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Norman_the_Wise
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Country: United States
State: California
Birthday: 4/29/1985
Gender: Male
Occupation: Student
Industry: Education/Research
Message: message me
Member Since:
9/18/2003
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| OK, so I’m willing to give this thing a try again… partially because I’m finding that I have more “free time” this year, and partially because I really don’t want to be doing my English paper right now.
So what am I supposed to write in this thing? At one time it was a means to try to let people know what is happening in Davis, but I’ve come to the conclusion that if people want to know how I am doing then they should email me or instant message me or call me or even snail mail me. I know… it’s a novel concept that if you want to know what’s up with me you might actually talk to me, but really I don’t bite (well not that much)! So, I think I’m going to use this thing to let me vent and ramble about life.
I have come to the conclusion over the past year (with the help of some other people) that no one really knows everything about me. At one point that was deliberate, I wanted to be somewhat distant and unconnected but I don’t like that anymore. It used to be that I didn’t want people to pity me, but now it’s become more of a headache than anything to try and keep track and guess who knew what about me. And the thing is no one knows the full story… there are large significant gaps that I have never told to anyone save a few family members.
This year is the ten-year anniversary of a major even that forever shaped my life. Some of you know what this even was, some do not. If you don’t know, come talk to me sometime over break or something… I want to tell you in person, I owe it to you that much. I’ve been fortunate enough to call you all my friends and this secrecy just isn’t right, which is why I want to end it. Even if you do know about me, come talk to me, cause I’m really going to need it over the break.
I’m getting really depressed right now so I’m going to move to another subject.
So I’m taking 18 units this quarter… I don’t know why really, but all the classes are easy ones so it doesn’t really have the feel of 18 units, which is cool. The one thing that is taking over my life is Model UN. I joined the thing and two weeks later was an officer in charge of the website and other technology things, which is cool cause it’s another thing to add to the ole’ resume, and it’s a cool experience with new people and new things to do too. The whole apartment thing is coming along pretty good (for the most part). Two of my apartment-mates are driving me crazy, but it’s still tolerable. We have a good time and are even going to throw a Chanukah Party later in December!
Well I’ve reached the 500 word goal I secretly set for myself for this post so I’m going to stop for now and get back to my English. I am going to try and post at least once a week for the rest of the year and then we’ll see how things go with 2005.
Later,
-Norm | | |
| Not much to say today (see I am keeping-up with the whole posting thing). Classes are going pretty good (post on them coming up), had my economics discussion today… they put way too many people into a small room. There’s enough chairs and all, but just not enough room for all the chairs and the people in the chairs… we’ll see how that goes.
Yeah, I’m bored now because everyone went to go see “Eternal Sunshine” at the cheap Tuesday price and I didn’t want to see it a third time… speaking of which, I know I didn’t say anything Meg when we went but there was nothing else playing, and I didn’t think it was all that bad the first time.
OK, so I’m reading this book (link below)… it’s really good. Of course, I’m all outdoorsy and all, but still it provides a good insight into hiking, and (as the title implies) rediscovering America. The writer (Bill Bryson) is really good, I’ve read a number of his books they are all travel-logs kind of, but he puts a lot of humor into them, so if they’re at your library, and you want to take some time out of stupid school work, I would recommend them (so would my invisible roommate Daniel). Alternatively, you can always ask me when I’m back for the summer, as I have most of them.
So, last night these two guys came around to our building… it was kind of weird. One of them had just turned 21 and he had lived in our building when he was a freshman, so he was talking about memories, and asking us questions about our experiences, and recommending professors and all… which was pretty cool. He was also offering “his services” to us, as he is now 21, and all… apparently it’s tradition to come back and do this… so we’re like, “OK, thanks” if we wanted any of this, there are many other routes we could go without having to ask some weird guy who we just met and don’t know his motives or anything. So then he invites us to this barbeque the next night (tonight), not mentioning anything just like he and his friends do it from time to time, so we’re like “OK”. So a group of us go and we realize it’s a frat event for rushing this TKE frat. Well actually, apparently he told this to one person, but this one person never said anything to anyone else… ergh! Well we, ended up just eating at Jennie’s DC cause it was right there, and the group all needed to go soon because of the movie, and we felt awkward eating frat food when none of us were even remotely interested in their frat… oh well.
