It's raining and I just woke up from a much-needed nap. The critique today was probably one of the worst ones I've ever had-- at least in the other bad crits I've had, people talked about art. For over two fucking hours the professor randomly drawled on about the history of music, new fashion trends, the new bookstore downtown... I think in his ramblings he briefly mentioned a grand total of three people's work out of a class of eighteen. Purely, utterly, absolutely disgusting.

On a lighter note, though, I dropped by the gameroom for a couple rounds of DDR and passed my first Catastrophic song, Dead End. I missed 18 steps out of 410, and now I finally have that damn song out of my system.

Eep, gotta get to Matt's!

I had my first Belly Dance Club meeting tonight and damn does my bony white ass hurt. But it's a lot of fun. There are about 15 people in the club and it really didn't bother me at all that I was the only guy. I just hope that I'm not interfering with any major feminine vibe the club had; I'd feel bad if they thought I was just there to oogle them or pick them up or something. Lots of fiiine, fiiiine ladies in that club, though... The straight guys don't know what they're missing.

Tomorrow is my first drawing critique since the semester before last, so please wish me luck.

Eliminate Inconvenience.

Refuse Progress.

Praise Adequacy.

Matriculation's just a pebble on the Path of Least Resistance.

Highlights of the weekend: helping Matt pick out $800 of cool furniture at Pier 1; donating a heap of old clothes to the AIDS Coalition yard sale; spending half a day hanging out with Luna; having brunch at the Botanical Gardens café with my sister, bro-in-law and Matt; borrowing my roommate's cheap IBM webcam for the hell of it (hey Devan, netmeet with me!); borrowing a pile of books to read in my free time. I've also been selling a lot of my old books and textbooks on half.com and looking around for other things to throw out, sell or give away. Simplify, simplify, simplify!

The Ugly Truth About Beauty: ...[Doctors] have used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to look at the activity in men's brains when they were shown pictures of beautiful women's faces. Breiter and his colleagues found that the same part of the brain lights up as when a hungry person sees food, or a gambler eyes cash, or a drug addict sees a fix. Essentially, beauty and addiction trigger the same areas in the brain. God bless genetics! (And according to the article, women are just as bad.)

First week of school done and I'm psyched for more. While playing DDR barefoot between classes, something I've done numerous times before without any problems, a callous under my left big toe cracked open during a song and oozed blood all over the platform. Neither I nor the arcade manager was very happy (though I think for different reasons) and I have since decided not to play DDR barefoot again. Matt and I saw S1M0NE tonight and we both thought it was very good. There was one image in particular within the first ten minutes that struck me as incredibly powerful; so as not to potentially spoil it for anyone, ask me about it if you care and I'll be glad to tell you which.

I feel succinct.

current weather in Athens: 93°, 47% humidity

Yesterday was both my first actual Modern Dance class and my first meeting with the Tai Chi club, and though I was naturally pretty lousy at both of them I had a lot of fun and can't wait to do them again. Unfortunately the Tai Chi instructor told me that while the first meeting is free, each session costs $10. Gotta talk to my dad about it; I'm actually pretty sure my insurance will cover it.

Think I'm gonna go take a nap downstairs under the fan.

Last night eleven cars in our condo complex had their windows broken and valuables stolen. I am very glad to say that my car wasn't one of them. For once I think all the art junk dumped in the backseat came in handy-- what of value could somebody find in an artist's car?

In less troubling news, I've been through both days of my new classes now and for the most part I think they're going to be great. I had to do some last-minute class switching but now I'm happy with my schedule. I have early classes every day, but I have long breaks between classes which will be handy for studying or napping or eating or goofing off or what have you. On Mon/Weds/Fri I have classes off and on from 9:05-3:20, and on Tues/Thus from 9:30-1:45. UGAnime is Monday nights, Tai Chi Club is on Wednesdays (first meeting tomorrow, I can't wait!) and Belly Dance Club is on Thursdays, so it looks like I'm not going to have any scheduling problems with those. Everything's falling into place.

Amidst all the business and excitement this weekend I somehow managed to forget that my classes begin tomorrow! On tomorrow's schedule is English Lit from 1700-Present, Modern Dance, and Advanced Drawing. Tomorrow is European Modern Art from 1886 to 1918 (I hope, at least) and Intro to Geography. Besides UGAnime on Monday nights, I'm also going to join the Belly Dance and Tai Chi clubs so long as I don't have any schedule conflicts. This is gonna be my best semester yet. And on an unrelated note, my blue contacts are awesome.

