My answer to "life, the universe and everything"
No Dick Cheney is not dead, but this was on CNN’s website. Appartently news companies make obituaries for famous people who could “bite the bullet” at any moment. Well somebody happened to have found this one along with Fidel Castro’s, Nelson Mandela’s, and more. Check out this page to see what this is all about.
It’s rather odd that I write this journal entry, because usually something has happened so that I want to write an entry. But nothing has happened and now I want to write an entry. Why? Because something seems amiss on this floor. The floor just doesn’t seem united as we all go to dinnner on our times, without any big rallys for food or anything of that sort. Perhaps there are, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because of my weird schedule that doesn’t allow me back to the dorm ’til 6 and not allowing me to spearhead any form of rally. Maybe they have them and I’m just not around to join. Or maybe I’m just isolated as I bomard myself with constant reading and studying and surfing the web.
Maybe a lack of partying has kept the floor quiet. It’s also kind of odd how nobody’s getting seriously intoxicated nor are there parties on the second floor to get people intoxicated. It’s a good thing really as there is no destruction of property. I mean I doubt any of us can forget the times the bathroom has been trashed, when the tables in the lounge got stacked, or when that guy vomited on the couch, but it’s not exciting either. At least all the bad stuff on the floor bonded us in disgust. Like the time that guy puked all over the couch and carpet in the lounge. We didn’t stop talking about that for a while and we still keep looking out for more.
Of course, we’ve been close to having things happen, but they just fizzle out. A bunch of us on the floor were looking forward to showing a high school kid the ropes with a stay over program, where they live in one of the rooms for a day. We all had out own ideas for what to do with him or her, from where to live to where some important buildings are and such. Unfortunately, those plans evaporated, as nobody appeared to claim the list where we all put our names. I know I was disappointed, as I came here because of the stay over program and wanted to do the same for another kid. Funny story, though. Vicki had brought a tour group over to the dorm and someone asked to see one of the convereted triples (rooms that used to be doubles). She then brought them to our room, where they happened to see a huge mess and a Playboy on Fred’s desk. The mothers must have been cringing at the idea that their sons would live in a room like this.
More than likely it might just be the fact that we’re going back to small groups. I mean we all have our own clubs and schedules to take care of. In an effort to do that, we just go into our own little groups who meet our needs and share our interests. I don’t know, maybe it was this way in the fall semester too, just less noticable.
I still think this is the coolest floor on Ida Sproul, though. Maybe we’re just in a rut or I’m just thinking too hard about this. Or maybe, just maybe, I need to stop blogging and start doing something.
Odd news-Dog Survives Car Crash, Gunshot, Freezer-You just have to read this to believe it
In the mood for a good party this weekend? Come down to the Alpha Delta Phi house on Saturday for Reggae by The Pool. It’s at the only frat with a pool on campus. There will be refreshments and a live reggae band. The fun will begin at 2 P.M. and the band will play at 8 P.M. You’ll have a great time there. We’re located at 2422 Prospect.
To review:
Reggae by the Pool!
WHERE: Alpha Delta Phi, 2422 Prospect Avenue
WHEN: This Saturday, April 26th starting at 2 P.M.
WHO: Everyone is invited!
Come to this address:
2422 Prospect Avenue
All you people who go to Berkeley can join the
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UC Berkeley scientists were working on an experiment for U.S. Department of Agriculture to create new larger, firmer grapes for the wine industry. Scientists at the Genetics and Plant biology labs had modified the grapes to make them produce more growth hormone. They succeeded and decided to test these crops on two unsuspecting Undergraduate Research Assistants. The two volunteered to taste these new grapes and felt no ill effects. After a few days though, both noticed their skin becoming progressively more purple and began growing lumps on their bodies. Eventually, the two realized they were becoming like the grapes they had eaten and decided to take revenge on the scientists who deformed them. Fearing that others would experience the same fate, they wish to put an end to all genetic engineering, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. While they may have set out with the best of intentions, the grape DNA lowered their IQs considerably, but gave them regenerative properties that make them unable to feel pain. These abilites make them considerably dangerous and should be approached with extreme caution.
(Disclaimer: This story was completely false and has no barring on reality what so ever. If UC Berkeley really was genetically engineering grape people, I’m as shocked as you are.)
