When little Gavroche sneaks out of the barricade to steal ammunition from fallen French troops, his action is heroic and not foolhearty only if the pouch he fills makes its way back to the rebels. Throwing it in a hook shot to stage right is not incredibly helpful when the barricade is directly upstage. Poor kid tried, but he was just way, way off.

Best cover of the evening — a rebel accidentally knocks over some cups from a table, and they have to get off the floor before the scene change otherwise someone is going to trip and get killed, so one rebel grabs two of the glasses and continues on, and another rebel comes from the other side of the stage during the song, picks up the remaining glass, and toasts with it. He may have even taken a drink. From an empty glass that fell on the ground. Just like real life.

Little Cosette was tiny and adorable.

When big Cosette sang “can people really fall in love so fast?” I turned to Shaina and (a little too loudly) whispered, “no!”. Jessica, on the other side of me, started laughing, and I think I might have upset the people behind us.

Why does every single Javert have to sing in that silly monotone? It is really annoying, and its got to be hard for people who don’t know the words to understand him.

Jean val Jean lifting the ox cart is supposed to be a major and pivotal point in the story. It sets up his next conversation with Javert and leads to him exposing himself as the escaped convict that he is, messing up his entire life. And yet, this val Jean just went over, lifted the cart with the tiniest effort, and then handed it off to some other guy to hold up while he went and cared for the man trapped underneath. It was pathetic, and I just had to laugh out loud at the absurdity of it. Someone, possibly the director, should be shot.

I’ve now seen Les Mis three times professionally (Ahmanson, Broadway, Pantageus) and the high school version (at Fullerton College) once. I feel pretty well versed in it. I think the only other show I have seen more than once is Ragtime, which I saw on Broadway and at the Performing Arts Center. Oh, and also Avenue Q twice on Broadway. I really want to see Wicked again. Oh, yeah, and I saw Rent both on Broadway and at The Grove in Orange. Wow, I’ve seen a lot of shows a lot of times! With both Les Mis and Rent, the Broadway version was pretty inferior to the touring version. Not sure why that is. Maybe being on the road keeps it from being routine.

Oh, one final note. This time, the slow motion battle scenes and Javert’s suicide and such just looked really, really funny. Not to mention all of the extraneous turntable use. I guess I just hadn’t realized before how funny that all is.

Finding that I’ll probably have some free time on my hands with nothing I “need” to do for the first time in a while now, I’ve decided to catch up on some reading. I brought home Bowling Alone, a non-fiction study of American social and group dynamics and how they relate to the foundations of democracy and citizenship, along with The Confusion, a 1,000 page second book in a three book historial/science fiction series by one of my favorite authors, Neal Stephenon, that I really have to return to Adam Batkin one of these days, if I can ever get through it. But I probably need some fiction that is a bit lighter, and I know at various times people have recommended things to me and I’ve said I might read them. If you have a suggestion for a piece of lighter fiction that you think I might enjoy, please post it here. Is the new Michael Crichton book worth pursuing? I don’t think I’m ready to tackle The Lord of the Rings yet, or anything else massive. An Ender’s Game or Snow Crash is more what I’m in the mood for.

Ideally as soon as possible, because who knows if I’ll be able to find a Barnes & Noble in Maui.

I was going through my photos, trying to figure out what happened to some of them, and discovered these images of a trip Kelli, Aaron Gaynor, Beth and I took to go apple picking back on September 30th. There were bunnies. And a pumpkin tree! Enjoy!

BlackBerry

A few months ago dad got me a BlackBerry. It’s a darn cool device, although some aspects of the OS are a little primitive. It is very good at email, thanks to a wonderful little built-in keyboard that I can actually type on, using my thumbs, and a nice little address book that combines all of the various contact methods in one place. However, the built-in Nextel web browser is pretty crummy, and are the todo list, calendar, and memo pad applications. Plus, it doesn’t sync with CorporateTime, or, well, a Mac.

