To steal information from a person is called plagiarism. To steal information from the enemy is called gathering intelligence.
Carrying on with the tradition (albeit stripped down — it’s nicer to prepare food for 20 people than to have it catered for 30, I suppose) of Monday night dinners at le Vivier is a recipe for hangovers, pure and simple. Last night was a blast, thanks to Stefan and Julia’s brilliant effort (filet mignon de porc for 20 plus a nice salad and dessert can’t be trivial.) The atmosphere was stellar and homey, a perfect breeding ground for a civilized little piss-up. Good thing I’d gotten my reading done ahead of time (why does everyone who sees me working ahead give me a hard time about this?) Too bad Karin couldn’t stay for it, although I can see how it might be difficult mingling with a reasonably cohesive group of people who live and work together. We’ll just have to spend more weekends out of town together, gorging on foie gras.
Best line of the day: “Ryan, give me a compelling reason not to go to the finance alumni thing.” Ryan: [pause] “There won’t be any finance jobs when we graduate.” Fantastic, although it’d be more fun to watch London city boys get massacred if it didn’t affect the rest of us so much. People are kind of fatalistic and jittery about what’ll happen by the time we’re out of here. Screw it, I’ve had two recessions already, what’s the worst that could possibly happen? Dun dun DUNNN…
Classes are running fairly well, although I’m getting a strange dichotomous vibe — either it’s simple stuff (as conveyed in the lectures) or impossibly difficult (viz. the homework.) Or vice versa. We’ll see soon enough, my main hope is that everyone else is as lost as I am, although I feel like I’m keeping a reasonably good grip on things. I’ve heard that one before, though, right before my grades at Cal went pear-shaped…
