Part A: Imperviousness towards Automobiles.
I'm a superhero. Explanation: Last Tuesday I was preparing for a presentation I needed to give in front of a group I'm working with on a drug-delivery project. I decide to go home and finish putting the presentation together, but while working on what I'm going to say, I've been listening to the Nationals/Giants game in the hope of seeing Bonds hit 756*. Moments later he did, and I rejoiced and then packed everything up so that I could get the hell out of Dodge (Evanston). The next like twenty minutes were uneventful. I got to the Evanston Border (which I am going to define as the southern portion of the cemetery, regardless of whether or not that's actually legitimately the border) and pulled on to Sheridan. That was a bit off for me, as I usually take a side street down as far as I can because there's less traffic. Turns out that that's a good reason to do that. As I'm going down Sheridan, I'm passing one of the roads that has a stop sign on the side street, but no traffic control on Sheridan proper. As I'm going through the intersection, perfectly legally, Mr. Guy who wants to turn left decides he's doing so immediately and quickly. I couldn't brake hard enough, but was able to turn sharply enough that my side took the entirety of the impact. Which I think is good. I fell off of the bike and clear of the car and his passenger asked if I was ok. I didn't have any broken bones so far as I could tell, and so answered in the affirmative, and then they sped off. Because they're good people. I was physically fine (some light scrapes and my shoulder's still a bit sore) but my bike was done. I hadn't noticed immediately (I was sort of dealing with the shock of being hit, plus trying to think of who to call and being helped out by some amazingly nice woman who was walking down the street), but the fork was bent, the seat post was at about a 20 degree angle from where it was supposed to be and the front wheel was sort of folded in two. Plus the front brake no longer worked. I was advised to give up on it given that the bike was a cheapie from Target and as a result of the great generosity of my parents who are helping me out with the cost, I've acquired a new bike. It's this and is an amazingly nice ride. Huge improvement over the thing I had been riding which broke kind of often. Labmate Meera gave me a ride home because she's awesome and lives in the area in which I was hit.
Bonus: My laptop survived the crash and though it was tough to finish up the presentation because I was shaking, the presentation went fine. Overall, the experience was actually kind of exhilirating.
Part B: These Damn Books
I relented. The day after "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" came out, I gave in , drove to Walmart (I was at home for my friend's wedding) and purchased "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone". I'm currently about halfway through "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." So I've been enjoying them and enjoying being about a decade behind everyone else.
Part C: Music Snobbery
When asked, in the past, what my favorite style of music was, I usually responded with some amalgam of "90's punk and 2nd and 3rd wave ska". While I listen to a wide range of things, those are generally what I listen to the most. There are two answers that I sort of wince when I hear them.
- "I listen to everything."
This one annoys me because it just doesn't tell me anything. Everyone listens to everything. That's not what I was asking. What I was trying to figure out is what you listen to most and what gives you the greatest enjoyment. If I'm talking to you long enough to ask you what kind of music you like, I'm going to presume that you're open minded enough not to listen to vaguely folkish alternarock and only vaguely folkish alternarock. - "I listen to everything but Country and Rap"
This one bothers me just a bit, mostly because while I don't listen to most new Country, you cannot convince me that Cash and Willie Nelson and the like aren't really, really good. The rap thing, I don't know. It's a "cool kid" answer that I think is given usually to mean "I don't listen to 50 Cent" when hip hop is an incredibly large and diverse genre, and I really don't think that 50 Cent is identical to, say, Busdriver. The tendency to presume all hip hop is gangsta rap is just incorrect. This popped into my head while I was listening to an interview of Saul Williams, hip-hop poet on this show, during which the interviewer was shocked (SHOCKED!) at Williams' contention that his poetry is as much a child of hip-hop culture as anything else. The interviewer's reaction, I think, was a sort of presumption that nothing that's spoken to a beat could possibly be intelligent.
I don't know. More things when I think of them.
*You thought I was putting this asterisk there because I was trying to indicate that he arrived at that number illegitimately, didn't you? He did, of course, and anyone that suggests that he didn't use illegal substances to get there is deluding themselves. That wasn't the reason behind the asterisk. The reason was to direct you down here to assure you that yes, I have an intense dislike for Barry Bonds for, if nothing else, screwing up in 1992. I do not want him to be the All Time Home Run record holder, and, like everyone else, am cheering like hell for A-Rod.
