Q: Et tu, Jonathan? A: Read. Read some more. Buy Red Bull.
|
|
| The Patient Etherized Q: Et tu, Jonathan? A: Read. Read some more. Buy Red Bull. |
|
|
Saturday, June 28, 2003 Only have five minutes to say something worthwhile. Therefore I'm not going to say anything worthwhile. Going to go see "O" at 7pm MT (monkey time). It's some Cirque du Soleil show that my mom pretends she knows all about. She was bragging to the people on the Grand Canyon helicopter about how wonderful it is, even though we haven't seen it yet. There are many tall black men in the hotel now. That's because the NBA Players' Association is having their summer session from the 26th-28th. The Grand Canyon was really cool yesterday. I am excited for Yosemite. I think I saw 12 pairs of fake breasts today. Too many fat people in Vegas too. Told you it wasn't going to be worthwhile [-O-] posted by Jon | 9:33:00 PM Friday, June 27, 2003 I'm excited (and I just can't hide it...umm, ignore that reference). Today I should be going on a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon. And going to Yosemite should be pretty damn cool too. Once again I'm hogging the ethernet connection at the Apple store, so I can't be too too reflective right now. I think my entry will sound more like an itinerary than anything worth hearing about. Ok, close the page now. Do not read on. Nothing to see here. Right. Celtics drafted some guy from UNLV last night. I'm a bit suspicious about anyone from UNLV, especially after visiting Las Vegas. I saw three guys over 6'9" last night, one of whom used to play for the Lakers. I think another one of them might have been Kareem Rush or something like that. Then I saw the tallest white man on the planet today -- he was easily 7'3" or so and was staying at the same hotel as me. Excited about driving out of here. I'd like to go sometime on a cross-country trip rather than the expensive trip to places like Las Vegas. I think I prefer hick stuff to nice things most of the time, so give me southern Mississippi over any club (just let my orifices remain untouched during the time I'm in the hick places -- no Deliverance thank you very much). Alright, I think I'm going to read some of my book and use the facilities. posted by Jon | 4:54:00 PM Thursday, June 26, 2003 Dear lord this new Blogger format sucks. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get used to it in due time. Las Vegas is okay so far -- it's big, grand, impressive, phallic, just like you'd imagine but bigger. However you need a lot of money to get by. It costs $15 for the first 15 minutes of internet access at my hotel. Hence I'm in the Mac store gawking at the new iPod and stealing their ethernet connection. Lost $200 my first night gambling and decided just to go shopping instead. Not seen that many places that beat the Wrentham outlets, though the selection is bigger. The highlight so far was the Bellagio buffet which, at $18.21, provided me with three plates of various meats (duck, pork, chicken, turkey), seafoods (shrimp, more shrimp, sushi), and eight desserts. I felt sick after eating so much and then slept for four hours in the hotel room, waking up to what I thought was the NBA draft and then being disappointed when I realized it was just the hype for the draft. Hope to get back in the hotel for the real thing, which is in 45 minutes. I don't think I'll get to see the beginning, but that's okay. The new times for SportsCenter are annoying, though it is nice to get the sports results three hours earlier rather than having to stay up til midnight. Looked all over town for a Nomar Garciaparra jersey but couldn't find one in my size. There are lots of thuggish people who want to buy XXXL stuff (those could also be called fat people but that would be mean, wouldn't it?). I sort of miss lounging around at home and going running and waking up late. The beds may be nicer here, but the privacy at home is nicer. I haven't been sleeping that well lately despite the giant beds and the nice pillows. The thing I really like about the past two hotels, the Marriott in SF and the Bellagio, is how nice the bathrooms are. I've been taking baths and showers like twice a day, which for me is unheard of. Bought a Stanley Fish book at Borders in San Fran that no one but me would find interesting. It's about how critics interpret texts -- called Is there a text in this class? Read the first 27 pages of it last night. I've decided that I want to be like him if I decide to become an academic. He's really clear and not so full of shit. I'm really behind on the summer reading I want to do -- should read two big books by the time the summer is up but have only started this