Engaged

3/5/2010 – 10:15 pm

So as of Thursday morning, Kelly and I are engaged. To be married.

And a very strange thing is happening. People keep telling her congratulations and I want to be like “You know, she is getting married to me, right?”

By Nathan | Posted in Family, Kelly | Comments (12)

Europe – A Summary

3/2/2010 – 6:29 pm

Well how do you summarize a trip to Europe? I guess with words. And to start, I’m sure everyone is wondering what my favorite part was. And luckily, that is an easy question to answer. My absolute favorite thing that I did, and it really isn’t even close, was going to the Anderlecht soccer match. I know that this is probably a disappointment to many of you who were hoping that it would be some museum, or some meal, or some old church in some old city. But no. It was a sporting event. But a sporting event unlike any that I had ever been to. So I want to sincerely thank Frans from the bottom of my heart for taking me, and apologize deeply for giving Jeannot a taste of blood.

Which brings me neatly to the second part of my summary. I can’t thank Frans, Maria, Jeannot, and Figaro enough for what they did for me. They opened their house up to some strange American from the other side of the Atlantic, and couldn’t have been nicer to me. They went out of their way to make sure I was enjoying myself, to make sure I had delicious things to eat, and overall to make sure that I had a great trip. And especially Frans, who took 8 days and basically gave me a personalized tour of Belgium and Paris. So thank you.

Now what did I think about Europe? That’s really hard to summarize. It is like asking what someone thinks of America. Unless you are just going to take a stereotyped view of the world, it is impossible to answer. So maybe it is best to say that Europe met all of the expectations that I had for it, while at the same time being completely different than anything I could have imagined.

I think that Americans can have a tendency to romanticize “The Old Country”, and think of it as castles and old buildings and cobblestone streets. Basically we think of it just as how we left it. And that is certainly there. In Paris it is there, in Brussels it is there, and certainly in Bruges it is there. There are churches that have been around for almost 1000 years. There are curvy streets that were clearly laid out before anyone had ever thought about something like a car. There are castles where you can imagine being a Duke in the middle ages, lording over a field of serfs. That is all there for your consumption.

But just focusing on that misses a lot of other things. The high rises, and the restaurants with food from all over the world. There are modern transportation systems, and lots and lots of funny looking French cars. LOTS of funny looking French cars.

So really, it defies all expectations. You don’t know what to think. You don’t know what to look at. And when you are trying to capture it on film, or in blog posts, you find yourself completely at a loss. How do you capture Paris? I’m certainly not Hemingway, and so I don’t even know where to start. And I was only there for 3 days. You could spend 3 months there and still not know what as going on.

How do you capture a place like Belgium, with language and political issues that still don’t make a lot of sense to me?

I guess all you can do is focus in on the little snapshots, and that is what I tried to do. And it is also what I liked most about the cities and the people. Because in the little snapshots that you see, you realize that we really aren’t all that different. The people listening to their iPhones on the Metro in Paris aren’t that different from the people listening to their iPhones on the subway in New York. The people cheering for Anderlecht aren’t really that different from the people cheering for the Cardinals. The drivers stuck in traffic after a long day in the office are the same on both sides of the Atlantic.

So in the end I came away overwhelmed, and confused, and in awe. But I also came away with a feeling that the world is a much smaller place than I thought it was, and I kind of like that.

Except for all of the funny little French cars.

By Nathan | Posted in Europe 2010, Travel | Comments (4)

Day 8 – Gent

3/1/2010 – 9:27 am

For the last full day in Europe, the plan was Gent. I was quite excited to visit another old European city, after Bruges had been such a success. Well let me tell you. I was SORELY disappointed. Why?

Well the people of Gent have turned their city center into one giant construction mud pit. They are in the middle of rebuilding parts of it, and then also building an underground bicycle parking garage. So for those of us who had decided to visit, we got to walk around in the mud. Fun.

