Filler post

Well guys, I don't have anything really interesting to report back, but I feel I should at least put up some kind of post so it doesn't make me look like a lazy bum (even though that's not too far off from the truth).

So last Thursday was my the first day of the rest of my life... meaning it was the first day after I finished my last homework assignment ever. It was a pretty lazy day, but I did get the pleasure of spending time with my friend Amy. She made dinner and it was great! Then we went to the bookstore just to browse a little (I bought an adult joke book on the cheap) and then we came back and had some pie and just talked for a while. I had a great time over there, but when I got back to my apartment I found that there were absolutely NO parking spaces available. This has never happened before and should never happen, since the spaces have to be purchased (and they don't oversell the lot), but apparently some jerks decided to park there anyway. I wouldn't have been quite as mad had I not needed to make it to the bathroom to pee really quickly. I did make it just in time, but I had to cut it way to close. Damn you, freeloader parkers!

Yesterday and today were pretty boring, since I haven't done much of anything. Next week I have class on Monday and Wednesday, then four days off before final exams begin the following Monday. That means I will be studying my ass off for those four days and probably getting massively stressed out. I could start studying early for a change, but you know me ;-)

Well I need to run with Chad to get a baseball glove to play catch today before the sun goes down, so this post has come to an end. I'll be back soon with more stuff to report that you won't care about.

-Mark

Long day

The time is now 3:20 A.M. and I just finished a paper due this morning at 10 A.M. You might be wondering to yourself why on earth I'd want to type up a post for my blog after typing up a paper. After all, I should be sick of writing, right? Well, on the contrary, once I get started it flows pretty easily, so I figured I may as well take advantage of that while I have the chance.

As you likely inferred from the title of this post, Tuesday was not a great day for me. You see, I had a massive computer programming assignment due at midnight on Monday evening. I turned in my work but then woke up in the morning to find out I had made some mistakes. Thus, I needed to fix what was wrong and resubmit my assignment to the professor. So there I was, in my underwear, hacking away on my program for 5 straight hours. I began almost immediately after I woke up, as I checked my e-mail before doing anything else, so I did all of this without bathing, getting cleaned up, or eating. It was a frustrating time because some of the problems were complex and/or created new problems when they were resolved.

I did manage to get my program done and turned in, and I have not yet received an e-mail from my professor, so I am hoping this means he found no major problems with it. Although the late penalty is a deduction of 10%, I am doing quite well in the class so I could easily absorb that hit. If I made some big mistakes, though, it could drop down further, so let's hope that's not the case.

By the time I finished with that it was nearly 5 P.M., so I had to scramble to catch up. I did take some time to clean up both myself and my room, to eat, and to enjoy the new episode of 24 from last night that I had missed when it aired. The aforementioned short paper due today got written but only after some severe procrastination—which was not surprisingly due to my nemesis, AOL Instant Messenger. In the end, however, all the work got done. Now the only question is whether or not I did a good job. I think so, and hopefully so do my professors.

This pretty much marks the end of actual schoolwork for me this semester. (Heck, these are the last college classes I'll ever take, so make that forever.) I still have finals to study for, of course, but at least I can have a little break before I start the marathon study sessions. I have two finals on the Monday of Finals week, and one on Wednesday evening. The Wednesday test was actually supposed to be on Monday but I rescheduled it so that I would not have 3 exams on the first fucking day of finals week. It's still not great the way it's set up, but I really can't complain when I only have three finals and they're all done by Wednesday.

I think I'm getting a little ahead of myself with all this talk of final exams. I don't need this right now... not at 3:40 in the morning. I'd better call it a night before I end up sleeping through my alarm in the morning, which would cause me to miss the very class that I stayed up this late writing a paper for. So ciao for now, baby.

-Mark

Take me out to the ballgame

Nothing will distract you better for a few hours than going to a baseball game, especially a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. On Sunday I went with Nick, Mike, and Chris to see the Cubs take on the Pittsburgh Pirates in the second game of a rain-shortened series. The Cubbies had blown a ninth inning lead in Saturday's game so I was still a little upset over that, but as soon as we arrived on the corner of Waveland and Sheffield I forgot all about it.

