The Religion of One Age is the Literary Entertainment of the Next

So I'll start by giving a huge thanks to Rachael for making this post possible.  For some reason I cannot see any of our posts while using the "whiter" interface, for lack of a better way to describe it, and thus my draft was going to be swallowed into the internet until Ms. Somerville came and saved it.  So basically without her I would not be posting tonight, and thus if you see her you should give her a pat on the back.  Oh wait, what's that? We never see each other because we go to five different schools scattered across the U.S.  Oh yes, I recall that little factoid now that you mention it.  Guess that's why we have this little forum in the first place. Well, that's about enough of an intro. Weiter? Weiter! (How's that for originality...)

So I felt bad regarding my last couple posts because they've been really lackluster and boring so I'm going to try and make it up in this post by being exciting (hopefully) and covering a lot of topics. Because I lack organizational skills I made my draft of ideas in no particular order, and because I lack the patience to rack my brain for the chronological order of these events I will be recounting them in the order they appear on my list which may or may not confuse you in terms of what came first (the chicken or the egg?) but this is a risk I'm willing to take.

First on my list is "tattoo."  Why tattoo you might ask?  Well, if you were wondering if I got a tattoo you can put that thought out of your mind right now.  If you know me well, (This feels like a challenge to all my friends saying that they should know this but it really isn't, I don't expect you all to know this.  I like the phrasing of that little snippet however so I'm going to leave as is) you know that I do not like tattoos.  Now, this said, if any of you get a tattoo I will not cease being your friend.  On the contrary, two of my very (sorry Ms. T) best friends have tattoos.

I think my dislike of these body markings is twofold. Both reasons can really be summed up in one overarching idea, but I'll split it up for shits and giggles.  The overarching theme is the tattoo's permanence. First, I can never think of something that would be worthy enough to be permanently put on one's body.  Maybe for other people there are worthwhile things in life that they want to hang onto, but for me nothing strikes that cord.  I think it stems from my fear of commitment which is ever present in my life.  The second worry runs parallel with the first; the idea that one day you might wake up and regret what you put on your body.  I realize writing this that these sound like the same thing, but in my mind they are separate ideas, and so they will remain separate ideas as I put them to paper (or the internet.... paper sounded better though, right?)

The reason why I have tattoo on my list is because one day this week (don't remember which and you're just going to have to deal with that lack of information) I had a nightmare regarding tattoos.  I woke up (in my dream) and got out of my bed, ready to go to my 8am physics discussion.  I gathered up my clothes for the day and got my shower caddy and towel and headed to the shower.  As I am entering the shower something catches my eye.  I turn around to the mirror and I find that around 50% of my chest is tattooed.  Tattooed with writing, and on closer inspection-oh no, they are biblical quotes.  Yeah so that was basically one of the scariest dreams I have ever had, one reason being the idea of so many tattoos on my body and the other reason probably self-evident.

The next two items on my list are "quesadilla" and "quiche."  For some reason blogger thinks quesadilla is spelled wrong.  Either I'm making a mistake that I will facepalm (oooh not a word either, but kind of saw that coming) over later when you astute readers point it out, or blogger needs some work on their dictionary.    Quiche is on my list because I decided for my interview challenge I would have the pledges cook with me because, well, I like to cook.  I've only done one interview so far and, as you guessed it, we made quiche.  Bacon quiche to be exact.  It was rather tasty, but it took up a longer time and more resources than I anticipated.  I'm thinking of making whatever the other pledges have to cook easier and cheaper.  Hence my second choice of list item, quesadilla.  Well, kind of.  Quesadilla is on my list for two, wait no actually three, reasons.  1. I love quesadillas, best food ever. 2. Cheaper and quicker alternative for pledge interviews. 3. I have a quesadilla maker (from grad night) in my dorm. It is awesome.

