On the Road Again

Why do I always seem to blog right before leaving town?

But alas, another month has gone by, and all too fast. It's amazing how that happens. And I really ought to be writing.

In a few short minutes, I'll trek up the hill to get on another band bus to Notre Dame. We'll be spending most of the day and evening tomorrow (Halloween) in Chicago, IL, where our hotel is, before heading back to South Bend, IN for Saturday's game, and ultimately returning to Pittsburgh in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

As a side effect that only a geek would notice, that means I'll be travelling into UTC-5 (Central Daylight Time), travelling back into UTC-4 (Eastern Daylight Time), and then changing the clocks to UTC-5 (Eastern Standard Time) on the way back. So I might as well just get used to "new time" now.

As far as politics goes, I voted on Monday. At 12:12 EDT, I filled in a bubble on a bubble sheet that somehow represents (in an absentee manner) my choice for president. It was a little bit scary, and I actually did pause a little beforehand. But I did it. And the ballot's in the mail.

I watched Barack Obama's 30-minute infomercial last night, just to see what he had to say, since it obviously couldn't sway my vote in either direction. I really don't know how to feel about that. I mean, sure it was uplifting and inspirational, but are paid infomercials really what our democracy is coming to? Please tell me it isn't so.

In any case, I'm sure glad to have gotten that over with. Obama referred to "having gotten to know Americans over the last 21 months," which really made me frustrated that this spectacle that has been the 2008 election cycle has been drawn out for so long. My one choir friend even wrote an Op-Ed for the Pitt News warning people to watch out for the onset of Post-Election Depression Syndrome.

But as important as the presidential election is, it's not been at the front of my mind lately. I had mostly made up my mind about a week and a half ago, which is a very good thing... because I haven't really been able to keep up with the news for the last week and a half.

If you've been reading recent tweets on my Twitter, you'll have noticed that I've been having computer troubles lately.

I was having a remarkably awesome dream on the morning of Saturday 18 October, when at 05:30, it was interrupted by a grating and whirring sound within my laptop. At first I thought it was the hard drive, and my tech-support/friend Corey was inclined to believe me, until I had him actually come over to run some diagnostics, which proved that it was in fact the cooling fan which was failing.

So in order to not overheat my laptop, I've been working out of computer labs for about the last fortnight. And when I get back from Indiana, I'll have to somehow find a replacement fan.

Classes are going well, and the same with all the extracurriculars. I'm a little bit frustrated that two of my classes decided to have big group projects for the end of the term but didn't assign them until just now, but I'll deal with it.

And, oh yeah, I'm a membership candidate for ΚΚΨ, the national honorary band fraternity. In fact, if all goes well, I'm just over two weeks from becoming a Brother.

Oops. Guess it really has been a while, eh, blogosphere?

Hope October was great, everyone. I'll see you hopefully sooner this time.

Random tangent 1: First snow in Pittsburgh yesterday! And I don't have my winter coat down here because my parents forgot to bring it down with them on 12 October. I'll survive, I guess.

Random tangent 2: The Cathedral of Learning has been lit up in all kinds of cool manners lately, as part of the Festival of Lights celebrating Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary next month. I have some awesome pictures, and I'd certainly like to link them, but (as you've probably guessed) uploading them just won't happen without a working computer.