The Drakos Chronicles: Boulder

My Final Update.

2008-08-28T13:07:00.002-06:00

And so after over two years of posting, I've left Boulder behind and now I embark upon a new journey to the Czech Republic. I thank both of my dedicated readers, and of course all my occasional ones as well. I hope that at least once these posts made you feel at little more connected to me when I was far away. In a few days I'll be hopping a plane to Europe, and if all goes according to plan I may not be back for a while, but, to my friends and family, remember I'm only an e-mail away. And naturally, this is not the end of the Chronicles, it is only the beginning.

For my last photo I've chosen a shot of a message I found written on a concrete wall surrounding a private property in Valmont, in the eastern outskirts of Boulder.

The full message read, if memory serves me: "TO THE PERSON WHO FILED A COMPLAINT THAT THIS WALL WAS A BIT TOO HIGH, HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN THE RULE OF LIVE AND LET LIVE?"

That seems a good note to go out on, and I believe I shall. Na schledanou!

~Drakos

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To see what's become of Drakos, check out the next volume:

The Drakos Chronicles: Volume II - drakos42.blogspot.com

Just because I've stopped updating, however, doesn't mean you can't relive my Boulder experience. Check out some of my labeled entries:

-My trips to Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon.

-The circumstances in which I vacated five jobs.

-Some of the many photos I've included in posts.

-Or the details of my various return trips to MD.

And of course you can find every post listed by month, at stage right --->

Thanks again for reading, and I look forward to your comments in my next blog.

Such Majesty 3: Monuments

2008-08-13T22:52:00.013-06:00

After leaving Yellowstone we headed east through Wyoming on a winding mountain road through the Bighorn National Forest. But eventually the land evened out a bit, and for miles we saw nothing but rolling hills. We stopped along the way, spending the night in Buffalo, a fairly ordinary Wyoming town. The next morning we continued through the plains until we reached our first stop of our day of monuments, the Devil's Tower. This natural monument is an igneous protrusion, so basically a spire of magma from which the surrounding land eroded, leaving this unworldly mountain. Perhaps you've seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Well this where them aliens landed.

Such Majesty

There was one spot near where I took this picture where you could clearly hear some climbers talking to each other halfway up the rock. I guess the shape lends itself to good acoustics. After a nice hike around the tower, we got back on the road and drove through the rest of Wyoming in order to reach our next destination.

The Black Hills of South Dakota, a sacred land we forced the Indians onto, and then off of soon after. There we stopped at the Crazy Horse memorial, which I'll come back to at the end, and then Mt. Rushmore where we spent the rest of the evening.

Such Majesty.. er.. Presidency

We arrived at the monument around five, and since my father wanted to see the supposed "light show" at nine, we had to milled about the park for four hours. Now, don't get me wrong, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt are just about the only American politicians I admire (up yours, Van Buren). But the park is not that large, so four hours was a little intense. And of course the "light show" turned out to be a crappy spotlight that barely lit the faces. Worst of all it was preceded by a ten minute speech by some random park ranger, and a twenty minute film entitled, Freedom: America's Living Legacy. Obviously the one thing I hate most about America is freedom. But in all seriousness, the speech wasn't terrible albeit a little formulaic, founding fathers and our personal legacy kind of stuff, and the video was more redundant that anything else. Seeing as how we had four hours to visit the museum first, I had already read and seen most of the content of the film (mostly how they carved the faces, and what each president had contributed to our country's legacy). I did see a mountain goat, so... that was cool. But all in all I would have much rather stayed at our previous destination longer.

The Crazy Horse Memorial. Or as my father continually referred to it:"That Indian one." Started more than half a century ago, the Lakota Indians hired Korczak Ziolkowski (a world's fair prize winning sculptor who had worked on Rushmore) to carve a humongous likeness of the legendary War Chief Crazy Horse. The monument continues to be blasted and carved today, despite Ziolkowski's death. When will this be finished? Well odds are not for a long time, as they are funded completely by the "interested public" who donate and visit the site each day. Apparantly it is against the purposes of the project for the memorial to accept government funding (it has declined a ten million dollar grant twice) in order to preserve the integrity. Part of it is that it might seem hypocritical to be supported by the government that quite literally stabbed Crazy Horse in the back, while he carried a flag of truce. I was quite fond of the place, but it's a shame that they cannot justify grant money as a sign of reparation on the part of the American Government for the whole genocide thing. Nonetheless, I tremendously respect their values. Also those constructing it (mainly Ziolkowski's surviving family) don't see the finished monument as the goal of the work. It is the process, people coming together to support a cause that means more than just a face in stone.

Such, gradually emerging, Majesty

As a matter of perspective observe the two photos I have given you of the monuments. The faces of Mt. Rushmore would fit into an area no bigger then the side of Crazy Horses head. This baby is huge. If you noticed the outline of the horses face, that is the glide lines that have been blasted out which will form the shape of his horse. Plus, at nine every night they have a laser show on the side of the mountain. I would have rather seen that then the Rushmore show. Lasers! Currently the project is receiving a great deal of attention, but still I strongly suggest if you are planning a trip anywhere near South Dakota, you check this place out. Also if you didn't check out the link where you can see the scale model of the finished memorial here it is again.

On the course of the trip I read a bit of Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Only a few pages in he says, "One piece of good sense would be more memorable than a monument as high as the moon." After seeing nothing but monuments, mountains, historic landmarks, and shit shooting out of the ground I've got majesty coming out the wazoo. So my immediate reaction to reading this was, buzz off you drunk, all this tells an endless story of the history of the western lands. Echoes of a people who lived with the land for ages, understanding it and holding it sacred, only to see it scarred first by manifest destiny, and then by pollution and development. The dreams of settlers seeking freedom in new lands, and hoping to create a world of prosperity for their children.

But now as I read Thoreau's words again I realize it is not the man-made beauty that speaks for this place. The lands them self tell prehistoric tales of volcanic eruption forming craters and calderas in seconds and then shaping mountain ranges through millennia. And then it is also those who have devoted their lives to the preservation of these lands who make these monuments what they are. The remaining tribes that live within Wyoming and the Dakotas, fighting everyday to save the forests and mountains from developers. The park rangers who stop people from throwing trash into the geysers, and who educate visitors as to why they should care. Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse are meaningless if people lack the "good sense" to carry on what the men and women behind the faces believed in. Independence from tyrants and foreign empires, the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Equality and citizenship for all peoples, and a higher standard of living for all, not just the bourgeois. Regardless of whether or not these men truly believed in these values and ideals, these are what they have left for us to defend. Jeez, I've gotten worse the Rushmore video. I must be suffering from majesty saturation. I need to get back to Maryland and go shopping at Sears or something.

~D
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Eating well on the road is hard. I am so fucking sick of garden-burgers.

Such Majesty 2: Yellowstone

2008-08-13T22:30:00.010-06:00

If ever there was a desire to further the personification of our Mother Earth, one possibility now obvious to me would be to tell tales of her flatulence, in the form of the volcanic springs and geysers of Yellowstone. Still, days after, the scent of sulfur lingers in my clothing. The park is home to several geyser basins, which contain hundreds of bubbling holes covered with bacterial colonies of almost unnatural colors and textures. Only a few look anything like I'd imagine a geyser would. Below is a shot of one that was true to my original mental image. This one just happened to go off as we were passing it by, and for close to ten minutes it drenched the walkway with a cool, sulfurous shower.

Such smelly Majesty

I've decided not to show a picture of Old Faithful as you can surely find much better photos easily. Also the only thing remarkable about it is its predictability, which is getting worse and worse as magma shifts the fissures and tourists throw shit into it. There are some geysers in the park that can explode up to 300ft in the air for the better part of an hour, but you need to be lucky to see it happen. But to get back to my point, the majority of the geysers are fairly calm, and are as I've said colorful, occasionally bubbly vats of bacteria. Check out a few in my Piscasa Album.

On wildlife spotting:

A certain acute sense of sight is developed when hours are spent carving the scenery for wildlife. The slightest movement, or simply anything remotely brown triggers it. This sense served me well, but after the trip it has become something of an annoyance. Even on the road back from WY, my eyes dashed back and fourth every few seconds focusing on the humdrum sights of pastured cows, horses, and tree trunks.

Allow me to now list the priority of wildlife spotting according to my father:

The Abridged List
-Grizzly Bear
-Bull Moose
-Black Bear
-Bald Eagle
-Bison
-Bull Elk
-Female Deer/Moose/Elk
-Rodents with fat tails
-Rodents with skinny tails
-Other Birds of Prey
-Birds with long necks
-Birds with no remarkable features
-Plants (green, et al.)
-Microbes (within bacteria mats)

I'd say that this is a pretty standard list for most people. I was able to observe these preferences based on what animals my dad stopped the car for. One near the top would merit a round of photos followed by a second drive-by, whereas further towards the bottom perhaps he would slow down to 5 below the speed limit (as opposed to his normal cruising speed of 3 below). And of course, once you've seen one of an animal, it loses it's place, only to return after a few hours of spotting nothing above a small rodent. Apparently once you've seen an elk, it not longer becomes worth stopping to see them. On any other day an elk sighting would be a story to tell for days. But, then again, how often do elk come marching down the road in Maryland. So anyway, I didn't even have to try to see this guy, as he was munching on dandelions right next to the road:

Such Majesty (and yet so adorable).

He must have liked people because he chose to stop right next to a stretch of road where several cars were pulled over taking pictures of the scenery. I assume it occurred in that order.

There is so much more I could talk about in Yellowstone, but I'll leave it to you to go and experience it for yourself. I was able to see most of the interesting sites in two and a half days, but as I had neither the time nor the right people with me, there were tons of trails and campgrounds I didn't set foot on. I end my post with a shot of Artist's Point, the most photographed view in Yellowstone for obvious reasons. I'd tell you to just Google it like I did with Old Faithful, but I just like my photo so much.

Such Majesty.
(With no sarcasm this time)

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Still, to be continued...

Such Majesty 1: Grand Tetons

2008-08-13T09:43:00.011-06:00

I'm back in Boulder for the time being, so now I can in good conscience continue this blog...

Last week I was able to take a week long trip with my parents through Wyoming and South Dakota, stopping at a number of parks and monuments along the way, so here it is! My three part coverage of the trip.

Our first stop was at the beautiful Grand Teton National Park. A few miles south of Yellowstone, this park is the home of one of the most magnificent mountain ranges I've ever seen. The titular mountain is of course the Grand Teton, neighbored by the Middle and Lower Teton. These three got there name when French explores, seeing them from over 150 miles ago called them "the three tits (la tres tetons)."

Such Majesty.

Our day at the park was nice. The restaurants found in the park villages all offered an excellent selection of organic and vegetarian foods. Apparently the park service understands the advantages of a conservationist attitude, as it is pretty much there livelihood at sake. Climate change, industrial farming, mass-producing feedlot slaughterhouse, all of these in one way or another put wilderness areas (et al.) in jeopardy.

Anyway, we made our way along the scenic byways that parallel the mountain range, stopping along the way to take pictures. Then, just outside of Moose Junction, we saw a Moose! Can you even imagine!?

Such... Majesty?

Next, we hopped aboard a raft for a scenic float trip, that boasted astounding mountain views and wildlife spotting. It was hot and I got sunburned, and it went really slow. I guess it was kind of fun, and we did see a bald eagle, but that was about it. I wanted to see the big kahuna. The piece de resistance. The other cliche about something awesome.

A whistle-pig.

I was under the impression that this is simply another name for a groundhog. Others have told me it's a marmot. Either way I didn't see one so I don't know. But that waitress claimed they were all over the place. Gypped!

So after the raft ride we moved along to Jenny Lake, where we hiked up the side of cascade canyon, just north of Grand Teton, saw a pretty large waterfall, and then on my own I scrambled, lightheaded, to Inspiration Point. The first of many points.

"Such Majesty!" He said, in between gasping for air.

That night we stayed in the park in one of the cabins. With both running water and electricity it could hardly have been called roughing it, but it was peacefully there nonetheless (although it rained all night on the metal cabin roof). Early the next morning I took a hike through the woods, and came face to face with a coyote, a group of deer, and an ass-load of mosquitoes. After breakfast we hit the road and made our way north to the main leg of trip, three days and two nights in Yellowstone.

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To be continued...

The Current State of Affairs

2008-06-30T22:19:00.001-06:00

Ours has become a world of hand-helds; Americans have a portable device for everything (in some cases everything in one). Look around your public bus, or metro train. You'll see music players the size of your thumb, phones with cameras, keyboards, or on rare occasions phones that are nothing but phones, to name a few. But now what do we have to complement our devices? The OneTouch. A diabetes monitor that comes in several designer colors to match your lifestyle. This is a world where the so-called "Diseases of Civilization" have become so commonplace that testing our blood sugar levels is as convenient as checking your e-mail, or sending a text message. Let me say now that I'm glad they've made it so easy for diabetics, like my mother, to monitor their levels, as they have enough to worry about already. But things have gotten out of hand.

Is the solution throwing out everything in the refrigerator containing High Fructose Corn Syrup? Apparently last night I thought so, which is why this will be my last post for a while, as I am now grounded from using the internet. I need to work on my bouts of mania, perhaps.

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I might be lying.

My Triumphant Return... in reverse.

2008-06-15T21:05:00.003-06:00

In the tradition of several other posts, I once again am announcing my return, but this time from the other side of the picture. In approximately one month's time I will be heading back to Boulder for a few weeks, in order to make my final farewells before I embark upon my new journey. While I'm there I hope to take a trip on the scale of last year's Southwest Canyon tour, this time northward to Yellowstone, et al. You can expect a few more posts once that happens.

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See you soon.

On second thought.

2008-06-01T21:27:00.000-06:00

You might recall several weeks ago I complained of my annoyance with the new computerized system the Howard County Public Library had been using, in which I would have to reserve any popular books I wanted ahead of time. I of course was being whining and unwilling to use any effort whatsoever to find a free copy of Eugenides' Middlesex. I still think there current system of check-out is needlessly complex and biased towards families without computers at home, but I must give them kudos for an number of other things.

1. They have free books.

2. They're organized with a numerical system that can be deciphered with help of the automated card catalog.

-These are characteristics of any modern library. We can take them for granted, so I ought to have not even brought them up.

3. Since 2006 HoCo has used Ubuntu Linux within its servers and allows vistors use of a number of open-source programs.

If ever there was a truly practical use for open-source programming, here it is exemplified. The severely underfunded HoCo Libraries (yet one of the best funded in the country) decided they'd rather not pay out the ass for buggy and proprietary copies of Vista. They're still paying for it, but at a fraction of the previous costs for what I believe to be better resources. Read up on it if you'd like the exact numbers.

...finally 4. Despite my inablity to find two or three books I wanted back in February, they have an reasonable collection of Noam Chomsky, with whom I plan to be better acquanted with by summer's end.

Since I need an April post.

2008-03-13T22:01:00.000-06:00

"What's your secret," they all ask. "How do you stay so fit and trim now that you no longer live in the fittest state in the country?"

Well folks it's quite simple to do really, as it's all in the diet. Cheerios. Boxed Wine. Daily.

When I get home after a hard days work, I make sure to start the early afternoon off right with a handful of O's washed down with a nice glass of Franzia Shiraz. This goes on until about 1 am. Then I get plenty of rest, wake up at 10, and it's off to work again.

My cholesterol level must be so low. But I think my bones are melting.

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It's so pretty! Wait, no, I meant bad-ass.

Post-Boulder Grievance #2 & #3

2008-03-12T21:37:00.004-06:00

Number 2: I have to drive to do anything here. $67 to fill the tank. In Boulder I could've bought a monthly bus pass for less than that (if I'd had to, which I didn't cause I'm sly like that).

Granted, I wouldn't have burned through a tank so quickly if I hadn't listened to all those audiobooks while driving. They both distracted me, making me miss turns and have to backtrack, and encouraged me to "take the long way home" (Supertramp) so I could finish a chapter.

Columbia has a funny way of making me stretch the limits a bit on what I considered living a decent life. You know, conservation, being healthy, and the like. None of that here.

Which brings me to the third grievance, lack of vegetarian options. I made the mistake of going to a Wendy's the other day, as it is of course the best of the fast food in the area, and thus the only affordable food in the area (outside of my kitchen). Every salad option has chicken, except the side caesar, which has bacon. I swear there were only two meat free foods on the menu, fries cooked in lard, and the microwaved baked potato with chives. It was gross. If I want good food I'll either have to cook it myself, or spend a lot more, in places that are generally closed before 9pm.

In summation: Fuck this shit. ~D

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Despite it all, March gives me hope for the future.

Post-Boulder Grievance #1

2008-03-01T22:15:00.001-07:00

I'm pissed off. About libraries. Yeah, that's right.. Libraries. First of all I'm pissed that the libraries here in Maryland aren't nearly as cool as in Boulder. Granted HoCo (Howard County) does have one of the best library systems in the country, so I guess I was just spoiled in... uh... BoCo?

So here's my second and most important gripe. Even though I found my old library card hidden away in a box in my closet it won't do me a bit of good as far as checking out books is concerned. These damn libraries are all high-tech and online now. It's cool that they're modernizing, but it's basically become a system where you visit the website and reserve the book ahead of time, and then when it's finally returned you get a notice to come pick it up. So what that means is that with any book I want, not only do I have to wait for a copy to be returned, I also have to wait in a virtual line behind the other twenty people who all want the same book. Just now, I've recalled that at some point back around 2004 or so, (before the electronic reserve system) I found that the book I wanted was never there, and it was just easier to go to Barnes and Noble. So, why don't I just do that now, you might ask? I can't afford $20 a book.

