RyanHarne.com

In an effort to have The Most Complete and Most Awesome Digital Archive of My DVDs™, I have ripped most of them at an unnecessarily high bitrate, along with discrete, 6-channel audio, if that is an option. I officially would like to thank Western Digital for fulfilling my storage space needs; their cool-running, multiple-platter, 3.5″ drives are coming in handy.

So, with all of this media available to me, and with the lazy afternoons prodding me to explore my past film favorites, I have begun browsing some of these long-lost classics. For instance, my current focus is to push through the Indiana Jones trilogy in the coming week, the first already having been marked off my to-do list.

At the completion of Raiders of the Lost Ark, I noticed a strange scenic similarity to another Lucasfilm production. If I were a betting man, I’d say George Lucas has a certain penchant for Tunisia - as, in fact, Wikipedia would concur.

The plot of Raiders has numerous similarities to The Empire Strikes Back, so much so that certain Harrison Ford dialogues with the lovely ladies could be interchanged without a single audience member discovering the swap. The most interesting part of this is that my Lucasfilm-loving, adolescent self never discovered this. It should be no surprise that my complete incapacity to remember film dialogue was off-duty with my love of Star Wars - a sign the Lucasfilm dialogue could be lacking, so elementary that my feeble memory actually grasped it concretely. But still, I had never uncovered the unsophistication, despite the obviousness.

Anyways. All of this Lucasfilm is taking me back to the days when I wrote the strangest stuff in computer lab in middle school, while everyone else spent time playing Oregon Trail. Not that I missed my chances to lose a family member to typhoid fever. I just was more interested in writing, those days. Anyways.

After that brief hiatus from the continuity of Blacksburg, I am now back in my natural habitat. With one environmental switcheroo: I am moved into my temporary apartment. Again, contrary to last summer where I sublet a fully-furnished 3-bedroom palace, I am currently in a lavishly large, single apartment, complete with no furniture, save a futon that Nik doesn’t care to take with him. Using only a few minutes of my precious, relaxed summer time, I put together this flawless QuickTime VR of the living room/desk/media center setup I have pieced together. Remember you can zoom +/- with Shift/Ctrl.

The rest of the apartment is an unorganized mess. But, what would you expect from someone who tried to minimize every possible furniture requirement, leaving himself with more floor space used by boxes than by sitting room? The hallmark of this disaster is the kitchen; I realized that last summer I was blessed with a glorious amount of countertop space - here, not so much. The top of the microwave conveniently doubles as bonus counter realestate, I discovered.

Apart from the unfurnished apartment issues, I also found out that I gravely underestimated how many rugs and carpets I would need for this wood-paneled floor. The location and shading keeps this apartment cool, but cool enough that 80º outside becomes 70º inside. Somehow. Strange. But floor coverage is suddenly an important consideration, and one that I wasn’t preparing for, according to my IKEA rug purchases.

But, alas! It is the summer. It is a time to put up with faults and failures for the sake of the glory days to be enjoyed. A time to wear sweaters indoors, even if people are tanning just 30 feet away. A time to mock the fast-paced busyness of the other 9 months by indulging in Saturday morning, homemade, iced lattes alongside a novel of your casual choice. A time to forget the stringent pace of meals enforced by standards of productivity. A time to host marathons of the Star Wars films for your friends, with the movies on mute while John Coltrane plays through the stereo.

A time to savor.

I took a few days off from Blacksburg in order to gather things at my parents’ place as well as drive north to see a baby. A baby named Michael; a baby who is my nephew. This is the first Harne baby, and he is a cute one. I think he is only days or weeks away from purposefully smiling; whereas, now he seems to be wholly attracted to the activity around him with a transparent wonder, the countenance of which being mainly the unspoken form of “Woah!”

This is also the first baby I have ever held - luckily, a positive experience. Michael’s brilliant, blue eyes would stare at me, while he made several variations of that mildly bewildered expression. A gorgeous child.

On the way back from the visit, I stopped by IKEA to grab the million or so odd items I would need for the temporary apartment and house. I was unusually lucky last summer at my sublease, since I was living in a fully-furnished place. The only personal effects I required were clothes and electronics. This time, the arrangement is entirely on my shoulders.

