Wow, Mr. Pope.

Hey! Homosexuals can be Catholic priests now. Well, provided they have gotten over that silly "gay" phase of theirs.

Life changes really fuck you up.

Studying in a foreign country for 4 months, impending graduation, marriages of friends and family members, an inevitable "growing up" can really throw one's center of gravity off. It's so hard to remember the past yet not live in it. It's equally as hard to think about remembering the present as the past in the near future. I am starting to develop core philosophies on life that on occasion contradict one another. Or at the very least are seemingly impossible.

Is it possible to survive in life without care for money? I read the teachings of the Buddha and generally think working for money is stupid. Then I get a massage and dip in a jacuzzi with what are essentially chaise lounges in it and I think "this is the way all should live." I want a job that gives me benefits and allows me to buy a house but I also want to work for an employer who would hire me even with an afro. I want to spend my life in academia and get out in the "real world" as soon as possible. Am I to think that I can never have what I want or always have what I want. Further, I don't even like wanting things. I just want to let things happen to me and accept them as they are like Sri Krishna suggests. But it is hard when you love people in different countries, and games that only certain people want to play. If one loves information systems and ML and filmmaking and film criticism and improv and theatre and cooking with friends and making Chinese food omlettes and eating Yong Tau Foo and Teh Ping and playing Betrayal and playing GHOST and bowling on teams and learning magic tricks, how can one ever be satisfied?!?

Unrelatedly, I have some WICKED ideas for Woodscotch Spring 2k6. No, they don't involve the show WICKED. I don't even know why I capitalized those letters. But yeah, super wicked. Why did I not participate (really) until last year. Woodscotch is the best thing ever.

An a side note, what do I want this holiday season? Does Toys R Us sell contentment?

The Proper Words Song.

I can't get this song out of my head.

Warning: do not click above link if your speakers are turned on and you are in an office or other place of potential embarassment.

Dreaming of Ohio.

Apparently LJ is down, so I will post this here during my limited window of Internet access (yeah, it's annoying) in the mean time.

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Whoever thought anyone would make that the title of an LJ post?

Well, it's true. I decided to take advantage of the first of my entire week of currently blank slots in my calendar due to it being the "study week" here before exams. Much like the recess week, the study week is an excuse to do a lot of work: I have 1 paper to complete, 1 whole project to finish, review sessions to attend, and 3 exams to, well, study for -- but nonetheless things have calmed down a bit. But I had been low on sleep and had a 6 hour project meeting last night, so I slept in.

I just awoke and was, for the first time in a long time, jarred to find myself in Singapore. I had a few dreams I remember (all involving food) but the last took place in Ohio. I can't say it was actually a place I had been to, or even actually Ohio, but the merchandise led me to believe I had returned to the state in which I was brought into this world.

I was driving along when I passed a huge sort of fair / bazaar type thing. The whole tented area itself was much to large for Singapore to waste land on, though the corporate sponsorship and marketing extravaganza feel to it all was much reminiscent of my current island home. I stopped and walked around for a bit. There was one shop that had incredibly oversized t-shirts. I remember thinking they were large even for Americans. They were hanging on the wall and taking up at least 2/3 of the entire tent wall and had American flags or slogans about Ohio on them. As I walked around, I thought only of things I could buy for my friends in Singapore.

I walked around a bit more and saw all kinds of little novelties and such. One store had musical instruments of all sorts: guitars, synths, etc. I started to see all kinds of hand drums and thought of my excitement to play them, then turned the corner and saw four or five teenagers rocking some of the drums. All together and all better than me. I listened for a while.

Finally I made my way over to the candy and ice cream sellers. I looked and looked and thought and thought and ended up ordering one scoop of ice cream. The flavor I don't remember but it didn't describe the flavor of the ice cream anyway -- it was something like James Dean Slept Here. The guy at the register told me they were running a special and 5 scoops were only $5 (my one scoop cost $1.15), but I told him no. The deal was ridiculous. I reached into my wallet and was horrified to see that I only had Sing money. I looked all through it in every pocket, remembering I had just bought something else. At long last I found exactly one dollar, a dime, and a nickel (though they were a bit warped, I really have some trouble remembering even now what American money looks like), and paid the man.

Quick sidebar: you may not associate ice cream with Ohio or Pennsylvania, but there's a reason. Singapore and the US present a tradeoff: sushi for ice cream. In the states, good sushi is not too commonplace and quite pricey, but delicious ice cream is everywhere and pretty cheap (unless you want to treat yourself to Coldstone). Here, I can get pretty decent sushi on every other block for next to nothing. But good ice cream is hard to find and quite costly.

Just as I was about to indulge, I awoke. My first thought was about how odd it was that I dreamt about Ohio. Not my family or friends, but the state itself.

Hey another guy named beej does improv...

which one would you rather know?

the other beej

Two emails.

The following were the subjects of two consecutive emails I received from different people, neither of them in any way related to cmu:

brian the mcbri-ster
brian mcgingleheimer

further, they each featured such delightful messages. the first included the paragraph:

twitterpated...have you ever seen bambi? thats what they call the state all the animals are in when they're frollicking around and having babies. twitterpated. it fits, if you ask me.

and the second, after the author had described a conversation she was having with someone who was fighting with his sister, a young Japanese exchange student said:

"i don't like fighting, i like peace."

What a way to start a Sunday! Course scheduling tonight!!!!

Cake = Spinal Tap?

Man, Cake can't hold onto a drummer:

Paulo Baldi - drums, percussion (on tour, not official member of band)
* formerly Pete McNeal (left during the recording of Pressure Chief)

Who knew Pete McNeal left during the recording. At least they aren't getting killed off.