Update on those gigantic four-hour breaks: I love the fact that I can use the darkroom now because I have a card.

I love the darkroom. I love the darkroom. I don't think I can say this enough---I love the darkroom.

I just can't really even put it into words, why it is that I love it so much. The first time we went in there it was so strange, because everybody was crowded into such a small place. But the actual process, and the creation of---well, it's just something else. Holding in your hands a photo that you put into the chemicals, something that you made entirely with your own two hands---I don't know, watching the image billow up into black and white is like seeing something real and whole transformed into something magical. Modern alchemy.

Of course, I don't know how to do any actual PHOTOGRAPHS yet. I can make photograms, which are created by arranging items on top of light sensitive photo paper, then exposing the paper to light for some amount of time. But I'm pretty much in love with the entire process, and I am dying to learn how to do pictures from negatives. I may be forced to teach myself, but god, the prospect of knowing is exciting.

In other news, the idea of being a museum curator is sounding pretty damn attractive. DAMMIT. WHY CAN'T I LIKE THINGS THAT MAKE MONEY.

Ah well. Perhaps one of my books will become a bestseller and I can laugh in all the faces of, um, the people that mocked me. Which is a short list. So then I'll probably go laugh at Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, because they're hilar. Yeah that's right, I was too lazy, so I shortened it. Bite me! (Don't really. I've been quite clumsy the past couple of days and have quite a few paper cuts to show for it, so I'm in enough pain already.)

Also, damn, I think Andrea is getting me to watch American Idol. Ugh. It's a despicable show but some parts of it are just quite compelling.