Balmy SA, a nice place to spend a vacation. It's been a fun week here in the S'th. Lots of hanging out, lots of relaxing, and several third world nations-worth of eating. Dios mio man. Really. The foodstuffs of the week:
Tamales, Ham Sandwiches, Cookies*, Lard Kakers**, Ham, Potatoes, Chili, Enchiladas, Cheeseburgers, "Puppy Chow," Pizza, Taco Rice Casserole, Sonic, Pork Chops, Nachos, More cheeseburgers, Ribs, Chicken Fingers, and finally Neva's chicken, beef, potatoes and veggies dinner.
* - By cookies, I mean chocolate chip, butter, frosted, dipped pretzels, generally insane assortments of chocolates, Peanut Butter Cups, a general good God Y'all assortment.
** - Lard kakers pretty much served as the breakfast staple the entire week. In the grand Deb / Beck Kaker-Off, I think Deb beat Beck to the punch, clearly crossing the finish line first, but Beck won in the authenticity / tastiness categories. Either way, my dad was very happy all vacation long, dubiously combining "I need to lose weight"*** comments with kaker-face-stuffing. And chocolate cake for breakfast, the lard kaker heir apparent.
*** - Speaking of weight-loss, there's a rumor flying around the Rochester-Texas Sewing Circle that some sort of dieting contest is happening between now and the wedding, and the smallest winner / (ugh) biggest loser gets to be the mother of the bride. Interesting.
So yes, while in some circles 2007 may be the Year of the Pig (in a Box), in this particular circle (ha!) it's going to be the Year of Not Eating. A summer / fall with limited exercise (due to my foot) and a complete my-fault lack of restraint in dining At this particular instance in time there are 212 pounds of Nyet, and in order to be at a reasonable 23 BMI that needs to be down around 170. Interesting. I guess what I am saying is that I am throwing my hat in the collective ring; that I, too, want to be the mother of the bride. Somewhere, the ghost of Sigmund Feud is having an orgasm. But seriously - if anyone wants to send a prescription for amphetamines up my way, they will be duly taken. Or, if you're into Spanish, drunk.
So, in the interest of time, and since I successfully managed to not post at all from Texas (this post is being finished in the usual locale) (and in my defense it's a little difficult to write with people watching over your shoulder), here is a minimalist, one paragraph write-up of the vacation that was:
Sunday night, got in late for Christmas Eve festivities at the Ellises, and it was good to see Grandpa, Randy, Luann, Pat, Ron, Jordan, Frank, Paige, Aaron, Mom, Dad and Deb. We ate, presented, and stayed up very late playing imagine-iff (which I dominated, finishing metaphorical miles ahead of Jordan "2nd place" Engel). Christmas morning was the usual insane affair, though it started a good 2 hours later than normal - seems our youthful 5 am enthusiasm has waned of late. But good gifts, and good times. Dinner at Max's, more covert Timberlake discussion, and more good times. Tuesday we hit the Cafer, then showed Grandpa how to beat penguins bloody with a club, then Dad and I hit golf balls, then dinner and chill times at home. Wednesday, Dad AJ Wright and I went shopping then met up with Deb / Mom to see The Good Shepherd (see below). Wed. night Taco Rice casserole at home, and Thursday my dad and I played a catastrophically bad round of golf - I shot a 111, he shot a mumble mumble voice trailing off. In my defense, that is probably the fourth time in my life I've played a whole 18 holes of golf, and the last time was roughly my sophomore year in college; i.e. 8 years ago. In both of our defenses, the wind was blowing about 25-30 mph. Friday was another relaxed day, and we hit up the Texas Hamburger Company that night, a burger joint which quite oddly had neither a variety of cheese nor beer. Interesting. We went home to the Ellises to play a, hmmm, let's call it "ill-thought-out" version of the Amazing Race Home Version on DVD. I mean, wow, really. But not coincidentally, Deb, Paige and I won that as well. Huzzah. Saturday we hit up Chili's to celebrate "my birthday," which was fun, and that afternoon / night went to the wedding of a high school friend of mine Neva, which featured Neva's awesome singing *after* she had nearly broken down in tears during the vows. Tres professional. The reception was fun, Dewars was drunk and the unbeatable dancing of parental Johnsons and Ellises occurred, nary a tall girl's heart was broken, everyone dressed appropriately and no one fought on my last night in town; truly a memorable occasion. Oh, and the best man DID NOT refer to Neva's breasts in his toast. Because that would be inappropriate and awkward. My dad and I high-tailed it out the next morning at 5 am, I read a goodly amount of blush-inducing Scottish tales (tail?) on the plane rides home, and here I sit.
that about does it. I additionally managed to go running four times during the week, and I am fast on my way to a smaller version of myself. Not really. Starting... now. He said. Swallowing a brownie. The last brownie. I promise.
The Good Shepherd (2006): 59
It is entirely unshocking to me that this movie is getting mixed reviews. It's fairly slow-paced, meticulous, and given that the subject matter is spies, intrigue, and the birth of the CIA, amazingly actionless. I found it entertaining enough, but Damon's performance as a non-talker, straight and humorless spy was just that - so in a sense, it was a spot-on portrayal, but in another, it made for some un-riveting drama. Angelina Jolie was a wacko casting choice. There were some sadly predictable plot lines, and some rather poorly set up "big quotes" in the movie, as well as some entirely unresolved central mysteries. Blah. I did find the thing generally enjoyable, and I have to say the reason that people are left with such a negative impression is that whatever was working about this film in the first 2/3, when things were bouncing between present day 1960 and Dillon's start in the '40s, disappears once the flashbacks catch up. So, entertaining, but a far cry from "The Godfather of Spy Movies;" I think a big source of the problem might be that stodgy, privileged, Skull & Bones belonging, overly serious and blindly patriotic white dudes are perhaps just as thrilling as you might expect.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Friday, December 22, 2006
saya berduka
sedih...
hampa...
kelu...
ternyata kejadian itu datang juga menimpaku
saya tidak akan pernah menyangka
akan secepat itu saya berpisah
begitu banyak memori yang terhubung
senang, sedih, gila
rasanya semuanya itu masih membayang dalam kepalaku
yang menemani hari-hariku
berbagi mimpi, berbagi cerita
yang mampu memahami perasaanku sebenarnya
berarti sampai disinilah kisah kita
tidak..........................
aku tidak ingin berpisah,
kenapa? kenapa? kenapa?
selamat tinggal lagu-laguku...
10 giga terhapus semua!!!
begh, stressku, begitu pulang dari kampus
dan mendapati semua folder lagu barat dan indonesia, hilang
nanya ke kakak, "diback up gak?"
"nggak, udah banyak skali lagu, ngabisin memori"
anjrit!!!! emang sih beberapa hari ini komputer di rumah rada-rada ngadat
udah gak bisa dipake buat ngerjain grafik di corel sama photoshop
karena memori yang udah terlalu banyak
padahal saya udah pinjam external hardisknya gaga
tapi tetep saya keduluan...
sakitttttttttttttt
lagu-lagu yang sa download dari tahun 2003 hilang tak berbekas!!!!
itulah kenanganku selama jadi op warnet, siaran di sonata
itu yang menemaniku semua...
mana cd-cd lama saya udah gak ada lagi,,,
dosa!!! karena ngedownload gak nyimpan studio sebagian
gini deh,,
yah.. selamat tinggal lagu-laguku..
biarlah kalian menjadi kenangan selamanya
agar di hari esok ketika saya mendengar sebagian dari kalian
kepingan kenangan itu akan kembali padaku..
selamat tinggal avril, my chemical romance, muse, the used, tlc, rio febrian, cokelat, ria amelia...
tidakkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!
-------
Links are up!
Alright, the new linklist is now up. Wahoo! Check it out.
And of course, please send me any suggestions, comments or what have you. And if you have some awesome sites for me to check out, well, you just click on that comment link down there and get this party started.
And of course, please send me any suggestions, comments or what have you. And if you have some awesome sites for me to check out, well, you just click on that comment link down there and get this party started.
Test: Remote Review
Okay, so not that remote. I'm still sitting at the same computer, but I'm using a Mozilla Plug In to type this little entry. I'm sure that's thrilling to the technophobes out there. But I've spent the last couple of days running errands (changing car oil, shopping, eating, etc.) and "pimping" out my iPod, iTunes and browser. We are in a schwank place, the collective lot of us, and one of the many projects scheduled for today is to finally update my website's collection of links into something a little more interesting / useful / aesthetically pleasing. We'll see how that goes.
Speaking of the website, did anyone find the awesomeness? It's there, I promise.
Speaking of the web in general, a little scouring yesterday revealed a wealth of newfound awesomeness. First, below you can find a decidedly PG-13 rated video from our friends at Saturday Night Live - if you have any kind of general understanding of Justin Timberlake's style of music, you'll realize that the bold level of self-parody here is top-notch. Here ya go, and feel free to skip it if you don't enjoy laughing uncontrollably:
So, yeah, funny stuff. Anyways, my searches revealed more than basic sophomoric humor; I "stumbled upon" this site and must say it is the height of web surfing / time wastage. You enter some categories that you are interested in and then click on a button and voila - random website that people have recommended. And I must say they are generally awesome. Here are a few I have encountered in just a couple of minutes yesterday:
And two awesome ones for the animal lovers out there:
Wait for it, wait for it - okay, and two seconds later, The Beck has put up S & W for canine consideration. I would put a heavy bet on their chances in the cuteness competition, and if we ever caught Sparkle in full-out devil dog mode, I'm guessing she would take Scary Dog honors, too. She's versatile that way.
Anyways, in my reviews the other day, I neglected to remember that I saw...
V for Vendetta (2006): 66
Highly enjoyable, but a little too scattered and over the top. Portman = good. Dude with mask - pretty amazing, given the lack of facial expressions available to him. Nice ambiance throughout, and some killer action scenes - all told, a good two hours, but not much to write home about, and A Randian level of head-hammering with its Bush-bad metaphors.
So there you have it. Okay, more work to do today. I am going to go drink a nice cup of coffee now, and it will be manufique. Or something. T-minus two days until Texas. Weather permitting. See y'all soon.
Speaking of the website, did anyone find the awesomeness? It's there, I promise.
Speaking of the web in general, a little scouring yesterday revealed a wealth of newfound awesomeness. First, below you can find a decidedly PG-13 rated video from our friends at Saturday Night Live - if you have any kind of general understanding of Justin Timberlake's style of music, you'll realize that the bold level of self-parody here is top-notch. Here ya go, and feel free to skip it if you don't enjoy laughing uncontrollably:
So, yeah, funny stuff. Anyways, my searches revealed more than basic sophomoric humor; I "stumbled upon" this site and must say it is the height of web surfing / time wastage. You enter some categories that you are interested in and then click on a button and voila - random website that people have recommended. And I must say they are generally awesome. Here are a few I have encountered in just a couple of minutes yesterday:
And two awesome ones for the animal lovers out there:
Wait for it, wait for it - okay, and two seconds later, The Beck has put up S & W for canine consideration. I would put a heavy bet on their chances in the cuteness competition, and if we ever caught Sparkle in full-out devil dog mode, I'm guessing she would take Scary Dog honors, too. She's versatile that way.
Anyways, in my reviews the other day, I neglected to remember that I saw...
V for Vendetta (2006): 66
Highly enjoyable, but a little too scattered and over the top. Portman = good. Dude with mask - pretty amazing, given the lack of facial expressions available to him. Nice ambiance throughout, and some killer action scenes - all told, a good two hours, but not much to write home about, and A Randian level of head-hammering with its Bush-bad metaphors.
So there you have it. Okay, more work to do today. I am going to go drink a nice cup of coffee now, and it will be manufique. Or something. T-minus two days until Texas. Weather permitting. See y'all soon.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
[...]
telah 21 tahun aku berpijak
pada tanah ini
menghirup udara yang terbang bebas
berkhayal dengan susunan awan
menghilangkan gundah dengan dentuman sang petir
tapi belum ada yang mampu menyamai
kelegaan yang kau berikan
tatkala aku berkeluh kesah
tatkala dunia menjadi terlalu bising bagiku
tetapi kau mampu mendamaikannya
gurat wajahmu yang semakin menua
betapa banyak lukisan yang terpancar disana
betapa banyak pengorbanan, dan kasih sayang
tanganmu yang sekarang bertambah renta
masih kurasakan sangat lembut
ketika wajah ini kau usap
dan membuatku merasa berarti
21 tahun aku hidup
rasanya belum ada yang bisa aku berikan
kau yang selalu berjuang
agar kita semua tidak terpisah
mudah-mudahan aku bukan anak yang durhaka
yang tidak mampu mengingat segala air matamu
aku hanya bisa berdoa
semoga kita bisa bersama
sampai aku bisa membalas semua kasih sayangmu
maaf jika aku punya dosa
kaulah yang selalu memaafkan
selamat hari ibu
untuk ibuku, kurnia
tentang saya
maaf saya stress.. itulah yang bisa menggambarkan keadaanku saat ini
pasca nurani yang masih (sangat) membekas
sekarang sudah minggu terakhir sebelum saya final
arrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh anjrit!
banyak sekali kewajiban yang belum terpenuhi
tugas komunikasi massa yang masih 10 halaman
begh, masih berapa lembar lagi yang belum diringkas tuh!!!!
tugas grafika yang belum kelar-kelar juga
astaga, photoshop saja baru mau saya install di komputerku!!!
dan yang paling saya pikirkan adalah bagaimana dengan tugas cinematografiku?
saya tidak ingin menuduh orang
karena memang saya akui saya pun sudah malas mengurus film ku
kok semangatnya padam sampai disini?
habis!!! skarang tinggal diedit aja sih, pake ulead
trus ditambahin voice over untuk narasinya, tapi
saya belum pernah menyentuh program ulead satu kali pun!!!!
