Category Archives: the usual drivel

I don’t know where else to put this stuff

Birthday celebrating, planning

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So we were at the Mallard last night celebrating Jim Dandy’s birthday. While JD wanted a low key birthday, Odie is anticipating a birthday for the ages. Inspired by Talk Like A Pirate Day, he wants everyone partaking in the celebration to dress like a pirate, and go into various SF bars and talk like a pirate. Now this might sound like a hair-brained scheme. Well, it is. But last night, Odie committed to making this a high quality event, and his empassioned talk convinced Beaudry, Will, and Stefan to be involved (obviously I was hooked regardless). The big day is fast approaching (although is unscheduled as of yet), so practice your “Arrr!”

Thank God for two elevators

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I don’t know how it is at your workplace, but in Latimer Hall at Berkeley, we have a thing called “lazy undergrads.” They like to do things like take the elevator from the first floor to the second, or the second floor to the first. My favorite is when they’re on the second floor, call the elevator, then realize it’s going to take too long, so they walk down the stairs, causing me to stop at 2 for nothing. But at least they learned about the use of stairs. Even worse, this week one of our elevators was out of service. Add this to the normal flow of grad lazy faculty and staff, and it becomes almost unbearable for the grad student needing to go down seven floors before he misses his NMR time. The experienced grad student will, of course, adapt to his surroundings and take advantage of alternate means of transportation, e.g. the freight elevator around the corner, elevators in the adjacent Tan Hall, or (gasp!) the stairs. Fortunately, the “normal” elevator was put back in service two days early, so our hero can revert to his usual strategy of using the Latimer elevators and complaining about lazy undergrads and lamenting the lack of an escalator for the staff that work on the fourth floor.

America’s Tour Guide

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The other day I was crossing University Ave. by UC Pizza and Pasta and this guy calls out of his truck at me, “Hey, do you know of a Bank of America around here?” I told him to make a left, and it would be about two blocks down on the left. In hindsight I should have told him that it was at the corner of Center and Shattuck, because Shattuck splits there in downtown Berkeley, so it might be confusing for someone who didn’t know where they were going. Hopefully it all worked out.

America’s Tour Guide

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I don’t know what it is about me, but apparently people think I know where I’m going and/or know how to work a camera, because they are always asking me for directions or to take their picture. Yesterday I was stopped twice for directions. First, I was standing at the bus stop at Masonic and Solano, and a woman came up and asked me how to get to the post office. I told her to continue down Solano, and it was about three blocks down across the street. A pretty good description, I thought. Then at the west circle on Berkeley’s campus, a girl asked me how to get to the Student Union. I told her to follow the circle the other way, take the path through the woods on the left, and follow that to the right. I don’t know if she’d got there with those over-simplified directions, but she should have gotten in the area, and then could ask someone else. I’m all for simplicity.

Happy Holidays

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[Char and her gargoyle][Me and my hat]Number 1 random gift of the Malerich Christmas: my jester hat. Number 2 random gift of the Malerich Christmas: Char’s gargoyle. Mom wanted a duct tape wallet, but I’m still optimizing the product, and when I give a gift, it’s going to be quality. Speaking of my duct tape creations, keep an eye out for version 3.0.

Happy Halloween

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I haven’t dressed up in a while for Halloween. I think the last time was 7th grade when I was a pizza delivery man. So this year, I had to make up for all of those years off by going all out. So Volgraf, Beaudry, Andy, and I teamed up to be Tetris pieces. We were clearly the best costumes of the party. See for yourself.
[tetris costumes]
[wearing tetris costumes]

Sledriders Ride Again

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I finally found the right car at the right price from the right person. 1998 Honda Accord. EX. Silver. 4-Cylinder. Ultra-low emmission vehicle, for what that’s worth. Sunroof. Oh, and alarm, so don’t even think of stealing it. I like it. If you live in a state that they serve, check out 21st Century for insurance. Thanks to ‘Stache for the heads up on that one.
[Sled version 2.0]

Black Saturday

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I thought Friday night would be the low point of my sports weekend, as I witnessed Mark Mulder continue his second half implosion, forcing the A’s to win Saturday and Sunday in order to make the playoffs. Notre Dame also had an opportunity to prove to the nation that the BYU debacle was a fluke. So much for that. Crunch time turned into chump time. ND couldn’t capitalize on their opportunities, and Purdue scored at will in the second half, dropping the Irish to 3-2, and the bottom of “others receiving votes.” After watching the ND disaster, Odie and I failed to find a bar in San Francisco that would show the critical A’s game. The solemn faces on the BART told us all we needed to know, as the bullpen blew a solid performance by Barry Zito, and ensuring that I won’t attend a post-season game for yet another year. My sports sanity now lies in the hands of Cal football (ESPN #7, at USC Oct. 11) and the Twins (AL Central champs, ALDS starts at NY Oct. 5).