So that was part of my day… at least the eventful part of it… yeah, no one will probably even read this so whatever, but it will be nice for me to look back at… maybe.
Later,
-Norm | | |
| OK, so I’ve decided that this quarter, I’m going to write more in this Xanga thingy. So let’s start off with a nice recap of Spring Break, shall we?
So Spring Break officially began on Wednesday the 24th of March at 12:30 PM (or at the end of my International Relations 1 Final). A quick trip back to the dorm room to finish-up the packing and we were on our way. Daniel (my roommate) gracefully offered me a ride to the airport as he and Paul (another guy in the dorms) were going to drive past it anyways on their way to Granite Arch, but first we had to look a bit for Daniel’s bike. You see, one day he went out to the bike rack, and his bike wasn’t there, so he looked around at the different classes he has, and no bike, well we found it finally off-campus, half-way to his girlfriend’s dorm... anyways, on with the Spring Break.
Got to the airport with 2 hours to spare, which landed me in the A boarding group for Southwest... yeah! Found the food court... ate some pizza, typed a few emails on the laptop, and watched some TV news. The flight was completely full, but I got a window seat, so I was cool with that. Flew into Ontario... yuck, got picked-up by my Grandma who got there an hour early because she was worried about traffic (I felt kind of bad about this). She took me out to dinner too (Mimi’s Café), so that was cool, thanks Grandma!
OK, so I’m back in Orange County... YEAH!!! Didn’t do much the first night, watched West Wing, and unpacked my junk (more just spread it out around my clean room).
Thursday, slept-in a little, not too late though (around 9-10am). Went in to work to check the printed work schedule because it said I wasn’t scheduled on the web page (and I really wasn’t scheduled, more on that later), and I went into the park for a brisk walk-around and tour of sorts. Later that day I picked-up Jamie from work and we joined The Group down on Balboa Beach. We had a good time talking and eating hot dogs and s’mores (though not at the same time) and left 10-ish for the movies. You see, it wasn’t all that late, so we couldn’t go home... so we went to go see "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (though I had already seen it once). Not all of us went, there were like 5 of us, and then Brandy and her roommate? joined us about 10 minutes into the film. It really is a good movie... Jim Carey proves that he can act in serious roles, and it’s just very overwhelming I think. It wasn’t a movie that you immediately understood, you kind of have to think about it a bit. Anyway, I liked it... in a unique sort of way.
OK, so Meg and Jennie decided to apply for jobs at Disneyland, so I took them and Jamie (who came because she was bored) to the casting center on Friday. We were there for about an hour while they filled-out paperwork and had the paperwork looked-over and were then told that they "weren’t hiring for the summer yet, but here’s your paperwork back, just change the date and come back later." So we were bummed about that, but what can you do? We had some lunch at Del Taco, and went home. I then proceeded to my house only to sit down on the couch and become extremely bored... so I went to Disneyland, just to ride some rides for a few hours and to relax a bit from the stress of Winter Quarter.
Saturday was spent with my Dad for the most part. I feel bad not hanging-out with him when I come back on breaks (especially since he is financing my education and the trips back home). We did a bit of shopping, and stuff like that. He went out to dinner with his girlfriend (who finally moved out... YEAH... another post on that sometime) and the Millers (parental-units of Michael Miller- former ASB president, best-friend since kindergarten, etc.) and then to see "Eternal Sunshine." He left Ben and I money to go out to dinner and do something. I would have liked to have taken him to the park, but his pass was blocked-out... oh well, so we rented "Terminator 3" from Hollywood Video and ate Papa John’s pizza, it was good times.
