ball of lightning [dot] com

Alright, so I’ve been here for awhile, but damn it’s so much work to actually click on the “post” link and actually type something. Though I suppose I could use the draft feature.

I’m still not really fully unpacked, a task at which I sincerely hope to undertake today. Need to find some miscellaneous (boy I can’t spell) items that were dumped somewhere during that whole process of bring bag in, drop back in dorm room, dump bag on floor, make garbage angel in garbage from bag, randomly throw things on shelfs and dresser.

The new sport of choice on the floor seems to be Texas Hold ‘Em, at which I surprisingly don’t suck, though God seemingly hates me when I end up drawing 3 kings with an ace kicker, go all in, and then lose to a damn straight with some punk who was luckily holding a 10-5 offsuit. Bastahds. Bastahd is my new favorite word by the way. Get used to it. Speaking of words, I have set out to squash any variety of diversity Mews hall, second floor, east side has. Words such as “hella,” “wicked,” “mad,” and “balling” are to be eliminated from vocabulary. I understand you came from a different part of a country now, but you are a bloody New Yorker now. And not in the NYC kind of way, the hickishly quaint, upstate, middle-of-nowhere, kind of way.

The food is surprisingly good, with the only 3 (out of 27) eateries that I have visited on-campus. Out of the seven “meal-plan, all-you-can-eat” stops, I have visited Appel and RPCC and both with good results. The Ivy Room was even better, but it’s status is somewhat hurt by the fact that it’s not on the mail plan (technically) and that it’s a whole 15 minute walk to main campus. Who wants to do that? But either way, the fat man is pleased. Screw the freshman 15, I’m going for the freshman 50.

Classes started yesterday. Physics 112 (mechanics I), Calc 122 (Honors Calculus II), Astronomy 211 (Advanced look at stars, galaxies, and intergalactic relationships), a writing seminar on science as an art, and of course, the PE class… BOWLING! So far the profs seem decent, calc is a bit of a whackjob, astronomy teacher doesn’t seem to speak a lot, and physics lecturer is supposedly nice in class yet detached out of class. Either way, hopefully this semester won’t be too hard seeing as I already have a very strong base in Physics and a mildly strong foundation in Calc II… Writing and bowling will be pie, with astronomy being the wildcard. Hooray for blackbody radiation come Monday.

Collegetown is fairly nice, though a bit more “off-key” than I had previously thought, with a ton of small, seemingly shady stores, mingled in among high-priced fashion outlets. Looking back I should have expected that seeing as it was, oh, Collegetown. Food down there isn’t bad and it looks like the surrounding apartments will at least be a fairly inexpensive source of booze. The town and campus contrast fairly nicely actually.

Ah well, I doubt there is a whole lot more to say right now. I’m here, I’m settled, it’s fun, it’s challenging, it’s daunting, it’s scary, it’s going to be a great four years.

Last post from Connecticut.

Will be leaving for Cornell tomorrow afternoon, staying in Binghamton, and then moving into my almighty dorm room between the hours of 8 and 11 AM on Friday morning. And I really need to finish that stupid book. To think I was done with Sparknotes.

I’m ready. Bring on the Ivies.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the first ever post on the ZForce2…

… and if that wasn’t awesome enough, here’s where flaming rabbits, British people, and sticky wickets go awry.

LONDON (Reuters) - A rabbit set alight by a bonfire at a British cricket club got its revenge when it ran burning into a hut and set it ablaze destroying costly equipment, the club said on Friday.

Members of Devizes cricket club in Wiltshire, western England, were burning dead branches when a rabbit caught up in the waste sped burning from the flames spreading a fire which destroyed lawnmowers and tools worth 60,000 pounds ($110,000).

“After it had been going 5 minutes, the rabbit shot out of the bonfire on fire and went into the hut which is our equipment store,” club chairman John Bedbrook told Reuters.

Two fire engines were called to extinguish the blaze. The rabbit’s skeleton was discovered in the charred hut.

“The firemen were certainly concerned about the rabbit. They felt sorry for it,” said Bedbrook.

The pure mental image of that is simply priceless…

Bryan Adams concert on Tuesday at Oakdale… Two amusing things that I guess will suffice as today’s post…

1.) On the way to the Oakdale, on 84, we follow a vehicle that looks exactly like this. (Note, vehicle Jorge drew in PSP may not be the exact vehicle and objects in the mirror are closer than they appear) I called Tom Ridge’s cell, his voicemail played “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”

Jeff will get a kick out of that.

2.) Adams had someone come on stage to help him sing one of songs. Said person turned out to be a freshman in high school. One looks over at 30 year old Reggie Davis whose face is radiant at the sight of this. His wife next to him, is not too thrilled. Three minutes of that. That is all, I didn’t see what ensued afterwards. Weak, I know. But whenever Reggie makes the comments about the 12 year olds, it’s amusing.

