Tertiary, My Dear Watson

Questival

2016-10-01T08:19:00.003-07:00

I did this cool thing.

No Friends on a Powder Day

2015-03-01T12:55:00.000-08:00

Hey fellas. I got sick a few days ago, so I've been inside a lot, which sucks any time of the year, but especially now at the height of ski season. One side effect of that insideness is that I got a whole lotta homework done, and since I'm still kinda sick, I'm running out of things to do, which never happens. Meaning, I get to write a blog post.

Frozen waterfall in town.

J Term was the best. My class was good (nonfiction creative writing) because even though the prof wasn't the best in the entire world, I got to write fun things and read fun things and spend lots of time in the mountains and on the ice rink.

Feb Break (the week we get off between J Term and spring semester) was even more the best, because it was just J Term without class.

I mentioned last time that I'm not doing track this year, 'cause other stuff is more fun. That is still true. I have driven to a couple of meets to watch my guys race, one in Dartmouth and one in Boston. Boston had crazy snow. So did Middlebury, but you expect that.

I took these from pretty much the same spot. I guess I'm a little farther east on the winter one. Anyway, that's my dorm in the background of both. I live on the far right side of each picture.

In terms of actual snow, this has been by far the best of the four winters I've had here. Ever since early January, we have had multiple feet of snow sitting on the ground across all of campus and town and Vermont, and there was a stretch of more than 30 days where the high never got above freezing, so we didn't have any of the rainy stuff to ruin the snowpack. We had our first over 32 day last week. I think it was like 34. Which is 40 degrees warmer than what it is every time I walk back from my Monday night class, so that's nice. It's also 70 degrees warmer than it was this one time I went skiing at Sugarbush. So like minus 40, yeah. There was also a day where the temperature at Middlebury was exactly 100 degrees colder than the temperature back home at the same time. That was when Newport got into the low 80s.

The MRG single chair is strange. But hey, nice bump run, eh?

So about the skiing. Sugarbush is pretty fun, but nothing amazing. Mad River Glen is something else entirely. Better than a number of western mountains I've skied. Unbelievable tree skiing. Great pow. Really steep. Unmarked cliffs. And the single chair is great. You might see more of that later when I finish my video project. Uh, that's a segway to academics.

I'm in a travel writing class this semester and I'm gonna do a writing piece and a video piece about Mad River. I'm better at one of those things than they other, so the video should be . . . bad. But that's okay.

I'm also in my last geography class ever, something about GIS and historical landscape studies. It's okay.

My third class (I'm only in three) is Taboos and Trends in Children's and Young Adult Lit. All we do is read YA books and talk about why they've been challenged, how they should be taught, yadda yadda. It's pretty great. So far we've read Huck Finn, Call of the Wild, Catcher in the Rye, and The Chocolate War. My first time reading all those except Huck, which I read in elementary school, I think, and definitely not for class. Jeez Catcher in the Rye was annoying. Call of the Wild was fun, wish I read that when I was younger. And The Chocolate War was really, really, really good. At first I wished I read it when I was younger, but then I kinda thought I enjoyed it at 22 as much as I probably could have, so maybe I didn't need to be younger, or maybe Nicole was right and I'm still a child. Anyway, great book.

The syllabus has a lot of other cool looking books on it, including The Giver and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stoner, so that's kinda nifty.

Spring Break is coming up, and I decided to go home partly because I won't be going home again until I don't know when. My job starts right after graduation, you see. Me and two other guys from the XC team here (Chuck and Wilder) got menial jobs working at a lodge in Glacier National Park, Montana. We will be there from June 1st to September 28th. If you've got some free time, you really ought to visit.

See ya.

Broken Glass

2015-01-22T22:08:00.002-08:00

Hey guys! Here!

Broken Glass from Richard Posert on Vimeo.

Remember, the password is TeMyDeWa

-Rich

A Luminous Mountain Morning

2015-01-12T16:38:00.000-08:00

Chapter One: Compulsory Comment on the Weather
Today was a warm day. The high was 28˚F and I cannot impress upon you enough that this is in no way a joke. When it's 28 above, you can throw on your warm clothes and be warm. You can leave your face exposed. You don't even have to wear gloves. 28 above is a godsend.

The high was zero a few days ago. That night, it got down to 15 below, and if you factor in windchill, it was 30 below. At 11:30pm, right before I went to sleep, I walked a lap around part of my building without my jacket on (just two layers of cotton and a pair of jeans) to see what it felt like. Research shows that if you're properly covered, you can last up to twenty minutes outside at that temp before frostbite gets you, but I didn't have anything over my nose, and I have a feeling that would have cut down my safe zone.

If I had walked the whole way, it would have taken me about 60 seconds. After about 15, my legs started sprinting without consulting my brain first, and I was inside ten seconds later.

28 above is a godsend.

Chapter Two: Academics (Is a Short Chapter Because J-Term)

I'm now a week into J-term. A reminder: I take one class for four weeks, and life is good. This year, I'm taking Nonfiction Creative Writing. I've written a couple little things so far, and I will write some more little things before the month is up. We've read some great stuff by the likes of Joan Didion, Jo Ann Beard, and a couple others whose names aren't currently on the tips of my fingers.

Chapter Three: I'm Really Just Still On Vacation

I'm not doing track, because I always kinda did track in order to stay in shape for XC, and now that I don't have an XC season coming up for the first time in eight years, I'm not doing track. Which leaves plenty of time for skiing and intramural hockey. We had our first IM game last week, and our team is essentially composed of the cross country runners who have a passing interest in hockey. What people seem to find amusing is that everyone on the team is from the northeast (i.e. hockey territory) except for two kids from Southern California (i.e. not so much), and those two kids each scored hat tricks while the rest of the team combined for zero goals. We lost 7-6.

