because all the other quizzes are no fun. fifty questions. and because all the other quizzes are not made by me. do i have lots of time or what? email me your responses if you want to. if not screw you and the high horse you rode in on. and why don't you trust me? just kidding, i would never screw you. or trust me. i meant you. i would never trust you.



just so you know, babbs' answer to the bonus bonus question was: one that's more than you're comfortable with. babbs said he said it in jest. but we don't believe him do we?

holla at your boy. it's astounding how much we pick up from hanging around people. words, skills, admiration, talent, knowledge. i feel like people have so much to teach me. not just mushy crappy life lessons but more concrete knowledge. like in how something works. breaking down an industry or sharing a perspective. giving me some scant insight into a field that i have no clue about. all the guys i hang out with, i learn so much from them. how to change the oil, how to till the soil, how to fix something or other. how to best set up a fish tank. how to cover up a wood floor that's been slightly damaged by fire. what's the difference between enthalpy and entropy. what's a dickfor. how to best light a match when faced with heavy wind. what's the best way to take care of such and such a task. just lots of general knowledge stuff that you don't personally know. or at least that i don't personally know.



i asked a guy friend once what the function of a guy friend was, what a friend is, what he hopes to be able to provide to his friends. and part of the answer was that he hoped that his talents, skills, knowledge could be accessed and shared with his people. that his base of powe and his personal interests would prove useful and interesting to the folk around him. and that if someone needed something within his realm of expertise, that he would be called upon.



and of course we go to all our friends for these types of things. and i don't want to exclude girls here because they are valuable too. but perhaps in different ways. some of them you go to for more emotional issues, or they have expertise in more "girly" things. i really hesitate to break it all down like that but let's not lie, girls know more about girl things, guys know more about guy things. there are exceptions of course. but don't roast me over the misogynistic campfire when i say that i feel like my boys just provide me with a disproportionate number of useful/useless yet absolutely essential knowledge.



all people are vaults but i feel that i am blessed in particular with a group of people around me (girls and guys) who just know shit. they know lots of shit. and it's nice to be engaged in learning from friends and watching them teach you. or to teach them about what you might know. it's also hilarious to bag on people and make fun of them when they suck at something. but that's loving isn't it? i feel like guys take to teaching well because most of the time you can be very straightforward with them and say "you suck, fix that, fix this, good." some girls i feel don't take the whole straightforwardness as well because they need some encouragement to get the gears going. eric talked a bit about really enjoying being a "coach" at times and it's really good for both ends i think, the coach and the students. you can never learn enough and learning from your friends is just the icing on the cake.

full lyrics to the jewish song mentioned a bit ago. courtesy of amit.



wherever you go, there's always someone jewish

you're never alone 'cause god made you a jew

and when you're not home and you're somewhere kinda newish

odds are, don't look far, there's jews just like you



disneyland, amsterdam, telaviv

although they're miles apa-a-art

when we light the candles on the sabbath day,

we share in the prayer in each one of our hearts.

007 373 5963. mike tyson will rock your world in one punch, this is true. you have to avoid his flurry of uppercuts and don't bother counterpunching until the third round. if he catches you with an uppercut, you're done. king hippo is tricky if you don't hit him in the mouth first. ninja gaiden seems like a hard game. flutes are key for transporting to different levels, as learned in zelda and mario (watch this). there are more secret things in super mario three than i ever knew about, and apparently hong knows them all.



gradius might be the hardest game ever, even with the super konami code. i used to beat contra in three lives, and that is now my goal for the week. my life aspirations are high. me and george once beat the original super mario brothers using only one life. nobody believes us. i could never do it now so i guess it's our word against yours. there is nothing more manly than screaming in desperation and surprise at bubbles and bobbles.



hong got a nintendo and a famicon last week and since i've been back it's been nintendo madness. so many "oh i remember this games!" we are working to beat metroid and ikari warriors. plus achieve other assorted lofty goals. beating tyson is impossible, i just want to see the end of super punch out dammit.

till death do us part. so went to katy's wedding this weekend. in new york. or more accurately new jersey. this marks the second to last wedding in my record year of weddings. had alot of feelings and nostalgia tied into this wedding, but none to share, so just some thoughts. i think i want my wedding to be totally non-traditional. as in no suits and ties, no ceremony in a church, no priest or any other religious figure. i kind of like the idea of having a friend preside over the vows. i wouldn't want a huge banquet, maybe something more of a pool party. i want my best men lineup to include women, so that it'll be just the best of. i don't want to be the center of attention but more just part of the attention. i'm not sure i'm down with much of the traditional weddings things. i feel like this might be a slight issue because -- making a broad generalization here -- most women want a semi-traditional wedding. with long pretty dresses, nice silverware and properly attired guests. it may be hard to convince a girl to spend the most special day of her life in a swimming suit and flip flops. it may be hard to convince a girl to allow for female and male best ofs. it may be hard to convince a girl to spend the most special day of her life with me period, much less with all this other crap. i feel like although i am against the institution of marriage, i must devote some thoughts to the actual ceremony part of it. because that's what people my age talk about sometimes, and i might as well have some ideas packed away just in case. after all a boy scout is always prepared.



