Not the Sharpest Egg in the Basket...

Alright, so I'm going to try to keep this short because it's almost 2am and I'm going to be so tired tomorrow if I stay up much longer. Today we all got together to go to lunch in Brooklyn with these two prestigious mapping guys that John met last night. Unfortunately, we were really late (the subway was delayed....a lot) and we completely missed them. So we split up into smaller groups, got some food, and hung around until the "Street Art" tour. Completely off subject, but I always wonder what people think of this. Does something count as art if the person wasn't trying to make art when they did it? Because some street art is actually artists going around and making cool pictures and things, but some of it is just nice looking graffiti. So does that count? I don't know. I'm sort of leaning towards no though. Anyway, you people should comment and tell me what you think because no one seems to want to discuss this with me. Back to the story. So we were taking the street art tour, and I started to notice that people were staring at us because it was a huge group of 40 people or something and there was this guy leading us with a huge speaker on a tricycle so we were making a ton of noise. Then I started to notice that people were sort of giving us this look of disgust. Then I started to hear people yelling at us to get out of their neighborhood. Anyway, after a while, I realized that we were being sort of obtrusive, in a kind of literal sense. There were so many people that we were standing in the road and blocking traffic, and no one in the group even noticed or cared. And then there was a point where we were walking by some shop, and all the people working there had to stop and wait for us to pass because we were blocking their way. So at that point I started to feel pretty bad and just walked off when we got to the corner.

So this leads to my next adventure of the day. The subway!!! So I found the subway entrance after walking for about 10 minutes down this street, but I realized I didn't know what stop to get off on. Whatever, I've got an unlimited pass and there are always directions in the subway anyway. So I got on and was looking at the map, and there must have been a sticker on it before or something because all the names of the streets on the line I was on were sort of illegible. After looking at it for a while, I decided that I either get off on 6th ave. or 8th ave. and the worst that could happen is that I could get off on the wrong one and have to get back on. So I got off on 6th because it looked right, and waited for the next train. I started taking some pictures while I waited, and a subway guy came out and told me that people aren't allowed to video or photograph any part of the subway because of terrorist stuff. So that was kind of annoying because a lot of us were doing parts or all of our projects on the subway. So finally, the train came and I got on and everything seemed right. The stops were the same, etc. But when it was time to get off on 125th street, it was a totally wrong stop. It turns out I had gotten on the 2 instead of the 1 and ended up on 125th street, but instead of being on the corner of broadway, I was on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Street. So I was all pissed off from the street art tour, and my feet hurt from walking around a bunch all day, and it was hot and I couldn't believe I was on the wrong train and didn't notice. So I left the stop and just started walking in the direction that seemed the most correct at the time. And I walked for a really long time. Eventually, it turned out I was right and I saw the other subway stop on the bridge, which was really exciting for me. So I got some ice cream, and walked all the way to International House and went to sleep.

When I woke up, my roommates were back from Conflux and were about to go to this party at Monkeytown. So I decided to just get up and go with them. It was really fun actually. The second movie/piece they showed was a bunch of really awesome colors and sounds projected onto the screens. There was also another cool one that was sort of like that, where it was more of a visual thing than an actual movie. But the last one was really fun. The announcer person came up and said her thing about how this next performance is by blah blah (I don't remember their names. I have it somewhere if you really want to know) and it's the last performance of the night. Thanks. So it was time for it to come on, and there were just these digital numbers on the screen that said 10:00:00. And that was it. And we were all sort of waiting around for something to happen, and this one guy started clapping. So everyone was just kind of like, what the hell is that guy doing? and as he was clapping the numbers started moving. And it was a clock that was ticking downwards to 0. But the more noise there was, the faster it counted down. So at first, it was going pretty slow because it was just the one guy. Then some other people joined in, and pretty soon everyone was screaming and clapping and freaking out trying to get this clock down to 0. There was even a really cool moment where everyone kind of quieted down and the clock slowed down, and then we all started screaming again and it started moving fast. So that was a lot of fun. We got home alright, Rachel said something about someone not being the sharpest egg in the basket, and now I'm going to finish this up and go to sleep. Again.