emang kita bisa?? what a f*ck!!!
saya juga mau minta maaf buat weda dan k' anna
saya yang (telah) mengaku berkomitmen untuk ikut di youth camp
tidak bisa saya penuhi
sebab peralatan radio di jurusanku sudah datang
dan saya sebagai pengurus lab dititahkan oleh kepala jurusan untuk stay di situ dulu
trus minggu depan saya sudah final
jadi gak bisa ikutan workshop di malino
maaf!!! maaf!!! maaf!!!
hilang lagi satu sarana saya untuk belajar
semoga masih ada satu kesempatan lain
sekarang juga saya kayaknya harus memberi perhatian lebih
untuk peralatan radio yang baru datang
pyuhhh,,, apakah saya bisa??
dan terakhir.. saya sudah mau setengah gila
untuk mendownload mp3 rio febrian yang jenuh
dengan romeo yang mati bersama mu
tapi gak bisa-bisa,,,
arghhhhhhhhhh
ada yang punya gak?? minta!!!!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
The Past Three Months: In Review
Okay, before I get rolling with the slew of reviews I owe you, in the previous post I neglected to mention a pretty big event from the past three months. So here it is:
Dave and Ali's Wedding
Our friends Dave & Ali got married! Ali was our roommate back in the Arlington days; she is more or less one of the most fantastic people on earth. We're talking Liz Bishop awesome. She was a godmother to the pups, enduring some wicked fights, and provided me with many a ride home from the Arlington T stop. Bless her! And now she and her hubby Dave, another really nice guy, are all hitched. It was a nice, traditional ceremony and a very cool reception in a barn-like place. There was a little five year old, tux wearing ring bearer boy who found it necessary to remove his shirt on the dance floor, effecting an odd Toulouse Lautrec meets Chippendale's ambiance. Very weird. He also grabbed the mic from the DJ at one point and shouted, "Auntie Allie, I'm so glad they let you be in the family." Or something like that. It was hilarious. We had a great time, and it is undoubtedly the only wedding I've been to where I cap the evening off by dropping off several bags of dog food at the happy couple's condo. Unless there's some really weird traditions in Beck's family that I don't know about.
Back to the Reviews
Okay, phew. So in the last three months, besides the fact that I haven't been as active about my posting, I have kept reading and watching movies. Actually, beck and I have been watching a whole boatload of Angel lately, so my movie watching has been on something of a hiatus lately as well. But that's cool. So below, if you'll bare with me, are very miniature reviews of the movies and books that I've seen in read in the off time. These will not be getting the full treatment in my films section or my books section, but one, there are some new reviews there, so check them out, and two, all future reviews will be posted there. I will try to put notices up here when I post new stuff, but you should check the main site frequently for updates. Awesome updates. In fact, as a special enticement, I promise to put up something *awesome* on the main site today. But it's going to be hidden, and I'm never going to tell anyone where it is. But it'll be sweet. Anyways, here are some reviews:
Movies
The Searchers (1957): 45
Laughable acting, a stupid, drawn out plot, ridiculous characters and enough awkwardness to bottle up and sell. This movie often gets called the "greatest Western of all time" and is actually ranked very high (#8 or so) on some of the lists of best movies, so clearly I'm not getting something. Admittedly, it's a beautiful film and the whole notion of John Wayne as antihero is pretty brutal and shocking. But this is a classic case of a film that hasn't aged well. the stilted style of pretty much everything involved is so painful as to be funny, and it really detracts badly. I generally don't like great movies with glaring holes - I'd rather see a movie that's consistently good throughout - and the warts on this film render it fairly terrible to me.
Kicking and Screaming (1995): 65
Another film that surprisingly has not aged well. This came out in the midst of the mid-nineties "talkies," dialog focused films (like Before Sunrise and, in a weird way, Pulp Fiction) that wrapped themselves up perhaps a little narcissistically in their own witty retorts. And it is high humor, and I actually like the genre a lot - but this account of college graduates struggling in the real world just comes off without as much "kick" as I remembered. It lacked energy, in short, and I was fairly disappointed as it often gets referenced as a cult classic. Funny, I suppose, and breath-takingly cynical, but just a little flat for my tastes.
Ghost World (2001): 86
A fantastic film that creates its own painful space between its characters that leaves the screen and leaves you as disoriented at this representation of the world as they feel within it. Buscemi is great. The mood of the film is wonderful; the only drawback, I thought, was the somewhat cheesy art teacher. But aside from that, just a wonderfully emotive film about struggling with alienation and coping with the world at large as an outsider. Highly recommended.
The Illusionist (2006): 21
Nevermind the inherent stupidity of a 2006 movie made about magic - I mean, wow, special effects, who knew - this movie was atrociously bad. Horrendously predictable plot, stupid characters straight out of Princess bride, a "twist" that was blatantly transparent, and an "A HA!" revelation of said twist that may have been one of the dumbest things I've ever seen on film, and that includes video, which includes my shout-acting performance as Snoopy in 5th grade. What's even worse is that EW lauded this film on its Must-List because of Edward Norton's stellar performance. Norton was okay, or at least okay as you can be in a movie this stupid. Argh. the only reason I'm giving it a passing grade is because Jessica Biel is pretty in a vapid chooses bad movies kinda way, and she went to Tufts. Avoid this craptasm.
The Departed (2006): 85
Just a high, high energy, excellently cast, runaway train of a movie that was a blast to see in the theater. And if you're a fan of Scorsese and you, um, like looking at Hollywood celebrities' head shots, then this one won't disappoint. DiCaprio, he of "best performance by an androgynous waif boy" fame, is awesome in this one. Damon is sweet. Nicholson is, well, he's Nicholson. This is just an intense, finely crafted piece of art - no real deeper message other than the unholy corruption of those in power, but this is the Scorsese genre at its near peak.
Borat (2006): NR
This one defies rating. I think it can be summed up by a quote form one of my students: "Once you see it, you can't unsee it." True. Hilarious, offense? Yes, all these things. Performance art of the highest level, actually. You can bitch all you want about the stagedness of certain scenes, but the fact that some of the scenes were not staged - and that a man can pull off something that still seems outrageous in an era saturated by, say, youtube and camera phones and insanity galore - is amazing. I think the opening weekend theater experience is hard to reproduce, so I imagine this will lose a lot when it is released in DVD, but it is fun partaking of a pop sensation. I do agree with many critics that the LCD may not get the joke... I have to say I recommend this one, just so you can know what the fuss is about.
Books
Oblivion: Stories (2004) by David Foster Wallace: 87
Just a fantastic collection of short stories by my favorite author. Included in this book: a skewering of American marketing, a soul-crushing account of an acquaintance's suicide, a lunatic in a school, a baby burned, sleep disorders, a prodigy in a tribe, a man with spiders and a mother with a disfigured face, and finally, a man who craps art. It's insane and mindblowingly written - risky and multi-faced, just an exhilarating read. Good stuff.
Signifying Rappers: Rap & Race in the Urban Present (1990) by Mark Costello & DFW: 78
I find it hilarious that people accuse this book of being "out of date." Um, hello? It was written in 1989! SO why are people surprised that it is written on Public Enemy and not Eminem? Damn, people, what do you want, soothsayers? That aside, this is a sharp and witty dialog on the nature of rap as art and as reflection of the culture that birthed it. From two white academic guys, so take that for what its worth. I found the DFW points fascinating, the MC ones not as much, but perhaps the most important revelation of the entire book was the notes on artistic theft, and how rap can be often boiled down to white guys stealing from white guys who stole from black guys who... etc. It is salient, if "out of date," given the ease of digital theft these days (and the "mash-ups" that have accompanied it). So I say blah! This is a cool window into the nascent years of popular rap and written well taboot.
Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans (2003) by McSweeney's: NR
A collection of funny and not so funny stories from that year. Highlights - a discussion on the politics of Star Wars, a cultural account of the conflicts in Lord of the Rings, and a set of jokes, the best of which was "A man walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a drink. He drinks it, stays a while, and then goes home to sit and think about all the wrong decisions he's made in his life." I mean, that's gold. there's also the requisite lists at the end which some people find hilarious but I really don't. Oh, well. Anyways, check it out; solid stuff.
Special Topics in Calamity Physics (2006) by Marisha Pessl: 35
Too cute for its own good, a predictable plot that hides itself as clever, and really the ultimate sin of the book - taking a clever, academic educated girl who champions the academic world and the deep thought that goes with it - and turning her into a walking soundbite machine. Seriously, the very "in life, there are no shortcuts" Cliff's Notes that Pessl lambastes on her website get abused here to an unbelievable extent - Pessl and or Blue, the protagonist, pretend to be above it all, but there wide variety of knowledge and quotes itself turns into a grand aphorism, a surface scraping of thoughts. The book itself is enjoyable enough, but it's pretentious as all hell, and the non-Blue characters end up as either absurd cardboard cutouts of convenience (insert rich high school girl HERE) or pathetic ridiculoids who inhabit an insane social space that will only service the moving ahead of the aforementioned boring and easily seen plot. In case it's not coming across, I did not care for this book. And again, our friends at EW gave it an A and thought it was smart, witty, and full of pomo genius. Since when does pomo man full of stupid references for references' sake, especially those that serve as a pond scum level of understanding and not any real kind of knowledge? This is the worst kind of academic dishonesty - though the book is readable and entertaining at times, its over-all vibe is so unqualifiedly condescending that it makes me mad just thinking about it.
For the record, my references are jokes, and I hope that I don't come off like Blue - it's a game of shared experience to throw these "pomo" references, one that illuminates certain angles and not one that betrays masturbatory literati name-dropping.
Chuck Klosterman IV (2006) by Chuck Klosterman: 73
A collection of celebrity interviews, misc. essays by Chuck and a piece of fiction that was actually pretty good. Chuck K. is funny, but not as awesome as he thinks he is, sometimes. This is coming from a fan; I have thoroughly enjoyed his other books, and I enjoyed this one. But there's something that's empty and Andy Rooney at the end of 60 Minutes about it now and then, and it annoyed me enough to drop the rating a bit. Definitely good, definitely entertaining, I laughed out loud a lot, but I think the level is a little too hipster smug and not in depth / philosophical enough for me to really get into. Speaking of pretentious, hi, my name's Nyet.
And SCENE!
There you go. One of the things that derailed me from the previous incarnation of writing was that I started feeling compelled to write reviews of every little thing I encountered. I don't like being compelled to do things, so a stack of need-to-be-reviewed books and movies appeared, and I was slugging through it. To cut to the (Cordelia) chase - I am only going to give movies / books or whatever full reviews if I feel like it. Otherwise I will put quick notes on here. See, wasn't that easy? Ahhh.... problem solved. Tune in next week...
Dave and Ali's Wedding
Our friends Dave & Ali got married! Ali was our roommate back in the Arlington days; she is more or less one of the most fantastic people on earth. We're talking Liz Bishop awesome. She was a godmother to the pups, enduring some wicked fights, and provided me with many a ride home from the Arlington T stop. Bless her! And now she and her hubby Dave, another really nice guy, are all hitched. It was a nice, traditional ceremony and a very cool reception in a barn-like place. There was a little five year old, tux wearing ring bearer boy who found it necessary to remove his shirt on the dance floor, effecting an odd Toulouse Lautrec meets Chippendale's ambiance. Very weird. He also grabbed the mic from the DJ at one point and shouted, "Auntie Allie, I'm so glad they let you be in the family." Or something like that. It was hilarious. We had a great time, and it is undoubtedly the only wedding I've been to where I cap the evening off by dropping off several bags of dog food at the happy couple's condo. Unless there's some really weird traditions in Beck's family that I don't know about.
Back to the Reviews
Okay, phew. So in the last three months, besides the fact that I haven't been as active about my posting, I have kept reading and watching movies. Actually, beck and I have been watching a whole boatload of Angel lately, so my movie watching has been on something of a hiatus lately as well. But that's cool. So below, if you'll bare with me, are very miniature reviews of the movies and books that I've seen in read in the off time. These will not be getting the full treatment in my films section or my books section, but one, there are some new reviews there, so check them out, and two, all future reviews will be posted there. I will try to put notices up here when I post new stuff, but you should check the main site frequently for updates. Awesome updates. In fact, as a special enticement, I promise to put up something *awesome* on the main site today. But it's going to be hidden, and I'm never going to tell anyone where it is. But it'll be sweet. Anyways, here are some reviews:
Movies
The Searchers (1957): 45
Laughable acting, a stupid, drawn out plot, ridiculous characters and enough awkwardness to bottle up and sell. This movie often gets called the "greatest Western of all time" and is actually ranked very high (#8 or so) on some of the lists of best movies, so clearly I'm not getting something. Admittedly, it's a beautiful film and the whole notion of John Wayne as antihero is pretty brutal and shocking. But this is a classic case of a film that hasn't aged well. the stilted style of pretty much everything involved is so painful as to be funny, and it really detracts badly. I generally don't like great movies with glaring holes - I'd rather see a movie that's consistently good throughout - and the warts on this film render it fairly terrible to me.
Kicking and Screaming (1995): 65
Another film that surprisingly has not aged well. This came out in the midst of the mid-nineties "talkies," dialog focused films (like Before Sunrise and, in a weird way, Pulp Fiction) that wrapped themselves up perhaps a little narcissistically in their own witty retorts. And it is high humor, and I actually like the genre a lot - but this account of college graduates struggling in the real world just comes off without as much "kick" as I remembered. It lacked energy, in short, and I was fairly disappointed as it often gets referenced as a cult classic. Funny, I suppose, and breath-takingly cynical, but just a little flat for my tastes.
Ghost World (2001): 86
A fantastic film that creates its own painful space between its characters that leaves the screen and leaves you as disoriented at this representation of the world as they feel within it. Buscemi is great. The mood of the film is wonderful; the only drawback, I thought, was the somewhat cheesy art teacher. But aside from that, just a wonderfully emotive film about struggling with alienation and coping with the world at large as an outsider. Highly recommended.
