It's weird. I seem to have my life under control, despite having little free time. I have evenings, but no days off which is a bummer. In any case, I keep feeling like I'm running so fast that my legs will give out, yet they don't. So despite the fact that I hate running this fast, and feel like I'm always on the verge of failing...I don't...and that makes it worse. I stresses me out that things are going so smoothly because I feel like they must be right on the verge of falling apart.

As an extension of that, I now attach even more stress to the small things that would usually only stress me a little.

In other, and more important news, we have a new president. A black president none the less. I'm excited to say the least, but for some reason not as much as I feel I should be. I mean, it's been kind of expected all along. It feels like when you would pull an all nighter with friends when you were a kid. You were all excited at first saying "this is going to be awesome!" and you spend the whole night playing video games. But by morning you just really want to go home and sleep. And while it was fun, and you're glad it happened, you're just glad it's over and you can move on.

Busy busy busy. I hate being busy. Lets see, there are 168 hours in a week. Sleeping roughly 7 hours a night that's 49 hours of sleep, 45 hours of work and 12 hours of class. Bringing me to about 62 hours of free time in a week. Most of that is stacked between my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which I usually use to do homework, or at least plan out my homework. While this may not seem like a big deal to some people (I know there are a lot of people way more busy than me, ie my roommate Jason) it has been hard to handle.

I went from getting 9 or so hours of sleep a night, working roughly 15 hours a week and having very little to do, to this new schedule. It has taken a lot of getting used to. I still haven't adjusted to it fully but I'm trying. I just miss having any extended period of time to myself. I have a few evenings a week but that's really just spent trying to wrap up loose ends of the week while relaxing as much as possible before bed. All I want is even a half day off a week, just a chunk of time where I don't have to do ANYTHING!

...anyways, I hope the antidepressants help, should start kicking in a couple weeks from now

School And The Debate

"OH! Back to school, back to school.
To prove to dad that I'm not a fool.
I've got my lunch packed up.
My boots tied tight.
I hope I don't get in a fight.
OOOOOOOH Back to school!"

-Billy Madison

So classes have started again and I get the pleasure of finding out what it's like to work two jobs and go to school full time. It hasn't been horrible so far, but the term has just begun. It did, however, force me to drop my photojournalism class which would require another 10+ hours of work each week. Instead I'm in Magazine 2, and I think it's going to work out a lot better.

My Communication Theory class has yet to teach me anything about communication theory. Go figure right?

I've all but switched mains now to my Paladin alt. For one because I don't have much time to play and two because Pally tanks are the shit.

Last night I watched the VP debate at Rennie's. It was a lot of fun but it also scared the shit out of me. This Palin woman may actually get elected to office. Not only that, but if she did, she would likely become our president. I mean honestly, McCain's only got about a year left in him right? The guy looks like he's about to keel over at any moment. As far as the debating goes, it may just be my bias but it seemed that Biden basically wiped the floor with Palin. I don't think she directly answered a single question. Sometimes she'd start like she was going to answer it, but most of the time she just started talking about energy and being from Alaska.

School is fast approaching and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Mostly because I'll be working only slightly fewer hours and then going to class on top of it. It would be nice if I could budget well enough to get one full day off each week, but I doubt that is going to happen. Like everyone else, I wish secretly to win the lottery, or to find out I have a billionaire relative who suddenly died, leaving me all his/her assets. But if I were to suddenly come into a lot of money, it could only end horribly. The first thing I'd do would be the responsible thing, I'd pay off all the loans, credit cards and mortgages of all my friends and family.

As for the rest of the money, I'd say there's about a 10% chance I'd be responsible and save most of it, a 20% chance that I would do the same after some pressure from my parents and the GF. But there's probably a 70% chance I would just start buying every shiny, expensive thing that crosses my vision.

