I don’t travel 250,000,000,000 miles per year, so I don’t get free airline tickets or first class upgrades, but every once in a while I do get free stuff like some decent magazines. Yes, now these evil corporations have my address, but I’m sure they already have that and much, much more.
I finally got a chance to watch some of TV shows cluttering the Tivo, and one of them was this past week’s Alias. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’m going to ruin it for you and let you know that the whole premise of the show was “ice-five”, which is either an homage to “ice-nine” in Kurt Vonnegut’s excellent Cat’s Cradle, or a cheesy rip-off. I have a feeling they meant to go for the former, but it ended up much more the latter, using only the “ice-nine” from the story, and skipping out on all of the sarcasm and irony encirlcing the Books of Bokonon (Although I guess Marshall could qualify as the midget Newt Hoenikker).
Yeah, I think I’m still here, I’ve just been busy driving around visiting people. Two weekends ago I had to go clean out my PSU apartment, which my roommates had managed to completely destroy in the 3 months I’ve been gone. We did a pretty good job cleaning, I’m just waiting on the security deposit to see how bad they rip us off. It was nice being back in State College for a couple days, its hard to believe I won’t be going back for the fall semester.
Last weekend I ventured back up 70W, beyond the “Welcome to Pennsylvania: home of gray skies, non-stop rain, and miles of pointless orange barrels” and through the cattle chutes of the unpaved, newly jacked up prices Turnpike. At the end of that wonderful journey, I arrived at my house, and stayed in the new guestroom (a.k.a. my old bedroom, my parents didn’t waste any time getting rid of me). Saturday, my friends and I went down to the Pirate game, which was sold out thanks to fireworks night, but we managed to get standing room only tickets. We stood on the lower level right behind home plate, not bad for $8. The Pirates even managed to surprise me and beat the Rockies 6-1. After the game and fireworks, we headed over to Tequila Willies to celebrate Mike’s bday. Sunday was family day; we went over to the Shadyside arts festival to check out the works of art. I have to say, the Penn State Arts Festival was much nicer and more open than Shadyside, but we did manage to find a photo for in my old bedroom. I’m still trying to find something for the walls in my new apartment. I’ve found some I like, but I haven’t bought any yet. Monday, I took a vacation day and went dahn ta Primanti Brudders for lunch with Diane and Dave. I still can’t believe they don’t have Heinz ketchup there, and they consider themselves a Pittsburgh institution. In the evening, I began my trek back south below the Mason-Dixon line. Mike’s family was visiting D.C., so I met up with him on Tuesday night in Clarendon. Wednesday I got a call from Pooch saying he was crossing through VA on his way to surf the Carolina coast with a couple of his old roommates, and we hung out and played pool in Arlington. The rest of the week was pretty much the usual work week with no more visitors.
This past weekend was mostly spent relaxing by the pool and reading. I just finished White Noise by Don DeLillo, now onto Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I’m not sure how much I’ll enjoy this, but The Fountainhead is one of my favorites, mixing architecture, ethics, and idealism in one.
I did see one interesting thing while at the Tyson’s Corner mall, an Aston Martin Vanquish in Bloomingdales. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a quarter of a million dollar car just sitting in a department store being used as a slide for little kids. It was amazing seeing one up close, but I could never spend that much money on a car, besides, that would buy five different M3s, or a mixture of M3s, M5s, and Porsches, or something a little more reasonable like a house.
In honor of the Statue of Liberty’s reopening, I would like to recommend a book from one of my favorite authors, Leviathan. The book draws its plot from Lady Liberty and is well worth checking out. It’s a shame that you can’t climb the stairs to look out from the torch any longer. I guess that’s one more thing I’ll never get to do.
On a lighter note, check out this movie for the only W. from Craford, Texas that would get my vote.
![[Microserfs by Douglas Coupland]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0060987049.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Forbes magazine released their Best Cities For Singles 2004, and for the third year running, Pittsburgh ends up in last place. Luckily, I made my escape to the number two city, and one of the fastest growing counties in the country.
I feel bad for Pittsburgh, but the city is going bankrupt, jobs are fleeing the area, and tech companies refuse to move in. For now, D.C. will be the Silicon Valley of the East. If only the days of the tech boom would came back, I could go back to playing with Legos.