After a gruelling 7 hours, callback auditions are done, Done, DONE! I'd tell you the results, but confidentiality and all that. Never know who's prying around on these blogs.

Halfway done with Alias Season One...33 episodes to go before Season 3 premier on Sep 28th. And Karen is going to be my Alias TV buddy so I don't have to be boring and watch it alone. Yay! I swear that so many of my friends here are deficient when it comes to the fine art of enjoying television series. Nerds.

Laundry today was an unmitigated disaster. The soap powder didn't dissolve, and the dryer didn't work properly. Stupid Duke facilities.

Books:
Lost In a Good Book - Jasper Fforde

Auditions till 3 a.m. for past 2 nights. Aaargh!

My "philosophy of biology" professor yelled at someone in class yesterday. We were discussing evolution and natural selection and its inherent incompatibility with theistic beliefs (i.e. that the randomness of evolution precludes the idea of intelligent design). This girl in the front of the room starts getting riled up and asks the professor who he is to say what God can and cannot do, and then the professor gets mad and yells at her for being rude and using the class as a forum to air her religious views. Then he holds her back after the class to yell at her some more, which prompts one of my other friends to drop the class in the afternoon. (I'm sure Chris would not have been pleased if he had been there).

I'm rather confused as to who was in the right in that particular situation...but I do see the professor's point: that he is merely reporting what people before us have carefully reasoned out. More and more, I'm beginning to think that defensiveness in that kind of situation is an indication of an insecurity in one's faith. I mean, it's not as if God is going to be blown down like a house of cards by an academic discussion, and it's not as if we can't think and decide for ourselves when it comes to what we want to belive in. Blinding yourself or misrepresenting the facts isn't exactly very helpful.

Here's a rundown of the grad schools I'm considering (so far):

Yale
Harvard
U Minnesota
CMU
MIT
Stanford
Berkeley
Johns Hopkins

I have a lot more to look at. Welcome to the world of my life being consumed.

Auditions tonight.

I have changed my mind; I don't think I'll look for a new job after all. By the time I settle in, the lab will be up and running again. Will try to sit tight and be unsalaried for a month or so.

Movie:
The Boondock Saints

Finally moved in and rejoined the rest of civilization. If I had known where my stuff had been stored, I might have reconsidered my options, saving $100 be damned. It was this really scary, Area 51 kind of place with 2 caretakers: a large, old woman and her enormous Rottweiler. Brr. Anyway, everything is intact and in order, and one more trip to the mall should suffice for me to once more be part of the human race.

Freshman a cappella concert last night rocked.

Dr. Buhusi says that I can't have my job back until end September at the earliest because the lab is still in the process of moving. I guess I should look for other employment before then but I'm rather dry on ideas, so I guess I'll be scouring the Chronicle for a while. Speaking of the Chronicle, I got quoted in it today:

Bus Shelter Article

for what it's worth.

So it starts again. I see from reading over some of my entries from last semester that despite my efforts I have slipped into the trap of pretension. I think we need to start afresh and go with facts, not histrionics. Right.

I have just emerged from the ulu-ness of Hayesville, NC, residence of Simon Dixon, sophomore tenor in Rhythm and Blue. It was actually quite a good opportunity to get a breather in between traveling and the beginning of classes. In a nutshell, what was featured were: horses, bluegrass music, chocolate peanut butter fudge cake, singing, a BBQ involving 5 pigs, smelly dogs (x2), Mafia, cheapass Turning Leaf wine, Fred N Carl Lane, fog, Kimmi, an embarrassing home video, the Big Lebowski, insufficient bathrooms and getting lost numerous times.

Most of my things are still in storage. All the people who can help me seem not to be here yet. I'm irritated because although I have clothes, I have no bedsheets, or pillowcases, or pillows, or much of anything else. One more uncomfortable night coming up.

Music:
Remedy - Jason Mraz

Books:
The Light of Day - Graham Swift
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde