Brain on Fire » Blog Tim McCormack, distilled

Taking a bite out of a durian

Welcome to the first installment of "Godammit, Tim!", wherein I eat what is commonly considered the most foul-smelling fruit on the planet: a durian.

Okay, so they didn't promise anything, per se. The Associated Press reports that Google accidentally leaked some notes on a proposed online file storage system. As noted briefly at the beginning of the article, they may have trouble convincing users that their data is safe, when the confidential proposal wasn't safe itself.

Wow, so I just learned why Wooster is having an Alcohol Awareness Week. Here’s an alcoholic summary of last semester (Fall 2005):

• During all but two weekends (13 out of 15) there were “incidents” (going-to-the-hospital-for-alcohol-poisoning incidents).
• One weekend involved no less than 8 people at the hospital for alcohol poisoning.
• The Wellness Center had 50 people in one weekend (or night, the details are fuzzy).
• One person had a BAC of 0.407 (isn’t that close to fatal?), and the next weekend was back with a BAC of over 0.3 (and has since checked into a rehab program, apparantly).
• Most alcohol-related incidents (Wellness Center, hospital, tickets, etc.) for incoming frosh than in any previous year (and pretty much highest SATs and ACTs as well, oddly enough).
• The frosh got more alcohol tickets than all 3 other classes combined.

Yeah, so, I just spent a good hour talking with Chris and Ting (fellow house-mates) about dark chocolate. Or should I say, Mayan Gold? And I have a paper due in the morning.

The guy who went berserk in a Mass. nightclub died in a shootout with Arkansas police. His name was Jake. He was 18. He lived in New Bedford, Mass., and he listened to Insane Clown Posse. I know this because someone found his MySpace page. (I’m pretty sure this is his page — it would have to be a pretty complex hoax. I’ve saved off a copy of his page in case MySpace yanks the account.) We can see how he presented himself to the world, and the impact his actions had on his friends.