The Illusionist (2006): 21
Nevermind the inherent stupidity of a 2006 movie made about magic - I mean, wow, special effects, who knew - this movie was atrociously bad. Horrendously predictable plot, stupid characters straight out of Princess bride, a "twist" that was blatantly transparent, and an "A HA!" revelation of said twist that may have been one of the dumbest things I've ever seen on film, and that includes video, which includes my shout-acting performance as Snoopy in 5th grade. What's even worse is that EW lauded this film on its Must-List because of Edward Norton's stellar performance. Norton was okay, or at least okay as you can be in a movie this stupid. Argh. the only reason I'm giving it a passing grade is because Jessica Biel is pretty in a vapid chooses bad movies kinda way, and she went to Tufts. Avoid this craptasm.
The Departed (2006): 85
Just a high, high energy, excellently cast, runaway train of a movie that was a blast to see in the theater. And if you're a fan of Scorsese and you, um, like looking at Hollywood celebrities' head shots, then this one won't disappoint. DiCaprio, he of "best performance by an androgynous waif boy" fame, is awesome in this one. Damon is sweet. Nicholson is, well, he's Nicholson. This is just an intense, finely crafted piece of art - no real deeper message other than the unholy corruption of those in power, but this is the Scorsese genre at its near peak.
Borat (2006): NR
This one defies rating. I think it can be summed up by a quote form one of my students: "Once you see it, you can't unsee it." True. Hilarious, offense? Yes, all these things. Performance art of the highest level, actually. You can bitch all you want about the stagedness of certain scenes, but the fact that some of the scenes were not staged - and that a man can pull off something that still seems outrageous in an era saturated by, say, youtube and camera phones and insanity galore - is amazing. I think the opening weekend theater experience is hard to reproduce, so I imagine this will lose a lot when it is released in DVD, but it is fun partaking of a pop sensation. I do agree with many critics that the LCD may not get the joke... I have to say I recommend this one, just so you can know what the fuss is about.
Books
Oblivion: Stories (2004) by David Foster Wallace: 87
Just a fantastic collection of short stories by my favorite author. Included in this book: a skewering of American marketing, a soul-crushing account of an acquaintance's suicide, a lunatic in a school, a baby burned, sleep disorders, a prodigy in a tribe, a man with spiders and a mother with a disfigured face, and finally, a man who craps art. It's insane and mindblowingly written - risky and multi-faced, just an exhilarating read. Good stuff.
Signifying Rappers: Rap & Race in the Urban Present (1990) by Mark Costello & DFW: 78
I find it hilarious that people accuse this book of being "out of date." Um, hello? It was written in 1989! SO why are people surprised that it is written on Public Enemy and not Eminem? Damn, people, what do you want, soothsayers? That aside, this is a sharp and witty dialog on the nature of rap as art and as reflection of the culture that birthed it. From two white academic guys, so take that for what its worth. I found the DFW points fascinating, the MC ones not as much, but perhaps the most important revelation of the entire book was the notes on artistic theft, and how rap can be often boiled down to white guys stealing from white guys who stole from black guys who... etc. It is salient, if "out of date," given the ease of digital theft these days (and the "mash-ups" that have accompanied it). So I say blah! This is a cool window into the nascent years of popular rap and written well taboot.
Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans (2003) by McSweeney's: NR
A collection of funny and not so funny stories from that year. Highlights - a discussion on the politics of Star Wars, a cultural account of the conflicts in Lord of the Rings, and a set of jokes, the best of which was "A man walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a drink. He drinks it, stays a while, and then goes home to sit and think about all the wrong decisions he's made in his life." I mean, that's gold. there's also the requisite lists at the end which some people find hilarious but I really don't. Oh, well. Anyways, check it out; solid stuff.
Special Topics in Calamity Physics (2006) by Marisha Pessl: 35
Too cute for its own good, a predictable plot that hides itself as clever, and really the ultimate sin of the book - taking a clever, academic educated girl who champions the academic world and the deep thought that goes with it - and turning her into a walking soundbite machine. Seriously, the very "in life, there are no shortcuts" Cliff's Notes that Pessl lambastes on her website get abused here to an unbelievable extent - Pessl and or Blue, the protagonist, pretend to be above it all, but there wide variety of knowledge and quotes itself turns into a grand aphorism, a surface scraping of thoughts. The book itself is enjoyable enough, but it's pretentious as all hell, and the non-Blue characters end up as either absurd cardboard cutouts of convenience (insert rich high school girl HERE) or pathetic ridiculoids who inhabit an insane social space that will only service the moving ahead of the aforementioned boring and easily seen plot. In case it's not coming across, I did not care for this book. And again, our friends at EW gave it an A and thought it was smart, witty, and full of pomo genius. Since when does pomo man full of stupid references for references' sake, especially those that serve as a pond scum level of understanding and not any real kind of knowledge? This is the worst kind of academic dishonesty - though the book is readable and entertaining at times, its over-all vibe is so unqualifiedly condescending that it makes me mad just thinking about it.
For the record, my references are jokes, and I hope that I don't come off like Blue - it's a game of shared experience to throw these "pomo" references, one that illuminates certain angles and not one that betrays masturbatory literati name-dropping.
Chuck Klosterman IV (2006) by Chuck Klosterman: 73
A collection of celebrity interviews, misc. essays by Chuck and a piece of fiction that was actually pretty good. Chuck K. is funny, but not as awesome as he thinks he is, sometimes. This is coming from a fan; I have thoroughly enjoyed his other books, and I enjoyed this one. But there's something that's empty and Andy Rooney at the end of 60 Minutes about it now and then, and it annoyed me enough to drop the rating a bit. Definitely good, definitely entertaining, I laughed out loud a lot, but I think the level is a little too hipster smug and not in depth / philosophical enough for me to really get into. Speaking of pretentious, hi, my name's Nyet.
And SCENE!
There you go. One of the things that derailed me from the previous incarnation of writing was that I started feeling compelled to write reviews of every little thing I encountered. I don't like being compelled to do things, so a stack of need-to-be-reviewed books and movies appeared, and I was slugging through it. To cut to the (Cordelia) chase - I am only going to give movies / books or whatever full reviews if I feel like it. Otherwise I will put quick notes on here. See, wasn't that easy? Ahhh.... problem solved. Tune in next week...
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Fantastic Day
So Beck left this AM at 5:30 - Grrr, Argh. And try as I might, the pleasant putter of the '92 Legacy left me wide awake. So I looked at S & W, asked them how do they do it, how they lie around all day and accomplish nothing - but they were mute. So I got out of bed. Sat down at la computadora to check the e-mail, glancing down at the clock and annoyedly noted it was 5:32 and there was little to no chance that anyone had actually e-mailed in the past seven hours.
But someone had! One of my tutees e-mailed to reschedule for Wednesday. Golden, a day off. So I glanced around at the atrocity that is our study, glanced further at the atrocity that is our apartment - and more or less fixed it.
Yes! I spent the day cleaning the apartment. Now this may sound like a big bag of vacuum to some of you, but I cranked the tunes as early as decency would allow (for the record: 10 AM) and swept and laundered and vacuumed and recycled; my how I recycled. The study is clean. More importantly, my desk is clean; even more importantly, hell, most importantly, *beck's* desk is clean - you have no idea. We're talking a Halley's comet type frequency of cleanliness in that little corner of the world. And now it sits there sparkling, nary a stray envelope to be found. I RULE!
So I finsihed up about 4, took the pups for a "double-u" and am now chillin', listening to tunes and awaiting the return of a shocked beck. Awesome!
So, Searls take note: as of this second the apartment is spectacular. Any damage/dirt/disorderliness that you encounter when you visit in my absence next week can be plainly pinned on beck or the dogs. I am innocent!
But if I did make a mess in the apartment, here's how I did it...
But someone had! One of my tutees e-mailed to reschedule for Wednesday. Golden, a day off. So I glanced around at the atrocity that is our study, glanced further at the atrocity that is our apartment - and more or less fixed it.
Yes! I spent the day cleaning the apartment. Now this may sound like a big bag of vacuum to some of you, but I cranked the tunes as early as decency would allow (for the record: 10 AM) and swept and laundered and vacuumed and recycled; my how I recycled. The study is clean. More importantly, my desk is clean; even more importantly, hell, most importantly, *beck's* desk is clean - you have no idea. We're talking a Halley's comet type frequency of cleanliness in that little corner of the world. And now it sits there sparkling, nary a stray envelope to be found. I RULE!
So I finsihed up about 4, took the pups for a "double-u" and am now chillin', listening to tunes and awaiting the return of a shocked beck. Awesome!
So, Searls take note: as of this second the apartment is spectacular. Any damage/dirt/disorderliness that you encounter when you visit in my absence next week can be plainly pinned on beck or the dogs. I am innocent!
But if I did make a mess in the apartment, here's how I did it...
Sunday, December 17, 2006
The Collective Experience of the Past Three Months
As evidenced by the Bagwellian Nightmare post, the actual recording of events past, especially those that haven't passed in the past few days, is time intensive and overly vague. So in lieu of a complete account of the past three months, I will merely hit up some of the highlights. Here is Stuff From The Past 3 Months, In An Order Dictated Neither By Importance Nor Chronology:
Cheryl's Wedding
I hit this up pretty well in the Bagwell post, but it should be pointed out that this was a blast. Always good to see the old faces to shock myself into the fact that life really is a continuous stream of people and experiences that continue to exist even out of sight. Or at least they do so effectively as to render any difference moot. My inner solipsist refuses to die. Anyways, yah, it was a great time, and great to see people. Dan McCallum is my hero.
Thanksgiving at the Searls
Always a treat, and at least part of the reason that iPJ is one of Wegman's Top 100 Shoppers! Congratulations, Digital Messiah! The Beck and I are still undecided as to whether this is a fact or an elaborate/brilliant prank. Thanksgiving itself was great per usual; beck and I headed down early on Wednesday and hung out until Sunday morning. Lots of talk of the wedding during the week, and many details were further hammered out. We also made it out to Bishop Manor to celebrate Liz's 3 cubed birthday. And let us pause to give...
Cheryl's Wedding
I hit this up pretty well in the Bagwell post, but it should be pointed out that this was a blast. Always good to see the old faces to shock myself into the fact that life really is a continuous stream of people and experiences that continue to exist even out of sight. Or at least they do so effectively as to render any difference moot. My inner solipsist refuses to die. Anyways, yah, it was a great time, and great to see people. Dan McCallum is my hero.
Thanksgiving at the Searls
Always a treat, and at least part of the reason that iPJ is one of Wegman's Top 100 Shoppers! Congratulations, Digital Messiah! The Beck and I are still undecided as to whether this is a fact or an elaborate/brilliant prank. Thanksgiving itself was great per usual; beck and I headed down early on Wednesday and hung out until Sunday morning. Lots of talk of the wedding during the week, and many details were further hammered out. We also made it out to Bishop Manor to celebrate Liz's 3 cubed birthday. And let us pause to give...
PROPS TO LIZ!
She is one of the big reasons the blog is back up and running, because hey, who else would fill her idle hours with clumsy prose? Meghan and Greg also made the 90 West Trek, so we got to spend Thanksgiving with them, and James Searl was en la case as well. His band, Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad is on a successful rampage of sites from New York to Colorado and states inbetween, so if you get a chance to check them out, you most definitely should (don't be lame like TBN and fall asleep on them). Anyways, the beat rolls on in Rachacha, and I look forward to many holiday spendings in the years to come (though rumor has it, the Searls are planning to visit Boston the second my plane leaves the ground for texas, which makes me suspicious. If I come back to a vacant lot with no forwarding address, your primary suspects are IPs J and MM. Maybe I should start using Macs...)
New Teacher Conference
I will say for sure that the big benefit of my three day stay in Rhode Island was definitely the war story sharing with other teachings and learning first hand what a wide variety of teacher experiences there are out there. I also remembered that over-obsessed, over-bearing nerds in any profession are relatively unbearable. One quote sums it up for me - I had asked some (I think) fairly legitimate questions about reconciling your own pride in your level of talent with the fact that a career in education virtually guaranteed that you would earn less money and have less prestige than your peers from your college (a topic that, as noted, is and was near to my mind). This lifelong teacher responds with this tale of how she was once at a dinner party and people starting asking each other "what they make," and after many folks responded 80K or 6 figures or what have you, she stared down the table and delivered:
"What do I make? (Pause). I make a difference."
Same said lady teacher ended the conference by playing that crappy banjo Jamaican or whatever version of the what a wonderful world / somewhere over the rainbow medley and did some spoken word poetry about imagining ourselves in front of our classrooms, helping our students, blah blah blah. It was like watching a psychological ego defense and self-preservation tactic demonstration video in action; the lack of authenticity was impressive (or the brutal presence of authenticity was a veritable diploma from the College for the Insane). I mean, I love my students, too, but I don't pretend that teaching in new England private schools is somehow the equivalent of buying the world a coke. The koolaid stains on this lady's lips were permanent tattoos, Ay Caramba!
On the plus side, I roomed with Jon, one of the other math teachers from the Nut, and Antonio, the new Spanish teacher at the Nut. This was a good experience as they are both down to earth peeps. In fact, the situation at school is fairly great; the bulk of my (same-level) colleagues are great, and my bosses do not interfere with my day-to-day and when they do they are generally amicable about it. So good times.
