Microserfs and Sake

CR=Comfort Room=Restroom

There is no toilet paper in the bathrooms here at the college. The management refuses. In the lobby of the school there is a cardboard box where sometimes there are methodically folded up squares of tp inside. The secretary folds them. In fact she was just doing a whole batch now when I asked her if she'd made the photocopies that I'd requested and she told me no, because the management said the students should pay for the copies. Scrap (flush) that idea, then.

Anyway. I just noticed today that the cardboard box I've been taking toilet paper from for the last 6 months (when management finally agreed after many student complaints that they might provide toilet paper sometimes) is a Japanese Hakushika Sake box.

I think I just noticed that today because I'm re-reading microserfs by Douglas Copeland. He makes life seem more interesting, thereby perhaps increasing my observational powers.

Even though I'm re-reading this, I don't think I ever read it in the first place. Two reasons. One: I don't remember it. Two: I distinctly remember not liking it. I'm reading it now, and I like it just fine. It's very entertaining and strangely current (current enough).

This book came out in 1995. 12 years ago. That's a decade plus. (Gotta remind old folks like myself that think that was last year.) Here's an excerpt.

There was a weird moment at the end of the night when everyone was pixelated. Ethan was carrying two flaming Sambucas, and tripped over a Planet of the Apes lunchbox somebody left on the floor next to a backpack, and the drinks sloshed all over the back of Susan's T-shirt, and she was on fire, like the "Flame On!" guy from the Fantastic Four.


I don't know, I mean that's no big deal I guess, but it seems strangely current to me. A book with so much technology in it should be absurd anymore. But this book isn't at all like an 8 track cassette. Douglas Coupland just has a way
Douglas Coupland really super cool interview.