Conito, Ergo Doleo

The title is a funny Latin phrase that loosely translates to: "I think, therefore I am depressed." The Original of course was Conito, Ergo Sum which Descartes wrote in the 17th century.

Why I conjure Latin this very day as a student of Asia I don't know, other then the fact that Latin (while useless in daily life) wreaks of philosophical significance.

In 8 days the last day of class will befall me and my thesis, while still in a unpolished form, will be miraculously polished, finished, and turned in as my last devilish deed for the prestigious private arts school. I am very very satisfied and honored to say those words by the way. I can attest, as others can as well, that I fought hard to gain a seat in the halls of Lewis and Clark-- And I feel honored nearly three years later to say that every pain staking minute sitting in those desks listening to both 'good' lectures and 'ramblings' was worth the time.

~J out

A Week in Review

I’ve almost gotten down to the point where a weekly ‘what’s up with Josh’ is enough. If I can I’ll do it Sundays. So here it goes:

This week was a big week in reality, but semi-big for me. What I mean is that my final presentation for my thesis was on Wednesday. Now for those who don’t do a thesis you gotta know some run up stuff to get the impact of the speech I gave. This thesis project was started nearly a year ago (from September ’07). Of course that’s when I started my initial research on the thesis… Really I’ve been pondering this thesis far before that when I was in Japan. That makes about 1 year and a half of thinking on my thesis subject. That’s a long time ya know… for a 35 page report & 20 minute presentation. However, I did it and did it proud. The speech, personally, was kinda funny timing wise. Delays from two speeches ahead of mine put the time I was supposed to start from 4:10 Pm to 4:20 J (By the way happy 4/20 @ 4:20)…

So I stood up with a prepared statement to read. This statement was almost a joke to me because that day I took the day off from work to prepare for it. I started writing at 8am and finished it at 1pm, but then I had to read it to make sure I’d make the 20 minutes. In my first read it was 30 minutes—no good! Had to rewrite it.. So I spend 15 minutes cutting stuff, read it again and it was 25 min. Still no good (and I was talking fast!). So again I cut it and read it… 17 minutes GREAT! Wait… what time is it? It’s past 2:30 pm. I had to get to the college by 3:30 to make the presentations. That meant an hour, but it takes about 30 minutes to get from my house to the college and find a parking spot (all in rush hour). So for half an hour I did the following in recording breaking speed:

~Design a powerpoint presentation (5 min)

~Shower and Shave (10 min)

~Dress in a Suit and Tie w/vest (5 min)

~Gather up speech, thesis’, write a brief handout (8 min)

~Grab the Cat and throw a handful of cat food at the cat bowl (2 min)

~Drive to School & get parking space (28 min)

~Run to the computer lab and print off 10 handouts (4 min)

Suffice to say.. I was smoking on Wednesday and made it without any noticing how disorganized I was about it.

Well then there was that 20 minutes of straight talking and 10 minutes for questions, but ironically no *real* questions were asked… So I sat down…

Ultimately the whole ordeal was something I don’t want to do for awhile…

Ok so Friday my parents scooted off for a conference in Bend, Or. So I was playing it solo at home. So Friday I sorta indulged myself in burning a bunch of research I didn’t need anymore… What I did was lit off a big bonfire in a oil barrel and just stoked it with gas for about 2 hours while blasting blues music from 89.1 Fm’s Friday Blues Radio.

Good times…

Saturday I finally made big progress on my HTPC so it’s almost done. And I went to the movies with some friends that night… Hats off to those guys.. I really appreciated it!

Today I faced the Moms and their insane kids at the Winco by participating in what I call ‘the contact sport of grocery shopping’

Tonight my folks come back and I think we’ll be doing a BBQ (unless it snows :?)

Thx 4 Reading.. If I get some time and more blog energy, I'll opine on what my view of current politics... w/ my famous global slant and philosophical review.

~J out

Milage to work

Today I remembered to look down and count how many miles it is from the end of my driveway to my parking spot at work. When I left my OD read 420.5 :P and when I got to work
it was 444.1 which means that from home to work is about 23.6 miles.

Thus... bearing that in mind I'll need to make sure my next car gets at least that per gallon.

~J

Navigating Love & Loss

*edit:

on second thought... what gives.