So I shelled out $30 for PocketMac, which lets me sync with my Mac, somewhat badly, and $30 for WebViewer, which is a really great little web browser. I refuse to pay $48/year for WebMessenger so I can do IM, same with the $195 fo the only available SSH program. Yes, two hundred bucks for something that has been implemented a hundred times for free and open source on computers. BlackBerries are very corporate-focused, and there exists very little useful software that doesn’t come with an exhorbanent price tag.

Internship

Next semester I will be spending two days each week working at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. It looks like a pretty neat place, and I’ll be doing something or other related to web filtering. My ideal schedule is Tuesday/Thursday at Berkman and all my other classes on Wednesday, but I’m not sure if that will actually work or not. But four day weekends would sure be fun.

Girlfriend

I’ve never mentioned in a tangible medium that Kelli and I have been “officially” dating for about two months now. So there’s that. Sorry, Kelli, had to post it eventually. 😉

Exercise

Near the beginning of summer Aaron suggested going to the gym, and just like that I made it a habit, kept at it for a long time, and somehow managed to lose about 20 pounds. I’d like to lose 20 more, but that might have to wait until next summer. Or…well, whenever I have a few months of free time. 🙂

This miraculous feat was accomplished by spending almost every day at the gym for about an hour and a half. I mostly did the eliptical machine and a bit of rowing and reclining bike, but Kelli has encouraged me to branch out and now I switch off between eliptical and running, with 10 minutes or so of rowing at the end. Because I could set my own hours and didn’t really have much to do, I was able to do lots of gym, walking around the neighborhood, and cliff walks in Newport over the summer. Once the school year re-appeared I had to cut back a bit, but I still try to keep going at least 3 times a week, for at least an hour each time, and I seem to be staying at around the same weight.

In terms of eating, my eating habits have changed very minimally. I think I ate less over the summer, but with school back in swing I find myself eating pretty much the same as I used to, and I think going to the gym serves to keep me balanced off. If I worked harder on eating healthier and less, I could probably lose more weight, but I enjoy food and its not a sacrifice I am willing to make at this point.

Winter break

My last final is on Tuesday and I am going home Wednesday morning. On Thursday Aunt Linda is taking us to see Les Miserables at the Pantageus and on Friday we are off to Hawaii through new years. At first I was sort of blah about it, but I’ve gotten a bit more excited over time. I’m not big on sitting on the beach all day, but I will be able to get some reading done and hopefully explore some aspects of Hawaii that I didn’t get to or don’t remember from when I was younger.

Well, that’s about it in terms of short updates. I’m sure I’ll have more substantial things to write about once all of this finals business is done. For instance, I’m really excited about copiers, for some reason…

I don’t want to be tedious and post all about my wonderful finals, cause it happens every semester to everyone, but in explanation for my semi-absence from reality, I’m working on a few papers and studying for a few finals. Nothing exceptional, but I’m not very good with this whole “schoolwork” thing, so its…difficult.

Lots of distractions, ya know. Ooh, a shiny nickel! Wait, what was I saying?

At last night’s Senate meeting I announced my resignation as Secretary effective at the beginning of next semester. Last year I devoted a fairly massive portion of my life to the Student Union, learned, grew, and almost failed out of school. Well, SU wasn’t the entire reason, but it ranked highest as a contributing factor. Despite that, I found the experience invaluable and don’t regret it.

Last night I sat in the Union office as the Senate meeting went on and thought about how many times I had done just that last year. Between parts of the meeting that were important to me for one reason or another, I would hang out in the office with others and we would sit around, talk, chill, whatever. It was really nice. Gratifying. I worked on projects, I made change, I went to meetings, and the like, and I enjoyed it.

But it just takes up a massive amount of time. To do it right, its like a job. A job with no pay and little recognition from the general population. A job when you’re supposed to be going to school. And while I’ll miss it, I think that in my last semester I want to take some time to do some other things that I haven’t gotten to do. I want to have lots of time to hang out with Kelli and with my friends. I want to finish what I started first semester of my freshman year and become an editor of a newspaper — The Hoot, the paper Igor and I are founding to shake things up a bit and get journalism working right again on this campus. I want to do a good job at the internship I hope to get (interview tomorrow, wish me luck!). I want, at the end of the year, to have my affairs in order, so to speak, and to be confident that what I’ve done for the Union will carry on and be improved upon.

