the bewitching is upon us

to the tune of: Show Me The River by EastMountainSouth

Yes, this counter keeps flip-flopping more than either candidate (Kerry was winning on Thursday, Bush on Wednesday). But if you're one of those compulsive types that wants to predict the unpredictable, this is great. Note that tis doesn't take into account new voter registration, absentee ballots, or the ensuing court challenges and recounts.) Perhaps most disturbing is the claim that Michigan now favors Bush by 2%. I really wish I could vote absentee there... My grandpa says he's voting for Bush because--I kid you not--"you don't wanna change horses in midstream". Now he never saw Wag the Dog, and I'm betting he wasn't around for the Lincoln campaign (which actually coined the slogan). The scary thing is those are his words.

Most random thing cooked in the Zone kitchen to date: jeans. Sunday we boiled Kathy's jeans. Why, you ask? To get them to shrink (of course). Which was only semi-successful. But helped inaugurate our new giant and non-flaky pots.

To those who claim the leaves never change color in California: check out these pics. I think I missed peak time by a few days or so. But I bet the leaves are already gone in Michigan. Oh, and by the way, it's still in the 60s and sunny while it looks like this (ok, well today at least).

What did I do Wednesday night? Nope, didn't watch the World Series. Didn't go to Mono on the Quad. No, I stayed in to work on a problem set... but I did catch the end of the eclipse, which I assure you was cooler in person.

My Stanford career is now complete: I saw Zimbardo talk about his Stanford Prison Experiment. Oh, and Abu Ghraib, and the politics of fear. But mostly about his experiment.

Today's happiness: Waltz lifts! With women who know what they're doing they look almost acrobatic. Oh, and cherry crepes. So now I'm full of sugar and have been hopping around since 9 am. Time to go to work...

clips to procrastinate by

A trio, if you will:

First, a look at how easy touch screen voting is.
Then, what campaign ads might look like if they were on TV at 2 am...

And finally, every pop star's worst nightmare. Listen carefully to the audio and compare it to what you see...

glug glug

to the tune of: Opening Polka (5% slower) by Viennese Ball 2005

And thus ends the Week of Suck. Over the past three days I've averaged three hours of sleep a night. Yet the freaky thing is my body seems to have adapted to the sleep dep: I didn't yawn once during rehearsal this morning. And I learned Viennese redowa, a really fun way to wake up in my opinion; it made it all worth it.

How I'm supposed to do two research projects on top of this I don't know. But it seemed oddly fitting that right there waiting for me where I turned in problem set 1 (picture a 12-page paper, mostly in Greek) two days late were a stack of pset 2s.

Wal-Mart is a vicious place. The aisles were maddeningly congested as usual today with people ogling the Halloween displays they insist on putting in the narrow passageways so we thought we'd be part of the solution instead of the problem and park the cart somewhere out of the way. But someone stole our cart while we weren't looking. Which is pretty common, since all carts look alike and any cart will do. But ours had stuff in it. So someone reached in and stacked several armloads of our stuff on the floor and took our cart. Which was probably easier than fighting through the crowd to get a cart. But still...

Mmm...homemade chocolate chip milkshake... Ahh, it's nice to have a working blender.

Alumni everywhere! The campus has once again sprouted impressively elaborate tents everywhere. They've really taken over. Like they own the place or something. OK, well maybe some of them kinda did donate good chunks of it.

Hmm. I probably shouldn't be blogging right now, should I? Maybe I should be sleeping.

joyful joyful

to the tune of: If Moon was Cookie by Sesame Street

A string of joys this autumn week, both large and small:

I got into Opening! I must say, I was definitely surprised; there were a lot of really talented follows that didn't get in. But it was easier for the guys and so here I am. Auditions included a sadistic "smooth polka" to Cotton Eye Joe, which is anything but Viennese. But it's been fun, despite the 9 AM Saturday rehearsals. Last night the Committee (funny how unglamorous that name sounds) packed Max's and then stormed Jammix.

Jammix itself was tons o' fun, albeit swarming with awkward Social Iers. This made the cross-step mixer one of the more harrowing. But watching people who'd been dancing for three weeks enjoying themselves made it worth it. So I was planning to leave halfway through, but that didn't exactly happen...

After three weeks of harrassing five different departments at AT&T Wireless, I finally got a new phone. For free! One that works quite well and has lots of toy gadget features to play with (infra-red anyone?) But apparently AT&T wanted to be sure they got it right, so they sent me two (identical) phones, just in case. I wonder how long it will take them to notice, though I have the sinking suspicion I'll find a $160 charge on my next bill... Had I not just sweet-talked them into giving me 100 extra free minutes and a free phone I would feel no remorse at all about pawning it off on su.market. I've already determined that this phone has no non-obnoxious ring tones though, which will be OK as soon as I figure out how to make my own ringtones....

Speaking of free, I scored six free meals out of engineering-related organizations this week. Mmm...free...

Having a professor come out of a meeting in his office to flag you down as you're walking by is a cool feeling. Having two professors actually seem excited about the research you're doing with them is even cooler. Now getting them to agree? still working on that one...

Talking to people who live where it's raining and 44 degrees makes you appreciate the beauty and subtlety of our autumn. Rather than having the trees all conspire to drop their leaves the same weekend, the leaves are turning slowly and just starting to fall. And rather than being cold and rainy, it's still been pleasantly sunny.

what the deuce is that sound?

to the tune of: DNA Bourrées by Hillbillies From Mars

So after getting up at 8 am (aren't all you real-worlders proud of me?) I was heading to the shower when this bizarre loud screeching began shaking the walls, as if aliens were invading Guy's room. In the morning haze it took me a full 30 seconds to realize this was in fact the new Bjork CD.