List 1: The exuberant but (somewhat) practical

1. A $5000 or more computer, probably made by NASA. (For any nerds reading, I'd do my best to trick it out with a Tb or more of solid state memory, BOOYA!).
2. A Lexus...or 5 (and of course new cars for all my friends).
3. 65 inch television set with surround sound and all the good stuff.
4. 6 bedroom house for my roomies and I. Mostly so I can finally have my Man Cave.
*Man Cave subject to contain many leather bound books
5. Pimped out wardrobe.
6. The biggest, baddest, most comfortable recliner on the planet, complete with massage, heat, built in cooler for drinks etc.
7. An iPhone

List 2: The straight up exuberant

1. A plot of land, maybe 100 acres, in some huge stretch of wilderness...maybe in Idaho. I'd build a vacation home there and an air strip/hanger. This way the only way in would be by plane and there would be no one around for miles and miles (aka I can do whatever the hell I want there, most likely involving explosives).

2. A plane on which to fly to said air strip/vacation home.

3. Extra computers/WoW accounts so I can multibox my brains out. (One man guild baby!)

4. A remote control helicopter (gas powered) with tiny rockets and a paintball gun with which to unleash a flurry of annoyance on neighbors, friends, passing cars etc.

5. I'd rent Six Flags for a huge party.

The last thing (that I can think of right now) that I'd do is not for myself. I'd buy things for people I don't know. For instance, I'd hang around at car dealerships and pick out people who look like they're scraping together their savings to buy a car and just slap down a check and pay for the whole thing up front. I'd also pay for someone else's meal every-time I went out, on top of leaving huge tips. (And if the service was bad, I'd leave a 100% tip but tip the other table's server double that.) I think I'd also like to carry around $100 gift cards to various stores and hand them to people I find amusing or who are extra friendly.

And last but not least, I'd make it rain...like every day.

Never Enough

I now have another project on top of getting a new computer. I want to attach my computer to a recliner so I can play games while relaxing in the living room. The budget I've decided on for this project is roughly $100. I can get a lcd mount arm through work for about $40, which would be the most expensive part. Then I just have to get some wood to build a frame around the chair on which to mount my computer, keyboard and mouse. The creative excitement this project gives me reminds me of building with legos when I was younger. Having a vision of some completed piece of work and then making it happen always gave me such a satisfied feeling.

As for my other project, being ahead financially this month is wearing my pockets thin. I managed to find a gaming desktop for $500 on Craigslist and I want it so freaking bad. It was easier when I knew I couldn't get anything, let alone the $1200+ computer that I wanted. Now I have a very decent, very cheap computer within my grasp, and the cash to pay for it. That is if I completely ignore most of my upcoming expenses like rent and groceries. But who needs food or a roof? That's always been my problem. I decide I want something, I research the crap out of it trying to find the best deal and somewhere along the way all that wanting turns into needing and I decide I have to get it. I mean, before I was planning on spending over a grand on a comp, now I can get one for $500...so naturally I'm saving $500 right? I swear to god the logic makes sense...somehow.

I think I need to be content with building this chair and just let that occupy my bored brain.

Finally

So I'm finally writing a new post. It has been a long time but I have an excuse, it's called work. But I don't want to think about work so we'll leave it at that.

Anyways, lots of exciting things lately. All the RA peeps are back for training, so I will do my best to start corrupting them early. The GF's comp needs some work and the tech guys at Circuit City are going to do it for free for me. The mag class went swimmingly (and yes I just said swimmingly) and I came out of it with an A. Someday soon I shall post my final project, a riveting tale of discrimination and harassment in WoW. Also, I'm finally ahead financially this month. Not by much mind you, but I'm paid up and not completely broke.

Next stop, new computer. I've been fantasizing getting a nice desktop computer for a while now. Working in the computer department with tech guys all day I've learned a lot about computers and have got it in my head to make one. Perhaps make it myself and buy all the parts separate, or at the very least use a site like ibuypower.com and have them custom build it for me...we'll see.

Long Time No See

It has been a while since I've posted, mostly due to me working my ass off at 2 jobs which will become three come August 1st. For instance, Friday I worked from 9-4 at the herbal remedies shop and then from 4:30-10 at Circuit City. I was so beat I had to pass on going out at midnight to help the GF celebrate her 21st. Then I worked 9-2 at CC on Saturday, hung out the the GF and friends that day, went out that night and worked noon to 8 on Sunday. To make a long story longer, I'm working almost all the time. And the little bit of down time I have is spent either sleeping or working on my feature story for my Magazine class. So in lieu of a nice long post about WotLK or other such juicy topics, I will be posting an article I wrote last term about life in the dorms. Enjoy!

