I just got back from the Sum 41/supposed-to-be-Starting Line concert. For some reason, Starting Line left the tour and was replaced by No Use for a Name, a band that has been around for awhile but I had never heard before. They were ok, but the first opening act, Bigwig, was quite bad.

Opening acts aren't supposed to be good, but it wasn't just that the lead singer couldn't sing and the songs all sounded the same. This band committed the cardinal sin of opening acts and spent minutes between songs sounding off on politics, American foreign policy, etc. etc. If I wanted to hear an uninformed loudmouth with a microphone spout off on current events, I would watch Hardball with Chris Matthews.

Sum 41 was surprisingly good though, much better than I thought they would be. I've seen them twice before, once before they were famous when they opened for The Offspring and once on Halloween with Unwritten Law when the band members were so trashed that they couldn't play their instruments or speak coherently. Tonight they weren't drunk, and the show was much better off for it.

They played a funny medley of Metallica covers, going from For Whom the Bell Tolls to Enter Sandman to Master of Puppets, but most of the people in the audience didn't seem to recognize the songs. These kids today...

Assuming the steady drizzles and drops of the last 24 hours end in time, WashU's semi-annual drunken letdown will take place tonight. That's right, it's already time for Spring WILD, and freshmen will find out that the huge party they've been hearing about all year is really just a soggy, smelly, excuse for everyone to get drunk and pass out in the quad during a subpar concert. WashU seems to be trying to remove the passing out part, though, as word came out last week in Student Life that "the administration" will be banning kegs at all future WILDs.

Naturally, WashU's alcoholics are up in arms that their inalienable right to go to the hospital with alcohol poisoning 2 times per year is being taken away from them, and they are trotting out their usual time-honored line of reasoning for why this is a horrible idea: College students are going to drink to excess, and if they can't do it in a "safe environment" like WILD they will do so in their apartments beforehand, where the only people who will be able to administer first aid to them when they begin to choke on their own vomit will also be trashed,

Ah, so it's not a student's fault if they down a bottle of tequila and have to get their stomach pumped, it's the school's fault. How convenient to have such a ready-made scapegoat for your own stupidity. It never ceases to amaze me how collectively dumb the student body is when it comes to WashU's alcohol policy. They seem to believe that the school is somehow required to let them do whatever they want, even if it results in likely harm to themselves or others. Perhaps having their rich parents buy them a car as soon as they turned 16 and paying off their credit card bills every month gave them this amazing sense of entitlement.

And it's not like they even took any facts into consideration before firing back at the administrations "unfair alcohol policy". For tonight's WILD, when kegs are still allowed, only 9 have even been registered. And every student of age is allowed to carry in a 12-pack of beer with them if they choose. 12 beers. If that isn't enough to get you buzzed, then you have a major problem and probably shouldn't be drinking at all. But that hasn't stopped the deluge of mail to Student Life decrying this act as the end of WILD as we know it. And even if it does turn out that way, it's no great loss. The whole event is an overrated waste of funding anyway.

The long, strange ride is over for the CS softball team. We won our semifinal game in typical fashion yesterday, 17-4 or thereabouts, but in the championship we were pitted against an unholy alliance of Beta Theta Pi and Delta Gamma. Even though there is a special competitive intramural league for fraternities and sororities, Beta decided to uphold their reputation as the lamest of frats and enter the open league.

Despite their arrogance, loudness, and general annoying tendencies (like a pitcher that took 2 minutes between pitches to adjust his grip on the ball and stroll around the mound), we still had a decent shot of winning, but our defense, which had been one of our strong suits, started to fall apart and our offense couldn't compensate. We ended up losing 11-8, but the fact that we lost to a fraternity, the greatest of all my archnemeses, makes this loss that much harder to take.

Time for an off-season of hard work and training in the event that we meet the same enemy next year. Either that or continue in my master plan to take down the entire Greek system...

