Home at last!

Packing up is such a major pain. Especially when you have to pack and shop for furniture at Ikea all in the same day. Much thanks to W and H who helped me move, etc, etc. We were up till 2, just moving, so you can imagine the horror. Too bad none of the fiurniture is assembled, though. Have to put together 1)bed 2)chair 3)desk 4)small bookshelf 5)big bookshelf when I get back. Would also be a good idea to buy under-bed storage bins from Ikea but the idiot that I am, it ain't done. Total cost of moving in is astronomical, but I really, really love the stuff I picked out, so I'm pretty content. It's a happy 3:30 AM right now, but I slept on the plane, etc. Should be alright if I sleep from 4-10 or so this morning.

Finals were a pain too... Seeing as I had the wonderful 3 finals in one day syndrome this year. Since they were 3 hour finals... What a rush. Results for three of my finals are out, though, and I am _very_ satisfied with what I got. whoop! I would plan something celebratory, but I'm broke enough as is.

Had the bizzarre fortune to be on the same flight as R on the way home. So we chatted and whatnot for the whole flight. Went much better than the last time I flew via JAL. I managed to sleep on the plane for once.

Right. Bedtime for me. Tommorrow: Singaporean Food!

whoa. blogger is running really slow.
no caps today. using the laptop keyboard for once. my regular keyboard is buried under books and notes.
such a procastinator. have to call the landlady to sign my lease tommorrow. have to start studying for physics because its only a day away. have to get a ^&(*^*^ uhaul to get my furniture. and i forgot to get my forms back from the immigration office. ugh.
didn't do as much work as i wanted today. otoh feel that i may not need to work all that much after all. apparently showing up at class does wonderful things for one's exam preparation.
been trying to install linux the whole day. not going well. looks like i ought to back everything on my HDD up before going for the new OS, because lord knows i'd really hate to go without an OS. (that i can use, anyway) in the meantime i have my first research "job" (hence the linux install because all these programs run on UNIX/LINUX machines.)
tired. tommorrow's another day.

To nessa:
I love you very much. Thank you! *hugs*
btw, _she_ called me at 8:30 instead of the other way round. All is well. *grins*

Basically, I've a place to stay now. Low rent, and not too far. Seen/been to too many other places these few days. Every new place convinces me my choice is very good indeed.

Some interesting things: saw a tiny studio far from campus. So far, in fact, that there was a playschool across the street and kids coming home from grade school. It's the classic "perfect" suburban neighbourhood. Didn't see any grannys watering plants as with nessa's neighbourhood, but the prevalence of kids says the neighbourhood is literally as safe as it gets. Of course it's so far and there's no bus. I'd have to drive.

The question is when I can be bothered to start studying... =(

Toddling off now. Gonna try to settle next year's research openings today. ;)

Gmail is pretty cool. 1GB of HDD space? You could consider it your personal correspondence archive. Not to mention you can upload any document you've ever wanted to protect from HDD crash....

Sorta found a place, after looking at 5 or so yesterday. It's far from campus, but it's cheap and stuff. Spacious, sunny, could be done up pretty nice, I hope. *grin* I feel kinda bad about another place I saw because though that's expensive, it's really nice too. 2 more look-sees on Monday and I'll have reached a decision. This housing thing isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Should have decided to strike out away from known company sooner.

Gmail is pretty cool. 1GB of HDD space? You could consider it your personal correspondence archive. Not to mention you can upload any document you've ever wanted to protect from HDD crash....

Sorta found a place, after looking at 5 or so yesterday. It's far from campus, but it's cheap and stuff. Spacious, sunny, could be done up pretty nice, I hope. *grin* I feel kinda bad about another place I saw because though that's expensive, it's really nice too. 2 more look-sees on Monday and I'll have reached a decision. This housing thing isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Should have decided to strike out away from known company sooner.

goodness knows how many of you people I've bitched to about this by now:
My new landlord wants to raise the rent. he wants me to pay out 60% of the rent when he gets the bedroom + attached bathroom and most of the space. All this with the provisio that I have no visitors w/o his consent, no pets, no loud music and no cooking apart from the most basic. This is patently ridiculous. His claim is that similar units are much more expensive due to rent control, so I'm getting a steal. Frankly, I was getting a steal before he raised the rent (balanced with the fact that the place is a dump), with the rent up, I might as well move somewhere else. It may be farther from campus, but I get to keep pets, play my music loud, etc... all for (about) the same rent.

I'm not sure I even want to negotiate with him anymore, since this is an obvious source of animosity. Maybe I'm being oversensitive, but his email that started all this seemed a little patronising. (which I won't quote yet) On some level I feel a bit miffed simply because I was counting on this place - it was pretty much my only option. It's a good thing he has me pissed, though, because I wouldn't go looking if I wasn't pushed... The real problem is that my flight is booked and I will be back on the 1st day of term. Meaning I have 2 weeks during exam period to deal with all this mess. Not a good situation.

15 minute update...

E, congrats on the Xbox. Halo is only really fun multiplayer. Hey, what's a shotgun for if not to chase your friends around with? *grins* Soon you'll be buying another TV, and more controllers... The cycle shall begin!

Finished with H.P. Lovecraft's Mountains of Madness. Doesn't seem all that scary to me. Like Shakespeare, Lovecraft has issues with overusing paritcular words. In this case, "strange," "aeon," "indescribable" come up very often indeed. If something _was_ indescribable, how come there are descriptions? Also, am not sure why sanity checks even occur in Call of Cthullu. I mean, faced with a Shoggoth or Old One, most DnD adventurers would just break out the heavy magic and let the damn thing have it. I don't find bizzarre organisms all that sanity threatening, do you?

Joyce essay is in its final stages. All is well on that front.

Nessa's happy, I'm happy.

Workload has ebbed because its the end of term. Took advantage of that to replay Homeworld 2. Harder than I remembered... Now I can either start studying or read more books. No surprise which I'd rather do...

Visited T & T's garage sale of "all the stuff we can't bring with us when we graduate. Bought $30 in books (am such a sucker), some household electricals and am thinking about a bed + desk + speaker set. Do I need $99 (Ebay for $170) 4.1 speakers?

Basically decided on a place to live from now on: at $440 a month it's dirt cheap, but kind of a dump. Whatever. Not the partying kind anyway. Cosy's all that matters.

Looking into research openings with the university. Hope to get involved while I still can. Crossing fingers. *grin* Speaking of which, hope exposure at tommorrow's faculty meeting when they give me the Levens helps in getting said research position.