:: Closing Time ::

:: Monday, September 30, 2002 ::

Blatantly stolen from Leah's away message:

"Why, did you know that if a beaver 2 feet long with a tail a foot and a half long can build a dam 12 feet high and 6 feet wide in 2 days, all you would need to build Boulder dam is a beaver 68 feet long with a 51 foot tail?"
"Where would you find a beaver that big?" grumbled the humbug as his pencil point snapped.
"I'm sure I don't know" the Dodecahedron replied, "but if you did, you'd certainly know what to do with it."
:: Peter 11:38 PM [+] ::
...

Ok. So that whole last post shoulda been about sonar, or I guess the pinging doesn't really make any sense since sonar pings and radar sweeps.
:: Peter 11:37 PM [+] ::
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Guy radar fucking rules.

No, really, it does. It's single handedly (if you use it right) the most useful and entertaining thing out there. If you know how to read it.

Reference Alex's blog if you need some kind of clarification as to what it is, or if you just want to know what brought this up. After I complained about there being no worthwhile blogs, he did a nice job in posting an amusing and accurate piece of commentary. I liked it.

But about guy radar. First off, let's clarify something - I am writing this from my laptop from the wireless access in the library. I am not in the library because I have work I want to get done, but rather because I want to be in a fraternity and we have study hours which I have to attend. I actually do get the work I need to get done here done - but I don't have 2 hours of work that I'm going to do now. So I'm blogging, in part because Natalie is not answering her AIM.

Look at that closer though - I'm with all guys. Guy radar absolutely goes bipolar in groups of guys. To some extent, we stop paying attention at all - nobody givers a shit who didn't shower after going to the gym, or who's hair is messed up, or whether the beer belly burp you're about to let off is distasteful. You just fucking do it. On another level though, it's like a fucking Borg hive mind. I'm sitting with seven guys around a table, and if a good looking blonde walks by it's like a damn shared sense in that everybody is thinking GENERALLY the same thing, but more importantly we can communicate the details of our discrepancies in pings and gaps.... in utter silence. It's like male morse code.

Guy radar fucking rules.

So Alex said WPI is amplifying his guy radar because primarily of the scarcity in single, worthwhile girls. Similarly, my guy radar has gone virtually silent - a problem which can be costly. Because guy radar really DOES pick up a whole lot, especially when girls are playing the game.

I'm going to say this now, because this may be one of the only chances I get to openly state this and be clear about the fact that I'm not making a joke, I'm not making a bad stereotype, and I'm not trying to be an ass.

Ladies - we KNOW most of you aren't playing head games. We know most of you are being honest, trying to be real, nice people. We know most of you aren't only interested in what you can't have, and most of you aren't going to use us. We know most of you truly honestly do not mean to affront anyone, and damn near none of you actually think you are on a higher level than any other person. THAT SAID, it's very fucking hard to tell who's who. When we've known you for a while it becomes obvious and clear - but I can personally think of one person about whom my opinion has changed regarding the game in the past six months, because I've gotten to know her a good bit better. I thought she was playing it - now I'm not sure, but I think I was wrong. Getting trapped is the biggest mistake you can make though, and it feels like we get trapped so often that eventually you just get semi paranoid. Thus the stereotypes, thus the guy radar.

Ok. Back to me though, since this is my blog. My campus is not too pretty - I live in a city. I have very little grass, virtually no nice trees. I don't have any hills to sit on, or any flowers to smell of note. What I do have though is some very, very nice scenery. Because I have a fucking -hot- class. Just on my floor alone, I would say that more than half of the girls I live around are extremely attractive. I get the feeling this is the case for a lot of the guys too, but not quite so much. As I've said before - I can't tell, I'm straight. I'm tempted to ask Greg and Ryan though (gay guys who live down the hall), because I'm sure they'd let me know. So whatever - the point is, EVERY girl basically is on the radar. The damn radar would be flooded if I just listened to it like regularly, so it quiets down. When an outrageously gorgeous female becomes a fucking regular occurance, the ping isn't quite so noticable. Point in case: I found out two nights ago that Robin, this ridiculously cute girl from two floors up who showed up at our room with a couple of our friends to hang out, is in my italian class. I hadn't noticed. This absolutely wouldn't have occurred back home, or in any normal situation. She would have definately had my attention, and I woulda been like Hey! when she showed up at my room. Yet I had no idea who she was - she had to recognize me. In Thurston though, emotions and hormones run wild among tightly thrust in overly attractive teenagers, and shit happens. Consequently, what used to show up on the radar is no big deal anymore.

