Dart.

You know what awesome is? You're giving a tour to the parents of prospective Honors Uconn students, and you walk by someone's room. The sole occupant of said room is wearing nothing but boxers and boxing gloves, and is singing/dancing to "eye of the tiger". That, my friends, is awesome.

Da HELL is THIS?

I was taking exams from 4 to 8 tonight. I finish the last one, head on over to the dining hall...and apparently they all close at 7:30 on weekends? PHOOEY ON THEM!

Chem was amazingly easy, and I am all the happier for it. Physics seemed easier than I expected; Blue Haired Kid had to go and explain, on the walk back, why everything I put was wrong. Oh well. I was able to understand all the questions perfectly clearly, which is more than I could say at the beginning of the semester.

SO, genetic engineering. Are you aware how severely we can screw with stuff? Oh yeah. I always thought it'd be pretty cool to be able to mess with genes, play God a little, that sort of thing. There's the negative side, of course; remember that scene in Alien Resurrection when Ripley 6 sees Ripleys 1-5, horribly deformed and monstrous, and one of them gurgles "please...kill me"? That was awesome, yet it gave me the jibblies.

So in MCB we were talking about a certain gene, called "eyeless". Contrary to what you'd expect, it's the gene that gives you eyes. More specifically, since all cells have all the genetic code in them, it turns on the eye genes in places where there should be eyes, like...you know...your face.

What does this mean? You can stick "eyeless" in any cell group and, you guessed it, you get eyes.

Would they really...no they wouldn't...

OH YES THEY WOULD

There are pictures of flies...flies with eyes. Eyes on their legs, on antennae, on wings, wherever the hell you want them. There are also pictures of flies with legs stuck in strange places: let's replace the antennae with legs! How about a couple legs on the wings? Seriously.

I don't care about the flies; flies suck. It's crazy, though, how much control we're starting to gain as a species. Used to be we could build things, we could destroy things, but we couldn't really manipulate them. So much for that! Looks like genetic biology is going to be the place to be in coming years. I might want to get in on it, but I might fancy that I hear little fly voices asking me to kill them, and then torch the lab. Got napalm?

No, I guess I don't really care that much about it. Yay science! Just...keep it away from babies. Oh, and kittens.

WE INTERRUPT THIS QUASI-MORAL DISCUSSION TO BRING YOU AN OUTRAGE.

I took all my and my brother's CD's and uploaded the music to Lappy 2.0 this past weekend, so I could hear a playlist of more than 8 songs. ANYWAY

I love Breaking Benjamin; they've been top of the list for almost a year now. However, they subscribe to that minor annoyance that I mentioned earlier: each album comes with a sucky slow song, the most egregious of which is "Stay in Love Forever". Gross.

That one's a "hidden track", but not the normal kind. It comes on if you wait 2 minutes or so after an AMAZING song, "Shallow Bay", meaning...it's on the same track. I did not know this until just now. So my least favorite song ever is BIOLOGICALLY ATTACHED to one of the best. WHAT DA HELL, MAN? No food, and now THIS?

...At least I only have 2 eyes! SORRY FLIES!

MAKE UP YOUR MIND

Either study your damn science, read the damn Melville or go to SLEEP, stupid! Make up your mind instead of sitting here watching episodes of Scrubs, thinking about all the crap I should be doing!

Bleach news: none? But we're about to embark on an epic journey. You may hear about it later. Perhaps.

It needs to be tonight, badly. I have 2 exams this evening and a brief paper due, and I just want them over with so I can tear up the campus in a crazy game of Capture the Flag, featuring the Insufferably Pretentious Guy From High School Who Is Actually Kind Of Cool! Oh, and Halo 3. I'm a huge fan of a) scifi, b) epic battles and c) shooter games, so naturally I adore the Halo series. I hear Halo 3 is the best yet, and I want to finish the bastard before someone leaks the ending to me. Hooray for having friends with next-gen systems!