Skiing is different because the amount of fun it is depends so much on the conditions. This year, I bought a season pass that works for three local mountains (Mad River Glen, Sugarbush North, and Sugarbush South) instead of skiing at the crappy Middlebury Snow Bowl, and so far the decision has paid off. A really good powder day has yet to arrive, but I will be there when it does.

Chapter Four: Probability, Plus Waffles

Half the people in my suite (Chuck, Kevin, and me out of six total) got The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen for Christmas. I find that very strange. The book is good so far, but I'm only 38 pages in.

I have played four games of Catan since I got here. I have not won any of them. In one of the games, 2 was rolled four times in the first twenty minutes, giving Wilder a 10-4-4-4 win. Disgusting.

I have eaten a waffle with peanut butter and maple syrup every day of J-term so far. The fruit on top varies based on what's available.

Chapter Five: A Game

This is a bad game that nobody should win. I know it's a dumb game, but sometimes I'm a dumb person, so I can sympathize with it. None of you will win, except maybe Rachael, and she might need some luck. Unless Jason uses Cole. Cole will probably do alright.

When I flew from LA to Boston a little over a week ago, I was chaperoned by clear weather over CA, NV, AZ, and UT. An impenetrable layer of cloud hung over the entire country east of the Utah-Colorado border. I was fortunate enough to see seven national parks before that happened. Three of them were far enough away to make photography futile, but four of them were not. Seeing all of them covered in snow was strange.

So here is the game: Guess the park! (They're not in chronological order, so you can't just go from west to east.)

What if we had a long-weekend trip to Joshua Tree National Park Over December Break?

2014-12-09T16:25:00.001-08:00

Wouldn't that be fun?

Eh??

Ehhh???

- Nicole

Nothing Interesting

2014-10-27T21:23:00.001-07:00

Wow, pretty stark image here. Nicole's video makes me realize I need more color in my life! Maybe I'll buy a cactus too!

Intro song's a bit loud, consider yourselves warned.

Nothing Interesting from Richard Posert on Vimeo.

<3 Rich

Re-Introducing Nicole!

2014-10-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

A Walk in the Rain

2014-10-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hey fellas. I've been away for a while. I read Rich's post and the blog that Rachael linked to. Good stuff, thank for sharing. I've been meaning to write something here, but since it's cross country season, I end up devoting all my free time to sleeping, regardless of time of day, so I haven't gotten around to it. And guess what? I still don't have time to write something. So I'm just gonna throw up a few pictures I've taken in the last couple weeks. After Fall ended last year, I realized I only had one chance left to enjoy (and document) it. That realization, coupled with the fact that New Zealand forced me to get a camera, has resulted in the following:

Almost a blog post

2014-10-08T09:35:00.005-07:00

Hi, guys.

Thanks for posting, Rich. I would like to start posting, too. But for this week, I'll just link you to a daily blog that I decided to do for my food class. Maybe after this week I can come back and talk about real life.

Besitos,
Rachael

Senior year!

2014-09-27T18:23:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Welcome back to life. I hope yours is good. Mine is in this video.

The password is still TeMyDeWa, not that you could have forgotten that.

Senior Year from Richard Posert on Vimeo.

Here's the link to the system I'm working in, not that I expect that to be interesting to anyone. My protein (PinX1) is a part of that system that is extremely minimally studied (in fact, it's not even listed in that wikipedia article). Neat!

Nancy's Adventure

2014-07-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since anyone posted here. I just wrote some directions for Delara who will be visiting Berkeley this weekend. I joked that they would be the best directions ever, and so I tried to live up to my words. I enjoy writing stuff like this where I have a prompt of sorts and just have fun with it. It's hard to come up with fun prompts like "directions for a friend" on my own so these rarely happen, but like I said they are fun to write. Enjoy!

A young woman, of age to still be in school, steps off the jet bridge in Oakland International Airport. She appears normal by all societal standards, although those passing by are quickly aware of the overpowering scent of alcohol on her person. Some glare while others mutter vitriolic comments under their breath as they crinkle up their nose and quicken pace.

“A bathroom, I need to find a bathroom,” thinks Nancy. She probably should have gone on the flight while she still had the chance, but it’s too late for that now. “Maybe if I follow this crowd I’ll find something.” Her luggage in tow, she follows the general flow of people towards an escalator heading downwards. “Baggage Claim, this is not what I want, I want a bathroom,” Nancy thinks frustrated.

Packed in close proximity on the escalator, Nancy’s odor becomes evident more rapidly to those surrounding her. An older man asks her if she has a driver for getting home, obviously concerned for her safety. She misinterprets the gesture as a compliment on her designer skirt and thanks him for his kind words.

“Wow, I never thought people in Oakland would be so friendly,” Nancy reflects as she exits the escalator. “If I could just find a bathroo… Ahh!” Across the hall a little to her right Nancy spots the bathrooms and exhales a sigh of relief. After relieving herself in the restroom, so begins the long wait for checked baggage accustom to the Oakland airport. She thinks it a good idea to strike up a conversation with her neighbors, a young couple of similar age. “I love your hair!” she exclaims to the woman as she reaches up to touch her 1960’s era beehive.

Nancy grabs ahold a little too tight to the poor woman’s head who, quite startled at the whole ordeal, proceeds to drop her coffee cup spilling the boiling hot liquid all over her husband’s shoes. Profanity escapes his lips which draws a number of stares to the disaster Nancy has wrought over this poor couple. Half of the room is now watching Nancy explain herself to this couple she has just assaulted. Poor couple. Poor Nancy.

“Just don’t make eye contact with anyone,” Nancy tells herself as she hoists her luggage out of the baggage carousel. Now she wants to find the AirBart which is a bus that takes you from the airport to the actual Bart subway system. Why would anyone name a bus an air Bart? That’s the stupidest idea Nancy has ever heard of, and believe Nancy when she says she’s heard many a stupid idea. She follows people through the sliding glass doors outside, across the street, and to the left down the street towards the AirBart station.