one and read the first day of stories of The Decameron. Should also read the Hannah Arendt book for Singamapore, which is coming up shortly. Must find apartment and run all necessary errands. I drove most of the way from San Francisco to Las Vegas, which was probably as much fun as the rest of the trip. Drove about 750 miles in two days. The first trip I drove from Carmel to Ventura, and then on the next day from Ventura to L.V. We are renting a white Ford Mustang convertible, which is tacky but okay. The drive across the desert was nice. We had the top down so I got pretty red, but fortunately not sunburned since I put on a 400 lb gorilla's worth of spf 45 sunblock. Okay, must go find my mom in the giant "Fashion Show" mall. The people here are really ugly for the most part so I don't think that there will be too many fashion shows. Hopefully will blog later. Right now the plan is to leave Vegas on Sunday and drive to Santa Barbara. I want to see Hearst castle and find lots of cool animals in Yosemite, and then criss cross back across CA to Carmel, since my mom really likes the shops there. So I imagine we'll spend Sunday night in Santa Barbara and the next night in Carmel, getting back to San Francisco Tuesday night (the flight out is on Wednesday at 1:30pm). posted by Jon | 6:29:00 PM Sunday, June 22, 2003 The Improvised Two Days of Traveling Well, the last two days have been quite a blur. First, there was Friday night, in which Justin asked me if I wanted to go to Foxwoods (casino in Connecticut) for a while. Mind you, I had to catch my flight the next morning and wake up at 6:30. So of course I said yes. So after taking a nap from 3-6pm I microwaved a week-old chicken sandwich, scarfed it down (haha I love that word), and got to Milan's apartment quickly. There I picked Justin, Milan and Jay Jung (who had missed his flight or something and was still in Boston at Milan's) up. Well first Justin and I went shopping. I have to buy some stuff but all I ended up getting was a pair of socks. At 8:45 or so we left, stopped at my house where I changed, then went to Justin's where he showered and changed. Then finally at about 9:30 we got going and proceeded to kick it 100 miles south of the border. Impressive side note to the day -- in Sharon, MA we ordered the second-largest McDonalds order ever (the largest being some guy in front of me when I was 16 who ordered 7 apple pies) and the guy got everything perfect, down to the bag. That guy is now a better person than me. The drive went pretty smoothly and we got to Foxwoods at about 11:15 or so. I was sort of nervous about gambling since I'd never done it before, but Milan was very helpful and gave me a lot of blackjack tips. We were also lucky because we got on a table while it was still $15 bets and not $25 ones. Our first dealer, Jose, was really nice and kind of funny. Apparently he didn't like his job and wanted to quit. If you had to work the 9-5AM shift on Fridays you might want to quit too I guess. I quickly went down to $75 from the $150 I started with, then caught back up and was up $50 when this new dealer came in. She cleaned me out incredibly quickly at which point I had to buy extra chips in order to double down on a hand. Then she went off shift and Jose came back, at which point I won four straight hands and was up $200 at one point. Milan got up about $300 or so and was up for a lot of the game. I ended up winning $50 total. There are some weird people that go to the casinos though. Very very weird. There's the guy in the red Puma jumpsuit who's basically got his cell phone wired to his brain and is constantly talking. He bought Justin, Jay and the whole poker table a round of champagne. There was the quiet Indian guy with about five grand worth of chips on the table. Quite a carnival. We headed out at 2AM because we had to drag Justin and Jay away. Jay made some money and Justin was down $43 or so. On the way home two suped-up BMWs passed us going about 140mph, easily the fastest I'd ever seen cars moving. I got a bit excited and then proceeded to break my speed record, going 118mph for a brief time before slowing down. We got to Justin's house at 3:23AM and I was really tired so I scared Milan and Jay while driving them back to the apartment. After going about 70 in a 30 zone, I got back through Mattapan to Boston by 3:40, and then was home before 4AM. Packed in an hour and fell asleep for an hour and a half. The flight yesterday was really smooth except these two bratty kids that sat behind me and my mom. I seriously wanted to throw the kid out the window after the 80th time she banged on her food tray or kicked me in the back. The mother was really