The Morbid Optimist

3/27 Return from NYC to Durham via 13 hour Bus ride due to Train derailment just N of Richmond, VA. Barely tolerate fascist bus driver who chastises any moise above the white noise of highway driving. Miss ride home from desolate, closed bus station due to roomates being "tired".
3/28 Volunteer for brain study based on rating "novelty" of different sentence structure. Not as interesting as expected, but easy $20.
3/29 Sleep in to 2PM. DJ my show on WXDU at 6PM then spend rest of night compiling up-beat tunes for Duke and UNC undergrads to play basketball to from 4AM-6AM.
3/30 After crashing at 7AM, sleep until 1:30PM, set up band that involves a glockenspeil, bells and two electric organs (plus usual vocals, bass, guitar and drums) that inevitably ends up in a tangle of mic cords after band leaves. Hang out with the music department before going up to cover another radio show.
3/31 Almost oversleep through a different brain imaging study. Look at more "traumatic" pictures which mostly remind me of my Forensic Medicine class.
Lead my first meeting as GM of WXDU! I think it went well, but I worry that I'm too bossy or presumptuous.
4/1 Brainstorm with faculty advisor of station next years budget for WXDU. I want a neon sign for the station!!! And a big banner!
Trivia tournement!!! Interrupted by another meeting with the Duke University Union (again I worry about being presumptuous when I speak up).
Upon return to the trivia night we qualify for finals!!! Go team "Hold me Closer Tony Danza"!!!
4/2 Sub another show at 9AM in an effort to get myself out of bed before noon for once this week (how does 99% of the population do it???)

Future:

4/2 Birthday celebration for friend at my place. Will there be Rock Band? I will seetle for Settlers of Catan (even tho my roommate always wins).
4/3 Another meeting, this time the gay grad group. I really hate being treasurer but I hate it less than the others so I guess that's why I'm doing it.
Nationally recognized Full-Frame Documentary film festival starts in Durham tonight. I plan on seeing a film each night of the festival.
4/4 Interview with Duke Magazine about radio station.
4/5 Competative kickball against UNC's radio station. Rumor has it fights break out. I hope to come out unscathed.
4/6 Marathon budgeting meeting. Hopefully station's budget will get approved and we won't have to shut it down. No pressure!!!
4/7 Classes resume full time. Wish me luck!


see more crazy cat pics

Just got back from DJing. Well, I got back 45 minutes ago and got distracted on LJ, but now I'm posting before I fall asleep. I fucked up a few times, but I'm generally pleased with the music I chose. I was also surprised at how energetic those undergrads were, playing basketball in the middle of the night. I, myself, was wide awake the whole time. My plan of sleeping in until 2PM worked (too bad I do that on days where I'm NOT required to stay up until 6AM.

Below is the set list. I tried roughly to make my first hour "rockin'" and the 2nd hour electronic. I also didn't want to alienate the undergrads and tried to cater (see, pander) to their tastes. So yeah, that explains the Eve 6 song. But a Duke girl even came by and thanked me for the Le Tigre! It makes it all worth it.

Get Over It - OK Go
Cherry Bomb - Joan Jett and the Black Hearts
Pump it Up - Elvis Costello
Sexx Laws - Beck
Ballroom Blitz - Sweet
Pure Morning - Placebo
Charm Attack - Leona Naess
Switchin' to Glide - The Kings
Saints - Breeders
The Fanatic - Felony
I Wanna be Sedated - The Ramones
Dancing with Myself - Generation X
Rescue - Eve 6
Push It - Garbage
Heimdalsgate like a Promethian Curse - Of Montreal
You Spin Me Right 'Round - Dead or Alive
Connection - Elastica
Danger! High Voltage - Electric Six
Go! - Tones on Tail
*********
Music is My Hot Hot Sex - CSS
Koko - Goldfrapp
Robot Rock/Technologic - Daft Punk
The Safety Dance - Men Without Hats
Two of Hearts - Stacey Q
Your Retro Career Melted - The Faint
Kiss Me - Tin Tin
Overdose - Tomcraft
Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
Relax - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Ice Cream - New Young Pony Club
Deceptacon - Le Tigre
D.A.N.C.E. - Justice
Walking in L.A.


So. What do you think? Can I DJ your Bar Mitzvah???

I get to DJ for charity tonight...

...during a basketball game

...at 4 in the morning.

Actually I'm kind of psyched. It will be a low key arena to test my (practically non-existant) mixing skillz

I'm in New York until Thursday.


see more crazy cat pics

I just realized why my clinical virology lecture was making me chuckle (I know, I felt awful too). But then I realized, my professor sounds like her:

I've been catching up on sleep. So sue me.

Does anyone else find it ironic that he sings "waiting for my man tonight" while caressing that lady???

