Cancel That. New Plan.

New Plan, which is better integrated and more extensible:

Use Schemer (it encourages you to play with G+ more too!)
https://www.schemer.com/home

I’m keeping the URL, but the blog can go back to storage.

Dust-off

*Deep breath* *Whooooosh*

Ok, now that the blog is dusted off, a two sentence retrospective: I did a bunch of the things on my pre-graduation list (more if you make it graduation from grad school), and been to most of the restaurants. Most of the remaining posts have yet to be done, for better or for worse.

I like communal blogs, I need a public scheduling space, and we still have this [really quite excellent] blog name. Officially scheduled events are publicly visible here at this calendar, with ideas and possibly recaps (and photos?) posted here. Bonus: I like all this stuff, but I’d rather keep it off my personal blog right now (which could use a renaming).

A list of things that need scheduling:
-Car-free climbing (biking to Ohiopyle along the Great Allegheny Passage, camping, climbing, and back)
-At least 1 trip to Seneca
-At least 1 trip to the New
-At least 1 longer backpacking trip (2-3 nights, hopefully)

Other things to do:
-Obscure games any week
-Transition Movie Nights (for Alex)

Comments and authorship requests welcome.

Alex's Pre-Graduation List

1. Go to the Mattress Factory
2. Finish the 30-km hike
3. Post a scavenger hunt (photo or otherwise)
4. Stay up all night with people
5. Print something from Sutherland and Posvar computer labs
6. Go to the Heinz History Center
7. Salvia?
8. ?

Ideas on Introspection

So, a while ago one of the stranger and more morbid ideas that I suggested was a night of depression and/or reminiscing. The problem with this is that it almost implicitly assumes alcohol consumption, which is a) a bad idea if one is being depressed, and b) not part of my mental event. Another problem is that it seems very much like one of those things that is unplannable - it needs to occur spontaneously to work right.
This problem remains. However, if we look at the two games 'I want to but I can't because...' and the 'Things...' game, a possible model might emerge - as well as a solution. The solution, first, is that you treat this sort of night as a possibility whenever - it's an activity rather than an event. The model would involve writing down either specific events to read, or perhaps just categories - either way becomes a group trip down memory lane. The point, really, is to remember things, and perhaps allow ourselves to be sad that they are past or passing. The point is to avoid repressing that sadness of passing for the entire semester - going on the assumption that it is a normal emotion that we should express at least occasionally, and not due to a mistaken philosophy.
It may also be possible to play this as a creative writing event, with the first person writing down time (day, month, season, year), the second person, and the third a story involving that person in that time. The results here could vary wildly - I'm not really sure how it would turn out. It also (I think) requires a group of people who have all known each other for the same length of time.

How the Rest of the World Eats

So I realized that one of the things that I've been consistently saying in college is that I want to go to restaurant X or Y or whichever. And I realized that that should definitely be on here. To keep track of it if nothing else. There's no particular set goal for these - doing a restaurant a week or per month would be interesting but probably would crash early on due to schedule misalignment. And I know that a bunch of the following list is at least vaguely Asian or expensive or both - post other things if you don't like the ones I've got :-P

Oakland:
Crepes Parisienne (sp)

Squirrel Hill:
Pacific Ring (either dim sum or all-you-can-eat sushi)
Gullifty's (Been there, would definitely go again)
Chaya (great Japanese)

Shadyside:
Girasole
Abay Ethiopian

Southside:
Nakama (hibachi)
Claddaugh (Irish)
Melting Pot (Fondue)

That's my list. I'm sure between us we've been to most of them. Still.
And now, back to academics.

Are We Awful People?

I propose we find out.

My guess is that we're all familiar with the comedy documentary "The Aristocrats," in which comedians discuss the world's raunchiest joke. I'd like to see people's interpretations of this joke, though we are certainly not professional comedians.

For those who are not familiar with the concept, the joke goes more or less like this:

A man walks into a talent agency and says to the agent, "Have I got an act for you!"

The agent says, "Okay, let's hear it."

"Well, it's a family act," says the man. [Insert lengthy description of act, involving as much gross, offensive, inane, or sacrilegious detail as you want. Trust me, this is where the real humor of the joke lies.]

"Wow," says the agent, "that's quite an act. What do you call it?"

The man grins and says, "The Aristocrats!"

I think this could be utterly hilarious, given the right crowd of people and maybe a certain amount of liquid courage. As I said before, the punchline is less important than the manner in which the joke is told.

Anyone up for improv acting?

Post-Eulogy Party

So the Eulogy party idea happened. And to keep up the appearance of content, I figured I would post some post-party thoughts.

Such as, we had a total of 5 people. Aka people are weirded out by this idea, or don't like the idea of having to write something, or decided studying on a Saturday night was a good idea.

Such as, between these 5 people, we had 5 rather different eulogies: something more closely resembling an epitaph, a metaphorical eulogy (for a metaphorical death), a theatrical eulogy, a lighthearted but serious eulogy, and a quite serious one. The two more serious ones were written by Kyle and I, and we'd been talking about it for some time, and it was perhaps because of this that ours came out in a similar vein. Mine has also been floating around in pieces in my head for a while - if you did not come to the party and want to read it, it's on another part of the interwebs.

Such as, there was no real alcohol involved (an alcoholic mug of hot chocolate), and things went quite well, and I think would have gone fine even if there had been more people.

Such as, it might change significantly with more people - I'd be interested to do it again with lots more (say, at least 10).

Such as, the numbers we had Saturday were almost perfect. And there's not much I'd change. At all.

Fin.