Date: May 18, 2000 Time: 10:02 pm Right now I'm feeling: tired Right now I'm listening to: Porno Graffitti Porno Graffitti : Romantist Egoist Today I was reading: Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters The girls' winter uniform The girls' summer uniform The boys' winter uniform The boys' summer uniform Today's mystery link is: Napster Bad! It's the funniest goddam thing I've seen all week!! Quote of the Day: "You are your thoughts. Don't ever let anyone else have dominion over them." -- Shad Helmstetter Sleepless in Wakayama I am so goddam tired these days. I wake up no less than three times per night, sometimes as many as five or six. I am a walking zombie. I truly don't know what's going on, but I think I need to find out soon or I'm going to collapse from sleep exhaustion. Or perhaps I'll start to hallucinate first (a side-effect from a lack of acetylcholine, I believe. I saw this happen on an episode of Star Trek: TNG; an excellent show, by the way). I sleep, on average, about 10 hours a day now, but because it's so restless, it leaves me exhausted durin the day. Last night's disturbance was not a nightmare or my absurdly loud neighbor, but a singular mosquito. Oh, yes. One little insect. Usually, I plug in this little, white, plastic device into my wall outlet. The current goes through a bare metal strip-thingee which runs over a small wafer-like cartrige which gives off some anti-mosquito stuff (yes, those are technical terms). Supposedly, the mosquitos get dizzy off the stuff, fall to the ground, and eventually die. I ran out of these miraculous little wafers earlier this week. ENTER THE MOSQUITO I wonder if his infinitesimal mind could comprehend the amount of mental anguish his tiny existence brought to a higher being. Or if he knows how many times I fruitlessly tried to end his small little life before giving up, stripping the sheets from my bed, wrapping them around me despite the heat, and trying to get to sleep while I heard him buzzing around my head (for some reason, mosquitoes like doing this, which adds credence to my theory that they do, in fact, know the hell they make my nights when they are in the room). Enough griping... on with the important stuff... The weather is warming, the air is becoming more humid, and the nights are warm, but pleasant. Many students are wearing their summer uniforms now. I've been splitting up my days between the empty counselling room downstairs and the teachers' room. For some reason, the smoke in the teachers' room hasn't been so bad this week... the principal probably said something to the teachers after our little encounter last week. I've been staying in the teachers' room to read when it's not too smokey, but mostly I either sleep downstairs, or I'm at the computer. I've been hunting for a good deal on a digital camera. Looks like it'll set me back a good few hundred bucks, goddammit. The elementary school visits which were planned by my principal were cancelled unexpectedly by my supervisor. I was rather surprised he came to my defense, but very glad for it. There was a volleyball tournament between the JHSs of Wakayama yesterday, but I lied and said I had a meeting... I was just too tired. Besides, I hate volleyball. The Plug One of my favorite online journalists, Forlaetan, gave me a glowing plug in her journal the other day. This momentous occasion marks the first time, to my knowledge, that I've been mentioned in someone else's online journal. I was really surprised (especially after I read what she wrote about me). She's thinking of journeying to some far-off country in search of insights, new scenery, and adventure. She's thinking of heading off to Japan someday to teach English, like I'm doing. I haven't the heart to tell her that her life is way more interesting than mine... hell, that's why I read her kick-ass journal. :) What a Crap Entry, eh? You folks heard about that whole Napster thing? Metallica pressed Napster to drop about 5,000 users off it's network because those users were trading Metallica songs. Go here. It's funny as shit. I promise to write more tomorrow, peoples. A lot has been going on, but I'm going to sleep before I fall over and start drooling onto my keyboard.