I worked 10 hours at the lab yesterday. Today I'm planning on doing a similar thing. I'm thinking that If I do that every weekend, then I'll be able to focus all my energy during the week on my school studies, only working an hour or two each day.

I went and saw the midnight movie at the Drexel Gateway theater last night. The reason I mention it by name, is that, in my mind, it's place is fraught with controversy. The place where the Gateway shopping center now sits used to be occupied by all these old, slightly run down brick buildings that housed hippie-type stores and cheap, ethnic eateries. I didn't realize that I liked them so much on my pre-move visits to Columbus, but when I arrived here and saw they were all boarded up I was disappointed. When I heard they were bulldozing them all down to build a shopping center and apartments I rolled my eyes, shook my head, and gave up a little bit on Columbus. Columbus has a bad habit of building shopping centers that people don't need or want, that are difficult to get businesses to enter, and even more difficult to get them to stay in. It seemed so obvious to fail, that I lost a lot of respect for Columbusites when I found out. I feel the same way about our U.S. govenment. Why are we in Iraq? Didn't we learn our lesson in Vietnam? Are we really just that stubborn, to spend huge amounts of money on something that we tried before and failed miserably at?

And the Gateway shopping center sucks. They stuck a Barnes and Noble within very short distance of three other bookstores. They tore down all the college bars with long histories and traditions to build really ugly "modern" bars with no heart and soul. There's no where to sit down and relax in the whole place. It looks like an airport, really. Airports are fun when you're in them, because of the novelty and the expectation of going to new places, but I don't want to go to one just for the ambiance. I like that there's a movie theater there, but even that is pointless, because there's another theater within walking distance of my house, that plays much the same movies, and more.

I don't understand Columbusites. They want to escape their "cow-town" reputation, to become more like a real city. They want real culture and history, an actually identity. But when real culture starts to build itself up, they tear it down to put up cheap, souless buildings, which are essentially churches to the cult of the corporation. Columbusites fight as hard as they can to keep their town as Suburban and hygenic as possible, and then wonder why their dumb city is so boring.

Anway, the midnight movie was David Lynch's "Blue Velvet", which is fitting, because of Mr. Lynch's hatred of the poor and absolute worship of the Middle Class. Seriously, if I see one more blond, pink sweater wearing girl living in a big, white, suburban house who symbolizes all that is pure and good in the world I'm going to...well...I don't know what I'm going to do. But it won't be pretty.