|
|
Friday, December 11th, 2009
|
|
|
|
So tonight I will be graduate from Georgia Tech, and become a Master of Science in Civil Engineering, assuming I passed my last two classes. So I actually won't graduate till Tuesday evening when grades come out. Anyways I've been at Georgia Tech a long time. I've been alive for about 325.5 months and a Georgia Tech student for about 99 months, which means I've been a Georgia Tech student for 30.4% of my life. If you only consider my adult life then it is about 92%. That's kinda a long time. I expected to be more excited. It's going to be fun not to have to worry about HW, but right now I more sad that it's over than excited. I feel like "Now what?". I don't know what it's like not to be a student. I've been a student since I was 5 yrs old. I've been a full time employee since December 2006, but I've still been a student. So yeah this is going to be weird. I'm going to miss it.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Monday, October 19th, 2009
|
|
|
I guess I was wrong about the whole mediocre football thing. CPJ has totally turned the team around.
Owning a house is a cool feeling, but it also makes you feel old.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
|
|
|
Why do people (usually males at GT) walk with their hand in their pants' pockets? It's uncomfortable and makes you walk awkward. I understand putting them in your jacket pockets to keep them warm, but jackets tend to let your arms swing a little.
Why do so many of the people with nice, big office windows keep the blinds closed and never look outside? Even full open the glare on my monitor is not bad enough to keep me from working. You can half close your blinds, get work done, and still see outside. If you are going to get a window you should actually use it.
Why GT fans are so apathetic. Yeah we have a mediocre team usually, but schools with worse teams pack out stadiums way bigger. I actually understand this one. But it still annoys me to go se GT vs UNC and the stadium isn't near full and was pretty quiet.
Why buying a house has to take so long.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Friday, September 18th, 2009
|
|
|
|
We didn't exactly play awesome against JSU and Clemson, but at least we won those. I guess it is back to GT football like usual. We were bond to lose a few, but losing like that is just terrible.
|
|
Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Monday, September 14th, 2009
|
|
|
Seeing Misfortune500 twice in one week and listening to the album a bunch lately has caused me to think a lot about some of the things I really like about the band. I do have to say that I am good friend with Lemuel, who is their drummer, and all the other members are quite nice people, but I don’t like the band because of who is in it. I’ve known plenty of nice people in less than awesome bands. With that said, I’ll get back to my thoughts.
Their music is really amazing. I really like their songs. I don’t always know what they are about, and I kinda don’t care. They make me feel like a badass when I listen to them. They are total rock and roll with no bullshit. They can be aggressive without being belligerent. They can be over the top yet some how they aren’t ridiculous or melodramatic. I mean I don’t know what the “Fire!” is about in Of A Map, but it makes me want to dry really fast and blow my speakers. Generally I have to describe things by analogy, but I’ve never been very good at describing music even with some sort of analogy. So I think I don’t do their music credit. It might be better to say that when compared to the songs they cover (they play a few by The Chameleons and one by the Boss), that their own songs hold their own. Without knowing the covers I would be unable to distinguish them from their original material, and I think that is a strong argument in their favor.
