i’m now one of new york’s countless bottle blondes. i’ll miss you, atomic pink, but i have to say i’m really digging this. the #caoine consensus is that it’s rather elfin, and i can’t complain. need more evidence? try here and here.

it’s a strange thing to realize that you can once again walk around brooklyn without people stopping to point and stare at your hair. there have been times since i buzzed it last fall that i wished i could blend in, especially when it’s late and i’m not really up to dealing with drunken loons on the subway, but now that i’ve got a (theoretically) natural color again i almost miss standing out. however, i suspect this platinum experiment will just be for the summer, so it’s all good, as are these breadsticks.

after waking up to a blessedly-non telemarketing phonecall, i pondered my options for the remainder of the morning from the comfort of my little blanket nest. this is exactly how may weather should be, by the way - cold enough for pajamas in bed. i decided eventually on a doubleshot and another attempt at fixing my hair. the doubleshots, incidentally - they’re okay, but not fantastic. i have several left over from when they were promoting them on campus. “yes, i’d love a free sample - could i get a couple for my roommates too?” definitely better than that bottled frappucino crap, but joltspresso wins out, ultimately.

so yeah, my hair: the forelock’s gone, finally, and i’m getting rid of the remainder of the pink at this very moment. i admit i’ve been awfully tempted to just buzz it all off, but i’m resisting for the moment. and yes, there will be documentation when i’m done. very few humans saw the cotton candy state, thankfully - only those poor souls with whom i shared spicy fries in abundance last night (and a healthy dose of alcohol).

look, i don’t want to mention these shirts again any more than you want to hear about them, but it’s like a pledge drive: the sooner you buy them, the sooner i’ll shut up and go back to talking about kant and caffeine.

the new shirts are so sexy, even spider-man can’t resist.

<honey_badger> you know what i’ve noticed in my days as a honey badger more than anything else
<honey_badger> there’s one thing that all cool people have in common
<honey_badger> do you know what it is
<derPapst> Unendurable scent?
<honey_badger> they all have those snazzy caoine.org logo shirts!
<honey_badger> i sure wish i could get one
<honey_badger> but i’m a honey badger
<derPapst> Hey I ordered mine, but how could someone else order one?!
<honey_badger> you know
<honey_badger> i bet they could order one right here!
<honey_badger> and i bet emma would think that was just the best thing ever!
<derPapst> Now wait there honey badger, these must be expensive.
<honey_badger> i can see how you’d think that
<honey_badger> these high quality hanes beefy tees are 100% cotton, after all
<derPapst> I’ve seen those in stores, some selling for as much as $19.95!
<honey_badger> but they’re a bargain at just $15 plus shipping!
<derPapst> Wow honey badger that is a great deal on a piece of quality american craftsmanship!

my hair is changing again. although i like the whole frosting-pink thing, i’m going for blonde again by the end of the week. spides is responsible for initiating this process, although rich is clearly the jedi master of bleach.

i eat a lot of ramen. that’s not to imply any particular fondness for it, though - it’s mostly disgusting without copious amounts of hot sauce and it’s got no actual nutritonal value, but there’s something to be said for being able to go grocery shopping out of your change jar. it also involves essentially no effort, which is a plus when i’m getting home late and boiling water is about the extent of my capabilities. tonight i was contemplating the prospect of another NEW FLAVOR CUP NOODLE and i found it unappealing in the extreme, so i made spaghetti instead. not really that much more expensive given that i use cheapass canned tomato sauce (which tastes okay once you reach a certain garlic threshold) and storebought pasta. i’ve been thinking i’d like to try making fresh pasta, though, which i admit i’ve never done before. anyone have any tips?

so i curled up with a big bowl of spaghetti (so much parmesan hglughglrh) and watched pbs all afternoon like the dork i am. a change of pace from the celebratory theme of the past few days, but a welcome one. and i love the rain we’re getting, finally, although it’s making me want to go back to ireland some summer.

also: the other emma might just be the cutest thing in the world.

spider-man, which spencer and i saw on stomachs full of mexican rice and strawberry margaritas, is viscerally satisfying and mostly brainless, which is just as it should be. danny elfman soundtrack was delicious, tobey maguire was more appealing than i’d expected, effects were almost flawless. however, it’s almost certainly an indication of overstudying for a philosophy final that walking out of the theatre i was mentally setting up arguments for a kantian interpretation of the surprisingly stringent superhero ethic.

i’ve noticed that all i eat anymore is spicy food, which should be amusing to anyone who knows me from when i lived in massachusetts. i used to be incredibly picky; everything i ate had to be completely stripped of any sort of condiments or spices. salt was fine, but that’s about as far as i went - pepper was right out and i wouldn’t even eat ketchup until my sophomore year of high school. now i dump this stuff into jars of so-called “hot” store-bought salsa and i’m still searching for the spiciest indian food in manhattan. i remember my aunt pat used to take bottles of hot sauce to restaurants when we all went out, and it’s starting to sound like a good idea.

in other news, scott’s possibly the sweetest sysadmin ever. i’d have to check, but i’m pretty sure here.

you’ll note i’ve joined the ranks of atomz users; caoine’s now searchable. have fun. there’s also the beginnings of a fourth page to the cams, to which i’ll be adding this week. lastly, shucks. that’s probably one of the nicest things i’ve heard in a while.

unless you’re graduating, an academic year at the university level ends with relatively little ado. everyone’s done at different times; there is, yes, a point at which there are no more finals, but most people will have handed in their last papers and taken their last exams sometime before that. there’s no big communal moment, aside from commencement, at which the entire nyu community breathes a collective sigh of relief and settles comfortably into summer. instead, it’s a scattering of individual endings.

mine was this morning. i turned in my final paper for british/irish politics - twenty pages on bloody sunday - and that was that: i’m done. it’s a great feeling, but i have to say it’s not nearly enough closure for the amount of work i’ve done this semester.

this is where alcohol comes in. the secret to a truly satisfying end to finals is to gather all of your friends who have also finished (whether it was hours, days, or years ago) and go get drunker than you’ve been since before classes started. drunker than you were over spring break. all of you should do shots with obscurely sexual names and once you’ve reached what you said your maximum for the evening would be, have at least two more. you need to do this at least two or three nights in a row, it’s an essential part of being a college student. i began this process last night (i’d already written the paper i turned in this morning) and i’m off to vanquish my mild hangover with further celebration: cheap mexican food, a lot of corona, and people i haven’t seen in a while. i can’t think of a better way to end the semester, myself.