I see London, I see France

Saturday was pretty quiet. Andy slept until 4 in the afternoon, so instead of going out, we made pancakes. Actually, he made one big pancake that we cut up and ate. Not much later there was lamb for dinner. We don't really eat lamb in the States, but I don't know why not. It tastes like beef.

On Sunday, Andy slept late again. He can sleep forever as long as nothing wakes him up. I convinced him that we should go out, but I wasn't really sure what we could do. We ended up wandering around London for a few hours in the afternoon. We came across a war memorial in Trinity Square, which is near Tower Hill, which is near the Tower of London. Europeans take the World Wars very seriously.

The next day, as you might have guessed, was Monday. I woke Andy up at 5:30 PM. He made soup. Later, he decided to hang out with one of the guys we had met at the London Esperanto Club, but I didn't feel like going. I was dead set on going to a pub and having fish and chips. So we decided to meet outside a pub near the house later that night. Even though I called Andy, he didn't show. His cousin (whose house we were staying at) found both of us as he was driving around; Andy was going home instead of meeting me at the pub. The pub was closed by then, but I was just glad to get a lift home.

Tuesday was supposed to be our last day in England, but we had found that we could get a better price on the train to Paris if we bought our tickets a day in advance rather than on the same day. We asked our hosts if we could stay another night, and it wasn't a problem. Andy was still sleepy, and there were some things I wanted to do in London before we left, so I went out by myself.

Can you guess what country I'm in?

First, I went to Westminster Abbey.

Beside kings, queens, and at least one saint (who was also a king), a lot of notable Britons are buried there, so I thought it would be interesting to see. Photography isn't allowed inside, so I didn't take any photos (unlike some people). Instead, you'll just have to take my word for everything. Cool? Cool.

Okay, so I knew that there were lots of dead people in Westminster Abbey, but I had no idea how crammed full of tombs it was until I got inside. When you walk in, there are memorials on the left and right sides. They go all the way back to the front door, so that the ticket booth is in front of several sculptures. I was wondering where the actual graves were until I looked down and saw that I was standing on some. They're marked on the floor all over the place, and many of them are of peple you haven't heard of from way back during the time when the Abbey wasn't so crowded. Space seems to be at a premium now.

It was interesting to see the graves of bygone monarchs like Elizabeth I, but I was especially interested in Poets' Corner, the famous section where the literary types are interred. That's where you'll find Robert Browning; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; some other people; and Lawrence Olivier. But the greatest of the great, it seems, are buried in the Nave of the abbey. The famous sculpture of Isaac Newton flanked by cherubs marks the spot where he's buried there. Of special significance is the tomb of the unknown soldier of World War I. As I was wandering around this holiest of holies, I remembered reading that Charles Darwin had been buried here and wondered where he was. Then I looked down and didn't need to wonder anymore.

Next, I went to the National Gallery, an art gallery in Trafalgar Square.

Admission is free, so I figured it would be fun to check out. I didn't know that one of my favorite paintings, the Arnolfini Portrait, was there, as well as several others I had heard of. They also (if I recall) had works by Raphael, El Greco, van Gogh, Monet, and Renoir. I spent most of my time looking at Renaissance-era paintings that were religous in nature. I wish I could have seen everything there, but the museum was going to close soon, and I was getting tired.

I was also getting hungry, so I returned to the cafe on Whitehall where Andy and I had gotten sandwiches a few days before. I had the fish and chips this time. Even though it wasn't the cafe's specialty, I had to say that I had fish and chips in England. I came up about a pound short on the bill and had to ask for money from some other American tourists in the restaurant. Frig, why didn't I just use plastic? Of course I think of that now.

Finally, I set out for Greenwich to see the Royal Observatory, the place that the Prime Meridian is defined to run through. I'm not sure how many other people would want to go to the Prime Meridian; it seems like a boring Jordon thing. It's kind of out of the way from central London, so it took me a while to get there by train, but it was worth it.

