i’m not sure why the vegetarianism thing is so fascinating. i mean, i don’t think i’ve ever written to anyone asking about their reasons for avoiding oysters or ranch dressing. i suppose it’s the political connotation; perhaps “i don’t eat meat” gets translated to “i don’t eat meat, and neither should you, you fucking disgusting carnivore do you have any idea how those animals are treated i mean my god what is wrong with you.”

i think i’ve addressed this before, but let me reiterate: my meat eating or lack thereof has exactly zero to do with any of that. yeah, horrible conditions for livestock, grossness in meat packing industry, etc etc. i’m well aware of it, believe me.

me being a vegetarian is nothing more than pickiness. i don’t like meat that much, you see, in the same way that you don’t like ranch dressing; the difference is just that there’s no term (that i’m aware of) for someone who refuses to consume certain condiments, but there are plenty for people who don’t eat meat (aside from “raging hippy,” i mean). i am not opposed to meat in and of itself - i’ve tried chicken a couple of times in the past year, in fact, and i didn’t even throw up. but i’ve got all these nutty vegetarian habits now and breaking them would require a concerted effort on my part that just doesn’t seem terribly necessary.

so please, stop asking me why i’m a vegetarian, or why i’m not a vegan. really. there are so many other things we can talk about.

several people have emailed me over the past couple of weeks asking for some kind of photo tour of nyu, i suppose as prospective freshmen. is anyone else interested in this? if i were to do it, is there anything in particular you’d want to see? specific buildings, parts of the village, lecture halls, or something else?

thinking about the next shirt: would you rather have a plain logo and nothing else (probably the pigtails girl some of you remember from past designs, but i might create a new logo entirely), or another phrase of some sort? (i’ve got plenty of suggestions for possible text already, don’t worry.) either way, look for ordering on these to begin within the next couple of weeks.

in other news, i’ve managed to make it through this week having spent all of eight bucks. let’s hear it for rent-is-due-soon budgeting (and also for ramen). i’ve also got my first sunburn of the season thanks to jon and washington square park. we couldn’t have been out more than half an hour or forty five minutes, but i woke up this morning matching my hair. summer, i hate you.

new order is the best thing in the world to listen to before seven am.

it’s only wednesday morning but it already feels like it’s been a really long week. lots to do, lots to think about. that said, i’m feeling pretty good. the stress was sort of getting to me circa monday night, but sleep and chai and friends will do wonders for that. ready to kick more ass today.

today was good. i kicked some ass, i took some names. (by which i mean i caught up on my india reading for the past couple of weeks and handed in that other paper.) on the menu this evening: yet more reading, possibly some writing of lab reports. seriously, i don’t know how i deal with all the nonstop excitement. it’s a challenge, let me tell you.

i’m going to be buying a new (paper) journal within the next few days, as the current one is just about full. what do you folks use? mine tend to be plain black, usually leatherbound, preferably with white ruled pages. any particular brand i should look for? i’m hoping to find something on the cheap side this time.

i’m in the market for summer projects. in the process of updating resume etc but if you’ve money that needs spending and a site that needs designing, let’s discuss it.

i was looking at my calendar this morning and it’s really sinking in that there’s only two weeks of classes left. how did this semester go by so quickly? granted, the last time i did a semester at nyu i spent a month and a half of it in bed with mono, so it maybe seemed a little slower. but it doesn’t seem possible that’s it’s already the end of april, does it?

i registered for the fall term on friday. taking a sociology course called ‘linguistic perspectives’ to satisfy one of my requirements; i’m fascinated with languages so it should be interesting. human genetics takes care of the last of my sciences and (hooray!) the last of the core curriculum altogether. also finally taking logic (i’ve been trying to get into it since freshman year) and my elective: intro cs. i’m told it’s a bit of a joke, but it’s a prereq to some of the other courses i want to take and i didn’t have time to get exemption from the department. if nothing else, i get to learn c++.

i’ve been spending less time typing lately; my wrists (and eyes) are thanking me. i haven’t even started answering my mail from this week yet, i apologize. still doing the getting up early and working all morning thing, it seems to work well with the school thing. we’ll see what happens to my sleeping patterns after finals, though.

i’m a little scattered at the moment, which is probably obvious. i’ll try the coherence thing again later.

i’d like to point out that my new namesake is the cutest thing i’ve ever seen. we emmas are all pale, you know. this one just moved in with gwen from #penny-arcade, and you can keep an eye on page three to see some more of her.

the past few days have followed the same sort of pattern with regard to my productivity; i have taken to getting up at ass o’clock (that’s eastern standard time) to work and read and get as much done as possible before everyone wakes up and i get distracted. which i do, inevitably - my ability to focus on anything i’m not already interested in decreases exponentially as people i am interested in begin tugging at the edges my concentration.

the papers. they’re being written, slowly and painfully. i’ve got perhaps another page or two to write tomorrow, and then some revising and footnoting and printing, none of which i’m looking forward to even a little bit but all of which needs to get done.

perhaps the biggest threat to my academic work this weekend is a suddenly rather urgent desire to start writing short fiction again. restraining myself. my fiction isn’t something i’d inflict on anyone lightly.

reading a really great book is always sort of a breathtaking experience, but reading a really great book by one of your favorite people is infinitely more so.

yes, i’m supposed to be working on my papers this weekend. (yes, i read a book this afternoon instead.)