Derek Slater makes a good point about the EFF approach to file trading. First the civil-liberties organization lambasted the industry for suing technologists and not the actual infringers. Then, when the courts ruled the way of the EFF, the record industry did just what they had asked all along — started suing users. Now I’m sure the EFF knew that if the RIAA took the bait it would be bad news for the industry on the public stage, but then the EFF did two things, first started a “Let the Music Play” campaign that says file sharing should be illegal and secondly started pushing something called a “compulsatory license” in which everyone who uses music distribution software would need to pay a flat fee which would then somehow be distributed to artists. Ick. I don’t like that idea at all, and I’ve disliked it since the second I heard it. Well, I’d actually be happy to told off and see what the EFF proposes specifically, if they would just go ahead and actually propose something, which they haven’t done. Until they do, I can’t really support them, despite their lofty goals and the fact that they are one of only a few groups fighting the little guy part of copyright battle.

Look, copyright infringement is illegal, but 60 million American do it anyway. So the law is wrong. Let’s talk about actually changing it in a way that is consistant with both the principles of the Constitution and the past and the principles of today.

The Chronicle tells us:

Today’s federal minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13 an hour, although some states require employers to pay slightly more. Researchers say that diners generally understand that food servers are working for the tips, not the paycheck — which could total just $85.20 for a 40-hour workweek, before taxes.

But do not fear! Our cadre of scientists are on the case!

McCall looked at whether diners would tip differently based on the appearance of the tip tray, that plastic rectangle some restaurants use to present the bill. Patrons tipped more when the tray was embossed with a credit card logo than when it was blank.

Uh…huh. Average tip is going up from 15% to 20%. Great. Why is it that restaurants can’t pay people a decent wage like the rest of industry? I can understand how small restaurants must fight to survive, but large chains with fixed menus, Sysco-packaged ingredients, and cook-by-numbers charts in the kitchen couldn’t have it too hard.

AskThePilot on Salon penned this fascinating account of a fly through the heart of New York. It sounds wonderous to experience, and the amazing thing is that the flights continue to this day, although getting on one is a rarity. Maybe I should start calling around… 😉

Adam, Carol, and I took a trip in my shiny car to Providence, RI to eat at Fire+Ice (like bd’s Mongolian Barbecue but actually popular) and then go see a show called WaterFire. I brought my camera, but was too dumb to remember to take it out of the car, so just pretend like the picture I liked to above is mine. It was a fairly positive experience, despite a few complications. I want to go back some time.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
9:00 AM		tha-11a Spingold room 60			tha-11a Spingold room 60
9:30 AM
10:00 AM	amst-114b Brown room 316		amst-114b Brown room 316	amst-114b Brown room 316
10:30 AM
11:00 AM	cosi-21a Abelson-Bass-Yalem room 131		cosi-21a Abelson-Bass-Yalem room 131	cosi-21a Abelson-Bass-Yalem room 131
11:30 AM
12:00 PM	cosi-22a Abelson-Bass-Yalem room 131		cosi-22a Abelson-Bass-Yalem room 131	cosi-22a Abelson-Bass-Yalem room 131
12:30 PM		ger-10a-2 Shiffman room 123
1:00 PM	ger-10a-2 Shiffman room 123		ger-10a-2 Shiffman room 123	ger-10a-2 Shiffman room 123
1:30 PM

AMST 114b – American Individualism

This course looks really great. Prof. Whitfield in a seminar environment looks to be a lot more exciting then Prof. Whitfield in a big lecture class about general American history, which was somewhat boring (and involved lots of dates and such, which I hate).

COSI 21a – Data Structures and Fundamentals of Computing

21 and the accompanying lab 22 is a rite of passage for CS students, of which I am not one, but I do really want to know more about the fundamentals and basics of real programming, so I’m giving it a shot. I hear it’s hard, but that also relates to the professor who teaches it, and this year’s professor seems to be a lot more interested (and competent) in his subject matter then the guy last year.

