andy rooney

Music: A-ha: Analogue A long day at the office, for vetting applications and writing letters; for teaching the rhetoric of alchemy, H.P. Blavatsky and the Urantia Book; for having lunch with mentors; for going to the library (and for discovering their having lost the Agamben book I wanted ); and for vetting more applications. After the office, I went to psychotherapy (which is usually very cheerful and not very painful, although I suspect one day my parents will have to come into it), then I jet down Congress to Ruta Maya (their coffee is absolutely divine, so I stocked up), and then I took in my healthy, one hour dose of Austin rush hour traffic (45 minutes to go six miles north of I-35).

I hate it when I go to the library for a book that nary a soul has expressed interest in for as many as five years, only to find that it is not on the shelf, nor in the distribution center. Scene: after looking in the shelves for fifteen minutes, then scoping the distribution area for another ten, a librarian approaches: "hmm, let's see." I hand her the print off from the card catalog. "Does it say that it's on the shelf?" The paper is a print off from the card catalog. It says in boldface the book is on the shelf. "Yes," I respond. "Hmm. Did you check the B 100 shelf for it?" she asked in a sincere way. "Yes m'am. I even checked the shelves on either side in case it was misshelved." She looked concerned. I was standing in the relevant section of the distribution shelving. "Well, did you check here?" she motioned to the shelf right next to me. I politely explained I had an appointment at two and had to leave. There's more to this story in respect to my encounter at the circulation desk, but even I bore of my complaining.

American Idol tonight was about the Austin auditions this summer that jammed traffic for a week near campus. The show was hilarious. Apparently it took the producers a while to realize the city motto is "Keep Austin Weird." It took a non-stop parade of creative singers, and then some devoted Austinites dressed as the living dead (with make-up) terrorizing the auditioning guppies wound around the Erwin center (an arena that resembles a nuclear reactor) for the AI peeps to figure out Austin's self-image is warped (I guess they have the learning curve of your typical android).

I am going to try to break the writer's block tomorrow. I wrote a few paragraphs on Tuesday. I will consider a couple of paragraphs tomorrow a success. My topic: Agamben and the state of exception. Today I've been reading Carl Schmitt. You know that you're reading Carl Schmitt when half the book is composed of a forward and introduction explaining (away?) his involvement with the Nazi party. I would not be reading Schmitt again (this time, Political Theology) were it not for the recent presidency. Didn't we see the SOVEREIGN thrust and throb in last night's address? I urge everyone to read Schmitt and Agamben. Unless you have heart trouble, in which case, stick to Walt Disney movies.

Bah humbug. Three of the eggs in my new carton were cracked. Grrr. [sound of farting]