The Past

This is me in my grad school "office" at Rutgers in 1999. I would keep my bike in there (you can just catch the wheel) but the space was so small I had to stand it upright next to my elbow. Steve has posted a photo album from that era that captures the bleak and institutional atmosphere of Rutgers perfectly. If you'll indulge me, here are a few more photos:

My Home - Starkey Apartments

Aaron Ruby sits in the philosophy grad student lounge and contemplates 5 more years in New Brunswick. He took a different path.

Gathered in the lounge (me with the shaggy hair)



I can't believe I lasted 3 years.

UPDATE:

As Gazza reminds me in a comment, the Rutgers philosophy building was the world center for static electricity. You just had to sit around for a while to build up a charge. One time, I was working in my tiny cube, listening to music on my headphones (just like in the photo above) when I decided to remove a fleece. Bad decision. So much static electricity was produced by the fleece running over my long sleeve shirt that (as I was grounded via the headphones in my ears) it discharged into my ears with a CRACK so loud Gary heard it in the next office. I leaped out of my cube swearing and holding my ears. Good times indeed.

BBC Report: End Of World As We Know It

A friend of mine, in all seriousness, once said: "You know, you can be a weekend warrior. But if you ever want to do that big back hand cutback off the lip, you've gotta put in some serious dole time." He was living proof. Thanks to two years of unemployment in the Walpole area (with its uncrowded winter swells), he had formidable surfing skills.

As I remember it, this is part of Australia's social contract. But according to the BBC, Australia is targeting work-shy surfers. Is nothing sacred?

Spikes!

I'm 'table sitting' (did I just coin a useful phrase?) for my former housemate Jay until he and Alyse move to San Francisco in January. Jay spent all of last year hand crafting this awesome birthday gift to Alyse. I remember when he first told me it would have spikes. He must be kidding, I thought. Only when I saw him sanding out the spikes by hand was I convinced. We'd hear him sanding away up in the attic; crazy man that he is.