Misfortune500 is one of the best and quite possibly the most consistent live band I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen them more than any other band and I have never seen them have a bad show. That puts then in with the likes of The Features and Interpol. I’ve seen Gentleman Jesse and His Men play sloppy and Death Cab For Cutie came out totally flat at the Fox. I really appreciate that they put a lot of effort into practice and preparation, because they always show up ready to play. I really appreciate a band that takes my time and money seriously enough to make sure I get what I came for. Unfortunately they are still struggling to get much of a following in Atlanta or Athens, and as such play with a fair amount of bad bands. The exciting thing about their set is that they always start with Panther Panther, and no matter who was on stage before them when they start that song the musical quality increases by at least one order of magnitude if not two. That one song raises the bar and they never let it drop. If the random local venue is a German church in 1517 and the average bands that play are RC priests then Misfortune500 is Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the church door. No more bullshit rock and roll! They are here to play music worth listening too, and play it exceptionally well. I always enjoy going to see them play and will always go as long as they have shows.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
|
I am rather disappointed by Miss Chan Marshall. Some dreamy vocals are nice, but a whole show is kinda boring.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
|
I am always really surprised when I meet people who don't know how to swim. Especially people that have the resources or geography that makes it really easy to learn how to swim. Like how do you not learn if you live near a lake. I took swimming lessons every summer are a kid. That is what we did. So to me swimming has always been very natural. At first I want to laugh when I find out someone with the means to learn hasn't learned and then I just feel bad for them. I have absolutely no problem jumping into a pool over twice my height deep, but a lot of people can only enjoy a shallow pool. That's got to suck. To me swimming is a life skill everyone should have. Like riding a bike or driving a stick shift. Water is just too much fun to avoid.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
So they recently (about 2 weeks ago) hired a new guy to be a team leader at work. Yesterday he abruptly resigned, but there was never any official announcement made. No e-mail from our supervisors, no quick staff meeting to tell us, no nothing. I heard the story that went through the grapevine, but I was annoyed that our boss never sent an e-mail that said something like, "Mr. X had to quit for personal reasons, and will no longer be the team leader." So I sent the following e-mail this morning.
"So is there going to be an official announcement to explain why Mr. X cleaned out his office, or can I just make up stuff?
I personally like the story of how he was part of the witness protection program, but got ratted out (potentially by someone at work)."
And still nothing from management. I just don't get it. Why wouldn't you simply send an e-mail to acknowledge that someone had to quit. It makes them look like they don't give a shit about what happens or don't know what is going on.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
I grew up a Bama fan, but that changed once we moved back to Georgia. I haven't really cared for the school in a while and here is one more reason to care even less. If Jacksonville State doesn't fire him right away they can just be written off completely.
Bama Fan Back History
My grandfather went to Tech and so my dad grew up a Tech fan. He moved to Birmingham to go to school and in the time before the internet and cable it was really hard to follow Georgia Tech football. He figured he'd pick a local football team to follow and ended picking Alabama, mainly coz they were named after the state and they were really good. He and my mom moved to Costa Rica where Alabama games were carried on Armed Forces Radio. They ended up in Peru where I was born and grew up. We eventually got cable and had American channels that carried football and since Alabama was still pretty good and had a lot of fans we could see a few of their games each year. It made me a big fan. I used to have a t-shirt that said "Yeah I'm a Bama Fan! You got a problem with that?!" We moved back the Georgia and then my dad could return to his team of choice and so he took us to GT games and I was hooked. Anyways now I am about to get my second degree and don't really care about Alabama anymore. In fact after meeting lots of Auburn people (mainly engineers) I actually pull for Auburn more.
Main point of the story
I really hate plagerism. It is completely shitty. No one wants to be in a building designed by an engineer who cheated his way through school and never learned the stuff for himself. I like that Georgia Tech has a Honor Code, and I take it very seriously. I am sure there is plenty of cheating going on, and not just by atheletes, but I still think and hope Georgia Tech faculty and staff take it seriously and would be very harsh on anyone found guilty. I hope they are. I used to be kinda timid about turning someone in. But now being older and wiser, I don't care who you are if you are cheating I'll turn you in without batting an eye (This is completely conjecture as I've never faced the situation). My degree is only as valued as everyone elses and if you got yours by cheating then it devalues mine. So fuck any cheater. You aren't going to be my friend.
|
|
Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
|
|
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
|
|
|
Misfortune500, some other people
Drunken Unicorn
02/28/09
The day after the Black Lips show we got to see Misfortune500. I love this band. A lot. I have never seen then do a bad show. They always bring their A game, which is some serious A game. It is hard for me to pin point what I like about the band so much. Knowing some one in a band only keeps you interested for a show or two if the band sucks. I think I might like them so much, becasue they are the band I have been looking for, for a long time. There are lof of good bands out there now, but a lot of the rock that is popular is kinda light. I dig some good dancy stuff, but I need something that makes me want to drive fast and be generally rambuncious. Misfortune500 has the good mid 90s rock sound with any bullshit or heroin. They are simply Rock and Roll. Great songs (even if I don't understand the lyrics), excellent musicians, good lights, they take their job as a band seriously whithout taking themselves seriously. They are rock stars but not dicks.
