Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Jenkins Small's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, July 11th, 2009
7:35 am	Riceballs for lunch Today is going to be sweet, and here's why: -I have my favorite work shirt -I can see Chris after work -I can eat riceballs for lunch, which is extra awesome because I can eat them outside and spend my entire lunch going for a walk instead of hurrying back to get food Riceball = Onigiri, which can be read as "demon cut," since Japanese is weird but cool like that. HUGS AND KISSES -Jenkins Current Mood: chipper Current Music: none (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
7:39 pm	something I realized today People love to get all proud of democracy, and how it's totally the "will of the people," and the fairest way to do government, but I think there's a problem with that. Democracy, and any other form of representative government, isn't a way to guarantee the right solution or the best laws or anything like that. Democracy is, quite simply, a protection against a single ruler always getting their way, no matter how good or bad that ruler is. As a countermeasure against tyrants, it's great, but as a countermeasure against tyranny in general, it's not as great, simply because the largest group of similarly-minded people will become the collective tyrant. Also, democracy has the flaw of being an INCREDIBLY slow and bureaucratic method of government, as opposed to, say, a dictator. The perks are great, but sometimes the majority rule is just plain wrong, and while democracy remains the best viable method of government (since individuals simply cannot be trusted to take care of an entire nation on their own), it does have its flaws, and its very important to remember them. Especially with an electorate as clueless and apathetic as ours. Just saying. Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Video Killed the Radio Star (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
7:19 pm	oh this too: I bought Matt's old Gamecube, plus four controllers, all the necessary cables, a memory card or two, Pikmin, SSBM, 8 AA batteries (for my camera, not the Gamecube), and a box full of packing peanuts. Price, for all of the above: $40 I looooooooove secondhand stuff. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Battle - Lake Trio (2 Comments |Comment on this)
7:16 pm	hell yeah Done. 2 Exams, done, and I think I did pretty well on both (maybe better on Econ though). I missed a perfectly gorgeous day thanks to my goddamn studying. I'm not going to sit through the evening too. And tomorrow, yeah, tomorrow I think I'll spend a lot of time outside again. Maybe bike to/from Belchertown. Very much within the realm of possibility. Anyone else bursting at the seams with pent-up energy? -Jenkins Current Mood: bouncy Current Music: Deoxys Battle (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
11:18 pm	things are looking up 93 on my project in Dynamics. This was the project that I could barely figure out the instructions to, in the class I hate more than any of my other classes (indeed, the only class that I actually dislike this semester). Good news? Oh hell yeah it is. I'm also kicking all sorts of ass in Japanese, and I got my project approved in Sustainable Cities. This is honestly a chance to get GRADED on my train fandom. Insane. I hope I do well on that, too. hugs and kisses, -Jenkins Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: not sure (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
4:39 pm	Thoughtful Day Every Tuesday and Thursday, I get a 3+ hour break between my classes (2:15 to 5:30)--long, but not quite long enough to go to Belchertown or see friends. So today I took that time to go on a walk around Amherst in the snow. Like an idiot, I left my camera at home. Predictably, there were lots of great photos I could have taken :P I'll probably head back in a while, but it'll be dark before I get another chance today. I walked down to the fountain, which is boarded up in the winter. I said a little prayer, then headed out behind the shops, reminiscent of the bathhouse in Spirited Away--gritty and elaborate. Did I mention I was mad I didn't bring my camera? It was, on the whole, a pleasant walk. Got some snow in my shoes, though. Completely unrelated, but I think I'm going to have to drop Systems Analysis. The class is really incredible boring, and the material is almost exactly the same as Econ 103, which I'm also in. I might want to talk to my professor in Sustainable Cities first, to get his opinion (he's the head of the Regional Planning Masters program), but I really don't see any need to stay in the course. No fun + no relevance = no point. And now, I gotta run--class in 29 minutes, all the way in Isenberg. This is gonna be a crappy walk :( HUGS AND KISSES, -Jenkins PS- photos coming soon; I HAVE still been taking them. Current Mood: blue Current Music: We Built This City (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
10:22 pm	The Verdict I've now been to each of my classes for this semester once. I have a good feeling about them (I always say that, don't I?), but I think a list would explain it a bit better: ( Read more... ) Now I realize that I'm also a week behind on my photos, and I kinda left my entry on the 20th half-finished, so here's the deal: 365 photos is kinda tiring in that it requires me to upload photos every day. I will still be taking pictures every day, and they'll all get uploaded eventually, but there are definitely going to be lag periods here and there, and I might upload with very little actual journal content, just pictures. Long story short: I'm not going to fill in anything on the past week except in my comments on the pictures I took. There's just too much to write, and I'm not really that good about keeping journals. That said, here is a week's worth of pictures: ( Read more... ) Enjoy! ;) HUGS AND KISSES -Jenkins Current Mood: hungry Current Music: Human After All--Daft Punk (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
