Pop quiz: Does having a lot of free time before starting work mean that I: a) Post much more to my blog, b) Go browsing at stores more, or c) Spend *less* time than usual browsing the web? The answer, of course, is all of the above.

Some of you may find response (c) a bit surprising, but there’s a simple explanation: at home, I’m stuck with a dialup connection, hence everything is really slow, a condition that causes impatience on my part, which eventually leads to me doing other things.

One of the things that I find myself doing more of is browsing at stores. I’ve been oh-so tempted to splurge and buy some fancy new things, but thus far I have shown restraint. For example, on the day I got back from Indiana, I went into Best Buy. I was having Best Buy withdrawal, which I’m sure anybody who goes to Rose can relate to. So, I walk in and head straight to the computer section. I’m walking down the aisles, casually pressing buttons and examining boxes, when I notice it: a 17″ LCD display. The price was especially appealing. Now, I’ve wanted a new monitor for some time, so I start justifying the purchase in my mind. Things are going smoothly in my preparation to buy, when Bob the Best Buy sales associate (all employees seem to be associates these days…) walks up.

“Good deal on the LCD panel, eh?” Bob starts. “Uh, yeah. I’m thinking about buying it.” “Yeah, they’ve been pretty popular these past few days. I think we only have one left.” “Well, I can understand. It’s a good deal, and the picture looks crisp and bright.” Then Bob makes the fatal mistake: “You know, the Performance Service Plan (TM) on these devices is a really good deal.” Arg, I HATE the PSP sales pitch. “No, I don’t think so.” “It’s a good plan, though.” Well, at least I know that Bob the Best Buy sales drone is a Minnesota-bred Best Buy sales drone: he ends sentences with ‘though.’ I counter, “Are you saying that this LCD panel is going to break? Are you saying that it’s low quality?” “Uh, err, of course not,” Bob replies. “Because,” I continue, “if it’s junk, as you are implying, I don’t think I want to buy it.” “No, no, of course it’s not junk. But you see, with these LCD panels, sometimes pixels go bad. But if they do go bad, the manufacturer won’t replace the panel.” Dammit Bob, I know you’re lying to me now. “I know about ‘stuck’ pixels and manufacturer’s policies regarding defective screens. You’re really just trying to sell me a PSP because you have a quota to fill.” I have many friends who have been under the employ of Best Buy, so I know a little bit about Best Buy sales practices. “That’s not true,” Bob retorts, “We have no quota and we don’t work on commission.” Okay, so I overstated things a bit. True, there is no quota per se, but there is heavy pressure to sell as many PSPs as possible. A few years back, one of my friends was working as a sales rep for Apple. He was stationed in a Best Buy store (Best Buy sold some Macs at the time) doing what corporate sales reps do. Apparently, he was selling a significant number of computers but did not push the PSP at all. Well, things got ugly with store management, and my friend got kicked out of the store. Yes, a corporate rep, there by agreement with Best Buy, was kicked out of the store for refusing to advocate the PSP. But I digress. “Bob,” I said, “I don’t want the service plan, and on second thought, I don’t want the LCD panel.”

The next day, having saved myself a significant amount of money the day before, thanks to a certain somebody being over zealous about a certain service plan, I decided to expand my business casual wardrobe. For some time, I had seen ads hawking the Dockers Mobile Pant. For those of you unfamiliar with the Mobile Pant, it looks like a regular pair of semi-dressy khakis, except it has hidden pockets at the thighs, accesses via a zipper concealed by the seam. Having a bunch of electronic gizmos that I like to take with me, and conscious that cargo pants wouldn’t go over well at my internship, I decided I needed a pair to try out. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. I went to Kohl’s and found a plethora of Dockers styles: chino, pleated, classic, golf, relaxed — but no mobile pants. I trekked to Sears. No mobile pants. Marshal Fields? Nope, not there either. Eventually, I wound up at the Ridgedale JC Penny. Behold! A multitude of mobile pants! And they were good, and the purchase was made.

During the past few days, I’ve given more thought into things I’d like to learn to do. I noticed that my previous list was mostly winter activities, so here are some warmer goals:

• Learn to golf. Golf seems to be a good social activity, especially in the business world. Despite numerous claims to the contrary, it also looks like fun.
• Learn to water ski. Hey, might as well take advantage of Minnesota’s 11,000+ lakes, right?
• Go skydiving. What a thrill it must be, to jump out of a plane and fall unfettered through the air.
• Learn to play tennis and racquetball. Looks like fun, looks like good exercise, and looks like a lot of people do it, so why not me?
• Go biking more. I’d like to do more biking.