The next item on my list is "sakura."  For anyone not aware, sakura is another word for cherry blossom.  I was walking through Berkeley (which I do a lot because the average walk from where I live to class is approximately 20 min) and I saw a apartment with sakura outside of it and I thought it was nice so I took a picture of it to share with you all.  See Figure A.

Figure A

Next on my list is "birthday/exchange."  Friday is my birthday if you were unaware, and coincidentally we (Phi Psi) are having an exchange that day.  Now, that's not too shocking judging by the fact that we have exchanges nearly every weekend, but what is notable is that it is with ADPi.  That last sentence probably didn't make you as excited as the tone implied you would be, but wait, there's more!  Kiara is in ADPi, which is cool because I'll be able to see her, but as of recent (the transition from high school to college) Kiara and I have become distant so I'm actually not too excited about that.  What I am excited about however is that one of my friends, Becka, is in ADPi and she's really cool so I'm sure it will be a lot of fun.  Knowing people in the sorority you have a exchange with is extremely useful because it makes things less awkward and they can introduce you to their friends without it being awkward.

Following that up is "amanda polley/it's ironic because."  Now, I doubt any of you will know who this is, but basically she's become my new guardian angel.  Flashing back to about a week ago, I forget who told me (possibly Gillian? I don't know), but someone had said to me, "Do you know Amanda Polley?  She went to CDM and is in ChemE, I think she's two years older than us."  I replied with a definite "nope" and went on with my day not thinking much of it.  Fast forward to present, and we come to probably the most exciting moment of this week.

On Saturday we had an exchange with AOPi.  I didn't really know anyone in AOPi, so I wasn't having high hopes for the exchange, but I went and tried as best I could to have a good time, as I normally do.  As I was talking to these two girls another girl comes up and says, "Have you seen Amanda?"  The other replies, "Amanda Polley?"  Having a Jimmy Neutron brain blast, I look at her inquisitively and say, "Wait... did you just say Amanda Polley?"  The girl replies with a nod, and I ask her to introduce me to her.  (Oh, side not that I just remebered.  I also saw Kristy Tsai who went to CDM at the AOPi exchange, but nothing really momentous happened there so this is basically just a shout-out to her so you, the avidly reading audience can stand up in your chair and shout, "I KNOW HER OMGROFLCOPTERZ!")

I meet Amanda, and I've basically found the new platonic love of my life.  We immediately hit it off and reminisce about CDM. Basically, I will not bore (this is the right form right?) you with the trivialities, but we're basically best friends now.  Okay, not best friends, but she said that she would be more than happy to help me with anything ChemE because she has been where I am, experiencing the hell of lower div ChemE.  I think both of us were just so excited to meet another CDM ChemE. I'm excited to see where our relationship goes.

The "it's ironic because" now, thinking about it, isn't really that great of a story, but since it was included in my list I will cover it regardless.  Amanda has a British accent and when I introduced her to one of my brothers, he made a comment on her shirt saying, "You're wearing a shirt that says 'American' and that's all? No team."  She responds by beginning to say, "It's ironic because-" until she gets cut off, "HOLY SHIT you've got a British accent!?!"  I thought it was funny at the time.  Not anymore, but yeah nevertheless I covered it for your non-enjoyment.


There are still 7 things on my list, so don't get tired yet haha.  I'm really overdoing it on this post to make up for my prior ones.  So, weiter, the next thing on my list is "Super Bowl."  In case you've been living under a rock, the Super Bowl (two words, take note) was this weekend.  I'm not really that into football, so you may think that it probably wasn't too interesting to me, but then you would be wrong. The alumni (Phi Psi) decided to treat the brothers for a large alumni Super Bowl party. They bought about 30 pounds of meat for us which was awesome.  I also lost $2 in gambling, which was less awesome, but I feel like it was worth it for the experience.  My Phi Psi gambling tab is up to a loss of $4 which, although inconvenient, I feel is reasonable.

