50 Books in a Year Update:
( What I Have Read )

7. The Parliament of Birds by Geoffrey Chaucer, Transl. E.B. Richmond
8. Love Visions by Geoffrey Chaucer, Transl. Brian Stone
9. Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer, Transl. Neville Coghill
10. Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'm also now in the process of reading Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Metamorphoses, so 13 books read, only...37 more books to go in 30 weeks. Hmmm.......I need to rededicate myself to reading a lot more often.

I deconstructed my room, so now it's a little freaky and soul-less. I put up my posters and was nestled in the first day, if not the first 6 hours of moving in, so I never had time to notice how terribly white the room is. I really should've left my posters up until tonight, since I move out Wednesday afternoon, but....It was simpler to get most of my packing done now. Speaking of....I should really get to packing clothes, for all that it will only take 30 minutes once my laundry is done.

I finished my Chaucer paper (which turned out harder than it would have been if only books were posted online), and now I am going to be studying today for my Planets final. Since the final is A) in combination with the midterm, only 40% of my final grade, B) I've gotten consistent 9-10/10s on my labs which accounts for 60% of my final grade, C) is curved, and if one quiz section does insanely better than all the rest of the class and skews the curve (like my quiz section managed to do for the midterm) the prof doesn't take that section into account, and D) I actually know a lot of this stuff, I'm not that worried about if I study poorly for it. The only incentives to studying my brains out in order to 4.0 the test is self-satisfaction and the fact that he weighs the final more if we show improvement in the final. Soooo...yeah. Not worried.

And Naruto Shippuden: Why can't you come to the US faster?! Let's skip all the dumb fillers and get straight to the real stuff! I want to know what everybody's fussing about with Itachi and...well, not interested in Sasuke, but what's going on with him and Itachi?!? Same to Doctor Who, though since SciFi was kind enough to air the episodes only about 2 weeks behind BBC (the edited versions, to our discontent), I suppose it's less of a rant and more of a "please to be showing us our Doctor Who at the same time as the lucky British folk and without the 43-minute version."

7 Days Until I Go to Rome!!!!!!!!!! now if I could only figure out this stupid cell phone mess I'd be less stressed


I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. If you can love me for what I am, we shall be the happier. If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that you should. I will not hide my tastes or aversions. I will so trust that what is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever inly rejoices me, and the heart appoints. If you are noble, I will love you; if you are not, I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical attentions. --Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

50 Books in a Year:

6. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, Beidler Ed. Includes:
*The General Prologue
*The Knight's Tale
*The Miller's Tale
*The Reeve's Tale
*The Wife of Bath's Tale
*The Merchant's Tale
*The Franklin's Tale
*The Pardoner's Tale
*The Shipman's Tale
*The Prioress' Tale
*The Nun's Priest's Tale

One of these days I may actually read the entirety of T.C.T., but at the moment I'm good with this. Yay.

So, I'm a bit pathetic. Let's just say it involves a window that is not completely sealed from the outside, a spider which crawled all over my window but never came near me, me cringing and internally wailing, a bottle, and a kindly neighbor who took pity on me and squashed the spider. And now one of my chores later tonight will be to tape up the sides of my window so it may never happen again. *shudders*

Lots of Autumn 2008 pondering/querying behind the cut.
( Yeah, I know I said I'd leave off about this until it got closer, but I'm a nerd. )

Official-Rome-Meeting in T-minus 5 days! ...Not that I'm, uh, counting down or anything....*shuffles* And I went ahead and requested a copy of the impossible-to-get-Rome-book assigned to us through the library. Hopefully we're only supposed to read the book by the time we get to Rome. If we're supposed to have it on hand and/or have had it read by the time of the meeting...then I'm just going to have to shrug and tell them they should've sent out notices/had the meeting earlier.

It was a little surprising/eerie to me, but in my Planets class Toby was covering the atmospheres of Venus, Earth, and Mars, and I was following along with him, almost to where I started predicting where he was going with his lecture. O.o Guess taking Weather101 was of some use after all. Though, probably not in the way Jerome meant it to.