calm and didn't even do anything about them, which made matters even worse. But I was tired enough that I slept most of the first five hours. When we got to SF airport however, we realized that two of our bags didn't come through because they were held up due to security. My mom made a big fuss but that didn't help matters very much. Needless to say, they arrived six hours after American said they would, at 10pm last night. We are renting a car now and we ended up getting an upgrade to a Ford Mustang convertible due to lack of availability for the midsize. The car is sooo tacky -- it's ivory white and looks like something Tom Wolfe would wear. We drove from South SF to our location at the Marriott in downtown 4th st. It's an incredibly nice hotel and right next to a lot of the places to visit here. I blew my winnings yesterday buying a Barry Bonds jersey at Foot Locker. I was really impressed at how ghetto the clothing here is. You'd never see such funny stuff at a Boston foot locker. They had all these 3XL Iverson and Jason Richardson jerseys. I was tempted to get an Iverson warmup but thought that Bonds is a better choice (they didn't have Nomar or I would have gotten that, especially after his 6-6 day yesterday) since he's the best athlete of his generation and I am in SF. Ok, it's time to eat breakfast I suppose. I fell asleep at 9:15 last night and woke up almost 12 hours later, but I easily could have woken up really early today. I might update when I'm in Las Vegas but I don't think I'll have much opportunity once I leave the Marriott [-O-] posted by Jon | 1:10:00 PM Thursday, June 19, 2003 Housing Shortage My Ass and Cars NUS says that it can't provide housing for non-graduating, non-exchange students (i.e. me and about ten other people). So now I have to go to find housing somehow or some way. As long as I don't live in the Civil Service clubhouse/rathole I'll be happy. And don't give me any curtained-off section of someone's apartment. Oh wait, my budget is probably $24/month or something so maybe I can't complain. In bragging news, there is a story on meeee up on the Milton website. It's basically a condensed version of the Dartmouth press release, but that's okay. 2 Fast 2 Furious was actually entertaining and I liked it. Tyrese and Paul Walker were pretty funny as main stars. I'd have to say it was surprisingly good and I would rather see it over the second Matrix movie. Haha, all you fans of The Matrix can shut up now. The car racing scene in the beginning was kind of confusing since I couldn't tell what place people were in and it was obviously done up with computer animation, but I didn't mind that too much since it was so cheesy. Apparently the Chanel model in the movie who plays a street racer, Devon Aoki, couldn't drive before the movie shooting began. She had to be taught by the stunt drivers, which I think is kind of funny. My impressionably young mind was definitely piqued when I saw how slow they were actually driving -- like they would accelerate for ten seconds, shift up about ten gears, and then only be going 80. Thoughts going through Jon's mind "I can drive faster than that in my WRX, dammit!" So on the way home I hit the nitrous oxide (haha, just kidding) and took off. But I did get up to 115mph, a new record for me, eclipsing my previous record of 112 while going up to Hanover. I don't think the car can go much faster than 125, but it's amazing how stable it is at those kinds of speeds. I love my car :-) Ok, need to figure out about golfing now. posted by Jon | 12:09:00 PM Wednesday, June 18, 2003 Ways that you know it's the summer and you're not doing anything productive: you decided it's a good day to go see 2 Fast 2 Furious.  You are the pilot. Saint Exupery's 'The Little Prince' Quiz. brought to you by Quizilla posted by Jon | 6:35:00 PM Sunday, June 15, 2003 Damn, it's Father's Day and I need to figure out what to buy as a present. Maybe an oversized stuffed walrus. Thought of the day: my mom said her number one choice for a pet would be a monkey. Then she asked if it was legal to have one in Massachusetts. I guess I know where the monkey proclivities come from in the family. My mom remains attached to the hamster. We ran errands today. Am now wearing my coin from the reign of Claudius around my neck (graduation present -- actually has head of Claudius on it and "SC" on the back, presumably for Senatus Consultum). Ok, more tired than hammy is all the time. posted by Jon | 1:45:00 AM Friday, June 13, 2003 Full Just got back from eating eggs benedict at Zaftig's and now am lazing about. It's raining pretty hard out so I don't feel like doing anything -- such as breathing or performing