I don't like not having my radar. I used it, and I think I used it pretty well once I got good at it.

The difference I noticed though is that when I went up to Columbia for Debate, I met a whole random new group of people - and the radar was back, because there were fewer girls there. It was mostly guys, and suddenly I felt everything again. Ping, ping, ping. The radar comes back in weird situations too - I was at a party with my fraternity on friday and as I kept getting introduced to the people my brothers were bringing the pings were there again. They were there all night, and they served me well.

In regular Thurston life though, the radar falls silent.

It's weird.

So guys - how's YOUR radar reacting to college?
:: Peter 9:21 PM [+] ::
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Tonight I am saddened. Because tonight I proclaim that there are no more worthwhile blog left.

It used to be I checked four, five, six blogs a day, and at least three were updated with something interesting. Now there are only two, maybe three I check at all. And one hasn't been updated in almost two weeks. The other, so rarely in comparison that it's lost its touch.

I feel mine falls into this catagory as well. It's just hard to say how I feel anymore since none of you see any of it. There are so many things to think that I can't even begin to express them.

I should have made more phone calls today. To friends, to brothers, to Kate.

Why doesn't anyone party on Sunday night... those of us without work need something to distract us from sad bloggage.
:: Peter 12:44 AM [+] ::
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Alex is right

I absolutely do not remember high school. And it's only been like five months.

Well, six, or even seven since we were actually schooling - but five months since we got out.

It's fucking hard to believe.

I went out with my fraternity tonight - it was a really good time, and I met a few really cool people, but I read Alex's blog and he's right - I really can't fucking remember high school. "Half-remembered mutual hallucination." I like it and I hate it. I like the wording, I hate the reality.

Because the sad reality is...

... I already don't remember a lot of you.

Don't get me wrong - there are those of you I absolutely cannot forget. Don't worry about that. Just off the top of my head there's Sasha, Natalie, Alex, Matt, Schram, Jack - people who I remember like it was yesterday. People I'll see over break and it'll almost be like I never left.

But some of you are starting to blur.

I met two Kates tonight - and realized I don't really remember the Kates from home. My pledge brother Ben is much sharper in my mind than the Bens I know back home. I no longer wake up at night and think that I'm in my bed in my room.

Could it be that home isn't home anymore?

People around me are slowly discovering this - and somewhat painfully for some. While my roomate has been strong, and he and his girlfriend have since getting to college decided to be exclusive (they were being open at first, but then both decided that they didn't want it that way, which sounds good for the relationship), Olivia down the hall had her boyfriend visit - and break up with her two days later. She was on the phone with him, in tears, in the hall, for two days. The good news is she got into her first choice sorority theday after that, so she's been having fun I'm sure. But reality sucks sometimes.

My frat brothers are starting to feel like my family. Not that I don't miss my actual family - but with that almost sort-of replacement, this place can feel more like home. I now have a bunch of guys I can call ffor just about anything. I called Greg to talk about the econ work, I ran into Ben and we went to lunch. It's a no questions asked family - it's trust, it's brotherhood. I love it.

But in finding something I feel so accepted as part of... it make the other things like it feel a little less special. Especially when I don't have them here to remind me - my family, my best friends. It's weird.

Home is becoming a blur. And as much as I love being able to get pizza at 3:00 AM..... I'm not sure I like forgetting.

It's getting hard to remember.

--------------------------------------

P.S.

I had to get this in here. But in short terms, because I don't have to explain to any of you just how important this is. And I won't even try, because I know if I tried to explain it I'd fall short.

Natalie is coming to visit me tomorrow.

I'm fucking excited.
:: Peter 2:47 AM [+] ::
...

*blink*

*blink*

It seems that two days ago, Justin Timberlake did an interview for New York radio station Hot 97. A rather influential station. He's got a new single coming out, his solo debut. They offered to spin it for him a minimum of 30 times a week, no matter how much it sucked. If he would answer one, and only one question.

In exchange for radio airplay...

Justin Timberlake

Admitted on the air

To eating

out

Britney Spears.



.....

I don't even know whether to be shocked or amused at the state of pop culture.

.....

(On a similar note)

http://www.perlguy.org.uk/amusing/radiocallgonewrong.mp3

This is a radio prank similar to the Jam Scam you folks at home are familiar with - the husband in question is on the line waiting to tell her it's all a joke. Just keep that in mind.

