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Nov 8, 2003

It's 10:30am this morning. I'm startled out of a dream by the sound of intense knocking.

"Yeah!?" I shout, blearily. There is no response. I'm just starting to feel stupid when the knocking comes again, and I realize it's at my window. I open the blinds to find Caroline staring back at me. I shut the blinds and go back to bed, comforted by the realization that I'm still dreaming.

After about half an hour or so, I get sick of the figment rapping at my window and let her in. She slaps me, and it hurts, but I don't wake up. I surreptitiously pinch myself, with the same effect. "Oops," I think.

That's right, Caroline surprised me with a visit! Isn't she the nicest girlfriend in the world? Except when she tries to kill me. Which she did.

We'd gone to lunch at Gyro Wrap downtown and were on the way back to her car. We were freezing and huddled together for warmth, and like a gentleman I took her to her door and resigned myself to braving the elements on my way to the passenger side. Of course, when I got there, she'd locked the door.

Mock miffed, I started trudging away, dejection in my gait. She got the car started, drove up to me, and opened her window to apologize. In one smooth motion, I bent over, scooped up a pile of fallen leaves, and dumped them into her lap, then ran around and jumped in on the other side.

Of course, just my luck, it turns out Caroline is absolutely terrified of leaves. As soon as I'd gotten in, she leapt out of the car. Which was in drive and pointed down a hill. If not for my catlike reflexes I surely would have been off to that great parking garage in the sky.

But not today! With lightning speed, I ripped off my shirt, dove across the console, and gave the brakes a devastating right hook. The runaway Passport skidded, lost traction, and rolled. I was thrown against the door, then the ceiling, then the other door. Broken glass and blood whirled around me in a deadly snowglobe shaken by the grim hand of physics. The vehicle slowed and teetered on the brink of equilibrium, then reluctantly came to rest on its tires.

We rushed home and she nursed me back to health on a diet of milk, saltines, and Fintstones vitamins. All I can say is I'm fortunate to be alive to write this ridiculously exaggerated post.

OK, OK, I didn't really rip my shirt off.
Nick ::: 10:17 PM ::: 0 comments

Nov 7, 2003

Hey, does anyone else think that Will Ferrel looks like a douche in Elf and that it's totally going to suck? I mean, I know we all should root for the SNL alums' success on the big screen, but seriously, the saturation bombing -- er, I mean advertising, is not convincing me to shell out $5 for this movie.
Nick ::: 2:58 PM ::: 0 comments

Nov 5, 2003

I love love love the Student Learning Center. I had a Marine Science test today, so I came up to the third floor, opened Google in one window and the Web CT study guide in the other and crammed for an hour. Then, five minutes before class began, I took two flights of stairs down to the classroom and screamed through the test in 15 minutes. All this without buying the textbook and after accidentally leaving my notes at my dad's house.

I hate hate hate the office of admissions. They e-mailed me the other day, saying that they didn't have my high school transcripts, which runs counter to what they told me in August. But that's OK, because I happen to have an official copy, on school stationery, stamped with the FCBOE seal, signed by Dr. Caster. But when I hand-deliver it to them, I am informed that they can't take it because the envelope isn't sealed. You have no idea how tempted I was to walk out through the glass doors, lick it and close it myself, and then walk right back in.

God damn them all to burn in hell for eternity.

That is all.
Nick ::: 1:54 PM ::: 0 comments

Nov 4, 2003

My new roommate's name is Ian. He seems like an OK guy. But he walked into the apartment in the middle of NN yelling at me about the letter, so he's probably gotten the wrong impression. Thankfully, Brad came out of his room to bear some of the brunt of it. Mysteriously, NN's girlfriend and one of his particularly noisy friends also showed up and just stood there.

Anyway, I think good will come of the stupid thing, even though it got me yelled at by a world-class marathon yeller. For one thing, I've finally noticed a major psychological difference between college and high school: I can't get properly yelled at anymore.

In high school, your parents, teachers, administrators, and older friends can yell at you from a position of greater authority. If you're snotty like me, you tend to get a little voice in the back of your head playing messages like "I am smarter, more likable, and happier than you are, Mrs. Thompson, you gigantic ill-tempered potato of a woman," but the general pecking order disagrees with you. These are adults. Even if you're eighteen, if you're in high school, you're a kid.

Not so as a college student. Your parents are these faraway, remote figures; maybe you scorn them and maybe you miss them, but they're distant enough that you don't bother to be emphatic about either. Most of your teachers don't care if you pass, fail, talk, skip, withdraw, or end up a bloody smear in an alleyway, and the ones who do are generally affable friend-figures rather than great big scary authoritarians. It's like an entire school populated by Wades and Parises. Administrators are figures of universal contempt and derision. You are on an equal footing with everyone, up to and including Jesus Christ himself, should he put in an appearance.

Being yelled at by Brandonn was like being yelled at by my little sister (no offense, Jenn). We're not equalized by our shared status as students, because 'student' doesn't stratify you a bit. We're just a great big borderless group of people, and I was just an impatient and derisive person being yelled at by a relatively stupid and noisy person. Being yelled at was like my version of an epiphany.

