Summary

I end this blog because my senior year at Boston College has ended. The memories, and intentional unrecorded crap, remains. I am off to another chapter in my life. I will leave a link to my next blog here. New blog - Same old changing life.
I found it beneficial to blog several times a week, because to me, the year did NOT fly by. This was definitely the longest year out of four, because of how much and little i had going on. Weird. Also, because i was recording a plethora of events, i was able to trace my fun. What did i do in November, or March? I have something written down, and the music and pictures i was interested in at the time. I am looking forward to use this as a reflection tool some years later. Like a lost childhood treasure. Only this won't be lost (once online = always online), and it's not so childish. Maybe.

i am torn

so many thoughts, ideas. people texing about going out. my long term and short term goals. perhaps it is something external (w) or that it's my first day at home from waking up. I am lost and unsure of what to do. I have to focus on one day at a time. I feel so random and powerless without schedules and such. Perhaps that may solve my inability to function. Again, maybe it's because i just graduated yesterday and said "good bye" to a bunch of people, including my roommates.
I need a lot of time to thaw.

My cousin surprised me for Graduation

Best gift ever.



Now off to a 15 hour recovery sleep.

Senior week is weird...

After coming back from Commencement Ball, I played "Most/least likely to..." with roommates until 4.30am.

Saturday:
Aquarium
Duck Tours with mi madre and sister. Michelle tagged along too.
We then proceeded to go to Pizza Regina, and each ordered a small pizza. Only mothership and I finished ours. Because we're animals. or hungry. or both.


Now is Sat. evening, I'm texting couple of peeps to hang out with Winston.

My mother is in town

Hide all the contraband! Release the prisoners, sink the ships. Commencement Ball was a blast, lots of dancing, balloons and people. We did a lil Jazz music dancing too.

Today we have duck tours and aquarium planned and i am not sure what i will do :)

Friends

Friends that i made at BC. I always wondered who are the people that actually consider themselves being my friend? I think there needs to be work done to keep the friendship going, from both sides. I see pictures of recent grads reunions and wonder, who will I be meeting with in couple of years? Who will i want to see, who will i want to invite, and, in turn, who would want to see me.
I am also curious about my friendships from High School. I will see a bunch of people being back from school, many graduated as well.
Why I worry about future? There is much to do in the present.

The unplanned party with 7 4Loko's

Yeah, Jeff and I were just playing some Tekken 6 (I was beating his ass, but he will tell the story otherwise)
started taking shots

Eric said his friend is coming, and Michelle was coming too, but both of them brought like 5 people with them. All of a sudden instead of roommates drinking, it became a partay. A friend even showed up with her own 4Loko.

more drinking, some winston, jason passed out.


Shoes on = fair game with sharpie. This isn't the first time :)

Dance of the Decades & Brazilian BBQ

SO many old good songs were at Dance of Decades, Michelle knew lyrics for about 95% of songs. I'm sure you can spot us :)

Brazilian BBQ was amazing, we had all kinds of meats, including chicken hearts.

School's out. Done with Undergrad forever!!!

Just finished my last final in Child Growth and Development.

Making Steampunk guns and gadgets

Bought spray paint (copper/black) and got some nerf guns. lots of tape, lots of fun.



Notice, the Powerade cap. Serious business here.

Free e-books and some!

Just a self note, what if i get into the whole "reading" thing, and people start liking me? Will i ever become cool? Nobody knows.
Free Books and Reading Recommendations
(name is a website to look up)

* LibraryThing – LibraryThing connects you to other people who are reading what you’re reading and allows you to see which books are popular in various categories of reading.
* Textbook Revolution – Links to free online textbooks and other educational materials.
* Book TV – This is the companion site to Book TV on C-Span2. The site holds some current interviews with authors, many past interviews, opinions, reviews, and featured programs through online video.
* Bookboon – Bookboon provides online textbooks for students in PDF format. The free ebooks can be downloaded without registration. Our books are legal and written exclusively for Bookboon. They are financed by a few in-book ads.
* Scribd – Scribd, the online document sharing site which supports Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and other popular formats. You can download a document or embed it in your blog or web page.
* BookYards – BookYards is a web portal in which books, education materials, information, and content will be freely to anyone who has an internet connection.
* Planet eBook – Free classic literature to download and share.
* E-Books Directory – Thousands of ebooks on various subjects to download and share.
* Read Print Library – Free online books library for students, teachers, and the classic enthusiast.GoodReads – Get great book recommendations and keep track of what you want to read.
* The Online Books Page – University of Pennsylvania database with over 30,000 books.
* Public Literature – Thousands of familiar classics, children’s books, plays and poems, as well as books by new authors.
* Full Books – Thousands of full-text nonfiction and fiction books.
* Many Books – Free fiction and nonfiction ebooks for your PDA, iPod or ebook reader.
* Get Free Books – Thousands of free ebooks to download.
* Project Gutenberg – More than 20,000 free books from the first producer of free e-books.
* Bibliomania – Thousands of classic books, poems, short stories and plays.
* Classic Reader – Large collection of free classic books, plays, and short stories from more than 300 authors.
* Bartleby Fiction – Classic anthologies and volumes.
* The Personal MBA Recommended Reading List – MBA programs don’t have a monopoly on advanced business knowledge: you can teach yourself everything you need to know to succeed in life and at work. The Personal MBA features the very best business books available, based on thousands of hours of research.
* Books Should Be Free – Free audio books from the public domain.


Michelle and I went to Garment District to pick up some attire for a Tuesday outing such as Dance of the Decades. Out theme shall be Steampunk, and it shall be exciting in all directions. I am going to Blick tomorrow to pick up some copper wire and copper spray paint (or something else that dries quick), and modify and hopefully make myself some kind of sexy hand gadget. And guns. I will paint couple of cheap guns too.

Things to be:
Monday: lunch with Dewan,
Tuesday: coffee with Ricco and Dance of the Decades
Wednesday: Brazilian BBQ with suite-mates
Thursday: Painting stumps with Kevin & Michelle
Friday: Commencement Ball

At least all these are ideas, and as i always remember life works out exactly how we plan. So i have no worries. About anything really.

Post about Jason Webley

Earlier in the day i finished painting repainting my ceramic dudes, because i unknowingly glazed them with high glaze, which will not be fired this semester anymore. sharks, now i had to redo all in low fire. Oh well.

Fun times with Michelle at Cage 939 in Berkley. Humanwine was interesting, hard rock, but also a guy with viola, and a lady with some weird looking electronic keyboard. She sang with her hands a lot, elaborating and pointing out the lyrics. The act was opened by a bunch of kids, I'm guessing of bands and friends. I thought a lot about how their lives are influenced by music, self expression, and such, as suppose to kids whos parents aren't in a band. I didn't take any pictures even though we stood about 6ft away from artists, second row, technically. Someone videotaped us when the audience was helping Jason with his songs. I also wonder about who will end up seeing that recording and think of stuff.

The senior week starts slowly creeping up. i feel it quite. people moving out, others start to party. These next couple of days will be awesome!!! Said bye to couple of people, but i also realize that some people i just saw last time and didn't know it. Oh well. We are all connected somehow.

A letter I want to remember:

Dear Dzmitry,

First of all, congratulations on completing your undergraduate education! Where do you plan to go from here? That mind of yours needs more fertile soil, in my uncertain opinion, and I’d like to see you continue growing that inquisitive intellect of yours until your brain starts bulging out your ears!

Now about being certain about uncertainty: you may certainly have a point, but it’s certainly difficult to accept certain uncertainty. I will keep trying to do that. Clearly, your happy and humble self has hit upon some vital truth: acceptance feels better. There’s no use trying to wrestle with the shadows of the unknown, or to try and sketch the shapeless shapes of the forever unknowable. Regardless, it’s my instinct -- if not it’s human instinct -- to puzzle over questions until we find a satisfying one. Maybe genius is the point at which we’re able to determine what we eventually can know and what we eternally cannot.

Maybe there’s still a chance of me heading to the west coast. I don’t know, for certain.

I was thinking about you yesterday, as a matter of fact, mulling the uncertainly unknowable concept of truth about in my head. It had been my idea that truth is the contradictory composite of all of our lived experiences, and that everyone has something of it to contribute. I thought about past times and places. I arrived at the Soviet Union. I remember you telling a story about how your mom once was angry at you because, after waiting in a long line for fruit (was it bananas? Oranges?) newly available in the Soviet marketplace, you either didn’t care for it or refused to eat it. Despite the fuzziness of the story in my head, I found your tale poignant. That’s part of your lived experience, Dima: one small part of Truth.

Uncertainly,
But certainly your friend,
-R.




____________
this letter was written by a buddy of mine, who graduated last year. I only saw him once or two time after that, but it's great that i still keep in touch. And so does he.

School's out. Done with Undergrad forever!!!

Just finished my last final in Child Growth and Development. I'm free, but i don't feel like it, I stayed until 4am researching steampunk stuff. making some goggles for Dance of the Decades. Yeah, it will be awesome. Have some hours to work here, and there. But nothing special, i have last shift on Tuesday, 17th. There is a lunch thangie, free food. Booyah!

Done with Physics Final

Done.
In the evening went to Bangkok Bistro with my fellow Kairos peoples. This time all us showed up: Adam, Allison, Laurence, Peter, and I. Fun times, Great food.

The picture is blurry but the memories aren't. It's nice to care about people and know they care and wonder about your life too. Kairos, woop-woop.

Now to finish writing that autobiography for Capstone.. :)

Studying now, blogging later. Only 4 days until I'm done with all work/finals.

Carlos Nakai: what awesome music. There are a bunch of tracks on youtube.

Unpredicted Evening

On Friday, I took a picture with Mike, the Ukrainian superviser, whom i shared couple of years of great talks, Russian jokes, random chats and hard library work. He's a great guy.


Also, thee was Ice Cream social in the library. I just chilled with some people who work in different floors.

Had a nice conversation with my capstone professor John McDargh. We talked about my intellectual/spiritual paper. It's about awareness, and attitude. As well as awareness about awareness. We drank tea.

The evening continued with more fun events, I hung out with Brad and Kelsey with Winston. I haven't been in Vandy this year I think. It was interesting, i always wonder how people's rooms are situated, how much crap they got, and what kind of crap they got.


Home style fried potatoes and pork with garlic. What a yummy feast it was.
I picked up Michelle from the hospital (had to wait 40min, because i had no idea what unit she was at). She was in a great mood, surprised at my visit. Her mom suggested to do it, and i figured, why not :) I skipped dinner and she was getting hungry so we decided to stop by grocery store and pick up either something to eat, or to cook. I ended up seeing something mi madre makes, super easy: fried pork tenderloin (+garlic on my taste). And she had potatoes, so i attempted not to burn and make some home fries. They ended up coming really well, onions added.
It was just a random day, but really good one.


It seems so weird that it's only Friday, because i worked in the middle of night and then went back to sleep.

Saturday night we ventured to Doug's and Lizz's and I met Luke, Emma, Christina, and Loral. They were a funny bunch. I wonder about all these people who are slightly older than me and have some other random and not so random things going on in their lives. After school life is gonna be odd, perhaps.

couldn't resist.

Lots of somewhat funny pictures here.

May 5th

Though i don't have classes on thursday, technically today is last day of classes. On top of that it's Cinco de Mayo, on top of that it's MudStock (playing volleyball at 11.30am in the mud), on top of that is Sugar Rey Concert at 5pm. Yeah this day is going to be great.

Currently working a night shift in the library - reserves. Pretty easy, i think. 3am-7.30am. Hopefully i won't fall asleep. I got solid 4 hours of sleep before and drank half of 5hour energy. Now time to procrastinate, do some work and more. I probably will be bored enough to even do some work. There are like 3 people in here - it's tough to even think about studying after a day of drinking, Winston, mud, and fun.

Things that i have to do:
- write a "letter to self" that will be mailed to me in a year (about things i don't want to forget / want to remember)
- 7-10pg of spitirual/intellectual autobiography. Both projects are for my capstone. I love that class.
- study for physics exam, I'll do crappy anyway, even though the problems are usually relatively easy.
- showcase my ceramics. 15min of me trying to get an A and receiving B+/A- instead. Typical :)
- Study for Child Growth and Development - super easy. I pay attention in class so even if i don't study anything, the class is pretty easy and i will safely pass with above average.

that's it. These are all the commitments i have before getting my diploma. Argh, what a sour word - diploma.
I am making more little dudes from ceramics to give to some of my teachers, TA's and people who really made a difference for my past couple of years at BC. There are about 30 recipients, and these include almost NO friends (gosh, i got many of those peoples). I will have to come back to ceramics couple of times to color those little dudes and such.
Here is a couple of interesting minimalist pictures. 80 or so, so might take a bit to load.

