Tag Archive for 'Trish'

Please hold; your call is important to us

It’s been a while since I’ve really had a solid chance to update. Quite a lot has happened, too. Where do I begin…

My multicolored bear, Ali.

This is Ali. A few weeks ago, Tricia’s coworker invited us out to join her and her boyfriend on a bit of a double-date night. Her roommate joined in, and the 5 of us ate at Hooters (deep fried pickles FTW) and found ourselves at our original destination for the evening: Dave and Buster’s. I’d never been before, and if you haven’t, imagine a large arcade with an adjoining bar, billiards room, restaurant, the works. We were only there for the arcade, and after paying for a swipe card (the entire establishment works on swipe cards – swipe to play, tickets are stored there, etc), we were off.

Inevitably, I found myself at a claw machine. I figured “what the heck, I’ll try”. I’d never won before, despite having tried my luck many times in the past. I swiped my card, went for a strategic target, and pressed the button. Lo and behold, the claw actually grabbed this bear. I’m STILL surprised. First try at D&B, and I had it. That’s the furthest extent my luck may ever reach regarding those machines, too.

…We have a kitten now! Here’s the story: Tricia, my younger brother, and I all live and share an apartment together. We’ve wanted a pet for a while now, and had pretty much decided upon a cat, probably adopted from a shelter. About four weeks ago, along comes a friend of mine messaging me up online. A friend of a friend of hers works at a veterinary clinic in mid-GA, where they had gotten in a 4-week old black kitten, abandoned by the mother-cat and attacked by a dog. The vet took her in, but absolutely could not keep her, as the vet herself had 2 young children and a host of other territorial pets already. My friend advised us to contact the vet and get more information.

After an exchange of calls and info, we learned this kitten was completely healthy – negative on kitty leukemia and kitty AIDS, no worms or fleas, etc. The vet began her on vaccines and other prevention shots, and was taking care of her. She said, if we wanted, we could have her completely free (medical treatment/papers and all) in two weeks, as she was underweight and still needed eyedrops and anti-bacterials as a result of the dog attack.

Two weeks later, we drove out there and got ourselves a six-week old, pound-and-a-half black kitten. The vet was even kind enough to give us a bag of Iams for her – a saint, this woman is. For my brother and myself, it’s our first pet that’s not in a glass tank. XD She’s the most adventurous kitten – within 20 minutes of getting her home (from an hour ride on the highway in a box, no less), we had her playing with her toys, and within another 20 minutes we had her purring up a storm (like an old computer doing its damnedest to load a huge Geocities page). She eats and drinks and poops like a machine, and jumps on EVERYTHING. She seems to enjoy sleeping with us in bed, jumping on us at 8AM sharp, running around and attacking everything and anything, using my shoes and messenger bag as scratching posts, and hiding in her cube house.

Anyway, her name is Ella, named after Ella Fitzgerald. Have some pictures and YouTubes. (Click the pictures for bigger versions!)


She did surprisingly well with our move. Oh, yeah, we moved. On June 8th, we moved to another apartment in our complex – an upgrade move, 2 bedrooms to 3 bedrooms, since my brother’s girlfriend will be joining us in August. That day was exhausting; 12 solid hours of moving all my crap into a new place. However, I did get to take a pretty neat shot of the old place before we moved, so I may as well share it here now.

Drag around! It’s nifty, I think. :P Soon I’ll attempt this with the new place, but it’s a weird layout that I don’t think will work too well with this sort of technology.

Other events in my life surround Apple. No surprises there, for anyone that knows me well enough. I applied for a position as a Specialist (floor retail) at the Lenox Mall Apple Store, while simultaneously being referred to the position by a friend working at the Augusta Mall Apple Store. I got a email requesting a phone interview in the following days, and I must have done well enough on the phone interview to warrant an in-person interview at the store itself. At this point, my friends intervened and to make a long story short, I now have 10 less inches of hair, a goatee, and I rather like the new style. Pictures to come, but not yet.

Unfortunately, I was turned down for the position at the Apple Store in Lenox Mall, and I’ll attribute that to having never worked retail before. Alas. I politely responded asking about perhaps a position at the Perimeter Mall Apple Store, so here’s hoping. :)

The other Apple event in my life is my iPhone 4 preorder. I’m fairly excited; it’s been a while since I had a new iPhone, and this one has the works: new design I love, way better screen, the new iOS 4, front facing camera (videochat!), better rear camera with flash and 720P video recording… And I was lucky enough to secure a preorder slot before they were shut down. I’m expecting the phone to arrive via FedEx on the 24th, launch day. Let’s hope everything works out!

My fingers are tired, and so am I. Goodnight, all!

I’m going to write here even if it kills me

Okay. I’ve stared at this blog long enough. I never set aside time to specifically write in it, so screw it, I’m writing now. x_x Long overdue anyway.

First up: I’m engaged. Yeah that’s right. You guys have no idea how hard it is to write here over the last few months and try to say something meaningful without talking about the only freaking thing I want to talk about. Here’s how it went down.

