The weekend in Ward

Friday saw a break in tradition. First Year Oliver proposed that we have a poker night at his house in place of the traditional West Alabama gathering. Graham stuck to his guns, and I stated that I would go wherever the bandwagon lead me, which, in the end, was to Oliver's. I was up for a while but then was firmly in fourth place of seven, the lower three having lost and the upper three being the ones who would win money. I waited, picked my time, went all in, and lost, which was fine, because I had gotten bored rather quickly with it.

I did play some Halo, though.

Saturday brought traditional Saturday activities. That evening, Nathan, Melissa, Jennifer and I went to Slick Willie's to play some pool.

Sunday, I accompanied Stephanie to the Galleria because she was going to get her laptop looked at at the Apple Store. I had not been entirely satisfied with the feel of my keyboard, so I asked them to look at it as well. Afterwards, I patiently kept Stephanie company while she shopped—a skill acquired from time with Rebecca—and apparently impressed her with that ability. I did manage to find a pair of corduroys for my trouble, on sale, so all in all it was a reasonably productive trip. We had pizza from Sbarro, too.

That night, Jennifer, Stephanie and I went and saw Garden State. I loved it. It's probably not a brilliant movie or even a great one, but it was solid, believable, and Natalie Portman was hot.

Sorry there's nothing more interesting to report. Tonight's another one of the Graduate Student Council happy hours, followed by the Explosions in the Sky/Mt. Eerie concert. Perhaps there will be drunken tales to report later.

Randa started the ball rolling on this poll that matches you with your best political candidate. Here's my results:

1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%)
2. Cobb, David - Green Party (100%)
3. Nader, Ralph - Independent (100%)
4. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol, IL - Democrat (100%)
5. Clark, Retired General Wesley K., AR - Democrat (97%)
6. Brown, Walt - Socialist Party (95%)
7. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (91%)
8. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (77%)
9. Gephardt, Rep. Dick, MO - Democrat (75%)
10. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (75%)
11. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (74%)
12. Kucinich, Rep. Dennis, OH - Democrat (72%)
13. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (68%)
14. Lieberman, Senator Joe, CT - Democrat (35%)
15. Peroutka, Michael - Constitution Party (25%)
16. Badnarik, Michael - Libertarian (15%)
17. Bush, President George W. - Republican (2%)

The indie Batman

After watching Bend It Like Beckham last night with Stephanie and Jennifer, I snuck out to go catch Mono at mary Jane's (more on that shortly). There was a guy there who was wearing what I think was Batman's utility belt. It was a moderately bright shade of yellow, had lots of little pouches on it, and looked completely out of place. Sadly, I couldn't grab an incognito picture of it to share. I later saw him fish a cigarette and lighter out of one of the compartment—between the battarangs and the smoke bombs, I can only imagine.

Mono was excellent. They're all japanese, and make what basically amounts to beautiful noise. Simple melodies, lots of guitar atmospherics, and some steady drumming to give it some structure and keep you moving along with the music. They were also very loud. Luckily, I picked this show as a time to return to using earplugs, and so my ears are not ringing today. I picked these earplugs up during my last summer in Waco. I had previously used the cheap foam varieity, which have a tendency to provide a lot more sound reduction in the treble than the bass, resulting in unnatural sound. I also almost got them stuck in my ears. These have a much flatter frequency response, and though not perfect, are much more to my liking.

Also, I caught one song by the opening band, IQU. There were lots of keyboards, electronic beats, samples, etc., and it was fun music. The male half of the band was playing guitar, and he walked over to a theremin, and proceeded to do something which impressed the hell out of me: he continued playing the guitar melody, but was also able to move his hands so as to produce a countermelody on the theramin. It was absolutely brilliant. On a related note, if this biology thing doesn't work out for me, i'm going to become a professional theremin player.

Wednesday night was eventful in a very music nerd sort of way. Some of you may know that I consider the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds to be the greatest album ever made. That album was inspired by the Beatles' Rubber Soul, and after the Beatles heard the Beach Boys' response, they were in turn inspired to record Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This game of musical one-upmanship was to continue with the Beach Boys' next album. Brian Wilson started work on Smile, for which the original version of "Good Vibrations" was intended. Wilson's mental problems, compounded by the realities of the music business and the other Beach Boys being a bunch of ass hats, resulted in Smile never being fully completed as originally intended. Smiley Smile saw the release of a castrated version, but it was never fully realized.

