Bonus!

By the way, for those of you movie buffs out there (who have DVD players available to check this sort of thing) the book from Good Will Hunting that Matt Damon’s character mentions is “People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn. A big shout out to my buddy VelvetJones, for providing me with this timely fact.
My group from the Gala; from left to right starting in the back: Lauren McFall, John DeSerio, Michael Park, Lydia Nelson, Lauren Bedrosian, Heather, Kendra Sarah King, Miriam Aarons, Akiva Zablocki, and Austin.

Gala, '06

I just came back from one of the best nights I’ve had in quite awhile. Tonight was the annual GS Spring Gala, and it was a ton of fun. The Gala is like a spring formal (the question that everyone jokingly passed around was, ‘Are you going to prom on Saturday?’) put on by the student council. (Actually, about that, one of the deans told me he thought perhaps the popularity of the event was due to the high number of GS students who didn’t go to their high school prom, which I found interesting) The event was black tie optional, with formal cocktail hour, followed by three course dinner, live entertainment (that was really quite good), open dance floor, and a great after party down at one of the local bars. All this for tickets at a very affordable price.
I almost considered not going, and now after the fact I’m ashamed to admit it, because I really did have a great time. I’d just bought my first suit for interviews that I’ll be taking later next month, so this was the perfect opportunity to give them a dry run, which I felt went well. It’s fun to get dressed up once in awhile, and I found that I actually kind of like wearing a suit. (Don’t look half bad in one either)
I’d asked a friend to come with me as my social date, she decided not to go and to study for the MCAT instead (a shame, as I’m sure the evening away from chemistry would have done her good), but I decided to go anyways, and I’m not sorry that I did. There were plenty of friends there to see, and our group staked out two tables so it ended up being really a very fun time. I was also pleased to see that much of the faculty turned out too, so it really was an event for our whole program.
Even got out and danced a little. Figured out that the key is to wait until later in the evening when everyone has had plenty to drink, then you just go and boogie because nobody is really paying very close attention. I’d say only a quarter of the people out there actually knew how to dance, but everyone was having a good time. (I have every intention though of joining that quarter though; the more I dance, the more I find how fun it is).
Oh, and one other thing. I got numerous compliments on my tie, which I picked out myself (and figured out again how to tie) after not having worn a tie for years. The girls all told me that purple makes a great statement, and like my brother Mark told me, in the end, if you’re simply feeling a tie, if you feel good when you wear it, and it makes you square your shoulders and hold your head high, then it’s a good tie for you. I was definitely feeling this one.
It really was a fantastic evening.

Weight

There’s a line from ‘Good Will Hunting’ where Matt Damon is in Robin William’s office looking at the books on his shelf. He comes across a history book, remarks that it’s one of the “wrong f#cking books”, and then comments, “You want to read a real history read [so and so’s People’s History], that book will knock you on your ass.” Good Will Hunting is among my favorite movies, and I’ve always loved this line for how well it articulates that feeling. I’ve only read a few books that knocked me on my ass, but I’ve just finished one and I pass it along with Will’s exhortation.
C.S. Lewis has been one of my favorite authors since I was a child, and my mother used to read “The Chronicles of Narnia” to me early in the mornings before school. In the last few years I’ve spent much more time with his non-fiction writings; Mere Christianity is simply extraordinary. The depth of the man’s thought and insight, and the way he asks so many of the ‘right questions’, is staggering.
After MC, I didn’t think I could be as impressed with any of his other works, and then I read ‘The Abolition of Man’; only one other book in my collection has as many highlightings and underlines as this one. So after Abolition, I REALLY didn’t think he’d have any more tricks to impress me with.
I should have known better.
I just finished reading ‘The Weight of Glory’, which is a collection of sermons and addresses he delivered, most of them during WWII. Incredible. It’s been some time since a book knocked me on my ass, but this one did. The copy of ‘Weight’ that I read (checked out here from the university library, which I have found to be extraordinarily well-stocked) was an old one and contains only five sermons, as compared to the nine included in the most recent printing you’d buy off Amazon. Of those five, one is a bit mediocre, three are excellent, but it is the first and title sermon that really packs the punch. I won’t spoil it for anyone who takes the time to read it, but I highly recommend it. It isn’t long; you could even take 20-30 minutes, pull a copy off the shelf at a local bookstore and read it there.
One of the really interesting ideas I’ve encountered while being here in New York is that in the Old Testament, the Jewish Tanakh, the word for ‘glory’ carries this meaning or connotation of weight. Which makes a lot of straightforward sense, at least to me. And that’s part of why Lewis’ sermon is so impressive and aptly named, because it takes that weight and slams it into you, and makes you realize something (if you follow and concur with his thinking) that is so central to everything that it’s amazing.
It’s worth the read.
Oh, and those other posts from Spring Break? Don't worry, they're coming ...

Delayed

My plan was to take an hour or two on Saturday to talk about my time over the break (which has been memorable) and to upload some photos (which I have some good ones) However ... something about those best-laid plans that go astray ...
Friday night I ate Taco Bell, which I've done many times before, except that about 2 hours afterwards I got violently sick, which hasn't happened in many years. One of things going through my mind while I was in the throes of compulsively throwing up was, 'Wow, I'd forgotten how much I hate throwing up.' I was sick all night that night, and spent almost all day Saturday in bed. I'm over it now, but given that I lost an entire day, ran a bit short of time to post things up this week. Look for the updates during the week, or more probably next weekend. Best to everyone, and remember, don't let food poisoning happen to you ...
(In case anyone is wondering about the logo, I was trying to think of a picture that would fit the theme. I was going to go with the Mr. Yuk symbol, but I found out to my surprise that it is actually copyrighted by its creator, the Children's Hospital of Pittsburg. Skull & crossbones was the next best thing I could come up with ...)

Break

Midterms are over.
Actually, midterms were over on Thursday, or even Wednesday, if you want to get really technical. (The last test that I took on Wednesday was my final midterm, I had a test on Thursday, but it was not actually a midterm in the sense we have tests in Chinese every few weeks, but the Micro midterm counts for 35% of the course grade) Friday, I’d planned to take the entire day and just unplug, and this entry was meant to go up on Saturday, but it didn’t due to the fact that my room didn’t have power all day. Yes that’s right, just my room. The power main coming into my building went down, but it affected the building strangely. Some floors had power, some didn’t. Some, like mine, had partial power. My room was the only one without it. Which meant that I couldn’t access anything on my computer.
Extremely aggravating.
But today, all is well. My tests are over, and my two big ones in Stats and Micro I felt went very well, I might even have aced the Stats test, depending on how a few things break. And many of the students in my class didn’t finish the Micro exam within the time allotted, so even though I know for sure one question was wrong, I still may end up near the top of the curve, we’ll see. I’ve realized that spring semester here is immeasurably better than winter, because we have the week of spring break just about exactly in the middle of the semester to break things up. Which make a big difference, there aren’t many holidays during the term, and the intensity of the work wears you down. Having this week to refresh is … outstanding, and that’s an understatement.
The weather on Friday & Saturday was unbelievably beautiful, first time I’ve gone outside without my jacket since September. (The kids that were still here and not in Florida or the Bahamas had the same idea, as you can see. You can always tell when the weather is nice when people hang out on the steps in front of Lowe Library.)
Thursday had an interesting experience to kick off my week of break, but I’ll save that for the next post. There will be more new content coming this week, so stay tuned …