January 2003

I only have one class today, from 12-2. That means I still have a little over 2 hours until I have to leave to get to campus. Not too bad, eh? I had quite a bit of homework to do last night, most of it busy work for IED. I also had class until 8 PM. That makes it hard to do lots of homework.

So today I’m probably spending most of the afternoon catching up on some work and homework. I might come back to the apartment early and read for some of my classes. I like being ahead, or at least on par

I spent most of the day working on projects for the Union. In other geeky news, I configured by new router and the internet in my apartment is once again up and running. Now I need to get the Windows server back up and running. While Linux is interesting, the web technologies hosted on the Windows platform is much better. But that’s just my opinion

I’m headed to bed. Sorry this is so short!

As pointed out this afternoon, it has been far too long since I’ve posted anything. There are several reasons for this. Most of them stem from the fact that I’m back at RPI trying to find my new-semester footing. Sounds like fun, huh? Well, here is a short (bulleted) summary of my past week of Troy-dom:

- Came back to my plowed-in driveway, about 5 feet of snow and ice in nice layers covering everything in sight.

- Parked on the street for the first night and lost my left side mirror. Insurance company’s response: “Tough shit.” How much am I paying for insurance again? Evidently my insurance covers someone keying my car, but not someone taking the mirrors right off. Go figure

- Highly motivated to shovel lots of snow. Spend most of last weekend cleaning out enough of my driveway so I could park in it.

- First week of classes. Most of the classes I’m taking are rumored to be very difficult. So far, they seem pretty easy except for CANOS (Computer Architecture, Networking, and Operating Systems). Even the Cisco course is pretty straightforward, and database systems is a joke (the first project involves MS Access!).

- Lots of apartment maintenance (other than shovelling snow). This consists mostly of cleaning, which needs to be done now while I still have time to do it!

- Fixing the server, which has been up and down since winter break started. Ugh, I’ve finally decided to give Linux (Redhat 8.0) a try. I only have it partially configured, it’s a slow process!

- Finishing some outstanding projects for the Union. As soon as I get it going, I’ll post the URL here so people can check it out. But this is actually going very well, and hopefully within a week we’ll have it ready for launch!

So that’s a brief summary. I wrote a couple of entries in the airport on the way back to the States. For some reason (see list of excuses above) I never got it posted. I might do that, but it’ll be seriously backdated so as not to screw up the friends. You might want to look at my journal to see it. Yeah, it might be a Friends Only entry.

The time has come for me to leave Cairo once again. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is my last trip to Cairo as a dependent of my parents. The next time I come, which may be several years from now, I’ll be here as a tourist. But at least I’ll know where to find the good deals and tasty cuisine

My flight leaves at 0300 tomorrow morning (which is in less than 4 hours), and I arrive in Pittsburgh almost exactly 24 hours from now. Seems like a short trip compared to some!

So wish me a safe flight, and I will probably post some more entries when I arrive. I can’t stay from LJ for long! So I’ll probably write stuff in the airport and post when I land.

Oops, one more thing… Happy birthday to !! I have to do it now because I’ll be in the air on your real birthday!!

My prospective insurance company (GEICO) needs my old driver’s license number in order to run a records check. When I got my New York license, I had to surrender my old license, number and all. According to the Ohio BMV, the only way to get my old driver’s license number is to run a records check. But in order to run the records check, I must provide my driver’s license number.

This paradox is brought to you by the Federal Drivers Privacy Act enacted 13 SEP 1997. Yay for privacy acts and government bureaucracy!

I went to the travel agent today, and have been confirmed on my flights this Monday back to the States. I have updated the flight itinerary to reflect the new date. Yay for going back to snowy Troy NY

Ok, I was browsing through Amazon.com looking at this DVD set when I noticed the following recomendations listed at the bottom of the page:

Customers who wear clothes also shop for:
– Clean Underwear from Amazon’s Target Store
– Ladybug Rain Boots from Amazon’s Nordstrom Store
– Pet Socks from Amazon’s Urban Outfitters Store
– Puppy Footed One-Pieces for Newborns from Amazon’s Old Navy Store

So apparently people who watch the First Season of 24 also wear clothes, And apparently people who don’t wear clothes don’t shop for underwear, boots, socks, or PJ’s. They sell only “clean underwear”… that’s good to know I suppose! Gotta love Amazon’s personalized suggestions! And yes, I’m just stalling my bedtime here. I’m really going now No more lame posts for me tonight.

I’m watching some show on CNN International, and they were just discussing new applications of nano-technology. They were showing off new pants that are stain, water, and chemical resistant. I think that’s awesome! You see, I love ketchup. I also like to wear light colored pants on occasion. Do you see the problem?

So anyway, I’m totally impressed with nano technology right now. Look for more comments about this stuff from me in the future!

It has been 2003 for almost an hour here in Cairo (GMT+2). I had a great time this evening, one of my only regrets being that I had nobody to kiss at midnight. But alas, I will see her in less than a week, so I think I’ll manage

I just finished napping after a long morning. Tonight we’re going to get together and play it low key. We’ll probably settle in and watch some movies and have some snacks. Closer to midnight we might go out somewhere, we’ll have to see about that.