RyanHarne.com

I’ve broken all of the rules today. All. Of. Them. Let me count the ways.

Rule, The First - Never take a nap on Sunday. The discontinuity of the afternoon is thrown into a perpetual bewilderment that your mental state is never able to recover from. Countless tasks are then never again possible if a Sunday nap occurs. Some doctors even suppose that human reproduction is ill-fated if the Sunday nap rule is violated too frequently. Scientific tests and monitors are underway to prove this pivotal hypothesis.

Rule, The Second - Perform a greater percentage of your homework tasks in the afternoon, because the mental state is at it’s prime during this interlude. Take advantage of the phenomenon of heightened perception and intellect and complete tasks related to courses of study. Getting objectives accomplished in the Sunday afternoon hours allow for an earlier bedtime for the prudent student.

Rule, The Third - If the early bedtime is not an option, go to your workplace and drive your efforts into the ground with a flourish. This is to say, that do not even expect to get enough sleep tonight, and instead you should attempt to waste every last effort in your body at your place of employment. Keeping this rule in tact will distinguish you from your peers and coworkers and will produce valuable units of “character” that are to be stored and promenaded about in due time.

Rule, The Fourth - Admit yourself into the slaveholds upon returning from the workplace. This is done by swiping your ID card at the front gate of a building referred to as “Torgersen” and then, again, swiping your card to enter the room called “Ten-Eighty”. Here you will rot away with the last remaining threads of sanity, courage, and honor. And never doubt or speak negatively against this rule.

Frankly, I’m not sure how that last one has made it onto the list. But I broke that one as well. Thanksgiving break is amazing. I’m even allowed to do this thing called “showering by myself” and using water that is called “hot”. Tomorrow, I have plans to lunch with Rianna. But until then, I’m going to savor the breakdown of my vicious routine.

While I have my guilty pleasures (the pumpkin jolt is fading, but it will return in full force again, I betcha), I can also revel in simple things.

Tonight, I found out that my chair has a very centralized axis of rotation when I sit on it. As in, at a near perpindicular to the floor, the chair rotates almost without need of pushing. And I went nuts after finding this out.

I had just finished a ton of homework. Something was bound to happen. I discovered the superpowers of my chair and I started to spin. Then I turned on “Around The World” by Daft Punk and rotated in unending circles for the following 6 or so minutes.

One of the highlights of my week. For sure.

And as soon as I type this I begin to get a master craving for pumpkin pie, but, alas!, I finished that earlier this week. I’ll add “create assortment of pumpkin desserts using developing culinary skills” to my list of things to do during break. Alas! Break!

Me - I just opened my eyes and there were hundreds of periods in my Word doc.

Erin - Do some situps. Get more oxygen in your head.

However unfortunate it is, situps just can’t fix a complete disengagement from natural sleeping patterns. On the other hand, I had an amazing focaccia pizza tonight at Gillie’s with spinach & artichoke dip.

But when statistics calls, there’s one thing you gotta do.

There are those occasional times when I indulge in ridiculous guilty pleasures. Not that I feel guilt from them. I take it in stride, as natural.

In between the continual refilling my mouth with expensive, low-cal whipped cream tonight, I was thinking about how much I will love getting sleep during the upcoming Thanksgiving break. Mmm, yes, that’s going to be nice. And reading and doing light work at coffee shops. And seeing Rianna and being like WHAT have you been UP TO? because we don’t often have time to keep in touch during the school year.

Then I remembered, at one point, seeing a commercial for a then-new low-carb ice cream that actually mentioned something along the lines of “and don’t forget to spend an hour on an exercise bike afterwards” in order to burn off the fat. So, I grabbed my shuffle and went to the gym where I experienced thirty minutes of high-velocity, high-heartrate exercise. Something like a cardio workout on steroids. Only… I don’t do steroids.

But if tomorrow, if, a health announcement is released saying caffeine is a steroid, well… I’m in trouble.

The brilliant minds came into town, also known as Derek & Junko. They have been stirring up NYC with their work and getting into lots of trouble in the meantime. It has been a while since I’ve seen them, so the visit is appreciated to the highest degree.

It’s also nice to see that I’m on Junko’s good list. Imagine Santa’s good and bad lists - do you see them as equally proportioned? You know, for every four good children, there are those four bad kids? Makes sense too. Newton’s 2nd law: every action, equal and opposite reaction. There has to exist some balance. Well, Junko’s list is not balanced. Not that she has a “bad” list, but rather, her human interaction tolerance is frequently stretched, it would seem. In fact, not only am I on Junko’s good list, but I’m her “favorite snappy dresser” as well. Cheers, people!

While at our necessary Gillie’s brunch today, we were delighted to receive the largesse of several waitresses. Derek, being the superstar of Blacksburg, or rather, Superstar Extraordinaire, is able to acquire gifts from people for no absolute reason. So, we received the “extra” dishes that were accidentally made. And then some.

There was an unlucky side to this, naturally; Newton’s 2nd, right? Derek’s presence seemed to disrupt the feng shui of the restaurant. The framed print for sale on the wall by our table suddenly crashed to floor, untouched, not long after we arrived. Minutes later, after being reset by a waitress, it fell again, and was permantly removed from being around Derek’s vibes. And more, just a few minutes following this ordeal, a wine goblet was dropped. The crash was wonderfully reminiscent of a studio glass-breaking sound effect, a high-pitched, slashing kind-of smash. A sound straight out of a horror flick, or a television documentary on timeless sound effects. But it was a very good, filling meal.

And last night I saw an enormous shooting/falling star. Definitely lower atmosphere, people. Totally lower atmosphere.

Today, Mr. Snaps died. Lucky for him, though, his finale was a panoramic view of Virginia Tech as our portion of the earth rotated away from the sunlight. He was one of my greatest companions and will be missed surely.

Far removed from that topic: the future is NOW! In two of the presentations today in one of my courses, Wikipedia was formally referenced as a source. One of those people was me. Hey, just check out the entry on order theory and you’ll understand why Wiki is loved and honored as much as our American founding fathers.