For added effect, listen to this while reading.
Bar Review was one of the experiences of the semester. The walk over was lovely, but walking across the Schuylkill always is. I ended up arriving around 6:40 or so, and when I arrived the vibes were way off. Not the decor of the lounge, though, that was on point. It felt like one of the smoke filled rooms in which the elites brainstorm new and exciting ways to screw the masses over. I went up to the bar, and asked if they could make me a cherry coke. Until last night, every bar I’ve ever been to has been able to mix cola and cherry syrup (or maraschino cherries) for me, but not this one, apparently. I was and am shocked by this, but to avoid wasting any more of the bartenders’ time I got my first Blue Moon of the night.
By this point, hardly anyone had arrived despite the event starting at 6. Even when people started arriving around 7, it was mostly 2Ls and 3Ls that I’ve never seen around campus before. The vibe at times felt like going to the birthday party of an acquaintance’s acquaintance where you don’t know anyone particularly well and there’s not really an opportunity to get to know anyone better. It was extremely cliquey too, and as someone who has always drifted between cliques without committing to one I found myself as an uneasy observer of the event.
I tried to pace myself, tried being the operative word, since I gave up by the end. I had two Blue Moons to get tipsy, and plenty of glasses of water thereafter. I tipped one of the bartenders enough (for the water) that when I decided to get a regular coke he said it was on him (but I still tipped a buck). I wonder what the Justin I was two years ago would think of me, not only drinking but actively trying to get drunk.
Over all, though, it was kind of a bust in my view, and after a whisky, neat, I walked upstairs to catch the cool night air. It was 8 PM. I wandered around Center City for around an hour. As if to an omen of today’s events, I saw a biker gang by City Hall, except they were a gang of youngish teenagers on regular bikes trying too hard to seem intimidating. Speaking of tryhards, I saw another gentleman doing an Ollie on an ATV while flipping the bird. Both gave me the vibes of the first Mad Max film- just before the End- or maybe Autoduel. I stopped at 7-Eleven, got a red velvet cookie, and sat down in one of those plazas that no one really uses. I spaced out, before deciding that I would get pizza on the way back to my apartment. Shortly after I crossed the Schuylkill back into UCity the Protomen appeared in my Spotify feed, and I tell you what, truly their music was the gem which saved the evening.
I went to bed shortly after returning to my apartment. I was exhausted. My sleep wasn’t restless, but Strange Dreams™ haunted me. I think I know what it’s like to rotate about the w-axis (in four spatial dimensions rather than three). If you can visualize excess textures clipping into each other such that they form technicolor television static, it was kind of like that. I felt hollow, presumably how A. Square would feel upon realizing that the Sphere can see inside me. In the dream the term “going retro” was used to describe what I did, presumably because I was rotating kata? Would that be widdershins? What would ana’s clockwise equivalent be then?
I woke up to the Third World War, maybe. The great and terrible armada we’ve been assembling against Iran has finally been put to use. According to Israeli sources (as of me writing this) the Supreme Leader was killed. Despite the outbreak of War, today’s been eerily normal, but maybe that’s because I’ve been actively avoiding Monitoring The Situation™ like I usually do when Something Happens™. I’ve been going through my backlog of chores to freshen my apartment up, and soon I’ll get to work on finishing my Legal Methods draft like I should have done yesterday. I made some penne Alfredo and it was excellent, after boiling and straining the pasta I put some olive oil in the pot and used that to add a nice flavor and texture to the penne that I’m not enough of a chef to describe adequately. It was really good, though. I have a serving or two left over which I might have today or tomorrow.
I’m surprised it’s so early, it feels later in the day than it actually is. I might go for a walk and take advantage of the weather before the impending Silicon Age Collapse.
Sierpinski Tetrahedron 