The End of the Beginning
(3-12 December 2001)
12 December 2001
-A really good poker night to close out the
semester on that front.
& picking up nine bucks never hurts anything either.
But I'm starting to really
get excited about time away from this coast, the academics on this
campus, & the like.
The Worlds round last night actually really got me pumped
about Worlds too. I'd
forgotten, somewhere between the throwing up & the not
walking, how much I really enjoy
debating in Worlds-style sometimes. It's a pain & I
wouldn't want to debate that way
all the time, but it really has some liberties that I enjoy.
We shall see. Suffice
it to say that in a couple days, all of my mind will be split
between Albuquerque & Toronto
& that is more than fine as far as I'm concerned.
-My last
2001 shift at the Library is being marked by a bunch of overly
stressed-looking people. Meanwhile, I disappointed Brandzy by
actually doing a page or two of reading for my upcoming Sino-Soviet
Split paper. Ah well. The thing about research papers
is that they really are just a rehash of a bunch of stuff other
people have already said. Will Schrecker accept my own input
& opinions? He says this isn't a think-piece. So oh
well. Gotta get back to the desk for the final hour... at
least I found 3 books & in 24 hours, I'll be a second-semester
senior.
11 December 2001
-My first win over Russ in RBI Baseball ever!
What a beautiful moment.
It's been something like 30-40 games, but I finally did it,
as the '90 Red Sox took down
the '90 Brewers, 5-4. Woohoo!
-Ah, motivation.
Where are you?
10 December 2001
-Check people's profiles & away messages.
One finds out amazing
things. Like the fact that Crack now has a
web diary/log/randomness thing. Interes.
-While I'm at
it, I'm in some interesting
company on Steve Yuhan's
links page. But that's
cool.
-Wouldn't mind if the "TDing a tournament"
theme of dreams went away.
Though terra cotta costumes also made it into last night's
visions, which was just plain
odd.
-My last two classes of my next to last semester, coming
up!
-Good God! Now that I'm linking, even Kate's
back in the fold! Everybody's got a 'page now, which is
groovy. This will require me to link her at the top of this
page. Even if I am livid at her boyfriend. But that's
nothing to worry about, is it?
-I was going to talk a lot about
how I don't believe that practicality is a good concern to worry
about ever, but I don't know exactly how to phrase what I was
thinking. Certainly that people use it as an excuse for
things far too much. The idealism of alleged naievete is
really what people should be striving for most of the time.
But there's more than that. More on this later.
Meanwhile, I had a very fitting end to the semester, wherein
Schrecker assigned 2 people the last presentation. So it
went. & now only papers, tests, & some library hours.
5 days, baby.
-Exit Niver, apparently. He's leaving
early, as I found out late today. Graduating in a week or so.
Best of luck in that direction.
-Okay, so I guess I'm just
a horrible person. Shoot.
9 December 2001
-SNOW! Good golly. Just as I was
talking to my Dad about the
impossibility of non-rain precipitation, it starts snowing like
crazy. & has yet to
stop. At least I don't have to go without on my last year in
New England!
-Alright, after perusing Lisha's page, two quick
notes. (Yes, I'm furiously
procrastinating starting my Hirsch paper, which I'm only starting
because I have 25 pages of
papers to write by my Thursday final exam & I'd like to get
excited about Winter Break as
soon as possible.) Anyway, check Lisha's reprint of the Onion
Pisces horoscope &
recall that I'm a Pisces too. So true. Also, her notes
on the snow should tell you
something... it's ridiculous. This has been the Anti-Winter.
& now... where's
your global warming theory now?!
8 December 2001
-My age plus two.
-The Taqueria is a great
place... the best that East
Coast Mexican can strive for. Greg & Clea agree, even if
Greg can't remember.
-I
really like feeling domestic. Settled, cozy, & domestic.
Under-rated stuff, for
sure.
7 December 2001
-So yesterday, I threw up 30 times for what I
thought was a migraine.
I'm no longer convinced it was a migraine. But I'm
glad I didn't bowl as I was
supposed to. I guess sometimes the system needs to clear
itself out. & while I
know my Mom would call it the flu, I think it was just 24 hours of
badness.
-One's mighty
hungry after 24 hours of cleared-out system.
-In the game
world, Wise & Otherwise is on
the opposite end of the spectrum from Rack-O. Yes, Greg has
too many board games... but
if all you've got's Rack-O, that's too many board games.
Wise & Otherwise, however,
is great. Even if I'm no good at it.
6 December 2001
-As the Weakerthans ask in their original album, which
I now own after a visit to the famed "P-Rex" in Princeton a
couple days ago, "So why are you so anchorless? A boat
abandoned in some backyard. Anchorless. The small towns that
you lived & died in."
-Life is really goin' well. I know
I've been saying that a lot, but it's worth repeating.
5 December 2001
-The warmth is becoming overwhelming. My last
year in the land of snow may be utterly without snow. When the East
Coast loses its most redeeming attribute, you know you're in
trouble.
-So there it was: my last Hirsch class ever. For 3
years solid, I've been taking a Hirsch class. But he's not offering
anything I haven't taken next term, so 6 straight semesters are now done.
I won't go so far as to say that his classes alone made academics at
Brandeis survivable, but he certainly deserves most of the credit.
-Ten
days till being a second-semester senior on the way to
Albuquerque.
-Five books found in an hour! Not quite a record,
but certainly a roll.
4 December 2001
-Driving with a migraine, while challenging, does
allow focus on things other than having a migraine. Like the road.
& that takes the edge off, temporarily.
-Hadn't been on the
basketball court for 3 solid months. Maybe closer to 4. Need
to get back into shape.
3 December 2001
[from
Princeton, New Jersey]
-Fair
enough.
Drew wins the bet.
-For the first time in ages, I'm starting to
feel like I actually have my priorities in order. Very little is so
liberating as that notion.
-This has been a perfect day.
Introspection, My Worst
Friend* (Current)
Ye Olde Archive (Past)
Tell me this is not the end...*
*-lyrics from an as-yet unreleased song, "The Same Old
Frontiers",
by SWClayton.