And to do all of these things, I need to get away from the day-to-day chaos of being Secretary, pass that job off to an able-bodied and enthusiastic underclassman (with any luck, Aaron Braver. You have my endorsement, buddy!), and start focusing on the major projects that I really care about right now. The aforementioned, plus, with any luck, work on reforming the Student Activities Fee structure and governing process, hopefully in conjunction with improving Student Union business services to the community.

Mark and I are going to talk about an E-Board position where I can continue to contribute to the Union and help to pass on the things I have learned and discovered while having more freedom to do the things I want to do. A consulting job, I guess you could call it. Sounds like fun. Guess I’ll find out soon enough.

Does anyone need any 38/32 cargo pants or “super khakis” from Old Navy? Because I don’t, and I have four pairs that I guess will be going in the clothes donation bin.

I now have a real web browser and an instant messaging client working on my BlackBerry! I’ll be online from time to time as “Pythagorous 2”. Awesome!

That is all.

As far as flights go, leaving at 6:30am is not the worst thing in the world. It was a while before I could go to sleep, but after the normal pre-flight annoyances, take off, and a hot meal, I was able to plug in my iPod, the earphones of which block out most of the sounds of the airplane, and get a couple hours rest. Well, as restful as an airplane seat — first class or not — can be. The weather was not the greatest and I didn’t get to see any of the spectacular views out of airplane windows that I love so much. Upon approach to St. Louis there was zero visibility through the fog, and I was worried about an instrument landing, but luckily visibility improved once we descended to, I dunno, maybe a hundred feet. So no missing runways or crashing into things. Always a plus.

The plane on the first leg was a Super 80, an old McDonnell Douglas model, with pretty much nothing in the way of luxuries. First class meant larger seats, some more leg room, and a meal pretty much equivalent to typical coach airline fare, which is fitting since these days American Airlines only allows coach passengers to indulge in, at most, a packet of peanuts. There was DC power, but I did not have the proper adapter. I also had not brought along any movies, as this was my first plane flight since canceling NetFlix. I had looked up my flight online, and to book it a few days beforehand on the AA web site would have been about $1800, which seems just slightly excessive (I was flying free with miles). Don’t get me wrong, I like first class, I like the leg room, but that’s pretty much it, and it is not something I would pay for.

When I fell asleep I had a strange dream that intermingled a lot with the reality of the last few days. I dreamt that I fell asleep (as I just had) and that I slept through my stop, and woke up in time to realize that my plane had just departed for its “final destination” of Las Vegas (a destination Kevin had mentioned last night). After a fairly stunning landing, involving going around casinos and through tunnels, sometimes backwards, in what I could only assume was the latest advertising ploy (Circus Circus! MGM Grand!), I ended up, not in an airport, but some type of mall. My first order of business was to find an ATM, because I didn’t have any cash, which, again, meshes with reality. I was looking for BofA but found Fleet, which is odd for Las Vegas, and also found Sue and Bob Pugash, which seemed a pretty random. Upon approach to the ATM I realized that money had miraculously appeared in my pockets, and while pulling it out I dropped a ticket stub which a child picked up and commented on. It was from either Waiting For Godot or Bend it Like Becham, don’t ask me why I’m remembering those two, and was dated a few years ago.

Leg number two boarded about twenty minutes after the first landed, and that flight was aboard an MD-80, which was pretty much the same as the Super 80 except for some minor cabin differences. Two oddities presented themselves. First, American no longer offers passengers pillows. Secondly, the second flight offered a breakfast course that was remarkably similar to the first. So I had two breakfasts. Eh, I was hungry. I guess waking up at 4:32am does that to you.

