not falling down

I am my mother’s son. Cleaning isn’t something I do often–my work area is a complex system (orlack thereof) of piles, bins and bags. But I’m starting to realize that when I do it, it’s a way ofcentering myself, restoring emotional balance.

It was a good day. Shouldn’t have been, really, as I’ve spent it running, being tired and thinkingabout the impending doom of tomorrow’s Calc and Theatre History tests. I’m getting nowhere with mynovel and Jon’s finally made the decision to take the semester off from Short Story. And of course there’s a dead end at… well, nevermind.

But I wrote my play. It’s hasty, overdone and generally awful with a near-complete lack of plot.I’m proud of it all the same. You can get it here if you want, butyou’ll have to get this to read it. I don’t recommend it. You might laugh, but you’ll probablythink it’s a waste of time.

I want to cast Will and Melinda in it, but grapevine says they won’t work together. Actors! Ishould boil the whole lot of them.

the drummer from DefLeppard’s only got one arm!
the drummer from Def Leppard’s only got one arm!

Who was the dorky neighbor on My So-CalledLife? Brian something? I remember his last name sounded Polish. Anyway, I feel like him today.I think I always had more sympathy for him than anybody else, blonde fro and all.

word count: 557. I suck.

Today is a day where I just wanna curl
Up with a book in a bed with a girl.

The last couple days have been less than special. I have essentially done short-term work and putoff long-term work, as is my usual casual style. I like words that end in “-al.” Whee.

For the record, I got the extension and the interview (paper is still in progress); I got thescripts written; I’m working on an actual (-al!) storyline for Xorph;and I’ve been nagged by a certain someone to start updating twice a week. We’ll see.

I think I’m going to unofficially participate in NaNoWriMo. I would have actually signed up for it, but I only found out today(signups ended October 29th). In fact, I only found out about it twenty minutes ago. As I have allthe attention span of a rex wasp on crack, I predict that in another twenty minutes I will haveforgotten about it… but for the moment I’m all fired up about writing my own Gravity’s Rainbow.* I’m hoping a forced two thousand words a day will make upfor my not taking the Creative Writing course this winter term (taking Music Writinginstead).

I was trying to find a link to information on rex wasps, but I can’t, so here’s what I’ve read: Therex is a species of solitary burrowing wasp, in which the female hunts for caterpillars. Once shefinds and kills one with a sting, she flies it back to her small underground burrow, where she haslaid an egg, and goes in to check if the egg is all right. Once it’s checked, it will come backout, drag the dead caterpillar into the lair, and seal it; when the egg hatches, the baby wasp willeat the caterpillar and then dig out of the burrow. Here’s the thing: while the wasp is checking onits egg, you can sneakily move the caterpillar, just like an inch. When the wasp comes back out, itwill notice that the caterpillar has moved and drag it back to where it put it in the first place.What its tiny brain thinks, though, is “I just moved a caterpillar, so I must have just gottenhere.” Thus, once it’s done, it will go in to check on the egg again. It will do this everytime you move the caterpillar, no matter how long the game goes on, until it drops dead fromexhaustion.

So it doesn’t have an attention span! See? That’s why it was funny. If only to me. Gah.

If you read all of that you deserve a reward. Also, get a life.

Update: Just checked my junk mail folder for another dose of bemusement. What I like bestabout this one is the afterthought.

* My theory is, if you write a book, and other people then have towrite books to explain that book, you should be shot, and I think it’s a good theory.

I am up entirely too early because I was late to the hog-feedin’ call and was left with a goshdanged 8:30 time slot in which to meet with my advisor. Rarr.

It’s looking like next semester is going to consist of Operating Systems, Algorithms, Discrete Mathand Symbolic Logic. Admittedly, the last one is technically a philosophy class, but they’re stillall left-brain juggernauts. If I start speaking in monotone and making jokes like Henry McEuen,don’t be surprised.

Do you like Alfalfa? I thought you might.