i'm sitting in my room trying to memorise 20 slides of paintings from late 18c to early 20c. and am dying of all the audially intriguing but visually confusing names, majority of which are french. some of artists have similar names, some share common first names, most have more than 2 parts to their names. such as jean-auguste-dominique ingres, jean-francois millet, john everett-millais, jacques-louis david, elisabeth-louise vigee-lebrun, and joseph mallord william turner (note the use of hyphens). while naming them, their parents obviously weren't aware that their kids were growing up to become great figures in the grand history of art, and possessing the potential of confusing pathetic art history students like myself who are killing all their neurons trying to secure that one point for this name. i love them. i love their works. i just can't stand the inconsistencies in the naming of kids in the european societies. maybe an IUPAC system for nomenclature of kids will help.

and outside my room, in the common room, the TV is broadcasting the bushistic state of union. and 2 of my neighbours are watching. the president speaks cooly and firmly of the freedom in iraq, the freedom in the US and no freedom to create embryos, before the audience breaks into overwhelming waves of applause every now and then.