As the sun was setting, I made it to Greenwich, which is a quaint little place on the south bank of the Thames, across from the Isle of Dogs. I made my way to Greenwich Park, where the observatory can be found atop a hill.

The observatory was closed, but I was able to peer through the gates to see the "Prime Meridian of the World" sign. Apparently, I had already crossed into the Eastern Hemisphere without realizing it. Fortunately, a short section of the meridian was marked outside the gates, so I paused for the inevitable photo op.

Thus ended my romps in London. Yesterday, Andy and I were getting ready to leave, but we didn't have much time because we weren't supposed to make noise while Andy's cousin was giving a yoga lesson. In fact, she invited us to join her, and we obliged (well, I obliged). Never having done yoga before, I was of course not very flexible, but apparently I'm a natural squatter. Toward the end, I was advised to stop and just breathe while closing my eyes and sitting yoga-style. You know, "Om..." Apparently I impressed everyone with my ability to sit still. Thanks?

After that, Andy and I took a train to Paris and left our gracious hosts and the rest of London behind.

The first thing I really noticed about England (besides the weather) was how the people lived. On the train from the airport, I saw endless rows of little English houses all squeezed together on winding streets. People seem to live that way everywhere around London. The house in Mill Hill was like that too. Andy's relatives told me it was 135 years old. Mill Hill was kind of suburban but still quaint. The high street (main street) had lots of shops, and people apparently lived above them, even if the place was a Subway.

Speaking of which, the cultural differences were really apparent at times. I would see signs that said "Subway," but I knew they couldn't be referring to the underground train system because that's called the Underground. It turns out that a British subway is a pedestrian tunnel under a road. Who knew?

During my stay, I got some lessons on British words and phrases. I learned (or learnt) a bit about soccer (or football). I tried English tea (which tasted the same as any other tea) and found out that Heinz salad cream (salad dressing) is delicious on baked potatoes. And I had my fish and chips. London was a good experience, and I'm glad we could stay in a place that felt like home.

The Channel Tunnel, or Chunnel, is a feat of modern engineering, but it isn't very interesting to go through. Andy slept through it and didn't believe me when I told him we were already in France. I told him to look at the roads we passed by and verify that cars were driving on the right.

We arrived in Paris in the late afternoon and had a heck of a time trying to get to the hostel we had booked. It can be hard to get around in a new city when you don't speak the language. All I really know how to say in French are "Hello", "I don't speak French", "Do you speak English?", and "Thank you". But we did find the place, so we are now enjoying (i.e., having) our first hostel experience.

There's a room on the ground floor with a bar, a kitchen, and some tables. It's also a good place to use the Wi-Fi (which we have to pay for, so I'm writing this post offline). Andy was checking his e-mail here last night when he got a message from one of his Esperanto contacts. It was an invitation to an Esperanto gathering at a cafe downtown. Of course, we went.

There were at least a dozen Esperantists there; most of them were Parisians, but I did see several Japanese visitors as well. Everyone was friendly, and I didn't have too hard of a time understanding them. Some people left, but those of us who remained went to an Italian restaurant and chatted it up. They spoke to the waiter for Andy and me. Suddenly, this strange new city wasn't so scary after all. We had friends.

Andy and I returned to the hostel and slept. I'm a light sleeper, so I didn't appreciate that one of the people in our room woke up at 5:15 in the morning and spent at least half an hour making lots of noise, including answering a call on her cell phone. She also left the light on even when she seemed to have left the room. After that, I slept better.

We got up this morning for free breakfast and then had to be out for the day. To encourage guests to go outside and become responsible young persons, the hostel closes from 11 AM to 3 PM. They also make sure that the place is dirty and disgusting so you never want to be there. I am glad we won't be here much longer.

Anyway, we went out and met an Esperanto friend that Andy had made online. He was a nice guy, and he brought his friend who didn't speak Esperanto but did speak English. We went to a small skate park and Andy tried his hand at skateboarding; I, valuing my high number of non-broken bones, knew better than to try. But a pleasant time was had by all.