I HOPE THIS WEEKEND WILL FEATURE GOOD TIMES. I SUPPOSE THIS DEPENDS ON HOW THOSE EXAMS GO, EH?

Holy crap, I forgot to eat today.

And now for some burrito-flavored humor.

There's a burrito place on campus that I frequent (contrary to popular belief, I am a big fan of burritos in general, and spicy burritos in particular), and today it struck me: how awesome would it be to sell a burrito to myself?!?! I suspect the conversation would go something like this.

BURR= BURRITO-PLACE EMPLOYEE VERSION OF ME
HUNGR= HUNGRY BURRITO-CONSUMER VERSION OF ME

BURR: Next?
HUNGR: Yeah, can I get a chicken burrito?
BURR: HELL YES you can.
HUNGR: Well that's just fantastic!
BURR: Sauce?
HUNGR: Uhhhhhhhhqueso.
BURR: Queso...alriight...vegetables?
HUNGR: Lettuce, jalapenos, and hot salsa.
BURR: Oookay, lettuce...salsaaaa...HEY! get over here, ya jalapenos.
HUNGR: Little bastards.
BURR: Damn right. Have a burrito.
HUNGR: Sweet.
BURR: Hey, you look a lot like me.

To make this fantasy come true, I am prepared to a) work at a burrito place the rest of my life and b) clone myself. Ethics be damned! This is just TOO AWESOME to NOT happen (ZOMG split infinitive).

(Speaking of morals and clones and stuff, I want to talk about genetic engineering one of these times. I won't now, because I don't want to harsh my burrito-induced buzz. One of these days...PREPARE YOURSELVES!)

Part 2 of the burrito ordeal:

I want to reach a state of semi-fame one day, for a very specific reason. I figure this will be easiest if I am a) an actor or b) a sports player, so I plan on dropping my physics major and pursuing something I a) don't enjoy doing or b) suck at. It's all worth it, and you'll know why.

One day, when I am semi-famous, I will be walking around in some city, and I will buy a burrito. I will take this burrito out on the street with me, and find someone waiting at a crosswalk (note: he does not recognize me, since I'm only semi-famous. Otherwise, this would not work). I will stand there nicely for a few seconds, before taking a big ol' bite of the burrito, and turning to my pedestrian companion.

"MMMMMM" I will say, to his great alarm. "This is one TASTY burrito."

In my imagination, he gives the slight smile you normally reserve for crazy bearded men handing out bibles, and turn away, hoping the light will change. It could, but it doesn't, and it shouldn't. He is trapped there with me, so I continue.

"Seriously, this burrito is grade-A delectable. Someone went out of his way to make this treat extra-tasty, just for me. In all honesty I can safely say I have never encountered such a delicious Mexican meal in all my years of eating burritos, and contrary to popular belief, I am a big fan of burritos in general, and spicy burritos in particular. Would you like a bite?"

I shove the half-eaten burrito toward his face, and he turns in alarm to see my face RIGHT THERE, the eyes burning with madness. It is a fearsome visage that will haunt his dreams forever more.

He blabbers out some refusal of my offer, the little white crosswalk-guy turns on and he hurries across the street before I can lunge at him again.

A week later, he sees a movie with me in it. His eyes bulge with incredulity; unable to contain himself, he gets to his feet, points to the screen and shouts "that's him! That's the burrito guy!". In the back of the theater, I laugh softly to myself: now I can die happy.

Too bad physicists never achieve states of semi-fame; the only guy anyone can identify by looks is Stephen Hawking, and I think it'd have a different effect coming from him.

But you know what? I bet Bill Nye could pull it off.

Write what you know, dumbass.

So I came to the realization that the blog has been sucking as of late. The obvious explanation would be that I stopped writing about Bleach and went on about...me...which is never a good idea. I doubt there is a thing in the universe that I know less about than myself (girls are the obvious exception)

Minor Bleach update: final cut has been...cut. At long last, we have a finished product. Leap for joy, just not all at once, because you might throw off the earth's rotation.

