Fall 07 Kick-off

The school year has started off great...I think I have what is quite possibly the best combination of jobs on campus (research assistant for CSPO, working with Jamey on my thesis, and CA - the new "RA" - in the Towers, a much-coveted position with an 8th floor room which has got to have the best view in Tempe). My staff is awesome...my boss is awesome...my roommate is awesome, despite me initially thinking that we would be polar opposites (and maybe we are, but it works completely). Never judge a person by his facebook page.

Mr Sam Soichet was here for a week. It FLEW by faster than the planes that persistently swoop in over the Towers to land in Phoenix, but I'm confident that he was shown a great time. I say this not out of spite, but rather in the highest regard: Sam is someone who is libido-driven 75% of the time, he's Sr Machismo Mucho and will remain so until the end of his days. These traits make him absolutely absurd and fun, usually alternating between the two. These traits also helped him fit in very snugly to the culture of the new academic year ASU, where if you aren't ready you will feel that you have entered the world of an absurd music video, and you will be overwhelmed by the amount of tanned bareness. Luckily (?), I'm desensitized to all of it, as I've heard most of the cell phone conversations that emanate from those who comprise this culture. Cold shower. But, for Sam, this was truly an exciting time, full of opportunity to contemplate at the pool, reading Umberto Eco in Italian while wondering if speaking the language to the mostly-naked, non-fluent beautiful females around him would win him points anyway. The one person I did find who spoke Italian happened to be a gay friend of mine, who after having an extended conversation with Sam in his native tongue, remarked sagely that Sam's last name (Soichet, pronounced "So-shay") sounded like "So-shit". Normally this friend of mine is a very charming fellow...perhaps I'm naive about the sophisticated ways in which charm can be applied, but I think this may have been a social faux pais, translated into Italian (which I would have here except evidently freetranslation.com does not find French as important a language as Japanese).

So, Peter. My roommate, is straight out of a sitcom about bro-dudes from New York who come out to the desert and constantly freak out because they are no longer surrounded by the constantly confusing stimuli of the city. So, they create confusing stimuli to make up for this necessary need. My needs are certainly fulfilled when I heard some of the ingenious statements which drift through the double doors of our bathroom while Peter takes his shower. Seriously, though, Peter is one of the most enthusiastic, energized, positive and fun people I've met.
He apologizes for everything (we're working on that) and essentially can only be pissed off when you leave the Playstation on after you leave the apartment. Even then, I wouldn't describe the emotion as...genuine anger. Finally, after I beat God of War (a game my first residents all played together while I was too busy/uncomfortable to participate as an RA), we're going to buy the second one and go through it together. I may also join up with the ASU swing devils Thursday nights, which is something he does a lot of.

Whatever. We're buddies, ok? Shut up.

Now that the relatively fun stuff is out of the way, I have to talk about something much more serious and tragic. A shame it wasn't done in a separate entry, because the man of the discussion deserves at least his own post. Actually, you know what...he's going to get one.