A blase entry, seeing as this is my break and therefore no extravagant places were visited. I'm still mulling over going to Pompeii, Castel San Angelo, and the catacombs, and for a while Capri was thrown into the mix, but I don't think I'll be going to Capri. A sign of encouragement for another trip to Italy sometime in my future, perhaps?

( A little bit about the apartment, I guess. )

I was waffling earlier in the spring (and, really, even before that) about minors and the Classical Studies, but I guess I didn't have the motivation. I can say with confidence that this Rome trip has inspired me to pursue the Classical Studies minor with gusto. I changed my Autumn quarter so that I'm taking 18 credits, 8 of which are Classic Studies classes. I'm really not looking forward to one of the classes, History 311: Science in Civilization: Antiquity to 1600. I'm not science-minded at all, really, but this class A) fulfills Classic Studies credits, which I desperately need, and B) fulfills my W-credit, which I also need like none other. The other 3 credits I'm taking is an Architecture course focusing on the Ancient World, which...is exactly where I am right now, so I'm sure there'll be a few architectural marvels that crop up in the class that I've visited. I'll have to take 18 credits again in Winter, but I don't mind because the Classics classes I will take revolve around books (the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, etc.), so I'm okay with that. It'll be kind of interesting, because I'll be taking that advanced class in winter, but in the spring I'll be taking an introductory course to Greek and Roman Classics. I'm sure I'm doing it wrong, but...there's nothing anywhere that says I need the introductory course first.

My only regret is that I don't know if there will be history classes available in winter/spring which are accepted for the Classic Studies minor. I'd be far more interested in the history than re-learning about the books and/or the Pantheon/Forum/etc. There's a book us Creative Writers in Rome are required to read which is a history textbook of Rome told in story-style which everyone has been complaining about. I unfortunately didn't start reading it until the day of the quiz (which, yeah, I did poorly on, but mostly because they asked obscure questions), but I was engrossed in reading it. It did start resembling a list at some point, simply naming kings/emperors/popes and the people who plundered Rome throughout the ages, but I was gulping the pages down. Again, I regret that dratted sophomore year, when I should have focused on my interest in history rather than somehow convince myself I could take Economics and a CSS class, but oh well. The minor should help somewhat.

They've also finally put up the requirements for the Korean minor and....3rd year is required. I can't take 3rd year, not without overloading on credits and dropping the Classic Studies minor. Even if I did drop the C.S. minor, I'd still need a W-credit, which none of the Korean classes are fulfilling, and even if they did I'd wind up having to overload on credits to something like 25 credits. It just won't happen. It breaks my heart a little, because I do really want to learn more, but...it just isn't feasible. Maybe if I come to the UW for a Master's program, which is a headache for an entirely different day (and not at ~2AM).

Random fact: Rick Kenney (my enthusiastic poet of a teacher) has a Wikipedia page. It boggles my mind, somewhat, and I wonder who put it up.

And...this post got a bit rambly. Eeps. I'll leave off with mentioning how I love having un-grated Parmesan cheese, Ravioli con carne, marinara sauce, and bacon bits all waiting for me to cook with it tomorrow. ^_________^


A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb. --W. H. Auden

Finished my first day in Rome; since I got here at 7AM Rome time, I consider that a full day here and thus official.

Rundown:
Didn't get any sleep Monday night, because my family drove me to SeaTac at 3AM to get there at 4AM, went through security and such (and of course their currency exchange was only open from 6AM-sometime later, and was only open on the pre-security side of the airport. Of course. I realize now I probably didn't have to arrive 2-3 hours early because I was making a connection within the U.S., but....I much preferred the 20-minute wait through security than the long, long, long line at about 6AM.

My flight to JFK had its gate switched twice (once apparently after I got my boarding pass, and then again about an hour before the flight). Had a fine flight minus the screeching child every flight seems to require. I was sitting in the aisle seat and (excepting the first 30 minutes of the flight) had no one sitting beside me except the girl in the window seat.

Connected in JFK, tried to call home and got cut short by the stupid answering machine (there's a dollar I'll never see again), hopped onto the plane to Rome at 5PM Tuesday, and was on that plane until 7AM Wednesday. That flight was pretty uneventful, except for the typical bad airplane food (of which I had to eat with a spoon) and the movies (27 Dresses and Evan Almighty) in Italian with no English subtitles. I had the aisle seat again with only one other person in the row with me, but she was at the other end, so the only downside to that seating arrangement was the fact that I had absolutely no chance at a view (except the lavatory...). In total, I think I got about....3 hours of sleep for Monday and Tuesday? Maybe being generous. But then again, I don't think Tuesday even existed for me, since I was in a plane almost the entire day, doing my own version of time travel.

Got off the plane, went through the hoops of passport check to reach baggage claim, got money exchanged, and shared a car with 2 other girls in my program with a very cute Roman guy (Valerio was his name). Thankfully he practically drove us to the doorstep, and we only had to walk a block to the UW Rome Center. I got my apartment assignment, met coincidentally with one of my apartment mates at the office, and went over with her. The apartment is amazing but pictures are going to wait until A) I have reliable internet access and B) I'm not braindead from sleep deprivation.

Tomi (the roommate) and I went walking around the neighborhood a bit, got something to eat (first Roman meal: a flat-bread-type sandwich with provolone(?) and turkey/ham), and went to the UW Rome Center to get on computers with Internet. Met even more people with the Creative Writing program and directed them the right way, and went back to the apartment with a 3rd roomie. All total, there's 6 of us girls here for an apartment with 7 beds.

There's a farmer's market right in front of our apartment, so we went and got a few produce (I bought cherries, Tomi bought plums). Then came back, and I conked out on the bed for a few precious hours. Then we got some dinner (pizza! With mozzerella, tomato sauce, and mushrooms, delicious) before heading out to the first meeting with the CW group.

We hung out at Professor Kenney's apartment for a bit, then walked to the Forum (pictures to come later). I recited my poem with a few helpful prompts from the printed poem in my back pocket, and...yeah. That's it, really.

I'm just really, really, really tired. Not even physically taxed, but brain-tired. And we're to be at the Pantheon tomorrow at 9AM. Yay.

The heat's intense, and I think I'm going to be brown by the end of the month here, but I think it'll be bearable. Both fans we have in the apartment are broken, and I had my stupid moment of the day by plugging in my alarm clock without a power transformer. Completely blew it, and it smells of burned wiring, so I think it's bit the dust. One less thing I need to bring back with me, at least.....

And I found out my grades. My lowest was The Planets with a 3.5, so I'm ecstatic about that. I got a 3.9 in Chaucer, so huzzah there.


