Monday, Ninth Week
The Internets hold much that is beautiful, and much that is horrible. I was taking some time to read Tricky's blog, and one thing he had to say just struck me as being remarkably true and beautiful: "If the truth behind a painting could be captured in an essay, why paint?"
Subsequently, I went to the comments section to remark upon it. Now, the comments on Tricky's blog have ads at the bottom, by where you type new comments in, and one of them caught my eye. The link read, in bold, "Aborting Gay Babies" and undernead that, "Are you still pro-choice?"
Now I'm no fan of abortion -to be concise, I see it as stright-up killing of human beings- but what. is. this?! What kind of horrible, twisted person thinks up things like this? Granted, I did not click the link, but I am disgusted nonetheless. For all I know, this may be a legitimate social issue, but can anyone give me a good reason for it to be treated so crassly? I doubt there is one.
Unfortunately, that wasn't even the first horrible thing of the day. Czech this out. A girl's picture ganked from her senior yearbook because she's wearing a tuxedo. That's not even deviant behavior, and makes for a lot nicer a picture than some girls' senior photos I've seen. It doesn't matter that she IS a lesbian; this is a matter of personal freedom and flagrant abuse of authority. Bah!
In much happier news, my birthday present for Tori was very well received, and I had a pleasant, if not restful, time out in the suburbs. While I was there, the cutest thing happened, as well. It had been the case that Ellie would say "Tick-tock!" and Aunt Jomari would say "Mommy loves you!" Jomari would say "Tick-tock!" to Ellie, though, Ellie would also say, "Mommy loves you!" Aunt Jomari had, we were told, been trying unsuccessfully to get her to respond with "Ellie loves you!" At some point during dinner, someone said "Tick-tock", and Ellie immediately said, "Ellie loves you!" Then this whole thing was explained, and Ellie went around the entire table saying "Tick-tock!" to everyone,and getting the appropriate responese. It was adorable.
I don't have anything funny to end with; I just want to go do my homework now.
Saturday
On my way to the suburbs for Tori's birthday party, I met a homeless woman, Peggy. We aited together at the Garfield green line for the train, and we talked until she had to get off at Bronzeville/IIT. She asked about school, and Tori, and my family. She talked about her own son, who goes to school at 52nd and Ellis, and chided me for not getting good grades. We talked about the lack of Christian spirit in Hyde Park.
For some reason, talking with Peggy, more than anything else that's happened recently, has assured me that the world is still a good place.
Friday, Eighth Week
"We are going to establish a gold standard for hopelessness." -Babai, 02/18/2005
"They've found something buried; can you see? Can you reach? Is it a treasure? A body? ....it's a little of each." :This is why Robots from the Future are awesome.
This has been a fairly unsatisfactory week, with the exception of today. Today was pretty rad. I could havedone without most of the rest of it, though. And now, the Internets are down. Well, ours is, anyway.
We have mice. I don't know what they think they're going to eat.
I love how "It's on my desk" is synonymous with "I lost it".
Thursday
So. I go to the reading folder, print out the reading -there's only one- and read it. It's a short story called "The Cannery Boat". I go to write my response on the class bulletin board, and it's all like 'Naomi, Naomi, Naomi'. Hmm. So I run down the hall and ask Kari, who's in a different section, what's up. She tells me a novel, Naomi, was also assigned and, bless her, lends it to me. Aw, shucks. So I wrote the TA explaining the situation, and have read the first half before taking a break to czech my e-mail and write this. Haven't heard back yet. Where, I want to know, was this assigned?
I totally shouldn't have to buy books for this class. Even if they are enjoyably comical ones which are kind of a more altruistic, Japanese version of Lolita. Bah!
Wednesday
"That's funnier than Joel's head!" -Jo, 02/14/2005
I think things are alright now. She surprised me with a card and Her Majesty on vinyl (which is, incidentally, so awesome I.... yeah), but then I made her a valentine and served her breakfast in bed. And apparantly, it's not that she doesn't like flowers at arbitrary times; it's that she only likes them from certain people. So.
This is why I like well-defined holidays. May Day. Christmas. Easter. Birthdays. I know what to do for those. It's these more-recently-widely-celebrated holidays, the ones fueled by capitalism, that I don't really get. Eh. I'll learn.
Tired of Tricky's wall being blank, I finally fixed it, with a little help from the GSB. He's now been "DECORATION'D!!!", something I made sure I pointed out to him. Last time I did major decorations:
Tricky: "How long has that pirate flag been hanging up?"
Ian: *amused disbelief*
T: "It hasn't been like a week or anything, has it?"
I: "I hung it up just now. That's what I was hammering. That's why I borrowed your hammer."
T: "While I was sitting at my desk?"
I: "Yes. While you were sitting right there at your desk, that's what I was noisily hammering into the wall, with the hammer I just borrowed from you."
T: "Oh."
OK, that might be a little unfair to Patrick, but that's how I remember it.
Leah, for over an hour now, has been napping on the 7M loveseat. I took a picture of her. She's so cute!
That evening
I love her, I trust her, but I don't understand her.
The converstaion went something like:
She: You need to go do your homework.
I: I'm going to go do my homework.
She: You always choose the wrong thing!
But I need to dom homework, so here I am, in the lab, doing homework. Ashley tells me I should buy her something red and pink, but I thought she said she didn't want to do anything. Maybe I should make her a valentine or something.
"I don't know, build her a cake or something."
On a completely different note, I just noticed for the first time a largeplanter, containing a tree, outside the east doors of the Regenstein. Has that always been there?
Valentine's Day, Seventh Week
"Just take the scientific approach. Right. It hasn't worked yet." -Babai, 02/14/2005
I'm baking muffins! Again! Just gotta wait for the oven to pre-heat.
So I'm thinkin' it's about time for a concert run-down. First, the Bottom Lounge. Now, I hadn't been to BL before, but it seemed an alright sort of place. I plan to go back and catch another show there in about a week. The bands: First, The Record Release -unremarkable local group of five guys. Second, Open-Heart Surgery -also unremarkable. Next, Brantson, the band we came to see. They were quite good; not necessarily good enough to make me want to buy a CD, though. But a vinyl? Well, since it's on the cheaps.... So I now own one of their albums on vinyl; got the last one, actually. Their song "Leaving Ohio" is not, unfortunately, up to my (admittedly high) 'songs about Ohio' par, however. Best part of their set: covering "Cry Me a River", and actually making it sound good. Not just good, but kick-ass. I want that cover, I tell you.
I deem this mostly incomprehensible. I'll run-down the Folk Festival later, then.
So I spent the afternoon re-living my youth through music, and I must say, it does recommend itself.
Feeds: