Jesse: He did apologize after all. posted by Stentor Danielson at 13:10 -- link --
19.4.02
Marty gave me a Harmon mute! He's the best roommate ever (not just for the mute thing, mind you)!
Take that, Darryl! posted by Stentor Danielson at 20:29 -- link --
I got to introduce the speaker at today's Peter Gould Lecture (my only duty thus far as GTU co-president). Afterward, I was talking to the speaker (Susan Hanson), who was a professor at Clark. She told me that Sara(h), the girl I met in LA who was also deciding between Clark and Wisconsin, had decided on Clark (where she'll probably be working with Prof. Hanson, since she's interested in urban geography). I don't know if Sara(h) is going to be the type of person I'd hang out with at all (she seemed friendly and such, but since we talked mostly about choosing a grad school I didn't really learn much about her), but it's still nice to think that there will be an incoming student next year who won't be a total stranger. posted by Stentor Danielson at 18:45 -- link --
The teaser this week for the Crew story in The Maroon-News was "the harder they pull, the faster they come." This marks a major milestone -- it's the first crew advertising slogan that I've seen that doesn't involve a pun on "cox." posted by Stentor Danielson at 18:38 -- link --
It occurred to me today how contagiously Dutch ( = Pennsylvania Dutch = German) my town is. There have been a fair number of characters in my Spanish readings this semester with the last name "Suarez" -- a nice Spanish name. For a long time I had known that name because it was the name of one family (who didn't look or act any more Spanish than anyone else in town) whose daughters were in the band and whose parents were obsessively involved with the Band Parents association. The pronunciation I was familiar with for their last name, the way everyone always referred to them, was "Schworez," with the nice big "schw" on the beginning that made it sound just like a Dutch name. posted by Stentor Danielson at 17:19 -- link --
I can just see it now -- Khatami opens his mail, and sees the letter. "Oh crap, we have to pay these Americans a few million dollars! Well, let me get my checkbook..." posted by Stentor Danielson at 16:09 -- link --
And all along I thought people were joking about attacking Canada. posted by Stentor Danielson at 14:57 -- link --
I have this distressing need to be thorough. I'm noticing it now with the load of reading I have to do, more reading than I can probably manage. So it makes sense to skip any chapters or sections that aren't relevant to my thesis. Cut out the extraneous stuff. But when I do that, I feel like I'm betraying my education in some way. As if I need to read every word for the book to count, even if it turns out not to be useful at all. Even if I know it won't be useful. I'm not sure where this comes from. I guess I just have a tendency to need to finish what I start. And I refuse to let not liking something stand in the way of finishing it, as if there's some moral superiority in having read every useless piece of information. posted by Stentor Danielson at 01:11 -- link --
16.4.02
I saw a rabbit on my way home from work today. I hadn't seen one in far too long. The last rabbits I'd seen were in Wollongong, and in some way those didn't quite count. They were all descended from domestic rabbits, so they were a variety of colors -- black and white and spotted, and far too large. But this was a real wild cottontail, with its head tall and flat from side to side and little ears and a sort of bipolar nervousness around people. I stopped on the Persson steps to watch it, frozen against the little patch of woods that runs behind Little. And I wondered, "ok, now what do I do?" I would have been conent to just stand and watch it, except that part of my brain kept reminding me that I had to get home and read Claude Levi-Strauss, which made it harder to rationalize when I wasn't doing something.
So I went for the old standby of trying to sneak up on it. Except that I wasn't thinking of it as sneaking up on it, the way I always used to when we had rabbits in our yard in Tionesta. I was just trying to get close to it. Not to catch it, since I wouldn't know what to do with it if I did.
Eventually it ran away, which may have been better for it as it wouldn't be stressed and nervous about being in the presence of a cunicuvorous person. Then I walked away, and I felt really peaceful. Even though I hadn't necessarily done the right thing, I still felt like there had been something special there. I saw a rabbit. posted by Stentor Danielson at 01:38 -- link --
14.4.02
Chavez Freed, Returns To Power In Venezuela Venezuela seems to be having trouble deciding who its president should be. They've had three different people in the office in as many days (four, if you count Chavez's rule up until Friday as separate from his rule from today onward). They must have been taking advice from Argentina. But I think a volatile presidency would be a good way for some of these underdeveloped nations to earn money. Sell a day as president to all those rich American and European tourists who have always wanted to be dictators of a small third-world country. You could buy a tape of your inaguration for $10, and they let you keep the Bible you swear your oath of office on.
Marty's response: "Al Gore is so there." posted by Stentor Danielson at 13:11 -- link --
Got Soy? Not In A School Lunch "While many school systems would like to offer soy milk as a choice, the U.S. Department of Agriculture won't reimburse them for it except in cases of medical need. Cow's milk is required by law as part of the federally assisted meal plan, which some school systems depend on for more than half of their cafeteria funds."
20.4.02
Jesse: He