Well, approximately 4 hours later, the room is finally more or less clean.

I say more or less because I still haven't dusted or vacuumed, but in all honesty, I'm waiting until I move out to accomplish that task. I simply have too much stuff in my room to try to vacuum the place, much as it may need it. If I can start moving boxes out and whatnot, then we'll see. For now... I can live with it. Hey, I'm rarely here, anyhow.

Two and a half bags of garbage, a garbage bag full of clothes and a half garbage bag of books... and that was me being pretty conservative.

I learned throughout this ordeal that I have a *lot* of books of logic problems and assorted word puzzles. Note to self: do not buy any more of these books until you use up a few.

I also learned, once again, that dust makes me skin itch and it makes me sneeze. I'm allergic to dust, which is a good reason to not disturb it; it makes it angry, and then it retaliates on me.

Ah well... the last few days I worked, as I mentioned before, the 12-6 shift at work. It meant that I got to watch a decent amount of daytime television, namely Jerry Springer and People's Court, two minor weaknesses of mine. I'm not saying that I'll drop everything I'm doing to watch either show, but if they're on and I'm not doing anything better, I'll watch them.

Jerry Springer constantly reminds me of a few minor facts of life: 1) people can do (semi-)well for themselves with very few teeth; 2) the mullet is alive and well as a fashion statement for a significant portion of the population in Springer's world; 3) women will fight over butt-ugly men; 4) men will fight over butt-ugly women; 5) people are incredibly stupid.

People's Court teaches me that judges can be just as rude and condescending as regular people when they want to be, and that people are incredibly stupid. No big surprises there.

The cats have been funny lately. Digger found a plastic cap and was carrying it around and playing with it, and Shadow's just been her whorey self. They're such cuties. :)

Today was pretty quiet at work. Got together with the family for dinner at the Outback afterwards, and had a good meal. Then I came back here and basically started cleaning the room. I'm so worn-down right now, and I don't know if it's because of the total lack of sleep I've had over the last few days, or the physical exertion that I go through every time I have to clean. :P Ah well. I have big sleeping in plans for tomorrow, so I'm very excited about that.

Cleaning my room also showed that I have a much bigger DVD collection than I realized, although about a third of that has been acquired over the last few days. Nonetheless, I have over two dozen, a number I never would have guessed, had I been pressed. I also have about three times that number of books (a conservative estimate, believe me) waiting to be read; I cannot wait until I graduate and can indulge my brain.

I basically started and finished reading my first Carl Hiaasen book today. I'd long stayed away from the works of authors like Hiaasen and Douglas Copeland because in my head, they had been forever associated with a vague feeling of pretension. It stems back to high school, and it's not necessarily true, it was just an impression that had formed and stuck with me for awhile. Anyhow, I bought this book (Writers on Writing) in the Great Chapters/Future Shop Blitz of last night, and it included an essay/chapter by Hiaasen. The first few lines caught my attention, and I decided to give Hiaasen a shot, especially as I have really wanted to read a novel lately (or several), and his works fit the bill. I picked up Tourist Season, it seemed like a good place to start, and I enjoyed it. I can't say I laughed out loud or cried or anything like that, but I liked the style of writing, it was very clear, and the story was certainly compelling.

That all said and done, I'll likely try another couple of his books, get a feel for them and all that. It wasn't necessarily like some other authors that I've been grabbed by immediately, but I wasn't turned off. I need new authors to follow, anyhow. :)

I'm off to do a bit of reading and catch some sleep. Tomorrow is going to involve getting really rid of a bunch of the stuff that I've just moved out of my room for now -- off it goes to the stores, hopefully. Digger wants some company, too. :)