All in all, you're just another brick in...

The Wall, which was released 25 years ago tomorrow. And how well it's aging! It's got "Hey You" and "Comfortably Numb", two of Pink Floyd's best songs (in my humble opinion). So congratulations, The Wall!

Signs

Sometimes the universe seems to be trying to tell you something. Just now, I think it is trying to tell me that I should never, ever go to parties. It does this by having me come into contact with puke every time I attempt to do a Wild And Crazy University Party thing. Honestly -- and it's getting worse each time. First with the accidental touching of it, then stepping in it and recoiling quickly, and then last night.

I am never, ever going to a shot party again. Because I never actually feel like getting off-my-brain drunk (four drinks is not blasted, but neither does it do anything more exciting than make me feel warm, dizzy, and slightly deaf). And then I am bored and surrounded by drunk people. The universe has said, "Jessica should go to movies with her sober friends, or bowling with her tipsy friends, but she should not hang around in basements with budding alcoholics bent on a bender." Jessica says, "OK, universe. Frankly, there's only so much time one can devote to laundry anyway, why make it worse by having to wash other people's bodily excretions out of one's clothing?"

Somewhere, generations of party-hearty undergrads are spinning in their graves. And you know what? If they're going to get their boxers in a twist about my renunciation of shot parties, keggers, etc, then they can do my laundry.

Um... Awesome?

You're The Guns of August!
by Barbara Tuchman
Though you're interested in war, what you really want to know is what causes war. You're out to expose imperialism, militarism, and nationalism for what they really are. Nevertheless, you're always living in the past and have a hard time dealing with what's going on today. You're also far more focused on Europe than anywhere else in the world. A fitting motto for you might be "Guns do kill, but so can diplomats."
Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

I guess that makes sense, what with my love of WWI-era history lately. And, you know, the hatred of nationalist fervour.

Hello, Muddah

Well, I have had an excellent weekend and another mediocre Monday. Mum and I painted Ottawa a very becoming shade of crimson. Ruth came up Wednesday night and we went out to Azteca, this really excellent Mexican restaurant, where we discussed all men (except my dad) in scathing terms and did some post-election gnashing of teeth on delicious coriander chickpea soup, shrimp alambre, and/or chile relleno. The waiter looked rather Italian, I suspect he got lost on his way to his job in the Corsa Italia and just stayed.

We stayed at Webb's, for old time's sake, and had a slumber party of sorts. Indra got the room to herself for a weekend, though she went to stay with her friend Maral for a couple of days, too. Indra's quite fun to hang around, actually. I kind of missed her. Anyway, Thursday we had breakfast at Al's Diner (all our old haunts...) and Mum took Ruth on a tour of Ottawa. I was with them in spirit, but physically was in economics class. Alas. We met for lunch in the cafeteria, and Jacob came with. Mum found out that Jacob went to McEarnen (sp?) when he was living in Edmonton and proceeded to grill him about the teachers he had. That's okay; Jacob doesn't mind answering questions. Ruth left Thursday afternoon, since her horrid director apparently doesn't consider Friday nights part of the weekend and scheduled her to work. This meant that I got Mum to myself for two days.

During those two days, we shopped almost continuously. Nothing like retail therapy. And we also walked in the Arboretum and saw Garden State, which she seems to have loved, which I gather from our long conversation about its fabulousness. She got to meet Katherine, Robin, Jacob, Bharkha, Sara, and a few other people briefly. Now she has some faces to put with names. I am very, very glad she came; I was a little concerned that I'd have become such a lone wolf in my, you know, three months' absence from home that I would chafe at having any kind of maternal controls on me. But it really wasn't a thing, because we were just bopping around town free of time constraints.

It is fast becoming pedal-to-the-metal knuckle-down time because finals are approaching and I have just spent the weekend on previously described delightful mini-vacation. Will my trials never end?

Short answer: No.

