bethings

The secretary at work told me I have to use headphones when I'm listening to music. My life is so hard.

posted by bryant RICHARD casteel @ 4:19 PM 2 Comments Links to this post

I think the best part about being a guy (besides peeing standing up) is fixin' stuff. Its especially nice that you don't actually have to know how things work to fix them.
So my dad's new wife (which is working out great, she's making the house not look like a dump anymore and keeping my dad in line) fried the microwave while cleaning it. That should be a lesson in and of itself. Anyway, my dad and I decide that we're gonna fix it, so we just start taking the thing apart. We don't know how microwaves work, or what's wrong with the thing, but we're just goin' for it. So we get the whole thing apart and we actually find the problem: the circuit on the keypad got fried and there's an open. So we (ingeniously) take fibers out of some wire layin' around and patch the open circuit, and it was working, except there were still some connections not complete, so we thought maybe the connecting cable back to the circuit board was messed, so my dad sanded the connectors to try and clean them, but it turns out that they were just made of a thin film of metal over plastic, so the sanding took the metal right off, and basically ruined the cable.
So, we can (kind of) fix things without knowing how they work, but we can kind of break things that way, too.

posted by bryant RICHARD casteel @ 3:13 PM 1 Comments Links to this post

So I went road trippin' with my favorite allies (except for the #1, who's busy road trippin' with my replacement) this weekend, and so I tried Vegas from the tourist perspective this time: It's a lot more tiring. I'm still worn out.
By far the coolest attraction (or at least the best, even if cool isn't quite the word to describe it) was the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton. Not only is there the most comprehensive timeline ever to show the events of the 25th century, and two great interactive rides (are they really rides, though?) including a replica of the Enterprise bridge that was so realistic that I almost had a heart-attack, and the best Star Trek gift show this side of StarLand (how many not-only's am I allowed?), but the best part was that they actually brought in aliens from the 25th century and we got to talk to them at Quark's bar. I got threatened by a Klingon 'cause he thought my red shirt meant I was a ranking officer, and I bought some Betazoid prostitutes from the Ferrengi that ran the bar, and we talked to some Borgs. Now, I know what you're thinking: You can't talk to Borgs (that is what you were thinking, right?). Well, we talked to 3 of 6, who explained to us that he was among the Borgs that had been severed from the collective and had regained his sense of individuality (There was another Borg who had only recently been separated from the collective and hadn't yet learned to interact with humans, so he just stared at you like you'd expect from a Borg).
I'm sure you're wondering, so I'll tell you how a conversation goes with a Borg: First, we just wanted to know where the bathroom was, and we thought we wouldn't be able to communicate with the Borg to ask him, but he explained that he'd been separated from the collective, and he told us where the bathroom was, and wished us "Success on your urination." Later, he came by our table and inquired as to how my urination went. Everyone started laughing, so 3 of 6 asked if they laughed because it doesn't usually go well, and I said, "Well, sometimes I get a little stage fright," which apparently even Borgs understand: "Acknowledged," the Borg said (sympathetically). He then went on to tell us that he was scanning the area for <insert techno-babble here>, which we didn't understand, but we all acknowledged.
Just when you thought that I was over Star Trek, I get assimilated; I've been watching it on Sci-Fi every afternoon since I've been back home.

posted by bryant RICHARD casteel @ 10:03 PM 2 Comments Links to this post

Packing is lame. I hate it. I wonder what would happen if I just left all of my stuff here and moved into my new place with just my computer and my sheets. Would that solve my problem or do you think I'd regret it within a few hours?

posted by bryant RICHARD casteel @ 12:46 PM 4 Comments Links to this post

I made a radio station, check it out: Radio Provo Platinum. Its kinda just going through my music library for now. If you're rad, tell me and I'll make you a DJ. Isn't this neat?

posted by bryant RICHARD casteel @ 3:59 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

I got a new computer! Well, my work did, but its for me. Its a P4 3.6GHz, 148GB disk, and I got this 19" monitor. I'm so installing Doom 3 on it, now. It even smells good.

posted by bryant RICHARD casteel @ 12:13 PM 2 Comments Links to this post

So I found out yesterday that I don't have the calling that I thought I had. After winter semester they just had a mass releasing of everyone, so at first I thought that I'd been released from my calling, too, right? But then the new guy in charge was like, no you're still in this calling, so I was helping him with his stuff, but then yesterday the Elder quorum president was like, no you're not in that calling. I wish they'd make up their minds.

posted by bryant RICHARD casteel @ 5:21 PM 2 Comments Links to this post

Ok, check out how good yesterday really was:
We got our tests back in Art History, and I was completely expecting to fail it because I didn't know all of these dates and crazy italian artist names and such, but I actually got an A. How, you ask? Well, apparently the teacher liked the essay section of my test so much that it just completely overshadowed the crappy short facts section. I made some claims on the essay that kind of looked at things in a different light than how he presented it in class, but I guess he loved it. So class was good, and maybe I won't fail after all. So I get out of class and Ben and Kim are like, You wanna go to Incubus? and I'm all like, I'm poor, and they're all like ITS FREE! and I'm all like, sweet. Ben and Kim practically own 105.7. They won Green Day tickets, and Incubus tickets, and... well, probably some other stuff, too. So Incubus was pretty sweet (but we missed Sparta) and they did the coolest drum solo ever known to man, SO cool, in fact, that it took 3 members of the band mounting up on percussion instruments, 'cause just one drummer couldn't contain all of the cool that they needed.

posted by bryant RICHARD casteel @ 9:27 AM 5 Comments Links to this post

So I'm driving home from SLC, and there's all of this construction at night, right? So they've been closing the right lane for the past few weeks, and tonight's no different, except that this time I see another sign saying that they're closing the TWO LEFT LANES. Is that even allowed? I don't think they're even supposed to make a sign like that, but they really did and we're doing to ONE lane. Yeah, this is on the freeway. And then, there's another sign saying to merge left because the right lane is closed! Now what am I supposed to do? This is our only lane left! You can't just close this one! Then I got a ticket. See if you can put that together. It doesn't go, I know.

posted by bryant RICHARD casteel @ 11:38 PM 2 Comments Links to this post

I have 8 hours to write a 7 page paper that I haven't even started.

posted by bryant RICHARD casteel @ 8:17 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Have you ever seen Grosse Point Blank? There's another one for your list, Loyd. You know what's gonna suck about hell? That it's exactly what you deserve. Like, when you get treated unfairly, you can complain about it or try to avoid it, but you can't fight a punishment that you deserve. So what do you do? Maybe its just too late to do anything by then, and you just have to take your medicine.

posted by bryant RICHARD casteel @ 7:04 PM 2 Comments Links to this post

I'm using a Mac right now. I know, but don't freak out. See, we have this machine here at work for testing if our apps work on the Mac, but nobody ever uses it (partly 'cause the programmers don't care about the Mac, and partly because we have a limited number of working jacks to the internet). So, our secretary never actually comes in (I'm glad that's not just me, either) so I stole his internet connection and hooked it up to this Mac so that I could listen to the radio while I'm programming. I mean, uh, so I could test my applications!

posted by bryant RICHARD casteel @ 10:56 AM 0 Comments Links to this post