10:01 pm	Day 20 The 20th Inauguration Day There is a hell of a lot to say for today, and I took 99 pictures, some of which I want to post. With that in mind, I think I will break this down a little: ( Read more... ) It is very late at night, and I am very tired, so I think I'll head to bed now. There are WAY more pictures, and I got to really walk around that day, so I'll post more later. HUGS AND KISSES, -Jenkins Current Mood: content Current Music: Colbert Report (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, January 17th, 2009
10:39 pm	Day 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 Oh lawd guys--five days now. I really suck at staying on top of things :O ( Read more... ) Still have to find time to go to Holyoke...mebbe Friday? HUGS AND KISSES, -Jenkins Current Mood: grateful Current Music: none (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, January 12th, 2009
11:29 pm	Day 10, 11, and 12 HAY GUISE 3 WHOLE PICTURES THIS TIME :D Pic 10: the day I totally forgot to take a picture, so I busted out Photo Booth at around 11 PM and got a photo of Chris on the phone :3 Pic 11: the day that I had to work at 8 AM...but shovel the driveway first. Check out that sweet, sweet shoveled goodness. aaand pic 12: today. Which one of these is not like the other? ( Read more... ) Hugs and kisses all, -Jenkins PS- BONUS PIC :D This one's for Chris <3 Current Mood: amused Current Music: teardrop (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 11th, 2009
11:16 pm	arglebargle It turns out (kinda as expected) that posting pictures every day is pretty tough. That said, I am still TAKING pictures every day, but having a tough time with a) making the pictures good b) finding time to update Besides, this has been a very work-y weekend. I'm working tomorrow as well, but after that, the week is all clear. Hopefully I can post my short backlog of pictures then. Right now I'm mad tired...how long before I fall asleep at the computer, I wonder? hugs and kisses, -Jenkins 8 days until Washington! WOOOOOOO :D Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: none yet, Dragonball probable (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 9th, 2009
11:51 pm	Day 9 OK, boasting time: I cooked PANCAKES today! They were a present for Chris. Unfortunately, we were out of milk, and I was wicked dumb at mixing dry milk, so I had to go buy more. Also, I was really bad at flipping the pancakes. But hot damn--they tasted AWESOME. After Chris left, I took Molly on a super-walk, and explored the new development behind Saporito's (see: photo). It was cold, and windy, and I slipped and landed on my finger (ow) on the way back, but it was still a sweet walk. Played some more of Lufia and the Fortress of Doom today--finally got off the first continent, and beat a couple of bosses. No photo, but if I keep playing I'll post pics. Also, I tweaked Google Earth's driving tour prefs until I had created, essentially, a TRAIN SIM :D Now I can pick a line and send the camera rolling along above it, creating a (rather primitive) train effect. Not the best...but I'm proud :3 Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Jem (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 8th, 2009
10:40 pm	Day 7 and Day 8 Man, it's really kinda hard to keep on top of this...which makes me a little apprehensive about updating during the school year. So yesterday, before I went to shovel the driveway, I drank the last pack of cocoa. Feeling kinda bad about this, I decided to go down to CVS after I was done, and asked if people wanted to come along. Of course, everyone did, and for some reason I got wicked cranky about the whole thing, and was in a bad mood for a while. Anyhoo, we got down to CVS only to find that the only thing they WEREN'T carrying was cocoa, so I bought a bunch of soup and ramen instead for the spring semester, and the others got noodle lunches. On our way out, I decided to check TownMart to see if they had any, and so the others went ahead. I bought the last two packs of cocoa in the shop, and then went home. Oh, and I forgot to mention: this entire debacle took place during an incredibly wet day of slush and freezing rain. I went to see Footloose that evening in Symphony Hall with Chris and her parents (see: my pic of the day), which was awesome. The building, that is. The play was ok, but chock full of stereotypes which kinda ruined the story: the hip kid, the hick kid, the fanatic preacher, the preacher's daughter who hangs out with bad boys but has a heart of gold, and of course, the unfair teacher. I kinda want to see the movie version...it features (as did the play) "Holding Out for a Hero." Today was much better--went in to see my advisor and begin the tricky process of changing majors. I went down to the Office of Student Affairs for the NRE, but there was only one person in, and she told me that I had to contact somebody else to get my paperwork approved. On the plus side, I got the necessary contact information, and should be able to schedule an advising appointment. Furthermore, I FINALLY found the major that I've been inadvertently wanting: Environmental Design. The name threw me off at first, until I read the course description. There are several courses on city design and planning, and a concentration in urban studies. Sounds about right, Y/Y? I saw Chris afterwards, and we talked about rats :D Pics of the day, then? ( Read more... ) Current Mood: calm Current Music: BRAWL (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
11:48 pm	Day 6 Holy cow, apparently it's going to be an apocalypse tomorrow. Big Y was completely SWAMPED today, and we sold out of most of our stuff at 3 in the afternoon. The upshot of this is that I spent 6 hours being shouted at for not having enough vegetables to feed an army. Times like this always make me wonder: why do people, when faced with the prospect of their refrigerators failing, stock up on incredibly perishable goods? ...I suppose their can openers are electric too. Silly America. Photo for the day is the desolate cooler: ( Read more... ) Hugs and kisses, -Jenkins Current Mood: exhausted Current Music: radio stuff (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 4th, 2009