Surely, the list will grow this summer.

Despite spending less time browsing the web, I had the realization today that all three of my little bros have web sites. Good job, Willis, Vince, and Tyler!

I’m back in Minnesota, and oh! what a grand state it is. I start my internship at Medtronic on Monday, an experience that I eagerly await. In the meantime, I’ve gathered together several books that I plan to read this summer:

• Henry David Thoreau’s Walden – It’s a classic, and I’ve been trying to read many of the classics. I bought a four-work compilation of Thoreau’s writing in a single leather-bound volume, so I might also read his A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Cape Cod, and Civil Disobedience.
• Louis Gerstner’s Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? – My dad gave me this book for Christmas, I started reading it during the trip to Steamboat in February, and I finished it yesterday. It was an insightful look into the challenges of directing a large company (IBM in this case) and of the qualities required of a successful leader. My favorite part of the book was Gerstner’s postulate that “People don’t do what you expect, they do what you inspect.” How true, indeed. It’s not a long book — my reading was merely sporadic.
• J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion – I liked the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, so I hope that this manuscript will be of the same caliber.
• 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know – Okay, so this isn’t a ‘real’ book, but it’s a fun compilation of good words. I strive to expand my lexicon, so this book tickled my fancy. The words within are not extremely obscure, though I found a not insignificant number that I was previously oblivious to. Certain members of you, the readership, might find the inclusion of ‘inculcate’ particularly amusing.
• Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason – This text is Paine’s treatise on organized religion, using Reason as a guide. Should be interesting…

I was also going to read The Scarlet Letter, but I forgot the book in Terre Haute. At one time, I was also planning to finish Dante’s Divine Comedy, but I lost interest after reading The Inferno. Ug. Some classics are extremely enjoyable; others, not so much. The Inferno itself has a good story, and I’m glad I read it. However, I think that much was lost in the translation. I suspect readability degraded during the translation of the epic poem from Italian into verse English.

Switching gears to something completely unrelated to poetry, my current Bonneville (not to be confused with the now pancake-shaped Bonneville) just rolled over 161,000 miles and is still going strong. Gotta hand it to the engineers who designed her; they sure can build a reliable machine. Needless to say, the Bonnie is in MUCH better condition than my Thunderbird was when I got it at 171,000 miles.

I sit here tonight on my couch, relaxing after a long year at Rose-Hulman. The leather beneath me has acclimated to my body temperature; the music, Digitally Imported’s streaming techno feed, flows smoothly in the background. I just finished sorting through several stacks of documents, carefully filing away the pertinent information into my filing cabinet. Looking through the old contracts, pay stubs, tax forms, greeting cards, and receipts, I am reminded of how many things I have experienced and done in my life.

I found my travel itinerary from my first plane trip, a visit to Texas in 1989. I found documents from my Eagle Scout application. Related to Scouting, I found reminders of my trips to Philmont in New Mexico and to Minnesota’s BWCA. I found my first pay stub, my first credit card statement, and my first financial investment statement. I found my formal invitation to become a Brother of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.

My favorite discovery is perhaps the most telling of how much I have changed: I found my high school photo ID cards. Most of my close friends here at Rose have seen my old driver’s license photo. I enjoy showing it to them as a visual indication of how much the college experience, especially my involvement with Pike, has changed me. The usual reaction is one of shock and laughter. However, though my old driver’s license photo was bad, it can’t compare to my sophomore high school ID photo. Wow. My driving permit photo, taken ten months after the sophomore ID photo, is equally awful. Yet, I am glad that I was the person in those photos. Had I not been that person, I would not have experienced the things that let me grow into the person I am today.

This time of sentimental musing and rummaging was sparked not just because of my need to organize my files. Instead, it is the beginning of a realization, and possible acceptance, that my life will soon fundamentally change. Granted the forthcoming change is still a year off, but it might take me a year to fully internalize the ramifications: I will not be in college forever. Yesterday, I attended Rose-Hulman’s commencement ceremony. I watched many good friends walk across the stage, receive their diploma, and enter the real world. I have known these people for three years and have grown close to many of them. Now, when I leave Terre Haute for the summer, I must face the harsh reality that I might never see some of them again. It is very hard for me to accept this realization, much harder than when I left high school. When I left high school, I believed that I could see whomever I wanted to when everybody returned to Maple Grove around the holidays. I thought that I could stay in close contact with my friends via the links of the Internet. Three years later, I communicate regularly with only four of my high school friends, occasionally with perhaps a half-dozen more. That’s it. This time around, I tell myself that it will be different. I tell myself that I will work harder to maintain contact. Certainly, the tools are better: I can stay informed by my friends’ blogs. I can instantly say a quick ‘Hello’ with AIM. I pledge to make the effort to keep the lines of communication open.