normal bodily functions. Had an interesting time last night: went to a restaurant in Cambridge, then to Gillian's on Lansdowne Street, and then to a piano bar (Jake Ivory's) where you could give requests and then sing along with the songs. I had one of my requests played ("Dancing in the Dark") but most of our sarcastic requests got shot down. I felt a little bad because I had two beers at the restaurant, one at Gillian's, and a few sips at the piano bar before taking a cab back to Harvard Square and then driving home. I've never done that before and I don't think it's a good habit to start. At least I won't have to worry about that next year since I won't have a car in Singamapore. Note to self: do not use so many dashes. Generally annoying. Not trying to imitate Emily Dickinson. Further note to self: maybe should try to write a ghetto blog like all those people who keep journals on Xanga but can't string a sentence together. Yo dawg, how u doin? That shit was tight! (Ok, never mind, I don't think I'll do that.) Cleaned up my room today and things look a lot better. However, in order to clean up my room, I had to lug my bigass bookcase up three flights of stairs. I think I injured seven of my kidneys on the way up, not to mention some of the paint on the walls and the wood on the bookcase. But now I've put my books there and the room looks a lot better. Before it was just this massive pile of crap lying on the ground. Now it's just a semi-massive pile of crap -- evidently I need one more bookcase to really neaten things up. I definitely believe that the 200 or so books I accumulated in college are to blame for the state of my room. I wonder how many other people kept as many books as I did. Probably me and Dorky dork dork dork the Bookworm (oh wait, isn't that just my evil twin?). I think I'm going to go perform some of those bodily functions [-O-] posted by Jon | 5:57:00 PM Thursday, June 12, 2003 Note to self: do not make blog a site where I brag about what I've done. Usually, however, I am bragging when I say that I got out of bed. But nobody's interested in reading about the small tasks I've accomplished during the day. At this rate in ten days I'll be blogging every time I brush my teeth, pick my nose, spank my...err [censored] -- you get the point. One thing I would like to point out is the oddity of running shorts. (Right now I'm wearing those really short running shorts that cover about a third of your thigh -- sure they look good on girls, but me being not a girl they don't look quite so good.) Another thing that always struck me as weird are the built-in underwear. The concept is appealing -- I mean, you can be even lazier by not having to worry about finding underwear and shorts at the same time. The only problem with this pair I now have is that they're about two sizes two small since they're from when I ran track in high school. The size small doesn't quite cut it anymore. However, after I do some more running it hopefully will... about 500 miles more running... posted by Jon | 1:54:00 PM Wow, I actually woke up at 11 this morning. I couldn't get to sleep until 4pm last night. (Gee, I wonder if my nap from 4-8pm might have played any role in my insomnia?) I read two more stories today, went on the same run (which is more like a mile and a half than two miles), and framed my diploma, then realized I needed to flatten it so it wouldn't curl up, so I put two copies of the Oxford English Dictionary on top of it. I'm about to shower again and then go out to buy more socks since I'm at a woeful low in terms of socks. My left knee hurts like hell from running but I'm just going to ignore the fact that I'm really a 70 year-old man and hope that I can get in shape soon. Also did some pushups and about 70 situps. I think I might clean my car before I go out. I don't want to pay money to get it washed though so I will just take the hose and give it a scrubbing or two. Ok, bye bye. posted by Jon | 1:43:00 PM Schroeder's Day in Review Had a productive day today. Woke up at 12:30, but then accomplished a few online errands, went for a two-mile run, read some of The Decameron, which I'm starting to read. I've got this wicked old translation, but it reads really easily, even if it uses words like "affright" and "peradventure." I'm thinking about setting my summer reading list now to include this book and read The Remembrance of Things Past also -- hopefully I'll get through more than 70 pages unlike last time. It is over 3000 pages long though. Got a check for $200 from my Uncle and Aunt which was pretty sweet. Also had a good dinner at this steak place Bonfire. Not sure that I've been in a steak mood for a while. I