Muddled & An Unpaid Advertisement
Among the entrance essays and the job applications I've been working on this week, I find myself perpetually distracted by preparation for Seoul. It's not exactly surprising -- trip prep is a lot more fun than trying to summarize what I want to do with the rest of my life in a short, succinct manner.
Mia Sorella is pulling together most of the details for while we're visiting. It's a tremendous relief, actually -- reservations are a pain in the neck from half a world away, especially when you don't speak the language. From here, I'm gathering her Christmas presents, packing, and trying to figure out how I'll keep myself amused for a total of 36 hours of plane time and something like 24 hours of car time.
I have my usual plans -- a couple of books, my journal, a fair bit of writing planned for the flights. I've already decided that I need to finish one of my current books because I don't think I need to raise any more red flags when I'm going through security. (It's about the discovery of HIV and it's simply titled Virus. As someone who frequently gets searched while going through customs, that seems like an unnecessary risk.) What's been particularly fun this time, however, is reloading my mp3 player.
First, an advertisement: I am not an iUser. My mp3 player is a Sandisk Sansa Fuze, acquired from Woot some time ago. I love it. It's a simple load-and-go machine that plays music, video, and pictures and has an FM receiver and a voice recorder that's come in handy a few times. I can expand the memory with a micro SD card. And I spent under $50 on it. (This is not a paid advertisement. Sandisk has no idea I exist.)
I haven't gotten much use out of it in recent history (because, well, I lost it for awhile) which meant that when I plugged it in this time, there was a fair bit of cleaning to do. And I found myself oddly confused by what I was listening to the last time I loaded it.
Not that this time is any better.
A sampling? Full collections of OK Go, Jars of Clay, and the Wallflowers; Packers podcasts; a couple of audiobooks; soundtracks like crazy ("Garden State," "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Phantom of the Opera" to start); the collection of tango music acquired from the Admiral and my awesome dance instructors from Wisconsin; the classic rock I've listened to all my life; all of the random pop music I ended up with after this summer (pop radio will be the end of me); my small but strangely-fun-in-an-airport Pavarotti collection; and a bunch of artists of whom I have only one or two albums.
Thank goodness for that expansion card. I need every megabyte I can get.
It's a fun collection, but it led to an unexpected identity crisis. "Ashley, really? Will you really listen to Pride and Prejudice, an in-depth look at the Packers/Saints game, 'Hairspray,' Lady Antebellum and AC/DC at some point?"
Well, yes.
I don't think this bodes well for my focus. Maybe I should just plan on sleeping during those flights.
Mia Sorella is pulling together most of the details for while we're visiting. It's a tremendous relief, actually -- reservations are a pain in the neck from half a world away, especially when you don't speak the language. From here, I'm gathering her Christmas presents, packing, and trying to figure out how I'll keep myself amused for a total of 36 hours of plane time and something like 24 hours of car time.
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| [Wow, is my laptop scratched.] |
First, an advertisement: I am not an iUser. My mp3 player is a Sandisk Sansa Fuze, acquired from Woot some time ago. I love it. It's a simple load-and-go machine that plays music, video, and pictures and has an FM receiver and a voice recorder that's come in handy a few times. I can expand the memory with a micro SD card. And I spent under $50 on it. (This is not a paid advertisement. Sandisk has no idea I exist.)
I haven't gotten much use out of it in recent history (because, well, I lost it for awhile) which meant that when I plugged it in this time, there was a fair bit of cleaning to do. And I found myself oddly confused by what I was listening to the last time I loaded it.
Not that this time is any better.
A sampling? Full collections of OK Go, Jars of Clay, and the Wallflowers; Packers podcasts; a couple of audiobooks; soundtracks like crazy ("Garden State," "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Phantom of the Opera" to start); the collection of tango music acquired from the Admiral and my awesome dance instructors from Wisconsin; the classic rock I've listened to all my life; all of the random pop music I ended up with after this summer (pop radio will be the end of me); my small but strangely-fun-in-an-airport Pavarotti collection; and a bunch of artists of whom I have only one or two albums.
Thank goodness for that expansion card. I need every megabyte I can get.
It's a fun collection, but it led to an unexpected identity crisis. "Ashley, really? Will you really listen to Pride and Prejudice, an in-depth look at the Packers/Saints game, 'Hairspray,' Lady Antebellum and AC/DC at some point?"
Well, yes.
I don't think this bodes well for my focus. Maybe I should just plan on sleeping during those flights.
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