Miami Equals...

Notes for this entry were lost.

          Logan hosted another New Year's Eve party tonight. I had conversations with high school acquaintances I haven't spoken to in years, gorged myself on chicken...bite...things, and entertained myself by poker-facing every time someone tried to take my picture. I also watched Capital Cities perform all of "Safe and Sound" (confirmed: it's repetitive) and observed Pitbull in his natural habitat (in a club somewhere, giving Miami shout outs and being mediocre.) Happy New Year, everyone.

Notes for this entry were lost.

Notes for this entry were lost.

Notes for this entry were lost.

Papier-Mache Mephistopheles

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          I spent most of today on the couch, reading Heart of Darkness and Waiting for Godot. I should make more time for reading, since that was practically my only hobby between the ages of nine and sixteen. The first was intriguing, if somewhat spoiled for me since I've seen Apocalypse Now; the second is my new favorite play. It is Samuel Beckett's finest work, an existential piece of madness wherein two men wait, and of course I fell in love with it. A dark cloud descended over the mood after Sean informed me that he mistakenly left the heat off in the apartment. There is nothing that I can do at this time, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping our pipes don't burst in the cold.

Who Touch Sasha?

Notes for this entry were lost.

          I spent some time hanging out with Ian and Brian at home before we left to meet Logan, Josh and Summer for an evening expedition. We rambled around the Kingston Wal-Mart for a couple hours, making mischief and taking pictures with pet food, tiny chairs, and other assorted items. (Plastic Duck Dynasty tumblers, anyone? Anyone?) Logan and I snuck away to beat everyone to Applebees, where there is currently an amazing promotion for half-off appetizers after 10 p.m. First, this only applies in our local establishment if you're seated in the bar area, but our waitress was very kind and noted that all of those tables were already taken and gave us a pass. Second, I am not being paid to advertise for these companies -- just a drunk, hungry disclaimer. So, back to the food. We paid $5 for 9 "dessert shooters", cups of middling size filled with samples of three different desserts and took a picture with our long-suffering waitress, Natasha. We also shared a conversation with her about restaurant creepers. We went back to Logan's briefly before heading home, quite full and freaked out with fun.

The Ghost of Snapchats Past

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          Today is Christmas. We visited my grandmother first, as per tradition, and admired her tree and the assortment of family gifts beneath. Everyone moved to my aunt's place (just a few minutes away) for the general celebration and Christmas dinner. I spent hours chatting with various family members, and accumulated three Snapchat friends from among my cousins. The age differences between us are +3, -1, and -2 years, so there should be an appreciable variety of snaps in the future. (If you have Snapchat and we are not already friends: add swagchat5700! You won't regret it.) The time passed quickly, and I might mention that this is the last Christmas where I can't get smashed with my family. At home, I played lots of Borderlands and relaxed. The holidays come and go faster every year.
          Quote of the day:
"You're jumping on lots of wagons here." - Alex, after Ian professed his new Red Sox fandom

Another note: So my phone reset to factory settings while in my hand. Cause of said event is a mystery. Unhappily, this means another round of lost (intermittent) notes between today and February 20. For my own record, I will be marking them as before. Thank you for your patience and forgiveness.

Notes for this entry were lost.

Dammit

Note: Drunk posts incoming.

          I went shoe shopping with my folks all over Kingston (at least 3 different locations) before I finally found shoes that both fit and were not hideous: grey canvas Vans with red highlights. At last, I can walk around without holes the size of golf balls in my sneakers. Also, school spirit! Once the choice was made, we went to visit my grandmother. Every semester, I get a letter or two from her and come to miss her terribly, especially given her age. It felt good to give her a large hug and talk about life. Is this growing up?

Something Worth Celebrating

          I came home today, and got out of the house and into Brian's company as soon as possible. We made a run to the Catskill Wal-Mart for foodstuffs; there, we successfully avoided eye contact over the Christmas cookie display with an old coworker from camp. Our glorious return to the garage was sullied by how much of a craphole Brian's brother let it become in our absence, but we found enough space to sit. We watched Sin City and caught up, and I felt glad to be home. At least a little bit.

Video Games

          No co-op, no class, what is a boy to do? I kicked off my day with a couple hours of Papers, Please. Though it could accurately be called Paperwork: The Game, it is outrageously fun. In some ways a perfect complement to Hotline Miami -- somber storytelling and a muted palette are employed to great effect -- but its throwback visuals and ultra-quick, ultra-stressful gameplay have more in common with Hotline than would be readily apparent. After I could no longer concentrate enough to keep up with the learning curve of Papers, Please, it was on to the blissfully easy and mindless Borderlands. The evening was rounded off with a bro-tier kung fu movie double-header with Sean: Ip Man 2 and an amazing parody/homage called Kung Fu Hustle. The opening montage with the Axe Gang is superb, and the rest of the movie is packed with little surprises, terrifically overblown fights, and even a little warm fuzziness.

