southland nomadicity

So. The Gipper has kicked the bucket. Maybe now they can re-release the prewritten obituary that was leaked a few years ago. Maybe now the Cold War is really behind us. Or not. Gipper dead. Economy up. D-Day anniversary. Guy goes crazy in armored bulldozer, emulating San Diego man who did same. Exhibit: Orange County Register opinions page bears title "ACLU: America's Taliban." Exhibit: "Have You Forgot", observed on 95.7 FM San Diego. Prediction: W. barfs on pope, Gipper inaugurates presidential mausoleum. Exhibit: "W.'04!" Remember, even Nixon was eulogized, except by HST, who stuck to the facts: "He Was A Crook"

(MEMO FROM THE NATIONAL AFFAIRS DESK DATE: MAY 1, 1994 FROM: DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON SUBJECT: THE DEATH OF RICHARD NIXON: NOTES ON THE PASSING OF AN AMERICAN MONSTER.... HE WAS A LIAR AND A QUITTER, AND HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED AT SEA.... BUT HE WAS, AFTER ALL, THE PRESIDENT.)

Sure, he was a lovable man. We have his "Reagan Ranch" calendar up on the wall at the Wilde House. Yup, this is the man who, after he was Rambo, but before he was President, was censoring hollywood and then rounding up Berkeley students from helicopter gunships and then dumping teargas on them once they were conveniently trapped in Lower Sproul Plaza, and things generally developed from there. So click on that 'He Was A Crook" link and think what you'd write about Reagan.

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Spent the week crashing on the living-room futon at John's place. Will continue to do so until renting his roommate's room. It's sure to be an adventure.


FRIDAY - Went to a "Brazilian Party" last night with Aditya, a splorg success story whose now happily and productively working for The Man, aka Microsoft Corporation, and more specifically Hotmail, where he is allegedly the youngest (??) employee. As an international man of mystery, Mr. Bansod commutes to San Diego for weekends, at least when he's not running off to Belgium.

Met a lot of cool people at said party. At 3:00am, rendezvoused at some 24-hr taqueria on the Claremont Mesa (note usage of San Diego vernacular). Gourged selves on tacos and burritos and quesedillas. Returned to $1,000,000 pricerange neighborhood, location of said party. 04:00 Slept on the floor of the VW van.

07:30 SATURDAY -- woke up. suprisingly not surrounded by SWAT team called in by jaguar-driving residents. Made quick getaway to McDonalds to use the restroom and get some beverage. McDonalds at 8:00 on a Saturday is fearful indeed. All the freaks and punks and working people are inside the store. All the rich freaks and "suburban professionals" in the drivethrough. Station myself outside, watching the drivethrough. Probable gated-community resident driving Lincoln Towncar interrupts cell-phone conversation to make order. Grown-up (er, older) version of Berkeley gutter punk (with wife/girlfriend with dog) asks if I can spare "anything to eat."

UCSD Pictures

My office. I share it with a woman named Susan who I only saw once this week. She has lots of cool stuff, like a lava lamp, a binary clock, and a copy of Applied Cryptography. I have no idea what she's working on. The desk on the left is mine, but there's nothing more than a backpack on the floor -- this was before I got set up.

The Geisel Library, named after Dr. Seuss, is, without a doubt, the most strikingly unusual building on the UCSD campus, or maybe on any UC campus (any other nominations?). I think it's actually some kind of space-ship.

The Sun God, one of many campus oddities. You know, I think Berkeley got off easy when they were allocating campus oddities; we have some ugly fountains and Wurster Hall, but at least we don't have to cope with those funky egg-shaped sculptures at UC Davis. The Sun God is one of the more attractive installations at UCSD:

UCSD Melon Festival

The oldest tradition at UCSD, or so I am told, is the Melon Drop. It has something to do with a physics teacher asking just how big a splat a watermelon dropped from a particular height would make, and a budding experimentalist suggesting that they try it. But first there's a Melon Queen Pageant where a Melon Queen is elected. Eventually there is the watermelon drop itself:

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