I turned in a paper without stapling it this morning. Does that harm my chances for getting into grad school?

I just finished some filing at work where I filed information for the European Lepidopterists' Society. Five pastel M&M's for anyone who can tell me what a lepidopterist studies and why they would require a society for it (Kristen's disqualified because she already knows).

I'm really enjoying my poetry class, but there are some very pretentious upperclassmen who are getting on my nerves. Lately "pretentious" has become a catch-all term for me for describing anyone I think is smarter than me, but I think these snobs are the real deal. See, there's first-year who's not very bright but he's very eager. To use Laura's pseudonym, he is essentially a UChicago version Logan (even in appearance), as MHS Theater folk will understand. He sits in the front row for the lecture every day and he always has his hand raised, and you can see the professor cringing whenever he realizes that if he doesn't call on Logan he's going to appear as if he's deliberately ignoring him. So Logan usually ends up saying something endearingly inane, and everyone rolls their eyes or giggles or puts their face in their hand because they're embarassed for him. I certainly am. But there are two or three really intelligent upperclassmen to my left who go out of their way to say some really bad things about him. Really caustic things, too, stuff about how the kid shouldn't even be at this school. I really don't want to sound holier-than-thou, but it seems that when these people contribute in class, it usually seems like they're trying to impress somebody or stun the class with every remark, and Logan, well, he's just contributing because he loves the class. Even if everything he says is consistently off the mark and misguided.

This is all part of the little Calvinist doctrine I've built around the issue of talking in class, about questioning my own intention of speaking: whether I'm speaking to glorify myself or to genuinely cointribute something that's going to keep the discussion moving. Maybe, since I'm paying for these classes, I should just go in and say whatever the hell I want. But I can't get around this notion of discussion etiquette.

Last night rehearsal ended early so I ended up following the crowd to Eliminate Your Date, in other words Elimidate UChicago, which was being shown at DOC. It was, well, reasonably funny. The first two segments followed people way too athletic and good-looking to go to this school; I kept thinking, who's kidding who? The third segment was more interesting though, because the guy, who looked much more like your typical UofC guy, had to choose between a sorority girl who's opening line was "I'm gonna make out with someone tonight" and a typical-looking UofC girl who was looking for the long-term (on Elimidate, I don't know why). Anyway, even though the sorority girl laid it on think in the spit-sucking department, the guy ended up choosing the quieter, less glamorous girl. I thought it was a really subtle, telling moment, but for some reason most of the crowd booed the screen when he made his decision. Maybe it was because half the audience were friends with the eliminated sorority girl (it looked like every greek house was in attendance), but it was still a little disappointing. As for the (scripted) gay segment: all I can say is the image of DJ Sparkle Prince molesting an egg roll is burned into my retina until judgement day.

Tonight: Ben Kweller and Death Cab for Cutie!
Tomorrow: Drew "gets what's coming to him" for the premeditated shirking of his work!