GER 10a – Beginning German

Prof. Brown is very caring and kind, and is a good native German speaker, but she also goes tremendously quickly. Last year I thought I was doing badly by virtue of not reading enough of the book or doing enough homework, and while that is partially true, now, coming back to the class again, I can see other problems. The class is easier for people who already know other languages, of whom there are several. But the class is problematic because Prof. Brown keeps introducing new words and phrases and such without explaining their meaning or context, and she just expects people to pick them up. While that may work at the summer immersion program she teaches, it is less useful here. Also, the amount of memorization she expects borders on astounding…I need to memorize about 200 words this week. Fun. Well, what choice do I have? I suck at languages, but it is a graduation requirement.

THA 11a – Movement For the Performer

I was really excited about 4a, which was looking to be a superb class about acting and understanding one’s voice and body, but that class was full and I was kicked into 11a instead. Well, this class counts both as a creative arts and a PE, is low stress, and takes me back to my days in the Fullerton College summer program, with the various stretches and such. While some of the stuff we do is gonna be a little weird (wearing masks?), I think this course will probably be a positive experience and a nice change.

THA 41a – Theater Practicum

The loved and dreaded practicum. Theater majors and minors need to do a lot of this class, which is in one respect learning and in another forced labor for the theater department. I’m only staying in if I get into the electrics or scene shops. If that happens, it’ll probably be fun. I’ll need to put in 50 hours in the semester, or about 5 hours a week, but hopefully I’ll get to learn a bit about building and/or electrics, and, again, it’ll be a nice change from the all-reading all-the-time courses I’ve been taking previously.

---

In summary, I think that this semester is a nice and interesting change from my previous college experiences. I’m only taking one traditional social sciences class, so I won’t have 5000 pages of reading and 5 pages all due at the same time, as in previous semesters. Instead I’m taking two classes (COSI and GER) that require a lot of sustained work, that I can’t get behind on, and two courses (THA) that let me do something physical and different. In general I’m really looking forward to this semester, except for my trepidations about German and, to a lesser extend, about Computer Science (although I have a lot of friends to help me through it). Well, we shall see how it goes.

For those who were following along, my sickness, as generally occurs, has passed, at least mostly. Yay health! I feel that mild sickness is an important part of life that reminds us of how wonderful it is to be healthy. On the other hand, major sustained illness is just stupid. We should kill it.

I hadn’t been to McDonalds for years before Igor took me there at the end of last year. Since then, I’ve been back two times, the last being yesterday. I like the french fries, and I really like the little dispensors, not just for ketchup but also for barbecue and sweet & sour sauce. So I decided to try something new and get a Super Sized(tm) meal. Wow, that drink cup was massive. Difficult to hold, even. And there were a lot of fries. And the sandwich was unchanged.

Next time I’m going for the 99 cent chicken sandwich and a large fries, instead. All the “value meals” aren’t.

Anyway…

Hmm, have car, will travel. 🙂 Very happy about said car. Got gas today, because prices don’t seem to be going down despite Labor Day being over. Went to get a parking pass but because of complications I had to go fill out some forms first. Will get it Monday, and then I can start…um…parking I guess. Yay for that!

Drove to the supermarket, but they don’t have much in the way of exciting food so I just got a few frozen meals and some cereal. Of course it’s all silly since my meal plan is so huge and expensive that I really don’t have any reason to not eat Aramark food 3 times a day, except that I really don’t want to. Grr, stupid meal plans.

Hmm, next entry is classes.

My first night sleeping in Massell I got sick, but who knows if it is Massell related. I’ve gotten out of Massell and into my wonderful beautiful new home, and I’m still sick, and it’s not getting any better. I thought I had what Adam had, and he got over it in two weeks…I’m about 5 or 6 days into it. I’ve forgotten to go to the Heatlh Center because I’ve been worried about meetings and classes and the hundred things I need to get done. So my cough today was pretty bad, but not terrible, and then I went to bed.

And didn’t fall asleep.

And now it’s 3:21am and my cough is awful and hacking and painful and not the least bit productive.

Loads of Robitussin…

15 minutes in a hot shower…

Should I call BEMCo?

