Below are the 16 most recent journal entries recorded in Mike Blain's LiveJournal:

Monday, March 5th, 2007
7:51 pm	News Flash! So I guess Adam was hoping that winning the Magic NY State championships with Mason would get me to post at least *something* in my LJ. So here's something of an update since my last post (May '05): Job: Still doing the same thing, computer programming. It's been fine. I have some pretty cool projects coming up, and the function I basically own just got demoed by the CEO and one of the top sales guys to one of the biggest mutual fund managers in the world. Which is awesome, except they had us make a bunch of customizations to showcase what we do well, and they liked it.. so now I have to acutally *do* them. Sigh. Salespeople. Girlfriend: Gwendolyn, and she's totally awesome! I met her in NYC right before she went to Seville for 5 months, so I wasn't sure if we were dating or what at first, but we've been together over a year now and it's still going really well. It's always fun when Mark accidently refers to us as "my room mates" before realizing that I'm the only one who technically lives here. Family: My sister went to Thailand for a month+ and got her SCUBA divemaster's certification, my brother started going to NYU and lives 6 blocks from me (if you count avenue blocks as 2) and my parents became obsessed with spinning at the YMCA. Apartment: Same one, for now. I love the East Village. in New York you kind of make your surrounding blocks into a little neighborhood. I know the stores and the restaurants and the brunch places, it feels homey. Although in the summer time on weekend nights people are up a bit later than I'd like. Magic: I went to the NY State two-headed giant tournament on Saturday and played with Mason, one of the people Mark drafts with regularly. He used to be in San Francisco and drafted regularly with Phil, who used to be Mark's room mate at CMU. Small world, huh? Anyway, we totally rocked and won the whole thing. He did a much more in-depth writeup than I could hope to re-create so maybe I'll just copy the whole thing at the bottom here. All I'll say is 2 things: it's a whole lot of fun to win! and it's nice having someone who's really good on your team! Let's see.. anything else I'm missing? Oh, my last post was about getting a bad haircut I think, and it scarred me so much that it was 10 months before I got another one. I'm going on probably 4 months right now, and I really could use one, but I've been busy, y'know? Anyway, maybe it'll be less than 2 years before my next post, but maybe not! You never can tell. ( Magic tournament write-up ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 14th, 2005
11:57 am	Haircut! Oh dear... So I was growing my hair out, but it got to that point where it's all fly-away and unruly. So I went over to the local barber shop with the idea that they could trim it up a bit so it didn't look quite so bad. Unfortunately the barber I got was a native spanish speaker (which I didn't realize until later) and the idea that I actually wanted my hair long was somehow lost in translation. So.. now I have a short haircut for summer. Oh well, it'll grow back. It just might take a while. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 12th, 2004
1:45 am	Punks are cute So last week I went to a Flogging Molly concert, and as a promotion some guy at a table in the lobby was handing out free condoms. And while everyone was waiting around for the show to start... someone blew up a condom and people started batting it around the crowd like a balloon. And then there were two, then three... And eventually someone ran up and divided people into two teams, and they were playing like volleyball or something against each other with over a dozen inflated condoms. And this went on for 45 minutes or an hour. It was really one of the highlights of the evening. Today I tried to go to some doctor who works in one of the Bloomberg buildings to get some antibiotics for my sinus infection. I went Sunday to some local clinic (which turned out to be rather Christian... thanks a lot Blue Cross/Blue Shield webpage!) and because it was a Sunday I would have had to pay $50 for an ER visit rather than $20 for a doctor visit. So I figured fine, I'll go Monday. So I send in an ASKHR ticket (ask Human Resources) and they tell me this doctor, and to say I'm with Bloomberg otherwise I probably can't get in. So I do, they say come down at 1:30. I leave lecture to go over there, and have to wait 2 hours in the waiting room! I played tetris on my cell phone the whole time, and drained the battery almost completely. It had one pixel worth of charge left when I was done. Then I get to see the doctor, it takes less than 10 minutes, and I walk out with a 4-day sample and a prescription for the rest of the week. Now was that so hard? Honestly. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 14th, 2004
11:32 pm	Dude! Our TV is now 11' wide, and pretty! It's a BenQ PB6200 projector, and hoo-boy! We just watched the daily show, and it was huge! And not like a beeler house "it's large but the quality is only so-so and there is an overhead projector right in front of me." It actually looks good! Whee! I'm happy now! --zip (Comment on this)