And, hee, I wanna go live on Mars, with its dust-devils that put tornados to shame and sandstorms that encompass the entire planet. hey, future scientists, get to work on it; we wouldn't want to make liars out of the Babylon 5 creators with their Mars colony, do we? ^.~

I've suddenly developed a craving for Korean noodles. A particular type, too. Naengmyun, particularly the ice-water broth variety. Though now that I think about it, the spicy cold noodles sounds tasty, too. *wonders where the craving came from, then goes back to her ramyun*


Dennis Hutch had stepped up into the top seat when its founder had died of a lethal overdose of brick wall, taken while under the influence of a Ferrari and a bottle of tequila. --Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

So, yeah, er...here comes my inner English!geekness. I saw these icons and, well, yeah, needed to have them.

First one I got:


Essentially sums up every single pet peeve I have whenever I read fanfiction or, *facepalm* peers' papers or *facepalm harder* published works (i.e. newspapers, magazines, etc.).

And saw this one today:


Sadly....this is pretty much my rule of thumb when I write papers and I don't want to sound entirely stupid (whether or not using these phrases makes me sound even more stupid is up for debate). Is it sad that I laughed and thoroughly enjoyed these grammar icons? Probably.

So, here endeth my icon!squee.

I'm loving my Chaucer class, even though it's throwing me for a loop. I'm used to the teachers demanding that students speak up, that if we don't participate 'you don't get participation points, which is ZOMG bad for your grade!!1!1!1111!!' But Remley, he just kinda sits on the desk (I think it may have something to do with the fact that the chair's too low for him) and rambles on about the mechanisms of Med. Lit and about Chaucer's sources and parodies, etc. etc., and if there's ever a hand raised he lets them speak up when he pauses to take a breath. It's a new method of teaching an English class for me. I like it, since it doesn't penalize me for being a quiet person in class and for not being able to say my point before someone else does. And in spite of the fact that The Canterbury Tales is technically a poem, I love reading it. So, all's good in my English class as it should be. *waves a banner happily*

I got my pasaporte, huzzah. And..well, I opened it and saw the picture used for my identification.....*winces* I think I kinda forgot about how bad it was, and it was a huge shock to my system to be reminded. People at the airport are gonna look at it, look at me, and tell me that I'm a horrible person for stealing somebody else's passport, I'm sure. Or make some comment to the effect that I've changed quite a bit. At least in my driver's license the blonde is a lot more hidden; I don't even remember when the picture was taken.

I'm finding myself getting drawn back to Darkwing Duck, which is bad because...well, that makes one too many shows for me to be watching. True, DW--er, DWD is over (sadness) but there's still 91 half-hour episodes for me to watch (minus the....6-7 episodes I've seen now), on top of Torchwood (though I am 1 episode away from being caught up) as well as Life on Mars (5 episodes from finishing) and Doctor Who (3 more days before another episode, YAY!!!!!), and soon House will be back on (Monday 21st) AND I'm still doing the 50 Books in a year thing, and am still stuck at trying to finish #6 (which I think is going to switch from The Secret Agent to The Canterbury Tales [Beidler Ed.]). *headdesk* I'm not even going to touch on what I need to do for school/Rome.

I need to make a trip down to B&N sometime this week (probably tomorrow) to finally pick up the last of my Chaucer textbooks, and also to pick up Metamorphoses by Ovid for Rome, and then hopefully I'll be done with books and such! I love books, I do, but having to constantly go out and come back only to go back out again and repeat the process practically 6 times makes me a little weary. Of course, in addition to the Ovid Rome is requiring another book which is out of print! Why can't they pick a different book which isn't out of print which may still cover the same material is beyond me. The email the program director sent to us didn't say explicitly we needed to buy the books, just read them, so....maybe I can just check it out from the library and read it and do it that way, yes/yes? I'll ask him at the info session at the end of the month, and hopefully he'll be agreeable. If not....to Amazon.com/Barnes&Noble.com I go.

Which leads me to another point (sorry, sorry, I know my entries tend to ramble on): Why in pluperfect heck isn't this info session earlier?!?! As in, before the visa application is due??? It doesn't make sense to me why things are running late. Like the deposit? The application says the charge would show up a week after you send confirmation and you need to pay it then. That didn't happen. He later says in an email sent on the 4th, "but it is all straightened out and your deposit amounts should appear very soon". Um....no. Still nothing yet. *headdesk* He's done this at least once before, if not more than that....I'm not entirely certain why this year seems more behind. Did he do this last year, too? It doesn't seem likely to me, but....oh well. What happens happens.