I check WebMD, but my symptom’s don’t really qualify as “an emergency,” only “really painful.” I know if I call BEMCo they’ll come, take my pulse, fret a bit, and then offer to call an ambulance. Yeah, big help. So do I need to get ambulanced at great expense to the next town to go to a hospital, or can I survive the night and report to the Health Center in the morning for some cough suppressants of some sort?

Yeah, the latter option is much more appealing. *Cough* Oh, excuse me. *Cough* Oww.

The Health Center opens at 8am.

Sigh, so much for a nice first day of classes.

Got to campus on a Friday, it was empty and boring. I did a few things. My Grad was terribly hot and stuffy and I couldn’t stand it, so I slept on the floor of the Student Union office. Monday there were suddenly a few people about, and I went into Web Services, saw Dave, etc. It was nice. Train to NY Tuesday, hung with Adam Wednesday, but complications with my car that are too boring to get into but deal mainly with interstate registration meant that I didn’t get to drive it back. Two weeks later and I still don’t have it, and now I’ve pretty much forgotten about it. Eh, who needs a car. Might as well cancel the whole thing. (Depressed? A little, we’ll get to that).

Drove back with Adam, having done nothing useful in NY besides see him. Didn’t meet up with Matt, didn’t go rafting, didn’t eat at Garden Catering. Oh well.

Back on campus. Switch from one housing to another. Moved all of Peter’s things, turns out we got the wrong rooms (i.e. ones with stuff in them). Went back to ResLife and got new keys, AGAIN wrong (I got the same room!). Grr. Eventually got everything worked out. Rooms are hot and musty and underground, with tiny windows with no screens, so we can’t open them, and bugs everywhere. Great. Yeah, Shapiro basement, very nice.

I move into the Village. It’s big, it’s empty, Adam is living there, as are 10 RAs and the quad director. So I just move in. It’s great. It’s amazing, clean, pretty, clean, colorful, clean, new and high-tech and nice. I’m there for a few days, I do various things (Web Services, Student Union, hang out). I get kicked out. Lori Tensor, who is in charge of such things, is furious with me, but eventually gets over it. The next day Josh Brandfon moves into the Village (legally). A few days later, so do five orientation leaders. A few days later, so do some more early arrivals, and some transfer students. And then I hear that there are a whole bunch of people squatting in the Village, but I’m in Shapiro basement.

I actually spend a night in Shapiro basement instead of the office. I go to sleep having been healthy for quite a while, but wake up the next morning very sick. I’m still sick. I don’t like being sick. I don’t like Shapiro basement. I want to be in my fucking dorm. I don’t want to move and move and move again, and not get to unpack, and not get to get things out of storage, and to have to live out of the same suitcase, and shower in dirty, icky showers, and deal with freshman move-in, which is what we did today.

Oh, and my phone didn’t work. I’m not in the system, it seems. I don’t get a phone. Finally got it all resolved today, and now I have a number, but I didn’t get voicemail. Eventually got voicemail, but the phone just keeps ringing and ringing, doesn’t actually transfer to voicemail. Wonderful.

What else? Trying to figure out how my Secretary budget makes any sense, and it doesn’t seem to. Talking with Igor about things, trying to get him to stop thinking exclusively about the Justice and branch out. Met Aaron Braver (from Walnut), yay! Used NetFlix to it’s full potential to watch about 12 episodes of Angel and really like them. Being constantly tired and sick and wanting to get better, and not sure if sleeping in this damn basement is helping things. Forgetting about my car, maybe when it comes I’ll be all happy and suprised.

Enjoying the absolutly beautiful weather. Wishing I had my camera, but realizing that it’s somewhere in Adam’s car (or room). Wanting to setup my speakers so I can have some music, since music is beautiful and wonderful and important, but my speakers are in storage.

Boy was I happy to be coming back to Brandeis. Boy do I like Brandeis. But boy have the last few weeks sucked.