.....

wow.
:: Peter 3:46 AM [+] ::
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This is the Silence Blog. The name is prompted by an explaination for my current blogging silence, but I believe may lead to an extremely interesting piece of writing.

First, an explaination: why I haven't blogged with any substance in five days, and with any even close to real substance in almost a week. As many of you know, I never thought I would join a fraternity. The stereotype was so very much not me that I didn't even consider it - and yet, as I got to school, I got bombarded with rush invitations. And as I saw the frat guys give a palm card to -every- guy they saw, I suddenly realized that maybe the stereotype was wrong - maybe frats were interested in more than one type of person, and maybe they might be something I was interested in. So I went out, and although most of the frats I found were NOT new, revolutionary, or surprising to me, Beta Theta Pi was. To make the rest of the long story short, I rushed, and I got a bid, and I pledged.

Now the surface statement of the blog: fraternities have their stereotype because of the extremely secretive nature of what goes on behind their doors. I haven't blogged about anything interesting because outside of rush/pledge life, I haven't done much interesting in the last week - it's taken up my time. I am not allowed to tell anyone about my pledge process. This silence, this secrecy, is very very much against the openly honest stance I've taken over the last five months of blogging and conversation. I've been so comfortable with myself because I know I'm being honest with the people I care about, and now (barring one of my friends from home becoming a Beta as well) I've got this aspect of my life that I cannot discuss with any of you. Not my absolute closest friends, not my family. Only my new, additional family - my new brothers. I've got a part of my life I can't discuss with Sasha, can't discuss with Natalie, can't discuss with my mother, can't discuss with my sister. Can't joke around about with Matt, can't over analyze with Alex. Can't blog about with the world - all you "friends" who I'm ever so glad to have, because you're more people who know what and who I am -

ok I got interrupted. fuck. I had to hide my blog from somebody reading over my shoulder.

and now I lost my train of thought. fuck.
I

:: Peter 11:43 PM [+] ::
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Ever have one of those weekends with big ups and deep lows?

I got a bid from Beta Theta Pi, the fraternity I really wanted to get into - I'm a pledge now, I have a meeting in 25 minutes. It's generally going well, and it feels like it's going to work out fine.

Other than that though...

I can't even blog about this.
:: Peter 7:06 PM [+] ::
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ok so that day didn't go so well.
:: Peter 3:48 AM [+] ::
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Chris, if you ever stop working you won't have to kill yourself - I'll beat you to it.

If you burn out... then you burn out. But your tenacity for swimming is what makes you the competitor you are - even entertaining thoughts of letting that go is going to cost you a level of success.

No more questions. 35,000 yards is not enough.
:: Peter 1:23 AM [+] ::
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I really shouldn't write a Dana blog yet. I really. Really. Shouldn't.

I should break this before it gets any worse. It's bad. Very fucking bad.

If for no other reason I hope I get a bid - just to distract me from this.

Yeah - for those of you who don't know, I'm rushing. For those of you who also don't know, a -lot- of things about me have changed in the past few days. For those of you I haven't gotten to talk to but who should know (you know who you are) I'm not keeping anything from you - you'll know, I just need time to talk to you and I haven't had much time at all. Especially not private time, cause some of this needs to be phone conversation, and some of that can't be shared.

Damnit. Dana.

Damnit.

Damnit.

Damnit.
:: Peter 2:30 AM [+] ::
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So this will be really short because of the fact that I have class in about half an hour, but it's about dreams

My dreams have been getting weirder and weirder, and more and more lucid since I got here. I've talked to one of my roomates and he says the same thing - and he says he never remember his dreams. I'm just gonna try and throw out images from last night's dream - irregardless of what they may or may not mean.

Ok the two faces I remember clearly are of all people, Jenny Reicheld and Lindsay Shamberger. Odd? Yes, in that I was never too close for either, but then again the shit that I said in my dream wasn't very surprising. Extremely complimentary of both, primarily because they're both just wonderful people but I went into more detail. Lindsay came into the picture because at some point I was with Jenny and somebody said something even semi-negative about her, and I think I was drunk so I went into an explaination about just how wonderful she was, and how you couldn't say anything bad about her, and then Lindsay came through a door to my right and I just basically did a handoff and then started extolling her virtues as well. Kinda odd - but that was interrupted when a guy fell into the pool, very drunk, and I shit you not he basically turned into an american flag. It was clearly red white and blue at the bottom of the water. I dove in, as did two other people - one I can identify as Andrew (the guy who lives down the hall from me who was in my 2nd grade class but also happens to swim for LS), the other I didn't see. I'm not sure why I knew it was Andrew since I don't think I really saw him, but I knew. Either way, I'm underwater getting ready to pull the out when he just dissapears. I did one more sweep and then came up, almost drowning in the process because I'd stayed under too long.

