Sam's L33t Journal

A few moments from my day:

• I watched Batman Begins, which is very good.
• The Scientologists were out on the Common again (with E-meters and copies of Dianetics).
• A few people were passing out posters with the Ten Commandments on them. Someone else was preaching a sermon about the parable of the Good Samaritan. I sat and listened for a while. (Two random things about that: The translation he was using, and the fact that he claimed to be Jewish (he had a Star of David tattoo on his right wrist))
• Street performers down at Quincy Market. Also, awesome food.
• Got back, played some DDR, watched The Princess Bride again.

It was a nice day...

I missed my dentist appointment today. I left work on time, but when I arrived the entire block had been evacuated. Big underground electrical fire, smoke pouring out of manholes, the fire department out in force, the whole bit. (On the plus side, no one was hurt (according to the fire fighter I talked to), and I didn't miss much at work by leaving early, as the fire took out power to the Metacarta office slightly afterwards.)

There were a lot of people playing DDR in the arcade this evening, so that was fun. Someone commented on my Olin shirt; apparently, Jimmy (an Olin TA) was one of their classmates.

Finally, Diet Coke with Lime is good mixed with cranberry juice.

Caught up on work. Have late classes on Thursdays, so I can sleep in. I'm trying to watch what I eat, but the food is so good... I need to pay more attention to that. Ah, well. Things are relaxing.

I beat "End of the Century" on Heavy.

Olin's Candidates' Weekends are the next two weekends, so things will probably be a bit crazy. Plus I have tests. Blargh.

And I have some links to share (all pointed out to me by _skye_):
Something Useful
Something Amusing
Something Musical

Normally, when someone comes in all flustered at 4:00 AM on a Saturday night, you think "PAAR-TAY!". In actuality, I watched a movie (The Boondock Saints), read some philosophy, watched some Halo, went to the store, and played some DDR. Eh... life is good...

Today, homework, reading, and DDR.

I beat Higher on Challenge, B4A on Challenge, Wild Rush on Challenge, and A on Heavy. And I finished Gödel, Escher, Bach. That is a good book.

I get the feeling that this is going to turn into a more philosophical journal this semester, as I write about work quite a bit during the semester and "What is I?" is by far my most interesting class.

Two of our readings for class were I am John's Brain and Where am I? (I recommend that you read both of these, as the first piece is both good and short and the second piece is absolutely fantastic (it was originally given as a talk at a philosophy conference, but it reads like science fiction)). These reading dealt with the question of the location of the self. When we addressed this question in class, I argued that attempting to pin a location on the self was foolish, as the self is a symbol. Asking where the self is located is like asking for the location of freedom (or any other abstract concept).

As far as the rest of my day goes, I got my homework done and still had time to play some DDR (Vito has bought DDR Extreme and a good pad and left them in the lounge, and I'm to considering buying a good pad of my own, so that the lounge will have two). Also, evil!Alex convinced the Dominos dude (after a half hour of negotiations) to put the CheesyBread seasoning on some cheese pizza, and it was really delicious.

As expected, I was up until 7:00 this morning, then I woke up at 2:00 PM with a horrible head cold. Even so, I tired to make the best of things. I went out to Bartley's for dinner with Rayona (another Oliner (a former MIT student), who was also at MIT over break) and Xave. That was quite fun, but I was even less perceptive than usual. I played a few games of DDR afterwards, but not well. I even managed to fail one game by standing on the wrong pad and failing to notice I was doing so.

So staying up all night right after the LARP (which was significantly more emotional than conventional theater), was probably a bad idea. Blargh...

My laptop AC adapter broke, leaving me in a sticky situation work-wise. Fortunately, I have the Ultimate Warranty (TM), so Dell said they would send me another one, and it should arrive tomorrow. (I'm writing this from an Athena terminal which I am absolutely not allowed to use. Yay MIT.)

Aside from that, there's not much to say. Yesterday I met with John Frank and signed on as a contractor to Metacarta played DDR, hung out with android!Patty, failed to watch Witch Hunter Robin, and attempted to go hacking (but didn't do much interesting).

Today was more of the same: Work, DDR, good Chinese food, Patty's l33t cooking skillz (yay tamales)... I'd like to say more about my job, but I'm contractually obligated not to, except to say that Metacarta is nifty.

So, I'm back home at last (and I really do feel that this is my home, now...). My vacation was very relaxing. I got a lot of reading in, visited some of my friends (although I had to leave town before some returned... sorry, guys, I'll see you at winter break...), and even managed to finish the work I wanted to complete.

