1998-April-25 was West High's Junior/Senior Prom, and while a goodly number of other people seemed to have a good time, I certainly didn't. I do not know why, but I found myself unable to enjoy myself. I think it may have been because I was not expecting to have a good time from the start. That and the music injured me at a karmic level.
Monthly Archive for April, 1998
My mother and I were driving home after visiting Berkeley in April, and somehow in our conversation she got me talking about Microsoft. So just as I was explaining how Bill Gates couldn't buy REM's "It's the End of the World As We Know it (And I Feel Fine)", but was able to buy off the Rolling Stones, we drove past "Gates Road" off of California Route 132.
I was doing my Government outlining the other night, and I was listening to The Original Cast Recording of Assassins, when the song "November 22, 1963" came on. In this song, there is a line in which the various assassins are talking to Lee Harvey Oswald, and they say "Without you, we are just footnotes in a history book -- disappointed office seeker, deranged immigrant, vain glorious actor..." The disappointed office seeker referred to in that line was Charles J. Guiteau, who shot president James Garfield in 1883. As that line was playing, I read following passage in my government book: "Public outrage over the abuses of the spoils system, highlighted by the assassination of James Garfield by a man always described in the books by a "disappointed office seeker" (lunatic would be a more accurate term)"
The chicken loooked back and forth down the road, and no cars were coming. The air was so clear that the chicken could see for miles and miles, and across the road the chicken saw food. The chicken was very hungry, as it hadn't eaten anything for months, and the food looked very good to the poor starving chicken, but the chicken was afraid to cross the road.
Finally, the chicken decided the road was clear, but as it prepared to cross the road, it suddenly saw its own reflection in the shimmery heat of the road. The chicken saw how hungry the chicken in the reflection was, and stood staring at himself for some time, trying to decide what the chicken in the reflections problem was. Finally the chicken remember about the food lying across the road, and again prepared to cross the road, and was again distracted by his own reflection.
This process was repeated several times, with the chicken preparing to cross the road, and then being distracted by his own reflection in the shimmery hot road. The chicken became unsure whether the food was really there or not, and so sat down to think about what was going on.
When he finally gazed back across the road at the food, he saw another chicken eating his food. The chicken sighed and looked at the other chicken enviously, as once again, his own uncertainty had blocked the goal which was within his grasp.
I was out taking the damnable dog for a walk and I was thinking about other people I needed to add to my web page. One person I thought of was Mike "DR" Ross. After I got home, I sat down and was preparing to make a phone call when no sooner did Mike "DR" show up at my door. I hadn't talked to him for several months, as he has been going to BC and living with his brother locally.
My mom had me look up the constitutional amendments for her on the Internet one day. I had been listening to Sondheims "Assassins, and when I finally found a web page with the amendments, a Midi of "The Star Spangled Banner" began playing. The CD was on track 6, which is "Another National Anthem." It made for an unusual juxtaposition which likely has scared me for some years to come.
One day I had a quiz in physics, and I found myself really wishing I had had the protracter which Mr. Zeiment told us we would need. That night when I got home, my dad asked me if I knew where a protracter was. I said "no, no I don't know where the protractor is", mainly out of spite.
I had begun to Download Microsoft NetShow when I received an email from Jordan with an attached sound. However, I found myself unable to play the sound and when I told him this he suggested I download Microsoft NetShow.
I've been accepted to UC Berkeley, and I got the Chancellor's scholarship, which is very cool. That's all that springs to mind off of the top of my head. Sorry.
In Deadeye Dick, by Kurt Vonnegut, the narrator characterizes a soldier as an "Almond Macaroon." Apparently, a macaroon is a type of cookie, but I had never heard of a macaroon until a few weeks earlier, when we had been reading "A Doll's House," by Ibsen in my A.P. English class.