22 February 2005

The MTA

"Damnit, you sonuvabitch."



So said the guy standing over me on the T today to his crossword puzzle. I glanced up at him and then went back to staring at my shoes, feeling slightly uncomfortable. I chanced another look at him and found him to be fairly average in appearance—not one of those crazies who screeches bible quotations or sticks a cup in your face and mumbles, "Spare 25?" Still, though, the guy was cursing at his crossword puzzle. Don't get me wrong, I don't object to yelling at inanimate objects. I spent fifteen minutes last night swearing at my Apple Airport because I couldn't remember the WEP key, but that was in the comfort of my home.



By now I was curious and abandoned discretion in favor of staring at him. He was working the Metro crossword with the newspaper folded extremely neatly to reveal only the puzzle. Each solved clue had been precisely ticked off with a diagonal line of uniform length and angle. One unsolved word remained in the grid, which he tapped with his pen.



"Oh you little motherfucker," he snapped as he penned in the final boxes and ticked off its clue. He then proceeded to pull another perfectly folded copy of the newspaper out of his bag, whereupon he copied the entire puzzle from the first to the second sheet.



"Broadway. Brooooadway!" sang the conductor in a surprisingly chipper voice, "This is a Braintree train." Another day, another train ride, another story.



15 February 2005

Brief Updates

  1. Vegas was money. Warner and I hung out with the professionals and took a significant quantity of George's money. We also had the unlikely pleasure of placing first and second in a 55 person tournament at the Aladdin. A longer trip report will have to wait.


  2. No new developments re: Merry Olde England. I need to hear from the colleges before I can move along any further in my deliberations.


07 February 2005

Piece of Paper

The piece of paper with the Oxford seal arrived today. Well, technically I received an email that said they had "posted out to me" an offer of a position in the Department of Statistics. A copy of that letter was attached to the email, though, which is close enough.



This has put the ball back in my court in terms of deciding between starting in Trinity (April) term or Michaelmas (October) term. So far the decision seems to be hinging around two points:



  1. Now that I know for sure that I'm doing this, I want to get started right away. It feels weird to stay at the Broad for 6 more months when I have the chance to go to Oxford now.


  2. October is the normal starting time for new students, which means I'll get to go through the matriculation process and have a better chance to get a room in a college (colleges are high-fallutin frats and generally regarded as the center of social life in the Oxbridge system).


Input is encouraged.



Weekend O' Fun


Saturday

LB and I decided to check out MTG's production of Tommy. It was, well, an MTG production. Dan and Nori were both great (she has a really pretty voice). The guy who played Uncle Ernie was really solid and fun to watch. The band was totally rocking and the lighting was pretty sweet.


But they ended up doing the same things that MTG always does. They didn't put enough emphasis on characterization. The director had no conception of theatricality to the point where they used these awful painted-wood guns and news cameras which gave the distinct feeling of middle school. Why do they spend a fortune on moving lights, build a set which was one of the nicest I've ever seen in Sala and then shoot themselves in the collective foot by having such amateur production values? I guess I'll never know.



Sunday

I hosted a few people at Claire's place to watch the Super Bowl in HD. And despite what a certain portion of some grim dudes might think, the Pats are definitely the reigning NFL dynasty.