Thus, only one option remains. Piracy. ~D

The Flight of Young Drakos.

2008-02-15T04:11:00.003-07:00

Less then 36 hours left till my flight. So time for my final thoughts. Huzzah craigslist, I'd say. Essentially everyone I've met out here is somehow related to a post. Every job as well. Here's an example of one of my posts that didn't work out in the end:

Anyone else love swingsets? - m4mw

Is there anybody else out there like me who never got tired of the swings down at the playground? Hope so. I'm a future grad student looking for a friend to go out to a park with and enjoy the fresh air.

P.S. I was considering calling this post "Calling all Swingers" but I was concerned about the ambiguity.

I got maybe seven responses, but none of them panned out. Oh well. Next Topic...

My Triumphant Return. A phrase that I've thrown around a lot in this blog. Only time will tell if I can live up to that title. I just took a walk around Boulder, and climbed to the top of a parking garage. It gave me a giraffe's-eye view of the city, and a heavy dose of nostalgia. Eaton Humanities, home of the Classics department. The Valmont hump, I tried to climb it but it was covered in fences and coal mines so I gave up and got horribly lost in East Boulder. That wine tasting place that would sell you alcohol on Sunday, despite Colorado liquor law (Easter Sunday even). The Post office, where I once got a job application ("You wanna work at the post office? Really?" the man said, "Alright, fill out this 20 page application. Yep, I know. It's awful.") I could go on, but it's about time I shut down and packed up my computer.

I'll be home in about 24 hours now. So this will be my last post from Boulder. Farewell hippies, farewell free bus-pass, farewell sixty degree weather followed by six inches of snow. Farewell local businesses, farewell wellness conglomerates, farewell wind-powered brewery with organic wheat beer, farewell vegan-friendly gluten-free muffins with flaxseed. Farewell historic frontier architecture. Farewell prairie dogs, mountain lions, black bears and the Wildlands Alliance. Farewell friends, farewell co-workers, farewell horrible managers. Farewell wasted opportunity, farewell mountain adventures. Farewell time zone, farewell rock gardens, farewell overpriced clothing stores.

Farewell, Boulder. But fear not, for I shall return.

~D
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END OF VOLUME ONE

In Search of Fulfilling Work...

2008-02-08T19:57:00.000-07:00

"I am a young energetic college graduate in search of a fulfilling work environment, and I believe that a place at your company is the sort of employment opportunity I am looking for."

With an opening line like that no wonder I got nothing but shitty, shitty jobs. As my time in Boulder comes to a close I wish to reflect on what was sadly my main pass-time here. We have several to get through, so I'll jump right in.

Old Navy - Three weeks - Quit

After unsuccessful interviews at LiquorMart, and PlayFair Toys, I was desperate for any pay check I could get, what with my first bills piling up and all. So when I was offered the job at Old Navy I was happy to agree to work whatever, whenever. However, within a week of 6am shifts and never ending training exercises I was about done with Gap Inc. It was tedious, boring, and they forced us to push credit cards on customers. But in their defense, they are taking steps to stop using foreign sweatshops and start progressive programs. On the other hand, the job sucked and they played the same five pop muzak songs on loop. As soon as I had another job in the wings, I was out. I would've got a photo but the Old Navy is now an annex of REI.

Pharmaca - Eight months

Broadway - Four months - Transfered

What I consider to have been my most substantial job here was cashiering at Pharamaca Integrative Pharmacies. Those who bothered to read any portion of Chapter One of the Chronicles should know how I felt about the job. In November around when I decided to start grad school early, I described my life as "sluggishly waiting out the clock everyday at a job that keeps me stuck in a small box on my feet for eight hours doing nothing I find particularly interesting or in anyway consequential." What I've noticed is that I didn't mention anything about the corporation being hideously evil, so perhaps it wasn't quite as bad as some other places I've worked (see below). On the other hand, I haven't reread all my entries, nor do I want to, lest I relive my "mental anguish." One more important note though, it was at Pharmaca Broadway that I met some of the people who defined my life here in Boulder. If not for that job I would have probably ended up in a very different place.

Pearl - Four months - Quit

So after a few months at one Pharmaca I thought that if I transfered to the less hectic, closer store I'd be a little happier. I also cut down my hours to very part-time. I worked mainly Sundays, as I had Latin class during the week. The thing about Sunday: already a slow day, and this Pharmaca usually got little business. Coming from one of the busiest stores it was quite a change. Not for the better really, as there is a happy median between too busy and too slow. One that I've yet to find. When things would get really slow the management would get antsy and have me do ridiculous things. Also I could often see one of my superiors peeking over the aisles glaring at me now and then. I think the main issue with that job is they really didn't need to be there, and neither did I. Once again, when I had my next job lined up I kind of left them suddenly and informed them via e-mail.

Environment Colorado - Three weeks - Fired!

I've already spoken a great deal about this job. Proportionately to the time I spent there, I've probably said more about it than any other. Thus, I can keep this short. It fucking sucked when I didn't get contributions, and it was awesome when I did. The whole thing ended up being just above minimum wage after there hid(Photo)den rules, and when the proposal to join the class action lawsuit against them came I considered it seriously. If you really want to read it all again, check out my only entry for June 2007 (now with line breaks). Again, I would've got a photo but the The Boulder Optical Building which houses their office is covered by a large tarp right now.

Peaceful Mountain - Six weeks - Stormed the fuck out

Probably my most enjoyable job out here, filling and labeling shit at Peaceful Mountain was short-lived and bittersweet. I met some cool people and mastered the art of the bagged lunch. Then it all went to shit. My brother did a good job of summing it up in his hijack entry. I won't say anything terribly derogatory about the jobs, since I know that they regularly google their company for mention in blogs and websites. I'll just say that when they fire their team, they do it with style. Anyway, can't really complain too much, got a few more paychecks (which I'm only now paying the tax on). And then I basically spent it all on this computer. So many cores, and rams, and.. uh.. drives. And sweet, sweet Ubuntu. I'd love to have a picture of their building, but I'm far too lazy to ride the bus out to Valmont. Plus, that's prairie-dog country.

Vitamin Cottage - Four months - Quit (with notice even)

After an interesting trip to the Grand Canyon in August, I rejoined the workforce for what would turn out to be last job in Boulder. It went... poorly. I really couldn't stand cashiering there at all. Obviously I'm being nit-picky, (just look how long this list is) but I think that whatever it was that I didn't like about Pharmaca was worse at the Cottage. Despite that my co-workers were all pretty awesome, they were the reason I stayed at the job so long (a relative term of course). I wish them nothing but the best. Much like Environment Colorado, I rambled a great deal upon my resignation in my only December 2007 post.

Needless to say, I had a lot of tax forms to watch for. I just got last of them a few days ago, in fact. Really only four, but still... four. I don't know what's to be done with me really. I guess my reasoning for my poor job performance out here was that I always was working because I had to in order to do what I really wanted. This presented a problem: What the hell do I want? I still don't know, and I doubt that's unusual either. It'll be interesting (to me at least) to see what kind of job I get when I get back to Maryland, and if I react to it in the same way. More than likely, I'll be unhappy with it. If I recall correctly it was Milan Kundera who said something to the effect of: No man is happy if he dislikes his city. Although I certainly don't hate Boulder (despite what some of my likenesses have said), I haven't lived in Boulder for a long while. Since April 14th in fact. That was the day I decided to go the Czech Republic. My heart has been there ever since, so I could never be happy anywhere else. What scares me is that perhaps when I get there, I'll find that my heart has moved on again.

God knows where it'll take me then. ~D

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"You will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not" -Cat Stevens

In the Mountain Twilight...

2008-02-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

It's not really ironic, really more coincidental. I am referring to the fact that this is the 100th published post of The Boulder Chronicles, and I'm using it to officially announce that I'm leaving Boulder. In roughly two weeks, I'll be catching a flight back to Maryland, possessions in tow. This, however, does not mean the end of this blog, although I will eventually transition to a new site, you should consider this to be merely the ending of volume one of The Drakos Chronicles, a masterpiece of the occasional ramblings of my humdrum observations. So anyway, rather than reminisce about my first stay out here in Boulder (as I do hope to return soon), I'll speak/type instead of the future.

As many of you probably know next September I hope to be on a plane to the Czech Republic where I'll be taking a TEFL certification course. This is almost set in stone, I've been accepted into a program, and alls I gotta do is cough up some euros. After the class, I'll be trained to teach English abroad, so where ever I can get a suitable job is where I'll be staying for the year. By moving back to MD for a few months beforehand I should be able to save enough money in order to facilitate my survival in Europe. So of course during my travels I'll keep you all posted on my goings-on in volume two of The Drakos Chronicles, of which I have yet to think up a cheesy enough name. Right now I'm considering Drakos Abroad, The Prague Chronicles, The Drakos Chronicles: Operation Europa, or how ever you say The Drakos Chronicles in Prague-ish.

In summation, I'll update and paraphrase something I said 100 entries ago: It seems pretty likely now that I'll be moving there so I decided to continue blogging for anyone who dares to care what I'm up to halfway across the world.

Stay tuned for my sentimental recounting of every job I've had it Boulder. That task may require a lot of typing. ~D
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Quite an eventful return from hiatus.

New Year Hiatus.

2008-01-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

And so we've come to the end of another year, and another chapter of the Boulder Chronicles. Whereas I usually take unplanned breaks from posting, this month I'll be deliberately ignoring y'all as I get my shit together. I know. It's terrible isn't it.

Hiatus! ~D

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"..."

Again, I quit.

2007-12-10T22:11:00.000-07:00

The following is paraphrased from the words of a co-worker at my, soon to be former, workplace:

So, in the meeting he said that there were two management styles they could employ. In the first the managers enforce the rules established by "corporate". In the second, preferred style, we all police each other and report those breaking the rules to the management. I resisted the urge to tell him that this was fascism he was describing.

Although I don't entirely agree that what my manager said, word for word, was in fact fascism, I can find few other words that truly capture what a corporation really is. I will not make a direct statement defining my employers as such a weighted term, for I have no business labeling anything fascist. I simply haven't read enough to truly use such a word. Furthermore, I could easily be fired for what I've said already, and added to the list.

On second thought, my existence at Vitamin Cottage is inconsequential, and tomorrow will be my second to last day. Therefore, I will say whatever I damn well feel like. Thank you, invisible audience for giving me the chance to do so.

In Boulder there are many natural grocery stores to choose from, but most are now owned by WholeFoods. One of the few exceptions is Vitamin Cottage, an independent business that started around half a century ago in Colorado, and can be found through the state, and in New Mexico. The particular store where I work is the most successful of them all, in terms of sales. There are many possible reasons for this. One is that the store practically shares a parking lot with WholeFoods. This makes it easy for customers to shop at both, getting lower prices at Vitamin Cottage, and then if we happen to be sold out of or not carry something they need, they can head over to the giant WholeFoods. We're a small store so we are out of things often, and if one were to shop exclusively at our store, they'd have to deal with the constant annoyance of not getting everything they need/want. People are lazy. I too would rather get all my shopping done in one trip, rather then go out of my way to save a few bucks.

So this situation has worked out great for Vitamin Cottage, and if all that really matters to you is price, it's a great place to shop. But if you're just as concerned about supporting smaller, less evil corporations, a concern which many customers have expressed to me personally, this store is not your haven. Even the assistant manager himself said to me during my interview, "Why not work at Wholefoods, we're a corporation too, what's the difference?" I had hoped that this question was merely his way of testing how committed I was to supporting local businesses, but I now have no doubts that as a tool of the corporation, this is his way of looking at it. Many customers came our way after the local co-op closed down, saying "This is our last refuge." But it's not. There is nowhere to run now. Every month the cement that the employees walk through hardens a little more (management not excluded, in fact it is they who deal most with the corporatism and bureaucracy) . It's become all rules, structure, and uniformity.

Many people I have met out here have at one time said to me, "Were you here when (such and such local business) closed down? That was the one of last of the real 'Boulder' places." Each time they referred to a different shop that was at one time the lifeblood of Boulder. You can imagine I was discouraged to find that I had moved to a dying city. I have though much on it to try and debunk this idea, by finding something still thriving that truly captures that which makes Boulder "Boulder." The mountains will always be here, I suppose. Locally owned zero-waste cafes aren't hard to find. There's still plenty of pot everywhere. But these are all merely on the surface, the aesthetics of what I believe Boulder once was. Right now, having been here for a mere year and half, I think that Boulder is a vibrant city, with one of the highest standards of living in the country, and many progressive policies and ideas. It's a city with a long fruitful life ahead of it. But as it grows bigger and "better" as a city, the community dies. It was the people that made "Boulder" what it was. Just as a human heart is fragile and ever-changing, so is "Boulder". I'll reiterate my beliefs (so as to give myself another chance to state them more clearly). The community that was once found here in Boulder is what has all but died out. That is what the people whom I've talked to saw disappear with the closing of that one shop on the corner.

What does this all have to with anything? I believe that the incorporation of small businesses is a big part of the changes Boulder has seen in recent years. Vitamin Cottage is milking this by maintaining an image as a friendly neighborhood grocer, while becoming just as corporate as the rest. So it profits and expands, allowing it to be a competitor with the other businesses that are taking over Boulder, but some customers, those who still long for the old "Boulder" they knew, still think they are supporting their (dying) community. Forgive me if I postulate too much. I have no proof of any of this. Perhaps this Boulder of legend never existed. Perhaps corporations aren't a bad thing, and every new rule at Vitamin Cottage will benefit the customers and employees in the long run. Perhaps in twenty years no one will miss those small, local stores.

I really fucking doubt it. ~D

___________
"Open your heart. I'm coming home."

Snow. Finally?

2007-11-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

So it snowed last week. Ah, memories of last year. This time around it took another month for it to get cold enough for the first real snowstorm. And of course Boulder weather would fuck with me with a summer-like monday, autumny Tuesday, and dead of winter Wednesday. Worst of all, Thursday wasn't anything like spring, to complete the cycle. Now it's just freakin' cold. But that's cool, my new coat's getting plenty of use. Anyway, I hiked a bit in the snow and got a few pictures.

Also, it seems I've accomplished everything I hoped to do this month. Woot. ~D

_________________________________
"The night was..."

Photos: The Denver Zoo

2007-11-12T01:06:00.001-07:00

November 2007

Potcakes' Amazing Whirly-gig

2007-11-11T01:34:00.000-07:00

So... um... I'd never imagined having to say something like this. I think my intellectual property has been stolen. You know how the RIAA gets all hot and bothered when a single mom downloads some music, and they fuck up her life forever. Yeah this is a bit different.

As some of you may know, a certain character that I used to doodle often was imitated by an acquaintance of mine whom I lost touch with after middle school. Cool. So when I was told that the drawing had become widely accepted as an Lancos bird, I was outraged, but of course mainly for comic effect. It was a doodle after all, nothing tremendously interesting. But tonight I was invited to join a Facebook group in which one can purchase a T-shirt of the "Lancos Kiwi" for 15 US$. The group's main function is to spread the phenomenon of the image. I'm all for the kiwi becoming a popular. Somehow using it for monetary gain concerns me. Let us review the case of Joseph Swan, the first to patent the light bulb, some say. What also bothers me is his use of a trademark next to the drawing. Is this to prevent others from ripping off his idea? I leave it at that. I intend to congratulate him on creating such a following for my favorite bird. We'll see what happens from there, and whether or not I'll have to fish through my old things at home to find one of the thousands of kiwis I drew in years before I met this fellow. To be fair he did invite me into the group, and perhaps recognition is among his reasons for doing so. Equally likely, he doesn't even remember where he "thought it up," and was a mass group invite. And in all honesty my brother/Jumping Flash probably deserves the credit for it all. Hmmm.... more on that later.

_______________________
What's life without juicy details?

My Triumphant Return: That time again.

2007-11-09T22:36:00.000-07:00

So after weeks of forethought I've finally decided on a course of action for this years holiday vacation. Weather permitting I shall return of December 23rd. This time I've given myself two weeks to start with, so if I get stranded again I'll have some extra time to work with. Last year, as you may recall, I had planned on only spending five days at home, but the snow led me to a two week January vacation. A blessing in disguise you might say. We'll see how this year goes. I'm less concerned about making the most of my time at home... since I'll have plenty of time there when I... nevermind.

Oh, and the we've sold the last Heritage Turkey. Narragansett is extinct. But my hands remain clean. Let's just say I'd need to do some serious catching up if I want to win the contest.

Halloween Reflection

2007-10-30T23:32:00.000-06:00

With November in the near future, holidays abound, I need to put this month in perceptive.

This month I:

-Won the first battle against Seasonal affective disorder.
-Made my Linux shinier.
-Finished every Vonnegut thing ever.
-Mistook my wireless mouse for my contact lens case.
-Hitchhiked in the mountains.
-Seriously considered a pea coat.
-Pretty much failed at everything.

Next month I hope I:

-Conquer S.A.D. once and for all.
-Make shinier Linux actually work.
-Maybe read a new author maybe?
-"Won't get fooled again". Lyrics by Pete Townshend
-Don't get eaten by a bear.
-Seriously buy the damn coat already.
-Fail a bit less at everything.

Gobble Gobble Gob--Bang

2007-10-15T23:36:00.001-06:00

So I'm trying to figure out where my motivation is coming from.

