This Saturday I had a talk with my roommate Jack about his Street Fighter addiction. During lunch he asked, "You think that I don't have a life because I play Street Fighter all day?" After a while human conversations become very silly because people tend to think a like. I answered, "Yes." I anticipated that he would try to find a similar flaw in me, due to the nature of his question. "Well I can say that you have no life also, since you are in front of the computer all day. At least that's what I see." I replied calmly, "Yes, but I study using my computer." I guess Jack is open to the fact that he has a severe video game addiction. His main excuse is that this December there is a Street Fighter cometition in Chicago. I hope he'll get wasted.

Anyway, Jack is getting less annoying, it's just that he needs discipline. Like there is this towel that I think he uses for showering, and he leaves it on his chair all day. That has to go.

Saturday my meal plan ran up, so I ate at BW-3. They have them in MN, WI, IL, OH, and PA. I found out about them from Shang who went with me (he's from Ohio). The food is good and very affordable. I think that will be my Saturday dinner every week since wings are only $.25 on Saturday nights.

TMBG coming soon... I'm so busy, someone's gotta remind me.

Today I have two meetingish things. I have a pre-lab for chem due tomorrow so I have to do that tonight. I have to read some Chemistry. I also have to write out my speech outline for the speech I am giving on Wednesday. I have to have a quiz in Chemistry on wed. Thursday is catch up on everything day. Friday I have a presentation and my math is due. I also am doing poorly in my math class. Just barely racking more than 50% in graded homework. Take the hardest UMTYMP take-home tests and assign the six problems that are proofs. Choose four of those each week and that's what my assignments are like. I have to try to do harder in this course. I think after my September Cycle finishes I'll have catch-up time so I can read stuff for that class. I have a test soon for that class too.

I am caught in what I call the September Cycle. It's when all the first major assignments are due. I have a speech due next week and a presentation due next week. Nothing really exciting will happen to me for most of the month, so the updates will be sparse for the next week or so. I ate at FAR's Pizza Parlor. It took a few hours to get our food and finish it, but it was worth it. Best meal I've had from this campus. The Pizza was mediocre, but the salad was nice.

This Thursday I had the pleasure of having Dan, Amy and Molly stop by for the rest of the week. We had a great time. We mostly hung out. Yesterday we went to Chicago to hang out with my friend Sunita, visit the Sears Tower and eat pizza at Lou Malnati's.

They left. I think I will miss them, because despite the heat level in my room, they added something here that was nice. However, right now I don't feel that loss. I believe I am still in the same mode of not feeling loss, becuase it is interfering. I think if I had nothing to do today I would feel very sad. I however have lots to do, I have to clean this mess-of-a-room for one thing. I have an assortment of documents to organize. I have several homework assignments to begin or at least preview. By keeping myself busy I don't feel lonely. Except now I have two bottles of Frapaccino's that Molly was supposed to take with her that will linger there for a while. Perhaps late at night when it gets hot I will try to finish them.

My brother and sister-in-law bought a Saab recently. Dan Lavenda and I can hardly wait to see it. My brother is going to make an effort to visit me either this month or next, which will be nice. Well I am off to cleaning my room.

Which reminds me I got a few gifts for my brithday. My mom and dad bought me a real nice Columbia Jacket and nice gloves (which are a tad too small) and I think my mom got me some Toblerone from her trip to India. Molly got a plant for me. Her parents got me some hot cocoa that they had sitting around and Molly gave me two of her brother's CDs (one of which I already have). Katie sent me a beanbag which is on loan, which I think is a great thing because I was complaining to my mom and Molly how I wanted a bean bag or something becuase I like to sit somewhere else other than my bed or my chair to read. Marc got me HUGBEES! Thanks again everybody.

Oh yeah, on Thursday I bought my ticket for They Might Be Giants. I am sitting in Section three (of four) in Row C in seat 7. So it's a good seat:) Unfortunately I'm going Solo to it, but that's okay... Also I may be going to see Moxy Fruvous next month.

People are so dumb. Mistake 1. One of the admins at Unit One sent an email to everybody with everyone's name (like everyone from Allen Hall) in to "To" field. Normally this is to be put in the BCC field so people do not accidentally reply to all and so people do not have to scroll through so many names. Mistakes 2 and onward were people replying to all. So my UIUC mailbox was filled with all this crap, just because of Mistake 1. Grr... I am getting a gift from Minnesota. Right now the gift is in Wisconsin.

My parents came on Sunday and I stayed at the Holiday Inn which is better than my dorm. It was nice, they came bringing many gifts (birthday). They left yesterday.

