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version seven. http://demongin.org |
Ripple Missions
In which I desribe my return to New Haven, the things I acquired and the people I encountered.
Thursday, 2005-08-25 | Classic Gin, Journal, NPC Encounters, Videogames
Starting at around nine 'in the blessed AM' I was out and about: certain things had to be acquired and certain things had to be accomplished. What follows is a short recap.
Mission One involved getting a new ID. You see, I'd lost my last (and original) one in a tragic open-top-Jeep-on-the-highway accident and my situation here in CT is such that I've got to have one--they open locked doors, check books out and hold important stickers. At any rate, getting a new one wasn't easy. It involved running up and down a few flights of stairs, reciting odd (and seemingly irrelevant) information numerous times to numerous clerical personnel, $20 and driving to and from town twice. If you follow this blog, you'll remember how difficult this was last year. It was about that annoying this time around as well.
Some things never change.
My need for a wireless intranet is one of those things. So after the legwork on the ID situation had been accomplished, it was down the highway (i.e. towards NY) to the Best Buy to pick up some networking hardware. It was at the Best Buy (at 10 AM--just moments after they opened) that I was approached by a man who identified himself as 'Veejay' and, it soon became clear, was attempting to recruit me for the at-home IT service arm of Best Buy better known as 'the Geek Squad.' I'm still not sure about what I should think about any of that; on the one hand it's kind of totally awesome to be approached by a dude called Veejay at 10 in the AM with a job offer and on the other it's totally unacceptable that I was singled out by a guy whose job is based on the fact that his uniform actually looks worse than the regular Best Buy uniform.
Then I drove to a nearby Gamestop and proceeded to spend money like a teenage arab. It was shameful.
By the time I hit the crillo again it was close to noon and I realized that in my frenzy of acquisition (i.e. blinding/obfuscating lust for material amenities) that I had completely forgotten about the project that required the various acquisitions that I had been making. I realized that I had been back in New Haven for more than 12 hours and had done little or nothing by way of unpacking and moving myself into my place.
Which sloth is probably for the best because, as anyone who lives in the Div dorms will tell you, the fertilizer across the parking lot at the newly sodded elementary school has made this place all but uninhabitable; I'm definitely not talking about a faint smell of shit when the wind picks up. Rather, there is an unmistakable and overpowering smell of shit that you don't get used to--every breath conjures images of processed and excreted animal and vegetable matter and triggers memories of the particularly malodorous shits I've come across in my time.
Nevertheless, I spent some hours moving shit around. I got the kitchen (more-or-less) the way I like it and reassembled the Reverend Wendy Liddle Memorial Couch--it's pink now. I also, as is confirmed by the publication of this increasingly banal public missive, managed to reforge my connection to civilization (i.e. the internet) and get my various peripherals on-line. The new SSID (replacing Icenet) is 'Foxhound.' It's not broadcast (security reasons), but if you're in the vicinity, holler at me and I'll add your MAC address.
There's that shit smell again. Sometimes, when the wind does pick up, it's so overpowering that it actually derails your train of thought.
The things above having been done, I bounced out to the ISM dinner for the first-years and shot the shit with some old friends. For those interested, the old friends reminded me why we were friends in the first place and the first-years (and here I generalize grossly) possess about as much promise as the bloodly slag of proto-human that is disposed of in biohazard bags after a late second trimester "partial-birth" abortion.
Maybe they're just nervous to be here, but if one more of these kids comes up to me like he's got to impress and intimidate me with his knowledge of whatever or his explanation of the inadequacy of whatever else, I'm going to put a dent in his head.
Which is why it was for the best when I decided to spend the remainder of the evening in repose. I uploaded and tagged the Outer Heaven photo dossier on Petridish.net, wrote a few emails and did some work on the Tyranny Belle website. Pleased with these accomplishments, I decided that it was time to log a few hours with Capcom's Killer7.
Time well spent.
If I've learned anything today it's that there really is nothing quite like time well spent.
