LNYF soon. Will be relieved when it's over.
Being forced to drop a class to have full credit in a class that's required for my major, like most all of my classes this semester. I would have played around last semester if I had thought this was coming...
Excited for the Taiwanese and Korean film festivals though.

------*Essay Dump: Imitation of Tanizaki Junichiro's In Praise of Shadows*

Shopping in the Dark

On a recent trip to Schnucks, I noticed the glint of a curious something stuffed into the recesses of the shelves. With great effort I reached and was astonished as the contents were divulged. I recalled a scolding from my grandmother, on how this very object was forbidden and life threatening, and how my face filled with glee when I was allowed to use the electric can opener for the first time. In my hand and, instinctively on its way to the basket, was a can of Campbell’s soup.
I am not normally one who believes in the taste of brands, but certainly their power is another story. Rooted to the spot, I was awash with memories of my mother’s homemade chicken noodle soup, memories the closest of which I actually had came from cans much similar. Something quick, heartwarming, something for the soul, as that popular book series would have us to believe. As one professed food addict, however, I wholeheartedly agreed and reached for another.
Two cylinders, two amalgamations of an infinite number of circles stacked one another, perfectly symmetrical... I had a vision of myself later that night as always, in that rare state where the kids were finally asleep and I could finally have a few hours to myself. The dim single lamp above the table normally used was supplanted with one much brighter I had received in my early college years from an exchange student friend, and I was busying myself with how I would expose their contents. Plugging in my grandmother’s can opener would require maneuvering behind the microwave and choosing which appliance was unnecessary and was too much of a nuisance, so I grabbed the tab and pulled the lid back, reveling at the sight of the steamy goodness that was to come. Something felt unnatural, however, and the running of my thumb across the top of the can in my hand left no questions. Where had the grating sounds, the fear of waking the kids, the same forbidity and threat of tetanus that had ruled so much of my childhood gone? Where was the intimacy, and just what had it been sacrificed for?
In my vision I could only stare at the lone circle separated from all the others, and I stuffed the can that was instinctively on its way to the basket deep into the recesses of the shelves and left it, curious and glinting.

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"Even a diamond, if not polished, will fail to shine;
People, too, unless they study, will not demonstrate true virtue.
If one is diligent every moment all day long,
Like the hands of a clock that move without pause
What is there that will not be achieved?"