LESSONS LEARNED

Day one

It was hot outside and Chris Lenci lived on the third floor. This could only increase the difficulty of moving his entire life, or at least what he could stuff into the back of his parents van, into his dorm room.

He had spoken briefly with Daniel Ross on the phone before moving, but to be honest, Chris was nervous. Who was this kid anyways? It seemed now more than ever that letting a 10 question survey on his housing application choose his roommate may have been a mistake.

What if they didn’t like each other? What if Ross liked to throw parties at three in the morning? What if he would be coming home late with girls? Or worse, what if he got up early to study?

There are a lot of things to be nervous about when you move to college, new classes, new teachers, new town, new friends, new responsibilities, new…life. But of all the things to be nervous about, meeting your new roommate can be the scariest.

When Chris climbed the stairs and finally stepped into his room, a 15’ by 10’ cement box in which he would spend the next 9 months of his life, he found that Dan had already moved in.

It wouldn’t be till later that night, after fully unpacking and organizing his half of the room, that Lenci would meet Ross. Ross almost had to duck under the door as he entered. “Wow, you’re really tall” was all that Chris could get out at first.

It took a few minutes of awkward silence and intermittent small talk for them to actually have a conversation. But actually discussing the serious matter of sharing a room together was too awkward at first. “We mostly talked about where we were from, high school sports we played and stuff like that,” says Ross.

To help freshman talk about living together, and set guidelines for each other, every pair of roommates receives a “roommate agreement” from their Resident Assistant.

This small pamphlet asks the questions that most residents might overlook. It is broken up into several useful categories.

Sleep

College students are notorious for a lot of things, not the least of which is a developed ability to get by on minimal sleep.

“It just doesn’t place very high on my priorities,” says Cassidy Slaughter-Mason, Ross’s girlfriend. “There is always something to do and a lot of it is more appealing than sleep.”

Slaughter-Mason calls herself a night person, often staying out late. “I usually plan on going to sleep, but I’ll end up out at the smoking benches hanging out with whoever is there.”

While she is able to get by on her late night schedule, her habits have caused tension between her and roommate Eliza Bryant. “I don’t care if she’s up late, she’s the one who has to deal with being tired, but she woke me up a lot the first term,” says Bryant.

Luckily, the two were able to compromise and an arrangement involving ear plugs and a sort of courtesy curfew has reconciled the situation. “I never told her how annoyed I was; I used to just stay angry with her. When I finally brought it up, she had no idea it bothered me,” said Bryant.

Guests

The term “sexile” is used most often in the dorms, and so many freshmen have never heard of it before moving in. But for some, the learning of this terms true meaning can be an awkward and embarrassing experience.

The term is a combination of the words sex and exile and refers to someone being “exiled” from their room because their roommate is having sex.

Lenci said that he “had never heard of it, but it’s pretty funny actually.” But it wasn’t so funny when he first learned the meaning.

After going to a late movie with some friends, Lenci game back to his room. “When I came back the door was locked, but I knew Dan was in there so I started banging on the door. Then I hear all this shuffling going on and finally he opens the door but he’s in his boxers. He asked me to come back in 20 minutes. It took me a while to figure out what that really meant.”

After that encounter, Lenci and Ross agreed to use a rubber band hanging from the door knob to let each other know the room was “occupied.”

“It was annoying at first because he was always in here with Cassidy, but then I got together with my girlfriend and shut him out a couple times. I think he saw what it was like because he started going to her room more,” said Lenci.

Living Arrangements

Many students feel they can play it safe by rooming with a friend. Rather than getting to know someone new they hope to stick with what they know.

Sandy Schoonover, Director of Residence Life at the University of Oregon has had years of experience working with residents. She says that “communicating with your roommate early on in the process and also checking in with each other regularly” can alleviate a lot of problems.

