This was from Helena's blog

1. First thing you wash in the shower? Changes every time.

2. What color is your favorite hoodie? Black. It says "I ::heart:: TSL" on it, for "The Student Life", my college paper. I worked for them for a semester. I don't like it because I always have to explain what "TSL" stands for, but it is so warm and comfortable and fits so well that it doesn't matter.

3. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? No.

4.Do you plan outfits? Never more than 5 minutes in advance

5. How are you feeling RIGHT now? STARVING!!

6. Whats the closest thing to you thats red? My uncooked lunch, Chef Boyardee spaghetti. But in order to cook it I would have to leave my laptop unprotected whilst I descended 11 flights of stairs.

7. Do you say aim or a-i-m? Aim.

8. Tell me about the last dream you remember having? I had a dream that I was hugely pregnant and about to give birth and I kept meeting other new mothers who kept reminding me about all the things I would need in order to care for the baby and I didn't have any of them. I kept thinking, "Shouldn't I have had 9 months to prepare for this? What was I doing during all that time?" Then I would panic because I didn't have any money saved to buy all of this extra stuff. This is the second time I've had this dream in several months, I'm beginning to think it must have some kind of meaning.

9. Did you meet anybody new today? Hard to meet people when you exile yourself to the 11th floor of the library in the "Absolute Silence" study section.

10. What are you craving right now? A hug, Chef Boyardee

11. Do you floss? Yep. No cavities here!

12. What comes to mind when I say cabbage? Zach used to always say that I smelled like cabbage... I just looked it up in the urban dictionary about apparently you say that when you have no words to express how lame a person is. That's nice.

13. When was the last time you talked on aim? A while ago... AIM was a waste of life and I'm glad it is gone. Death to gchat.

14. Are you emotional? Some vestiges of emotion remain, but I am in the process of smiting them.

15. Would you dance to the taco song? If it is a catchy tune with a beat, I would dance to it.

16. Have you ever counted to 1,000? I think we had to do that in kindergarten. I remember writing all the numbers from 1-1000 on pieces of graph paper, one in each square.

17. Do you bite into your ice cream or just lick it? I lick it.

18. Do you like your hair? S'okay. I need a hair cut.

19. Do you like yourself? Yeah, we hang out all the time, we're like BFF.

20. Have you ever met a celebrity? I met John McCain! And the Clear Eyes guy. And the last NASA administrator. And two people who have walked on the Moon! A couple authors... GUNTHER... that's about it.

21. Do you like cottage cheese? NO.

22. What are you listening to right now? "Song for Dad" by Keith Urban

23. How many countries have you visited? 20, hoping to add two more at the end of next month.

24. Are your parents strict? They're reasonable.

25. Would you go sky diving? YES.

26. Would you go out to eat with George W. Bush? Sure. We could go to Texas Roadhouse, I'd get the ribs. I'd buy him a lemonade.

27. Would you throw potatoes at him? Nawwww, why do people gotst to hate? Drinking too much Haterade.

28. Is there anything sparkly in the room you’re in? My purse, this girl's earrings

29. Have you ever been in a castle? Several castles. Some built by yours truly.

30. Do you rent movies often? More often now than before. That means I'm up to about ~1 per 6 months.

31. Who sits in behind you in your math class? Well... in fluids it is Rick.

32. Have you made a prank phone call? Not for a really long time. "Hello? Would you like to buy a vacuum?"

33. Do you own a gun? Several water guns.

34. Can you count backwards from 74? Yep.

35. Who are you going to be with tonight? likely Thalweg y los dos gatos. (gateaux?) ;) Possibly the wasp that is stuck in my window frame.

36. Brown or white eggs? I get brown so that I feel better about not buying expensive humane-cage-free eggs like Thalweg buys because at least they look like hers.

37. Do you own something from Hot Topic? Hot Topic owns me. It's where I became a psy-vampire.

38. Ever been on a train? Many trains.

39. Don't like this question.

40. Do you have a cell-phone? Yep.

41. Are you too forgiving? I get less forgiving as people abuse my propensity to forgive.

42. Do you use chap stick? Chapstick is an evil drug that perpetuates the need for its own existence.

43. What is your best friend doing tomorrow? hmm... probably working. That's broad.

44. Can you use chop sticks? why yes. They come with instructions.

45. Ever have cream puffs? Not a fan.

46. Have you ever seen The Butterfly Effect? Nope.

47. What was the last question you asked? "Are you sure it's not the swine flu?"

48. What was the last CD you bought? Lady Gaga

49. Boys or girls? All the same to me.

50. What is your bus number for school? No bus. No school. (Helena's answer suffices)

51. Is your hair curly? In the humidity it is. Also if I wind it around my fingers as I've gotten in the habit of doing lately.

52. Don't like this question.

53. Ever walked into a wall? Not that I remember, unless you count doorframes.

54. Do looks matter? Depends on what you need them for.

55. Have you ever bought anything from Pac Sun? I used to shop at that place all the time. One time I saw a girl shoplifting some sunglasses, and I wanted to rat her out but I didn't. I wish I could go back and rat her out. Shoplifting bitch.

56. Have you ever slapped someone? I've always wanted to, but I probably never will.

57. Favorite time of the year? Summer

58. Favorite color? Green.

59. Are you sarcastic? NO. {sarcastically}

60. Do you have any tattoos? No. I would only get a tattoo if I was in a secret society of watchers who recorded the events in the lives of the immortals.