Lately I've been very indignant at work when asked to help people make a "Turkey Deposit." Essentially this is a reservation for the organic turkeys we'll be selling for Thanksgiving. It's my understanding that we are supposed to even suggest to the customers that they get one. I don't know if it's been mentioned in the Chronicles, but I'm a vegetarian, and every day I get a little more crazy into it. So, for me to encourage a customer to order a turkey, in my head seems as if I've just murdered an innocent bird. I decided I would refuse to this, and I think that's fair. What worries me is that now when people come to me wishing to order a turkey, under only their own influence, I still feel disgusted that by entering a PLU I would be telling a farm somewhere that we need one more carcass in our store next month. The reason this situation seems different to me then when a customer simply buys a package of chicken breast is because these turkeys are still alive somewhere. Of course if my customers don't order one, someone else's will, there are only a set number of turkeys that will be delivered and they always sell out early. Any turkey I refuse to sell will be killed anyhow. But when I enter that code, I still feel the gravy on my hands.

Here's the worst part: There's some sort of contest. Whoever gets the most turkey deposits wins a bonus. Fuck. Keep your blood money. Well, perhaps I should lighten up. I've probably been a vegetarian for a much shorter time than most of my co-workers who are as well. They don't seem to mind any of this. So I'm trying to figure out where my motivation is coming from. Moral outrage and empathy for all living things? Or trying to demonize the corporation that I blame for my sour moods. More than likely it's the latter. But in defense of my honor I really do feel, each time, like I've pulled a trigger. I don't know man, read this "Ark of Taste" shit.

_____________________________________
I hate this place in the present, but I love it the past.

The lessons I've learned from Monolith.

2007-09-16T11:00:00.000-06:00

1. Drum synths are fun to play with for at least an hour.

2. Bob Log III knows a chord which makes women "put their boob in his drink."

3. Art Brut is top of the Pops.

4. Always pick up sunglasses you find on the ground. You may get hugged.

5. Hemp ice cream is delicious.

6. The BJM really ought to go fuck themselves. (I refuse to spell out the bands full name so as to avoid gaining them any recognition whatsoever.)

7. Minorities don't listen Indy Rock.

8. Giant red rocks are awesome, but this goddamn country's full of them.

9. Lights are better when irradiated. So claims The Flaming Lips.

10. I'm hopelessly in love with Wayne Coyne.

________________
Those are the mountains up there.

Enter Post Title Here.

2007-09-06T01:02:00.000-06:00

I've once again stooped to a new low. Gambling. And not that cool gambling from Rounders. Scratch-off lottery tickets. There's another paycheck down the drain.

For those of you who didn't hear the news, I'm working at Vitamin Cottage now. This is pretty much my last chance to make it big in the natural health industry out here. If this doesn't work out I'll have to start buying my Cold Snap at Whole Foods (shudder). It's going pretty well there I suppose, it would seem I enjoy bagging. Also, as of yet no one has said, "Retail is detail." Let's pray that it stays that way, for the sake of the last remaining shred of sanity I cling to.

________________________________________________________
Every time you see the word also, read it alas. Takes the narrative up a peg.

Twenty-three.

2007-08-28T16:21:00.000-06:00

What good could possibly come of being 23?

I got a voicemail last night in which I thought my grandmother said "Hope you having a good time, or at least feeling better about getting one year old, and one year closer to death," however upon a second listen I believe she in fact said "one year closer to success."

I don't know.. getting older might have it's perks, but I think I'm gonna stop.

_______________________
I'm pretty much sick of it already.

Update: I learned tonight that I might have something to look forward to this year. Apparently 23 is the year the stigmata usually happens. I await it eagerly.

Cacti and Green Chile.

2007-08-18T14:00:00.000-06:00

...And then we went to Sedona where I tried to pick a prickly pear cactus. That hurt. Afterwards we spent a while in the car, drove through a petrified forest, and Albuquerque. I'm not sure which was least impressive. The next day I saw a bit of downtown Santa Fe, and a sculpture garden (The Foundry). Finally, we scoured the land for an authentic Mexican restaurant, to get me some of that green chil(i/e). It was good. So was the six hour ride home in a van full of people digesting Mexican cuisine.

There you have it! The thrilling conclusion to my trip.

______
I told you it was anti-climactic.

Giant Freaking Holes.

2007-08-17T14:00:00.001-06:00

I'll assume that you've seen National Lampoon's Vacation. Well, sadly my trip to the Grand Canyon wasn't nearly as funny. If only my father was Chevy Chase. But he isn't, and it tears me up inside. Every day. I just hope you like holes in shit.

Cause here's a million pictures of just that.

Arches National Park

Our first stop on our five day tour of the American Southwest was the Arches park just above Moab, Utah. It was a great way to start the trip, lots of funky looking rocks, but it was like a million degrees there. Also my parents got fed up with my scrambling to get good angles and left me for dead at one point.

I lived.

Bryce Canyon National Park

The next day we traveled along Highway 12 Scenic Byway, an All-American Road.
I couldn't see what made it more American than any other road, as found no trace of baseball or apple pie. There was a Boulder, Utah along the way but that place sucked. Not even one walking mall! Anyway. We eventually made our way to Bryce Canyon, the hoodoo capital of America. There were many European tourists (pretty much during the whole trip really) which was fun because I learned the word for hoodoo in like five languages.

It's hoodoo.

The Grand Canyon: North Rim

So the next day we left Utah and crossed into Arizona. I have to say I liked Utah. I never would have expected to, since I hate everything, but it was really quite pretty, and aside from Arches much of it was temperate and green. And despite what I had heard, I didn't see a single Mormon church until we entered Arizona. Also Utah's getting the Pirate Party, which is just awesome. But, as this was a Grand Canyon trip we had to go stupid old Arizona. A few hours later we made it to the North Rim of the canyon. Eagerly I grabbed my camera and headed for Bright Angel Point to take in a panoramic view. But that freaking hole scared the hell out of me. I took a few pictures and got out of there. Then, as if I wasn't anxious enough, we went to a higher view point... the highest in fact: Point Imperial. This is best phrase I could really think of to describe exactly what this view was like in person:

Jesus Shitting Christ-Fuck.

If I fell somehow (quite impossible from where I was standing, tethered to the car), I would probably have died of starvation before I hit the ground. Yeah. It was pretty high. But what was really neat was that up there we could see a rain storm coming from like fifty miles away... quickly.

So we had a picnic.

The Grand Canyon: South Rim

But of course, that wasn't enough for us. When we were done with the North we drove all the way around that damned hole to the South Rim. Passed right through the Navajo reservation territory too. This was not an All-American Road. Go figure. When we arrived at the first viewpoint I noticed right away how much more touristy it was. I bought a veggie-burger at the food court. Behold the majesty of nature. But bring cash. Despite the crowds and the.. gift shops.. it was a good view, much wider than the North Rim angles. At the next viewpoint it started to rain a bit, so I started running and yelling at my family to get back in the car. "Ball lightening!" I shouted, "Shut the door!" For those of you who don't know, ball lightening is real. It will find you, and it will kill you. We were able to keep ahead of the rain, having about five minutes at each view before the storm caught up. But then further along the canyon we looked back, and there in the sky was a vivid rainbow:

Nifty.

After that the rain blew over and we were able to see a fantastic sunset over the canyon. All in all a pretty eventful day. It would have been perfect if we could have pulled over on the road and seen the stars out there, but my father was paranoid that we wouldn't get a hotel if we didn't get back into a cellular service area and make a reservation immediately. Of course we ended up having no trouble finding a room. The next day we headed down south into central Arizona, and there was quite a bit of confusion surrounding what time it was. Apparently they don't have daylight savings time in Arizona, except in Navajo country, so at some point our cell phones auto-corrected the time. My dad's watch, however, was an hour early, so on top of his usual impatience and slave-driving, I'll bet he thought we were all deliberately sleeping in to spite him.

And that's when things got ugly.

_____
Stay tuned for the anti-climactic conclusion to the Drakos Family Southwest Vacation.

New apartment. Same lethargy.

2007-08-09T23:14:00.000-06:00

My face is cold again. I'll let you guess why.

-An unrelated photo-

________
If I could only catch enough coelacanth, I wouldn't be in this mess.

Movin On Up!

2007-08-05T01:52:00.000-06:00

Yeah, I pretty much quit my job at the Peaceful Mountain. Lets just say things weren't too peaceful last week, if you know what I mean. And if you were there, you know what I mean. Yay worker solidarity! But anyway, my brother (who is pretty much the coolest) and I went to this awesome part tonight, and I totally danced around like a fool until I got wasted and peed myself.
That was bad, but I did manage to embarrass myself in front of people I didn't know, and make a few new friends as well, so all in all it was a good night.

Really? Did I really pee myself? Really?

Anyway, I just wanted to say what a great brother I have for driving me around, and for not totally trashing my blog when he accidentally got editing access to it. The worst he did was to write this little bit, which is practically what I would have written anyway. He could have put something really offensive of embarrassing up here, but instead he just confused me into thinking I had written an entry whilst too drunk to remember, or was otherwise loosing my mind... which I may be. All the same, he did introduce me to Kurt Vonnegut, so I owe him there, which means I'll probably let this little infringement slide.

Oh, and I like the smell of old ladies farts.

_____
I don't remember writing any of this!!!

It's all changing.

2007-07-24T19:05:00.000-06:00

Well suddenly it's happened. I think I have it in me to actually post something. Let's see how this goes.

So the last few weeks have been rather busy for me, working 40 hour weeks, setting up my new linux only computer, hiking mountains, helping people move, etc. I have to admit ever since I got back to Boulder last month I've been feeling more and more at home here. For now I don't mind my job at Peaceful Mountain. Essentially what it entails is labeling tubes and bottles, but in the past few weeks they've trained me to fill them, brew the colloids that go into a few of the products, clean up after the sales team, and for some reason solder ciruitry. Despite it being probably the best job I've had out here, I'm more than likely quiting when my co-worker leaves in mid-August. We've grown to be quite good friends in the last month, and I'll be sorry to see him go, and frankly, he's the only reason I really bother to keep a job that is quite repetitive, boring, unrecognized and through a bitter coincidence involves me working with the very same smug bastard who took me on a most depressing journey through the undergrad party scene I described somewhat here.

So basically, sometime in the next two weeks I plan to tell my boss that when my dear friend mister Elsen leaves on the 10th, I'll be soon to follow. What's next for me you may ask? Isn't it time to get back to grad school? Nah. Unless you're my parents, it should be no suprise that I've been seriously doubting going back to school. Well fuck it, no more tiptoeing. I'm not going back. I fucking hated doing all that translation. Plus I have no intention going into debt 50000 dollars just so I can teach high school. I could do that now if I worked at it.

Yes, indeed it is true, I am quit the Classics, if one can really quit such a thing. So what I am I doing in lieu of school? Moving in with my brother, as I did sign a lease. Then I suppose working various jobs until I move back to Maryland a year from next month, at which point I have every intention of running away to Europe for upwards of a year. But I'll speak more on that when it becomes a reality.

For now, I get to look forward to another busy month. As of this morning my brother ventured onto the Road to Boulder, much like I did one short year ago. At the same time my parents are preparing to fly out for a three week trip starting this weekend. So beginning Saturday my modest one bedroom apartment will be housing 5: My parents, my brother and his girlfriend, and of course moi. Crowded indeed, but come August 7th I'll be living it up in my new two bedroom apartment, maybe 50 feet from where I sit now, if that.

We'll see how that all turns out.

______
I'm doing alright, but I miss you every day

Taking a Break.

2007-07-04T02:16:00.000-06:00

I'd write something, but unfortunately I've used up all my wit in "real-time" social situations. Perhaps I'll come out with some more posts once my will to write returns. I'm thinking a few weeks at least. Until then: enjoy.

The Rise and Fall of Drakos the Activist

2007-06-01T17:21:00.001-06:00

So as far as blogging is concerned I slacked off last month. I'm sure you don't particularly care, but in my defense I've been pretty busy being disillusioned. Three weeks ago I started working for Environment Colorado, supposedly a state-wide non-profit organization, but it reality I was but a pawn canvassing for The Fund for Public Interest Research Groups. You've probably seen the PIRGs in action around campuses, personally I remember seeing MaryPIRG people running voter campaigns back at UMCP, as they exist in about a dozen states. Now the idea behind the Public Interest Group is that they fight against Private Interest Groups that represent certain major corporations. So big business has its lobbyists, dicking around in the state houses convincing representatives to push a corporate agenda. So ideally, the PIRGs supply lobbyists that also sway politicians, but in ways that are beneficial to the public.

Bullshit. I do admit that COPIRG has passed some good legislation in the past few years, example: Amendment 37 which requires 10% of Colorado's energy to come from clean, renewal source by the year 2012 or something. Just recently this was raised to 20% through an additional bill. That's all well and good, but they could be setting much tougher goals. Enivironment Colorado, the environmental facet of COPIRG, does a have a difficult job in setting up its campaigns, if you try to get too much change, the public will be hesitant to support it (especially since the PIRGs demand monthly contributions), and if it's to small, all that contribution money is really just going down the drain. Since lobbying is such a instrumental part of legislation in our government, it does take a lot of money to get bills past, but the PIRGs have, in my opinion, become that which they were originally created to stand up against: greed and the corporate mentality.

Surely my opinion is biased by the fact that I was fired yesterday for not duping enough innocent people into giving $15-30 a month for a least year, but I have to say that even I was surprised at how much they really devalue their employees when they aren't meeting quotas. Considering that it is entirely up to the directors what site we go to each day, and whom we go with, I feel a great deal of the job is luck. I currently have had the second best day in the office (since the start of our summer campaign), from one day that a guy walking by more or less dropped $100 a month into my lap, but apparently that isn't enough to allow me to at the very least have worked today. The way the quota process works (something that the directors will never mention unless cornered) is each time you miss the weekly total you get a strike, two strikes in a row, or three strikes in a year, or if 75% of your members don't stay on for a full year, you're fired. So as far as policy is concerned I ought to have been given the chance to come in today and at least try my best to bring my total up. Not so much. Too big a hole, she said. Don't bother coming in, she said. I guess I can't be too disappointed, I really had stopped trying this week. I spent only about half the time I should have actually canvassing, the rest was spent either in Starbucks, or just sitting cursing the organization.

What more than likely broke my spirit, aside from a few days of shitting weather ruining my average (which is considered no excuse), is the story of a fellow canvasser who was one of the most devoted I'd met. Standing in the pouring rain he tried his hardest to stop every passer by, while I ducked under a shelter and waited for the sun to return. He missed quota twice in the past few months, so if he missed it again he was gone. My first week he needed $200 on Friday to survive. He did it. The next week it rained four out of five days. He needed $450 on Friday to survive. He did it. The next week he was with me twice, and I was pretty much a death omen. He needed $500 on Friday, the day after his 21st birthday, to survive. I assume he didn't do it, because he's gone without a trace. I hope to hear that he's found a job now that appreciates his effort. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the director purposely gave him sites like Longmont and Westminister that are basically the most conservative in the area to see him go. Why would she do that? Because he talked too much about things like quotas and lawsuits.. things that directors avoid mention of like the plague.

My good friend out here was right when she said that the PIRGs do more harm than good by destroying the spirit of promising young activists. I'm living proof, for as of today I will do everything in my power ensure global warming's worst effects, just to spite those PIRG bastards, and every asshole on the street who said, "Global Warming? What a joke?" or just gave me the finger. Not really. I encourage all of you out there, if you are approached by a canvasser, politely tell them you appreciate their hard work on the streets, but you don't agree with the kind of support their organization is looking for. Put your money and effort instead into personal conservationism: buying fuel efficient cars, supporting local and organic farming, recycling and composting, and eating less mass produced meats and dairies. Everyone can make some kind of small effort. And if you get the chance, put a potato in the tailpipe of every Hummer you can. Sigh... I'll let y'all know when I'm no longer unemployed.

Update: I recently received an invitation to join the class action suit against the PIRGs, started by disillusioned and abused former canvassers. I have no real monetary digressions against Environment Colorado so I ignored it, but I'll be with them in spirit. Also I fixed this entry to make it prettier.

Ambivalence.

2007-05-15T22:56:00.000-06:00

Oh? Ummm....

Well...

Errr... urghhh....

Sigh...

My Triumphant Return: Part II

2007-05-06T23:48:00.000-06:00

It's hard to believe that it's been almost four months since I came back to Boulder. It has certainly blown by much faster then it did in the fall. Maybe it's because I was working full-time at Pharmaca back then, having my soul sucked out on a daily basis. Maybe it's because school makes the time back much faster. Or maybe it was my brother's extended stay. Yelling at him certainly was a pass-time. Anyway, the time has come for me to plan my next visit home, and as of an hour ago I've booked a flight for June 2. I'll be staying through the next Sunday, the 10th. So.. I dunno.. get pumped or something.

Also... I may have quit my job. If an e-mail is legally binding that is. Hmmm... So other than that, and studying for finals, not much new going on. Well... once again the internet has declared me a liberal. Alright well I'm gonna shut up now. But first, here's a nice photo of the Flatirons I took last weekend from Chataqua Park:

Powered by Ubuntu

2007-04-25T18:45:00.000-06:00

So things have started to get a little hectic here at the end of the semester. I have to give a presentation of my paper in class on Tuesday, and I'll be pretty much castrated by my classmates' constructive criticism in the following Q&A. After that I'll have until Friday to get my paper into its final form, a twenty page behemoth of solid arguments. At this point my paper is at best a mildly persuading harp seal. It's certainly the longest paper I've written, even in its incomplete form, but it's certainly not going to blow the lid off of Apuleian scholarship, which I am essentially expected to do. After the paper I'll have my final exam to study for, which will be on the next Tuesday, exactly a week after my presentation.