Now, there were some interesting things there. We went in a very lovely church that is apparently very Spanish influenced. I have to say that the churches over there make our churches look kind of silly. Some quick Googling has led me to learn that this was the St. Bavo cathedral, and inside is a very famous piece of art – Lamb! And I saw it.

Then we toured a very old castle, which made me very glad that I don’t live in a period where people have to live in very old castles. And we also saw some construction equipment.

In fact, construction equipment was pretty much the main thing that I remember about Gent. That and the mud. But we did have a nice lunch, and I accomplished some shopping, so all in all, not a bad day.

The rest of the day was mostly just packing, and then watching some Fawlty Towers. It was a pretty relaxing end to a very nice trip.

I know that this is short, but I’m very tired right now. Tomorrow, however, I shall write a sort of epilogue, summarizing my thoughts on the trip, if that is really possible.

By Nathan | Posted in Europe 2010, Travel | Comments (0)

Day 7 – Bruges

2/27/2010 – 10:15 am

As the trip winds down, I find myself very tired, and not very inspired to write detailed posts about what happened on such and such day. So I apologize for that. But it is hard to keep up the same level of excitement and enthusiasm for 8 days. At this point I’m kind of just tired and overwhelmed. I can’t really take in any more stimulation right now, and even though I have had a really amazing time, it will also be nice to get back home. So, for Bruges, which was actually the second best part of the trip, right behind the soccer game, a bullet point list will have to do.

- Driving in Europe looks like it is a pain in the ass. It took about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Bruges, and probably close to half of that time was spent just trying to get across Brussels. Once we were on the motorway, it was fine. But when you are actually in the cities, you are screwed.

- Bruges (Brugge) is maybe the most beautiful place that I have ever been. Frans said, and he is correct, that it isn’t Disneyland, it is real. But you can see that this is definitely what Disney is going for in places. Except there is something way more amazing about being someplace that is actually 600 years old, as opposed to someplace that was built 40 years ago to look 600 years old.

- The Church of Our Lady in Bruges is the most beautiful church I have ever been in. And without realizing it, I saw a statue by Michelangelo that is in the church, but I was so overwhelmed by everything else in the church, it was hard to focus on any one thing.

- I had an amazing lunch of garlic mussels and fries. You have to love a country where you get a big pile of fresh fries with every meal.

- Some chocolates were purchased. And I think some of them will even make it back home without me eating them.

- The art museum in Bruges that we went to was much more civilized than the Louvre. Smaller and much less crowded. You didn’t constantly feel like you were about to get run over by a large group of tourists.

So yeah, overall I really enjoyed Bruges. And it definitely made up for me missing Amsterdam. In fact, I think that I would have been very sad had I not gotten to see Bruges, or only gotten to spend an hour there or so. For a plan B, it was not a bad one at all.

Then today was Gent. More on that later.

By Nathan | Posted in Europe 2010, Travel | Comments (2)

Day 6 – Soccer

2/26/2010 – 12:06 pm

So I wasn’t feeling very good, and spent a large amount of the day resting up for the big event of the trip. The Anderlecht – Bilboa soccer match. Front row seats! European cup competition! I was excited. And the game did not let down. In fact, I’m sorry to say this Paris and Brussels and Brugge, because you are great cities, but the sports fan in me will think that the soccer game was the highlight of the trip. And why was it so great?

Well, when was the last time you were at a sporting event where –

- The supporters for the home team stood the whole match, singing different songs, yelling different chants, booing when announcements were made in the opposing team’s language, and giving the finger whenever the opposing players were announced?

- The supporters for the opposing team had to be kept in a different section, entirely inaccessible to the rest of the stadium?

- The whole crowd lives and dies with every touch of the ball?

- The crowd, after a goal, all chants in unison the players last name after the first name has been announced?

- At the end of the game, when their team is about to win, holds up their scarves and starts singing a hymn?

It really was an incredible experience. And I don’t think you even have to like soccer to get wrapped up in the emotion. Especially when the home team wins 4-0.