So I planned way earlier this year to pop the question. Reason being that we’ve been going out for almost 3 years now, been friends for about 7, and I knew that living together wouldn’t be an issue. Surprise – it’s been awesome. Considering I uprooted this poor girl from everything she knew in Oregon to come live in the Dirty South, I figured I’d better keep her close and let her know that I’m serious about us. :)

With my job from over the summer, I had more than enough money to get a ring. The original plan was to go to Walt Disney World, be at the World Showcase Lagoon on New Year’s Eve, wait for the kiss at the new year and, amidst the fireworks, ask on a bended knee. The only way I could pull this off (and afford this), though, was bringing friends – preferably a couple. Kiki and Patches, ok.

Yeah, that didn’t work out for obvious reasons. And of course I don’t blame either of them. So, new plan – owaitwheredidtheymoneygo. New Macbook was needed. Crapcrap.

The my monetary savior came in the form of a Marta bus. A bump to my car inflated my bank account by almost $800, and I was back in the game. A call to my aunt, and I had a ring. More on that later. Now how do I propose?

Well, I still wanted New Year’s Eve. Tricia is addicted to food, so I had to bring her out for dinner. Then what? Began to go through ideas online… and then it hit me. Online. We met online, we cultured our relationship online, and I am an online freak. Why not draw upon that? I love to share funny videos off of Youtube. I had my answer. Make a video! Rather than try to describe it, I’ll share it:

Tada. :) So obvious, I have a moment there to present the ring. And here it is:

And for some more pictures, click on these links.

Now for why I called my wonderful aunt. She has connections and really knows this stuff. Through her and her expertise, I ended up purchasing this ring. White gold, with a .47 carat centerpiece diamond, 2 sapphires, and a slew of smaller diamonds, this ring is over 1 carat, yet I paid $1050, tax included. But. My aunt, being as smart as she is, bought it at the New York Diamond Exchange for wholesale. The ring itself is appraised for $1700, and I’m told such a ring would sell here in Atlanta for about $3000. I’m pleased. :)

Oh, and she said yes. Hyperventilating and excited, after a great meal at Stonecrest Steakhouse in Augusta, resting at home alongside me on the sofa, Tricia said yes. And best of all, she had no idea. :)

Well! I’ve babbled on enough about romance stuff. In the last month, my Xbox red-ringed and was returned yesterday, much to the pleasure of my brother and I (Modern Warfare 2 ahoy!), and I’ve been played far too much Maplestory with my friends, see? Yep. I’ve reformatted Tricia’s Macbook so it will run better, and I got a 3.75 GPA last semester.

Life has been pretty good.

And I’m done for now. Perhaps I’ll write later about stuff that everyone else hasn’t seen already. XD

a friend in need is a friend indeed, a friend with weed is better

…Pay no mind to the title, simply a lyric from Placebo’s “Pure Morning” from their debut album “Without You I’m Nothing”. Picked it up last night from iTunes, and I’m enjoying it so far.

A number of times I load my blog and contemplate what to say. A number less I close it with far more work ahead of me. These past few weeks have been exactly that. What with Tricia moving in, fraternal obligations, but mostly class and project obligations… I’m been a busy fish. Working on a sonification project for Interactive Narrative/Fiction, our UI Design project, and just finished our Shakespeare Star Wars mashup, which I’d like to share here.

And opinions are more than welcome, either commented here or on the actual YouTube. :) I’m pleased with the outcome, especially Yoda’s bits and the Viceroy’s bits. :P

So I’m now sitting in UI Design and my weekend plans have been canceled. I’m okay with it – I understand why. I think I’ll end up sleeping when I get back to the apartment, but I’m unsure. I don’t know what else I can do – I’m actually more interested in doing nothing this weekend. :P

And suddenly it smells strongly of cut grass in here. Not the good kind of smell either, though I’ve never been a fan of the scent, but the sweaty gardener cut grass smell, and I’m getting a headache from this crap. I’ve actually been paying attention in this class now, but there’s only 10 minutes left. Maybe my next paragraph will be for the next class, but I feel like wrapping this up sooner than later.

I want, badly, some money. More and more often I find myself pining after something I can’t have, even though I would really like it. Even though I have the money for it, too, I can’t bring myself to buy it… like that Canon T1i. So… an alumnus emailed the fraternity with a job opening for a data entry specialist, and I emailed back my resume. 15 hours a week at $10 an hour? I hope they are okay with me. I’d love some spending money. I would buy that Canon T1i so fast. And… save for lenses. Like a Telephoto Zoom lense… or a tilt-shift lense. I had never seen or heard of tilt-shift before seeing this video last night. I am now fascinated with this, as this video is beautiful and perplexing at the same time.

This is Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Yes. The actual thing. The lense changes perspective so strongly you think you’re looking at a miniature model. I. Want. To. Do. This. x.x Also, the music is so soothing.

Not to mention a plethora of other little doodads I could use, like an external harddrive or a new router. I just ordered a new thumbdrive from Amazon that’s the same size and shape as a key, so it will fit with my keychain a lot easier. Y’know, stuff like that. >.>

Let’s see where things go, right?