04/16, 3:31 am: Rule number one: Never say no to a hostage-taker. I ask that sour cherry cola bottle if he wants to get eaten….oh, what’s this? It says no? Chomp.

Okay, it is kinda late.

04/17, 10:50 pm: So I was just reminded a second ago that since this is getting seen (emphasis there…this thing doesnt show italics unless I go thru some trouble), I have an obligation to continually update the public about my exciting life with meticulous and interesting descriptions. So I am sitting here with…yes…another Cherry 7-UP though I don’t really like them too much. Why did I buy them? I dunno. What a waste of four dollars. So I went and saw Anger Management today, which ended up being pretty good considering the ridiculous premise. For the first 1 hour, I thought it was the most fucked-up movie. Actually, make that second-most…nothing can beat Pi. That was a waste of life, taking the time to watch that piece of crap. But the sappy sweet ending revitalized the whole thing and made the experience so much less degrading. And cameos! Yesterday, I had went to see Bulletproof Monk, and let me say that while it was enjoyable, the fighting was ridiculously bad. Probably because no one on the set could actually fight accept for Chow Yun-Fat… The director continually changed angles and shots so the fighting looked faked…you know how they speed lightning fast through shots to make it look more amazing – well, too fast and they become no longer amazing. So Sam – yes, that’s her name – went off home today. Too bad I was really really late for work when she told me about it! Off to celebrate Easter at home…come to think, everybody’s celebrating Passover and Easter right around now. Manischewitz is probably making a bundle, and those bitter herb sellers… And matzoh! Not any harder to eat than dried up Commons casseroles, but I’m sure that it makes the whole religious holiday thing that much more solemn – just trying to get over the matzoh. Pardon the unPC moment. So back to me sitting here. Kinda boring, right? You guessed it. Damn. DU had a party planned but it got canned, and the International Party is just too far to go to. So tonite might end up being very very quiet. Maybe the house… I’m guessing either the keg didnt materialize or the alky was too expensive, or they guessed nobody would come, or none of them were there! Bobys ain’t there (GC…we’re everywhere!) cuz he’s having his seder with his Canadian peeps. I wish I was back in Vancouver – sunny weather there is just so much more enjoyable. Stanley Park, my bike, Wayne and Simon…Derek and his infamous mom (yikes, how’d I end up living at HER house for a month???). Or the Shadbolt, where we were like every weekend. That park was great. I never did ride on that carousel, did I? So Wayne is up at Eastman. Lucky bastard. He came down that one weekend for an audition with Curtis and we partied around for a while. Though then I was forced to wear the infamous yellow pants for an hour (after which I ditched the pants before I went downtown) – all he said the entire time was “frikkin yellow pants..that’s so gay”. That, again, was entirely unPC. I was like, thanks for pointing out the obvious! Flamboyant, yes…I think the no fashion sense thing would have definitely insulted the homosexual population. (Now, is that the most PC word? My gay friends won’t even really tell me! I always get confused by the whole PC business. Hint: Byron is easily confused.)

