the tinyblog

My friend Hudson Cress is only really a blogger when he's travelling. When he lived in Seattle he never kept a blog, but when he's abroad he does. Until recently it's been totally in the form of Email. However, just the other day, he finally took the plunge and published all his emails online in some sorta blog form.

He just moved to San Francisco, and started a new round, but my favorite stories are the ones from his recent trip to Thailand.

In addition, he took some wicked pictures of my birthday party last year, when a friend shaved my beard off section by section. Enjoy.

Posted by tiny daniel at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

(in the school's computer lab)

Me: Hey, are you using the scanner?

Him: No.

Me: Well, I'm going to need that computer in a minute, you might want to use another one.

Him: (pointing next to him) Use that one.

Me: The one you're sitting at is the only one with a scanner.

Him: So you want to use my seat?

Me: (losing patience and pointing to the sign next to him) See that big orange sign there that says (enunciating clearly) "Students needing to use the scanner have priority use of this computer."

Him: [Some lame excuse about there not being other seats (there were several) ].

Me: Look, I'm just trying to save you the trouble of having to get into something and then move in five minutes when I'm done with my sandwich!

By now several Asian girls were trying to get him to move to the seat next to him, and finally...at long last...he does.

He's in my Business class with me (we both went to it after the lab), and I knew that it had really bummed him out cause he looked really grouchy all through the class. I knew I should apologize to him.

He got out the door too fast, but then I saw him accidentally at the bookstore. I went up to him and apologized. I just said, "I think we caught each other at a bad moment," and said I hadn't meant to come off so harsh. He looked as relieved as I felt.

I just wanted to advocate for minor apologies, that's all.

Posted by tiny daniel at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Man, when Rzan told me about how she passed out during a mammogram while they were smashing her breast in the machine and then fell down and broke the plastic tray with her jaw, I really wanted to blog about it.

But she wouldn't let me. "It's my story," she said, "I'll blog about it!"

I wonder how often this happens to Ben and Mena, another blogging couple.

Posted by tiny daniel at 1:46 PM | Permalink

A couple more gems from my maths teacher...

People were complaining about how many different confusing properties there were, and how it was hard to know which ones to apply in complex problems.

Natasha says, "Only practice can help you. If you do it 10,000 times...then, maybe you get it."

Then someone asked her why they should learn all these rules that simplify a math problem into less steps, instead of just doing the problem the long, familiar way they were used to.

Natasha says, "It is better to learn the rule and do the problem in less steps. Because, with each step it is so easy to make one mistake. Maybe two."

Posted by tiny daniel at 8:25 PM | Permalink

I remember the day when I first moved in with a girlfriend. I did a signifigant amount of it on the bus. I was dragging a huge bag full of stuff behind me and this paint-covered construction worker type said to me, "Hey, you moving?"

"Yeah," I puffed, "I'm moving in with my girlfriend."

"Heheh," he said...in a way that was both knowing and scandalous, "That's the move I like the best."

For some reason it was kind of memorable. He seemed to be saying that he loved it that some woman was sucker enough to let him move in, and it was all easy couch living until she kicked him out, but maybe I'm reading into it. That seemed to be the tone.

I thought of that for some reason when I moved in with the only other girlfriend I ever lived with, and it just occurred to me now, as I sit at my house packing everything but my computer...preparing to move into Rzan's house.

Of course I don't see it quite the same way as that guy. I have never thought of it as a relaxing idea (not since the first time anyway). It's the beginning of having to negotiate so much of your space and personal existance with another person. And to this move is added the astounding feeling of realizing that I don't intend to move again without her.

But this is different than the other two times. It's not under any kind of duress, coercion, or just old-fashioned foolhardiness...I've been around her and Sam quite a bit in the past several months. This month I've practically lived there. But next month, I will officially live there. And I couldn't think of a nicer girl to officially live with.

I'm doing pretty good at packing. I guess it's something you get better at as you get older.

Posted by tiny daniel at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I woke up this morning and Rzan was all punchy, providing me with some suggestions on how I could have gone to sleep earlier the night before and ribbing me about anything she could think of at 7:30 am. Well maybe letting the alarm go off 8 times had some kind of effect on her circuits.