A year or so ago, though, Wilson hired the Wondermints as his touring band, and began performing the entirety of Smile as it was originally intended. I listened to some low-quality bootlegs of this. Wilson then went into the studio with his band and proceded to record his vision of Smile, which will see release this Tuesday. I finally got to hear the full-quality leaked version on Wednesday, though, and felt very lucky to hear a masterpiece that I might never have been able to hear.

How is it? I don't know yet. It's very rare that I fall instantly in love with an album, and this has not been one of those cases. But there's potential there, and I'm sure I'll very much enjoy it. It's going to be hard to surpass Pet Sounds, though.

Best fortune ever

I've been continuing work on my modest proposal (it has nothing to do with eating babies... or does it?) this week, and not doing much else. My PowerMac G5 came into work today, and it is damn sexy. I've got the best computer in the lab now, and it's really a bit of an embarassment of riches, but I think I'll be able to live with that.

I picked up some Pei Wei (related to P. F. Chang's) tonight for dinner. After my spring rolls and lettuce wraps, I opened up my fortune cookie and found the following:



Any fortune that appeals the the egotistical part of my personality is good, and it's hard to top that one.

No Smoking

First, a public apology to Michele for misspelling her in a previous post. I'd gotten it right before. I'll make it up to you at some point. Now, on to our main topic.

Stephanie has, for some time, had a problem with her neighbors gathering to smoke in the hall outside of her apartment. I respect the occasional indulgence, but really, that's an outside sport. She complained a few times to the management, with no results, and I couldn't convince her to continue bitching until things changed.

Instead, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Office Depot to buy "No Smoking" signs. Stephanie wanted the little ones that had the graphic of the cigarette within the international "no" symbol; I tried to convince her that the large one that actually said "No Smoking" looked more official. In the end, I met her halfway and bought her the big one.

She put the signs up in strategic points near her apartment, and they worked—for four days. I observed them smoking when I left her apartment this past Tuesday night, and they looked very guilty as I passed by, and were about ten feet further from Stephanie's apartment than the used to be, so our attempt wasn't a total failure.





Stephanie finally complained to the office again yesterday (I don't think the management knows about the signs), and they said they'd send out a letter, and if it continued to be a problem, an eviction notice.

All of this is consistent with my impressions of our management, which is that they'll do what you ask them to, but you have to keep on their asses about it. I live here because I get a decent deal, and I have my apartment fixed the way I want it, and because our complex has trees and is relatively attractive (at least in parts), but they sure do half-ass things around here. For example, there's the first floor stairwell near my apartment which has been half-painted for six months. Or there's the elevator that breaks down an average of once a week, or the third floor stairwell doorknob that fell off and was then used to prop the door open for a month, or the security gate that's broken about half of the time, or the security guard that they hired after an apartment was broken into, who was here for all of three days.

It's a small price to pay for Ward's Palace of Love, though—which really needs to start living up to its name. Really. I'm completely serious about that.

Recent music

First off, I thought that this blog was absolutely brilliant. This guy found a memory card in the back of a taxi and has taken the year's worth of pictures on it and is building a fictional blog around them. Brilliant.

Just in case anybody cares, here's a few notes about things I'd been listening to lately.

The Walkmen's new album, which Bryan's been listening to a while, finally caught hold of me. They rock out very nicely in a style reminiscent of early U2. It's fun stuff.

The new Arcade Fire album shows potential, I think, to be an absolutely brilliant album that I'll wonder how I ever lived without.

I'm in love with the new Divine Comedy album. Think of John Williams-style orchestral swells, but behind clever pop with a rich baritone voice. It's completely over the top and overwrought, and I love it.

Rogue Wave's album has grown on me substantially since I saw them open for Guster. Additionally, I've also had some really good sessions recently with Wilco's Being There which I've owned forever but not always really liked, and U2's Unforgettable fire, which I've really owned forever and not always really liked as much as their other stuff, particularly The Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby.

Rilo Kiley's new album has moments that I really like, but also moments that really bore me. Also, Jenny Lewis is hot.

Oh, and speaking of hot redheads, there's a new one around the complex that I've seen once in the office and once on the bus. I will meet her, oh yes...

That is all.

Weekend Update

Apologies to Randa for stealing the title for her most recent post, but I swear I came up with it independently of her.

Thursday was uneventful.