A fairly simple transaction awaits Nancy, preparing to board the bus. Unfortunately Nancy only has a five dollar bill. The AirBart, unbeknownst to her costs $3.00 and will not give back change. So Nancy, unprepared as she is, will have to purchase a $3.00 Bart ticket from the machine by the bus stop, or forfeit the $2.00 that is the difference between five and three.

“How long will his bus ride will take?” Nancy wonders staring out of the window. The girl in the green behind me looks friendly… “No Nancy, you saw what happened last time you tried to make friends, no more.” Okay, but she does look really friendly with that shade of green on her…”No, don’t even think about it.”

Sarah, the name of the girl in green, is getting slightly weirded out by the girl who keeps turning around to look at her but not say anything. “Why is she doing that?” Sarah thinks. I’m just going to try and not make eye contact. This girl looks like she has some serious problems.

“Purchase a $2.50 Bart ticket from the ticket machines on the wall inside the Bart station,” Nancy reads from the printed out directions she has with her. “I should double check the price to make sure this is the right fare,” Nancy mutters to herself. After struggling through reading the price guide, Nancy purchases a ticket and proceeds to wait for the Richmond Bart which will take her directly to downtown Berkeley.

Nancy makes no new friends while riding the Bart, luckily for all parties involved, and safely arrives in Berkeley, specifically the Downtown Berkeley Bart Station. Upon exiting the train, she heads up the stairs following the crowds and begins to ride the escalator up to street level.

“Ahh, fresh air,” Nancy exclaims. Looking around she sees many homeless people, all of varying levels of intoxication. This is my home she thinks, this is where I belong. Standing in front of the Chase building she sees her friend that has come to meet her. “I had some odd adventures today that I’ll have to tell you,” she says to him. “Those tend to occur while riding the Bart,” he replies.

There Are Many Paths To Tread

2014-05-16T00:17:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've posted here, and I now found myself with free time. I have traveled to some new part of the country in thirteen of the last fourteen weekends, but this weekend I will stay in Dunedin because there is an unmissable Game 7 between the Ducks and the Kings on Saturday and a geography field trip on Sunday.

If you want to see all of the cool places I've been to, check out the other blog. I've been posting on that one every week because there's a lot to post about. But there is other, less exciting stuff I can talk about here.

I still have two weeks of class left, then exams. My family flies in on June 18th, and I'll do my best to show them around the country until we fly back to the states some number of days later.

Classes are going well here. My habit of writing papers in one sitting has gotten worse, and I'm not sure what my grades will look like because most of the grades are determined by the exams.

I've read some interesting books in Contemporary American Lit. Here are my thoughts on them.

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Annoyingly postmodern. I don't recommend it to anyone who thinks a good book needs a good story.

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion

A good book. Not exactly my cup of tea, but worth reading. Kinda bleak and depressing.

Sula by Toni Morrison

Excellent book. Great story, but out-of-this-world characters and writing. By far my favorite on the list, although A Visit From the Goon Squad might top it once I finish it.

Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow

Very obnoxious writing style that was apparently supposed to parody American history textbooks. I guess it worked. The story is pretty good, though.

White Noise by Don DeLillo

A good book, but a frustrating one. Frustrating because everyone in the book is outrageously, unrealistically stupid. Good because I guess that's the point. Parts were very funny. I guess I liked it.

Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis

Terrible and unrealistically depressing. People just aren't that bad, are they?

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Too long, didn't read.

A Visit From the Goon Squad Jennifer Egan

I'm halfway through it (so no spoilers if you've read it), and it is excellent. Really well written, huge array of characters and complicated, interconnected plot between all the characters. Not sure how it's all gonna tie together, but right now I'm a big fan.

New Zealand history is fascinating. The course is taught by two lecturers, and the first one, who covered history up to around 1900 was a boring slide reader. The other guy is an old dude who is unashamed of his patriotism and his bias, and his lectures are superb. Very different from history at Middlebury, where everyone is too politically correct to admit that some historical character may have actually done some really good things.

Geography isn't as interesting as it is at Middlebury. Maybe that's because I'm taking a 100-level course, or maybe it's because the Geog profs at Midd are the best.

How cool is this?

I want to print it out and hang it on my dorm room wall next semester.

I also want the Ducks to win their next game. That is an understatement. It is the most important game they have played in since May 14, 2009. Their most important game in five years.

There must be more things to talk about. Well, there's people, but I always feel weird talking about people here, putting things about them out onto the internet. So I don't need to talk about people. Suffice to say that they are good.

How about summer? I just looked it up: I fly into LAX on June 29th. Where are you guys spending your summers? I know Rachael will be in Virginia and Nicole will be in Europe. I kinda assume Jason will be in Berkeley. (And Kevin? I know he's not part of the blog, but he still matters, at least a little bit.) Rich, will you be in Portland?

I am 1.

2014-04-25T11:24:00.001-07:00

As you could probably guess, it's crunch time. I assume all of you are probably plagued with the end-of-the-semester what-you're-not-only-taking-my-class insane workload that all of your professors assign. Well I am no exception. I've been busily working away the past couple weeks and I'm far from done. "Jason, how do you have spare time for a blog?" You may, but probably aren't, asking yourself. "What exactly is spare time?" "Is not all time spare time?" "What is time?" The answer probably exists in some combination of those not so helpful metaphysical follow-up questions.

I probably don't have "spare time" in the typical sense to spare, but I've never been much for following the status quo so here I am, blogging when I should be doing other work. I find myself often thinking about that. That "I should be doing other work." I think I've talked about this before, but I find that reaching a "happy" medium between "work" and "play" is almost impossible. In some other universe this blog post goes off into asking metaphysical questions about everything I put in quotes, but this is not that universe and so that will not happen.