If I had time and didn't have to go to school till 10pm after being at work from 7ish to 4ish I would totally take Chisolm up on his offer (was it serious?) of being their manager.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
Black Lips!, Atlas Sound, Gentleman Jesse and His Men
Variety Playhouse
02/27/09
I love two and the three bands and really don't care about the other one, so this might be biased.
I liked GJaHM the first time I saw them at the Drunken Unicorn. They were poppy then and they are even poopier now. They didn't sound as good as they have at other shows, but it turned out that the sounds wasn't that great that night. The show was all ages and there were a lot of high school kids there (and a lot of parents). It was really interesting to see their reaction to the band. For starters they started pushing and shoving and moshing during their set, which didn't make any sense. (I don't understand why some people think that just because their is live music going on you have to push and shove. Maybe we should blame MTV) Anyways the other interesting reaction is their non-reaction to "I Don't Wanna Know". It was the bands first single, and is usually the song people get most excited about at the EARL or elsewhere. But it came out on 45 and I think it is now out of print. So basically for a buch of people it was the first time they heard the song. They knew some of the other songs, but this one drew a total blank. It was a nice dose of reality. To me GJaHM are a huge deal, but hardly anyone outside of Atlanta hipsters know who they are.
I don't like Deerhunter and I don't like Atlas Sound and they are about the same in my book. Katie and Dani thought it was better than Deerhunter. I don't know. It always sounds like a bunch on wankers went to guitar center, bought a bunch of stuff, and went home and mode sounds. It's like they are trying to be art rock without trying to be art or rock. That might not make sense. It just seems like they think they are important because they are weird. I don't know. Lots of other people like him so I might be wrong.
Black Lips! are flower punk. I agree with their self description. How else do you describe a band that tells kids to skip school and then says that there are two kinds of people, "horses and unicorns, and you don't want to be a horse." The new album is called 200 Million Thousand and they joked that no one in the audience could count that high, not even their calculators could count that high, that you needed a TI-93 to count that high. So they are punk but they want to have fun. Which is great. I find that it is something I miss in "indie" rock. There is a lot of good stuff, but after a while a lot of it is missing some balls. I can also see why high school kids like them so much. They are very us vs them. Kids vs. Teachers. You don't understand me just leave me alone. Anyways before I start talking about being in high school and growing up, let me just say it was tons of fun.
Great show but shitty sound. They will conquer the world. Or at least Austin when they go out there for SXSW.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
|
|
|
I've been thinking baout smell some lately, and some places that always smell good. And I mean the residual smell. there are passing smells, but alot of places seem to have a residual/signature smell.
1) My apartment. It smells like home.
2) Decatur CD. It just smells the way you want a CD store to smell.
3) The hydrology lab in Mason. It is earthy and wonderful. I wish the dirt lab smelled as good as the hydrology lab.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Thursday, January 29th, 2009
|
|
Friday, January 16th, 2009
|
|
Friday, January 9th, 2009
|
|
|
|
Hanging out with people who work for Student Affairs at Georgia Tech is totally different than hanging out with Georgia Tech students, alumni, or professors. Like pi radians different.
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
|
|
|
So school started back on Monday. I am taking:
CEE 6421 - Laboratory Characterization of Geomaterials
CEE 6445 - Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering
The first one is going to be a lot of work, but then the second one might be a lot of work too. More fun for me.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
baldyman's journal