Hungary for more Central European tales? Read on.


OK, so the last time I was here in the good ol' internet café, my post got cut off just before all the awesome homestay details. So now you're getting a two-for-one deal, and here we go:


Homestay #1: Pécs


We spent last Thursday and Friday night in the southern part of Hungary in the city of Pécs and had our first homestay there. My fellow Flinn Wayne and I were together in the same house in Pécs and had an awesome time with our host, Ági— an English major at the university in Pécs. On Thursday night, after our big group dinner, she took us up to a hill overlooking the city and we checked out the view from above while talking about our respective countries. Then we headed down to a café-type place where her friends and younger brother were hanging out. We played a few games of foosball but then went to sit at a table outside. While out there, Ági's friends noted that they didn't want to speak English because they didn't think their English was good enough. However, later in the evening whenever one of her friends asked me a side question in English, it sounded pretty understandable to me, so I don't think they really had that much to worry about. In fact, Ági's brother, who I think was 16 years old, spoke really good English and seemed to understand what Wayne and I were saying. And that's mighty impressive. I could reference the much lower Spanish abilities I had at 16, but maybe a better comparison is that I think he was better at English now at 16 than I am at Spanish at 19.


But I digress. With Ági as the link between Hungarian and English, we soon settled into the universal teenager/twentysomething tradition of spending an hour or more trying to figure out what to do for the rest of the night. Eventually, we decided to hit up the Tesco for some real high-quality ice cream and take it back up to the hill.


Then Friday, after a day of lectures and visiting the Gandhi high school for Roma students, the three of us stopped by the pool Ági's father runs, had dinner, and also met her mom. At her house, Wayne tried some homemade liquor... twice! Then we headed out to a pub for about an hour, met up with most of the same friends from the night before plus a few new faces and soon were on our way to the mall parking lot. Why, you may ask? Because that's where hundreds of peeps, a sizeable chunk of the 150,000/200,000-person city, gather to decide where to go street racing. Ági figured out the location and we (along with bazillions of other cars) headed out to a two-lane road outside the city, parked alongside the road and then walked up a bit to where the racing went on. We watched one set of the races, which was a mighty cool experience, and then headed back to go to sleep since we (of course) had to be up early in the morning so that we could visit a nearby Roma village.


Homestay #2: Budapest


Then, Sunday night after sleeping late and visiting the Holocaust Museum, we met up with our hosts for our second homestay. I stayed with Csabi, an econ major, at his dorm room in the city, and had a very cool evening. After dropping my stuff in his room, we went out to dinner where I had a spectacular meat-filled pancake and also had my first tast of gulash, which was also superawesome! Over dinner, we discussed all sorts of things— including tales from the cops beat, similarities and differences between our two countries, the war in Iraq, and even favorite foods. While discussing the latter, I found out that Csabi had been to Lithuania and tried some kugelis (my favorite food, in case you're new to the game) and liked it... of course! :)


But after dinner, we went to a bar/club-type establishment located on the campus of the other university in town. (You hear that, ASU? A bar on campus. The State Press editorial board isn't just making up this concept. On-campus establishments that serve alcohol aren't completely imaginary!) And while we were there– Well, I think I'll let a world-famous (or at least it's about to be!) Brian.Indrelunas.com memory list tell the story:


"So what are you going to do with [insert degree here]?"


Budapest, the porn capital of Europe


Annie: Global Woman becomes Annie: Global Porn Diplomat


New vocabulary word: Spooning


Actually ordering something quasi-correctly... for maybe the second time?


More porn talk


The scale!


And another thing...


In closing, it's time to get all seriousish here. Now, as many of you know, I think the video for Toby Keith's "Stays in Mexico" is pretty funny and really cool. (Can we say, "Awkward sex!"?) But, truth be told and awkward sexiness aside, I just like it because of the funny story and maricachis and such. Really, I think the attitude the song actually portrays— "What happens down in Mexico stays in Mexico!"— is crap.


I really despise people who go into another country treating it solely as their personal playground with no regard for the people or the cultures they may affect with their actions and I hope to never be one of those people. Now, when we were on the metro last night coming back from the Opera House, someone jokingly suggested having an orgy and the response was, "What happens in Hungary... stays in Hungary! And when we go to Romania, what happens in Romania... stays in Romania!" The good thing is that we were joking. Although my fellow Flinns are by and large taking advantage of the lower drinking age here and consequently having a jolly old time, it's not getting out of hand and we're not acting like we own the place.


This was made especially clear to me on our way into the university bar/club Sunday night as Csabi and I were accosted by some really despicable tourists on the road. As we walked past this group of four or so apparently British, drunkish guys, one of them yells, "Hello? Hello? Hello?" with increasing intensity so that I finally give in and turn around to look at him. He then motions towards the road and asks, "Taxi?"


