odds and ends

Sometimes I do things. On Saturday, for example, I went to the gym for an hour, sat in my community college class for three hours, and then came home, ate dinner at the crab shack across the street, and watched a double-bill of "eXistenZ," and "Pulp Fiction." Today, however, is reserved for cleaning the apartment. I'm sitting here trying to motivate myself to throw on the iPod and grab a Magic Eraser, or Soft Scrub soaked sponge, or pile of clutter to disembowel.

Motivation is not easily forthcoming. The reward just isn't great enough.

We're also attempting to write an activities' list for entertaining family for three and a half days. I know that's not the primary reason for their visit -- entertainment. I know they want to see their son and how we're living. But when we all get together there's usually a lot of downtime that involves sitting around figuring out what we plan to do with the afternoon. A nice list of possibilities would keep me from having to think too hard. And I'm all about not thinking.

I am excited to see them, by the way. It'll be fun to show off the place and hang out.

My indexing class took an interesting turn yesterday, when one of the students asked about speed reading. Our instructor teaches a different course entirely about speed reading, which he says has helped him immensely over the years and allows him to complete his work faster and more efficiently. Then he offered to sell us the course materials he developed at cost, which is $12. I say, sign me up! I read pretty fast, but damn, I want to read super hero fast. I want the physical act of flipping pages to slow me and my giant brain down, not digesting the text itself. So, you know, stay tuned for trying to teach myself to speed read out of a book. There's an 85% chance that hilarity will ensue.