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O RLY?

Last Thursday I picked out my schedule for next semester. Unfortunately, I was one of the last people to be able to register, so I didn’t have many choices. That explains why I’ll be taking physics at 8:30 in the morning. (Still, it’s better than the 7:25 chemistry class I have this semester.) All in all, it looks like I’ll have some longer days next semester but also some short days. My Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays will be long and busy. Thursdays won’t be so bad, and on Tuesdays I won’t have class. That’ll be my catch-up day, I guess. Well, hopefully, I won’t fall behind in the first place.

But anyway, I’ll be taking physics (with lab), biology, some computer programming class that I think will be easy, and a class on differential equations. Diff. E.Q. is my honors course (required for me to stay in the honors program), so I actually got to select it early. I hope I do well in it. I guess it should be easier than Calculus III, but we’ll see, won’t we?

On Saturday was the football game I’ve been looking forward to the most even though was one of the least important games of the season. For the first time, the Florida Gators played the Owls of Florida Atlantic University. FAU is near where I live, so a lot of my friends go there. Kelli and Cristi came up here for the game (we got to hang out together afterward), and Nick and Mark came because they’re part of the FAU band. I was glad I got a better seat than I had at the last game I went to. My sister and I sat 15 rows up from the 3-yard line. (It really was better than last time. Trust me.) As everyone pretty much expected, the game was a blowout, with the Gators beating the Owls 59-20. Andre Caldwell and Heisman Trophy front-runner Tim Tebow broke some records. But unfortunately, Florida’s now out of the race for the conference championship. Oh well. I just hope we beat archrival Florida State this Saturday.

Our friend Alberto Gonzales came to speak yesterday. I didn’t go — I find the guy detestable, and so do a lot of other people, apparently. As I suspected, there were some incidents. Protesters were arrested for getting onstage. Two of them covered their faces with hoods and wore makeshift orange jumpsuits that said “Civil Liberties” on them. According to a local newspaper, as they were being arrested, Gonzales said, “Our young men and women fight overseas to preserve this kind of freedom of speech.” But you know he was thinking about holding them for years without charges and regularly torturing them. That’s what he would do if he hadn’t resigned in disgrace.

I’m done with classes for the week. I’ll be at my grandparents’ house for Thanksgiving, and then I’ll mosey on down home for the rest of the weekend. The Thanksgiving four-day weekend begins… Thursday, on Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, most schools don’t seem to take the day before Thanksgiving off to allow people to go home to their families. But almost all the professors here have canceled their classes for tomorrow. Mine have, so I’m off the hook. I even had a lecture canceled today because so few people were there.

Check out this illusion involving a rubber hand. Apparently it’s possible to trick your brain into thinking that a fake hand is your own.

Here are some breathtaking pictures of the Thousand Islands that straddle the New York-Ontario border. Seriously. I don’t have any breath anymore.

It turns out that your appendix might be useful after all. But don’t worry: if you’ve had it taken out, that’s fine too.