Avenue C & Eagle Drive

Independence

Posted in Personal, Podcast by Zach on July 4, 2010

Definitely been a while sine I’ve last written, but trust me, everything was pretty uninteresting. I was finally able to go on my vacation last we, and it was a blast. My friends and I rented a cabin in Pottsboro, TX, just a few minutes away from Lake Texoma. It did not fail to impress. I’ll be sure to put some pictures up on here, but in the meantime, take a look at my Flickr.

Now that the trip is over, I’m going to try and make the podcast priority number one. I’m going to pick up a microphone to use as a spare pretty soon, and I’m still waiting for my comrades to come through with their mics. We’ll probably use the spare for the time being and get a short two man show down the pipeline very soon.

For today, though, I’m gonna blow some stuff up. Happy birthday, Amerikuh!

Black, Black Friday

Posted in Personal, Rambling by Zach on November 29, 2009

My netbook has been bitching at me for the past two weeks. Wouldn’t detect the hard drive. I finally learned how to open up the thing and reseat the drive. Put it back together, still doesn’t work. Put in a USB drive, boots right up and hasn’t had a problem since, other than the random shutdowns it has suffered from before.

This little summary brings me to the big story. I decided that a new netbook was in order. I decided I would go to Best Buy and take advantage of the no interest for 18 months credit offer. I went to the store, got the netbook with all the trimmings, went to the register, and the credit application server was down. I had to abandon my things and go home. I then tried to apply for the card at home some time later. DENIED.

How sad is it to not even be accepted for store credit. STORE CREDIT! The bastard child of the sordid credit industry won’t even accept me! Guess my credit is worse than I thought: nonexistant. Maybe Fry’s will help a brotha out. Hopefully I can get a card of sometime before Obama’s CARD Act goes into effect, thus barring me from getting one ’til I’m 21. It stuns me that an American nineteen-year-old is able to smoke, own land, vote, and risk his life in defense of our country, but cannot buy a bottle of Bailey’s on a credit card. A damn shame.

Other than Black Friday, my Thanksgiving break has been fun. Dinners at relatives’ houses, sitting around in a turkey coma, and yet another dinner on Saturday at a good friend’s. My friend who is also an uncle to several nieces and nephews, who we escorted to the playground at the elementary school after their constant demands. We went to the playground I once played on in elementary school. It had been what seems like forever since I had been on the grounds of Valley View Elementary. The majority of the playground equipment I played on was no longer there, being moved either to the less used playground on the other side of campus or banished to the pathetic city park on the edge of town. It was all plastic and sterile now; nothing like the bumpy metal slide that burned your ass in the summer and countless kids fell off of, or the gargantuan (when I was little) spiral slide that also burned your ass in the summer and suffered from traffic jams when a kid would decide to block the way. There would sometimes be at least twenty of us crammed onto that slide at one time. How all of it had changed made me feel old. But it was still cool to see kids enjoy the same little schoolyard I enjoyed. It may not be the best school in the world, but you sure can’t say it’s not a memorable one.

But, life goes on, and it starts with going back to work Monday and hopefully finding credit. Hooray?

The Lazy Week

Posted in Personal by Zach on August 16, 2009

It’s been a good vacation this week with golf, bike riding, shopping, dining, and generally vegging out for a week. I feel like I’m ready to take on work and the upcoming semester with renewed vigor.

Only one thing stood out this week as a harrowing experience. I went to bed Friday night at around midnight to the beeping of what I thought was a clock radio going off in another apartment. One hour later, I awoke to scuffling on the balcony and red lights coming through my window. I shot out of my bed, put on my flannel pants, and went outside. Turns out that the person living in the apartment directly above me had left something on the stove, causing it to smoke and smell awful. After talking with my neighbors about it, the firemen left and I went to bed.

The next evening, a friend and I were going to play video games at my apartment. We pulled into the parking lot, got out, and I immediately heard the smoke alarm that I thought was a clock radio the night before. We immediately went up to the third floor to investigate. The sound was originating from the same apartment as last night, and we could smell something burning. We tried to peek in through the windows, trying to see if anyone was inside. All I could see was smoke. We started knocking on the doors of the surrounding apartments to warn them of the impending doom that was about to commence on our humble little roach motel. The man I warned was quite friendly, and we started knocking on the smoking apartment’s door. My friend, on the other hand, was being chewed out by anĀ Asian college student who was quite annoyed by being interrupted from her Calculus studies.

Finally, after knocking and banging on the door, a man fumbled with the lock and opened the door. Smoke poured out of the 425 square foot rathole, and the man reset his alarm and turned off his stove. He was obviously under the influence of weed and/or speed, and he said he had slept through the whole thing. After asking if he was alright and warning him not to do it again, we went back to my apartment and went on with our business.

Hopefully that doesn’t happen again, and the methhead just buys a microwave to cook his Dinty-Moore stew.

The Week Off

Posted in Personal by Zach on July 26, 2009

I’m really excited. I found out last week that my request for a week off of work was approved. Now I’ve got an entire week – the week of my birthday, mind you – to fill with fun things to do. But the real challenge is finding what to do. Go to a Rangers game? Take a train trip to Austin? (I’ve always wanted to try out Amtrak.) I’m not entirely sure yet. I know I’ll probably make a quick trip over to Dallas to finally play golf with my uncle again. It was a lot of fun the last time.

Anyway, rewinding back to this next week, I’m also excited about Tuesday Bike Night, a weekly bike ride that starts at the Language building at UNT, goes God knows where, and ends back at the Lang Building. This is my first time doing it, and I’m hoping it’s a lot of fun.

Man, it seems like all I’m talking about today is ways to have fun. I guess working all the time has had an effect on me.