Yes, I have finally arrived to this Capital of the World! I now see all the dreams of my youth coming to life... Only in Rome is it possible to understand Rome. --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

After this week is over, I can look forward to Rome with such a lighter heart. It's a sad realization that knowing all the visa/scholarship/plane ticket stuff is going to be over with soon is the only thing that's keeping me going with the Rome thing at the moment.

On brighter news, 2nd Season of EUReKA is coming!! Huzzah, huzzah! Sadly I'll be in Rome when it comes out (July 15th), but then again I probably won't have the money for it at that point in time anyhow, so...yeah.

There is one thing which put a dampener on my glee for the 2nd season:

'Eco-Friendly' packaging made from biodegradable materials - "Designed in Eureka!"

It appears that Universal has not learned their lesson from the first season! If you purchased the first season DVD set last summer, you will be aware that the disc trays, made of biodegradable materials (more commonly known as potatoes...hey, they said it - on the back of the set!), are pretty useless at holding the discs. Sounds like this 3-disc second season set is gonna be exactly the same!

.....But as for the biodegradable materials packaging...expect to find your discs firmly OUT of their places when you buy the set in July...

*whimpers* I'm all for being nice to the environment, but....really? I would like it if I didn't have to handle my EUReKA DVDs like a tray with heirloom-quality china. I hope they've improved the disc trays' ability to keep hold of the disc.

I don't know if I've already said this, but....Hot food in Ian's = EXCELLENCE.

Okay. No more procrastination for me. *sigh*


First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me. --Martin Niemöller

I was going to go to bed at a reasonable hour, but of course I got sucked into "just making one last quick check on facebook." I, for some reason or another, went to the Addicted to Firefly application, and saw a discussion header that sounded interesting (or possibly just dramatic; I don't think I can tell the difference anymore).

I can't believe this person.

Congratulations for taking everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) out of context, and having absolutely no sense of even the slightest, vaguest, most strictest sense of humor, or opening your mind and opinion even the smidgest bit.

Why do people watch/read/listen to/etc. things they don't agree with, and then proceed to bash it completely all to pieces because "OH NOES I DO NOT UNDERSTAND SO IT MUST BE WWWRROOOONNNGGG!!1!eleven!!!"

If it weren't midnight, I might actually have gone through point by point and argue the person. But I like my time, so I won't waste it.

I'm all for men not treating women like possessions. But when women (and men) go as far as the person did in this rant, claiming everything and anything between a man and a woman is nonconsensual, it's just ridiculous. And then they go so far as to start committing libel against Joss Whedon himself in the comments, and making claims against him about his and his wife's personal lives!

I consider myself a fairly open minded person. I couldn't care less about most things people do so long as it's not completely morally heinous, although sometimes it doesn't come out like I am a nonjudgmental, unbiased person because I have a serious case of foot-in-mouth where my mouth doesn't realize what goes on in my head doesn't get translated right to other people. But I don't understand why people think taking things so radically is good.

Bah. It's all ridiculous. And here I wasn't going to post about this (or at all) for another few days, but I might as well just hit the 'post' button. Good night!


Women: their rights, and nothing less; Men: their rights, and nothing more. --Susan B. Anthony

First day of spring quarter!

Moving back in yesterday was sorta not very interesting (by this of course I exclude the AWESOMEness Nikki and I had watching Friday Night Project [think British SNL, with much less censorship] which featured David Tennant). For no reason whatsoever, though, I went to bed at 2AM, even though I thought I might have class at 9:30 (my wondering about whether I had class at 9:30 is explained below). I guess I just wanted to keep the spring break alive for just a little longer...

So, I am taking an astronomy class called The Planets, which is arranged in a way that quiz/lab sections are Monday and Wednesday and the main lecture is on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Obviously, since today is a Monday, there is no possible way we could be doing labs and such since we haven't even begun learning anything. So, I didn't know whether or not the quiz section met. Typically at the UW, the quiz sections don't meet during the first week of the quarter. So, by this reasoning, this quiz section wouldn't meet, right?

I didn't know for certain, though, since there was no email stating which case was true. Because I'm a paranoid person, I chose to go to quiz section. I figure, if it doesn't meet, then I can go take care of other stuff. Or possibly even eat breakfast, rather than making it a brunch.

I suppose I was rewarded. Quiz section was meeting. Blegh. I did not approve, though at least the TA is bright and alert at that hour, and by her own words she's TA-ed for the class a "million times" so she knows what she's about. Still....really? Convening the QS before the first lecture? Not cool.

And, slightly deviating: They took away the broken obelisk in Red Square!!!!
( An obscenely big image behind the cut, because LJ refuses my attempts to resize it )
It was true!! I read a post about it in the uw community, but I thought they'd bring it back in time by start of classes, since it was taken away for "cleaning" (...really? Why do they need to clean it??). 'Twas not the case. I took pictures ^.^

The Quad cherry blossoms were out, too, and I took a picture of that as well. ^.^ Was very happy. And, really, UW has this "Hogwarts-esque" thing going on. There's Hansee, which is like the school proper, and then there's all these little artsy-architecture-sculptures/whatever-you-want-to-call-it that's all around the school. In the Physics/Astronomy building, there's this neat little pendulum that swings according to the Earth's gravitational spin or whatnot, and in order to get to my QS classroom I have to take this winding staircase. Seriously. Hogwarts-extension.

Anyway, back to classes. 2nd Year Korean is the typical 2nd Year Korean, with lots of me panicking about being completely stupid. And I never noticed it, but they moved where the class was meeting! Originally we were meeting in the basement of Smith, which was fine by me, but now we're meeting on the 4th floor. 4 flights of stairs? NO. Yes, with all capitals. Elevator? Most definitely.

Chaucer....is where my lots nerdiness comes in. I had to run down the 4 flights of stairs and then another bit of stairs to exit Smith, run up the big long hill to Denny, climb another bit of stairs to enter, and get to the classroom, which took about 5 minutes, and then the 2 hour class started. The teacher's a bit...I guess absentminded? He kept starting a topic, waxing on about it and a few tangents, and then restarted the topic again, but it was alright since I kinda do that, too. But then he got started on the timeline and history of Medieval literature, and what those years encompass in terms of people and such, and I was enthralled by it. *shifts eyes* I guess if I'd been more on the ball about my college experience I would've been a history minor (or double major, even), but I was interested in learning about the different names for the eras and people of them. History of English literature, I suppose they'd call it. I suppose it's the feel of it being trivia that attracts me to learning/knowing it. Maybe something to pursue in grad studies--except I'm not intending to faint in horror today, so I'm going to stop right there on that idea.

