Flourescent lighting

It's driving me absolutely fucking nuts. One of the flourescent lights in the bathroom has reached the end of its life-span and is doing things that only those stupid lights do. Other lightbulbs just go off and stay off, these damn things keep on flickering as if they were a twitching corpse that has no chance of coming back to life but still keeps going at it. When it's day time I tend not to notice, as daylight coming through the window provides me with enough lighting to do whatever it is I went in to do. It's at night time that it kills me, as I go about my business expecting the struggling light to come on at any second. And then I remember that it never will. This causes me to have to complete what I'm trying to do using a manic, psychotic slow motion kind of strobe lighting.

The thing is, there are two switches, one that turns on the fucked up light and one that turns on a perfectly normal light. By sheer force of habit, I ALWAYS turn on the busted one. This is a habit that is rooted back into the days where I spent most of my time at home, probably all the way back when we moved into this house around 14 years ago. Every damn time, I always get frustrated and remind myself to switch on the other light, but it never ever works. I just stand there like an idiot in the darkness waiting for the momentary flash that allows me to kind of get my bearings straight.

Back home

Just got back to Bahrain yesterday, weather being as hot as ever. I've learned to love it to be honest.. and just when i decided that i don't really mind the weather as much as i used to, i get a flat tire at 12 noon, the point at which the sun is almost vertical and temperatures reach 45 degrees celsius. I'm usually good with flats, not taking more than 15 minutes to change one, but this one was stuck somehow. I didn't want to run the risk of ruining the car's rims by driving on the recently pressure-less piece of shit that used to be my front left tire. So what happens then? i had to call the tow truck to haul the car to a tire shop so they could help me out. Whole process took around 2 hours, and by the time it was over i could smell the cooked flesh that i once called my brain. So now i hate the weather again.

Exam results were posted up today, and i made it through. Not as convincingly as i originally thought, but i'll take it. Nerve-wracking experience that, having to wait for the stupid web browser to load the page and then an ensuing eye scramble to locate my number on that blindingly small-fonted list. I was stunned by relief more than anything, although i had initially expected a euophoric reaction but was surpised to react so solemnly to the good news. Mom almost didn't believe me, she thought i was upset and was attempting (very poorly, i must say) to lie to her.

Now my summer can start for real.

Fungus attack

Was just cleaning my apartment, and i ventured into the rarely attempted area that is my bathroom. This thing has been minimally maintained for the last 2 years, so there were a couple of things that I had to attend to. It was time.

There was a bit of fungus growing in a little corner (presumably due to steam coming from the shower) and it had begun to spread, so it was time for it to go. The mission was more or less successful, and i retired back to the living room in a content state of mind. Now i'm having trouble breathing, or so i believe. It could very well be psychosomatic (when there's nothing wrong with you except you think there is), since i was vaccuming too and the room became kind of stuffy because of all the dust i had let loose into the atmosphere. So now i've got a congested sensation and a feeling like i've suddenly developed very mild asthma. I could swear i read about fungus inhalation in my microbiology notes somewhere, i'm just too lazy to go look anything up. As they say "this too shall pass", i've been in many situations where i should've gotten hurt/poisoned/contaminated/killed but so far i've survived them all. I do have it coming though, to be honest, so i won't be surprised if this inhaled fungus gives me a lung infection of some sort. That would suck.

Finished the last part of my exams today, and i've got a good feeling about the whole thing. Maybe i managed to pull this one out of the fire after all? This has got to stop.

انا اعشق الرياضة

I love sports. Yes i do.

Today was beautiful, two rugby games.. the two opening games of Euro 2004 (Portugal never fail to disappoint) and the formula 1 qualifying session. And to top it off, Miss Universe was on at night! Technically, i HAVE been staring at men all day long.. something to take the homosexual edge off, you know?

Well, now that the exam is over it's just a waiting period until i find out my results and whether or not i've got a borderline oral. So it's pretty much sit on my ass and do shit all for the next 10 days. I love it, although i do get a bit lonely since most of my friends have already left and the ones that are still here have exams to study for. The timing of Euro 2004 was perfect, now i can finally fill my time with something.. the other sports are just a bonus.

Now it's a struggle to fill the "downtime" between sporting events. Optimally, it'll be something that doesn't require me to vacate the little hole i've created in the couch using my ass. A new xbox game might be in order, and of course now that i've got wireless internet set up on my laptop, that's just an arm's length away. The main challenge now is to figure out how to feed myself without moving.

Quote me happy

Crunch time. An exam that's literally worth $40,000 is in 6 days. Talk about pressure, eh?

The studying process has been slow, but it's picking up. I've got confidence in my ability to pull this one out of the fire.. as long as the questions are fair. By fair i mean that they have to be from the half of the material that i studied, and not the half that i had no time for because of procrastination.

Tried something new with the pasta last night. Poured in some peppers-in-oil-in-a-jar kind of thing and it made the whole thing taste infinitely better. I bet it's the extra grease that made it so appealing. I'm such a fat bastard.

Today i'm gonna study at home. Every time i've tried that before, it has failed spectacularly. My house is just full of distracting stuff, and (as if that wasn't enough) i've got this unbelievable ability to waste time by just sitting at the desk and staring at the wall for a good 45 minutes. Maybe i'll get a poster, write $40,000 on it and hang it on the wall just in case i find myself staring in that direction again.