Friday evening brought one of the more successful West Alabama Icehouse gatherings in recent memory. We had probably fifteen people show up, including first years, lots of the upperclassmen, and even our all-knowing program administrator, Wanda.

Graham got himself into a bit of trouble when Kennedy found a female name she didn't recognize in his call list on his phone. To be fair, they had had coffee once, and Graham hadn't really done anything wrong, and fessed up almost immediately what had happened, but for a while it was like watching a train wreck.

A representative for Red Stripe came by with free beer. When attractive woment offer you free beer, you don't say no. Graham and Char also instituted the "people who are late have to buy a round" rule, so there was lots of free beer that night. I'll be getting there early next week.

At some point, it had come out that Kennedy was a Radiohead fan, and, interestingly, she acquired her appreciation in almost exactly the same manner as Michelle. I'm beginning to think this is a full-blown phenomenon: guys introducing their girlfriends to Radiohead, and that love outlasting the relationship. Michele, you're not alone.

I discovered that Matt Baker and I share a love of stereo equipment, which is good. Since I lost my previous stereo nerd friend to the wilds of West Texas (Nick), it's nice to find people to fill that niche.

Some of us took off to a Greek place for some food. It was a bit mediocre, but our waitress made fun of Graham's pronunciation of pecan ("pee-khan") and Booth's pronunciation of gyro (jie-roe), which was nice. Plus, I was drunk, and food's always good at that point. I came home satisfied with an evening of soclalizing and drinking.

I caught Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow with Stephanie on Saturday evening. That turned out to be a really nice little film. It's not classic or anything, but it evokes the feeling of classic action/adventure/sci-fi movies, and it's a very pretty film as well, which I highly recommend.

After that, Holly and I went to Mary Jane's to catch Sloan. For the first time, I wasn't paranoid about my car being broken into throughout the whole set, because Holly drove, which was a nice feeling. She also bought me beer, because I had smuggled some shuttle tokens to her (shh!) since she no longer lives in our complex but still occasionally likes to take the shuttle. As for the music, they weren't really my thing, but they rocked out and had a nice stage presence. The whole thing was a little too balls-out eighties rock for me, but hey, at least they do their thing well. It was good to score some one-on-one time with Holly as well, which, actually, hadn't really happened before.

I've been entirely lazy today, and TV Guide has just informed me that Fox is airing Speed (2?) tonight instead of their usual quality Sunday night programming, so maybe I'll get off my ass and do something. The possibilities are limitless.

Superphantastisch

Tonight was the Franz Ferdinand show.

I had a bad feeling to start with, when I realized that most of the peopel there were not of voting age. There were lots of braces. Thankfully, as time passed, the median age of the concert-goers rose sharply, and though there were lots of overly excited teenage girls who no doubt knew the band from their heavy rotation on MTV, the crowd didn't detract from the show once it got going. The Futureheads opened, and they did their Clash-esque brand of punk well enough, though I don't know that it's my thing, exactly. The second band I didn't like at all. I can't remember their name right now, and I'm having trouble locating it, but they've made my list of all time worst opening acts, joining Citizen Cope (Ben Folds) and Whirlwind Heat (White Stripes) .

Franz took the stage, though, and all was forgiven. I had always thought their music would translate well into the live format, and it certainly did. They really knew how to play the audience, there were nifty flashing lights, and this is probably the most danceable show I've been to. If I hadn't been packed very close to those around me, I might have burst into dance.

Now I really do prefer general admission shows—seated venues tend to be a bit too mellow for a lot of acts—but I really hate the fucking assholes who decide that they're more important than everybody else and that they'll push their way up front. They always seem very surprised when I push back. In the middle of Franz's hit "Take Me Out", I noticed Jeff fighting someone off, so I prepared to do my part. Sadly, I had no control over what the people to the side of me did, but we at least made it difficult for that asshat, and I flipped him off, too. My only regret is not taking the kidney shot when I had the chance.

But, asshats and teenie boppers aside, it was a good show, even if I did have to pay Ticketmaster's extortion charges.

Wal-Mart through the eyes of innocents

Not that I would ever call Stephanie innocent, but she was a Wal-Mart virgin until this weekend. She claimed that they didn't even have them on Long Island where she grew up, but walmart.com and I quickly proved her wrong.

Stephanie has a bit of a Tori Amos obession, and had some old VHS tapes that she wanted to preserve on DVD. She decided that she would buy a DVD-R/VCR combo at Wal-Mart, use it, and then return it guilt free, because she hates the corporation.