61. The last person you held hands with? Don't remember. It was probably whoever was next to me at our church retreat.

62. Do you sleep with the TV on? I can't, it's impossible.

63. Where was your default picture taken at? Default picture, what does that mean?

64. Do you hate or dislike more than 3 people? Not at the moment.

65. Do you like your life right now? I'm way too hungry for this question, but yes, things are pretty sweet right now.

66. How often do you talk on the phone? As little as possible.

67. What is your favorite animal? Cheetah of course.

68. What was the most recent thing you bought? Dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

69. Do you have good vision? It's ok. No glasses here.

70. Can you hula hoop? Hells yeah.

71. Could you ever forgive a cheater? No. The level of respect I have for cheaters is probably a negative number. I think cheating is often the tip of the iceberg for a dozen other equally serious moral deficiencies. Not to be judgmental or anything.

72. Do you have a job? Yes. (Praise the Lord!)

73. Can you handle the truth? It is what I would prefer.

74. What are you wearing? Jeans, shirt from my friend in Japan.

75. Have you ever crawled through a window? Many. The most interesting being those at my high school, the most tricky being the window of my last apartment which required me to climb on my car, jump onto the fire escape, climb the ricketty fire escape, and carefully slide my window open from the outside, climb over my plant, and get my forgotten keys.

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Thalweg:

"Now I can totally see why chicks dig Twilight, because I mean, here is this guy, and you don't have to worry about him trying to rape you while you sleep, yeah, like he just protects you and watches over you like a big cuddly bear."

True dat.


As an aside, my paper about Mercury was accepted for publication. YEssssss. I shall be in print!

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Thalweg smelled gas again. This time she called the landlord and the utility company. The utility company came and broke the door down and opened all the windows in the second floor apartment. Presumably they fixed the oven?

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It's 1:26 am and I'm trying to figure out how to solve the Schrodinger Equation for traveling wave packets. Then apparently we'll be modeling some quantum tunneling.

Studying quantum physics is sweet because everything you do sounds so scientific.

Studying quantum physics at 1:28 is not as cool because I have no idea what they're going on about and I don't know whether or not I have a tridiagonal matrix and whether or not I need to invert it.

In other news, Wiggles has somehow transformed from the pale, wan, and lifeless Wiggles that he has been recently to a ruddy, good-natured, chocolate dispensing Wiggles the likes of which I have never seen. It's a good change.

Tonight he lacked the energy to travel the classic route from one side of the third floor to the other (through five doors, three of them locked), so he kept "quantum-tunneling" through the back hallway where we were sitting doing our work.

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The cat is meowing pitifully. It is to be expected, but this time it seems different. I open the door of my room and peer out.

And then I smell it. Gas.

The smell isn't strong, it is just a faint odor of gas. It seems to be strongest in the TV room, and it isn't coming from any of the usual suspects... the oven, the furnace... I even waft the refrigerator just to make sure.

Not quite convinced that I should do anything and late for work, I open the sash so that the cats can have some fresh air and not die whilst I am away. Where is it coming from? The second floor?

I suddenly have an intense and vivid vision of approaching the apartment on the second floor. I knock, and no one answers, but as I knock the door swings inwards. In my vision, the smell of gas is overwhelming, coming from the oven. My neighbor lies prone on the floor in the next room. I shut off the gas and run over to him, checking ABC... airway, breathing, circulation. He is alive. I'm suddenly furious, and later in my vivid day dream I yell at him for not only being stupid enough to try to kill himself, but to endanger me and the cats and the rest of the people in the house. I tell him that he's lucky that I happened to stay at home today to watch my overdue library video instead of going to work. He is cowed and ashamed.

Back in real life, I grab my keys and head down the stairs. I hesitate on the landing. I knock on the second floor door. No answer. I knock again, louder. No answer. Troubled by my vision, I check to see if it is locked, and it comes open in my hand. As the door swings inwards, I am greeted by the overwhelming scent of gas. I walk over to the oven. The oven knob is on BROIL and one of the gas burners is on HIGH.

I shut the oven off and I am fiddling with the other knob when my neighbor walks in. Sebastian. Athletic, brunette, attractive. When I see him I hate the drugs he takes, all of his stupid friends, and the waste of his humanity.

"Did you know that your gas is on?" I say.

He looks over at the knobs. "Well," he answers, "this knob is broken..." he points to the one that still says HIGH. "I always think it's on... I often smell gas... but... I guess I was beginning to think I was crazy. I think maybe it has a leak or something, but I haven't called about it or anything."

He comments that he didn't realize that he left his door unlocked. I am suddenly sheepish, an intruder in his house.

"Yeah, sorry," I manage, "I was just worried about you."

"Thanks for checking in on us."

He continues, telling me about how he's moving to San Diego in June and how he's going to work at a restaurant so that he can earn enough money to go to Europe.


He doesn't sound like someone who would turn the oven to BROIL and leave it on.

Vision averted.

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Well everyone, it's Spring Weekend, the weekend where Brown gives 50K to the undergrads so that they can get wasted and makeout with each other.

As if they don't do that normally.

As usual, the graduate students were griping about not being able to get work done on Saturday because of all of the damn "ruckus" outside [a concert followed in the evening by a foam party]. We decided to attend one of the concerts since it fit two of the three graduate student criteria: it was free, and it was right outside (the third being that there is food being served). We stood awkwardly off to one side and thought, "We are way too sober for this."

I started thinking nostalgically, "Aw... I remember back in the day when I used to have fun..."

But that, my friends, is a bit of blatent revisionist history, because during the intense college flashback that followed, I remembered that I used to go to these kinds of parties, stand awkwardly off to one side and think, "I am way too sober for this," before going home and being emo until I fell asleep.

We left the party, catching a brief glimpse of two of our drunk friends about to make some terrible [but fun-looking] decisions.

I think I was way too sober for college in general.

Maybe I'm just way too sober for life.

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