these past two weeks could very likely rank as the worst 14 consecutive days of my life. but i'm hoping for some light at the end of the tunnel.

do not submit your email to a 'do not email list'. it's just a scam.

i was in my first car accident today. a 21 year old girl coming in the opposite direction tried to make a left in front of me. i'll just be quite sore for the next few days thanks to the seatbelt and airbag. but my trusty honda is lost.

i must acknowledge ryan for his fulfilling my request for the dukes of hazard dvd. one thing i can count on him for is to follow through with wacky requests.

work remains to be absurd. but i'll soon be starting my holiday weekend.

yesterday i went mountain biking for the first time in close to a year with a guy that works in my building. we went over in frick park; it was nearly a perfect day--sunny and about 70 degrees. i am out of shape, but i survived and was able to navigate most of the technical sections without major incident. i also suffered some technical/mechanical problems, so i should probably better adjust my derailers and brakes.

last night i went to the WYEP festival and saw the last three acts. I was a little disappointed with the cowboy junkies, as they didn't have their bassist or drummer with them, and consequently didn't play 'sweet jane'. i would have loved to have heard that live.

now i have to figure out how to take advantage of yet another day of perfect weather.

this past weekend was utterly gorgeous outside. it reminded me of california weather, 75, sunny, low humidity. i spent sunday in frick park. i may go back there this weekend for a bike ride with a guy that works on my floor. hopefully he'll wait around for my out of shape legs.

my sister and brother-in-law were in town as well. we went out friday night for dinner and then to the sharp edge. we had a couple belgian beer samplers, most of which were pretty good. saturday night we did the dive bar scene near where we group up with a few other folks. that was a pretty good time too. this thursday i might be out of town yet again, i hope.

yahoo suddenly gave me 2 gigs worth of space for my email account there. i assume this is to stop people from leaving yahoo for google's gmail, which was the first free email service to offer 1 gig of space. they also updated their interface to be slightly less cartoonish. competition is good for the consumer.

i am not an affectionate person. i am aware of this. it has caused both me and many of my friends pain. often i realize something is not right, but have no idea how bad it is until much later. at the same time, one thing does get through, does get communicated clearly: once you have reached a certain level of intimacy, i am loyal and devoted on some indescribable level. forever.

sweet. if anyone wants to buy me a random gift.

e from nz got to be poster child in her own little way.

m. came to visit this weekend. saturday we went to the arts festival for a bit to wander around the artist booths and check out any performances. unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating very well. it was drizzling the whole time. we also went up to the wood street gallery to see the exhibits there. one was photography of atomic bomb testing. the other was a light & sound installation with an array of huge light bulbs.

today we went to phipps conservatory before her train left. it was a good weekend; i'm glad that she came out to visit. it's not easy to convince folks to visit you when you're in pittsburgh.

holiday weekend is over. lots of driving, 17 hrs worth. but i got to celebrate my nephew's first birthday and go on an absolutely incredible sailboat cruise with my family and a few of my sister's friends. it was a 36 foot boat, we had dinner, and sailed around in the bay for a few hours. the weather was warm but not hot and skies clear for the most part. i don't think you could have made it better.

the down side is that my neck and back are killing me from the combination of air mattress and long hours in the honda. but i'm happy to say that i made it down to my sister's on one tank of gas, 450 miles. not bad after 140k miles.

i'm in virginia this holiday weekend to celebrate my nephew's first birthday. the drive yesterday wasn't too bad. today is a nearly perfect day outside. tomorrow is caleb's big day. hopefully the nice weather will stick around.

