The Grand Return

So, after spending a week sitting quietly in the OIT building, my computer has made a miraculous return. With a new hard drive. Unfortunately, none of my old stuff is on it :( The guy at OIT said he'd try and save some of my pictures and papers, but there was nothing he could do about recovering the 2.1 days worth of songs I had on iTunes. I've been saving those songs for 4 years, and poof, they're gone. Tis very sad. I think after the OIT guy is done with my hard drive, I will have a ceremony in which we can all take turns bashing my hard drive, Office Space-style (as mentioned previously). Or watching me take all my anger out on my hard drive. Either way, it will be personally enjoyable to me, and I may provide cookies.

Surprise!

My computer decided to give me a Valentine's Day surprise by getting a virus (I think - anyway, the end result is that my computer doesn't work). Even robots are out to get me this day. When I turn on my computer, the Compaq start-up screen comes up along with the message "Hard drive detecs imminent failure". Now, "Imminent failure" is not a phrase you really want to see, ever. Let alone on your computer screen. I mean, it'd be pretty bad if it was on, say, a transcript, but I get the feeling this means my computer is on the verge of death. Which is true, because if it isn't fixed soon, I may have to take it out back and smash it, Office Space-style.

So for now, I am updating you via the Debartolo computer cluster, with all the other engineers who are doing projects at 11:40 on a Tuesday night, instead of getting $3 pitchers at Corby's (like I should be).

Sunday Sunday Sunday

After that bitter rant (sorry guys, it was supposed to be sarcastic, but the anger was just too much for me to handle), it's been a few days, and not much has happened, so I'm going to fill you all in on some things that have amused me and kept my sanity in the last week or so.

After all, when working on The Laramie Project, one needs many things that will keep them from, say, killing the director with a mechanical pencil to the eye.

1) This article is hilarious. OK, so it's not grad school for me, it's law school, but still, highly enjoyable and bitter in the funny way that I couldn't achieve.

2) The Keenan Revue last night. According to a non-ND eye, it looks like Keanu Reeves when displayed in away messages, but rest assured a night of sketch comedy by college guys is always a laugh. Especially when Nut had his Dear Diary skit. That man can carry an audience for a solid five minutes on his own.

3) The Onion... that mecca of sweet sweet fake news.

4) Starbucks... nuff said.

5) Arrested Development... whether in Season One DVD form, or new episodes, it guarantees a laugh.

6) And of course, this blog along with Philip's and Eliz's. I'm still learning about the whole Hello/Picasa picture posting thing, mainly because I'm too lazy to read the actual instructions and just try to figure it out myself. But the pictures are there, so enjoy.

And finally today is The Big Game, or rather, The Big Commercial Day with Some Football In Between. I'm going to be honest, pro football doesn't interest me that much, so I'm keeping my eye out for good beer commericals and wardrobe malfunctions.

My So-Called Life

I have been accused by my fellow blog-mate abroad, Philip, of not updating frequently enough. And to you I say, suck it.

Excuse me that I'm not taking fantastic little trips around the English countryside with my friends and getting stared at for wearing clothes that color-coordinate. As you very well know, there is much less to write about here in the confines of the Notre Dame bubble, and even less to write about South Bend.

But Lizett, I hear you saying, you were abroad yourself, why didn't you keep a blog there? Well, my friends, the answer is manyfold.

1. The Fund is not exactly the technological mecca of the world. The people who had been there before said, "You don't really need to bring a laptop. The computer lab has everything you need." Well, said computer lab had 15 computers for the 150 kids or so that went there, and used Windows95 as their operating system. Plus, I couldn't download pictures on them, since they weren't equipped with such fancy things as "UBS ports", so there wasn't much to post anyway.
2. Instead of spending my leisure time updating my friends back home (not that I don't enjoy that, I really do love it, it gives me some sort of vicarious thrill), we mostly spent our 3-hour lunch breaks eating and drinking sangria

So, if there's not much for me to say, I won't post. Until then, I'll come up with some sarcastic things to say. It's just harder without Philip or Ashley here pulling the sarcasm out of me.

Miguel kicking a field goal successfully (something I couldn't do) 

Me and... Stork? 

Kelly, me, and Dixie at preparty 

Dancin' the night away

Aaaaaall right.

This Saturday was the new and improved (?) band dance, back in action at the College Football Hall of Fame in beautiful South Bend, Indiana. I went with Miguel, my fellow section leader and we went and saw Stop Kiss beforehand in what seems to be the Gay Season for ND theatre. Beginning with Angels in America (AIDS, the 80s and gay people) last semester, the year has progressed to Bent (Nazis and gay people) and Stop Kiss (hate crime and lesbians) and of course will culminate with The Laramie Project (hate crime and a gay guy in Wyoming). Afterwards, we went to the falto/tone pre-band dance staple, the Mariott Residence Inn for some pre-party action. Unfortunately, so did a rent-a-cop, which we mistook for a real cop until we realized that hey, no one was coming to the door and he in fact has about as much power over us as a homeless man on the street. OK, so he wasn't Liza Minelli, but a low-paid security officer. Poor guy.

Anyway, at the dance, there were lots of fun things to do downstairs, such as kick field goals, tackle the football dummies and thow a forward pass. It was overall a good night.
Sunday was back to reality/homework and today, well, it's Monday and I'm updating at 2:30 in the morning. What do you think?