Saturday, August 28th, 2004
7:32 pm	1 week down, 9 to go! The first week of training wasn't bad at all. And during lectures I got to catch up on slashdot, watch news headlines as they happen, and find more then I ever wanted to know about every company I can think of. So that's cool! My class has 10 people, 6 of which were grad students, 4 of us just got our BS degrees. 7 are Indian, but 2 of them have decent American accents (although I know Ari's parents were from Bangladesh). Me, Eleanor and James (a CMU Masters student) are very much the minority, especially when the lecturer is Indian too. It's crazy! Work has a "kitchen" with drinks and snacks, and it *almost* has lunch too. Some bread would be wonderful. I think next week Mark and I will bring in a loaf. I get a bunch of perks (through corporateperks.com) but I still can't get on to see what they are. I hope it wasn't anything I needed or something. Thursday night I went to see The Presidents of the United States of America at the Bowery Ballroom with Lauren and Sarina from Melbourne. They aren't *from* there, but I met them there, they both live in NYC :-P Sarina's brother also went with us. It was SO much fun! First we got dinner on Mullberry st, then got to the place at like 9:30. There was already one band on, and they were good (Washington Social Club). The next band was even cooler, they were called 'The Harlequin' and the two frontmen were originally from Adelaide, then Sydney, and now NYC. After the concert we went down and talked to them and Lauren expressed her undying love to one of the guys. But anyways, The Presidents rocked! They played a whole bunch of old songs I loved (Peaches and Lump of course, Kick out the Jams, Back Porch, Candy, Kitty, Naked and Famous, and a cover of Video Killed the Radio Star) and also a bunch of stuff off their new album I didn't even know about. The songs are pretty much done in their same style, and most of them were really cool. The bad part was I got back at 1:15am, still kind of buzzed from the 4 glasses of wine (2 with dinner, 2 at the club) I had earlier... then had to get up for work at 7! It worked out all right, but I did *not* want to get up in the morning. Friday night I played in my first Magic tournament at Neutral Ground with Mark. I won the first, and lost the next two. We'll see if I do any better tomorrow. (Mark also played in a tourney today... he's crazy!) And tomorrow there is a quarter-million protesters meeting the subway stop north of me (a quarter of a mile, maybe) which should be interesting... --Mike postscript: Dave Charlton is also crazy. (Comment on this)
Monday, August 23rd, 2004
8:17 pm	First day of work Well, that wasn't as bad as it could have been. The first day was pretty much all getting to know more about the Company and the work environment, benefits and procedures etc. It was still a long day, but not hard. Lots of listening to lectures. It sounds like this should be ok, at least for a year or two. I don't find out my real job for another 10 weeks, but maybe I can do poorly at the sucky jobs and not get assigned to them! (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 22nd, 2004
11:13 pm	Wish me luck... I start work tomorrow! --Mike (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 21st, 2004
1:06 am	NYC! Hey, guess who's a bona fide resident of the Big Apple now; Me! That's right, posting from my trusty laptop using someone else's wireless (even though we have perfectly good cable internet right next to me, I can't connect to it.) I have the weekend with which to set up the apartment before I start working and will probably not have the time/energy again for a while. Or maybe I will, I dunno. I *will* be working for The Company though. The more I hear details, the worse things start to sound. Mark has had to stay quite late a few days, and when he said something about it, they told him it's "Bloomberg culture" to work late nights. Oh boy. Also, if I leave before one year I lose all my signing bonus stock, and if I leave before two years I also lose the travel reimbursement. And if I leave, I can't ever ever come back. Ever. Company policy. Also, I am not allowed to say anything bad about The Company, to anyone, even fellow employees. And they log all our e-mail, times of entry and exit, and internet traffic. And there are cameras in every room. It's probably not as bad as that sounds, but still. That makes me just a bit nervous. Also, I think my brother is going to need glasses soon; his distance vision is getting a bit fuzzy. That makes my brother, sister, mom, dad, aunt, uncle, and uncle, grandmother, grandmother, grandfather, and grandfather who all need glasses. And me and my 2 younger cousins who don't. I'm doomed. Tomorrow: we shop for armoirs (of invincibility!) and other storage-type stuff at IKEA. No closets is pretty sad. Peace, --Mike (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 17th, 2004
