Bad End

          The only thought my brain could muster when I woke up for UPP: "Why is it so cold?!" We had a debate in class, complete with a section of judges; I honestly thought our team made the more compelling point, but we were handed a unanimous loss. What irked me far more than the defeat was how one student on the other team was laughing while I spoke, as well as during one of my teammates' comments. How is that behavior in any way acceptable or remotely close to polite? I was still fuming after our brief lunch break, when a speaker from No Boston 2024 came to rail about the evils of the Olympics. (Boston 2024 declined to send their own speaker to counter -- a missed opportunity for them, if you ask me.) While some of the lady's various criticisms might have been based more in emotion than fact, several of them were completely valid; I was disappointed when, in a review after she left, all of my fellow students tore her apart without acknowledging the truth of some of the claims. When I got out of class, I went to the Snell quad to join Justin and Matt T at another student activities fair. We had an excellent spot in the circle (it really shouldn't be called a quad) and set up shop quickly I have to wonder whether prospective joiners could have been turned off by the sight of Justin and Matt, two big&tall bouncer-type dudes in matching hockey jerseys, flanking little old me in my Rangers hat -- and no charming band-girl-geeks in sight! (I jest at least in part; we've had a relatively steady stream of interested freshmen, if not at last year's volume.)
          Alaric and I watched Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Lightning and the Blackhawks -- mistake. The Lightning were shut out 2-0 and Chicago took home their third championship in (I think?) five years, giving that bandwagon fanbase even more reason to gloat. They're some of the biggest motherfuckers on the NHL forums, too. We took a shot to close out the season. For the rest of the night, I busied myself with distracting technical tasks, uninstalling a ton of crap from my computer -- random bloatware, superfluous Canon camera software, old games and some assorted other programs -- and enduring/enjoying my old AIM message logs, circa 8th-9th grade. If tonight was a dark time, those days were the Middle Ages...

Playoff section:
Stanley Cup Final:
CHI v. TBL: 4 - 2         2-0 shutout and Chicago wins the Stanley Cup. Bad end. At least Timonen got
                                      to lift the Cup before he hangs up the skates.