Winter Quarter Nearly Over

After a seemingly endless string of bad hair days with thermal underwear required, soggy Winter '06 is on its final days here at UCSC. I can look back on:
Tater tot binges along with kiwi fruits, Captain Crunch, and mayonnaise (not all at once) on tap at the dining hall. The purchase of half a cow's worth of leather in the hopes that I can convert at least part of it into a dream bag. A trip to the Monterey Bay aquarium which featured about 15 awe-filled minutes of staring at barrel-width tuna barreling through their simulated open sea environment. Wrestling with the end of low tide in a sea cave near Davenport. A fabulous barf-tempting sailplane soar session somewhere near the Pear Blossom Highway after ingesting a wonderful Hungarian sausage sandwich that I didn't want to taste twice despite its initial deliciousness. An impromptu slug hunt that netted three healthy Banana Slugs and featured appearances by two adorable rough skinned newts. A desperate, profane, and nearly fruitless midnight hitch-hiking session in the abject darkness of a charming 45 minute Santa Cruz downpour. The careful and steady construction of an intense hatred for the soul-crushing fundamentals of statistics. Legally observing very young children through one-way glass for hours. Enough bitching to train my future self: a bitter old man who lives only to tell kids to stay away from his yard. My new refrigerator: festoons of aluminum cans on lengths of wire hanging out of my window, conveniently cooled by exposure to the frigid night air. An exciting evening of rain, driving snow, having a bolt of lightning strike 5 feet away from me, and exhilirating bodyboard sledding on two inches of hail with a view of the Pacific Ocean. Several bottles of sake. Enough Tecate to warrant a sponsorship contract. The consumption of 2kg of yerba mate. Age-accelerating Rockstar-fueled all-nighters. My venerable, battle-scarred Canon Powershot S400, Photoshop, and Flickr. My delightful hallmates and most of all, the company, aural and physical, of my Bojanese dream girl.

Audio friendship:
Of Montreal's inspirational "Sunlandic Twins" on repeat. Wonderful Al Bowlly. Psy-trance being given a fifth or sixth chance. David's valuable recommendation of releases from Boogizm records. Euromotion, Prince, Bitstream, Tipper, Tigrics. And my rather large collection of Tango CDs.

Excited at Study Time

Ok, so I get a little excited at exam study waypoints. Here's what the Soulseek Lobby had to endure a little while ago:

[redteam] I'M STUDYING MY ASS OFF RIGHT NOW
[redteam] STATS EXAM THINKS IT'S ALL HARD
[redteam] "CHAPTERS 8-12, I'LL FUCK YOU UP"
[redteam] BULLSHIT, YOU FEEBLE TEST, I AM PREPARED TO KICK YOUR ASS
* deepness puts $5 on chapters 8-12
[redteam] PREPARE TO LOSE $5 OF YOUR MONEY
[deepness] oh we'll see
[redteam] "OOH YOU BETTER BE PREPARED TO REJECT THE NULL HYPOTHESIS"
[redteam] FUCK YOU BITCH, IF THE OBSERVED SAMPLE STATISTIC FALLS OUTSIDE OF THE TEST STATISTIC'S CRITICAL VALUE AND INTO THE REJECTION AREA, I WILL FUCKEN REJECT YOUR NULL ASSED HYPOTHESIS.
[deepness] i hope you know how to prepare a quarter pounder
[redteam] THAT SHIT IS GOING TO BE FUCKEN STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT AS HELL
[redteam] THEN WE'LL MEASURE THE EFFECT SIZE AND ALL THAT SHIT
[redteam] EXAM #2, YOU DON'T STAND A FUCKEN CHANCE
[redteam] I'LL ROCK YOU LIKE CELINE DION HAS ROCKED THE HEARTS OF THE FRENCH CANADIAN POPULATION
[THESOW] any one got 2 pac
[THESOW] or emiem
[redteam] EXAM #2 IS GOING TO GET ROCKED LIKE THE CROWD WITNESSING PRINCE PERFORM "WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS" WHICH CAN BE VIEWED HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nOtQzPCqvE
[redteam] NO, THESOW, BUT IN A MATTER OF HOURS I *DO* HAVE A STATS EXAM THAT'S GOING TO GET ITS MOTHERFUCKEN ASS KICKED
[redteam] IS THAT SATISFACTORY?
[redteam] ALSO, THESOW, ARE YOU A FEMALE PIG?
[THESOW] go for it what exam
[THESOW] yes
[redteam] FUCK YEAH, STATS EXAM #2 IS GOING TO GET ROCKED LIKE A RUNT IN YOUR LITTER AT FEEDING TIME

Party at House 2

Santa Cruz, California, USA
Elsewhere, I've mentioned that House 2 at Stevenson College is a house of, well, no repute. I don't believe that I know anyone there, I've never heard of anything interesting going on in there, I've never heard it mentioned in conversation, overall, I haven't heard a peep come out of that place. For all I know, it could be completely empty or reserved for devout Catholics.

That all changed tonight.

I was studying for my upcoming stats midterm when I heard whooping, hollering, and screaming girlish chaos coming from somewhere outside. I stuck my head out and saw that House 2's lounge had the blinds all the way down. Multicolored spinning disco lights were illuminating the transluscent blinds and standard issue house music laid a rhythmic background for the raucous squealing from the girls. This I had to see.

