What a nice day! The Marx readings were over quick and even made sense. In fact, one of the readings made even more sense when I read it out on the lawn by the reflection pond in front of the UCF library. I wonder if the sun produces some chemical in the human body that makes concentration on obscure political theory from the 19th century easier to attain. One sucky thing about the whole endeavor - I kept having to move because the sun kept setting behind a tree, casting a shadow that somehow lowered the temperature by 15 degrees. Anyone who saw me (and yes, I finally believe my mom that strangers aren't always watching me - dont' worry...) - wait, where was I - oh yeah, anyone who saw me probably wondered why this guy kept repacking his backpack and moving 5 feet every 15 minutes. Oh well, can't be helped.

It just occured to me that I could have just moved 20 feet and stayed there an hour. Poop on me for being that dense.

I realized that I have a serious neurosis-type thing: I always take my headphones off when I'm listening to something just to make sure that I'm not broadcasting it to everyone. This wouldn't be a problem if I just did it once - you never know, my computer speakers could still be on - but no, I check every few minutes, sometimes twice. My only other neurosis-type thing (is that even how you spell it?) is that I never touch the metal part of doors. If you see a hand print on glass doors, that's me. I've been shocked once too many times by a static-y door.

As for the fingerprints, I've actually moved to pushing the door open with my forearm - better for everyone involved.

Finished the Debussy speech! I went over the time limit by 20 minutes, but the teachers didn't mind. I don't know about the students, though.

We watched a Russian movie today during class. It's called "The Shooting Party". It's based off a good short story by Chekov, however it's a terrible movie - at every moment, you're telling yourself that you should feel excited there, sad right there, maybe a little wistful for how things are supposed to be right there, right there when she has a half smile and is staring out the window... alas, the movie never finds real emotion and having to remind myself to have said emotions got tiring. I decided to mock it instead. =) It's also funny how the Soviets (the movie is from 1981) made this sweeping movie about the bourgeousie...a little freudian, don't you think?

Simon Ammann from Switzerland is my new hero. He's the guy who just won two gold medals in ski jumping. Never did he put off the vibe that he was something cool (like all the other "likely" winners), yet he was undeniably the best. And then his reaction was sheer joy rather than shoving his win in the other athlete's faces...what a cool kid! I do think it horrible that the news is already comparing him to Harry Potter...what is that? Does someone really need a worldwide "literary" and merchandising symbol attached to him when he's just proved he's hot shit w/o the comparison? Whatever...I'll chalk it up to the human need to make connections between things for understanding the universe.

Gotta get to Marx, he's waiting...

Oh yeah, I got to watch the pilot for Ally McBeal. I know, I'm becomming obsessed, but it's like dramatic cotton candy - lightweight, fluffy, and more fun than it should be (for god's sake, it's just sugar on a stick...the cotton candy, I mean).

Questions: Why is there chicken on a stick at the fair? Must everything come on sticks? I mean, there's pickles on sticks as well. Is a pickle any better on a stick?

Oh yeah, Ally McBeal...the newer shows are funnier than the older shows. That's my verdict. Wow, what a useless post.

Tonight during class, while critiquing a story, I said, "If I were this girl, I'd shut up and have sex with this guy" (or maybe it was "kiss this guy", but I was thinking "have sex with this guy" - my self-censorship usually tones things down, but I forget which one I actually said now). Either way - awkward moment. Must remember: brain first, mouth second.

Spent all day yesterday preparing for that Debussy speech. I was completely ready. They never got to me - I've been moved to Thursday.

Russian teacher put trick questions on the exam today. I challenged him on it. He gave us the answers.

So, overall, while the world and even my mouth is against me, I remain victorious over Russians. Unfortunately, this isn't the case for the Canadian figure skaters...I won't link to the news story b/c I'm sure it will change soon, but I hear they were robbed of the gold. Based on the interview that I caught tonight, they're being ultra-gracious about it. Good for them!

Gotta go. I'm taking Mom to the surgeon tomorrow for a consultation. Then it's off to school to finish reading "Ozma of Oz" and write a proposed treatment for class. I've toned down my feelings regarding the multiple Oz books we've had to read for class - if you would have asked me about them earlier today, the word "fucking" as an adjective would have been used a lot.

Today: I'm finishing a speech on Debussy. It won't be that hard because half of my 25 minute time goal will be taken up with listening to various clips of music from other composers as well as Debussy so that we can understand the difference and why Debussy was "Avant Garde"...they're actually starting this lecture series at UCF called "Avant Garde Professors speak" or something like that...how pretentious! I don't know, it might be a good lecture series, but I'm finding that none of the artists in the AG movement ever labeled themselves "Avant Garde".

Yesterday: Parents still a little sick - what was that last flu that went around? It had shades of diptheria and TB...and now that the news is reporting that an "Unknown ailment killed someone in NJ", I'm not too comfortable with this modern world's super-viruses... I went to church in the morning and then slept all day - for some reason, I've been ultra tired lately, kind of like when I was starting puberty. Maybe I'll grow another inch soon. We watched the Olympics last night as well as Malcolm in the Middle.

The day before (Saturday): Went to Tampa with Braden and Nicole. We visited Braden's older brother, Chad, and his wife, Alison. We played tetris for a half and hour and then went fishing. It's really cool - they have this sidewalk that goes around the apartment building, but also borders a river-like inlet from the Gulf of Mexico. We dangled our feet off the 10 foot wall and fished. I caught 2 catfish! I'm not an animal activist or anything, but seeing that poor catfish with a hook in it's mouth, trying to breath in oxygen from the air with the bait stuck to the side of it's head, shooting me a "Why me?" look, I couldn't help but wonder if fishing was such a good "sport"...I would have felt better if I was actually going to eat the poor fellow...

Nicole solved the whole conscious fish problem by repeatedly smacking the fish against the side of the wall while reeling them up. It wasn't her fault, but every fish she caught would come flying out of the water at top speed and fly facefirst into the wall. At least they stopped flailing around after that...

Megan is still sick =(...get better Meg =)