Light reading

Pleasure reading? Lame.

Missed Chances

This kind of thing makes me wish I still lived in NYC.

Down By the Bay

I've decided to go to the ACLU of Northern California for the summer, so I'll be in San Francisco (and San Jose). 

Not So Fast

Even though most of it already melted, snow has decided to make a repeat visit to A2. I'm hoping it's gone by the end of break.

No Dough

Sorry, Will. Looks like it's gonna be SF instead.

Thank You K

Crim: Deadly

FDA: Deadlier

Civ Pro: Deadliest

Bean Counter

Good Will Hunting was on TV on Thursday night and I ended up watching my DVD of it over the last couple of days, partly because I have a bit of nostalgia for the movie (I went to see it with my mom when it came out) and partly because I may be in Boston this summer. I haven't spent a lot of time there - in fact I haven't been there since I was 13 - but my sister went to grad school there and a friend, coincidentally, is getting married there this summer. 

Watching the movie has put me on a Elliott Smith kick once again, which takes me back four years to my time in London. I spent a lot of that term walking around the streets listening to Figure 8 and Either/Or. Dunno if I would want to do that in Boston, though...

Month-to-Month

It's kind of scary that nearly a month of school has passed. It feels like it's been forever, on one hand, but on the other it also will be half done pretty soon, and that's what's unsettling. I've barely recovered from last term as it is.

Inconsistency

If I stand in a specific spot in my apartment, I can hear three clocks' second hands ticking at once - but none of them are in sync.

This is where insanity comes from. 

Through the Looking Glass

I was listening to the latest podcast from The Sound of Young America, with guests Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick talking about the new film Coraline, which opens on Friday. It's a stop-motion animation film about a girl, Coraline, who goes through a bricked-up wall to another world where her "other" parents are amazingly kind and sweet to her, and fantastic things are constantly happening. Of course, there's a dark side.

It got me thinking about the "other world" idea in general, from books dating back to Alice in Wonderland. Why is it that art conceives of other worlds as simultaneously more wondrous and more terrifying than our own, a heightened roller coaster of thrills and chills that makes our own world seem like a walk in the park? Is our own world that emotionally placid that we hunger for experiences that make the highs higher and the lows scarier? Do we conceive of the world as being "dull" because we have to spend every day of our lives in it? If we could go away to other places like Alice or Coraline, maybe our own world wouldn't seem so monotonous. 

I've probably oversimplified or missed something obvious. Oh well. 

Either/Or

The kid I was tutoring today asked me if I voted for Obama. Post-modern!

Answered Prayers

(The title of this post comes from Capote's final, unfinished novel Answered Prayers, for those who don't know. Capote died three days after I was born - make of that what you will).

It is a lovely 38 degrees out today, which means the snow is melting and I might actually not have to hike through snowdrifts for a couple of days.

And I have a job offer!

Whiteout

How much longer will there be snow on the sidewalks that the A2 municipal government refuses to get rid of, thus impeding my commute? I hope the answer is on the order of weeks and not months.

Thwarted

I was going to do all of my FDA Law reading for this week today, but our professor hasn't given us the full syllabus yet so I don't even know what to read for Tuesday, much less for Wednesday and Thursday.

Instead, I have decided to take a nap.

Teleconference Call

Phone interviews - nerve-wracking! My ear starts to hurt after a while - I need one of those headsets that people at the phone companies use - and the last one I had was a conference call that started to develop feedback halfway through, so I started to hear my own responses, which didn't help very much.

I should be happy to even have interviews, of course...

Made for Walking

My mother has been insisting, somewhat shrilly to my ears, that I wear boots, etc. in the bad weather. I've been just using my loafers since they're easier to get on but she browbeat me into buying some "weather-appropriate shoes", especially after I stupidly told her the story of walking to a final during a blizzard at 7 AM. I finally wore the boots this morning since I was curious to see if they would actually work.

Of course, my mother is right as per usual. Not only do they serve as lifts (barely) they actually make the walk quicker. I wish they weren't so weird looking, though.

Unclean Hands

I am worried that my new apartment does not have a dishwasher. For some reason this is something that I forgot to check when I was looking at it, mostly because I didn't think I would actually end up living there (long story). But having done three (three!) loads today, it would be irritating to not have one.

Our grades are going up from fall term. I am only waiting on one, which may be more maddening than before, or less. I haven't decided.

Snack Time

I made ricotta cheese tonight for a recipe I'm making tomorrow. It was pretty much impossible to not taste it while preparing it, but only later did I realize that I had had paneer for lunch. I should probably have more variety in my diet.

Deep Freeze

While yesterday it was 5°F and today we were blessed with a morning temperature of -15, tomorrow promises to be a balmy 22 degrees! Hurray!

I Won't Listen

I had my first yoga class today. The graduate school is providing four one hour sessions for $20 (and you get to keep your mat!). Unfortunately, while I enjoyed the class, it only highlighted my inflexibility (physically, not ideologically). And I was the only guy there!