SO! You might think that will these big assignments creeping up on me, I'd be using this time to get some daily studying done. Not so much. Instead I have spent the last few days working very hard, not at my job, but here in front of my computer. I've probably spent the majority of the past 36 hours getting used to my new OS: Ubuntu!

This past week the newest version of the Linux/GNU based Ubuntu (oo-boon-too) was released: 7.04 Feisty Fawn. Clever name, eh? So for maybe about the last month, I've been reading up on the mission of these open source developers, and it's all really quite interesting. As with most forms of Linux, it's completely free, and you are able to customize things you'd never even thought of customizing. What makes Ubuntu stand apart from the rest of the Linux distributions is that it is designed with the user in mind, and with a strong sense of community. New users are able to migrate their files easily from Windows, and if a question arises the Ubuntu forums are full of helpful people. The word ubuntu itself even means something like humanity towards others.

Also, there are a number of Ubuntus to choose from. The main difference between them is the desktop environment used, Ubuntu uses Gnome, Kubuntu uses KDE, and Xubuntu uses Xcfe. Now of course that meant nothing to be a week ago, but basically it means that there are subtle differences in the interface. For someone like me who used Windows his entire life, it makes little difference which I choose, as they are all a new experience. I opted to go the route of Xubuntu (zoo-boon-too) for now, because it is specifically designed to use less memory, and as I still am dual booting with Windows at this point, I tried to make as little impact of my old computer as possible.

So anyway, the last few days have been an awful headache as I tried to figure out everything that you'd think would be easy. In retrospect once I found out what I was doing wrong each time I hit a wall, it really was quite simple. Microsoft, and even Apple I must admit, trains you to rely on pretty buttons and menus, and you lose touch with what is really happening in your system. Now, I don't want to make it seem as if Ubuntu makes you agonize through source code it order to do the most basic things, that's not quite true. Your average person really only uses a computer for a few things. Browsing the web, checking email, IMing, listening to music, watching videos, and doing work. From the moment Ubuntu finishes installing you have the ability to do most of these things. All you really have to do is open up Synaptic Package Manager, and you are given a list of every program the Ubuntu community supports. Highlight a few programs you think you'll need, and it installs it all for you. If you stumble upon a problem, it's a quick look at the forums, and odds are many new users have had the same question as you. Now if you want to do something more complicated, like set up a complex firewall that blocks only certain protocols, or want the certain drives to be mounted upon start-up, you'll need to learn the basic function of the terminal, but even then I was able to do that pretty quickly. I think probably gaming is a bit harder to get the hang of, but I've never been a PC gamer, and even then, there are plenty of Linux gamers out there to help you.

So the question I asked myself about 15 hours ago was, what's the point? I don't use my computer for much outside of music, video, blogging, and email. Why bother putting up with having to learn a whole new system when you could just use Windows? Well aside from the astronomical costs of Windows, and MS Office, Linux is truly amazing once you get the hang of it. There is such a feeling of satisfaction, at least for me, when after an hour of trying to figure out why the hidden system file wasn't being edited when asked to, you realize that you left out a letter in: sudo gedit /etc/fstab, and suddenly you understand exactly what was moments ago gibberish and jargon. And of course, workspaces are just fucking awesome. The main reason I was so excited about the new Mac OSX coming out this fall was because they ripped off this common Linux feature. Basically you have the ability to toggle through as many different desktops as you want. Then you can configure control through the mouse so you can just slide your cursor to the end of the screen, and hop over to the next screen. I set up shortcut keys as well so when every I press the windows key + some other button I can jump right to the other screens. It's as if I have five monitors sit by side. This is real handy because I can have Firefox open in one entire workspace, Instant Messenger in another, Banshee (a spot on Linux iTunes clone) in another, random widgits and file manager in another, and then one to watch DVDs and videos. I provide you with an example of this,from my own setup, below.

Finally, you really can put anything you want on your panel (startbar). You can put it anywhere on the screen, have as many as you want, and put whatever content you can think of on there. I opted to make a very Windows-esque design, but it can really look like whatever you want it to, even going as so far as removing it completely and just using icons and folders on the desktop if you want (kinda like the old Windows 3.11). Anyway, I still have one or two things to tinker with a bit, but after that I don't see any reason to boot up Windows anytime soon. Thanks for reading this far if you did. Apparently I've been something of a novice techie all my life, it's just Latin so rarely gave me the chance to express that.

Selling my Soul: Part III

2007-04-20T14:54:00.000-06:00

So you might recall about a year ago I put Google Adsense on my blogs as a way to generate a little extra cash. This lead to me only making $4.04, which I was not able to receive. You would think that I have learned something, but no apparently not. This time it's Hits4Pay.com. I spent a great deal of time investigating this one, and it's not actually a scam, so much as the old free iPod pyramid schemes were. Basically you give them an e-mail address (it doesn't have to be one you check often) and they send you somewhere around five e-mail ads a day. You get paid 2 cents to have the ad-site open for 30 seconds. You don't even have to check them in your inbox, you can find them in your account page on the Hits website. So you could either use an old e-mail that is so crowded with spam already, or just have the e-mails it sends you go straight to the spam folder. Also, for every one you view the person that signed you up, and the person that signed them up, both get a penny. So basically the idea is to create a triangle (cough) of people viewing ads for about five minutes a day. Provided you have a decent firewall there isn't much harm in going to all these ad pages, just make sure you don't download anything off them and get yourself spyware. The only problem really is that you will never make much money, but you stand to make $50 here and there, if you keep up with it.

I was skeptical at first, but although it is an ad-agency and somewhat extreme capitalist nonsense, the site and the money you generate is legitimate (it counts as taxable income). Plus they give you $10 for signing up, once you make your first $25. Click here to become my team member...... Join us.....

Encomium on Hair. (Or the lack thereof)

2007-04-05T22:31:00.000-06:00

Why did I shave my head?

In my mind I had the choice of growing it out for at least another year, or shaving it all down to an eighth of an inch. In both cases I would be deviating from the hairstyle that I had basically worn since high school. The one exception would be the two weeks a few years ago that I allowed it to be dyed blue, and slowly creep to a horrid greenish-turquoise. This was then followed by a few months of a shoddy brown dye to cover up that green. Other than that -shall we say- experiment, my hair has been the same style, which I have always been fond of since I started brushing it that way in the winter of 11th grade. After nearly six weeks of Drakos the Elder's hair-related criticisms, I'd like to say that I snapped. But that's not entirely the case. I had been "rid" of my brother for close to two weeks when I lopped it off, and although it was probably his relentless looking at my hair, shaking his head in disappointment, which planted those seeds of doubt, it wasn't as if I stared into the mirror, with a sink full of my own hair, mouthing the words "Mange merde, mon frère." Apparently I remember a little french. I would say it's just as likely that I was motivated by Apuleius' goddamn tangent of hair, which I have been reading very thoroughly for a paper I'm writing. He goes on and on about how hair attracts him to women, and then he shaves his head in an act of religious devotion to Isis. So there, I'm redeeming myself in the eyes of the Goddess.

I have no honest answer for you other than that I was looking for a sudden change, and as I've yet to get up the nerve to get a tattoo (I'm not nearly cool enough to), this worked pretty well. Also, now I have an excuse to wear my new hat: so my scalp doesn't get sunburn.

Note: I'm aware that this post isn't really an encomium, I merely use the word to draw connections to a work of the author, whom I kinda threw out there randomly.

Dei mortui sunt.

2007-03-19T23:30:00.000-06:00

This post is about two things, I'll state them now to keep me from straying from the point later:

The Garden of the Gods and God of War II. Recently (in 2006) there was an outrageous controversy created over a sex scene that the programmers of Grand Theft Auto: San Andres left hidden within the game, and if you had the right code or something, you could see the main character plugging his girlfriend. Apparently parents got angry about their kids playing a game that had pornographic content, and blamed the developers for not properly warning of this. Now I'm about to make a few assumptions here, so bear with me. I'm assuming that the game was rated Mature 17+ upon original release. More than likely it was stated on the box that the game contained extreme violence, and adult themes and language. I'm assuming that the parents knew that their kids had purchased a violent videogame, as it is clearly marked on the box, and many stores now refuse to sell minors M rated games (it may even be a law now). I'm assuming that the parents walked by the children's rooms and heard the incessant swearing and "urban lingo" of the game. Maybe some of them are still as dumb as a freaking brick and don't actually give videogames enough credit to think that they can be as violent as a R rated movie. I don't see how that's possible since it was decided after Columbine that videogames are evil and turn kids into murderous savages. I'll get to the point. There was a sex scene, and that's what caused everyone to freak out, and that's a part of why Take-two is in danger of a shareholder coup. Although that's probably happened already.. as this entry is a few weeks late. Anyway, let me get back on track.

Grand Theft Auto has a scene with moderately unimpressive graphics where two clothed characters hump each other, and the company get their heads bitten off, but I have yet to read an anger word about God of War I's sex mini-game where you hop into bed with two topless women and press buttons in a specific order in order to "win" and get a vitality boost or something. No one seemed to care. More assumptions of course. I was definitely less up on current events when GoW came out, so maybe it sparked some controversy that I missed. Well, that about ends my digression, as God of War II is meant to be my main topic here. This game, so I've read, contains ridiculously gory death scenes, granted they're mainly monsters and ugly things that die, but still this game, if not the most violent M-rated game, certainly should be ranking up there. But we've established that blood and guts don't really matter anymore. This game also includes a sex mini-game (see it here if that's your cup of tea) which is somewhat hilarious if you ask me. I don't think Sony is in any trouble for leaving that in there, not even hidden. Sigh... I'm getting off my topic again.

I don't really care that parents can't be bothered to monitor what their children play, I can't concern myself with the raging hypocrisy in American censorship, it hurts my soul too much to think about these things. What I absolutely must protest against is the plot of this game. In the first God of War, you make you way through Ancient Greece battling disturbing versions of well-known (to me at least) mythical beasts, *SPOILER ALERT* and in the end go against Ares himself, killing him with power granted to you by the gods, and you become the new God of War, I assume. In this one, so I hear, you go up against and annihilate Olympian after Olympian until, I once again assume, you have to lop off the head of Zeus himself. Hubris? That word doesn't even begin to capture the extreme sacrilege of this game. I joke to an extent. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have the desire to grab Aphrodite by the hair and swing her 270 degrees, then let go, sending her flying into to Hera's big ugly face. Who doesn't? But I wouldn't actually do it. I tell you what, when the flood comes, I'm not going to be on Poseidon's bad side. Approaching the matter from a different perspective, using a common analogy I've heard, imagine there was a game where you take a scythe, running around New England, killing off George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and the rest of the Founding Fathers. I'd imagine most would feel ill at ease to go around killing our own culture's legendary figures. Wow, now that I've typed that it actually doesn't sound that bad. They could call it something like Colonial Blood: The Scythe of Revolution, or The Declaration of Indeathpendence or maybe just Patricide.

I retract my statements, buy God of War I and II if you're into that sort of thing, but when you want to know the real story of how the Pantheon died, look me up. (Meteor fell, blocked out the sun).

Well, they had to die somehow, (cheesy tie-in) because they certainly weren't anywhere to be found in the Garden of the Gods! Above you see a close-up of the Three Graces, and check out the pictures below for more scenic views. Basically it was a large park area in the foothills area of Pike's Peak, a few miles outside of Colorado Springs proper. Before he left for the West Coast, Drakos the Elder, his girlfriend, and I all took a day trip down there. Springs is about two hours south of Boulder, maybe an hour from Denver. We saw very little of the city itself, although we did find a nice Nepalese place for dinner. I wanted to stop at Casa Bonita on the way back, but the Elder is what I like to call a fun-hater. Not like me, easy-breezy all day long... If you ever happen to make it to Colorado I would recommend at least driving past the Garden. Although they aren't really unearthly sights with treacherous hiking paths, they're definitely pretty. Just be careful not to wander off into forests alone... WEN-DI-GO!

Photo Collection IV

2007-03-19T23:03:00.000-06:00

March 2007

Laser Floyd, baby!

2007-03-19T12:15:00.000-06:00

The title of the post pretty much says it all. We went to the campus planetarium, and they played Dark Side of the Moon with lasers lights and a multimedia slide show. Plus we got 3D glasses that made the whole thing prismatic. All in all, a good show, less then the cost of a movie, but it'd probably only be fun with other Pink Floyd fans, so once my brother's out of the picture (this week in fact) I doubt I'll go again soon. I could accomplish a similar effect by putting on an album, using a winamp visualization, and having a few glasses of wine.

New Blog Link.

2007-03-14T03:08:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to advertise for my good friend's blog. As I see it, Baltimore City's Future is meant to nourish his pet interest, urban planning. If you happen to live in the Greater Balitmore region, or are at all into the ever-flowing world of the city (for the Latin savvy: orbs iugis urbis) go ahead and give it a look. And if you agree, do me a favor a be sure to comment on his poor use of space. Maybe then he'll accept my offer to help format it. In addition to the above link, you'll find his among the my linked blogs.

Frozen Dead Guy Days.

2007-03-10T23:14:00.000-07:00

It's current Saturday night and I'll be doing away with the beard tomorrow after work. I've made sure to stock up on shaving cream, aftershave, soothing lotion, and of course I have an industrial strength trimmer.

But that's not why I'm posted. Today Drakos the Elder and I took the bus to Nederland. Now, that's not a euphemism, we actually visited a small mountain town about fifteen miles west of Boulder. Whereas it has been (and will continue to be!) in the mid 60's in Boulder, this little town was still covered in snow, and as a matter of fact there was practically a blizzard for a few hours while we were there. Anyway, as it turned out, we quite randomly stumbled upon one of their biggest annual events, The Frozen Dead Guy Days. That link should give you most of the info of that, but, in the event that you're lazy or uninterested in the links that I painstakingly put in every one of my entries, I'll tell you a bit about it. Apparently some old Swedish guy died and they brought his frozen corpse into Nederland.

Every so often his family goes to lump more dry ice on him so that he stay forever persevered. This has been going on since like 1992. It wasn't until 94, however, that the town learned of the frozen dead guys presence in their quiet town. They were understandably freaked out, but it appears that capitalism "saved the day" as they realized this was a chance to make their frequently unnoticed town a little more popular. So basically they have events every year, like the coffin races, and well... beer... everywhere. The New Belgium Brewing Company, a local company from Fort Collins, had the town well stocked for the occasion. So, all in all, despite quite a snowfall, it was a pretty good day trip. My brother and I also reserved a car for next week, when we will hopefully be able to take a trip to Colorado Springs. I can't really go without seeing a place actually called The Garden of the Gods.

Daylight Shavings Time.

2007-03-09T02:33:00.000-07:00

Well, my pun, five months in the making is finally coming to light.... daylight I should say. Back around Halloween I had grown out a simple mustache for my Pedro costume, but as I hadn't then (nor have I now) come to grips with my Puerto Rico heritage, I shaved it off straightaway. I happened to notice on this night that it was also the last night of Daylight Savings Time. Like the clever fool that I am, I devised a plan like no other. Well... basically to grow out my facial hair until the spring. So fast forward to mid-March, and what do I discover? Why, DST begins weeks earlier this year, for some bizarre reason (which will destroy the world), and thus I will be parting with my full beard this weekend. This comes as somewhat depressing news to me because just last weekend for the first time, I was called "a real Boulderite" because of my shaggy appearance. This was of course prejudicial, I am nowhere near as cool or interesting as someone with the title Boulderite needs to be. I do eat organic food when possible, I do have a strong desire to practice certain Eastern arts (like tai chi or qi gong) even though I've slacked off on that, and I am weird, there's no doubt there. However, it's more of a neurotic kind of weird. According to the constant judgments my brother makes about every aspect of my life I am obsessed with certain categories that are mere social constructions. Inside vs Outside. Clean vs Dirty. Men vs Women. Also I'm a fanatical tyrannical despotic totalitarian ego-maniacal fascist when it comes to my own apartment, within which he, in my opinion, has become a squatter. Going back before I digress further, perhaps I am too wound up. Wound not like the bleeding and oozing kind, but as in past tense of wind... and wind not like "Wind in the Willows" (Grahame, 1908), but rather "a rock to wind a string around" (They Might Be Giants, 1989).

But despite my reluctance, I'm not about to break the promise I made to myself while walking home through the first taste of this seasons bitter cold, wearing a ridiculous Pedro wig. So.. now it's past four AM, since my brother's hijacked the computer for a while so he could figure out which local candidate to back. That's like 6am in Maryland. Goodnight.

The Sufferings of Young Drakos.

2007-02-28T01:33:00.000-07:00

I received a rather interesting voicemail, so I've decided I'm probably going to get rid of the little widget entirely. I went ahead and made the message public, so until I decide to scrap the whole thing, feel free to listen to it. For weeks I waited for someone to leave me an inspirational message that would turn my life around. Weeks. And then this.

In truth, my main problem with the thing is I can't really change the formatting of it and nothing brings me as much pleasure as being able to tweak HTML for hours resulting in barely noticeable changes. So it goes.

My brother has been toying with my emotions as of late, with his constant "reconsidering." First he found a place to stay here in Boulder until the summer, then he was staying here till the summer, then he going home until July, then he was moving to The New North Boulder. Now it appears he is staying through March and then going back to Maryland, tying up his loose ends and then moving out here to be my roommate in August. I'm alright with this, as the two bedroom apartment I made him apply for is pretty sweet and will save me some money (which will go straight towards this baby). Also I'm much happier having the company, even if I approach life from my illogical commie-fascist perspective, and he from his cogently-formed humanism. I feel like his presence creates a certain balance in my universe, and in this new apartment I'd have not only my own bed and bath, but it's on it's own floor. So anyway, he still has to be offered the lease and then sign it, so nothing is written in stone yet, and as March has several weeks ahead of us who knows what his plan will turn out to be. What I am sure of though, is that this is a bad season for apples.

