dressing up, dressing down, tea

holy crap. it's monday morning, and i haven't posted since thursday morning. because i haven't had the time.

the most important thing that must be said is that the past three days have carried with them the definite, tangible sense of spring. it's warm(er, at least), enough that as of yesterday i'm back to wearing sandals. there's also a sense of the spring festival coming up - the tribe is gathering ^_^

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thursday:

after getting up early, getting barely any reading done, arriving on campus early and *still* getting barely any more reading done, we sat down for a long talk on legless horsemen. this was followed by beer and a drum circle (although i stood on the outside, otherwise i'd never have finished my beer) before arriving late to a lecture on falstaff dressed as a clown; the lecture's response to my entering the room was quite amusing.

so, falstaff: not funny. i didn't foresee a lecture on the serious side of his character - intriguing and touching.

i decided to check early that our anime night room would be alright, and was (again) disappointed. after running down to the student union, things got sorted out and i wondered again why things have to be handled personally in order to get them right :/

the most common remark i received on thursday, from students and staff, was how much my giant, neon green clown-afro suits me. i don't know if i should take that as a compliment or not :P

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wordsworth and i sat down for a screening of taking sides - a movie made even more powerful and distressing after having picked apart sir ronald harwood's collaboration. insightful, and sometimes even amusing in its cruelty.

until like the last screening, there were a whole five of us. i was completely shocked, mortified, to meet the professor bearing the name that i'd inadvertently assigned to my mentor because she was the only person on the faculty page with that first name. now i know why i haven't seen my mentor anywhere - apparently she left the university the year that i met her :P

the movie reminded me of an article i read in wired about crowd-sourcing bureaucratic nightmares - like turning the british police's fraudulent receipts over to the public as a game. jolly good idea!

on of the faculty members blew my mind on the way out. when the department head told her to come to meet harwood, she claimed that she couldn't because she had a class.
"so bring them along!"
"but... but they're undergrads" (said with disgust)

eh?! what the hell kind of an attitude is that?!?!

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anime night: tokyo magnitude 8.0. so soon after the actual events, made it completely surreal.

we had a kanji lesson by a girl who didn't get that we're all familiar with the general idea, and some of us know far more than she does... all we wanted were some examples, and she turned on "teacher mode". "teacher mode" is a very weird set of phrases and behaviours that some people affect because they think that's how teachers need to behave... at least she didn't *demand* that we write everything down. we were getting worried for a second :P

*WARNING* *HIGHLY DISTURBING CONTENT*
(mostly because it doesn't make ANY sense)
THIS IS NOT A STRANGE COFFEE AD - it's a part of a strange movie called funky forest. botchman put it up on the screen and sent our brains reeling.

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i apparently make a great zombie clown! the zombie walk this year was impressive - so many people, so wonderfully dressed up! the only issue i had is that most of them were simply *walking*. no groans, no limps, no nothing. a bit sad, really.

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friday:

pg and i woke up late and i made us a serious omelette (i'm good with the basics, at least); then i hurried home to get ready, and of course *EVERYONE* and their mother called me while i was on my way out :P

i arrived at the park a little late, but we had most of two hours and a group of six poets reading an analysing - it was awesome.

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"i'm late! i'm late!" - i arrived at pappa's *just* on time, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the tables had been laid out beautifully, even better than promised. my introductory "EAT ME" cards made people smile while telling them they'd have to pay their own way... and nobody stiffed me with a bill!

we began about twenty minutes late, but everyone made an effort in their costumes and at the end we only *just* went over our two-hour there-are-other-reservations limit. we had two faculty members with us - one of them "oh, captain, my captain" karen alkalay-gut, who not only made the event legitimate and special by her very presence, but also read some fantastic pieces! her poem on freud wearing aristotle's red was not only appropriate, but totally right :D

there were so many people who benefited psychologically from their first reading in front of an audience, and a couple of their poems were excellent! i'll even forgive wordsword for beginning with an almost-epic poem, but only because a loud cry of "off with his head" went up from the red queens when he was done :)

as primary organizer, it fell upon me to fill the gaps. i opened with the teapot song, and after most of the undead poets' society had had a go, followed suit with my take on twinkle, twinkle. once we had reasonable momentum, we sang - and this was extremely touching, as it was loud, boisterous, completely discordant - we sang pirate carols. almost all of the party (upwards of thirty people) joined in enthusiastically, and almost all of the other patrons could be heard laughing during the pauses ^_^

we were so busy that there were a couple of serious poems read, but i covered those up with in another sleepy hollow and i sat down with my hat on, which went down well as well.

it was an afternoon of good costumes, (mostly) good poetry, general cheer and much enthusiasm all round - no greater compliment than repeatedly hearing "when's the next one??" and a couple of humble requests to join the undead poets' society :D

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we ate dinner at pg's brother's place - we ate a lot. i introduce pg, her brother and one of their friends to alanis morissette - my humps, which promptly got stuck in my head for the weekend.

the purim party - i haven't seen these guys since last year, and it was great! we got tickets to the festival, and were surprised to see dp sneak in - and when she's back, everyone gets together. or, at least, i get invited too :P

we drank loads of booze, talked and laughed, and eventually... i think i went to bed still dressed as a clown.

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saturday:

after a big breakfast, i got home to - what? study? and not argue on facebook over the rights and wrongs of our faculty management and attempt to convince people to join the forum we're putting together to address all the issues?

i went over to pg's to stand with her on her rooftop and see the moon as close as it gets in eighteen years - pretty! and warm, too. spring!

i spoke to dp, offering her my place for a couple of months while pg and i see how living together goes... i was overheating the entire conversation. partially because of the significance of the sentiment, partly because i'm never comfortable on phones and something came out wrong and kept getting worse... :S

we watched half of 20000 leagues under the sea over burgers from wolfnights. not their usual good quality :/
we only stopped watching because i passed out...

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yesterday:

i was amazed at how bright it was for 6am! until i realized that pg had heard me say 8am when she set the alarm. either way, it was shorts and sandals weather ^_^

i had my stitches removed, and friendly surgeon reported that while the mole out of my back was fine, what he took out of my temple was only the "crust" and so inconclusive. basically, i have to hope that nothing grows there again.
his asking me if my piercings were sexually pleasurable made me a little uncomfortable.

afterwards, i called the clinic to make an appointment for a different surgeon for something even more uncomfortable, and had a hard time communicating with the arab woman i spoke to. i'm not good with heavy accents :(

i was at work the whole day, without much time for non-work. at least it was interesting.

someone called me up to get in touch, and i felt bad (i guess he wasn't too happy about it either) informing him that he'd have to join one of my projects if he wants to see me, because i'm so strapped for time...

i went straight to pg's to help her make dinner (yay! she's forcing me to cook! ^_^), and we finished the movie. only interrupted once by the other dev guy; i can't figure out how he misunderstood the diagram i left him on the whiteboard :/

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emerson blows my mind. listening to this while reading self reliance, wherein he basically covers all the ideas i've been preaching for the past couple of years, was deeply satisfying.

prawns: i was telling of my own encounters; these things are nuts. thank you, neill blomkamp.

my cousin posted an interesting note on promotions, felt like sharing