"there's no room for you here girl, go away
there's no room for you here" -The White Stripes

there is a thunderstorm brewing. and from my office window, i can see bolt after bolt of lightning. it is an incredibly cool show, and a touch scary since i'm on the 9th floor of a 10 story building.

got my tent today. i think i'll like it. it has two D-doors, but the unique thing is that they are symmetrical on a diagonal axis. can't wait to use it.

went bowling with t and k last night. first game i bowled a made game. over 160. then barely broke the century mark, and placed second. we were the ONLY people in the place, besides the woman that was at the desk and the maintenance man. at least it wasn't smoky.

but does it play mp3s?

new technology. so, i've slowly been using my gmail account more and more. as i get used to it, and learn the different features it has, i like it. the 'conversation' style display of messages is nice, but its the time lapse in the header that is the real kicker. it tells you how long ago each of the previous messages were sent. no more calculating in your head based on the header info. simple. genius. Also, it automatically remembers every email address you sent to and received from. no more 'adding contacts'. it does it for you. down side right now, it only saves emails. i'd like to be able to import my whole yahoo address book over. lastly, the ads really are targetted based on the message content. and it could actually be useful, not annoying.

tonight i find out that blogger has also released a new version of its service. more to report on that later. there are a few things i think i might not like as much.

i went to the wynton marsalis concert tonight. it was phenomenal; much better than i expected. actually, the pianist and the drummer were the highlights in my book.

this was a good week for pictures.

i've been busy. but i finally got around to buying my tent for the upcoming hiking season. according to this review, i think i'll be pretty happy. i was going to get the rei half dome, but then the kelty was 4 inches wider. make me want to plan a trip real soon. too bad its on back order until late may.

and this is what i was doing today.

i just signed up for gmail, google's new web-based mail service. how can one pass up the opportunity of 1 gig of email storage and google search capability for your email. they claim that you never need to file or delete emails again. and based on my experience with google, i'll give them the benefit of the doubt until they prove me wrong.

if anybody has figured out a way to port all their yahoo contacts into gmail, please let me know.

i drove past this shortly after the event. we got passed by about 15 police cruisers on the way to the monroeville exit of the turnpike.

came across this little article on the cost of living in cities around the world while doing a bit of research. so, london comes in at 7, higher than nyc at 10. interesting.

happy easter.

a victim of outsourcing

more volleyball. more digs. more kills.

on a separate note, maybe i'll have to get Gmail.

saturday night was a ton of fun. haven't stayed up until 5am in a long while, and if it weren't for the fact i couldn't keep my eyes open, it may have gone on even longer. then sunday was one of those perfect days. so perfect you feel you should be doing the perfect thing outdoors. i was exhausted, so i just went to the park and read. which, as it turned out, was perfect. i think it's supposed to snow on wednesday.

it's pretty nice here today. spring is trying. and with spring, i saw my first segway. i assume it was a cmu student riding it to school. it's been a rather odd morning. but the weekend looks promising.

i think i might go watch some quebecois films tonight.

go play zuma.

there was an article in the pittsburgh post-gazette about bloggers in pittsburgh. neither chad's nor mine was mentioned. i'll just assume it's because i recently moved to pittsburgh. on second thought, i'd rather be known as an edinburgh blog.

now that i have a car, this is more apparent.

got your green? go out and have a wee pint of guinness. i know i will.

oh, yeah, not much here lately. sorry, i'm boring. life is busy, but not all that interesting.

cool challege & race held by darpa. too bad no one won the million.

quite a busy weekend. starting friday afternoon, i picked up my new glasses, drove 10 pitt students to cleveland airport, drove back, dropped the van off for the other alternative spring break trip, caught a taxi to the bus station, the bus to philly, went for a hike, and drove home from philly in my new/old car.

go play with this. (thanks mum)

it's friday afternoon, and mr b and i have discovered that four and a half cents screws everything up.

i got this email from d. viewer discretion advised.

somehow i got listed here.

changes. ryan has now become mountaininterval.org. you want to read the rest of his travels in the southern hemisphere. elan also claims changes. and there are some imminent changes for me as well. stay tuned for those.

i played volleyball tonight. i am way out of shape, but it felt good and i hope to make it a regular thing.

keeping your body fit, keeping your mind fit. listen to this report from NPR.

challenge your senses. (thanks h)

last word. most people prefer to be the last one to say goodbye on the telephone. why is that? i've been conducting a little experiement, and i almost never have the last word, even if they are the one that said 'see ya' first. i think more people should be comfortable hanging up. my great grandmother used to just hang up the phone when she was done speaking, without really giving any warning.