feel like an old man when I chew steak because I take so long to eat. I need to come up with a plan for things to accomplish this summer. I am not content with just lazing around and doing nothing. I want to read and write and become smarter. Wow, when did I become so gay? Haha, just kidding. I really enjoy this out-of-school phase now and I'm happy I'll have a whole year of it, because I once said in a column in The Dartmouth that I become smarter when I'm at home. College has so many distractions and it's a Herculean task to do all the work amidst those distractions. Being at home is lovely because I can just teach myself -- walk up to a bookshelf and take out something to amuse me. I have no rules and no structure but I still have plenty of time to finish things. I know why John Milton self-educated himself for 8 years. Maybe I'll spend the next several years learning about East Timor monkeys or something. Or African jumping fleas. I think I'm going to read a bit more tonight and then try to wake up tomorrow before noon (What a shock!). Looking forward to traveling to San Francisco. Will be leaving on the 22nd and coming back home July 2nd. posted by Jon | 12:07:00 AM Tuesday, June 10, 2003 Jon's Boredom 1, Things to do at Home 0 I guess I could run the errands I really need to run -- like calling NUS to get them to tell me how to get my visa goddammit and getting my dad all set with paying the financing on the car -- but I don't feel particularly motivated. I kind of want to get in shape and go do exercise but then again, that requires work too. Graduation wasn't particularly sad except for the reflections on how I spent the four years. I actually wasn't too disappointed in the time here, unlike in high school where I thought I should have done a lot better. I define my time in college as "less retarded" than high school -- not necessarily how I should have done things, but definitely better. I wish some things had turned out differently, but I guess that's inevitable. In the immortal words of Axl Rose (from "Estranged"): When I find out all the reasons Maybe I'll find another way Find another day With all the changing seasons of my life Maybe I'll get it right next time And now that you've been broken down Got your head out of the clouds You're back down on the ground And you don't talk so loud An you don't walk so proud Any more, and what for That was the good thing about this year -- I feel humbled and don't feel like I deserve any of these awards. I don't need to brag because I know I'd rather have a hammy than an English department prize or whatever. The prizes are nice but it's a lot better to have something to take care of or to care for. Now I have to fish around the place for food. I don't think I'll catch anything and probably need to go buy something. posted by Jon | 2:26:00 PM I drove home today at 1 and proceeded to break land speed records since I was really tired and wanted to get home quickly. Faris took me to the Hop for my last meal at Dartmouth and that sappy Green Day song "Time of Your Life" came on which was interesting. Yesterday Milan left just as the bells started to play the Alma Mater. I suppose we look out for things like that during these moments, but they still seem weird when they happen. I have been incredibly tired these past few days. I fell asleep at 12:50 last night and woke up at 10 and then slept another four hours today. I'm also going to bed shortly. I've decided I should exercise and try to do something productive with my time home since I don't really have anything to do -- my mom isn't even home to niao at me (she's in Maine for the next three days). I went to Chris' house to watch TV with him and Rob. Had a pretty good time. During cleaning I realized I have acquired via presents: four stuffed puppies, three monkeys, and one gorilla. That's quite a collection in my opinion. I need to find a shelf for them at home so they don't get dusty. Hammy made the trip down to Boston alright, though all her sawdust ended up in one end of the cage and the water bottle rattled forever. I am looking for a permanent home for hammy though, since she doesn't have one after July 22nd. I'll be sad to see her go though since she's developed into quite the cute fat little butterball. Okay, time for bed. Will blog frequently from now on since I have nothing better to do. posted by Jon | 1:04:00 AM Monday, June 09, 2003 I think I'm a big sap for getting upset at partings and losses. It hurts even though I should be able to contain my emotions. I've been sad for the last couple of hours sort of, even though we went out to Chilis and had a good time (it's Faris' birthday today and our