The assignment for class this week is to write a script that allows you to play tic tac toe, or create a puzzle from an image in Flash. I spent most of the morning looking for some goddamn elusive, errant comma that was making my puzzle pieces snap off-center. This, my friends, is graduate school. Still, there is a kind of appeal to the straightforwardness of scripting. While the exacting nature of scripting syntax can be frustrating, when it is correct, the results are immediate and unambiguous–at least at this basic level.

Still, is the payoff really worth sitting at my computer for several hours straight trying hunt down some misplaced parentheses?

This semester looms before me like some unscalable summit. Not only am I once again taking 16 hours of grad classes, I am also teaching a technology class, working, coordinating a project in Falls Church, and attempting to learn Catalan for the trip to Barcelona this summer. A maddening amount of work, despite my resolve to create a better balance for myself this semester. To that end, I have signed up for a yoga class, and I am swimming regularly as well. I certainly know myself well enough to not pretend that I am going get a jump on my school assignments. I am a serious and committed procrastinator and I have come to terms with that. No more wasted Saturdays, trying to finish some assignment before its imminent deadline.

E. and I went to see Cremaster 3 Friday night, a 3-hour long art film. While I liked it, I am not motivated to see the rest of his films at the Cremaster marathon today. Instead, maybe I will try to make some headway with this growing pile of laundry.