I think this might be the end. I'm trying out another service, one with a touch more class. Perhaps you will take a look?
My new blog. But then, perhaps not. Who can really say?

2005-05-29 // 2:23 p.m. //
Photobucket?

So, I've moved into this century and I got myself a photobuket. Hurray. Here it is... But these are some of my favorites from Cubbie Walk. And this one is of Zach and I at the game yesterday.
Anyway, go look at my new toy.

2005-05-29 // 11:24 a.m. //
Bank Error in my favor! Collect .92 MPs.

So, I was just looking at my ACBL magazine for June, and it happens that they made a bank error in my favor. In each month's magazine, there is a section with your membership information, and this time, it shows that I have points!
See, when I went to that tournament at Lake Geneva in late April, we missed out on getting .92 red Masterpoints by a tiny percentage (.11, I think) in a late correction to the scores. But my MP statement credits them to me anyway! I'm really excited about that- I have masterpoints! 2.28 of them, to be exact! This is extremely exciting for me. Woo hoo!
I have two days of school left. This is a somewhat frightening thought. To think that I only need to walk through Northside's doors four more times... and one of those for my own graduation. It's funny how quickly and how slowly it approached. Rather like Christmas... you wait and you wait until it is almost here, but then right before, you want to put it off so you can enjoy it more later. Doesn't work with Christmas, doesn't work with school.
Zach and his family are in town this weekend, until Wednesday. And Zach is going to U of C and his dad is an alum, and they are giving me such hell for not going to U of C. The worst part is that they are hitting all of the numerous weak places in the armor of rationalization that I have very carefully engineered from this decision, which I now regret.
And I still have some work to do- namely a paper for Mr. McRaith about the meaning of life. What garbage! But, I will jump through the hoop like I always do. It would suck to fail English on the last possible day. I just don’t have the time to do it, unless I wanted to use this time right now to start it, and I don’t. So there. There are so many things I want to do, and none of them are homework for a school I leave in a matter of days. I would much rather have Ian’s awesome job of getting paid to learn about stuff I really want to know. Or be Andrew, getting to go to Italy, or Polina who gets to live in Germany for a month, or even have Dan’s vendor job. But I don’t- which is my own fault, I know. But with the uncertainty in relationships, where people can just call everything off because they don’t care, I don’t chose to focus on my own culpability. My summer was supposed to be awesome, and if it now sucks, it will not be entirely my fault. If you ruin my summer, may you rot in hell.
God damn it all. I still cared.

2005-05-25 // 11:13 a.m. //
Museum of the Future

This is a nice article about a place I would like to visit someday: the Science Fiction Museum. It sounds pretty neat- artifacts both from real science and from science fiction. First editions, props, sources, NASA materials... I know I would be highly entertained were I to visit this Museum of the Future.
Also, there is hope for some science in the US! I'm glad that "many lawmakers voted their consciences instead of their party affiliations." I hope Bush doesn't veto it, despite his threats, but I suppose the best possible scenario is that it gets passed, gets vetoed, and then gets overridden. A pipe dream, I know. But it would be so great!
My senior project is proceeding... Two of the three tasks I have to complete today are already done. I'm just irritated by the third, so I am putting it off for a little while to catch up on the news and goof off a little before heading back to work and then to school.
School is almost over. I'll get there. I just hope there is something to do when it is over. Because if not, that would suck.

2005-05-23 // 11:09 a.m. //
Lists, of sorts.

Oh, so much work. However, there are good points here.
1) My second english paper isn't due until Tuesday.
2) I got an 8 hour extension on my senior project.
3) My mind is less tormented than it was a few days ago. Which is not to say that it might not suck for a while, but not as bad as before. That's all.
On that note, Andrew was accidentally wise last night when he instructed me to "Love someone else." Damn straight.
I have a few more things to say.
First, wormholes. Yes, wormholes. BBC thinks them unfeasible. How shocking. But Sean wrote about them too, though I can't find the entry I was thinking about right now. But he has pointed out some good truths. Namely that "Effective pedagogy, you don't need me to remind you, is hot." Which is a really fantastic sentence, mostly. But I'll be damned if I don't have a crush on him, however academic it may be.

2005-05-22 // 12:59 a.m. //
Why?

Why is it that I (and every human) love things that hurt them? For examle, why do I keep reading George R.R. Martin's books? They have shown me nothing but pain and suffering, yet I have already come 2200 pages with these characters. I love the books. They are absurdly engrossing.
I mean, why?
And another thing. I can understand wanting the Baratheon or Stark shirts, but really, who would want to walk around being known as a Lannister? There is only one who isn't a really big asshole, and no one wants to be him. Really, there are only two characters I wouldn't mind being. Daenerys and Meera. Meera only because I want like crazy to be able to fight with a three-pronged spear and a net. Daenerys should be obvious.
There are other things too. But I feel that I lack the energy to give them their due right now.

2005-05-21 // 4:27 p.m. //
Siren song

This guy says that the Sirens of myth were really monk seals. Kind of neat.

2005-05-21 // 4:07 p.m. //
Soon, very soon.

Well, it is unfortunately back to "real life" now. The last week was something of a fantasy, spending nearly every day with my friends. But now that week is over and I have a lot of very serious work to do. Everything is coming due this week... My senior project presentation is Thursday, which means that I have at least 10 more pages of paper to write for that, as well as a presentation to make and think about. Then I also have two English papers to write, and a CRJ to work on. But then, I get to graduate and have summer! And while summer probably won't be like this fantasy week, it could be pretty good. Hopefully I'll be able to play a lot of bridge, titchu, board games, and other good things. And, best of all, no work.
Soon, very soon.

2005-05-20 // 10:34 a.m. //
Damn me.

