35 Fifth Ave., #505January 31, Monday
5 PM
Today I got up really early, after a restless sleep. I got very few hours of slumber, but that's probably because I slept in so late yesterday. I ate a very long and leisurely breakfast (I love those) and impulsively bought two DVDs off Amazon.com — Amélie and The Graduate. I was gratified to get free "super saver" shipping. I figure it's time to expand my DVD collection: in five to nine days, when my two new videos arrive, it will blossom from one to three!Today's five-hour set of classes went well. Calculus is suddenly ridiculously basic, and I'm not sure what happened. Last class I was hanging on for dear life, frantically scribbling Xos and X1s and many other Xs, and hoping I would be able to figure it all out on my own time. Today, though, I sat back and wondered why on earth we needed to spend an hour and fifty minutes reviewing the self-evident properties of polar coordinates. So I guess characterizing Calculus II as "bipolar" would be accurate and descriptive.
I am currently viewing/listening to a video recording of Tannhäuser that I acquired a few days ago from the NYPL. I really love Wagner's operas, ever since my German Music class of last semseter. I also requested Tchaikovksy's Eugene Onegin (which is in Russian, of course, and I can't wait to hear it) and a ton of other feature films. In fact, The Matrix Reloaded (which I haven't seen before) is on hold for me now at the Sixth Ave. and 10th St. branch. I think I'll pick it up tonight. I love the NYPL.
I really have no obligations tonight, except orchestra, and I'm really happy about this.
January 30, Sunday
3 PM
I've been so busy lately. I also made a totally new layout for this thing. I'm not even sure where to begin, because so much has happened since Thursday! I'm liking all my classes very much: they're excellent. My Soviet Russia class in particular is awesome, as is the recitation section.I saw two films over the past few days: Gangs of New York and Amélie. Gangs of New York was really, really gross. It was a decently made film, but I realized that I do indeed get kind of queasy when watching graphic, grisly violence. I thought I was good at stomaching scenes of blood and gore, but I'm really not. The whole thing was just way overblown in many ways. In any case, I would not recommend this film very highly. I would like to qualify this, though, by saying that the beginning was good because Liam Neeson made a brief appearance. I really, really love Liam Neeson.
Yesterday I went to visit Grace at Fordham. We had an awesome time eating bread and ice cream, talking and watching Amélie. Amélie is a quirky and amusing film that also happens to be in French. I don't speak or understand a bit of French, but that was okay because there were subtitles. I stayed for a long time and didn't get back to NYU till 12:30 AM — I was exceedingly tired. This tiredness had been building up all day, and the long subway ride back didn't help. I really don't know why I was so tired all day yesterday, because all I did was sit around.
My HTML knowledge and understanding has expanded so rapidly I can't believe it. I suddenly feel sort of fluent in style sheets, which is pretty awesome. I decided to commemorate my newfound wisdom by writing a whole new layout. I also have been re-designing the Real Estate Library site, and soon that'll be up on the official nyu.edu domain. I'll have a link for you when it finally appears on the world wide web.
I also added a photo album from the huge snowstorm we got a week ago; click here to see it. I have been doing so much web design lately, it's unreal.
January 27
Standing on Fifth Avenue at 42nd St. after dark is cool. Two blocks west is Times Square; two blocks east is the Chrysler Building; eight short-blocks south is the Empire State Building. Looking north is interesting also, because beyond the seventeenth short-block in that direction there is only the biological patch of darkness that is Central Park.I have been pretty busy lately, more so than before. This is because of work and other committments, like the Scholars Lectures I have to attend every couple weeks. Last night's was the best yet, but it was also disgusting. It was about journalistic ethics — namely, the use of hidden cameras to get stories — and we watched a CBS news story from some years ago that exposed some really nasty and unsanitary practices at the grocery store chain Food Lion. Whenever I watch shows like that I inevitably reaffirm my faith in vegetarianism. Incidentally, as of now it's been a full year since I've consumed any animal flesh. I like that I live in New York City because being a person who does not consume animal flesh is probably easier here than it would be in most other places worldwide.
I like my classes. I spent a long time on calculus yesterday night and I have proclaimed that tomorrow, Friday, will be "calc day." I will re-learn all types of integration if it takes me till Saturday. (That sentence gave me an amusing image of myself spending Friday night puzzling over a complicated u-substitution.) Wednesday's lecture was irritating because the professor spent an hour proving a completely irrelevant theorem. I like math in itself because it is perfect and beautiful, and proofs are also perfect and beautiful, but this one was really, really unnecessary. Oh well.
