I won't bore you all with details of my Thanksgiving. Everyone's individual experience is a little different--some people have big families, other people have small familes, other people have families of whom only a very few member decide to show up. Not that I'm bitter...I just wanted it to be like when I was little and there were lots of people, enough to eat all the food we had made.
Anyways, as I was saying, the general similarities are the same--family, friends, turkey, contented lethargy, dessert, ride home, etc, etc. Not like Christmas where situations can vary greatly--though I suppose that gift-giving tends to create a sort of a paradigm shift for holiday experiences.
And I helped my sister-in-law with her Calc homework. "Go me!"
Finally, a link for youLOTR fans out there: http://www.ooblick.com/text/tomordor/
This is just frikkin' hilarious.
See y'all later.

Happy Thanksgiving, all! I may or not be posting this week, depending on the speed--or lack thereof--of my parents' modem. If not, I'll be back with more whispered words of wisdom on Sunday.

"He left the lights on yesterday when he left for class. He also played some music. I never play music or turn on the lights when i'm up first. I'd ask him not to but he's blissfully asleep and waking him up is beneith me."
--transcript from Andrew's blog

Number 1: Dude, first of all, I don't CARE if you turn on the lights or not, or if you play music in the morning when I'm still asleep.
Number 2: You HAVE played music before. It doesn't bother me. That's why I don't bitch about it.
Number 3: You have the brass to talk about what's BENEATH you?? Don't even start with that hypocritical jive, turkey. This fool don't wanna hear it.

"Hey Andy, did you hear about this one? Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis? Are we losing touch?
If you believe they put a man on the moon, man on the moon,
If you believe there’s nothing up his sleeve, then nothing is cool..."

--REM

Hey Dad...you need to buy some Carbon Leaf albums. They're the modern equivalent of Horslips. I think they have a flute and maybe even some panpipes in there. At any rate it's an excellent sound...might wanna check it out.

BOONAY! Guess who got initiated into Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia last night? It was awesome...Tex Burke is my big, just like I preffed and just as I suspected for some time, in spite of Yttri's attempts to fool me. After the ceremony we went out for dinner at 2nd Street and told a lot of dirty jokes. All in all a good time.
And now there are a bunch of semi-strangers (I say semi because some of them I've seen before and some of them are complete unknowns) over in Dave's room, ostensibly imbibing distilled alcoholic beverages and impairing various functions. Good times. Spare me, please.
Oh, and here's a great away message Adam Neely had up for awhile. It gives vent to the (well-placed) W & M superiority complex. Enjoy.

Morning Rituals of VA College Students:
Longwood - Milk the cows, gather eggs.
Radford - Finish liquor, take STD shot.
UVA - Find paper online.
William & Mary - Shower, study till class.
VCU - Coke on the way to class, never make it, buy more beer.
Tech - Check rankings, cry.
U of Richmond - Spend parents money at Abercrombie.
JMU - Roll over, introduce yourself.
ODU - Check to see if all things are still there.
NOVA - Learn to tie shoelaces.
CNU - Take packed lunch from mommy, double check to see if your crayons are in your backpack.

"Just rememeber, life is yours to change and manuvuer through. Anger or resentment or even happiness does no good when directed at something or someone, even yourself; it only is beneficial when channeled to a further cause."

--Eric Yttri

Very true that.

Okay, here's the revised schedule. The only changes are that I couldn't take American Writers or that Creative Writing class, so I decided on Major English Writers 2 and settled for 13 credit hours instead of 15 credit hours. I figure I can make them up at some later date.
.....RIGHT? Somebody who has actually graduated college reassure me on this. I haven't had my coffee yet and I'm feeling kinda jUmPy,

Monday
10:00 am - 10:50 am (English Writers II)
11:00 am - 11:50 am (Chem 206)

Tuesday
11:00 am - 12:20 pm (Math 212)
2:00 pm - 3:20 pm (Psych 202)

Wednesday
10:00 am - 10:50 am (English Writers II)
11:00 am - 11:50 am (Chem 206)

Thursday
11:00 am - 12:20 pm (Math 212)
2:00 pm - 3:20 pm (Psych 202)
06:00 pm - 06:50 pm/07:00 pm - 09:50 pm (Chem 252)

Friday
10:00 am - 10:50 am (English Writers II)
11:00 am - 11:50 am (Chem 206)

Oh yeah, that's right, I foroget, in order to do something or other--I forget what, probably to accomodate a class that I ended up NOT getting into--I switched to the late night lab. We shall see....

