most recent lesson of the evening: soundgarden does not mix with kubrick.

i need to restore some iota of intellect by watching eyes wide shut after watching beavis and butt-head do america with christine earlier tonight.

today was beautifully rainy and windy. i went out in it, via bus, to do some christmas shopping downtown. i spent about three hours walking around pike place market and westlake mall, then another half an hour or so after the bus ride back just on the ave and i only bought three gifts. they're good gifts, though relatively cheap considering what i could have spent, but that still seems like a lot of time for so little. ah well.

i still need to get things for my mom for her birthday and for christmas. i also have to get presents for reid, josie, and whichever among chris, jana, anna, graylan, and adam i pick out of a hat to buy an exchange present.

i've just been hanging out lately.. trying not to get bored shitless with life before it gets insanely busy.

my birthday is next tuesday! i'll be 20! that sounds crazy, but it's true, not to mention relatively useless. i think my mom (and maybe my dad) are going to come visit me after class, take me to dinner and to a record store to buy vinyl to play on my birthday present, a really nice-sounding old stereo. mm. yay! i love my mom. i still need to get her birthday present! i must go to fred meyer's or target or something. they must have it. errrrgh.

man, my writing is so flat lately. so transparent. nothing really to say, only reflections to sketch and lyrics to mimic. yay. fuck it.

i just want to be right, in the present tense, for once. is that so wrong? is that vanity? do i miss the point? or is it all a trick of timing...

so i think this mix cd is coming along nicely. i hadn't bothered to work on it until tonight, and i think i've arranged it well. it has, perhaps, an overrepresentation of the magnetic fields (two songs) and the talking heads (a whopping three!), but it works, i think. now i just need to decide if it's supposed to be a mix cd for the party or a gift for josie. i think josie would like it, but if i were to make one for josie, it would be a bit different. anyway.

speaking of gifts, i have to do that stuff. i got my sister's present today -- it was something really simple and specific that she asked for; lets me off the hook easy -- but i still need to get things for my brother, parents, at least one roommate... i think we're going to set up a gift exchange of sorts where we'll only have to buy one present and it's a secret or something. except josie already bought something for everyone, so i feel somewhat obligated to get her something separately. reid thinks she might do the same thing. eeeep. we'll see.

i bought some chocolate sorbet today. i will die of it now, i think. *waggles tongue in ecstacy*

i need to take up the guitar again. and read more. yeah. that's a good idea. i think i'll start today.

mikey, discussing literature: "if i wanted symbolism i'd go look at some modern art."

hehe.

like a soul without a mind,
in a body without a heart,
i'm missing every part...

in a conversation talking about dead kennedys, shostakovich, and other happy things, my brother and i had a number of interesting things to say to each other:

"blacklisted music is good for the soul." --paul.

paul: "er-hus sound nice."
me: "yes, but it lacks the visceral punch of punkrock."

"i would like to be in a death metal parody band called sardonica." --me.