cww.blog!

Oil prices are up to a record $68 per barrel today, in part due to concerns over Tropical Storm Katrina (we're already on K?!). This doesn't bother me so much at the moment, as I've driven my car a total of less than ten miles in the past four days. Being within walking distance of many shops and restaurants helps this, as do the 500 and 71D buses that run along Fifth Avenue and have stops only a two-minute walk from here.

I have been in contact with Verizon rather a lot lately, as my DSL doesn't work, and my telephone jacks provide no dialtone. As I discovered today, the jacks at the exterior network interface box also provide no dialtone. I've been testing this with my old brick laptop's modem, since spending $10 on a one-off telephone seems absurd. Verizon is scheduled to turn up here Saturday, between 8 AM and 6 PM (f'ers), for a look.

I received a Verizon bill in the mail today. I think I'll call them and tell them I disagree with their policy of billing customers for service they don't have.

And, dinner. The CMU ECE department is hosting a dinner for graduate students at the Carnegie Museum tonight. Its purpose is to provide an atmosphere for people to socialize and meet other graduate students and professors. I'm not a socializing kind of guy, but I'm going to attend anyway, since it seems like it's probably the right thing to do.

Tomorrow is mandatory graduate student orientation. I think I will arrive late and leave early. A day of presentations doesn't sound like a lot of fun, regardless of how esteemed CMU is. Maybe they'll have free beer or something. After the orientation is a happy hour on campus, sponsored by the ECE Graduate Organization (EGO), of which I am now a member. Certainly, there will be alcohol there. Good.

After the graduate dinner tonight, I'm doing something-or-other with Katy. I can't wait. Things have been very repetitive at home lately, and her fresh perspective on things is always welcome.

Some of my furniture showed up here today. Two greasy Pittsburghers, speaking fluent Pittsburghese, brought a chair (not four, as the other three were apparently on back-order), a dining table, and a couch up my three flights of stairs and were visibly not happy about the ascent. I wonder if they are unionized labor?

I think I know more about unions than many Americans, but I still want to learn more, as I'm now in a city full of them. Very little has ever impressed me about them; maybe I can find some ray of light somewhere in their vast, complicated web of spun crap.

I also need to learn more about how to clean furniture. I suppose there are special (natural) chemicals I can pick up for this purpose at (Whole Foods) a grocery store. Which reminds me: I miss Central Market, and I've decided someone really needs to tell them to put a store in Shadyside.

In related news, I'm putting off taking pictures again until more furniture shows up.