January 25, Tuesday
The beautiful snow is pretty much gone from the city — what remains on the streets is a film of slippery brown slush. There are still piles of snow on the sides of the roads, but only the parks look nice. It's all good, though, because snow in pretty much any form still makes me one happy person. I did, however, step into a puddle of nasty, dark sludge on my way back from work tonight. My sock and shoe became cold and soaked. Four blocks later, the same thing happened to my other foot.Orchestra began last night, and it was enjoyable. I realized last week that this semester's schedule will be much more conducive to music practice than Fall '04, because I have Rubin 505 to myself for an hour or more every morning and I prefer practicing when I know I won't irritate the roommates. Also Dustin, who is an excellent violinist, and I played some pieces for two violins that I've had for a very long time, and I finally got to hear them in their entireties. This was a good thing. There are only so many times one can play Bach's Concerto for Two Violins alone before accepting the fact that something very important is just plain missing.
I watched Memento one more time last night with Dina, Taina, Dustin and his roommate Wendell, and let me tell you it's even better the second time around! It was interesting, though, because I realized that the movie was different than any other I've seen. It unfolds with this hopeless sense of determinism that is so evident after the first viewing. Despite how much fun it is to watch, I realized that above all, it is really the most heartbreakingly sad story I can imagine. It's so well-made that you all need to watch it.
January 23, Sunday
This weekend has been sort of eventful, but also incredibly non-productive. I must learn to manage my time! For example, I got myself just nine cumulative hours of sleep over Thursday and Friday nights. Thursday night was ice skating; Friday night I stayed up until almost 4 AM having a very cool five-hour conversation with four of my neighbors. Last night, though, I got almost twelve hours, which was lovely. I feel caught-up now, thank goodness. And just in time for Monday!
Yesterday I worked a six-hour shift at the library, and I discovered some new tricks with HTML style sheets. If you don't know any HTML, skip this paragraph, but if you do know a little, you may find this interesting. Did you know that you can use style sheets to format tables? I sure didn't. I use them for links and text (I just learned that they can apply to text about two months ago, though), but henceforth I will use them to format every bit of this website. They're incredibly efficient and beautiful, and I am going to post some examples sometime soon for those of you with web inclinations.
WELL! Guess what hit New York as I sat at my computer terminal for six hours? SNOW! A huge snowstorm, no less! It was amazing, because I have conditioned myself not to trust weather predictions. Hoping for snow in Minnesota every time Dave Dahl predicts a blizzard is just asking for a long string of letdowns. I haven't seen serious snow like this for way too long. Did we even have a single really good snowstorm last winter? I can't remember. But what came to New York was serious snow indeed, and it ended up being maybe seven to ten inches, and it's awesome. I took a ton of pictures (I hope I didn't risk my camera's life too much) and had a blast slipping and sliding through the drifts on my 32-block walk back to Rubin as the swirling stuff stung my face and covered my shoulders. Significant snow makes Lindsay Erickson one happy person.
After "breakfast" (at about 1 PM, since I woke up at about noon) today, I went for a walk in the West Village. I saw a cross country skier in Washington Square Park and laughed. Then I approached her and asked if there were trails anywhere outside the city. She recommended some in New Jersey, and maybe I'll try to swing a trip to some snowy trails sometime this winter. I miss skiing. Later on my walk, I happened to be in the same place as a Russian lady on her cell phone. I could tell that she was speaking Russian because I could pick out a few words. She kept using the verbs "to love" and "to think," and then some interjections I know like "of course." I know this isn't terribly significant, but I enjoyed understanding at least a little of what was going on. I'm nosy, I know.
Then I finally got started on re-learning my calculus. I spent most of my first lecture (which was on Wednesday afternoon) taking frantic notes with the intention of waiting till later to make sense of it all. I am happy to report that as of this evening, I can integrate by parts with great success. U-substitution is going well also. I have forgotten a lot of the trigonometric stuff, but things are looking up calc-wise for me. I still love calculus more than writing about it will allow me to convey.
I saw a very enjoyable movie yesterday night. It's called Memento, and you all should see it. Then you should tell me what you think. I need to watch it again before returning it to the NYPL this Wednesday. It's filmed in a way that leaves the viewer with no facts on which to base the story — everything is subjective; there are no truths. It's a really fun film and I highly recommend it.
