dreams oil joints
Thursday, February 16, 2006
motivation for school work has hit an all-time low. i can't remember caring less about grades and stupid little things like turning assignments in on time, or, for that matter, doing the assignments at all. i didn't feel this lazy even as a second semester high school senior. what am i working for here? i'm working to: a) pass East asian civ and b) pass gym. that's all i need to do. that's all i care to do.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
snow!!!!!
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
the thing i love most about the snow is how quiet it is outside when a lot of it is falling. everything is muffled, life slows down, you can just relax and enjoy nature, see how nature can completely subdue and re-naturalize even the biggest cities on Earth.
last night, after celebrating eric's birthday at saigon grill, eunji, judith and i went to see this play/rock show in the east village. really good show, the music was great (for the most part) and the guy was hilarious onstage. www.knockoutdrops.com/bellevue.htm. i hear they're about to get picked up by a big theater. anyway, afterwards we trudged over to the west side, with snow blowing in our face for most of the time. but it was so quiet and peaceful when the wind let up. we ended up at this small bar called kettle of fish, apparently one of the places that bob dylan started out at. we hung out there for a while; i drank this awesome belgian trappist beer. so good. then subway back up, then some grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich making at 2 am, and then sleep! until winter league this morning. it's great to be able to act like a 6-year old in the snow once in a while.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
in my 2 hour pre-track practice nap, i had a dream. it was a weird dream. i was taking the subway to practice with the team, except somehow the practice location was a classical greek amphitheater built around a large sandy area. this sandy area is where we going to practice. needless to say, this classical greek amphitheater was located in the Columbia campus. and i was taking the subway to it. from Columbia. anyway. for some reason, i had a large bath towel with me as my only piece of luggage. no cleats, no water bottle. just a towel. my subway trip from Columbia to Columbia required that i change subway once. and during that one changeover, i forgot my towel in the train! i got off the first train, and right as that train starts to pull away, my dream self thinks to itself, "you fucking moron, you forgot your fucking towel on that train!"
that's pretty much it. now for some running. hopefully i don't ruin my knee.
(if anyone knows of an amphitheater located between low and pupin, let me know. i think that's where it was.)
you are about to read my seven cents on the current crisis concerning the Danish cartoons lampooning radical, terrorist Islam.
the two countries where the riots are happening are Iran and Syria. not at all coincidentally, I believe, these are the two countries in the Middle East whose governments are most at odds with the Western world. one important distinction between them is that Syria has an ostensibly secular government, which i'm sure wouldn't refrain from having others use religion to elicit certain reactions from Syrians, while Iran is unabashedly religious, and so can elicit those desired reactions openly. could it be that those governments pounced on such a small, insignificant issue to divert attention, both domestically and internationally, from the trouble that they are currently in, Iran with the nuclear issue and Syria with the Lebanon issue?
frankly, even if they have intentionally been whipped up by their governments, i can't empathize with the rioters. yes, the cartoons do in a sense blaspheme the central human figure in Islam. yes, religion might be the only thing keeping some of these people sane (or, it seems, insane) on this Earth. yes, religion defines for certain people the very core of their being. yet the myriad cartoons and other pieces of satyre directed against christianity do not drive me to go burn down a couple of embassies, nor do they suscitate in me a desire to do so. even if religion were all i had in this world, if i depended on it to make sense of this world, to define my role in it, to give me hope for a better life now or later, i'd like to think that someone insulting that religion would not incite me to burn shit or call for bloodshed and beheadings.
i do sympathize with the frustrations of the Arab-Muslim peoples about the way they are regarded by first-world countries. they have essentially been relegated to the status of annoying gnats buzzing around our source of oil, both by us and by the authoritarian governments that rule them. i'm fairly sure that in the back of a significant portion of westerners' minds is the question, "why can't they all be quiet for once, or just go away?" if not for oil and iraq, we wouldn't give more of a shit about this controversy than we do about darfur.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
three things i forgot in my last post:
- it's amazing how much a cup of coffee and having done the readings can improve my enjoyment of lit classes. it's like, i'm awake *and* i know what the hell is going on! wow. too bad i didn't discover this before my last semester here.
