Awesome is: being one of the urban Northeastern elite.

[Chet]

I read some Douglas Coupland once.

Something about rich kids being vacuous and godless.

[charlie]

I read some Robertson Davies awhile back and liked it pretty well.

[Ignatius]

My cousin assumes all women who write short stories are Canadian because of Alice Munro.

[ellaguru]

I've never actually read any Alice Munro, but I spent a lot of time in her ex-husband's bookstore:



Munro's Books is not a huge bookstore, but it is very pretty.

[Ignatius]

Dang that's the nicest-looking bookselling setup I've seen outside of a museum's.

[Bernard]

That's beautiful.

Additionally, awesome is: baby laughing.

[diesel_powered]

Baby laughs are excellent.

[clare]

Well, here you go then...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_z0dagaq4E

The bloke in this is my friend Davy...

[El_Josharino]

We went to the Omaha Royals ballgame tonight. It was great! Luke and I were trading zingers and amusing the crowd around us. Examples:

I've seen better swings than that on an elementary school playground!
I've seen better cuts than that in Bakers's meat department!
I haven't seen a play to the right like that since the Republican National Convention!
I haven't seen this many fouls since my last trip to the aviary!

There was a player whose last name was Scales that we had fun with:
I heard the Cubs are pretty high on this guy. They really think he's going to tip the SCALES in their favor!
I heard he took it pretty well when they demoted him to the minors. Apparently he's pretty THICK-SKINNED!
So... do you think he's a Libra?

In reference to another player named Darwin:
The Cubs are pretty pleased with the way he's EVOLVED as a player...

There were so many more, but I forgot some of them because it was dollar beer night.

[Ignatius]

I imagine this sort of loudly-broadcast punnery to be the point of a minor league game. But you seem an expert. We shall sit side-by-side on my own dollar when I next come out west.

[alex]

I arrived in Vienna yesterday late in the evening. On the subway to my parents' place, the driver made an annoucement on the intercom that went sort of like this, only much more eloquently (and, obviously, German):

"Dear passengers at the first door. It is always great to know that there's such numerous support right behind oneself - really gives you strength on an evening like this to know that people are behind you in such great quantities. However, I assume that this isn't the reason why you decided to step onto the train through the first door. So, just in case it has escaped your attention, I thought I'd point out to you that this train - which is approximately as long as the [name of a big church in Vienna] - has 18 doors overall. You might want to try using one of the 17 others some day, who knows, you might like it."

[Bernard]

Ha! That is brilliant. That would make my week.

[donblood]

I used to read Overheard in New York purely for the subway conductor quotes.  My favorite:

"Ladies and gentlemen, this train will be running EXPRESS.  This is an EXPRESS TRAIN.  The train behind us is running local.  If you want local stops, GET OFF THIS TRAIN."

...

"PSYCH!  This train's running local.  Extra legroom brought to you by the MTA.  Stand clear of the closing doors."

[elpollodiablo]

Oh man that's good.

The other day the express 5 stopped at 86 st, but the doors didn't open. People were PISSED, and the conductor spent the next few minutes before 125th apologizing profusely and blaming the computer.

[coldforge]

You know, Alex, the Viennese accent is kind of Yiddish in many ways.

[alex]

You know, Alex, the Viennese accent is kind of Yiddish in many ways.

There's certainly a resemblance, yeah.

You might get a kick out of this youtube clip I found of a mini TV documentary about that subway driver:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBdWFLPz2T4
It starts with him giving a somewhat similar spiel than the one I'd heard the other day, but different enough not to make it tediously repetitive: "an experience of space that you'd otherwise only come across during a trekking vacation in outer Mongolia".

[Ashley]

I've never actually read any Alice Munro, but I spent a lot of time in her ex-husband's bookstore:



Munro's Books is not a huge bookstore, but it is very pretty.

There's a bookstore near me thats in an old theatre, its pretty awesome.

[G.C.R]

I'm reacting to those bookstore photos the way I usually react to the photos people post in the food thread.
You know, getting horny. 

[davy]

Yeah, those are ridiculous in the best way.

[alex]

There's a bookstore near me thats in an old theatre, its pretty awesome.

There's one in Maastricht that is housed in an church:



It's okay, but I preferred it when that church was used as a bicycle shed a few years ago.

[Anne the Man]

Man I think I would like to sleep over in that first bookstore, like the rad rad library sleepover that was had one time.

In other news, awesome is having your first letter to the editor published (in the student magazine) and getting txts saying variants of "that was cool" all day, then getting dinner with your friend, chatting and going to the playground, then meeting up with your other friends and going to see Iron Man 2 (even if it was as crappy and annoying as the first one) and coming up with lots of ideas and laughing and laughing on the street and dancing strange.

[Chet]

I GOT AN OFFER FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

i must have nailed the interview!

only problem is they want 45 credits at distinction from my access course. this basically leaves me with no leeway at all. i will have to fucking ace every assignment that i have left to do. guess i'm just going to have to get my sleeves rolled up and get it done!

[jm]

Congratulations!  Good luck with the assignments!

[morgan]

Yay, congratulations! Awesome indeed!!!

[Chet]

Thanks you very much!

I think this is maybe the first time in my life where I've been really proud of myself.


Not only did I get an offer from my first choice university! one of the best in the country (and ranked in the top 30 in the world according to the times newspaper) and for a course that only has fifteen places, but i got an offer all five unis that i applied for. i honestly thought this kinda turnout was beyond me. it is nice to be wanted!