Quact

96.  I cannot imagine the future, at all.  I can’t even think of myself in two weeks: my mind just goes blank.  This has been going on since I turned 21 and realized I was probably going to become an adult after all.  I’d say that I would eventually write a post to talk about this, but I just can’t imagine that post ever actually being written.

It turns out that I’m not going to get my first disbursement check until September 30, which means that I will be very, very broke until then.  This means I’m not going to be able to get gold rims for my car.  I’m also not going to be able to buy the new shoes or school books I desperately need.  But I have bigger things to worry about..

I'll eventually sell these on eBay

Knowing that classes start in just a few days and I’m going to have a lot of work ahead of me, I considered reading ahead in all of my classes, just so that I could show up and not make a fool of myself.  Instead, I decided to make shoes entirely out of duct tape.  Here they are.  They’re ridiculously comfortable, because they’re designed after my own feet (with four pairs of socks).  So far I’ve had to modify them a few times to make them easier to put on and stronger in the soles.

Yes: I am that awesome.

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What’s this? Why is it all going over me? Could it be that I am in over my head?

95.  My favorite books of all time:  Ender’s Game, The Count of Monte Cristo, the Little Prince.  I like them for different reasons: I can identify with a 12-year-old that was manipulated into xenocide (Ender’s Game), I really admire people that can get things done and who do what they say they’ll do (The Count of Monte Cristo), and I like lilliputian monarchs (Prince Charles).

Dear World,

Today was the Duke graduate student orientation, which, as Ashley commented,

It was weird. I felt very smart and very stupid all at the same time.

So, I survived the trip to North Carolina and made it out of my first day at Duke alive.  Which is good.  As my Tweet said earlier, that was definitely among my top two preferred outcomes.

I’m going back to set up my Internet now, so maybe I’ll be able to update more frequently.  I’ll keep you updated.

p.s.  I’m thinking I’ll change the layout of my site in the next few months.  You can cast your votes for colors/styles now.

Last Year: "En la vida todo te regresa", "In life, everything comes back to you"
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My mom says I shouldn’t pack the fine China with the bowling balls, I say she’s being too pessimistic

93.  Apparently, when things get serious in an interpersonal/emotional way, I respond by telling jokes.  I’m not emotionally unavailable— honest!— I just think that many times these trains of thought make people sad, so I have to constantly pull over so that the engine doesn’t overheat.  Also, I explain things in metaphor.

OMG!  I’m moving tomorrow and I don’t know what to take with me.  The problem is that I don’t really have much space.  So how do I fit all of the important things in life in just 65 cubic feet?

The strategy I’m going for is to take all unique and potentially necessary items (such as clothes or philosophy books), take a few big, expensive items (such as electronics), and take many small, expensive items (such as bed sheets and covers).

When I arrive, I can buy toothpaste and ramen noodles, for instance, but I can’t easily buy pots and pans.

Here is what I’m taking so far:

• All the clothes I have that fits and I’d be willing to wear (so, like six outfits)
• A few dozen books that make me look and feel like a real philosopher (plus, the complete Far Side collection and some Ultimate Spiderman comics)
• Bed sheets
• Mickey Mouse covers
• Sleeping bag
• Tent
• One of those Wal-Mart style fold-up chairs
• Fire staves and poi
• A flying pig
• My laptop
• My external hard drive
• 48 tamales
• Five Rubik’s cubes of varying degrees of difficulty
• Some sentimental stuff like letters and pictures and a novelty-size permanent marker.
• A 30-inch tall photo album
• Pictures
• high school yearbooks
• (My mom suggests I should also take some pots and pans)

I like living my life so that people think everything I say and do is just setting up a punchline.  Sadly, every item on this list is very real and not made up.

I calculate I have very little space left.  If you were me, what else would you take?

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‘C’ for Cookie

88. I am a citizen of the world, but only two countries recognize my nationality: Mexico and the U.S. So weird.

What’s this? Am I eating a cookie? How did that come about?

Well, I’m glad you ask, World. See, it started with this post. I won some cookies… and… yesterday, my cousin received an envelope that suggested: Do Not Bend.

I don’t think I look much like her. What do you think?

Hmm.. I wonder how they delivered it with the address all blacked out like that?

And now inside…

I seriously don’t know what’s wrong with me: I didn’t take any pictures of the actual cookies. WTF??

But I did take a picture of us about to sit down for some good peanut butter and sugar cookies:

In the end: Narfna rulez. Why can’t more of you send me cookies?

Last Year: Golden Corral snubbery, I want some GRold and I hate you because I care
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And that was when I stopped caring

82. None of the products in my bathroom were tested on animals.

So I’ve decided to extend my contest a bit to give people more time to enter.  PLUS: I’m going to be traveling in a third-world country soon, and everybody loves lead-based toys and candy, right?

Last Year: I'm such a jerk to myself (Part II)
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