How to: do laundry. And a current-events round up.

At school:

-Load all your dirty clothes into a laundry bag. Don't sort them. Don't do anything. Maybe wash your jeans inside-out if you don't like them fading. (Invest in a good canvas bag with backpack style straps. I've seen them with wheels but I think that's a bit extravagant.)

-Trek down to the laundry room. It's in the subcellar that looks like it doubled as the set of a Hammer horror classic back in the 1950s or so when Christopher Lee was better known as Dracula than as Willy Wonka's father. With this kind of atmosphere, it's no wonder I've developed a morbid fear of zombies waiting for me when the elevator door opens...

-Pick a washing machine. Any washing machine. Follow all the directions. load it up. Shell out anywhere between a dollar and three dollars for a single cycle. Pray to god it works.

-???

-Come back half an hour later. Find a dryer. Load your stuff. Lather, rinse, repeat what you did with the washing machine.

-Come back an hour later. Most of your clothes won't be dry, but that's why you have a drying rack to set up in your dorm room, right? Right? You did buy one of those, didn't you? And be sure to unload your stuff within five minutes of the dryer shutting off, otherwise the frat boy from 6B will come down and decide he desperately needs to dry his towels RIGHT NOW and dump your clothes on the floor.

At home:

-Take your time. Sort your clothes. Hang-dry stuff. Leave things in the dryer as long as you like. Don't pay a cent. I don't know. I make it up as I go along.

Current Events Round Up

The most spectacular solar eclipse of the millennium was visible over Asia and Africa yesterday. Because I live in the Southeastern United States, I will content myself to looking at pretty, dramatic pictures of Masai tribesmen and half-occluded shots of the sun.

Haiti tragedy lightning round: Being white and well-educated will not save you from natural disasters, as the death of the "Brazilian mother theresa" in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake proves. For every story like this that makes it to the news, there are a hundred more dying in anonymity. It really just isn't South America's week, from a seismic point of view.

If even the German government says not to use Microsoft Internet Explorer as your web browser, it's probably time to listen.

And Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep seal their tie for best actress by locking lips. ...I got nothing to say here.

-Leez.