"The Magic Beer Hat," or "Beer Dues: WTF"

Here is the story of how that case of beer we bought after the Modest Mouse show turned into a magic beer hat... in case I become an alcoholic and suddenly can't explain where all my time and money is going, and because I didn't sign this into the lease, but it seems like it should get written down somewhere anyways

We bought that 30rack after the Modest Mouse show, Jason said "Well, I'm gonna drink some of those, I'll go buy an 18 pack, same brand" now he's drank most of those, and he says "hmm I'd better replace them" ok so we're up to 66 beers from the initial investment of $20... sounds pretty nice of Jason, eh?

Come to find out this particular day he's not happy about someone owes him some money. Apparently Regina has been consistently paying rent late every month, and Jason has been covering it out of his own pocket because he's such a nice guy.

This month, he can't do it. He wants to increase everybody's rent by $20 so that extra $208 doesn't come out of his own pocket for the 11 or 22 days it takes Regina to getting around to paying it.

Is $208 enough money to keep 8 people drinking for 30 days? I don't know, but I'm afraid I just bought a $208 slice of Jason's credit while we all decide if we want to share our alcoholism or keep separate checks.

Have you ever got some money and you spend it twice, just because you have the credit available that particular day? That's how I live, that's why I have over $10k credit card debt, that's why I don't grant someone a pass to use my credit on their own discretion.

Personally I'd rather see that money go towards things that everyone can use, like a working dryer for the house (which will cost as much again in electric as it did to buy outright, don't forget to spend it twice!) or some repairs for the second bathroom (shouldn't the landlord pay that, or the person who made the hole in the sink? nah, neither of those are fair...)

*SNARL* I'm fuming mad!

NOHO-NYC Adventures

We're on a trip to The Moon, says Remy D... with a mild diversion on the way, a stop in Pluto. Eben Moglen of the Software Freedom Law Center and Columbia University Law History department, has asked for a meeting with the founding members of The Causemaker Foundation, and it's just a little out of the way: we came out this way to see the show for Umphrees McGee in Northampton Massachusetts, and that was a bust for me. We went to a nice restaurant (The Dirty Truty) instead of that, Mike said that the concert was a rockin good time!

Have been enjoying Northeastern hospitality and the beautiful weather and scenery of New York and Mass, we're taking a train into NYC and I have yet to contact anyone for lodging or more serious scoping out of the area. We've got enough friends in NYC, and Remy has made some links, that I'm not worried about it. I could come out of this trip with an incredible story or even an internship with one of the great heads of the Free Software movement, with doors leading to Law school and worse: real political activism.

Wish me luck! My phone is out of service, if you need me call Amy Gavin at 585.781.4145, we're in Northampton for a day more, after that you can try my number or Jeremy DeCausemaker at 315.945.1601 -- he's got a Cingular phone, my Cricket has been out of service since near Syracuse. I hope it works in NYC!

Doctor HP Says: Howdy!

I wrote this in January (1/13/07) responding to a personal ad on craigslist and I stumbled onto it while looking for a contact at HP, somebody I met at RIT in the Golisano College who had a pretty interesting chat with me about language and computational linguistics. If that guy was a doctor, he might have meant to diagnose me.

I think he was saying something like this: save yourself!

This photo is pretty representative of my personality: the cigarette-smoking buddha. It's a vile habit of course, that I haven't quite kicked completely. There's no good reason for that, but I've got plenty of excuses if you're interested:

In my defense, I was voted "Scholar of the Year" in my fraternity... read that again if it doesn't sound like the Oxymoron of the Year. Point being I'm living alone for the first time in my life, since October. I don't see much of my friends (the best of them are smokers), and when I do, I tend to go to great lengths to relate.

That being said, if you and I are to meet in person, I will certainly be very self-conscious of smelling like smoke, and I'm likely not to smoke for at least 48 hours in advance! I'm generally a pretty quiet person in person, don't really like to talk about myself as I feel like I end up repeating the same resume/laundry list every time. Perhaps I'm in an introverted phase of my life right now, but I am a great listener and I enjoy talking one-on-one, and getting to know good people.

I'm not really into video games but I think it's great that you are! I had my fill of playing games constantly in high school, but I do a lot of watching (erm, call it research) when I visit with friends... the coolest game I have seen lately is Guitar Hero, and the most highly overrated is certainly World of Warcraft.

What a crock. Computers are awful for your personal well-being. At least my brothers are smart enough to spell my name wrong on the Scholar of the Year plaque. GO PHI DELT!