January 21, Friday
I can't begin to explain why I chose to have a Soviet Russia recitation at 9:30 AM on Fridays, but the fact remains that I do. The first was today, and it was surprisingly good. We discussed east-west conflicts (which I see everywhere since reading Roman epics last semester -- Roman history basically defines itself with east-west conflicts) and I kept relating things to religion. I really do think that the split of the Christian Church into Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox is one of the defining events of Western Civilization. I guess relating every single thing to it might be extreme, but it sure influenced a lot. I ended up talking more than the rest of the class combined. That doesn't happen often. It was probably because I stayed up really late last night after ice skating to finish the readings. Also, I like talking about the Eastern Orthodox church and Russia in general.Ice skating was a blast — you can see pictures on my "photo albums" page. It was a very beautiful night in Central Park, and we all had a good time. Most of us were Rubin residents, and then my Peruvian friend Jorge from Queens came too. My feet became bitterly cold towards the end and I fondly remembered Nordic skiing! It is a testament to how much I love my Nordic skiing memories that cold toes brought me happy thoughts.
I consumed a lot of caffeine yesterday, for various reasons and from various sources. I think it constituted an overdose, and this morning I took my heart rate for a full minute as I waited for my Russia recitation to begin. It was 71 bpm. That it definitely higher than my normal resting heart rate. How is it that caffeine remains in one's system for almost 24 hours??
I found the best song a couple days ago, from my neighbors in room 506 (Ashley, Angana, Jessica and Leiah). It's called "Dragostea din tei," and it is Romanian. If you have heard of this song, excellent. If you haven't, tell me and I'll send you it as an mp3 e-mail attachment. It's just that good.
My first violin lesson was this morning, after the recitation, and it was fantastic. I am happy to be taking them for a second semester. I feel like my technique and intonation are [finally] improving. Orchestra starts on Monday, like I said before. It's been so long since I played music frequently that I'm really looking forward to getting into the swing of it all again. All in all, things in New York are excellent. I'm looking forward to this weekend, though.
January 20, Thursday
Classes are good. Really. I think they'll all be stimulating and enjoyable, though I realized yesterday just how much calculus I'd forgotten. I remember the abstract theories that are so wonderful — like how integrating an equation adds a dimension to it while deriving the same equation subtracts a dimension — but somehow let the actual techniques fall by the wayside. I must re-learn integration-by-parts and u-substitution this weekend. Luckily, u-substitution is one of my favorite geeky things to do!I have not yet fallen into any sort of routine w/r/t classes and errands, so my time is spent rather inefficiently. I hope I can fix that soon. I still have some Russia history stuff to read before my recitation tomorrow, and then a package to mail to my family (I am sorry, Ericksons, and especially Andy, I will try to get it off tomorrow). Tonight I'm going ice skating again in Central Park with the Jewish group and some others. I'm still not Jewish, but I might as well be since I hang out with them so much!
I registered for violin lessons and orchestra, and so my music will progress (I hope). Lessons begin tomorrow and orchestra starts on Monday.
Yesterday was busy. Every other Wednesday will be brutal. I had class from 11-4, whereupon I quickly got a vegetable+cheese sub from Quiznos (my first Quiznos sandwich ever, actually, and certainly not my last!) and headed to work from 5-8. I didn't get back till almost 9. But then the members of 505 watched Evita, which was fun. I have been singing Evita songs incessantly for the past week and I won't stop anytime soon!
I'll have pictures from New York up tomorrow or later this weekend, if all goes well. There has been snow and snow is generally photogenic, even when there's not much of it. For this reason, I have a ton of new pictures. Plus, this city looks beautiful at night and my camera is an excellent collector of ambient light. For these reasons, I can take superb night photographs. Hurrah!
1/17, Monday
I haven't written lately: this is because nothing has happened lately. Well, that's a small exaggeration, because I've obviously been doing something, but not a lot. People started to trickle back in on Friday and over the past couple days, and I was pretty happy to see them come back. Then I remembered how loud they are, like the kid above us who plays his stupid electric guitar, amped up, well into the AM hours. Oh well.I went walking a lot, because it's been nice outside and there is a lot of New York I want to see again. I like this city. A couple days ago I introduced my guitar-playing friend Gordon to the West Village. I like to be a West Village evangelist. Actually, the WV is not quite as pretty and quaint as it is when the leaves were green, but that's okay. I also made my pilgrimages to Lexington Avenue and St. Pat's Cathedral on Fifth. I went out to eat at restaurants more than I'd expected to, but that is okay because I suddenly have income. Plus, my instant-food supply was dwindling. One of the dining halls opens today at 4, and to that I say "Huzzah!"
