Mike’s mother: Do you still read this page? It’s nice to know I’m not just writing for myself. Seriously.

My sweater is coming along pretty well. I am almost done with the front side, apart from the neck hole. The cotton yarn is getting me a lot farther than I expected. I might not even use all of the balls of yarn. Then I could return the leftover balls, and this sweater would be that much more cheap than alpaca sweater numero uno. I feel sort of stupid for paying so much to make a sweater myself, but at the same time uno is really growing on me and it is so warm and soft.

I did absolutely nothing today. I’ve been feeling lightheaded a lot. I think it’s because I need to drink more water, or I am looking at screens all day too much, or something. Or I’m not sleeping properly because I am leaving C-SPAN on the whole night. Mummy and I rented “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” I was impressed, it was more artistic than I expected. It was odd to see Adam Brody in a non-Seth Cohen/OC role. He was still playing the part of Seth, but I suppose it was appropriate.

It’s Christmas Eve.

Tomorrow I can look forward to getting my two main presents: a knitting kit, and a 120 GB external hard drive. Just in the knick of time, so that I can back up everything vital on this computer and then send it off to Never Never Land for a new network interface and sound cards. I really don’t want to talk to them on the phone, and I expalin anything. There is really nothing to explain, technically, I don’t really understand why the cards aren’t working. But they don’t, and they haven’t, and I need them replaced. Seriously, I can’t survive at school without C-SPAN and IPTV. It’s self-medication.

That’s about it though. I usually get depressed by the end of Christmas days because after all the build up and excitement, it always disappoints. There wasn’t much build up at all this year, so maybe it will be better. I keep forgetting that tomorrow is Christmas, I want to say that it’s a weekday and Mummy will be at work. On Monday I have a day of knitting and computing with Maya to look forward to, which will hopeefully tide me over until the next time I see her which will be god-knows-when because she is going to Italy next semester (and maybe summer too?) And then after that I am supposed to watch the second Harry Potter movie with Papi because I never saw it with him when it came out in theatres.

I don’t think my half sister is ever going to talk to me again. I didn’t really want to meet her and I don’t know what I would want to say to her, but I thought we could at least have a sort of amicable-yet-distant relationship. I don’t know what I was thinking. She is nothing like me, and it is very strange to think about her relationship with Daddy in comparison to my lack of one. He’s not even a person to me, just tall distant image in my memory. I can’t even remember him talking to me, or me talking to him. Or even my mom talking to him, or him talking to my mom. Just a two dimensional robot.

tags: family, home, mike, movies, pensieve

I love Wine!

On a whim I installed Wine in Synaptic, and had the Windows version of ePSXe working smoothly in minutes. The only problem I ran into was saving states, since Ubuntu can’t write to the Windows partition where ePSXe and my Save State folder are located. Easily solved, though – I am copying them to my Home Folder on the Ubuntu partition right now.

Hooray! Knitting, Final Fantasy IX…I am back in the business of passing free time enjoyably.

tags: gaming, mike, navi

I am back in Providence.

The dining halls close during Thanksgiving, so Jesse and I went out for Indian food on Thayer St.

It is only 7 pm now, and I am very very tired.

I have some reading I could do, knitting, laundry, unpacking, etc. But too tired. I don’t really miss home, but I miss having my space and I miss hanging around Mummy and Mike.

tags: brown, home, mike

I’m home.

It doesn’t seem that different. Mike came home and thought his house seemed smaller and felt like he didn’t really live there anymore. Everything seems the same to me, it doesn’t feel like I have been away that long. I guess I did really move out last year, even though I was coming home every weekend.

We’ve been working on my computer. We installed a new version of Banshee for me to try out instead of Rhythmbox. There are still a couple of things that bother me about it, but if its iPod support really pans out I think I’ll stick with it.

We tried to install a newer version of NetworkManager, once that came with VPN support, but that didn’t work out. It’s okay, the version that Synaptic Package Manager has available works fine.

