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April 18, 2005

CONCERT!

Ok, so this past sunday me and Julie (the girl i'm going to be rooming w/next year) went to the Taking Back Sunday/Jimmy Eat World concert with the Format opening. First off, I'm not a crazy fan of any of the three bands, but if i had to put them in order, i'd say i like Jimmy Eat World, then the Format, then Taking Back Sunday. Anyway, the whole thing was just sooo much fun. The Format's opening was ok, not extreamly good, i think the crowd was not too into them, which i think is a shame. Then Taking Back Sunday came on and played. Oh man, I don't think i can describe the feeling of being in the middle of a concert like that. We were all packed near the front, shoved up against strangers and all jumping and screaming the words. It might sound corney, but it felt like you couldn't tell where your body ended and the next person's began, you could only feel the music. Julie put it well when she said that you took in the sound of the guitar and vocals through your ears, but the bass through your heart. It felt as if the bass was pumping my blood for me. Some of you might remember sticking your ear upto the speakers in middle school dances, well that was only a warm-up to this volume. Let's just say it was wicked loud. Again, I don't think i can fully put into words what a concert is because it is all about the music and how it feels. In the begining we were up near the front-ish, next to some high high schoolers. However, we had shoes that came off easily and when the crowd started moving we had a hard time keeping our shoes, let alone staying upright (imagine being pushed from all sides constantly, yet moving in one direction). At one point I got separated from Julie and it was pretty funny, we were reaching for eachother through the mass, but her hand just slipped out of mine. Eventually we found eachother again (after some forcefull moving of people) and we moved back a little. The actual music was pretty good, it was just what I needed to end that horrible week. I loved belting the song "Kill" on the top of my lungs yet not being able to hear that i'm talking at all. During the intermission between Jimmy and Taking Back Sunday we found some friends to sit and talk with, but lost eachother when it started again. After it was over both Julie and I were on a post-concert high and felt life was just so awesome. I think i might be addicted to the feeling :) there's just no reproducing that feeling in your dorm (even with super cool speakers). Yea, so it was nice and I can't wait for slope day (even though not-so-good bands are playing). Here's some pictures not from this concert, but from some others that kinda look like what it was (parent's try not be alarmed :P )

Posted by agutwin at 10:32 PM | Comments (3)

April 14, 2005

Mom is Safe :)

So I just got a call from my mom, she's done her shoulder surgery and everything went reallly well. She's going home now to sleep, but there's not much pain right now. Just thought i'd give an update.

Posted by agutwin at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2005

Dragon Day - reliving the fun times

Ok, so i'm doing a paper for anthropology and needed to look up some information on dragon day and thought i'd share what i found. I guess it might not be too interesting to those not in Cornell, but try and imagine it from a student's perspective :) (oh, and on a side note, the arc. students work A LOT and are often thought to be crazy because you never meet an archetecture student.)

http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/03/28/424799e73154d

~Enjoy

Posted by agutwin at 08:18 PM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2005

:(

So I just got done my chem prelim, and I'm pretty sure i failed. I hate it when people say they failed (almost everyone does...) when they really mean they got a B. There's a girl on my hall who whines a lot and pouts, yet she has a 4.0 GPA so far...grrrr. Anyway, I, on the other hand, always tell the truth....so I really think i failed. I left a lot of questions blank, which is never good. I really don't know how I can do sooo poorly. I thought I was clever and smart and could figure all of this out. But it feels as if all my brain power just went to zero. I don't understand the concepts well enough i guess...or be able to reproduce them on an exam. I just want to do well, I don't have any super ambition to get an A in all my classes, but I just want to hit the mean every once in a while. I guess that means more work, but it feels as if i'm running on full speed. But the plan for next time (the final, ahhh!) is to study 3 weeks in advance, get organized and find which topics I need to work on, find a lot of practice problems and try and do them without notes, and if I don't understand a concept, I'll go ask a TA. Sounds like a good plan to me, hopefully if i get an A on the final, it'll balance out the C- and whatever I got tonigh :(

Posted by agutwin at 10:02 PM | Comments (2)

