the stress of the shopping insanity, Christmas was relatively relaxing.

For Christmas, I received quite a few things that I had on my wishlist, but also a few things that I did not expect. I think that formula works well; I wasn’t disappointed that I didn’t get what I asked for, however, there was still some mystery when I opened my gifts. I received a new AFI’s Black Sails in the Sunset, Rammstein’s Reise Reise, Jim Gaffigan’s The Last Supper, O’Reilly’s MySQL Cookbook, Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, and the 24 Season One DVD set which will have me set in the consumable media department. I also received a great Norelco electric shaver, a zip-up sweatshirt, a sweater, the 2004 Hess Truck (a tradition for me), a 256MB portable USB drive, a page-a-day calendar with recipies, as well as some wonderful monetary gifts.

Over the next couple of days, Annie and I went to see Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Aviator. Each one is very different from the other; both are highly recommended.

This New Year’s, Annie and I broke our tradition of coming to Scranton’s First Night celebration— as we have done for the past four years—and decided to head to Baltimore to ring in the New Year. The weather was unseasonably warm, especially when compared to how bitterly cold Scranton can be in December/January. However, I was a little disappointed that the fireworks at Inner Harbor were not any more impressive than Scranton’s. On New Year’s Day, the weather in Baltimore did not match the date: it was a bright and sunny 68 degrees. Which is wrong; very, very wrong… but nice!

And now, I’m back in Scranton, as I mentioned earlier. It seems strange to be back at college so soon after the holidays; usually, I stay home during Intersession, but I’m directing a play for the Playwright’s Festival and working at the CTLE this January. Hopefully, I’ll finally have the time I need to finish a few projects that I’ve been pushing to the side.

I’m Still Here

I felt a strong need to write something, anything at all, so I don’t have to look at a two-month-old post as the most recent entry. I’d really like to do some fun stuff with this page, but it’s going to have to wait until the weekend. I won’t promise anything, but I think you’ll like it.

It’s Been a While

I’m really starting to wonder, “Where does the time go?” Even though I’m not working, per se, I can’t seem to find the time to get anything accomplished. I’m taking little chips out of my List of Things to Do whenever I get the chance, but the things I do finish are replaced by new tasks just as quickly. Maybe I should make a list. I really need a vacation; I wish I wasn’t broke and busy.

Caffeinated Fun with Food and Drugs

I followed an interesting remaindered link from Kottke.org to a page that discloses the caffeine content of everyday foods and drugs. It’s interesting to see that one dose of Excedrin has more caffeine in it than a single dose of regular-strength No-Doz. That really wasn’t that surprising to me, since I knew that caffeine has been known to help relieve (but also causes) headaches and Excedrin is primarily a headache medicine.

More useful to me, however, is the knowledge that my favorite tea happens to be the second-highest tea on the list. Bigelow Raspberry Royale Tea contains 83 milligrams of caffeine per eight-ounce serving, almost double the caffeine content of a similarly sized serving of Surge! It’s no surprise that a cup of Raspberry Royale sweetened with five or six teaspoons of sugar always provides a welcome jumpstart to my mornings.

All in a Day’s Digital Work

I’m proud of the work I’ve done in the past twenty-four hours. I updated the Scranton Student, updated this rinky-dink blog, posted a whole slew of new side links that have been clogging up my Favorites, helped name a chameleon, unpacked all of my suitcases, and did some online shopping. Granted, my work’s been mostly digital—and therefore, ethereal—but for an English Major who is used to dealing with the fleeting, it’s all right with me. Tomorrow, Annie and I are set for a real-world shopping adventure. It’ll likely be the discount chains for me, because like today’s work, my cash flow has also been fleeting lately.

I Have an Excused Absence

I can’t believe that it has been almost a month since I last posted. Quite a bit has happened since then, which makes me regret not having much time to write down my thoughts and observations during that period. As you probably guessed from my last post, the Scranton Student has been taking up a large chunk of my time. Despite the usual tweaks, updates, and maintenance of the site, I’ve also taken on the duties of the Editor for a writing staff of eight, including myself. It’s been a little rocky trying to get the site on a regular schedule of updates/issues. However, the site has been performing well beyond my initial expectations; I am very happy with the site, and it seems that most everyone I’ve talked to have also been impressed with the design and content. I can only see it going better when it’s publicized in the Spring.

Some other events taking up my time these past few weeks include: Thanksgiving Break, a few substantial snow storms, Annie’s final Christmas Concert (she was awesome!), final projects, papers, exams, a wake and funeral for my great uncle in New Jersey, and the official end of my Junior year. I’m finally getting to sleep in and rest after two of the busiest weeks in my life. Now that I’m home, I can rest a little bit before I must go and find some web design work to do in January for which I’ll actually be compensated. I like web design in and of itself, but I also like to have available cash. You know how that is, I’m sure.