Friday 21 May 2001 // 1650 EST

Seeing: Old Episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Hearing: Chicane feat. Bryan Adams -- Don't Give Up

Touching: Latex gloves and bags of trash

Tasting: Day old chinese food

Thinking:
It's been a while since I updated, I know. Hmm...sitting at werk for the first real time in a few weeks, I think it's given me a little time to think about a lot of things and how everything else is going..so where was I last? Art Attack was a decent success, I should mention, everything went well and the DJs showed and everything threw down according to plan, which was nice, I even went and sprung for 10 pizzas for the crew and friends off my meal card, which cost me just over 100 mealpoints, but that didn't matter, since I was already over by 150...so that went okay, and I was kind of happy about the whole thing, my only regret is that Christina couldn't make it up for the party...eh, it wasn't a big deal anyway. :) Anyway, the event went well, we didn't really draw any people until the lights went off and the sun went down and people saw our lightshow shining through the pillars into the actual staduim and they came up to see what was going on...ILL-usion was on and it was a magnificent opportunity for me to promote MY party that happened on the 11th of May, Mirage(the website is STILL up, I'm gonna leave it for a while, it's at MirageUMD, and after the whole thing was over, I was happy to go back to my room and chill out for the rest of the night. I didn't get the shower or the sleep I wanted before I went home for the rest of the weekend to see Christina, mainly because Emily(Coren) insisted on staying in my room and hanging out with every one of my friends but me all night until the sun came up, and then tried to make me feel guilty about not spending time with her, but I'll leave that alone....

The weekends have been heavenly, to be honest, I've spent most of my time with Christina, which is a wonderful thing..it's actually kind of amazing what it's like to have someone in your life that really wants to see you and even though they live only a few miles away has the hardest time dealing when they don't get to see your face...it's kind of remniscent of what I went through when I dated Katie, but even she didn't express that she missed me this much, I don't think....but anyway. Christina is an amazing woman.

Mirage was amazing. Who knows how to throw a party? I know how to throw a party, goddammit. People turned out, the BBQ was amazing, I gave away everything there was to give away, and everyone had a good time...it's great to be taking down a party and have people walk up to you, hug you, and thank you just for being alive and being there and having the guts to throw an event like the one I did...the music was thumpin, and it kept up for 7 hours, despite the scattered noise complaints and whatnot. We had our share of technical difficulties and whatnot, but I'm not about to talk about the minute negative things that spattered the event, the big picture is what's important here, and the party was a HUGE success. Everyone had such a great time, the broadcast happened(in true ghetto fashion) and everything went off without a hitch. Dave and Camille(Crisis and DJ Clutch) opened up in true funky house fashion, drawing someone in the first few moments of the party asking about the music and saying it was awesome, and then Marc(DJ Toro) went on and threw down some yummy trance classics that everyone who had managed to come around to hang out at that point loved and were more than happy about...he spun Lustral's Everytime, and needless to say it made a few kids who came up from Columbia for my party(thanks Christina, Leia, Ryan) very happy. After Marc was James Brennan himself, laying down some funky jazzy house that at least kept my head bobbin, and I'd love to have him out again sometime...his track selection was awesome and his turntable technique was impressive too, the music was so free and moving, it was tribal and pretty, I loved it...remind me to go see him spin more often...and then Ben(ILL-usion) went on and threw down the lovely UK Hard House that he's more than well known for, the same kind of stuff he put down at Art Attack that had everyone dancing and happy...and then Dave(Crisis) closed out the night with a fabulous 2 hour trance set that was the perfect end to the perfect evening. All the food was gone, the kids were happy, the event was a success, and cleanup wasn't really a problem. Everything went well and it all worked out. By the time the sun went down and we were finsihed cleaning up, I was on the way home with my fair Christina, only to return, shower, get cleaned up, and relax...it was amazing.

Admittedly, Mirage ate up all of my efforts, I worked all the time on it, flyered the campus in the middle of the night, ran out of tape, and managed to staple my flyers to almost any plastic surface I could find...it was fun running around campus in the middle of the night with me, my walkman, a roll of duct tape, and all kinds of flyers to keep me company....but I got the job done...I put that whole event together the best way I knew how, and it went off beautifully. I wanted to go out with a bang, my last program, the last week of class, and I did..it was fabulous and I'm VERY happy.

Since then, I've been working my butt off trying to get my academic stuff out of the way. I had my formal lab report due on Monday after the Mirage weekend, then I had a lab report and 2 lab report addition/revisions due on the Tuesday after Mirage, AND a term paper for my Galaxies class due the same day, as well as having to prepare a powerpoint presentation for that paper that I had to give on that same day. All in all, Sunday night/Monday morning I got finished all my work at 630AM, and skipped my one class that day, and then I got up and worked on everything else...I worked straight until 1130AM on Tuesday morning, when I decided to take a nap and get up to go do my presentation...I got up late for it, got to class late, but still managed to make my presentation and turn in my paper...so I'm not complaining too much. That was all last Tuesday...since then I had a chance to relax a bit, I've been working Transition Team and whatnot, taking my final exams as they present themselves....last friday, today, and one tomorrow. But I've been working around them, studying around them, trying to relax...and here I am...

I have another exam tomorrow at 4PM, and I don't really feel like taking it..but at least I'll be finished after that...then I can work and not be worried about things...the semester is over, the class I was most worried about I managed to get the C in it I was looking for, and I think I'm about done...I'm happy...it's about over for the semester and I can finally relax and do somethnig different...take off the student hat for a while. I don't know what I'm going to do about the whole security clearance thing, but I have another polygraph on Wednesday, and depending on whatever happens there, that'll be that, and we'll find out pretty soon where I'll be working this summer. I'd love to work a job that'll pay me a good amount of money, but to be frank at this point, I really don't care all that much...having a job over the summer will be nice, and I'll have that one way or the other. And the helpdesk might be nice, it'll be a very relaxed summer...laid back and chill, I hope, one where I can take plenty of time off to do as I like, relax, take a few trips, you know the drill.

I should update more. I'm very tired about now, and I know I have so much to say, but I'll have to put it off until tomorrow. I need to study for this exam, and I need to sleep more...I'm really tired, I was tempted to nap through the night and morning and then just get up for my exam tomorrow. We'll see what happens if anything amusing happens. Until then, friends.