This weekend I'm very busy. Today is Friday and I will be working on my computer science project all day. The project is to build an interpreter for the Scheme language. It's a program that interprets a language used to build programs. Programception basically. It's supposed to be the most impressive of all the projects so far, so that should be fun. I really like programming and it's only reassured my resolution that I should have been EECS (electrical engineering and computer science) rather than chemical engineering. I realized too late, but it doesn't really matter because switching between the two, if I choose to do so later in my career, won't be too difficult. Oh man, careers, let's talk about that. Actually let me finish my weekend first, that's a more lively subject.

Saturday morning I'll be volunteering at a Taekwondo tournament. To take the yellow belt test at the end of the semester I have to volunteer at this tournament or a tournament past and because I didn't go to the previous one I have to go to this one. "Want" is a better choice of words than "have" in this circumstance however because I expect it to be outrageous fun. Kevin's going as well and we hope that the blackbelt sparring is in the morning because that sounds most interesting. I'm really sad that next semester I won't be able to continue with Taekwondo due to a time conflict with one of my required classes. It truly has been a great class, a nice break from the monotony of required major classes. I'm taking swimming next semester, hopefully it's as fun as Taekwondo.

Saturday afternoon I'll be working on homework as I do every Saturday afternoon. I'm part of a study group that meets at 1pm every Saturday to work on homework and it is the reason Saturday afternoons are my most productive time of the week. I am able to focus more easily when others around me are working, especially while working on the same thing. I don't think I could remain sane if I didn't have a study group to do homework with. I hope whatever job I get is primarily group work because it's infinitely easier to work for long hours when others around you are doing the same.

Sunday afternoon is the Journey to Nyx prerelease event which I expect all of you are going to! Okay maybe not any of you. Well it's going to be a ton of fun and I can't wait, playing magic is at the top of the list for most fun games to play. Sunday night is back to homework followed by our last week of classes. This semester has gone by so quickly it's incredible. I can't believe we'll be graduating next year, scary how fast time flies. I was going to talk about career stuff but I could speak a lot on that and I don't want to burn myself out on my first time back. I guess expect that in the next post. Until next time, stay sophisticated.

- Jason

Hope that you, too, are alive.

2014-04-17T15:51:00.003-07:00

Hello everyone. As I am sure is true for you, I am incredibly busy today and for the foreseeable future. I'm literally writing this exclusively to assure you that I have not gone gently into that good night. No time for a regular post--keep surviving!

-Rich

Not Twenty-One

2014-03-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, sorry about the missed post last week. It was Spring Break!

I failed to focus the camera correctly on this one--if the autofocus was better I'd use it, but I swear it's not. I should probably spend more time on setup for these, but #YOLO.

Not Twenty-One from Richard Posert on Vimeo.

Have a wonderful week.

-Rich

Well, I'm 21 now.

2014-03-22T10:55:00.001-07:00

My birthday was on Wednesday, and I started a tradition of sorts last year which involves sharing my small obsessions and thoughts with you all. Because if there's a time for self indulgence, it is one's birthday, is it not?

1. There are maybe ten songs that I've been listening to repeatedly recently. I picked four and then put your names in parenthesis if you want to listen to something as you read. The disclaimer, of course, is that I really haven't kept up with your musical tastes and I'm trying to fit a Rachael song into a non-Rachael box. Look, I'm not Pandora (I'm proud of that dual meaning--the site! the Greek lady!). William Fitzsimmons “So This is Goodbye,” (Derek) Bernhoft’s “C’mon Talk,” (Nicole) Angus & Julia Stone’s “Draw Your Swords,” (Rich) Passion Pit’s “Little Secrets” (Jason).

2. Then there's what I currently consider to be my favorite song of all time-- Pink Floyd's “Wish You Were Here.” It's magic, trust me. Or listen to it.

3. Tribal print. There's not really anything else to say about this. Fashion is stupid but if I'm forced to wear clothes, I like wearing tribal print.

4. Feeding into that idea, I like looking like a liberal. You know, cutting all my hair off, piercing my ears, etc. Today I donned a Rosie the Riveter-themed outfit. It may sometimes give people the wrong idea about my sexuality, but you can't have everything.

5. This isn't necessarily a positive obsession, but I've been thinking a lot about post-grad plans and generally having existential crises in which I usually decide I'll either (a) drop off the face of the planet (as Rich discussed) or (b) get a creative-writing-related MFA. Neither of which will actually happen.

6. Oregon Trail--Speaking of things that won't actually happen, I want a Conestoga wagon and a good four to five months to spend crossing the country. After graduation and before adulthood. I actually have all the details of this figured out in my head, with help from Eleanor. Now all I need is 100 grand.

7. Cigarettes--As we (the royal we, naturally) discussed in the video, I'm still obsessed with the image of cigarettes. I made Derek read my latest poem, "Cohesion," which I'm actually fairly proud of despite the fact that it mixes metaphors. It's about smoking and lesbian sex, kind of.

8. That obsession fits into my larger creative writing habits. Intro to Creative Writing is going well. I recommend Sylvia Plath’s “Mad Girl’s Love Song” which is a prime example of a villanelle. I'm also taking an advanced fiction class in the fall, which is exciting.

9. First novels--when J.K. Rowling released that book under her pen name, a lot of people didn't believe that it was written by a first-time author because it was so good/mature/polished, etc. I was thinking about this and realized that a lot of my all-time favorites are their author's first published novel. Examples: Time Traveler’s Wife, Memoirs of a Geisha, Anthropology of an American Girl, Name of the Wind, perks of being a wallflower. I just reread that first one and it's very good.

10. My apartment mates--my apartment and its inhabitants are absolute heaven. They threw me an amazing birthday dinner party this week, complete with an adorably-ugly layer cake and "slutty" brownies (three layers; chocolate chip cookie, then Oreos, then brownies--named as such because they're so easy to make). They are also genuinely awesome human beings. Heart to hearts abound. This week my ladies dragged me to multiple concerts and it's been a whirlwind to say the least.

Our pretty home.

