recent tracks:

Where's the money, Lebowski?

Hi there. I was going to fill out the FAFSA today but I can't until they give me the PIN that I already thought I had. In sadness I had to get jeans that actually fit me and a Minnesota t-shirt with a loon for a total of $13.

There was supposed to be steak night at East but the website had lied to us and there was no steak to be had. I drowned my sorrows in a chocolate-caramel milkshake that I made myself there.

Over the last two nights I have gotten over 20 hours of sleep, I think. It has been delightful. Last night I also played hold 'em and euchre at the Cow. Tonight I will have company come over and party here in my room. Summer is living the high life in southern California, by which I mean going through the grad school interview process there. I hope to visit southern California soon myself on Chapman's dollar. Also I got into Boston College the other day! That leaves U Washington and UC Davis for me.

I think I will work on my tracklist file until folks come in about an hour. I think I had more stuff to tell you folks but I don't know what that would have been so you'll just have to wait 'til later.

More Carleton Stuff

I ran a degree audit. For one thing, I am still registered for everything I registered for last night. But mostly I wanted to share that after this term I will have 220 of the 210 credits required to graduate. With a 20 credit spring term I will have 240 of the 210 credits required, an average of 20 credits per term. I feel I will have made the most of my undergraduate experience. I have taken advantage of the liberal arts experience, too, having gone at least one class over the requirement in all 4 distro areas (76 credits of arts & lit., 18 of humanities, 36 of social sciences, and 39 of math and natural sciences--the discrepancies between those and the 240 listed above come from AP, off-campus credit, independent study, my writing seminar, Latin 204, and comps--another 71 credits total), plus my 8 terms of track, 7 of KRLX DJing, and 8 of being an RA; there might be some other stuff as well. So anyway, less than 4 more months now and it'll be done.

Summer and I walloped our radio show last night. Read all about it. Other than that, I've been busy, but tried not to be too busy. I think that plan is working out alright, plus I get time to admire my clean and beautiful room, which I feel is about as close as any room I've had has come to being my ideal college room. That's not to say it's really all that close to the ideal, but it's still nice. Next term it will be pumping jazz. Yeah yeah.

Summer is going to be very busy for the rest of the term. That will be sad. I had better remember to RSVP to Lewis & Clark so I actually get a chance to see her before next term, albeit in Oregon...

Oh and speaking of Oregon, I got accepted to the University of Oregon today, with some money...every school has given me money now; they want to make decisions harder I think. Let them continue to do so!

LAST CARLETON CLASSES EVER

Unless the messed up system makes us reregister or something like that, here they are:

1 POSC.311.00 (09827) Topics in Constitutional Law
03/28/2005-06/06/2005 Lecture M, W 01:50PM - 03:00PM, Willis Hall, Room 204
03/28/2005-06/06/2005 Lecture F 02:20PM - 03:20PM, Willis Hall, Room 204

2 MUSC.150.00 (10349) Piano
03/28/2005-06/06/2005 Lesson Days to be Announced, Times to be AnnouncedTo Be Announced, Room TBA

3 MUSC.130.00 (10346) History of Jazz
03/28/2005-06/06/2005 Lecture M, W 09:50AM - 11:00AM, Music & Drama Center, Room LL05
03/28/2005-06/06/2005 Lecture F 09:40AM - 10:40AM, Music & Drama Center, Room LL05

4 LATN.359.00 (10615) Seminar:Virgil
03/28/2005-06/06/2005 Lecture M, W 11:10AM - 12:20PM, Language and Dining Center, Room 345
03/28/2005-06/06/2005 Lecture F 12:00PM - 01:00PM, Language and Dining Center, Room 345

The Current

The Current: who'll be around to surprise us?

Why, KRLX of course!

Booyah!

The comps talk was very well-received, and I, for one, enjoyed it immensely. I got better responses than I expected, including rather lavish compliments from Jackson. Plus I got to answer some interesting questions afterwards. All in all a sweet deal.

