out of the blue

You know something really funny?
Earlier, Aaron was doing a moderately simple multiplication problem, and he decided that doing it in his head would take too long. So, while he went to get his calculator, I did it in my head, and he called me a blackguard for showing him up. (Which was moderately fun, I must admit, but it was in fun.) So, afterwards, we both went to class, and when we were coming back from that class, he told me that he had done it in his head on the way to class, and explained why he didn't feel like doing it in his head then.

So, just a minute ago, he called over to me, with a sort of sarcastic expression in his voice, "Okay, Smurf, take the arc tangent of (-0.529/0.706)."

Well, naturally, I didn't remember the numbers from just that one telling of them, so I asked him what they were again twice. And he answered. Then, I thought about it for a moment, and called back, "37 degrees", then, remembering it was negative, said, "No, wait, negative 37 degrees.

"You blackguard."

The answer had been 36.843.

I think that I get a few points of winnage for this victory, wouldn't you?

I've been finding it hard to concentrate and do work all day. Ever since Elana came (the day before she came, actually), I don't think I've done a bit of work besides a little bit of reading in Literature this morning. I don't know what's gotten into me, but I've tried to do a few things today, and none of them has been focus-able on. I hope that tomorrow I will be able to prepare adequately for the Calculus quiz that happens later, and also for the Religion quiz that I have to do. Then, I can focus on the other stuff that is trying to kill me. Literature, again, is going to kill me with journals, even though I've got a different teacher than last semester! It's horrible. It's pretty much the same assignment, but I think Dr. Fowler expects more organization, and that scares me. Journals are supposed to be stream-of-consciousness, free-association, thoughtful things. But I have never been able to make anything of Dr. Fowler. I don't really understand her. And I REALLY don't understand what she wants us to do; she may expect more work than Dr. Marshall, which is impressive. I enjoyed his class more, too, I think. Anyway, I hope to be able to do some work tomorrow after getting a decent night's sleep tonight.

See all of you later.

Well, Elana has come up to visit Gonzaga. It was nice tonight. She arrived, and after a while we went to have a bite to eat at a really good Thai place (her mom paid :D). Then, we watched a movie (which was quite disturbing). Now, I'm going to bed. But I'm in quite a good mood. More sometime.

For those of you that don't know, on the Gonzaga campus there are multiple ways of getting food. You can take meals at the "Marketplace", or you can pay "Bulldog Bucks" to get food at a number of other places. One of these such places is a so-called Italian joint named "Pandini's", which serves food that is a welcome change from typical Cog food, and has a decent atmosphere (besides the bloody television sets in every corner, but that's a rant for another day). Anyway, Aaron, Becky and I went there this evening because circumstances conspired to make us not get to the Cog before it closes around 7:30. We ordered nice tasty food, and Aaron ordered a apple stromboli (a pastry filled with apple; it's pretty good) along with his meal. It comes, and he eats his other food. Then he cuts into his dessert.

What does he find? Not apple, but pepperoni, onions, and a number of other delectable things that DON'T belong in dessert items, staring out of the honey-and-powdered-sugar-covered pastry. It turns out that they threw the wrong stuff inside the dessert dough, and then cooked it, and tossed the finishing touches on top. That made for an interesting surprise when Aaron began to eat it. Unfortunately, he noticed before he actually began to put bites in his mouth, which was a little disappointing. I still managed to laugh for quite a few minutes.

Anyway, that's your amusing anecdote for the day. Enjoy it! (Both the anecdote and the day, hopefully.)

Well, Aaron and I are on our fifth month of living in the same place. Together a lot of the time. Today, we did similar things twice, both involving songs that we really like.

For the first, we were standing in the lunch line, and we both began singing "Mr. Blue Skies" about half a beat off from each other; too close to have been just catching it from the other person. Then, after dinner, we were walking back to the dorm, and singing various songs from the musical, "Assassins." Then, at EXACTLY the same moment, after a pause in the conversation, we began singing the same song. It was crazy. It made us wonder whether there is a natural amount of time to leave during pauses, and how much living together synchronizes those pauses.

Anyway, more later. See you folks.

It's in the 40s right now in Spokane, and the snow is melting, and turning slushy, and it's not very happy. The poor snow, given a chance at life, but then that chance is stolen away. *sigh* I hope it won't all be gone before the next freeze hits and it gets cold again. I've really been enjoying having snow in the winter for a pleasant change from Portland. At least now I can wear shorts and a t-shirt with impunity.

Aaron and I decided to be gentlemanly and walk someone home to her house. So, we went along with her, and talked for a while. Then left her there. It turns out that her house is just behind Safeway, so we went in to see if we wanted to get anything. We ended up getting some Thomas Kemper soda, as their Ginger Ale is bloody good (as far as I could tell, having it once). So, we're walking back from Safeway to our dorm to drop off the soda before going to get Pulp Fiction and Snatch, when some guys call out to us, "Is that beer?" Thinking it amusing, I yell back, "No. It's a collection of soda," so as to make them think that, yes, it is beer. They ask if they can have one, because they still don't believe me, naturally. I see no need to correct them, because that would involve opening one and letting them try it, so I yell out "sorry," as Aaron says "We're connoisseurs." They say something along the lines of "Blast," and we walk off. I was amused.

Well, today Aaron and I did something very fun. We got dressed in just shorts and shoes, and we ran outside in the snow in the 10 degree weather, and threw a frisbee around for probably ten or twelve minutes. Then, we both threw ourselves into the snow, shirtless and in shorts. It was snowing this whole time. I made a snow angel, but it didn't turn out quite as well as I wish it could have. Then, we went inside and took a shower. I went out later and took a picture, and realized that the snow angel wasn't quite as large as it felt. It is still recognizable, as far as anything that is fully one color and relying on vague night-time shadows to be recognizable in a picture.

Snow Angel

Well, I am quite happy. It is 3 degrees Fahrenheit outside, and I still have not made the concession of wearing pants. I do require my fleece jacket to not be utterly frozen, but with that on the cold is not bad. At least, it's not DEATH when there's no wind. If the wind picks up, I may very well put on a pair of sweats or jeans.

Anyway, I am making the best use of the cold. There is a bush outside the door of our dorm that Aaron and I are right next to, and really the only one we use. So, I took a glass of water, and poured it there. I'll keep doing that until the winter is out and we have a bush encased in a block of ice. I also decided to make the windowsill outside our window into an icy wonderland (and make some hopefully impressive sheets of ice stretching down from our window). Wish me luck in my endeavors!

Wheeee! More work on my site. Photo pages and Painting pages are utterly complete.

Photography
Paintings

Next to follow are all of the sketches that I've scanned over the years.

Time to sleep, as I've got a class tomorrow morning at 8:00.