I Void Warranties

I want this shirt. I like to make my own things, and fix that which breaks. NPR has an interview with Mr. Jalopy. The interview is really rather interesting. There's an artist, Nemo Gould, who says

A lot of average suburban men would have a metal lathe in their garage. That's something you can't even conceive of today. But it was sort of common. ... 'Oh, well, if my lawn mower breaks, I'll want to fix it, won't I?'

That's the kinda guy I want to be.

Mr. Jalopy is part of the Maker movement. Basically people who want to feel like they actually *own* their own stuff. Do you really own something that you can't take apart and fix, upgrade, or modify? Or are you just renting the thing? Mr. Jalopy feels that the ability to perform such actions on the things you purchase is what really defines ownership. I think I'd have to agree.

Take the example of my car. It's a 1995 Nissan Maxima. Not so recently, the key I had broke off in the lock. And since the key doesn't work in the passenger door (for some strange reason) my only option was to leave my doors unlocked so I could actually get back in it. Or pay some extreme price to have the door fixed. Since I wasn't too fond of that option, I decided to take the trim off and see if I could fix it myself. I had to do a lot of work on it, but with very little problems, I was able to take the door off and figure out how to fix it.

Not because of the inherent design, but because I've had quite a bit of experience now with making repairs I'm not supposed to.

Actually, I'd like that shirt better as a hat, so I could wear it when I'm voiding warranties.

This that and the other...

So... right now I think I'm bored out of my skull. I'm tired, and there's no one to talk to and nothing really to do. At least in 3 hours I get to go home and read or something. I suppose I'll probably draw some or something...

I suppose I can tell you how awesome last weekend was, because my geekheart came on a surprise visit! Friday afternoon I'm just sitting there, minding my own business, learning about the structure of man, and how to draw it, when I look up and there my mom has one of our geeklings in her arms, and my geekheart walks through the door.

I sat there like a deer caught in the headlights. My brain disengaged and I sat there for a moment with a bit of "Durrrrrrrrrr?" going through my head. And then I woke up and gave them all a great big hug.

We pretty much had a blast, except for the whole leaving part. That always sucks :(

But other than ending, it was a great weekend!

Two more posts...

after this one to reach the big 400 posts. Kind of an accomplishment I'd say.

Well, I haven't been writing much lately because I've been retardedly busy. Between schoolwork and work and what I want to do, not counting everything else I need to do, I think I'm using up about 207 hours a week...

yes, I realize there aren't that many...

I did have a rather peculiar dream. I asked this girl on a date, and she was terribly excited. I think the most bizarre thing about that was this girl isn't 18 yet... At least that'll happen in the next year though, so I don't feel TOO bad about it.

Well... anyhoo... I suppose that's all for now, other than the thanks J for last night... I like falling asleep on the phone, lol. And I know you know I do :P

[edit]
Oh, and the term is bibliophile.

Huzzah!

First day of classes? Mission: Accomplished.

Yeah, it was pretty good. I only had two classes, my writing class and my math class... it seems like they should both be some good classes.

Dr. Forssman Hill is my writing teacher, and Professor Booher is my math teacher, and they both seem like competent, nice ladies. Of course, the way I see it, that basically makes them teachers anyway, this way they simply get paid for it.

Well... I think that's about it for now... I'm rather tired - I've been up since 5AM, see... Heh... it could be fun to take a nap like I learned in the Worst Case Scenario Handbook: College Survival guide... One of the things I enjoy about college is people watching. Especially after being here for a semester... I can pretty much pick the freshmen out like nobodies business - they all seem to have this startled "deer in the headlights" look - slightly unsure and more or less worried. It's cute, really. I wonder if I looked like that my first semester... I doubt it, simply because I've done so much and I'm so easygoing that I was probably like "eh, whatever." Maybe.

Tomorrow I have math again, (bleh, I really need to get books & things) and Biology... what a horrid book. Both of those books will end out around $200 for the two classes. You know, the books should really just be included in tuition or something... about $1500 of random fees is anyway, so why not those?

I'm pretty sure that next semester I'll try to get back with the MWF classes... I just think it'll be a bit easier. Of course that also depends on everything else... like, say work schedule... wheee... so much fun.

So I'm learning myself the Python programming language. It's been a lot of fun so far, I now need to learn how to open/edit files... w00t. And then I wanna start learning how to play with PyGTK+ - it's a programming language/widget set that's pretty darn cool. That's what the GIMP and pidgin are programmed in.

Pretty sweet stuff.

Well, that's enough rambling for now, I think I'll go draft a letter I'm supposed to write for creative writing class... joi de vivre!

First day o' classes!

So... it's my second semester at UCA.

My list of things to do today include

• Waking up - accomplished!


• Taking a shower


• Eating breakfast


• Making it to my first class (WRTG 1320 - starts at 9:25AM) by 9AM. Maybe earlier


• Meet a friend that I pretty much haven't seen since last semester, even though she lives in conway and I've been there 3x/week! Darn schedule conflicts!


• Arrive for my (MATH 1580) class 30 mins early


• Eat lunch somewhere in there


• Depending on what's going on with UCA Welcome Week, possibly go have some fun doing something or another


• Get home safely


• Get ready for classes tomorrow.

That schedule neither constitutes the entirety of what's goin on for me today, nor what I'll probably end out doing, such as - getting there *ing early to go see financial aid and see about more money... le sigh sigh sigh!

With a 4.0 last semester, you'd think they'd be throwing money at me, eh? I guess I have to wait till after next semester for that!

How's YOUR school coming?