Prep for the talk on Friday was pretty fun also, as I got to sing "Our House" by Madness at the Rueb, as well as Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn" with Lauren. I think my theory (that singing ridiculous things in front of strangers makes speaking in front of a group easier) holds.

Saturday then I went to a track meet and wasn't disappointed though I didn't exactly have a good meet either. I can still see the progress in my shot putting, and if I don't get it together enough this term I have confidence that I will in the spring. After the meet I gave Kyle my keys and then went to the comps conference. I listened to other talks and then gave mine and then Summer and Andy and others appeared, and I found out that my car had had troubles on the way to get Summer. This is no good, though I haven't tested the car myself yet.

Anyway after the conference I had the delicious classics dinner which included eggplant parmesan and baklava and some good wine. Then folks gathered in Davis to head over to Froggy Bottoms, where Anna's and my end of comps and my birthday were celebrated in high style. Then we went back to Davis for late night conversation before it was eventually bedtime.

Hey! Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and presents. I am using two as I write this, and am very delighted with both. They are a t-shirt and headphones from my parents and Summer.

Then came Sunday. There was to be no brunch. I don't know why I wrote that, as there was definitely brunch, but I am keeping it as evidence of my weirdness. After brunch it was time to clean my room! First Lauren helped but Summer came and did some hardcore cleaning, including vacuuming (until the vacuum was full). I am very very happy to look around and see my room all pretty now. Eventually it was dinnertime and that was pretty good, and then it was time to talk to home, which was also good, and then it was time to go to Davis and watch the very end of "Desperate Housewives," which was good, and then it was time to go to the snack bar! I talked to lots of people there and also picked Summer's classes for next term as well as deciding that I should take the history of jazz instead of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway. I don't like Hemingway that well, but I do like jazz, and I don't know enough about it. Hopefully Summer will elect to take it, too.

Since the snack bar, I've been playing with music. I reset my cd collection and updated my tracklistings, which I will then print off before my radio show at 3 AM. I've been listening to music with these headphones which I love. I've been using iTunes and trying to figure out what song to get with the free song I got from my Pepsi tonight. Earlier I got "Surf's Down" by the Presidents of the United States of America, and was not disappointed.

I've also been doing laundry. I'm going to be amazingly clean by tomorrow, I hope. Laveranues, Betsy Govoni Dean of Students, and Benman Pearl need their water changed; hoepfully that will happen tomorrow, too.

Plans for this week include sleeping a lot (not tonight, though, unfortunately) and attending Andy's comps talk at 4:30 Thursday afternoon. I think there might be something else but I'm not sure what that would be. Hopefully it doesn't have to do with my Logic project or with Courts, though I bet it does. There will also be paying the school $60 so I can register for classes, and then actually registering for classes.

And let's not forget, most importantly, to listen to Fun Times with Laveranues! Monday from 6-8 PM CT. Just do it!

Writing Complete

Remaining: editing, creation of handout and bibliography, practice talks. Probably lots of editing, as the draft stands at 10.5 pages and should therefore be well over my allotted 15 minutes of talking. With what I took out and what I intend to write for the actual paper, I think I'm likely to hit 20+ pages, which is significantly past the 10-15 pages I'm supposed to be writing (though Chico didn't seem too concerned at the prospect of a longer, more involved paper). Blah.

So tomorrow I'll get up and pretty immediately Summer and I will head for the cities (pausing for brunch), she will take off and fly away to Rhode Island and I will either attend class or try to work on those things I need to work on (which also include an 8 page paper for Courts). I will almost certainly go to track, which will almost certainly be rather quick. I will work and have dinner and work. I have to say I'm not terribly fond of this week.

At least I have a draft. It might not be great, or exactly what I want it to be, but it's right here in front of me and that's worth something.