Oh, and did I mention that we had front row seats, and a perfect view for the first goal of the game, which happened literally right in front of us?

Yeah, it was amazing. Thanks, Frans!

By Nathan | Posted in Europe 2010, Sports, Travel | Comments (0)

Travel Update

2/25/2010 – 10:09 am

Due to disruptions in train services, I will not be travelling to Amsterdam this trip. I was really, really bummed out at first, but now I get to spend more time in Ghent and Bruges, and after doing some reading about those places, I think that they will make a most adequate backup plan.

I guess I’ll just have to come back some time to visit Amsterdam.

By Nathan | Posted in Europe 2010, Travel | Comments (2)

Day 5 – Paris

2/25/2010 – 4:02 am

The last day in Paris. Oh, by the way, sorry for the delay in getting this up, because technically now it is day 6. But when we got back last night I was feeling really sick. I think it was all of the different forms of transportation we took, each adding a little bit to my motion sickness. So by the time we got back to Brussels, I was feeling pretty terrible, and just wanted to get in bed.

Anyway, the day started out with breakfast again, and then Frans and I headed off to Sacré Coeur, which is a basilica and also the highest point in Paris. I was told not to walk to the top, but to walk down. Well somehow we messed up, and we ended up walking up like a thousand steps to get to the top. And from there we had some amazing views of Paris, even though it was raining on us the whole time. I would say overall the weather has not been great while I’ve been here. I have seen the sun maybe twice, and it has rained quite a bit. Oh well. I knew that that would most likely be the case this time of year.

After going inside Sacré Coeur, we then headed to the Louvre. The highlight of the day happened on that little journey. The Paris Metro can get pretty crowded, and while a group of people was trying to get on, I guess some guy cut in front of a couple of women, because they started yelling at him. And then as the doors started to close on the Metro, one of the women spit right in the guy’s face. It was hilarious.

But back to the Louvre. I have to be honest – I thought the Louvre was terribly disappointing. It was WAY too crowded, and there was WAY too much art. It was impossible to know what to look at, and if you really stopped to look at anything, you ran the risk of being run over by a hundred people. But I did get to see the Mona Lisa, kind of. There were probably 200 people standing in front of it, so I couldn’t get very close. But hey, at least I can say that I have seen it.

At this point our feet had pretty much given up on us, so we just went back to the hotel and picked up our luggage and relaxed in the lobby for a couple of hours. I was only in Paris for 2 and a half days, but it is amazing how worn out you can get in that amount of time. Well then it was time to go to the train, and this time, luckily, our train left on time. It was slightly delayed getting back to Brussels because of an accident that happened on the tracks last week, but we made it back, and I made it back alive, so that is something.

Today, I believe, is a little bit more exploring of Belgium, then a soccer match tonight, and then tomorrow I am off to Amsterdam for two days, and then home. Time really flies.

By Nathan | Posted in Europe 2010, Travel | Comments (2)

Day 4 – Paris

2/23/2010 – 3:28 pm

Today was the second day in Paris. And oh what a day it was. The good news is that Frans was rehabilitated and back in the game. The bad news is that my feet are suffering pretty badly, but I told them that they had to suck it up and do their job anyway, because who knows who many times you are going to be in Paris. So in spite of the pain and blisters, my feet performed admirably, and it wasn’t until the very end of the day where they really started hurting. Thank you, feet.

Anyway, we started off with breakfast at the hotel, and it was pretty good. I had some pound cake and a croissant. And from there we headed off. Our plan was to first go to the Arc d’Triomphe, which we did. And it was a pretty impressive site. Then we walked down the Champs Elysees, which was very nice also. Then we were going to go to the Louvre. And we did. And we got there and the sign said that they are closed on Tuesdays. So we had to activate Plan B. This meant going to see some churches. The first was the Sainte-Chapelle, which was actually built as a private chapel for the King of France, and housed relics from the passion of the christ. The second was Notre Dame, which was spectacular and amazing. Finally we saw Saint Severain, which is a very old church, but inside they were filming a movie or a commercial or something. It was most bizarre.

Then we had lunch at Brasserie Balzar, hat tip to Laura for the recommendation, which had very, very good French food. And we were served by a waiter in training, who was apparently doing everything wrong. He had my chicken pointed the wrong direction on the plate, he didn’t wipe the edge of the plate properly, he didn’t approach the diners from the correct side of the table. Poor guy.

So at this point my feet were hurting pretty bad, and we came back to the hotel for a midday rest, which was perfect. My feet had a small chance to recover.

A few hours later we met back up and headed to China Town, which is a lot like a China Town in any big city. But we did get some Chinese food for dinner which was very good. I had sweet and sour chicken, but so what?! It was damn fine sweet and sour chicken.

Then we hopped back on the Metro and headed back to the Eiffel tower to take a river tour of Paris. And somehow we timed it perfectly such that right when we got to the boat place it was time for the next tour. And the tour was wonderful. Paris is a very beautiful city by night. And it was even nice enough to sit outside and enjoy the weather some. And then there was the tour guide who gave all of the announcements in French, English, Spanish, Italian, and Russian.

So at this point is when my feet decided to completely give up. Somehow we made it back to the hotel, though, and that is where I am now, writing this update.

Day 2 in Paris was definitely a good one. There is so much to this city, and I have only barely, barely scratched the surface. Tomorrow is Sacre Coeur, The Louvre, and hopefully a crepe from a street vendor.

Ciao!

By Nathan | Posted in Europe 2010, Travel | Comments (4)

Day 3 – Paris

2/22/2010 – 2:08 pm

Today has been an up and down sort of day. So expect an up and down sort of update, mostly because I’m kinda tired and mentally fried. I apologize in advance, but hey, at least you are getting something.

So it started off very early. So early that I was able to call Kelly and she hadn’t fallen asleep yet. Crazy time differences. But after that I gathered my stuff and Frans and I headed off through the rain to the train station to catch a VERY crowded train to the Brussels South station. There we waited a long time for a train that was very late, boarded, and then I proceeded to get very motion sick on the way to Paris.

Also, not to offend any French people out there, but Northern France is HORRIBLY boring. It looks JUST LIKE Southern Illinois.

Anyway, we did make it to Paris, alive, and I healed up quickly, which is more than can be said for poor Frans, who has been very under the weather today. So after a ride in the Metro, we made it to the hotel, where Frans turned in for that night, and I set out to explore Paris on my own. And I was terrified.

I had planned on going up in the Eiffel Tower. But when I got there, and saw the lines, I decided to look at it from afar and spend my time just wandering around, which is one of my favorite things to do in big cities. So I just randomly wandered around and looked at things and reminded myself that I was in Paris. It was surreal.

Then I came back to the hotel because my feet hurt so bad they had started bleeding. So I rested them for a couple of hours and then just went down to the little bistro at the hotel. It was really pretty, inside a glass dome, and the food was decent. But most importantly, it was close, and they had delicious creme brulee.

So now I am back in the room, planning out tomorrow. Hopefully Frans will be up and about again, but I am taking extra precautions and setting up a plan of things to do in case he is not.

So for now, adieu from Paris!

By Nathan | Posted in Europe 2010, Travel | Comments (1)

Day 2 – Brussels

2/21/2010 – 1:50 pm

Today was quite the day. It started when I woke up at 7:30 in the morning and thought that it was still 4 in the morning. My sense of time is still a little thrown off, but it should be coming around to normal pretty shortly. It is 8:37 here right now, and that actually feels about right.

Anyway, after waking up and having a breakfast of pastries, scrambled eggs, and bacon, Frans and I went to the Museé Hergé. This is a museum about 30 minutes outside of Belgium dedicated to the comic strip artist Hergé, who, among other things wrote the Tintin comics. He is one of my favorite comic artists. So much so that I named my dog, Snowy, after the dog in the strip. (Who I learned today is named Milou in French, which does not translate to Snowy.) The museum was wonderful, and was definitely set up to cater to English speakers like myself. The audio tour could be done in English, and all of the signs were done in English, French, and Dutch. Quite thoughtful!

