Week of April 3rd: The Best and the Worst

The Best
4/7 Ryan Carroll
Remember making new friends as a little kid? Before you learned how to put up a front or to calculate your every action, when you just laid your true self out there - take it or leave it? Such is making new friends with Ryan Carroll - even if via instant messenger. That is, if you can even call it "making new friends" because talking to him for the first time was like jumping straight into a conversation with an old, comfortable friend. All those things that make a conversation good - letting down your guard, sharing deep thoughts you'd always kept to yourself, going "Holy shit! You too??", and let's not forget shameless, shameless flirting - made staying up until 4:00 doing logic homework seem not that bad. But seriously, when was the last time anybody met someone who didn't act too aloof or try too hard not to say the wrong things? At a place like Hopkins, Ryan Carroll is an absolute breath of fresh air.

4/7 Rilo Kiley
For a long time I've been looking for good music with a female lead, and...well, here it is. I like them because they're earnest, unpretentious, and some of their songs remind me of little snapshots of my own memories. They put a refreshing spin on the banality of life, and if I'm about anything, it's the banality of life. Check out: Portions For Foxes, Teenage Love Song, and My Slumbering Heart.

4/8 LAX: JHU v. Duke
Granted, I could have been much more drunk for this, as the action was kind of slow during many parts of the game. But the ending (that is, the second overtime) was worth it. There's nothing I love more than seeing Duke get their faces smashed into the mud, and then put through a blender. Also, I learned that Chris lost his virginity at the age of 16 in a trailer park in Pittsburgh. Despite the total hick factor, that's kind of hot.

4/4 - current The Weather
It is fucking gorgeous outside. If you're reading this from the HAC lab, D-level, or if you're reading this at all, stop immediately and go take a walk or climb a tree or something. It's okay to enjoy life sometimes.

Really.

The Worst
4/6 Boone Dies
So I was utterly, utterly wrong in my predictions of who would get offed the island on Lost this season. Good thing I didn't put a wager on it. I have to say I am extremely relieved that it wasn't Jack, even though he was my prime candidate. I did expect J.J. to pick someone a little more controversial to kill off since he never really played it safe on Alias (although on Alias everyone comes back from the dead sooner or later). Boone was definitely a safe character to have die since we haven't had a chance to really become attached to him. Still...it's sad whenever we lose a member of Lost. Boone, you will be missed.

4/7 Logic Homework
I have never seen more universal consternation towards a homework assignment (although keep in mind I'm a psych major and the homework assignments I'm used to are limited to readings and coloring within the lines). I can say without hesitation that my mental capabilities were violently raped by translations such as "There is a subject that is liked by any student who likes any subject at all." I spent the majority of class on Friday frantically trying to finish the homework - along with about 50% of the class. In the words of Ryan, sleeping with Achenstein (the Logic prof) to pass the class is no longer a contingency plan - it's at the top of the list.

4/12 - current No Kojak
I understand that Kojak had to go back to Nigeria for a week for a funeral. And to see his family. But that doesn't mean I still can't be sad he's gone. :-(