Went to Viejas with my mother after school today. Took a beating, at both poker and blackjack. So it goes.

I had my last mid-term in econ today. I tried to study for it using the study guide CD-ROM last night, but it turns out the bookstore gave me the wrong disc with my book, I got the macroeconomics disc, but its the microeconomics textbook. Sad thing is, I used the CD-ROM to study for the first mid-term, and didn't notice the problem. Anyway, don't think I did particularly well, but sure I did well enough to squeak by.

I finished reading Wigfield, and must say I was disappointed. As much as I love both Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert, the book was rather boring. It keeps beating the same points over and over, and it never amounts to much. Basically, its the story of a collection of squatters, trying to create a town so they can get relocation funds when the dam which towers over them is destroyed. Or more accurately, its the story of a literary fraud, trying to document the plight of these shit-kickers in order to produce the opus on the death of small-town America he promised his editor. The town, with its wide array of strip clubs and random murders, seems to have been derived from a Daily Show sketch regarding a tax-shelter of a town, whose very existence was threatened by a mayor who wished to dissolve it. It's hard for this work of fiction to live up to the reality of that town, though.

The book is largely made up of profiles of the town's residents, telling their story in their own words. Some of these are hilarious (Burchal Sawyer, one of the three men who claims to be mayor, is a personal favorite of mine), but they all seem to fall into one of two or three types, and they get repetitive. The photos that accompany these testimonials, however, help give the characters some gravity, a white-trash charisma that is compelling; Todd Oldham's photography (with the three authors posing as all the characters) is the one aspect of the book I can recommend whole-heartedly. I think the main problem is, the book doesn't work as a book. As the photographs imply, the characters might be more compelling if the brilliant Sedaris, Colbert, and Paul Dinello were bringing them to life. In fact, their wonderful web site has sound clips of their characters, and lists a schedule for a stage version of the book, which I can only imagine will be much better than the book itself. The book has some great moments, but I can't really recommend it.

Did you see Conan yesterday? Jim Carrey and Stephen Hawking doing an act together, a sight to behold.