I'm Sorry, Professor, My Roommate Ate My Homework.

So, I've been in college for nearly three weeks now, and here are the highlights:

I only cried once due to academic overload the first week of school. Sweet. I mean, for me, that's quite an accomplishment.

I got into Women's Choir and love it. (The dresses aren't even that ugly!)

I went around and hugged random people for an Intro to Sociology project.

I had a guy tell me I look like Kristin Bell.

I got A's (48/50 for Core and 49/50 for Intro to the Christian Faith) on my first two official college papers.

I bought the new John Mayer CD, Continuum, and adore it. There are so many amazing songs on there that totally fit me right now. Brilliant.

I joined lastfm.com, so if you want to check out what I've been listening to, pop on over.

If you include the 301 pages I had to read over the summer, I've read 1,597 pages since school started.

I will end up having read 5,267 pages (including the summer reading) by the end of this semester .

Hmm, nothing else terribly amazing going on, except that, while doing some research on doves and pigeons...

Okay, that probably could bare further explanation. In Core we had an interesting/enlightening lecture on Genesis 15 and the and God's covenant Abraham. I had some question for Dr. Beebe after the lecture about a few details, such as why Abraham didn't cut the two birds (a dove and a young pigeon) with the other animals. We had learned in class that the other animals were cut in order to "cut a covenant" as was the custom of the time in that region, but didn't talk about why the birds were left untouched. I talked to Beebe for a while and discovered that there is no definite answer he could give me, so I ventured to do some research on my own as to the role of doves and pigeons in animal sacrifice in the OT, as well as their symbolism. So yeah, if anyone is interested I can e-mail you what I found and subsequently deduced, but that is so not the point right now.

Anyway, I was researching pigeons and doves and somehow stumbled upon the Ig Nobel Awards. "The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early autumn — around the time the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced — for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think." Organized by the scientific humor journal Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), they are presented by genuine Nobel Laureates at a ceremony at Harvard University."

Basically, I spent (/wasted) a good hour cracking up over these awards. Here are just a few of my favorite recipients:

Mathematics, 1994:
The Southern Baptist Church of Alabama, mathematical measurers of morality, for their county-by-county estimate of how many Alabama citizens will go to Hell if they don't repent.

Medicine, 1998:
To Patient Y and to his doctors, Caroline Mills, Meirion Llewelyn, David Kelly, and Peter Holt, of Royal Gwent Hospital, in Newport, Wales, for the cautionary medical report, "A Man Who Pricked His Finger and Smelled Putrid for 5 Years."

Literature, 1999:
The British Standards Institution for its six-page specification (BS-6008) of the proper way to make a cup of tea.

Chemistry, 2000:
Donatella Marazziti, Alessandra Rossi, and Giovanni B. Cassano of the University of Pisa, and Hagop S. Akiskal of the University of California (San Diego), for their discovery that, biochemically, romantic love may be indistinguishable from having severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Astrophysics, 2001:
Dr. Jack and Rexella Van Impe of Jack Van Impe Ministries, Rochester Hills, Michigan, for their discovery that black holes fulfill all the technical requirements to be the location of Hell.

Literature, 2001:
John Richards of Boston, England, founder of The Apostrophe Protection Society, for his efforts to protect, promote, and defend the differences between plural and possessive.

Economics, 2003:
Karl Schwärzler and the nation of Liechtenstein, for making it possible to rent the entire country for corporate conventions, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other gatherings.

Public Health, 2004:
Jillian Clarke of the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, and then Howard University, for investigating the scientific validity of the Five-Second Rule about whether it's safe to eat food that's been dropped on the floor.

Medicine, 2004:
Steven Stack of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA and James Gundlach of Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA, for their published report "The Effect of Country Music on Suicide."

The Ig Nobel pize cermony for 2006 is scarce days away, so I'll be posting the best of this year's for your enjoyment.

When you're dreaming with a broken heart
The waking up is the hardest part
You roll outta bed and down on your knees
And for the moment you can hardly breathe
Wondering...
"Dreaming With a Broken Heart"

Pain throws you heart to the ground
Love turns the whole thing around
No, it won't all go the way, it should
But I know the heart of life is good
"The Heart of Life"

Oh it's taking so long I could be wrong, I could be ready
Oh but if I take my heart's advice
I should assume it's still unsteady
Oh I'm never really ready, I'm never really ready
I'm in repair, I'm not together but I'm getting there
I'm in repair, I'm not together but I'm getting there
"In Repair"
- John Mayer