December 23, 2003

Biggest WTFs of 2003

It's the holiday season again. Jingle bells are ringing, are you listening? Shit. I don't hear any bells. Just the pitter-patter of light rain gently beating the roof of my house, but I am feeling the spirit. Being at home for the last few days has been really fun. I haven't done much but eat, sleep, watch episodes of The West Wing from the first season, and hang out with Uni people. It feels great to be home—my first time in almost eight months. In addition to the shitty weather and the horrendous traffic, another way you can tell that it's the holiday season is by the invariable top ten/twenty/hundred/million lists that come out during this time documenting the year that has just about past. Well, in keeping with my desire to be super trendy, I too decided to publish a list of my own. As I have nothing really to speak about other than myself, this list will be about the most unexpected things that happened to me this year, aptly called: Rohit's Biggest WTFs of 2003.

So, I was thinking of doing a whole countdown or something with this list, but I am way to lazy to figure out how to do a reverse ordered list in HTML. Maybe next year. Sorry all you techno-elitist bastards... you're just going to have to deal with a regular list.

Rohit's Biggest WTFs of 2003 (in roughly chronological order)

• Snowboarding? I learned to snowboard last winter (but still this year). I cannot believe I managed to not injure myself severely. That definitely ranks as a big WTF. It was fun though. I hope I get to go this coming season.
• CalSO 2003? So, about a year ago I found out I was going to be part of CalSO. How did that happen? WTF? Can you imagine someone like me leading around a group of newly admitted students? In retrospect, I have to say that this summer was one of the best times I have had in college. I am definitely very happy that I decided to stick with it.
• Laundromats? All throughout the first half of this year, I battled the bottom rung of society while doing my laundry. WTF is wrong with Berkeley? I can say this now though: I will never, ever, ever going to get an apartment that does not have on-site laundry ever again. I mean it! Oh, and I saw that goddamn Scottish asshole bum near Unit 3 the other day. I hope he rots in hell.
• EECS and MCB? It has been more than six months since I had my battle royale with the evil College of Letters and Science to declare my simultaneous degree. In retrospect, I gotta say: WTF! What was I thinking? What am I doing? Why?! Oh well, three semesters and it will all be over... I hope.
• Dorms? Again? I moved back into the dorms in May. WTF? When I left my first year, I was so, so, so tired of dorm life. Yet, I returned after only an year in an apartment. Who would have thunk it?
• Exorcising Daemons and Unleashing Gnomes? I got rid of Windows® this year. Seriously, I do not have a computer with Windows® anymore. I know most of you are probably thinking WTF? How is he surviving? Well, I switched to FreeBSD and Gnome, and I am better off for it. You should think about it. (By the way, a daemon is the FreeBSD logo, so I'm not completely whack).
• Disneyland? I returned to Disneyland after a fifteen year absence. WTF? I live in SoCal and it took me fifteen years? Well, it wasn't that fun anyway. I'm too old for that shit.
• Resident What!? I became an RA this fall semester. Yeah. Resident Assistant. Like I assist residents. This might be the biggest WTF of my lifetime. Who would have known? Or thought? Or even had a nightmare about? Perhaps Lizzy and Tina are right and I am just a big poser. But it definitely doesn't fit my image and no one can argue with that. Oh well. It has been good times. No regrets.
• Apples? Like the fruit? I bought my first Apple Macintosh computer this year. A 12'' Powerbook G4. WTF? This from the guy who never knew how to use a Mac all throughout high school. Times change I suppose. I'm typing up this entry on my Powerbook now and you know what? It is a damn pretty computer.
• Two Decades?   I turned 20 this year. That's two decades. Boy, that is old. I feel like an old fart now. My teens are over. Not that I did anything with them. My twenties will pass probably just as unproductively. Great how the prospects of life are just so cheery. Anyway, I've come to terms with my age. Kind of. I guess I just try not to think about it anymore. Age is just a number right?

That is only ten WTFs this year. There are plenty more I assure you: stuff that I can remember, and then, stuff that I really only vaguely remember. But ten is a nice round number. The basis of our number system. So I thought I'd stop there.

Finally, a lot of people asked me out of all my posts this year, what were my personal favorites. I would have to say that my three favorite entries this year were: The Krispy Kreme Caper, The College of Ludicrousness and Stupidity, and Break-Up with Reality. I chose these three posts not only because I feel these were my best posts, but also because I had the most fun writing them. When the ideas for the posts came to me as the event unfolded, I actually laughed out loud on each occasion just thinking about the fun it would be to write about it. So, yeah: those are my favorites of 2003. You might have a different opinion on the matter, but that is what the comments section is for, right?

So yeah, that is it for me for today. I'm off to Cancún, México to look at Mayan ruins tomorrow and will be gone for five days. Because of a scheduled power outage at Unit 3 (where my web server resides), this might be my last post for this year. So with that, I say, Happy Holidays everyone!