12:47pm, tuesday

like any other minute of any other weekday, i am sitting behind this computer doing nothing.

this is my job: i work with grants and proposals at the financial office of columbia's medical campus. (my dad hooked me up with this job). i work with two other people, marc wendell (hes young, mid twenties, he just had a baby shawna who is now 6 months old. he talks about her all the time and she is adorable!), angela russo (shes old, her daughter graduated from columbia already, shes italian, shes very very nice and her laugh is very contagious). marc looks like mikey in the tv show 'recess' and angela looks like cheri oteri from SNL (80s-90s seasons).

this is what i do at my job: hone my minesweeper skills, browse facebook.com, visit digg.com, read the essentials of investing, chat on gtalk/AIM, blog, practice my drawing skills, solve some crossword/sudoku puzzles, think about making money, think about evening/night plans, think about my future.

today i came across ingrid's xanga and it reminded me of how much i enjoy blogging. ingrid keeps her prose short, concise, and to the point. she isn't afraid to put herself out there with her ideas and her words, which i admire.

i remember browsing xangas a few years ago (its been a long while) and i came across a xanga that belonged to a college applicant. in a one-line entry, she wrote: 'i wish i could just give colleges my xanga url.' hah, ridiculous, i thought. but as a matter of fact, her entries were full of little gems of wisdom and insight. and it made sense. thus is the reason colleges use essays as a starting point to analyze and understand applicants. what is more revealing than a blog? anything well written will open doors into the writer's mind. and a blog just happens to be updated more often than an essay. i thought her wish is reasonable and should be considered. or maybe she should just take a few entries and call it an 'experimental' essay.

anyway, there was something in ingrid's xanga that inspired me to live a better life, to try harder to better myself, to not be afraid to say 'WHAT THE FUCK, boss?? that was MY muffin!', to think actively, to not live like a normal person going through the motions of life. alexey once said 'what is the purpose of living if you're not going to be outrageous? otherwise you're just taking up space.' go live life; go be ridiculous and fuck what other people think.

it also makes me miss writing in general. i feel that my muse comes and goes in random, unexpected spurts. sometimes, when i'm riding home on the 1 when its late, i would feel the need to put something on paper. sometimes, they are ridiculous thoughts, absurd pictures, or intriguing insights.

anyway. off to read ingrid's xanga.

-andy