WHY MUST THERE ALWAYS BE SOMETHING?

      It turns out my roommate owns a space heater. It's been cold in these here parts for the past few days and he stays up all night. Every apartment I've ever lived in goes easy on the heat, even turning it off, in the middle of the night when normal people are sleeping and won't likely notice. But my roommate doesn't sleep at night. He stays up all night watching DVDs and working on his various writing projects although I don't know if it's fair to call them projects seeing as how he is not actively seeking to have any of them commissioned. It's more like a form of masturbation I suppose in that he desires to please others with his work but in the end winds up only pleasing himself.

      There's nothing wrong with that in of itself but since it is his dream to work in the television industry writing, producing, and possibly directing...but definitely writing. However, since he is not actively employed in any capacity by that industry either paid or intern nor is he actively seeking such employment (or any form of employment for that matter - temp agencies that haven't come through in ten months don't count!), it seems kinda weird to me to boast that this is what he wants to do yet doesn't do it in even the slightest way possible.

      Before I get accused of being the pot calling the kettle black...yes, I have dabbled in the creation of a language but even at the height of my craziness, I have never once believed that it would be spoken by anyone except me. If my notes on the language DON'T immediately and matter-of-factly end up in the garbage upon my death, I will be surprised (or rather I would be if it were possible for me to feel anymore at that point :-P ). Yes, I have my eccentricities but I don't go about thinking anything will come of them: not my language, not my planetary systems, not my made-up cultures, not my BASIC programs, not my created Doom levels, not my journals, nothing. In the garbage, deleted, or forgotten...I know that's how it'll be, but they bring me joy and that's all that matters. :-)

      Anyhow, since my roommate stays up all night, not only is he asleep during the mornings and early afternoons when he could be out looking for work, he's also awake during the cool-down period. Instead of doing what normal people do and layer-up (or complain...complaining would actually be more normal thing to do than layering up), he pulls out the space heater and fires it up...on maximum of course because why test it at the lowest settings first. Sigh...so much for our electric bills going DOWN in the winter if this keeps up. That thing uses more power than the air conditioner and like the air conditioner, it is yet another appliance I get to pay for and don't get to benefit from (times like this I really wish PSE&G would show an hourly breakdown of our usage). And again, is he using the space heater in his room with a much smaller area and watching DVDs on his laptop? No! That would be sensible but instead the desk in his room bears his old desktop computer which he uses to watch porn on instead of discarding the unit. Of course, with all the shit he has on his bedroom floor because he doesn't clean his room, I guess that'd be risking a fire. A constant output of 1500 watts doesn't spin the meter too much, right? What the fuck man?

       Nope, just a toasty expansive (and doorless) living room for him. Oh, and I just realized that he doesn't close the curtains either when running the unit so he's heating the kitchen and dining room (as well as my room, the bathroom, and his). Has he no sense whatsoever? He's thirty fucking years old. I can't believe I'm actually going to have to bring this up to him like a fucking parent. I don't want to be his parent!!! At some level I don't care that he's using the space heater but then again I do given his lack of consideration and the fact that the cord to the unit was UNDERNEATH the unit...exactly where it's not supposed to be. I'm surprised I haven't found it melted to the carpet yet. Again, perspective. It could be a LOT worse...he pays what he owes although he still doesn't do his fair share of work around here. He's constantly violating the implied oral contract that he do 50% of the domestic workload (not on a daily basis, I'm talking more over the course of a month it should be 50/50). Speaking of which:

      He actually washed his dishes this morning...but only moments after I got home. I'm glad he knew enough that I do the dishes immediately upon getting home. I was fully prepared to be annoyed that I would be washing his cheese encrusted pot and plates from his taco-like meal two days ago. I ate leftovers yesterday. Not needing to cook meant I could observe those dishes over the course of days (yay..). I haven't actually surveyed what he's done. Somehow it wouldn't surprise me to go out there later and find that he didn't wash them all. He's done that before, curiously leaving pots unwashed on the stove like they're not part of the dishes. (Thank goodness for non-stick pans. I can't imagine what life was like before them) Ugh, I'm glad to know he's spending his time unemployed productively around the apartment. This all gives me hints as to what it's like to be a parent...

Yay! Two day old dirty dishes!

       And the crazy part of all this is that I still occasionally consider re-upping on this lease if my roommate actually manages to find gainful employment before it ends. I really have to keep shit like this in mind when I start thinking lazily like that. I wish I could afford this place on my own. I really like it here...

      Okay, enough bitching for today...

ADDENDUM: To be fair, the space heater thing never became an issue. Once the heat came on full force, we were actually keeping the windows open because it would get so hot in the apartment.