Stolen Dodge Caravan: Our stolen car was found last Tuesday illegally parked in Folsom. The ignition was gone, along with the rear bench, and the radio was partly removed. The van has since been towed and scrapped for parts and replaced by a recent Honda Odyssey.

HP dv2000t Laptop: I received the laptop on the 28th, played with it for a couple weeks, and then returned it. It was a pretty sleek machine with a very nice build and tons of amenities for the price (like built-in VGA and S-Video outputs, ExpressCard slot, two internal microphones, good speakers, back lit media keys, solid keyboard) but I ran into quirks which made me question it's longevity; the USB ports went out on two occasions when using a Wacom tablet, the screen wasn't the greatest, and odd Windows behaviors (waking up from Stand By to Hibernate, for instance) eventually convinced me to send back the machine (which HP was surprisingly nice about) and spend the extra $200 for a MacBook.

MacBook: Received on Friday from Amazon.com. No complaints. My biggest concern was the reports of intense heat emitted by the machines, but thus far, it hasn't even been an issue.

dragaroo.net: I recently renewed the domain. But there's nothing there to see.

Sac State: I'm in my third week of classes. So far, so good. My bizarre schedule is actually not half as bad as I expected it to be; I simply a lot about 1:30 time for what typically is an hour drive, and then spend half an hour drinking a coffee or catching up on my reading. My teachers are all surprisingly well-qualified but seem to go on tangents (relating to their job experience at corporations like HP, Maxtor, Price Waterhouse Coopers, etc...) quite a bit. Then again, I am enrolled in three people-skills courses (Bus Com, Public Speaking [for the third time], Organizational Behavior), so I suppose it's to be expected.

Shadowed by Wings: Finished this one a few days ago and enjoyed it quite a bit (now that I know what to expect from the series). Zarq is a likable, human character, plagued by the haunt of her mother, her (essentially nonexistent) social status as a female 'rishi whelp', and opposed by her 'peers' which alternately fear and loathe her. Against impossible odds, she attempts to achieve... the impossible: revenge against her father's murderer and a clutch (province) of her own. The story is told (narrated by Zarq herself), in such a manner that everything seems undeniably realistic as... outlandish as much of it is. And so on... more formal write-up when I find the time.

Good news, everyone!

After getting struck with a nasty case of what I can only assume was food poisoning (Update - After writing this, two family members contracted the same affliction, leading me to believe it was rather some stomach flu or something akin to that) of a myseterious origin, which led to rather displeasureable activities as extensive overnight vomiting, followed by a two-day period of fasting and a lovely 3-hour visit to the local Urgent Care clinic, and drugs for all sorts of nausea, fever, and... well, Pepto-Bismol... I finally seem to have purged my system free of the debilitating toxin that lurked within. Hooray!

I was going on a streak on posts here for the first part of the month, but my material began to turn sour and my motivation dim as I lapsed into a "one of those days" mood. It's funny how illness really helps you trivialize your immediate concerns and instills a vigor and will to just live.

( So, to quickly surmise events over the past week, )

I only have one more week of summer classes left, at which time I going to seriously start getting down to catching up on my summer reading (and, once and for all, finish the goddamn Across the Wall novel [which for some reason I can't seem to get past page 20 in, despite the fact that I loved the other books in the series]) and hell, maybe even get outside a little more and stop flaking out so much on the friends I have.

Yeah, that might be good.

(Oh, and Futurama is apparently back. Huzzah!)

Orientation yesterday was suprisingly helpful. I was able to speak one-on-one with representatives from the Business Advising center as well as from GE peer advisers, and they were able to effortlessly sort through my classes and determine what holes I needed to fill in order to graduate - a processes which I've attempted several times, and just about given up on - it's easy when you're transferring from a community college, but adding a state school to the loop tends to complicate things quite a lot.

I still need to take a biological science class (I'm actually hoping that I'll be able to take Mammalology concurrently at the JC to wipe that off the slate,) and a state history class, as well as something that fulfills a writing intensive and ethnic studies requirement. It also appears that, given that I am accepted into the school of Business and permitted to concentrate in MIS, as is the plan, that I will with one additional class, be able to declare Computer Science as a minor. (I'm not entirely sure about that though.)

My biggest concern currently arose from the additional requirements Business has - I'll have to submit all of my transcripts to the business department after acceptance for approval as a Business major (as opposed to pre-business). The Business school has certain constraints on grades and the number of times you can repeat a major course, as well as even tighter restrictions on MIS concentrations, which had me panicking as I learned of them. Ultimately, the less CSUS credits my major classes at Poly, the better off I am. Consequently, I'm still holding back what enthusiasm there is to be had until such time that I can be certain that I'm in the clear.

Oh, and so far as meeting new people goes... I'm still the same Coward (with a capital 'C'.)

---

Quickly, Cars was fairly good. I don't think I would consider it Pixar's best film to date - the stakes were just too low and I felt it was occasionally more juvenile than it really needed to be. The pacing is uneven, which is understandable as it seems that it pertains to one of the key themes of the film, but the juxtaposition makes it feel a bit long. It's a technical marvel, to be sure - the animation is unparalleled and there is plenty of witty sidegags that are not-in-your face (be on the lookout for the white and gray car 48 and the Apple logo on it's corresponding trailer). But in terms of pure entertainment value, I think I found Hedge more enjoyable than Cars. (I might also disclaim that Cars has long been the film in Disney-Pixar lineup that I was least interested in - Ratatouille, their next film due in a mere year (breaking the typical 2-year hiatus between films) looks awesome.)

I know I've talked smack about Sacramento State in the past, but that stops today. It may not have been my first choice, but I can't deny that there are perks. The suburbs of Sacramento aren't a bad place to live, just a tad dull. But, the extra downtime gives me a chance to work on my side-interests. Money problems essentially disappear (as compared to the high living costs at San Jose), and I should be able to squeak by without a constant gut-wrenching fear that one little slip academically could put in me in such a state of disrepair that I have positively no chance to succeed.

Tomorrow, I'm going to an all-day transfer orientation at Sac State, where I'll hopefully be able to get a feel for the campus and figure out what it's going to take for me to graduate in two years. And with any luck, they'll get the AP scores I had to order rushed from the College Board early next week and I'll be able to officially able to enroll shortly afterward.

I imagine the commute will be about 25-30 mins a day from my home, and so I plan to get a competent laptop/desktop-replacement which will pretty much enable me to do everything I would otherwise do at home on campus between classes. All the pieces seem to be falling into place to permit the purchase of a MacBook Pro - the special $180 off an iPod, the now public Windows Vista Beta 2... really what would make the deal a no-brainier would be the release of a new video-centric iPod that has been much rumored yet never materialized. But more on that later.

The Good News: I was accepted to San Jose State University.
The Bad News: I'm going to Sacramento State. A studio in San Jose was going to cost me upwards of $1k a month, and as far as I can discern, the school isn't academically more reputable than Sac State (they're both commuter schools). So, you can imagine, it was a pretty tough sale to the parents who are managing my loans...

The goal now is to get in and get out in two years. Everything else (i.e. accommodations outside the parent's house, job, social life) remains (sadly) secondary.

I hear they've got squirrels though...