I think I'm really going to like Paul (the teacher). He kinda gives me a Mr. Hesse vibe, which sorta isn't a good thing, but Paul has a good Mr. Hesse vibe. He obviously wanted to talk at length about how bad the UBookstore is about textbooks and which professors ordered theirs. He ordered his weeks ago, but they claim to have not received it, and he went on at length about how much trouble he went to in copying and pasting the different ISBNs and finding them and how there aren't convenient options and so on and so forth. I found it amusing, at least. AND he gave a good reason for why he wanted specific editions of the texts, which was my main concern and grief with the class, so I'm at ease about it now. And there's an OPTIONAL multiple choice midterm exam (read: Extra Credit), and a choice between writing a literary criticism or research paper that's due at the end of the quarter, and the only required exam is also multiple choice, and I actually want to read the texts, and and and and and....!!!!!!!!

....is it obvious how much of a nerdy English/Creative Writing major I am now? *angles herself to hide under her desk from all the rolling eyes*

Speaking of books, I'm waiting to receive my email confirmation from B&N that my books have been shipped to them, which should be today since I requested 2-day shipping and ordered them Saturday. Since the UBookstore is being stupid and the only text we need for the next 4 weeks is the book I have, I'm not too concerned.

I've written it in my Facebook, but I'll reiterate here for emphasis: Joss Whedon is making me into a comics collector. *headdesk* Buffy Season 8 which will be going for FIFTY ISSUES and Firefly comics which seem to be coming out in 3s, and Joss has said/confirmed that there will be a Shephard Book series (in comics, I assume) after the Better Days arc.

*flails* I'm a college student! I'm going to Rome! I have no money for all this fandom!!! *flails more*

Speaking of....Info session for Rome nao plzkthnx??? Y'know...so I can prepare all the necessary stuff BEFORE June???? Like, visas and such?? (which, visas are apparently paper/authorization saying a person can enter/exit the country.)

Anything else? Wellll, the weather's turned rotten after a sun-shiney day of blue skies, but that's almost like saying the Earth revolves around the sun. It's Seattle/Western Washington (because all Washingtonians know that the Eastern and Western sides might as well be different states), we can literally have blue skies, puffy clouds, overcast skies, hail, and rain all in the same day, if not the same hour.

I'll probably be posting random pics up on my Photobucket account; when I do, I'll link them here. Just a lot of random me-stuff.

Edit 7:00PM: Added the pic of the missing broken obelisk above. And if you want to see more pics of different parts of campus, leave a comment and maybe I'll give links.

Edit 10:00PM: I TOTALLY FORGOT!!!! 21 NEW EPISODES ORDERED FOR EUReKA!!!!!!!!!!!!! *FLAILS* It may not mean 22-episode season(s), but...21 EPISODES!!!!! *FLAILS MORE*


{Asked by Mrs. Clark if he knew what day it was.]
"Oh, yes; it is the glorious Fourth of July. It is a great day. It is a good day. God bless it. God bless you all. [He then lapsed into unconsciousness. He awakened later, and mumbled] Thomas Jefferson..." --Pres. John Adams
John Adams died on July 4, 1826. He is often quoted as having said "Thomas Jefferson still survives." with some depictions indicating he might have not expressed the entire statement before dying, i.e.: "Thomas Jefferson… still survi—", but some research indicates that only the words "Thomas Jefferson" were clearly intelligible among his last. Adams did not know that Jefferson, his great political rival—and later friend and correspondent—had died a few hours earlier that same 4th of July, 1826, exactly fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

I added the non-quote bit because it's interesting trivia--trivia that I actually learned from a non-school source, though for the life of me I can't remember from where.

I busted the toenail of my left big toe Thursday night. It wasn't bloody (thank goodness, though I think there's still some dried blood left under the nail), but it also didn't come cleanly off. So now if I push at it a little bit, it moves, and stings a little bit, but hangs on like Captain Jack outside the TARDIS as it traveled to the end of the Universe a stubborn thing. I was tempted to go to Hall Health, since they let students have one free visit per quarter (how nice of them) and I even skipped my Weather quiz section to do so, but...it felt fine when I got up that morning. I still skipped, maybe I'm too much of a queasy chicken, but I didn't want to walk midway there and then have my toe decide to commit suicide and make a bloody mess that I faint from. I still went to Korean and my film class, but those were far more necessary than my quiz section.

Tonight's the first time this year I ever went to take a shower, and found both showers occupied. It was a little strange.

Alright, alright, I'll move on from subjects that are TooMuchInfo for you.

I'm thinking that, instead of an alcoholic 21-run, I'll go have a milk-shake 21-run at all the major ice cream shops (which, at this point, is Haagen Dazs, Ben&Jerry's, and Baskin Robbins. Baskin Robbins.....*drools* Yes, yes, I realize this is pretty much a week and a half after my birthday, but since I never got a proper chance to do so on that weekend, this'll be my make up run. Though I may want to wait until the weekend...or at least Tuesday. Tuesday is when I get out early for the day. Or Thursday. I get out early then, too, and since the Greeks designated Thursday as their party night, maybe I should take a leaf out of their book.

I spent a good portion of Saturday out and about the campus, testing my camera and just walking. I went with Ally, who lives in my niche of the floor, and I saw a little bit more than I knew about campus. Actually saw the boathouse, and behind Husky stadium. I still haven't really explored the south end of the Stevens Way loop, which is really far south compared to where Hansee is and where I usually have class. Maybe this coming weekend.

After roaming I went to UVillage. I went to B&N (was there any question if I had, to be honest?) and was sorely tempted to buy 2 books, but it was too much (even if I could have gotten a 3rd one for free), so I steadfastly marched myself away. Went to QFC, bought a few little things, and bought pasta from Pallino's. Their to-go silverware and trays are interesting, to say the least. I think they're reusable, at any rate, so I'll see if the knife and bowl is reusable.

I'm ready for Spring Quarter to begin. Winter's been good (compared to my last 2 winter quarters) but I'm just more excited for my spring classes. I'm going to have to get up earlier, but at least they're not 8:30 classes. *shudder*

Also kinda looking forward to senior year, in spite of the fact that it's THE END. Because they'll mostly be English classes, and depending on what classes I choose and how I swing it, I might have one or even two days completely off per week. I could choose electives that aren't English classes, but...honestly? I'm interested in learning the different eras of English Lit and also learning about the English language in general, and after this spring most of my general graduation requirements will be fulfilled (except for one darned little Writing credit, which most upper-level English classes don't qualify as enough writing [I think it's at least 15 pages of writing] to be a Writing credit...go figure), so I don't really need to venture out of my major. Even the 90 credits outside the major requirement will be fulfilled. I don't know if that says I dinked around too much freshman and sophomore year, but oh well.

The bit really-super-lengthy-8-paragraphs-long-ramble under the cut is a rant about crossover fanfiction that I wanted to get down and off my chest; just skip it if crossovers or analysis of crossovers in fandom (particularly the Buffy fandom) or fandom in general disinterests you. (This should show you just how much of an English major I am, if it wasn't proven to you before.)