Csabi tells him that he can call a taxi and when I walk towards him and bust out my Essential Contact Info card to read off a texi company number and start speaking, he has the nerve to go, "Oh, good. You're American. Now I don't have to speak Hungarian anymore." Yeah. He was speaking really good Hungarian there.


Anyway, as I read him a number, he tries to figure out what to do with the 36 and the 1 and starts dialing away on his cell phone. At this point he says, "Hold this," and literally hands me his wallet. Dumbass. And when 36-1-whatever doesn't work, I read the number to him again and he tries it with 0036-1 as the prefix and goes, "Open that so I can put this money in there." Double dumbass.


So there I am, holding his wallet in my hand, opening it and (luckily for him) not taking the millions of opportunities I had to teach him a lesson and/or make some quick cash in a slightly less-than-legal way. Of course, if I did just walk off with his wallet, I kinda doubt I'd have been caught because if "Hello?! Taxi?" is this guy's idea of Hungarian, I think he'd have a hard time summoning the police.


Anyway, they ended up hailing a taxi before the guy figured out how to use his phone, which meant that they paid a higher rate for the ride (which made me very happy inside) and the guy left with his wallet safely back in his possession thanks to my general un-evilness.


But I did gain something (and it was better than money) from the encounter. That night, I got a perfect picture of what not to do, how not to act, and what not to be in general when traveling anywhere or even at home. In every moment of my interaction with him, that guy acted like he was entitled to my help.


Fortunately, even though we say that "what happens in Hungary stays in Hungary," all of us have succeeded in maintaining at least a basic level of respect for this country, its people, and its culture during our stay here.


What's next?


FYI, tomorrow we leave for Romania by way of some stops in northern Hungary. I don't know how prevalent internet cafés will be or how much time I'll have to use them until we get back to Budapest in the middle of next month, but I'll try to post a li'l somethin' somethin' if I get a chance.


Peace out, peeps!

5/31/2005 11:13

Tape-delayed from Budapest, it's Saturday night!


Hey peeps! At the moment, I'm chillin' in an internet café near Oktogon, a big intersection in Pest so that means all of y'all are in for a review of what I've been up to here in Hungary for the past week or so.


Starting with the most recent stuff, today's our free day so some of us headed out to lunch and then over to Budapest's fairly new Holocaust Museum. The most in-depth exhibit was "Auschwitz Album," a display of photos taken by SS personnel of the arrivals, selection, and waiting there. It was somewhat powerful but in an understated way. It provided a view of life before deportation through a video loop and displayed photos that depicted only the prelude to the ultimate terror.


But on a much lighter note, the reason why our activities didn't begin until after noon today is because last night most everyone got home rather late from a night of clubbing over in Buda. We started the evening with some lengthy dinner adventures. For George, Dustin, and I, this included the worst and slowest service ever and my realization that the people who make Theodora mineral water aren't kidding about the mineral part! My .33-L bottle that I had last night had .82 grams of calcium in it. Seriously, people, it was like drinking rocks!But anyway, after dinner we packed into a few night buses and headed across the Danube to a free club that was way too packed and then paid 100 Ft to get into a much cooler (and quirkier) club and proceeded to dance the night away. Towards the end of our clubbing adventure, I took a little side excursion from our group circle and when I got back the group enclave had disappeared. Luckily, it only took two or three quick circles of the club to find Keren by the exit, who along with Michael Barnes had stayed back to find me after everyone else headed home on a night bus.


And although Budapest has been the dateline for almost all of the events I've discussed thus far, some of the best times I've had were on our Thursday/Friday/Saturday trip down to Pécs, a university town of about 200,000 in the southern portion of Hungary. There we had our first homestay of the trip (Number two is tonight in Budapest.) I had written some mighty awesome stuff about our mighty awesome excursion down to Pécs to post here, but my Blogger login expired and it disappeared. So those details will have to wait for later since I need to get back to the hotel and do some laundry before heading out tonight. But be sure to keep up with Brian.Indrelunas.com and also our trip blog on FlinnScholars.org. (Yours truly is writing Monday's entry!)

5/29/2005 07:37

'I'm Hungary for Turkey'


Yes, although I didn't bring Michael's shirt, I'll use the catchphrase from it to start off my first-ever post from Hungary, from Europe, and from anywhere outside the U.S.!


As you can gather, I made it here safely. I'm currently in Budapest, Hungary, for the first couple days of my Hungary-Romania Flinn trip. On a procedural note, I'll be overseas through June 16, so don't even bother calling my cell phone. Email's the way to go if you wanna chat it up with me beyond reading whatever I have a chance to post here and the trip blog on FlinnScholars.org that'll be starting up shortly because I'll have internet access at certain points throughout the trip.


The flights went well, except for a landing (well, "an almost landing circle around, and then land" event) going into London, and everything's looking very cool here in Budapest. I'll have to tell all y'all about our landing fun at Heathrow and about what I've been up to in more detail later, but I'm a bit short on time now, so I'm just gonna put this post to bed a little early.