Traveling over New Mexico, I opened my window shade to see a patch of clouds that looked completely unreal — low to the ground with the sun casting a shadow that looked almost exactly like what you would get out of Photoshop if you were trying to fake 3-dimensions. More music, less sleeping, no interesting dreams, and some reading — this week’s New Yorker followed by the first chapter of Daniel Schorr’s Staying Tuned, his memoir about sixty years of journalism. Why is it all of the really interesting people grew up as poor immigrants in New York who have to struggle to get by? I might be on to something here…gotta file that one away.

We’re landing soon, and now all that remains is to decide if I want to shift to PST or stick with the Eastern Standard Tribe for my six day visit. And to remember to watch Scrubs tonight. Life without TiVo is complicated! Oh, and I do still need to find a flight home, preferably not getting in to Logan at 11:30pm, as my current one is.

Woah! Its the Grand Canyon on my right! Looks a lot smaller from up here…

Now approaching California. Is it still home?

My homepage has been pretty empty recently because I just haven’t thought of anything to write about. It’s also a problem when I call home, or home calls…not much to say.

One thing I have been doing lately is catching up on other people’s blogs. My friends with blogs don’t update very frequently, so I had to branch out, and one of the people who I haven’t read about for a while is Aaron Swartz. You may remember Aaron as the home-schooled tech genius who is now a freshman at Stanford. Or maybe you don’t.

I stopped reading Aaron because, while I find him highly enlightening in some areas, much of what he writes is not informed by…I dunno…wisdom. Meaning, he is intelligent, well read, and thinks a lot, he is inquisitive and highly interested in the world, all of which I like, but he kinda lacks the ability to think about things from multiple angles and see them in a social context. He also sometimes lacts tact.

So while I’m here (tactfully ;)) analyzing someone who I don’t know except through some blog postings, I might as well also note that he is dumb.

Not in general, just in this specific instance. If I met someone who wrote things like this and wanted to be my friend, I would put down my damn book and talk to her. I think that most of Aaron’s commenters agree, and I hope he will heed their wisdom. I’ve learned that college is not so much about the book learning as about the personal development. Take advantage of the freshman year window to make some good friends, because after that it gets harder.

Aaron is young and smart and perceptive, and I have no doubt that he is going to figure out all of these social things pretty quickly now that he is in an environment full of people. Good luck, Aaron!

One thing Aaron is taking advantage of is the wonderful opportunities of Stanford, many of the reasons why I wanted to go there. There are constant talks and lectures and meetings about really fascinating stuff with really fascinating people, something we don’t get enough of here at Brandeis. I’m sure not many of the Stanford undergrads understand the opportunities available to them, and I’m glad Aaron does. I feel like when I’m older if I’m not working at a university (I probably won’t be) it would be nice to live near one, and I’ll have to do more to keep track of what is going on at them. For instance, I’ve gone to one speech at Harvard Law School (Larry Lessig, of Stanford), and there have probably been a lot more I would have liked to go to, had I been paying attention and had the time to drive over there, find a place to park, figure out where things are on campus, etc.

I should do that.

On a completely seperate note, this $3.50, 350 calorie Healthy Choice turkey meal is not bad at all.

I have a habit of what some might deem to call “self-destructive” academic behavior. My first year in college was my best academically, but after that it was all downhill. For a long time I’ve thought there is something wrong with me. I like college, I like taking classes, I dread a 9-5 cubicle job, I enjoy learning and exploring and arguing and growing. So why don’t I do my work? Last year, first semester it reached a pretty major low point when, through a series of bad decisions and coincidences, I got placed on academic probation.

The thing is, even before college I behaved like this. In high school, and probably in junior high as well (although I don’t really remember) I often waited until the last minute on assignments, didn’t do the readings, etc., etc. But I was always able to coast by and just make it through. There were a few exceptions. Biology AP was a bit problematic, and Calc BC was pretty darn bad. But I got by. Things were pretty structured, there wasn’t too much work, and I’m a fairly intelligent guy who can usually figure things out.