Last day of undergraduate classes.

How will spend the day? That's right, by drinking Four Loko throughout the day. I have ceramics (easy), physics (don't care) and Child Growth and Development (should be sober by 3pm).
There is also a Last Lecture by John Cawthorne, LSOE (Lynch School of Ed) as he will be leaving BC.

I keep thinking (and turning around every time i hear suspicious noise behind me) about how the O'Neal Library is changing. When i come back in 5 years for a reunion, everything will be different. I will be different too, for sure. Yet there is no way to know the future. As Mike mentioned, it would be a curse to know the future. He's right. Hopefully he won't read this :)

Couple more pictures i see around internet. You know (future me) it would be a great idea to eventually print this blog and have it as a senior year refletion thang. If you're currently reading this in hard copy, pat yourself on the back. I'm glad. And all the videos/songs should be on a cd also.

Osama is dead

But what about all the people who went to bed already and will find out about his death in the morning? To them, the news will taste stale.
I hear cheering and music outside my dorm. Patriotic people.
AMERICA FUCK YEAAAH.
Freedom is the only wa-ay.

This link shows how schools reacted to Obama's death with BC ranking #4 (after Penn State, Ohio State, and West Virginia). Not bad for a private university :)

(Bapst Library with Eric Jung)

I need to re-read "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho

Thursday, after my shift at Arts Tent, i went to Bapst gallery for a friend (Rob) of a friend (Bobby) opening reception. It had something to do with hamburger man and him saving something (I may have a mix between that and the CCE show, but more on that later.) I enjoyed the paintings and the long titles.
Then i ventured to AHANA Summit in the rat, with lots of food and tons of people from all culture clubs and Ahana related business. They were giving out things and such, but Slavic Club is under the radar (whom i was representing with Svetlana and Victor, who also left before me) so there was no need to stay long after i ate the food and took a balloon from table decor.
Friday morning (like 9am) i was suppose to hang out with couple of 4-6th graders but plans didn't work out and i ended up not going. At work (since we now have another superviser who's new and keeps looking at student's schedules) i had to do a section "F" shift with this kid Bradley. It turns out, he's good friends with Winston too, so after work, we ventured to ze Gate and toked here and there.
The evening included CCE show (Superdead) and several episodes of Heroes. Michelle and I are on season 3. Damn awesome :)

Saturday i again had to wake up early to wake and bake with Nicole at Walsh. At 9am there was a BCPD auction, where cameras, ipods, bikes, jewelry etc was sold at super low prices (like $20 or less). It was very fun, people from students, to faculty, to parents(?) to some random people. Couple of my friends scored cameras and watches. Great time that was. Mostly due to entertaining and winston.
From the auction, i went straight to OTE reunion at Brighton campus. Nice bbq, only it was quite cold... Oh well, at least i got to see some freshman faces :) (and faculty and preceptors too i guess)
From 2-4pm i was again involced with Arts Fest. This time it was children's activities and i was allowed to face paint some kids. Lot's of fun. First kid sits in my chair and wants me to draw him a deer. His picture was not good. I was just getting used to how to actually paint on faces to he's representation was of 4legged blue animal. Good thing there were no mirrors at our station. I made several spiders, butterflies, a tiger, and couple of abstract pieces on couple of my friends. Total fun.


Sunday i went to ceramics with Travis (w) and showed him some ropes of clay. He had skipped all of his classes until 2weeks before finals... Hmm, we'll see if he will be able to make enough crap to showcase.
Then I cleaned the dorm a bit, and was bailed by several freshmen on dinner plans we made yesterday. No big deal, my heart will heal on. Heal on.
Now i'm about to head for some soup Michelle made and couple more episodes of Heroes.

Today is May 1st. This means: ~1 week of classes, ~1 week of finals, ~1 week of party before graduation.


These pictures i got from here. Satirical Art Drawings by Pawel Kuczynski.