Linkstew

So, as I mentioned, I worked out a deal with my own worst enemy so that there'd still be content while I'm gone. Well, one thing led to another:

Josi (02:01:17 AM): "my own worst enemy?"
Benjy (02:01:28 AM): yes. as opposed to my evil twin.
Josi (02:01:36 AM): oh no
Josi (02:01:51 AM): i'd pay to see the evil twin guestblog for you

On Wednesday, I walked into my (Visual) Perception class and sat down by my friend Alert. And right at the end of the lecture, I realized that I was sitting right behind My Evil Twin. I clutched my fist, and shook it at the back of his head, and pointed him out to Alert.

And Alert said "I know. I sat down here for a reason."

So that makes 8 for 8, and the cycle is now complete. I also think that means that if I talk to him now, we'll implode. Or maybe the world will just end.

Sometime before classes ended, I had a discussion with a friend about nicknaming people we'd never met. "That girl with red hair?" she said. "Yeah, I call her Tori in my head." And so on. This all struck me as perfectly natural, because after all, I've got My Evil Twin, among others.

But today, I realized that I've actually also got nicknames for certain unknown repeat visitors to my sites based sometimes on their IP, sometimes on their browser, sometimes on their referrer... And that. Well, that just struck me as a lot more weird.

So how about it folks -- please tell me that I'm not the only webmaster who nicknames his anonymous visitors?

My Evil Twin has proven to be a worthy nemesis, as he and I, for the seventh semester in a row, share a class together. This time, it's CS 188.

I wonder if he's noticed this yet?

And no, I still haven't talked to him. Nor do I have plans to. What would I say?

"Stop following me taking my classes you adjective noun!"?

Oh, wait, I've got it! on the last day of class next semester (assuming he doesn't spoil the streak), I can say "So, we meet again, for the first time, for the last time!"

And that'll be that.

Ach! My evil twin is back in Berkeley! I saw him today while walking home from work, and I watched him intently as we walked towards each other, and then we passed without a word.

Well, he doesn't look much like me, and he doesn't talk like me (He talks about esperanto, I'm taking Japanese) or dress like me or anything, but I think I've got an evil twin. You see, There's this guy who I've had in at least one of my classes every semester since I got to Berkeley. He lived in the same dorm as I did, was in Math 1B with me, CS61A with me, CS61B with me, psych 2 with me, Math 54 with me, Math 55 with me, EE42 with me, CogSci 1 with me, and now he's in Philosophy with me and CogSci 100 with me. I've never actually been in the same section as him, but many many times, he's had the same TA for a different section. This semester, he has the same Philosophy TA as I do and the same CogSci TA as I do, and he did his CogSci Term Paper on the same topic as I did. More than that coincides, though, because the pattern of classes I've taken isn't at all normal. The pattern of classes described above is one of a studen who was once intending to be a computer science major who is now a cognitive science major.

I don't know his reasons. I've never talked to him. It's not like I can talk to him, because then he'd know that I was following him. Or that he was following me. Or... Well, you see, if I talked to him, then I'd find out that it's just a bizarre coincidence of a large magnitude and I won't get to think up new conspiracy theories during those dull moments in class.