1:33 am	Not Packing Well, I really should be packing right now. But I can't decide what I have to pack! I guess clothes, and computer. Those are pretty much a given, but what else? I should probably figure out some kind of computer desk... and a dresser... Argh. Why can't I just go to my new apartment, open a gateway to my room from some obscure corner, and then get stuff "on demand." That would be so much easier. Well, I guess I'll go throw some underware into a box now. I'm pretty sure I'll need *that*! I'll try and post later about what else's been going on, but you know how it goes. Why post in livejournal when you can be reading back issues of Something Positive or 8-Bit Theatre? hehe. (Comment on this)
Monday, July 12th, 2004
11:48 pm	How's it going? Ok, so it's been like what, 3 years since I last posted? Maybe I'm not so good about this whole "regular update" thing. Anyways, this summer has mostly been one last bit of travel / fun before I start working for The Man. I went to Australia and Fiji for 3 weeks, and Mexico for one. In another week and a half I'll be up in Canada for a canoe trip. Then down to New York City! Did you know I'll only get 15 days off a *year*?! What's with that? Not fair I tell you. I want to travel, I want to see things and people and stuff! I want to sleep in on a Monday when the weekend really shouldn't be over! But no, I'm a working stiff now. It's like the end of an era or something. Ok, I'll put up some more stuff later, this is mostly to say 'Hi, I'm here!' Also I have vacation pictures up at http://typhon.dynu.com/gallery/albums.php Mine are the "Mike" section at the bottom. Mexico is the new one, at the bottom of that page. Don't complain if it's a bit slow though, it's only on my computer at home... cable modem. Also it's running XP, not something meant to be a server. Oh well. Catch ya later! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 16th, 2001
11:30 pm	oops i did it again. <bleep> instead of & gt bleep & lt. stupid html tags. its not like it matters... but my conversation with the guy today was much more ... colorful than it ended up here ;-) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
11:11 pm	If it weren't for bad luck, i'd have no luck at all... well, actually not... my luck is fine. anyways... i saw crash test dummies and delbert mcclinton on wednesday. that was awesome! (and FREE!!) crash test dummies' lead singer looks like brendon frasier, has a cool voice, and is just a really weird guy. he wore a puke-green polyester shirt he got at a truck stop, and a python he borrowed from some guy in teh audience. i wore teh same python for a while during joan osborne... snake-guy gave it to this drunk woman, who put it on me. the lead singer guy also was hitting on this girl who was blowing bubbles in the audience... going through all the sexual innuendo involved in blowing bubbles... it was weird. but he did the superman song (which is really cool) and the mmm mmm mmm mmm one he is famous for. delbert mcclinton is like, texas rock. he's really good though. today i saw some irish rock music. the sawdoctors are great. its rock, with irish accents! this irish-accented guy from pennsylvania was telling me before the show how good they were, and he used so much profanity i knew he was really into it. "they're ing awesome!" he exclaimed, "way better than REM, and not that happy that U2 does either." then later, during the show, "what'd i tell you? they're the huh?!" lets see... other than concerts and my last day of work being tomarrow what's happened in my social life?.... uhh... moving on... steve left. i forget when he came here, but its been like a week or something i think. his mom finally told him he should probably go home... i should probably start getting stuff ready to go back to school and all, but procrastination springs eternal. why put off until tomarrow what you can wait until tomarrow to put off until the next day? or something like that. oh, just as an FYI if you have a linux terminal at work, /usr/share/games/fortunes can literally provide you with days of stuff to do. i'm serious on this one. its inspirational too... i'm going to be all the me i can be! uhh... some other time. right now i have to.... sleep... to umm... build up my strength for the good fight. later! Current Mood: quixotic Current Music: crash test dummies - superman song (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, August 12th, 2001
1:03 pm	Weekends rock! well, i didn't end up going to see atom and his package tonight. i *could* have, but i played pool at teh pool hall instead. steve, max (my brother) and pat (pretty much my brother, but technically my next door neighbor) and I went up to the lake camp friday night. steve brought a nearly empty bottle of gin which had been in the garage for who knows how many years, by the dust probably quite a few. we also brought a laptop and a portable DVD player / stereo. steve got drunk and the rest of us watched being john malkovich. my brother (13) abd pat (15) have never seen steve drunk, whereas i have... they were... dusturbed. We also hooked up an NES to the computer / stereo setup and played until early in the morning :-) I got up on the slolom ski :-) and did really well, and jumped off the cliff and stuff, so it was good. then we got back and i kicked butt at the pool hall (luck doesn't get nearly the credit it deserves). well anyway, school starts in like 2 weeks. weird. see ya all then i guess :-) (BTW they have convinced me to leave the beard until at least after i go back to school, and my hair is still two-toned, black and blond... my dad said i looked "mod", my mom said she kinda liked it, and my sister keeps begging me to let her cut my hair...) Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Gorrilaz - Clint Eastwood... the music video is so odd... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 8th, 2001