After that, Andy and I went Sacre-Coeur, a beautiful church that sits high on a hill overlooking Paris.

Next, we went to Place de la Concord and walked down the Champs-Elysses to the Arc de Triomphe. It was hard to get a good picture because the sun was behind it. That didn't stop me from making a weird face at the camera, though.

And that was today. Tomorrow, we'll be leaving the hostel and staying with an Esperantist as we see more sights around Paris. Stay tuned...

Through the glass eye

Hello, web site. I'm sorry I haven't been around lately. I've been spending a lot of time with that other site, the one that I get paid to work on. Ah yes, working from home is great except when you can't find time for it. I should be able to, but I have too much other stuff to explore. The computer is my playground, the Internet my sandbox. (The command line? Definitely the monkey bars.)

Next Tuesday (i.e., not this coming Tuesday but the one after it), I'll be going to Europe. Have I been preparing? I have. There's still some stuff to be done, but I've gotten things out of the way. I'm borrowing a large backpack, and my friend Andy and I already bought a netbook for traveling with. I don't expect to fall in love with it during the course of the trip,* and I don't think he will either, so our plan is to sell it when we get back.

I've also been accumulating some generally useful things that I'll want to keep when it's over. The main one I can think of right now is a memory card for my digital camera. When I got the camera in 2004, it came with a 16 MB card, which was virtually useless. I bought a 128 MB card along with it, and that has served me well for almost five years, allowing me to take roughly 64 to 72 photos at a time.

Since Europe is full of fantastic sights, I thought an upgrade would be deserved. I picked up a new 1 GB memory card on the cheap at a failing camera store. It should be good for at least 500 photos at a time. To put that in perspective, that's more pictures than I've taken since the beginning of last year. And because there's a good chance I'll take more than 500 pictures, I'll be relying on my trusty 8 GB flash drive that I recently picked up on the cheap from a failing electronics store. My new netbook has less than 2 GB of free space.

So what if I take more than 8 GB worth of photos? As ridiculous as the question seems, it has crossed my mind. Whenever I try to think about the logistics of storing 8 GB worth of photos, I suddenly remember how incredibly ridiculous it is, which saves me from having to think about it any longer. The flash drive is actually 8 hard-drive-vendor's gigabytes, i.e., about 7.5 actual gigabytes. All of the digital photos I've ever taken—4,150 between December 25, 2002, and May 3, 2009—add up to 6.2 GB. I think I'm good.

That said, in case I do take more than 7.5 GB worth of photos, I would probably upload them to my web space, where they would cost at least 10 cents an hour to store, and wait for my family to download them, which would cost me at least $2.50. Not too bad, I guess.

Okay, that's enough math. Now, the links.

Google has oodles of servers, but like many large companies, has never talked much about them... until now. They're pretty amazing little things that have battery backups in case the power goes out. (Via The Presurfer)

The Free Music Archive is my kind of thing: it aims to be an "interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads." The music is released under Creative Commons licenses and other licenses that allow sharing.

From another blog, it's a continually updated collection of negative Amazon reviews of classic books, movies, and albums: You Can't Please Everyone. (Via J-Walk Blog)

*subject to change

The end is near

It wants to be summer. It wants to be summer so bad. It's actually been hot the past few days, and I'm thinking of old summer memories. If there's one thing I am, it's nostalgic.

The last day classes was Wednesday, and it could not have come sooner. I had my last exam for digital logic on Tuesday. I didn't do as well as I hoped to, but with the inevitable curve, which the professor says should be "substantial," I'll have a B. My other exams are all on Wednesday and Thursday, and I leave next Saturday.

One aspect of on-campus life that I've never taken advantage of is the swimming pools. There are several here, at least two of which are located near dorms, and at least one of which is located near my dorm. It's across the street, in fact. I've just never gone because of the weather (most of the time I'm here, there's a risk of having to wear a sweater) and I guess because I usually wouldn't have someone to go with. But some of my friends from the dorm want to go soon, and I happened to be thinking the same thing.

