Ice Cavern Studios

So yeah, this Killington thing. Been fun. I have two more days and then it's back to Jersey. I've had a good time so far; which is good. It's been cold, but otherwise, all has gone well.

Ok, except for maybe the food situation. Yeah, that's been fun. Apperently we didn't get enough food for the week. Pretty poor. They just didn't get enough food for the week, which is kind of a bummer, but it can't really be helped. I'm actually more miffed at the reason for us not having as much food as we had last year.

The reason we don't have as much food as we had last year is that last year's senior class didn't come on the trip. This is the reason I was told by one of the people organizing the trip for us. This is a complete load of crock in my opinion. I think this is more a matter of the people in charge not wanting to get the help of any of the older people going on the trip.

While last years seniors aren't here, there are a lot of people who have done this a bunch of times before. The other thing is, they know last years seniors, why not ask them for advice? Then again, maybe I'm an idiot for asking for help from people who have experience in certain things. Yeah, I'm just an idiot…

But besides that, everything has been cool. The people who tend to get on my nerves haven't been hanging around me very much, so I don't have to put up with them. Plus, I've gotten to get to know a bunch of really cool people who I wouldn't have known had I not come. Not to mention that skiing is always a good thing to be doing.

Ahhhhhhh…..

I just talked to Nicole. I really miss her. We've spent a lot of time together over the past month. A lot of that in the last week of the semester, but we also spent a good deal of time with each other during reading period. I definetly feel good about where things are going, and I hope they continue to head in the same direction.

Alright, it is time for me to head to bed. I am planning on haveing a good day tomorrow. I have been thinking about demoing a pair of skis. So we'll see what happens. Lata.

Life and Times

So one full day of Skiing has passed here at Killington, and I'm left with mixed feelings. I'm having a great time, I mean, I'm skiing. But at the same time, I'm feeling a bit blah. I guess it comes from being tired at the end of a day of skiing in such bitter cold. Maybe it comes from some of the little things that have been nagging me so far on the trip. It's tought to say.

As of now, when I'm not skiing, I'm not really all that excited. I'm excited to be skiing, I love doing that, but there's something about the group that just putting a dampener on things. The current band group has two main constituancies. The first are those who just want to have a good time and are generally laid back. The other are the few who are being very uptight about a lot of things and failing to just relax. It's the later that is kind of making me just feel a bit off.

I don't know, maybe they just want everything to go well, but I get the feeling that they are trying almost too hard to do that. A lot of the stuff seems forced. Plus there is the problem that the uptight people are being weird about our food. We bought 836 dollars worth of food, mind you for the number of people we have, it probably won't feed everyone. Now, this is a problem in itself, but what is just not helping is that the uptight people are being hypocritical about the food. They tell me that it's fine because we can get food at the local convience store, yet at the same time, they are being fasciast about people actually eating the food. I've been told numerous times that I shouldn't eat so much.

Now, maybe it's because I haven't been eating all of the food that has been prepared (I missed breakfast this morning), or maybe it's because my matabalism is very high and I need to eat a lot to keep going, but I just don't get this. Why am I being told that not having as much food as we should isn't a problem, but when I go to keep my blood sugar from dropping, I'm told it's a problem. I get the feeling that these uptight people are worried about saving face in terms of how the ski trip is going and that they want to tell people not to worry about food, but they also don't want to be known as the crew unable to get enough food.

I guess I should say that while we are going as a group, there are definate leaders of this trip. Mainly the officer corp of the band. Since I'm a senior who holds no power, I don't really have any leadership beyond providing basic info about the trip, which I'm cool about. And since the current officers are so gung ho about leading this trip, I say fine.

Sigh…this trip has been more agrivating than trips of years past. Hell, even last year was less stressful, and I was on the officer corp leading the trip. Maybe it's because I don't always agree with the way the current group is running the trip. But then again, it's not my time to lead, so yeah. I do feel that things haven't gone as smoothly as they have in years past. There's been more scrambling and things haven't settled and we're already on day two. I think this is what urks me. This is the first ski trip I've been on that has been this chaotic. I'm used to being completely settled and everything running smoothly by the end of the first day of skiing. That's just not happening.

I feel bad also for the freshman, they're definetly not getting a pretty view of some of the members of the band. I definetly get the feeling that this trip will bring out some of the worst in various members. What's worse is that the sentiments towards certain members have spread all throughout the classes. I feel bad because some of the opinions of people really aren't that good.

God…I hate to think what people say about me. Well, I have an idea, but still. What people say behind the backs of others is never pleasent. And it seems especially so in the band. It really reiminds me a lot of my high school theater program; there's just so much polotics involved with everything. Personally, I can't stand it. I guess that explains a lot of why I have had less desire to hang with the band socially over the past year or so. I just don't have the desire to deal with the crap anymore. The jealousy,the kattiness, it's all crap, and I just don't want to have to be around it all that much anymore. I know this doesn't make me very popular, it didn't do so in High School either, but well, that's life.

Don't get me wrong, I still like the people, but I just don't like the social setting they have created. I sometimes feel like an outsider, which, I'm ok with. I know I'm not the most popular person, and that's good. I'm happy with where I am and who I am. *shrugs*

Anyway, time for bed. I need to get up tomorrow. Going to have a good day of skiing, hopefully with lots of moguls. Yay moguls. Soooooo tasty. Alright all, goodnight.