After numerous rain delays, the weather looks clear tomorrow for the end of the softball season. Our semifinal game against "Cross Campus" (we're guessing either a religious group or the cross country team) is at 7 PM in the usual IM field. In the event we win, the championship game is immediately afterwards at 8 PM.

Whenever people don't understand something, they seem to attribute magic powers to it. In a teaser for a recent television news broadcast, I heard the phrase "we can find out whether Saddam is dead or alive using DNA". I envision a scenario of military personnel breaking into an underground bunker and discovering a hair on the ground. They bring it back to the lab and stick it in some big expensive machine, and a dot matrix printer prints out "Identity: Saddam Hussein. Dead."

I'm no cellular biologist, but I've watched enough CSI to know that you cannot determine the identity of a DNA sample without having an existing known sample to compare it to. And I don't recall their being a magical tag in the DNA structure that says whether the source organism is dead or alive. So unless we have a known sample of Saddam's DNA lying around and the source of this DNA is, say, Saddam's entire brain, there is no way we can determine whether he is dead or alive "using DNA".

Using this same logic, in an ad for one of those technical commuter colleges a "success story" (read: actor) explained that he went to said school because he wanted "a career in computers". Well that narrows it down. Does that mean using a computer to do some other job? Programming computers? Building computers? Testing computer software? Doing tech. support for a computer company? Making movies using computers? Apparently this college will prepare you for all of these things in only 2 years, that is if you don't decide to take Vatterott up on their offer of a degree in electricity.

Someone has finally gone too far, and it's not even the FOX network. HBO, the same company that ruined our lives with Sex and the City, will soon be airing a reality show called "Rock Bottom" which chronicles Jason Mewes (Jay of Kevin Smith's "Jay and Silent Bob" duo) attempting to kick his real-life heroin addiction. Nice work, HBO.

I've been meaning to write about this for some time, but today just feels like the day to do it. In every week's Cadenza issue of Student Life, there is a musical column called "Head Rush" authored by one Jess Minnen. I use the word "musical" loosely here, because mostly the column is about how high Jess got the previous weekend and which random crappy jam band she saw while in her altered state. Apparently others feel the same way that I do, since every couple of weeks or so she starts off her column with "so-and-so says that all I ever write about are jam bands, which is so not true, man." She then goes on to briefly mention some hip-hop band, then get back to the subject of how great it is to watch the Yonder Mountain String Band while passing joints with her buddies or follow Phish around the midwest, doing 'shrooms with random strangers.

Today, however, Jess strayed from jam bands briefly to discuss this year's WILD artist, Better than Ezra. Like Jess, I am not too enthused about hearing a band that had one hit when I was a freshman in high school (that's 8 years ago for anyone who's counting...good god has it really been that long?), but unlike me, Jess is more upset because they are "a rock band". Apparently, hip-hop acts are "cheaper and more popular".

Now wait a second here, simple supply and demand tells me that, in fact, rock bands must be more popular overall if they are indeed more expensive than hip-hop acts. If not, they wouldn't get anyone to book their shows and they would have to lower their price. And I'm sure that rappers are charging as much as they possibly can to afford their bling-bling lifestyle, I somehow can't see them giving a big discount just for the hell of it.

As for whether hip hop is more popular than rock at WashU, I point you in the direction of Spring WILD 2 years ago, when we had both Eve6, a rock band, and Crazy Town, a band with more hip-hop "flava". If you were around for the show, you would've noticed a mass exodus of people from the quad that directly coincided with the break between Eve6's set and Crazy Town coming on stage. That and the fact that the previous year, we were subjected to Outkast's 45 minute soundcheck and 30 minute "show" which was possibly the worst performance and biggest rip off I have ever seen.

If Jess would put down her doobie for a minute and try and regain some of that long-term memory, she would remember that we just had a hip-hop act last semester. And the semester before (if it hadn't been rain-aborted). And the semester before that.