Much love from Budapest! –Me

5/24/2005 07:58

Give me all of your personal information! lol j/k


So this was gonna be a post about tonight and Wednesday night and it still will be, but first we must dispense with this little bit of nonsense:


Beware! I am fraudulent... I guess.
(Click the image to see it full-size if it isn't big enough on this page.)


So Sam and Classic Brian both got the aforeposted, lovely error page when trying to come to this here website tonight. Apparently, AT&T has determined that I am somehow fraudulent and that they should protect their customers from my evil, fraudulent ways.


At first, I thought that they were trying to assert that I am not me and my fraudulent scheme was posing as... myself. But as it turns out, AT&T is even brighter than that and is asserting that I am trying to steal all y'all's personal information. Well, all I can say is, "Touché, AT&T, touché."


It appears that the jig is up, so to speak. You see, when I established this site back in the summer of 2001, it was not to share moments and memories from my life with friends, family, and a few strangers on the online. No, my friends... and family... and strangers. Rather, it was to gain a loyal and gullible readership so that I could one day steal all of their credit card numbers and exploit them financially.


And when I redesigned my site in December and put the random picture of me in the bottom left corner it was not because I wanted to actually have a picture of me on the site that's all about me. No, no, no. It was so that when some gullible moneybag out there came to Brian.Indrelunas.com and saw that picture of me in my ASU T-shirt raising a pitchfork, that person would immediately think, "Hmm. This must be a secure ISP and/or bank site where I must enter all of my personal information into the text fields that show up once every couple years on the main page."



And to think: AT&T thwarted my plans before I could launch this ad campaign!


But now, it seems as if my plans have all been laid asunder thanks to the Inspectors Clouseau over at AT&T. So I must now appeal to only the most gullible of my readers in an attempt to boost my own bank accounts. Please send all of your credit card numbers, ATM/debit card numbers and PINs, your Social Security Number, your driver's license number, your mother's maiden name, your pet's birthday, the color directly across the color wheel from that of your left eye, the date and time of your first kiss (including future dates for all of you losers out there), and the sum of your most recent student ID number and the number of bathrooms in your current house or apartment– yes, send all of it to me so that I may exploit you. Use you and abuse you. That's all this website has ever been about. That's all it ever will be about. Exploiting you. Stealing your identity... and your money. Muahahaha!


OK. Now, concerning the last three paragraphs, let me throw out a big j/k! Apparently, whoever (or whatever algorithm) is in charge over at AT&T didn't take the time to read the "What is Brian.Indrelunas.com?" section of the About Me page. Well, just to reiterate:



What is Brian.Indrelunas.com?


It's my refrigerator, a place to stick things like cool pictures,
records of my accomplishments, and the things that my friends do that
make me proud of them. It's also a nice, cool place where I can store
my memories and know that they'll be well preserved.


It's also my megaphone, a place for shout-outs, rants, and the
occasional emotional babbling. Through Brian.Indrelunas.com I can tell
people both near and far about my life. Chandler, Carthage, the
Caribbean... as long as you can access the internet, this megaphone can
reach you. And you can also "holla back" via the commenting apparatus
or by emailing me.


Finally, it's my vacuum, sucking up seconds, minutes, and hours of
my life as I struggle in the endeavor to archive my life (or to just
post something funny), as I decide whether the picture should be this
big or this big or if something should be this color or that. And when
I add a new feature, like "listening to", I'm out for hours as I work
to get all the details right and all the little bugs worked out.


Overall, though, I think it's worth it. However much this site may
seem like a vacuum, as long as it also remains functional as a fridge
and a megaphone it'll serve its purpose, and it'll be worth it.



Let's just make a few things clear since (and I'm not trying to boast here) it's clear that some people didn't get anywhere near a 1540 on their SATs: I'm not pretending to be anything or anyone I'm not. If you feel compelled to send me your personal/account information, my advice to you is to hold on to it, get a life, and get back to me when you can tell me something more interesting than a string of numbers. Mmm-kay?


Oy, this reminds me of the time when AOL blocked my site thinking it was porn. Yeah, I sure wrote them a nasty (not that kind of nasty!) letter about that one!


OK, now that that's all been dispensed with, let's get on to...


Tonight!


I know this'll probably make most of the out-of-staters cringe, but I really love summers in Arizona. Like when it gets over 100°, and you walk outside and feel like you're in an oven. I like that. It was still about 101° or 102° in Chandler when I left to go drive up to Tempe for tonight's festivities with my secret love, her secret mistress, and... Beth, who doesn't really have a "secret" role yet but is pretty secretive whenever someone brings out a camera! :P In any case, I definitely drove up there with my windows down and no AC on. Granted, usually 100° or somewhere in the 90s is my car-AC threshhold, but it was kinda nice outside and the sun was goin' down, and plus, I wanted to feel like one bad Arizona mutha!