Okay all, I know the question that has been plauging most of you for weeks now is "What is Will's schedule for the spring semester???" Well wonder no more.
Actually, yes, do wonder. Because this is only conjectural and dependent on me getting the classes I want--which is kind of iffy at this point due to my late registration time. Damn those late college transcripts. If they'd gotten here earlier...but ah well. C'est la rotten vie. Here's the way I'd LIKE my schedule to be. Updates to follow.

Monday
10:00 am - 10:50 am (English 207: Major American Writers)
11:00 am - 11:50 am (Chem 206: Organic Chem 1)
1:00 pm - 2:50 pm (English 206: Intro to Creative Writing)

Tuesday
11:00 am - 12:20 pm (Math 212: Intro to Multivariable Calc)
2:00 pm - 3:20 pm (Psych 202: Intro to Psych as a Social Science)

Wednesday
10:00 am - 10:50 am (English 207: Major American Writers)
11:00 am - 11:50 am (Chem 206: Organic Chem 1)
1:00 pm - 1:50 pm/2:00 pm - 4:50 pm (Chem 226: Orgo 1 Lab Session)

Thursday
11:00 am - 12:20 pm (Math 212: Intro to Multivariable Calc)
2:00 pm - 3:20 pm (Psych 202: Intro to Psych as a Social Science)

Friday
10:00 am - 10:50 am (English 207: Major American Writers)
11:00 am - 11:50 am (Chem 206: Organic Chem 1)

Creative writing is good because it gets me out of my performing arts requirement. Let's hope...(NOTE: The preceding two words have become my mantra over the past couple days. I may have them carved on my grave.)

Song of the Day: What I Got, by Sublime
Quote of the Day:
"Give me an attitude check!"
"I hate this f***ing place, sir!"
"Give me a positive attitude check!"
"I POSITIVELY hate this f***ing place, sir!"
"Short atttitude check!"
"F*** IT!"

-From Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising, brought to me by Andrew

This may seem like a rather strange blog, but I felt that there was something important about this. Danny Brothers across the hall has his away message up. It's one of his three or four different ones, this one being the simple remark 'I'm around" followed by his phone number. And yet, somehow, this message is like a balm. Maybe it goes back to the days I'd lie in bed half-asleep late at night, while my parents were still around the kitchen, and feel reassured by the fact that there was someone still awake to watch over me. And Danny's the kind of guy by whose presence you feel...I don't know what the word is...COMFORTED. Like I said, this is sort of a strange blog, exacerbated my inability to articulate what I want to say...but somehow, it's a good feeling seeing that away message and knowing that when he's "around" it means that he's around the tower--usually ensuring that people like me want to be "around" as well.

Okay, I've finally discovered that the French dessert was named "creme brulee"--insert appropriate accent egues and accent graves as needed.
Passed the PMA test...and Clue Week has now started. Last night I was IM'ed by a guy with the screenname "Willsbigbrother" who told me to go visit an NKE over in Jefferson and do math with her for an hour. And yes, I am completely serious. No, I'm not joking. So stop asking! To be completely fair, I was too tired and apathetic to really do any math, so we talked about Phi Mu Alpha and chemistry for a half an hour or so. Tonight I go over to Pleasants for "snacks." Knowing the kind of tricks these guys pull, I'm kind of nervous about the "fine cuisine" Hum...nothing else of note. What do you really expect anyway, from a freshman?

Wow, so much to talk about but so little to accurately describe. Half of Taliaferro went out to dinner to celebrate Liz Sadock's birthday. Speaking of which, Cornerstone's--where we went--has GREAT desserts. I had key lime cheescake, which was awesome. Liz and Christine shared a French dessert whose name escapes me...I remember it was in the movie "Amelie" and that I had one when I was in Paris. Argh...it'll come to me later and I'll kick myself. Anyways, it was a sort of custard thing with a kind of hard syrup crust--you'd know it if you saw it. Alaine had the chocolate orgasm cake. Really! She did! Which led to some interesting albeit predictable quotes.