Classes
I should additionally mention that my classes are great. Very sweet kids who don't always do their work completely but are generally on board with me. There are definitely some pains in the ass, but even they are mostly funny pains in the ass and not annoying ones, so it's all good. One of my favorite students of all time, Rachel, is transferring after break, so that's a bummer. But it's good to be surrounded by driven, optimistic people on a daily basis, even if I have to reign their egos in and/or crush their silly dreams now and then. Kidding! I have had a lot of management to do with my advisees, but they are doing well for the most part, too. The whole thing is very familial, and I appreciate that as a great place to be in. More props to the Liz for that one; she knows I am more or less forever indebted to her. First introducing me to Phish and now this! Liz is a superstar.
World Events
Clearly a slew of events have gone down. GWBush looks more like a war criminal everyday; I have really enjoyed Jay Severin's near daily call for his impeachment, even though I think it would never happen in, say, a billion years. Jay Severin is in general an entertaining guy, wacky in a lot of respects and borderline heartless in others. But intelligent, regardless, and so it's nice to hear a solid viewpoint these days, even if they are occasionally filtered through the same popular caricature nonsense that someone at some point deemed necessary to be heard in the grand old U.S. of A. Anyways, big discussions in class over the democrats capturing the House and Senate, Bush's crashing approval rating, the war in Iraq, and the grand etc. that has accompanied all of it. Michael Richards's tirade followed a couple of weeks later by a Holocaust Denial Conference in Iran? WTFTTM. I have found myself listening to the radio a lot more and am seeing the fallacies on both sides of the coin in nearly all arguments; hell in a handbasket looks like the only great consensus. The best political thing I've read of late was an offhand comment in this article on American English Usage by David Foster Wallace and yes, uh-oh, I realize that's the second article I've linked from DFW today. Sue me; he's a great writer, and those are the books I've been reading lately. Anyways, DFW makes a rather stunningly simple argument as why you should be simultaneously pro-life and pro-choice. The essay itself, incidentally, has nothing to do with abortion, but is a grade A five star essay on prescriptive v. descriptive linguistics, which is awesome if you're into that sort of thing (which you very might be if, say, you were an Anthropology major in a former life).
Anyways, yeah, the world is majorly crazy right now. I am non-plussed by the general "First Israel, then the Americans" sentiment that seems to be coming from Iran these days. That's not good. And I don't like Americans dying sans good reason in Iraq, but I seriously hesitate to take the "demonize the bad guys" stance that a lot of the conservative folks take out there. In the butchered words of a Seinfeld quote, People: They're the Worst.
Tufts Alums Weekend
This was awesome. I spent a Saturday and Sunday down in Boston with a bunch of the Tufts E-men alums from the year I played there. It was mainly just a whole lot of hanging out and chillin', spiked by a game of disc golf, some bowling, some Ana's, some pizza, and a party at the undergraduates place. I can still DJ with the best of them it turns out, even if my music selection is appropriate for those born in the 80's or earlier only. We then spent Sunday hanging out at Funboy and Skipper's new house watching the Patriots, and as I mentioned earlier today, watching football with knowledgeable, cool folks is two steps above watchingiti by yourself and seventeen steps above watching with The Professor & The Sphere. Argh.
It's hard to define the E-men scene, and I'd be hard pressed to define it as anything other than Fraternity Plus, something I've relatively despised with the party line my whole life. My big groups of guy friends have been rare - there was certainly a substantial one at Rice just in the Lovett crowd, and another one with the Ultimate folks there. But there's just something otherworldly about this crew - a whole lot of well-fitting cogs with fascinating individual personalities that get amplified a million times when we hang out together. Conversations range from hard core philosophy to politics to sports to brutal idiocy, and occasionally we head bang and scream to Metallica. There is absolutely no doubt that any kind of alumni reunion has the danger of echoing a Springsteen song, a certain kind of remember when we were young, we shined like the sun, but with this group that's not entirely the point - sure, we do delve into a little bit of harmless idiocy on occasion, but it's really just an ongoing spike in a continual keeping in touch that I've never really felt committed to enough to work for int he past with a group of dudes. The E-men are sweet - we've got friends from multiple years of graduation, our Callahan trophy winner is as down to earth as can possibly be, and there's just an Emengeist that resonates with the group. When we converge, it's a pretty sweet feeling that goes beyond reminiscing; it's a dose of rejuvenation, a energetic pickmeup, a reminder that there are those great people out there with whom you click, even if you would never expect it upon first meeting. It can't be emphasized enough that the differences (well, as different as white suburbanites can really be) is a huge portion of what makes the thing transcendent. Plus the fact that I'm pretty much indestructible when I hang out with that crowd.
That's about all I got for the past three months,a t least for now. If I think of anything else overwhelmingly meaningful, I'll post it here. Otherwise, I'll have to wait for meaning in the present, which is always so damn elusive...
New Teacher Conference
I will say for sure that the big benefit of my three day stay in Rhode Island was definitely the war story sharing with other teachings and learning first hand what a wide variety of teacher experiences there are out there. I also remembered that over-obsessed, over-bearing nerds in any profession are relatively unbearable. One quote sums it up for me - I had asked some (I think) fairly legitimate questions about reconciling your own pride in your level of talent with the fact that a career in education virtually guaranteed that you would earn less money and have less prestige than your peers from your college (a topic that, as noted, is and was near to my mind). This lifelong teacher responds with this tale of how she was once at a dinner party and people starting asking each other "what they make," and after many folks responded 80K or 6 figures or what have you, she stared down the table and delivered:
"What do I make? (Pause). I make a difference."
Same said lady teacher ended the conference by playing that crappy banjo Jamaican or whatever version of the what a wonderful world / somewhere over the rainbow medley and did some spoken word poetry about imagining ourselves in front of our classrooms, helping our students, blah blah blah. It was like watching a psychological ego defense and self-preservation tactic demonstration video in action; the lack of authenticity was impressive (or the brutal presence of authenticity was a veritable diploma from the College for the Insane). I mean, I love my students, too, but I don't pretend that teaching in new England private schools is somehow the equivalent of buying the world a coke. The koolaid stains on this lady's lips were permanent tattoos, Ay Caramba!
On the plus side, I roomed with Jon, one of the other math teachers from the Nut, and Antonio, the new Spanish teacher at the Nut. This was a good experience as they are both down to earth peeps. In fact, the situation at school is fairly great; the bulk of my (same-level) colleagues are great, and my bosses do not interfere with my day-to-day and when they do they are generally amicable about it. So good times.
Classes
I should additionally mention that my classes are great. Very sweet kids who don't always do their work completely but are generally on board with me. There are definitely some pains in the ass, but even they are mostly funny pains in the ass and not annoying ones, so it's all good. One of my favorite students of all time, Rachel, is transferring after break, so that's a bummer. But it's good to be surrounded by driven, optimistic people on a daily basis, even if I have to reign their egos in and/or crush their silly dreams now and then. Kidding! I have had a lot of management to do with my advisees, but they are doing well for the most part, too. The whole thing is very familial, and I appreciate that as a great place to be in. More props to the Liz for that one; she knows I am more or less forever indebted to her. First introducing me to Phish and now this! Liz is a superstar.
World Events
Clearly a slew of events have gone down. GWBush looks more like a war criminal everyday; I have really enjoyed Jay Severin's near daily call for his impeachment, even though I think it would never happen in, say, a billion years. Jay Severin is in general an entertaining guy, wacky in a lot of respects and borderline heartless in others. But intelligent, regardless, and so it's nice to hear a solid viewpoint these days, even if they are occasionally filtered through the same popular caricature nonsense that someone at some point deemed necessary to be heard in the grand old U.S. of A. Anyways, big discussions in class over the democrats capturing the House and Senate, Bush's crashing approval rating, the war in Iraq, and the grand etc. that has accompanied all of it. Michael Richards's tirade followed a couple of weeks later by a Holocaust Denial Conference in Iran? WTFTTM. I have found myself listening to the radio a lot more and am seeing the fallacies on both sides of the coin in nearly all arguments; hell in a handbasket looks like the only great consensus. The best political thing I've read of late was an offhand comment in this article on American English Usage by David Foster Wallace and yes, uh-oh, I realize that's the second article I've linked from DFW today. Sue me; he's a great writer, and those are the books I've been reading lately. Anyways, DFW makes a rather stunningly simple argument as why you should be simultaneously pro-life and pro-choice. The essay itself, incidentally, has nothing to do with abortion, but is a grade A five star essay on prescriptive v. descriptive linguistics, which is awesome if you're into that sort of thing (which you very might be if, say, you were an Anthropology major in a former life).
Anyways, yeah, the world is majorly crazy right now. I am non-plussed by the general "First Israel, then the Americans" sentiment that seems to be coming from Iran these days. That's not good. And I don't like Americans dying sans good reason in Iraq, but I seriously hesitate to take the "demonize the bad guys" stance that a lot of the conservative folks take out there. In the butchered words of a Seinfeld quote, People: They're the Worst.
Tufts Alums Weekend
This was awesome. I spent a Saturday and Sunday down in Boston with a bunch of the Tufts E-men alums from the year I played there. It was mainly just a whole lot of hanging out and chillin', spiked by a game of disc golf, some bowling, some Ana's, some pizza, and a party at the undergraduates place. I can still DJ with the best of them it turns out, even if my music selection is appropriate for those born in the 80's or earlier only. We then spent Sunday hanging out at Funboy and Skipper's new house watching the Patriots, and as I mentioned earlier today, watching football with knowledgeable, cool folks is two steps above watchingiti by yourself and seventeen steps above watching with The Professor & The Sphere. Argh.
It's hard to define the E-men scene, and I'd be hard pressed to define it as anything other than Fraternity Plus, something I've relatively despised with the party line my whole life. My big groups of guy friends have been rare - there was certainly a substantial one at Rice just in the Lovett crowd, and another one with the Ultimate folks there. But there's just something otherworldly about this crew - a whole lot of well-fitting cogs with fascinating individual personalities that get amplified a million times when we hang out together. Conversations range from hard core philosophy to politics to sports to brutal idiocy, and occasionally we head bang and scream to Metallica. There is absolutely no doubt that any kind of alumni reunion has the danger of echoing a Springsteen song, a certain kind of remember when we were young, we shined like the sun, but with this group that's not entirely the point - sure, we do delve into a little bit of harmless idiocy on occasion, but it's really just an ongoing spike in a continual keeping in touch that I've never really felt committed to enough to work for int he past with a group of dudes. The E-men are sweet - we've got friends from multiple years of graduation, our Callahan trophy winner is as down to earth as can possibly be, and there's just an Emengeist that resonates with the group. When we converge, it's a pretty sweet feeling that goes beyond reminiscing; it's a dose of rejuvenation, a energetic pickmeup, a reminder that there are those great people out there with whom you click, even if you would never expect it upon first meeting. It can't be emphasized enough that the differences (well, as different as white suburbanites can really be) is a huge portion of what makes the thing transcendent. Plus the fact that I'm pretty much indestructible when I hang out with that crowd.
That's about all I got for the past three months,a t least for now. If I think of anything else overwhelmingly meaningful, I'll post it here. Otherwise, I'll have to wait for meaning in the present, which is always so damn elusive...
Bagwellian Nightmare
So in September, I trekked down to Houston for Cheryl Dittrich (and her now husband Jeff)'s wedding. On the one hand, it was great to back in Texas, great to see a lot of great friends (Dan, Christina, Kristi Tan, Alex Fay, Jeff Muñoz, Jon Blue, Joe Candelora, Eric Heineman, Blake Barnes, Page Gandy, Jamie Kerr, Liz, Matt Akers, a truckload of others). On the other, this was the first time I had been back in the presence of Rice folk since the inevitable conclusion of the MSF (med school fiasco), and I so I felt like I had some 'splaining to do. People were actually on the whole very supportive and thought I must make a great teacher, so that was cool. Still, there was definitely some edge to some of the commentary, specifically from heiny, that felt a lot to me like "why is the blue chipper teaching high school?" So I got to walk around feeling a bit like a letdown in the presence of fabulously successful Rice folks which put a decidedly green tinge on the entire weekend. I also spent a lot of time thinking that I can't even play that "at least I'm happy with my life" trump card, because while I enjoy the WHS scene, and have enjoyed it more even since the wedding, i can't say it's *my passion* and I can't say that I've made some hard core value over cash personal ethical decision. I mainly can say I don't have very much cash right now. This is clearly a post/article in and of itself, but I have to admit that set of emotions cast a big shadow on the whole weekend. I managed to fight through and have fun, but just barely.
Aaron Garcia, another Owl, was coincidentally having his wedding the same day and his guests were staying at the same hotel. As you can probably guess, this nearly guaranteed Rice-based mayhem would ensue, and ensue it did. Unfortunately it also meant that Jeff Muñoz, who was Aaron's best man, was not in attendance at Cheryl's wedding, but he crashed the reception and reception post-party a couple of times, and thank Hasheem he did. You'll see why in a bit.
I stayed with Dan and Chrsitina at the Omni Hotel which was a blast. I got there late Friday night while D & C were at the Rehearsal Dinner, so I patiently awaited their return and then we headed to some upscale bar (???) for the obligatory conversations involving a lot of "heys" and "awkward pauses." I hate those; I also was still in my airplane wear and the others were in their post-rehearsal dinner garb, so i was the sore thumb at the party. D'oh. No fear; we hung out and Dan and I gave a running commentary at the relative ridiculous that is what boiled down to a skanky-ass singles bar for people 45 and older. There were many women in low cut dresses who should not have been. I would describe the average skin tone as "leathery and sagging" and the average man's hairstyle as "oily." This all started at about 11:00, so not only was I underdressed and out of it, I was operating on way too little sleep and an hour's lag taboot. Never fear, beer. Never fear beer. Either way, we had some drinks and things lightened up; it was, after all, good to see everyone and we quickly fell into the safe fallback, recounting old times and then the most recent Jeff Muñoz stories (this one involved him getting blindingly drunk, deciding *himself* that he was too drunk for a strip club and escorting himself out, only to be found lying down in a Cingluar parking lot. Many of Jeff's less publishable stories involve strip clubs, drunken states and wadded up dollar bills, so I'm sure there are a lot of folks excited that he will be rocking Rochester at a certain wedding in the not-that-far future. Lord help us).
