In Seattle! The eating begins....

Friday, February 26, 2010 at 9:37 PM
Thursday Night:
1 St. Bernardus Abt 12
1 Duvel
2 Bavak Lagers

= 1 trashed night

Friday:
2:00pm - Pad Thai noodles with scallops
3:30pm - 1/2 lb of fries and a strawberry milkshake
5:00pm - 4 oyster shots with cocktail sauce and lemon juice
german chocolate mousse with merlot blueberry sauce
7:00pm - 10 oz Argentinian style filet mignon with a bleu cheese and rosemary sauce
pureed potatoes with black pepper
grilled mushrooms, asparagus, and other vegetables
9:00pm - caramel almond gelato with a "Lenny scoop" of spicy azteca chocolate on top

Can't shake this weird feeling...Part 2

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 5:43 AM
Here I am, 15 minutes before my interview. I don't know if I've quite shaken my melancholy, but I have to toughen up now. I tell myself that possibilities in the future depend on how I seize opportunities in the present. It helps me concentrate a bit, though I still feel as if there's so much I've done that I've forgotten about.

It's been a digressive and incoherent few posts. I wish I had something valuable to say, and perhaps I'll come up with something in the next few days.

Until then.

-Howitzer

Can't shake this weird feeling...

Monday, February 22, 2010 at 9:50 PM
I have a job interview tomorrow morning, my first in over a year. There's no way I'm taking the job, if I get it. I guess I'm just doing it for the experience, and because I have nothing else to do. Taking this interview is the smart thing to do, a "just in case" for the future. Yet, I find myself strangely uncaring, and detached from everything.

I've thought about all the things I've done in college, in internships, in grad school. I'm proud of my accomplishments, and I really feel I could impress the recruiters tomorrow....if only I cared. Here lies the core of how I feel. I feel strangely detached from everything in my life at this moment. Perhaps because I have no direction at the moment?

All of a sudden, I feel sad. Strange...even this sadness feels numb to me. I was talking with a friend earlier tonight, and I realized that we are both finding our post-graduation experiences to be more eye-opening than our college experiences. For me, I broke out of the mindset of school -> graduate school -> job. With all newfound freedom, such as this break I'm taking, there also comes a requisite loss of stability, of safety. For me, I've lost an ideal life path to cling to. I suppose that's why I'm sad.

Where does the future take me? MIT? An industry job? Homelessness?

Ode to Michigan

Monday, February 8, 2010 at 12:12 PM
Michigan. The name has become synonymous with the great American fall from prominence. The worst economy in all the land. The disappearance of manufacturing from the Rust Belt. The decay of Detroit. Where people once looked to Michigan as a symbol of American innovation and prowess, now people scoff at it as a crippled lion. Dilapidated, broken down, withered away.

I speak today to show how much Michigan still represents the US. The people, the heritage, and the culture; though financially ruined, we still remain true to the foundations of being American.

Everyday, we get up and emerge from our homes to head to work. Some of us put on our work boots, grab our gloves, and pack a large sack lunch, and then head down I-94 towards the endless operation of Detroit's factories. Others button up their white shirts, knot their ties, and pull on their italian shoes before rushing off to the latest meeting with executives to decide the company's future direction. From the most humble blue collar worker to the high flying executive, we all travel on the same roads, and face the same bitter winters. You will find all manners of people in working side by side here.

You will find here some of the most unassuming and friendly people in the country. There is no pretentiousness, just plain down-to-earth people. We enjoy the simple things in life. A family, a house, and of course a car, all earned by working hard and reaping the rewards. This culture comes from when we were just poor farm boys who saw the arrival of the burgeoning auto industry to our state. An opportunity arrived on our doorstep, we seized it, and saw a renaissance flower in result. This is America. Humble, hard working, and opportunistic.

The oft derided American auto industry still churns out the most complex mass-produced product man creates. Michigan is full of classic American icons such as the block GM and the script Ford. I've seen massive factories more than a million square feet, more than a mile long, vast enough to require bicycles for transportation inside. Some of the skills and knowledge found in south east Michigan are simply unavailable elsewhere. American technological might is still here.

We may be the poor, the huddled masses right now, but we still have things to be proud of. It is not our status in life, but how we conduct yourself that shows our nobility.

Nostalgia

Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 11:09 PM
Spent half the night reflecting on my highschool and college years. I guess the older you get, the more selective your memory gets. I just started thinking about how great those years were, and how much fun I had. I think going to BI helped trigger some of it. Just remembering all the people I met back then.

I know I had some low points in highschool, and in college too. Perhaps I'm just realizing now that in the general scheme of things, they really weren't that serious. I got "depressed" about girls, school, my social status, and my parents. Basically what any teenager goes through.

I wonder if any of them remember me (doubtful). Oh well. At least I have these great memories now.

- Howitzer

Police...sigh.

at 8:50 PM
So I got stopped by the police the other night.

Background: After drinks at the Grizzly Peak, and food at the Fleetwood diner (awesome!), Oliver and I are walking back to the car freezing and shivering. Behold! What is this? A giant ice carving abandoned on the sidewalk? Let's play with it! Watch me ram this into the light post! Oh man it just broke in two!

It was a ton of fun smashing this ice carving to pieces. It was cool to see the ice pieces. The carving was big enough that the two of us would have trouble picking it up. Also, the ice was extremely clear, unlike ice cubes from your refrigerator. I think I was throwing one piece down at the other piece when we notice that an SUV cruiser pulls up along side.

Cop: "What are you fellas doing?"
Us: "Uh...playing...with this ice carving..."
Cop: "Don't you have anything better to do 1am at night?"
Us: "No." (Ok we didn't actually say this. We were smart enough to be respectful.)

Basically, we got interrogated by the police officer. He made us stand by the wall while he checked our ID's and asked us questions. He kept talking down to us, in a pretty patronizing way. I was pretty peeved, but luckily I didn't say anything. I think having Oliver around kept my mouth shut, because he was being acquiescent.

Afterwards, I felt like I had just been unjustifiably pushed around and I talked to Oliver about it. Turns out Oliver's a bit more experienced than I at this. Basically, don't screw with cops. They know the law better than you, and they're human too. They're susceptible to the same fighting emotions that everyone has. ie. if I had tried to start an argument with him, the cop would have written me up for being uncooperative or something similarly painful. Lesson learned.

I have to say, this is the first time in awhile that I've been annoyed at the police. There's been times in the past, where a cop is just sitting there, trying purposely to catch speeders. It's a really irritating habit they have, but somewhat justified. They're preventing speeding, albeit with a heavy hand. This time however, the most I could see was that we got ice on the street. It wasn't even in the lanes though, and we still had to go through all that trouble. After questioning us, the police officer basically told us to get out of his sight. I felt thoroughly disgusted by what happened. It felt like this guy was using his position to try to goad us and patronize us. For playing with ice.

Police uphold the law. They serve and protect. For half an hour last night, I saw the humanity behind this ideal.

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