Category: Personal

Had a bunch of whacked dreams last night. First one; I’m in Baghdad, Iraq. Me and some other dude are walking to some capital building, and I’m feeling scared as hell someone is going to bomb us. I wasn’t in Israel, but I still get the same feeling probably because a cool co-worker is heading to Israel soon with his family, and I worry about him. I see this pretty girl and her friends, and we ask for directions. She, in slightly accented English, asks where I am from. I say America weakly. She suddenly moves about a centimeter back, and mouths “oh” like she is disappointed and saddened. Instead of wanting someone to like me, I feel like I want her to like my country. I get really frustrated. She starts to leave and I think she gives me something, like a postcard or somesuch. I say wait, and struggle to find something worthwhile in my backpack. I procure my hackysack, and explain it’s very American, and we “chill together” with it back home. I feel like I’m trying to prove we’re not all bad, but instead just end up sounding apologetic, and I hated that feeling.

<code>
// Jason Merrill – ICF Consulting
// e-Marketing / e-Learning Solutions
// www.icfconsulting.com
for(i=1; i<=3016; i++){
trace(” ? “+”(person “+i+”)”);
}

// Sean Voisen | http://voisen.org
var secondsElapsed = 0;

function silenceAndRemembrance() {
trace( ” … ” );
secondsElapsed++;
if( secondsElapsed >= 60 ) {
clearInterval( silenceInterval );
}
}

var silenceInterval = setInterval( silenceAndRemembrance, 1000 );

// Lee Probert
i = 60*1000;
while(i–){
// SILENCE
}</code>

Dude, this place is quiet. When I had my 5 minute rejection (well, not technically, more like cold shoulder) at Georgia Tech, I can certainly tell the distinct differences in culture. After draining Wayne on what this place is about, I can definately see it in the faces in the people here.

All the girls remind me of those queit girls in school who were smart, but didn’t blossom into a popular hottie because they loathed the superficialness of it, but more likely just had their head on straight. Not saying there is anything wrong with a superficial Betty, mind you, but it’s interesting to see where those girls went; to a place where they all are at. Can’t really get a guy vibe, I’ll just assume military considering my locale. Wayne says this school has a good rep in education, rated high, and has a rep for being hard. Everything I see who isn’t walking to class, quietly and alone or in couples of some sort, is reading. This probably accounts for the lack of noise here. Georgia Tech was loud, expansive, and parts were a concrete jungle. Here, it’s all nature, old time & cultural, and all the girls & guys are for the most part clean cut, and very “normal” looking. Nice to see this many normal people getting a good education. I used to worry about my future with so many X & Y gen’s being so… off kilter.

Anyway, few hours left to get my presentation in order. Hope these people don’t think I’m an idiot, both in stature and in my attempt to educate them in an area that may or may not benefit them. I mean, shoot, there are physic peeps here; wtf do I say, “For an easy way aside from atomXML SVG schema to visualize your molecular models, consider using Flash as your front-end and Remoting to access your database.”

Whatever. As long as I’m educating and affect just one person positively without negatively affecting others, I’m doing good driving all the way up here. Besides, my hosts were nice!

appendum: You know, I was the ONLY ONE that wore shades on campus. Wayne had his on, but I’m thinking only to make me not look like an outsider. Don’t these smart peeps realize shades protect your eyes?

Second time I forgot my lock in 10 months at the gym; this time, though, I got robbed. I usually leave my wallet and cell phone in the car, but this time it just so happened I walked in with everything and no padlock. The thief attempted to replace the articles as they were, but horribly so.

At any rate, $4 bucks is enough to remind me to NEVER forget my lock again; I got off really easy that time. Fate’s must of owed me a favor for all of last year’s bs. Regardless, I still take their warning in stride.

…I wonder how much that thief makes in a week?