( Fanfiction Rant )

Yikes. I wrote a heck of a lot more than I thought I would. *shrugs* If you bothered to look under the cut and found it a waste of your time...sorry. But I did warn you above.

Not much more to add. Did I mention how I really want Spring Quarter to get here?

Edit 3 minutes after I initially posted: I lied. It happens.

I'm thinking about taking this 3-credit Architecture course, which (according to Kathryn) is really, really, really easy-peasy. 4 multiple choice tests, the last one you can choose not to take or you can take it to replace one of your worst scores, and still the worst test taken is dropped. And it's nothing but, "This building is pretty. This is why." It fits fine in my schedule, though sadly my Tuesdays and Thursdays would extend to 5PM, with a lengthy gap between Korean (which ends at 1:30) and that class (which begins at 3:30). I don't need the credit, or the class, but...it'd be nice to have a fun little class to take.

I may decide not to take it later. Or more firmly choose to do so. Who knows...

Every intelligent child is an amateur anthropologist. The first thing such a child notices is that adults don't make sense. --John Leonard

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

I'm liking my Korean classmates, I really am. But sometimes......just sometimes, they're not the brightest kids in the class. Even the brightest kids in the class aren't the brightest.

Kim-선생님 (that's pronounced sun-seng-nim; I'm trying to improve my Korean-typing skills [with little luck]) was sick today, so a substitute came in (who was thankfully a native-speaker). We also had a test today (one for which I did essentially no studying for aside from printing out the vocab list and the mock test [which turned out to be the actual test *wins*]), so she reviewed with us. One of her games for helping us to remember the words was a "beat" game, where we clapped and said this weird little refrain and at the end of the refrain we're supposed to say the vocab word and what it means in English. The vocab words were even written up on the board in Korean in a nice table, and she'd point to the word the person was supposed to say. Doesn't sound that hard, right?

NO ONE understood what the hell they were supposed to do. They'd do the refrain, clapping all the while, and when they got to the part where they were supposed to say the word they'd stop, stare at the substitute, and ask, "What am I supposed to do here?"

The first person who had trouble with it, I understood. I didn't understand the concept of the game at first either (but, hey, I had less than 4 hours of sleep, I think my confusion was understandable), but I did get it before the end. But then the second person didn't get it. And the third. And the fourth. And each time someone didn't get it, the substitute explained, pointed at the word, ask them to try again, and they'd stop at the very same spot and couldn't understand what it was! The substitute tried it about 5 times before she made us split up into groups to attempt it, and unfortunately I got stuck in a group where the person next to me couldn't keep up with the rest of the group.

*headdeskheaddeskheaddeskheaddesk*

By that point I just wanted to be done with it all, because the review wasn't helping me in the slightest. I'm not an auditory learner; I have to see and write and say the word in my head for me to get it down, and all the noise of people clapping and fumbling wasn't conducive. But she finally gave us the test, I got the pronunciation and vocab stuff pretty well in the bag, the listening part I failed, and I got to get out before I did permanent damage to the desk I had (or my head).

I rolled my ankle on my way to my poetry class, and it still hurts now a bit, but I think my instant remedy of putting my Snapple Green Tea (Asian pear flavored!) to the ankle helped alleviate it some. I'm not too sure if I'm supposed to put heat on the ankle or ice, but if it doesn't get too much better by later tonight I'll probably try heat, since I did cold already.

And then, of course, to go with my rolled ankle I had the agony of running into the LaRouche people. They were campaigning against MySpace and how people don't live in reality because of it and all the 2000 friends they make that aren't really their friends and how the dollar is ruined because of something something something something blah blah blah blah....... Aside from the 'something's and the 'blah's all of those words did actually spew from the guy's mouth, and though I told him (repeatedly) that I didn't have an account on MySpace, he kept badgering me. Since all I wanted to do was get off my ankle and sit down, I think I got a bit short with him and left him hanging. Do I feel guilty? Not really.

For my poetry class we had to do this thing called "homophonic translation," which is where you take a poem in a foreign language and "translate" it using sound alone into the language of your choice. My teacher gave us this poem, at least the one in the top left box, called L'Anguilla. Mine turned out...probably as crazy as the rest of the class', but since I only have access to my own you'll just have to endure this example.

( Just keep in mind satisfaction brought the cat back....but you're also not a cat )

I'm thinking of going down to B&N over the weekend and buying one of two books, either Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov or My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Picoult isn't a "classic" author (at least, not that I'm aware of....) but the content of MSK seems very interesting/daring. I was pondering on buying one of them last weekend, but I didn't want to use up my money. But I got a 25% off coupon from B&N, and then on top of my 10% savings neither would be that costly. There's a whole list of books that I'm interested in buying (some of which are more my genre than the "classics"...) but I really want to get back into reading books of sustenance "substance." We'll see which one I buy, if I do.

Registering for classes went off without a hitch. I'm a little weirded out by it. My click to register actually went through quickly, taking only 5-6 seconds rather than the 20-30 that it did freshman and sophomore year. I don't know if the schedule I registered for will remain that way (aside from the Shakespeare class I registered for to "hold" a spot for a friend *waves at Nikki*); I'm teetering between a Minerals and Gems class and the Weather class. M&G is only 3 credits and Weathering is 5, and I need 10 more Natural World credits in order to graduate. I'm planning on taking an astronomy class on the planets sometime soonish, which would bring me down to needing only 5 more. So, if I took weather, I'd get it all done and over with, but my interest has been piqued by the M&G class. If I take M&G, I'd need to take another NW class, which would mostly likely be a 5 credit course, which means taking the 3 credits was useless in terms of completing the requirements. Soo....we'll see come end of winter break. Here endeth El Rant De UW-Hakseng.

**I just realized that Monday the 12th I have NO CLASS!!!! Veteran's Day! Woo! And then, the next week, Turkey Day!!!**

I might update later. I have no attention span at the moment, and I get the feeling there's more to my day than this.

"I missed life. I was working." author unknown; 'twas published in "Smith Magazine" for a "six word story" challenge.

Not only was my late-afternoon class (Poetry) cancelled for today, it was a planned cancellation, so the teacher isn't going to be completely insane with "making up for lost time." So I have more than 1-2 hours of freetime that isn't late in the evening.

On top of that, instead of going over the homework that had been assigned yesterday (which I didn't do and resulted in me saying very audibly, "Oh shit!" when I realized there had indeed been homework I'd forgotten), we spent the class time going over a handout Kim-sunsengnim passed to us. Huzzah for dodging bullets!

