Too much time?

It feels surreal to have a 3 (for this week, 4) day weekend.

How odd.

In other news, I ate shit on the curb of Jefferson when someone stepped in front of my already slow-moving bike and I toppled over trying to avoid her.

I now have a fear of crossing roads on bikes and not very pretty skinned knees.

I also have a myriad of ridiculous band camp tanlines, to the point where I'm one ethnicity from the neck up and about 2 others from the neck down.

Save the trees, kill the people!

As a friend said, welcome to university - making you pay money every step of the way.
My booklist for this semester has exponentially increased to a whopping 20 books for 4 subjects out of 5 I've signed up for. The last class is a computer class, so I'm guessing that the manual for that class is going to be as expensive as the rest combined.

It's funny...when I was helping out with the CALPIRG Higher Ed and Textbooks Campaign, I definitely had it easy compared to the others when it came to paying for textbooks. Now that I've quit as a full-time volunteer, someone up there decides to instigate some sort of financial retribution by switching the laundry list with my usual book list.

Being the poor international student I am, I refuse to buy any of my books in pristine condition. I probably won't use any of my books again after this semester, and it won't hurt the environment as much if I buy used (see title).

That said, one potentially good outcome of this is that my classes are all upper division, and therefore look to be more interesting since they're using more diverse texts. I sure hope it'll help relieve some of the heart attacks induced by the bills. $170 and still counting (I don't want to even attempt to calculate how much the lot will cost if bought new).

The second part of the title refers to the online game I found, Pandemic 2. Strangely addicting considering the objective is to wipe out the whole of humanity, but then again it's also rather thought provoking considering I made it through the heart of the SARS pandemic and have been living in a bird-flu-infested city for a while, in addition to learning a smidgen about bioterrorism from my Freshman Seminar.

[These thoughts have been censored due to international security issues]

"Blueprints still in development"

I honestly don't care if I never adhere to a religion.

I don't really care if I'm a strong atheist, a weak atheist, an agnostic, or an apathetist.

I could join the cult of Cthulhu, Pastafarianism, or start a new religion if that's what it takes.

I found something a while back that sort of helps explains it all. It pertains to an atheist court case, but what the hell:

"An Atheist loves himself and his fellowman instead of a god. An Atheist knows that heaven is something for which we should work now—here on earth—for all men together to enjoy. An Atheist thinks that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue, and enjoy it. An Atheist thinks that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellowman can he find the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment.
Therefore, he seeks to know himself and his fellowman rather than to know a god. An Atheist knows that a hospital should be build instead of a church An Atheist knows that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. He wants man to understand and love man. He wants an ethical way of life. He knows that we cannot rely on a god nor channel action into prayer nor hope for an end to troubles in the hereafter. He knows that we are our brother's keeper and keepers of our lives; that we are responsible persons, that the job is here and the time is now."
- Madylyn Murray

Pretty idealistic, admittedly, but I'm not gonna take it as doctrine.

I think this is the one time where the journey means more than the destination.

Everyone's a little bit racist

I was lucky enough to catch Avenue Q on its 5th anniversary last night.

And I think it's just amazing how a simple soap operaish musical featuring puppet sex can address a bunch of social issues at once and still be so entertaining.

Love it.

Now I'm going to listen to the CD on repeat until I drive my parents nuts.

eeeeeee

Is it wrong that I think that two of my old teachers getting married is one of the most adorable things ever?
Mind you, most of my friends and I spent our middle/high school years being taught by one or both of them, so I'm not the only one squeeing and leaving congratulatory messages on the groom's Facebook.

Oh, and I'm seeing Avenue Q tomorrow!

Helloooo from New York

After a 15 hour plane ride, a 3 hour delay due to air traffic among other things, and a $10 taxi ride that got jacked up to $24 that led to my mum calling the police, I'm back in the US.

On the East Coast, that is. At 4am.

And it seems that I have missed an exciting/terrifying event back on the West Coast. Glad to see everyone's okay though.

In other news, I failed my driving test back in Hong Kong. I had just done my 3-point turn and parallel parking, and was going down a steep narrow road when two trucks sort of loomed up in front of me.

Cue momentary panic, minute swerve and gentle bumping of the curb.

Yeah, that pretty much killed it for me.
I was really nervous though, especially when it turned out that my test was going to be 30 minutes earlier than stated just because everyone else had gone ahead of time.

So I'll most likely retake the test in LA. Not the best location, but I don't have much choice.

The simple things

Give me now a splendid sun
With all His light full clear

Give me now a gentle autumn
Before the dying of the year

Give me a field of unbloodied grass
While I can still see far

Give me one night on a river
One unfailing star.

- Jack Murphy