118: It's only a model

By the end of the night, a big Interneta Halloween update will be online. I did one last year and while this year's is in a different vein and not necessarily for Interneta, it's nice to do seasonal updates.

It's been, in its way, a couple of pretty busy days. I've really been running around today. Sunday night, given my oversleeping that day (something which, my God, hadn't happened in years,) it's not hard to see how my sleep went haywire. I skimmed across the waters of sleep for a few hours before finally settling in for about 4 1/2 hours of sleep. I toyed with the idea, as I was wandering the house not asleep, of staying home the next day, but that seemed to invite disaster. So I got up at 6:45, as per usual, and went to class. The lectures don't necessarily educate, but they do enlighten and are useful.

You've gotta wonder if the people responsible for "The Dark Side of Oz" (or as it is sometimes less interestingly called, "Dark Side of the Rainbow") went around synching all their albums up to movies. I wonder if Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic syncs up with Casablanca? Or maybe Talking Heads '77 goes with Taxi Driver. The possibilities, my God!

I was prepared to get a good night's sleep last night, and was in the midst of it, when all of a sudden at 6:00 -- FWOOM!! I had no idea what it was. Sounded like a sonic resonation bomb, which doesn't exist, so that should tell you how indescribable the sound was that I had to go invent something to associate it with. It sounded destructive. The actual source of the sound was nothing of the sort, upon investigation - Tim had knocked over a broom, and that sound was the handle thwacking against the kitchen floor, resonating against my common wall. Go figure. That seems to sum up my life lately, fear of nothing terribly threatening.

I went back to bed, but was disrupted enough that I slept past my alarm to about 10:00. It was only that obnoxious Colin James song, "Chicks and Cars and the Third World War" that got me out of bed. Don't kid yourself, James has had a few good songs ("Hide," for one,) but that's such an annoying tune. So I was up, and didn't really have time for much as I had, once again, to go make change for the bus, which means coffee. From there, to the bus, to the station, as usual, in my own world, reading Freud's Dora. It was as we pulled into Union that I thought I spotted a familiar face on the train. This is normally a good thing, but I made sure not to make eye contact. I wasn't really in the mood for this dude. Maybe he's reading (probably not, as he once noted to me he did not know how to use Google.)

I sat through a lecture on use of sound in movies and then booked it on down to Convo hall so I could sit in the midst of a half-dozen conversing fratboys while I attempted to listen to a lesson on terrestrial atmospheres. You know how it is. I was really seething by the end, these guys wouldn't shut up. I would've turned around and said something, but as I indicated, there were about 6 of them and while I may be able to defend myself conventionally, I'm not an idiot - they could'a turned me inside out if I started shit. So I just had to sit there and be annoyed. But I wasn't the only one who felt this way.

As I'm hastily making my way out of that class with quiet indignation, the girl sitting two seats down from me turns around and I can barely make her out saying "Excuse me..." so I wait outside the room for this girl to exit and I asked, "Did you just tell that guy he was talking too much?" And she says yeah, and I tell her good going because Goddamn was I pissed. I was considering moving seats all throughout the lecture (as Convo Hall is huge and the class is maybe 70-80% attended,) but I didn't, which is good because otherwise I wouldn't have witnessed this. We commiserated over our mutual dislike of these dudes and I introduced myself before heading off. By now I've got it in my head that if you spend even 30 seconds conversing with someone, especially in a big class, you get the name, because you never know if it's going to come in handy to have an ally. I think I've seen this girl a few times, too. I don't know her take on the situation, but as far as I'm concerned, we're acquainted.

It was an uneventful ride home. I decided to walk as it was a gorgeous day and in late October, mid-Autumn, you've gotta cherish that. (The guilty environmentalist in me says that soon we'll have all the heat we can handle. Hrm.) So I was walking down Trafalgar and decided to stop in at Esso because I was positive Amanda would be working and I figured I could use a coffee. We chit-chatted a moment while she poured and, as I was handing her the coins, she just said, "Go!" Thicky I am, it acatually took a moment to realize she was comping me. Must take care not to abuse this newfound ability in the future. I'm not down by Esso very often anyhow.

So I walked home and took care of some light business for not-very-long before we went over to dad's for dinner, and more of Eric's birthday. Got home and had to carve the pumpkin. I've been busy trying to schedule all the stuff I will imminently need to take care of. I'm not swamped right now - thank God because I'm running around trying to get my ass to Hamilton tomorrow night - but I will be imminently.

Hah. This is the life, ain't it?

Keep on rockin'
-El Scotto