Subtle Coolness

What with school being over, and my employment terminated, I have been wasting time watching movies. These are the films I have watched in the last five days:

• Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
  I’ve already seen it twice. It is so much better than Episodes I and II. It’s hard for me to decide who is more evil: Palpatine or Anakin.
• Swing Kids
  I’ve seen this one before, but it was a while ago so I wanted to remind myself. It’s sad, like most World War II films are, but the music is really good.
• Monsters, Inc.
  I finally got to watch it. I loved it. I actually found it very touching, the way Sully and Boo form their relationship. I just about cried on the last scene when Sully goes through the door, and we hear Boo’s voice.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
  I remember watching this bad boy in the theatre on opening night. This time I watched the extended version. It’s four hours long! That was the most surprising part about it. All the goodbyes at the end make me sad.
• A Knight’s Tale
  There were a few good lines in this movie. Paul Bettany was funny, but did he have to be naked so much?

I’ll probably watch more tomorrow. I should go to the gym again.

At least I had a great conversation with a good friend today. Or was it a good conversation with a great friend? Oh yes, it was a grood conversation with a grood friend. We talked about religion and relationships and coffee, among other things. Yep, coffee is still bad for you.

Today was indeed my last day of work at the lab. I came in to do a mentoring demonstration for one of my supervisors. When I was done with that I made my way to the Human Resources department, stepped in the door, and loudly said, “I need to be terminated.”

That got a chuckle from the woman at the desk. She even shot me with her finger.

Another proctor was filling out her “separation paperwork” at the same time. “Separation paperwork” makes it sound like I’m divorcing the computer lab. I would never dream of such a thing.

Today the Information Technology Services department was also having a barbecue on campus. My recently terminated friend and I went to get a free lunch — in your face, tinstaafl. When we got there the party was in full swing, and all the brisket was gone. We were told some more meat was on the way, so we waited.

We waited a long time. Finally, I broke down and got a plateful of potato salad, chips and cookies. At the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction — not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of my actual stomach — just at this moment of great alarm, the meat arrived.

Oh, it was good.

As we were leaving the barbecue, my recently terminated friend yelled, “Hey, where’s your purse!” Indeed, I had left my European carry-all under the table at which I was seated. She saved the day!

Today I plan to go to the computer lab as an employee for the last time. School is out, all of my dorm-based friends are gone, and in preparation for my triumphant return to my parents’ house, today will be my last day of work.

Maybe.

Yesterday was supposed to be my last day of work, but one of my supervisors came to talk to me while I was on my shift. She said I needed to mentor someone and teach him how to mentor. There are only two proctors that have mentored anyone for the last semester, and both of us are leaving next week.

I agreed to come in this morning to get the job done. Then I will have completed my employment. This is an historic moment.

On Tuesday, I worked in the morning, then ate food and watched two movies at my apartment all alone. That is such a sad existence. On Wednesday I couldn’t handle the same thing all over again, so I called a friend and we went to the gym.

Then another friend called me and we went to the mall. That was an adventure. I understand why girls take other girls when they go shopping for clothes. The only opinions a man is good for are, “That looks good on you,” or “You look hot.”

I saw Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Thursday night, but I can’t make any comments until I know everyone has seen it already. I don’t want to spoil anything for you.

What with school being out, I have been doing a lot of sitting around recently. For the record, I completed Metroid Prime 2: Echoes on the GameCube. I wasted almost 24 hours of my life on that game. Way to go, William.

Continuing in the video game department, I’ve been halfway through Final Fantasy VII for about six months now. I haven’t touch the game in that time. I just got bored with it.

A friend just let me borrow Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, and I started on it this morning. It’s a first-person shooter, just like Doom or Goldeneye or Metroid Prime. As such, it’s already quite repetitive: point, shoot, point, shoot, strafe, shoot, shoot, crouch, out of ammo, change weapon, point, shoot. You get the idea.

My ultimate summer plans are not solid yet, but I will report on them as soon as I know myself what they will be.

Last night I had dinner and fun with a good group of people. We ate burritos, and you all know how much I love tortillas. Before dinner, though, we were chatting, getting to know each other, and generally having an amusing conversation.

We discussed Cookie Monster, and how he needs a new name, now that he doesn’t exclusively eat cookies anymore.

“We’ll call him Harold,” I said, “because Grover is already taken.”

“By who?” the girl across the room asked. I couldn’t believe my ears.

“By Grover,” I replied, with all seriousness. I think I might have been slightly glaring when I said that, considering the look she gave me, but it was absolutely hilarious.

After dinner we began preparations for “the festivities”. We were filling little balloons with powdered dye, then adding water, to make paint-water bombs. We also mixed up a few gallons of pudding.

One girl — coincidently, the same one from the Grover episode — was particularly good at getting the powder in the balloons. She mentioned that she grew up in Argentina, and I put two and two together. As a baby she was kidnapped by a South American drug lord, and all her life she smuggled cocaine by stuffing balloons then swallowing them.

She did slip into a suspicious Hispanic accent from time to time.

When the balloons were ready, we rolled out a bunch of butcher paper and painted on it with pudding with our feet. Of course, that got a bit out of hand, and a significant amount of pudding ended up on bodies instead of paper.

Finally, the balloons came out. This was a standard water balloon battle, augmented by the fact that all our clothes were permanently dyed red and green at the end.

Luckily, there was a swimming pool at the apartment complex we were using as our battlefield, so most of us jumped in to wash ourselves off. I can’t remember the last time I jumped in a swimming pool with all my clothes on.

When everything settled down, we spent the rest of the evening determining what color each other’s mind was, and reading Chinese silverware writing.

The whole night was totally awesome.