"I gave you all my lust for a piece of your precious wisdom"

Current favorite: Absolute Body Control -- "Figures"

So I guess I haven't had a proper update in a while; I really haven't felt like it because I still haven't been feeling all that great lately -- I'm not sick, or overly depressed, just out of it, I suppose.  My eating and sleep schedule has gone completely out of whack the last month or so, and it shows.  Though the way things around here are shaking out right now these last three weeks shouldn't be all that stressful, so I can work towards fixing that.  It explains a lot -- why posting on here has been so erratic, why I haven't been commenting on others' entries like I've been meaning to and/or should, etc.  Sorry about that, I'll try to be better about it.  ;-)

Anyway, here's what I've been up to this past week.  I tried to keep it short, but once again I failed miserably.  ^_^;

LAST FRIDAY:
--Went to a partial staged reading of the Rebecca Gilman play Spinning Into Butter, which was the last event of a series of events this semester regarding racism called "What is Color?"  The play itself was based on an incident that happened here on campus in September 1983, in which a black student who had just arrived started receiving racist notes and had a rock thrown into his window -- only for it to have turned out that the student had done all of those things himself.  Excerpts from two Boston Globe articles written about the incidents were read during the performance; what was particularly striking was that one of the deans interviewed said, "Thank god it's over," when the truth had been revealed -- only it wasn't, since it would've been a better idea to try to figure out what made the student do what he did and help him accordingly, as well as discuss racism on campus rather than sweeping it under the rug.  (It's perhaps somewhat telling that the 1983 incident created a huge uproar that led to public forums, but recent incidents involving homophobic vandalism, while having drawn some concern, don't have anywhere near the same level of attention.)

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SATURDAY:
--Played Risk with the strategic gaming club.  The game lasted three hours -- and I lost within the first hour.  8DDDDDDDDDDD  But it was fun to watch, especially since we were playing "Nuclear Risk" rules.  :3

--Saw Ezra Axelrod in concert that night.  He's a graduate of my college, and the best way I can describe him is a mix of "gay Tom Waits" (by which I mean the content matter of his songs, not his voice) and "male Tori Amos"; he sings about homosexuality, BDSM, prostitution, heartbreak, and all that other fun stuff.  He mostly sang alone on the piano, though he did invite his former music teachers up to play accordion, flute, and backup vocals.  He mostly sang original work, though he did a thoroughly kick-ass cover of The Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting For My Man," as well as an Argentinian folk song called "Volver."  It's not the style of music I'm into, but it was good enough that I bought his album -- hey supporting independent music and musicians from your college is a good idea, no?  XD  Anyway, if you're interested, here's the title track to his album Around Here, and if your interest is aroused, I uploaded the album for your continued listening pleasure.  ;-)

SUNDAY:
--Went to another "How You Livin'?" event; I outlined how the event works and what it's like here, when they held one last October.  It was much of the same, though not nearly as thought-provoking; most of the students presenting were seniors about to graduate in a month, and it was nice to hear their anxieties and fears and hopes and all that, but I got really bored about halfway through, and it became apparent that it was basically treated as something among a group of friends I wouldn't have wanted to have anything to do with otherwise.  A great idea in theory, but hard to really pull off well.  The only truly memorable thing about it was a young Turkish woman basically rambling about her life experiences -- ( Cut for TMI )

WEDNESDAY:
--Registration for fall classes!  I have an idea as to what I want to do next year, but there are still a lot of things that need to be worked out, and I know for a fact that I'll probably do a lot of class shopping that first week of class.  I'm thinking about taking the senior seminar in GIS, because there's a good chance I can minor in geography, and if it turns out I can't, it'd be good to get more practice on a marketable skill so I can hopefully get some work when I graduate.  I'm trying to fit my last science requirement and the Environmental Studies Senior Seminar in there too, and I still haven't decided whether or not I want to do a thesis -- basically, all of this can be easily fixed the first week of classes, so there isn't much point in doing registration now anyway, is it?  :P

--Saw Ian Harvie, a transgender comedian who has frequently toured with Margaret Cho, in concert.  Absolutely hilarious, a very warm and thought-provoking performance, and you really really should see him if you get the chance (or if you're still in college, you should really really arrange for him to perform there).  That's all I'll say about that.  :D

YESTERDAY:
--Went to a meeting of J Street U, an organization promoting the Israeli-Arab peace process and pushing for a two-state solution in the region; they brought in pizza from a place in town (absolutely delicious), and we all played PeaceMaker, a video game where you try to create peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.  It's easy to learn how to play, but very challenging and very addictive.  OH GOD I cannot tell you how badly I want this game now, it's so awesome!  8DDDDDDDDDDDDD  So yeah, that was pretty fun.

TODAY:
--Tried going to the Spring Student Symposium today, but I got up at about 1 PM today, so alas, it was not meant to be.  :(

--Ten Thousand Villages is holding a festival sale here today and tomorrow; there were a lot of really cool crafts, gifts, and other things there that I was sort of interested in buying, but I got too indecisive.  ^_^;  But hey, it's fair trade, the money's going to a good cause, why not, right?

Speaking of which: Does anyone here want me to buy anything at the sale tomorrow and then send it to you?  Leave me a comment here if you're interested and we'll work something out.

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All right, here are a few memes to keep y'all going for a while.  ;-)  First one was stolen from eska_rina and kinrazza:

You can learn a lot about someone from the music they listen to. Here's the game: hit shuffle on your music player, and write down the first 25 songs that come up. No cheating or skipping songs.

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These next two were found somewhere, I forget where:

( If you ignore all the fantasy-esque gobbledigook in this, I think this describes me somewhat well. )

( What G1 Transformer are you? )