Personal

I spoke too soon. I think my logic board is busted. No good. Going to try to take it in tomorrow and hopefully can have it replaced quickly. Otherwise, I may have to buy a computer temporarily so I can have one while I’m away. In other news, Show #4 is up. Comments always welcome. I had two stories. And finally, I’ve got the first full rough draft of my thesis done. We’ll see what my advisor makes of it.…

So randomly, yesterday afternoon, my computer decided that it was going to freeze and wouldn’t boot properly. It would just hang on the blue startup screen. Of course, I need it for everything — especially now for my thesis (first draft due on Sunday) — so I’ve spent since 9 am this morning getting it back to normal. This involved a trip downtown to buy more RAM (which I needed anyway), a total wipe and reinstall, and now getting software…

Ok, just did my taxes online. I still think it’s cool that I’ve never paid a single bill or done my taxes using paper forms. I’ve paid electric bills, DSL bills, credit card bills, and my taxes all online. Now if only I could pay my rent electronically. Uncle Sam owes me : $5 I owe the Governator: $12 Net: – $7

Got three freelance assignments to work on, not to mention my classes. Yikes. It’s good to be busy. Oh, and that silly little thesis to worry about as well. Not to mention Estonia! Speaking of which, I did my first interview for that today and I found out that one of the key bits in this piece is fundamentally wrong. Estonia never declared Internet access as a human right. It’s so prevalent that it’s practically a human right, but people…

[From yesterday] It’s a snowy Sunday here in Hartford. My big accomplishment of the day was making chocolate chip cookies with Martin. The rest of the day consisted of watching Eddie Izzard and playing FIFA 2004 on Martin’s Xbox. Sweet. This article provides an interesting perspective on what the Internet does for military officers in the field. I didn’t know about SIPRNET. And apparently Sy Hersh is coming out with a story came out with a story in the next…

So apparently I’m linked on today’s Drudge Report for my story on UAVs. So that’s sorta neat. Click here for a mini screen-shot. (Thanks for the tip, Sam!) Let’s see what this does for my blog hits. Apparently I’m already one of the top hits for variations of “Chang Industry” (and related variations). Chang’s website isn’t very informative. In other news, I just got email from a guy called “Cyrus Faryar,” who from what I can tell is a musician…

In 12 hours, I’ve gone through an entire roll of toilet paper (used as kleenex) to blow my nose with. I kept waking up last night to have to blow my nose. Either I’m becoming immune to over-the-counter drugs, or my non-sickness sickness is manifesting itself more. I would say that I’m sick, but I feel fine and the only symptoms I have are a constantly runny nose and a very slight sore throat. Generic Claratin/Sudafed seemed to keep it…

So it’s a rainy day in Southern California. I don’t know what’s up with this weird weather. It never rains in LA and it’s been going on and off for the past week. I was really looking forward to wearing shorts in 70 degree weather, but that’s not going to happen. Headed back up to Berkeley tomorrow, where I hear it’s raining too. The holidays, as a whole have been really quiet. Xmas, New Year’s, and my birthday so far…

You rock.

So, if you’ve been a follower of this blog/email (or just my life lately) you’ve probably gotten some idea of what I’ve been up to. You probably know that I’ve been freelancing for The New York Times and some other publications lately. Maybe you’ve forgotten that I’m also a grad student at Columbia (hey, sometimes I forget, too.) You may have known that I was winding down the semester with a big (read: 2500 words) story on AIDS education in…