Continue to swing and climb from building to building. Let the public revel and reel away away from what you are. This is your nature. Live up to it.

In the end, you are still normal just like everyone else. Even if you go down in the trenches, even if you're immobile from the webs shot back into your eyes and face and body – or maybe especially because of the latter reasons – you'll know that you're normal just like everyone else.

So why did that ugly blue screen pop up after I restarted? Why was Windows giving me shit about problems with my display driver? Try, try, try as I might, I couldn't get Windows to accept 1280×1024 at 120 DPI: the blue screen always popped up.

Now I'm forced to accept 96 DPI, which isn't bad, but the task bar icons are crappy. Software can be crappy. Bill Gates is crappy. I can't get full credit on programming assignments if it doesn't work properly, and he's making billions on buggy software? Bah.

Since many hours have been poured into the new layout, I have to be up all night to do things. Let's plot this week's path:

—start 3D project and hope that concept is forming before I get to class; finish and send to printer by Tuesday 12 PM latest
—typeset +30 pages for Arun's project
—finish physics homework by 8 AM Tuesday
—finish poli sci extra credit by time stated previously
—study my ass off for physics and databases
—read my ass off for poli sci and history
—remix ‘Nameless Echoes’ and submit as last music project

A mountain of work for myself. But Arun's space heater is next to me right now. This is the first time in over 24 hours that my feet haven't been cold. It should get me to work without physical discomfort-type distractions.

I think something smells like urine…Is it the space heater or me?

Just keep warm.

This problem was beyond frustrating, a painful test of patience and prodding. I kept cursing C++ and whoever created the assignment for all the nuances that didn't relate to the understanding of the assignment yet prevented me from finishing. But this is a CS class, right? I'm supposed to know C++. I'm supposed to have the ability to learn and use other peoples' interfaces. Something like that.

I had a breakthrough within an hour of the deadline, but there was still another less minor problem. Deadline came. I went to bed.

I woke up around 9, and within thirty minutes was back at the computer, complete with itchy & sore eyes and a headache. Out of boredom, I checked the class newsgroup to find that a 6 hour extension had been granted. Damn.

So I loaded all the files again and tried, perhaps in vain, to fix that lesser error. Very slight progress was made. If only the TA mentioned this before the deadline…

Et cetera. I just want the partial credit that I deserve this time around.

I'm obviously bored. And I didn't go to IHOP as planned, partly because I wanted to be cheap. Still, hot dogs nearly 14 hours after the last real meal were a welcome.

‘Everything in its right place’ always reminds me of the beginning of this school year. It seems so distant.

Bored. But maybe tomorrow is Short Story Saturday?

Hmm…I'm going to make an omelette and forget that school sucks for just a moment.

It is quite intriguing, amazing, and neat. The colors, stunts, costumes, music, and attractive fit superstrong ultracoordinated people all make for a good time. And there was a cute contortionist who did the most incredible things. I captured some shots (TV cards are the greatest), but, unfortunately, missed the craziest positions.

They make the American circus look unsophisticated. One more point for the French.

Second: if you forget about the basket, be careful when reaching for ice cream while balancing 4 burritos and two cartons of orange juice.

Third: maintain your composure when the cartons and burritos slowly slip out of your control. Gracefully sink to the ground with falling items. Don't be afraid to call out quietly for help.

Of course, maybe it is a flower and I'm just reading into it.

While I'm in the area, here's some dialogue from The Adventures of Dirty Sanchez (consider it my joke for the day):

—Hey Chet, you know what the difference is between an asshole and a pothole?
—The difference between an asshole and a pothole�can't say I do, Ned.
—Well, you'll swerve if you miss the pothole.
(laughter)
—Say, Ned, what's the difference between a tire and an asshole?
—I don't know. What's the difference between a tire and an asshole?
—Well, when you put chains on a tire, it don't sing.
(laughter)
—Ooh�that's very good.

So I was quite surprised when Andrew told me that Ron Jeremy was on channel 40 (yesterday, at around 3:45 AM). I went to the channel – lo and behold, The Hedgehog was sitting there hosting his own talkshow.

At least I thought it was a talkshow. It turned out to be a terrible terrible infomercial on a sex pill called ExtenZe, guaranteed to increase sex drive and increase penis size by up to 25% (I don't want another 4 in, but I suppose not every other guy is me). As Ron says, ‘Any guy – or girl – that has a smile on their face anywhere in the world has gotta be taking ExtenZe,’ after which he whistles and shakes his head – possibly in awe? – disrupting the layers of age and fat on his face (picture below).