And it's sunny! Like, 60-70 degree weather sunny. Just like it had been Tuesday. Instead of the stormy rain we had Monday and Wednesday. Soooo....going by the pattern, tomorrow will be a downpour, but Saturday will be nice and clear ^.^ I'm a little freaked out by the weather, because the last week or so has been bug-nuts (hee, thank you Jack) bipolar, what with the winds and the rain and the sun and then the rain again. Can anyone say, 'global warming'?

The set-up for Haunted House has gone (in my opinion) very well. We brought all the stuff out Monday, started putting up the walls and tarping them Tuesday, finished screwing in the walls and were nearly done with tarping them yesterday, and so today we'll just finish up the tarping job and decorate. We'll probably get Friday off, and then meet again Saturday to get costumes and all the last-minute things done before the big show. Huzzah.

And then....Sunday will probably be devoted to deconstruction. Oh jeez. Not looking forward to that.

Also not looking forward to this cold that's struggling to set in. I woke up the last two mornings with that really irritating nasal-clogging that always comes before the sickness. The stuff at the back of your throat that has to drop before all the other symptoms start sprouting, y'know? I've been trying to keep it at bay with vitamin C and such, and even bought an Emergen-C packet and water to get that bonus of vitamin C. I don't know what's wrong with the Emergen-C stuff whenever I make it, but I absolutely hate it since it tastes chalky and almost has a flavor, but can't quite commit to the flavor. Maybe it's my tongue. All that spicy food I've been eating over the years. I mean, I can't even taste the difference between peppercinis and jalapenos.

I get the very strong feeling I'll be missing Grey's tonight, like I missed Top Model last night. Knowing my luck, it'll probably be the best one yet of the 4th season. They'll bring Burke back, he and Cristina will leave SGH to elope and have babies and start their own hospital so Cristina can have lots of blood, and Alex will prove he's so capable that he takes over the Chief's position and the hospital sees a new Golden Age, and the whole Gizzie thing will disappear because I'm not at all impressed with either George or Izzie and their handling of the issue (or the fact that they made the issue period), and Callie will get back to her bad-ass self and be the Chief Resident that Bailey would've been (oh, shit, okay, Bailey will take the Chief's position and Alex can be the star neuro-cardio thoracic-whateverMarkis-surgeon). What happened to Mere and Derek? Don't really know. They probably went to New York to learn from Ross and Rachel in the art of "We were on a break!"

Ian's is apparently going to be serving "hot food" sometime in the future, which from the picture they offered includes chicken tenders and fries. So, another burger place. Um, all for a little more variety than the grease-laden fast food joints? *raises hand*

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters."

It's an oral history. It was passed down, word-of-mouth, father to son, from Adam to Seth, from Seth to Enos, from Enos to Cainan, for 40 generations, a growing, changing, story, it was handed down, word-of-mouth, father to son. Until Moses finally gets it down on lambskin. But lambskins wear out, and need to be recopied. Copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of an oral history passed down through 40 generations.
From Hebrew it's translated into Arabic, from Arabic to Latin, from Latin to Greek, from Greek to Russian, from Russian to German, from German to an old form of English that you could not read. Through 400 years of evolution of the English language to the book we have today, which is: a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of an oral history passed down through 40 generations.

You can't put a grocery list through that many translations, copies, and re-telling, and not expect to have some big changes in the dinner menu when the kids make it back from Kroger's.

And yet people are killing each other over this written word. Here's a tip: If you're killing someone in the name of God — you're missing the message. --Nick Annis in the preface to God is Good. (No, haven't read the book, am not particularly religious, but the last sentence caught my eye on Wikiquotes).

Probably no one who reads this will remember the entry in which I mentioned a certain little thing called the AVEVenture; it was a few weeks ago, approximately the last few days of September.

Nikki and I went out and walked all up and down the Ave, and got this "passport" which was to be stamped by eight separate places so we could turn them in and get prizes in a raffle. We got the first one done (and also happened to stop by Jet City Improv's station, where we both won frisbees), submitted it, and then....didn't know what to do. Nothing on the passport said we couldn't fill them out multiple times, and since there were ~32 stations, we figured we could fill more of them out. We filled 4 of them in about 2 hours, and we got a whole bunch of free stuff. Satisfied, we went home.

The raffle had loads of prizes. And I mean loads, from all sorts of different shops. But up until today, I figured I hadn't won anything because, hello, almost 3 weeks later and they hadn't emailed me, plus nearly 7500 people were predicted to have done it, and who knows how many of them used the same strategy as Nikki and I.

But then they emailed me today. And guess what I won?

A free private coffee tasting at Trabant Coffee.

................

*bangs head on the desk multiple times*

I know many people who like love coffee. They pretty much make up the majority of this school (Seattle, coffee....kinda goes hand-in-hand, right?). And out of all the people in this 40,000+ populated school, I get chosen for the free coffee tasting????

Can I get a do-over? Or maybe trade for someone else's prize?

Well, enough of that. What's done is done. I'll just have to admit to the Trabant people that I'm not a coffee person, and maybe they'll let me pick a friend to go in my place since they probably want an honest opinion.

My mind works in mysterious ways. I'm not a poetry reader, I don't like writing poetry, and I can never understand what any poem says unless it's plain as day. But for some reason....I like going to my poetry writing class. In fact, I almost like going to it better than I do my short story writing class (the free food in short story kinda tilts the balance in its favor....). I like the teacher, she's fun and she doesn't try to make us "read the deeper meaning" in a poem while actually teaching us what the deeper meaning of the poem is. And I sort of feel more free to express myself in that class; the short story class is more about writing a literary short story than branching to other genres (like scifi and fantasy genres--no, it's not scifi/fantasy, it is scifi and fantasy, they are exclusive!). I don't do the literary fiction. I've tried, and for the most part I've failed pretty damn well.

Another, slightly random tangent that only has a connection in my mind: I miss the merry-go-rounds at playgrounds. I miss spinning them and jumping on and lying back and hanging on to the bars and then jumping back off. I miss it dearly.

There's a third year Korean class at the UW, which I was kinda aware of but not really, because it's titled, "Readings in Contemporary Korean." So...people would assume it's a class based on reading Korean works of literature and not a language class, right? At least, that's what I thought. Apparently it is the third year, but the university takes so long to change the title in the course catalogue they haven't bothered.

I don't know if I want to take a third year or not (first I have to survive second year....). I especially don't know if I'd even have room to take it. It all depends on if I get into the Creative Writing major or not. After this quarter finishes I have 30 credits I need to complete in order to graduate as a Creative Writing major, in addition to the 15 General Education Requirements needed to graduate the UW that I haven't managed to take yet. I can only apply to the CWM in spring; if I don't get accepted, then I'm pretty much screwed and have to resort to English Lit, which (aside from the 5 credits/1 class that I know will be transferrable between CW and Engl. Lit [yes, I'm already planning for winter quarter even though fall isn't even midway; I am a nerd]) I would need 25 credits by spring next year. And out of those 30/25 credits, 10 of them need to be pre-1900 coursework.