Dinner @ Last Resort with Matt's friend Julie (very cool) and her boyfriend Josh (also cool), then The Mikado (cute opera) performed by the Athens Choral Society, then drinks at the Go Bar (rad lounge), then cuddling and talking till 1:30AM (life is good).

While I'm listing things, might as well mention the recent non-CD music. Check 'em out:

BT - Flaming June
Daft Punk - Around the World
DDR4+ - Night in Motion
Emilíana Torrini - Fingertips
Globe - Many Classic Moments
Hamasaki Ayumi - Independent (karaoke)
Hide - Pose (Mixed Lemoned Jelly Mix ver. 9)
Hitomi - Samurai Drive
Move - Passenger Seat
Sakamoto Maaya - Hemisphere
Sakamoto Maaya - Mameshiba
Sakamoto Maaya - Watashi wa oka no uekara kabin o nageru
Télépopmusik - Breathe
Yoko Kanno - Didn't it Rain?
Yoko Kanno - One

Heads up!


You are Thoth, the most intellectual of the egyptian gods. You savor the muses in all their forms, and you'd rather observe than take action. You are considered peerlessly just, and so you are often considered the arbiter of the gods.



A YELLOW Dragon Lies Beneath!
I took the Inner Dragon online quiz and found out I am a Yellow Dragon on the inside. My Inner Dragon is the most interesting of all. Yellows are the fourth rarest dragon of all (after Gold, Platinum and Chromatic dragons). They spend the vast majority of their time soaring high above the ground, often for no particular reason. They love to be in the air, and are thus typified as the Air Elemental dragon. All of the Elemental dragons are technically aligned "Chaotic Evil" but a Yellow is about as close as they come to being Neutral. So if you catch me being sweet, it's perfectly normal. But it might be a feint. I like to spend time in silent, aerial meditation and would only really attack someone if provoked. My favorable attributes are the sunrise, Spring, incense, clouds, and any kind of helpful air current. When it's needed, my breath weapon is pure bolts of Lightning. How's that for a neat piece of carry-on luggage? See you amongst the clouds!

I just noticed I've been talking mostly about what I'm doing and not much about how I'm feeling, so maybe I should try. Very simply-- and aside from Georgia's you-are-sweating-the-second-you-open-the-front-door weather-- I'm very very happy to be home. Occaisionally it still scares me to be living on my own but this is not one of those times, and even if it was I'm ecstatic just to be with Matt again. Right now my own plans are under my control again, but there's still a lot of stuff that isn't. It's a bunch of things, both little and big, that I am currently trying to work out or am expecting to work out or am waiting for other people to work out. I have a wall clock for the living room that needs a single AA battery which I don't have; I'm almost done decorating the foyer but have to somehow hem the tablecloth there myself; my schedule for this semester is set except for a single class I need to get into; I can't find the new box of contacts I picked up before leaving NC and the box of colored ones I ordered has yet to arrive; I need to set up my monthly appointments with the health clinic; I'm waiting and hoping for interviews with the places to which I submitted applications; I have a lot of cleaning and unpacking and sorting left to do. Having things up in the air bothers me, but on the other hand I'm doing as much as I can so I know there's nothing more I can ask of myself. I really shouldn't be worried about this. In a week, most of these things will probably be resolved.

A news gem from The List:
6. FUNDIES FREAK OVER DANNON YOGURT
As the humorist Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up. One of
the largest anti-gay fundie groups, the American Family Association, has
issued an action alert against Dannon Yogurt, claiming the food company
is trying to rewrite the Bible, and back "radical feminists." The
reason? Dannon published an ad that said: "100 Calories. 0% Fat. Proof
that there is a God and she is a woman watching her figure." (Woman's
Day, Sept. 1, 2002, page 17.)

More running around doing errands, more shopping for the house ($$$$), some DDR with Jon and dinner with Matt. Tomorrow: more job-hunting and a trip to the theatre. Rock on mothafuckas!

I went to three different places and put in applications, and I feel optimistic about two of them. Tomorrow I'm going to a fourth just to be sure. I'm going to feel pretty rotten if none of these work out. I'm trying to hard to do everything right and none of the managers will even sit down and talk with me for a minute. I don't just want to be another piece of paper on their desk.

