It’s early Monday afternoon and I’m sitting in the library to avoid the rather immense level of ambient noise that tends to permeate the public areas of the “Facultad de Filosofía e Historia B” building. I’ve got 40 minutes until class.

This weekend was a trip sponsered by the Marquette en Madrid program to Pais Vasco (”The Basque Country”). On Saturday we went to San Sebastian and I got to wade in the ocean for what I believe is the third time of my life (the previous two times being Cape Cod with Aunt Roe–which was freezing but fun, Boston with Jess–which was windy but wonderful). The weather on this day, however, was beautiful. Katie and I climbed to the top of a huge hill (or a small mountain) and we talked about God and home, and then we walked down the massive beach without giving up and going around when some barefoot rock climbing was involved. I was worried that the trip was going to be awkward and difficult because of my outsider status with regards to the other Marquette students, but each person in the program is individually very nice and I can play the “let’s be social” game without too much trouble and so it all worked out nicely.

Thanks to metafilter and Google Video I just watched a full length documentary called “Scratch” about the history of DJs and “turntablists”. I’m not exactly sure why I ended up dedicating and hour and a half to the thing, but it was an interesting look into the core of hip-hop culture (something which many believe has been lost in the mainstream, a feeling summarized well in this quote: “Guns, bitches, and bling were never part of the four elements, and never will be.”)

Metafilter also just pointed me to an old 1999 Salon article about Donald Knuth, one of the living legends of computer science. I was struck by the closing quote (the title of this article), where Knuth responds to a question about whether his ideas can be applied to disciplines outside of programming. I completely agree with him, and I think it’s a wonderful quote to keep in mind especially for me and my peers as we come to a point in our lives where we must make decisions about our respective future paths.