The war? Is over.

Right, so... For years I was a rabid Windows zealot.  Macs bad, Macs evil, all that.  Then I was more of a "Macs are good for some things, not others" guy.  And then after that, up until just now, I believed that Macs did their thing, and I did mine, and it wasn't that mine was better per se, just that I was used to it.

And then I read Eric's post on Boot Camp over at Websnark.  Oh.  My. God.  Macs booting XP clean?  Imminent smooth virtualization possibility?  I have a new God.  We all knew it was coming.  I knew it myself, although I didn't want to admit it.  My next laptop will be an Apple product, I'm stating that here and now.  I want it NOW.  So goddam pretty, precioussss.

Stupid grad students disappearing into the mist

I live a wildly invigorating jet-set life, full of parties in exotic locales with sparkly people and witty conversation.  No, really.  I swear.  That's why I was sitting here at 9:15 dozing off to the end of The Silence of the Lambs.

Dinner tonight was strange.  There's a prospective student in town this weekend, and there's been no end of ridiculousness with her visit.  This is really not a good weekend to visit our department; not only is this the first weekend of our spring break, the vast majority of our students are out of town at conferences.  Not just events but even basic things like housing have been fraught with difficulty -- so why should tonight be any different?  Some of us were going to have dinner with her tonight.  I got to Parrain's, and Oana and Matt were there.  First thing Oana says to me: "Where's Vanessa [the pros. student]?!"  Oh dear.  Well, we each assumed the other was going to pick her up, and nobody had any idea how to get in touch with her.  About 4 billion phone calls later, we determine that she was dropped off to rent a car, and was going to find her way to Parrain's alone.  Her first time in BR, ever.  Riiiiiiiiiight.  Well, she never showed up.  But Oana, Matt, and I had a nice dinner anyway (I had the biggest fillet of barbecued black drum ever, and it was delicious).  Combined with a tuna salad at Zeeland St. Market for lunch (they know how to cook their tuna rare, thank God), I have spent far too much on food today, but it was definitely worth it.  And I kinda ended up keeping the Lenten meatless day, accidentally (well, except for some beef jerky; and the dirty rice that came with the drum -- I honestly don't know how Louisiana was predominantly observant Catholic at one point, I mean, even the fish dishes come with meat sides).

Aaaaand, just when I thought I was ready to click "Post Entry", the TV gives me more material.  Have you seen the new Pepto Bismol commercial that has three guys dressed in really bad hip-hop outfits -- like... from the 80s, all track suits and headbands -- rapping about the product?  They just rhythmically chant various gastrointestinal ailments: "Heartburn, acid, indigestion, diarrhea!"  It's... a little off-putting, frankly.