a history of me

Watching some of last night's debate between Bush and Kerry, I was reminded of a very funny site, Dubyaspeak. It's an archive of the President's most awkward comments and mistakes, and it's updated frequently. Indeed, they've already got my favorite quote from last night: when asked about a draft, Bush suggested there were "rumors on the Internets" and he denied the possibility of a draft. I wonder which Internet this site is on, and how many "Internets" is he aware of? And who is still undecided after watching W flop around stage like a fish when he gets frustrated? He has this real bitchy tone of voice he uses when he's positive that he's in the right (so to speak), i.e. when he shouted "You tell Tony Blair we're going alone!" Personally, it really irritates me.

Naturally, I watched a rerun of the debate as the Yankees-Twins game was my first priority. The Yankees won, of course, and should wrap it up today. I am disappointed that the Angels couldn't manage one win against the slovenly Red Sox, but I suppose an Yankees-Red Sox series is best for baseball.

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Last night we had a power failure. Not the building, just in our room. That fucking sucked. I made the most of it though; I went to a lounge and tried to catch up on my reading. But if anyone tried to phone last night, you didn't get through because my cordless phone doesn't ring without electricity.

But that's not the really bad news. I've just learned that another former high school classmate is dead, Drew Ranavaro. I won't mince words though. In high school, he was an asshole. He bullied me without remorse. It was all just a joke to him, and I heard enough "colorful" tales about him to be really scared of him.

This went on for a few years afterwards since Croton is a small town and we would encounter each other with some regularity. Also, he had a friendlier relationship with some of my friends, leading to the occasional conflict. The trickiest point came when Drew worked at a local pizzeria that I frequented. I had a standard policy for dealing with bullies that my parents taught me: ignore them. This never made them stop like my parents said it would, but it certainly shortened our encounters. So whenever I ran into Drew around town, I would rarely acknowledge him and saying only what was necessary if I saw him at the pizzeria. He would call out an insult or two, but I would not respond.

I abandoned this policy circa 2002. I passed Drew somewhere and rather than look away or try to ignore him, I deliberately spoke to him and offered a casual greeting. He replied in turn and we went about our business. No insults were ever spoken towards me again. After nearly a decade of torment we were suddenly even. In fact, we actually became a little friendly. Not to the point where we met up and had drinks or anything, but I visited his home sometimes, and he did so in turn.

I hadn't seen Drew in quite some time. According to the obituaries, he moved to the Tampa/St. Petersburg area in January of this year. A quick search online of his last name reveals only nine hits (not counting this page), most of which are various references to his obituaries here in New York as well as Florida. Neither says how he died, or even offered much about how he lived. One obituary said he "worked in retail sales," and another mentioned a daughter whom I never met. I'm not sure which upsets me more: his daughter growing up without a father, or that the only thing his obituary could say was that he "worked in retail sales."

Naturally, the death of someone I knew is disturbing. It is more disturbing given that he was younger than I am, and we were of similar body types. I don't handle matters of my own mortality very well, so I can't dwell on this or I'll freak out. But please, if I die somewhere before my time (so to speak), do whatever you can to make my obit say something meaningful. Exaggerate. Fantasize if you have to. Just don't mention any specific job I held. I don't want to die as just another former postal worker.

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One more Iron Thursday down and I feel pretty good. Weekends are fun. I have a lot of reading to do and this time I'm really going to do it all. I also have to prepare my class presentation for EAS 190, as my turn is coming up on the 14th. That also happens to be the FINAL Iron Thursday, and doing that presentation will be a fun moment of "closure" for me. I'm actually kind of looking forward to it because most of the presentations so far have been, well, lacking in energy. I'm going to do my best to entertain as much of the class as possible, and hopefully cover the material as well. That's why I did my paper on my presentation topic, so by handing in the first draft, I got an idea of how my material looks. A 92 looks pretty good, so I think this is going to come out pretty nice.

Speaking of grades, I got my quiz back from last week's Russian & Soviet Cinema class. He took time out to admonish the class for poor grades but I got a 12/14, so I'm doing OK there too. We've got a midterm in two weeks so we'll see how that goes. The movies are getting more interesting now that we're watching "talkies." I didn't get my English paper back yet so I'm still in the dark about that class. She had a general message to the class today saying that the papers "are better than you [meaning us students] might think, so you [us] have a better hold of the material than you [us] think." Sounds like more good news!

Tomorrow there's a East Asian Studies department meeting, so I'm looking forward to a little mingling with my peers. I'll wear my hat again, of course, because it's getting me noticed!

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If you haven't heard by now, Rodney Dangerfield died yesterday. He had been quite sick over the past year, but it's still sad to see him go. Today everyone has their own take on Rodney's famous line about "no respect," so I'm not going to go there. Instead, I will just say that he was a very funny man and Caddyshack is still one of the funniest movies around.

"Hey everybody, we're all gonna get laid!"

Let's hope so. R.I.P. Rodney.


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The weather here has cooled considerably. It was in the 40s this morning. I could see my breath! I love it. Everyone was whining, "oh it's soo cold," but this is my kind of temperature. Finally, I could wear jeans, long sleeves, and a hat! Specifically, the hat I bought in Philadelphia. My roommate said I looked like a "detective." Nice.

I handed in my first English paper today. I stayed up late last night to finish it, and by that I mean "write it." I'd like to say last night was the last time I'll procrastinate and leave a paper until the last minute, but how can I make that promise? Let's just say that I did learn to appreciate the assistance offered at the Writing Center. For me to go out of my way to seek help on a paper, that's a step in the right direction. I'll deal with my procrastination problem next time.

Guess what? That's not even the good news! Today I got back my first draft of my paper for EAS 190. 92! The only comments she had were positive, so all I need to do is write more, as the draft was a little short of the requisite five pages. This could be my first A at Albany!

Go Billy! And go Yankees!

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I am fascinated by the trend of the lower back tattoo among women. Tattoos are quickly becoming as mainstream as earrings, and I am at a loss to understand it. One girl in particular caught my eye this evening at dinner because her tattoo was four Chinese characters. I don't speak Chinese but I know enough Japanese to understand the meaning of all four characters she had down there. First, on top, was 愛, meaning "love." Beneath that, horizontally, were three others: 友, "friend," 好, "fondness," and 天, "heaven."

What are the significance of these characters, and is there any added significance to their proximity to her ass? And why can't I start a conversation about it to find out? "Hi, we've never met, but I'd like to start a dialogue with you about what's written on your ass."

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You may have noticed a slight change in the page layout. I'm still working on the finer points, but this is the future of this site: multiple pages. I didn't spend good money on "feitclub.com" just to run a blog. Any sucker can run a blog. I'm here to shamelessly promote myself, complain about world events, and pointlessly proclaim my love for various pop-culture items. That's what the Internet is all about!

Speaking of re-alignment, I'm very happy to hear about the Montréal Expos moving to Washington, DC. If you've been to Montréal, you know that the novelty of people speaking French wears off really quickly. Of course, we'll see how DC treats its third baseball team. The first two packed up and left town; they're currently operating in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Arlington, Texas. Will the Expos change their name to the Senators to follow history, or will they pick a new name? They're certainly not going to be the "Washington Expos," that's for sure. Another non-surprise: Major League Baseball has already established an official website for the forthcoming team and is selling vintage Senators merchandise. Ka-ching! Welcome to 21st century baseball, River City!

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