Last Week / This Week

It is time for Last Week/This Week, where I recap events that happened last week, then this week. Here goes:

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Last Week

Last Saturday was a quite awesome trip to The Big E, a gigantic fair that happens every September in West Springfield, Mass. I went last year with a few friends, and I wanted to continue the good times this year. I managed to wrangle CJ, Jessie, Laura, Carla, her brother Matt, Christian, and Kristina into the fun. Good times were had. Many rides were ridden on, much food was eaten (I had to get my gigantic turkey leg, it had to be done), much beer was imbibed (not really, only three in the span of about 11 hours). Out of everyone that made it, Only Carla, Matt and myself managed to stay until closing time. Actually it was just Carla and I, Matt ran off into the abyss when he ran out of money to spend. It was fun hanging out with everyone, and it was a lot of fun with just Carla towards the end. We had about $30 in ride access cards between us, so we had to make the most of it. We got on as many rides as humanly possible, even the really tall rides that scare me since I'm afraid of heights. We managed to leave about 15 minutes before everything closed up. It was good times.

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This Week

Today was my appointment to give blood. I was convinced by Carla to give blood a couple of months ago, and I figured I'd do it again. According to the Red Cross I'm free of STDs and other various illnesses that are creepy and disgusting, so I have perfect blood for donation. This time around was smooth sailing since I'm now a member of Red Cross' blood donation services (Type O+ in case you were wondering). Carla was there to cheer me on, she can't give blood again until next year since she recently got a tattoo. After being drained a pint of blood, Carla and I celebrated by heading to Chili's and grabbing some food. Afterwards we hung out at the park before she had to head out of a few hours. We caught up again later in the day, and we were going to chill out at the park again, but it was getting really dark because of all the ominous looking clouds, so we milled around Wal-Mart a bit, then headed back to campus and hung out and chatted it up for a few hours before she had to head back home.

and now I'm here. Gonna grab some tea, listen to some Ryan Scott and hit the sack. That is all.

Monomonome!

Sweet sassy Christ I never thought I would be done with those summer posts! Now that those are out of the way, I can finally get to what I've been up to as of late! Sometime last year I came across a YouTube video of a device called the Monome 40h. It has 64 buttons in an 8x8 grid configuration. It's an open source music device, meaning you can not only write your own programs for it, but you can also open it up and tinker with the hardware to your liking. I was interested in one of these a long time ago, but never bought one seeing as how it was $500. Eventually it sold out because it was a limited run of 400, but as luck would have it, the creators decided to set up a DIY version of the 40h, a kit that you have to solder and provide LEDs for yourself.

I was quite reluctant to get it since I really didn't have that much soldering experience. I decided to get it since it, like the original 40h, was a limited run, this time of 100. I jumped on that like flies on dog shit. The entire kit cost $260, not including the LEDs I bought for it (75 bright blue LEDs [i only needed 64, but I got extras b/c you never know...]), the soldering iron, soldering iron tips, solder, desoldering tool, and the soldering practice kit I bought to test my soldering skills out before I went and tackled the 40h. It took about 90 minutes to finish the practice solder kit, which when completed made a European horn. I made that with no problems. I was quite excited that my skills were up to par, so when the time was right, I got started on my kit.

I start on the logic board, which was the easiest of the two parts (the other being the keypad board). I take out all the pieces, sort them all out and consult the online assembly guide to assure that I had everything. Unfortunately I did not. There were three pieces missing: the JTAG connector, which allows you to rewrite the firmware on the processor chip, and the two 2x8 ribbon cable connectors, which allow you to connect the logic board and the keypad board together. Without those pieces, i couldn't really get very far with the kit. I decided to put what I had of the logic board together and figure out a way to test it out. The logic board took about two or so hours to put together. I installed the required software and tested out the board using a solderless breadboard wire. The logic board looks like it works!

A few days later I decide to tackle the keypad board. That was a bitch and a half to put together because of all the pieces I had to place in. 64 LEDs and 64 diodes. These diodes were about 1mm x maybe 3mm in size. those little bastards were tiny! So I follow the assembly guide directions and place the LEDs in. No sweat, other than the fact that there were 64 of them to put in. Then I carefully place in all the diodes. All 64 of those little fuckers. I put in the ribbon connectors for the keypad, and voila! Done!!

