Day 59: Weekend Recap

Quick update from the past few days:

Thursday evening, polymorphism and I went to poly karaoke in Chicago. When we arrived, xirpha and salexa and raven_ap_morgan were already there. We chatted for a bit as other folks arrived and the karaoke got started. iamthesphinx arrived right around when the singing began and, as always, it was good to see her. There have been plenty of new songs added to Sidekick's list in recent months, so I sang many songs that I had not been able to attempt before. I started with Billy Joel's Running on Ice, then sang U2's With or Without You (which was not new). I was quite surprised to see Tears For Fears's Call Me Mellow, from last year's album, so I sang that next. Then I sang Pink Floyd's Brain Damage / Eclipse and Supertramp's The Logical Song. Finally, I saved my last song until cassiopia arrived -- via train -- around 10:30pm. That song was Seasons of Love, from Rent: The Musical. Not long afterward, the three of us headed back to the Event Horizon.

Friday I stayed at the Event Horizon and worked from home, instead of the lab. Mainly I worked on my presentation for the then-upcoming interview at Penn State. In the evening, polymorphism and gyades and I went to see a lecture on Einstein at the lab. The title of the lecture, intended for a lay audience, was Einstein: A Man For The Millennium?. It was not the worst talk I have ever heard... but it was pretty bad. I like the politics of the speaker and thought he had balls to talk about US sponsored terrorism to that crowd. But his speaking abilities were atrocious. After we came home (and informed cheshcat and cassiopia that they made the right choice by staying home!), all of us except polymorphism went to get a quick dinner and watch the movie version of Rent: The Musical. I had high hopes for Rent, especially since six of the eight main roles were played by the original Broadway actors. The singing was excellent, as was the re-creation of NYC from 1989/1990. However, changes to the plot and rearrangements of the order of events only served to detract from the movie. It was not bad, but it certainly did not live up to the expectations that I had for it. The play is still clearly superior.

Saturday was the November 33rd party at the Event Horizon. It was a good party, with lots of people and lots of games. We had a total of eighteen people attend, with physics people and poly people and gamers folks and Anarchists all represented. I played a close game of Settlers of Catan with gyades and cheshcat and GF. I won... but just barely! Then cheshcat and I played two rounds of Lost Tombs; we each won one. When the crowd reached critical mass, I got a Werewolf game started. We played three rounds. I narrated the first two and played in the last. As usual, the werewolves killed me first. Grrrr... Then I played X-Men Alert! for the first time in at least five years with gyades and two other physicists. Hurm, that made it an all-physicist game. Interesting. gyades won. When it was over, a couple of us joined the ongoing Apples to Apples game. I don't seem to do very well at A-to-A, and tonight was no exception. But it is good fun, so it's okay. Finally, the Anarchists arrived! Yay! We all watched The Gamers, a short (48 minute) film about..... well, you figure it out. Then I chatted with the other Anarchists while everybody else played Skip-Bo. When the Anarchists headed out, around 11:30pm, I learned to play Blink and played four rounds with polymorphism. She won the first two and I won the last two. Then I drove xirpha home around midnight and went to bed very soon after returning home.

Sunday was a travel day. At 2:30pm, I dropped cassiopia off at the train station. Then I packed for Pennsylvania and at 5pm, polymorphism took me to the airport. On the flights over, I read 1/3 of the GO book that gyades had loaned me and 1/2 of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. As it turns out, on the second leg -- from DC to State College, PA -- the professor I had applied to was sitting in the row in front of my own. Neither of us knew it, though. When I got to State College, I took a taxi to my hotel, ordered a pizza, and sat down to finish my talk. I was finished by 2-something am, which gave me time to get five hours of sleep before waking up to get ready for my interview.

Day 59: Weekend Recap

Quick update from the past few days:

Thursday evening, polymorphism and I went to poly karaoke in Chicago. When we arrived, xirpha and salexa and raven_ap_morgan were already there. We chatted for a bit as other folks arrived and the karaoke got started. iamthesphinx arrived right around when the singing began and, as always, it was good to see her. There have been plenty of new songs added to Sidekick's list in recent months, so I sang many songs that I had not been able to attempt before. I started with Billy Joel's Running on Ice, then sang U2's With or Without You (which was not new). I was quite surprised to see Tears For Fears's Call Me Mellow, from last year's album, so I sang that next. Then I sang Pink Floyd's Brain Damage / Eclipse and Supertramp's The Logical Song. Finally, I saved my last song until cassiopia arrived -- via train -- around 10:30pm. That song was Seasons of Love, from Rent: The Musical. Not long afterward, the three of us headed back to the Event Horizon.

Friday I stayed at the Event Horizon and worked from home, instead of the lab. Mainly I worked on my presentation for the then-upcoming interview at Penn State. In the evening, polymorphism and gyades and I went to see a lecture on Einstein at the lab. The title of the lecture, intended for a lay audience, was Einstein: A Man For The Millennium?. It was not the worst talk I have ever heard... but it was pretty bad. I like the politics of the speaker and thought he had balls to talk about US sponsored terrorism to that crowd. But his speaking abilities were atrocious. After we came home (and informed cheshcat and cassiopia that they made the right choice by staying home!), all of us except polymorphism went to get a quick dinner and watch the movie version of Rent: The Musical. I had high hopes for Rent, especially since six of the eight main roles were played by the original Broadway actors. The singing was excellent, as was the re-creation of NYC from 1989/1990. However, changes to the plot and rearrangements of the order of events only served to detract from the movie. It was not bad, but it certainly did not live up to the expectations that I had for it. The play is still clearly superior.

Saturday was the November 33rd party at the Event Horizon. It was a good party, with lots of people and lots of games. We had a total of eighteen people attend, with physics people and poly people and gamers folks and Anarchists all represented. I played a close game of Settlers of Catan with gyades and cheshcat and GF. I won... but just barely! Then cheshcat and I played two rounds of Lost Tombs; we each won one. When the crowd reached critical mass, I got a Werewolf game started. We played three rounds. I narrated the first two and played in the last. As usual, the werewolves killed me first. Grrrr... Then I played X-Men Alert! for the first time in at least five years with gyades and two other physicists. Hurm, that made it an all-physicist game. Interesting. gyades won. When it was over, a couple of us joined the ongoing Apples to Apples game. I don't seem to do very well at A-to-A, and tonight was no exception. But it is good fun, so it's okay. Finally, the Anarchists arrived! Yay! We all watched The Gamers, a short (48 minute) film about..... well, you figure it out. Then I chatted with the other Anarchists while everybody else played Skip-Bo. When the Anarchists headed out, around 11:30pm, I learned to play Blink and played four rounds with polymorphism. She won the first two and I won the last two. Then I drove xirpha home around midnight and went to bed very soon after returning home.

Sunday was a travel day. At 2:30pm, I dropped cassiopia off at the train station. Then I packed for Pennsylvania and at 5pm, polymorphism took me to the airport. On the flights over, I read 1/3 of the GO book that gyades had loaned me and 1/2 of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. As it turns out, on the second leg -- from DC to State College, PA -- the professor I had applied to was sitting in the row in front of my own. Neither of us knew it, though. When I got to State College, I took a taxi to my hotel, ordered a pizza, and sat down to finish my talk. I was finished by 2-something am, which gave me time to get five hours of sleep before waking up to get ready for my interview.