I really shouldn't be doing this to myself. I'm only going to freak out even more.

Friday I end class at 1:30, get to go take care of some financial stuff, and then.....I get to go stalk do some research for my short story class. ...Was no one else convinced? Me neither. Which is why I'm taking the paper that says "This is the assignment: go follow someone around and take notes on what they do" so that when if someone approaches me demanding why I'm sitting in the coffee house watching someone suspiciously close, I can wave it at them and say, "Call my professor! He made me do it!"

Saturday I go to Mt. Rainier. I'm predicting of bringing something with me for the bus ride, because I am a pretty quiet person when I'm around people I don't know, and I get bored of looking out a window for an hour. I should probably bring food, too; my geology professor/TA hasn't mentioned what will be provided on the trip aside from fare.

Sunday I'll probably go to Trabant and get that coffee-tasting thing settled. And then I WILL do my creative writing homework rather than waiting until Monday night to do it! I will!

For anyone who reads my lj in the hopes of seeing something pertaining to my fanfiction: I am working on it! But, you've read my lj. You know that I have 2 creative writing classes. I write fanfiction for fun; it's going to get scooted to the backburner if something important class-related comes up. For those eagerly awaiting an update to Crash Course Parenting--I know how it's going to go. I have a bit of it written already. I just need to get off lj and write it. So....I'll go and do just that.

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.... -- T.S. Eliot

So, as I've been saying and panicking about all throughout summer, I wanted to take 2nd Year Korean. But, as Sept. 26 approached, I realized that I didn't really have the funds for it. So, disappointed and a little resigned, I decided to let the dream die.

Then.....my mother and I talked. And we had words. And while those words weren't angry or demanding....well, since when did mothers ever need to resort to speaking the words of disappointment when they have the tone and the inflection perfected? So...I asked the teacher if I could possibly get in. I explained the whole tuition thing to her and she understood and so now I'm in the Korean class which was only meant for 20 students, with a room capacity of 25, and we now have ~28-29 students enrolled.

Why don't we get moved to a different classroom? I don't know. I think it's because UW wasn't expecting Korean to be so popular or something.

But, sadly enough, up until today I was feeling pretty darn good about this quarter's classes. And then I went to Korean and I felt so completely lost and the teacher was saying almost nothing in English and I was behind on work and and and and and--

My good spirit of this quarter's classes kinda up and vanished on me.

But, let's go to the other classes.

Rocks for Jocks (a.k.a. Intro to Geology) seems pretty damn interesting. The teacher is awesome, he even used the 'rocks for jocks' title in his lecture, heheh. He's really enthusiastic and he wants his students to do well. I know many professors say that, but he's really the only one I believed. For one thing, he didn't demand we buy the textbook. He said, "Now, my feelings on textbooks....is that they're expensive." So, we didn't need to buy the new edition or even the last edition or even the same-titled textbook, just any old textbook on Intro to Geology would do. I already bought mine, so I'm not going to go back and deal with the hassle of returning it, but it made me happy he wasn't so anal about it (on another note, we apparently have a lab manual we need to buy at the bookstore, which was neglected to be mentioned, so now I have to spend more $$ there instead of being just plain done with that class and the UBS. Grr)

The other reason I believe him is because he has so much extra bonus options for students to get a good grade. There are extra bonuses on his multiple choice exams, and can I say: Yay! I love m.c. exams; maybe I don't do well all the time, but when I think back on my Econ exams.....*shudder* And the funny part? He has the exact same reaction to the short-answer exams because of a last-minute change he made to his exams, but not his answer-sheets, so he had to go back and re-grade 500 exams. He said that was the last time he ever had those types of exams, heheh. But yes, bonus on the exams, and he has optional field trips that are bonuses too (though, if I do get a job as an usher which is a weekend/evening job, I might not be able to do too many of them), he asks a bonus question of one person every day in lecture which earns the entire class a bonus point if they get it right, and that's only the beginning of it all. So, yes, I do believe him when he says he wants the students to do well.

For my Intro to Short Stories (hereafter known as Engl 284) class I totally blanked and forgot to look up which classroom we were in, but it was okay because there were other students who knew where they were going. It was a kind of small classroom for almost 25 students, but when the tables were arranged in 3 rows we all fit nicely (you'll see why I bring this up later in the entry). The professor came in, and he was officially my first hot English professor (it probably helped that he wasn't old like my last male professor). He apparently had gone to India for some reason or another, and he just arrived back only the night before, so he was completely jet-lagged and apologized for it. It was a good thing he warned us, or else I would have thought he was slightly OCD or ADD. He kept doing the thing where you pick up a bundle of papers and tap them on a tabletop to straighten them. And while I do that occasionally, he was doing it every 5-10 seconds. Literally. As in he'd do it 7-10 times per sentence. And whenever he did set them down, his hands would keep twitching to them as though he wanted to do it again but was catching himself. Still, very fun professor.

He wanted all of us to be facing each other, though, which became a bit problematic. As I said, 3 rows parallel to one another worked perfectly, but then we tried to arrange them into a circle. At one point a whole entire row (with me) was blocked off from the exit, so we'd have had to go under or over 2 tables. Eventually we made it work and had class. Obviously there's quite a bit of writing involved, but I'm okay with that. I just hope I can also work on my fanfiction......*worries*

Intro to Verse (henceforth known as Engl 283) was okay. I'm not a verse-writer, I'm prose. But the teacher seemed to know her poetry stuff a hell of a lot better than my high school sophomore teacher (not that it's saying much....) so maybe I can do well. Unnervingly, though, someone expressed the concern that her poetry work might turn out crappily because she was a prose writer, not a poetry person and the teacher simply couldn't fathom how someone's poetry could be terrible. I don't know if this is because she has the belief that any person's poetry is their expression of art/etc. or because she didn't quite grasp that the content/format could be nothing but bile. Again, bit worrisome, but I'll have to do my best. Have to, since this is required for Creative Writing option. I wish I could say this would be my last poetry writing class, but...it's not. I have to take Engl 383, which is some sort of advanced verse writing, and then I have to take 10 credits of 400-level CW course. The 400-level I'm hoping will be flexible and I can just take prose-courses, but...that's not my luck.

She also has a textbook and coursepack for us, which makes me irritated because A) the coursepack is at the same shop I got my Engl 284 pack, and I could've just used 1 check to buy them both had she gotten her materials in earlier, and B) the textbook is available only at one shop, which is not the University Bookstore but some other tiny, closet-sized poetry shop across the freeway and kind of into Wallingford. Grr. At least she gave us explicit directions as to how to get there, including the bus route. Funnily enough, she also offered the Erotic Bakery as a landmark to locate the shop, and suddenly everyone (minus me, who has never been there before in her life) knew exactly where she meant. Heheh, maybe I'll meander into the bakery just for fun while I'm over there.