24-hour quiet hours went into effect at midnight Thursday. In my experience, the continual quiet forces an anticlimactic ending to a year of life in the dorms. People take will take exams over the course of the next week (they start tomorrow and run through next Friday, excepting Sunday) and, being unable to laugh and shout and have a good time, quietly disappear. Inevitably, I am one of the last to leave. I just happen to pick classes that have late exams, and I live so far away that my parents can't swing up and get me whenever they want.

I'll actually be one of the last to leave this time, but for once, a lot of other people are checking out on Saturday morning. So maybe this last week won't be too quiet.

One of my pet peeves is hearing compression artifacts in digital audio. It's distracting and unnecessary now that we have high-bandwidth connections and better audio formats that make MP3 obsolete. It turns out that not everyone cares about fidelity as much as I do. In fact, a Stanford music professor has found that in six years' worth of listening tests, his students have shown an increased preference for low-bitrate MP3s over their higher-quality counterparts. One explanation is that people like what they're used to, and many young people are used to stuffing their iPods with every MP3 they can find and taking them on the go. This also explains why some people think vinyl sounds better. It actually doesn't, of course; they're just used to hearing music that way.

Some guy called Doug Nufer wrote a book called Never Again. Each word in the book is used only once. Talk about a constrained writing experiment; it's actually almost 200 pages. And it looks like the second word is "the." Tough. (Via J-Walk Blog)

This is probably something I would do. The BBC reports: "A Finnish computer programmer who lost one of his fingers in a motorcycle accident has made himself a prosthetic replacement with a USB drive attached." The article has a picture. (And the prosthetic is detachable, which is good because he'd probably want more than 2 GB eventually.)

Important things

My university is able to attract prominent guests all the time. Last year there were quite a few that I can remember: John Kerry, the MythBusters, Alberto Gonzales, Jack Kevorkian, Bob Saget, and Bill Nye. This year saw the likes of Ralph Nader, Joe Biden, John Roberts, Howard Dean, Zach Braff, and others. This year's crop didn't seem to be as interesting or varied as last year's, with one exception. I am speaking of Demetri Martin.

My roommate last year told me about Demetri Martin, and we watched some of his stand-up material. The dude is hilarious. His act consists largely of absurd one-liners, often with the accompaniment of music or drawings. And Wikipedia has just informed me that he is 35, which is weird because I would have guessed he was 25. The bowl haircut takes off years! (He's also been a correspondent on The Daily Show, and he has a new show called Important Things with Demetri Martin.)

When I found out that he was coming to campus on Tuesday night, I knew I had to go. And when I found out that my new friend whose name you haven't missed because I haven't mentioned it yet was going, I knew I had to go with her. So we met beforehand for dinner at the student union. She chose Taco Bell. Good choice. (What's the record for Wikipedia links in a World of Stuff blog post? I think it's going to be broken.)

Then we made our way to the basketball arena, where Mr. Martin was due to perform. Opening for him was a 2002 grad who was also associated with The Daily Show; he did a more conventional (but still very funny) stand-up act. Then, it was Demetri Martin's turn. He started by making some Martinesque observations about the decor. There was the obligatory drawing segment as well as the piano segment. He also made random remarks toward the camera operators, the sign language interpreter, and audience members. The Independent Florida Alligator captured some great nuggets for your reading pleasure.

He did a long show, and it kept going even when I thought it was about to end. Toward the actual end, as he was providing a light guitar accompaniment for his jokes, he delved into some of his classics. People called out for their favorites, and he obliged. Meanwhile, someone unwittingly added to the humor by knocking down the curtains and fake plants that flanked the stage. I was in stitches for the whole two hours; I can't remember ever laughing that much. My new friend seemed to have a good time too.

After the show, I accompanied her to her car, which was parked near my dorm. We were going to meet again tonight, but she had to go home for the weekend, so hopefully I'll see her again soon.

And now, the links.

