it's a mad world

Mimic the motions.
Attend real life like it counts,
Evermore watchful.

People who seem to be really dedicated to their field impress me a lot.  I probably have babbled about this before, but I don't care what people do as long as they care.  And that's shockingly hard to find.

This weekend is the Lotus Fesitival that I've been blathering about, and yesterday I had the privilege to attend/host a lunch for some of the performers--members of a band called Los de Abajo ("Those from Below").  Only 3 of the 8 members came, but it was delightful to talk to them.  Their band was founded in La Ciudad de México, and their focus is on giving a voice to the people who aren't politically powerful enough to have one of their own.  Yes, this sounds trite, I realize, but they are really living like unos de abajo in that they travel from show to show, staying in hostels, avoiding the rockstar life, and having a ball with us normal folk.  They definitely knew their stuff, and they gave us a couple of fairly lengthy discourses on lots of problems in Mexico (including drug-related violence, underfunded arts programmes, illegal immigration to the States, etc.).  One spoke very respectable English when addressing the group-at-large of honors students, but it was fun to converse with them individually and flex my Spanish muscles.

The GRE was this morning, and that was pretty interesting, I guess.  I struggled into Franklin Hall (one of our administrative buildings), bleary-eyed at 08:30, and wrote argumentative and analytical essays, solved some math problems (NOTE: I definitely didn't realise that there was a calculator button on the screen... yes, I am a moron who didn't read the directions.  I still did okay with my pencil and paper, but eff that.), and attempted some inane analogies.  I was actually really embarassed by my score on the verbal section... until I realised that it was not bad at all relatively.  It would appear that most people just suck at English.

Last night my dear roomies took me out to another bar in Btown to check it out, and it was hilariously full of hipsters.  Welcome to the Root Cellar.  I'll probably go back.

Oh!  I guess I can ride fixed-gear bikes now.  The major difference between these and other cycles is that in order to move, one must pedal.  The gears are affixed to the rear tyre in such a way that there can be no coasting.  This also means that one brakes with one's legs as opposed to traditional brakes (although many fixed-gear bikes come with those, too), which is way hard to get used to.  Generally they are reserved for the creme de la creme of cyclists who know about ratios and that sort of thing, but I guess I can't help but become one of those sorts of people, tooling around as I do with these guys.  Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to try skidding around like a madman (hi, Chas and Patrick).  For now, though, I'm still pretty excited every time I don't die going someplace on one of their bikes.

graduation and grad students

Leaves outlined yellow,
Nights cold, snuggle into bed,
And watch the sun rise.

I'm now a few steps closer to graduation: all of my degrees are officially going to be complete, my minors are recorded as they should be, my general honors notation is filed-for, and I'm going to get (ugh) senior portraits.

Huzzah!

I've been hanging around grad students a lot this term (unsurprising, considering that I'm in three graduate courses and fully half of my fourth course is graduate students), and life seems good for them.  I know that I don't have nearly so much work as I was anticipating, which leaves good swaths of time to do things like go to the Lotus Festival next weekend, which I definitely recommend to anyone who'll be in the area.  It's a show that takes up all of downtown with performances from artists around the globe: last year I watched some throat singers, which was basically crazy.

Good news!  My LaTeX equation editor, which launched in knol a month or so ago, is now available in Google Docs!  YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I'm a bit shocked at how fall-y it's getting.  It's easy to tell what time people got dressed when you see them--those with sweatshirts were probably up before 10, and those without, after.  I am excited about cold weather, though, and wearing sweaters and all that.  Oh, and the Pikachu hat, of course.  :D