Colin.

Woo, eight years of Livejournal! Woo!

Actually I just noticed this in my profile as I was giving it a long overdue edit. I would like to go back in time to then and tell myself to chill out and be prescribed medication as soon as possible. Totally worth it.

So since I got into North Bennet I've been looking for an apartment in the North End. Compared with my current neighborhood, there's not a ton of stuff there (unless you count Italian restaurants and tourists as a major convenience), but since commutes of much length at all sap my will to live and my apartment now is outrageously pricey, I've decided to at least look into it. I found a pretty nice place to live, but I'm concerned abut space, mostly for my books. I think all the furniture can fit really nicely, but once you put together that and all my bookshelves it becomes something of a guessing game for me. While I've made an appointment to take a second look at the apartment, a thought crossed my mind that I never would have imagined. Maybe I should get rid of some books. I look around and I see books that don't really strike my fancy, that I never really want to reread and that maybe I've never read in the first place (McSweeney's quarterlies, I'm looking at you).

So in an effort to figure out just how much book I have around, I did a count. I have approximately 880 books in my house. A sizable chunk of that are narrow trade paperback comics (around 270), so I went back and measured roughly to get and idea of how many feet of books I have. It's about 55 feet. That's a decent amount of books, and I'm not sure how it all happened. I like giving good books a good home, but I'm sure not all of those books really need my home to be it.

Lazertag verdict: Took more out of me than it probably should have.

Monday night I woke up in an amazing amount of burning, searing pain. I've had instances of heartburn before, but this was like nothing else. I felt like I was turning into a Boomer from Left 4 Dead. My stomach felt swollen, I was rather nauseous, and stomach acid was burning my throat.

So yesterday I went to the doctor. They put me on some medication, told me to avoid certain foods and eat smaller, more frequent meals. They also told me I needed to calm down and that my stress levels from not hearing from North Bennet was not helping me. Yes, it was actually causing me physical pain to not have heard.

I heard today. And I got in. I needed to read it a few times to make sure. I expect to wake up any time now, as I've had a number of dreams regarding this in the past few weeks. But it's real. Magnificent.

Today is the anniversary of Michelle's biopsy. I'd like to say I went out and got a cake in shape of a brain or something, but I've had a cough that's been bothering me so I took it easy all day. We measured the hair next to her scar and it's grown six inches. Not bad for a year after surgery.

The past two nights I've been woken up in the middle of the night. Last night it was some wrong number on my cellphone. Went right back to sleep. The night before that our doorman called up at two thirty in the morning to tell us we had a visitor. I was of course not expecting anyone, so I asked for a name. He said it was Patrick. The only Patrick I know was from Hampshire and almost certainly doesn't know where I live. It kind of weirded me out. A lot, actually, and I ended up staying awake for an hour in the middle of the night. I in turn scare my cat quite a lot by sneaking up on him when he was sound asleep. It wasn't on purpose, but man did he move fast.

No word today.

I'm incredibly nervous. On May 1st I'm supposed to hear from North Bennet, and it has me checking the mail every day already. I've been waking up a little earlier every morning and I'm exhausted every night when I go to sleep.
I've been thinking about contingency plans in case I don't get in, and they make me nervous too. Everything does. New flu outbreak in Mexico City? Clearly I'm going to get in but in won't matter as society falls apart at the seams. It's stupid and annoying, and it's going to be a hell of a week.

Spent all day cleaning.

Kitchen: The cleanest it's been since I moved in.

Bathrooms: Not as clean as they could be, but still damn nice.

Entire apartment: Dusted and vacuumed.

New pictures of books up over at flickr.

I'm actually alive. Honest.
Feeling much better than a moth ago, but I'm still having a few issues. Been cleaning the house and thinking a decent amount about travel. I'm not planning anything serious, because I imagine traveling with stomach issues is approximately a giant nightmare. I think the furthest I'm going this year is probably Chicago. The ALA is having their huge annual conference there in July, and I've been thinking it might be fun to go and attend a few lectures. Plus they've gotten the Art Institute to close to the public for one night and allow only the ALA in. That would be pretty neat, especially since the new wing will be open by then.

Travel wise I'm thinking very seriously about the circumnavigation, but there are other, more long term projects as well. To begin with, there's visiting every National Park, which I've thought would be pretty awesome for a long time, but there's also a much more lengthy project, along the lines of it would take my entire life to accomplish. Visiting every World Heritage Site. Problem is they keep adding more. Don't we have enough world heritage?

I'll try and take photos of some of the books I've put together recently. I'm not totally satisfied with some of the quality, but I'm decently pleased.

Part of the problem with actually being interested in our President is that I actually feel compelled to listen to him when he's on television.

Alright, so a week ago I saw this little meme go around that I rather liked. It's the one where the poster makes things for the first five people who comment on the post. I thought to myself that I rather liked that. So I'm going to do it.

The Rules
- The first five people who comment (who are on my friends list - let's not get random people running in here) will have something made for them.
- It will be my choice of thing. It might be a macaroni picture frame or a misshapen clay figurine.
- I'll try to make it something you might actually want. I tend to know most of you people, so I'll try to come up with something that I think will mean something to you.
- I will send it to you, no matter where you are.
- It will be done by May 1st.
- None of this tagging nonsense. Just because you want something doesn't mean you have to make something.
- You don't have to comment. It won't hurt my feelings if you don't want something.

EDIT: Alright, so that's Suzanne, Kelsey, Von, Dani, Drew. If you guys will send me where you'd like me to send yours (keeping in mind that these projects may not be done until May) at clockbound@gmail.com. That way I won't have to worry about hunting you down.

I'm not sure how many of you are aware, but I've been ill for a few weeks now. Basically it's just my first ever ear infection, which got pretty bad before I managed to go see a doctor. The doctor put me on antibiotics which completely fried the bacteria in my stomach.
I've rarely, rarely had any stomach problems, so it's been challenging for me to deal with. I have to really watch what I eat and put in my system. Chamomile tea and ginger have been very helpful to me these past few weeks.
The good news is that all of this has spurred me to go in for a physical for the first time since before college. Well, it's good news so far, we'll see how I feel after I have it.

Eight years.
Longer than any of my relationships.
Longer than all my years of higher education.
In the span of a life eight years is not a long time. In the span of a nation it is even less. But it feels like it has been too long.
When Bush was first elected I was in high school.
The significance of day is great, and people far more qualified, well-spoken and educated than I have and will comment on it.
But today was a good day, and when Obama said that science will be restored to its rightful place, I nearly wept.

Last night I was cruising around on the internet and I came across a blog I come across once every few months or so called Strange Maps. It has, surprise, strange maps. Awesome maps, fantastic maps. Whenever I find this blog I go back as far as possible looking at everything. Last night I discovered Birobidzhan, which is certainly interesting, but the most interesting thing was this:

It linked back to a blog called Very Small Array. A site full of neat map graphics. Turns out it's the blog of the woman who does Cat and Girl, which I must saw I don't read, but I have certainly heard of.
It turns out she actually took a trip very similar to this. Her record of this trip begins here and continues onto the next few pages.

This is remarkable to me because it is the first time I've heard of someone in recent years doing a circumnavigation by boat and train who is not Michael Palin (and therefore not backed by the financial and political might of the BBC).

Very interesting.