OK, so that post was bad… but it’s my day off, who the hell cares?

“I’m dirty, mean and mighty unclean
I’m a wanted man
Public enemy number one
Understand
So lock up your daughter
Lock up your wife
Lock up your back door
And run for your life
The man is back in town
Don’t you mess me ’round”

TORRINGTON– A city and state police manhunt in the city’s west end began to wind down at 11 p.m. last night, nearly 10 hours after three males entered the Torrington Gasoline station at 37 Migeon Ave. and robbed store owner Ifran Ahmed at gunpoint.

The search for the three unidentified black men began at about 1 p.m. yesterday after city police received a report of three black men, one brandishing a sawed-off shotgun, had entered the gas station and demanded an undisclosed amount of money.

Money in hand, the three men fled the scene on foot, heading toward the banks of the nearby Naugatuck River. The men shed their clothing and cash along the way, said Acting Police Chief Robert Milano, who added that no one was injured during the robbery.

As dozens of state police joined city officers in a foot chase along the west branch of the Naugatuck River, state police helicopter Trooper One began an overhead search for the three men, who remained at large as of press time.

“I came outside after hearing the helicopter and the police,” said Chip Bouchez, owner of Litchfield County Refinishing on lower Migeon Avenue. From the front door of his shop, Bouchez joined a throng of onlookers who watched armed police officers barricade the intersection of Migeon Avenue and Water Street in their hunt for what police are calling “armed and dangerous” suspects.

As resident reports of seeing the suspects began to pour in to police headquarters, police set up a makeshift command post at the Torrington Mattress Co. on Migeon Avenue, where they remained for the duration of the afternoon and evening.

Aided by canine units on loan from state police headquarters in Meriden, city police recovered piles of discarded wet clothing and cash that had been left along the riverbank by the suspects. The shotgun had not been found as of press time, police said.

Brief lulls in the search were ignited throughout the day when city residents reported seeing two black men, one clad in little more than a pair of blue boxers shorts, making their way through the bushes around Riverside Avenue.

At 4 p.m. police redirected their efforts and began to comb the area in a grid formation, which brought a new flurry of sightings from Lynn Heights Road and Roberts Street residents. Police instituted temporary lockdowns on Lynn Heights Road and Roberts Street that were later lifted. Nearby Forbes and Southwest schools, open for summer programs, were placed under temporary lockdowns.

After refueling around nightfall, Trooper One returned to the scene to employ its infrared sensors for what would be its last aerial sweep of downtown Torrington for the evening.

Ahmed, who has owned the gasoline station since 2001, spent the remainder of the afternoon at Torrington police headquarters while his wife, Lisa Jakimenko, sat glued to the television for updates on the robbery.

“I received a call from him shortly after the robbery,” Jakimenko said. “He said he was fine, and that no one was hurt. I’m just happy that people are responding to this as quickly as they are.”

While Ahmed was not available for comment yesterday, Jakimenko said her husband wanted little else other than to have a beer waiting for him when he came home.

City police ask that anyone with information connected to the robbery contact the Torrington Police Department at 489-2000.

[21:23:11] Ralf: hey how’ve you been?
[21:23:20] Me: fine
[21:23:37] Ralf: yay gooo you
[21:24:22] Me: uh yeah
[21:25:43] Ralf: WOOOT
[21:25:59] Me: what the hell are you so boned up about?
[21:26:09] Ralf: boned up?
[21:26:18] Ralf: dude its cause im talking to you, obviously
[21:26:42] Me: so wait, are you coming out of the closet, or making a feeble attempt at sarcasm?
[21:27:14] Ralf: hahahaha
[21:27:42] Ralf: you were the one thinking i was boned up…sure youre not the one who should be answering that questoin?
[21:28:16] Me: logan, that last sentance made absolutely zero sense
[21:28:35] Ralf: you asked me if i was comingout of the closet
[21:28:36] Ralf: however
[21:28:39] Ralf: you are the one
[21:28:45] Ralf: hoping im boned up at talking to you
[21:28:48] Ralf: so i was wondering
[21:29:12] Ralf: if you wanted to answer the questoin of if you were coming out the closet
[21:29:16] Ralf: but you didnt follow me
[21:29:32] Ralf: and now this is just a very very uncool conversatoin
[21:29:38] Me: ok come down off the caffeine pills now
[21:29:48] Ralf: ohh its not caffiene
[21:30:29] Me: im sorry, sugar
[21:31:03] Ralf: um
[21:31:09] Ralf: did you just call me sugar?
[21:31:32] Me: scroll up and replace caffeine with sugar
[21:31:35] Me: as in sugar high
[21:31:55] Ralf: oh. whew ok
[21:32:07] Ralf: talk about boned up jeez i almost wet myself
[21:32:15] Ralf: YES THATS A JOKE DUMBASS
[21:33:07] Me: your humor needs work
[21:33:24] Ralf: your sarcasm needs CPR
[21:33:54] Me: wow, someone got up on the witty side of the bed this morning

For the less knowledgable (or as I refer to you as, the ignorant), Ralf = Logan = spiky hair = eeeeEEEEEEeeeee

Please, don’t hurl your laptop out the window… It isn’t broken… yet…

Borrowed a CSS style sheet from a fellow Wordpresser and manipulated the images so far. Not too bad… Took about half hour using Adobe Photoshop 7.0 (I love Kazaa).