In college its harder, because the requirements are different — more direct participation, essays that need to actually say something more then just regurgitating a few facts and snippets of pre-determined analysis. Lots and lots of readings. A lot more of a hands-off attitude by teachers (i.e. not constantly checking in with pop quizzes and worksheets to make sure you’re keeping up). And my thinking is, maybe this just isn’t my thing.

It’s a pretty simple notion. People are cut out to do different types of things. We have different strengths and weaknesses. And despite how much I love the idea of education, I feel I can state, in my senior year of college, that this just isn’t right for me.

When I get interested in something, or excited about something — a project, an idea, a job — I can go at it non-stop for hours, days, weeks. When I can see forward progress, when I can make a positive contribution, when I can have concrete results, I do great. My experience has proven to me that I can be really good at focusing on things, and not just little things, even big complex things. On strategizing, on managing, on meeting, on working hard, on making shit happen. But I just can’t do the types of tasks and work in the way of working that college seems to demand. Part of it is that it is impossible to do all of the reading, and I’m just not very good at figuring out how to skim and skip and “cheat” such that I do enough of it to be effective. Part of it is that many of the readings I find long, boring, unenjoyable, and uninteresting. But a lot of it, I think, is that I just don’t work this way.

We’re all programmed different ways, we all have different ways of thinking and acting. And the way I’m programmed doesn’t square with what I’m doing. I think that’s why I find Student Union to be such an interesting and educational experience. I’ve learned, through my time in the Student Union, what type of worker I am. I’ve learned what type of work makes me happy, and how I can be effective at it. I’ve learned that I can really care about a cause and really work to make things better, and that when I’m surrounded with people who care as much as I do, I’m forced to constantly be at my best. By the same token, when there are people around me who do not have the same level (and type) of dedication, my inner cynic comes out, and I lose all my effectiveness.

So the problem is, I have to graduate from this place. In case you were wondering, I’ve dropped the whole thing about getting straight A grades. My subconscious did it to me, actually, when it worked so hard to ensure that I messed up my first test of the year by mixing up the dates. But I’m okay with that. I’m not worried about GPA any more. I know others in my family are. I know my grandparents will continue to be disappointed that I’m not living up to the commitment I made in exchange for having gotten the chance to go to Brandeis in the first place. I know that I’m, in some respects, abusing the circumstances of my birth that have allowed me to go as far as I have. But personally, I’m okay with it. I think that what I’m doing, the direction I’m heading in, is whats best for me, and, at the same time, what is best for the world. I hope people get that I don’t mean that at all in a narcissistic way.

Gotta not fail out of school. Gotta pass my classes. Gotta figure out how best to do these things now that I’ve finally admitted to myself that I just don’t care about this stuff, that its just something I need to get through so that I can go on to better things. Hmm. Ponder.

Still trying to figure out what kind of a job I want.

Just thought I’d throw that out there, in case anyone was wondering. Gotta add my name next to the New York Times and Boston Globe. 😉

Early in the process of opening up the public airwaves to private broadcasters, something called the “Fairness Doctrine” was established by the FCC to govern the use of broadcast spectrum. The Fairness Doctrine has two basic components:

• Public interest programming – broadcasters must seek out and report on issues of interest to the community.
• Equal time – broadcasters must treat opposing points of view equally. And if you say something bad about someone, they have the right to respond on your air.

The first thing you might ask yourself is, why can the government apply these rules to broadcast radio and, later, television when they cannot apply similar restrictions to newspapers and other forms of communication? The basis for the FCC’s mandate in this matter is that the airwaves are owned by the public, and when the government grants someone the right to exclusive use of those airwaves, the licensee has an obligation to do so in the public interest. Because there is only a very limited amount of spectrum available, and, thus, only a few people can have the right to broadcast in any given market, there is an obligation that they report fairly and in a way that serves the public at large.