04/17, 11:12 pm: Just remembering some old stuff: the England tour. That was awesome…(soundtrack: Jimmy Eat World, Sweetness) So I am a member (or was, I guess I am out of it now, not having performed with them on the second England tour) of the Young Artists Piano Ensemble of Vancouver, BC, led by the venerable Donna Fishwick. She was kinda money hungry and looked abnormally pale, but let me tell you, she was a real businesswoman. She got all these topnotch students, made them pay out the ass for lessons and gave us such a return…we performed everywhere, thanks to the skills we got and her contacts within the performance community. We performed everywhere in Vancouver, and also at Disneyland, Steinway Hall in New York and at Yale. And, at Europe. But hold on those thoughts first. So we get into London (I forget if it was Heathrow or the other airport) and we ride in this little minibus thing to the boys school we were staying at, Caldicott Boys School. We were staying in this funny little room and the bathroom ahd these old old tubs with no curtains between. Take a bath in the nude? I guess you get less self-conscious doing it every single day, if a student. Good thing I brought a pair of swimming trunks along. Mrs. Fishwick had this old student, Sasha Starcevich, who is an international concert pianist based in New Canaan, CT. Now he had a very rich backer – who was some filthily rich old lady living in a ludicrously expensive hotel/palace that was on one of the old royal estates. Cliveden! The first time we went there, we went for an early morning private breakfast, and let me tell you, that was the most formal breakfast I have ever been to. The house and environs were so perfectly kept, the food was perfect, and the servers moved like they weren’t even there. Later, I found out the breakfast cost something like seventy bucks a head. We were given a boat by this old mysterious lady and so we floated down the Thames, which Cliveden lay on. It was so beautiful…and the beaten gold on the clock tower… and then we got escorted home in one of her vintage Bentleys. Being from a middle middle MIDDLE class family, all of a sudden I felt like royalty. Much like the homeless bum who wakes to find he actually owns the bed he is sleeping on. And allt he antics we got up to at the school! Half of them were never found out (at least while we were there). I remember the easiest one that got us all sorts of leverage with the kids at the school. There was a computer lock on the games in the computer lab. EVERY kid wanted that thing off and would have killed to find out how, so they could play (the lab was open all the time for kids to be in when they didnt have a class at that time..this was a primary to lower middle school, differently set up than over here). So the easiest way was to go through the Internet explorer shell and access the c:\ drive that way, and then the games. We let a couple kids “find” out how, and then we got a little lecture from one of the head teachers who walked in. We just said..um, I don’t know what happened! We also went to one of the Sunday masses and their boys choir was SO good. The discipline was so much in effect that all these skills were being utilized and practiced every week. There is no way the same thing could have existed at a school here. We spent a couple days in London, using the Underground to get lost all over London. We went to Harrods and Wayne bought the freakiest muscle shirt for a couple hundred pounds. He later returned it, but we ripped him up for getting such a … nonPC shirt. This was at the beginning of the summer between sophomore and junior years of high school, and I had such a blast. We went into an English pub and got served beers until somebody we were talking to suddenly let the pub owner know we were here. That wasn’t quite so good. So, um, we left. Okay, this is quite long enough – and I have to find something to do!!!!

So it’s very late and the Negotiator is ample entertainment for the night. I am going in early to hand in a paper and I have a lab tomorrow AND a performance at the UNICEF banquet with PMAH. It’s only 10 minutes – but we’re playing mighty good stuff: Coldplay – The Scientist; Mariah Carey – Hero; and Pearl Jam – Black. Samir is doing a solo (he’s graduating, whatever), and then I’m accompanying Somto and Samir and Shazia for Black. But I have so much other work I should do that I am not doing – my Music research paper (my head hurts thinking about it), a Bioethics paper on the right to die, a PoliSci paper…. Achtung, baby. So contemplating the broken finger excuse for rehearsal tomorrow – no, that won’t work – so how about the Penn Indonesian Society? They will never know – huh, easy enough to realize it doesn’t exist. So Anger Management some time – arg. SO I went to this Take Back the Night thing? I felt a little out of place, but it was still kind of enlightening. Meaning, of course, that I am some sort of inconsiderate masochist for not realizing that this kind of stuff goes on – especially in Asian families. To get the record straight, I am quite aware. For that person who insinuated…hahaha.

OK, so there is no big secret. Racking my brains still, but nothing calls out to me that is in dire need of… well, certainly embarrassing things have happened. I remember being at Yale two weekends ago and… oh never mind, not that story. I have to pick a less embarrassing one. Ha, I like it how everyone thinks I am so neat and tidy because my room is always neat – yet, I can turn it into a dump within 5 minutes… I have a habit of doing that. So Jesse comes to me the other day and he’s like, you’re not going in my room. So why not now? Unlike all the other times I’ve been in there? He says it’s too messy, worse than Southworth. Now that is frankly not possible… Oh, and I get another piece of advice – stop leaving old things in my profile. Well, it’s just the week AFTER the show ended…I hardly check my own profile even once a month. Just looking around my room…at the 14 lbs of candy stacked, and all that apple cider and milk in my fridge, and leftovers, and stale cherry 7ups, and those packs of chicken noodle soup and loaves of bread and pretzels and… god, how do I end up with so much food??? Sitting in my room just drives me nuts.

04/15, 11:28 am: It’s a new day in the City that Never Sleeps – oh wait, that would just be me, wouldn’t it? so it’s sunny outside and I am still inside… In one second, I will be out of this hot, godforsaken place and out onto the Green thinking, “why am I going to another hot, godforsaken place to work away the whole sunny afternoon?” Or maybe I should just skip it all and go see Bend it Like Beckham and eat at that place again…mmm. I remember Spun last week – that was out of control. Yikes, so I should be at work right now, but as usual, I like to waste time. I like to blather on, as usual, and who gives a damn? When I don’t have to, I talk too much, and when I do… well, I can be sexily quiet. Ha. Have a day off the heezy fosheezy, kids.