Anyway, I tried to meet Melanie, Beth, and Katy at the Denny's by the 202 for dinner but since Melanie hadn't even picked Beth up by the time I got there 15ish minutes late, I met them at Beth's apartment, heard Melanie make some rainy-day-fun-esque noises, and then off we went. We kinda cleared out that Denny's, got called "quite the social group" by our waiter, had some short-stack math fun and some non-math fun too.


Beth left the restaurant first and also left us to go call Diana. The other three of us ganged up around Beth's car and pretended (over the phone) to be hotwiring it, but then I ended up in the car with Beth and without the other two because their side of the car was too close to the neighboring "big ese car." Beth locked them out and I tried to blow bubbles out the window at them, but I couldn't open the bottle and get through all the safety seals quickly enough.


But that's OK, because then I just let the air rushing by Beth's car blow the bubbles for me as we drove down Sixth Street... and Fifth Street... and Forest and Seventh and up to the Bank of America ATM. When we got there, Katy did her in-front-of-the-car bubble wave on the way to the ATM and I soon followed her– bubbles in (and on) hand.


Then, Beth and Melanie left us to go pick up Diana. And they thought we'd be distressed or something. Ha! We waited for them for a little while, blowing bubbles from a secret underground location, but then we turned our aspirations skyward.


We weren't allowed on the south balcony at the Brickyard, so we decided to go and frequent the Hooters balcony on Fifth Street since Beth and Melanie were obviously not gonna be back soon.


Luckily, it was a seat-yourself atmosphere at Hooters, so we let ourselves out to the balcony, blew some bubbles off the south end, the northwest corner, and the east end, all the while making comments about not knowing where our friends that we were "meeting" decided to seat themselves. Beth and Melanie were, of course, rather incredulous upon finding out where we were and allegedly attempted to come by and pick us up but ultimately made us go back and meet them at the ATM.


But then we went to go play pool, sing along with the songs that came on, get told not to take pictures anymore, find out that I'm "too cute to be sexy" (You'll see the look on my face after that comment was made when I get around to posting my pictures from tonight!), and have Beth get checked out by the sad loser table.


Yeah, it was fun and you can expect to see pictures... sometime. :P


In other cool news...


F Minus, the comic drawn by Tony Carrillo that formerly graced the pages of The State Press, is on Comics.com now and I hear there'll be brand-new ones put online soon! Woot for us getting more funniness, but woot woot for Tony gettin' all famous and stuff!

5/21/2005 03:12

'I'm gonna be a party monster!'


Wow, people. I've pulled an Abernathy two nights in a row! Last night after my Mexico Party ended when Tina left at 2:something, I stayed on the internet and posted some things here but gave that up at about 3:00. But then I cleaned up everything from the party (at an early-early-morning-appropriate slow pace, of course!). I cleaned the kitchen floor, wiped down countertops, rinsed dishes that fit into the dishwasher, washed dishes after the dishwasher was full, put stuff back in the fridge, threw out food that had grossified overnight, picked all the ball-pit balls out of the pool, dumped the ice out of the cooler, threw out the trash, hosed off all of the chalk directions on the sidewalks and some in the road, picked up the Repub and read it before going to be around 7:00... and slept until 3:30.


Then tonight, I left for Mike Zduniak's graduation party almost 12 hours ago, partied it up until 3 or 3:30ish and also had a spontaneous car party with Kristin for about an hour before heading home. I think I'm going to try to get up for the 11:11 service in the morning, but we'll just see what happens.


5/15 3:08p » I actually got up and was just a mintue or two late to 11:11! Woo!


Mike's party


Some girl: "Why do they keep showing that bimbo?"

Mike: "That's my aunt!"

PIT


Mike's musical awesomeness


"I'm gonna play Black Sabbath; you just improvise." –Kristin, hypothesizing a K-M jam session at their house next year


Barbie horseriding!


Car crashing... and a little bit of racing, which also involved a lot of crashing


Me losing my phone... but not


Antenna ball wars!


The comment that could not be followed up upon:

Mike[ina]: "I remember when I was in bed by eight... and home by 11!"

Brian[keesha] I.: "Oh, gurl! You remindin' me of the third grade!"


"Those are as bad as poking! They're evil!" –Kristin on IM emoticons


Flexual


"Why don't girls talk to me like that?!" –Mike


The turn-on potential of being compared to food


Brian I.: "Call him a food item!"

Kristin: "No, it's too much pressure!"

Mike: "Call me something else."

Kristin: "No, it's too much pressure!"

Mike: "Call me?"


"Some people ride on the handlebars, if you know what I mean. Some people ride on the pegs, and some people just use the regular seat. And some people just grab on wherever they can!" –Brian C.'s explanation of flexual bicycle people


"Is it going to be buffet style? With all the different types of tasty food?" –Kristin



SPONTANEOUS DANCE PARTY!