I had thought I could apply to the CW option in January, but I went over the English department website again and it said a person could only apply in Autumn and Spring quarter. So....come sometime Spring Quarter, we'll see if I'm just a regular, boring English Lit. major, or a Creative Writing major *hopes for the latter*

In news not related to classes, I've filled my week fairly well. Monday I went to the carnival UW hosts every year, got a henna tattoo on my hand, got some free stuff (a CD by Abra Moore, some little knickknacks, bottles of water and white tea), and that was it. Tuesday I went to the Burke Museum and got a free poster (owl eyes that stare at you no matter where you go....or maybe those are the circles on a moth/butterfly's wings....) and I went to a poster sale and got a not-so-free poster with a dragon and a fairy that are seemingly underwater. Wednesday I had only one class (I hadn't signed up for Korean and the lab I had later that day wasn't meeting since it was the first week) so I went down to Barnes and Noble. I bought the 6th volume of the Buffy comics, but since I haven't read the other 5 I'm waiting before I break that out. I also bought Mortal Kombat: The Album, to satisfy my MK-Muse. Hee.

Thursday I got 2 free posters at the Henry Art Gallery, 1 for being a student and the 2nd for signing up for a free membership at the Gallery. I also went and saw the sneak preview of the movie Outsourced (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourced), which was awesome to the 10th power. I do agree with the girls I saw it with, though: Social Studies classes everywhere are going to be using that movie. Still, it was hilarious and the leading man was pretty damn easy on the eyes. And the end....absolutely perfect.

Grey's was also Thursday. It was pretty good, although my interest is waning. I'll still tune in every week to see what happens, but...Yeah. If I miss an episode I won't cry, unlike Eureka.

Eureka. OMG. I missed the 1st fifteen minutes because I was out at dinner with some other residents, but....OMG!!!!!! Henry! What are you doing?! And Fargo...and Jack...well, I'd say more, but I've newly converted a new friend (Hi Nikki!) to Eureka, but she hasn't seen 2nd season yet so I won't spoil it for her.

Nikki also has the new series of Doctor Who. So we had a little mini-marathon (only 2 episodes) on Wednesday, which made us miss the first half of Top Model, but that's okay, because it's The Doctor! and Rose Tyler! So it's all good.

Hansee's pretty excellent. I have plenty of space in my room (to the point where I feel like I should have more stuff to fill up the space....) and my neighbors (and Nikki, who doesn't live in my little corner of the floor) aren't anti-social people. The noise volume outside is a bit irksome (*shakes fists at the Greeks*) but I'm adjusting. I think I've also figured out the radiator, so I don't think I'm going to catch on fire in the middle of the night. Just to be safe, though, I moved all the wires away from any of the coils.

I think my TV is attempting to go the way of our old Sony TV. It's making these weird, soft pfftpfft noises when it's plugged in. It works fine, in fact I went a whole 1 1/2 hours with it on with no odd sounds whatsoever. But when I went to bed, it started up again, and in fear of it sparking or something while I was asleep and catching my bed aflame, I pulled the plug again. I dunno what to do....I think I'll just unplug it every time it's not in use. That's pretty wise of me anyway, environmentally speaking, so I don't think I am in immediate need of a 20" flatscreen plasma or some other inanity.

Nikki and I are gonna head out later today and do this AveVenture thing, where we go up and down the entire University Way street and get free stuff/food, enter raffles, discounted stuff, etc. It goes from 4-7, so I'll be gone for most of that time. And then....DOCTOR WHO!

Long entry. Sheesh. Come the 1st, I'll probably have nothing to write about.

Ooh! The Haunted House! If I join the committee, I'll have that to write about. We shall see, we shall see.

Science fiction is no more written for scientists than ghost stories are written for ghosts. --Brian Aldiss

You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it. --Neil Gaiman

All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things. --Bobby Knight (I don't know if I used this quote already, but it just strikes me because my 1st grade class actually were assigned to write little stories, and that's when I really wanted to become a writer)

Pretty much a rundown of what my week has been/will be:

Tuesday: Figured out how to type in Korean on my computer, which made me muy happy ^.^ Then I came back and tried to absorb as much of my New Testament notes as possible....which made me not-so muy happy >.< On the plus side, thank EVERY single thing that influences the lives of us lowly mortals that I studied the sample multiple choice questions, and also for teachers who are somewhat lazy and don't feel like creating 100% original tests every time they teach a class.

Wednesday: Had that New Testament midterm, in which I probably missed 4/10 multiple choice questions, which for 2 points each, equals about 8 points lost out of 40 for the entire test. I was resigned to failing the 2 essay prompts, but the 2 prompts I chose were both something I knew at least a little bit about, so I could at least spew out facts, even if it didn't address the precise question they asked. I should get partial credit for knowing the material, right? Probably not. Went to Korean, turned in my typing assignment, got another workbook page assigned that, once looked at, is impossible to translate, and took a listening comprehension test. I'm done with classes for the day, but there's a thing I'm going with Vanessa to do, taking down the "Tunnel of Oppression" that went on yesterday. It was strongly hinted that it would look good if prospective RAs went and volunteered there, and she didn't want to go alone.

And then there's the homework I have to do now.

*breathes in deeply*

I have an exercise due for New Testament tomorrow which I didn't even know about until 5 minutes ago thanks to an email the teacher sent out, I have a vocab test with 37+ words in Korean to know (not even nouns or whatnot....adverbs and time phrases), I have the workbook page to do, and then I have a 2-page paper due Friday for my Eastern Religions course which I wanted to do today but will have to be pushed back til Thursday so I can focus on that stupid NT exercise thing, and also on Friday I have to go to my New English Majors orientation thing at 1:30 before my sister picks me up to go down to Olympia for the weekend where I just CAN'T work on schoolwork, because I'm rarely ever home and I'd rather be with my family rather than stressing over the homework. This won't really work for me, though, because I have a 4-page midterm paper for my E. Religions course due May 1 on the same day that I have my biweekly Korean test that covers 2 chapters' worth of grammar and vocab, which usually always kick my ass. So for Saturday and Sunday I'll probably freak out about the midterm and then Monday nite do an all-nighter simply so I can write four pages--which, now that I think about it, is a ridiculous thing to do, but it's probably what will happen, so who am I to deny Fate its usual?

Yeah. This is definitely my hell-week. Why the hell is it that all the teachers seem to develop ESP regarding their students and when their midterms are, so they can all dump everything at once? It's ridiculous. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!