So D, C and I left the schwank-skank bar and headed to the Ice House at about 1:30 AM, only to find it closing down. So we opted instead to go to the grad student pub on campus, Valhalla, which was just an incredibly awesome decision. Mad fun sitting on the steps, sipping 25 cent Shiner and weaving conversations as only the three of us can. Many co-eds staggered passed us at several points in various states of undress, prompting Dan to repeatedly utter "God bless college." It was a fun evening under the yellow lit paths of my stomping grounds - it still kills me that I have been in new England longer than I was at Rice, which I think is oddly parallel to the whole Iraq - WWII analogy that keeps getting made.
Dan and I hit up Mission Burrito the next morning while Christina limped her way to her bridal party duties. Please take note of Christina's Saturday morning metaphorical limping and is it will turn into a full blown literal crawling by night's end. The Mission Burrito was seventh level good. We headed back to the hotel to lounge around have awake and ended up watching (egads) The War of the Worlds, a movie which can be summed up "as stupid as it was crappy." Showered, shaved, Dan forgot a tie, and then we headed down to the lobby to have blank awkward conversations with some of Jeff's friend and other dates of the bridal party that had been offered a shuttle to take us to the church. We went, ceremony happened, we all mingled outside. It was hot as hell and humid, unsurprisingly. I remember the ride back because there was a TV playing a college football game and when a Rice score popped up (they won) Page Gandy went nuts. And there was also a lot of talk about the Astros (who, remember, were surging to catch the Cardinals during their biggest-collapse-of-all-time, a collapse so mighty that it ended with a world series crown. Again, take note that the Astros were knee-deep in a pennant chase that day). We got back to the hotel.
The pre-reception cocktails were awesome - the vodka-tonic gin and tonic lubricants worked their magic, and many a social circles were formed with perfect diameters and all participants held their napkins and hors d'oeuvres appropriately. Seriously, pretty schwank stuff, complete with bell chimes to announce dinner. Should be noted that Christina Noble/McCallum's drink of choice tonight was a dirty martini. Many of them. Bad Idea Jeans. I had my first martini of my life, and I should throw out there that it was totally disgusting and salty. I vastly prefer the tonics and long islands. The wedding progressed; I danced like Axl as Cheryl's request, and danced with Christina and other Rice chicas and all in all had a good time. I should also throw out that I gladly did not run into Ayesha at any point during the entire evening; please e-mail me directly if you'd like that heinous story. I also recall that the DJ was awesome, and that Matt Akers spent a great deal of time playing the tambourines. I sat at a table with matt, his wife Ebit, Kristi Tan, Eric Heineman, and some other really random people whose names i don't need to recall for any evolutionary purposes. All in all, a groovy wedding, a lot of Texas charm in the toasts and whatnot, and a transparent ignorance and or willful denial of Chryl's virtue in most of what was said. Just kidding Cheryl!!! Actually, it was a lovely affair, though I have noted of late that weddings have an odd sameness to them - same songs, place settings, etc. - that are giving me a kind of "This Starbucks could be anywhere in America" sensation. Cheryl's was nice and schwank, but there is that whole cookie cutter ritual form to it that seems very silly.
So the wedding reception eventually ended (with the Doobie Brothers' China Grove - WTF? - if I remember correctly). So we natch headed down to the Omni Bar downstairs, a sort of basement hangout / legitimate club where real Houstonites and not just reuniting under the pretense of weddings Houstonites could be found. This was cool, as it meant that Aaron Garcia's and Cheryl's weddings merged, and mayhem ensued, except that it was one of those stupid loud, crowded, overpriced, overly bass-pumped music bars that people pretend to have an awesome time at but don't.
And the crux of this entire post, the point of the title, is that night rumors spread very quickly that Jeff Bagwell, he of the Killer B's from the Houston Astros, was there. I immediately questioned the validity of this, as why on earth, in the middle of the pennant race, would Bagwell be spending his time at the crappy Omni underground bar place? He was injured at the time, sure, but shouldn't he be supporting his team, watching tape, or at the very least taking his multi-million dollar butt out to fancier joints than this? SO I didn't believe it until Cheryl herself walked me around this weird U-shaped bar and pointed him out, sitting in a booth with another dude and two ridiculous, and I mean that in the "ridiculous," not in the "ridiculously good-looking" sense, women in the booth with him. The two girls were decked out in evening gowns and looked entirely plasticine in a horror movie featuring a wax museum way. Bagwell himself is *tiny* - and I knew he was short, but it wasn't just that, his stripe collared shirt just hung off him. He did not look like an athlete, or at least not like the muscle bound monster he once was, which of course has all kinds of steroid implications. But maybe he just hasn't been lifting because of the arm injury; we'll give him that. Regardless, he was clearly hiding out and looked like a shell of himself; I assume this injury has been tough for him. I chose not to speak to him as I have a general policy against talking to celebrities unless I feel I can connect to them on some authentic level, and given that most of my bagwell comments would have been oriented around something along the lines of "I really like all those world series rings that aren't on your fingers," it's probably best I didn't. I mean, he was smaller than I thought, but he could still probably take post-wedding Nyet. So I kinda forgot about him, endured the bar scene as long as I could, then started wondering where my roomies Dan and Christina were.
Enter Jeff Muñoz. An extraordinarily LOUD Jeff Muñoz. I run into him in the basement lobby where we had to wait in line for the elevator - some genius created a crowded space where there was only one path out. Nice. Anyways, I'm talking with jeff, who for some reason is demonstrating some crazy dance moves in this tiny crowded lobby. Jeff gets hot and decides to take off his tuxedo jacket, only as he does this, Jeff Bagwell also leaves the bar and walks right behind him. Jeff M throws an elbow back to take off his jacket and misses clocking Jeff B in the face by about 3 inches. Jeff B is actually pretty reasonable about almost getting clocked - says, "hey watch it dude," and walks out, trying to take a door exit (which actually leads to the fenced in Omni pool) rather than the elevator. Drunk Jeff M. then immediately goes into a "who the hell was that guy" routine, saying how he can take him, etc., as I'm trying to explain to him how funny it is that he almost elbowed jeff bagwell in the face. Jeff M gets very confused at the second Jeff involved, and as I'm finally getting the point across, Jeff B comes back in from the outside. Jeff M. finally realizes who he almost hit, but without seeing that Jeff B has walked back in the room, says something along the lines of "Whatever dude, Jeff Bagwell is so done." This is said at the usual Jeff M while drunk volume, and just as the room had quieted down a bit, so jeff B hears it loud and clear. He walks back toward the elevator and jokingly says "hey, watch it buddy," at which point the Latin lover (Jeff M) turns three shades of pale and says, "Oh, man, I'm so sorry Mr. Bagwell, sorry I almost elbowed you in the face." Which is funny enough, but it continues:
"That's cool, man."
"No, I'm really sorry, I was just taking off my jacket, i didn't see you, i was hot."
"Really, it's okay."
"Alright man. Hey, Mr. Bagwell?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks. Thanks for... Thanks for Everything."
Elevator door closes. I'm laughing as Jeff Bagwell disappears from our lives forever. Another reason I don't talk to celebrities is that you end up blabbering and saying things like "thanks for .... everything."
SO I eventually find Dan and Christina (Dan had spent a solid hour battling hotel security to let him back into his own room), and we head up to a post-post-party in one of Aaron's guests suites. The party turns out to be us and a lot of people we don't know. Christina goes off to sleep in a room as the martinis have defeated her. We eventually leave and head back up, Christina spending a lot of the night, well, not in bed.
The next morning was the brunch, and I spent a lot of time recounting the Bagwell-thanks for everything story. Cheryl has the forever-memory of a baseball star showing up at her wedding, more or less. I think she got her picture with him at some point. Jeff M is nowhere to be seen. Dan takes me back to the airport as Christina stays in bed and recovers. I make it back to Providence and resume my low-salary life, one experience richer.
That's it.
Aaron Garcia, another Owl, was coincidentally having his wedding the same day and his guests were staying at the same hotel. As you can probably guess, this nearly guaranteed Rice-based mayhem would ensue, and ensue it did. Unfortunately it also meant that Jeff Muñoz, who was Aaron's best man, was not in attendance at Cheryl's wedding, but he crashed the reception and reception post-party a couple of times, and thank Hasheem he did. You'll see why in a bit.
I stayed with Dan and Chrsitina at the Omni Hotel which was a blast. I got there late Friday night while D & C were at the Rehearsal Dinner, so I patiently awaited their return and then we headed to some upscale bar (???) for the obligatory conversations involving a lot of "heys" and "awkward pauses." I hate those; I also was still in my airplane wear and the others were in their post-rehearsal dinner garb, so i was the sore thumb at the party. D'oh. No fear; we hung out and Dan and I gave a running commentary at the relative ridiculous that is what boiled down to a skanky-ass singles bar for people 45 and older. There were many women in low cut dresses who should not have been. I would describe the average skin tone as "leathery and sagging" and the average man's hairstyle as "oily." This all started at about 11:00, so not only was I underdressed and out of it, I was operating on way too little sleep and an hour's lag taboot. Never fear, beer. Never fear beer. Either way, we had some drinks and things lightened up; it was, after all, good to see everyone and we quickly fell into the safe fallback, recounting old times and then the most recent Jeff Muñoz stories (this one involved him getting blindingly drunk, deciding *himself* that he was too drunk for a strip club and escorting himself out, only to be found lying down in a Cingluar parking lot. Many of Jeff's less publishable stories involve strip clubs, drunken states and wadded up dollar bills, so I'm sure there are a lot of folks excited that he will be rocking Rochester at a certain wedding in the not-that-far future. Lord help us).
So D, C and I left the schwank-skank bar and headed to the Ice House at about 1:30 AM, only to find it closing down. So we opted instead to go to the grad student pub on campus, Valhalla, which was just an incredibly awesome decision. Mad fun sitting on the steps, sipping 25 cent Shiner and weaving conversations as only the three of us can. Many co-eds staggered passed us at several points in various states of undress, prompting Dan to repeatedly utter "God bless college." It was a fun evening under the yellow lit paths of my stomping grounds - it still kills me that I have been in new England longer than I was at Rice, which I think is oddly parallel to the whole Iraq - WWII analogy that keeps getting made.
Dan and I hit up Mission Burrito the next morning while Christina limped her way to her bridal party duties. Please take note of Christina's Saturday morning metaphorical limping and is it will turn into a full blown literal crawling by night's end. The Mission Burrito was seventh level good. We headed back to the hotel to lounge around have awake and ended up watching (egads) The War of the Worlds, a movie which can be summed up "as stupid as it was crappy." Showered, shaved, Dan forgot a tie, and then we headed down to the lobby to have blank awkward conversations with some of Jeff's friend and other dates of the bridal party that had been offered a shuttle to take us to the church. We went, ceremony happened, we all mingled outside. It was hot as hell and humid, unsurprisingly. I remember the ride back because there was a TV playing a college football game and when a Rice score popped up (they won) Page Gandy went nuts. And there was also a lot of talk about the Astros (who, remember, were surging to catch the Cardinals during their biggest-collapse-of-all-time, a collapse so mighty that it ended with a world series crown. Again, take note that the Astros were knee-deep in a pennant chase that day). We got back to the hotel.
The pre-reception cocktails were awesome - the vodka-tonic gin and tonic lubricants worked their magic, and many a social circles were formed with perfect diameters and all participants held their napkins and hors d'oeuvres appropriately. Seriously, pretty schwank stuff, complete with bell chimes to announce dinner. Should be noted that Christina Noble/McCallum's drink of choice tonight was a dirty martini. Many of them. Bad Idea Jeans. I had my first martini of my life, and I should throw out there that it was totally disgusting and salty. I vastly prefer the tonics and long islands. The wedding progressed; I danced like Axl as Cheryl's request, and danced with Christina and other Rice chicas and all in all had a good time. I should also throw out that I gladly did not run into Ayesha at any point during the entire evening; please e-mail me directly if you'd like that heinous story. I also recall that the DJ was awesome, and that Matt Akers spent a great deal of time playing the tambourines. I sat at a table with matt, his wife Ebit, Kristi Tan, Eric Heineman, and some other really random people whose names i don't need to recall for any evolutionary purposes. All in all, a groovy wedding, a lot of Texas charm in the toasts and whatnot, and a transparent ignorance and or willful denial of Chryl's virtue in most of what was said. Just kidding Cheryl!!! Actually, it was a lovely affair, though I have noted of late that weddings have an odd sameness to them - same songs, place settings, etc. - that are giving me a kind of "This Starbucks could be anywhere in America" sensation. Cheryl's was nice and schwank, but there is that whole cookie cutter ritual form to it that seems very silly.
So the wedding reception eventually ended (with the Doobie Brothers' China Grove - WTF? - if I remember correctly). So we natch headed down to the Omni Bar downstairs, a sort of basement hangout / legitimate club where real Houstonites and not just reuniting under the pretense of weddings Houstonites could be found. This was cool, as it meant that Aaron Garcia's and Cheryl's weddings merged, and mayhem ensued, except that it was one of those stupid loud, crowded, overpriced, overly bass-pumped music bars that people pretend to have an awesome time at but don't.