Next, we have "fountainhead/picture."  Rich, get tissues ready.  While watching the Super Bowl, I was chatting up some brother and the topic of Ayn Rand came up.  I said I had never read her books, but one of my good friends had, and he immediately pushed it on me. Literally.  So now I have a copy of The Fountainhead that I am planning on reading soon.  I still haven't finished my History of the Elements book because I've been turned off by the authors need to express his love for modern art ever other page. Yuck.  I'm thinking of just skipping it and moving on to another book, which in this case will be The Fountainhead.

Technically, the next book I should read is one recommended by Cole, Nightfall by Issac Asimov, but I have reservations.  Mainly because I'm not too sure how Cole and my opinion of goof books line up, but we'll see.  I also really like this brother that gave me The Fountainhead, so I'm more inclined to read it.  He reminds me of you (Rich, for some reason I felt like I've been talking to only you for the last paragraph so the you naturally came out and I will leave it there for authenticity sake) a lot.  Like, holy shit a lot.  This brings up something later on my list, but related to this so I think I'll make an exception and go out of order.

"nightfall?Derek?"  Basically, I'm asking you Derek because we share a somewhat similar history in book choices whether I should read Nightfall or not.  And now you have the background that if I don't read Nightfall I'll read The Fountainhead.  I don't think you've read The Fountainhead, but I have faith that you can make a decision for me that, regardless of what it is, I will take up.

Oh, almost forgot, the "picture" portion of that item on the list is the following poster hanging in this pre-described brother's room:

I don't get this and I don't know who will but Mike (The brother I've been talking about this entire time. I like giving people names.) said it was from (if I remember correctly) Atlas Shrugged so maybe you'll get it (Rich).

Figure B- Yeah, that line is going off the edge of the picture.

Four more things, and they're short so don't die on me now.  If you know anything about Berkeley's amazing food, you've probably heard of the place known as Cheeseboard.  "cheeseboard," being the next thing on my list, is addressing my recent trip to this fine establishment.  So basically it's a pizza place that's really popular (and I mean REALLLLY popular, see figure B for evidence)  that makes only one type of pizza a day, but the pizza is extremely delicious and relatively cheap.  I don't know the exact flavor we got off the top of my head, but it was probably the best thin crust pizza I've ever had. (Thick crust pizza prize going to either Little Star pizza in SF or Zachary's pizza in Berkeley)  The pizza looked like this, sorry about the yellow lighting.

"moon"  This one is pretty self-explanatory.  The moon was cool one night and I decided to take a picture of it.  The picture really doesn't do it justice, but it was really cool so...yeah!

I had my first midterm on Monday.  Chem 4B and let's just say I didn't do so hot.  Got about 10% below the average, but I'm hoping it turns out like last semester where I did below the average on the first midterm and ended up beating the overall class average by about 4%.  Definitely a reminder that college life can't be all fun and that I need a "get my shit together" check.

LASTLY, I know it's been long and I'm sorry, but I had my second meeting for Wonderworks tonight.  Wonderworks is a club similar to Project Success which I did in High School where I will go to elementary schools in the area to teach kids about science and hopefully get them interested in science using some crowd-pleasing demonstrations.  I really love working with kids as I'm sure some of you know, and I can't wait to get this club started.  Unfortunately, I'm going to have to skip one of my classes discussion sections (E7, which is doubly unfortunate due to the fact that along with Chem this is becoming my hardest class), but I'm excited to start doing some community service in a field I really feel passionate about.  With pledging last semester I wasn't really able to do any community service, and I'm starting to get the "you're not contributing to society" bad feeling so I want that to go away.

Overall, this semester seems like it's going to be the toughest thing I've ever had to do, but I'm excited nonetheless.  Writing this blog post for what I think is about two hours now probably wasn't the best in helping my studies, but I find it relaxing and I really want to make it known that, to the people who read this blog, I really care about you and even though our main goal in college is to better our education and prepare ourselves for the work world, these are supposed to be the best years of our lives, and I intend to make them that and so much more.

To more posts like this,

Jason