DullJokerman's Xanga

Summer's been fun for me, but probably boring to talk about

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 02:08:13 GMT

Also, I've apparently lost all ability to write titles.

So, the summer's been fun in the fact that, yes, Laura and I are (still) married. Seems we enjoy each other's company; crazy, huh?

It's sort of fun to live not-in-a-college town for the first time in awhile. I mean, Terre Haute sort of doesn't count, but whenever I live there I'm surrounded by college students so I think that defaults it to a college town as far as personal experience goes (the other town, for your Jon Bergdoll trivia knowledge, was West Lafayette last summer). Also, though, it sort of sucks in the fact that there's no incredibly cheap places to eat around here (who knew that people liked expensive food in Carmel?).

Currently Laura and I are having a discussion of the worst possible way in which Harry Potter could die. My nominee is an enlarged heart, with the sentence somewhere of "All the magic in the world couldn't save him from something so mundane, something so normal that any one, even normal children, could have it." Laura's is an opening sentence of "Harry Potter is dead," with the following 700+ pages being his funeral and wake. Bad people? Yes, yes we are.

Anywho, work is incredibly, incredibly boring this summer, but, hey, whatever. At least I'm getting paid, I guess? Really, at least I learned I never want to work for [COMPANY I WORK FOR HERE]. Why the brackets? I really don't want it recorded online that I bad-mouthed my company.

Well, as it's now 2 AM I suppose I should go to bed. If you have any...umm...I don't know where I was going with that.

Hey! Scott! While I'm thinking about it, get in touch with me sometime! We can hang out sometime, eat lunch or meal or something together.

Later, folks.

Jon

Hey, I'm married and in New York

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 22:17:49 GMT

Check it: NYC is pretty cool. I could totally see falling in love with this city -- but, on the other hand, I can't even begin to imagine the horror of actually living here. That being said, I have gotten to go to the following two exciting restaurants while here:

1.) Goodburger, home of the goodburger. Have any of you seen the amazing cinematic endeavor that is Goodburger, starring the esteemed Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell (I had to look up Kel's last name. Poor Kel)? Well, it's an amazing movie, so going to the restaurant that only coincidentally shares the name of the movie was pretty fun for me.

2.) Happy Deli, owned by Rupert, constantly featured on Letterman. This was actually a pretty awesome place. Not only was Rupert a really nice guy, but the food was really reasonably priced (I mean, I wouldn't mind paying these prices in Indiana, so here I'm practically hugging him across the counter), and in addition to that, it's the best food I've had here. Definite recommendation for anyone. Also, they have Rupert's Signature Energy drink, which I will upload a picture of once I have one.

Oh, yeah, also, being married is cool, hah. I'd write more, but, well, it'd either be too romantic for this blog or something else entirely. I really am quite happy though. She's a wonderful wife and I couldn't be luckier. Also, few wives would give their husbands a nice internet half-hour per day on their honeymoon hah.

Jon

P.S. Good god, if I hear about Paris Hilton again before bed I will...well, I don't have an adequate reaction. Probably just scream with such anguish that 1000 legions (yes, that's 3000000) demons born and made of the fires of hell will find anchor to draw themselves into our plane through the pain expressed in that primal rage. Is that a hyperbole? Just barely.

Life update:

Thu, 31 May 2007 00:00:20 GMT

I've not updated this in some time. Well, time for a bulleted life update!

I'm getting married this Sunday. To Laura, in case you REALLY need a life update. That'll be good. I'm looking forward to it. The whole marriage thing that is -- it'll be pretty awesome. (I'm saving all my romantic writings for my vows, which will probably be written tonight). I'll write more on it later -- probably after the wedding.
I'm minus a set of grandparents. That was a bummer few weeks.
I'll be honeymooning in New York City! That's going to be sweet. And, as a forewarning, unless you want to get a quiet chuckle from me, don't ask the same question as Laura's brother did of "What are you going to do there?"
I maintained my 3.5ish at Rose, w/an exact 3.5. I've realized that I, regardless of difficulty/ease of classes, will put out exactly enough energy to get a 3.5. It's almost creepy how I can do it so steadily, really, like how geese can "know" to fly in a V, or dogs can know calculus, etc.
I'll be working at Roche over the summer. That's on the northeast side of Indy, for those of you who don't know (which would be most of you). I'll be doing...some stuff, hah. Labview work mostly, I think. Not too exciting, but I can work with it.