What else have I been doing... well, I got a job for summer, which basically involves me collecting donations to help lower Colorado emissions to lessen the coming tragedies caused by global warming. I don't know all the facts yet, but apparently the rising temperatures are decreasing the Colorado snow-pack (although you wouldn't know it from this season) which is where we get the majority of our drinking water. Not to mention that the ski industry that more or less drives the state's economy will suffer greatly from this. Granted it's not going to be nearly as devastating as what global warming supposedly is causing in Bolivia. But still it's a cause worth putting my efforts into, especially when my other option is working at Pharmaca full-time again.

Finally, I've begun to work on my semester research paper, which will take all of my cunning. So I'm pretty sure my plan is to abandon thoughts of coming home for Spring break, and using that time to pool sources, put together an extensive outline, and write a big chunk of the thing, so that in April I'll only have a few hours of writing on top of my regular work load. Right now I'm leaning towards doing a way in-depth analysis of the sex scene from book two of Apuleius' The Golden Ass, which was by far the most memorable part in the first half of the work (which was the half I actually bothered to read years ago in Roman Lit). Is there twenty pages in it? In the hands of a skilled writer definitely. We'll see if I can somehow manage 18.

My Terminal M.A. among other things.

2007-02-16T00:17:00.000-07:00

I've pretty much decided at this point that spend another three year to five years in school beyond my supposed 2009 graduation isn't really what I'm looking for. I know my limits in the academic world, and I'm thinking the lifestyle of a Classics Professor, although glamorous, would probably send me straight into an early grave. That doesn't even include what I would go through as I tried to whore myself from school to school looking for someone who thinks my scholarship isn't just a load of horse-shit, which up it has been to this point and probably into future. Let's face it, I clearly moved to Colorado for the sunny beaches, not it's stellar Classics Department.

I took the first exam of my graduate school career on Tuesday, and I was shocked to find that I didn't do all that bad on it, and really all I did to study was re-read all the Latin we've done so far, which the second time through wasn't nearly as time consuming. So it looks like I might make it through the program after all, and I might even learn something in the process, but still I fear the day when I'll actually be taking more than one class. The horror. I may even have to take three one semester. The agony. So in the event that things stay the way they're going, I may finish my M.A. before it finishes me.

Also, my brother showed up this week. I keep trying to show him the sights here, but it kept snowing, and also I've never really done anything here before, aside from work, go to school, blog, and play videogames. But I'm gonna blame it mostly on the snow. And I guess I'm lying a bit. Since his arrival we did see Babel at Boulder Theater, where you can drink beer and watch movies, and last night we saw The Fables, a Beatles cover band, at an Irish Pub. I had seen them once before, and they do a fine job, but it was Drakos the Elder's opinion that the set list was abysmal. I believe I'm not far from accurate to quote as saying something to the effect of, "Where's my White Album?" and "SEXY SADDIE!"

Apparently I am the spitting image of my father when it comes to anything involving my apartment. I seem to have the opinion that since I pay the rent I'm entitled to force him to clean up after himself quickly, so that the mess that I already create isn't added to and push beyond my limits. But honestly, since he's been here he's erased my cookies, which streamline my browsing experience, ruined the integrity of my iTunes Library with the likes of KrautRock, and spilled candle wax onto my carpet. I fear that it has bonded to the fibers forever. We run a tight ship over here, and I can't back down or else life as we know it will be changed forever. I'll let you draw you own conclusions about what a place run by my brother would amount to. Also, my brother had the audacity to insult my hair, and worst all refer to the Nintendo Wii-remote as a piece of junk that was in no way original or inventive and not only has nothing to add to game controller, but subtracts from the enjoyment significantly. He then proceed to tell me that no system following the SNES, including every venture by Sony, Sega, and Microsoft, has been worthwhile and at all useful. After struggling to catch my breath after the notion that the gaming industry has wasted these last 15 years, just as I have playing these games, I was able to contain myself because he is just as disappointed at the very way this world's economic system works. It is his opinion that everything about the way society buys and sells culture is mistaken. $50 videogames on $300+ consoles that are obsolete every five years, iPods run by the iTunes system which is purposely designed to snub technology that has existed for years that would allow the mass sharing of music. His definition of what exactly the Public Domain should include is vastly different than what our world appears to have put into practice. I can't help but agree that with the technology that exists we could easily do a lot more, such as trade multimedia wirelessly to anywhere in the world, but I still can't even fathom the device he speaks of that supposedly could exist; the philosopher's stone that would eliminate the compartmentalized life that modern electronics have forced to create, where music, media, games, and information branch apart. I think in his picture, the game aspect of this device includes the Power Glove. We are of a different generation.

Today I have an Agenda.

2007-02-08T23:45:00.000-07:00

I know I don't normally do this, but I just received an e-mail petition that informed me that in Bush's new budget, in order to afford dumping several billion more dollars into Iraq, funding for NPR and PBS will be cut drastically. If you care at all about National Pubic Radio or the Public Broadcasting Service, or if you just want to humor me, it only takes a minute to sign the petition. Even though it's gotten all weird with all the Spanish monsters, could you imagine a generation of children not having Sesame Street? And for that matter shows like Reading Rainbow, and that one with the aardvark guy? And don't even get me started on NPR, lest this turn into a twenty page doctrine on podcasting (which as per my style would contain very little factual information, and many crazed illogical assertions). Although it is unlikely that Congress will let most of the cuts Bush proposed go through, he's going to find his money somewhere. I'm just asking that we do what we can to avoid losing the last media haven, which remains uncorrupted by advertising, as it falls through the cracks of our society. Sign it not just to ensure the safety of public broadcasts today, but so that we can make funding for these services permanent. Thanks all.

Double your Drakos, Double your Fun.

2007-02-04T00:20:00.000-07:00

So my brother hopped a train to Chicago yesterday, and after a week or so of dicking around there he will be joining me here in Boulder. Now for those of you who don't know my brother, he's pretty much the wind beneath my wings, my inspiration, and a total eclipse of the heart... well maybe that's a step too far, but anyway I'm excited for his arrival. And in truth this isn't just a vacation, it's an audition. If I can tidy up this city enough before he gets here he might decided to move out here in the summer, and then we can get a bungalow in the foothills and settle down to the business of training our army of clones. So the downside to this whole thing is I'll be sharing my one bedroom with him for at least until mid-March, when he finally decides he's graced me with his presents long enough. This will infringe upon my lifestyle in few key ways:

One - My couch will now be his bed, and no longer my night-time fort. Granted I could still lay on the carpet in front of the couch with blankets and pillows in piles, in a room lit only by fiber optic lamps, listening to Parachutes, but without the cushions to fortify me it's useless! Now that I think of it, that does actually sound like a really awesome thing to do. I ought to get this fort in action tonight.

Two - I'll actually have to shut my bedroom door, which is something I have only a handful of times here, whenever I want to have an intimate moment with a certain special someone. Also I've always had a lingering fear of my brother coming into my room in the night and pretending to be a murderer. I went ahead and installed a lock on my bedroom door to prevent this from happening, but still, now when I get up in the night for an improvised "4th Meal" or something, I'll have to unchain the bolt. Yes, I bought a chain bolt, as it was the easiest option without removing the knob or lowering my privacy standards.

Three - This one ties back into One a bit. Recently, I've taken to watching the Wii News Slideshow in the morning. I find the music soothing, and I can get a glimpse of the headlines news while I stir up my instant breakfast. The problem is, I've kinda of added this to a portion of my morning routine when I haven't yet.. dressed for success we should say. My brother may not have much of a problem with it, but I do.

But besides these minor details, I'm excited to be getting Drakos the Elder added to the team. Hopefully this will lead to a post where I've actually done something worth speaking of, or at the very least one that is quite as emo as many up to the point have been.

On an unrelated topic, I'm hoping to get back into putting pictures into these entries, but it's hard to describe just how shitty the weather is right now. As I'm not supposed to have my camera anywhere near moisture it's been pretty much stuck on the shelf. With any luck we're on the tail end of the constant snow and cold, and those outrageous plowed snowpiles will melt away.

Voicemail Tutorial.

2007-01-26T01:25:00.000-07:00

So you'll notice that on the right column is a new-fangled voice mailbox. I've decided to try out the free service and see if I can find an actual use for it. Here's how it works:

If for some reason you'd like to leave me an audio comment on any of my posts, or just leave me a nice message, go ahead and click on the link below the message box and you'll be taking to a Javascript page that will let you record up to a two minute message. If I had paid $45 annually I could have gotten up to 30 minute service, but why would I do that, seriously? When you get to the MyChingo Audio Recorder Page either put your name, or whatever you want the message to be called in for Your Name, and then an Email address. It needs a valid one, but if your weird about it I'm sure you can just use dumpas.p.willenburger@schmumpty.net or the like. Also write in the Optional Text block whether you'd like the message to be PUBLIC or PRIVATE. If it's public it will appear in the inbox on my blog, if private I'll still be able to download it to my iPod and listen to it repeat over and over, so that I can have your sweet nothings whispered into my ear all night long.

So once you've perfected your message and sent it to me I'll be able to listen to it, make it public (as they all default to private at first), download it or delete it. So here's the deal: The only reasons I'd think you should leave a message here rather than on my cell phone are either, if I hate you and you don't have my number, or you leave a message so humorous that I want to keep it forever. It's a heck of alot easier to keep these messages as mp3s than it is to some how get them off my cell phone. Just think of all the nice messages I can play for the media and discredit you during your future presidential race.

You can get to the post again easily by click on the Need an Explanation link, so if you forget how to do this, as thick as that would make you, even after it falls off the main page this post will be waiting. Also if your interested in getting one of these for your own page check out MyChingo.com which will soon be taken over by Mobasoft.com

Subliminal NBC Advertising.

2007-01-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, so tonight I was watching my usual NBC Thursday comedy line-up, My Name is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, and 30 Rock. I happened to notice at one point during a shampoo commercial that randomly an NBC logo suddenly flashed by, in one of the actress' hair as she was doing the whole, Whoosh! Look at how shiny my hair is now, routine. As someone who has seen that black and white horror movie that was banned because it had pictures of monkey skulls and old men with cigars flash across the screen during the tense moments, my eyes easily picked the obviously flashing of the logo throughout the night's programming, usually appearing over the main actor's face. I've tried looking into this, but as of yet I've seen no mention of an explanation of this practice and why, so I suppose I'll keep looking. As NBC already has come out that they often displace their shows by two minutes or so in order to mess up DVRs, I don't trust them as far as I could throw them, which you can imagine, regardless of whether or not you've ever tried to throw a corporation, isn't very far. I'm especially outraged because I've done so well to not watch 30 Rock until tonight. I really don't need another TV show that I have to watch, but I kept the show on tonight because they mentioned TV product integration. I was under the impression that maybe some genius somewhere had placed the logo in throughout the whole night, just so Tina Fey could say something like, "What'll you do next, subliminally advertise the network?" only to have the logo hilariously pop up on her face. No dice... and now, I think that the show's hilarious and I plan to watch it next week. Sigh..

On another note, when making my lengthly list of Latin vocabulary to learn from my reading this week, I stumpled upon the most ridiculous looking word: succussussu. More s's than Mississippi! From my extensive research (or rather looking closer at the text) I appeared to be a corrupt text and that the word should really be succussu, still humorous but actually in the Oxford Latin Dictionary, of course I am always excited when a word doesn't appear in my 2000 page behemoth. Anyway it seems to mean something like shaking below the waist, I'm assuming like weak in the knees, I'll figure that out closer to my assignment's due date. For now I shall continue watching Entourage. I fucking hate California.

Finally as Podcasts slowly consume my many 'audio moments' throughout the day, I thought I'd point out some good ones. They've all made my bus rides, grocery shopping, and flights much more enjoyable. So whether you're for Podcasting or against it, I'd still recommend at least checking out their websites:

NPR: Wait Wait Don't Tell Me - From Chicago Public Radio, it's the weekly news quiz! Awesome. I highly recommend it if you're interested in the news, but would rather laugh about it.

Penny-Arcade Podcast - Like comics about videogames? Then you'll love hearing two guys talk about maybe writing a comic about videogames.

The Onion Radio News - Close to daily snip-its from the fictional headlines

National Geographic Video Shorts - Like foreign animals and culture? Neither do I, but they sometimes have those aboriginal nude shots, I think.

DS: Life Podcast - Everything you could ever want to know about Nintendo's hand-held, also the guy says 'about' all Canadian like!

WiiSpot Podcast - From the people of DS: Life, but I'm assuming about Wii. Coming soon.

El Laberinto del Fauno.

2007-01-21T23:32:00.000-07:00

Thesis: It can be difficult seeing a movie out here in Boulder.

There are a number of factors which have led to my self diagnosed theater-delinquency. One is I refuse to go to the pictures by myself, and I have somewhere around the area of two friends out here, and they work 40+ hour weeks, unlike my lazy ass. Another is that the theaters near here are small, and maybe even shut down, so until the new one opens up on 29th, I have to make the trip out to Flatirons, which is in freakin' Broomfield, a short trip those who are automotively inclined, but the proud pedestrian like me is more or less confined to Boulder. There are buses that pass Flatirons on the way to Denver, but as of yet the hour commitment that would entail is beyond my comprehension. Yet another obstacle is the weekly snowstorm that has without fail dumped record amounts of precipitation. The AMC parking lot literally had 15 feet snowpiles, and US-36 was cut down to two lanes with roughly tire sized ditches. Finally, as I don't have cable, I don't see the trailers for these movies and am not subliminally tricked into seeing them.

Long story not quite as long but still beyond what could be considered short: The planets aligned in such a way that I was able to throw away my recent anti-social tendencies and invited myself along with some "close personal acquaintances" to see del Toro's war-torn fairy tale Pan's Labyrinth. This movie was without a doubt the most gory, blood-covered atrocity that I have seen in quite some time. Every solider at some point gets shot, and then shot several extraneous times, faces get bashed in, cut open, the camera is held on dying expressions in grotesquely fashion allowing you to see the life drain from their face as the brain reacts to a hot piece of lead being forced into it suddenly. Also, every mystical creature that appears is like a cross between Dark Crystal and Resident Evil 4. Fairies are no longer tiny Playmates with wings, but rather minature humanoid insectites. And then the Faun (Pan) himself, yeesh, I could never tell if he was going to turn suddenly and disembowel the beloved heroine. And of course there was one creature that will with out a doubt haunt me for the rest of my days.

So, if you were going out to see this movie thinking it would be something like David Bowie's Labyrinth (complete with Muppets), well just don't enter the theater with that impression. Enter the theater, for I do insist that you see this film, but bring with you a strong constitution for you will indeed see a disparaging amount of misfortune, and not quite as many puppets as one would hope for.

Also bring your reading glasses, or learn Spanish. It doesn't happen often that a subtitled picture makes its way into our trashy American cinemas, and if I've learned anything in this life, it's that foreign movies are always superior. It works both ways really. Try watching Ocean's Twelve with French audio. It makes an otherwise humiliating group of clichéd and avaricious performers sound less like goddamn Hollywood sock-puppets and more like fictional characters.

Conclusion: Pan's Labyrinth was worth the effort involved in making it to a theater.

Oh, and I've determined that the secret to good blogging is to only use the word fuck once per entry, so when it comes out, it means something. Aww.. fiddlesticks, I just wasted it.

I appreciate them more.

2007-01-16T21:56:00.000-07:00

What, you may ask, do I appreciate more? Why, long-johns and scarfs, of course. I arrived in Boulder to an unfathomable -5 degrees F. As I've said before, you'd think that since this is Colorado this would be no big deal, but apparently it was at least 50 below the average for this time of year. It's now getting warmer, but it's come to the point where I'm looking forward to a balmy 40.

I was spoiled/teased by the unfathomable 70 degrees in Maryland last week, and now I'm all sorts of hot and bothered... err.. cold and bothered.

But, I'm surviving, mainly because of my new found ability to layer, complimented by my new Old Navy layering tees. That's right, I stepped back into an Old Navy for the first time since my resignation. Actually I went to one in Flatiron Crossing at some point, but this was the first time I bought anything at least. So, now I'm trying to figure out how to work a scarf correctly. Up to this point I've just been wrapping it around my neck, but I find it never quite stays put that way. The answer lies upon the internets.

In other news, I just returned from a two hour mandatory work meeting, at a place that I'm starting to think has completely outlived it's usefulness. But to be honest, we did share some things and I think we may have grown as a team tonight.

Sigh... I'm supposed to e-mail my boss my new availability, and I'm wondering if it will be in poor taste to send her an schedule with a giant X through every hour of every day. I'd quit, but I can't really quit one Pharmaca without quitting them all, and I really have no beef with the Pearl street one, and they've even thrown some modest evening hours my way.

Oh, and I have finally returned to Academia. Hmmm... and I think I just found the name for chapter two.

In conclusion: 2006

2006-12-31T17:45:00.000-07:00

Well, as 2006 has come and gone, I feel as though the past year deserves some reminiscing. A common theme was travel. I've flown more times in the past year than I have in my entire life. DC to Milan, Milan to Naples, Florence to Milan, Milan to DC, Baltimore to Denver, Denver to Baltimore, Baltimore to Boston, Boston to Baltimore, and then finally Denver to Baltimore again. To this day, I still hate to fly.

