Dig if you will the picture: I’m sitting outside Main getting my Genealogy of Morals on, when someone I know spots me and comes over to say hi. After the usual Heys and Sups, he notices the book:
“Whoa, Nietzsche, huh? Is that for a class or for fun?”
“Well, I-”
“Hah nevermind, listen to me. What kind of person reads Nietzsche for fun?”
I’m about to explain that it’s not for fun, exactly, so much as for a voluntary philosophy reading group in which we argue various texts in ethical theory when I realize that pretty much qualifies me as exactly the sort of person who reads Nietzsche for fun.

The only thing that really concerns me about my Genetics midterm tomorrow is that I’m not really concerned about it at all. I don’t think I quite believe that we actually have a midterm already - it’s barely a month into the semester, fer chrissakes. I’m fully expecting to show up tomorrow to find a note taped to the lecture hall door explaining the joke. See, because here’s the thing: we haven’t done enough yet to really merit a midterm. A big quiz, maybe, or a regulartest even, but an exam?

Just in case I show up tomorrow morning and they don’t clap us on the back and reveal that it was all a big hoax, I’ve been reading over my notes and drawing Punnett squares and everything, but it just doesn’t feel like a big deal, like a 20% of my final grade kind of big deal. Also: I take way, way too many notes. Trying to read over my notes for a class isn’t really any better than reading a textbook chapter or something, there’s just so much. I didn’t always do this - I dug up a notebook from freshman year and it’s amazing I passed anything at all, given that apparently all I did in class was draw and write things to the girl sitting next to me - but apparently I do it now. I’m guessing it started last semester, when I was nervous that my extended leave of absence would have left me stripped bare of any kind of study skills at all. Which, I mean, yeah. There is the whole part where I’m writing a post instead of studying on the night before a midterm, which I guess might not be proof of exemplary study skills. But hey, I sure do take a lot of notes.

I finished my first actually challenging C program (bug free), thanks to testing help from Spencer and wisdom from the mighty Deuce.

I proved once and for all that you can too eat hummus on a toasted bagel, god dammit. However, it should be noted that I’m of the opinion you can eat hummus on pretty much anything. But seriously, hummus on a perfectly toasted crispy poppyseed bagel from Bagel Express: divine.

I learned my first chord. What’s this? Emma playing a stringed instrument that isn’t a violin?

I actually found exactly the book I was looking for at one of those faintly sketchy little used book tables on the street outside Tisch hall. I usually find things that are interesting, but never quite what I was hoping for.

I managed to spend significant amounts of time in the sun today without getting sunburned again. However, I’ve also got this weird little crescent of tan around my clavicle from the White Stripes show. Why that particular spot decided to tan for the first time in the history of my skin is a mystery for the ages, but as fun as the whole peeling thing was I’m not complaining.

I’m usually as tired of The Onion as everyone else, but this one made me giggle: “It’s criminal,” RIAA president Hilary Rosen said. “Anyone at any time can simply turn on a radio and hear a copyrighted song. Making matters worse, these radio stations often play the best, catchiest song off the album over and over until people get sick of it. Where is the incentive for people to go out and buy the album?”

Also: I consider eating an entire three pound bag of apples this week an accomplishment to be proud of. Where’s my commemorative plaque?

A little followup for those who went to the White Stripes show on Tuesday, or those who wish they could have: there are some excellent photos to be had (and if you’re a fan of the whole Where’s Waldo thing, I’m in several of the shots). The official ZTour page is here, and the Quicktime movies there are not to be missed. The description surprised me - nine thousand people? Being not so very tall, myself, and towards the front I had no idea how far back the crowd extended until I saw these photos. I guess that explains why the Parks Department wasn’t so pleased about the whole thing.

LFI has a really nice set of images, but unless you’re representing a “bona fide media outlet”, you won’t be allowed to register for the fullsize versions. The thumbs are just a big tease. The same is true, unfortunately, of this really nice collection; you can download the images only if you pay for a monthly subscription. MTV has a little “flipbook” of smallish decent images, and a brief article on the show. The Modern Age has some really great shots, including this one of Jack. Why haven’t I seen this site before? The rest of the Stripes photos are here. There’s yet more to be found at Mediaeater. When I got home on Tuesday, I remember thinking that I wish I’d brought my camera - but it looks like I didn’t need to, since EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD brought theirs.

