More bullet-points

• Today would be my grandfather's 91st birthday.  His death on September 6 marked the first time someone rather close to me, someone I saw on a regular basis, had passed away.  I had been to a wake for a great-uncle I hardly knew, and an uncle died of lung cancer due to smoking a couple of years ago, but this was different.  Looking back, all I could think of was the kinds of things he did with me: sometimes he drove me home from school if I had to stay after since both of my parents worked; sometimes he bent my ear about the things he did in WWII, like fighting in North Africa or being trapped in Italy living off of nothing but Spam and Vienna sausage (so much so that he wouldn't even touch it for the rest of his life) or getting shot in Belgium (which got him a Purple Heart and out of the war); sometimes we learned about his childhood in Bangor, with a father who wasn't there and was probably involved in organized crime anyway; sometimes he told me I'd make a great doctor or lawyer.  He was extremely active until a month before he died -- mowing the lawn, shoveling snow, doing household chores, going to the firehouse where he used to work every day just to pass the time.  Persistent breathing problems eventually landed him in hospice; the fact that I freaked out when I heard and began mentally preparing for the inevitable meant that I didn't get too emotional when I found out he died.  He told us the last time we saw him, on Labor Day, that he had pretty much made peace with everyone, which was a relief, and he stipulated that he be cremated without a formal service.  If perhaps I didn't know him as well as my dad or anyone else, at least I knew he was humble.  It seems ironic that he died two days before fall semester classes began, and his birthday is the day before spring semester classes begin -- almost like everything this school year begins and is therefore defined by loss.  In any case, I'll miss him.
• Returned to college today, and classes start tomorrow morning.  Textbooks cost a pretty penny once again, but this time around my parents decided to reimburse the costs.  It really should be an interesting semester because I have some very interesting classes, but after J-term and spending a week relaxing I'm not looking forward to the grind of four classes.  Besides, whenever I come back I always start feeling alone, especially since I was with my family the whole time.  I don't care how much they get on my nerves sometimes, or if I isolate myself from them anyway most of the time, I don't know what I'd do without them.
• I realized that I have a film screening the same time as Al Sharpton's lecture Wednesday night.  Perhaps the professor will let us skip it?  Here's hoping.  :/
• Watched Rain Man last night, as well as rewatching Memento.  Rain Man was not bad at all, while Memento reminded me why I don't like Christopher Nolan.
• I'm hoping this semester, I actually want to start reading more books, or at least watching some movies or some of Yang and Reinhard's shenanigans, and not just during the weekends either.  I don't want to spend all my time floating around on the Internet, doing absolutely nothing.  Of course, like all things I want to do, I end up getting caught up in work so much that I get easily tired and distracted, and I find myself in the same old rut, the same old routines.  As much as I want to exercise my brain a little more outside of class, I don't think this will happen.  Oh well.
• I need to start looking for a job.  There are only three job opportunities on campus listed on the Student Employment Office website, and none of them look to be my line of work.  Tomorrow or sometime this week I plan on e-mailing my old boss, or someone down at the public library in town to see if I can get one for this semester.  Because I do like having my moola, after all.  XD