March 28, 1980 Friday

I"m 16.

First, here's a list of my space exploration ships.  For some reason, I like to think of different names for ships.  Certain words and names sound as if they are the names of ships

• Ethereum
• Dred Scott
• Armageddon
• Carthage
• Parthia
• Ragnorak
• Twilight
• Gotterdammerung
• Da Vinci
• Rubicon

Well, enough of that.  And now for something completely different.  It's....monty python's flying circus....

No, really, I want to be serious.  Tonight I went to Dairy Queen with Tim D.  In the booth in the back I saw Renee B.  With Lisa M.  I thought Renee was with Bill F., so I told Tim to pick a booth away from them.  Luckily he did, and she didn't see me.  Until she left, and then she said "hi" and I said "hi" back, etc.  As it turned out, Renee wasn't with Bill, and in fact it seemed is was just her and Lisa.  Of course you don't know who I'm talking about, so I'll fill you in.  Renee B. is in my BSCS (a biology class) and English classes.  I've grown quite fond of her.  Quite fond.  I don't know why, though.  Usually, when I think of the type of girl I would like to be with, I always want one who's smart.  Renee is not smart.  She just doesn't know a lot, and is rather average in intelligence.  She can also be quite silly and girlish at times, which annoys me.  When I try to explain black holes to her in detail (Kerr black holes) she sits there, blank.  And yet I'm attracted to her.  She does have her pluses.  She's pretty, though rather large-boned.  She has a friendly, warm personality.  And I feel quite comfortable around her, more comfortable and at ease around her then with any other girl that I've been fond of.  Around Renee I feel at ease enough that I might just ask her if she wants to be as close to me as I do with her.  I know she likes me.  She's always writing something on my locker at school, like "hi, sweetie," and "how's it going, babe?"  I might ask her out, but logistics are a problem.  She lives out in the country and I don't have my driver's license yet, and I haven't driven much.  Where there's a will, there's a way.

She hangs around Bill F.  Bill F. is a 100% jock wrestling team idiot.  

March 26, 1980

I'm 16.

How strange are people?  I ask this because a lot of friends and acquaintences can be characterized as weird.  Either people are weirder than I thought, or I attract oddballs.  Here is a list of my friends, and description:

• CR:  He's constantly harassed by people and is quite anti-social.
• TN: An academically smart kid, but also a goody-two-shoes spazz infantile.  When he's not acting like a 5 year old, he acts like a teen-age jerk.  A real pain sometimes.  Doesn't believe in evolution.
• Tim D.:  A throwback to the sixties.  Will end up as a hippie astrophysicist going to symposiums in tattered blue jeans.  Non-conformist, love to shock the suburbanites.  Pretty smart.
• Don M.: Describing all the past phases of Don would be too lengthy.  Saw a psychiatrist when he was a little kid.  Was once a perverted Larry Flynt disciple.  Until he found God.  Now he's in the Church of Christ, and is trying to convert Tim D. and I to his church.  He's such a pickly little strait-laced christian he's hard to tolerate.  Has a file box of biblical quotes.  He even gave me a copy of the new testament for my birthday.  God help us.
• Satish R. : Refer to my word list.

Trust me, I'm not exaggerating.  Now is everybody weird?  Or do I hang around weird people?  "Birds of a feather flock together."  

March 21, 1980

I'm 16.

Words from Satish R. and me in fifth period geometry

• Jorb
• Jorb divisible face
• Horatio Alger Waldo Winthrop Scooter Ham Natalie Cole
• Tardyon
• Jama
• Mika
• Naomi
• Nuriev
• Rohan
• Barley the Goat
• Romulus and Remus McVae
• The Jana sisters, Nancy and Melinda
• The missing Lardyo
• Joseph and the Mules
• Ah - Rock!
• Snipe!
• Ham
• Bartholomew and the three-headed yak
• The lead head
• The air head
• Baby Elephant unitarian
• Granny imitations
• Holly
• Lorry
• Just
• Brainiac
• Jorbithon
• Nephridium face

The words probably don't make much sense to you, but they have specific meanings in fifth period.  Just remember, whenever anyone says "ah," immediately say "rock!"  And to say "hi," move your open hand up and down, as if rubbing a wall.  To say "bye," push your hand away from you, open palm.

March 9, 1980

I'm 16.

It's been a while since I've written, hasn't it.  Actually, you shouldn't scold me for not writing all this time, for I have.  I wrote my 5 pages for February.  

Quite a bit has happened that I haven't written about.  In fact, I unfortunately tell  you very little of the events occurring around me.  I have a spotty record when it come to writing in here.

Lately I've been having strange dreams.  Somewhere in them some characters from M*A*S*H (the tv program) shows up.  I really don't know why.  It's probably because I've been seeing it more lately.  It's on for a whole hour on channel 50.  In my dream, I was sitting with dad and Colman in a small room.  There was a stereo in it and I was about to put in a cassette when I spotted this red book on the floor with a picture of a graying Alan Alda.  In the book it said that before starring in Mash, Alan Alda's name was Greer Garson.  He was supposedly a very strange and eccentric artist.  Strange and eccentric enough to warrant a book being written about him  and his eccentricity.  For some reason Greer changed his name to Alan Alda, had his gray hair turn black, and became an actor.  I showed this book to dad, who thought it was quite interesting.  Then I went out of the room to the outside, where it was night.  The night was almost normal except for one thing.  The stars looked like liquid blue spots surrounded by rings of orange.  The stars moved all over the sky and coagulated into a big mass.  I took my binoculars out and peered through them at the mass.  The stars were bright and big.  The moon was also very strange.  It was multi-colored and revolving in an orbit around the point of the sky directly above us.  It never sank below the horizon, but just revolved around the point, changing colors.

 

Feb. 21, 1980

I'm 16.

Science examines the house.  Philosophy looks at the foundation.  When both advance enough, they will meet and discover that they are looking at the same building.