Damn me, and damn the emotions I can't get rid of. People are so mean to themselves, torturing themselves as badly as any external sadist could. Optimism can build up a picture of serenity and happiness out of components that don't exist and never will. Or things that once existed, but never will again. Or transfering the aspects of one person, or idea or thing or situation onto another. So, here I am, torturing myself with veritable sugerplum fairies, dancing absurdly through consciousness and refusing to go back where they belong. The strange feeling that accompanies this predicament can only be compounded by the utter lack of sleep and, well, other things. Hah. No, dear reader, this entry is probably not for you. But it feels better somehow to have it in writing that I hate me. In summation, I would rather be a vulcan or something, and not have to deal with it at all.
In other news, some reserchers just found a new species of monkey in Tanzania. Super cool, guys. More monkeys for everyone.
Also, John Donne rocks my socks. Who else could call the Sun a "Sawcy pedantique wretch"?

2005-05-18 // 11:34 a.m. //
Is George Bush a Sith?

Of course, this is the pressing question. With the relase of The Revenge of the Sith tomorrow, the one thing we can all look at is politics. The Chicago Tribune has this article, where George Lucas was asked, seriously, if our president was a Sith. I'm very pleased with the idea, since it underscores what I've been feeling since Bush got elected the first time, and who can deny that they like being agreed with while at the cinema?
Other good Star Wars Stories:
London has copied our plans to watch all six films in one sitting. Of course, London gets George Lucas. I somehow doubt we'll have the same treat.
People are going to ditch work (duh!) and pirate the film (duh again) but they have some numbers to go with.
The official Star Wars website
Yes, I am seeing it tomorrow. I have tickets to the earliest show I could get, 10:45 am.

2005-05-17 // 11:04 a.m. //
Go Illinois. No, not the Illini.

I love Illinois. Who can say our government isn't the best, when our governor comes up with brilliant material like this one.
"... And this is the kind of thing that I think, frankly, separates the men from the boys in leadership. Do you have the testicular virility to make a decision like that, knowing what's coming your way and then stick to it, which is what I did, and knowing all of this that we're dealing with now is what we have to deal with? I say I do."

2005-05-16 // 11:02 a.m. //
Today is... Monday.

Ah, another crackpot website which makes me laugh. I think this kind of thing is brilliant. Truly, it appeals so strongly to a certain group of very committed people who will certainly pay a lot of money to be told what they want to be told. I couldn't bring myself to do it, though, because I can't stomach that kind of crap. But if I could, it would be a lot of fun to go and make merciless fun of those pyramidiots.
Also, the story I reported about Koran desecration... they say they made it up. Either Newsweek is really dumb, or the Feds got in on it, or both, but seriously, how can one expect that the claim "Whoops, sorry guys. We made all that awful stuff up. Peace?" will fly? They now have 15 lives on their hands because of the story, whether it was true or false.
"In its new account, the magazine says that one of its reporters spoke to "his original source, the senior government official, who said that he clearly recalled reading investigative reports about mishandling the Koran, including a toilet incident".
"But the official, still speaking anonymously, could no longer be sure that these concerns had surfaced" in a forthcoming report by the US military, the magazine added."
We're pretty dumb.
And finally, in the area of my personal life... Today would have been John and my 3 year anniversary. Too bad it's just another ordinary Monday so far. I did see him- we met for coffee- and it wasn't catastrophic. That, at least, is a good thing. Maybe it will even work out that we could be friends.
We'll see about that.

2005-05-13 // 4:33 p.m. //
Frenchmen

Well, as has become my habit of late, I would like to point out another
quite excellent report from BBC.
And now, for something completely different. My english class. They are the most depressing bunch of sots.... It seems that my class, nearly to a man, finds King Lear to be about the meaningless cruelty and greed of humanity, but much worse, find that Cordelia exemplifies this theme.
I called my class Mordor, and I stand by that accusation.

2005-05-11 // 4:36 p.m. //
This is the world on drugs

...and a prime example of everyone being reasonable. I guess I was ahead of the curve on this one- what had been buried way down after many pages is now a front page story. When people who are our allies are burning down our buildings because of something stupid we did, then we know our coalition is in dire straits.
In other news, I took my last AP test ever today. Art History, as a test, was much more pleasant than almost any of the others I have taken. I feel pretty good about it, and think a 5 is reasonable. I got to write about Egyptian art and talk about all kinds of things I learned at Acadec. Certainly a better way to end AP tests than Physics!
Also, the Cubs just won, on a Lee walk-off homerun. Hurray!

2005-05-10 // 8:11 p.m. //
He's aliiiiiive!

Another cool thing, courtesy of BBC. Three teams of scientists took CT scans of King Tut's skull and reconstructed his face.

2005-05-10 // 6:11 p.m. //
Weblog?

I decided to try a little something new. So here it is, though it is subject to change if I decide I don't like it.

2005-05-10 // 4:50 p.m. //
Oh, those cute communists.

I love communists. I also love the BBC for writing about them. They have this story about Maoists in Nepal. My favorite lines reproduced here...
" "Both have accused each other of promoting "groupism" and experts say both have their own line of supporters.
"If this difference in the party leadership persists, it will certainly hamper the war they are waging," said Shyam Shrestha, editor the pro-left magazine Mulyankan.
"Since the Maoist leadership has shown that it cannot cope even with its internal differences, questions can be raised as to how they would work with other parliamentary forces." "
I mean, politics creates enough division, but then you have to go accusing people of groupism ? How can we ever get along like that, people?
In other news, the AP Physics test did not take my first born child, even though multiple choice wanted to. It was still bad, just not as bad as it could have been.
And moreover, I don't have to do any more work for physics class! Hurray!
Now, if only I could magic my senior project finished, then life would really be grand!

thebes // cairo