get ready to scream...

to the tune of: Man Of La Mancha (I Don Quixote) by Linda Eder

I discovered last week that Kat, despite valiant tries, can't knock me off my feet (though it was fun watching her try...). Good to know...

I think everyone's conspiring against me to declare CS just as I'm on the verge of finishing the undergrad picture board. Grr... people are even coming up to me as I'm updating the board (outside of office hours). But one way or another, it's going to happen. Soon. And by the way, (CS/sym sys people) should you find yourself in Gates with a few minutes to spare, go see if you recognize Nicolette Etnalrap...

Ahh, Thanksgiving. Gotta love a holiday devoted to gluttony...oh, and giving thanks, I guess. So much turkey, pumpkin, and cranberry. Ooh... Sadly, no one outside the Zone knew the joys of my misshapen but still good pumpkin cake.

Portable ashtrays. They're so handy. I always think that when I'm searching for a place to get rid of my cigarette butt. Thus spake this fine specimen of Engrish anti-smoking signs, which also bear fine slogans like My cigarettes smell good. Other people's smell bad. (There are actually 4 pages of these--if you're trying to procrastnate click the numbers at the top.) My favorite? Inahled. Burned. Thrown away. If it were anything but a cigarette, it would surely be crying. I love the little Ikea-style diagrams to go with these. Courtesy of Erika.

Something else you can do to procrastinate: Make love, not spam. If, by love, you mean bombarding spammers' web servers with traffic to make them pay for all the spam they've been sending you. Seems only fair...and the screen saver makes it look like you're launching a nuclear war.

And finally, from Cheng: There is such a thing as going too far when buying toys for kids. Who needs a bike?

oh well

to the tune of: Weak And Powerless by A Perfect Circle

According to a study from Cal, e-voting may have given Bush a few extra votes in Florida. Like maybe 130,000. And, they claim, they're "99.9% sure that these effects are not attributable to chance."

Big Game -- Cal
Cal -- beat
beat -- beatings
beatings -- violence
violence -- Detroit
Detroit -- Pistons
Pistons -- this (wmv video)

Ahh, it's good to see that Detroiters still know how to riot.

Big Game Week was really a good try by everyone. As if to compensate for our football team's impotence against Cal, people started mutilating defenseless teddy bears and carrying them around. The Daily said they were supposedly hanging in nooses all over campus but I didn't see any. Maybe because I'm not hanging around freshman dorms so much. Maybe I should be a sketchier grad student.

Speaking of nice tries, in my capacity as Viennese Ball performer I was hoping to introduce scores of Mirrielees people to swing dance. But they were hoping to stay in their rooms. We got five people, all of them experienced with swing. And no guys. So...we taught role reversal. It was still fun, but not quite the alluring "hey, maybe I'll go to Viennese and do more of this swing dance stuff..." I was hoping for...

Aaaaaaaa! Milestones Tuesday! Back to Gates I go... under 30 mph winds no less... Methinks no biking for me... (Update: OK, so maybe it wasn't so windy after all. But it sounded apocalyptic when my little weather applet popped up an ominous-looking Wind Advisory...)

past the midterm gauntlet

to the tune of: Nara by E.S. Posthumus

It's funny how bronchitis works. Monday morning I felt like crap and so made a doctor's appointment. All day Monday during work it was kinda hiding: I wasn't coughing at all. But then I got to Vaden, talked normally to the receptionist and the nurse. The minute the doctor walked in though, I sounded pathetic, as if on cue my body realized, Hey, she's the one who can give us antibiotics! Let's put on a good show now... But 5-day Zithromax...now that takes me back to my high school days...

We got Viennese partners this week; I have a great waltz partner who's fun to dance with. Alas, I'm an alternate for the polka. But I'd rather do the waltz--it'll be so melodramatic.

The cs229 midterm was a good old-fashioned ass-whoopin' for everyone. Before the test, Professor Ng tried to pass the blame off to his girlfriend: he told us before the exam that he asked her how hard he should make the test, and she told him she thought we'd be insulted if our exam was too easy. But we shouldn't trust her because she's not a college professor. And, Dave says, because she's dating Andrew Ng.

This was a week of comfort food. Monday night I made a traditional New England (vegetable) chowder; Wednesday Dave made pork stew. And for the piece de resistance, after our painful midterm I introduced everyone to the great Northern tradition of hot cider and donuts. (Aside: Fresh cider is not easy to find around here...we had to go to three different Safeways. Egg nog, on the other hand, is already well stocked.)

Ragtime Ball was uber crowded, but plenty of fun. There's something great about hustling to a big band playing "I Will Survive". Apparently all the social dance groups have now turned into hip hop dance groups. Including Swingtime, whose "Hey Ya!" Dave was defending as a West Coast swing up until last night...

From Christine's blog: check this out. Now ask yourself, could the money used to make Britney Spears' Toxic been better spent?

sunrise, sunset

to the tune of: The Uruk-Hai by Howard Shore

Best sobriety test effver.
Why am I not surprised?

I just ran into Dave. No, I mean really ran into Dave. I was cautiously biking around the sidewalk in front of Stern cause this girl was walking along minding her own business. All of a sudden this guy comes barreling around the corner like he was late for something (rehearsal). They say your reaction time goes down with you're drunk--maybe it goes down when you're sleep deprived too. Because all I could do is saw, "whoa!" as if the driver of my bike could slam on the brakes or something. Only problem was this girl was there so I couldn't really plow into her. So, being the noble gentlemen that we were, we ran straight into each other in my first ever bike collision. It was exciting. Then I realized it was Dave and we chatted for a while. Good times on bikes.

On Tuesday Kat and I came out of class and saw the makings of a beautiful sunset. We decided we needed a higher vantage point, so we headed back to Blackwelder and caught these ïmpressive shots. And my camera is still on Daylight Savings Time it seems.

It's been an insane week, culminating in me getting the plague. Or a cold. I'm not sure which. But I haven't been sleeping much. Like maybe two hours a night for a couple of nights. So I figured I'd sleep in today. My body just said, "Screw you and your sleep!" and I woke up seven hours later. So much for that I guess...

Beer battered turkey: better than it sounds.

But a new week brings Ragtime Ball! and the Game!