Monday, September 2, 2002
01:54 p.m.

cynicism as precognition

The upcoming bankruptcy bill is bad. It makes the rich richer, the poor even more desperately poor, and the middle class smaller and more anxious. And because that's what the GOP is all about, and I dare anyone to offer proof to the contrary, it will pass. And then the quiet revolution will begin....

One of my most radical complaints is that in the (Republican) future, anything that doesn't make money will be illegal. I have suspicions about the future that would make Ray Bradbury wet his coffin, but the world will probably end before they leave the realm of nightmarish science fiction.

And now it's damn well time I stopped procrastinating and did my homework.

Sunday, September 1, 2002
07:14 p.m.

man, that's nasty

The temperature has not quite gotten down to eighty degrees yet, and we have no A/C, so we *must* keep the house well ventilated, or stew in our own sweat. Unfortunately, we seem to be downwind of Clifford's enormous unwashed ass, to tell from the odor. I don't mean just a whiff here and there; I mean a choking pong that would bring tears to the eyes, were it not from all the car exhaust coming in with it. This has got to be one of the nastiest unwashed-dog/shit smells since I attended that junior high school downwind of the sewage treatment plant. It's creeping through the house, ewww.... If it gets into my room, I'm burning incense.

Thursday, August 29, 2002
08:03 p.m.

no rest for the weary

Since Monday, this is the first time I've had to properly and truly enter the sweeeeeet cybervegetative (neat word, no?) state. Since I got home I've only been off to eat dinner, and to fling my dirty laundry into the hallway (well, Mom asked). I *have* gotten a good bit of writing done, tho, and it pleased me to be able to pick up the line of my Slayfic right where I left off, hopefully with no noticeable change in the thread. I think I'm about halfway through....

What else.... SJSU is going to start requiring Art students to have laptops next year, ones with cards that render them compatible with the neat wireless network they're working on. Which is all very well and cool, but I grew up on nice, stationary PC's. I prefer to have appliances in my *environment,* rather than having to lug them around with me ... the arrangement makes both of us more vulnerable. :P

I wish Dad could realize the difference between classes required for an Engineering major and for an Art major. I wish he could realize the differences between Berkeley, Cal Poly, and SJSU; I also wish he could realize the differences between the 1970's, 1980's, and the 2000's. I also wish I didn't feel like such a loser every time I had to drop a class in order to save time, sanity, space, huge wads of cash, and my GPA.

And while I'm at it, I wish that neighbor kid would fucking shut up. Isn't three hours of screaming and hollering enough!? At least the neighbor dogs aren't going off....

On Tuesday I learned how to call someone a bitch in ASL. Heh. On Wednesday I learned that those video-game chairs with built-in surround sound are actually cheaply made and uncomfortable, and that Space Cat is a vastly superior source of manga, translated or not, to R&K Comics.

And now I suppose I'm twenty-four years and one day old! No, really....

Monday, August 26, 2002
10:57 p.m.

first day of classes

Today I was sitting in the 2.5th-floor lounge (yes, seriously. It's right between the second floor and the third) and a very ugly man with a very ugly beard in a tank top he shouldn't have been wearing was playing the piano there. He played the Moonlight Sonata, and he played it sooo breathtakingly well . . . I wish I could have taped that. It was just about concert-quality.

And when he was finished, he closed the keyboard and went away. And a small, purposeless worry crept into my brain: when I've gone and left college for good, after I have all the degrees I want . . how will I cope without the influence of such genius? How will I survive the oceans of bland, ordinary masses?

The tiny voice of reason in the back of my head points out tonight that I survived Mission College perfectly well, and furthermore that as an artist, I am internally driven to improve myself in my chosen media. [laugh] I never thought it would be a *comfort* to know I'll never find my own work good enough.

I miss metals lab.