- a mouse decided to audit my translation and society class (there are maybe 5 people in this class. murine input would be much valued). there was a lectern on the floor in the front corner of the classroom, and halfway through class i start seeing something peek out the small space between the lectern and the wall. the thing peeks out and disappears back into the lectern a couple times. at first i thought it was just a piece of fabric fluttering in and out with an air current from a heating vent. then the mouse became more adventurous and stepped all the way out, which completely freaked out two of the girls in the class, even though they were at least 10 feet away from the mouse. the teacher then tried to catch the mouse by placing a trash can horizontally on the floor and running the mouse into it. this did not work. instead, the mouse decided to forego the trashcan and run diagonally across the room to the safety and comfort of the radiator in the back of the room. again, intense yelps from the girls in the class, especially when the mouse got tangled momentarily in someone's bookbag.
two questions:
why are there mice in hamilton? there's no food in hamilton, apart from discarded lit hum and cc midterms, and the occasional spec. my late hamster (may he rest in peace) told me these make excellent rodent bedding, but not food.
and
why are people (girls) afraid of mice? they're 3 inches long! the only way they can hurt you is if they jump into your neck and gnaw on your carotid! that's never going to happen, because they are the ones who are deathly afraid of us!
- the babies that play around campus make me smile. yesterday as i was walking to the subway to get to tutoring, this baby, maybe 2, 3 years old, was playing soccer with his dad on college walk. after kicking the ball to his dad, he runs up to his dad, kicks the ball even further, and then proceeds to sprint in the opposite direction while shouting, "bye bye daddy!" so cute.
another baby story: a week or two ago, i saw a 5 year old standing on the sundial yelling to his probably-professor dad, "daddy daddy i'm going to give a talk!"
i think that's about it for now.
not going to bioinformatics for a week because of interviews means i have no idea what's going on, and, therefore, that i am bored. i might drop this class as well, because i really don't feel like doing shit this semester. hence my writing now.
winter gala was saturday night, fueled by some large swigs of hypnotic, a couple wine glasses and a lemon drop. i was actually able to dance without feeling too ridiculous, thanks to some much-needed impromptu instructions. too bad fucking security shut down the bar at 1. they said there was nothing left, but, in plain site on the floor were several unopened cases of shitty, shitty wine. then they stopped the music and turned the lights on at 1:30, to make sure people would be out of low by 2. after some balloon gathering and pushing through a raging melee to get to the coat rack, judith, eunji rick and i went to casbah where we smoked some hookah and had some damn good algerian wine, at a reduced price because the waiter was french. heheheh. good times.
winter league was cold, and awesome. paul jawlik was there, nice to see him. gabi took a ruggles '05 picture which is apparently the cutest picture ever. we ended up playing savage for the last game and still won. booyah.
superbowl at ben's was lots of fun. we had plenty of beer and even more food; i definitely consumed too much of both substances. it was good to see everyone together. yesterday in east asian civ the professor framed the superbowl in daoist terms, as follows. in the weeks leading up to the superbowl, there is so much hype and discussion about it, and the game rarely lives up to its hype. this leads people to be disappointed with the game. a daoist would ask, who's fault is that? the players are only human, one can't fault them for playing just well enough to win. daoist criticism of sports commentary notwithstanding, i thought the game was fairly exciting. a couple big plays, some intense drives, nothing entirely spectacular but certainly more entertaining than the conference championships.
so yeah, an awesome weekend from start to finish. and i'm making money again. yay. thank god for postbacs and parents with crazy high expectations.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
i'm at penn right now. i thought i was deadset on cornell, or at least new york city, but they've done a good job here convincing me of the quality of the program, as well as of the quality of life afforded by the stipend in philly. so yeah, we'll see what happens. looks like i'll have to spend more of their money to find out where i really want to go.
in any case, this IS the last of my interviews. not accepting any more, even if i'm not expecting any more. after that it's just happy cruising through my last semester at columbia. doing what i want to do, when i want to do it, because that won't happen for a loooong time after this july.
speaking of july, that's almost no time off between college and 7 more years of school. ouch. i want to do something out of the ordinary in that month and a half. like bike the grand canyon. or something. anyone in?
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
i haven't bought the books for the one class i need to pass in order to graduate (well, i also need to pass gym, but that shouldn't be too hard, since it's not at 9). i've lost all will to do work. every ... last ...... drop.
