Yesterday I was a walking back from engineering, off to finish my dreaded physics problem set due at five, when I saw that there was a religious fanatic dude preaching in front of the administration building again. A gaggle of students were in a circle around him, serving as an audience to feed his moronic self righteousness, him shouting, "REPENT FOR YOUR SINS! JESUS DIED FOR YOUR SINS!"
I really didn't feel like going to work on my physics, so I decided that for the first time in my life, I'd watch one of these hopeless wastes of time.
The unemployed redneck thrust his bible into the air, "IF YOU ARE A MASTURBATOR, STOP!"
The expressions on the students faces were priceless. One boy humorously shouted out, "NO!"
The man thrust his bible again, "IF YOU ARE A FORNICATOR, STOP!"
One girl raised her hand to pose a question and I had a horrific realization: these students were actually here to argue with this guy. They actually thought they'd be able to have a battle of intellect with this lunatic. Or maybe they were just bored... procrastinating like I was... hopefully that was the case.
The short girl with a curly hair up-do went four minutes with her hand raised, then proceeded to enter the circle of idiocy. Clutching her coffee mug, she solemnly asked her question. Damn, she thought she was an intellectual.
Anyone with half a brain would have known the religious fanatic's response to every question: "I AM OUT HERE PREACHING THE WORD OF GOD AS THE BIBLE COMMANDS ME TO! I AM HERE TO PREACH TO EVERY LIVING CREATURE THE MESSAGE OF GOD!"
I left at this point, deeming the physics problem set more entertaining.
And to think, that guy is driving next to you on Speedway, standing behind you in line at Safeway, and probably using the computers at the ILC to look at porn.
Mellow and tender
I've seen water
By the cathedral
Under the maple
It was in april
Your wore a raincoat
By the cathedral
I wasn't able, I was unable
Someday
You will forgive me, darling
Someday
You will believe that I've seen
Thunder
By the cathedral
Under the maple
It was in april
You wore a raincoat
By the cathedral
I wasn't able, I was unable
"Dude, what time does your thing say?"
"Six minutes, forty-two seconds. What - does yours not - Dude, is yours even turned on?"
The guy looks down at his cycling machine's blank screen, "Uh, I don't know..." He starts impatiently hitting the quick start button and the screen flashes with the words: "Paused".
"Dude, yours was paused this WHOLE time?" They both break out in laughter.
- "Hey, hey, let's race!"
Both guys start furiously pedaling, their machines going nowhere; sweat accumulates on their faces.
"Dude, I'm done." The guy who had the paused machine gets off and wanders off to get a paper towel of cleaner.
When he returns, his friend is begging, "Hey, hey, five more minutes."
He's walking away, his friend still persistently calling, "Hey, five minutes, seriously man, I'm almost done, five!"
The guy still on the cycling machine guns it for five minutes.
I try and hide a smile from overhearing their conversation. I'm sitting on the cycling machine two down from them, feeling bad ass: reading and cycling at the same time.
Some overweight guy plops down on the machine next to me. He guns it for three minutes and I skeptically glance as he hobbles away. He's not coming back.
A rational mind can calm irrational thoughts. That's all this is.
Clear the mind and just work.
I had to stop by the high school today for some "mandatory" senior matters. Tedious, but it was an excuse to leave my economics lecture early and I took it.
Upon meeting with the woman in charge of the "operation," I was greeted with a small packet of papers. Sifting through and filling them out, I found one for grad night, one where you put the names of peers that you want to sit with, collect their initialed signatures, and turn it back in.
And I thought of all of my high school peers, smiling faces, signing each others papers and I just sat there clutching mine, all those blank spaces. Everybody would have already... and I...
A horrid voice went off in my mind, "Page, you didn't make friends here."
And the woman looked over at my motionless pen, to which I looked up to her, "What do I... do about this?"
Guess who woke up at 3:55 AM today?
- Haha, the world seems so wonderful in that 4:00 - 6:00 AM time frame. It feels like I could accomplish anything right now! And the associated optimism! - The world outside looks so wonderfully dark and empty - but I suppose I'm one of the few who could find that a beautiful thing.
Finding some guy's pants in my laundry this evening - It's the simple oddities in life that are the funniest.
The lights are low now
and perhaps you've forgotten:
how wonderful it was to dream.
1 Ambulance, 4 Fire Trucks, 6 Assorted Police Cars, and a bunch of confused students standing around the ILC.
Never a dull moment these days. Hopefully they'll have that story in tomorrow's Daily Wildcat - so I can figure out what was actually going on. The most they told the bystanders was that the ILC would be closed for a couple of hours, and I of course was one of those bystanders, drawn to the flashing emergency vehicle lights like a moth to the flame.
In other news, nothing really happened for April Fools, potentially the aforementioned ILC incident, but otherwise nothing - which was a bit of a let down. I pulled my own pathetic attempt at a prank, but... let's not incriminate myself so soon...
And, as for this busy week that I've been trudging through, just one more midterm and a term paper left. Thursday afternoon is going to be a splendid release to enjoy what follows.