This was the first time any of us had sat in the bleachers, so it was kind of a new experience. When you buy bleacher tickets online you have to either print them out or pick them up at Wrigley Field. Not wanting to drive all the way out to Chicago just to pick up some tickets, I chose the former. Well, when we were walking toward the entrance some random guy behind us yelled out to get our attention, then said he had something he wanted to show us. Figuring it was just some scalper or someone trying to hawk his wares, I turned around and shouted, "No thank you." Then, as I started walking away, I heard him yell out, "I"m a police officer," and I promptly stopped in my tracks. For a brief moment, my face was as white as a ghost. Thankfully, the officer just wanted to make sure we bought our tickets online. Apparently con artists had been selling phony "color printer" tickets like mine to unsuspecting victims, thus explaining the officer's presence. Still, I was really worried for a brief moment...

The actual game was great. Kerry Wood, in his first decent outing of the season, gave up two tough second inning runs but allowed nothing else over 5 innings of work. The Cubs took the lead in the 4th with a solo home run by Neifi Perez (at which point Nick exclaimed, "Nomar who?") and a 3-run shot by Jeromy Burnitz. They added a run in the 8th to win 5-2. It was fun sitting in the bleachers, as we nearly got a home run ball and a ball thrown into the stands by Burnitz. I had Chad's glove in case anything came my way but nothing was quite close enough. It was just a lot of fun spending time with Nick and the two White Sox fans on a chilly yet sunny day at the ballpark.

After the game we rode the bus home. We got the Pace roundtrip tickets for $7.50 a piece, and it was a good deal—especially for Nick, who didn't have to drive. When I got home I watched the exciting Bulls playoff game against the Wizards, which they won in thrilling fashion. I'm glad that they're having the success that they are this season. They don't figure to advance too far in the playoffs without Luol Deng and Eddy Curry, but next season they'll be a force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference. In the meantime, I'm just sitting back and enjoying the ride while it's moving.

Let's see, what else is going on... well, I found out I can have a day off of work on June 24th to take my comprehensive exam (the test needed for me to get my master's). That's great because it allows me to potentially get it out of the way early in the summer, as opposed to the October for the fall exam. If I happen to fail the first time I can also take it again in October, so that's a bonus. I will have to study long and hard for this exam, though, so the road won't be an easy one.

I have to give props out to my buddy and former roommate John on his "anchor auditon" on the WGN Morning News last week. He did the sports report and was great! He won't get a chance to stick at WGN, however, as his internship there has ended and he is now working for a station in Indianapolis. Best of luck to you, John!

Wow, is it really after 3 A.M.? Well, I was going to talk about my upcoming week but I think I'll skip that for now in lieu of extra sleep. Of course I was really tired last night so I should have gone to bed about three hours ago, but I am a night owl and this is my life. (Well, it's my life until I'm forced to change for my job, at least... anybody got a kleenex to wipe the tears out of my eyes?) So with that I bid you adieu... look out for more Mark, come soon to a blog near you!

-Mark

The comic is pretty self-explanatory

-Mark

Here goes nothing

If you're here reading this, you're either (A) a friend who has my blog bookmarked, (B) a friend who got this link from my away message, or (C) a random stranger. If you're in category C then you can probably ignore most of this post. For everybody else, this message is just to inform you that I'm going to cut myself off of AIM until this coming Monday, April 25th. (See my previous post for more information.) Since the weekend is coming up and I won't even be by a computer most of the time, it seems like a good time to try this out and see the results.

I will try to contact a lot of you during the next four days over the phone or with an e-mail, so be on the lookout for that. If you need to reach me then you can do so over those same communication channels. If you want to talk to me on the phone but don't have my phone number, e-mail me and I'll send it your way.

