CAN'T STAND IT

the transition back to reality has been harsh, as predicted. i also wrote a long email to a cousin to answer the question of why i went to law school, which really gave me an opportunity to answer that question full-on. complex and not uplifting. i'm sure it is redeemable somehow. specifics to be named later. i can't believe it is only tuesday. the good news from the law school front is that this guy is telling it how it is. sad but true. i really feel like he gives a voice to the way i feel about some things. this article is where he really gets to be spot on. it is almost like the shit i complain about on this blog was drained of inebriation and the passion of the moment articulated in an acceptable format. such is the irony of cls, always articulated through the proper channels. but just about anything can be criticized as not radical enough in some aspect or another, and hence bound to be co-opted by the proverbial man. i guess cls has been more or less effectively put down, mostly through mischaracterization of some of its tenets. also, reputable or not, it was pretty well known, and i decided i was way off when i said that my philosophy of law prof was unfamiliar. no, he hadn't heard of this other shit i busted out, which i also learned about through debate. pierre schlag on normativity. given the dude's name and theory, i always assumed he was just some leftist intellectual in france, but he is actually a con law prof at colorado. i really want to go back and give that stuff a look again, i may or may not still have some on an sdi cd in my case.
i met a guy who went to colorado law today. well, i've known him sort of for a while. he is in my "elective" and talks a lot. at first this annoyed me, but i reflected that i could actually be this guy. he happens to be in a wheelchair, and if i was, i think i would be more scholarly. he did two years at boulder and then got paralyzed from the waist down. four years later, he's starting over at temple. dude has a pretty decent story. and he is much better to actually have a conversation with than listen to in class. but that goes for just about anyone i go to school with.
i am listening to hunky dory. this led to my discovery that the lyric in changes is "strange fascinations fascinating me". i could never understand that one; we were talking about it at school today. for a while, it sounded to me like strange fascination with el bulli, which would be anachronistic in addition to bizarre, but that is what i heard. as if i haven't changed enough lyrics on that album (wine may change me...). i also gave a closer listen to "kooks". almost leaves me embarrassed for bowie somehow. on the one hand it is kind of poignant, but on the other hand it is sort of too personal for the record. i do like the bit about him not being very good at beating up other people's dads though.
the cats are being silly, per usual. runnin around and rasslin. jack's favorite toy right now is a piece of paper. i wave it at him while he shreds it up, and when i get tired of it and drop it he sits on it squarely. straw does not like the noise shaken paper makes, so he hides and watches from the hallway. i think they might even be prettier and littler than they were yesterday, no matter what science or metaphysics might say. it is like they are rapidly approaching zero on an exponential curve where prettiness and littleness (both unmarked by spell check) are absolute at the value of zero. they get littler and prettier every day, seeming to be tangential with the axis and yet somehow not there, as they demonstrate constantly. those rascals. or, the epithet preferred at logan: "raucous beasts".
i have not been sleeping all that well. for the past couple of nights i have had strange and terrifying super lucid dreams within dreams. i will "wake up" and see all sorts of bizarre things in my room and then slam back into sleep. i can think of no logical explanation for why this is happening. on the one hand, it is really really interesting, but it leaves me pretty tired at school and has thus perpetuated my diet coke habit. i actually had a discussion with the guy who runs the truck i always get it at. he said coca cola had raised the price per case at the distributor; it is now something like twenty bucks for a case of twenty ouncers (not a word according to spell check). i told him i wouldn't settle for diet pepsi, and he said that everyone he had asked had said the same thing. he drinks the full flavor, and has similar feelings. very keen on the fact that it was taste loyalty and not brand loyalty.
speaking of full flavor and taste loyalty, camel CHANGED MY FUCKING SMOKES. the takeover is not yet complete, and i may buy a carton or two someplace. changing the packaging is annoying enough, but changing the blend is unforgivable. i should have seen it coming, i guess. they've already done it to filters and lights. pack and blend at the same time. some asshole in marketing thought it would be a good idea to call it "the classic -- remastered". fuck that person. did they not see what happened with george lucas? did they miss that episode of south park? have they never heard the story of "new coke"? i understand that camel relies on hooking young people to smoke, but why change things for people you've already secured in the fold? you got all the new ones with the stupid ass signature blends. there is no need to alienate the committed. simply bad business. i am considering drafting a letter. something along the lines of the one to spartan foods about the eight ingredients required for the recipe suggestion on the side of a box of mac and cheese. but the point here is even stronger. i feel like vincent vega talking about a car getting keyed. you do not change a man's cigarettes. i'm switching to red apples.