More great photos: evachavela.com, digmeout.com, a fellow NYU person’s blog, one here, and probably many more that I didn’t find. Seriously, though, I think that’s probably plenty.

Also, thanks to everyone who wrote in about the Dave Eggers thing - I’ll pick up a copy next week, probably. And thanks to Cee for the necklace.

I finally got around to devouring Me Talk Pretty One Day, thanks to a reader who snagged it off my list. I’ve read a couple of David Sedaris’s articles previously and friends have been recommending the book (along with Naked) for months and months, but for some reason I had just never read it. I can’t believe I waited as long as I did; reading the title story in an NYU lounge earlier today I was actually laughing so audibly I had to leave the room so as not to disturb people trying to study. Buy this book.

Speaking of books - walking by Shakespeare & Co on Broadway today I noticed a sign proclaiming that “THE NEW DAVE EGGERS BOOK IS 10% OFF”; I didn’t have a chance to go in at the time, but looking around on Amazon just now I couldn’t seem to find anything that might qualify as THE NEW DAVE EGGERS BOOK, unless it would be The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2002, of which I guess he was one of the editors. Was I misled? Is there something else I should be aware of? Someone enlighten me.

Seriously though, there’s no excuse for it being above 80 in October. No, don’t give me that BUT IT’S A DRY HEAT crap. I don’t want to hear it. I’m going to hide under my bed until Weather.com assures me the daily high will not be above an acceptable 65.

Tonight I had been planning on taking advantage of the last few days of my DVD Freedom Pass Thingie and watching a couple movies I rented, but I made the mistake of taking a look at the next program we’re writing for my C class. It’s not due for a while yet, but I got started on it and now suddenly it’s three hours later and too late to really do the movie thing. But seriously, Rufus Sewell can’t honestly expect to compete with the MATH FUN TIME program and its many, many loops (even if it’s not nearly as much fun as the title would seem to suggest).

You know how when you’ve got a nasty sunburn you feel sort of sleepy, but more in a I-must-have-just-come-from-the-beach sort of way rather than a really exhausted sort of way? Yeah, that.

When I first found out yesterday that the White Stripes would be doing a surprise show in Union Square today, I didn’t quite believe it. But I walked over after my first lecture this morning, about an hour before the show was scheduled, and found a crowd already gathering. I managed to snag a spot up front amongst an alarming concentration of indie bedhead and red shirts. I knew Jon was also going to be there but we’d neglected to really figure out somewhere to meet up, so I just sort of kept an eye out.

I have to say, I haven’t really been a dedicated White Stripes fan. Jon burned me a couple of the albums and I liked them, but that was about the extent of it. Live, though, they blew me away. They’re this little candy cane-colored confection of a band but they’ve got an awfully impressive stage presence for two people. Despite the truly incredible sunburn incurred from the waiting and the outside and the whole sun thing, I have to say it was the most satisfying live show I’ve seen in years.

Apparently, the Parks Department types weren’t that into it. Towards one o’clock, there was an angry-looking official type to be seen perched on the edge of the stage, gesticulating wildly. Jack announced they would play only one more song, but that wasn’t good enough, I guess. Despite only going over their alloted hour by maybe four or five minutes, the power to the stage was cut about thirty seconds into Boll Weevil. Obviously miffed but not to be deterred, Jack shushed all the booing directed at the angry official type and announced they would finish the song without any amplification at all. I was only a row or two back, so I heard it fine and it wasn’t a bad way to end a great set. There’s an article about it here, although it implies the crowd was flipping off the band - which we weren’t, but rather the Parks Department guy who took the newly-repowered mic after Jack and Meg left the stage to thank us all for coming and tell us to get the hell out. There’s another short note here.

The highlight of my day, though, was after I’d grabbed one of the free Stripes posters being passed out by some magazine or other and was wandering back towards NYU. I was walking along Union Square East and noticed another small crowd gathering. “Oh look,” I thought, “There’s the tour bus.” And then: “Oh look, there’s Jack White.” Meg was there also, but so completely swamped in devoted twentysomething men that I didn’t even bother. I had to wait in a different smushed and overly enthusiastic pile of people, but eventually I managed to get my very own sweaty Jack hug and a signature on the flyer that started it all.