I soooooo can't sleep. I think I have to get up at 6. When I was pikku my mother would sing me the Teddy Bear Picnic song. It was entrancing. The undersides of my elbows are scuffy. I am divided as to whether this would self-repair if I stopped resting my elbows on tables, or whether the damage is done. I was in the mood for Neil Young this weekend but I forgot to listen to him. I bet if I pull out a cd tomorrow it will make studying calculus funner.
I just woke up after dreaming of people falling down the stairs, so this NYT article was of especial interest.
An excerpt:
It is likely during REM, some scientists argue, that the brain proceeds to mix, match and juggle the memory traces it has preserved, looking for hidden connections that help make sense of the world. Life experience is cut up and reordered, sifted and shuffled again. This process could account for the cockeyed, disjointed scenes that occur during dreams: the kaleidoscope of distilled experience is being turned.
Of note in these here parts: Yesterday was really windy. This week the Computer Science Dept. is looking at applications for its office assistant job, of which there are 30+. I had a French midterm yesterday (lundi) and have a csc midterm Friday and a calculus test next week. School is in week 10! But I don't feel exactly employable as a computer scientist. I know I have had only .67 csc classes, but I hope at some point in this program I feel remotely competent.
Neil pointed out that our VHS copy of The Graduate was released in 1985 and bears a recommended retail price of 59.95!!! Does anyone else remember this '80s exorbitance?
Some of us need to hustle so we can squeal into swallow group at the designated time of 7:30. If I was ever on time for swallow group I feel like I should get a bonus. Or at least a homemade cookie. But probably my self-pride in being punctual would carry the exact same annoyance value to my coworkers as my being 5 minutes late. Alors, no cookie! I have to work Sat. and Sun. but I have a date with Neil tomorrow! Yipee! And he has 2 new UA applications pending. One potentially involves handling blood ... in the name of scientific research ... it sounds tres interestiing. And also: I got an A on my calculus test! Which I still am in shock over! OK, now I really have to go, even though I would like to sit here for at least 30 more minutes. I don't even know what's happening in the news. I think employment is designed to keep people ignorant of what goes on! Except maybe Dennis and Neil.
I haven't yet read this story, but that doesn't mean you can't.
So ... what kind of legal recourse, if any, would you pursue? Of course, A. by consuming alcohol, which she already knew negatively influenced her mood and behaviors, Gotbaum herself was an agent. ALTHOUGH she apparently was addicted (and therefore the level of personal responsibility involved in picking up a shot glass may be somewhat tempered) and was flying to Tucson specifically to find help. And B. by knowing of these tendencies, her family perhaps could be considered mildly negligent in not appointing a responsible party to fly and make the change with her (although someone was supposed to meet her at Sky Harbor and do just that). That said, what would you do? P.S. I would like to take the credit, on behalf of all women, for NOT printing "hysterical" in a hed on the story in last Sunday's paper. Someone else wrote it and I spoke up. Perhaps they were unclear on the etymology.
And speaking of calculus, when I find the derivative of the derivative of a polynomial function, how am I supposed to know the values of x for which the function is positive and concave up? Or is the function supposed to be positive and concave up, since the 2nd derivative isn't even mentioned in the problem ... but why would we even talk about concavity were we not referring to f''x? And on French ... Good vocab scores. Good effort. Every class I pray that she will not tell me to present a French article in 2-5 days. And that's all I have to say. Neil is good. He makes me dinner and cleans the house and asks me how my day was. OK I have to go to bed. 
It is 11:55 p.m. I have given up on trying to figure out why the Java String length() method won't count spaces, and why the indexOf() method won't look at spaces, and why the charAt() method won't recognize spaces. It's really not that hard, which is why I've spent hours trying to find the solution. It's so simple. I just don't know it. Maybe if I looked in my book ... Plan B, which I'll tackle tomorrow. 
Greer is so cool and nice. We walked by the Little Colorado and looked for fishes. We rested and read a lot.
Does anyone think Oprah Winfrey would have a fighting chance if she ran for president? Because she is soooooooo popular. ... I just wonder.
