Those days are gone...

Yesterday, a friend of mine said to me, 'How can you drink this? It's disgusting.'

Maity and I, with three others, decided to go to a pub in the afternoon yesterday. It had been a while since I went to a pub. Without any second thought, I asked for a double black label with ice. Priya decided to take a sip from my glass, and that was when she said that to me.

I had my beer days, followed my gin/vodka/rum and now I have switched to whiskey. I also used to say at one point in life, 'geez, whiskey is damn bitter'. May be I am getting old, or I am just getting tired of mixed drinks. I like whiskey. Whiskey is good. What do ladies' know about a gentleman's drink anyway (sincere apologies to exceptions)?

Poor Maity was warned by the bartender for drinking whiskey without an ID. I almost got into trouble for giving him the drink.

What's worse than going to an expensive theater in London and not liking the play at all? - Drinking tons of expensive alcohol at a London pub and not getting drunk even a bit.

Introducing...

Friar Mite D’Asia the Rurr

Frair D’Asia hails from the marshes of Klean-tun, although ancient tales hint of a youth spent in myriad lands. Apprenticed in the dark arts of Comsigh at Hymlton, he quickly rose to become an apostle of the High Church of Muk. D’Asia revels in the excretion of information and always carries with him a nameless tome of apocryphal knowledge. He also has the distinction of being the only one to tame one of the Akura beasts of Nippon and together perfect the ways of Speidlimit. In his time at Hamilton, he developed a life long hatred for the barbaric Cake and swore to destroy all their kin with his powerful Majik of Youman. We wish him good luck on his quest.

[With sincere apologies to Y'Jinn the Scribe.]

How Can I Tell You?

EDIT: When I first wrote the post, a lot of my friends actually had no idea what I was talking about. And it was around 2pm (US EST), mind you. Kind of reminds me of 9/11 when I was in school and no one had a clue till fairly late.

I mean, I agree with the comments that if you don't know anybody who was affected (either directly or indirectly), you are quite removed from the situation so it's silly to get upset. But only to a certain extent. (And I do know of two people who go to VT...they were high school acquaintances, the sort of people you only talk to in class. Both are fine.) What happened yesterday is upsetting. What happens all over the world every damn day is upsetting. I know I would be lying if I said I did not feel at least a little affected by ridiculously horrible events I read about or see on the news every day. In that slight moment when you read/hear about something, one must be feeling something. I mean, are we really going to kid ourselves and say we are completely unaffected? Things do not and should not have to happen to our person or people we know in order for us to feel something, even if only to impassion our own lives or to spark inspection of the environment around us.

Three universities and a few other primary and secondary schools had to close today because of bomb threats. Stupid copycat shit. I mean, VA Tech already had cops crawling all over the campus because of two bomb threats in the previous weeks leading up to Monday, a shooting that occurred on campus in August of last year (by someone unrelated to the campus), and the shooting in the dorm that morning, and still, it happened. I can't even imagine...

Yesterday, the Chicago Sun Times kept claiming sources said the shooter was a Chinese student on a visa from Shanghai. They must feel stupid now. Bet those fact checkers will be fired. Immediately after news spread that the shooter was Asian, the racist shit I heard about was disgusting. Just because of one lone psychotic Asian guy. What about the Columbine shooting? And the clock tower shooting at the University of Texas, the guy who killed 24 people in Killeen, Texas, or Manson, Bundy, Dahmer...need I say more? They were all white. What does that say? Racial profiling makes no sense. People are pathetic.

And this whole thing about how guns don't kill people, people kill people is just stupid. People on the news were arguing that if students were allowed to carry concealed weapons, the shooter could've been stopped. So ludicrous. First of all, what were the chances that someone in that building carried a gun? Second of all, enabling more teenagers/young adults to carry guns is the worst, most careless idea ever. If anything, there should be gun control that is strict as hell. If that Asian guy didn't have access to guns, he most likely would not have killed so many people. I mean, say if he had just a knife or something. People kill people. But people without guns kill less people.