April 10, 2005

Pie

Ok, so i had to work at the climbing wall from 1-8 (bah) so by the time they finaly let me out of there, I was pretty hungry. The dining halls close at 8:30 and I just made it in time to Appel to grab some food. However, as i was sitting there, by myself as they were closing up, it made me think of just how far away from home, and life "back then", I really am. Also, at the climbing wall there was a group of younger kids, and an adult mentioned something about going home, and it made me remember when I would just go home - after climbing, after school, whatever. It didn't help that I was trying to choke down a piece of surprisingly tastless piece of rhubarb pie that obviously had too much red and not enough rhubarb, my grandma makes pies 10 times better! I'm not homesick, or particularly miss a whole lot because I LOVE Cornell, but it just made me think. I can't wait for Becca to come back from SA, and the summer to be here, and dad to come up to visit, and seeing kismet and mom again, and eating REAL pie with my grandparents. But for now i can enjoy the sun that's shining down (well, not right now...) and the work I have to do, and the friends who make it all better (or worse sometimes....) Yup, it's not particulary better or worse - just different. But i should go study some chem now...

Posted by agutwin at 09:01 PM | Comments (1)

April 08, 2005

taking a breath

Ok, so i got done my an sci exam - i think it went ok, we'll see....now on to chemistry and anthropology.... but for now i'm taking a little break, going climbing tonight, then hanging out with a few friends with any luck. I'm super excited that it's starting to get warmer out (it's 55 now). I think we agreed that cornell has a secret weather machine that they turn on when all the pre-freshman are visiting - so that's where all the tuition goes to! Oh well, it's nice out, and that's fun. Hopefully i can fit some paddling time in, my friend david has a car (yes, the same car that got in the accident...no, it's still safe to drive w/him) but the only problem is that it costs $25 for a day to rent a boat, which is not too bad...but if you get my drift, it's too much ;) ok, so i've got to run and grab some dinner before i go to the wall.

Posted by agutwin at 05:44 PM | Comments (0)

April 07, 2005

Yey! new blog!

Thanks to becca, my blog is lacking less in coolness! (I know that was an awkward way to put it...) Ok, i just wanted to say that - now i've got to study super hard for my animal science prelim tomorrow at 9:05, ahhh!

Posted by agutwin at 06:43 PM | Comments (4)

April 05, 2005

Screen shot

After viewing my sister's page, i realized two things: 1) that mine is super un-cool and 2) I could make it cooler by adding pictures once in a while. So having no really good pics at the moment, I decided to take a screen shot of what my computer normally looks like when I'm doing work. I'll point out a few things - first, that the temperature at the moment is 59 degrees, which is extreamly warm and makes me sad that i need to be inside doing work. Second, that I have Dee Dee Bridgewater's The Tokyo Blues playing - which always reminds me of my dad's condo and brings back fond memories. Thrid, that I have my fancy AIM in the upper corner which allows me to view at a glace if there's anyone important enough for me to get destracted with :). Finally you can note in the bottom left corner is a little sign that displays the current song's information. I have it set up so it shows up for a few seconds every time the song changes, and being the fancy mac that it is, it can even show up when I have other program windows open and on top. This is extreamly helpful when I'm listening to new stuff and trying to learn the names and artists. Ok, I think that's all for now. Oh, one last note: it's very confusing to have the picture of the screen open when you just took the pic. (oh, and dad, if you don't know how to do it, it's shift-command-3 or shift-command-4 to get a cursor to pick a section of screen to take a pic. of.)

Click on the picture to get a bigger image

Posted by agutwin at 05:38 PM | Comments (2)

April 04, 2005

yea...

ok - note to self - naps are not very conductive to studying....

Posted by agutwin at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)

Jazz

I love jazz. In fact, I could listen to it all day long if the professors didn't insist on giving lectures. I think that Dave Brubeck is the only thing pulling me through this chem hw....wait....i'm not doing chem now...i'm writing on my blog....ok, scratch that. Well, at least I'm enjoying myself (and procrastonating at the same time - i am so good at multitasking! I should get a degree in it). I would like to say that after I hit "save" i'll return to chem, but the truth is that it's just that time of day in that time of week, when the pressure is not quite on yet (most of my work due is at the end of the week). Therefore, I would be much happier taking a nap right now. Oooo, a nap and jazz, that's a very good combonation, much better than chemistry ;) hmmmm....decisions, decisions....I know that if I start my homework, i will probably feel good about myself. Yet if i take a nap, i'd feel good at the time. There is no garuntee that I'll actually be productive if i start my work - look at me now, i tried to start two hours ago! Yet again, there is no garuntee that after my nap I'll jump out of bed and start studying....hmmmm. ok, a 20 min nap it is :D
Zzzzzzz

Posted by agutwin at 04:33 PM | Comments (3)