~ as bill clinton fashionably describes his post-presidency as ‘decompression’, the angry red planet has spent the day following graduate school with ‘heat’ comfortably watched on dvd, coffee lazily and abundantly consumed on pico boulevard, platelets painfully but quickly donated in santa monica, and the realization that the price of clump-ease is not inversely related to it’s quality over tidy cat – half the price does not indicate twice the absorbency nor odor-control.

~ m.arch.

~ ‘we don’t anyone to mind us, so…’

~ with our body partially rested, mind partially addled, and stomach fully loaded with butterflies and black russian bagels, we sit out the remaining five hours…

~ ‘feeling my best was never good enough…’

~ 19 more hours…

~ ‘after i’m through singing this song, i’ll forget about you…’

~ 45 more hours…

~ the third reason why the angry red planet discourages all from purchasing epson printers and products:

 epson: could i have your model number?
 the angry red planet: epson 777
 epson: that’s a good printer you have there
  the a.r.p.: that’s what i was told the last time i called for service
 epson: have you called about this issue before?
  the a.r.p.: yes, earlier today

 epson: what seems to be the problem now?
  the a.r.p.: well, earlier, i would get a warning every time i sent a job. i turned the printer off, and now i turn it on, but the lights never stop flashing.
 epson: there is fresh ink and paper installed?
  the a.r.p.: yes, i just added ink
 epson: could you hold, please?
  the a.r.p.: yes
  [holding until return]
 epson: ok, what we can do is send you a new model?
  the a.r.p.: a new model?

 epson: yes
  the a.r.p.: just like that, because i called and told you the red light is on….you’re going to replace the whole printer?
 epson: yes
  the a.r.p.: there’s nothing you can tell me to try here? i kind of need this printer right away; there are some things i need to print out for this weekend.
 epson: well, it should ship out next business day, and you will have it the following day.
  the a.r.p.: this is cutting it pretty close; in 3 days, i have this thesis-
 epson: it is too late to ship out today. you should have the day after tomorrow.
  the a.r.p.: that is unfortunate; by then i will have printed out someplace else….on something other than a 777.
 epson: i’m sorry, this is as quickly as we can get it to you.

  the a.r.p.: maybe this would have been easier if i had bought an hp?

  conversation dwindles into threats that we need to return the unusable printer within seven days, or face a $100 penalty. this is exactly the type of disruption needed in thesis week; perhaps the lowest point has not been reached after all…

~ thesis is already hard enough for some of us. do we really need the extra worry that a homophobic conferderate apologist is going to take the position of u.s. attorney general? oppose ashcroft: [w]

~ thesis quote: ‘i think it’s a mistake, but it’s your work.’

~ this is already hard enough for some of us. do we need to have feeble dogs sniffing our bags, sing alongs with don henley, scooters on the trailer floor, and cell phone calls shouted into the public atmosphere? i don’t see how this helps.

~ today’s quotes were not pulled from the background banter; they were all directed to our attention!

~ thesis diversion quote: ‘you don’t not piss because you think the toilets are dirty.’

~ thesis environmental quote: ‘you are the first person who has not been sympathetic.’

~ thesis tangential quote: ‘i don’t want to die soon.’

~ though it is still to early to make a definitive declaration, the possibly lowest point of the final week of thesis may have been achieved. after days of abuse, our fuel-processing system has risen in protest. revenge having been exacted upon us for our implementation of a harsh regimen of raisins, seaweed, and coffee, we were forced to spend the evening in the mazda, curled into a ball of pain focused around the angry red intestines.

~ it is safe to say, however, that nothing can happen in the remainder of the week that will contest tonight’s breakage of the 1,400 mp3 barrier as the high point of the last few days of thesis.

~ some links added…

~ site updates at vegan.com [w] and veganaction.org [w], and a new address for socalinflight [w].