class stuff

I finally talked to my prof about the paper I’m supposed to be writing. Sort of. I sent him an email a couple weeks ago (shortly before our topics were due) and heard nothing back from him. And he never got back to me. So today, I went up to him, and awkwardly and unassertively pointed it out to him. Ugh. Appointment is friday. Also, the library sent me a ‘return the book or we’ll kill your dog and burn your house down’ notice regarding ‘making room: the economics of homelessness’, ie, the centerpiece of the paper I want to write. Maybe I should just buy myself a copy… =)

monday, byebye & Bubba-hotep

On the last day in town for our cslounge visitors, it was tichu, tichu, tichu, lunch from the crepe place on euclid (I got a burrito instead), followed by more tichu, and the departure of the austin crowd. The non-austin crowd, Ken, and Brian as well as Tom, Simon, Cort and I went out to see Bubbahotep. It’s the sort of movie I typically wouldn’t be caught dead in. And despite the jackass behind us making moronic comments I enjoyed it. Afterwards, I walked home to drive ken & brian’s stuff down to the bart station for them. And so ended my weekend.

I can’t say I ever felt terribly part of the cslounge crowd while at cmu, but, as I commented on friday evening, while driving Rehana and Nick back to berkeley, they were both welcoming and alot of fun to be with. I greatly enjoyed my weekend.

This weekend

So, after thursday/friday, I oughta rest, right? Well, funny you should mention that…

Saturday started off with a grocery trip, or was it tichu? Tichu is occupying a very large portion of this weekend, fun little card game. But I purchased much produce, and a few other things besides (orange milanos as a gift to our dungeonmaster for the weekend ;). Did I mention that we have something like 8 guests in our house this weekend? After groceries, I hung out, shot the shit, and played a few rounds of tichu. Then it was off to the city to help & ted move stuff out of their apartment. Third floor of a structure with tall floors. And no elevators. It was good. Definitely got the blood flowing. Good thing I hadn’t worked out since tuesday. That experience makes me think seriously about shedding some excess weight (mostly books that I’ll never read) now, so that I don’t end up doing what I did last time, and move food whose expiration date had passed by the time I packed it. Anyway…

Got to see their new condo with the balcony, and the roof-top deck. Easy walking distance from powerhouse (not power exchange. Well, I hear it is easy walking distance from that, too, but you are faaaar less likely to find me there). Then off to bart. An hour+ of dnd wankery on the train made the ride go by so fast. Druids have cool spells.

Tom picks me up at the fremont bart station, and I head off to a party at la casa de y . I was told I was the designated driver for ‘s CRX. There was drinking and het making out (I heard there were several bi females there, but I don’t recall seeing evidence of the female on female portion of this attraction), and a couple of go games (courtesy whom I haven’t really seen since his engagement. Apparently he and Laura will be marrying next weekend, so I issued my congratulations just under the wire 😉

After about half an hour of negotiation, I drove Nick and Rehana home. We had a lively, continuous conversation, with a returning theme of pointless conflict v self congratulatory circle jerks v legitimate exploration of alternate perspectives. It was interesting. Home just before midnight. Then sleep, and up (with the sun, as per usual. Gaming today, yay! =)

little proud moments

Today I have pulled an allnighter, and produced meaningful work getting in a full half week while ro is away. and I made dinner: falafel, hummus, pita, tahini sauce, salad and a vinagrette-y dressing, helped get ready for his not-house-warming party, and came back home to play games with the visiting cmu alums. After that was finished, riding a wave of sleep dep, I pulled the casing off my broken-screen laptop diagnosed the misconnected wire, taped it together so it connects, fixing the screen, then screwed everything back together.

I so need to sleep.

Administration finally admits Hussein not to blame for 9/11, then continues to doubletalk

See, they never lied, they simply implied. Beat around the bush, deny that there is evidence of a bush, then continue to beat around it.

On Sunday, for example, Vice President Dick Cheney said that success in stabilizing and democratizing Iraq would strike a major blow at the “the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11.”

And Tuesday, in an interview on ABC’s “Nightline,” White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said that one of the reasons Bush went to war against Saddam was because he posed a threat in “a region from which the 9/11 threat emerged.”

In an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Cheney was asked whether he was surprised that more than two-thirds of Americans in a Washington Post poll would express a belief that Iraq was behind the attacks.

“No, I think it’s not surprising that people make that connection,” he replied.

Rice, asked about the same poll numbers, said, “We have never claimed that Saddam Hussein had either direction or control of 9/11.”

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/09/17/sprj.irq.bush.ap/index.html

Tuesday

Well, again, no work, but, lunch with Marco. Hanging out with Marco in his little apartment left me about 10 minutes late for class. Whoops. So I sat in the back this time. Which was good because when the might-have-been-our-roomie guy mentioned that a paper topic was due by next monday, the deer-in-the-headlights look was probably writ plain on my face. More difficulty than usual paying attention today. The topic was segregation. What are the causes of it? Is it inefficient? Should we do something about it, and if so, what can we do about it? I zoned somewhat. Especially given the simplifying and very unrealistic assumption that there are two races: black and nonblack. (or maybe it was white and nonwhite, the use of ‘w’ and ‘b’ was confusing, ‘b’ and ‘nb’ or ‘w’ and ‘nw’ would have been much more useful. this assumption was also adopted in the ‘advanced’ paper I read in the political economy of inequality and redistribution about racial preferences for redistribution based on exposure to people of other races in one’s own neighborhood benefiting from redistribution).

After that, back home. I broke down and started the final fantasy origins (ff1) game. Fighter, Red Mage (technically, he is the superior character), Monk, White Mage. This time I chose a naming scheme such that each was the name of a character in a different Dave Duncan universe. I had to stretch, but I imagine I will feel slightly more original than in my earlier final-fantasy based naming theme.

Then dinner with the ruraler than I , my second 240 lab partner, whom I haven’t seen since before I moved to chicago, long before I got on lj. We’ve certainly both changed in the intervening years, but it’s reassuring to note that we are definitely the same people. =) Played munchkin with he and simon. Fun was had. Then sleep, then up at something like 5am for no readily apparent reason. Fortunately, I have managed to fritter away a few hours, though I may still get into the office before 9. <gasp>

Ro comes back today.