2007-04-17
always something interesting
I'm sleeping in a room that is not my own. The shelves are lined with dog-eared paperbacks: Let's Play Chess, Eastern Trees, Garfield Chews the Fat, and a slew of spiral bound notebooks. I open them and flip through pages of notes:
Computer Architecture
Memory system
Bus structure
Internal CPU design
Group Project = 4 people. Details are important! SPEED counts!
On another page is a print-out for an exam:
"Questions to consider: Given an N-bit adder, how many gates delays would be a ripple carry adder? What about for a carry lookahead adder?"
On the back of the notebook, somebody wrote the word, "Fire."
On the dresser is a statue of Yoda composed of Legos. It reminds me of a computer-generated drawing. Beside Yoda sits a baseball cap that says, "Hair of the dog."
A half-melted candle drips over a coffee mug. Computer parts sit in a cardboard Dell box next to a dingy banjo. Bits of squished-up tape peel off the wall in the shape of a rectangle. I wonder what used to hang there. A mobile of tropical fish throws shadows across the room, making me feel as if I've sunk underwater. Shopping bags are heaped in a corner near the closet: Classic Felt Mattress Pad, Big Y Brands, and a box that reads, "Always Something Interesting."
When I click off the lights, I see stars speckled on the ceiling. At first I thought they were stickers. Then I realized it must be glow-in-the dark paint. After a few minutes, they fade away. Then I fall asleep and dream about the Milky Way.
f-i-n at 1:44 p.m.