Pigeon Impossible. This short has apparently been winning all kinds of awards recently.

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Today in German class, we celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall. Perhaps I should hyperlink Berlin Wall, as there were only three people in the class that remembered the momentus events of 1989: the professor (who had just come to America that year), a retired high-school teacher who is auditing the course, and myself. I was in middle school.

Last Thursday was Guy Fawkes Day. Many of my friends made comments about it, having see the movie V for Vendetta, or read the comic book upon which the movie was based. Me, I first celebrated Guy Fawkes day in AP History class, with Mr. Horrigan. His regret was that the plot failed.

Tomorrow is the United States Marine Corps' 234th birthday. Semper Fi!

The day after is Armistice Day. The larks, still bravely singing, fly. Let us not forget.

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Friday afternoon, I got to take a (tethered) hot-air balloon ride with two friends. It wasn't bad. Being up in the air is no longer such a thrill for me, but I did appreciate the lack of rotor noise.

I learned of the opportunity while sitting in the club offices, relaxing after my last class of the day. Thus I had no camera with me. Perhaps I can get a copy of a friend's cell phone images. Also, perhaps I should invest in a camera that does not require a baggage train to bring with me. I love my DSLR, but the thing is big enough that I only take it with me if I expect to see something worth imaging. Thus spontaneous photography is impossible.

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• The Harvard University Press is headquartered in Cambridge. The Cambridge University Press is headquartered in New York City. For the latter, I am quite surprised that it is not in London. Yes, I'm also aware that one Cambridge is in Massachusetts and the other is in Britain.

• I wish I had a bigger desk, as I am interweaving quotes from nine different books, and I don't have enough space to keep them all handy. Three are on my lap, four on my desk, and two have been relegated to the floor. Also, there are four different e-texts open in browser windows, making my reference list a lucky 13. Books spread all over the place: this is pretty much how historians work, judging by my professors' offices.

• I can't find a free online German version of the particular Nietzsche work I'm writing about. There are a number available for a couple of Euros, but free versions seem suspiciously absent. Or maybe the German publishing companies are better at SEO. Still, I'm annoyed that the German Project Gutenberg claims to have the text of this book, but when I went there all I got was a 404 error.

• I must give Hayden White some credit: he wrote two books claiming that history was useless. He then gave up his job as professor of history to take a job as professor of literary criticism. I was first exposed to modern literary criticism in ACE English (a college class taken during high school). That exposure convinced me that literary criticism was useless. White's book has done nothing to disabuse me of that notion.

I grind my teeth when I come across phrases such as "…it is possible to imagine a conception of history that would signal its resistance to the bourgeois ideology of realism by its refusal to attempt a narrativist mode for the representation of its truth…" My first marginal note comes on page "ix", and reads "Pointless obfuscation". Later notes include "You have got to be kidding" and "Stop dodging the issue!" And his attempt to disentangle his work from the Holocaust deniers that love to quote him was not terribly convincing.

• The two best sentances in my paper: "According to Nietzsche, French history could not be the same history as German history. Histories created futures, and as their futures were disjoint, so must be their histories."

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In German class a few weeks ago, we were doing drills. The word "Wörterbuch" was unfamiliar to me, so I raised my hand. "Ich habe eine Frage, Professore! Was ist 'das Wörterbuch?'" ["I have a question. What is…?"] The professor, walking past me, brusquely said "Dictionary!" and went to help another student.

I, feeling hurt, pulled out my German-English dictionary from my bag and consulted it, all the while muttering to myself with irritation. “Geez, it'd only take her two seconds to tell me what the word was, but now I'm wasting half a minute of class time looking it up. Ah, here it is! Let's see, "Wörterbuch: (neuter) noun: Dictionary."

At which point I slapped my head and was amused. A fine example of a comprehension error! I had interpreted her utterance as an imperative command, using the common English procedure of converting a noun to a verb: "(You) [consult a] dictionary!" When it was actually a nominative sentence with pro-dropping: "(The answer is) (a) dictionary." Of such issues is the study of linguistics made.

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I'm filling out university applications today. Some of you might be interested to learn I'm applying to the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

That is, I'm thinking I will apply there. I'm nervous, after discovering that their application form was constructed by someone that thinks "New York" follows "Nevada" in an alphabetical list. As opposed to, say, "New Mexico."

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I sure hope that the Halloween candy I got for the neighborhood kids lasts until Saturday. It seems to be evaporating.

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I'm off to take the GREs! I should get two of my three score components as soon as I finish, so I'll update this post with results when I can.

UPDATE: It took me three hours; my research section was a new version of the analytical test. I got a 680 verbal / 740 quantitative, which are 96/82 percentile. I'm hurt; this is the first time I've taken a nationwide exam and didn't get in the 99th percentile. Of course, the GRE is self-selected more than the SAT, PSAT, or ASVAB were. And being hurt about scoring that high is kind of evidence that I'm a self-centered jerk. In my defense, I'm a self-centered jerk who is worried about if I'm going to get into a grad program.

Higher scores would have been nice, but I hope these are good enough to get me into some good schools.

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Most of the family seems to be taking a blog news hiatus. I claim an excuse: I'm taking the GRE on Monday. Last week and this week are full of papers and midterms. It is all most stressful.

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A specific young lady and a specific young gentleman are both members of my university social club. They had been dating, but broke up a few weeks ago amidst much drama. By "much drama" I mean the campus police got involved, as they were unable to return each other's property in a mature manner. I was friends with both of them, and did my best to counsel patience, politness, etc., with little effect. Ah, to be 19 and in love…

Anyway, the young lady has become involved with another young man recently. Which is none of my business. But when I came into the club's room after lunch today, she was present, and I noticed a good dozen small bruises around her neck.

This drew my attention, for two reasons. Primus, during my early high school years, I amused myself by reading my mother's professional books, many of which were about abusive relationships and the problems thereof. Secundus, as a Marine NCO, I had to know if my troops were getting into fights and not telling me about it. So, without even thinking about it, and while maintaining a small-talk conversation, I stared at her neck, trying to decide if the bruises were "digital marks" caused by choking fingers.

She noticed me staring, blushed, and pulled her shirt collar up. At which point I decided they didn't look like digital marks. "Hmmm," I said to myself, and I knew it was me because I recognized the voice.* "How could she have gotten those marks? They don't look like fight injuries, but I don't think she sticks her head into aircraft inspection panels on shipboard and gets bounced into the hatch edges by the waves. What other possible way is there for a young lady to get bruises on her neck? And why would a young lady be embarassed about them?"

Then, of course, slow old me caught up. Ahem. As I said before, it has been some time since I was young and in love…

P.S. When she showed up to chorus tonight, she was wearing a scarf. Excellent choice, that.

* Joke courtesy of my friend Iggy.

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