Tuesday July 6, 2004

My (long) weekend:

-The only fireworks I saw were the ones that seemed to be igniting just outside my backyard all weekend long (with Kang’s frequent joking-though-slightly-nervous comment, “I *hope* that was a firework…”)

-Green Library at Stanford now loans out a vast collection of Xbox, PS2, GameCube, PC, and other classic consoles’ games.  I don’t know of any other library in the world that does this, especially under the purpose of “academic research.”  Then again, I do know someone who got a hefty Undergraduate Research Opportunity grant from Stanford to “basically play a lot of games this summer.”  Life is not fair.  I also started to console myself with this point on Saturday when Kang’s Xbox wouldn’t boot up properly anymore after my Green Library shenanigans.  Luckily, he popped open the hood and got it working again and I didn’t find myself a couple hundred bucks short and the proud owner of a busted Xbox.

-I’ve been reading this short book written by Robert A. Johnson in 1983 called “We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love”.  He starts the book with a bold claim: “Romantic love is the single greatest energy system in the Western psyche.”  I had no idea that the ideal of romance may have first started to permeate Western society as a mass phenomenon as late as the Middle Ages!  He discusses how the stories of “courtly love” celebrated and sung about by troubadours of medieval times may have been a deliberate “secular” continuation of Catharism, a sect declared heretical by the Pope for its worship of the sacred feminine.  (Hmm… sound familiar?)  He suggests that the symbols of romantic love that continue to persist today in the collective unconsciousness were coded references of a different significance for the “insiders” of the time who secretly continued the religious practices of Catharism.  Why do I feel so clueless about symbology?

-I met up with an acquaintance who I don’t think I’ve seen in over two years.  Nostalgic recollections of mutual friends, Cheesecake Factory with really perky and peppy waitresses, spiritual discussions with very different ending points from what I’m used to, walks down University Avenue in search of pearl milk tea and my car, racing against computer players who clearly cheat on the Xbox… I don’t think I’ve done so much with her in the entire past five years since I first met her.  On Orkut.com, I think this qualifies for upgrading her to “Friend” status.  =]

-I spent $300 to replace all the tires on my ’94 Honda Civic so that my potential buyers will stop talking smack about my car and its wheel alignment.  I don’t remember the last time this little car has driven down the road so straight and true.  I definitely took it down stretches of 101 without any hands, and it was totally fun, though probably totally illegal.  Now with these brand-spanking-new tires, it’s tempting to keep them for myself…

-*Somebody* made some silly impulsive bets with me as a result of her over-confidence in her own little private delusions about how the world really is, and now she owes me big.  And no, you can’t just pick your nose when nobody is looking.  That does *not* count.  When you make a bet that there’s “either a stop sign at Norton Avenue or … or else I’ll pick my nose!” it’s *implied* that you can’t just pick it in the privacy of your own home.

-I watched Startup.com (about the rise and fall of the Internet startup, GovWorks.com, which does not exist anymore) and Adaptation (a neat little twisted movie that I did not despise the way I despised Being John Malkovich for some strange reason buried within the recesses of my unconscious mind).  I think I would recommend Startup.com to people who like the Discovery Channel, and Adaptation to folks who liked Memento.