It’s a known fact that computers go obsolete quite quickly. There are those who want to get a new one, but chances are the old one is in semi-working condition. What to do with it? Here are some web resources that list some good ideas
Twisted List: Five Things to Do with an Old Computer-Best ideas are donating it and using it to help on those projects to help SETI and Grid.org
Thirfty Audio Ideas for Tight Budgets-very good idea to turn your old computer into a media hub
Evolution Robotics-It’s a kit that you can use to convert your laptop into a robot, but not a good idea for a very old laptop. It’s probably something to consider after you replace your current laptop.
Hey, it’s better than throwing it off a cliff!
Featured website-The dullest blog in the world-Believe it or not, this guy might have a duller journal than mine, as he features when he ties his shoes and when he turns around. Riveting reading.
Brother James gave me a fighting fish on Monday as a pet, claiming I was a fighter. Big mistake. I went off the instructions he had given me, but they turned out to be faulty for betta fish, as they said I could use tap water. I did not realize the tap water in the sink had too much chlorine, though, and it weakened my fish severely. Niki tried to warn me, but I did not listen to her. Eventually, I tried to transport it to another body of distilled water, but unfortunately it just passed away. Seungkwon was helping me with the transport, and maybe he transported it too hard, because we had noticed a severed neck with blood. We then pronounced it dead on the spot and I gave it a burial at sea (okay so I flushed it). I guess I can learn a major lesson in responsibility from all this. Poor fish. I hardly knew how to take care of ye. May you find your way to the big fish bowl in heaven
Major Regrets:
1. That I did not research the fish in depth before hand.
2. That I did not name my fish.
3. That I did not take a picture of my fish.
4. That I did not get show it off to the floor.
R.I.P.
And for all of you laughing at me for losing a fish in two days, show me a little sympathy please.
Funny quote: “I thought he was saying grape seed”- Christina, after hearing Nirvana’s Rape Me for the first time.
Sean Penn was here in Berkeley a little while back, and unfortunately got his car stolen. Luckily they found it, according to E! Online. It states that they found it in Richmond, but without the two guns he had in there.
The Daily Californian reported on the theft when it happened in case you missed it.
ESPN.com is going the way of most web sites and offering a lot of paid content. Unfortunately, a lot of articles that you have to pay for is NFL Draft coverage, and guess who was a topic of discussion? Berkeley’s own graduating quarterback, Kyle Boller. He has shown considerable improvement just this last year. Mel Kiper doesn’t see that as enough though as he ranks Boller as the most overrated prospect in the league.
From the head line, Kiper said:
Cal QB Kyle Boller has risen up the draft board, and he could go as high as the early-to-mid first round. But I don’t even have him on my Big Board of the top 25 draft prospects. Boller is No. 1 on my list of the Top 5 overrated prospects in the 2003 NFL draft. Boller has an outstanding arm, and the 234-pounder ran a 4.6 in the 40-yard dash. He has all the tools, but he needs to improve his passing accuracy and his reads.
He also cites that Boller completed less than 50% of his passes at Cal. That’s a startling fact!
Offering another opinion is NFL.com columnist Gil Brandt, who ranks our quarterback as one of his top 15 picks in the draft. He says:
Kyle Boller has looked great, impressing at the Combine, his own workout at Cal and all the private workouts he’s had. He’s made the biggest jump of any quarterback in this draft and is probably one of four or five players that have made the biggest jump from spring until now.
My own opinion: The NFL is in a bit of a quarterback crunch as there do not seem to be as many good ones as there were before. Boller will probably go high in the NFL draft considering his enormous talent and will probably be drafted quite early. I don’t want to guess which team or whether or not Boller will be successful in the NFL, but who knows? I’ll say Carolina will draft Boller and I doubt he will be a superstar in the NFL very soon, unless he corrects the problems Kiper talked about. But hey I’m not an expert.
See you April 26-27 for the NFL Draft.
Iran has made a very intresting claim that Russia, the United States, and Saddam all made a secret pact. Saddam would be allowed to leave and the US would be allowed to take Baghdad. To make this happen, Russia was paid $5 billion dollars. Wow. Check it out here.
P.S. Google News is rapidly becoming my favorite news site, though there are a couple of flaws with it. For example, this article was listed in science and technology.