Service Restored!

After being down for way too long, this and my other blogs are back online. When I moved out of my apartment on the 13th, I moved my web server to a very secure undisclosed location. From then on, numerous technical difficulties have kept my associates from bringing it back online, hence the blogs were down. After some really hairy networking configuration problems, I have moved the blogs elsewhere, so here they are... Darn good thing for backups!

My Travels Have Begun!

I left Walla Walla on 13 August, and after going briefly to Western Washington, I and my good friend Charles started our drive to the east coast. We spent seven days driving across the United States. On the way, we saw Yellowstone, Grand Teton, the site of Custer's Last Stand, Devils Tower, the Badlands, Chicago. Finally we arrived in Ithaca, New York home of Cornell University on Saturday, 20 August. This is a huge country if you are traveling by road!

I've now spent a week at Cornell relaxing, and since school started yesterday, I attended quite a few History, Linugustics, and Computer Science courses. I really want to study Linugustics now. Too bad WWC doesn't offer it. At least there is the internet, and books I can read.

Cornell is a very prestegus Ivy Leage University, for those who dont know, and it was interesting to become one of the herd that in stomping through here. To be honest, I quite dislike the people, because of thier east coast style of being very reserved, and unfriendly. A west cost boy like me don't like that too much; I always say hi to people I pass, its just my nature, and when they completely ignore you, it seems almost like an insult. I know its just a cultural thing, and at least they dont' pretend to be your friend like we sometimes do...

Call Me Nikolais...

Николай = Nikolais = Nee-ko-lai

I have decided to go by my middle name while I am in Russia this year. My middle is Nikolais, after my great-grandfather. Nikolais is a very common Russian first name. My middle name is pronounced the russian way, not the English way (Nicholas). Other than the obvious reason to use my Russian middle name for a good purpose, another reason to do this is because my first name, Arthur is not properly pronouncable by Russians, as there is no "TH" in Russian. Rather than becoming Arturi, I will be Nikolais. This will also be an interesting social experiment.