I need to get out more, out to Seattle-proper and such. I'm thinking of a trip to Pike Place this weekend (not interrupting DW, of course!), simply so I can get out and about, but we'll see what happens. I tend to make plans and promise whole-heartedly that I will make good on them, but then it rolls around and I'm too lazy to get out. Maybe I need to drag Kathryn and Nikki and Freddie into it or something, who knows.

38% Geek

Col. O'Neill: I do appreciate that you were the one to come and see if I was okay. That... that means something.
Dr. Jackson: Ah... actually, no, it doesn't.
Col. O'Neill: No?
Dr. Jackson: Um... we, ah, we drew straws. I lost. --Stargate SG-1, Shades of Grey

*is 21* Yay!!

Yesterday I thought I'd not attend a quiz section, because it was my birthday and I was going to treat myself with not having a class which doesn't really help me understand the concepts too well. But then I told myself I was just being lazy and I was going to go, even if I have to be an internally whiny brat about it.

Umm....since the class is at 10:30am and by the time I post this it'll undoubtedly be after, you can plainly tell something went wrong with that plan.

So now I just have class at 12:30-1:20, and then a watch a movie/discuss a movie from 1:30-3:50. And also turn in my 4-5 page paper for that movie class....WHICH I FINISHED THE DAY BEFORE IT WAS DUE!!! O.O I'm not used to that feeling of accomplishment in college.....'tis sad. And it wasn't even a "3 minutes til midnight, printprintprint!" kinda thing. It was an, "Oh, it's 8:30 and I'm done....what do I do now with the rest of my night?" thing. *shrugs*

Don't know when my mother and sister will get up here, but sometime after 4:00 I'm going home. And I will (supposedly) have a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake ready to pick up by tomorrow. Yay! Me gusta el cake! Cake를 좋아!

Probably the only thing I'm not going to like about this weekend is needing to talk to my mother about Rome. I know she says she's okay with me going and that she wants me to go, but....well, it's the typical, "I'm glad you're going but don't go," that I fear.

Heartfelt wishes to the NIU students, and that all this violence occuring nationwide and in Seattle will stop.

Edit 9:00PM: Well, finally got home at about 7:30, after leaving at 3:40-ish and having an hour break for dinner. Eeesh. Though, I really shouldn't complain, because my mother and sister were on the road since 1:00, and didn't stop until the dinner thing.

So far birthday plans are not plans. There's been mention of a trip to Westport, of shopping, of ice cream cakes, of a lot of things, and yet there's nothing definite. Sooooo....if you need to get a hold of me tomorrow....cell phone!

50 Books in a Year:
3. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
4. Lirael by Garth Nix
5. Abhorsen by Garth Nix

Lolita is an....interesting book to say the least. I was a little more interested in his word choices and the style of his writing than the subject matter, but do I recommend it? If you can read past the pedophilia/slight incest, then sure. If the thought of that makes you lose your appetite...then you will probably want to avoid it. I can't say that the book changed my perspective/made me sympathize with the pedophiliac, but there's nothing graphic in the book except for a bit of non-sexual violence.

Books I plan/have available immediately to read:
1. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
2. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
3. Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara
4. Lirael (Edit: Finished this book 2/17/08) and 5. Abhorsen (Edit: Finished 2/19/08) by Garth Nix
6. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Which I got the $25 hardback for $1.50! Wooo!). Yes, yes, I know Angels and Demons is supposedly better; maybe I'll get around to it if I can.
7. Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
8. The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
9. The Waves by Virginia Woolf
10. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
11. Passage to India by E.M. Forster
12. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
13. My Antonia by Willa Cather
14. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Maybe...but certainly not War and Peace)
15. The Almost Noon by Alice Sebold
16. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
17. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson

Sooo...yes, I've lots of books lined up. Of course, having read 3 books out of the 50 I need and only have about 42 weeks left....I need to pick up the pace. I'm hopefully taking a Chaucer class, and there'll be text that I haven't read before, so I'm counting those as well. That'll be about 4-5 more books for my list.

Not much more news. My mother's made some comments about taking me out to a casino to gamble away all my money or something.....and I believe she's only 10% kidding.....

