Not Re-Finishing A Paper (OR: NARWHALS!)

So here I am, in Not Natural Science in not room 332 in Not Union Hall. I am very busy not doing a paper that I did not turn in over the weekend, when I was busy not cleaning the house. I'm probably...not, scratch that. I am an internet addict. Also, the guy across me here in the computer lab looks like some strange cross of Derek Zoolander and the monkey dude Chris Kattan never should have played on SNL. And the girl next to me sounds like Jillian from B-Dubs, whom I have not seen or heard form in a while. Triste.

Anyway, things are a little less sucky here, or at least I'm a little less crappy feeling. Hanna is at the house, probably sleeping and doing not homework (sorry). I will see her for all of a few minutes, after I get done not doing well on my oral exam for Spanish (look, it's just an awkward phrase, I stopped giggling at it a while ago. Grow up.). It's right back at work tonight for me - time to sully up my new kitchen coat, which I was oddly excited about getting. Don't ask me why, but I've been trying it on a few times since I got it Monday. I suppose that unlike a lot of people (guys especially), I actually enjoy dressing a part? Who knows. All I know is that it's spiffy and white and will soon be not spiffy and a pretty deep shade of Movie Tavern White. Heh.

I still don't think I blog enough. I don't even write a lot of real good stuff anyway. To be honest, I ramble and ramble and half of it is about how bad I blog...I'm blogging about blogging. That's gotta fall somewhere close to dividing by zero in cosmic conundrums. Oy. I will admit, I was pretty proud of getting on the front page of Drivl a few months back with that zoo thing, but I'm not there. I have been thinking of stuff for a redux of the list. After all, if I'm shameless enough to copy everyone else, why wouldn't I copy myself?

I need to figure out what computer I want. I'm thinking a white MacBook - a gig of memory and 120 megs o' hard drive, or maybe a similar PC for less. I can get down to $999 plus shipping with a student discount from Western, maybe Columbus State. The one I want is $1,199 - easily attainable by the end of winter if I cut out impulsive iTunes purchases. Damn you apple and your alluring purchase prices.

Random subtitle FTW.

Wallowing (OR: I'll Post Again, 'Cause I Can)

So I'm skipping English for the third time in two weeks, because there really isn't much of a point in me going. I can e-mail the assignment if I have the time. I just finished a pleading, albeit slightly snarky e-mail to my professor, in the thin hope I can get it in tomorrow morning.

I've got nearly an hour to kill before my 2:30, and I've had more time to kill today than I have classes - thus is Friday at Columbus State.

To be honest, I'e never had the particular feeling that an institution is below me. No, I went to schools with resources and faculty that enabled me to be challenged. There were easy classes at Darby, certainly - my Speech teacher, the ace Mr. Torrence, even dubbed me the King of BS - but there was enough meat that I could at least find some improvment.

No, here at Columbus State, we briefly touch on alchemy in Natural Science. Alchemy, for Christ sake. The curriculum, drawed up in earnest by CSCC themselves, is laughable, never touching on any subject long enough to make it matter to us. We went through the entire Biology chapter today, and all I can tell you from the textbook is that putting sweaty undergarments in a flask with wheat husks will not produce the spontaneus generation of rats. Seriously. This was apparently critical information. And I expect this shit to transfer?

I'm waiting, waiting, waiting. I miss last week, even, when I had something to look forward to, something to be excited about. Sure, it literally broke down an hour in, but I had something to motivate my being awake, really awake in the morning. Yeah, Hanna's supposed to come up next week, and I'll be delighted. But beyond that, what's there going to be? Christmas? Sure, but it really isn't what it used to be 'round the Lockman house, not with car repairs and insurance and whatnot. No, I fully expected less Christmas, even before any of these extras came along. I'm nineteen, I have no need to look to my parents for these things anymore. Not when I'm actually working full-time.