Through My Rearview

          I started off my final day at Jeremy's office by getting off the T at Downtown Crossing by mistake. I stayed a couple extra hours to help Jeremy finish up the tax documents we've been hammering this week, and he eventually took off while I continued to scan the last of the file dogging me. During this time, I enjoyed a relaxed conversation with Mark's assistants, and heavily regretted being such a standoffish prick during my time with Jeremy. At least I was better about it this week -- finish strong, I suppose? As it turns out, Ally has an aunt who lives on the Woodstock-Saugerties line, and she invited me to a Christmas party there. It didn't really hit me how final today was until I used the stupid envelope-printing template for the last time; despite the mediocrity (on average) of this first co-op, it felt weird getting ready to leave for good. It was dark out by the time I set out for home, and I took the time to enjoy the lights at the Common.

Mud Meets Stick

          Today was my second to last day working in Jeremy's office, and I spent the entire shift scrambling to update tax forms for a client for the umpteenth time. Tangentially: Fuck Adobe and their stupid monopoly on functional OCR and the ability to save changes on PDF forms. It was a struggle redoing ten-page forms at least four times each, but there's no way Jeremy or me are gonna drop $100+ just to be able to save changes. After work, Sean accompanied me for a trip to PBP; he described my acquaintance Wendy, a talkative college grad who looks about 17, as "very vocal." Volunteering was followed by a solo Borderlands session (weapon name highlights of the day: "Colossal Destructor", "Genocide Cobra") and a marathon conversation with Sean that stretched late into the night.
          Quote of the day:
"I need to write a letter and complain to the ice cream companies." - me

Vault Hunter

          Expecting to finish off the file scanning that's haunting me, I found myself running around and working on other tasks. I attempted to submit a brief at the Mass. Appeals Court, and discovered that they require a text-searchable electronic copy as well. Read: Adobe Acrobat required. Their website even had a helpful pointer toward Adobe's website, though they claim that this does not constitute an endorsement. As if my boss is going to blow a hundred dollars on Acrobat! I also helped a guy move a loaded cart up on to the curb during my lunch break, and it felt good doing my daily good turn. After work, I played some Borderlands with Sean and Katie, then played around on Google Maps with Iris. We hunted for some locations in our hometowns and I discovered two new ones in mine: "Eager Beaver Drive" and "Jurassic Park Lane".

Old Man Fish-hands

          The level of delay on the Orange Line was nightmarish this morning. Once again, I spent all day working on the aforementioned and humongous client file, which is full of redundant copies with random highlights all over them. The concerned client is completely batty, and I get the impression that Jeremy has represented her for a long time. I'm nearly done with the file, at any rate. By the end of the day I was feeling quite sick, and I conked out around 8:30.
          Quote of the day:
Junie: "Ugh, now my hands smell like tuna."
Me: "That's a fate worse than death."

BM-1216 Terrible Matador

          Today was my last Monday working at Jeremy's office; Mark and his staff had a party (hopefully unrelated.) I enjoyed listening to them telling stories and chilling out, since they're normally so stressed and waist deep in work. My entire day was spent churning through a huge file that's been literally underfoot for weeks. After work, I got Iris hooked on Borderlands and counseled Sean re: Katie, with whom things are at Defcon 1 right now.
          Quotes of the day:
"Do you like diet water too, Lisa?" - Ally
"I could drink orange soda all day." - Ally
"I had judges testifying!" - Mark, re: a hilarious trial where an 88 year old lady from upstate NY sued him pro se on numerous counts
"Poop more often!" - Iris

Social Services

          Iris and I watched Moonrise Kingdom late in the morning, the first Wes Anderson film for either of us, and we loved it. The tone and appearance of the movie is thoroughly surreal and overwhelmingly picturesque -- a daydream on the silver screen. Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, and (most importantly) two extraordinary child actors all turn in great performances for a memorable film. The rest of the day consisted of respective binges of Snakewood, Left 4 Dead, and Borderlands, as well as a corresponding binge of Iris's Taiwanese breads.
          Quote of the day:
"Buzz buzz, bitches." - Sean

Bakewood

          I dreamed that I was living in a basement with Nathan, Eric, Rebecca and two random girls, and woke to Iris delivering me delicious Taiwanese baked goods. Among these were some improbably tall, spongy cupcake-type things and puffy bread with scallions baked in. I barely moved from the couch for the rest of the day, just emulating and hanging with Iris and Alaric.