Not so fast. I reread the assembly guide just to make sure that I follow everything correctly. I get to the diode placement part. I failed to realize that the diodes had to be placed in a specific way, and the keypad wouldn't work properly if it wasn't done the right way. I look at how the picture has them placed, and I look at how I placed them on the keypad. Out of the 64 diodes I put in, 34 of them were in backwards.

:'-O

I was so pissed at myself. I had to go back and rearrange 34 of those blasted diodes. That meant desoldering the two ends and resoldering them the right way. I had to do it, but at no time during the process did I enjoy it. Not at all. Eventually I got it done and rejoiced.

About a week after i notified the company that I was missing parts, I received said missing parts in the mail. I was getting ancy about getting my parts. The mail doesn't come on campus on Saturdays, so if it didn't come by Friday, I was going to have to kill somebody. But I got my parts about an hour before the mail room closed, and nobody died. I rush my parts back to my room, fire up my soldering iron and slapped the missing pieces on.

And so the moment of truth was finally upon us. Did I solder everything correctly? Fire it up, run the test program...the thing goes all bibbledy on me. I fire up my soldering iron and resolder a few places on the logic board...still goes crazy with lights and blinking and crap. the problem was that the keypad and the logic board were touching each other so I just put the whole thing in a small cardboard box, allowing the keypad to lay on the ends of the box, and everything is honky dorey....

...Not so fast. There were seven dead LEDs on the keypad, so I had to go back, desolder the broken LEDs, then solder new ones in (see, those extra LEDs came in handy! Werd). 90 minutes of cussing and burns later, the new LEDs are in and the 40h is completed! W007!!1

Summer... Part 4

Part 4: Life

So overall, it has been a very good last few months. I was able to top it all off by heading home for about a week and visiting my dear sweet mother that I hadn't seen for the entire summer. It kinda sucked because I wasn't around for her birthday, but I made up for it through the week. I took her out to dinner at a Korean bbq restaurant and had some very tasty grub, and also discovered more music that I happen to like. (Note to self: buy music from Stereolab.) we topped off the week by going to Six Flags Great Adventure with a couple of my mother's coworkers. We had such a freakin' good time! I got a chance to ride on a good portion of the rollercoasters. Old favorites like Nitro, Medusa and Batman the Ride, and new ones like El Toro and the dreaded Kingda Ka. El Toro is nuts! It's probably one of the smoothest wooden rollercoasters ever made, and the drops and banks are just amazing! But the highlight of the day was the Kingda Ka. We had to wait a good hour on the line to get to it, but we finally get to it. It's actually not as bad as one would imagine. The only rough part to it is the initial 0-128 mph launch in 3.5 seconds. That launch basically pushes you into your seat and keeps you there for the remainder of the ride. Possibly one of the most exhilarating 30+ seconds you're going to have in a long time.

After enjoying having my bones and organs pushed back into the seat, I come to a startling realization: I don't have my phone. I was pretty sad about it, but not extremely pissed for some reason. I filled out a lost and found report and hoped for the best. Since it fell out during the Kingda Ka ride, things didn't look good for me, especially seeing as how the drop is 450+ feet. Skip to the next day, I get a call from Great Adventure saying that they found my phone, and in good condition nonetheless! Apparently the park gets a thorough sweeping every night and that gives them a chance to pick up various trash and lost items. That's how they found my phone. I give them my address and a week later they send over my phone! If that isn't luck, good fortune, someone up there looking out for me, or whatever it is that you believe in, than I don't know what is!

That Sunday, I go to church, visit my uncle in Queens, pack up my stuff, and head back to CT, capping off a quite interesting, fun filled summer. Now it is back to business as usual. Classes aren't bad so far, and if all goes well this semester, i will be out of here!! HOORAYYYYYYYYY!!!1!!!111 Wish me luck!

THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END!

Summer... Part 3

Part 3: Love

It took me a bit of time to decide if this part would be worth writing about. I am still currently sans a girlfriend, and yes it still sucks. It's been about four years since my last relationship, and I think i'm about due for a change of scenery. The only thing is that I rarely find anyone that piques my interest enough that I consider pursuing them. I am an incredibly picky person, and I go through a sort of screening process in my head whenever I meet new people. I can't be friends with just anyone. My screening process is even more strict when it comes to potential girlfriends. It has to be, going into a relationship is a significant decision where where you open you heart to someone.
With that being said, where the hell am I going with all this? I figured I'd take a moment to reflect on someone that helped make my summer even better than I could've imagined.

