Saturday, April 01, 2006

I Fail at Life . . . As a Hardcore Computer Geek

This should surprise no one. So I love Google, use GIMP for image editing and GAIM for instant messaging, so what? I just installed GAIM 2.0.0beta3. And I don't like the new sounds. And I don't like any other sounds on my computer. So I googled "GAIM sounds" and, well, I found some sounds.

But the ones on the GAIM pages ask me if I want to download them . . . as . . . text? Uh, why? And why can't I get the task bar button to blink orange when a buddy messages me and I don't have the window up front? Why does looking at these long lists of files I could download make me think of tar balls and having to clean the tar off my feet with Energine after going to the beach as a little kid? And what are all those files supposed to do, and how many of them do I need???? *whimper*

On the other hand, I suddenly find myself encountering deeper essential meanings in Moby Dick. This should frighten us all. This may be the sign of the apocalypse. I think if I couldn't comprehend sarcasm and irony, I would have long since imploded under the weight of my own internal contradictions and the fragmentation of my soul. Or something.

On an up note, I got some *incredible* compliments from the poets in my translation class. We workshopped the first 10 pages of my short story this past Wednesday, and one of the poetry students said he really loved a lot of my sentences, and another said of one of my characters, "He's kind of a brat, isn't he?" (yay, the brattiness translated!) and another said what she liked about my translation is that it doesn't *read* like a translation, it reads like a *story*! And the professor said she wanted to compliment me on the incredible progress I had made in quality *and* quantity of work since the sample I submitted. I actually did a happy dance *in class*! Thank you, God, and St. Jerome.

Now I think I'll go pound out the final ten pages, and maybe start fixing the stuff we all decided we *didn't* like. Happy Beer Bike weekend!

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