Marc Wiesner’s SimpleBlog
What’d I get done today? Research, makeup session, dinner, fixed computer. Makeup? Oh yeah. Took a couple hours out of my day to do research in a hotel and get well painted for a friend.
I look so pretty ^_^. I think I could get into that eye-liner 
.
Finally got the last of the Fanime pictures uploaded the other day. More than three-hundred of them from the Masquerade. Pictures up here. So many great costumes and skits. Lots of funny ones, lots with great choreography. A shame that I probably (hopefully b/c it’ll mean I’m working) won’t be in the country for the next one.
Now I’m waiting around for this ARS (automated retrieval system) to pull the books I’ll need for my Greek history paper. 30-minutes of down time. Idle. Well….not completely wasted, gives me time to email and post. But if this thing’s supposed to be so great why does it create a half-hour where I can’t do anything? Yea….I guess I could have asked for these books before I left the house this morning, true. But there’s the other side where I’ll be getting about a half-dozen books and they might not be useful to me. The whole idea of putting a barrier between students and research resources just screams bottle neck to me.
Happily, CollegeConfessional seems to be doing well its first few days off the ground. Need to update my photoblog. Oh yeah….and there’s that pesky 10-page Greek hist paper I still need to start. Should be a fun weekend.
So the issue of a business plan come up this evening. I decided to make a little diagram to make this clear to anyone who had a professed interest in the matter. Amused at my own artistic skilz, I thought I’d share.
Did I have time to stop today? Yes…but precious little. Most relaxing moment of the day: sitting outside of a Marin cafe with some friends sipping an amazing espresso between bites of a wonderful sandwich of grilled zucchini and mushrooms on focaccia. Eyes closed, bay breeze, sun….oooh, baby was it sweet.
Awake at 6. Phone, shower, dress, breakfast, commute to SF, drive to the Marin Civic Center with Pres and Pat (meeting Pat’s friend Pat ^^ ). Saw the building, the architecture, some of Wright’s sketches, took a bunch of pictures. Then off to Sausalito for brunch. Coffee and sandwich *swoon*. Then a rush back to the caltrain station so I could hope to make the 2:07 train to Santa Clara so I could make my 3:40 class. Didn’t quite make it.
Long-man, mench that he is, drove me down home to Manchester. Cooled our heels a bit then I was off to class. Took a bit of a spill corning too quickly to make a bike parking space and landed on my cell phone. Still usable, but I cracked the display. Got the insurance though so it’s all good (assuming Cingular isn’t going to be a bitch about it).
After class I rode around for a little while. Took some pictures from the Arts and Science building for my Views from SCU series. At 8 the JSU was meeting with the Multi-Cultural Center (MCC) to discuss the JSU joining. Their big pothole is the JSU as a religious-minded club as opposed to a cultural organization. Between Katie’s list of cultural events and my rants on latkes I think we sold them (though we were grilled for about an hour). We’ll see.
After the presentation I went back to Katie’s place for her sader on this, the second night of pesach. Last night we had an amazing family dinner. Tonight, I learned how to make boiled potatoes, Russian style, from Katie’s Michael and Jason, bless his afro’ed heart, brought vegan wine to the sader. Some dinner, some wine, some bored games. Good way to unwind.
Now….I’m off to shower. Between the warm day, the cycling, an hour under the spotlight, Katie’s sauna of an apartment, and the ride home (part of it racing Jason’s car from my bike), I could REALLY use a shower.
My buddy Preston and I took a drive up to the City of Ten-thousand Buddhas today. It was a really nice drive up with weather varying from sunny to downpour and interesting cities to drive through. The Buddhist community consists of schools, monks and nuns’ residences (segregated, of course), meditation hall, restaurant, and a few other buildings such as administration and guest housing. The area is a renovated mental hospital ^^
Around the community were peacocks wandering around (even saw a rooster) and laypeople interacting with devotees. The space is open to the surrounding neighborhood. Thanks to Preston’s fine timing we were able to join the monks and nuns for their once daily meal in the vegetarian mess. After we (gluttons that we are) went to the vegetarian restaurant (Jyun Kang) that operates in the community. We ordered two dishes, an appetizer, and three bowls of rice. Following Preston’s three helpings at the mess, I was left to cope with eating most of the food at the restaurant myself. It was sooo good but there was soooo much to go through. By the point I was done I was a hard breath away from spilling over. As good as my mouth felt, my stomach hurt ^^
After lunch we headed over to the meditation hall where we found some monks and laypeople chanting and performing walking meditation. A very friendly nun greeted Preston and myself, gave us books so we could read along with the program and told us when to bow. Very friendly, like all of the monks and nuns I’ve had the privilage of knowing ^_^ .
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Click on the peckock to link to the photos I’ve currently got up for the trip (note…I may add more later when I’ve got more time to process them)
This evening…Franks and my plan to go play pool at Benson was cut short by the fact that Benson was closed…kinda. We WERE able to actually open the door, walk around the abandoned (yet still lit, thanks SCU) building….fun times.
Last night I finally got it together and returned my books for the quarter. I really took advantage of the quarter check-out for students working on their theses. On the list: a lot on China, Qin Shi Huangdi, Mao, Sparta, and Greece. I know….Sparta and Greece don’t relate to my thesis but I had a big paper for Greenwalt’s Ancient Greece class ^^ . Which reminds me I should check my grades….ho-hum.
Oh…to give y’all an idea of how many books I stole for the quarter here’s me standing next to most of them .
Took me three trips from the car and back to get them all dropped off….good times.
The evolution of written communication. Charcoal drawing, stone carving, papyrus, movable type, typewriter, computer, puzzle.
Past four AM + (Frank * Marc) + Puzzle left unattended = Text-lovin’
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“HI MIKE”
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“ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US”
Finially completed the NYC puzzle.
Great time, fams.
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This weekend’s felt so cramped with stuff to due. Midterm today, thesis work due tomorrow. Why doesn’t SCU’s library have more of Mao’s writings? On the bright side I’ve got nothing but fun planned from tomorrow on through the three-day weekend.
How remiss would I be if my picture of the day was anything other than my wedding to Lisa?
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Yesterday Mike took me to get a couple of bikes that some guy in Santa Clara was selling on Craigslist. The first is a 21 speed mountain bike with suspension, the other a 10 speed road bike. Both were in okay shape. The only real problem on the mountain bike is a warped rear wheel and a snapped cable. The road bike I’ve already got in ridable condition, it just needs a cable ran, one shift knob mounted, and brake pads.
Ahhh…another nice project for me B-)
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