However, she says that “the biggest mistake roommates make is to move in with their best friend.” Drawing on her years of dealing with roommate conflicts, Schoonover says that the most emotional and heated fights are between roommates who were friends before college.

“There’s a difference between knowing someone and living with them,” she says.

In the case of Ricci Cande, a photography major living in the Hamilton complex, that’s exactly what happened. When her first choice for roommate decided to go to a community college, Cande and friend Kelly Hackney decided to room together.

But on this day, like so many others, Cande sits alone in her room. It’s not so much that Ricci and Hackney don’t get along as that Hackney and college just don’t mix well.

With strong ties to her family in Salem, along with a boyfriend back home, Hackney drives the hour north to visit a lot. “She just started leaving earlier and earlier and coming back later and later,” Cande says, looking across the room at Hackney’s rarely used desk.

Now, in spring term, Hackney leaves for Salem after her classes on Thursday and doesn’t come back till late Monday. “She hates college so much,” Cande says, and Kelly will not be returning to the UO next year.

So Ricci has had to look elsewhere for the kind of companionship she hoped to have with Kelly. As a result, she became very close with her floor mates and these are the relationships she plans to hold onto next year.

Looking back

It was strange at first, living with a stranger. After having his own room growing up, a room twice the size of the one he now shares with Ross, it was something to get used to.

Now at the end of his freshman year, that room at home “just seems too big, and it’s mostly empty now,” Chris says. The residence halls have become his home and he compares it to living with friends.

While Lenci and Ross didn’t become close friends over the year, mutual respect and open communication has made them good roommates.

Communication has kept their relationship strong, and now as the year ends they find they are sad to go. “I hope we get to hang out and catch up, he’s a good guy,” says Ross, and Lenci feels the same.

Although Lenci will be a Resident Assistant next year and Ross will be living off campus, the two plan to stay in touch with each other as well as the rest of their hall.

Mo Money Mo Problems

After applying at roughly 10 different places for jobs about 2 weeks ago, I got interview offers from 4 of them yesterday. I don't know why they decided to collectively wait and then bombard me, but they did. In any case, this morning I went to see about delivering the local paper. If I do it, which I mostly likely am going to, it means no more sleeping in...ever...until I am through with this job. It also means being even more of an old man and going to sleep around 9 or 10. And probably some naps, prune juice and adult diapers. But, it also means an extra $600 a month for a job that will never interfere with school or my other work. I'll also gain a shit ton of time if I'm waking up at 4 every morning because I'll be done before 6am.

That means that I should have 6-10am on school days and 6-9am on work days all to myself. Oh whatever will I do with the time? Why level my alts of course! With such huge portions of my waking day dedicated to school and work and the GF, I have only a little time for WoW on any given day. And I work especially hard to keep my play time (especially raids) completely separate from GF. That is, I try to do ALL of my play time while she is at work, and almost none when she is at home so that we can spend time together.

By being wide awake at home at 6am every morning I have a large block of "alone time" to play that doesn't interfere with GF time. It may very well become homework time when school starts, but regardless, I will have at least a couple hours every day with which to do as I please (as long as it isn't too loud).


In other news, my B-day is on Wednesday and my party is on Saturday. There will be quite a few people coming in from out of town so I'm pretty excited to hang out with them. My only worry is that because they are all from different social groups and don't all know each other that it may be awkward. I wouldn't be worried at all except that there will only be a handful of people so they can't really just get lost in the crowd like at larger parties. But there should be enough overlap in groups and alcohol consumption to alleviate the potential awkward.

Random Thoughts:

• More money potentially means getting a new computer. YAY!!! (But really it just means paying off my car a little quicker :( *tear)
• Having an early morning job, day job and possibly a night job (likely Zumiez or Circuit City) all on top of school likely means I'll never ever get to go do crazy fun cool shit.
• A discount at Zumiez or Circuit City would be FREAKING AWESOME!!!!
• Went to the Oregon Country Fair twice over the weekend...it totally blew my mind dude...
  

Chat Noir

Raiding raiding raiding. This last weekend was especially heavy on the raiding. And while our progression runs into SSC and Hyjal weren't terribly successful, they weren't absolutely horrible either. But the highlight of my WoW weekend was a Kara run with the guild. It was my first time in Kara with this group and we just bent Midihv's house over and gave it what for.