04/15, 11:34 am: Oh, and so the Wild Party this past weekend? Talk about drama! The show had it, and so did the afterparty…. More word on Saturday night antics some other time.

04/15, 12:58 pm: This is kinda addictive. So being at work and all – right now, it’s just data entry and data checking, analysis will come again later… So I’m doing these hospice care studies which constantly alternate between being really interesting and just common sense… whatever. I was just IMing with a friend and saying how much fun I had at Fling. You can’t live twice, they say. So I kinda met this girl this weekend (cool…weezer, island in the sun’s on) and we’ve been hanging out. And then the show, and then all the stuff afterwards, even if the cops did shut down everything. Which was kinda cool, cuz I did kinda slip under their radar. I left all the big parties before they got there – and all the small ones I was at never got caught And then the weekend where I was with M. and lost him and apparently within that half hour, the cops came by… Soon, maybe, I’ll let someone read this. This is better than having a real diary. Something about the public exhibitionism thing just appeals to my sense of -ego? I dunno, I like performance, this is just another way of… you have to admit, this is better than taking a shine to the Econ Streak.

04/15, 1:29 pm: So yes, I am a brother of the Penn chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha. I got thru the hazing-free initiation for a real fraternity this semester (if you think that was a sarcastic joke…no, it’s not) while I did get in partial trouble with OFSA and nationals for Phi Sigma Pi when I rushed that last year. Apparently our fun group activities were hazing, even though we voluntarily enjoyed it. We were basically blacklisted and tarballed the DAY before initiation as brothers. I still hang out with some of my old PSP brothers – pledgemaster Tom, Melinda, Amy (hot or cold? can never figure out), Itty, Elise, and all those various people I WOULD hang out with but never EVER see. So first semester this year, I had started pledging Sigma Nu but stopped, mainly because I didn’t have the time, but also – I didn’t like all of the brothers, or most of the pledges early this semester. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that, so I guess this is a partial redemption. I still talk to Brian, and apparently Vegas still says hi…but from sources, I’ve got some non-supporters now over there because of my traitorous activities (wow, that’s a new one), namely because I was pledging directly next door! So back to Lambda Chi – this is a great fraternity. Labeled as the fraternity for people who don’t really see themselves in the typical fraternity, I feel so at ease with these guys. Our 80s party – the one where GC and all our Smith guests came out – was totally off the hizzy. It was incredibly hot and we didn’t get in trouble for it…. just amazing. The GC party was at the frathouse, and we did get in trouble for that one. Of course Brownie wasn’t too happy. My pledge brothers are kinda cool. Tyler always brings by all these people, and so does Greg. Both of them are great guys…. just kinda out there. All of us are kinda out there come to think of it. Hehe, there’s unlucky Jesse, and Riff – who got covered in mud and helped get me and Lisa a little muddier at Fling. Riff who also has that little story – but that’s Riff’s story. He can tell that one. There’s funny Jose, ripped Duncan (who double teamed two of my friends with..who was it again? long story short, it didnt work out very well). Beirut in the basement – wait, that doesn’t happen does it, just like Fling is a non-alcohol event. I got more to say, just I gotta live my life to come back and tell this audience of one about it.

04/15, 5:34 pm: Was at Dom’s on Friday night. It was crazy – the room was full of such an assortment of people. Dom was stripteasing on his counter – I quickly left the first time, but when I came back 2 hours later, he started it up again (purely coincidental). Anyway, all the stuff ran out and these punks started doing crazy shit – dumping over tables and spilling stuff all over people’s gear. And then the room full of people transplanted from Woody’s. Kinda funny, me being in the other room with all the PSP people and a couple of my GC friends (who went home unamused). Thursday night was great though. The show went awesome, the parties were great… The cast party for the Wild Party was so fun (much funner than Saturday night…woah, what a bad way to spend a Saturday at 4 AM). The fair on Saturday – woah, was close to passing out at times…hehe, but no one really needs to know that. I have tolerance, yep. The J did me good afterwards.

