writing on the road

I wonder what it was like when people made mixed CDs for road trips. When they drove from San Jose to Los Angeles their CD which held 80 minutes worth of music would have been played 4 or 5 times over. Or perhaps would each person in a 5-person car bring their own CD to share with their friends? That is kind of a cool concept, just like each person plugs in their ipod, laptop, touch now to share music with friends.

I learned several new things in the car today – the most interesting one being how to sleep in the bi—the middle back seat of a car. Forcefully and quickly jerking on the shoulder strap of the seatbelt (this method works anywhere, except for in the drivers seat, please!) causes it to stay in place, allowing for a place to hold your head as you drift off to sleep. I always put my head on my hands and dozed off, I perfected this in the classroom with a pencil in my right hand, my head in my left, and hair draped over and shading my face. However, classrooms don’t wobble and move around nearly as much as a car does and so I’m definitely giving this new technique a try as long as I don’t fall off the seatbelt strap and end up strangling myself I think it could be a keeper.

At UCSD I spent the day and evening with my friend of a good 7 or so years R, a wiry guy who typifies the small eyed Asian. His boisterousness, though, certainly does not fit the Asian stereotype – particularly online. Last night R, tired of the partying lifestyle after spending the previous weekend in a drunken revelry that is Sun God weekend at UCSD, decided that we could give chat roulette bingo a spin. I have never tried chat roulette before and had only heard about the balls game my friend R played with it, how many partners can you chat with before you see balls again? His highest record was 6. Somehow I did not find this website terribly appealing. But on a Saturday evening I was feeling rather adventurous and daring, particularly after I put on the pair of toy sunglasses I bought earlier.

Our originally planned one game stint turned into a 3 hour one as the website seemed to have a strange attraction to it that I still can’t seem to place my finger on. During that time I was able to confirm or rather reaffirm certain things about humanity. Of course chat roulette is by no means a fair representation of humanity as a whole but take this as you will.

First, men have penises. Yes this has been confirmed by chat roulette either by: the sight of them, the fondling of something under their clothing, or the question “would you like to see my cock?”. If chat roulette were an actual representation of the human population 80% of the earth would be males and 70% of those men would walk around with their wangs hanging out.

Second, children are not innocent. Some of the most disturbing people I found on chat roulette were not penises (they never show their faces, plus they come up too often to be truly disturbing), but children who looked like they were 6 discovering the internet and the rewards of “boobz”. One kid had written boobz please on his screen and kept typing “boobz”. Of course, the children could simply be a decoy for the parent watching from a separate screen. After all, why would the kid want to see breasts, he’s probably still being breast-fed. The parents acting this way wouldn’t surprise me at all. One of the people we rouletted upon was a child and his father standing behind him. At first I couldn’t make out what the father was saying and commented that the kid was adorable, which he was. After we turned on the volume we realized that the father was telling to kid to ask me to “show me your pussy!”. Good god man, your child is 3! Just thinking about it revolts me.

Third, people from outside the US of A are more likely to be less racist and actually hold a conversation. We spoke with people from Paris, Brasil and Chile. Perhaps chat roulette can be a cool place to practice a foreign language.

Four, people hide behind all sorts of things. For me it was sunglasses. I suppose for others it was their children. Still others hid behind, one most boisterous and obnoxious member of their group, masks, the anonymity of a single bodily organ (I am tired of typing this word), signs, black screens, and dark rooms. For a program meant to bring people together it sure has a way of pulling them further into obscuring their identities and thereby pulling people even farther apart.

That’s about it for my adventures in Socal. Succinctly put, it was simple pleasures but a good time. I felt like I hadn’t been able to relax like that without worry for a long while. Now I think I’ve finally gotten into the rhythm of summer.
South Africa in a week!