You might think I'm spending too much time blathering about such a seemingly insignificant topic—and you're probably right—but I really think this might help me out. If so then you'll see a lot less of me online and hopefully a lot more of me on the phone or in person. If not, well I can always return to my AIM-centric lifestyle, so it's not a huge deal really.

-Mark

Strike 2 for destiny

Today my morning class got out about half an hour early. As I was heading back to my car I spotted the "girl of destiny" from Starbusters last week just sitting outside the computer science building talking to someone. Don't ask me why but I didn't go over and say hi. (Maybe I needed three or four beers first, like last time?) Actually, scratch that, I got all the way to my car and then went back to pretend like I had forgotten something in the building, but by that time she was gone.

For some reason this really upset me, like there was a pit in my stomach. I think I'm just kind of in a general funk as of late and this only served to emphasize that. It's not necessarily an "I wish I had a girlfriend, woe is me" funk—it has more to do with platonic frienships. Lately it seems like I'm really having to work hard at friendships lately, something that's never a good sign. As a result I've been thinking about things a lot and have been getting stressed out over it. It doesn't help that I'm usually alone when I'm in the apartment—I've really been kind of lonely this whole semester, with Bill in Iraq and Chad working most of the time.

I've been quite tempted to stop using AIM (on a temporary basis) because it really exacerbates the problem. Unfortunately, I have several friends with whom I really only converse online, so I feel as if I would be shutting them out—and that definitely would not help things. I would strongly prefer to communicate primarily in person, over the phone, and maybe a little bit over e-mail. In an ideal world I would use AIM only to send quick messages and not to have long, drawn-out conversations as I currently do.

Now, I know most of the people who read my blog don't leave comments or discuss my posts with me, but I would really like to here your opinion about this. Do you think I should hang up AIM for a while and try to regain my sanity (at the possible expense of alienating some friends)? Or should I continue using AIM, at the same time getting stressed out over certain friendships that appear to be in lesss-than-ideal shape? Please share your thoughts with me in one way or another if you can... I would greatly appreciate it.

-Mark

For the Cubs fans out there

Here's some sexiness for the guys and gals...

Okay, I'll admit it: I find both of those pictures to be sexy! ;-)

-Mark

A grillmaster I am not

So I bought a little Weber Smokey Joe grill yesterday so that Chad and I can cook out in this nice spring weather. After assembling it I decided to cook some burgers and hot dogs for myself since I literally hadn't eaten anything all day. Much to my chagrin I neglected to buy matches and we had nothing of the sort around the house, so I decided to heat up the stove and light a paper towel on fire and use that. Well, let's just say the thing was almost engulfed in flames, so I ran with it to the grill and luckily did not suffer third degree burns or burn down my apartment. Unfortunately I put in too many charcoal briquets and/or didn't use enough lighter fluid, so it didn't work and I had to try the silly stunt AGAIN.

Once more I was fortunate not to do damage but it was still stupid. This time I actually got half of the grill to heat up for more than a few minutes so I just did my grilling on that side. The food came out okay, so I guess I should just be happy that I learned my lesson the easy way, but you'd think I'd be smarter than that... well maybe you wouldn't, in which case you'd be right!

-Mark

Back to normal... for now

Well, after three remarkably fun days spent hanging out with Bill, Matt, Chad, Dan, Tim and the rest of the gang, normalcy has returned to the world of Mark. It was great to see Bill for the first time since December—he was just as wild, crazy, and fun as he always has been. Unfortunately he heads back to Iraq tomorrow morning to finish his tour of duty over there, but he might be back here for good by the holidays, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

After the wild night at Starbusters on Wednesday, we decided to take it easy on Thursday. Thankfully I didn't have class, so my entire day was free to have fun. After lunch, Bill, Matt, Chad and I bought some baseball gear and found a nice little field around town where we proceeded to partake in the National Pasttime for about four hours. (Dan joined us a few hours into it.) It was really fun because I haven't played that in ages and it was such a beautiful day outside—perfect weather, little wind, and plentiful sunshine. Bill cranked a few home runs and we all had our moments, but for the most part we all stink at baseball. But hey, we're not payed to play, so who cares? It was fun and that's what counts.