And Nikki! Thanks so very much for my gift. ^_______^ It shall be used well! And to all those who wished me a happy birthday (either in real life or on facebook) thank you! I'll send more personalized messages when I'm not under a time crunch.


Oracle: I'd ask you to sit down, but you're not going to anyway. And don't worry about the vase.
Neo: What vase?
[Neo turns around sharply, hitting a vase with his elbow, knocking it to the floor, where it crashes]
Oracle: That vase.
Neo: I'm sorry.
Oracle: I said don't worry about it. I'll get one of my kids to fix it.
Neo: How did you know?
Oracle: Ohhh, what's really going to bake your noodle later on is, would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything? --The Matrix

14 Days Until I'm 21.

It's not much of a countdown; I highly, highly doubt I'll be doing a 21-run at all. If I do, it would be for the ability to do the actual purchase of alcohol. Someone else could do the drinking (not that I'd have money to do the purchasing anyhow).

I went to quite a few "Career Discovery" panels this week. There was one about applying to grad school that was helpful in figuring out the actual application process, if not figuring out whether I should or shouldn't go on for my Master's. Then there was the What to do with a Lit Major session, which was kinda helpful in an, "Oh, these people actually exist and aren't street-bums," kind of way. Then the MFA panel was more geared toward those from the actual School of Art, rather than to, say, Creative Writers, so it kind of wasn't appropriate for me. I'd have to say the one today, Careers in Writing and Editing, was the best for me. It was...kind of nice knowing there were some practical applications for an English major, and that if I do go into freelancing I can still make a decent (albeit hard) living. But one of the most helpful pieces of advice I got was about whether or not people need a Master's or not:

Get a Master's in something you want to master.

I don't know who said it, but for some reason whenever the question of Grad school came up it was always "should I go for a Master's in English/Creative Writing?" It never even occurred to me to think of Mastering in something else, or that I even could. I just thought of a Master's degree as an extension of my Bachelor's. Plus, I don't think not one of the panelists in that session had a Master's, and some of them were at least in their 30's. So...maybe I don't need to invest $20-30,000 more into my education before I get into doing what I want to do. It's kinda strange for me to think.

The CiW&E session really motivated me into thinking about internships and freelance-writing. I'm thinking of looking into finding something that pays me to write small articles or blogs now. I suppose it dawned on me before that I could get paid to do that, but it never really made it through that I could enjoy doing that, or that they could be legit. I may think about starting a blog for my "professional" writing. I'm not sure what exactly I could write about, since my life revolves so much around fandom and what little snitches of my RL experiences are actually interesting, but I suppose I could just go randomly around the U-district and "interview" people for the sake of it. Maybe even do some restaurant reviews, if I could remember to focus on useful stuff while I eat.

You know a student's got graduation requirements to fulfill when the next quarter's course schedule is just put up and not a few hours later they've got their schedule planned. No ifs, no ands, no buts. *sigh* At least I know what I can look forward to in March-June. And...I actually kinda like my schedule. Sure, I'll be starting at 9:30AM M-Thursday rather than 10:30, but on Fridays I can sleep in until my class starts at 12:30, which will be Korean. And that 12:30 class is the only class I'll have on Fridays (barring any little minor 1-3 credit classes I take, or heaven forbid if I overload on credits this quarter).

The joys of taking an English class, I suppose. For some reason the English teachers at UW don't really like Friday classes, so they either do M-Thursday classes, or they do alternating days like Monday&Wednesday or Tues&Thurs classes. I'm (hopefully! though I'm not really that concerned, having junior standing) taking a Chaucer course. My heart kinda ached at the sight of the textbook's price (it was from the previous class offering, but I'm assuming it'll be the same required texts), but seeing as how I managed to avoid classes that had really pricey textbooks in my 3 years, I think it's safe to say it was inevitable. Still, I'm going to see what UBookstore's price is, then check B&N's price. I'm suspecting B&N's price will be cheaper, even with the UBookstore's refund.

