Day 46 - Hi, my name is Alissa. Nice to meet you!

Today was a bit low after yesterday's awesomeness. I got in relatively early in the morning, as always. I like to start before 9 usually, even though most people in the group don't get in until 9 or 9:30, just because I am much more able to concentrate and be productive in the mornings, and so I usually work with few breaks from 9 to 12:15. This was the case this morning. I began processing the new images. Usually I save as I go along, which is just good sense, and I thought I had been, until at around 12:09 Excel stopped responding and had to quit, and when I reopened it there was no recovered file and everything I had done that morning was gone. Wonderful. So I decided to stop for the morning, maybe write a bit in my lab notebook, and go get lunch with everyone at San Martin.

Since I was there somewhat earlier than usual, I got to eat with a slightly different group, including Zvonimir, Lisa, and Onur. As I was finishing, more people arrived, but I decided to go back and get an early start redoing everything from that morning. I worked, but less diligently because the afternoon is always a harder time to concentrate for me (and because of my new lack of faith in Excel), until around 5:30 or 6, when I returned to Clore and had a snack of hummus and pita.

Ari, Dan and I then decided to go out and try a cafe we'd neer been to, called Lool. I posted a picture of this cafe's sign a while back, mostly for Joe Coyne due to its similarity to how you'd write LOL in Hebrew. The menu didn't really appeal to the boys at first, but once the server came by they decided to tough it out (translation: she was cute). Ari ordered a pizza and Dan a salad, but she recommended to them an apetizer for two involving corn. I graciously volunteered to abstain so they could both impress her, so they decided to go for it. It turned out to be corn on the cob, which itself was delicious and perfectly cooked (I had a bite), but which was then coated in mayonaise, parmesean and chili powder. See below for the guys' impressions.

The rest of the food was pretty good, actually, and I'm sure we'll go back there (for more resons than one). As we were on the way home, Ben called, so I sat in the lobby for a lovely chat with him. Once I hung up I noticed a group chatting and joined in. Somehow the topic of music sharing came up, and I said that while illegal, massive music downloading is and obviously should be illegal, it is perfectly legal, and rightfully so, to lend a friend a CD. Alissa then said that she thought massive music sharing should be legal, because all music should be free. Lisa and I agreed that the music industry isn't the best thing ever but that people should be paid to make music. Maciej made the excellent point that without payment, the quality of the product would be significantly reduced. I then tried to compare the situation to the publishing industry. The issue got convoluted by Alissa's environmentalism and desire to save trees, but it turns out she thinks all writers' work should also be free. When questioned further, she revealed that she believes the notion of property to be wrong, harmful, and unnatural. And then the fun began.

Logically (or amazingly), the remainder of the conversation entered the arena of environmentalism and the history of civilization. We discussed the nature of materialism and trade, the myth of the noble savage, the destruction of our planet, and related topics. Asaf, Lisa, and Onur took rather moderate views, while I played devil's advocate to every one of Alissa's rather hippie-like points. The argument got quite heated, which was fun because we both knew it was just for kicks. I actually agree with her on a lot of the points she made. Alissa, if you're reading this, the book you MUST read, which my friend Jamie recommended to me, can be found here. Seriously. Read it.

Anyways, more people began to arrive gradually, and in the end the group had swelled to include Stephen, Dan, Zvonimir, Tanmay, Iris, Clay, Ori, Rachel, and later Jessica. As more people joined, the topics became less antagonistic, which was a welcomed relaxation opportunity. Zvonimir kept leaving to grab something and coming back to find his chair taken, and having to pull up another one as a result. It was most amusing the fourth time, when I deliberately removed his chair.

At about this time, Alissa randomly came up with a fun game to play. She asked everyone to go around in the circle and say "Hi, my name is Alissa. Nice to meet you." in a language other than English. It took some convincing, but eventually we all tried. Asaf went first, using Chinese, just for kicks. Next was Onur, with Turkish. Tanmay said it in Hini. Hebrew came next, furnished by Amir, followed by Rachel with German. I was next, and got to use French before anyone else did. Iris had to pass because Hebrew was taken, but later lamented that she hadn't said it in Canadian. Zvonimir got to use Croatian, and Maciej Polish (and, impressively, Russian). His stood out, in addition to his double contribution, because he was the only one to literally follow the directions and refer to himself as Alissa. To wrap it up, Alissa attempted Yiddish, with some grammar corrections by Rachel. When Jessica stopped by she used Spanish. I hadn't expected it would be as entertaining an activity as it was!

Jessica and I then went downstairs to change. We then headed out with Zvonimir, Tanmay, Dan, Ari, Stephen, Iris and Jessica to the science park, with the intention of going to a sort of Clore event at a club called Truman. We didn't make it to Truman, however, stopping around the corner at a really cool bar/club with very varried music (from the "Cinderella" remix of Rihanna's "Umbrella" to Israeli metal) and, oddly, those free foam and plastic ice cream cone toys which have a button so you can "shoot" the foam "ice cream." It was really fun! We hung out and sort of danced, had some Goldstar, etc. Eventually Iris and I decided to leave, and Tanmay joined us, so we could get some sleep.

I took a few pictures tonight at Lool, for no real reason.

Jay Olman, if you are reading this: look, a threek!

Dan and Ari: reactions to the corn thing (a comparison)