Maaaaaan I cannot WAIT to get out of this place. I'm so close to finishing this program but there's some really weird bug I can't fix. At least in the next couple days I'll pretty much be preoccupied in getting ready for this trip but at work I just can't help of thinking about how much I wanna get out of this town. Not only am I excited because of Europe, I'm just sick of the whole scene around here. The city's layout, look, feel, the work, etc... is just old now, despite only being here for 9 weeks so far. The trip will be awesome, then it's only 1 more week of work before I leave GM. After that I have a month or so to do whatever I want, but I get the feeling that'll just be boring because I need SOMETHING to do. A couple weeks before school starts I'll head up there, so I guess 2-3 weeks of nothing won't be too bad, haha. Sorry I'm not in the best mood, but I just don't like it here and there's so much to look forward to once I'm out. Anyhow, back to work.
The mall and pre-Europe
Currently Listening to: Nonpoint - The Wreckoning
This weekend actually went pretty well. Friday and Saturday I was bored out of my mind, but Sunday I went out to lunch with Scott at Somerset's food court. Somerset's a huge mall for incredibly rich people.... There's a Gucci, Sak's Fifth Avenue, etc... We checked out the Bose store, which rocked. They had a mini theater setup with their Lifestyle system. We walked in and there were huge speakers, a couple receivers, etc... and they all looked real. But then after hearing all this amazing sound, they took off the fake covers to reveal 2''x2'' speakers that were making all that sound. Not only that, but they completely covered up one of the speakers with a wooden box and the system listened to itself, then corrected the sound so you couldn't even tell the box covered that speaker. Pretty cool, huh? Too bad it'll run you $3,000. After the mall, we watched the new Jet Li movie, "Fearless". It's not even out in theaters yet but Scott's got a friend who's in an exclusive file sharing group. TERRIBLE subtitles, but definitely a good movie with both plot and action. After that, we all headed out to dinner with Vanessa and Chanel at Champp's, which was fun.
I absolutely cannot wait for this week to be over, but I know it's going to be soooooo slow. Hopefully on Saturday I'll be leaving for Italy! The flight will require at least a transfer in Amsterdam, possibly Detroit or Boston. I have to fly home to grab a few things before I leave and to get my passport, so it's sorta weird that I'd be flying back into Detroit again. However, flying out of Minneapolis gives me a few more options I think. I really don't care how I get there- just that I get to see Italy, Spain, and France with Cassie.
Anyhow, I better keep crackalackin' on my program so it's finished this week.
Stupid roomies...
Currently Listening to: Trivium - The End of Everything
I gotta get this off my chest because it's bugging me like crazy. Usually, I play Counter-Strike (an online PC game) every night with my friends. Some of these friends are actually from back home and I know them. Others I've just played with online for a long time and we're good friends now because of it. Usually I wouldn't play that much, but during the week, there's just nothing else to do without spending money. That may sound rediculous, but read further and hear me out. Well, here's the deal: My roommates keep saying stuff like "Haha, I wish I could be like Mike and play CS all night, every night." Yesterday I took a glance over at the TV while waiting for a round to end and asked them a perfectly normal question about it and they just go "Shut up Mike, we're not gonna answer that," and then claimed it was because I was being too loud on voice chat with my friends and it was annoying. They made a huge deal out of it, but never even asked me to quiet down. I have my big headphones (which is so I'm curteous to them, they can't hear all the gun fire) on so I can't always hear if I'm being too loud, but I gladly would've quieted down if they'd just asked me. Here's my main bone to pick though: First of all, when I have other stuff to do, I do it. I stay active by working out and going for a a run every other day, I go to social events, obviously make dinner every night, all that. So when we all come home at night, they sit and watch TV all night while I play Counter-Strike. TV involves no interaction except amongst themselves a tiny bit. I, however, am playing with both friends from back home and friends I've made online, interacting constantly and even making more friends. So what's so funny about playing? Not only that, but why the hell do they care in the first place? They have their interests, I have mine. Scott sits and watches the same British car show EVERY day. Isaiah and Kevin are addicted to ESPN... that's literally all they watch. Actually, I take that back. Kevin tapes like at least 3 soccer games a day and hogs the TV at night to watch those, without considering that everyone else might just be a bit sick of soccer. It's just rediculous. I thought people would mature in college and get past all that crap, but I guess not. On a more postive note, the friends I do have now are the best I've ever had. Yesterday was the GM Intern picnic, too. That was a blast- a lot more fun than I thought it would be. There was tons of good food, we played some football, and then I played probably 3 hours of volleyball with a bunch of cool people I met. One kid that actually goes to Tech was playing. He came in at the very end and kept talking himself up like he was a pro or something. Well, we served the first ball and someone on his team missed it, so he starts yellin "Oh my god! You suck! SUB! We need a sub!!" and was completely serious. Ironically, there were 5 serves hit straight to him towards the end of that game and he missed every single one. Serves him right :) The big toe on my right foot (the screwed up one from the nerve injury) got stubbed a ton yesterday from running around barefoot in pretty hardpacked sand and in some slippery grass fields. So that's sorta bruised up right now, but oh well. I suppose that's about it for now. Europe's in about a week, so I'll be updating on that for sure, at least once I get back.