graduation also). I imagine once this heat stroke thing dies down and I feel less tired I'll have more time to reflect. Right now I'm beat -- I've packed 75% of my stuff but have a lot of odds and ends to clean up. Made an interesting wish before blowing my "Dartmouth candle" out the other night. Not sure if I'll ever tell anyone it but I hope it comes true. Ack, I should stop being so discombobulated. Going to finish packing for the night. posted by Jon | 12:33:00 AM Sunday, June 08, 2003 Yes, it's true, I have graduated. My face is really burnt and I haven't packed more than 40% of my stuff. Damn. posted by Jon | 8:06:00 PM Friday, June 06, 2003 I hope that hammy is outgrowing her wheel :-) posted by Jon | 4:25:00 AM As the World Turns In a crummy mood right now. Don't feel like doing anything -- my moods are predictable like the suffocating humidity that tells you it's going to rain. I wish I knew what I liked in people -- I wish it could be possible to have a group of close, integrated friends and a girlfriend at the same time. It's really not though, is it? You can either sacrifice the sanctity of the relationship to have those friends or you can cut everyone off and live on a desert island. There are in-betweens to those extremes, but I don't think there is any harmony. You always screw someone over, especially yourself when you don't know what you want. That problem got me to where I am now anyway. I feel like a freaked-out hammy (the hammy currently being like that after I cleaned her cage) who has had all her familiar sawdust removed and now has a new place to lay her scent. But instead of doing that she just runs on her wheel, sucks on the water bottle, and eats food. That's me for the past six months -- I feel like I wasted nearly an entire year without doing anything worthwhile. Okay, I don't think I should extend this metaphor any further. You get the point. But what am I going to do for the next nine months? I hope that my idea of Singapore has not made me alienated by the actual place I encounter. Less bullshitty, I hope that I'm not going for the wrong reasons, because of how it was introduced to me. Ah this existentialist crap. Rain rain go away. I feel quite opaque (as in, "not lucid") right now. Everything I read I've just been skimming -- all these websites that I try to read to amuse myself. The alcohol from the last few days probably played some role in making my brain cease to function, but I just can't concentrate on what I've written or read. It doesn't seem that important or something like that. I also haven't been thinking very much or having interesting conversations. In other news, I bought my ticket today and tried to figure out all the hassle of the extended-stay visa. Got a fairly cheap ($835) ticket on Singapore Airlines. I didn't want the really ghetto $600 ticket on China Air because I didn't trust the quality, so I decided to treat myself. Plus, it cost like $1200 on ghetto Cathay last time I flew. I think the plane leaves on the 22nd. Assholic comment of the day: from the Class Notes paper handed out today, it says of me: Jon Schroeder is following the yellow brick road wherever it may lead him, after a stop in Singapore on a Fulbright for a year. Now either that comment is not as racist about Asians as I think it is (aka just a poor attempt at humor), or it's insulting to both me and to Asians (me because it says I have some sort of Asian fetish and am doing this grant not because of actual intellectual interest and Asians due to the whole pun on "yellow"). Not for me to decide since comments like that are only worth ignoring, at least publicly. I should go to bed soon. posted by Jon | 4:23:00 AM Thursday, June 05, 2003 Wow The last few days have been quite a blur. Graduation is approaching and so is the realization that I can't try to ignore that fact. It's quite sad to see people leave that I probably won't ever see again. I also realize that if Dartmouth didn't have classes, existence here would be quite mindless for most people. I've got a website where I'm putting up some photo albums of the past term which should look quite good, even if there are going to be too many pong shots and such. posted by Jon | 1:16:00 PM Sunday, June 01, 2003 In the middle of reading for exams. Will blog tomorrow or the day after. Cool plans to do after exams: Monday: going to the Basketball Hall of Fame with Ryan and stopping by Boston afterwards. Tuesday: going to hike Mt. Washington, weather permitting, with Saad, Justin, Imran, and perhaps one other person. Wednesday: the rest of my life. Ah, so dramatic! posted by Jon | 1:25:00 AM |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
|
|||||