....Okay, yeah, I'm done, you can stop rolling your eyes at my melodramatic journal entry.

We'll see if I get to watch any TV tonight. There's an episode of America's Next Top Model at 8 p.m., which is only another hour out of my day, so I think it'd be a good break from freaking out/getting ulcers a.k.a. Doing My Homework.

I actually left the dorm room Sunday and went down to UVillage for a bit of window shopping/sunshine. First went to Baskin Robbins (*best* ice cream there is!) and got a Peanut-Butter Chocolate, Strawberry Cheesecake, French Vanilla sundae with whipped cream, nuts, and cherries, and then wandered around Barnes and Noble for about 2 hours.

Yes, to all those people who "hate reading": People CAN be in a bookstore for 2 hours and be perfectly content. I feel bad, though, because I didn't actually buy any books, though I came close to buying one of those Princeton Review books about grad school and whatnot, but then realized what the material was, freaked out mentally, and exited the section promptly. I did buy seasons 1&2 of Justice League (*happy dancex100,000) and also 1st season Loonatics: Unleashed for my sister, which I'll probably be mooching off her. Maybe next time I'm down at B&N I'll be an honest book-lover and buy an actual book.....for my already-too-full bookshelf. *sigh*

I should stop procrastinating. I wrote the entry more to get out my frustration and anxiety the best way I know how (there's a writer for ya), but now it's mostly me wistfully hoping that if I keep typing, all the work I'm supposed to do will instantly do itself and all I have to do is deconstruct the Tunnel of Oppression, go to the New English Majors orientation, and go home happy.

....Maybe? *checks assignments* Damn.

*Edit 4/25 1:46 p.m.: Okay, so I totally blew the amount of work I had to do out of proportion, since I am now done with everything I need done by tomorrow, minus studying for the vocab test. It's still a whole lot of crap to do, though, especially since next week is: Tuesday (5/1), E. Religion midterm-Wednesday, Korean comprehensive test-Thursday, Korean listening comprehension test-NT exercise-Friday, Korean vocab test-Saturday, a visit to the Seattle Asian Art Museum-Monday (5/7), Korean vocab test and eavesdropping assignment. But yeah, I can rest a little easier now......

"One to-day is worth two to-morrows." -- Benjamin Franklin (But...my 2 to-morrows aren't all that shinier than my one to-day......)

I'M ACCEPTED INTO THE ENGLISH MAJOR!!!!!!! YEAH!!!

^_____^ *dances internally with happiness*

Life is finally starting to track....where to, I have absolutely no idea whatsoever, but it's going. It's exciting. Also terrifying, but exciting nonetheless. I think I needed to get away from the idea of being an English major in order to figure out that, yes, it is what I want to spend my undergrad career on. I suppose, if I really wanted to, I *might* have been able to do a Film major, but...it just didn't appeal to me like writing does. Same with Comparative Religion, but I think I'm going to still minor in that one. I only need 20 more credits to fulfill that minor, so...why not? AND I won't have to take the SIS 201 ("Making the 21st Century" or something along those lines) class, which the general consensus says is a bitch of a class to take, and not just because it's somewhere around 200 pages of reading due each week.

I want desperately to be in the Creative Writing option, but I have to wait until January next year to apply, because of prereqs and all. In the meantime......I need to get back to really writing, because CW requires something like a 5-10 page fiction piece and 3-5 pieces of poetry for the application. And, as any of the readers on ff.net know, I do not write very quickly.

The sun is coming out, which is nice. The only thing to top off my day now would be....if Ian's is restocked in Pepsi now, since they haven't had it in stock for the last three days or so...... Maybe? hmmm, we shall have to see.

*dances* I'm happy, so very happy....yayness ^.^

*Edit 1:30 p.m.: No such luck on the Pepsi front....*sigh* They've restocked practically everything but the refreshments, so I'm thinking it's just a matter of me going back later. We'll see. And...there's a Diet Coke that has....vitamins and minerals in it. It's got a blue label and cap on it....it's kinda weird.... Plus they have Pocky that's covered in green tea-flavored coating instead of chocolate......um, eww?

"Anime: Crack is cheaper." --Bumper sticker

Woke up to more snow. Left half-hour early just so I could enjoy the crunch under my feet and the sight of the campus covered in the white stuff.

Had a somewhat productive day. Did laundry, actually did my homework before the night-before-it's-due, and I went to all of my classes (UW's policy of not-closing-even-if-over-half-the-students-face-hellish-traffic is rather irksome, and this is coming from a student who lives on campus). My Econ TA is nice enough, and it's obvious he knows his stuff, but....he can't teach well. He does the same thing I do, where I keep trying too many tacks at once to explain one thing. Good thing I have no intention whatsoever to be a teacher and I will do my damnedest not to be a TA; pity the poor students if I ever do.

I'm just....blegh. I'm done. The weekend was long, yet too short. Why can't I ever be satisfied with how long a break is? I was doing so well, and then....life showed it can ambush me just when my day goes relatively well.

"Pessimism...is, in brief, playing the sure game. You cannot lose at it; you may gain. It is the only view of life in which you can never be disappointed. Having reckoned what to do in the worst possible circumstances, when better arise, as they may, life becomes child's play." Thomas Hardy

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true." James Branch Cabell

"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, It's the light of the oncoming train." Robert Lowell

Well....irony of all ironies came upon me as I arrived home for winter break.

Wednesday I was looking at my bookshelf at the dorm, wondering, "Do I want to bring a book home with me?" I decided against it, because honestly, with Final Fantasy X-2, XII, and Dirge of Cerberus to play, along with television shows to watch (almost 2-3 hours of Naruto that my sister recorded for me while I was away), movies to see (Swordfish isn't the best movie in existence, to be sure, but....it's got Hugh Jackman... *squee*), and crappy Internet at home, so why would I need something like a book? Soooo....The Historian didn't come home with me.

And then the power went out Thursday night, the night I arrived home. To add insult to injury, I tried to use the "light" feature on my watch to check the time and it bit the dust. >.<

And the power STAYED off until five p.m. Saturday, leaving my family stuck in the cold with no running water, nothing to eat, and nothing for me to *do*.

......Irony is a piece of work, really. Bit of a bitch, too.

"Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom." ~ Anatole France

Always nice to be done with classes. This quarter wasn't the worst one I've had, but I definitely could've had some better classes. I hope that isn't the case next quarter.

Went to bed at 12:30-ish, but didn't really have any chance of sleeping til about 1:15. Then our phone hooked to the campus' landline rang at 4:00 in the FREAKING morning. Vanessa and I weren't very happy about that, particularly her since she actually made the effort to get up and yell at the person answer the phone. It felt very surreal to me; I don't think I honestly woke up; just sat up, glared, and rolled back over. Then I ran