synesthesia

Geek Love

What is it like writing about a school you've never been to?

It's 2 AM, and I'm knee-deep in browser tads and paper trying to pull together some grand thesis about the file-sharing culture at Cornell. Somewhere in my research, I found a stats page for the hub chat and saw this:

	nick	non- consecutive lines	delta lines	% of total	lines	letters/ lines	random message
1	Ashen	7331	6	10.14	19493	25	"did you look at the ted talks?"

Ted talks! Squee! So college students nerdy enough to watch TED talks are also nerdy enough to bw the most prolific all time user on a hub chat. Do I consider myself in good company?

the last three things in my brain

1. Judgmental people are the worst hypocrites.

2. Explain to me this phenomenon: Asian guys and break dancing.

3. Green, Gauss & Stokes. Conrad. Resnais. Please just go away so I can enjoy my winter break.

self-conscious thoughts

The one thing I'm most scared of is being boring.
And forgettable.
And replaceable.
That I'll leave the room and you won't notice.

This shit is bananas.

A couple weeks ago, I went to MIT and hung out in Patrick's dorm. Saw the stabbing scene that was literally 10 feet away from his room.

Chatted with a couple of his dormmates as they walked in and out. There was one tall guy from Singapore, who bore a vague resemblance to Jet Li. He showed us his extensive -- by college student standards anyway -- collection of cookware, including magnetic bunny-shaped salt and pepper shakers and a banana stand. "My mom bought it," he explained about the banana stand, "Mom, why would I ever need a banana stand? I haven't eaten a single banana since I got here!"

Later, Patrick told me the guy was the son of Singapore's prime minister. His mother, according Wikipedia, is the most powerful woman in Singapore. And she's buying banana stands.