August 16, 2005 :: Five things

OK, yall should know by now I hate these "meme" things. But in the interest of playing nicely, and since proactiff called me out, I'm participating.

Ten Years ago: Hmm, junior year in college. A seminal year for learning how the real world works, to a certain degree. I got my first off-campus spot, which was owned by a couple of family friends. Husband is an architect, wife is an interior decorator. I agreed to move in sight-unseen, at the beginning of the summer, thinking they'd hook it up. I'd seen their work. In short, a total disaster. I moved out a month later, citing the drug use in the building, the lack of telephone lines, the roaches and ants, the lack of a doorbell, and other mishaps. Moved into a place on Camp Creek Parkway in Atlanta that was totally covered with roaches. Roommates refused to spend the first night there. Eff that, this is MY apt, not the roaches. I went and bought 72 bait stations and a huge basket of roach killer. It took two weeks, but by the end of the two weeks, those roaches had experienced a massive extermination of biblical proportions. And to think, the property manager had the nerve to say it wasn't their roaches that caused the problem, the roaches were coming from the property next door. Hmph. The Goodie MOB's first hit song had a verse about my apartment complex... I'll let yall crate diggers find that one. Oh yeah, this is when I bought my first car on my own... a $1200 1981 Buick Regal. Never did quite figure out if it was really a lemon, or if the mechanics pulled some fast ones on me, or if I was really just dumb, but it lasted all of 6 weeks, and then threw a rod. And then it sat in front of my apartment for the rest of the school year, where I had to pass it every day on the way to the bus stop, on the way to the MARTA train, on the way to campus, on my hour-plus commute. I vowed to learn cars inside and out, and never to have to ride the bus again, after that. Also the year of the first time I ever dated a girl solely based on looks. Yeesh, she was a complete bubblehead.

Five Years Ago: This would be right after the lowest point in my life. I had just finished dealing with a relationship-oriented saga about which I shall not go into detail, and dropping out of the Ph.D. program, and coming off a good two years of depression. It sucked. On the plus side, I was coming into a job market that was clamoring for software developers, due to the dot-com boom in San Francisco. A few months too late, as it turns out... my thoroughly clueless employer didn't even get to issue public stock before going bust. It was a fun ride though, I'll be able to tell my grandkids about the days when, as they squirm in their seats and wish they were playing their PS9s instead.

One Year Ago: Hmm, 2004. Not a lot memorable about that year. I turned 30, went to the Dominican Republic on a week-long sabbatical and had a blast, then came back here and threw a rather large (for me, anyway) birthday party, thus marking my entrance into "real" adulthood.

Yesterday: Spent a good three hours scouting for good outdoor shooting locales for my burgeoning photography habit. I found a good one too... Lake Artemicia, which is harder to get into than the freakin' Pentagon.

Today: I was supposed to have a photo shoot today, but it's raining. Guess we'll have to postpone. I'm not too sure about these models, anyway... two sisters, both young. Kinda flaky. I have a feeling if I ever pin them down, the pictures will come out nicely though, so I'm trying to be patient.

Tomorrow: Hmm... nothing noteworthy about tomorrow. But on Thursday, I am going to have a meeting with some people at work because they are insisting on nominating me for this Black Engineer of the Year award. I think I'm going to blog more about this later.

Five Snacks I Enjoy: Snacks are the bane of my existence. But if I had to pick some... these whole fruit pops from Edy's are the bomb, especially lemonade and limeade. I can kill a whole can of cashews if I am not careful. I like natural applesauce, and I am a sucker for hazelnut Piroulines.

Five Bands: My tastes are all over the place, but lately I've been listening to some lounge, some jungle, some house. Bands & artists of the moment: Amon Tobin, Seek, Dzihan & Kamien, Nicola Conte, De Lata. Look em up, or click the link over there on the left where it says "groovy music" and you might catch some.

Five Things I would do with $100,000,000.00: Open a sports bar. Buy a condo in every city I like to visit. Buy every gadget I ever wanted, and every stitch of clothing I couldn't afford before. Set mom up for a comfortable retirement. And (pursuant to the next question) disappear...

Five Locations I would like to run away to: Salvador da Bahia, Puerto Plata, Tokyo, Paris, and an unnamed private island in the South Pacific.

Five Bad Habits: Aggressive driving, obsessive fingernail trimming, condescension, wandering willpower, not finishing things I start.

Five things I like doing: Aggressive driving, shooting pictures, solving problems, eating, listening to music.

Five things I would never wear: Sweatervests, overlong t-shirts that look like H-line dresses, sports goggles, gadget belt holsters, pajamas.

Five TV Shows I like: I assume this does not need to be current, as I don't watch that much TV these days. Sportscenter, Star Trek (TNG & DS9), Girlfriends (don't laugh, I know a lot of women who are JUST LIKE those girls on tv), Law & Order reruns on TNT (I'll often watch these instead of the new episode on Wednesday nights), and I still have a soft spot in my heart for the incredibly poorly produced and animated childhood classic, Transformers.

Five movies I like: See if you can spot a trend here... The Usual Suspects, The Matrix, The Shawshank Redemption, Love Jones, Black Street Hookers #61. OK, I'm joking about that last one. But those are just about all the DVDs I own.

Five Famous People I would Like to meet: Hmmm... I don't really trip off of celebrities. I see them, recognize them, and move on. Just last week I ran into Baron Davis over by Pepperdine U in LA. And I said to myself, he's looking me eye to eye, they lie about his listed height (I know, big surprise). It just reinforces the entirely fallacious notion that if I had just worked a little harder (ok, a lot harder), I could have made the NBA.

Five Biggest Joys At this moment: Shooting pictures with my NEW FAVORITE TOY (see below), working from home whenever I feel like it, arctic-strength air conditioning, those Edy's lemonade bars (see above), and my new (to me) Amon Tobin album (also see above).

Five Favorite Toys: My brand new Nikon D70 digital SLR. I finally bit the bullet, and I had good timing since this model is discontinued (in favor of the D70s, which is barely an improvement with a 2mm bigger screen, an extra remote mode, and some other BS) and is therefore marked down everywhere. Plus I get to sell my old Canon Powershot G5 to my friend, who's willing to give me fair market value for the camera and flash. My other toys: my work-issued laptop, my regular home computer (which doubles as my stereo), my new diamond-cut paper shredder (sometimes we are all little kids at heart) and my 2000 Honda Prelude, which just crossed 90,000 miles and is in need of a whole bunch of stuff now... new tires, new belts, oil change, yadda yadda. It better be glad I love driving it!

There, I've done it. Now don't put me on any more of these things ever again!

posted by Rainmayun at 4:08 PM -