Although because a friend's phone was off the hook, i couldn't call to cancel our evening plans as that would have left him standing on the platform at London Bridge Station. So I did scrape myself out of bed to meet him. Which was good. We went to a lecture by a cultural studies prof, and hobnobbed with tons of really really smart and funny media and culture studies people. The contrast to LSE was stark: people looked like they HAD FUN doing their work. I get the feeling that for many LSE people, having fun would show you are not a 'serious scholar', and the incentive (besides financial) to do the kind of work they encourage is macho one-upmanship. doing the hard stuff. we're harder than those fluffy media people (who were i reality decidedly unfluffy hotshots).
And then dinner. which came in under my radar, since I'm thick with flu and mucus and my head is like a lead balloon (heavy and light). Undertones became overtones decidedly amorous. which is nice for my ego, but I'm not sure what it does to my head. I had just about settled into single mode. Being autonomous is very easy in London, as my Slightly Amorous Friend pointed out, everyone is so busy, and there are so many smart people, you can coast or dive as you wish. and with ego and head there comes body, which (especially in high stress) is ready to go, man, at certain hours of the evening. it's been a long time, as Lt. Ellen Ripley said in Alien3. (well relatively long, in my case. long enough, dammit.) but actual connected personalised desire? I don't know where she's living right now, in what state or nation she makes her troubled home.

11/29 Sorry for my lack of updating. Had a minor crash in motivation this week. Spent lots of aimless time, inhouse and out. Slept too much (why am I always too tired in the morning?) and worked too little. Had more silliness with the library which would be too repetitive to get into now. I think each week I'll rate the frustrations of interacting with the institutions at this institution from 1-5, with 1=no hassle and 5=complete inability to do what I need to:

Institution	rank this week
Library	5(!)
Advisor	4
Secretary	2
and a guest report from Student housing	5 (she has toxic fumes in her room and has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the common room)

Whew.

On an upside, got some records (rather than a blanket, bookends, or groceries) that are really great. Only need a gig to play them at. I've been attempting to mix with no speakers-just headphones in my room, and I have to say that though I love my records it's pretty hard. there's no way to use the crossfader in the headphones, and I can only adjust levels in a fake sorta way by tweaking the gain on each channel. grrrr. need. speakers. now. ah well, payday should be this week.

Oh I DID have one lovely evening this week with HSC and two folks at their home in the heart of it all. A pseudo expatriate-thanksgiving. Minus any reference to hokum or colonial fantasies. just food and surrogate family. Good conversation. Kitties. Plates balanced on knees, music filtering up from somewhere, beasties stalking tidbits and the night vanished before I knew.

11/23 Went to a fascinating gig last night. After a morning presentation at which I was, for some reason, much more nervous than the last one. But anyway teh gig was a benefit for a guy who has been in prison for 13 years for murder -he was defending himself against a racist attack: the attacker refused medical treatment at the hospital and subsequently died. The police told him that he would not be charged with murder. but then he was. Check out this site for more info. Anyway Asian Dub Foundation sound system, Headrillaz, Joi Sound System, Invasian, and tons and tons more artists were there. The atmosphere was incredible, the beats spun from hard jungle (with often no less than four mcs) to big beat to hip hop. South Asian vocal styles over funk beats, guitar and tabla and other drums. People were militant but celebratory, if that makes sense. even when the music was more mainstream than what I like, it was impossible to reject the vibe of several hudnreds jumping up and down screaming "free Satpal Ram". the asian underground hip hop thing is interesting as well: the flow of these folks is not like what I usually like in US hiphop (where my overselective tastes run to Company Flow, Mr. Lif, Jedi Mind Tricks, fierce elliptical phrasing, embedded rhymes), the style last night was much closer to MCs who I've seen here with drumnbass djs: DUM da-da-DUM da-da-DUM DUM DUM; DUM da-da-DUM da-da-DUM DUM DUM, very quickly, short phrases, last word rhymes, less conversational, more driving. I don't always appreciate it, but last night was truly great.

In the library most of the night tonight. sigh.. i keep falling asleep. maybe I'm getting ill. (something is going around).

11/20 skating in and out the edges of a migraine, blindfolded chaplinlike to the chasm of ache-eyed nausea I can barely recall. Physical imagination can be vivid, but also so remote. Hard to think about the future when I hurt right now. Checked email to end my evening then spun into this site, to say hello from my late-night weekend. Fell asleep on a book this afternoon, the edge imprinted my cheek with a red stripe and a tiny wet spot marred the page. leaving my mark on academia...

11/18 Yesterday was treated to a supremely british experience. had to pick up a trunk full of winter clothes, shipped via Virgin Atlantic. They said it was coming into heathrow (which is good, 30 miles closer to me than gatwick airport). So I call the shipping people, and they impart this information:

1. The box actually comes into gatwick and is driven to heathrow, so maybe i should wait another day to come get it (although weds. is my only free day, they charge you £7 a day 'storage fees')
   
2. the shipping center is 4 miles from heathrow and there is no transport from the airport.
   
3. I need to get paperwork from shippingfolk and take it to customs to get it stamped. the customs office is "just under a mile down the road" and there is, of course, no transportation there.
   
4. There is an agency that will book it through customs on my behalf, but they need me to sign a form first, which they need to mail to me and i mail back (remember the £6 daily storage fees).

anyway now I am wearing warm jackets and coats, and contemplating the return of my creepers with glow-in-the-dark stars on them. "funny shoes" my friend-and-critic (FAC) will say.

I have been getting into home cooking again. No new recipies in the kitchen yet, but i recommend scrambled eggs with pre-sauteed broccoli, garlic, orange pepper, and avocado (or homemade guacomole), with a touch of grated cheddar on top. And a few sliced plum tomatoes. salt and pepper. and some nice bread. This is also partly inspired by stillex's cooking, but he can't be rushed and throws in four or five more ingredients.