Viva la Vida

My bar is being lowered considerably day by day as far as work ethic and concentration go as the concert date approaches . . . today Viva la Vida was released (finally), and opening the store today went as follows:

1. Obtain caffeine from the green mermaid
   
2. Unlock doors and turn on lights
   
3. Coldplay the stereo
4. Fold and refold sweatshirts in a dreamlike state (repeat several times)
   

Yes, Coldplay is now a verb. I would absolutely love to go off on a winding tangent about my thoughts about the album (people leaving all the time/inside a perfectly straight line/don't you wanna curve away?), but I will spare you from reading and the fingertips of my left hand from typing. Suffice to say that I have already listened to it start to finish at least eight times: I have six days to know these ten songs by heart. Give me 'til Thursday.

Why do the fingertips of my left hand hurt, you ask? My guitar came yesterday in the mail! Thus far I have learned the names of all the strings (EADGBE, from lowest to highest) and the A family of chords (A, D, E). The guitar (which is yet to be named) came strung with steel strings, which hurt like hell while learning to play . . . hopefully I will develop callouses before long and it'll be a little easier. My goal for the end of the summer is to be able to play the chords for "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Part I;" I'm not sure if this is too lofty a goal or not, but as my well-meaning but completely inept public speaking professor from last semester would say:

"Shoot for the stars and even if you miss, you could land on the MOOOON!"

I wouldn't exactly call a lunar landing failure. All systems go!