Judgement Day Date:

I ran into a dude on campus today who was down here from New Jersey on a tour with Family Radio letting people know that the world would end on May 21, 2011!! That's soon!! I tried to engage this guy in conversation, but he wouldn't really have it. He told me that he's convinced himself that this is the correct date and that I need to convince myself. He recommends using the King James version of the Bible because it's the least watered down. I told him that it's not in the vernacular and he said that I could work through the olde English. I asked about the Jehovah's Witness version of the Bible, which is translated from the original source and he just repeated to use the King James.

I said that this group was taking a big gamble on this. If May 21, 2011 passes without incident, then they've lost ALL credibility. He said that he would be ready for Judgement Day when it comes and that it's best to be prepared. He had definitely made up his mind that this is happening. He would not entertain a counterfactual (or in this case, maybe just a factual).

I took his literature even though, or perhaps because, I thought this doomsday prediction was a little out of the ordinary. It has interesting math in it and some questionable stretches of the imagination (e.g. "In 2 Peter 3:8,...one day is as 1,000 years. Therefore, with the correct understanding that the seven days referred to in Genesis 7:4 can be understood as 7,000 years, we learn that when God told Noah there were seven days to escape worldwide destruction, He was also telling the world there would be exactly 7,000 years (one day is as 1,000 years) to escape the wrath of God...")

If you're curious about this, I would totally recommend checking out their site. I especially like the 2012 with a circled red slash through it, but there's such other gems as: Another Infallible Proof and Gay Pride: Sign of the End. I wonder if they'll have a radio show on May 22nd.

Pick #230

Arctic Monkeys - "Mardy Bum" from Beneath the Boardwalk

Tri the Rez 2011

Edit: 4-25-11 - Tri the Rez 2011 will officially be on October 8th! Mark your calendars!

Band of Horses Coming to The Moon

Band of Horses will be at The Moon on April 3rd! When I found out, I saw the event on The Moon's website, but not on Band of Horses's website. Weird. Anyway, you should totally go. I saw them when they came to the Beta Bar (the place that's now the Engine Room) a couple years ago and they were amazing.

Pick #229

Dminor - "Can't Get You Out of My Head" from an untitled album (and I can't find a link, but I heard it on Pandora)

Costume Parties as Signaling

When I moved to Tallahassee, I noticed a big difference between Tallahassee parties and HC parties. The majority of parties I attended in Tally my first year here were themed such that attendees were encouraged, if not required, to dress up. Not that there was an absence of themed parties at the HC, it's just that there was maybe one pimps-n-hoes party to every 15 normal ones. In Tally, there are about 15 themed parties to every non-themed one. Why the difference? If you guessed economics, you must have read the title of this post...

Have you ever been to a normal (non-themed) party when some people who were not invited stopped by and somehow ended up ruining everyone's good time? I can remember everyone being sent home because some unknown dude punched an invited party-goer in the nose. There was a party from which I was fortunate enough to be absent when some kids tried to sell hard drugs then stole some personal property. I think everyone's had the experience of wondering if some of the people at the party are vouched for or if they're just drinking free booze.

Dressing up is a way to let everyone else at the party know that you are on the inside. You got the invite and prepared for the party so you belong there. This mechanism wasn't needed at the HC because everyone knew everyone else at a glance. If a stranger was spotted, they were asked who they were with. That's not so easy to do in a school a couple hundred times as big as the HC.

I went to a party in Tally where I knew one of the guys who lived there and some other invitees (who had confirmed that they were coming via Facebook). Well, these other invitees ended up going to a different party and I was there with a ton of people whom I'd never met. Luckily, I was dressed for the occasion and nobody thought that I might not belong.

Signaling is costly. It means that one must dress up for parties in Tally. This act requires forethought, perhaps purchase of new attire or accessories, and time to get dressed up. However, the benefits of keeping strangers away (and having an automatic topic of conversation with fellow party-goers) outweigh the costs in places where this phenomenon exists.

Pick #228

Glenn Miller - "In the Mood" from In the Glenn Miller Mood