Monday Update, BirdBrain’s Story
Here I am at 2 in the morning, about to go to bed, and since I have no class til 3:30 tomorrow, I thought I'd add to this little joy of my life. Monday was fine, let's see, aced a computer science quiz, pointed out a mistake that the comp sci professor made, and after he told me it was just something I had done wrong, he e-mailed the whole class saying that the assignment was wrong. SMACK!!! HAHAHA, I am programming master king. So, anyway, then I ate, went to music, we watched "The Thing" which is some old black and white film about a vegetable alien, kinda cool. That's about it, I did some of my math, I'll finish it tomorrow before class. What else, we moved the fridge in our room today because Jason (My roommate) got some bad sectors on his hard drive, and we were thinking that they may be because of power surges caused by the fridge, being that they're all on the same plug. Needless to say, the room is rearranged, and it feels a little bigger. So, that is about all I have to say, now I think I'll tell you the story of BirdBrain the Bird.
On Saturday night, as Jason and one of my other suitemated Ravi were walking home from the gym, a bird basically came out of nowhere, almost hit them, and flew himself into a wall. Not good. So, they took the bird to the local restaurant, where they fed it food and water and began to nurse it back to health. They even named it BirdBrain. It was showing signs of improvement, until at the sight of blood Jason attempted to extend the bird's wing, when it flopped itself off of the balcony into first some bushes and then the concrete ground. They brought the bird back to the dorm, where we tried to revive it, but to no avail, as it promptly went into shock and died. I am a fan of the Stewart Art Collection here at UCSD, and I read that once, this group of kids ceremonially buried a dead Iguana under Sun God, a giant statue of a chicken with a sin on his head. So, we wrapped BirdBrain in a white cloth, put him in a cardboard box coffin, taped it up, and using an old skateboard deck, made him a tombstone. Jason wrote his memoirs, which read as follows:
From his egg, his head emerged into the first brilliant rays of the sun. Born with the gift of extraordinary strength, BirdBrain befriended many a bird. His compassion rivaling his strength of both body and character, touched each and every soul that…Old enough to leave his humble nest, BirdBrain embarked on his long and arduous journey to UCSD. He was a good bird. He studied hard, though he didn’t brag to be the smartest of birds, if you know what I mean. But on the fateful night of April 27, 2002 at the Social Science Building, startled by the approach of myself and RN, he flew discombobulated into a nearby wall. Struck with the pangs of compassion, we struggled to save him from demise but to no avail, as he valiantly flung himself off the Oceanview Terrace balcony, in order to cease his suffering. (He actually lived, but we went back to my dorm where he then died of shock.) He died a noble bird. He was my friend.
Truly inspirational words from someone deeply touched by the death. Needless to say, we gathered a hammer, some lighters, the box, the tombstone, and the rest of the broken skateboard deck, and the three of us, Jenn (My Girlfriend) and Ernest (another suitemate) left to perform the ritual. Using the puller end of the hammer , we hacked away at the ground for a long time, until my hammer broke, and we resorted to using the broken skateboard as a shovel and sticks from the forest to break up big chunks. Mind you, this was like 11 at night. So, we buried it, all held up our lighters, paid some dues, and left having paid due respect to someone that will live on in the heart of every smiling child.