Whoring myself off in the name of psychology...

An e-mail that I just got...
I'm thinking about keeping the palm pilot...

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2004 23:09:10 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: paid psychology experiment

Hello there.

You are receiving this email because you had expressed interest in taking part in paid psychology experiments. You have been randomly selected to be a participant (if you are willing) in the Midterm study (supervising faculty member Professor Patrick Shrout). The object of the study is to find out about the activities, experiences, moods, thoughts etc. of a normal college student approaching a stressful midterm (i.e. your gen-chem midterm on the 22nd)

The study pays $20 and takes a total of no more than 2 hours of your time. You will need to take part in an introductory/orientation session next week. This session will take no more than 30 minutes. You will be asked to do a couple of simple tasks (i.e. filling out a questionnaire) and you will be given a more detailed explanation of the study and how it will be run. At the end of the session, you will be given a palm pilot with a questionnaire program on it, to take home and complete, as well as $5 (the other $15 will be given upon return of the palm pilot). The palm pilot questionnaires should be filled out over the course of two weeks (once per evening). The questionnaire usually takes between 4 and 7 minutes to complete.

If you are still interested in participating, please respond to this email and sign up for a session either next Thursday (October 7th) or next Friday (October 8th). Here are the available time slots:

Thursday (October 7th):
2pm-2:30pm
4pm-4:30pm

Friday (October 8th):
11am-11:30am
12pm-12:30pm
1pm-1:30pm
2pm-2:30pm
4:30pm-5pm
5:30pm-6pm

Please sign up for a time slot asap, since some of the rooms we have access to are quite small and will only be able to hold a few people (times are a first come first serve basis). It is suggested that you reply with a few possible times (in case one or more of those time slots was already filled up).

thank you for your time, and I hope you will consider being a participant in this study.

Liberal Weiners and Right Wing Nut Jobs

The first presidential debate aired on September 30th from Florida...
I watched the debate with my roommates...

I thought both Bush and Kerry did a great job...
They kept repeating things though...recycling ideas, but it's good though, if people don't know about the foreign policy issues, they should have a better understanding now...
They both agree that nuclear proliferation is the United States' greatest threat...

Bush is definitely more about offense...offense, offense, offense...ignore the United Nations and just blow shit up to "spread freedom"...
Kerry is more about defense, working with other countries and improving America's image...forming better alliances...I hope he won't make America look like assholes...
War should be a LAST RESORT...

I was waiting for George W. Bush to do something embarrassing or stupid, but he presented himself pretty well...he still prefers 'nucular' over 'nuclear'...but I won't hold his grammar against him...

But I will hold his actions against him...
Think about this George, can you confidently say that the world is safer without Saddam?
Is it really? Beheadings are sure gruesome as hell, so are the soldiers that are dying more and more each month, and people still live in fear...
But don't worry, just send more troops in...it ain't your sons that are going to war...
What about Osama?
What about Iran?
What about North Korea?
Why are you wasting our time and money in Iraq?
But hey, we can't leave now, we broke it, now we gotta fix it...

LEHRER: You have said there was a "miscalculation" of what the conditions would be in postwar Iraq. What was the miscalculation, and how did it happen?

BUSH: No, what I said was that, because we achieved such a rapid victory, more of the Saddam loyalists were around. I mean, we thought we'd whip more of them going in.

Rapid victory? Ha...

BUSH: And now we're fighting them now. And it's hard work. I understand how hard it is. I get the casualty reports every day. I see on the TV screens how hard it is. But it's necessary work.

It's hard work. But, again, I want to tell the American people, we're doing everything we can at home.

Yeah, it IS hard work, but how would YOU know? Have you even served on the National Guard? Because they're having a little problem with the authenticity of the documents...
Being president is hard work...it's hard work mommy...boo hoo hoo...

You better have a president who chases these terrorists down and bring them to justice before they hurt us again.

He is basically using a scare tactic...you need a president that is tough on terrorism, if you don't vote for me another 9/11 will happen...
Let's scare people into voting for me...
Keep the people in fear, then they will obey...

It was expected that Bush would take shots at Kerry for changing his mind on the war...
But I thought Kerry handled it well...saying that Saddam was a threat, but we should've waited for the support of other countries...
Kerry is more for countries working together as a whole, which I like...

If I could give advice to John Kerry I'd say to stop being fake...
Conservatives are saying that you aren't tough enough on terror...but that doesn't mean you have to say things like "I will hunt down and kill the terrorists, wherever they are..."
That obviously isn't you, you don't have to appear all "macho" to gain appreciation from the right-wing....
Just be yourself goddammit...please...

"Of course we're after Saddam Hussein -- I mean, bin Laden." ~George W. Bush

"Invading Iraq in response to 9/11 would be like Franklin Roosevelt invading Mexico in response to Pearl Harbor."

Sorry for that liberal rant...I'm done...

"Ev'rybody's talkin' 'bout
Revolution, Evolution, Masturbation, Flagellation, Regulation,
Integrations, mediations, United Nations, congratulations
All we are saying...is give peace a chance..."
~John Lennon, "Give Peace A Chance"

Not Fun...

