Going to Detroit tomorrow! Visiting my old roommate for a few days.

so i've not shaved in a week and a half or so. first i had the cool stubble thing going, then it went into an awkward more than stubble but not quite beard thing, but now its in cool (dare i say sexy?) actual beardness. oh yeah

"that's ok cause so are you"

Yay! I thought I lost my cell phone yesterday, which would have been a bit of a hassle, but it was discovered safe, sound. Now I can go back to not actually calling most of the #s i have saved in it. But i have the option to call now, which is important :)

"Wanna be my lady in the water?" If a gentleman asked a woman this, would it be:
a. good
b. bad
c. creepy
d. other (please specify)

Advice for all you out there-if you start dancing to "My Cherie Amour" in the supermarket, someone may walk by and see you. Just a tip.

Any suggestions for things to do in DC over a weekend?

Today may be one of those not leaving the apartment days. Me and the world wide web to keep me company.

The tapwater tastes a bit strange today. I suspect a communist plot to contaminate our precious bodily fluids.

(lest anyone think i'm weird, or at least weirder than i really am, i hope you get the movie reference)

Saw the original episode of Miami Vice Saturday night on NBC. It was great!
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't seen it, stop reading here, as I'm about to list some highlights.


Crockett (Don Johnson)'s partner, played by Jimmy Smits, perishing in an explosion from a rigged car during a drug deal. And unlike those shows that just cut from the actor to the explosion to imply the person is being killed, they actually showed, for a split second, the guy (or more likely a dummy dressed like him) fly out of frame from the force of the explosion.

Crockett punching his new partner Tubbs after Tubbs saying something out of line to him, then Tubbs, after accepting Crockett's apology, suddendly punching Crockett in return-good old male bonding.

Tubbs starting to go downstairs for ice on Crockett's houseboat after the punchfest to be greated by Crockett's pet Alligator!

Tubbs indignant racial attitude. See: "I know we all look alike to you"

Random breakdancers/ pop-lockers on the streets

The obligatory meeting bad guy in the strip club scene.

Tubbs and Crockett taking out several bad guys (who have automatic weapons) in a shootout without even having to duck behind anything.

Crockett and Tubbs meeting after Crockett, in his sportscar, chasing the guy who ends up being Tubbs who is driving a SPEEDBOAT (yes, the car on land is chasing the speedboat in the water). At one point, Crockett's car is flipped on its two left wheels then falls back onto all fours, all without even slowing down. Also Tubbs thinks he's escaped by hiding under a bridge, but of course when he starts to pull out from under it Crockett jumps down and lands behind him and punches Tubbs as he turns around.

the 80s. that's what they were like.

First time I heard a sermon that started by talking about Fear Factor.

Also had dinner w/ J-dawg and her boyfriend (as well as her sister and the boyfriend's friends). Twas good-we made calzones, chatted, all that.

Ah dreams. Had one this morning that involved me being in a class taught by Cornell West and being put in a group of other black guys (probably inspired by seeing the wedding party yesterday) for an assignment. Then I go into Harvard Square (I think) with a friend (I think) where I run into a girl that I used to have a crush on. She does that playful thing where she comes up behind me and puts her hands over my eyes and says something to me. I, having seen her reflection a few seconds before, am like "Hey ___" and she's like 'how did you know who it was?' I do confess to having caught a glimpse of her. I think we kinda flirted a bit more in the dream (remembe that this is more than I have done in real life with her or anyone else for that matter, and I'm pretty sure this particular girl in real life has no idea i used to like her). I then return to class and realize I've forgotten to do the assignment. I consider skipping out on the class (it was established at some point that we got two absent days during the semester) for fear of being called on during lecture.

So basically this dream combined my chronic unrequited crush-ing angst and my recurring fear of being caught unprepared in school (which has inspired many many dreams for some reason).

The streak continues. The Electric Slide has now been played at 103,247,322 black weddings :)

Seriously though, went to a wedding this morning. It was fun. Some highlights (in the sense of amusing me):

The pastor saying that one of the keys to a happy marriage was to keep passion in your bedroom. Then repeating it many times, emphasizing "your."

The best man putting the garter on the woman who caught the bouquet and her leg hiking very high up suddenly (I thought he was the one to do the hiking but my mom insists she did it herself).

The older guy with the big afro leading dances when most people were too shy to get up and move.

The bride's very enthusiastic response of "yes, I will!" to the vows (even more stark in contrast to the groom, who was obviously happy but spoke in a low voice that most of us couldn't hear).

The best man (if i heard right) saying " 'gratulations" to the groom during a toast.

The ringbearer (the grooms 9 yr old son) walking down the aisle with both flowergirls when the wedding party came back for the reception.

Cut my hair for the first time in almost a year. I've been meaning to do it for a while, and figured it'd be nice to be clean for the wedding i'm going to tomorrow. My head looks so small now though. On the bright side, should i choose to wear a hat at some point, i can.

So does the fact that my nose occasionally bleeds for no apparent reason make me a bit nerdy? Or am i that for other, non-nose reasons?

I seem to have little motivation to write this paper of mine.

So Israel has, according to reports, killed almost 200 civilians in Lebanon. I do understand that they need to secure their country and that if people were launching rockets into DC or Boston that were randomly falling in the city and sometimes killing people, we'd want to stop that and rightly so. But at what cost?

A military analyst for CBS said that, because Israel uses military force to recover its captured soldiers whereas the US only searches for them w/o using force, Israel places a greater value on "human life" than we do. Um, I somehow don't see killing a highly disproportionate number of citizens (and mainly civilians at that) in other countries to rescue a few represents a greater value placed on human life. It is placing a greater value on ISRAELI life, and by implication a lesser value on the lives of others.

There was also an ambassador from Israel who said that the difference between Israel and the groups like Hezbollah were that everytime Israel kills a civilian in one of their countries, its an accident and a great tragedy, whereas when they kill an Israeli citizen, its a victory. While I agree that the second half of statement is true of groups like Hezbollah and that that makes them morally worse in an important way, I think the first half of that statement vastly overstates the Israeli government's moral high ground. I don't think they purposely kill civilians, but when they do so accidentally its not because of a tragic mistake despite their utmost efforts to avoid so. They take calculated risks of hitting civilians to achive their goals, and it doesn't look like they are too hesitant to launch missiles or bombs that will, not only possibly, but probably kill civilians (sometimes if fairly large numbers as in Lebanon). They aren't trying to target civilians, but i doubt they are very broken up when they do, as long as they get their target.

Back in Maryland. Apartment hunting went well, but then didn't. After seeing 8 apartments in one day, we narrowed it down to 2. But just before leaving to go back to DC (yay 8 hour train rides!-no, really, they're fun when you have a lot of CDs) one of the other roommates had to pull out, so we had to start over. Some new places for us have been found, so its not a total loss by any means, but did put some wrinkles in our plans. Alas, such stuff happens.

Lots of apartments to look at tomorrow. Wish me well.

Also lots of girls dressing down around Cambridge due to the heat. Must avert eyes :)

Made it back to Boston. Good old 10 hour train rides (it usually takes 8 hours from DC, but this one was scheduled to go longer for some reason). At least it got here on time, as the train rarely does. Didn't get as much sleep as i wanted as the guy behind was doing the loudest (and kinda gross sounding) snoring i've ever heard in person. Also I think there was a girl on the train I know from Harvard, but I don't really know her that well and wasn't sure it was her, so i kinda walked by her and waited to see if she showed any signs of recognizing me. She didn't, but I hope she didn't think i was being rude (well maybe i was). Mainly i was just being awkward, as i tend to do.