Along with Chaucer and finishing 2nd year (and probably my last year of) Korean, I'm going to take an astronomy class, called The Planets. I've always been a little more interested in the planets than the universe in general, though of course that was always in the context of mythology/fantasy, not scientific. I wonder, though, if they'll be including Pluto as a "planet" in the course.....they'd better...*shakes fist at the international scientific community*

I'm breathing a little easier about fulfilling my requirements to graduate. I decided not to pursue third year Korean, even if my mother will give me unending grief over it, which opened up my senior year A LOT. So much, it's ridiculous. With the Creative Writing major it's a little bit tight, and if I'm not accepted into the CW program in Rome it'll be even tighter, but it's still doable. If I did get into the Rome program and if I am an English Lit major, my schedule would be so free I could actually take some classes for fun! o.O Kind of a strange concept, really........

I need to make it a point to go into the English advising office and be like, "I have no idea what to do with my future! HELP!!" They might be able to help me with my specific brand of confusion, hopefully, even if I have to go in for several sessions. Maybe even an internship where I can figure out what I want to "specialize" in. That's probably what I worry about most: specializing. Every panel member in all the sessions had found their "specialization." It even seemed like they knew what they wanted to specialize in when they were still undergrads, before graduating. How the hell do people do that anyway????? Seriously, was there some sort of elementary school special class (like when they were teaching about "the birds and the bees") that I missed? "Now, here's how to figure out what you want to do after high school and college, even if it's work in the nonprofit sector of political and activist campaigning." ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!?????!!!??????

Another piece of advice I got from the CiW&E session was to volunteer at writing conferences. I'd thought about volunteering at Sakuracon, but it never occurred to me that there'd be writing conferences. I'm excited about that prospect, actually. I really, really want to do that, so much so that it's kinda surprising and frightening how excited I am. Frightening because usually I only get this excited over something that occurs in Fandom (like Rose coming back to Doctor Who....^_______^), and then it frightens me because the thought produced such a reaction in me.

Blegh. That was a lot of career-oriented rambling.

In the What to do w/Lit Major there was a novelist on the panel who engaged me in a little bit of conversation concerning Lolita (I was reading it). I didn't even know who he was until he was introduced, and then the person running the panel made the assumption that everyone knew who he was and had read his book and knew that his book was made into a movie, that sort of thing. David Guterson? Ring any bells for anyone? Well, when I found out he was a novelist I definitely became more interested, and now I'm thinking I'll probably make Snow Falling on Cedars part of my 50 Books. If I like his writing, I may try his other books, too. Met ("met" meaning "saw him on the panel") someone named David Quinn, who was apparently part of television programs, but also met Ryan White (and I cringe as I write this, because it's in rather bad taste that I'm so drawn into that fact solely because Ryan White is such a recognizable name). There's another book I'm kinda interested in at least borrowing, called "The Anti 9-5 Guide" which was written by another panelist (in the CiW&E session), which kinda covers how to survive the way I'm probably going to wind up having to.


There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. --Oscar Wilde

The PC at home has never been disk-defragmented, and it's been almost 7 years since we got it, so I figured....probably way overdue for defragmenting. I started it at about 1:40PM and as of 3:23PM it is....6%. Woooooo.

Progress on my 50 book project:
1. Sabriel by Garth Nix
2. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

I can't write book reviews for the life of me, so don't expect any long-winded descriptions of the books I read. If I really don't like the book, then by all means I'll forewarn people, but generally I don't read books I don't like (the one exception being way back in 7/8th grade, reading The Exodus by....I don't remember who, but...*shudders* bad book. BAD!

But anyway....I liked Sabriel. Necromancy actually being used for good rather than evil is new to me, and I liked the heroine, though I'm hoping Lirael and Abhorsen kinda departs from the whole Touchstone/Sabriel romance; I like Touchstone, but...I don't feel the chemistry. AND NO ONE SPOIL THE BOOKS FOR ME OR YOU WILL GO TO THE SPECIAL HELL (where they send child molesters and people who talk at the theatre)!!!!!!!!

I cried reading My Sister's Keeper. I got teary and maybe let a tear or two drop in the beginning and middle, but the end....I bawled. It was 12:30 in the morning (last night/this morning, actually) and I bawled. I can see where some people say it's cliched/they knew the ending before the book began, but.....it's not about the ending. It was about the characters. It was about the journey (yes, yes, I know, corny as hell, but true nonetheless).

