Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
And when I die I expect to find Him laughing
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2001 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
"I missed the lecture on sleep learning."
"You mean you slept through it."
"Well, yeah."
"You know, there's some irony in that."
-heard in the Open Computing Facility
As Depeche Mode said,
I don't want to start any blasphemous rumorsOr it might have been "sixth sense of humor." Ah, well. In any case, my confidence in the existence of a Divine Author (akin to Nabokov's role in Lolita), and in the Author's sense of humor, has found new credence.
But I think that God has a sick sense of humor...
-"Blasphemous Rumors"
My mom bought me a used jacket and didn't notice the insignia. Yesterday, when I put it on, I certainly noticed it.
It's the Playboy Bunny.
I'll keep wearing it. The coat is fine, aside from the logo, and no one will much mind in Berkeley. I figure that people who see it will either laugh at the irony or not know me in the first place.
I believe that today was the first time since high school that a teacher has said to me, "Do I have to separate you two?" In this case, it was Russian and my partner in inappropriate socialization was Jeff Good, linguistics man. Some topics of laughter: the word for "grumpy" (mrachnii) and the confusion of the Italian word for "wallet" with the Russian word for "briefcase" (both something like portfel).
I've read ocelot's diary, and really feel a gut-busting fit come on when I read this entry, entitled "A Biscotti Recipe, or Why ocelot rarely cooks." ocelot also gets my comradeship when she mentions in another entry that she lost an entry to a Netscape crash, but stubbornly refused to use a different composer next time around, since that would mean defeat!
I watched four episodes of the Japanese cartoon sitcom "Ranma 1/2" yesterday with a bunch of anime fans. I fear enjoying it, since that would set me swiftly "up the mainstream without a paddle," as Leonard says. Next thing I know, I'll be dragging everyone I know to Neon Genesis Evangelion marathons and spending all my time skulking around Movie Image on Shattuck.
And don't tell me anime isn't mainstream. At Berkeley, there's no better way to label yourself as completely gauche than to say Akira and Ghost in the Shell are your favorite movies ever. I'd have to advance through half of Reel's inventory before I'd consider myself up to par with these learned sages with whom I saw the "Ranma." And why would I start at something where I'd be the worst in the group to begin with?
Well, time to work on my paper about the film Dark Victory and its relationship to James Rorty's remark about the organic culture of humanity and the pseudoculture of advertising. Wish me luck. I'll get around to that ramble about the artist and her art next time, along with films at the Fine Arts Theater that I want to see soon.
Poll: Best phrase
- reflexive cynicism
- the Kobayashi Maru of stand-up comedy situations
- CorporNation
- Cheezus Christ
- Gray Davis, Al Gore's Mini-Me
Originally published by Sumana Harihareswara at http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/4/9/15310/30865