The text of Wikipedia is made available under the GNU Free Documentation License because that was the only major free license in existence when Wikipedia was launched in 2001. Since then, Creative Commons licenses have become favorites in the free culture movement, leaving incompatibly-licensed Wikipedia out of the loop. Now, the greater Wikipedia community is voting on the possibility of dual-licensing Wikipedia and its sister projects under the GFDL and the CC Attribution-ShareAlike license, which is identical in principle but more practical for a wiki to use. If you had at least 25 edits on an account for any Wikimedia project prior to March 15, you can vote! Find out more at the CC blog. (Also, vote yes!)

The so-called EURion constellation is a pattern of circles that has appeared on banknotes around the world in recent years, apparently to help computer programs determine whether an image is of a banknote or not.

Finally, Thomas the Tank Engine Rap Remixes. Some of them are pretty good. (Via The Presurfer)

Getting to know you

On my night out with my friend Evan last weekend, we talked about a lot of things. One topic was dating.

Wait, don't go yet! Listen.

I know I haven't had much luck with dating. Yes, I've complained about it a lot, more times than I'd care to link to here. And I realize that there's nothing wrong with me per se, that I just don't know quite how to go about it. I'm learning. I'm OK.

Picture the scene, if you will: we're in Evan's SUV, cruising down rural US 301 on a Saturday night at 1:00 in the morning. We're full from eating appetizers at a restaurant in Jacksonville, and we're listening to tunes on the radio. Evan tells me that I should take female friends on casual dates. It's something I've heard before, and I tell him I don't see the point. He says that if nothing else, it would be fun, just like what we've done tonight has been fun.

Fun. It was like an epic slap in the face. It was like a light shining into my head.

We were having fun, weren't we? Of course we were. Hanging out with your friends is fun. Hanging out with friends of your preferred sex(es)/gender(s) might or might not lead to romance, but it's always fun because they're your friends. I guess I like to try things, right? (Right.) Why don't I try spending time with people I don't usually spend time alone with? I'd get to know them better, have a good time, and maybe get to know myself a little better too. Evan encouraged me to give it a shot.

The next day, I was sitting at my desk. Annoyed by the loud music coming from somewhere, I went out behind the building. There's a small creek with a wooden bridge going over it. I stopped at the bridge for a few minutes to watch the water trickle along and to reflect on things. On the other side of the bridge is a parking garage. I crossed over to the parking garage and climbed the stairs until I was on the top story, which I had never been to before. I walked around a bit. It was in the open air, so I could see all the landmarks on campus. I walked around the perimeter until I reached a corner. It was windy, so I sat along the wall. I dialed.

I walked back to the stairs, down each flight, and back across the bridge. I returned to my room. All the while, I could practically feel Joseph Campbell lurking over my shoulder. I had followed my bliss.

She wasn't feeling so great and didn't end up feeling any better, so we didn't see each other, but the point was that I did it and I could do it again. In fact, I did it the next day. She already had plans for the weekend, but the point remains valid. Who doesn't like spending time with friends, anyway? That's why they're friends.

Incidentally, at least one of the aforementioned girls will probably read this. I hope that, having done so, they'd understand where I'm coming from here. I'm not trying to be a jerk or a player or anything I'm not. I'm trying to have fun and get to know people better. I want to hang out with them because I like them. It's a compliment.

And speaking of girls and all this sort of stuff, I've just met someone who is interesting and nice and cool and who actually probably feels the way I do, which is pretty awesome. But I'll save that for another post.

I love the Internet because it makes all kinds of crazy data mining possible. Virgil Griffith and a friend scoured Facebook to find the favorite books and music of 1,352 college and university networks. They also found the average standardized test scores of incoming students to those schools. The result: graphs of test scores vs. favorite books and musical acts. To put it more bluntly, it's Musicthatmakesyoudumb and Booksthatmakeyoudumb. (Incidentally, my local community college was ranked 1,344 by test scores. My university fared much better, coming in at number 126.)