When the year began I was getting ready to make the big trip to Italy. 8 hour flight... ick. But, it being Italy and all, I gritted(drank heavily) through it. A week in Pompeii, a week in Rome, and a week Florence, more or less. To give you an impression of how awesome that was, if I had been into blogging back then it would have been the most MIND-BLOWING piece of internet literature ever created. So that was cool. Anyway for the next few months I took school very seriously, and I got the grades to show for it. During those months I was making the difficult decision of where the hell to go for grad school, and we all know how that turned out. So basically school kicked my ass, but in my defense I left most of my mind in the bottom of a bottle of Chanti somewhere in Florence. Despite this, I graduated!

The summer was nice as I wrapped up my life in Maryland, and before I knew it I was on the Road to Boulder. And well... if you've read my blog at all you'll know what happened from there. Loneliness, disappointment, and several unsuccessful attempts at healthy living.

But even though the last five months have been... questionable for me, I now feel like I've lived a bit more. At the very least, now I have a pretty useful conversation starters that goes a little something like, "Heh, so this one time in Italy..." or "Welp, I can tell you this, we do things a bit different over on the east coast..."

Enjoy 2007 everyone. I'm gonna do my best to.

My Triumphant Return.

2006-12-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

So I made it home. Whoopie. After worrying for two solid weeks about being snowed in, I was able to fly back in time for New Years Eve. In retrospect it seems that being stranded during Christmas was a good thing, for I've been able to spend a lot more time here, and by a bizarre chance I was able to be with my Grandmother during what turned out to be her final days.

So... been here a week... and I'm bored. I definitely remember why I had the desire to fly halfway across the country in the first place. Granted it turned out to not be as awesome of an experience as I thought it'd be, being alone in a new town with a job that you hate has its downside. But that's all going to change. Come the 13th I'll be making my real Triumphant Return as my journey begins anew. Cheesy wording indeed, but this time around I actually have people waiting for me to come back to Boulder. At least I like to think I do. The two imaginary friends I've made out there really miss me, as without me they... well, don't exist.

So to kind of wrap things up, alot has happened here in Maryland this past week, but I've been hanging out with most of my readers, there's no real need to go into all of it. Plus, it's the Boulder Chronicles, and I wouldn't want to slip out of my usual format now would I?

This is where ulcers come from.

2006-12-28T14:59:00.000-07:00

So, all in all, being stranded here for Christmas wasn't so bad. As a matter of fact, I would say I have no regrets about it. My co-workers, the one's I actually like even, were nice enough to feed me well. Also, rather than return home to have my father say, "You said you wanted an Pod-something for Christmas? Well tell you what, let's go to BJ's Wholesale Club and see what they've got, and you can pick out your own," I opted to just buy one in five fucking minutes on Amazon. So, I am now the proud owner of the top of the line iPod 5.5, and 1050 more Amazon points, and thus I am King of the Amazon. This is indeed awesome for the most ridiculous idea ever, the Podcast, is right up my ally. Why listen to NPR for free whenever, when you can download certain radio programs to clog up your computer and then somehow find a way to put them onto your iPod. It'd be simple if I was willing to let it sync all the time, but the idea of iTunes having absolute control over what goes on, why I'd expect that sort of shenanigans from Microsoft, but not my recent crush Apple. But anyway, if I could figure out how to use templates in Word '98, no interface can dare oppose me.

Now what concerns me is the next giant blizzard which they're calling worse than the previous one. Apparently this one, which hit this morning as a light rain, which about an hour ago turned to snow, a snow predicted to continue into Saturday morning, is slower moving and thus may drop more precipitation on us than the former.

Diagnosis: I'm shit-fucked.

Last week the airport closed for 45 hours. The bus system was shut down from Wednesday evening until Friday. The postal service stopped deliveries for a solid two days.

I though this was the FUCKING ROCKIES!

And what with modern technology and all being able to clone farm animals and infect the children of America with Cloneitis, the little known disease that comes from drinking the milk of an animal that was not created by G-d, but by the hands of man, AKA Lucifer, you'd think they'd have figured out a way to get around a few feet of partially frozen water. I propose some form of anti-snow, for example: fire! Why not set all the forests on fire to preemptively raise the temperature and smoke away those storm clouds. Surely there must be some kind of laser that could be used to create an energy field to surround Denver International Airport and keep out those nasty weather patterns.

If there was ever a time I needed you heathen bastards, and yes I mean you too dear reader, to start praying for my timely, uneventful return trip, it's now. So if you'll please, drop your Yule logs, bring the Nativity Scene back down from the attic, and for the love of Him, stop your hippie pagan love fest.

So in summation, I had a good Christmas, the iPod is freaking awesome, but I was hoping to have a good New Year at home as well, so keep wishing for My Triumphant Return, and maybe just maybe, I'll be able to make a post that's actually true to that name.

Now that's what I call edgy blogging.

Trapped.

2006-12-22T13:17:00.000-07:00

As piles of snow have practically locked me within my own apartment, I've had waaaaayyy to much time on my computer. Here some things I've found of interest, mostly off Penny-Arcade's last post.

-Rabbids

-Dis or Dat

-The Grinch: Alternate Ending

Also, against my better judgment, I helped out at work today. From talking to my co-workers I've pretty much decided to strike, with the goal of receiving my days off in January so I can make it home. The popular option is that they would quit in my situation. Apparently I'm not alone in my dissatisfaction with certain members of Pharmaca's management.

My Triumphant Return: Hiatus.

2006-12-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

To put it all lightly, I made a horrible mistake. And because of it, I'm stranded, cold, alone, and more than likely will be forced to go to work.

I'd say if it's snowy enough to cancel my flight, I'd think it'd go without saying that some fuck-off yuppie pharmacy should close it's goddamn doors.

This whole situation does not bode well for my alcoholism. I don't know when I'll be able to make it home, but I'm damn sure not going to go live at the airport for a few days, plus the buses have failed me.

Will I be back for New Years? Maybe. Probably have to quit my job cause they're going to be anti me changing my holiday hours now.

This entry is pretty much like all the others.

2006-12-12T13:35:00.000-07:00

So it's official, I'm now enrolled in school once again. Thus, December shall be the last month of this chapter of The Boulder Chronicles. Starting in January, when I cut down my work hours drastically, start my relatively meager plunge into debt, and begin my part-time graduate work, we shall (my one reader and I) begin the next chapter. If you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about, Look at the bottom of the right column and you will see I have indeed split this blog into chapters, to further the bookishness of it all.

Just for laughs here's some fun facts about my blog:

1. It was originally called the Drakos Chronicles before I came up with the idea to make this a log of my life out west. On that note, it was even called the Tufts Chronicles for a brief period of time when I was seriously considering Medford, MA as my new home. Boston was nice, and I had alot of fun when I visited, but Boulder was the land of milk and honey to me, or rather the land of ricemilk and agave nectar. More on my shattered dreams later this month...

2. I put a great deal more effort into writing the Prologue when I was still in Maryland then I ever have writing Chapter 1 out here. There are a number of good reasons for this. I had more time then. I wasn't as depressed then. Doing laundry here pretty much makes me want to rip my face off. 3 dollars to get my load fully dry? Machines eating my dollar in quarters? Weird white lines on my black khaki pants? It's all getting better though.

3. I'm pretty sure I got a C in Anicent Greek because I spent the night before the final writing entries like this one, rather than actually reading a word of Plato.

4. My closest amici (mas,pl,nom) can't be bothered to read it. My gratitude goes out to those of you who do, as this is the only contact, with three exceptions, I really have with the old east coast.

5. I was expecting to do more with the template design. It would take more effort than I'm willing to give to make it pretty (click if you're brave).

6. To those wondering, I am in fact not gay.

Migun of Boulder

2006-12-07T22:04:00.001-07:00

I do have to say that my last entry was a little over dramatic. I happened to have some free time on Monday and Tuesday so I pretty much spent them in front of the TV, but I managed to do quite a lot elsewhere. I made a total jackass of myself at my work's holiday party, but discovered I rock at Foosball. I also managed to get some holiday shopping done (I gots me some new shoes! Probably good considering I've been wearing my last pair of sneakers well through three serious relationships, more or less). So, as you are probably wondering about the title of this entry, let me move on to the free massage I got on Thursday. I was told by a co-worker of a place that gave you free use of special motorized massage beds, and I was able to convince another to come with me to check this place out. Aside from the half infomercial/ half propaganda video they require new visitors to watch it turned out to be a pretty sweet deal. With the general goal of eventually convincing you to buy the $3000 beds, they allow you unlimited use of their demo beds.

They're called Migun, for some reason, and they utilize the theories behind a number of eastern treatments involving meridians and chi-flow, and apply pressure to certain areas around the spine to help all sorts of health issues. The bed has large jade stones that give off far IR radiation that stimulate certain pressure points to help circulate chi, and elevate respiratory activity. All in all it was at least as good as any massage chair I've every been in, and it's free forever. If one exists in your area, and I know there's one on Route 193, look into it. And with that I've upheld my end of the deal to "spread the word, if you can." I could. So I did.

Nintendo Devours my Soul.

2006-12-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

So it's later, and I've officially dug myself out of the endless quicksand that time and again pulls me into a soulless stupor. I of course am referring to the effects of playing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. As with the three precious games since the series delved into the third dimension, I have managed to cram more hours into playing it than working this week, which was easier since I happened to cut down my hours coincidentally in the same week that I finally got my hands on the Nintendo Wii. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the system, it's pretty much the most awesome thing ever, solely because it utilizes concepts that have been around for years, and manages to make a controller that practically reads your motion in real-space, so when you swing the Wii-mote for example, you swing your character's tennis racket. It's quite a simple concept really. See, by moving the controller around you harness the power of sunspots to create a powerful beam of gamma radiation that changes the magnetic polarity of the quantum neutrino fields within your television thus creating the illusion of full on physical immersion.

Of course this has been proven to cause a few problems. But then not everyone immediately took to the atom bomb when they came out with that in the forties, but now everyone's got one. Moving back to my original point, I've been playing alot of videogames lately, and ignoring things like buying food. I'm seriously drinking Aloe Vera juice that I stole from the free bin at work for sustenance. Well not too seriously. Also I'd just like to take a moment to address just how insanely high the tax rate is in this state. I paid $24 in tax. That's more than I made working on Wednesday night, after income tax. And where's all this money going? To pay for Christmas lights.. everywhere (I'll have pictures eventually). So in conclusion, I paid alot of money because I was lucky enough to make it to Target in time to claim the last Wii, and I've more less become a faint shade of my former self, slowly dying of a lack of pretty much everything. But I need those heart pieces, and Hyrule isn't about to save itself.

Thanks be to Turkey? (or Cod rather).

2006-11-26T01:18:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe it's been a year since I had my hand up a turkey's gully-hole getting it ready for the oven. Ahh, those were good times. "We don't need to buy gravy, we can just buy flour and make it ourselves." Yeah.. that worked really well... gross. Sigh... sooo much mashed potatoes. Anyways, so another Thanksgiving has come and gone, but this time I managed to get myself invited to a vegetarian dinner. Although it was depressing to not to have a large dead bird, and a sauce made of it's guts poured over everything, I'd say I still stuffed myself quite full. One thing that the people of Boulder have taught me is that anyone who would dare harm an animal must be killed and cooked and eaten, post haste (satire). Except fish. They don't count as animals. Farm Fresh Cod. I don't know how fresh though, there aren't many cod farms around the mountains.

There was less.. death than last year.

I got away with not cooking, and my gift of Wild Oats brand Italian soda and mineral water was declared a smashing beverage success. Also we watched the hilarious Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which include a riveting two minute fight scene between Snoopy and a folding chair. I'll leave it up to you to decide how sarcastic I meant that to be. So, all and all a good Thanksgiving, but it would have been nice to have some actual time off. As Thursday is my usual day off, I still ended up with forty hours this week, which pretty much always makes me want to die. So what am I thankful for this holiday? I'm thankful that I have the will power to work for a mild psychotic who harasses me, in every derogatory sense of the word, and had the audacity to say "retail is detail" constantly.

Photo Collection III

2006-11-26T01:17:00.000-07:00

October - November 2006

One of Life's Many Lessons.

2006-11-13T17:24:00.000-07:00

Nigeria = Bad News

At least when someone asks you to mail a package of electronics there. Craigslist is a wonderful site, I met a number of really fun and interesting people out here through the personal section, but GOOD GOD the scams are everywhere. I can name at least three separate occasions in which I was almost fooled into having my face stolen by foreign mystics, or rather three occasions where I almost was duped out of my hard earned US dollars.

1. Almost signing up for the PayPal Pyramid Scheme. Dumb, but it made it look like the most I could lose if it was a hoax was five dollars.

2. Some crazy idea about being paid to fill out online surveys. Even dumber for me to consider, but it appeared to have a free sign up, and the guaranteed it risk-free.

3. Mark Nyugen (marknyugen027@yahoo.com) offers me 150 dollars + cost of shipping for the item I was selling on craigs.

Here was his fatal mistake. When the legitimate site he was pretending to use supposedly e-mailed me, I noticed something quite odd. Read for yourself:

Your Money will be Dispatched to you within 5 hours we Received the Express Mail (USPS) shipment tracking Details from you,Please understand that this measure is taken in order to protect both seller and buyer interests and to reduce the occurrence of fraudulent activities.

"Within 5 hours we Recieved?" That violates three out of four of the CUPS (Capitalization, Usage, Punctuation, and Spelling). What the hell kind of English is that? Apparently it's Nigerian black market English, as that's exactly where they wanted me to send it. Here is a snippet from Mark's telling me he had made the payment in my name:

Below is my friend address you will ship it to:-

Name : Seun David
Address : 7,Fadreb Street,Apete
City : Ibadan
state : Oyo
Zip code : 23402
Country : Nigeria
Phone : 2348059246624.

Well, obvious I ran right out and purchased a box, and calculated the shipping to Nigeria. The awful part is that I've now e-mailed a foreign miscreant, so now I have to buy an evil-eye in case he sends a hex at me through the internet.

The moral of the story: Never talk to anyone, or do anything on the internet or you those apes from the movie (book) Congo will get you. Which leads me to my final point, identity theft is very real, and you should be very afraid of it. Did you know that just today seventeen million people had their identities stolen and their lives ruined? It's true. Think about it. 17,000,000 people. That's the entire population of Asia. Think about that. All those people. Dead instantly from identity theft.

So what do we do? Never ever ever ever in a trillion years do you ever ever ever want to put your signature into an electronic signing pad. They will have your entire being to use at their discretion. They will buy atom bombs in your name. They will subscribe to US weekly in your name. They will put your name on a petition. A liberal petition. Sigh... I joke, but it happens so often at work that people refuse to sign their name because their "lawyer" told them it's a terrible risk. grumble grumble grumble...

I'm so tempted to go ahead and get a box fill it with tapioca pearls and mail it to the address listed, but I wouldn't want to create an international incident.

And finally this video was sent to me twice in the last week. It's tells probably the most compelling story ever.

An In-depth Analysis of Sacks. (Among other things)

2006-11-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

So with any luck this will be my first real post of any use. Here they are, the cultural differences I have noticed between Maryland and Boulder.

1. More crazy people - Every time I walk past Pearl Street Mall, or pretty much anywhere with people I am either confronted, or nearly escape being confronted by crazy people. Just yesterday in fact, a drunk lunatic asked me if I was a student. I responded sort of. Then he asked me if I studied, the ganj. I responded yeah, sure, I study the ganja. After this point he was distracted by someone who apparently looked like John Lennon, and I went on my merry way. This was by far the most normal human interaction I've had with strangers on the street out here. See back home, I didn't have to deal with that, since in the early 90's they rounded up all the homeless people and used them to revamp the People Tree.

2. Area code laziness - People don't write their area codes here. You still have to dial them, but everyone just assumes you have 303. Sometimes they might write 3/and then the number, but rarely the full one. This poses a problem because a common middle to the numbers here is 44X which is similar to my MD cell's area code, thus if I need to give people my number they assume I mean it's (303) 443-XXXX. This also happened yesterday.

3. Pop - Most of Boulder's population (at least those I have come into contact with) immigrated there from all around America, so we get many different regional vocabularies. So more often then not if they want a soda, they'll ask you for a pop. Pure lunacy. I refer once again to "More Crazy People" above. Clearly soda makes more sense. As everyone clearly knows soda is called soda because the main ingredient is baking soda, and more importantly soda does not pop it fizzes. None of this matters of course, since I never see soda anymore, what with environment of wellness and all that often causes me mental anguish (I am of course referring to a certain Pharmacy where I spend most of my time).

4. Sacks? - Finally, when checking a customer out I am supposed to ask if they'd like a bag for the shit they bought. Naturally I forget to ask them, or sometimes I don't like their face, or the way they slide their credit card through my delicate card reader so I don't give them a bag out of spite. In this situation they will then ask me if they could have a bag, but I'd say one out of every ten customers asks for "a large sack" or "a small sack." This, like everything else in the world, bothers me for a number of reasons. In my opinion a sack is made of burlap. A sack is durable and serves an important purpose. Keeping leprechauns out of your potatoes. Holding in your testicles. Carrying an endless supply of presents for good, god-fearing children on Christmas Eve draped on the back of a certain jolly old man. Certainly a sack is not two small plastic (or cornstarch rather) sheets seamed together to open up on the top end, and hold a meager, yet fantastically expensive amount of beauty products and herbal cold medicine. That's a bag. And yet what does your beloved Drakos ask a customer the other day, "Would you like a small sack for that?" And so begins my slow descent into madness. I'd bet you'd say I don't really have much further down I can go.

This has led me to a slightly different train of thought, that deserves it's own post.