Shoes, jacket, keys, and I'm outside. A healthy assortment of youths from my house are playing hackey-sack in the quad. They share my curiousity about House 2's sudden awakening. I walk up to the door and get let in by this dour-faced betrenchcoated nerd I've seen stalking around campus a few times before. The little window on the door to the festive lounge has been covered up so I approach it to get a peek through a clear spot. That's when the useless would-be guardian begins his pointed questioning in an attempt to make me feel unwelcome. "Wha wha ... hey ... what are you doing here?" Without even looking at him I say, "I'm taking a look at what's going on in here." "Hey ... you know someone ... um ... you live around here?" "Yeah, I'm from House 3 - hahhaha oh man, what a party!" "Wha - wha what's your name?" "My name's Christian - what's going on in there?" "It's a, um, private function." "Yeah, I can tell - what's your name anyway?" "William, I'm the RA". I couldn't help but laugh at his feeble attempt at intimidation. Feeling a little like Al Swearengen vs. Calamity Jane in Season 1, Episode 2 of Deadwood, I walk out of there, my curiousity satisfied.

What I saw in that lounge, folks, was several screaming girls gathered around a hairless, muscular young man with nothing but a burgundy satin g-string on. He was gyrating his hips over a girl who was laying on the ground and enjoying herself tremendously. Although the exact song wasn't playing, I do believe that they were partying like it was that girl's birthday.

After informing my friends in the quad, a contingent of girls ran to the lounge's window to have a peek for themselves. It's nice to know that the girls have a healthy taste for men (unlike a certain Miss Priss in my hall who was quoted on someone else's whiteboard as saying "Penises are ugly" - heh, how sad it must've been for her when she found out that guys look nothing like Ken dolls).

While all this was happening, impotent William stormed out of the house in a huff and went away. We all had a hearty laugh at his expense and called for him to come to us. Maybe he was heading to his forest perch for his nightly reenactments of scenes from "The Crow".

Meditation Search

Sierra Madre, California, USA
A while back I decided to go meme fishing by making a post on my favorite Friendster clone (um, community networking site?), Tribe.net. It's like Friendster, but more for Burning Man attendee-type people. I was "Seeking a non-religious, no-nonsense approach to meditation". I've collected the best responses and put them here.

St. LAMEntine's Day

Sierra Madre, California, USA
A very lonely and pathetic St. Valentine's Day. Lamest day of the year unless you're a girlfriend, then it's like Christmas.

On Dec. 3, 2004, I mentioned a rather classy Elite in Halo2 speaking about weaponry as if he were on an Antiques Roadshow of the distant future outtake. I recorded his comments. Enjoy!

All the tools required

Sierra Madre, California, USA
Was cleaning out the garage today. Found a big, full bottle of Betadine antiseptic solution. Cool! Then found a full box of Band-Aids. Later, found a nice pair of scissors. "Wow, what nice scissors!, I'm going to go clean them up and sharpen them." Took them apart, sponged them clean, cut my finger wide open. Dried the finger, applied pressure, then some Betadine, and a fresh bandage.

Halo 2 is so rad

Sierra Madre, California, USA
Halo 2 is so rad. Well, gameplay-wise, anyway. I think overall, if looked at alone, the original Halo is better. It's put together better. The story and the way everything is designed is just really well done. Halo 2 has a whole bunch of improvements in gameplay and level design, but the story on the whole just isn't as good.

One thing that I really like, though, and this is what inspired me to write about this, is that you get to find out more about the Covenant Elites.

In the first Halo, the Elites are pretty smart. They dodge your shots, they know if you're able to see them or get a shot at them. They curse in an alien language when attacked and laugh at you when they kill you. I always figured that the stuff they were saying was really smart, that they went to really good schools, and that they were good kids with families that had summer homes. They enjoy the finer things in life. Kinda like the German officer Wilm Hosenfeld in "The Pianist". Maybe the Elites have pictures of their families in their quarters back on their ship and really sophisticated hobbies.

Finding more about the Elites is a treat in Halo 2. You even get to be one. When the story begins, it follows the Master Chief (the hero) as he is being commended for destroying the Halo in the first game. At the same time, in distant Covenant territory, the Elite officer in charge of stopping the humans is sentenced to death by a council of higher-up Elites and their Prophets for a military failure so bad that they consider it heresy (they believe the Halo destroyed by the humans is sacred). The Prophets later that simply killing that Elite would be a waste and devise better plans for him. They decide to make that punished Elite an "Arbiter" which has some kind of special role in their society. He gets a special suit. You are sent off to kill a Prophet which is considered a heretic because he found out the true purpose of the Rings (what they call the Halos discovered by the Master Chief in the first game) - they're weapons designed by the Forerunners (an ancient alien race killed by the Halos) to wipe out all sentient life for light-years all around them as a last-ditch measure against a widespread infestation of a parasitic race called "The Flood". Another class of creatures in The Covenant called "Brutes" stage a coup and take the place of the Elites as assistants and counselors to the Prophets.

As their name suggests, these creatures are filthy and big. They're pretty smart, but the Elites believe they are superior. The Brutes believe the same thing (but you know, vice-versa), and they see themselves as part of a new way ... that they finally got the Elites out of power. I see a sort of Democrat/Republican relationship there. The Brutes being the Republicans, naturally. The similarities don't go too deep, so I'll stop there.

The Elites in Halo 2, to my delight, speak English. I'm so pleased that I was right about the Elites. They hold a high place in society, they're tough opponents (new AI makes them even tougher), and they speak with dignity. My favorite part of the game is in the chapter called "Fight Club". You're playing as "The Arbiter". After taking out a whole bunch of Brutes, several Elites are dropped from the sky in special cannisters to join you in battle. Elites only weild Covenant weapons like Plasma Rifles, Needlers, and the elegant Energy Blades. So with a couple of Elites by your side, you run through a corridor and go through a room filled with a collection of weapons. Mostly human weapons like shotguns, a rocket launcher, etc. and the "Brute Shot" gun. One Elite, in his gruff voice angrily says, "What vulgar taste; even as trophies these weapons are worthless!"

I love that.