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stormdogI did lots of moving around this past week!
I drove down to visit Posi on Thursday and had my end-of-the-semester all you can eat sushi.
On Friday, I met with my advisor after work to talk about our Pike Creek project. We walked from her house to Washington Park where the creek is still above ground, then followed what we believe to be the former path of the creek, looking for signs in the topography. She took photos, and we talked about the age of houses and trees nearby. We talked about architecture and local history too. Once we got back, she made dinner for she and her partner and I and we ate chicken while a television show called Crossbones was on. Though I'm still a little self-conscious being social with faculty at my school, it was a really enjoyable day. I also got to ride my bike home in the dark with my LED strip blazing for the first time. I loved seeing people keep looking at my bike. Maybe I am something of an exhibitionist! (Says the person who's going to be riding naked through Chicago in a couple weeks....)
One of the folks going on the planned photo trip to Gary, Indiana on Saturday couldn't make it. Instead, I connected with Posi again to make a round of northern Chicago thrift stores. We managed to get to four of them, and I picked up a large subwoofer, a plastic collapsible file cabinet thing, a couple CDs and DVDs, and some flat repair kits for bicycles. The two of us met up with my girlfriends in Evanston for lunch at Flat Top Grill, then Danae went home to work while the other three of us took a trip to Ikea. I bought some shelves to make space in my room for the A/V componentry I've suddenly been accumulating. We followed that up with a trip to a Korean marketplace, where I bought some daifuku and marveled at the giant tubs of hot pepper sauce. Once we dropped Lisa off at home and got back to Posi's place, I was exhausted. He offered to let me crash on his couch, and I took him up on it.
In the morning, I called Todd and Serin, who I was planning to visit Mitsuwa (a Japanese mall in Arlington Heights) with, to redirect them to Posi's place to pick me up instead of my house. The three of us had a great day at Mitsuwa, exploring the food court (More sushi for me!), the video store, the book store, the grocery store, and the bakery. I was feeling adventurous and bought several things that were new to me. Litche flavored Ramune, a drink called Hey Song Sarsaparilla (tasted like licorice; not bad), and -furthest outside my comfort zone- a fresh takoyaki bun from the bakery. I don't think I've ever actually eaten octopus before. It was tasty, though the texture was a little uneven. And when I looked closely, I think I could see some of the suckers, which was a little disturbing. But I ate it, and would willingly eat another, though there are things I like more. As I always do, I thought about buying some natto, but was not feeling that adventurous. It was great introducing Todd and Serin to the place for the first time, and I look forward to return trips!
----
After work on Monday, I hauled all my ill-gotten gains up to my space and proceeded to disassemble the whole mess of computers, monitors, laptops, speakers, stereos, and everything else on my desk. A few hours work installing shelves and rearranging things has left me with a work shpace that feels very pleasantly organized, usable, and inviting to me.
With the new subwoofer from the thrift store, plus a set of four small floor standing satellite speakers that Posi gave me, I set up full surround sound (minus center speaker) and played a few scenes from movies to see what it sounded like. It was fun, and loud. But these speakers are not very good for music, and as Lisa expected, I don't think surround sound works very well in my space either. So I don't think the hassle of having two separate amps wired up, one for music and one for movies, is worth the effort. Plus, I have to haul out the Playstation 2 to get full surround sound since my computer doesn't support 5.1, which means I have to haul out my little 15" TV too, to watch the movie on. Instead, I'm bringing all the surround equipment to Danae's place and will set it up there. As she pointed out, I watch movies much more often at her place anyway! Still, I don't know how good these speakers will sound even in a better area. I guess we'll see.
I've also set up Lisa's turntable (that's the device on the top rack with the plastic dust cover) in such a way that I can digitize vinyl directly to my PC, then convert to MP3. That's pretty cool. Once the surround amp is gone (the black box on the bottom), I'm going to add my stand-alone tuner to that stack of things too; the tuner on the Marantz seems to be a little funky.
----
What else? Thanks to my uncle, I've managed to get Windows 7 installed, easily, on my own laptop and am going to do the same with Lisa's when next I see her. I guess my install media just wasn't playing nicely for some reason. For my part, I'm glad to have something that isn't running XP, finally, just in case serious problems really do develop with the OS now that it's reached end of support.