Whenever new technology hits the market, it takes some time for society to adjust and figure out how to fit the shiny newness of it into our existing frameworks. Broadcast was seen as new, scary, and in need of regulation. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration deregulated radio and television and the Fairness Doctrine was abolished. Had its time passed?

The thing is, there is pretty much no way to defend the Fairness Doctrine against a First Amendment challenge. It is a blatant government restriction of content. Many in the industry argued that the doctrine produced a “chilling effect” — stopping broadcasters from reporting on controversial issues because of the difficulty and potential liability involved. There are many reasons to dislike the idea of the Fairness Doctrine, and to want it gone. In addition, the environment has changed drastically. Instead of having half a dozen or more newspapers in every major city, we now have one or two. And instead of three major broadcast networks, we have five (or maybe six, depending on how you count), dozens of cable channels, hundreds of satellite channels, lots of radio stations, and, of course, the internet.

And yet, there is reason to yearn for the good old days of the Fairness Doctrine. Sure it made newsmen’s lives difficult, it made editorializing difficult, it made coverage difficult, but all of these difficulties pale in comparison to what we have today. We have partisan hackary all around, an incredible amount of consolidation in the media marketplace, news as entertainment, blatant falsity being passed off as truth, a lack of fact checking and fairness and balance and civility and — this is the important one — responsibility.

Really, the idea of the airwaves as a public trust is the right one. Now we have reached a point where the airwaves are, for pretty much all puposes except indecency, under private control. But those are our airwaves, damnit! We deserve better!

Sure, the Fairness Doctrine has a lot of flaws. But really, look at what replaced it. Can we really say that we are better off? Personally, I want my airwaves back.

One technique many advertising campaigns utilize is called social norm marketing. At its simplest, it is convincing people to do something that all of their friends are doing. Use this product, and you will fit in. Wear this brand of clothing, and you will be cool. Eat Mentos, etc., ad infinitum.

There are several government initiatives that could benefit from this technique. The completely and miserably failed “war on drugs” has, as one component, television advertising. Instead of giving meanginful statistics about drug use, potential effects, and the like, we get commercials that tell us that smoking pot funds terrorism and shooting up is the equivalent of turning your brain into a fried egg. Yeah, real effective, guys.

The same tactics can be used for underage smoking and drinking — the number of people who do it is far less then the number of people we think are doing it. Same with sex, for that matter. What made me think of this originally is that I was watching Scrubs and after an, um, encounter, J.D. added a mark to his chart. He had finally reached 5. His friend Turk, the “cool” one, at one point makes a comment to his fiancé about her being his third. These seem like reasonable numbers to me for a 25 year old shortly out of college and medical school. Some people have had more action, some less. But other programs would have you believe that you can’t be cool and graduate college without having slept with at least a dozen people. And that’s just icky.

I’d bet for some people watching Scrubs, those few casual references made a difference. Made them worry just a bit less about sleeping around. And the same tactics could convince people to drink less, smoke less, and use fewer illegal substances. Of course, you’re not going to get the hardcore users in any of these groups, who you are targeting are the people who don’t necessarily have the compulsion to do this sort of thing, but are feeling pressured by the imaginary society that is being fed to them.

So US government, get a clue. If you’re going to spend so much of our tax money on these silly advertisements, at least give us something that might actually work.

Some lament the death of the letter in the digital age. With email, IM, BlackBerries, etc., no one sits down and writes letters anymore. I see it to some extent, but not entirely. I’ve got two case studies.

I often send people links to interesting articles and web sites, and blog about interesting things I find online. Similarily, a friend who lives a few states away often sends me articles and clippings in the mail. A bit slower, but basically the same action, just in a different medium. He sends things via mail, I use email, but aren’t we basically accomplishing the same thing? True, when I get an article in the mail I am more likely to read it in full then when someone sends me a link. I guess the effort required to clip an article, pack it in an envelope, address the envelope, buy a stamp, and stick it in the mailbox does cause me to take the contents more seriously. But perhaps part of that is the novelty of it — because so few individual things come in the mail these days, we take what does come a bit more seriously.