04/15, 6:21 pm: So MOLLY says this is a stream of consciousness thing and MOLLY says that this thing should be put on the web unedited. So what is so important that it must go on unchanged? Maybe it’s time for a shocking secret…

04/15, 6:23 pm: OK, so there is no big secret. Racking my brains still, but nothing calls out to me that is in dire need of… well, certainly embarrassing things have happened. I remember being at Yale two weekends ago and… oh never mind, not that story. I have to pick a less embarrassing one. Ha, I like it how everyone thinks I am so neat and tidy because my room is always neat – yet, I can turn it into a dump within 5 minutes… I have a habit of doing that. So Jesse comes to me the other day and he’s like, you’re not going in my room. So why not now? Unlike all the other times I’ve been in there? He syas it’s too messy, worse than Southworth. Now that is frankly not possible… Oh, and I get another piece of advice – stop leaving old things in my profile. Well, it’s just the week AFTER the show ended…I hardly check my own profile even once a month. Just looking around my room…at the 14 lbs of candy stacked, and all that apple cider and milk in my fridge, and leftovers, and stale cherry 7ups, and those packs of chicken noodle soup and loaves of bread and pretzels and… god, how do I end up with so much food??? Sitting in my room just drives me nuts.

So here I am – getting ready for a PAC meeting (being in PMAH and all, we get to do exciting things like listen in on boring meetings and get derecognized if we don’t) and playing some worthless games to pass the time. I should be outside, but what am I gonna do in 30 minutes? Spread myself out for a nap on the Green or chill with a couple friends and five seconds later… So before, I was going over fraternity stuff. Let me just say that pledging LXA was loads of fun – admittedly too easy, but they don’t have to know…unless they bother reading this. There’s all kinds of stuff going on all the time (stogie night..mmm…too bad it was COLD last time). It doesn’t suck up too much time, that is, all the stuff during the week. For some reason, I have found it very hard to find time to go to chapter meetings on Sunday. Everything likes to happen right around 6 PM Sunday night… sheesh. So then there’s other stuff too – but those are for when it’s ok to “remember” incriminating – ahem – thoughts. I was at work today…I work for Dr. David Casarett, who works at the VA and has a research “lab” at the Institute of Aging in Ralston House. Previously, I had worked for Dr. Virginia Lee and indirectly Dr. John Q. Trojanowski of the Center of Neurodegenerative Diseases. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the work atmosphere too helpful – so I moved. Last year, I worked for Professor Ted Abel, who is still puttering around in Leidy Labs. He’s a funny guy. He does work on memory using mainly mice models. Okay, so this isn’t a resume…but who cares? This is actually fun. Someday, I hope to happen upon this page again and be like – whoa, that was what I was like in college? What a – never mind.

This is kinda addictive. So being at work and all – right now, it’s just data entry and data checking, analysis will come again later… So I’m doing these hospice care studies which constantly alternate between being really interesting and just common sense… whatever. I was just IMing with a friend and saying how much fun I had at Fling. You can’t live twice, they say. So I kinda met this girl this weekend (cool…weezer, island in the sun’s on) and we’ve been hanging out. And then the show, and then all the stuff afterwards, even if the cops did shut down everything. Which was kinda cool, cuz I did kinda slip under their radar. I left all the big parties before they got there – and all the small ones I was at never got caught And then the weekend where I was with M. and lost him and apparently within that half hour, the cops came by… Soon, maybe, I’ll let someone read this. This is better than having a real diary. Something about the public exhibitionism thing just appeals to my sense of ego? I dunno, I like performance, this is just another way of…

I think I’m gonna go downtown again. Last time, I went to Johnny Rockets and had a great burger and Oreo sundae with Sam. Well, that had me kinda tired (5 hours worth??), and that was kinda why I also turned in a bit early Friday. Uh oh, now Anthony is asking to go running and I so don’t feel like it. I am hungry… hungry hungry hippos (now there’s a game I haven’t seen for a while). OK – I really think I have to go now…but one last entry here.

Miranda: that’s very true, though you may underestimate me there
BMKjack: hmm…well, still, it would sound ten thousand times better coming from you
Miranda: would you like me to call you assholes?
BMKjack: i can think of better things
Miranda: oh?
Miranda: how about “vocally supreme sex gods”?
BMKjack: yeehaaa. i think you got it!
Miranda: by now, I should be an expert