All Summer in a Day
(2-11 May 2002)
11 May 2002
-The BU/MIT "Randomly Paired Affair" tourney turned out to be a ton
of fun. One of the better days in a while. I ended up becoming tab director (sorta by default since the people
who thought of the tourney & were "running" it were also competing) & tried to power-pair a tourney with
randomized partners. It was great & made a good transition into both summer & being a dino. Crazy stuff.
Also, watching Russo & Bernbaum run "DisneyWorld should secede" was some surreal fun. I definitely
advocate future such tourneys.
-Ariela's done with Spur. Seeing 4 years of "The Boot" is so bizarre,
especially realizing how much has changed in each of the four years relative to both of our Brandeisian lives. Wow.
10 May 2002
-Em's sick, so I've been making an effort to take care of her. I wish
I could take this one for her since she's got three papers to write & I (as I may have mentioned) am done with
everything. At least the Mep House is at full strength with all 3 couples here & that's always a little comforting
for me. We're all so happy & it's just neat.
-Reading Crack's epic entry from yesterday reminds me of just how
similar he & I are, deep deep down. I guess the meaning thing is the great divide... I find comfort in meaning
& he's afraid of it, but beyond that, we have so many similarities. & maybe we all do, at root, have a good
deal more similarities than we might think. I've been trying to explain to people (today it was Drew, in a repeat of
a conversation we've had many times) why college itself (the academics) felt like such a waste of time. Much of it
comes down to my interest solely in studying people rather than subjects. In the end, the people are all that matters
& that life is about. & now I'll finally have time to start working towards what I've believed in &
thought about, rather than some silly piece of paper.
-It's uncanny how many times I run into poorly argued insanity
labeled as "philosophy" only to find that the root motivation is Ayn Rand. So many disparate pieces of tripe
end up stemming from one singular mindset. It's laughable. What's wrong with these people?!
9 May 2002
-Hey, I've got nothing to do today but smile.
8 May 2002
-YOU LIKE DAT?!! I'm done with college! That's it! It's all
over. Of course, my professors must all decide not to arbitrarily hate my papers, but I've just chunked out a 3, an 8,
& a 17-pager since my last post here. Admittedly the 3-pager was a recycled job from 22 April 1996 (not a typo -
yes, over 6 years ago) when Eric Moya, my sophomore English teacher assigned something remarkably similar to my Music extra
credit assignment. But I don't care. I'm a short walk up Rabb Steps from completing all requirements of my
degree. Holy crud. I'm done with school. & now I'm off to the Library, where I'll really try not to
tell everyone there that I'm done with school & they're not. Really. You won't hear "I'll bet these
books are for a PAPER... bwahahaha!" outta me. Promise.
-WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO! Sorry, that was
necessary.
7 May 2002
-One final push for academic work ever. This is it. Everything's
due by 5 pm (EDT) tomorrow, & then I'm free. So while the intervening time is going to be miserable (& please
excuse me putting off getting back to you one more time, especially Gris, Fish, & Shannon), my bliss afterwards will be
indescribable. There will be some procrastination, but mostly work on my 3 assignments & preparation for my one
Quiz. But it's all worth it to be done in so little time.
6 May 2002
-I know too much about too many with too few alternatives for improvement. This
has long been the status quo, but piles up on itself so!
-Fine, Drew, you get your quote on this board: "How can you tell
me a story that's boring about someone I don't know? That's just not right!"
-I have also decided that I couldn't care less about any of the follow-up Smash/Norpda/Slash/Etc.
stuff. While I thought I'd cracked the code on the Smash, it was only
interesting when it was unique. In hindsight, it probably was a framing.
& I guess I'll never know what else to say about things of this era
& this ilk. Regardless, I think one's perception colors whether any
of these things are mean or nice or funny. But I'm sick of it.
-Also, for a final debate note, I would appreciate you getting clearance on the use of my
cases, Harvard.
-Since taking over the 'Deis team webpage, Sara's focus has
naturally turned to pictures. I must link these since they're so darn
funny. Nats was a good time in almost all ways.
-I'm so good at procrastination. I've finally updated the
Introspection Stats (linked above) for the first time in ages. Also archived up through 780 days of Introspecting. In
other words, I think too much.
-It also occurs to me that I never did the sum total of predictions for Nats based on my 64-team
bracket, nor did I calculate what the real Nats said about said bracket. Bleh. That's clearly for some time when I'm even
more procrastinatory, plus done with college & far enough removed from things that a whole 'nother round of offense-taking from
Nats doesn't begin. & maybe done with novel #2, which should commence prior to graduation, with luck.
5 May 2002
-I've never seen so many cars on the side of the road. Most of them were
getting towed or waiting for some similar assistance. Almost none of them
were police pull-overs; instead they were virtually all car trouble or accidents.
Maybe I don't drive the Jersey to Beantown stretch enough during daylight
hours to gauge today against a typical time, but it would be depressing to believe
that today's roadside was close to average.
-The entire purchase of the new Goo Goo Dolls album is worth it for the song
"Sympathy". Unfortunately, most of the other tracks subpar for
them. & here, despite an argument yesterday, I mean subpar as bad,
in contrast with golf. It is, however, my first CD purchase in something
like 4-5 months, which may be a personal record since I began purchasing CD's.
Let's just say I've been busy.
4 May 2002
[from Princeton, New Jersey]
-I continue to hate the jewelry industry, but there's just not much I can do
about that.
-Pickup basketball has always sparked my excitement. Far more than volleyball
& relays, to be sure. Though fun relays have their moments.
-A long dinner with Em, Lauren, Joe, & Dom yielded some good times, including
the introduction (for 3 outta 4) to the ever-famous Vet/Fish/Action-Jackson
Tale of the Caterpillar. Explaining the 'pillar invasion to people is
always a bit like telling someone you lived through the Book of Exodus. But
I guess there were no local news interviews for the latter.
-The discovery that one's been beaten to a particular idea is crushing for the
would-be original writer. Being 2nd on the block in the face of independently
coming up with the same idea is rough going. To modify & out-do must
now be the quest of one portion of one piece. I must be vague here, but
so it goes.
-Em is perfectly supportive. Emphasis on perfect.
3 May 2002
[from Princeton, New Jersey]
-Previously unbeknownst to me, Puyo Puyo is an excellent computer game. I
must say that I'll miss Whig when Em graduates.
-House Parties & Eating Clubs, however, are Princetonian facets I may never
understand. I guess they put the "League" in the Ivy Leagues.
2 May 2002
[from Princeton, New Jersey]
-With the completion of yesterday's 27-page paper on Kashmir, only 20-25 total
pages of work & a Music Quiz sit between myself & my release. So
close I can taste it.
Introspection, My Worst
Friend* (Current)
Ye Olde Archive (Past)
The Blue Pyramid (Source)
Tell me this is not the end...*
*-lyrics from an as-yet unreleased song, "The Same Old
Frontiers",
by SWClayton.