I don’t write letters, ya know, physical letters, anymore. But I don’t think I ever really did, except to pen pals in school or something. But I do have at least one friend with whom I email frequently. These emails are different then most of my correspondance because we can have long, free–flow discussions via email, much like standard letter writing, except sent more quickly. The letters still require thought and effort and time to write. Some are long, some are shorter, but we are conducting a long–distance written discussion, just like the supposedly “lost” relationshps by mail.

Technology changes things. One of my classes this semester is about American capitalist development, and the primary theme is that capitalism advances through technological progress, and this progress causes “creative destruction” — a constant churning of the societal waters. But even though things change, society continues to form and reform in its own image. Sure, people may be living faster, more complicated lives, but that doesn’t mean things like letters disappear, they just change. And I’m not unhappy with where we are today. Still, it might be fun to write someone a letter, print it, and stick it in an envelope, just for kicks.

But nothing handwritten! It’s so hard to read people’s handwriting. I guess I’m just used to clean printed text everywhere. Yeah, yeah, we’re probably losing something there. And by the way, what’s with these new–fangled digital wristwatches? Oh, let’s give it a rest.

The standard Subaru Outback comes with a radio that does not have a tape player or any type of auxiliary input, making connecting an iPod impossible. I tried the Griffin iTrip, which transmits music over FM, but had very limited success. I decided it was worth it to do something more to get my iPod to interface with the car, and the only way to do that was to replace my existing stereo.

I purchased an Aiwa CD/MP3 receiver from Crutchfield because it was the cheapest unit that fit my car and had an easily accessible (front) aux input. Next I picked up two items from Belkin, their iPod Auto Kit, which uses the dock connector on the bottom of the iPod to provide power and to receive audio, and the TuneDok, which lets me mount my iPod in a cup holder.

Now, if I wanted to be really fancy, I would have looked at a more permanent way to mount the iPod and to hide the power/audio cable, instead of having it go from the iPod to my cigarette lighter and then up to the aux input. but I’m not that fancy, so that’s how it is.

Installing the stereo posed a bit of a challenge despite Crutchfield’s nice directions because they required me to create my own adapter to go from the plug in the car to the plug in the back of the radio. Not a fun process — they provided both ends, I had to connect all the cables together and crimp them in place. A visit to Home Depot later, I was set. Everything seemed to work on the first try, and so far there has been no unexpected badness. The iPod fits comfortably by my side, a single unobtrusive cable goes up to the dash, and beautiful sound comes out of my speakers. Mission accomplished for slightly less than $200.

So last night somehow my hair came up as a topic of conversation, and the various females in the area took turns playing with it, reflecting on its softness, and asking me what shampoo I use, and whether I condition.

It was scary.

But hey, maybe I’m the next John Kerry!

I can see the goal post from here. In less then eight months I’m out of this place, and I have some important decisions to make. Where to go. What to do. How to best be self-sufficient.

I think I can answer the first question. I’m not good at making new friends. With a few exceptions, it takes a long time before I feel really comfortable with people. I don’t want to strike out to lands unknown where I will be completely alone. I know people will disperse after college, but I have at least a few good friends in the Boston area, so I probably want to stick around here.

It would be easier if I had some major ambition. If I wanted to go to law school, or enter politics, or whatever, then my path would be a bit more clear. But I don’t have any clue what I want. I want to be happy, but the hows and wheres and whats are all up in the air right now. I don’t have any anchors holding me back, but at the same time there is no wind pushing me in one direction or another. It’s just vast, calm seas all around. Only — to stretch this metaphor even more — I can feel a monsoon approaching. If I don’t start making choices, I’ll be stuck in a situation I hate.

When I started writing, I thought it was going to be about student government. About how I’ve lost my commitment to it, to making Brandeis better, because my perspective is shifting. I didn’t apply to serve on any University committees, because I realized that I don’t much care about working with people in IT or Dining Services or whatever. I’m not enthusiastic about big projects. I’m not so worried about chilling with administrators.

