Oh, why did you so enrapture me?

[austin_dern]

Early, early day today, to get up and attend an aunt's graduation ceremony. Actually, it was just a hooding ceremony, taking the chance to give the handful of master's students the spotlight undiluted by all those pesky undergraduates. There ceremony was held at the Performing Arts Center at Stockton State College, named for one of the prominent men who signed the Declaration of Independence on behalf of New Jersey and later set the NBA records for assists and for steals.

It was a fine ceremony, made a bit strange by about nine (of thirty) students receiving their Masters of Arts in Genocide and Holocaust Studies, which will make their résumés stand out. Just weird is the music was provided by a harpist, who played the classic graduation theme ``Greensleeves.''

The only downside is the center where it was held was designed during a very severe hallucinogenic trip in the summer of 1968, so that (for example) there's no way to get from the upper seats to lower without leaving the auditorium, and there isn't any proper stairwell within your section of seating, but rather is a twisty path of spots not filled by orange, vertically-backed padding.

Dateline NBC reported on exactly what I wanted to know: how is Kirstie Alley's self-esteem? Apparently despite being fat she's concluded life is worth living, which gets her ten minutes in prime time. She also keeps at least one pet lemur, so all of you wondering whether Lieutenant Saavik has a ringtailed lemur, the answer is yes.

Trivia: McDonnell shipped its portions of Gemini Mission Simulator Number 1 to Cape Kennedy on 20 December 1963. Source: Project Gemini Technology and Operations: A Chronology, NASA SP-4002.

Currently Reading: 50 Short Science Fiction Tales, Isaac Asimov and Groff Conklin.

Comments

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Masters of Arts in Genocide and Holocaust Studies

Was there a practicum?


[Kirstie Alley] also keeps at least one pet lemur

Yay! (prunkleprunkleprunkle...)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'd wondered if there were a practicum, but I couldn't find any way to get near any of the graduates. The room was very strangely arranged.

Kirstie Alley also had a bunch of lemur puppets, I don't know whether to keep the live lemur company or just to keep something somewhat raccoon-like around.

[spaceroo.livejournal.com]

so all of you wondering whether Lieutenant Saavik has a ringtailed lemur, the answer is yes.

Are we certain that the lemur isn't a lingering side-effect of the Genesis Device? (Just going by Picard's grim fate as described in the TNG Episode (http://www.starfleetlibrary.com/tng/tng7/genesis.htm) of the same name.)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Picard's lemuring was caused by a retrovirus, because that was the only science word they knew from 1991 through 1995, when they learned ``deuterium''. Still, there must be leftover Genesis Device effects, like the one that caused Saavik's hair to take over and move to a new body.