only cream and bastards rise

Sorry about the hiatus, but I can't really blog when I don't have a computer, or when I'm insanely tired. Actually, I can blog when I'm insanely tired, as I am proving right now, but I didn't really feel like it. One night of my hiatus was definitely not my fault, though--my work computer got replaced before my departure, and so I was sans computer overnight while they transferred my data to my new computer. I was kinda sad to see the old computer go; it had gotten slow, and old, and the little mouse-nubbin had worn away, but there were times when it was my only friend. Okay, that's an exaggeration. But, I have slept with my computer more than I have with any person since I got the computer back in 2003, and that forges a strong (albeit depressing) bond.

Unluckily, the guys who do all the computer stuff aren't allowed to transfer music because it takes too long. Luckily, I was anticipating the upgrade and so had backed up all my music. Unluckily, I had about eighteen data cds' worth of mp3s. I haven't had enough time at my desk in the last couple of days to get everything re-ripped, so I can only listen to songs by artists between 2Pac and Jimmy Buffett. It's a little funny that that's where my library currently begins and ends, considering I never listen to either of those fine artists. Luckily, my music currently spans such favorites as Harvey Danger, Counting Crows, and Institute, so I'll probably survive until I have everything uploaded again.

The past few days have been fun (luckily). Monday night, I saw 'The Libertine' with Tammy. We caught the 10:15 show, which was a little dumb, but since I had a conference call from 7:30 to 8:30, I didn't have much choice. We both really liked it; I never thought that I would appreciate someone whose nose fell off due to an advanced case of syphilis, but it really works when Johnny Depp is the guy playing the syphilitic. I particularly enjoyed that the filmmakers made London look like it probably would have looked back in the day, what with all the mud, rats, poor peasants, and rich syphilitics. What I *didn't* enjoy is that I was using wikipedia the next day to read more about the origins of syphilis--and as I was leisurely scrolling through the page, I was quite dismayed to find that someone had uploaded a couple of pictures of what syphilis looks like. Ugh! I mean, it's not like I have never seen any graphic depictions of human genitalia, given my job, but a) I wasn't expecting this and b) at least the stuff that I've seen at work typically wasn't covered in lesions. There really should be more warning about things like that. Of course, this blog post could lead to the Justice Dept trying to censor Wikipedia, which would be a tragedy because wikipedia is a fantastic source of information. Hopefully it will be able to continue without any type of external censorship (although some internal censorship regarding the posting of disgusting pictures might be appreciated).

Tammy spent the last couple of nights here studying, which was fine with me, since I ditched her and went to bed. Last night, before she came over, I went to the Creamery and had dessert with Shedletsky and Eric (the Viking), which was really fun. Then, I went to latenight on campus (despite the fact that I took my last final almost three years ago) and had coffee with Roopa. I really love Roopa, and I wish that I would have hung out with her more when I had the opportunity--she's a cool kid, but now I'm moving away, so our friendship will be no more :(

Tonight, I had dinner with Claudia at our favorite mexican restaurant. I'm starting to realize how much I'm going to miss her, and the rest of my friends; I'm sort of following the same trajectory that I followed when I was leaving for India, in which I was so busy getting ready to leave that I didn't think about the implications of leaving until it was too late to do anything about it. Oh well. Hopefully I will get some fun visitors in Dublin--and as I know from previous experience, six months flies by. I've already been back from India for five months, even though it oscillates between feeling like five days and five years, so six months in Ireland will be a piece of cake.

One more item of interest: when I got home, I realized that someone had shown up to clean the apartment. When I opened the door, I had to unlock the deadbolt, which was freaky because I knew that Tammy had left after me, and she doesn't have a key to lock the deadbolt from the outside. So, as I was freaking out about how Tammy could have gotten out and left the door locked at the same time, I realized that everything was slightly tidier. Then I discovered that it was a lot tidier--like, the place was vacuumed, the towels in the bathroom were replaced, the trash was removed, and they even changed the color scheme of the bedding on my bed. Crazy! I'm so spoiled it's not even funny.

Okay, definitely time for bed--only two more nights in California!