Tree hugger - posted at 22:39

Two things that irk me about the Trinity Campus:

1. It is an ill-advised soul who buys coffee on campus. It will give you heartburn. What's worse, the coffee isn't even good. If it wasn't burned, bitter, and nasty it might be worth it.... might be. I mean, illy doesn't give you heartburn and it's the most orgasmic coffee I've ever tasted. Why would I drink acidic, bitter, burned coffee when I have a healthy stash of yummy coffee just waiting for me in my room?

2. The coffee shop in the library sells even worse coffee than its counterparts on other parts of campus. Don't even get me started on the quality of their espresso. Somehow, puzzlingly, it still does very good business which means they go through hundreds of paper cups a day. Now here's where Stacey gets testy. They have bins for plastic recycling in the library but no bins for paper cups which means that these hundreds of single-use cups get sent to the trash. I often get hot tea there (mmm, apricot blossom green) and have started to feel guilty about the unnecessary paper waste I'm generating.

My solution was to buy one of the travel mugs they sell at the coffee shop. I already have a travel mug but it has been carrying coffee around for so long that it would make tea taste like ass. If I wanted ass, I would get some of their espresso! So now I'm toting this travel mug with their logo emblazoned on it and I feel like a part of my soul has died because of it, but better my soul than some hapless defenseless tree. Seriously.

And so, my dear friends, if my furry legs and perpetual Birkenstock-wearing hadn't already tipped you off, you should make a note that Stacey is a Tree Hugging Hippie Girl. Something like this would be looked upon as normal in the Pacific Northwest but would likely get me shot and dragged behind a pickup truck, SUV, or similarly fuel-inefficient vehicle in the great nation state of Tejas. That is why I am so ready to be done living here. Seriously.

darth commented:

tree-huggers? lol..i like how neal stephenson in "zodiac" affectionately calls environmentalists "duck squeezers"...maybe more appropriate for you folk down in oil country?

and you completed quicksilver? damn.

i LOVED his other books...i'm reading cryptonomicon for like the 20th time right now..but could not for the life of me get thru quicksilver..i liked the first part...but ground to a halt around jack shaftoe...

Stacey commented:

Heh, duck squeezers, eh? I've not read Zodiac yet. On the list though...

I loved Quicksilver. It kinda hit a lull at Jack, but luckily I was on a plane and the book was my only entertainment, so I was able to put a good dent in it. Jack goes away after a while and Daniel comes back, so the book gets enjoyable again. He's one of my favorite characters. The Waterhouses (in both Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle) are usually really amusing.

The Confusion is written a little better in that there isn't that 300-page block of Jack. He mixes it up pretty well.

And even if you didn't like his character, it's totally fun to say "Syphilitic Half-Cocked Jack."

So yes. I'd recommend you give Quicksilver another go and just tough it out through the middle.

darth commented:

zodiac is great fun...have you read his other two books written as Stephen Bury? Cobweb and Interface? definitely find Interface if you can...politics, a candidate with a bio-chip in his head, great stuff.

i love the waterhouses too...randy's family cracks me up...and daniel in quicksilver was a cool character mixing it up with the historical figures... i'll....try..to get past that middle section...i do have the confusion just sitting there as well.