Before I end this post about music for tonight, I would like to register my annoyance that the song "United States of Whatever", by Liam Lynch, is being played on the radio. It is a minute and a half of Liam talking nonsense interspersed with a shoddily-recorded bass and drum loop. You can watch the video of the song here, but don't say I didn't warn you of its crappiness.

Nice job David and michael" on your presentations today. Michael had to dodge some especially, I'll be polite and say "obtuse", questions from a certain professor who wasn't really paying attention but would look up occasionally to accuse michael of BSing.

Soon they'll both be Masters of Science, a distinction already held by Ron who somehow arranged for it to pour this evening to cancel our softball game, since he could not attend due to his Jewishtacity. As a result, the game is rescheduled for either next Wednesday or Thursday.

The best part about wu.forsale, the newsgroup where WashU students can post things they have for sale or want to buy, is the rampant illiteracy among students. Seemingly every day there is a post with grammar that would make a 3rd grader's head spin or that simply says "car for sale" without providing any details about the vehicle in question. Today's gem:

Currently I start to find a roommate to rent the apartment together, but time is a little hurry.

The softball semifinals are scheduled for Wednesday night at 8 in the IM field behind Eliot. If/when we win, the championship game will be held immediately afterwards at 9. So far we are 3-0, winning by an aggregate 44-7 or so, and have only allowed runs in 2 innings. The competition will be fierce for the coveted IM champion t-shirts, so unless you're Jewish you have no excuse for missing the action.

And if you're looking for some other entertainment on Wednesday, David and michael will be doing their Master's project presentations in the M&M lab lounge on Lopata 5 at 2:00 PM and sometime thereafter. Everyone should come and watch.

Apartment 12 was minus two residents this weekend, and salmon was on sale at Schnucks for $5.99/pound. These events may not seem related, but they resulted in me inviting 10 people over last night and having a dry run of the Iron Chef party suggested by David and michael which has since been stolen by the Food Network. Berney and I both made salmon dishes and a few random sides for everyone, so there was no voting for whose was better and no timed cooking, but I did learn a few useful tidbits in the event we have a real Iron Chef party:

-10 plates is not enough for 11 people (including me) to have 2 separate items.
-There is a definite home-kitchen advantage for the person who knows where all the random utensils and ingredients are.
-The two people cooking should be the only ones allowed in the kitchen, as any more do not fit.
-When one recipe involves broiling and another involves baking, having only one oven is a bit of a problem.
-Yellow bell peppers, eaten raw and whole a la Chairman Kaga, taste disgusting according to Berney.

For those of you watching this webpage for results of our softball game (for some reason they never put our scores on ESPN.com, even though I send them in every week...), we won 15-3. The semifinals are next Wednesday in the usual place (note the day change) at 8 PM, and if we win will be immediately followed by the championship. Well, the championship will immediately follow regardless of whether we win, but it just won't be the same if we don't. I won't go into my own personal exploits in this game, but let's just say that the team won and that's all that matters.

The Blast's season may be over, but there is still sports action in the CS department. Softball game tonight at 8, and with a victory would come a trip to the Final Four of the tournament. The game is in the IM field behind Eliot, and I expect everyone to be there.

I feel it is my duty as a voice of the WashU community to inform you all on this important matter. Right now, operating within our school, is a mystic society so secret that only a few select members are chosen for it every year. After a torturous hazing session, the group maintains a low profile until the period of "November through May", during which they don bright yellow jackets adorned only with the mark of the spade. Up until now, the group's purpose has been shrouded in secrecy, but I'm here to reveal to you their true mission: to guard the athletic complex parking lot.

I am, of course, speaking of Thurtene, our local "honorary society" where the judgment of worthiness is based on whether or not you are a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. Apparently this group is so elite that it takes the majority of the members sitting on a couch smoking and listening to blaring country music to guard a fenced-in lot. It's a good thing that we've picked out the best and brightest from the whole junior class to perform this task, since it is a job far too dangerous for the average student. And in exchange for this hard labor, the members are rewarded only with the feeling of goodness that comes from performing a service for their country. That, fame, and a custom-made North Face jacket with a cost that probably runs into the hundreds of dollars.