In English, we say "It's Greek to me" if we don't understand something. Speakers of many other languages refer to nonsense as Chinese, and there are other interesting trends as well. I can vouch that Esperanto speakers call nonsense Volapük, but I wonder why no one says "It's English to me." I bet English sounds really funky to someone who doesn't speak it. (Via waxy.org)

Here's a time-lapse video taken from the window of an airplane at night. Pretty surreal, indeed. (Via The Presurfer)

A minor problem

Last semester, I found out that I had to take 15 credit-hours' worth of "interdisciplinary electives," with two options: "all courses must be at the 3000 level or above in the same area (advisor approval required)" or "all credits must be applied toward an official ... minor." Well, I know what that means. I'm taking up a minor. In my studies, I mean. You know.

I have thought about it a little bit, and I've decided to minor in business. It seems pretty interesting and not too incredibly difficult. (I think business is stereotypically considered an easy major and a backup for pre-law students who are failing their pre-law classes.) With a business minor, I'll be taking such classes as microeconomics, accounting, marketing, and other stuff. Five classes, five semesters remaining: it just works out well.

Actually, the minor offers a choice between microeconomics and macroeconomics, but I've already decided which class I want to take. For micro, the lectures are taped and posted online, so you don't actually have to go to class. I overheard my roommate watching many a micro lecture last year, and I have to say... they were funny. The professor makes his lectures entertaining, mainly by engaging in a neverending mock feud with the unseen videographer, whom he simply calls the Director.

But one thing that's even better than dumb Director jokes is the schedule I picked out for myself for the fall semester. I usually don't look forward to picking out future class schedules because it's often too hard to find out what your best possible schedule might be. But recently, I found out about a site called Coursetopia that makes picking the perfect schedule pretty easy. You just tell it what classes you want to take, and it presents you with every possible schedule. You can also fine-tune the results, of course. And it's all done with AJAX-y magic that can remind you how slow your browser is at handling JavaScript.

Coursetopia saved me a lot of time that I otherwise would have spent making lots of spreadsheets. It currently only has class schedules for UF, FSU, and Rutgers, so if you go to one of those schools, check it out. The service is free, and you don't have to register unless you want to save your results for later.

Anyway, my cool schedule. I'll have no classes on Tuesdays or Thursdays. On other days, my first class starts at 9:35 and my last one ends at 2:45 (3:50 on Mondays). Not bad. I don't know what I'm going to do with my two free periods in a row, though, since I'll be living off campus. I could probably go back to my apartment between classes, but I don't know if it would be worth the bus trips. I'll have to ask my apartment-dwelling friends how they've tackled this question. Hey, apartment-dwelling friends, how have you tackled this question?

In the meantime, I'll have to get the signatures of the deans of the College of Engineering and the College of Business Administration to get this minor approved. Hopefully it won't be as much of a hassle as changing my major seemed to be.

For those who thought that we already know everything about our past, this will come as a big surprise: the discovery of mysterious stones in Turkey in 1994 has changed the way we think about human history. (Via The Presurfer)

Apparently, it's common for rock drummers these days to keep a consistent beat by drumming along to a click track. Some guy analyzed the time between beats in various songs to see which drummers used a click track. (Via waxy.org)

And finally, a photo gallery of crappy balloon animals. (Via The Presurfer)

How to beat the Blues

Friday, 6:45 A.M. Place: my dorm room. My alarm is set for 8:00 A.M., the latest I can wake up without being late to class. Despite 8:00 being a long way off, I'm vaguely aware that it's morning. I'm trying to get back to sleep because I'm going to leave for spring break in the afternoon. But the world has other plans.

A flash.

No. It can't...

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Ugh. Get out of bed. Remember the keys this time. Put on my sandals... but they're already packed. I put on my tennis shoes without socks because I don't have time to put on socks. Follow everyone down the stairs and outside. Ah dang, it's cold. And now we wait.

I asked the RA, who was trying to keep warm by draping herself in a blanket, if it was a drill. I was pretty sure they wouldn't have a fire drill before most people were awake, and she said she hadn't heard about it, so it was probably a legitimate incident.