Yesterday...meh. History as usual. We went to the UC where Mike Nardone and Hank got into a tomato fight which was the funniest thing most of us have seen in a long time. It may be one the mini-things that go down in history around here, along with Joanna's "going tribe on your ass" and "Danny, you f***er!"

Ah well...now I have to study for a Phi Mu Alpha test. I'm beginning to doubt the wisdom of joining my first semester...

The weather here is STILL warm. That cold spell the other day apparently was just a fluke. Is it ALwAYS like this here? Because if it is, I have a lot to forward to. Windy, but not too cold, with just a tiny bit of frost, and it's halfway through November. Like an extended fall. Score!

Gabbi made me go to this academic advising thing last night. I didn't want to go--it sounded like a waste of the time I could have spent putting off Calc homework. I went, and they proceeded to contradict everything everyone's told me about NOT worrying about senior year. "Worry about graduation! Worry about your credits! Worry about your majors, your minors, your semi-majors and quasi-minors! Worry about those nagging little doubts you have at night! Worry about..." Feh. I'm leaving. Got no truck with fretting about that stuff. I do a bang-up job of freaking myself out; they're impinging on my territory.
On the plus side, thanks to Chem, I can now titrate solutions like a pro.

Okay, time for the semi-rant of the day.
We've been hearing a lot lately about the Angry Left; how the irrationality and blind fury of their position lends itself to a sort of "hate for hate's sake" position. However, it's kind of hard to comprehend concept unless one has come face-to-face with it. (Naturally, it's easier to find this in colleges than just about any other general institution in the U.S.) I've been preparing for a while for the things I was going to hear...but how do you really deal with people who claim that they would kill George Bush--simply for the fact that he's George Bush?
Let's face it, this has gone way past party line or differing ideologies. I haven't been able to find many leftists who can give a clear and coherent reason why they would vote for Dean, other than the fact that he's Not Bush. At the same time, I didn't know that many conservatives who were running around in 1998 talking about killing Clinton. So what's the difference here?
I'm not a political analyst; I can't get into all the ins and outs of this convoluted and perverse web of rage. However, it seems to me that the radicals of the 60's--the people of my parents' generation--have become the Johnathan Chaits and the Ted Ralls of our time. These are the angry young men and women who burned American flags, fought with cops on the streets, and idolize(d) Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Now they're in their 40's and 50's--but they never moved on. They held onto their anger like Homer Simpson holds onto the last doughnut and they're not letting go for anything, though their party and what remains of their ideology crumbles around them.
The point I'm trying to make here is that it's nigh unto impossible to debate with any of the liberals around me without putting them into a red-faced, spittle-producing, foam-lipped rage. Which is too bad; I was looking forward to some good arguments. Instead, I ended up walking away as fast as possible while rubbing the saliva flecks off my glasses.
Is it any wonder that the 9 dwarves are so incoherent? I mean, they're catering to their constituency.

Well, at least the leaves have fallen. Which is a good thing--don't get me wrong. I was a little worried that they'd only fall in March/April when the new leaves forced them off the branches. The weather got cold literally overnight; the pretty much unanimous reaction is "Where the hell did THIS come from?" As though walking around in shirt sleeves in November was natural. I get the feeling that there's something in the water or air around WIlliamsburg that preserves life forms. Perhaps I'll graduate here with the body of a 19-year-old.
Oh yes, and Sarah, Lauren, Dave, Danny, Adam, Chrissy, Andy, Charlie and I saw Pirates of the Caribbean on Saturday. It was awesome, and by awesome I mean AWESOME! Although I was a little disappointed that there was no female equivalent of Johnny Depp. I've been thinking about posting a sign on Dave's door that says "But why's the RUM gone???" I guess to understand that you would have had to have been here on Friday night/Saturday morning when he became his alter ego, Bacardi-Man...

