Virtual Quill

The Super Bowl is next weekend, and a lot of people in the dorm are planning parties. Since it's a night game, Fenton and I will be able to attend although to us it'll be just after we wake up. We'll be drinking coffee, unlike many of the other partygoers.

The game is between the Colts and the Bears. I'm picking the Colts in the dorm betting pool, since they're not the ones normally hibernating right now. I'm not a big fan of Payton Humanning; he and his father and brother caused a lot of headaches for Beige University during their college careers.

Since few people around here care about the individual teams the parties will mainly focus on the TV commercials. A few months ago Kell mentioned that Herd Thinners spent an enormous amount of money on a Super Bowl ad with eye-popping graphics, arresting images and spellbinding concepts guaranteed to keep viewers riveted in one spot.

...Where they'd be easy to catch.

...Not the country's. I'm talking about Fenton and I.

We love each other as much as ever, and we even seem to have settled into a relationship where we finish each other's-

(-sentences.)
Thanks, Fenton. Seriously, though, I wonder if his recent thrill-seeking impulses are expressing a desire for new and different experiences. I just hope that I'm not becoming too familiar to him.

I thought of asking Dad and Kell how they keep their relationship fresh, but I think I know the answer already. ...And Fenton and I have agreed to wait on that.

In other news, the whole stem cell research team is intrigued by the possibility of a source that wouldn't trigger the Federal funding restrictions that we have to work under. We don't yet know if that source will be viable, however, and we're continuing our traditional research.

Speaking of Dad and Kell, last month I found one of my old lab coats in their closet. I think they were playing "Mad Scientist and her Frankenstein's Monster" again.

Fenton and I see a lot of movies, and we've developed definite opinions of them. There's one in particular I regard as the worst of all time, at least in relation to its popularity. (No, not "Plan Nine from Outer Space." ...I have a certain fondness for that.)

The movie I despise? "Grease." Let's recap the plot.

An outsider comes to a new environment, is ridiculed, ostracized and rejected by the boy she loves because she doesn't fit in. So what does she do? Make her own path in life? Become an example for those who are different?

Heck, no. She gives up her whole identitiy and all that made her unique. She submits to the Group. She conforms.

How fascist.

I'm reminded of this by an "American Idol"-type show on the air now, casting unknowns for a new production of "Grease." I keep hoping this atrocity will wither away, but it keeps coming back from the dead to teach new generations to surrender their individually.

sigh

Just to end this on a positive note I'll mention a movie I did enjoy...the documentary "March of the Happy Feet." ...About a non-conformist.

I returned to my dorm room at Beige University tonight. (Rhonda was already there after having traveled by day.) Fenton settled into his room in the hall below us with his roommate Bob, and the four of us had pizza delivered. Fenton, Bob and I split a beetle larva, maggot and onion pie, and Rhonda had a warthog-sausage with extra cheese to herself.

I'll spent the nighttime hours unpacking, and sleep during the Monday daytime hours. My nocturnal classes begin at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday. I'm taking twelve credit hours, as I'm getting the required classes out of the way and my course load gets weighted more toward my genetic engineering major.

I also have my stem cell research with Professor Antlerhead's team. I wish I could say more about that, but things are advancing to the point where I can only put them down on paper for a peer-reviewed journal.
Fenton says I have no peers. If I didn't love him so much, the sentiment would probably make me vomit up my pizza.