My cousin Lev's Bar Mitzvah celebration was good. His d'var torah was an interesting look at a biblical story in his portion that is little known, mainly because it makes people, especially modern readers, uncomfortable. Our family had also discussed that story with Rabbi Hoffman (a family friend from Connecticut; we stayed at his house on our trip), and his position on the story made me more than a little uncomfortable, but the Rabbi is admittedly a bit "like a zealot" in his positions on intermarriage.

I was able to get a ride back home with some Boston cousins, which avoided me paying an absurd amount for an Amtrak ticket. The ride was long, dark, rainy, and slow, and I'm glad that I wasn't the one behind the wheel; it was a nasty night for driving. But I got home safely, anyhow...

On the minus side, I lost my winter jacket (although I got a new one in Cleveland), which is a pain... I really liked that jacket, and the new one I got is much less comfortable. No idea how my jacket dissapeared... I thought it had got to college, and I thought it had never left my room. One of the two must be wrong... I searched my room again, but I suppose I'll have to look around campus a bit more as well...

Also on the minus side, I've gained a few pounds... thanksgiving vacation is not a good time for watching your diet, eh? Oh, well... the diet's back on, and hopefully I'll be able to make some time for some regular exercise as well. As a matter of fact, I think I hear the calling of a DDR pad right now...

On the plus side, though, I'm making progress on making plans for the month off I have for winter break. It looks like I may go home for just a week-and-a-half and then return to Boston to hang out at MIT over IAP (intersession). That plan, however, is contingent on me finding some work, and I may be able to get some programming work at Metacarta, where Xavid (kihou) works, during that time. Currently, I'm in the process of scheduling an interview, so we'll see how that turns out.

My parents took the family out for a treat last night, but it turned out badly. First, we went out for Chinese food, but I wasn't in the mood for Chinese food (except, perhaps, for the spicy kind) and since we were eating family style, I couldn't order anything spicy. I did get Hot and Sour Soup, which would have been good, except for the fact that it was neither hot nor sour.

Then we were going to a play, but unfortunately, the play was the Great Lakes Theater Festival's rendition of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." Now, I have nothing but respect for the GLTF's actors, but I don't like the way their directors do Shakespeare. It's as if they feel the play's aren't good enough, because every time they put on a Shakespeare play, they have to do some crazy modern interpretation of it. Doing this some of the time would be okay, if they did something meaningful instead of just "weird for the sake of weird" with it (which they don't), but all the time is just insulting to the original works. In fact, the only play I have ever left in the middle of was a GLTF rendition of "Romeo and Juliet."

The interpretation of the play (with crazy scenery and '50s style dress) was just as strange as I expected it to be, and I much would have preferred a traditional rendition of the play. That said, the acting was fantastic, so I did have an okay time. However, after we got out of the theater, Melissa was very upset, insisting that the play was evil. This made me feel guilty about enjoying it at all, so I felt very bad by the time I got home.

At that point, I really wanted to go out and get something to eat, but I couldn't think of anything that was open, except for IHOP, and that was too far away for me to walk (my parents wouldn't let me borrow the car). So I took a walk around Shaker Square. I had thought everything would be closed, but I had forgotten about Michael's Diner. I stopped for a soda and some cheese fries, which made me feel much better. I then returned home and played DDR until 1:40 AM. (My little brother was awake when I got home (a little after midnight), so he played as well. This annoyed my parents, however, as it resulted in him staying up until 1:30 AM.)

So, I sort of wish I had stayed home (and maybe hung out with Zak (socraticmachine)), but things turned out all right in the end.

Today has been pretty calm, and it looks like there might be a DnD session in the evening (Rene's campaign). I'll write about that later, if it happens.

Pretty ordinary day today.

I filled out some forms for college, worked on figuring out what I need to buy for my dorm room, and wrote my first draft for my FROG (Frequently Revised Olin Goals, Olin College's individual learning plan).

In the afternoon, I played Magic with Rene and we talked about random topics.

I played some DDR as well. I borrowed DDR Max (which is harder than Max 2) from Xave (kihou), so it was cool to work on some new songs. ("Rhythm and Police" is very difficult on Standard (although I can beat it), and I can't even read it on heavy, but I'll get there eventually! (I can't believe N/P is becoming my rival, as he's much younger than I am, and I don't even know him!))

In the evening, I saw "I, Robot" with Zak (parodos or socraticmachine). The movie was very good. I liked how accurately the feel of an Asimovan story was imitated, and the movie's attention to detail in its setting. And the action scenes were very cool.

*yawn*
Guess I ought to head to bed.