I finally wrote about Florence, so here you go.
I bought some books, like my Modern Philosophy textbook. It looks excellent, though I am a little put out at having spent $40 for a sheaf of paper. The selections are good, though, and I am looking forward to it. Everything is closed today in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr., day, and so I'm not sure what I'll be doing with my time. I'll find someplace to go.
1/13, Thursday
Being back in New York is nice. Sometime last week I had the unfortunate thought that perhaps New York City would look impossibly ugly compared with beautiful Florence, but my fears were put to rest today as I walked to the library. I'm not sure how New York can be beautiful, because it really isn't, but yet it is. Strange. I don't know if what I just said makes sense on its own, but that is too bad.I acquired my first paychecks from my on-campus job today, and found, to my pleasant surprise, that only $1.50 had been taken out of my $300 earnings. That's just awesome, no matter how you look at it. And now I don't feel so bad about spending €110 in Italy, even though that translates into a great sum of $US. The exchange rate was not kind to us.
Florence photos are up; click here to see them. It was an awesome trip and I think you will see that from these pictures. I'll write some long, involved page about it sometime, but that will not be for a few days. It's hard to know where to begin.
I am proud of myself for finishing the photo album, and also for getting my calculus book for $20 (instead of $27). I also ordered some books for my Soviet Russia class; three of them were written by none other than my professor himself. Stephen F. Cohen is his name, and I hear he's friends with Mikhail Gorbachev. I am really looking forward to this class. My other classes, too. The book for my History of Modern Philosophy class looks splendid, but I haven't bought it yet. I'm trying to find it for cheap, but it seems that the bookstore might actually be the best deal. Since when does that happen?
1/12, Wednesday
I'm back; it was lovely! I have been working feverishly on a photo page today and it's almost done. I should have it tomorrow. As for some writing about the trip... well, that will take a while to complete. Fortunately (I guess), I have nothing to do until Tuesday, January 18. It's unfortunate that the dining halls are closed until then, but I have a good supply of instant foods.My schedule of slumber is back on track, I think; I had a much more difficult time traveling east than west. Last night after getting back and catching up with people I lay my head on the pillow and fell asleep instantaneously — that never happens. It was nice.
Italy is a wonderful country with wonderful food. In fact, everything I ate on the trip could probably fall neatly into one of these three groups:
Until I have something else for you to look at, take a peek at this. You need QuickTime 3 and some patience with the downloading (if you have dial-up), but I laugh hysterically every time I see it. Thanks, Andy and Zach.
1/4 - 1/11I'm in Florence till next Tuesday; I'll bring back a bajillion pictures for this site. Feel free to send me interesting e-mails (lerickson@nyu.edu) so I have something to do besides upload pictures when I get back, because I will have a week of downtime until classes resume on Jan. 18. Until the eleventh, when I will update like crazy with lots of Florence/Pisa/Siena stories, chew on this: |
1/2, Sunday
Back to New York tomorrow; then, on Tuesday, I'm jetting off to Florence, Italy. I will ambitiously try to bring everything for my European week with me in my carry-on, because I no longer trust airlines with my checked luggage. Fortunately, my backpack has an enormous capacity!What I read over break:
I attempted Consilience, a book I'd like to read for real sometime, but didn't get far. I didn't even start Lord of the Rings, but I need to get on that soon so I can finally see the films!
While I was here I didn't read as much as I thought I would; I didn't see as many people as I thought I would; I didn't play violin and piano as much as I thought I would. I'm not sure if I was just overestimating my time and energy when I envisioned this break, but I definitely did much less than I'd planned. I'm glad I wasn't busy, though, because I kind of needed some relaxation. A couple days ago I went to the Mall of America — or, as we Minnesotans like to say, the "Megamall" — with Kari and Jenna (yes, Lindsay Erickson actually went to a mall) and saw, to my great joy, the Apple store. I love Apple more than any other company I can think of right now, except maybe Peltonen (the Finnish manufacturer devoted to Nordic skis). I realized, though, that Minneapolis is just not a pedestrian's city, no matter how you look at it. Which is unfortunate, because in a few years I'll probably be a ped in Minneapolis.
Tonight is the "Erickson Christmas," and it will be splendid. Today I took a walk to the park with my little brother Andy and we took lots of pictures and humorous videos with my awesome camera!