This weekend I resumed my titanic struggle against all that is evil in the world: daylight savings time. Because the rest of the world never adopted my idea of "falling back" every 6 months, I was forced to "spring forward" and lose an hour of sleep. This meant that last night I couldn't fall asleep until 3 in the morning, rendering me completely useless for basketball. Of course I played anyway, since it would take flood, pestilence, a plague of locusts, or a coworker defending his thesis at 10 AM for me to miss Monday morning basketball.

Up until now, I've always just blamed this yearly nuisance on our government (which, along with Carrot Top, are the cause of most of the world's problems). However, thanks to this website I can see that I can channel my anger towards one individual in particular.

Benjamin Franklin.

If only I had a time machine, I could do the world favor and rid the past of this historical menace. Sure he did some important things like discovering electricity, but honestly even if he hadn't someone else would have anyway, right?

The website also has some neat information on it about the history of daylight savings time. For instance, did you know that there was a time (I call it "the golden age") when every state or town could decide for themselves when to turn their clocks forward? Unfortunately, those no-fun folks in Congress decided to impose their will on us with the Uniform Time Act in 1966, thereby ending all hopes of me forming my own time zone in Apartment 12. Although obviously Indiana never got the memo...

People stumbled upon the Festival while searching for:

"Pool Problem game featuring uncle gus"
"picture of dale earnhardt jr. and britney spears walking together"
"ascii art + spongebob"
"light fixtures - nascar"
"I survived my initiation week in the sorority"
"list of supermodels with piercings"

and my personal favorite...

"what band is chris hill in now?"

In the last three days I:

-Put the finishing touches on draft #1 of my CS master's thesis, titled "Oh, They Have the Internet On Computers Now!"
-Took part in a programming contest
-Bowled a 158 to beat Jenner, a.k.a. "the poor man's Chris"
-Played 2 and a half hours of basketball without serious injuring myself or reaggravating previous injuries
-Went with a great girl to the architecture formal, where I alternately told people that I was an architecture student they'd never seen before, one of the assistant deans of the architecture school, and the Count of a small European nation
-Ate at the Joy Luck Chinese Buffet in the drizzling rain

It wasn't quite the 21-0 smackdown that we laid last week, but the C-park home run. Game attendance hovered at around 8 or 9 through most of the game, with all fan support directed towards us.

Round 3 of the playoffs is next Thursday night at a time to be determined. Catch the excitement, come to the game.

I've been an Engineer for a good number of years now (almost 5), and there are times where I get tired of being surrounded by techies chatting about Slashdot and design patterns and how much Microsoft sucks. During my undergraduate days, I double majored in Marketing, so I could escape from nerd-dom by taking classes in the B-school with the pinstripe-suited asskissers and the sorority girls. I also had a roommate who was an art major, and let me tell you that you haven't lived until you've been to an art party with Coke cans hanging by strings from the ceiling and garbage sculptures as decorations.

I'd never had much of an opportunity to partake in the architecture school though, until last night. I have a friend in the architecture school who I was indebted to for performing certain services in my behalf (no not those kind of services, get your mind out of the gutter), so last night I agreed to help her build a model of a neighborhood that she had to do for some class.

People talk about the CEC, WashU's 24 hour computer lab deep in the heart of the E-school, as the scariest place on campus, but I think Givens Hall may have us beat in that department. Think people just as artsy as the art school crowd who haven't slept in days listening to really bad music and building things out of balsa wood. In the CEC there are a few people working until the wee hours of the morning, but when I left Givens at midnight there were people just arriving and almost all of the workstations were occupied by folks with no intention of leaving before sunup.

Yet us CS majors are the ones saddled with the reputation of being socially-inept misanthropes who would rather enjoy the company of a good algorithm than a good woman. So unfair...