Eating, Drinking and Hob-nobbing

...with the best, mate.

Saturday night was the weekly Warromp, home to all kinds of lounging and party experiences. Being one of the regulars to this schmooze fest, I landed up early and made myself moderately useful. Warren took this time to explain to me that this party would be as small as possible - more of a mini-lounge experience than anything else. A sort of an advance warning, if you will. And so I expected small, in both attendance and experience. Fortunately, the man was fairly mistaken. While we're not taking big-pills-big in terms of teh peoples, it was defintely rather alive. A pleasant experience - especially since, once again, Dave was bartending and hence I always had someone to talk to. Yes, that is correct, folks. I'm still not social. Shocking, eh?

The moderately unpleasant part came the next morning. You see, I was pulling an "I'll eat when I drop" stunt at the time, and so a variety of liqour sploshed its way into a rather empty stomach. I abhor drunkenness, and so my walk back to 247 South Street was frustrating - the knowledge that your own legs will not obey you is devastating to one's state of mind. Anyway, the real pain arrived as morning approached and a hangover blossomed within my troubled cranium. It was not one of my prouder moments.

The day itself, however, was a brighter prospect, as I met an old friend in Cambridge. The ol' chap goes to MIT and...well, other details can be delivered later, but you have to hear this. Apparently, in certain US state and engineering schools, it is possible to go down an engineering track and only have to take calculus (of any kind) in one's fourth year.
That is fucking criminal.
I mean, what kind of engineering is done without calculus? Jesus.

Mini-Ramble/Rant:

Oh, and in other news, ______ continues to punish several thousand __________ for the sake of a single soldier and wounded national pride. Apparently, recent targets included a school and a university. Now, I'm not going to suggest that hitting these targets was intentional - I rather doubt that. But frankly, it's even scarier that such buildings can be hit by mistake. Scary, and downright stupid.

The word from 'The Man' of my current place of residence is that the crisis can only be solved by the release of said soldier (genius, eh?). That's nice, and he's on firm humanitarian grounds with that statement...but with little else. Sure, he should be released, but a) the IDF should withdraw unconditionally. We're talking apology territory here. b) the current hostage exchange issue should be looked into quite seriously, for purely humanitarian reasons. Of course, we all know it's not as simple as that - point (a) does not take into account the fact that the likelihood of the IDF and it's leash-master doing something rational is slim to nothing, whereas (b) forgets that such a move might encourage more kidnappings - which isn't good for stability, eh?
Gah.