pure science with a splash of black cat

Speaking of procrastinating, here's more.

You know you’re a stereotypical broke-ass college kid when you go scrounging for coins at four in the morning so that you can buy a soda on your way to campus, because no matter how broke you are and no matter how much you owe the government for your student loans, you will have that goddamn Coca-Cola.

I have nothing but nickels and dimes, however. First thought: “My kingdom for a quarter.” Second thought: I watch too much M*A*S*H. Third thought: what is wrong with me? Fourth thought: hey, you’re supposed to be writing a paper. Fifth thought: shut up, fourth thought.

Frank: I’m confining you to quarters!
Hawkeye: I’m confining you to quarters, too. Give me all your nickels and dimes!

OH SHIT

IT’S MONDAY

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Parking sucks

I complain all the time about the parking situation at my university, which, like at many other large institutions of higher education, is a disaster. I don’t really give a shit what any of the residents think about parking — I mean, they think it sucks, too, but they mostly bitch that their parking lots are so far away from the academic buildings. They’d bitch if their parking lots were at the top of campus, too, because what is at the bottom of campus? The dorms. Ugh. Anyway, if you’re a commuter, parking at this place is really stupid, and they keep charging us more for passes without fixing any of the problems, like the fact that the big commuter lot at the top of campus is loaded with potholes that have never come close to being repaired, not since I started going here in 2005.

The school pulled another great stunt this year. We used to have commuter parking along one of the main roads on campus. It was legal parking — the road was marked as commuter parking on the campus map, in fact, and there were signs denoting that it was commuter parking. I say “used to” because when I drove up the hill today, I saw that all of the parking signs were replaced with no-parking signs, there were sawhorses with police tape blocking the side of the road, and, oh yeah, the words “NO PARKING” were painted every fifty feet or so on the pavement.

Well, that’s about 200 parking spaces we don’t have anymore. That will solve everything!

There is enough parking for everyone, per se, but it is not convenient. I give the university credit for running shuttles on campus to get people up and down the hill in a manner faster than walking. They’re not always timely, though. They mostly run between classes, when the campus is swarming with drivers and pedestrians, the former of whom are incapable of operating a turn signal or obeying the speed limit, and the latter of whom do not have the minimum number of brain cells required to recognize and utilize a crosswalk.

Effort is good, but the student body has the net IQ of a mushroom, so it doesn’t work too well.

I’m ranting. Blahblahblahblahblah. I have homework to do now.

I have been back at school for five and a half hours.

And I have seen two guys wearing Pittsburgh Pirates caps.

Go go gadget seventeen-straight-losing-seasons!

(Note: I go to school in Rhode Island. I am not sure what is fashionable about the Pirates. I did see a guy wearing a Red Sox cap in Pirates colors, which was terrifying.)