Not sure if I've ever mentioned my friend Carla in this blog, but she has been a pretty important part of my life these last four years. I met her through a mutual friend one day, and from that point on we somehow managed to keep in contact. We can't figure out ourselves how we managed that. We've collectively lost contact with quite a few friends over the years, but we're still good friends. Interesting, ain't it? Over the past few years we saw each other every now and then and hung out. It was hard not to bump into one another, she worked across the street from my dorm. After a while we got to know each other fairly well. Admittedly I had a thing for her back then. I couldn't say anything though, she had a boyfriend and I didn't want to get in the way of their relationship. It was all good though, She was good people.

Cut to about four months ago, school is almost over, and as it turns out, I'd be in Connecticut for the summer. I let Carla know that I would be around, and she tells me that she'd be around as well and we'd definitely hang out. "I will make sure your summer is not boring" was her words. The summer instantly sounded promising.

For the next few months during weekends and days off, we spent a lot of time together. We got an opportunity to really get to know each other, learn what makes each other tick. We got to meet and hang out with each other's friends. Shared lots of good moments together. I started to really feel something for her. She's really something special. Can you name someone who gave you one of their original paintings as a birthday present? You can't, can you? Alright. The idea comes up in my head to ask her out. She's single at this point, so it could be worth a shot. There were a few things holding me back. For one, she has lots of guys hitting on her constantly, and I didn't want to be like one of those cornball assholes. Another thing that kept me from asking was the possibility of things becoming awkward between the two of us once I ask and she says no. As a male, I am completely incapable of judging female attraction according to the second law of sexual dynamics: If you think a girl is interested in you, you are wrong. So I kept that thought to myself and continued taking in all the fun times.

It seemed to me like a lot of my friends felt that Carla and I could be a good match. I found it interesting to know that one of them actually thought we were going out. Signs were showing up for me to ask her out. Friends were telling me I should ask her out. Feelings were boiling up inside me. It felt right to ask her out. I just had to find the right time to ask her. Fast forward to Saturday. Carla comes over to hang out for the day. She takes some time to check her horoscope. It gave me the opportunity to check my horoscope as well seeing as how we're under the same sign. She checked one horoscope site, and it didn't seem like it pertained to me, but the other site I felt hit it on the nose:

Relationships in general will come under the spotlight today as you find that you’re being pulled in all directions. You might feel inclined to try and dodge the arising issues today, but the planets indicate that these matters can be resolved with a little straight-talking!

"Shit, today is the day," I say to myself. While trying to find the right way to break that bit of info, John IMs me and says he's bored, so we invite him to join in our shenanigans. We all go out to eat at Chili's and laugh and chat away. Afterwards we go back to John's and watch a few random videos. We were trying to pass some time while we waited for the arrival of X, who was coming in for a visit. We get ready to go, and while we let John go and get his car, Carla and I take a little walk. That was the alone time I needed with her to tell her.

"I have a confession to make, you're probably not gonna see this coming. I wanna go out with you."

Carla was slightly surprised and taken aback. She was quite flattered to know that I wanted to date her. We talked for a while, and came to the conclusion that now is not the right time for a relationship. I'm trying to finish my BA for January, Carla is trying to finish her MFA for this coming May, so needless to say we'd both be too busy with school to have time for each other. Blargh. Disappointed, yes, but also relieved. I had no idea how much that was eating at me until I told her. I felt so much better afterwards, and felt even better knowing that there will be nothing awkward between us. Perhaps it can/will happen one day. But until that day, a guy can dream, can't he?

Summer... Part 2

Part 2: Play

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." A proverb that holds so much truth. It was the summertime, I was out of New York, and I needed plenty to do to keep myself from suffering from cabin fever in my room. It helped that I had a roommate. Darwin was a pretty cool roommate I must say. He has quite a musical gift that will one day make him millions of dollars as a producer. Throughout the entire summer we through ideas back and forth at each other and came up with some really cool stuff. Living together worked out great because we had known each other from before. We both didn't want to get stuck with some random person as a roommate. We both clicked pretty well. We hung out a lot, went to Guitar Center and geeked out on all the musical instruments, passed on different microwave food ideas to each other, good times. I had fun rooming with him, and I hope he feels the same way.

