As cliche is this could possibly ever be, this is my first entry, and so I must begin by taking note of that.

Moving on.

I'm back athe old place on Veteran, wathcing Lisa play a boss in the new final fantasy game. I'm not sure exactly how these game designers come up with such clever names as "Rabanstre" but I'd be willing to bet that it either involved a cat stepping on a keyboard (10 points for catching the Stephen Spielberg cartoon reference) or a creative game of Boggle. We just finished watching the new episode of Battlestar Galactica, and I have to say that it is much better than the season opener had led me to expect. I can feel the social awkwardness, poor table manners and crippling near-sightedness of the acadmic brotherhood creeping into my very being as I have set off to be unproductive in my second year of grad school.

This week has not been so good. I'm not sure entirely why, but I know that it has a lot to do with stagnation. Don't get me wrong, Halloween was not so bad (at least I had my best costume ever with the only West Hollywood casualties being my lost sunglasses and some gyro tzatziki sauce), but I'm supposed to be getting a fellowship application in at the same time as a few other projects. "Why is this bugging him?" one might ask, to which I would reply, " Because I'm sick of spinning my wheels". I guess I just need a quick kick in the ass to get me going on stuff, but I'm in a strange situation for my general disposition. I'm trying to get a whole bunch of stuff done on my own (without much guidance) and I'm failing miserably at it. I know that I'm perfectly capable of working, and even coming up with ideas and such, but I feel like I'm standing in some kind of grad student tar pit that's preventing me from doing it. I think the worst part is the uncertainty of whether or not this is an actual long-term problem or a short-term annoyance. Oh well. I'm done complaining.

Actually, one of the many internationals in my lab this week told me to "shut up" because I complain too much. I was shocked at the choice words from someone who didn't know me in any type of non-working way, but more humored by it. Every once in a while, I run into people who don't get the whole complaining thing, and they think that I truly am unhappy. I have a question for said people: "Why the hell would I complain with a smile on my face if I was so bitter and angry at the world?" One day, people might get a clue.

The other annoying part of this week was the time change. It's funny studying sleep and circadian rhythms and taking care of myself horribly in both of those areas. I didn't phase shift very well and I've been really sleepy every day due to some heavy fragmentation. I've been pretty slow and tired, but I've got a ton of stuff I need to get done.

Alright. That's it for the first entry. As expected, I filled up more space with nothing than a person should, but it is somewhat therapeutic (maybe this will replace chopping vegetables). Instead of ending with another cliche, I'll just make it abrupt.