Boo Midterms! Yay Chair-Sailing!

That's a fairly descriptive title up there. The past two days have been dominated by the large amounts of free time and nagging feelings that I should be studying that seem to characterize midterms. For finals, I can generally muster up the resolve to hole up in the library and get solid multi-hour blocks of studying done; midterms don't quite warrant such drastic measures, and so there's plenty of time for unusual little adventures.

For example, we have the titular chair-sailing that occurred this afternoon. It was a very blustery day, so a friend and I constructed a kite out of some ski poles and a bedsheet. Sadly, this contraption proved a tad heavy for actual flight, so we altered out plan, stole an office chair from the computer lab, and decided to go chair-sailing in the parking lot. The terrain proved a bit rough for the office chair, and the wind was very swirly and difficult to capture, but nevertheless we did manage to travel via wind power for some distance. This modest accomplishment was, however, severely tempered by the number of times I fell, took a ski pole to the face, and was snickered at by passerby.

Less unusual, but equally awesome, was the foray several friends and I made to the roof of our dorm, where we appreciated the view, debated whether the moon was full, and terrified our more scholarly friends by banging and whooping outside their windows. It was fun.

I suppose enough blog-time has been spent on the subject that I'm decidedly obligated to offer up a brief review: Watchmen was pretty awesome. Not comparable to the graphic novel, naturally, but a fine movie in its own right. Sometimes unwieldy, sometimes incredibly awesome, characterized by mediocre acting throughout (exception: Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach). On a scale of Daredevil to Dark Knight, it was a solid 6 or 7. Probably 7.

The past month or so of my life, ever since I delofted my bed and re-did my room, has seen the appearance of a poltergeist in my life. Not a particularly destructive poltergeist, mind you, but a malevolent entity nonetheless. It is very specific in its evilness: the album covers hanging above the head of my bed steadfastly refuse to remain attached to my wall. I have literally tried every trick up my sleeve. First I just used my usual mounting putty. All three quickly fell. I then added scotch tape to the mounting putty, which was briefly successful, but before long all three were again on the ground. I next took out the actual vinyl, leaving just the covers hanging on my wall and theoretically reducing the weight by a large factor. They fell anyway. Next I took off all the old tape and putty, and instead substituted duct tape, which I had thought was sure to hold. As I look at my wall now, however, only The Who remain standing. After break I'm going to try and end this war of attrition by implementing album frames and some serious mounting equipment, although I'm sure the poltergeist will foil this as well.