Original post:
I don't believe any of you reading this are in the States (though please correct me if I'm wrong) so you may or may not have heard.

This morning, an Asian man opened fire on the Virginia Tech campus and killed over 30 people, including himself. Information is still coming in but what is known for certain is that there was a shooting in a dorm and then two hours later, the man went to a classroom on the other side of campus and shot the majority of the victims there. There has been no official confirmation on whether the guy was a student or what. However, rumor has it the guy was a student and snapped when he found out his girlfriend cheated on him. I got that from a friend who has a friend who has a lot of friends who attend VA Tech. If that is the motivation for this, it makes things that much worse because it's such a stupid, senseless thing to kill people over. But then again, what exactly is worth killing someone over?

Wax philosophical

As you may or may not know, Hamilton is pretty much a tundra. It's a school on a hill and it snows from sometime in October (usually) to the end of April. In fact, it's snowing quite hard right now as I type. That's an understatement, actually. It's more like a blizzard. Coincidentally, the accepted student open house is today. I wonder how many will decide not to come because of this.

I, for one, however, wish it would snow harder. Another snow day is more than fine by me. I need more time to write my (insert choice expletive here) thesis. It will be a pain to dig my car out of the snow later but I think it's worth it. Besides, I need the exercise.

What kind of f*ckery is this?

So I typed this fairly long post earlier but I stepped away for a bit, came back, and found that my browser hates me and ate my post. I'm too lazy to re-type it all so I will just write about something else.

When I was commenting in the previous post and was asked where I was from, it reminded me of the most frequent responses I'd get after I said "New Jersey."

Top 5:

5. North or South? (Representin' South Jerz! South Jersey > North Jersey)

4. Isn't that NYC's landfill? Haha (You've got it backwards, buddy! Though North Jersey does stink, what with all the factories up there.)

3. Ah, the Garden State. Why's it called that? (We've got a lot of farm land and generate a lot of flora and produce.)

2. Joisey??! Hahaha Where's your accent?? (There is no accent!)

DRUMROLL - And the number one response I get is...

1. *stare for a second* No, I mean really, where are you from? (Like it's impossible that I come from NJ! But really, if you want to ask me which ethnicity I am, just "grow some balls" and ask!)

I can say with 99.99% confidence that every time I get the #1 response, it has come from a white person. Don't mean to be racist but it's true. When I was younger, I would be clueless and just kept repeating myself until he/she elaborated with, "So were you born here?" And there's also: "Oh, NJ. So how long have you lived here (or there, depending on where I am)?" Unfortunately, I don't recall the exact age when I realized these were thinly veiled indicators of ignorance. Now, depending on how I'm asked, where I am, who I'm speaking to, and my mood, I give different answers. Sometimes I tell the truth, sometimes I make shit up and give some very random answers, and sometimes I would be a complete asshole and say "Earth" or something like it. It has become quite amusing, really, seeing people's responses to my ridiculous answers.

The title of this post is quite fitting. If you may not have noticed, all of my posts have titles that come from either a movie, song, and tv show, or may be a hackneyed quote/phrase. Anyway, this one is no different. It's a line from the lyrics in a song by Amy Winehouse, a British soul/jazz/r&b singer, called "Me & Mr. Jones." She says fuckery. How can you resist?

Amy Winehouse - Me & Mr. Jones

Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good

EDIT: So Hamilton has this music festival type thing every year near the end of the school year called Mayday. I think this started in 2004. Anyway, last year, they brought The New Pornographers and some other people I can't remember. This year, they're bringing Asobi Seksu!!! I'm so excited!! (Well, actually, the headliner is Citizen Cope but I've never heard of him 'til now. Checked him out on myspace and I must admit I'm not a fan.) If you've never heard of Asobi Seksu, they're a shoegazing indie/pop rock band from NYC whose name means "playful sex" in Japanese. The lead singer, Yuki Chikudate, sings in both English and Japanese against a background of lush guitars to create this surreal, dreamy sound. It's hard to explain so you'll just have to listen to find out what I'm talking about.

Asobi Seksu - Thursday

Asobi Seksu - Lions and Tigers