But oh wait, I’ve been hanging out with Adam a lot, going off campus and such. And that has been very nice. And I went bowling the other night with Dave Stromes and Amy and Adam Batkin (now SuperJew) and this guy named Evan, and that was nice. So no, I’m not terribly depressed and angry and hating it, not at all. I just don’t like being sick and I don’t like being jerked around with housing. I want to settle. And maybe on Tuesday, move-in day, I will be able to, and maybe by then I’ll be healthy again, and maybe we can start over, and start off this year right.

I’ve been using a web browser called Safari for a few months now, it seemed like I should probably set up some bookmarks. I was looking through my old bookmarks and was trying to figure out what to keep. Hmm…Leah has a blog, I wonder if I should keep this link *clickity* oh, so she’s moved to another blog *clickity click* hmm, let’s see what she’s written lately:

I was brushing my teeth, and I somehow got distracted. Suddenly, I found myself brushing my nose. Boy, am I pathetic.

Yeah, I’ll put her in my bookmarks.

Excuse me if I use this absolutely, amazingly terrible line from the Fox show The O.C. as an entry title. It’s already popping up everywhere else, so I might as well join in on the fun. Well, just watched episode 3 and I’m still not put off, which is a good sign. The critics seem to like it too, enough so that I won’t bother linking to all the newspaper reviews — they’re everywhere you look. I will quote a bit from an article with the same (wonderfully original) title as this entry over at my favorite TeeVee:

Sandy Cohen [(Peter Gallagher)] is the plot device that sets The O.C. in motion: not only does he pluck teenaged hood Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) off the mean streets of Chino and transport him behind the Orange Curtain, he also represents the moral compromises OC elitists have to make to stay in their smug little community. Sandy’s an idealist who can afford his self-righteousness because his wife bankrolls it; as a result, he’s better at talking about his morals than he is at applying them. Anyone who knows about Orange County’s reputation as a Republican stronghold can appreciate the irony in limousine liberal Sandy’s characterization.

It’s an interesting characterization, and I’d like to see where the show goes with it. I think the critics (and a certain segment of the TV viewership) has been itching for a good non-reality show, and The O.C., stupid title not withstanding, might just fit the bill.

And I can continue to call it my show. At least until Aaron arrives on campus and tries to lay claim to it himself. After all, he is (and try to read this in the show’s snotty way) from Walnut (eww!).

I’ve kept quiet because otherwise I know I’ll mention my living situation and then…eep! Stopping right now. More info on that at a later date.

So, let’s see. I’m finding new TV shows to watch, which is either good or bad, depending on what you think of my work ethic. Okay, so it’s completely bad. Oh well. Ordered a nifty TiVo ethernet card, so I’m gonna need to crack old TiVo open, install the thing, load up some software, register the MAC address, etc., etc., and then Nessus, our network security scanner, is gonna have a heart attack because I’m running telnet (telnet!) and who knows if SSH can even compile on that box. But yeah, TiVo does run Linux, which is why all of this is possible.

Adam and I went by the storage place, so I got some sheets. That was useful, since I managed to leave one of my other sheets behind in Grad and thus lost it… Sorry mom!

New computers haven’t arrived yet, or rather they are stuck in the Epstein stock room and Ray the Receiver won’t deliver them until Tuesday, mostly because he insists on being the only person in the entire school who is still using the old phone system, and thus it took me several days before I realized that he is, in fact, reachable, just not using the same phones that the entire rest of the school uses.

Speaking of phones, our network switching gear was having some problems whereby something like 30% or more of all incoming calls would not go through, and sometimes voice mail wouldn’t work…but students couldn’t be told, thanks to some new communication policies.

Hmm…what else. I’m working for Dave but not getting paid, I’m eating at Cappy’s a lot because there is very little on-campus food, and I got to hang out with Adam and Yanna, the über-cool playa (her word) from Detroit who has issues with handling credit cards.

That’s about it. In a few days maybe I can talk about the coolness that is the Village. I think its about the absolute best place you could possibly live on campus, so that makes me very happy.