Unfortunately

exhaustion has set in and I am unable to finish my comps talk tonight as planned. This is a terrible shame. I am on my 8th page (of 7--luckily I have some quotes that take up room but won't be reflected in the length of the talk) and still have yet to write section II or transfer section V from my notebook to the screen (plus I already knew I'd be abandoning section I almost entirely in the talk, and it also remains unwritten). And it's late late (early?). This is gonna take more work than I want to spend on it, particularly considering I have a paper due Friday for a notorious stickler prof who will undoubtedly refuse to accept that paper late. That one's just gonna have to suffer for it. I still want to give a practice talk Thursday, though; I'm not sure how I'll manage to finish writing, then edit the thing down to a presentable length by then. Poor classics profs are gonna get a long, but hopefully well-founded and well-argued paper at the end of this term.

Argh. At least the U of M library was neat.

The Snow is Gone

When I woke up it was gone from the vertical surfaces. When I drove to track it was gone from my car. There's still some on the grassy areas.

While I'm beginning to feel REALLY REALLY stressed, I did manage to have a nice Valentines Day for the first time in a long time. I did shut myself in the library for a bit, and I did practice piano, but I also worked on comps instead of going to class. What I have to show for all the comps work I did today: eleven inscriptions on praegustatores with no context; this calls for a trip to the UMN library tomorrow evening, where I will hopefully be provided with that all-important context. Maybe I'll even stay there and work a bit; there's little chance I'd get distracted there. Anyway this whole thing is frustrating, but I can rest assured that the part I'm working so hard on now is pretty much new territory while the rest is old hat, and I have much more of a basis to pound that out than I have for the newer stuff. So my goal of having the basic talk ready on Wednesday is not impossible, I hope. Now I still have to do my logic problem.

But anyway I did manage to get in some nice time with Summer this evening after the library, not to mention Fun Times With Laveranues, which featured the added bonus of a phonecall from my father AND a request from Dani for Foo Fighters. Plus there's been a lot of chocolate.

Back to the work for now though. I kind of want to go to sleep but I don't think I'd have enough time in the morning and also I'm getting to feel like everything should be comps because I have good ideas and good sources but I haven't put everything together enough yet. Ah those crazy complicated Romans.

Oh hey also shot went SHOCKINGLY well today and that made me happy. Spinning is fun and for some weird reason I like taping my wrist. And now the ball is starting to go farther too.

The Snow

Radio show #1 of February 14 went off with several hitches but a somewhat nice playlist, I think. I also shockingly received 4 post-4AM phone calls.

Mostly I want to say though that it's been snowing very stickily most of the night, so when I emerged from my radio show everything was completely coated: sides of telephone poles, every twig of every tree. It was quite stunning. I was kind of sad to leave footprints.

There's been other stuff too but I think if you look at the timestamp you'll agree I should sleep first and tell you about it later.

The beautiful ones, they hurt you every time...

Don't worry, that's just a line from Prince's "The Beautiful Ones," a song which was pertinent to tonight.

Tonight I elected to take a break from the busyness and hit up the Carleton nightlife. This entailed the following, all with Summer and Anna, some with other characters (as noted):