Life and Times

So the past two days have been fun. Well, Friday was fun, today was just kind of been…a day. But tomorrow should be an adventure, and I'm just thrilled. Well, as much as one can be at 4 in the morning.

So yesterday Nicole and I went to Phily to visit her friend Sonya at Penn. That was a fun time. We hung out with Sonya and her boyfriend, Neil, and a bunch of their friends. Despite the cold, we got a quick tour of the campus, had some tasty food Malaysian food, and ended up in a coffee house / jam session thing up on the lounge of one of the Penn housing complexes. Pretty cool.

Being at Penn was definetly interesting though. I found myself comparing it a lot to Princeton. This happens a lot when I visit other schools. What's even more interesting is to go see the various Ivy League schools. Going to Princeton has skewed my vision of what an Ivy League school is: lots of gothic buildings, lots of…ivy…and various other little details I've grown accustemed to being here. Penn, in contrast, does not have all that much gothic arcitecture, or all that much Ivy from what I saw. Mind you it was winter, but there weren't even the thick stalks you see in Princeton during the winter. It's much more modern, with a feel very similar to campuses like Michigan. It's definetly not something I think of when I think Ivy league.

So that was yesterday. Today was pretty low key. I said good-bye to Nicole who is off to see the Baseball Hall of Fame with her friend Sara (not the ex). After that I went on an excurtion with people to the Ski Barn. Well, I was actually going to Best Buy. My iPod's headphone jack was not working very well, and since the battery life was also going, I decided it was time to make use of the warrenty I got for the thing. So, I went to Best Buy with a ten gig iPod and left with a 20 gig iPod. I was fortunate in that they didn't have any 15's in stock. What's better is I only had to pay the 40 dollars to get a warrenty for the new iPod (good thing I got the 10 gig iPod when it was the middle iPod…yay price caps!). Pretty sweet. Other than the new iPod, not much happened today. I got the room cleaned up more, and I packed for VT, but otherwise, not much happened.

Oh, that's right. I'm going to Killington, VT tomorrow for a ski trip. I guess I forgot to mention that. Yeah, I'm bringing my laptop along, so I'll do what I did in Colorado. I'll blog there and upload when I get back. *nods*

Alright, time for sleep. I have a long day of sitting on my but ahead of me. Yay bus rides. *twirls finger* Night.

Life and Times

So, I haven't been around for a while. That's for sure. A lot of it has been work. Then there were the finals, and now, it's been having to move from one room to another. Yeah, I changed rooms within our suite. I'm now living in the downstairs single of our dorm. Yeah, it's been interesting.

So why am I living down here? Well, it started at the begining of the year when we decided that we would forgo the typical configuration of the room (2 singles, 1 double, 1 common room) for what seemed to be the good idea of two common rooms and two doubles. This worked for an entire semester, but my roommate Matt decided he was going to need a single for the upcoming track season. Since we are flexible people, my roommates and I consented.

What we didn't consent to was having to make the move last night. Much to our surprise, Matt decided we should start the move now, and not later. Even though we had agreed to move on Saterday. I personally was a bit miffed at how it all started. I came back to find my bed, dressor, and closet unit had been moved out and matt had already begun to prepare his single upstairs. I literally get back and am told, “yeah…you need to start moving Penn and Chuck out of the rooms so you can have a place to sleep tonight.” As the night went along, I found out that Matt had just decided to make this move and really didn't consent with any of the roommates about starting this early.

So yeah, we made the move, which due to Matt's inability to wait, was done in a completely assinign manner. I finally have most of my stuff packed, although I'm not completely finished. I have a few things to try and place, but I think I will be able to fit comfortably in here. Much of this is due to Nicole coming over and helping me move; she helped me organize a lot of the stuff in here.

So yeah, I'm living in a single right now. It's kind of nice. It's my own little place on campus. I'm sitting on my bed, connected into my network, typing away on my laptop, which is pretty key. I think I'm going to like this arrangment.

In other news, I finished finals and all that. Feels pretty good. I feel good about my exams (I finished both in less then half the time I was given which is a first) and I feel good about the semester. I think next semester is going to be fun and I'm looking forward to it.

Alright, it's late, and I told nicole I would meet her for lunch tomorrow. So I have to get up. Night all.

Life and Times

I know this seems crazy, but I really wish it were Monday evening. That's when finals are over (well, at least for me). I'm ready for that. Ready to just spend five days haning out with Nicole and my friends. Ready to breathe a sigh of relief before my last semester.

The past couple of days have been fun. Mainly studying for, taking, and recovering from my Computer Architecture final. The exam wasn't too bad, I was prepared, and I finished early. Hopefully that means I did well, I'm not worried about the class, I've been doing pretty well in it. Other than that, not much has been going on.

So, I had the recent realization that I've been keeping this blog for almost a year. This presents two very interesting situations. One, I can't believe I have a site up that people check, and have been updating for over a year. Two, I need to write a blog archive page to deal with blog posts that occur over two years. I've tossed around the idea of redesigning the site, but I've decided against it. What I really want is an uber online forum for posting stuff with my various friends on the internet. That's what mixed modes needs to be. That's what I plan to make it over intersession. I just have to do the artwork in the next week so that it's finished and such.

So otherwise, not much is going on. Currently doing…well…not much. I'll probably go tomorrow to the digital photo lab and collect all of my work so that I can get it transfered to my equipment here for safe keeping. I should also be able to get all the new stuff uploaded to the gallery. There's something I need to work on. Anyway, I'll write on more later.

Life and Times