Will get around to finishing the whole CSS sheet (text, links, borders, etc.) later on, but I’ve done my fair share of work for the day.

Oh, and yes, Kris can no longer post here. So for those of you who were looking for the witty stylings of this UConn, Big Y employee, you’re out of luck. Sorry.

… those were the best days of my life…

In the effort of making a post detailing high levels of all-time stupidity, this doozy comes to use via Winsted.

We have a man. A man named Allen. Allen is a contractor. That last sentance doesn’t really matter. Allen likes driving, and his customer apparently likes loaning out his Audi. Allen borrows said Audi. Allen notices that the little needle under the word “gas” is closer to the “E” than it is to the “F.” Allen pulls into a gas station to replentish his fuel supply, making that needle swings all the way over to the right. Allen walks into the gas station, and pays $10 on his pump. Allen also grabs a Snickers bar. Allen gets in the Audi, turns it on, unwraps his Snickers bar, takes a bite, and drives off. Some time later, our good friend Allen is now on Route 8 south, headed towards Waterbury. Around exit 45, his Audi sputters. “Oh no!” he must have cried. “I forgot to fill the [expletive deleted]ing tank after I paid!” The Audi stalls, and since there are no gas stations alongside Route 8, Allen appears royally screwed. Thankfully a stranger offered him a ride. Allen locks the Audi, and gets in with the stranger, who drives him home to Winsted. Allen gets out and thanks the stranger who then drives off. (I know, the masked mystery man.) Allen walks back towards his house to call for a tow truck. He reaches in his pocket and pulls out his housekeys. Keys. “Oh no!” he must have cried. “I forgot the [expletive deleted] keys in the stranger’s car!” Allen is having a bad day. He calls our good buddy Jesse, who drives him down to Waterbury. On arrival, Allen approaches the owner of the Audi and presumably begs for a merciful and painless death. At this point Jesse leaves and the factual part of the story ends. One must presume knowing a) Waterbury’s reputation, b) Allen’s incompetence, and c) the financial ramifications of this forgetful moment, that Allen must be lying in no less than 3 but no more than 8 dumpsters across the streets of Waterbury, and possibly Watertown. What a crappy day for Allen.

Laptop arrived today… So far everything checked out… No dead pixels, CD/DVD burner works, installed Ross’ Office XP so I didn’t have to pay another $400 for unecessary software from the lord and master of all things hard drive related; William Gates.

Only 15 days to Cornell… Wow, for a summer where all I did was work for forty hours a week, it still went by fast. Oh well, in the words of Boston (the band who bailed on me at Glens Falls in July); “…time doesn’t wait for me, it keeps on rolling…” Am I ready? Who knows? But I sure as hell will have to figure out how to avoid being the Big Red Logan at all costs.

Sorry for the lack of quality in the updates lately. Until I get all my stuff back from my old server, I’m a little nonchalant and unmotivated when it comes to the posting. After all, I am too lazy to even bookmark this page so that when I’m lazy I don’t have to type in the URL to my WP account. Ironic, huh?

Wordpress is being it’s natural pain in the ass self… couldn’t log in for the last 3 days because apparently a “stream” (whatever the hell that is) didn’t want to open. I really want Danwa to re-upload my site so I can just cheat and copy pretty much the whole thing over here.

Think things such as the overcommericalization of Christmas here in America are bad… Try walking a mile in Nelson Mandela’s— er… South Africans’ shoes…

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa has denied a media report that it plans to cancel Christmas. The Sunday Times newspaper ran a banner headline “Christmas may be canceled” above a story quoting a task team evaluating the number of public holidays as warning no holiday should be regarded as sacred in multi-racial, multi-faith South Africa.

“I would like to reassure all of you that there is no such report which has been tabled before me,” Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told a parliamentary committee on Monday in response to the article.

“There has not been that recommendation.”

Last year the Advertising Standards Authority banned a Post Office advertisement asking children to write to Santa Claus, saying it was “profiting from the natural credulity of children” and perpetuating “a falsehood that could break the fragile spirits of the already disillusioned youth of South Africa.”