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My family had Christmas yesterday, December 24th. My aunt and uncle came down from Concord, my uncle from across town, cousin, cousins' boyfriend, grandpa, etc... came in from across the northern part of this great state to eat cookies and open presents. I'm just glad it's over with.
I can't decide if I like christmas or not. This is a mental battle that has been going on in my head for quite a few days, ever since they started playing music in the department stores. It is just so damned happy and joyous. Everywhere I go, I see smiling faces and happy people giving and sending, hugging, reuniting, and making up for lost time. Then I see the people in the 3 story mall parking structure waiting 45 minutes to steal, literally steal a parking spot from someone right under their nose. After the one fingered salutes are over, there are still just two smiling drivers, each one thinking to themselves "may the best driver win", still bitter at each other, still smiling.
I'm not even going to get in to the religious side of the holiday; I was raised as a conservative christian so I definately have my feelings about it, even though I may believe it. (again, don't get me started)
As for the factual stuff, I got a lens for my camera (which I bought with the camera last week) from my parents, along with 3 of those little LED nova lights (must have been a sale at REI), and the generic assortment of DVDs and books and such. Nothing that out of the ordinary, but I must say that there are now 4, yes count 'em FOUR iPods in my family (my dad also has one). What a bunch of geeks.
Speaking of, I did get the pi shirt from thinkgeek :-D along with a mouse that has a fish tank in it. All is well in DaveLand. Also, I got a few more freelance jobs that will take up pretty much all my free time in the month of January, so look for me at Shasta on the weekends, and maybe during night skiing.
Oh, and Merry Christmas :)
As you might know, I have been lusting after a digital camera for the past few months, comparing prices and reading reviews and the such. Well, I finally went out and got one. After reading all the reviews on dpreview.com and looking at the cameras in person at places like BB and CC, I had my mind made up. I went into Crown Camera with my mind made up. I looked the salesperson in the eye and said: "I want a Nikon D70". He knew ... he just knew, so he showed me the camera, and the similar cameras by Canon and Olympus and even Pentax. I wanted the Nikon.
This is not just a digital camera. It is a digital single lens reflex with all the interchangeable lenses and goodies and sexiness of the old school SLRs. [For pictures and an in-depth review] What does this mean to you? I am going to, in the next month or so until I get back to shcool, be starting a photoblog along with my normal blog. Don't know how or why or even if yet, but it's something I want to be doing. At least there will be a photography section once I get good enought to not be embarassed putting some pictures up. I have only had the camera for a couple days as of yet, but look for some christmas pictures, some snowboarding pictures, and of course some pictures from Hawaii in the next 4 or 5 weeks :)
/edit: for the record, I am the number one google for dave stillman. Damn you vanity searching.
You know, I think I may have a mental block against learning in a classroom. I mean, ever since the third grade I can remember hating school, and now that I am in college, nothing has changed. I love to learn, don't get me wrong, I think that learning is a fundamental human nature and whatnot, but the instant I go to school I tune out. I enjoy learning, but for some reason when I sit in that lecture chair, my mind leaves, and I am left counting the lights in the ceiling or wondering when the last time I washed my pants was.
This is finals week. I took a final this morning, and I think I passed. Don't know for sure until the teacher sends it to me, but I think I passed. I know for a fact that I failed my chem class. I might fail my math class. I probably won't turn in my ME project. And you know what? I don't care. I really really really really do care, but I don't. I just don't. I think there might be something wrong with me, but all I know is that since the third grade, I just don't care about school. Mrs. Visco's class.
Ask anyone I work with if I am a good worker. Ask any of my bosses. See if I work, see if I care about working. They will all tell you that I am a diligent worker who gets stuff done before it's assigned. You know why? because it's true. I work well. I just don't school well. As I think back through every class, every teacher, every mentor, they all tell me the same thing. I am an incredibly bright young man with lots of potential, but I just don't apply myself. If only I worked a little bit harder. If only I would choose studying over voluntarilly staring at a blank wall.
And I would, too.
mom and dad, if you for some reason read this, i'm just frustrated.
Finals suck. I don't think I need to convince anyone of this. I am 99.99% sure I bombed a chem test yesterday (unless there is some massive curvage that happens) and I haven't the balls to tell my parents yet that I am most likely going to fail the class. Anyway, euch, boring details.
It was opening day at Mt. Shasta last Friday, and that means that I can now go snowboarding whenever I have a ride up there. I did indeed pay the massive amounts of money to buy a season pass this year, so if you find yourself wanting to go up, and happen to have a car, give me a call or drope me an email, I'll pay half of the gas to get there!
It looks as if I am going to be living in Redding over break. James is going to drive me up on Friday after he is done with finals and I am done with work. I really want to go up snowboarding on Saturday, to get a day in before I have to go down to San Jose to like, spend Christmas with my family. ::cough::stassia::cough:: After that, my dad said he'd give me his car so I can drive back to Redding and stay with whoever wants me (Zach, James, Jack, ?) and snowboard my little heart out every day, while still working in Chico for a day or two if they want me to. On Jan. 8th, I will be driving back down to SJ where we will pack up and drive to SFO by 5:30 to catch a flight to Honolulu, Hawaii! After returning on the 15th, I hope to drive (once again) back to Redding for a few more days up at the mountain before I pack up all my crap and bring it down to Chico and then back down to San Jose where I will catch a bus or ask a friend for a ride back up to Chico for the RHA snowboarding trip, then back to school.
What a mouthfull. That was more for me to get things organized, than for people to read it, so if it makes no sense, or if every other word is "snowboarding" now you know why :)
Don't ask how or why, but I came across this link the other day:
http://www.heartwarmers4u.com/members/?jbarn1.
Basically, it rates the hall that I live in (Lassen Hall, CSU Chico) as the 23rd most sexually active dorm in America. After looking at the other schools that made the list, you find that we are #4 in the western US, and #3 in CA (the west coast). What a great statistic to show mom and dad, huh?
SEND YOUR KIDS TO CHICO!!!
My parents were planning on taking a family vacation to Michigan during a week in January. I told them over my dead body would I go the Michigan in the dead of winter. Well, my dad emailed me the other day, and said there was a bit of a change of plans, and wanted to know if I would change my mind.
Well, the "change of plans" doesn't involve a trip to Michigan, but it does involve a week in Hawaii. On the beach. With sunshine. And warm water as opposed to ice rain.
So naturally I said I'd go. No hesitation, the only thing holding my back would be my job, but I have a feeling that they'd understand. :)
Speaking of jobs, I got another one doing web design. I went back up to redding and went to my old internship that I had with Dan, and one of the guys who has a tech support business in the same building offered me the job. It is a cool project, and I am excited to be working with them. It was cool because it was my first real job negotiation with a contract and stuff. Technically, this is my first freelance job, so I am really stoked about having it. I guess I will post more details about the job when it nears completion. It is a PHP/MySQL driven site, which is way cool and convinient for me (damn you shasta.com and your coldfusion!)