With a Boulder on My Shoulder.

2006-11-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

So I think that settles it. I'm going back to school. It's the only place I can get away with my nonsense and still think I'm better they everyone else because I'm "doing some graduate work." I came out here expecting a romantic experience (as in adventurous) like Italy was. It turns out that there's more to expanding your horizons then just being an absurd amount of miles from home. My point is the differences are all subtle, and for the most part it's the same out here, I just don't have as many friends. So if I'm out here, I might as well be learning instead of sluggishly waiting out the clock everyday at a job that keeps me stuck in a small box on my feet for eight hours doing nothing I find particularly interesting or in anyway consequential.

Besides, am I honestly going to past up the chance to take Apuleius at UCB? I mean come on it's the Golden Ass. Who are you to resist it?

I've had this verse from "Blinded by the Light" by Manfred Mann (lyrics by Bruce Springsteen) suck in my head for a while, for somewhat obvious reasons:

With a boulder on my shoulder,
feeling kinda older,
I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasin', sneezin' and wheezin,
the calliope crashed to the ground.

So there's a explaination for my use of a rhyme in the title, even though I clearly played that note to death.

My Triumphant Return: Booking the Flight.

2006-10-26T17:56:00.001-06:00

On Friday my boss approached me and one of the other new cashiers and asked "So do both of you really intend to work all through the holidays? Or are you both neglecting to tell me of your time off request?" As I've never held a job for more than three months at the most, concepts such as giving two months notice for holiday vacation time are somewhat foreign to me. First of all, wtf: we get our schedules two weeks ahead of time, god knows what sort of hours I'll be working in two months. Second of all wtf: I'd say the likelihood of me even still being employed by Pharmaca in two months is iffy at best. Third of all wtf: people do things during the week of Christmas? I can't wait until I re-enter the educational system, and then never leave again, so I'll always have that winter and summer vacation to look forward to. Seriously, when I think of the possibility of having to work 40 hours a week with no definite seasonal vacation time, it makes me pretty much want to kill everybody everywhere (Be sure to vote for me and my "Everybody Must Die" campaign in the 2024 election). I kid, of course, I just think the thought is scary. Anyway, after working out my hours at the fairly reasonable demands of boss, I went ahead and booked a flight, to avoid anymore price hikes.

So today I'd like to announce that I will be making my triumphant return to Maryland from Friday the 22nd to Tuesday the 26th. That's five full days, so if you want to see me, you'd damn well better get in line and make an appointment. Sigh... and with that statement I have now become that which I despise. Well, I'd say let's begin the countdown at 1 month, 22 days.

My sweet new ride!

2006-10-16T17:42:00.000-06:00

Feast your eyes on the finest of vehicle technology. Combining the awesome new advent of the wheel with the incredible power of uh.... torsion, let me introduce you to my new mode of transportation. It's called: A bike. What is that you ask? Well it may be best to explain it from the beginning. In 1834 a man by the name of Alester Cromwell came up with a brilliant idea. "Eureka!" He exclaimed, "I shall tie thine two gravels together and roll downward yonder mountain on topist of thems." (Love my inflected english do you?) Of course he promptly died, what with the war on, and the Coriolis effect. Many years later a German scientist by the name of Amler Von Gehtnacht found the Cromwell's journey buried under a pile of socks (some tube some ankle) and published them as his own findings, this time adding an airhorn and reflectors to the Cromwell model. Millions perished. That day became known as Bloody Sunday, as sung by Sunny Bono, even though records show it in fact took place on a Tuesday. It was not until "the awesome new advent of the wheel" (Drakos 3:14) that the modern design of the bike, or the Rolling Pipin-Dangle for short, was created. And here it is, the apex of all mankind:

Now many of you might be confused and ask, O Drakos!? How does something with only two wheels stay balanced enough to be ridden off into the evening twilight? Well, I haven't quite figured that out yet. I'm pretty sure the feet holder things have something to do with it, and I heard my friend the doctor mention something about centrifugal force, which from my extensive knowledge of Latin I know must mean the force of fleeing soldiers, so I'm thinking tiny armies run inside the tires. Now many of you (a different many from before) may say "I have a bike! You having one is nothing interesting." That's where you're wrong. I'll bet you've been too busy, ensconced, reading my blog, chewing your toenails, and watching M*A*S*H with little to no regard for the CONSTANT ingenuity that the bike industry has had coming to it from the most brilliant minds on Earth. This bike is complete with "it all."

It's got metal, it's got plastic, it's got rubber, it's fantastic.
Round the back you find the seat, padded up to be complete.
It's got a bottom, it's got a top, even a holder fer yer pop.
The fenders are made in Taiwan, and it's heavenly to sit upon.
You think I lie, but it's truth: This bike's got it all. Um.. uh.. forsooth.

So I'm pretty sure that's going to be last time I rhyme intentionally. Although I'm sure if I keep this up I'm bound to do it eventually. So here's the god's truth: the bike's fine. I hardly see what makes it a Comfort Bike but I'm sure my Mongoose will work out for what I need it for. Being on time to work for once. Fat chance. Alright, I'm gonna go practice out in the dark where no one can see me be a total failure at biking.

Blogger Beta.

2006-10-11T22:40:00.000-06:00

If anything bizarre should occur during your visit here, it probably has to do with my recent switch over to the new Blogger which is better in many ways, but still under construction. Apparently it's going to take them a little while to make up their minds about what the new "Next Blog" button should look like. Also, see what happens if you click on the lable "Squiggle" down there.

The First Snow.

2006-10-11T22:29:00.000-06:00

I really should start carrying my camera around with me more. Monday night it rained continuously, something that rarely happens here, and during the night it turned to sleet I believe. There was nothing left on the ground in the morning, but when the morning fog lifted the mountains were covered in snow. It's a funny thing to see snow right there, no more than a mile away when everything around you is still green and autumn-like. By the time I got off work on Tuesday the clouds had all gone and the snow had all melted, and today it was back to the high 6os again. Apparently the only thing stranger than the weather around the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, is this mountain valley weather.

Best Wishes from a mile above.

Selling My Soul: Part II

2006-10-06T20:41:00.000-06:00

Several months ago when I still had a bright future ahead of me, before I turned to drugs and loose women, I announced I was selling out to Google. Well it's looks as though I've made the right decision for because of my ads I have no generated enough revenue to quit my drug peddling gig and take on rock and roll full time, baby. So today I'd like to make another annoucement. My band: The Bipping Boppers One Two Three will be getting back together, and this time we won't stop until we're on the cover of Rolling Stone, yeah that's right.

Bullshit. You know how much my months of advertising (which I am sure RUINED your drakos blogging experience) has profited me? Take a guess? Zilch you say? Almost. Try, $4.04. That's right, a whopping four dollars, and four cents. Worst of all Google Adsense only sends you the first check after you've accumulated $100 in revenues, which considering my rate of a dollar a month (which isn't even true, the money came all at once from the initial clicks of my few loyal readers [specifically, myself on three computers] back in July) will take... a while to reach my fingers.

My point being, I have decided even though the ads are fairly insignificant, they rarely advertise anything useful on my end, and since I just received more than enough money for rent next month from my actual job I'm done with this Adsense nonsense.

Three things.

2006-10-02T18:45:00.000-06:00

1. I worked overtime this week and all I got was this lousy tuberculosis.

2. Atomsk88 has achieved YTMND perfection. Watch it for hours.

3. The little spikey round thingies with the pink swirl in the middle found in Japanese noodle soups are called narutos.

That's so undergrad.

2006-09-19T22:45:00.000-06:00

Once again tonight I failed to find my niche here in Boulder. So regardless of whether or not anyone cares here is an overview of the typical CU party (I feel like the five I stopped by tonight gave me a good enough sample). First take a house. Rent it to no less than three undergrads for an outrageous monthly rate. Then watch them somehow or another get a hold of a keg of Fat Tire. Now we change perspectives, and you are now Fratty McPopped-Collar, one of the aforementioned undergraduates, more than likely a sophomore business or economics major. Now make sure your home is free of both furniture and carpeting (they'd just got stolen and stained anyway) Place cups next to the keg which has been strategically placed in the smallest most awkward room in the house. Write nonsense on the walls, making sure to include the phrases: "So-and-so is the Masta o' Disasta" and "Whats-her-face ain't a ho cause girl just be chillin" and maybe "CU drugged you and watched you fuck your mom, and she called the retard-incest-flipper baby that came out CSU." Invite five people all with identical wardrobes and hairstyles. To avoid too much confusion make one wear a beanie, and one an army jacket. Place each of these undergrads (residents and invitees) in groups of two each in separate rooms. Crank up the rhythms. Wait 45 minutes. Once 100 random people show up, about 10 of which are female start asking who people are and be rude to them until they leave. Make sure to empty the keg into pitchers to save for later when no one is looking. If feeling adventurous install ultraviolet, strobe, or disco lights. Most importantly carry around a delicious looking drink of which there "just isn't enough rum to make another of." Finally make sure you get neighbors who will have a slightly sketchier party during the same night with two people fighting in the yard.

There's something to be said about a quiet evening of drinking alone.

Despite my obvious complaints I did get to do a few things in the presence of my bosses that won't be soon forgotten. Also I ran into two people who remembered me from previous encounters. These were pretty much the first times I bumped into anyone I know, as I still believe that I haven't even one acquaintance outside of co-workers. Guess I'm wrong. Oh... and Trogdor Babies.

Selling Drugs.

2006-09-13T16:41:00.000-06:00

Anyone who read my last entry probably gets the impression that I was unhappy that week. I wasn't exactly pleased with work situation, but I'm sure and least one of my dedicated readers will be happy to know I'm keeping on top of my life now. After a full week of unsatisfying labor at the feet of Gap Inc I went on a craigslist resume sending rampage. The result of which was amazingly quick and in my opinion a lucky break. Today I had my first day of training selling drugs. (Saying that never gets old). It was easy, my co-workers are nice people, and I get a 30% discount, and health benefits at 90 days. The only problem is the alleyway where this goes on is somewhat less of a manageable walk, but that's what the Hop, Skip, and Jump are for after all. The names might be corny, but they work. I can't say that I'm not a little surprised at myself, as I had no idea I'd be working at a pharmacy, uh.. I mean drug dealer...ship less than a week ago. Neither did Old Navy. Chuckle.

In other news, I received a free trial of Gamefly from drinking as much Sobe as I do. So basically I get to rent as many videogames as I can play in a month for free. I should be receiving the fourth one in the mail shortly, so needless to say I'm happy, but only a few weeks remain till I guess I'll have to go back to legos. Also, because by way of my actions I have received a coupon for yet another free trial of Gamefly, however, as I already have an account it is against the rules for me to use it. I suppose might try canceling and resigning up, but I feel like I've rode the gravy train long enough. So here's what I'm going to do: The first person to post a comment asking me for it, under the condition that I feel you'd really have a use for it, gets my free trial code. Obviously make it recognizable to me who you are, and as I'm assuming no one I don't know actually reads this, it'll be easy enough to send it your way. It's a good deal, for even if you only have time rent two games and return them with enough time to cancel before the month is up, that could be $100 you save. In the unlikely, and I'd wager almost impossible event of a tie, we'll settle it with a fight of sorts. (or maybe this).

Old Navy Gripes and The Red Rocks Trail.

2006-09-02T13:03:00.000-06:00

So I'm going to say that I've just about had it with the real world. I am of course not referring to the occasionally humorous and consistently horrifying show on MTV, but am in fact talking about my sordid excuse for a life. Apparently it only takes but two 6:00am shifts to complete break my spirit. I've found myself saying "I'd rather starve than get up at 4:30" on a number of occasions in the last two days. Here are the problems you might see with that:

-You do not need an hour and a half to get ready for work.

-Your entire livelihood is not riding on a part-time job at Old Navy.

-You're not in the real world, people there don't shop at Wild Oats Organic Market.

Well my responses are, yes I do, I realize that, and don't diss the Oats. So as I refuse to work 6am, they'll be cutting back my hours. No big whoop I suppose. At the end of the month I'll still pay my rent, and my bills, it's just becoming less and less likely that I'll have any savings by the time I start taking classes, but then I suppose that was never really the point. I'm just going to explode if I watch one more video or read one more training manual that mentions integrity, you be you, or zero mean zero. Now, as I must be heading to bed soon, it's almost my bedtime (eight fucking thirty), and I have one more six am tomorrow, I'll get to my second topic.

On Sunday I decided to go for a walk towards the mountains. The thing about Boulder though, is which mountain do you aim for, you have a whole mess of front range to choose from. Naturally I chose to just walk west down Pearl until I either got tired and gave up, or reached a mountain of sorts. Turns out it's maybe about a twenty minute walk to the something and such park that had access to the Red Rocks trail which led me to the peak of the smallest of the mountains visible (when not obscured by trees or buildings). Here I found a breath-taking view of Boulder, of which I've more or less given you below. It's not the best picture of the city, I opted to use the shot taken as I balanced atop the honest to god Red Rock atop the mountain (more of a hill when compared to Mt. Vesuvius or the Rockies).

That was a plus, as I'm more scared of heights than I am of the crazy antics those harlots and johns on The Real World. But I saw cacti up there! Naturally growing! That's new for me. Also I believe I found the drainage ditch that leads to one of the two creeks near my place. This is exciting for me in an existential way (I understand the philosophy perfectly know that I've seen I heart Huckabees), it's nice to see everything is connecting... even the man-made ditch designed to lead rainwater into the reservoir and not into my foundation. Oh, and I saw a chipmunk up there. The end.

Photo Collection II

2006-09-01T13:16:00.000-06:00

August 2006

When Yer Twenty Two

2006-08-27T14:26:00.000-06:00

Stuck in the perpetual motion
Dying against the machine
The whole thing leaves
You a nothing instead of a these
The sun is black and the black halos fly
And your number is backwards again when you try
The sound is so cute when you're twenty-two
When you're twenty-two

Eggs break when you walk on the scramble
You're living against the machine
The whole thing leaves
You a nothing instead of a these
The bone is cracked and the cracked eggshells fly
And your number is backwards again when you drive
The whole thing's removed when you're twenty-two
When you're twenty-two

The Flaming Lips
Transmissions From The Satellite Heart
Warner Bros. Records, 1993

My longest entry ever: Facebook and Pluto.

2006-08-25T13:29:00.000-06:00

For those of you who either ignore the news, or have yet to be roped in by Facebook here's what I'm annoyed out: the eradication of Pluto('s title) and the new Facebook Notes feature.

First of all, I'm concerned about Facebook. One of these days their just going to find a way for people to inseminate each other over the site, thus eliminating every possible reason for real face to face interaction. A blog is one thing, but Facebook continues to come up with creative new ways to horrify me. But I digress. In my opinion, the more planets the better! It's more back-up terrain for once we master terraformation. Personally, I've been waiting for them to discover planets Mickey and Goofy, for quite some time, getting the number up to a nice round 10. Perfect for the obsessive like myself.

I was originally going to post the above paragraph in response to my friend's note about Pluto, but I decided I was too fond of the very heart of blogging itself, that I had to put it up here. The idea of being able to post whatever you want on a sort of community net (perhaps a world-wide web?) is in theory a good idea. My problem is the import blog feature which could if enabled place the very words I am typing this instant in my notes section of Facebook. Who cares? you might ask. Well if there's one thing I hate, it's things that go against my set of established norms, as defined long ago by my now undeniable OCD. Syrup is one then that goes against my idles, but only when it gets on my hands. That is but on example of what I like to call my physical obsession, something I can't stand the feel of. The other aspect of my self-diagnosed OCD is the mental obsessions, which this whole facebook thing goes up against. Anyone who read my blob in the good old days (May) may remember it several weeks of constant insignificant changes to the template design of the site, for example the use of links that change color, and become lowercase after being visited once. Don't know what I mean, well: CLICK HERE but then come right back. These and the many other subtle changes I believe are due to my mind needing things to look a certain way. My former roommate, though I doubt he reads this, would remember my purchase of a level, so that every poster and object in my room could be perpendicular to.. well I dunno, the magnetic center of the earth? Now of course, I have no real evidence to say I'm OCD aside from similar examples, but as have done no research on the disorder, and call myself an expect only because I saw the 20/20 special at my grandmother's house, oh I'd say a shade over a decade ago. Once again.. I digress. What Facebook is doing could very well led to more people seeing these entries, if I play into their hands and make it visible to my entire community, but at the same time I am bothered by people reading my blog, while not really being at my website! I spent a many hours getting the color scheme and page layout the way it seems most acceptable to me (granted it is formatted to my own screen, and none of your's) and I'm not about to start letting people read on a dingy Facebook notes page.

Maybe I'm just crazy. Yeah... deal. So my final thought on Pluto, I know for a fact the tubes of the internet are clogging up with people debating a completely arbitrary and human term, but I believe an article from Yahoo news best describes my concern for the loss of planethood, saying something along the lines of: We all learned of the nine planets as school children, and thus they hold a certain familiarity for us. I'd add that it's a lot like in middle school when my science teacher told me that the image of the atom we had been shown for years, the round ball nucleus surrounded by electrons traveling in perfect symmetrical orbits, was nothing but a simplified lie. I suppose it's similar to the four food groups that I learned in second grade, Meat, Fruits and Vegetables, Breads, and Dairy. It was soon after this image, another arbitrary system of classification, was replaced by the Food Pyramid. I can actually remember being sad because Fruits and Vegetables had broken-up. But here was something bigger and better, more classifications, and a streamlined design: the aerodynamic pyramid shape. Does having one less planet make our solar system "blue and pure"?

