Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse.

I have an amazing ability to get hooked on things precisely when I least need it. I had given up on finishing Persona 3 before starting Persona 4 (grinding in Tartarus was getting really fucking repetitive and starting to feel like a chore), and, lo and behold, I am utterly hooked on Persona 4. I knew this was going to happen. More than anything right now I want to Fuck All This, go back to the apartment, and play, but I'm in the lab, and after this I need to go to the gym and study for my Japanese exam. Oh, and finals start in three weeks.

I desperately need to make a Naoto costume. fabula_umbrae, I'm looking in your direction for help. That or I could just get a boy's school uniform off eBay. The only thing that really distinguishes the jackets is the white stitching and embroidered emblem, and I need to make that hat. Would you guys disown me if I considered eBay? And when were we planning on doing the P4 group again?

I'm also considering making a costume for a bishounen version of the Prince of All Cosmos, but that would be easy to make. At least one Goodwill in the valley has to have a pair of obscenely bright purple pants.

I'm getting no effing BLAST or BLAT results for my peptides. That's really helpful.

( Oh, I finished my scarf )

I realize that I forgot to mention this to the Internet at Large, but if you have not been following the drama, President Obama is speaking at ASU's graduation ceremony in a month. But, he's not getting an honorary degree. Of course, there has been a huge outcry over this, and most of it ends in the editorial writers insulting ASU (worthless party school, have you forgotten that Playboy voted you the top party school?, various jabs at Greek co-eds, a school known for the low scholastic achievements of its athletes, etc, oh by the way you're a useless party school and a diploma mill).

I do also find it insulting that some have said that a degree from ASU is not even worth the paper it is printed on anyway. Crow and the Board of Directors made their decision for their own reasons--whatever the hell they may be--and most ASU honorary degrees are given to financial benefactors anyway. Yeah, an honorary degree from ASU might not mean jack, but that does not mean that there are no intelligent and dedicated students here who could compete with the best the Ivy League has to offer. Fuck you. We students had nothing to do with this decision. God knows ASU has problems, and many of your jabs are based in half-truth, but fuck you. We're not all racist, ungrateful, vapid, intellectually-crippled yokels and Daddy's money co-eds as some people seem to think we are now. Fuck. You.

For what it's worth, I don't know what the hell Crow was thinking. How could he not know this would result in a PR nightmare? Isn't he trying to enhance ASU's reputation as the Harvard of the Desert? (I'm serious; that is an official tagline.)

Personally, I do not see why this is such a big deal, but everybody else seems to think this is a huge personal slight against President Obama, and that it signifies far more than anybody ever intended it to. A degree is just a social construct. It signifies what we want it to. In this case, it signifies either that you went through ASU's class mill, or that you gave ASU a lot of money. Given those definitions, Obama did neither. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Or maybe I'm just endlessly naive.

What do you guys think about all of this?