No, I'm just making it through a day, a week, maybe even a month at a time. I'm not even bothering to look ahead, because there's nothing even close on the horizon, not that I can see. Sure, the Playboy caravan might break down on Crestbury a little after New Year's, but I see no bus. No, minus any delightful surprises some higher power might have planned, it's more the same, I fear.

This isn't complaining, really. I've idled before and I'll idle again. It's a natural part of life, especially when nineteen and all that. This summer was pretty much the pits, and I found my way out of that, right?

Cold War Kids are playing Newport in a few weeks, that's gonna be pretty awesome. It's a great way to send out finals week. Without class, I can actually travel, or at least get out on the ton a little. Maybe this December won't suck. Maybe it'll be the worst yet.

Oh to be young, bored and vague.

EDIT: Jesus, I'm looking at my archives and realizing how pathetic my stats are. I'm averaging probably half a dozen posts a month. WTF?

The Sixty Five (OR: You Know November Has Come)

Only one test seperates me from the trip now, and I cannot state how excited I am. Though, honestly, I'm a bit subdued at the moment after a little less sleep than I'd have cared for. I'm also disgruntled that Firefox on the CSCC Comp. Lab doesn't include spellcheck - no, I shouldn't be so reliant upon it, but it's nice to catch those screw-ups, no?

Anyway, I'm merely two hours, one test and one skipped (well, to-be-skipped) class, off, and I'll hop on I-71. Y'know, we don't get the cool insterstate names here in the Midwest. In California, there's the I-5, that runs up the coast from San Diego on. The I-5. It sounds so cool, so breezy...two-seventy? That's just a bulky sense of blah (don't even get me started on Cincinnati...the 471?!)

So yeah, I'm gonna get off track a lot here.

My basic itinerary includes a stop in Louisville tonight and Monday, a party, a Homecoming game, and some good old fashioned spontaneity. I still don't know for sure where I'm sleeping Sunday night, and that's fine by me.

I'll update, possibly as we go along, most likely after the fact, when my bank account has been throttled and my wicked liver has been sedated with adult beverages (as the Movie Tavern menus are so fond of saying). It's gonna be a pretty neat-o weekend. I haven't been this giddy since Disneyland.

¡Viva La Weekend! (OR: You Are Coming To A Sad Realization)

If you've noticed a trend of me not really posting at all lately, it's because I'm not on this computer long enough to blog.

Anyway, it's almost 1:30 in the morning.

I got home an hour or so ago after closing the kitchen for the third day in a row. I spent, all in all, over a day in that kitchen over three days.

I have class in less than seven hours. This means being awake at 6:30 to get stuff done, like eating. And beating traffic.

Naturally, I should be asleep. Instead, I'm on the computer, blogging, and listening to The Prodigy on my new ghetto blaster headphones. They're amazing.

I'm relatively sure that this is borderline insomnia. And yet here I am.

Alas.

Body Count (OR: Another sad story)

For the second time this year, a student has died on campus.

It was another freshman male, a guy named Jaron Kormelink. To be honest, I don't recognize the name. I never met him, at least not that I know of. He lived on the opposite side of my building, Keen Hall, where his body was discovered by a service attendant. By all accounts, he had hanged himself as much as three days prior, which I've not heard any verification of. Authorites were called in, and the investigation is underway.

This being the second incident of its kind this year, there is plenty of talk of "what's going wrong?" all around campus. The truth is, this is not too unusual. It happens at schools all across the nation, and most of them have the plan to handle it. The fact is that the vast majority of students in dorms are in their late teens and early twenties. Many have never has a legitimate taste of the real world, and when they get to this scary new life, they aren't capable of handling the pressure.

It's similar to what I said after Dylan Prott's death. (Prott fell to his death after falling out his window in Pearce-Ford Tower, tripping on mushrooms). These things are unfortunately inevitable. There's not nearly as much we can do about as we'd like. Simply, we must learn to deal with them as they happen and do our best to prevent the circumstances from claiming yet another young life.