So setting - we were originally at a party, clearly at a driveway because I remember hugging Jenny and looking over her shoulder at the garage door - of all things, it looked like Katess' driveway. I think that was just kinda an association I'm making now, because I'm thinking what it looked like and making a comparison you can understand - but then it morphed when the pool showed up, and it was a normal pool room - white tile and all. There was no shallow end, it was almost like it was a diving well and I dove in after the kid.

I don't remember a whole lot more of that one, and I've only got 20 minutes to be at class, so I gotta go.
:: Peter 10:36 AM [+] ::
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btw. the blog that got deleted included an explaination of why the forum isn't working. I, it seems now with Alex's help (god bless), will manage to get it working. I just need time.
:: Peter 2:15 PM [+] ::
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Hey Bets - I don't know if you read this, or still read this, but I figure somebody can point you here if they need to. I just wanted to say a few things

1) I've personally said literally half the shit you've said over a couple of blogs you wrote while I was away this weekend. And I completely and utterly understand.

BUT

2) I don't know you that well - but I do know a couple of things about you. The first is that you're a runner - I don't fucking understand how that works, since I'm so very not a runner it's not even funny, but don't you dare let a week, a month, or however long of downer time even make you think about dropping that team. Just because the only other people you knew with your competitive spirit and drive on the team graduated, that leaves you in charge. And you're in a slump - you can break out of it though, and you will. Because you're a runner. Quick story - Drew, in a position of leadership but pretty unarguably still behind DeSantis, was in a slump just about all swim season. He hated it. Certain people seemed generally dissapointed in him. But he gritted his teeth and he beat it, and that's just what you're going to do. I just hope it doesn't take all season for you.

Second, and I think more importantly, is that you have Chris' respect and admiration - and I KNOW how hard that is to get (you do too damnit) because I know just how hard he has to work to even respect himself. So I think I've got a pretty accurate benchmark from which to say competitively you're better than you're letting yourself believe, and generally (socially?) you're leaps and bounds ahead of certain people who may be left in the dust - whether it feels like you're the one lagging behind, or not. Think of it this way - I don't know if you guys run distance on a track, but if you're half a lap ahead of the pack in a mile or two it's hard for an observer to know whether you're lagging badly behind or leading the crowd. You've got to look carefully, and you've got to listen to people who can look from a third party - specifically Chris, and maybe I guess even a little bit people like me. People like me because even though and -especially- because I don't know you very well, and I still have a positive opinion and a general respect for you. Which means at least to my eyes there's no negativity, no stigma, none of the things you seem to be worried about. Most of the time people's flaws are the first thing to surface, and yet on only the surface all I see are your strengths. And you know what's underneath, and so do your friends, the people you trust - whether or not they're still in wellesley - and you know damn well that you're a good person, a worthy person, a competitor. You know the good that lies beneath, and I'm telling you the good I see above - so do not, do not, DO NOT let yourself crumble. you're better than that.

P.S. I never even made it to states - in anything, not even in music. music - my passion, my goal - I COULD have made it to states, damnit. I know that, but I made a couple of decisions I regret at this point and have to just deal with. But you've been and you're going back - winning states is NOT overrated. If anything else, do it for those of us who never made it there at all. Go out there and beat the odds, beat the competition, and take it home. Because if you do that then no matter how you finally place, we know that anybody who does manage to beat you had to fucking earn it. Cause somehow, I don't think once you get back into the right mindset you're gonna roll over for anybody - I think you're just going to roll right over them.
:: Peter 4:53 AM [+] ::
...

Fucking A. I wrote a great blog on the night of the 12th and it dissapeared. That's infuriating. Plus I'm already mad at the world

Sometimes I wish I had a single. Now is one of those times - I was going to blog about the debate competition I was at at Columbia, and how I hung out with Mykl cause he was there (although we didn't see Alexis) and that was really cool - not only to see somebody from home, but to be back in our element together in some sense of it. But again no long explaination because well, it's 4:20 in the morning, I'm half dead, and I'm pissed.

