Sick of sickness

I want a bumper sticker that says "Boycott People Who Care More About Animals Than People".  I saw a bunch of people picketing KFC yesterday for torturing chickens.  Yeah, cutting off beaks, legs, whatever is gross and cruel, but honestly- isn't there a better cause you could worry about?  I guess its cause animals don't have a voice, and plenty of other people are fighting for other causes...but I just don't understand thinking "yeah, chicken torture.  That's my calling."  Some people even think we're all just creatures on Earth, and animals (and some people even PLANTS) should have same rights and freedoms as everyone else...I fear the people that value their pets as much or more than people.

Anyway, I probably say every time "this'll be brief" and then it isn't cause I talk too much.

Last week for this Monday we had to make an 8" cube model of our ongoing design project, on the laser cutter.  I spent Saturday from around 5pm until Sunday around 11am accomplishing what you see below.  This involved a complete night of AutoCADing and a good morning of sitting in the laser cutter room with friends watching it cut out pieces.  Thank God it only took four hours to assemble.  I wish I had the time and space to explain- I'll hafta work my way backwards explaining this project in images, in an entry over Spring Break.  Which is in a week.

The nice thing about my all-nighter last week was getting sick shortly after I got to school.  It did help a bit when Tiffany brought me Giordano's (deep dish Chicago pizza, people) for dinner.  What didn't help was staying up all night and having a ravaging flu the night before my planned date day with Tiffany.  We still had half the day together, after I slept from 11-3pm, even though I was completely freezing for our entire dinner.  And the next four days.  Yeah Thursday sometime was when the fever broke and I stopped having hot and cold flashes and finally stopped waking up drenched in sweat 1-4 times a night and decided it was safe to wash my sheets again.

Luckily I got a sinus infection and feel like I've been punched in the face, just in time for St. Patrick's Day, also known as national Drink from Waking to Sleeping Day, and it was Josh's birthday (yesterday) and we had a party.  If only spectating drinking-related events was as fun as like spectating sports.  Cause its not.  The party was alright anyway, and friends came, and I talked to some architect at SOM (aka mega-firm thats built most of the world's tallest buildings) who will help me get an internship.  As will a new portfolio of my work, that I should be doing right now.  Oh yeah.

UM so bye now, drinking some tea and doing some work and bracing for a busy week; thankfully last week was easy or I'd have died, since I was delirious most of four days.  

Also you can see in the party picture if you look closely, the nice array of sores and general skin damage around my mouth, pathetically masked by my 9-day-o'clock shadow.

In euphoric news, I got a used blue iPod nano on Craig's List from some girl in the area.  Been without an around-the-clock music fix since last summer.  Hard to believe.

One-liners.

Here it is as promised.

Another week gone by.  

Friday is the new Monday.

I've given up my entire life for grad school.

I'm not in a terribly good mood at the moment.

Sorry.

Just ran two 6-minute miles.

Without music life would be a mistake.

Nietzsche.

I still need to raise more money.

Eating soothes my wounds.

Thank God for my metabolism.

I'm looking forward to Spring.

Translation- 30 degrees in March is unacceptable.

My hands and feet sweat too much.

Some people have surgery for this stuff.

Or botox.

I'm going to SB, Louisiana, and Houston for Spring Break.

Notre Dame Class of '03 5-year reunion is this year.

Wow.

I can't wait to build my own house.

There's a seat belt on my computer bag.

Epoxy is the greatest adhesive of all time.

Summer '08- iPhone2 here I come.

Sunday is my one-year anniversary with Tiffany.

And Nathan's birthday.

I gotta get back to work.

Yep I'm still at school.

I'm here to complain.  Who invented Pizza Bites?  Yeah, those sound yummy don't they.  Uh huh, until you grab one right out of the oven (okay, my first mistake) and try eating half of it (second mistake) because you know how hot it is and then you burn your nipple with piping hot Pizza Bite saucy-juice-stuff-goop that squirts out on you cause you're not wearing a shirt (third mistake).  Dammit.  But still.  They burn my mouth every time with their squirts.  I'll cut you, Pizza Bite.  I will CUT YOU.

Donating

www.firstgiving.com/carlsergio 

is the link to my page, if you're feeling generous.

Tiffany's is 

www.firstgiving.com/tiffanyburd 

if you like her more than me.

Rapid Fire.

Quickly- time is at a premium.

First- I'm buying some Down Unders this summer.  Ridiculous.  Sweet.

www.down-unders.com

Second.  The picture I posted last time was the hair of about 8-10 people, on my parents' kitchen floor the day before my grandma's funeral.  Thanks Laura Gurr for that pile.

Third, we had roommate discussions.  Probably staying in current location till October.  Lord knows we need to use this sweet deck all summer for playing Cornhole.

www.americancornhole.org

Fourth, I shaved my head again.  But not my face.  Its like the inverse of having hair.