I will say that one of the unfortunate side effects of all that activity yesterday was the soreness that crept in over the night and greeted me rudely in the morning. It's not too bad, actually, but my posterior is quite sore for whatever reason so that's kind of distracting when I'm not sitting down. Thankfully, I picked a sedentary career so that shouldn't be too much of a problem!

After baseball we went home and made tacos and just hung out the rest of the night. Nothing too exciting but it was plenty relaxing. Lisa and Kristen came over and at one point attempted to give me advice about how I can solve my lack-of-a-woman problem. I won't get into too many details, but basically I apparently need to grow out my hair a little bit and get smaller shirts. I was afraid they were going to assault me over the length of my shirts! Well I'm probably going clothes shopping over the weekend, so stay tuned to see if I listen to their advice.

Tonight I'm headed over to my old stomping grounds: Neptune East, second floor. Mike Chiu is having a little shindig over there in his room and I'm coming to bask in the nostalgia afforded by the place where I spent three years of my life. He actually lives in the aforementioned Dan and Matt's old room, which is right next door to my room for two of those years. Speaking of Dan, he might tag along so that should be a wild time. After that, the plan is to stop by my friend Amy's apartment for a little while for a movie night she's having for some of her friends. Amy is usually pretty busy so I always take advantage of every chance I get to spend with her. She just auditioned as a singer for the band Rosenguard yesterday and got the gig, so congrats Amy! I've never gotten a chance to hear her sing but she's a very talented person so I'm sure she'll do great. The band has some shows coming up so I'm going to make sure to be in attendance so I can head bang with my long, flowing, heavy metal hair ;-)

Tomorrow afternoon my friend Dash from the computer science department is throwing a barbeque so I'm going to stop by there. I can always use a grilled meal and some relaxation time, and I'm sure there will be plenty of both tomorrow. After that, though, the rest of my weekend will be centered around classwork, since I have pretty much done nothing since Bill arrived late Tuesday afternoon. I've got a few assignments coming up that aren't too difficult but which need to be finished, so hopefully I can make some solid progress on that this weekend.

Well I've spent way too much time typing this out and I need to get ready for my last class of the week. I'll be sure to post sometime soon and let you know how the weekend goes—or at least the interesting parts. Until then, arrivederci!

-Mark

Destiny is a myth

When I was at Starbusters last night I met and talked with a pretty cute girl who was a year behind me at Schaumburg High School and is just about to graduate with—get this—a computer science degree. Now if you know anything about the computer science field you should be aware that cute girls just don't choose it as a career path, but apparently one slipped through—completely unbeknownst to me. Anyway we talked for a while and then she went back to the table where she was chatting with some other guys. I kind of kicked myself for not saying anything but I then asked the waitress if she was with this one guy she there and she said nope, so I bought her a drink. She came over to thank me and talked for a few minutes but then returned to her other table. Apparently it was not meant to be, but hey at least I tried right?

-Mark

I'm sorry

If you received a drunken IM from me tonight (this morning) then I apologize. I went to Starbusters and got drunk and acted like an idiot. I'm still kind of tipsy so I won't say too much more, just accept my apology and forgive me for being so stupid. I need to go to bed, so take it easy and I'll put up a less drunk post sometime soon.

-Mark

It may be a chick show...

...but Felicity kicks ass. I just finished watching season 1 and cannot wait to exchange it for season 2 from my sister. It's the brainchild of J.J. Abrams, the same guy responsible for Alias and Lost. Anyway, all I have to say is that you should check it out—you can thank me later.

-Mark

The pace has changed

It's 2:40 A.M and I have class at 10 A.M., so I will keep this short. Just wanted to let you know how things have been going.