11. California- thank all real and imagined deities I got to go home for spring break. I have had major winter weather blues. While we (Eleanor tagged along) were home, we hung out at my grandparent's, paid a visit to the infamous Cha, saw our old friend Tim (he's doing well), went thrift store shopping, got burnt on the beach, explored the Getty and went camping/hiking at El Moro. Wow, did we do a lot of stuff. It was an excellent respite from the B.S. of D.C.

The most epic selfie of all time.

12. Girls--I'm really into the show Girls right now. For those who haven't seen it (and I'm not wholeheartedly recommending it by any means), it's about girls in their twenties in NYC and the main character is trying to be a writer. The quote that sticks with me from the pilot is "I think I might be the voice of my generation... or at least a voice of a generation."

13. Wow, twenty-one things is a lot. I find out about a national environmental scholarship on April 1st. An extra $5000 would be pretty sweet, but it's really competitive and they basically only take one kid from each state. So CA is not a good state to be from, since there are lots of environmentally-minded people.

14. Crocheting my blanket--It's getting big, friends. I already showed you a picture of it. Just maintaining my status as an old woman at heart.

15. Volunteering--Yay, community service. On Tuesday I'll be returning to a writing workshop I did last month which creates a community for juvenile delinquents across the country. It's been really rewarding so far, and I like reading their poetry.

16. Sustainable transportation--Our school has this "Wonk" PR campaign which features ads of students as "[insert word here] wonk"--just something you're an expert at, like "Activism Wonk" or the examples below. Anyway, I don't like the campaign, but I was trying to figure out what kind of wonk I am, because I'm not really an expert in any one thing. I think the closest thing so far would be sustainable transportation, because I've done a lot of research into unsustainable transportation systems (think L.A.), which sheds light on their counterparts. It's hard to reduce yourself into one word, though.

17. Last year I talked about Brokeback Mountain and Blue Valentine. This year's sub-happy movies: Place Beyond the Pines; Her. I like both of them a lot, for different reasons. Spike Jonze (the director of Her, as well as Being John Malkovich and Adaptation) is pretty awesome.

18. Crepes--making them, eating them, thinking about them.

19. Running/yoga--Yay for trying to be healthy. Since yoga is for credit, I am conscripted into going twice a week to that end. My roommate Rachel and I started working out together this week, so I've been running again. Good.

20. Not going to class or being productive. That's all I have to say about that. Hopefully I can slog through this semester, have a nice summer break, and come back ready to kick senior year's ass.

21. This blog—can we please start posting again? I miss you guys.

Until next time.
-Rachael


They made me lay on their legs, I swear.

Qualified

2014-03-13T17:29:00.004-07:00

Hello friends. I made a dumb new video for you to watch. Enjoy it, or not.

-Rich

Qualified from Richard Posert on Vimeo.

March, I love you, but you're bringing me down.

2014-03-12T16:06:00.001-07:00

I know, I know. I haven't posted for a while. Or maybe you haven't noticed. Either way, I'm here to stop this nonsense and give you a run-down of my life. Spoiler Alert: there has been very little change.

Today my mind has been functioning on a weird gear setting. If I were to describe my mood in a physical motion (as I did when Grace asked me how I was feeling) it would be me slowly extending my arm in front of me, using my hand to grasp out at the air as if my fingers were gliding through molasses, rotating my hand until my palm faced the ceiling, all while having a slightly bemused and strained look on my face. If if I were to describe my mood in a nonsensical noise it would be "Ehhhhaaaaaaaaaaihhhhhaaaaaiiiiiii?" and if I were to use a simile to describe my mood , I would say I feel like a situation where someone accidentally turned off the wifi to their computer without realizing it, leaving them confused and a bit uneasy, refreshing their webpages and having their computer "troubleshoot" the system to see what's the matter all while the computer sort of fiddles it's thumbs wondering why it's owner doesn't just switch the wifi access back on.

Basically, I'm in a funk. I feel like I'm forgetting something but "the problem is, I can't remember what I've forgotten".

Today it snowed the entire day, until it rained. And then it rained the entire day. The weather is cold enough that it snowed heavily, with large clusters of snowflakes breezing around the sky. However, it was warm enough that the snow immediately started to melt on campus, leaving us in an environment more reminiscent of Venice than Lewiston. Speaking of Venice, I'm visiting there in the summer, along with around 16 other cities over the course of late June, July and August. If you guys have any general advice about traveling through Europe, let me know, since I'm traveling alone for a bit of my trip and need all the help I can get.

In news relating to my continuation of seeking power wherever I can find it, I have been "promoted" from Vice President to Co-President of the Bates Author's Guild. Recently I've been writing intentionally post-modern poems with brand names in them, as well as a poem inspired by my "Paradise Lost" class called "Satan is having a Party". Because Milton and I are all about humanizing and sympathizing with fallen Lucifer.

My fondness for strawberry milk is waning, though it did have a good run these past two weeks when I obsessively put strawberry flavoring in my milk and the glass bottle of milk I kept for the fridge at home. But I'm growing tired of it, even though it's delicious and the pink hue of the milk pleases me to no end. Oh also, swedish fish have been entering my body at break-neck speeds too. I guess unnaturally colored food and drinks are making a comeback in my life. I don't know. Does anyone know? I don't.

I'm reading "The Road" for my "Catastrophes and Hope" course right now. However, the name is a misnomer, since the class focuses around ~0% on hope. The professor has even admitted this. The color scheme referenced in the book ranges from gray to gray to gray to grey to black. And I think maybe brown will make an appearance if we're lucky. It's been a blast sloshing through campus, staring at black, melting snow and reading about a post-apocalyptic world. It does wonders for the mood I'm already in.

Today for my 8 am class my professor didn't show up and instead at around 8:15 a lady came to tell us she wasn't coming to class because of a medical emergency. I hope she and her family are okay. I'm working on a video project for that class focusing on a short scene from "White Noise," which is now one of my favorite books. I don't know why I took such a liking to that book, but here we are. And here I am obsessed with semiotics and post-modernism like I'm a college student in the mid-80s. It's fine. I'll get over it (or will I?!)