So after the museum we drove back into Brussels to go to the Atomium. For those of you that don’t know (like I didn’t), the Atomium is a large structure built for the Brussels’ World’s Fair. It is shaped like an Iron Molecule. You know what. Go here. So we saw and went up inside that and it was pretty cool. Inside they had some of the most dizzy inducing escalators that I had ever seen. Luckily I didn’t throw up or pass out.

Next was the Museum of Musical Instruments. It was very interesting, and I got to see some interesting old instruments, including something called a rotophone which was like a saxophone with an oboe read. Very weird. This museum wasn’t as catering to English speakers, but you don’t really need to understand the language to appreciate the beauty of 400 year old instruments.

I was kind of carsick at this point, so we walked around the city center of Brussels some more, and ended up getting the most decadent waffle that I’ve ever had. It was a waffle, covered in strawberries, covered in whipped cream, covered in chocolate. It was delicious, and the waffle was unlike anything I’ve had in the States. It was much more delicate and like a pastry than the typical pancakey waffles we are used to back home.

So then we came back home, and I uploaded some pictures and talked to some family members. And for dinner we had some amazing chicken flavored with Roman herbs, goat sausages, which were not my thing, Belgian sausages, which were my thing, and two salads which were both good. The one with the pears and walnuts was definitely my favorite, but I ate the garden salad as well. Oh, and chocolate pudding for dessert. Like the Jello pudding cups, except different. Pretty good.

That is basically the story of Day 2 of this adventure. Tomorrow is set up to be even crazier, because we are leaving in the morning to board a train and head to Paris. So when you hear from me again I will be able to report to you on that. Like usual, I’m nervous and excited.

Bonne nuit!

btw, go USA hockey!

By Nathan | Posted in Europe 2010, Travel | Comments (0)

Europe – Day 1

2/20/2010 – 5:16 pm

And so I made it. Here I am, sitting in Brussels, writing on my blog. It still doesn’t really seem real, and yet if I look out the window, or turn on the TV, it goes to show that sure enough, this is very much real.

So I’m very tired, but I do want to give an overview of that I did today. It may be brief, and for that I apologize.

My day started off very early when I was awoken for breakfast on the plane. I did end up getting maybe 4 hours of sleep, but it was airplane sleep, which isn’t nearly as good as real sleep. I was awake for the last hour of the flight and got to see us coming in over Ireland, Great Britain, and then finally into Belgium. After landing it was a quite run through immigration, picked up my luggage, met up with Frans, and then came to his house.

There I was served a lovely breakfast of something like French pizza, and some delicious apple cake. And then we hit the town. Basically we took a bus into the city center and walked around there for a while, seeing some famous stuff and some not so famous stuff. But I was literally in awe of some of the amazing buildings that I saw. Stuff right out of a fairy tale. And then other parts of Brussels could be dropped into the middle of Manhattan and no one would know the difference. Strange city, this.

So then we took a streetcar back to Frans’ house where I proceeded to fall asleep for three hours, because I’m a little thrown off by the time difference. But then I woke up refreshed, and we had dinner. And that is when I discovered something really interesting about myself. I like muscles. They are delicious. I don’t know if you have had them, and maybe it was just that these were exceptionally fresh or well prepared, but they were delicious. I ate about 20. And if you know me, you know how insane it is that I ate something like that.

Then after dinner we watched TV for a while, and now I’m writing this. It was a pretty relaxing first day, but I had a very good time, and I’m very excited to see what tomorrow holds. More museums, more food, and more crazy languages.

By Nathan | Posted in Europe 2010, Travel | Comments (2)

Day 0 – St. Louis, Chicago, and Beyond

2/19/2010 – 10:10 am

Well it is just about the time. In about 45 minutes I’m going to hop on the Metrolink and head to the airport to begin this journey. And I am nervous, and scared, and excited all at the same time.