This accomplished, I went with her to return the thing. She had expressed amazement at the sheer depths of white-trashiness contained therein—and this was a Wal-Mart in Houston. I made her walk around the store, and she was surprised that you could buy an engagement ring, a shotgun, and still do your grocery shopping in one convenient location. I don't think she understands the significance of their being open 24 hours, or how all Baylor freshmen seemed to shop there. After our first lap around the store, she looked at me, eyes pleading for me to say that we could leave. I didn't really want to stay there any longer, although perhaps in retrospect I should have—I think it would have been funnier.

I love you, but I've chosen I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness

First, a quick update on the rest of the weekend. Sunday was devoted to usual weekend pursuits including goofing off and running errands. I bought groceries, so I can actually cook in the proper sense of word for the first time since I started running out of stuff before abstracts were due. I headed out to Dan & Kristin's for the season finale of Six Feet Under, along with some pizza and beer. The season finale was excellent. I had expected it to be a real cliffhanger, but it actually tied up the one thread I really wanted to see tied up, and opened up some intriquing stuff for next season, which is unbearably far away.

I headed to Mary Jane's last night to catch I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, who are up there in the running for best band name ever (along with ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead). I enjoyed their set thoroughly. They had a bit of an Interpol sound to them, but prettier, with some American Analog Set-style laid back songs. The tempo picked up near the end, pushing them more towards the Interpol side of things, but anything they lose for musical originality, they gain back in band name ninja points.

Next up was The Electrelane, who turned out to be an all girl group from Britain. They were mostly instrumental, and I kind of wish they would have stayed that way, because I really didn't think the keyboardist's vocals were very good. They were enjoyable enough, but they came close to losing me halfway through the set when the keyboardist banged out a kick ass piano solo in the grand tradition of Ben Folds. In the end, they were all excellent musicians (particularly the lead guitarist and the keyboardist), and were cute, which goes a long way, but I didn't really like their sound that much. It boils down to respect, but not like, though I'd probably go see them again for the sake of Indie Rock Affirmative Action.

Dan and Kristin made it out, and I was also joined by BCM lab tech extraordinaire, Holly, whom I hadn't seen in quite some time.

September and October hold a veritable shitload of music to make up for the dry summer we had. Wednesday I'm catching Scottish rock gods Franz Ferdinand, and then this weekend there's American Analog Set, Cat Power, and Sloan, at least some of which I'll be catching. I should probably make it a point to get a lot of work done on my proposal, too.

I loves me some live music

Evening.

Hopefully, this post will be a bit more coherent than the last.

After a brief pillow shopping excursion Thursday night with Stephanie (I spend most of my time on the white lovesea when listening to music, and the pillows I had weren't cutting, so I picked up some new ones), I met up with Dan and Kristin at Mary Jane's to catch Minus the Bear (as well as the moderately enjoyable Statistics and the ballsy but lacking Paris, Texas), who were entertaining, if not spectacular. I don't think I'd been to a show since the Magnolia show, so it was good to get out and see some music. I hadn't been in a particularly great mood before then, but going out and seeing a show always makes me feel better.

Friday, I met up with the SCBMB gang for the usual West Alabama routine. A couple of the first year guys (who've turned out to be pretty cool) showed up—David and Oliver—and were wonderful enough to buy us lots of beer. Guster was playing the Meridian on Friday night, and since David's a bit into music, I had invited him along, and Oliver joined us. Holly wasn't able to make it, so I was glad for the company. We headed that way pretty close to 9:00, which was when the show was supposed to start. We missed the first opener (no big deal) and caught Rogue Wave, whom I'd seen open for the Shins. I hadn't really gotten into their album, but enjoyed seeing them live again (and subsequent listens to the album have been more positive). Guster took the stage, and I really felt the love. You only have to look at my glowing review of their latest album to see how big of a fan I am, but the fact is, a lot of their songs mean a lot to me and have been a part of many important times in my life.

I picked up their third album towards the end of my first year at Baylor, and it was there for me at the end of that summer when I had to say goodbye to my high school friends again and resume my college transition. Their fourth album came out last summer, and was something I frequently listened to during the times I was dealing with leaving Baylor, seeing Europe, moving to Houston, adjusting to life here, and gaining and losing a girlfriend. Consequently, their songs evoke memories of these things, but also, many of them are topically appropriate as well.

