Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Hey Hey Hey. I'm in Powell Library right now with no energy to study anything. I have an hour until my next class starts so I thought I'd describe my wonderfully traumatic experience at an experiment last week... So. I sign up for this experiment that's described as "The Challenge Experiment." Oooh scarry. I can get paid 30 bucks or get 2 credits of experiment credit for my psychology class. I had all my credits so I thought I'd take the extra cash. Anyway, I walk into the poorly lit room in Franz Hall (the psych building) to find a tiny Asian woman in a lab coat. What kind of challenge can this diminutive chick possibly give me? So I sit down and she explains the procedure, asks for consent etc etc. She then procedes to strap me to a heart monitor and asks me to read the Atlantic Monthly magazine, which I like. Some challenge, eh? A few minutes later she tells me to stick a weird cotton thing in my mouth for a saliva sample. Fine. She then says she's going to leave the room and I'm supposed to listen to the instructions on this cassette she's going to play. Instructions? Ook. The instructions went something like this. "In a few moments, a panel of qualified experimenters will enter the room. You will be asked to give a speech on why you should be hired as a lab assistant to these panelists. This is not a real job offer, however we ask that you take this seriously. Following that, you will be asked to perform a counting task. Please prepare your speech mentally now." Uuuh, speech? I no likey the speech. I hate speaking in front of any group of people I don't know. Shit! Keep in mind that all this time the heart monitor is squeezing the hell out of my arm every 5 min. and I have to give saliva samples every 10 min or something. Ok, so I'm great to work with, I'm mature, I'm enthusiastic blah blah. They enter the room. I don't know where they found these people, but I'm thinking somewhere in the depths of the underworld because they gave me looks like I've never seen. The "I'm going to kill you right now, niiice and slooow" looks. "Begin your speech." "Uumm ok so I'm qualified for this job ...." the rest of the speech is a blur except for the last minute. Did I mention they time you? They time you five minutes and you have to keep talking no matter what. Oh and they're filming you too. Oh and the heart monitor is squeezing your arm like there's no tomorrow. Yeah. The last minute. I had nothing to say for another minute. So I did what my instincts told me. Talk reaaallly slow and make shit up. So I did. "So...in....conc.....lusion.......I........bel.....ieve.....that....." "Speed up please!" Shit. I can't speed up! "...I.am..qualified..because...." "Times up!" Thank freakin goodness that torture was over. "You will now be asked to perform a counting task. When I say so, count backwards from two thousand eighty three in sets of thirteen." WHAT?! TWENTY EIGHTY THREE IN SETS OF THIRTEEN!! WHAT IN THE FRIGGIN BLUE JESUS ARE THEY SMOKING?! "Begin." "Err ummm...2083, 2070, 2057, 2045." "Incorrect. Begin again." HEART MONITOR SQUEEEEEZE. "2083, 2070, 2057, 2044, 2031, 2018...2005.......1992......" "FASTER!" "err umm ok 1979..1966...1953...1940...1927....1915..." "Incorrect. Start again from 2083." SHIT. That went on for far too long. The last shot I got down to something in the 1600s. Bastards. "This portion of the task is over. Please insert a cotton sample into your mouth." "Ummm ....oo...ook...thanks." Door slam. "Fuckers." So the little Asian woman walks back in for debriefing. I was sworn to secrecy as to the purpose of the experiment, but it was a semi-relief to hear it.
I'm still waiting for my $30 check to come in the mail. It better come soon. That 90 min. Pseudo Spanish Inquisition left me rattled, shaken and even stirred. Beware tiny Asian women...for they may have cash...but they'll bring you to your knees in pain.
P.S. $C update coming soon with pics....Trojans $UC.
4:15 PM
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Saturday, November 08, 2003
10 bands you've been listening to lately:
x. The RH Factor
x. Maynard Ferguson
x. Dave Matthews Band
x. Dildo...I mean Dido
x. Evanescence
x. E.S. Posthumus
x. REM
x. Patrick Bruel
x.Rufus Wainwright
x. Norah Jones
9 places you have gone in the past 3 days:
x. Century City (MATRIX REVOLUTIONS YEH YEH)
x. Moore Hall 100
x. Fowler A103B
x. Schlicter 2870 (WITH DAMN TOAD)
x. Lot 7 stealing parking
x. The IM Field for rehearsal
x. Botany 320 (WITH DAMN TOAD)
x. My Jetta
x. Hell...I mean driving home at rush hour
8 people who mean a lot to you:
x. Mother
x. Aunt (Tantie)
x. My psychotic cousin Idean
x. My cousin Nazli
x. ALL FRIENDS but I'll list as many as I can: Jeremy
x. Ashley
x. Kevin
x. Ilana
there's lots more but not enough room, don't be saddened if you aren't up here...Well said Ashley
7 bands you have seen live:
x. BB King
x. Maynard Ferguson
x. Tina Turner
x. Gypsy Kings
x. Eddie Izzard (Not a band but...ssh)
x. Blue Man Group
x. LA Philharmonic
6 out-of-town places you have been:
x. Paris, France
x. Florence, Italy
x. Zurich, Switzerland
x. Atlanta, GA
x. NY, NY
x. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
5 people you hate:
I won't list people I know because...I don't really hate people I know...So let's attack celebrities
x. Catherine Zeta-Jones
x. Ja Rule
x. Martha Stewart
x. Michelle Rodriguez
x. George Dubya Bush
4 movies you think i should see:
x. Dark City
x. Bowling for Columbine
x. Minority Report
x. Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail
3 things you'll never wear:
x. Capri Pants
x. Bicycle Shorts
x. Nose Ring (I have allergies...)
