gliding - part i

[post divided retroactively]

today being friday bears witness to the fluid, exaggerated nature of the last two days. i've just woken up - as usual more for some misguided biological principle than for having acquired enough sleep - to perform a review of the whirlwind's beginning before venturing to tidy up the next seven days.

---tuesday night: return to the group was strange and wonderful. there was a lot more talking than blading, which was only to be expected, but the route was fun and the chatter almost entirely pleasant. the only thing that wasn't pleasant involved one of the girls: a couple of us were talking to her when her contact slipped. she disappeared, we carried on talking, and only later discovered that it had torn, and that she'd almost been left behind.

i felt like a real heel.

by the time we'd completed the run i had to desperately drink a coke to prevent myself from passing out.

i had lots of material to catch up with before wednesday's classes - pg came over to finish watching the 60's, i cracked open a beer once we'd both settled in to our respective positions in the lounge and we ended up going to bed around 4am, both still with slightly moist cheeks from the movie. i've seen it a couple of times now, and so can be touched even with my back turned.

aside from the movie in the background, i'd spent the three hours unhappily discovering that the primary text with its insipid, awkward construction was nothing more than a long vent against a previous claim. i'm still not sure what the point being made was.

---wednesday:

it's not easy getting out of bed early when you're lying next to someone who you know is going to sleep late.

it's been a heatwave week, and the crowded bus was even hotter than the air outside. all of us clambered out of the sardine can sweaty and uncomfortable to drag heels up the steps to the university. first class with the professor? after the morning's ugly readings? great.

i kept a seat for stg - who arrived seconds before we began and aggravated the ta (the ta's own fault, though - she put her gear on the seat next to me when i wasn't looking). score one negative mark. stg then informed me that she'd sent a whiny email to the ta concerning the quantity of prep-work: score two. this ain't your animation campus kansas anymore, sweety.

and then she left class early, to the professor's ire and agitation. it was suggested that names will now be taken before *and* after class. jeez. and score three.

the next class was much more fun - totally my style. we argued plato's allegory of the cave; not a lot of people seemed to be getting what was going on. i, personally, now consider myself an "anti-plato" in that i agree with the allegory, only i understand that it is not the thoughts that come first. those initial thoughts are derived from our physical sensory input. the fact that we have absolutely no way to consider that input in a meaningful manner doesn't detract from their reality.

i didn't have much time to talk with pg before she had to get to class and i to meet for cheap lunch with comixer (the mongoose's real best friend) and lawn arguments with both him and eidetic concerning the nature of scientific thought.

---what is science? when we talk of the physical realm, we have a method of analysing our observations to extract hypotheses and then testing them to ensure that they are correct. as there is only one physical space with one set of rules, the results of this process can only be correct if they are consistent with everything else we know - or vice versa. [see quantum physics vs theory of general relativity]

as the psychology of a human is inherently contradictory and open to interpretation, no such limitation or measure of accuracy is possible. the method is the same, ie. scientific, but it is possible to determine and prove two contradictory results.

having said that, it is still possible to call "bullshit!" on a piece of literary criticism.

---the debate also touched on the function of a university and the "new model" of it being a place to acquire lists of marks as opposed to an education, but that's a big topic.

i had to leave on an unfinished note - to everyone's dismay, apparently - to get to work. on my way to the office urchin called looking for advice regarding an interesting opportunity: she'll have to pay for it, but i threw her a positive voice because, as i told her, we only live once :)

aspie, the girl i work with who's always giving me shit (but we seem to be friends, it's always fun and awkward to fight with her) was excited and wretched; the only thing i wasn't impressed with was a weird moment when she crossed a line by tapping my head with her shoe. otherwise it was all business as usual :P

i'd intended to catch up on readings during my shift. i got through a bit, but as i was the only agent on duty and the lines rang for most of the two hours i didn't do enough to be satisfied...

...

i was supposed to meet with the director after work but he called to say he couldn't make it - i'm disappointed. then i spoke to a girl who's looking for subjects for a colour interpretation study on campus, and i'll be paid to participate. this is almost like agreeing to medical experiments... i'm not far off, i tell you :P

pg and i took a bus to the barbie, arriving there on time and an hour early (depends on which way you look at it). we went off to find food - i don't know about the quality of the chicken livers i ate, but the meal hit the spot) and talk about the chest-leading scenes from donnie darko: i think i may be on to something.

balabusta surprised me with how good they were, but hatachtonim gave a *real* performance. as usual. they kick ass! and pg appears to have enjoyed it too :))

it being a few hours before a long day we took a taxi home. i was convinced to take part in messing with our driver by the other drivers hanging around; he got really upset at first but then calmed down and was quite amiable on the way home :)

i completed honore de balzac - at the sign of the cat and racket before realizing that i wouldn't be able to continue without sleep.

--- dead sleep ---
[continued...]