Ciao!: Where you at?

Where you at?

11.15.2005

When your mom asks you why you haven't updated your blog in a while, it's time to update. Truth told, nothing was "wrong", I was just busy most of the time. And when I wasn't, I was out doing things w/ friends.

Also, until the weekend, few "memorable" things happened. It was mostly just me trying to hammer out a section of a chapter, the one on the theoretical & conceptual relationship between nationalism & democracy — trying to link (to name the key figures) Linz, Anderson, and Dahl into one theoretical daisy chain. And, btw, I think I got it.

So. The memorable things:

Thursday I visited Dan & Em's new house. They now live a block away from me, and they own a house! How cool is that? And it was a yard full of small fruit trees & garden space.

Friday was the last Bridge Over River Qua show at Kraftbrau, w/ Mike O dedicating himself to a PhD in clinical psychology. I'm glad to say it was one of their better shows (and they've all been good shows, so that's saying something). They were followed by The Glowfriends, who seem to keep getting better over the years. If you get a chance, they're like a darker, more somber version of The Carpenters (except I think April has a better command of her voice than Karen did). I took lots of pictures at the show, but just haven't had time to upload & look through them.

Saturday, I forgot that it was "the big game" (WMU v. rival CMU). After driving to Rocket Star Café, I ended up sitting through a siege w/ Bill & Em, watching the barbarian invasion of drunk undergrads swell around the block. Not sure why the police decided not to enforce the laws, despite our numerous 911 calls. But, finally, after three hours, a few riot police started to assemble & threaten tear gas & pepper spray, restoring some sense of civilized behavior.

Seriously, even when I was an undergrad, I never understood the need to get drunk & destroy public/private property because "that's what we're supposed to do" at that age. Where did we teach an entire generation that the universe exists solely for their comfort & convenience, that there's no consequences for our behavior, and that asking for civility is "being too judgmental"? Really, I'd like to know.

Saturday night, after leaving my office (where I wrote what I think is a fantastic two pages), I me up w/ Upson & R.Hipp for falafel & Scrabble. Being three OCD types, we had to count all the tiles first, and make sure only the right number of letters of each type were available before we'd begin. It was a great game. The highlight, for me, was using only two tiles to make three words for almost 20 points in a single turn. Also, I won the game, using all my tiles. But that's just me tooting my own horn.

Sunday was an early mass, then a drive out to Chicago to visit K8 (and the University of Chicago library) for a few days. And this is were I'll be until Thursday. Also, last night K8 played Settlers of Catan for her first time (we had dinner w/ some friends), which introduced her to "the gaming experience" (and I do think she liked it).

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PS: Oh, and a new poll on Bolivian candidates was finally released. I'll try to get more on that later today. But the quick of it is: It looks like Evo has peaked, Tuto is consolidating his hold in the east, and w/ a month left to go, the crafty PODEMOS candidate seems poised to start denting Evo's small lead (the lead's actually w/in the margin of error, so not sure it's really a lead).

Posted by Miguel at 11:59 AM

Comments

and believe me, folks, he was tooting his horn all night! :-) ...and crossing his fingers his made up words had real definitions if we called him out on it.

"Yeah..."girt"...you know, like, if someone girts themself..."

Posted by: r.hipp at November 15, 2005 04:33 PM

Ah, R.Hipp. But notice the advantages of a Bible school education! ;-)

"Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness" -Ephesians 6:14

Posted by: mcentellas at November 15, 2005 04:59 PM

oh sure, NOWWWWWW you can use it in a sentance!

:-)

Posted by: r.hipp at November 15, 2005 05:17 PM

But at the time I remember saying something like "I can't remember where, but it's from a Bible verse ..."

Also, I do remember giving the proper definition that was later also found in the dictionary. So, just to be clear, I wasn't bluffing: It was a real world, and I *knew* it was a real word.

So there! ;-)

Posted by: mcentellas at November 15, 2005 05:33 PM

yeah, but there were some stretches that night too...so it became a "boy who cried wolf" moment.

:-)

i look forward to further challenges.

i got off on the wrong foot with allllll vowels for five straight turns. it makes it really hard to catch up.

Posted by: r.hipp at November 15, 2005 05:55 PM

Yeah I was at the game. It's so funny because throughout life we are taught things like sportsmanship and respecting others. Then it all goes out the window when you go to any type of athletic game above high school level. All the swearing and telling people they suck and screaming "bullshit" to the refs. I understand it's college and all, but that doesn't mean we have to lose our sense of class.

Posted by: Kara at November 19, 2005 09:55 AM