Fifth, I bought an old General Motors (shudder- the two lowest circles of Hell are reserved for GM cars and Microsoft products) seatbelt that I'll be grafting onto the strap for my giant shoulder bag/computer bag/school bag so I can take it off more easily.  Sweet.  Epoxy.

Sixth, I'm getting quoted by the Alumni Director in the introduction to "We Are ND", some book of alumni reminiscings of what Notre Dame means to them.  They asked for submissions, I submitted, I guess they liked it.  Book out in the fall.  I requested a free copy for my permission to use the quote :)  Well they asked for permission!

Seventh (oops this one's important I meant to say FIRST!), my one-year anniversary of visiting Tiffany in Houston is March 9th, Nathan's birthday, so um, yay.  We'll do something commemorative like...I dunno yet, we haven't decided.  But it'll be good.  That's when our relationship started.  Weird.  One year!  

Eighth (this entry isn't short, but it IS brief in its own ways right?) I have about $300 raised for the triathlon.  Sweet.  But not quite enough so if anyone has $5 to throw in the collection that be rockin.

Ninth, and related to eighth, I ran seven miles last Tuesday, then ran two miles but in 12:45 on Thursday, and almost died.  I'm shooting for two six-minute miles, then eventually like one 5:30 or 5 minute mile.  Collapse, heart attack, gasp.

Tenth and last, just like the Commandments, next entry is gonna be brief-er- one-liners.  And less hyphens.  The one after that will be haikus, and then limmericks.  Okay no.  Bye.

I'm back.

Hi!  Been awhile.  Its the best of times, its the worst of times.  Okay not really but name that novel...  Anyway, went to a Newsboys concert on Friday with Tiffany Chris Nathan, going to an Angels and Airwaves concert tonight with Tiffany Nathan and a bunch of emo high school kids that are gonna want to push a lot.  My shaved head will save the day.  I wear Chuck Norris pajamas.

I've settled in to accepting the amount of work I have each week.  I've managed to keep my Sundays and Thursday open for life to happen, and the rest is primarily school work time.   Other notable events- started running for the triathlon- doing about 7 minutes a mile for 3-5 miles.  Going to try running longer and faster, but not both at the same time :)  Also started a fundraising page for the event, check it out:

http://www.firstgiving.com/carlsergio

Trying to raise $1,000 for Cherish Our Children International.

Its only a matter of (short) time before this bloody weather turns, right?  I gotta get outside and play some Cornhole.  Chicago's second annual Cornhole Classic is this summer, gotta prepare for me and Josh to show em how its done.  Hopefully we'll also be showing em how its done in the Great Urban Race and the City Chase.  Basically like Amazing Race, but for one day, in cities around the country:

www.citychase.com

www.greaturbanrace.com

So anyway, I gotta go get another piece of Valentine's Day candy.  I managed to stretch out Christmas candy until then, so I'll just stretch this out until Easter sound good?  You know what they say- chocolate a day keeps the...something something.

I'm also, in my copious free time, trying to finish my resume for the upcoming job fair so I can have positive cash flow this summer- need funding for my iPhone :)  I gotta re-do my portfolio too, since the first time it took me four hours late at night at Aunt Roe's and I printed it out when I picked up grandma's funeral programs.  Yeah that was good.  There was a $500 and $1000 cash prize at school for best portfolios, so I gotta think ahead next year.  I'm out.

New Years Resolutions.

A brief one.   Or at least I always set out with that intention.

Last night I finally went to the mustache party.  Oh the disgustingness.  It was glorious.  It felt like being at a bowling tournament in the 70s.  I proceeded to shave the fu manchu I attended the party with into a few other iterations before killing it altogether.  See below.

I also finally went to the school rec center to...rec, I guess.  Tiffany came on my friend Jessica's ID so she didn't hafta pay.  I ran 4 miles in 29:30, not bad for not running in 9 months or so.  Course then I was spitting in the trash can and about to pass out.  But then we hit the sauna and steam room and pool, and I discovered there's no way on Allah's Green Earth that I'm gonna swim in the triathlon (newsflash- I'm running a mini-triathlon in Houston at the end of March, hence the training) without goggles.  

Good to get back to running though, cause its part of my plans for the year, formerly known as Prince-I-mean as my New Year resolutions.  This year I'm also gonna finish reading the Bible front to back, finish off my movies list (down to 75, thanks to miscounting and to watching movies while building models) and being selfless.  The last part is sorta unmeasurable but hey a guy can try.

Speaking of resolutions, I think New Years' and Lenten ones are kinda bogus.  They're set up for failure (which usually occurs inside of a week after New Years) and once people fail once, they bail.  Lame.  Lent on the other hand- does it really improve your life or self in any way to give up eating chocolate for 40 days?  Especially for those who just gorge themselves on the cop-out doesn't-count-on-Sundays rule.  Catholics and their rules :)  

Anyway this isn't short.  But here's some pictures.  I got work to do.  Tomorrow is the Chicago Auto Show, brunch in China Town, and U2 3D at the IMAX.  Sweet.  Good thing I got my extra model finished yesterday, given to me to do "since I was ahead" because I stayed at school til 9:15 on Wednesday so my weekend didn't suck.  Pictures:

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The fu manchu: 

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The Joe Sergio:

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The Closeup:

Chance Meetings Are Weird.

