There's a manga I own, Aria, which I absolutely adore. It's an exposition of the
boring daily life of gondoliers (*Undines*) living and working on Mars, who navigate
(in both their professional capacity and private lives) Neo-Venezia, a city
which is the terraformed red-planet's doppelganger of the Earth (*Man-Home*) city
Venice.

The manga is of the *Iyashi-kei* genre of anime and manga meant to heal the
heart and soothe the soul. And Aria does it so well. If you have never read or
watched or even heard of Aria I urge you to check it out: an excellent English
translation was published by (formerly) ADV Manga and (currently) Tokyopop,
though the original run of the manga concluded in 2008.

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I have been pressed, squeezed recently of my time and life; so many
(unimportant) things weigh demands on my schedule and they have numbered so many
that I could care less now about doing anything about them than I have cared
about any insignificant, irrelevant thing before. Honestly, when someone hits me
up about (pick one:) senior design projects, careers, job opportunities, etc.
etc. I am only irritated and eye-rollingly amused at the deliverance of more unchewed
"task".

And to aid in curing my mild deperssion and sharpening cynicism I have
prescribed a routine of *taking it easy* i.e. setting aside time to relax,
reflect, read and write: one of those activities is reading Aria. This time is
(for me) non-negotiable and necessary to keep a clear head; because I have been
struggling with some things internally I prefer to keep this time around as
(exclusively) a rejuvination and regeneration period for my mental facility.

I am not sure if everyone needs something like this: I certainly do, in a
landscape where school never quits and I can't either. I hate, hate, hate it but
there is nothing I can do, save swallowing the pill (and crying a little) and
learning to live in the gap.