2 things you do everyday
x. Hit the snooze button
x. Sneeze
1 thing you want to tell:
x. There is no afterlife in the religious sense, but there is another one. More on that later
2:37 PM
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Monday, November 03, 2003
Oh my friggin Jesus! What's that?! I think it's an update...Yes true believers, it is an update indeed. Back from my Bay Area Trip, post midterm apocalypse (although I have another one next week...) I have returned to bring all two of my visitors the pleasure of seeing the mind-numbingly boring...I mean freakin exciting aspects of my life. Well let's get this train a rollin'...
I've got a plethora of pictures from different occasions that I've been wanting to post and you're gonna see them all here. So don't be confused, these events did not occur all in the same day.
Let's start off with the most recent event: The Bay Area Trip to Stanford.
Well, we left at midnight Thursday night for the 6 hour bus ride to Palo Alto. I slept a total of about 10 minutes on the bus because our bus was the so-called "party bus." Oh well. Upon arriving at our destination (no one actually knew where we were but we just knew we were where we were supposed to be) we had a dazed breakfast in town and headed out to the highschool for a 3 hour rehearsal. Keep in mind this is after a sleepless night. After that we headed over to the hotel to unload, sleep, go out on the town and all the fixins.
Instead of sleeping I decided to head out into San Francisco with a group of people. Myself and another guy had
never been into San Francisco since we were first-years and the other guys we went out with were upper-classmen. It was good times all round since it was Halloween and Halloween in San Francisco is...well...carazy. We headed out on the BART train and had lunch/dinner. Our waitress was a site to behold. She was a hot blonde little thang wearing pink wings and a golden bra thing and had pink eyelashes. Everytime she came over to take our orders or something she would wack me and one of the other guys in the head with her wings. We thought (eerrr I thought) she was rubbing my head or something but no...twas the wing. She apoligized and leaned over and rubbed our heads with her wings (by accident of course) After that unique experience we went out on the town. We snuck into a nice hotel because of the awesome view from the elevator ride to the top of the building.
A blurry San Francisco street.
A view from the top...with a bizarre reflection of me taking the picture.
Another view...kind of like gay Manhattan.
The cable car ride on Powell Street was one of the most fun parts of the night. We were just hanging off the side of this contraption, nearly severing several limbs by oncoming vehicles.
At the pier.
The walk through town and the pier was all good and fun...but the real action was at the Castro Street Halloween Party. For those who don't know, Castro Street is the heart of gay San Francisco. About 107 too many male asses in this parade orgy.
The best costume I saw was a priest with a baby doll hanging from his crotch...Genius...Anyway, somwhere between the pier and the taxi ride to the party (with an eccentric taxi driver) three of us got separated from the other three guys. We were walking up Castro to find our compadres when the Color Guard girls (flag bearing girls at field shows) asked us to accompany them down the street because they were scared of walking alone. No complaints there. Six color guard girls and three guys...not bad odds for a shy guy...Anyway, about an hour later when walking back from the end of the parade party, which held an insane techno concert, we met up with our lost comrades who had bought 99 cent halloween masks at Walgreens. One witch mask, one vampire mask, and a bucket. Many laughs followed while we startled people walking back to the train by yelling random things at people. "YES! YYYYEEESSS!" "BBBLLAAAH!" "BUCKET!" On the trek back, we saw a brass band performing. Being brass players we had to investigate to reinforce our stances that we were better than everyone. While watching the band I noticed one of my friends was freaking out because a 40-ish woman with a weird witch outfit was dancing against him. "Guuuyss...GUYS! We have to go now....nooow!" Which made me laugh...so hard. We finally made our way back to the BART and met up with fellow band buddies and talked the rest of the way back to the hotel.
The next day was the Stanford game and we got back at 11 and went to sleep at around 2 and had to wake up at 6. 5 HOURS OF SLEEP IN 36 HOURS! AWESOME!!
The following day at Stanford.
Before the game.
The Stanford making total asses out of themselves...Yes, that is Sponge Bob running around and yes that is the "drum major" dressed as sponge bob.
I should note that I march in the Pregame show and halftime but I only operate a fire extinguisher during the halftime Jazz show. (For the steamboat during the song "Ol' Man River") I am still regretting not kicking the idiot Stanford tree mascot's ass because he was trying to take the fire extinguisher from me after marching off the field. All I did was tell him off and walk away. Dammit...anyway.
Breathtakingly excellent Trumpet professor Jens (pronounced Yens) Linndeman performing a solo in "One More Time Chuck Corea" during half-time
The band in the stands cheering during a drum cadence.
The drumline.
We left Stanford with a terrible loss but the partying continued in the hotel anyway. I wandered in and out of room parties that night but ended up going to sleep early...actually collapsing early.
On the bus before departing from Palo Alto.
I watched a couple movies on the bus, read my "Da Vinci Code" and talked to some of my buddies and made new ones.
In the middle of NOWHERE, on the way back.
At the lunch stop at a truck stop called Kettleman City.
Playing football at the truckstop.
We finally got back to good ol' life filled LA Sunday afternoon thinking how the weekend passed by so fast.
I'll update in a day or two with the old pictures. This long post should quench your appetites for a while.
Fare thee all well and go Bruins...beeotch!
P.S. Mucho merci to Ilana for putting up the Shout outs here!
11:03 PM
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