The Blues

Today I am angry. I am angry mostly because of washer no. 13 in the laundry room, which apparently is boycotting the spin cycle and has thereby forced me to get in touch with my inner mediaeval wench, wringing out my clothes by hand and muttering various horrible words as I kicked the offending appliance lustily. Death upon ye, washer no. 13. Marry and amen. Also, I suck at French.

On the upside, I have successfully liberated two bagels from the cafeteria and (most importantly) The Daily Show is on tonight so I can distract myself from my anger with the comedy stylings of that gang. I'm guessing there's going to be a Mess O'Potamia segment dealing with the offensive on Fallujah. According to the New York Times, much of Fallujah has been reduced to "smoking ruins". Colin Powell has also resigned, so I'd say there's a good half-hour in those two things alone. Good comedy material, if not good news.

Tick tick tick

It is officially freaking me out how much time seems to have accelerated in the past few months. It's Sunday night. What did I do this weekend? Good question. I haven't left campus since I went out to the movies a few weeks ago. I don't seem to have the time to put important documents or personal correspondence in the mail. All I've really been able to do is get a bit caught up in my notes. That said, I am never, ever behind in history. There is always time for history, usually time for public affairs and poli sci, sometimes time for French, and occasionally time for economics. Which leaves... not much time for laundry, that's for sure. I just did laundry about ten minutes ago, but that was last Sunday night. And now I'm almost out of bras again. Where is the justice in that?

I Had a Dream

I was going to watch The Daily Show but some Star Trek movie was on instead, so I decided to go for a walk. So I'm walking along, beside a waterway of some kind, and I find a person looking after a fish. The fish, as I see, is about two millimetres long. And the person says to me, "you may laugh now, but that fish is the next president of the United States." And, because it's a dream, I didn't find it particularly strange. So I took the fish out of the water and started walking with it (so it could go visit my Uncle Jim -- apparently it was his fish) but the board it was on did not retain water as well as I had hoped, and the fish suddenly dried up and blew away. So I killed the first non-human president of the United States last night. Oops?

Sigh

Essaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy.(Jessica's brain has melted. Please peel her off the floor.)

The Gawden State

I am having a decent weekend, having broken out of my "Wraaa! Jessica Smash!" cycle. I was having one good/decent day followed by one dreadful day, consistently from Monday til Thursday. Maybe someone has my voodoo doll in a centrifuge or something. Friday was good, though, so the vicious continuum was broken. Whee.

If you have talked to me, you know, at all in the past couple of days you will know that one of the reasons my weekend has been so good is that I went out to the movies with Katherine (also got some excellent bagels -- Mum, I have found a good bagel place in Canada!) and saw two fabulous movies very cheaply and now I can't shut up about them. I simply loved Garden State. Napoleon Dynamite was dynamite as well, but Garden State had a certain je ne sais quoi. (I am on a mission to use as many italics in this post as possible, okay?) Anyway, if you get the chance to catch one or both of them, do it! End of infomercial.

Mum is coming in nine days! The excitement builds. I am already planning stuff to do: there is the aforementioned bagel place, a walk by the river or the canal, perhaps a visit to Parliament... It should be fun. I do not plan on getting any work done and neither should she.

Other than that, life continues. The history midterms haven't been handed back yet, which is giving everyone a case of the vapours. My Big Bad Essay is shaping up nicely, I think, though there is more work left to do than I would like. Naturally.

I rule all. Thank you.

This just in: I rock. The behind of my poli-sci midterm was kicked, and kicked well. Wow wow!

Tonight I shall be baying at the moon, writing my essay, and running. Despite the fact that it is raining; rather it will be an opportunity to use my lovely new raincoat.

Wraaa! Jessica smash!

Those not prepared for gnashing of teeth and rending of garments should not come anywhere near my dorm room; I have been upset all day and have in fact given myself a stomachache through angry eating (it is possible to eat angrily, believe me) and a sore throat through yelling.

