[2003.12.08 0718h]

i just had a very geeky nightmare.  in it, i dreamt that while i was using
my computer, i accidentally set the operating system to a bloated user
friendly mode, much like how one can accidentally set windows media player
to a bloated full mode.  the user friendly mode was filled with huge icons
that didn't explain what clicking on them did, and most everything useful
was deeply hidden under levels and levels of menus.

unfortunately for me, i couldn't figure out how to set the operating
system back to its original state.  i frantically panicked.  fortunately
for me, i eventually woke up.  unfortunately for me, the current trend of
operating systems will probably make my nightmare come true.

what is with me and these geeky nightmares?  i believe the last time i
wrote about a nightmare in my diary, it was about a friend accidentally
destroying the contents of my hard drive.

yesterday night, while biking back to campus, i passed by a man who looked
as if he was urinating in the middle of the sidewalk.  i'm not sure if he
actually was, since i didn't get a good look at what he was doing, nor did
i want to.  however, the stance he was in, the position of one of his
hands, and the somewhat surprised and embarrassed look on his face all
seemed to point to the same conclusion.

what struck me somewhat was the fact that this person appeared well
dressed, far more so than i was, and this was happening in the middle of
one of the busiest streets of menlo park, a fairly affluent city.  i would
have assumed that the average homeless person would have had the decency
to find a less busy area for relief, although the smell on market street
in san francisco may infer otherwise.

i was winding the clock around midnight today, and as the twelfth stroke
of midnight died down, i heard a scream piercing across campus.  i was
surprised, but for a reason other than what one would normally expect.

a curious undergraduate custom here at stanford is the screaming of
undergraduates at midnight on the week prior to finals.  this ritual is
called primal scream, and i joined in the fun many times during my first
few years here.  during my fourth year here, the windows in the room i
lived in opened out onto the roof, so it was pretty easy to climb out and
join the ritual by screaming from the rooftop.

for primal scream, many students simply stick their heads out their window
and scream a few times.  however, the most interesting screams usually
come from groups of students who collect together outside their dorms or
on a balcony or overhang, and scream their lungs out together.  as i biked
back to my room today, i passed by one of these groups, and one person in
particular had an amazingly long scream.  i was very impressed.

anyway, the reason why i found the screams today surprising was because
this week is finals week, and as far as i understand the ritual, it is
performed only on the week prior to finals.  a lack of screaming during
finals week itself seems to be a reasonable courtesy for the students who
have already went to bed in preparation for an early morning final.

but rituals change over time.  either that, or some undergraduates just
don't have much courtesy for others anymore.

the condom over the open pipe in my kitchen appears to have a hole in it.
whether it was there before, or only appeared after the stress of the
pressures of the pipe took its toll on it, i do not know.  if it was the
former, i may have inadvertently saved my roommate from a possible
unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases, simply due to my
unorthodox ways of solving an unusual problem.  if it was the latter, i
could have simply cost my roommate a condom.

the hole only became evident recently, when the sink became so blocked up
that some water entered the condom.  my roommate saw a spray of water
shoot from the condom, and was both surprised by the sudden stream of
water, as well as glad that the condom was never used for its original
purpose.  happily, the condom also saved us from quite a watery mess, as
since the water that had appeared was immediately pushed back down the
pipe by the pressure that had built up inside the condom.