Tired, but must update. :)

I went to the bonfire rally, which was incredibly cool. Well, it was incredibly cold, too, as it happens, though there was a brief five minutes or so when the fire first got lit that it was intensely hot. Muchness of school spirit, and I think maybe I can see why going to the Big Game would actually be such fun, despite my knowing nearly as little about football as I do about cricket. Next year, perhaps. We have some very strange yells, but we also have our own Maori haka, including the wonderful tongue-display at the end. (Like in Whale Rider, remember, thalassius?) And we had fun and hijinx with candles, some of which got blown out to reveal, still in candles, a display of the letters CAL. Couldn't see it myself, as I was standing somewhere in the center of the A, but apparently it worked. There was a shooting star, but I missed it. Curses. Best part, perhaps? They hacked Spaceballs. ("OK, first we'll do the chant Freshman speed." "No, Freshmen are slow, but not that slow. We'll do it Stanford speed." "OK, we'll do it Stanford speed first, then we'll do it Cal speed." "And then?" "Then... Ludicrous Speed!" "They've gone plaid!")

Went to taurendur's surprise birthday party following this, and discovered them watching the extended Two Towers. Why was I not surprised? ;) But anyway, the extended version is far superior to the cut version, and it works much better both as being faithful to the book (and the spirit of the book) and as a film of something other than just fight after fight after fight. But it was cold, even inside; though it was ever so much colder once I went back outside. I'm glad that I can turn up the heat here as I high as I like (currently 68), and that I have a nice fleece bathrobe and wonderful lambskin slippers.

May spend at least part of tomorrow at the Bear's Lair watching the game, drinking cheap (i.e., reduced price, not crap) beer, and eating pizza.

How could I pass this up? :)

'Cause, oh my god, it has Liv Tyler and Kate Beckinsale on that list. *gulp* *drool*

( Hottest 20 women in sci-fi meme )

Big Game!

We won! We won! Woo-hoo!

OK, this is obviously exciting. We won last year, but this was the first time in seven years that we've won while we already had the axe — and it's the first time in ten years that we've won as the away team, on Stanford's territory.

Also. I was watching the game at the Bear's Lair, and when I got there (a bit late; I was washing my hair *grin*), Stanford was leading 10 - 0. Yuck, that sucks, and it stayed that way, worryingly, all the way through into the third quarter.

Towards the very beginning of the third quarter, the barmen started getting together girls to have a boat race. (There'd been a guys' boatrace during the 2nd quarter, already.) Now, a boat race here is different than a boat race at Oxford. At least different from one at Corpus formal hall; I don't know how you other colleges do things. In any case, for those of you who are feeling left out on either or both sides of this discussion, a boat race at Oxford goes as follows: Pairs of people on either side of the table stand up and down their glass of wine, and then the next pair goes. Here, a boat race follows a slightly different bent: equal-sized teams face each other, and it's like a relay race, downing pints of beer. One person goes as soon as the previous one on their team finishes. Although my team lost, Cal scored its first touchdown IMMEDIATELY following. We clearly had something to do with that. Then pitchers suddenly cost only $4 for the next 5 minutes, so I got one, and spent the rest of the time drinking some of it. Would've happily drunk it all, but I have to drive pretty soon.

Anyway, we then proceeded to KICK STANFORD'S ASS! YEAH! They got one touchdown with about 5 seconds left on the clock, but we were already WAY ahead of them: the final score was 28 - 16. *Pbbbtttht* to Stanfurd. Hah.

Next year, I'm going to the Big Game. And my mom's flying up for it, if I get her a ticket. So I shall. (See, she actually knows things about football, unlike me.) *bounce*

Now I'm off to dinner at sschmitt's place, 'cause mciac is in town. Hurrah.