That's it.

Jon

Language Rant

Mon, 07 May 2007 03:59:45 GMT

So, as I sit here typing a paper at 3:45 in the morning, deciding that I can finish it tomorrow during my break (oh procrastination), a thought struck me. Here I give it vent.

I wonder if cultural focus can be indicated by the general location of word genesis? What I mean by this is whether there is a direct correlation between the fields in which new words are located and a culture's attention, respect, focus, etc. What made me wonder is that someone like, say, Shakespeare invented words all the time, and some of them stuck. We still use the occasional word that was more or less coined by him, or words that are direct derivatives of something of his (e.g., fart). Usually these words had their own derivations, true, but he, or some other writer, would be the person to make the leap between original source and new word. Science of the time, while occasionally bringing new terms into the fray, almost entirely used pre-existing lexicons.

Now, elsewhen in the future, we have a rather definite reversal of that. Want proof? Engineers, when's the last time you wrote a paper that didn't have a red squiggly (and not just because you butchered February or something). Now, liberal arts folks, what's the last paper you wrote that had a nice red squiggly indicating something completely sensical?

I wonder if this actually means anything. Probably not -- but, hey, I thought it'd be fun to write something on a topic slightly less dry than MEMS actuators in the world of HDDs. Later, folks.

Jon

It's Bergdoll, the Makes-Poor-Time-Related-Decisions Student!

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 01:33:50 GMT

Hey kids! I'm here to teach all of you a little something about -- Time-Wasting!

See, sometimes when you have work to do, your whole body just tells you "NO." Do we all know what we should tell our bodies when they tell us not to do any more homework?

That's right -- offer them a compromise between working and doing nothing. Great job, guys!

Does anyone know what sort of compromises those could be? That's right -- video games is a great choice! Throwing the same piece of jello at your roommate's face until it goes into his mouth, regardless of how often it hits the ground? Bit of a weird one, Timmy, but that's ok! Everyone's in the spirit!

What's that? Write a blog for no reason in the tone of a child mascot? Great idea!

Jon

Vonnegut

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 02:03:23 GMT

The greatest living American author died last night, becoming just another dead author.

So it goes?

Jon

Morse Code

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:26:27 GMT

My roommate and I are teaching ourselves Morse code. Hurrah for Fridays!

Jon

On 300

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 02:33:24 GMT

So, I rather impulsively saw 300 tonight with some friends. We all agreed that while it was entertaining and we didn't regret seeing it, it was also amazingly heavy-handed, both in dialogue and "feeling like this was produced by the Republican party." I'm not someone who goes around calling "Political!" on things unduly, but, man, that one probably deserves it, hah.

Also, to those who would use the common rebuttal to this: no, vast, vast portions of this movie were added from the graphic novel it's based on, so, no, it's not like the political stuff is coincidental and not meant to be there.

Jon

Oh, my amazing ability...

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:49:15 GMT

Oh, my amazing ability to get the exact same grades every quarter, regardless of how easy (or how difficult) the classes are.

Sadly, however, I got my first not-A in a humanities course at Rose. For that, I sorrow, hah.

Jon

P.S. Maybe I'll write more later about other things. Stay tuned!

School Cancelling? gasp

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:54:40 GMT

In all the time I've been at Rose I've never seen all classes cancelled -- however, today and tomorrow, two days which will forever go down in my book of awesome days, I have had, if not all, the vast majority of classes cancelled (all tomorrow, all but 1 today). Truly an epic thing.

What does this mean immediately? I get to spend almost all of Valentine's day with Laura! It's pretty crazy that I'm actually going to get time with her during the week, I know, but I should get a large portion of the day with her. Then, sure, I get to come back and do homework until my fingers are stiff from typing and writing, but, hey, the day's going to rock!

Yay!

Jon