anonymouse

First, let me apologize for not being very diligent with replying to people's comments and commenting in people's journals. I know. I'm bad. I'm going to rectify that, promise, because I really appreciate your comments, all of you. Sorry.

Anyhow. Yesterday I saw Gaspar No's Irrversible at the Absinthe Cinematheque last night because I'm boycotting Sunset Place -- they have horrible sound leakage between the theaters, and the people in the audience are total assholes who will have conversations on their cell phones throughout the movie. I won't deny that the film is remarkable, because it is, or that No is a great talent, because he totally is -- but I really should've left the theater some time during the nine-minute, single-take anal rape scene. I think it says something about a movie when it can manipulate your emotions. My tears would not cease until my tear ducts were all dried up. The movie left me feeling very misanthropic.

Yeah. I probably should've seen a comedy somewhere else, because I'm on edge. I haven't received any letters from Iraq, and I don't know how long it takes for mail to get to soldiers. Is this a normal amount of time? I'm kind of panicking here.

This morning wasn't so great, either. It got off to an inauspicious start when my criminology professor wrote the grade spread on the board. One fourth of the class got D's and F's, and the majority got low C's. The bitch doesn't curve and the test consists entirely of trick questions. I hate her.

I should probably stop picking at my hangnails. Especially on my toes. Are there arteries in the big toes? I'm bleeding profusely.

Why does the psychology department have to have a new building in which all of its classes reside? And why does this building have to be MILES away from all of the other buildings on campus, thus limiting my choices of other classes? Dear Diary, I FUCKING HATE EVERYONE.

Sigh. Woe is me. Et cetera, et cetera.

I've been getting weird mail. I kindly request that the technical schools stop sending me brochures until I fail out of UM. It hasn't happened yet, so stop it, assholes! Self-fulfulling prophecy! Is that how you get your students?

Yeah. Well. Whatever.

There are things to be happy about, though. I wangled some certificates of authenticity from Mattell out of the local offices in Miami. I'm shipping out some of the limited edition Mekanecks I stumbled upon tomorrow, and if this rate continues, I'm going to have nearly half the amount of money that is currently in my trust fund. I have about $11,000 in my trust fund. That's really not very much, considering, but an extra five large won't hurt, you know? I like how fast Pay Pal works. The money is mine within just a click or two. Okay. So maybe I'm not so much an opportunist as I am a capitalist pig. Fuck you, you commie pinko. Eh. I josh. I love Canadians. And I kid again! No, really. It's my goal to move to Canada one day. The UN says it's the best place to live, and who am I to argue?

I got some lovely things in the mail besides the brochures from those doom and gloom technical institutes. The new DWR catalog came in the mail. Personally, I like the Elson rugs better than the textural, sculptural rugs by Nani Marquina as featured on the cover. I covet the trasa chair. It has a clean, traditional shape to it that would probably not look great in our kitchen. Our kitchen has very light wood, and it was redesigned by the previous owner. Everything matches -- the fridge, the island, the counters, the cabinets, the pantry. I prefer dark wood, but it wouldn't look great in a kitchen where pretty much the entire fourth wall is a window with very little wall in between. It's all french doors and bay windows, and it is very pretty as is. And as a Miamian, I have no use for a coat rack, but that Mondo coat rack is bad ass. I still want that Eileen Gray adjustible table. And I will never stop loving the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion chair and ottoman.

I received another design-related toy surprise in the mail. It's from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and I think the $40 student membership is worth it just for the subscription to Inside Design. They're not assholes like some organizations, so they don't deduct any benefits included in the individual memberships despite the $20 deficit. My parents always sub-let an apartment in Brooklyn Heights every summer, and I think I'll go with -- except for the second summer session, as I have to attend a class then. It's really tempting. Some of the designers and firms included are my favorites: Antenna Design, Asymptote, Blu Dot, The Chopping Block, Demeter Fragrance Library, Dave Eggers, Escher, Fuseproject, Green Lady, The Hoefler Type Foundry, Isaac Mizrahi, Yusuke Obuchi, Superhappybunny, Target Corporation (yeah, I fucking love Target!), Troika Design Group, Jhonen Vasquez, David Wasco, et cetera. Yeah. With the windfall I have coming in, it would be wise to put some money in that. Actually, I think I might get the contributing membership since that's tax deductible amount is $105, which means I only have to pay $20. Hey! That's cool. But hey! The Design Watch Membership looks like it costs a lot, but most of it's tax deductible, so that would cost $76. No, fuck that. I might as well get the Sustaining Membership, since it has everythign I want and it also costs $76. It says $500, but $424 is tax deductible. That's so cool.

I'm so excited about the National Design Triennial. I am definitely going to New York for that, and I have ample time to attend since it goes on well into 2004. Whee.

I'm a material girl.

I enjoyed taking this survey, and you might, too. I'm foregoing The Dirt right now, and reading How We Talk: American Regional English Today. It's a bit dry, but it's very informative and has lots of fun tidbits. If you like that survey, you'll love this book. Yeah. It's funny how everything on my must-read list right now is non-fiction. Not that funny, though. Or funny at all, frankly.

I'm listening to that OP8 album again. It's one of the best albums ever made, and I think that's a fair assessment. Giant Sand, Calexico, and Lisa Germano need to get together again. I love Lisa Germano so much. I just visited her website, and I see that her kitty Miamo-Tutti died last month "say good bye to the amazing miamo-tutti he decided to go to this great place where he can be outside ALL the time and I'm sure is having a big party with all the other cats up there....." Aww. April 15th can't come soon enough. I want Lullaby for Liquid Pig now.

Every song she writes speaks to me on some level, especially everything on Geek the Girl. The album's full of pain and heartbreak and loneliness. It's about a girl who reaches out for companionship, but she's socially inept. And she's not quite sure what love means, and she winds up falling for people who abuse her. And she gets raped. And she's insecure, and she's hurting, and she hates everything sometimes. As she describes it, "It's a horrible surprise how people take advantage of you and how you let them." But in the end, she still has hope, and that's apparent in the last song on the album, "Stars."

"Why do people like stars, they're so far away
They're always there and safe to look at, wish upon one
I could have been you in that fantasy, far away from here
I love my man, could it be he takes me there
All those stars lighten up my head
Here it comes again, that uneasy feeling
I could have been you in that fantasy
So smile real big and wish upon one
Let it take you far away from here
Far from here, far away from here, far away from here
I could do about anything
Great excuses make it easier to forget that awful feeling
So smile real big, oh precious moment
In this vague world full of fantasy like my man
Could it be he takes me there anywhere far away from here
Far away from here, far away from here, far away from here
I could do about anything."

It's important that we don't lose hope.