Another thing that also helped was the fact that I had so many friends nearby. I had a handful of people that I knew that were either in the area, a stone's throw away, or the next building over.
Christian and Kristina came by quite often in an attempt to get me addicted to the show Big Love. It almost worked. It was a very riveting season, and the plot was quite interesting. However I missed one important episode and got lost. What ended up happening was that I got hooked on Flight of the Conchords. That came on right before Big Love. Now that is a hilarious show. It's such random comedy, and it's right up my alley. I love how Jermaine and Brett break out into song so spontaneously. I need to catch up with that show again. It was good hanging out with the two of them and pigging out on chinese food.

I ended up getting acquainted with a few people as well. My friend Scott happened to move in the same suite as me, which turned out great because we really didn't know each other too well to begin with. Scott and I were student managers with Aramark and met during one of the SM meetings. Other than that, we didn't know too much about each other. We eventually started getting to know each other, and started jamming since he knows guitar and bass. I learned to appreciate and respect the various genres of Metal thanks to him. Note to self: Scott and I must record a very Metal version of the Trogdor theme. Throw our friend Jessie in the mix and there was a good time. Now those two are quite good drinking buddies. Jessie was working for Facilities for the summer so she was close by. A big positive to that was the fact that it gave CJ a good incentive to come and visit every so often. It was good to see CJ again. We got together and it was the same ol', same ol' as before when we roomed together. Fun times.

Quite possibly the most fun I had during the summer had to have been when a large group of us decided to head to Brooklyn to catch QB3 in action. The group consisted of myself, CJ, Jessie, Laura, Carla, and my friend from home St. Clair. Our friend John was supposed to make it down, but got sidetracked in Manhattan by his partner. We stopped in Manhattan first and took a trip to the Kwik-E-Mart (a 7Eleven retrofitted with Simpsons memorabilia) and got ourselves a bunch of cool treats. After that, we whisked over to Williamsburg where we enjoyed fine dining at Dokebi Korean Barbecue Restaurant. After nicely stuffing ourselves, we headed over to catch QB3. They were performing in a special event called Noisy Film Night. At Noisy Film Night, bands come in and improvise over a movie or cult classic TV show. That night two episodes of the Twilight Zone was shown. We were all mesmerized by the melodies that resonated through the instruments. What was even more amazing was the fact that such a mighty sound came from only three people. We all had fun that night. What made it even more fun was the fact that members of Aleda were there. Those guys are so much fun to chill with. We all had an amazing time. It was definitely worth the retardedly long trip back.

Good times.

A Summer To Remember...

...so what have I been doing all this time? Lots of things...not including updating this blog. You would think, I had all the time in the world to update but didn't. Why Calvin, why?!


Because I'm lazy. That, and I was busy having too much fun. Quite a lot has happened this summer, and I shall try my best to sum up the high points. This will most likely be divided into multiple posts for easy reading. So without further delay, my summer:

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Part 1: Work

Started working for Summer Housing in June. Quite an interesting job it was, I have to say. the beginning started off innocently enough. My coworkers and I spent the first three weeks setting up the office and prepping the rooms for occupation. We spent a good week washing out blankets. It was a long ass process. We had a lot of blankets. So much that spent well over $200 in washer and dryer machine money. and lots of walking back and forth from the machines. At any given moment, we had at least three laundry rooms occupied. While we were washing, we passed the time by sitting in the office, listening to the radio and screwing around on the computer. The last week of June however, that's where things got interesting.

The United Church of Christ rolled into Hartford for their 26th Synod. We were in charge of housing a good 800+ of the church members. Let me tell you, it was quite possibly the longest week ever. There was so much miscommunication between the UCC and Aramark (the company I work for), and that made things absolute hell on myself, my coworkers, and our boss, Andrew. It absolutely sucked to be him that week. Originally we were going to house the UCC members in Regents Park and Villages 6 and 7. The problem was that the 6s were out of commission due to repairs, and Regents Park looked like absolute ass. So all of the prep work we did was basically for nothing. Lovely. Negotiations after long negotiations later, it is decided that the members would be housed in B, D and F Complex, and also in Regents (even though it looked like ass). There were lots of problems that week, and to top it off, the last two days of their stay, I had to wake up at 6am to sit out and wait for people to check out since many of them had to catch early flights back home. The first day, no-one showed up to check out until about 8am. I was absolutely pissed off. I was going to kill someone if nobody showed up early the next day. Nobody died that day, the remaining UCC members checked out, and all was well in the world. I would not soon forget that week, as much as I would like to forget it.

