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Blog - November 2005 |
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This page stores my blog entry from November 2005. The entry is from November 30.
A New Start / A Chance Meeting with the Homeless / Surround Sound the Right Way / Pictoral "Telephone" / Capitalist Greed Unavoidable: My Long-Term Shopping List Wednesday, November 30, 2005 Heading towards Week 3 of possession of my own apartment, I'm really beginning to enjoy things around here. I love ruling my own roost and preparing my own dinners. Showering whenever I want. Playing Morrowind whenever I want. I'm very happy -- and very fortunate -- to be able to do this. My main problem will be whittling all the crap I have down to just what I want to keep. Over the years, I never really got rid of too much, and I really don't want every surface covered with crap like before. It'll take quite a bit of time before I really get settled in and into a groove. Some people voiced concern that I would be bothered by my neighbors' noises. On the contrary, I'm finding those noises rather interesting. Sometimes I try to figure out what they're doing: running the dish washer; exercising; arguing. I feel about it more as if I'm in a hotel on vacation somewhere, rather than holed up in some sort of miniature hell. Things will be tight until the major expenses pass, but it'll be worth it. I'm already happy here. This is home ... for now. ***** Recently, I met a man named Lance. He seemed to be a genuinely nice person. Normally, I don't get that impression, but, with him, for some odd reason, I had a different feeling than normal. Although I'm not totally certain, Lance is homeless. He's either homeless or immensely poor. He needed to get some socks from the store and asked for a little money. For once in my life, I trusted the situation and gave him enough. I didn't trust him enough to just drive away afterwards, for I waited and watched him walk into the store he said he'd be entering. With that, I knew he was honest and went in for what he said he wanted. I normally turn beggers away, since most of them sit around an Arco station or somewhere else where I have a decent feeling where that money will go. I have never given money to someone who was homeless-ish before, so this encounter became the first. I tend to be afraid of the homeless. Or, maybe, I'm more afraid of becoming one of them. Hopefully Lance found exactly what he needed and that fate/god(-s;-dess;-desses)/luck will smile brightly upon him. For once in a long time, I did something that felt relatively selfless and felt I made the right decision. ***** Since 2000, I have had the same Cambridge Soundworks 4.1 Surround Sound speakers for my computer. I put the subwoofer underneath my desk between the two sets of drawers, the front speakers right next to my monitor, and my rear surround speakers on their tripod stands behind me and a bit to the side. I enjoyed numerous games, including Morrowind and Diablo II, and a few movies with these speakers. The problem I've always had was that I wasn't getting much from my rear speakers. They normally sit about a foot lower than my front speakers. As I type this, I'm listening to assorted mp3 tracks from Diablo II that Blizzard has available for download on their web site. For kicks, I decided to put my rear speakers up on a box and bed for the left and right speakers, respectively. Wow, what a difference! Like going from full-screen to letterbox, I feel like I've been missing about 1/3 of the experience all this time. I may have to figure out something or make something for those tripods to sit on while I play games or watch or listen to things. ***** I had a great time during my Thanksgiving weekend. Counting the Friday before the four-day weekend, I had the equivalent of three different Thanksgiving dinners. My co-workers and I had a Thanksgiving lunch the Friday before, enjoying great mashed potatoes, turkey, salad, rolls, and cranberry sauce. Then, my family had Thanksgiving on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so that allowed me to have that and go to Pam's grandparents for dinner on Thanksgiving night. On Thanksgiving night, Pam's cousin taught us a cool game. I do not know if it has an official name, but it would be something like a pictoral game of "Telephone." Each player starts with a number of blank pieces of paper equal to the total number of players. On the first turn, each player writes down a word. Preferably, this would be a word that one could draw a picture that represents it. Then, each player passes their whole pack of paper, with the word on top, to the next player (you can go either clockwise or counterclockwise). That next player has to draw a picture of what the word represents. So, if the word were "boat", the person would have to draw a picture of a boat. Next, each player passes their packets to the next player. This player now has to look at the picture and write down the word that they think it is. You continue this until each person gets their initial packet of paper back. Every time you draw a picture or write a word (except for the first word), you take the top piece of paper and put that in the back. We had a blast playing this. A couple of people had their word stay pretty consistent. Others had it go smoothly, only to suddenly go out in left field. The best ones had their word go suddenly out in left field but suddenly come right back again. We didn't have the energy to play the CSI boardgame, but this game most certainly made up for that. ***** Now that I have my major stuff moved in, I realize that I need more. For instance, outside of the four chairs around my dining table, the chair at my desk, and my bed, I have nowhere to sit. I hope to look through consignment shops and thrift shops for something. My pots and pans dilemma should be solved shortly. I have no pots. That makes it rather difficult to make rice, pasta, or any soups or such. I have five pans. The problem there is that two of them are old non-stick pans. I really don't like non-stick anything, and one of these has rusted. My other three are all cast-iron, and I just need to clean and re-season them. I hope to add a 10-piece stainless steel set to those cast-iron skillets and junk the old non-stick crap. I'll probably look for a DVD player and TV at some point, but those are lower priorities. My hi-definition black-and-white TV suits me well so far. I think this TV is about as old as I am, but it still works. Once I get these things set up, I'll be set. I probably won't need anything else after that. |
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