Canto XLIV

So here's just a quick scattering of stuff while I wait for the cafeteria line to die down a bit so I can get some crappy lunch. I read the Silmarillion. Not a good book. And the worst part was the ending with the Deus-Ex-Machina conclusion. Does anyone ever appreciate this? Roughly the idea of the book is that the good gods beat down the bad god every so often. Yee-freaking-haw. Went for a long hike during the afternoon talk. The speaker was terrible, so I don't really feel bad about missing it. Well, I do feel slightly bad since I was looking forward to the topic he was "discussing", but incoherent mumbling into the blackboard while writing illegibly doesn't really do much for me. He gave some references for what he was going to cover, which is basically an invitation to not take notes. The only other speaker of note so far is basically one of the hugest nerds I have ever seen in a physics setting. And keep in mind this is in a room with 60 theoretical physics graduate students and another half dozen professors. That's how nerdy he was. Normally after a lecture we spend the time talking about whatever interesting points the speaker made, but this time we basically spent it trying to gauge how much lunch money he's lost over the course of his life, how many wedgies and/or swirlies received, etc. 'Now see here gentlemen, I gave you the requisite sum, there's really no need for this...' I don't want to go into further details, for fear of having my young physics career over before it really began, but there were many riffs on this nerd-theme. Feel free to come up with some of your own.