Oy. This weekend has been a burst of musical wantings. I just downloaded Alphaville's best of "First Harvest" album because I couldn't stop humming the chorus of "Big in Japan", which I really wanted to be some sort of social commentary on how lots of synthesizer-heavy bands in the 80's weren't as popular stateside, but had to comfort themselves with being "big in Japan", the land of synthesizers. Instead it's just another crappy love song.

This old REM video hypnotizes me every time I see it. It's like Where's Waldo but with a catchy beat.



I miss watching videos on TV :(

http://www.cornholethemovie.com/

A "sport" not found up north.

I am in a cranky mood.

I am invited (a la facebook) to "Stampin' up! A card making party--it's time to be creative!!!" This angers and offends me.

My gut response is "This is sad and lame. Why do my classmates think I would be interested in a 'crafting' party." I just don't understand these women. They ride mechanical bulls, drink crappy domestic beer and then get together and glue construction paper together that they will then send to people on the designated hallmark holiday. Case in point, I got not one but 3 "valentines" from these well-meaning straight women for reasons unexplainable to me.

Ugh, I know. I'm overreacting (and somewhat hypocritical as I'm sure some of your will point out). People get valentines from people they aren't sleeping with...but it makes me gag and today is the day I have chosen to complain about it instead of addressing the fact that I am stressed out about my grades and whether applying for GM of WXDU was a good idea.

At the WXDU interview (run by the undergraduate student government) it was pretty clear that undergraduates don't really care about the radio station and that, as far as they're concerned, it should be broadcasting corporate commercials to get them more $$$. Is student government really supposed to be run like a corporation???



AaaaAAaaAaaaaaarrrrgh.



I never thought I would say this, but I miss hipsters :(
At least when they drink crappy domestic beer they do it "ironically".

So I broke 1000 kilometers on my scooter on my way to my friend Wes's birthday two nights ago! I got it in mid-October so that's about 4.5 months. Is that a lot of driving? Perhaps not for a car, but it feels like a lot on something that can't go more than 30mph.




I developed some bad habits, like running red lights. But I swear I only do this in the middle of the night when, I assume, the traffic lights work by motion detection (which my little scooter does not trigger because of it's size). I shall explain: I will sit at a red light for 5 minutes and the light in the other direction will go through 3 cycles without my light changing! Does this happen to anyone else or are the lights in the Triangle area weird? Anyway, I'm glad they don't have those police cameras at intersections like in some cities otherwise I'd be majorly busted.

No, this is not a post about a recent jaunt to the local BDSM bar...hopefully that will come later...?

But seriously:

I received a leather jacket as a gift last week.

And lets get one thing straight, this was the kind of leather jacket a Yuppie wears, not a biker. I mean, it was a hand-me-down from my brother (who actually never really wore it...and if you know my brother that makes perfect sense). It was a brown Perry Ellis affair. Very nice, but very '94.

Anyway, my first thoughts were "sure, I ride a scooter everywhere, a leather jacket is totally appropriate and it has more pockets and less weird plastic padding than my current riding jacket".

But then I remembered that half of my friends down here are vegetarians. I tried wearing it around the past week, and none of my vegetarian friends have said anything, but I think that's partially why they're my friends--because they don't push their philosophies on me. I still felt kind of like a tool.

If I had felt at all sexy in it I could've possibly gotten over the whole "dead animal" thing, but I think the additional fact that I feel totally stuck up in it makes it a bad fashion choice.

Um, so yeah I have mixed feeling about leather.

A law/anthropology student at Duke is looking for men (trans or not) who have been discriminated at work due to their gender or sexual orientation. The study involves just a confidential interview.

Contact emily.bieber@law.duke.edu to volunteer or if you want more information on her study.

I do not know this woman, so if she asks just tell her a guy from the med school referred you ;)

So while really I should have been boning up on bacteria and basic immunology and pathology for my first exam, there were way too many social engagements.

The weekend before last there was Drag Bingo. It's just like regular bingo except drag queens verify the BINGO's...and certain numbers require that you get up and shake your ass around. The host, Mary K. Mart is hilarious and her co-host JP makes an excellent "straight man" (pun NOT intended...he has partial ownership of a gay bar in Raleigh). I even won a prize! Thankfully the woman who invited me also runs the prize table so she knew to give me a gift card to the Duke bookstore (score!). Now if only I could remember where I put it...

Every week we have family home evening (FHE) where, as is mormon tradition, we gather and spend time with "family" (erm, friends) play board games and read scripture. Well, we don't quite do the last thing, but we sure mention possible topics a lot.

I also continue to help set up live bands at WXDU every other week. This week we had Tooth, a heavy metal outfit from Durham who were actually pretty awesome considering I usually detest heavy metal. They made the station shake but not overly so. And their skill on their instruments is only matched by their skill at being able to mention cum, poop, vomit and clamato mentioned all in one conversation. Also, apparently it is REQUIRED to have a shaggy beard to play heavy metal in the South.



