I went to the Bear’s Lair, which is the student pub here (brighter than the Thirsty and more zealous about carding), and had a pint of porter while reading neuroscience papers. I rather like the place in the early evening hours — I think I’ll go there more often, maybe become a regular. The music is pretty good, and when it’s not so crowded it’s quite pleasant, like an uncrowded coffeeshop that serves beer.

On the walk home I had a really fun conversation with Adam about comedy, which made me miss him all the more. Of course, I wasn’t hit by a car on the way back, which would have probably made me miss him even more than that, but that was probably a good thing, all told.

Neuroscience is an odd field — reading papers about how they anaesthetized a cat with halothane, dilated its pupils, mechanically fixed its eyeball, and flashed lights and white noise in front of it while measuring neural responses is simultaneously revolting and intriguing to me. The experiments carried out were approved of under the humane treatment of animals guidelines for UC Berkeley, but what does that mean, exactly?

Now that the dust has cleared from the housewarming party, I have to say it was a rousing success. We will clearly have to throw more parties. And I danced some, even. That was fun.

I find myself wanting to learn Bhangra now, not because I like the music particularly, but because it seems like something completely absurd to do at parties. Is this just parading my own ethnic identity monkey-in-a-zoo style? I think so. But then again, so is doing ridiculous accents, and I like to do ridiculous accents.

And even though I’m supposed to hate Stanford (or as they say at Berkeley, “Stanfurd”), this site (courtesy of MeFi) is doing wonders for reducing my productivity. The amount of math out there that I would like to know is so vast, and the amount that I know is so little in comparison, that I despair sometimes. That’s why it’s good to have smart friends.

Classes have begun, and like any student, I look for new ways to punt my work, or at least ways to take a break. But I think I should learn something on my breaks, or expand my horizons, or something. So instead of watching Strong Bad emails over and over again, I’ve taken to reading some of the assorted writings of the original computer science Dutch Master, Edsger W. Dijkstra. They’re pretty well written, and often quite provocative. I’m not sure I agree with him, but he expresses himself so well that it’s a pleasure to read them.

In fact, I should compile a list of websites with interesting things to read or learn in order to make my puntage a better use of my time. Of course, the risk is that I spend all my time punting (in which case, can you really call it punting?), but I’m not too worried. For example, for some good music reviews and other commentary, check out The High Hat. If any of the 5 people who read this have any other good links, send ’em along.