mf.rox

Do you think it would be possible to get away with making a porn movie called Norwegian Wood?

Tomorrow will be my first day of giving final exams. I hate doing it. It’s surprisingly stressful for me, since I end up worrying about not having enough time to get the class done. I did drop my students an exam explaining how anxious it makes me, and some procedures they should follow tomorrow. Hopefully they’ll follow the directions, and I won’t get frazzled as much as usual.

I just dowloaded RealPlayer, and have been listening to NPR news reports. Carl Kassel (sp?) reads the news on Morning Edition, and is really sounds like his dentures are lose. They sound like they’re going to fall off. It’s really hard to listen to. I wonder if anyone else minds. Maybe they wouldn’t notice if they’ve gotten used to listening to him over a long period of time. Maybe it’s just that I haven’t heard him talk in more than five years.

I feel sort of burnt out when it comes to my work, and I’m eagerly waiting for the semester to end. That’s funny, because when you think of it, I barely do any work at all. A lot of my lessons are the same as last year’s, and I only teach about twelve hours a week. So why do I feel so fatigued? Is it time for me to make a change, or just time for a vacation?

I just downloaded RealPlayer, and am listening to WNYC news. It’s presented by Seterius Johnson, whose name I’ve always liked. I can imagine little kids would call him “The Serious Johnson.” Anyway, he just accidentally referred to Buffalo as Buffalho. What is he trying to say?!? Is he IMPLYING something?

Can a misanthrope be a good writer? It seems like the answer is yes, but that brings up the question, if you don’t like people, who are you writing for? Even if you are writing for yourself, if you are a writer, and try to get publishes, you must be trying to communicate. But what will you have to communicate to people you don’t even like? Why go to the trouble of writing stuff down at all? It’d just be easier, and quicker, to think it all.

That’s the dog man’s imitation of people praying before a meal.

I snitched on this other teacher today. He’s the guy I don’t like, the one who went brezerk during our dinner in Hainan. I’ve been hearing complaints about his teaching for the past year, and this semester I’ve come to realize that he doesn’t come to class half the time. Once his students complained and someone from the school showed up to find out why he was gone just as he appeared. He showed up at 9:30, the exact time his class was supposed to end, and then lied about having taught class. Really, this guy is gone so much I don’t know how he can collect his paycheck in good conscience. Today a school rep (the same one as before) came looking for him, and couldn’t find him again. I told her that he often doesn’t show up to class.

Why should I even do this? I guess I’m indignant because this guy is such a shmuck, but what will I gain by getting him in trouble? Nothing. He could be replaced by someone even worse, or by someone who is so good he/she makes me look bad. Maybe I should keep my irritation to myself.

I’ve been spilling EVERYTHING lately. The yesterday I spilled a cup of tea on my bed, soaking the mattress and my new sheet, and today, I spilled soy milk like three times. Once I actually dropped a whole box of it and it flowed everywhere becfore I could pick it up.

In a moment of idle thinking I realized that three of the only things I won’t eat are words spelled _at. Cat, bat and rat. I wondered if it was because of the linguistic properties of the words, or because words that end that way are linked somehow. I can’t think of anything edible spelled like _at I would want to eat. Then thinking a bit more, I realized I wouldn’t eat monkey or donkey, which are also pretty close. I’ve eaten camel. Does this mean I would eat Mark Hamill?

I just realized I haven’t seen the half-naked man lately. (Not that he is always half-naked. Sometimes he’s wearing a big army overcoat or is wrapped in blankets, but that’s the way I always think of him.) I hope he’s OK, especially because we’re experiencing a nasty cold snap here. Maybe I’ll ask the mutton man (the Uighur guy who sells roast meat on a stick) if he’s seen him lately.

While looking up The Anarchists in the IMDB, I found there were a ton of movies about anarchists, most made between 1910 and 1920. They include ones with strange titles like The Anarchist’s Sweetheart, Gus and the Anarchists (starring a young Oliver Hardy), and Jimson Joins the Anarchists.

I remember that whenever a zipper broke on anything in the US, it was always this huge disaster, and everyone said there was nothing to be done but throw the garment out. Today I took my coat to the local shoe repairman (the one I had taken a picture of), and asked if he could fix it. He said yes, and was finished less than five minutes later. He’d put some sort of little metal thing on the place where the zipper’s bottom (the part that popped off) had been). Quick and easy, and it cost one RMB!

I found this passage in the Associated Press article “Reports: Bush Authorized NSA to Spy in US”:

The Bush administration had briefed congressional leaders about the NSA program and notified the judge in charge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the secret Washington court that handles national security issues.

Secret Washington court?!? What the heck is this? Since when are there secret courts in the US?!? Of course, my cynical self tells me there have always been. Nonetheless, I found this extremely disturbing. Isn’t the US always criticising governments that have things like secret courts? This is just more evidence of how haywire everything has gone in the past few years.

From the Korean anarcho-terrorist heroic bloodshed movie The Anarchists:

A revolutionist is like a gust of wind that blows toward this filthy world from a far away beautiful land.

In lieu of spending a lot of money on curtains, I got too cheap, but not bad looking Polarfleece blankets, and I’ve put them up as curtains in my bedroom. They’ve definitely gone part way toward alleviating the cold. They don’t go all the way to the floor, though, so I’m going to get another matching blanket, and cut it in half to add on to the ends of the other ones. Meanwhile, I’m still sleeping in the little bedroom.

When I was hanging the curtains, I heard a pop, and looked down to see the zipper on my down coat had broken. What a pain! I’m having to use the snaps instead of the zipper now, so the coat keeps coming open. When it broke, it seemed like some sort of ill omen. Hopefully I was just in a melodramatic state of mind.

I’ve dealt with all the pesky spam, and am reopening the comment function.

I took it today, and understood nothing. SIGH! I guess I should have taken the elementary level test!

I ought to be sleeping because I have the HSK test tomorrow, but I feel migrainey. I think it’s because I didn’t eat dinner at the proper time. I’ve taken a Panadol (they seem to work pretty fast), and am feeling better. I’m hoping to get to sleep soon.

In other news, I got rid of all the random comments from the comment section of the blog (the spam ones). However, I still have a massive number in the awaiting moderation queue.

I ought to be sleeping because I have the HSK test tomorrow, but I feel migrainey. I think it’s because I didn’t eat dinner at the proper time. I’ve taken a Panadol (they seem to work pretty fast), and am feeling better. I’m hoping to get to sleep soon.

In other news, I got rid of all the random comments from the comment section of the blog (the spam ones). However, I still have a massive number in the awaiting moderation queue.