Jonny the Recovering Technophiliac

well, has it been a while since i blogged? pretty much.  not that my time apart has been boring, in fact its been a pretty terrible week…from problems that range from the depths of academia to the depths of my emotions.  so dont expect this recap to be well-detailed, no sense in re-hashing any bad memories:

1. dad’s public mass was last week…boy did that pull some heartstrings.  it was raining and cold so i did not expect alot of people to show up…not to mention that my mom picked the worst day to have it, a friday.  if it were ona saturday then things would be much different (weather-wise as well as people-wise).  but no sense in debating over that…whats done is done.   it was a nice mass…sad but nice, kinda made me think about alot in my life, made me realize that if something needs to be said to say it soon, because you’ll never know when you’ll see that person again…but it’s ok, november 7th is not for a while…i still have time to prepare…

2. academically, this week was horrible…although it ended off a little well with my CS316 exam. it was the first time i felt focused on anything…i couldnt say the same for my two math courses.  both exams were bombs especially one on probability.  i felt as if i was falling into the same hole that has haunted me academically ever since i transferred to QC 4 year ago…ah the genius of the hole.  luckily my math 231 professor understood the situation.  i wasnt about to exploit my late-father’s death as a cop-out for failing an exam, but i cannot say i took the exam with a focused mindset.  my math241 professor was less convinced.  even after showing him the death certificate as some justification he still assumed i was full of shit…so thanks asshole, because of you my graduation is in jeopardy (i think i spelled that wrong, i dont care).

you could say that this week has left me rather unmotivated to do something distracting for my own stability.  fright night was supposed to be my coming-back party and i was ready to return…but now i dont feel so ready to experience a little fun…its almost as if this week sucked out so much positive karma from me. i wonder how everyone at alas is doing?

…vic, i hope you’re well, drop me a line son
…jamal, keep those blogs coming
…alan, I still cant believe you’re leaving NYC after graduation
…braulio, your bro told me to wake you up
…moon, im calling you ”moo” for now on
…EZ, the website looks really amazing, the force is strong in you

I know im forgetting a lot of names at this moment, but its about to be 1am and i’m sitting on my bed with my hp lappy…and the combination of warm laptop exhaust and a fluffy mattress is making me quite the sleepy bastard.  So away I go, before I sleep sitting up again.

The iPod (with video) – Engadget – www.engadget.com

kinda makes me glad i bough my pod with a 3-yr best buy warranty plan.  i can swap my 20gig color with this 30gig beauty for bupkis…but i’d like to wait until the user reviews are out before i make a move

yesterday i got my brand new laptop, my old lappy (a dell) broke due to an unusual but unexpected liquid accident.  it sucked though because since ive had my dell since 2001 it still packed somewhat of a punch (after all it was #1 on the notebook PC charts for around 6 months).  I was gonna sell it after graduation, but i obviously did not turn out that way.  as much as the hp lappy surpassed the dell lappy in features (see below), i still had a certain sentimental attachment to my ‘ol dell.  it has travelled the nation, hijacked free wifi spots, photoshopp’ed to my heart’s content, digitally flipping off the RIAA and MPAA with music/movies, and enabled me to get in contact with old friends.  But i must say bye to my old lappy, give the working parts to my bro (has the same dell lappy too), and adapt to my new hp laptop…welcome to the family old friend.

Dell Inspiron 8100
- 1.13 GHz/733-MHz Pentium III-M
- 256MB of RAM
- Windows XP Pro
- 15-inch active-matrix screen
- 16MB NVidia GeForce2 Go graphics card
- 20GB hard drive
- 2.4X DVD+RW drive
- Linksys wireless-B PCMCIA card
- Lucent V.90 modem
- Intel PRO 10/100 network adapter
- 9 pounds (including AC adapter and phone cord)
- Microsoft Office XP Small Business Edition

HP Pavilion dv1000
- Windows XP Pro w/ SP2
- 1.60 GHz Pentium M Processor 725A
- 14.0″ WXGA BrightView Widescreen
- 512MB of RAM
- 40 GB Hard Drive
- 8x DVD+/-RW/R & CD-RW Combo w/Double Layer Support
- Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900
- Centrino 2200BG WLAN
- Second 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- Microsoft Office 2003 Premium
- Standard V.90 modem (not like i’ll be needing it anyway)
- 5 pounds (including AC adapter and phone cord)

….it’s 137am and i cant sleep. You’d think your body has re-adjusted to normal sleeping patterns after a big shake-up, but for some reason it hasn’t quite applied to me yet. Is it because the ginseng’s keeping me awake? Or is it still the nightmares associated with the post-trauma of a death of a loved one? (in this case, my dad’s passing one month ago).

meh…regardless of cause, i’d like to get some normal sleep w/out my mind overtasking itself…then again, all this overtasking does use enough energy to make me tired enough to sleep a little

…either that or i should start taking shots of Hennigans for that “quick fix”. Ah Hennigans, that no-smell, no-tell scotch!