The Creeps

I like to get lost in my thoughts. Some places are better for that than others, walking somewhere, in the shower, brushing my teeth and in lecture are my favorite places to get lost. Sometimes I reflect on the shit going on in my life and other times I am just completely silly, even in my own head. While I was brushing my teeth the other day I thought about what I would look like with no skin at all, or even clear skin. Then as I finished brushing and reached for the floss (yeah I floss after I brush, I know there are two schools of thought on when to floss, this is just how I do it) I looked at my teeth and started thinking about my skull and what it looks like. I started moving my mouth around and looked in to see what it might look like as just a skull. I was indeed freaked out by what my brain conjured up. I hope I never have to see what just my skull looks like, but who knows, maybe one day there will be a way to have clear skin and I can watch my diaphragm raise and lower with each breath. Part of me thinks it would be cool, the other part thinks it would be creepy. Yeah definitely creepy.

Preachy College Student

Yesterday the University celebrated Cal Day, which is not actually significant of any event in Cal's history, it is placed when there's about four weeks remaining in the semester. The day is geared mostly towards prospective students fumbling between Cal or any other school. Some seniors earned a full ride scholarship to a different school or they are trying to choose between Cal and the "school across the bay" (we win there, our clock tower is 22 feet taller--size does matter.) The University pulls out all the stops and shows how amazing the campus can be. Each department has a booth, every club is handing out some kind of propaganda, and the band is playing fight song after fight song. If you like crowds and enjoy overly spirited college students, this day is for you.

My family, namely, my mom and little sister, came to visit me for the first time since I started my college life. They met some of my coworkers and saw just how crazy Sproul Plaza is. We walked around getting free stuff from every booth. Mom, often out of guilt, would strike up conversations to make it appear she was actually interested in what they had to say. Needless to say she knows about as much as I do about Mediterranean anthropology. The people working the booths were either really dumb and believed in our interest or they were just really enthusiastic about their field. Probably both.

On another part of campus were about eight booths devoted to energy and resource sustainability. One of the booths offered a ribbon for making a sustainability pledge, for paper, energy, water and transportation. My sister made a paper pledge to use the backsides of used paper whenever possible and Mom made a water pledge to shut off the water when she brushes her teeth in the evening. I took the easy way out, I made a transportation pledge to use modes of transportation other than a car at least once a week. The last time I drove was spring break and the time before that was when I came home in the beginning of March. Like I said, the easy way out.

Even before the pledges, I have always felt guilty whenever I used or wasted resources. I always try to be environmentally friendly and conscious, but I often feel that the small number of people that are don't offset those that are not. I would like to hope that one day we can use purely solar or wind power and not have to worry about global warming or gas prices above $4 a gallon. There are four minutes left of (global) Earth Day 2007. What is your pledge going to be?

Things I Like

Life can be depressing and stressful, it doesn't help when these facets of life happen at the same time. With two weeks remaining in the academic semester and finals season approaching, I can feel the weight of college life settling firmly on my shoulders. It's times like these I like to point out the things in life that make me happy and, if I can, I would like to share them with you.

In no particular order:

1) Waking up with him next to me 2) New music 3) Sleeping straight through the night 4) Extra caramel/chocolate on top of whipped cream 5) Falling asleep to the sound of the rain against the window 6) Visitors from back home 7) New products from Apple 8) Laughing for 45 minutes because of something stupid my sister said 9) Finishing a test/paper early 10) Getting an A on said test/paper 11) Large paychecks 12) Sleeping in freshly washed linens 13) Bush's falling approval rating 14) Going to the top of the Campanile and seeing the Golden Gate Bridge 15) When my iPod plays songs that seem to capture my mood perfectly 16) Long car rides with a friend 17) even longer walks with a friend 18) Wearing scarves 19) Feeling good in my favorite pair of jeans 20) 8:00 class being cancelled 21) A clean shave 22) Receiving a letter or postcard from someone I haven't seen in awhile 23) Not knowing where my roommates are 24) A cup of tea before bed 25) Working up a sweat while playing tennis 26) Free food 27) Never wanting to put a book down 28) Making inside jokes 29) Dressing up 30) Having no new facial blemishes 31) Smily faces in my coffee 32) My team winning 33) Finding grammatical/spelling errors in the conservative magazine on campus 34) Getting the last maple nut scone 35) The big stores in San Francisco 36) Quoting "Scrubs" with Angie 37) Finding Nemo 38) Waking up to a 3AM phone call from a friend 39) Having more money in my bank account than I thought 40) The campanile at night 41) Sparklers on holidays 42) Not dozing off in class 43) Helping people with computer trouble 44) AAPL going up 45) MSFT going down 46) Buying people stuff with my meal points 47) Tax returns 48) Green initiatives 49) Drag shows 50) "Meeting" famous people 51) Kissing 52) Earning my way to the top 53) Early Summer 54) People seeking my help and being able to help them 55) Art 56) Silence 57) Wikipedia's random page button 58) Being genuinely interested in a lecture 59) Knowing what to say at the right time 60) You... yes, you!

