Now the icon for Silent Cal Coolidge [my mac] looks like this

instead of this


Ha!

Now, at Leo's, there is a counter in the back of the downstairs floor for special foods. Special foods apparently include the following:

• Wraps (Those kids like to be healthy!)
  
• Burritos [Those kids like their Chipotle!)
  
• Desserts (Those kids go to Georgetown - they can have their cake and eat it too!)
  

So, I took a cupcake. I didn't actually have the cup-a-cake at the time - it was really a decoy for the small plate I stole. There was a distinct lack of small plates amongst my possessions - but now this has been rectified. Yes, I know I major in ethics.
This is the cupcake. It is pink. It has sprinkles, which may or may not be visible in this photo. It wasn't bad. I say: good (sprinkles are a point in its favour).
This is what happens when you tilt the cupcake to try to get a photo of the sprinkles and it drops frosting side down onto your keyboard. Because I don't have a digital camera, these photos are taken with creativity, fortitude, and bootstrap up-pulling. Anyway, Silent Cal was fine after some Q-tip ministrations.
This is the small plate.

and all went wonderfully. I had taken him Tuesday to Jewish Ethics, which is in the morning. I usually end up with several pages of notes from that class, including various transliterations of Hebrew which I sometimes have to alter later. So, of all four of my classes, it is the most important to not take notes on paper in that one.

A story about what is awkward: When I am the only one who really participates in class (when it is clear that people are supposed to participate and the total lack of participation by anyone is awkward), that is awkward. The end.

The other classes are debatable. Tuesday and Thursday afternoons I have two (!) classes in a row, with associated heavy books. I would prefer to use Silent Cal, but it's not really feasible unless I can find a cheap or free way to download the NRSV, as it's required. I could bring another translation, but the only other copies of useful translations I have are equally as cumbersome as my copy of the NRSV. I never really have enough to write down in CSS to justify bringing my computer, and I highlight and annotate all the readings in that class anyway. The structure of the class makes computer screen blockage (relatively) inappropriate, as well.

Right now I should be deciding what I'm going to write my two page Not-a-response-essay but not-a-synthesis-paper essay-paper-thing on, but instead I'm doing this. In my defense, I have some notes. Most of what I have to say concerns certain of our sources not being anywhere close to reputable sources and also the concept of systematic academic inquiry, but I don't want to write a scathing critique paper just for the sake of writing a scathing critique paper. The whole point of this is that it's supposed to be a warm up for later Synthesis Papers, which will not be scathing critique papers (by definition). So I might write it on pegging, and other things instead; these are things which I think people in my class should know about, but they don't or they don't want to talk about them. It's difficult to ascertain this.

Startling Dean Cook may become a hobby of mine. Yesterday, in my second week of job-having, it occurred to me that perhaps I should find out if there are any 'Rules and/or Regulations' governing job-having while on Ac-Pro. Turns out there aren't. But the conversation which reached this conclusion also involved Observatory Restoration, secrecy, the spare lens, recreational lock picking (Houdini, or Cat Burglary?), & the felony status of possession of lock picks within the District. He seemed to think that I was asking about this while thinking of getting a job, although I thought I had said something about already having had one for two weeks, but maybe not. I found the whole thing amusing. Also, I actually did need to know about the Ac-Pro/job thing, since the paycheck is going to be on University records.

Another story: today, someone mispronounced Sinai. The end.

And fortunately, except for a meeting in the morning, I have nothing tomorrow (day off from class and work) so I can spend lots of time freaking out over it! Also, it has been named: Silent Cal Coolidge. Because dead president nicknames are the bestest ever.

I was considering taking up recreational lock-picking, but apparently it's a felony or some such nonsense to possess lock-picks within the district. Whatev. I got a job instead. For ten-ish hours a week I get paid to listen to my ipod. And also re-shelve books, but mostly listen to my ipod. It's good, as I require some sort of external motivation to get up at the same time every day, and now I have to do that on weekdays.

Finally went to the grocery store today (yay!) and have also finally gotten in touch with some of the people that I hadn't yet gotten in touch with. Dinner in fifteen minutes with Jon, zB. Observatory things seem to be progressing alright, and are not taking over my life as I feared. I was more concerned about that after I decided I felt like getting a job.

On a side note - isn't the point of job interviews that you know you want the job, but they don't know if they want you for the job? It totally didn't work that way at all. Not that I'm really complaining, I'm just a bit confused.

I do need to get homework done, but the reason that hasn't been done isn't to do with my cushy library job or the observatory - it's because I finally decorated my room. The only thing left to do is fold some cranes and hang them from the ceiling above my bed. I think I'll tackle that next weekend. And yes some of the posters and whatnot are supposed to be crooked/upside down/sideways/not entirely attached. It looks like a habitable place for civilised people to live now (in my admittedly slightly odd opinion), and it was totally worth the several hours I spent.

The photo is Fr. Tondorf in the observatory with his pet Seismograph. Apparently the acquisition of this seismograph was so exciting the NYT wrote an article about it. Or they didn't have anything better to write about at the time. Or Fr. Tondorf's obsession enthusiasm was contagious.