I have never ~~needed~~ wanted the spring so badly as I do now. For the first 18 years of my life,spring and summer were not really concepts to me since the weather doesn't really vary too much in Southern California. By holy mother of god am I jonesing for some real sunshine, foliage, and apparel-change. I want color again. I want something interesting to photograph. I am most definitely ready for both Short Term and the Summer. I am ready for this winter to end.

But until then, I must go read sad books, write 10-15 page papers, work on group projects and pretend like eating 3000 calories in one sitting will not have any consequences in the near future for me.

But I'm happy, I swear.

Yours truly,

Nicole Danser

Wow a video wow.

2014-03-03T14:31:00.001-08:00

I have officially run out of other ways to procrastinate.

But isn't my blanket coming along nicely?!

Click the linkie.

-Rachael

Sick

2014-03-02T17:38:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, posting today because I'm mad sick and haven't been able to the past two weeks and won't be able to this week. This camera angle's the worst yet, and I haven't shaved in like a week and a half, so feel free to just listen and not look at this one. Love you all, keep on keepin' on.

http://vimeo.com/88020598

The Ring Goes South

2014-02-25T18:31:00.003-08:00

Ahoy there! I haven't posted here in a while. That's because I made a different blog where I'm putting my New Zealand pictures. I'm doing that because everyone wants to see my pictures, but I don't need everyone looking at this blog. If you're interested in where I am and what I'm seeing, here's the link again.

But there's a lot I don't talk about on that blog. Really, the only thing I talk about there is where I've been. I don't talk about people or school or life. That's what this blog is for, I guess. So let's get on with it.

My four classes are Physical Geography, New Zealand History, Contemporary American Literature, and Effective Communication. I wanted to take a NZ lit class but it's not offered 'til next semester, and it looks like we read some cool things in American lit. Things like:

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion

Sula by Toni Morrison

Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow

White Noise by Don DeLillo

Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

A Visit From the Goon Squad Jennifer Egan

We've just started the Pynchon novel, and I'm not so sure I like it yet.

My Effective Comm course is in the English department, and it's kinda like a rhetoric course, I think. We will do persuasive writing and speaking. The professor has a very obvious Canadian accent, and indeed he admitted to being pretty tired on the first day of class because he was up in the middle of the nigh watching the Gold Medal game between Canada and Sweden. He asked if there was anyone in the class (of maybe 60 or 80 students) from the US or Canada, and I was the only one.

On the subject of class sizes, my geography class has over 300 people and the lecturer uses a microphone. This is not Middlebury.

So far I've hiked in the filming locations for Mordor, Emyn Muil, Hobbit 1 warg chase, and the ruined castle south of Rivendell. Much, much more still remaining.

My leg is all healed up and I'm back to running normally, but I am still a little out of shape from taking the amount of time off that I had to.

I read the first hundred or so pages of Neil Gaiman's American Gods on the plane and in motels and in my flat, but I may have to put it off for a while because schoolwork might take over soon.

That's all the randomly assorted thoughts I can come up with right now.

Back in the US(SR)

2014-02-21T01:00:00.000-08:00

Low res view of the quad. Snow.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything substantive here, and I’m sorry. But Read more » and then you'll be all caught up.

Aren't I fancy?

A few updates in my life.

Recreational Books in Progress- The Fault in Our Stars, John Green; The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster.

Age- 20.926

Most overly-used word in this blog post: challeng(e/ing).

Classes- I am taking two capstones, because I am crazy. A lot of people don’t know what capstones are. Fellow college students probably do, but anyway: a capstone is a class that you take on with all the awesome things you’ve learned about your specialty throughout the (supposed) four years you’ve spent at college. I am the youngest student in both classes (there are two other juniors in my ENVS-596 Climate, Economics, and Risk class) and the only person I’ve met attempting to do two capstones at one time. It has been challenging.

High art shot of railroad tracks in Greensboro.

My other capstone, "Sustainable Development: Greensboro, NC" is incredibly awesome. We are in a national competition to economically redesign Greensboro in a more sustainable fashion. It has been designated a “distressed city.” Out of fifty-one teams competing, we’re the only one comprised of students. Our professor is a working architect and total inspiration. A few weeks ago, we ventured to North Carolina and spent an intense forty-eight hours surveying/exploring/dining in the city and developing our ideas. Wow, is this class cool. But challenging and thought-provoking.

I am also in a Yoga class, which is heavenly and perhaps keeping me sane.

My three other classes: Economics of Environmental Policy, Third World Cities, and Introduction to Creative Writing. I very much don’t like the first class. The second class has a service learning element to it which has been very rewarding. Last week I bought a homeless man lunch (on an assignment), and I’ve now become involved with the movement against gentrification happening in the city (talk about tough and uncomfortable but totally rewarding). On Tuesday, I’m visiting a juvenile detention center and participating in a writing workshop with incarcerated youth. Creative Writing is good. A girl said I left her “speechless with [my] ingenuity and bravery” with my short story. That was nice. It was an adaptation of “My Plain Name,” which I posted here long ago. Expanding that to seven pages was a challenge but totally strengthened the piece.

***

An example of my homemade crepes. The rotation is 90° wrong.

Adjusting from Spain to my American workload has been a challenge for me. I’ve got six classes (yes, Yoga counts), two jobs, a leadership position in my fraternity, and I live a mile away from campus. I have found myself very low on motivation. I love living in my apartment, which has become a primary source of happiness, baked goods, dinner parties, debates, and existential crises. In the span of one week, I had very serious conversations about: getting an MFA, JD, or MPA; taking a year off of school before graduation; spending a summer in Ireland writing instead of getting a “real job”; whether foreign aid is as beneficial as we all think; our role in slowing the global environmental crisis; racial stereotypes that bar me from being trusted by minority D.C. residents in my service learning project; and, scariest of all, the material that will be in our impending standup comedy routine.