Scorns of Time 2.0

If you've checked my blog within the past five days or so you would have realized Scorns of Time has a brand new look with "new features". A few things are responsible for the new look: (1) blogger recommending I switch to their new templates (2) I needed something else to help me procrastinate and (3) I thought the old satanic look didn't fit me too well. Even though there are a lot more "elements" now, the page looks cleaner and more aesthetic. I also hope the new look motivates me to update more frequently and perhaps draw more readers. Maybe all the black/red [edit: apparently the previous look was not black/red as I previously had thought, all I know is that it was dark and I wanted something a little lighter] scared potential readers away... I guess I will never know. Before I go into my normal "life contemplating" babel, let me walk you through the new "features" of my site.

The first thing you'll notice is the annoying "navbar" at the top is gone. I couldn't stand looking at it whenever I visited my page, it chopped off the title, a no-no. My brief profile also finds itself on the new page, incase you forget just who I am and possibly what I look like. Probably the newest and most exciting thing (to me at least) about the new page is my "song of the moment" where I feature a song that I am either listening to, currently have on repeat, or feel explains my life situation at the moment. The current "Bob Dylan" choice was chosen because well, the page has changed. I know, really original. If the song is featured it means I own a digital copy of it and if you are ever curious about it feel free to contact me and perhaps I can arrange for us to "experience" it together. In case you're wondering why it is not called "The Song of the Day", it is because that requires I come up with a new song and actually update my page daily which, as we know, I cannot accomplish. Recent posts are also archived in a nice hierarchal style that gives the appearance of neatness with little drop down triangles. In a white box I have my most frequently visited websites, the first group are blogs and the second group is just an alphabetical listing of websites I visit multiple times a day. At the very bottom of the page features a newsreel of news headlines for keywords of my choice. All praise web 2.0. Well, that's the rundown of my new layout. Any questions? comments? other? whatever.

I don't want to go to deep into my life situation right now, it's too hectic. I will however state that my roommate discovered he could talk to random people on the internet when he plays his stupid shoot 'em up game. As if his incessant clicking at 2:00am wasn't enough, I now have to hear him (loudly) praise anonymous people about how they successfully completed a mission while still maintaining enough geekiness to get them into the Star Trek convention for free, by the way, that convention would probably the only time he left the room and socialized with people face-to-face. I should stop, I am sure his friends are wonderful cyborgs... I mean people.

Best Friends, New Places, Great Times

One week back from spring break and I am already feeling the stress from the closing of the semester. This upcoming week I have three presentations, a small research assignment, an 18 page paper to start, and a write-up to complete... all before Wednesday. I have a feeling my sleep pattern will suffer the next few days. As a matter of fact this week's crazy schedule started just a few hours ago with the great homo history hunt in San Francisco for my alternative sexuality class where me and three other classmates romped around the city looking for landmarks in queer culture. Needless to say, I am exhausted.

Fortunately, I got a small break from reality when the two best people I know decided to take a few days out of their spring break to visit Jena and me. Kasey and Katie arrived in Berkeley early Thursday afternoon and we spent the time laughing and loving the fact that we were all together again. Even though it was only a week since I saw them last, it feels like it was a week too long. We consumed Peet's coffee, walked around Berkeley, spent hours talking with Peet's Coffee in hand, froze in San Francisco, and watched emotionally scarring "films". Did I mention, we consumed Peet's coffee?

Even though we were out of our natural environment (the AV) nothing about us together felt unnatural. The dynamic transferred seamlessly past the 400 miles and I had a wonderful vacation from the stressful reality I currently live. The saddest part of the vacation was before falling asleep when I realized they would be leaving and I would be without them in close proximity. It may be counter-intuitive, but even though I don't see them often, I feel like it's normal to be with them. Before I get all teary-eyed just writing this I will post some pictures of the trip and let me say thanks. I have an amazing summer ahead of me.


Kasey and Me outside the Ferry Building



Katie and Jena on BART



Kasey and Me on BART




I wish I had a group shot.