I went to my first bar Saturday Night. How I got in will not be discussed in this entry. It was fun, but expensive. The occasion was a meeting with a bunch of other “Farkers” (aka people from Fark.com) at a “Fark Party.” The people from that site are absolutely hilarious, and great people to get drunk with.

Which is not an easy thing to do on a budget, when double-shots of Jack are $5.25 and pints of Guinness are $5.50. They had “microbrews” for $3. All of this was before tax and tip, of course. Things like Blue Moon and Sam Adams were considered “microbrews” so I tried a Blue Moon. They put a lime in it, which I found awkward but didn’t distract from the flavor. Then I tried my first taste of Guinness. It is an acquired taste, but after drinking more and more of it I really started enjoying it (the Guinness was my second drink of the night, so I wasn’t that far gone.) I wasn’t use to a beer where the foam was thick and heavy and didn’t dissolve when I touched it.

I was talking with a few guys who aren’t all that older than I am (one is just out of college and the other took a few years off to join the Army before going to college) and we decided to have shots of Jack together. I much prefer Jack Daniels to Jim Beam. The guy who went into the army wasn’t able to pay me in cash for his shot, so he said he would just grab me another drink. Not having had a Rum and Coke, I decided to try that. I thought it had too much Rum and not enough Coke as it had too much “kick” for a mixed drink. I need to prefect a mix of the two, but I have a lifetime to figure that out.

I went back to campus after feeling a bit tipsy, but decided that I should go get something to eat first. I thought at the time that the McDonalds by campus had already closed, not realizing that it was still rather early in the night and they closed at midnight, so I decided to go the opposite direction on the train and go to the 24 hour McDonalds by the Watertower Campus. While transferring from the brown line to the red line the wind had picked up so much that I lost 5 singles to the wind. Great, the tally is now up to $35. I got a two-cheeseburger meal with a large coke and fries. Tasty, especially when drunk. That was paid for by the credit card the parents gave me (I tend to ask them to only fund my rare but necessary McDonalds runs.) Then I decided to go back to Loyola. As I exited the red line and walked past the very open McDonalds I decided it was time to go to a party held by the Rugby Team. I got there and paid my $5 ($40) to go in only to find that the keg was empty. I had to argue with the assholes at the door to get my $5 back, but they finally caved in ($35.) I made the final decision that I would make my first trip to Hamiltons, the local college bar (not affiliated, officially anyways, with the university.) I like it in there, and the prices aren’t that bad. Not seeing anyone I knew, I left the bar without purchasing anything and decided to go home.

When I got back to my floor I found that quite a few people were up (and incredibly intoxicated) so I spent a good amount of the now early morning talking with them. I remember thinking to myself: It would be hilarious if the fire alarm went off right about now. At approximately 4AM the fire alarm rang, and a throng of incredibly drunk freshmen went down the stairs. I know at least one guy threw up on the way down not too far back from me. The wind and cold was so bad that the put us into the sports complex across from the hall (which they keep oddly toasty in the middle of the night when nobody is using it.) Some glitch in the system.

The ride back up was fun, especially since one of the elevators (which I elected not to take) had piss covering the floor.

It was a fun night/early morning.

Dear iPod Hackers

Please make it so that when I plug in my iPod I can use the port on it as an external audio device, so that I can listen to sounds from my computer through the very clear and interfearance free iPod 1/8th inch Jack. Thanks. -Nick

Aaron Barnhart at the Kansas City Star details how one interest group, The Parent’s Television Council, filed 23,542 of the 23,547 complaints the FCC received in July. That’s all but 5.

Here’s the quote from the entry I like:

[The PTC filed complaints] mostly against the same two programs, including “The Inside” on Fox. How’d you like to have their Xerox lease contract?
This just goes to show that indecency is a dead letter. No one cares if there’s a sodomy reference on Fox. People clearly expect sodomy references on Fox. In fact, I’m guessing they’re disappointed if Fox doesn’t throw them one every now and then.

Link.

The Google Staff Dr. Taraneh Ravazi, M.D. gives a few Useful tips for Flu Season

I want to work for Google someday.

Newegg is an online hardware store. I have worked with them in the past and I have to say, they are a great company!

Always great pricing and customer support is great. I received a bad motherboard (it worked, but some features were broken) from them and instead of RMAing it back and waiting for a week or so without a computer, I decided to use the board and just order another of the same board. Now usuially this would mean that I would have to incur a restocking fee, but since I told them what I was doing and asked them to waive the restocking fee they just pressed a button and they said “Send it On Back.”

Great company.