Needless to say, I have been questioning my future and my place in the world on a daily basis and will continue to do so for some time. Let’s be real for a second—I’ve worked hard to prepare myself for a variety of jobs after graduation. There are jobs in many sectors of the economy and many countries of the world that I have am qualified for, through consistent and diverse employment; two distinct majors; and extracurriculars, particularly my leadership positions and hundreds of volunteer hours. The good of this is that I probably won’t starve to death. The bad of this is that I have so many options that choosing a niche scares me. Yes, I know the first job is not going to determine the entirety of my career and it’s a good problem to have. But it is something. The other bad of this is that I work way too much and I am so ready for a breather.

My new little buddy.

But I am happy. I am, by nature, a happy person. I laugh when the freezing shower water hits me, when the sun shines on my face, when I listen to “Newborn” by Elbow, when I get an email from Luna, when I make crepes for my roommates and they like them. That list is not supposed to be poetic, it’s just illustrating that I am easily pleased. I am a happiness whore in that way. But I won’t fake you out and I won’t buy into the mentalities that tell us we can always be happy, that everyday can be a good day. That’s a lie and it encourages people to deny their true range of feelings. I also won’t tell you that “everything happens for a reason,” or that sunsets are proof of God’s existence, or that love will always find a way. I am happy, and sometimes I have to be happy against the world’s better judgment. I am a happiness pioneer that sometimes comes up against the world's cold, heartless frontiers and blazes a begrudging, bitchy happiness despite it all. I am happy, but I am burnt out in school and the part of me that doesn’t care about consequences wants nothing more than to get in a car (or recreate the Oregon Trail, my lifelong aspiration) and drive/wagon very far away, maybe all the way to California or New Zealand or Hogwarts. However far six oxen and one horse can get me and my fifty-seven pounds of potatoes.

But I will be in California in a few short weeks (oxen willing), and I’ll be bringing Eleanor with me, and that will be a nice respite (assuming no one gets cholera).

I hope everyone has been perusing Derek’s other blog. I kind of forgot about it until he reminded me. Nice pictures, precious.

You are all beautiful and kind and worthy of love.

-Rachael

February Break, Lost Traction and Radiators

2014-02-19T18:39:00.003-08:00

Today Erika and I dropped Grace off at the bus station in Portland so she could get to Vermont for a few days. It started to snow just before Erika and I started to drive back to Bates. I had Erika drive because I had never driven in snow...well she hadn't either but was a more experienced driver. Our Prius lost traction in the snow three times, within 5 minutes of each other, all only 2 miles from school. We first almost ran into a stopped car in front of us, and then almost glided into oncoming traffic, and then almost hit a car that was driving forward as we were turning left but couldn't stop. Luckily Erika utilized snow drifts to stop our car. I was intensely impressed with her accident-avoidance skills. I would have probably got us killed.

I just wrote this instead of a post because there is a horrid noise coming from my radiator:

My radiator is asthmatic, taking quiet, slow, whiny breaths in and out, in and out. The moan starts out high, resting on F#. It then falls through notes F and E and finally ends abruptly on D# as if I were turning the bath faucet off in one swift twist. But what it really sounds like is a man in the basement being tortured with a hot iron rod being pressed into his abdomen. Or as if a man just down the street is screaming out in intense agony because he has found his daughter lying dead in the street. As if he has knelt to pick her up, and is crying out in anguish.

I spent around 10 minutes tonight walking around my house trying to hear where the noise grew louder. I started out my search by going outside, hoping the noise would not intensify, hoping that I had not been neglecting a man crying out for help in the snow because I thought it was just a scream I had conjured up in my mind. I paused on my porch to listen. Nothing changed. The cloudy sky and newly quilted snow were playing ball with the photons of the lit city. A car drove by. No one seemed distressed. Perhaps, at 20, I was cracking. One of those mental disorders where symptoms begin in early adulthood. Perhaps this was the start of a new internal struggle I'd share with imaginary strangers who are faced with maddening pain, all stuck inside my skull. I wouldn't rule out that option just yet. But it was probably just an appliance in my house.

Shuffling back in, I grew angry at my home for screaming at me every fourteen seconds. I counted (and I just counted again. It is still going). I quietly slinked, and creeped around the house in my socks, feeling the noise slowly drawing me towards a fit of belligerence. Finally I was compelled to place my ear to the living area's radiator. It wasn't too hot. Such a faint yet taxing noise murmured then screeched forth.

Knowing the sound's source does not make it any more bearable.

I am home alone. Catherine's family picked her up on Friday. I dropped Grace off in Portland today. It is just me and the man in anguish, sitting in the living room.

Okay. So. It's break. I've been chillin'. I went on a small day trip where we played games trying to pronounce different lakes and mountains on our map (Our favorite name turned out to be "Ugh Lake". Grace and I are now going to make a zine called "Ugh Lake" because if it), we visited the largest rotating and revolving globe in the world, and went to L.L. Bean:

Grace, Erika and I have been chillin every night, watching Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and American Horror Story every night, eating hand-made ice cream sandwiches and other snacks. Popcorn with sriracha, quesadillas with beans, Portobello mushroom burgers with vodka sauce drenched penne pasta, cinnamon rolls, etc.

This morning Grace and I went to the pop shoppe and had good coffee and breakfasts that only included the colors orange, white and brown. We got Mike to steal fruit from commons for us today, though.

Valentine's Day came and went, and my mom sent me a care package that included EIGHT BARS OF FAIR TRADE, ORGANIC CHOCOLATE BARS and two bags of macaroons. I am overwhelmed. I managed to finagle myself six valentines, myself being one. They were Colin, Jack, Sam, Ashleen, Grace, and I. All I had to do was ask, and they all said yes. Well, first Grace gave me two V-day cards (FIREFLY THEMED!) and I asked if that meant she was my valentine and she said yes. Then I made her a card in response. But yes. Many valentines. It was mostly for a good power trip. Sometimes you need to feel powerful ha...ha..h.a.....ah.ah.a..ha.h.a.