On 3.5 hours of sleep, the only thing I want to do during today's presentation of the various parts of the European Union is pass out. But that doesn't really fly in Verna Swanljung's class. The last time I tried to nap I got a swift, "Daniel, are you alright?" in the commanding Verna Voice.

That was on a day where we were discussing something completely scintillating, like business in foreign markets. Today I think we're talking about the interdependance of the various branches and treaties that make up what people call the EU and I'm wondering if I can possibly just sorta lean back in my seat and somehow take a nap with my eyes open.

Maybe I'll wake up when they get to the Treaty of Nice.

Posted by tiny daniel at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Well...finally I'm about out of time. My maths test is in one hour. I'll let you know how I think I did afterwards. I would have liked to have spent more time on it, but without inserting an extra hour into each day I just don't think it's possible. A guy's gotta eat!

2(3m - 1) + 5 > 8m - 7

Update: I think I did pretty well. We'll see on Tuesday.

Posted by tiny daniel at 5:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My roommate Terra promised to pose for a photo of her cleavage for the tinyblog...slathered with her delicious fresh basil egg salad.

It might happen.

Posted by tiny daniel at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is a known fact, that even just the odd numbered problems is still a lot of goddamn problems. I've put in about 3 hours on my current set of assignments and I'm only about halfway done!

Too much homework...or I suck at maths. You decide.

At least my intense Business teacher, Verna Swanljung (swan-yung) likes me.

"GDP. Can anyone tell me what the G.D.P. is? Anyone? Besides Daniel? The point is that you're supposed to read the assignment before you come to class so we can have a discussion about it."

Oh, and by the way, the answer to the subtraction vocabulary question is:
minuend - subtrahend = difference.

Crazy...has anyone ever heard of that before?

Posted by tiny daniel at 2:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Maths fact of the day:
You probably know that when you have a divided by b, then a is the dividend, and b is the divisor.

But, did you know that when you add a to b, then both a and b are addenols? When you multiply, you have a multiplicand and a multiplicator. Anyone care to venture a guess what the names are for subtraction?

This is probably only a fact for Americans, but in Britain they say Maths for Mathematics! I like it. It's called Maths from now on in my book.

I'm just getting back into maths, after a relatively disastrous experiment with them in High School. My guide in this endeavor is one Natasha Kholomiyeva, a teacher at North Seattle Community College.

She is a fine woman, who doesn't speak English all that well, but appears to have a fairly good sense of humor, which makes up for a lot in my book. When someone complained that they couldn't understand her, and was afraid of asking her to repeat herself, she replied, "I am traditional teacher. I can repeat again and again and again without wishing to kill."

We have Problem Sets that are basically long-term, take-home tests, and then homework. The Problem Sets are graded, but the homework is not. At first I wasn't sure what the difference was between the two, and when I asked to confirm whether the homework was graded or not, she replied, "If you want me to look at your homework, do not worry, I will go over it. Special for you."

Posted by tiny daniel at 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Man, I sure liked going to school at night a lot better. In between classes the stairwells are clogged with hordes of asian teens talking on cel phones that cost more than my coat. Plus, there's that whole thing where I'm trying to function and think about SQL queries at 9am. Lame!

I'm glad to be in the classes though, and my Technical Writing instructor is an actual technical writer. I'll bet I can learn a lot from her. I'm not really looking forward to dealing with Algebra again though. It's been a long time, and I really don't remember it being all that much fun.

Posted by tiny daniel at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When I was in Chicago I visited my Dad:

I really wanted a real Chicago style hot dog which you can't really get done right anywhere else. A it's a Vienna beef dog:

On a steamed poppy seed bun, with bright green relish, mustard, diced onion, tomato slices, pickle slices, sport peppers, and ideally celery salt on top. Sounds gross, I know, but really it's an ideal combination of sweet, spicy, and succulent salty flavors. It's one of my favorite foods of all times.

We went out to get one. It was pretty good, but the dog itself was a little mushy, and no poppy seed bun. Guess I'll just have to wait until next year when I'll get another crack at it.

Posted by tiny daniel at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

My dear friend Terra took this picture of the dishwasher at the Omega Institute. As a dishwasher/prep cook myself once, I deeply understood.

Posted by tiny daniel at 3:21 PM | Permalink