~Monday~ I entered the #9 Greek Village Wolfline bus to quite an androgynous boy who made a loud sneeze into his open hand. He looked at it and stopped short of wiping it on his pants. The girl sitting next to him—they looked like a couple—wore this shirt:
At first I thought it was an ad for animal crackers, and then I realized that she was probably a vegetarian.
At a subsequent stop the first straight guy I’ve ever seen wearing these kind of shoes got on:
To be fair, I’ve ever only seen one other guy wearing those kind of shoes, and he was gay.
The bus filled up and the guy who ended up standing in front of my seat and holding on to the rail close to my face had this on the back of his hand. I couldn’t tell if it was just written with a pen or was actually tattooed on. I also couldn’t tell which of these variations it really was, so I hope it was handwriting. I can’t think of much worse than a tattoo artist with bad penmanship.
| QIZS B445 204 |
QIZS B445 2ay |
QIZ5 B445 204 |
QIZ5 B445 2ay |
And, finally, a kid got on and took the seat directly across from me. He had on a shirt that said:
2010 Daytona Beach |
It reminded me of the awesome kids I spent Spring Break 2010 with making a difference in the lives of several people instead of partying on the beach.
As a follow-up to yesterday’s note on Sho Nuff’s death:
His real name was Russell Lee, he was in a scooter accident, and landed in a ditch where he lay for a little while before being found. He arrived at the hospital paralyzed from the neck down, and went on to pass. More details in Raleigh Loses a Beloved Icon; His Family Needs Your Help.
In class tonight, before discussing our class wiki project and hearing a presentation on how supercoder.com is using social media, we discussed our assigned reading of a chapter of The Wisdom of Crowds. I was reminded of this book at two different times outside of class in the past few days:
- There is a TED talk called, Sex, drugs, and HIV—let’s get rational by Emily Pasini who wrote a book called The Wisdom of Whores, and
- In the chapter that we read for this evening, the author of the book talks about three “gangster models,” which is an interesting juxtaposition to my just having watched Key Largo, which essentially is a “gangster movie” and I found myself wondering what model Johnny Rocco and his gang fit under.
I received a couple of affirmations on Twitter today:
First, this sequence of exchanges with my friend Hugh, who has decided to apply for a Masters degree in Divinity:
 Decided to stop riding the fence. Am filling out application forms for grad school. #HaveNoIdeaHowIWillPayForThis |
To which I replied:
To which he replied:
| @nematome I love that John. I really do. And I miss you – we should get coffee soon. |
And this one from my friend Jen:
 OMG! @nematome is the bestest friend EVAH! He brought cupcakes to class for my birthday! |
I started straightening and cleaning up my house tonight in anticipation of my house guest from South Africa, who although I haven’t heard from him, I’m still expecting to arrive here in Raleigh, and subsequently in my home, on Thursday.