The Evil Robot Gives Me a Lecture

Had a really hard time falling asleep last night and woke up this morning feeling like I was going to throw up. So that was cool. And it took me a while before I felt better (until almost 1) at which point I ended up having lunch with L squared (Lori and Laurie). By that time it was close to 2 and I still hadn't done anything, so I went to Brechtbau and spent 3 hours in the language library listening to the recordings of my lectures again for my oral exam tomorrow. I still have 3 more hours of lecture to hear/take notes on, so I'll have to do that tomorrow morning before the exam.

The language lab, where I was listening to these recordings, was an interesting experience. You are sitting in a little cubicle that is way smaller than what a normal study cubicle ought to be, at least for someone with arms as long as mine. The cassette machine (yes, CASSETTES. blast from the past) is embedded in the desk itself and was very retro, nice and brown with large black buttons and a little logo up in the corner that proudly said "Made in West Germany." Yikes. These things ARE old. The cassette player heated up quite a bit as I listened to the tapes, with the strange result that the tape playback slowed down. A lot. It slowed down so much that eventually I was listening to the lecture at probably half the speed it should have been playing, resulting in the prof's voice sounding not only like it was at the bottom of a very deep well but also as if the professor had transformed into some sort of evil futuristic robot. Good times.

Of course, while listening to these tapes my head was practically on the desk because I am still so doggone tired. For me, trying to function on less than 8 hours of sleep is like trying to drive on the freeway with the emergency brake on. It just doesn't work. After 3 hours of listening to Tron lecture on the origins of Greek tragedy, my brain was threatening mutiny. Take off the headphones, or I'll give you an aneurysm.

Now it's 7pm, I'm still pretty tired (although feeling a bit more chipper) and I have a 12-page paper, currently in the form of a blank Microsoft Word document, staring me down. Plus I need to review for my history final tomorrow. Sigh. There just doesn't seem to be enough time. I may very likely end up writing this paper in the airport in Copenhagen. Honestly, what else am I going to do for 7 hours?

Here goes. Let's see how far I get.