Think Too Much

5:33pm: we'll build our walls aluminum we'll fill our mouths with cinnamon
Things I have learned in my third semester of graduate school:

1. I am still as lazy, disorganized, and irresponsible as ever.
2. I can now use Python to write text-based adventure games.

That's pretty much it.

7:39pm: i got nothin'
Attention eclectic_boy and anyone else who has happened upon that particular magnum opus of Harun Yahya:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/science/03islam.html?ref=science

Look who's made the New York Times.

7:14am: mind games... board games
Anyone know where I could find some chess-related apparel on short notice? Just a t-shirt is fine. By "short notice" I mean "available in Center City Philadelphia, sometime within the next ten hours".

6:38am: oh god of progress have you degraded or forgot us
http://asthmatickitty.com/the-bqe

HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS SOUNDS LIKE THE BEST THING IN THE HISTORY OF THINGS I WANT IT NOW NOW NOW NOW NOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW

Edit: it even comes with a Viewmaster slide...!

4:09pm: drinkin rye whiskey in a flask in the back seat, trying to do like the Gentiles do
Fucking Jeremy Shockey.

At least my fantasy teams are doing well this week.

...

ETA: Also, good job Philly. The Oakland Raiders?! Seriously?

1:09am: HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS RIGHT DOWN SANTACLAUS LANE



Good god, Dylan. Seriously. What the fucking fuck is this.

10:10pm: this ain't Sea World it's as real as it gets
Back from a week in Nags Head. And from a couple days in NJ.

Kicked everyone's ass in mini golf. Got ass kicked by sun. (Nearly) chugged a bottle of Angostura bitters. Was tasty.

School starts again in a week. Still don't know what all my classes are. Not ready AT ALL.

In three fantasy football leagues this year. All with Jared Lorenzen nicknames.

Don't feel like writing complete sentences right now.

9:36pm: He loved the Golden Gophers but he hated all the drawn out winters
Not mine, shamelessly stolen from the quizbowl forums. But I just have to share:

( Warning: contains both poetry and football )

8:57pm: and all your bad days will end
So I was wasting some time with a quick game of solo Agricola and randomly drew (among other things) the following cards:

Occupation: Frame Builder- In each renovation, you may replace 1 clay or stone with one wood. In each extension, you may replace two clay or stone with one wood.

Minor improvement: Clay Supports- Cost 2 wood- When you extend your clay hut, you may pay 2 clay, 1 wood, and 1 reed instead of 5 clay and 2 reed.

...Yep, that's clay rooms for the low low price of 2 wood and 1 reed each. I hit 70. (There was a Wet Nurse involved, too.)

1:19am: fly like an eagle
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Yeah, this'll work out real well for you guys.

11:21pm: koyy-aaaaaa-nii-sqaaat-siiiiiii
Hey, YouTube has the complete Koyaanisqatsi, now new and improved with commercial breaks! It's amazing how seamlessly they blend in. One minute I'm contemplating the destructive, unsustainable path of industrial human civilization, the next I'm cravin me some Tostino's Pizza Rolls!

...

Holy-shit-summers-almost-over plans: I will be in Richmond this weekend, quizbowlling it up.

Last week in August, I will be with some of my classmates (and likely without internet) in Nags Head, NC. Certain of you may find this hilarious. (I've already mentioned it in person to some folks, but it bears repeating ON THE INTERNETS.)

...

More later? Maybe. I hope.

9:17am: people mover: bad decision. from suburban. now a prison.
Andres Duany, in Suburban Nation:

"With and without the government's blessing, the automakers have a history of mercenary acts, the most notorious of which was portrayed in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"


...Whoops!

1:30am: definite sign that you lost it
Note: if you notice that Rock Band 2 has the Smashing Pumpkins' "Today" on its setlist, resist the urge to take the mic and do the vocals.

Especially resist the urge to do the vocals in an affected, unsure baritone voice that sort of sounds like Jim Morrison going through puberty.

5:07pm: it take a year to make a day
I apparently don't have work tomorrow. Anything going on?

6:35am: I came to a high place of darkness and light
NYC was good. Rather more boardgamey than I was expecting. (I mean, yeah, I was expecting Pandemic, but I wasn't expecting two more Pandemics, Settlers, Scrabble, and Genial.) Got to see prisminawindow, crystalpyramid (whose departure for the summer precipitated the timing of this trip in the first place), mumbly_joe, sinsofthedove. (Not all at once.) Went to the Strand, which was exciting but not quite as impressive as my naive imagination had dreamt. (They didn't have Wittgenstein's Tractatus?!)

I will have to visit again this summer, before I am lost to the bowels of the MCP program again. And I will have to see people I missed this time around.

...

