:: Pedantic Platitudes ::

Greetings! My name is Sam J and I am a student at Harvard University. Perhaps this blog will present a little look into the mundane yet unique events that make up my life.
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:: Thursday, January 20, 2005 ::

And so, on this Dark Thursday that marks another four years of ineptitude, arrogance, war, and fearmongering, I start my vacation! First, Hawaii, then, THE WORLD!

I shall be back on February 1!

:: SL 1:12 AM [+] ::
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:: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 ::
Sigh.

Villagers furious with Christian Missionaries

:: SL 6:34 PM [+] ::
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I neglected to post this quote I stumbled upon while doing research for the "samurai man-boy love" paper I had to write last month:

"Never in previous ages was there boy love like this."

Yes, and not until the establishment of NAMBLA was there once again boy love like this.

:: SL 11:56 AM [+] ::
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Ah, it's been a good week. And I'm all done with the semester!!!

This morning, I got up bright and early and had breakfast. Then I headed over to take my three-hour final. It was for my samurai history and literature class, and we had to complete several IDs and then write four essays. Ugh. My hand was so tired after all that writing!

I then went out and treated myself to some bubble tea!

Yesterday, the dining hall hosted a "Savory Spotlight" on citrus fruits, so we had fun sampling each kind, from sweet limes to tangerines to kumquats. There was also lemon meringue pie and freshly squeezed orange juice. Yum! So we all got a bunch of different citrus fruits, and there were so many different types we ended up re-enacting the opening scene of The Lion King using the giant-ass orange as Mufasa, the sweet lime with the branch attached to it as Rafiki, and the tiny kumquat as Simba.

Then I ate Simba.

It was crazy.

But oh what a wonderful lunch that was. The food was great, I was with some great friends, and I had an amazing time. I actually have spent a lot of time with friends this week at the dining hall, despite everyone being busy studying for finals. Hanging out with friends makes for such a great study break!

Yay, I have created my own LiveJournal account. I think it's going to be an abridged version of what I put up here. So keep checking this page for regular updates. But if you're on LiveJournal, add me as a friend!!!

Oh, I almost forgot... last night in the serving area of the dining hall, they were playing the Spice Girls' late-90s hit "Stop," and these two big football players started singing and dancing along and really getting into the song. It was such a strange sight, but it totally made my day.

Quote of the Day: "I'll juggle *your* kumquats!"

:: SL 11:02 AM [+] ::
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:: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 ::
Critics attack "lavish" Bush at time of war

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush is drawing heat over a $40 million (21.5 million pound) splurge on inaugural balls, concerts and candlelight dinners while the country is in a sombre mood because of the Iraq war and Asian tsunami.

As Bush prepares for his second-term inauguration on Thursday, his supporters plan to celebrate with fireworks and three days of parties, including a "Black Tie and Boots" ball and nine other balls.

Critics say the lavish celebrations are unseemly when U.S. troops face daily violence in Iraq and Americans are being urged to donate money to alleviate the suffering in Asia, where the December 26 tsunami killed 163,000 people.

:: SL 8:14 AM [+] ::
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:: Friday, January 14, 2005 ::
Earlier today, I turned in the final draft of my 30-page paper for a psychology class. It was so nice to hand it in and have it all done. After taking a break for lunch during which I had a hilarious conversation with friends, I then wrote another paper that was supposed to be two pages, but it ended up being five pages because I cannot limit my verbosity. Afterwards I went to dinner with some friends.

Tonight, there will be a "donut bash" because tomorrow is the first day of finals (yeah, on a Saturday). The house I live in gets tons and tons of donuts for the students as a traditional snack break right before finals.

Speaking of donuts...

The donuts blink in unison!

Quote of the Day: "They made my friend watch clown porn. The clowns were getting it on in a car, and of course it was a clown car, so it was tiny, and they were all pressed up against the insides of the car."

:: SL 5:36 PM [+] ::
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:: Thursday, January 13, 2005 ::
O frabjous day! In order to procrastinate from studying for finals, I decided to work on my website. I wrote and posted a quick entertainment news story, and Google News picked it up; it was up on and off the front page for the majority of today, and in that time, I made almost $25! Yay.

:: SL 11:26 AM [+] ::
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:: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 ::
Oh, the wonders of licensing: American Pride Seafoods Partners with Disney to Develop Frozen Seafood Products Featuring Disney Characters

I wonder how Ariel and her friends from "under the sea" feel about this...

:: SL 11:59 AM [+] ::
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:: Monday, January 10, 2005 ::
I just read this story from Reuters, and near the end of the article, there is a quote from an NOAA spokesperson, and I was like, I've interviewed that person before!

:: SL 9:34 PM [+] ::
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Alas, a one-day ticket to Disneyland is now $53.