At the end of December, I made a list of things I wanted to do in the near future. Here’s a recap of those things and the progress I’ve made:

• Learn to skate. I’m getting better, little by little.
• Get a motorcycle. No bike yet, maybe it will happen this summer if it fits into my fiscal reality.
• Go to more hockey games. Being in Indiana makes this difficult, but I managed to go to a Wild game in April.
• Learn to play hockey. No progress here.
• Learn to snowboard. I’m getting better. The trip to Steamboat helped a lot. Rumor has it that there will be another ski/snowboard trip next year. Initially, we had talked about going to Whistler-Blackcomb in British Colombia, but discussion has shifted to Breckenridge in Colorado. Either way would be great fun.
• Learn to juggle. No progress here.
• Tour Europe. No progress here, though it still might happen in 2004.
• Learn to race. No progress here either.

Okay, so some things have seen more advancement than others. All in due time…

Next year I will be switching rooms at the Pike house, moving from the third floor to the second floor. I will be rooming with my little bro Tyler. Tyler and I decided that we want our room to be open and inviting, so the redesigned loft, lighting, and furniture arrangement will be such as to encourage social interaction. To that end, I decided to refinish the floor. Currently in that room is carpet covering a hardwood floor. I like hardwood floors, so I plan to remove the carpet then sand, stain, and urethane the wood beneath. The project will probably take some time, but I think I’m up to the challenge.

After all, without challenges, life would be boring.

Ah, the fire truck. It seems like at least some part of at least one of my Fraternity’s two fire trucks is always, shall we say, not in an operational state. Such remained the case several months ago, when, immediately after having its brakes fixed, our 1964 Howe pumper truck decided to screw up its clutch. At that time, a freak sequence of events caused the piston in the clutch master cylinder to break and jam itself against the cylinder wall. Needless to say, it’s a bit challenging, not to mention noisy, to drive an old fire truck with no clutch and badly worn synchros. We decided that replacing the piston would fix the problem, thereby making the truck drivable. Thus began a protracted search for a part that GM discontinued in the early 1980s.

Calls to truck parts dealers around the country yielded nothing more than gentle laughter. It seems that clutch master cylinder rebuild kits for 1964 GMC 5500-frame trucks are exceedingly rare beasts. Finally, after dozens of phone calls and weeks of time, I was pointed to a company called Capitol Clutch and Brake in Sacramento, California. Not only did they understand what I was looking for, but they also stocked the replacement part! Thanks to Visa and UPS, two days later, I had a brand-new clutch master cylinder piston in my possession.

With a giddy fervor, I installed the new piston in the old cylinder, bled the clutch hydraulic system, and… found the clutch remained inoperable. Although the master cylinder could generate enough pressure to bleed the system, the pressure proved insufficient to move the clutch. After much poking, prodding, and head-scratching, the fire truck committee decided that the master cylinder itself was bad, probably having been damaged when the piston broke and jammed.

Another call to Capitol Clutch and Brake, some more Visa action, and another few days, and we had a new master cylinder. I installed it, bled the system again, and… it worked! I drove the truck a few laps around the Pike grounds just to be sure that everything was operational, the entire time having a huge grin on my face.

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Last Wednesday I celebrated my 21^st birthday. It’s hard to believe that I am 21 already — it seems like only yesterday that I was starting high school. There’s just one more year until I graduate and must face the “real world.” But enough sentimental prose; time to talk about the birthday! At midnight on May 7, 2003 I did something that I had never done before: I partook in the consumption of spirituous beverages. Yes, that’s right. For reasons quite personal to me, in the first 21 years of my life, I never drank. Was it a question of legality or morals? Not really. Anyway, House took me to a bar, and I consumed libations. It was an interesting experience. Those early hours reminded me of how I felt and acted while under the influence of nitrous oxide at the dentist’s office during my wisdom tooth extraction. Time passed, and eventually I went to sleep.

That Wednesday evening, I took my three little brothers and two former roommates out to dinner at Pino’s Il Sonetto (yes, that Pino’s). I wanted to go somewhere classy to celebrate my birthday, so Pino’s seemed a logical choice. The company was great, the food as well. Good times.

Speaking of little brothers, I’m proud to say that my newest little brother, Tyler, joined Iota Delta Chapter in Brotherhood last Friday night. Yay lineage!

The countdown has begun: less than seven hours until I turn 21.