With my last guild we would stumble into Kara, wipe repeatedly for 4-5 hours before giving up. We only ever downed a few of the bosses and only got Prince down like 4 times. But now, with the uber DPS of PR (my guild) we worked that tower. Maiden went down in under a 2min, and the others followed similarly. Only Nightbane gave us trouble, and we wiped 3 times before finally getting out healing/aoe's right on the bone shower.

In other news, the parental units are coming into town tomorrow and I'm excited. I'm never super pumped to see them, I did spend 18 years with them, but I'm psyched to show off our new house. It's not much of a home yet, we have very little furniture and two of our roommates haven't moved in yet, so it's rather empty. But it's our home and I get to show it off damn it.

I'm writing this post from work where I've been wasting time on the game Chat Noir, available here http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/chatnoir/chatnoir.html. That little black gatto has me hating its guts as I just can't seem to corner him more than every 5-6 tries.

Random Thoughts:

• I'm looking to upgrade to a nice, corded, gaming mouse now that I have a more secure work area. I also want the Belkin n52te speed gamepad. Fingers crossed on a birthday gift!
• There's a lot of controversy on rolling a gnome death knight when the expansion hits. Personally I'm just going to pick whichever race looks more badass on the character selection screen. I may even switch factions to get a high level hordie.

The internet...OF TOMORROW!!!!

Today we had our very own internet modem installed by a nice comcast man with an ICP tattoo on his forearm (ICP referring to the Insane Clown Posse aka angry white trash kids). But I would still kneel to him for restoring the life giving blood that is broadband internet.

Until now we were relying on whatever single bar, unsecured wireless networks we could pick up in our neighborhood. But alas we now have our very own and it is glorious. Today I confidently finished my dailies and signed up for a weekend pack full of raiding. Friday is Hyjal, Saturday is SSC and we'll wrap up on Sunday with a good old Kara Run. The first two will be my first time stepping foot into either instance or any T5 instance for that matter. Kara on the other hand I've done many times but never with my new guild, Phoenix Resurrection. I'm excited to see how quickly we can clear it after several 5-6 hour attempts with my last guild that still would wipe on Prince and completely skip Nightbane.

In other news, the Olympic trials, as many of you know, are being held right now in my very own town of Eugene. It's exciting to be sure, but for someone who can't just take a 2 week vacation and blow $100 a day on fair food, I've only been once. And to boot, they are conveniently located between my home and work/any where I want to go in Eugene other than my home.

And to frustrate me even more it seems that despite all the money and business the trials are bringing into town, I can't find a job. Sure I have one already, but if I'm to afford anything nice, or upgrade my groceries above peanut butter sandwiches and ramen, I'm going to need a night job. I was really hoping to land one at Best Buy or Circuit City, but no such luck yet. You better believe I'd milk that discount for all it was worth, and probably just dump my paycheck right back into the store. But hey, what can ya do?

Speaking of paychecks, my birthday is coming up and I'm psyched. We're throwing a party on Saturday, the 19th and it's going to be a blast. I have a lot of friends coming in from out of town and a few that stayed in town for the summer will be there. I just hope in all their travels to get to me they won't forget to bring some bomb ass gifts. Only a few of them know me well enough to give me something truly thoughtful, so I'm excited to see what the others think I'm into. I wouldn't be surprised to get some rollerblading gear from Matt, even though I have almost no time to invest in picking that back up this summer after 2 years of down time.

Random Thoughts:

• Mouse has been intermittently unresponsive...MAKE HULK MAD!!!
• My computer just seems to get slower and slower. Hopefully soon I'll be able to afford the sick gaming desktop that I keep having wet dreams about.
• Bunny+wood floors= hilarious! But seriously, he's a little pussy, he needs to just get used to them cause we ain't getting carpet.
  

Camping is in tents!