I go back to the UW on Sunday, don't know when precisely. Dorms open at 8, but there's no way I'd even manage to convince my sister (let alone myself) to get up at 6 in the morning just to get there at 8 (my sister takes a long time to get ready, then she'd insist on breakfast, then [of course] the I-5 traffic would be insanely murderous). Then I have to wash my 4-week-old, oatmeal-crusted bowls/spoons since I didn't have any time to do so before my mad rush out of Hansee back in December, change my bedsheets, and catch up with whomever happens to have arrived by the time I'm there. And, of course, I'll be able to watch Voyage of the Damned with Nikki sometime soon....

Oh, and also buy my textbook for the quarter. Yay....*twirls finger* 'Course, I have no reason to complain, my textbook will be under $100. But that doesn't include whatever coursepacks my teachers will not inform us about until we sit down in class Monday/Tuesday/whenever my first class is.

I saw Murder Mystery dinner kits at MegaFoods, and I was thinking and debating buying one....I just don't know whether it would be used if I bought one....There are a pasta-restaurant, a luau, a backyard grill, a fancy-wine dinner, and a snow-resort themes...I may go ahead and buy one and if it doesn't get used...then it'll be saved until there can be a use for it. *shrugs*

I've driven my mother's Caliber (which is kind of a smaller version of an SUV-body vehicle) twice now. I think I might be more comfortable driving a smaller vehicle; I just felt the tiniest bit unsafe driving it.

And now, as of 4:10PM, the C:drive is......10% defragmented. *sigh*

Edit 7:02PM: So, um, aaaaappppppaaaaarrrreeeennnnttttlllllyyyy I am unable to go one Winter Break without power outages. The power went out at about 5:45, and didn't come back on until 6:50 or so. Not the longest I've ever gone without power, and right now it's not the worst thing happening in the State or on the West Coast, but..grr. One winter break without power outages. That's all I ask. Really. And the power outage disrupted the disk defragmenting which, at the time the power went out, was at around 16-18% complete. Needless to say, it's not getting done this weekend. Maybe the next time I'm home, which is the Martin Luther King day weekend (huzzah for public institutions, and not private ones which don't celebrate it like PLU [sorry Nicole and Jared; you hear it every year, but us UW-students do get gloating rights since you do get out mid-May]).

[restaurant owner] glances down at Judge. "Dog stays here."
"Dog comes," I respond.
"Not in my restaurant," Luigi insists.
"He's a service dog, he can't stay outside."
Luigi leans close, a couple of inches away from my face. "You're blind?"
"Color-blind," I reply. "He tells me when the traffic lights change." --My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Happy New Years, everyone! Hope no one woke up in strange places with strange people.

Not much to update on. All my college costs for winter quarter are paid for (*huge sigh of relief*) with the exception of a textbook (and probably many more coursepacks, ick), but I have a little bit left over from financial aid to pay for that, so I'm good to go. ^.^

Today is the day I will officially start my 50 Books in a Year project/meme. I sort of hope I can finish it early so I can up it to something like a 100 books or something....That'd help make me happier and less absorbed by my video games and Internet, I feel. I miss my books and reading for pleasure. (By the bye....if you hadn't noticed, here is your official "I'm a nerd" admission)

Speaking of video games, I'm nearly more than halfway through with the official storyline of Final Fantasy XII at about 97 hours, though all the sidequests are slowing me down a bit. The sad thing is? All those 97 hours are done at home, since I'm far too possessive over my Collector's Edition to risk bringing it up to campus. The dorms are pretty darned safe, but....there's always that 1% chance. Of course, if you asked the Housing people at UW, that 1% is more like 90% if us college students are allowed toasters and candles and other open-coil/flame devices (though, I do agree that a lot of college students can be careless, and that's a bad combination with flames and dormitories).

Anyway, back to the 50 Books thing.....I'm requiring myself to include only books I've never read before, to "broaden my horizons" or whatever, but I'm not restricting it to just the "classics." For one thing, I don't think there are enough classics I haven't read to make the 50. For another, I want to enjoy doing this project, not make it too forced. I have about 10 books waiting on my shelves for me to read, so all I need to do is take time out of my Internet-surfing to actually read them.


Clayface: You didn't think I'd come here without reinforcements, didja?
Batman: Wish I'd thought of that. [door blows in behind him, revealing the rest of the Justice League] Oh, wait. I did.