I quickly ran through the showroom upstairs and hit the free-for-all marketplace downstairs. I filled up the cart in the order at which I passed by items, a tactic that turned sour when I discovered the heavier items I required were mainly at the end of the marketplace. Gah. Regardless of whether I stacked two, shrink-wrapped side tables on top of my glassware or not, I made it through with a dent in my debit card.

To celebrate the fastest IKEA experience ever, I loaded up the car and came back inside for some of their foodstuffs at the tail of the store. In order to miss the heavy interstate traffic, I would have to grab&go. Luckily my cart had an advertisement for their cinnamon rolls on its front, so my sans-lunch stomach was thoroughly craving just that by the time the shopping was over. I grabbed the chilled 6-pack of cinnamon rolls and walked to the counter.

The lady asked, “And this is it?” I looked her in the eye, with my tired-from-shopping-and-from-driving look. “Yeah, I really need some lunch.” She bit her tongue as she smiled. Seeing it, I added with a hue of exhaustion and humor, “You’re welcome to mock me - I have no shame.” Then, smiles all around.

I simply love talking to cashiers. I simply love this Michael kid.

I made a mistake of waiting to run my weekly errands until the mid-afternoon today, Friday. It was timed so poorly, because only a shower before I left my place, I had returned from a second Mount Tabor - Craig Creek Loop ride. Before Nik is gone for good, we decided it best to take this trip a final time. I’m not sure if he has any other road cycling friends, but he may be the only person I know willing to do this type of riding. I’ll have to wait for an alumnus’ visit before I can revisit the loop - a solo version wouldn’t be wise and not nearly as enjoyable.

Running all over campus this afternoon was exhausting, even more so than the ride. Walking up the stairs in the library was painful in comparison to the slopes we traversed this morning. My last stop of the day was a FedEx drop-off. I was considering postponing the walk until Saturday but a quick search of their website told me I was less than 200 yards to a FedEx-approved shipping center. Upon return from the errands, I collapsed in bed, an afternoon sun doing its best to drag me back outside.

There are some photos from the ride. Nik’s photos, taken with a legitimate camera, came out far better than my RAZR’s images, which all appear to have been Photoshopped, they look so terrible.

Tonight was my last stand for ResLife, a grande, RA-community-wide ceremony and banquet. On paper, I am employed until sometime next week, but with the residents and paperwork both hours into my past, I am already distanced from the job. In the Windows-powered presentation at the end of our feast tonight, I sympathized greatly with my boss, who when - on video - was asked, “What does ResLife mean to you, in three words?” She answered succinctly with, “It’s my job.”

All in all, I cannot say too much about the position of RA. I think a single year on the job is insufficient to judge the various facets and features the role could offer to me professionally and personally. But, from this one year, my personal skills were where my challenges came from. It all boiled down to people-handling skills, once again. The turmoil of “writing up” a resident I was friends with, having to deal with unspeakably poor resident-relations issues, etc. - in most instances of me being on-the-job, my people skills took over and were tested for their full potential. I can safely imagine that more years in the position would result in greater responsibility and appreciation for the job, thereby elaborating on professional-level skills as well.

As with most other jobs, it was the people that provided the make-or-break deal sealer. Most of the ResLife crew are bright, personable individuals, often more so socially aware than the average university student. Being a student first and RA second is not possible without an understanding boss and reliable staff. The undergraduate programs here at VT are sometimes lackadaisical - as a Spain-born resident told me today, and as I’ve witnessed for four years now - so some people happen to have way too much time on their hands. Often, those people seem make the best RAs, those who can immerse themselves into the job with a serious passion (no intention of generalizing that those also have mediocre academic pursuits).

Anyways, it has been an enjoyable experience. And that is how I will think of it. The experience. So, I rode a rollercoast and I will mark that off the list; I went to the Grand Canyon, check; was an RA at a mega-university, check. Quite possibly, my favorite part of the ceremonies tonight was a line from our mighty leader’s closing remarks, “we’re ok with changing things around a bit; as you can see, our parting gifts with you are pint glasses.”

And, I must admit: these are quality pints glasses. Check.

This past Saturday was the 24 Hours of Flickr photo project, inviting members to “chronicle [their] day in pictures.” The results are amazing and the image pool is addictive (try to restrain yourself from browsing through any more than 10 pages… your free time will disappear after that). I have a shot in there somewhere.