This weekend was spent camping with the gf and friends in celebration of future roommate Melissa's 21st B-day. Personally I had a blast. It was pretty laid back and although we were very under prepared as far as food/snacks, we had plenty of open lake to swim in. Not only that, but with the help of alcohol and a good 5 games of "I Never" I managed to learn a lot of deep and sexual secrets about everyone there. Swimming, hot dogs and sex secrets...it was a good weekend.

On the way back we hit up the gf's parents house to pick up our rabbit that had been staying with them while our new house was being cleaned. They really took a liking to him and would probably keep him if we let them. But the best part of my day was setting him down on our hardwood floors and watching him flip out. He's just got no traction on hardwood with those claws of his and it freaks him out. So now he has to slowly creep along to get from place to place, but mostly he just hangs out near the furniture, probably so he can push off of it if he needs to run.


Random Thoughts:

• Not having personal internet connection=Bad
• Mooching off sketchy wireless from some neighbor= frustrating and almost impossible for WoW
• New desk set up is working well so far
• Job search is going poorly, need to step it up.
• I need to get my freaking bike back from DZ's house
  

HOLY SHIT

THIS IS AWESOME!

Number dos?

So today I completed the infamous game Portal. First off, I just could not, under any circumstances, get it to work on my computer. Something about my 945GM express video card which was extremely frustrating and only further entrenched me in my desire to get a nice gaming desktop.

So I installed it on my girlfriends computer, a brand new Dell XPS laptop and even that had some trouble playing it. In the end though, I managed to play the game and got though more than half of it yesterday and the rest today. All in all it was a lot of fun, and quite a bit more plot than I expected. While I would have been perfectly content with it simply presenting a puzzle for me to solve with my super-duper-awesome portal gun, it turned out to have some not so clever, but still funny jokes and a plot.

As fun as Portal was, it was merely a diversion, something to distract and entertain my child-like mind while my internet is too unreliable for WoW. It's just good enough to squeeze out some dailies before I get fed up with the lag and start belittling my computer for its inferior speed. It probably won't be till the first that we get a reliable connection after starting our subscription. Speaking of subscriptions, it just occurred to me that I'm out about $8 this month from not utilizing my WoW subscription. Blizzard loves to milk us dry with these monthly fees. It's like selling someone some crack but making them pay every time they want to put it in a syringe.

To fill my time I have also been working my way through the 360 version of Turok which has be very entertaining. The animation is good, the characters are pretty well developed and the plot...well I was sold at the killing dinosaurs part, after that I stopped paying attention. It's great other than that it's very obvious they are trying to turn throw it out in the general direction of Halo, as all other FPS's have, but with no success. There are simply no grounds for anyone to compete with Halo. And while I wait for some fatty monthly check to cover an xbox live account, my epic Halo skills will have to sit on the counter collecting dust.

Numero Uno

So this is the first, in hopefully many many posts. Now I know anyone with a blog or with aim or who plays an mmo can relate, picking a name has to be the hardest part. I seriously sat here staring at my screen for a good 10 min...and nothing. Even using the "random article" jump on wikipedia came up with nothing.

But I've always liked the word Lux. I've only heard it two places, the name of Kirstin Dunst's character in "The Virgin Suicides" and from a few guilds on my server in World of Warcraft. However, after googling it I found out that lux is actually a metric measurement of luminosity.

In any case, I came down to naming this blog Lux LTD for whatever reason and here we are. I don't have anything in particular I plan on writing about, but I know that my addiction *caugh* I mean.. my medicated use of World of Warcraft will probably come up a lot. My relationship with my girlfriend may also come up, as well as a healthy spattering of stupid shit I find on the web that will hopefully be amusing to someone other than myself.

Other than that, I just plan on writing...and that's about it. I am a journalism major at the University of Oregon and this blog will hopefully help me stay up on my game, so to speak. And on that topic, tomorrow I start my first magazine writing class. I'm excited and nervous at that same time. I'm just glad it's the only class I'm taking this summer so that I hopefully won't suck at it.

That's an awkward place to end but I'm gonna do it anyways. But how to sign off? Should I make some witty reference to something in pop culture? Should I be cute or funny or pretend that I'm hip hop? The possibilities are endless! For now I guess I'll go with...

-Hugs and kisses