Journal entries for December, 2006

I flew down to PR a few days ago for Christmas, and I've really been enjoying being home. I was introduced to Natalia's new puppy, Lena, who is adorable. She's eager and affectionate, even with strangers, and full of the energy and exuberance puppies are so known for. She's awesome.

Andrés is here too, and we've been spending time with some cool people. One day we hung out on the back patio, drank wine, and got in the pool with Jóse and Lorena. Another day we cooked food and watched Family Guy with Marc, and today Andrés, Michelle, Billy, Natalia, and I went to the beach. Going to the beach on Christmas Eve: OK, so maybe there are a few good things about this island.

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Cat sent me her photos from the Christmas Party where Bryan, Matt, and I played guitar, so I thought I'd post them. She also shot a few short videos, so I put two of those online as well:

• Angels We Have Heard On High (4.3mb X-Vid video)
• Jaeden's Proto-Headbangs (2.4mb X-Vid video)

The people's talking kind of drowns it out, but you can still make out the music. Also, Jaeden is being brought up to be awesome.

At Bryan and Cat's place the other night, I tried wine yet again. This time it was only half terrible. I'm experiencing the same thing that happened with Guinness; I find myself occasionally feeling a vague desire for a glass of wine, while at the same time remembering how terrible it tastes. I think that, just as with Guinness, what I'm actually drawn to is the environment that I associate with the drink — the theatrics of carefully pouring a pint of Guinness and enjoying the creamy head, or the relaxing experience of enjoying a glass of wine and good cheese in a pool with friends. Still, for whatever reason, I find myself slowly (and painfully) acquiring a taste for these things that taste so terrible at first.

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Today the organization that Cat works for held a small party at a local church, and she asked Bryan and I to play music while the guests were arriving. Bryan enlisted his far more talented friend, Matt (err, no, wait, this is the picture I meant to link to) to play with us. Matt is about to graduate with a Music degree, so his skills added a lot to the ensemble.

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I bought a Christmas tree last week, and it made me happy; the smell alone was well worth the cost. It's the first tree I've bought while I was living on my own — I never bothered to get one when I was in Clemson. When I got it home, I realized that I now faced another novel task: buying my own ornaments. I suddenly found myself feeling out previously unexamined regions in the world of my likes and dislikes, like the grayed-out unexplored portions of the map in a strategy game. I've never before considered the question, "What kind of Christmas ornaments do I like?" It was never an issue before, of course. In Puerto Rico we just put up my whatever ornaments my parents had accumulated over the years.

I ended up getting mostly ball-type ornaments, because I decided that I didn't really like a tree overloaded with random figurines like drummer boys and angels. But when I got home and put the ornaments on the tree, I realized that it just doesn't look satisfying with nothing but glass balls and garland. So now I know for next year: A Christmas tree needs figurines, just not too many.

I'm loving this bike. Last night I stayed up until about 4am but still wasn't tired in the least, so I took my bike downstairs and rode around town for half an hour, exploring the roads I hadn't yet seen from my car — the roads that don't lead to anywhere I need to go. It's so peaceful being outside in the foggy silence of early morning. It feels like the world of Langoliers, with desolate roads and stoplights changing in silence. It's relaxing to be free of the need to be constantly wary of traffic. At 4am, all the world is a bike path.

At Andrés' repeated urging, I bought a road bike last week. All my previous bikes have been mountain bikes, so this one has taken some getting used to. It took a few rides before I was able to turn without feeling like those tiny tires were going to lose traction and I was going to fall in a tumbling heap of Dan parts.

What's more, this is a single speed fixed-gear bike, which presents its own set of novelties. The first time I took it out for a ride, I got up to speed and then reflexively stopped pedaling, expecting to coast. The bike politely informed me that it wanted me to keep pedaling, and I was nearly launched out of my seat.

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Today I went to a Renaissance Festival for the first time, and it was just as awesome as I'd hoped. They were holding it in Hammond, just about half an hour from here, so Bryan and Cat and I headed out there this morning. From the moment we arrived at the entrance I was already giggling with glee.

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Last weekend I stopped by Best Buy to pick up some CDs I'd been meaning to get. On my way back to the car I realized there was a Skyline parked near mine. For the uninitiated, the Nissan Skyline is a very fast, relatively conventional-looking car sold only in Japan and a few other countries like Australia. They're very sought-after here in the US. They had a few in some of the Fast And The Furious movies.

I went to my car and grabbed my camera. As I was walking back to the Skyline, its owner walked up and started the car (from the right side, of course). We talked for a while (as I inconspicuously slid my newly purchased Phantom Of The Opera and Cats soundtrack CDs into my pocket) and I took a few pictures. Apparently, there's a relatively thriving drift scene in the area, and they regularly hold legal drift events at several nearby racetracks. They're relatively inexpensive, too — about $50 for a day of unlimited runs. Most road course events cost upwards of $100. The guy gave me some URLs for a few local websites to check out.

It's cool that there's fun driving opportunities here, and legal ones no less. Once I get around to converting my car to 5spd I'll definitely be checking out some of those events.

When I was at Jeff and Amy's mom's house in Aiken for Thanksgiving, I came across an old Super 8 silent film camera in the room where I was staying. I asked their mom about it, and she said she couldn't imagine why she'd ever need it again, and that I could have it. That was an unexpected turn — I've been wanting to buy an old film camera on eBay for a while now, but could never bring myself to spend the money on it.

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The keyboard on my laptop has been failing for the past year or two. Some crucial keys (namely, the End and Down Arrow keys) don't work, which isn't a big deal for chatting and email, but is quite an impediment for most programming work. At home, I almost always use my laptop in its docking station connected to my real keyboard and screen, so the faulty laptop keyboard has never been a problem. On my recent trip to Clemson, though, I found myself using it quite a bit, and the lack of a Down Arrow key really started to be a problem. One night I got on the phone and called Dell and ordered a replacement keyboard, along with a complete set of replacement screws (I'm missing a few on the bottom of the laptop). They said it'd take a week to ship, which meant it'd show up in Covington right around the same time that I'd be returning.

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I remember once when I was 14 or so, I was reading the periodic table and I came across the description for Gallium. It's a metal that is solid and brittle at room temperature (if you strike it, it shatters like glass), but it melts at 86°F, so if you hold it in your hands for a few minutes it will melt. Unlike mercury, gallium is not toxic. It also easily becomes supercooled, meaning that if you bring it down below 86°F, it will remain liquid until it is "seeded" — when you drop in a tiny chunk of solid gallium, the liquid will suddenly solidify. I thought that was amazing, and I've wanted a chunk of gallium ever since.

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On Monday I returned from a week in South Carolina — I drove to Clemson on Friday, hung out there until Wednesday, then drove with Jeff to his parents' house in Aiken for Thanksgiving. Andrés and Amy also flew down from Boston for the holiday. It was really cool getting to see so many of my favorite people, although most of my friends in Clemson were busy with schoolwork and so I actually didn't get to spend very much time with anyone. Still, it was a satisfying trip.

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