And the crux of this entire post, the point of the title, is that night rumors spread very quickly that Jeff Bagwell, he of the Killer B's from the Houston Astros, was there. I immediately questioned the validity of this, as why on earth, in the middle of the pennant race, would Bagwell be spending his time at the crappy Omni underground bar place? He was injured at the time, sure, but shouldn't he be supporting his team, watching tape, or at the very least taking his multi-million dollar butt out to fancier joints than this? SO I didn't believe it until Cheryl herself walked me around this weird U-shaped bar and pointed him out, sitting in a booth with another dude and two ridiculous, and I mean that in the "ridiculous," not in the "ridiculously good-looking" sense, women in the booth with him. The two girls were decked out in evening gowns and looked entirely plasticine in a horror movie featuring a wax museum way. Bagwell himself is *tiny* - and I knew he was short, but it wasn't just that, his stripe collared shirt just hung off him. He did not look like an athlete, or at least not like the muscle bound monster he once was, which of course has all kinds of steroid implications. But maybe he just hasn't been lifting because of the arm injury; we'll give him that. Regardless, he was clearly hiding out and looked like a shell of himself; I assume this injury has been tough for him. I chose not to speak to him as I have a general policy against talking to celebrities unless I feel I can connect to them on some authentic level, and given that most of my bagwell comments would have been oriented around something along the lines of "I really like all those world series rings that aren't on your fingers," it's probably best I didn't. I mean, he was smaller than I thought, but he could still probably take post-wedding Nyet. So I kinda forgot about him, endured the bar scene as long as I could, then started wondering where my roomies Dan and Christina were.
Enter Jeff Muñoz. An extraordinarily LOUD Jeff Muñoz. I run into him in the basement lobby where we had to wait in line for the elevator - some genius created a crowded space where there was only one path out. Nice. Anyways, I'm talking with jeff, who for some reason is demonstrating some crazy dance moves in this tiny crowded lobby. Jeff gets hot and decides to take off his tuxedo jacket, only as he does this, Jeff Bagwell also leaves the bar and walks right behind him. Jeff M throws an elbow back to take off his jacket and misses clocking Jeff B in the face by about 3 inches. Jeff B is actually pretty reasonable about almost getting clocked - says, "hey watch it dude," and walks out, trying to take a door exit (which actually leads to the fenced in Omni pool) rather than the elevator. Drunk Jeff M. then immediately goes into a "who the hell was that guy" routine, saying how he can take him, etc., as I'm trying to explain to him how funny it is that he almost elbowed jeff bagwell in the face. Jeff M gets very confused at the second Jeff involved, and as I'm finally getting the point across, Jeff B comes back in from the outside. Jeff M. finally realizes who he almost hit, but without seeing that Jeff B has walked back in the room, says something along the lines of "Whatever dude, Jeff Bagwell is so done." This is said at the usual Jeff M while drunk volume, and just as the room had quieted down a bit, so jeff B hears it loud and clear. He walks back toward the elevator and jokingly says "hey, watch it buddy," at which point the Latin lover (Jeff M) turns three shades of pale and says, "Oh, man, I'm so sorry Mr. Bagwell, sorry I almost elbowed you in the face." Which is funny enough, but it continues:
"That's cool, man."
"No, I'm really sorry, I was just taking off my jacket, i didn't see you, i was hot."
"Really, it's okay."
"Alright man. Hey, Mr. Bagwell?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks. Thanks for... Thanks for Everything."
Elevator door closes. I'm laughing as Jeff Bagwell disappears from our lives forever. Another reason I don't talk to celebrities is that you end up blabbering and saying things like "thanks for .... everything."
SO I eventually find Dan and Christina (Dan had spent a solid hour battling hotel security to let him back into his own room), and we head up to a post-post-party in one of Aaron's guests suites. The party turns out to be us and a lot of people we don't know. Christina goes off to sleep in a room as the martinis have defeated her. We eventually leave and head back up, Christina spending a lot of the night, well, not in bed.
The next morning was the brunch, and I spent a lot of time recounting the Bagwell-thanks for everything story. Cheryl has the forever-memory of a baseball star showing up at her wedding, more or less. I think she got her picture with him at some point. Jeff M is nowhere to be seen. Dan takes me back to the airport as Christina stays in bed and recovers. I make it back to Providence and resume my low-salary life, one experience richer.
That's it.
Winter Broken
Friday came and went and with it the Walnut Hill 2006 school year: we are officially on winter break. Or something that resembles winter on the calendar; seriously, outside it's really only the barren trees that are giving any indication that it's not June. Which, for the record, I am completely fine with. I hate winter for all the traditional "I'm from the S'th and therefore hate cold weather" reasons as well as the insane pain in my repaired knees that the cold and wet atmosphere brings. Argh, hate it! Or, as Timmy might say, Screw You, Winter!
So Friday was a great school day; Stat Project presentations from 8-9:30, some of which were pretty good, and then something I dubbed Extreme General Awesomeness Day (EGAD!) in Algebra II. The Stat topics varied a lot; in no particular order, it was Harry Potter v. LOTR, Allergies, Smoking, Smoking v. Fast Food, Creationism v. Evolution, Liberals v. Democrats, Immigration Reform, Superstitions, and Summer Jobs. Good stuff, and a good way to wind down into the winter. Here's a picture of my buddies from Stat land...
Back (L to R): Soojee, Danielle, Sarah, Vicky, Ellie, Paula
So Friday was a great school day; Stat Project presentations from 8-9:30, some of which were pretty good, and then something I dubbed Extreme General Awesomeness Day (EGAD!) in Algebra II. The Stat topics varied a lot; in no particular order, it was Harry Potter v. LOTR, Allergies, Smoking, Smoking v. Fast Food, Creationism v. Evolution, Liberals v. Democrats, Immigration Reform, Superstitions, and Summer Jobs. Good stuff, and a good way to wind down into the winter. Here's a picture of my buddies from Stat land...
Back (L to R): Soojee, Danielle, Sarah, Vicky, Ellie, PaulaFront (L to R): Jenny, Christine, Noel
We started Alg II with a factoring tournament, won by I-Chun, and then had a Cowboy-Grizzly-Ninja tournament won by Teddy. I-Chun again won the "Guess Nyet's Age in Days" competition, and it not surprisingly turns out that everyone thinks that I am younger than I am. Then we had a trivia contest that Tory won, and we ended things off with a math dance off that Grace won with her fantastic interpretive dance of "The Quadratic Formula." Solid Job by Grace! A grand time was had by all...
Back (L to R): Jimmy, David, Teddy
Middle (L to R): Elody, Jill, Rachel, Miki, Gemma, Joy
Front (L to R): I Chun, Grace, Tory
Middle (L to R): Elody, Jill, Rachel, Miki, Gemma, Joy
Front (L to R): I Chun, Grace, Tory
So those were the good times, followed by getting home Friday afternoon and going running in the not-so-cold. Beck got home hella late on Friday evening for no good reason at all, but we quickly jumped in the car and headed back (for me) to Natick, where we attended a sweet party at Dave and Emmy's. It was to some degree the usual Ve(n)t and Bitch session, but Dave (Emmy's) and Jason (Cindy's) were there, two excellent individuals, so a good couch-bound time was had by us, talking music and lit and listening to tunes (though not, oddly enough, reading books). We also watched UMass lose to Appalachian State in the Div I-AA Championship Game, a terrible mixed blessing as it meant there was a non Ve(n)ting entertainment option, but might I submit that watching football with a couple of the partiers, let's call them "The Professor and The Sphere," is unbearable. Their feeling aside for right now, because I have my own venting to do: watching the game with The Sphere is like watching a game with Tim McCarver and John Madden at the same time, only both of them have undergone EST so that they can't remember anything about the sport. In other words, not only do you have a moron in the room trying to explain everything to the LCD (e.g., "what the guy wants to do there is tackle the guy with the ball") but he doesn't actually know anything about the sport, so he 1, really has no authority to explain it to anybody, and 2, he kept saying wrong things, like "I didn't think you could review the spot of a ball." So we had someone stating the obvious, only he wasn't getting it right. Argh. And then "The Professor" was waxing about how he really watches it for the "epic nature of the battle," he doesn't really care about the score only "the ballet." And it's not like I have something against academic accounts of sport; check out this DFW article on tennis and tell me it's not awesome (including the quote "and the truth is that TV tennis is to live tennis pretty much as video porn is to the felt reality of human love."). But it was like a robo-academ, no actual information given, just someone going on and on about the clash, and again, making obvious observations that weren't entirely correct. Maybe it's just that I watched the Pats game two weeks ago with the E-men and now I've been wrecked because I know what real, knowledgeable sports people are like - they STFU and watch the game, trying to make insightful comments and not "hey, that's a forward pass, which if not legally completed constitutes an "incomplete pass" and is not a live ball; the offensive team gains no yards but retains possession provided that it is not fourth down" or "O Yon Spiralling ball / its path through the air / a gift toward mine eyes." Gotdammitanyway.
Ah, I feel better now. Saturday was a'ight; I tutored and went running, watched some basketball and goofed and caught up on my OC. The OC, it should be noted, has taken a massive turn for the better after what can only be called two years of quite dismal crap.And Taylor Townsend is holding her own in Marissa's absence. You know, were I someone who cared about such things. We followed up the cheesecake with some beefcake, specifically some vampire-with-a-soul style beefcake, and watched a couple of episodes of Angel Season 4. Good times in the casa last night.
And so now it's Sunday morning. The dia del futbol americano awaits, but for now I am going to take some time posting and filling int he gaps of the last three months on postlessness. A trip to Houston, a weekend with the E-po, and other craziness has transpired. I'm glad to have the writing bug back for a bit. So let's take advantage, strike while iron is hot, etc.
More to come...
Ah, I feel better now. Saturday was a'ight; I tutored and went running, watched some basketball and goofed and caught up on my OC. The OC, it should be noted, has taken a massive turn for the better after what can only be called two years of quite dismal crap.And Taylor Townsend is holding her own in Marissa's absence. You know, were I someone who cared about such things. We followed up the cheesecake with some beefcake, specifically some vampire-with-a-soul style beefcake, and watched a couple of episodes of Angel Season 4. Good times in the casa last night.
And so now it's Sunday morning. The dia del futbol americano awaits, but for now I am going to take some time posting and filling int he gaps of the last three months on postlessness. A trip to Houston, a weekend with the E-po, and other craziness has transpired. I'm glad to have the writing bug back for a bit. So let's take advantage, strike while iron is hot, etc.
More to come...
Friday, December 15, 2006
Nurani 2006 : buat seseorang
Terperangkap lagi
Dalam sebuah labirin yang semu
Dimana aku terjebak di dalamnya
Dan mencoba mencari jalan keluar
Apa ini? aku tak mengerti
Meski banyak orang yang mengatakan
Inilah yang dinamakan cinta
Tapi cinta yang kukenal tidak begini bentuknya
Walaupun aku tahu kamu takkan memberi ijin
Tapi aku selalu mencurinya
Mencuri segala pandangan yang kutujukan padamu
Sosokmu yang selalu tertangkap mata ini
Dengan semua senyummu
Dengan semua tawamu
Dengan semua tingkah lakumu
Semuanya begitu indah dimataku
Aku terombang-ambing
Dan hampir saja membuatku terjatuh
Ketika perasaan itu sudah tidak tertahankan
Dan semuanya ingin kuteriakkan kepadaku
Semua kotak-kotak itu menjadi pagar
Ketika aku tahu perasaan ini tidak boleh ada
Aku harus membunuhnya!
Dia tidak boleh ada
Salahkah aku ketika menginginkan cinta juga?
Salahkah aku ketika menginginkan perhatian juga?
Salahkah aku ketika menginginkan cumbu juga?
Salahkah aku ketika menginginkan kamu juga?
Aku harus bangun!
Aku tidak boleh berlama-lama bermain dengan rasa ini
Aku tidak ingin terjerat lagi
Karena ku tahu hanya akan tersisa sesal
Perlahan kucoba menghentikannya
Dengan segenap benci terhadap diri
karena aku tahu,
Kamu akan selalu menjadi mimpi yang selalu tertunda
Buat
r**** : bisakah senyum itu bermakna lain untukku? Aku tak bisa menahannya lagi. Aku ingin memilikimu!!!
Nurani 2006 : Spice boys infected
Spice boys? Inilah salah satu gank yang ada di angkatan 2004 selain iwapi (ikatan wanita penyebar isu), rojali (rombongan janda liar), trio berlima, Jakarta groups (ini anak-anak yang ngomongnya logat Jakarta), sexy six, dan gerombolan siberat. Di kalangan anak rush biasa aja kale kalo memang punya teman-teman yang dekat yang bisa diajak cerita. Dan spice boys ini terbentuk ketika kita masih menjadi maba. Mereka selalu berlima, pergi makan, pergi sholat, pokoknya kemana-mana. Dan kak ipah akhirnya memberi mereka nama spice boys. Basri, padly (pake “p” bukan “f”), vai, ali, dan baqir. Inilah anggota spice boys. Walaupun sepanjang karir perjalanan mereka baqir sempat bersolo karir (halah!) dan memilih hengkang, spice boys memiliki beberapa additional player. Biasanya kalo mereka Cuma jalan pisah-pisah, maka biasanya ada fufu, atau spongebob (a.k.a unan. Kenapa dipanggil spongebob? habis mukanya memang kotak!) yang jalan bersama mereka. Dan ditahun 2006 kemarin Baqir menyatakan bergabung kembali dalam spice boys. Inilah konsep kegilaan dalam kepala anak rush. Sebenarnya gak sebagaimana-bagaimana amat sih. Kita Cuma berteman biasa aja. Siapa jalan sama siapa, siapa enak cerita dengan siapa, so on. Tapi yah dasarnya anak kosmik memang hiperbolis, jadinya konsep spice boys di anak rush masih tetap bertahan dengan kelima anggota inti dan beberapa additional player.