My brother sent with them a cool mat and a nice window fan. I'm happy.

Today I enrolled for the "They Might Be Giants" lottery. Basically I can buy my ticket sometime early on Thursday. It's wierd. I saw them last month... I want to find somebody to go with me, but I don't know people who like They Might Be Giants on campus. I may just do a solo thing. That'd be neat. By the way, the song that's been in my head this week is Ana Ng.

Oh yeah, today is the day that I decided to update my "friends" page. If you have a web page and it's not listed in the friends page, then send an email or ICQ me and I'll add it.

That last message was really screwed up, sorry.

Today outside of Follett's (on Green and Wright, busy campus intersection) Stefan and I saw a car that was flipped over. It was pretty neat. If I had a camera I would have taken a picture and scanned it. I decided instead of being a gawker, I'd read about it in the Daily Illini. I'd link to an article next week, but I don't think the DI archives quite as well as the Minnesota Daily.

After a week of classes and a couple weeks of living here, I've recognized that UI is actually Dune. That's right. I'm taking the ficition that I've been reading and applying it to the real world where it doesn't belong.

I was brought up in Minnesota, where you'd get the most unexpected weather. It was generally cold. I have grown accustomed to cold weather. I long for cold weather to come. During the summer in Minnesota it gets quite hot, so we retreat to our Air Conditioned hideaways.

Now my home for the greater part the year is Urbana, Illinois. It's hot here. Retreating to airconditioning is not an option. It's deathly hot, but you get used to it. When I moved here, I had to get acquainted with the fre(sh)man. I had to become a fre(sh)man. I have ridden the great busses which travel at great speeds. But I prefer walking. The real comparison is that Urbana is a training ground for me. I am to be educated here, but I don't think the classes will be the only thing that shape me here. I think the environment will force me to be more adapted to different places.

You start to learn things. You are forced to be organized. You are forced to explore. When I walk from Allen Hall to the Quad, I take a short cut, or sometimes it's a long-cut through another building that is Air Conditioned. I learn lots of silly things here.

I don't know why I'm going off on such a strange tangent. I got a new desk from the Residence Halls. This one allows me to put my large computer monitor on the desk and my tower case without wasting too much space.

All of the above was pre-written yesterday. Today I got speakers from my neighbor and they are large. I don't know if I like them. I got my new telephone. I think there's a link in a previous entry to it. I love it already. I should run a wire to a friend's room and thus have a second phone line.

Hey, thanks to silly American holidays like Labor Day, I have no roommate this weekend! My parents are coming to visit. It would mean something if I missed them, well wait it does mean something. I guess I do miss them, but I'm just not realizing it. Hopefully I'll have fun with them.

Email is great. I think it strengthens my friendships. I ramble so I'll be quiet.

I was just remembering the good ol' days. Back when I'd hang out in the Tech center at high school. Sure it was also the worst year of school, but it had its high points. Like when we installed Remote Desktop which enabled us to control other computers. I remember we'd always make the web browser go to a porn site like www.sex.com or something when Ryan Hayle was near the machine. I need to get something like that on some of the computers around me.

I've decided that I love this University. Not because it is anything special, but because I think that's how the University wants me to feel. No wait what the hell am I saying. No the University of Illinois is a very decent school. I don't know why I like it, but I do for some reason. Maybe the good balance with academics and cultural diversity, etc. I dunno. Probably because it has a large library. A library that gives away good cookies.

Well speaking of, thanks to the Residence Hall Interlibrary system, I have Heretics of Dune.

My class schedule is slowly getting smaller and it looks like school will suck only once in a while instead of twice. The food service in Allen is poor. Today I had snickers ice cream from Edy's that was good. It was bad when the machine didn't work during dinner time. Grr. The food was bad for dinner, I didn't eat much. The hot cocoa machine still does not work. Woe is me.

Unit One is really cool. This week we have Barbara Trent, Oscar award winner of The Panama Deception. I went to a talk yesterday and she talked about all these cool programs she was involved with. She talked about how she fled from the FBI. She talked about how she made movies that exposed the government. Yesterday I watched some of her other movie, Cover Up: Behind The Iran Contra Affair. I watched some of it because it was too cold for me in the main hall. Today I will dress appropriately and watch the Panama Deception and hopefully stay for discussion. The fact that I can do this in my own hall is just so neat. I mean talking about all these cool issues with some person who has a shiny award that sits at the Front Desk of our hall and stuff. Wow, Allen Hall is cool.

My best friend in the whole wide world got her ICQ password today.