I hung-out with the parental-unit again on Sunday. We slept-in a bit and did our traditional going-out to breakfast on Sunday thingy. We did some things around the house, and then went down to Huntington Beach for an early dinner at Ruby’s (great memories from prom). After we got back, my Dad and his GF wanted to sleep as they needed to leave at 4am the next morning, so I went to (you guessed it) Disneyland. I got to the Resort around 8:45. My goal was to get a quick ride on the ‘Boomer and then head over to catch the 9:00 Fantasmic. Well it took me a bit longer than I expected, so I went on Thunder Mountain and Pirates to waste time before the 10:30 show. This I did, and I have to admit that no matter how many times I see it, I still love it... I even out of reflex more than anything slipped into Cast Member mode and started asking people not to sit on the B-Wall, and moved strollers, and directed guests to the nearest restroom, and weird stuff like that (and after each time, I was like, why did I just say that?).
I woke-up around 8:30am on Monday, mainly because I need to get out of this habit of sleeping the day away. I realized that most of the Gang was back at UCSD, and those not at UCSD were still in school so-to-speak, so I needed to find something to occupy myself all day. Let’s see what can Mike do... well I decided to call in to my Stage Scheduler and see if I could come in for a shift (this was around 9:15 am). They were like... "yeah, when can you get here?" So, I ended-up being scheduled for a 10:45-3:30 shift with a good possibility of extension (it was extended to 6:15- 7.5 hours). So, I leave a bit early because I don’t have a costume, and I need fuel for my car and for my body. I still end-up getting to the lot 20 minutes ahead of schedule, but oh-well. Of course, the one thing I needed to bring but forgot was my belt, so I was harassed by the costuming people (we are only supposed to have one belt issued at a time), but oh-well. I’m now got about 10 minutes until the start of my shift, so I went to the break-room to hang-out and watch TV for a bit, they had some special on Disney Imaginers on the Cast TV channel which was pretty cool. OK, so it’s time to report to the office for my shift (normally I would report to my attraction, but I have to do training today because I have lost ALL knowledge for my attractions). I sit-down with my trainer and we go over the various things which have changed... blah-blah-blah, we sign a bunch of papers, I take a super easy multiple-choice test, and we’re off to the attractions after only an hour-and-a-half of ‘training.’ I worked the shift, was pretty cool, nothing major happened... got to work all the positions (which is always nice), be getting some money from the Company in a few days from writing this, Wednesday to be precise. Overall it was fun.
Tuesday I finished-off all the shopping I needed to do... mainly at REI, needed to spend my dividend... and a stop to the bank, but other than that nothing much. Oh yeah, and my Grandma came over with some pots and pans that she picked-up at an estate sale... we’ll use them next year in the apartment.
Wednesday I spent mainly at Disneyland. I really don’t know why, but I had this urge to go to the parks and ride a few rides before coming back up to Davis. I had a pretty good time, went on Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain, got a Dole Pineapple Whip, and a quick ride on ‘Soaring Over California... good times! But I couldn’t spend too much time at the Park, had to go finish packing for the trip back to Davis. On my way out of the park (via backstage) I ran into Trevor coming into work... we were like "Whoa!" it was cool, he’s trying to convince me to transfer into Guest Relations, think I might look into that when I get back for the summer. So, I had a plane flight at 9:30 (was delayed to 9:45) from Ontario, so we ate Mexican food for dinner, and my Dad and brother drove to the airport. We were really early, so we waited-around in the baggage claim area for about an hour. My Dad and I talked while my brother amused himself with a baggage cart. Eventually I left them and waited for a bit longer for my plane, which was about ¾ booked. Unfortunately, everyone on the plane slept except for the two people next two me who met on the plane and in the end didn’t even exchange phone numbers, I wanted to yell at them, but I just amused myself by looking out the window. Then in Sac, the stupid Airporter bus was busy, and so I had to wait for the third van to come (about 1 hour after getting my luggage) before I could get a ride back to Davis.
Well, I’m getting tried of this whole writing thing, so I think I’ll call it quits for now... I really do plan on posting at least once a week, and y’all can hound me on that if I fall behind.
Later,
-Norm | | |
| I just found this cool site... http://imageshack.us/ (it was on one of the Asians @VPHS's site... I didn't recognise him or anything... sorry man). You can upload your picture and it saves it and you can link to it and stuff and it's free! Anyways... bed time now.
-Norm | | |
| Norman the Wise
All right it’s been a while… but I’m back. And this quarter I plan to spend more time on my studies and stuff so that means that hopefully I’ll have more time for updates and stuff.