Verbal Kint

          For breakfast, I enjoyed some leftover curry provided by Iris and had a powerful flashback to staff dinners at the Red Onion. At work, I carried on a fun conversation with the girls and felt like a total dick for being so aloof all the time. In the evening, Iris and I walked over to Commonwealth Avenue to see the Christmas lights on the trees, then shared a dinner at Symphony. We attempted to watch The Godfather afterward, but I was unable to stay awake and hit the sack early.
          Quotes of the day:
"His brain is a peanut." - Jeremy
...
Alaric: "Can I get a segment?"
Me: "You can get a fuckin' hemorrhoid for all I care."

And Everything Seemed To Be Going So Well; or, Katerina Cook-a Da Chicken

          I slept through my alarm and got into work about half an hour late. The task I've been stuck on recently is a set of financial disclosure forms for a couple who are going through an uncontested divorce, and the process of revising them over and over again is a tremendous pain. Their finances are shared such that it's impossible to tease out who paid for what expenses, and their self-employment means they're subject to all kinds of obscure tax forms. Not to mention, getting information from the overworked, hyper-stressed wife is like drawing blood from a stone. I struggled with this all day. My last scheduled day working here will be December 20th.
          Iris and I baked a whole chicken this evening, rubbed down with garlic butter and stuffed with chopped onions. I am very proud of my chicken. Later, we watched Miyazaki relic The Cat Returns with Alaric and Sean. A cool, fairy-tale strangeness pervades the entire film, but the character development (flat at times, predictable at others) and super deus ex machina ending took away some points for me.

"Let them come! Wave upon traitorous wave will crash against the Enclave's walls!"

          My workday was unremarkable, but I did notice a few minor things about our building for the first time. There's fallout shelter signage in the stairwell, which is something I always find intriguing. There is also a shop on the first floor which seems permanently shuttered, and bears this sign: "Antiquarian Booksellers: Open by chance or appointment." One must lead the swanky life to run a shop that's only open by appointment.
          Quotes of the day:
"This is classic government bungling. This is what happens in every stupid case." - Mark
"Whatever you are doing, meditate on the beauty of it." - Jeremy's writings

Scent of the MBTA

          I had the privilege of going into work late, since I put in extra time yesterday. This gave me some much-appreciated breathing room in the morning, though getting on the Orange Line in the thick of rush hour is not very fun. My shift was nondescript, and later on, I watched Scent of a Woman in its entirety for the first time. Along with Alaric, Katie, Sean and Iris, I was captivated by Al Pacino as usual. Wonderful scenes abound; see: the tango; the joy ride; and the Christmas dinner with Slade's family. There is a tearjerker side to the movie, but Pacino's character is so depressing and so convincing that it doesn't matter.

In the Belly of the Beast

          Work today was spent training my replacement, Giulia, and we walked around in a light rain for a few hours to familiarize her with all my typical work haunts. I stayed late to get some tasks finished and came home to watch a frustrated Alaric playing Pokemon Snakewood on his emulator. Snakewood is a hacked version of Pokemon Ruby that turns the standard story into a sort of zombie-fighting adventure. This is awesome in theory, but a little lame in practice; the main character is irritatingly self-aware and jokey, but not funny enough to justify the flippant violation of the fourth wall. The zombified Pokemon are cool, and there is some very creepy dialogue and plot, but the gratuitous and obvious pop culture references are more distracting than amusing. Also, there is an egg that hatches into... "Mysteryegg." I looked ahead online, and yes, this hatches into the equally anticlimactic "Secretegg" and "Hyperegg." A long nap on the couch was followed by a solo TF2 session and some significant decorative progress across my walls.

Winter Waltz

          I got to Winterfest late, which was fine because it was extremely low-key anyway. Anne Marie, Alaric, Kevin A, Austin, and various others were sitting around and playing Apples To Apples when I arrived, which was exactly what I expected. After the gathering wound down, I made off with a large amount of snacks and soda and played veejems with Alaric once we got home. Later on, Sean and I attended the No Limits recital, since Katie was in a few of the routines. On the whole, I'd rate the recital as "pretty cool"; a few of the dances were incredible, while most were of a middling to good quality. One or two were mediocre, though this is the nature of No Limits -- they accept dancers with wildly differing levels of skill. Today also marks the first time I've heard "Royals" by Lorde, which is allegedly all the rage.

Just Blaze It

          I attended a tragic, tightly contested men's basketball game versus the UAB Blazers -- yep -- in which the Huskies were leading by a point until about two minutes from the end, at which point the Blazers got in a 7-point run and trashed us. I tried to kill the sadness by watching Sin City with Malcolm, Jared, Nathan, Sean, Alaric and Iris, and was only partially successful.
          Quote of the day:
"Fuck Tremont Street! Tremont Street niggas ain't got nothin' but a water gun!" - dude outside (courtesy of Sean)