First, let me update you on Sinkgate. I managed to extricate the water from the sink so now it doesn't smell quite as bad, but it's still gross right around the sink. I sprayed some cologne around the kitchen but all that did was change the shitty smell to a musky shitty smell. Fantastic!

Bill came up Tuesday and he'll be staying until Friday morning. Usually things are really boring around here but Billy's presence has really spiced things up (hence the title of this post). Last night we just kind of visited with some friends and hung out at the apartment. Everybody got a little drunk except me because I was gone for about 90 minutes to visit with a friend. Well anyway it's been great so far having him up here. We're supposed to hit up the bars tonight sometime, so if you want to join us let me know.

Um, I think I had more to say but I'm really tired so I'll just stop there. Sorry, I know this post wasn't the best, but I guess a subpar one is better than none at all. Take care everybody and I'll be back with more dirt soon.

-Mark

Case of the Mondays

Well I had a nice, long post typed up for you guys but it was obliterated because I got an error after clicking on the submit button. Argh, as if my day hadn't been sucking enough anyway!

Well here's the Reader's Digest version of my now-deceased post:

The apartment reeks because we have about four inches of disgusting standing water in our sink. We've got two imitation Glade plug-ins going but they really don't stand a chance against this ultimate funk.

Earlier today my key got stuck in the ignition while trying to park, which was maddening and scary but ended up getting resolved within the hour thanks to my car-savvy dad. It really sucked at the time, though, and I had to miss class because of it.

I also had a friendship that apparently has ended by the other party without any explanation or warning. That happened last night, so I was already in kind of a sour mood when I woke up. Now I'm really sour!

I guess I'll try to take my mind off things by working on an assignment. Thankfully I have 24 tonight and a visitation from Bill later this week to look forward to. You just gotta look at the positives in life, right?

-Mark

Instant messenger manifesto

I've been doing some thinking lately about various topics and, after remembering the title of my blog here, I figured I'd share my thoughts on one topic I've been thinking about lately with you, my faithful readers.

The subject at hand is instant messenger. I have three or four friendships that exist primarily through a little software program that lets me type out messages and exchange them with people who may be as close by as the next room or as far away as another country. Okay, so I don't have any foreigners on my buddy list, but there are some friends of mine who maintain that status only because they haven't stopped chatting with me (and vice-versa).

Fifteen years ago, most of these friendships would have been more science fiction than reality. It's amazing to think that the computer has become so powerful a communication medium that it actually makes new types of friendships possible. For all of the exciting possibilities this brings, however, there are also many less-than-wonderful aspects. For example, it is incredibly hard to understand another person's mood based purely on text conversations. Sure, smileys make it a little more personal, but in the end it's still just reading and writing—no tone-of-voice or body language. Since so much communication is non-verbal (or, in the case of IMs, non-textual), the absence of it makes chats very one dimensional.

Additionally, it is easy to become distracted while chatting. This can be due to other chats you're involved in or something else altogether—homework, for example. If you're on the other side of that chat it can be frustrating when your friend constantly replies with one word phrases and/or takes a long time to respond. Are they upset with you or just busy? Should you ask them, or would that be overreacting? These are the kind of things that bug me, even though I try not to let that happen.

I understand that chatting is not like a face-to-face conversation, but when it's the major communicational aspect of a friendship it's hard not to treat it like one. I've had "fights" with friends online that really only pop up because of the limitations of instant messenger as a communication medium. When I've had chances to get coffee or just hang out with the same friends in real life the conversations flow much better and I just feel so much more satisfied afterward.

I wish I could change all of my online-centric friendships so that they were more reality-based, but that's not an easy process. So in the end, I guess this post is mostly just a rant about the shortcomings of instant messenger, because as great a tool as it can be it can also be just as big of a burden.

Do you agree with this? I'm really curious to see what you have to say about this matter, so please leave a message on the blog or—ahem—send me an instant message to share your opinion.