All of that is to say that seeing them on Friday night was a really emotional time for me, but in a positive way. Hearing those songs performed live was like seeing an old friend again. There's something special about hearing music you love in public, either on radio, or particularly played live—it helps you realize that your appreciation of it is a part of something larger than yourself, and that it means something to a whole lot more people than just you. It really affirms and legitimizes my love of the music. Music is a very personal thing to me, but it's also nice to know that it's something beyond just my whims.

And they rocked, too. Their "thing" is that a lots of theirs songs feature hand drums, so it's always cool to see Brian beat the shit out of his special kit. And they're funny and charming, and that helps give perspective to the music as well. And I got pretty drunk—eight or nine beers, and a shot of Jager, I think. I thought at one point it was less, but surely not.

Afterwards, we got some La Tapatia. God bless that place. Today was the usual laundry/dinner routine, but Jerry was still around, so it was good to spend a bit of time with him before he leaves town a few hours from when I write this.

I was around Jerry (who's six years older than me) quite a bit as a kid, and then after he graduated from Baylor he had a falling out with his parents and then mine, and I didn't see him for about four years. Last fall when he was in Houston for a reunion was the first time we'd spent any significant time together, and I'd grown up a lot in the interim, so I think we were able to relate to each other better. He was also there to get me drunk and keep me entertained at homecoming last fall when I was completley fucking miserable, and I hadn't really seen him since, so it's been good to spend some time with him. It was also good to realize that he's not really an asshole, but that he just comes off that way. He's a pretty good kid, deep down.

On an unrelated note, I think I'm starting to feel really desperate in the romance department, and I think it's beginning to affect my sanity and judgment. I probably need to get over that before I do something stupid.

Weekend in Austin, &c.

I took Jeff to the airport on Friday, caught the Keck seminar (they're paying me these days), came home, packed, and then got the hell out of dodge. I took a new route this time, I-10 to 71, and I liked it. I caught some traffic due to construction that was hella annoying, but I made it to Austin in about 3:45, which wasn't bad for Labor Day weekend. I made it to Rebecca's, and we did some hanging before we called it a night.

Saturday morning, I woke up to discover Rebecca was already off making a Taco C run, but caught Courtney, who invited me to lunch at Freebird's. It was good to catch up with her for a bit. I got back to Becca's for their pre-game barbecue (I later tried to correct Rebecca and impart that it was grilling, not barbecuing, but that fell on deaf ears), and there was beer to be drunk. While the ladies went to the game, I joined Cousin Jer for a (acurately named) barbecue at his friend Bailey's. It was just us for a while, and we made a significant dent in the beer. Bailey's somewhat hot friend showed up, and I witnessed the pain of a man who has to limit a friendship because he can't take the sexual frustration.

A few more people showed up. There was barbecue (Bailey did an excellent job), margaritas (Bailey did an excellent job), and several types of smokeable things. Someone Cousin Jer affectionately named "Nerd Girl" showed up, and though I pondered my options where that was concerned, Bailey made his move, and Cousin Jer and I decided to set off for the magical land of Sixth Street.

We were a ways away, across Mopac from it, and a good eight blocks north, too. Jerry was quite intent on hitchiking for a good portion of the journey, and he found us a Range Rover that took us the last half (two-thirds?) of the way. I wasn't terribly happy about this, but was drunk enough to comply.

Sixth street still amazes me. We hit up a couple of bars I don't particularly care to remember, had a few beers, girl-watched, bummed cigarettes, shot the shit, and so forth. We started to consider how to get home, and Jerry was resigned to take a taxi, when, just as he had hailed one, I managed to reach Rebecca, who agreed to come pick us up. Thank God—I'm too cheap for a cab. I returned to Rebecca's, tried to sleep, vomitted, felt better, and slept.

I awoke to once again find Rebecca had gone on another Taco C run, but had been wonderful enough to pick me up a sandwich from Jimmy John's (Austin's own version of Subway). We did some shopping that afternoon, Rebecca and her friend Kelly made some salsa for the house party we went to, and I learned that if somebody is smoking swisher sweets, it may not be tobacco in there.

Monday, we caught lunch at Texadelphia (a place for which I have an amazingly deep love—the philly with mushrooms and jalapeños is a wonderful, wonderful thing), made a trip to Waterloo, where I did some real CD shopping for the first time in quite a while, and then I headed home.