Kristin came to Mike's party with Annette and Sam, but I drove her back to Best C because Annette and Sam left kinda early (at least it seems early given how late Brian Currie, Kristin, and I were there!). Our journey back started with a little northbound trip on the 51 but we soon fixed that and headed south— all the while listening to KNIX or KMLE. But as I turned from Rural to Apache both country stations were playing really sappy songs, so I changed the radio to 98.7 The Peak and within a few seconds I heard the opening piano frenzy to Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)"! I exclaimed to Kristin that an awesome song had begun and she suggested that we drive around until it ended since we were so close to Center Complex. But since my gas light had come on while we were on the freeway, I decided to just pull into one of the metered spots on Forest and turn the engine off while the song played.


Sing-along awesomeness ensued, but after Meatloaf ended, "You Are The Woman" by Firefall came on, which we also listened and sang along to. Then they played "All She Wants to Do is Dance" by Don Henley, and before the lyrics even started, I yelled...


Kristin, it's a song about dancing! LET'S DANCE!


...and then we both bolted out of the car and danced around it and on the grass next to the parking space. And the dancing continued throughout more than an hour of additional music, including just about everything except the "hot-blooded" song! :P (See the "listening to" sidebar for the full playlist!)


So we danced around on the grass for about an hour, with the exception of some lying on the ground during slow songs and some commercials... which we did not enjoy, by the way. A good number of the commercials were trying to sell us cars, which we both already have. We figured that we were probably the only people listening at the time so they should not have bothered us with car commercials. Oh, and there was a hospital commercial that we intially thought was just an adverstisement for MRIs and that prompted Kristin to exclaim, "I don't want to help people; I wanna dance!"


But after it became noticably lighter and the clock struck five, I said, "I think it's time to call it a morning." And then an infomercial started on the radio, seconding my decision. We sang the chorus of "Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up)" as we walked to the dorm, woke up the sleeping DA, and got some water before we went our separate ways into the night... er, morning. lol


Anyway, it was all quite awesome because I've always wanted to have a spontaneous car party, but that's not exactly something I can put on my to-do list. Plus, it was a super-cool party intrinsically... and it was funny to see cars drive up Forest and people laughing at IHOP and wonder if they were laughing at us (and, of course, to ultimately not care and just carry on dancing!)

5/15/2005 05:36

Four-point-oh yeah!








Arizona State University
Grade Report
Spring 2005
As of May 14, 2005

















(Name Concealed) (ASU ID Concealed) JUNIOR
PUBLIC PROGRAMS B.A. JOURNALISM/MASS COMM

























































COURSE COURSE TITLE SEM HRS. GRADE GRADE PTS.
M MUP 355 SUN DEVIL SINGERS 1.0 A+ 4.33
M ROM 101 ELEMENTARY ROMANIAN 5.0 A+ 21.67
M MCO 110 INTRO MASS COMMUNICATION 3.0 A- 11.00
M HON 172 THE HUMAN EVENT 3.0 A 12.00
M SPA 313 SPANISH CONV/COMP 3.0 A 12.00
































EARNED HOURS NET HOURS GRADE POINTS DEFICIENCY GPA
SEM: 15.0 15.0 61.00 0.0 4.07
CUM: 76.0 31.0 124.00 0.0 4.00


This semester I got all A s, with more pluses than minuses, giving me an even 4.0 cumulative GPA! Woooot!


But the fact that I have 76 earned hours means I'll be hitting the big 8-7 next semester and have to file a DOG (or two!) in the fall. Kinda silly: It'll be my third semester at the University and already time for me to tell them when I'll be leaving!

5/14/2005 03:08

SSP and TSP updates


Mexico Party-ness aside, I'm also pumped because today I was offered another full-time reporting position at The State Press for the fall semester and especially because on Wednesday, Rick from SSP called me and now I'm tentatively scheduled to be the SIT on the Arizona site for Week 2 (July 3-9)!


This means that not only do I get to be an SIT this summer, which is great news in and of itself, but it's also looking like I'll be able to SIT it up at the site closest to my house, which is nice since I'm responsible for getting myself to and from the site. What's more, the Arizona site is also where Michelle, our site director at Duck Valley in '04, is scheduled to be site director! Woo!

5/14/2005 02:44

Recap: The MEXICO PARTY!


Classic Brian going three houses down despite my extra directions that were chalked onto the road itself


Brian being so early that he waited at the park for 15 minutes


Attention all of my mom's friends: We had lots and lots of awkward sex!


Klay being a ho and not coming!


Lots of not-so-fashionable lateness :P


Katy's Mexican shirt!


Actually, the song that inspired the Mexico Party didn't even come on in the mix... Oh well.


Peak attendance: 10; Duration: like 15 minutes!


The fact that the only things that went in the pool besides feet were the ball pit balls and Annette... with her normal clothes on!


Watching the Bulldozer Songs demolition sequence with the sound turned down and M.I.A.'s "Bucky Done Gun" playing


Big toys


My music video for "Livin' La Vida Mocha" saw the light of day... and now I can't talk about Katy's "human videos" anymore! :P


Simultaneously boring and entertaining people with all things PC5.