I was lucky last semester when a 7 A.M. fire alarm woke up almost everyone—I had just left for my dreaded first-period physics lab, and I wouldn't have even known about it if everyone hadn't complained about it for a week. That was the only time I was ever grateful to have a first-period physics lab. But this time, I wasn't so lucky.

After about a half an hour, we were allowed back into the building, and I went back to bed and tried to sleep until my alarm went off. The day continued as usual, except I may have ducked out of my later, more boring classes early? That's for you, the reader, to conclude. I got home in the evening.

So finally, I was home in South Florida with warm weather and my friends nearby. Yesterday my friend Nick invited me to a hockey game. Kind of an unusual thing, I guess, considering I've never been to one. (Unbelievably astute readers will remember that I won tickets to a hockey game in my freshman year of high school but gave them away.) But our friend Carly had two extra tickets, so we were invited. I had consciously chosen not to pack my sweaters, thinking I wouldn't need them. And now I'd be going to a hockey game. Luckily, I had an old sweater at home.

Also, we had box seats. Pretty sweet, I know, but it wasn't the first time. I am pretty sure we had box seats when I went to see the Dalai Lama at this same venue. Yeah, very strange, but apparently he was doing a tour. But yeah, box seats are great because they have free food in them, viz. Caesar salad, chicken wings, various pizzas, cookies, brownies, soda, and beer (for those over the age of 21 in our puritanical society).

To be sure, the game was exciting too. The Florida Panthers took on the St. Louis Blues. I didn't know any of the players, but the Panthers had this guy named Booth who was supposed to be good. Whenever he had the puck, the fans would yell his name, which is an unfortunate name to have if you're a sports star whose fans shout your name. There were a lot of theatrics in the form of music, fog machines, and whatnot. The Panthers won 5-3.

Also, did you know that hockey teams have cheerleaders? The Panthers do, anyway. During the third period, a couple of them visited our booth to pose for pictures and sell Panthers cheerleader calendars. If I had had more than a dollar on me, I would have helped give financial support to those young women. But Nick and I had the satisfaction of having our picture taken with them.

Today we went to the beach. It was fun.

A Virgin Airlines passenger writes a letter to Richard Branson about the quality (and nature) of the food on his flight. Is it the world's best passenger complaint letter? I don't know, but I'm going to be flying with Virgin in June. I hope I don't get hungry. (Via All About Me - And Then Some)

Woo

I'm going home for spring break tomorrow! So exciting! (Requisite Dinosaur Comics link goes here.) But seriously. I haven't been home in two months, and it feels like such a long time. I can't wait to see my parents (it's my mom's birthday tomorrow), sleep in my bed, chase the dog, and hang out with my friends. People have been asking me if I have any plans, and I've had to say that I didn't, but now I do. On Sunday, I'm having lunch with some friends I haven't seen in a long time.

Did I mention sleeping? Sleeping is the bomb. Sleeping rules the schools. It's not that I've been particularly sleep-deprived lately, but catching up is always nice. But doing things is also nice. I was trying to think of what I did last year, and that's where having a blog comes in handy. Let's turn back time: first I visited my grandparents, then went home and visited my old high school, went to the beach and a pool hall, and then visited my aunt on the way back to school. Pretty eventful. Will Spring Break '09 compare? Only time will tell!

Okay, real-life friends o' mine: who's going to be in South Florida this week? We should hang together, or most assuredly we shall hang separately. And that's no fun.

In case of extreme boringness, I'll be bringing a book and some magazines. I also did my first sudoku puzzle ever today, so I might get addicted to that. ("omg jordan u never did sudoku? what r u some FREAK??" Don't get too worked up about it, dudes.) It's funny, actually. The gorilla guerilla marketers for some college student website had placed their litter advertisements on the desks in one of my classes, and the ad basically consisted of a sudoku (something about keeping your brain sharp or something). I thought it was a lot more interesting than the class, and I finished it eventually.

Incidentally, you'd be surprised at how many instances of guerilla marketing you can find on a college campus. Or maybe you wouldn't! Also, this might not have been guerilla marketing.