Quite a steep jump, considering it was previously $49.75. But it's still less than a one-day ticket at Walt Disney World: $58.31 (they have a theme park tax over in Florida).

:: SL 11:01 AM [+] ::
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:: Sunday, January 09, 2005 ::
I finally saw the movie Napoleon Dynamite! After going to a very nice tea party hosted by a couple of my friends, I visited a friend, and we watched the movie. It's not the most hilarious thing I've ever seen, but it really was funny. The best part was the title character's big dance onstage at school. What wonderful choreography!

Although I have been back at school for less than a week, I have already become nocturnal. How does this happen? Alas. I blame it on that overnight flight on which I didn't sleep. It's thrown off my sleep schedule!

Yesterday, I did lots of reading and work. In the evening, I went with friends to get bubble tea! The place I usually go to has moved! With their lower prices and better bubble tea, they had managed to drive the other bubble tea place out of business. They then moved into their building! Ah, good old American capitalism at work. We then played Mario Kart for a bit in our common room. 'Twas fun.

Oh, we had a sushi study break! Our tutors brought in a huge assortment of various rolls from a nice Japanese/Korean restaurant in Harvard Square, and it was great. I put too much wasabi on my first bite, though, and my eyes watered.

Sigh. All the inches of snow that fell these past few days are now melting, so huge sheets of ice slide across the roof and create this deafening and dreadful noise. It's like an avalanche. I would hate to be walking on the street and have all that ice fall on me.

Quote of the Day: "You are the queen of fisting!"

:: SL 11:03 PM [+] ::
...
:: Thursday, January 06, 2005 ::
Odds and Ends:

- I have finalized my plans for Intersession (the two-week break I get at the end of January after finals). Yay!
January 20-26: Hawaii!
January 27 - February 1: Walt Disney World Resort!

- They served breakfast foods tonight as a late night snack! There were scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausages, oatmeal, blueberry muffins, fresh fruit, and waffles with toppings! I was hungry, so I ate a bit of everything.

- It started snowing heavily yesterday soon after I hauled all my stuff from the subway station to my room after my flight. I'm glad; it would have been a pain to have to drag my luggage through the snow. Alas, it is still quite wet and icy outside.

- Someone referred to my high school nemesis as "a ditz," and it was the best thing I had heard in a while.

- My friend went to the same Catholic school as Paris Hilton, and even back then there were rumors of Ms. Hilton's whore-dom. Apparently, it is said that on an eighth-grade class trip to Disneyland, she gave blow jobs to all the guys on the bus.

- Songs currently stuck in my head: "Breakaway" by Kelly Clarkson and "Rumors" by Lindsay Lohan.

Quote of the Day: "It's like a group outing! Nobody's invited; everyone just knows to come!"

:: SL 10:50 PM [+] ::
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:: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 ::
Back at school!

The overnight flight was fairly quiet (there were no screaming babies, thank goodness), although the person sitting next to me hogged the armrest, and his elbow even extended over my seat, so he frequently jabbed my side. I would be more understanding if this person was abnormally large and couldn't fit into his seat, but he was only slightly bigger than I am, so there's no excuse for him to protrude his body part into my space. Hmf! How rude.

Also, there was a little child who was sitting in the seat in front of mine, and he actually turned around, reached his arm out, and stroked - then groped - my knee. DISTURBING!!! I shot a disapproving glare at the child, and the little bugger turned around and didn't bother me again. The kid needs to learn to keep his hands to himself; unwanted touching is never pleasant.

Well, despite the absence of screaming babies on my flight, I could not sleep on the flight, so I just sat there in the dark, occasionally glancing up at the monitors to watch "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" without audio. I had headphones, but I did not feel compelled to pull them out, for some reason. There was a lot of turbulence, so we kept bouncing up and down. It was kind of like being on Star Tours at Disneyland! Except more dangerous, I guess. It was a short flight, too; about 4 hours and 40 minutes.

So now I am back at school. I've been running into friends and catching up on new news. But it's time to get my hard work on to prepare for finals!

Quote of the Day: "It was like wham, bam, thank you, ma'am." "No, it was more like just wham!"

:: SL 4:58 AM [+] ::
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:: Monday, January 03, 2005 ::
A big THANK YOU! to my friends, who made my winter break so wonderful!

:: SL 5:37 AM [+] ::
...
I hope the new year finds everyone well! I need to write an update before I go back to school!

Last Wednesday, my friends and I went dancing! It was so much fun, and I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in a long time. They played some great music with a lot of variety, and we stayed for a long time. Beforehand, we had chatted outside. I had taken the bus into town, and it was funny because there was a drunk homeless person onboard who kept yelling loudly, "$20 whore? I can't believe you went with a $20 whore! I wouldn't even go with a $100 whore!"

