Electioneering...

Here I am with my hair. Do I look frightened?

Well, I did sleep last night! Yay!

It was wonderful, but I had vivid dreams and I woke up at 4 in the morning. I had to go to the bathroom (which is a fairly treacherous trip down an extremely steep flight of stairs and a walk through the kitchen and hallway) and the medication was still hitting me really hard. It was almost impossible to get my eyes open, so I decided to expend the energy into motion instead of vision.

I tumbled out of bed and crawled over to the hatchway down to the main floor of the apartment. I forced my eyes open and, trying to grab the railing as firmly as I could, made my way down. I kept my eyes open by the sheer will of knowing that when my feet hit the ground, I could close them again.

Going through the kitchen wasn't a problem, since it's a fairly straight path to the opposite side, but I know that having my fingers find the kitchen door curtains that separate the kitchen from the livingroom was an unexpected shock. "Cloth? What's cloth doing here?" Made me think someone was standing there and it gave me a good fright that helped opened my eyes. I made it, seeing through groggy eyes, to the bathroom.

Going back upstairs wasn't a problem at all and I was relieved that my groggy eyes made it possible for me to adjust to the lack of light in the upstairs bedroom quickly. I made it to bed and tucked myself in. After a few seconds, I was back asleep, dreaming of english muffins and a strange difficulty keeping my cooked sunny-side-up eggs on them.

Mike claims it is pink. I might try one shade darker next time.

Over the weekend, I worked on a new design for the journal entries. This won't be permanent: I shall be flipping back and forth between the two designs every once in a while. I thought that with the new design, I might talk about something that I really enjoy and do practically every day: read.

That was my theme. Reading. So, I found the character for "book", placed it in the lower right corner (where the other character, "enlightenment" is normally located). I switched the colors around a bit and used a pretty picture of a lantern I found. So, instead of a green -> blue color schema, here it is blue -> green. The link colors are the same, as to not create confusion with the rest of the site. I want to add a red combination, but I'm unsure exactly what colors I would use. The reds I'd prefer don't look good in excess.

I thought of having entries with a slightly different focus when I use this design. I'd talk about my day and such, but I would especially touch on the books that I've been exploring. So, I've got enlightenment and book. Perhaps next design will be "vision", where I talk about the movies that I watch or something that I observe. But that's later. Right now, book.

Today, I went back to work and I found three books on my desk. Two were from my coworker/occasional project leader Michael: he is letting me borrow his Gene Wolfe books for vacation. I've already borrowed Shadow & Claw and he has given me the two sequels, Sword & Citadel and The Urth of the New Sun. I've been reading Shadow & Claw but it is a very slow read. Not that it isn't engaging, but I think that it's a book I would enjoy more with the reread, like Dune.

The third was my copy of Election by Tom Perrotta. I recently borrowed the DVD of Election from the local video store, primarily for the director's commentary. I've discovered that I love commentary and many times, it increases the enjoyment of the film for me (since I love trivialities like knowing how they did a particular shot). Over the weekend, the director commentary even made Wild Wild West better... but not by much. Anyway, the director's commentary on Election mentioned that he read the book. I quickly scrounged around for the author of the book and soon discovered Tom Perrotta. I bought the book that day from Barnes and Noble and read it on the bus ride home. It's a wonderful little book (a delightfully fast read) and has a different tone from the movie.

The ending is pretty different. Not in the outcome but it doesn't talk about "life after graduation" and Mr. M. is in a slightly different career than what is portrayed in the movie. The biggest difference is the character of Tracy Flick. In the film. she's very mature yet, innocent. She doesn't see herself as this sexual predator, nor does she stress it. In the book, she does stress her sexuality.

The story in a "he said, she said" sort of way. Each character gets a section or two.. or three in each chapter where they say talk about their side of the story. It's obvious from the begin that everyone has their rose colored lenses on, but that helps the reader make up his or her own mind about what's "factual". Plus, it helps that there is always a third party who has obviously no desire to be on one side or another tell the story as they see it. I liked that. I also liked how people would tell these side stories that don't come out to the rest of the characters but still makes an impact on the events because it drives their motivations. It's definitely a fun book and would recommend it to anyone who has seen the movie. Heck, I'd recommend it to everyone, period.

I want to get the other Tom Perrotta novels, The Wishbones and Bad Haircut. In that order. Once I get rolling on an author, I shouldn't stop. I love the process of discovery and I love running with it. I see it as obsessive behavior that should be encouraged.

Two things. One: my blue glitter nailpolish. Two: my pierced mug. Aren't they cool?

Remember how I told you I had a twitch in my left eye? It's gone now! Other than the increased sleep, I got a suggestion from wonderful journaller and very cool colleague I work with on MJ, Nancy Birnes of Perforated Lines. Nancy wrote:

The twitch is from a calcium deficiency, according to my big book in the kitchen. Sometimes a sip of milk or some yogurt, if you're not lactose-whosis will stop it on the spot. Otherwise, calcium supplements. I'm no doctor, of course, so take the calcium with a grain of salt. But it works.

I started doing it a week ago, when she suggested this change in lifestyle. Now I drink milk almost every day in some form and it's gone! Poof! Thank you, Nancy!

I've cut down on the caffeine: no soda with caffeine, no tea, no coffee, and gasp no chocolate. I don't know how I'm going to survive without chocolate, but I think I can sneak a little here and there. Just none before bedtime. I hate living my life with restrictions.