Dan Zembrosky, The MQ’s cherished font of gratuitous Transformers references, passed away in a kayaking accident this past Sunday. He was only 24 years old.

Dan joined the paper the year I was Editor in Chief, and he took the helm after Abe in 2005. His assent was as natural and inevitable as gravity. He was without a doubt the hardest working funnyman we had, generating prodigious amounts of content both written and visual. When the editorial board looked back on each issue, we’d sometimes have to laugh at the fact that fully one half of the articles were written, or edited, or edited and re-written by Dan, but the truth is we would have been fucked without him. His footprint was gargantuan.

I’m only beginning to process how unfair this is, but everyone who knew Dan knows this: the world is worse for having lost him.

I’m in the New York Times, here (use bugmenot.com to bypass registration). Mike helped with code, too. Same story in CNET, ‘cept with my picture ‘projected’ over yonder. Look for the sousveillance stuff, and keep in mind that they totally fucked up the description (natch).

There was an earthquake this morning. The second gentle rumble in as many months. Actually, since they both occurred on the 12th, I suppose that makes them exactly two months apart. I worry that they portend a larger quake in the near future.

Barring some sort of grade disaster, I graduated on Friday. I was so busy with my ICAM senior project and my finals that I never really had time to process it, so the whole thing feels anticlimactic. My parents are throwing a little party for me in LA on Saturday, but it’ll just be Utako and I in a sea of my relatives. Rather awkward. I’m trying to decide what stories are appropriate for my aunts and uncles and which aren’t. Not many are.

I had big plans for this update, but I’m a bit hungover and have forgotten all the things I planned on retelling. More later.

More proof that COHI 100 is bullshit: before the midterm I hadn’t done any of the reading all quarter (except for a few pages on the Hopi language), and the only studying I did was 90 minutes of cramming right before the exam with a nice outline generously provided by a friend. I walked in hoping for a C at best.

We got our tests back on Tuesday and I got an A.

I wish I weren’t taking it pass/no pass now, I could use the GPA boost. Fucking Communications fluff classes. On my CAPE (Course And Professor Evaluation) for Vasquez I diligently ripped her apart in a serious, modest tone, but then at the end I wrote “I hope Olga’s evaluation scores are so overwhelmingly negative that her head explodes.” I couldn’t resist.

Olga Vasquez, who teaches my COHI 100 class, is awful. She should not be teaching. People snicker and hiss during class (and it takes quite a bit before your average Communications student realizes something is wrong with a lecturer), and in defense of her, my TA cited her PhD from Stanford in our discussion section last week. If this bitch can get a PhD from such a prestigious institution, education has seriously lost its value in this country. We’re talking serious inflation here. I’ve decided to pursue a septuple-PhD from Yale. It should be a cinch.

At the end of April I went to San Jose/Santa Cruz/Capitola with Utako. I saw Mike, Jesus and my little brother. We had much fun.

Before class today I went to La Jolla Shores with Utako for some quick kite-flying. My pants are still damp up to my knees, but the beach was pretty and it was a nice way to start the day.

I want a nap.