On Thursday, I still went into SLO-town despite the pouring rain that would cancel Farmers Market. I met up with some friends, and we had some fun conversations. I then went downtown, spent some moments reading at Barnes and Noble, got dinner to go from Mondeo Pronto (spicy kung pao chicken with crispy won ton strips!), and went with friends to The Grad for country line dancing. It was the first time I had been to The Grad, which is this big dance hall and bar where they host dance parties (usually on Wednesdays for "College Hump Night" and on weekends for dancing to hip-hop and Top 40 music). I didn't know anything about country line dancing except for the Steps dance to their faux line dancing song "5,6,7,8," and I was apprehensive at first because everyone else seemed to know what they were doing, but I ended up learning the two-step and picking up some of the line dances by watching everyone else dance! It was quite an experience. They played a lot of country music, which I don't really listen to, and everyone was dressed up like cowboys and cowgirls. But I think it was just very striking to see so many people knowing all these dance steps, and for me to discover this whole culture I had not been very aware of was quite a shock indeed. I recall commenting, "There are so many white people!" But line dancing was cool and neat to experience for the first time. I think I would enjoy it a lot more if I had a chance to learn all the dances beforehand!

Friday was New Year's Eve! My sister and I originally had plans to go to Disneyland this day to experience all the cool festivities they have at the resort, but alas our plans fell through. In the afternoon, I walked down to the waterfront, where I went window shopping at the stores; I then walked to the beach by Morro Rock, where I haven't been in a while! The rain that has lasted this whole week stopped for a bit, so I was able to walk so far. It was still windy, though, so the waves were quite powerful. They pounded against the breakwater with such fury! A lot of tourists were there admiring the power of nature. I went back home for dinner, after which I met up with a few friends, and we had an "intimate get-together" for New Year's Eve. There were a lot of fun games and crazy antics! We counted down to midnight and then went to bed, er, "bread" soon after!

On Saturday, I stayed at home and watched a lot of television. I don't really watch much TV at school, so it was interesting to see all the stuff that's on TV nowadays. I was watching E! and VH1, and all they talked about was Britney Spears. I had no idea she was such a big deal in the entertainment world. Later in the evening, my whole family went out to see a movie (a rare event, considering the family business). We went to see The Phantom of the Opera! I had wanted to take my sister to see the movie since she's wild about the music even though she's never seen the show. This was my second viewing of the film, and it was just as enjoyable. There were several parts and lyrics I understood a little better the second time. I still think the dancer in the "Masquerade" sequence looks like he belongs in Madonna's "Vogue" music video!

Sunday was another unproductive yet relaxing day. I watched Beauty and the Beast with my sister, and I started getting some things ready for my return to school on Tuesday night. We had fish & chips for dinner! Yum! I also had some clam chowder, which I haven't had at home in a while. I then stayed up watching Will & Grace. I had forgotten what a hilarious show it is.

Today, I made plans for my "Intersession" (the two-week break at the end of January that we get after finals and before the second semester starts). I also went to the supermarket with my sister because we wanted to rent the movie Napoleon Dynamite, but we were late, and we couldn't find it available. Later, I went with a friend to SLO-town, and we went downtown, stopped in various stores, laughed at a window that made passing cars look like Tonka cars!, and got a delightful teriyaki chicken rice bowl with vegetables called a "Tiki Bowl." That was most delicious because I was quite hungry. We met up with friends at Cal Poly's student union, and we went bowling! I played better this time than when I had played before, but my friends were still better! I then played Dance Dance Revolution (just like old times!) and watched my friends play pool. I really enjoyed myself there, and I got to say goodbye to a lot of people before I leave to go back to school tomorrow. At home, I chatted with my sister about school stuff. I then spent some time organizing (music and document) files on my computer.

This was a nice break! It was most relaxing, and I got to go out a lot and have fun with friends. I luckily did not have to face too much of the friendrama I was expecting and dreading right before returning here. I also got closer to several old friends and made some new friends, too! 'Twas good times.

Looking ahead, I'm taking the overnight flight tomorrow to Boston. I'm hoping there won't be annoying screaming babies so I can sleep, but knowing my luck I'll be seated next to one, alas! After a week and a half of "Reading Period," when we are given time to study, we will have our finals in mid-January. I only have one real final, but I have some papers and some loose ends to tie up for classes. Then, I get two weeks off at the end of January. Then the spring semester starts! I'm expecting to take some really fun classes this spring, so I'm really looking forward to the new semester!

Quote(s) of the Day: "These things can tip over, you know!"

"It's midnight; even Cinderella is in bed by now."

"They should be extinguished. Unfortunately, murder is immoral, so the next best thing is to be superior."

:: SL 1:25 AM [+] ::
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