i've realized that i've been clenching my teeth. a lot.

decisions. i'm going to buy a car. the irony is i'm going to buy back the same car i sold when i left for scotland. efficient, affordable, trusty honda. how i've missed you.

head in the clouds. since i've started reading. i mean, really reading. i've found a place with a window view that extends for fairly long distances. all the places have been at least 2 storeys up. there seems to be some natural connection between reading and having as a backdrop the slowly changing cloudscape. watching slowly the light grow and dim, the sky shift, crack, sharpen, blur, bleed, ooze, cry, freeze, twinkle, even sleep.

i'll be volunteering at the pittsburgh glass center tonight.

evan got his anthology put together and published. the launch party is next week. i wish i could be there to celebrate.

technology update. for all you bit-heads out there, check out the latest in RAID technology (thanks to elan). on an unrelated note, i spent many hours fiddling with my cd burner to get it to work. then burning multiple cds. concurrently, i spent about an hour and a half on the phone with ATT wireless support to fix my mobile AIM problem. i logged in the other day and now can't log out. still. i was on the phone so long my batter died and disconnected me. why do i even care? well, b/c if anyone tries to IM me, after all, it looks like i'm online, my phone will make a noise. it gets annoying. epsecially when you can't reply to whoever just IMed you.

nabbed by google

i have been in pittsburgh too long. after ridiculing my roommate for the lack of use of the be verb, a common 'yinser' characteristic, i wrote the following in an email:

The car needs inspected by the end of the month.

this sentence with proper grammar would be

The car needs to be inspected by the end of the month.

the snow is coming down in huge flakes. if you look quick, maybe you can watch.

this years first big virus attack

and ryan's blog is back up. lots to read since his departure for antactica. all in typical ryan style.

enjoyable evenings. last night was enjoyable. i had dinner with my dad to celebrate his birthday. we mutually agreed how nice it was to have pleasant conversation. afterward, he dropped me off on the south side to meet up w/ a. and some of her friends in celebration of her birthday. this sort of evening used to be commonplace. its rarity has made me point out this particular instance.

travel bug. i heard from ryan today. he sent a message from the general vicinity of patagonia. he actually wrote it while on the journey through drake passage. he claims to have been colder than me. probably. but more interesting were his comments about being attacked by various wildlife, primarily birds. he promises to get his blog back up soon. his constant site crashes are not a convincing story for the stability of linux. i expect pictures a few weeks after that.

martha has had several posts about her travels in europe. it brings back all the sweet memories of last year.

their comments, combined with my distaste for my current situation, is bringing on a case of the travel bug. i've got the frequent flyer miles, i just have to figure out where and why. new zealand seems to beckon. central america? maybe i should have done peace corps.

it is so cold outside, my teeth hurt.

i helped out here today.

the question of the real. perhaps i am melancholy. no. i do not feel melanchoy. i am melancholy. personified.

perhaps true communication isn't a funtion of directness, but of the language of metaphor. and all the time i've sought common meaning was futile because it simply cannot exist between two separate beings. and the closest we can get is the approximated interpretation of metaphor. symbol upon symbol. perhaps abstrations has nullified objectivity.

pittsburgh symphony at the vatican

housewarming party last night was a success. finally got to meet up with c. he's working on a little pet project here while finishing up things at CMU. i might help him out with some coding. a & m came, it was great to hang out with them. not to mention s & b from high school showed up. i wasn't really expecting that one. and thanks to mum for the dip and meatballs, they went over well too.

senselessness. an americorps member in pittsburgh was killed in a drive by shooting this weekend. i didn't work with her, but extremely frustrated and saddened by this news.

yesterday i had mate for the first time. mate is a south american tea. crystal and i went over to a friend of c's from argentina, who made it for us. the taste is kinda of hard to explain. it is a bit more evergreenish than regular tea. she added more sugar than usual since it was our first time, but i probably would have liked it a little less sweet than she made it.

