Damn it to hell
Yesterday I finished the last exam of this, my first year at UWA, to muffled exam–hall–side celebrations involving beer and cigars. The beer and cigars weren’t to celebrate my long–overdue completion of one whole year of tertiary education (though they could’ve been… I’m as surprised as anybody), they were for Dave: a great friend of mine since way back in the fifth grade who has just finished his last year of university. He’s a certified mechanical engineer now, with honors, and after finishing a thesis the size of his he probably deserves some brews and tobaccy. This really isn’t the cause for the pseudoblasphemy titling this post, though.
In precisely two weeks I’ll be taking to the skies for the land of the free: putting the land down under aside for a few months to savor the sights of North America and, later, Europe. I don’t like to use the word “backpacking” to describe these travels because, well, Bilal would chastise me for doing any kind of packing involving my back; it’s neocolonialism. But the truth of the matter is that I’ll be hauling a big–ass pack around for three months containing all of life’s essentials — clothing, sleeping bag, PowerBook, iPod, toothbrush — and traveling many, many miles by train, plane, and automobile just to tick a few more countries off of the “I’ve been there” list I keep in my head. I’ll be staying in cheap hostels and eating ramen for nigh on ninety days; touring the US, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, and Singapore with three of my best friends in what I’m guessing could only be described “the trip of a lifetime”.
Christmas Day skiing at Whistler, New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas, Inauguration Day in Washington DC (I’ll be the one on the hill with the rifle, keep an eye out), and every day between in every town between.
The “damn it to hell” titling this post still isn’t adequately explained by this, I know, since it’s clearly something I’m looking forward to and plan to enjoy. It has to do with the fact that MacWorld San Francisco opens on January 10 and IDG has just announced that Steve Jobs will be delivering one of his patented keynote speeches on January 11… and I’ll be in Miami. The closest I’ve ever been to a live reality–distortion–field event, or a Mac expo of any kind, and it just ain’t close enough. Don’t get me started.
At least the webcast won’t be at two in the morning like it is when I watch it here.
Update
Put Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play 2004 Charity Dinner and Auction in the same category as above. Being in all the right places at all the wrong times stings, yo.