Man, being the President must be awesome. Barack Obama now has access to the presidential record collection. (Via J-Walk Blog)

From The Big Picture: spectacular aerial photos of London at night.

"Imagine, if you will, sitting down to your morning coffee, turning on your home computer to read the day's newspaper." Here's a 1981 news report about an exciting (if slow and expensive) new service that several newspapers around the country were offering. (Via waxy.org)

Some things take so long

Let's not shy away from the fact that it's Saturday night and I am, as many would say, "juss chillen." I've been getting lost in George Harrison's "Isn't It a Pity" for at least the last three hours. It's mesmerizing.

I'm feeling a little restless. I want to create something monumental. Maybe not worthy of a museum, but monumental for me and the people I know. I want it to be beautiful and moving. I want it to be the truth. But it would have to be oblique.

There are things I desperately want to say to someone, but I can't. Commitments conflict. During the week, I'm digging myself out from under an avalanche of assignments. I'm not as in control of things as you may think. I have to take these classes. I know they suck. I know that more than you do. And during the weekend, everyone is out in public, somewhere, or in private.

I want, but I don't want things. I want feelings and experiences. I want people. I want one person. Maybe a specific person, maybe not. Honestly, I don't know. Now that I know how to find that person, I can't. I used to fall in love all the time. I don't know what happened. Growing up, I guess. And everything that came with it. Oh yeah. I guess it is irony.

I'd feel better if I did something, but it's too cold to do anything outside. I just realized that it's cold during most of my time at school. I hate cold weather. Hate it, hate it. South Florida may be overpopulated and expensive to live in, but it is comfortable.

So I'm glad it's almost March. Then things will start warming up, I guess. Maybe I'll go to a baseball game. The stadium's right there, I think. I hear it all the time these days. I could get some people together and we could do a thing.

But tonight, I think I'll go out into the common room and see if anyone's playing cards. That would be fun for a while.

Isn't it a pity, isn't it a shame.

Airline food?

Today, Jordon weighs in on...

• Hot dogs: Hot dogs are like the universe. They're filled with all sorts of stuff, but it's more or less evenly distributed throughout. Also, they may contain intelligent life.
• The Middle East: Can anyone recommend a good book on the history of the Israeli conflict? I feel like it's a soap opera that I wouldn't understand unless I had started watching it years ago.
• Natasha: I want to meet my Canadian friend more than I want to go to Europe this summer. For obvious reasons, she'd prefer to visit me in my natural subtropical habitat. I hope she can this year. We could do some fun stuff.
• Vaccines: I was raised with the belief that vaccines cause more harm than good and that they can induce autism. As I broaden my horizons I notice that this is considered nonsense by almost everyone, including the scientific establishment, which has the scientific method to back it up. There must be a reason that children no longer get diseases like the measles, rubella, or polio in large numbers, and smallpox didn't just decide to stop infecting people. Also, while diagnoses of autism may be increasing, diagnoses are not equal to cases. More people are diagnosed with allergies these days also, but that's because we no longer shrug off the symptoms by just saying that little Johnny is a sickly child.
• Regime change: Last week, Archie, my RA, quit and moved out. So we were RA-less for a week, during which time I took the liberty to hang up a flyer for my Esperanto club in the common room, there being no one to stop me. Yesterday, I bumped into the new RA. Her name is Jordan, which might get confusing. She didn't know which rooms she was responsible for, so I had to tell her. Should be interesting.

There's one born every minute. Here's the story of a Canadian who lost $150,000 in a Nigerian scam. (Via J-Walk Blog)

Some people with lots of time on their hands calculated the acceleration due to gravity in the Super Mario Bros. games. (Via waxy.org)

Here's a map of the United States that shows the motto of each state. Some of them are pretty weird. Most are in English or Latin, but there's one each in Spanish, French, Greek, Italian, Hawaiian, and Chinook. (They're all listed below the map.) (Via J-Walk Blog)