A Simple Tool

Well, finals are over.  I’ve officially (assuming I pass everything) finished all the academic requirements for my Masters.  This means that, if I wanted to, I could spend all next year sitting around, getting horrifically drunk, and taking undergrad 101 courses.  As fun as that sounds, I’d like to continue with the whole “education” thing, so I’ll probably be taking real classes and figuring out what in the hell I’m going to write my dissertation on (eep!).  Other major life decision which is looming: Should I apply to a bunch of grad schools this year? or just U of C?  This is something that needs to be resolved by say….July, advice would be helpful.

In other news, I’m taking German while (re-)teaching myself Latin.  This is neither fun nor easy nor fun.  At least I’ll be super brilliant and be able to pick up chicks with my language knowledge: “Sup baby, Qui es tui Signo?  Ich bin horny.  Voulez-vous couchez avec moi ce soir? That should work.

Ultimate news: My summer league team is 5-2 and a pretty solid group of improving players, I think we’ve got potential, although not “win it all” potential…still I hope we’ll do well in the tournie.  I’ve also been playing for the mixed club team Food & Liquor.  Our first tournament is next weekend, I’m hoping for the best.  Also, I’m hoping for kick ass jerseys.  I don’t think I’ve been playing particularly well lately.  I’ve been having a hard time finding my rhythm.  Needless to say, this has been incredibly frustrating (because I’m a headcase).  I’m hoping that I become motivated to kick more ass in the future, because, seriously, fuck being shitty.

My new apartment is awesome, except for the intermittent internet service.  But hey I’m only paying like 60 dollars a month, what should I expect?

Nikolai might make a triumphant return to the blog in the next few days, with some writings from his epic trip around the world.

Seriously, I’m going to try to write more and more than just boring-ass life updates (like above)…I’m just having trouble dredging up some motivation/an interesting topic…again advice is useful.

Midnight Dreams: I was going to do a long write-up of the Midnight Dreams tournament, but I simply can’t muster the energy to do it (this seems to be a common and troubling problem as of late).  Here’s the short(er) version:

On the first night we went 2-2, winning our first game fairly easily then getting handily beaten in our next two games before winning our final game of the night on universe point.  Possibly the most positive note of the first night, on a personal level, was that I didn’t choke on universe point (see Meat vs. Illinois B @ Chicago Invite) and in fact skied a dude for the winning score.  Also, I finally busted out the scoober to score the winning point in the first game.  After the games we went back to the hotel where there were disc chugs (followed rapidly by ladies vomiting) and games of suits in abundance.

The second night saw us drop the first game to a team of douchebags, who yelled at me for swearing (because, after all, saying “fuck” is much worse than cheating at ultimate, which is what motivated my swearing in the first place.  An important note is that this same team apparently assessed points earlier in the tournament, which is pretty much the most dickbag thing you can do in ultimate, especially at a non-serious mixed tournie) .  Anyway, after that bit of non-fun we had a game vs. some Illinois State players that we cruised through, setting up a rematch from pool play against one of the teams that had utterly crushed us on Friday night.  With the help of our Saturday arrivals, however, we were able to take them down on universe point (two universe point victories in the same tournament? sweet) moving us into the semi’s of the Chump bracket.  Unfortunately, we came out extremely flat in our final game, surrendering 5 points before we could catch our breaths.  After a time-out and some hat spiking, we roared back to take a 6-5 lead, before giving up half 8-6.  In the second half, we hung in there but couldn’t get over the hump and finally lost in the cap at 13-9.  All in all a really fun tournament, surprisingly competative and a pretty good end to my last year of collegiate ultimate.

Graduation: I completely forgot to post about my trip to Bowdoin for graduation.  I have to say, it was pretty fantastic.  While not as crazy as my trip up in December, it was just as enjoyable and I got to do a lot more than sit in Red Brick and play beer die.  At the same time, the trip left me a bit depressed both about my current living situation, alone in the city (versus with a bunch of insane roommates in a small town) and about the fact that it’s very likely that I won’t see some of my friends again.  Basically, I’m about one major academic setback from leaving it all and living in a houseboat off the coast of Maine (I’m on a real houseboat kick recently.  I blame Suttree and Into the Wild).  Despite my emo-ness above, it was really awesome and I look forward to being back in Maine this summer with great anticipation.

Other: As the year is winding down and I move into finals mode there’s very little else to report, maybe I’ll post again with a follow-up to my last post about what I’m researching/writing about as my papers take shape.  Once the summer starts, I’ll probably post a good bit more about movies/books/whatever.  Oh, I passed my French exam, which is pretty much the best thing ever.  No more French for me, forever (I hope, hope, hope)!