It was good to see the parents in Waco. Dad cooked steak, which alone was worth the drive. I've already mentioned my evening full of stimulating conversation with the lovely Michele. Tuesday I took care of the aforementioned business, and had lunch with my mom before I drove back to Houston, hung out with Stephanie, and retired to my wonderful bed.

Today was judgement day, part one. I first found out that my qualifying exam will take place on Tuesday, November 2 (mark your calendars, everybody!), and that they picked my first abstract (second favorite, second or third scariest, depending on my thoughts at the moment). Tonight brought dinner with Susan and Cousin Jer, and then some bonding time with Jer. I've decided that he's not really an asshole, he just plays one on TV, or something to that effect. He kept commenting on how much more attractive Texas girls were (compared to his current home in Illinois), which was intresting, I suppose. It was good times.

So, that's enough of me giving too much detail on things that aren't interesting and not enough on things that are, so I'll let you kids go. Exciting things to come, maybe?

Sometimes, you just have to get the hell out of dodge

So I did indeed make it to Austin this weekend and had some good times with Courtney, Jerry, and Rebecca. Stories will be forthcoming. I'm in the middle of my swing through Waco. I arrived here with new CDs, new clothes, and a renewed and reproportioned sense of perspective. Tomorrow I'll be getting clean teeth, trimmed hair, a couple of prescriptions, and a driver's-side window on my car that will go up in addition to going down.

I'm fresh back from an evening of stimulating conversation with the beautiful Michele at Scruff's. When you read all sorts of deep and semi-private things about a person on their blog, it's nice to actually spend some time with them face-to-face, as well. A friend of Michele's from work (Alison?—something a-ish) joined us, and her husband is apparently in Waco's premiere indie rock band, Quiet, Lovely. I enjoyed talking with her about that, and also doing a bit of reminiscing about the Waco music "scene" as it existed in my high school days. Currently, I'm enjoying the laptop: updating the wardlog over sweet, sweet wireless, and listening to U2's Joshua Tree. It's an album that always feels like seeing an old friend, and I have Michele and the jukebox at Scruff's for reminding me to take the time to listen to it tonight.

As i've mentioned, the trip's been good for me. It's nice to remind myself of things that I should be doing with my life, and things I shouldn't be worrying aboutI. It was wonderful to be elsewhere, hang with my sister, and cut loose a bit. Wednesday, it's back to reality, but for now, the big question is, do I want a burrito from Leal's, or a gutpack from Vitek's for lunch tomorrow?

Eye of the storm

I turned in the requisite three abstracts on Wednesday. It made me feel very naked handing them in, knowing they would be scrutinized by professors I respect. I felt some relief too, though.

I headed home early and didn't start drinking immediately as I had hoped. Instead, I put the latest Wilco album on and took a nap. Then I started drinking. I had trouble getting a good drinking posse together, though, so I didn't attain the levels of drunkeness that I had aspired to, as I had to do some driving. I had, oh, three beers and hung out in the apartment for a while before meeting Dan and Kristin to partake of the glory that is Onion Creek, where I had another beer. Dan and Kristin cut out early, so I headed to Woodrow's, and finding only a couple of people that I only sort of knew, left after one big-ass beer to head home.

I may not have gotten very drunk, but I had a cigar to smoke. I had received two in exchange for a Gmail account, and had been saving the second one for a post-abstracts celebration. So, I grabbed the cigar, a lighter, my Sennheisers, and my iPod and headed down to the pool, found a nice chair, cued up the Shins' Oh, Inverted World (which grows on me with every listen) and lit up.

I had been warned that the cigar (Opus X) would kick my ass, and it turned out to be true. There was something very peppery in the taste. But it dissolved into a velvety smooth aftertaste, something akin to coffee and cream—very nice. I can see why people get into smoking, as the nicotine buzz is always very nice. It's a very post-coital feeling, I think, what with the increased heartrate and bloodflow, but overall feeling of relaxation. It was a nice way to end the day. I made it most of the way through the cigar before the album ended and it occurred to me how tired I was. I stumbled up to my apartment and into bed, and slept.

So next Wednesday, I'll find out which abstract my committee picked (assuming my abstracts have proved satisfactory), and then it will be back to business. But for now, the break is nice. I'm heading to Austin for the weekend to hang out with the littlest Ward and cousin Jer. Debauchery should, hopefully, ensue. For those of you in Waco that read this thing, I'll be hanging out there Monday night, quite possibly bored and looking for something to do. Call me (e-mail me if you don't have the number), and we'll hang.