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Thursday, January 22, 2009

New Presidency, New Semester, New Supermarket, Same Cheshire

Right. Let's see if I can remember everything I wanted to write about yesterday, or I guess it was now the day before yesterday. Zarquon, I went to bed at midnight and, except for a brief bathroom break, didn't get up until ten at night or something like that. This was the day after I saw, among other sights, a sleep psychologist. I would, I think, have gotten up a little earlier, but American Idol was on in the other room, so I had to bury my head particularly deep under the sheets and the other pillow.

Good starting point, I think: Since maybe November, I've been on Prozac, or at least the generic thereof. Before I started that, I had been on (the generic of) Abilify. At that point, I was going nowhere in life and feeling rather depressed. Now I'm still going nowhere in life, but at least I'm content. And making the occasional joke or six. Two out of three ain't bad.....sadly, it's the other one that's causing my folks to be none of those. And that's the basic setup here. How it will relate to anything else in this entry, I don't know; of course, I've yet to write most of it.......

It's a New Semester!

I did it! I don't know how, but I did it! I got up around six thirty in the morning! On the first day of class! I was actually able to get to my nine thirty class! And I'll quite probably be easily able to make it to that class again today, seeing as I only got up a little while ago, and it's about five now. Rejoice!

Anyway, the teacher of this class seems like she'll be much more helpful than the guy who was in charge when I started the class last semester. And it looks like the requirement this time around is merely two short stories and a revision, rather than three short stories and a revision. I'm still not entirely confident, but I feel a little better. I feel a certain instinctive impulse to blur the line between straight fiction and tripped-out sort of post-modern poetry. I wonder if I'll really be able to get away with this kind of artsy inclination.........I suppose I can ask.......Or I suppose I can just be my radical self and recognize my own genius while being horribly misunderstood and generally held in contempt........

(I'm the most humble person in the world! YES!)

(I've posted that joke before, haven't I?)

After class, I went around to a couple of places searching for a PC with internet. Either all of the supposedly trans-platform computers in the English Building lab have been set to the dreaded Macintosh, or I merely dreamt that whole thing, and there is still hope that the whole university isn't just some anti-Cheshire conspiracy. PCs may not be the greatest thing on this planet, but, in my own experience, they're much better than Macs. I've never really gotten along well with Macs for some reason. Maybe if I can use Remote Desktop on a Mac to access this PC on which I am now, I might get into them more. I highly question whether or not this will be possible. Ever.

It's a New Presidency!

Anyway, I went to the Union to watch the Inauguration. Nice, crowded Courtyard Café, full of people applauding when the time is right, and occasionally giggling for reasons which aren't likely to become apparent anytime soon. The broadcast was shown on some kind of projector, projecting onto the screen at the "front" of the café. It was also shown on the usual televisions that hang from the ceiling in various places around the café. It was one of these that I saw. I heard the audio from the big projection, and I saw the video on the television. They were horribly out of sync; the video must have been a full fifteen seconds ahead of the audio. What were they, on different channels or something?

Nevertheless, I got there I think more or less in time to catch the swearing in of Joe Biden. I think it was after that that Aretha did a bit of singing. (Her glory days are behind her.....) It was then beyond noon, Eastern time, and, according to the voice-over, Biden was president for a few minutes, seeing as he had been sworn in before noon, and then Dubya's term expired. Of course, I heard or read later, I forget which, that the elected Obama should have become president at noon, so I don't know.......anyway, the crowd I was with burst into applause when they heard about Biden being the president. They then did a bit of chuckling during Obama's swearing-in, which was notoriously bungled by both Obama and Chief Justice Roberts (mainly Roberts, I understand). (From what I've read, Obama took the oath again today, just to be sure. I assume they got it right this time.) Obama's inauguration speech, which followed, didn't really feature anything particularly special, but it did draw applause at a few junctures. And that's about all I stuck around for; all in all, I don't feel the inauguration itself was anything special, but everyone seems to insist that it's historic. It is, I feel, still too soon to judge the man; coming into the presidency, my reasoning was that all we knew is that he's a good talker. I think he made a good impression on his first full day, though......I think........

I did vote for him......if only because he knows how to talk.......

.....And possibly because he's simply more, I don't know, likable than McCain.

Anyway, all my best to the man. And good luck...........

It's (Going to Be) a New Cheshire!

At my one o'clock (Central time) appointment, we determined that, this Friday, I'm going to have my "wisdom" teeth out.

(I'm sorry......I couldn't find the right emoticon for this.)

It's a New World Order!

(I do have an emoticon for this one, though: )

I don't go shopping very often these days......I mostly leave the shopping to my mother. This time, though, I accompanied her; there wasn't much point going home between two appointments at the clinic on the other side of town. I had seen this "self checkout" thing before at that store, but the last time I was there, there were only two or three of them. This time there were.....well, I didn't count them exactly, but I'm tempted to say seven or eight of them. And only two or three regular checkout counters with actual employees were open.

Does anyone else see what's happening here? Someone, somewhere, is trying to abolish all kinds of human contact in favor of aggravation-inducing machines that are less likely to accept your wrinkled cash and are probably buggy. It's a way to rob people of job opportunities, and it's a blatant attempt to promote a robotic, characterless society where people are nothing but numbers on credit cards. I, for one, will sooner starve than live in a world where the only way to get processed food is to be processed yourself.

Or I can go in late at night, eat some food right there in the store, and walk right out.

(As you may have guessed, I do not have a credit card. Nor do I have plans to get one.)

Some day.......I picture a small group of real people leading a long, dark revolution against the plastic people. Phone companies......credit card companies......you name it, they're goin' DOWN. These are our own creations. We created them. If they make us unhappy, we can just as well destroy them. I saw in a comic strip once, there is a distinction between the pursuit of happiness and the actual attainment of happiness. I would be delighted to see that officially changed.....nevermind the pursuit.....simply "happiness" will suffice, thank you very much.

****

It looks like I'm starting to meander a bit; I take that as a sure sign that I've done enough writing for now.

See ya later

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