blakerson.com

I hope I do some traveling during college. I'm starting to get cabin fever here, and San Antonio and NYC will tide me over for a little while, but I want to go someplace new. Maybe I'll tour with a choir or something. I know that one of the teachers takes a handful of students to Ireland over spring break or summer or something. That would be kinda neat, too. I'm sure there are lots of travel things like that. I want to go back to Florida and spend a few days on the beach with that emily I haven't seen in ages. I definitely want to go spend some time all over California. I want to win the big, prestigious scholarship that sends you to California and you stay somewhere right on the beach. Well, if it exists, they'll be sure to tell me about it when I meet my advisors in June.

You've had 80s day at school, right? All the girls come dressed in torn sweatshirts and torn jeans and the guys try their best to dress like the hair bands? So in a couple short years it'll be the cool thing to have 90s day. And what are we all going to wear? Yahoo t-shirts? O.J. Simpson Afros?

I love stand-up comedy. Like anything else in life, it comes in good and bad varieties. Tonight, while confined to my couch or my computer chair, I came across a good bunch of the stuff. It's amazing how a good comedian can shine new light on things that never seem to stand out in our collective mind. Anyone can find the simple ironies of air travel or TV reruns, but it takes a greater mental power to tie together completely unrelated places and events in a way that forces the listener to laugh hysterically. A new hero of mine is Lewis Black, a sort of tamer version of Bill Hicks. All the crude language, all the drug references, but much less of an edge in general. No religion, abortion, the kinds of issues that have never gotten a comedian anywhere with the exception of Hicks. Anyway, this is the guy you see on the Daily Show every week ranting about the oddities of human stupidity. His full routine is much the same but laden with a lot more Carlin-esque language. Go find and listen.

The other day Mom walked in and slapped down a newspaper on my desk. "How to win a Rhodes," exclaimed the title written over pictures of students training to pursue one of the most respected honors in academia. The story followed students from the Ivies as well as ordinary state schools that are trying to get more students involved in the competition. That article put to rest all my jitters about going to P2 - it reminded me that the program has an astounding number of Rhodes/Marshall/Truman/Gates scholars. What's more, kids who are serious about going after the awards are given loads of training outside the classroom: their social skills become just another function of their very powerful brains through mock interviews and mock cocktail parties.

Maybe I'll go try out for a Fulbright scholarship. I'd love to spend some postgrad time in Tokyo or London. It also puts my mind to ease about the fact that I'm leaving all the smart guys (phil/syed/joanne) in a short 4 months. It's like looking at a double-helix pattern as a two-dimensional image: the paths separate, but they come back together and repeat the cycle over and over again. Perhaps I'll run into the smart guys at one of the real cocktail parties, and we'll make important-looking small talk about peace in India or the cover story from the latest edition of The Economist. It's a scary thought, but then again so is going by myself to Japan once I get past the initial novelty of being close to all things video gaming.

So we're back to the blog. I finally gave up on the whole self-web-serving thing after too many people complained about not being able to read it at strange times of the day. I just hope this blasted contraption doesn't lose my stories like it used to. I'll probably bring back a couple of the really good posts from my old site to fill in the gaps, but for the most part I'm just continuing the same uninspired drivel as before.

Facts that have changed since my last post 9 months ago:
-I fell in love with UT Austin and the Plan II program, so I applied early and got in.
-I had a girlfriend for the shortest five months of my life.
-Quakecon 2002 absolutely owned.
-I more or less quit hardcore gaming and it's been a hugely refreshing change. I've learned the greatness of social gaming (like on consoles) and I can't think of a better time in recent ages than playing Mario Party 4 at Max's over a massive amount of pizza.

Facts that have not changed in 9 months:
-I'm more than ready to leave Oakridge.