12:17 am	wait shoot crap crap crap I realized, just now, that there were actually some pictures on my camera which I should have put up instead, for yesterday's picture. I'm dumb :( So...here they are! Current Mood: silly Current Music: more radio stuff (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
11:40 pm	Day 3 Another day = another day spent at work :P At least today I was entertained by Will using as many Eric Clapton song titles in his speech as he could work out, and also by him yelling about Gina for an hour when he got a remote scolding from her, via Bill. After work today I went to visit Chris. Her uncle was up with his new baby :D Unfortunately every time I held him I got nervous, and he would start crying. This was compounded by the fact that Chris's uncle is kinda intimidating, and I didn't want to make him angry. The baby (called Nicolas, by the way) had a great grip and would clutch onto my finger as hard as he could whenever I stuck it out. No pictures of the baby, unfortunately :( Picture of the day is from work: Every time I see it I think "Duckroll." Thanks to work, I have no Vidya, 4chon, or Fark to post. But I DO finally have Google Earth pics! My project for the day was to plot the locations of the Gyms in Pokemon onto their actual locations in Japan. This is pretty straightforward, since each town or city in Pokemon corresponds to an actual town or city in Japan. ( Read more... ) Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Radio (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
11:32 pm	The second day Work today was really incredibly stressful. Caught me right off guard...the past few days have been pretty easy, mainly due to weather and post-Christmas shopping fatigue, but today was nuts. It wasn't even that there was tons of work to do, just that there were so many interruptions. Couldn't think straight because the phone kept ringing, and people kept leaving utterly random garbage all over the food. ( Read more... ) Current Mood: cranky Current Music: scrubs again (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 1st, 2009
10:47 pm	2009 is here Apparently 365 photos is the thing to do this year...and I must say I'm very curious about it. The fact that I've been really, really, bad at updating regularly makes me think I should come up with something to get me posting regularly. So here's my plan: Every day, I'll post... 1) A photo I took, ideally from that day 2) An update for where I am in a video game, whichever one I play that day 3) A picture and description of what I did on Google Earth that day 4) A good picture from 4chan from that day 5) A story on Fark from that day This doesn't mean that I won't make any regular posts or anything...it just means that I'll always be posting SOMETHING on any given day, it just might not be about what I did. Not really sure how long this will last, but I can always modify the list, and since I never really RESOLVED to do any of these, I can always drop it... So anyway: here is today. Picture: I thought this was adorable :D Vidya: Super Mario World--I beat Vanilla Dome 2, and made it to the Ghost House. Google Earth: Didn't actually use Google Earth today...first time in ages. Crazy. 4chan: aaaaand Fark: "Iraqis take control of Baghdad Green Zone on Thursday, plan to have it renamed Red Zone by Friday." Story: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/01/iraq.green.zone/index.html Comments: http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=4116722 Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Scrubs (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 7th, 2008
11:24 pm	HAY BIG NEWS GUISE I've been trying to find a good way to break this long gap in my LJ (31 days?!?), and I figured this would do: 100% SCORE ON MY ENGINEERING PROJECT Now of course, our group still has to do a presentation on Tuesday, and to do that we need to meet up tomorrow and get a Power Point ready. Not too hard, especially since it's only 3 or 4 slides, but I don't want to screw up now. I should check how much weight the project carries on the syllabus, because this is AWESOME. Just one exam left, and that's it for the course. Current Mood: elated Current Music: Pikmin 2 World Map (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
10:02 am	The Mystery Bus Two new bus stops are under construction on the newly rebuilt Thatcher Street. As you might expect, this makes me think that there will soon be bus service across the back of campus, relieving congestion on North Pleasant Street. But this also raises another problem: who will use it? The new bus line appears to have stops at Worcester and Franklin DCs, connecting the two with (I hope) a yet-to-be-built intermediate stop at UHS, Morrill, or the new Integrated Science Building. It runs directly parallel to the lines on North Pleasant, but serves fewer buildings and would be really awkward for through service to the center of town. It runs closer to Central, and might provide better service to North as well, but not much better, since it doesn't go to the main campus. Perhaps, then, as I have hoped, it means that the university is going to build up Thatcher Street as a new artery for the campus, with new dorms, new academic buildings, and a bus line. It makes sense--there is plenty of space currently used for parking, and development along the street would help to integrate remote housing areas like OHill into the main campus. This should be good, when finished. We'll see. Maybe I can get in touch with "New Dirt" and ask them... Current Mood: curious Current Music: not permitted! (1 Comment |Comment on this)