FYI, dude, poor Will doesn't eat breakfast alone. I eat with JP, Dave, and Danny. I couldn't be seen in public in the company of women lest I lose my standing in the Misogynist's Club. Heaven forfend.

Not much to report this week, sadly. More of the same...think back on your college days. Hell, think back to any routine. There's comfort in it, but do you really want to hear about all of it? I don't have funny cute kids, so that's one bloggable subject out. 90% of the hilarious stuff that rocks my world here at Taliaferro isn't suitable for my parents to read, so there's another one out. I need to have a site like http://www.homestarrunner.com--speaking of which, if your modem is fast enough, you should visit this site. Various good quotes from HomeStar 'toons:

"I've gone blind! At last, my prayers have been answered!"
"What are you doing, you crap for crap??!! You brains for brains!!"
"I got you that lightswitch so you could turn the lights on and off...not so you could throw lightswitch raves!"
"Hey, this computer ketchup IS better than the regular kind! Although it could use some RAM...and some megachips..."
"Guys, line up on my right for high fives; ladies, line up on my left for making out."

Okay, so we lost really badly last night. And when I say badly, I don't mean on the order of Gettysburg...we did more like the North during Stonewall Jackson's valley campaign. I think the final score was something like 27-6. And we were playing a FRESHMAN HALL! How humiliating is that? Danny, Kenji, and I were the only freshman on the Phi Mu Alpha--we should have mopped up. Oh well...I guess this is why we're the MUSIC frat.

Phi Mu Alpha flag football tonight...wish me retroactive luck, because you'll probably read this after I'm dead and--I mean, finished playing. I'm bringing Kenji and Danny, who are my dormmates--have I not told you about everyone in the Tower yet? If not, you need to take this quiz:

http://quizilla.com/users/Gryffilion/quizzes/Which%20Taliaferro%20Tower%20Personality%20Type%20Are%20you%3F

*Warning: not for the serious-minded or easily offended individual. I probably shouldn't even be making it open to adults.*
Anyways, Kenji and Danny are both good, or so I hear--I was at class the day we had practice so I couldn't go, but Jason Tomik, our chapter president and quarterback, said they were great and that I could be Rush Chairman. Maybe I could even have FEO Chairman and take Jack's place--although he does give out a lot of A's on the stuff we do and feeds us lines on the questions, so I guess we shouldn't replace him just yet.
In other news, apparently we are down the "Final Four" in the Taliaferro's Hottest competition. We all voted for the best-looking roommate pairs (of the opposite sex, bien sur) by sending an email to Joe Mason on the second floor. I guess he has some stake in it because one of his girlfriends (yes, he has an Aragorn complex--not that I'm bitter...) is in the Final Four thing. With any luck this could lead to violence, mud wrestling, and making out. Or else Hollywood has been lying to us all these years.

Living in a dorm doesn't necessarily create instant friendships, but it makes it a hell of lot harder to be a loner.

Well, nothing too eventful this weekend...unless you count the PHI MU ALPHA SCAVENGER HUNT ON SATURDAY NIGHT!! It was frickin' awesome, and I will tell you all about it...at a later date. Some of the high points were rather TOO salient, if by salient you mean "not things I can talk about until 2007." And no, we didnt steal anything--except for a sign from Jason's door, and that doesn't count, because he's our president--and actually didn't anything to get in trouble with the law (Ethan: "I haven't even parked incorrectly tonight"). It was a heck of a lot of fun and I can't wait to add stuff to the list next year--assuming we HAVE a pledge class next year. Extrapolating from past and present pledge classes, we will have approximately three-fifths of a pledge next year.

Hmm...I've been reading Andrew's blog, and apparently I seem to have fallen behind in the amount of paying attention to him that I do. I'm so sorry, dude! I guess I let my stress and personal problems get in the way of making you happy all the time! Can you ever forgive me?

This may not have occured to you, man, but I am in the midst of a lot--read, A LOT--of stuff right now. Chances are, if I'm not "interacting" or if I'm "ignoring" you, it's my own problems tha I have to deal with. Why don't you do what I did all the times you got mad at me for no reason and go find something else to do?