Oh. My. God.

If you ever suspected that this area was bad for dating.....

So I'm home now and I thought that I would see what guys were within 50 miles of Rudolph on OkCupid, a dating site that is set up a lot like friendster and orkut so its not so much like "a dating site." I put in the information and clicked "Go" and I got this....


(the image is linked to his profile)

It is the 14th, my last day of classes for the semester. I finished my reference class, will probably get an A- if all goes well. Tonight, we hand in our Information Architecture project and we will probably again get an A-, presuming nothing catastrophic happens. Last night I turned in my 20 page, 1.5 space paper (thats 20 pages not counting references or bibliography - actually, it extended onto the 21st page without the footnotes) research paper on the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I did that paper in the course of about two weeks and it turned out to be the longest paper I have ever written (see this LJ entry for a quick preview of the paper). I have two and a half pages of references. And I'll probably get an A- for the class.

Its the longest paper I ever wrote, its just a factual report about the BIA but its well done, well researched and yet... I feel no sense of accomplishment. Maybe its because I turned it in by just copying the file to my teacher's digital inbox? I guess there is satisfaction in printing a report like that, taking it to the heavy duty stapler and handing it in.

This afternoon I have to finish some random things on this mock-up for my Access Systems for Archival Materials class, for which I will probably also get an A- or maybe a B+. The teacher wants the navigation on the left. Guess what? I can't do that, and furthermore, I LIKE the navigation on the right. And you know what? The headings for the sections do not cross the little border between the right navigation and the body, and that dotted line is the border. There is something to be said for usability, but sometimes, I think we coddle the user a little too much. In my reference class, we never mention usability, in fact, we are asked to be able to navigate totally unusable systems. and in GovDocs - have you ever tried to use the search mechanism on a government website? Try it sometime, you never find what you search for. I was on the GPO Access site looking for the Declaration of Independence - the first document created by the U.S. Government - and I couldn't find it. I ended up going to Thomas. But how sad is it when you can't find the fucking Declaration of Independence on the main site to go to for government documents on the web? And Lexis Nexis search results? They're fine if you know what you want and you only get two or three results from a search, but what if you have less information? What if you don't have good search skills? Browsing Lexis Nexis search results? No thanks.

But really, I'm sick of it all. I can't think of a single thing that would make me happy today. My room is dirty, my clothes are unwashed, I have no milk and I'm on the rag. I don't even have the desire to *be* suicidal, I think I just want to sit and stare at things all day.

As I walked through the sports complex today, I noticed a group of teenagers -- probably fifteen, sixteen years old -- sitting on the steps by the main entrance. They all had wet hair, so I assume they'd been in the pool...swim team practice or something. Anwyay, they were laughing and talking, and a few of them were flirting and/or holding hands. They were waiting for their parents to pick them up, I suppose, or they were just hanging out before driving themselves home to eat dinner with the family and do their homework. Something like that.

It made me think about all of the times that I did that. Waiting for rides after debate tournaments, hanging out after school waiting for the parking lot to clear...I spent a lot of time sitting around in a big group just waiting to go home. I don't think I've ever thought about it until today, but when I saw those kids I instantly remembered what waiting for a ride felt like. Those fifteen minutes of sitting at the lunch table waiting, or sitting in a booth at Taco John's waiting, were - on many occasions - the best fifteen minutes of the day. Maybe that says something about how pathetic my life was, but maybe it doesn't.

Waiting for a ride was always pretty intense, in an understated sort of way. It was a big rush to cram in a day's worth of gossiping or holding hands or teasing one another or - most often - a combination of all those things. We had a lot of fun doing absolutely nothing, and...it was great. I'm fairly certain that I didn't ever step outside of it and say, "Wow. I love loitering. That's the best!" We never appreciate what we have while we have it. I'm learning.

Simple things. That's what I miss the most, sometimes. There aren't any simple things anymore. None. Never again.

You scored as Pissed at the World Cat. And here we have the next serial killer. Try having some cotton candy, it'll make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, Psycho. Pissed at the World Cat 50% Derranged Cat 33% Ninja Cat 25% Drunk Cat 25% Nerd Cat 25% Couch Potato Cat 8% Love Machine Cat 8% Which Absurd Cat are you? created with QuizFarm.

Well, as long as the cat is aiming for some musicians it's all good. Tell me again how high you were when you wrote that song, because I love hearing all about that shit.

You scored as Love Machine Cat. Look out! The love machine is on the loose. You might want to take off a night of permiscuity and go get your junk checked out. Nothing sadder than a cat with herpes. Love Machine Cat 83% Derranged Cat 67% Pissed at the World Cat 58% Couch Potato Cat 50% Drunk Cat 42% Ninja Cat 8% Nerd Cat 0% Which Absurd Cat are you? created with QuizFarm.com

I don't have herpes...... mono, yes, herpes no