Battleshots

          When I left for work, the skies were darkly overcast and roiling -- perfect Friday weather. Work was blessedly quiet, though I did spend more time drooling on my keyboard while researching motions to dismiss based on lack of venue. Later, Iris and I went to Tasty Burger and were seated just inside the door, where we ordered and then waited for more than half an hour. People came in, were seated next to us, and got their food, all while we sat there. Our table was three feet from the server station, but our waitress was oblivious. At last, she realized there was nothing on the table and got our orders to the kitchen. I was pissed off for a while, though they did comp some of the meal to make up for the oversight. Regardless, any conscientious server should at least look at their tables on a regular basis, so we left a crappy tip and bailed after gobbling up our food. This is the first time I've had less than superb service at Tasty Burger.
          Back at the apartment, we had a very successful Christmas party of sorts. The highlight of the evening was a rousing game of Battleshots between me, Jared, and Tori (after Becky quit the team) versus Alaric, Malcolm, and Nathan. After some initial losses, our sneaky ship placement bought us enough time to edge a glorious victory. The rest of the night was typical 1023 revelry, so, in other words, awesome.
          Quote of the day:
"Can I touch your eyebrows?" - Iris

Gates of cp_well

          My boss was out of work all day, and I was floating for much of the day. Not long before my shift ended, the mail arrived. Along with the spam, there was a settlement check for a client who had been waiting for it for a week, inexplicably returned to sender. I ended up getting his bank account number and depositing it directly on my way home, since he needed the money practically yesterday. I napped at Iris's place before going home to enjoy some TF2 with Alaric. The winter has been warm and rainy for the past few days.
          Quotes of the day:
"That's like going to the gates of Hell." - Mark, on the ICE office in Burlington
"He said, 'God forbid a client call himself!' and then he made this weird helicopter noise!" - Lisa

Crimson Floorboards

          Jeremy put me on a ton of legal research at work, and after I'd passed a few hours paging through probate law, my brain was melting out my ears. Later on, I relaxed in the band office with Clay, Matt T, and Alaric before the game. We switched the computer wallpapers to a closeup of Gabe Newell's face before rambling over to Matthews for some men's basketball. We lost 72-64 to Harvard, making this the most depressing day of the week. I also learned that these days, standing still apparently counts as a foul (but only if you play for Northeastern.) Alaric, Jared, Clay and I hit up Wings Over Boston to drown our sorrows in honey mustard and blue cheese, and we went home to meet with Jasmin, Iris and Sean and play some Super Smash Bros.
          Quotes of the day:
"I stayed up until 7 this morning on Mountain Dew, Lindor truffles and cheese." - Katie's classmate (courtesy of Katie)
"If only I had all of humanity's collected knowledge at my fingertips." - Matt T on computers, during an argument
"I bumped into him while I was drunk. I thought he was a lamp." - Jasmin

Just Hand Me the Gun

          I succumbed to sleep at maybe 11 last night, but woke up naturally at 6:45, feeling quite awake. Consequently, I was unfortunately alert for the women's hockey game versus BU. It was an archetypal love story: Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love, marry and have a son. The son watches in horror with the rest of the band as the Huskies blow a 2-0 lead for a 5-2, final goal empty net Terriers victory. Feeling unclean, I joined Alaric, Sean and Iris to watch an early Miyazaki effort titled Porco Rosso -- "Red Pig". It was very rough compared to his newer work, but fun all the same. The scene with the ghostly aircraft graveyard was downright chilling, but the over-the-top goofiness of most of the film was something of a turn-off. The ending was abrupt and inconclusive, as well. I don't regret watching it, but I think I will relegate further viewings to other Miyazaki films.
          Quotes of the day:
"Breakin' necks and cashin' checks." - Luke
"...Steve Jobs' spectral dick..." - me

In Surgery

          A considerable portion of my shift today was spent traveling on the Silver Line in order to meet with a client and pick up his documents. After waiting and worrying for half an hour outside the Boston Medical Center, I was eventually approached by some sort of monitor, who let me know that the client was busy in a procedure but would be out in short order. The meeting went without incident, and despite having done another all nighter, I did an awesome job for the rest of the day. After work, I deliberated and settled on a new phone -- the HTC One, and it seems pretty dope. I traded clix with Nathan, who impulse-bought a sizable quantity of them, despite never having played. I swear to my honesty in the trade, though; I only go for characters I like. After nearly falling prey to a nap attack on the couch, I played some TF2 to stay awake and reset my sleep clock.
          Quote of the day:
"She has two spelling mistakes on her resume and the world's dumbest business card." - Lisa

Justinian Is Back

          Enter Sunday, the last day of Thanksgiving break. I burned it playing Fire Emblem and going grocery shopping with Sean. Alaric and I then enjoyed one of "those nights," a.k.a. those nights wherein Alaric and Andy drink coffee, and became predictably goofy. One thing led to another, and we soon found ourselves watching the cult classic, A True Gentleman.
          Quotes of the day:
"...hip with the jimmies..." - Alaric
"...Vagimir Poopin'..." - Alaric