When I finally got back I find my room in totally fucked with. Two people, neither of whom live here, hooking up on Jake's bed. First thing I notice is my Easy Mac box has been ransacked. Insulting. Offensive. You don't eat my fucking food when I'm not here. Second thing I noticed, putting my easymac back in the drawer under the bed, is that the underbed has been searched. fucked with. -everything- is moved. under the bed I find a pair of thong sandles, like a size 12 or something, that I don't recognize. I have confiscated them in the hopes that the offending cumqueen will reveal him or herself. What's more, my books are all in dissarray - my italian workbook, a fucking $37 piece of paper that they just ignore, was bent in half and generally crammed in some odd space. It probably won't sit flat anymore, and I probably won't be able to sell it because of the people under my bed.

There are other little things - my bed, for one, has been remade backwards. To be honest I was considering doing it myself but had decided against it, and I appreciate why it was made at all - KT said they'd all been sitting on it and such and it got all messed up, so she decided to make it. Nice of her, well intended - still the kind of thing that's offsetting. There is a tostitos bag on my bed. If there are crumbs in my sheets, somebody will die.

I have one and only one good hanger - a wooden suit hanger from Macy's, that came with my good suit. I use it to, believe it or not, hang my good suit. which I took with me to debate. I come back and the hanger has been broken off the hook. This is a sturdy piece of hardware, which means some fucking asshole hit something with it or something. it was stuffed behind the door, like I might not notice.

kevin/kt just spilled water all over the floor. kt said she was going to clean it up and then didn't. I'm sure somethng came up - she's good about dealing with her shit. but it's just another thing I had to do when I got back already half dead.

about people in my stuff - I'm pretty certain it's - not- my roomates. They've been cool, and extremely respectful. But they're the only one with keys, and I havne't seen anybody leaving the room unlocked - they're not stupid.

What that means is that people who are here with them with permission are going through my stuff - and they're just not noticing it, or letting it happen, or not caring. This is almost as bad as if they were doing it themselves. I have to talk to them. tomorrow. when they're awake. I can't live in a place where I don't have personal posessions. where I don't have the right to my own space.

Hell hath fallen, and it is all around me.
:: Peter 4:31 AM [+] ::
...

http://talon.dnsalias.com/forum/index.php

The new forum. The current address.

If it takes off.... I'll buy a better one.

More about it in the first post, which I wrote there. Go check it out. It's primarily for just-got-to-college ex-seniors, but everyone is more than welcome. Especially all my readers.

:: Peter 5:57 PM [+] ::
...

P.S.

My desktop computer was delivered today, but is locked in package services overnight. This means come tomorrow, I'll have a machine online at all times. Which means in the next week I'll have my photo album back up (a new, faster one - hopefully), and a forum for you all to post on. And keep in touch on. AND PLUG YOUR BLOGS ON. Damnit, I've heard that certain people I didn't even know blogged are blogging again, or whatever, and I'm so out of the loop. I want to keep staying in touch - it feels great to talk to the few people I have. BTW: If any of you ever get a chance to get down around DC or whatever, ANY time, ANYBODY, fucking give me a call. I want to see you, take you out to dinner, show you something or whatever. I want to see people - I'm going on a parlimentary debate trip up to Columbia next weekend (I hope?) because I hear Mike is coming down for the same conference and Alexis is there. Totally random shit - I wasn't even sure I was gonna be part of PDS (Parlimentary Debate Society) but the first trip they offered me, I can see two friends? Fuck yeah.

So any of you get any reason to get to DC - be it Georgetown, American, Catholic, here, some hotel, even UMD, George Mason, ANYTHING in the area, I'll come see you. And you can come see me - my doors are absolutely always open (and I mean that literally - doors in Thurston are open and unlocked at least half the hours of all days).

Come by.
:: Peter 2:29 AM [+] ::
...

I've been a bad, bad blogger.

As I told Alexis tonight, I haven't been blogging because I used to blog to kill time. This is evident by the name of my first blog, which none of you ever saw, called The Lost Hours. It was about how I killed off my free periods.... what total crap. Eventually I had a stroke of inspiration, and in my opinion even personal brilliance. Personal brilliance mind you - only in respect to most of the other useless crap I do. I started a new blog, and I put Closing Time at the top, and then I finished the line. And right there I had a blog, and for me it was something magical. Maybe for some of you all too - I mean, I'm still averaging almost 20 hits a day and I've pretty much let most of you folks down. The only difference now is I don't have the time to write, I don't have the understanding to put what I'm experiencing into words, and I can tell who most of you are.