Valintines day, perhaps my least favorite holiday only after New Years, rolled around last week. I think a couple of my more hipster-leaning friends may have changed my mind about it, though. We found that if we dressed up like zombies and went to a pool hall, valentines day could be pretty tolerable (pics to follow soon, hopefully). One of my friends, a philosophy PhD student, wrote "No Qualia" across his decaying forehead and we had quite a debate as to the merits of that argument. And even though technically I had a "date" with me that night, I felt being all bloody and decayed was much more appropriate of a day commemorating a saint, since most of them died horrible, gruesome (and in my opinion unneccesary) deaths. I'm less sure how going to a pool hall and playing shuffle board works into that...but it was more fun than teddy bears, wilting flowers and artificially flavored chocolates.

So, much to my annoyance, the gay grad group has decided to put on a film festival on campus. The only reason it annoys me is because I am the treasurer and being the treasurer of this group really sucks. It involves WAY more email reading and responding than I care for. Especially when the people you email also hate responding to email and have difficult schedules.

So anyway, we decided (well, they decided and I said "I trust your judgement") to show Shortbus as the opening film. Yes, the sexually explicit, criticaly acclaimed movie directed by John Cameron Mitchell. The Screen society at duke agreed to provide space to show the films, but the head of it, after screening a copy of it, has refused to promote it (but they will promote the other films in the festival). So now our faculty advisor's all in a tizzy because she's worried that we're all gonna get flak for showing this controversial film on campus. We have the money for it (not really thanks to me), if that counts for anything.

So now we all have to go watch it tonight and "discuss our feelings and concerns" about showing it. I honestly don't care, but at the same time I would like to inject some common sense into the discussion. Do any of y'all have some common sense that you would like me to share with the gay grad group board? I ask only because tonight I need to spend my time studying, not thinking about this. Aargh.

Isn't she precious?

No.

So this past week was filled with drama that, while I was only marginally involved, there was so much of it coming from so many directions I felt emotionally drained, even though I really had no reason to be.

1) I subscribe to the Triangle Area music scene mailing list, and there's been alot of ado on it about perceived "favoritism" among the venue owners and other "gatekeepers" such as my local music mentor at XDU, grady, who has local acts on his XDU show every other week (and who also happens to run the list). The supposed "gatekeepers" replied back that bands should play smaller venues (of which there is a surprising amount here in Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) before they complain about no one returning their phone calls at a mid-level venue. Plus, this band hadn't played any gigs and yet they had a "manager," which is kind of a red flag...right?

2) the executive board of my old community choir the ECMC, whose mailing list I am still subscribed to also, seems to be hemorraging internally. It's too much to get into, but there's a lot of debate over selecting more "accessible" music to get the group out of debt vs. letting the conductor choose works that differentiate the group from more stereotypic "Gay Men's Choruses."

3) I am the Graduate and Professional School Congress (GPSC, pron. "gypsy") representative for my program. Last week's meeting, we had President Brodhead come by for an, "informal chat." Instead we got a bunch of pre-written questions (written by us the previous meeting, actually) presented in a cheesy "presidential Jeopardy" format. Based on comments to an article written about the meeting in the school paper, a lot of the reps were mad that the executive board of GPSC pulled this format, especially since during the meeting even the President was kind of balking at it.

4) The ongoing drama with my roommates baby's mama. She seriously needs to be in therapy. She calls up my roomate saying she just can't take the kid anymore and that he needs to come over and have "complete custody." He goes over and then she corners him in the car and won't leave until he calls to police on her. I don't understand where all this drama comes from. She had a job, a new boyfriend and my roommate is a GREAT father to her 7yo son. It must be a chemical imbalance.

5) One of my Friend's cat died on Tuesday. He had a congenital heart disease that finally manifested itself into a sudden heart attack without any prior signs. Poor kitty was only 5 and just getting accustomed to outsiders in the house. Makes me all sad inside.



Who knew that school would be my respite from stress?

I actually think it's pretty awesome that some people think the above movie will be autobiographical or at least semi-autobiographical of my life. The truth: not everyone who goes into pathology is obsessed with death and mentally disturbed.

I saw my first Duke Autopsy last month. It's true, the most intense part is the first incision. Thankfully, Duke has "evisceration technicians" that do all the dirty work (although I hear in my 2nd year I'll be helping them out a bit). PA's mostly do the external exam and then cut open the organs and examine them after they are removed by the technicians.

Although, doing an external exam on a cadaver takes some getting used too. It's a little too similar to a visit to the doctor.

Body & Disease is the last block of Medical school classes I take, but it goes until the end of June. I have decided to be a "gunner" and go for Honors (> 90%). I now know what works for me in terms of studying and absorbing massive amounts of information...kind of. Well, it's a goal and I'm gonna reach for it.

Speaking of which I should really get back to going over my lecture notes. kthxbye!