quote out of context for the day: "and i'll play it for you when we're in the bathtub"

i just went for some chai at 'cafe mocha'. sometimes people look so beautiful all bundled up for the absurdly cold weather. their eyes clear, cheeks and noses red, hats pulled down tight.

i believe today is officially the coldest day of the winter. i hope it stays the coldest.

it is still raining

for c. there is far too much in the world i wish to capture, to preserve, to eternalize in a well crafted observation. there is far too much selfishness, even within myself. there is far too much impermanence and failure where i wish there to be an immovable pillar and unwavering loyalty. everything is delicately broken. the world is an empty shell, filled only with the replicas of long forgotten meaning. yet, somehow, at some point every day, out of oblivion, i find a smile carved right there in front of me.

i miss our private teas.

hahaha. happy new year. suckas.

hope you all had a merry christmas, happy hanukkah, or splendid festivus.

ryan will be spending new years in the southern hemisphere; in the falkland islands according to his itinerary. i'll be sure to link if he gets a satellite connection to update his blog.

the pope sends SMS.

the art of luck

martha reminds me about last year in edinburgh, about being abroad, and all that comes with it.

those latvians can drink. (this one's for you elan)

"The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no, I’ve said too much
I set it up" -REM

if you're looking for housing in manhattan, i can hook you up with a real estate agent at citi-habitats

bonnie scotia. a small glimpse into the graduation revelry.

so it was perfect snowman making weather yesterday. and what better way to spend a sunday afternoon?

crystal and her frosty buddha 'jean-pierre'

me and my...eh...snowthing

let it snow. i woke up today to the sound of a shovel outside. when i looked out my window, the weatherman was right, it was going to snow. and it still is. it's been quite a while since i've seen a snow storm. i think i'll enjoy staying in today and watching it fall.

the day ryan found permalinks.

back at home. 21 hrs of uptime. work tomorrow. too much internal conflict here to capture. bed. sleep.

more goodbyes. it's 5:30am local time. i'm waiting for my flight. i'm tired and would rather stay.

in section title 'misc', my mobile phone worked in the UK but i dared not find out what the rates were. time to fly away...�

more goodbyes. it's 5:30am local time. i'm waiting for my flight. i'm tired and would rather stay.

in section title 'misc', my mobile phone worked in the UK but i dared not find out what the rates were. time to fly away...

less than 24 hrs left in edinburgh. time to recover. the last night out with most of the folks around, ended at the wee red bar.

28 hrs awake with 2 fitfull hrs sleep on a plane. not to mention a long night ahead of me...

something to keep you busy while i'm flying to edinburgh.

If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never.
- Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

holidays. spent a wonderfully relaxing thanksgiving weekend at my sister's in virginia. i flew with my parents down on thanksgiving morning, and to our surprise, there was no delay and really no extraordinary crowds. mum and dad got to spend more time with their grandson. the little guy seemed a little wary of the bearded men (my dad and me), but got used to it after a day.

tomorrow i leave for edinburgh. it will probably be a hectic week trying to get around to see everyone. claire has already been nice enough to arrange a dinner. nikki and crew will be celebrating her birthday and graduation. and there has been mention of a whisky society event.

then christmas will be here before i know it. seems like i'll have hardly been to work this month.

currently listening to duke ellington's satin doll on vinyl.

i'd like to hear more about this man.
i'm glad i was not on this bus.

i am now a man with a mission.

saturday i sat in a park and read for a couple hours. memories of last year. it was about 60, sunny, and folks were out walking their dogs. today, it's snowing.

mmmm, dinner at the 'rents house. afterwards we talked to my sister on my mobile speaker phone which worked surprisingly well. cheers to nokia.

microsoft employee gets canned after posting a picture.

you missed a great weekend. well, not all of you perhaps. this week's whirlwind sojourn to philly was great fun. friday i helped dave out getting dinner ready for that night after brunch with mum, that night i went out to dinner with emily and megan, and saturday was all prep and party to celebrate dave and shelly's engagement. they had friends in from boston, pittsburgh, baltimore, and more. the only real negative was that i forgot my camera, so no pictures to show.