Pinknoise declared he wouldn't miss Oberlin College much. We spoke at length about the superficial liberalism of the campus, how without a real social hierarchy among the students the campus was a black-hole, etc. It's hard to explain, but I see some truth in what he says. Oberlin has a nasty retention rate because the community here is non-existent, fractionated groups pitched on rafts in the middle of the academic sea. Ships passing in the night.

I wonder if I'll miss Oberlin. A few days ago I tried to think about the experiences I had had here, what sorts of golden moments I was supposed to collect from "the best years of my life." I came up with what all people must: fragments here and there, huge gaps taken out...it seems like nothing is there for even whole semesters. Yet, when something happens to remind me of an event, it'll come back. In a way life is like a black hole...not in the all consuming, I-am-the-void-Nietzche-please-paint-us-black sense..but as if it were a celestial armoire..or a really possessive co-dependent caretaker of memory (that has collapsed on itself because of issues, I don't know), letting little things slip past when something in you pulls on it enough.

I'm so incredibly high on caffeine right now, I was almost about to extend the analogy to memory, how it represents light and the ability for it to escape, and some thoughtfully prosaic and positive conclusion...but instead I'll just say that there always seems to be more to something we experienced than what we can recollect.

Great, I'm Denis Miller and Jack Handy with low-grade mania. Now all I need is some bourbon, a .357, and space aliens playing table-tennis on the lawn. And if I can't have that, maybe I can bear a 43 pound alien squash and name it Algernon or something.

Back to quiz studying.

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