Flash: [standing over "unconscious" Sinestro] Looks like I didn't need you after all, yo. But you can help me tie him up.
Batman: ...Catch. [shoots Flash in the chest with a grapple] The real Flash would've been too fast for that. [shocks him, revealing Clayface]
Clayface: What gave me away?
Batman: You overplayed your part, yo. --Justice League, The Secret Society

Edit Dec 10 2007: I decided to move the Wishlist to the top of my page, until Xmas passes. Why? Errr....'cause I'm sleep-deprived and it's something simple for my brain to grasp? *shrugs*

I should just edit my previous post with my wishlist instead of spamming my friendslist (what few friends I have on lj, at any rate) with more entries, but I'm doing this with the intent of streamlining the wishlist and leaving out the distracting, rambling journaling. So...just skip this if you're here to entertain yourselves by nitpicking/MST-ing my entries.

(Note: You may find some of the stuff from the wishlists in #10 amongst 7-9. It's because my brain refuses to generate an original list.)

Sonya's Wish List 2007:

1. If you're my friend, stay my friend. If you aren't and are letting me think you are my friend [for whatever reason you may have], let me know so I can move on with my life and stop worrying about if I'm being a bad friend to you.
2. Anything fandom-related (see my profile). Fics, icons, etc. If it's a fic, I'm open to most things except character-bashing and Mary-Sues.
3. Barnes & Noble giftcards (or, really, giftcards to any bookstore, or giftcards to any store in general).
4. To go on the Rome Creative Writing program in Summer 2008. (It's more of a hope than me actually asking someone for it.)
5. Go to either freerice.com to donate rice or The Breast Cancer Site and the other tabs at the top of the page to donate other free stuff. None of the options cost money, and you could help someone!
6. Make something creative and send it to me, whether an online card you made yourself (Publisher document, Paint image, Adobe Photoshop, etc.) or some artsy-craftsy thing you made out of recycled newspaper. I'm a sentimental fool; I'll treasure anything.
7. Scifi/Action/Fantasy movies/television DVDs.
8. BOOKS! I always like giving the illusion showing I'm well-read.
9. Decorative items (posters, things to hang from the wall, etc.)
10. Anything from my wishlist, or if you don't have an online B&N account, from this (slightly more extensive) wishlist.

....to make approx. 130+ sheets of printer paper, standard quality? Cause I killed that many last night to make 24 copies of a 10-page short story, 2 copies of 4 2-page critiques, and 7 copies of a poem (one page). Though, to highlight my "environmental" side, I did double-side my short story, so it was really only 5 pages that I used for each copy, instead of 10 pages (which would have been SOOO much easier in terms of simply getting the job done).

I even went through the equivalent of 1 ink cartridge just printing the short story; I started probably a little less than half-way on one and then had to switch to a new one maybe after twelve copies, and now the new cartridge is just on the higher side of a quarter full. Thank goodness I bought 2 cartridges instead of one yesterday, which leads me into this next segment of the entry.

So after my last class of the day, at about 3-ish, I started walking over to the Office Max to buy ink cartridges, which is about 3-4 streets over and across a freeway. There's a little store next to it called "Cartridge World," where they stick to just selling ink cartridges and the like. I decided to check it out, since usually the specialty stores have competetive prices and whatnot. One HP-27 ink cartridge cost ~$13.50, as opposed to the $17.99-18.95 I've seen elsewhere. Sooo, yes, definitely bought it there. And they have this free rewards program where you buy 10 cartridges you get $7 off, and for every cartridge you return for a refill you get $3 back. It was a bit of a walk, maybe, but definitely worth it in my opinion. Plus, with joining the rewards program the Arbor Day Foundation or some such foundation will plant a tree! So, I get to make up for all those poor trees that died so I could pass my Short story class.

---- UPDATE LATER!!!!

RESUMED 9:30PM

Sorry--went to the University Bookstore Thank You Nite. 20% savings on top of other marked off prices, yay-ness. And some free stuff, too, along with raffles. I didn't win anything, though; sadness. They gave away MacBooks (while I am a PC user, I wouldn't have minded switching for free....) and iPods and such. 'Twas nice for the winners, but I still think they should've had a rule where if someone won something in an earlier raffle they were excluded from the next raffle. Oh well.