First, if you want to read the maniacal ravings of Mr. Hyde, check out csergio.blogspot.com :)

So I spent my Friday night as now usual.  Stayed at school until 11:30 working on a project, and got up at 9:30 Saturday morning to finish it, so I could come to South Bend for my mom's birthday, except yeah I didn't finish the project.  I guess this is gonna be the weed-out semester.  Well I'm not going anywhere.  I'll hafta stay up on Sunday night when I get back to finish.

Awesome.  

The weird thing is that I was standing in Jamba Juice (NASDAQ: JMBA) waiting for my flippin' sweet smoothie, staring out the window cause Tiffany was talking my ear off again (okay that's not true and I hope she's laughing right now) and I see people walking by, except one of em looks a lot like my cousin Brian.  And the more I double and triple take and stare, the more I realize it IS my cousin Brian.  

So as I'm frozen in place by my own confusion at what he's doing here, I realize I don't recognize anyone he's with, and I look again, and sure enough, its still Brian.  And then Jimmy walks by.  At this point I regain motor control as confusion turns to shock and I dash out the door, "JIMMY!" and realize that Davey and friend Kevin Walorski are with them.  Weird.  Turns out they were in town for the auto show (also flippin' sweet) and needed to be directed to the nearest pizza place.  Lucky for them my favorite place in town was three blocks away.

But the real point is- this happens enough, randomly enough, that I got to wondering how often you actually just miss occasions like this.  I only saw em cause I decided to go get a Caribbean Passion before I headed outta town.  But seriously.  Think about that.  Makes you wonder.

 Hopefully Helio phones will answer that question for us someday, since they're fitted with GPS and can be set to ping your phone anytime your friends and their phones are within whatever radius of you, and you can Google Map them and go say hi.  Now that's technology.

Sidetracked.

I forgot to mention.  Tiffany went home for the weekend.  Flight got delayed on Sunday night because of the snow, so she opted for a Monday morning flight and went to bed.  Aaaaaaaand that flight couldn't land so an hour outside of Chicago she's informed they're going to land in Buffalo.  She finds a flight to get on in Buffalo, at like 7pm (keep in mind she left 12 hours earlier).  So she takes a little sidetrip to Niagara for the afternoon.  Sweet.  Then she gets back, and her flight gets CANCELLED.  So she gets a hotel room in bloody Buffalo, and finally made it back successfully this morning.  

ELECTION!

Every time I think about it, my mind can't really grasp the concept of her being gone. The view times I think about it long enough to start to feel it, I get an enormous sinking feeling, almost like vertigo, the same sick feeling I get when I try to wrap my mind around the idea of infinity. I'm sorry for the painful talk but its cathartic.

This is gonna be short cause time is short.  I voted today.  It was fun.  It felt good to be part of the process, and its sure to be an exciting one this year, as long as we get to watch Hilary lose soon...

My project that was due Monday got finished, Sunday night DURING the Super Bowl.  Someone tell me who won.  Okay no I saw the reedick-ulous scramble of Eli and crazy leaping catch against his helmet by...Giants receiver.  Truthfully would have been interested to see a record in the making, but two brothers winning two Super Bowls consecutively I guess is cool too.

Now I'm working on another project, due Thursday, and despite the insistence of my other professor that our NEW assignment given Monday would be quick and easy, DESPITE my insistence that I literally had NO time to do any assignment for her class until my other project was done, I will be doing little else for any other class until this project is done.  I did enjoy spending my weekend in my room of course.  If there's a problem, I already told her I wouldn't have anything done for tomorrow because of aforementioned project, and I'll cite civil duty and religious obligation (tomorrow) if she needs more reasons why I didn't have time.

Also, this weekend is my mom's birthday.  That's right.  Shower her with affection.  The 10th.  My little girl is all growns up.  8 minutes until 6pm.  That's my deadline.  For stopping writing this.  I do plan on watching Super Tuesday festivities though.  Sweet. 

In other news, I have a goatee.  Very itchy and annoying.  But you gots to do what you gots to do, when there's a mustache party to attend.  Or moustache, if you prefer the English spelling.  But I don't prefer most things English.  Except the language, I guess.  What was I talking about?  Oh yeah- I'm going to a mauexstache party.  So I'm growing a goatee until that time comes.  Pictures forthcoming.  

Okay its 5:59.  Gotta go.  More later.  Lemme find a picture to post...ah yes me and my matching somethingsomething cousin Ross...

I hate.  Picture won't upload.