The big success story is getting fglrx driver for my ATI video card to work without messing up my resolution. So, now I have 3D acceleration. Unfortunately, epsxe didn’t work off the bat, so I had to go and mess everything up and install it only to discover that it is not easily reinstalled. Mike is in the middle of that now. I’m not sure if he will finish before we go back to school but I suppose Winter Break isn’t too far off.

I really need to get started on an outline for my PL12 final paper. I just can’t find the motivation. I guess I’ll start on that now.

tags: home, mike, navi

Mike slept 15 1/2 hours yesterday. At first I was annoyed, but now I am just in awe.

I went to see Jessie’s play “The Greeks” with Alli. It was good although I was confused because I am not very familiar with ancient Greek history. The only part I recognized was Agamemnon’s sacrifice of his daughter, which was used as an example in one of the papers we read for Existentialism. (The point being that he violates his personal interest but does so for the greater good. Of course, in the play implied that it wasn’t really for any good at all, but I suppose Agamemnon didn’t know it at the time.)

I’m still enjoying Ubuntu, even though I can’t properly play Final Fantasy IX. Mike might be able to fix that over break, but it’s not essential. I can always boot up Windows if I really want to play. Over break and I’m going to get Mike to install the newest version of Banshee. I’d start using it over Rhythmbox if the list sorting bug has been fixed and if the iPod support starts working.

I discovered NetworkManager yesterday. I think will solve the troubles I was having with network connections. Many times after I booted Navi up back from a suspended state, the wired ethernet connection would refuse to reconnect unless I restarted. I was also using separate programs to manage my wireless (Wifi Radar) and wired (Networking) connections, which was annoying. NetworkManager can deal with both connections conveniently from Gnome’s Panel. The newest version also has support for VPN connections through vpnc, which is the command-line program that I currently use to connect to the Brown VPN when I am on wireless here so that I can use Gaim and Thunderbird. I couldn’t get NetworkManager with VPN support through Synaptic Package Manager, but they have it for download on the NetworkManager site. Hopefully Mike and I can get it installed…and then everything I need in terms of network connectivity will be in one place! My only complaint is the width of the applet icon.

I guess that’s something that I can probably edit! I hope so.

Tomorrow I’ll be going home. How weird.

tags: brown, live, mike, navi

It appears that someone has super-glued the lock of one of our two bathroom stalls open. Really funny, guys.

There is nothing like taking a nice hot early morning shower while listening to someone vomit in the functioning stall across the way. I’m really hoping that they are sick and not bulimic.

The rest of the weekend in Amherst was great. Saturday was beautiful, especially at Hampshire. Katie and I wandered around campus and I took a lot of photos. It was very warm. Later I went back to Amherst and hung out with Mike for the afternoon. We watched a “Made” marathon on MTV. Went out to dinner with his parents at a fancy Italian restaurant in Northampton.

Watched many episodes of Law & Order SVU with Mike back at his dorm and then played a game of Scrabble with him, David and Steve. Lost badly. Tried some dried mango. Forgot to get the Go! Team album from David. Mike is going to burn it and give it to me at Thanksgiving I think.

The trip back on Sunday was a lot better than previous Sunday-trip-backs. McComas and I left at noon. It was the first time I have seen the surrounding area there in the daylight. The trees and leaves were beautiful even though it was misty outside. Traffic was a lot better on the Mass Pike than before. We got to South Station and caught the Bonanza Bus back to Providence seconds before it was about to leave. I read the introduction of The Road to Serfdom and then fell asleep.

Walked back to campus (up up up the hill!) with McComas. Got tea and a panini at the Gate and then did some photo uploading and reading and watched some of “The Matrix Reloaded” on TBS.

It was a good weekend. Only one more weekend until Thanksgiving! Maybe I can make it a good (non-boring) one.

tags: amherst, brown, friends, mike, photography