Something grabbed a hold of my hand,
I didn't know it had my hand,
but that's when all my trouble began...

They will be here in Orlando in March at Hard Rock Live!!!

If it's not too cold or rainy tonight, a big group (including my friend Braden, his girlfriend, a few of his siblings) of us will be going to Universal Citywalk to run through their walkthrough fountain, which sprays water up from the concrete in random patterns. The fun part of this trip is that we're taking posterboard squares with numbers on them so that we can rate the quality of our (and strangers') "Fountain Dancing" skills, Olympics style. I think we will consider technical merit, artistic style, and how wet the contestant gets. It should be a blast. If anyone who knows me is reading this and would like to attend this prestigeous event, contact me before 8pm tonight!

Now I better put in some more work so that I can feel okay about having fun! =)

Marxist economic theory can be fun for the whole family!

Sample:

Say a working class gal works at McDonalds making food. Let's assume she can make two Big Mac Meals per hour. Each of these meals will cost the customer $5. After the end of that hour, McDonalds has made $10, but has paid the worker $6.

Marx would say that this woman worked for only about 3/4 of that hour for actual monetary value and the last 15 minutes was for free since she didn't see the rest of the money in her paycheck. In other words, the capitalist owners of McDonalds get the surplus-value of $4 over the amount they paid our working class gal. This is also known as extra value.

Kinda gives a new meaning to "Extra Value Meal", doesn't it?

A Note to the FCC: the above sample is meant as a dry joke, letting the reader make any socio-political decisions or presuppositions on their own. It must be stressed that the above sample is meant in an educational sense and not in the propogation of theories which may or may not be illegal to spread. Now, with that said, how about we come up with a massive tax cut to give the corporations a little bit more of that surplus-value back...hmmmm?

Karma comes right back and bites you in the ass, doesn't it? Actually, it bites me in the ass.

So, I skipped Russian and Avant Garde. It was heavenly and I got a lot done. Well, I must have been too smug because I went up to see my Grad. Writers Workshop teacher to get a copy of the story from the last class, which I also skipped because of being exhausted and almost sick (I'm carrying this low-level thing for a week - I hope it's not mono or the like). She's like, "You skipped my class!" and gave me a little grief, however her usual mode is giving grief, so I think that was okay. That is until she walks me to the copy room to copy the story and, lo and behold, there stands my teacher from Avant Garde. He asks me where I was, I say something very weak, the GWW teacher exclaims "You skipped two classes! Get your shit together!" and everyone then comments on how bad I am.

A very bad little boy.

I told my writing professor that I wasn't losing control, but that my skipping was very calculated. For some reason this admission earned brownie points and she let me know that she cancelled her Wednesday classes over exhaustion. So, I guess karma is also kind of in my favor.

I can't wait for the weekend...in which I will also work like a dog until I'm ahead. It's a promise that I'm making to myself.

Have you ever seen those commercials with a woman settling down into a huge tub of suds, drinking powdered flavored coffee (but you'd never know it! The taste that belies ease!), eating some sort of slightly expensive cookie, and saying "Ahhh! I deserve this escape..."? Well, that's me and skipping classes, but only if certain critera apply:

1) Class must be one in which I'm already getting a good grade.
2) Nothing important is scheduled for the day in which I'm skipping
3) The maximum amount of relaxation will be achieved in proportion to guilt over skipping classes

This is one of those days. I have sooooo much to do that I've finally hit insanity status. Amazingly, my stress isn't from putting things off. I looked over my daytimer and realized that two of my teachers have moved projects around so that they all fall on this weekend. It must be a conspiracy.

Or just dumb luck. Anyway, Russian class is easy to skip because the teacher loves me. Avant Garde is easy to skip because we're just doing speeches and I've never missed any other class. I won't be skipping Marx class, however - it's only once a week.

In my newly found time, I'll be writing a 20 page paper about Debussy, making graphics for the Seminole County Clerk of the Court, writing two short stories for Grad. Writers Workshop, doing Russian homework, writing 20 pages of a screenplay, an analysis of the movie "Return to Oz", and a treatment for my Adaptation script. Oh yeah, Mom wants help with housework as well.

Yet, I have time to blog - I'm disgusted with myself.

Hanz is a name that evokes humor...

should that be "invokes"?

Dreams
inconsistant angel things
horses bred with star-laced wings
but it's so hard to make them fly
fly
fly

-- Sixpence None the Richer, from the first song of their self-titled album

And you thought they just sang "Kiss Me". Shame on everyone.

I've been revisiting the album...it's actually very good alt/modern pop/rock. Leigh Nash has got such a fine voice and Matt Slocum can write her the nicest songs. Her best comes towards the end, but those songs never made it into teen romantic comedies.

Of course, this is also the band that ressurected the following lyrics for the movie "Dick":

You can dance
You can jive...

Enough said.

Heard a speech today in Avant-Garde class (it sounds like they're training us to be little artistic intelligentsia people) about the artist, Marcel du Champ. His work was a neat blend of cubism and other things. One of the paintings, not a cubist one, was the Mona Lisa with a marker painted mustache and the letters LLOOQ (there might be another letter in there, or fewer of other ones)...either way, when the french spelled out the letters, it supposedly makes a sound similar to a french phrase that translates: "She's got a hot ass". So far, this has been the highlight of my day.

I love Mr. Willowinks! I want to make it known that Willow is Megan's cat, lest I repeat what happened to me here (the 12:10 AM entry towards the bottom of the page). The only problem is that I got an itchy, swollen eye from petting the damn cat. Why are humans allergic to good things?

Gotta finish reading my critiques for tonights class...I'm so behind in life...but at least I've got a smile! =)

I've been lax in my logging. Sorry to all. Last week I did the backwards weekend review...I kinda like that format.

Sunday: Went to church. Had lunch at Trent and Allison's new house (a young couple at our church)...it was a lot of fun. I offered to help with yardwork so I could get that "young neighbors helping each other out" feel without actually owning a home. Braden and Nicole got back from Indiana and his grandmother's funeral - they decompressed at Thai House and vented all the family gossip (I know none of the people that they were talking about).

Saturday: I don't even remember. I think I went shopping with Dad. Oh yeah, I found some cool new shoes.

Friday: Hung out with Meg. We went shopping. I found a $7 sweater. We watched "Ghost World" - it was well recieved.

***

With that said, today was quite a "blah" day. Dad yelled at me for being too busy with school and not having enough time to do the lawn. We kinda realized that it's a logistical nightmare to expect me to do all the same chores as when I was in middle school, so we're trying to work something out that won't result in shouting matches. =)

I wrote a 7 page paper on Marx and his view of "historical materialism". Ask me any questions that you want about that topic...I just might be able to answer them.

I think I might go over the stories for tomorrow's class as well as buy the second pair of shoes that I need (it feels like I'm back in the fifth grade, getting prepared for the school year).

Ah, I'm very glad I missed the woolen throat phenomenon that has afflicted this fine person as well as this one. I hope you both get back to full health soon!