-Mark

Gainfully employed

Well I have to zip off to class in a couple of minutes so I can't write a novel, but I did want to leave a note informing you all that I was hired for the job I interviewed for during spring break! Many of you have already heard but some haven't and I just wanted to pass along the good news. I'm set to start in mid-June, so I will use the job as class credit toward my degree and take my comprehensive exam in the summer. If all goes well—and I'm confident that it will—I'll graduate in December with my master's.

So that's the low down for now. I'll have more to post later on this and other topics. (Hmm, it seems like I'm ending my posts with that line quite often these days.)

-Mark

Fantastic game

I have a lot of stuff I want to talk about—and I will do so in future posts. Now that the 2005 NCAA championship game is over, however, I have to comment. As you probably know, North Carolina beat Illinois 75-70. As a Tar Heels fan and an Illinois native I am both ecstatic and heart-broken. You might think I am just saying that because my team won, but even if the Illini weren't from my state I would have felt bad for them. They are a GREAT team and if these two teams were to play 100 times they'd probably win 50. There are a lot of stand-up, team-oriented players on Illinois that just make you want to stand up and cheer as a basketball fan. I've watched every game they played in the tournament and they are definitely deserving of all the praise they have garnered this season. As Arizona learned, no lead is safe against them, as they are the kind of guys that just won't give up and will never be blown out. My hats off to the players and coaches of the University of Illinois for representing our great state with dignity, class, and fantastic effort. I sincerely hope the team is back competing for the national championship next season.

All that being said, I am so happy for North Carolina and coach Roy Williams. Roy is a fantastic coach and is ever so deserving of the championship that will cement his status as an elite college basketball coach. As for North Carolina, I've followed them for eleven seasons now, filled with enough ups and downs to make a roller-coaster dizzy. I've experienced three Final Four appearances before this season but disappointing finishes each time. I've seen great basketball stars like Stackhouse, Wallace, Carter, and Jamison, but I also have seen an 8-20 2001-02 season that seemed unreal. I'll admit that I had some doubt about the future of the team but Roy Williams has erased it all. Congrats to him, his players, and the 2005 national champion North Carolina Tar Heels!

-Mark

Alienated

I can't believe I have forgotten to update the old blog for 3 days! Well I'm gonna get right down to the stuff you're dying to know:

First I have been sick all week. At first I thought it to be a cold but I think it was really bronchitis. Whatever it was made me feel weak and fatigued with a headache, necessitating many Ibuprofen tablets. I also had trouble sleeping and would sweat profusely while sleeping. Thankfully I woke up today feeling much better. Now I am not fatigued, I'm just having to put up with a runny nose and a cough (which is a sign that the illness is on its way out). By Sunday or Monday I hope to be 100 percent again.

My job interview on Thursday went very well in my opinion. The interviewers, whom I had met when I interned there (with one exception), were all nice and treated me great. I thought I presented myself well, so hopefully I get offered the job. I am still waiting to hear back from the place I interviewed at over spring break. I should hear back from that place by early next week, so a week from now I shall know what I will be doing this summer. Wish me luck in making that decision (if there is a decision to be made, of course).

I have not talked at all about the NCAA tournament on the blog but I have been following it closely. I have rooted for North Carolina's team for about a decade, which probably stems from Michael Jordan's attendence there. (That's all it takes to choose a team when you're 12 years old.) Anyway I never imagined I'd ever see a scenario like the one we have now: North Carolina against Illinois. I will of course be rooting for the Tar Heels over the Illini, but I do feel kind of bad about it. If they win I will be happy but I will have alienated myself from most of the rest of the state. On the other hand, I can't root for Illinois to win simply because I've invested a lot of time over the years to following North Carolina, since Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Jeff Mcinnis and company were running up and down the court. I would win my brackets if Illinois beats North Carolina, but that would be a small consolation. So anyway, I guess I just want to say that if you're rooting for Illinois then I wish you and your team the best of luck, but I hope the Tar Heels pull it out on Monday night.

And with that I'm off to enjoy one less hour of night.

-Mark