the rest of the new york was very chill. unlike most new york trips. i had alot of time to just sit around and bum. didn't go out, didn't move much, only used the subway once. didn't get to see some people i wanted to see, but that happens on a short trip. did get to have lots of conversation with people, which was nice. sometimes when you roll in big groups all the time, real conversation is at a minimum. i really like new york nights during the summer. when everywhere is still warm, everything is still open and everybody is finally off the streets. that's the best time for new york right there. wandering streets and walks with coffee, cigarettes and conversation. or just plain sitting. the days in new york summers are freaking hot though. humidity is not a game. thinking about non-traditional wedding ideas kinda is though.

metrosexual. "the suddenly ubiquitous term for the stylish, urban, hetero male who has no fear of salons, it's been applied to george clooney and soccer star david beckham." as quoted in time magazine and as first introduced to me this weekend by brian. apparently this is the newest catch phrase for those in the know, to define the type of man who is in touch with grooming and style but yet still retaining a masculine edge. an article here explains it much better.



"men of all sexualities are taking a greater interest in their appearance. they go to hairdressers rather than barbers; avoid using soap because it's too harsh on their skin; visit the gym instead of playing sport and even have difficulty deciding what to wear. they're occupying their time differently - not only spending more of it in front of the mirror, but also at boutiques, in bars rather than pubs, enjoying a dance at a nightclub and going to beauty salons."



this pretty much puts to rest for me the question of why structure became express for men. i'm not sure if i love or hate this term. i suppose it's a good term and creates an instant image but i bet it'll become used so widely and by so many people that it's about to get real annoying. and didn't we already have a term for this? pretty boy right?

fear of flying. i used to grip the seats of the airplane when taking off and landing. i used to freak out when turbulence hit. my stomach would wrench and beads of sweat would bead my brow. what a terrible way to die, falling to earth, plummeting towards the ground with two hundred of your closest strangers tucked two inches away from you. the only way i could combat this fear was to crank up my music and hope for the best. i also tried to not breathe, in case that made a difference. i think that if an airplane crash were to happen to me, i would screw the dubious regulations, turn on my cell phone and call someone to tell them that i was falling. and that i couldn't get up. and then they would be confused, i would laugh, and then the phone would cut off. or i would just scream and scream, hoping that my message got across. maybe i should set up a one touch dial person specifically for this purpose. but what number to assign to "the person in case of emergency?"



anyways, i'm happy to report that my fears have been replaced by nonchalance. and by this fact that i used to post in our bathroom at west quad: more people die annually from riding donkeys than from riding airplanes. very reassuring fact isn't it? but then it was pointed out to me that it was probably a statistic based on percentages. and we know how statistics can lie. and how percentages can lie. like for example if one percent of donkey passengers die but only zero point five percent of airplane passengers die then it's "safer" to ride a donkey. but donkeys don't go very fast. so you have to ride an airplane. one could avoid death from donkeys and airplanes but then how are you gonna get anywhere right? and all the publicity about airplanes crashing don't help my mental state either. when was the last time you heard about a tragic donkey accident, details at ten? doesn't happen. donkeys and their passengers die alone and unpublicized. airplanes and their passengers get magazine covers and tv time.



then i tried to reason things out for myself by thinking about how every time i take to the streets in my car, the chances of me getting into a debilitating accident were far greater than any chance of a fiery airplane death. but that didn't help. it just make we wary of other drivers and how vulnerable i was the craziness and bad driving. but i have conquered my fear of flying with a very simple method. i let it all go. the statistics, the random chaos, the safety measures, the music used to drown out turbulence, whatever. i let it all go. when the plane lurches and dives, i try to keep reading. when rain, thunder and lighting threaten i go "ah, lightning only strikes once." sometimes i try to listen to my sixth sense in an attempt to get that "i should not be on that flight feeling" but it hasn't happened yet. i've also decided that flying is worth more to me than not flying. not flying would mean no traveling, no seeing far away friends, no nothing. so in exchange for a bit of mental discomfort, i'm willing to fly.



plus, airplanes amaze me. i try to think about how amazing it is that we are flying in a huge metal object loaded up with pre-heated meals and soft drinks, instead of thinking about how insane it all might seem to ducks and other winged animals. with a combination of rationale and totally just giving up on caring about an icarean death, i've been able to do away with the clutching and the sweating. and now i can breathe again. with the amount of time i spend in airplanes i've decided that the best thing for me to do is just to stay up as late as i can the night before to enable instant pass out upon boarding the plane.



anyway. my point is. mind over matter. it does work. fear is only cowardice. conquer your fears and you conquer cowards.