Watching a telenovela on Canal 33 and some weird show on Canal 48 while listening to the audio from either some drama on Channel 12 or Star Trek on Channel 45... and how often things synched up!


Synchronized foot swimming with Katy and Beth


Synchronized foot swimming gone wrong when you add Brian:

Katy: "OK, right..."

Brian: "Uh!

Katy: "You're not supposed to turn your whole body!"

Beth starts laughing, Brian and Katy follow.


Chocolate chip cookie dough testicles


Sarah's take on the party:


i went to brian's mexican party. and ended up watching very interesting home videos... let's just say his nickname of "chica" is more well-deserved than i originally knew. and sad thing is, i think i just might have the bra he was wearing...


but anyway, i'm going to be seeing a lot more of tina and brian now that asu is out. and that makes me content. because time is so relaxed with both of them. and who else could i eat "testicles" with and talk about condom manufacturers? and it's shiny to boot.


good times.


The deadness of ASU Interactive on the day you know we're going to be looking for our grades!


http://www.asu.edu/ [Enter] -> "Not found"


Hos and dead people on 12News


Facebook fun... until it got like Interactive


Browsing the Brian.Indrelunas.com archives

5/14/2005 02:24

My summer has officially begun!


In case you didn't see me quasifrantically moving everything out of my room today, I am now officially checked out of the dorms and back at home in Chandler. I had my last final (MCO 110) this morning at 7:40 and then had a job interview with the two new city editors at The State Press because everyone who works there has to apply or reapply every semester.


Anyway, I'll be around until I leave for Hungary and Romania on the 22nd, so if you too live in the Valley or are staying around for a couple of extra days or weeks before heading home for the summer, give me a call or send me an email and we'll hang out/do something.


By the way, here's what my summer schedule's looking like right now:


May 22 - Jun 16: Flinn Eastern European Seminar (Studying democratization in Hungary and Romania with my fellow freshman Flinns!)

Jul 3-9: SIT at the SSP Arizona site —Tentatively scheduled as of 5/11

Jul 13-16: Family vacation in Escondido

Some or all of the week of Jul 17-23: Family vacation in Fort Collins?

Sometime in July: Hopefully, hopefully being an SIT for SSP... *Fingers crossed!* :)

Aug 2: Jury Duty, Superior Court - Mesa :(


Otherwise, I'll probably be around here, lounging by the pool/in the hammock down here in Chandler, going to church and Wesley up in Tempe, et cetera, et cetera.


But all the fun starts this Friday from 5-10 at my house when we usher in the summer Mexico-style! RSVP for pool-party fun!

5/11/2005 00:04

Sometimes I just wanna drive all night...

5/10/2005 01:07

Important changes to the MEXICO PARTY!


Attention, party people! The date of the Mexico Party has changed from Thursday, May 12 to Friday, May 13!


The time and place are still the same, and hopefully the fun level will increase because more people will be able to come... and I'll be able to go to my secret love's band concert on Thursday! :)


Also, with the party being on a Friday night instead of Thursday, the 10 p.m. end time will be significantly more flexible if enough people are having too much fun to leave or want to stick around to watch movies or whatev.


And one more change: Before I was just strongly suggesting that people not bring alcohol but now I'm making the party officially alcohol-free. I'm inviting a lot of peeps, most of them underage like myself, so even if you're over 21 and were planning to have my mom check your ID, let's just leave the booze at home Friday, OK?


So, remember: Friday, not Thursday, 5 - 10 p.m., my house in Chandler. Be there... and if you haven't already, be sure to RSVP!

5/8/2005 21:01

Drink-off moments



Apples to Apples


"Baked beans? Is that a racial—"
"No, [his] beans are refried!"


"The winning ticket right here!"


"Hold up, hold up, hold up....."


The fight over beer-stealing... and, uh, politeness?


"I wanna squeeze Dolly Parton's principles!"


"I need to read your blog; it's hot!"


"Tatie's the kender vittle!"


"You'd better not laugh at that, Enchilada Monster!"


"You have freckles!"
"I am Mexican!"


"You stole my otter pop!"


The "two freckly theives!"


While watching Patrick Swayze stitch up his bloody arm (without even flinching!) in Road House:
"Blood makes anyone hot."

"Menstrual periods are so hot!"


"I'll trade you the couch for the chair."

"Does Brittany come with the chair?"


The FST-off: A walking-the-line competition

5/8/2005 01:43

What have I been doing lately?


Tuesday


On Tuesday, I went to my last Romanian 101 class, where we played a nice game of hangman, did my entrevista oral en la clase de español and got out of class before the normal end time, and went and did some things in Downtown Phoenix. Then I came back to Tempe and had a hell of a time finding bread crumbs at Fry's, which I used in cooking meatloaf muffins, cheesy potatoes, and green beans for my small group Tuesday night. And the cool thing is that I pulled it off too! Now I've proven that I can successfully make a complete, respectable meal without having to rely on one-step microwavable foods or stuff like sandwiches that doesn't really require any cooking. Yay for my expanding culinary abilities!