Yeah. I hope that doesn't bother any of you - but hits from res.wpi.net and medford.tufts.edu are pretty transparent when it comes to personal internet anonymity.

But for the moment I've got the spark back, and there's silence in the halls of Thurston, and I'll try and write. I have to clear my bed soon and go to bed, and I was just going to make a short short update about how I've been a bad blogger, but you all know me and my blogs - they grow.

Ok, so fast talk about the moments so far in college. Anybody who wants can IM me, or call me, or email me for an explaination of any of these. (Thank you Alex, for making me realize such possibilities) cell - too oh too too won three three won oh ate. (no program will recognize that as digits). home (no answering machine yet, maybe at all - seems useless since nobody calls it) too oh too too for too too seyvin seyvin oh.

Anyhow - moments.

KT Stumblz
K-Dawg enters
Marc bitches
Pats whoop ass
Zack's room
John Mayer
Lewis Black
In My Life
Frisbee practice
Frisbee party
Dana - (danadanadana)
Jordan freaks
Dave changes pants
Dave fails.
Dave door.
Greg - music.
My fucking phone
Virginia
Late night phone
FAMOUS DAVE'S
12 Monkeys
Hall bowling
drunk tracy
night of hell
Andrew

Ok. One of those moments, the last one, I'm going to explain right now cause I just had a half hour conversation with Andrew (I walked into the hall because I was freaked out that Thurston was so quiet).

Andrew was in Mrs. Peterson's 2nd grade class.

At Hunnewell.

For those of you still not getting this, Andrew was in my 2nd grade class. I do not remember him, at all, but I do remember the event he describes having participated in the week before he moved away.

We also swam against Andrew this season. He claims he recognizes me, and I think that's where I recognize him from. We discovered this randomly talking about where we were from in the halls. I said I was from Wellesley and he mentioned having gone to Hunnewell. And I asked when and he told me and we just freaked, it was so funny. Andrew's a cool guy.

Now though, it's 2:30. I'm hungry. I'd make easymac, except my microwave is broken (fucking fixit people, get here!) and my neighbors are asleep. if I get any hungrier, I won't be able to sleep well and there's no good food here. So it's definately bed time.
:: Peter 2:25 AM [+] ::
...

This has to be short cause I gotta run to class, plus it's not really a blog so much as a personal message.

Jenny - haven't been able to reach you on AIM, but I got your card today which I really appreciated. I plan to write back when I have time - especially because I got a hell of a lot of postage paid postcards from the theater department. Although they're supposed to be to invite you to come see performances here, I may just use them to write on.

Oh yeah. Some of you may be getting those in the mail :)
:: Peter 1:04 PM [+] ::
...

I could have so many millions of things to write about, but I wouldn't know where to start or where to end. So I'm going to start by posting pictures, and just going on a bit. Plus, my computer is almost here (it shipped yesterday) so when it gets here I should have a photo gallery and a forum up.

PIctures first:




None of those get an explanation here.

So about my roomies. This may need to be semi abbreviated if one of them looks over my shoulder.

Kevin. K-Dawg. Probably the coolest of the three, but that' a debatable point as Steve makes a great case for himself. Absolute drunken hound. Apparantly went through a few years where he would wake up and chug from a bottle of vodka. He's doing much better now and had been totally sober a month and a half till we got here, and now has his drinking under control. Fun guy - in that insane/crazy sort of way.

Steve. The one I got along with first, but probably because Kevin wasn't here. Steve is your standard partier - he drinks, he smokes weed, he has a fake ID, and in general has no problem with anyone. Which makes him totally easy to get along with, and also very cool. Steve isn't around AS much, especially because he has a lot of friends at this school and in town, so they kinda go off some times. Which can be annoying. But Steve's cool.