I drove down to visit Posi on Thursday and had my end-of-the-semester all you can eat sushi.
On Friday, I met with my advisor after work to talk about our Pike Creek project. We walked from her house to Washington Park where the creek is still above ground, then followed what we believe to be the former path of the creek, looking for signs in the topography. She took photos, and we talked about the age of houses and trees nearby. We talked about architecture and local history too. Once we got back, she made dinner for she and her partner and I and we ate chicken while a television show called Crossbones was on. Though I'm still a little self-conscious being social with faculty at my school, it was a really enjoyable day. I also got to ride my bike home in the dark with my LED strip blazing for the first time. I loved seeing people keep looking at my bike. Maybe I am something of an exhibitionist! (Says the person who's going to be riding naked through Chicago in a couple weeks....)
One of the folks going on the planned photo trip to Gary, Indiana on Saturday couldn't make it. Instead, I connected with Posi again to make a round of northern Chicago thrift stores. We managed to get to four of them, and I picked up a large subwoofer, a plastic collapsible file cabinet thing, a couple CDs and DVDs, and some flat repair kits for bicycles. The two of us met up with my girlfriends in Evanston for lunch at Flat Top Grill, then Danae went home to work while the other three of us took a trip to Ikea. I bought some shelves to make space in my room for the A/V componentry I've suddenly been accumulating. We followed that up with a trip to a Korean marketplace, where I bought some daifuku and marveled at the giant tubs of hot pepper sauce. Once we dropped Lisa off at home and got back to Posi's place, I was exhausted. He offered to let me crash on his couch, and I took him up on it.
In the morning, I called Todd and Serin, who I was planning to visit Mitsuwa (a Japanese mall in Arlington Heights) with, to redirect them to Posi's place to pick me up instead of my house. The three of us had a great day at Mitsuwa, exploring the food court (More sushi for me!), the video store, the book store, the grocery store, and the bakery. I was feeling adventurous and bought several things that were new to me. Litche flavored Ramune, a drink called Hey Song Sarsaparilla (tasted like licorice; not bad), and -furthest outside my comfort zone- a fresh takoyaki bun from the bakery. I don't think I've ever actually eaten octopus before. It was tasty, though the texture was a little uneven. And when I looked closely, I think I could see some of the suckers, which was a little disturbing. But I ate it, and would willingly eat another, though there are things I like more. As I always do, I thought about buying some natto, but was not feeling that adventurous. It was great introducing Todd and Serin to the place for the first time, and I look forward to return trips!
----
After work on Monday, I hauled all my ill-gotten gains up to my space and proceeded to disassemble the whole mess of computers, monitors, laptops, speakers, stereos, and everything else on my desk. A few hours work installing shelves and rearranging things has left me with a work shpace that feels very pleasantly organized, usable, and inviting to me.
With the new subwoofer from the thrift store, plus a set of four small floor standing satellite speakers that Posi gave me, I set up full surround sound (minus center speaker) and played a few scenes from movies to see what it sounded like. It was fun, and loud. But these speakers are not very good for music, and as Lisa expected, I don't think surround sound works very well in my space either. So I don't think the hassle of having two separate amps wired up, one for music and one for movies, is worth the effort. Plus, I have to haul out the Playstation 2 to get full surround sound since my computer doesn't support 5.1, which means I have to haul out my little 15" TV too, to watch the movie on. Instead, I'm bringing all the surround equipment to Danae's place and will set it up there. As she pointed out, I watch movies much more often at her place anyway! Still, I don't know how good these speakers will sound even in a better area. I guess we'll see.
I've also set up Lisa's turntable (that's the device on the top rack with the plastic dust cover) in such a way that I can digitize vinyl directly to my PC, then convert to MP3. That's pretty cool. Once the surround amp is gone (the black box on the bottom), I'm going to add my stand-alone tuner to that stack of things too; the tuner on the Marantz seems to be a little funky.
----
What else? Thanks to my uncle, I've managed to get Windows 7 installed, easily, on my own laptop and am going to do the same with Lisa's when next I see her. I guess my install media just wasn't playing nicely for some reason. For my part, I'm glad to have something that isn't running XP, finally, just in case serious problems really do develop with the OS now that it's reached end of support.