And I would like to mention that even considering all the Wilde quotes I've had to swallow this afternoon in English, this is my aphorism of the day:

You keep driving.
I wonder if you'll crash.
I doubt it.
You've always been so good at avoiding what's right in front of you.

It put me in mind of Brandonn's insistence that he hadn't known we were annoyed with his behavior. And it made me smile.

Anyway, back to the point, Ian seems like a pretty good guy. I think he'll be worth getting to know.
Nick ::: 11:12 PM ::: 0 comments

God damn, people! You do know that the little "Spike yourself" link allows you to comment, don't you?
Nick ::: 11:05 PM ::: 0 comments

Roommate Robbie has left the building.

He told me yesterday in Econ and he moved out this morning. Apparently he's sub-let his room to some totally random person. I didn't think I'd be meeting my roommates this late in my college career, but shit happens.

So now I'm a little depressed, and I think I may be melodramatically brooding over the impermanence of all things. He's the roommate I knew the best; he's the guy who introduced me to Halo and showed me around Athens and put the fear of Pabst into my heart. And now he's gonna transfer to Georgia Southern and stop attending Econ and generally disappear except for brief AIM guest appearances.

Plus I still have some of his CDs.

It's strange to have been evilly plotting the downfall of one roommate for months, just to have another vanish unexpectedly. Last night BrandoNN had a friend over and they yelled and yelled and yelled until they both simultaneously passed out. At around 11:45 I came out to turn off the lights and the TV and they were sprawled all over each other, the remains of blunts all around and a puddle of drool collecting on the couch. How cute. I'll bet he won't even realize Robbie's gone until this new guy asks for help moving his shit in.

But he may not even then. Roommate Brad printed and posted the infamous letter of complaint this morning, so dear NN will probably have enough problems of his own to completely occupy his tiny little brain. He may even need to mobilize all his gray matter just to read the damn thing. I think the posting was precipitated by R moving out, so I guess some good may come of it.

I mean, I respect his reasons for moving, and everything. You gotta do what's right for you. But it's so sudden and strange. I've just started meeting new people here, and they're disappearing already.

I told you I was brooding. This sucks.
Nick ::: 3:50 PM ::: 0 comments

Nov 3, 2003

First of all, if you haven't seen the end of the world, you should.

Second, if I didn't see you this last weekend, which covers pretty much the whole world, I'm sorry.

Third, I finally saw Kill Bill. It rocked, of course. Iffy bits:
(a) I can't decide what to think about the way they used that damn Hotei song, because I'm thinking "damn you guitar solo!" but somehow I'm also thinking "this awesome song just for her to walk through a building!?" but then I'm also thinking "wow, nobody walks through a building like Lucy Liu!"
(b) I'm not entirely sure they picked the right artist for the animated part. Unless I'm mistaken, it was the same guy who did that animatrix short; I'm counting on my geek friends to tell me if I'm wrong. Anyway, I think his style clashed with the visual sense of the rest of the movie, and what with this and Wo-Ping I'm sick of Tarantino getting the Wachowskis' sloppy seconds.
(c) Though this is entirely my fault, I've read some of that script that's on the net, and I'm sitting here wishing more scenes had been included, to be specific the crying in the bathtub and the DiVAS cartoon show sequence. I'm hoping the DiVAS thing gets in Vol 2, at least.

Anyway, the movie was generally awesome, these are just nitpicks. I can't wait to see the next bit, and I'd be glad to see this bit with anyone who's in Athens. Oh, speaking of the next bit, though, she'd better kill Bill. I've heard rumors that she won't kill Bill, and that's just stupid. I don't mind if they do a dramatic reversal and we realize that we've been rooting for the bad guy all along; the movie already has that feel to it. But she'd damn well better fulfill the title, because it's about time someone realized that you don't have to have some bloody stupid twist at the end to have a good movie.

Anyway, it's late. Later.
Nick ::: 4:57 AM ::: 0 comments

It's about damn time I updated STOMPE. So I'm going to update STOMPE.

The Newest Installment of the Sound Track of My Pathetic Existence!

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Red Right Hand: It's like a Western, only worth your time. Or maybe it's like the portrait of the evil person that deep down you really wish you were. Either way it's a really cool song, and it doesn't deserve the dubious honor of being on the Scream soundtrack, so I stole it.

Sneaker Pimps - Post-Modern Sleaze: Can you hear someone sneering? Because I think I can. And she's making footwear available on a street corner near you. Mad props to chick rock!

Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock: Nothing makes you feel like a rock star quite like Billy Corgan with hair. Seriously...what a freaking cool 90's song. Or are these all freaking cool 90's songs? Whatever. Billy! Conan O'Brien wants his 'do back!

This last track was incredibly difficult to choose, for some reason. So I guess it's a tie between Radiohead - Idioteque ("Laugh until my head comes off"...and this song was around years before Kill Bill) and Nine Inch Nails - Closer (isn't it time you got a little closer to God?). They're both kind of technoey, with a twist, but beyond that they aren't much alike.
Nick ::: 4:02 AM ::: 0 comments