blueswede

up goes the bar, down goes my world

So I met our pinball champ today. He played a round of the
Twilight Zone machine, and I have to say, it was a sight to
behold. The guy just knew every shot, and had every little
thing completely under control, even in multiball. He knew
all the little tricks, the right angles to shoot for a given
award, every little thing. And he was a nice guy, too; made
the high score list and gave me his free game.

At any rate, I'm going to have to be able to top 800 million
now if I want to make the high score list. I might be able
to do it sometime down the road, but it's going to be a hell
of a challenge. I'm a little discouraged right now, with my
recent run of shit playing, but it's still a possibility.

Roommate situation is on the decline again. Now he's waking
me up in the mornings with his various loud antics, such as:
using his really obnoxious microwave, blasting music so loud
I can hear it through his headphones, and MOVING FURNITURE.
Who the hell needs to move their bed at fucking 10:00 AM?

I'm ready to believe that this, along with everything else,
has been part of some elaborate scheme to get me to move out
so he can have the sort of arrangement he had last year. In
fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't even have a room
transfer request on file with the housing office. Yeah, it
sounds really paranoid, and it probably is. But I have seen
this sort of passive-aggressive mind-game before, and truth
be told, I wouldn't put it past him to pull it. After all,
how far would you trust somebody who blasts the Hokey Pokey?

At any rate, I'm about ready to stop playing nice and start
fighting dirty. I know a guy who wants to move, and I think
I could probably swing living with him, especially since he
is out and about a lot. So I'm going to call up the housing
office and find out what the options are. It would be truly
delicious to switch with this other guy's roommate, who from
what I've heard is a disgusting human being. Of course, I'm
not so much interested in being vindictive as in staying on
campus and not having to move to grad student housing (where
no grad students live, of course). But if we can't pull off
the roommate swap, it may be the best approach if I team up
with the other guy and move out there. I'll have to either
learn the morning bus schedule by heart or get a car, but it
would beat the hell out of staying here. Two singles with a
shared bathroom and nice kitchen; I think for that, I could
live with a little distance.

It's funny; it seems like the quality of my environs varies
inversely with my own quality as a human being. Last year,
when I was bloated, incompetent, and depressed, my roommate
was cool and I lived close to most of my friends. Arguably,
I was in a good situation, even if I felt like crap. So now
I'm in better shape than I can ever remember being, I'm not
getting sick, I'm doing really well in computer science, and
physically I feel great. At the same time, my roommate is a
jerk, I don't see much of my friends from last year, I don't
have many friends around this housing area, and even though
my social skills have arguably improved, I'm having no more
luck with women than I was last year (near as I can tell, at
any rate). I've compensated for becoming a better person by
getting stuck in a bigger mess.

It's an interesting dynamic, that's for damn sure. I know,
I'll just get fat again and then things will work out! That
just might do the trick! Yeah, and monkeys might fly out of
my butt (to quote Wayne's World).

This is Dave, signing off.