Today so far has been pretty good. The lovely Ms. Kelly took me out to breakfast. Then I rode with her to work and took the Metrolink to work. That is where I am now. And as you might imagine, I’m getting a TON of work done. And I’ll be leaving here in about 30 minutes to head to the airport.

From there I’m flying to Chicago, where I’ll sit around for a couple of hours, and then hop on the plane to Brussels. That is about an 8 hour flight, so I’m going to get into Belgium around 8 Belgium time, or 1 in the morning St. Louis time. Which is going to make sleeping on the plane interesting. Tonight I’ll be going to bed around 7:00.

There isn’t too much more to say right now. All of the packing is finished. I think that I’ve remembered to bring everything. So au revoir, and I’ll talk to you from the other side of the pond.

By Nathan | Posted in Europe 2010, Travel | Comments (1)

Day -1 – St. Louis

2/18/2010 – 9:14 pm

What did I do today? The following:

- Picked up my happy meds from the doctor.
- Finished most of my packing.
- Found my electrical adapter thingy.
- Found a couple of Tintin books to read on the airplane.
- Bought squishy insoles for my shoes.
- Got the camera situation sorted out and figured out how to upload pictures directly to facebook.

So yeah. I’m basically ready to go. Right now I’m a little sad, because I’m going to miss Kelly and the kittypups quite a bit. But I’m also very excited because I have a hell of an adventure ahead of me.

By Nathan | Posted in Europe 2010 | Comments (0)

Day -2 – St. Louis

2/17/2010 – 4:13 pm

Is there some unwritten, or possibly written, rule that says that you have to start documenting your trip on the first day of the trip? Well if there is, I say that is a stupid rule. In fact, I claim that my trip starts now, two days before it actually does, on day -2.

So basically, what have I done to get ready for the trip? Have I packed? Do I have everything planned out? Am I ready to go? In short, no. I have done a few things, though.

- I have taken a large amount of dollars and turned them into a smaller amount of Euros.
- I have made sure I know where my passport is.
- I have printed out the train tickets for the train journeys between Brussels and Paris and Brussels and Amsterdam.

That’s about it. So as is probably pretty obvious, I have a fair amount left to do. And I’m busy tonight, so I guess this will all get done tomorrow night. Right.

I do know a basic schedule of the day to day activities that will be happening while I’m there.

Friday: Work half day. Go to airport. Fly to Chicago. Fly to Belgium.
Saturday: Arrive in Belgium. Look at things around Brussels. Probably sleep.
Sunday: More looking at things around Brussels.
Monday: Paris.
Tuesday: Paris.
Wednesday: Paris.
Thursday: Bruges (Brugge), Ghent (Gent), Soccer game
Friday: Amsterdam
Saturday: Amsterdam
Sunday: Fly to Chicago. Fly to St. Louis. Probably a lot of sleep.

So there you go. The basic itinerary.

By Nathan | Posted in Europe 2010, Travel | Comments (3)

I’m Still Around

2/8/2010 – 11:11 am

But with work, and working on the house, and skating, and preparing for Europe, I haven’t had much time to write. I’ve also been feeling very anxious again, which sort of saps away any of my energy.

That having been said, this blog is in for a mini resurgence, because while I am in Europe, I plan on writing every day to give an update of what I’ve been doing. A sort of travel blog if you will. I might even post pictures, although I’m not really much of a picture taker. But this is sort of a big deal trip, so I should document it in some way.

So be ready for that, and maybe a little bit before I head out.

By Nathan | Posted in General | Comments (2)

Bathroom

1/26/2010 – 11:59 am

In the continuing attempt to make my house a pleasant place to live, my lovely parents have offered to pay a large portion of the cost of redoing my main bathroom. For those of you who have been to my house, you know how strange my bathroom is. It doesn’t have a real door, the mirror is to the left of the sink, the toilet is placed such that you bang you knee all the time, there is no real counter space, and to top it off, the shower has a 30 degree slope inwards from about shoulder height up. It was almost enough to make me not consider buying the house in the first place.

