I'm on the phone in the living room when I hear a tremendous crash from my room, and immediately know exactly what happened. But first...

Backing up a bit further to set the scene: Derek, Anita, and Nate are in my room jacking around, horse playing, etc. on my bed. I get a phone call so I step out to the living room to try and escape from the childish yelling and screaming.

My desk... was a great deal at the time. Twenty dollars via craig's, and it fit exactly in my room and exactly for my equipment. Unfortunately, it had the structural integrity of a straw hut in a category 5 hurricane.

So anyway, I hear a spectacular crash from inside my room, and quickly the three of them fall silent. When I walk in, my worst fears had been realized...

And that would be the aftermath. Actually that's the next morning, in the process of cleaning up... this picture is the real aftermath. My room is supposed to look something like this, but somehow somebody got thrown (?) into my desk hard enough to cause the middle section to collapse, taking my stereo amp, mixer, PodXT, PS2, picture frame, etc. with it.

Luckily, nothing was damaged besides a few scrapes on the equipment and wall. And yes, I was pissed.

But like I said, nothing was really damaged, and I took the opportunity to take all of my crap out of my desk and dust/clean it before reorganizing it.

The moral of the story? The robustness of your desk should be proportional to your friends tendency to be rambunctious.

Lesson learned.

The ratio of hunger sastifaction and taste to cost in both time and money for preparing typical college meals such as Rice-a-Roni and Ramen noodles is impressively high. The vanishingly small denominator makes up for the less-than-impressive numerator mostly, but that is beside the fact.

I hope the lack of nutrition I've experienced for the past 2.5 years of my life won't have any lasting consequences extending past the short term, because all I eat is shit. The usual college limiting factors of time, money, and laziness take their greatest toll on my eating habits (mostly), and I find myself either eating way too little or way too much.

I wonder if there will come a distinct turning point in my life in which the allure of free food will cease to overcome the normal barriers erected between yummy and yucky; because everyone knows that right now, food tastes the best when it's free.

If you haven't guessed already from the necker-cube-esque title or the inane preceding paragraphs, this entry has absolutely no point whatsoever.

Continuing:

When I was child (I caught a fleeting glimpse)¹, I used to love mac and cheese loaded up with black pepper. Ever since then, I have been doing the same, but the amount of pepper required to reach my optimal level of seasoning has increased through the years.

I don't know if this is indicative that I now have a larger area of taste buds that require more stimulation, or if I have basically fried my gustational abilities by over-saturating them a ridiculous amount of black pepper. My roommates love to think it's the latter, and give me crap about it.

Anyway, I think I have done enough rambling. Due to cramming for an exam, my sleep schedule is out of phase by just about 180 degrees, so I might be up for a while.

It's inevitable:

Put more than two engineers in the same room for a short amount of time, and without fail, the conversation will eventually turn into the classic engineering equivalent of a penis length contest.

By that I mean, the untold competition that is having the most amount of shit to do in the next week or so. Example:

"Dude, I'm so fucked. I have a lab on Tuesday and then a test and program on Wednesday."

"Dude, whatever man. I have three tests on Monday, a lab due Wednesday that I haven't started, a project due Thursday that my partner won't do shit on, and then a homework assignment due Friday."

"You guys have it easy. I broke both of my wrists and have to type with my  toes now, my computer HD crashed, my apartment burned down, and I have 4 tests next week and 3 programming assignments."

Of course, at some point a business major might chime in about how he has "work" to do that is "hard".

However, everyone will eventually stop laughing at him and continue with their discussion as normal.

Nothing-- no projects, homeworks, deadlines, assignments, work, or other collegiate responsibilities. At least temporarily.

Temporarily spared from waking up at any certain time (mostly), from walking 20 minutes to class, and from sitting in long lectures meagerly listening and longing to do...

Nothing.

Of course I ought to be doing... something. Like said projects, homeworks, and assignments... but there's just something very therapeutically relaxing about just forgetting all that stuff and taking in the moment.

New Orleans has been awesome so far. I haven't taken any pictures at all unfortunately, but even without the proof I have been having a badass time. In a few hours, I'm going to a craw fish broil, and then Nicolle's orchestra concert tonight. They'll be playing Beethoven's Fifth (sweet).

So I will continue to hold on doing nothing for as long as I can, because at some point, I will eventually have to start doing something.

There's a famous quote that says,

"Necessity is the mother of invention."

This of course referring to the fact that in times of great need, the demand for innovation and scientific development swells to try and compensate for whatever society is needing.

A lesser-know variant is "Boredom is the father of innovation". For some reason, given 2 or more bored people in an enclosed space, it is almost guaranteed that somebody will come up with a stupid game. Examples:

Water Jousting

While bouncing around a foam ball one day, my roommate and I had the brilliant idea of creating the exhilarating game of water jousting. To play, fill a cup about half-way full with water, and place it on the very edge of the counter (a bar-like counter), and take turns trying to knock the cup over by bouncing the ball off the floor.

The fun part? The person not trying to knock over the cup stands directly behind it, ensuring that if the other player successfully hits the cup, the loser gets soaked. The best part? Its also the loser that has to clean up the floor afterwards.

Shuffle Phone

This game came about on a slow night during tutoring. At work, all the tutors sit around a huge conference table until a student comes in that needs help. When not many students showed up, some of the guys had the bright idea to play "shuffle phone". Exactly like shuffleboard, except you use your phone instead of a puck, and there's just a target circle drawn in pencil in the middle of the table. The winner walks away with pride, honor, and a phone thats scratched as hell.

That was one of the few times in my life that I wish I had a shitbox of a phone so I could have participated...

Plate Frisbee

As another game born from late night boredom with a roommate, this example is illustrative of how even while doing work, you can still have fun. While emptying the dishwasher, we were tag-teaming the plates... but instead of just placing them back in the cabinet (boring), I found it significantly more entertaining to try an under-the-leg frisbee toss to put them up.

It's a lot harder than it sounds (think about the angles), and it soon became competitive. Especially with the glass dishes*.

Omega

The classic boredom game, I actually got this from an episode of Malcolm In The Middle (though I've heard the game dates back even before the show, and is known as "The Circle Game").

The aggressor makes the "OK" sign with his index and thumb touching, with the rest of the fingers extended. If he holds that hand below his waist and somebody else looks (the victim), then the aggressor gets to punch the victim without fear of retaliation.

I've been playing this game with my equally-immature friends of mine since the 8th grade, and the game has since exploded into something much more serious. With rules and regulations, as well as advanced moves such as the Around the World, the Gravy Train, the Solid Snake, and the Willy Wonka... the game only gets deeper and deeper.

I'm sure there have been plenty more, and there's no doubt in my mind that there will be plenty more to come.

I can't wait.