Just to prove I wasn't kidding about the stupid negative horoscopes I keep getting on my cellphone, today's was "Today is not a good day to go looking for trouble."

THANK YOU! I wouldn't have guessed that. I actually woke up thinking: "Today I'm going to go find me some trouble. Looks like a good day for it."

Then again, it could be worse and we could have Klingon horoscopes that say things like, "Today is a particularly good day to die."

Anyone else watch the Friends season cliffhanger last night? Anyone still watch Friends?

I liked it, loved the surprise ending, but this morning I recalled something funny that was probably entirely unintentional. Way earlier in the season, Joey stepped in as minister because Chandler and Monica couldn't find a minister they liked. The complaints they mentioned for the two ministers they talked to were that one of them leered at Monica, and the other one was a 'spitter.'

It's ironic that they ended up going with someone who leers at Monica all the time and, at least in this episode, was a spitter.

Too bad about Monica's dress. The earlier one was soooo much more attractive. I wonder what's going to happen next semester. I mean, I assume Tad's the father, but could it be someone else? Joey and Rachel have been roommates for several months and Joey's the only person of the six who doesn't know about the pregnancy...

My last final is at 5pm, bringing to a close my education at Berkeley. I'm thinking about wearing my mortarboard during the final, a sort of silent protest against the common practice of having graduation ceremonies before finals are even over. Maybe I'll throw it into the air as I turn in my exam, the real moment of graduation. Maybe not.

Anyhow, it's breakfast, study, exam review session from 1 to 3, study more, take the exam from 5 to 8, then who knows what. Waaaah. So close...

PS: Graduation was great. I have lots of pictures and I'll make a gallery tonight or early tomorrow. I have a sunburned face with a really strange horizontal tan line an inch above my eyebrows from the mortarboard.

I signed up to get daily horoscopes on my cellphone and usually they're abyssmal, terse tidbits like "Stay home today and you won't see people you don't want to" and "Something good will happen today."\

Todays I like though: "This is a day when your travels are limited only by your memory and imagination." I guess even a broken astrological clock is right once a year...

I had thought about writing an intricate epic work of Homeric power, sensitivity and grace, relying on emotional, intellectual, and social procession, and intricately interwoven time-shifted stories to relate the journey that started on August 26th, 1991 and ends today with a mortarboard and a diploma, but I just don't have time and the title says it all.

It's Graduation Day.

Yay.

A couple times last semester I caughts bits of Sproul Poetry Slams on campus, just samples to get people interested in watching or even better, performing at area events. (They have slams now and again at the Starry Plough, among other places.) I want to give it a try, as it would be a much more fulfilling release than trying to memorize the cadence and delivery of Ani's stuff.

I'm going to make a point of watching more in person, and see about actually trying to write/perform some personally (in private, of course. that's why god created traffic and long commutes).

I've been thinking about it for a few months, but seeing these, from the National Poetry Slam Finals, has put me over the edge. Simply amazing.

Woohoo! Only one more day 'till graduation!

Parents are flying in tonight, Aunt, Uncle, and Grandpa are flying in tomorrow morning for the 10am ceremony. I can't think of anyplace more beautiful on campus to have a graduation ceremony than the Greek Theatre. I'll bring my Elph along, so I can take pictures behind the scenes (still miffed about not getting selected for Jury Duty, thus not being able to take pictures of the process).

I'm trying to think of something distinctive, but non-trite, to do to my cap so my friends and family can tell which black-clad figure is me. I thought about a big Yahoo "Y" but I decided capitalism didn't feel right for the ceremony. I thought about a big "F" for Fox, but that seems inappropriate too... If I had more time, and a pinch more geek, I would've hooked up a silent radio (those red LED signs) that would spout color commentary messages that I'd type on a wrist keyboard, then I remembered that I'm not an EECS major.

Well, I gotta clean my apartment. This is probably the first time both my parents are in town since Susie's graduation in '93.

Gottago!

For nearly a year Kaycee kept a survivor's weblog, living colors, and she was one of the most cheerful and poignant webloggers I've seen. Diagnosed with Leukemia, she did't let it get her down, lived life to the fullest, and tried to share with others the beauty she saw in the world.

Sadly, Kaycee passed away on Monday. Her post for that day was representative of what she tried to bring out in others every day.

She will be missed.

In memory of Douglas Adams, I urge everyone to celebrate Towel Day on Friday, May 25th.

Bring a towel with you to work, play, or wherever you are throughout the day. Show everyone what a hoopy frood you are.

And spread the word!

I got my cap and gown today. Only a few more days 'till I walk (it feels like that should apply in more than one sense of the word).

It's a funny thing. I hadn't applied it to graduation ceremonies before, but color, or more specifically, the transition from black to white or vice-versa, has a uniform, yet often contradictory, significance across several cultures and disciplines.

Take the martial arts for example: Though the different forms (and in some cases, different schools) have different progressions through belt colors, they do, almost without exception, progress from the neophyte white belt to the expert black belt. The symbolic significance here is that the beginner, without knowledge, is innocent, and is as impressionable and changable as the pure white belt. As the student progresses, learning more and more, they approach black, an aggregation of the knowledge, wisdom, and experience they have gathered on their path.

Conversely, in Medieval Europe, anyone could wear a black or brown belt, but the knighthood was identified by a white belt, symbolizing the acquired purity of spirit and nobility of purpose.

Now that I'm thinking about it in broader terms, it makes sense that the cap and gown are black, signifying the end of a journey. In the same vein, the white wedding dress indicates the beginning of one.

Funerals: black, end of journey.

Baby showers: white, or pastel blue or pink, beginning.

Okay, I'll break down and admit that I don't know if the knight's white belt is an abberation because black and brown were already common before the knighthood and they had to distinguish themselves, or if the whole white-belt thing isn't actually true and is just one more thing I took from the SCA to be a historical carryover instead of a new invention.

At any rate, it's interesting (read: fun for a geek like me) to take a look at traditions and pick apart the symbolism and see if there's a common root for the symbolsim across seemingly unrelated traditions.

I need to do a little research on the mortarboard and tassle symbolism, but I'll wait until my finals are over, as I don't think that information will be particularly useful on the exams...