18:45 - Leave the dining hall for Davis hall.
21:10 - Leave Davis hall for Allen House, having gained one old and uncomfortable sweatshirt.
21:15 - Leave Allen House by car for the Cave, having ditched said sweatshirt in favor of green corduroy shirt and Philadelphia Eagles knit hat.
21:20 - Arrive at the Cave to find Rag P & Ollie (and Neal and Randy) have been sent to the end of the line, not to perform until 11:30 PM. Nevertheless, we wait around for a bit to listen to Drew Piston, 1st Goodhue alum.
22:01 - Leave the Cave for the Tavern, having gained Andy.
22:05 - Having wandered the streets of Northfield for veritable minutes, our company finally arrives. This includes Geoff, Zanna, Keith, Simone, and Sarah. We acquire a table; malts (etc.) are ordered (mine a strawberry without whipped cream). Cristina and Drew arrive at various points. I consume a packet of peanut butter, my malt, and the end of Anna's malt.
??:?? - I don't know what time it is now, but Summer, Anna, Andy, and I head back to the Cave, our bellies full of malts, root beer floats, and clam chowder.
??:?? - Captain Yonder, 'shroomheads that they are (according to Ollie), finish their set and Rag P & Ollie & Neal & Randy prepare to take the stage. Randy reads his fantastic poetry while Neal plays power chords and Rag P & Ollie do their thing. Later, when Neal and Randy are gone, Ollie sticks a roasted chicken on a stand and sings "The Beautiful Ones" to it. He also gives it flowers and a balloon. Then later eats it. There's lots of loud noise.
12:40 - Rag P & Ollie are done. Summer and Anna and I follow Andy to the Rec Center parking lot, where Andy joins the folks in my car and we drive the long, long way to Goodhue for Adam's birthday party. We stay 'til around 1, then I drop the rest off at the complex and come home.

I added some pictures to my pictures page when I got home. That's mostly it I think. Some of the pictures are courtesy of Summer, and some I dredged up on my own. I should go to bed soon since I have to be at the Rec Center at 9:45 in the morning for track. But I don't think I'd be able to sleep quite yet.

A Culture of Poison

I've been working on comps. I keep adding to and fleshing out my outline more and more; I'm worried I'm going to end up with more of a 20 page paper than the prescribed limit, and that that means I'll spend more time writing than I'd like. It might be a challenge to pare my talk down to 15 minutes, too.

That is inconsequential information.

I also fear that the election of Howard Dean as chairman of the DNC will be inconsequential. On the one hand, he brings some sorely needed energy to the party. On the other hand, he averaged a finish of about 3rd in the primaries last year, winning only his own state. This brings his basic political skill somewhat into question. I'll reserve judgment for now. Also I suppose a significant portion of readers would prefer he and the party falter.

This evening as a means of procrastinating on comps, I have spent some time organizing my computer again, as OurTunes has been significantly cluttering my D drive. I reinstalled iTunes and that took care of some of the organization for me; I am undecided as to whether I will attempt to make iTunes my main player as I did once before, or instead try to deal with the much smaller and seemingly more facile (though more demanding of technical understanding) foobar2000. Foobar2000 is supposed to allow for the conversion of .m4a files into .mp3 files, which would be useful for cd-creating purposes. I offer links, however, to none of the above; if you're interested, google should suffice.

As for social life, I got to watch Wife Swap (a particularly painful one this week, I'd say, and one that heartily reinforced my political views) last night with Summer and Anna, then attended a panel on eating disorders this evening with Lauren before taking a snack bar break with Summer. This weekend looks now to be a solid mix of fun and work, with an unfortunate track meet tossed in as well. I had a terrible practice today and am not looking forward to displaying my lack of skill.

Busyness detracts too much from fun. Luckily there will be more fun in the near future, as comps get done and the weather gets nicer and perhaps days of tumbling in the grass can be relived. Tonight the sky is clear and beautiful but that's not quite as good as spring handstands and somersaults.

Seaweed (featured), wave.

So I suppose I owe people some degree of explanation in addition to an account of the weekend's goings on.

I don't want to detail the entire process, but I (for reasons I have deemed utterly incorrect and misconceived, possibly as the result of a stress-induced depression (yes, I'm more than a bit stressed at the moment, and I still don't really know how to deal with it because I'm not usually stressed), and almost certainly in response to outside factors) broke up with Summer, quickly realized what a huge mistake that was, and spent Thursday evening and Friday talking with her and trying to win her back. By her good graces we are indeed back together. While I know this has done damage to the relationship and couldn't have come at a worse time for her, I nevertheless have hope that it will somehow strengthen us in the long run; I feel more strongly than ever before, and have been absolutely awash with love for her since.