Aaaaaaaannnyway, back to the entry. Nikki came by and SHE'S GOING TO FREAKING LONDON AND SHE'LL SEE DAVID FREAKING TENNANT IN HAMLET!!!! Such awesomeness.

There was a girl in my Korean class who collapsed and suffered from some time of seizure today. The same thing happened to her (coincidentally) in Korean class last year, at around this time even. It was pretty frightening. Hopefully she'll take care of herself.

I'm feeling better about my chances to getting into the Creative Writing major. The same lady who spoke to my Short Story class came to my Poetry class and pretty much gave the same spiel, but she seemed a bit nicer about it--maybe she's just not a morning person? But she did say that they accept about 80% of applicants, and from what she said I took it to mean the 20% who fall through do so because of sloppiness, mechanics, and because they write genre pieces for their fiction sample (lame!). Since I'm not (planning) doing any of those three things, I should be safe. Right? Right, we'll go with that outlook. Because not getting into the Creative Writing major totally screws with my class plans for the next five quarters (5 quarters until I graduate OH RASSILON...).

I'd pondered doing a double major with Korean last night, but after taking a look at it I cannot honestly do it without being a fifth year senior, and even then I'd probably have to overload on credits a lot of that time. It's just not feasible. I really hope they announce a Korean minor, although even completing that is a bit iffy, depending on what credits apply and everything. If they do come out with a Korean minor and all I'd need to take is the third year of Korean, then I'd totally do it, since it's actually feasible (I've plotted this out entirely, that's how nerdy I am.....), but if there's too many history/culture classes that I'd need to take along with the third year, then I probably won't pursue it. Dropping the hopes for a Korean minor would actually free up my senior year to take classes I want to take (which are English classes.....Why did I ever think about turning my back on the English major sophomore year....? If I hadn't then credit- and requirement-wise I wouldn't be so freaking cramped).

Washington weather is back to normal, finally. All that sunny weather was scaring me. We had more nicer days in October/November than we did June/July. But the rain is here, so it's all good. Though, I need a new coat, sadly. The one I have (from all the way back in the 5th grade....eesh) is no longer resistent to the elements. I think I'll save that for a shopping trip with Mom, though. Just so I don't have to endure her nitpicking what I chose to buy and wear.

This Osmosis water I'm drinking (and got for free, too) is really strange to drink. It's Mint Tangerine Water, and it tastes like I'm drinking toothpaste, or peppermint gum. Every time I take a sip my brain goes, "No! Don't swallow, 'tis poisonous! 'Tis POISONOUS!"

I bought Sabriel today (wanted to buy all three books, but the UBS didn't have the second book that matched the 1st and 3rd), but I don't think I'm going to actually read it until after the New Year as part of the "50 books in a Year" thing I'm planning to do. I might (re: will) buy another book at B&N this weekend, since I've got a 25% off coupon, which will also not be read til the New Year. It's kind of going against my nature, especially since I want something to read now, but I'm going to wait so I don't stress my brain out over when a full year ends like I know I will if I start on some random day like November 21st or something. Yes, I know there are logical ways to get around that, but leave my OC-nature alone!

We're beginning to peer-review in my Poetry class now, which kind of makes me want to bang my head since I don't know how to critique. At all. Heck, I don't know how to write poetry, where do I get off telling someone their imagery or language or what-have-you doesn't work? *sigh* Oh well, one person in my critique group (we're actually segregated into groups, rather than having it be a class-wide critique like in Short Story) seems like a very strong poet reader; she always contributes in class and has really good insight about poetry, so I think I'll get a lot of good stuff from her. Will you see any of that poetry posted here? Probably; it'd be a much nicer post than, say, my short story that I'm writing. 10 pages long already, and it'll probably get longer because I feel that my characters need more development, as well as the plot. I don't know how I'm going to cut that down for my C.W. major application (which accepts 5-10 page stories), but better to have lots of good material than little bits, right?

Okay. I need to go do dishes that haven't been done in more than a week (or two) and actually eat something, since I've only had a bagel, chocolate milk, and a grande cafe latte (I'm becoming more and more of a Seattleite....I do feel very sad at that realization...) all day, which was....~1:30ish. So, food? Probably a good idea.

Ickis: [refering to the blob] And when he looks at us that way, you know he's thinking... breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Krumm: I wanna be dinner. --Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. I miss that show...... Where have all the good cartoons gone????