I've been doing some good reading this summer, after far too long. A list (the first was actually started over spring break, for what that's worth):

1. Dylan Thomas, A Picture of the Artist as A Young Dog
2. Soren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death
3. James Joyce, Dubliners
4. Tom Stoppard, Rozencrantz and Guidenstern Are Dead (actually a re-read)
5. Umberto Eco, Name Of The Rose

Currently working on Don DeLillo's White Noise, which is kind of fantastic. (And was one of the books I picked up yesterday, along with Godel Escher Bach, Cat's Cradle, and a bunch more Eco.*)

* Still can't shake the feeling that I'm getting around to stuff I should've done many years ago; still feel so far behind. I really am by now too old to be this young.

...

One of these days, I will clean my room. Not that I really need to, given my life, but the possiblity of a clean room would be nice, y'know?

12:59pm: i can change i can change
Computer: in the shop. Expense: high. Email and LJ has been sparse, and will continue to be so through the weekend. This will be one of the rare weeks where phone is more reliable than email.

Paper: Not done, really not any appreciable progress made. Obviously lack of computer hurts, but it's not like the design building, with its rows of PCs, is closed. Also, work starts tomorrow. Yeah.

That's it for now.

9:15pm: same as it ever was
< checks email >

Yep, Gmail's still in beta.

< /checks email >

5:44pm: warm and golden like an oven that's wide open
Is is just me, or does Silvio Berlusconi's soon-to-be-ex-wife bear an uncanny resemblance to Octomom?

12:53am: too-rye-ay
The good news is I am no longer listening to the Buggles on infinite loop.

THE BAD NEWS IS I'M NOW STUCK IN A RUT OF MID-90S SKA-PUNK COVERS OF 80'S NEW WAVE SONGS AUGH

most notably the two below

6:02pm: and you give yourself away
Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA)

...?!!

10:33pm: they took the credit for your second symphony
AUGH WHY AM I OBSESSIVELY LISTENING TO THIS SONG OVER AND OVER

1:33pm: let down and hanging around
Aaaaaaaaand I'm in PHL with the flight canceled and nothing leaving until seven and having to get standby tickets for even that and it looks like no ICT for us this year.

Fuck fuck fuck. Three thoughts:

1) This is really one of those moments where, if I was more religiously inclined, I could easily spin it as some sort of higher power giving me another chance/not letting me make Bad Decisions/yadda yadda yadda. I really do get far more chances than I deserve; the challenge is to actually make this one count, and I'm on a thin wire right now.
2) Looks like I'm going to try and make it to ACF Nationals after all. Which is on a much worse weekend, so that might not work. Yes, still a Bad Decision; yes I ought to have learned my lesson, and yes I'm still going to try to go. I'm 80/20 at the moment.
3) To think I could have gone to prom, after all.

ETA: We're going to get the 6:45 flight anyway and hope that teams are willing to play makeup matches into the wee hours of the morning. This is undoubtedly a horrible idea, but given that the NAQT entry fees are non-refundable, that's how we're rolling.

8:07am: i can tell you all about leif ericson
In five hours, I leave for Fucking Dallas. Whatever slim chance we would've had of placing in the top half is going to be torpedoed by the fact our #3 scorer (and trash specialist) isn't going to show up until near the end of the night, after the prelims are mostly done.

Last week, we came in second at Princeton (to Maryland of course), and Penn managed to snag both the #2 and #3 scorer awards. (I was #3.) However, said "second place" was in fact a 9-4 tie with Columbia B with better bonus conversion, so yeah should've done better.



...

In other news I am still way behind on work in fact I am even further behind than last time I checked in and going to Fucking Dallas is probably no definitely a Bad Life Decision and all that. I don't give a fuck, I'm doing it anyway.

See y'all on the flipside.

4:16pm: i nuked another gramma's apple pie and hung my head in shame
Dispatches from the rabbit hole:

1) In Canada and England, land is owned by Tha Crown, a situation which brushes aside that pesky "takings" issue and allows one to actually do sensible land-use planning.

I've never said this before, but HAIL BRITTANIA! Go ahead and gloat, uncleamos.

2) Our workshop area (South Street) has as drive-thru drycleaners. Yes Virginia there is a DRIVE THRU DRYCLEANERS and it's just off of SOUTH STREET right on the CORNER of FIFTH, BAINBRIDGE, and FUCKING PASSYUNK. Like seriously what the fuck.

3) Holyfuck I'm behind on work and spring break didn't help one bit. Shit shit shit shit shit shit.

4) Links!

* Mmmm, tree.
* http://www.badpaintingsofbarackobama.com/ Pretty self-explanatory.
* Um that's really pretty much it

5) No quizbowl updates. Check back next time!

2:16pm: they say I'm crazy but I have a good time
You can't make this stuff up.

The money quote:

"While the original project may be slightly changed, a January press release from VH1 said the show will shadow T.O. and two of his best friends who also serve as his female publicists.

"Mo and Kita [Monique Jackson and Kita Williams] want to help Terrell match all the success he's had on the field with that same kind of success off the field.

Now, after a string of relationships and off-the-field endeavors, Terrell is ready to re-examine his personal life and finally put a plan into action. These outspoken, vibrant women are more like T.O's sisters than people who work for him. They will function as matchmakers and therapists and also put their marketing expertise to use and help him make his life off the field as successful as his life on it!"

Wow.