Dan saya rasanya hampir menjadi additional player mereka, karena interaksi yang begitu intens dengan mereka (padahal selama ini saya selalu bingung ingin cerita apa sama mereka, dasar paranoid!). berbagai cerita dan kegilaan kami lakukan bersama. Kalau dengan padly enaknya cerita yang gila-gilaan. Cerita tentang anak kosmik juga jadi. Kalau dengan Baqir, cerita buku, internet pasti nyambung. Trus sama Ali cerita bokep ajah, pasti nyambung. Spice boys yang paling dekat sama saya emang Vai, selain sering nganter sana sini(thanx bro, for the being my driver dengan Suzuki smash atau Yamaha vega mu) saya sudah menganggapnya sebagai sodara sendiri. Ngingetin tugas kuliah, sampe nanya gimana kabar keluarga. Basri… gimana yah, agak aneh ngomong sama dia. Habis isi pikirannya tak tertebak. Tapi senangnya karena kalo ngomong sama spiceboys ini pasti bawaannya ketawa terus. Dan mereka juga satu ide dalam nyela orang. Jadinya klop deh.
Dan di nurani 2006 ini spiceboys juga ikut ambil bagian. Minus vai (karena katanya macenya datang ke makassar, jadinya dia mesti nemenin), tetapi kami tetap bersuka ria. Dan disuatu sore di malino, kami berenam (plus fufu) berbagi kegilaan. Banyak sekali cerita yang mengalir, mulai dari flash back ospek kami yang asli sampe berdarah-darah, rumah kenangan di rumahnya echi sama rumahnya ema, kegiatan-kegiatan yang pernah kami lakukan, com for ed di soppeng, raker di jeneponto, sampai prosesi figure dan bina akrab. Cerita mengenai siapa senior yang paling dibenci, suasana jurit malam kami, dan banyak lagi. Rasanya tak habis bercerita tentang memori yang telah kami alami bersama. Kekacauan pun makin seru ketika kami merampok dapur maba dengan menyuruh mereka membuat kopi dan membuat ransum untuk kami (kurang ajar, kalian menjual namaku lagi!)
Serta celaan yang keluar akibat Basri yang sudah mau pulang di sabtu sore. Apaji, apa yang menunggumu di Makassar memangnya? Tetapi karena desakan dan celaan, akhirnya dia tidak jadi buat balik (karena kalo balik, pasti sama padly karena mereka berdua naik motor) dan kadar kegilaan kami pun rasanya sudah parah. Yang ada cuman ketawa melulu!!!
Malamnya pun begitu, selepas makan malam karena belum jelas kapan acara permainan dimulai, kami pun berkumpul lagi mencari tempat yang nyaman untuk bercerita. Sebab di aula utama sudah mulai berdatangan abang-abang dan super senior. Nantilah untuk menyapa mereka. Kami berkumpul di dekat gerbang masuk dan kali ini unan ikut gabung juga. Dan entah mengapa topic yang menjadi persoalan mulai dari pembahasan tingkah laku angkatan 2005 yang sangat hedon, suasana klub malam, kehidupan malam, sampai pada persoalan pola pikir. Berbobot dan tercela secara moral. Tapi itulah isi pembicaraan kami. Sampai saya melihat kak ipah dan kak cido’ buka kamar. Iseng pergi melihat mereka, saya pun jadi mengantuk melihat tempat tidur. Hehehehe, maaf spiceboys saya ngantukz!!!
Inilah salah satu yang baru saya sadari lagi. Ternyata mereka tidak begitu jauh, ketika kita berusaha mendekati mereka. Selama ini saya selalu bingung ketika akan berinteraksi dengan mereka, tetapi itulah arti teman sesungguhnya. Banyak kesamaan diantara kami. Dan masih saya yang menjadi orang bodoh, dengan menyia-nyiakan waktu 2 tahun untuk menyadari kebersamaan kami. Saya menemukan sekelompok orang yang bisa mengerti akan diriku lagi. Mudah-mudahan ini bisa bertahan lama, karena memang masalahnya bukan ada pada mereka atau teman-teman yang lain. Tetapi masalahnya ada pada saya sendiri.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Rumbling, Bumbling, Stumbling Toward Finish Lines...
This is the Thursday before winter break, and everyone knows it. Just wrapped up a test in Alg II class and "worked" on "editing" papers in Statistics. The astute will notice that this kind of day does not exactly require a lot of planning or effort on my part, other than to be available to answer questions and/or bang my head against a wall and taunt students. Not really. But on the grand scale, a relatively survivable day.
We also just had assembly where Ben, the humanities guru here, played Silent Night on an instrument that he invented, some sort of thin metal pipe xylophone contraption that bore a strong resemblance to an old, top-of-your-roof style television antenna. It was awesome and haunting: a sort of ethereal bell like sound came out of it that was exceedingly soft, so it had to be amped maximally by a mic which produced some cool eerie feedback as well. A+ performance. This is a yearly tradition, and past years have featured insane string instruments and water-in-glasses type contraptions, all very cool. Ben also preceded his performance with some mockery of student announcements, doing imitations of Ben and Cerissa that were particularly hilarious. This is a very long way of saying props to Ben for making the morning assembly vastly more tolerable. Cool dude.
Otherwise a bevy of inactivity here at the Nut. Still sunny outside my window. I've done some tutoring; have some more to do. Nothing terribly thrilling, but no chasm-of-meaning moments of late either, so as someone who mishears Who lyrics might say, I can't complain.
Cookies were a colossal success. Mad commentary from students and faculty alike. Who knew of my Nyetian* culinary skills...
* - Is this use of the 3rd person legit? Or maybe pathognomonic? I mean, he is not I and I is not him, slim with a brim on my jim what's my mofoin' name? Really just an overbearing attempt at introducing "Nyetian" into the vernacular, like calling ALi's Ben "Gru" or Ali herself "PGOAT." It should be noted that these attempts generally fail. But in terms of usage, I think Nyetian, perhaps especially as an indication of the attempt at departure from former sicknesses and a departure into a more artistic and whole personal selfscape, is at least apt, if a little bit, say, self-referential and obnoxious. But you all know Nyet ain't like that, yeah?
Back to the fact... updates to the main site are coming, I promise. Maybe even tonight, after a promised RUN at the GYM. Dammit. Making myself go has been an existential level pain lately. Grrr. Argh. Indeed.
Speaking of Joss Whedon shows and/or the musicals they inspire, I have had Once More With Feeling roaring threw my head in disease-ish fashion this past week. It's bad, Christmas music muzak in November levels of omnipresence between my ears. In an effort to remedy this, I listened to the RHPS soundtrack this weekend. Good stuff. But it made me contemplate - if hours of RHPS-associated activity in life are in any way some kind of spiritual barometer, I am in loads of trouble. Trouble that will be further compounded when we dance to the Time Warp (again) at ye olde weddinge. Your own hips, etc.
We also just had assembly where Ben, the humanities guru here, played Silent Night on an instrument that he invented, some sort of thin metal pipe xylophone contraption that bore a strong resemblance to an old, top-of-your-roof style television antenna. It was awesome and haunting: a sort of ethereal bell like sound came out of it that was exceedingly soft, so it had to be amped maximally by a mic which produced some cool eerie feedback as well. A+ performance. This is a yearly tradition, and past years have featured insane string instruments and water-in-glasses type contraptions, all very cool. Ben also preceded his performance with some mockery of student announcements, doing imitations of Ben and Cerissa that were particularly hilarious. This is a very long way of saying props to Ben for making the morning assembly vastly more tolerable. Cool dude.
Otherwise a bevy of inactivity here at the Nut. Still sunny outside my window. I've done some tutoring; have some more to do. Nothing terribly thrilling, but no chasm-of-meaning moments of late either, so as someone who mishears Who lyrics might say, I can't complain.
Cookies were a colossal success. Mad commentary from students and faculty alike. Who knew of my Nyetian* culinary skills...
* - Is this use of the 3rd person legit? Or maybe pathognomonic? I mean, he is not I and I is not him, slim with a brim on my jim what's my mofoin' name? Really just an overbearing attempt at introducing "Nyetian" into the vernacular, like calling ALi's Ben "Gru" or Ali herself "PGOAT." It should be noted that these attempts generally fail. But in terms of usage, I think Nyetian, perhaps especially as an indication of the attempt at departure from former sicknesses and a departure into a more artistic and whole personal selfscape, is at least apt, if a little bit, say, self-referential and obnoxious. But you all know Nyet ain't like that, yeah?
Back to the fact... updates to the main site are coming, I promise. Maybe even tonight, after a promised RUN at the GYM. Dammit. Making myself go has been an existential level pain lately. Grrr. Argh. Indeed.
Speaking of Joss Whedon shows and/or the musicals they inspire, I have had Once More With Feeling roaring threw my head in disease-ish fashion this past week. It's bad, Christmas music muzak in November levels of omnipresence between my ears. In an effort to remedy this, I listened to the RHPS soundtrack this weekend. Good stuff. But it made me contemplate - if hours of RHPS-associated activity in life are in any way some kind of spiritual barometer, I am in loads of trouble. Trouble that will be further compounded when we dance to the Time Warp (again) at ye olde weddinge. Your own hips, etc.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Nurani 2006 : show time
Sore menjelang, kami tiba di malino hampir magrib. Suasananya sendiri sudah dihapal, maklum nurani tahun lalu pun disini. Jadi kami sudah lumayan akrab dengan suasana tempat yang akan digunakan untuk menginap. Setelah merapikan barang, dan memilih kamar, saya lalu mencoba untuk beristirahat sedikit. Karena suasana yang memang dingin, karena malino terletak di kawasan puncak pegunungan, membuat kita ingin tidur terus! Tetapi, janganlah. Gila aja, kalau tidur sore, entar malam jadinya melek lagi! Jadi sementara menunggu makan malam yang sementara dipersiapkan oleh para maba, saya pun bercerita dengan teman-teman yang lain. Suasana di aula pun sudah demikian ramai. Inilah ruang utama dimana keseluruhan acara akan dilakukan. Setelah makan malam dilakukan, pembukaan kemudian dilakukan dengan pembacaan sambutan dari ketua panitia, ketua korps dan dari bakar (bapak kahar) yang membuka acara nurani secara resmi.
Malam persembahan. Karena peraturan dari universitas tahun ini yang mengatakan bahwa tahun ini sudah tidak ada lagi ospek untuk menghapus kekerasan di kalangan mahasiswa baru, maka kami dari jajaran pengurus setuju untuk tidak melakukan jurit malam. Karena peraturan ini sangat ketat dan sudah banyak terbukti. Apabila terjadi kekerasan dan tindak tidak menyenangkan kepada maba, maka langsung di skors! Bukannya semangat perjuangan hilang, tapi menurut hemat saya, janganlah bermain dengan api. Kampus dan himpunan bukan satu-satunya dunia. Jangan sampai skorsing menjadi penghambat dalam menyelesaikan studi. Jadi untuk malam pertama ini langsung diisi persembahan dari mahasiswa baru.
Gila, ancur, dan seru bisa dijadikan kata untuk menggambarkan aksi mereka. Persembahan dimulai dari dance lampu senter. Lampu dimatikan, dan berbekal musik ajub-ajub yang keren benget, mereka pun beraksi. Melakukan berbagai formasi dengan memanfaatkan lampu senter yang terrefleksi ke tirai yang mereka telah pasang sebelumnya dilangit-langit (padahal kami semua sempat berpikir, untuk apa tirai itu? Sibukmu!) dan hasilnya, keren! Teriakan demi teriakan menghiasi saat mereka melakukan formasi dan pada saat mereka membentuk kata nurani. Tobz abis!!!
Setelah itu acara berlanjut dengan paduan suara, akustik puisi, dan lagu-lagu yang dinyanyikan oleh para maba. Suasana menjadi riuh kembali pada saat pom-pom boys versi 2006 beraksi. Hahahahaha!!! Binal! Itulah kata yang bisa mendeskripsikan mereka. Gerakan erotis dan lucu-lucu menjadi penyegar suasana. Apalagi ada beberapa maba cowok yang sangat menikmati gerakannya (tunggu aja giliran kamu untuk dijual ke tante girang, hehehehe!!!). seru! Karena saya tidak menyangka mereka pede untuk melakukan gerakan itu. Tetapi inilah malam persembahan. Pede aja lagi. Toh itu untuk kesenangan saja. Biasanya sebagai acara yang paling ditunggu dalam acara persembahan ini ialah, parodi. Dan parodi diharapkan bisa membawa sesuatu yang lebih lucu. Tetapi sayang, feel dari parody 2006 ini rusak! Sound system yang payah, artikulasi dari parody yang tidak jelas (apa omong!) sampai acting yang tidak meyakinkan menjadi kombinasi yang sangat buruk. Apa sebabnya? Saya tidak mengerti jalan parody mereka sampai setengah jalan. Karena memang sangat tidak jelas. Senior pun banyak yang protes, sampai para maba menghentikannya. Mereka akan berusaha memperbaikinya, jadi mungkin akan ditampilkan pada keesokan harinya. Senior kecewa, maba gembira? Entahlah, sebab saya kecewa tidak bisa menyaksikan aksi mereka. Acara dilanjutkan dengan konser yang dilakukan oleh kak Norman dan uchi yang menyanyikan beberapa lagi. Saya bosan dan mengantuk. Waktu sudah menunjukkan pukul setengah satu malam. Waktunya tidur.
