Wherein Josh and Etienne get drunk

All quotes approximate as my memory is bad.

So apparently Amanda, after the counselor meeting on Sunday, decided that she was going to go out drinking and drag some random people along, namely Josh, Etienne, and Justin. Yes, Josh and Etienne are underage. She had some way of getting them in. (I didn't see any of Justin drunk as he's on a different floor from me; I'm told he's pretty alcohol-tolerant anyway. :P )

The first we see of this is when the elevator opens on our floor and Josh and Etienne get out arguing about factorization of some quartic polynomial over the reals. Apparently Josh is claiming that Etienne did a crappy job of grading algebra psets last year, and as an example, he is talking about the time they were asked to factor t⁴+1 over R. He wrote that it it was irreducible, when of course it is factorable into two quadratics, and Etienne didn't take off any points for it. Etienne insisted that it was implied that it meant into linear factors, and that therefore he was justified in not taking points off, as it has no linear factors in R[t]. Josh said that's ridiculous, it just said "factor", it never said or implied anything about linear factors. This argument continued for quite a while.

At one point I come into the bathroom and find Josh and Etienne arguing about it in there. Despite Josh's repeated insistence that the t⁴+1 thing *is* an example (even taking out the yearbook and showing him the problem at one point), Etienne keeps asking him for one. "Can you give me an example? Can you pull one out of your pocket?" "Here's a penny," I say, taking a penny out of my pocket and giving it to Etienne. He cracks up laughing and gives me the finger.

Etienne kept threatening to do *something* if Josh didn't take back his statement that Etienne was a crappy grader last year, but I forgot what. At one point Josh said he was temporarily taking it back, but later Etienne insisted he permanently take it back.

Eventually the subject of the punitive rigor that Etienne had given (whoever it was) came up, and Josh said he didn't like the term "punitive rigor", because it implied that it was a punishment. He said that if one of his kids didn't seem to be working, he'd just say "You seem to have so much time on your hands, here's some more you can work on." Etienne replied that it *is* supposed to be punishment.

Josh: Get Dan over here, let's see if I can debate him in *this* state! [Not actually tried.]

Josh: [talking about the algorithm that determines whether or not any 1st order statement in R is true] It's really slow, like super-exponential. It blows up like e to the e to the e to the e to the lot. [That *so* has to go on the T-shirt.]

Etienne really didn't seem all that different, largely because, as Pinyan noted, he's generally belligerent anyway. Although the t⁴+1 thing seems pretty petty even for him. Well, there was one big thing, which I totally failed to notice at the time, which was that he was raising his hand and waiting for Josh to call on him every time he wanted to speak. :P

At one point Josh told Etienne to go prove that any odd perfect number has at least 6 distinct prime factors (more than 6? I forget) and eventually he gives him other stuff to prove and somehow the real numbers get involved.

Etienne: Can I assume the results of point-set topology?
Josh: No.
Etienne: But they're really tedious to prove rigorously!
Josh: I know.
Etienne: So essentially you're telling me to go waste my time.
Josh: You just figured that out?!

Josh also seemed mostly the same except that he cursed a lot more. Well, one thing did seem rather out of character. At one point he and Etienne were saying about how they wouldn't get into any trouble for this, since they were counselors, but if any student were caught drinking, "We would so totally nail them." And then Josh says, "Especially John Cass," and goes on to talk about how much he hates John Cass, who apparently is Chris's roommate. I don't think I've ever heard him say that sort of thing before.

Josh walked into lecture today looking rather embarrassed. Etienne didn't walk in. His hangover, combined with his cold, combined with his failure to drink any water, has left him bedridden for most of the day. He still was last I heard.

-Sniffnoy

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Nothing to see here. Please disperse.

Completing Pinyan's stories... well not really completing (at all), but adding to, anyway...

Bleh. When Pinyan said he was claiming exclusive rights to the Mafia stories, I thought he meant everything that went with them as well... now I have to write about those.

So, Saturday. Not much happened until after dinner. I even did *work*. Then I find Pinyan in Franklin playing Mafia.

Eventually people started watching movies in there, and it eventually got so loud we moved to the basement. We arranged the chairs in circles to play.

The game had gotten so big upstairs that we split into 2; the other village, though, was also incredibly loud. Well, not nearly as loud as the movie watches. You could still hear over them. Usually.

Anyway at 23:00 we were of course forced out, and as there were people "quietly studying" in the East lounge, we had to remain in Franklin. Eventually we moved as far away from the TV as possible, and eventually into the ping-pong room, where we quickly moved the table, hid the paddles, and smashed the balls, so nobody would come in and try and play ping-pong.

It was in here that I finally got to see the Munchkin 3 cards. Mung had, that day, without my asking, gone and bought Munchkin 3. For me. With the expectation that I would pay for it. Which I will, as I had planned to go buy it when I got the chance anyway. Once I can get $15. Because you see, today I found that I have lost my ATM card. I'll see if I can get another one without having to alert my mom... she'd be really annoyed if she found out...

Eventually the East lounge freed up and we moved into there.

Now it so happened that during this time 3 people from Honors were with us: Teja, his sacrifice, who I believe was called "Mike", and one Charlie.

Before I go any further it should be noted that Honors is much more closely tied to BU than we are. This means the rules are stricter and they actually deal directly with the RAs (and PAs, which apparently are like a cross between counselors and RAs).

So eventually people come looking for these people. What happened to Charlie, I don't know; presumably he left of his own will. Teja curled up into a ball where they probably wouldn't see him, and Mike... Mike was Teja's sacrifice. Why Mike agreed to do this I don't know, but the idea was that the RAs (PAs?) would find Mike instead of Teja.

They were also looking for Pinyan, though they didn't find him (funny; I don't recall him being hidden all that well. Then again, Teja was just curled up into a ball!) Overnight guests are not allowed, meaning strictly speaking, Pinyan was supposed to have left by 23:00. But what would be the point of that? He ended up sleeping in Etienne's room and snuck out, his story being he "forgot" to sign out. He was able to get signed back in today by ODan, IIRC.

Yesterday at breakfast someone working here asks us if we were studying - that's the word he used - in the basement the day before, because we had left the chairs in their circles, and they had had to restore them. Teja made up the story that we were forced out at 23:00 exactly by RAs, so it's their fault. "Anything that gets RAs in trouble is good for me," he explained. Honors may not have all the work we do, but I must say it sounds scary.

...what would go next in this entry will be posted in a separate protected entry because first-years aren't supposed to know about it. Too bad, it's great. I'll unprotect it eventually. In the meantime, you can get this quote from it:
Josh: It blows up like e to the e to the e to the e to the lot.

That just leaves today. Not much happened today. We (I forget who; Chris? Steve?) came up with an idea for the talent show - we'll do the Monty Python spam sketch, only instead of food, it'll be axioms, and instead of spam, it'll be WOP.

...that really ends it for now.

-Sniffnoy

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What, you expected a quote?