I wanted to tape it in full tonight but I was watching Boston Public during that time. Probably for the better. I can't underscore just how bad it was. Here are a few non-money shots (although that probably changed after they finished filming) from the few minutes I recorded last night:

The top pic is of the co-hosts, and the bottom is of a dancer and newcomer in the ‘adult film’ industry. For the interested, I can upload an MPEG of the clip somewhere.

Oh, and Channel 40 is Animal Planet. Don't let your children stay up late.

Some bird is singing. It sounds like it's whistling. So pretty.

I said to myself I'd start early and spread things out, and I did. Sort of. The first main task was catch up on reading, spanning Friday and Saturday. That took a good many hours (with breaks, of course) before I concluded that, unless I started doing problems, all this info wouldn't sink in.

So day becomes night, with little progress on the assignment. My brain eventually gives in to pressure and begins to process things more. After 4 AM.

I'm finally done by 12. I eat lunch, take a shower, then go to DCL to turn in the assignment, then walk back to the post office, and then I'm off to 3D imaging, where I soon nod off.

But then I wake up, and for two hours I just mess around in Illustrator and 3dsmax without making any progress on my final project (progress meaning finding a concept to work on). Then I ask Gerry (my teacher) if I can leave early, and he says I can only if I promise to take a nap.

I make the promise. I'm at home and in bed by 5 PM. I set the alarm for 9:45 so that I can catch a rerun of 24 on FX. Ah, what a relief to be in bed finally…

Some hours pass before I look at the clock. And the clock says, ‘It's 11:58, idiot.’ Seven hour nap. Shit. I rip myself up into a seated position (to stop myself from further lollygagging in bed), then make my way to the bathroom within a minute as Derek and Ryan and Jeff and Paige laugh at me, presumably because of my posture and hair and groggy look and such. You could tell that I was ready to start this day.

Now that I think about, I shut the alarm off in my sleep because I know for certain I set it before retiring. This rarely happens. I guess my body really does care for me and understands when I need sleep?

I don't like that the only stimulus to work comes from something being due the next day. I have some terrible mental disorder.

Walking outside was weird today. Things didn't seem normal. They just didn't. Or at least I was able to convince myself that they weren't. It was my lack of sleep mixed with being cold all night (late April freezing weather is pleasant).

I'm rambling on. Time to watch Boston Public, then do physics. And when the time is right, I'll take a nap and soon merge once again with the night-sleepers.

Thank you for the chocolate bar.
Thank you for the memories.

me,

Kaiser

The more I BSed, the more it made sense. Aside from allusions to Madonna, Liberace, Elvis, and Marilyn Monroe, there's the actual chorus:

we didn't start the fire
it was always burning since the world was turning

Simply put, homosexuality wasn't an invention: it's always existed since the beginning of time.

Or am I off in my interpretation?

All in all, it's a cheap store that hints of pee and mildew. And if you dig tacky 80s clothes, this is your heaven. I'll go back again eventually.

I'm glad my pan is big enough to eat eggs and biscuits out of. But the dish situation is still bullshit. For the guilty party/parties, please clean your damn dirty dishes.

Things were so good for a week. What happened?

While I'm ranting, I'd also like to point out that it bugs me when a friend, someone I've known for seven years, decides to switch seats across the room so that he can sit with his roommates (even if there are plenty of seats next to me) without so much as a ‘See you later,’ and when in fact I also lived next door to one of his roommates for a year.

This won't help me catch up on the many chapters of technical reading for tonight. So I'll read now.

It's quite nice outside.

Now there's a list of links used as sources for this week's piece. And wouldn't you know it? There's a link to my journal with the following caption:

One woman's complaints about there being no female cereal icons (scroll down to the February 12, 2002 entry)

Woman? Oh, come on. Just because I make an observation about the nonexistance of female mascots doesn't mean I'm complaining, or to a much larger extent, that I'm a woman! Can't guys make observations about the lack of female icons in certain industries? Hah.

In all honesty, I actually found this quirky mislabel amusing. I'm really curious as to how he even found my site? I'll do a Google search on ‘cereal’ and see where that goes.

I feel good right now. I think I've finished my last physics lab ever (unless I happen to fail the class, which is a greater possibility with each passing day). I'm sitting in front of the fan's breeze, coupled with the generally cool breeze outside that's modestly making its way into my room. And I took a shower. Showers are wonderful after you've been covered with sweat. (It also helps to reinforce that I, along with everyone else in this house, is blessed to have such a life. The amount of water we use for a shower is probably more clean water than many other people in this world get in a week.)

Ahem. Time to do manly things.