Keesokan harinya setelah sarapan, wisata biro dimulai. Setelah melakukan koordinasi dengan taro dan takeshi (a.k.a arkon) mengenai konsep wisata biro kali ini. saya sebagai kepala biro penyiaran sudah mempersiapkan konsep tersendiri dan sudah memilih lokasi di panggung utama. Sebagai koordinasi terakhir, saya pun mengumpulkan para maba yang telah memilih biro penyiaran sebagai biro utama mereka dan membagi tugas diantara mereka. Karena konsep wisata biro tahun ini bisa dikatakan berubah. Kalau dulunya kepala biro yang akan stay di satu tempat dan dikunjungi oleh para maba lalu menjelaskan bironya, maka tahun ini para maba lah yang akan melakukan presentasi. Karena sejak dari mereka masuk, telah diadakan pemilihan biro dan telah ada pertemuan setiap minggunya di antara para biro untuk menyelesaikan dan membahas isu-isu seputar bironya. Karena saya biro penyiaran, yah, kami membuat radio dong!! Dan setelah semuanya selesai, wisata biro pun dimulai. Geng pengacau dari angkatan 2002 sudah mulai braksi. Mereka sebagai tim penilai, tim pencela dan tim senang-senang mengunjungi tiap biro. Hahahahahahaha! Suasana sudah mulai seru. Biro baruga menyiapkan satu majalah dinding, csc berkonsep pemikiran dan pameran buku, periklanan membuat iklan dan promosi, biro public relations membuat satu contoh konferensi pers dengan membuat satu studi kasus, penyiaran mengudara lewat kosmik fm, gradient menyiapkan beberapa desain grafis yang telah dibuat oleh beberapa anggotanya serta artwork yang diambil di internet, kine menyediakan tontonan film-film Indonesia, fotografi ada pameran fotonya, biro green communication club membuat suatu konsep dimana kembali ke alam merupakan tema mereka tahun ini. semua senang, semua tertawa. Karena mahasiswa baru telah melakukan tugasnya dengan baik, dan mereka juga sadar, sebenarnya dimana sih bakat mereka. Inilah akhir dari wisata biro. Gerimis datang dan semuanya kembali berkumpul di aula utama. Wisata biro berakhir sudah.
And From the Depths Comes Crawling...
This kind of re-introduction requires the subtle frost-fog mist of an early December New England day, though such a coincidental atmosphere is n'ere to be found, thanks entirely to global warming and/or its bastard cousin, miscellaneous weather pattern. So in lieu of such appropriate scenery, I'll settle for a 50 degree Natick day, bright and sunny with shadows forming in a cicada rhythm. That's the backdrop to the reappearance, the turtlish head poking, the Punxsutawney filling of the empty horizon, the Nyet Jones resurgence. Nyet Jones RESURGENCE!
That's right, I'm back (shrugging off the urge to write "he's back') after an absurd 3 months sans posting. In an ideal world I'd be in a cafe in Paris sporting the appropriate 3 months of unkempt facial hair. I'm not. I'm clean-shaven and sitting in The Math Office at the Walnut Hill School, staring out the window at the aforementioned unsnowy landscape. Things are winding down here in the last week before break: my Stats class is doing a week-long written/data collection/research project, and my Algebra II class is studying for a chapter 8 exam on Thursday to be followed by general mayhem on Friday, a math utopian holiday I have dubbed "General Awesomeness." It will be nothing short of Shaweet.
Tonight I will finish baking several dozen cookies for my advisees tomorrow. The plunge into the suburban nightmare has continued; the barometer reading continues to rise. There's some vague notion of a countdown towards if nothing else geographically varied situations, but the plans for the future remain as cryptic as this sentence. Hell, the plans for tomorrow remain just as cryptic. In the short run, it's at least 6 more moths of Nutsanity, which has passed the time nicely thus far.
That's it for the initial tease. This and more, coming up. I owe the internet a lot of reviews and tales, and they'll all be rearing their collective head in the next week or so. Get excited.
The Nyet is back.
That's right, I'm back (shrugging off the urge to write "he's back') after an absurd 3 months sans posting. In an ideal world I'd be in a cafe in Paris sporting the appropriate 3 months of unkempt facial hair. I'm not. I'm clean-shaven and sitting in The Math Office at the Walnut Hill School, staring out the window at the aforementioned unsnowy landscape. Things are winding down here in the last week before break: my Stats class is doing a week-long written/data collection/research project, and my Algebra II class is studying for a chapter 8 exam on Thursday to be followed by general mayhem on Friday, a math utopian holiday I have dubbed "General Awesomeness." It will be nothing short of Shaweet.
Tonight I will finish baking several dozen cookies for my advisees tomorrow. The plunge into the suburban nightmare has continued; the barometer reading continues to rise. There's some vague notion of a countdown towards if nothing else geographically varied situations, but the plans for the future remain as cryptic as this sentence. Hell, the plans for tomorrow remain just as cryptic. In the short run, it's at least 6 more moths of Nutsanity, which has passed the time nicely thus far.
That's it for the initial tease. This and more, coming up. I owe the internet a lot of reviews and tales, and they'll all be rearing their collective head in the next week or so. Get excited.
The Nyet is back.
Nurani 2006 : part 1-the beginning
Nuansa unik dan radikal. Itulah singkatan dari nurani. Tidak nyambung? Itulah salah satu keunikan dari singkatan itu. Aneh buat orang awam, tapi nurani merupakan salah satu kegiatan yang sangat ditunggu-tunggu oleh para warga korps mahasiswa ilmu komunikasi unhas. Nurani ini merupakan salah satu dari 3 prosesi pengkaderan yang ada di kosmik selain ospek (yang biasanya tiap tahun berganti tema), figur (Fase Inisiasi Gerakan Unik dan Radikal), dan yang terakhir ini yaitu Nurani itu sendiri. Ketiga proses pengkaderan ini tak lebih sebagai ucapan selamat datang sekaligus merupakan tata cara tersendiri untuk teman-teman mahasiswa baru untuk memasuki rumah kecil kami. KOSMIK. Sebenarnya nurani merupakan prosesi paling terakhir akhir, karena alasan (dari beberapa senior) yang mengatakan bahwa bina akrab ini lebih pada ajang pembelajaran kepada maba-maba terhadap prilaku mereka selama di kampus mulai dari pertama berkuliah sampai sebelum nurani ini dilaksanakan. Otoriter? Bisa jadi, karena itulah sistem dan tradisi yang berjalan dari tahun ke tahun yang ada di Kosmik. Dan kami sebagai pengurus hanya berfungsi sebagai pembimbing kepada panitia yang akan melaksanakan acara ini.
Untuk tahun 2006 ini, bina akrab sendiri dilakukan sebelum figur. Sama seperti tahun lalu. Karena memang waktu yang tidak memungkinkan. Sebaiknya bina akrab dilakukan sebelum semester pertama berakhir. Agar suasana keakraban dapat terjalin secepat mungkin. Dan salah satu keunikan dari nurani yaitu panitianya adalah dari teman-teman dari 2006 sendiri. Jadi, meraka bertugas untuk mencari tempat, dana, transportasi, konsumsi, pokoknya melayani keperluan senior, dan mereka pula yang akan di jurit.
Jurit? Iya, ini merupakan salah satu menu dalam nurani yaitu, malam pertama jurit malam (yang biasanya dimulai jam 12 malam sampai pagi), wisata biro, malam persembahan, dan outbond. Jurit malam biasanya merupakan aksi puncak senior untuk mengucapkan selamat datang, dengan cara mereka sendiri. Dan disinilah biasanya merupakan tempat dimana senior yang mempunyai dendam tersendiri kepada maba, untuk membalas dendam. Jurit malam ini sendiri mempunyai kelebihan, yaitu memberi saling percaya kepada teman sekelompok (entah ini benar atau tidak, tapi yang jelas kita akan saling menjaga teman sekelompok kita), dan lebih kepada pengakraban kepada senior. Yah, walaupun mungkin akan dikerjai sedemikian rupa, terima saja lah! Dan di jurit malam ini pula kemudian ada proses penerimaan dari ketua korps dengan memberikan jas almamater kepada sang mahasiswa baru, sebagai tanda bahwa welcome to the club! Selamat datang ke keluarga besar kami. Wisata biro lebih kepada pengenalan terhadap biro-biro yang ada di kosmik. Mulai dari biro periklanan, public relations, communication study club sampai penyiaran unjuk gigi disini. Karena biro-biro inilah yang nantinya akan menjadi wadah bagi mahasiswa baru untuk menyalurkan bakatnya. Beginilah sistem kepengurusan yang ada di kosmik, tidak ada lagi divisi dana, dan bla, bla, bla, tetapi langsung kepada penguasaan minat dan bakat. Karena kuliahnya kan gak jauh-jauh juga dari sana. Dari tahun ke tahun tugas seorang kepala biro untuk mempresentasikan semua keahlian yang akan berkaitan dengan biro dan program kerja yang akan dilaksanakan. Minat untuk menulis? Silahkan gabung ke Baruga, dimana di akhir kepengurusan akan terbit majalah baruga, minat untuk menjadi fotografer, silahkan bergabung di KIFO (klub kine dan fotografi), dan kalau memang sadar mempunyai suara yang bagus kenapa tidak bergabung ke biro penyiaran saja. Di malam kedua, ada persembahan dari mahasiswa baru. Dan disini lah kemudian biasanya merupakan acara puncak, selepas makan malam, acara sepenuhnya dihandle oleh maba untuk acara. Entah mereka akan bernyanyi, berpuisi, dance, dan berparodi. Kemudian di hari terakhir barulah ada outbond, permainan yang akan dilakukan oleh semua angkatan. Lebih kepada have fun nya saja.
Nurani 2006 kali ini diadakan hari jumat sampai minggu, 8 sampai 10 desember 2006. bertempat di wisata alam Malino. Dan tampaknya persiapan dari teman-teman maba patut diacungi jempol. Karena mereka sudah melaksanakan tugas mereka dengan sangat baik. Hari jumat, kami berangkat pukul 4 sore dengan dilepas oleh ketua jurusan. Suasana mendung dan gerimis mengantarkan kami ke malino. Ada 4 truk yang digunakan. 2 truk untuk maba, dan 2 truk untuk senior. Dan memang, rasanya acara seperti inilah yang bisa kembali membawa kegilaan dan batas antar angkatan bisa dilepaskan. Senior 2001 sampai 2005 bisa bertukar kegembiran di atas truk. Bernyanyi, saling cela, dan berteriak rasanya sering sekali dilakukan. Sepanjang perjalanan menuju malino, tidak ada kemurungan, semuanya semangat untuk berakhir pekan dan bersenang-senang di nurani 2006 ini.
Thursday, December 7, 2006
offline
akan offline
mungkin semingguan lebih
rencana ke malino akhir pekan ini
trus urus ini urus itu
i'll be back soon!!!
How To Save A Life - The Fray
Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it’s just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
And you begin to wonder why you came
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you’ve told him all along
And pray to God he hears you
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you’ve followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he’ll say he’s just not the same
And you’ll begin to wonder why you came
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
nb :
buat a*** -
hopely ur better right now
and i know i can save your life
bagaimanapun hidup terus berlanjut
masih banyak mimpi yang mau kau raih
saya tahu itu
dan tetaplah bersinar
walaupun sudah tidak seperti dulu lagi
karena masih ada
yang membutuhkan sinarmu
wahai mentari...
keep tough!!!
Friday, December 1, 2006
pindah rumah, skrip film, extreme legends 5, nelly furtado
sudah 5 jam saya berada di depan monitor komputer ini (bagaimana tu mata gak mau nambah minusnya!!!) dan masih belum jelas apa yang saya lakukan. friendster, sudah jelas. blogwalking, sudah tentu. cek email, wajib. selama itukah mengerjakan semua hal itu? yang pasti saya masih di depan komputer di studio ini. heran juga seh, kok bisa? bela-belain ke kampus soalnya udah lama banget rasanya gak ngenet sampe bodo (masih trauma nginap distudio, entar ada another part from terjebak episode!!!) dan postingan ini terciptalah!!
setelah blogwalking dan melihat rumah-rumah tetangga, jadi makin mantap niatnya buat pindah rumah. rencananya sih mo pindah rumah ke blogsome.com, emang yah manusia selalu tidak puas. tapi pindah rumah ini niatnya, supaya semua postingan saya bisa ada kategorinya sendiri-sendiri. soalnya rencana mo posting beberapa resensi musik. atau adakah yang bisa memberikan solusinya bagaimana melakukan itu di blogspot? account di blogsomenya udah ada, tapi... yo olooooooooooooooooooooo, ternyata ribet!!! kirain cuma prasangka orang aja, tapi maaf saya stress! gak bisa ngutak-ngatik templet yang ada disini. bingung! ribet! makanya rumah saya yang kedua masih setengah jadi. kalau mau lihat-lihat silahkan berkunjung ke siberuang.blogsome.com, trus skalian usul atau bantuan bagaimana memanage layoutnya??
saya menunda pekerjaan lagi. inilah kebiasaan buruk saya. dan masih belum bisa tereduksi. skrip film yang mestinya udah kelar, bahkan belum terketik satu huruf pun. bodoh!!! rasanya susah sekali menghilangkan sifat yang satu ini.
banyak sekali yang membuatku menunda pekerjaan, selain tugas kampus yang lain, plus urusan sama maba. salah satunya yaitu PS2!!! hmm,, sebenarnya sudah lama melihat benda ini di biblio, tapi belum berani untuk mempermainkannya. baru beberapa minggu terakhir ini saya menjadi kecanduan kembali. hanya satu game sih yang sangat suka saya mainkan yaitu extreme legends vol 5. wakz!!! ancur
dan terakhir saya menyelesaikan postingan ini sambil menyaksikan nelly furtado menyanyikan "maneater"nya. cantik! sexy! dan saya masih menyukai lagu ini. ada banyak keanehan yang terlihat selama mtv europe music awards ini berlangsung. JT sebagai host? waduh tidak skali!! okelah kalau album futuresexlovesounds nya laku keras, but situ kan penyanyi!! mana dia membuka acara itu lewat jagoan "sexyback + my love". but gak cocok!!! dan ternyata memang genre lagu yang beredar di eropa itu beda banget!!! karena selama ini musik sudah kadung berdasarkan "amrik" sana. jadinya penghargaan ini beda!! saya baru tahu bahwa blog 27, anouk, outlandish berasal dari eropa. wah, berarti memang mesti banyak browsing lagu nih!!! selamat akhir pekan semuanya, see u on next week!!!
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