Yah… So a lot has happened since my last post… so I guess I can just start where I left off and go with that for a bit and then at some point I’ll stop because I’ll get tired of typing and then at some point in the next week I’ll bring the Xanga up to current time (my plan… scout’s honor… hehe).
OK, so where’d I leave off? OCTOBER 27!!! WHAT THE <insert random word>???
OK, so a lot of you asked about Flugtag… it was fun, like the hottest day in history or something like that for an October in San Francisco, but basically what it is is people build these things that are supposed to fly and they do a routine and then at some point (jump, fly, catapult, launch, fall) off the pier into the harbor. There are judges that judge the performance and the distance of the craft and all, but the basic idea is to make a complete fool of yourself with the possibility of winning money. There is one of these things in SoCal too… as I recall they were advertising it on KROQ right before we left and they event was the weekend we moved into the dorms (the UCD and UCSD people). So yah that was Flugtag… it was fun, we stayed for like an hour and then left to walk around San Francisco, we actually went to Fisherman’s Wharf. We walked around there, went in some shops and stuff, and then ate a meal at La Salsa (the Mexican burrito chain)… I drank too much (iced tea) or something cause I decided to empty my stomach into the trash can next to me (fun stuff!!!). Yah I told three employees, but either their English is limited to “two bean and cheese burritos please” or they just didn’t care cause we stayed for another 30 minutes or so and they hadn’t done anything… oh-well.
WOW, I just realized that I already said almost all of this in my last post… sorry… moving to a NEW topic…
Yah so I survived all my classes… no F’s, or D’s or anything bad like that… hope to maintain that through my college career. But yah I liked um one of my three classes fall quarter, my political science class… the geology class was just too early and the professor just didn’t make it interesting or anything… and the linguistics class was just boring, the professor had this monotonous voice that would just lull me to sleep. I don’t know, my grades weren’t great, but they weren’t great in high school either, so no real complaints… I’ll study more this quarter and hopefully bring the old GPA up a bit.
Yah so we had Veteran’s day off so a group of six of us, three boys-three girls, went backpacking for 4 days… we had a good time and I have lots of pictures… perhaps I’ll do something and put them online… I was hosting my pictures on my grandma’s web server, but I had to change her host and am too lazy to put the pictures there, and I have web space at Davis, but it’s just for the quarter (because of a class I am taking winter quarter), so I’ll figure something out… too much work right now.
Wow I really love John Williams music… he is so… good. The full orchestral pieces (listening to the Jurassic Park suite right now) are just so magical.
OK so what else happened last quarter? Um we studied a lot… not really, but it’s good to say that. Pretty much every one studies for a while and then congregates in someone’s room and just talks. People go off and watch movies in people’s rooms, on Tuesdays people go to the movie theater ($4 movies). We all seem to go on walks/runs through the arboretum late at night (like midnight or later). It’s nice to get away from all the noise and stuff of the dorm from time to time.
But yah we do lots of stuff on the weekends and stuff, sleep-in late, we go to the farmer’s market sometimes, um walks, um movies, um Indian food dinners, um listen to music, talk to people… sometimes we go into Sacramento to go shopping at Trader-Joes and Costco. The general theme is Saturday is fun day while Sunday is work day. People sleep in a little bit and then spend the day in the library or whatever “studying.”
OK, so the quarter went pretty good, finals weren’t too bad… a bit of essay writing and stuff but 2 of them involved scantrons (ha-ha to the teacher [don’t remember which one… I think Mooney] that said we would never have scantrons in college) and they weren’t too bad, if you studied for them.
SO yah, I flew back for the whole winter break thing. My plane left from Sacramento and was virtually empty… each party had their own group of seats to spread out and stuff… so that was cool. And it was great to get back and see the family again and all.
So the break was great, very relaxing and all. Plus I made some money by working again at Disneyland (I plan to post a whole entry on my whole job thingy not next, but the time after next… so look forward? to that)…
OK, I’m at a page-and-a-half now… so I’m going to stop for tonight… hope I satisfied y’all.
Later,
-Norm | | |
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