I was starting to feel bad about this, but then Kevin told me that, even now, my level of commitment to the Student Union is higher then a good majority of the other officers. He’s right, and so I don’t feel bad. I could be doing more for my constituants, the students of Brandeis, but I’m not sure the students really care, or will notice.

I don’t want to be in student affairs. I don’t want to be a politician. I don’t want to be in marketing or sales or customer support. I don’t want to be a wrestler. Well, that doesn’t really narrow it down much.

I’m focusing on my academics, and trying to get good grades, but I’m not really sure why, because I’m not sure if a 3.3 is markedly better then a 3.1, especially if I don’t know what I’m going to be doing with it. American Studies? What is that, anyway?

Today I got asked a bunch of questions about what kind of Legal Studies internship I wanted, and they focused a lot on my skills and what I’m good at and what I want to do with my life. Man, that was hard. The real interviews will be a lot harder. My interviewer kept telling me to stop being so vague. Through our explorations we discovered that I’m good at editing. Maybe I should work for a newspaper after all.

I dunno. I don’t have a conclusion to this entry, because I don’t have any answers yet. I guess it is just something to continue to ponder.

Advice? Something better then “it’ll all work out?”

A completely useless post because I’m sitting here and, wow, my week is already over. On Wednesday. I have four days until my next class, on Monday. There is certainly something to be said for all of these Jewish holidays, combined with not having class on Fridays. Well, I guess I should use these next four days to be very productive and catch up on a lot of homework.

Right.

My class schedule is just about perfect. I have a block of classes midday on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with only an early PE on Tuesday and nothing Friday. The best part is the three day weekends, which I am enjoying a lot. Like this one, for instance.

Friday was a lazy day. I did crosswords and read news in the morning and in the afternoon wandered around campus. I only bring this up because there are pictures. Oh, and one of Igor in his room between the time when his old windows were removed and his new windows were installed. Wouldn’t it be neat if windows were as clear and seamless as real life?

Between the crosswords and the wandering, however, Rachel took me to a small local organic farm. We took pictures (I like the one with the pumpkins), pet the dog, and picked raspberries from the vine. It was a neat experience, and I agree with Rachel that everyone should have the experience of picking their own food, if not growing it.

Today I went on an adventure of a different sort. Kevin‘s company consolidated two older offices into one big new one, and consequently a lot of old office furniture was up for the taking. While we missed a lot of the good stuff, we did find some useful bits and pieces. I rented a truck from U-Haul and we spent most of the day doing just that.

First we moved out some bookshelves for Kevin and a chair for Rachel, then got to work on table components for Igor to arrange in the Justice office. Kelli showed up to help with Natalie in tow after the two of them finished shopping for wedding dresses (now there’s something you don’t do everyday!). We did some heavy math and determined that it was impossible to fit the conference table that I had my eye on into the elevator. That did not deter us however, as we went on an expedition to find the various staircases and figure out which were safe to use. We eventually determined that staircase B held our answer, but in order to get the table out we would need to set off an alarm in the lobby. Kevin had the brilliant idea of calling (and negotiating with) the alarm company, Igor had the brilliant idea of sliding the massive table down on the banisters, and I had the brilliant idea of, well, providing a lot of heavy lifting. We tripped the alarm, got the table out, got the alarm fixed, and loaded everything up in the truck. Meanwhile, Kelli provided lots of taunting and other forms of moral support. We ended up with a pretty good haul.

At this point it was 9:00pm, we had missed Adam’s Break Fast, and the truck had to be returned by early the next (this) morning. A drive to Brandeis later, and Kevin, Kelli, and I took a break while Igor directed Justice and Union people in the unloading of the goods. We finally got it all wrapped up, bookshelves unloaded in Medford, truck returned, and me back to campus at around 1:30am. Phew! What a long day! Time for some must-deserved rest.

Oh, and I ordered a new radio for my car that will allow me to plug in my iPod. Yay! Life is pretty good. All right, good night, world.