P.S. No relation to the picture.
exhibit A for why arizona deserves to be the 25th best school in the country (2 ahead of harvard). also, gilbert comments on crazy steph doing an interview. i have linked. you need to watch the whole thing.
1. This article is interesting, and it makes me think of potential research in sensory integration techniques in the autism population. I hope researchers perhaps can get beyond the stick and hammer -- how about a feather and birthday cake!
2. I will post pictures of painted furniture soon.
3. I study calculus every night! College is so fun! The third time around is always the best!
4. The Star published this article Sunday about the possibility of troops in Iraq being exposed to toxic substances and consequently developing cancer. The information is gripping and I want to see tons of research and perhaps lawsuits. Tons.
David Bromstad is so cute. I painted several pieces of furniture. It was fun. Various species of bug tried to eat me alive. Were they attracted to the latex paint or what? OMG, Ali G as Borat is sooooooooooooo not funny. Tomorrow I would like to eat popcorn. And probably paint more furniture. Is anyone else ever plagued by thoughts of what you're not doing, even as you're doing something else? Like, I was reading an article in the New Yorker and simultaneously thinking about the articles in the new New Yorker that I hadn't read. Robert Wright doesn't know who "Jess and Nick" are. I am soooooooooooo scared about starting school. On so many levels. The t-mobile commercial is funny! Dad: So, there's 5 of us and we can each put 5 people on myfaves, so that's 26! Child: No, that's 25. Other child: Yeah, 5x5=25. Dad: No ... no. 26. Carry the nine. (Leaves room) Mom: That's why you need to stay in school, kids.
I just started working part-time at a SNF (skilled-nursing facility, AKA nursing home; pronounced "sniff"). It is very, very amusing.
Neil (of the famous grilled cheese) is still mending from Friday's oral surgery. We are hoping that his pain lifts today, since the doctor gave him a new medicine yesterday. (Is it "topical" if it's in the mouth? Probably not. But "oral" suggests swallowing ... "gummal?" Further research obviously is needed.)
I feel apprehensive and excited about school starting in 19 days. And mostly apprehensive about whether or not I'm going to get a campus parking permit. Neil has 4 job applications pending on campus, all of which look promising.
Yesterday I was thinking about how I probably will never think about this moment again, and therefore why not spend it doing something nice and worthwhile? I spend countless minutes each day thinking about time and money and scheduling (e.g., "When I get paid for this in two weeks, should I put the money into savings or pay some bills in advance ... or both ...?"), and it's ostensibly to help myself in the future when I need to actually make those decisions (e.g., when I get paid). But give me a break, how long does it take to transfer money upon getting paid, it's not like I need to formulate a 5-step plan 100 times over in advance. And further, it's not like I'll get paid and reflect back positively upon the countless minutes spent in "busy work." So. Right now is it. It is here and will never be again. Ever. Let's see how long I can carry that through the day!
Interesting: Who's minding the mind?
Eye candy (on paper): blueprint
Will somebody please visit and make a quilt with me? It's too hard to do on my own. The thingy that is supposed to hold the spool broke off (it's plastic; I mean, come on) and my attempts to super-glue it back on only resulted in permanently securing the handle in the "down" position. Anyway, I wound a bobbin myself, because it fits on a different thingy, but I don't think I wound it right because I can't maintain a stitch line. So ... I would be grateful if someone would help me. I would make chocolate chip cookies. And Neil maybe would make his famous grilled cheese.
Now when I elect to eat only Godiva dark, I will know that I am taking a stand in the name of chocolate.
In sum:
Evan Almighty is a good choice for members the 5-and-under set who have had a lobotomy.*
Shrek the Third is a good choice for members of the 4-and-under set who have had a lobotomy.
The Naked City is a good choice for persons over 5, without a lobotomy, who recently saw the aforementioned movies back-to-back and wish to resuscitate the resultingly comatose brain cells.
*Sweet Fancy Moses, I can't believe the starrage Evan Almighty got on imdb.