And even though I had quite a few Valentines, I still wrote and recorded a song where I sung about how it's nice to be our own valentines anyways. Take a listen if you're interested:

http://punditz.tumblr.com/post/76685900114/a-quickly-written-and-recorded-song-for-those-who#notes

I finally took a photo with my Instax mini (I was scared to. THE FILM IS SO PRECIOUS) and tried the double exposure mode of the camera. It didn't work out GREAT, but I'll get better, I swear. Okay, that has basically been the interesting parts of my week. Oh wait! I bought a shirt with the planet Venus on it and also have started rigorously planning for my trip to Europe (well, maybe not rigourously). Everything is going pretty swell. AND THE MAN IN MY RADIATOR HAS FINALLY STOPPED SCREAMING YESSSS. (Edit: Nevermind, I lied. Now it sort of sounds like a wounded and howling wolf/dog, though)

Your pal,

Nicole Danser

Starting your Valentine's Day Right

2014-02-14T10:15:00.005-08:00

I was going to send this to Derek, but I bet you'll all appreciate it.

More to come later, promise.

I just lost a pint of blood.

2014-02-13T15:09:00.000-08:00

HAHAHA BECAUSE I DONATED BLOOD TODAY.

Hey guys, no time for a video today, sorry. My thursdays are usually empty but today is mad full, as you'll seeeeeeeeeeLET'SGO

Friday:

Wait what the hell was--oh YEAH! So it snowed from Thursday while I was making my video to like Sunday evening. On Friday, because PDX has no snow infrastructure, the roads were really dangerous. Reed sent out an email like "Hey, we're still open" but Portland was like "Please stay inside, it is dangerous". No joke, the city sent out an email to tell people not to drive.

Anyway I have one class on Friday, and that professor was like "LOL not driving" (also through email) so Friday was essentially a weekend for me. I don't even remember what I did. Sat in bed watching TV until 10:00, ate some food, then played video games and hung out till friends were out of class. Then We (Why did I capitalize that? Boy I should just make videos) went to thai food! Yum.

Saturday:

Okay on Saturday I just...wait...was Friday...oh no never mind it was on Saturday.

On Saturday I got up early (GODDAMN IT I GO TO THE GYM IN THE MORNINGS NOW SO I CAN'T SLEEP IN AT ALL ANYMORE) to an email saying that since the roads on the way up to where we go skiing are the most dangerous stretches of highway in Oregon, and there had been crazy snow all night, we wouldn't be able to go skiing.

That's right.

Cross country skiing got cancelled because of snow.

Skiing. Cancelled. Snow.

Anyway that opened up Saturday, so I got food and then read books and drank tea until dinner time, where I ran into a new group of friends I'm intercalating myself into and they were like "Are you going to the dance tonight? Do you want to pregame?" and I was like sure so that's what I did.

Then as I was white-guy dancing my way across the floor this girl comes up to me and goes "Were you in Shoestring?" and I was like "Yeah, sorry I let it fall apart haha." then she was like "OMG no I loved you in Midnight [show I was in]! I was in Lisa's show!"

(Lisa Henderson is one of the reasons that club fell apart (in my opinion) and someone I really didn't get along with for reasons beyond my usual level of abrasive personality. Back to the girl.)

"Do you want a kiss?"

It was loud in the student union; I didn't hear her.

"What?"
"Do you want a kiss?"

Because I had just dedicated all of my brain to Lisa Henderson when she suggested a kiss, I just blurted out "N-no, I'm good." (word-for-stuttering-word) and 'danced' out the door. After taking a few seconds to collect myself, I realized that that is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever done, and laughed. I spent the last bit of the night with one of my friends telling dad jokes to a bunch of beautiful women. It was a pretty good one.

Sunday:

On Sunday I did some work on a biochem report, then spent quite a while laying the groundwork for lumberjack club, putting up posters, etc. I helped Ryan put on a big spaghetti dinner, then played some Dark Souls.

Monday:

Went to the gym, went to class, did a ton of work. Nothing too interesting.

Tuesday:

Went to the gym, went to class, did a ton of work. In fact, by this point I had finished, ahead of time, all of my work for the rest of the week.

I have biochem lab on Tuesdays. I'm really enjoying that class. It's not too much work (just a half unit, that is to say, worth half as much as a lecture/lab or lecture/conference class) and basically everyone in the lab is friends with everyone else, so it's just a huge party. Even our really old professor joins in the jokes. I love it.

Wednesday:

Jeez man it's nice not having work. I lead conference on Darwin's Origin of Species, so it was cool to hear how people who don't think they understand evolution or biology like...reason it together from reading Darwin. Since it's just kind of part of my internal logic at all times, hearing it reasoned out felt like learning it again. I don't know how to describe it exactly, just was fun.

I went to cell lab, where my partner and I blew through the first half, but FORGOT TO START SOMETHING THAT HAS TO INCUBATE FOR AN HOUR so we had to come back toward the end to finish. Wasn't that bad.

Today:

I got to shoot the shit with my metabolic biochem professor, and both of us talked about what a horrible class intro chem was. After I had called it a "nightmare" I remembered that she was one of my intro chem professors. Good thing she has a good sense of humor/knew I was serious what I said it wasn't any fault of the professors that intro sciences are awful here.

After I got out of class, I played some basketball with my summer lab bros (ate shit several times b/c the courts were still wet) then donated blood. In 30 minutes I'm going to that meeting I mentioned last week about my chem qual. Then I get to lead conference on one of my favorite topics in biology, RNAi.

I've had a great, great week. Hope you have too.

-Rich