More grad parties
Currently Listening to: Opeth - The Leper Affinity Last weekend was Dan's other graduation party, this time at our mom's house. As expected, it was a blast. It was really fun to see friends I hadn't seen in years. Sean, Nick, Bobby, and I hung out with some of Nick's friends on Saturday night and that was really fun too. We played some Super Smash Bros. and Soul Caliber with some girls lol, it was quite interesting. Ellen (I think that's her name) was a major button masher haha, but oh well. Bobby's going to visit everyone up at Tech come fall, so that will be sweet. School's comin' and I can't wait!!
I'm thinking about buying a newer truck to replace my current one, but I'm not quite settled on that topic yet. Work's going okay. Today I sat down with Jeff (my mentor) and we were talking about what's going to happen within the next 3 1/2 weeks. Then it hit me.... 3 1/2 weeks only?! Huh? I realized he was right though.... another week and a half before the 2 week shutdown and my trip to Europe, then only 2 weeks after that. As it turns out, I can't work an extra 2 weeks at the end of my internship. They set the max at 12 weeks but since shutdown takes 2 out of there, I was going to see if my supervisor could request I stay an extra 2 weeks. They told him that it can't happen that way though, so July 28th is my end date. I guess after that I'll move back home, get my stuff ready, then a couple weeks later head up to school and get all settled in for another 9 months up there. There's so much stuff on my plate right now (for once) that I don't even know where to begin. The truck's an issue, I want to rebuild the 1963 mini-bike we have, Europe's in 2 weeks, I still have some programming to finish up here at work (along with an accompanying presentation), I haven't even been able to start programming the game I told Dave (my uncle-in-law? lol) I'd try to create for the card game he created and is marketing, etc.... The lists goes on.
The program (at work, not the card game one) is going really well though and I've learned a TON about Java in the process of writing it. The web interface that I designed earlier also contributes and together with this program, I feel I've developed quite a nice package for the people here to use after I've left. Overall, this internship is giving me a lot of experience and that's what I came here for. It sucks being here sometimes, but oh well. I've been lifting a lot of weights and doing some running, so I'm finally getting into better shape. For once I'm actually keeping it up and not quitting after a few days, so I'm super pumped about that. No more being a twig. We have a weight room at school so I can continue up there, too.
I'm going to try and make this site Flash-powered as soon as I get around to it... Sorry for all of the scrolling in the mean time. That's about it though!
P.S. Oh yeah, forgot that I got a new roommate. Scott's his name and he's pretty cool. He drives a Spyder MR2, which is also cool 8)
Cassie's Europe Blog
Currently Listening to: Fuel - Hemorrhage
Check out Cassie's blog for her trip in Europe!!
Grad parties
Currently Listening to: In Flames - Bullet Ride
It's been a busy weekend! This past Thursday I flew home and then drove to Tomah to stay with Cassie for the day. We had a good time just hanging out, then swimming at her pool party later on. Friday we drove into Eau Claire and visited with Ray (her grandpa) and he showed us a manual from a computer that GE received (and he worked on) during 1956- that was pretty cool. Next we stopped at Culver's and had lunch with Mike Lee, a guy Cassie's whole family knows. He's going to Iran to work in the Peace Corps so it was a good-bye fo a bit. Then we drove back to Minneapolis and hung out with Nicky (haha), Sean, Austin, and Halley(?). We had a blast talking with Nick's family before hand and then went to see "Cars", which was quite a good movie- definitely worth $7. Saturday was Dan's graduation party at Dad's house, then Joe's at his. Both were a great time and it was really fun to see everyone. I took on the daunting task of creating a computer game for a card game that Joe's uncle invented, so that will be interesting... Cassie and I took some sweet pictures with our new digital camera. We were just playing around with some settings and stuff, but it was fun! Here's a picture we took that filtered out all colors besides green.
Here's a picture of McKenzie, too.... We were having some fun making her the guinea pig for our new camera :)
Then, at 5:10, we had to leave and get Cassie to the airport so she could fly out to Denmark and meet up with her sister for the 2 month journey they have planned in Europe. That was obviously no fun and we'll miss eachother, but she'll have a blast and I'll be meeting up with her in 3 weeks to travel around Italy, Spain, and France. Then I leave, she tours Ireland for 3 more weeks, and comes back. Anyhow, time to go! If you guys ever want to comment on something I post in here, drop me an e-mail at mdtrewar@gmail.com. Thanks!