I’m watching the show and I’m not turned off by it. Suprising, really. And neither is the New Yorker:

“The O.C.” means to show us that, difficult as it may be for the misfit Ryan, a poor kid from a broken family, to make his way in this exclusive place, with its cutthroat attitude toward outsiders, life can be just as demanding, and even as frightening, for the insiders. (It’s not easy having green.) While on one level this is laughable—all you need to know about a gated community, it could be argued, is that there is a gate—“The O.C.â€? has a seductive quality.

Just watched the DVD of State and Main. It made me constantly laugh, so I liked it. It was light and uplifiting and that’s what I needed at that point. It wasn’t deep, but hey, choose two, right? Even cooler: the movie, set in a small Vermont town, was filmed in Massachussettes, mostly in Manchester-by-the-Sea, but also a bit in Dedham, and, my favorite, Waltham. Yippee!

On the plane I watched an episode of Angel and there was a random shout-out to a Brandeis professor. And while said professor doesn’t exist (and trust me, I checked), the fact that they mentioned my school gives me another buzz. Wow, I’d be on a constant high if I went some place like Harvard… 🙂

It’s only 75 degrees out, but the overwhelming humidity dashes any hopes of peaceful slumber. I sit in the dark, for these rooms do not come with lights. The new telephones haven’t been given out yet, so I’m without phone service. The network connection does not work, for whatever reason.

The previous tenants left trash in the bins, booze in the fridge, and junk in the bathroom. I don’t trust the shower. It’s dirty and I forgot my shower shoes, so I won’t use it. As a consequence, I don’t feel clean at all, and sleeping in my own sweat isn’t helping.

I have two bug bites from my first night, and I’m sure I’ll get more. The window screen is faulty. What a suprise.

I’d cook, but first I have to walk to the store, then I have to figure out what to do without any kind of pots or pans. Or soap. Or plates. Or anything else.

I brought my own toilet paper, thank goodness, but so far I’ve avoided using the bathroom here for the same reason as I avoid the shower. I spend all my time in the Shapiro center, in the air conditioning, in an office that is freezing cold regardless of the temperature outside.

My first days back at Brandeis are not quite what I envisioned.

Just finished packing, and I found a card on my desk for one Robin Eisenberg, the guy who showed us Subarus at a local dealership. This guy is the nicest salesman in the world and I felt really terrible leaving after my test drive knowing that I would be buying the car in New York. If you are in the Southern California area and are looking at good ole Subbies, please do yourself a favor and call up Robin Eisenberg at (714) 689-2103 Ext. 3701. He works at South Coast Subaru, located at 2925-A Harbor Boulevard, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.

Tonight my grandparents gave me a check for 1/2 the price of my new car. And when I got it, I thanked them. And throughout the entire evening I kept looking for opportunities to thank them again, a stronger thanks, a more heartfelt thanks. And half a dozen times I found the right moment, the right pause, and I could not act. I don’t know why.

The words “thank you” come so foreign to me oftentimes, and I constantly ponder why. I think the expression seems to simple, so…so contrived. It is only appropriate at certain times. But what times? And this money for the car, I am so tremendously appreciative of it, so happy that I will have my own car, that I will have the independence it represents, and that my grandparents have given it to me, just because, because they love me.

And I love them, and I can’t express it by saying “thank you.” But this isn’t about me! It’s about them! They want to hear the words, so I should be able to say them, no matter what I think of the words themselves, because I love the people, and I want to make them happy. And to express my love. And yet I can’t.

Why?

I feel so angry with myself, but those words are just so hard to say. Is it because I hope that I express thanks through my actions? Is it because I hear “thank you” a hundred times a day for the most simple and routine of actions? I. Don’t. Know. I do know that I didn’t thank my grandparents, and that is a very bad thing.

Grandma and grandpa, thank you.

I went and saw Finding Nemo last night with Shaina. Sooooo cute! Hee hee.

Shaina and I went to the Apple Store the other day. $2300 for a nicely configured Power Mac G5? I keep telling myself “not gonna happen,” and I keep going back to the Apple Store to ogle at the shiny boxes. Repeat: “I like Linux. Linux is good. It’s not as elegent as a Mac, but it’s still good! I don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a computer that I don’t need, even if it makes me feel good.”

Oh, but it’s so pretty!