Journal 4/7/00

(Retrospection)

Had lunch at Johnny’s. Julie Lambert’s was applying some sort of lotion to her hands. I asked what it was, and Julie thought I was planning some sort of prank, or was going to try and steal it. I wasn’t, but it was the kind of thing I would do, so I played it up a bit to increase her paranoia. Julie even had her roommate Kara guard her lotion when she went to use the restroom.

Paul Steen stopped by to say he agreed with the Kyoto Treaty article I had written for Chimes.

Graham Reeves asked if I would be willing to speak at the IMF teach in that the Calvin Social Justice Committee is planning. Since it is now looking like a sure thing that I will be going to the big IMF protest in Washington DC, Graham wanted me to share my experience at the teach-in the week after.

Gort came onto the scene and told me that the house we had been looking at renting for next year fell through. Turns out we had asked about it way too late, and somebody else had already taken in. However they were able to rent another town house that was almost as good.

After class I went to the bank to get money for our housing application. I gave my money to Gort, and he turned the applications in.

After that I just hung around our apartment a lot. Bosch and I walked over to Bear’s apartment to visit, but no one was there. Since the door was unlocked, we walked in and fooled around on Bear’s computer a little bit. We tried to get Bear’s internet IP address banned from the Calvin Counterstrike game, which was hosted on Sheeplet’s server. Keene had gotten banned from earlier in the month for making obscene comments about a girl who was a friend of Sheeplet, so we signed in under Keene’s old name, “Rumpleforeskin” to try and get Sheeplet to ban Bear’s computer. We didn’t have any luck.

Josh Vanhaitsema showed up, and I accompanied him outside when he had a smoke. He almost got caught smoking by his brother (Jeremy?). It was a close call, but Josh said afterwards he thinks his brother knows he smokes anyway.

I helped Brett pick up Hannah’s car. We rode in Brett’s car to Hannah’s place, then I drove Hannah’s car back and Brett followed me. Brett gave me a rough time for driving too slow. Once we got to Calvin there were only two open spots close to the apartments. I parked my car in sideways so that it took up both spots just to be annoying.

Because of the protracted winter, there was a lot of snow on the ground. I made several snowballs in the courtyard right in front of Bork and Buma’s apartment, and acted like I was planning on something. Not surprisingly they responded by locking their door. But when Bork went into the laundry room to get his laundry I attacked him with snowballs there. I’m a bit ashamed to say we made a bit of a mess of the laundry room in the process. Dan Westerhoff came into the fight on my side. Eventually the snowball fight moved outside, and Rob Patton joined up on my side as well.

After we all tired out, we hung out for a while. Dan Westerhof mentioned he was considering writing a reply to Giessel’s article on the Kyoto treaty. Bork and Buma said they were going to see “6th sense”. It was showing on campus. I was pretty tempted, but I remembered my rule against watching movies during the school year, and declined. This ended up being pretty silly, because later on in the evening my resolve would weaken, and Rob and I would go to rent the movie anyway.

Rob and I went to Block buster. They were out of 6th Sense so we rented “Office Space”. We then went to best buy. Rob was buying some stuff, and I just killed time by looking at stuff.

We went back to the apartment and watched the video with the boys. After the video, Bosch but his cracker crumbs on Butterball’s shoulder. Butterball brushed them off onto the ground, and then ground them into our carpet with his foot. In response our whole apartment picked Butterball up and dropped him off in the snow outside.

We decided to go out to celebrate Bosch’s 21st. Bosch called up Bear, and (according to Bosch) Bear apparently responded, “I’ve got no money, I’ve got other plans, fuck you” and hung up. I guess this was Bear’s revenge, because on Wednesday Bosch and Bear had plans to hang out, and Bosch called at the last minute to cancel because he was hanging out with his girlfriend Margaret instead. We all talked about pulling some sort of prank to get Bear back for dissing us, but we never did.

We went to Fridays. Everyone was buying Bosch drinks for his 21st, but I refused to on principle because I didn’t think Alcohol was a good thing. I got a rough time from all the other boys for this (especially from Butterball, who had been riding me all day), but I’m used to it at this point.

Jon Anderson apparently told Bosch to lay off of me, because he thought I was getting really upset. I didn’t hear this, but Bosch (who thought it was pretty funny) told me later. Bless Jon’s heart for his good intentions, but at this point I’m more than able to handle the usual ribbing from the boys. Jon also chastised Butterball while trying to stick up for me my defense. I left before the rest of the group, although I’m told that after I left, Cakes made a joke about Bosnian refugees and Anderson got really upset.

Useless Wikipedia Fact
John Lennon apparently didn't want to perform the song "Good Night" because it didn't fit his "hard-rocker image". It is sung by Ringo Starr, the only Beatle to appear on the song.

Link of the Day
Do you ever read that comic strip "Mallard Fillmore"? Does anyone else think it is the lamest strip ever? I mean I know I'm biased because I'm a liberal, but can anyone tell me with a straight face that this strip is at all funny?
Anyway, this columnist has really got Mallard's number. Amen to that sir. (Via Tom Tomorrow, who's unfairly maligned in the same column).
Also someone set up a whole blog dedicated to refuting Mallard Fillmore here at Duck and Cover. Way to use your blogging for good sir.