It occurred to me that it perhaps it was fair, since we were all kinda loud last night while Guy's door was closed, so maybe we were keeping him up. But once the logical part of my brain started working again I realized that wasn't like Guy at all. Of course, I was in the shower so there wasn't much I could do about it. But as I got out I realized: not even he could stand listening to Bjork that loud for that long.

Now fully awake, I went in to Guy's room to find it empty, and that he had left his stereo alarm set. For 8:30. Apparently with the volume cranked up all the way. Maybe he was really jammin' to Bjork at full blast while no one was home.

But that CD still seems unsettling and eerie even in the middle of the day...

another bizarre dream

which I must record lest I forget...

This random female Stanford law student I didn't know is e-mailing me, saying she's from Michigan too and wants to meet. I think this is really cool. This part of the dream actually came first, so I was impressed that my mind managed to pick up the thread again.

For some reason I had realized my true lifelong dream and become a car salesman in Michigan. I got an e-mail from a woman I was supposed to go do a test drive for, which meant driving to Sterling Heights to get to the car lot. For some reason I didn't get directions beforehand, and ended up going in the opposite direction and end up driving around downtown Plymouth. Naturally I don't realize this until I see Robin jogging along the street who somehow now knew her way around Detroit and told me how to get back on the highway to get there. I'm trying to call this woman to apologize for being what'll be an hour late but not getting any response...

In the meantime, one of my friends is apologizing to two of my other dance novice friends for beign critical of their dancing.

Now one of my female friends is coming forward to admit writing the e-mail from the "law student" and apologizing profusely. I just feel really bad for her and find myself hugging her. And then just when I was about to find out why, my phone rang and I woke up.

I was impressed. A dream with subplots. And a theme. Perhaps I should be more disturbed but I think this is cool... If you can guess who these people are or relate these subplots to my real life (in private) you get a cookie.

America has sunken to a sad state when morning DJs are making jokes about nuking North Korea as if it's the funniest thing ever...

Note the time of this entry. Stupid 9 am meeting...

campaign tip

to the tune of: Light Up My Room by Barenaked Ladies

If you're going to cite a Website and ask people to go there, you might want to look at that webpage first.

Dick Cheney said this during last night's VP debate:

Well, the reason they keep mentioning Halliburton is because they're trying to throw up a smokescreen. They know that if you go, for example, to factcheck.com (sic), an independent Web site sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, you can get the specific details with respect to Halliburton.

Just for kicks, take his suggestion and go to factcheck.com. Somehow not quite what Cheney envisioned.

What he meant to say, probably, was factcheck.org, an independent analysis site run by the Annenberg Foundation. Only trouble is, they're not exactly backing him up either:

Cheney got our domain name wrong -- calling us "FactCheck.com" -- and wrongly implied that we had rebutted allegations Edwards was making about what Cheney had done as chief executive officer of Halliburton.

In fact, we did post an article pointing out that Cheney hasn't profited personally while in office from Halliburton's Iraq contracts, as falsely implied by a Kerry TV ad. But Edwards was talking about Cheney's responsibility for earlier Halliburton troubles. And in fact, Edwards was mostly right.

Oops...now if he had only created the Internet, maybe he wouldn't have this problem.

Ahh, Japan. Apparently it's customary for women to flush the toilet several times while they're using it to cover up any audible evidence that they're actually using it. So the solution, in true Japanese fashion, is to invent an electronic gadget to play flushing sounds. This Oto-Hime (Sound Princess) isn't exactly news (since it's been out for 16 years) but I guess it was a slow news day in Japan...

oh for old time's sake

to the tune of: Running Away by Hoobastank

Last time I posted this was over a year ago. But if a ten-question Web quiz is an accurate judge of personality, I haven't changed a bit...

Which Naruto Character are You?
quiz by orangeday.net

And if you thought dating was bad at Stanford, check out what it's driven women to in Japan: the new Boyfriend's Arm Pillow. I'm not sure what the most disturbing part of this story is:

• That it comes with a shirt-shaped pillow cover
  
• That there are other versions, more muscular or skinnier, to simulate the ideal boyfriend's arm
  
• That the company is considering a version for men, to be shaped like a woman's lap, complete with a "skirt" cover
  

Friday Night Waltz was soo much fun; it'd been a long time since I'd waltzed. And I followed rotary and lindy with varying degrees of success. I'm going to have to absorb following through osmosis it seems, since enough leads wussed out of Social Dance 2 that I've been flip-flopping lead and follow from day to day. But by far the coolest dance: Richard Powers' Harry Potter Waltz.

Incidentally I had a weird dream last night that a good friend showed up at the end of FNW for the first time in months, much to everyone's surprise. Everyone was thrilled to see her. And it surprised me for some reason that everyone else was surprised. But...that's all I remember. It was the kind of fleeting dream that made me question my recollection of events in the haze of the next morning, as if the dream were so realistic it might have been a memory. Freaky...

Today's discovery: Cheddar pasta shells with hazelnut. Not intentionally mind you. But as the shells were cooling in the sink I had a genuine got milk? moment, and hazelnut creamer was the closest thing we had. All I can say is, don't knock it till you've tried it. It was a little sweet, but surprisingly good.