10:05 pm	Another day, another hundred dollars (well, 75 after tax) I saw Chantal Kreviazuk and Joan Osborne today, for free of course! Joan Osborne, as it turns out, was the one who did that song "One of Us" which i mich prefer as "What if God Smoked Cannibus" by Bob Rivers. My whole family got up and left at that song... but until then it was a lot of fun :-) she's a good singer, kinda janis joplin-esque. Chantal Kreviazuk is Canadian. Anyway, if anyone has any input, i'm trying to make a list of (hopfully 80 minutes) of songs that make you drive too fast. here are some thoughts i have: The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again Van Halen - Panama Warren Zevon - Werewolves Of London The Kingsmen - Louie Louie The Beastie Boys - Fight for Your Right Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run Eve 6 - Open Road Song AC/DC - Highway to Hell Golden Earring - Radar Love Stepenwolf - Born to be Wild Sammy Hagar - I Can't Drive 55 Flogging Molly - Salty Dog Talking Heads - Burning Down the House Survivor - Eye of the Tiger Creedence Clearwater Revival - Travellin' Band Suggestions? Omissions? Any ideas? oh, and another question, do all the kids my age never leave their houses durring the summer or what? there are plenty of 25 or 30 year olds, and 14 or 15 year olds, but noone ever CLOSE to my age at any of these shows. oh well, i guess its not cool enough for people who can drive themselves around ;-) Current Mood: lethargic Current Music: Huey Lewis and the News - Hip to be Square (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 7th, 2001
11:31 pm	My second post. the novelty wore off i just noticed in the last post it interpereted my < > as an HTML tag, so there are a couple pieces missing... coincidently one of those was "< expletive deleted >". someone somewhere has a sense of humor (Comment on this)
11:11 pm	My first post. Awww.... Boy, "Event" sound like something actaully happened. it didn't. i just ran out of buffer space on my AIM profile trying to list all the concerts i saw this summer so i figured this would be a good place to keep the list. i like the concept here. the whole point is to write about yourself and stuff and if other people want to read it i don't know and i don't care! ha! so there! y'know what's funny about the preceeding statement? i'll be the only one to see it. if i were a psychiatrist i'd have so much fun with myself. i'd try and convince me i had all tehse weird disorders and charge a consulting fee to fix them but spend the money on new computer equipment instead. uh oh. i think it's past mikey's bed-time. mikey's rambling again. eh, why stop now, i'm on a roll! so far this summer i've: seen a load of concerts and music, the majority of which were either free, or cheap, or i snuck in to. went to pittsburgh for a (very short) visit. went to the canadian wilderness in quebec (its like a forign country! they even speek a forign language and everything!) for a week-long canoe trip. hung out with steve an inordinant amount. went to NYC a couple times. worked. actually the "work" part accounts for most all my time. its a shame really. notice anything missing from the above list? you got it! "hang out with friends" or actually ANYTHING with the word "friends" in it. it appears i don't actually have any here. i ran into some people at concerts, and got busted with drew for jumping the fence at SPAC, but other than that... nothing. i should work on it but how the hell do you meet people in the suburbs? call random numbers on the telephone? ask if can come out and play? well, at any rate... here is the whole point of this journal, the definitive (until tomarrow afternoon) list of bands i've seen this summer, grouped by concert. most recent first: Stacy Earle (whiney country) The Flatlanders The Unknown Blues Band (from outside) Trey Anastasio Dem Brooklyn Boys Big Rude Jake (swing) Burners UK (i saw them again) Terrance Simien (zydeco) The Iguanas (tex/mex) Colin Hay (lead singer / guitar for Men At Work) Eileen Ivers (irish fiddle, she was teh origional fiddle for Riverdance) Burners UK (rockin' oldies) Reel Big Fish Zebrahead Home Grown Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Jackson Browne NRBQ (New Rhythm and Blues Quartet) The Dayjobs Rockapella Naturally Seven Allman Brothers Lynyrd Skynyrd Deep Purple Ted Nugent Blotto (awesome funny albany band) Mighty Mighty Bosstones the queers (steve reminded me of this one, i forgot it) now serving number 38 seven nations Live The Cult Our Lady Peace Everlast Lifehouse Current Mood: lazy Current Music: Gimme a Ride to Heaven Boy. (getting carjacked by Jesus) (2 Comments |Comment on this)