Maybe I'll add something later. Maybe. After I get back from kicking ass at a Starcraft LAN with the video game club. Proper.

EDIT: Number of asses I kicked during the LAN: zero =D

-Chris

You know how jellyfish are really flexible, and have no bones?

So I think it's required for every quiet, thoughtful teenager to go through an identity crisis at some point. That's a lie; I have no idea whether that would be true, having never been another person before (not to offend you Hindu's out there. It's just that if I was another person before, and I don't remember it, it doesn;t exactly count). All I know is that I had a minor one today. Yes, that's right, a minor crisis. Why not just say an identity issue, you say, as crisis implies something major? I say to you: shut up.

So I realized at one point today I have trouble being "myself" around people at school. I generally know when I'm being "myself" because I have a tendency to be somewhat witty, and when I hear myself I think "damn, I'm cool." I remember vividly, because it doesn't happen often.

Thing is, it's not just a matter of becoming comfortable. I'm pretty well adjusted, and I've made friends with a few very cool people, yet I still have been unable to make much of a personality come out (I try, believe me. Once you start having to try, though, you might as well give up. I don't think you're supposed to).

However, Jon was accompanying me back up to my dorm when I was coming back this Sunday, and I passed several people from my classes, and there it was: "damn, I'm cool". What can we conclude? It depends on the person I'm with; not just my relationship with them, but on their personality in particular. Either I copy it, or complement it, which would mean I'm really different depending on who I'm near. Dynamic!

(Q: That is by no means the only explanation, nor even the most obvious one. What makes you think this is the case?
A: Shut the hell up.)

So, final thoughts:
1) I'm making a big deal of nothing, because that's what you do in blogs. That's what I do in blogs, anyway. I'm only half-serious here. Maybe four-sevenths-serious.

2) I'm probably perfectly normal, personality-wise, and am only abnormal because I gave this observation this much thought. Irony sucks!

3) What does this mean overall? How will I fix this problem and give myself a more concrete identity? Absolutely nothing! It's worked well enough so far.

4) The spice must flow.

5)When the choice comes down to doing homework and posting meaningless crap on your blog, you know what the right answer is. What the right answer always is.

You're quick. No one's ever beaten the SNAKE before!

I've been calling myself a 'geek' for a few years now, but as painful as it is to admit it, I had not seen the Mad Max trilogy until tonight. I had every reason in the world to do so: it's one of the most famous and oft-quoted of all geek movies. Deveau, my calculus teacher last year, counts it among her favorite movies ever, and she loved both The Stand and Firefly. Fallout is based heavily off it (to the point of including the character Mad Max in both games). I've meant to see it for a long time, but only got around to it tonight. Better late than never, I guess; that's one more item off my Geek List I can check off.

GEEK LIST:

• Name a Star Wars species other than Wookie or Ewok


• Work on a robot


• Play Starcraft, Diablo, and Fallout (the classics!)


• Have an Isaac Asimov collection


• Wear a USB flash drive at all(most) times


• Either own a mac or run Linux


• Have a folder on your computer entitled "LOLcats"


• Publish a website


• Become fluent in C++


• Repair an electronic device that appears to be irreparable


• Hack something. Anything.


• Go to the midnight release of a non-mainstream game (Fallout 3 Fall 2008!)
  
• Attend a LAN party


• Join a D&D group


• Watch Firefly, Star Trek, and BSG


• Watch The Thing


• Watch the Star Wars Holiday Special


• Watch the Matrix Trilogy


• Watch/play the Chronicles of Riddick Trilogy


• Watch the Mad max Trilogy


• Produce an independent film(Not really.)

Note: this is what is required for me to consider myself a geek. Don't be all "YOU CAN'T JUDGE ME! YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW ME!" on me. Although if you're the type of person who would do that, I will never ever consider you a geek. Haha.

If you feel I missed anything crucial, add it as a comment. I will a) boast that I've done it, b)say it's a stupid criterion, or c)lament my state as a poser-geek.