Wednesday


Reading day was fun. I slept in pretty late, read The Stale Mess (I wrote the po-po beat, in case you were wondering.), and went kinda late to The State Press banquet, where I received the "That's How I Roll Award" for "getting all up in the popo's grill, shoveling the shizznit and pimpin' the beat." But I also got a serious city-desk award, Best News Story for my story about the letters making threats against Gene Smith that were received at ASU and Ohio State. That was pretty cool.


The original after-plans involved going to Rula Bula, where underagers like me are allowed in during the afternoon, but somehow the venue changed to McDuffy's, where the underage entry prospects were significantly dimmer. So after the banquet, I ended up going to Fashion Square with Katie, Jourdan, Ryan, and Nicole– who I dragged along because the primary mission of the trip was for Katie to go to Tiffany's to get a graduation present for, I think, her sister. But we had some fun and saw some puppies, and Nicole made the shoppers of Scottsdale a good five cents richer and divulged a pretty funny faux fantasy of hers.


Then it was time to pick up some stuff from the newsroom and head over to Wesley, where we did what has pretty much become the usual thing over the past couple of weeks. But then afterwards, Melanie, Beth, and I and then Brian, Beth, and I talked a lot about plans for the future of Wesley... and some other, "foofy" stuff too! :D


Thursday


Today, I got up, did laundry, did my thang on my Spanish exam, got Julio's for lunch, watched CMT while eating it, and then got ready for...


Lauren's wedding!!!


You know, it's a good thing I IMed Sarah Fullerton back in March to ask what week of SSP First Gilbert is going to this summer and also a good thing that I then came to the pseudo-party with Michelle because when I was there Lauren Greenberg asked me if I had gotten the invitation to her wedding yet in the mail. I hadn't, so she emailed me the date and time... which was good since the mailed invite never showed up at my house.


But yeah, the wedding was tonight, and it was so awesome. The wedding itself was at First Gilbert, and Matt and Gary led it (just like old times... hehe), and I got to say hi to a bunch of people I know over there. The ceremony was great, and yes, I'll admit that I almost cried a few times but there were also a couple moments where we were all laughing too.


Then, the reception was over at the Embassy Suites south of the 60 on Rural, where we had a little dinner and some (or lots in the case of some of us *cough cough Willow!* :D) fruit that had been put under a chocolate fountain. For the first dance, Lauren and Ward danced to the song during which he had proposed to her up at Mingus Mountain, "Cowboy Take Me Away," but then Tom (Yeah, that Tom!) played "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)," which Lauren did— literally!


And of course there were some other great moments that can be summed up as such:


Bubbles!


Trying to open the bubbles


The groom-peeps' wardrobe changes


Kelsey: "I can't swing dance. Can you?"

Brian: "Nope. Wanna fake it?"

Kelsey: "OK!"


Spice Girls!


The napkin fire


The chicken dance makes it hot


Shoe kicking


Bettin' on Ashley: "She's got reach!"


Macarena madness


Yeah, but all in all, it was great to see Lauren and Wade get married because they're such a cute couple, and it was nice to see my Gilbert peeps again. Oh, and it was nice that, with it being Lauren's wedding, there was a lot of country music at the reception... and I've been on a country kick recently.


Back around the beginning of the semester, I put Phoenix's two country stations on my new car's radio— ending the official prohibition on my liking of country. But over the past week or so, I've been watching a lot of CMT (in part because they're the most likely to have music videos on at any given time... They don't have as many crappy reality shows as the MTVs and VH1.).


Tuesday night Kristin was over in my room and we were watching for funny country videos, and we found one that definitely fit the bill, Toby Keith's "Stays in Mexico". Now, more times than not (especially recently), I don't like Toby Keith and I don't really like only referring to Mexico as a vacation destination and ignoring its propio cultural coolness. Nevertheless, this video is just awesome because the storyline as acted out in the video is so funny and the actors in the video are so cute... and awkward!


After showing the video to other people last night, Kristin and I decided it would be cool to go to Mexico, which we might be doing in the fall. But since it was like two or three in the morning, we were thinking more along the lines of right now-ish. Since that's not very feasible or prudent, we instead decided to have a...


MEXICO PARTY!



5/8 » Important changes


• The party date has been changed from Thursday, May 12 to Friday, May 13


• While I didn't originally specify this, the Mexico Party will be alcohol-free. I'm not providing any, and you'd better not bring any.



The idea is to have a pool party at my house in Chandler but add cool things like enchiladas, fruity drinks, and música en español (and maybe Coke and fruit snacks... and bubbles... and dance partying... and whatever else I decide is cool). So that's set for Thursday Friday, May 12 13 from 5-10 p.m. That's on ASU's graduation day around dinner time (for eating purposes) and over in time for hitting up some nighttime grad parties and to allow my mom and little brother to get to bed since they have school on Friday. So that should knock out some of y'all's excuses, so be there or be un cuadrado!


