Well, my mind has been officially blown.

Seriously, though. Check this out. You can download it here: http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/grey.html

And some days, clarity comes and kicks you in the groin. However, I’m done with that. Pretty much a good weekend post-Thursday.

Highlight of Friday: hearing “I’ve Just Seen a Face” (Beatles) and “The Last Time” (Rolling Stones) covered on guitar and banjo by folk musicians at a little hole-in-the-wall ribs place called The Smoke Daddy. Went with Zach and some other house-persons, had a good time. Everything is better with banjo.

Saturday is more complicated, but one thing to note is that American Science and Surplus is still the happiest place on earth. If ever someone had too much of it, they have it at low, low prices. For example, we now have a giant novelty pencil, syringes, a bucket of waxy goo, 600 feet of barricade tape, and … drumroll… a garage door opener, which we have since disassembled to the best of our ability.

Saturday night was lovely frat-themed fencing party. Delicious jello shots, absolutely hideous theme music. Also, with much writing on t-shirts by means of Sharpie. I gained, for instance, “I have a giant pencil. Oh, baby!” on my back. And it was very true (see above). Oh so much pencil-related innuendo. Also, a simple cross, through the miracle of successive addition, became double-laser Cyclops Jesus.

Shooting blanks,

Well, it looks like we could use some more enlightenment around these parts:


Once, a professor went to a Zen Master. He asked him to explain the meaning of Zen. The Master quietly poured a cup of tea. The cup was full but he continued to pour.

The professor could not stand this any longer, so he questioned the Master impatiently, "Why do you keep pouring when the cup is full?"

"I want to point out to you," the Master said, "that you are similarly attempting to understand Zen while your mind is full. First, empty your mind of preconceptions before you attempt to understand Zen."

Well, Evil Dead is a great movie. Hilarious. Everyone should see it.

However: Fuck. So, unfortunately, hope occasionally fails spectacularly. Fuck.

I'm alright. Just need to release a little profanity over here, folks. Fuck. Yeah, thing with girl of two posts ago seems to have been been cleared up. Fuck.

In order that I may not be killed by Marty just as things are starting to get interesting:

Welcome to Thursday, everyone.

Valentine's Day was actually reasonably fun. Classy party with wine and chocolate in many forms. Attire was formal: I wore my East German Border-Guard jacket... and a black bowtie.



That's the jacket, though mine is sans belt.

Point of interest: When they tell you U of C is "where fun comes to die", they don't tell you it's "where fun comes to have the world's largest scavenger hunt." Go scavhunt team. First meeting was this evening. Four days of utter madness, and brilliant insanity (which will be occuring in about 9 weeks).

From last year:
"#28: Have a computer combust through nothing but it's own internal workings"
"#118: Document the Oberlin fauxhawk in it's native habitat" (I can only assume Kate understands this)
"#128: Eudaimonia"

and more here: http://scavhunt.uchicago.edu/list2004.pdf

and who could for get that classic from 2001:
"#1: Machu Pikachu"

Frabjously incoherent,

Doctor Funk

I’ve left y’all hanging for far too long. I really ought to blog in more manageable chunks.

Right. Happy Valentine’s Day to all. Lord help me, I cannot yet be bitter.

Well, life is strange over here -- fun, but strange.

Clearly the people of Ohio do not eat, at least not publicly. There is literally nothing between the cities of Toledo and Cleveland, and very little near those. But there is fog. Sweet Jesus the fog. I for one had no idea that Ohio had ridiculously dense fog. Also, it should be noted that Cleveland is the only real urban center I've been in besides Chicago... so... meh. Been to plenty of states, but it happens not the cities within them.

At any rate, I was in Cleveland over last weekend for a College Bowl tournament, which was fun. We of the lowly Chicago E team managed 4th of 7 teams in our division. Chicago A (including the legendary Pericles) won the important division, and received... a small plastic trophy. But the pride is what's important.

And this weekend has been fabulous. Friday, I saw the One-Man Star Wars Trilogy, which is brilliant, despite involving paying a man to be a total geek for one hour – The compression is remarkable.

“You have a sister”
“Leia?”
“Well, she is the only woman in the movie.”

And Sunday, in the midst of a slew of women’s reproductive related events on Valentine’s Day weekend (There are vagina cookies available), we had the incomparable Mitch Hedberg. And he was brilliant, in all his stoneresque non sequiturity.

“I was trying to walk into a Target and missed.” Of course, it’s all in the delivery with Mitch.

But that's not what's strange. Strangeness is being conduced by the miracle of romantic relationships. In case anyone missed it, Kate and I are friends now, which is to say, it is no longer proper for me to refer to her as "the Girl" in a capitalized sense. She is still beautiful, but I digress. And that's going well, I suppose. No stranger than could be expected.

But there are some days you just think, “Man, I totally dig clarity,” and those are the days when clarity will have nothing to do with you. The short of it is I’ve met a lovely girl who is getting more attractive by the day, who is associated with a whole host of ominous occurrences. Before this had even developed she was dubbed “anti-Kate”, for the sake of several weird parallels and contrasts. Alas, she seems to be of the nervous and hard-to-read type. Technically we were dating for a two day period. So… hope springs eternal.
I may yet go insane.

And the Postal Service is going to own my soul. “Such Great Heights” and now I’ve also discovered “We Will Become Silhouettes”.


“And that’s when we’ll explode…
And it won’t a pretty sight.”

One day Hotei was walking along the road and a priest was walking in front of him. Hotei tapped the priest on the shoulder and asked him for a coin. The priest said he would gladly make such a donation if Hotei could expound the teachings of the Buddha. Without saying a word, Hotei placed his bag on the ground, let go of it, and stood still. The priest then realized that he had just witnessed a silent sermon delivered through action on the Buddhist teaching of detachment, a truth that is itself detached from words. Hotei's bag thus represents a dual lesson: it is important to possess the necessities of life, but one should nevertheless be ready to let go of them.