But since I have it, and since a certain Kelly is planning on moving in with me, we have decided that it is time to rip out the bathroom and put in a nice one that is actually functional. Which sounds great, and I’m honestly very excited. But there is a small problem with this plan. My house is 101 years old, which means that when you start tearing into things, everything goes crazy, no matter who good a plan you had. In fact, it seems like the more of a plan that you have, the worse things actually go. And in this case, the plan isn’t that great. It is basically rip out the entire bathroom, rip out a large portion of the kitchen that is below the bathroom, and have Nathan be a vagrant for a couple of months. Yeah, I’m a little nervous.

We are planning on starting this Friday with hauling away all of the crap that was in my basement that was moved to the garage so that we can haul all of the crap we rip out of the house into the garage. It is going to be one hell of a project.

And like I said, I’m a little nervous. But I think that is to be expected when your house is about to be ripped apart and then put back together. But I’m also very excited, because I know that the people involved either do good work or hard work, and the combination of the two will cause me to end up with something very nice. But I might be spending a few nights in my car as I wear out my welcome elsewhere.

By Nathan | Posted in General | Comments (0)

Schooling

1/14/2010 – 12:18 pm

As some of you may know, I did a good job at getting through school while doing a limited amount of work. Pretty much the bare minimum. And while at the time that was good, it has left me now feeling like perhaps I missed out on some stuff, especially in one or two of my computer science classes. Now that I program for a living, sometimes I feel like I should have paid more attention and done a better job.

So I’ve been thinking, and I’ve decided that there is nothing to keep me from going back and trying to do some of the things that I skimped on, because I’m pretty sure that they would make me a better programmer at a day to day level. (Although lets be honest. It doesn’t really take much ability to program the sorts of websites that they ask us to do here. But again, just doing a passable job at boring things has left me unsatisfied.)

I think my project is going to be writing a compiler. For those of you who don’t know, a compiler is a program that turns computer programs into something that computers can actually use. And I took a class on compilers, and I’ve even technically written a compiler before. But I didn’t do a very good job, and I definitely think I can and want to prove to myself that I am able to do it.

Then again, it might turn into another instance of me deciding I don’t want to bother with it and stopping. Only this time there isn’t even a grade as a punishment, so who knows? But I will give it my best.

By Nathan | Posted in General | Comments (1)

Renewed!

1/6/2010 – 10:02 am

I’m sure everyone will be happy to know that I have just renewed this domain name for another year. What does that mean for you? Well it means that at least for another year I’ll be here semi-randomly, writing things of little or no consequence?

And what does this mean for me? Another year of possible copyright infringement on the late, great Mitch Hedberg.

So thanks everyone who has been along for the ride so far. I think we’re around 7 or 8 years of this, and hopefully we’ll have some more together. But now, I have a meeting.

By Nathan | Posted in General | Comments (1)

Happy New Year

12/31/2009 – 9:40 am

Greetings all, and Happy New Year, almost. What is there to say about a year like 2009? If you’ve been following my letters, you know that for the first few years I tried to be as ridiculous as possible, mocking what seems to be the traditional end of year letter where people whine and moan about the crappy things going on in their lives, as if they are the only ones who have it bad. (Do you wear a machine plugged into you? Does sugar have the potential to kill you? Yeah, I thought not. Shut it.) But you can only do that so much. And so last year I tried to be genuine, and that actually turned out pretty well. Now this year I don’t really feel like being genuine, or being ridiculous. So we’ll see.

I guess the best place to start would be the start of the year. History! Barack Obama elected President. Yay! My guy had one for the first time since I could vote. And not only was it my guy, but it was the guy that I had supported from the very start. So yay! We won!

