Much to my own surprise, I've been productive in the past few days. I drove back to my apartment to check my mail for bills and to make sure the possum hadn't figured out how to open the window from the outside yet. So far, so good. The place was cold, but the water wasn't frozen, so things seem to be okay. As I was leaving, I did see smoke coming from Gerry's window, but it was only a little, not the sort of thing that is really worth freaking out over. :)

The day before that my brother and I helped the new pastor at the church I'm most likely to attend when I attend such things move in to her new house. My brother and I hooked up her computer and fiddled around with her TV, VCR, and DVD player with some degree of success. I assembled a couple of TV stands, which made me quite happy.

Today I did actual work. My brother and I rented a "Rug Doctor" carpet cleaner from the local grocery store in order to fill our grunt work quotient for the month by steam cleaning parts of the carpet here at home. When I was about four or five, I wanted to get one from the store because of the little cartoon Rug Doctor had arms and a face, so I thought it was a robot. It turns out that Rug Doctor is, in fact, not a robot at all. Instead, Rug Doctor is a moderately heavy red plastic shell with a water tank and a vacuum motor. The instructions are printed in a peculiar fashion on several surfaces of the machine. Ideally, this is so the operator can refer to them while standing behind the operating handle (provided that the operator is no more than 4'5'' tall). It worked well enough, and now I'm waiting for the carpet to dry so that we can put the furniture back where it belongs.

All time before this week was spent resting and recovering from the semester. The best way for me to do this is to read, watch TV, and play video games. This provides a serviceable segue into me listing the media that I've enjoyed and why, as I am prone to do now and again.

Books:

• Superman/Batman: I started this one almost as soon as I got home because I needed a break from academia. Something fun, but still well-written.
• Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes: I've put off reading this series for years, even though I've heard glowing praise for it and I like the author's other works. I've enjoyed it so far- it's very subtle in it's storytelling method, (not at all like my normal comic choices) and almost perfectly diametrically opposed to the aforementioned Superman/Batman book.
  

yet to read:

• Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: I got this one for my brother for Christmas. He thanked me, and then told me for the umpteenth time that I need to read it. I'll see how far I can get before I return to school.
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance: I've found that it helps me to read at least one book that isn't required reading every semester, usually a little bit at a time in bed at night.
• Eats Shoots and Leaves: Because punctuation can be fun too.

Games:

• Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater: Periodically, I play a game that reminds me why I love new media so much. This game serves as a rebuttal to the crotchety old Philistines who see video games as digital playthings with no real value. The game takes place in a jungle in western Russia in 1964, where several people are vieing for power over things that could mean the difference between a prolonged cold-war and widespread nuclear war. A scientist trying to defect to America with plans for a nuclear capable tank, a huge unclaimed war chest pooled from the resources of several nations left over from World War II, a radical faction within Kruschev's army looking to seize power, and several other characters all play significant roles in the story. There really isn't a way to accurately describe the game, or to relate the impact the story had on me. The whole time I was playing, I kept trying to think of how to use this as an example in classroom discussions next semester. It's a shame that the nature of the game makes the story inaccessible to so many people, as it must be played in order to be understood. As the title suggests, the main character does in fact have to eat snakes. This means spotting them in the jungle, killing or trapping them, and eating them in order to keep the character's stamina up. Not just snakes, though: rats, birds, stolen Soviet rations, and eventually packs of ramen noodles found in a base supply closet are all required for survival. When the character is injured, he must tend to his wounds with medical supplies. For a bullet wound, the bullet must be removed with a knife, then the wound is treated with disinfectant and two different kinds of bandages. The level of detail is spectacular, and it kills me that I don't have anyone at school to discuss this with.

I head back to school this week. My classes are all in order now, and my schedule looks great. I have evening classes Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and a project that I can schedule whenever I want. This will make my work schedule so much easier to figure out- no more six-hour Fridays.