Tuesday
A rainy, crappy, shitty day…
I woke up extra early around 7 to get some coffee from McDonalds…
I will never order a Large ever again…because I don’t need that much caffeine in my system…
I think coffee is one of those things that you have to get used to…it’s tastes like absolute shit, but people drink it for the effect mostly…same thing with beer…I like ruining my coffee by adding a ton of sugar to it…
I was walking back to the dorm and it was pouring out, big puddles in the street…
This guy in a business suit and briefcase kinda slipped and fell on his side in a puddle of water…
His entire side was soaked and he just got up and walked off, slightly limping…
He probably had a business meeting to get to, sucks for him…

Chem lecture and lab…
Paper chromatography, fun stuff…

I didn’t bring a jacket or umbrella to the lab because the rain had stopped…
But sometime during the lab the rain started up again…
So I ran back to the dorm with a t-shirt in the rain…that was interesting…
This homeless guy was sitting against a building, and HE had an umbrella and grinned at me…

Wednesday
Writing the essay, I wrote a bullshit essay basically badmouthing the entire course itself…can’t wait to get comments on THAT back…

I think I’m going to donate a pint of blood…I’m gonna do it right this time…last time they wouldn’t accept my blood because I was on antibiotics within the past month or something…

Oh, and I also volunteered myself for a psychology experiment…it’s paid…in essence I'm whoring myself off to the NYU Psychology Department...
The strange thing is, they’re not telling me what the experiment is like…
That makes me scared…it could be anything…what if they attach brain receptors to my head and force me to do horrible things?
I’m all up for it…

Thursday
I started writing an essay today 3 hours before it was due…
Risky, but it’s over…

Dinner at Rubin with the roommates and Christina…
Pretty decent dining hall, but supposedly Rubin didn’t pass the food sanitation test last year…
The pasta was good, but I wouldn’t trust the grill guy, he was clumsy and kept dropping the spatula…

Blasting “Brown Eyed Girl”…that was pretty cool…
Stayed up till 1:30 REdoing the chem homework…while the roomies went bar hopping and nearly got their ID’s taken away because of an asshole bouncer…
All this work I'm getting, this is not cool...no time for any fun... :(

Oh, I watched the Bush/Kerry debate, but I'll discuss that later...

"Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé
Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé..."
~John Lennon, "#9 Dream"

Credit cards are evil...printer cartridges are too...

Sunday
I've come to the conclusion that credit cards are evil...
They are the epitome of temptation...
I talked to someone about this before...with cash and debit cards you can actually see your money decline...with credit cards you don't really see how much you've spent until the bill comes...or in my case, until you get an angry phone call from your parents...

I went to Virgin Megastore to buy the new Interpol album, I thought it came out already, but it didn't, comes out Tuesday...
So I go into the store looking to buy one thing, but come out buying two totally different things...



Ended up purchasing Lennon Legend and Radiohead's The Bends...
Extremely unneccessary, but damn...I'm glad I bought them...
Simply put, The Bends is AMAZING...my favorite Radiohead album [at the moment]...

Why are printer ink cartridges so damn expensive?
I bought 2 HP Black 15's and it cost me 60 dollars...damn...
I should just buy a new printer each time I run out of ink...
Printing cartridges and replacement razor blades...I'm gonna go broke...

Had a very dissatisfying lunch...
At 4:00 3rd North still serves brunch...
So we get there and I decide to eat light, just potatoes and a lemonade, and wait until 4:30 because that's when lunch starts...
Something was messed up, probably with the dishwasher, because all the utensils were made of plastic and we were eating on paper plates...
The softserve machine spewed out something that resembled rancid diarrhea...
4:30 rolls around and the lady says that if we stick around she'll charge us for another meal...
It's so wrong...another thing, if you eat breakfast at, let's say, 10:31am it will count as a lunch meal...then if I decide to have lunch later at noon or 1 o'clock I CAN'T because I've already used my lunch meal...
The system must be fixed...
I want my meal plan to be like a cell phone plan dammit...
I want ANYTIME meals...and I want ROLLOVER meals...

We were trying to pinpoint the reason why we pick on Kenny so much...
Why are all the "your mom" jokes aimed at Kenny? We thought it was because he didn't "fight back" enough...

"It's like in poker, you gotta call my bluff, if I bet your mom you gotta call and raise a grandma"~Ryan

Later, that night...
"Ryan! What's with all the unwrapped condoms all over your bed?!"
That's what Kenny screams out when Ryan is on the phone with his mom...
It kinda pissed Ryan off and he threw the deck of cards at him and chased him down the hall...
"We've created a monster..."
Yes, I think we have...

Monday
I went to the Foot Locker on Broadway, and asked if they had any of those yellow bracelets...they guy said that all the Foot Lockers in Manhattan sold out of them...
I'm going to have to buy them online...10 bracelets for 10 dollars...I guess I'll sell 9 of them to get some of my money back...maybe I'll sell them for 2 dollars...no, that would be extremely cruel and unusual and a kick in the face to all the cancer victims...(not really), but I would feel like I'm making a profit through cancer....

I despise chain letters and anything that resembles a chain letter (now that I said that, I'm so gonna get spammed)
I kinda flipped out on Edwin when he sent me one...

phatstrat717: Edwin, if you send me another chain letter I'm gonna come to your house, drink all your booze, and piss on your lawn...

And now that random statement is in Edwin's profile...

Worked out at Palladium again, I think carrying water from K-mart is a workout in itself...
Stupid biology lab, here are some microscopes...GO!
It midnight I picked up the new Interpol album, Antics...
I think it's great, the vocals are a lot more prominent, and the way certain songs are panned, it's good...a lot more cohesive overall...

"You broke another mirror,
you’re turning into something you are not..."
~Radiohead, "High and Dry"