School starts September 9, and right now I'm only a little bitter about it, which is exceptional given my reactions last year. I keep comparing Carleton to a big mall, in the sense that universities like people who hang out and give them money, and sh opping malls like people who hang out and give them money. Universities have advertisements and food courts and smelly washrooms. Meanwhile, shopping malls have advertisements and food courts and smelly washrooms. Some university graduates work in u niversities, and other university graduates work in shopping malls. The only difference I'm aware of are the four thousand two hundred and eighty-nine goddamn dollars and sixteen goddamn cents. So, I'm broke and a little dazed, but for once I'm excited about returning to classes, and the crazy thing is that I feel that's worth the money and the cost of turning my back on the past three years of hard work and sacrifice.

As a pledge to myself and my love of writing, I've decided to invest my talents into the three-day novel writing contest being held this Labour Day weekend. This is something I've wanted to do for years, but only this year have I found the time (along wi th Broken, who is also entering). The essential premise is that you have, on the honour system, three days (early Saturday morning until late Monday night) to write a novel, averaging about one hundred pages. The entries are largely crude and unedited, but a lot of writers have a lot of fun in the effort, and the winning novel actually gets published. With that said, I should stress that I'm entering as a sort of writing exercise. I have some great ideas for a novel, but those won't be the ideas I tak e with me through the three days of the contest. That book comes later on, and really I'm looking at this coming weekend as a chance to refine my storytelling skills a little before I write a story I've always wanted to tell. I have different ide as for the contest, which I will develop and indulge, but in the end the "winning" aspect is secondary to me. It would be wonderful to win, but I'm sure there are a thousand people with a thousand winning ideas who feel the same way. It doesn't affect m y convictions that I'm a genius -- last year a mystery novel won the contest. This year, well, for the sake of argument I'll say that just maybe the winner won't be me. Let me put it this way, though. If I win, I'll be sure to let you know how you can buy a copy. If I don't win, I'll probably let people read a few sample chapters. Either way, I get what I want and so do all of you.

So enjoy the rest of your summer. The misanthropic philosophy will continue to be updated, and I promise to work on some new pages throughout the next week.