Thursday, September 29, 2005

Here are some pics:

I took the car in to the shop this morning, and I probably won't get it back for a couple of weeks. So now I have to get used to not having a car. For example, today I walked in to the office for the first time since spring. It's just a 20-minute walk and I used to do it a few times a week when I first moved here, but since then I've pretty much been driving in every day. Also I have to start bumming rides (or borrowing cars) to go places. Weird.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Today, my car was the middle car of a three-car sandwich. Yes, sadly, the Maxima has been involved in its first accident. I was stopped behind another car at a crosswalk, and a third car rear-ended me and pushed me into the front car. It would have been no big deal, except that the front car was one of those Jeeps with a big spare tire mounted high on the back door. So instead of my bumper hitting his bumper, my hood hit that tire+wheel and now my hood is all deformed and buckled up, and the radiator is all bent. If not for that thing, I think there would have been little or no damage, since the car behind me had very little damage, and the back of my car was fine.

Oh well, got to call insurance tomorrow. Also I'll post some pictures if I remember.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Man, it's been so long since I've updated that the idea of updating is intimidating since so much has happened. But, here we go.

So back in August, Jenny and I drove across country from Michigan to LA, stopping briefly in Chicago, Des Moines, Denver, Las Vegas, and the Hoover Dam.

Lunch with Bill in Chicago:

Saw lots of nice scenery when driving through the western states:

Interesting slanting power line towers at the Hoover Dam:

So that was fun. In LA we had dinner at "De Be Jota" for Alen's birthday and discussed many important topics such as how long an average pee is. If I remember correctly Alan timed it at 20 seconds.

Anyway, I left the next day, since I had to come back to Michigan and work on finishing final drafts of two papers. That took a couple of weeks. During that time, school started, and I started being a GSI (graduate student instructor). So this semester I teach two discussion sections for the intro computer architecture class. It's the first semester I've GSI'd, and so far it's been pretty good. It should get busier in a couple of weeks since there's a project due and also an exam. But it's an interesting experience teaching classes, and having office hours, and all that stuff.

Read a couple of books since I got back, both non-fiction. First I read My Friend Leonard by James Frey, which is a sequel to A Million Little Pieces which I read last fall. Pretty good. Also I borrowed a book from Jay called Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, about a guy who abandoned his possessions to live in the wild. He was found dead a few months later, but his story is pretty interesting.

What else. So our apartment got the PS2 game Katamari Damacy. It's this odd Japanese game where you roll around a ball and pick up things. As you pick up things the ball gets larger and you can pick up larger and larger things. So on early levels you are picking up push pins and candy, and on the last level you are picking up stadiums and entire islands. It is quite addicting, and we spent a lot of time playing that game last weekend. But since it's a short game, a couple of us have beaten it already, and are waiting for the sequel. (Even the website is fairly ridiculous.)

Last week I went to New Jersey to present at a workshop. It was in Jersey City, right across the Hudson from Manhattan. So we could see midtown and the Empire State Building from our hotel room. Plus the hotel was only one stop away from Manhattan on the PATH train. So the location was really not bad even though it was in New Jersey.

This weekend I saw the movie Constant Gardener. It was really good. I recommend it.