If it does it shouldn't, because it's mostly gas and garbage out there.

Unemployed.

2006-08-24T14:01:00.000-06:00

So as of today, I still am without a job. Old Navy told me I was hired, and that there would be a new employee orientation this week, but as of yet I haven't heard from them. I could call them, but that would take more effort them I'm willing to exert right now. I just got back from another interview with PlayFair Toys, which would be a sweet job, as I would get to play with toy trains in my downtime. Also I'm waiting to hear about a recieving position at Liquor Mart, the second biggest liquor store this side of the Mississippi. That place is like the freakin' Super G (King Soopers in CO) with aisles and aisles of alcohol. So by tomorrow I should hear about these two jobs, either of which would pay me enough to live here. If I don't get one, hopefully Old Navy will work out, but I'm going to have to get another part-time job to live with that. I need money, as I need to support myself out here until I starting going to school, which for now is still TBD.

The Joy of Memory Foam

2006-08-18T12:00:00.000-06:00

So the day has finally come! Today my memory foam mattress finally arrived. It's been a long hard journey, but I'm now officially all moved in. I opened the door this morning to take out the garbage, only to find that two giant boxes were sitting outside my door. Upon opening them up I found three separate pieces of foam, and a mattress pad. After a half hour of ripping plastic open and carefully laying layer on top of layer I put the old girl together.

Update: So after one night, I can't say that it's indeed the greatest mattress of all time. But it's fine. It feels a lot like my old mattress right after I put the comfy eggcrate on it. Maybe after my back gets used to sleeping on something that is too short for me (the loveseat), or the floor, I'll feel more rested. As memory foam, it seems pretty good, after I climb off it there is a substantial assprint that takes five seconds to reshape, I just hope it will maintain it's springy quality after I put through constant use.

Another nice thing about the bed is it came with a free memory foam pillow. It was a good deal as an actually Tempur-pedic pillow retails for $100. I still don't know how much I'm into sleeping on a contour pillow that seems to lock you in one position. All in all it's good to have my bedroom finally set up right. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an interview at a liquor store.

Yep. Couldn't work it in: I like this music in this cartoon. I'm also surprised I didn't try to work the word jubilation into my initial bed description.

Drinking Mountain Honey Wine

2006-08-15T16:39:00.000-06:00

So what is your dear and darling Drakos up to out here in Boulder? Why drinking the love of the medievals, mead of course! It would happen that Boulder houses the Redstone Meadery, makers of the finest mountain honey wine aka mead! You can tell by my use of alternate punctuation that I have been enjoying the blueberry variety of this honey wine tonight!

Delicious! They don't sell this stuff just anywhere, so maybe if your nice to me I'll bring you some whenever I come back to Maryland. Unless your not from Maryland, in which case I don't who you are, because who reads this things, but for my few loyal friends who just miss me SOOO much that even the occasionally drunken post is enough to ward off the loneliness.

For those interested here are some more Medieval YTMND links:

Medieval Zidane

Medieval Google

Medieval 404

Photo Collection I

2006-08-15T16:38:00.000-06:00

Here are some recent pics from move-in and the Rocky Mountain National Park that didn't find their way into a previous entry.

August 2006

Note: I have just begun to use the HTML tag to place the captions within the picture rather than under them. Simply move the cursor over a picture to and the caption should pop up.

About Mattresses and Rainbows. Apparently.

2006-08-12T22:04:00.000-06:00

Now that I've gone back and posted pictures where they were missing, I suppose it's time I got back to posting then. Well.... Not much to say really, I'm unemployed, I know virtually no one, and Walmart.com completely failed at sending me a memory foam mattress. They failed so much in fact, that I've canceled the order but as I will settle for nothing less than foam I've made other arrangements. So aside from sleeping on the loveseat I got at the Salvation Army for $45, I've been looking for a job. My original hope was to become a full-time clerk at the Boulder Public Library, which is a marvel of architecture that puts Fallingwater to shame, but it looks that as though that position will take a lot of time and well-placed sexual favors. In the meantime I have a lucrative opportunity I working on. If that doesn't work there's always modeling I guess.

(Library - August 2006)

On the bright side my new bus pass lets me ride all over Boulder with no fare, and I've got an official Colorado Driver's License. And let me say this (no offense to my state future official residency): The license is... well... really gay looking. The bottom has a Spirograph like pastel design (pink, purple, turquoise) and then a faded image of the Rockies with a blue sky above it, but the picture and ID info blocks out everything but the fluffy clouds. To top it all off my facial expression is... well... really gay looking. Usually my subtle smile comes out looking far to serious so I tried to look happier. Some how it came off looking as if my face got a signal crossed, and while my eyes, nose and mouth say cheese, my eyebrows seem to say this. So speaking of gay fuel, I have seen two amazingly complete and visible rainbows, of which I only got one crappy picture. These were some nifty rainbows let me tell you.

(Rainbow just before it faded - August 2006)

It was like Roy and G. Biv got together and had a party and invited all of their friends, and then someone spiked the punch with LSD (cf. "It's like a koala bear crapped a rainbow in my brain" -Captain Murphy). Or then again maybe it wasn't like that at all. Apparently I had more to say then I thought. Hopefully next time I post I'll have a job, and maybe some new friends, or at the very least a bed.

New Beginnings.

2006-08-07T17:57:00.000-06:00

After a long and painful week, my apartment is all set up (with the exception of a bed). I'm off to have a farewell dinner for my parents who wore out their welcome to the fullest extant of the cliché, but were still a tremendous help in getting my life started out here. Now I can start to go back and sort out the last few hurried entries.

The Road to Boulder: Move-in Hiatus

2006-07-31T11:01:00.000-06:00

So I made it here in once piece, however my modem is still in the mail so it may be a few more days before I can get on for real and post in freedom. Currently I am in the beautiful Boulder Public Library, where I some day hope to be employed.

A few things that must be said:

-My dad refuses to change his watch to mountain time, so he's constantly two hours ahead (he already wakes up at 5am, so his sleep cycle is now 10pm to 3am.

-He also cannot remember a single street name, what direction is west, and what my apartment looks like. Thus I am the navigator. This does not bode well.

In case you didn't know, my parents were kind enough to drive me out here to help me set up, but I have no idea when they plan to leave, so in three days or so their bodies will no doubt be found floating in the Baseline Reservoir. I kid. I love.

(My new place: Before and After - August 2006)

The Road to Boulder: Effing Arch

2006-07-30T19:54:00.000-06:00

I've found a computer at a hotel in Kansas, so I figured I get this entry together. I'll come back and write it for real once I get my computer hooked up in Boulder on Tuesday.

Zounds! Twelve hours in one day is pretty good I'd say. Especially when you do it the next day as well. Ugh.. anyway last night we stayed in the loving truck stop town of Effingham known for it's car show in September and "the big cross on the freeway." The Holiday Inn Express was off of a road called, honest to god, Avenue of Mid America. That sounds like [joke to be added], if you know what I mean, LOL, ROFL, OMGWTFBBQ.

(Effingham, IL - July 2006)

Also, we stopped in St. Louis today to see the arch, which my mother kept calling "the tower." Sigh. It was cool looking I suppose, but there's a horrible heat wave out here right now, and Missouri was 100 degrees. Anyway, the museum below the arch is the "Jefferson Museum of Expansion" which had a talking animatronic minter, indian, black solider, and William Clark, who winked everytime he said anything about the Native Americans like "we gave the Indians metals in exchange for land, and gave them lots to live on." Ahh... America.

(Gateway Arch - July 2006)

More later folks.

The Road to Boulder: Farewell!

2006-07-28T13:52:00.000-06:00

I'll be shipping out at 5am tomorrow morning, and my chariot is all packed and ready for the three day adventure. I'll see if I can't snap some nice pictures from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas and Colorado. Ugh.

(Chariot of Fire - July 2006)

Farewell, Maryland! Take care of yourself while I'm away, and don't take any wooden nickels. Talk to you all when I hook up my internet in Boulder (I'm aware that there's no actual human interaction in blogging).

Moving out.

2006-07-26T16:25:00.000-06:00

I'm in the process of moving out of my apartment, and I'll be heading on Saturday morning for a three day road trip to Boulder.

But before that there are a few links I should bring to your attention:

Dear God these pictures are frightening.

Reload this page for about two hours, then you'll be in my world.

Were you aware you can watch adult swim programming for free (legally no less).

Back to cleaning and packing.

Powershot SD700 and HoW?

2006-07-05T15:28:00.000-06:00

So my new camera showed up in the mail, and after taking the time to actually read the user's manual I discovered a number of nifty features, the coolest of which is the color accent mode. Go ahead and click the samples from my parents backyard to see the full picture, if you're interested in that sort of thing:

(Color Accent Mode - July 2006)

I hope somebody appreciates those shots, because I got like eight bug bites taking them. On another topic, I stumbled upon a most interesting book for 2.99 in the bargain aisle at Border's last night. It's the first book in the Haggis-on-Whey World of Unbelievable Brilliance collection entitled Giraffes? Giraffes! Allow me a moment to quote from this very informative work:

The legs of giraffes are filled with various types of fruit juice. You see, giraffes love drinking fruit juices - pineapple, boysenberry, mango-lemon - but their bodes have no real use for fruit juice, so it all trickes down to their legs where it stays and squishes around. This should have been obvious to you.

If that selection wasn't enough to justify my three dollar splurge, I'd recommend delving further into its pages. On a final note, I'm becoming increasingly anxious about the 12 more days until my move. I'm excited to be going out to Boulder, but my parents' constant attempts to help me get ready seem to just be making me more wound up. Apparently I'll be moving to the middle of a wasteland with no possible way of buying silverware, an iron, and a fourth power strip (as if I needed the three I already own), so these are all things I'll need to get now. Yeesh. At least I got some milk today.

The List Ends.

2006-07-04T15:39:00.000-06:00

And so ends The Miss List (maybe). As of today, I have only a bit over two weeks in Maryland, and I'm running out of things to prepare. The way I'm going I'll probably have everything packed with a week to spare, during which I'll have nothing to do but sit on my thumbs. Ooh, I know! I'll take a vacation... from unemployment?

Since I'm way OCD about such things, I've organized my entries, so if you'd care to read any of the Miss List you can now find the older entries here or from the link where the archives once were.

Also, my friend Jen has just informed me of her jewelry blog, so if you're into that sort of thing check out Midnight Beadings.

Worst Week Ever.

2006-07-03T10:23:00.000-06:00

I've realized that by leaving the occurances over the last week ambiguous I make my situation sound more dramatic, so rather than go into the details I'll just say that things have pretty much worked themselves out, and although insurance companies are a pain in the ass, when needed they do help. So important thing is, I can buy a new digital camera with the settlement. Oh, and when I gave blood yesterday (in the hopes of working out my karma issues) my blood pressure and iron levels were good... so that's a plus.

The end.

Ikea!!

2006-07-02T22:56:00.000-06:00

Today I was able to purchase most of my bedroom furniture for the upcoming move. Lucky for me an Ikea is a little over a five minutes ride my current apartment. As it appears the closest Ikea to Colorado is either in Texas or California, this month will be my last chance to get "affordable Swedish crap." In addition to a desk and dresser, I just had to get a tyft, check it out (in Swedish even!). If the picture/language confuses you allow me to clarify. It's a wall lamp, it has changeable decorative shades, and it was like ten bucks.

(Cutest damn bunny ever)

I realize that picture had no relevance, but merely a link to it would have been a travesty. Anyways, I still need a bed, couch, kitchen table, job, long-term career goal, my own island named Drakosia, my own utopian community (Drakopolis) upon the aforementioned island where Dr. Snugglewhatzit (as I call him) may frolic in peace with his other genetically cutified bunny pals, and finally the ability to make a coherent joke that doesn't involve rambling on about my last name. I'll bet I could find most of that on craigslist (look for my classified: Budding Evil Genius seeks Power-Hungry Dominatrix to Rule the Armies of the Night). Yep, well I think that's just about all I have to say then. Is it wrong that I'm excited about picking out silverware?

And to reassert my masculinity: Riki-oh.

More on Boulder.

2006-07-01T08:53:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Google Maps I now have several reasons to be excited about my new apartment's location. Not only is it close to Pearl Street Mall (also shown in the panorama in Mountains [don't click it.. just scroll]) the main branch of the Boulder Public Library (which I pray will hire me) but I have now found that within a few blocks there is not only a Target (which carries the entirety of my skin care regiment), but (get this) an Old Navy! For anyone who has ever paid close attention to my wardrobe, out of sheer laziness 75% is that particular brand. In my defense I don't do it so I can sport the label, and in recent years I have steered towards buying only the plain shirts (as to maintain the illusion of variety), which tend to be cheaper anyway (i'm not about to pay extra to be associated with the image Old Navy's advertisements create). So it's good news that I can take care of all my shopping sine car. So all and all it seems the furthest thing (though still walkable) is the school itself (of course that hardly matters). It seems the blockage in my writing organ has been cleaned out a bit (I wonder if it was from all that chianti and carbonara).

(Incredibly Accurate Map of Boulder)

As I was browsing Google's image search to find fitting and relevant shots like this, I stumbled upon the Wikipedia entry for Boulder. Some interesting people lived there, so check it out.

New post.

2006-06-10T02:42:00.000-06:00

There are a number of things I thought I should bring to your attention. Rather than slip these links in to my future posts all clever like, today I'll play it straight:

There is a group of people who have been sitting around for eighty years waiting for pitch to drop.

This, and a few of the other videos like it, are good for a cheap laugh (Look for pork chop sandwiches).

Finally, a horrifying video for all the Shakira fans out there (cause I know you all are).

I'm lacking in creativity and inspiration right now, so don't expect much from me anytime soon.

Mountains.

2006-06-09T23:50:00.000-06:00

For anyone who was wondering why I would ever dream of moving all the way out to Boulder, Colorado, perhaps this panorama taken less than a mile from where I'll be living will give you hint. Keep in mind the closest thing I saw to a mountain was, until recently, the pile of mulch in my driveway.

One Step Closer.

2006-06-08T23:32:00.000-06:00

As the main purpose of this blob is to talk about what I'm up to out in Colorado, I figure I owe it to my two readers to actually mention a bit about my rapidly nearing big move. I succeeded in finding a place to live, and although the accommodations appear to be meager at best, the apartment is within one mile of the three important destinations in Boulder (as far as I'm concerned), the bars, the library, and the school.

(22nd Street - Matrix Real Estate)

There seem to be plenty of windows in the building pictured, however I have no assurance that my own apartment will have them (should I have asked that before I signed the lease?). In all fairness it's a decent rent for a single in Colorado, and most importantly it will shelter me from the elements upon my August 1st arrival. Next thing to worry about? Finding furniture.

What was that like two hours?

2006-06-07T12:50:00.000-06:00

Congratulations Anonymous reader, you have won the contest! Clearly You know my blob better than I do.

Your prize is my foot up your ass. Redeemable at the local branch of your mom.

I know I've linked this before, but it had to be said.

You know what!?

2006-06-06T09:53:00.000-06:00

To those of you who have typecast me as some sort of soup-obsessed glutton, I invite you to try and find a single mention in this blob of the word soup, or even bowl for that manner (ignore those within this post, and any comments by certain [the only two] readers)!

I do this not to so much to be a douchebag (although I often play the role well) but more so to express my moral outrage for being defined by the one joke story of mine that caught on in the Classics department.

Am I a one-trick pony?

Note: While proofreading this entry I found that blogger's own JavaScript spell-checker did not know the word blog. It did have blob though, so I figure that's close enough.

Selling my soul: Part I

2006-06-05T23:34:00.000-06:00

As any perseptive reader can see, my blog is now chock full of ads. In a fit of boredom I experimented with blogger's connections to Google Adsense, resulting in my selling my soul to capitalism. In my defense, I'm about to become exceedingly poor over my graduate career, and the idea of getting paid simply by having the occasional viewer click on an ad was just too daunting. If the sight of these ads cause you pain, as they often do to me, I'll forgive you if you Adblock them. But, on the off chance you see a product that interests you, those ad links are more or less a charity to my bank account. (To avoid any trouble with Google, I feel inclined to say that I offer no incentives to viewing any ads.)

I am a consumer whore. But at least I'm not as bad as this person.

The End of an Era.

2006-06-04T16:11:00.000-06:00

Today, I graduated.

Damn straight!

And as my undergraduate years draw to a close I look back again at the bittersweet memories. Four years of (pardon the cliché) sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll have slipped away between my fingers. It was a time riddled with indecision, lust, aggravation, heartbreak, rage, longing, and grief. I promised myself I would keep this blog as emo-free as possible so I'll limit my cheesy words.

(Class of 1956 - May 2006)

I apologize for the black and white photo, it just looked less out of focus that way. Thus begins the countdown to egress. Time to start settling my affairs in Maryland. Eek.

Because I'm Sure You Care

2006-06-03T14:52:00.000-06:00

I went out and took a bunch of pictures today, so I'll have quite a few more entries soon.

Don't cry about it, just be patient and entertain yourself.

Wasting time...

2006-06-02T12:07:00.000-06:00

In lieu of studying, I opted to finish setting-up this blog completely. Now all that remains is to wait for someone to visit and post... any day now.... it could happen...

Boulder, Colorado.

2006-06-01T00:00:00.000-06:00

It seems pretty likely now that I'll be moving there so I decided to make this blog for anyone who dares to care what I'm up to halfway across the country.

(Eaton Humanities - March 2006)

Today I filled out my enrollment conformation form, so as soon as I get $200 I'll probably send her off to save my seat at UCB. But for now.. I gotta worry about finals.