Saturday, February 24, 2007

Announcement

I have a very exciting announcement to make. The rough draft of my massive junior thesis in finally finished. I have been working on this paper for months and on Monday I will finally hand it in. I have Deaf history spilling out of my ears but in the end, it really wasn't all that bad. Now all I can do is wait to see all the things my US history teacher will find for me to fix. Oh well. Good luck to all of my wonderful friends who are still working hard on their theses and congratulations to everyone who has already finished. We're all in it together and soon it will be a thing of the past. I think I'm going to go on a bike ride to celebrate.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Another Valentine's Day Post

So I'll admit my Valentine's Day wasn't really half bad this year and I sort of celebrated on Friday instead of on Wednesday because we were snowed in on Wednesday. Anyways, this is sort of what the night was like.



Well I guess this is what happens when you hang out with a bunch of teenagers. If you can't see the video then you can click this link to the Glumbert page.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

New Post

I saw this last week but the video wasn't working so I didn't want to post it.
Whenever I walk through the Union Square subway station, I have to navigate through all these vertical I-Beams that are all over the place. It always reminds me of something, but I couldn’t figure out what. Finally it dawned on me. It’s the first stage of the Death Star level in the Star Wars arcade game. Watch this comparison video.
I've never been in the station or played the game but this is the kind of stuff I live off of.

Soon to come: we are going to restaurant this week that could be the command center for several covert undercover agencies. Complete with waiters wearing walkie talkies.

Vacation

I am on vacation in Miami, Florida for the next week, which one would think would be an excellent time to work on my rather lacking posts, except that I am getting frustrated with the broadband connection on my Dad's laptop. I will attempt to post here, but it is easier said than done.

Firstly, I go on vacation during February most years, but this year I am not really on vacation. It is more just that I am in Florida, still doing all the normal work that I do at home. The main cause is that my thesis is due at the end of the week. I won't go into all the messy details, but it is a very long analysis of the effect of residential schools for the Deaf on the Deaf community in America. I have been working on this one paper all year from US history but the rough draft must finally get handed in, so it's crunch time now. So far, other from that, the vacation has gone surprisingly well.

We are renting a nice little house on Key Biscayne, and I have my own bedroom so I don't have to share space with my sister. This is a big improvement over the normal hotel arrangement. We are visiting my grandparents and trying to enjoy the weather, but it has been a bit on the cold side lately. Down here they think 50 degrees is cold but it is still an improvement over the New England snow.

The biggest downside so far is that my iPod broke. This has happened before because I have the older 20G Photo model. I am very fond of it and I really don't want to have to shell out $300 dollars for a new one. So far Apple has been great about fixing or replacing it whenever it breaks but it is no longer under its extended warranty so I am a little worried. Usually I would just listen to CD's until I could get to the Apple store but this is especially frustrating because I am on vacation. So I have nothing to listen to while doing work or while I am on the plane. Plus we have no music for the car because we usually use the AirPlay to listen to music over the radio. I guess I'll just go back to the stone age for a while and listen to the radio online while I work.

On a slightly different note, I have a great travel story from last night. We went to the Winn-Dixie grocery store (in the very large mini van we rented) to get everything we need for the house. Now we needed a lot of stuff: not just food for a week, but toilet paper, laundry detergent, and everything else a rented house doesn't have. We spent quite a bit of money, despite all of my mother's comparison shopping efforts. The cashier asked us if we had a Winn-Dixie card and of course we didn't because we don't have Winn-Dixie in Massachusetts. Well, it turns out that the supervisor was bagging our groceries and he noticed we would have saved a full $20 with the card. Being a good person he offered to scan his supervisor card so we could save the money. I was shocked. Nobody at home would ever do such a nice thing. He even told us that if we came back again for more milk or whatever just to come find us and he would give us the discount. It's so encouraging to see real people doing the right thing and rebelling against big businesses.

It's always quite eventful going on vacation with my family, so I am sure more stories are on the way. Of course, how could they not be when you are travelling with four people, six large duffel bags, and two sets of golf clubs.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Candy

Although it is a bit belated, this is going to be my Valentine's Day post. One of my friends for Valentine's Day this year brought me a piece of candy of a delightful variety that I had never before experienced. Being Canadian, she explained that in Canada they have Smarties, instead of M&M's. It is essentially the same idea except that Smarties come in different colors, are slightly larger, and I think they taste better. I am sure that you can find them somewhere in New England but for now they remain to me a Canadian delicacy. Anyway, what she brought me was not just a pack of Smarties but was instead a heart shaped piece of milk chocolate with a pink Smartie in the middle. I consider myself to be a bit of a Candy Freak, but this was unlike anything I had ever tasted before. If you are up in Canada, don't miss out on this piece of confectionery perfection.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Get Vertical

I thought they had figured out just about everything with wheels that you could ride in a skate park, but apparently I was wrong. This dude uses the skate parks features in his wheelchair. I was sort of shocked that nobody had come up with their before, being that a wheelchair has wheels and all. The whole thing is pretty rad and he's mastered some impressive stunts. This would be a great way to get kids stuck in wheelchairs into playing sports and stuff. Make sure to watch all the way to the end where he introduces a younger kid to the sport as well.