Well, hello everyone.
It's time for me to have an actual website–something that I do something with on a regular basis. It's been on my to-do list, in a manner of speaking, for over a decade. I've made various attempts to do it throughout the years, some of which were more successful than others at accomplishing the goal. Ironically, the most successful one was the first page I had, served from my first ever Linux box (running Red Hat 5.2) on our home DSL connection. The only reason it had any significant number of visitors was that it the key feature of the site was a complete set of Zelda ROM files during a time when they were notoriously difficult to find.
Anyway, I have the normal assortment of profiles on popular social networking sites, two of which happen to be blogs. So I thought, “Why not make a personal website out of the stuff you would have written on those sites?” And so, here we are. I figure I'll probably cut and paste a lot of the content onto those other sites as well, just so nobody feels left out. But this is going to be the main source from now on. Of course, I also have a history of starting these kinds of things and then not keeping them updated, which spells disaster for keeping anyone's interest…we'll see if I can avoid that.
Today seems like a good day to start something like this, for a few reasons. Most of all, I happen to have time right now. This is tremendously important. Second, I just transferred to a new university (Cal Poly Pomona, after graduating with a two-year Mathematics degree from Fullerton College), and as my first official day was yesterday, I have something to write about. Third, I also just went to a Muse concert last night, which provides another source for something that could possibly be remotely interesting to you all. Or rather, you both. I have a feeling my readership at this point is either close to or exactly nonexistent.
As far as college goes, the first day was about what I expected. I transferred to Cal Poly after seven (!) semesters at Fullerton, so I was already familiar with the whole experience. I'd found all of my classrooms on campus at the BroncoFusion event they put on two days earlier, so I knew exactly how to get where I needed to be, and I arrived early enough to make parking a non-issue. I did still manage to get lost on the way though, due to a misguided sense of adventure. Although I knew how to get to my classes, I decided to try a shortcut though construction-zone-infested areas, and I somehow managed to find myself opening a door onto the fourth floor of the library. I am totally serious. There's a reason for that, but I'm not going into it, because it's kind of dumb.
Both classes I had that day–Java and statistics–went by quickly, as both were only hour-long sessions and both had a lot of administrative stuff to get through. I ended up with a small amount of homework which only took about 45 minutes to do this afternoon. That's probably the lightest homework load I'll have on any weekend for about the next 10 weeks. I got to go home after that second class, because that's all I have on Fridays. Mondays and Wednesdays add a third meeting later in the afternoon, but those won't start until next week. I took a few pictures throughout the day while I was on campus, and as soon as I get a photo gallery setup on this thing, I'll post the pictures.
Later in the evening, I got to go with my younger brother Greg to a Muse concert at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, CA. The place ended up being absolutely packed, but we got there early enough to be pretty near the front of the line, and then Greg's friend ended up having even better spots about 50 people up, so we all grouped together. I don't know about the ethics of that plan, but I think it's generally acceptable. Anyway, I really like Muse as a band; their style takes a bit of getting used to, but they are musically brilliant and astonishingly talented. I'd never seen them in concert before, but Greg had, and by his recommendation we all got pit tickets, despite the investment required to do so. It was worth it. We ended up being at the VERY FRONT of the pit, hands on the rail, about 10 feet from the bassist and in good view of everyone else. It was incredible. Here's a video from last night, from the camera that I was holding (unfortunately the battery died 10 seconds before the song ended, but you get the idea):
Amazing.
Except for the random people smoking pot somewhere behind us (that stuff smells awful!), it would be hard to find a way to improve a performance like that. Those guys sure know how to put on a show.
Even with VIP parking, it still took a good 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot, but only about another 20 to get home after that. Del Taco decided to close their 24-hour drive-thru when we tried to get some food, or else it would have taken even longer to make it home. It wasn't too late–only about 12:30am–but the day and especially the concert was pretty draining, so Greg and I both went straight to bed.
So…yeah. I consider myself blogged now. Hopefully I'll have time to regularly post some more random stuff for random internet people, and not-so-random friends who might be kind or indulgent enough to read this.
Farewell for the moment.