Also on Friday and Saturday she and I went looking for midwinter ball attire. After finding many places closed (including Friday's ultimate goal, a place in Faribault) on Friday, and mostly driving around and trying to figure out where we were, we had a more successful trip to the cities on Saturday. We got to explore uptown Minneapolis and go to a bunch of vintage/thrift stores with wares of various prices and qualities, but always interesting. We sampled good chai/mochas at some place that claimed to have the best of each in the twin cities. We got wine and cheese for the townhouse wine and cheese party, she got a lovely dress from Via's and shoes from Payless, I ended up with a plain white button down shirt from a sketchy K-Mart, and we were set (although I was disappointed not to have been able to find a reasonably priced two- or three-piece suit). Also we went to Cheapo records but that wasn't successful (except inasmuchas I didn't spend anything there).

So then came the party and then the dance, which was actually a blast--Summer and I danced the night away (if somewhat badly), she in her vintage dress and curls and I in my white K-Mart shirt, and it was fun.

Sunday was significantly less fun, although I certainly enjoyed my pregame experience, and at least the Eagles kept it close. I had predicted a tied game at the end of the third quarter, a final score of 23-20 in the Eagles' favor, AND a good game from T.O., all of which lead me to believe that I should give up on this whole law school thing and become a football analyst (even if I miscalled the winning team, I called the correct margin and almost the exact score--and the closeness of the game was something that not many "professional" analysts predicted). Also there were many good snacks, and some of my friends and loved ones offered me good support (while certain others betrayed me (and the forces of good) and supported the Pats--as if they needed another Super Bowl win!).

Monday I worked on comps. I've taken a lot of notes and actually written an introductory paragraph (which I've since sent to Jackson for approval before hardcore commencement)! I had a radio show by myself at 3 AM again, and then Fun Time with Laveranues(!) with Summer at 6. I'll post playlists sometime when I get around to it but suffice to say the whole thing was awesome as always, albeit somewhat tainted by the brokenness of the top cd player. Also I practiced piano a bunch, spent lots of time in Sayles, and helped Summer with a career center poster. Then at night I ate cookies with Meg and Lauren and ate mozzarella sticks with Taylor and watched "Curb Your Enthusiasm" with Lauren and Taylor and then talked to Lauren.

Today I had piano which went well, Logic class which was fine, track which was an improvement over last week, a nice shower, Sodexho's Mardi Gras dinner which was tasty, a staff meeting, a little comps time/visit with Meg in Sayles, a visit to the Write Place with Summer and comps, a break at Allen house, a visit with Geoff also at Allen house, and then some more comps work (as well as a bit of time wasted on a delightful filesharing program).

There will likely be a similar if not stronger concentration of comps throughout the rest of the next week and a half, though I do intend to counter the nervousness inherent in oral presentation by warming up with some Rueb karaoke next next Friday. And this weekend there will undoubtedly be fun stuff like the Vagina Monologues and Saw, among other things. And next Monday should be the first actually good Valentine's Day I've had since everyone's mom made everyone give everyone candy and little cartoons with names on them. And I'm sure I'm forgetting more things that are looming on the horizon (think proposal for Logic project, Courts reading/paper, track meets, various outside obligations). But when there's so much to do, mostly it's just nice to have such a good person on whose shoulder to rest your head.

One final note: my course selection dilemma for next term appears to have been solved for me, as three of the five courses I listed earlier as strong candidates for next term will be held at the same period. In deciding between those three, I will likely elect to take my last Latin course ever, which would appropriately be a seminar on Virgil, perhaps the greatest Roman poet. Seems a good way to go out.

Late Nights All in a Row

So it's nearing 3:30 and I will be in bed by then. Mark my words.