Wait. What? You mean in a lot of ways he has turned out to not be what you wanted at all? Well that’s probably my own fault for placing so much hope in him, but he did tell us to do that. Oh well. At least my guy still “won”.

But politics are boring. So lets talk about all of the other glorious things that 2009 had for us. In April, Kelly’s horrible foster dog Jesse, who humped everything he could find, and ate through every piece of clothing he could get his hands on, finally left. But only after he ate a bunch of raisins, which could have killed him, so Kelly and I had to force him to drink some hydrogen peroxide in order to get him to throw up. Fun!

In one of the more surprising parts of the year, Abby managed to get a boyfriend. A real one. And one that is actually a good guy. And can put up with her. His came is Neo, and as far as I can tell, he has the patience that can only be imparted directly from God.

But that actually isn’t the most surprising relationship part of the year. No, that would have to be Phil and Helen getting married. That in itself is not surprising. We knew that they were going to get married since last year. No, the surprising thing is that I, Nathan, doofus of the family, performed the ceremony. And you know what? I did an awesome job. A much better job than you could have done, dear reader, for two reasons. One, I know Phil and Helen better than you, and two, I am better than you at being funny and witty and yet heartfelt. Their wedding was actually a very good day, and I think my blood sugar is still way too high from all of the amaretto cake that I ate.

Mom and Dad still have their new house that they got at the end of last year, although it is vastly improved. The entire improvement to the house, though, comes in the shape of a new room for Abby. The rest of the house is pretty much exactly the same, but now Abby has a brand new basement room that is the size of Phil and Helen’s apartment, basically. Dad built it with his friend, and now new family relative, John. They literally worked on this room for months, and spent untold fortunes on making it. It is beautiful, but there is an argument to be made that Abby didn’t deserve it.

But the biggest news has to be the reopening of Highway 40. I’ve recently gone into how great it is to have it open, so I won’t rehash, but I will say that now that it has been open for a few weeks, things have definitely smoothed out, and it makes my commute much easier. It also makes it much, much easier to get to Mom and Dad’s, except when I forget that it is open and still go the long way out of habit. But it is open, and there is something to be said for small good things in the face of immeasurable suckage.

Speaking of immeasurable suckage, I was talking to Kelly this year about how terrible this year was. Mostly because of some complete brain issues on my part. But they were pretty unhappy making, and kind of cast a bad light over the whole year. (Now we are into the realm of the traditional end of year letter.) But she made an important point. She asked if everything was okay right now, and yes, right now, at this instant, things are okay. I just ate a pastry, and I’m not unhappy, and I have a 3 day weekend coming up. So yeah, I am happy right now, even after this crappy year. And maybe that is all that you can really expect.

In conclusion, today is an arbitrary delimiter of time, so let’s not get too excited everyone. Drive safe. Don’t shoot guns in the air. Don’t make a big deal out of this. It is just Thursday.

By Nathan | Posted in Family, Filler, Pointless Ruminations | Comments (4)

Merry Boxing Day

12/26/2009 – 6:45 pm

I hope that everyone out there had a lovely Christmas. I certainly did. I got lots of lovely presents, and spent the whole day hanging out with my family and eating way too much food. So that seems like a pretty good day.

This year, as opposed to previous years, I am writing a New Years letter, as opposed to a Christmas letter. Mostly this is because I was lazy and didn’t get around to writing it yet. But also, everyone writes Christmas letters. I’m going to be a little different. It should be up in the next few days. I will do my very best to have it up before the new year.

I’m also getting very excited about my trip to Europe. I leave in less than two months, and it is going to be quite an adventure. Actually, when I say excited, what I really mean is scared out of my mind. And excited. But SCARED. I have never been someplace where they didn’t speak English (unless you count Puerto Rico, which I guess I should, but don’t) and it is going to be quite the experience. But I should come back with at least a few stories.

So I hope everyone has a festive week, and keep checking for that New Years Letter.

By Nathan | Posted in Birthdays, Family, Filler, Kelly, Pointless Ruminations, Travel | Comments (0)