All I can think to say right now is OMFG. On Monday I got up early, packed everything into my car by myself, drove here, unpacked everything in my car all by myself. Because my current roommate was gearing up to move out and my new roommate already has all his stuff here, the entire house was in complete chaos. I passed out face-down on my bed for a few hours and then in the evening went over to see Matt. Yesterday was our 1-year anniversary. A full year! It's still hard to believe how fast it went. We spent all day yesterday running around having fun and doing errands, and then I came back here and woke up early to help my old roommate move out and my new roommate move some of his stuff into his room.

Today's chores: unpack everything I brought with me, find my textbooks at the bookstore and look for them at half.com, then git on mah fancy duds and drive around town collecting applications from about half a dozen places. I can't wait till my classes and clubs start and I have a job.

I'm home! I made it! Ha ha ha, the trip thought it could kill me but it was wrooooong! Whoo! I.... I'm.... I think I need to lay down for a while...

There's all this hubbub right now about the emergence of non-rippable CDs, and yesasia.com and the "Independent" single both sported warnings saying that the CD couldn't be ripped to mp3. I guess Musicmatch Jukebox doesn't speak Japanese, because it just ripped the entire CD without a flaw.

I am exhausted, sore, sweaty and dirty and feel wonderfully accomplished. I got just about everything done on my list, leaving me somewhere around item #10 right now. Not only that, but I also had dinner out with my parents and got my yesasia package! It actually arrived a week ago but my stepmom put it under a pile of other mail and forgot to tell me about it. It's just so nice to finally have it, I don't even care. Ayumi's "Independent" single is great and I've been blasting it all afternoon; even the three karaoke tracks are cool. The new Yoko Kanno/Sakamoto Maaya collab looks to be awesome too but I decided I'll wait till my drive home tomorrow to listen to it. Now I'm off to pack!

This afternoon I helped Becca and Monica move into their dorm room and played some DDR, foolishly and thoroughly wearing myself out before work tonight. The night was incredibly slow, though, and I was out before 9:30. I'm still planning to head home on Monday, so tomorrow I have to:
1) do laundry
2) pack
3) pick up a birthday card for my mom
4) stop by work to pick up my tips from tonight
5) pack more
6) clean out my car
7) pick up my contacts from the eye doctor
8) do more packing
9) vacuum the entire house and clean my flat
10) finally start packing.

...And the very first news story I come upon this morning is this one:
The indictment alleges that members of the ring, referring to themselves as "the club," traded messages across the Internet requesting photographs of specific sexual poses. One man asked for an audiotape so he could hear a child crying while being spanked, the indictment said, and another posed naked with an underage girl. In one instance, a man swapped his own children with another pedophile to be abused, Bonner alleged.

Maybe I'll just curl up in bed and ignore the world today.

Good lord, I'm sick of travelling and I'm not even finished yet! I am back in Asheville now, working tonight and tomorrow night and then I'm packing up and probably leaving for Athens on Monday afternoon. I can't wait to see my boyfriend and live in my own house again and unpack my things in it and drive around my city and go to my school. My heart's here in Asheville but my life is not.

I saw Dr. Parks again today to discuss the results of my urine and blood tests, both of which arrived yesterday. It turns out that I am very deficient in vitamin B12, which he said may or may not be simply because I'm still recovering from the surgeries; just to be sure, I'm adding it to my list of supplements (making it now eleven pills I take daily, if I'm counting right). I also don't seem to be digesting things very well and might possibly have a mild infection in my intestines.The urine amino acid test revealed that my brain has very low levels of three chemicals-- whose names I can't remember at the moment-- resulting in poor stress management and increasing my risk of depression. Dr. Parks is going to have a lab create special capsules containing the chemicals I need in order to jump-start my own development of them. In the end, though, he said that none of these things was absolutely critical and that overall I'm in good shape. I have to admit that as I go through all of these tests and treatments, I can't shake the feeling that by rooting out all the health problems I have and herding them together, it's making them seem larger than they really are. I wholeheartedly believe I need to take care of my health now more than ever, but it seems like this could very easily spiral into an exhausting obssession if I didn't keep it in perspective. ...But then... since there's two sides to everything, there must be an equal chance that I'm not taking this seriously enough and am thereby walking into further problems. What am I supposed to do? Is there any "rght" perspective for all this?

