I haven't updated in about a week now. This is because last week around noon, I decided to see how different life would be without use of the internet. This meant no web browsing, iChat, email, or services that required the internet (like the iTunes Music Store or some stuff on the Wii). If I really wanted to be picky, it would have meant no texting as well, since the text message network is very closely tied to email.

I learned:

• It's very hard to maintain a blog when you don't have internet access.
• I missed out on a lot of minor conveniences, like weather info, phone book stuff, Google maps, and the general ability to look up random things quickly (i.e: "Hey, who was that one guy in that one movie?"
• I was really busy the past week and didn't really notice I was missing anything.
• I especially didn't miss iChat. Very few people use it at the right moment, and if you want to get ahold of someone, Facebook or Myspace (or especially a phone) is a pretty reliable way of doing so.
• Google News and Digg are my primary news sources. Oh yeah, can't forget Zefrank.
• Internet access is in most cases necessary for school. Some teachers post study guides online for students to print off. (I got ahold of a copy of one through a friend.) As an assignment, one of my teachers asked that we contribute a sentence to a wiki that she had recently made.
• I distribute a lot of stuff through the internet. I didn't have much to share during my time away (once again, I've been busy), but still, consider the supplies and cost of sharing things without the internet. I prefer having people watch videos on YouTube when they'd like rather than giving out DVDs, and sharing pictures on Flickr is a lot easier than making copies or showing a picture that I carry around with me.

It was a good little experiment.

I got done with all of my homework today and decided to see if I could get my family's very first computer working.
My mom and dad bought it in 1988. We used it until 1995 - the longest we've ever used a single computer.

Anyway, getting it working did not go so well. See, almost every electronic thing you've ever used has a little battery built into it that keeps track of certain types of data. For instance, if you've ever played a Nintendo game, each cartridge has a little battery built in to it that keeps track of your save data. If that battery dies, then your data is lost.

The 1988 computer has a battery built into it that keeps track of some sort of important info - like the date, time, and what sort of drives are plugged into the computer. That battery is now dead. It kind of made me sad, it being my first computer and all.

If you've never had the opportunity to experience the goodness that is a pre-1990s computer, try playing around with this.

Over the summer of 2005, Yes Maybe and I wanted to make a short movie. It was called Skateboard.

We never got it finished since we were not quite legally able to drive. We still got some scenes done, and here's one of them.

PS: If 2005 isn't early enough for you, click here.

It's late and I should be getting to sleep.

Yes Maybe mentioned a certain project he was working on that will be up soon. On related note, a (different) project that he and I have been working on for quite some time will finally get to see a very tiny bit of light by the end of the month at the latest.

Please use the comments field of this post to share slang words or phrases you've helped make up. Definitions are optional.

Example: "blowing a dust bunny".

I am two days into semester two and I'm already tired of it.

Maybe this is just pre-senoritis, but most of my classes already feel very monotonous. It might be that we've only done work with syllabuses (syllabi?) so far, but I'm hoping my core classes become a bit more exciting soon.

I also feel like uploading some stuff onto YouTube.

Zefrank is going to have a field day with this article...if he hasn't already.

The closing sentence makes the whole article worth reading. Pichler says hello!
(She also wrote the last 5 words of that line.)

I took a walk in the snow today and that was nice.

Two videos:

1. I can swear I've heard this song before. I'm not sure from where, but I know I have. If you're allergic to cuteness, please don't watch this video. (By the way, does anyone else think the little girl loses control of her mouth temporarily sometime after she says "cuppycake gumdrop?")

2. This video reminds me a bit of the late Trigger Happy TV. I wish at one point they all shouted "Godzilla!!!" during one of the attacks.

Louis Wane was an artist. At 23, he married, but only three years after he married his wife died of cancer.

While his wife was sick, the two of them found entertainment in their pet cat, Peter. Wane began to draw pictures of his pet cat - eventually devoting his entire work to pictures of cats.

As time went on, the cats got more and more exaggerated and human. Eventually, Wane began suffering from schizophrenia.

These pictures represent his schizophrenia's progress. Its a very small collection of work, but still interesting.

I'm in photo class for my final. This consists of waiting for our teacher to look at our portfolios.

I should be working on my newspaper project, but I was distracted by an Airport Security article about animals...in particular, helper monkeys.

I quote: "TSOs have been trained to not touch the monkey during the screening process."

Oh yeah, another terrible feeling in the bathroom: wondering "is this toothbrush mine?"

(Luckily, it was.)

Finals begin tomorrow. I find this the perfect opportunity to freak out about my future.
Okay, maybe not really freaking out. More along the lines of "curiously browsing through colleges".

If you haven't used it already, The Princeton Review is a really handy site that recommends colleges based on variables such as your possible major, GPA, interests, and so on.
It also told me that the University of Iowa is #1 in "Their Students Never Study" and that Emerson is #1 in "Nobody Plays Intramural Sports".

Things that make me wonder "what the hell?": Supermarket Edition.

Apple is going to have its annual speech sometime this week, where they announce new and shiny gadgets and software.

The stuff introduced by Apple is usually really neat, but I think that this futuristic computer might beat anything Apple could introduce in the next week.

Today is a good Friday.

I saw "Children of Men" tonight - and I hate to make overstatements, but it might have been the best new movie I've seen in a year. It takes place in the future where women have completely stopped giving birth. Its very detailed and realisitic - maybe detailed enough to make George Orwell cry. My only complaint lies with an unnecessarily long action scene.

Another complaint among people I saw it with was the ending (minor spoiler: its a little ambigious), but I felt it gave the movie just enough of a sense of resolution.

See it as long as you're not in the mood for a light movie.

Things I Would Like To Do

• Gain weight. Yes, it looks weird on paper, but if you've met me, you'd agree.
  
• Create a video that gets at least 800 views by the year's end. Alternatively, create a number of videos that get 800 views combined.
  
• To fill up the journal I've been writing in lately...and maybe start and finish a new one if I get in a habit.
• I stole this one from Junebug: Share a (decent) skit every week for mimes and a handful of skits I consider "1-worthy".
• Help get the "dirty" part of the basement cleaned up and inhabitable.
• Improve at playing guitar.
• To visit the library and listen to albums I typically wouldn't listen to.
• To hit 900 posts by 2008.
  

I'm sure there are more. But for now, those are some things I'd like to do.
Also, please allow a warm welcome to Sukriti's blog.

The first post of the new year. It's also the last day of break

This year's break seemed much shorter than previous breaks. This year we had 12 days off.

Last year it was 13 days. But the year before that was 12 days. And the year before that was 16 days. I'm just hoping next year's break is closer to 16 days than it is 12.

It might have also seemed shorter because I didn't feel well for a lot of it. Of course I'm feeling better now (but very tired and kind of dizzy because last night messed with my sleep schedule), but illness always seems to get in the way of time off.