Yes, we went into a field and yelled, Natalie and I. It was awesome. It was, basically, the worst day of my life. Two months exactly since the accident, and the American people have chosen to relive the nightmare of the past four years. The ones who have made such horrifying decisions have been rewarded and the frightened people are clinging to them like children to apron strings, praying that their dear leader will protect them, when he has nobody's best interests at heart but those of the incredibly wealthy. It's like they want to be spanked -- the security measures undertaken by this administration do nothing for Americans or the other 96% of the world's population. They only remove the rights that made the United States the leader and light of the world, to be replaced by what? Nothing. I honestly believe that the States can be the greatest country in the world, and can accomplish brilliant things both for itself and for the planet. I am not un-American because I disagree with those in charge at the White House, the Pentagon, the House, and the Senate. I am un-American if I refuse to make my opinions known.

And now, in true Canadian fashion, I apologize for sounding angry, but I am. I am angry that people could let themselves be fooled again by the fear, and the hatred. Greed is fine. It's natural to be greedy. If tax cuts are what you want, then vote Libertarian.

However, if you want to get an irresponsible, unchristian regime out, if you want to have responsible financial policy (e.g. not spending hugely and cutting taxes irresponsibly) coupled with non-incendiary foreign policy, free and just social policy, if you want no arsenic in your water, and a moderate, logical government rather than one that runs on ideology, then please... think hard about your vote's consequences on your fellow citizens, some of whom are on welfare, in the army, being unfairly detained, going to public school, on Medicare, or participating in any of a thousand things that the government does. Heck, think hard about what your vote means to the rest of the human race. It's important. It was important this time but now it's over. Thanks, America, for listening to reason.

Hot venison on a cracker, there are a lot of commas in this.

Nobody much is going to read this; it's not like I have a pulpit or anything here, more of a padded cell, but I needed to say it anyway. Goodnight.

The Big Night

Tonight's the night! The big election! I'm very, very excited. It is pretty much useless attempting any concealment of the fact that Bush is not my favourite president ever, so I'm going to say, right off the bat, that I think Kerry is the by far the better choice. And it's such a weird, weird election. Everyone (pundits, Mum, columnists) are saying they've never seen one quite like it in terms of divisiveness and uncertainty. Hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure somebody's going to get killed this time if there's any uncertainty whatsoever about results.

And then there's the sheer nastiness of the campaign. Both major parties have been seeking not just to influence how the voters vote, but who gets to vote. I've never seen anything like it: the country wanting to bring the light of democracy to the world is also turning its own citizens away from the polls. Frankly, I'd rather have somebody vote twice than not vote at all. It's not great to have to choose, but it's true. Anyway. There's vitriol all over the place and I am just glad to be far from Ohio tonight, because stuff is supposed to get pretty ugly there.

In other news, I am not cranky today. A good run can cure all ills, even if one's hip feels all hurty and needs to pop. Today has been much better. Econ was tedious, as usual, but I survived, I did well on my assignment, my poli-sci essay looms (as usual) but it's coming together a bit and I have lots of material. I've also had some good socializing, just by running into people in the hallway or cafeteria. Finally gave Jeff that note from Jordan (she gave it to me at Thanksgiving), and had a good talk with him. He's feeling a bit loopy because of two weeks' confinement to the architecture building.

Also, my mommy's coming to visit me. It's just like preschool; I hardly think I've been this excited to see her since then. Yay! And she's going to hang out with me and we'll do all kinds of boring together stuff which I miss.

I hope she likes my friends and boyfriend and all. And if she doesn't? I don't know. She usually does.

Captain Crank

I have just had a bad day (for no apparent reason) and I am cranky. Again. Bah. I suppose I deserve it after devoting a weekend to revelry (going to Katherine's birthday, to Kate J's party, to the Rocky Horror Picture Show...). But this seems excessive.

Despite my crankiness, I acknowledge that apple cinnamon instant oatmeal rocks. It is better than cookies, people, and easier to eat if you didn't have any teeth!