I guess I'll relay other news while I chew on that thought. I finished reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban today and am going to look around for Goblet of Fire, the fourth and latest book. I wasn't especially thrilled with Ass Cabin but everyone's told me that Goblet of Fire is better, so I'm staying optimistic. But more importantly, I hope I can catch up with Bec and Mone tomorrow!

I got to hang out with Joe and Ana this morning, which is always fun. When we got lunch Ana's sushi came with wasabi, which I'd never tried before. I took a tiny little taste, which was absolutely terrible, and then for some reason felt compelled to eat a large forkful. ... On the bright side, it cleared out my sinuses. I am still fighting off that cold/infection/whatever it was that I got well over a week ago.



I've been spending a little of my spare time reading the third Harry Potter book, and most of it fiendishly drawing with the tablet. Manna recently linked me to some Japanese artists' sites (like Falcoon's) and they were very eye-opening: while their art is stunning and amazing to look at, they simultaneously make me realize how truly awful my own art is. No matter how much I practice in my lifetime I will probably never draw anywhere near as well as these artists. Still, that doesn't mean I'm not going to try as hard as I can. I'm trying to put more time, thought and effort into my drawings in the hopes I'll learn from them and improve. I have no idea if this will work or not but I figure it's worth a try. Here's what I've been working on the past couple days. We'll see what happens.

Dad just got the results of my last x-rays/blood work and they're all a-okay.

I was supposed to see Joe this afternoon but couldn't get ahold of him, so Mom and I ventured into DC to see an exhibit in the National Gallery of Art's West Building featuring artifacts from Egyptian tombs. It was an amazing show, but it was so noisy and crowded that I felt very anxious and probably missed a lot of interesting things in my haste to get out again. Right as we were leaving the building, though, I caught sight of a familiar painting down a narrow hall to my left and it turned out to be Picasso's Family of Saltimbanques! I can't believe I actually got to see it in person (and it's huge!). They had several of his other works as well as pieces by Brancusi, Mondrian, Kandinsky, Miro, Motherwell, Matisse and a slew of other modern artists, almost all of which I studied in Art History last semester. Seeing the genuine articles instead of fuzzy slides was really amazing. The East Building is holding a large Alfred Stieglitz exhibition at the moment but we didn't have enough time to see it today. Hopefully I'll be able to before my trip back to Asheville.

It feels like I'm getting along with my mom even better than I usually do. Driving anywhere is a bit of a tense issue between us-- I think she drives too slowly and cautiously and she thinks I drive too quickly and recklessly-- but other than that we've really been enjoying each other's company and having fun. It's always a lot of fun to hang out with my grandmother too, even if she has books with titles like Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting on the shelves above the computer.

Tomorrow's to-do list: cash some bonds at the bank, wander through Anime Pavilion and the used CD store, get birthday cards for Mom and Grandma, play some DDR, finish Harry Potter and the bunch of shitty drawings I've started the past few days.

I ought to post since I have a bit of time to myself right now! I got in without a problem on Thursday afternoon and saw some of my friends that night; I brought Glitter to entertain everyone and it did exactly that. Yesterday I had lunch and ice cream with Cara and Kiki, then hit some thrift stores with my mom, then ventured to the Ballston Mall in nearby Arlington to check out their DDR machine. They have a 3rd Mix Korean2 machine like the one in Asheville, though judging from the gigantic crowd of arcade-goers that immediately gathered when I started playing, it seems there aren't too many people around here who play it. I also got to try my hand-- ha ha I'm punny!-- at Dance Freaks, which is fun but has nothing to do with dancing despite its title. The interface and scoring/survival system is similar to DDR, but for each player there are two electronic disks that protrude side-by-side from the front of the machine, and you use your hands to play the game. Like DDR, there are essentially four positions to control-- your hands can be either immediately above the discs or just below them, and you slide your hand(s) over or under the discs to the beat of the songs. It was a lot easier to get the hang of than DDR and freestyling comes easily. The one problem I had was that since the machine is a little squat, I had to hunch over slightly to swing my hands under the disks or else tended to run into them with the sides of my hands. It seems like a nice no-impact alternative to DDR and I hope to play them both again before I leave. Today I went shopping at the mall with my mom, then saw Goldmember with Jenn and Beppe (which we all agreed was still great but not quite as funny on our second viewings), and lastly went out to dinner with my mom and grandma.

I think that pretty much brings me up to the present. I've been spending my little pockets of free time either reading the second Harry Potter book which Cara leant me or taking naps. And actually, a little pre-bedtime nap is sounding pretty nice right now.