Today I felt like my brain and body may have been connected, but they were also barely alive. Our Logic class has been gutted and I'm not sure how it will pan out for the rest of the term. Track practice was inordinately exhausting, as I'm putting a lot of work into learning the spin technique. I've seen others struggle with it for months, but I'm hoping that somehow I can have it down by February 12. Anyway, after that I was dead. I showered. I ate dinner. I attended a session on ethics. I came home to do work and fell asleep reading about statutory interpretation. After a real break and trip to the snack bar, as I was setting down to work once again, Julia called and we talked for almost an hour and a half, she having things to deal with. It seems everyone has things to deal with these days.

On the way to the complex to purchase a caffeinated beverage, I ran into Charles, which allowed for quite a welcome diversion from heavy things such as personal lives and papers.

Then I had to write my paper, which incorporates statutory interpretations into a rather compelling defense of the right Tennessee Valley Authority to build a dam effectively killing off the entire [endangered] species of the snail darter. I feel it turned out shockingly well for the level of exhaustion I'm feeling now.

OK that's it. Not terribly interesting, I know. Really one sentence of the above could sum the whole thing up.

All Mixed Up

For some reason the post below didn't seem to work until just now. Weird.

That means I don't have as much to write about, I guess. Let us begin, therefore, with Saturday evening.

Whilst contemplating the potential for deliciousness in the bounteous harvest of the twin cities, Summer and I instead recognized that there was a dinner on this very campus consisting of such delicacies as steak, broccoli with cheese, baked potatoes, and fried shrimp. Not the sorts to turn down such a meal, we elected to dine here before heading northward to escort our friend Geoffrey home from the airport. Despite enjoying a satisfying meal here, we took the address of a sushi restaurant not too far from the airport.

Fast forward. Geoff and Summer and I have a delicious post-dinner snack of various kinds of sushi at Midori Floating World Cafe. I tearfully tuck the address for Cheapo records into the dashboard of my car and back to campus we go. The rest of the evening has some conversation with Summer and Anna and a brief but rather bizarre visit to the infamous ebony party.

Fast forward. Andy and Charles and I have a potential DVDfest movie in mind. Now it is time to shut myself in the library and research comps. So much fun. No one seems to have much to say about what I might now be writing on (having to do with tasters and professional poisoners under the Julio-Claudians), so I guess I'll be going it alone. The evening sees a tasty meal at Robins house (pictures pending) and I swear some other stuff too. Probably mostly work.

Now it's 3 AM. After a nice little conversation with Charles, I get to fill in for someone's radio show! There will be a playlist up probably by the time you read this. The show was pretty spectacular (to me; auracular to a few others), and I received several calls.

Now it's lunchtime! Mmm that was good. Do some reading, now it's time for courts. Seemingly willing to overlook the fact that I missed class on Friday, Kim says I have presented good ideas. Hurray!

Then track. Things seem to have regressed still more. I am determined to nip them in the bud, am learning to spin with the shot. Leon seems happy with the first day's progress; I will put in more throwing time this week, and with the weekend off might even be ready to spin in a meet on the 12th. I might also be running the 55 on the 12th. Ahh the 12th.

Funny how time is sprinting by once more. My comps talk is seeming so soon; I feel like I really must get to work on that.

But not this evening; that was reserved first for Fun Time with Laveranues, which went nicely, too. Afterwards it was time to work on Logic with Neal. But Logic never ends, after a respite for piano practicing, it will soon be time to return to work again. The true Carleton student is a creature depending little on sleep, but rather on sheer adrenaline and the giddiness that accompanies sleep deprivation. Actually, given the dearth of lights in windows and Carletonians on AIM right now, I would say that applies only to me and select others.

Hey by the way, I've been continuing to alter my pictures page; you should check it fairly frequently because there will be more happening still. Maybe not tonight, since I have Logic to do, and maybe not tomorrow night, since I have an assignment for Courts on Wednesday, but sometime it will happen.

Now, though, Logic beckons. And how could I turn down all those cute little phis and psis?