Jake. Jake is the wildcard in the room - because of the four of us, Kevin Steve and I are all out partying until 4:00 AM, and Jake is likely in bed by 10:00. Right now he's still up and it's 1:00, but he's been sitting in the room playing GTA III for I shit you not, at least two hours. Jake reminds me a lot of Alex. On the physical side, he's a large kid. And it causes him some insecurities (who wouldn't it?), and he has a penchant for geek stuff like computer games, and chinese food, and shiny shit. (He LITERALLY said "Chinatown? Shiny things, pirated movies, and asian food... count me in!") Unfortunately, that's where the resemblance stops - and any of you who know me and Alex know that those aren't my favorite qualities of Alex. The qualities I respect about Alex - his infinite personal patience, his general penchant for courtesy, his raw intelligence and determination, his problem solving ability, his mutual trust - this is shit I don't feel from Jake. Which is no fun.... and honestly, I think our semi-friendship MAY be hurt by the fact that as much as he reminds me of Alex I kind of want him to BE Alex, so sometimes I'm dissapointed when things are different. Like... I was surprised that he didn't know how to fix his computer (his laptop's internet connection is fubared), and didn't know any programming. I shouldn't have been, but I am. I hope Jake settles in better and opens up to us, but in general he's the one who's not talking either. And he hasn't unpacked his phone, his answering machine, or anything else that's in boxes. Kevin pointed that out - .... I think he's right. We think Jake may be planning to move out. I guess I can say oh well, because it really wouldn't be the end of the world to me; if he's not happy here, I sure as hell don't want him to stay. If he thinks he can be happier with other roomates, then I want him to do that. But we've been trying to welcome him - inviting him on everything we do, even though he shows no personal drive to do it. We're trying. But he doesn't seem to WANT us as friends, so I don't know what to say.

Thurston. I was told it was affectionately called Thrust In, and that's an appropriate name. People EVERYWHERE, you can't miss them. Always somebody up if you walk enough floors. It's own little quirks - none of the bathroom doors lock, for instance. Sometimes the trash chutes are locked, and every floor makes up their own policy on what people do when laundry is left in the machines. We've got a small gym in the basement which is good for when you don't want to go two blocks to our SPARKLING new health center.... I haven't been there yet because Thurston's gym is so convienient.

I promised some of you webcam tours of my room. That would be fine, except Yahoo Messenger (the only webcam program that runs in X so far) isn't compatible with the new version of OS X and likely will not be updated any time soon, given the track record. I MAY boot into 9 for this, but only if I can get two or three done at once. I hate booting into 9. It makes me feel dirty, and so twentieth century.

Oh. Yeah. Classes.

In three classes, I was the ONLY person who took notes on a laptop. This makes me feel really, really weird. Because I was under the impression that with all these people taking laptops to school (like half of people here have laptops, just like most of you), that somebody might use them in class. That this was even a semi common thing.

I'm the -only- one, and my econ class had several hundred people in it. I'm not taking it to Physics, it'd be useless for drawing diagrams in class. That's the only class I haven't had. So I'll be the only laptop user in my classes this semester. This makes me feel very uncomfortable.

So far, the other good friends I've made here are Kaytee from next door (Codename: KT Stumblz), and Vapo Adam and Mike from across the floor in 531. Kaytee's roommates are pretty cool as well, but she's been spending more time with us because she doesn't really hang out with girls much, or impose on guys much, and basically is generally just fun to be with. Reminds me of a certain not-so-girly person I miss quite a bit :) I've made a handful of semi friends, who could become better friends. Aneid, Simaran, Astrid, Jordan, Dana, Lissa, Zack, Andrew (WHO WAS IN MY FUCKING 2ND GRADE CLASS?!!?!?!?! JESUS CHRIST THAT WAS WEIRD TO FIND OUT), Robert, Peters.... the list goes on, as no one's quite sure who -all- their real friends are just yet.

That seems like a fair enough place to stop. I'm sorry for not having blogged much, but pleased I blogged this much as is.
:: Peter 1:32 AM [+] ::
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A note, to anybody who's been trying to read this and been dissapointed.

I was the last child to leave home, and my mother is not taking it very well. What she asked me to do to make things easier was to email, and just tell her what happened in my day. What things were like, my observations. To keep her part of my life, and vice versa. Those of you who are reading this know that's the stuff I used to write in my blog.

I absolutely - cannot- tell my mother about my blog, or make another blog for her to read, because inevitably I'd slip even in that instance and get into blogging mode and write something she shouldn't hear. So I've been emailing her all my daily updates and such, about foood, and housing, and friends. I guess the kind of stuff some of you may have been expecting, or even hoping, to see here. Well... I don't really have the time or drive to write that shit twice. Maybe I'll start cutting and pasting some of those emails into here, but I doubt it.

I think this blog is on hiatus - but I swear to you, I'll be back.
:: Peter 1:18 PM [+] ::
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