If you need to know where my house is and/or how to get there, you can ask for one when you RSVP... hint hint hint! (RSVPing isn't absolutely required but would really, really, really help me figure out how much food to make and buy.)

5/6/2005 00:47

'Zero more days!'


So today was my last day working for The State Press this semester and it was seeming like it was going to a a normal-busy Monday, but as I was getting ready to go home around 5:30 and make up for skipping lunch Cameron heard that there was something going on near 7th Street and Beck. So I began the trek down to Lot 17, met up with Aldei on the way, and we spent a couple hours out at the site of a standoff. We waited for something to happen... and then waited around some more after the situation did change– waiting for official word on what had gone down.


Then, after the suspect had surrendered to police and been placed in a patrol car, they just parked the car, had the window rolled down and let the media go at him, taking photos and video and (in the case of the reporter from Channel 3) attempting to get a verbal comment from him.


Soon afterwards the suspect's father talked to the media, I got in the important who-owned-the-weapons-in-the-house question, and then the tired/hungry/dehydrated State Pressers headed up to the nearby school that had been on lockdown to get comment from their spokeswoman. We didn't get back to the newsroom until almost 8:00, but Lindsay and AK soon walked in with food, which resolved my problem with having to work late. So now I'm just left with a cool spot-news reporting experience... I mean, come on! How often do I get to quote a fifth-grader? Plus there was the added benefit of being around when a show on Channel 21 did a story about the Christian Legal Society dispute at ASU and when Nicole constructed a makeshift TiVo out of a pink Lindsay Butler/Amy/Diffusion lunchbox and a spare USB cable. You can see that on /Photos.


And who could forget...


The last day of Gomez's fight songs


The TV "girlfriends"


The four-way with Gomez


Dissolving clubs


"Take this potato pancake and shove it!"


'80s hair stylings galore on Channel 21


Ferris Bueller's dad


While cuddling with a stuffed animal: "Oh , [obscure Founding Father-type] you get me so hot... for freedom!"

The frumpy fish painters from Minnesota


Listening to a guy talk about how great the First Amendment freedom of speech is... and knowing that he probably doesn't really mean it


Overhearing a random sex proposition from the SPM office

5/3/2005 02:25

To: The Third World


Tonight after the Taizé service, Melanie, Beth, Rachel, and I went over to Chili's for some dessert... and/or dinner. And then this happened:


Melanie: "You chose the best french fries for a cat?"

Beth: "Yep."

Melanie: "You're sick!"


The kitty box and...



Postage problems


Sting's new album: Ice Cube in a Box!
Rachel: "You could put it in the ocean and have it take it for you."

Brian: "Like a message in a bottle!"

Rachel: "An ice cube in a..."

Brian: "Sting should write a song about that! ... Ice cube in a bo-ox! ... Sendin' out the I-C-E..."

Melanie: "There's something wrong with Brian! And this is my secret love... There's something wrong with me!"


Beth: "There's a treasure inside. Go find it!"

Melanie: "But you have to pay your extra postage!"


"The third world's full of computer geeks with no computers!" –Rachel


"Just wanted a piece of your dinner because I'm hungry and I've been studying for 13 hours!" –The bullhorn from Architraz


Beth: "Was someone in this studio using a bullhorn?"

Industrial design studio girls: "No..."

Beth extends her hand containing the kitty box

Industrial design studio girls: "OK, maybe."

5/1/2005 23:51

Being nerdy rocks!


Today, I woke up in the afternoon and didn't really do anything productive aside from reorganizing my desktop and various toolbars like so:



But then I noticed Tina had called and wanted to do dinner, so she, Grayson, and I went up to Lorenzo's for foodage. Then we walked down to Mac and back trying to think of something to do, walked up Mill to Tempe Beach Park, where we came up for the idea that's going to make us all rich: Club Mill! lol


After the park, we hit up Cold Stone, wandered back onto campus and down Forest Mall trying to think of what to do next. While we were chillin' in the Farmer building's little tropical courtyard, I noticed yet another clock face without any working clock mechanisms (like the one on the west side of the MU >:O ), and somehow I got around to mentioning that I thought the stairwells in Hayden Library are really cool.


So we went over to Hayden, cruised the stairwells, looked at Tina's Little-Prince-meets-HON-172-authors presentation on a card catalog computer (while Grayson's phone tried really hard to understand the meaning of "Silent"!), then gathered as many CHS-related dissertations as we could find. We browsed those in a no-sex area, did some more library exploration and architectural commentary... and who can forget our survey of all the trippy (and the two disappointingly non-trippy) bathrooms!


Then, there was some facebooking, library searching and Googling of the claymation version of The Little Prince, and some architecture/interior design lecture browsing.


Good times.

5/1/2005 02:44