Even though as far as I can tell I was never mentioned on the supersecret forums, this whole debacle has pissed me off enough that I'm planning to take an extended break from the forums. It was really disappointing to see some of the names that were on there.

I didn't post this there because making "goodbye" posts is idiotic, but I figured anyone who knows me well enough to care will see this.

Breaking months-long silence to let anyone who cares know that I'm a fucking moron. Hooray!

When I find the person who opened an attachment they shouldn't have, crashing the email server here for 2 days and counting, I shall taste blood.

I posit that there is no better feeling than receiving an A on a paper you thought was crap.

Today's exciting update: the belt that I have worn since approximately 8th grade (I'm 19 now) broke when I was attempting to remove it last night. My fondness for baggy jeans is now coming back to haunt me, as I have to stop about every three steps to pull up my jeans to a decent level. A memorial service is scheduled for Wednesday.

Today I discovered that red wine tastes good.

Very good.

Well, I suppose that for once I have something interesting to talk about. So hooray, first meaningful update since last July!

Today, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope. I had been dreading this, but I'm not going to talk about my feelings about his interpretation of Catholic doctrine. This is more about my feelings watching the whole death and conclave process.

For background, my religious background is mixed. My mother is Catholic and my father is Jewish. I've had education in both traditions, and although if you put a gun to my head I'd self-identify as Jewish, I feel like I'm a part of both traditions.

Because of my Catholic education and upbringing, I had heard a lot about the papacy of John Paul II. More importantly, though, he was pope for longer than I've been alive. This guy was the pope. It was that simple. When I looked at the Wikipedia entries for previous popes, it just seemed like other old guys wearing a pope costume for Halloween or something.

And now this guy comes out on the balcony at St. Peter's and they tell me he's the new pope. It's going to take me a long time to get used to the idea of someone else being the pope. These past two weeks have just been completely surreal. I remember JP coming to New York and New Jersey in 1995, when I was in fourth grade, and holding mass in Central Park and Giants Stadium. From what I hear about this guy, I doubt he'll be nearly charismatic enough to pull off a trip like that.

As usual, I'm rambling. I guess eventually I'll get used to the idea. It's going to be an interesting few years.

I can't decide if I should start doing this again

(copy/pasted from email I sent out, ignore name references, and no, I won't buy you a gift. Sorry.)

Hello from the lobby of the Richmond Hotel on Mejiro-dori in Tokyo.
It feels like its about a thousand degrees outside, so I've retreated
to the air-conditioned refuge of this lobby to update you all on my
fascinating adventures.

The flight over was an adventure in itself. Somewhere over the middle
of Canada, our pilot announced that something was wrong with the
navigation system and we would have to make an emergency landing in
(ominous music) Chicago. We sat there for about four hours while they
tried to sort out everyone's connections. They recruited some woman
from the crowd to make announcements in Japanese, since we were flying
on American Airlines. We finally left at 5:00 local time, and landed
in Narita at about 9:30, seven hours late.

I was worried that we'd be totally lost, but the Tokyo
public-transport system is certified awesome. There are enough signs
in English that we can find our way around. On the streets is another
story. For some dumb reason, hardly any streets have names. That
makes it a lot of fun for the illiterate visitor.

Still, we've seen some cool stuff. The unintentionally hilarious
t-shirts are a reality (example: LONG LIVE THE GARDENING APE).
Trying to find one to bring home.

We went to a baseball game at the Tokyo Dome last night. A bit
different from Yankee Stadium, but they improve on it in one respect:
the beer vendors are really good-looking women. Unfortunately, they
speak pretty much no English, and so I mistakenly ordered hard
lemonade from one of them, a fact I did not discover until it was a
bit too late. Fun times.

We head to Kyoto tomorrow on the bullet train. If anyone has requests
for souvenirs from halfway around the world, let me know. There are
net cafes everywhere, so I'll get your message Justin, I already got
you something I think you'll like.

See you in a few weeks. Drop me a line sometime.

Off to Japan! See you in two weeks.