The next big group to stay on campus was from the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. They were much nicer, as well as less abundant. About 20-30 of them or so. The only problem that we encountered with them was the fact that their access cards to Park River crapped out on them. All of them. I got a very angry call from one of the members about the situation, and even though the situation was out of my control at that time since the ID office (in charge of access cards) was closed for the day rest of the week since it's closed on Fridays and it was Thursday,
I still got the business from the guy. After collaborating with Public Safety and the leader of the group, I solved the problem by being the doorman for Park River for a few hours after my shift ended. It wasn't terrible. I set up my laptop and wireless router inside the room where the open door was and played flash games for a few hours. After all was said and done, I commandeered one of the empty rooms in Park River and set up shop for the night in case someone else needed to be let in at some odd hour. Interesting day.

Lady Luck must have been on my side this summer, because I was offered another job at the 1877 Club, one of the nicer dining establishments on campus. They needed a worker to watch the buffet line since the previous worker had to leave for an internship. I was going to work the full 6 hour shift there and then if I had a shift at Summer Housing I would work the remainder of that shift. It was working out quite well for a few days. That is, until my coworkers and I got fired from Summer Housing. Yep, fired. Apparently we "weren't going to be doing any more business" with Summer Housing, even though there were two more groups scheduled to stay on campus. Whatever, I knew what the real reason was, but I shall not disclose it since I'm still an Aramark employee. Tryin' to keep my job ya know! ;o) Anyway, even though I got laid off from Summer Housing, I still had the 1877 Club Job, and that enabled me to take that position full time! W00t! Somebody up there likes me!

The 1887 Club was a fun place to work. There were so many reasons to love working there. The bosses were nice and unusually cheerful for bosses. Andrew from Summer Housing works there, and I got to hang out with him every once in a while. Jackie, the Operations manager, such a sweet woman, and lots of fun to joke around with. The interns, Dusan, Tracy and Adamo, very cool people. As it turns out, I have a class with Dusan, so I get to hang out with him much more! Tracy and Adamo are Aramark workers from Boston University, and they had the opportunity to intern at Aramark in Hartford. I didn't really get to know Tracy that much. To be honest she kinda freaked me out because she has very large piercing blue eyes, and when she looks at you it seems like she's staring you down. Quite haunting. Adamo I ended up getting to know the most. Adamo is an interesting character. His personality and demeanor bleeds the kind of laid-backness in which standing next to him will make you cool by association. And he has awesome hair.

The kitchen and wait staff were pretty cool too. Jim and Sergio were the two chefs. Jim was in charge of cooking the food for the buffet line, Sergio was in charge of desserts and salads. Jim was quite a sarcastic character. Either that or he just was too lazy to care about much of anything. I would let him know that we needed more food for the buffet, and his response would be either a shrug of the shoulders or an eye roll. He would get the food ready, but his reactions were quite interesting. Sergio, on the other hand, he was the more lively of the two. Boy does the man know how to make art out of food. His desserts, especially his homemade apple walnut pie, to die for!! The way he made garnishes for various decorations, you would think about five people took all day slaving away at it. Amazing. One thing about Sergio, if he got to know you well enough and he likes you, he will come up with a nickname for you. Mine was "el torito," the little bull. I was quite flattered by the name, I think it suits me quite well.

I could write volumes about the 1877 Club, but I believe I've given the gist of things. In short, I had fun, met cool people, made some new friends, and I got paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaid! The tips man...the tips, phew! On a good day, you'd be floating. It was quite an experience, and the club and all the people that work there now hold a special place in my heart.

Now that I've gotten all mushy, it's time to move on to part 2.

New Post Happening...

...eventually. A lot happened during the summer and in the last couple of weeks, so i'm trying my best to recap it all as best i can. Big three part (or maybe bigger, not sure yet) post on the horizon. It's gonna be bigger than Uncle Sam's nipples!