So I stayed up (even though within a metre of my knitting needles, home set) until 4 am last night playing Metal Gear, finally defeating the evil cyborg zombie ninja (well, maybe he's just misunderstood, especially since he went from white commando to evil cyborg zombie ninja and Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai didn't even go that far), though now stuck on yet another boss. Sadly, school is more monotonous than video games, as there are very few satisfying boss stages.

It's been strange--due to work, I've been coming home to really work, rather than dropping by to do some errands to put in some time in case of landlord demands and then heading off for Joephet's. So I've been actually productive, even if I do miss Joephet rather much. And I've been able to work out, and I think I've been eating less these days, which is troubling--somehow a bagel and coffee, arroz con gandules y habichuela negra y pan along with three red plums and lots of Diet Coke plus a stick of pork souvlaki doesn't seem like quite enough food for someone who suffers quite as much as me. It's probably time to down a milky protein shake and edamame or popcorn.

It's frightening, meanwhile, how well I can still write without trying, even though my creative ambitions have largely ground to a halt, which is sad given one of the ninth graders I don't normally have today was going on about his action novel, starring two assassins (one male, one female) who are tricked by their mutual employer into fighting each other, until they learn of the deception and join forces in the name of good or mercenary values. Sounds a lot like Ecks vs. Sever to me. He didn't agree, but we did agree that Lucy Liu is an ugly cockeyed bitch (well, not in those terms--I am a schoolteacher, after all: it was more like "Verily, Lucy Liu is on occasion overrated given that she is rather cross-eyed and has freckles which are not considered marks of beauty in the Chinese tradition").

I don't know if I've ever mentioned Melancthon Zombie, but now's as good a time as any.